Investing

Every year I track my portfolio rate of return to see how my investments measure up to specific benchmarks. Prior to 2015 I invested primarily in Canadian dividend paying stocks and measured my stock-picking prowess against the iShares Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index ETF (CDZ). Last year I sold all of my dividend stocks ($100,000 in…

Mutual funds have been a popular investment vehicle for a long time. There are currently over 5,000 mutual funds available in Canada and, according to the latest figures from The Investment Funds Institute of Canada, 33% of Canadian households are invested in them. Mutual funds are offered in different series or classes, which are identified by…

Investors in Canadian mutual funds pay a steep price for underperformance. In a 2015 Morningstar report on mutual fund fees, Canada ranked dead last among 25 nations – with expense ratios on equity mutual funds averaging 2.35 per cent in Canada versus an average of 0.84 per cent in the United States. Couple that with…

The idea that an RRSP loan can boost your savings and generate a higher tax refund does not sit well with most people. If you can afford the loan payment then why not just budget and save that amount in the first place instead of borrowing? In The Wealthy Barber Returns, author David Chilton describes a strategy…

Before you begin choosing your individual investments you need to consider your asset allocation. Asset allocation is your portfolio’s blend of stocks, bonds and cash. Finding the best asset mix is crucial if you want to meet your goals. Rules of thumb A typical balanced asset allocation is 40% fixed income and 60% equities. A…

Arnold and Zelda consider themselves to be good investors. Arnold has all of his wealth in bank GICs, a choice he knows and feels comfortable with. He bemoans the low returns – under 2% – that he is currently receiving, but he’s heard too many horror stories of stock market investing. As a result, Arnold may…

New research from investment management firm BlackRock suggests that Millennials are fearful of the stock market and sitting on too much cash in their accounts. It got me thinking – do Millennials fear the stock market? Or are there other factors at work? Millennials came of age during the global financial crisis and Bernie Madoff Ponzi…

I get plenty of questions about my two-ETF retirement portfolio. Some advisors think it’s too simple – stating that a properly diversified portfolio should contain at least six asset classes. Further to that, some clients and blog readers ask me whether it’s wise to add a dash of gold, REITs, or even farmland to their…

This article is a review of the Wealthsimple robo-advisor platform and includes positive testimony from a real-life Wealthsimple investor. I started investing at 19 without really understanding what I was doing. A bank advisor set me up with a portfolio of mutual funds, and for several years I paid a handsome fee for what amounted…

GICs get a bad rap in today’s low interest rate environment, but when stock markets are reeling, like they were this summer, investors often seek save havens to wait out the storm. Cash is king for those who don’t have the stomach to watch their portfolio plunge in value, and GICs at least offer the…