Category: Tools

Mini-Review: Fizz Mobile US Roaming Test

RobH1 Comment

I’ve been a Fizz Mobile user for a few months now, now that I have to pay for my own mobile phone plan. With Rogers, my 10G plan was something like $80/month ($10 of that to pay off the value of my iPhone SE1). I rarely used much more than 1G monthly (I am a habitual WiFi user), but Rogers kept throwing more data at me, so why not2?

Anyway, after a bit of research (and here https://www.planhub.ca/ontario was helpful), Fizz popped up to the head of the list. Fizz is owned by Quebecor/Videotron and is expanding throughout Canada (see their coverage map). They support physical SIM cards ($5, available at Circle K in Ontario, or, lately, via eSIM for free) and the migration from Rogers to Fizz was easy and quick. It goes without saying that I got to keep my phone number. And I got to cut my normal monthly spend to $20 for3 for Canada-wide calling, unlimited texting, and 3G of LTE 4data. What’s especially nice about Fizz’s data plan is that

  • Unused data rolls over
  • You can gift part of your unused data to a Fizz friend

Which seems very…um…fair5?

I ventured to the US this past week and instead of using my trusty Airolo eSIM, I chose instead a cheaper option: a data travel add-on for my Fizz account. Fizz offers better deals on roaming data in the US than even Airolo, which is a nice bonus. Airolo’s eSIMs have very limited time duration (7 days, 14 days, 30 days), but Fizz’s add-ons last throughout your current — and next — billing cycle, giving you up to 60 days with which to use your roaming data — even better, since I will make a return visit in the coming weeks…

Fizz’s travel add-ons are either data only, text only, or voice only. I typically use data-only, since I can use my free burner phone number from TextNow6 if I really need to send a text or have a traditional phone call. This means it’s not quite “roam like home”, but at a fraction of the cost, I’ll take it.

Anyway, I really have nothing to report. Everything just worked. I crossed the border, Waze navigation kept working, and I’m a happy camper. You can still receive SMS messages while roaming7, but you cannot send them8. I can’t tell you what happens if someone calls you since it didn’t happen while I was on the go.

If you want to give Fizz a whirl, using my referral code (INSWI) will net you (and me) some free $.

  1. As always, there’s no free lunch. ↩︎
  2. It’s not like they were going to LOWER my monthly fees or anything… ↩︎
  3. After buying out the rest of the cost of my phone, of course. ↩︎
  4. not 5G. Not a big deal to me. ↩︎
  5. It is difficult for me to write the word “fair” about anything involving carriers or banks, but I managed… ↩︎
  6. Free means ad-supported, a minor annoyance for having an actual phone number that works just fine over WiFi or cellular data services. ↩︎
  7. Handy since so many 2FA logins rely on SMS (sigh) ↩︎
  8. Unless you use the aforementioned burner phone app ↩︎

Ok, I’m ready to fire my advisor. What do I need to do?

RobH2 Comments

So you’ve decided to make the leap and keep more of your own money. Congratulations! Here’s a list of things you need to do to put that plan into action.

Disclaimer: I treat my retirement assets separately from any other assets (rainy day funds, day-to-day expenses). If you blend these sort of things together, it may change things like step 1.

1. Determine your desired asset mix

“Asset mix” is just another way of describing your risk profile, or in really plain English, what percentage of your portfolio is going to be invested in equity. There’s a quick questionnaire over here that will put you in one of 5 buckets:

  • Very Conservative: This means 20% Equity.
  • Conservative: This means 40% Equity.
  • Balanced: This means 60% Equity.
  • Growth: This means 80% Equity.
  • Aggressive Growth: This means 100% Equity.

If you’re happy with the way your existing portfolio is performing, then you can instead calculate the percentage of equity in it and use that as your asset mix. For simplicity, I would consider any stock as “equity” and any cash, HISA, Bond fund or GIC as “not equity”. If your portfolio holds ETFs, then you need to see what’s inside them. You can typically read that on the “fund facts” page. They are usually one or the other, unless you already hold funds like XGRO.

2. Choose your platform and create login(s) for it

But which one? I talk about some of the things to consider over here, or you can investigate a trustworthy source like the Globe and Mail’s annual rankings. Some providers (e.g. QTrade, Questrade) allow you to make trial accounts to test drive them. I myself use QTrade for my investments. Like all providers, it does some things really well, and others, not so much. I have either personal experience or friends using (in alphabetical order) BMO Investorline, Interactive Brokers, iTRADE, QTrade, Questrade and Wealthsimple. Any of them will do. Many of them run promotions1 trying to entice you to switch. Might as well take advantage of that if it makes sense23. Also consider if they will reimburse you the transfer fees imposed by your soon-to-be-ex provider of choice4.

