The holiday season can mean that your wallet will take a hit with extra spending on traveling, gift-giving, dining in, and dining out. If you’re already looking to start budgeting for the new year – here are a few tips on how to get started.

Most people have good intentions to save what is left of their income after paying necessary expenses. The problem is that there are many ways to spend your monthly paycheck that can result in not having much money left to save. So what do people mean when they say, “pay yourself first”?

There are stringent rules within the investment industry known as KYC (Know Your Client) regulations which lay out the information an Investment/Portfolio Manager needs to gather to be able to choose the most suitable investment products and services for each individual client.

But there are no such regulations specifying what clients should know about their Investment/Portfolio Managers. The onus is on you or your designated financial fiduciary to Know Your Manager (KYM).

In this article, we provide an essential KYM checklist to find the Investment/Portfolio Manager best suited to your needs and objectives.

How are investors protected in Canada? Canadians generally have two sources of account protection in Canada: the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). Both are intended to maintain investor confidence in the Canadian financial system. In this article, we explain the role of the CDIC and CIPF and the kind of protection each offers.

An Investment Policy Statement (IPS) is a crucial, client-specific document developed between you and your portfolio manager. It documents your financial objectives, constraints, unique circumstances and overall governance procedures, all of which are to be applied to the investment related activities carried out on your behalf by your portfolio manager.