The recent news of gravesites being discovered on grounds associated with residential schools has caused many to reflect on the meaning of July 1, Canada Day. Despite growing up in Chilliwack, BC, where many of my secondary school classmates were from local First Nations, I...
Read MoreIf 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...
Read MoreLiving 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%....
Read More“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)...
Read MoreMutual Funds Often Have a Cost Disadvantage In my previous post, I wrote about several advantages of investing with mutual funds. That post invited a few comments about the costs of mutual funds outweighing the behavioural advantages. Although there are a relatively few mutual funds that...
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Mutual funds do not get a lot of love, even though they hold the lion’s share of retail investors’ assets in Canada. If you are like me and often peruse personal finance pages of the major Canadian newspapers (or more accurately, their websites), you will...
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