- My Own Advisor

Weekend Reading – DRIPs, indexing is no panacea, reality checks and more

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Mark | 9 Comments

Welcome to your Weekend Reading list, where I highlight some of my favourite articles from the week that was, even if they include my own 🙂 The folks at Questrade asked about my take on DRIPping, so I told them. …

2014 Financial Predictions

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Mark | 8 Comments

Just for kicks, because I have no idea what the future holds, I thought I’d share some financial predictions for 2014. Here they are: The Dow Jones Industrial Average will finish the year at 16,700. It opened the year around…

Do you really need $1 million to retire well? Of course you do.

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Mark | 96 Comments

Do you really need $1 million to retire well? Of course you do. I read an article in The Globe and Mail that reminded me most experts say you need approximately 75% (or more) of your current salary to maintain…

Cheer up for tax time, tax tips and my TurboTax giveaway

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Mark | 42 Comments

The great folks at TurboTax have given me six (6) codes to use with their TurboTax online software system. I don’t need all of these this year, maybe you want a code to use? To win one of these online…

Weekend Reading – ETF buyer guide, billion-dollar predictions and more

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Mark | 16 Comments

Welcome to your Weekend Reading list. Here are some of my favourite articles from the week that was. I’ll be back next week to discuss how much you might need to retire and giveaway from tax stuff thanks to…

Looking for income but don’t want to be a landlord? Try REITs 101

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Mark | 20 Comments

Looking for income but don’t want to be a landlord? Try REITs 101 Up until a few years ago I didn’t know very much about Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) but after my experience of being a landlord for a…

Another case for Indexing – Asset Class Returns in 2013

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Mark | 2 Comments

In reading My Own Advisor posts you know I’m following a two-pronged approach to build my retirement portfolio for financial independence: I invest passively in the market (indexing) and I also buy and hold and hold blue-chip companies that have…

2014 Financial Goals

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Mark | 4 Comments

To keep me honest but also focused I post my financial goals on My Own Advisor. One thing I’ve learned over the years is I have a much better chance at realizing my goals if I write them down and…

Weekend Reading – Book reviews, fewer RRSP contributions, goals and more

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Mark | 3 Comments

Welcome to your Weekend Reading, all things personal finance and investing. Here are the articles I posted this week: A review of Preet’s new book: Stop Over-Thinking Your Money! My December 2013 dividend income update. A portfolio profile from this…

What’s in your portfolio? DIY Investor Richard Garand

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Mark | 13 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for the last month or so you know I reached out to various bloggers and financial experts to ask what’s in their portfolio. I did this to find out what their investing goals were,…