Short Takes: Bad Financial Ads, Executive Pay Abuses, and more

Here are my posts for this week:

TFSA Penalties Poised to Rise

Test Driving Financial Rules of Thumb

Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

Dan Hallett uses his expertise to pick apart the misleading aspects of a few ads for investments. The rule seems to be “if it’s misleading but legal, run it.”

Eric Reguly does a great job of explaining executive pay abuses. Stock options do a terrible job of aligning the interests of shareholders and company executives.

Tom Bradley at Steadyhand is advising retired clients to rebalance by topping up their cash reserves. He says “the general range used by our clients is 12 to 24 months” worth of spending in cash reserves. When I started looking at retirement income strategies, I chose 5 years of spending as a cash buffer. I think the difference is that Steadyhand’s client’s portfolios generally contain a significant allocation to bonds that reduces risk. My strategy was based on the cash buffer being the only safe component; the rest of the portfolio is stocks.

Million Dollar Journey provides a complete set of resources for those considering the Smith Manoeuvre. Take some time to understand the risks well before jumping in. In my opinion, leveraged investing is only appropriate for a small minority of investors.

My Own Advisor gave his take on several financial rules of thumb which prompted me to do the same.

Big Cajun Man found that even Cosmopolitan Magazine had some financial advice he needed to heed.