Weekend Reading – How to build fat RRSPs, beating Buffett, unaffordable U.S. cities and more

Posted on January 18, 2018 by | 18 Comments

Weekend Reading – How to build fat RRSPs, beating Buffett, unaffordable U.S. cities and more

Welcome to another Weekend Reading edition friends.   I hope you had a great week.

Earlier this week I shared some financial goals we hope to accomplish in 2018.  I have a good feeling about maxing out our TFSAs (I will write about that soon) and I’m optimistic we can kill a good chunk of debt this year.  What are your financial goals for 2018?

I also plan to buy more of these big bank stocks this year – thanks to rising interest rates.  What’s your game plan for rising interest rates?  Here is our big picture plan.

Enjoy these reads including some older posts from yours truly and we’ll see you here next week!

Mark

Want to build a fat RRSP this year?  These tips will help.

Dividend Growth Investor made a bet with Warren Buffett, sort of – he believes this list of U.S. stocks will outperform the S&P 500 index in the coming 10 years.

Here’s how much money you need to live in some major U.S. cities.  You might be surprised to learn that New York City is not as expensive as others.

4 in 10 residents in B.C. are just $200 away from financial disaster.  I don’t know about you but that sounds rather dire.

Want to find a financial planner?  Here are some suggestions from Financial Planning for Canadians.

Tawcan put an end to his pursuit for FIRE. I really enjoyed his article including the referenced letter at the end from a 20-something that is sadly no longer with us.  Here is my article about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early).  Upon further reflection, I’m not obsessed with an early retirement to run away from something.  Rather, I want to be working towards something; something greater while enjoying the journey.

In my early 40s now, I value and appreciate time more.  FIRE is something I’ll continue to read up on and give some consideration to but my wife and I are not ready to make any radical changes.  More time and freedom would be great but instead of rushing towards this we’re more or less inching our way in this direction – enjoying the journey. 

This past week was Blue Monday, apparently the saddest time of the year (the month between today and Valentine’s Day).  From this survey by my friends from the Financial Planning Standards Council:

  • “One-in-five Canadians (20%) has a credit card balance larger than their savings account.
  • Younger adults aged 18-44 are especially blue about finances this time of year (68% versus 41% for those 45 and older).
  • One-in-four Canadians (25%) do not have funds to escape the winter doldrums through a vacation.
  • 6% of Canadians have already broken their financial new year resolutions.
  • 21% of Canadians over-spent during the holidays.”

Become a better saver and investor in 2018:

Use my promo code with BMO, I can provide up to $750 cash back when you open your BMO InvestorLine account.

Here is a free trial to unbiased stock and ETF suggestions in Canada.

Thanks to this partnership you can start a free, risk-free trial account in 2018 funded with $1,000 of ModernAdvsior’s money. You will also get a $50 bonus when you open and fund a new account.

In other reads:

Dividend Earner listed his 2018 Canadian Dividend Aristocrats.

Ellen Roseman shared how Shoppers Optimum points will be assimilated with PC Points.

Ben Carlson told us we should be working less.  Sounds good to me but that won’t happen for a few years.

Dan Bortolotti hosted an informative podcast with Shannon Lee Simmons.  I had a chuckle when he talked to Shannon about “fee shaming”.  From Dan’s site: “…the person on the receiving end of the criticism, as you can imagine, feels like they’re being called a fool. It’s a lesson for all of us who want to share what we’ve learned about smart investing: help others in a respectful way without sounding self-righteous.”  Just because you invest in ETFs doesn’t make you superior.

Congratulations to Cait Flanders on her book The Year of Less.  Well done!

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.

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18 Responses to "Weekend Reading – How to build fat RRSPs, beating Buffett, unaffordable U.S. cities and more"

  2. Chuck · Edit

    Thanks gents. I made the “mistake” of laddering GICs in our TFSA back in 2009. Need to get them out and replaced with some dividend paying stocks asap.
    Enjoy your weekend
    Go Leafs!
    [sorry Mark]

    Reply
  3. cannew · Edit

    “Who actually works for you? Brokers make money, investment bankers make money, fund managers make money! So who has your – and only your – interests in mind? 5i Research® does.”

    Do you really believe 5i Research works for you for nothing?

    Reply
  4. cannew · Edit

    In the US they stated that 45% of households could not pay a $1,000 bill if it came due.

    Still marvel how many people still center on Price Gain Personally believe the focus should be on how much income your portfolio generates and is it growing each year. If your income is growing than you’ll have a real measure of where you’ll be when you need to live off that money and you won’t be worrying about any market dips.

    Reply
    2. SST · Edit

      re: 45%
      Still unsure why people are taken aback at the financial ills of the US population. The wealth inequality in that country is staggering, so much so that it erodes the overall quality of life for the entire nation. However, this applies across the globe — most people have no money!

      re: price gain
      It’s how are brains are wired. Nearly impossible to overcome without consistent dedicated focus…which is also nearly impossible to develop. There’s a reason why price-centric bubbles keep appearing century after century. As well, most people who hold financial instruments are still earning employment income, thus they focus on capital gain (yet another brain game).

      re: working less
      I guess, if you are a “knowledge-based” worker (or gov’t worker). The world, however, still operates via physical, hands-on work — all that knowledge still need to be applied. That said, it’s exactly what I’ve been doing over the last decade, with every pay raise I’ve incrementally shorted my work week to the maximum, now just a shade over 30 hours. As enjoyable as work can be, there’s no reason for it to be one’s overweighted experience of life. As well, you can’t really compare, as the article does, a Nordic way of life to the “American” way of life. One strives to enhance the whole, the other is focused wholly on individualistic gains.

      re: BC
      “…a better measure for how the economy is doing would be to look at how much you can afford for the pay you earn in a given labour market…Your effective consumption ability, how much you can buy…” — in a consumer driven economy, this really should be the apex metric. If the gap between income and the price of everything (housing, education, utilities, food, transportation, etc.) is too great, it creates situations such as BC.

      re: tawcan
      Too many points to comment on so I’ll just say, “Well done!”.
      Two things do stand out, however: i) “my parents were always there when I needed them” and ii) “money has never been a tabooed subject in my family”. Through no fault of their own, too many people lack these major components in the recipe for financial success.

      Reply
  6. RBull · Edit

    More big bank stocks- sounds good.

    $200 away from financial disaster- I couldn’t live that way.

    Tawcan’s post. A saavy introspective proving he’s far wiser than his years.

    DGI Buffet bet- I’d say he has a 50/50 chance of winning.

    Ben Carlson- true that.

    Chuck, you can move stocks in kind from unregistered to TFSA but you’ll pay any applicable capital gain, and can’t claim any applicable loss.

    Reply
  7. Chuck · Edit

    Hi Mark,
    Im sure you have covered this in previous articles but is it possible to move stocks from a non-registered cash account to a TFSA in kind? Hoping to do so without selling and incurring capital gains tax
    Thanks for your thoughts as always
    Chuck

    Reply

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