There is a lot to be said in favour of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investing. The barriers (online access, real-time quotes, lower costs, etc.) have come down dramatically in recent years. Simultaneously, I would argue, the fact that there are fewer barriers means that the DIYer has...
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Banking You may be aware that some political parties and union advocates have argued that, to develop Canada Post’s viability, financial services should be offered at post office branches. I am not sure how common that is in other countries, but Japan’s post offices have long...
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“Them’s fightin’ words!” Or so a character might say if I was writing a script for a 1950s Western. Nevertheless, some in the stock picker’s camp might take offence at the assertion in the title of this blog post. This seems to suggest that there...
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Being Cautious With Your Money For years your friends have been telling you to invest in the stock market. You resisted, insisting that High-Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) and Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) were all you needed. Besides, you already had some money in the stock market...
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“This whole notion of marriage is out of date.” Maybe. Or maybe this whole notion of marrying for love is out of date. Let’s bring back arranged marriages. Do you think that is farfetched? Although in decline, the practice of arranging meetings between prospective spouses,...
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Can You Be an Anti-Capitalist Investor? Investing, as we conventionally understand the word, is a deeply capitalist enterprise. So, if you find capitalism to be a deeply flawed economic and social system, is there a way to save, invest, and build wealth in a manner that...
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I think Gordon Pape Got it Wrong For the most part, I can read investment columnist Gordon Pape’s writings with composure. Every once in a while, however, he writes things that I think just aren’t so. His article, Diversifying your portfolio – how much is too...
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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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Your financial advisor isn’t dishonest; he’s just incompetent. That is the TL:DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) conclusion of a 2016 academic paper, “The Misguided Beliefs of Financial Advisors,” by Juhani T. Linnainmaa, Brian T. Melzer, and Alessandro Previtero. For many years, the common view of...
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Introduction Definition of Socially Responsible Investing Socially responsible investing, also known by other terms such as responsible, sustainable, or ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing, is a practice that uses various socially beneficial criteria to seek out securities to invest in. Importance of Socially Responsible Investing Investing has generally...
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