While many were watching the solar eclipse this past week, I had my eyes on Canadian mutual fund fees that can eclipse the peak value of your portfolio. That is celestially incredilbe. Or incredibly troubling that is. Those high fees can block out your portfolio returns. But most Canadians are in the dark with respect to fees eating into their returns. I could write about the gravity of the situation if I wanted to quickly exhaust my lunar puns and word play. Readers of this blog will know that there is a better way – using ETFs and simple and effective stock portfolios. Don’t pay fees that ec ..read more

‘Diversification is the only free lunch’ is a common investing notion. We manage the sector, geographic, currency risks and volatility (to name a few). Our asset allocation decisions mostly determine our returns and our portfolio volatility. Our key decision will be our ratio of stocks (growth) vs bonds (defense). And then, where do we get those stocks and bonds? Many (perhaps most) have endured underperformance vs a global portfolio due to an extended Canadian home bias. Others may have suffered due to a concentrated stock portfolio that lacks diversification. Many investors will have missed ..read more

March 9, 2009 is a day that went down in history, as stocks went down at a rate not seen since the Great Depression. What followed was the greatest bull run and wealth building opportunity in stock market history. In tw0 charts we can witness the essence of investing. We take on (accept) risk for the potential of great gains. And there are many more lessons wrapped up in the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. This past week marked the anniversary of that market bottom and the beginning of our incredible bull run. It’s the best of times as we remember the worst of times. Plus, the Sunday Reads ..read more

NVIDIA and AI rules the week, just as there are expectations that artificial intellgence (AI) will rule the world for the next decade or three. NVDIA (NVDA) reported absolutely spectacular results this week. Revenue was up 409% compared to the same quarter of 2023 while earnings increased 765% year over year. Those results and general enthusiasm for the potential of AI lifted all boats. It was a good week for stock markets at home and around the world. Will AI power your portfolio? Plus a great mix of Sunday Reads, from Berkshire Hathaway earnings to Canadian Banks who are set to report. The A ..read more

The S&P 500, also known as the U.S. stock market broke and held 5000 this week. That’s a new all-time high for the most watched (and most invested) stock market index. The most popular version of the index is cap-weighted, meaning the largest stocks by valuation get the greatest weight in the index. The active managers (analysts and fund managers) who price the stocks determine the weight of each stock. For many years that group has favoured growth stocks, dominated by tech companies. And recently the potential of AI (artificial intelligence) to rewire the world has provided another jolt ..read more

RRSP season is typically a period when Canadians make significant contributions to their portfolios. This year you have until February 29th to make an RRSP contribution that you can apply to reduce your taxable income for the 2023 tax year. I’ve updated the RRSP season post on Cut The Crap Investing. You’ll find a link that will allow you to pit the RRSP account type vs the wonderful TFSA account. You will likely be surprised. This Sunday Reads also includes a host of retirement focused post links and commentary. It was also a big week for earnings and my portfolio. Here’s how to invest this R ..read more

Canadians are not embracing passive low-cost ETFs and that’s just bananas offers Ian McGugan in the Globe & Mail. In the U.S., passive investing has surpassed inferior active investing (by fund managers), but in Canada not so much. The momentum is in the right direction but too many Canadian investors are still slipping up on their investment choice. They choose high-fee actively managed mutual funds that come attached to advisors also charging 1% on average. Too much money is going in the wrong pockets. You can create an ETF portfolio with fees in the 0.10-o.15% range. These superior inve ..read more

The first week of 2024 got off on the wrong foot for U.S. stocks. They slipped by 1.80%. North of the border the big Canadian dividend payers rose to the occasion delivering 1.5%. Given that, it might be fitting that I updated the Beat The TSX Portfolio post to include the returns for 2023. That said, the BTSX skipped a beat in 2023. The TSX was up 11.7% while the Beat The TSX Portfolio rang up 7.8%. The simple big dividend portfolio concept has a long history of beating the market. But there can be years of under performance and the concentrated portfolio usually comes with greater volatility ..read more

Happy holidays and happy Sunday. This week we’ll kick things off with two videos on the same theme. The economist and financial prognosticator industry is massive. Just turn on BNN Bloomberg, CNBC, or other. The problem is, they all get it wrong, just about all the time. Charlie Bilello brings that to life with the week in charts video. And Preet Banerjee shows that the top stock market return guesser over the last 10 years missed the mark by about 10% annual. What an industry, with so many paid to be wrong. Throw mutual fund managers in the mix as well. Guesswork don’t work. Charlie Bilello h ..read more

Inflation continues to move in the right direction. While we have a ways to go to get to the Bank of Canada’s 2% target, it is good news. We can thank lower energy costs for much of the heavy lifting in the inflation report from this past week. It’s possible that lower energy prices might perculate through the economy and help the cause moving forward. With the prospect of future rate cuts, that could help the Canadian stock market and especially the high dividend space. Canada is winning the inflation fight on the Sunday Reads. Inflation continues to cooperate in Canada. That Globe article re ..read more