It never gets old. I’m talking about Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. The famous Oracle of Omaha beat the market again, increasing the market value of Berkshire by 2.8 percent versus the 4.4 percent loss suffered by the S&P 500 in 2018. Buffett’s letter always includes a good dose of wisdom and…

Dividend investors tend to have an almost blind faith in the steadiness of companies in which they invest. They want to invest in businesses that have paid dividends for many years and, more importantly, have a track record of growing those dividends each year for decades or more. Reliable dividends mean never worrying about the…

In 2012, personal finance commenter Preet Banerjee wrote a piece for the Globe & Mail debunking a widely quoted research paper on the value of financial advice. The study, published by the CIRANO group, reported that “on average, participants retaining the service of a financial advisor for more than 15 years have about 173 percent…

I’m a die-hard football fan but even I’ll admit that it’s getting tougher to follow the game with the same religious fervor that I once had. The NFL is plagued by many issues, including domestic violence, racial division, substance abuse, and player injuries resulting from repeated head trauma (which the league ignored or denied for…

This week my wife and I finally tried online grocery shopping and home delivery. What a game changer! We shop bi-weekly at Costco for the majority of our groceries and household supplies. In between it’s a mix of No Frills, Safeway, and Save-On Foods for fresh produce and other items we seem to need regularly…

Vanguard founder and index investing pioneer John Bogle passed away this week at the age of 89. Bogle was a legend in the investing community for driving down costs for individual investors. His flagship index mutual fund, now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, amassed just $11 million when it was introduced in 1976.…