Weekend Reading – Masters edition and many great blogs

Well, it’s the weekend and like the folks at CBS Sports say, time for a “tradition unlike any other”.   The Masters is here.  You can follow live scoring and listen to the cheesy music tied to this prestigious golf tournament here.

In a few weeks I’ll be playing golf with some good friends (not at Augusta National mind you) but before those good times roll, here is a list of predictions for this week’s first major golf tournament of 2013:

1. Jim Nantz, the lead anchor for CBS Sports coverage this weekend, will ask the rhetorical question, is Tiger Woods “back” no less than 83 times.
2. Using the Konika Minolta BizHub SwingVision Camera this weekend, CBS golf analyst and swing guru Peter Kostis will show us how Bubba Watson can hit a golf ball almost a quarter mile.  Watch a video of Bubba’s wild swing here.
3. Dustin Johnson’s girlfriend (Paulina Gretzky) will get more publicity at The Masters this weekend than Dustin’s play on the course.  I won’t link to any pictures of Paulina otherwise Google might shut down my site.
4. My man Phil Mickelson will start the weekend a few shots out of the lead only to blow up by the back-nine on Sunday and disappoint me.
5. CBS Sports will get their wish…young phenom Rory McIlroy, world # 2 and world # 1 Tiger Woods will duel it out for the green jacket on Sunday.  Rory wins by one stroke.

Again, just some fun predictions.  Are there any golf fans out there planning to watch The Masters this weekend?

Back to personal finance and investing, here are some great reads I checked out this week.  I hope you enjoy them.

Rick Ferri said index fund performance gets way better with age.

My friend the Blunt Bean Counter shared some confessions from this tax season.

Glenn Cooke wrapped up his extensive series comparing the life insurance holdings between some Canadian personal finance bloggers and industry experts.  What Glenn observed was this: financial bloggers assumed that they needed income replacement during their income earning years while they have debt. I know I do; this is why I hold term life insurance with the expectation of cancelling it later in life.  The life insurance brokers all had some level of income replacement but they all also had a sizeable permanent life insurance policy.  This was an interesting difference.  You can read about Part III and Part IV of this series here.

Dividend Monk interviewed Dividend Mantra about dividends, of course.

Susan Brunner reviewed Canadian Tire.

Beating The Index took a look at Spyglass Resources.

Invest It Wisely said freelancing on the side might set you free.

Million Dollar Journey listed some top Canadian growth stocks for 2013.

Canadian Couch Potato said to be careful when DRIPping in taxable accounts, since calculating your adjusted cost base could be more challenging.

Michael James on Money got some stock and real estate forecasts from friends.

Tom Drake clarified what is a LIRA.

Boomer & Echo offered a tutorial on how to use a particular trading platform.

The Loonie Bin reported some tidy dividend income.

Preet Banerjee said be careful of the tax implications when selling a condo.

Big Cajun Man said the job picture in Canada seems less rosey.

Nelson had some beauty tips for men.  Well, I think they were tips, well, just a blogpost anyhow.

Canadian Budget Binder wondered if he should rent or buy.

Your Wealth Effect said there are investment lessons to be learned from Lucky Charms.

Canadian Mortgage Trends said mortgage freedom is coming later in life for many Canadians.

Andrew Hallam gave us some options to work with financial advisors that don’t like index funds.

Seems the Passive Income Earner and I are on the same wavelength.  I just finished my blogpost about considering the Smith Manoeuvre after a recent conversation with my brother-in-law.  I’ll post mine soon but in the meantime, you can read his excellent post here.