Financial Planning Simplified

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…

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…

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…

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 –…

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…

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…