Building Wealth

For the first 30 or so years of working, saving and investing, you’ll be first in the mode of getting out of the hole (paying down debt), and then building your net worth (that’s wealth accumulation.). But don’t forget, wealth accumulation isn’t the ultimate goal. Decumulation is! (a separate category here at the Hub).

Choosing ETFs: the best ones are diversified and have low MERs

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If you want to include the best ETF investments in your portfolio, then it’s important to consider a variety of components. That’s because all Exchange-Traded Funds aren’t created equal

ETFs are one of the most popular and most benign investing innovations of our time: and the best ETF investments can be great low-fee ways to hold shares in multiple companies with a single investment.

The best ETFs practice “passive” fund management

The best ETFs practice “passive” fund management, in contrast to the “active” management that conventional mutual funds or some new ETFs provide at much higher costs. Traditional ETFs stick with this passive management: they follow the lead of the sponsor of the index (for example, Standard & Poors).

Sponsors of stock indexes do from time to time change the stocks that make up the index, but generally only when the market weighting of stocks change. They don’t attempt to pick and choose which stocks they think have the best prospects.

This traditional, passive style also keeps turnover very low, and that in turn keeps trading costs for your ETF investments down.

We think you should stick with “traditional” ETFs.

The best ETF investments have lower MERs

The MERs (Management Expense Ratios) are generally much lower on ETFs than on conventional mutual funds. Continue Reading…

6 ways you can start an Online Business with no outside capital

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By Melissa Page

(Sponsored Content)

People looking to start their own businesses often find themselves unable to do so because of budget limitations. They are usually unwilling to shell out so much money for something that comes with a lot of risks, even if the type of business they’re planning is an online venture.

Fortunately, there are ways to start an online business with little to no external capital.

Here’s how:

1.) Validate Your Business Idea

Look into your original business idea thoroughly, and ask yourself some important questions: what consumer needs are you trying to address, and how will your new company answer that need? How do you foresee your company functioning? What tools will you need in order to run your business the way you want it to run?

All these questions should be answered by a detailed plan and thoroughly outlined strategies. Chances are, you’ll be able to find several holes in your initial business outline that will require you to rethink several steps and recalculate possible costs. Be as thorough as you can in order to avoid spending needlessly.

2.) Consider Drop Shipping

Not everyone who starts a business produces their own products. If you’re one of those who don’t want to make anything, then you may want to consider drop shipping.

How it works is: you order the products directly from the manufacturer on an as needed basis. In this case, it is whenever a customer goes to your site to order the said product. The difference between drop shipping and the standard retail model is that you don’t really keep any products on stock, but rather, orders the products to be delivered directly to the customer.

3.) Skip the Logo for now

Your logo is the visual representation of your company, and is as important as the quality of the products that you sell. However, creating a logo can be costly, especially if you’re hiring someone to do it for you professionally. You can very well skip it initially to cut costs. After all, people rarely remember a logo unless it’s from an already established brand. Once your business is up and running, you can have it done and include it in the marketing of your online shop.

4.) Use Free Tools

There are many free platforms online that can help you create an online shop. Most e-commerce platforms have all the tools you need to create and manage your website. There are also free tools you can use to further improve the look and feel of your site. There’s no need to spend cash on building your own website when you’re just starting out and testing the waters, rather, make use of free tools on the internet that can help you get started.

5.) Monitor Your Cash Flow

Not only will this help you keep track of all your expenses and profit, you can also pinpoint any unnecessary expenses that you can avoid in the future, thereby keeping your initial costs and capital down.

6.) Try Free Marketing Options

Marketing strategies vary for different businesses, and in a lot of cases, these can be costly. When you’re just starting out, you’ll want to employ every type of marketing strategy you can in order to get your products known. Fortunately, there are plenty of free marketing options that you can use. Utilizing social media is a great example, and can also bring amazingly quick results.

It’s not easy to start anything, let alone a business with little to no capital. It takes passion, and a great deal of hard work to start and maintain a successful online business.

Melissa Page is a passionate writer and social media contributor who works with successful companies and brands. When she’s not writing, she plays bowling with her friends.

Large RRSPs nice problem to have, tax on them not so much

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My latest Financial Post column can be found in Friday’s paper or online by clicking on this headline: Confronting the ‘wonderful’ problem of the too-large RRSP.

It describes what one source describes as a “nice problem to have.” That’s having accumulated so much money in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) that it presents a lucrative source of tax revenue for the federal Government once you reach age 71 and have to start making forced annual — and taxable — withdrawals from a Registered Retirement Income Fund or RRIF.

