How To Choose The Right Asset Allocation ETF
Nobel laureate Harry Markowitz famously said that diversification is the only free lunch in investing. A portfolio concentrated in just a handful of stocks, or one that holds only Canadian or US stocks, may have a much wider range of outcomes than a more broadly diversified portfolio that includes stocks from every country. Most investors…
Read MoreWhy It Would Be Ludicrous To Invest In These Model Portfolios
Arguably no one has done more to educate Canadian do-it-yourself investors than the PWL Capital teams of Dan Bortolotti and Justin Bender, and Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore. It began more than a decade ago with Dan’s incredibly popular Canadian Couch Potato blog and podcast. Since then, Dan teamed up with PWL’s Justin Bender, who…
Read MoreForget About Asset Location: Why You Should Hold The Same Asset Mix In All Accounts
Much has been written about optimizing your portfolio(s) for tax efficiency by placing certain investments or asset classes in certain accounts. This tax planning strategy is called asset location. In this article I’m going to explain what asset location is all about, what optimal asset location can achieve, and why you should forget about it…
Read MoreVanguard All Equity ETF (VEQT): My New One-Ticket Investing Solution
Vanguard changed the self-directed investing game in Canada with the launch of its new suite of asset allocation ETFs. Now investors can get an ultra low cost, globally diversified portfolio of equities and bonds with just one product. The funds first came in three flavours – VCNS, VBAL, and VGRO – each with a different…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Pitfalls of Leaving Your Advisor Edition
A commonly held view in the do-it-yourself investing community is that to maximize returns one simply needs to cut ties with their expensive advisor and manage their own portfolio. On the surface, this makes sense. Costs matter, so if you can slash your investment fees from 2% down to 0.5% or lower your returns will…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Stocks Fall to Prices Not Seen Since June Edition
Hopefully by now my financial planning clients and blog readers have been conditioned to ignore short term drops in the market – even big ones like we experienced this past week. The reason why stocks have such attractive long-term returns is because they ARE risky to own in the short-term. That’s a feature, not a…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Let’s Talk About Rental Properties Edition
A new report issued last week by condo research firm Urbanation Inc. shed light on a problem that has plagued real estate investors for years – the vast majority of rental property owners are bleeding cash flow. According to the report (G&M subs), which looked specifically at new condo investors in Toronto, more than 80%…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Stock Market Highs Edition
Global stocks continue soaring to new all-time highs, with US large cap growth stocks (aka Big Tech) leading the way. Even the TSX is getting in on the action, finally surpassing its March 2022 high earlier this year. Big returns are all around us, and it’s only natural for investors to feel a bit of…
Read MoreNet Worth Update: 2024 Mid-Year Review
Welcome to another net worth update. I’ve been tracking and reporting my net worth twice a year for the past decade or so. It’s a good way to check on our financial progress and keep us on track with our goals. We’re at the stage of our journey where forces outside of our control can…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Create Your Own Robo-Advisor Edition
Robo-advisors have been around for a decade and, while its promise to disrupt the traditional financial services model has so far fallen flat, the concept of an automatically rebalanced, low-cost portfolio of index funds is still incredibly sound. The investing landscape continues to evolve and when Vanguard introduced its suite of asset allocation ETFs in…
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