Not all journalists get to live their beat, but I do. My personal finance column in The Globe and Mail is one regular guy’s attempt to make sense of the world of money. I’m married with two 20-something kids and constantly figuring out ways to spend and invest intelligently. I ask the same questions you would and apply my experience and contacts to get answers.
I got my start in financial writing back in the early 1990s when I covered the Bay Street business scene for The Canadian Press wire service. A few years later, I was transferred to CP’s parliamentary bureau in Ottawa to cover consumer affairs and, later, the federal Department of Finance. I left CP and joined The Globe and Mail as investment reporter in 1996. I mentioned to my boss at the time that we didn’t do much personal finance coverage at The Globe. The paper’s Personal Finance column was launched shortly afterwards, with me at the wheel.
What a trip it’s been covering personal finance over the years. I’ve seen three bull markets for stocks, a couple of recessions and stock market crashes, one global financial crisis, the incredible rise of the housing market, soaring personal debt loads and an ever-present worry that Canadians aren’t saving enough for retirement.
I know there’s infinite personal finance content available these days online, in print and on TV and radio. Come to me for my experience, my willingness to challenge stale consensus thinking and, most of all, my ability to make you say after finishing one of my columns: “Now I understand.”
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