Friday, February 14, 2014

Short Takes: Robo-Advisors, Retirement Magic Number, and more

I wrote 3 posts this week:

Cushioned Retirement Investing

Adjusting the 4% Rule for Portfolio Fees

The Gap Between the Financial Advice You Need and What You Get

You can follow me on Twitter (@MJonMoney). Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

Canadian Couch Potato thinks that robo-advisors are unlikely to come to Canada because the market isn’t big enough. However, on 2014 Jan. 15, David Chilton tweeted “Solid, unbiased, ultra-low-cost financial advice will be automated in user-friendly apps over the next few years. Will change everything.” I guess we’ll see what happens.

The Blunt Bean Counter added two more instalments to his series on how much money you need to retire. See part 3 and part 4.

Where Does All My Money Go? has Preet’s latest podcast where he gets a teacher’s perspective on financial literacy in schools. Kyle Prevost makes some very candid remarks about teachers and their math abilities and financial skills. In another interesting remark he says that economics majors can’t get into a faculty of education program.

Million Dollar Journey has a comprehensive guide to cutting the cable cord.

Big Cajun Man suggests some Valentine’s Day gifts in the form of contributions to registered savings plans. I’m guessing that this type of gift would go over well for couples who already save very well, and would cause a great deal of unhappiness for couples who desperately need to save more.

SquawkFox has some ideas for Valentine’s Day for those on a budget.

5 comments:

  1. Unhappiness? It might cause an all out war, would be my guess. Thanks for the inclusion this week.

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  2. They're both right: the send-your-money-to-be-invested-automagically-for-you model likely won't work in Canada due to the costs of getting it going with regulations, etc. But, that doesn't mean people aren't already, this very evening and through the long weekend, working on apps, books, videos, and other products to help provide unbiased advice and support for DIY investing and planning.

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    1. @Potato: I agree. It's kind of funny that the robo-advisor model won't work, but something potentially even cheaper might work.

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  3. Guess you were wrong about this one? The sector is about to explode in Canada.

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    1. @Anonymous: I assume you're talking about robo-advisors. I don't have a horse in this race, but do you know whether Potato's distinction is playing out? Are these robo-advisors actually going to invest people's money for them in Canada, or will people just get the advice and be expected to purchase the investments on their own?

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