How Do You Measure Your Rate of Return?
All investors care deeply about their returns, and with good reason. If you’re an active investor, you’ll want to compare the performance of your portfolio to an index benchmark to see whether you (or [...]
Is VRIF’s Distribution Sustainable?
The newly launched Vanguard Retirement Income ETF Portfolio (VRIF) is designed to pay its unitholders a consistent monthly cash flow equal to a 4% annual yield. In my last post, I explained how these [...]
Couch Potato Portfolio Returns for 2017
They contained no marijuana stocks and no bitcoin, but the Couch Potato portfolios put up another good year in 2017. Once again, investors were rewarded for simply following a disciplined, low cost, b [...]
Podcast 3: A Hedge Fund Manager Comes Clean
The third episode of the Canadian Couch Potato podcast is now live. You can listen in your browser using the tool below, or download it using iTunes or your favourite podcasting software. My first pod [...]
What (Returns) to Expect When You’re Expecting
Investing decisions should always be made in the context of your overall financial plan. And although we know short-term forecasts are futile, a retirement plan needs to include some assumptions about [...]
Calculating Your Portfolio’s Rate of Return
Perhaps no number is more important to investors than the rate of return on their portfolio. Yet this seemingly simple calculation is fraught with problems. If you’ve made contributions or withdrawals [...]
Are Active Funds Adding Value?
Just how well are mutual fund investors faring in Canada? That question isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. The Standard & Poor’s Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) reports are useful for determin [...]
Couch Potato Portfolio 2011 Returns
The 2011 performance results are now in for my model Couch Potato portfolios. Many thanks to Justin Bender at PWL Capital in Toronto for providing these data. Complete performance results are availabl [...]
Why You Should Beware of First Dates
Imagine that you’re the marketing director for MegaAlpha Investments and you want to advertise two of your mutual funds. In the September 2011 issue of Performance Chaser magazine, you place the follo [...]
The Permanent Portfolio v. the Couch Potato
Let’s end the week with one final post about the Permanent Portfolio. Many readers expressed interest in this strategy, introduced by Harry Browne in the early 1980s. I’ve spent so much time on the Pe [...]