The Rational Reminder Podcast Ep.33 – Low Cost Index Investing: What You Need To Be a Successful Index Investor

We are very glad to welcome the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, to the podcast and although we are not strictly talking about investing and our usual topics, we do think it is a great and insightful conversation that you will enjoy, no matter where you are from.

This is Episode 32 of the Rational Reminder Podcast, with Cameron Passmore and Benjamin Felix.

In recent weeks, there have been many tributes to John Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group and the pioneer of index funds, who died last month at the age of 89.

For millennials, long-term disability insurance might be the most important decision in their life. The average 25-year-old has $1.75 million in human capital to protect. Those that earn more than an average income of $43,700, have more human capital at risk. I outline the various sources of income you can receive if you become disabled and how to protect yourself by getting an appropriate amount of disability insurance coverage.

What will you do in retirement? Many hard-working boomers are uneasy about how they will ‘fill their time’ when retirement comes. Yet, retirement gives you the opportunity to try new things, meet new people, and develop new skills. Here’s an activity that checks a lot of boxes for a fulfilling Next3rd.

Are you an American living in Canada? If you are a US citizen, you have to file a US tax return every year, regardless of where you live.

If you’ve lived and worked in Canada all your life, and you stop working the day you retire, your pension calculations should be relatively straight-forward. But what if you don’t fit the mould? Many of us don’t. For example, how might spending some years abroad, or continuing to earn income in retirement impact your pension?

In the first installment in my “Understanding ETFs” series, we toured the Canadian equity ETF landscape, covering solutions you can use for your investment portfolio’s domestic stock allocation. Today, I want to switch gears and head south of the border, to explore some of the U.S. equity ETFs you can add in, to diversify your Canadian-heavy portfolio.

Today on the show we are joined by Steven Leong who is the Head of Canada iShares Product at BlackRock. Steven is here to talk about single decision ETFs, the new XGROs and XBALs from BlackRock and whole lot more.

One interesting strategy is to hold income-producing securities in your TFSA and withdraw that money tax-free each year to help fund your retirement, while maintaining the principal.