Weekend Reading – Earning $20k per year in dividends, what is money for, Buffett takeaways and more #moneystuff
Hey folks!
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.
With our house sold, and all sale conditions now passed, my stress-level has come down quite a bit over the last week. It’s going to be a GREAT weekend because of that!
Do you have any big plans?
Hopefully you can check out these posts and share these articles wherever you go:
I continued my series about living off dividends with a couple of bloggers this week – this one from The Dividend Guy and another one from Dividend Earner – who is now earning close to $20,000 per year!
Pretty amazing stuff.
I’ve got more dividend investor profiles coming up, an update on my own income journey including how I invest inside my non-registered account and TFSAs (Tax Free Savings Accounts) – so stay tuned for that!
Also to look forward to, in the coming weeks, I have more books to giveaway on my site thanks to my friends at Wiley publishing.
A busy time for the site and FREE stuff for you to win, coming soon!
Have a great weekend and enjoy this Weekend Reading material.
Mark
Robb Engen has found a good solution for his home Canadian bias – own more of Vanguard’s latest low-cost fund VEQT instead of VCN (an all-Canadian ETF) inside his TFSA. I like the call.
I wrote about VEQT on my site as one of the top all-in-one funds to own.
Thanks to 6 recent dividend increases, this blogger added close to $100 to his Passive Canadian Income.
5iResearch shared some of their favourite takeaways from Warren Buffett’s latest annual letter to shareholders. With all of Buffett’s overwhelming investing success, he firmly believes in the power of passive investing and credits the late Jack Bogle for helping the average retail investor:
Is your car dependency killing your health and wealth? It could be. I know we’re looking forward going down to 1-car in another 3 months.
All About The Dividends is working hard on increasing his dividend income.
Dividends or total return or anything in between….what the heck is money for anyhow??? Get Rich Slowly interviews the author of Your Money or Your Life.
I shared my review of that book here. One of my favourite quotes/takeaways from the book: “Insight can happen in a minute but growth happens over time.” A good life lesson right there.
From “RRSP season” to tax season
Spring is here, or on the way in Ottawa I think (?), and that means another tax filing season is here as well.
Amongst other stuff I mentioned above, I’m working on a sweet giveaway related to some FREE tax filing software for you to win. So, while I work on that content this month, and get those giveaway codes ready for you to win, here are some tax tips and tax refund reminders for you:
Are you looking forward to a big tax refund this year? I don’t think that’s a good idea.
If you do get even a small tax refund back this year, these are the best things to do with it. My personal favourites are to pay down debt, invest money inside the RRSP and build up the emergency fund. What about you?
Is parenting easier for wealthy parents? Here’s a take on that.
This blogger shared 8 ways to save more money. These are good ideas. What’s really worked for us over the years is to make, as much as possible, savings for investment purposes automatic. Whether it was saving $25 per month in my 20s, $300 per month in my early 30s, or now saving a few hundred per month in my 40s, this was absolutely key for me. What does that mean – making savings automatic? We consider ourselves a bill payment just like our hydro, natural gas, property taxes, other bills every month. This way, we pay ourselves first and we don’t have to pinch our needs or wants elsewhere.
Happy Investing!
Mark
Hey Mark, congrats again on the house. Have some beers pack some stuff. Does this item bring you joy? nope toss it!
lol I move alot of friends and im surprised all the stuff they move and then toss once at the new place. Toss it before the move.
Some great links in there, Im definately going to be checking out the tax ones for any tips. This is the first year of our solar panel income so im not sure if ill tackle our taxes personally this year, in case I miss writing something off.
Thanks for including me as well.
have a great weekend, Seems like some of this snow may melt this weekend!
cheers
Sigh – Mary Kondo…
Nice to see someone getting rich off how to fold clothes properly and minimalism! Getting crusty in my old age 🙂
All the best Rob and continued success to you.
Mark
Filed our taxes electronically a week ago and woke to the money in the bank account today. Enough to pay for my Wife’s 2019 TFSA which we are are doing today. Been an index investor since 2006 using TD eseries funds and eyeing potential retirement in 2021 at 55. Not magic, just math. Love tax time and RRSP season. How weird am I?
LOL, as a personal finance blogger I like that stuff too Carl 🙂
All the best, you have a good plan!
Mark
A colleague mentioned that if you have an account with CRA you can auto-fill your tax return software with all the T-slips they have on file. You still need to check everything and enter anything they don’t have, but it’s a great time-saver and increases accuracy! I signed up with an account a few years ago and watched how long it took to process my return – in 10-11 business days I got my refund, and that was with snail mail. I was impressed by their efficiency. If I submitted my banking info I probably could have gotten it as quickly as Carl.
I found it was a pain myself re joint acct. CRA somehow didn’t account for that. Primary acct holder issue? Dunno.
Based on having to redo it all before I find its easier just to do it manually myself.
We both always owe now so I wait until later to efile and pay through bank close to deadline.
Interesting. I know there are other countries that don’t ask you to file a tax return unless you have some significant changes to your tax situation – since they already have all the forms/T-slips on file. I would think that would be an excellent thing in this country, but I suspect it will never happen given our government bureaucracy.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/taxes/taxes-without-the-filing-headaches-it-s-already-happening-in-some-countries-1.2961547
I’ll probably start my tax return filing later this weekend…at least the initial entries.
Hope all is well!
You posted that your house sold so your stress level went down. I have moved house multiple times and I find the process of moving to be very stressful. I have always found selling the house to be the easy part. Sorting, packing, moving and unpacking are all so stressful. Start today by making a detailed plan and buying a large pack of Sharpies.
Already started that process Beth….some packing already done. I find the showings, inspections and other things associated with the house selling process more stressful. I’m sure I’ll write about it in a few months!
Mark
When my wife and I moved to our current home we had been in our prior one for 10 years. Many of the boxes of stuff we moved to our home sat unopened 3 years later when we decided to finish our basement. We wound up donating what we could and throwing away junk. It taught me the “one thing in, one thing out” rule – if you aren’t constantly getting rid of stuff, it only piles up. Better yet, be certain you really need/want something – it will save you space and money if you forego things you don’t really need.
We are absolutely trying to adhere to that – one in, one out. In addition to that, if we haven’t used/worn/displayed something in 10 years – it’s gone/donated/sold.
When you sit back and think about it, there are very few things you REALLY need.
Thanks for your insights as always.
I’ve got boxes of “stuff” from when we moved from Lynn Lake in ’85. They have not been opened and still have the mover’s tracking stickers on them. Some might consider us (actually me) as hoarders. In my defense though, I did sell a couple of the antique “stuff” that was up in the loft of the garage/barn.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laj2006/11052242685/in/album-72157638641202704/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laj2006/11052331214/in/album-72157638641202704/
Anybody interested in an old Tandy 1000SX in original box complete with 15 inch dot matrix printer? 🙂
Great stuff Lloyd. You look like you have an interesting place. Any old antique tools? My BIL in NB is a serious collector!
LOL, tandy! Most on here don’t know what we’re talking about.
LOL. Trying to downsize and go more minimalist for the condo but thanks anyhow 🙂
Thanks for sharing the post about the Oura ring, Mark. Hopefully readers can find value and find inspiration for better sleep & health management.
Have a great weekend
Sabeel
R2R
That book seems great. If you’re done with it, happy to borrow the next time we meet up!
Mark