Copy of the annual letter: https://reports.jpmorganchase.com/investor-relations/2019/ar-ceo-letters.htm
There are a few CEO's of Mega Cap companies who's annual letters provide a lot of insight on business, finance and leadership. Jamie Dimon is one of them. I don't always agree with his opinions however he is still one of the greatest finance CEO s I've been able to see perform over the past 10 years.
Copy of the annual letter: https://reports.jpmorganchase.com/investor-relations/2019/ar-ceo-letters.htm The following is notes I took while reading the book, they are not edited for format. “MONEY: MASTER THE GAME” 7 Simple steps to financial freedom http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/10/15/money-master-the-game/ Step 1: Dont get rich, START rich - stop being a consumer & become an investor, and Decide on a specific amount you're going to invest monthly, then commit and automate the process. Instead of eating out order pizza&beers Save $40/week = $2080/year if invested at 8% over 40 years will net $581,944 $100 will mean a 1 million dollar net return Get your HR department can set aside a percent of your pay check to automatically to goto your retirement account. Or get automated transfers between accounts. Suggested 20% start with no less than 10% Save more for tomorrow, save your pay raises and invest A study was done with 200 ppl who said they can't afford to save. . Start with 3% savings per pay. After 5 years avg saving 15% of their pay check 65% of them were saving 19% The one percent more savings calculator A part of all I earn is mine to keep. Pay to play fee. Used by vendors to maximize profits and limit your selection ability Annuities Structured notes Fixed indexed annuities Step 2: Learn the rules of the game - Become an Insider, "become the chess player, not the chess piece" Ignorance is not bliss. It's pain struggle and giving your money away to a system designed to separate you from your money. r Fees: 100k one time investment for 30 years @7% 571k = 439k in fees at 3% game changed: Pension. CDs. Not 0.22 percent today. Blue chip dividend paying stocks Brokers work for companies that are not required to put your best interest first and focus on generating profits for the shareholders. Brokers are Paid to funnel your money to sell products tat pay himself,f and his company the best co sidings. Provided with the tools and resources determined by their employers that are not setup to be complex or autonomous. FEES : The house has the edge - Steve Wynn Mutual funds have guaranteed income via fees. Are you funding your retirement or someone else's? Avg cost 3.17% Own the S&P 500 for as little as .14% or 14 basis points. (100 in 1%) Already beating 96% of mutual funds and managers Same returns different results There are Total of 17 diff fees/costs paid for by investors Incl. Asset mgmt Fees, Trading costs. Purchase , record keeping, planned administration Avg worker pays 154k in a lifetime for fees (assuming they make a 30k salary saving 5 percent annually) 277k paid in fees if u have a 90k salary saving 5 percent per year Jason, Matt, Taylor, started to invest @age 35-60 (25 years) & received equal performance @ 7% returns annually The results of their accounts after 1, 2, 3, percent fees J $324,340 for 3% M $432,194 for 2% T $574,349 for 1% End up Working a full decade longer Example: "The lost years" jan 1 2000 and dec 31 2012 the market ended up flat with tons of volatility With $100k invested in the market If you paid the avg 3.1 percent in fees and tour manager matched the market End result, your Account would be down 40% and paid 30k in fees 17 Fee list 1) Expense ratio : main price tag they market to sell funds, avg. 1.31 percent of fund assets paid annually. 2) Transaction costs: Brokerage. Market impact. Spread cost. 1.44% (too hard to quantify so not included) 3) Tax cost or planned administration fees 1.3/yr 4) Soft dollar cost: pay premium on trading costs on stocks for using a particular vendor to get research or software certain services they get rebates from 5) cash drag for liquidity 0.83% per year to provide liquidity. Cost takes away from performance 6) Redemption fee to exit fund , limited to 2 percent. Could cost 2k to get 100k back 7) exchange fee to change funds within a family 8) account fee to have account/maintenance 9) purchase fee. To fund company 10) sales charge to purchase fund prepaid or post paid Cost calculator personal fund 401k plan administration fees can be 1.3 percent per yr Suggested total broker+plan admin = 1.25 percent fees annual Never pay insane fees for sub par performance Fees can save u 5-15 years of wealth accumulation time to recoup up to 70 percent of your future nest egg. 5 requirements of a independent fiduciary Fee-only advisors | Findanadvisor.napfa.org 1) registered with the govt and Canadian securities 2) compensated on a percentage of your assets under mgmt, no other fees 3) no compensation