u/collodi101

Ai giovini di 20-30 anni che inondano questo subreddit per chiedere dove « investire » 10-100k senza rischio tra BTP, BOT e conti deposito, e per quelli che dopo aver costruito tutti i pilastri che potevano godono come ricci a ogni nuovo BTP Valore a 10 anni: guardatevi questo video di The Bull.

Questo episodio di The Bull elenca i cinque errori finanziari più subdoli perché sembrano scelte sagge: confondere yield (cedole, dividendi, affitti) con total return, pagare troppo cara la sicurezza nominale ignorando il rischio inflazione, ottimizzare il portafoglio invece del reddito personale, comprare casa per dogma culturale senza fare i conti, e scambiare le notizie economiche per previsioni di mercato restando fuori "in attesa del momento giusto".

La tesi di fondo è che gli errori non nascono da ignoranza pura e semplice ma da pregiudizi travestiti da buon senso (il buon senso uccide...), e che nella prima fase della vita finanziaria il motore della ricchezza sei tu (risparmio e reddito), non il rendimento del portafoglio. Riccardo avrebbe potuto concludere con Charles Ellis: investire è come il tennis amatoriale, non vince chi fa i colpi migliori ma chi sbaglia meno.

I did my PhD studies in Canada quite a few years ago, in the late '80s (Brian Mulroney was prime minister at the time!). I'm told that I did contribute to CPP during the 4 years I lived and worked in Canada. After 4 years in the US as a postdoc, I moved back to Europe, and I'm about to retire in France in a year or so with an almost full pension. Now I'm wondering whether it's worth my while to claim a Canadian pension based on those 4 years, during which I was paid somewhere between 700 and 800 CAD a month. In particular, I have no stubs from my paychecks of those years, and as a result I don't have a Canadian social security number to use in an eventual claim with CPP. I have two questions:

i) How would I go about getting my social security number? I thought of contacting my old university, but can they really dig up such an old payroll record, and are they even allowed to share that information with me? I also thought of contacting the Canadian consulate in Paris.

ii) Most importantly, do you think it would be worthwhile? I'm guessing my Canadian pension would come to around €40–60 a month, which would be a very small fraction of my total French pension. Is my back-of-the-envelope calculation roughly right?

I know that there since 1981 there is a social security agreement between France and Canada, and I could get also help from the French side. But getting my old SS number in advance would be best.

Many thanks in advance for all your help!