Why AI is the savior markets need

At the time of writing, the S&P 500 is up 10% year to date and nearly 30% over the past year. These gains are happening despite war in the Middle East, oil chaos, slow to no GDP growth, increasing inflation, and a soft labour market. How is this possible? In my view, there is only one reason the markets continue to gain: artificial intelligence (AI). This isn’t the first time AI has had a disproportionately positive impact on the markets. In 2022, the S&P 500 was down nearly 2

Even the most financially disciplined person might catch themselves chasing rewards from a credit card or loyalty rewards program. It’s not just you or a lack of willpower; credit card issuers and retailers design rewards programs to tap into the psychology of spending.Research shows that people tend to spend more when using credit cards, make more impulse purchases, and even leave larger tips. Rewards programs can reinforce those habits since each purchase feels like a step towards someth

Young people don’t need another slew of statistics telling them their financial lives will be different from their parents’ generation. They need a plan. Education is expensive, homeownership is delayed, careers have evolved. There’s a new set of milestones for financial adulthood, and timelines have changed. The first goal for young people starts when they land a job, according to Chris Merrick, principal at Merrick Financial and a fee-only financial planner in Toronto.As

Financial services company Wealthsimple announced Thursday that it will start offering a new form of investment based on real-world events. The product is called prediction market trading and it’s gaining increasing popularity around the world. Here’s a breakdown of how it works, what’s driving its growth, and what investors should beware of.What are prediction markets?Prediction markets allow investors to bet on the outcome of real-world events like whether Canada’s infl

Cash is rarely going to remain steady within your accounts, but you may want to have a target for it, just the same as you would for stocks and bonds. How much depends on several factors and can be a percentage or a dollar amount.AccumulatingIf you are in the accumulation phase, new deposits should result in new cash to be invested on a regular basis. This is also an opportunity to scoop up any cash that has accumulated from dividends, interest, and other distributions to invest as well. Wh

Here’s a round-up of news for Canadian investors this week.
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Writing a will is one of those things that tends to sit on your to-do list indefinitely, right up there with organizing old paperwork or finally cleaning out the basement. You know it matters and that you’ll get to it eventually, but it never seems to make it to the top of the priority list. Since there isn’t a clear deadline, and it’s not exactly a fun topic to think about, many Canadians are still without a will. But if you’ve spent years building your life, your w

According to a forecast by Oxford Economics prepared for PwC, Canada will require roughly $4.7 trillion in infrastructure investment by 2050 to support economic growth, population expansion, and the replacement of aging assets. And it is not just private-sector forecasters highlighting the opportunity. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that the federal government will spend approximately $159 billion on infrastructure between fiscal years 2025-26 and 2029-30. Importantly,

Every few months, the internet rediscovers the same financial villain, and it is almost always the daily coffee. Apparently, somewhere between your morning latte and your retirement account lies the reason you are not yet financially free.I know this argument well, because I spend a great deal of my time around people who work in money. Financial counsellors, planners, advisors, and accountants—all of them people who genuinely care about helping Canadians make smarter decisions. To be fair

The FIFA World Cup is underway across Canada, the US, and Mexico, and fans are no doubt hoping that it’s the matches themselves that will dominate the headlines. The lead up to the tournament saw some furore, with Somalian referee Omar Artan barred from entering the US with no stated reason, and the Iranian team being forced to enter and exit the US within 24 hours every time they play.But there’s another talking point that’s dominated headlines: the insidious cost of attending

Ask anyone who’s planning their wedding and they’ll probably mention being stressed out about the high cost or time-consuming process of researching and booking all the vendors. As traditional wedding costs climb, couples are looking for alternatives.Enter pop-up weddings, which streamline the whole planning process for a single fee. When you book a pop-up wedding, you’re sharing the date and venue with other couples, staggering your events throughout the day. We spoke with Ali

Not sure if you’re with the right online broker? Or perhaps you’re taking your first steps into self-directed investing and trying to make sense of an increasingly crowded marketplace? With more firms competing for your attention, more commission-free trading options and more marketing promises than ever before, finding the right brokerage can be challenging. That’s why we’re back in 2026—to help you cut through the noise and identify the platform best suited to you

When choosing a credit card, the annual fee is one of the biggest considerations. In Canada, fees vary widely, from $0 to nearly $800 a year—and it’s easy to assume that paying more automatically means getting more value. But that isn’t always true.A high-fee card can deliver strong rewards and perks that are valuable if you actually use them. On the flip side, a no-fee card can feel “safe” but may leave rewards on the table if your spending habits qualify you for b

