Weekend Reading
Welcome to another Weekend Reading edition. I hope you had a great week; a great Canada Day last weekend and to my friends state-side an enjoyable Independence Day this week.
Here was my article this week in case you missed it:
What should my financial plan cover?
Enjoy these articles that caught my eye and see you here again next week!
Mark
Holy Potato argues “…seeing that most actively managed funds don’t beat the benchmark, you can at least control your costs and invest in a low-cost index fund, which is going to do better than most of the other choices you could have made.” How true.
Andrew Hallam wonders if you should even bother with saving for retirement!? He is joking of course. He goes on to write: “Time is the friend of compound interest. Investing small sums, over long periods of time, can reap huge rewards without sacrifice.” I’ve used this very approach over the last 10 or so years to help grow our portfolio to a modest amount.
Roadmap2Retire shared an update on these top investment picks for 2017.
Retireby40 encouraged you to enjoy the journey and not just strive for any perceived destination in life.
My friend and mortgage broker guru Robert McLister told us to brace ourselves for a storm brewing in our housing market.
A reminder to check out the updates to my Deals page where you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars over years of investing thanks to my partnerships.
I love the fact we are going to have unlocked phones – for no fees within the year.
Why are clients ignoring CRM2 changes?
From $12 to $1.8 M in 32 years? Nicely done (and if we have that much invested, even in Canadian dollars, we’ll retire early as well).
Michael James on Money shared some flawed arguments against indexing. Like Michael, I’m tired (actually very tired) of the active versus passive investing debate. I figure if you diversify your assets whether you’re a ‘stock picker’ or you’re an indexer; if you stick to your financial plan, if you keep your investing costs low for a long period of time – and last but not least – if you keep a modest savings rate over many years (or decades) I’m confident things will turn out OK for you. Mic drop.
We spend how much on housing? Barry Choi was surprised too. I know our base mortgage payments are about 15% of our net income. That’s enough for me.
5iResearch told us this is why Canadian banks make great stock selections.
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.
re: Barry Choi — “…keep your debt levels (and home ownership costs) within reason. I realize this is easier said than done, but no one is forcing you to buy a home.”
It’s not just home buyers/”owners” who are paying through the nose, it’s renters, too. Correct, no one is forcing us to buy a house, but the market is indeed forcing some to rent, and forcing them to pay very high rents. As I commented in last week’s roundup, households in and around the poverty level spend upwards of 60-65% of income on rent (in Calgary, the highest in the country). Even though house prices have declined (e.g. Cowtown), rent levels have not. A few weeks ago I also posted the convoluted and iterative reason why house prices have driven rent levels so high. Also a good eye-opener as to why household debt levels keep growing.
re: From $12 to $1.8 M…
Ever notice that these millionaire results are all highly contextual and not really at all generally reproducible?
Also makes me chuckle at how many FIRE bugs are ignited by “bad days at work” (e.g. Mr.(&Mrs.) Retireby40, Mr.1500, et al).
Correct, no one is forcing us to buy a house, but the market is indeed forcing some to rent, and forcing them to pay very high rents.
Sad really. All because the Bank of Canada hasn’t bothered to raise rates…in forever…until this week perhaps.