Most people don’t spend enough time thinking about taxes. Unlike the average Canadian, I consider myself a tax nerd. It’s front and centre in my thoughts for most of my waking hours. Now you might find that boring and weird, but it’s people like me who are trying to help people like you. Here’s a…
Protecting Your Identity Recent vulnerabilities such as the Heartbleed bug, which shut down CRA’s website at the height of tax season, or the now-patched bug in Internet Explorer that allowed hackers to secretly take control of a computer, remind us of the need to protect personal information. We want to do everything possible to ensure…
Whenever I think about zombies, my mind immediately creates a picture of a group of blank face dead people walking around with no thoughts of their own. They settle on something or someone in their mindless state and collectively move in that direction. As a group, they have a goal, but not one of them…
Sometimes, consumer protection doesn’t protect. Many people are unaware that “coercive tied selling” is illegal in Canada (another name for this is forced selling). According to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, “This means that banks are not allowed to unduly pressure or coerce you into a product or service from their affiliates as a…
Records Management Tax season is winding down and many of us are now facing piles of paper or electronic documents that we used for filing our taxes. The question now becomes: what records do I have to keep, and can I get rid of any of these piles of paper? We’ve created a quick and…
I hope that everyone who has children has taken the time to get a will. If you have a will, I hope you’ve made arrangements for someone to be the guardian of your children. If you have, congratulations! However, what arrangements have you made for your children if you’re incapacitated? Not too long ago, a…
If you like rants read on… I’ve had it with an industry that screws young people because of its own greed. Why is it that the government has absolutely no concern for the well-being of the next generation? Is it because most of them don’t vote? If that’s the reason it’s a cop-out (not by…
Is our financial system broken or just designed to take advantage of the average person? I recently read an article which posed the question: “Is your advisor wearing a product hat or an advice hat?” This got me thinking about all the discussions that have been going on within the financial services industry over the…
I don’t have to graphically describe how a leg trap works, but it suffices to say chewing an appendage off to escape is a horrible exit plan. When it comes to investments, I consider most investments in private companies to be human leg traps. Why? In most cases the only way to escape is by…
In my book The Financial Navigator – Managing Your Success, I wrote a section which I called “The Cost of Friendship.” It deals with the price people are willing to pay to maintain relationships with the people they perceive as friends. I’m often reminded about the power of relationships when I’m making recommendations to prospective…