Warren Buffett, the tycoon from Omaha who became America’s second richest billionaire after Bill Gates, quipped that investing is simple but not necessarily easy. The simplicity is understanding relatively few things very, very well. The job entails both researching each business he buys and having the guts to stick to rules he traces back to Ben […] Read more
Investing in financial markets
In Part 1 of this new series on financial management basis, Andrew Allentuck explains how to choose a manager for your money
Making the best of inflation
Government taxes what it creates. Here are some strategies for making the best of it
Making capital gains is the essence of investing. Yet many gains are nothing of the sort. They are only the illusory repricing of goods and incomes. Government drives inflation, then taxes stocks and bonds, incomes, house prices and even farms that are part of the repricing. If you think that this is unjust, you’re right. […] Read more
Bachelor farmer seeks retirement plan
Farm Financial Planner: With no spouse and no children to take over the farm, this single farmer needs to decide when he can retire, then create his retirement and inheritance plan
Fred, as we’ll call him, has farmed in central Manitoba for four decades, often adding to farm income by working for his neighbours. Over time, he has sold off parcels of his operation — once 480 acres — and is now down to 160 acres. He uses his land for producing hay, custom grazing and […] Read more
Untangling the farm tax knots
For a two-generation family actively farming a big spread, transition poses tax issues
In southwestern Manitoba, a couple we’ll call Phil, 63, and Mary, 58, have farmed grain for the last four decades. For Phil, the farm is a continuation of a family tradition with his parents and his brother. For 40 years, they have plowed all profits back into the farm. Today, they farm 4,000 acres they […] Read more
Why should you invest in bonds?
Bonds no longer offer interest above dividend rates, but they are an insurance policy for market mayhem
Readers often ask why and how one should buy bonds. The reason used to be to get interest at a rate above what stocks pay as dividends. That does not work anymore, for bank stocks and big telecoms, for example, pay four to five per cent. Ten-year Government of Canada bonds pay 2.5 per cent. […] Read more
Keep the money in the family
Farm Financial Planner: Family finds way to transfer financial gains from farming on to the next generation
A couple we’ll call Jack and Mary Walrosser, 35 and 34, used to farm with Jack’s family in central Manitoba. Jack’s father Harold and Harold’s wife Beatrice, both age 61, farm 960 acres of pasture and oilseeds. Life has had its challenges. Harold had contracts to produce pregnant mare’s urine for the pharmaceutical industry. Those […] Read more
Protect your off-farm investments
The bull market we’ve been living with could be nearing its end. Keep your capital intact through the downturn
It is a principle of finance that people will pay almost anything for what they don’t know. Stocks with dubious futures can soar in price when investors, fearful of being left out, jump on the bandwagon. Voices of caution are few and far between. Yet now they are being heard. In New York, where you […] Read more
Farm financial planning: Trusts can increase family trust
Trust avoids family infighting for retiring Manitoba couple aiming to keep their land in the family, but also keep their kids still talking to each other
In south central Manitoba a couple we’ll call Harry and Ella, both 64, face the challenge of transferring their 3,500 acre mixed grain and 400 cow operation to their three children. The problem is that two of the children, each in the 30s, don’t want to farm. It’s a good business worth about $4 million. […] Read more
The high cost of buying stocks and bonds in a boom market
With financial prices rising, prudent investors need to be cautious in the marketplace
It is a paradox of off-farm investing that, as the U.S. economy strengthens and the Canadian economy gains speed, albeit sluggishly, buying stocks and bonds is getting to be harder, not easier. The reasons are, of course, that many other investors have already made their bets, bought the stocks they expect to rise, put money […] Read more
Slash your tax bill by transferring the farm
Resigned to quit, a farming couple makes a plan to slash taxes and hand the operation to their children
In south central Manitoba, a couple we’ll call Harry and Marge, 81 and 73, are tackling the problem of transferring their 1,760 acre farm, mostly pasture, and their 120 cattle, to their children who we’ll call Bob, 46, and Cathy, 42. Harry and Marge know they have to give up control sooner or later, given […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
