Dirty Frank
Well-known member
Blue owl damn.
Stocks
- Thread starter Boots
- Start date
Meanwhile on reddit the morons are asking if now is the time to buy. Throwing money into a fund that has permanently blocked redemption is burning it, not investing.
If you're wondering why your CDN stocks got a little bump up this morning:
globalnews.ca
If this keeps going, may not have to tap into those RSPs...
Trump’s tariffs on Canada, world are unlawful, U.S. Supreme Court rules - National | Globalnews.ca
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling is a blow to Trump, who has said the tariffs are 'vital' negotiating tools to reach deals on trade and foreign policy.
globalnews.ca
If this keeps going, may not have to tap into those RSPs...
That's a good position to be in but I would still pay for some advice. BC has at least a couple good fee for service advisors. Throwing 4k their way can easily save you 100K in taxes if they help you avoid an inoptimal path.
I've done some back-of-the-napkin calculus, and the tax savings compounding the DRIP on the divvies in my reg port are huge. This vs the 30% withdrawal tax + future tax on my non-reg seems like a double whammy, even though I know I will have to pay that income tax eventually.
My preference is to keep it rolling as long as I can. See how big I can grow that snowball before I'm forced to RRIF it.
But you're right, it would make sense to get a professional to check my homework. Maf was never my strong soot.
Edit: Sorry, not CG tax, it's income tax which is even higher...
Last edited:
I know a guy with a vintage Toyota he wants to keep forever. When I mentioned things like replacing a cracked plastic dash he said "3D printing". If your pockets are deep enough, metal and plastic bits can be built or rebuilt.
I don't know the practicality of rebuilding ECMs, BCMs and other black cubes with wires coming out of them etc. Regulators on outboard engines used to fail and were pricey. Old timers at marinas spoke of someone somewhere that rebuilt them better than new but no one knew exactly where that individual had his shop.
It was on Deer Lake I think. NO not that Deer Lake, the other one. No not that one either or was it Bear Lake, maybe Moose.
The upside to ecms is they are slightly ubiquitous. Every engine has similar sensors and hardware.
Bcm's are more complicated as they vary so much, I don't know if third party options exist.
There are EFI to carburetor conversions available if you really want to go old school.
Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
Pretty broad question with no right answer as there are way too many variables.
Some important things to keep in mind. You don't need to answer them here but you should have the answers for you.
- What type of account (eg rrsp, tfsa, non-registered) are your investments in and why is that the best choice for you?
- Why mutual funds?
- What is bank providing you? Is what they are providing you worth the fees charged?
- What percentage of your income are you saving? Does that savings rate meet your retirement goals (time and income)?
- Could a different structure increase your returns without added risk? For instance, if bank mf returns track index and then subtract fees, why use the bank instead of self-directed? Buy index funds or if you really want to have someone else make all the balancing decisions, target date funds
save more
Minimize fees and taxes
justride
Well-known member
All your questions have been floating around the back of my brain for awhile now. Good to see them in print. Need to bring them in the fore front and start coming up with answers (next steps).
Last edited:
When I had money in mutual funds they just seemed to be a vehicle for making my bank money and not me. Since I dissolved them and reinvested the cash myself (following sensible advise) the difference has been immense. Well, so far anyway.
Bank mutual funds are very seldom the best choice because their management fee's are often horrendous (often in the 2-2.5% range and a mid single digit return). Most people would do better with a single balanced ETF. For example compare your MF's numbers to that of a balanced ETF like Vangards VBAL (investing can certainly be a rabbit hole but I'm keeping it simple here).
Well, things have gotten worse (and better?) since this post.
My registered portfolio has done spectacularly well... and my non-reg has done spectacularly poorly.
Net worth is up, but almost all of it is now in RSPs. Happy, but also Not at the same time...
