The large number of RRSP related articles continue in tune with the season. Rob Carrick of the Globe and Mail in “Are you saying no to free money from your employer? “ reminds the reader to contribute to RRSP or defined contribution pension plans in order to take advantage of the employer’s matching contribution and the low cost institutionally managed investment vehicles usually available in such plans.  . FP’s Jonathan Chevreau in “Why you should max out RRSP investments” drives home the same point by suggesting that one should even borrow to take full advantage of the available RRSP room, and the repay with the tax refund plus any regular payments if necessary to repay the loan.

In “Finding Room for Oddball Investments” Jonathan Clements of the WSJ  sings praises of the benefits of investments that one might not normally consider conservative enough to include in one’s portfolio. Examples are gold stocks, REITs, commodities, long-bonds and emerging markets. His recommended approach is to allocate a small percentage of the portfolio to such “oddball” investments for diversification and then annually rebalance back to the target allocation (forcing a sell high, buy low strategy). Of course one must also make sure to choose low cost vehicles for implementation. On a somewhat related topic FPs Jonathan Chevreau in “Think globally and reap your rewards locally” discusses one of the key roles of advisors is to push you out of your comfort zone, i.e. sell high and buy low and help you make the right decision during an adversity/crisis