A man of my father’s generation once observed that young adults these days have an incredibly wide variety of career options available to them: computer and information technology, education, social services, publishing, film and TV production, travel and tourism, home construction and renovation, agriculture, etc....
Read More
A few weeks ago, the news was suddenly filled with stories about “meme stocks,” in particular the US video game retailer GameStop Corp (GME). Followers of the Reddit community Wall Street Bets began buying up GME, causing a huge runup in the price, at least...
Read More
On February 4, 2021, Rob Carrick, the well-known personal finance columnist at The Globe and Mail, published an article entitled, “Why Canadian investors should stop buying U.S.-listed ETFs.” I tend to agree with Carrick on this point, but his argument is boiled down to two...
Read More
There are two striking things about the returns of investment markets over the last decade or so. One is the consistently steady performance of the US stock market. Although not necessarily the top performing market every year, the US stock market has done very well...
Read More
Norman Rothery’s Heated-Up Version of the Couch Potato Portfolio The Original Couch Potato Portfolio The original Couch Potato Portfolio came from a 1991 article by Scott Burns, then a writer at the Dallas Morning News. He advocated for a simple two-fund portfolio using index mutual funds. One...
Read More
When my wife and I began investing, we did what is probably the most common thing that Canadians do, we went to our local bank branch, sat down with a financial advisor, and invested in a portfolio of mutual funds issued by that bank. We...
Read More
Every once in a while in my earlier career, I was approached by people who were interested in market-linked Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs). These are investment products that protect your principal but give you the opportunity to participate in the growth of the stock market....
Read More
“If you want good investment performance, forget you have an account.” This seems like an unlikely recommendation. Nor does it sit well with us. “Don’t just sit there; do something!” Isn’t that the usual guidance we receive? However, action doesn’t seem to work so well with...
Read More
A couple of months ago, Apple and Tesla, split their stock. Apple did a four-for-one split and Tesla split its stock five-for-one. This made big news, but it is not always clear to the general public what this means. What is a Forward Stock Split? A stock...
Read More
The Kidney Foundation of Canada raises money to support people with kidney disease and to fund research into treatments for kidney disease. Each September, their big fundraising event is the Kidney Walk, which this year was held in a properly physically distanced manner; those with...
Read More