Nearly half of Canadians aren't taking steps to meet financial goals: CIBC poll + MORE Dec 29th

The Winnipeg-based firm says the China Asset Management Co. deal will diversify its business outside of Canada

Wall Street flat amid technology stock losses.

A new report from CIBC says about half
of Canadians aren’t taking sufficient
steps to stay on top of their financial
priorities in the coming year.

(Illustration by Iker Ayestaran)
Investors are an obsessive bunch. They get preoccupied with all sorts of things—elections, central bank policies, the weather—but nothing has dominated investor thinking as much lately as bond rates and income stocks. Since the Great Recession, fund managers have been talking about rising fixed-income yields and their impact on equities and, more specifically, dividend-paying companies. Numerous experts have said that in a rising rate environment, investors should sell off their utilities, telecoms, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other interest-rate-sensitive equities that they’ve been overweighting all this time.
.cbR{box-sizing:border-box;display:block;width:100%;margin:1em 0;border:1px solid #bbb;padding:.5em}@media (min-width:480px){.cbR{width:250px;margin:0 0 1em 1em;float:right}}The U.S. Fed’s interest rate hike is a message: inflation is back
Up until now, this issue has mostly been watercooler fodder, but with the Federal Reserve having raised rates in December and Donald Trump’s election victory causing the 10-year treasury yield to spike by 19% since election day, many investors are now reducing their exposure to these rate-sensitive sectors…

At this festive season of the year it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts.
Those are the slightly paraphrased words of one of the “portly gentlemen” in Mr. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. They asked Mr. Scrooge for a donation and got an earful in exchange. But, now that Christmas has passed, its spirit has no doubt inspired even the meanest of us to spare a few thoughts for the less fortunate.
When you’re thinking about giving to a good cause you should consult the MoneySense Charity 100, which grades some of the largest charities in the land.
But, as is my habit, I recently asked around for a few less formal recommendations at a couple of online investment forums.
The index-oriented crowd over at the Financial Wisdom Forum favoured giving to the Mennonite Central Committee and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières…