The Tools.
Tools to fine-tune what you're already doing
Already investing? These are the tools people use once they have a self-directed account .
THE CAIRNTREE TOOLKIT
Tools to Help You Take Control of Your Investments
Explore six practical tools and resources designed to help you take greater control of your investments. Four are free to use, our Asset Location and Rebalancing Calculators are available together as one paid toolkit download. Both use real formulas based on your own account balances—not a hypothetical portfolio—and include Canada and U.S. versions.
Which account should hold your bonds, and which should hold your equities? This workbook takes the balance actually sitting in each of your accounts — not a hypothetical total — and works out a tax-efficient split within what you already hold.
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Works from your real account balances, never a lump sum to freely place.
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Never suggests more than an account can actually hold.
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Shows the split by dollars and by percent, with a chart of your target mix by region.
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Canada version handles CAD/USD accounts with a live exchange-rate input.
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Flags when an account ends up concentrated in one asset type, and explains why that's expected.
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Canada and U.S. account structures both included.
Click image to enlarge:
Actual output - Calculator tab, worked example.
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Download together with the rebalancing calculator as one Toolkit download — one purchase covers both.
Click image to enlarge
Both workbooks are for general education only and are not personalized investment, legal, or tax advice. Screenshots show the actual tool output on a fictional worked example, not real account data.
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See how far your holdings have drifted from target, and two ways to bring them back — using new contributions alone, or a full rebalance — before you decide which to do.
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Enter your own targets and what you hold in each account.
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See how new contributions alone could close the gap — with no selling.
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Or see how a withdrawal could be raised from what's drifted highest.
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Compare that with a full rebalance, and how much it would involve selling.
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Account-by-account trade list, whole-share rounding.
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Works with Canadian and U.S. accounts and CAD/USD holdings.
Click image to enlarge:
Actual output - Calculator tab, worked example.
Charts shown are results from workbook pages.
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Download together with the asset location calculator as one Toolkit — one purchase covers both.
Both workbooks are for general education only and are not personalized investment, legal, or tax advice. Screenshots show the actual tool output on a fictional worked example, not real account data.
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Coming Soon
We’re currently developing a Withdrawal Sequencing Calculator to complement the asset-location and rebalancing tools already available on CairnTree.
Because withdrawal strategies can involve RRIF minimums, OAS clawback thresholds, and—in the U.S.—RMD rules, we’re taking the time to make sure the calculations and formulas are thoroughly tested and accurate before the tool goes live. As with our other calculators, our goal is to provide a practical tool you can rely on—not simply put one online quickly.
In the meantime, our articles on:
Withdrawals and rebalancing on the way out and Rebalancing a portfolio explore these strategies in plain language and provide useful information while the calculator is being developed.
More tools are on the way as CairnTree continues to grow.