for trading stocks and mutual funds 4) no affiliation with a broker dealer 5) make sure the money is held with a reputable 3rd party custodian Earned income can never compare to compounding Sir john Templeton. Find the best deals at times of maximum pessimism When there's a meltdown people give away their homes/businesses for pennies $10k investment in ww2 in u.s. stocks under $1 into billions after 1945 Myth 1: Invest with us, we'll beat the market-- Nobody beats the market long term: 96% of mutual funds over a 10 year period don't match the market in returns. The avg mutual fund owner over 20 years makes 2.5% net. Most hedge funds do not beat the market,their income is guarenteed via fees. Own a piece of the makret in index funds. Myth 2: Our fees? They're a small price to pay-- Fees matter: The average mutual fund fee is 3.1% every one percent fee is worth 20 percent of what you accumulate over a lifetime of investing compounded mutual funds take 50 to 70 percent of future nest egg through fees. While telling you they have your best interest at heart and lobbying at congress to make sure that doesn't happen Myth 3: Our returns? What you see is what you get -- Average returns are not real returns Myth 4: I'm your broker, and I'm here to help. Myth 5: Your retirement is just a 401(k) away. Myth 6: Target-date funds: just set it and forget it. Myth 7: I hate annuities, and you should, too. Myth 8: You gotta take huge risks to get big rewards. Myth 9: The lies we tell ourselves Financial entertainment Mutual fund: the13 trillion dollar lie . Actively managed. Fund managers stock picking ability fails to beat the market 96% of the time. 7700 mutual funds 4400 stocks Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but Everyone isn't entitled to their own facts In 2008-2008 2012 actively managed funds returned 7% s and p did 14% 2013 actively ,managed funds returned 8% s and p did 29% 51 percent market dip S&P500 outperformed 95% of small cap growth managers The managers had plenty of tune to make defensive moves 72 percent of all fund deposits float to 4 and 5 star funds. (2 trillion) Companies will very frequently remove funds that fall below 4 stars 27 percent of domestic 23 percent of international percent merged or liquidated to eliminate poor track records, then market the winners. 2 percent chance a 5 star fund exists after 10 years. Index shouldn't be for all of your money the market is up 70 percent 2x50 percent crashes since the year 2000 The catch , you dot get to participate in all the gains. Align yourself with the market instead of trying to beat the market Power of indexing allows you to passively own the market A Fiduciary (Legal requirement to put you first) vs A broker (suitibility standard) Ray Dalio Stronghold/Hightower David Swinson | Yale. 1 billion to 20 billion in 2 decades 3) Making The Game Winable Three Key Points 1) Calculate top 3 Financial Goals make a plan and cost out your ideal lifestyle 2) Plan with real numbers 3) Look for and implementing ways to speed it up and earn more What's the price of your dreams? You can't reach your financial dreams in less you know precisely how much it cost to get there Build your money machine Set up an emergency fund in cash Critical mass @5% rtn is 20x annual income G6 jet $5000/hr x 100 hrs a year g4 $2,500 Necker island for 16 ppl $250k/week Bahamas nandana $112k/week St Martin casa Cervo $9,560/week Namale Fiji $12,000/week Financial Goal Levels Security: (mortgage, utilities, transportation, insurance ,food, saving Vtality: 1/2 (clothing, dining and entertainment , little luxury, any extras, ) Independence : no need to work (current monthly spend. ) Financial freedom (1 luxury item cost/month, 2nd item, 3rd item) Absolute financial freedom (add 3 more luxury items) You do have to own the whole jet You don't have to own the whole team How much money do you need to be financially secure, independent or free? 15 million Speeding things up 1) save more and invest the difference , pizza over 2) mortgage principal pre payment 3) create a spending plan, saving $10/day can earn $141,000 over 20@6% interest 4) take a pic of item you want, buy it discount online. online rewards program , you promise.com 1) brainstorm about all reoccurring bills that can be eliminated 2) how much do they cost, how many times per week 3) rate from 0-10 joy from each item/activity 4) think about what it would feel like to have absolute financial freedom 5) decide which is more important. The expenditures or the feeling if financial freedom 6) write down at least 3 expenditures you're resolved to eliminate. Earn more and invest the difference 4) Asset allocation Four Key Strategies 1) Asset Allocation is everything! Diversify between: Security, Risk/Growth, & Dream bucket 2) Dont hesitate trying to have perfect timing, use dollar cost averaging 3) Have a dream bucket that gives you excitement 4) Use rebalancing and tax harvesting to maximize returns and minimize losses Asset Allocation Buckets 1. Financial Security: that amount of money that covers food, housing, cars, travel, and basic entertainment. 