Weekend Reading: Maximizing Life Enjoyment Edition
Some of my younger clients are concerned they might be over-saving. I think they might be onto something. I have the unique perspective of having written hundreds of retirement plans over the last eight years. One common theme is that retirees who had a high savings rate throughout their careers are rarely able to flip…
Read MoreNet Worth Update: 2023 Mid-Year Review
What a difference a year makes! At this time last year we owned an empty lot and had cashed out our TFSAs to help fund our new house build. Stocks were also down pretty significantly in mid-2022. Our finances were still in flux at the end of 2022 because we didn’t have a possession date…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: RESP Portfolio Reboot Edition
Happy Father’s Day! Today seems like a good day to talk about the changes I plan on making to reboot our kids’ RESP portfolio. For years, I’ve invested our RESP contributions into TD’s e-Series funds – contributing $416.66 per month and then buying one of four e-Series funds (Canadian, US, or International equities, plus Canadian…
Read MoreA Two Fund Solution For Investing In Retirement
The transition to retirement can be hard enough without having to deal with a mess of individual stocks, mutual funds, and/or ETFs held across several accounts and institutions. Indeed, one of the most sophisticated moves you can make is to simplify your investment portfolio as you head into retirement. Consider Chris and Liza, a couple…
Read MoreHow Investors Can Control Their Urgency Instinct
As investors we face a constant barrage of information every day that triggers our urgency instinct. The urgency instinct makes us want to take immediate action in the face of a perceived imminent danger. This instinct must have served us well in the distant past. If we thought there might be a lion in the…
Read MoreIs Outsourcing The Key To Happiness?
In his best selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek, author Tim Ferriss explains how outsourcing your to-do list can result in a more ideal work-life balance. Instead of being glued to your phone and email like most busy professionals and entrepreneurs, Ferris recommends delegating the time-consuming, unpleasant, or simply boring tasks in both your professional and…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Financial Anxiety Edition
I work with a lot of young families who are trying to juggle the enormous pressures of paying off debt, saving for a house down payment, possible income disruption from taking a parental leave, moving, or changing careers, plus dealing with temporary but costly expenses like childcare, paying off a vehicle, or renovating a home.…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Best Of Bad Mortgage Options Edition
We’ve finally moved into our new home and received the proceeds from the sale of our previous home. To recap, last year we entered into a purchase agreement to build a new house. We arranged our financing so that we didn’t have to sell the home we were living in to qualify for a new…
Read More5 Investing Rules To Follow (In Good Times and Bad)
I wish I had a playbook to follow when I first started investing. If I did, maybe I could’ve avoided some of the investing mistakes I made along the way. That journey had me investing in high fee mutual funds, narrowly concentrating on a handful of Canadian dividend paying stocks, and straying from blue-chip stocks…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Markets Are Okay Edition
Ever since inflation began its persistent climb two years ago investors have been nervous about the market and how it would react to rising interest rates and, presumably, falling corporate earnings. Indeed, we’ve been talking about an imminent recession for the past two years and many investors want to know how to position (or re-position)…
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