BondsAreForLosers.com http://www.bondsareforlosers.com Personal finance blog for beginners to hedge fund managers. 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stock stock-market stock-markets stock-picking-contest stock-price stockbroker stocks stocks-bonds storage-devices store-charge-cards straight-shooter strokes subject-matter support-staff surprise swan systematic-risk t5 table-management tandem tax tax-auditors tax-bracket tax-brackets tax-efficiency tax-expert tax-money tax-payers tax-preparation tax-purposes tax-rate tax-refund tax-relief tax-return tax-software tax-table tax-time tax-write-offs taxable-income taxation teaching-kids-about-money team-of-experts telecom tendency ter term-averages testament theory-and-practice theory-of-relativity theory-theory three-months threshold ticker-symbol ticker-symbols time-interest time-lines time-note tips tire-pressures total-expense-ratio toyota-corolla tracking-error trade-offs trading-commissions traditional-banks traditional-bricks travel-insurance travel-interruption tricky-topic trustee truth tsx turnover-rates tv-sets typos universe university-of-toronto urls vacations vanguard variance vehicle-loan verizon video-series virtual-banks visionary volcanic-ash w-network wealthiest-people-in-the-world web-pages what-is-diversification what-this-means worry wrong-decision year-1 year-mortgage year-one Passive Investments, Active Asset Allocation = Active Investing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=1729 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1729 1729 2010-03-01 10:47:55 0000-00-00 00:00:00 open open draft 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149364 _edit_last 1 100% GICs versus Anything Else http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=1727 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1727 1727 2010-03-01 10:46:05 0000-00-00 00:00:00 open open draft 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1267458367 GICS sectors - Global Industry Classification Standard sectors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=1943 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1943 1943 2010-04-06 21:41:00 0000-00-00 00:00:00 open open gics-sectors-global-industry-classification-standard-sectors draft 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270608900 _edit_last 1 Name That Visionary... and win a 32GB iPhone 3GS http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=1997 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1997 1997 2010-04-14 19:32:57 0000-00-00 00:00:00 open open draft 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271291578 _edit_last 1 Inaugural Post! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2007723inaugural-posthtml/ Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:19:42 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/7/23/inaugural-post.html Welcome to wheredoesallmymoneygo.com! It took me most of the day to figure out how to set this up and I suspect it will be a few weeks before I get really proficient with it. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about my day job, please feel free to visit my work website: http://www.preetbanerjee.com/ In the meantime, if anyone has any questions they would like answered please feel free to post away! I'll start updating the site tomorrow with some finance tips and definitions. Cheers!]]> 297 2007-07-23 22:19:42 2007-07-24 05:19:42 open open 2007723inaugural-posthtml publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213627771 _edit_last 1 _wp_old_slug 2007/7/23/inaugural-post.html So how do you become wealthy? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/so-how-do-you-become-wealthy/ Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:38:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/24/so-how-do-you-become-wealthy/ If I had to boil it down into the shortest space possible it would be this: trade-offs. Specifically, you have to look at the trade-off within each financial decision you face. Let's look at an example. Should I buy a Honda Civic or a Porsche Boxster? What would be the trade-off in this case? If you get the Honda, you will be spending less on all your costs associated with cars (vehicle payment, insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.). If you get the Porsche you pay more and perhaps have a more enjoyable driving experience, get noticed more and that's about it. So the trade-offs in this case are: 1) How much money you have left over each month and 2) How much pleasure you derive from driving a nicer car. Money-BigStacks.jpgSo does that mean everyone should go out and buy a Honda Civic? (or Toyota Corolla? etc.) Of course not. You have to make that decision yourself. But obviously, with all else being equal, the person who buys the Civic would have more disposable income left over. That income could be used for numerous things: savings, vacations, dining out, etc. Of course there is a bit of a paradox, no? I'm pointing out that in order to accumulate wealth (which will let you buy a big house and lots of Porsches) you have to forego the Porsche. (?!) ...but only for NOW. One of the biggest trade-offs you will have to consider is putting off immediate frivolous consumption. The second thing to consider is that you have to put your savings from your trade-offs to good and productive use! If you just end up spending it on other stuff instead of saving or investing... well then you should've just bought the Porsche! :) There's so much more to this discussion than what's written here obviously - I certainly cannot cover it all in one posting. I think my main goal will not be to provide the answer to every question for you, but rather to empower you with the financial decision making skills to make your own decisions that will ultimately lead you to a financially healthy lifestyle. ]]> 298 2007-07-24 14:38:13 2007-07-24 21:38:13 open open so-how-do-you-become-wealthy publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1268149860 What are you going to learn from this site? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-are-you-going-to-learn-from-this-site/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:15:52 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/24/what-are-you-going-to-learn-from-this-site/ LearningGraduation.jpgIf you've read the "How to use this site" section you will have noticed that there are going to be various levels of information presented here with respect to knowledge levels. But since that in itself is quite vague, I though I would write a post describing some of the things I will be talking about (In addition to what you guys ask about!). In addition to defining some of the terms I think everyone should know, I'd like to explore how many different types of financial advisors there are out there and specifically how each operate and are paid. There is a HUGE spectrum. And the right fit for one person might not be the right fit for another! Also, I'm going to demystify leveraging (borrowing to invest). (p.s. your mortgage is a leveraged investment!), and why it is so popular and also very scary. But I'm also going to talk about creating monthly budgets, how to save money in the first place (you have to be a saver first before you can be an investor!), the various different avenues to getting a mortgage, how to save money on buying/leasing a car - you name it, the sky is the limit! I also hope to have people contributing information as well as I don't have the answer for everything - similar to my job, I rely on a team of experts to know the nitty-gritty details of specific subject matter - I'm just a liaison between the super-smart bean counters and my clients! In any case, I'm going to jump from topic to topic and follow up with the discussions when they are generated. I will archive the posts into the specific categories as time goes on so people can sift through (hopefully) an ever-growing repository of information. Remember - if you have any questions: please post them in a comment or you can email me at preet.banerjee@gmail.com and I'll create a posting on it for you! ]]> 299 2007-07-24 18:15:52 2007-07-25 01:15:52 open open what-are-you-going-to-learn-from-this-site publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1268149885 An iPod tax in Canada up to $75?!?! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-ipod-tax-in-canada-up-to-75/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:04:22 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/24/an-ipod-tax-in-canada-up-to-75/ Yikes! It's actually a blanket tax on flash memory storage devices by the looks of it, and it will range based on the size of the memory - and for a 30GB iPod it looks to be $75! It hasn't gone into effect yet and won't be until at least 2008 - but if it is passed and you were considering buying a device which would incur the tax keep an eye on the implementation date! You can read the full story here. I have to give credit to the BoyGeniusReport (which is a website that provides ungodly fast sneak previews of the next generation mobile phones and other cool gadgets) for digging up this info before the general Canadian Press! Well done! If you are a tech-head - you will LOVE the BoyGeniusReport.com. Read about the Canadian iPod tax by clicking here Link to the BoyGeniusReport by clicking here]]> 300 2007-07-24 19:04:22 2007-07-25 02:04:22 open open an-ipod-tax-in-canada-up-to-75 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149902 _edit_last 1 The Richest Man in Babylon (The next book you should buy!) http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-richest-man-in-babylon-the-next-book-you-should-buy/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:37:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/25/the-richest-man-in-babylon-the-next-book-you-should-buy/ By far one of the greatest books ever written is Richard S. Clayson's "The Richest Man in Babylon".  While the book can be read over the course of one day by most people, it will give you the basic rules of creating wealth all in one place. Originally published in 1926 (!), it really is the precursor of all do-it-yourself financial planning books out there. I have given this book to well over 30 people ranging from students to families with estates already in the $10 million+ range - and everyone SINGS its praises - yes it's THAT good. It's so simply written and easy to follow and includes anecdotes that make you scratch your head and say, "Yeah, it really is just that simple - why does everyone make it so complicated?".  The story starts with two characters who are struggling to pay their bills.  They are talking to each other one day and wonder whey their friend, Arkad (the richest man in Babylon) came to be that since all three of them grew up together and came from similar financial backgrounds.  They decide to ask Arkad if he would share his knowledge about creating wealth and Arkad agrees.  The rest of the book is basically Arkad explaining the rules of accumulating riches and how he came to learn these lessons. I read this book EVERY YEAR. I'm including a link to Amazon so you can buy it for yourself - IT IS ONLY $6.99 USD. When you decide you need to buy multiple copies at Christmas time - which some people I have given the book to do every year now - you'll know who to thank! :) If you are not happy with the book, email me and I'll buy it from you for what you paid for it - that's how confident I am in recommending this book. (*I will add a disclaimer in that I will only buy 10 copies from people I have referred this book to just in case there are any lawyers out there who want to have some fun at my expense! :) )

Anyways - click on this link and just get it NOW.  It's $6.99 USD.  That's like, two lattés! :)

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301 2007-07-25 02:37:50 2007-07-25 09:37:50 open open the-richest-man-in-babylon-the-next-book-you-should-buy publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149916 _edit_last 1
How do banks make money on Savings Accounts? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-do-banks-make-money-on-savings-accounts/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:02:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/25/how-do-banks-make-money-on-savings-accounts/ You've all seen the adds for the "no fee" savings accounts being offered at various institutions. Have you ever wondered how the banks make money on those accounts? To really simplify it, it is basically as follows: When you deposit your money into a savings account, you agree to be paid interest from the bank, which for the purpose of this post we will say is 4%. Now the bank will take that money and turn around and give it to someone in the form of a mortgage so they can buy a house and charge them 6%. So the bank COLLECTS 6% from mortgage holders and PAYS 4% to savings account holders. The difference between the 6% and the 4% is known as "the spread". Of course it is not so cut and dry in that a bank can't take $1 million in savings accounts deposits and then just go out and give $1 million in mortgages.  What happens when people need to access their savings? The banks have certain ratios they abide to with respect to how much they lend out as a proportion of the deposits they receive. And of course the more traditional "bricks and mortar" banks also tack on monthly fees to your accounts - which REALLY ADD UP.  Remember: If you are continually amazed by how much profits banks are churning out, you can complain or you can buy their stock! :) ]]> 302 2007-07-25 14:02:13 2007-07-25 21:02:13 open open how-do-banks-make-money-on-savings-accounts publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149932 _edit_last 1 Your savings account choices could save you $100,000 over your working life! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/your-savings-account-choices-could-save-you-100000-over-your-working-life/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:18:03 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/25/your-savings-account-choices-could-save-you-100000-over-your-working-life/ // Let's take a look at how a relatively simple decision can make such a huge impact.  Many traditional banks charge monthly account fees. My personal account with my previous bank charged $11/month and it paid 2% in interest. Some "virtual banks" like ING and President's Choice Financial have savings accounts that have no monthly fees. They typically pay a higher interest rate as well, for this example let's call it 4%. Let's examine what the real cost is: $11/month x 12 months = $132/year But let's take is a step further. Many banks offer a lower-fee or fee-free account to students or kids until they turn 18 - so let's assume that we have this $11 monthly account fee from age 18 to age 65 (again, many banks have a reduced monthly fee for seniors). Let us also assume that we are wise and decide to invest this saved money into an investment portfolio that averages 8% per year. $132/year @ 8% rate of return x 47 years = $59,783 that could've been in my pocket! So if you have a savings account at a bank that charges a monthly fee, you can see that even a few dollars a month makes a big difference.  If anyone would like to step up to the plate and provide their monthly account fee and age, I will calculate your "money lost" and post it here as well. (Warning: it's depressing!) Note: we haven't looked at how much less interest you earned inside your savings account during that time! Since the average, free high-interest savings account pays roughly 2% more than a traditional bank, and assuming that the savings account holds an average balance of $5000, then you are foregoing an additional $100 year in interest paid to you. I guess I'm feeling sadistic, so let's look at the new final total: ($132/year (account fee) + $100/year (lost interest)) @ 8% x 47 years = $105,073. So, about 15 minutes to setup your new account today could save you over $100,000. What are you waiting for? Disclaimer!: Most people will not invest the savings because it is not an established habit - in which case your savings will be a *paltry* $10,904 over 47 years. That is the magic of compound interest - which I will cover in another post! I hope this post helped you out! :) ]]> 303 2007-07-25 14:18:03 2007-07-25 21:18:03 open open your-savings-account-choices-could-save-you-100000-over-your-working-life publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149950 _edit_last 1 What is a Financial Plan? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-financial-plan/ Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:00:19 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/25/what-is-a-financial-plan/ // I've included this in the General section because it is a topic that applies to all knowledge levels.  Why? Well, I've found that even the most sophisticated investors lack a financial plan. You can have the most properly diversified portfolio in the world, proper asset allocation and great returns but it doesn't mean squat if you are not achieving your goals. Why is that? Well, if this sophisticated investor was averaging 1% more per year in his portfolio than everyone else, but was saving $50 a month thinking that his investing prowess will make him/her retire early, but the person who is earning the average return (1% less than the sophisticate) but putting away $1000/month - who do you think is better off? Of course it's not quite as simple as that either, but I think it adds to my point. Think of a financial plan as similar to a business plan for a company. A business plan is going to include information on every aspect of that company, including projections for growth rates, tax analyses, risk management protocols, etc. Everything is well defined.  And it isn't just crafted at the company's inception and then forgotten about! It is continuously reviewed and revamped as things change. So now we have a loose concept of what a financial plan is supposed to be like, but let's take it further.  There are generally 8 main categories that a financial plan will encompass: 1. Cash Flow Management 2. Investment Planning 3. Retirement Planning 4. Mortgage Planning 5. Estate Planning 6. Tax Planning 7. Credit and Lending Planning 8. Insurance Planning ...and believe you me, each category is very expansive. A Financial Plan will co-ordinate all these categories together and at different times will focus on some categories more intently than others (depending on your life stage).  I'm going to tell you that most people think that a table that shows them compound growth of $100/month with a return of 8% is a financial plan, and when you ask them if they have one, they truly believe they do! Most Financial Plans are under 10 pages which I think is better than no plan, but not good enough. Now, perhaps because of my scientific background and being ANALytical beyond belief my average financial plan is about 75 pages long. I have written plans well over 100 pages and rarely are they below 40. Of course I include some serious analyses in my plans like a Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis on the clients current plan and compare that with the same analysis on the recommended plan. (In a nutshell, the Monte Carlo Sensitivity analysis allows for greater confidence in your plan writing as it takes into account the fact that if you use an 8% rate of return for the investments as the AVERAGE, the portfolio will have returns above and below that over the course of the plan - and the sequence of returns has a huge impact on your net worth as you retire.  It also randomizes your life expectancy so you could see if your plan would work if you lived 15 years longer than your family's average life span. It's uber cool stuff for a geek like me! I'll write a post about it later in more detail.) I'm going to clean up one of my financial plans from any mention of client names, change some data and remove some logos and then post the pdf on this site so you can download and take a look see. If you have a financial plan you will want to take a look and compare - and then go to your advisor and ask them to write you one.  If you don't have a financial plan, you'll still want to look and see what you should be getting... and the sooner the better! ]]> 304 2007-07-25 22:00:19 2007-07-26 05:00:19 open open what-is-a-financial-plan publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150671 _edit_last 1 What is a Mutual Fund? A basic understanding... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-mutual-fund-a-basic-understanding/ Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:43:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/26/what-is-a-mutual-fund-a-basic-understanding/ // I suppose this should be one of the first posts seeing as how most people are invested in mutual funds (and have no idea what they are, what the differences are between them, and what kinds of mutual funds there are out there). It is also of note that many investors might be better off getting out of mutual funds at a certain point... but I'll get into that in another post! A mutual fund is a means for small investors to pool their money together (MUTUALLY) with other small investors so that they may hire a Mutual Fund Manager to take the collective funds and create a diversified investment portfolio that is invested on behalf of all the small investors. If Investor A has $1000 of his/her money in the mutual fund and Investor B has $10,000 of his/her money in the mutual fund and the Mutual Fund Manager has guided the portfolio to a 10% return, then Investor A now has an $1,100 stake in the fund and Investor B as an $11,000 stake in the fund. So you might be wondering who the charitable soul is who has decided to manage this investment portfolio on all these investors' behalf? Well, don't you worry! He/She gets paid, and paid well! One of the most oft reported pieces of information on mutual funds in the media is what is known as the MER of the fund.  MER stands for Management Expense Ratio and is in essence how much money is paid to the Mutual Fund manufacturer in order to cover all costs of running the fund.  This includes the pay for the mutual fund manager, his/her research team, support staff, the paper your statements are printed on, the lights and phones in the office, not to mention paying the mortgage on the building and property, advertising the fund, etc. Oh, yeah it also includes the commission your financial advisor may earn for selling the fund to you and maintaining a relationship with you. The MER is deducted before all performance reporting. So in the example above, if the MER of the mutual fund was 2%, then the mutual fund manager was actually able to generate a 12% return.  Once the 2% MER was deducted, we are left with 10%. Most people are quite content to pay 2% (and not really noticing it because it doesn't show up anywhere on their statements) (Then again, most people don't even know that they are paying it!).  Once you actually break it down for people (and when you are dealing with larger and larger investment portfolios) then they start to pay more attention. For example if someone with a $1 million dollar portfolio is paying a 2.5% MER and there is a similar fund out there with a 1.5% MER, that's $10,000 being left on the table every year. If we apply the same thought process like we did with the savings account question, multiply that amount by a couple of years and the foregone growth and it quickly become a matter of hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions! But of course, we have to look at why people would want to use a mutual fund in the first place. Well if you have $1000 dollars to invest, you are not going to get a very diversified portfolio if you try to buy a bunch of stocks individually. The commissions per transaction would eat up a sizeable chunk of your $1000 right off the bat.  You may need to earn a 30% return just to break even!  And if you could do that with confidence I'd be wondering just how it came to be that you only have $1000 to your name!  That is why I kept using the words "small investor" in the beginning of this post. Once you have a larger portfolio (generally speaking, nearing $100,000) you CAN start to create a diversified portfolio without brokerage costs killing you. The other point to mention is that some people use mutual funds because they want a dedicated team of experts handling their hard earned cash. Remember a mutual fund manager and his/her team works almost 'round the clock and they are immersed in the world of investing and have studied long and hard to get where they are.  So a lot of people who don't have the time, knowledge or desire to handle their investments will hire a professional to do it for them. Okay, I think that is probably enough of a primer on mutual funds to get started with.  Let's let that sink in before getting back into it... because there is a lot more to it, that's for sure! ]]> 305 2007-07-26 00:43:21 2007-07-26 07:43:21 open open what-is-a-mutual-fund-a-basic-understanding publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150530 _edit_last 1 What is Life Insurance? A basic primer... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-life-insurance-a-basic-primer/ Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:04:15 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/26/what-is-life-insurance-a-basic-primer/ // I'm pretty sure most people have a basic understanding that a Life Insurance Policy pays money to a named beneficiary (the person who gets the money) when someone dies. You'll hear alot of people tell you that once you get married - it's time to get life insurance, or once you have kids - it's time to get life insurance. (and of course if you have a shotgun wedding then it's really time to get life insurance! :) ) The reason they say that is because most people will want to provide for their loved ones (who may be financially dependent on them) if they die. For example, if you had a couple who are married with one young child and the wife is an investment banker and the husband is a stay-at-home parent (and the baby is just a food processor, really) perhaps they have a household income of $100,000 after tax.  But if the wife dies, then that would cause a lot of problems. Most people would like to avoid the hassle of making huge life changes IN ADDITION to having to deal with the death of a loved one. Enter the life insurance policy... a policy would be purchased that would provide a death benefit large enough to allow the remaining family to continue with their lives with as minimal disruption as possible to their living situation.  Of course, any time a member of the family dies that is almost impossible to do... Ah, but this is only one use of life insurance and one type of life insurance we have described. Alot of people will use Life Insurance as a means to create an estate to leave to their heirs or as a means of tax sheltering money beyond what they are allowed to in various different types of tax-sheltered investment accounts... but we need to explore the industry of life insurance much more before we tackle these concepts and strategies... Stay tuned! ]]> 306 2007-07-26 14:04:15 2007-07-26 21:04:15 open open what-is-life-insurance-a-basic-primer publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150566 _edit_last 1 Risk: Systematic Risk vs Non-Systematic Risk http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-systematic-risk-vs-non-systematic-risk/ Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:16:08 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/26/risk-systematic-risk-vs-non-systematic-risk/ // This is an advanced level topic - you may want to skip this post if you are just finding your feet with respect to finances! It assumes a basic understanding of portfolio diversification... ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgWith respect to any given stock market there are two types of risk (which is another word for variance according to Modern Portfolio Theory): 1) Systematic Risk and 2) Non-Systematic Risk. Systematic risk is the general ebb and flow of the market - kind of like the tendency for all stocks to get dragged down or move up in tandem at the same time to a certain degree.  For example, the 1987 market decline was a Systematic event in that it really didn't matter what you owned, it probably went down.  Is it warranted? Yes and no, but a main thing to consider is that nothing probably happened to any one stock to make it lose value in and of itself that day, but rather there was a general expectation or fear of a downturn in the economy linked to the market that caused everything to move. SYSTEMATIC RISK CANNOT BE DIVERSIFIED AWAY. Non-Systematic risk CAN be diversified away. The best way to describe it is to build an analogy. Let's say you owned one stock - if that company went bankrupt you will have lost 100% of your portfolio. If you owned 100 stocks, and 1 comany went bankrupt you would have lost 1% of your portfolio. On the flip side, what if that one company doubled in value? You either doubled your money or only gained a measley 1% if you held 1 stock or 100, respectively.  So this analogy builds a case against diversifying too much, but making sure you diversify a little. Non-Systematic risk is like the individual risk associated with the company linked to the stock - if it goes bankrupt - that is non-systematic risk and has nothing to do with the general ebb and flow of the market overall. So, I mentioned that non-sytematic risk can be diversified away. It is generally debated as to how many securities you need to hold to get rid of non-systematic risk. You see, just as one company might go bankrupt, one company in your portfolio might double in value.  And one company might increase by 25% and one might decrease by 25%. So most recent research papers tend to think that 15-20 securities is enough to get rid of non-systematic risk. They suggest that trying to diversify by adding more securities than that is pointless as you may be adding stocks that do not have as rosy a prospect as the initial 15 or 20.  They further argue that for those that over-diversify by having 100 securities from the same market have bought alot of garbage for the sake of diversifying and will not reap the same long term returns as someone who has been more picky with their money. Since it is agreed that non-systematic risk can be diversified away, and systematic risk cannot - it is plain to see that the goal for a rational investor is to do just that.  So the debate is really how many securities do you need to eliminate non-systematic risk? For now, I would tend to agree that 15-20 is optimal within any given market to eliminate non-systematic risk.  Anything beyond that and you are buying "filler" and reducing your long term rate of return - truly an irrational goal! :)]]> 307 2007-07-26 16:16:08 2007-07-26 23:16:08 open open risk-systematic-risk-vs-non-systematic-risk publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150450 _edit_last 1 An Actual Financial Plan! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-actual-financial-plan/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:46:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/26/an-actual-financial-plan/

 

FinancialPlanPicture.jpgI'm attaching that financial plan I was talking about earlier - so here it is in all it's glory! I have to make some disclaimers: Nothing you read in here should be regarded as advice for you to take - it is simply an example as to the quality and depth a financial plan should go into.

Now you can compare your plan to a proper plan (well, at least in my eyes!)... and if you don't have a plan maybe you'll see what you should be looking for...

 Enjoy! :)

Click Here to Download Sample Financial Plan <-- This is a Microsoft Word Document and is 720K

Click Here to Download in Adobe PDF Format  <-- If you can't open Word files, use this, but it is 2MB 

 

 

 

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308 2007-07-26 18:46:21 2007-07-27 01:46:21 open open an-actual-financial-plan publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1268150364
Save money on your car insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-your-car-insurance/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:16:54 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/26/save-money-on-your-car-insurance/ // One quick and easy way to save some money on your car insurance is to raise your deductible.  But don't just go out and change anything before crunching some numbers first. First we should define what a deductibe is.  A deductible is term that refers to how much money you are on the hook for if you make a claim (get into an accident). So for argument's sake, let's say your deductible is $500.  If you get into an accident and the damage is $4,000 then you pay the first $500 and the insurance company pays the rest. (A side note: think twice about making a claim for a $600 accident if you deductible is $500.  Is the chance your premiums increase for years worth saving the extra $100 at claim time?) If you raise your deductible to $1,000 you may save perhaps $100 per year.  In this case you have to weigh the fact that this strategy works so long as you don't get into an accident more than once every 5 years and 1 day. Let me explain: If you have a $500 deductible and get into an accident you will pay the $500 deductible.  If you raise your deductible to $1000 and you are now saving $100/year, after 5 years you will have saved $500 - now you can cover the cost of the raised deductible. Within the first 5 years if you have an accident you will be on the hook for $1000 and will have "lost" using this strategy. If you go 5+ years without a claim - that's money in your pocket! :) Make sure you get a quote on how much you would save first before going out and changing anything - and if in doubt, consult your financial advisor. ]]> 309 2007-07-26 21:16:54 2007-07-27 04:16:54 open open save-money-on-your-car-insurance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150335 _edit_last 1 Refinancing your home http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/refinancing-your-home/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:23:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/27/refinancing-your-home/ // I'm going to offer up an example in a following post, but this post is to deal with the psychological aspect of refinancing your home to consolidate debt. housepicture.jpgFirst, let's just make sure we're on the same page and define "refinancing your home". This is basically when you have some equity built up in your house (after paying your mortgage payment for a few years or having put a large down payment on it) and you use that equity to pay off OTHER debts so that instead of having a mortgage payment, a credit card payment, a line of credit payment, a vehicle payment, etc you will only have one slightly larger mortgage payment and that's it. I say slightly because you have taken all the other debt payments and in effect turned them into debts with longer repayment time lines, thereby reducing how much you pay monthly. So why do people want to do this? Cash flow - plain and simple. People can free up $1000/month in some cases which can be used for building up an emergency reserve, long term savings, and in many cases allows them to just breathe easier. (Refer to my upcoming post using a real life example with hard numbers.) When you refinance you will generally reduce the overall amount of interest you are being charged on all of your debts as well. For example some credit cards are charging 19.9% per year, and department store cards are sometimes charging 28.8%. Once you refinance that debt into your mortgage you get a lower interest rate since the debt is now SECURED (by your home) as opposed to UNSECURED. Secured means that you basically agree that if you can't pay your debts, the bank will get the value by selling your home, taking what you owe them and leaving you with the rest. Since the bank has a better chance of getting their value back when you secure your debt, they will lower the interest rate to reflect their reduced risk. So the equity in the house is the total value of the house MINUS your mortgage balance. Example: you bought a $200,000 home and put $50,000 as a down payment.  That would leave you with a $150,000 mortgage. Your equity would be $50,000. After a few years, you've paid some principal and interest back in the form of your mortgage payments and now maybe the mortgage balance is $135,000. PLUS maybe the value of the house has gone up to $235,000. At this point the value of the house ($235,000) minus the mortgage balance ($135,000) leaves you with $100,000 of equity. One reason refinancing has become so popular is that housing prices have really appreciated, in fact we are in the longest housing bull market in history. This has created a lot of equity, and to refinance to clear up debt and reduce the overall cost of borrowing is a sound strategy (until you look at the psychological aspect of it.) People are doing this en masse these days as people are perpetually spending more than they earn.  Why do people put so many purchases on credit? Well, these days one of the main reasons have been the incredibly low interest rates - it makes the carrying cost seem very reasonable - and people became used to using credit, hence: they have a lot of debt! So the only real problem of refinancing your home to consolidate debt? If you don't correct the spending habits that created the situation in the first place you will start spending your new found cash flow similarly to before and end up even further behind within a few years. I've seen it happen and the next step will be bankruptcy! So make sure you can adjust your habits.  Use a financial advisor, set up a forced savings plan with the new money and stick to it! ]]> 310 2007-07-27 13:23:07 2007-07-27 20:23:07 open open refinancing-your-home publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150433 _edit_last 1 Refinancing your home Part 2: An Example http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/refinancing-your-home-part-2-an-example/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:35:18 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/27/refinancing-your-home-part-2-an-example/ // Okay let's show how an actual couple ended up freeing $915.80/month by refinancing their home. I've rounded the numbers, but they are from a real life scenario. We'll begin with a snapshot of what their financial situation was BEFORE: Home Value: $250,000 Mortgage: $150,000 balance, 20 years left, 6% interest rate = $1,070 Monthly Payment Credit Card Debt: $10,000 balance, 18.8% interest rate = $500 Monthly Payment Vehicle Loan: $26,000 balance, 8% interest rate = $500 Monthly Payment Department Store Charge Cards: $5,000 balance, 28.8% interest rate = $250 Monthly Payment In this case, they have a total debt obligation of $191,000 and total monthly payments of $2,320. By refinancing, they were able to take out $41,000 of equity from their house to pay out the vehicle loan, the credit cards and the department store charge cards. This increases the mortgage from $150,000 to $191,000. Plus, let's add a $5,000 charge to break their existing mortgage for a total new mortgage balance of $196,000. However, that entire amount is now being charged 6% interest and amortized over 20 years.  The new mortgage payment is $1,404.20. ...but that's the only payment.

