Tony’s Take: Why invest in international stocks?

 If there’s one trait most of us share, we want to make the world a better place. No wonder I’ve been hearing “No Dumb Questions” on sustainable investing. Or it’s also known as “ethical,” “socially responsible,” “ESG,” or “impact” investing.

This much we know: The more taxes you pay, the less money you keep. As opposed to trying to forecast future market trends – typically an exercise in futility – there are many perfectly sensible strategies aimed at minimizing the taxes due on your investments. Investing in swap-based ETFs is one such strategy that may merit your consideration … as well as your comprehension of the caveats involved.

This is episode 37 of the Rational Reminder podcast with Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore.

Evaluating investment performance is not as easy as observing your rate of return. A rate of return is only as meaningful as the methodology used to find it, and the benchmark that it is being compared to. The most common rate of return calculation methodologies are money-weighted rate of return, time-weighed rate of return, and Modified Dietz which is sort of like a hybrid of the two.

You could be forgiven for thinking family trusts are only for the very rich. In fact, trusts can be an invaluable financial, estate and tax planning tool for many people.

This is episode 36 of the Rational Reminder podcast with Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore.

Term, Permanent, Whole Life, Universal Life, Participating, Variable, Joint. There are so many variations of life insurance that it can become extremely confusing, very quickly. To keep things simple, there are essentially two types of insurance: term insurance and permanent insurance.

Life insurance is a painful topic. No one likes to ponder their own death and how their family will live without them. That said, if you have a spouse and kids, you need to protect them from the possibility that you might not always be there.

All good things. But those same biases can cause serious damage to you as an investor. So today, let’s look at a hit list of the six most unwanted financial behavioural biases that stand between you and your most rational investing. Hopefully, by being aware of them, you can overcome them.

In episode 22 of the podcast, I revisit smart beta, one of the most significant trends in the ETF marketplace. To help explain what smart beta is, and the challenges faced by investors who use these strategies, I interviewed John West of Research Affiliates, a California-based firm that was one of the pioneers of smart beta ETFs.