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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Meet John and Jane Jane and John are a couple in their early thirties. They own a townhouse in a suburb outside of Toronto. Although the commute is a bit of a burden, their jobs as an architect and software developer, respectively, allow them to work...
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In light of the recent story by CBC’s Marketplace (video, article) about the pressures bank employees face to meet sales targets, Canadians must become more vigilant when navigating financial products and services. I offer the following suggestions to help you protect your interests and ensure...
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The Canadian Retirement Dilemma As a matter of public policy, Canada has built several safety nets to help mitigate poverty for retirees. Among the most well-known are the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS). Lesser known, but available to lower-income Canadians is the...
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“Decumulation” (I don’t really like this word, but I suspect I lack sufficient influence to change things) is the spending down of assets that have been accumulated in preparation for retirement. It is the conversion of pension plans, RRSPs, TFSAs, and other financial assets into...
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Norman Rothery, The Stingy Investor Norman Rothery of Stingy Investor fame, publisher of The Rothery Report, and frequent contributor to The Globe & Mail and the Canadian MoneySaver, provides a lot of free and paid resources. Among the free resources is his annual “Periodic Table” of...
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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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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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