My Own Advisor

 

Over the last year, I’ve been fortunate to get acquainted with many personal finance and investing bloggers.  Their content impresses me, surprises me and motivates me at the same time.   It’s pretty cool that perfect strangers can connect across provinces, countries and oceans, sharing a mutual passion and develop a friendship over that passion.  What did we do before the internet?   This internet thing is kinda neat.  I hope they keep it around for awhile.

On the topic of connectedness, a great friend of mine just started his blog entitled The Daily Thinker.  My friend is a rather passionate guy when it comes to a variety of topics:  health and wellness, relationships, society,  music and more.   I look forward to reading his posts, I’m sure they will be insightful and entertaining.  If you have time, stop by and say hello.

This week’s roundup includes a rant from the President of Steadyhand, tips for reviewing your portfolio and bloggers who are saving crazy amounts of income for retirement and ready to pay off their mortgages.  Nice stuff folks.  I hope to be mortgage free in another 12 years

Next week, I should get around to posting my review of Dan Bortolotti’s Guide to the Perfect Portfolio.   For new or experienced investors, this was a great read and I’ll tell you why next week.

Until then, have a safe, happy and healthy weekend!

Tom Bradley (President of Steadyhand) is not thrilled when it comes to how RRSP transfers are handled by some institutions. 

TFB told us how he was going to take control of his finances!

Kevin at Invest It Wisely told us about some personal goals for 2012.

Big Cajun Man made sure you knew, prices are going up. 

My University Money got a great deal from Sirius XM Satellite Radio.  I was talking with a great friend over New Year’s about this deal  – we thought it was awesome!

Passive Income Earner provided some tips how to review your portfolio.

Crystal from Budgeting In The Fun Stuff is trying to kill off her mortgage by June 2012, saying:  ”That means we want it dead in 6 months or less. To accomplish this, my husband actually suggested that we put 100% of the monthly extra towards paying off the house until it is completely done. So from here on out, the mortgage is being attacked without mercy.”  Good luck Crystal, I hope you slay that financial dragon.

Dividend Mantra saved over 70% of his income last month.

Canadian Capitalist shared the performance of currency neutral S&P 500 index funds.  CC looks at XSP and IVV in particular, over a few years, whereby “the returns in XSP trailed that of IVV by an annualized rate of 2.33%.”   Read more of CC’s analysis by clicking the link above.

Preet Banerjee shared some interesting data this week:  dividends make up about 43% of S&P 500 historical returns. 

Dividend Growth Investor shared his dividend retirement plan.  I loved this part:   ”Retirement to me is the point where my dividend income exceeds my expenses, which means that I no longer have to work for money.”   Me too.  When my dividend income generated by my portfolio consistently exceeds my living expenses - I’m most definitely calling it quits.  Hopefully, hopefully, that’s about 15 years away.

Mrs. SPF on SPF wrote a post about using cloth diapers. 

Boomer & Echo had another practical post this week – how to make a better personal budget.

Retire by 40 wondered if the Costco Executive Membership is worth it?  For a couple like us, I would say “no”.   Ironically, we just changed our membership from “executive” to “gold star” this past week.

The Dividend Guy listed some of the best dividend stocks to consider for 2012.

Dividend Ninja listed his Canadian stock winners for 2012.   Check out what he picked in Part 1 of this series.  I own one of his selections

Michael James on Money told us about the illusion of low financing rates.

Dan Bortolotti from shared Couch Potato Portfolio returns for 2011.

Million Dollar Journey answered a reader’s question:  why doesn’t he use a dividend ETF for his leveraged portfolio?   I can certainly identify with MDJ’s answers, mainly this one – I’d like to avoid 0.55% or higher management expense fees where and when I can.

Dividend Monk reviewed Illinois Tool Works.

Beating The Index questionned whether NAL Energy will underperform in 2012.

Jim Yih wondered, are you ready for retirement?

Young and Thrifty provided her net worth update as of January 2012.

Financial Highway shared how dividend stocks can help your portfolio.  I couldn’t agree more with this statement:  “You do need patience and persistence to build a dividend portfolio for income purposes. However, if you are careful you can create an income stream that can benefit you now and in retirement, no matter the economic climate.”  My dividend portfolio is growing and in another few years, it should weather any market storm.

The Blunt Bean Counter said understanding your personality style can be a critical key to success.

Canadian Dream Free at 45 had a guest post from Dave, who is striving to retire early before the age of 45.

You gotta feel for Krystal Yee at GMBMFB.  Krystal recently received another fraudulent charge on her CANCELLED American Express card.  That’s right, CANCELLED card.  Bad enough if this was the first time but similar transactions have happened before (as I understand it), 5 other times since Krystal’s card was cancelled.  One can only conclude the account management team at AMEX remains totally out to lunch.

Money Smarts Blog gave some online opinions about online opinions and my opinion is, it was a worthy post.

Last but not least, Susan Brunner gave her thoughts on Metro.

 

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