Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast. We are proud to say that last week's show received our highest amount of downloads yet, with 10 000 in its first week, so a big thank you to our listeners for that. We begin our discussion this week with some takeaways from the Playing With FIRE documentary about doing affordable things that feel good as a way of cutting costs. Next, we dive into some caller questions, discussing whether putting a downpayment on a rental...
Nov 28, 2019•52 min•Season 2Ep. 74
In today's episode, we are joined by an exciting guest, The Loonie Doctor, of The Loonie Doctor blog to talk about his work not only on physician finance but also on holistic wealth. A physician by training, The Loonie Doctor has scaled back his practice to put more work into the blog and financial education. He masterfully balances precise technical advice on topics like tax alongside 'softer' aspects of money, such as how it affects relationships and other aspects of human capital. These insig...
Nov 21, 2019•41 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Today on The Rational Reminder Podcast, we talk about the relationship between asset allocation and outcome, the ins and outs of reverse mortgages, and finally, life insurance (or lack thereof) in Canada. However, we begin by sharing some interesting points covered in a recent Barry Ritholtz interview with Eugene Fama and David Booth for his Masters in Business show. We talk about how Booth started the first index fund and discovered the value factor, and quote some of Fama's classic perspective...
Nov 14, 2019•43 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Today we welcome Dave Nadig onto the show, who joins us off the back of a brilliant presentation he gave at the Wealth Stack conference last month in Scottsdale. Dave is the founder of etf.com and has had key positions at FactSet, Barclays Global Investors, and Cerulli previously. Today Dave sits down to talk about the difference between ETFs and mutual funds, EFT product saturation, the coming of Direct Indexing and well as non-transparent active funds, and risk probabilities in different asset...
Nov 07, 2019•48 min•Season 2Ep. 71
On today's episode, we cover a variety of topics, such as some tips for DIY investors, highlights from a conference Cameron recently attended, home country investment bias and whether it's possible to have too much money in your RRSP. We begin first by talking about what DIY investors can do to ensure that they are investing to the best of their abilities. As people who work in investment daily, we often forget how tricky a terrain it can be to navigate if you are not armed with all of the knowl...
Oct 31, 2019•56 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Today we are joined by Wesley Gray who is the CEO of Alpha Architect, a firm in the US that specializes in concentrated factor strategies. Having completed his MBA and PhD at the University of Chicago – the Harvard of the finance world – Wes is an authoritative voice when it comes to quantitative research and factor investing. Incredibly, he took a 4-year break during his PhD, joined the marines and went to Iraq, and has also written several books. He went from value investor and stock-picker to...
Oct 24, 2019•53 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Welcome back to the podcast everybody, we have another great round-up episode for you where we field questions that you sent in and cover a bunch of things we think you need to hear! We discuss how you should weight your stocks and bonds ratio and times that you could think about changing it, we also talk about index funds, Michael Burry and why his reputation is a bit overstated. Then we get into the different types of risk! We cover volatility, uncompensated risk, skewness, and inflation and h...
Oct 17, 2019•48 min•Season 2Ep. 68
From a trader on Wall Street to a financial advisor with her own firm, our guest today, Jill Schlesinger, has accumulated a lifetime of knowledge in the investing and financial world. Today she is a household name and well-known media personality, appearing on a variety of CBS shows and hosting her own podcast called Jill on Money . But she is far more than an investment expert: she also has a ton of insight into people's emotional and psychological responses to money, sharing with listeners tho...
Oct 10, 2019•41 min•Season 2Ep. 67
Welcome back to Rational Reminder Podcast! We kick off today's episode with a discussion about the gap between investor performance and fund performance, the potential reasons why asset allocation funds produced a positive gap and the role that timing and volatility play in a negative behaviour gap. IPOs have been in the media a great deal lately – and not for particularly positive reasons and we tackle the topic with reference to specific companies. We also talk about Dimensional's paper on the...
Oct 03, 2019•33 min•Season 2Ep. 66
Our guest today on the Rational Reminder Podcast is Dr. Wendall Mascarenhas. Wendall is a listener, DIY investor a medical professional. He actually reached out to us on Twitter and suggested this episode, a listener-centric discussion as well as one comparing the different approaches to evidence from the medical and the financial communities. We thought this was a great idea and the perspective that Wendall offers is very illuminating and thought-provoking. We discuss some of Wendall's own expe...
