Get More by Asking

Ask to Save Money

First Published Date: January 20, 2016

Whether you are buying something or renewing a service, credit card, or anything for that matter, it does not hurt to explore opportunities to save money simply by asking. Yes, it may not work all the time, but you will never know the outcome if you don’t ask.

I will discuss two examples that I went through in the last few weeks in which I was able to save more and get more just by asking. The first incident was related to renewal of my hosting package that occurs every three years. I received an automated bill from my hosting company stating my credit card will be charged $360 in two weeks to renew my hosting for the next few years. Instead of just letting it happen, I called my web hosting company to see if they can provide me any discounts. After being on the phone with them for an hour and getting transferred from one department to another three times, the final rep was able to gave me deal with a 45% discount. So I saved $162 and ended up paying $198 – not bad for being on the phone for an hour.

The other example is related to renewing one of my annual fee credit cards. Just before the anniversary date, I called my credit card company and asked them if they could provide me a deal, stating that if not I would cancel my credit card. Sure enough, the rep came up with an offer that rewards me 15,000 points just for keeping the card. Yes, I have to pay a $120 annual fee, but the rewards points are worth more than $500 if I transfer them to airline points on promotion and use them for a flight.

It can definitely pay off to ask for more or discounts whenever opportunities exist.

How To Avoid ATM Fees

How To Avoid ATM Fees

If your bank is charging you ATM fees to withdraw money, now is the time to find out how much money you are losing to ATM fees every month. Generally, ATM fees run from $1.00 to $2.50 per transaction. This doesn’t look like a lot of money if you look at each transaction separately, but those small fees add up very quickly.

Here is a list of things you can do to avoid ATM fees:

1. Switch to a no-fee bank.

2. Instead of withdrawing smaller amounts many times, find out how much you need in a month and withdraw one large amount.

3. Avoid using other banks’ ATM machines. If you use any bank’s machine outside your own banking networks, you will be paying as much as twice as much your own bank’s ATM fees.

4. Many grocery chains allow withdrawing money (i.e. you can get “cash back”) when you pay for your groceries. This is a smart way to get cash without paying fees.

5. Nowadays, you can use a credit card almost everywhere. Instead of paying in cash, use a credit card to pay your daily expenditures. However, this is not going to work unless you pay your credit card balance in full every month.

6. Banks usually have a set allowed number of transactions each month. If you stay within this limit, you won’t be paying any fees.

7. Do your research and find the most suitable account with the lowest fees to meet your banking needs.

First Published: ADawnJournal.com Jul 17, 2008

CI Financial & TD Bank Are Slow to Realize ETF Potential

BMO’s Farsighted ETF Vision

First Published Date: November 19, 2015

Canada’s second largest publicly-traded fund company CI Financial likes to see itself as an industry pioneer that consistently anticipates and responds to the changing needs of the marketplace. Remember the CI Pacific fund, Segregated Funds, and Sector Funds concepts that CI revolutionized? However, CI missed the boat on ETF funds, as did TD Bank, because they finally realized that the ETF arena is where money will be pouring in for the next several decades, and where another player BMO is already reaping benefits from its farsighted vision that made BMO enter the ETF arena in 2009.

CI enters the ETF arena by acquiring First Asset Investment Management, which has $3 billion in assets under management and $1.6 billion of that is in active ETFs. BMO’s ETF assets under management are already staying high at nearly $24 billion, making it Canada’s second largest ETF provider after iShares.

And TD? It will be entering the ETF arena as the 3rd bank player (after BMO and RBC) in early 2016. TD hasn’t revealed much detail yet about its ETFs, but it was widely expected that, like CI, TD would have had no choice but to enter the ETF marketplace. However, the difference between CI and TD is that TD already attempted to enter the ETF marketplace in the past (in 2001), but failed to keep up its pace due to unexpected low trading volumes.

Things have changed since then. The Canadian ETF sector has come a long way and is currently sitting with $87 billion under management with 12 players. The growth potential of ETF industry cannot be ignored anymore and CI and TD made the right delayed call to enter the marketplace. Here is a simple example of how BMO rapidly increased its AUM by acting ahead of everyone else.

BMO ETF AUM (Asset Under Management)

2009 – Start

2010 September – $1 billion

2011 April – $2 billion

2011 September – $3 billion

2012 January – $4 billion

2012 March – $5 billion

2012 August – $7 billion

2013 March – $10 billion

2015 November – Nearly 24 billion

So what does it mean to have more players for Canadian investors? More competition, wider selections, more choices, broader distribution channels, and yes, lower costs. As the ETF sector is maturing and going through tremendous growth in Canada, expect to see more players putting their feet in in the days to come.

