This article was written by Rachelle: a real estate guru who works as a property manager and helps investors find rental properties in Toronto and surrounding areas. She has recently started a very interesting blog called Landlord Rescue. You can subscribe to the RSS feed here.

In the wake of Mike pulling the controversial post because of other bloggers like Canadian Capitalist taking offence to the strategy in a post called A Scheme to save 100% of Income Tax – No Thanks. Larry Macdonald of Canadian Business Online also had a word in his post Tax Schemes and Financial Tune-Ups. Preet Banejree of Where Does All My Money Go did an interview with Martin Horvath called Interview With a Marked Man.

Holy Moly!

It’s our very own tempest in a teacup! Awesome. I was blissfully unaware of the controversy surrounding the post until this morning when I got Preet’s email subscription. You can’t know everything… In any case you can’t rely on financial planners to come up with solutions to tax problems. You need a genius like me!

My tax reduction strategy outlined

First of all nothing in life worth doing is easy. I don’t want to hear any whining about how you can’t make this solution work. It’s 100% legal. You’ll need an accomplice to help you. Your wife or husband is probably the best candidate. Other women or men may be willing to assist, but this increases the complexity of the scheme exponentially and is NOT recommended. I have actually implemented this strategy myself once and will one day (hopefully) expand my use further.

You’ll also need some free time to devote to your project. Like any other venture, initial forays are exciting and pleasurable. Consequent implementations are more challenging because of the initial product. There will be challenges en route, stay the course and be strong.

My method relies on the production of numerous children each of which comes with a considerable tax deduction which lasts for at least 18 years. With today’s modern technology, tax deductions can be acquired in litters. For example this ambitious tax avoider had 6 and 8 children at once.  This is very beneficial if you get a large raise or bonus or are in a hurry to avoid paying taxes. Tax deductions are great and more is obviously better, like vitamins.

Wealthy Canadians may be reluctant to embrace my strategy. There is a often-perpetuated myth that children may be expensive. This idea totally ignores economy of scale and additional opportunities provided by hordes of tax deductions. For instance, during the first year of life, the children can be breastfed, which is free. If you have multiple children: don’t worry, small children take up less space. Storage may become an issue. If this occurs just start sending them out on “sleep overs” You may even find this an ideal time to work on next year’s crop.

Once you have a substantial amount of CRA exemptions you may begin to think that you need to expand your living quarters. As usual every problem has already been solved and thanks to the wonders of the internet, the solution is readily accessible. I am so magnanimous that I will share the solution. I would like to add that charging your underage children rent is not really ethical… you have my permission to employ the fix without requiring payment.  Ignore negative thinkers.

There are actually considerable savings available to the creative parent who seeks to use their powers for good. For example, children enjoy bike riding. You can set up a electricity generating bike “farm” of your very own and help save the planet!

You will no longer require expensive tickets to sporting events, you can have your own personal hockey, football or soccer team ready to entertain you on demand. I can almost certainly guarantee you ringside attendance to numerous boxing matches. Entrepreneurial parents could even sell tickets.

Summary

As you can see there is no reason to employ dubious tax reduction strategies. There are perfectly legal methods allowed to reduce your taxation. These deductions are unlikely to be retroactively revoked. You don’t want to fall for any half baked and expensive schemes.

If you liked this article sign up for a free RSS subscription to Money Smarts Blog. Whenever I write, I offer additional promotions to entice people into joining great blogs like this one. Today’s special is unlimited fertility. What are you still reading for? Go get busy!

I’ve been reading a couple of articles lately about TFSA over-contribution penalties which are being levied against some Canadians by the CRA.  These penalties have resulted from people over-contributing to their TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account).  It appears there are two main causes for these over-contributions, which will be discussed here.

[update June 17]

Rob Carrick wrote an article on the Globe with quotes from a CRA spokesperson who appears to be saying that the TFSA contributions will be forgiven, if the error is genuine

In practice, CRA is saying that relief may be available for people who mistakenly overcontributed to a TFSA.

“Because we are reviewing each and every [situation] on a case-by-case basis, it’s correct to say that relief may be provided,” CRA spokeswoman Caitlin Workman said Wednesday. “Each case will be looked at with the facts at hand, so I’m a little wary of issuing a blanket statement. If it was truly an error – that’s what we tend to look at.”

