It’s not too late, provided you follow five basic rules Q – My husband and I are in our mid-40s, with two teenage children. We now own our home free and clear. Because we’ve been diligent about paying off our mortgage, with bi-weekly payments and annual...
Financial advisory fees don’t always add up to good value Trailing commissions, loads, transaction fees, administration fees. If your investment account statement looks like your advisor is shopping for a new Porsche, it might be time to revisit the whole issue of...
If you manage a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, maybe The “smart money” seems to be sounding alarm bells about the equity markets. Big movers like Bill Gross of Janus Capital Group, Bruce Cooper, the CIO of TD Bank, and others, like the Institute for International...
Choosing the wrong letter can cost you plenty! The choice of mutual fund investments can be complex and completely overwhelming. There are very nearly 36,000 investment fund products (including clones) on the market. These include not only money market funds,...
Higher TFSA contribution limit is a real game changer The revised contribution limit for Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) really is a game changer. With the annual contribution limit raised to $10,000 from the previous $5,500, the TFSA is now a truly serious...
You should... only if you believe in stock market fairy dust You may have heard the old stock market saying, “Sell in May, go away, and don’t come back ’til Labour Day.” These bits of market lore are repeated so often that they eventually become like rules carved...
What to do when ‘asset allocation,’ ‘diversification,’ and ‘correlation’ sound like nothing but gibberish Q - I’ve been told that in my portfolio, I should allocate my investment assets to meet my risk-tolerance level, but that I should also diversify my security...
How to stop the bad guys from robbing you blind Q – A friend recently asked me whether I’d be interested in a private investment that he said returns over 12% a month. He explained that an advisor he knows had told him it was some sort of syndicated offshore real...
But the search for tax efficiency can get complicated High net worth investors are keen on tax efficiency in their investments. Understandably so, since taxes have a huge impact on investment returns. Mutual funds are sometimes seen as least tax efficient, because...
But beware! Real estate comes with real risks With Canadian interest rates once again at rock bottom, income investors are hard-pressed to find any good income-producing assets without incurring a high degree of extra risk. Some advisors like to tout investment...
To contribute or not to contribute? That’s the question Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) are effective investment vehicles for deferring tax. But should you contribute to a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) instead because of the completely tax-free growth...
Yes, there’s still time to make an RRSP contribution Every year around this time, I’m asked what the deadline for RRSP contributions is and what would be the best investment for that contribution by people who have left their RRSP contribution to the last minute or...