Hot Off the Web– May 23, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the Financial Post’s “Change your ETF strategy, up your profits” Jonathan Chevreau laments that he is unable to take advantage of a switch from capitalization to fundamental index-based ETFs because of the tax implications of the sale. He indicates that recent fundamental index […]

Hot Off the Web– May 16, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments Read my summary of Wade Pfau’s very interesting paper in the Journal of Financial Planning entitled “Safe savings rates: A new approach to retirement planning over the lifecycle” (it might even encourage you to read the paper in its entirety). Pfau extends Bengen’s landmark […]

Hot Off the Web– May 9, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the Globe and Mail’s “It’s in your interest to know the deduction rules for borrowing”Tin Cestnick takes the reader through the rules, for making sure that interest is deductible, such as: “borrowed money used to earn income from a business, or property. Income […]

Hot Off the Web– May 2, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments Brett Arends writes in the WSJ’s “Retirement income? Annuities come up short” that more than likely annuities are not the answer for most retirees in today’s environment despite the  fact that they will prevent you (at least nominally) from running out of money in […]

Hot Off the Web– April 25, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the Globe and Mail’s “Why paying more tax today may lower your overall bill” Ted Rechtshaffen says minimizing current year tax “is not necessarily good tax planning”; you should consider a multi-year view. Examples given are: consideration of starting RRSP withdrawals before 71 […]

Hot Off the Web– April 15, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the Financial Post’s “Fixes for the biggest retirement risks” Linda Stern discusses the requirement for “maximum flexibility” and suggestions on how to deal with life’s surprises like: you are forced to retire early, taxes may be higher that you expected, you could live […]

Hot Off the Web– April 4, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the Globe and Mail’s “Does your investment adviser put you first?” Rob Carrick looks at mechanisms of finding an advisor who not only answers that question in the affirmative but also means it. Carrick suggest three approaches increase likelihood of finding such an […]

Hot Off the Web– March 28, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In WSJ’s “Retirement 101: How to figure out what you’ll need?”Brett Arends reports on the latest dismal retirement Confidence Survey by EBRI: <50% are confident about ability to retire comfortably, 13% “very confident” (about half that of a few years ago, and 27% “no […]

Hot Off the Web- March 21, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the WSJ’s “A smarter way to buy insurance” Daisy Maxey writes that “Most people who buy life insurance do so from an agent working for a life-insurance company, or from a broker who receives a commission. But a lot of financial advisers are […]

Hot Off the Web– March 14, 2011 Personal Finance and Investments In the Financial Post’s “Canada’s costly mutual funds flunk again: only nation of 22 to get an F on fees”Jonathan Chevreau reports that “An expanded version of a 2009 (Morningstar) global study gives Canada a gentleman’s C+ overall but on fees (Management Expense Ratios) […]