Sep 26, 2019•37 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Michael Burry says we should get out of indexing. Jim Cramer says it's time to jump in. These are interesting times in the world of investing! On today's episode, we discuss Burry's recent claims about passive investing and advise on a plan of action should he turn out to be right. Benjamin recently posted a new video on dividends, and we have a conversation about the responses the video triggered and give some good reasons for our stance about the irrelevance of dividends. We also talk about ne...
Sep 19, 2019•44 min•Season 2Ep. 64
We have a really special episode in store today as we welcome Tim Nash, the Sustainable Economist! Tim shares a vast amount of knowledge and ideas with us on how investors wishing to put their money where their heart is can go about investing more ethically and sustainably. We hear about Tim's journey into investing and economics and how he wound up doing the work he currently does, helping investors clarify where their money is going and how to put it portfolios that are more aligned with their...
Sep 12, 2019•50 min•Season 2Ep. 63
Welcome back to another episode of the Rational Reminder! We are doing another variety show for all of you and this week we cover some news, current affairs, questions and of course our staple bad advice of the week! We start the show looking at the restructuring of swap-based ETF's from Horizons before looking at Michal Burry's latest commentary and predictions. From there we move onto John Rekenthaler's recent article on Morningstar about Canadian financial advice and what it is lacking. We di...
Sep 05, 2019•39 min•Season 2Ep. 62
We have another phenomenal guest joining us on the podcast today. You might know Ted Seides from his famous bet with Warren Buffett or, more recently, from his widely successful Capital Allocators Podcast. Ted is what we would call a classically impressive guy, having studied at both Ivy League frontrunners Yale and Harvard and having founded Protégé Partners, an asset management and advisory firm that specializes in hedge funds. In addition, he has trained under the legendary David Swensen, and...
Aug 29, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 61
Welcome back to the Rational Reminder everybody! We are taking this episode to round up all the recent goings-on and tackle a few residual issues that we believe need some attention. We start off by contemplating how much we have both been learning with the wealth of guests that come through our doors. We would never be confronted with this many ideas and inspiration if it were not for this great platform on which we find ourselves! From there we go on to discuss all the recent talk of a recessi...
Aug 22, 2019•40 min•Season 2Ep. 60
Welcome to another episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast! We have a fantastic guest joining us today to talk about annuities, or in more general terms, pensionization. Alexandra Macqueen is certified financial planner, who is also a financial author, editor, York University educator, consultant, and speaker. Alexandra co-wrote a book with Dr. Moshe Milevsky called Pensionize Your Nest Egg: How to Use Product Allocation to Create a Guaranteed Income for Life , an incredible resource on our top...
Aug 15, 2019•39 min•Season 2Ep. 59
On today's episode, Benjamin and Cameron are talking real estate, specifically mortgage rates and REITs. For the first time since the early 90s, fixed mortgage rates are lower than variable ones, which have always been the popular choice. However, due to the fact that Canada's yield curve is inverted, short term rates higher than their long-term counterparts. This is not usually the case, which makes it a great time to consider a fixed term mortgage, bearing in mind that it requires some lifesty...
Aug 08, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 58
On today's episode we are so happy to be joined by none other than Barry Ritholtz! As the founder and CIO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, host of the Masters in Business Podcast and regular financial blogger for more than 15 years, Barry is someone we have been dying to speak to on the show and who we have taken loads of inspiration from over the years. We talk to Barry about his own podcast which has been going strong for years now and is just about to reach its 250th episode! He also explains t...
Aug 01, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 57
On the show today we are going back to basics, just Cameron and Benjamin going through some useful topics for your financial benefit! We start talking about GIC's and the article on MoneySense that led to this conversation. GIC's have a somewhat mix and match reputation, one which we believe has been often misunderstood and misrepresented. We try to show in which ways people have been misled into thinking that GIC's are the best option when, we believe, they are not. From there we turn to more g...
Jul 25, 2019•38 min•Season 2Ep. 56
Joining us on the podcast today is Jonathan Clements, former Wall Street Journal columnist, founder of HumbleDollar and author of From Here to Financial Happiness , How to Think About Money and several other books. Jonathan is a well-known name in the world of personal finance as he has been giving financial advice for more than 20 years. Today he talks about the role of stories in shaping people's understanding of and relationship with money by sharing an anecdote from his own childhood. He dis...
