Welcome to the Chalten Investment Review for Q4 2020. In our quarterly review one year ago we counselled investors to “filter out the noise” in 2020 – easier said than done when you experience a year like the one we just had! The issue that dominated 2020, of course, was COVID-19. As the pandemic spread […]
With recent market volatility, many investors have been voicing legitimate concerns about the future direction of markets and what they might do about it. What direction are we headed for the remainder of the year? How can we avoid the crash? Below we present a question and answer that we hope investors might find helpful. […]
“We see these approaches to managing people’s affairs through a private corporation as creating an unfair playing field……We’re trying to tighten these loopholes to make sure that it’s fair.” Doesn’t sound like taxes for small business owners are going down, does it? The above is from federal finance minister Bill Morneau’s July 18 announcement outlining […]
There are two crucial success factors that often elude investors – the ability to save consistently and the discipline to stick with a saving and investment plan over time. Successful investing is a long-term proposition. In the short-run financial markets are very unpredictable, gyrating to a complex and increasingly-interconnected information flow that changes by the second. […]
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started” – Mark Twain Starting is hard. Doing is easy. Even when it comes to the hardest things, starting is harder than actually doing the hard thing. For the most important things, or the things where we have the most to gain, starting is the hardest thing. If things are really […]
In our last post we highlighted that behaviour might just be the biggest source of trouble for investors. People just aren’t psychologically wired to make investment decisions that are good for them and often do things that are potentially harmful. Our brains have evolved to create protection mechanisms that in many instances are helpful – just not […]
Stoicism – “Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.” – Markus Zusak, The Book Thief We love to read and share – here’s some notable things from the last week covering investing, financial planning and happiness. Investing 10 Things I Believe About Investing – “4. I believe […]
What do you desire? Do you have unmet aspirations? Do you view time as your most valuable resource? These three questions and a few others greet you when you first land on the Chalten website. Of course the answers to “What do you desire?” are as varied as there are people but where people seek their […]
Ever wonder why sometimes it just seems to take forever for the elevator door to close despite how many times you hit the close door button? That’s because the button doesn’t work – at least on the vast majority of elevators and usually if it does, only with a fireman’s key. “Liar!”, you shout! “I […]
You’ll need time, discipline and a little help from the taxman. The Globe and Mail’s simple TFSA calculator can help you quickly and easily figure out what your TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) might be worth down the line under different assumptions. The calculator takes into account current TFSA contribution limits including planned limit increases based on […]