So: Old Total Monthly Payment ($2,320.00) - New Total Monthly Payment ($1,404.20) =

$915.80 Saved Per Month

Take this with a grain of salt.  You have to factor in the trade-offs. Yes, you free up a lot of money monthly, but it has to be put to good and productive use. Also, before they would have freed up the $500 monthly vehicle loan payment in 4 years anyways, but now they blended it into a 20 year mortgage, effectively paying for that vehicle for 20 years. In many cases, these trade-offs are more than acceptable to people who are looking into refinancing as they are in dire need of a short term solution and even just a little breathing room is enough of a dangling carrot for them to proceed. In this particular case, a $915.80 monthly savings was very compelling and they are currently saving $700/month out of that into an investment account. ]]>
311 2007-07-27 14:35:18 2007-07-27 21:35:18 open open refinancing-your-home-part-2-an-example publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150412 _edit_last 1 656 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.26.8 2007-10-13 14:05:09 2007-10-13 21:05:09 I know this is an old post, but why wouldn't they just take a HELOC instead so that they have better payment flexibility?

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657 2007-10-13 19:02:45 2007-10-14 02:02:45 Good question. That can be an option depending on a few factors, most of them subjective. Sometimes a HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit) can compound their problem. You have to understand the nature of their problem isn't that they are bad at math - they view credit as entitlement. In other words if you give them a line of credit for $10,000, it will be close to maxed in short order. Normally the people who are ready for a refinance are those that have multiple lines of credit, credit cards and department store cards, etc. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

A refinance is more than just a financial strategy, it can be the start of a control-alt-delete for their overall financial philosophy. They have been spiraling into worse and worse of a situation and an "intervention" was required.

In any case, while a HELOC might be a good choice for those who are normally very good with their budgeting but are temporarily under the gun, a refinance may be reserved for those who are further a-stray.

In such cases, it would be wise to have a professional advisor force them to cut up and cancel their cards, and monitor them quite closely for the first few months after the refinance - otherwise they can get themselves into even MORE trouble with the new found cashflow and perception that they fixed the problem. Remember the problem is a psychological one.

Excellent question.

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Mutual Funds: Great for portfolios up to $100,000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mutual-funds-great-for-portfolios-up-to-100000/ Sun, 29 Jul 2007 06:46:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/28/mutual-funds-great-for-portfolios-up-to-100000/ // I suppose many financial advisors licensed to sell ONLY mutual funds will cringe at this information. First, I want to say that if you have more than $100,000 in your portfolio it does not automatically mean that it is time to get out of mutual funds. But certainly once you pass this threshold you will want to look at alternatives to mutual funds as your options open up (based primarily on the fact that buying in bulk reduces your trading costs). If you remember in my first post on Mutual Funds we defined mutual funds as being the ideal investment for SMALL investors because trying to build your own diversified portfolio would cost too much in trading commissions. Mutual_fund.jpgSo once you have built your portfolio past $100,000 it is time to compare costs of paying a mutual fund manager versus the costs of having a stockbroker build a custom portfolio (or yourself with a discount brokerage trading account if you have the knowledge). Let's look at the average Equity Mutual Fund. It has an MER (Management Expense Ratio) of approximately 2.6%. That means that for every $100,000 in your portfolio, you are paying $2,600 per year for management. When you were starting out your savings, perhaps you had $5,000 in the fund at the end of your first year - you were only paying $130 in fees. In fact, that is quite a bargain considering your advisor probably spent much time meeting with you, learning about your situation and creating a plan and investment recommendations. He or she does this so that when you become a larger investor, you become a larger source of income for the advisor. Also, by having built a relationship over time, it becomes a strong bond and there is less likely a chance that another advisor will lure you away (all thing being equal). But let's say you stay in this fund and now your portfolio has reached $1 million. You still pay 2.6%, and in this case you are now paying $26,000 in fees for the same management. It starts to get depressing if you consider that $26,000 every year could buy a new mid-size family car! So let's look at two options: 1. Fee based advisor A fee-based advisor works on a set percentage of assets - think of it as similar to an MER, except that in the industry it is called a "Client Advisory Fee". You don't pay a trading commission for each stock purchase setting up the portfolio and similarly you can sell those stocks and buy new ones without incurring a separate commission. The Client Advisory Fee pays for all your trading costs, account admin fees, everything. Even if the Client Advisory Fee was the same as the MER (2.6%), it is advantageous because this fee can be written off for tax purposes whereas an MER cannot (for non-registered investment accounts only, you cannot write off fees for an RRSP). For easy math's sake, let's assume that our client is in a 50% Marginal Tax Rate. If they could write off the 2.6% Client Advisory Fee, then it effectively becomes reduced to 1.3%. That is a huge saving right off the bat. But, it only gets better. While Client Advisory Fees usually can only be offered for $100,000+ sized accounts, this fee can be reduced automatically as the portfolio grows even larger. For example, the fee might be 2.5% up to $249,999 but once you reach $250,000 the fee might drop to 2.25% (and that would apply to the whole account, not just the funds over the threshold). Every advisor and firm have their own set of thresholds and fees - but know that you can negotiate the fee. As accounts grow to $1 million you should easily be able to negotiate the fee down to 1.25% (which, for a non-registered account could be written off and effectively reduce the fee to 0.625%) . When you set up your fee-based account, you will sign a document that clearly outlines the thresholds and fees for each level. 2. Transactional Advisor In this case you pay a commission for each transaction - i.e. to buy or sell an individual stock. While it would take you maybe 20 purchases to setup the portfolio initially, and just for argument's sake let's say each transaction cost you 3% of the purchase price, then your first year would cost you roughly 3% in fees. BUT, once you've setup the portfolio most of the work is done, and the rest is maintenance. For example, you made 20 transactions in the first year, but in the second year you only made 6 transactions because it was time to sell 3 stocks, and you needed the other transactions to buy replacement stocks. So perhaps in the second year your total fees were only 0.9%. It all depends on how many trades you make in the year. (If you are an active trader, endlessly trading stocks then you already know you should be on a discount trading platform designed for active traders. ) It is important to note that you can replicate the characteristics of the mutual fund you've left with individual securities. But it might be more important to note that you can modify it now according to your personal preferences as well as paying a lower amount of fees every year. I recently moved a client from another institution to my care. He had a portfolio of $180,000 entirely in mutual funds with an MER of 3.03%. We setup a fee-based account with a client advisory fee of 1.5% up to $1 million, and it would reduce to 1.25% over $1 million when he gets there. It was a non-registered account so he can also write off the Client Advisory Fee. Let's do the math: Before:

$180,000 x 3.03% MER = $5,454 yearly cost

After:

$180,000 x 1.50% Client Advisory Fee x 50% Write off of fee = $1,350 yearly cost This client will save roughly $60,000 in fees over a ten year period. This will be due to the fact that the portfolio will appreciate over time and the yearly savings will also increase. This is another "no-brainer" investment decision quite frankly. If you have over $100,000 in your investment portfolio, it's time to speak to your advisor about fees. They would rather lower their income and keep you as a client then lose you and get NO income... And of course if your advisor can only sell mutual funds, it may be time to look for a full service broker who is authorized to sell everything (mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc.). ]]> 312 2007-07-28 23:46:50 2007-07-29 06:46:50 open open mutual-funds-great-for-portfolios-up-to-100000 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150398 _edit_last 1 Picking investments based on past performance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/picking-investments-based-on-past-performance/ Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:06:43 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/29/picking-investments-based-on-past-performance/ // Invariably people will see a ranking of highest performance funds for the last year or so and ask "Are these good funds?" Others will just go and blindly buy them. In fact, there is a huge proportion of investors out there who base most of their decision on the past performance of an investment alone.  They do not research any further than the performance report for the last year.  This is no different than gambling in my eyes! To paraphrase a quote I once heard, if all that was involved in achieving the highest rate of return was looking at past performance - librarians would be the richest people on earth! Last time I checked, they were not (at least on average). In fact there have been numerous studies that have looked at mutual fund rankings year over year.  What they all find is that the #1 performing mutual fund over the last year will be very close to the worst performing fund the next year. These studies are numerous and they all have the same results.  In fact, the worst performing funds also have a tendency to shoot up the rankings the following year. So what does this tell us?: That you cannot blindly look in the newspaper and look for last year's best performing fund and expect it to give you the same performance every year.  In fact, if you take nothing else away from this post take this: Next time you see a mutual fund returning over 50% in the last year, take a look at it's 5 and 10 year averages.  If the longer term averages are, say closer to 10%, then doesn't it stand to reason that to revert to the mean will require some dismal performance in the future? What I'm really trying to advocate is that you should take some time to get advice and do some research on what you are buying.  I'm convinced that people take more time choosing between fridges for their house than they do their long term investment selections! I realize that a lot of people are quite intimidated by the task, but do your due diligence! Again at the very least, if you are still going to go out and buy yester year's hot performer - ask for a professional's two cents on the fund first! Even the fund company who sells the fund will tell you not to expect the performance to continue forever! ]]> 313 2007-07-29 14:06:43 2007-07-29 21:06:43 open open picking-investments-based-on-past-performance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150412 _edit_last 1 What is a "tax write off"? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-tax-write-off/ Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:40:31 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/what-is-a-tax-write-off/ Often you will hear someone say "I can write that off...", in this case they are referring to the ability to write off an expense incurred from their income tax filing. So what is the misconception? I often hear that people assume it means that the expense becomes free as the person writing off the expense will get the money back at tax time. THIS IS FALSE! (How I wish it were true!) I think the best way to explain it is with a simplified example: Let's say Joe Smith is a self-employed salesman.  His sales commissions per year are $100,000 and let us assume he pays 50% in tax (again, just to demonstrate the mechanics behind a write off - the tax system is a bit more complex than just a flat rate for everyone!). This means he has to pay $50,000 in tax and is left with $50,000 to spend. BUT the government allows Joe to deduct the COST OF DOING BUSINESS from his income through these tax write offs. Let's say Joe spends $10,000 on a newspaper ad.  This is clearly a cost of doing business for Joe so he can "write this off". That means that $10,000 can be deducted from his $100,000 in sales commissions leaving a total of $90,000. If we apply the same 50% tax rate to this new amount we have Joe paying $45,000 in tax and taking home $45,000. SO, he spent $10,000 and it only reduced his take home pay by $5,000.  His net cost to purchase the newspaper ad is not $10,000 but rather $5,000. So the next time someone says, "I can write that off" it means they still have to pay for it, but they get some tax money back at the end of the year.

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314 2007-07-30 02:40:31 2007-07-30 09:40:31 open open what-is-a-tax-write-off publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150202 _edit_last 1
What is a "Marginal Tax Rate?" http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-marginal-tax-rate/ Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:03:58 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/what-is-a-marginal-tax-rate/ // This is a basic concept that should be understood as it is referred to on a regular basis. When you look it up, the definition almost always seems to include this: "The percentage of tax you pay on the last dollar you earned." I've always thought of this wording as a bit funny.  While it is precise, it's a bit too lawyer-speak for my taste. So let's take a closer/better look... As a side note, unless a post is marked as an advanced level article, I'm going to use simple numbers and fictitious tax brackets for the purpose of educating without confusing. :) Our personal income tax system is designed to tax higher-income earners more than lower income earners. It does this by using "tax brackets".  Let's look at an example:

$0-$10,000       = 0% tax

$10,000-$20,000 = 10% tax

$20,000-$50,000 = 20% tax

$50,000-$75,000 = 30% tax

$75,000+           = 50% tax

In this case you can see that some earning under $10,000 pays no tax at all. The Marginal Tax Rate is the rate of tax payable in the highest tax bracket you fall into. SO: if you earned $60,000 your marginal tax rate would be 30%.  If you earned $100,000 your marginal tax rate would be 50%. ]]>
315 2007-07-30 13:03:58 2007-07-30 20:03:58 open open what-is-a-marginal-tax-rate publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150209 _edit_last 1
Myth: "I don't want a raise! It will move me into a higher tax bracket and my take home pay will be less!" http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/myth-i-dont-want-a-raise-it-will-move-me-into-a-higher-tax-bracket-and-my-take-home-pay-will-be-less/ Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:16:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/myth-i-dont-want-a-raise-it-will-move-me-into-a-higher-tax-bracket-and-my-take-home-pay-will-be-less/ This is not true! Let's bring up my SAMPLE tax table as a refresher:

$0-$10,000       = 0% Tax Rate

$10,000-$20,000 = 10% Tax Rate

$20,000-$50,000 = 20% Tax Rate

$50,000-$75,000 = 30% Tax Rate

$75,000+            = 50% Tax Rate

You will hear some people complain that they don't want their next raise because it will move them into a higher tax bracket and reduce their takehome pay and they will have less money to spend. Okay, the Government does some interesting things but they've figured this one out a long time ago. Here's how it works:  Let's take someone earning $49,000. Their marginal tax rate is 20% in our example tax system. That DOES NOT MEAN they pay 20% x $49,000 in tax. They pay 0% on their first $10,000, 10% tax on the next $10,000, and 20% on the next $29,000. Let's work that out:

(0% x $10,000) + (10% x $10,000) + (20% x $29,000) = $6,800 in tax

$49,000 Income - $6,800 tax = $42,200 TAKE HOME

So let's say they get their raise to $50,001. The myth is that now instead of paying 20% on all their income, they pay 30% - which would reduce their take home pay by roughly $5,000! This could not be further from the truth! Let's do the real math:

(0% x $10,000) + (10% x $10,000) + (20% x $30,000) + (30% x $1) = $7,000.30 in Tax

$50,0001 Income - $7,000.30 Tax = $43,000.70 TAKE HOME

Last time I checked, $43,000.70 is greater than $42,200! So feel free to ask for that next raise... :) Thanks to everyone who has been submitting (and re-submitting) this post to your favourite social media websites like Reddit and Stumbleupon - much appreciated!]]>
316 2007-07-30 13:16:50 2007-07-30 20:16:50 open open myth-i-dont-want-a-raise-it-will-move-me-into-a-higher-tax-bracket-and-my-take-home-pay-will-be-less publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150177 _edit_last 1 658 claude_merchant@yahoo.com 68.95.135.117 2009-08-31 18:23:21 2009-08-31 23:23:21 1 0 0
What is an RRSP? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-an-rrsp/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:48:47 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/what-is-an-rrsp/ // RRSP stands for "Registered Retirement Savings Plan". It is a type of savings or investment account which was designed for Canadians to facilitate retirement savings. It is "Registered" with the Canadian Revenue Agency. Many people think that they "buy" RRSP's every year - that the RRSP is the investment. NO - think of an RRSP as an "account". You can hold a wide variety of investments INSIDE this account so long as they meet the definition of a "qualifying investment" as listed by the CRA (The Canadian Revenue Agency). But don't worry, almost everything is a qualified investment. You can of course use non-RRSP accounts to save for retirement, but the reason most Canadians choose the RRSP option are for tax purposes. There are three main tax advantages that exist: 1. Immediate Tax Relief You can get a refund at tax time if you put money into your RRSP. The government will basically allow you to deduct your RRSP contribution from your total income for the year. Refer to the post on "What is a tax write off?" as this is the same principle.  If you were in a 50% marginal tax bracket (for example purposes) then your $10,000 RRSP contribution will give you a $5,000 tax refund (all else being equal - assuming you don't owe back taxes, and the normal amount of tax is deducted from your paycheque). 2. Tax Sheltering While your investments remain inside your RRSP they are not subject to tax like your non-RRSP investments - that means that they can grow faster since there is no tax deducted from the value every year. And when your investments grow faster, you have more money when you are ready to retire - perhaps you can even retire earlier... 3. Tax Deferral You only pay tax on the RRSP funds when you withdraw them. This really is just an extension of tax-sheltering, but you will find it listed as the third tax advantage for RRSP's. The real reason it is listed as a stand-alone third advantage is that they assume that you are in a lower tax-bracket when you are ready to withdraw the funds. So if you were in a marginal tax bracket of 50% when you put it in, you got half your contribution back in the form of a tax refund. If your income is lower in retirement (usually) then perhaps you are in a 30% tax bracket. So when it comes time to finally pay money on that tax you earned when you were in a 50% tax bracket, they only charge you 30%. I need to point out that while these tax advantages look very appealing on the surface their are many opponents to RRSP's out there.  Many have argued that your net overall tax bill will actually be higher over the course of your lifetime with RRSP's versus non-RRSP's. This debate is VERY complex and I will address it in a future Advanced Level posting.  I can tell you that there is no clear divisor and that it really boils down to your personal financial situation - variables such as how much you have saved, how you plan to withdraw it, if you can split income, etc. all come into play. But for beginners - remember: ANY savings is good savings.  If you are just getting started and don't know what to do, feel confident to start an RRSP account. Once you get more experienced with your finances and do some reading you will be able to determine yourself if you should continue to save to RRSP's when you get older, or if you should switch to non-RRSP savings for retirement.  Many people have both types of accounts.
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317 2007-07-30 19:48:47 2007-07-31 02:48:47 open open what-is-an-rrsp publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150069 _edit_last 1
CRA: The Canada Revenue Agency http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/cra-the-canada-revenue-agency/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:41:51 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/cra-the-canada-revenue-agency/ // The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA for short) can be thought of as Canada's collector of taxes for the government... because that's what it is. :) It is the equivalent of the IRS (The Internal Revenue Service) in the United States which is more famous. The CRA are the guys who send tax auditors to your door if they think you have made an error in your tax filing. Some of you may still hear others refer to it as the CCRA (Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) but that particular incarnation was split into two agencies back in 2003 - one for Customs and one for Tax Revenues. The CCRA no longer exists. ]]> 318 2007-07-30 20:41:51 2007-07-31 03:41:51 open open cra-the-canada-revenue-agency publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268150046 _edit_last 1 The Magic of Compound Interest http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-magic-of-compound-interest/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:52:48 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/the-magic-of-compound-interest/ // Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy - I think we can all agree on that. The man who gave us the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity famously said that the most powerful force in the universe was....? Compound Interest! Would you agree then, that this is something we should take a closer look at since it relates to investing and not atomic theory? :) Okay, if you are still reading I'll assume you are, in fact, in agreement. Now it is time to either excite you or depress you based on your age! First let's define compound interest.  Compound interest means that the interest you earn on an investment is based on both the principal (the amount you started with) AND the accumulated interest as well. So the interest you earn is always being calculated on an ever growing amount, meaning the interest you earn is always more than in the previous year. This is different than "simple interest" in which the interest you earn is only based on the principal amount at any given point down the road (i.e. the interest you earn is the same year in and year out).  What's the big deal? Well, I think it is best explained with an example... Let's suppose we have a fictitious GIC which earns 10% (compound interest).  And let's say we start with $1,000.  Here is what the investment looks like over time:

Start of Year + Interest Earned = End of Year Amount

Year 1 $1,000 + $100 = $1,100

Year 2 $1,100 + $110 = $1,210

Year 3 $1,210 + $121 = $1,331

Year 4 $1,331 + $133 = $1,464

Year 5 $1,464 + $146 = $1,611

...

Year 10 $2,358 + $236 = $2,594

Year 20 $6,116 +$612 = $6,727

Year 30 $15,863 + $1,586 = $17,449

Year 40 $41,145 + $4,114 = $45,259

Year 50 $106,719 + $10,672 = $117,391

You can see that it started off pretty slowly, but at year 50 the interest alone was 10 times the original $1,000 investment. Now, what if you put $1,000 into this fictitious GIC EVERY YEAR? At year 50 you would have $1,280,299. Yup, $1.25 million.

Do you know how much $1000/year is on a monthly basis? $83.33 per month.

In fact here is something to think about.  Let's say we have two people, Johnny Saver and Joe Blow.  Johnny Saver saves $1,000/year for 8 years and then stops saving his money. Joe Blow PROCRASTINATES like everyone else on the planet. He starts saving $1,000/year 8 years from now (when Johnny Saver has stopped adding money to his savings.)

In year 8, Johnny Saver starts the year with $11,436 saved and earns $1,144 in interest.  Please note that $1,144 in interest (which is added back to his account) is more than the $1,000 that Joe Blow is starting to save to HIS account. Joe Blow comes to a very sad realization.  He could save $1,000 per year for eternity and Johnny Saver would never again have to add a penny to his savings and Joe Blow will never have more money saved than Johnny Saver!

Let's look at the results if this started at age 18 for both of them (and assume a retirement age of 65):

Johnny Saver starts saving $1,000/year at age 18 and stops saving at age 26 (total years of saving was 8, for a total investment of $8,000). At age 65 he would have just under $500,000 to his name.

Joe Blow starts saving $1,000/year at age 27 and doesn't stop saving until age 65 (total years of saving was 38, for a total investment of $38,000). At age 65 he would have around $400,000 to his name.

So you can see that TIME IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENTS TO CREATING WEALTH!

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319 2007-07-30 21:52:48 2007-07-31 04:52:48 open open the-magic-of-compound-interest publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611777 _edit_last 1 659 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-02-16 10:30:20 2010-02-16 15:30:20 1 0 0
What is a "Line of Credit"? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-line-of-credit/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:54:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/30/what-is-a-line-of-credit/ A Line of Credit is basically like a credit card in that you apply to have the ability to borrow money whenever you want and have a set limit that you are authorized to use (let's use $10,000 as an example).  The Line of Credit remains open even when your balance is $0 - and you have no payments to make. If you were to use $5,000 then you would start to be charged interest.  You could pay back the $5,000 right away or you could pay it back over time, the only thing you have to make certain is that you pay the interest monthly. So if your line of credit had a 10% interest rate you would owe a minimum of ($5,000 x 10% / 12) = $41.67 per month. You could take until eternity to pay it off in full if you wanted to so long as you made the interest payments. The interest rate on the line of credit is usually very good. It is usually at the prime rate (the interest rate offered to the bank's best customers) if it is secured, or "prime plus 1" or "prime plus 2" if it is unsecured.  The "plus" amount varies depending on how credit-worthy the bank thinks you are. ]]> 320 2007-07-30 22:54:50 2007-07-31 05:54:50 open open what-is-a-line-of-credit publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611742 _edit_last 1 Interest: Think of it as "rent" http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/interest-think-of-it-as-rent/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:14:25 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/31/interest-think-of-it-as-rent/ // I don't think many people explain it this way, but it is probably the best analogy I've heard. Rent is paying for the "use" of something: like renting a movie, an apartment or house or a car.  You never own the item, but you get to enjoy the use of it for a specified period of time. Interest in the financial world is exactly the same thing, except you are renting money! If you go back to the post that talks about how banks make money on your savings account, you'll remember that they give you interest, but take your money and give it out in the form of a mortgage at a higher rate of interest.  So they are "renting" the use of your money and paying you "rent" in the form of interest.  They are also turning that around and renting it out to the mortgagor who pays interest on their mortgage (rent TO the bank). To take the example even further, if you were a landlord and renting out a room, the rent you collect is taxable as income.  It's just like earning money from a 9-5 job. Similarly, the interest you collect on your investments is fully taxable as well (not to be confused with "Dividends", "Capital Gains" or "Return of Capital" distributions). Even the interest you collect on your savings accounts is technically taxable income.  The banks will send you a form  (a T5) that indicates the amount of interest you earned and have to report on your tax return.  However, they generally don't do this if the interest amount is less than $50.  But if you had $100,000 in your savings account they certainly would send it out, and you certainly would be expected to claim it and pay tax on it! ]]> 321 2007-07-31 01:14:25 2007-07-31 08:14:25 open open interest-think-of-it-as-rent publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611719 _edit_last 1 What is "Diversification"? There is more to it than you might think! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-diversification-there-is-more-to-it-than-you-might-think/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:59:25 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/31/what-is-diversification-there-is-more-to-it-than-you-might-think/ // Diversification basically means not putting all your eggs in one basket. If you hold only one stock and that company went bankrupt, then you would have lost all your money.  If you hold two stocks and one company goes bankrupt you have only lost half your money.  And so on, and so on. But there is a BIT more to it than just that. If you held two stocks in companies like Sprint and Verizon and someone invents a device that makes phones obsolete, then both companies might go under.  In this case you have diversified by holding two companies, but you picked two companies in the same industry! Further, if you held two mutual funds that both invested in large Canadian companies (and each fund held 100 stocks), but the Canadian economy as a whole declined, both your funds would lose money. So there is more to diversification than just holding more than one stock.  The key to proper diversification is to pick different stocks (or other investments) that are NOT CORRELATED to each other. i.e. the values of each do not move in tandem. So when one is up, the other is down, and vice versa. (You still want to pick only investments that are expected to appreciate long-term.) There are many different way to diversify - something known as "Multi-Level Diversification". You can diversify by: 1. Holding more than one stock 2. Holding investments from different sectors (Telecom vs Banks vs Mining, etc.) 3. Holding investments in different Asset Classes (Stocks, Bonds, Cash) 4. Holding investments in different Markets (Canada vs US vs China vs Europe, etc.) ...and that is just scratching the surface. So the take home message is that proper diversification means holding numerous securities that are as uncorrelated to each other as possible, in order to reduce risk. Let's say that ALL investments in the universe returned 7% over the next 100 years, BUT each had their own "cycle" of when it was up or down in the short term.  If you held only one, then perhaps it made a killing in the first 50 years, but got slaughtered in the second 50 years. And maybe a different one returned 14% one year and 0% the next, and continued to alternate for the next 98 years in a similar fashion, and so on. Imagine that there are 1000 different investments in this universe and each has a very unique pattern of returns, but ultimately returns 7% over the 100 years.  Well if you held them all, you would still get your 7% over 100 years BUT you had a MUCH SMOOTHER RIDE and the variance of any annual return from 7% would be minimal.  Risk is another word for variance - so to reduce variance is to reduce risk - which can be accomplished with proper diversification. Please note that you can not entirely get rid of risk and that the examples given in this post (as always) are fictitious and intended for educational purposes only. ]]> 322 2007-07-31 12:59:25 2007-07-31 19:59:25 open open what-is-diversification-there-is-more-to-it-than-you-might-think publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611681 _edit_last 1 Can you Diversify too much? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/can-you-diversify-too-much/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:41:56 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/07/31/can-you-diversify-too-much/ This is a tricky topic to talk about.  So please read the caveat at the bottom of this post! The wealthiest people in the world have, on average, made their fortunes on ONE stock... and that is usually the stock of the company they themselves founded and ran in the form of a small business that just kept expanding.  But of course for every small business that becomes the next GOOGLE, there are countless more that fail and go under. This is the ultimate example of why you won't get rich quickly by diversifying AND how you could lose everything quickly by NOT diversifying. Understanding this debate is understanding the trade off that you want to make between risk and reward. You take on an astronomical amount of risk by buying only one company's stock, but if that company is indeed the next GOOGLE well then it was worth it, wasn't it? :) Similarly, a lot of successful investors advocate buying only a handful of stocks (maybe 10-20) that they KNOW and BELIEVE in and expect will grow faster than the rest of the economies in which they are domiciled.  They understand it will be a rockier ride than holding every stock in the world, but expect to be rewarded over the long term for the increased amount of risk they expose themselves to. By properly diversifying, you virtually guarantee you will never get rich overnight, but you also virtually guarantee you won't lose your shirt either. Conversely, by under-diversifying you open up the possibility of making a lot money very fast... or losing it! For new investors - you will want to diversify as much as possible, and across multiple levels of diversification as well - see "What is Diversification?". (At least until you get your feet wet and experience a full market cycle.) ]]> 323 2007-07-31 13:41:56 2007-07-31 20:41:56 open open can-you-diversify-too-much publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611627 _edit_last 1 Inflate your tires properly and save $432 per year! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/inflate-your-tires-properly-and-save-432-per-year/ Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:57:48 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/01/inflate-your-tires-properly-and-save-432-per-year/ // The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) says that for every 2psi (pounds per square inch) of under inflation in your car's tires, you lose 1% in fuel efficiency. In a recent study (not to exacting scientific method, mind you) students at Carnegie Mellon University found that out of the 81 cars parked in a nearby parking lot, only 1 car had all four tires inflated to the proper tire pressure.  Further, they found that on average tires were under inflated by 20% - which translates to about 7 psi. If you go by the EPA's assertion, the average person is losing 3.5% in fuel efficiency. According to the mathletes at Carnegie that works out to $432 for the average person... Let's apply that to me: I drive 30,000km per year. I get 600km to a tank. A tank costs $50. So if I apply a 3.5% decrease in fuel efficiency, I will only get 580km to a tank.  So according to my math, I only save about $87.  What are they smoking at Carnegie Mellon? Read about their study here - then do the math.  It is flawed. I decided to do some digging - I checked Edmunds.com which is a decent resource for car buying tips - they did an extensive review of various ways to save on fuel.  They found a small difference as well. But, I CAN tell you that by having properly inflated tires will probably save you $200 per year on tire wear! So if you factor that in, I would estimate that checking your tire pressures once per month and keeping them in spec will probably save you a couple hundred per year in fuel and tire costs, but not quite $432 in gas alone! Side note: For every 5 degree increase/decrease in temperature your tire pressure will increase/decrease by 1 psi. So make sure to pay closer attention when there has been wild temperature swings (like change of season) - your tire pressure will have changed! ]]> 324 2007-08-01 01:57:48 2007-08-01 08:57:48 open open inflate-your-tires-properly-and-save-432-per-year publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611597 _edit_last 1 Use our strong dollar to save on online purchases... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/use-our-strong-dollar-to-save-on-online-purchases/ Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:45:31 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/01/use-our-strong-dollar-to-save-on-online-purchases/ // Our dollar has been hovering around $0.95 USD.  So to figure out how much you pay for something that is listed in US funds, just divide the US price by 0.95. Now you have how much you will pay in Canadian funds. To take advantage of this you need to know that the price spread of an item (the difference between how much it costs in US funds and how much it costs in Canadian funds) is greater than the price spread between the loonie and the US dollar.  (The price spread between the loonie and the US dollar is 5 cents divided by 100 cents). <-- THAT's the philosophy, but what you really need to know is that when you divide the US priced item by the exchange rate, is the result less than what the items sells for in Canadian funds? Let's take an example: I posted that I recommend "The Richest Man in Babylon" as a great book to buy.  If you look on Amazon.COM, it is $6.99 USD.  If you look on Amazon.CA is it $9.99 CAD.

