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 […]
In 1896 Thomas Burke from the USA won the 100 metre Olympic final in a time of 12.0 seconds beating the bronze medal winner by 0.6 seconds. In 1936 in Berlin Jesse Owens slayed the Olympic record and won gold with a time of 10.3 seconds but only managed to beat the Dutch bronze medalist by […]
Stocks are volatile – the chart below shows the return on the S&P/TSX Composite for one year rolling periods each month from March 2016 going back to 1976. Scary stuff right? While there are a lot of good return years, there are a lot of months where you would have lost more than 20% of […]
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 […]
Canadian securities regulators are currently going through the process of trying to reform our investment industry practices for the benefit of investors. Specifically they are trying to address fee and performance transparency and are also thinking about implementing a “best interest” standard for financial advisors in Canada. I know, the idea that advisors should work in […]
Most sensible surveys of peer-reviewed academic evidence will conclude that investors are best served with low cost, well-diversified investment strategies. Practically what that means for most investors is investing in passive low-cost market access products like index mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) based on simple commercial indices like the S&P500 for US stocks, the S&P/TSX […]
There are many pitfalls that can trip up Canadian investors as they try to save and invest sensibly for the long run. High and/or hidden fees, poor diversification, inappropriate investments for a given risk tolerance, under-utilization of tax efficient accounts are a few we see regularly but the one that might just have the largest negative […]
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 […]
Morningstar has updated it’s research on the factors that might help investors decide which investment funds to choose. Once again they find that costs are the only reliable indicator of future fund performance. The evidence is so clear in this area that they believe it should be among the top two criteria to use when screening funds. We […]
Every now and then a data point comes along that makes you sit back think, “hmm, that is interesting.” – Not interesting in that it forms the basis of a tactical investment move but interesting in that it helps us better understand the environment in which we invest. For example, Josh Brown, the Reformed Broker, highlighted this […]