The Rational Reminder Episode 46: Raw Truth of Investment: Why the Best Investment Advisors Cannot Beat a Dart

Once again this year, as they have for 30 years, international stocks are lagging behind the U.S. and Canadian markets. This may lead you to wonder why you should invest outside of North America when the returns have been so paltry.

In our last two blogs, we found that index providers FTSE and MSCI currently disagree on how to classify Korean markets (as well as a few other smaller countries’ markets). FTSE allocates Korean stocks to its developed markets indices, while MSCI allocates them to its emerging markets indices.

Life Insurance is a key part of many families’ risk strategy. A key question is how much do you need? The key to determining the amount of life insurance that’s necessary is to understand what happens financially if you or your spouse dies. The goal is to have your loved ones be able to sustain their standard of living without having to make big sacrifices.

The Quebec Pension Plan (or QPP) is changing in the coming years. In line with the Canada Pension Plan, the QPP is increasing the amount that employees and employers will have to contribute over the next 7 years.

 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.