Journey of a Trump Refugee
El Viaje de un Refugiado de Trump
Le Voyage d'un Réfugié de Trump

I have been laying low these days while I focus on my next step of moving to Ottawa. Yes, for business and lifestyle reasons, I have decided to move to Ottawa with a target date of some time in 2019. That is a wide range, of 365 days, but I am working on it. For this next step, I need to find acceptable real estate and employment in Ottawa and improve my French as much as possible. Why Ottawa? First, for better real estate investment opportunities. I am a buy and hold real estate investor. Real estate is one important part of my investment portfolio. In Toronto, real estate prices have shot up in the past decade, especially in the last 3-5 years, and are currently at dangerous bubble levels, so I have missed the opportunity for large capital appreciation. Most importantly, although rents have gone up a lot in recent years, they are still very low relative to property prices, so between collecting little rent and likely no capital appreciation in the next few years, Toronto is not a g...

More and more of the friends I have made from Canadian immigration whatsapp groups are landing and/or moving over these days! Here are my pointers on what to do in the first days after landing. Note that some of this is Toronto-specific but hopefully will still be helpful for those settling elsewhere. Quarantine - COVID-19 update  as of November 2020 The COVID-19 situation changes constantly; check this page for the travel situation , this  page for current updates and announcements , a comprehensive page of links to governmental resources and updates . As of November 2020, anyone arriving in Canada from outside the country must quarantine for 14 days . Be sure to plan for your quarantine ahead of time. You will need to stay in your lodging the entire time; you are not allowed to go out even to get food or take a walk. When you arrive at the airport, you will be asked specifics about your plans for quarantine and where you will be staying. Many people have also been called on...

TD Bank is a great resource for US expatriates and anyone living in Canada who has a nontrivial amount of US dollars. Some people have asked me specifics about accounts at TD Bank, so I decided to write this post. I have the following accounts with TD: TD Canada U.S. Daily Interest Chequing Account TD US TD Convenience Checking TD Preferred Savings with Rate Bump The Details TD Canada Two US currency account choices are available: The U.S. Daily Interest Chequing Account officially has no minimum balance, but a minimum balance of $1500 is needed to avoid being charged a fee of $1.25 per transaction. The Borderless Plan requires a $3000 minimum balance to avoid monthly fee. Additional perks include free bank drafts and better exchange rates, but the exchange rates are still very bad compared to those of the currency exchange companies described in my other post , so I don't care about the better exchange rates. TD US I like TD Convenience Checking...

Hello, friends! I know I have been silent here lately. I am still alive and kicking and loving Canada, but I have been busy and am also still trying to keep a low profile for now as I get better established here. My current focus is on finding my next investments, one of which I had been hoping would be real estate here in Toronto, but I might revise that plan. Recently I also started a contract job and am trying to finish an online French class before I begin offline French classes in September. And of course, I am trying to meet more people here whenever I have the chance. Stay tuned for more developments in the upcoming months. I spent way too much time researching bank accounts and currency exchange in Canada and wrote reviews and shared and revised them in too many places as other newcomers have asked for tips on these topics. Finally I just got around to putting them all in one place to refer to and share with other newcomers, so in the meantime, I share my reviews of bank ac...

Summary Updated November 2020: I have opened accounts with the following banks so far: BMO - first year free of monthly fees for newcomers. Builder savings account with decent interest rates. https://www.bmo.com/main/personal/newcomers-to-canada/ HSBC - first year free of monthly fees for newcomers, $500 cash bonus for depositing $10,000 and signing up for online banking within a month. Message me to get an additional $100 refer a friend bonus. http://www.hsbc.ca/celebrate Tangerine - online bank. Savings account gives 2.75% 2.5% 2.15% (as of November 2020) interest for the first 6 months and 1.2% 0.2% 0.15% (as of November 2020) after. No fee chequing account . Use my referral code 53568186S1 to get an additional $50 signup bonus. https://www.tangerine.ca/en/products/saving/savings-accounts/ EQ Bank - online savings account with an ongoing 2.3% 1.7% 1.5% (as of November 2020) interest rate, but you cannot keep more than $200,000 in the account...

I did a lot of research and made some mistakes on currency exchange in my first few weeks in Canada. Since I only had US dollars, all my research was based on getting the best rate for converting US dollars to Canadian dollars, and this post is written from that point of view, but all the currency exchange companies mentioned exchange a variety of currencies, so hopefully those of you exchanging from other currencies will also benefit from the information below. Summary If I have a small amount of US cash to convert, I post on kijiji or craigslist to find someone local to exchange cash with at the official rate . If I can't find anyone or need to convert a large amount (more than a few thousand dollars), I check rates at all the currency exchange places described below but usually end up going with Knightsbridge . I transfer US dollars from my TD Bank account in the US to my US currency account at TD Bank Canada and instruct Knightsbridge to take the US dollars from...

Today is July 4, Independence Day in the US. I received some Happy July 4 greetings from some American friends. Some people in a US expatriates group I'm in have mentioned feeling patriotic and are proud Americans who say the US is still home for them. On the other hand, these days I feel a bit turned off, even a twinge of pain, when I see a US flag, but I get excited and feel pride as well as a lot of gratitude when I see a Canadian flag. This past Sunday, July 1, we had Canada Day here, Canada's Independence day. There were fireworks and celebrations, like the ones that normally happen on July 4 in the US. I felt a sense of excitement and pride that I don't think I had ever felt in the US. Maybe I am learning how it feels to be patriotic. Even I am surprised about the emotions I have been feeling. I'm just starting my journey to becoming Canadian, and I am already turning into a proud Canadian? Maybe I have been a Trump refugee for longer than I had thought. I am a ...

I just got my first job rejection in Canada today. And I am impressed and grateful. After spending far too much time for the last 3 weeks preoccupied with paperwork, dealing with financial institutions here and back in the US, researching and getting set up with curency exchange, and general financial and tax planning (apparently US expatriates have a lot of tax and investment issues to worry about in general - more on these matters in multiple posts to come), I am finally starting to look seriously for a job. I had my first interview last week and was told that final round interviews would be this week. And this morning, Tuesday June 19, I received an email thanking me for my interest in the job and notifying me that they have decided to proceed with other candidates but encouraging me to check and apply for other opportunities at the company. Of course, it is very disappointing to be turned down for a job, especially one that I was interested in and seemed to fit my skills and expe...