2. Financial Independence: where you don’t have to work and everything is covered. 3. Financial Freedom: you don’t have to work and EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF is covered. Trading Bucket 5% or less of portfolio to picking stocks The Formula for Financial Independence You’ll never get financially independent, or free, by your earnings alone. You’re going to have to create a Money Machine, a means of earning money while you’re sleeping, so you’re no longer trading one of the most valuable resources you have in life, which is your time, for money.You want to trade money for money. The Formula for Financial Independence is: 1. Spend less than you earn and invest the difference. 2. Reinvest your returns for compounded growth. 3. Reach a critical mass of investment capital that creates the annual income that you want. Whatever you’re investing in—whether it be cars, stocks, bonds, real estate—you’re investing for income and not assets. The goal is to get to a point where the interests on your investments alone, in a secure environment, will be enough to cover at least your financial security, then your goals of independence and, ultimately, freedom. In order to do that, you have to build a critical mass of capital in which the interests alone on that capital will give you the Financial Independence you desire. The only reason to invest is so that you have an income for life without working. Asset Allocation means that out of the money you have to invest, you’re going to create three buckets to allot that money to. How much you choose to put into each bucket can vary depending on which stage of life you’re in, but the three buckets of Asset Allocation are: 1. Security Bucket(% = your age)--The place where you put money into investments that are secure by their nature. They won’t give you huge compounded return, but if you do it long enough, even if the initial return is small, in the long run that compounded return grows and grows. Your first investments MUST be put into your security bucket. The types of things you want to put into your Security Bucket can include: • Cash/cash equivalents for 2 – 6 months (or whatever’s going to make you feel secure) • Money Market funds • CDs • Home • IRA (Individual Retirement Account) • Insurance (e.g. Life insurance) • Fixed income investments—investments that have a guaranteed rate of return. This includes company or government bonds, etc. •Structured Notes •Real Estate Loans •Tbills, Tnotes,Tbonds,TIPS,Municipal 2. Growth Bucket--Where you would put growth investments. You have a much greater return if the investment is successful, but there is also a much greater chance of loss if the investment doesn’t turn out successful. There is no guarantee of return in a growth investment. • Equities • TIPS • Real Estate • Commodities • Currencies • Structured Notes • Index Funds, International Stocks 3. Dream Bucket--The material things you want in life, like world travel, ownership of real estate other than a first home, owning a sports team; anything that you don’t actually need but would make you feel more fulfilled toward the life of your dreams.If you’re playing conservative and/or just starting out investing, you might want to put about 40% of your investment capital in the Security Bucket, and then split the rest between the Growth Bucket and the Dream Bucket, or the remainder into Growth (if you put the rest into the Dream Bucket, keep in mind that the return will most likely be significantly less than Security or Growth). If you’re very aggressive, you might consider putting 30% of your investment capital into the Security Bucket and more into Growth and Dream. If you’re older, you probably want to put more into your Security Bucket because you have less time to make up for potential mistakes. If you’re younger, you can probably risk putting less. But if you put nothing, you gain nothing. As the old saying goes: no risk, no reward. You may invest and lose, but if you don’t invest at all, you’ve already lost because you haven’t even given yourself a chance to experience the potential reward of investing. You’ll never have a chance to build that Money Machine, and you’ll be less likely to experience financial freedom. 