# Learning as I go!



## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

This will probably be a little different than most of the money diaries (at least the few I've checked out) partially because I'm not sure yet if I'm willing to share my net worth with many people, even online.

My overall goal right now is to learn more, and have my savings keep up with inflation!

My Past

My parents did a good job about teaching me the value of money, I think. Investing a little less so. My dad took me to get some GICs a few times with my own money. He also brought me to the bank once to get mutual funds, but since the bank account was in my name the advisor wouldn't allow it.

Throughout most of my adult life I've primarily just stuck with savings accounts and GICs. Luckily, my now husband told me about ING and I moved a big chunk there then to Canadian Tire so at least the interest was decent. I never wanted my money tied up for too long as there was always the potential I would need it - I might want a car, I'll be graduating, I'm moving out, I'm getting married, my scholarships will only be for so many years then I won't have any money coming in, etc. I'm also not a risk taker, so that combined with being a student has kept me a little too conservative with my money.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Staying True to and Trusting Myself

I'm not someone to take advice from the 'average person'. I am actually amazed at how often the 'average person' appears to be stupid. When someone has more qualifications or knowledge in an area than me, I do tend to trust them. Lately, this has been frustrating to me as I've been second guessing myself when I really shouldn't be.

Sometime in 2007 I went to the bank to put a decent chunk of money into a GIC. Interest rates were great. The advisor wouldn't just set up the GIC for me though. Rather, he pushed hard to get me to buy some mutual funds. At that point in time I had minimal knowledge (or interest) in finances and the market, other than the fact that rates were great for savings. Even I had heard of predictions of a recession. When I brought this up he just told me that no one could really predict that, but current returns were great. I at least got a bit of education (at the point I didn't even know what a MER was). I finally stated more firmly that maybe I would come back after I looked into them more, but I was not comfortable at that time getting into something I knew little about.

This incident recently came flooding back after looking over the history of funds when considering purchasing some. I have no idea what he was trying to get me to buy (at least it would have been reasonably conservative, based on the question tool I went through), but it wouldn't have mattered it would have just completely stressed me out when things really fell. I just wish he could have convinced me I wouldn't have needed access to all the money so soon and I had locked in the GIC longer!

My husband and I had a dispute for months about the TFSA. He's more knowledgeable for the most part when it comes to money, but he's bad at reading basic instructions sometimes. It wasn't anything major, we weren't withdrawing anything, but we were both uncertain about the contribution rules and took different stances. Everywhere stated that if you withdrew money you couldn't add it back in until the next year, fine that was simple. Nowhere actually specified though if it was just the principal you could add back in eventually or if it also included any interest that was withdrawn. We even searched examples online, they were all under $5000 withdrawals though, we couldn't seem to find one where someone withdrew their $5000 plus the interest they made. I figured that if it didn't specify anything about interest then surely that could be contributed, he said only the principal. We asked at the bank (will write about that in my next post!), and of course I was correct, as it usually is when we are both sure the other is wrong.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

How to Get Good Financial Advice at a Bank 
(and why don't people who work at banks know the TFSA rules?)

A few months after getting married, my husband and I went to my bank to set up a joint account. I was a little grateful he was so willing to use mine for the joint account, I didn't want to use another bank. I already had my own, a credit card from another and 2 online banks. While there, we asked our TFSA question (see above). I was a little surprised about the response, she just commented that it didn't matter as I was a student I had no need to worry about it because I couldn't max it out. Wrong Answer! I don't like being talked down to. I guess that's what you do when you don't know and don't want to admit you have to then call someone to find out. Oh well, at least our account was set up. Or so we thought but the Mr. couldn't use online banking to access the account and he went through a few debit cards before he was given one that worked. Then we were being charged fees, we were told it was free. We had both had it. I called and made a complaint. We got called back by the branch and were given an appoint with someone who was more experienced.

Unfortunately, more experienced doesn't mean good service. We weren't the type of clients he dealt with, and he made that quite obvious. We were a waste of his time; never mind the fact our future earning potential or assets elsewhere. The joint account was closed, and I dropped the other services that wouldn't have a big impact on me.

