Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC.TO)

Though equities did end up outperforming, he's not unhappy. This was a great anchor in a very tumultuous year. Let clients sleep at night. Chances of a recession were very high, and it was time to be defensive.

An investor could do the same thing today. Still really juicy. It's a bird in the hand.

Yes. In a balanced portfolio, having some component of GICs does make sense. But you lose liquidity, there's reinvestment risk at lower rates upon maturity, and there's an opportunity cost by not being in the market.

Something with smart flexibility, like a money market fund, lets you get your money out whenever you want. Because we don't know what the world's going to look like in 1 month, 6 months, or a year from now.

GICs at 5.5%.

Can't go wrong if you need money in the short term. Tax benefits to dividends, and they'll grow slowly over the years. So a dividend-paying and -increasing stock would be better, but the risk/reward is something to consider.

We're not going into a bear market, but you want to stay on your asset allocation. When you get yields as high as they are right now (5.5-5.8%), that's something to hang your hat on. You're being paid really well to be safe and take some risk off your portfolio.