My Own Advisor

 

Although I didn’t make the list of finalists (thanks to everyone who voted for me, the one or many of you), I want to express my congratulations to fellow bloggers who were named finalists for the 2012 Plutus Awards!  The Plutus Awards are handed out to the best of the best amongst North America’s community of personal finance and investing bloggers.  The awards are handed out on September 6, at the Financial Blogger Conference in Denver in a couple of weeks.

There was a large number of Canadian blogs nominated as finalists for this year’s awards, so I’d like to recognize those folks who I interact with on a frequent basis, folks who support to my small blog in this massive online space and folks who I follow as well.  

My congratulations go out to these finalists in various categories:

• Mike @ The Dividend Guy Blog
• Avrom @ Dividend Ninja
• Mark @ The Blunt Bean Counter
• Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter
• Simon B. & Mrs. B @ Sustainable Personal Finance
• Joe @ Retire By 40
• Jim @ Retire Happy Blog
• The dynamic duo @ My University Money and the duo again with Clare @ Young and Thrifty
• Robb & Marie @ Boomer and Echo
• Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog
• Ray @ Financial Highway
• Jeremy @ Modest Money
• Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Good luck finalists!

More congratulations go out to the winner of the book giveaway on my blog The Beginner’s Guide to Saving and Investing for Canadians:  Zee!  Zee, I will be contacting you soon to confirm your mailing information.  Thanks to everyone who left a comment and who participated in the draw.  If you still want to buy the book or get a PDF copy of it that costs just over $10 click here.

Here’s to a great weekend and great blogs to check out.  Enjoy!

Canadian Couch Potato looked under the hood at a new dividend ETF.  I like what Dan wrote here about this ETF and the strategy for managing it:  “Unlike several other dividend ETFs, UXM does not screen for companies that have a long record of dividend growth, which I think is right approach. While I understand the appeal of dividend growers, is a company that has grown its dividend for 20 consecutive years—which is necessary to be part of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index—really a better investment than one that missed a couple of increases for legitimate business reasons?”

Boomer & Echo weighed the pros and cons between fee only and commission based financial advisor.  They also celebrated their two-year anniversary recently.  Congratulations, keep up the great work and head on over to their site where they are giving away a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Tablet and more!

Prairie EcoThrifter shared some ways to avoid financial disaster.

Simply Investing was kind enough to include my article in his best of the best monthly blog roundup.  Thanks!

Finance Fox told us the cold hard truth on being a personal finance blogger.

Dividend Ninja had a post about how much money do you need to save for retirement.  My answer, a bundle

Million Dollar Journey said 30-year mortgages are better than you think.  It was a good guest post but I prefer paying off my mortgage sooner than later…hopefully in another 10 years.

Financial Highway informed us how to make money with Amazon.  Some great tips.

My University Money said investing in yourself doesn’t have to be expensive.

Dividend Mantra said dividends are his fruit.

Shannon from PWL Capital sent me a recent article written by Larry Swedroe entitled Should you dump your international stocks?

Michael James on Money wrote about combatting car insurance fraud, courtesy of a cool infographic from InsurEye.

Modest Money told us some places to look for blogging ideas.

Susan Brunner took a look at AGF and didn’t like what she saw.  I don’t own it either and don’t intend to.

The Passive Income Earner liked what he saw; his dividend income increased this month.

Y&T wondered how far you’d go to score a deal?

Retire Happy Blog said life insurance is foundation of your financial life.

Canadian Capitalist provided an update on his Sleepy Portfolio.  I always enjoy reading about the progress of this portfolio and the simplicity of it.

Invest It Wisely told us how to make the most of our conference experience.

Big Cajun Man celebrated 25 years of wedding bliss this week so congrats to him and Mrs.

Beating The Index said Avenex Energy’s dividend is safe.

The Financial Blogger said whole life insurance sucks…but he has a policy.

Tusk Trader had a post on WDAMMG explaining there are more problems with bank regulators than the banks themselves.  He said “it is not about the regulators being one step ahead of the markets; it is about the regulators becoming INSTEP with the markets.”

Thanks for reading and sharing this article.