Ask the Spud: How Are Investors Protected?
Q: My father lost a large sum of money when the company holding his investments in his home country defrauded its clients. As a result, I worry whether it is safe to keep all our investments in one in [...]
How One Investor Found Inner Peace
Most people who embrace index investing are attracted to the low fees and the proven performance compared with a majority of active strategies. But another advantage sometimes gets overlooked, and tha [...]
Ask the Spud: Why Do ETF Yields Differ?
Q: The Vanguard S&P 500 (VFV) currently has a dividend yield of 1.44%, but the US-listed version of the same ETF has a yield of 2.01%. How can these two funds have such different yields when their [...]
Vanguard Goes Global With New ETFs
[Note: This blog post was updated several hours after it was published, as new information became available.] The Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) has long been part of my Complete Couch [...]
A Tax-Friendly Bond ETF on the Horizon
Bonds should be part of just about every portfolio, but if you have to hold them in a non-registered account the tax consequences can be onerous. Fortunately, Canada’s ETF providers are taking steps t [...]
What Young Investors Need to Know
When I first became interested in indexing, someone recommended William Bernstein’s The Four Pillars of Investing. Originally published in 2002, the book has become a classic for its insight and wisdo [...]
The High Cost of High Dividends
In our recent white paper, Asset Location for Taxable Investors, Justin Bender and I argue that investors may be better off keeping their bonds in an RRSP, while equities should be held in a taxable a [...]
Inside the RBC Quant Dividend Leaders ETFs
In January, RBC launched the Quant Dividend Leaders ETFs, a family of dividend-focused funds covering the Canadian, U.S. and international markets. I recently had a chance to speak with Bill Tilford, [...]
How Low Can ETF Fees Go?
Less than a month ago, BlackRock aggressively cut the management fees on several of its core ETFs. The boldest move was to slash the fee to just 0.05% on its broad-market Canadian equity fund, the iSh [...]
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 something has always nagged me. I am fortunate enough to have a defined benefit pension that will pay me $50,000 a y [...]
