Lock-In or Ride It Out: The Variable Rate Mortgage Dilemma
I’ve always been transparent about my mortgage strategy. I prefer to select a deeply discounted variable rate (prime minus 0.80% or better), but if that’s not available then I’m happy to take a 1 or 2 year fixed rate mortgage and wait for those discounted variables to return. We’ve been in our house for 11…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Can You Predict A Stock Market Crash Edition
Investors should lower their expectations for future stock returns. I’ve been saying this for a while now, but it bears repeating again now that stocks have gotten off to such a rocky start this year. Markets are largely efficient and tend to go up over the long term. But they can certainly overshoot expectations in…
Read MoreThe Next Tax Bracket Myth
Let’s bust a myth about working overtime. Some employees incorrectly believe that when earnings from overtime, a bonus, or salary increase pushes them into another tax bracket they’ll actually take home less on their paycheque than before. Some employees even refuse to work overtime because they believe they’ll pay more taxes and earn less money…
Read MoreWhy We Ditched Our Endy Mattress And Went With Novosbed
This is the story of why we ditched our Endy mattress and chose Novosbed for our remodelled bedroom. Four years ago, my wife and I wanted to replace our 12-year-old Sealy Posturepedic mattress. We heard about the bed-in-a-box trend – dozens of brands were selling foam mattresses online and shipping them directly to consumers –…
Read More10 Years Later: Vanguard’s Impact On Canadian ETF Investors
It’s hard to put into words the impact Vanguard has made on the investment industry and for individual investors. Perhaps Warren Buffett described it best when he paid tribute to the late Vanguard founder Jack Bogle in 2019: “Jack did more for American investors as a whole than any individual I’ve known.” Vanguard brought its…
Read MoreYour Retirement Readiness Checklist
A good portion of my financial planning clients are in what I’d call the retirement readiness zone, meaning they are 1-5 years away from retirement. They want a check-up on their financial situation and answers to big burning questions like, when can I retire, how much money can I spend, how long will my money…
Read MoreWhat Will It Take For You To Save More This Year?
I know it can be tough to save money. It’s even more difficult to up the ante and save more year-after-year. But saving is necessary to meet both our short-and-long term financial goals. Without any savings, you’ll live paycheque-to-paycheque (or worse) every month with no retirement plan whatsoever. Related: Retirement planning for late starters So…
Read More2021 Investment Returns
Happy New Year! 2021 was another crazy year for investors. Unlike 2020, which saw global stock markets shrug off a 30% decline before posting positive returns for the year, 2021 began with a meme stock craze and ended with a flurry of new all-time highs in both Canadian and US stock markets. In this post…
Read MoreNet Worth Update: 2021 Year-End Review
Last year we reached the million-dollar net worth milestone. The goal itself wasn’t life changing, by any means, but it was something we had been striving to hit for nearly a decade – and it felt pretty damn good! The truth is we have changed our lives for the better over the last two years.…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Another Money Bag Edition
Welcome to another edition of Weekend Reading. I continue to get dozens of emails from readers every week and I’m pleased to share some of those questions and answers with the broader community so we can all learn from each other. Today, we’ll look at investing FOMO and regret, where to park your cash savings,…
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