Doug Dahmer

This is a huge tipping point: moving from Wealth Accumulation to De-Accumulation, or what this site calls Decumulation.  Suddenly, you’re confronted with the flipside of what CIBC Wealth’s Jamie Golombek has famously dubbed “being blinded by the refund,” a reference to the juicy tax deductions we enjoy by making regular RRSP contributions during our high-earning high-taxed working years.

The article quotes regular Hub contributor Doug Dahmer – president of Burlington, Ont.-based Emeritus Retirement Income Specialists, and pictured here – who says baby boomers have a huge looming tax problem ahead with their 6-figure RRSPs once it comes time to start withdrawing money or securities from them. The FP piece references Dahmer’s Hub blog earlier this year: Better Retirement Choices: An elegantly simple solution.

The case for early RRSP withdrawals and delaying Government benefits

As Dahmer has related here and elsewhere, he does believe RRSPs can get too large (at least if you’re averse to generating large amounts of taxable income down the road), so he is an advocate of drawing down RRSPs during the low-taxed years that many semi-retirees may experience somewhere between corporate life (typically early 60s) until it’s RRIF time in your early 70s. Continue Reading…

Odds of outperformance in emerging markets stacked in favor of active managers

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By Caroline Grimont

(Sponsored Content)

When investing in emerging markets, the odds of outperformance are stacked in favor of active managers. That’s because, unlike developed markets, emerging markets are a heterogeneous and inefficient asset class.  Each individual market and region possesses unique characteristics, risks and opportunities, which can be best leveraged through active, on-the-ground management.

The underlying truth is that indices such as the MSCI Emerging Markets Index that are used by passive managers to invest in emerging markets are a poor representation of opportunities in these markets. Indices typically include only the largest stocks by market capitalization and exclude potentially faster growing small and medium cap stocks which can be accessed by active managers.

And the fact that roughly two thirds of emerging market stocks are excluded from the respective indices means that investors in passive index-based investments lose the opportunity to participate in the growth of the majority of emerging market equities.

On the other hand, active on-the-ground managers have the advantage of being “free to roam” in making their investment decisions, compared to passive managers who are restricted to investing in stocks in an index over which they have no control.

As well, “in certain niche markets, like emerging market and small company stocks … it is possible for an active manager to spot diamonds in the rough,” states a Wharton, University of Pennsylvania article.[i] Conversely, the performance of passive managers is dictated by the index.

To put this reality in perspective, one of the world’s largest index providers, S&P Dow Jones Indices, highlights the shortcomings of using a broad-based passive strategy to invest in emerging markets in its research paper, Emerging Markets: What’s in your Benchmark?  It surmises: “Numerous factors, including country and regional combinations, can create vast differences in performance and return patterns. If you’re looking to boost returns through exposure to international markets, you may want to dig deeper and consider looking beyond traditional broad-based benchmarks to truly assess the value of an allocation to any of the world’s emerging economies.”[ii]

Unconstrained by sector bias

Another benefit of using active managers in emerging markets results from the fact that they are not constrained by the dominant sector bias in EM indices.

Continue Reading…

How to find the best high-dividend-yield ETFs

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High-dividend-yield ETFs can be great additions to a portfolio: here are tips that will help you find the best ones

Here’s a look at high dividend yield ETFs and our advice on finding the best ones for your diversified portfolio.

4 ways to invest in profitable high-dividend-yield ETFs

  • Look for ETFs that hold companies with long-term success and a long history of paying dividends. These companies are the most likely to keep paying and increasing their dividends.
  • The current financial health of each company in the ETF. If a company is doing well, has done so consistently, and shows signs of growth, these factors are indicative of stocks that will keep paying a dividend.
  • How does the company manage its relationships with investors? If there is a favourable relationship, and the company fits the other qualifications listed above, it may be a good dividend-paying stock to invest in.
  • Note the competition. Look for ETFs with companies with a strong hold on a growing market and a unique product or service that cuts its competition.

High-dividend-yield stocks are a key part of a successful portfolio but at the same time they can give investors a false sense of security. That’s because some investors tend to think that all high-dividend-yield stocks are safe.

When a high dividend yield means danger

A high dividend yield may be a danger sign. It may mean investors are selling and pushing the price down. A falling share price makes a stock’s yield goes up (because you still use the latest dividend payment as the numerator to calculate yield — but the denominator, the price, has dropped). But when a stock does cut or halt its dividend, its yield collapses.

The best ETF investments practice “passive” fund management

Continue Reading…