Short Takes: False Performance Advertising and more

I wrote one post this Christmas week laying out my somewhat fuzzy financial goals:

My 2015 Financial Goals

Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

Canadian money manager AGF Investments Inc. is sticking with U.S. fund manager F-Squared Investments even after F-Squared settled with the SEC for $35 million for false performance advertising. “According to the SEC, F-Squared falsely advertised a successful seven-year track record for the AlphaSector strategy which it claimed was based on real investments held for real clients. In fact, the data used in F-Squared's advertising was derived from backtesting. Furthermore, the hypothetical data contained a substantial calculation error that inflated the results of the backtesting, the SEC said.” Based on this standard, I’m proud to announce that my new strategy of owning Apple stock since April 2003 has given my hypothetical investors a stunning 60-fold increase on their money.

Big Cajun Man reports inflation figures each month, and this makes me reflect on how I see inflation differently from how I saw it in the past. Like most people, I used to think that inflation means the things I buy are becoming more expensive. However, if we think of the things we buy as having constant value, then what is happening is that dollars are becoming less valuable. Thinking this way is important for investors so they see their returns in real (after inflation) terms. For example, few people who think this way would see the logic of buying an annuity that pays out a constant number of dollars each month for decades. Why would you want payments that are worth progressively less each month?

My Own Advisor has a financial blogosphere version of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Million Dollar Journey has Frugal Trader’s latest net worth update that nicely illustrates the kinds of life changes that are possible when you have substantial savings.

The Blunt Bean Counter has a checklist for your year-end financial cleanup. One interesting suggestion to make things easier is to get your health care providers like physiotherapists and such to give you a year-end summary of all your spending.