Weekend Reading – Airbnb bigger than Walmart, keep calm-stay invested, and more #moneystuff
Welcome to my latest Weekend Reading edition – where I share some of my favourite articles from the week that was across the personal finance and investing blogosphere.
Got your taxes done yet?
We completed ours last week. I have a small sum to pay CRA (actually I did that already) and my wife will get a modest refund back next week. I suppose that’s good but bad in another way – since when it comes to any RRSP-generated tax refund you need to remember it’s a government loan. So, we need to ensure we use the refund very wisely!!
Here are some good things you can do with your tax refund.
Even if there is no RRSP-generated tax refund coming your way this year, because you’re getting a refund back, that’s not ideal. Why? A refund means you gave the government an interest-free loan for the last tax year. At least you’ll know to minimize that for the 2018 tax year!
These were my posts from the last week:
Read on here how I built my dividend portfolio, including answering some reader questions about it.
These are some of my favourite Canadian dividend paying stocks (although I own others not to mention some U.S. stocks too).
I hope you have a great weekend and see you here next week!
Mark
Interesting article from Andrew Hallam here, about Airbnb becoming bigger than Walmart. To quantify Airbnb growth from the article:
“Thanks to the Internet, Airbnb is now larger than all of the major hotel chains combined.
It might even become America’s biggest job-producer over the next ten years.” Amazing stuff.
ModernAdvisor provided some timeless investing advice – keep calm and carry on – stay invested during any market turbulence. Here are 3 good questions to ask yourself:
- Have your goals changed since last week?
- Has your time horizon changed since last week?
- Has your financial plan changed since last week?
“If the answer to these questions is “no,” then you must now ask yourself another question: If those things haven’t changed, why should your investment portfolio be changed?” Good points.
On the subject of sound money advice, did you know I can get you $50,000 managed FREE for one year?! It’s true – thanks to my offer with ModernAdvisor. You can even take a free trial when opening an investing account with ModernAdvisor.
I got a good chuckle in reading Ben Carlson’s annoyances with financial phrases here:
“Black swan events. Here’s my exhaustive list of black swan risks for the coming year: 1, 2, and 3.”
Boomer & Echo offered some options to manage cash flow in retirement. The approach I am leaning on, or leaning towards at least within the next 10 years for us, is having a good cash wedge in retirement. Basically, you create a sizeable bucket of cash and use that for your living expenses for a year or so. That cash bucket is replenished by short-term investments such as bonds or GICs. Long-term investments stay invested as just that, long-term investments. Profits or withdrawals from those long-term investments are taken as needed. Basically, you create a balanced portfolio of ample cash, ample bonds and stocks to weather various market conditions.
Here are some other retirement income and planning considerations.
Million Dollar Journey (MDJ) shared his 2018 expense breakdown. I’m continually impressed how little he spends for his family of four. No wonder why he’s a millionaire in his late-30s.
Finally, some great offers to remind you about!
Save BIG bucks when opening and using your TFSA this year thanks to my BMO promo code here.
Here is a free trial to unbiased stock and ETF suggestions in Canada. This can help you set-up your new low-cost portfolio and get those investing costs even lower!!
Thanks for being a fan.
Mark
My name is Mark Seed - the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I'm looking to start semi-retirement soon, sooner than most. Find out how, what I did, and what you can learn to tailor your own financial independence path. Join the newsletter read by thousands each day, always FREE.
Great point about tax refunds as a result of RRSP contributions! You don’t get the benefit if you don’t invest it! My answer to tax refund is always to invest them!
Thanks Laura! 🙂
Always get a chuckle out of the self-centric proponents of credit cards.
A near perfect demonstration of human nature and behavioural finance.
Hope everyone survived one less hour of sleep this weekend.
I did but I’m tired!
I use cc to get points for free cinema tickets or grocery.
Yes amazing the size of Airbnb. I don’t know about all those “extra” jobs being created by it though.
Ha, re Ben Carlson. He’s right!
Credit cards. Far from perfect but until they go away or change in some way that no longer benefits me I’ll keep using mine.
MDJ sure doesn’t spend a lot. We’re fairly frugal but overall prefer to live a better lifestyle both during our working years and now in retirement. Why not?
Why not indeed! You’ve earned it.
Whats not to like about a CC that gives you 4% (div) off your food & gas purchases – 2% of medications and 1% off everything-else?
I like that card as well…
For some more uplifting news:
Millennials are ditching credit cards, and it’s threatening the entire industry
( http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/debt/millennials-are-ditching-credit-cards-and-its-threatening-the-entire-industry )
It’s not all rosy, though: “…credit cards becoming the preferred method of payment after age 25.”
Just as new “tech” like Airbnb has disrupted traditional industries like hotels, there’s always hope that tech-loving Millennials will adopt payment tech (apps, blockchain, even old school cash) which disrupt the current entrenched — and harmful — payment services (which themselves were once the ‘new tech’ not so long ago!).
Come on, Millennials! Baby steps are for babies! Ditch the CC and make your great-grandparents proud! 😀
We pay with cc wherever and whenever possible. Why not? As long as we pay cc bills on time.
re: Why not?
May, you can search for my many posts on the topic of credit cards…or do some googling. 🙂
I suspect that’s because some have no jobs and cannot afford to get a CC? Many CC companies, for certain cards, have income-tests. For one, that’s good if they want to ditch the CC but there are certainly other ways to pay bills. I wonder if Mom and Dad are paying some of them? Must be nice.
re: I suspect that’s because some have no jobs and cannot afford to get a CC?
As the article claims, it’s because many of them hit the job market at the peak of the Great Recession (at the very least saw the very material effects at a very impressionable stage of life; I’ve seen articles which claim Millennials fear debt more than death!). Quite similar to how those who lived through the Great Depression have/had a much different approach to finances than other generations (e.g. Boomers).
As in my first comment, if a generation can eschew a clunky, expensive, and damaging method (of anything) in favour of adopting a far more efficient and adaptable method of application, then it shouldn’t be balked at, although it most certainly is by those who wish to maintain the status quo…Napster anyone?
I’m not balking at it. People can choose to pay their bills or use their money however they wish. I tend to use a CC for many of my purchases and those CCs bills are paid off every month.
If a person is shown how to use a CC correctly, and for their benefit, I see no reason not use one. I suspect there is a lack of knowledge component to this reported trend. CCs do not necessarily mean bad debt. Having said that, I am all for people using cash if they so desire. The merchants have already priced in the cost to their products so unless one gets a cash discount they are helping to pay for my benefits.
re: I suspect there is a lack of knowledge component to this reported trend.
There is definitely a lack of knowledge component to the obverse trend.
If you are referring to using a CC as a permanent loan structure then I agree. If you are referring to more people using a CC as a financial tool to reduce costs and generate income then I disagree.