Beat the Bank was published two years ago this month. Since then, an increasing number of Canadians have realized they haven’t been well served by the traditional, high cost investment industry (“Old Bay Street”). Thousands of Canadians have switched to various forms of lower cost investing including do-it-yourself investing, assemble-it-yourself investing (using index ETFs), robo-advisors, less costly full-service advisors or fee only financial planners. I’m very pleased that Beat the Bank has contributed to this movement.
But this shift is still in its early stages. If the book were being launched today, two years later, I would barely change a word. Nothing has changed about the investment principles I stand by or Old Bay Street’s high mutual fund fees….they have barely budged! Millions are unknowingly losing 40-50% of their lifetime investment returns to fees they do not see or understand. But the range of lower cost alternatives is growing.
Beat the Bank continues to be the best-selling investment book in Canada largely due to readers and followers spreading the word. Here is an excerpt from a recently received email:
“Even though I have been questioning my investment fees for more than 10 years, I still stuck with Old Bay Street. I have mentioned to a few people that I am moving our investments. These are successful, well educated people. The responses I received were; “I am paying no fees”, “there is no way I am paying 2.5%”, etc., etc. This prompted my friends to look into what they were paying and all were paying more than we were.”
Please continue to tell your friends and family about Beat the Bank and spread the word on social media. I would love to hear about your own experiences. Just email me at larry@larrybates.ca.
Thank you so much for your support!
Larry
Thank you for your work on Beat the Bank. I had read it and am shocked how mistreated Canadians have been for so long and how our trusting nature has set us up for bad behaviour from the banks. I have been looking at VBAL and the new addition to the balanced Vanguard team of VRIF. You mention vbal in your book but vrif just came out so I was wondering if you could comment here about it? I like the fact that it pays dividends but it is not a straight forward dividend paying product.
thank you
Hi Cathy. VRIF is a good product for those that want to withdraw 4% annually from their investment so maybe good for retirement. VBAL more suited to those who are building a nest egg and do not need the cash flow currently.
Hi Larry,
Since I read your book last January I’ve been buying XGRO at a rate of some 650$ biweekly. Doing so I’m good enough on staying over inflation but I was wondering if I should try something a little bit more risky (something like XSP.to, for exemple) for the next few months (I’m planing investing for some 15-20 years before retirement, so I could afford some risk for now and I could increase growing rate), in order to take advantage on recovery post COVID-19 (I actually don’t expect to touch on this money before longtime).
Do you thing it could be a good way to go?
Thanks for your question. It all depends on your risk appetite and ability to handle volatility. If you are comfortable with increasing your equity weighting from 80% to something higher, adding a S&P500 index ETF can be a good choice. Hope that helps.