Canadian Capitalist

Much ink has been spilt over the conviction of Conrad Black in Chicago last week. I’ve read a few biographies of the newspaper baron (I recommend Shades of Black by Richard Siklos) and followed the case with some interest. Surprisingly, the real-life Shakespearean drama of the prodigal Canadian offers some financial lessons for little capitalists [...]

[Read more →]

Million Dollar Journey has written a series of posts reviewing discount brokers and I thought it would be useful to complement his reviews with brokers I am familiar with but he is not planning to cover. I’ll kick off this two post series with a review of RBC Direct Investing and conclude by reviewing TD [...]

[Read more →]

A reader asked John Bogle if he should rebalance his portfolio to the original asset allocation when adding new money or divide the new money according to the original asset allocation even if his portfolio might be out of whack. Mr. Bogle offered a surprising answer:
Rebalancing is a personal choice, not a choice that statistics [...]

[Read more →]

The biggest news this week that will directly affect your personal finances is the Bank of Canada’s decision to hike interest rates. The prime rate at the chartered banks immediately jumped to 6.25% and you will be paying more interest on variable rate mortgages and personal loans. Fortunately, the bank clearly signalled that it is [...]

[Read more →]

Kijiji is a free local classified site that you can use to buy or sell almost any used item you can think of. Posting a sell ad is really easy: you select the category to list your item, enter a title, how much you are asking for the item, a short description and your email [...]

[Read more →]

A Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT is an asset class that allows you to get exposure to real estate in your portfolio. Real estate is an interesting asset class because historically it has offered a higher return than bonds (but less than equities) albeit at a higher risk (again less risk than equities). Also, [...]

[Read more →]

First off, I would like to thank the author Danielle Park for furnishing a copy of her book for review. A lawyer and money manager, Ms. Park likens investing, which can be remarkably volatile and full of risk, to lit dynamite and a money manager’s role to that of a professional dynamite juggler. There is [...]

[Read more →]

CBC is reporting that many Canadians are saving thousands of dollars by shopping for cars and trucks in the United States. It is not surprising given that our dollar has crossed 95 cents (US) and a wide disparity exists between prices on some models. For example, Toyota Sienna XLE Limited has a suggested retail price [...]

[Read more →]

I made an earlier post about a friend who has a young daughter and a stay-at-home spouse who simply assumed that (a) his family is not eligible for the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) because he makes a fairly high income and (b) if he were eligible, he would get the checks automatically. Turns out, [...]

[Read more →]

While a fully paid-off home is half a step toward retirement, it is equally important to have an investment portfolio consisting of various asset classes to provide income when we have stopped working. Perhaps due to a long string of strong gains in housing prices, many people seem to believe that their home is an [...]

[Read more →]