Posts by Robb Engen
Weekend Reading: Canadian Financial Summit Edition
The good folks at Young & Thrifty have put together an awesome initiative called the Canadian Financial Summit. It’s a unique online conference taking place September 14-16 with more than 25 Canadian personal finance experts sharing their insights, tips, and secret money hacks. The conference is completely free to view during that time, or you…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Simplii Financial Edition
President’s Choice Financial will end its 20-year banking agreement with CIBC beginning November 1st. CIBC, which managed the personal banking services for Loblaws under the PC Financial name, will now take direct control of the roughly $2 million PC Financial bank accounts under the new name – Simplii Financial. PC Financial is keeping its credit…
Read MoreThe Problem With Core And Explore
A core and explore investing approach can give you a taste of both passive and active strategies. The idea being that you put 90 percent of your portfolio into a low-cost, broadly diversified set of index funds or ETFs, and then put the remaining 10 percent of your portfolio into investments that have potential to…
Read MoreDo You Always Get What You Pay For?
“This $6 bottle of wine tastes awful.” “What did you expect – you get what you pay for.” It’s true, in most circumstances, that the quality of products and services increases as the price increases. You get what you pay for. When you cheap out on something, be it a bottle of wine, pair of…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: 7 Years Of Blogging Edition
We started this personal finance blog seven years ago – on August 10, 2010 to be precise. Blog years are like dog years, and seven years is an incredible amount of time to be blogging. We’re still going strong, and that’s in no small part thanks to you, our readers, for continuing to follow along…
Read More38 Thoughts On Turning 38
I turned 38 today and I wanted to share some random thoughts about money and life, along with some lessons I’ve learned along the way. 38 thoughts on money and life 1. Start the habit of saving when you’re young – I started putting money away for retirement when I was 19 years-old. Every paycheque…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Longevity Risk Edition
Longevity risk, or the risk of outliving your money, is the biggest threat facing the majority of retirees. As gold-plated company pensions slowly disappear, millions of Canadians must carefully manage their retirement nest-eggs (on their own, or with the help of an advisor) to make sure they have enough to meet their needs as they…
Read MoreWhy You Should Avoid Mortgage Life Insurance
If you own your home, chances are you were offered mortgage life insurance from your bank. This type of insurance is sold by the banks as a flexible, low-cost way to protect one of your largest financial obligations. If you die, get a terminal illness, or suffer an accident, your mortgage life insurance can pay…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Vacation Staycation Edition
It’s vacation time for the next two weeks and while I’ll certainly enjoy the sunshine, and these record setting temperatures, we don’t have any plans to leave southwest Alberta. Yes, that means a staycation, which is perfectly fine with me. So, instead of venturing into B.C. for two weeks, this year we’ll make a few…
Read MoreSteak Knives, Yes. Financial Advice, Maybe Not.
When I was younger I had the opportunity to work for Vector Marketing, the sales arm of Cutco Corporation and the maker of Cutco cutlery – speciality knives with a forever guarantee. The job listing said no experience necessary and it wasn’t all commission-based – you received a guaranteed base rate of pay every time…
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