$6.99USD / 0.95(Exchange rate) = $7.36 CAD

So it is actually cheaper to buy it on Amazon.com since our loonie has made such a dramatic increase in value over such a short period of time. HOWEVER, you have to note that to qualify for free shipping on the US site, you need to spend $25 USD. To qualify for free shipping on the Canadian site you need to spend $39 CAD. In addition, the US site will not ship for free to Canada, so to really save money you need to find a friend with a US address and have it sent there and then arrange to get it across the border.  That's a fair bit of trouble for a small savings, but for electronics.... :) ]]>
325 2007-08-01 02:45:31 2007-08-01 09:45:31 open open use-our-strong-dollar-to-save-on-online-purchases publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611555 _edit_last 1
What is a GIC? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-gic/ Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:24:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/01/what-is-a-gic/ // GIC: Guaranteed Investment Certificate. In the US these are known as CD's (Certificate of Deposit). This is pretty much as safe as you can get when it comes to investing. You buy a GIC at an advertised rate (say 4% as an example) and you earn 4% per year for the duration of the term. QuestionMark.jpgThey are guaranteed in that it doesn't matter what happens to the stock markets, or with interest rates after you buy the GIC, if you bought a 4% GIC, you get 4% annualized for the duration of the term you chose. (Term is just a fancy word for how long you want to hold this investment.) The only way you could lose out is if the bank went under - even then, your money is insured up to $100,000 through the CDIC (Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation) in the event of insolvency of the issuer (aka the bank goes under). So, it's as safe as your savings account and pays more interest in other words. These days, there are about 100 different types of GIC's to buy! They vary on a few features, one of which is TIME. You can buy a 30 day GIC, a 60 day GIC ... a 5 year GIC, etc. Note that the longer the term, the higher the interest rate they will pay. The bank is willing to pay a premium if you promise to give them your money for a longer period of time. Note that unless you have a cashable GIC you can't get out of the GIC (and if you can there are penalties you have to pay). They also vary on whether they are "Cashable" or "Non-Cashable" - as alluded to above. Again, the bank will pay a premium (in the form of a higher rate of interest to you) for selecting the "Non-Cashable" feature since it means they are more likely to have your money for a longer period of time than with a cashable GIC. These are the basic differences, but I will post on some other types of GIC's, as well as when they make good investments and the pro's and con's, etc. in other posts. ]]> 326 2007-08-01 14:24:17 2007-08-01 21:24:17 open open what-is-a-gic publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611432 _edit_last 1 Leverage Part 1: What is Leverage? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/leverage-part-1-what-is-leverage/ Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:32:31 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/01/leverage-part-1-what-is-leverage/ // Leverage: Think of it as using "other people's money" to make money more quickly. Probably another topic that is best explained with an example. Greg has $1,000 a year to invest for 10 years. Assuming a rate of return of 10%, at the end of 10 years he will have $17,531. BUT, we know from the post on the magic of compound growth that TIME has a large effect on growth.  The philosophy is that if you could instead take all that $10,000 over 10 years and just put it in now, you will have more money than by putting it in over 10 years. Okay, let's look at a simple use of leverage: Greg only has $1,000/year, so he can afford a loan payment of $83.33/month (That's $1,000 per year). First we have to figure out how much of a loan he can get. Assuming a 6% interest rate, $83.33/month for 120 months (10 years) will allow him to borrow $7,530.89. So he isn't starting with $10,000 since we have to compare apples to apples (in the form of how much cash flow he is willing to dedicate to his investment savings). Okay, so now let's calculate how much $7,530.89 will grow to if invested and assuming the same 10% rate of return... My trusty financial calculator tells me $19,533. So in this case he has roughly $2,000 MORE through the leverage than with the yearly savings (which yielded him $17,531). Now before you go out and get a loan to invest, remember that a lot of people get burned on leverages - as they magnify RISK as well as return. In Part II of "Leverage" I'm going to look at a negative scenario. You know, the topic of leveraging is a big one - I envision that I could easily write a 10 part series of posts on it, and probably will. It's glamorous, but please make sure to consult with a professional before getting one! This post is in no way meant to be taken as advice to get an investment loan. Having said that, if you own a house and have a mortgage - you already have a leveraged investment! :) You have borrowed money to buy an appreciating asset. ]]> 327 2007-08-01 18:32:31 2007-08-02 01:32:31 open open leverage-part-1-what-is-leverage publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611388 _edit_last 1 Leverage Part 2: The Dark Side! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/leverage-part-2-the-dark-side/ Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:28:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/01/leverage-part-2-the-dark-side/ // So now that you are all hot and bothered about getting an investment loan (aka leverage), let me take you down a notch! (Trust me, it's for your own good...) :) Okay, so let's now say that Greg, who if you remember had learned that he would be $2,000 ahead by getting a loan, decides to calculate a few "what-if" scenarios... 1. What if the investment only earns 6%? In this case, the investment's rate of return and the interest on the loan are equal. How much does Greg have at the end of 10 years? In this case the leverage will leave him with just $13,487 at the end of the 10 years. If he had made the annual savings of $1,000 into a 6% investment - he would have $13,972 - almost $500 more.  So in this case the leverage would've been the wrong decision. 2. What if the investment makes no money after 10 years? Depressing, but a lot of investors guide themselves to a 0% rate of return by switching their investments around too much - always a step behind "the next hot pick" (but that's another story!). Okay, in this case the "straight savings" (putting $1,000 per year) will give you, yep you guessed it $10,000! The leverage? Another no brainer - Greg's loan for $7,531 doesn't grow and that's all he has at the end of 10 years. I think you can see that we're getting further and further behind with the leverage... 3. What if the investment loses 10%? We looked at a gain of 10% in Part 1, so let's look at a loss of 10%.  It would take real skill to lose 10% per year over 10 years - but I suppose it could happen if someone were really clueless... The straight savings will leave Greg with $5,862. Yikes! But if that wasn't bad enough, the leverage would leave him with $2,626!!! I think I have built a solid case for why you may want to think twice about leveragingBut there is SO MUCH MORE TO THIS STORY than just the examples I have given. From here on in it's going to get even wilder (both in terms of potential and volatility).  Near the end of the series on leverages, once I have shown enough case studies to educate you to the level of an average financial advisor (on THIS topic), I will show you some advanced leverage strategies that I use with my clients on a regular basis - but it is much more complex than the stuff we've just talked about - because I am not a fan of risk - and neither are my clients! ]]> 328 2007-08-01 19:28:17 2007-08-02 02:28:17 open open leverage-part-2-the-dark-side publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611367 _edit_last 1 Reduce your Credit Card Interest Rate - Just ask! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/reduce-your-credit-card-interest-rate-just-ask/ Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:18:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/02/reduce-your-credit-card-interest-rate-just-ask/  

 

Did you know that you can call up your credit card company and ask to have your interest rate reduced? While they don't say yes every time, they may suggest what you need to do in order for them to reduce the interest rate in the future. 

CreditCard.jpgThis will usually involve paying more than just what the minimum monthly payment is - and doing that a few months in a row. I did that when I carried a large balance on a credit card during university - they dropped the interest rate 2%.



 

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329 2007-08-02 02:18:21 2007-08-02 09:18:21 open open reduce-your-credit-card-interest-rate-just-ask publish 0 0 post 0
Credit Card Interest of 1.97% for 6 Months with PC Financial http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/credit-card-interest-of-197-for-6-months-with-pc-financial/ Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:39:38 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/02/credit-card-interest-of-197-for-6-months-with-pc-financial/  

 

I looked online, and President's Choice Financial have a promotion going on right now where you can transfer a credit card balance from another card to their card and they will only charge you 1.97% for the next 6 months. Here is the link to the promo.

CreditCard2.jpegPlease note that after time, I suspect this link will be out of date - but card companies have this sort of deal going on all the time.  They all want your business. The best thing is to pay off the cards ASAP and never carry a balance - but I realize that it is a hard thing to do for a lot of people.

Make sure to read the fine print on the offer.  I believe if you are late for two consecutive payments then your interest rate gets jacked up to 22.97%! Another word of advice, whatever your monthly payment was with the other card before the transfer, at least maintain that amount to put the money you save in interest to good work (paying down the principal owing.)

Let's look at how much you could save. I see people with $5,000-$10,000 in credit card debt all the time so let's take a balance of $7,500. On your old card you were paying 19.9%.

$7,500 x 19.9% Interest / 12 months = $124.38/month in INTEREST

$124.38/month x 6 months = $746.28 total interest paid over 6 months with the old card

Let's compare that with 6 months at 1.97% interest.

$7,500 x 1.97% Interest / 12 months = $12.31/month in interest

$12.31/month x 6 months = $73.86 total interest paid over 6 months with the old card

$672.42 interest with old card - $73.86 interest with new card = $672.42

So you save $672.42 in interest just by making the switch. Some more caution: if you've racked up that much in credit card debt, make sure you cancel your old card so you don't have two credit cards that gets maxed out instead of "just" the one!



 

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330 2007-08-02 02:39:38 2007-08-02 09:39:38 open open credit-card-interest-of-197-for-6-months-with-pc-financial publish 0 0 post 0
Write off the Interest on your Student Loan http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/write-off-the-interest-on-your-student-loan/ Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:52:24 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/02/write-off-the-interest-on-your-student-loan/ The interest on your student loans are tax deductible in Canada (another way of saying "write off" is "deduct"). For more information on the definition of "writing off", please refer to my post - What is a tax write off?.

LearningGraduation.jpgLet's take a look at an example. William is a young doctor, who has just finished medical school and has entered residency. He graduates with $150,000 in student loans (about the average for a new doctor these days). His loan is being charged 6.25% and he is allowed to only pay the interest while he is in residency (which means the balance of $150,000 does not go down!). William is okay with this since an average resident physician in Toronto is probably earning about $50,000-$55,000 in their first year or so.

Let's figure out how much interest he is paying:

$150,000 x 6.25% Interest = $9,375 per year ($781.25 PER MONTH)

That is a lot of money to be paying just to carry a loan, never mind starting to repay it! Someone who is earning $50,000 in Ontario is in the 31.15% marginal tax bracket (see my earlier post on the definition of a Marginal Tax Rate here). So, in William's case the math is as follows to calculate the benefit of writing off the interest:

$9,375 Total Interest Paid x 31.15% Marginal Tax Rate = $2,920.31 Back in his pocket

So in William's case, by writing off the interest, he was able to get almost $3,000 back in his pocket! That's a big saving. In a future post, I'm going to talk about how many students erroneously lose the ability to deduct the interest on their student loans without knowing it! You'll want to read that one, because if the government spots it (and your name is Lucy) then they will say, "Lucy, you have some explaining to do!" :) (I hope everyone understands that reference...) :)



 

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331 2007-08-02 14:52:24 2007-08-02 21:52:24 open open write-off-the-interest-on-your-student-loan publish 0 0 post 0 660 southernblert@hotmail.com http://www.claims.350.com 93.96.229.180 2008-12-08 16:02:29 2008-12-08 21:02:29 1 0 0
Why Disability Insurance is the most Important Insurance to have http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-disability-insurance-is-the-most-important-insurance-to-have/ Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:12:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/02/why-disability-insurance-is-the-most-important-insurance-to-have/

Probably the tell tale indicator as to why I would say that is that it is also one of the more expensive insurance products out there.  That may sound like a strange reason, but you have to understand that insurance companies price policies based on how much it is likely to cost THEM if you make a claim, the probability of you making a claim and so forth - plus a little is added to make sure they pull in a profit. So if an insurance product is expensive, it basically means that either the payout is big, the likelihood of claim is big, or both.

disability.jpgBut there is more to my statement than just cost. You have to understand that your biggest asset in life is not your house, your car or your investments (at least when you are younger).  Your biggest asset is your ability to earn an income for the rest of your life!

Speaking of assets - you insure your house, you insure your car, you even buy insurance in the form of warranty extensions on electronics.  You would have NONE of these items if you didn't have an income! And I'll bet you don't know all the details about your Disability Insurance offered through work (if you are lucky enough to have that).

Let's throw out an example:

Let's say a proper disability insurance plan will cost you $2,000 per year, and you make $50,000. Statistically, for a 30 year old the odds of you becoming disabled for more than 3 months is 1 in 3, and the average disability lasts 32 months (almost 3 years). So you have to look at it like this:

Would you rather earn $50,000 when you are healthy and $0 if you become disabled?

OR

Would you rather earn $48,000 when you are healthy and $48,000 if you become disabled?

I'll get some real life numbers and post them in a new post to give you a better look - I'll also go more into the features of Disability Policies (the bells and whistles) - there are a lot of useless options, but some are good. While the insurance is important, it never hurts to get the most bang for your buck!



 

 

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332 2007-08-02 20:12:10 2007-08-03 03:12:10 open open why-disability-insurance-is-the-most-important-insurance-to-have publish 0 0 post 0 661 pmcmaster@gmail.com 74.102.53.69 2007-08-03 12:43:17 2007-08-03 19:43:17 This only applies if one's work place does not provide disability insurance. My company covers 2x my annual incme so I wold not bother buyin any

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662 2007-08-03 13:07:29 2007-08-03 20:07:29 Thanks for the comment Peter. I'm wondering if perhaps you are referring to your company provided Life Insurance coverage as routinely they will provide 1, 1.5 or 2 times your annual salary as part of your benefits package. This would be paid to your beneficiary upon your death.

Disability coverage is provided as a percentage of your gross or net income (usually 60%) and paid on a monthly basis. You can contact your HR department for more details...

...and stay tuned for more information on Disability Insurance which I will be adding.

Thanks,

Preet

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663 samvatsalu@yahoo.ca 99.227.31.52 2007-12-22 03:48:23 2007-12-22 10:48:23 hi preet,
are disability & critical illness the same..
i got an offer today from manulife for critical illness
which covers sone 22 ailments..
but the offer does not give montly disbursements..but a single disbursement of $125,000..premium for a 10 year renewable is approx $50 per month for first 10 years..

i am about to accept it...but am curious now if disability insurance is something separate from critical insurance..

thanks
sam

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664 2007-12-22 05:06:02 2007-12-22 12:06:02 There is some overlap, but there are different.

Disability protects your ability to have an income up to age 65 (in most cases). The cause of the disability can be from a critical illness (such as heart attack, cancer, stroke, etc.), or it can be from getting in an accident - anything that would preclude you from being able to work.

Critical illness on the other hand pays out a one time lump sum should you get diagnosed with a covered condition and survive 30 days (i.e. don't die). You may or may not go back to work - it doesn't matter.

I would top up disability before buying critical illness. If you get critically ill to the point where you can't work, you are covered through your disability.

Also note that we live in a country with very good healthcare no matter the wait times and all the complaints. Yes, it could be better, but you know that you won't get bankrupted if you break a leg. So if the rationale is to pay for an MRI cross border, they are only $500 bucks and you don't need an appointment - trust me, I know firsthand.

Having said that, there are many people who do get critical illness insurance, but again, I would spend more money on getting proper D.I. coverage or topping it up first, then the Critical Illness.

Criticall Illness and Long Term Care Insurance, to ME, are not as necessary as D.I. and term life. They are more for peace of mind as opposed to preventing a catastrophe.

Hope that helps. I really have to get on with writing that post on Disability Insurance... :)

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What is Disability Insurance? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-disability-insurance/ Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:16:12 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/03/what-is-disability-insurance/

Disability Insurance provides you with an income stream should you become disabled and unable to work. It has nothing to do with whether you are injured at work or not - you could be at home, slip in the tub on a Saturday night and break your leg - you would be covered so long as you met the condition of "disabled" as listed in your policy.

disability2wheelchairsign.jpgFor the average 30 year old, the often quoted statistic is that there is a 1 in 3 chance they they will have a disability lasting 3 months or longer, with the average disability lasting 32 months. I've talked about how important it is since your ability to earn an income is your most important asset - especially when you are young.

Let's look at a 25 year old, fresh out of University and earning $50,000 in their first job.  If we assume a 3% increase in salary every year until age 65, then this person stands to earn $3.7 million dollars over the course of his/her career. Let's call it $2.5 million after tax. That's a lot of money.

Most often, your employer will offer disability insurance as part of your benefits package and you will probably be covered for 60% of your GROSS income (before tax). Now, that 60% is almost always tax free. Let's look at an example.

Joe earns $50,000. His after tax income would be $39,841 which works out to $3,320.08 per month (after tax).  If Joe were to become disabled, then he would receive 60% of his gross salary.  In which case, 60% x $50,000 / 12 = $2,500 per month. But that amount is tax free.  So he still has a shortfall of $820.08 per month ($3,320.08 - $2,500) - just enough of an incentive to make him WANT to go back to work.

When you have coverage through your work - you should be careful to check what your coverage is - more often than not people assume that all coverage is the same.  IT IS NOT! Usually the benefit period is "Until age 65" but sometimes it's only 5 years! If you were to become disabled at age 30.... well, I don't even need to explain that, do I?



 

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333 2007-08-03 16:16:12 2007-08-03 23:16:12 open open what-is-disability-insurance publish 0 0 post 0
What is a "Capital Gain"? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-capital-gain/ Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:50:15 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/03/what-is-a-capital-gain/

The most common reference to "Capital Gains" pertains to when you sell something for more than what  you paid for it. So for example, if you bought 1 share of Company XYZ at $50.00 and sold it one year later for $100.00 then you have a capital gain of $50.00 ($100 - $50).

MoneyClipCanadianDollars.jpgYour "Taxable Capital Gain" is a different story.  You have to multiply your capital gain by the "Capital Gains Inclusion Rate" (which is 50%). So now, with that same example you multiply $50 (Capital Gain) by 50% (Capital Gains Inclusion rate) and you are left with a Taxable Capital Gain of $25.

Oh, wait there is more! The taxable capital gain of $25 is subject to tax at your marginal rate (let's assume 50%).  So the tax you owe upon selling your stock is $25 (taxable capital gain) x 50% Marginal Tax Rate = $12.50 in tax payable. So you get to keep $37.50 of your $50 profit.

So the "Capital Gains Inclusion Rate" is a good thing because it means not all your gain is subject to tax. Another thing to note, is that if your marginal tax rate is lower, you pay less tax on that transaction.  Many times when we are "ball-parking" the tax consequences of selling stock in a portfolio - we just look at the capital gain and multiply by 25% (or divide by 4) and we know what the worst case scenario is for the tax bill - it will always be lower than that... 

Capital gains are a desirable form of making a profit with your investments. You pay a lower rate of tax than on interest income (like from a GIC or a bond).  Interest income is fully taxable, meaning if you were paid $50 in interest - ALL of that is taxable (instead of HALF of it). See my post on "Interest Income - Think of it as Rent!"



 

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334 2007-08-03 16:50:15 2007-08-03 23:50:15 open open what-is-a-capital-gain publish 0 0 post 0
Save Money on your Life Insurance... Big Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-your-life-insurance-big-money/ Sat, 04 Aug 2007 02:40:20 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/03/save-money-on-your-life-insurance-big-money/

This is an intermediate level post. Today we are going to look at one of the greatest secrets in the life insurance business. Specifically we are going to look at Term Life Insurance.  The way it works (in a nut shell) is that you purchase a life insurance policy and pick a "term" - similar to a fixed rate mortgage in that for the duration of the term you pay a set amount which does not change.

Piggy_Bank.jpgLet's start by looking at an example. Tim buys a term life insurance policy, he is 25 years of age, average health and wants $500,000 in coverage.  He chooses a 10 year term. For the first 10 years, his monthly premium is $28.76/month.  Not too bad for half a million in coverage. Now, at the end of the 10 years, we begin the NEXT 10 year term and according to the policy the monthly premiums are now $64.96/month for the next 10 years to reflect the increased chance of death for someone who is older.  Each successive 10 year period yields a higher premium, and exponentially so (since your probability of dying goes up exponentially as you get older).

Let's look at an actual premium schedule I received from an insurance company:

Age 25-34     $28.76 Monthly Premium

Age 35-44     $64.96 Monthly Premium

Age 45-54     $137.96 Monthly Premium

Age 55-64     $325.50 Monthly Premium

So you can see that the cost rises exponentially with age.  So, here is the secret an insurance company will not want you to know: This premium schedule is based on the fact that they can only collect health information from you at the time of application (for private life insurance coverage).  If you qualify as average at time of application, they know that there is a chance that you will become sick, and that chance increases as you get older - SO THEY PRICE THAT INTO THE POLICY.  If you were able to go in at year 9 of every term and re-qualify with a medical assessment and show that you were still healthy, then you would save a lot of money.  Let's look...

Assume Tim re-qualifies as "average health" at ages 34, 44, and 54.  So this means he goes and applies for a new 10 year term life insurance policy and hasn't gotten sick.  This is what his new premium schedule becomes:

Age 25-34     $28.76 Monthly Premium

Age 35-44     $31.19 Monthly Premium (versus $64.96)

Age 45-54     $59.47 Monthly Premium (versus $137.96)

Age 55-64     $143.19 Monthly Premium (versus $325.50)

So what is the moral of this story? BEFORE YOUR TERM ENDS, APPLY FOR A NEW POLICY AND YOU WILL SAVE ROUGHLY 50% IN INSURANCE COSTS. Of course, this assumes that you re-qualify as healthy.  If you take the tests and find out you are sick, at least you know to hang on to your existing policy because it is more likely to pay out, and you will KNOW that you have a medical condition that requires attention.  And the sooner you get it looked after, the better the prognosis is likely to be. IN ALL CASES, MAKE SURE TO NEVER CANCEL AN INSURANCE POLICY UNTIL YOU HAVE THE NEW ONE SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED.



 

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335 2007-08-03 19:40:20 2007-08-04 02:40:20 open open save-money-on-your-life-insurance-big-money publish 0 0 post 0 665 denise.accuquote@gmail.com http://www.accuquote.com/ 122.169.107.191 2009-04-16 04:29:54 2009-04-16 09:29:54 term life insurance policy has been approved, paid for, and delivered to you. Before an existing policy is replaced, it should always be clearly determined that such a decision is in your best interest. Denise at AccuQuote http://www.accuquote.com/]]> 1 0 0
Easy way to avoid the $1.25 ATM transaction fee http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/easy-way-to-avoid-the-125-atm-transaction-fee/ Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:29:44 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/05/easy-way-to-avoid-the-125-atm-transaction-fee/

Easy one today - I was just at my local grocery store and using the automated checkout lane (the one where you scan the items yourself) and I decided to use the cashback feature.  "Cashback" is a term used by retailers when you use your debit card and in addition to paying for your purchase, you also take money out of your bank account and the merchant gives you the cash.  Almost all retailers who do this DO NOT CHARGE the $1.25 ATM "convenience" fee that a bank machine charges when you don't use your own bank's network of machines.

MoneyUSDollars.jpgSO - next time you do your groceries (or visit ANY retailer that offers cashback) make sure to take advantage of the free transaction! I probably save about $10/month doing this. Don't be afraid to ask at the checkout if the retailer "has cashback" - a lot of them do these days! Not only do you save money, you save yourself the hassle of finding and going to a bank machine...