Depending on how my non-reg port does over the next few months, I may have to start transferring stuff over. Realistically, I was hoping not to have to do this till 65, but the more I think about it, this might actually work out, as incoming CPP will put me in a higher tax bracket. So maybe it's smarter to start transferring stuff over before then. I may also pause the transfers at 65 to try to qualify for some OAS as well.
The age 65 was an artificial target anyway, since I haven't had employment income since 2012...
Whelp, I just initiated my first RRSP withdrawal.
Feels kinda weird - living off my retirement savings. Like I'm officially old or something...
It was just a small amount, just to see what the process was like with the withholding tax and everything. Was a learning experience.
So... the major takeaway is that the tiered withholding taxes:
- up to $5,000 : 10%
- up to $15,000 : 20%
- over $15,000 : 30%
is not a progressive tax like your income taxes, where the first $5K is taxed at 10%, the next $10K is taxed at 20% and the rest over $15K is taxed at 30%...
No.
If the amount withdrawn is over $15K, the whole shebang is taxed at 30%.
So if you withdraw $14,999.99, you get taxed $3,000.
If you withdraw $15,000 you get taxed $4,500.
Woah. I did not know that.
And now I do...
huh.
It's fine. My annual employment income is about more or less what the basic exemption is anyway so I'll get most of it back in April... 2027.
Still, a good lesson to learn before I do any future major moves. Will be doing all my withdrawals at the end of the calendar year and getting a lot of that withholding tax returned in 4 months or so. Last thing the government is getting from me is an interest-free loan!
Okay, I'm outta here. Imma go shake my cane at the sky and go yell at some clouds now.
Converting at least part of your rrsp to rrif prior to withdrawal is normally worth it. Typically an rrsp draw incurs a fee but a rrif draw does not. Withholding taxes are also different. Your ultimate tax owing/paid will be the same but the path is different.Whelp, I just initiated my first RRSP withdrawal.
Feels kinda weird - living off my retirement savings. Like I'm officially old or something...
It was just a small amount, just to see what the process was like with the withholding tax and everything. Was a learning experience.
So... the major takeaway is that the tiered withholding taxes:
- up to $5,000 : 10%
- up to $15,000 : 20%
- over $15,000 : 30%
is not a progressive tax like your income taxes, where the first $5K is taxed at 10%, the next $10K is taxed at 20% and the rest over $15K is taxed at 30%...
No.
If the amount withdrawn is over $15K, the whole shebang is taxed at 30%.
So if you withdraw $14,999.99, you get taxed $3,000.
If you withdraw $15,000 you get taxed $4,500.
Woah. I did not know that.
And now I do...
huh.
It's fine. My annual employment income is about more or less what the basic exemption is anyway so I'll get most of it back in April... 2027.
Still, a good lesson to learn before I do any future major moves. Will be doing all my withdrawals at the end of the calendar year and getting a lot of that withholding tax returned in 4 months or so. Last thing the government is getting from me is an interest-free loan!
Okay, I'm outta here. Imma go shake my cane at the sky and go yell at some clouds now.
The fee was a flat rate of $25 regardless of amount withdrawn. Charged by the brokerage.
Not that substantial.
As this is your 1st taxation year withdrawing RRSP funds you can play with the amount to minimize withholding taxes in 2026, but you'll have to pay up based on your real marginal rate by April 30, 2027.
As you get into this if you routinely owe > $3,000 as of April 30 each year you'll have to pay installments, so tweaking the amount withdrawn to minimize short term tax payable will likely be offset by the installment payment making the whole exercise a waste of time and effort.
If you use tax prep software you can do your 2025 return to better understand where you fit in the various tax brackets and then add planned 2026 RRSP withdrawals into a scenario test calculation to get an idea of incremental tax you'll owe in April 2027. This is a rough estimate, but gives you order of magnitude as to dollars involved. It may be simpler to just pay the tax up front vs. getting into an installment situation.
Thanks for that.
I knew GTAM would be the right place for good RRSP withdrawal info!
I think I will just pay the full withdrawal tax up front. If there's a tax refund in April, I'll use it to buy a nice helmet or something...
