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Canada.ca new OAS/GIS Calculator in forum General

There's a new calculator for OAS and GIS at https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/publicpensions/cpp/old-age-security/payments.html#estimate-benefits.

It's not complete as it wimps out if you don't have a full OAS pension (less than 40 year residency in Canada), but it works well if you do.

I'm excited about it because it's the first time I see any source code (the javascript is right there in the html source of the page) for calculations available for any calculations from the Canadian government. The US social security system has provided full source code for their calculations for many years.

 

 

 

The MoneyReady Forum in forum Announcements

I'm happy to announce the MoneyReady Forum!

As a registered user of the MoneyReady App, you are automatically registered for the Forum.

Logging in to the App will also log you into the Forum so you can post there. A forum username has been created for you that is separate from the app's username. You can change it in your forum profile.

I have pre-populated the forum with loads of information:

  1. The Questions/Answers (Q/A) board has been pre-populated with a curated set of questions that you have sent me. These are all attributed to the fake user "anonymous" for your privacy/security. If you recognize your words and want your forum username credited, just let me know. If a past question of yours is not there already and is still relevant, feel free to post it so others can benefit.
  2. The Feature requests board replaces our Votes capability. Post a reply to any feature to vote for it.
  3. The General forum is for providing useful resources, discussions, and more general questions on personal finance that you think would be useful or interesting to MoneyReady App users.
  4. There's an Announcements board for all our past and future announcements. This is read-only.
  5. There are 2 FAQS boards, one general (public) and a more specific one for logged-in users. These are also read-only. If you have any questions about the Announcements or the FAQs, you can post them in the Q/A.

Posting is free, however to prevent spam, all topics and posts from users without an active paid subscription to the MoneyReady App will be hidden from view until they are approved by a moderator. We aim to take less than 24 hours to approve posts. You will be notified by email once your post is approved.

Please read the Forum rules for all the details.

Looking forward to reading your posts!

 

Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Read Me First in forum Q/A

The MoneyReady App was launched in the summer of 2019. Almost 4 years later, after answering many questions, getting great feedback, and having many discussions with users by email, I decided to start this community forum in March 2023 so that everyone can benefit from these discussions.

Because nobody likes an empty forum, meet user anonymous:
This is a fake user created to populate the forum with real questions that were sent by email to the MoneyReady App. Those emails and our responses have been curated to select the most common, interesting, and still relevant today. They have been edited for clarity and to remove any identifying information for privacy and security. Typos are all mine.

If you recognise your words because you are the original writer of a topic and want proper attribution, let me know so we can fix the attribution.

Welcome to the Money Ready Forum. Looking forward to reading your posts!

Now please go read the Rules before proceeding.

 

Marginal tax rate in forum Announcements

A new graph for the marginal tax rate has been added to the TIME MACHINE results.

Currencies for REVENUES, INCOMES, EXPENSES, and AUTOMATIC SAVINGS in forum Announcements

For REVENUES, INCOMES, EXPENSES, and AUTOMATIC SAVINGS/WITHDRAWALS, you can now specify a currency (previously assumed to be CAD). LOANS, ACCOUNTS, and INVESTMENTS already had that feature.

USD/CAD exchange rate model in forum Announcements

A model for the USD/CAD exchange rate was added to the Market model for Monte Carlo simulations.

What do your reports look like? in forum FAQs

Click to download a sample pdf file

What securities do you update prices for? in forum FAQs

For Canada, we cover listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and Aequitas/Neo Exchange. For the USA, we cover listings on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the NYSE American exchange, the Nasdaq, and the OTC. We do not cover warrants or options. We do not cover the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). We cover most series of Canadian mutual funds, segregated funds, hedge funds, and closed-end funds. This market data is provided by Fundata Canada Inc. and updated nightly.

We update regular currencies nightly from the European Central Bank.

We update Cryptocurrencies nightly and on demand using CoinGecko.

For ACCOUNTS, INVESTMENTS and LOANS linked to Wealthica, values are updated from Wealthica on demand.

How long does it take? in forum FAQs

In programming, we have a saying, GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. The Money-Ready App is built to provide you with accurate calculations, which requires accurate and complete data. We make it easy, but it can take some time to gather that data. Depending on how complicated your financial situation is, how detailed you want to be, and the depth of your financial knowledge, plan 15 to 45 minutes before your first TIME MACHINE run. Take your time to do it right and your patience will be rewarded. Financial planning is a skill that requires continuous learning and will last you a lifetime. 

