Tag Archives: fixed income GICs

How to Buy a RRSP GIC from Peoples Trust

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Peoples Trust is offering one of the best interest rates for RRSP GICs this year. You can buy a GIC for your RRSP from Peoples Trust website and mail in your cheque to pay for it but if you want to claim it on your 2014 tax return, you have to place your order by the end of February 28.

These instructions assume you do NOT already have an account with Peoples Trust. It’s shorter and faster if you already have an investment with them.

Buying a GIC Online from Peoples Trust for Your RRSP

Go to their website at http://www.peoplestrust.com/high-interest-accounts/rrsp-accounts/rrsp-gic/

Click on the link called Click here to open your account now.

Step 1 The Product Information Page

  1. From the drop-down list click to select the answer to Are you an existing Peoples Trust client?
    I selected No.
  2. From the drop-down list, choose the product you wish to buy.
    I selected RRSP.
  3. From the drop-down list, choose how long you want to invest your money in the GIC. NOTE: It can not be cashed before the end of the term.
    I selected 1 year.
    The Rate box will show you the rate for that choice.
  4. In the Amount box, type how much you want to invest in the GIC. The minimum is $1000.
  5. Click on the Next button.

Step 2 The Contact Information Page

  1. Click to select the button beside the title you prefer such as Mr. or Dr.
  2. Type to fill in the following fields:
    • First Name
    • Initial
    • Last Name
    • Street Address
    • Suite
    • City
    • Postal Code
    • Home Telephone
    • Business Telephone
    • Email Address
    • Social Insurance Number
    • Occupation
  3. And from the drop-down lists select the appropriate answer for
    • Province
    • Date of Birth
    • Gender

Designating Your RRSP Beneficiary

  1. Click to select the option “Yes, I would like to designate a beneficiary to this plan.
  2. Type in the appropriate information in the text fields for
    • Beneficiary First Name
    • Beneficiary Middle Name
    • Beneficiary Last Name
    • Relationship to Account Holder
  3. Then read and if acceptable, click to select the box beside the message:
    “I hereby designate the above as my elected Beneficiary to the said Plan, whereby the Beneficiary will be entitled to all payments and benefits payable hereof in the event of my death. I hereby revoke any previous Beneficiary designated by me and shall ensure this designation is legal and binding pursuant to the applicable Provincial Territories and Federal Laws of Canada, while reserving the right to cancel this designation under the terms and conditions governing the plan.”
  4. ONLY if the contribution is for a Spousal RRSP, click to select “Yes, please include my spouse in my contribution plan.”
  5. Click on the Next button.

Step 3 The Legal Verification Page

The Citizenship and Residency Section

  1. Click to confirm you reside in Canada, the US or Other as appropriate.
  2. If you live in the US please provide your TIN by typing it in the field.
  3. Click to select Yes or No to answer the question Are you a U.S. citizen.

The Third Party Information Section

From the drop-down list, select to confirm whether or not anyone else will benefit from this RRSP contribution.

Note: they are worried about some person hiring or forcing you to “launder” money from illegal activities. Most people will be answering No to this question. It doesn’t mean will your spouse be happy, etc.

The Politically Exposed Person Section
Answer the Yes No question about how important you and your family are in the government, politics and military.

The Intended Use of Account Section

Click to select Retirement.

The Identification Verification Section
Click if you agree to permit Peoples Trust to check your id and credit rating.

Click on the Next button.

  1. Step 4 The Payment Information Page
    You can pay for your RRSP GIC by cheque or by transferring money from another RRSP at another institution.
  2. Click to select your method of payment.
  3. Click on the icon beside Terms and Conditions to review the terms and conditions.
    If they are acceptable, click on the box beside: I agree to Terms & Conditions
  4. Type the Captcha code in the text field.
  5. Click on the Preview button.
  6. If it all looks ok, click on the Finish button.
  7. Write down your deposit confirmation number.

You’ll now need to mail in your cheque or your RRSP transfer form to fund the purchase of the GIC.

The instructions say to make the cheque payable to yourself. I was surprised by that, but the Peoples Trust service representative confirmed it’s correct when I phoned and asked.

Write your deposit confirmation number on the front of your cheque to make it faster.

Mail the cheque to the address provided on the screen. On February 27 2015 this was:

Peoples Trust Company
1400-888 Dunsmuir Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3K4

Disclaimer: I have not personally purchased a GIC from Peoples Trust, yet.

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Do you use Peoples Trust for your TFSA or RRSP GICs? Please share your experiences with a comment.

 

How Did Our Investments Perform In 2014? I’ll “Shoyu” Mine! Part One

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I read several personal finance blogs and have been amusing myself reading all the True Confessions about their past year’s investments’ performance. So without further ado, here’s how our investments did in 2014.

Fixed Income Is a Synonym for Zero Growth

Anyone who’s been following along on my random journey to financial tidiness knows we do not invest to win big or make great gains. We invest trying desperately not to lose too much money.

(This is why I have repeatedly said you should not follow my ideas for investing unless you are prepared to get the same incredibly low returns we get!)

Anyway, back to the numbers.

How did our GICs fare?

As I’ve mentioned before, we have a huge chunk of our savings, both for retirement and for emergencies, in GICs.

On average, we got a return of 2.6% on them in 2014.

But whoa nelly, don’t forget that’s BEFORE inflation.

So based on our personal rate of inflation we: lost money. Yep, we lost 1.7% on our GIC-invested funds in 2014. Ouch.

Frankly, that was worse than I expected. In previous years, our GICs have always earned slightly above our long-term personal rate of inflation. Thanks, NOT, Ontario Hydro, property taxes and water bills.

Of course it could have been much worse. If we’d bought our GICs through a big bank, we probably would have had an average return of about 1.2%.

I attribute our somewhat better performance to the fact that we did NOT buy any market-linked GICs, sometimes called principal protected notes. We also invested in GICs through our brokerage accounts where you can buy from a large number of financial institutions. And we staggered our maturity dates across all 12 months to take avoid having to renew everything in a “bad” month.

Now how can I be happy with a -1.7% rate of return? I’m happy because the amount we have in GICs, combined with CPP and OAS, is still enough to guarantee an acceptable income in retirement for us, if they can keep pace with inflation until we die at age 100. These GICs represent our retirement “safety net” and the money invested in them is not required to do more than provide this insurance policy.

How did our Bonds fare?

We currently don’t own any individual bonds. Instead, we have put a large slice of a DC pension into a PH&N mid-length term-to-maturity bond fund. It does not invest in junk bonds but it does have the ability to get up to some interesting tricks buying and selling bonds rather than just holding them to maturity. For me, this fund seems very risky. Can you tell how risk averse I am when I am scared of a bond fund managed by arguably Canada’s best bond fund managers?

Anyway, according to the most conservative estimate (mine) this fund returned 7.8% last year. (I had a bit of trouble doing the math properly, since I took a large chunk out of it mid-year.) According to the DC pension statement, our personal rate of return last year for this fund was 8.8% after all the different levels of fees and commissions.

Do I expect that again this year? No. I was astonished they managed that last year! Everyone keeps telling me that any second now bonds will crash as interest rates begin to climb. So I have no idea what to expect for 2015.

It does help balance the loss our GICs experienced. In fact, it more than offsets it.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I check on our ETFs and other Equities.

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How did your investments fare in 2014? Can you call accidentally adding another few quarters and dimes to the “under the car seat and behind the couch cushions” fund “investing?” Please share your enthusiasm or whining with a comment.