Should You Consider An All-GIC Portfolio? | Page 3 | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

What I wrote earlier about investment grade bonds still applies. Their yields are lower than what one can get rate-chasing.

To get at least the 1.7% from an Accelerate savings account, one would have to commit for about a year. There's the Dream Office REIT 3.424% bonds due 2018/06/13. Priced at 100.962% of face value to yield 2.379% to maturity, before commissions.

If one could commit for a year, one could instead go for a one-year, semi-annual pay, Oaken GIC yielding 2.70%.

Oaken GIC has deposit insurance. Dream Office REIT bonds do not. Not a good idea to assume more risk for a lower return.

Loonie said
Sorry, Cranston, I have no specific recommendations. I just think it's something we ought to consider. Jon may have a good idea but in order to be certain of the income you are going to get and I think of safety of principal, you would need to buy the actual bonds. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that.
There are a couple of Cdn books on this subject which are alleged to be helpful. I could dig out the titles if you want. I tried reading one of them once. Some of it was over my head. Maybe someone who buys them can enlighten us.  

Hi. Thanks I think I will pass on bonds. I tried to understand how to buy and commissions etc with no success and went to bond ETFs and was not impressed. I have GICs in iTrade for a few more years and if I still think I have no need for them I will shut down our accounts. I also did try to find the cash optimizer account rate .... but no luck.

Thanks.

AltaRed said
It is better to put surplus cash that is in Scotia iTrade investment accounts into DYN500 (CAD ISA @ 0.75%) and DYN400 (USD ISA@ 0.45%). I stopped leaving cash in my Scotia Cash Optimizer accounts some time ago (zero balance in Cash Optimizer) and just have DYN500 and DYN400 in my regular Cash investment account. The DYN assets are T+1 so money is available no later than 2 days later.  

Thanks that is a rock solid fantastic tip! I see it is $10 a unit, always. So, on iTrade, there is no cost to buy or sell? If non registered does it impact on your agregate minimum balance of at least $10,000?

As far as I know pretty much every brokerage has at least one similar investment account paying about .75% these days. Some (e.g. RBC DI, TD DI) have more than one if you want to keep below CDIC limit in each one.

AltaRed said
No cost to buy or sell the Hollis Bank (DYN family) because it is in-house with Scotia's ownership of the company. It may have a 30 day minimum hold to avoid an early redemption charge but I am not certain. …  

Scotia iTRADE waives their 1% early redemption fee on Scotia Money Market Funds, Dynamic Funds, and Scotia Mutual Funds. The ISA's are treated as money market funds. Money market funds have a $5,000 minimum:

³ Scotia iTRADE will charge an early redemption fee of 1% (minimum of $38.88) to your Scotia iTRADE account on the redemption or switch of all mutual funds, any other fund products and Investment Savings Accounts (other than Scotia Money Market Funds, Dynamic Funds and Scotia Mutual Funds) held for less than 90 days. Early redemption fees may also be charged by some mutual fund companies. Please refer to the prospectus of each fund for details. … The minimum purchase amount for all money market funds is $5,000. All other funds are subject to minimum purchase and redemption amounts as outlined in the prospectus or $1,000, whichever is greater. …

Loonie, try TDB8150 ISA, pays .75%, always accessible, CDIC insured. If you need more than $100K I believe there's also 8155, 8157 and 8159.

Bill said
Loonie, try TDB8150 ISA, pays .75%, always accessible, CDIC insured. If you need more than $100K I believe there's also 8155, 8157 and 8159.  

The TD Asset Management product page for them is at TDAM: TD Investment Savings Account