Category Archives: Investing

Will Actively Managed Mutual Funds Ever Go Away?

Mutual Funds

These days, the passive investing movement is gaining momentum faster than I get rejected for dates by attractive ladies. And for good reason. Actively managed mutual funds may sometimes outperform the index, but are more often than not surpassed by their passive brethren. Math would indicate that the average fund would match the overall stock…

The CAD vs USD

US Canadian Currency

How cool is it to be a Canadian these days?  I mean, we’re weathering the economic storm as well as any other G8 country, our banks are the envy of the world, and our dollar has been trading at par with the US Dollar for roughly three years now.  I find the whole idea of…

Is Gold In A Bubble?

Gold Coins

This is part two of the bubble series here at Canadian Finance Blog. Part 1 explored whether the run up in Canadian housing prices was a bubble. Today, let’s talk about gold. As Warren Buffett has famously said: [Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole,…

Starting To Invest: The Case For Being Conservative

Invest Books

When young people are just starting to invest their money, it’s common to make a few mistakes along the way.  I started investing in mutual funds when I was 19, mainly because they were easy to set-up with a pre-authorized purchase plan at my bank.  Looking back, I think I made a lot of mistakes…

What Exactly Is Contrarian Investing?

Buy and Sell Stocks

There are some people that, for whatever reason, are just drawn to being a little different than everyone else. Something about it just feels right to them. They’re constantly questioning authority and conventional wisdom. Rather than blinding accepting what’s presented as fact, these people will prove it for themselves. As the cliche goes, they march…

Benefits of the Pooled Registered Pension Plan (PRPP)

Retirement Ahead

Being someone who works with Group Retirement Savings Plans, I am watching the development of the Pooled Registered Pension Plan very closely.  I’ve also been quite vocal on how I think the PRPP should work. Most recently, the government has released it’s framework for the Pooled Registered Pension Plan.  Ted Menzies, Minister of Finance, said…

Don’t Be Too Safe with Your Money

Investing In Stocks

The first rule of investing is never lose money and in the financial environment we’ve grown accustomed to over the past four years, losing money seems to be a lot easier than making it. That may feel like the case but investing errors can be the result of being too aggressive or too conservative. One…