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Are You Getting Poor Investment Advice?

CBC Marketplace recently conducted a hidden camera investigation, to determine the quality of investment advice dispensed by the five big banks in Canada and five popular investment firms in Ontario. The investigation uncovered  ‘atrocious’ investment advice.

You can read more about the investigation on the CBC News website, but here are a few points I'd like to share with my readers:

"The tests revealed a wide range in the quality of advisers. Some performed well, giving clear answers and ask…

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Book Review: Stop Over-Thinking Your Money

Here is my book review of Preet Banerjee’s latest book “Stop Over-Thinking Your Money, The Five Simple Rules of Financial Success”. Enjoy!

“Personal finance is a lot like physical fitness. In order to be in shape, everyone knows they have to work out and eat well. A personal trainer delivers results, not by showing clients a new way to perform sit-ups, but rather by simply making sure the sit-ups get done.”* In this book you’ll learn the financial equivalents to the right exercise and diet requ…

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Still Hanging on to Your Mutual Funds?

Over your lifetime you may lose 80% of your returns to mutual fund fees. A while back John Bogle founder of the Vanguard Group, was interview by the TV program Frontline.

Mr. Bogle was asked: "What percentage of my net growth is going to fees in a 401(k) plan?"

Bogle replied, "Well it's awesome. Let me give you a little longer-term example. An individual who's 20-years old today [is] starting to accumulate for retirement.... That person has about 45 years to go before retirement -- 20 to 65 --…

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An Interview with Passive Income Pursuit

A recently had the honour of interviewing the blogger behind the awesome blog Passive Income Pursuit!

Passive Income Pursuit has been blogging since 2011 and his blog covers my favorite topic, dividend investing! So I invited him to share his investing knowledge and experience with us.

Kanwal: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your blog.

Passive Income Pursuit: I was laid off in January 2009, and while it was frustrating at the time, as my unemployment period continued on I realized the…

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Want more financial freedom? Start planting seeds today!

Do you want more money, more financial freedom? Then you need to start making the right investments today, and your future self will thank you as you reap the rewards. I’ll give you my personal example of earning over 13% annually on a single stock, and achieving gains of over 390%. In 2000 I purchased 185 shares of TRP at $13.40 each, at the time the annual dividend was $0.80/share. Since then the company has increased their dividend every single year:

2000: $0.80
2001: $0.90
2002: $1.00
2003: …

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Over 100 years of Dividends

As a shareholder dividends are the key to earning more. Dividends are cash payments that you receive for just owning shares.  Over the long-term some investors may actually receive more in dividends than what it costs to buy the shares in the first place. 

But the key is for companies to continue to pay dividends over the long-term. Dividend Growth Stocks writes, “Sure most CEOs give lip-service to their commitment to shareholders, but what happens when times are hard. When the economy turns do…

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An Interview with Financially Integrated

A recently had the honour of interviewing the blogger behind the awesome blog Financially Integrated!

Financially Integrated has been blogging since 2012 and his blog covers a range of issues from budgeting and saving your money to investing. On his blog there's a focus on dividend investing so I invited him to share his investing knowledge and experience with us.

Kanwal: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your blog.

Financially Integrated: I’m really a finance guy through and through. I…

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Helping you Earn More in 2014

Happy New Year to all my readers! This month is a great time to plan for the year ahead. Below are some resolutions you may want to consider for helping you earn more in 2014.

Resolution #1: Become an investor not a speculator

In 2014 resolve to become an investor not a speculator. Speculation is buying stocks (or mutual funds, ETFs or index funds) without any knowledge of what you are investing in. People fall into the trap of buying stocks based on “hot” stock tips, or recommendations from f…

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Earn More without Getting a Second Job

It's possible to earn more without getting a second job. There are hundreds of quality companies which will pay you (in cash) just for holding their shares.

A dividend is just that, a cash payment made to shareholders. For example let’s take a look at Wal-Mart (WMT:NYSE), their annual dividend is currently $1.88 per share. If you own 125 shares you will receive $235 per year in cash that’s 125 shares multiplied by $1.88. Each share costs $78 so you would have to invest $9750 (125 shares x $78) …

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My Investing Superheros

I recently had the honor of being interviewed by a prominent financial blogger over at Passive Income Pursuit, where he asked me to identify my investment heroes. You can read the entire interview at his blog, but here’s my list of investment superheroes:

Warren Buffet:  I learned from him the importance of the margin of safety when buying stocks.

Geraldine Weiss:  I learned from her the important of investing in companies when they are undervalued.  I learned from her that a company is underv…

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