[end of update]

Here is a TFSA rules refresher which contains all the pertinent rules.

What is the rule for TFSA contribution limits?

• Every Canadian who is 18 years of age or older, gets $5,000 of contribution room per year.
• If you make a contribution, then the amount of available contribution room is reduced by the amount of the contribution.
• If you make a withdrawal, then that withdrawal amount will be added to your available contribution room, starting January 1 of the following calendar year.

What is the TFSA over-contribution penalty?

The TFSA over-contribution penalty is 1% per month, levied on the amount of excess TFSA contributions.  If you have over-contributed to your TFSA by $1,000, then the penalty will be $10 per month until you have removed the excess amount,  or more contribution room becomes available.

TFSA over-contribution penalty because of lack of knowledge of TFSA rules

It appears, that some Canadians have inadvertently created an over-contribution to their TFSA, because they didn’t know that withdrawals from a TFSA account only get added to their available contribution room on January 1 of the next calendar year.  If you contributed $5,000 to your TFSA account in 2009, withdrew money in 2009, and then contributed more money to your TFSA in 2009, then you will be over the contribution limit.

If you are in this group, then I suggest you pay the penalty, remove the excess contribution if it still exists, and learn the rules better, so it doesn’t happen again.  The government was very clear about this withdrawal rule when the TFSA was introduced, and I think it is the responsibility of the individual investor to know the rules.  The TFSA is by far and away the simplest investing account available to Canadians, so getting tripped up by the one rule which is even remotely complicated, is not reason enough to expect relief from the government.

• To pay the TFSA over-contribution penalty – Fill out CRA form RC 243 by June 30, 2010 (or the year after you are assessed the penalty).
• To remove excess amounts from your TFSA account – Contact your financial institution and ask them to withdraw the amount of over-contribution.

If you wish to complain about this penalty, then write a letter to Jim Flaherty.

If you still want to try to get relief from this penalty, despite my stern lecture then I’ll suggest the following:

• Appeal to the CRA – Plead ignorance, poverty, drunkenness – whatever it takes.  They might give you a break.
• If you contributed more than $5,000 to any one financial institution in 2009, then send them the tax bill and demand they pay it.  Tell them that since it is their job to know the rules, they should have known that you were over-contributing for that year and should have warned you.
• If you have a financial adviser and still got nailed with this penalty, then send the adviser the bill.  If they were in charge of all your TFSA transactions then they are definitely responsible.

TFSA over-contribution penalty because of incorrect reporting of institutional transfer to the CRA

Another situation, is someone who did a transfer of their TFSA from one financial institution to another, didn’t contribute more than $5,000 in 2009, and still received a notice of over-contribution from the CRA.  In this case, because you were transferring the TFSA money, there is no contribution or withdrawal.  The TFSA money should just move from one institution to another one, without any withdrawal or contribution taking place.  This move is allowed and is called a qualifying transfer.

If you withdrew the money, had the cash in your bank account and then “transferred” it to a new financial institution then you completed a withdrawal and contribution – not a transfer.

It is possible however, that one or both of the financial institutions you had the TFSA at, incorrectly reported the transfer as a contribution or a withdrawal.

For example if you transferred your RBC TFSA to an ING TFSA, then if there was an error made, RBC might have reported the transfer-out as a withdrawal, and ING might have reported the transfer-in as a contribution.

To fix this situation

1. Contact the financial institutions involved with your TFSA transfer and ask if the transfer was incorrectly reported as a contribution or withdrawal.
2. If the answer from #1 is yes – then ask the financial institution to fix the transaction so it is a transfer, and then ask them to file an amendment with the CRA.  Once this amendment is accepted by the CRA, then your over-contribution should disappear.
3. If the answer is no – then call the CRA and try to clarify with them how they are determining you are over-contributed.

Over-contribution penalty is still being charged after withdrawal of excess amount

Michael James mentions yet another situation (see link at bottom of page where a person had over-contributed to their TFSA, fixed the problem by withdrawing the excess amount and yet was charged an over-contribution penalty for the remainder of the year.  In fact the penalty should have only been applied for the time period when they were over the contribution amount.

The CRA is in charge of adding up all your TFSA transactions in your various TFSA accounts and determining if you are staying within the rules.  The CRA relies on the reporting from the financial institutions to collect this data.

