Bank reputations are “in the toilet” The recent CBC Marketplace story on the sales culture inside the banks has proven to be a cautionary tale when it comes to using the banks for transacting in your financial business. As for the topic of this blog post,...
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There are compelling reasons to invest in equities over the long term. So much so that academics in the field of finance will tell you that the traditional strategy of investors shifting an increasing balance of their assets to fixed income as they approach retirement...
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The Dilemma: What Should She Do with Her Money? Marie, 67 years old, was widowed three years ago after forty years of marriage. Together, she and her husband Robert had raised their family of three children and created thousands of memories together in the house that...
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Ten percent per year! That’s a nice round number and what many investors think is a realistic annual investment return. At that rate, following the “Rule of 72,” you will double your account value in 7.2 years – without adding an extra dollar! Let’s imagine that...
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Interest Rates and Borrowing, Including Mortgages In the last several months, we have begun to see home sales decrease and prices drop, largely due to an increase in interest rates. If you are planning to borrow money, whether for a mortgage or other purposes, this increase...
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There is a temptation to view financial planning as little more than a dressed-up term for investment advice. Having worked in the investment industry for over a decade, it is a view I am tempted to follow. However, financial planning involves a much broader range...
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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...
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What to do? It almost feels like there is nowhere to hide. Major stock indices in Canada (S&P/TSX), the US (S&P 500) and the developed world outside of North America (MSCI EAFE) are down 25 to 30 percent in the space of a month. Bonds, which...
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Introduction 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...
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Introduction 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...
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