 

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336 2007-08-05 00:29:44 2007-08-05 07:29:44 open open easy-way-to-avoid-the-125-atm-transaction-fee publish 0 0 post 0
Save money on Electronics http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-electronics/ Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:43:52 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/06/save-money-on-electronics/

The first of two websites I'm going to post about: TigerDirect US and TigerDirect Canada.

TigerDirectGIF.gifFeel free to click on the links and browse their websites - every now and then you'll come across some serious savings.  I bought a 32" LCD HDTV for $888 in September 2006! The average price at a Future Shop style store would've been around $1,400 at the time.  This particular model was made by Hyundai (yes, the same company that makes cars!) BUT after doing some digging on the web, I found out this exact model is repackaged as a Marantz in Europe and sold for $3,000 CDN. Marantz is a high end name in the audio/video world.

TigerCanada.gifI know there are three retail outlets in the Greater Toronto Area, so you can look before you buy - but most of their business is done online - check it out! 



 

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337 2007-08-06 00:43:52 2007-08-06 07:43:52 open open save-money-on-electronics publish 0 0 post 0
RedFlagDeals.com - Keep up to date on great savings for Canadians! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/redflagdealscom-keep-up-to-date-on-great-savings-for-canadians/ Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:55:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/06/redflagdealscom-keep-up-to-date-on-great-savings-for-canadians/

RedFlagDealsBanner.gifRedFlagDeals.com is a website for Canadians looking to save money on pretty much everything.  They offer coupons, promotional codes, advanced copies of flyers for stores planning big sales, and much more.  It is a website that is designed for Canadian consumers to let each other know about GREAT deals and freebies.  I would encourage you to bookmark the page - I have! It is updated constantly and I'm pretty sure you will find a discount on something you are looking to buy in the near future...


 

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338 2007-08-06 00:55:41 2007-08-06 07:55:41 open open redflagdealscom-keep-up-to-date-on-great-savings-for-canadians publish 0 0 post 0
Testdrive the new Volkswagen Touareg and get two tickets to the Bourne Ultimatum, and the DVD's of the first two movies in the series FREE! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/testdrive-the-new-volkswagen-touareg-and-get-two-tickets-to-the-bourne-ultimatum-and-the-dvds-of-the-first-two-movies-in-the-series-free/ Mon, 06 Aug 2007 08:11:36 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/06/testdrive-the-new-volkswagen-touareg-and-get-two-tickets-to-the-bourne-ultimatum-and-the-dvds-of-the-first-two-movies-in-the-series-free/

Touareg.jpgCanadian Volkswagen dealers have a pretty cool promo going on right now - test drive the new VW Touareg and they will give you 2 tickets to go see The Bourne Ultimatum and if that wasn't enough, they will give you The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy on DVD! Visit this link to find out more if you don't believe me!



 

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339 2007-08-06 01:11:36 2007-08-06 08:11:36 open open testdrive-the-new-volkswagen-touareg-and-get-two-tickets-to-the-bourne-ultimatum-and-the-dvds-of-the-first-two-movies-in-the-series-free publish 0 0 post 0
How to save $13,000 on a $30,000 car! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-to-save-13000-on-a-30000-car/ Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:35:24 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/06/how-to-save-13000-on-a-30000-car/

Everyone knows that you have to save money - but many people just don't do it because they don't have a budget.  Today I'm going to illustrate the financial advantage you have by saving for major purchases versus financing them (via credit cards, lines of credit, etc.).

CarMuscleBlue.jpgLet's assume that we have a $5,000 major purchase coming up - perhaps a new deck for the house? And let's assume that our buyer is making the purchase at one of those big-box type stores (which conveniently offer a department store card). If he/she were to put the purchase on their credit card they could pay off the purchase of the deck over 2 years by paying $252.56 per month (assuming a 20% interest rate on their credit card).

If the buyer were to save-up for the purchase they could use a high-interest savings account (currently paying about 4.25%). Let's compare apples to apples:  if they were to save $252/month to this savings account, after 2 years they would have $6,318 to spend on this deck (so they could have a bigger deck, or a better deck). Alternatively, if they only wanted to spend $5,000 - they could save less per month.  In this case $200/month would give them $5,014 after 2 years. And the final option would be to save $252/month for less than 2 years to arrive at $5,000 (which would take 19  months - just over a year and a half).

I think to make the point I want, I have to look at the last option - to save up for a $5,000 purchase would cost you (19 months x $252) = $4,788.  To finance it would cost you $6,048 ($252/month x 12 months). That's more than a 20% difference in what you are paying out of pocket.

Let's look at another example: How about a vehicle? Let's look at a $30,000 car.  If you wait for a reasonably good deal, perhaps you get a finance rate of 4% over 7 years.  That works out to  $468.91/month. Again, let's try to be as "apples to apples" as we can and assume that $468.91/month is the amount that we have to work with. So if we put that into a high interest savings account we will have $30,000 saved after 57 months. Again, let's look at total out of pocket costs:

Financing: $468.91/month x 7 years (84 months) =  $39,388.44

Saving: $468.91/month x 4 years and 9 months (57 months) = $ 26,727.87

In this case we have a difference of around $13,000!

Of course the catch is that you have to put off making your purchase if you want to save up ahead of time and sometimes you just can't wait (i.e. if your old car is falling apart!). So if you believe in the philosophy, maybe you should consider starting up your "major purchases" savings account - and get into the habit of only paying for medium to large purchases from the funds that accrue in that account... Over time, and by that I mean years if not decades, you'll be able to make the transition from financer to saver! You can start out small - say $100 per month and work your way up from there.  It's a long road, but you'll be happy you started now.



 

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340 2007-08-06 14:35:24 2007-08-06 21:35:24 open open how-to-save-13000-on-a-30000-car publish 0 0 post 0
Leverage Part 3: Interest deductibility of the loan http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/leverage-part-3-interest-deductibility-of-the-loan/ Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:26:52 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/07/leverage-part-3-interest-deductibility-of-the-loan/

In Part 3 on the series on Leverage we are going to look at a tax benefit of borrowing money to invest. (NOTE: This does not apply to RRSP loans.) I STRONGLY recommend reading Leverage Part 1 and Leverage Part 2 in the series as a refresher before reading this article.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgWhen you borrow money to invest in a non-registered account (in other words, not an RRSP or other tax-sheltered account), you are allowed to write off the interest on the loan! Let's make an analogy: you may have heard that if you were to borrow money from the bank to start your own small business you could write off the interest on that business loan.  The reason for that is because the interest is a "cost of doing business" - i.e. you wouldn't have that cost (the interest on the loan) if you didn't have that small business.  The same logic applies to loans used to purchase stocks and bonds in that you are taking on the loan in the expectation of making an income (same as with a small business!).

If you need to brush up on what a tax write off is, please refer to the post "What is a tax write off?" as we will now look at the effect on the leverage that Greg has (from Part I and II).

So, if you remember our friend Greg - he took out a loan to invest. The loan amount was $7,530.89 and the loan payments were $83.33/month. Of the $1000 in loan payments he makes in the first year, $432 is towards interest.  This means he can write off $432.  If we use a fictitious marginal tax rate of 50% then he gets $216 back at tax time for the first year.  Now, since he is paying off the principal as he goes, the amount of interest for the second year of the loan will be less, and consequently the write off and tax refund will be less every year. According to my loan calculator, the total amount of interest he pays over 10 years is $2,469 - which if written of at 50% yields $1,234.50 in tax savings.

So let's recap the total difference now between monthly savings and the leverage

Monthly Savings:

Greg invests $83.33/month ($1000/yr) to his investment portfolio for 10 years, which returns 10% per year. He has $17,531 at the end of year 10.

Leverage:

Greg pays $83.33/month for 10 years to support an investment loan of $7,530.89 which after 10 years grows to $19,533. He has also written off $2,469 in interest costs which when multiplied by his marginal tax rate of 50% yields him a tax savings of $1,234.50. Add this to $19,533 and he has $20,767.50 at the end of year 10.

So whereas before, the leverage produced a net difference of +$2000, now the net difference is +$3200 after factoring in the ability to write off the interest on an investment loan.

Remember this example is using a positive rate of return of 10% and it is possible to have lower, negative or higher rates of return over 10 years.  This post is just meant to illustrate the benefit of interest deductibility on an investment loan.

Part 4 of Leveraging will discuss the "interest-only" version of investment loans - if you thought we have been on a wild ride so far - "you ain't seen nothing yet"! "Interest-only" loans magnify even further the potential risk and reward... stay tuned!



 

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341 2007-08-07 14:26:52 2007-08-07 21:26:52 open open leverage-part-3-interest-deductibility-of-the-loan publish 0 0 post 0
What is a Bond? Part 1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-bond-part-1/ Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:15:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/08/what-is-a-bond-part-1/

A Bond is one of the most basic types of investments. Investments can be broadly categorized into two main types: debt and equity (aka lending and owning).  A bond is the most widely used instrument for debt (lending) type investments and is part of the "fixed-income" asset class (named because these investments are expected to produce a (hopefully) stable and fixed level of income for the duration of the investment).

BondCertificate.jpgYou may be surprised to know that the Bond Market is roughly 21 times the size of the Stock Market in Canada - so while a lot of the glamour goes to stocks - more money is in bonds!

A company or government issues a bond when it needs money. Let's say a company needs to buy some new equipment that will cost $10 million.  It may issue $10 million worth of bonds and promise to pay 6% interest on the bonds for 10 years, and after that time repay the $10 million. The company is therefore going to pay $16 million in total ($10 million + $600,000 interest per year for 10 years) to the bond-holders over the 10 years in exchange for using $10 million of their money NOW. BUT the company expects that it is going to generate $20 million in revenue over those 10 years because of that new equipment.  So after paying back the bond-holders, the company has made a $4 million profit on this transaction and the investors have earned 6% interest on their money.  This is the general mechanism in which a bond works.

Governments use bonds as a means of spreading out the costs of spending over many years.  For example, if a province thinks it needs a new bridge for one of its highways, and estimates that the useful lifespan of that bridge is 10 years - then it would issue a 10 year bond.  The theory is that while the bridge would be of benefit to 10 years' worth of taxpayers (some leave the province and some are new to the province during those 10 years), it would be unfair to send the bill to only the current years' tax-payers.  By issuing a 10 year bond, the cost is spread out over the 10 years.  In addition, the bond acts like a loan by the government: if the bridge were to cost $100 million and it issued a 10 year bond at 5% - it would take $15 million out of the annual budget over 10 years, versus $100 million in one year. ($5 million in interest every year plus $10 million towards the eventual repayment every year.)

The other thing that characterizes a bond is that the bond is secured by the assets purchased with the funds raised by issuing the bond. So in the case of the company which bought $10 million in equipment - if the company went under, the bond-holders would own the equipment.  A trustee would be appointed to liquidate the equipment for cash and give what money it could salvage back to the bond-holders.  This sounds great in practice but the equipment will have depreciated and may be hard to sell!  In which case it could be some time before the bond-holders get their money back (and they probably wouldn't get it all)!

Because they are secured by real assets, bonds are considered less risky than stocks in general. Bonds are rated by what are known as "debt rating agencies" for their "credit-worthiness".  Two well known debt rating agencies are Standard and Poor's and Dominion Bond Rating Service.  They will rate bonds with grades such as AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, etc. BBB and above are known as "investment grade".  BB and below are known as "junk bonds".  These scales provide a relative reference of the chance of default of the bond issue.  Government of Canada bonds are AAA rated.



 

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342 2007-08-08 03:15:13 2007-08-08 10:15:13 open open what-is-a-bond-part-1 publish 0 0 post 0
Mortgage Basics Part 1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mortgage-basics-part-1/ Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:50:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/08/mortgage-basics-part-1/

A mortgage is just a fancy word to describe a loan that is secured by the property for which the loan was used for.  In most cases the loan is for a house or condo.  In the very strictest sense, a car loan is also a mortgage but no one ever calls it that.

housepicture.jpgThere are a few terms that you need to be aware of:

Amortization: this is the total number of years that the loan is structured for (example: 25 years). At the end of the amortization period, the loan will be fully paid off.

Term: While the loan may be for 25 years total, the term may be for a shorter duration and is usually 5 years.  The monthly payment amount and interest rate options are locked in for the length of the term. You will have many terms throughout the lifetime of your mortgage. Once one term ends, you re-negotiate the details for the next term of your mortgage.

Interest rate: This is simply the rate which the bank charges you to borrow money.

Principal: This is the total amount of money that you borrow.

Down Payment: This is how much money you already have available in cash to put towards the purchase of the house.  The difference between the purchase value of the house (e.g. $250,000) minus the down payment (e.g. $12,500) equals the amount of mortgage you will need (in this case $237,500). (There may be some other costs added to the mortage - usually in the few thousand dollar range.)

So to give a full example: Bob would like to buy a house which is being sold for $200,000.  He has saved up $50,000 for his down payment, so he will require a mortgage of $150,000. He decides to choose an amortization of 25 years (so the mortgage will be paid off after 25 years). He negotiates a 6% interest fixed-rate for a 5 year term so he knows that no matter what happens to interest rates in the economy his payments will remain static month to month for the duration of the term (5 years). His monthly payment is $959.71 for the next 5 years.

At the end of his term, it is time to renegotiate for the next term.  Interest rates have fallen and he is able to renew his mortgage for a new 5 year term with an interest rate of 5%. This reduces his monthly payments to $886 for the next 5 years.

It is important to note that if Bob averaged 6% interest for all 25 years he would be paying $137,913 in interest over the 25 years to borrow $150,000 now.  While this is depressing - it is hard to avoid paying so much in interest costs... which is why a lot of people will focus on paying off their mortgage as soon as possible.



 

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343 2007-08-08 16:50:07 2007-08-08 23:50:07 open open mortgage-basics-part-1 publish 0 0 post 0
Leverage Part 4: The Interest-Only Investment Loan http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/leverage-part-4-the-interest-only-investment-loan/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:31:33 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/10/leverage-part-4-the-interest-only-investment-loan/

This is Part 4 in the series of Leverage (Borrowing to Invest).  For a refresher, please visit Leverage Part 1, Leverage Part 2 and Leverage Part 3 before continuing.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgIn this Part, we look at a more advanced form of Leverage: the "Interest-Only" leverage loan.  Not only does it magnify the potential reward even further, it also magnifies the risk involved even further.  If you've never leveraged before, perhaps you should consider trying the aforementioned version of leveraging (paying principal AND interest) first. 

As its name implies, an interest-only leverage is where you take out an investment loan but only pay the interest on a monthly basis.  You don't make regular principal repayments - which means: THE LOAN BALANCE NEVER GOES DOWN! First question: Why would you do this? Most people would take out an "interest-only" loan because they would like access to a larger amount of capital. The loan will have to be paid off at some point though and the logic of the investor is that if they make a better rate of return on the investment than the rate of interest they pay on the loan, then after time they will have a handsome some of money left over AFTER repaying the loan balance in full.  Let's look at an example:

Greg decided that he wants to take out an "interest-only" loan because he wants more money in the market.  If we stick to his $1000/year cash flow constraint then we need to do some simple math to figure out how much of a loan $1000/year will support.  So let's assume that the prime rate is 6% - since an investment loan is secured by a portfolio of securities which should appreciate over time, you can probably get your interest rate on the loan AT PRIME. So if Greg only needs to pay interest on the loan, than means he can afford to pay $1000/year in interest.  If you divide $1000/year by 6% interest/year you arrive at $16,667 for the loan balance.

So let's see what happens after the 10 years of 10% return that we've been using as an example from the other leverage case studies... By starting with a lump sum of $16,667 after 10 years at 10% average growth we get $43,230.  BUT, don't forget that we still have to repay the loan since we have made any payments towards it - so subtracting $16,667 from $43,230 leaves us with $26,563.

DON'T FORGET: The interest payments of $1000/year are tax deductible if the loan principal is invested inside a non-registered account, so Greg can get back $500/year in tax every year!

Let's recap from the beginning:

Monthly Savings:

Greg invests $83.33/month ($1000/yr) to his investment portfolio for 10 years, which returns 10% per year. He has $17,531 at the end of year 10.

Leverage (principal and interest payments):

Greg pays $83.33/month for 10 years to support an investment loan of $7,530.89 which after 10 years grows to $19,533. He has also written off $2,469 in interest costs over those 10 years which when multiplied by his marginal tax rate of 50% yields him a tax savings of $1,234.50. Add this to $19,533 and he has $20,767.50 at the end of year 10.

Interest-Only Leverage:

Greg pays $83.33/month for 10 years to support an interest-only investment loan of $16,667 which after 10 years grows to $43,230. After subtracting the value of the loan outstanding ($16,667) from this amount Greg is left with $26,563.  He has also written off $10,000 in interest costs which when multiplied by his marginal tax rate of 50% yields him a tax savings of $5,000.  Add this to $26,563 and he has $31,563 at the end of year 10!

Don't lose sight of the fact that I am only showing you the potential upside so far - by no means should you go out and get a leverage after having read this.  It is difficult for investors to get a 10% average rate of return for 10 years unless you really know what you are doing, or have an experienced advisor working with you.  We have yet to look at the downside numbers, and they will depress you just as much as the upside numbers have made you giddy with plans of how you are going to spend your millions!

Part 5 of the series in Leveraging will look at what can go wrong with an "interest-only" leverage! You won't want to miss this one...



 

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344 2007-08-10 18:31:33 2007-08-11 01:31:33 open open leverage-part-4-the-interest-only-investment-loan publish 0 0 post 0
Why I didn't post on Thursday... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-i-didnt-post-on-thursday/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 02:14:49 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/10/why-i-didnt-post-on-thursday/

I have to apologize to my faithful readers who were expecting some posts on Thursday (yesterday). Unfortunately my driver's license was suspended due to medical reasons so I cannot legally drive my car.  It's a crazy story, mainly because the event in question happened in FEBRUARY a full 6 months ago.

EmergencyRoom.jpgFor those who are interested: here's what happened.  It actually started in December of 2006 - I had food poisoning which caused me to pass out because I was so sick in the washroom that I lost 5 pounds in a few hours (all fluids).  The loss of fluids caused a drop in blood pressure and I fainted. I had not properly replenished my fluids (one of the symptoms of dehydration is that you DON'T feel thirsty) and one week later I had a glass of wine at a friend's house and since alcohol is a diuretic (makes you go to the washroom) it pulled what little fluid I had in my body from my blood, causing yet another drop in pressure and a fainting spell.  All of that was fixed with a clever diagnosis by my father who is a physician.  No one figured out the cause until later, so as you can imagine I was freaking out wondering why I was passing out!  My resting heart rate was in the 40's until my father told me to drink 2 big bottles of Gatorade - as soon as I did, my heart rate returned to about 70bpm.

Now, unfortunately when I was at the ER (two times, both after each fainting episode) it looks like I picked up a virus which gave me labrynthitis - an inflammation of the inner ear which causes balance problems and vertigo.  I had one episode of vertigo and recurring episodes of light-headedness.  Fast track to February, no more fainting, but still getting the slight light-headedness - one particular week I had a headache that lasted about 4 days so at the advice of a friend, I went to the ER to get it checked out just in case.  (The first time I had fainted, I had hit my head very hard, so there was worry of internal bleeding in my head). Even though I had been seeing my family doc regularly to get everything sorted, the ER physician (after having seen me for all of 2 minutes) decided not to do any imaging tests, but to rather request I go see my family doc and in the meantime he faxed a form to the Ministry of Transportation to have my license suspended just in case.

I phoned the Ministry immediately the next day and they said that I could drive until I get an official letter from the Government - which came 6 months later and now that I am in perfect health!

Needless to say, I spent all of yesterday running around getting doctors' notes, test results, etc. all submitted to the government in order to have my license reinstated - which will take 4 to 6 weeks. I am currently seeking counsel to ascertain whether there is a malpractice suit that should be directed at the ER physician since I was under constant care from my family physician who did not see the need to have my license temporarily suspended after spending hours with me, while a resident physician came to a different decision after 2 minutes. (I understand the backlogs in the ER, but that shouldn't compromise the quality of care given).

 If anyone has a referral to a good medical malpractice lawyer, please let me know! ...and sorry for the lack of posting on Thursday. :(



 

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345 2007-08-10 19:14:49 2007-08-11 02:14:49 open open why-i-didnt-post-on-thursday publish 0 0 post 0
What is a Debenture? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-debenture/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:01:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/10/what-is-a-debenture/

A LOT more people should know about debentures than do.  Simply put, a debenture is a bond that instead of being secured by property or capital asset is rather secured only by the "general credit-worthiness" of the issuer. Hmmm... that's a bit of a mouthful, so let me break it down...

If a bond defaults, the bond-holders are entitled to the liquidated proceeds of the property or equipment that was bought with the money that was given to the bond issuer in exchange for the bond. Think of it like a mortgage - if you default on your mortgage, the bank can sell your house to recoup it's money.

A debenture is just like a bond in all ways except for what is pledged as security for the investment.  With a bond, the security is property.  With a debenture, the security is only the "credit-worthiness" of the issuer.  So if they have a AAA credit rating, they are in excellent financial shape.  But if they default, or go under, the debenture holder has no property rights per se.

So, why buy a debenture? As you are probably becoming more conscious of: since the debenture is slightly riskier, a rational investor would expect a higher rate of interest than with a bond which has more "security". So if you are looking at buying a bond from Company XYZ, you will see that if they offer debentures as well, they offer a higher rate of interest than the bond (of comparative length). 



 

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346 2007-08-10 20:01:21 2007-08-11 03:01:21 open open what-is-a-debenture publish 0 0 post 0 666 kannan@milestone-bis.com 68.19.29.239 2007-09-23 23:34:17 2007-09-24 06:34:17 Can debenture appreciate?

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667 2007-09-24 13:57:59 2007-09-24 20:57:59 Yes, a debenture can appreciate in exactly the same way a bond can. (It can also depreciate in exactly the same way a bond can.

The best way to think about a debenture is to view it like a bond that, instead of being secured by physical property or equipment, is secured only by the general credit worthiness of the issuer.

In other words, it is a riskier asset than a bond from the same issure because if the company becomes insolvent, the bondholder gets the proceeds from the sale of the capital property the bond is secured against, but the debenture holder has no claim.

Because of this increased risk, the debenture of similar term from an issuer who also has a bond of similar term will get a higher rate of interest than the bond pays.

Preet

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668 mosti@datagroup.ca 206.75.199.5 2009-02-19 16:13:33 2009-02-19 21:13:33 1 0 0
A Canada Savings Bond is not actually a Bond! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-canada-savings-bond-is-not-actually-a-bond/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:23:53 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/10/a-canada-savings-bond-is-not-actually-a-bond/

canada_savings_bond.jpgIf you have read the post on what a debenture is this will make more sense. But because a Canada Savings Bond is only secured by the "general credit worthiness" of the Government of Canada it is not a bond, but rather it is a Debenture.  The reason for this? The "Canada Savings Debenture" is not as catchy from a marketing perspective.  The Canada Savings Bond/Debenture is among the safest investments you can make - because the Government has the power to print more money if it cannot make it's obligations - or it can raise taxes.  Neither of which is really good economic policy long term, but that's another story... :)



 

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347 2007-08-10 20:23:53 2007-08-11 03:23:53 open open a-canada-savings-bond-is-not-actually-a-bond publish 0 0 post 0
RRSP Loans http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rrsp-loans/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:17:08 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/10/rrsp-loans/

An RRSP loan is simply a tool used to get your money into your RRSP before the "contribution deadline" which is the end of the 60th day of the following year.  So for example if you want your RRSP contribution to count for your 2007 return, you need to make a deposit into your RRSP account either during 2007 or within the first 60 days of 2008.

QuestionMark.jpgThe reason RRSP loans have become so popular is that people procrastinate.  They do not contribute to their RRSPs on a regular monthly basis so they have to take out a loan in order to put in as much as they can.  The reason people want to put as much as they can is for the tax refund and to ensure that they are indeed contributing as much as they can towards their retirement.

Why people wait until the last minute is just a psychological issue.  It's the same with taxes - people file taxes right on the last day - not because they've been crunching numbers trying to find every last penny in savings, but because they are procrastinators.

I'm going to write a series on RRSP loan strategies in the future - because most people are only familiar with the concept of borrowing a lump sum and paying off part of the loan with the refund, thereby reducing the monthly loan payments and freeing up cash flow - uhh... better put that into numbers!:

Let's say Bob has $200/month that he can put towards retirement savings.  If he put in $200/month, he could contribute $2400/year to his RRSP.  And Bob knows that since he is in the 35% marginal tax bracket he will get ($2400 x 35% =) $840 back on his taxes. After doing some quick math, he realizes that he can increase his contribution by getting a loan for $3692 --> which will provide a refund of $1292 ($3692 x 35%) which he can apply to the loan to reduce the loan balance to $2400.  He can then pay that off in 12 months at $200/month.

So, in effect what Bob has done is contribute A GREATER AMOUNT to his retirement savings while maintaining his $200/month budget for savings.  (There will be some interest of course on the RRSP loan so it will be closer to $208/month - but you get the gist of the concept.)  I'll go over it again in the series of RRSP Loan Strategies - there are tonnes!



 

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348 2007-08-10 21:17:08 2007-08-11 04:17:08 open open rrsp-loans publish 0 0 post 0
Limited Partnerships with a Flow Through Share Structure for Investment Tax Credits http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/limited-partnerships-with-a-flow-through-share-structure-for-investment-tax-credits/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:59:57 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/10/limited-partnerships-with-a-flow-through-share-structure-for-investment-tax-credits/

This is an advanced level topic.There are certain investments out there that really aren't for everyone - this would be one of them. 

The Limited Partnership moniker just means that you are limited in liability to the amount of money you have invested - i.e. you can't be sued personally, the most you can lose is the total value of your investment. This Limited Partnership usually has a management team that will manage the money on your behalf into some specified "mandate" which is just a fancy word for describing the overall investment objective of the partnership.  So for example, the mandate might be to invest in mining exploration projects - in order to find new sources of minerals for example.

Mining_Equipment.jpgNow, in Canada there are certain incentives given to companies in order to promote exploration and development of certain items - two of the main areas are "mining" and "wind power".  It provides the incentive in the form of a "Canadian Exploration and Expense Credit" which is a tax credit which can be used to reduce taxes.  BUT since these companies are in the start up phase they are not yet generating any revenues with which to use the tax credits to offset. So, what they do is FLOW THROUGH the tax credits to the limited partners who can then apply the credits to their personal income taxes! They do this to help attract investors to what could be riskier than average investments (they are start-up projects remember).

Example time!:

Joe decides to invest in the ABC Mineral Fields Limited Partnership fund.  The fund invests in a portfolio of different exploration companies looking to find new mineral deposits in Northern Ontario.  Joe invests $50,000 and receives tax credits equal to $50,000 that he can apply to his personal income taxes. Since Joe earns $250,000 per year, he applies the credits in the year that he receives them and gets a tax refund of $25,000 (he is in the highest marginal tax bracket which is close enough to 50% to call it 50% for the sake of math)

So Joe has $50,000 invested and it only cost him $25,000.

It should be pointed out that it could take years for the fund to generate positive returns as it may take many years to explore, find and sell minerals from the project.  So it is not a free lunch and ranks in the "moderate-aggressive" to "aggressive" risk tolerance range.

 



 

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349 2007-08-10 21:59:57 2007-08-11 04:59:57 open open limited-partnerships-with-a-flow-through-share-structure-for-investment-tax-credits publish 0 0 post 0
What is a Car Lease? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-car-lease/ Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:09:51 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/12/what-is-a-car-lease/

I remember when I was younger that I had no idea what a car lease was - I knew the monthly payments were smaller so I thought that was good - and that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge! :) I'm guessing there are other people out there who are in the same boat that I was in...

