Long Weekend Reading: Canada Pension Plan Solvency Edition
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board manages $392 billion in assets on behalf of some 20 million Canadian contributors and beneficiaries. Operated at arms-length of the federal government, the CPPIB is the 11th largest sovereign wealth fund in the world (Norway’s trillion dollar pension fund leads the way). While questions about Canada Pension Plan solvency…
Read MoreKOHO Review: Get Up To 1.5% Cashback
KOHO is a prepaid, reloadable VISA card, plus an app that can be used to access full feature banking services to help manage your finances right from your mobile device. While a prepaid credit card doesn’t sound all that special, KOHO takes it to the next level (and then some) with a product that is…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: A Few Bad Apples Edition
We’ve heard arguments that misconduct only happens with “a few bad apples”, while the rest of the industry is full of good guys and gals looking out for their clients’ best interests.
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Your Advisor Doesn’t Like Index Funds Edition
A client is moving her portfolio to the robo-advisor Wealthsimple, where she will save a minimum of $5,000 in annual fees. Her former advisor is not happy about this, as you’d expect, and sent an email filled with all the reasons why she’d be better off staying invested in his actively managed mutual funds. Most…
Read MoreWhy Don’t I Pay Off My Mortgage?
Followers of this blog know that I tend to focus on saving and investing rather than trying to pay off my mortgage faster. Indeed, our household assets are projected to exceed $1 million this year but we’ve still got a $200,000 mortgage to contend with. So why don’t I make it a priority to pay…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Blocked By Suze Orman Edition
No, I didn’t get blocked by Suze Orman. But respected journalist and consumer advocate Ellen Roseman did when she had the audacity to call out Suze on Twitter, saying, “giving advice made Suze Orman rich and famous, which makes it harder for her to offer advice to normal people anymore.” Ellen tweeted in response to…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Your Biggest Money Fear Edition
What’s your biggest money fear? The answer likely depends on your age and stage of life. Twenty-somethings might say they fear living in debt forever, or that they’ll never be able to afford a home. Those in their thirties might fear they’ll never stop living paycheque to paycheque. Forty-somethings might fear losing their job and…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Steady Financial Progress Edition
It’s frustrating to feel like you’re not making any progress with your finances. Maybe you haven’t got a raise for a while, or you’ve been slogging away at debt payments for months at a time, or a stock market dip took your investments right back to where you started. Some people get desperate to make…
Read MoreWomen, Wealth, and Retirement
One of my very first financial planning clients was a single woman in her late 40s named Rachel who lived in Toronto and worked as a self-employed consultant to the not-for-profit sector. She made good money but lacked the confidence to manage her day-to-day finances and save for the long term. Moreover, Rachel provided care…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Managing Investor Expectations Edition
The reason I put so much emphasis on low investment fees is because it’s one of the few key areas that investors can control (the others being asset allocation, rebalancing, and savings rate). Yet most investors focus on the area they cannot control – their portfolio returns. While it’s reasonable to expect investment returns in…
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