Jerome Bitun

I see a lot of clients looking to get home insurance and when I ask them how much they want to insure for, they always say, "we only want the minimum, we don't have a lot of stuff". It's interesting when people say that because all they're focused on is how much it would cost them to buy the insurance. They never really think about how much it would really cost to replace what they own. Home insurance policies are normally set up to insure you for "replacement cost". This means that they'll get you back to where you were before the loss, never more, never less. So if your neighbor upstairs had a water leak and your 55" 4K Ultra HD TV that you bought for $2,500 3 years ago short circuits because of that, the insurance company will replace the TV with the same brand, size and model without depreciation. They're not going to say that it's 3 years old now, here's $500 to replace it. People don't realize this so they underest...

President Donald Trump has been shaking up the whole establishment, issuing travel bans, repealing the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), tweeting about industries like defense and auto manufacturers. When a President of a country calls out companies or industries, the stock market reacts to it. When Trump tweeted about the F-35 jet being overpriced, six of the 28 stocks in aerospace and defense industry dropped 2% or more. When he tweeted about car manufacturers building plants in Mexico saying they should build the plants in the US or pay big border tax, Toyota’s stock loses $1.2B in value 5 minutes after the tweet came out. When Trump issued the immigration travel ban on a weekend. Airline stocks in the US that has international destinations lost $4.9 billion in market value . When Trump signed an executive order to review or end the financial regulations set up during the Obama administration which was enacted after the 2008 financial crisis that was meant to protect cons...

The unimaginable has happened. America has voted the most unlikely candidate for President and a lot of people got caught by surprise. However, I wasn’t as surprised that Trump won. In fact, I was half expecting it. For all of Trump’s bluster, I already had a feeling he will have a good showing in the polls, maybe a close race with Clinton if Clinton did win. But when it was shown he was leading in the early polls, I knew he was going to win. What surprised me was that the whole country voted Republican. The US congress and senate is now controlled by the Republicans. Last time, congress was controlled by the Republicans but the senate was controlled by the Democrats. This time around, the Democrats were completely demolished. Why? Historically, when the economy is doing badly, the incumbent party almost always losses. Why? Because the people wants change, so the kick out the current party and install a new party to see if they can make things better. If the economy is doing well...

Roller Coaster Ride Up…down...up…down…down…down…down…up…up!...up! Do you sometimes feel the stock market is like riding a roller coaster? Because that’s exactly how it felt like the last few weeks. It’s like how you feel during the Christmas season. All the highs of the season, the Christmas jingles, the lights, the cold winter air, the parties, everyone greeting Merry Christmas to each other. Then after Christmas, comes the crash, the quietness and the realization that you have a ton of credit card bills to pay when it arrives in January. It’s certainly has been an interesting January we’ve had so far with the stock market. The S&P500 was down 5.07% for the month of January. It came crashing down until the 3rd week of January then started going up until the end of the month. Then suddenly, it started going down again until it hit bottom on February 11 and is now almost back to the high of February 1, 2016. I normally write a something to my clients whenever I see s big mar...

Here are the personal tax changes from the Federal Budget yesterday. TFSA The TFSA was introduced in 2009 as a way to save and invest for your future on a tax exempt basis. Contributions to a TFSA is not tax deductible but gains, income and withdrawals are tax free. Originally, the TFSA started with a $5,000 limit subject to inflation adjustments of $500 increments. Because of this, the TFSA limit from 2009 to 2012 was at $5,000, but changed to $5,500 from 2013 to 2014. The new 2015 budget proposes to increase the TFSA annual contribution limit to $10,000 effective immediately and going forward. However, the annual contribution limit will no longer be indexed to inflation but will be increased only if legislated. So if you have never contributed into a TFSA, you can now contribute up to $41,000 as long as you have been 18 years old since 2009. You can invest your TFSA into a variety of investments like stocks, bonds, GICs, mutual funds and segregated funds. RRIF A RRIF i...

