Category: Announcements

The diet continues (sort of). I fell off the wagon last weekend. Actually, it was more like diving off the wagon head first. 🙂

My “no beer” diet rules stated that I had to weigh in at less than 180 pounds for two days in a row before I could have any beer. In fact I weighed 179.5 and 180.0 last Friday and Saturday morning.

We went to visit some friends at their country house last weekend and I decided to have some beers since I was close enough to the goal. The diet continues (I weighed 179.5 pounds this morning) although I probably won’t be as strict about the lack of beer. 🙂

Important TFSA info

Earlier this week I posted about Estate planning with your TFSA – choosing a beneficiary or successor holder. Not surprisingly, the article didn’t get much traffic. If you have a TFSA, I urge you to read it and make sure you have your TFSA set up properly. The estate rules are not complicated and it won’t take much time to set up the beneficiary information

On with the links

Canadian Capitalist wonders why the National Post is always ranting against RRSPs. I wonder too.

Ellen Roseman published an interview with Derek Foster.  It was interesting, but Ellen doesn’t sound too keen on Derek’s new book.

Home Cents blog has Do your investments fit your retirement plan. An excellent primer for retirement planning.

Krystal wrote about some problems with TD mutual funds.  They won’t let her buy the funds she wants!

Landlord Rescue updates about an interesting problem tenant.

Today’s Economy blog says that market predictions are a waste of time.

Sustainable Personal Finance shows exactly How to install a low-flow toilet. Replacing a toilet is probably one of the few renovations I’ve encountered that was easier than I expected.

Rob Carrick lists some good retirement planning calculators.

Retire Happy blog says that it’s time to review your RRSP portfolio. Excellent advice.

The Financial Blogger finally found out who his Dad is. Unfortunately, he turns out to be a complete charlatan. 😉

My Own Advisor gives us the Coles notes version of his retirement plan.

Boomer and Echo covers some different investing strategies to consider.

Larry MacDonald rereads the RRSP chapter from The Wealthy Barber and says it’s a bit out of date.

Million Dollar Journey wonders is life without tv worth living?

A few more links

• If you are considering opening up or reforming your business have you considered doing so as a Professional LLC?
• Is Gold A Good Investment Now?
• What’s In My Portfolio? (Choosing Mutual Funds)
• TurboTax vs H&R Block Online: Which Is Better?
• 5 Helpful Android and iPhone Tax Apps
• A Federal Income Tax Increase In 2011?
• How-to Save Thousands of Dollars– The Power of Automated Savings
• Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards
• Best Retirement Plans For The Self Employed or Small Business Owner
• Bootstrapping Your Start-Up Business With Little or No Money

Another week – another couple of pounds. I’m getting very close to breaking my target threshold weight of 180 pounds. Soon…very soon, I will be drinking beer again.

I bought a new PC this week – it’s incredible how cheap they are now.  Love it!

On with the links

Financial Uproar had a good post pointing out that ads are for idiots.

JD Roth wrote a very good post saying that action is character. You are what you do – not what you say you want to do.

Jim Yih has a new website called the Retire Happy.  Jim explains what happens to your RRSPs when you die.

Super stock picker Andrew Hallam is getting out of the race and is buying indexes instead of individual stocks.

Canadian Couch Potato has some more dividend investing myths.

Canadian Capitalist says that RRSPs are not so bad after all.

Michael James points out that Bell has confusing bills. Intentional or just poorly designed?

The Oblivious Investor wrote about your personal inflation rate.

Dianne Nice of the Globe & Mail wrote about the annual RRSP guilt trip. An excellent article – financial companies sponsor stupid surveys to get publicity. Maybe I should do one to help promote my RESP book?

Rob Carrick wrote about the same survey and says that if you are young – don’t worry about your RRSP too much.

Canadian Financial DIY is asking the government for Canada real return savings bond. Excellent idea.

Rob Carrick points out that you should measure your portfolio with the right yardstick.

Last week I mentioned my “no beer” diet.  Suffice to say that it is going very well, although I’m certainly not enjoying myself.  I used to love having a couple of beers, a big snack (ie another meal) while watching tv.  Now I can’t do that.

You just don’t appreciate the things that truly matter until they are gone!

In other news, The RESP Book is on order at the Toronto Public Library.  I don’t know when it will become available, but you can place a hold if you wish.

On with the links

Sustainable Personal Finance wrote a pretty good post about how his mom used to save money when he was a kid.  Check out Mom knows best.

Ellen Roseman from the Toronto Star warns about the dangers of pooled or scholarship RESP plans.  Those people didn’t read my book!

Flexo from Consumerism Commentary quit his job recently and says he should have done it a long time ago.  Very inspiring!

