Investing

The investment landscape changed this year when a new online investment model came to Canada.  Already established for years in the United States with firms like WealthFront and LearnVest – robo-advisors have made their way north of the border with hopes to disrupt the current advice model. What exactly is a robo-advisor?  Essentially it is…

I’ve spent the last five years convincing myself – and many of you – that I’m a sophisticated do-it-yourself investor with a sound strategy that will outperform the market over the long run. My dividend growth investment approach has indeed performed well, returning over 16% per year since 2009. But the stock market in general…

Exchange traded funds have surged in popularity over the last decade, and for good reason.  A low cost, broadly diversified fund that tracks a stock index like the S&P/TSX 60 or S&P 500 doesn’t need to pay an expensive management and research team to deliver its mandate – saving you money. But a disturbing trend…

It’s not surprising that investors (especially first-time investors) often worry about the timing of their stock purchases. They believe they can accurately predict when it will rise and fall. The financial media is obsessed with market timing. Market timing doesn’t work for the average investor – or even most professionals – so don’t listen to…

In 1996, following one of the worst mass killings in history, the Australian government made sweeping reform to its gun control laws, banning semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and limiting ownership to an extremely narrow range of purposes. As a result, the government bought back nearly 650,000 of these weapons and now just 5 percent of…

Many employers who provide pension plans have shifted from the traditional defined benefit (DB) plan, where the employer takes on most of the risk of providing fixed retirement benefits, to defined contribution (DC) plans, where the employee bears all of the risks. Related: Have we seen the last of the gold-plated pension? Although employers commonly…

A client reached out to me for advice after her financial advisor at BMO Nesbitt Burns dumped her earlier this summer.  The advisor was looking to scale back his practice and she was one of the unfortunate investors he was “letting go”. The client, let’s call her Jane, shared the “transition” letter with me and…

Many DIY investors have been accused of having home country bias when choosing their investments, especially those who are dividend-growth investors. What is home country bias?  According to Investopedia, it is the tendency to overweight domestic holdings at the expense of foreign securities.  These investors do not diversify their portfolios, which could have a negative…

It’s a sad fact that Canadians know a lot less about investing than they think. Confidence can ride high when markets are rising steadily, but when their portfolio takes a beating, doubt sets in. When more than 4,000 Canadian investors were asked to answer a 10-question investment test only one-third got a passing grade.  Only…

If you have long-term money in GICs, this post is for you.  I know, rates are abysmal, and I’m not here to talk you into investing in mutual funds, or ETFs, or to buy bonds directly.  If you’re comfortable with GICs, and you can meet your income or capital-preservation goals with them, then keep on…