Limitations in forum FAQs

We endeavour to have accurate calculations for Canadian taxes, rules, and benefits for all Canadian residents, however we cannot always include everything in the various Federal and Provincial legislations.

We endeavour to cover all financial products available to Canadians, however the complexity of some products cannot always be captured completely.

We point out these deficiencies when we know of them.

We do not and cannot guarantee the accuracy of anything in The Money-Ready App.

We are continually improving The Money-Ready App.

We welcome feedback so please suggest features that are not currently implemented.

We will work on implementing the most popular requests first.

How safe are my data? Security Policy. in forum FAQs

To develop accurate financial plans the MoneyReady App requires some personal and financial information from you. Nothing is more important to the MoneyReady App than trust and protecting this data. Please see our Security Policy.

How does the MoneyReady App TIME MACHINE work? in forum FAQs

The MoneyReady App is not a financial planner itself. It is a calculator that can be used to assess financial plans using its powerful iterative cash-flow engine, the TIME MACHINE. The MoneyReady App can answer even the toughest financial questions by considering a person's current and complete financial position, and future aspirations, fears, and goals. It takes all of the inputs for a financial scenario, and then crunches the cash-flows, and outputs a detailed financial picture calculated for every year. Running the TIME MACHINE is a very empowering exercise for people. They can immediately see the results of any financial decision, recommendation and assumption.
Video explaining the TIME MACHINE (3 minutes).
However, the TIME MACHINE only provides guidelines and ideas for creating a financial plan. It is not designed to predict the future. The results generated by this program are based on user estimates of many factors like rates of return, life expectancy, and inflation and important assumptions such as tax rates and government benefits. The results are only an illustration, and none of the information can be guaranteed.
In crunching the numbers we try to include the latest tax rules and regulations, both federally and for all provinces and territories. We avoid short-cuts and estimates as much as possible. Although accuracy is our aim, we do still need to make some assumptions and approximations, and we have not yet covered the entire Canadian tax code nor all available financial products. The TIME MACHINE does not verify the validity of transactions according to the CRA.
For more information please register and get the free eBook which explains all the features of the MoneyReady App .

What are your investment recommendations? in forum FAQs

We do not recommend or sell investments.

Can the MoneyReady App handle families? in forum FAQs

Yes. Once logged in, a user can add a spouse to their profile so that the spouse's finances will also be considered. A spouse does not need a separate subscription. Children are only considered for their financial implications on the parent or parents and cannot have accounts or investments (except RESPs and RDSPs), so that adult children would need a separate subscription to the MoneyReady App for their own financial planning. 

What are the features/capabilities of the MoneyReady App? in forum FAQs

A summary of all the features of the MoneyReady App can be found on the homepage.

A full description of all the capabilities/features of the MoneyReady App can be found in the eBook (login required)

How much does a subscription cost? in forum FAQs

The MoneyReady App is free to try until you have run the MoneyReady App TIME MACHINE successfully 3 times.

This will allow you to take your time to gather and enter all the necessary data for a complete and accurate plan, and to explore all the functionality of the MoneyReady App TIME MACHINE.

After this, a subscription is required.

Subscriptions allow unlimited runs of the TIME MACHINE and our premium tools (WITHDRAWAL OPTIMIZER, CPP OPTIMIZER, CHOOSE YOUR LEGACY, ACCOUNT REBALANCING, and PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION). It will continue to update stock, ETF, and mutual fund prices in your portfolios using FUNDATA market data, and/or WEALTHICA.


The MoneyReady App has no ads, no sponsorships, no commissions, no kickbacks, and no referrals. There are no hidden or indirect costs. Our only source of income is your subscriptions so that our only incentive is to provide great tools that you will use.

 

Individual subscription.

You can get a one-month trial subscription for $60.00 or a full one-year subscription for $160.00 (plus applicable taxes).

At the end of the one-month trial subscription, you can choose to extend the subscription for 11 months (12 months from your original subscription date) for $110.00 (plus applicable taxes) if you renew within a month past your subscription expiring.

All yearly subscriptions are renewable for $110.00  plus taxes if renewed within a month past expiry.

Once you subscribe, you can tell us who referred you to the MoneyReadyApp. If that person subscribed or when they do, an additional month will be added to both your subscriptions. The more people that you refer, the more free months you can accumulate.

Friends and Family Advisor 5-packs (see below) will also be available to purchase when payment is required on your subscription.

Advisor subscription.

Advisor accounts also have the same free trial and the trial subscription option on their own account, but for client accounts opened by advisors, payment is required immediately.

