Weekend Reading – Can I retire, savings gene, recessions, RDSPs and more

Thanks for stopping by again this week friends, checking out My Own Advisor.  My wife and I recently returned from an overseas summer vacation to Scotland – which has been the highlight of our summer thus far.  During our vacation we watched some Open Championship golf, at the home of golf; we enjoyed some haggis nachos with craft beers; we visited some impressive castles and distilleries and we took advantage of some fabulous walking and hiking trails in the Scottish Highlands.  It was a great vacation but it’s great to come home.

In case you missed it, I thought The Home Buyers’ Plan is no longer needed thanks to the TFSA and I believe there is no consensus on how to manage your portfolio in retirement.

Enjoy these Weekend Reading articles about when you could retire, savings genes, managing through a recession and much more.

John Heinzl answered a reader question about retiring with a $2 million portfolio:  If you’re generating $30,000 in income from a $2-million portfolio, that’s a yield of just 1.5 per cent. With many high-quality dividend stocks and dividend exchange-traded funds (ETFs) currently yielding 3 to 5 per cent (or more in some cases), you should be able to increase your income fairly easily without eating into your capital. However, if you currently have a large chunk of your assets in low-yielding bonds or guaranteed investment certificates, you’ll have to increase your equity exposure and accept more risk.  That seems like more than “enough money” to me to retire on and here’s my take on what Gen Y and X will likely need to retire on.

In dividend news, despite challenging economic times in the oil and gas industry, Kinder Morgan (KMI:US)and ConocoPhillips (COP:US) increased their dividends.  Thanks to the management teams for this.

Retire Happy discussed the savings gene.

Sustainable Personal Finance provided some advice for a pending recession.

Big Cajun Man has some solid answers on Registered Disability Savings Plans.

Canadian banks continue to pull back, here are some trends from Dividend Earner.

Michael James on Money has a logical take on stocks being overvalued.

Kevin Press offered some reasons to vacation in Canada this summer.

Larry MacDonald profiled this dividend investor who holds Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, BCE Inc., Enbridge Inc., TransCanada Corp., and TransAlta Corp amongst his holdings.  I suspect most other dividend investors in Canada own the same.

Contrary to what many people think, it was refreshing to read this article about gold returns.  “Had you invested in 1980, following the huge surge in gold in the 1970s, you would have lost money to inflation over the ensuing 35 years.”   Depending upon the investment window you’re looking through gold as an asset could be a star or a dog.

Thanks to The Penny Hoarder here’s a beginner’s guide to using Swagbucks for getting some online rewards.

Tawcan provided another reason to be financially independent.  He and I share the same ideology:  financial freedom will enable us to determine when and how we can spend our time.

Freedom Thirty Five Blog shared his blogging income.  My hourly rate earned running this site is far below minimum wage but it doesn’t matter, I enjoy it.

Dividend Growth Investor wrote about how he manages his dividend portfolio.  I was inspired by this post so I’ll share the same in the coming weeks.

Mr. Money Mustache said if you really have to ask yourself the rent vs. buy question, you should probably rent.

These Calgary men were recently sentenced for running a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme.  “Investors were promised a 34% annual return on a “low-risk” investment of $99,000, which was supposed to grow to just over $1 million within eight years.”  A reminder to all that any investment cited to be low risk and high return is fabricated.  The sentencing was far too short…