Phantasmix Stock Market Blog

Looks like I’m not the only one doing some blog spring cleaning. All my reading became very overwhelming. It consumed way too much time, produced excessive noise in the head, to a point that I had trouble falling asleep, and I’m still not sure what good it all gave me.

When I first discovered blogs, about a year ago, I got some useful information out of them. It’s becoming a rarity nowadays. Seems to me, at the time blogs were peaking with lots of new stuff coming online and lots of ideas, but now majority of posts are recycled or just plain boring (and if I come across another one “My journey out of debt” blogs I’ll have to shoot… something. I’m not putting down those people, but it’s just a bit too tedious. Local support groups might be of more help, god knows most of us need more of face to face time with people, not computers.)

Out of fear that I may not be bringing much value myself, I almost stopped posting too.

It’s the writer’s block or fatigue. There’s a reason why professional writers take time to work on stuff. Expecting daily updates from Joe-bloggers that are either useful or fun to read is too much. And it hasn’t been fun putting so much pressure on myself to post regularly, either.

I never blogged for the money banners might bring (laughable). The only reason I have google ads here – FYI – is so my site would be found in search. I tried “killing” them a couple of times and both times I dropped off the face of internet. On the plus side my pages did load quicker… Google is very clever. I’ve only made it once to the $100 payout level, but can’t pull off the ads for the above reason.

So, as I clean my RSS subscriptions list, I vow to try only posting blogs of some unique value. You can find daily news anywhere, there is a whole bunch of aggregators for that.

Please participate in my self-serving poll. It’s instant, free, requires no registration and I won’t stalk you if you answer “No”:

Starting in 2009, Canadians aged 18 and older can contribute up to $5,000 annually (from their taxable income) to a TFSA.

The investment income, including capital gains, earned in a TFSA will not be taxed — even when withdrawn.

The plan also allows an investor to withdraw funds from the TFSA at any time and for any purpose.

Source: CTV News

First off, clearly a good idea. My only regret is that it wasn’t done much sooner (like 10 years ago, when I first came to Canada) and it’s not retroactive.

For the more conservative savers who will deposit the money into some savings account or a GIC, this is not a life-changing event, at least not instantly. $5,000 will earn about $250 in interest at 5%. Normally taxes would take about $40-63 of that amount. If you have 2 people over 18 in the household, that’s roughly $80-126 savings a year. Again, this is conservatively speaking.

For those who invest and do it well, it’s a better deal because historically market returns have been in the 7-10% range. On the other hand, capital gains taxes are fairly lenient as it is.

So, in the end, you will save some money if you just put the money in the bank, or invest in foreign companies.

However, over time I see this as a significant benefit even for conservative people like myself. In 10 years you can potentially have $50,000 saved and the interest on that amount would be much more meaningful. Assuming 5% constant interest rate and a one-time annual contribution at the start of the year (not monthly additions), here is how it would work out:

Variables: 5% rate not guaranteed; $5,000 may be hard to save every year; but on the plus side with monthly contributions instead of one-time annual you’ll get more interest and it’s easier to save that way.

Edited to add:
20-year projection

I have no original thoughts at the moment and don’t want to recycle everyone else’s ideas, or do a “Linkfest” type of post. I’m going to step back and free up some time – and brain space – for things other than work. In the next few days, honest.