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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“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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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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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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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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Two years ago, when I last wrote about the table of returns across asset categories, I observed, “the consistently steady performance of the US stock market.” It appears that things have not changed despite the poor performance of American stocks last year. As I did in...
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I have been approached a couple of times to offer a second opinion on a person’s investments. I know what I do, but I wondered how “second opinion” is presented by financial institutions and their investment advisors. A quick search yielded several results, including an...
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