Everything You Need to Know About RESPs

How do you manage the change from the fast-paced, highly scheduled, and task-oriented work life to what could be the opposite in retirement? What can you do to live a rewarding retirement life without the structure that guided your work life?

I think we all know that its a good idea to have a mix of bonds and stocks in an investment portfolio. The bonds dampen down the portfolio volatility, and act as a hedge when equities tank.

Fees are important to investors. In most cases, lower fees increase the likelihood of a positive long-term investment outcome. Index funds globally have seen enormous growth in the past decade. That growth (and the competition to capture it) have resulted in fees literally going to zero on some index funds.

This is episode 15 of the Rational Reminder podcast, with Cameron Passmore, Benjamin Felix and special guest PWL President, Brenda Bartlett.

Here’s are two trick questions: Are you normal? Am I normal? Common sense tells us it’s impossible to answer either without also asking: Compared to what? For example, check out this image of the Passmore & Felix team on our newly updated website.

As I covered in my last “No Dumb Question,” many couples find they can operate most efficiently when one serves as the family’s go-to, “Chief Financial Officer.” This can make sense in a busy household … to a point. But neither of you wants to be blindsided if you end up having to go it alone for a while.

This is Episode 14 of the Rational Reminder Podcast, with special guest Martin Parizeau.

One of the biggest myths about passive investing is that ETFs and indexing will cause stock market bubbles. The thinking is simplistic: since index funds have to buy all companies in the stock market, they have to blindly buy stocks whose prices have gone up, right? This makes stock market bubbles worse, right?

In my previous blog post, I talked about Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, why investors are interested and the different ways to implement it in your portfolio. This naturally raises the next question: how rigorous is the ESG research and does it actually differentiate and reward good from bad behavior?

What’s the worst month for stock market returns? If you said October, you would be wrong, but no one would blame you. Many people associate October with stock market misery because of three infamous crashes that occurred during the month—the Great Crash of 1929, the Black Monday crash of 1987 and the financial crisis crash of 2008.