Thursday, October 27, 2016

Money Show 2016 - Warren MacKenzie

Warren MacKenzie's talk was entitled "Practical Advice for Long Term Investing". Warren MacKenzie is a Stewardship Counsellor with Highview Financial.

To Warren MacKenzie, long term is more than 10 years. If you need money in 5 years you should not be investing it. Long Term investing should be boring.

There is lots of doom and gloom at the money show. We will have a bear market at some point in the future. However, if you need more money what you should do is 1) work longer, 2) spend less or 3) take on more volatility. You get higher returns with higher volatility.

Your investing should be goal based. Take as much risk as you need to but no more. You should not manager returns, but you should manage risk. Investing has not only stock market risk, but emotional risk. There is also a government risk. An example of government risk is the income trust rules change by the government.

It is best to be diversified. You should invest in different asset classes. You need the correct asset risk for you goals.

If investing is a hobby, put some money aside to play with. You cannot expect to be better at all investment categories, so sometimes you would be better off with ETFs. Always do quarterly reviews of your investments.

Some advisors come under the suitability standard. An example is the banks. If you ask for Canadian Stocks and they give you a Mutual Fund with Canadian Stocks and it is the worse one with high trailer fees, this is legal. What you want is an advisor that is held to a fiduciary standard. Get it in writing that they follow this standard.

You need to auto rebalance your portfolio. This will force you to do what is right. Do not have a complicated portfolio when you are 90. Now is the time to simplify your portfolio. You do not want to wait and be too late.

The most important things about fees should be that you are getting value for your fees. A tiny fee is not ok if you are not getting value. Do not focus too much on fees. It is important to benchmark your portfolio. His benchmark is ETF portfolios.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. (TSX-GS, OTC-GLUSF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about Equitable Group Inc. (TSX-EQB, OTC-EQGPF)... learn more on Friday, October 26, 2016 around 5 pm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

No comments:

Post a Comment