5) Create an Income for life The number 1 fear amongst baby boomers is running ur of money before they die. Having the income to have the life you want for as long as you live. Worked for ups Theodore johnson , never made more than 14k/year had 70 million dollars when he retired. • Income Insurance plans (Income, Guarentees, Protection, Easy) • Annuities ( guaranteed return at 7% a year) • Annuities ( with a spread 1.5% profit fee) if it loses money u pay no fees the longer you weight the higher the income payment. example, at age 65 a lump sum deposit of 100k = a guarenteed $65k/yr income at age 85 @ age 54 a lump sum 100k deposit = a guarenteed $83k/yr income at age 85 | 10 yrs = $883k in payments Advisors Excel - Annuity Wholesaler PPLI: Accredited investor $250k x 4 years TIAA CREF Living Revocable Trust - To own home, brokerage account etc, Assets avoid probate Incapacity clause, to het someone step in to hand in bills www.getyourshittogether.org Free or Legal Zoom $200 6) Invest like the .001 percent 1) Dont Lose Money - Defence is 10x More important than offence, you have to be very focused on the downside at all times if you lose 50% it takes 100% gains to get back where you started, but you cant get back time. 2) Homeruns - Asymmetric Risk/Reward Risk $1 to make $5 - Paul Tudor Jones 3) Anticipate and diversify - they do their homework until they know in their gut they are right, they anticipate failure by diversifying 4) Youre never done - Learning , Earning, Growing, Giving David Swenson - 3 Levers of Profit Maximization Asset Allocation (classes), what assets, which porportion % Market Timing (costs money), which asset class performs better in the short run relative to assets you hold Security Selection: structure of bond and stock portfolio (fees). Mutual Funds make money by having a large amount of assets under mgmt and charging large fees annually. They do not have a fiduciary responsibility to the customer Ratings are skewed by survivor-ship bias, under performing funds are merged with high performing funds to have more assets under mgmt and attract more clients. Another reason why the investors reality is is worse than stated and it has to do with their behavior Individuals tend to buy funds with good performance and they chase returns. When the performance goes down, they sell the fund, they end up buying High and Selling low. They aim to get 4 and 5 star funds (high fees) They have performed well, not that they are going to perform well, when they don't, they sell. Reversion to the mean: The tendency that high performing funds go from performing well to not performing well. Almost all mutual fund managers behave as if taxes dont matter, the largest expense in the world. Buying and selling is detremental to gains. Solution Low Cost Passively managed index funds: 0.20 basis point fees and taxes are less Maximize RRSP contributions and TFSA Diversification is a free lunch, because for any given level of return, if you diversify you can generate that return with lower risk. 2 Levels of diversification, Security selection: i.e. owning an indexfund and buy the whole market. Asset Allocation: (us stocks, us treasury bonds, us TIPS, foreign developed equities, foreign emerging equities, and REITS) Have as much in bonds as your age. Jack Boggle - Founder of Vanguard 2.8 Trillion in investments under mgmt Investing is more luck than skill Investors are avg, most ppl pay too much for the privelidge of being avg active mgmt costs 2% in a 7% market you net 5% an index fund that costs .05% means you get 6.95 return @6.95% 1 Dollar turns into $30 over 50 years @5% 1 Dollar turns into $10 over 50 years Meaning you put up 100% of the cash, 100% of the risk and got 30% of the reward long term, compounding cost/fees. Buy stocks for the dividend yield and earnings growth, over the long term half of the return in the stock market comes from dividends and thats where all the funds expenses come from. The gross yield of teh average equity fund is 2%. The gross expense ratio of the average equity gund is 1.2%. They take that out of the yield so your yield is .8% the manager is taking over 60% of your dividends to pay himself. The industry is consuming sometimes more than 100%. Yet there is still 100 million people invested in actively managed mutual funds. Conflicting Feduciary dudies. I.E. Companies like Blackrock have 2 responsibilities, to maximize rreturns to teh owners of the company, and 2 Maximize the returns of the public fund holders. In order to increase one the other will suffer via fees going up or down. Final Points The stock market is a derivative of the value created by corporations. Deleverating has to continue, Fed reserve 4 trillion on the balance sheet Never lose sense of history, it may not repeat itself but it rhymes Dont read wall street journal, dont watch cnbc Avg person gets market return +or minus something, usually minus, so dont spend time trying to trade the market 1) Choose asset allocation in accordance with risk tollerance and objective 2) Diversify through low cost index funds 3) Have as much in bond funds as your age (vanguard total bond market, tax exempt municipal bond funds) Warren Buffet "Rule No. 1: never lose money; rule No. 2: don't forget rule No. 1" "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price." "Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre." "Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful." "The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble... We want to buy them when they're on the operating table." "Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that 'Price is what you pay; value is what you get.' Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down." " I have pledged – to you, the rating agencies and myself – to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash. We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits." Indexing is the way to prosperity 10% in short term govt bonds 90% in low cost s&p 500 index funds Paul Tudor Jones | Tudor Investments Corporation - Robin Hood Foundation Robin Hood Foundation Every $1 spent earns 15x the investment Administration and Operation, fundraising cost fully covered by the board of directors 28 Consecutive winning years In black Monday stock market crash he captured 60% monthly returns and 200% returns for eh year Macro Trader: Fundamentals, Psychology, Technical Analysis, Flows of funds, World Events impacting asset prices Instead of stocks, bets on trends, Currencies, Commodities, Interest Rates Defense 10x more important than offence, focused on the downside at all times Good positions don't need to be looked at, where you re losing money is the best place to look Risk Control #1 single most important focus of the day Diversification is key, and staying in the game as long as you can Time to hold, time to fold. PTJ: There’s never going to be a time where you can say with certainty that this is the mix I should have for the next five or ten years. The world changes so fast. If you go and look right now, the valuations of both stocks and bonds in the US are both ridiculously overvalued. And cash is worthless, so what do you do with your money? Well, there’s a time when to hold em and a time when to fold em. You’re not going to necessarily always be in situation to make a lot of money, where the opportunities are great. When there is nothing compelling, be defensive, and run a portfolio where you dont get hurt.when values do arise you have firepower to take action 1) Always be with whatever the predominant trend is, dont be a contrarian investor PTJ: My metric for everything I look at is the 200-day moving average of closing prices. I’ve seen too many things go to zero, stocks and commodities. The whole trick in investing is: “How do I keep from losing everything?” If you use the 200-day moving average rule, then you get out. You play defense, and you get out. - "Get out of anything that falls below the 200 day moving average" MSFT stock went up 800x , Warren Buffet buys and holds great companies and collets dividends How to determine the trend, 200 day moving average of closing prices Day of black monday crash gone under 200 day moving target, waited until the turn. 2) 5:1 Ratio (risk /reward) Risk 1 dollar to make 5, allows you to have a hit rate of 20%, Calculated entry points "I believe the very best money is made at the market turns. Everyone says you get killed trying to pick tops and bottoms and you make all your money by playing the trend in the middle. Well for twelve years I have been missing the meat in the middle but I have made a lot of money at tops and bottoms." Kyle Bass | AFGP Fund housing prices is a product of income+growth Analyzing countries - Balance sheet dept in relation to: GDP and Central Govt Revenue vs Banking system size (how manyloans, how many future defaults) Riskfree rate vs Value of underlying asset 3-4 basis points/year on japan Ray Dalio | Bridgewater Associates Holds: weekly “What’s going on in the world?” meeting. 40 percent return in 2010 alpha fund 21% Annual return compounded since 1991 You can win but you Can't win trying to beat the market Investing is a zero sum game. And only a small percentage of people win. Typical money managers are not going to help you win because they don't have the skills/resources to win, if they did you wouldn't have access to them. A passive way to win, A system to protect you com all the downsides when you're wrong. Makes money in good times and bad 85% win rate over 30 years Biggest loss 3.93% in 2008 Avg loss 1.9% One loss 0.03% 10% annual growth rate example Ex: William: age 20-40 , invests 4k/year 80k 600% more 2.7 million James: 40-65 4k/year 100k tital investment ends up with 600k Earned income can never compare to compounding 7) Just do it Money and Happiness - If you make twice as much money, ppl think it will double their level of happiness. It improves 9% on avg. Once you make 75k per year, the increase in income increases income at a limited margin 1) If you spend money on things, you limit your level of happiness 2) If you spend money on experiences it creates a generative level of happiness down to the core 3) If you spend money on things that give you time and take away drugery it increases happines 4) Investing in others, gives the most amount of happiness The financial system today is a lot different from the past. Interest rates have been decreasing