The Globe and Mail - Rob Carrick Columns

Protecting the future of your RESPs

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 09:50 EDT

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A user's guide to market mayhem

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 00:00 EDT

This begins a regular Report on Business feature to answer reader questions about the global financial crisis. To submit your questions and read more, go to reportonbusiness.comWhere will the $700-billion (U.S.) in the Wall Street bailout package go and how will prices be determined?

Protecting the future of your RESPs

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 00:00 EDT

Registered education savings plans are all about helping kids get a post-secondary education. But it's the parents who buy them who are being taken to school by the plunging stock market.

From bailing to buying: One adviser's day

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 00:00 EDT

Investment adviser Ted Rechtshaffen's to-do list yesterday as the stock markets plunged: 1. Concede defeat in trying to calm one particular client and place a sell order for all his holdings in the stock markets.

Bonds can help reverse that sinking feeling

Sat, 4 Oct 2008 01:51 EDT

They can be relied on to pay interest twice a year, and lower interest rates ahead can only help

Who held up best during Monday's carnage?

Sat, 4 Oct 2008 00:00 EDT

WHAT WE'RE UP TOA search for stability in troubled times.TODAY'S SEARCHWe took funds in all the major equity categories - Canadian, U.S. and global - and looked at how they performed in the stock market debacle Monday in which the SandP/TSX composite index fell 6.9 per cent and the SandP 500 fell 8.8 per cent. The funds presented here are the ones that lost the least money for their unitholders. Yes, that was success on Monday - losing less money than the next guy. Also shown is each fund's year-to-date quartile ranking, which indicates how a fund's returns compare to its peers. Placing in the first or second quartile shows a fund has been comparatively strong all year, and not just on Monday.

September bear taught us some lessons

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 00:00 EDT

Bull markets are preferable all around, but bear markets teach you a lot more about investing.Oh, the lessons that have been taught this past September, as the SandP/TSX composite index dropped 14.7 per cent and the SandP 500 fell 9.2 per cent. If you invest in mutual funds, you'll want to study them closely.

Go with your gut in these credit crazy days

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:00 EDT

The global financial crisis is hitting Canadians right where they live.For the second time in less than seven days, banks and other lenders have raised the cost of mortgages. Last week, it was fixed-rate mortgages. In the past couple of days, variable-rate mortgages have also become more expensive.

Don't lose any sleep over Canada's financial system

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00 EDT

Worry about the stock markets if you must, but not the financial system on which it's built.Pretty much everything financial looks like garbage today. Stocks had a historically bad day, the capper on a September to remember for its nastiness. In the United States, lawmakers voted down a rescue plan that was supposed to save the U.S. financial system from ruin. And in the background, more U.S. and European banks were flat lining.