By: Allan Schieman
Monday, September 12, 2011
It’s starting to look more and more like Greece will default on its debt. A sovereign default like this one would likely throw the financial markets into turmoil and erase trillions of dollars of wealth worldwide. If you haven’t already taken measures to defend your wealth, the time [...]

By: Allan Schieman
Friday, September 10, 2011
I just got off the telephone with a client who asked me several questions about investing in gold. While I’ve been preaching the importance of including gold in your investment plan for a few years now, I’ve received more question about gold in the last few weeks [...]

Many plan administrators charge a withdrawal fee for unscheduled withdrawals from RRSPs and RRIFs but don’t charge a fee for starting, stopping, or changing withdrawal schedules. Schedule your withdrawals with your advisor. You can always change when and how much you withdraw.

Here’s a question for you.
Would you rather have $100 USD or $100 CDN?
If you are trying to think of the exchange rate today, you’re on the right track. At the time of this writing, the exchange rate is 1 CAD = .9345 USD. That means that one U.S. dollar will buy $1.07 Canadian dollars.
So today, [...]

If you don’t already know what you are doing, you need to learn before managing your own investments. Take courses on invest- ing and read several books on the subject first. This isn’t an activity to be learned as you go along. The potential damage you can do to yourself is catastrophic.
Financial planning and investment [...]

Think of an RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) as an oak barrel. Into an oak barrel you can put a variety of lovely liquids. Red wine, white wine, and scotch are my favorites, but oak barrels will hold almost any liquid. An RRSP is similar. It’s a tax shelter, created by the government, into which [...]

If you understand only one thing about your taxes, understand your marginal tax rate. I talk a lot about marginal tax rates in my book, in articles, and on videos. Your marginal tax rate is the most important tax figure for you to understand – and memorize. You can’t do proper tax planning or investment [...]

1 – Hire an estate lawyer to do your will.
It seems that every lawyer will prepare a will if you pay them their going rate. However, not every lawyer knows estate law inside out. You wouldn’t want an optometrist to fill a cavity in your tooth. Find a lawyer who practices estate law to draw [...]

Retiring in this new financial world order requires a new approach to financial planning. An old world plan in the new world is a recipe for disaster.
Life expectancy for Canadians has increased steadily; this is a good thing. A Canadian male born in 1930 had a life expectancy at birth of 60 years; a female, [...]

Your financial planner doesn’t want you to know this: investments are just financial products.  The financial industry has been successful in convincing you that you’re ‘investing’ when you’ve just been buying products.
A mutual fund is a classic example of a financial product.  Like other products, mutual funds are manufactured and then distributed. They aren’t made [...]