for 10 years and are now finally starting to increase. There is a whole generation of millennials that only know the age of low interest rates and easy access to credit to finance the things they want in life. Student loans, car loans, furniture and appliance cards, cell phone plans and home purchasing, the average Canadian now spends 1.6 dollars for every dollar they earn, meaning someone with a salary of $45,000 dollars per year on average will purchase $72,000 worth of goods and services via financing. If someone is facing consumer debt, the last things thought about is putting the money away to achieve financial freedom however a few simple strategy shifts can change the trajectory of their financial destiny. There are a million ways in order start walking on the path to complete financial freedom. Today I will cover some of the most researched strategies set out by some of the worlds greatest investors to help the average person achieve financial freedom. 1) Control your own investments. Get a Self Directed brokerage account at Questrade.com ![]() As employees and business owners we are already financial traders, trading money for our time which is simply the worst financial trade you can make long term because time is priceless. The most important decision use a portion of your earned income to make money while while sleep. The best way to do do so is to tap into the law of compounding. You can start small and over time the amounts will compound into large sums over time even with average returns. The key is to start while you're young and continue to make deposits over time. A word of caution, Banks, Mutual Funds and Hedge Funds are designed to take as much as the client can bare to part with. In order for them to to make a living, management fees are taken from your account and the fees outweigh the returns. You can reduce this by self directing. Questrade allows you so sign up online and build your own investing portfolio. You can and make regular deposits into your investment account via online banking or bill pay. The software is quick, efficient , paperless and can easily be accessed on your smart phone so you can invest on the go. 2) Pay yourself first When you start to earn money, immediately people tend to go into bill payment mode and have to spend 100% of their income leaving little to no room for savings. The concept of pay yourself first came from a financial adviser who told his clients that if the government were to raise taxes, people would complain but eventually they would adjust and pay the extra tax. By applying a personal tax on yourself to start saving you can start investing immediately. So the fist bill you pay should be to yourself in your financial freedom account and everything else comes after that. You have two options when setting up a pay yourself first system, you can speak to your HR department at work and get a second deposit account connected or you can set up automatic bill payments every month via online banking. You may start off with a small percentage of saving like 5% and gradually move towards at least 20% of every payment you receive. Having the luxury of cash gives you the opportunity do things like purchase a business for yourself, or property with an income suite to be able to live for fairly cheap. There is an example of a girl in new york who saved 70% of her income and was able to retire at the age of 28. You can check out her blog here. Deciding to become an owner and invest is the single greatest decision you can make as a young person because in investments time is the greatest asset. 3) Buy the market, vs trying to beat the market picking stocks ![]() Alot of new investors get confused with what stocks to pick, often if they do not understand the market so they put it off until a later time or put their money in the hands of a bank. As it is said you can never beat the house, so you need to have a strategy of buying a piece of the house itself. The best way to do that would be by using an Exchange Traded Fund or ETF for short. Vanguard is a low fee ETF company that enables investors to buy indexes like the S&P500, top 500 public companies in America. Buy buying the market you do not have to spend countless hours analyzing individual companies. On average the SP500 has returned close to 10% annually over the last 100 years. Warren Buffet, has been very public in the recent years about buying low cost index funds instead of purchasing mutual funds or hedge funds . He advised his wifes trust to use vanguard index funds as the vehicle to buy the market. This is a bet that america will continue to grow and create profitable businesses. 4) Buy right away, time in the market is better than trying to pick the right time In the study above Each investor received $2,000 at the beginning of every year for the 20 years starting in 1992 and ending in 2012. They left the money in the market, as represented by the S&P 500® Index.
