The Quest for Alpha Comes to Edmonton
Larry Swedroe is continuing his cross-country quest for alpha, making his next stop in Edmonton—and Canadian Couch Potato readers are invited to attend. I was contacted last week by Marshall McAlister,...
View ArticleA Chat With Vanguard Canada: Part 1
When Vanguard announced its arrival in Canada this summer, investors welcomed the company with open arms: perhaps no country would benefit more from Vanguard’s devotion to low-cost investing. The...
View ArticleA Chat With Vanguard Canada: Part 2
Here’s another excerpt from my recent interview with Atul Tiwari, Dennis Duffy and Joel Dickson of Vanguard. These questions focus on the types of products we might see from Vanguard in the future. You...
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An Interview with the Original Couch Potato
“Allow me to introduce the Couch Potato Portfolio, a surefire formula to invest your money, enjoy a return that will put you in the top half of all professional investors, but expend virtually no...
View ArticleING’s Streetwise Fund v. TD e-Series
The humble Global Couch Potato portfolio, first recommended by MoneySense eight years ago, is an excellent way to get started with indexing. So when ING Direct launched its Streetwise Balanced Fund in...
View ArticleComparing the Costs of Index Funds and ETFs
The growing popularity of index investing has a lot to do with the increasing number of ETFs available, and that’s largely a good thing. ETFs generally have lower management expense ratios (MERs) than...
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Foreign Withholding Tax Explained
The Couch Potato strategy calls for a significant allocation to US and international stocks. When you live in a country with a small, poorly diversified stock market, global diversification is...
View ArticleForeign Withholding Tax: Which Fund Goes Where?
My previous post on foreign withholding taxes included a lot of information for investors to puzzle over. But unless you’re an accountant, you probably don’t care too deeply about the finer details....
View ArticleAnother 5 Underrated Index Funds
Last week I presented a list of five Canadian ETFs I feel are underused compared with their billion-dollar competitors. Here’s are three more ETFs and a couple of index mutual funds I’d put in the same...
View ArticleAsk the Spud: Combining e-Series Funds and ETFs
I use the Global Couch Potato with e-Series funds in my TD Waterhouse account, but I eventually want to use the Complete Couch Potato. Once my portfolio gets to $50,000 and I qualify for $9.95 trading...
View ArticleWhy Index Mutual Funds Still Have a Place
Responding to a recent article on mutual funds by Rob Carrick, a Globe and Mail reader rehashed a common refrain: “Perhaps mutual funds were once a great way for ‘average Canadians’ to invest, but they...
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How Well Does Your ETF Track Its Index?
The ideal index fund would deliver the precise return of its benchmark, but we all know that’s not realistic. ETFs and index funds may be cheap but they’re not free, and fees almost always cause them...
View ArticleWhen You Can Ignore Tracking Error
In Monday’s post, I reviewed the major factors that contribute to an index fund’s tracking error. Here are some other things to consider when you’re comparing your fund’s performance to that of its...
View ArticleCan Couch Potatoes Be Socially Responsible?
In my latest MoneySense column (see the June issue, not available online), I explored whether socially responsible investing is compatible with the Couch Potato strategy. If you’re not familiar with...
View ArticleMore on Socially Responsible Index Investing
Here’s part two of my conversation with Timothy Nash, president of Strategic Sustainable Investments and the blogger behind The Sustainable Economist. (Part one is available here.) Next week I’ll go...
View ArticleEquity Index Funds for the Socially Responsible
Last week I shared my interview with Timothy Nash, president of Strategic Sustainable Investments, the blogger behind The Sustainable Economist, and an expert in socially responsible investing (SRI)....
View ArticleThe One-Fund Solution
What’s the best way to get started with index investing? That’s the question Justin Bender and I ask in our new white paper, The One-Fund Solution. In our opinion, if you’re new to self-directed...
View ArticleThe True Cost of Foreign Withholding Taxes
Back in the fall of 2012, I wrote a pair of blog posts about the impact of foreign withholding taxes in US and international equity funds. The first explained the general idea of this tax on foreign...
View ArticleThe Couch Potato Mutual Fund is Here At Last
[Note: This was an April Fool's joke!] One of the perennial problems with ETFs is they require you to open a discount brokerage account and learn to trade individual securities. That can be...
View ArticleDecoding International Equity ETF Returns
How have international equities performed over the last year? If you research the returns of index funds in this asset class, you may wind up with more questions than answers. I recently received an...
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