Money grows like anything else: the earlier you plant it, the bigger it gets. Here's when to start investing and how the power of compounding rewards those who start early.
Investment trends are nothing new. New technologies can create exciting investment opportunities. The challenge is knowing which trends have staying power and fit your long-term investment plan.
As a Qualified Associate Financial Planner I’m asked a variety of financial questions. But one topic I never get asked about is bonds. The stereotypical middle child of investments – often overlooked – unless they start acting up.
Websites, magazines, podcasts, and entire television channels are dedicated to them – stocks (also called shares or equities). I cannot write all there is to know about stocks in a short article but let’s start with the basics.
Easing Into Retirement – Time to Adjust Your Investment Playbook
January 22, 2024
Most people probably don’t think about retirement when they are working and busy with life. And then one day there is a trigger. Some life event, like a spouse who is nearing full pension eligibility, the last child leaving the family home, or a 30th work anniversary, that starts the process of considering retirement.
You have just come into some new money from the sale of a business, an inheritance or just a big commission check. Regardless of the scenario, new money is the seed of your future, and you find yourself pondering what financial field to plant it in. Given today’s wonky capital markets, rising interest rates and recession predictions, do you go risk-off and pay down debt or lean into lower stock and bond prices?
For the average investor, trading stocks is like betting on a horse. You blindly read the guide and put $100 on a name you’ve barely heard of to win. In similar fashion, you might log on to a trading platform and, based solely on an article you read three months earlier, throw money behind a single stock. Doing both with a bit of “play money” is one thing but would you gamble your hard-earned retirement savings on ill-informed bets?
Time is your greatest investing partner, but its value can be overlooked. Passive and quiet, this partner won’t bang on your door and say it’s time to get started, that part is up to you. But slowly and quietly this partner will start doing some of the investment lifting for you and before you know it your contributions are no longer the most important. Investing is easy once you understand the fundamentals, and using time to your advantage is one of them.
Decades into the information age, have we hit peak screens? Everywhere you look, people are offering advice. Investing “tips”, stock “insights”, and promises of “financial security” abound across social media and TV.
Beyond Coldplay: how emerging markets enhance your investment palette
August 17, 2022
There’s a reason the likes of Coldplay and U2 sell millions of albums - people know what they’re getting. Whether it’s The Edge’s chiming guitar or Chris Martin’s lovelorn warbling, familiarity is comforting. Less widely known, and arguably more interesting bands, like Sparks for example, who switch up genres, often endure more sporadic profits.
Gordon Gekko hasn’t done the investment industry’s reputation any favours. Michael Douglas’ unscrupulous movie character quickly became shorthand for all that is wrong with Wall Street and financial markets with his infamous ‘greed is good’ speech. But you don’t have to look too far away from the big screen to see real-life examples of people whose actions have perpetuated the link between the wealth industry, untrustworthy characters and get-rich-quick trades.
Managing money in a rising interest-rate environment
March 31, 2022
Canada’s benchmark interest rate hit an all-time high of 16% in 1991 – and here investors are in 2022, freaking out over projections it’ll touch 1% by June. But there’s a reason for the current unease. Despite rate increases being forecast the minute governments and central banks opened the floodgates on trillions of dollars of stimulus, things have now “got real”.
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