I've been working as an expat in Canada for the last three years. I was on the Canadian payroll and have saved a large sum of money in Canadian dollars.

I'm now coming back to the States and have this large sum of cash sitting in a Canadian savings account sidelined. With the weak Canadian dollar at 1.34 to the US dollar in reluctant to convert and get into the US market given oil is at a crazy low (and is directly tied to Canadian dollar strength) and the market is at record highs. Advisors are telling me to suck it up, convert, and get in the market. They're likely right that I'm an idiot trying to time the market, but I keep getting cold feet.

Anyone have any experience in this area? Should I just get over it and get my money into the US market? Advice appreciated!

Get your money over. Higher interest rates in the US are just going to make the dollar more expensive and that's where we are headed.

Is there any reason you can't just leave it in CAD, domiciled up north and invest in US market from a CAD brokerage? It would serve as a somewhat-hedged account. If US market continues upward trend, you are participating in the upside with a USD-CAD headwind. If US market declines, you get tailwind of (likely) declining USD-CAD exchange.

Football&Finance said:

---

Is there any reason you can't just leave it in CAD, domiciled up north and invest in US market from a CAD brokerage? It would serve as a somewhat-hedged account. If US market continues upward trend, you are participating in the upside with a USD-CAD headwind. If US market declines, you get tailwind of (likely) declining USD-CAD exchange.

---

I don't know Canadian rules on domiciled monies but like this approach if possible. Wherever I have business operations I'll have banking relationships in those currencies as avoidance of capital gains in the U.S., a natural hedge on currency and ease of conversion when needed.

I had talked to some financial advisors up there and almost none of them could take me as a client due to me being an American citizen. I finally found one that could, but even they were planning on converting my cash to USD.

I'm not familiar with the vehicles your talking about in regards to investing in the US market with Canadian monies. Are these something I could do on my own through just an RBC Investment account on my own? Sorry if this is simple and I just don't understand.