Congratulations, you aren’t a failing sector. Yet

That felt good. The whole day felt good. I feel like I’m uncomfortably garnered inside of an ice fishing tent surrounded by heavy traffic, but I guess that’s just what life is all about, and my stupid realizations are really just mundane fodder for most other people.

I purchased an RRSP portfolio today, and now, I don’t have to pay the tax man barely anything, and if I ever do, it will be scant amounts.  All I had to do was compromise my ethical sense of well-being a little bit.

Here’s how it works. You get a *comfort* plan from an unnamed financial institution that is basically a mutual fund (a mix of bonds and index stocks, in this case, 5 in total). You have four stocks (I have three high risk stocks, and one very safe stock, because this is a long term investment), and one bond. Bonds are reliable, stocks are not. The trick is to balance them all out so that the bond could potentially act as a little bit of a hedge for the stocks/indexes.

Here’s my conundrum: I would like specific details on who is somehow a corporate non-bank entity attached to my stock interests please…. (some stocks are nationally affiliated sector stocks– some of these are steady as hell, some are not).

*scan to the booklet*

EnCana, SunCor, the Oil Sands Trust Fund? Enbridge?

I realize that inevitably, if looking for a tiny investment in the energy sector, that oil industry will be present there, but it gave me a dirty feeling. I had to make a choice between two diversity stocks, one that had specific oil company names on it, and one that just had the OSTF on it, or my whole RRSP would have been a no-go.  The woman I was dealing with looked at me like I was on crack when I looked up at her in disbelief as my finger rested on “EnCana,”  and mentioned that I was not happy about that.

I understand, energy sector, energy sector…blah blah, inevitably oil industry will be a part of this– I get it! But it was still irritating. In the long run, I didn’t even take “safety” into account, but rather, chose the one affiliated with the OSTF (which, coincidentally was the safest out of the two).  This means that my investments are at a hilariously optimistic level of “safe”, and that my finances will be part of the oil sands barometer “o’ demise”. At the very least, I have catastrophized in my head that they might be.  I’m going to lie to myself about my incrimental amount of money every day.

“It is saving ducks. It is saving ducks. It is saving ducks.”

To stop goofing around– it was funny how uncomfortable I felt about investing my money into specific oil companies. For the last three years, when I think about the success of oil companies, it’s felt like we’re all just sitting in a waiting room waiting for the death of a loved one, when the end becomes a question of not if, but when.   The young intern who tried her darndest to snow-job me through the whole thing (I think she assumed I didn’t know anything), was completely astounded that I would even question any of her recommendations based on the very loose sense of ethics I have about stuff like this.  This same intern wouldn’t give me any sound explanation for global diversification, other than saying, “well Canada sucks, we just have wood and metal. We don’t have…. *frantic glance* Lexmark, or *another frantic glance* Dell computers, or…. like, Starbucks…”

Hot damn! I should have wrapped up all of my RRSPs in Starbucks…I would be a rich lady-type then.

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