Canadian Capitalist

We are travelling on personal business and I won’t be posting today and possibly tomorrow.

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David Swensen classified emerging markets equity as one of the core asset classes in his book, Unconventional Success. It is easy to see why: emerging markets have low correlation with other asset classes and provide valuable diversification benefits while lowering the overall volatility of the portfolio.
If you are interested in adding emerging markets to your [...]

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Every so often a business will fail to live up to your expectations for customer service. When that happens to you, you may want to write a complaint letter pointing out why you think you’ve been unfairly treated. A good business will take action to correct any problem and may even offer you a coupon [...]

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It wasn’t very long ago that there were no personal financial blogs written for a Canadian audience. In fact, in the early days of my blog, I had to use words like tax-deferred instead of RRSP, hoping that Americans would visit as well. Fortunately, such days are long gone and the list of Canadian blogs [...]

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Money management firms are bombarding us with ads touting their latest best performing mutual fund that returned 30% last year and 20% over the past three and if you are tempted to buy based on the performance, consider the following statistic cited in The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read:
One telling study involving mutual fund [...]

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The following question is from Stephen:
Should I rebalance my portfolio ignoring changes in the currency rate or rebalance post currency adjustment? And does it make a difference based on how the USD is doing against other currencies (i.e., if it’s only weakening against the Canadian dollar because oil prices shoot up, or if it’s [...]

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It is astonishing what Governments, which usually accuse private companies of being greedy, can themselves get away with. Case in point is my recent experience with the City of Ottawa. Now, I am normally very prompt with my bill payments, especially hydro bills and water bills because they tend to be relatively small amounts.
When I [...]

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Tired of paying $46.95 every month, I’ve been shopping around for a high-speed internet service that is cheaper than the one we currently have and of comparable quality. A few of my friends have signed up with National Capital Freenet (NCF) (a non-profit organization that offers high-speed internet for $30 per month with the purchase [...]

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ETF investors should be pleased to find that many U.S. listed ETFs reported low tracking error in 2006. Unfortunately, iShares ETFs listed on the TSX reported a much higher tracking error.
Jonathan Chevreau wrote in a recent column that there is no good excuse for not saving money.
The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick points out that [...]

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It is best to hold a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and cash within the RRSP and stay away from investments that are risky or very expensive. Here are some investments you may want to avoid:
Venture Capital Funds: Even with the tax kickbacks, Labour-Sponsored Investment Funds are poor investments. The long list of negatives includes [...]

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