Cash & Cash-Equivalent Comparison

The comparison

"Approx. yield" for the ETFs is each fund's most recently published yield — a number that updates regularly and moves with interest rates, not a fixed return the way a GIC rate is. GIC and savings-account rates are RBC's posted rates at the time this page was last checked. CDIC = Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, the federal protection that covers your money (up to set limits) if a bank fails. PSA.TO and CASH.TO are shown for reference only — they're not being actively considered right now (see "Your situation," below), but they're kept in the table so you can still compare them if that changes. The "View 3-yr history" link under each yield opens that fund's own chart in a popup — click anywhere outside it, the × , or press Esc to close.

Each fund's yield history looks different when you actually look — that's why each one gets its own popup chart instead of one shared graph. The four USD funds are priced against the US Federal Reserve's rate; RBC's Investment Savings Account and GICs don't publish a history at all, so those two popups show an estimate derived from the Bank of Canada's own rate history instead — labeled clearly when you open them.

Every one of these is short-term cash, so none of them move on their own — they all ultimately track a central bank rate (the Fed for USD, the Bank of Canada for CAD). Both banks raised rates hard in 2022–2023 to fight inflation, then started cutting once it cooled; Canada cut faster and further than the US, which is the direct reason the CAD charts fall further than the USD ones.

How these are taxed (general info, not tax advice)

None of these get the tax breaks that Canadian dividends or capital gains get. With one partial exception (currency swings on the US ETFs), the income from every option on this list is taxed as regular interest income, at your full marginal rate, in a non-registered account.

The registered-account shortcut

Hold any of these inside a TFSA or RRSP and the interest isn't taxed by Canada at all while it stays in the account. If you're choosing between these purely on an after-tax basis, where you hold them usually matters more than which one you pick.

GICs: you're taxed every year, not just when you cash out

The US-listed ETFs (JPST, SGOV, BIL, ICSH) as a Canadian resident

Three things work differently here than with a Canadian fund:

1. It's still fully taxable interest income to the CRA — being a US fund doesn't change that. Your Canadian brokerage will issue a slip converting the income to Canadian dollars.

2. US withholding tax generally does not apply to this kind of US government/short-term interest income paid to a Canadian resident, under the Canada–US tax treaty's treatment of interest — unlike US stock dividends, which usually do have US tax withheld. Brokerage practices and edge cases vary, so check your actual account statements rather than assuming.

3. Currency movement is a separate, second tax event. Because these trade in US dollars, the exchange rate between when you bought and when you sold or received a distribution can create its own foreign-exchange capital gain or loss — taxed differently (and separately) from the interest itself.

USD vs. CAD: does the currency matter more than the yield?

Quick correction first: the "move some to Canadian dollars" pick further down this page isn't a currency call — it's about paperwork. Holding CASH.TO means one simple Canadian tax form and no cross-border questions. It says nothing about which currency is going to do better. That's a separate question, and it's worth looking at on its own.

Where CAD has actually been, the last two years

Two honest observations from that chart, not a prediction:

1. Over the past 12 months specifically, you'd have been right. USD/CAD is up about 0.3% over that stretch, so a Canadian holding SGOV picked up a small currency tailwind on top of a much higher yield than CASH.TO. That's the bar chart above — almost the entire gap is the yield, with currency doing very little either way this particular year.

2. But look at the shape of that line — it's a round trip, not a straight climb. USD/CAD spiked from about 1.35 to 1.46 (up ~8%) between late 2024 and February 2025, then gave almost all of it back by mid-2025. Someone who'd converted CAD to USD right at that February 2025 peak and converted back today would have taken roughly a 5% currency loss — enough to erase two-plus years of the extra yield USD funds pay over CAD ones. The direction you happen to buy and sell on matters more than the general trend.

Why USD looks stronger right now, and why forecasts lean the other way

The mechanical reason USD has had the edge is simple: the US Federal Reserve's policy rate (currently 3.50%–3.75%) sits well above the Bank of Canada's (2.25%). Higher rates tend to attract money into a currency, which is part of what's kept USD firm. As of September 2026, most bank forecasts (a five-bank consensus) expect that gap to narrow gradually through 2027 as the Bank of Canada's rate rises back toward 2.75–3.25% — and if that happens, the textbook expectation is a gradually strengthening CAD (a falling USD/CAD line), the opposite of the bet you're describing.

So: you're not wrong that holding USD has worked out fine lately, and the current rate gap is a real, identifiable reason why. But it's a genuine currency position layered on top of the cash decision, it can run against you as easily as for you, and the people paid to forecast it are currently leaning the other way. If you want the yield pickup without taking a currency view, that's exactly what a Canadian-dollar-hedged option or simply accepting CASH.TO's lower yield buys you.

