Please, No More Success Stories
Last Saturday’s Globe and Mail featured a story about a retired university professor who has enjoyed staggeringly good returns over the last decade. While chumps who invested in a Canadian index fund [...]
Ready, Willing and Able to Take Risk
Asset allocation is more art than science. There are no immutable laws to tell you what proportion of stocks and bonds should be in your portfolio. The best you can do is adopt rules of thumb. “Make y [...]
Rick Ferri’s Take on Gold
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Rick Ferri, founder of Portfolio Solutions, an investment management firm in Troy, Michigan. Rick is the author of several excellent books on ETFs, index f [...]
The 50-Percent Solution
Investing can seem so complicated. Building a portfolio can involve dozens of decisions, each of which seems terribly important. Here are a few that readers have mulled over recently, according to ema [...]
To Hedge or Not to Hedge
Last week I wrote about whether US-listed ETFs are really cheaper once you account for currency exchange fees, and then I looked at ways to reduce forex fees. The spreadsheet I created to compare US a [...]
Reducing the Cost of Currency Exchange
Yesterday’s post looked at whether US-listed ETFs are really a good deal for RRSP investors. Although ETFs from Vanguard and other American providers have dramatically lower annual fees, Canadians may [...]
Are US-listed ETFs Really Cheaper?
Last week reader W.B. asked why I recommend US-listed ETFs from Vanguard for the US and international equity components. His brokerage charges a 1.5% currency conversion fee, and W.B. argued that this [...]
Parking Cash in Your Portfolio
[Note: This post was updated in October 2020.] Many investors like to keep at least a small part of their portfolio in cash. If you want to keep this cash in your online brokerage account (alongside y [...]
High-Yield Bonds and Your Portfolio: Part 2
In Monday's post, I discussed the growing popularity of high-yield bonds: four Canadian ETFs covering this asset class have appeared in the last 12 months. I explained how investment gurus Larry Swedr [...]
High-Yield Bonds and Your Portfolio: Part 1
With income trusts facing new rules in 2011, investors are looking for other income-producing securities to fill the gap. Many are looking for a one-two punch of dividend-paying stocks and high-yield [...]
