I occasionally participate in an online forum of retirees or near-retirees. Judging by the comments, many are suspicious of the Canada Pension Plan. It seems to boil down to three responses: The government is raiding our retirement nest egg – there will be nothing left...
Read MoreFinancial planners often encourage their clients to think long-term. We are more cautious about the risk of living too long, longevity risk, than we are about dying young. I subscribed to the print version of MoneySense magazine for many years before it went fully online. 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?...
Read MoreWhat is Longevity Risk? “Nothing is more difficult than retirement income planning.” I have heard or read variations of that phrase multiple times in the last few years. Why is it so difficult? After all, people are retiring every day in Canada. Hasn’t this been figured...
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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 MoreA 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 MoreEstate planning has to do with more than just your will. There is a lot that fits in between good, healthy life and death. Once we reach mature adulthood, we might even think of the remainder of our lives as a long slow glide toward...
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Beginning in the 1970s, my father got involved in investing in real estate in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, mostly in Chilliwack, where I grew up. My wife and I owned our own home in Chilliwack from 1996 to 2003. We lived in it for all...
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You are careful with your money. You have made it a general rule to avoid debt – except for the mortgage on your home – in order to force yourself to live within your means. Well, you do use a credit card, but you have...
Read MoreNorman 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...
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