If I have $25,000 contribution room left in my RRSP, can I take that all at once plus my regular RRSP contribution of $27,230 for the tax year 2020? Effectively making a contribution of $57,230 to my RRSP?— Lorraine

The rules around RRSP contribution room 

As soon as a taxpayer starts to earn income—like employment income, self-employment income, royalties, research grants or net rental income—they accumulate room for their registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). There are no age limits, so a teenager with a part-time job can start to build their RRSP room as long as they file a tax return to report their earned income. 

How does RRSP carry forward work?

Your RRSP room carries forward, meaning the amount is cumulative. So, 18% of your earned income for the previous year, up to the current year’s maximum contribution limit, becomes your RRSP room for the year. For 2022, the maximum is $29,210 for taxpayers with at least $162,278 of earned income in 2021. This gets added to any previously unused RRSP room from the past…

In my last post I reviewed the returns of my model ETF portfolios in 2021. Now let’s take a look at how the TD e-Series index mutual funds performed during the year. We’ll start with the returns of the four individual building blocks. A reminder that published mutual fund returns are always net of fees, and they assume all distributions are reinvested. Fund nameFund code2021 return TD Canadian…
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Asset allocation ETFs were revolutionary when they appeared in 2018, but they were hardly the first products that allowed Canadian investors to own a diversified index portfolio with a single fund. Way back in 2008, the online bank ING Direct launched what they called the Streetwise Funds. Like the one-ticket ETFs that followed a decade later, these mutual funds held a mix of Canadian…
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All investors care deeply about their returns, and with good reason. If you’re an active investor, you’ll want to compare the performance of your portfolio to an index benchmark to see whether you (or your advisor) added value with stock selection or market timing. Even if you’re an indexer, you may want to compare your personal rate of return against that of a model ETF portfolio.
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The ongoing popularity of asset allocation ETFs is undoubtedly a good thing—maybe even revolutionary. Canadians have enthusiastically embraced the one-ticket portfolios from Vanguard and iShares in particular—VGRO alone has $1.7 billion in assets. (BMO’s smaller family of one-ETF portfolios is also excellent.) Never one to miss jumping on a bandwagon, other fund providers have recently launched…
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We all want to live forever. Turns out, quite a few of us are. Okay, maybe no one lives forever but it’s a fact that more and more Americans are living to 100 and beyond than ever before. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the average man or woman presently living in the United States can expect to live to approximately 79 years of age. When you consider that’s an average, you begin to understand that many people will live much longer than that. Says Policygenius.com, while living a long life appears on the surface to be a grand thing, it also has serious financial implications. You might have a real opportunity to live to be 100 or older, but the question is, can you afford it?
Since stretching your retirement savings will be an essential component of living longer, you will need to do some creative planning that might include working longer, saving more in your middle years, or even planning on taking out a reverse mortgage on your primary residence once you turn 62…

Investors using the TD e-Series mutual funds may have noticed an unusual episode at year-end. The TD International Index Fund (TDB911), which has been making quarterly distributions for years, did not make one in December 2020. This has caused some confusion, so let’s try to clear up The Curious Case of the Missing Distribution. The first thing to appreciate is that fund investors didn’t get short…
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Parents in southern Ontario may think Tommy and Victoria’s $203 monthly daycare budget is a typo, but child-care costs in Quebec are heavily subsidized by the provincial government, Jason Heath, Millennial Money financial adviser writes.

The TD e-Series index mutual funds remain a useful alternative to the asset allocation ETFs that take centre stage in my model portfolios. Following on the heels of our detailed look at the performance of the Vanguard and iShares portfolios in 2020, let’s look at what the e-Series funds delivered last year. Here’s how the four individual building blocks performed in 2020. Remember, as always…
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It’s been a stressful few months for investors using the popular swap-based ETFs from Horizons. These funds have been available since 2011 and have attracted some $5.3 billion in assets because of their innovative, tax-efficient structure. But when the federal government released its budget in March 2019, it looked like the days of swap-based ETFs might be numbered. The day after the budget…
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Hurricane Dorian strengthens to Category 4 storm, with winds of up to 205 km/h  Global NewsHurricane Dorian gains strength as Florida braces for its arrival  CBC NewsDorian gains fury but might skirt Florida coast  CTV NewsHurricane Dorian 2019: What category is it? How strong will it be when it hits Florida?  Express.co.ukBahamas, Florida residents stock up on supplies as Hurricane Dorian roars towards U.S.  Global NewsView full coverage on Google News

For almost 20 years, the TD e-Series mutual funds have been one of the cheapest and easiest ways to build a Couch Potato portfolio. For most of that time they’ve gone about their business without much fuss, all the while outperforming the vast majority of their peers. But now there are some changes in the offing for these venerable old funds. And don’t despair: the changes are mostly for the…
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The latest episode of the Canadian Couch Potato podcast features an interview with Dr. Stephen Wendel, Head of Behavioural Science at Morningstar. Wendel heads up a research initiative called the Investor Success Project, which focuses on the human factors that dominate personal finance. So much discussion around financial well-being focuses on investing, but as Wendel points out in our interview…
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Drawing down your Couch Potato portfolio? That doesn’t mean you need to switch to a dividend strategy. [MoneySense]