Weekend Reading – Financial literacy month, happy employees, Apple news and more #moneystuff
Welcome to my latest Weekend Reading edition where I share some of my favourite articles from the personal finance and investing blogosphere.
Want to Beat The Bank like Larry Bates? If so, consider embracing wealth builders such as investing amounts, time in the market and rates of return. On the flip side, stay as far as you can away from wealth killers: money management fees, taxation and inflation. Any one or more of these things are wealth destroyers you will need to fight against as you work through your investing journey.
Next week, I plan to share my latest dividend income update and in future posts, I will share some Canadian stocks that pay dividends in U.S. dollars – so don’t miss out on those articles!
All the best and Gooooo #REDBLACKS tonight!
Mark
Personal finance is a big stressor amongst Canadians –
“…a startling 44 per cent of Canadians believe their financial situation negatively impacts their mental health, according to a recent survey…”.
To help you overcome those stressors, be more money savvy, the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) has launched a special section of its Financial Planning for Canadians website to get Canadians ready for Financial Planning Week, which runs from November 18 to 24 this year. Check out FPSC for more details!
Staying with studies and surveys, a recent study identified what keeps employees happy. While money is always near the top of the list, it’s never at the top. Having a “partner boss” is. What is that? Partner bosses already know, they:
- Share their vision, including celebrating wins.
- Respect other people’s time, including no needless meetings without agendas.
- Set priorities and make decisions. Because if everything is a priority, nothing is.
- Share information liberally, their bias is towards sharing as much as possible when possible.
- Demonstrate empathy.
- Accept blame and share credit.
- Model ethical behavior.
Manulife increased their dividend this week, by almost 14%.
Apple continues to make big bucks….I think they have earnings something like $100 million per day?! However, some analysts feel Apple has something to hide. (I’m an Android guy for the record.)
Andrew Hallam, a very wise digital nomad, wrote:
“The Permanent Portfolio’s long-term stability might keep investors on track. It won’t make as much money as a pure stock portfolio when the market soars. Long-term, it has also underperformed a portfolio devoted to 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds. But because most people speculate as a result of fear and greed, Permanent Portfolio devotees will likely beat them anyway.”
How is your portfolio constructed and how does it compare with permanent portfolio returns?
I benchmarked my portfolio here and will do it again at some point.
Partnerships and Deals
Thanks to my passion for personal finance and investing, some great companies reach out to me and provide reader offers. I’m happy to share those via my Deals page.
Happy investing!
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.
Hey Mark-I read the article on financial stress. I found one concept in there very strange that continues to perpetuate the idea that everyone should be able to afford all luxuries that they desire. Saving money by not spending on expensive meals and vacations is a good financial move for many. The goal of a credit card company (Capital One) is to keep people spending and paying their ridiculous interest-a little disingenuous.
Sadly, more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of Canadians have already missed out on special experiences in order to save money, including vacations (53 per cent), expensive dinners (44 per cent) and personal grooming (36 per cent).
We’re very much focused on experiences in this house – travel to different places, meeting different people; even local events. I think there are a lot of people that think they should be able to afford many things but that reality doesn’t really add up. I even look at our lives as an example. We’re fortunate to have good jobs but that doesn’t mean we can afford everything we want – far from it.
re: what keeps employees happy
Autonomy is often always at/near the top of these surveys.
re: financial situation negatively impacts their mental health
Can of worms, that one. Also a huge factor in the continuation of the cycle of poverty.
re: Apple continues to make big bucks
Prices are up, sales are down.
re: Permanent Portfolio
It’s an almost all-cash/cash-equivalent portfolio — cash, gold, bonds. So, yeah, having only 25% of your portfolio to screw up, it’s bound to beat a portfolio with a higher equity ratio because people just can’t stop tinkering. In theory it’s never going to win, but in practice it probably beats a lot of other models…unless people start tinkering with it…
I can’t believe folks rush out to buy $1,000 iPhones. It makes no sense to me but to each their own!
Fair comments about the permanent portfolio – people love to tinker!
Hey Mark, $1,000 for an iphone seems high. But its more than just a phone, its a camera, video recorder (replaced the camcorder), search device (may have replaced the laptop or at least yellow pages, LOL). Holds pics (who needs a photo album).. But, ya – 1K is a bit much!