Weekend Reading – HBP, stocks, travel, Vanguard assets and more

Welcome to your latest Weekend Reading list.  Before I get to those articles, I want to highlight this article about pensions and recap a few things I’ve learned about money.  Maybe you have a take on either topic so make sure you leave me a comment.

Enjoy these articles from the best of the personal finance and investing blogopshere and see you again next week!  Thanks for reading and sharing.

Holy Potato suggested scrapping the RRSP-Home Buyers Plan now that Canadians have Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs).

Our Big Fat Wallet shared some tips for finding quality dividend paying stocks.  My biggest tip, start by looking at what the biggest dividend and equity ETFs own, that’s a very good indicator for your DIY portfolio.

Stephen Weyman offered advice to travel in style.

Travel guru Barry Choi had a fine post here about travel insurance for seniors.

Vanguard saw its total asset based climb 78% over the past two years.  They should thank Warren Buffett for that:  the billionaire said most people are better off using low-cost index funds, like Vanguard’s products, in his will.

Michael James on Money took a Conference Board of Canada report to task.  Part of Michael’s take:  “I have no doubt that most people could use good financial advice. However, the current Canadian model where advisors sell expensive actively-managed mutual funds leads to high costs and minimal real advice.”

MoneySense reminded us this fall is a good time for tax-loss selling.

Here are the endless liabilities of owning a car.

Million Dollar Journey helped us with choosing mutual funds in our employer-sponsored pension plans.

Modest Money wrote about Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

BCM looked at RESPs from start to spend.

David Chilton (in this Jonathan Chevreau article) reinforced the fact that DRIPping blue-chip stocks are a great, dull route to riches.  “Invariably, Chilton told me, the portfolios that had done the best over the long haul were of individual blue-chip Canadian stocks bought a long time ago and never sold. More often than not, they simply reinvested the dividends into more of the same stock.”

Congratulations to my friend The Blunt Bean Counter for Best Tax Blog at the 5th annual Plutus Awards.

Robb Engen figures the more he teaches others about index investing, it might be better for him.

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.

18 Responses to "Weekend Reading – HBP, stocks, travel, Vanguard assets and more"

  1. Mark,

    Wow… I am so honored to have a post, especially one so frustrating about owning a car! I appreciate you including on posts you enjoyed over the last week. Thank you, so excited and humbled! Been reading your blog for years, one of the reasons why we started.

    -Lanny

    Reply
    1. Ha, yes, very true! I will be using that point in next week’s post about dividend income update; individual companies can fail, cut or eliminate their dividend. None of those things are good.

      Enjoy your weekend!

      Reply
    1. I think it was a great post to have…

      Like my comments indicated, I’m going to index more going-forward starting in 2015. It will simplify my portfolio and my wife’s. I don’t intend to sell any stocks, just not buy many new ones in the future and keep DRIPping the ones I have.

      Reply
    1. Indeed, I think you’re taking on more risk with individual stocks but as long as you’re diversified, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The challenge I see is a) owning enough stocks and b) hoping the performance will at least match the broader index. Hard to do a) and no control over b).

      That said, I like my dual approach to investing for now 😉

      Reply

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