Time to try out his bank. Our advisor there is great! We even dealt with someone above her when she wasn't available. We were still treated like valued clients. Great! I set up a mutual fund under a TFSA. I'm happy with it, but was a little concerned when I was told I couldn't set up a successor and beneficiary, as I had done this for my Canadian Tire account. Went home reviewed the rules, doing both looked ok, so no longer a concern that I screwed it up. If the Mr. and I die in a car crash or something I doubt our families will be fighting over the money anyway.

Back at my first bank, I had a bunch of points to use if I was going to eventually pull everything. I could use them for a TFSA or RRSP. I went in to the bank quickly to get some answers. Maybe I'd open a TFSA and transfer it ASAP to my new bank. Otherwise, I could use the December Shuffle method. So I asked:

Does their TFSA have any fees? No, it's free 
(Huh, really, NO FEES? I don't believe it, especially after the joint account issue!)

If there a transfer fee? Another financial institution may charge you a fee to transfer one here. 
(Yeah ok, but I'm asking about this bank, not others. You said no fees though, I guess you actually meant it).

So if I decide to transfer my TFSA to another bank I won't be charged by this bank? Yes, $50 (WTF! I hadn't looked into how much these fees were before, the biggest bank fee I had ever seen was $5. How did this not come up with any of the questions I asked before this?)

Normally, this wouldn't have bothered me too much, but I wasn't in a great mood to start with and at this point I felt like the bank was just trying to slip as many fees as possible without me noticing until it was too late (there were many other times I was charged for something I shouldn't have been). Called again, this time quite annoyed. I still had to use up those stupid points though. Calmed down a bit, and started looking at their mutual funds. A few days later I was called by someone higher up at the branch, she actually cared. She made an appointment with someone who she said I would really like and had been their a long time. I'm guessing this advisor was also warned and told to make me happy.

I actually really did like this advisor. She quickly got a feeling for my level of understanding and gave me more information without talking down to me. She even discussed what could be happening with the markets and why in the near future - that surprised me! I was actually getting a lot of great advice. I didn't even have to make a lump sum payment with my points, I could spread it out over a year. Clearly, this is not the advisor students usually get an appointment with. If I can meet with her again, maybe I don't want to leave my bank completely. 

When it came to setting up the beneficiary successor though, she told me I could only do one and advised I put the Mr. as a beneficiary, not as a successor as it was more advantageous. There comes the second guessing myself again (but I had looked at this stuff twice now, even if it wasn't super carefully). I asked her if she was sure, she actually phoned to double check for me; it turned out I had the successor rules correct, she had the beneficiary rules for a spouse correct. I'm still really happy with her, but what's going on with the banks and the TFSA rules?


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Koala, 

Good for you for not giving in to the pressure. It leaves me dumbfounded when people agree to something when they really don't know what is involved and what the consequences are. Some people believe that just because the other person knows more about it, then they must be right... but that's not always the case. You never know what hidden agenda is on their plate. Although I've been suckered into a few things myself...!

You've mentioned that you would like someone with qualifications to help you out with all this, so that's why you've been going to the banks and talking to their advisors. There is a problem with that, because advisors at banks usually get commissions from the mutual fund companies, when they sell somebody one of their mutual funds. This is why that first advisor was pressuring you into buying mutual funds instead of GICs. There is a conflict of interest with these people... they are supposed to help you, but they are paid by selling you investments that may not actually be the best thing for you.


If I may make a suggestion... You seem to have met a new advisor who has a better head on her shoulders, but I suggest that you look into find a fee-only advisor. These people are independent, they only charge a flat fee to you for their advice and are not paid commissions for selling you particular products.

As a disclaimer, I haven't done this, I am a DIY kind of guy and do all my own research (largely in this forum) but if I were in your shoes and still wanted a real live person to help me out, that is what I would do.

Another thing I wanted to mention is about the $50 fee that your old bank would charge you to transfer your account. Well, sometimes the new bank will pay that charge for you, since you are a new customer. Usually they'll do it for larger accounts $25,000 so if your account is smaller, they might not, but it never hurts to ask and only takes a phone call.

