Archive for August 2018
How Much Will My Defined Benefit Pension Pay In Retirement?
I contribute to a defined benefit pension plan at work. How much will I get from the pension plan in retirement? That depends on when I retire or leave the plan. Hang on, we’re about to get math-y. Normal retirement age is 65 and I joined the pension plan in 2009 at age 30. Retiring in…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Canadian Financial Summit Edition
Last year hundreds of you signed up to watch me and dozens of other personal finance and investing experts speak at the Canadian Financial Summit. Well, we’re back with a fresh new line-up of information designed to make you better savers, investors, and take control of your financial future. Get your free ticket today to…
Read MoreMaking It Easy For Canadians To Start Investing
This post is sponsored by RBC InvestEase Inc. All views and opinions expressed represent my own and are based on my own research of the subject matter. Young investors want a simple solution to manage their investments at a low cost and with minimal hassle. They want automated advice and professional guidance – but on their own…
Read MoreThe 4 Percent Rule: Is There a New Normal for Canadian Retirees?
How much do I need to retire? How much income can I create from my investment portfolio? These are two of the most common and important questions that retirees will often ask. Those two questions are certainly related, or let’s say one can determine the other. If you can earn a 7 percent annual return…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Renewed My Mortgage Edition
I wrote about my mortgage renewal strategy earlier this year. Since we don’t plan on moving in the next five years, my top consideration is to get the best interest rate possible. That meant looking at the best of either a 5-year close variable rate mortgage or a 1-to-2-year fixed rate mortgage. With my mortgage…
Read MoreThe Crash That Never Came
It’s been nearly 10 years since the global financial crisis bottomed out. Since then stocks have basically been on an uninterrupted tear, with the TSX doubling in value, and the S&P 500 nearly quadrupling in value. In that time, investors have survived the European debt crisis, Greece’s debt crisis, a Russian financial crisis, the Brexit…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Back To School Shopping Edition
As we head into mid-August my wife and I have started to look at the back-to-school lists that came home with our kids at the end of June. We like to freelance a bit from the recommended list of supplies, especially if we can find deals on similar items early in the summer. We utilize…
Read MoreWhy You Should Avoid Group RESPs
Most parents should know that contributing to an RESP is a great way to save for your child’s education. But there’s one type of plan that gives RESPs a bad name. Group RESPs, or group scholarship trusts, are heavily marketed to new parents and immigrants at doctor’s offices and trade shows. These RESP dealers employ…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: August Long Edition
My wife and I are spending this August long weekend planning our dream trip to the U.K. next summer. So far we’ve booked flights to Edinburgh, Scotland and found an Airbnb for our two-week stay in Kilkenny, Ireland. We’re trying to fill in the rest of the details, including travelling to Inverness, flying to Dublin,…
Read MoreDon’t Let Slow Wage Growth Derail Financial Freedom
When I worked in the hotel industry our management liked to use a phrase called ‘manage the gap’. The goal was to maintain a 2 percent gap between revenue growth and expense growth. So if expenses were forecast to rise by 3 percent, we’d want to see revenues grow by 5 percent. Managing the gap…
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