An Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 5.3 Why is there a trailer hitched to my mutual fund? Included in the Management Expense Ratio or MER of many mutual funds is a trailing commission or trailer that is paid to the firm where you have your mutual...
Read MoreAn Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 5.2 Within my larger series on investment planning, this is the second post on mutual funds. Mutual funds are popular investment vehicles for investors because they give you instant diversification in a single purchase and they can be bought...
Read MoreAn Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 5.1 What is a mutual fund? At its simplest a mutual fund is a pool of money that has been invested in a collection of stocks – in the case of an equity fund – that have been chosen by...
Read MoreAn Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 4 If you are the kind of person who “follows the stock market,” that is, you watch the stock prices crawl across the bottom of the TV screen while your dentist is up to his elbows in your mouth,...
Read MoreIntroduction to Investment Planning – Part 3 Stocks and bonds are the two most common categories for investments, at least for the average “retail” investor like you and me. You may have heard about preferred stock (or shares – the terms are interchangeable) but have wondered...
Read MoreIntroduction to Investment Planning – Part 2.2 In my previous post I wrote about some of the basics of bonds as well as their benefits. This post continues the discussion with an examination of the risks of investing in bonds and the ways you can buy...
Read MoreIntroduction to Investment Planning – Part 2.1 Bonds are fixed income investments “Stocks and bonds”: These are the basic building blocks of an investment portfolio. I will write about stocks in an upcoming post, but after my discussion of cash or cash-like assets (e.g., savings accounts) in...
Read MoreIntroduction to Investment Planning – Part 1 People often use the terms savings and investments as though they mean the same thing. This makes sense because generally speaking you cannot invest unless you have money to invest. You cannot have money to invest unless you have...
Read MoreAn introduction to registered plans – Part 5 What is the purpose of an RDSP? “A Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) is a savings plan that is intended to help parents and others save for the long term financial security of a person who is eligible for...
Read MoreAn Introduction to Registered Plans – Part 4 What is an RESP? A Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is designed to support saving for postsecondary education. The account owners, known as subscribers, are usually parents or grandparents of the beneficiary children. What are the different types of RESPs? Individual...
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