What are these points that you're talking about? I'm not sure what you mean by points at a bank.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Barwelle,

I'm working up to getting to the point where I feel comfortable of taking a more DYI approach. I really appreciate your advice! As for a fee only advisor, from what I've read, they are fairly expensive when you're just starting off, aren't they? I have saved up a decent amount but no one would consider me to be a high net worth client. It might be worthwhile if I was willing to invest all of my savings, but at this point I won't (and my husband wants to keep at least half of my current savings account as savings too).

My new TFSA was opened with credit card points that I had converted to a financial voucher. It was only for $425, and I will be topping it up to $500 to meet the minimum amount for the mutual fund and may even go a bit higher if the price drops. So it would be pretty hard to get a new bank to cover the fee (or justify paying it myself). I actually maxed out my contributions until this year, all of that is sitting in a savings account getting 2.75% right now.

The two of us are going to an educational seminar offered by our bank next week. I'm already considering to going to another one later in the month if the first one is worthwhile.

Our next financial decision will be what to do with some of the money in my (non-TFSA) savings account. I'll probably move at least $10,000 into something that will (hopefully) do better than the 2% it's currently earning. The money will be used for a house downpayment though, so it won't be a long-term investment.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

The bank is gonna push its own investments on you at this seminar (probably their high-MER mutual funds) so keep that in mind. Have you looked into the TD e-series funds? Or maybe ING's streetwise funds.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Sherlock, it's an online investing seminar with TD so I'm guessing they will be pushing their e-series. As for ING streetwise funds I haven't looked into them in any detail, but my husband hasn't been impressed by their performance and from what I have seen I agree. If anyone really likes them I'd like to hear why. Maybe I'm missing something.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

Well the streetwise funds are index funds, so their performance should mirror the indexes they track (minus the MER). The streetwise funds were started in early 2008, and you know what happened in 08, the big crash, so of course the funds' performance since inception is not good.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Thanks Sherlock! I won't write off ING when I have the money for long term savings.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

*Love and Money*

My husband has signed up, so maybe it’s time I said some nice things about him. 

I'm a lucky girl! I married the man of my dreams this past summer. Not only does he make me happy, but he also has more investment knowledge than I.

I (and my parents) were always a little worried about the guy I would end up marrying. There are so many people in my generation with major debt and no savings, especially coming out of university. I was a little concerned about all my savings getting eaten up by someone else’s spending and partying ways. Luckily for me, I ended up with someone who has similar spending habits as I do.

My husband wasn't able to save up the way I was during school, he even had student loans but he paid them off shortly after graduating. I moved away for graduate school, and a year later he joined me to get a second degree. He had decent jobs during the summer, but still had a few student loans. Our accounts were separate, but he would give me half of his rent payments as a lump sum, I would pay the bills and he got the majority of the groceries. We got engaged his last year of school. I paid off his small student load debt to avoid the interest payments once he graduated and a short while later we got hitched!

Now, I am no longer making any money (it used to be from scholarships and teaching), but he has a good salary for a new grad. We had planned to keep separate accounts, along with a major joint account, but somehow I ended up with both whereas he doesn’t have a separate one (except for his TFSA). As I like to say –
*My* money is *my* money and *his* money is *my* money. 
Seriously though, we view it as all our money and we’re both aware of what’s going on with all the accounts.

This guy was looking out for me right from the start too. He got me to open an ING HISA back when the big banks were paying next to nothing. Now we’re working together to try to grow our money before our next big purchase – a house!


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## orange (Oct 23, 2011)

Congratulations Koala,

You're very lucky to find someone who makes you happy...and you got the added bonus of someone with the same financial interests.

It's tough building your financial foundation right out of school these days, especially when you come out with student loans. Good for you and your hubby for keeping the loans to a minimum with work and scholarships during school (too many people don't try to offset the costs, rather willingly rack up loans) and paying those off so quickly after!

I'm fairly new to the investment game as well (although solo right now as my other half doesn't care about finance at all), so I can't offer much advice, but I look forward to following your progress!

One piece of advice I will share, since you said you're looking to buy a house...don't pay any attention to how much the bank will lend you - it is NOT what you can afford...they will always lend you MUCH MORE than you can _comfortably_ afford. Look at your expenses and your income, and figure out *how much you are comfortable spending *(on mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, utilities, etc.), then base your house price on that. 

