Foro Financial Wisdom Forum

That's as opposed to 8-10 months for a Rav4, which we're also considering if we don't go electric. Foresters are available on the lots right now. They're better vehicles too and are usually less expensive. [Yes, I'm biased. So read Consumer Reports.]

my attempt to an explanation I skimmed it so may have missed this: what if the mutual fund just holds an ETF? Seems to be increasingly common these days. Will the mutual fund NAV equal the ETF NAV or the ETF closing price?

(A) I figure the net cost of these changes to the Rogers World Elite MC will cost me about $400/year. My monthly Rogers bills currently run about $110/month and I have been charging over $40k per year to the card so my Rogers services have been free once I apply my rewards at the 1.5x rate. Even after adjusting for the 5% rewards rate on Rogers services, I'm still out about $400. e.g. [(12m x $110/m)/3 - (12m x $110/m)*(0.05-0.02)] = $400. ... (B) As others have mentioned, at least I don't need to feel tethered to Rogers services any more. I consolidated all my telecom, internet, and streaming services to Rogers over the last couple years so I could take advantage of the 1.5x rewards kicker. Going forward Rogers will have to compete for my business. I’m in the same boat for both (A) and (B). For (A), my internet bill is about $80 a month, making the annual cost for those changes roughly $300. As for (B), Rogers still offers some decent perks—though who knows for how long. For instance, they include a "free" cell phone plan with the internet, plus some basic travel medical insurance (even if it is only three days for seniors 65+).

If anyone wants to go down this rabbithole, this website lets you see how towers and their operators have changed over time. deep Southwestern Ontario is interesting: Over 10 years, Bell has been retiring towers (Windsor only has 2 Bell "towers" left, 1m elevation: one at (inside?) a hospital, another at an auto plant... probably corporate contracts). Telus has the rest of the Bell/Telus arrangement. Plenty of rural areas where 5G at home is viable (or was pre-Starlink). 2016: https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/can ... s=20160901 Current: https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/can ... pid=0&ds=0

Buy and sell ETF transactions show updated cash balance immediately. BMT104, not so much but it’s a minor annoyance. Off-topic, but hint: Use BMO95142 Series F MMF instead of BMT104 for higher yield (no trailer fee).

(And a thank-you to Wealthsimple and Questrade for forcing the big-5 banks to compete!) Absolutely! Now BMOIL just needs to make sure that the cash balance is updated immediately in the account when transacting (it's not rocket science), and offer a 2-3% bribe. Then I'll move all our accounts there. Buy and sell ETF transactions show updated cash balance immediately. BMT104, not so much but it’s a minor annoyance.

Wow! Did not expect that. Very welcome news. I didn't use many ETFs outside their free list, but this will make things just a bit smoother. The cost of commissions is not that big but the record-keeping and cash management is an annoying friction on top of the cost. (And a thank-you to Wealthsimple and Questrade for forcing the big-5 banks to compete!) Can now expand back into Total US Market instead of just S&P500, I am pleased.

A question for those who hold corporate bonds. I assume that you look at credit risk. That would include the credit ratings issued by the rating agencies. But my understanding is that those ratings look at each issuer in isolation -- financial ratios and so on. But do you think about diversification across corporate issuers? By that I mean, do you try to identify issuers whose fortunes are negatively correlated, or at least weakly positively correlated? Or is that just not worth the effort? George When I held corporate bonds and played in the BBB/BBB+ credit range, I picked utilities and pipelines on the premise they had pretty firm regulated, or near regulated, income coming in. The likes of Enbridge, Capital Power, etc.

do you think about diversification across corporate issuers? By that I mean, do you try to identify issuers whose fortunes are negatively correlated, or at least weakly positively correlated? Or is that just not worth the effort? For corporate issuers my first check is issuer concentration and my bond ladder spreadsheet (see this post for details) has a pivot table with that information so I can easily eliminate issuers when reviewing potential new purchases. I don't explicitly look at the issuer's sectors however my mental checklist does seem to be aware of it and tends to eliminate issuers that are closely related by sector. Your question has got me wondering if I should formalize it within the spreadsheet.

Until November, RBC offers a 3% cash bonus up to $15,000 to new RBCDI clients. "A new client is a client that has not held an RBC Direct Investing (except GoSmart) account in the two-year period before the start of the Offer Period (defined below)." https://www.rbcdirectinvesting.com/dms/ ... offer.html I've ignored all offers in this thread in the past but 3% sounded interesting. However, it's only 1% for non-registered. 3% for registered. Half to be paid Nov. 2027, half to be paid Nov. 2028, so 2 years locked. I could move our TFSAs, which are about $200k x 2 from TD, but to qualify for $15k I'd have to transfer $900k non-registered. Potentially x 2, although I can't quite figure out from the terms what happens if the second non-registered account has two names on it. How hard is it to transfer a partial non-registered account? I'd have to move $600-$800k in stocks with significant embedded capital gains. Can you give a list of securities to transfer? I realize ACBs probably would get messed up. Candidate non-registered accounts are at TDDI and IB.

Some discussion of bond ETFs during the Mar/2020 COVID bottom. Look at the spread between market price and NAV. A difference of 3+% is supposed to be pretty much impossible for an ETF, yet it happened. Is the divergence from NAV considered just a temporary phenomenon in a crazy market, or more of a cause for concern going forward? Click on the up arrow next to the name to go to the post. Quotes are in 2 separate threads.

Liquidity of all but the most vanilla bonds can dry up in a financial crisis. Before the GFC, one of the U.S. Feds (St. Louis?) used to publish a decomposition of the spread between nominal Treasury yields and those on TIPS into (a) anticipated inflation (b) an insurance premium against unanticipated inflation, and (c) a liquidity premium for TIPS, as their market was relatively thin. In the fall of 2008, the liquidity premium spiked and the models fell apart, to the point where the Fed no longer even tried to estimate the components. In Canada, the real yield on 2021 RRBs increased to over 3% as I recall, presumably because of panicked sellers and lack of liquidity. I backed up the truck, figuratively speaking, and completed my RRB allocation. I wonder whether, in a future financial crisis, even regular government bonds will be all that helpful. Cash equivalents would seem to be the way to go. George