Free Lunch

The World Cup isn't just great TV, it's one of the best crash courses in investing you'll ever get. In this solo episode, Colin breaks down what championship soccer teams can teach us about building a championship portfolio: why the best team doesn't always win on any given day, why bonds are the unsung goalkeeper of your portfolio, and why chasing last year's hottest stock is a lot like betting o...

Great companies do not always make great investments With AI stocks grabbing headlines lately, Colin and Greg ask the question a lot of investors skip: what are you actually paying for that future growth? In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, they talk through market concentration, the Magnificent Seven, and why a diversified portfolio usually beats chasing the next big theme, whether that's...

What if "higher for longer" just means normal? That's the question Colin and Jacob dig into on this week's episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, and it's one worth sitting with. For most of the last decade, ultra-low interest rates felt like the baseline. But historically? They were the anomaly. Colin and Jacob talk through what the new Fed chair's first meeting signals, why the bond market matters m...

Colin and Greg had one of their most honest conversations yet on The Free Lunch Podcast this week, talking through IPO mania, the current wave of AI and space company offerings, and why the strategies that sound disciplined on paper often fall apart in practice. Their take? If you want to put a small slice of your portfolio into something speculative because you find it interesting, that's very di...

The single biggest lesson from 30 years in the industry? Markets reward ownership, not prediction. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Greg sits down with Jacob for a mentorship-style conversation about what actually works in investing and what consistently fails. They dig into why so many investors hurt themselves trying to outsmart the market, and why staying invested and diversified tend...

Estate planning isn't just for the ultra-wealthy. It's for anyone who owns a home, has kids, or simply wants to make a hard time a little easier for the people they love. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Blair break down what estate planning actually looks like for everyday Canadian families, including the tax surprises most people don't see coming, why your beneficiary designa...

What is likely to work in investing? According to Colin, it's the advice nobody gets excited about. Stay diversified. Rebalance consistently. Cut your tax bill. Understand your own behavioural blind spots. None of it is glamorous, but the data generally backs it up. Colin and Greg get into all of it on this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, including why "which stock should I buy" may be the wron...

Some private credit funds have recently faced redemption pressure, bringing renewed attention to liquidity risk in the asset class. Colin and Greg walk through what private credit is, why it grew rapidly after the 2008 financial crisis, and how the "illiquidity premium” works in practice on The Free Lunch Podcast. If you've been hearing a lot about private credit lately and weren't totally sure wh...

Colin and Greg brought in one of the sharpest minds in fixed income to answer that question. Tony Crescenzi from PIMCO discusses the bond market like a supermarket with 150 trillion dollars worth of aisles, and explains why knowing which shelf to shop from could matter as much as anything else in your portfolio. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, they get into inflation thresholds, startin...

That 12% yield might sound incredible. Until you find out what it is based on. Structured notes are often marketed as the best of both worlds — income, protection, and upside. But Colin and Greg argue you can’t have it all, and that the tradeoffs matter. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, they break down what structured notes are, how the payout is generated, and why keeping things simple...

Greg makes the case on The Free Lunch Podcast that the investors who struggle most aren't the ones lacking knowledge. They're the ones who can't ask themselves: "What if I'm wrong?" Colin and Greg unpack why decorum and diplomacy, the same things missing from today's geopolitical headlines, are actually core investing skills. Staying composed when markets test your patience isn't weakness, it’s a...

Does watching financial news actually make you a better investor? Colin and Greg dig into that question on this week's episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, breaking down how financial media is designed to create urgency, not returns, and what that can do to investor behaviour over time. If you've ever felt the urge to do something with your portfolio after watching the news, this one's worth a liste...

Investing well is supposed to be boring. Most people think great investing means staying on top of the markets, catching the right stocks, and making smart moves. Colin and Greg would say that's exactly the problem. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, they use DIY home renovation as a surprisingly perfect analogy for what goes wrong when people manage their own money. The mistakes aren't us...

The "RRIF meltdown" strategy is everywhere online right now, but the advice rarely accounts for your actual situation. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Blair break down what a meltdown strategy actually is, when it might make sense, and why doing it just because someone told you to can quietly cost you more in tax than you ever saved. The math matters more than the marketing.

In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Blair walk through a real conversation many investors are having right now: “Should we get out before it gets worse?” The instinct is understandable. But the plan often becomes selling when markets are down, waiting, and then buying back in when things feel better. That’s not strategy, it's emotion, and it’s one of the fastest ways to derail lon...

In reality, fear shows up in every market cycle. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Greg talk about why even seasoned investors feel unsettled during downturns, and why that doesn’t mean you should act on it. Because volatility isn’t new. It’s expected. And the investors who succeed aren’t the ones who avoid fear, they’re the ones who don’t let it drive their decisions.

With St. Patrick’s Day behind us, it’s a good time to separate myth from reality. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Greg explore why chasing the next big winner, timing the market, or relying on “being early” rarely works and why those ideas persist anyway. They break down the difference between luck and skill, the cost of missing just a handful of market days, and why the real...

Each year, the World Happiness Report ranks nations based on factors like social support, health, freedom, trust, and economic security. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast , Colin and Greg dig into the patterns behind the rankings, why Nordic countries dominate the list, where Canada and the U.S. fall, and what the research reveals about the connection between policy, prosperity, and well-b...

In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, we explore how even high-earning households can feel “house poor” and why lifestyle inflation, low savings rates, and heavy debt can quietly erode financial flexibility.

In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Blair walk through a case study of “Linda,” a 55-year-old investor with a $780,000 balanced portfolio. When markets fell 18%, she panicked and sold half her equities, only to miss the 22% rebound that followed. It’s a powerful reminder that the hardest part of investing isn’t picking the right fund. It’s sticking to the financial plan when headl...

In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin and Blair continue their financial planning series by examining the Canadian macro environment, from housing and household debt to interest rates and inflation. Using a real-life style case study, they explore how someone can have strong net worth on paper while still feeling monthly cash flow pressure. It’s a reminder that financial planning isn’t...

In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Colin is joined by Blair, Director of Financial Planning at Canvas Wealth, to kick off a new series focused on the role planning plays in long-term financial success. They explore how financial planning turns money into a life tool, replaces guesswork with clarity, and helps people navigate major life transitions with confidence, not just better returns....

From wars and sanctions to trade disruptions and surprise political events, global markets react quickly to uncertainty. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast , Greg and Colin walk through decades of data on geopolitical shocks, what typically drives market drawdowns, how long recoveries tend to take, and why most sell-offs fade faster than headlines suggest. They also explore what these event...

Every January, investment firms release their top picks and bold projections for the year ahead. In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast , Greg and Colin look back at the stock lists published in early 2025 and ask the question most people forget to ask: how did they actually perform? By comparing forecasts to real-world outcomes, they unpack why confidence doesn’t equal accuracy, why benchmarks...

In this episode of The Free Lunch Podcast, Greg and Jacob reflect on how the reality of wealth advising differs from what’s taught early on. Technical knowledge matters, but it isn’t what ultimately sets wealth advisors apart. Listening, understanding, and guiding people through uncertainty are what define the work. Throughout the episode, they explore the lessons that only experience teaches, and...