There’s a good chance that you are related to, or know someone with a disability. There are 3.8 million Canadians or 13.7% of the Canadian population aged 15 or older that are reported to having some form of disability. Canada has a good savings and benefit program in the form of government grants and bonds, but many people who qualify for the disability program are not aware that Canada has a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP). While we are all probably familiar with Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), very few have heard of the RDSP. The RDSP is a vehicle for tax-deferred growth and a “matched” savings plan for people with a severe and prolonged disability. For Canadians who qualify, the RDSP is a great way to achieve long-term financial security. Who qualifies? To qualify for the RDSP, the beneficiary of the program (the person with the disability) must meet four criteria. He or she must: - be under the age of 60...

Let's face it, our digital lives are completely intertwined with real lives. Everybody is connected digitally in one way or the other. We all have one or more of these services like e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. While we all manage them personally, what happens when we pass away? Who manages them to inform your friends and family that you are no longer around and how do you want your online life to be managed so that it will be delete or deactivated so that no one can hack or impersonate you? As far as I know, there is no law in Canada allowing for the passing of your digital assets to your estate or beneficiary. Your digital assets is not the same as your physical and financial assets which can be passed on. This leaves a lot of problem for the survivors since online companies usually do not just allow anyone to get access to another person's account even if that person is deceased without going through some rigorous processes to prove death and that y...

A funny thing happened to one of our clients the other day. She lives in a condo with two kids under 3 years old. One day, she started smelling something bad coming out of her second bathroom so she called her property manager to complain and the property manager told her to call a plumber. The next day, a plumber came in and told her that since she doesn't use that shower that she should just run the shower for a while and the smell should go away. She did as the plumber suggested but the smell didn't go away. In fact, it just got worst each day. She called the plumber again and the plumber said he couldn't figure out what was wrong. So he decided to remove the wall to find out if there was a broken sewer line which could be the source of the smell. Once the wall was taken out, the smell got even worst, in fact, 10 times as worst. She described it as like hitting a wall of stink and it was unbearable. The plumber found nothing wrong and said the smell must be coming ...

Life insurance, especially Permanent Life insurance like Whole Life and Universal Life Insurance is one of the most underrated tool that one can use as a savings vehicle. Depending on the type of insurance used, you can get returns like you get from a GIC or like a mutual fund with he added benefit that the returns in a life insurance policy are tax deferred or can potentially be tax free. These are some of the benefits of a life insurance policy with cash values. Did you also know that the cash value in a life insurance policy is also protected from creditors? All life insurance policies and life insurance products like segregated funds offer creditor protection if set up properly. This is because there is a designated beneficiary in the policy. However, for a life policy to be properly protected, the beneficiaries have to be set up properly. Bankruptcy I recently came upon a client who is undergoing bankruptcy. The bankruptcy happened because of a divorce and the ex-wife is now en...

When you're planning for retirement, first, cover your basic needs. Basic needs are income you need to cover the basics like food, clothing, shelter, etc. Watch this short video on how to plan to cover your basic needs. If you are interested in learning more, ask me how you can set one up for yourself.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,700.80 today which is just off its all-time high. It has surpassed where it was before the 2007 financial crisis. It took about 6 years for the market to get back to even and the lesson here is that investors who are in it for the long term (10 years or more) usually do okay. When the market started crashing in late 2007 all the way through 2009, a lot of investors left the equities market and went into bonds or GICs. While it is prudent to protect your capital, the problem is, these same investors were slow to get back to the market. At its peak in 2007, the Dow Jones was at 14,093.08 and went down as low as 6626.94. It’s impossible to time the market and nobody knew 6547.05 would be the bottom of the market. But as the market started coming back from the low, investors were still sitting in bonds and GICs. When the Dow Jones hit 8,000, people were still in the sidelines waiting and being cautious. At 10,000, people start...