Hello all
Long story short, I’m a Canadian resident working in the US. My employer matches %4 for 401K if I contribute %4. I usually do %10 of my income to reduce US taxes.
The money goes to Fidelity Inv. And I can choose from a list which doesn’t make any sense to me. So far it has given me an average %8 return though.
I file taxes in the US first. I usually get a good return because my company taxes me as single but I’m married....
I have to also file Canadian taxes which puts me in a higher bracket and I always owe to CRA, so I HAVE to buy 4-5k RRSP to wash it. (But I have 50k unused room left in my RRSP.)
So these are my confusing, messed up investments:
A- My 401K has $65k invested all in Fidelity stocks.
B- My TFSA is empty and nothing in it. I have empty Questrade and RBC-INV accounts
C- RRSP:
Scotiabank RRSP: Canadian Dividend Stocks $27K – one time deposit $12K in 2012, grown to $27k in 2017
Questrade RSP : Maw104 ($10K –recently purchased)) + Riocan REI.TO ($3500 including %2 loss) + AQN.TO ($10K including %50 return)
That’s it. I’m the only bread bringer and I’m 47 years old. I have filled up my wife's TFSA in the big banks but as for asset allocation and strategy I am confused as hell. and many years of self employment has set me back so I need to invest heavily to make a nest egg for retirement....
I am planning on investing aggressively in my TFSA only in ETFs such as VAB/ZAG/VCN/VXC and keep it all Canadian to offset my US investments……
What should I do to figure out my asset allocation? I am so confused. Tried Quicken, Mint, Personal Capital but they don’t cover all accounts and I cant figure out where Im standing!
Any help on any point is very much appreciated as I am pulling my hair… Thanks
A good place to start would be figuring out what your Fidelity Investments actually are. If they're mutual funds, choose low-fee index funds and you may as well stick to US stock funds to prevent any withholding taxes.
Next, I would consolidate your accounts. Move your Scotia RRSP into your Questrade account if you can. Do a transfer-in-kind. Close your RBC TFSA. This will give you clarity on your financial picture as all your accounts will be either with Fidelity or Questrade.
Once these first two steps are done, then figure out a portfolio strategy and stick to it. Low-fee index funds in a Lazy Portfolio strategy are great because they are easy to manage, maintaining purchasing discipline and rebalancing.
Of all the Canadian fund companies, Mawer is arguably the best active manager so buying all MAW104 in your Questrade accounts is not a bad choice either. But if that's your pick there's no need to buy individual stocks like dividend payers, etc because you are already trusting the talent at Mawer to make great picks for you.
