Top Links: Your home is not a good long-term investment + MORE Dec 10th

A roundup of what The Globe and Mail’s market strategist Scott Barlow is reading this morning on the Web.

OTTAWA – Big pension funds use investment policy statements to help guide their portfolios, but even though you aren’t managing billions, advisers say you probably should use one too.
A formal investment policy statement is not a financial plan, but should be complementary to one.
Ilana Schonwetter, an investment adviser at Blue Shore Financial in North Vancouver, B.C., says an investment policy statement should outline your overall objectives, while a financial plan handles the details of achieving those goals.
“To me it makes sure that my clients actually understand everything that we have discussed,” Schonwetter says.
“This is the point at which you can reconfirm that you’re both on the same page as far as some very key important factors that will help your relationship move forward.”
Worksheet: Your investment policy statement »
A formal investment policy should lay out why you are investing and your expected time horizon.
It should provide guidance about how money will be invested, including what kinds of investments it will hold and outline what mix of stocks and bonds you are comfortable with…

TORONTO – A new poll suggests that two-thirds of millennials are investing their money, but that most feel they don’t have adequate knowledge for the task.
The poll done for CIBC (TSX:CM) found 67 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 reported have investments including stocks, GICs, bonds and mutual funds.
However, 82 per cent said they didn’t know enough about investing.
Meanwhile, the one-third of respondents who said they did not have any investments cited lack of financial knowledge and the fact that investing “intimidates” them as major reasons.
Where to invest $1,000 now »
Not having any money to invest and other financial priorities were also cited as reasons for not investing.
Of those who do invest, 41 per cent said they don’t get the returns they expect, while 28 per cent found it hard to develop a long-term strategy.
Sarah Widmeyer, head of wealth advisory services at CIBC, says while it’s good to see millennials recognize the importance of investing, they need help…

TORONTO – Wind Mobile Corp. has arranged for up to $425 million of financing that will support an upgrade of its network to LTE technology.
The Toronto-based company has been doggedly growing its business since launching the service six years ago, the first of several new competitors for the three established national carriers: Rogers, Telus and Bell.
The big networks — which continue to dominate the Canadian market — have already deployed LTE technology across most of their territory, enabling their networks to deliver higher data speeds and more service features to their customers.
The much smaller Wind has sometimes had difficulty raising funds for its capital investments but a change in its ownership structure late last year cleared the way for it to raise funds.
Wind said Thursday that a syndicate of major Canadian banks, led by Toronto-Dominion, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, will provide new secured debt financing.
Finland’s export credit agency will also provide financial support for Wind’s purchases from Nokia Networks, which will be the sole supplier for the LTE upgrade…

Boston Consulting Group study says top 10 funds now manage assets worth over $1.1-trillion