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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 spouses, 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) as an individual or as a couple.

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

Many updates in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

Updates in the last couple of months:

  1. New features:

      a) Two new graphs in TIME MACHINE.
           i. A summary of all accounts by type (non-registered, tax-free, and tax-deferred) in every year. For those of you with a spouse or many accounts, a summary can be useful.
           ii. Rate of saving or of withdrawal by age. When positive, it shows the savings rate as a percentage of income. When negative, it shows the withdrawal rate as a percentage of account balances.

      b) Employee stock options.
        You can now add employee stock options as INVESTMENTS. For publicly traded North-American companies, you can track their value if you enter a stock ticker. You can also add private company options. The TIME MACHINE will exercise the options on the exercise date and calculate the appropriate taxes, enforcing the new tax rules.

      c) Time Value of Money Calculator.
        In case you don't own a financial calculator, you can use this one to solve TVM problems.

  2. Under the hood:

    a) Pension income splitting in the Withdrawal Optimizer.
      The TIME MACHINE has always considered pension income-splitting. To implement it in the Withdrawal Optimizer algorithm was more difficult as the algorithm itself considers each spouse independently. The algorithm now considers pension income splitting, and the pension deduction, recursively. This converges nicely, and provides better withdrawal suggestions to the TIME MACHINE, making it even more likely to find a more optimal withdrawal strategy.

    b) Tax timing in the TIME MACHINE.
      The TIME MACHINE no longer delays any tax implications of deposits and withdrawals, for zeroing the Wallet account, to the following year. The earlier approximation had made the TIME MACHINE faster with little loss in accuracy, so this change makes it a little slower (it may need to recalculate taxes several times in the same year) but it doesn't change the results much. However, the advantages are that this change provides clearer tax reports, and more accurate calculations of benefits, tax credits, and taxes, that depend on the previous year's taxable income. This applies to all runs from May 9, 2022.

Your comments and feedback are always welcome.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

Friends and Family in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

Updates in the last couple of month:

   1. The principal residence capital gains exemption and change of use.
   If you have more than one real estate property, a button now appears below your list of properties where you can specify the years for which you will claim the principal residence exemption for each property when it is sold in the TIME MACHINE. This is useful if you have changed the designation of principal residence in the past, or plan to do so in the future.

   2. Equity market crashes.
   Setting up an equity market crash scenario no longer adds future rates for your investments in your rates table. Instead, the scenario is saved and rates are calculated on the fly when choosing to run the TIME MACHINE with that scenario. This makes it simpler, faster, and allowed us to remove the limit on the number of stocks and funds you can have for running a market crash scenario.

   3. Friends and Family Advisor 5-pack subscriptions.
   I'm pleased to announce these new subscriptions that make it more affordable for users that advise a number of friends and family.
   You can manage your account and add up to 4 client accounts for $350+tax/year.
   These subscriptions will be available when payment on your account is required, or you can contact me to be switched to an advisor account anytime.
   If you need more clients, you can add them individually, add additional 5-packs, or switch to a Professional Advisor Unlimited yearly subscription.
   All advisor subscriptions are described at www.moneyreadyapp.ca/advisors.

Your comments and feedback are always welcome.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

A new chart, a tip, and a new blog post on CPP/QPP, RPC/RRQ in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

A new chart suggested by a user that you might find useful is now included in the TIME MACHINE results. It shows your Incomes from all sources (salary, pensions, etc), separately from income from public pensions, and net withdrawals from tax-free, tax deferred, and non-registered accounts. This chart will also show up on old runs and saved runs, as long as they are not too old.


A checklist for advisors or other users coming from other financial planning software is now in the EXPENSES' "Help for this page” and in the corresponding section of the eBook. It shows how to set up the TIME MACHINE in a similar way as other software programs <b>that assume all money not explicitly saved before retirement is spent.

My new blog post on CPP and QPP dropout provisions explores differences between the two plans, and their impact on the size and timing of your public pension. https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/blog/post/12.
Mon nouvel article de blogue sur les clauses d’exclusion de la période de cotisation du RPC et du RRQ explore les différences entre les deux régimes et leurs effets sur le montant et le timing de votre rente. https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/blog/post/13.

Your comments and feedback are always welcome.
Vous pouvez nous écrire en Français.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.

Head of MoneyReady

New Year Checklist in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,


Updates and new features in the last month:

   1. CPP/QPP sharing. You can apply to the CRA or Retraite Québec for a 2-way transfer of a portion of a pension payment to the other spouse. This can create a tax advantage if it decreases the taxable income of the spouse in a higher tax bracket. As the portion of the amount that can be transferred depends on how long you have been living together, you can now in the MoneyReady App enter a date of when you started cohabitating (approximately) in the CPP/QPP/OAS tab, and pension sharing will then be applied. The resulting net transfer will be shown in the Warnings column of the Timetable.
   2. RDSPs. Calculations of grants, bonds and taxes have been updated. Please make sure to enter previous contributions for accurate calculations. o avoid penalties, RDSP DAP payments will not be made in the TIME MACHINE if there are grant or bond repayments to be made.
   3. GIS. The TIME MACHINE has always calculated GIS and GIS allowance to a spouse when applicable. The amount is included in the OAS column, but we now also show the GIS amounts separately in the Warnings column.

New Year checklist:
  My favourite day to run the TIME MACHINE is January 1. This is because the current year then acts very much like a future year in the TIME MACHINE. There is no need to consider what contributions have already been made, what taxes have already been paid, and no need to prorate any amounts for incomes, expenses and savings. Here is a list of things that need to be updated at the start of the year, and sometimes throughout the year to keep the current year calculation as accurate as possible.

