Eight lessons learned in 27 years of covering personal finance and investing
June 25, 2025
The formula for success in personal finance is just this: Spend less than you make, keep debt manageable and save and invest regularly.
It’s all so simple – and so rarely followed. If you’re dealing with the high cost of living, expensive housing and volatile financial markets, the foundational rules of money can feel like an unaffordable luxury.
In my final column as The Globe and Mail’s personal finance columnist, I want to look at some of the challenges people face in managing their money and suggest some solutions.
I wrote my first column in October, 1998 – it was on the latest crop of rewards credit cards. Thousands of columns, features, blog posts, videos, newsletters and podcasts followed, each one a step toward a better understanding of how people interact with money.
All along, readers like you kept me sharp with your questions and comments. There were tens of thousands of e-mails and many interactions with Globe readers on the street and elsewhere.
I had a chat with a reader in a Hawaii airport about finding the best foreign exchange rates. A guy once walked up to me while I was showering at the gym to ask if I thought the government would raise the contribution limit for tax-free savings accounts that year. And, believe it or not, there are people out there who want selfies with a personal finance columnist.
Thanks to Globe readers, Globe colleagues and the many good people I’ve known in the financial industry over 27 fantastic years. Here are some final thoughts:
It has never been harder to be good with money
The modern-era reference period for economic hardship is the early 1980s, when interest rates soared into the double digits to fight inflation and the economy was weak. I’m not so old that I had a mortgage in those days, but I do have a long-term perspective on personal finance and I can tell you it’s harder today.
The internet, mobile apps and social media have amplified our consumption-based culture to new extremes. You can buy stuff at any time of day and see how your friends arespending their money. Also, debt is far more burdensome thanks to the rise of the home equity line of credit and the mega-mortgages needed to buy a home. And then there’s inflation: Not as bad as in the eighties, but severe in its own right.
A personal finance irony is that we are living longer lives yet expect to achieve our financial goals on the same schedule as before or sooner. Pick something helpful to do with your finances today and aim to do more with time.
Rob Carrick: Worried about money? Even financial planners are feeling the stress these days
Financial advice is the best it’s ever been
I felt inundated in my early days by reader stories about do-nothing investment advisers whose business model was selling high-fee mutual funds. The predatory “always be selling” culture that ruled in financial advice circles then has been cleaned up to some extent. It lingers in the background, but there is more true advice available today than in the past.
Investment advisers increasingly offer financial planning to clients in addition to portfolio management, a service that has lost some of its exclusivity through the rise of low-cost exchange-traded funds. Even more encouraging is the rise of fee-only financial advice, where you pay a flat or hourly fee in exchange for plans that can be narrowly focused on matters such as retirement readiness or which take a more comprehensive, full-life view. I have many times shared a directory of planners maintained by a diligent financial blogger – here it is again.
DIY investing is the best it’s ever been
The marriage of ETFs and digital investing apps has given investors the means to build nicely diversified portfolios at little cost or effort. Some brokers charge no commissions to buy and sell stocks or ETFs, while others charge $6 to $10 or so. The cost of trading is no longer an obstacle to managing even a small portfolio.
ETFs are the ideal building block because they let you cheaply mimic all the major stock and bond indexes, which is all you really need to do for long-term investment success. One of the most encouraging things I’ve seen lately is a recent weekly note from TD Securities saying that asset allocation funds led inflows of money in ETF land. Asset allocation funds are portfolios of stocks and bonds in a single convenient package. They are a bland, sensible product that could not be more perfect for mainstream investors.
Investor expectations for stocks are unrealistic
Take it from someone with decades of covering markets: Stock returns over the past five years are a few clicks beyond exceptional; they will not last, so get your head – and your heart – ready.
This has to be said in light of the overreaction of investors to the stock market plunge in the early days of the trade war. Never have I heard from so many readers about selling stocks and going to cash. Retirees wondered if they would live long enough to see a rebound. Just as an aside, the major stock indexes have made up all or nearly all of that lost ground.