In this case, that person needs to contact their financial institution to verify that all their withdrawals were reported properly.  If for some reason, a person’s “removal of excess” withdrawal (which in fact, is just a regular withdrawal) was not reported to the CRA, then the CRA would think the person was continuing to be over-contributed.

To fix this situation

1. Contact the financial institution(s) that hold your TFSA and verify all your transactions with them.  They need to be able to tell you if any transaction was reported as a withdrawal or a contribution.
2. If you determine that the financial institution made an error, ask the financial institution to fix the transaction, and then ask them to file an amendment with the CRA.  Once this amendment is accepted by the CRA, then your over-contribution should disappear.
3. If your financial institution appears to have reported your transactions correctly to the CRA, then call the CRA and try to clarify with them how they are determining you are over-contributed.

TFSA transfer to new financial institutions are expensive.  To avoid transfer fees, please read TFSA Institutional Transfer Strategies.

The cheapest TFSA is available at Questrade Discount Brokerage.  No annual accounts fee and $5 trades.

Other articles about TFSA over-contribution penalties

TFSA Over Contributions at the Canadian Tax Resource blog.

Taxpayers hit with penalties at the Toronto Star – written by Ellen Roseman.

TFSA Over-Contributions May Be Over-Penalized at Michael James on Money.

TFSA Excess Contribution Penalties Ensare Taxpayers at the Canadian Capitalist.

Qualifying Transfer definition at the CRA.  This explains that transfers of TFSA money between financial institutions will not affect your contribution or withdrawal amounts for the year.

Reader Jazzmin26 recently e-mailed me after reading my Mint review and shared my security concerns.  She asked for suggestions to “make my financial life simpler and not spent my weekends logging and tracking“.  I’ve repeatedly wrote about how valuable I find measurement to be, but I agree with Jazzmin26 that it can sometimes be tough to determine the best way to go about it.

Not as Hard as it Seems

In life we often make things seem harder than they really are.  Every year I agonize about my taxes, then they end up only taking me an hour or two and I’m happy to have a snapshot of my finances from the year before.  Similarly, logging and tracking isn’t something that will take up entire weekends.  I usually do a financial overview once a month (around the 1st) and I can capture all the info I need in 10 or 15 minutes.

Pen and Paper

I’m currently reading “Your Money or Your Life” and will post a review when I’ve finished it.  A large part of the book is spent detailing how to record your spending.  The authors suggest that the exact format isn’t as important as finding something that works for you.  Come up with a sheet with the numbers you find important, then printing it out (or make photocopies) and fill it in once a month.

I’ve recorded my spending this way, but carrying a small notepad and a pen in my pocket.  Every time I make a purchase, I pull it out and record it (on page per day).  If filling in the amount wasn’t convenient, I’d just get a receipt and put it into the notepad at the proper place (like a bookmark) and transcribe them at the end of the day.

Spreadsheet

I like to use spreadsheets (Excel or OpenOffice Calc) to keep permanent financial records.  I tend to agree with “Your Money or Your Life” that developing your own categories and measurements is probably the best way to go.  My spending tracking looks something like:

How to categorize things (is alcohol food or entertainment?  if you buy a round of beers, is that a gift?) is entirely flexible.  If you eat out regularly, perhaps it is worthwhile to separate food into groceries and meals out.  I keep my fixed, constant expenses (like rent, internet charges, etc) separate and just track my variable spending with this.

When I was tracking my spending, I’d also maintain an average of each category (typically for the last 30 days) as well as the total and could view where my money was going and whether my spending was increasing or decreasing.

In terms of my finances overall, I also use a spreadsheet and track the various accounts like so:

The Cash and Networth columns are calculated by summing the other columns (the checking account and the TFSA is the case of cash, all the columns in the case of the networth).  Again, this only takes me 10 or 15 minutes to figure out each month (spreadsheets can easily do all the calculations for you – you just look up each account and enter the numbers) and I can see immediately a snapshot of my financial health.

I don’t bother tracking credit cards, since I always pay them off in full, anything I owe to the credit card companies will be reflected in the amount of money in my checking account the next month so I don’t think it’s worth the time to do the extra look ups.  If I was carrying a balance on a credit card or a line of credit, I’d certainly track it monthly.

