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Holding cash in a TFSA and similar

6K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  cardhu 
#1 ·
By holding cash I don't necessarily mean cash, it could also be a fixed income fund of some type that protects the cash, but has some kind of return.

So, if you want to hold cash for some period, say 60-180 days, where do you put your money? Or do you simply hold cash?
 
#2 ·
Welcome to the forum!

If it's only for a few months I would just leave it in the savings account. Even at "high" interest of 2% with some other institution, you'll have all sorts of hassles identifying yourself and opening new account, waiting for funds to transfer. Then to withdraw it after all that fuss? Nah, just leave it in your savings account. Interest rates aren't high enough to warrant doing anything fancy with this.

How much money are we talking about?
 
#3 ·
Now you see. That is exactly the type of thing a financial advisor could help you with. As I said, he can possibly help you outperform what you could do yourself, but he cannot consistently outperform the index ... unless he gets very, very lucky. I don't think anyone has got that lucky for more than 10 or 12 years in a row, but perhaps out of the multi-millions that have tried, there is 1.
 
#8 ·
Answers may vary due to the interpretation of what the cash would be for.

If for example you were about to close on a house, you may hold the $ in your RRSP, to utilize the HBplan.

Or...if you don't have any other investments, you may put it in your TFSA to simply avoid paying any taxes on it, until you are ready to utilize the funds.

Or if your RRSP or TFSA is already maxed, and you have to have some $ for some reason for 180 days set aside, then why not simply keep it in a non registered account, it doesn't really make you much anyways, and your tax bill on it would be low.
 
#11 ·
I should have provided a bit more information. I do have 20K sitting in an ING savings account, but I was looking for someplace to park cash in a TFSA, RESP, or LIRA where a person wouldn't want to transfer the cash out.

The high interest account is a great idea, just keep the buy/sell fees in mind when moving the money.
 
#13 ·
To me the TFSA is the best place for this. It's not as easy as simply accessing the money via an ATM. You have to call them and ask them to transfer the money out of the TFSA and into your regular account. That should address the requirement of not wanting to transfer the cash out.

Once again, for any other purpose, I don't see the point of messing around and making your life complicated for the matter of $20 in interest you may collect in a few short months. How much is your time worth? Keep it simple!
 
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