The other day I was watching the NHL Winter Classic on TV in Chicago. As much as I would have liked to attend the game in person, it was pretty cool to see O'Canada sung inside Wrigley. I said to myself, "How cool is that?". As I shed a tear from my eye, I reminisced about my days growing up in Canada, the street hockey games, the great Canadian accent... and yes, the poor retirement vehicles and crazy taxes (Thank you Mulroney for the lovely GST). My only hope was the RRSP (similar to your 401k in the States). Upon my graduation from college, I had no incentive to lay my neck out on the line to have a majority of my income taxed away. So I moved down south to Corporate America. Call me a traitor, it was simple economics in my eye. Their was much debate back then about Brain Drain, but that's a topic for another day.
Fast forward to 2009, and US is is getting kicked really hard in the groin. More like a few kicks, a knife stab, and other punishing attacks to this region of the body. The recent ISM manufacturing report shows that our US troubles will not go away any time soon. I suspect people will be moving back into oil and gold as a hedge against further US weakness in the year ahead after the recent sell off. Although EWC has a high composition of financial institutions, they are more fiscally responsible than their US counterparts and have faired better than the likes of Citi.
Now here is the kicker... I can't take credit for this, but my relative who works in the investment industry informed me Canada just opened up a new Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) for all Canadians. Think of it as your typical Roth IRA in the US. You put money in, invest it, it grows tax free, and you withdraw in retirement years without the tax penalty. This new influx of money has to go somewhere, and some of it will go into EWC's composition of companies. Much thanks to my friend up North for the insight. All the best in the new year.
Time to pick up some EWC for the long haul on Monday. Now if only Mr.Harper can find a way to eject himself, and have a new Prime Minister herald in better income tax brackets for hard working Canadians. It'd be nice to sing O'Canada inside Air Canada Centre one day, rather than at home in Chicago.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
O' Canada, a Roth IRA vehicle for Canada (TFSA)
The other day I was watching the NHL Winter Classic on TV in Chicago. As much as I would have liked to attend the game in person, it was pretty cool to see O'Canada sung inside Wrigley. I said to myself, "How cool is that?". As I shed a tear from my eye, I reminisced about my days growing up in Canada, the street hockey games, the great Canadian accent... and yes, the poor retirement vehicles and crazy taxes (Thank you Mulroney for the lovely GST). My only hope was the RRSP (similar to your 401k in the States). Upon my graduation from college, I had no incentive to lay my neck out on the line to have a majority of my income taxed away. So I moved down south to Corporate America. Call me a traitor, it was simple economics in my eye. Their was much debate back then about Brain Drain, but that's a topic for another day.
Fast forward to 2009, and US is is getting kicked really hard in the groin. More like a few kicks, a knife stab, and other punishing attacks to this region of the body. The recent ISM manufacturing report shows that our US troubles will not go away any time soon. I suspect people will be moving back into oil and gold as a hedge against further US weakness in the year ahead after the recent sell off. Although EWC has a high composition of financial institutions, they are more fiscally responsible than their US counterparts and have faired better than the likes of Citi.
Now here is the kicker... I can't take credit for this, but my relative who works in the investment industry informed me Canada just opened up a new Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) for all Canadians. Think of it as your typical Roth IRA in the US. You put money in, invest it, it grows tax free, and you withdraw in retirement years without the tax penalty. This new influx of money has to go somewhere, and some of it will go into EWC's composition of companies. Much thanks to my friend up North for the insight. All the best in the new year.
Time to pick up some EWC for the long haul on Monday. Now if only Mr.Harper can find a way to eject himself, and have a new Prime Minister herald in better income tax brackets for hard working Canadians. It'd be nice to sing O'Canada inside Air Canada Centre one day, rather than at home in Chicago.
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