Hot Off the Web ETF’s are becoming popular not just with do it yourself investors, but also with advisors. In WSJ’s “All ETF portfolio: Pros reveal the ins and outs”  Core holdings include S&P500 SPDR (SPY) combined with MSCI EAFE index (EFA). The core holdings of some are evolving to using S&P Equal (rather than […]

Hot Off the Web In “Snowbirds’ Florida Tax Crisis”  The Canadian Snowbird Association Magazine’s Summer Edition (pp.18-19) contains an article written by yours truly. Florida’s property tax system has been called loony, outrageous, two-tier, discriminatory, confiscatory and worse. The bottom line is that Florida has a property tax system that is rigged against snowbirds and […]

Hot Off the Web This week’s Hot Off the Web is heavily focused on asset allocation. The Financial Times’ “How to allocate your assets” readers are reminded that asset allocation is still the dominant contributor to long term returns. The only significant changes that have occurred since 2000 are pertaining to: (1) more sophistication in […]

Hot Off the Web   WSJ’s Jonathan Clements reports that “Investors flock to low cost funds”  He quotes encouraging figures whereby 74% of recent mutual U.S. fund investors considered fees and expenses before buying, and stock-fund costs dropped from 2.32% in 1980 to 1.07% in 2006. Unfortunately Canada’s investors seem to be stuck in 1980 […]

Hot Off the Web Grant Surridge reports in the Financial Post’s “Funding levels out of crisis”  that there is good news for many Canadian pension funds. This is the result of healthy stock market returns (on the asset side) and rising interest rates (on the liability side). The typical pension fund (whatever typical means, as […]

Hot Off the Web During the week, I save articles that I consider as suitable for the next blog. When I review the list in preparation for writing the “Hot Off the Web” blog, I select those that I think would be most interesting and/or educational to readers. With July 1st in Canada and July […]

Hot Off the Web It is well worth visiting “BusinessWeek 2007 annual retirement guide” . It even has a link to the 2006 guide for many other useful articles. The 2007 focus is on retiring early and what you should watch out for (timing of your departure, who will manage your retirement funds, medical coverage […]

Hot Off The Web Jonathan Chevreau reports that finally there are additional offerings of Canadian life cycle funds in “BMO takes life cycle for a spin”. Fidelity’s ClearPath is being joined by BMO’s Life Stage Plus family of funds. These are quite different from their brethren in they are quite aggressive initially and become relatively […]

Hot Off the Web Charles Farrell’s simple financial ratios are presented in WSJ’s “Are your finances ready for retirement?” . One set of ratios pertains to savings to annual pretax income at various ages suggested to be 0.9, 4.5 and 12.0, while debt to income ratio should be 1.5, 0.75 and 0.0 at ages 35, […]

Hot Off the Web “Pension replacement” starts off by pointing out the current healthier state of U.S. private pension plans, however it laments that the healthier they become the more likely they will also become extinct. With the recently tightened and ongoing tightening of pension regulations (full funding by 2008, with seven years to make […]