Let’s suppose you are a married couple, Jessica and Michael. Both of you are thirty years old. Big purchases, on which you owe money, include a house, a car for each of you, student loans, furniture for the house, which you have put on your...
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A couple of months ago, Apple and Tesla, split their stock. Apple did a four-for-one split and Tesla split its stock five-for-one. This made big news, but it is not always clear to the general public what this means. What is a Forward Stock Split? A stock...
Read MoreRegulating the Use of Financial Planner or Financial Advisor If someone were to tell you that they were a financial planner or a financial advisor, what would be your first thought? Mutual fund salesperson? Or perhaps, life insurance salesperson? Before I became involved in financial services...
Read MoreThe Kidney Foundation of Canada raises money to support people with kidney disease and to fund research into treatments for kidney disease. Each September, their big fundraising event is the Kidney Walk, which this year was held in a properly physically distanced manner; those with...
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Coping with the Uncertainty of Investment Returns Imagine that you have been putting away $10,000 at the beginning of each year from 2002 until 2019. For the sake of this example, taxes and commissions are excluded; you have been investing that money into the Canadian stock...
Read MoreAs I write this in mid-September, there are rumblings in the media that the upcoming throne speech from the Government of Canada will include a significant push toward some version of Universal Basic Income (UBI). Is Canada ready for this? The “Mincome” Example While Mincome, the “Manitoba...
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Low Interest Rates Make This an Option Worth Considering When my wife and I bought our first house, the interest rate was 7.5%. That sounds awfully high today when you can sometimes see mortgage rates posted for less than 2%. On the other hand, we were...
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Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing My introduction to Socially Responsible Investing began at church. Michael Jantzi, who was raised in the church where I was then a pastor in London, Ontario, and where his parents were still members at that time, came one Sunday from...
Read MoreSeveral years ago, I received a phone call at the discount investing call centre where I worked. An older woman was on the line. She wanted to buy a particular investment. I noticed that she was being “coached” by someone near her on what she...
Read MoreMore Choice Is Not Always Better In liberal societies, the usual understanding is that the more choice we have the better. Freedom is about having the ability to choose. Instead, however, what we often find is what is termed “analysis paralysis.” We are given so many...
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