Weekend Reading: Master List Of Financial Goals Edition
Most of my work as a financial planner boils down to helping clients use their resources to achieve their financial goals over time. But where do those goals come from? How do we know they’re the “right” goals? The team at PWL Capital dug into the research around goal setting and found that, “people are…
Read MoreMy House Was A Lousy Investment (Or Was It?)
As we get closer to moving into our new home (and selling our existing one) I decided to look back on the financial return of our home purchase. I wish I hadn’t. On first glance, I think my house was a lousy investment. We haven’t put our house on the market yet, but we will…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: The Trouble With GICs Edition
I’ve never heard so much interest in GICs before this year, but with stock and bond markets down and interest rates up it’s no surprise that investors are looking for a safe and profitable place to park their savings. Just two years ago, a five-year GIC was paying a paltry 1.5% interest, while a two-year…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Canadian Financial Summit Edition
The Canadian Financial Summit is a three-day virtual conference featuring 35+ Canadian personal finance experts (including yours truly) speaking on a wide range of topics from investing and retirement, to pensions, real estate, financial planning, inflation, and much more. It’s Canada’s largest personal finance and investing conference. This year’s conference takes place October 12th to…
Read MoreInvestors Are Ready To Capitulate
Investors are ready to throw in the towel. To cry uncle. To capitulate. Can we blame them? This year has been brutal for both stock and bond markets. A global all-equity portfolio is down 16.87%, while a global balanced 60/40 portfolio is down 15.22% as of September 30th. But it’s not just the double-digit losses…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: RRSP vs. RRIF Edition
One question retirees face when setting up their retirement income plan is whether to convert their RRSP to a RRIF or to make withdrawals directly from their RRSP. There are pros and cons to each approach, depending on your age, how much income you require, whether you have a spouse, and where your RRSP account…
Read MoreMoney Bag: Creating Retirement Income, Money Resources For Beginners, All Equity ETF Comparison, and More
Welcome to the Money Bag, where I answer questions and address comments from readers on a wide range of money topics, myths, and perceptions about money. No question is off limits, so hit me up in the comments section or send me an email about any money topic that’s on your mind. This edition of the Money Bag…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Tax Loss Selling Edition
Many of my clients and blog readers are looking to change their investing strategy to a simple indexing approach using a single asset allocation ETF. This can make a lot of sense if you want to reduce fees, improve diversification, and simplify your portfolio. Indeed, investing complexity has been solved with all-in-one ETF products. Making…
Read MoreRRSP Loans: Why You Should (and Shouldn’t) Get One
February is RRSP season, which for many Canadians means an annual trip to the bank to make an RRSP contribution before the deadline (March 1, 2023). It might be tempting to take out a loan if you don’t have the cash available to make a contribution – the rationale being that in one shot you’ll…
Read MoreMy Own Investing Multiverse Of Madness
A counterfactual is when we create possible alternatives to events that have already occurred – something contrary to what actually happened. We do this all the time. “If only I had set my alarm, I wouldn’t have been late.” “If only I hadn’t been speeding, I wouldn’t have wrecked my car.” We also use counterfactual…
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