Optimism #59 - January 20, 2023

Dear clients and friends:
There’s lots of positive stuff to mention.

1. If you have a spousal loan, interest must be paid before January 30^th.

2. 2023 TFSA room is $6,500 per individual, up from $6,000.

3. Great time to add to RESPs, the ideal amount is $2,500 ($208/month) per year per kid, up to and including the year they turn 17.

4. Inflation isn’t so bad.  In 2022, your taxable income, (line 23400), had to exceed $81,761 per individual before they started to take away your OAS pension.  For 2023 its $86,912.

5. If you are a BC resident and your home is under $2.125 million, you are eligible for the homeowner grant, a break on property taxes.

6. Dividend increases and insiders buying their own company shares are always positive signs:

1. Dividend increases at Tourmaline Oil, MTY Foods +19% (owners of Jugo Juice, Manchu Wok, Thai Express, Baton Rouge Steak House), Bird Construction +10%

2. Insiders buying at Kelt Energy, Tourmaline Oil, Topaz Energy, Methanex, Firm Capital, Morguard Corp, CI Financial, Cascades Inc., Cardinal Energy, MDA Ltd. Barrick Gold, Badger Infrastructure, Alimentation Couche Tard, BCE, Open Text Corp, Algonquin Utilities and Nutrien.

7. The most discredited financial instrument in history’ makes comeback in Canada. Will it solve a problem with retirement savings?

It’s about Tontines.  (You are excused if you’ve never heard of them. I had not.) It’s like an annuity, except the money is actively managed instead of being locked in at the interest rate at time of purchase.  The investment should be better suited to increase with the cost of living. 
The concept has quite an interesting and checkered history.  It may be suitable for people who have no one to leave an estate to and/or worry about running out of money.  Those that exceed life-expectancy are subsidized by those who aren’t so lucky. Please see the article copy attached in word format as well.  It’s currently only for people born between 1957 and 1961, but if popular, more are likely to emerge. 

8. If you have set up an RESP for your grandchildren, (first of all thank you on their behalf), please have a paragraph in your Will assigning a new ‘Successor Subscriber’ … aka … person to take the reins and make sure it’s managed and distributed correctly in the event you are unavailable to do so.  It’s amazing how complicated these accounts are.  If done correctly, it is not subject to probate.  I could write a few pages on all of the other ways we explored to try to simplify the issue, but this is the best one.

9. Ted Weschler, one of Warren Buffet’s key people who turned his retirement savings account into $264 Million recently said:

"[Here is] some very simple advice: Start early, maximize the (employer) match, invest 100% in equities, and ignore all the other noise," Weschler said.  Here is the full article, (no pay wall):

10. When CPP was launched in 1965, the average life expectancy was 72. Today its 83.

Have a super weekend.
Derek Moran