Brin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brin_bellway) wrote2019-05-13 11:24 am
brin_bellway) wrote2019-05-13 11:24 am
In which Brin acquires a time value of money
(I left the previous post in my drafts for a little while, and new things have happened in the meantime.)
[cw: government bullshit, arguably poverty]
My brother and I did some more research and learned about the wonderful world of high-interest savings accounts.
(Canadian savings accounts, as best I can tell from several hours of research, are entirely legal under U.S. tax law. It looks like if your total balance across all foreign bank accounts is under USD$10k, the marginal foreign bank account creates *zero* additional paperwork; if it is between $10k and $200k, it creates only a few minutes of paperwork per year; if it is above $200k, you can afford to pay someone to navigate U.S. tax law for you.)
Brother went with EQ, which gives 2.3% interest. I have a higher tolerance for dealing with financial research and bureaucratic bullshit in exchange for money, and a lower tolerance for making suboptimal moves, so I kept digging and discovered that Manulife is having a promotion: new savings accounts get 3.25% interest for the first six months.
That's...actually reasonably competitive? Within the margin of error of what you can expect from a medium-term index-fund holding? And hey, maybe some other bank will be holding a promotion when the six months are up, Red Flag Deals forum archives seem to indicate that 3% promotions are not uncommon. And I could always join Brother at EQ if I can't hunt down a better deal.
I'm still not convinced I wouldn't be better off in the long run by ditching my U.S. citizenship and getting an index-fund TFSA, but the idea of keeping my citizenship options open is significantly less painful now.
[cw: government bullshit, arguably poverty]
My brother and I did some more research and learned about the wonderful world of high-interest savings accounts.
(Canadian savings accounts, as best I can tell from several hours of research, are entirely legal under U.S. tax law. It looks like if your total balance across all foreign bank accounts is under USD$10k, the marginal foreign bank account creates *zero* additional paperwork; if it is between $10k and $200k, it creates only a few minutes of paperwork per year; if it is above $200k, you can afford to pay someone to navigate U.S. tax law for you.)
Brother went with EQ, which gives 2.3% interest. I have a higher tolerance for dealing with financial research and bureaucratic bullshit in exchange for money, and a lower tolerance for making suboptimal moves, so I kept digging and discovered that Manulife is having a promotion: new savings accounts get 3.25% interest for the first six months.
That's...actually reasonably competitive? Within the margin of error of what you can expect from a medium-term index-fund holding? And hey, maybe some other bank will be holding a promotion when the six months are up, Red Flag Deals forum archives seem to indicate that 3% promotions are not uncommon. And I could always join Brother at EQ if I can't hunt down a better deal.
I'm still not convinced I wouldn't be better off in the long run by ditching my U.S. citizenship and getting an index-fund TFSA, but the idea of keeping my citizenship options open is significantly less painful now.