Professional advisor subscription. You can prepay to add or renew unlimited clients for one year. The cost is $1,200.00 plus taxes per year.

Friends and Family Advisor 5-packs are also available for $390.00 plus tax. You can prepay to add or renew 5 clients for one year. Note that your own account will count in a 5-pack if not paid for or expired. If you need more clients, you can add individual clients for $160.00, add 5-packs, or switch to a yearly Professional advisor. Delete clients that you do not want to renew before purchasing a new 5-pack. Clients deleted after purchase will not increase the count of pre-paid clients.

Alternatively, you can pay as you go. The cost for client accounts is $160.00 per year for the first 10 paid accounts. Additional clients are free until the anniversary of the earliest paid client. It adds up to a maximum of $1,600.00 per year (plus applicable taxes) for unlimited clients.

Academic subscription.

Academic subscriptions are like Advisor subscriptions for journalists, bloggers and academics.

They will be allowed to manage several clients, to explore and compare scenarios for the aim of publishing to inform and educate Canadians on financial planning strategies.

Although their client accounts will be free, a regular paid subscription will still be required.

If you are interested in an Academic subscription, please contact us for an application.

Note for low-income seniors 65 and over:

TIME MACHINE runs will not count if it calculates a positive amount for GIS for all years after the age of 65.

This means that a low-income senior collecting GIS can stay on the free trial forever.

Advisors can add low-income senior clients for free.

Monte Carlo simulations. in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

You can now run 100 market model simulations with one click.
I've written about it in a new blog post on "Stress testing your financial plan":
https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/blog/post/14, and there's more details in the eBook.

A subscription is required to use this feature.

I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023!

Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.
Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

Better reports. in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

We've completely revamped the MoneyReady App reports you can print or download to pdf.
You can download a sample report from https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/sampleplan (no login required).
For your own reports, you may need a fresh TIME MACHINE run to see all the new features.

Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.
Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

Saving and restoring scenarios. in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

The MoneyReady App is all about exploring different financial planning scenarios. However, until now, you could only explore one scenario at a time and you couldn't return to a previous scenario easily.

Today I am very excited to announce that saved TIME MACHINE runs will now also save a snapshot of the scenario that was run so that you can go back to it with one click. In your list of saved runs, you can click on the button 'Restore' which will appear for all runs going forward. This will replace entries in your current workspace with those from the imported one.

Not everything is restored, as LOAN balances, ACCOUNT and INVESTMENT values, CPP/QPP earnings and current year tax information will retain their most recently updated values.

This allows you to rerun a previous scenario but with updated information quite easily. It is most useful when you have different scenarios with multiple things changed, added, or deleted. For example, you can try different retirement dates that will affect things like your incomes and expenses, and rerun these scenarios any time with updated market information. It also makes it easy to try out a new scenario, for example buying an investment property with a mortgage that adds rental income, and be able to revert back easily if that turns out not to be what you want to do.

Restoring an older scenario can be a dangerous operation if you have entries in your current workspace that aren't saved, but we give you warnings. Just make sure to run the TIME MACHINE and to save your new scenario before restoring an older one.

You will also be able to import ACCOUNTS and INVESTMENTS found in any previously saved scenario that are not in your current workspace: you will see a new button for that beneath your list of ACCOUNTS. These are kept updated in whatever way you keep your accounts updated (manually, with FUNData, or Wealthica) the same way as in your current workspace.

You can find the details in the Help for the 'list of saved runs' page, and in a new section of the MoneyReady App eBook.

This feature has been requested often by many of you for a long time, so thank you for your patience in waiting for its implementation. Note that this feature is not backwards-compatible with runs before today.

Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.
Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

Tax-Free First Home Savings Account in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

The Tax-Free First Home Savings Account (FHSA) is a new type of registered account to help individuals save for their first home.
In a nutshell, you can open one if you haven't owned a home in the last 4 years. Deposits are tax-deductible, and withdrawals are not taxed if used to buy a home but taxed otherwise. They must be closed within 15 years of opening.
They were introduced in the April 2022 federal budget but won't be available until sometime in 2023.

We make them available now for planning with the TIME MACHINE.

Because of their tax benefits and flexibility of transfers to/from RRSPs, they do present planning opportunities whether or not you are planning a home purchase.
If you are planning to buy a first home, the FHSA offers several advantages over the Home Buyer's plan (which the MoneyReady App also considers) due to its flexibility, but there are some caveats.
Lots more details on the FHSA and how you can use it in the MoneyReady App eBook, so make sure to download the latest version.

Your questions and feedback are always welcome.
Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady