When Investment Returns Are So Bad They Make GICs Look Good
The research firm DALBAR has been studying the behaviour of mutual fund investors for 25 years. Each year the firm reports how poorly investors fared relative to their benchmark index over time. What the data repeatedly shows is a ‘behaviour gap‘ that leads to significant investor underperformance. It suggests that investors lack the patience to…
Read MoreLong Weekend Reading: Ikea Trip From Hell Edition
“Shipping and delivery comes to $160? Forget it!” That was my reaction to the idea of placing an online order for Ikea furniture to be delivered to our home in Lethbridge. Besides the high price tag, the items would also take weeks to arrive. I had to find another option. You see, we don’t have…
Read MoreStop Asking $3 Questions. Start Asking $30,000 Questions
Frugality can only take you so far on the road to financial independence. That’s because there’s a limit to how much you can save. We all need a place to live, food to eat, Netflix to watch. It’s right there on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Strip your budget down to the bare bones and you’re…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Upside Down Mortgage Rates Edition
In a normal interest rate environment, fixed rate mortgage tend to be more expensive than variable rate mortgages. Borrowers pay a premium for predictability – knowing exactly what their interest rate and mortgage payment will be for a five-year period. For that reason, a common strategy for saving money on your mortgage has been to…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Disappointing TFSAs Edition
A study published in the Canadian Tax Journal raised doubts about the effectiveness of Tax Free Savings Accounts and whether TFSAs really help Canadians save more. The study showed that one-third of TFSA contributions would have otherwise gone into RRSPs – something the authors called a displacement effect. Furthermore, the remaining 66 percent of contributions…
Read MoreThe Easy Way Or The Hard Way
It’s hard to find a direct flight from Calgary to Dublin. WestJet offers one that leaves Calgary at 8pm and arrives in Dublin the next morning at 11am – a total flight time of eight hours. The problem was cost. A round-trip flight for our family of four was nearly $5,000. I decided to try…
Read MoreNet Worth Update: 2019 Mid-Year Review
I started posting my net worth updates several years ago with the audacious goal of reaching $1M in net worth by the end of 2020. It’s motivating to see this goal becoming a reality with each passing update. Last year ended with a net worth of $691,000, falling short of my goal thanks to the…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Update From Ireland Edition
Greetings from Ireland! We’re on day 11 of our two-week stay on a beautiful farm in Kilkenny, Ireland. Our trip has been amazing so far, with stays in Edinburgh and Inverness, a day trip to the Isle of Skye, and an overnight road-trip to Killarney National Park. Along the way we’ve visited castles and cathedrals,…
Read MoreRetirees Can Sell Most Of Their Stocks As They Approach Retirement
Retirement can be a scary time for retirees who have considerable and even modest portfolios. We want to protect those assets. And certainly the risk tolerance level for most retirees will drop considerably. And that risk tolerance level will often drive the bus with respect to your allocation to bonds and cash and other risk…
Read More5 Sneaky Credit Card Marketing Tricks (And How To Beat Them)
Our emotions have a funny way of making decisions for us. Somehow, they find their way into our finances and can get us into trouble, either through credit card debt, applying for a credit card that turns out quite useless to you, or getting tricked by marketing tactics. A good credit card is a necessity…
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