CarVintage.jpgBasically a vehicle lease is a tool that allows you to pay for the depreciation of the car only.  This is opposed to a car loan, in which you borrow the money to purchase the car outright.  For example, let's say we have a $30,000 car.  You could take out a loan to buy the car and perhaps the monthly payment is $580 for a 5 year, 6% interest rate loan. After 5 years, the car may be worth $10,000 - $20,000 depending on the level of care you put into it and also depending on the re-sale characteristics of the vehicle make and model.  If you plan on selling the car after 5 years (after the loan is paid off), then you will pocket the money you get from selling the car, right?

Some people may look at that and say, well why did I fork out $580/month for those 5 years  when I knew I was going to sell the car and get some of my money back? They might consider leasing the car instead.  Since the lease allows them to pay for the depreciation only, then instead of paying off $30,000 within 5 years, maybe now they are only paying off $10,000 - $20,000 depending on the estimated value of the car at the end of 5 years.  This would lower the monthly payments to the $190-$390 per month range.  Of course, at the end of the 5 years you return the car to the dealership and you have nothing to show for it.

The monthly payments are calculated ahead of time based on the expected rate of depreciation and an estimation of how much mileage you will put on the car.  A run of the mill lease will allow for maybe 15,000km per year with a very hefty charge per km over the agreed upon limit.  For example, if you drive the car 20,000km per year, then you will have an overage of 5,000km per year for 5 years for a total of 25,000km.  If the overage charge is 12 cents per km, you will have to pay an additional $3,000 when you return the car!

When a situation like that arises, you normally have the option of "buying out" the car at the end of the lease.  If you buy the car at the end of the lease can sell it or keep it. Let's give an example:

Ken enters into a lease agreement for a new car that is worth $30,000.  It is a 5 year lease with an allowance for 15,000km per year - for every kilometer over that amount there will be a 12 cent charge. The end value of the car is estimated to be $15,000 after 5 years. The interest rate is 6%.  This will give Ken a monthly lease payment of about $300.  Ken drives 20,000km per year so when the lease ends he is 25,000km over his allowed amount.  If Ken wants to return the car and terminate the lease he will need to also hand over a cheque for $3,000 to pay for the extra mileage on the car! BUT Ken has taken very good care of the car and knows that he can probably sell the car for $17,500 so he decides to buy out the car for the $15,000 (the end value of the car as pre-determined by the dealership).  Since he buys the car, he does not need to provide the $3,000 for using the extra kilometers. He gets $17,500 for the car selling it privately and therefore walks away with $2,500 in his pocket.

The per km charge in the lease agreement is designed to offset the lower price that a higher mileage car would be expected to fetch when the dealership transfers the car to their used-car lot for re-sale. 



 

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350 2007-08-12 04:09:51 2007-08-12 11:09:51 open open what-is-a-car-lease publish 0 0 post 0 669 mcguire.suzanne@gmail.com http://smartcarcredit.com/ 59.162.182.2 2007-08-12 13:05:48 2007-08-12 20:05:48 A very nice informative article! Purchasing a new car using a car loan and letting out a car on lease are contradictory. In fact, this article helped me to know some of the basic facts of which I was unaware :)

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Make Money on Credit Cards? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/make-money-on-credit-cards/ Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:39:52 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/13/make-money-on-credit-cards/

This is for those out there who like playing the game... You know who you are! You've experimented with having multiple credit cards and transferring your card balances between the two credit cards to keep paying a super low rate of interest whenever they have a low interest rate balance transfer promotion.

CreditCard.jpgWell, if you are really in the mood, how about this one...  If you have a credit card that periodically will have an offer to give you a low rate of interest on cheques written from your credit card for 3 months or 6 months or whatever, then assuming that you have no credit card debt, you could write a cheque to yourself and deposit it into a high interest rate savings account.  Let's take an example:

Your credit card is offering a 0% interest rate on all cash advance cheques for 6 months.   HSBC (example) is offering 5% interest on it's high interest savings account. Let's say you write a cheque to yourself and deposit it to HSBC for $10,000.  You will earn $250.00 in interest over those 6 months that you didn't have before!  Keep in mind though that you will have to pay the monthly minimum payment to your credit card company - which you can take from your new savings account. Right before the 0% interest rate promotion ends, remember to pay off the credit card with the balance of your high-interest savings account... :)



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351 2007-08-13 15:39:52 2007-08-13 22:39:52 open open make-money-on-credit-cards publish 0 0 post 0
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-1/ Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:32:14 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/13/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-1/ Once we get through the series, you'll know more than 75% of life insurance agents out there - but best of all, it won't be boring! To start we have to get a basic understanding of the machine that is life insurance - allow me to tell a story... Let's go back a few hundred years... In a pub there was a frequent visitor named Lloyd who was a wealthy man, and always looking to make more and more money. Everyone in the town knew of Lloyd's wealth and they would come to him to ask for his money for business transactions, for loans, or just to plain beg! One day, a farmer came to Lloyd and said, "Listen I have a problem. It is July and my crops are due to be harvested in August.  We've had a fantastic year this year and we will earn more selling this year's crops than for the last 5 years combined." Lloyd retorted by saying, "That hardly sounds like a problem friend!" "Well," continued the farmer, "hear me out: I am the only one in the household who can harvest those crops - without me, the crops will sit and die and become worthless. I know that once I harvest those crops I can stop working for life! But I am close to 40 years old (old back then!) and I would like to make sure that no matter what happens to me, my family will be taken care of...  Even if it costs me money for that peace of mind!"Gold_Coins.jpg Lloyd thought for a moment.  He had a solution.  He would offer the farmer the choice of giving him 100 gold coins if he died before the harvest was done in one month's time in exchange for the farmer giving Lloyd 20 gold coins NOW.  And if the farmer didn't die, Lloyd would keep the 20 gold coins nonetheless. To Lloyd, he looked at this farmer and believed that he was in exceptionally good health for a 40 year old.  Lloyd knew that for every one hundred 40-year-old men in the town, that on average 5 of those one hundred would die in the next month. And Lloyd was willing to bet that this farmer wouldn't be one of them! The farmer agreed to this scheme of insuring his life - he lived, he harvested and he sold his crops and retired wealthy to make for a nice story. Lloyd was happy too, he had 20 gold coins that he did not have before for making this "bet" on the farmer's life. Okay - so now let's take a look at the math behind this. The statistical odds of that farmer dying were 5 in 100 (or 1 in 20) which is a 5% chance. So there was a 5% chance that Lloyd would've "lost" on his bet about the farmer's life, and had to have paid out 100 gold coins.  Considering that he had collected 20 gold coins, he would really only be out 80 gold coins.  To Lloyd, he saw this as a 95% chance that he would make 20 gold coins versus a 5% chance that he would lose 80 gold coins. Since he was wealthy, he decided to take the risk. Now, this is a risky thing for Lloyd to do because it is possible that the farmer would've died.  Since Lloyd was taking on this risk of having to pay 100 gold coins, instead of just charging 5 gold coins (which would be the statistical break-even point) he charged more (20 gold coins).  He did this to compensate for the risk he was taking. Let's fast forward 10 years - this "scheme" had caught on like wildfire and other people were coming up to Lloyd for the very same proposition - they wanted to be insured for 100 gold coins in exchange for a price.  Lloyd was a shrewd business man and knew that if he lowered the "premium" he would attract more customers. As he attracted more customers, he could lower the premiums since one bad "bet" would not wipe him out as there would be 20 good "bets" for each bad bet - going by the statistics. So let's look at this new business Lloyd has set up for himself.  This year, he has 1000 men (all aged 40) who have bought a life insurance policy for him for the next month.  He knows that statistically 50 of those men will die and he will have to pay (50 men x 100 gold coins) 5000 gold coins out in death benefits.  He also knows that 950 men will survive - if he wanted to break even, he would have to generate 5000 in premiums from all 1000 men - so he could charge them each 5 gold coins instead of 20. BUT - being the business man that he is, he knows that some months 60 of 1000 men will die, and some months 40 of the 1000 men will die.  He doesn't want to get caught out - and in exchange for this risk that he is taking and to make sure that all his time isn't for naught (this new endeavour was taking up all of his time!), he charges an extra 2 gold coins on top of the 5 needed to break even - to make sure that he makes a profit. So during the next month, he collects 7 gold coins each from 1000 men (7000 gold coins) and pays out 5000 gold coins - he is earning 2000 gold coins per month! So let's now look at this from a "policy-holders" point of view.  They also know that 50 out of 1000 men like them will die in the next month.  By taking out the policy and paying the 7 gold coins they "win" if they die - their family will receive 100 gold coins in exchange for 7. It is a very morbid way to think about it, I know.  The insurance company wins if you don't die - because they keep your premium and didn't pay out a death benefit. I'll stop here for Part 1 in this series.  In Part 2 we are going to fast foward to the present time, and look at how some of the life insurance lingo developed by building on what we have learned in Part 1!]]> 352 2007-08-13 21:32:14 2007-08-14 04:32:14 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-1 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265244761 _edit_last 1 Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-2/ Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:45:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/14/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-2/ Okay, so you've read Part 1, and now you are ready to build on some simple concepts. This post will deal with how premiums rise as you get older. Once we understand this, we will have a lot of the groundwork covered for the next parts in this series.

Remember how the statistics for a 40 year old man, way back when, indicated that he had a 5 in 100 chance of dying in the next month?  Well let's fast forward a little bit.  Let's say now that a 40 year old man (due to improvements in healthcare and quality of life) now has a 5 in 100 chance of dying within the next YEAR.  As you know, your chances of dying go up with age.  So statistically a 41 year old man should have a slightly higher "mortality" rate than the 40 year old, and 39 year old would have a slightly LOWER mortality rate than the 40 year old.

BUT let's take a closer look.  Maybe the 39 year old has a 4 in 100 chance of dying (4%) vs the 40 year old's 5 in 100 chance (5%). The 41 year old would have a 7 in 100 chance (7%). In this case, the AMOUNT OF CHANGE between the 39 year old and the 40 year old's chance of dying is less than the AMOUNT OF CHANGE between the 40 year old and the 41 year old's chance of dying.  Another way to explain this is that, all else being equal, you would expect that it is very probable that an average-health 25 year old has little chance of dying in the next year.  On the other hand, the average-health 99 year old has a pretty good chance of dying in the next year.  As you get older, your chances of dying increase exponentially.  For the 99 year old, he might have a 95 in 100 chance.

The general trend of mortality can be directly translated into insurance premiums.  If the chances of you dying are greater, than your premium will be greater. So on the graph below, you can consider the Y axis as either mortality OR insurance premium amount: 

 

InsuranceGraphExponentialGr.jpg

Click here to go to Part 3: How Term Life is Priced. 

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353 2007-08-14 12:45:17 2007-08-14 19:45:17 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-2 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265244806 _edit_last 1 670 info@gnaka.com http://www.gnaka.com 202.88.142.151 2007-08-14 21:45:22 2007-08-15 04:45:22 Nice info!

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Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-3/ Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:40:52 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/15/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-3/ This is Part 3 in the series, and it is strongly recommended that you read through Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this post. :)

So in the last article in the series, we saw how insurance premiums increase exponentially as a function of age.  From this we can extrapolate that if someone were to apply for an insurance policy every year, the cost for each successive year would increase, until it becomes unaffordable at some point.

For someone very young, the premiums are relatively inexpensive.  I remember a young client around 26 or so requesting a $250,000 life insurance policy and the premiums were around $130/year. For someone very old, the annual premium will actually approach $250,000 per year.  Of course at this point it becomes pointless to purchase the insurance as it would be silly to pay $250,000 for the year if you only collect $250,000 if you die.

Let's break it down a little further.  For a 25 year old, we know the premiums are fairly cheap - if this person could spread out the cost of the insurance over a set time period (say 10 years) then they pay a set yearly or monthly amount for the entire 10 years.  Why would they do this?  Well, the set payment for the next 10 years will be higher than the payment when they are 25 and lower than when they are 35 - so they are averaging it out.  The idea is that they are willing to pay a little bit more than they should early on, so that they can pay less than they need to later in the term - thereby keeping the cost of insurance affordable as they get older.

Look at the following graph - we have inserted vertical lines at 10 year intervals.  In the beginning the growth rate in annual premiums is relatively small, but as the person gets older and the premiums increase exponentially you can see why choosing a longer "term" can become desirable. Insurance coverage becomes more desirable as you get older as people realize that they have a greater chance of dying - unfortunately this is exactly when the costs are greater.

InsuranceGraph10YearTerm.jpg

Now we understand the basis of TERM LIFE. There are different lengths of term availabe - the most popular being 5 year Term, 10 year Term and 20 year Term. (There is also Term to 100 - which is a bit of anomaly, so we will cover that in a future post). TERM LIFE is known as temporary insurance in that there comes a point where it is unaffordable (when you are really old) - but when you are younger it is quite cheap and affordable. It stays in effect so long as you pay your premiums - if you miss a month your policy gets cancelled (you get no money back).  Term life is most often needed for temporary insurance needs. Examples of temporary insurance needs are: the mortgage - if you want the mortgage paid off if you die you would get insurance to cover the balance - but it goes down over time and hopefully one day you are mortgage free - therefore the insurance need is only temporary.

Okay, so the take home message of this post is that TERM LIFE is "temporary" insurance, and for the better part of your life will be the cheapest form of insurance coverage you can get.  As you get older however, it will eventually become unaffordable.

In the next part in the series on Insurance - we will take a look at PERMANENT INSURANCE. (Whole Life and Universal Life Insurance fall into this category). Click here to go to Part 4.

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354 2007-08-15 02:40:52 2007-08-15 09:40:52 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-3 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265244922 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-4/ Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:56:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/15/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-4/ In Part 4 in this series on Life Insurance we are going to explore the basics of WHOLE LIFE insurance. (You should read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you have not already.)  There are certain costs that people would like paid for when they die, but if they are older we know Term Life insurance is too expensive.  In fact many companies will not even offer Term Life once you get to around 80.  But of course, even 80 year olds have some life insurance requirements - namely: funeral costs (if they don't want to burden their loved ones), inheritances (if they want to make a larger estate available to their heirs), taxes (if they have a large tax liability when they die, they may want to have enough insurance that will pay the tax bill).

The top reason cottages go for sale in Muskoka (Canada's cottaging hotspot) is that the owner has died and the next generation cannot afford the tax bill that has to be paid.  The only way to pay the tax bill, is to sell the property!

So the solution for these permanent insurance needs is known as WHOLE LIFE insurance (which is a type of PERMANENT insurance; Universal Life - which we will cover later - is the other form of permanent insurance). Whole life insurance never expires (so long as you keep paying your premiums) and the premiums never increase.  It is much more expensive than Term Life at first simply because you are averaging the costs of insurance out over your entire life (as opposed to averaging it out for only the next 10 years) - but while it is much more expensive when you are younger, it looks like a real bargain when you are older.  Let's look at a graph to get a visual idea:

 InsuranceGraphWholeLife.jpg

So as you can see from the graph, you are overpaying the cost of insurance when you are younger in order to be able to afford insurance when you most need it - when you are very old.  Again, this is why the cost of these permanent insurance policies is initially much higher. There are a few more ideas we need to discuss about Whole Life before we get to Universal Life - and we will explore these in Part 5 - in fact this is where it starts to really get interesting!

Click Here to go to Part 5. 

 

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355 2007-08-15 12:56:10 2007-08-15 19:56:10 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-4 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265244919 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 5 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-5/ Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:53:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/16/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-5/ In this article we are going to look at what the insurance companies do with the overpayment in the early years of a whole life insurance policy.  (Please refer to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 in this series before reading this article). We know from the previous article in the series that the monthly premiums in the early years of a whole life insurance policy are much higher than the "pure cost of insurance" which is the green line that increases exponentially with age (see below graph). The reason people agree to overpay is that they will be able to afford the premiums later on in life (note how the "pure cost of insurance" indicates the premiums become unaffordable as you get very old).

InsuranceGraphWholeLife.jpg 

But what does the insurance company do with the over-payments?  As you can imagine, they don't just put in under the mattress! They take the money and purchase a bond portfolio (with some stocks and other investments).  Usually the bonds are of a very long term, and of very high credit quality (i.e. 30 year government bonds).  They do this because these insurance policies are going to be in place for a very long time in most cases and they need to make sure that they have the money to pay the claims.  The level of stocks, short term bonds, and bonds of lower credit quality are kept to a minimum.  So, the over-payments you make are put into an investment portfolio by the insurance company to pay for the "underpayments" later on in the policy.  REMEMBER: these portfolios have LOTS of time to grow, and the values of these "overpayment investment portfolios" can become quite large.  This is important to know for future articles in this series. For now, we can see that it lowers the monthly premiums for the entire policy - this is due to factoring the compounding growth of the investment portfolio over time.  So the area under the graph during the "overpayment" phase (early years) will be LESS than the area under the graph of the "underpayment" phase (later years). I should point out that on the graph below, I did not emphasize this difference enough.  To be clear: the reason the area  under the graph (between the pure cost of insurance and the premium amount) for the early years is smaller than the area under the graph in the later years is due to the effect of compounding growth. In Part 6 of the series we are going to look at what happened with Whole Life policies in the 1980's (high interest rates = high yielding bonds) which caused a lot of change in the life insurance industry thereafter... (I'll give you a hint: the insurance companies made a lot of money on the bonds and ended up making WAY TOO MUCH profit.) :)

 If you look at the graph below, you can see that the "overpayments" go into this "overpayments savings portfolio".  This investment account portion of the whole life policy grows over time through growth of the investments and the ongoing contributions.  If you wish you can make withdrawals from this account - known as a policy withdrawal.  But once you do, you have to pay tax on the withdrawal.  It is similar to a capital gain, but it is known as a "policy gain".  The amount of tax you pay is your marginal tax rate multiplied by the difference between the pure cost of insurance and the total amount of premiums you paid, and then pro-rated for how much of a withdrawal you make.  If you were to cancel your policy and forfeit your insurance coverage you would recieve all the excess cash (known as the "cash surrender value") and receive a form that would indicate your gain that would be included as taxable on your tax return for that year.

InsuranceGraphWholeLifeWSav.jpg 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 6

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356 2007-08-16 12:53:41 2007-08-16 19:53:41 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-5 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265245074 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 6 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-6/ Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:50:34 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/17/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-6/ In today's post, we'll discuss how the high interest rates of the 1980's created lots of change in the types of insurance that were sold thereafter. This is Part 6 in the series, and you may want to read the other articles by clicking on the following: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. So the first thing you might be thinking is "What do interest rates have to do with insurance policies???" - well let's revisit the graph from Part 5.

InsuranceGraphWholeLifeWSav.jpg

If you remember, the overpayment in the early years is directed into an investment portfolio which is predominantly fixed-income in nature.  The rate of return on fixed income investments are very closely tied to prevailing interest rates.  During the 1980's interest rates were incredibly high - around 20% at the peak!! 

What the insurance companies do when they are figuring out the insurance premiums for whole life is factor in the expected death of the "life-insured" along with their current age first.  This allows them to calculate how much the pure cost of insurance is.  Essentially, if you are expected to die at 85, and are 25 now, and would like $500,000 in coverage - they will calculate how much money they will need from you over the next 60 years so that they will have $500,000 to give you at age 85.  If you live longer - you "lost" in that you overpaid for the $500,000.  If you die early, you have "won".  They also factor in how fast they can make the money you give them grow.

So with whole life, where you are overpaying in the early years, the investment portfolio's rate of return needs to be estimated for a very long period of time because once the premium has been determined, the insurance company has to stick to it.  And of course because the insurance companies are not "non-profit" companies, they will tack on an additional amount to cover their expenses and also to produce a profit for their services. Because of this, they tend to underestimate the rate of return of the investment portfolios when calculating premiums - which means premiums go up in price.

Well, during the 1980's, and specifically after the interest rates had started to come back down, the insurance companies were being a little too cautious with their estimates.  Whereas the premiums were based on perhaps a 6% long term rate of return, they were collecting 10% or more on these investment portfolios.  So let's say in any given year that 100 people with policies died and they all had policies for $500,000.  The insurance company was on the hook for $50 million - but they knew that, and using the estimated rate of return for the portfolios (example 6%) they would've had $60 million (example) - enough to pay the claims with something left over for expenses and profit.  But since the portfolios grew at 10%, maybe they had $120 million - so they had $70 million left over for the same expenses and therefore MUCH HIGHER PROFITS.

Check the price histories of insurance companies during this time - they were amongst the best stocks to own because they were money making machines! So what happened after that? Well, people became wise to this and they decided to do something about it! Which we will cover in Parts 7 and 8! Stay tuned... 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 7 

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357 2007-08-17 15:50:34 2007-08-17 22:50:34 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-6 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265245089 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 7 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-7/ Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:59:37 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/19/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-7/ the change spawned by infuriated policy holders (infuriated by the amount of money the insurance companies were making on the investment pools inside whole life policies!). If you like, you can access the earlier parts in the series by clicking here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. This is the time when people started to "buy term, invest the rest" - a strategy where people would buy Term life insurance (closer to the pure cost of insurance and much cheaper) and take the extra amount that would've gone to the whole life premium and invest it themselves. The concept is that these savings would grow at rates that were available in the market (and what the insurance companies were enjoying) and it would grow enough that they would become "self-insured" as they became older.  They would still have the coverage early on through the term policy, but would later shed their insurance coverage (and premiums) as the investment pool grew to a sufficient amount to cover their needs. BuyTermInvestTheRest.jpg Of course, big companies only listen to the language spoken by consumer's wallets. So "Participating Whole Life" became more popular. (Credit to Brian Poncelet for his note below - original text suggested participating whole life was a relatively new product.) "Participating" in the sense that the policy holder would participate in the performance of the investment pool.  If the investment pool grew faster than predicted then the policy holder would get the extra growth returned to them in a number of different forms. On the flip side, if the investment pool under performed, the policy holder would not be held accountable for making up the shortfall. This "participation" of the policy holders in the actual performance of the investment portfolio made whole life more popular again. The policy holders had a few options available to them in terms of how they participated in the performance.  First, a bit of terminology: when the insurance company's investment portfolio returns more than their expectations, the extra money is returned to the policy holder in the form of "policy dividends".  This is not to be confused with dividends from common shares or preferred shares. There are three main ways in which to use these "dividends": 1) Purchase "Paid Up Additions" - A paid up addition is just that: an additional amount of insurance coverage that is "paid up" - which means you pay for it once and don't have to pay for it on an ongoing basis. So over time, as you receive policy dividends over the years, your insurance coverage increases even though your premiums remain the same. 2) Receive the policy dividend in cash - this is pretty straight forward - whatever the extra return on the investment pool turns out to be will be sent to the policy holder via a cheque. 3) Reduce your premiums - the policy dividend can be used to reduce the cost of your insurance policy.  In some cases people will start by using policy dividends to purchase "paid up additions" until a point where the policy dividends PLUS THE POLICY DIVIDENDS OF THE PAID UP ADDITIONAL INSURANCE is sufficient to pay the ENTIRE insurance premium.  In this case, after around 10 years (give or take) your policy can pay for itself. (Policy holders can also elect to use policy dividends to accrue with interest with the insurance company, or to buy additional temporary insurance - but I rarely see these options selected.) In Part 8, we will talk a little bit more about whole life insurance before making the leap to "Universal Life Insurance". CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 8]]> 358 2007-08-19 00:59:37 2007-08-19 07:59:37 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-7 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271129424 _edit_last 1 671 brian@rightinsurance.ca http://www.rightinsurance.ca 64.231.64.38 2010-04-11 21:54:09 2010-04-12 02:54:09 1 0 0 672 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-04-12 22:25:20 2010-04-13 03:25:20 1 671 0 Get a refund for seeing a movie when the audience is packed full of dumb kids... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/get-a-refund-for-seeing-a-movie-when-the-audience-is-packed-full-of-dumb-kids/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:01:28 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/22/get-a-refund-for-seeing-a-movie-when-the-audience-is-packed-full-of-dumb-kids/

I've done this a couple of times, and I know others would be willing to if they knew.  We've all gone to see a movie and had to sit next to a bunch of young kids who seem like the last thing they want to do is see a movie, but rather talk on their phones and generally cause a nuisance.  Now if you're like me, this drives you absolutely up the wall! And it's not necessarily limited to kids, but anyone really.  I've sat next to people who constantly check their blackberries, and in the dark theatre the bright screen is incredibly distracting.  I'm sorry, but when I go see a movie I want to be "IN" the movie and distractions "from outside the movie" pull you out of that entirely.

Bowl_Of_Popcorn.jpgWell, if you've had it up to HERE (right now I'm pointing at my neck with all four fingers), you can leave during the first 30 minutes of the show and ask for a credit or get your money back entirely.  Alternatively, you could go out and ask to speak to the manager and have an usher kick them out too! :)  I've done this at different movie chains - sometimes when I've procastinated and shown up late and am relegated to sitting in the front section, I've opted to come back another time - and you can get your money back for that as well.  Just remember, most theatre chains only allow you to do this within 30 minutes of the show's start time (so after about 20 minutes of commercials, you only have 10 minutes of actual movie watching time...).


 

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359 2007-08-22 01:01:28 2007-08-22 08:01:28 open open get-a-refund-for-seeing-a-movie-when-the-audience-is-packed-full-of-dumb-kids publish 0 0 post 0
Notify your insurance company if you start driving less and save money on your Auto Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/notify-your-insurance-company-if-you-start-driving-less-and-save-money-on-your-auto-insurance/ Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:18:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/23/notify-your-insurance-company-if-you-start-driving-less-and-save-money-on-your-auto-insurance/

CarVintage.jpgI thought I would throw this one in there because I had a client call up today and this fit her situation exactly. She mentioned that she had a new job and was now taking the train to work.  I asked if she had notified her auto insurance company as your premiums are based partly on your driving habits.  Since the mileage she was going to be putting on her car is now decreased the chances of her getting into an accident decrease as well - which means they should be charging her less.  It might only save you a few bucks per month, but over time it ALL adds up! :)

StumbleUpon Toolbar Stumble It!

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360 2007-08-23 01:18:50 2007-08-23 08:18:50 open open notify-your-insurance-company-if-you-start-driving-less-and-save-money-on-your-auto-insurance publish 0 0 post 0
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 8 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-8/ Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:58:22 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/23/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-8/ In Part 8 in the series we are going to  talk about applications of whole life insurance. To read earlier articles in the series you can click on the following: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

Whole Life insurance policies (which fall under the umbrella of "Permanent Insurance") are used for expenses that you are only going to have when you die, and will always have no matter when you die.  I realize that sounds trivial, but lets look at an example of when you WOULDN'T need a permanent insurance solution. A lot of people buy insurance to cover the mortgage balance - the reasoning being that if one of the breadwinners die, the remaining family will not have to substantially change their lifestyle because of a financial requirement to do so.  But you might not have a mortgage balance when you die - especially if you live to 80 (hopefully you will have paid off your mortgage by then!).  So this is a perfect example of an insurance need that is temporary.  On the flip side, costs for a funeral can be HUGE - they say to budget around $15,000 for a basic funeral.  This is an example of a cost that necessarily happens only when you die - and therefore, this is a PERMANENT need.

Other examples of permanent needs are: covering taxes due at death to maximize wealth transference, creating an estate to transfer, a charitable gift, etc.  So while the costs of Whole Life insurance are greater than Term Life, you don't need to insure for such a large amount.