Also, don't feel like you _must_ buy right now. You don't have to. You will not regret it if you wait to find a home you like in your price range.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Thanks Orange!
We're not looking quite yet, I want to finish school first and may wait until I have a job, so it will probably be at least 6 months.
When it comes time to actually start seriously looking, hopefully I can come to you with some questions!


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Koala said:


> As for a fee only advisor, from what I've read, they are fairly expensive when you're just starting off, aren't they?
> 
> ...
> 
> Our next financial decision will be what to do with some of the money in my (non-TFSA) savings account. I'll probably move at least $10,000 into something that will (hopefully) do better than the 2% it's currently earning. The money will be used for a house downpayment though, so it won't be a long-term investment.


Hey, it's great to talk to other like-minded young folk. I have yet to have any real discussions with any of my friends about investing. +1 that you are also in AB! You might teach me a thing or two.

In fact, you already have. You're totally right about the fee-only advisors. I should have done my due diligence... from this website, you're looking at $125 - 400 an hour. Yikes. Let's just stick with CMF, shall we!

You're doing well at 2% for cash savings. I haven't found anything better, unless you would lock into long term GIC's... 2.5% at Ally for a 5 yr. You still get some interest if you cash out early, doesn't say how much though. ING is 2.35% for 5 years, and they drop that to 0.5% if you cash out early. For now, I'm letting my down payment savings sit in ING earning 1.5%, though I might put some into the 5 year GIC.




Koala said:


> *My* money is *my* money and *his* money is *my* money.
> Seriously though, we view it as all our money and we’re both aware of what’s going on with all the accounts.


My mom says the same thing about my father's money! And everything else that is "his" for that matter.

It's great that you've found someone who thinks the same way you do. Though some would disagree, money plays a huge role in relationships!


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## Saniokca (Sep 5, 2009)

Barwelle said:


> You're totally right about the fee-only advisors. I should have done my due diligence... from this website, you're looking at $125 - 400 an hour. Yikes. Let's just stick with CMF, shall we!


actually 125-400 doesn't seem too high to me, obviously it is if your portfolio is 5k. I will stick to ETFs and a few individuals until I reach 50k or so. After that, I think it's a good investment (with a lot of due diligence and references of course). CMF is great for general advice but you want someone to sit with you and look at the specific situation.

By the way, the "advisers" in the bank will seemingly be free but they are getting commissions which someone pays for. That someone will be you.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Barwelle, I agree about money playing a role in relationships. We're great about finding little things to argue about (sometimes the arguments are fun), we don't need a large stressor!

Saniokca, I'm trying to grow away from fees. Paying for a fee based advisor might be a good idea when we have more money and are about to switch to DIY. For now, I see paying the MERs as a part of the learning process.

Right now I'm a little annoyed with my original bank. Automatic prepayments for the MF didn't come from the TFSA set up with the voucher, it came from my savings. The TFSA is not actually a savings account but a 'savings deposit'. I thought it was a bigger issue at first, and that I couldn't transfer it over to the MF. Turns out I can do it manually, but cannot set up automatic payments or transfers. I'm going to have to put slightly more work into this fund than I thought.


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Yea, it's all relative. In her situation (and mine, and yours by the sounds of it), these fee-only's are pricy.

My networth is around $29,000. Of that, $11,000 is in investments. If I were to sit down with the cheapest adviser for just _one_ hour a year, that cost for that would be like having a 0.5% or 1.1% MER, depending on which number you use, on top of the MER of whichever investments you hold. That would significantly reduce the advantage that ETFs have over mutual funds. Would they be able to provide meaningful advice in just one hour a year? I don't know. Depends on how much help you need, and how involved you want them to be. And if they can convince you that you need more help than you think.


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

I must have misread something somewhere... I'm going to flip flop again. Koala, I thought you were starting out on your own already, but now I see you said you were just working towards it. 

If you are sure you want an adviser... at least with the fee-only's, you know what you're paying and you can do things to limit that (i.e. only go see them when you really need to). The banks... like Sanoik said, you're still paying it, it's just hidden. And even if you never visit your adviser again for 5 years... you'll still pay that fee anyway.

And then you are also avoiding that conflict of interest that the bank advisers have.

See if you can find out what the MER of your funds are. Also check out if there are any deferred sales charges (DSC).

