You are a 75-year-old woman. Your husband of 50 years has just died, the funeral has been held and he has been buried. In the middle of this grief and loneliness, you remember that you had named each other as executors in your respective wills....
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If you are expecting a child to come into your home, you may already be thinking about how you can help support the cost of their post-secondary education. The cost of schooling seems to be consistently outpacing inflation. How can your child positively afford it?...
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As I write this in late spring, this is the season when graduating students are transitioning from the academy to employment. Many financial matters that may have previously been taken care of, or at least “backstopped,” by parents are now their own to address. If...
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What is Longevity Risk? “Nothing is more difficult than retirement income planning.” I have heard or read variations of that phrase multiple times in the last few years. Why is it so difficult? After all, people are retiring every day in Canada. Hasn’t this been figured...
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Living in Canada, it is almost impossible to ignore the United States. It is bigger than us in almost every way, except geography. Arguably, the U.S. has more influence over the world than any other nation and has maintained that influence for decades. The size, influence,...
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My Initial Thoughts Way back in the 1980s, when I was younger … and the earth was still cooling … inflation was running hot. I had a small student loan at the time, about $5,000 as I recall. The interest rate on that loan was 13%....
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“But Statman says for some people that’s like telling an Orthodox Jew he should save money by buying cheaper cuts of pork and donate the extra money to the synagogue.” – Dan Bortolotti referring to Meir Statman in “More on socially responsible index investing.” This reference...
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In my previous blog post, I introduced a fictitious client, Debra, who is about to retire. As you may recall, Debra is single, without children, and is about to turn 65. She is eligible for the maximum Canada Pension Plan (CPP), which is $14,445 per...
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Money In and Money Out When I worked for the discount brokerage division of a major Canadian bank, I learned that the investment side of banking was referred to as “Money In.” That is, money came into the bank through investments in Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs)...
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After years of working at minimum wage retail jobs without benefits, Donald, age 59, is wondering what his strategy should be for retirement. He knows that he can begin taking the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) as early as next year, when he turns 60, but...
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