Networth IQ

A number of bloggers, including Meg at World of Wealth, track their finances on Networth IQ.  Much like a spreadsheet, it’s very fast and easy to update entries (just look up the account online and fill in the number).  The site automatically creates a graph showing your networth over time, and shows how each category has changed (as a percent) since the last month.

As much as this does contain a lot of your financial info, I don’t think it has the same security concerns as Mint, since you’re manually transcribing information to it (not giving the site your usernames and passwords to look things up).

How do you track your finances?

Jay recently asked me about getting started as a freelance writer.  Kind of ironic since he is now part of the paid staff here at 4P.  While I’ve never done freelancing myself, I have hired quite a few of them so I have a pretty good idea what is involved.

There isn’t any one obvious path to become a successful freelance writer.  Here are some of the things that I would try:

Current expertise

Try to identify what type of writing you would like to do (or are willing to do).  Can you do research on topics you aren’t familiar with and then write about them?  Are you an expert in anything?

Freelance sites

There are a number of freelance sites where you can go and bid on projects.  Elance.com and oDesk.com are two example.  I haven’t used oDesk myself but I know others who were happy with it.  I have used Elance quite extensively and it is pretty good.

In order to get started you have to register and then start looking through the various job offerings and make bids to get the contract.

Those sites are worth checking out.  If nothing else you can see what types of jobs are being offered in the areas you are interested in and what kind of $$ they are offering.  It doesn’t hurt to sign up and try to get a small job or two.  You have to start somewhere.

Copy writing companies

Textbrokers.com and ReliableWriters.com are two examples of copy writing companies.  These companies hire writers so they would be a possibility for a job.  The money would be a bit less than doing it on your own but of course they would probably have more work for you.  This might be a tough gig to get for a new, inexperienced writer.

Blogs

In the personal finance blogosphere there are quite a few blogs which hire writers for various reasons. I do this quite extensively.  If you are going to apply for a position then you should try to get a few posts written so that you can show the blogger what kind of product you will be delivering.

The two main blog options are:

1) Regular writer.  A lot of bloggers get tired of writing a certain number of days per week but still want the same amount of new content.  Sometimes they will hire someone to “be their own voice” for 1 or 2 days a week.  Mr. Cheap and I have had this exact arrangement since I bought him out in the fall of 2008 and I’ve just hired Jay (ironically enough) to a similar arrangement for one day per week.

2)  Specific paid content.  In this format a blogger will do the research to determine what type of content is likely to make some money and then will order it from either a freelance writer or a copy writing service.  The main difference between this option and option #1 (regular writer) is that the blogger will completely determine the topic, length, style etc of the post. This type of post will often require some research.

Once you have gotten some work experience at the suggested areas then I would try to break into the corporate world to get higher paying jobs.  Things like technical documentation etc pay a lot higher than a weekly gig at a two-bit blog like Four Pillars.

Do you have any other suggestions for someone looking to break into freelance writing?  Writing course? Other ideas?

Financial Blogger posted a link to a great article in his monthly round up for August. While I respect what the original poster is getting at, I’m not sure I totally agree with her.

She talks about how being “thrifty” when you’re at a fast-food restaurant and sharing a drink (with free refills) between the whole family is more likely to teach your children that stealing is ok, rather than the value of saving a dollar. Thankfully she follows this up by admissions of similar situations where she does the same thing (sneaking in food or getting in free as her daughter is an employee). I don’t buy her justification that her actions are “thrifty” while the actions of others are thievery.

My guiding principle in situations like this is that “bending the rules” is morally permissible when you’re not causing a business or individual a measurable lose. I don’t buy the argument that its theft when you deny them potential sales. Shoplifting is clearly wrong, as the Roots store has one less leather handbag to sell if you take it, and you’ve clearly hurt them. At a fast food restaurant, the fountain drinks cost them next to nothing (probably about the same amount as napkins and condiments which they give away free), therefore how you’re really hurting them by sharing is that you aren’t buying multiple drinks. You might have come in and just bought food (and no drinks), in which case they’d be in the same situation, so how have they really lost out on anything other than POTENTIAL revenue? I never feel I owe a business the amount of sales they figure I should buy.

Downloading music is similar. Sure, the artist doesn’t get paid (or, more importantly, the distribution company), when you download “Hit me baby one more time”. Britney doesn’t lose a thing (except the hope that you may have bought her CD).