  1. CPP/QPP table(s). An entry for pensionable earnings for last year will appear. You will need to estimate what those were until the actual amount is updated at the CRA or Retraite Québec later in the year.
  2. RRIFs and LIFs.  For each of these, within 'Edit Account properties' enter the balance of the account at the end of last year. If you make any withdrawals during the year, update the total withdrawn this year.
  3. RDSPs. 'Edit Account properties' for these, and update the table of previous contributions if one appears. If you make a contribution this year, enter the amount once made, and you will need to come back and check the box once the grants/bonds have been received so that they are not double counted in the TIME MACHINE.
  4. PRIORITIES. Just review the PRIORITIES. A new entry for this year will be created automatically from last year if you hadn't created one for the new year previously.
  5. TIME MACHINE. There are up to 3 screens that capture current year tax information before running the TIME MACHINE: one for yourself, one for your spouse and one for your CCPC when applicable. Please update the amounts asked for the current year, and keep them updated throughout the year.
  6. Tax owing or refund. If you expect a tax refund from the previous year's taxes, you can enter it as an Income (Other, not taxable) with start and end dates on the date you expect to receive it. Similarly for tax owing, enter it as an Expense for the date you expect to pay it.

Happy New Year!

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

Taxes, Inflation, QPP and Optimizer tweeks in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,


No new features this past month, however a lot of updates as we get close to 2022.

  1. All values for taxes/deductions/credits/limits have been updated for 2021 and 2022. These should be final for 2021, but changes could still happen for 2022.
  2. The TFSA contribution limit increase remains at $6,000 for 2022.
     For those of you who plan to contribute the maximum every year
     and have entered an AUTOMATIC DEPOSIT to a TFSA at $6,000 to be indexed with inflation,
     the TIME MACHINE will now increase that amount to the increased limits expected in future years given your set inflation rate and rounded to the nearest $500 to match the maximum.
  3. When inflation started creeping up,
     I changed the default inflation rate for new users to the latest value obtained from the Bank of Canada.
     That value is now so high that I reversed course and have now set the default back to 2%,
     the Bank of Canada’s long-term target, which is appropriate for long-term planning.
     The values set for inflation and prime are now shown on the Dashboard to avoid any surprises.
     You can change them in RATES/YIELDS/CURRENCIES.
  4. Advisors can set their preferred default inflation and prime rates for all of their clients at once.
  5. The CPP and QPP calculations have been updated.
     For QPP, the link to obtain your earnings table (relevé de participation) has been updated
     to the Retraite Québec website.
     You should be able to just copy and paste the table, but contact me if you have a problem.
  6. The Withdrawal OPTIMIZER has been tweaked to better handle portfolios with multiple investments and is even better at finding an optimal withdrawal strategy.

I've gotten a lot of great questions and feedback lately. Thank you!
They are always welcome.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

🇺🇸 MoneyReady App updates 🇨🇦 in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

The Canada-U.S. border is reopening soon and I'm happy to announce some new features for Canadian residents that have worked in the U.S.
We've added support for IRAs, traditional and Roth IRAs, 401(k)s and similar accounts. You'll see this option when you add an ACCOUNT or import one from Wealthica.
We've added U.S. Social Security calculations. If you or your spouse had eligible earnings, check the box in your PROFILE and a new US SOCIAL SECURITY tab will be added on the left menu.
The MoneyReady App is for current Canadian residents and we assume there will no more contributions made to the accounts or to social security.
Please read the new sections of the eBook for details and all the caveats. Cross-border financial planning is tricky, so make sure to speak to an advisor knowledgeable in the area before changing country.

Other recent updates:
We've moved managing two-factor-authentication and your email address to the new PREFERENCES tab.
There you can also set the default TIME MACHINE view to today's or future dollars.
You can also set your preference for the display of negative currency amounts which will apply to tables throughout the app.

We've also made the Simple Retirement Calculator free without registration, it's available
https://www.moneyreadyapp.ca/simple-retirement-calculator/
That function is very limited but can be useful for very simple scenarios.
We've opened it up to generate more traffic and awareness, so please tell your friends!

Your questions and feedback are always welcome.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady

Two-factor authentication and other updates. in forum Announcements

Dear MoneyReady App users,

You can (and should) now add two-factor authentication in your PROFILE.
You can use an authenticator app on your smartphone to secure your MoneyReady App account. There are many free authenticator apps available for Android and iOS.
This method of two-factor authentication is highly private and secure as it does not require us to have your phone number.
You just scan the QR code generated by the MoneyReady App to tie your account to your authenticator app. The authenticator app will then automatically generate a 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. You will be prompted for the current code to subsequently log in to your MoneyReady App account. It acts as a second temporary password.

Other updates in the last month:

With inflation being so volatile these days, we now update inflation and prime rates nightly from the Bank of Canada. To update your default rate, go to RATES/YIELDS/CURRENCIES. You can use the Search function for "Inflation" or "Prime" and click on Update for the current rate.

Advisors can update the default inflation and prime rates, and also all default investment growth rates according to asset-allocation, for all their clients at once. The relevant buttons are below your client list.

Hybrid HELOC/chequing accounts. We've improved the handling of these types of accounts when imported from Wealthica. The MoneyReady App now splits the same account into a LOAN component and an ACCOUNT component when appropriate.

 

Your questions and feedback are always welcome.

Elisabeth Tillier, Ph.D.
Head of MoneyReady