Archive for July 2020
Is Renting Throwing Away Money?
Young people face a lot of pressure from their parents and peers to own a home. Canadians in general have a high rate of home ownership at around 68%, and in many cases homeowners have seen tremendous growth in real estate prices for the past few decades. For these reasons many people believe home ownership…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Location Independent Edition
One of the best things about running my online business is that I can write and offer financial planning from anywhere in the world. No longer tethered to a day job, I planned to test the ‘location independent’ waters this year with some extended travel to see how I could balance work and play. A…
Read MoreYes, You Can Retire Up To 30% Wealthier
Questrade touched a nerve with financial advisors with a series of commercials highlighting how lower investment fees over time potentially means you can retire up to 30% wealthier. Financial advisor extraordinaire Jason Pereira acknowledged that Questrade was right to go after do-nothing advisors who collect fat commissions, but he claimed the 30% wealthier promise was…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Low Interest Rates Are Here To Stay Edition
Usually one needs to read the tea leaves to interpret the Bank of Canada’s forward guidance for interest rates and the economy. Not anymore. New Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem was undeniably clear that record low interest rates are here to stay “for a long time.” It was no surprise to anyone that the…
Read MoreAre You Making Rational Financial Decisions?
Economists have long argued that, given the choices available, people will make rational decisions that provide them with the greatest benefit or satisfaction. Then behavioural economics, led by the likes of Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, came along and showed how people behave irrationally all the time due to psychological, cognitive, and emotional factors. For…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: $343 Billion Deficit Edition
When the global pandemic became a reality for Canadians in mid-March, the federal government introduced a host of measures to respond to the crisis, including the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) and Canada emergency wage subsidy (CEWS). The result was a massive spending increase as more than 8 million unique CERB applications were filed and…
Read MoreSticking To Your Financial Goals During The Pandemic
My wife and I had big plans for 2020. I had recently quit my day job to pursue my financial planning and freelance writing career full-time. We were going to travel the world, with trips booked to Maui, Italy, the U.K., and Victoria. We also had financial goals – specifically to max out our RRSPs,…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: New Rewards Credit Card Edition
Long time readers know that I’m passionate about earning and redeeming credit card rewards. It makes good sense to earn cash back or travel rewards on your everyday spending. Some of us may have even become slightly obsessive about maximizing the rewards on their spending – applying for multiple cards every year to take advantage…
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