When you are younger, you may find that you need more insurance coverage than later on.  This is because you have few assets coupled with a large amount of obligations that you would like to pay for, and you would like to make sure they get paid for in case you die.  Namely: the mortgage and an income for your young family to live on if you are not there to make the income yourself. In this case you can see term policies with coverage in the $1 million range on a regular basis (whereas a whole life policy might be in the $25,000-$50,000 range for an average person).  The $1 million might cover a $250,000 mortgage balance and the remaining $750,000 could pay for your income replacement for the next 15 years.  While the amount of Term Life might be highest when you are starting your family, the cost is still fairly affordable because your chances of dying when you are younger are less.  As you start saving and paying down the mortgage, you increase your net worth and decrease your need for insurance - since your family can just use the saved up assets.

InsuranceGraphInsuranceRequ.jpg 

 

When you die, and if you are lucky enough to live to an old age, you can see from the graph above that you may have significant assets to forego the need for insurance altogether (assuming you were a good saver!). In fact, many people do not have a need for ANY type of insurance when they get older and may not require even a small whole life policy.  I mentioned above that one use for whole life insurance was to pay terminal taxes.  Some people believe that there is no need to pay for insurance to cover tax liabilities and their heirs will "get what they get".  This is purely a personal choice.

So, am I advocating that you shouldn't have insurance of any kind when you get older? Of course not.  What I'm saying is that you need to analyze your needs, your personal beliefs on money management and inheritances and then make up your own mind.  One other use for life insurance is liquidity for immediate expenses associated with death (i.e. funeral).  If you have an eye on the future of your family, perhaps you don't want your heirs to have to liquidate certain assets when they may not be priced appropriately or favourably in the market - in which case the life insurance policy is a great liquidity provider. 

(I'll show you how you can assess how much insurance coverage you need in a future article, so the next time someone comes to pitch insurance you'll know exactly how much you need and if they are just trying to line their pockets by pushing a larger policy...) But next in the series will be the transition from Whole Life to Universal Life!  Are you as excited as I am? (Then you must be an uber-geek like me!) :)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 9 

 

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361 2007-08-23 02:58:22 2007-08-23 09:58:22 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-8 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265245068 _edit_last 1
What are "Dividends"? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-are-dividends/ Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:33:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/27/what-are-dividends/

Quite simply, a dividend is a payment made to shareholders that represents part of the profit that a company makes.  Since the shareholders own the company, they own the profits too. The company's directors and managers determine how much of the annual profit they would like to pass on to the shareholders and how much of the profit they want to retain in the company for future use.  So for example if a company earns a $100 million profit, they might decide that they want to keep $70 million for future use and give $30 million to the shareholders.  In that case the dividends are paid to the shareholders proportionate to the amount of stock they each own.  If one person owns half the stock, they would get half of the $30 million dividend.

MoneyUSDollars.jpgBut of course there's more to it than just that. :)  You might ask why they don't give ALL the profits back to the shareholders though dividends... There are numerous reasons - but the main reason is that the directors and managers believe that the best course of action (i.e. what is most profitable to the shareholders over the long term) may be to keep the cash for re-investment in the company, to save up for an acquisition of a competitor, or if they are in a cyclical business: perhaps they will keep it to offset the years in which they have losses.

Usually you will find that dividends are only paid by large companies with a track record of turning a profit year over year.  A newer company (which may still be in it's growth phase) may not be turning a profit yet, and if they do they may be re-investing in the company on a much more aggressive basis to allow for quick growth into a large company.

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362 2007-08-27 03:33:50 2007-08-27 10:33:50 open open what-are-dividends publish 0 0 post 0
What is an "Exchange Traded Fund" (ETF) ? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-an-exchange-traded-fund-etf/ Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:25:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/27/what-is-an-exchange-traded-fund-etf/

An "Exchange Traded Fund" or ETF as they are more commonly referred to, is kind of like a mutual fund that trades on a stock exchange and can be traded like a stock.  But there is more to it than that (naturally).  ETF's do not have active management - rather, they are funds that hold all the stocks in a given market (or index) in the same proportion that they exist in that market (or index) - so if the index (or market) goes up 10%, your ETF goes up 10%.  If the index falls 5%, your ETF falls 5%.  Think of it like a mutual fund without the mutual fund manager.

QuestionMark.jpgNormally, a mutual fund manager would pick and choose which stocks or bonds to hold in their fund.  They would eliminate the stocks they think will under perform the market and allocate more money to stocks they think will outperform the market.  By doing this, they hope to "beat the index".  Historically however, it has been cited and often quoted that 75% of mutual fund managers do NOT beat the index.  If that is indeed the case, then some investors prefer to just "match the market" and save on the additional cost of hiring a fund manager.  An ETF, since it has no manager, has a very low "Management Expense Ratio".  As an example, an average equity mutual fund might have an MER of 2.50% (meaning they will take 2.50% as a fee every year) while an ETF may have an MER as low as 0.09%.  In this case, the mutual fund manager would have to beat the index by more 2.41% every year just to match the performance of the ETF.

ETF's offer a low cost method of investing in many different markets and there are currently hundreds of ETFs available today representing many different stock market and bond market indices. However, since they trade like stocks, there will be a commission to buy and sell a position in ETFs - hence they are cost prohibitive for smaller investors - especially those who are contributing on a monthly basis or in small amounts.  For example, if you are saving $100/month to your investments and decide to put that into an ETF, your commissions per month may be between $20-$40 - meaning you would have to gain 20-40% just to break even!

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363 2007-08-27 14:25:17 2007-08-27 21:25:17 open open what-is-an-exchange-traded-fund-etf publish 0 0 post 0
Site Enhancements (?) http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/site-enhancements/ Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:00:46 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/28/site-enhancements/

Okay guys, I've made a few tweaks to the site but if anyone has any changes they would like to suggest, I'm all ears! Basically I've added a full list of ALL POSTS in the Archives landing page so that you don't have to sort through each category post by post.  I do also recommend using the search function on the site if you want to type in a keyword and get a list of all articles that mention those words.  Additionally, I've increased the number of articles displayed per page to 3.

Remember: finance I know, blogging I do NOT. :)

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364 2007-08-28 03:00:46 2007-08-28 10:00:46 open open site-enhancements publish 0 0 post 0
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows Part 9 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-9/ Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:38:16 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/28/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-9/ In Part 9 we are going to look at how Universal Life Insurance came about and how it differs from Whole Life Insurance. If you would like to start at the beginning of this series on Insurance, click here to go to Part 1. If you would like to go back to the previous article, click here to go to Part 8.

One issue I haven't mentioned is the tax treatment of the investment account inside the Whole Life Policy.  It is a TAX SHELTERED environment - which means whatever happens inside this account is protected from taxation so long as funds are not drawn out for other use.  Since the majority of investments in this investment side account are fixed income, they normally would be taxed on an ongoing basis, but since it is tax sheltered - there is no tax on the annual gains. A tax sheltered environment helps investments grow at a faster rate than in a taxable environment.

Now, if you were to pull money out of the policy for whatever reason - all bets are off and it triggers a taxable event.  It is very desirable to avoid a situation like this - so be careful if you have a whole life policy that has been in effect for a long time and are thinking of cancelling it - you will be hit with a tax bill for sure!  And it can be quite sizeable!

Another thing that policy holders of whole life policy were asking about was the nature of the investments inside these investment accounts.  They figured that if the insurance companies were a little bit more aggressive with their investment selections, then the investment accounts would grow more quickly and therefore be able to fund more of the cost of the policy - which ultimately would mean that the premiums would go down!  Of course, the insurance companies had to make sure that they could whether all types of market performance scenarios and a largely fixed income based portfolio was they best way to do this.  In other words, the insurance companies didn't want to have to deal with investment accounts that didn't grow enough to fund the policy underpayment in later years!

Well this fact and the nature of the tax sheltering of the investment accounts spawned a product that would address these concerns and desires: behold, Universal Life Insurance!  The term Universal came about because you can structure this type of insurance to behave like any other type of life insurance product out there if you know what you are doing.

One term that gets tossed around when talking about Universal Life is "unbundling".  This refers to the unbundling of the various components that make up Whole Life Insurance - i.e. the pure insurance component and the pure investment component.  A Universal Life Insurance policy holder has the ability to pick the investments that go into the investment account of the policy - in the hopes that they can grow it faster than the predominantly fixed income portfolio that the insurer would prefer to use.  The catch is that the policy holder and not the insurance company is now on the hook if the investment account does not grow fast enough to pay the premium shortfall later on - the policy holder will have to pay for the shortfall.

So in essence, the insurance company has granted the policy holder the ability to select the investments that go into the investment component in exchange for being responsible for the performance of it! Policy holders believed this to be fair and Universal Life became attractive - especially to those who had an insurance need and some market savvy.

BUT WAIT! Another unique feature is that you are able to "Over fund" this investment side account - meaning that you can pay more than just the premium for the whole life insurance policy, but can also add more money - all of which will go into the investment side account.  By putting more money into this account early on, it is possible to build up a sizeable investment account in only a few short years - which means more policy dividends!  There is a limit as to HOW MUCH you can over fund a policy, and it is generally 4 times the minimum required premium - governments enacted this rule because people were dumping everything they could into these policies since the investment side account are tax sheltered environments!

InsuranceGraphIntroToUniver.jpg 

More on this and the strategies employed by Universal Life Policy Holders in Part 10!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 10 

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365 2007-08-28 03:38:16 2007-08-28 10:38:16 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-9 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265245083 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows part 10 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-10/ Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:28:11 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/28/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-10/ Welcome to Part 10! Today we are going to explore why someone would consider "over funding" a Universal Life Insurance policy. If you would like to skip back one article, click here to go to Part 9.  If you would like to start at he beginning of this series (highly recommended if you haven't read it before!) then click here to go to Part 1.

Remember from the last article that a Universal Life insurance policy is like a Whole Life insurance policy in that there is an insurance component AND an investment component.  Whereas with Whole Life the goal of the investment component is to lower the cost of insurance over the course of one's lifetime by taking the over-payments early on and investing them - eventually growing them enough to pay for the "underpayment" later on, with Universal life the policy holder has the ability to adjust the amount of the overpayment, and also direct the actual investment allocation of the investment account.  There are numerous reasons and strategies for this flexibility.

Also remember that I said you could structure a Universal Life policy to behave like any other life insurance product.  If you wanted, you could not make ANY over-payments over the pure cost of insurance, and in effect be paying for Term Life insurance.  However, since there are additional administration costs in setting up a Universal Life insurance policy, this effectively becomes the most expensive way of setting up a Term Life insurance policy.

You could also set it up to behave just like a Whole Life policy by making the necessary overpayment and using a predominantly fixed income allocated investment portfolio.  In this case, you will have the investment account build up over time, and eventually this investment account would fund the "underpayment" years - just like a run of the mill Whole Life policy.

Of course, if either of the above scenarios were your goal - you would simply choose the Term Life or the Whole Life and save a few percentage points with a reduced administrative charge - since those policies are more cut and dried and less complex to setup.

Where the advantages of Universal Life come from, are the following:

1) Adjust the investment selection.  If you think you can outperform the insurance company's normal investment selection, then you could build up the investment side account more quickly.  This would allow you to reduce the overall cost of your insurance, or increase your coverage.  If your aim was to have the dividends eventually pay for the cost of the policy itself, this would happen sooner with a better rate of return of the investment account. You can also modify the investment selection on an ongoing basis.

2) Adjust the payment.  UL (Universal Life) will allow for you to change how much money you pay each year into the policy. That means you can pay a lot one year, and then nothing the next if you so desired.  The insurance company will let you know what the minimum payment required is to keep the policy in effect, so if you paid a large overpayment one year, you may or may not have a minimum payment the following year.  The cost to keep the basic policy in tact will be deducted from the investment side account.  A popular strategy is to grossly over fund the payment as much as allowable (especially in the early years) so that investment side account grows to as large an amount as possible in the tax sheltered environment.

 InsuranceGraphUL2.jpg

The main reason someone would over fund a UL policy would be to access the funds inside the investment side account at some point in the future.  If someone was maximizing the amount of money put into the normal tax sheltered environments (i.e. RRSPs in Canada), then funnelling money into a UL policy through over-payments will provide another tax sheltered haven!  They would do this to allow for their savings to grow faster, and over time the differences can be huge.  Even though they will have a tax bill when they pull the money out at some point in the future, the amount of extra growth can more than offset the extra tax.

In Part 11, we are going to look at an advanced UL strategy that is commonly used by individuals that will allow for an almost tax free retirement using what we've learned so far! Stay tuned, because in my opinion a strategy like the one in Part 11 is one of the only reasons you would use Universal Life insurance!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 11 

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366 2007-08-28 13:28:11 2007-08-28 20:28:11 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-10 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265245095 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows part 11 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-11/ Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:35:19 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/29/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-11/ Part 11 in the series will discuss an important financial strategy known as an "Insured Retirement Plan" or IRP.  If you would like to go the beginning of the series on "Learning more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows" click here to go to Part 1.  If you would only like to go back to Part 10, click here.

I alluded to the opinion that I have that UL (Universal Life) only makes sense for certain strategies - the Insured Retirement Plan (IRP) is one of these such strategies.  Before I go into the mechanics of how the policy works, I will explain the net effect: when set up properly an IRP allows you to accumulate funds in a tax sheltered environment and then USE those funds without triggering ANY tax consequences whatsoever - in effect a TAX FREE RETIREMENT.

Okay, sounds to good to be true right?  Well there's lots of fine print to be sure, but these policies are set up all the time - especially with high income earners.  If you hated paying tax the first time you received a paycheque, wait until you get to the highest marginal tax bracket where basically half of your income goes to taxes - you will quickly and readily seek out tax planning strategies. All right...on to how it works!

Due to the math and calculations involved (which I will spare you) you need to know that such a plan has a "sweet spot" when it comes to the right prospective client - normally this person is 40-55 years of age, a high income earner with a desire to save on taxes and a need for insurance.  And of course, they must be insurable as well... You HAVE to get an insurance professional to run through software calculations to really determine and model what such a strategy would look like for your own personal situation.

(I have been asked for more information regarding why the sweet spot is 40 - 55 years of age to setup a plan like this.  I will address this at the end of the post.) 

So we start with a UL policy.  Normally what happens is we determine how much money can be set aside on a yearly basis to go towards the premiums for this policy.  Then we calculate how much insurance is required such that the maximum allowable premium (actual cost of insurance plus maximum allowable overfunding) equals the amount of cashflow the policy holder wants to direct to this strategy.  The overfunding continues as much as possible for as long as possible, normally until retirement.  Since the investment side account is tax sheltered we know it is growing faster than in a non-registered environment.  And since the policy holder is grossly overfunding the UL policy we know the investment side account will grow to an amount that far exceeds the amount required to fund the "underpayment" of the policy in later years.  So we have a large surplus sitting in this tax sheltered environment.  Now the goal is to access these funds after they have been accumulating in the tax sheltered environment for a long period of time.  BUT - we know that if you go in and directly access the funds - you cause a taxable event and you have to pay taxes on your gains.

InsuranceGraphIntroToUniver.jpg 

Enter the second phase of the IRP.  Instead of taking money right out of the investment side account, you pledge the Investment Side Account (also known as the Cash Surrender Value) as collateral for a loan from the bank.  Normally banks will allow you to take out a loan of about 75% of the total value of the investment side account.  When you take out a regular loan from the bank the money you receive is not taxable income and the same holds true here.  The bank will give you this large loan because they know that you have the means to pay it back.  They normally require that you add an irrevocable beneficiary designation to the UL policy stating that when you die part of the Life Insurance proceeds are used to pay off the loan.

But oh, there is more! With normal loans you have to start paying back the loan immediately.  Remember I mentioned above that normally no more than 75% of the value of the Investment Side Account can be taken out? The reason for this is that you can structure the loan such that you do not make any repayments while you are alive.  The bank will still charge interest and it will compound since you are not even making the minimum interest payments - so if you take out a "policy loan" (as they are referred to) for $100,000 and the bank charges you 7.2% interest, then the rule of 72 tells us that after 10 years you will owe $200,000.  Your investment side account plus the actual life insurance coverage you chose will more than cover this in the future when you die.

You can also request a series of policy loans - i.e. instead of taking out $100,000 all at once, perhaps you take out $10,000 per year for 10 years - this will reduce the total loan balance you will have to repay when you die.

So let's fast forward to when you die.  You have an outstanding loan to which you have never made a repayment towards, and a UL policy with a face amount of life insurance coverage PLUS the value of the investment side account.  The total benefit is split as follows: the bank gets their loan to you paid off first, and the rest of the money is distributed to your beneficiaries. Since life insurance benefits (including the value of the investment account) are tax-FREE if the benefit is paid, you will never have paid tax on your contributions to the investment side account, NOR on the growth of those investments.  The loan will be paid off (meaning your funds used were completely tax free) and then the remaining proceeds to your family are also tax-free.

Let me break down the whole IRP concept from the beginning as a summation.  You take out a UL policy.  You over fund the required premiums in order to contribute your savings into a tax sheltered investment side account. The investment side account grows on a tax sheltered basis.  Once you require funds at some point in the future, you pledge the value of the investment side account as collateral for a loan from the bank.  You never have to make payments against the loan while you are alive, and the loan balance increases over time.  Your investment side account is also increasing over time as well.  You get to spend the loan proceeds as you wish, and do not have to pay tax when you get the loan. When you die, part of the Life Insurance benefit (which is made up of the insurance coverage plus the investment side account) goes to pay off the loan from the bank completely, and the rest is distributed to your beneficiaries.

This is only one advanced strategy involving Universal Life insurance, but it is perhaps the most prevalent.

With respect to why the prospective investor would be 40-55, it has to do with mortality basically.  You need to start early enough so that you have time for the side investment account to grow to a satisfactory level.  You don't want to start too early, otherwise you may exceed the limits of the value of the investment side account.  Remember, the government imposed rules about how much the value of the investment side account can be with respect to the level of insurance you have - this maximum amount is know as the MTAR line (pronounced "em-tar").  It stands for "Maximum Tax Actuarial Reserve".  If this happens, then excess savings above this line are basically forced into a fully taxable high interest savings account.  In addition, you may be forced to stop contributing to the investment account. And the reason why you can't start when you are older is that it becomes less efficient in that the pure cost of insurance grows exponentially as you get older - so if you have a monthly budget of $1000 to spend on the strategy, maybe most of that will get eaten up by the pure cost of insurance since you are older. 

I will complete this series in the next article, Part 12: how to determine how much insurance coverage you actually need, and how much of it should be Term insurance (or temporary insurance, i.e. the cheaper kind) and how much of it should be Whole Life (or permanent insurance, i.e. the more expensive kind).  Pretty much the only time you need UL is for advanced strategies that have more to do with tax planning and investing than with providing protection and liquidity like Term and Whole Life are used for. 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 12 

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367 2007-08-29 03:35:19 2007-08-29 10:35:19 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-11 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265245045 _edit_last 1
Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows part 12 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-12/ Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:50:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/29/learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-12/ So at last we are at the end of this 12 Part series! Once you have finished reading this article, I'm sure you will know more about insurance than most insurance agents out there - and at least enough to know when they are trying to dazzle you with smoke and mirrors... :) If you would like to start at the beginning, click here to go to part 1. If you would just like to go back one article to Part 11, click here.

So I promised that I would end the series by discussing how YOU can determine how much insurance you require, rather than being "told and sold". By no means does this mean that I am done commenting and educating on insurance, it just means I am done with this "primer" on insurance. I will keep on posting on insurance in the future, as well as many other topics - so make sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (link at bottom of page) if you like what I have to say.

Okay... So how much life insurance do you need? Unfortunately I have come across way too many people who have no idea why they have as much insurance as they do. The reasons range from "My father told me to get this amount" to "It sounded like a good number" to "I really don't know". I find that very few people really know why they bought what they bought, and more importantly - HOW TO ADJUST IT AS TIME GOES ON.

A good starting point is to start with a ballpark figure based on a simple set of calculations. Trust me, they are simple. Once you understand the basic philosophy behind the ballpark calculation, you can then get more detailed with your own situation and preferences. Many calculations will vary based on your personal preferences as you will see.

To start with, we need to realize that we have two types of needs: IMMEDIATE cash requirements, and ON-GOING cash requirements.

IMMEDIATE CASH REQUIREMENTS are expenses that are incurred upon the death of a spouse. For example, one main desire is to have the mortgage paid off, along with all other debts (i.e. credit cards). A funeral would also be an immediate expense. The life-insured also may have some desires such as making sure the children's educations are paid for and would like to have a lump sum added to the immediate requirements for this purpose. They may also want to allow for the surviving spouse to take 6 months off work for bereavement. All of these needs and desires need to be added up.

ON-GOING CASH REQUIREMENTS: normally, both spouses will have estimated how much household income will be required should one of them die to maintain the household's lifestyle. A quick method would be to take the total household income currently and multiply by 75%. So if one person made $100,000 and the other made $50,000 (for a total of $150,000) then 75% of this number would be required to maintain the family's lifestyle after the death of one spouse. You can also calculate the exact number if you desire by subtracting certain expenses that immediately disappear when that spouse dies (i.e. vehicle payments for their car, clothing for work, meals, hobbies, etc.) if you want to be more accurate. But certain things you've gotten used to (i.e. vacation with the kids to Disneyland every year) you may want to maintain and this, coupled with other expenses may be too much for one income. Depending on if the remaining spouse wants to work or focus on raising the kids, or if the remaining spouse was the "bread-winner" or not, this "on-going household income"  number can vary quite a bit.

So now we have talked about the two main types of needs: Immediate and On-Going.  But now we need to subtract what you already have in terms of assets and estimate the surviving incomes to find out what the shortfall is.  You purchase insurance for the shortfall - not the total amount of your requirements.

A very easy way to sort all of this out is with the following chart:

InsuranceNeedsAnalysis.jpg 

You can see that in the top two boxes, if you read across like a math equation you are taking the Immediate Needs at Death and subtracting from that the Immediate Resources at Death.  This would include things like current insurance in effect (i.e. if you have insurance coverage through your work benefits), savings that you would be willing to use (and this may or may not include RRSPs depending on your preference), etc.  In the above case we see that the current assets and insurance do not quite cover the immediate needs at death and there is a $105,000 shortfall.

If we move to the bottom two boxes we have the Ongoing Family Income Requirement.  In this case, the family has decided that once the mortgage and other debts are paid off, and if the children's education funds are accounted for, then they don't require an extravagant amount of money to keep the surviving family members' standard of living in tact.  FURTHER, in this case the surviving spouse would like to keep working (perhaps the children are old enough to not need supervision during the day) and we need to subtract this Ongoing Family Income after Death, from the Ongoing Family Income Requirement.  In this case there is a small shortfall of $20,000 per year.

The key to that last sentence is "PER YEAR".  So $20,000 in life insurance today will only cover that deficit for 1 year and naturally the surviving spouse may require many years of covering that shortfall.  Let's assume now that they require that shortfall for 18 years, until the kids move out of the house.  At that point, they can live on one income.  There are numerous ways to provide for this shortfall, and again it comes down to personal preference, but let's walk through the options.

The simple way is to take 18 years and muliply by $20,000, not worrying about inflation or growth on the lump sum.  In this case that works out to $360,000.  Add that to the $105,000 in immediate needs at death and this policy would require coverage of $465,000.  After 18 years, there would be no more insurance money to use, but presumably the remaining spouse is now free of the kids living with them, and has potentially found a new partner, etc.

Another option is known as the Capital Retention Method.  In this case you calculate how much of a lump sum invested each year at a conservative rate of return (i.e. if the lump sum was put in government bonds - we'll call it 5%) would produce $20,000 per year in interest after tax.  Working backwards: $20,000 after tax is equal to $28,500 before tax (assuming roughly 30% marginal tax rate).  $28,500 would be produced by a lump sum of $570,000.  If you add this to $105,000 you have a total coverage requirement of $675,000.  The thing to note is that they will always have the $570,000 lump sum - and many people like this method because it provides for a retirement nest egg for the surviving spouse as well as providing an ongoing income until that point.

The last main method is the Capital Depletion Method.  In this case you would encroach upon the capital such that each year the $20,000 w ould be funded by the return of the investment of the lump sum PLUS selling off part of the lump sum itself.  Eventually, at the end of 18 years the lump sum will have been depleted.  Using my trusty financial calculator I can tell you that  you would need a lump sum of roughly $280,000 invested at 5% assuming a marginal tax rate of 30% to provide $20,000 in after tax income for 18 years.  Added to $105,000 gives you $385,000 in total insurance required. Again at the end of 18 years, you would have no insurance money left.

Note that I have not included the math for factoring in inflation.  You can do this easily by subtracting the inflation estimate from the rate of return estimate.  For example if you think inflation will run 3%, and you think you can get 5% on your conservative investment, then you would use 2% as the REAL rate of return on your lump sum investment.  By dividing by a smaller number you get a larger answer (i.e. a larger lump sum that will account for inflation).  And if you really want to get fancy you can factor in the time value of inlfation as well - but that's beyond the scope of this post so I'll just leave it be.  Suffice it to say, when factoring in inflation for the Capital Depletion method the lump sum amount increases from $280,000 to about $370,000.

A couple more points to finish off and then we're done! Which of the above 3 methods is the best?  Perhaps the best way to figure that out is to calculate the premium costs of each.

For a 30 year old male, non-smoker:

$465,000 Term 10 would be $29.86/month (18 years x $20,000 + $105,000)

$675,000 Term 10 would be $37.25/month (Capital Retention method - lump sum invested - no depletion of principal)

$385,000 Term 10 would be $25.60/month (Capital Depletion method - lump sum invested WITH depletion of principal)

Personally I would choose the Capital Depletion method - it will be the cheaper option, while still providing the proper amount of insurance and doesn't give your spouse THAT much of an incentive to kill you! :)  The effect of inflation doesn't really bother me that much since over a longer course of time, I don't think a remaining spouse will require as much ongoing assistance as time goes on for reasons mentioned above.  But it's all up to your personal preferences...

The last point I want to make is establishing how to figure out how much goes into Term and how much goes into Whole life.  Normally you would match the need to the product (as they say).  Term is a temporary solution.  Whole life (aka permanent insurance) is a permanent solution.  The only permanent need is the need for funeral expenses. All the other expenses generally approach zero as you get older (mortgage gets paid off, kids eventually go to school, spouse eventually retires).  But no matter what, you will always have a funeral to be paid for.  In that case, you could consider a Whole Life policy on that amount ($25,000) and Term for the rest.

Generally it makes more sense to get the shorter terms (5 or 10) because as you get older and acquire more assets and pay off debts and mortgages, your need for insurance goes down.  You can always adjust the coverage you have downwards by filling out a form - and therefore reducing your costs over time.  If you get longer terms, then you are over paying if you know you are eventually going to lower your coverage at a later date.

InsuranceGraphInsuranceRequ.jpg 

And finally, finally: For the above scenarios, I don't think I would even bother with the Whole Life since if you are lucky enough to die when you are old, you will have had enough time to save up for a funeral (i.e. it could be taken out of your RRSPs or other savings without impacting the financial stability of the remaining spouse) so even the funeral expense could be considered a "temporary" expense since the need to cover the expense really only exists when you are younger.

Allright, I will end the 12 part series on "Learning more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows" right here! I hope you have enjoyed the series and if you found it of interest, I would appreciate if you could spread the word so that more people can learn more about it.  I'm sure I will have some comments and clarifications to make and plan on making amendments to the series over time in order that it only gets better and better!