Jul 18, 2019•37 min•Season 2Ep. 55
Today on the Rational Reminder Podcast we have joining us Dr. David Blitzer who is the Managing Director and Chairman of the S&P Dow Jones index committee. He has been there from the time when indexes were barely even being traded and the first time S&P Futures began trading, and since then, indexing has turned into the massive phenomenon we all know today. Indeed, S&P indexes were (and still is) at the center of this explosion. Today Dr. Blitzer talks to us about the early days of i...
Jul 11, 2019•53 min•Season 2Ep. 54
Live in the studio with us today is Preet Banerjee, renowned speaker, personal finance expert, consultant and author of Stop Overthinking Your Money. He is also the founder of MoneyGaps, a hybrid-advisor platform designed to help financial advisors make financial planning accessible to more Canadians. Having done a reality TV show and with a popular YouTube channel, Preet is on the forefront of the finance world, and he is here to talk to us about the findings that his DBA research has produced....
Jul 04, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 53
Welcome to this week's Rational Reminded Podcast! Today we're diving into the recent CPPIB report that portrays actively managed funds in the most optimistic light. But before you trade in your index funds, we look at the methodologies and calculations employed by the report and show why there are a number of issues with their findings. Benjamin shares his proposal for an alternative analysis that employs a more risk appropriate benchmark, and we discuss why the report can be seriously misguidin...
Jun 27, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 52
On the Rational Reminder today we are joined by Ellen Roseman from The Toronto Star, who has been writing and working in the realm of Canadian personal finance and consumer rights for many years. We have a great chat about her work history, what has driven her career and what motivates her to continue to pursue her path of creating financial awareness for more people. We discuss the position of advocacy for consumer rights and how that translates into her everyday work, her most important and re...
Jun 20, 2019•40 min•Season 2Ep. 51
Welcome back to the Rational Reminder Podcast! We're nearing our one-year anniversary, and we are still getting more listeners every episode and we have some incredible guests lined up for you! Today we are tackling more technical issues and some interesting topics overall. We explore the tax implications of VGRO or any of the asset allocation ETFs of Vanguard and iShares and discuss the scenarios in which it might be more advisable to configure the asset allocation that you want using a differe...
Jun 13, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 50
On today's episode, we are joined by Jaime Purvis, Executive Vice President at Horizons ETFs. Having been the company's third ever employee, he has worked at the company for nearly 24 years and provides an in-depth inside look into how Horizons has come to have the reputation of being ahead of the curve in the Canadian ETF market. He takes us through some of Horizons history, how they got into ETFs, as well as giving some insights into how these products were chosen. Given the instability of the...
Jun 06, 2019•43 min•Season 2Ep. 49
Welcome back to your weekly reality check on sensible investing and financial decision making for Canadians. On today's episode we kick it off with a combo of a current topics, answering listener questions, and discussing the bad advice of the week. We then dive into the huge shift in the industry in the US in terms of fund flows into index funds out of active mutual funds. When you look at the overall US market cap, 13% of it is in index funds. This means that price discovery is being done by 8...
May 30, 2019•40 min•Season 2Ep. 48
Today we're talking about a slightly different topic from the usual – used cars. We have Brad Boehme joining us and he is the Dealer Principal/General Manager at MyCar, a successful used cars dealership that has three different locations around the country. Brad shares with us how he got into the industry, how the 2008 financial crisis helped them to start the business, where they source their inventory from and why the profits are in the buying more than in the selling. Client experience is a h...
May 23, 2019•35 min•Season 2Ep. 47
Welcome back to the podcast everybody! Today we are running through our weekly topics as usual, giving you the best, worst and everything in between on investing in Canada. We are talking a bit about the really interesting and important SOHN Investment Conference and what goes on there. We also go into why random stock picks, chosen by a thrown dart, beat Wall Street's elite and what we can learn from the SPIVA Report. From there we go pretty deep into the topic of low volatility and how its dif...
May 16, 2019•36 min•Season 2Ep. 46
Today on the show we are joined by Dr. Moira Somers, author of the book Advice That Sticks and expert on neuroscience, advising and leadership. Dr. Somers does a great job of unpacking all the different parts of her job and career and a multitude of topics from the financial advice field. She explains what it means to be a wealth psychologist and who makes up the bulk of her clientele. We then discuss the value of good, reliable financial advice and why most people seek it out and when. Dr. Some...
May 09, 2019•36 min•Season 2Ep. 45
