You may have heard about a young woman from Montreal who won a million-dollar lottery recently. Instead of selecting the lump sum, she elected the annuity option of $1,000 per week for life. From the little bit I read, most people were shocked at her choice:...
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An Unexpected Retirement Question Robert (Rob) is a 64-year-old DIY investor living in the B.C. Okanagan. Born in 1961, he is turning 65 in February 2026 and will be retiring at the end of that month after a long professional career. Rob is comfortable managing his own...
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The Calm Before the Fear Permit me to introduce an investor whom we’ll call Michael. He is 41* years old, and a disciplined DIY investor who left his full-service investment advisor to build a globally diversified, 100% equity portfolio in early 2023. The portfolio consists of: ...
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I have joined several Facebook groups that discuss personal finance. Among them there is a lot of discussion about investing through index ETFs. Somewhat ironically, there are people in this category who repeatedly ask questions about income or dividend ETFs, technology ETFs, or U.S.-listed ETFs that...
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Exploring the psychology of stock picking and the evidence for better alternatives The Problem Emerges The paradox is hard to miss: study after study shows that consistently beating the market through individual stock picking is nearly impossible, even for professionals. Yet many do-it-yourself investors keep trying. Why? Stock...
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Over 25 years ago, I first learned about options trading. I never got around to implementing any such strategies for my accounts, but unexpectedly, I found myself in the investment industry, initially serving U.S. investors at a discount brokerage that had a contact centre here...
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During my time in the discount brokerage world, I encountered individuals whose investment accounts seemed to function more like slot machines or roulette wheels. They would deposit money and bet it all on a single stock, implement aggressive options strategies, or day trade in and...
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Allow me to introduce Daniel—a 32-year-old single man living in Calgary, earning $105,000 per year. He contributes regularly to his TFSA and personal RRSP, and also to a group RRSP through his employer, who matches his contributions via a Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (DPSP). Daniel...
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My first full-time job did not have any benefits. I am aware that in certain careers, a lack of an employer-sponsored retirement saving benefit is the norm, whether a Defined Benefit pension, plan, Defined Contribution pension plan, Group RRSP, or Deferred Profit-Sharing Plan. Nevertheless, for...
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A New Option, or a New Distraction? Periodically, investors are introduced to new asset classes with the promise of improving their portfolios. Lately, “alternatives” and “commodities” have become buzzwords in the world of investment products, sometimes packaged as part of a fund’s “expanded opportunity set,” or...
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