The movie theatre seat that Grace sits in would have sat empty during the movie, so her being there without paying an admission doesn’t hurt them in any measurable way.

I can understand why businesses WANT to be able to collect more money, and I certainly support them in trying to limit cheap-o activities (like people sharing drinks, sneaking into the theatre and pirating movies). I think in each situation, the business is already policing it as much as its worth to them to prevent customer “abuses”, and if the odd person spends a day “theatre hopping”, good for them in the opinion of Mr. Cheap.

Years ago, during my undergrad, I attended a lecture about grad school. One of my profs talked about his experience being a grad student, and how he’d worked between his undergrad and starting grad school. He made the point that if you save a little bit of money and bring it into your grad studies, life can become a lot more pleasant (with the ability to take a pretty undergrad out to a movie or to purchase the odd pitcher of beer).

At the time, I thought this was the most blatantly obvious thing I’d ever heard (I’ve always been a saver and had a bit of extra cash available, even through my undergrad). The funny thing though is, 1) most people don’t realize this and 2) it’s not just true about grad school – it’s true about life.

Say someone is working paycheck-to-paycheck, maybe supporting a family or maybe just themselves and a deluxe apartment in the sky. Every two weeks, his pay is eagerly devoured by all his life expenses, with anything extra he can afford disappearing into a credit card debt (that never seems to get smaller). Say on a Wednesday before payday the boss comes in and rips the guy a new hole for something that isn’t his fault. How is he feeling?

Take another guy, similar situation but no debt and 3 months of savings in the bank. Maybe his daughter only goes to 1 dance lesson per week, maybe his deluxe apartment is actually a shared 2 bedroom in a 30 year old building. His boss comes in and rips him a new hole for something that isn’t fair. How is he feeling? Pretty willing to tell the guy off and head home to enjoy a long weekend before starting his new job search, eh?

The joke of it is, the employer would probably pick up on the first person’s desperation and would be less likely to chew the second guy out (because he’s probably stood up for himself in past situations). I suspect employers and managers often get a feel for the people who really need the next paycheck. In “The Millionaire Next Door” it talks about the two daughters of a rich guy. A man marries one daughter and accepts a cushy job at his company. The old bugger treats him like a servant in the house and after a couple cocktails starts calling him bozo. The other son-in-law politely refused a similar position and had refused monetary handouts, and every time he visited was treated as a honoured guest.

Your dignity shouldn’t be for sale. Especially for the consumer trinkets they offer these days. Having someone sense your desperation and run you down will make you feel far worse then the $300 running shoes or the trip to the all-inclusive made you feel good.

Being debt-free with 3 months of living expenses (either in the bank, in the stock market or in property) is half-way to freedom. Until then you’re just a slave.

In my family, I am the night owl.  My wife tends to go to bed earlier (although not as early as she used to) and the kids go to bed very early.  This means that any noisy activities such as watching movies with surround sound can’t be enjoyed at night in my house because I don’t want to wake anyone up.

The solution which I came up with a few years ago is to buy some stereo headphones.  If you have your tv connected to a stereo or surround sound system then just plug the headphones into the receiver.  I believe some tvs might also have jacks for headphones built in to them.

Now the sound with headphones is not as good as having your expensive surround-sound system cranked up, but it’s a lot better than the alternative of having your tv sound so low you can barely hear it and living in fear that you will wake up one of the kids.

If you buy a half decent set then the sound will be quite good and you can turn up the volume as loud as you want.

I use them for watching sports and other tv shows when the house is quiet but they would also come in handy for playing video games.  Personally I find the sound of video games very annoying when someone else is playing so when my kids get to that age, one of the rules will be that they have to wear headphones when playing so I don’t have to listen.

You can even use them for their original purpose which was to listen to music.  For some reason I never really listen to music at home but having headphones would allow more flexibility if I did.

You can buy different types of headphones from $30 up to several hundred dollars for what I hope is really good sound.  I paid about $90 for my last set which had the odd name of “SkullCandy” and I’m pretty happy with them.  I find they only last a couple of years and then the wires don’t work which really sucks since the wiring should be the cheapest part of the device.

What do you think?  Would headphones help keep the peace in your household or are they a waste of money?

One of Microsoft Windows’ competitors is Linux, a free operating system.  Beyond it’s low price, it’s a very stable, reliable system.  If I was playing a game or watching a movie, it’s easier to do so on Windows, but if I’m running a web server or an ftp server Linux is far better.

