potential TFSA administration nightmare?

Maybe I just have an active imagination, but I think TFSAs could become an administration nightmare for its users and the government ... How so? Well, imagine if you always transfer your pay in there to get all the high interests you can and then take some of that money out to pay some bills. You also take another chunk of money and transfer it into your discount broker TFSA to trade some stocks. Since you take money out of the TFSA, you need a paper trail to prove you have room to put more money in later in the same year. Imagine that this happens daily in the worst case: you'll have to keep hundreds of papers to file your tax returns ...

Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Obama and the economy: maybe there is some hope!

As I'm reading 'the Audacity of Hope' from Barack Obama, I can't help but think that he's going to do better with the economy than his predecessors. He's very open minded and rational, but, above all, I think he'll be able to keep his ego in check and surround himself with the best people able to solve that crisis. It doesn't mean it will be easy, but I hope that it help bring the US economy (and thus the Canadian economy) back on track faster than without him around.

Here's an interesting quote that shows how he thinks the government should handle new spending and tax cuts:

It is not the debt that is most troubling. The bulk of the debt is a direct result of the President's tax cuts, 47.4% of which went to the top 5% income bracket.

We can eliminate tax credits that have outlived their usefulness & close loopholes that let corporations get away without paying taxes. We can restore a law that was in place during the Clinton presidency--called Paygo--that prohibits money from leaving the treasury without some way of compensating for the lost revenue.

my latest stock buys

I am slowly (very slowly) getting back in the market ... although I believe the crisis will last for a while, I can't resist bargains and good dividend yields :-)

my latest buys (and please don't use those as financial advice!):
- XDV at 14.05
- XIU at 11.75
- XRE at 6.8
- CLU at 10

I also have a pending order for CIE ...

So you see that all my buys nowadays are iShares and Claymore ETFs ...

Paypal Security: safeguard your (Canadian) money!

A lot of people use Paypal nowadays to make and receive payments. If your password got compromised, it could have dire consequences ... What can you do about it? I've just realized they've got a new security feature in the form of security keys. You can get either a secure token or use your cell phone as a substitute. That's a pretty wise way to do it without having to carry a secure token with you. It's pretty simple: they send you a text message with a security code every time you log in. So someone with your password could not log in if they don't have your cell phone (or secure token) as well. Simply brilliant!

From the press releases bin: Claymore lowers costs on Core ETFs

I got a press release sent directly to me from Claymore Investments ...

The main point they make is the following:
"The annual management fee on the CorePortfolios™ will be reduced from 0.70% to 0.25%."

My first thought, was "wow!", this is huge. If you read a little bit more , they say this: "Accordingly, Claymore will no longer rebate back the fees of underlying Claymore ETFs held within the CorePortfolio™ ETFs. These changes will take effect immediately "

So they will remove rebates from the underlying ETFs. Yes, it does make it more transparent as Som Seif, President and CEO is saying.

I imagined that there was still some real rebate involved for the investor for them to make such a big announcement, so I've asked Sara Beazely from their public relations department what was the net rebate. Here's what she had to say:
"The net % gain for investors will be approximately 5bps on Growth and 10bps on Income. So, overall the net gain for investors (after the rebates of underlying ETFs are taken away) will be 5 – 10 bps."

So it seems that these are good news for Claymore customers.

If you wonder what the core ETFs are:
"Claymore CorePortfolio™ ETFs, which are the Claymore Balanced Income CorePortfolio™ ETF (TSX: CBD/CBD.A) and Claymore Balanced Growth CorePortfolio™ ETF (TSX: CBN/CBN.A) are asset allocation portfolio solutions using exchange traded funds to create efficient, balanced and diversified portfolios tailored to specific investment goals and risk profiles"

The problem with market share ETFs/indexes

The problem with indexes ETFs or funds is that they hold bad companies like Nortel. XIU for example still has a small amount of Nortel. Maybe it's time to look at dividend achievers indexes ETFs like CDZ which doesn't hold Nortel.

I wonder if dividend achievers companies have less chance to go bankrupt since they might have a more solid history of good revenues and a more sound business model than other companies ...

I'm back in the stocks game! (well, a tiny little bit)

Although there are probably some bad economic times ahead, I couldn't resist buying a small amount of XIU at 13.60 ...

Reminder: ING Direct has a bonus for TFSA accounts

Many blogs have reported it (including this one!), but here's another reminder: ING Direct gives you a bonus until the end of the year if you register right now for their TFSA account.

How to make a financial crisis worse, Globe and Mail style

Use this title:

" Homeowners' new reality: You're suddenly poorer "

Stock Market Downfall : Are we Really Close to Bottom?

CIBC World Markets is telling us that we might be close to the stock market bottom although not all the factors are in place for a recovery. I'd like to believe them, but I still don't have a good feeling about this financial crisis. Are we done with the deleveraging? What about the huge deficit the US is accumulating? Are European economies really strong? Will demand for Canadian commodities really go up soon? What if demand for Chinese products really tank?

You see my point :-)

Investors Group good in tough times?

A lot of people have posted positive comments on Investors Group for the post about my encounter with IG. Although I was not impressed with particular individual who visited me, there might be some very good IG financial planners out there. The key is to get someone you can really trust in good and bad times.

Iceland financial crisis: we're lucky not to be in that situation!

I was just reading that people are protesting in Iceland. No wonder since their banking system is collapsing! At least Canadian banks seem to have a much stronger position thanks in part to the office of the superintendent of financial institutions of Canada. That said, some banks managed to get sued for subprime investments ...