Short Takes: Misguided Loyalty and more

I wrote three posts this week:

Hertz in the Currency Exchange Business

Dan Solin on Investing

Return Expectations

Here are my picks for some weekend reading along with some of my short takes:

Tom Bradley at Steadyhand sees too many investors with a misguided sense of loyalty to their financial advisors. I suspect this is partially a case of investors not really understanding how much they pay their advisors. Many of us would buy an unwanted $5 box of Girl Guide cookies from a niece to avoid the awkwardness of saying no, but few of us would pay thousands just to avoid a mildly unpleasant situation. But investors do pay thousands per year for their financial advice whether they realize it or not.

 The Blunt Bean Counter explains some of the problems you can run into when transferring property among family members.

Canadian Couch Potato brings some clear thinking about timing your entry into the market.

Money Smarts reviews the discount brokerage Qtrade.

Big Cajun Man says his retirement plans are “up on the roof.”

 My Own Advisor updates his progress toward his 2013 financial goals. The first 3 goals would be trivial to achieve if it weren’t for sensible goal number 4 (no new debt).

Comments

  1. Big Cajun ManMay 31, 2013 at 6:56 AM

    Thanks for the inclusion, luckily my air conditioning does not seem to be up on the roof.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My Own AdvisorJune 2, 2013 at 8:54 PM

    Thanks for the mention Michael, trying to avoid any new debt as best I can :)

    Mark

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Short Takes: InvestorLine’s HISAs, 24-Hour Trading, and more

I recently moved some cash into BMO InvestorLine’s high-interest savings accounts (HISAs) that are structured as mutual funds.  Their designations are BMT104, BMT109, and BMT114, and they purportedly pay 4.35% annual interest (which they can change whenever they like).  However, the way they report the monthly interest payments is so baffling that I wasn’t able to sort it out in my first 15 minutes of trying.  A further complication is the following text in the HISA description: “The Bank may pay, monthly or quarterly, compensation to your Dealer at an annual rate of up to 0.25% of the daily closing balance in the BMO HISA.”  I couldn’t find any evidence of such a charge, but I haven’t been invested for a full quarter, and I can’t yet say that such a charge isn’t buried somehow in the confusing reporting.  I have more digging to do before I can recommend these HISAs. Here are some short takes and some weekend reading: Preet Banerjee explains the dangers of Robi...
Read more

My Asset Allocation

I’ve resisted discussing my asset allocation for some time, but now is finally the time to describe it and the reasons behind it. I’m not holding it out as a model portfolio; I believe it’s suitable for me and not necessarily anyone else. With that warning, enjoy the discussion and feel free to ask questions or take some pot-shots. The main reason why I haven’t discussed my asset allocation in detail before now is that I don’t want readers to treat it like a model portfolio and follow it blindly. Everyone’s situation is different. The need for variation in asset allocation from one investor to the next usually isn’t huge, but there is no one-size-fits-all portfolio. A secondary reason for keeping my asset allocation to myself is that I can’t be sure I’ll never change it. For example, I recently made the minor change of switching from an ETF of small-cap stocks to an ETF of small-cap value stocks . I don’t have any plans to change my current allocation, but I may think differe...
Read more

Updated Currency Exchange Method at BMO InvestorLine

There is now a more recent update of the method I use for exchanging currency at BMO OnvestorLine . I recently changed the procedure I use to convert large sums between Canadian and U.S. dollars at BMO InvestorLine. The method I use saves a lot of money compared to using the InvestorLine foreign exchange system. The latest change I made eliminated an annoying interest charge that I had to ask to be reversed. Most people don’t realize how expensive it can be to exchange currency. The extra charge banks and brokerages add gets hidden in the exchange rate. To see this extra charge, start by taking a sum in Canadian dollars, say C$10,000, and finding out how many U.S. dollars you can get. Then see what this U.S. amount would get going back to Canadian dollars. Many people might guess they’d get their original C$10,000 back, but they’d be wrong. In a recent test I did at BMO InvestorLine, I’d get back C$9754, for a loss of C$246 in two currency exchanges. That’s $123 per excha...
Read more

Archive

Show more