Posts by shelby@shelbyart.com

One of the by-products of a highly regulated investment industry is the creation and distribution of paper.  Lots of it.  It comes in the form of contracts, disclosures, information booklets, trade confirmations and statements.  Chances are you’ve got more of it than you want and some of it you don’t need. Why can’t the mailings…

Let’s look at some of the more common ones. The 4% Safe Rate of Withdrawl .  I’ve probably read 4 or 5 articles on this in the past couple of years debating whether this still holds true.   Essentially, it assumes that a given diversified portfolio will provide 4% of income through thick and thin without…

I’ve never met anyone successful with money that didn’t own a principal residence. What makes a home a great investment?  To start with, leverage which translates to your down payment. Assume that you purchase a home for $300,000 with $10,000 down.  The market fluctuates up and down but 10 years later the home is worth…

A client recently asked me about when is it the right time to begin teaching kids about money.  It was a great question not so easily answered. The research would suggest that the earlier in life that the lessons begin the better.   It would also suggest that a parent’s own personal habits and philosophies influence…

Inflation is probably not that much appreciated by the public at large where costs go up faster than wages.  The GIC rollover at a couple of percent buys no more next year as it did this year and likely a little less if taxes take a bite.  I’m not qualified to debate all the reasons…

It’s a stimulant and stimulants are bad for you.  It’s a diuretic and as most Canadians don’t drink enough water you should skip.  Too much caffeine can make you jumpy and interferes with getting a good nights’ rest.  It feeds corporate profits and the disposal of millions of wax-coated cups is bad for the environment.…

Behind the scenes regulators and lobby groups are locking horns over the way in which most Canadians currently pay for financial advice and the future of embedded fees. What’s an embedded fee?  It’s a fee you don’t see.  For most, it’s the cost of owning mutual funds but it also extends to other investments. Mutual…

I received a call a couple of weeks back from a reporter from the Wealth Professional.  It’s an online magazine for those in our industry.  I’m not sure where it came from but it started appearing in my inbox awhile back.  Their articles are informative but concise so I tend to peruse. The reporter asked…

I’ve got a laminated poster in my storage room that provides a pretty simple explanation of inflation.  Three gas pumps are labelled 1979, 1999 and 2019.  The 1979 pump shows gasoline at 26.7 cents/litre.  The 1999 pump shows gasoline at 67.5 cents/litre.  The 2019 pump has a question mark.  The tag line is “will you…

Early in the summer of 2013 the Dow touched a record high.  The Dow is one of the benchmarks for measuring the current and future strength of the global economy.   It’s an imperfect barometer.  Part measurement of value, part current market sentiment.  The percentages attributed to both tend to swing pretty wildly. As a society…