Weekend Reading – The one more year edition

Weekend Reading – The one more year edition

Welcome to some new Weekend Reading the one more year edition. 

You can check out other recent editions below:

I shared my Financial Independence update here and I also answered a reader question about how to invest a large sum of money.

This post included some dividend mentors and I recently posted my own monthly dividend income update. 

One more year…

I’ve been doing some thinking, lots of thinking this year, and it appears other bloggers and investors I know have done the same. That includes thinking about overcoming this one more year syndrome as you approach retirement.

I think some of the easiest ways to overcome this one more year mindset is to reflect on a few things in particular:

  1. Death is very final. Time has a way of flying by and I can’t believe I’m in my late-40s now. I want to slow down a bit in the coming decde. I will do this to avoid missing out on many of life’s valuable but also simple moments.
  2. Figure out your “enough” number. I have mine. I’ve been targeting a few financial milestones for almost 15 years now. I’m getting very close to a few of those goals now. I believe once you set some goals, and as you work towards them by monitoring them, you should avoid this syndrome.
  3. Consider retiring to something versus running away from something. Don’t like your current job? Change it. Need a more fulfilling life? Change that too. I have some plans to work part-time in a few years and with less than three (3) years to go in our journey, give or take a few months, I’m mentally preparing myself now for the leap.
  4. Avoid defining yourself by your career or job. I know some people continue to work well into their 60s and 70s because they love what they do. That’s awesome. For many of us however, our careers may or may not allow us to do that. I know when it comes to my plans, I would be more than happy to scale back a bit with my current employer if the role was right but that may or may not be an option.
  5. Test out living off less money. We hope to do this in 2022 a bit, as a trial – see exactly our spend rate for a few months just to see if #2 above is correct. We’ll test out how we feel about that spending as well which is just as important. 

Interestingly enough, 700+ folks voted on a recent Twitter poll what their “enough” number was:

One more year - enough number Twitter Poll December 2021

Having some money is nice and largely necessary for retirement of course but having some money and lots of time is much better.

What do you make of the one more year syndrome? Are you thinking about it? Faced it? Moved past it?

Enjoy the rest of these Weekend Reading articles!

Mark

Weekend Reading

Matt Poyner from Dividend Strategy was on the same wavelength this week – he also wrote about the one more year syndrome and raised some other points that I didn’t. 

How much is enough for retirement anyhow? We have our financial independence plan here.

Great reading on Cut The Crap Investing from Dale Roberts this week, including this update on his own portfolio:

“Here’s the total returns for our market-beating U.S. stock portfolio. Quality came through on the dividend growth and total return fronts. It is a very simple approach, and takes almost no time to manage the portfolio. I also have three stock picks in the mix that have greatly contributed to the returns. Mostly thanks to Apple and BlackRock.

Returns from 2015 through to end of November 2021″

A reminder I have a huge discount off The Grumpy Accountant thanks to the author! You can find my personal promo code and recent interview with Neal Winokur in this post.

Here are some great year-end tax season tips over at Cashflows & Portfolios. 

Tawcan reviewed National Bank’s brokerage.

Tom Drake included some great renewable energy stocks to own.

Dividend Growth Investor reminded investors to Just Do It – get invested and stay invested.

“Investing is simple, but not easy. We all know that we should own great quality companies, which offer great products and services that consumer like. We also know to diversify, not trade too much, and keep investment expenses low. However, we also know that we should not overpay for quality companies as well. In addition, we know that we should not time the markets.

The fascinating part for me is that a lot of investors I speak to seem to agree with the last two statements. They know that we should not time the markets. They also know that we should not overpay for quality companies. While many investors seem to understand the theory, real world application is quite often the tough part.”

I always enjoy the 5 articles from 5i Research – some great reads found there. 

A good letter below by Canadian investor advocate Ken Kivenko (who I had on my site a few times, here).

Ken’s letter re-published with permission to the Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy Ontario Minister of Finance;  another plea to ban DSC funds and any terrible segregated funds:

One more year edition - avoid segregated funds

This is a great time to remind you to avoid any financial advisors or planners supporting these products. 

Segregated funds - bad financial advice - December 2021

Always great to read the MoneySense edition about trying to make sense of the markets.

