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My guests are Zachary Gering, CFP® of Sontag Advisory and Daniel Tersigni of Wealthsimple.

What is Investing?

I attempt to explain passive investing through fashion. Specifically, stock pickers are Louis Vuitton’s trendy Takashi Murakami bags and index funds are a great pair of vintage Levi jeans. Just go with me here.

There are several types of asset classes.
A bond is a fixed-income security. Well, what does that mean?

Money Market Funds

Generally seen as a slightly better alternative to a savings account but interest rates are so low right now, you’d be lucky to get 1.5% return in a money market fund. You’re basically investing in cash, so they are seen as very safe.

The Stock Market

This video explains how the stock market works. This article does a better job that I ever could.

Deregulation in the 1970s paved the way for you and I to become investors. Read about that here.

Here is a long list of very large mutual funds.
Want to know how mutual fund fees can kill your net worth? Listen to this podcast episode.

What are ETFs (exchange traded funds)?

Vanguard is growing faster than everyone else combined. Read about the index fund giant here.

Non-Money Minute

Daylight saving time is just an opportunity for the know-it-alls of the world to prove they read more Wikipedia than you.

Socially Responsible Investing

It’s neat.

Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple just launched gift cards which is what all my imaginary children and nieces are getting for the holidays.  Halal investing? Yes, that’s a thing.

Spend some time as a voyeur in their Money Diaries section to read about the money habits of celebrities like Mario Batali and Elijah Wood.

Wealthsimple uses the “SHE” ETF for individuals looking to invest in companies that have a lot of women in management roles, which we’re calling “gender diversity.” Personally, I think the whole thing is a bit sketchy. Lockheed Martin gets into this fun because it has a few women on the board. And look! There are four smiling women in this lovely press photo on Coca-Cola’s website.  You can read the legalese here.
The gender diversity fund is managed by State Street Capital, a Wall St. giant who were recently in the news for settling a $5 million dollar lawsuit for salary discrimination against women. Yeah, that doesn’t sit right with me. Here’s the news story.

Kickstarter Questions!

What is commodities trading? Zachary Gering helps us figure out what commodities are. The film Trading Places does an amazing job of explaining commodities. Here’s a link to the clip.

How do you know to trust your financial advisor? Here are 19 questions you should ask him or her. Here’s another one from the New York Times.