Canadians Are Confident But Keeping Eggs Safe

Keep Your Eggs Safe

First Published Date: Nov 13, 2009

In easier times, livestock and land managed ones wealth. An old saying “not to count your chickens before they hatch” has remained with us over the years and is still used widely today. In today’s financial turmoil it may appear that, the Global Economy is on a steady up swing yet we are still hesitant to take that deep sigh of relief.

It is fair knowledge in the financial world that the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has recorded that our global recovery is succeeding at an accelerated gain, yet perhaps not as well as some may have hoped. With the unemployment rates, still climbing the up swing can be accounted by the government aid and stimulus packages, which were implemented to stimulate the market. Although overall, our gains are increasing hope in the financial market but on an individual level, many are still in crisis.

Canadians are Confident

With the current economic concerns, it appears that Canadian residents are still maintaining hopeful outlooks towards the financial future and after several months of polls is still on the rise. Canada is also rising in the competitiveness field of Global Banking as surveyed by the World Economic Forum. It is to wonder as to their rise if it is due to their supported confidence. The US remains at the 2nd spot on the compositeness Global Banking Reports even though their confidence has been reported to be much lower than Canada which was ranked as 9th, a definite climb for Canada from 13th place in 2007.

Moreover, one should consider that several polls based on consumer confidence vary widely in terms of questions and statistics but overall Canadian consumers are still more aggressive in the retail markets. Their knowledge to boost the market by spending and maintaining their over all confidence has been noted by several reports. They are the first to step out of the recession and appear to be going strong in the right direction. While their neighbours are more guarded they may be realizing that their border partners may be leading the path to recovery successfully and follow suit.

Other contenders for speedy recovery have been spotlighted with Brazil definitely on the heels of the US and Canadian Markets. Their success can also be measured by the steps taken by the Brazilian Government to aid and boost the economy safely and effectively.

It is still a hazy road at best for most and ways to boost the economy and confidence in spending are being targeted. It is useful knowledge to follow these updates and reports to find we have dodged a very dangerous economic down turn and we are in control of how we manage this swing in the right direction. Safety is key and keeping your egg basket close on the home hearth seems to be the overall advantage in some countries. Many are still skeptical as to how the road to recovery will continue. It is important that the Governments keep maintaining their stimulus support for sometime to ensure the confidence that the World Economy so definitely needs to remain hopeful in this time of such economic uncertainty.

What to Do When Your Income Decreases

Facing A Reduction of Income or Wage Cut

First Published Date: December 19, 2015

When you are made redundant, there is usually some form of remuneration payment and the prospect, no matter how bleak it may appear at the time of further and new employment. For some, the lucky few, there is the encouragement of being told that your employment is secure, and that there is also the possibility of a pay rise or promotion further down the track. However, there are some who have been given an assurance of ongoing employment, only at cost of having to work reduced hours and for a reduced pay check at the end of each week.

Meeting the challenge of a reduction in pay is something that can bring out resourcefulness in many different ways.

The first thing that should be done is to make a complete list of what income is actually spent on each month. Often, by the simple process of listing and setting out in writing what each expenditure is, it will immediately be seen which are essentials and which, consistent with maintaining a reasonable standard living can be cut out, or pruned back.

Compare the total of this list with your total after tax income and you will have a precise amount, the deficit that you will have each month if expenditure remains at the same level.

Part of the expenditure will be fixed, in the form of loan or debt repayment. You can look at taking advantage of new lower interest rates by considering a debt consolidation loan, converting all your monthly debt repayments into one, lower interest rate, debt servicing repayment, against which you may be able to offset the interest charge even more by having the repayments made weekly instead of monthly, which can save years of repayments in terms of a home mortgage debt.

Charges for Utilities, and rates are often able to be paid on a weekly repayment arrangement if you make contact with the relevant authorities and inform them of your situation, rather than having to meet the entire cost of pre-payment in one lump sum.

Expenses associated with motor vehicles can be drastically reduced, and give you the possibility of a much needed capital sum, if you consider selling one of two motor vehicles and making use of public transport and  sharing the use of the remaining vehicle. For some, using public transport might mean that a private car is no longer needed.

Look at your savings – it is a good idea to keep some on call funds for possible emergencies – but there is no point in having funds in a savings account, earning little interest if you have high interest debts that you could use this money to repay, and so reduce your monthly outgoings.

Every voluntary expense can be looked at to see what can be discarded, and which will need to be reduced. Subscriptions can be cancelled. It is often tempting to reduce expenditure on food, but this can often be a mistake, as you will need to keep healthy and fit, and to have a lot of spare energy to survive a financial crisis