Welcome to my last Weekend Reading edition before the holidays! Man, where the heck did this month go? I seriously feel as you get older, time just evaporates!
We’re not ready for the holidays yet but they’re coming whether we like it or not. We have a few days to get our act together and hopefully that will be enough. Before Santa makes his way to your jolly door this holiday season, I want to take a brief moment to say THANK YOU. Thanks for the reading, the social sharing, and the comments on the site (even the odd terse ones). You continue to make My Own Advisor a pleasure to run, a forum for me to express my personal finance and investing views (or anything else that comes to mind) and share your own.
I wish you and your family and friends, a safe, happy and enjoyable holiday – and best wishes for 2016. I’ll be back next week for a post or two, we’ll see.
In case you missed it, check out my ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas poem, personal finance bloggers edition.
Jack Bogle now owns more bonds than stocks. Not surprising really, the investing guru is eighty-darn-six.
The Liberals announced they are raising the minimum down payment for new insured mortgages to 10% from 5%, for the portion of house price north of $500,000. These new rules won’t affect us when they come into effect on February 15, 2016.
Preet continues his excellent video series here, what the new mortgage rules mean to you.
A nice profile of Susan Brunner, a blogger living off her dividends.
Big Cajun Man wrote about TFSA transfer time.
My friend Million Dollar Journey provided an impressive financial freedom update.
Rob Carrick was kind to provide another media mention my way in The Globe this week in his best reads column.
Young & Thrifty shared some personal finance goals.
This article says saving 10% or even 15% is not enough for retirement. This was my take on an ample savings rate for us.
Straight-shooter Jason Zweig talks about his new book here, and Wall Street’s big lie.
Michael James on Money doesn’t follow some ETF investment tips.
Looking to simplify your life going forward? We are, and so is Blonde on a Budget – check out her tips here.
Mark
My name is Mark Seed - the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I've surpassed my goal and now investing beyond the 7-figure portfolio to start semi-retirement with. 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.
1. How Super Savers Take Retirement to the Next Level
Siegel. “These days, our savings from 35 years of work have to cover us for 80 years of life,” Siegel says. “If you want to guarantee results, you have to plan for real returns of zero. And that means you have to save around 30%.”
2. Financial Freedom Update, by FrugalTrader
I have shifted my focus to achieving financial independence. How? I plan on building my passive income sources to the point where they are enough to cover our family expenses.
3. Investor enjoys fifteen years of early retirement thanks to dividend stocks, By Susan Brunner
Investing in companies that not only pay dividends but raise them regularly. One big benefit of rising dividends is being able to keep pace with increases in the cost of living during retirement.
These three articles highlight what I feel investors should concentrate on:
1. You must save money for retirement! But don’t get into the mindset of a percentage. Instead:
Save as much as you can, as often as you can, and increase your savings as you earn more!
2. Nothing wrong with planning to achieve $1Mil of net worth, but:
Concentrate on the “Income” your savings generate, not the size of the pile. That’s the Building Passive Income!
3. That’s the key:
Companies that have a long history of paying and raising their dividend. Don’t get greedy or look for the big winner.
I’m planning for real returns close to zero actually. Further, we’re planning to live from pensions + personal savings. We don’t include our CPP or OAS in our income planning, that will be gravy if we earn it.
Frugal Trader and I have a great deal in common, investing-wise.
Thanks for the comments!
re: Bogle — “…53% invested in bonds, 47% invested in stocks…”
This is almost inline with the global mix of financial assets: 55% bonds, 40% stocks (5% REITS). Not sure there’s any significance to this, just interesting.
re: “I seriously feel as you get older, time just evaporates!”
It’s a psychological phenomenon because our brains “measure” time with novel events. When we are young and experience many first-time events, time is condense and slow. When we are older and experience less memorable events, our brains basically stop paying attention to time; thus we approach Christmas and yelp, “Where did the year go?!”. Speed of time increases as novelty decreases.
I found Bogle’s asset mix interesting as well. I’ll probably be close to 50/50 in my 70s or 80s, until then, mostly equities and a plan to live off dividends and distributions from ETFs from the personal portfolio.
I suspect time flies as you get older because as you get older, you’re looking through more things in the rear view mirror.
I’ll bet that if you achieve your stated goal of living off your dividends when you retire, you will not be selling your dividend generating stocks to buy fix income assets as you get older. Especially as your dividends continue to increase over time.
Well, we’ll see what the future brings…I suspect we’re hampering our dividend income via an indexing approach in some accounts but then again, we’re getting good diversification this way as well – helps us sleep at night!
I’ll likely be a ‘hybrid’ investor for many years to come I suspect.
Exactly — you have more old experiences than new experiences. This should set off a few alarms on the secret of slowing time, staying young at heart, and not kicking the bucket six months after you retire — seek out and invest yourself in novel interactions.
My first suggestion would be to NOT watch all the tried-&-true classic Christmas movies this year. Instead, hunt around for all those wild and wonderful “alternative” holiday flicks. There’s some really great ones out there!
Sounds like a plan SST. My wife and I intend to have a Star Wars marathon before going to watch the new flick!
My grandmother used to say that the days go by slowly but the years go by fast. Thanks for the mention.
Best wishes Michael!
But when you do the transfer, let the banks do it, and don’t waste your limits for transfers.
And thanks for including me this week as well! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you, your family and your readers
Happy Holidays BCM.
For sure 🙂