Comments on: A Lap Of The Blogs

By: Rockon

Rockon — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:26:17 +0000

Thanks for the mention.That is awesome! Were you getting pointers for a new book.
Thanks for the link!

By: Preet

Preet — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:23:36 +0000

@ Traciatim – my apologies for not getting to this sooner. I applaud your efforts to educate those around you, but at some point I suppose you have to let people make up their own minds.

However, here are some things to throw at them one last time:

1. The words “risk and return” are popular for a reason. You can’t expect higher returns without added risk – there are too many people and market participants ready to arbitrage away any free lunches. So we must live by this credo. The cost of higher returns is volatility, plain and simple (when dealing with sufficiently diversified portfolios). But it only works if you stick it out. If the volatility scares you out of your strategy during a low – fine, you have to sleep at night. BUT if the next bull market pulls you out of your GICs and back into equities because you are missing out on returns, do not pass go, go directly to a tattoo parlour and get “LOSER” put on your forehead.

Was that harsh? :)

2. It’s buy low, sell high. Most people, however, act like it’s buy high, hope for higher, but then get scared out when it’s low because obviously it’s going to zero, right?

3. You can’t drive by your stock portfolio and physically see what it’s doing. This is why if you bought a house in Jan 2008 for $300,000 and someone offered you $160,000 for it today you’d be less tempted to sell it than your stock portfolio which is down a similar amount. This is because people understand their house better than their investments.

By: Finance Forex

Finance Forex — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:12:10 +0000

Thanks for the information! I like this video.

By: WFANG

WFANG — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:26:07 +0000

Great job on the racing videos!! I enjoyed your book and found the material extremely useful.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:14:52 +0000

Thanks for the mention Preet. And thanks for the heads up on the mention.

By: Michael James

Michael James — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:09:54 +0000

Thanks for the mention. It’s interesting that the key to fast cornering seems to be smooth throttling, but erratic steering.

By: H

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:00:56 +0000

I love this video.

By: Million Dollar Journey

Million Dollar Journey — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:04:54 +0000

Oh, and thanks for the link!

By: Million Dollar Journey

Million Dollar Journey — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:04:25 +0000

Lunch w/ Dave Chilton? That is awesome! Were you getting pointers for a new book?

By: Traciatim

Traciatim — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:01:08 +0000

Hi Preet, I had put this question on another thread but I think it got lost in the contest comments that were flying back and forth.

Since the downturn in the markets I’ve been hearing a lot of grumbling around work about the RRSP plan. Things like “I’ve been counting on them and they’re losing money . . . What are we paying them for?” . . . You probably hear it every day.

I’m not in any position other than a participant in our RRSP plan, but what kind of things can I use to describe why they are losing money so that they don’t do something drastic like cash it in or switch the whole lot to the money market locking in their losses?

I’ve tried the general things like “Well, considering how much you’ve put in, your tax deduction, and how much the plan is worth . . . how much exactly have you lost?”. Since we have a 100% match up to 6% of salary I doubt anyone has actually ‘lost’ money, but they are all looking at the change since peak value. For some reason it just doesn’t click for most people.