Calm Money Coach

When I was 22, nobody explained any of this. Not what a TFSA was, not what an index fund was, not why any of it mattered. I was making $33K, living paycheck to paycheck, and investing was the last thing on my mind. In this episode I break down everything from the ground up. Why your cash is quietly losing value. The three accounts the Canadian government set up to help you build wealth. Why the TF...

Canada's GDP went up. So why does everything feel harder? In this episode, I dig into the data on Canada's productivity crisis, the housing trap, market concentration, brain drain, the youth job market, and what Canada actually has going for it. No agenda, no politics. Just the numbers and what they mean for your money. Topics covered:GDP per capita stagnation and why it matters more than...

I have done individual deep dives on cash allocation, account location, portfolio construction, TSX vs S&P 500, and asset classes. This episode ties all of it together into one complete framework. What I cover: Why your behavior costs 10 to 30 times more than your ETF structure, and the $160K threshold where optimization actually starts to matter. Why Canada being 3% of global equities means t...

Bitcoin has had 87%, 84%, and 77% drawdowns. A 5% allocation contributes 27% of your total portfolio risk. In Parts 5 and 6 of the Complete Guide to Investing, I cover the real math on crypto, what the "digital gold" narrative gets wrong, and then move into alternatives where hedge fund investors give up 64 cents of every dollar earned to managers. The advertised fee is 2-and-20. The act...

An oil ETF lost 86% while oil prices rose 50%. How is that possible? In Part 4 of the Complete Guide to Investing, I break down every major commodity with 125 years of return data. Gold at $5,300 with JP Morgan calling $6,300. The copper story nobody is talking about. And why this is the only asset class that quietly works against you over time. Same volatility as stocks. 600 basis points less ret...

Yale Endowment is one of the most successful institutional investors in history. Their target return on real estate? About 6% after fees. Why would the smartest money in the room accept that? Because that's what's realistic. In this episode, I break down real estate as an asset class: public REITs vs private real estate, the fee structure that eats your gains, which property types are winn...

Every new home in Canada starts $107,000 in the hole before anyone picks up a hammer. Not the house. Just the pipes, the roads, and the water underneath it. And we need 3.5 million of them. In this episode, I break down the real math behind Canada's housing crisis, why municipalities own 60% of infrastructure but only get 8 to 10 cents of every tax dollar, how Toronto's development charges...

In 2022, bonds lost 13%. The long bond ETF dropped 31%. The "safe" part of your portfolio got hit harder than most stock crashes. Now in 2026, bonds are paying real income again for the first time in over a decade. But something is happening in Japan that could push your mortgage rate higher, even if the Bank of Canada keeps cutting. In this episode I break down how bonds actually work,...

Most people own stocks but don’t actually understand why they work. In this episode I break down equities from the ground up - why businesses compound, which sectors have actually performed, whether international stocks are worth it, and if factor investing actually works. This is part of an ongoing series covering every major asset class. Stocks are the foundation - so we’re starting here.​​​​​​​...

Canada exports $60 billion in minerals a year and doesn’t make a single smartphone. We have the richest uranium on the planet. And the Godfathers of AI are Canadian. So why aren’t we capturing the wealth? In this episode, I break down three generational opportunities sitting right under our feet: critical minerals and EV batteries, uranium and the global nuclear comeback, and Canada’s AI talent pi...