I’m 65 and a very conservative, set-it-and-forget-it kind of investor. I had a financial planner through RBC for decades. About a year ago, I finally started asking myself: What exactly does this guy actually do for me?

As far as I could tell, not much.

Once a year we’d meet, I’d sign something confirming that we’d met and I was satisfied with his services, and that was basically it. Meanwhile, I suspect I was paying thousands of dollars a year in fees. It’s remarkably difficult to figure out exactly how much because the fees seem to be buried so deeply in the statements and investment returns that an ordinary person has a hell of a time seeing what they’re actually paying.

One thing that particularly annoyed me was my TFSA. Because of the way the investments were set up, if I wanted money out, I had to contact my financial planner and ask him to arrange it. At one point I told him I didn’t want to operate that way anymore, and he talked me into leaving things as they were. Unfortunately, he was also a family friend, which made the whole thing awkward. Otherwise I probably would have told him to pound sand.

Eventually I slowly extricated myself from the whole arrangement and moved everything into RBC Direct Investing. The fees are considerably lower, I control my own money, and since I barely touch my RRSPs and TFSAs anyway, I started wondering why I ever needed someone managing them in the first place. Wealthsimple would presumably be cheaper again.

But I still had this nagging feeling that there must be some secret financial knowledge I was missing.

So I went to an accountant who had been independently recommended to me. He wasn’t selling investments, insurance or anything else. Perfect, I thought. I gave him my complete financial picture and asked a very specific question: At 65, what is my optimal drawdown strategy between now and the point where my RRSPs have to convert to RRIFs and mandatory taxable withdrawals begin?

He charged me roughly $340, at about $150 an hour, to analyze everything.

His conclusion? “You’re doing everything right.”

When I pressed him for something more concrete, his main piece of advice was essentially to withdraw from my TFSA first.
That was about it. I walked away completely unimpressed.

For years I assumed financial professionals possessed some magic formula, secret information or sophisticated knowledge that ordinary people couldn’t possibly figure out themselves. But the accountant went through a whole list of questions with me, and I had already considered and dealt with virtually everything he raised.

So I think I’m done.

I’ll keep my investments simple, diversified and boring, minimize fees, educate myself, use Direct Investing, and make my own decisions. And, frankly, AI has been remarkably useful for helping me understand the tax implications and work through different scenarios - obviously with the understanding that I still need to verify important tax information myself.

Maybe I’ve just had bad luck with financial professionals. Maybe my situation simply isn’t complicated enough to justify paying someone. But after decades of thinking these people knew something I didn’t, I’m increasingly convinced that for a reasonably financially literate, conservative, hands-off investor, keeping it simple and not paying somebody a percentage of your money every year may be most of the battle.

I don’t really know why I’m sharing this, other than perhaps someone else has gone through the same realization.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

I perhaps shouldn’t have notified them because an employee stock buyback should be treated as selling any other kind of stocks. But because I was being extra careful I told them and they’ve put my EI payments on hold since July end to “assess my case”.

The EI payment was by no means sufficient to fund my expenses but without it I’m having to use my savings at an increased rate.

Is there anything I can do to get the government to take my case off hold and reinstate the payments? I’ve missed the last 3 payments because of this hold.

I am, of course, trying to get employed in parallel. It’s just been difficult to get anything even after reducing my salary demands by 40%.

Thank you in advance for the guidance!

After 5 years working in Canada I finally decided to do the sensible thing and started putting some money into my RRSP starting last year August. Then in Feb of this year I lost my six figure tech job.

I haven’t found anything since then and EI alone doesn’t cover my expenses so I’ve been dipping into my savings.

I have around 24K in my RRSP (I know it’s basically nothing given my experience). The money is already down a few % YTD. Wondering if I should take it out to make ends meet, take out a line of credit with my bank, or accept a 50-70% paycut and take whatever entry level job I can get.

Apprehensive about that last one as it will reset my floor by a few years and set me back financially in my career.

I feel pretty hopeless and perhaps am not able to think about this rationally.

Amex, Mastercard, Visa - All of these companies take a percentage of anything sold in our country. We’ve Interac and places do accept that but the transfer is not realtime and reliance on email is just dated. Why not modernize this system and stop this 1-2% of payment go to these companies who are really just charging you to use your own money!

Hi folks,

Let me preface this by saying I'm not asking how to handle any of my debt or budget or whatever. Debt is adjacent to the question, but I have enough information on that and I know people love to jump to 'you shouldn't have debt in the first place ya dummy! Shouldn't have bought all those lattes!' I KNOW THIS. I do have an appointment with a financial advisor at the bank this week, but figured I'd ask here too just to see if anybody has any insight. I'm pretty sure I know the answer already, and having written this out I'm even more sure, but you never know and it's taken me like... An hour to type this on my phone, so I'm not going to NOT post it. At the very least, I hope you enjoy my sordid tale of millennial woe.

