As I wrote on my website, one of the major reasons I began to work in financial planning is because I saw multiple DIY portfolios that were not founded on any rational approach to investment planning. Many seemed to view investing as a variation on...
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As a member of the Financial Planning Association of Canada (FPAC), our overarching goal is to professionalize financial services in Canada. One way in which we seek to get the word out about FPAC’s mission is by providing a regular column, Qualified Advice, for MoneySense,...
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Everybody wants to be in on the ground floor of THE NEXT BIG THING. They want to be an employee of the next Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft, when those companies were in their start-up phase, and be granted stock options that will grow from zero...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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Year-end lists are ubiquitous but that does not mean they are not useful. If you think you need to do something about your finances before the end of the year but aren’t sure what, maybe something on this list will be of help. Contribute to Your...
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Coping with the Uncertainty of Investment Returns Imagine that you have been putting away $10,000 at the beginning of each year from 2002 until 2019. For the sake of this example, taxes and commissions are excluded; you have been investing that money into the Canadian stock...
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The Situation A relative of yours has died. You have received an inheritance. With that money, you have paid off your mortgage and your car loan. You have topped up your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and you have set aside six months of living expenses...
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An Introduction to Tax Planning – Part 4 You think of yourself and your spouse along with your two children as an average family. Like me you are a resident of London, Ontario. Between the two of you, you earn about $80,000 per year or about...
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