Lifestyle

Project UrbanSimplify February Challenge: Clutter

Project UrbanSimplify: February Challege - Clutter

The Scenario

I returned to Canada from boarding school with all of my belongings packed in two suitcases conforming to airline baggage restrictions. There wasn’t all that much that fit into two 50lb bags, but they held everything important that I wanted to keep. Living on the move for the better part of my teenage years, most of the things I kept were of sentimental value. Once I moved into my own place in university, I was able to let loose and keep more material possessions. Over the years, my collecting compounded and Emily now sometimes refers to me, ever so endearingly, as a packrat. Continue Reading

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Investing

Calculating the Different Types of Investment Fees

To better explain the different types of fees associated with investing, let’s take a look at the costs to invest using an example. If a novice investor, like myself, was to take $1000 and invest it in the IA Clarington Focused Canadian Equity Class – Series A (CCM9900) mutual fund with RBC Direct Investing brokerage account, the fees would look something like this:

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Investing

Understanding Investment Fees

The investment landscape is littered with a minefield of fees and expenses that can be difficult to navigate for first time investors. The costs depend on the types of investments made and how they are purchased. The fees that apply to a specific fund can be found on the fund’s prospectus or annual report. Here is a list of fees that investors can expect to come across when looking to make an investment.

Investing Lifestyle

Save on Car and Home Insurance

When it comes to trimming the budget, most people start with line items like food and entertainment. Line items like insurance, which can account for a sizeable percentage, can often go overlooked. Since insurance renewals only come once a year, it’s easy to be lazy and to just renew with same provider. Sticking to the status quo can be costly. Here are a few lessons learned that have helped me cut my insurance premiums down.

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Investing

4 Reasons Not to be an Active Investor

In highschool, Emily’s economics class played a game where each student was given an imaginary sum of money to invest in a virtual stock market stimulation. The purpose of the game was to teach the students about investing and money management through trading stocks. The student with the largest equity in their portfolio at the end of the game was pronounced the winner. Most of the class chose their investment portfolios at random and hoped for the best. In the end, the winner appeared to have won through luck and did not display a higher aptitude in investing than the other students. Through playing the game, Emily came to associate stock trading with investing.

It was only later that she learned that there are two approaches to investing: active and passive. The first step to investing is to decide on which rabbit hole to go down. Active investing offers the possibility beat the market with the opportunity to limit losses. Passive investing offers the probability of higher market returns over the long term. While the prospect of the above-market returns potentially achieved through active management is tempting- it would mean reaching our financial goals earlier- there are four reasons as to why I’ve decided not to pursue active investing. Continue Reading

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