The heading of this section says “login(s)” because if you’re part of a spousal team, you should really do this as a team.

This step also usually entails form-filling and proof of life uploads/emails/faxes5 (photo ID, banking info….). Put on your favourite tunes and the time will be filled with pleasant sounds.

3. Figure out how to move money to and from your new platform

If you’re still contributing to your TFSA/RRSP/RESP, or if you have non-registered accounts, or are close to retirement and about to set up a RRIF, then it’s pretty important to know how money will move in/out of these accounts. Typical things you’ll have to do are

  • set up your new account(s) as “Bill Payees” online banking6
  • set up EFTs7 between your bank account and new platform
  • set up new Interac eTransfers8
  • Get cheques/bank card for your non-registered account, if applicable9

4. Collect all your existing account information

To successfully complete the transfer, you are going to need to know the details of all your existing accounts. The usual information requested is found on your monthly/annual statements. Client number, account number, rough value of what’s in each.

If applicable, you’ll also want to have a very good handle on exactly how much you’ve contributed to capped government savings vehicles (e.g. RRSP, TFSA) so you don’t inadvertently over contribute in the year you make the shift10.

There may be a snag at this step. You may hold assets at your old provider that are not supported at your new provider. This may or may not be a big deal. Typical issues are caused by

  • GICs11. The reason you get good interest rates from them is because the money is locked away. You may or may not be able to move them without incurring penalties. You’ll have to ask your new provider what they are willing to do. In most cases, the answer will be “sorry, can’t help you, if you want to move them, you’ll have to sell them first”12.
  • Mutual Funds. Many of these are private to that provider,13 and constitute, in their estimation, considerable value add. For these, you are almost certainly going to have to say goodbye (and good riddance) .

For GICs, you can choose not to move those assets, wait until they mature, or eat the cost of cashing them in early.

For Mutual Funds, selling them usually isn’t a concern, unless you hold them in a non-registered account, in which case there may be undesirable capital gains that will cause a tax hit.

For most people, the costs involved in moving assets are small compared to the money you’ll ultimately save by firing your advisor. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

5. Initiate account transfers from your newly selected platform

This is the first step where things get real.

Different providers will do this somewhat differently, but it’s usually called something like “Transfer Account”. In my experience, providers are highly motivated to be highly helpful at this stage ;-).

But in essence, initiating an account transfer will involve two things:

  • The creation of the kind of account you’re moving (e.g. TFSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, RRIF14) AND
  • The details of that account (client number, account number….all collected in the previous step)

It’s also possible you have to create the account (TFSA, RRSP….) on your new platform FIRST, and once it’s created THEN you can initiate a transfer.

You will have to answer a question of moving the existing assets “in kind” or “as cash”. If you hold portable assets at your old provider (e.g. cash, stocks, ETF), “in kind” is fine. If you don’t (e.g. GICs, mutual funds) then “as cash” will allow your new provider to trigger a sale of those assets.

You will have to do this for EVERY account you’re moving. Were I to switch, I’d have to move

  • 4 RRIF accounts (2 each for me and my spouse; one in CAD, one in USD)
  • 2 spousal RRIF accounts (1 for each spouse)
  • 2 TFSA accounts (1 for each spouse)
  • 5 investment accounts (2 for me, 1 for my spouse, and 2 joint15)
  • 1 RESP account

6. Wait for the funds to arrive

This always seems to take forever. Expect a delay of 5-10 business days at this point. Expect a panicky call from your soon-to-be-ex advisor. Take the time to set up Trading Authority (TA) for your personal accounts (spouse, adult child, other relative) so they can make trades on your behalf. There’s a form for that. Having TA for my spouse’s accounts means I can see our ENTIRE retirement portfolio from my login which is Highly Desireable.

7. Buy the correct ETF in line with step 1.

As as example, if you were to use the Blackrock family of asset allocation funds:

  • Very Conservative: This means 20% Equity. This means XINC.
  • Conservative: This means 40% Equity. This means XCNS.
  • Balanced: This means 60% Equity. This means XBAL.
  • Growth: This means 80% Equity. This means XGRO.
  • Aggressive Growth: This means 100% Equity. This means XEQT.