Canadian Mortgage Trends reports on mortgages that pay trailers to mortgage brokers.  I think this is bad news – mortgage brokers are supposed to be unbiased, and this kind of compensation turns them into  mutual fund salespersons.

Jim Yih wrote about how TFSAs won’t replace RRSPs for retirement savings.

Squawkfox clucked about stretching an oven baked whole chicken.  Once I hit my target weight, I’m going to eat an entire chicken.

Eric Reguly of the Globe says that Greece should just default and get it over with.

Boomer and Echo wrote about the psychology of investing.

My Own Advisor wrote a book review on “The Single Best Investment“.  I’ll give you a clue – it has something to do with dividends.

Before You Invest goes over all the RRSP rules.

Janet McFarland from the Globe says that Canada needs a national securities regulator.  Couldn’t agree more.

Canadian Couch Potato is doing an excellent series on Debunking dividend investing myths.

Canadian Capitalist takes a look at the new Scotia iTrade US-friendly RRSP.

Michael James has some good advice on How to find a financial advisor.

Beating the Index warns Beware of tv talking heads. Don’t get your investment advice from tv.

Million Dollar Journey explains the difference between Dollar cost averaging and dollar value averaging.

A few more links

Alternative Asset Classes That Are Easy To Own
Should You Own An International Real Estate Fund?
How Much Income Will You Need in Retirement?
Income Tax 101: Tax Brackets and Withholding
Tips For Self-Preparing And Filing Your Income Taxes
2011 Tax Law Changes
9 Ways to Prepare for Food Inflation
5 Lessons Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Healthy Living
A Resolution Worth Keeping: Set Up An Investment Account With An Online Brokerage
Scottrade Review: $7 Trades and Local Offices – While they may not be the cheapest discount broker, Scottrade does have an upper hand when it comes to customer support and local branch offices.
Creating a Financial Plan for Free – Wealth Pilgrim explains how you can create your own financial plan easily and for free.
TurboTax Online Tax Software 2010 Review – TurboTax is still the industry standard for tax prep software. See why.
The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards – Find a travel rewards card that best fits your spending habits.
Reverse Mortgage Disadvantages – How to talk Grandma out of one of the potentially worst financial decisions she could make.
Minimum Income to File Taxes – How to determine if you need to file a tax return.
15 Ways to Make Money — 15 ideas to help you make more money in 2011 at Moolanomy.

I’ve started a new diet.  Long time readers will recall I went through a diet phase a couple of years ago.  At that time I went from about 200 pounds down to around 180 pounds.  Unfortunately, my weight crept back up to around 191 lbs, so I decided it was time to get the diet going again.

The changes I’ve made are:

1. No snacks after dinner.  I love late night snacks, but they just aren’t necessary.
2. Less dinner.  I normally eat a large portion and then have seconds.  Now I’m going to eat a smaller portion (but not tiny) and no seconds.

Where does the “no beer” come into play?  Simply put, I like drinking beer.  As of a couple of weeks ago, I’m not going to allow myself any beer at all, until I weigh below 180 lbs for three consecutive days.  This is going to be tough, but as I’ve found out – beer can be a very powerful motivator.

Unlike last time, my goal is to lose some weight and then keep it off.  Once I get below 180 lbs, I can eat or drink anything I like.  However, I will keep weighing myself daily and if I hit 180 lbs or higher – the “no beer” diet starts all over again.  I won’t be able to drink any beer until I weigh less than 180 lbs for three consecutive days.

So far it’s going well – I decided to start the diet just after Christmas, since I was so sick I was hardly eating anything anyway.  🙂  I’m down to 184.5 which is a great start.  6.5 pounds lost in three weeks.

Negative reaction to my guest post last week

Last week I wrote about Why low interest rates are a good thing over at Million Dollar Journey. Flexo from Consumerism Commmentary didn’t like the post.  In fact he said:

This is a crazy argument.

Actually, I thought my argument was reasonably intelligent.  Oh well, I guess you can’t please everyone!

On with the links

Rob Carrick came up with a 2-minute portfolio and says the results are pretty good.  The idea of the portfolio is to buy Canadian stocks in each sector, which will provide much better diversification and therefor less risk, compared to a broad index.

Boomer & Echo had a pretty good list of gifts that keep on taking.

Canada Mortgage News says that the banks are not calculating mortgage termination penalties fairly.

Financial Uproar delivers a typically humerous post about why he isn’t buying any more investment real estate.  He also reveals his wedding plans.

Today’s Economy had a good piece on retirement planning scare mongering.

Canadian Capitalist revisits David Trahair’s investment recommendations and finds that they completely suck.

Michael James sent away for a credit report and found a number of errors.

A post for bloggers:  Giveaway contests are a waste of money.

