There’s something magical about having a million dollars.
Whether we are singing along with the Bare Naked Ladies or watching the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire and hearing Anil Kapoor ask repeatedly, “Who wants to be … a millionaire?”, that figure has always symbolized financial independence and security.
Perhaps this “brand” was really established in the late 1950s, [...]

The deadline for RRSP contributions that are deductible on your 2011 tax return is next Wednesday, February 29. However, you would hardly know it from the lack of advertising and hype this year.
In the old days, investment advisors would hunker down in February like accountants in April; banks would have extended hours and every free [...]

Everybody is talking about OAS (Old Age Security) this week, after the Prime Minister’s speech in Switzerland suggesting changes may be on the table for the future.
This resulted in howls of protest, similar to the attempts by previous governments to tinker with retirement income entitlements.  No specific changes have actually been proposed, and any such [...]

Once again, I am worrying about the financial future of Canadians.
I’m not referring to the European debt crises, the weakening world economies, the prospects for slow growth and the volatile stock markets. These are all very real sources of concern, but I’m thinking more of things that we can control.
Recently, study after study has shown [...]

Our friends at Statistics Canada released an interesting study this week called “Delayed Retirement”.  (Thanks to Richard Cloutier of CJOB for pointing it out to me.)  It shows that Canadian 50-year old man and women can expect to work on average 3.5 years longer than they would have expected to work in the mid-1990’s.
As well, [...]

The movement for “pension reform” continues to gain momentum in Canada.  This term, and the causes and the solutions, mean different things to different people.
A shared concern is that not enough of us are preparing ourselves for retirement, and this will cause a crisis for the individuals who are unprepared, and therefore a crisis for [...]