Fewer Investors Use a Financial Advisor
Investors purchasing mutual funds use an investment advisor almost two thirds of the time. When purchasing ETFs, only one third use an investment advisor, writes Peter Watson. This information is from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada’s annual investor survey that was recently released. Why are so few investors using the services of a […]
Is the Cost of Post-Secondary Education Worth it?
Postsecondary education is expensive, and families must make the decision whether it’s worth it, writes Peter Watson. The financial decision to spend money on a child’s postsecondary education can have major implications for a family’s finances. For many families, the dream their children will go to university is strong. And there are many advantages. Your […]
A Financial Strategy for Change
A strategy to make financial changes easier to implement, writes Peter Watson. One of the strengths of humans is our ability to change. Yes, we have the ability, but it is often very difficult. The strategy for change we are suggesting is to look ahead at the benefits of making changes that most likely will […]
Bridging Finance Failure Highlights the Importance of Diversification
The lesson to be learned about the risk of losing money is the importance of diversification, writes Peter Watson. Bridging Finance Inc was a well-known business that raised money from private investors and lent that money to companies. It has been in receivership since 2021. During the good times, Bridging managed $2 billion for 26,000 […]
Investing for the Long Term Can Bring Success
Two important ingredients to successful investing are patience and taking a long-term perspective, writes Peter Watson. One of the most important attributes to successful investing can be found in what you don’t do. Unfortunately, this flies in the face of how humans are programmed. We are taught from a young age to be proactive. When […]
Financial Pain is on The Way
Beware, the financial storm clouds are closing in, writes Peter Watson. That was the tone of a recent warning by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Her conclusion was that many households are going to be adversely affected. Interest rates are being aggressively increased to try to control inflation. That will slow the economy, businesses will suffer, […]
How to Build Your Investment Portfolio
A good portfolio will address two important principles. Investing to achieve a higher expected return and managing risk, writes Peter Watson. As an example, we will consider saving for your child’s university education. The same logic can be applied to other financial objectives. Assume a university education will cost $25,000 per year over four years […]
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 […]
Interest Rate Increases will be Painful
The Bank of Canada has warned us of pending interest rate increases for a long time. Last week interest rates were increased by one quarter of one per cent. Many are anticipating six interest rate increases over a relatively short period of time. These increases are necessary to slow down economic activity in order to […]
