Investing
While you and your spouse are leaning over your little cherub’s crib with adoring gazes, the proud parents that you have already become begin to imagine what he could become. A doctor? A lawyer, or a senior executive? A parliamentarian, or even a future Prime Minister of Canada? No, all these professions are well below […]
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen an increase in robo-advisors popping up everywhere. Wealthfront and Betterment were the first two companies to deploy robo-advisors, more than a decade ago now. Today, more than a dozen robo-advisors have entered the market. From banks to private companies, everyone wants a piece of the robo-advisor market. […]
Since 2014, around 15 robo-advisors have emerged in Canada, managing combined assets of approximately $11.4 billion at the time of this writing. These are small assets compared to those invested through Canadian online brokers ($422 billion) and through Canadian mutual funds ($1.6 trillion). Despite this, Canadian robo-advisers are popular with young people because they allow […]
Since we launched our app in the App Store, a curious phenomenon has emerged. Several users wrote to me asking why they couldn’t add more than one online brokerage per institution. It wasn’t offered in the app, because if someone added two separate accounts from same institution, it was probably by mistake. So I asked […]
I wanted to try Questrade after the most recent J.D. Power ranking called the 2017 Canadian Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study came out. I was surprised that this independent online brokerage finished last in this ranking, so I took on the task of checking it out. Here’s a summary of my experience with a practice account […]
My front door was ajar. Inside, my apartment felt abnormally still. Nothing was out of place. No torn curtain waving in the wind. But my laptop was nowhere to be seen. My apartment had been broken into. My laptop was stolen. So after a few tears (let’s be honest), four hours on the phone with […]
The financial system is not well set up for small investors. Financial advisors are called many different things, are either paid by flat rates (called fee-only advisors), or by commission (which is much more common). Often, the small investor cannot afford a fee-only financial advisor. Moreover, advisors who are paid commission (both initial and follow-up) […]
Investing your hard earned cash in enormous, anonymous and ethically questionable companies not exactly giving you the warm fuzzies? You’re not alone. A report from the Responsible Investment Association published in 2015 cited that between 2011 and 2013, the amount of assets managed using responsible investment strategies in Canada rose by 68% from $600 Billion […]
The underlying principle of mutual funds is brilliant. It combines the money from many small investors to have a greater buying power. This money is then invested in multiple companies. Each investor owns a small portion of the fund and is at much lower risk than if they invested all of their money independently. Indeed, […]
At Hardbacon, we will never be able to write everything about money and investing. And nor do we want to. So we scoured the internet to find the best bloggers writing about money. What did we consider in our ranking? Design, accuracy of content, credibility and voice. There are 7 categories, and 21 winning blogs. […]
Unless I’m mistaken, if you want to invest your money in the stock market, it’s because you want to make more money. To build your nest egg. To grow your bacon. The most straightforward option is to put all of your money in ETFs, forget about them, and sit back and relax up until you […]
Retirement planning can be daunting, especially considering the various plans available in different countries. Among the most popular retirement plans in the United States is the 401k. But what about Canada? Is there a Canadian equivalent to the 401k? While not an exact match, the Defined Contribution Plan is the closest resemblance to a 401k […]
