Hot Off the Web– December 8, 2009 Personal Finance and Investing Those of you who might have missed Larry MacDonald’s Globe and Mail article “Nortel retiree prefers ETFs” on my personal approach to investing, you might find it interesting to peruse that short article. Daisy Maxey’s article “What should you do with your money in […]

Hot Off the Web- December 1, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments Globe and Mail’s John Heinzl tackles how much of your nest egg can you spend each year in retirement, in “How not to outlive your money”.  Options discussed include: (1) “the 4% rule” (spending 4% from a balanced portfolio the first year and then […]

Hot Off the Web- November 24, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments In one of his occasional contributions, ex-WSJ personal finance writer Jonathan Clements in “The case for retiring in a bear market”, writes “Here’s a formula for a comfortable retirement: Wait for stocks to plunge 30%. Watch your neighbors panic and market pundits suffer palpitations […]

Hot Off the Web- November 17, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments A great article by Robert Arnott in the Financial Times’ “A steady hand at the tiller wins out” where he reminds readers that “like the best sailors, have a steady hand at the tiller, maintaining course through the storms…never lose sight of their course […]

Hot Off the Web– November 11, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments Jason Zweig in WSJ’s “Are ETFs causing an emerging markets bubble?” warns readers about concentration of some emerging market ETFs. “As money pours into the ETFs, they must mechanically match their holdings to those in the emerging-market indexes. That forced buying drives up stock […]

Hot Off the Web– November 4, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments Consider yourself warned “Bond ETFs risky with rates so low”. The Financial Post’s Chevreau warns that you should keep your duration low or else be prepared for capital losses if rates rise quickly. Rob Carrick in his weekly Personal Finance Reader email mentions “Tacita […]

Hot Off the Web- October 28, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments The Financial Post’s Jonathan Chevreau reporting from the World Money Show indicates that “At World Money Show in Toronto, mutual funds are yesterday’s investment” . Unlike in past such shows, mutual fund companies were almost invisible. An investor poll presented suggested that “only 12% […]

Hot Off the Web- October 21, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments This week’s Barron’s has a series of ETF articles in an ETF Special Report, a “primer for newcomers and state-of-the-industry report for pros.” In “Growing to the sky” Michael Santoli reports that there is now $695B invested in 768 funds; the past decade’s 40% […]

Hot Off the Web- October 16, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments In the WSJ’s “Don’t let the market crash hit you at the finish line” Jason Zweig writes that “In the past, the longer the measurement period, the less the rate of return on stocks has varied. Any given year was a crapshoot. But over […]

Hot Off the Web- October 9, 2009 Personal Finance and Investments The great HST debate aside, the Globe and Mail’s Derek DeCloet in “A bit rich: The fundco case for HST exemption” points out that the emperor (Canada’s mutual fund industry) has no clothes. While the Canadian mutual fund industry wines about the extra 5% […]