# Seeking Advice on Managing Canadian Assets/Debts as Expat



## CanuckExpat87 (Sep 28, 2012)

Hello,

I will be moving to San Diego on a L1 visa from work at the end of November. I was wondering if people could give me some advice on how to manage my Canadian debts and assets. I'm 25 and will make roughly $100k down there.

Overview Assets:
1. $19 000 RRSP
2.	$8 000 RPP
3.	$7000 In Gold/Silver Bullion
4.	$4000 In Cash

Overview Debts:
1.	$17 000 Canada Student loan (5.5% Interest)
2.	$4 300	Alberta Student Loan (3% Interest)

Things to Consider:
•	Student loan interest tax credit will not be available on USA income
•	Student loans payable in CAD will have forex premiums when paid in USD (~3-5%)
•	Gold/Silver does not need to be reported to IRS in foreign safety deposit boxes

I was thinking I could do a 'swap' somehow where I keep all my assets in Canada, and then withdraw from my RRSP to make my loan payments. To offset this income I could make a matching contribution to my 401k in the USA. It will also allow me to accumulate student loan interest tax credits and apply them to any tax liabilities I owe to the Canadian government. This would be neutral from a tax perspective but save me on forex premiums until my RRSP is withdrawn.

Alternatively I could wait until I am residing in the USA and then just liquidate my RRSP outright. Taking advantage of the fact I will only be liable for paying income taxes to the Canadian and USA federal governments respectively and apply it to my loans, then make appropriate payments. I lose out on accumulating student loan tax credits though.

I could also seek a secured USD loan in Canada with my RRSP assets and use that to pay off my Canada student loan. Then I could simply repay the USD loan in US dollars and make appropriate contributions to my 401k to offset the difference.

Or I could leave my RRSP in place and just make loan payments in USD via cheques.

Regarding the gold/silver I am open to opinions if I should store it in a safety deposit box or outright sell it to either contribute it to my RRSP or pay down my loans. I'm worried about liquidating it all at once though and having the government wondering where all that extra money came from. And I don't think bringing it down with me is a good idea.


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