More FREE content

How I invest in dividend paying stocks is always found here. 

Looking for free calculators, tools, or even my support to help you draw down your portfolio in a tax efficient way? Check out my Helpful Sites page and hire me on the cheap here!

This is how you can invest in many low-cost ETFs here. Ditch your advisor – keep your money!

My Retirement page is filled with many successful retirement case studies – folks that have been there and done that! Learn from them for free. Here is just one example from that page: 

Mike and Julie want to spend $50,000 per year in retirement starting in their 50s. How much do they need?

Save, Invest, Prosper!

As always, check out my Deals page.

Have a great weekend!

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.

12 Responses to "Weekend Reading – The one more year edition"

  1. Yes Mark, death on earth is very final.

    Dealing w mom in law (77)in a LTC facility in the GTA who I expect will rather pass away before y/e or early in new year.

    Modest RIF balance of $190k, I’m taking out extra RIF pay’ts for her this month all the while wondering does it really matter anymore (it will for beneficiaries of course if she makes it to Jan because lump sum rif income will move to 2022)….she has an assurance though of what happens to her after the final death step that gets her through these current days. It’s this eternal perspective that helps me get through the current reality – the act of dying actual does suck from a human perspective. Gives perspective on dealing with money. Give some away to charity while still alive so you can see the benefit. Not saying this to depress anyone (sorry if I did). But I agree w prior comment, don’t be afraid if it’s not all perfectly planned.

    I agree w Gruff403…life is too unpredictable. I’m donating stocks to charity and buying the stock back that I would’ve used to give cash to charity for the last 4 years. It feels good to give it away (instead of the govt taxing the heck out of a rif on death, or the non registered stocks w large cap gains).

    Have a blessed Christmas season.

    Reply
    1. Sorry to hear about your mother-in-law Jimy and certainly some strong, powerful reminders to enjoy what life has to offer as much as possible today.

      Same to you, please enjoy your holiday season.
      Mark

      Reply
  2. Very sage points about your One More Year perspective. Finding something fulfilling to do when you have accumulated enough to meet your core living costs is very liberating. I hope you find that, and that it continues to involve this site and Cashflows & Portfolios!

    Reply
    1. Thanks very much. Matt Poyner and I were certainly on the same wavelength this week. He’s a very sharp guy. He traded medicine for a better balance of time with this family.

      Yes, it is my hope to (potentially!?) run My Own Advisor and Cashflows & Portfolios as my small part-time jobs in semi-retirement. I figure we can do that around the end of 2024 all other things willing. We’ll see!

      Thanks very much for the kind words.

      Reply
  3. Agreed on the DSC ban for seg funds – product arbitrage should never be allowed. I recall two very good MoneySense articles on segs – one by Dan Bortolotti in June 2012 (I scanned it for a colleague but couldn’t find it online right now) showing you could replicate the advantages of a seg for a fraction of the cost by buying a strip bond (his example was for a 10-year strip bond for $7,089 that would payout $10k at the end), and take the difference of $2,911 and invest it in an equity index (he used HXT), which at 6% would would result in a terminal total value of $15,213 with the bond value with no risk of loss of the initial $10k.

    A second was this portfolio review in 2015 of a 32-year old woman who had been sold a 50/50 portfolio of seg funds with 3.5% MERs. Sure, “buyer beware” comes into play here but these products should not be sold to clients like this.
    https://www.moneysense.ca/save/investing/mutual-funds/the-real-cost-of-segregated-funds/

    Reply
  4. Time in the market beats timing the market. Time in retirement beats timing retirement. We regret the risks we don’t take and there is not a perfect time to leave full time work. Just do it and have some faith in yourself that you can figure it out and adjust. I’m not advocating recklessness but you can paralyze your life by over preparing. Life is too short and unpredictable to perfectly plan everything. Take a step of faith and live with no regrets. Glad I did.

    All the best to everyone this holiday season. Be sure to share time with those most important to you.

    Reply
    1. Ha, yes, maybe right Gary? I mean can you imagine most Canadians at age 60 or 65 having $1.5 M in the bank, no debt, and CPP and OAS benefits as well? Geez. They would all be set for life.

      Stay well and Happy Holidays!

      Reply

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