Posts Tagged ‘Investing’

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…

For five years I attempted to beat the market with a portfolio of Canadian dividend stocks. As my investments grew, I began measuring my returns and comparing the results to a benchmark – an exchange traded fund from iShares called CDZ, which tracks Canadian dividend stocks. I wanted to know if my judgement as a portfolio…

Last year I invited 15 financial experts to share their thoughts on borrowing to invest. At the heart of the debate was a question I received from a reader about using leverage to invest in a single stock: “With Canadian Oil Sands (COS) paying a juicy 8 percent dividend, does it make sense to borrow…