So, my bank is RBC. CURRENTLY I have a line of credit with them with a max limit of $19,500 and a Visa with a max limit of $24,000 or thereabouts. My credit score is not bad, around 750 last I checked. Credit card is currently at around $6000 owing. Line of Credit sitting around $16,300. (I KNOW. If you're drafting a comment about it, stop that, unless it's to compare notes on unnecessary purchases. I bought my cat a package of 30 super balls last month and I will stand by that decision.)

In all seriousness, I also moved across the country a couple of years ago and it took a bit to get my feet under me, amongst other things (Rent. Groceries. Special urinary cat food). I got a really promising permanent job about 8 months ago that allowed me to start making sizable payments and hopefully pay it all off within a year or two.

A couple weeks ago RBC said hey, you're pre approved to increase your credit line! I did some looking and digging and decided that it would be a reasonable thing to do, and decided to consolidate some of the credit card debt onto the line of credit to reduce the interest I was dealing with and focus on getting the rest of the credit card cleared up. I used $5,000 from the line of credit to make a payment into the Visa. Seemed smart enough.

I got laid off the day after. :)

Came outta the blue for the most part, though maybe I was too optimistic. I was replaced by part time students and AI. It was a termination without cause and paid in lieu of notice.

NOW my actual question.

I have RBC's Balance Protector Max on my Visa. Job loss is covered. They'll pay 25% of the balance for as many months as I'm out of work up to a certain amount. I almost cancelled it a couple months ago, but would have physically had to go to the bank and never got around to it. Silver linings of ADHD.

Is there anything I can do about that $5,000 I moved? Preferably not insurance fraud. (< JOKE. I DO NOT INTEND TO ATTEMPT INSURANCE fraud.) Any fine print or methods of making myself seem really pathetic at the bank? If I cry in front of a financial advisor, will they give me $5,000? Or at least a Werthers and a scratchy off-brand Kleenex?

If you read through all of this, thank you. I really appreciate it. It was a unicorn of a job even without the money thing, so it's been a rough few days. My life won't be ruined if I'm out that 5k, for which I'm very lucky. It'll still suck, obviously, but I'm not on the brink of homelessness or struggling to eat yet.

Life's hard for a lot of people right now, and I hope everyone who sees this post finds something to spark a little bit of joy today. I've been able to spend a lot more time painting lately, myself, and there's cut up watermelon in the fridge.

TL;DR: Made a big payment on my credit card the day before I was laid off. I have insurance for my credit card balance. Any fine print that might get that previous payment covered too?

Realize the total number is different for everyone but curious to see for those that need to fully save for retirement (no pension) are at percentage wise based on age.

I have a diverse portfolio for retirement that has been self planned and managed for the last 10 years, and I would like to have it properly examined and adjusted by a professional, but not externally managed.

I've called probably 7 or 8 different financial planning orgs and everyone I talk to basically said "nobody will do a one time fee - there is no money in that. Everyone wants to actively manage your assets".

Is this the actual reality? Is it not possible to find a non bank-affiliated independent financial advisor who will analyze your assets and give you a proper plan for a single fee?

After my divorce, I got half my ex-husband’s pension and deposited into a lira at my bank. I’m now wondering if that’s the best opportunity for my money to grow

In 2020 I had approximately 400,000 in the lira and 17k in a RRSP now 25.5k

I have a small municipal pension as well

I am 56 and I’m living on a fixed income, so I’m not gonna be contributing very much to that

I’m wondering if it’s better to move my money from the bank to a money manager.

I am also on long-term disability and they’re looking to buy out my pension, but I have not really proceeded with that because I’m not sure if it’s a good plan or not I’m not even sure what it means exactly like are they gonna give me a bunch of money all at once and then stop paying me my long-term disability benefit benefits

I don’t mind moving my money to a personal investment account, although I would lose all my free banking

I’ve been looking for a specific group or community for people in Vancouver who are into personal finance/ the stock market. Does anyone know a space for this?

The B.C. government has announced that the B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant (BCTESG) will be discontinued effective April 1, 2028.

For those who are unfamiliar, the BCTESG provides a one-time $1,200 grant into an eligible child's RESP. It is separate from the federal Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) and does not require any contributions to the account in order to receive the grant.

The government's rationale for cancelling it includes relatively "low uptake" and that the benefit disproportionately goes to families with higher income.

I understand the argument, I just don't think cancelling the grant is the right answer. If the problem is low participation, why not improve awareness and make the program easier to access? Any student of marketing could create something useful and informative. And if the problem is who receives the benefit, why not make it income-tested or create a sliding scale?

And if the objective is to encourage families to save for their children's education, why eliminate an incentive that encourages parents to start saving in the first place?

If you live in BC, please consider writing to your MLA (not your MP since the BCTESG is a provincial program) and ask them to advocate for redesigning the BCTESG instead of cancelling it.

You can find your MLA through the B.C. Legislative Assembly website.

Am I missing something? I'd genuinely like to hear the strongest argument for eliminating the BCTESG

Pulled up my spreadsheets again this week trying to figure out where extra cash should go. TFSA is maxed. RRSP still has room but I keep hesitating to dump everything there because of the withdrawal taxation down the road. So the question sitting in front of me is whether a nonregistered account ever makes sense before the RRSP is fully used up.

