Colin Graves

Colin Graves focuses on the decisions that determine whether everyday savers keep and grow their money, using clear, step‑by‑step explainers on retirement income, investing, insurance, debt, and fraud that are keyed to the rules facing Canadian households. He writes for Yahoo Finance Canada, where his recent work centres on helping readers structure retirement income, weigh investment choices, and sidestep scams and high‑risk products. His coverage is grounded in more than two decades in the banking industry and senior editorial roles in personal finance, including managing retirement content and serving as an editor at large.

Retirement income and long‑term planning

Retirement is a recurring thread in Graves’s work, and he treats it as both a savings and a withdrawal problem. In one feature he examines how many Canadians build sizeable nest eggs yet reach retirement without a withdrawal plan, focusing on strategies to turn registered and non‑registered savings into sustainable income rather than ad‑hoc withdrawals that risk depleting funds too quickly. He complements that with pieces on the tools that sit around retirement planning, such as his guidance on whether a household genuinely needs life insurance and the key questions to ask before buying a policy, which ties coverage decisions to dependants, debt, and long‑term financial goals.

Graves also looks at how macro forces affect retirees and near‑retirees, notably a weakening Canadian dollar and falling interest rates that erode the real value of cash and traditional savings vehicles. In that article he walks through practical ways savers can defend their purchasing power, emphasizing dividend‑paying equities, gold exchange‑traded funds, and selective exposure to cryptocurrencies held within RRSPs and TFSAs, and consistently brings the discussion back to timelines, objectives, and risk tolerance. Across these pieces, he treats retirement as a holistic planning exercise that spans income sequencing, insurance, asset mix, and currency risk rather than a single savings target.

Debt, newcomers, and financial vulnerability

A second strand of Graves’s beat is financial vulnerability, where he often writes about who carries the most risk and why. In his coverage of newcomers to Canada, he traces why recent arrivals tend to carry higher levels of debt, connecting the problem to credit access, settlement costs, employment transitions, and the challenge of building a credit history from scratch. That piece combines explanation of how Canadian credit systems work with practical steps for newcomers to build credit, manage balances, and avoid compounding high‑interest obligations.

He brings a similar lens to older Canadians, reporting that people 60 and over lose an average of C$21,000 per incident of fraud and explaining why they have become prime targets. The article dissects common scam patterns, from investment pitches to impersonation schemes, and sets out concrete defences such as verifying contacts, slowing down high‑pressure sales tactics, and involving trusted family members or advisers. Graves also covers regulatory warnings, including a piece on Canadian securities regulators flagging WhatsApp‑based stock scams that wipe out investors, where he details how these schemes operate and stresses the importance of checking registration and avoiding informal trading groups. Across these stories he positions vulnerability as a structural issue — tied to age, immigration status, and information gaps — and uses case‑driven examples to make the risks tangible.

Crypto, gold, and alternative assets

Graves writes extensively on non‑traditional assets, but his treatment is cautious and rule‑driven. In a feature asking whether gold and cryptocurrencies belong inside RRSPs and TFSAs, he argues that small, single‑digit allocations to physically backed gold ETFs and spot bitcoin or ether ETFs can help diversify portfolios, while large positions turn into concentrated bets that can undermine long‑term plans. He situates these recommendations within Canadian product and tax rules, repeatedly urging readers to verify that any ETF or platform is properly registered before making changes.

His practical orientation is even clearer in his piece on six steps to invest in crypto safely in Canada, which reads as a checklist for retail investors. The article covers understanding core risks such as cybersecurity, volatility, and fraud; sticking to established assets and regulated platforms; using hardware wallets and stronger authentication instead of basic SMS codes; starting with small amounts; and tracking transactions for tax reporting under Canada Revenue Agency’s treatment of crypto as a commodity. Combined with his work on using equities, gold ETFs, and crypto to protect savings from a weakening dollar, this body of coverage frames alternative assets as tools that sit at the edges of a diversified portfolio, not replacements for it.

Fintech, brokerages, and editorial background

Beyond traditional topics, Graves tracks changes in the financial ecosystem, especially where new platforms intersect with retail banking. In his profile of Koho, he reports that 2.5 million Canadians already use the platform and explores how a C$1.33‑billion valuation and a new banking licence could position it as a potential rival to the country’s Big Six banks. The piece blends product explanation with competitive context, illustrating how prepaid cards and app‑based accounts are evolving into full‑service alternatives and what that means for consumers.

Outside Yahoo Finance Canada, he holds roles that reinforce his focus on personal finance and investments. He is the managing editor at Retire Happy, where his biography notes more than 24 years of experience at a Big Five financial institution and responsibility for significant books of business. At The College Investor he serves as editor at large and is described as a personal finance editor and writer with over 20 years in banking, again highlighting a career spent inside consumer and investment products before moving into journalism. A brokerage review site credits him as a financial writer with more than seven years of experience covering investments and brokerages and as a former banking professional, underscoring his familiarity with platforms, regulation, and the practical workings of the investment industry. Taken together, these roles and his recent reporting show a journalist who brings operational knowledge of banking and brokerages to retail‑focused coverage of savings, investing, and financial safety.