After the cloudy days of preparing and filing your tax return, many Canadians look forward to the silver lining of a tax refund. Last year I wrote about The Problem with Tax Refunds, arguing that rather than a benefit, refunds represent an interest-free loan to...
Read More
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...
Read More
Introduction Estate planning involves preparing for the tasks that must be undertaken in the event of your death or incapacity. While death is inevitable regardless of your preparation or lack thereof, preparation in the form of a well-considered will can make life for your survivors much...
Read More“Industry organizations are calling on the federal government to raise the age at which RRSPs must be converted to RRIFs and to reduce the annual RRIF minimum withdrawal rates.” “Industry groups call for changes to RRIF rules,” by Rudy Mezzetta, Advisor’s Edge, March 13, 2023 What is...
Read More
On February 13, 2023, Statistics Canada released a report that found one in four Canadians was unable to cover an unexpected expense of $500. The report went on to compare age groups, racialized groups, and regions. If you are 35 to 44 years old, Black...
Read MoreWith the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contribution deadline for 2022 coming up soon and the personal income tax filing deadline close behind, most Canadian adults are focused on this annual task. I am a financial planner, not a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), so I do...
Read More
On February 7, 2023, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) released its latest survey of the Canadian public’s estimate of how much they need to retire with confidence. The survey resulted in a figure of $1.7 million. You may think that this is quite a large figure....
Read More
Someone who is in or nearing retirement has many ways to invest a financial windfall. Here’s how to ensure the money serves you well. I wrote this article for the Qualified Advice column of MoneySense, the online Canadian personal finance magazine. Qualified Advice is written by...
Read More
Occasionally I read about people who regard themselves as fairly sophisticated investors entering into a strategy of beginning to receive the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) at age 60 while continuing to be employed. There may be multiple reasons for making this choice. The most ill-informed reason...
Read More
One of the reasons why people love dividends, especially in the accumulation stage, is that they like the idea of being paid from their investments and using those investments to buy more of the same securities. This can be done in an automated matter by...
Read More