Real Estate Investments Paying 15%, 17% And More…

While the global stock markets gyrate with volatility, it is tempting to look at alternatives to traditional asset classes such as stocks to get safer returns. Government bonds and GIC’s are yielding in the 3% – 4.8% range. Alberta investors are inundated with marketing on various real estate investments backed by land or property with regular [...]

Tax-Free Savings Accounts: Still Work To Be Done

The last federal budget announced a proposed tax-free savings account for Canadians starting January 1, 2009. Individuals would be allowed to contribute up to $5000 per year into this designated account and all of the income and growth would be sheltered from tax and could be withdrawn without tax implications.
The one thing that you don’t [...]

Real Return Bonds – Protection Against Inflation

In my 20 years in the financial arena, an asset class that almost none of my clients heard about prior to engaging us is Real Return Bonds. As the media talks non-stop about inflation and how basic goods that we buy every week are up in price 44% year over year, I thought a brief course [...]

A Repeat of Yesterday and Solar Power Gets into the Game

Financials advanced strongly while commodity plays got crushed.  CIBC closed up 5.27% and is up 30% from its lows just a week ago. Barrick Gold was down almost 8% on the day just to give you the magnitude of the change in investor sentiment.
Sector rotation seems to be taking shape as everyone gets on the [...]

Financials Save The Day…Who Would Have Thought?

When the markets closed yesterday, Apple and American Express both announced disappointing earnings. Apple’s shares were down 11% and Amex was down 4.5% in after market trading. European markets sold off on the news. I went to work this morning expecting a real ugly day and it started off that way.
Low and behold the Dow [...]

All I want is 10% Guaranteed!!!

With the markets as volatile as ever, it can be difficult to stomach the ups and downs as you try and have  a portfolio generate enough income or growth to last a lifetime. I know of many clients who talk about the days when they could get 19% on Canada Savings Bonds, 20% or more [...]

Financials Rally…Are the shorts being squeezed?

Wells Fargo beat street estimates on their earnings announcement leading to a huge rally in financial stocks.  US financials were up somewhere between 10% – 20% at midday. The average investor is probably asking how the earnings of one company can lead to these types of gains for a whole sector in just one day.
While [...]

Investing in Oil can be bad for your Health.

We have all heard the adage, Buy Low Sell High. After listening to Ben Bernanke and President Bush, their sights are clearly on doing whatever it takes to lower the price of oil before wage expectations and all other goods and services go up to offset the embedded cost of higher oil prices.
President Bush is [...]

There’s Gold in That IPHONE

There’s a ton of negative news in the market from the potential bankruptcies of GM, Lehman, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae. Couple that with speculation of an Israeli attack on Iran, and the only safety seems to be in oil, gold, and other metals.
I thought with gold trending close to $1000 per oz and with the [...]

How Much Do You Need to Retire?

With the markets progressing downwards, alot of people are wondering what income they can generate from their savings or how long their income will last given the size of their retirement savings and inflation.
I was reading an article on an advisor website called horsemouth.com today discussing past and current studies on the subject. William T. [...]