 Thanks for your time...

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368 2007-08-29 15:50:17 2007-08-29 22:50:17 open open learn-more-about-life-insurance-than-your-insurance-agent-knows-part-12 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271129240 _edit_last 1 673 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 192.223.163.5 2007-09-27 13:00:19 2007-09-27 20:00:19 Great series, I learned quite a bit about insurance.

Mike

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674 70.81.211.26 2007-09-29 13:34:32 2007-09-29 20:34:32 Wow! Amazing work! It is certainly the best explanation I've ever read on the subject. Thanks!

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675 links@healthquotes.ca http://www.life-insurance-quotes.ca 99.233.56.18 2007-11-19 20:38:48 2007-11-20 03:38:48 Good article.

Most families with a stay-at-home parent don't insure the "non-earning" parent. However, should that parent die, expenses such as daycare, reducing work hours, domestic help, etc. can be significant. It is important for both parents to be insured, not only to cover lost income, but to cover expenses should one die.

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676 mrichard00@gmail.com 216.209.137.140 2008-03-14 19:08:45 2008-03-15 02:08:45 Thanks for the series. I've been considering getting more life insurance outside my work policy and it was very helpful.

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677 brian@rightinsurance.ca http://www.rightinsurance.ca 64.231.64.38 2010-04-11 21:42:24 2010-04-12 02:42:24 1 0 0 678 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-04-12 15:25:50 2010-04-12 20:25:50 1 677 0 679 louiethelex@hotmail.com 174.7.66.45 2010-04-15 18:17:49 2010-04-15 23:17:49 1 0 0 680 brian@rightinsurance.ca http://www.rightinsurance.ca 64.231.67.174 2010-04-24 10:09:15 2010-04-24 15:09:15 1 0 0
A Link to a GREAT RESP primer (Registered Education Savings Plan) http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-link-to-a-great-resp-primer-registered-education-savings-plan/ Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:19:46 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/30/a-link-to-a-great-resp-primer-registered-education-savings-plan/

The Canadian Capitalist - who also runs a personal finance blog - has written a fantastic summary of the up-to-date (for 2007) RESP rules along with a general description of how RESPs work.  RESPs are Registered Education Savings Plans - a tax-sheltered account that is designed to assist in the accumulation of funds for your children's future education costs. There are some unique rules and perks associated with these accounts - so you'll want to read up on this for sure.

If you are interested in learning more about RESPs - this is a great post to start with.  Many thanks to Canadian Capitalist - I subscribe to his RSS feed and read his blog daily.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CANADIAN CAPITALIST'S POST ON RESPs 

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369 2007-08-30 14:19:46 2007-08-30 21:19:46 open open a-link-to-a-great-resp-primer-registered-education-savings-plan publish 0 0 post 0
Closed-End Mutual Funds versus Open-End Mutual Funds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/closed-end-mutual-funds-versus-open-end-mutual-funds/ Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:41:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/08/30/closed-end-mutual-funds-versus-open-end-mutual-funds/

I'm sure many people didn't even know there was a difference, and further, if you own mutual funds - do you know if they are open-end or closed-end? Does it matter? Yes!

Mutual_fund.jpgMOST mutual funds out there are open-end mutual fund trusts.  That means that the mutual fund "manufacturer" (like a Fidelity, or AGF, or Franklin Templeton) can constantly sell new units of the fund to investors - i.e. the fund is not "closed to new funds".  In contrast a closed-end fund's manufacturer does not accept new money from investors to give to the mutual fund manager.

So let's look at the open-end version in a little more depth:  the mutual fund manufacturer can sell new units and investors can redeem units on a constant basis.  Some days that means there is a net increase of funds to the fund manager, and some days that means the fund manager has funds taken away from the mutual fund.  This CAN lead to some interesting problems.  When mutual funds get very large (in the multi-billion dollar range) it becomes harder for mutual fund managers to effectively deploy the new money into investments that they think will beat the index.  You might say, well why don't they just add to their existing positions?  Mutual fund managers are only allowed to hold a certain percentage of the common shares available for any given company so there comes a time when they reach this level.  They can't own more than 10% of the shares of a company.  So if the fund is large, and they have a lot of free cash to invest, they have to spread it around A LOT: they have usually maxed their allowable positions in their top picks and 10% of a small cap stock can be reached very quickly for these large funds... so the question arises: are they deploying the money effectively?

A second problem with open-end funds is that if markets are going down, OR if the manager is under-performing the index, then investors are more inclined to redeem their units in the fund.  In order to do that, the fund manager has to make sure that there is enough cash in the fund to meet these redemption requests.  If the redemption requests are large, then the fund manager has to sell out of existing positions (especially at times that may not be opportune to do so) thus creating a snowball effect and further increasing the downward pressure on the value of the fund and making more investors wanting to get out.

A closed-end fund is different in that once the fund manufacturer has accepted investments up to a certain amount, they will "close the fund to new investments" and the fund's units will then trade directly on an exchange.  (Open-end funds are held by the mutual fund manufacturer and deal directly with the investors.)  Once the closed-end fund starts trading on the exchange the only way to buy or sell the units of the fund is to buy from or sell to other investors directly - the fund manufacturer is no longer involved.

Even better for the mutual fund manager is that he/she no longer has to worry about maintaining a cash position to cover redemption requests, nor does he have to worry about finding ways to deploy new cash into less than ideal investments.

You will find that many mutual funds with "small cap mandates" will be closed - since the problems mentioned above are magnified because the universe of their investment selections is much smaller than for a large-cap manager. One thing to watch out for with large cap funds is that if the amount of money in the mutual fund is too large, you may just end up finding that the portfolio of the fund matches the index very closely - and you will end up owning an index fund with a big fat MER (Management Expense Ratio).  If that is the case, you may want to switch to an Index Fund with no manager (an ETF - or "Exchange Traded Fund") OR find another fund manager and a fund that is smaller, or closed-ended.

So, you can see that there are some distinct advantages for closed-end funds! 

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370 2007-08-30 23:41:27 2007-08-31 06:41:27 open open closed-end-mutual-funds-versus-open-end-mutual-funds publish 0 0 post 0 681 developerhut@gmail.com 221.135.220.133 2007-09-04 01:59:25 2007-09-04 08:59:25 sorry !but i am not able to get the meaning of the closed and the open kinds of the mutual funds . i need the more information to know it better

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682 2007-09-04 02:08:22 2007-09-04 09:08:22 Most mutual funds are "open" in that investors can keep buying units of the fund at any time. The cash they give in exchange for units in the fund is then deployed by the mutual fund manager.

A "closed"-end mutual fund does not accept new money. If you want to purchase units of a closed end fund, you have to buy them from someone willing to sell it through an exchange. No new money is added to the fund for the manager to have to deploy.

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683 mattsheldon@rogers.com 99.229.235.78 2009-11-29 10:39:14 2009-11-29 15:39:14 1 0 0 684 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-30 21:06:54 2009-12-01 02:06:54 1 0 0 685 dugmink@yahoo.com http://www.wiser-investor.com/ 76.252.64.211 2010-01-05 22:39:00 2010-01-06 03:39:00 1 0 0 686 edwardsaid@gmail.com 195.158.103.125 2010-01-08 07:29:33 2010-01-08 12:29:33 1 0 0
Inflation: Why your parents paid MORE for their last car than their first house... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/inflation-why-your-parents-paid-more-for-their-last-car-than-their-first-house/ Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:42:45 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/04/inflation-why-your-parents-paid-more-for-their-last-car-than-their-first-house/

To give you a basic understanding of inflation, just think about how the price of something has gone up over time: for me, I always think back to "$2.50 Tuesdays" at the movies.  I have to imagine this was between 15-20 years ago now (I never thought I'd be able to say that about anything - guess I'm getting old...), but these days, I think it's closer to $10-$13 on the "cheap" days depending on which theatre chain you frequent.  (And if that wasn't enough, they've started playing commercials in addition to the new movie trailers - so without the commercials, it would be even higher!!).

BreakingPiggyBank.JPGAnyways, consider inflation to be the general increase in prices over time.  There are many examples and types of inflation (demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation, e.g.) but I won't go into that in this post.  But what I will go into are some analogies that helped me understand inflation.

I've often heard that "your parents paid more for their last car then they did for their first house."  I know in this case this is true: my dad's last car was $60,000 and his first house was $26,000.  Ask your parents what they paid for their first house - they always seem to chuckle when they mention it... :)

But that doesn't mean that people are necessarily having to work harder and longer to be able to afford the same things over time.  I remember being told that in the decade of the 1900's, the average MONTHLY salary in Canada was $3. By 1930, the average monthly salary was $30.  1960 = $300/month.  And if you told someone in 1960 that they would be making 10 times that amount by 1990, they would laugh you out of the room.  Well in 1990 the average monthly salary in Canada was around $3,000 after all (for a total annual income of $36,000).  Not so crazy it seems.  So by that logic, people should be earning $30,000/month on average in 2020...

...hey, we laughed at a comment like that in 1960! :)

Incidentally, if you wanted a million dollars worth of TODAY'S purchasing power 30 years from now, what do you need to have saved up? Well, instead of aiming for $1 million dollars like everyone does, once you factor in inflation (let's use 3%) you need to plan for $2,493,722!

So: moral of the story? Factor in inflation in all your calculations! How much you need to save, how much you earn, etc. I always use 3% as a base and then adjust accordingly - i.e. for salaries, I might peg it at inflation + 2% to show that people actually get paid more for what they do over time to compensate for their increased experience, efficiency etc.  If you only get a raise based on the CPI increase (rate of inflation) you aren't actually getting a raise!!! Your purchasing power will remain the same as the prior year... :( 

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371 2007-09-04 12:42:45 2007-09-04 19:42:45 open open inflation-why-your-parents-paid-more-for-their-last-car-than-their-first-house publish 0 0 post 0
Who is Warren Buffett? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/who-is-warren-buffett/ Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:07:12 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/05/who-is-warren-buffett/

You may have heard of him being referred to as "The Oracle of Omaha" or "The Greatest Investor of All Time" or possibly "The 3rd richest man on the planet." (April 2007)  In any case, what you need to know is that Warren Buffett is one heck of a wealthy guy.  And if you've never seen an interview or read about him you might think he lives a lavish lifestyle and might be slightly arrogant.  Nothing could be further from the truth! He is a self-deprecating individual and pays himself a salary of $100,000 as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Holding Inc.  He is most famous for making the majority of his fortune through the stock market - whereas most billionaires and millionaires made their fortunes through founding a company. His net worth at time of writing is estimated at $52 billion - and he pledged the majority of that amount to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006.

TheMan.gifHis investment prowess has been oft-duplicated and well covered by the media.  You can do some more research elsewhere, but last I saw his average annual rate of return was over 25% per year over 5 decades! He has essentially doubled the rate of return of the S&P500 (the main index used to measure the U.S. stock market).  If you know about the power of compounding growth, then you know how fast his fortune grew over that time.  He was doubling his net worth every 3 years!

There are many "Buffettisms" out there - one that comes to mind is that Mr. Buffett believed that if everyone were given one punch-card with 20 spots on it, and every time you made a decision to buy OR sell a stock would cost you a "punch" - then people would become better investors.  His logic is that given a finite number of decisions to make, people would take more time to make informed choices.  Indeed Mr. Buffett rarely purchases stocks and tends to hold on to them almost indefinitely.  His name is often mentioned in the same sentence as the phrase "buy and hold".

But if there is only one piece of information that you take away from Mr. Buffett's investing philosophy it should be that investors should look not at "buying stocks" but rather at "buying businesses".  If you are willing to buy 50 shares in Company X, then you should be willing to buy the entire company outright.  And if you were going to buy a small business in your local neighbourhood, you would probably perform a lot of research - including looking at the financial statements, analyzing demographic trends, the competition, etc. before buying the business. He contends that investors should be as diligent when picking investments for their stock portfolios...

I encourage you to Google Warren Buffett and find out more about this great individual and his investment philosophy - learning it is fairly simple, but practising his patience is quite the opposite! :) 

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372 2007-09-05 23:07:12 2007-09-06 06:07:12 open open who-is-warren-buffett publish 0 0 post 0 687 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/warren-buffett-exists-because-he-has-to-exist/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-24 20:00:11 2010-01-25 01:00:11 1 pingback 0 0
More ways to save on your Auto Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/more-ways-to-save-on-your-auto-insurance/ Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:05:02 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/06/more-ways-to-save-on-your-auto-insurance/

Actually, let me clarify that title - really it should read "More ways to save on ALL types of insurance" but I got to know about this website through their auto insurance comparisons. If you have 5 free minutes I STRONGLY suggest checking out what the going rates are for insurance coverage on your vehicle - it's fun to see the results and you might end up saving some money - I saved $1200 year!

CarMuscleBlue.jpgAll you have to do is enter a bunch of data on age, where you live, type of car, etc. and then the website will access online calculators from a whack of different insurance providers and provide you with a very good idea as to what the costs will be at the other insurers.  To be accurate, you really should pull out a copy of your insurance policy which lists how much your deductibles are, and the specifics of your coverage so that you can compare apples to apples.

The site even provides information on the financial health of the insurer - but you should do your own due diligence with respect to finding out each company's (and your own company's) "resistance to claims" which is another way of asking how vigilantly do they argue against you when you make a claim.  Some insurers charge more, but if they have a tendency to accept more claims without a fight, it might be worth taking into consideration... 

In Canada: www.kanetix.ca

In the U.S.: www.kanetix.com

Happy bargain hunting! 

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373 2007-09-06 22:05:02 2007-09-07 05:05:02 open open more-ways-to-save-on-your-auto-insurance publish 0 0 post 0 688 http://www.wisebread.com/nora-dunn 209.89.68.162 2007-09-12 03:30:27 2007-09-12 10:30:27 Thanks for this information on saving money on insurance - something we all want to do!
However, when I tried to navigate to the US site, I am continually re-directed to the Canadian one. Is there indeed a US component to Kanetix?

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689 2007-09-12 03:41:25 2007-09-12 10:41:25 Hi Nora - thanks for the comment. I just tried the link to the US site and found that it works fine. It might have something to do with your browser settings - but this is over my head - I know that if I try to go to google.com it forces me to google.ca.

But I just tried the kanetix us site with a us zip code (90210 - it's the only one I know!) and it works fine.

If anyone else can weigh in on this - it would be much appreciated...

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Apple iPhone News - The Good news, and the Bad News... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/apple-iphone-news-the-good-news-and-the-bad-news/ Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:31:06 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/07/apple-iphone-news-the-good-news-and-the-bad-news/

Well by now everyone has at least HEARD of the iPhone from Apple - but you may not know that Apple announced a price drop of about 33% just a few days ago on the 8GB model.  That's great news for anyone who was on the fence about buying one (the price was $599 and is now $399).  That's horrible news for the people who bought one a few days more than a few days ago!

iPhone.jpgHowever: Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple (the guy who only wears blue jeans and a black t-shirt 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) has announced that Apple will split the difference for all the angered early iPhone purchasers - and trust me they were angry! I don't know if they will split the difference for the nut-bars who paid thousands of dollars on eBay for an iPhone before it's official launch date,  but I'm gonna guess... no.

 Here is the actual letter posted on the Apple website if you want to take a look (Click Here).

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374 2007-09-07 18:31:06 2007-09-08 01:31:06 open open apple-iphone-news-the-good-news-and-the-bad-news publish 0 0 post 0
What is a Strip Bond? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-strip-bond/ Sun, 09 Sep 2007 06:45:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/08/what-is-a-strip-bond/

First it should be pointed out how bonds used to work in the old days (they still work this way, but it's all done electronically).  A bond would actually have coupons attached to them that the bond-holder would clip off and present at a bank in exchange for a payment. Each coupon would have a date that they would come due, and for most bonds a coupon would come due every 6 months.

BondCertificate.jpgIf you had a 10 year bond, then there would be 20 coupons attached to the bond.  A strip bond, ("stripped bond" is a better way to think of it) is when the bank STRIPS off the coupons from the bond and you are left with just the bond "residue" or in other words, the bond without any coupons attached to it.

You wouldn't pay $100 for a strip bond that matured at $100 10 years from now - that would make for a 0% investment! Instead, you would pay maybe $50 today for a bond that matured in 10 years at $100 and you wouldn't receive any coupon payments (also known as interest payments) in those 10 years.  BUT the money you invested would be growing at an annual compounding rate of 7.2% in this case (using the Rule of 72).

The other caveat is that your gain (of $50 in this example) would be entirely taxed as interest (and not capital gains) - so in other words it would be fully taxable at your marginal rate.  Normally I would suggest holding this in your RRSP or other tax sheltered account so that you don't have to make complex calculations to see how much tax you have to pay on an annual basis since interest income is taxable in the year you earn it - not the year you receive it.

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375 2007-09-08 23:45:13 2007-09-09 06:45:13 open open what-is-a-strip-bond publish 0 0 post 0
Split Shares - Your Choice: More Price Participation or More Yield? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/split-shares-your-choice-more-price-participation-or-more-yield/ Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:02:08 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/11/split-shares-your-choice-more-price-participation-or-more-yield/

A new investment vehicle which has been very popular of late is what's known as a "Split Share".  These split shares are created by taking a common share of a company that pays a regular dividend and then "splitting" the one share into two distinct types of shares: 1) The Capital Share and 2) The Preferred Share.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgLet's take a hypothetical company and explain using an example:

Company ABC's common shares are trading at $100 per share and pay a dividend of $4 per year (which is a 4% dividend yield). If you wanted to create a split share you would split that common share into two shares as follows: The Capital Share is $50 and pays no dividend at all; The Preferred Share is $50 and pays $4 per year in dividends.

What you have to realize is that the Capital Share, while stripped of it's dividend, gets to appreciate in the price movement of the underlying common stock all to itself and that the Preferred Share gets to keep a nice fat dividend all to itself. So if the value of the underlying common share goes from $100 to $110, then the Capital Share goes from $50 to $60.  $10 is 10% of $100, but it is 20% of $50.  Remember, the Capital Share gets all the price movement of the underlying common stock.

The Preferred Share on the other hand, doesn't move if the Common Share goes up by $10, but since it is a $50 share which gets the full dividend of the $100 common share of $4, it's yield is twice that of a regular common share - it has an 8% yield. 

In theory, it would be pointless to own an equal amount of shares of both the Capital Share and the Preferred Share since you would be left with 1 full common share (which is what we began with).

I should point out that I used round numbers for the purpose of explaining the mechanics of the Split Share concept, in most cases the actual levering effects are not always that simple.  For example, a Capital Share might go up by $1.50 if the underlying common stock goes up by $1.  That's still a higher gain than with the common share alone, but not quite a 2:1 effect.  Also, please not that when the price of the underlying common stock goes down - the price of the Capital Share goes down even more!

So if you are looking for more yield - buy the Preferred Split Share!  If you think the company's long term prospects are quite rosy, you can enact some leverage by buying the Capital Split Share!

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376 2007-09-11 02:02:08 2007-09-11 09:02:08 open open split-shares-your-choice-more-price-participation-or-more-yield publish 0 0 post 0
What is a Preferred Share? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-preferred-share/ Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:56:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/12/what-is-a-preferred-share/

Preferred shares don't get the attention they used to - but they can play a very important part of investors' portfolios - especially in non-registered portfolios. So what is a Preferred Share?

QuestionMark.jpgMany people point out that a preferred share lies somewhere between a common stock and a bond both in terms of returns and in terms of risk - and that's a good starting point for the discussion.  We know that a common share is an equity investment in that you OWN part of the company when you own a common share.  Also, you MIGHT receive dividends on your common shares if so declared by the company - and you will certainly participate in the stock market's evaluation of what the company is worth (i.e. you can make a profit or loss based on what the price of the stock does). We also know that a bond is a DEBT investment - you don't own any part of the company, you are simply lending them money - for which they pay you interest.

A preferred share is a little bit of both in a sense.  It actually represents equity in the company (so that makes it more like a common share). The price of the preferred share doesn't fluctuate very much relative to the price of the common stock but the price of the preferred share DOES react more relative to changes in interest rates (again, making it more like a bond).  A preferred share also pays a dividend which is a fixed amount whereas a common share may adjust it's dividend more freely (yet again, sounding more and more like a bond).

Another fact often cited when comparing the three types of securities is how they are treated upon insolvency of the underlying company.  So what would happen when a company "went under"? Bondholders are first in line to recieve any value left in the physical assets of the company, followed by the preferred share holder and if there is anything left then the common shareholder would get there share (which in all practical cases is nothing!).

So let's recap a little first: A preferred share represents an equity investment in a company, but think of it more as ownership of part of the earnings of the company - hence a fixed dividend payment.  The price of the preferred share fluctuates more like a bond (so not much price movement versus a common stock) and therefore is less risky than a common share.  The preferred shareholder is next in line when it comes to claiming assets after the bond holders and BEFORE the common share holder - so it is a bit more risky than a bond.

Perhaps to make it a little more clear as to how it would fit into a portfolio - I personally view them as bonds with a little more risk that are suitable for placement in non-registered portfolios first and foremost.  This is because instead of receiving interest (like with a bond which is taxable at 100% of your marginal tax rate) it is dividend income which is taxed more preferentially than interest income.  So for example, if you were in the top tax bracket a preferred share with a dividend yield of 5% is like owning a bond with an interest yield of 8.5% since after taxation you have the same amount of money in your pocket (again, this only applies to non-registered or taxable accounts).

Other notes:

  • Preferred shares are also rated by credit agencies just like bonds except they will have ratings like P1 and P2 as opposed to AAA, AA, A, BBB, etc. with bonds.
  • When a company declares dividends, preferred shareholders are entitled to receiving the dividends first and then what's left of the dividend can be distributed to the common shareholder (if anything is left over!)
  • "Perpetual" dividends have no maturity date per se and could potentially exist forever, paying the dividend in perpetuity as well.
  • "Cumulative Preferred Shares" are a type of preferred share that stipulates that if a company misses making a dividend payment, the preferred shareholder is entitled to be paid that dividend in the future when the company returns to profitablility. A "Non-cumulative" preferred share stipulates that if a company skips a payment of the dividend due to lack of profits or retained earnings then the shareholder is out of luck - this is rare however as the preferred shareholders would seek other investments if they felt there was a danger of this happening again - since preferred shareholders buy preferred shares for income purposes.

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377 2007-09-12 02:56:50 2007-09-12 09:56:50 open open what-is-a-preferred-share publish 0 0 post 0
Flow Through Shares Strategies Part 1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/flow-through-shares-strategies-part-1/ Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:58:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/13/flow-through-shares-strategies-part-1/

A strategy often implemented by Flow Through Share investors is to keep rolling over their investments to gain a perpetual annual tax credit.  I'll give you an example of a client who understands the risks and is engaging in this strategy:

Mining_Equipment.jpgBob Mackenzie (not his real name!) earns $300,000 per year and maximizes his RRSP every year.  Since he is in the top marginal tax rate of 46.41% (Ontario) he is basically getting half his contribution amount back in the form of a tax refund.  Well Bob likes that, but doesn't like how he is still paying 50 cents on the dollar for most of his earned income - in other words he is always looking at ways to save on tax! (aren't we all?)

Now, because Bob is a more aggressive investor and likes to play the game a little he warmed to the idea of investing in Flow Through Shares Limited Partnerships since the savings in tax helped offset the riskiness of the investment. (If you need a refresher on Limited Partnership Flow Though Shares, please click here.) But we also decided to create a strategy around this type of tax planning / investment planning strategy...

Most investors take their money out of a FTS-LP (abbreviation for Flow Through Shares Limited Partnership) at the 2 year mark (i.e. as soon as they can!) since they can roll that money into another FTS-LP and get the tax deductions all over again. Normally I don't recommend more than 5% of a person's overall portfolio be exposed to any one FTS-LP and no more than 10% exposure to multiple FTS-LPs so in this case with Bob (who had a total portfolio of $1 million) he put in $50,000 his first year (giving him just under $25,000 back come tax time) and made a second contribution of $50,000 the following year in a different FTS-LP.

Now when one FTS-LP "matures" after 2 years, he rolls it into another offering so in effect, he has a constant $50,000 deduction from his income every year since you could say he has a 2 year FTS-LP ladder. (Same concept as a laddered bond portfolio in that there is a security "maturing" every year available for rollover...).

Let's look at Bob's annual tax situation before and after implementing a FTS-LP 2 year ladder:

               Income       RRSP Contribution    FTS-LP Investment   Tax Refund

Before    $300,000           $20,000                         $0                  $10,000

After      $300,000           $20,000                     $50,000              $35,000


Remember, his total portfolio exposure is only 10% to the FTS-LP investments starting in year 2 (in year 1 it is only 5%).

Also remember FTS-LPs are very volatile - some lose 30% after two years (or perform even worse!) and some double in value - in this case Bob is happy knowing that over time some will pop and some will tank and he is comfortable with the volatility - just so long as he is getting his big fat tax refunds every year.  In his mind, even if the long term performance of the underlying investments in the FTS-LP ladder are COMPLETELY FLAT he still makes 20% per year after factoring tax effects. And of course the expectations are that you pick the more decent ones by proven managers with strong track records in the space and you would expect for a long term ROR of 8-10%.

Finally, don't go out and buy a FTS-LP after reading this post alone - you really need to understand them and hopefully view these investments as you should any other - based on the investment merits first and tax advantages second. 

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378 2007-09-13 02:58:13 2007-09-13 09:58:13 open open flow-through-shares-strategies-part-1 publish 0 0 post 0 690 alleung@rogers.com 198.103.184.76 2008-04-01 17:21:53 2008-04-02 00:21:53 I like what is in the article but don't understand about the rollover to another LP and get deductions. Don't you have to report capital gain when dispose of the 1st LP?

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691 2008-04-01 18:12:21 2008-04-02 01:12:21 Hi Albert - there are two ways of structuring the ladder.

Also it should be pointed out that the ACB of the flow through is 0 - so whatever amount you sell is a capital gain (if you sell it).

The flow through will normally roll-over into a mutual fund with no deemed disposition (A section 85 rollover I believe?), if the company has a wide shelf of funds you could keep it in there without triggering the gain. In this case you could switch funds (if in a class structure) around to make sure you stick to your long term asset allocation.

The other option is to sell those rolled-over funds to purchase the new flow through - in which case you will have to pay tax of roughly 1/4 the value of the rolled-over amount. You would have to top that up yourself to keep the ladder going.

I'll have to amend this post in the future to accurately reflect the options - so thanks for the question!

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What is "Short Selling" or "Shorting a Stock"? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-short-selling-or-shorting-a-stock/ Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:39:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/14/what-is-short-selling-or-shorting-a-stock/

There are a few variations of terms associated with this concept so first let me throw out the common  phrases and then explain what it actually is...

"Short a stock" (Short is used as a verb)

"Short position" (Short used an an adjective)

"Short Selling" (Short used as an adjective)

...are the three most common uses of the term "short" as it relates to investing.  Okay great, but what the heck does it mean?!

QuestionMark.jpgShorting a stock means selling shares of a stock THAT YOU DO NOT OWN. You would only do this if you expected that stock TO DECREASE IN VALUE. Eventually you have to "cover your short position" by buying the stock later (hopefully at a lower price than what you sold it for). This is a backwards way of buying low and selling high in that you actually start out by selling high and then buying low. Confused yet? :) Keep reading...

