With the recent volatility on the world’s stock markets after an extended period of relative calm, many investors are looking for something to soothe their nerves. While you might be tempted to reduce the size of your investments in the stock market, over the long term stocks outperform most other investments. Instead of reducing your exposure to stocks, a better […]
Once you realize that you will need to invest in more than just GICs to reach your goals, where do you start? For most investors just starting out, the first place they start is a mutual fund that invests in Canadian stocks. Hopefully from our previous blog posts, you already know that while mutual funds are easy to buy, very […]
Most investors know that they should have bonds in their portfolios. But what is the best way to do that? First we will tell you what you need to know about bonds and the ETF choices for Canadian bonds. Finally, we tell you our favourite Canadian bond ETFs for your portfolio. What is a bond? Like a loan, a bond […]
August is typically a quiet month for the markets, with many traders taking time off. If any negative news comes out then markets tend to drop quickly. For most of August, markets looked like typical summer markets, until out of nowhere, the Chinese government devalued their currency and Chinese stocks started dropping. This sent waves of panic around the world […]
Like most investors, Canadians prefer to stick close to home. That is, most Canadians think of investing in their own stock and bond markets first, before venturing beyond our borders. That would be fine if Canada’s stock market made up a large part of the global stock market, but it does not. While the volatility of the Canadian Dollar can […]
Last month we published a post comparing Zipcar, Car2go and Car Ownership, in which the car ownership option was a brand new car. We received some great feedback, and one of the requests was to compare a used car with longer trips. So – here it is. This time, we’re assuming you primarily need a car for weekend getaways. And instead […]
What is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)? REITs own real estate like shopping malls, apartment buildings, office buildings and even public storage. REITs make it easy for small investors to own real estate and takes away the headache of being a landlord. One of the main attractions for investors is the steady cash payments that REITs provide. When interest […]
You might be thinking about adding gold to your portfolio since gold rices are at 5 year lows. In addition to gold prices being well of their 2011 highs, gold can provide diversification benefits to a portfolio of stocks and bonds. When priced in Canadian dollars, gold has often been negatively correlated to Canadian stocks and bonds. While the correlations […]
