It turns out job losses in the United States were far worse than initially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). On Friday, the government agency disclosed that its count of job losses from April, 2008 through to December, 2009 was being revised upward by 38%, from 6.0 million to 8.3 million. It’s well known that [...]

2/8/2010 12:54:29 PM

True or false: when you contribute to an RRSP, you have to claim the tax deduction for the same year. Answer: False. You can make a contribution in one year and claim the tax deduction in another. The ability to separate the two provides some benefits. Here is one. If your income is less than $41,000 in [...]

2/5/2010 2:59:19 PM

To follow up on my previous post, another reason for accumulating retirement savings outside of a business is to help protect owners and their dependents from business creditors. For this purpose, an individual pension plan (IPP) may be a better option than a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), says tax and estate lawyer Christine Van [...]

2/4/2010 9:37:45 PM

Many business owners think they can sell their business and live off the proceeds during their retirement years. However, this is a risky strategy because they have all their eggs in one basket. What if they cannot sell at the expected price or need to exit the business prematurely? “For this particular reason, the RRSP is [...]

2/3/2010 6:37:55 PM

I’ve been reading Professor Moshe Milevsky’s work lately and was pleasantly surprised to discover this morning that he is writing a monthly column for Researchmag.ca, called Annuity Analytics. I’ll be adding it to my reading list. It’s about annuities. Wait — don’t stop reading! I know there was a time when I heard the word, “annuity,” my [...]

2/2/2010 10:39:26 AM

In this post, I review the new book The Mindful Investor: How a Calm Mind Can Bring You Inner Peace and Financial Security (December 2009). There are two authors: Maria Gonzalez – founder and president of a consultancy that coaches “business leaders” on the use of “Mindfulness” techniques Graham Byron – investment advisor and certified financial planner What’s it [...]

2/1/2010 9:50:58 AM

The dividend approach to investing has its appeal. But a well-researched critique at the Independent Investor website challenges that view. The  first part is an overview. The second part is a critical review of the advantages and concludes: “The arguments seem compelling, but on second look, lose some of their luster.” The third part takes a look [...]

1/31/2010 2:17:36 PM

Yesterday, Corporate Knights announced its sixth annual Global 100 list of the most sustainable large corporations. The list was culled from 3,000 listed companies around the world, which were ranked by 10 criteria including environmental indicators such as progress toward sustainable use of energy and social indicators such as diversity of board directors. Among the 24 countries, [...]

1/28/2010 4:09:06 PM

In 1998, I put $2,500 into a segregated fund. I did it mostly as a favour to a relative who was working as a financial planner.  In 2000, the fund’s value rose to $3,853.99, where the reset feature was used to freeze the “minimum benefit amount.” This would be returned to me  ten years later upon request, [...]

1/27/2010 9:37:22 AM

It’s time to start raising interest rates, writes breakingviews.com columnist Edward Hadas this week. The signs of financial excess are already evident in escalating prices for Chinese real estate and commodities. These nascent bubbles should be nipped in the bud before they burst and trigger another bout of financial and economic havoc, Mr. Hadas advises [...]

1/26/2010 12:37:52 PM

I’m with Warren Buffett and John Maynard Keynes when it comes to gold. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their heads at how we dig it up in one place and and put it back into the ground at another [Fort Knox, bank vaults, etc.], as Buffett remarked many years ago. Worse than having no utility, it’s [...]

1/25/2010 9:55:59 AM

Here is Part XIV of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. To scroll through Parts II to XIII, click on links at the bottom of each page. Yes, You Can Supercharge Your Portfolio Ben Stein, Phil DeMuth “The financial service industry is forever engineering and promoting products to sell to investors.” “As John Bogle pointed [...]

1/22/2010 7:21:24 PM

How do you calculate the asset allocation in your investment portfolio: before or after tax? The before- and after-tax allocations can be quite different and you could be taking on more risk than intended, claims Professor Moshe Milevsky in his new book, Your Money Milestones: A Guide to Making the 9 Most Important Financial Decisions [...]

1/21/2010 1:48:06 PM

Professor Milevsky discourses in his new book on the need to diversify financial portfolios with respect to “holistic balance sheets.” But what about the house you own: should it be included on your holistic balance sheet? And should you diversify your financial portfolio with respect to that asset as well?  I haven’t found much discussion so [...]

1/19/2010 12:11:06 PM

Why should investment bankers have mostly bonds in their portfolios? An answer is provided in Chapter 8 of Professor Moshe Milevsky’s new book, Your Money Milestones: A Guide to Making the 9 Most Important Financial Decisions of Your Life (reference here). The chapter also explains why: wealthy barbers should have high allocations to stocks MBA students should short the [...]

1/18/2010 10:07:09 AM

Since the earthquake and ensuing crisis in Haiti, I felt like I should be writing something about our collective responsibility to take action. I haven’t until now partly because I didn’t think I could add anything new, partly because it felt more appropriate to just be quiet, and partly because governments, international aid organizations, citizens, [...]

1/16/2010 10:26:23 AM

Weigh House Investor Services specializes in providing second opinions on investment portfolios. Unsure if you or your advisor are doing it right? Then take your account statements to the firm and get an evaluation. That means president and CEO Warren MacKenzie sees a lot of portfolios up close. This week he passed on a few of the [...]

1/15/2010 4:55:27 PM

I’m reading a draft manuscript of Professor Moshe Milevsky’s soon-to-be-released new book, Your Money Milestones: A Guide to Making the 9 Most Important Financial Decisions of Your Life. It’s been an enjoyable read so far and I plan to post a book review shortly. One of the refreshing things is the originality of thought; the way [...]

1/14/2010 11:06:15 PM

This one of Google’s 10 guiding principles. It echos what the Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wrote in a manifesto they distributed before the company took its stock public in 2004, “We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served – as shareholders and in all other ways – by [...]

1/14/2010 7:23:13 AM

I was in a walk-in clinic today for a check-up (by appointment) and got a look into the inner workings of our public health system. It reminded me of a recent post by blogger Michael James on Money on how our public health care system is not so “free” after all. At the end of my [...]

1/13/2010 12:13:06 PM