Blog | website

Screen Shot 2017-11-22 at 6.36.18 PM.png

SMART INVESTING FOR CANADIANS

Search

Free-trading Apps –The Best Thing Ever or the Worst Thing Ever?

Smart Investing

Jul 30, 2020
3 min

Free-trading Apps –The Best Thing Ever or the Worst Thing Ever?

Free trading Apps, like Robin Hood in the US and Weathsimple Trade in Canada, have risen to popularity, especially with young investors who like the app-based approach and the fact that the sites do not charge commissions for stocks, options or cryptocurrency trading. They also offer new investors the chance to set up an account without having a lot of money to invest. After talking with some young investors, we are both happy to see these new investing options but also conce

2 views0 comments

When do the markets hit bottom? What we can learn from previous market crashes?

Smart Investing

Mar 20, 2020
6 min

When do the markets hit bottom? What we can learn from previous market crashes?

The declines and volatility in the markets have been painful for anyone with a retirement plan or stock holdings and that means most adults in developed countries including Canada. What is on everyone’s mind right now is when do we hit bottom – how far will the declines go? If you’ve been reading our publications long enough, you know we are not going to try to predict market timing. Our main point has always been that it is impossible to accurately time markets, especially

3 views0 comments

What we can learn from the 2008 Financial Crisis – 2020 Update

Smart Investing

Mar 6, 2020
8 min

What we can learn from the 2008 Financial Crisis – 2020 Update

Two years ago (February 2018), we published an article about the 2008 Financial crisis and the crash in the stock market that followed right after. With the markets down because of the Corona Virus, it is interesting to revisit this topic. I’ve included the full article below. In early 2018 we started to wonder when the markets would experience a correction and concluded that it would eventually come but it would be impossible to predict when. Our advice was to keep calm dur

1 view0 comments

Will the Corona Virus make markets sick?

Smart Investing

Jan 29, 2020
2 min

Will the Corona Virus make markets sick?

Corona Virus is in the news lately and stock market declines are being blamed on reports of the virus spreading beyond China. North American Stocks Stumble Canada reports its first case of corona virus. For someone just starting to watch the markets, this might seem strange. Why would a flu virus impact the stock market? For context, let’s look at what happened the last time we experienced a global flu pandemic. That would be the H1N1 outbreak in 2009. In April, 2009 the v

1 view0 comments

What makes a currency strong?

Smart Investing

Dec 12, 2019
3 min

What makes a currency strong?

I was speaking to a friend the other day. He’d just been to China as was mentioning that the Chinese Yuan was a “weak” currency as it was 7 Yuan to the US Dollar. This started a 30 minute long conversation where I tried and failed to convince him that the conversion rate really had nothing to do with the strength of the currency. I’ll try to replicate that explanation here - will be easier with some facts Let’s look at some currencies and their exchange rate against the Ca

10 views0 comments

How do Canadian Elections affect the Market?

Smart Investing

Oct 31, 2019
1 min

How do Canadian Elections affect the Market?

I know we are late with this but the recent elections made us wonder the effect of the elections on the market. So, we did our homework so we can summarize things for you. There are a couple of academic studies that are summarized in an RBC article on the same topic. They conclude that the end of uncertainty positively affects the market. In other words, markets tend to rise in the weeks coming up to an election as uncertainty decreases. While we did see a modest rise in the

1 view0 comments

What are the alternatives to credit card debt?

Smart Investing

Oct 1, 2019
2 min

What are the alternatives to credit card debt?

In our last post we talked about the danger of credit card debt and how it should be avoided, if possible. But what are the alternatives? As for all things Finance related, it does vary by person but for most people the following represent better choices than racking up credit card debt, from approximately the best to approximately the worst (approximately as even the ranking would vary from person to person). Save. If you can defer your purchase until you have the money to a

4 views0 comments

What is a bond yield

Smart Investing

Aug 30, 2019
3 min

What is a bond yield

On the financial news report, ou might have heard, “the yield on a 10 year Government of Canada Bonds has dropped to 1.23%” What does that mean? First let’s remember that a bond is essentially a loan from either the government (in this case) or from a corporation (called of course a corporate bond) that pays interest to you for the risk of holding that loan. At the end of the term, you get your principal back (the money you originally invested). More information here. It is

1 view0 comments

Do Canadians Really Pay More Taxes than Americans?

Smart Investing

Jul 24, 2019
2 min

Do Canadians Really Pay More Taxes than Americans?

Growing up, we’ve all heard that in Canada we pay more taxes than Americans but we get more services in return, like Universal Health Care better social programs (like Unemployment Insurance) and better support in our older years. But is all that true? Let’s first look at the data on taxation. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) analyzed the tax burdens of 35 countries, including the United States and Canada. According to its data, when looking

3 views0 comments

Canadians are going to outlive their savings!

Smart Investing

Jul 9, 2019
2 min

Canadians are going to outlive their savings!

The World Economic Forum published a report that looks at the current rates of saving and compares that against expected life expectancy. The good news is that life expectancy is increasing in almost every country in the world, including Canada. The bad news is that savings isn’t increasing with life expectancy Let’s break it down. First the good news. Life expectancy for women in Canada has risen to over 85 years while that for men is a couple of years less than that. In

2 views0 comments

Selling your car on your own? Here are some tips.

Smart Investing

Jun 13, 2019
4 min

Selling your car on your own? Here are some tips.

In our last post we talked about the advantages about trading in your car rather than trying to sell it yourself. However, it is not always better to trade in as we discussed and, if you are willing to put in the effort, you can usually do a little better selling yourself (we are not contradicting ourselves – for most transactions it is not worth the time to sell it yourself but if we are just talking the actual cash trading hands you can usually do better selling yourself).

1 view0 comments

Should I sell my own car, sell it to a dealer or trade it in? The answer can be to trade it in – Su

Smart Investing

Jun 3, 2019
3 min

Should I sell my own car, sell it to a dealer or trade it in? The answer can be to trade it in – Su

So, the time has come to get a new car. What should you do with the old one? Most people would say that it always makes sense to sell the car yourself as a dealer will always offer you yes. But let’s look at that decision. That might not be the best decision anymore. Let’s look at the options. There are three main ways to sell your old car. Private Sale – Sell the car yourself Sell it to a dealer for Cash and Buy a New One at a different dealer. Trade it in when buying a Ne

3 views0 comments

Save Money by Managing Monthly Subscriptions

Smart Investing

May 22, 2019
4 min

Save Money by Managing Monthly Subscriptions

In our last Blog post we talked about music subscription services and how the cost is hidden by the “low monthly fee”. Subscription services have become more and more popular as companies have seen that they can make more money from you by charging you a monthly fee rather than charging you a one-time cost. There are many examples including most software sold to companies and individuals. Microsoft Office used to be sold as a one time license cost that would be available to

2 views0 comments

Music Subscription Services – Are They Worth It?