Weekend Reading: The Cost Of A Financial Plan Edition
The Globe & Mail’s Rob Carrick posed a question to his LinkedIn followers a few months ago asking about the cost of a financial plan. He quoted a reader who said: “We recently received a quote of $4,000 for retirement and investment planning. This is a one time fee for service engagement. Seems high –…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Home Ownership Sucks Edition
For many Canadians, owning a home is a sign of personal and financial success – a rite of passage signalling that you’ve made it on your own (maybe with some help from mom & dad). Just over two-thirds of Canadian households own their home, which puts us ahead of countries like the United States, Australia,…
Read MoreCloset Indexing: Revealing The Dirty Little Secret Of Canada’s Mutual Fund Industry
For years I’ve railed against Canada’s mutual fund industry for high fees, conflicts of interest, underperformance, poor disclosure, and lack of accountability. But today I’m going to zero-in on another major problem with mutual funds in Canada – closet indexing. Canadian equity mutual funds sold by Canada’s big banks, in particular, are some of the…
Read MoreThe Vanguard Effect on Mutual Funds, Fees and Performance
Vanguard is best known in Canada for its low cost, passively managed ETFs. Indeed, since entering the Canadian market in 2011, Vanguard now boasts a line-up of 37 ETFs with more than $40 billion in assets under management – making it the third largest ETF provider in Canada. Keeping costs low is in Vanguard’s DNA.…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Used Car Prices Edition
One of the more interesting economic fallouts from the global pandemic is the impact it’s had on used car prices. Rental car agencies sold a good portion of their fleets when global travel shut down last spring. A semi-conductor shortage has slashed the production of new vehicles. Now that travel is slowly returning, rental car…
Read MoreThe Path To Coast FIRE
For years I’ve been motivated to reach financial freedom by 45. I started a side hustle to accelerate our savings goals, and eventually turned that into a full-time entrepreneurial pursuit. Now that I’ve left my day job and can work on my own terms, it feels like I can finally coast towards financial freedom. I’ve…
Read MoreReframing The RRSP Advantage
I’ve read a lot of bad takes on RRSP contributions and tax rates over the years. One that stands out is the argument that you should avoid RRSP contributions entirely, and focus instead on investing in your TFSA and (gasp) your non-registered account. This idea tends to come from wealthy retired folks who are upset…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Embracing Simplicity Edition
Do-it-yourself investors face a number of behavioural hurdles when it comes to building an investment portfolio. We look to past performance to guide our future investing decisions – ignoring evidence that yesterday’s winners often become tomorrow’s losers. We disregard decades of research that shows how low cost investing through passive index funds beats active stock…
Read MoreNet Worth Update: 2021 Mid-Year Review
Our net worth surpassed the million-dollar mark at the end of last year. It was a goal I had been chasing since I began sharing net worth updates back in 2012. So, what now? Life is about the journey, not the destination. Along the path to $1M I built a side-business that helped accelerate our…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Best Offers Yet Edition
Most travel rewards credit card issuers hit pause on their generous welcome bonus offers when the pandemic shut down global travel last March. What good are perks like airport lounge passes and priority boarding when nobody is traveling? American Express consistently offers some of the most generous benefits, including luxury travel perks with its iconic…
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