Canadian Capitalist

The blogger who writes the Canadian Personal Financial Blog confessed to the worst advice he had given and challenged other bloggers to do the same. I didn’t have to think too hard on this one – I had committed a blooper that I regret to this day.
When I first started investing, I read a lot [...]

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I must be among the last persons on Planet Earth not to hear of Randy Pausch, the professor who passed away over the weekend and delivered a “last lecture” on achieving our childhood dreams. A colleague at work recommended watching the video and I’m glad I did. It is 76 minutes long and in it, [...]

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In response to an earlier post on Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT), reader Doug raised an interesting point — While Vanguard funds have rock-bottom fees, owning US-based assets may result in an estate tax payable to Uncle Sam. Doug also posted a link to a BDO Dunwoody bulletin on U.S. Estate Tax Issues for [...]

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Now that you have a shortlist of advisors, the next step is to interview them. First, I compiled a list of sample questions to ask potential advisors from various sources. The CFP website has a list of ten questions to ask your planner. The Mackenzie funds website also features a list of interview questions that [...]

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Mark Hulbert reports in The New York Times on a recent research that finds that money managers have a sorry record: “the number of funds that have beaten the market over their entire histories is so small that the False Discovery Rate test can’t eliminate the possibility that the few that did were merely false [...]

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In The Intelligent Portfolio (Book Review), the author has published real expected returns from various asset classes calculated by Financial Engines. Financial Engines uses a technique called reverse portfolio optimization - i.e. use estimated volatilities and correlations from history and solve for expected returns from an optimal portfolio, the market portfolio.
Cash - 1.7%
Short bonds - [...]

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In his latest column in Report on Business, sleuth investor Avner Mandelman asks DIY investors: “you don’t wear suits you sewed yourself, or shoes you cobbled yourself, or feed your family bread you baked yourself, so why would you try to invest your family’s assets by yourself?” and somewhat self-servingly suggests hiring a professional:

So once [...]

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The data on the size of the Canadian equity market is easily obtained – various sources suggest that it is roughly $2 trillion*. But the size of the bond market is a bit of a mystery. An article in The Province (thanks to Preet of Where Does all my Money go? for the sources in [...]

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In response to the first post on the series on finding a financial advisor, Thicken My Wallet posed an interesting question – why would anyone want to search for potential financial advisors off the internet? – and further suggested that getting referrals from friends or colleagues might be a better option. There are a couple [...]

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Here are some recent posts I enjoyed from the Personal Finance Network:

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the credit crisis. Yes, the banks and credit card issuers employ tactics that can only be called predatory but Clever Dude points out that we alone are responsible for our debt problems.
Money Ning points out why [...]

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