Canadian Personal Finance News | June 2014

Investing would be easy if you could predict the future. Unfortunately, I can't help you with that. But I do know a little about what works and what doesn't work. How an investment performed in the past doesn't work: Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

Even the simplest financial plan requires assumptions about how your investments will perform. We know these assumptions can never be perfectly accurate, but they need to be thoughtful and reasonable. If you're just assuming a balanced portfolio will return 7% every year, then your projections aren't likely to be useful.

There is a growing sentiment among Canadians that somehow RRSPs are a government scam because you'll be forced to pay tax on any withdrawals in retirement. That leads many to (sometimes) incorrectly declare that TFSAs are the better savings vehicle for retirement due to the tax-free treatment of withdrawals.

"Don't ever let economic [factors] alone determine your career or how you spend the majority of your time." -Denis Watley "I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." -Maya Angelou I recently had a discussion with a friend who told me that he was on the horns of a career dilemma.

Recently a client asked for my help deciding when to take his Canada Pension Plan (CPP) retirement pension, and I found the calculations to be so interesting that I just had to share them. Peter's history Peter is currently age 55, and he had retired from working at the end of 2013.

Look at us. Sitting in our chaise lounges, Mai Tais in hand, watching the sunshine shimmer off of the gentle surf. Relaxing without a care in the world; life is wonderful. It's spring 2014 and investors are sitting pretty comfortably. We haven't seen Markets In TurmoilTM for what feels like forever.

Tweet Allow me to take off my value investor hat for a few minutes, and talk about the kind of investing a whole lot of you should be doing. Yeah, let's talk about Couch Potato investing. It's more boring than actually talking to your date, I know.

This is my 3,000th column. I've learned a tremendous amount in writing about investing and the economy. Here are a few of the big lessons. I've learned that changing your mind is one of the most difficult things we do. It is far easier to fool yourself into believing a falsehood than admit a mistake.

Successful market timing requires two correct decisions: when to get out and when to back get in. Guessing right once is a 50/50 proposition. Guessing right twice drops the odds to only 25 percent. One wrong guess and you shoot yourself in one foot; two wrong guesses and you shoot yourself in both feet.

Five years ago I opened a discount brokerage account - transferring $25,000 from my HSBC mutual fund account to TD Waterhouse - to start investing in individual stocks. Here are 5 lessons learned about investing over the last five years: A rising tide lifts all boats I've learned to recognize the difference between skill and luck.

About that inheritance you're planning. Frankly, we'd rather you spend the money on yourselves. Baby boomers, do your parents a favour and tell them not to conserve their money so they can pass it along to you after they die as an inheritance.

Don't go overboard when deciding how much of your portfolio to put into stocks. That advice is particularly timely now, as memories fade of the 2007-09 bear market and many investors find themselves with swollen stock allocations - either consciously, or unwittingly through failing to rebalance their holdings.

Did you ever wonder where the magic RRIF minimum withdrawal percentages came from? I may have figured it out by accident. I was creating a chart to show that these minimum withdrawals will deplete RRIFs over time and that yearly payments would very likely decrease over time.

I'm taking some time away from the computer this month as I swim in the torrent of self-imposed work caused by moving to a new house and selling the old one. But my friend Mr. Toque insisted that we run this rant on Tax Complainypants Disease, a topic dear to my heart.

Financial planning is misnamed. It really should be called Figuring Out How Much What You Want Out Of Life Will Cost And How to Pay For It By Finding The Happy Medium Between Doing What You Have To Do And Doing What You Want To Do. I imagine this will never take on.

The entire financial world wants you to believe that success with money is just math. It's not. Well, it is, but - for most average, everyday people, anyway - it's only about math eventually. First, it's about behaviour.

Ermagherd, friend - I'm so thrilled to bring you the first post of my new Summer series - Money Smarts - on how to get your financial shit together as a freelancer or entrepreneur. I've recruited the help of the ever-clever Sandi Martin of Spring Personal Finance because who better to answer your questions than ...