The reason for choosing an asset allocation fund is for automatic re-balancing. You pay about 0.15% for that service, which is baked into the price of the fund. It’s more or less what your advisor should do for you today.

8. Pay as much or as little attention as you like

As you invest new funds (e.g. for TFSA/RRSP), buy more units. You might also consider setting up a DRIP at this stage so as dividends roll in (typically, monthly or quarterly), you automatically purchase more of the same. Autopilot.

If you want a second set of eyes to assess your holdings, then dropping some cash on a fee-for-service advisor from time to time may make sense.

Eight steps to save potentially thousands of dollars. You’re worth it!

  1. Googling (for example) “Wealthsimple promotion” would be one way to find the current one. ↩︎
  2. Read the fine print, there are almost always caps on rewards, as well as obligations to stick with the provider for a period of time. ↩︎
  3. Here is one rare case where there may indeed be something pretty close to a free lunch. ↩︎
  4. Almost all providers do this; there is almost always some sort of lower limit…$15k is pretty typical. ↩︎
  5. Any provider wanting faxes should disqualify them as a provider, just sayin’. ↩︎
  6. This is how QTrade does it. ↩︎
  7. Electronic fund transfers. You provide institution/transit/bank account number using a blank cheque. That’s how QTrade knows where to put my RRIF payments. Another form to fill. ↩︎
  8. Only Wealthsimple seems to allow this. It’s fast, but has upper daily/weekly/monthly limits that may make it impractical. ↩︎
  9. Both BMO Investorline and Wealthsimple allow this. I’m guessing that it’s a common feature for providers that also operate bank services (e.g. CIBC, TD, National Bank, Scotiabank). My provider (QTrade) does not. ↩︎
  10. Your new provider will have no idea what your TFSA limits are; only CRA knows that. Most providers will track what you contribute IN THEIR ACCOUNT in a given year, so that’s somewhat helpful. ↩︎
  11. The lack of liquidity of GICs is the main reason I don’t use them. ↩︎
  12. The one exception I’ve encountered thus far is that BMO Investorline was willing to accept the GICs purchased via BMO Advisor Services. There may be others. ↩︎
  13. Manulife and Sunlife, much loved by employers for DPSPs, are notorious for their 1.5% MER index funds. ↩︎
  14. Don’t forget to properly designate beneficiaries or survivor annuitants. ↩︎
  15. These are CAD and USD versions of the cash cushion required by the system I use to pay myself in retirement. ↩︎

What broker(s) do you deal with?

RobH2 Comments

I hang out a bit on Reddit1 to see what people are talking about. Often times, the post reads something like

“I am new to investing, I have $x to invest, who should I use ?”.

The crux of every 5th question posted to r/PersonalFinanceCanada

Personally, I find this kind of question a bit odd. “Investing” is a noble pursuit but it’s a term that means a lot of things to a lot of people. For me, “investing” is reserved for retirement savings since the timelines are long and I don’t need immediate access to the funds therein. A lot of people who ask this question want very near term access to the money, and to me that’s not investing. It’s saving. Timeline matters. The answer I’d give to a saver2 is a lot different than the answer I’d give to an investor.

I suppose the amount of money involved may influence the decision of platform provider (especially if there are freebies associated with having a balance above a certain amount, a common-enough practice), but it’s not the first thing I’d have in mind. Here are the main things I think about when it comes to choosing a financial provider, either for the first time, or if you’re thinking about making a change.

Does the provider have the account types you want?

Any provider I use has to offer Investment accounts, RESP, TFSA, RRIFs and spousal RRIFs. USD options for Investment accounts and RRIFs would be useful to me as well. Your own circumstances will offer up a different list. But don’t dismiss the RRIF if you’re nearing retirement. You may want one sooner than you think!

Does the provider have the products you want?

My needs here are really simple. I need access to trade a handful of ETFs on the US and Canadian markets, and I need a way to get a good interest rate on cash holdings. My assumption is that every major provider has a way to accomplish this. I don’t need access to bond markets3, options trading, fractional trading, margin trading or crypto. You might.

What fees that matter to you are charged by the provider?

