Weekend Reading: Dividend Aristocrats Edition
Dividend investors tend to have an almost blind faith in the steadiness of companies in which they invest. They want to invest in businesses that have paid dividends for many years and, more importantly, have a track record of growing those dividends each year for decades or more. Reliable dividends mean never worrying about the…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Value Of Financial Advice Edition
In 2012, personal finance commenter Preet Banerjee wrote a piece for the Globe & Mail debunking a widely quoted research paper on the value of financial advice. The study, published by the CIRANO group, reported that “on average, participants retaining the service of a financial advisor for more than 15 years have about 173 percent…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Super Bowl LIII Edition
I’m a die-hard football fan but even I’ll admit that it’s getting tougher to follow the game with the same religious fervor that I once had. The NFL is plagued by many issues, including domestic violence, racial division, substance abuse, and player injuries resulting from repeated head trauma (which the league ignored or denied for…
Read MoreExamining Canadians’ RRSP Contribution Habits
It’s perhaps the greatest tax-planning tool available to Canadians, yet RRSPs still remains a mystery to some and are underutilized by many. BMO’s 9th annual RRSP study digs into the data to examine Canadians’ RRSP contribution habits and highlight key trends. Average amount held in RRSP The study found that the average amount held in…
Read MoreCan Robo-Advisors Hold Up In A Downturn?
Robo-advisors have been around for several years now offering affordable online investing services with an element of human advice. In general, investors who use a robo-advisor get assigned to a pre-packaged portfolio of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on their risk tolerance. Portfolios are regularly monitored and re-balanced whenever a client’s asset allocation drifts away…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Online Grocery Shopping Edition
This week my wife and I finally tried online grocery shopping and home delivery. What a game changer! We shop bi-weekly at Costco for the majority of our groceries and household supplies. In between it’s a mix of No Frills, Safeway, and Save-On Foods for fresh produce and other items we seem to need regularly…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: RIP John Bogle Edition
Vanguard founder and index investing pioneer John Bogle passed away this week at the age of 89. Bogle was a legend in the investing community for driving down costs for individual investors. His flagship index mutual fund, now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, amassed just $11 million when it was introduced in 1976.…
Read MoreAddition By Subscription Subtraction
Anyone born before 1990 should remember Columbia House – the “world’s largest record club” – whose claim to fame was offering dirt-cheap music upfront to members who joined its mail-order subscription service. The company made billions by using something called ‘negative option billing’, a process by which the customer agrees to have goods or services…
Read MoreGive It Away Now (A Modern Potlatch)
Long before Marie Kondo had us magically tidying up our homes, keeping only the items that ‘spark joy’, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast were giving it all away through an elaborate ceremony called a potlatch. The literal word “potlatch” means “to give away,” and it was the desire of every chief to…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Happy Go Money Edition
Want to know if money can truly buy happiness? How about a brutally honest and refreshing look at money and happiness? That’s what author Melissa Leong has in store with her new book called, Happy Go Money. Melissa takes readers along her journey, from frugal beginnings growing up in Winnipeg, to covering the personal finance…
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