What converting CAD ↔ USD actually costs

This matters more than it looks like at first, because it's a cost you pay twice — once converting in, once converting back.

The easy way (letting RBC do it automatically): typically about 1.5–2% below the real market rate, each time. Do that going in and again coming out, and you've handed back roughly 3–4% total before the investment has done anything at all.

The cheaper way ("Norbert's Gambit"): buy a stock that trades in both currencies (the common one is Horizons DLR), then journal it over to sell in the other currency — total cost lands around 0.1–0.2%, plus two RBC trade commissions (~$20 total). More steps, and only worth it above roughly $5,000–$10,000 being converted.

Your situation: already in USD, ~5 years to retirement, preserve, beat inflation, stay liquid

This changes a few things from the general discussion above. Worth spelling out.

It's a one-way trip, not a round trip

The conversion-cost math above assumed converting CAD→USD now and back later — a round trip. You already did the first leg, years ago; that's sunk and doesn't factor into today's decision. Going forward you'd only ever pay one conversion cost — whenever, if ever, you actually move money to CAD at or near retirement. Staying in USD between now and then costs you nothing extra in conversion fees.

"Preserve, but beat inflation" pulls in two directions at once

Pure preservation would say: take the least risk possible, full stop — SGOV/BIL over JPST/ICSH. But "always beat inflation" cuts the other way once you look at where things actually stand right now:

So "the safest possible option" and "the option that actually beats inflation" aren't the same option right now. That's not a contradiction to resolve once — it's a real tension worth re-checking periodically, since both sides of it (the yields and the inflation reading) move independently.

Three ways to handle the eventual move to CAD — all fully liquid

You don't have to decide this all at once. Three shapes to choose from, none of which lock your money up:

1. Stay fully in USD, convert in one move at retirement. Keeps the full USD yield edge and any further currency upside — but all of your currency risk lands on whatever the exchange rate happens to be on that one day, five years from now. The chart earlier on this page shows swings of 8%+ within a single year — a single conversion date carries that whole risk at once.

2. Convert a portion to CAD now, into a liquid Canadian option like CASH.TO or PSA.TO — removes the currency risk for that slice right away, and you can still access it anytime. The tradeoff: those options are currently only keeping pace with inflation, not beating it, so you'd be trading away some real return for certainty.

3. A "glide path" — convert a fraction each year over the last several years before retirement, instead of all at once. No single year's exchange rate decides the whole outcome.

Top picks, by situation

Both below are fully liquid — no lock-in, no minimum hold. General starting points, not a personal recommendation.

These two picks are both USD, because that's where your money already is (see "Your situation" above). CASH.TO/PSA.TO (moving some to CAD now) and GICs (locking in a higher rate) are both real options — covered above — but neither is an active pick here: CASH.TO/PSA.TO only matters once you decide to convert, and GICs don't meet the "take it out anytime" requirement.

Wait — the CAD options yield a lot less. Why are they even on this list?

Fair question. That gap is mostly just the US interest rate sitting above Canada's right now, not the CAD options being bad. Currency risk and conversion cost — the two biggest reasons to prefer CAD anyway — are already covered above. Two more reasons worth knowing:

1. Less paperwork. One simple Canadian tax form instead of cross-border questions.

2. One obscure tax rule. For larger holdings, Canadian residents holding US-listed securities can technically be exposed to US estate tax — a genuinely obscure rule, but a real reason some people default to Canadian equivalents for bigger sums.

The GIC is the one CAD option that isn't just "the safe, lower-paying choice" — its longer terms (5-year at ~3.1%) actually out-yield every CAD ETF here. But even the "cashable" version makes you wait a minimum of 29 days before you can get the money out. That's why it's left out of the picks on this page — not the rate, the lock-in.

Do I need to update anything myself?

No, not anymore. A small automated service checks real fund data once a day and updates the table, the pick, and every chart on its own — that's what the "● Live data" note near the top of the page means. You shouldn't need to touch this page at all under normal circumstances.

The one thing baked into the file itself is a backup snapshot — if the daily service is ever unreachable when you open the page, you'll see "● Showing last saved data" instead, and the page falls back to whatever numbers were last saved into the file, rather than showing nothing. That backup only goes stale if the live service stays down a long time.

If you ever see "Showing last saved data" and want it refreshed, or want to check that the daily updates are still running, just ask me — updating that backup means regenerating a data file, not hand-editing text, so it's easiest to have me do it rather than trying it yourself.