Posts by Robb Engen
Weekend Reading: Why “Alternatives” Are a Trap Edition
A major Canadian bank brokerage recently said that it wants 25 percent of client portfolios in “alts” within five years. Translation: high-fee, hard-to-leave products. What “Alts” Really Are Advisors use “alts” as shorthand for alternative investments, anything outside plain-vanilla stocks, bonds, or cash. Think private mortgage pools, private apartment funds, private credit deals, hedge funds,…
Read MoreDon’t Wait Until 70: The Costly Retirement Planning Trap
A recent Financial Post Family Finance column profiled a 71-year-old woman who found herself in a financial mess. She owned two rental properties, was forced into mandatory RRIF withdrawals, and was receiving CPP and OAS. The result? A giant tax bill and a lot of frustration. Her mistake was waiting until her 70s to get…
Read MoreFinding Financial Clarity After Losing a Spouse
Mary was 62 when her husband passed away suddenly. He had always been the “CFO” of the household, the one who dealt with their investments, pensions, and taxes. Mary was left with a folder of account statements she didn’t understand and an advisor she barely knew. When Mary asked that advisor about withdrawing money to…
Read MoreSo You’re About to Retire: The First-Year Financial Timeline (With Real Numbers)
You’ve handed in your notice and circled your retirement date on the calendar. Congratulations! Now what? The three months or so before retirement and the first six to nine months after are packed with decisions: pension paperwork, government benefit start dates, converting accounts, setting withdrawals, and making sure taxes are handled properly so your new…
Read MoreReframing the CPP Enhancement: A 122% Increase In Benefits
Whenever I write about the timing of Canada Pension Plan benefits, the response is enormous. It’s one of the most popular and polarizing retirement planning topics out there. The usual way this conversation gets framed is around age 65. That’s considered the “normal” starting point, so you’ll often hear people say, “If you wait until…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Stop Paying 2% For Mediocre Returns Edition
I’m going to let you in on an investing secret that has eluded millions of Canadians for years. A secret that will save you literally thousands of dollars a year in fees and deliver stronger investment performance. A secret that does not require you to transform into a superstar stock picker or professional asset allocator.…
Read MoreA Young Adult’s Smart Guide to Money
(What I wish I’d known at 18, 24, and 30 – from parents and grandparents who’ve been there, and a financial planner who can translate those experiences into actionable advice for today.) If you’re in your late teens or twenties, you don’t need an “investment guy”, a six-figure income, or a meme stock or hot…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Dividends, Rents, and the Illusion of “Income”
The dividends-versus-total-return debate has (mercifully) cooled. Most investors now accept there’s nothing magical about dividends – it’s just cash carved out of total return. The real “magic” is reinvesting, i.e., putting the slice back into the cake so it keeps baking. And yes, ex-dividend, a stock’s price typically drops by roughly the dividend amount –…
Read MoreThe Credit Card Combo You’ve Been Sleeping On
We just got back from Scotland – a trip that involved epic hiking in the Highlands, duck-feeding along Loch Ness, and a quick stop in Glasgow so our daughter could “manifest” her future university choice. We covered nearly 500 miles in a rental car, used our umbrellas exactly once, and, thanks to some smart credit…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Conscious Spending Edition
Like a lot of money nerds, I’ve always loved a detailed budget. There’s comfort in seeing where every dollar goes, especially when life throws its usual mix of irregular income and surprise expenses. Still, I was curious: what would happen if I ditched the details and looked at our finances the way author Ramit Sethi…
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