Friday, June 9, 2017

Short Takes: Forgery at Banks, Investing Heroes, and more

Here are my posts for the past two weeks:

High Housing Costs vs. Avocado Toast

Against the Gods

Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

If forgery by banks is as widespread as this CBC article makes it out to be, we have much bigger concerns than whether banks are up-selling us.

Phil Huber has a very interesting take on the unsung heroes of investing.

Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed David Chilton in this interesting podcast.

Because Money interviewed Preet Banerjee who shared several interesting findings from research in finance. One question he answered was why mutual fund companies have so many mutual funds. It turns out that it helps them capture performance-chasing clients.

Robb Engen has some blunt words to describe the state of financial advice for people of modest means.

Tom Bradley at Steadyhand says it is during calm times like we’re experiencing now that we have to plan how we’ll react to the inevitable downturn. It’s hard to get people to pay attention to a message like this during good times, but now is the right time to decide how to react to market losses.

Big Cajun Man says he hasn’t had much success trying to maintain a budget. Many others would say the same thing. At the very least, if you track your spending accurately, you will naturally cut back in areas where you see unreasonably high spending.

The Blunt Bean Counter explains how hang-ups we have talking about money and death combine to form a “virtual tsunami of taboos” about creating and discussing wills.

Million Dollar Journey compares the cost of owning a global ex-Canada ETF such as VXC or XAW to the cost of owning 3 slightly cheaper ETFs that collectively own the same stocks. The focus here is on ETFs that trade in Canadian dollars rather than U.S.-dollar ETFs that offer potentially higher savings for more effort.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the inclusion, tracking is always useful, but you need to actually look at the data, not just collect it. Have a great weekend.

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  2. Please be gentle with me. I am trying to educate myself on investing but am terrified. Who do I trust? The bank vs an independent financial advisor/Investment Company? I now have 1/2 of all that I've worked for as husband ran off with someone else's wife. I need this money to outlive me but I am only 56. What would you suggest I do? Thank you for taking the time to read this.
    Sheri

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    1. @Good Girl: Finding someone you trust is a challenge. Most "helpers" just want a slice of your money. Because it seems that you need advice and are not likely to start right away doing-it-yourself, you might talk to Steadyhand to see if you like them (www.steadyhand.com). They will invest your money and offer advice for a reasonable price. Disclaimer: I have no financial or business relationship with Steadyhand.

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