Here is Part VIII of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. To scroll through Parts II to VII, click on links at the bottom of each page. The Only Guide to a Winning Bond Strategy Larry E. Swedroe and Joseph H. Hempen “The eight types of fixed-income risks are interest rate risk, credit risk, [...]

11/26/2009 4:05:56 PM

Is your company able to build and improve partnerships with non-profit organizations? It’s a lot harder than you’d expect. Last night I was a guest lecturer in Dr. Tony Fattal’s social marketing class at York University. The topic was social marketing partnerships I was reminded that building effective partnerships is more complex and takes much longer [...]

11/26/2009 7:13:43 AM

I have been wrestling with the question of whether it is better for the retail investor to buy bonds directly or bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs). At this stage, I’m leaning toward bond ETFs as the best way to go for long-term horizons (e.g. retirement funds). Let me throw out some thoughts why. If anyone sees [...]

11/25/2009 10:35:31 AM

When someone opens an account at an investment firm, one of the first things they will likely be asked to do is complete a risk-tolerance questionnaire (which will then be used by the advisor to recommend an asset allocation). Some observers think these questionnaires are not the best way to determine people’s risk preferences. As William [...]

11/24/2009 12:04:54 PM

Annual CSR reports have become table stakes for public corporations. However, what’s astonishing is that in the short time since corporations started reporting on their CSR initiatives, their actions in this area have already begun to appear generic. I find that CSR reports are virtually interchangeable with annual reports (read boring) and, like annual reports, read [...]

11/23/2009 11:06:56 AM

Personal-finance expert Prof. Moshe Milevsky is interviewed in the November issue of the Journal of Financial Planning. A lot of good ideas in the piece.  Highlights from Milevsky’s responses include: • diversification among stocks and bonds not enough; also need to diversify across investment products like variable annuities, mutual funds, managed accounts, ETFs, etc. (e.g. annuities [...]

11/23/2009 10:06:21 AM

William MacKenzie of Weigh House Investor Services does not recommend GICs in his book The Unbiased Investor (2007). He says “experienced investors … know they can almost always get a higher return with no additional risk, and also have daily liquidity, by buying the corporate bonds issued by the same entity that is issuing the [...]

11/21/2009 6:31:04 PM

Why do some corporate CSR initiatives appear authentic and others just feel like window dressing? Yesterday one of my colleagues at Impakt gave me a copy of an Aveda brochure that states the company’s mission as “to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways we give back to [...]

11/21/2009 6:13:34 PM

This week I spoke to Tom Bradley, president of Steadyhand Investment Funds Inc., a Vancouver-based, mutual-fund group launched in April, 2007. He wanted to fill me in on what his funds were all about (I had inadvertently overlooked them in an article I did on low-fee funds awhile back). Normally, I tend to avoid actively managed [...]

11/20/2009 1:07:46 AM

Here is Part VII of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. To scroll through Parts II to VI, click on links at the bottom of each page. The Little Book of Safe Money Jason Zweig “The keys to investing are simple: diversify, keep costs low, buy and hold.” “Like dieting, investing is simple but not [...]

11/19/2009 9:42:14 PM

The results of Cone’s 2009 Consumer New Media Study include two points that I found to be remarkable: “Forty-four percent of American new media users are searching for, sharing or discussing information about corporate responsibility (CR) efforts and programs…” “Sixty-two percent of users polled believe they can influence business decisions by voicing opinions via new media channels. ” While the [...]

11/19/2009 8:40:08 AM

Here is Part VI of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. To scroll through Parts II to V, click on links at the bottom of each page. The Investor’s Manifesto William Bernstein  ”Wall Street is littered with the bones of those who know just what to do, but could not bring themselves to do it.” “Very [...]

11/18/2009 3:47:16 PM

I just finished reading the Yvon Chouinard’s book, Let My People Go Surfing. In terms of pure authenticity around corporate responsibility, what Chouinard has done at Patagonia is hard to beat. And he makes a solid business case for a business model that many would still consider unconventional. Here’s what I found most applicable to [...]

11/18/2009 10:55:56 AM

The Ontario government is tabling its proposed HST legislation this week (tax to come into effect July 1). B.C. is also moving forward on its HST. You can calculate how much HST you’ll be paying with this calculator on the National Citizens Coalition website On Nov. 12, the Ontario Government announced exemptions for prepared food and beverages [...]

11/18/2009 6:18:24 AM

Just because you haven’t heard much about the Harmonized Sales Tax over the last few weeks doesn’t mean the Ontario government has stopped its plan to merge the PST and GST. Today, McGuinty’s Liberals tabled the HST legislation. The Conservatives will no doubt put up a fight, but no matter what they say, the tax [...]

11/16/2009 10:23:52 PM

Here is Part V of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. To access follow-on parts, click on links at the bottom of the each page. The Intelligent Investor (Rev Ed) Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig “It is no difficult trick to bring a great deal of energy, study, and native ability into Wall Street and [...]

11/16/2009 3:40:18 PM

Here is Part IV of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. Then follow the links at the bottom of the page to access the rest of the parts. The Great Mutual Fund Trap Greg Baer & Gary Gensler “You cannot improve your returns by spending more time or money trying to pick funds or [...]

11/14/2009 5:39:20 AM

We often hear references to October being a bad time to invest. After all, the crashes of 1929 and 1987 were in October.  In order to check this out we pulled Bloomberg data for the performance of the DOW during each month going back to 1925. When we took the average percentage gains or losses [...]

11/13/2009 12:33:39 PM

Taylor Larimore offers a guide on the Investment Gems webpage to the literature on passive index investing. Here is Part III of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing, a condensation of his work. Part I can be found here and Part II here. Enough John C Bogle “Not knowing what enough is, subverts our professional values. It makes salespersons [...]

11/12/2009 7:27:31 PM

Many books on passive index investing have now been published and Taylor Larimore offers an excellent guide on his Investment Gems webpage. Here is Part II of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I can be found here. The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Rick Ferri & Laura Dogu “Early retirement planning should [...]

11/11/2009 6:11:09 AM