The list of fees for any provider can get pretty long, but I only consider the things that impact me in my normal usage of the platform. The things I look for and expect are:

  • They don’t charge anything for “account maintenance”
  • The don’t charge fees for trading the ETFs I care about4
  • They need to offer a way to access daily interest rates in the neighborhood of the Bank of Canada overnight rates (some do this by paying good rates on any cash lying around your accounts, some do this by offering access to purchase HISAs, and as a last resort, there are ETFs that buy HISAs, too5)
  • They need a “much more generous than the bank”6 way of doing forex7

I’ve used QTrade8 as my main provider for the last 15 years or so. They offer the things I need. But for the first time, I’m seriously considering making a switch to Wealthsimple9. I’m test driving them now with part of my retirement portfolio, but I’ve found at least one show-stopper that make them unsuitable for me — they don’t offer spousal RRIFs10 in their self-directed product offering!

Switching providers can be quite onerous, so it’s not something I take lightly, especially since my holdings are paying my monthly salary! The DIY market is getting more competitive, so it can pay to take a look around. What do you like/dislike about your current provider? Drop me a line at comments@moneyengineer.ca.

  1. Specifically, r/PersonalFinanceCanada mostly ↩︎
  2. Put your money in the highest interest rate savings account you can find, or buy a GIC. ↩︎
  3. Beyond bond ETFs. I don’t need to own individual bonds. ↩︎
  4. Had I written this phrase 5 years ago, I would have said “low fees”. However, in today’s competitive landscape, many brokers charge nothing to buy and/or sell ETFs. If yours does, maybe it’s time to take a look around. ↩︎
  5. e.g. CASH by GlobalX, HISA by Evolve ↩︎
  6. Most banks happily tack on 1.5% to spot rates on currency exchanges, just like most credit cards do ↩︎
  7. Norbert’s gambit would apply here, although it’s somewhat cumbersome. I’ll cover forex in some future post. ↩︎
  8. But I’m also somewhat familiar with BMO Investorline, Interactive Brokers and Wealthsimple. ↩︎
  9. Free ETF trading, good interest rates for cash holdings, just-launched zero fee FX transactions for amounts over $100k, and their currently running promo are all rather attractive features. ↩︎
  10. And, as I write this, I get a friendly email from Wealthsimple support confirming this, with a promise to let the development team know about it. ↩︎

Roaming: Is your provider ripping you off?

RobH1 Comment

I’ve been using cell phones1 since their early days2, and the one thing I hate more than bank fees is carrier fees. In bygone days, every US vacation we took involved a trip to the ATT or T-Mobile shop for a cheap travel SIM. All this to say it’s been ingrained in me to make unusual communications preparations in advance of travel.

Back in my working days3 I had a company-reimbursed cell phone plan4 with Rogers. My job involved travel now and again, usually to the USA. And I usually made use of Rogers’ “Roam Like Home” feature. When this feature was first introduced, it was pretty innovative; before it existed, you normally had to contact the carrier to temporarily add roaming to your plan, which was a hassle. The idea behind Roam Like Home was attractive. It was automatic, it allowed you to use your phone in exactly the same way (no need to keep track of your “roaming minutes” or “roaming data usage”)5. And, at launch, it was a reasonably priced, at $5/day for US roaming. As most of my travel was of the day or two variety, this seemed like a perfect fit for the business traveler.

But surprise, surprise, Rogers got greedy. As a shareholder6, I approve, but as a user, their now $12/day charge is nothing short of robbery.

And that’s when I discovered the world of travel eSIMs. An eSIM allows you to install a 2nd, virtual SIM card in your phone so you can benefit from MUCH cheaper roaming rates. I’ve been a long time user of Airalo for my travel eSIMs. And a quick look at the prices will show you why. The $12 Rogers charges me daily would pay for two weeks of typical US travel using Airalo.

Like all things, there’s no free lunch here. A few warnings that may make eSIMs not for you:

  • Your phone has to support eSIM technology. Most phones purchased in the last 5 years do. But do check.
  • The very cheapest eSIMs don’t support voice calling or SMS. Just data7. So if talking on your phone is important, then make sure your eSIM supports voice8. With the plethora of apps that allow texting and voice (WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, Facetime) and the prevalence of free apps like TextNow, my world hardly ever needs voice or SMS, at least not with friend groups. YMMV.
  • Setting up an eSIM can be a little intimidating the first time; the instructions are clear enough, but you do have to mess around a bit in settings menus you may not be very familiar with

I’ve used Airalo successfully on multiple US trips, in Europe (Germany, Switzerland), and in Asia (Hong Kong, Thailand). Never had a problem.

