Short Takes: Bad Financial Products, Being Rich, and more

Here are my posts for the past two weeks:

Mouths to Feed in the Financial Industry

Avoiding Trudeau’s Tax Increase

Why Not Rent?

Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

Tom Bradley at Steadyhand warns us about index-linked notes such as the BMO Growth GIC. These investments are so bad that Tom said “these products are an embarrassment to the wealth management industry” and “DON’T BUY THESE PRODUCTS!”

Give Me Back My Five Bucks explains that being rich is about how much you save rather than how much you spend.

Boomer and Echo tells a personal story of the pitfalls of prioritizing retirement savings above all else. At first I wasn’t sure where this was going, but it illustrates the problem of using the wrong type of account (RRSP in this case) as well as the illusion of saving when you’re really growing debt at the same time.

Preet Banerjee uses this video to explain when RRSP contributions make sense and when they don’t.

Million Dollar Journey lays out his investment strategy for his RESPs.

My Own Advisor muses about what his retirement will look like. It all looks quite sensible, but one part struck me: “getting more exercise.” I’m pretty sure that part of the plan should start now and not wait until retirement.

Big Cajun Man reminds us that spousal RRSPs are still useful. Income splitting past age 65 has reduced the need for spousal RRSPs, but they are still potentially useful if you retire before age 65.