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Canadian REITs - Which look good, which don't
Last week's post concluded by noting that the continued success of Canadian REIT ETFs from iShares and Vanguard depend a lot on two of their heavyweight holdings - RioCan and Boardwalk. This week,...
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Ins and Outs of Managing Your Own Portfolio of REITs
As we mentioned a couple of posts ago when we started looking at Canadian REITs again, it is quite feasible for an investor to build a reasonably diversified portfolio of individual holdings instead of...
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Testing the Ultra-Safe ARVA Retirement Portfolio Withdrawal Method
The 4% constant inflation-adjusted rule we posted about in 2009 is the standard advice for setting a retirement portfolio withdrawal rate that is not expected to run out of money, simply because the...
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Currency and Inflation Effects on Model Portfolio Performance
Almost five years ago we reviewed how a broadly diversified international portfolio would have fared in the period from 1992 to late 2009. There's been more water under the bridge so let's update and...
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Women on Boards: Pleasing Progress
A few years ago, we explored whether the presence of women on boards of directors was something investors should pay attention to. The indications we found in research and our cursory look at...
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How Effective is Using Dispersion of Analyst EPS Estimates to Assess Stocks?
Two years ago our post applied the "wisdom of the crowds" principle, made famous by James Surowiecki, to analyst future Earnings Per Share (EPS) estimates to try to differentiate attractive safe...
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Which Stocks and ETFs are Safe and Secure per the Dispersion of Analyst EPS...
As promised last week, today we review the stocks that look most or least attractive according to the degree of dispersion of professional analyst EPS estimates. The lower the dispersion between the...
View ArticleInvesting Ideas from Two Highly Successful Pension Funds - Ontario Teachers'...
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), with ten-year annualized compound investment returns of 8.9% at 2013 year-end, has been recognized as the number one rated pension fund in the world, which it...
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Liability-Driven Investing during Retirement for the Individual
Traditional investing strategy seeks to maximize returns considering the risk involved. Asset classes are selected and weighted according to how well they fit together, for the amount of...
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Which Large Cap TSX Stocks are Most Dangerous or Most Atractive? - Use Short...
Unlike stock analysts or media pundits (bloggers included!) who only take a hit to their credibility when their stock recommendations go wrong, short sellers (see short sale definition on Investopedia)...
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Last Chance in 2014 to Avoid Large Potential Tax Hit on Reinvested...
At the end of last week the Canadian ETF providers were announcing the expected reinvested distributions on their ETFs for 2014. This year, there seem to be a lot of very high amounts, which could...
View ArticleInvesting Advice from Astronaut Chris Hadfield's Guide to Life on Earth
We'll admit it straight off. In his excellent book An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield gives absolutely no direct advice about investing. What follows is our own...
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Which Canadian Companies are Earnings Steamrollers?
Earnings, i.e. profit, is the lifeblood of companies. It is what sooner or later drives stock prices and enables dividends. As in everything else in life, some companies perform better than others....
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Model Portfolios - 2014 Return and Risk Performance
2014 was a good year for investors holding any one of a selection of balanced, diversified model portfolios (One-Stop, Lifelong, Simple and Couch Potato, Swensen Seven and Smart Beta, Permanent...
View ArticleTaxes 2015: Links & Resources for Canadians Filing 2014 Income Tax Return
Tax season is starting. The Canada Revenue Agency will soon open up the NETFILE online electronic tax filing service to receive returns electronically. It's time for Canadian investors to start getting...
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Best and Worst Canadian CEO Pay from the Investor Viewpoint
The recently released All in a Day's Work? - CEO Pay in Canada by Hugh Mackenzie questioned whether CEOs should be paid so much, especially in relation to the pay of an average worker. Others like...
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Retirement Investing - How an Annuity Complements an Equity-Fixed Income...
Retired investors face a challenging set of financial and investing risks. Several are not faced by those in the accumulation stage of life and are unique to the retirement withdrawal phase....
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Buying a Life Annuity - Tips
When buying a Life Annuity it is especially important to get the best deal since it is a one-time decision that lasts a lifetime. Here are some points to consider in making the purchase.1) Shop around,...
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Is it Worthwhile to Wait for Higher Interest Rates to Buy an Annuity?
Payouts on annuities are at all-time lows these days. The same lump sum payment buys a much smaller lifetime income than it did ten or fifteen years ago. The main culprit is the steady fall in interest...
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Surprise! Equities can Outdo Bonds for Cash Distribution Attractiveness
October 2015 Update: The same pattern described in the original article below has continued. Equity distributions have continued to rise while bond distributions in the XBB ETF are still falling. A few...
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How Much do Interest Rates Need to Rise for Deferral of Annuity Purchase to...
When interest rates are higher, annuity payouts are higher. The big question is, exactly how much would interest rates need to rise in order to justify deferring the purchase of an annuity? Not that...
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Long Term Interest Rate Outlook: Persistently Low
In our last post we explored how much interest rates would need to rise to justify holding off purchasing an annuity by five years. It wasn't much - depending on present age, sex and assumptions about...
View ArticleRetirement Risks - Unexpected Events: Family Trouble, House Repairs,...
Bad things with significant negative financial effects can and do happen in retirement, not just occasionally but often. The 2015 survey by the Ontario Securities Commission Financial Life Stages of...
View ArticleESG, a good idea gone bad
Some years ago we praised the assessment of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors to evaluate potential investments. Now we unfortunately must say, forget it, don't do it. Whether you are...
View ArticleWind blows away capital, Solar burns it away, EVs run down the juice
In his recent post on WUWT Why are Renewable Equipment Companies Such Poor Investments? Steve Goreham shows us that virtually no publicly traded companies making wind and solar equipment, electric...
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