The obvious answer is no, RRSP first, the deduction is too good to pass up. But then you start digging into the actual numbers. If my income drops in a few years, that RRSP deduction is worth less. If I retire earlier than planned, maybe I want more flexibility than an RRSP gives. A nonregistered account at least lets you pull money without worrying about stacking taxable income in the wrong year.

The capital gains inclusion rate changes also threw a wrench in how I was modeling this. The math I had worked out a while back is not the same math anymore.

For people who landed in a similar spot, specifically warehouse or trades income, no pension, no DB plan, just personal accounts, how did you actually sequence this? Did you keep funneling into RRSP past the point where it made obvious sense, or did nonregistered start making it into the picture earlier than expected?

I was born and raised in Canada for 20 years , and around 4 years ago, I moved away, with no real intention of returning to Canada in the foreseeable future.

That being said, I still have Canadian dollars, a canadian bank account, and one credit card from CIBC, which I use a couple times a month and pay in full, so my credit score is relatively good.

I want to apply for the Home Trust preferred visa, as i’m sick of paying the FX fee. I have family in Canada with a valid address, however the card requirements say I must be a permanent resident to apply.

What are the potential implications of applying anyways?

🇨🇦** The Canadian dollar
This is one of the things I’d be most cautious about.
The Bank’s July report already noted that CAD depreciation makes Canadian exports more competitive **but increases the price of imports.
If the trade war gets considerably worse and Canada enters recession while the U.S. remains relatively stronger, I could see CAD falling further against USD.
That means Canadians could experience declining purchasing power even without an enormous increase in domestic inflation.
For someone holding USD-denominated assets, however, the currency effect works in the opposite direction: a weaker CAD makes those assets worth more when translated back into Canadian dollars.

Inflation rose 3.0% year-over-year in July, up from the 2.8% increase in June, according to Statistics Canada. Gasoline led the acceleration, with prices 25.7% higher than a year earlier in July compared with 20.5% in June, as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the partial closure of Red Sea shipping routes in late July pushed global fuel costs higher. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 2.2% for a third consecutive month. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.5%, or 0.3% once seasonally adjusted.

The measures of core inflation that the Bank of Canada monitors and uses as the basis for monetary policy decisions were little changed in July. CPI-trim held at 1.9% year-over-year, CPI-median edged up to 2.0% from 1.9% in June, and CPI-common rose to 2.7% from 2.6%. The average of CPI-trim and CPI-median therefore sat at 2.0%, still consistent with underlying price pressures close to the Bank’s target even as the headline rate moved further above it.

Travel costs added to the July acceleration. Travel tour prices rose 15.2% year-over-year, up from 6.8% in June, as hotels and flights to US cities hosting World Cup matches grew more expensive. Air transportation rose 12.0% after a 9.6% increase in June, reflecting higher jet fuel costs. Grocery prices, measured as food purchased from stores, grew 3.1% in July, down from 3.9% in June, although July marked the 18th consecutive month that grocery inflation outpaced the all-items CPI.

Transportation (+7.8%) led the 8 major components higher in July, followed by recreation, education and reading (+4.4%) and food (+3.0%). Shelter (+1.3%) grew at its slowest pace since May 2020, and household operations, furnishings and equipment (+0.4%) was the weakest component. Five of the 8 major components accelerated compared with June.

I need help resolving an issue with my 2024 GST. My accountant filed my taxes for both 2024 and 2025, but I received a government letter stating my 2024 GST couldn't be calculated due to 'missing world income.'

I am receiving conflicting advice on how to fix this:

• My accountant told me to submit a separate application (for CGEB) and manually enter my income for that year.
• A CRA agent told me that GST is calculated automatically from my tax return and that I shouldn't re-enter income that was already reported.

Additionally, my brother works abroad and already paid his balances to the CRA and Revenu Québec,so it is also weird that it is stated world income is missing.

Please enlighten me regarding the correct procedure that should be followed. Thanks everyone

The tariffs JUST kicked in and my previously shipped parts are costing me even more. I was reading that there might be government help for businesses dealing with the US, has anyone any experience with this in the past? How do I qualify?

Hi, I am struggling to find someone to do my exit tax from Canada. I know that I cannot ask for suggestions and I am not doing that here. Finding a lot of scam seeming people or firms.

Curious if people have done this on their own? I am not sure how complex it is. I do not have a complex situation I think? 🤔 🤪. I did sell a personal home in 2025. There was no withholding as my realtor nor lawyer mentioned anything and both knew I was not living in Canada. I had no idea there was an exit tax.

Would be grateful for some feedback. Thank you

Worth putting the headline number in context: Reuters reports that the new tariffs cover nearly US$20 billion out of US$383 billion in Canadian goods export to America in 2025.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/canada-braces-50-us-tariffs-with-negotiators-still-far-apart-2026-08-17/