Maybe the TD e-series funds or ING streetwise funds would be a good idea... they're easy and simple, and with few options so you wouldn't be overwhelmed with all the choices. How much do you think the adviser has actually helped you?


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Barwelle, I agree that I need to get away from the MERs. Before this though I really just had savings accounts and GICs so it's a step up. For now, I just have 2 MFs, one with a fairly high MER (the Global Resources) which is a little less of an investment (although I hope it does well!) and more of a learning experience. It's not something I'll hold onto forever. The other one is 1.48%, which I probably will switch to something with a lower MER.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

*Bank Seminar*

The seminar at TD was a bit different than what I thought it was going to be, but I found it worthwhile. It was completely about how to use TDW WebBroker in a practical way. I was expecting a little bit more talking, but most of it consisted of her using a demo user within the actual program. I had no idea there was so much information you could pull up . The fees for making trades were covered, and there was an info sheet about their TFSAs, but otherwise nothing was being promoted, not even their e-series. Even if I decided to use something like Questrade instead, I think it was very worthwhile to see in general how things before fiddling with everything myself.

I will probably attend a different one seminar sometime.


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

I would suggest you go check out the Canadian Couch Potato site. TD e-series funds are excellent for those just starting out and those making monthly contributions to savings. TD definitely does NOT push them because they are so low cost that the bank doesn't make much if any money on them. The bank itself will more likely try to push their actively managed funds. TD Waterhouse doesn't push much of anything as they are more about trading fees and more 'sophisticated' investors. You don't need to have a TDW account to use TD e-funds. Just TD online banking. 

Keep reading and learning. The Couch Potato site is good but a better all-round easy to read starter book might be something like Andrew Hallam's new 'Millionaire Teacher' book.


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Glad you enjoyed the seminar. They are good even if the topics covered aren't completely relevant to you (as long as they're free!). I went to one a couple years ago, put on by TD, that ended up being for high net-worth clients ($100k+, which I probably won't reach for another 10 years at least!) but it was good to hear them talk about the markets and different products, got me more familiar with the lingo, etc because I was just starting to get familiar with it all.

If you want to fiddle around some more with a trading platform, Questrade has a free practice platform where they give you $100,000 in play money.

I second uptoolate's suggestion for Cdn Couch Potato. You could also check out the book that the blogger wrote: MoneySense Guide to the Perfect Portfolio by Dan Bortolotti. (it was $9.95 in the book section of a grocery store). This book is 128 pages long, well organized, he talks about selecting targets, risk, asset classes, funds, how to open accounts, and all kinds of relevant information for a starting DIY investor. It's all about setting up a low-maintenance, passive investment plan.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely play around with Questrade's practice account. I'll also check out the sites and books!


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I do not recommend Questrade. Please google for problems with this company. I know you're attracted to the low fees but I don't think it's worth the hassle. From everything I've read and heard about from non-biased players, TDW is a better and more worthwhile experience. You get what you pay for.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> I do not recommend Questrade. Please google for problems with this company. I know you're attracted to the low fees but I don't think it's worth the hassle. From everything I've read and heard about from non-biased players, TDW is a better and more worthwhile experience. You get what you pay for.


TRM - Have you ever actually used either Questrade or TD yourself? Or is this just more of your usual ill-informed nonsense?


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

My own experience with Questrade has been fine and while I had some issues opening the account re navigating the site once I got past that I have found it to be very easy to use. And I am very happy with their fees. As a novice, non-frequent trader it suits me just fine. 

Choosing a site will depend on your level of trading and feature preferences etc.


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Maybe TRM owns alot of TD shares?? 

Yea, like Y&A says it depends on how much you trade and what you're looking for. I agree that Questrade may have more problems, since it is usually true that you get what you pay for, but... maybe the savings is worth the risk since you probably won't be trading much. You already know what TD's system runs like, now try out Questrade and see if it's worthwhile to pay more for a trade in your situation.

Here is TD's fee schedule. Note, for your situation it would usually be $29/trade until you get $50,000 or decide to do a lot of trading (30+ trades per quarter. Not likely if you stick with the couch potato idea.)

