More money is not always better
I worked for a long time as a financial advisor, where one of my main responsibilities, I felt, was financial planning. People would come into my office with a given amount of money, they would...
View ArticleTwo hours a week
Each week, I spend about two hours working on my finances. In that time, I complete a fair value estimate of the market, compare the relative momentum of various asset class (representative ETFs), all...
View ArticleDividend income
This year, just for a change, I waited until April 30 to submit my taxes. My wife and I both had almost no income other than from dividends. I had heard before that a person can earn about $30,000 of...
View ArticleNo contract mobile phone plans
I’m approaching (not quickly enough) the end of my three year contract with my mobile phone provider. I have nothing against this particular company, but I hate the fact that I’m tied in to a set bill...
View ArticleEarnings Surprises
It’s earnings season, when companies publish the results of the prior quarter. Results that I’ve seen so far have been mixed. However, certain companies have had very positive earnings, better than...
View ArticleHerding and Momentum
Scientific research is tricky. I am always skeptical, as a default stance, of any research, and scientific research is as prone to error and erroneous interpretation, as any human endeavour. Having...
View ArticlePermanent (Whole) Life Insurance
A friend asked me to comment on an article in the June 2010 edition of Canadian Chiropractor, called “A Paradigm Shift”. I’ll ruin the suspense by pointing out that I didn’t link to the article because...
View ArticleFits and Starts
There are no smooth movements in the stock market. On the contrary, the market seems to move in fits and starts. It drops precipitously, from time to time. Then, even as it recovers, it fluctuates up...
View ArticleHow to Save Money
Stephen Weyman blogs at HowToSaveMoney.ca and he’s trying to increase his reach. Consequently, he has decided to give away cash: http://www.howtosavemoney.ca/1000-cash-huge-christmas-giveaway I almost...
View ArticlePSA: Direct Deposit
I did not know that the Government of Canada had made the decision to stop issuing cheques. Now that I’ve heard, it makes a lot of sense. In the past, I’ve received cheques for income tax refunds, GST...
View ArticleFollow up on Value Investing
A little over five years ago, I tried an experiment with (hypothetical) value investing. You can read my original post to understand how I filtered the TSX 60 stocks. Essentially, I chose the 16 stocks...
View ArticleWhat is a Robo-Advisor?
Owning an investment account is like owning a vehicle, or anything complex. It requires maintenance. You are smart enough to learn to manage it yourself. But if you don’t want to spend your time and...
View ArticleCutting Through the Robo-Advisor Marketing
As I wrote in What is a Robo-Advisor?, I spent some time learning about the various robo-advisor offerings in Canada. I concluded that it’s a valid offering, and that it may even be the best choice for...
View ArticleSell Discipline
A couple weeks ago, I got a little bit of money together and bought some stocks. Markets are a bit lower than a year ago, so it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Knowing which stocks to buy isn’t easy, but...
View ArticleYield curve shape: convex and concave
The yield curve is a graphical representation of the bond yield at different maturities. A normal yield curve will slope upwards, with higher yields for longer bonds. An inverted yield curve will slope...
View ArticleStock Market Forecasting
Weather forecasting will show the most likely weather for the coming five days, with a probability of its occurrence. For example, a 60% chance of rain means that, under the current conditions, 60% of...
View ArticleForecasting refinement – calendar effects
When I looked at forecasting stock market returns, I began by finding a base expectation: stock prices rise over a month-long period about 59% of the time. To continue the analogy to weather...
View ArticleForecasting refinement – overfitting
In looking to refine my stock market forecasting, I looked at a number of variables to try and find a relationship. I’ve laid them out below, but I’ll spare you the suspense: none of them worked....
View ArticleWhat Brexit taught me about risk
Last week, the UK held a referendum on whether or not to leave the European Union. Setting aside the whole issue of whether or not that was a good idea (I don’t know) or the value of referendums, I...
View ArticleForecasting refinement – P/E ratio
The P/E ratio is the ratio of the price of a stock to the earnings of the company. For example, if a share of a company’s stock costs $10 and over the past year the company earnings $1 per share, then...
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