Alts are all the rage now, at least among the people trying to sell them.  But every time I look into an alternative investment class and then back away from the details for a 1000-foot view, this is what I see:

It’s challenging enough to figure out how much you’ll want to spend at the start of retirement.  Even more challenging is deciding how your spending will change as you age.  These choices make a big difference in how much money you’ll need to retire.  They also shape the spending options you’ll have available throughout retirement.  Here I explore the good and bad parts of common wisdom on retirement spending to arrive at my own spending plan for retirement.  Spoiler alert: the “go-go, slow-go, no-go” narrative is good marketing, but it has cracks. Two extremes Some people focus on the early part of their retirement.  They want as much money as possible available early on while they’re still young enough to enjoy it.  They seem to think of their older selves as a different person who they care less about than their current selves. Others focus on their older selves and worry about running out of money at some point.  These people usually spend far...

When Canadians are just getting started managing their own investments at an online broker, their pre-existing ideas create a lot of confusion.  Here I go through several of the most common misconceptions I encounter in a conversation format. Novice Investor:   Ok, so I’ve opened a TFSA with my online broker, and I’m ready to put my $50,000 in. Michael James:   Great.  We just have to transfer the money to your new TFSA from some external account, like a chequing account at your bank.  Just a few clicks and we’re done.  The money will be there in a day or two. NI:   Wow! That was easy. So, we’re all done? MJ:   Not quite.  All we’ve done is fill your TFSA with dollars. NI:   That’s all I did with the TFSA I used to have at the bank.  It’s closed now. MJ:   Yes, but that TFSA was just a savings account earning a little bit of interest.  You said you want to put this $50,000 away for the long term in an all-in-one ETF. ...