How are your RRSPs doing?

[Kloubek]

So, after years of rather ho-hum performance from my RRSPs, my recent statement is astounding to me.

I'm not one to give much detail into my finances, but I will here for the purposes of my point. I have 70k in RRSPs right now. In the last 6 months alone, I gained 7k. That's nearly a thousand a month.

I can't recall what the actual percentage gain was, nor do I wish to do the math to find out - but it was far more than impressive. Thank you Sun Life.

Now my (small) tsfa, on the other hand, tends to lose me money every month, even though I have it in medium-risk funds. Maybe it's time to switch that... they're doing something wrong apparently.

So - have you guys with RRSPs noticed far higher returns lately too?

[bmeier]

Stock market I'm general has been doing well. What are your rrsp invested in? Stocks, etf? mutual funds?

[mazdavirgin]

Self directed RRSP invested in ETF's. I'm up 30% overall last year alone. Not like that is surprising seeing what the market did last year. I expect it will continue going up and down but yeah last couple years have been fantastic years to have money in the market. As for SunLife I wouldn't touch them and their ridiculous fees with a 10 foot barge pole

[CapnCrunch]

I just started buying my own stocks in my RRSP last August.

I'm up around 15% since then.

I've had mutual funds for the past 8 years and I don't think they've even made me 15% overall since then, lol.

[Feruk]

Last year was an exceptional year. I don't know what percentage I made, but the number was quite high (prolly between 15% and 20%). I would not expect a repeat this year.

Just out of curiosity Kloubek, what funds are your TFSA in? I find it hard to believe a fund could've actually lost money in 2013 except if it was either in bonds or gold/metals.

[dirtsniffer]

I have Great West at work, saw good gains last year

[SkiBum5.0]

The stock market gained as a whole ~30% year over year. If you were invested in the US market you should be seeing solid gains, with CAD markets not too far behind.

[GQBalla]

my work pension is up 33 %

my RRSP in mutual funds makes 2% a year

my Self Directed RRSP is up 5 %

[Kloubek]

Firstly, Mazdavirgin, I am with Sunlife because that is what I need to be with if I want my company to contribute 50% of what I put in. Might as well get free money while I'm at it. And while you may not like them, statistical returns have been at least reasonable up to this past 6 month period.

bmeier: I know I should know more about my finances, but I simply picked from the selections they gave us when I entered the program. I believe they are mutual funds, and some equity funds. (Not sure if equity funds are also mutual funds.... I am not up to financial terminology)

As for your question Feruk, I don't know the exact funds my TFSA are in off-hand... I'd have to go find the docket that I brought home from the bank when I first started contributing to it. All I recall is that it was a moderate-risk fund that statistically had done fairly well in the past. I was advised that with any risk-based fund that I should not take my money out if it isn't doing well. But it's been probably 3 years now and not much positive is happening there...

[ExtraSlow]

Don 't confuse good returns with good strategy. A rising tide floats all boats.

That being said, I never liked the fully managed mutual funds that were suggested for my RRSP. I now have as much of it as possible in index funds and individual stocks. There is a portion of my work RRSP that I have to have in a managed fund, but I don't sweat it.

[Kloubek]

Oh, I have no strategy whatsoever. The most I've actually directed my funds over the years is perhaps restructuring the portfolio perhaps twice into funds that had been doing better over the last year or so. And my TFSA further proves that lack of strategy.

[ExtraSlow]

Kloubek, the first thing you need to know is how the people that are advising you get paid.
Typically at banks and insurance companies like sun life/manulife great west etc, they get a sales comission when you buy the fund, and also annual amounts for every year you own the fund. Some of them also get a comission when you sell.
Fees on managed funds can be 5% per year, so if your fund made 10%, you only get half of that.

There's a reason the companies that sell these investments are so profitable.

[CapnCrunch]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Kloubek, the first thing you need to know is how the people that are advising you get paid.
Typically at banks and insurance companies like sun life/manulife great west etc, they get a sales comission when you buy the fund, and also annual amounts for every year you own the fund. Some of them also get a comission when you sell.
Fees on managed funds can be 5% per year, so if your fund made 10%, you only get half of that.

There's a reason the companies that sell these investments are so profitable.

+1. They aren't selling the best performing funds to you, they are pushing the funds that get them the highest commission.

[Xtrema]

I started to point my RRSP toward US index fund as recovery starts to materialize.

Return was 25% for 2013 and 15% for 2012.

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by Kloubek
Firstly, Mazdavirgin, I am with Sunlife because that is what I need to be with if I want my company to contribute 50% of what I put in. Might as well get free money while I'm at it. And while you may not like them, statistical returns have been at least reasonable up to this past 6 month period.

IMHO you should be selling/transfering out of the sunlife stuff and transferring into a self directed RRSP as soon as they allow you take your money + the 50%(You won't incur taxes if you do it properly since it's RRSP->RRSP). The fees on those accounts eat up pretty much any of the returns you should be seeing on good years and on bad years make everything so so much worse.

[Sugarphreak]

....

[dirtsniffer]

Originally posted by mazdavirgin


IMHO you should be selling/transfering out of the sunlife stuff and transferring into a self directed RRSP as soon as they allow you take your money + the 50%(You won't incur taxes if you do it properly since it's RRSP->RRSP). The fees on those accounts eat up pretty much any of the returns you should be seeing on good years and on bad years make everything so so much worse.

I can't speak for the OP but If I remove any of the company paid portion they don't contribute for the next 6 months.

[89coupe]

One of my RSP accounts.

Jan 2009 to Dec 2013

[TYMSMNY]

Standard profile growth is 50% in 4 years? That's standard? plus that graph is wrong/misleading as it doesn't know how to count properly. 09, 10, 12...

SDRSP can be exciting and rewarding at times but the reason why funds are popular because it lets the professionals handle it on a daily basis. Therefore management fees. The WORST thing about the funds are the DSC fees, absolutely hate them with a passion.

[89coupe]

I use RBC www.actiondirect.com

I just used their performance chart. Send them an email.