Here’s part three of the five part series on what I’m holding in my TFSA. We’re halfway through, so just one more Wednesday of putting on your thinking caps and guessing what equity I bought and it’ll be back to my regular posts.

In this series, I am sharing what my holdings are (or what I bought) in my Tax Free Trading Account for 2011. I had income trusts in 2010 and sold them all off due to being weary about what might happen come January (which is now a few months ago– time flies!) when they slash their distrubutions due to them being incorporated.

The last two weeks, I talked about EIF.TO and then JE.TO both doling out huge dividends (8-9% annually). This week, you can try to guess the next holding I have in my small TFSA portfolio.

Here goes- put on your thinking caps:

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Alright, I promised that I would share the other 4 equities I bought to hold in my TFSA aka Tax Free Trading Account. With the markets plummeting these past few days, it might be a good idea to load up on some stocks you have been keeping an eye on. The volatility is back.. stocks are on sale (that’s how I like to think of it, anyway).

Like last week’s post, I had you try to guess what the equity I bought in my TFSA was. So I’ll try and do the same again this week.

I had bought a very small amount of shares of this income trust before 2011 rolled around.  With the newly added money ($5000) I put in last month, I added more shares to equal 100 shares.  When I get more money in my TFSA from my tax refund, I plan on buying more of this stock.

Alright, here goes, time to put on your thinking caps:

• This is another big dividend payer- 8.28% annual yield  (that’s $0.10333 per share per month or $1.24 per share a year)
• They didn’t decrease their payout to investors even though they converted from an income trust to a corporation (one of the few ones that didn’t).  This says a lot since the government changed the tax structure, so they are being taxed and still paying the investors the same amount.  That says a lot.

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Just what the doctor ordered, an apple a day keeps the financial gremlins away.  Sorry that doesn’t really make much sense (what are financial gremlins, really?), but I felt like using the word doctor and apple together.  Since apples are the ‘theme’ of youngandthrify.ca  =)  Speaking of doctoring… the apples look a bit brighter, thanks to Forest at  Frugalzeitgeist.

I wanted to update you on how the Tax Free Trading Account that I got with Questrade is doing.  My  Tax Free Trading Account portfolio was funded with $5000 at the end of January and to date, I have about $46 in distributions, and total equity including distribution is $5607.

That’s a 12% increase in about 1.5 months time.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.  Because I was able to keep the trading commissions low ($4.95 with Questrade) I was able to preserve more of my hard earned cashola.  I think this 12% definitely beats the 1-3% that a conventional Tax Free Savings Account offers.

It’s nice that the markets are cooperating these days!

Also in blog news, just wanted to share that Tom at Canadian Finance Blog kindly allowed me to guest post on his blog!  Thanks to the Yakezie group for making this happen!  This is my first guest post ever, so it is pretty exciting.  Please go over and check it out (especially if you’re a family with children under 18 and you think Colin Hansen, our British Columbia finance minister is damn sexy).

Happy Friday everyone!  I’ll be calculating my networth over the weekend and sharing my net worth on Monday.  Hope it’s wayyy up in the green!

PS If you want $50 in free trades, sign up for a Questrade account and put in “youngandthrifty” under the promo code.  You’ll be on your way to $50 a free trades and Questrade will credit you your money after 10 trades.

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Just wanted to give an update on my status of my TFTA aka “souped up” TFSA.

I sent over my account signatures on Monday (the 11th of January) and I just got an email today (January 15) that my account has been approved and it’s waiting to be funded. I had already funded my account yesterday and am waiting for the money transfer to go ahead and be sent my new Webtrader password.

That’s pretty quick…

Hopefully I’ll get that password for webtrader soon. The stock market took a big dip today and yesterday and I want to get in on some of that buying action before it’s too late.

On a side note, I am still waiting for my USD pre-approved transfer to be approved. I put my signature of that paperwork in the same envelope, so they must have received it too. The money is still sitting my USD bank account.
I’ll keep you posted.

Edit: January 19, 2010: woo hoo! Got my webtrader password today-they were true to their word of 48 hours after fundage of account. Still no transfer of USD money yet to my other Questrade account.

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It’s January, and it’s time to start thinking about contributing to your TFSA for the 2010.

Last year, I put my TFSA into a principal protected mutual fund that tracked the index.

This year, I thought I would do something different.

Questrade has been offering their Tax Free Trading Account since January of last year, when the TFSA first came out.

Some people use the TFSA as an emergency fund, and interim account where they can grow their condo fund, car fund, school fund, or emergency fund tax free.  With the conventional TFSA, such as high interest savings accounts, you can earn between 1-3% depending on the promotions going on right now (hot tip  ING Direct is offering 3%.)

But… why earn a measly 3% of interest income when you can trade without having to pay capital gains or income trust distributions?

I know, I know, interest income is taxed at 100% your marginal rate.  We all want to think smart, to avoid paying anything that is taxed at your marginal rate.

I just opened up a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade yesterday.  I currently have a non-registered account already, and I like their low commissions, so thought I would add to that with the Tax Free Trading Account.  Besides, it’s free.  I know that some banks/brokerages charge you money to “up keep” the registered account, even if it’s self directed.

There are a few different ways people are filling in their Tax Free Trading Accounts.  Everyone has different ideas.

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