Meet Emma and Roy, a couple from Winnipeg eagerly counting down the days to their retirement, just five years away. Aware of the importance of careful financial planning, they decide to engage an advice-only financial planner to support their transition into their “golden years.” Step 1:...
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The Dilemma: What Should She Do with Her Money? Marie, 67 years old, was widowed three years ago after forty years of marriage. Together, she and her husband Robert had raised their family of three children and created thousands of memories together in the house that...
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Recently, I’ve been thinking about saving versus investing or the idea of engaging in “risky” investments versus “safe” interest-bearing deposit products. This idea came to mind again because of the findings presented in my last blog post that financial planners in Japan did not tend...
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Can You Be Too Diversified? Investing is a bit like walking a tightrope between risk and reward. Investors try to find the sweet spot that maximizes their returns while minimizing their risks. But sometimes, in their quest for a balanced portfolio, they end up making mistakes....
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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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On July 4, 2022, I posted my 154th blog, on the topic of bonds and GICs. Coming off a long-term situation when the returns from these fixed-income products left many investors with little interest in buying something other than equities (individual stocks, equity mutual funds...
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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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On July 15, 2023, the Toronto Star published a lengthy article, written by Richard Warnica, about the unregulated services of a debt consultant. While the story focuses on an individual and a particular debt consultancy firm, the context applies to a broad swath of the...
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Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger...
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A Recap Almost four years ago, I left a career in the investment industry that began in 2005, working for the online brokerage of one of the big banks. For the first several years, I was licensed to serve U.S. investors, or more commonly, active traders...
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