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ETFs & Funds
Tim Pickering on Managed Futures, Part 2
Here's part two of my interview with Tim Pickering, president of Auspice Capital Advisors, who manages both the ...
How ETFs Came Under Fire
ETFs are on the hot seat these days. On Wednesday, a US Senate subcommittee held a hearing to ...
Why Do Index Funds Use Derivatives?
Earlier this week I described how several US and international equity index funds get their market exposure by ...
TD e-Series Returns for 2021
In my last post I reviewed the returns of my model ETF portfolios in 2021. Now let's take ...
Will the Real S&P 500 Please Stand Up?
I received an email recently from Scott, a reader with a great question about index funds and ETFs ...
Inside TD’s One-Click ETF Portfolios
The ongoing popularity of asset allocation ETFs is undoubtedly a good thing—maybe even revolutionary. Canadians have enthusiastically embraced ...
Indexing Basics
Letting You In On a Big Secret
Joel Greenblatt has a sense of humour—I’ll grant him that. In The Big Secret for the Small Investor ...
Where Do Returns Come From?
You don’t need a lot of mathematical horsepower to be a Couch Potato investor. Indeed, simplicity is one ...
Review: The House That Bogle Built
In 1951, a Princeton University student wrote a thesis about the mutual fund industry. “Funds can make no ...
Some Advice for New Potatoes
One of the most gratifying things about writing this blog is getting emails from young people who are ...
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 ...
Debunking Dividend Myths: Part 6
This post is the sixth (and last) in a series exploring the myths and misunderstandings about dividend investing ...
Financial Planning
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 ...
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 ...
Why Plans Should Come Before Products
When I wrote the MoneySense Guide to the Perfect Portfolio [now out of print], I waited until Chapter ...
Dividends: Not As Tax-Friendly As You May Think
If your investments include RRSPs, TFSAs and taxable accounts, asset location is an important consideration. The returns of ...
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 ...
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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