Did you enjoy handing your report card to your parents? I’ve heard from friends, ;) that they were quite surgical in their use of whiteout! Or perhaps they spent too much time matching their parents signature!! (I can’t imagine who would try such a thing…..) all in an effort to hide their results. The SPIVA “report card” is no different.. only in this case, it’s your “advisors” looking to hide their results.

This information is meant to educate you on what’s been going on over a series of time intervals. SPIVA is looking at the performance and survivorship of the funds out there in the financial universe. From this data, we learn very quickly that a simple basket of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) outperform literally all of the active managers.

Next steps:

1) You can decide to review the information and make the right decision to change.

2) You can decide to review the information...

SPIVA is a fantastic resource for anyone trying to understand the active vs passive performance debate.

Here is the Mid-Year Performance for both the US and Canada in 2014. Short version.. it’s really tough for an advisor to beat or even match the appropriate index over a sustained period of time.

If 2015 is your year to take control of your financial future then you need to start with our ABC’s.. :)

We’re here to help inspired clients take control of their financial future.. So to make it easier to share and gain insight into why we exist, how we function and what we’re about, we are turning to YouTube.

It’s exciting to leverage a platform that makes it easier to share and connect on best practices, ideas, and education. Our plan is to generate content that empowers you to achieve the success you deserve.

Subscribe today :)

This post will attempt to answer who the TFSA is best designed for. (Hint: Everyone.. get yours started today!) We often came across a common misconception on how the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) actually works for Canadians.

Here’s the problem, Tax Free Savings Account. Did you catch the hint? Most Canadian investors associate the “savings” in a TFSA with their “savings” account at their bank. This error costs you money because unlike your savings account, you can hold any stock, ETF or Option within a TFSA. The potential returns of these investment options far exceeds what the bank pays you in interest for your “savings” account.

So let’s start;

What is a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA)?
Put simply the TFSA is an account that lets you grow your money tax free. That’s right, any income earned through dividend or capital gains grows tax free, even upon withdrawal! As of 2014 if...

So how exactly are we different? Why should you choose us? Perhaps we should explore the “Why” and “How”.

Why Change?

Ask yourself this question.. “Who does your advisor work for?” Do they act on your best interests? It may surprise you to know that most advisors simply have to meet a “suitability” requirement when selling you on an investment. This puts your interests and theirs in direct conflict because of the fees and commissions offered to advisors for getting you into the funds that pay them the most!

Video Break: CBC Marketplace; Show Me The Money

Trouble with Investment Advisors

“industry executives admit that trailer fees exist only to encourage brokers to sell their products. “If it doesn’t pay a trailing commission, it doesn’t make it onto [a broker’s] product shelf..”

“The more an adviser brings in, the bigger his or her slice of the pie becomes..”

“Fund companies...

This will become your tipping point.. I know this because it was mine. The only way to know for sure how you’re doing is to compare the performance you’ve already achieved against that of the market for the same time period. At MoneyUpstream we feel so strongly in this process that we undertake this review at no cost to you. In addition we’ll have a simple discussion to review what it all means. Our goal is to answer the question that’s in the back of your mind. Success in the future depends on doing the right things today.

YOUR PERFORMANCE: The first step..
For our clients this piece of information typically comes in one of two forms:

1) A mailed statement from your current advisor/firm that shows your investments performance. save that paper :-). This will typically be either a quarterly or annual statement.

2) A screenshot of their individual investment accounts: The image needs...

Vision: Success requires the acknowledgement of those individuals or groups that assisted us along the way. Simply put, we should consider how to further empower our family, friends and neighbours in order for them to start on their path to success.

Put to Practise: Celebrate the human spirit! Together we’ve achieved some amazing things. (although you wouldn’t pick that up from the nightly news!) What’s required from time to time is to simply step back and reflect on what’s positive in our lives. Part of this process involves engaging our family and friends. Like a rising tide, remaining engaged with our friends and family lifts us all up so we can meet our goals.

Vision. Only through an active and trusting partnership can we achieve a shared goal. We act with fiduciary responsibility, which means our coaching discussions and recommendations put your interests and goals before ours.

Put to Practise Truth and Transparency, the clearest demonstration of our partnership is realized immediately with our clients. In general, we coach you away from mutual funds which time and again demonstrate two failings 1 High Fees and 2 Poor Performance. Time and again we find the average investor has been placed into funds that have expensive annual service fees or pay a generous deferred sales charge upfront to the advisor. To add insult to injury the funds performance will almost always trail that of the broad market. This means you’re paying your advisor to under perform. We simply refuse to accept this practise.

MoneyUpstream Coaching becomes your trusted...

Your future is what’s at stake. This is a simple but scary sentence. It’s something I came to realize back in early 2009.

Like you, I’m a hard working, educated employee who has the responsibility to save for themselves. In other words, I do not have a government pension nor do I have a pension provided by my company. Following the traditional approach I started working with an “advisor” who had been referred to me by some family friends. Although I had managed our money on my own to this point, I thought that with a growing family and additional work responsibilities it would be best to share the workload with this advisor.

From the beginning these relationships are full of promise and opportunity. It’s only after careful review and consideration that the truth comes out.

Perhaps it’s best to ask a question at this point, “Who does your advisor actually work for?”

With the way...