Around the Blogosphere

Welcome to the weekend! I was thrilled to be featured in this CBC story about Air Miles and how miles earned before 2012 are set to expire at the end of this year. The author, Sophia Harris, was a pleasure to work with and, incredibly, turned this story around in just a couple of days.…

Happy Canada Day weekend! We spent Friday exploring the beautiful Waterton Lake area and took a boat cruise across the International border to Goat Haunt, Montana. Canada and the U.S. have an interesting way to separate their borders along the 49th parallel – by clearing a section of forest 10 feet on either side of the…

What a crazy week! First, perhaps taking a cue from my pro-CPP expansion article, the federal government and most provinces agreed on CPP reform, with premiums set to increase in 2019. This surprisingly quick compromise got the internet buzzing for a better part of the week. Then Brexit happened. Brexit, or British exit, referred to…

Walmart took a shot at Visa last weekend by announcing it would no longer accept Visa cards in its more than 400 stores across Canada. A statement issued by the retail giant blamed Visa for charging unfair fees on credit card transactions – which Walmart claims are four times higher than what consumers pay in other…

A while back I wrote about how target date funds could be a smart solution for your RESP. Turns out a new robo-advisor called Justwealth had the same idea and is now offering custom Education Target Date Portfolios: “a unique investment solution that transforms itself automatically over time, eventually “maturing” in the exact year that your…

The number of dual income families with at least one child has almost doubled since 1976, according to new research released this week by Stats Canada, rising from 36 percent to 69 percent. Meanwhile, the number of single income families dropped from 59 percent to 27 percent. More families are dual-income today for two reasons;…

The TSX had been in a bit of a funk since June 1st 2015 when it closed above 15,000 for the last time. Canada’s major stock market index reached its depths this January 19th when it finished the day at 11,843 – a drop of 21 percent from that June 1st high. Both my RRSP…

May long weekend is traditionally for camping, gardening, or venturing out for some of the first outdoor activities of the summer. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been kind to those of us in southern Alberta who were looking to spend some time outside enjoying the long weekend. So we’re staying indoors and fortunately there was plenty of great reading…

It’s unusual for a big bank to go out of its way to offer something for free but to my surprise that’s exactly what happened when I called TD Direct Investing this week. You see, before I sold all of my individual stocks and moved to a two-ETF portfolio at the beginning of last year, I had…

Our hearts go out to the residents of Fort McMurray who earlier this week were forced to abandon their homes and flee the city as a massive wildfire continues to devastate the northern Alberta community. The fire, which is said could double in size by Saturday, has sent 80,000 evacuees to nearby work-camps, hotels, and recreation centres in…