When you buy something, you're trading hours of your life to acquire those goods and services.
So, is it worth hiring a housekeeper or a gardener to try and hang to a bit more of that time? What about a dog walker or a painter?
Well, it all depends on what you figure your time is worth and how important you view the task.
Economists have labelled this the “comparative advantage” dilemma and it’s worth thinking about – particularly if you and your partner find yourself with different priorities.
As if the poor folks ruined by convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff don’t have enough problems, a new phishing scam is hoping they’ll bite one more time.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is alerting investors about a phony web site that falsely claims to have recovered $1.3 billion in funds hidden by Madoff in Malaysia.
The site claims to be home to the non-existent "International Security Investor Protection Corporation" and bears a convincing likeness to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation's (the entity formed by the U.S. Congress to assist customers of insolvent brokerage firms) own web site, mimicking its look, feel, and content.
The eyes of the world will turn to Vancouver tonight to see who comes home with the gold.
But long before the top athletes hit the podium, it looks like the major sponsors of the Games are already coming out way ahead of the pack.
If you’d like to join them, keep an eye on the Dow Jones Summer/Winter Games Index, a collection of publicly traded partners, sponsors and suppliers of the Vancouver Games.
While the event may be global, the current index is anything but. Having dropped the Chinese names that drove it leading up to the Beijing Games, the index is now heavily tilted towards North America, with roughly 60 per cent allocated to the U.S and 30 per cent to Canada.
Time was, disappointed clients were reluctant to fire their advisors, preferring the devil they knew.
But that’s beginning to change in the wake of deep financial losses and so many “wow, who knew?” scandals.
That’s why, unless you can afford to lose thousands of dollars each year, you need to know how your advisor stacks up, says Warren MacKenzie, whose firm, Weigh House Investor Services, helps investors with unbiased assessments of their portfolios and the advisors that built them.
For a fee, of course.
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Retired neurologist William Bernstein has pursued his hobby of statistics and portfolio theory with such passion that he first created an online publication, The Efficient Frontier, and then wrote two popular investment books The Intelligent Asset Allocator and The Four Pillars of Investing.
His latest message to investors who feel betrayed by the devastation of wealth they’ve witnessed over the 18 months: You’re right, it’s not just you, most stocks do actually lose money over time.
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
While Canada took the day off, U.S. stocks rallied yesterday. The S&P 500 jumped 3% after positive news about the U.S. housing market, including an upbeat profit forecast from home-improvement giant Lowes.
Great news ... but investors are still divided as to whether the recent rise in global stock markets is the beginning of a sustained bull market, or just a bear market rally – meaning that these gains could be short-lived.
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Although you don’t see him as often now, Knight Kiplinger was often a no-nonsense guest on Wall Street Week, CNN and CNBC. Now editor of the Kiplinger Letter, the longest continually published business newsletter in the United States, he recently published an Investor Manifesto that goes a bit further than the usual “buy low, sell high” advice.
As credos go, you could do a lot worse.
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Sadly, many people have found out too late that stocks are suitable only for money that they won't need for several years. No one knows the ideal time horizon for holding stocks but you can be certain that it's extremely risky for money that you think you'll need in a year or two.
And if you didn’t know this before, 2008’s meltdown brought it home with a vengeance.
Older investors, in particular, need to be wary of market downturns as they enter what York University prof Moshe Milevsky has labelled the "retirement risk zone" — namely, the period just before or after they leave work.
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Given that we’ve never seen a 10-year stretch as bad as this one, it’s not surprising that so many people feel that that buying and holding stocks is a mug’s game.
In fact, according to Jeff Macke, the loudest of CNBC’s strident Fast Money crew, 2008 will go down in history as the year that long-term investing died altogether.
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Sliding markets sent assets tumbling by $8.5-billion at the Canada Pension Plan in the most recent quarter. This, the second consecutive drop, means the fund's assets shrunk by $18.8-billion over the last six months of 2008.
That’s a big number … and more fodder for alarmists who want you to think that the sky is falling, taking your hard-earned retirement money along with it. Don’t believe them.
Gordon PowersA long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...
James HaversJames is the senior editor of MSN Money living in Toronto. He has worked for the Nikkei Shimbun (Tokyo), canoe.ca, AOL.ca, Canadian Business and other publications. Havers turned to journalism after teaching overseas.
Jason BucklandThe modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...