A few more links

• Stocks or Mutual Funds: Which Should I Buy?
• Ten Best Cities for Job Opportunities
• Case Study On Explosive Blog Growth & Creating a Full-Time Income
• A Resolution Worth Keeping: Get an Insurance Checkup Your life changes constantly. Your insurances needs change right along with them. Get an insurance review to make certain you’re covered with the proper insurance.
• Are You Responsible for Your Spouse’s Debt? — Things can be complicated in a marriage, and this includes finances in some cases. When debt enters the picture, there are often many questions that come with it. This article will help you answer some questions related to debt and marriage.
• Blogger Tax Deductions You Should Be Looking For Come Tax Time – As a blogger, there are a number of deductions you can be taking to make your taxable income lower.
• 2011 401k, 403b, and 457 Plan Contribution Limits – What does 2011 have in store for employer-sponsored retirement plans? Looks like much of the same.

I read about an interesting way to manage your sock collection on Larry MacDonald’s blog a while ago. He reviewed the book Early Retirement Extreme and learned that if you throw out all your socks and buy a whole bunch of identical socks, you can avoid the problem of having to match pairs of socks all the time. This week, I took the plunge and threw out all my socks and replaced them with 16 pairs of new socks. I didn’t throw out any good socks – I have waited until my sock collection was practically falling apart before doing this.

I’ll report on any findings. 🙂

On with the links

I did a guest post over at Million Dollar Journey about why low interest rates are a good thing.  If you are unhappy with the interest rates in your high interest savings account, go over and read it.

Rob Carrick had a great article about retirement anxiety and all the bullsh*t that financial companies and advisors will feed you, in order to get you to buy more of their products.

Preet from Where Does All My Money Go wrote a good article about money coaches. I’ve done some research and although it’s buyer beware – they are good alternatives to financial advisors, especially if you need help with budgeting or reducing debt.

Boomer and Echo explains the difference between TFSA and non-registered accounts.

The Economist did a very interesting piece about Ireland making their creditors whole and is suffering. Meanwhile, Iceland let their creditors take a haircut and is doing fairly well. I really don’t understand why anyone would guarantee their debts if they can’t pay them.

The Writer’s Coin says that you can save money by cutting your cable. But, it’s all about convenience.

Beating the Index lays out his investment porfolio objectives for 2011.

Larry MacDonald discusses Generation X retirement savings.

Oblivious Investor explains what investment tracking error is and how it affects you.

Michael James takes a look at the TFSA vs RRSP debate and concludes that if you are a higher earner – the RRSP will be at least as good as a TFSA.

Canadian Capitalist calculated the 2010 asset class returns. Overall, the numbers were pretty good.

A few more links

• Does This Count As Market Timing?
• Congress Can’t Beat The Market, Even When It Cheats
• Debt: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  
• Brace Yourself for $5-per-Gallon Gas
• A Resolution Worth Keeping: Find a new or better job – with today’s job market in the tank, if you’ve resolved to find a new or better job, you’ll need a strong game plan. Here are some ideas.
• How To Decide If A 0% Intro Interest Rate Credit Card Is Worth It … For You. Credit has become incredibly tight but there are still some good options for 0% balance transfers. Here’s how to decide if you should take the plunge.
• Can You Retire Now? Stop asking yourself this question and get your answer by checking out what Wealth Pilgrim has to say.
• Vagabonding 101: Everything You Need to Know to Travel the World
• Roth IRA Contribution Limits
• 10 Best Part Time Jobs with Benefits
• 2011 Home Improvement Tax Credits For Energy Efficient Products (Insulation, Windows, Heaters, Etc)
• 2011 Federal Income Tax Brackets
• Some Great Free Online Checking Accounts
• How to Create SMART Financial Goals Part I – Be Specific
• How to Recharacterize Your Roth IRA Conversion…and Why — 2010 was a big year for IRA conversion to Roth. However, some people might want to reverse the action — here are the why’s and how to recharacterize your Roth IRA conversion.
• 2011 IRA Contribution Limits for Traditional and Roth IRAs — It’s time to plan your retirement savings and the best time to start is now. Here’s information about how much you can contribute to Roth and Traditional IRAs, and how your income, filing status, and participation in your company’s retirement plan impact your ability to contribute.

Ok, I’m doing the big stock picking contest again.  In 2010, I finished dead last with a -35% return, so hopefully this year will be a bit better.

I want to do the same bet as I did last year – bet against gold.  I’m so certain that gold will finally crash this year, I’m not even going to pick four different stocks – this year I’m just going to short the gold ETF CGL.

What is CGL you ask?  It is the Claymore Gold Bullion ETF which trades on the TSX.  What does it invest in?  Gold – literally.  The ETF currently own 14 pounds of the stuff, so it really is a direct play on gold.  By shorting it, I will be sending a message to all those crazy gold bugs, that their fun and games are about to end.

Here are the other bloggers participating in the competition in 2011. Welcome to Mich from BeatingTheIndex.com who is a new contestant this year.

