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.14 after making some changes earlier this year in accordance with helpful guidance from this forum.

Actually, I am an expert. I prepare dozens of these forms every year for clients, as well as on my own personal 1040 return. In answer to the question , yes the form is required yearly for each RRSP account you hold. In subsequent years, tick the box 6(a) that says you have previously made the elect...

Just file an amended return (1040X) and send it in with Form 8891, U.S. Information Return for Beneficiaries of Certain Canadian Registered Retirement Plans. You tell the IRS the RRSP plan custodian's name and address, your account #, and the plan balance at the end of 2012. Tick the box 6(c) that s...

Personally, I am not comfortable picking individual bonds. I used to work for Washington Mutual.

As of Friday April 19th, there's a new option that might be considered a middle ground between holding individual bonds and a bond mutual fund. The iShares target-date bond ETFs are now available. These are similar in structure and concept to the Guggenheim Bulletshares, but with an expense ratio of...

As part of working my plan to reach a target asset allocation, I plopped $72,000 into the Vanguard Total International ETF the other day and didn't twitch a bit. Buy things when you need them.

Is there a reason why you're not repatriating the proceeds of selling the company to New Zealand? That would simplify your tax life immensely. Are you planning to return to the US in the future and want to have money available there to fund expenses on your return?

See this link for the latest guidance from the IRS regarding inadvertent non-filing by US citizens living outside the US: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Instructions-for-New-Streamlined-Filing-Compliance-Procedures-for-Non-Resident-Non-Filer-US-Taxpayers I work for a well-known tax preparation firm, which r...

Is it any more expensive to hold Vanguard funds in Fidelity? My current 401K is with Fidelity and I assumed I would roll it over to Vanguard when I left the company and moved to Canada, but I don't want to pay more than what Vanguard charges. It's not more expensive to hold them, but Fidelity will ...

As for the US mailing address, if you want to keep things above board, the important thing is to check the contract terms to see if they require US residency. Vanguard, for example, explicitly told me they require customers to be US residents , therefore merely having a US mailing address would not...

Microsoft Security Essentials -- free, non-invasive, and generally "good enough" for most home users. +1 Unless you have some unusual security requirements, MSSE is the way to go. + another 1. Based on these comments, I kicked McAfee to the curb this afternoon and installed MSE. The incre...

No offense intended, but I can see no reason at all for having so many funds. I would cut it down to 3 and not more than 5 funds, and I would keep them all with the same company for ease of paperwork. I know you've already decided to "slice and dice," but I think that's a needless and cou...

Just wanted to wrap this up and say thanks to everyone for all the help and suggestions. Here's what I'm planning to do for now...it's a bit simpler and definitely lower cost. The target allocation is now 30 stocks / 53 bonds / 7 REIT / 10 cash I reduced High Yield bond to 5%, switched to BSV instea...

I can't really help you with those questions. In the last crash, the High Yield Bond fund acted like a stock fund. The Total Bond Market didn't. But if you believe the fund has some qualities that make it somewhat bond like, going half and half or reducing the allocation to 5% are both more reasona...

I'm a Canadian citizen with a corporate career in the US, considering whether I will stay here permanently or for as long as I'm working. I could easily move back to Canada from an immigration perspective, but my biggest concern is the size of a portfolio that I will have accumulated here by that t...

Taking risks and sitting tight during wild market swings is what got me to where I am today... You learned by your own experience in the last crash to count the high yield bonds as stocks. You think it won't happen again, just like last time? Why did you switch back? Since I'm upping my allocation ...

Are you counting that Vanguard High Yield Bond fund as stocks or bonds? These days I'm counting the VWEHX as bonds...when it was 12% of my total portfolio, I counted it as stocks. Starting to categorize it in the equities column was one of the painful lessons of 2008-2009! Maybe I should follow wha...

Regarding SS. You mention a common law partner, but I suspect that the SS Administration would consider you single.... If you find the math works out that way for you as well, you might consider taking your SS at 62 instead of full retirement age. You should be finished with your 72(t) obligations ...

too much in Int'l (and developing intl) seems like you're using the guise of protecting against USD fx instead of what seems as a chasing yield play. If you were worried about USD:CAD longterm rates wouldn't you look into a specific CAD:USD type fund, Oil/Energy (to play on canada's petro link curr...

Are you covered by the Canadian health system? Seems to me living expenses could get really high if not. But maybe that's why you have it so low. Yes, fully covered since 90 days after moving here. I don't pay anything for doctors or hospitalizations; the monthly premiums for that coverage here in ...

Hello all--This site has been a tremendous help in starting me on a path away from bad investor behavior. Thanks for all you do. Here's my situation: I immigrated to Canada 5 years ago after a corporate career in the US. I'm semi-retired and make about $10k/year at a seasonal job. My Social Security...

It works beautifully as long as you live in the United States. I live in Canada and there is no provision for entering a foreign address to validate. There ARE other places in the world where Social Security future beneficiaries might live besides 'Murka, ya know?

I've got a substantial amount (12% of my total portfolio) in VWEHX. It's a long term holding for me and I count it on the equity side of my asset allocation, not the bond side. And it can be volatile...during the 2008-2009 meltdown, it declined about 30% just like stocks. But the yield of 7% is pret...

This seems like Vanguard are making things more difficult than they need to. ...It would appear that they will be losing out with people moving their IRAs to other custodians if they do not allow new contributions in and/or trading within the account. On a related point, how do distributions from a...

I'm a US citizen, living in Canada for the past 3 years. I'm semi-retired and plan to stay here permanently. Fidelity will happily work with you as a non-resident. Some things, like buying new issue CDs, you'll have to do over the phone with them. Otherwise you can transact in your account (buy, sel...