Gord Reykdal, President and CEO, Rentcash Inc., Edmonton
“I have about 25% of my value outside the company, and I invest it very cautiously. I don’t like investing in things that I don’t have the time or expertise to spend monitoring. There are situations where I’ve written cheques to private businesses or investments I didn’t have time to do the due diligence on, and have lost money on them. An investment banker manages my [outside investing], which is in short-term bonds, Canadian bonds, Canadian equities, a small portion of U.S. equities and an equal portion in international equities. Nothing in the emerging markets or any international bonds. We set certain expectations on what I want to see in returns — 10% to 12%. The more speculative investments would require more of my personal time and I’m busy enough.”
Roger Hardy, President and CEO, Coastal Contacts Inc., Vancouver
“Because I’m an entrepreneur, you’d think I’d be interested in risk, but I’m actually a very conservative investor. I invest in real estate. I’ve owned a couple of residential and vacation properties in Whistler and Vancouver. And I have been turning properties over for a while. My strategy is that being leveraged to some extent in real estate is not really risky because the market continues to grow so much. So, the real game is to own multiple properties. I’m at two right now and am looking for more.”
Kim McArthur, President and publisher, McArthur & Company Publishing Ltd., Toronto
“My investing strategy is to split my money into two parts. Half goes into a locked RRSP and the other half into an unlocked RRSP. I sit down with my broker and we decide how we’re going to divvy up the funds; I have a combination of bonds, shares, GICs and equities. I like some of the funds to be as risk-free as possible. It’s critical to me that some of my money be accessible.”
John Stanton, Founder, The Running Room, Edmonton
“I’ve learned in retail to stay focused on what you do. The minute we’ve gotten off on other tangents is usually when it has cost us money. Same with investments. As a retailer, we’ve always been high on technology. It’s what has allowed us to grow from one little store to a multitude of stores. That’s why I’ve invested in companies like RIM and Microsoft. I rode the Palm era for a long time, when everyone was into those, and then when people started using BlackBerrys, I invested in that.”
