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complete guide to index investing
ETFs & Funds
Vanguard Drops the Gloves
It’s not easy to make a splash in the crowded ETF space these days. Many of the new ...
Inside the Horizons One-Ticket ETFs
Are asset allocation ETFs cheap, well-diversified and convenient? Absolutely. Are they optimally tax-efficient? Perhaps not, though any tax ...
Why Index Mutual Funds Still Have a Place
Responding to a recent article on mutual funds by Rob Carrick, a Globe and Mail reader rehashed a ...
Why Do Index Funds Use Derivatives?
Earlier this week I described how several US and international equity index funds get their market exposure by ...
Couch Potato Portfolio Returns for 2020
Just about everyone was happy to wave goodbye to 2020. By the spring it was shaping up to ...
International Tracking Error: Part 1
Many international equity ETFs showed large tracking errors in 2009. For example, the iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund ...
Indexing Basics
Debunking Dividend Myths: Part 1
This post is the first in a series exploring common myths and misunderstandings about dividend investing. The goal ...
Review: The House That Bogle Built
In 1951, a Princeton University student wrote a thesis about the mutual fund industry. “Funds can make no ...
Debunking Dividend Myths: Part 4
This post is the fourth in a series exploring the myths and misunderstandings about dividend investing. The goal ...
Another Reason to Distrust the Fund Industry
I recently had a chance to interview Ken Kivenko, who runs Canadian Fund Watch and is allied with ...
Lessons From the Last Decade
This has been a scary few months in the markets, and nervous investors may be tempted to second-guess ...
Worst Mutual Fund Ad of the Year?
The mutual fund industry loves to sell past performance, and it's not above massaging the data to make ...
Financial Planning
Ask the Spud: Is My Pension Like a Bond?
Q: My wife and I have been using the Couch Potato strategy for a few years now, but ...
Why Plans Should Come Before Products
When I wrote the MoneySense Guide to the Perfect Portfolio [now out of print], I waited until Chapter ...
What Is the Advisor’s Role?
John Lawrence Reynolds' newest book, The Skeptical Investor, argues that Canadians were badly served by their advisors during ...
It’s Time to Ban Advisor Commissions
Should financial advisors be banned from collecting commissions on mutual funds? That’s been hotly debated for years, and ...
A Monte Carlo Case Study: Can I Retire Early?
Last week’s post about Monte Carlo simulations in financial planning sparked some interesting comments, so I thought a ...
Ask the Spud: Am I Vulnerable to US Estate Taxes?
Q: I am ready to follow the Couch Potato and would like to use the US-listed Vanguard ETFs ...
Behavioural Finance
Why RESPs Should Be Kept Simple
In the last couple of weeks I’ve received two questions from readers who were trying to figure out ...
Cost Versus Convenience in “ex Canada” ETFs
I used to own one of those one-piece cutlery tools designed for hiking and camping—the kind with a ...
Why Simple Is Still a Hard Sell
Last January, I overhauled my model portfolios to make them simpler. Some of the older options included small-cap ...
Podcast 20: One-Stop ETF Shopping
I’ve always tried to stress that successful investing is about the right process, not the right products. But ...
Should You Buy Stocks For Your Kids?
If you’re a parent, how can you set your child on the road to investing success? One popular ...
Podcast 25: Dr. Steve Wendel on Investor Success
The latest episode of the Canadian Couch Potato podcast features an interview with Dr. Stephen Wendel, Head of ...
Portfolio Management
How to Set Up a Hands-Off ETF Portfolio
For DIY investors, asset allocation ETFs may be the greatest gift to come along in decades. It’s never ...
It’s Time to Reboot Your Portfolio
It’s been a while since the last new article appeared on the Canadian Couch Potato blog, and over ...
A New Rebalancing Spreadsheet for ETFs
It’s easy enough to build an index fund portfolio with your desired mix of stocks and bonds. But ...
TD e-Series Returns for 2020
The TD e-Series index mutual funds remain a useful alternative to the asset allocation ETFs that take centre ...
Ask the Spud: Can I Make Taxable Investing Easier?
In Episode 4 of the Canadian Couch Potato podcast, I answered the following question from a listener named ...
Is VRIF Right for Your Portfolio?
In my last few posts, I introduced the newly launched Vanguard Retirement Income ETF Portfolio (VRIF), explained where ...
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