Financial Pain Comes From Higher Interest Rates
Interest rate increases are necessary but painful, writes Peter Watson. There is a whole lot of financial pain being inflicted on Canadians. This comes in the form of the Bank of Canada raising interest rates again by one half of one per cent. This is the seventh time in 2022 the central bank has raised […]
The Challenges of Another Interest Rate Hike
Many households will feel the pain of the most recent interest rate hike, writes Peter Watson. Plus, the cumulative effect of so many rate hikes over such a short period of time could be unmanageable. The Bank of Canada’s most recent increase to the cost of borrowing is one half of one per cent. That […]
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 […]
Bank of Canada Increases Interest Rates Again
Managing personal finances just got more difficult, writes Peter Watson. Another significant interest rate hike was just announced by the Bank of Canada. The most recent rate increase was three quarters of one per cent. The Bank of Canada is determined to reduce the annual inflation rate to the target of two per cent. This […]
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 […]
When shopping for financial products, be your own advocate
The results of mystery shoppers provided Canada’s banks with mixed messages, according to Investment Executive. However, three out of every four shoppers had a positive experience. But shoppers had a negative experience with inappropriate product recommendations, confusing and misleading disclosures, sales pressure, and a lack of knowledge of the employee. Inappropriate product recommendations were experienced […]
Personal Finances are Challenged with Continued Increase in Inflation
The world of personal finance for many Canadians is spinning quickly these days, writes Peter Watson. Recently, the Bank of Canada made a significant increase in interest rates. The reason for the increase was its attempt to control inflation. After digesting higher interest rates, the attention shifted to the effect this will have on the […]
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 […]
Managing Expectations and Important Aspect of Investing
Most investment categories had disappointing returns during the first quarter of this year. First a few details. We looked at seven different sectors. Four different stock markets, a global real estate index and two bond indexes. Six of the categories had declining values in the range of five to eight per cent for the quarter […]
Significant Interest Rate Increases will be Painful
Last week the Bank of Canada increased interest rates by half a per cent. This is the largest interest rate hike in two decades, writes Peter Watson. Plus, there were warnings additional rate increases will be announced. The BOC also announced it will stop buying federal government bonds which it has been doing to keep […]