Aw thanks AP for this comment, appreciate it! Glad you found it helpful!

And appreciate that you understand my sense of humour 🙂

Once you’re in USD (which VTI is) then there are no withholding taxes if inside your RRSP since you’re in the same currency as the holdings.

This can happen either by performing Norberts Gambit or by simply paying your brokerage a fee to convert your currency from CAD to USD. So your extra costs have already been incurred by paying the percentage fee to the broker to convert for you. (Depending on how much you are converting, this could be a little or a lot of money.)

A RRSP is the one registered Canadian account that gets special treatment by the IRS. There is generally no withholding tax if you own U.S. stocks or U.S.-listed ETFs (like VTI). However, if you own a Canadian-listed ETF (like VUN) or Canadian mutual fund that owns US stocks, the tax is withheld before it gets to the fund or to your RRSP.

US withholding taxes are all accounted for behind the scene in your accounts. So if you are holding VTI in an account besides your RRSP, your brokerage will handle all the withholding taxes involved. Same goes if holding VUN. Withholding taxes is ONLY on the dividends, not capital gains. There is way too much focus going on in the FI/personal finance space about withholding taxes. Unfortunately it’s just the price you pay to be able to be part of the largest economy in the world. And because it’s ONLY on the dividends, it really is quite minuscule.

Thank you for taking the time to respond and for the reference.

Mathematically, yes time in the market is your best friend so investing as often as you can historically meant that you will see higher returns vs waiting say quarterly for to lump sum investments.

Hey Ash, glad you found us!

Yes, you can invest in VTI within both your RRSP and TFSA. You will have to convert your CAD to USD first in both accounts. This can be done either via Norberts Gambit or paying the currency conversion fee (not recommended). Another option is to keep your money in CAD and invest in VUN instead which is the Canadian equivalent.

Do not worry about share price – it has nothing to do with market returns. Buying 2x of VFV does not mean it’s 2x more valuable than 1x of VTI just because it’s priced at half the price of VTI. Google a comparison chart of historical returns of VFV vs VTI and you will see they are nearly identical as they are similar indexes.

You certainly could do Norberts Gambit and invest in VFV if you’d like. The biggest difference is that VFV tracks the top 500 US companies whereas VTI tacks all of the US companies (over 4000).

Also! 3. Is it advisable to invest in multiple rounds than a lump sum?