EBOOK
How to Pay Less and Save More For Yourself
The Essential Consumer Guide to Canadian Banking and Investing
Rob Carrick(0)
About
From Canada's leading expert on consumer banking, this easy-to-read, indispensable book will help you keep your hard-earned money working for you.
Canadians are savvy consumers of everything — except financial products. We comparison shop for new cars and new clothes, but when it comes to our money, most of us passively hand it over to banks and other institutions. The result? Our earnings languish in bank accounts that pay out zero interest while raining down fees, or in mutual funds that make more money for the people running them than for investors.
This book is the remedy: written especially for Canadians, it is the definitive guide to getting the best possible deal on everything from savings accounts to mortgages to RRSPs. Rob Carrick puts the key information in the reader's hands through comparison charts, rankings and easy-to-follow tables, as well as good old-fashioned advice. He explains how to construct a banking profile, where to find the best bargains in financial services, how online banking and investing is changing everything, and much more.
This book shows how to get the best while paying the least, so you can use your money for the things you really want and need. Introduction
One - Create Your Own Financial Profile
Two - Banking
High-interest savings accounts
Chequing accounts
Three - Credit Cards, Loans, and Lines of Credit
Credit card reward programs
Unsecured lines of credit
Home-equity lines of credit
Your credit rating
Four - Mortgages
Renewing your mortgage
Alternative lenders
Negotiating tactics
Mortgage brokers
Variable-rate vs. fixed-term mortgages
Five - Mutual Funds
The costs of buying funds
Ownership fees, and how they eat up your returns
Indexing
Exchange-traded funds
Six - Investment Advice
Three ways to pay your adviser
Products of dubious value such as wrap accounts
and principal-protected notes
Seven - Do-It-Yourself Investing
Discount brokers versus full-service brokers
How to find the best discount broker
Value-packed ways to invest using a discount broker
Conclusion
Acknowledgements As the personal finance columnist for The Globe and Mail, Rob Carrick is one of Canada's most trusted and widely read financial experts. He is the author of two previous books and lives in Ottawa with his wife and family. Introduction
Banks, mutual fund companies, and investment dealers are among the most successful corporations in Canada, and they have you to thank for it. Yes, it's your hard-earned money that made these companies what they are today. Add up all the fees you pay to your bank, fund companies, and financial adviser and then combine them with the money paid by other clients. The resulting flow of multi-billions in annual revenue makes companies in the financial sector among the richest in Canada.
This calls to mind an often-told story about a self-important investment adviser who was visiting a marina with a friend and showing off the fancy boats that he and some of his fellow advisers owned. "Nice," said the friend, "but where are all the clients' boats?" Let's be fair — some people do get rich with the help of the financial services industry, and just maybe they get to float their boats with the big guys. As for the rest of us — well, let's just say there's a monetary imbalance between what the Bay Street brigade is pulling in and what's left over for us. You'll see it in those bank accounts that pay zero interest while raining down fees, in mutual funds that never seem to make as much money for you as they do for the companies that run them, and in the services of investment advisers who worry less about your financial progress than their own. The whole idea behind the financial services industry is to make money by helping you make and manage your money. It's a totally valid model, but not always a fair one in real life.
This book is your road map out of the dysfunctio
Canadians are savvy consumers of everything — except financial products. We comparison shop for new cars and new clothes, but when it comes to our money, most of us passively hand it over to banks and other institutions. The result? Our earnings languish in bank accounts that pay out zero interest while raining down fees, or in mutual funds that make more money for the people running them than for investors.
This book is the remedy: written especially for Canadians, it is the definitive guide to getting the best possible deal on everything from savings accounts to mortgages to RRSPs. Rob Carrick puts the key information in the reader's hands through comparison charts, rankings and easy-to-follow tables, as well as good old-fashioned advice. He explains how to construct a banking profile, where to find the best bargains in financial services, how online banking and investing is changing everything, and much more.
This book shows how to get the best while paying the least, so you can use your money for the things you really want and need. Introduction
One - Create Your Own Financial Profile
Two - Banking
High-interest savings accounts
Chequing accounts
Three - Credit Cards, Loans, and Lines of Credit
Credit card reward programs
Unsecured lines of credit
Home-equity lines of credit
Your credit rating
Four - Mortgages
Renewing your mortgage
Alternative lenders
Negotiating tactics
Mortgage brokers
Variable-rate vs. fixed-term mortgages
Five - Mutual Funds
The costs of buying funds
Ownership fees, and how they eat up your returns
Indexing
Exchange-traded funds
Six - Investment Advice
Three ways to pay your adviser
Products of dubious value such as wrap accounts
and principal-protected notes
Seven - Do-It-Yourself Investing
Discount brokers versus full-service brokers
How to find the best discount broker
Value-packed ways to invest using a discount broker
Conclusion
Acknowledgements As the personal finance columnist for The Globe and Mail, Rob Carrick is one of Canada's most trusted and widely read financial experts. He is the author of two previous books and lives in Ottawa with his wife and family. Introduction
Banks, mutual fund companies, and investment dealers are among the most successful corporations in Canada, and they have you to thank for it. Yes, it's your hard-earned money that made these companies what they are today. Add up all the fees you pay to your bank, fund companies, and financial adviser and then combine them with the money paid by other clients. The resulting flow of multi-billions in annual revenue makes companies in the financial sector among the richest in Canada.
This calls to mind an often-told story about a self-important investment adviser who was visiting a marina with a friend and showing off the fancy boats that he and some of his fellow advisers owned. "Nice," said the friend, "but where are all the clients' boats?" Let's be fair — some people do get rich with the help of the financial services industry, and just maybe they get to float their boats with the big guys. As for the rest of us — well, let's just say there's a monetary imbalance between what the Bay Street brigade is pulling in and what's left over for us. You'll see it in those bank accounts that pay zero interest while raining down fees, in mutual funds that never seem to make as much money for you as they do for the companies that run them, and in the services of investment advisers who worry less about your financial progress than their own. The whole idea behind the financial services industry is to make money by helping you make and manage your money. It's a totally valid model, but not always a fair one in real life.
This book is your road map out of the dysfunctio