There’s an interesting new book just published called I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything. The author is Joanna Stern, who was a personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal for 12 years. As the subtitle of her book reveals, she spent a year using artificial intelligence (AI) for almost every conceivable task in her daily life, which included a job, raising a family, and writing the book.The book—described in Stern’s site as an &l

Registered disability savings plans (RDSPs) were created in the 2007 federal budget, and the first accounts were opened in December 2008. It took a while for financial institutions to offer them and, even now, you cannot open RDSPs everywhere. Most Canadians with RDSPs have only ever deposited money. This is a primer on withdrawing from these specialized accounts.Opening an RDSPIf you qualify for the disability tax credit (DTC), you can open an RDSP. The disability tax credit is a non-refun

Recently, OpenAI announced new banking integrations that would let ChatGPT connect directly to users’ financial accounts, giving it the ability to provide personalized insights based on spending habits, account balances, and financial activity. The company says hundreds of millions of people already use ChatGPT for financial questions every month.For years, AI was mostly a place to ask general questions about budgeting, investing, or debt. Now it’s moving closer to becoming an active

You held up your end of the bargain and paid your rent on time—only to learn your landlord failed to keep up with mortgage payments and the home may need to be sold. Panic sets in, as you don’t know if you can continue to call this place your home. Experts say there are a number of ways this scenario can play out, but knowing your rights as a tenant when the bank takes over is a critical first step. Kelly Ho, a certified financial planner at DLD Financial Group, said renter

Steve Liborio was caught off guard by a sudden increase in interest in electric vehicle rentals, several years after the car rental industry’s foray into EVs failed to get the traction it had hoped for. Since Liborio doesn’t carry EVs at his Thrifty Car Rental franchise in Burlington, Ont., the pressure shifted to his small but mighty fleet of hybrids to keep up with consumer demand, he said.“People don’t usually call and ask for a hybrid,”  he said. “It&

Living with a disability is notoriously expensive. From diagnosis appointments and medical equipment to more hidden costs, like ordering premade food more often or paying more for accessible transit, the disabled life hits you where it hurts—whether that’s with a dose of chronic pain or a shot to your wallet. Nowhere can that be felt more acutely, in many cases, than in the lives of disabled students. To even get to post secondary education is an uphill battle for many disa

Here’s a round-up of news for Canadian investors this week.
Robinhood x WonderFiApotexCogecoShopifyFeatured RRSP Accountsfeatured EQ Bank Build your retirement savings with 1.50% interest, tax-deferred contributions and zero fees. go to site featured Registered GIC rate Earn a guaranteed 2.75% in your RRSP when you lock in for 1 year. go to siteBest RRSP rates See our ranking of the best RRSP accounts and rates available in Canada. read now
Why trust us
MoneySense is an award-winning maga

Canada continues to attract skilled immigrants from across the world, but adapting to the new culture isn’t always easy. Most newcomers have to work through a long checklist: get a SIN, open a bank account, find housing, build a credit file. While each step seems straightforward on its own, together it can feel relentless for the first few months.When I arrived from the UK on a two-year visa in 2019, I quickly ran into one of the less obvious hurdles: Canada’s credit system. Despite

A few weeks ago, I found myself looking up the word for debt in my first language—not because I thought it didn’t exist, but I was trying to understand why debt still felt so foreign to me despite living in Canada for seven years.The word was there, but nobody had ever taught it to me.Growing up, I had learned the word for a loan. A loan made sense: you borrowed money for a specific purpose, paid it back, and moved on with your life. Debt felt different, it was ongoing. Persistent. S

As you don your favourite soccer player’s jersey and head to the nearest pub with your friends to watch a World Cup match later this month, you might also be tempted to bet money on the prospects of your team. Sports betting apps bombard us with ads on TV and social media, and make it easier than ever to dive in. And while most people don’t end up addicted to sports betting or gambling, experts say caution is still warranted when delving into the space. “Treat sports betti

Most Canadians assume leaving a tax-free savings account (TFSA) to a spouse is one of the simplest estate-planning decisions they can make. But when that spouse is a U.S. citizen, green card holder, or otherwise subject to U.S. tax filing requirements, inheriting a TFSA can create years of IRS reporting complications that many cross-border advisors try to avoid.In some cases, the surviving U.S. spouse may be better off inheriting the cash value of the TFSA rather than the account itself. The rea