What do you get when you invest in capital markets? You might say stocks or bonds, mutual funds or units in real estate investment trusts. That answer is both true and false. You do get ownership of those things, but in a more analytical sense, what you are really getting is risk — any stock […] Read more
Guarding Wealth: Buying risk, paying for liquidity
Price-earnings ratios are a useful way to analyze your investment decisions
Life insurance alternatives
Banks push mortgage life insurance, but there are cheaper, more flexible alternatives
If you’re getting a mortgage for the first time or refinancing an existing mortgage at a different institution, chances are the person across the desk is going to try to peddle mortgage life insurance. Data show that about 60 per cent of Canadians with a mortgage written by a bank also have mortgage life. It’s […] Read more
Young Manitoba farmers plan their lives
By planning early and including an off-farm pension, this young couple will have a secure retirement
A couple we’ll call Roger and Martha, both 29, farm in southern Manitoba. They have combined income of $160,000 a year based on Martha’s town job, which pays $90,000 a year, and Roger’s work on his family farm and his own part-time farm operation for which he draws $70,000 a year. Life is good for […] Read more
Where’s the beef and who owns what?
Out on the northwestern Manitoba range there’s a custody battle between a farmer and his former mistress in which ownership of 11 cows and their perhaps 22 calves is at stake. Manitoba Family Court and the Court of Appeal have been trying to determine ownership of the animals and then to divvy up the farmer’s […] Read more
A pre-emptive retirement
Farm Financial Planner: Preparing for life in town, a Manitoba farm couple prepares to pull an income out of their farm corporation assets
Central Manitoba grain farmers we’ll call Mel and Judy, 56 and 53, are in the process of selling their farm and migrating to town. They are making what you could call a pre-emptive move, for they have two children with off-farm jobs. Neither of the children has an interest in keeping the farm going. Mel […] Read more
Becoming a competent investor
Guarding Wealth: There are several sources of financial advice for beginning investors, or investors looking to learn more
As a columnist for Grainews and Financial Post, I am frequently asked what it takes to learn to invest in stocks, bonds and other financial assets. There is a core of knowledge that every investor needs. Books Inspirational personal finance books. The Wealthy Barber is the best of this breed, but this is investing lite. […] Read more
Stock risks after year of gains
After a good run in the stock market, investors have decisions to make
It is a dilemma unique to the times, specifically to January and February 2014. After a remarkable run from 2011 or, for that matter, from the beginning of the recovery in March, 2009, stock markets in Canada, the U.S. and in much of the world are breaking through former highs. The broad U.S. market measured […] Read more
Keep the farm going
For a multi-generational family farm, it’s continuity rather than profit that’s the guiding principle for succession
Jack and Martha, as we’ll call them, farm 1,760 acres in central Manitoba. At the ages of 67 and 62, they are thinking of handing over the reins of their operation to their son, Bob, who is 30 and already active in running the farm. Bob will be the fourth generation of his family to […] Read more
Transferring ownership
A couple we’ll call Herb and Martha, both 71, have done well with their grain farm, currently 2,800 acres, in south central Manitoba. It has taken them half a century of work to accumulate the land and to build their business, but today, with combined assets of $5 million including $2 million retained earnings inside […] Read more
Low interest rates won’t last forever
Low interest rates are set to continue for another year or more. Find out how farmers can make the most of the current environment
Interest rates are due to rise and, as the world waits for low single digit interest and borrowing rates to rise to historical norms, mischief stalks the land. Far from the canyons of Wall and Bay streets, farmers are at risk of having to pay more to borrow money and, as a result, earning less […] Read moreCyber-Savvy Farmer
