Investing and Personal Finance
I was reading an interesting forum thread recently about emergency funds. Some people are for them, others are not. Three years ago, I went from being a firm non-believer in emergency funds (if you have debt) to having an emergency fund myself, even though I still have debts. I’m well aware that it is not financially [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs.  |
I’m happy to announce that the long awaited (by me at least) Kindle e-book called “How To Withdraw From Your RESP Account Whether Your Child Goes To School or Not” is finally available. For the bargain basement cost of $4.99, you can learn everything you need to know about maximizing the amount of money you [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
We did our big camping trip last weekend at Awenda Provincial Park which is about an hour north of Barrie, Ontario. It went very well, although Saturday was pretty rainy. Luckily our friends thought to bring a big tarp, so we had a dry place to hang out. The weekend ended up being really fun. [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
Earlier this year Vanguard Group announced they would be setting up shop in Canada. At that time, there was no information on what kind of products they would offer or if they would be dealing directly with the investing public or through advisors. Today, Vanguard announced they have filed the preliminary prospectus for six exchange [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
Have you ever bought something and the price at the cashier was different than the sticker or shelf price? If so, you might be able to score a discount on that item. The Scanner Price Accuracy Code is a voluntary code of practice which seems to be pretty common in larger stores and chains. The [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
I’m on holiday this week (from the day job at least) and one of our activities was a day trip to Windy Lake Provincial Park. We had a great time – the lake is beautiful and there is a very nice beach which the kids loved. We checked out the campsite area and it appears [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
Most Canadian investors use a financial advisor or a bank and invest their money in mutual funds. When it is time to sell, they just have to call their advisor and ask them to do the sell. Selling individual stocks or ETFs (exchange traded funds) at a Canadian discount brokerage is a bit more complicated [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
Pretty exciting week in the markets this week. Maybe a little bit too exciting for some. I’ve been below my 75% equity allocation for several months due to an RRSP transfer and general portfolio neglect. I find it hard to buy a big chunk of equities all at once after the market has risen so [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
JD from Get Rich Slowly recently talked about a decision he made to cancel a trip to England. He had a $900 plane ticket which was non-refundable, non-transferable, non-everything. The $900 was gone. In his post, he makes the argument that the $900 he spent on the ticket was a sunk cost since he couldn’t [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
Another big drop in the markets today. The TSX fell a bit more than four percent and the American S&P500 dropped almost seven percent today. I’ll admit I wasn’t too upset that my “flat” prediction I made after the S&P downgraded U.S. government debt was very wrong, since I was able to do some more buying. Today’s market [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
The big news this weekend in investing circles was the announcement that Standard & Poor has lowered the US Government Debt rating from AAA to AA+. This is the first time in 70 years that US debt hasn’t been rated triple-A. The other two major rating agencies Fitch and Moody’s kept their rating at AAA. [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
I’ve been negligent with my portfolio rebalancing this year and have way too much cash in my accounts. Although I don’t think I can time the markets, I am loathe to buy equities after they have gone up a lot. Today – I finally pulled the trigger on some ETFs for my couch potato portfolio. [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
The Canadian Capitalist recently wrote about couch potato investing and Sampson left some interesting comments about rebalancing and passive investors. Here are a few thoughts I have about portfolio rebalancing: 1) The main reason I rebalance is to maintain a consistent risk level in my portfolio. For example if I decide I want a portfolio [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
One of the many challenges of owning your own home is the decision between a variable rate mortgage or locking in for a longer term. Currently, the variable rates (2.2%) are significantly lower than the 5-year fixed rates (3.8%), so going variable is very tempting. But what if interest rates shoot up? Then the fixed [...]
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The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans Everything you need to know about RESPs. |
