Archive for May 2013

Achieving Peace of Mind

Worried about debts? Do you know when or even if you can retire? Most Canadians do not feel secure financially because they look for security in all the wrong places. The conventional wisdom is to focus on paying off debts & buying “safe” investments, while not knowing if either of these strategies will pay off…

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Tax Refund is NOT a Benefit of RRSPs

Getting a tax refund is one of the main motivators for contributing to RRSPs. However, there are two main benefits of RRSPs and the tax refund is not one of them. The benefits of RRSPs are: Tax-free growth (same as the TFSA). Tax gain or loss depending on your post-retirement tax bracket when you withdraw…

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Are you “Smart Money” or “Dumb Money”?

Amateur investors often look down on professional fund managers thinking they are not worth their fees. Meanwhile, professional fund managers tend to think of amateur investors as “dumb money”. What is “dumb money”? It is investors that invest when the markets are high and then sell when the markets are low.

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Timing the Market vs. Buy and Hold

After the recent strong stock market gains, I have been asked a few times lately: “What should we do to protect against a possible market downturn? Should we become defensive?” If you could move in and out of the market at the right time, you would obviously increase your returns and avoid some losses. On…

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