Published Articles / The City Light News

Years before I became an accountant I wanted to become a nuclear physicist. Image that – what a switch! I loved science. I wanted to know how and why things worked. In high school I majored in science and won the science award. Then I came to know the Creator of it all, that is,…

Right now Alberta is rolling in money. We have never had it so good – financially. What should we do? Let’s take a lesson from the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine described in Genesis 41. God gave Joseph the wisdom to recognize that conditions would not always be like this…

Do you live in a closed system or an open system? A couple of my clients have been encouraging me in their display of generosity and trust in God. They live in an open system and are watching God show Himself faithful. Wes recently cashed in an RRSP, giving it all to a Christian charity…

Money and morality don’t mix well. That’s why for the most part I dismiss so called ethical mutual funds as a sales gimmick. To qualify for socially responsible investing a company must respect environmental and labour standards, while not deriving its revenues from tobacco, alcohol, gambling, military weaponry or nuclear power. It helps too if…

This is the last in a series on wealth and the Christian. First we saw that having wealth is not a sin; it is the love of wealth that God forbids. Then we saw that the prosperity gospel is a well-packaged but dangerous decoy that lures believers into forfeiting eternal treasures for short-term worldly wealth.…

Last month we saw that Jesus warned us against the love of riches, but not against riches themselves. Today the topic is the proverbial “Prosperity Gospel”. Since I am a financial planner and not a medical doctor, I will deal only with the wealth aspect of the so-called “health and wealth” gospel. The book of…

This is the first of a three part series dealing with the issue of wealth and the Christian. First I’ll look at that often misunderstood passage, “You cannot serve God and money.” In the next article I want to deal with the wealth gospel. The final column will deal with the concept of treasure.  When…

Fear and greed are dangerous enemies to good investing. Imagine, our own attitudes as our biggest foes! Some say that fear and geed drive the markets. I disagree. The way I see it, fear and greed influence the markets negatively, but the markets themselves are powered by the cumulative work and creative production of us…

What is the classic financial planning question? Most would reply, “Should I pay down my mortgage or should I invest in my RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan)?” But is that really the most important question? Are there only two alternatives? The issue is not should I pay down my mortgage or invest more in my…

Last month we reviewed the Biblical reasons for including gold as a big part of our investment portfolio. Gold, silver and other precious metals in any form, for example, bars or certificates are not qualified investments for RRSP’s. However, shares of gold mining companies or precious metal mutual funds can be held in RRSP’S. Two…