Weekend Reading – Don’t sell everything, Couch Potato returns, Air Miles and more
Welcome to your Weekend Reading edition, some of the best articles from the personal finance and investing blogosphere right here.
With a new year, there is some new TFSA contribution room, and I shared my thoughts on what to put into this account here.
I also made some bold 2016 predictions including who might win The Stanley Cup. Some thoughts about what the markets might do this year is there also…
Enjoy these articles and enjoy your weekend!
As a follow-up to the RBS article last week to “sell everything”, Tom Bradley shared better, more practical advice here: “Broadly diversified portfolios have consistently served Canadian investors well. I’m not talking about ones focused on Canadian financial, real estate and resource stocks, but rather portfolios that hold cash, government and corporate bonds, and small, medium and large companies across a range of industries, geographies and currencies.”
Here are the Couch Potato returns for 2015.
Freedom Thirty Five Blog said this about dividend investing: “It’s a brilliant way to make a reasonable amount of money over a reasonable amount of time”. Agreed, but let’s not forget total return matters, a lot, although I suspect some people focusing on total return right now may not be feeling very good about living off their portfolio value.
Is collecting Air Miles still worth it? How To Save Money has a take.
Here are some signs you need a better retirement plan if you’re hoping for government programs to save you.
Don’t repeat these major money mistakes.
U.S. buyers are snapping up cheaper Canadian real estate with our decimated loonie.
Golf star Lee Westwood is selling his $11 million dollar home. Nice place!
My Dividend Pipeline has been on a buying spree lately.
Retirement guru Fred Vettese told us saving 10% of your income is no longer good enough for a comfortable retirement. This was his recent article. I mentioned the same thing here.
Enjoy your weekend!
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.
Wonderful roundup. Thanks for the mention. I hope all your 2016 predictions come true, especially regarding all the dividend hikes since I own those companies too. 🙂
We’ll both be cheering then 🙂 Thanks for the blog and social media support Liquid.
Thanks for the mention Mark – have a great weekend! Watching both my investments and the Canadian dollar tank has not fun, but it never is 🙁 Unfortunately, I am overweighted in Canada and have been slowly trying to correct that. The markets have deemed fit to correct it for me a little faster!
Me too, re: overweight in Canada but slowly working on diversifying, every few months!
Have a great weekend Stephen.
Mark
re: US real estate invasion — funny how things flow. Following the US housing bubble, Canadians were huge buyers of US real estate; now that our oil/currency bubble has popped, they are here to consume our RE! Even nationally, Alberta’s boom saw a lot of AB money buy up BC property; now BC money is flowing back into AB buying up foreclosed and depressed property. Americans buying into Alberta right now are getting some monster deals!
I was thinking about the same thing SST when I read that article. 7 years ago, Canadians with cash were buying in Florida and Arizona. Now, the tables are turned. Good on them – smart buyers.
I am with Michael James, although I am fairly sure my lump of gold would be even smaller. The world has changed a great deal since I was a lad, but I have been glad to watch it all happen. Thanks for the inclusion this week, have a great weekend.
Lots of changes for sure. Best wishes Alan.
After the RBS noise I thought about how much gold I could buy with everything I own. It turns out to be a surprisingly small lump. I think I’ll keep my money in my house and a small slice of almost every stock on earth. Thanks for the mention.
Your plan is solid Michael, you’ve been smart, you know this 🙂 Have a good weekend.