Hot Off the web- December 28, 2008 Craig Karmin’s “Say goodbye and good riddance to 2008…” in the WSJ summarizes it well, that 2008 was “a year when the most dire financial predictions finally came true”. He then enumerates the sorry list: U.S. stock market off about 40% (worst in 77 years), emerging market down […]

Hot Off the Web- December 21, 2008 Bad enough that  the recent market crash has damaged many retirees’ and would be retirees’ nest eggs to the tune of 15-40% depending on the asset allocation, but some investors who become victims of Ponzi schemes (everyone has heard of the one perpetrated by Madoff) appear to be […]

Hot Off the Web – December 14, 2008 The Financial Times’ Len Costa writes that the “Crisis throws rebalancing out of kilter” In the article he discusses how “the prospect of selling winners and buying into falling markets can test even the most resolute investor’s faith in asset allocation and the utility of diversification.” However […]

Hot Off the Web- December 7, 2008 In the understatement of the year that “Canadian pension plans shown to have flaws” the Financial Post’s Karen Mazukewich refers to “three new reports flagging the shortfalls and gaping inequities in our pension plans.” The issues reported are: (1) decreasing percentage of employees covered by DB pension plans, […]

Hot Off the Web – November 28, 2008 This month I celebrated two years of publishing RetirementAction.com, this retirement finance education and advocacy website. We are back from a gruelling but interesting trip to India and Nepal (and judging by the TV news reports, just in time). What we experienced is a land of contrasts […]

Hot Off the Web- November 2, 2008 Past week’s papers were filled with articles on why Ottawa should be considering “pension relief” for corporations with underfunded pension plans. But most commentators missed the real story.  This is not about the impact on companies which are contractually responsible for the pensions; it is about the potentially […]

Hot Off the Web – October 26, 2008  Tom Herman writes in the WSJ’s “Fund investors face the risk of tax hit despite losses”  that many investors who are holding their losing mutual funds in taxable accounts may still end up having to pay tax on capital gains distributions. He suggests that this may be […]

Hot Off the Web- October 19, 2008  It’s been another rough week in the markets, as reflected by the following Hot Off the Web articles. You may also be interested in reading my last weekend’s blog “What now?”  discussing what actions you may consider taking now. In WSJ’s “Among pressing problems, threat of deflation” Sudeep […]

Hot Off the Web The headlines are scary. Not only because of the 40% drop from peak of U.S. and Canadian markets, but also due to the swiftness of the drop. Some suggest that stocks are heading to still more losses, while others appeal to our sense of history that we are close to the […]

Hot Off the Web- October 5, 2008 WSJ’s Jason Zweig recommends that you hang on to your investments in “Depression of 2008? Don’t count of it” . He dispels concerns that: depression is coming (the Fed and the Treasury department have tools and are willing to use them) and that diversification is dead (normally different […]