Part of being a good investor is accepting that there will be times when stocks plunge. If you can’t take the pain straight on, rethink whether stocks are for you.
Young adults have legitimate worries about their future
What millennials went through in the aftermath of the 2008-09 global finance crisis, Gen Z is now experiencing as a result of pandemic disruptions to the economy. Job scarcity for students and grads is severe, housing affordability has deteriorated to alarming levels, and the cost of rent and groceries has surged.
There’s a growing sense of disaffection among young people today. You can see it in their support for the Conservatives rather than the incumbent Liberals in the recent federal election and in social-media memes about living one day at a time because saving for home ownership and retirement seems pointless.
A benchmark of success for the current federal government will be the level of hope among young adults when it comes to their economic prospects.
Gen Z workers entering today’s uncertain labour market seek stability: ‘It’s kind of a paradox’
Inflation is catastrophic and must be suppressed
My career in financial journalism has included multiple stock market crashes and recessions, plus a global financial crisis and a pandemic. Nothing in that period has left people feeling rawer for longer than the burst of inflation that occurred after pandemic-fighting central banks pounded interest rates down to near zero and left them there for too long.
This isn’t a critique of the Bank of Canada – there were no game plans on its shelf for fighting the economic impact of a pandemic, and the risk of a deep recession or depression was real. But when living costs consistently exceed income gains, people feel cheated and angry. If inflationary pressures build as a result of the trade war or other global events, higher interest rates would be justified. The only thing worse than rate hikes would be higher inflation.
The financial industry is out to lunch in dealing with our aging population
No one has been a bigger supporter of the rise of financial apps and digital banking and investing. But that kind of technology is a fail for seniors and others with mobility or cognitive issues. It is simply not viable for these people to log onto websites and deal with multifactor authentication through texts or e-mails.
Phones are a fallback, but the wait can sometimes last hours. Who will be the first to offer a dedicated seniors’ phone line with personnel trained to talk customers through their financial and technical questions?
Quietly sneaking up the list of issues readers have raised with me in recent years is the difficulty of handling the financial affairs of an aged parent, then settling that parent’s estate. Given our aging population, you’d think the financial industry would be ready to gracefully help clients in these situations. This does not seem to be the case.
How to help older relatives stay safe online – without causing offence
Big bank loyalists need to snap out of it
A disappointment of mine is how little traction alternative financial players have found in the past few years, even as they beat the big banks every which way on fees, rates and services.
If you have multiple lines of business with the same bank, you’re getting hosed in at least one area. Big banks pay chump change on savings and charge upward of $15 a month for chequing accounts with unlimited transactions. Alternative banks offer higher interest rates for savings accounts and no-fee chequing. A quick shopping list of alt banks to look into: EQ Bank, Koho, Neo Financial, PC Financial and Wealthsimple.
Mortgages are where bank competitors really shine. Do not set up a bank mortgage without first seeing what a mortgage broker can get you on rates and terms for breaking a mortgage early.
Rob Carrick: Why you should try banking with Wealthsimple
In one particular way, we live in a golden age of personal finance. When I started this column, the power imbalance between the financial services industry and its customers was crushing. The disclosure of fees, commissions, interest rates and services provided was hard to find, and you were too often treated as unworthy if you asked.
The rise of the internet and mobile apps, with an assist from securities regulators, has given individuals all the tools they need to take on Big Finance. Plus, we have more channels than ever covering personal finance. Traditional media have learned that personal finance is a topic of universal relevance, and new voices have emerged through social media.
If anything, there’s a surplus of information today that can leave people feeling more confused than informed. AI will increasingly be useful in synthesizing and summarizing, but the kind of informed, clear, unbiased commentary offered by The Globe personal finance team will always have value. I leave you in good hands with my colleagues and plan to contribute to The Globe starting in the fall. Talk to you then.
Are you a young Canadian with money on your mind? To set yourself up for success and steer clear of costly mistakes, listen to our award-winning Stress Test podcast.
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