Archive for October 2017
Choosing The Right Fund For Your Portfolio
Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds are a great way to establish a balanced asset allocation and get plenty of diversification. One fund might be all you need, or you might decide you want to have a different mix that suits your investment goals. Investors once needed to comb through prospectuses and annual reports. The…
Read MoreDouble Dip the Savings with RBC and Petro-Canada
This post is sponsored by RBC and Petro-Canada. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. In the classic Seinfeld episode, The Implant, George Costanza gets into an argument at a funeral reception with his girlfriend’s brother, Timmy, when accused of double dipping a chip. “Did you just double-dip that chip?” “Excuse me?” “You…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: The Undoing Project Edition
Long-time readers know I’m fascinated with behavioural psychology and how we make decisions, particularly about money. Of course, the most influential research in this field came from Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in 2002 for his and Tversky’s work on judgement and decision-making (Tversky died in 1996), and his book,…
Read MoreFrom The Boomer & Echo Mailbag: Opening A TFSA For A Child
Q. I would like to open a TFSA for my daughter, but I want to have control of it until she becomes more responsible with money. Is this something I can do? It’s great that you want to help out your daughter. You’re part of a growing trend of parents giving their children a financial…
Read MoreIs Your Portfolio Overdressed?
The story goes that in the late fifties, Chrysler Corporation did extensive market research to see what the American consumer really wanted in an automobile. The survey results were clear. The American auto buyer wanted a sensible car with clean lines and no frills. Above all, he was tired of the large ornamental tailfins which…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Tougher Mortgage Rules Edition
Earlier this week, the Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) – Canada’s banking watchdog – introduced tougher mortgage rules to take effect January 1, 2018. This new ‘stress test’ applies to homebuyers with down payments greater than 20 percent and requires the mortgage applicant to qualify for the higher of the Bank of Canada 5-year…
Read MoreCoping With Stock Market Losses
Imagine you’re at the stage where you finally have a decent amount of money to invest. After a painstaking amount of research you carefully construct a portfolio of low-cost ETFs with broad exposure to global markets, plus a healthy dose of bonds to smooth out the ride. You determine your rebalancing threshold and then set-up…
Read MoreProtecting Your Identity
Security issues hardly ever cross our minds when we hand over our debit or credit cards in a restaurant or to make a purchase, but identity theft and identity fraud are becoming huge problems. Protecting your identity and personal information is harder than ever before. Equifax recently suffered a massive data breach that impacted approximately…
Read MoreHow Often Should You Service Your Vehicle?
How often should you service your vehicle? This table shows the difference between the owner’s manual recommendations and the guidelines offered by Mr. Lube:
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Nobel Prize Edition
One of the most influential books I’ve ever read was Nudge by behavioural economist Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The book is all about subtlety or gently steering people into making better choices to improve their health, wealth, and happiness. Policymakers around the world caught on to his groundbreaking research, which have been widely applied…
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