Over the last decade or so there have been large public and political movements to get greater representation of women in executive roles. There has also been a wide acceptance of gays and lesbians into our communities. People continue to stand up for equal rights in the Black Lives Matter movement. And we also see…
The popular belief of every homeowner is that the house will become a great investment and that it will be the asset they can rely on to help them retire. The truth? Quite the opposite. Homes have an emotional attachment. On top of that, there is a prestige to being a homeowner that you can’t…
Everyone says to follow your dreams. Warren Buffet says to follow your passion. There’s always a debate about whether you should work for money or work for passion. If this was a blog about building a successful career, or finding happiness in the workforce, the answer would be simple. Work for happiness. However, this blog…
Every good investor knows that you should have balance in your investment portfolio. That means there should be a good mixture of equities, bonds and even cash in your portfolio. Over the last ten years, though, the pace of growth in equities have far outstripped the growth of interest provided by fixed income assets. In…
The biggest question that many Canadians will be facing over the next couple of years is whether to go with a fixed rate mortgage or a variable rate mortgage. Unlike our distant North American cousins in America, Canadians have the ritual to renew mortgages every 5 years. It’s too bad that Canadians don’t get the…
The sad part of learning about personal finance is realizing that the past generations before you did it all wrong. When I get a chance to sit back and think about all the learnings and values that were taught throughout my life, it becomes quite apparent why we never “got ahead”. Perhaps it’s the failing…
Many people believe that real estate is the best investment. That includes those that buy Apple stocks, weed stocks or even Bitcoin. From a historical perspective, real estate has always had a steady upward trajectory in price, very much similar to stocks and equities. However, real estate has suffered less significant and frequent crashes that…
The million dollar question that every Millennial wants to know is “how much house can I afford?” That’s because despite the high prices in two of Canada’s major cities, the majority of Millennials still want to buy a home. With house prices rising much faster than income in their respective cities, just how much can…
The TFSA has been around since 2009 and its introduction has created a great way for many investors to make money completely tax free. The fact that money made in a TFSA is tax free could mean that people will try to take advantage of it. So what exactly happens when the TFSA is over…
In a recent article I wrote how buying a house could end up throwing away just as much money as renting. That’s because buying a house with a mortgage is exactly like renting, only rather than renting a place to live, you end up renting the money to buy the place. Quite interestingly, someone rebutted…
Unless you own a house in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada hasn’t been a good place to invest over the past ten years. If we look at the performance of Canada’s main stock index, the TSX, over the past decade, the returns have been abysmal. With only a 17% cumulative gain over 10 years, anyone who…
It’s time for another comparison of rent vs buy. It’s not that I condone buying a house, but in ultra expensive cities in Canada like Vancouver and Toronto, all the arguments of buying over renting have become myths. The popular saying that you are throwing your money away renting is getting harder and harder to…