Rank	Site	YTD Return (%)
1	The Wild Investor	0.00
2	Where Does All My Money Go	0.00
3	Dividend Growth Investor	0.00
4	Beating The Index	0.00
5	My Traders Journal	0.00
6	Million Dollar Journey	0.00
7	Intelligent Speculator	0.00
8	The Financial Blogger	0.00
9	Money Smarts	0.00

At the beginning of the year I entered into a stock picking contest with some other bloggers, as I do every year. I decided to swing for the fences this year and I ended up missing the ball and cranking myself in the head with the bat. 🙂

I placed a bet against the price of gold.  I ended up not picking the right vehicle for my bet and it didn’t matter anyways, since gold ended up going up 50% this year.

Rank	Site	YTD Return (%)
1	The Wild Investor	27.15
2	Where Does All My Money Go	26.56
3	Dividend Growth Investor	26.08
4	Zack Stocks	20.87
5	My Traders Journal	10.39
6	Million Dollar Journey	3.79
7	Intelligent Speculator	-0.45
8	The Financial Blogger	-1.64
9	Money Smarts	-35.25

You can see all the detailed results over at First Million Dollar.

Tomorrow, I will be unveiling the winning stock picks for 2011 – so stay tuned!!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all have a great 2011.

Personal Review

When I look back at 2010, it was a very good year financially for my family – record income, record mortgage payments, record RRSP contributions.  Health-wise, it wasn’t so good.  It seemed like some or all of us were always sick – especially last fall.  My son started junior-kindergarten in September and I would assume that was one of the reasons for the constant colds.  Everyone told me that when the kids go to daycare/school they bring home bugs all the time – I swore that wouldn’t happen to me (like I had a say in it), but sure enough – it happened.

So above all else, I’m hoping for a healthier 2011.

Blog Review

This year saw some major changes with the blog – Mr. Cheap left the blog which meant the end of an era, since he had been writing here since the fall of 2007.  I also decided to focus on more Canadian financial topics since that’s what I like to write about the most.  This year, I can promise there will be nothing new: no innovations, additions, departures or changes of any kind.  🙂

Updates on my other blogs:

• ABCs of Investing – I decided to mothball this site.  It is still available for search engine visitors, but I won’t be writing new content.  Earlier this year, I had to cut back on my blogging activities and ABC was the victim.

• Blogthority is my “blogging” blog, which I occasionally update.  It has posts mostly related to blogging and self-publishing.

The RESP Book

I published my first book – The RESP Book this year.  It took me a couple of years to finally decide to write a book and I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger.  The book got lots of great reviews and while sales haven’t been Steig Larsson-like, they are enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Thank you for everyone who purchased the book or helped spread the word.  Great thanks to all the bloggers who took the time to read the book and write a review.

A special thanks to the writers and editors at the Globe & Mail, who were very supportive of the RESP Book.  Rob Carrick, Dianne Nice and Chaya Cooperberg all featured articles about the book or used interview material from me.

MoneySense magazine also mentioned the book in a great article by Dan Bortolotti, which was appreciated.

Thanks also to Adam Mayers from MoneyVille who published a very short excerpt from my book which he listed as one of his top articles of 2010.

I’m already working on my next book which might be available in the spring, but more likely in September.  It’s going to be about TFSA accounts.  Can you guess what the title will be?

Ok, enough of the blather…

On with the links!

The CBC published a list of banned words for 2011.  “Epic” is one of them, which I found pretty funny since it is the word most used by lifestyle design bloggers.  Best quote from the article:

“Standards for using ‘epic’ are so low, even ‘awesome’ is embarrassed.” said Mike of Kettering, Ohio

The Prairie Eco-Thrifter (new Canadian green, finance blog) wonders if being Green is futile?  I don’t think so, every little bit counts.  She also explains how to become a compost master.  I need help with composting – after two years, I finally got some dirt from mine – I know I need to do more to make it happen faster.

New York Times had a great article by a victim of the Madoff ponzi scam and what he learned from the experience.

A few more links

• 2011 Tax Brackets: What Will Change and How Should We Plan for It?
• Average amount of time to find a job? 211 Days!
• 5 Smart End-of-the-Year Money Moves
• Dividend Mutual Funds
• How to Overcome a Personal Debt Crisis — You’re out of money and you’ve got bills to pay. You’re in a personal debt crisis and it isn’t pretty. Here are 5 basic steps to help you overcome a debt crisis.
• Give The Gift Of Stock – ING and ShareBuilder Want To Help You Achieve Financial Independence Check out ING’s Gift of Stock package and see how you can enter to win one.
• The Importance of Running Financial Battle Drills in Your Family. One thing that is guaranteed is that the unexpected will occur. Be prepared by running financial drills in your household.