Investing

I write a lot about investing and always try my best to use plain language and real life examples to explain investment strategies, describe different products, and identify best practices. But I fully recognize that investing is a foreign concept to many people, especially if you’re new to investing or have always handed over your…

It’s easy to stick to your long-term investing plan when times are good. Indeed, if your investment portfolio had any U.S. market exposure at all over the past 12 years you’ve likely enjoyed nearly uninterrupted growth. Of course, there are always bumps in the road. Stocks fell sharply in a short period between February and…

Wealthsimple Trade is Canada’s first and only zero-commission trading platform. In this Wealthsimple Trade review I’ll explain how you can buy AND sell from among the thousands of stocks and ETFs listed on North American exchanges without paying any fees. I first heard about Wealthsimple Trade in 2018 when it was announced as a new…

This post is sponsored by RE Royalties. All opinions are my own. The federal government’s recent throne speech put climate change and sustainability at the forefront, making it abundantly clear that the future of economic and job growth will be led by investments in green technology. This shift towards more sustainable investing is not only…

I ditched my financial advisor more than a decade ago and started investing on my own. I was fed up with paying high fees for underperforming mutual funds. Dividend paying stocks were growing in popularity and so I decided to take the plunge and build my own portfolio of blue-chip companies. Several years later I…

Two years ago, Vanguard launched a suite of asset allocation ETFs that changed the game for DIY investors in their accumulation years. These balanced ETFs provide low-cost, global diversification, and automatic rebalancing with just one fund. Today, Vanguard announced another evolution in the asset allocation ETF space with a new product aimed at retirees in…

“Past performance is not an indicator of future results.” Investors have heard this disclaimer for years, yet when it comes to picking investments we can’t help but look to a fund’s historical results to determine its quality. Indeed, it’s one of the first questions asked whenever I mention the idea of switching to an indexed…

Questrade touched a nerve with financial advisors with a series of commercials highlighting how lower investment fees over time potentially means you can retire up to 30% wealthier. Financial advisor extraordinaire Jason Pereira acknowledged that Questrade was right to go after do-nothing advisors who collect fat commissions, but he claimed the 30% wealthier promise was…

Setting up the initial asset allocation for your investment portfolio is fairly straightforward. The challenge is knowing how and when to rebalance your portfolio. Stock and bond prices move up and down, and you periodically add new money – all of which can throw off your initial targets. Let’s say you’re an index investor like…

Tax loss harvesting sounds like a magical strategy that is only available to the wealthy. But in reality, it’s a simple tax saving concept that involves selling a security or investment that has experienced a loss, and using that ‘capital loss’ to offset a capital gain in the past, present, or future. Investors should know…