While competing, Microsoft faced the difficult challenge of going head-to-head with a free product.  The only way to beat them on price was to pay people to install Windows.  Instead, they brought up the concept of “Total Cost of Ownership” (as an aside, people have accused Microsoft of being very deceptive in how they presented TCO comparisons, which I agree with – that isn’t the point of this post).  Their line of reasoning went that although you may pay $400 for a Windows license (and be able to get a Linux license for free), once you’d paid all the costs that went along with running Linux on a computer you’d end up paying MORE than on a Windows system.  One of the big parts of the argument was that Linux system administrators command a higher salary than comparable Windows system administrators and, the line of reasoning went, what you saved on the license you’d more than lose on salary.

While this is an interesting business issue, I think this concept is also highly relevant in day-to-day life.  Often we’re sold things with a set price tag, or with a  set monthly cost, when there are actually a large number of hidden costs behind this.

A prime example is cars.  A Toyota Corolla is a decent vehicle, which can be had for $15,430.  Immediately when you click on the fine print, the cost doesn’t include freight, PDI (whatever that is), license, insurance, registration, taxes, levies and fees.  If we finance the purchase, we then need to add interest onto that.  Once we finally get it home, we get to pay gas, maintenance, and parking (both at home and at work).  Estimates of the total annual ownership cost of various models range from $6K to $16K.

Real estate agents love to advertise an affordable property as “cheaper than rent”.  Of course, the only things being compared are mortgage payments and rent, they conveniently omit maintenance (estimated at 2.5% of the property value per year), property taxes, utilities, insurance, etc., etc., etc.  When you take into account all the extra it would a VERY unusual situation where you could own for less than rent.

Real estate investors are often just as bad.  My post on “Tenants Paying My Mortgage” discusses at length one special case of a lesser price being substituted for the total cost of ownership.  Investors love to talk about “cash flow positive”, but it’s INCREDIBLY difficult to achieve, unless you fudge the numbers (such that you can convince yourself it’s cash flow positive, even when it’s not).

A boat is completely a consumer purchase (and an expensive one at that).  Beyond the purchase price, maintenance, gas and whatnot there’s also additional storage fees (which can be pricey in Canada where the water freezes over).  Many people want a boat, look at the ticket price and don’t think of anything beyond that.

A while back I read a newspaper article (which would make a good post) about how people who live in Barrie and commute to Toronto aren’t saving the money they think they are.  They get a house out in the ‘burbs cheap, and think they’re really benefiting from making a 1.5 hour commute each way 5 days a week, but when you add up the cost of the commute (gas, wear-and-tear on the car and time spent in traffic), it would more than pay a higher mortgage on an equivalent house in Toronto.

The way for dealing with total cost of ownership issues is to always be aware of follow up costs to a purchase.  Don’t be lulled into lazy thinking that you just pay the one price and that’s it forever – almost everything has follow up costs.  Thinking about things in terms of their cost per use, or cost per unit of time (e.g. how much to drive a car for 1 year) is often a more realistic perspective.  I read recently (on some blog or another) that clothes are good to be worn 100-200 times, and you should amortize their cost over the article’s lifespan.  This seems a little extreme to me, but it’s probably a good thing when looking at an expensive piece of clothing to realize you won’t have it for the rest of your life:  it has a number of uses before it’s worn out.

What things have you bought which turned out to have hidden expenses that exploded on you afterwards?

This is a guest post by Rat from Ending The Rat race – a good Canadian blog.  Check out his site and subscribe to the RSS feed.

At the beginning of the year I entered in a stock picking competition with some other bloggers.  As I outlined in my original 2010 stock pick post I bet the house on the price of gold falling.  Well, it hasn’t fallen and as was pointed out in the comments of the original post, I didn’t even really pick the right investment instruments to reflect my bet.

Oh well – it’s just for fun.    (At least I’m ahead of Frugal Trader).

1. Dividend Growth Investor: +9.58%

2. Wild Investor: +9.30%

3. My Trader’s Journal: +5.78%

4. WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo: +5.24%

5. The Financial Blogger: +2.87%

6. ZachStocks: +2.55%

7. Four Pillars: -1.01%

8. Intelligent Speculator: -1.27%

9. Million Dollar Journey: -11.83%