Airalo isn’t the only one out there, it’s just the only one I’ve personally used. Their focus is more on short-term travel needs with plans as short as 7 days. An alternative provider my trusted neighbour Steven swears by is eskimo. Their focus is on bulk, so if you frequently travel to the same place, it may be a better choice for you.

If you want to give Airalo a spin, mentioning my referral code will get you $4.50: ROB1033.

  1. AKA mobile phone, smart phone, handy ↩︎
  2. And in my very first use of same, the first words I uttered, with no small amount of delight, from a bag phone (remember those?) were “Guess where I’m calling from?” ↩︎
  3. Which ended last month, just to be clear. ↩︎
  4. My current provider now that I’m paying the bills is Fizz, Videotron’s low-cost carrier. So far, so good. My referrer code on Fizz is INSWI, in case you want to get some free cash 🙂 ↩︎
  5. It was not uncommon in those days to hear a tale of woe involving a roaming charge of several hundred dollars charged to a less-attentive traveler. ↩︎
  6. I own Rogers via XGRO since it’s part of the S&P/TSX 60 ↩︎
  7. Be very careful, Apple iOS users. The Messages app is either SMS or a data service, depending on the colour of your bubbles. Blue bubbles — it’s a data service, green bubbles means it’s an SMS. ↩︎
  8. But again, careful. An eSIM with voice comes with its own phone number. That’s fine if you’re the one making calls, but not if you’re the one expecting to be reachable on your usual phone number. An answered inbound call is roaming, I’m afraid. ↩︎

Cheapskate Computing with ChromeOS Flex

RobHLeave a comment

I am writing this blog entry from a Acer Aspire 1551, released about 15 years ago, a time when Windows 7 was the state-of-the-art PC OS. When I took this laptop out of the closet, it had Windows 10 on it, and was essentially unusable because the poor CPU1 just couldn’t eke out enough hamster-wheel turns to make it go. It looked like it was headed to the great bit bucket in the sky2. This caused me a bit of pain, since, after all, I had paid good money for that laptop3.

But then I discovered ChromeOS Flex.45 It seems capable of turning just about any old hardware (PC or Mac, I’ve done both) into something quite usable, if not terribly feature-rich6. Simply put, it’s the operating system used on Chromebooks that have been widely deployed to students everywhere.

And installing it really is quite easy. You just need a USB stick, some other internet-connected computer, and about 30 minutes7 to complete an installation. You can test-drive an installation before committing, too, since you can boot right from the USB stick. All the steps are outlined here.

The result is (more or less) a Chromebook with support for a modern browser (Chrome). And since I write this blog using WordPress, all the tools I need to build this site are accessible from that browser. And of course with Google Sheets, Google Docs and Google Slides (all quite feature-rich from the browser), I have no need for Microsoft Office, either8.

The only investment I made (and even this probably wasn’t strictly necessary) was to purchase a new SSD to replace the creaky old spinning hard drive in the original model. Total cost: $30. The keyboard and mouse are from Value Village9 (about $10 total) and the external monitor I had lying around.

So what’s a ChromeOS Flex machine good for? Off the top of my head,

  • Writing a blog
  • Inexpensive bare-bones laptop to take when traveling
  • Simple laptop/desktop for a favorite relative

If you want to breathe new life into old hardware, then I declare Chrome OS Flex cheapskate-approved. You can see it in action, below:

The Money Engineer’s Retro-Tech Design Environment
  1. An AMD Athlon II Neo X2 K325, no less. I think it had a flux capacitor. ↩︎
  2. City of Ottawa has alternatives: https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/recycling/waste-explorer ↩︎
  3. The cheapskate refrain! ↩︎
  4. There are of course a plethora of Linux distributions out there for the more adventuresome and/or those with a lot more time on their hands. I’ve played around with a bunch of those, too. But ChromeOS Flex is the simplest installation experience I’ve experienced on a range of computers. On some computers, you can actually get a working Linux shell underneath ChromeOS Flex. ↩︎
  5. “Chrome OS” is what Chromebooks run. “Chrome OS Flex” is what I’m talking about. Similar, but different. Google carefully. ↩︎
  6. You’re probably not editing your Hollywood movie on a Chrome OS Flex machine. ↩︎
  7. Google’s instructions say 5. I think it took me that long to remember how to get into the BIOS so I could boot from the USB stick. ↩︎
  8. Full disclosure, I own shares in Alphabet, Microsoft and 10000 other companies. ↩︎
  9. A most excellent place to get vintage hardware. ↩︎