Financial Channel

which is the better way to save... Canada Savings Bond or ING Savings? i checked the CSB website and they only have 2.75% interest rate whereas the ING Savings has 3.15%.

the good thing about CSB is it can be deducted automatically thru your payroll not like ING wherein you have to set it aside.

any other suggestions of savings or investments?

what about the ING Mutual Funds? i heard lots of people are saying stay away from mutaual funds. is this true?

Between those 2 choices ING would be better as it presents the higher rate of return and is more liquid. As for automatic deductions you can setup automatic deposits through ING into you account there.

... not sure that you earn any interest on CSB's until they are paid for when paying by payroll deduction .. (?). CSB's should never be considered seriously as an investment.

what do you mean by this ? i'm thinking of getting CSB by payroll deduction just like a force savings so at least i don't see that money and spend it to somwhere else.

i also have other questions: if for example my wife have this CSB by payroll deduction and gave birth so the payroll obviously stops, does she needs to inform CSB about that?

Because the rate of return is very low. That said, I did the exact same thing when I was trying to save money and it worked beautifully. Of course, I know save money by doing automatic deposits to my ING account and earn more money.

Don't bother with CSBs (2.75%). You're much better off setting up an automatic transfer into the ING ISA (3.15%), then building a GIC ladder (4.1% and up) every 4 or 6 months, depending on how much cash your have accumulated in the interval.

That is probably the greatest single advantage of CSBs, that they are deducted from your salary and force you to save. It was some time back for me, when cash flow was not so good, but I used CSBs as a forced savings plan and ended up cashing them in to pay off a mortgage on my first house.

Had a similar situation of pregnancy where wife also had CSBs through payroll. As I recall, the amount owing on CSBs had to be paid off when she was planning to take maternity leave. But that may have changed by now, and possibly may vary with the employer.

Its just funny to me as i read people liking this deduct from salary thing. So cuz people can't control themselves not to spend money in their account, they give up 0.40% (or whatever the difference may be at the time). In the long term thats alot. Read a self help book and make the extra 0.40%.