Getting serious? Get serious about money too Couples getting seriously romantic on Valentine’s Day often take that first step to tying the knot. Congratulations! But before things get too far advanced, it might be an idea to have another kind of heart to heart –...
How much you can contribute, what investments you can hold For most Canadians, a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is still the single best way to grow a retirement nest-egg while deferring taxes. In fact, it is such a powerful retirement savings vehicle...
This 5-point annual review can reveal weak spots Your investment portfolio is the cornerstone of your wealth accumulation plan over the long term. Whether your investments are in non-registered trading accounts or in tax-sheltered plans like RRSPs and TFSAs, you...
Hint: you won’t find it on TikTok In our plugged-in hyper-connected 24/7 lives, we’re inundated with investment “advice.” Which is worth precisely what you pay for it – nothing. And yet every day, I hear of unwary or gullible investors being seduced by sales...
Pay attention to asset allocation before trouble starts Inflation continues to burn up everyone’s purchasing power, with both Canadian and U.S. consumer price indexes exceeding an annual 8% recently. Of course, any shopper could have told you that months ago, just...
Key principles to follow when starting out as an investor One of Warren Buffett’s famous maxims is to buy when everyone else is selling. This principle has helped male him, through his investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., one of the richest men in the world....
Sell in haste, repent at leisure The big stock market indexes have been on a steep slide since the beginning of the year. Anyone with a passive, “buy-and-hold” type of equity portfolio will know the discomfort this can cause as each day brings another shrinkage in...
No need to settle for nothing You may as well face facts: You can’t “save” a million dollars. A recent survey of the market showed that the highest rate paid in a standard, plain-vanilla high interest deposit savings account (the kind that most banks and large...
Important to be open and honest about financial matters Couples in a serious romantic relationship really don’t want to talk about money. And it’s probably not quite the suitable topic when you’re dating early in a relationship. But when things get more serious,...
Revisit basic principles in volatile times New investors who began trading on their online brokerage platforms last year when stock indexes were soaring to record highs could be forgiven for wondering what happened. The New Year has not been particularly kind to...
Investing by stock market lore could be a money-losing strategy “Sell in May, go away, and don’t come back ’til Labour Day” is one of those bits of market lore that’s trotted out from time to time. Other instances of such supposed deep wisdom include, “Never try to...
Get a fix on your true level of risk tolerance Until very recently, things had been looking up in the U.S. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 11.1% in June, as millions of Americans began returning to work. That helped lift...