Here is Questrade's fee page. "A penny a share" with a minimum of $4.95 and a maximum of $9.95.

If you try out Questrade's demo, you should be aware that they are rolling out a new platform called Questrade IQ, which is going to replace the existing platforms at some point. So what they have on for demo now won't be what you use eventually if you do sign up. But if you go for the demo, I *think* the QuestraderPRO platform would be most similar to IQ (except that PRO is software-based, whereas IQ is software- _and_ web-based.) so use that one.

If you haven't seen it already, check Million Dollar Journey's Review for more discount brokerages and a good comparison between them.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

I'll probably stick with TDW for a little while and play around with the free Questrade account. For now anything I would be doing on TDW is free and I like the idea that I can actually go in and talk to them if I have a problem.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Hi Koala, I'm not sure going in person to a TD branch would be able to help you with TDW questions. Seems to me they would tell you to call the 1800 #. Also, of you're looking for a practice account keep in mind that RBC Direct Investing has this feature as well.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

TRM, I have been told that if a seminar time didn't work for me, or I just needed more information that I could set up an appointment. If I just have a quick question, I probably will phone instead.

Barwelle, thanks for the info!


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

You're welcome Koala, glad I could help, keep us posted!


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

I sent off a bunch of papers to set up a TD e-series MF. I was less than thrilled about having to fill out a bunch of questions I already did in person when setting up the other MF, but it was the only way to get the e-series without setting it up with TDW and I didn't want to pay any fees (beyond the MER).

It's just the Canadian Bond Index, nothing too exciting, but the money will be needed in less than 5 years (hopefully sooner, I want a house!), so I didn't want to go risky with it. Hopefully it does better than my HISA account, but the fund hasn't done much so far in 2012.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Does anyone know how long it usually takes to hear back from TD after sending them the e-series paperwork? I know it's still early, but I get a little impatient with things like these


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Mine was set up within two weeks of sending it. Don't need to be so anxious, the bond fund really isn't going to change much between when you sent the forms and when it'll be set up!


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

I just like seeing something set up as soon as I do it. The internet has spoiled me 
2 weeks is longer than I thought, I'm glad I asked!


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## eulogy (Oct 29, 2011)

They typically send out an email to you when it is all set up and you can buy e-series funds. Took about 2 weeks if I remember correctly.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

Grrr. A little bit of venting here.
I have had it with my old bank. The system wouldn't let me purchase any MF units earlier this week, I had to call a number and was then told to go to the branch. Did that, and instead of being *purchased* units were *sold*! I'm glad I'm only dealing with a small amount of money with them.


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## Koala (Jan 27, 2012)

It's been a while since I've given an update. I became very fed up with my old bank. I couldn't purchase any of my MF units online, by phone, or in branch. Apparently I could not have more than 50% of my TFSA at that bank in that mutual fund. I was going to pull it all, and get the transfer fee waived. Then I found out that the fee would come out of my TFSA and be reimbursed to my savings account, so it would be a loss to what I could hold in my TFSA. It's only $50 but the whole thing annoyed me greatly. I switched the whole thing over to a bond fund, no more fussing with it.

I did switch my TFSA MF account with TD to an e-series account. I tried to open a non-TFSA account, but I was too honest in my time horizon (house downpayment) and the whole thing was rejected. Haven't figured out if I'll change the paper work or go into the bank, open an account and then just switch it over. Either way, my husband and I will be looking over things this weekend after seeing many of the HISA/TFSA rates decrease recently.

I also need to learn more about mortgages, closing costs, etc. We've been out looking at some showhomes, and will check out an open house this weekend. We're not ready to purchase yet, but have had a lot of fun looking. We actually like most of the same things in a home, which was a nice surprise. Another surprise came from looking, the Mr. actually wants to spend more than me on a house. I thought it would have been the opposite way around. Of course, right now it doesn't mean too much. We won't know for sure what we will have saved for a downpayment when it is time to buy, what interest rates will be, and what the market will be priced like (hopefully it goes down!). I am getting impatient though. We are hating our apartment. There has been talk about relocating him to this city. I want him here so I can see him more, it would also increase our ability to save without paying rent on a 2nd place. I don't think I want to rent out something bigger (like a townhouse) only to move again in a year or so when we buy.


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