The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

st business and finance the tribune tuesday february 2t 1 99 jv recently international funds have done better than canadian funds guaranteed investment certificates term deposits and savings accounts used tobe the rrsp invest ment of choice for securi tyconscious investors the promise of a guar anteed return over a spec ified period of time with no loss of principal was extremely appealing but with fiveyear inter est rate at five per cent and oneyear returns a couple of points lower many investors have begun to look further afield the fact of the matter is the guarantees in gics were always some thing of an illusion if interest rates go up during the period youre locked in to you better off with a sixmonth or oneyear gig if interest rates drop youre better off with a bond fund and only equi ties can provide protection if inflation gallops ahead of your return or if the canadian dollar plum mets mutual funds can obvi ously pay off and the longer you hold quality funds the more confident you can be that your investment will outper form gics purchased within the same time peri od inside or outside your rrsp a welldiversified mutual fund portfolio containing a prudent mix of growth and fixed income funds could pro vide a better longterm alternative to gics along with the prospect of con siderably better returns your plan will be bolstered by dividends and interest income in the shortterm as well as the potential for capital gains in the long- term when adventuring beyond gics for the first time the key is diversifica tion three to five careful lyselected mutual funds are better than one international diversifi cation within the equity portion of your rrsp portfolio offers you addi tional protection interna tional funds have tended to do better than canadi an funds over the past few years and theyre also a great hedge against cur rency fluctuations you are allowed up to 20 per cent foreign con tent in your rrsp and wise investors make the most of this one final tip stay the course during market cor rections this article was submitted by mackenzie accounting bookkeeping income tax f accurate dependable fast if youre not with gds consulting youre paying too much when you switch from your current provider 905 6402772 looking for guarantees in your rrsps ask us about stockindex gics with minimum guarantees of principal and interest insured segregated investment funds rates of return with 100 guarantee of principal at 10 years or death i cant rem ember the last tlfle 1 dib a tax return fjfan financial se ken prentice cfp ownermanager thelma creighton administrator 18 ringwood dr stouffville utz7u the best choice is here wwwrossdixoncom when my tax situation became more complicated i decided to take my taxes to hr block what i tike is the fact that i can count on hsr block to be there whenever i need them because they provide yearround service as jar as tm concerned doing taxes any other way just doesnt make sense its the right thing to do 20 freel lane stouffville 109 brock st west uxbridge 9056422927 905 8527409 if you have a lot we have 10 houses building movers we deliver for about 1500 per so ft save 10s of thousands wow serious only need call to view these preowned buildings call bui 416 9844444 905 7096462 ho hours bbi m