One of the common questions for investors is "is this the right time to invest? should I buy now or wait for a market crash to buy" The answer is simple, even the greatest investors in the world have no idea which direction the market is going to move so so its best to start right away and consistently make purchases of the market over long periods of time vs waiting for the right time. Cash has always been the worst performing asset because inflation makes the purchasing power of cash decrease each year.
Follow these simple strategies and you will put yourself in the right path to financial freedom. See you there. You work very hard throughout your career so that you can retire and lead a comfortable life, however alot of retirees quickly learn that they haven't saved enough and end up working to pay for basic living expenses. This is why its important so start early and grow a nest egg that you can rely on to fund retirement, as well as your dreams to travel, buy a home, start a new career etc. The earlier you start the process the better due to compound interest and compound returns. A Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is an account, is a registered investment account with the federal government that you use to save for retirement and enjoy some benefits along the way. RRSP Contributions have various tax advantages compared to investing outside of tax-preferred accounts. Anyone who files an income tax return and has earned income (as an employee) can open and contribute to an RRSP. There are limits on how much you can contribute to an RRSP each year. You can contribute up to 18% of your earned income in the previous year or the maximum contribution amount for the current tax year. If you are a member of a pension plan, your pension adjustment will reduce the amount you can contribute to your RRSP. RRSP contributions can defer and potentially lower the amount of income tax you pay. This means you can enjoy immediate tax savings from your tax return. The greatest benefit is that your investments grow tax free in the investing years until you wish to withdraw capital. To be eligible for deduction in the previous tax year, your RRSP contribution must be paid before the end of the first 60 days of the current year. This year, the RRSP contribution deadline for the 2016 tax year is March 1st, 2017. In summary through RRSP investing, you will realize immediate tax benefits during the times that your income is generally highest (the working years). The total amount of your annual contribution can be deducted from your gross income at tax time, reducing the amount you pay in income tax that year. The income earned in your RRSP is not taxed until it is withdrawn. Once you stop working and want to withdraw the funds your annual income will be lower therefore you will be taxed in a lower bracket than in your earning years. Funds withdrawn at that time will benefit from the lower tax rate. There are also Special features of RRSPs that allow you to do further tax planning or use your RRSP to fund specific life events. When you hold stock or mutual funds in a non-registered account, you only have to pay taxes when you sell your investments. If you sell your investment at a profit, you must claim a capital gain; if you sell your investment at a loss, you can claim a capital loss. For registered account like RRSP, you don't have to worry about calculating the taxes for your gains or losses. The RRSP is also superior to the TFSA when it comes to holding international stocks. TFSA is not recognized by other countries as a registered account so you don't get the advantage of tax free dividends. Interest income is the least tax efficient income stream. Examples of interest income include savings accounts, terms deposits and bonds. You are fully taxed on any interest earned. Even if you roll over your interest, you must include it as taxable income on your returns. For that reason, consider holding interest income in a tax-sheltered account like your RRSP or TFSA to maximize your tax savings. A Self-directed RRSP is an RRSP account allows you to hold different types of investments consolidated within one single account. Some RRSP accounts only allow you to gold mutual funds, other RRSP accounts will only have GICs. Self-directed RRSPs give you more investment freedom and control. If you decide to claim some withdrawal from your RRSP, you can do it through Home Buyers’ Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan. The HBP allows you to borrow up to $25,000 from your RRSP to buy or build a home. To take advantage of the HBP you must be a first-time home buyer or haven’t owned a home in the last five years and you must repay the money within 15 years. You can also borrow from your RRSP to finance education for yourself or spouse through the Lifelong Learning Plan. The LLP allows you to borrow up to $10,000 a year, up to a total of $20,000. To participate in the program the student must be enrolled on a full-time basis in a qualified program. You’ll have 10 years to pay back the money without being taxed. Overall it is a major benefit to start saving in an RRSP if you would like to reduce your income tax and start building assets. Want more information like this?
|
AuthorGSK Wealthbuilders is known as the most sought after Social Media Marketing, Visual Design, and Real Estate and consultanst in the online business community. Categories
All
Archives
April 2020
|
About Us
As active Lifestyle Specialists we are uniquely built to provide entrepreneurs and small business owners with the right education and systems to achieve success in business & create freedom of time through lifestyle by design. |
|