Around the Blogosphere

Just over two years ago Brock Hirsche, the 23-year-old captain of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team, was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It’s a disease most commonly found in men aged 15-35 and one that hit the Pronghorn family hard as three members of the program were diagnosed with testicular cancer within the…

I recently binge-watched a six-part documentary series on Netflix called Dirty Money. Each episode digs into an egregious example of corporate corruption, from cars that cheat emissions tests, to crippling pay day loans, to the great maple syrup heist in Quebec a few years back. All six episodes are worth watching (unless you don’t feel…

Unused contributions available for 2018 = $0. That’s what my RRSP contribution history will say when I check CRA’s My Account later this year, once tax season is over. You see, I finally maxed out my unused RRSP contribution room during the first 60 days of 2018. I built up a lot of RRSP contribution…

Warren Buffett’s much anticipated annual letter to shareholders was released this weekend. As always, Buffett shared some great nuggets of wisdom to Berkshire shareholders while setting the stage for his eventual replacement (down to two long-time Berkshire employees, Ajit Jain and Greg Abel). Highlights from Buffett’s annual letter include: Another market-beating year where Berkshire grew…

Happy Family Day weekend, everyone! This edition of weekend reading includes an introduction to a great new money series on Global, some shoddy life-insurance advice that got BMO into hot-water, a new book from retirement expert Fred Vettese, and why market volatility shouldn’t scare off novice investors. Last year we spent much of Family Day…

During the tech-stock meltdown at the beginning of the century, legendary investor Warren Buffett served up this famous stock market analogy: “To refer to a personal taste of mine, I’m going to buy hamburgers the rest of my life. When hamburgers go down in price, we sing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in the Buffett household. When…

It’s RRSP season, a time to consider topping up your contributions to build your nest egg and reduce your taxes owning for 2017. RRSPs are a useful tax-planning tool and one of the most effective ways to save for retirement. But some retirees don’t see it that way now that they’re in the withdrawal phase…

This time is different – the four most dangerous words when it comes to investing. We’ve seen it time and time again. From Tulip Bulb Mania to the Dot Com Era, and the U.S. Housing Boom, exuberant market behaviour drives asset prices higher and higher until demand reaches levels that can no longer be sustained,…

The Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate again this week, marking the third time since last summer that they’ve increased the benchmark lending rate. It now sits at 1.25 percent, while Canada’s big banks all moved their prime ending rate to 3.45 percent. The move has financial experts warning of the impact on…

Canadian Couch Potato godfather Dan Bortolotti recently posted the returns for his three model portfolios. Like my two-ETF portfolio, which returned 14.06 percent, Dan’s model portfolios had a banner year in 2017. Here are the results for the most aggressive versions of each portfolio: Tangerine’s Balanced Growth Portfolio – 9.5 percent TD’s e-Series Funds –…