Articles

The interlude between Thanksgiving and Christmas can stretch on too long for those of us who love to feast on turkey with all the trimmings. But it can be a good time to gorge on stocks instead.

That’s why I’m pleased to offer hungry investors a feast of Stingy Stocks, which continues a Canadian MoneySaver tradition that spans more than two decades.

Recently I was invited to speak at a financial planning seminar where the audience included many dentists from the nearby community. The subject of Dental Association Group Plans came up, and several of the dentists in attendance asked my opinion on their plan and what it might be lacking. That afternoon I did some research on their group plan website (CDSPI) and noticed that life and disability insurance were offered, yet critical illness insurance was not.

There are over 250 million people born between 1997 and 2012 in the developed world – the Gen Z generation – and soon they’ll be the majority of workers as Boomers age out. This will give them the cultural and financial clout to set tastes and habits much different than those of preceding generations. The global alcohol and beverage industry, like many others, will have to adapt to a large consumer base that does not make getting plastered a rite of passage.

My husband and I are busy professionals with two young kids. Neither of us wants to spend time managing our investment portfolio. In good news, we are rapidly building up a solid nest egg. We outsourced the management of our investment accounts and hired a financial planner a few years ago. He charges us a flat fee of 1% for advice and he structured a portfolio of mutual funds as per the chart below. We are paying closer attention to the impact that fees have on long-term investment returns, and we are wondering if we should shift to a self-directed Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) strategy.

Growth Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) can be a popular choice for investors seeking long-term capital appreciation through a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds. These ETFs provide an 80% allocation to a diversified set of equities (including geographic, sector, and industry diversification) and a 20% allocation to a diversified set of bonds (diversification is across both geography and length of the bonds).

A dream of most investors is to find the elusive “Big Winner”—that life-changing stock that goes up by multiples of the price you initially paid. In many cases owning (and holding) just one of these stocks can make a material difference in someone’s life. It can mean that down payment on a house, a catalyst that jumpstarts the compounding of a diversified portfolio over the long-term, or some inheritance money you always hoped to leave behind for your family.

As people age, it is common for them to consider whether they should be gifting assets during their lives, as opposed to upon their deaths. They may be motivated by their adult children’s financial needs or by the opportunity to reduce tax payable. Regardless, there are several tax considerations when contemplating the gifting of assets.

We took our daughter clothes shopping in downtown Toronto on her birthday. Many of the stores we visited are owned by publicly traded corporations. Always attuned to investment prospects, I noted that Aritzia has been among the top performers on the TSX over the past year, and the company’s boutique was indeed crowded with customers. Along with Aritzia, we visited Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Urban Outfitters, Reitmans and Winners (TJX).

Inflation is the year-over-year price increase of an item or service compared to last year. To calculate the overall inflation rate in the Canadian economy, Statistics Canada measures the price changes of a basket of goods and services typically consumed by Canadians.