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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Several 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...
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More 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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Sources for checking on an advisor’s registration and disciplinary history I am a big fan of the combination of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investing with Advice-Only, Fee-for-Service financial planning. I think it can be a cost-effective combination for many. On the other hand, there are many people who...
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An Introduction to Insurance and Risk Management – Part 1 Wouldn’t you love to be a risk manager? It sounds like a job for the man or woman who gets great joy from being a party pooper. I suppose that might be true in some circumstances,...
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An Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 7 In the world of investment funds, passive investments that track an index are relatively recent innovations. In the US, John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, launched a mutual fund in the 1970s that tracked the S&P 500 Index....
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An Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 5.6 Is the ETF a Better Fund? Tax Efficiency Due to the differences in the way mutual funds and ETFs are created and redeemed, there tends to be bit more tax efficiency in the case of ETFs. Therefore, if you have...
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An Introduction to Investment Planning – Part 5.5 For decades the mutual fund has dominated the investment world of the average Canadian. You could walk into your local bank or credit union, get a recommendation from your friendly financial advisor, invest as little as $100, set...
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A Match Made in Financial Heaven The Needs of DIY Investors I have spent most of my financial services career serving Do-It-Yourself investors, people who choose to make their own investment decisions rather than go through an investment advisor. Over the years, I have seen many accounts...
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When I told a co-worker at my previous place of employment that I was going to open a fee-for-service, advice-only financial planning practice, her immediate response was, “Why should anybody pay for that? A financial advisor will do that for free!” Advice-Only Financial Planning: a small...
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