Retirement in Canada is Becoming More Risky
Canadians financial risk during retirement is a reason to plan carefully, writes Peter Watson. Canadians underestimate the impact of longevity, inflation and healthcare costs have on retirement savings, and that’s making our country a less secure place to retire. This is according to the Natixis annual ranking as reported by Investment Executive. Greater focus needs […]
Canadians Net Worth Declined Significantly
Canadians’ net worth suffered a significant decline during the three months ending June 30. Both real estate and financial investments fell in value making this the largest drop of household wealth on record. This information was recently released by Statistics Canada. Stock markets performed poorly during the first half of the year. Many investors diversify […]
Saving for Your Children’s University Education
Your children’s university education will be very expensive. There are several things you can do now that will help cover post-secondary expenses. A four-year university degree costs can be as high or higher than $100,000. That is expensive and more so depending on the number of children you have. Plus because of inflation, every year […]
Why investors should understand stock market details
In Canada only 33 per cent of managers outperformed the underlying index after one year. After five and 10 years the outperformance was only six and 19 per cent respectively. Similar results were experienced by US managers. This information is from S&P Dow Jones Indices from their Year-End 2021 SPIVIA Scorecard. SPIVIA stands for Standard […]
Dollar Cost Averaging: A Strategy to Consider
When is the best time to invest? The problem is it is impossible to accurately predict how stock prices will fluctuate during the short term. Dollar cost averaging is a technique where you invest the same amount of money on a regular basis over time. For example, you could invest monthly and the most likely […]
Should You Sell Your Stocks?
Recent stock market returns have been very poor. One, should this be of concern and is it time to sell stocks? Two, is this just a normal part of investing and should you remain invested? Stock market returns have generally rewarded long-term investors that stayed invested during both good and bad times. One of the […]
Interest Rate Increase Will Hurt Many Canadians
Interest rate hikes will be painful for many Canadians, writes Peter Watson. The Bank of Canada made an aggressive move to increase interest rates. That increase will impact many individuals. The underlying story is just how serious the risk of inflation is to the Canadian economy and that such extreme measures have been taken. Three […]
Federal Government Loses Billions in Unpaid Taxes
Every year the federal government loses just over $22 billion in unpaid taxes, writes Peter Watson. A recent report from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) reviewed the years from 2014 to 2018. The total amount of federal taxes that were not collected during that time period was $111 billion. In an era of ever ending […]
Investors Lost Millions and Fraud Charges Laid
Investors lost millions and the lesson learned is a key to investing is diversification, writes Peter Watson. The RCMP opened an investigation in 2016 as a result of investor complaints about Fortress Real Developments. Two senior executives of that firm were charged with fraud. According to a news release by the RCMP, “Allegations were received […]
Financial despair can have a silver lining
Today a story of success that contains good news and bad, writes Peter Watson. Early in their career, as the story was told, there were two major setbacks. A loss of a job and real estate. The theme of the story was how negative events can have positive outcomes. The person telling me the story […]