Archive for August 2010
Why the Long Term Growth of the Economy is Not Relevant to Investing
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today. – Laurence J. Peter Our last article explained why the economy is not relevant to investing – short term. If you want to forecast the stock market this year or next year, the economy is essentially irrelevant…
Read MoreNet Worth Update August 2010 (+1.56) – RRSP Contribution
Welcome to the Million Dollar Journey August 2010 Net Worth Update – RRSP Contribution Edition. It’s a little past halfway through the year and I finally got my act together and made our RRSP contributions. I figured since our cash savings was buiding up, we might as well put it to some use. The bright side is…
Read MoreThe Downside of Owning REITs
This is written by our resident real estate guru Rachelle. In many of my past columns I have discussed the problems of buying real estate in our current market. I have mostly decried that current prices, even at today’s interest rates, are too high to make a profit. I have also warned of the dangers…
Read MoreLandlord-Tenant Relationship (A Tenant’s Perspective)
This is a column by regular contributor Clark. This blog has recently featured a number of posts about real estate. I figured that a tenant’s perspective on the relationship would do justice. I have shared an apartment during my school days and currently rent one level of a house on my own. I’d like to…
Read MoreCPPIB and Highway 407
With the talks of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) bidding on the company Intoll for $3.2 billion, it got me curious to do more research on the deal. InToll owns 30% of the Toronto toll highway 407 and 25% of a toll highway Westlink M7 in Sydney Australia. The CPPIB interest in the company was…
Read MoreOverseas Canadian Residents and Tax Returns
This is a column by regular contributor Clark Recently, a friend went overseas (the US) on a temporary assignment. He is a perennial last-minute income tax filer and so, I joked that the tax deadline in the US is two weeks before the Canadian one and that he might want to advance his last-minute rush…
Read MoreWhy the Economy is Not Relevant to Investing
“I’ve always said if you spend 13 minutes a year on economics, you’ve wasted 10 minutes.” – Peter Lynch Many investors believe there is some sort of cause-and-effect between the stock market and the economy. They think that if they can predict the general direction of the economy, it will help them predict the direction…
Read MoreThe Myth of Positive Cash Flow
This is a column by real estate writer Rachelle. Does it ever make sense to buy a real estate investment that is cash flow negative? Of course it does! Sure we’d all rather buy a nice well maintained cash flowing building stuffed to the gills with working professionals who all pay their rent by postdated…
Read More