Weekend Reading: Lifestyle Creep Edition
I swear half my job is to convince my frugal clients to spend a bit more money. I’m not talking about making a complete 180 degree turn to become a different person. But if you’ve always stayed at a Best Western, then an upgrade to the Ritz every once in a while won’t kill you.…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Renting Vs. Buying Edition
Canadians are nuts for home ownership, but with real estate prices soaring to unaffordable levels in many areas of the country it has become increasingly difficult to buy a home. Still, the prevailing narrative around renting vs. buying is that renting is throwing away money and buying is a surefire path to building wealth. That…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Retirement Mistakes To Avoid Edition
Retirement is often put on a pedestal – the pinnacle of achievement after a decades-long career. But the transition from full-time work to full-time leisure can be challenging, both financially and psychologically, if you’re not prepared to meet them. I’ve witnessed these challenges firsthand working with hundreds of retirees over the years. Here are four…
Read MoreTwo Types Of Overconfident Investors
I started investing in individual stocks shortly after the Great Financial Crisis ended in 2009. I picked an investing strategy that closely resembled the Dogs of the TSX, buying the 10 highest yielding Canadian dividend stocks. As you can imagine, the share prices of these companies got hammered during the stock market crash so I…
Read MoreWhy You Should (or Shouldn’t) Defer OAS To Age 70
I’ve long advocated that anyone who expects to live a long life should consider deferring their Canada Pension Plan to age 70. Doing so can increase your CPP payments by nearly 50% – an income stream that is both inflation-protected and payable for life. If taking CPP at 70 is such a good idea, why…
Read MoreTop ETFs and Model Portfolios for Canadian Investors
The investing landscape has certainly evolved for the better over the past two decades. Gone are the days when the only way to invest was to work with an expensive broker or mutual fund salesperson. Self-directed investing platforms, robo-advisors, and all-in-one ETFs have democratized investing – making it cheap and accessible for investors to build…
Read MoreHow To Choose The Right Asset Allocation ETF
Nobel laureate Harry Markowitz famously said that diversification is the only free lunch in investing. A portfolio concentrated in just a handful of stocks, or one that holds only Canadian or US stocks, may have a much wider range of outcomes than a more broadly diversified portfolio that includes stocks from every country. Most investors…
Read MoreWhy It Would Be Ludicrous To Invest In These Model Portfolios
Arguably no one has done more to educate Canadian do-it-yourself investors than the PWL Capital teams of Dan Bortolotti and Justin Bender, and Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore. It began more than a decade ago with Dan’s incredibly popular Canadian Couch Potato blog and podcast. Since then, Dan teamed up with PWL’s Justin Bender, who…
Read MoreForget About Asset Location: Why You Should Hold The Same Asset Mix In All Accounts
Much has been written about optimizing your portfolio(s) for tax efficiency by placing certain investments or asset classes in certain accounts. This tax planning strategy is called asset location. In this article I’m going to explain what asset location is all about, what optimal asset location can achieve, and why you should forget about it…
Read MoreVanguard All Equity ETF (VEQT): My New One-Ticket Investing Solution
Vanguard changed the self-directed investing game in Canada with the launch of its new suite of asset allocation ETFs. Now investors can get an ultra low cost, globally diversified portfolio of equities and bonds with just one product. The funds first came in three flavours – VCNS, VBAL, and VGRO – each with a different…
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