Truly Harrowing

I have never been a fan of horror or terrified movie ever since young as it takes such a long time for me to get it out of my mind and the movie has had significant impact on me. The most horror movie that I have ever watched was the movie ‘The Ring’. I still remember most of the horrifying scenes from it. When I came to know about this Frontier(s) movie that has just been released on 9 May 2008 in selected theaters, I was very curious about it. I wonder if it could be more horror than those I have watched before. Therefore, I went to the movie trailer site and watched the trailer. Here is what I have found:

There were four crooks who run away from police. They ended up in a hotel at nowhere. The hotel is run by a family of neo-Nazi cannibals, in other words, somebody who eats human flesh. The family was so happy to see these four people as they knew that they were going to have a scrumptious feast. They were going to eat up every single part of these crooks’ body. What could YOU do if you were in such a situation while nobody could help you out of there?

This movie is uncut and unrated, which makes it even more horror and thrilled. Considering most of the uncut and unrated movies do not make it to the theaters, you do not want to miss this one. Its theatrical release date was 9 May 2008 and the DVD release date was 13 May 2008. If you are interested, please check out the select theater listings.

How do you like the new template?

I have applied a new template to this blog. Some of the features are not fully functional (like the search bar on the top). I will spend some time over the weekend to make it better. But, how do you like the new template so far?

I Signed Up for SocialSpark!

Wow, SocialSpark just accepted my blog today. SocialSpark is a newer and better get paid for post system. It is a system that
-100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure
-100% Transparency
-100% Real Opinions
-100% Search Engine Friendly
Compared with PayPerPost, SocialSpark has several advantages. First, as many has known that it has become more and more difficult to get an opportunity on PayPerPost. One has to frequently check PayPerPost website to see if there are new opportunities up for grab. I have been trying for many days, but was not able to get anything. With SocialSpark, you don't have to do that anymore. If you see you are qualified for an open sponsored post, even if the slot has been full. You can request to put yourself into the queue, something like a waiting list. When the opportunity becomes available to you, you will get notified through e-mail. As long as you completed the post within 12 hours, you are safe. ;)

The second advantage is that besides the sponsored post, SocialSpark is providing blog sponsorship as well. The advertisers will pay your certain amount of money to display their ads on your blog. With this new feature, you are having more options to monetize your blog.

Last, not the least, SocialSpark is all about Spark! With the bigger nicer blogger community, you will find many Spark opportunities there as well. Fellow blogger will invite you to be their friends, put up a link to you blog on their site. As a result, you will drive more traffic to your site and hopefully bump up your page rank as well.

I think SocialSpark is a great get paid for post system. Maybe you should check it out too. ;)

Pay Attention to Your Withholding Tax

Do you buy stocks which are listed in American Exchange? If you do, you might want to double check the statements from you broker and make sure you have been charged for proper amount of withholding tax.

The withholding tax is the tax to be withheld by the paying country on dividends and interests paid to residents of the other country. Normally, the withholding tax rate is 30%. But because of the agreement between US and Canada, if the security holder (You) has certified himself/herself as a Canadian resident, only 10% and 15% withholding tax rate will apply for the interests and dividends you received from US investments, respectively.

For example, if you, as a Canadian, buy the Bank of America shares listed on New York Stock Exchange, for every dollar dividends you received from BAC, there will be 15 cents tax withheld. When you file your tax at the end of the year, you can claim the credit for foreign tax paid, but up to 15% withholding tax level. And then you includes the grossed-up amount (100% of the interest or dividend payment) on Canadian tax returns, and calculates federal and provincial taxes in the normal way. It is important to make sure you are charged for withholding tax at the maximum 15% level instead of 30%. Otherwise, you will be double taxed.

It goes like this: You paid 30% up front, only able to get back maximumly 15%, file the tax, pay whatever tax you owe on the interest/dividend you received from US investment, say 20% of the interest/dividend, based on your income level. How much you have been tax actually? 35% (30%-15%+20%).

So if you invest in the US securities, it is important that you are taxed properly.

New Features from Questrade

I use Questrade as my broker. They sent me an e-mail yesterday about the upcoming new services, Pre-authorized deposits and eSignatures.

With the pre-authorized deposits, you will be able to set up recurring and one time transfers into your Questrade account. You can fund both US and Canadian dollar account online. This is a big step forward for Questrade. Before, to fund your US dollar account, the only way to do it is to send Questrade a cheque in US dollar. The whole process could take up to 7-8 business days. With the new service, the process time to fund your US dollar account will be much shorter.
The second new service is the eSignatures. With eSignatures, new account applications can be opened and funded immediately online without having to print and mail any documentation. I remembered when I opened my Questrade account, I have to sign and mail about 5 pages documentation to them along with the photocopy of my ID. eSignatures will simplify the process and make it much easier and quicker to open a new account.

On top of the new services, Questrade is monitoring government proceedings of TFSA closely and plans to offer TFSAs when they become available.

Switch to Index Fund for My RRSP

I called the ING Mutual Fund Associate last week to switch from ING Aggressive Portfolio to the new ING Street Wise Growth Fund. It looks like it is all done today. (It took around 7 - 8 business days for the whole process to be done)

The main reason for the switch is that the MER associated with the original aggressive portfolio is too high, average 2.3%. I do not think its performance is worth that. The MER for the ING Street Wise Fund is 1% and it will be balanced every quarter.

I know the MER is still high, at least not cheap, for an index fund compared with TD eFund series and ETFs. But my annual RRSP contribution is small at this moment, around $4800 per year. If I use ETFs instead to build my portfolio, it will be inefficient for me to do the dollar cost average and keep my trade commission low.

Also, as I mentioned in previous post, the ING Street Wise Fund might not be tax efficient outside RRSP. Since I will hold it inside my RRSP, I don't need to worry about that now.

Losing the Job

One of my co-workers just got laid off today. Although I think lay-off rarely happens in my company, it could very well does. Now she feels very stressful and is selling her home which she just bought eight months ago with a zero down payment mortgage.
This makes me think how should we cope with the situation if that ever happen to us. Other than actively searching for new jobs after getting laid off, I think there are some general guidelines that we should follow to help us better getting through the tough time.

1. Build up an emergency fund. It is recommended to have around 3 to 6 months living expenses available to you in some easy to access account, such as savings account. Some people use line of credit. With emergency fund available, it allows you to calm down, think about the situation/problem before making any decisions.

2. DO NOT get yourself into zero down payment mortgage. If you have to buy a house with zero down payment mortgage, it simply means you cannot afford it. Don't buy it. Continue to rent, save more until you can buy it with at least 20% down payment. My co-worker has to sell her house because she and her husband could not afford the mortgage payment anymore after she got laid off. They are under pressure to sell their house. As a result, they probably will not sell their house for a good price.

3. Invest in yourself. We have been talking about investing our money every single day. However, the biggest assets you have is yourself. Go to school, learn new things, invest in yourself is the best way to avoid losing the job you have.