Short Takes: Simplified Investing, Swap-Based ETFs, and more

Here are my posts for the past two weeks:

Compensating for Your Money Personality

Padding Retirement Savings

Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

 Ryan Krueger wrote a very entertaining piece drawing analogies between stock analytics and basketball analytics. He then draws the nonsensical parallel between NBA players shooting more 2-pointers and investors taking concentrated positions in a few dividend stocks. The article may not make much sense, but it’s so well written it’s worth a read.

John Robertson discusses the swipe at swap-based ETFs in the latest federal budget. I agree with his take that these swap arrangements that turned different types of income into capital gains always seemed too good to be true. The party appears to be over.

Big Cajun Man explains some positive changes to RDSPs in the latest federal government budget.

Canadian Mortgage Trends reports that the mortgage industry is unhappy with the latest federal budget. I take this as a positive sign. Too many young people are burying themselves financially by borrowing too much to buy a house. If those who profit from sales activity are unhappy, this must mean the budget won’t do much to drive more activity.

Andrew Hallam gets roped into a timeshare sales pitch and describes his experience. It takes a backbone to hold off some very persuasive salespeople, and it takes number-crunching skills to realize just how bad a deal timeshares are.

 Preet Banerjee explains mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in his latest learn about investing video.

The Blunt Bean Counter has some tax tips for students.

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