Around the Blogosphere

A good percentage of Canadians would prefer to invest in real estate (either through their primary residence or by purchasing an investment property) instead of investing in the stock market. There’s even a perception that real estate is less risky than stocks. Couple that with massive gains in house prices across the country and it’s…

Nobel Prize winner Harry Markowitz famously said that “diversification is the only free lunch in investing.” For investors, that means diversifying their portfolio across different asset classes, different sectors, and different geographies. The goal is to reduce risk without sacrificing return. Sounds easy, right? Investing can be simple, but it isn’t always easy. Think about…

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…

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,…

Erica Alini quickly became one of my favourite personal finance writers when she joined Global News as a national money and consumer reporter. Her columns and Money123 newsletter tackle a breadth of financial topics and are must-reads each week. That’s why I was excited when I heard that Erica planned to write a book. I…

Yes, I know it’s not even December yet but I’m going “that guy” – the first to share his 2022 financial goals. First, a quick trip down memory lane. I’ll never forget attending a ceremony to be recognized for 10 years of service at the University along with dozens of other employees receiving awards for…

My wife and I travelled to Boston last week and spent four nights in this amazing and historic city. We had a great time, but it felt strange to travel outside of Canada for the first time in almost two years. We had a lot of anxiety about the requirements for leaving and entering Canada,…

Reboot Your Portfolio: 9 Steps to Successful Investing with ETFs is a new book written by Canadian Couch Potato blogger and PWL Capital portfolio manager Dan Bortolotti. Simply put, this book is the definitive guide to building an index investing portfolio today, brought to you by the author who is synonymous with this low cost,…

Our family switched to a plant-based diet two years ago. We have our reasons – a dairy intolerance was the driving force but there’s also environmental concerns, the ethical treatment of animals, a healthier diet, etc. We’ve never looked at it from a financial perspective, mostly because we haven’t noticed much of a change in…

CIBC’s Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal raised eyebrows this week when he said that one in five first-time home buyers is getting help from their parents with a gift, on average, of $150,000. Not only are more first-time buyers getting financial aid from the bank of mom and dad (up from 15.5% in 2015) but…