Let's use an example: Let's say that company ABC's shares are trading at $50.00 per share today.  You believe that this company is going down the tubes. You decide to short-sell 100 shares of the stock at the market price of $50.00.  This means that you have collected $50.00 x 100 shares = $5,000. The next day, ABC declines to $40.00.  You decide to "cover your short position" by BUYING 100 shares of ABC for $4,000 (100 shares x $40.00).  You have made a $1,000 profit since you correctly determined that the company would decline in value.

Okay, so now you are wondering how you can sell shares of a company that you do not own, right? Well, it's a bit technical to explain but try this explanation on for size: you actually BORROW the shares from another investor and pay him interest while you have the short position open. Of course it would be hard to just find someone willing to lend you the use of their shares so this is handled by your broker and it is all done electronically - so all you have to do is tell your broker that you want to short a stock and they will find the shares (usually from their own inventory) and they will also handle charging the interest to your account.

Also, it should be pointed out what happens if the stock you short GOES UP in value instead of decreasing like you hope it will.  Let's take the same $50.00 per share price of ABC's stock.  Again you sell the shares and receive $5,000 for it, but now the stock rises to $60 per share and everyone thinks that it is only going to go up even further now after a news release that says the companies' sales are increasing faster than ever (or some other such good news).  You decide to cut your losses and cover your short position by buying shares at $60.00 per share ( x 100 shares) for $6,000.  The net effect is that you have bought the shares for $6,000 and sold them for $5,000, therefore you have a $1,000 LOSS.

Note that when you buy a stock with the expectation of selling it later at a profit (the way you are used to doing it) is called being "LONG A STOCK" or a "LONG POSITION". 

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379 2007-09-14 03:39:21 2007-09-14 10:39:21 open open what-is-short-selling-or-shorting-a-stock publish 0 0 post 0
Help spread the word? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/help-spread-the-word/ Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:12:32 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/14/help-spread-the-word/

A very authoritative Canadian Finance Blog has provided a link to the 12 part series on life insurance entitled "Learn more about Life Insurance than your Insurance Agent knows" (written by yours truly).  That blog is called "The Canadian Capitalist" and is one that I personally read everyday - I would highly recommend diversifying your surfing on personal finance by adding his RSS feed to your list! Please click here to visit The Canadian Capitalist.

Also, I forgot to mention that  EverythingFinanceBlog mentioned us on September 4th for the posting entitled "Save money on life insurance... BIG money!" which talks about how you can reduce your premiums significantly if you keep re-qualifying your medical assessment before the term expires.  Click here to visit the EverythingFinanceBlog.

I'm hoping that the readers of this blog are getting a better appreciation of personal finance through reading through the posts I submit - I'm trying to mix up the posts in terms of topics and experience level.  I would love to spread the word out even more by asking you to feel free to share any items you like or think would be of interest to your friends, family or colleagues.  You can do this simply by using the "Email this article to a friend" link at the bottom of every post OR just by telling people to visit WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com!

Thanks everyone! 

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380 2007-09-14 04:12:32 2007-09-14 11:12:32 open open help-spread-the-word publish 0 0 post 0
Save an Extra 10% on Department Store Purchases? Is it really worth it? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-an-extra-10-on-department-store-purchases-is-it-really-worth-it/ Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:51:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/17/save-an-extra-10-on-department-store-purchases-is-it-really-worth-it/

I was at a department store today and while I was waiting in line to pay for my purchase a poor couple were persuaded into signing up for the store's charge card in exchange for an extra 10% off their purchases that day. The really sad part is that they were buying a few pairs of socks - maybe the total value was about $20 - so 10% off of that means $2 in savings.

CreditCard.jpgThe woman was initially very adamant that they not sign up for the card, but the husband was persuaded by the dangling carrot of the extra 10% off - his rationale was that they could pay it off before any interest accrued and then cancel the card.  I think many people make the same rationalization.  And while some may actually pay for the purchase and then cancel the card - probably an equal amount of people do not end up paying off the balance, end up paying 28.8% in interest on the balance and maybe even more will start increasing the balance on the card.

So what started as an attempt to save 10% on your small purchase ended up turning into yet another source of expensive credit that only serves to put you one step closer to higher spiralling credit problems.  So I suppose my message is this: almost everyone signs up with the same intention - to pay off the balance immediately and then cancel the card, but there is a percentage of those who instead fall prey to the vicious cycle of overextending their available credit - all for the dangling carrot of a few bucks saved today.

Ask yourself if the few dollars you could save today is worth exposing yourself to the possibility of falling into that trap! It may end up costing you thousands! 

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381 2007-09-17 00:51:10 2007-09-17 07:51:10 open open save-an-extra-10-on-department-store-purchases-is-it-really-worth-it publish 0 0 post 0 692 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2007-09-20 19:54:25 2007-09-21 02:54:25 There is also the added disadvantage of the impact on your credit score. Everyone should know their credit rating and how activities affect it: such as shopping for purchases on credit (buy now, pay in 18 years!) or signing up for yet another credit card. Read this http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/publications/CreditReportScore/PDF/CreditReportScore_e.pdf

Poorly managed credit can add 2-4% to your mortgage rate. Missed or late credit card payments, having many cards, opening & closing credit accounts--all can have a negative effect on your credit rating. Don't take invitations to sign up for credit either in the mail or at the cash register lightly. Educate yourself and use credit wisely.

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693 2007-09-20 22:04:59 2007-09-21 05:04:59 Well put Leslie - that link is great that you provided - I think everyone should check it out.

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Toyota to start providing Auto Insurance in Canada http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/toyota-to-start-providing-auto-insurance-in-canada/ Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:00:06 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/17/toyota-to-start-providing-auto-insurance-in-canada/

The Globe and Mail reported this morning that Toyota Canada is looking very heavily into providing Auto Insurance through its car dealership network - effectively creating one-stop shopping for retailers' automotive needs.  It looks like this won't be happening until 2008 at the earliest.

ToyotaPrius.JPGThe question that seems to be on everyone's minds is whether they will operate the insurance company at break even (or at a loss) in order to boost car sales.  If they are using this as a tool to increase sales than it could be possible that they will be a source of very low insurance premiums for your auto insurance! If, on the other hand, they are operating the insurance arm as a profit-centre then will it have much of an impact on sales?  I think in either case it is probably a positive thing.

Toyota has such a strong brand and they have to ensure that the Toyota brand gets transferred to their insurance operations - which means high quality, good value and excellent customer service.  If traditional insurers get a kick in the pants - I'm all for that! :)

You can read the article from the Globe and Mail here. 

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382 2007-09-17 14:00:06 2007-09-17 21:00:06 open open toyota-to-start-providing-auto-insurance-in-canada publish 0 0 post 0 694 viliyana89@abv.bg http://carsblognews.com 213.31.232.166 2009-08-12 23:11:31 2009-08-13 04:11:31 1 0 0 695 avtomir2019@mail.ru http://aoc1.ru/ 212.115.225.20 2010-04-23 23:47:07 2010-04-24 04:47:07 spam 0 0
Investment Styles: Value versus Growth http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/investment-styles-value-versus-growth/ Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:42:37 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/18/investment-styles-value-versus-growth/

As you can imagine, everybody seems to have their own take on how to invest wisely but if we take a step back and look down from a very high level - many people could fall into one of two broad camps of investment STYLES (there are more than this, but these are two of the most popular broad categories).  These two "camps" are VALUE investing and GROWTH investing.

I have heard that value investing is "buy low, sell high" and growth investing is "buy high, sell higher" and I think that is a pretty good description to give you a basic understanding - although if you are taking a finance exam don't select this answer as it's more of a funny analogy than anything else! :)

FlippingThroughBook.jpgValue Investing: Value investors are generally looking for stocks that are "temporarily" undervalued by the stock market.  In other words the investor has looked at the balance sheet and earnings statements, looked at what management has discussed in the annual report and determined that the stock is probably worth about $50 per share - but they see that it is trading on the stock market at $30 per share.  They see this as being undervalued - and will buy the stock.  Warren Buffett made the phrase "margin of safety" a popular one in the investing world (although one of his mentors [Benjamin Graham] was the one who coined it) - and it refers to the difference between the intrinsic value (what the investors believes the stock is worth) and the market price (what the stock is trading at on the stock market).

In order for a value investor to be more confident on their valuation of the stock's intrinsic value, they tend to look at companies that have a long track record, are profitable and generally pay out a dividend.  In other words the company is not focused so much on expansion as they are on modest growth through sales and efficiencies.

A prime example of a value investment would be for a company like Coca Cola.  They've been around forever, make a tonne of cash every year and predictably grow their earnings in a modest fashion.  A value investor would wait for a pullback in the stock's price before purchasing shares.  The pullback would be due to some event not really related to Coca Cola per se - i.e. the general expectation that the world is going into a recession might pull back all stock prices temporarily, but since Coca Cola was materially the same company it was yesterday the intrinsic value of Coke stays the same.  Hence the value investor would purchase shares of Coca Cola thinking that it would be just a matter of time before the market comes to it's senses and prices Coke more closely to it's intrinsic value.

Value stocks tend to have lower P/E ratios, high dividend yields and have a Beta below 1. 

Value investors tend to be "buy and hold" investors - as it can take time for companies to realize their intrinsic values - and even after that they remain good companies that are producing a profit year over year, so there is no need to sell.  If there are future pullbacks in stock prices - the value investors may simply ADD more stock to their current positions.

Growth Investing: As I alluded to earlier - growth investors buy high and sell higher! :) They are looking for companies that are going to become the NEXT Coca Cola.  The companies these investors look at tend not to have dividend payments at all since the companies are aggressively trying to expand, they use all available cash to re-invest in the business' growth rather than return the profits to shareholders in the form of dividends.  Growth investing tends to be a bit more volatile - which means short term performance can be very impressive or equally depressing!  Since these companies are still in the growth phase (or expansion phase) it indicates there may not be a solid track record of management, competitive barriers (i.e. trying to build up a distribution network to sell a soft drink in the same volume as Coke would take decades), but also the room for explosive growth.  A growth investor would've bought Starbucks back when there was only one store at an intersection, instead of each corner of an intersection being occupied by a Starbucks franchise like now... :)

Growth stocks tend to have higher P/E ratios, pay little or no dividends and have a Beta above 1. 

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383 2007-09-18 17:42:37 2007-09-19 00:42:37 open open investment-styles-value-versus-growth publish 0 0 post 0
Mutual Fund Corporations versus Mutual Fund Trusts http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mutual-fund-corporations-versus-mutual-fund-trusts/ Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:22:32 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/20/mutual-fund-corporations-versus-mutual-fund-trusts/

Most mutual funds are set up in a trust structure, but for those of you who invest in mutual funds AND have non-registered investment accounts, you may want to look into Mutual Fund Corporations because they offer some interesting tax advantages. First off, this may seem like a technical, high-brow concept - but it is not that complicated in actuality.  I'm going to give you the rundown first and then explain the how and why.

Mutual_fund.jpgA mutual fund trust and a mutual fund corporation behave and act in almost an identical fashion - each is just an investment portfolio managed on the behalf of many investors who pool their money together and give it to a mutual fund company.  In fact more and more mutual fund companies are offering the same mutual fund as both a trust and as a corporation.  The difference comes in the added tax advantages afforded by the mutual fund when setup as a mutual fund corporation.  In essence, it allows for you to switch between funds of the same mutual fund company (as long as all the fund you are switching OUT of and the fund you are switching INTO are both offered as mutual fund corporations) without triggering any capital gains.

As you may know, if you have a gain on an investment and it is held in a taxable account, when you sell it you are triggering tax in the form of capital gains.  Normally, when you switch between mutual funds the fund that you are redeeming units from is subject to capital gains.  The mutual fund corporation avoids this tax event. Before I get into the how, let me first reiterate that the deferral of tax ultimately increases your investment returns over time and the longer you can defer the payment of taxes, the faster your investments grow.

Okay, so let's explain how this is circumvented: The mutual fund company will actually set up a corporation and instead of issuing UNITS like with a mutual fund trust, they issue shares in the corporation.  Each mutual fund that a mutual fund company operates within the mutual fund corporation has its own class of shares. You can consider mutual fund corporation shares and mutual fund trust units to look and act the same way (especially on your client statement) but the structural difference is important for tax purposes.  When you switch between funds (again, as long as the fund you are switching out of and into are both offered as mutual fund corporations) you are actually exchanging one class of shares in the corporation for another.

With the traditional mutual fund trust - each fund is set up as its own taxable entity.  With a mutual fund corporation with  different classes of shares (each representing a distinct mutual fund) the OVERALL corporation is its own taxable entity. So as long as you are switching between "shares" (funds) within the SAME mutual fund corporation, you will not trigger any capital gains!

You should note that shares in mutual fund corporations carry additional expenses to set up and maintain these structures in the neighbourhood of around 30 basis points - in other words their MER's are higher by about 0.3% (give or take). 

One way to easily spot whether a mutual fund is set up as a mutual fund trust versus a mutual fund corporation is in the name.  A mutual fund corporation's funds will have the word CLASS at the end of the name.  For example the Mackenzie Maxxum Dividend Fund is also available as the Mackenzie Maxxum Dividend Class.

 

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384 2007-09-20 03:22:32 2007-09-20 10:22:32 open open mutual-fund-corporations-versus-mutual-fund-trusts publish 0 0 post 0
Why you need to take advantage of the Loonie being at Parity NOW! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-you-need-to-take-advantage-of-the-loonie-being-at-parity-now/ Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:31:03 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/20/why-you-need-to-take-advantage-of-the-loonie-being-at-parity-now/

You will probably see a lot of hoopla tonight on TV (or even now on the radio) about the Loonie finally reaching parity with the US dollar.  The Canadian Dollar touched $1.0001 USD today (at the time of writing - it may have touched or even closed higher by the end of the day).

MoneyClipCanadianDollars.jpgThere is a reason as to why you might want to take advantage of this RIGHT NOW.  According to analysts, it will take about two years before the marketplace catches up and starts to appropriately price items to reflect the breaking of this psychological barrier.  Even now when you look at books at a bookstore you will see two prices - one in US dollars and one in Canadian dollars, and the Canadian price is still around 25% MORE than the US prices!

This pricing mismatch means that either prices will come down slowly here over the next two years (which means we are overpaying if we purchase goods in Canada) OR prices will rise in the US (which means the bargain of shopping THERE decreases over time).  Since a general level of price increase is the very definition of inflation - something most people don't want - the increase in prices in the States seems less likely than a decrease in Canadian prices.

MoneyUSDollars.jpgIn fact, what will MOST likely happen will be the prices in Canada won't increase going forward as much as prices in the States increase and a more accurate marketplace will take a few years to develop. To cut to the chase: The 2007 US Thanksgiving sales might be the best buying opportunity for Canadian Cross-Border Shoppers! Not only are things on super-sale, our currency purchasing power adds another 10-20% on top of the listed discounts - so get down there any BUY to help stimulate the US economy... :)

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385 2007-09-20 15:31:03 2007-09-20 22:31:03 open open why-you-need-to-take-advantage-of-the-loonie-being-at-parity-now publish 0 0 post 0 696 199.166.15.245 2007-09-20 17:17:06 2007-09-21 00:17:06 Don't forget that there is also a sales tax savings....Not many US counties charge 14% (as is for Ontario) on goods purchased.

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Recommended Articles from August http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/recommended-articles-from-august/ Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:48:25 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/22/recommended-articles-from-august/

I've noticed that most blogs will periodically list the top posts at the end of a month for anyone who missed out on catching them the first time by.  This is a little late in coming but the following are some articles for August that I think are worth looking at:

Closed-End Mutual Funds versus Open-End Mutual Funds discusses the differences between the two major types of mutual funds out there.  Seeing as how most people use mutual funds I think it's important to look at this article - there are many advantages of Closed-End funds over Open-End funds, yet most people invest in Open-End funds.

Limited Partnerships with a Flow Through Share Structure for Investment Tax Credits is an introduction to higher risk investments in the natural resources industry which offer tax credits for every dollar you invest.  The tax credits are offered by the federal government to exploration and development companies and the partnership flows them through to the investor since the companies have no revenues at this point to offset against.

A Canada Savings Bond is not actually a Bond is a short post that explains how the nomenclature of this ubiquitous investment is technically incorrect! :)

What is a Debenture? was actually written just prior to the post on the Canada Savings Bond - to cut to the chase, a Canada Savings Bond is really a debenture - and you can find out what a debenture is in this article.

And finally What is a Bond Part 1 (which I really should get around to following up with Part 2 soon!) is an introduction to one of the most basic types of investments out there - but I can assure you that for as poorly as the average investor understands stocks, they understand bonds even less!

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386 2007-09-22 02:48:25 2007-09-22 09:48:25 open open recommended-articles-from-august publish 0 0 post 0
Churning: Sometimes constant contact from your advisor is a BAD thing... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/churning-sometimes-constant-contact-from-your-advisor-is-a-bad-thing/ Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:11:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/25/churning-sometimes-constant-contact-from-your-advisor-is-a-bad-thing/

Most investors who are looking for the services of a financial advisor would expect a certain level of constant communication: Quarterly portfolio or market reviews, annual face to face meetings to update financial plans and the odd unscheduled phone call if market conditions warrant it.

businessman_on_phone1.jpgBut there are some advisors out there who maybe call their clients too often and who are constantly suggesting changes to their clients' portfolios.  If that is happening to you, you need to be looking out to see if your advisor may be "churning" your account.

Churning is defined as the excessive trading in a client's account in order to increase the commissions generated to the advisor.  Churning is mostly associated with stock-brokers who use a transactional fee model - which means they generate a commission when you buy OR sell a stock.  Financial advisors who only use mutual funds (also known as Mutual Fund Sales Representatives) can also be guilty of churning if they are constantly switching you in and out of different mutual funds which are sold using front-end charges OR back-end charges since they earn a commission on each of those transcations.

But then a question needs to be asked: If an advisor's frequent recommendations result in superior performance for the client, is this churning?  Well if the performance is there to validate the recommendations then most investors would say no. If the fruits of your labour (frequent trading) yield no real advantage to you, then your advisor may indeed be churning  your account! This generally cannot be determined over short periods of time as you may need time for investment strategies to play out. Internal compliance departments monitor the actions of their brokers over time and churning is becoming less prominent over time - but it still does exist.

If you use an advisor who is licensed to sell individual stocks and bonds instead of just mutual funds, you can look into "fee-based" accounts as an alternative option.  These accounts do not charge a commission based on each transaction, but rather charge an annual fee which is based on the size of your portfolio.  For example, if you have a $100,000 account perhaps you have negotiated a set fee of 1.50% to manage your account which does not vary if you make 2 transactions per year or 20.

...and certainly, if you are comfortable managing your own investments then you would be better off opening an online discount brokerage account.  I've never heard of someone churning their own account! :)

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388 2007-09-25 02:11:01 2007-09-25 09:11:01 open open churning-sometimes-constant-contact-from-your-advisor-is-a-bad-thing publish 0 0 post 0
Front Running: Another illegal broker activity http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/front-running-another-illegal-broker-activity/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:56:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/25/front-running-another-illegal-broker-activity/

You would think that after two consecutive posts on illegal broker activities we might just have had a compliance presentation at work... and you would be right. :)

QuestionMark.jpg But nonetheless: Front running is another bad behaviour that carries stiff fines from the regulators but there is almost no way of knowing when your broker is doing it.  Fortunately not many brokers can get away with it as this is another activity that is monitored by internal surveillance teams and the broker's branch manager as well.

It basically involves the broker entering in trade orders for their own account before entering similar orders for his clients.  For example, if a broker owned 5,000 shares of Microsoft and his overall client base owned 50,000 shares and news came in overnight that would lead to a change in share price then whoever acts first will either gain the most (if buying more shares) or lose the least (if selling shares).

A broker's duty is to call and inform all his or her clients of the ratings change from the analyst (or deliver the news on the company), give the clients the option of buying, selling or doing nothing, and then make all the clients' transactions before entering the trades in the broker's own account.

Perhaps a good practice is to get into the habit of asking your advisor about their own portfolios? Both when initially starting your relationship with the advisor - to see what they invest in themselves - and then on an ongoing basis as they make recommendations - if they hold the same securities, are they following their own advice?

Keep in mind that their risk tolerance may be different than yours though - usually advisors tend to be on the moderate-aggressive or higher side of things... :) 

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]]> 389 2007-09-25 20:56:41 2007-09-26 03:56:41 open open front-running-another-illegal-broker-activity publish 0 0 post 0 Convertible Bond Arbitrage Part 1 of 2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/convertible-bond-arbitrage-part-1-of-2/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:38:42 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/26/convertible-bond-arbitrage-part-1-of-2/

Hi everyone! FrugalTrader of the Million Dollar Journey has graciously asked me to guest author an article on his personal finance blog.  It's all about Convertible Bond Arbitrage and is split into two parts.  Part 1 appears today in his blog and Part 2 will appear tomorrow.

I highly recommend reading both parts as this strategy is a very thought provoking one - especially for experienced investors.  It is an advanced level topic - so if you are not yet comfortable with the basics, you may want to bookmark it for later. Part 1 is a description of a basic convertible bond - but Part 2 (tomorrow) is where it REALLY gets interesting!

Click here for a link to my guest post on The Million Dollar Journey 

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390 2007-09-26 16:38:42 2007-09-26 23:38:42 open open convertible-bond-arbitrage-part-1-of-2 publish 0 0 post 0
Convertible Bond Arbitrage Part 2 of 2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/convertible-bond-arbitrage-part-2-of-2/ Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:53:48 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/27/convertible-bond-arbitrage-part-2-of-2/

As mentioned yesterday, Part 2 of the two part series I wrote as a guest author for another personal finance site is up today.  The articles are on Convertible Bond Arbitrage and you find the second part by CLICKING HERE. If you would like to start from the beginning, you can find Part 1 here.

If there are any visitors coming FROM the Million Dollar Journey: Welcome! Please click on The Archives in the navigation menu, and if you scroll down to the bottom of the archives page, you will find a list of ALL articles I have written for this blog so far.

Thanks everyone - I hope you are enjoying my writings.

Preet

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391 2007-09-27 17:53:48 2007-09-28 00:53:48 open open convertible-bond-arbitrage-part-2-of-2 publish 0 0 post 0
Porsche Canada drops prices by 10%+ for 2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/porsche-canada-drops-prices-by-10-for-2008/ Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:10:58 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/27/porsche-canada-drops-prices-by-10-for-2008/

Porsche Canada announced two days ago that they are dropping the prices on their 2008 model lineup by 10% or more (depending on the model) over the 2007 versions.  Why? Because with the Canadian dollar now at par with the US Dollar, it is cheaper to cross the border and purchase the same car from the States.

porsche.jpgThe Toronto Star has a great article on this, and even though Porsche has dropped prices it STILL makes more sense to buy a Porsche in the States - in other words, the prices should be the same as in the States and that would require a much more significant price drop! :)  Doesn't really matter - I still can't afford a Porsche...

CLICK HERE TO READ THE TORONTO STAR ARTICLE 

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392 2007-09-27 18:10:58 2007-09-28 01:10:58 open open porsche-canada-drops-prices-by-10-for-2008 publish 0 0 post 0
$2 Billion Lawsuit against Car-Makers for "tinkering" with natural market forces... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2-billion-lawsuit-against-car-makers-for-tinkering-with-natural-market-forces/ Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:18:44 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/09/28/2-billion-lawsuit-against-car-makers-for-tinkering-with-natural-market-forces/

I seem to be writing in two's lately.  I wrote that guest article for the Million Dollar Journey on Convertible Bond Arbitrage as a two part series, I wrote two consecutive articles on illegal broker activities, and now this article follows on the heals of yesterday's article citing a 10% drop in prices by Porsche on it's Canadian lineup due to the strength of the loonie...

CarVintage.jpgYou see, a law-firm and four plaintiffs in Ontario have launched a Class-Action lawsuit against Honda, GM, Chrysler and Nissan alleging that they have "tinkered" with natural market forces in order to essentially gouge the Canadian consumer. As you know, even until this day, it would be cheaper to buy a car from across the border.  There are a few modifications necessary - like installing a daytime-running-light circuit, and modifying the odometer and speedometer to read in km and km/h respectively, etc. (I don't know the actual and complete list - you'll have to look that up if you are interested) which cost maybe $1,000 and after any other fees, you are still way better off buying most cars south of the border and bringing them up here.

It is alleged that the car companies tried to prevent this by penalizing American dealerships for selling to Canadians and also by not honouring warranty work done at Canadian dealership and service centres.  By not adjusting the Canadian prices of vehicles as the loonie started soaring, and further allegedly implementing these protocols they would've provided a mechanism to gouge Canadian customers.  Canucks would not be able to get a discount across the border without giving up peace of mind afforded by the warranties and they could only buy in Canada at drastically higher prices (in the 20%-30% range!).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE ON CBC'S WEBSITE 

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393 2007-09-28 20:18:44 2007-09-29 03:18:44 open open 2-billion-lawsuit-against-car-makers-for-tinkering-with-natural-market-forces publish 0 0 post 0
Best Articles From September http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/best-articles-from-september/ Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:43:45 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/01/best-articles-from-september/ I can't believe September came and went so quickly! My girlfriend kidnapped me to Niagara-On-The-Lake for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and we took in two tours: One to the Peller Estates Winery and one to Inniskillin Wines.  The material on both tours was almost exactly the same so I would suggest going for one tour and then just doing the tastings at other wineries... :)  In any case, here are some picks for "best of breed" for September...

The Mutual Fund Company That Might Change The World is about a relatively new fund company that gives you the ability to treat the interest income you earn from their bond funds like capital gains for tax purposes (actually you can choose what type of income you receive from almost all of their different funds).  A must read.

Flow Through Shares Strategies Part 1 talks about a 2 Year Flow Through Share Limited Partnership Ladder which gives you the ability to reduce taxes substantially on an ongoing basis.  If you are maximizing your RRSP you will NEED to read this article.

What is Short Selling or Shorting a Stock? is an introduction to a method of buying low and selling high in the opposite order.  It is basically used when you think a stock is going to fall as you sell it first (without owning it) and then buy it back after it has fallen. Clear as mud? :)

Mutual Fund Corporations vs Mutual Fund Trusts explores the differences between the two structures and why you might want to hold Corporations in your non-registered portfolios and Trusts in your RRSP or other sheltered accounts.

I'd also like to give a thanks to a couple of websites for mentioning us.  Coupled with organic growth, this website's traffic grew by approximately 60% month over month! The top refferer was The Canadian Capitalist, followed by The Million Dollar Journey.

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394 2007-10-01 14:43:45 2007-10-01 21:43:45 open open best-articles-from-september publish 0 0 post 0
Doctors and Dentists: January 1st, 2006 was the best day of your financial life http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/doctors-and-dentists-january-1st-2006-was-the-best-day-of-your-financial-life/ Wed, 03 Oct 2007 04:35:19 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/02/doctors-and-dentists-january-1st-2006-was-the-best-day-of-your-financial-life/

...but perhaps you didn't know that because you are so busy - and I can't blame you. But for you, and the rest of us, here is what happened on that auspicious day. Brain drain should have officially ended with a new law that took effect that day with respect to the tax treatment of professional corporations set up by doctors and dentists.

Stethoscope.jpgDoctors and Dentists have been able to incorporate themselves since 2001 - but not many did because unless they had a habit of saving there was no real point.  The corporate entity did not afford you any creditor protection or release you from any professional liability - all it did was provide you with the ability to pay 18% tax on corporate income up to $400,000 per year instead of paying about 45% tax on personal income.  Since most doctors and dentists spend more than what they make for the first 10 years - it didn't really do what it was intended to: make it more attractive to stay in Canada by substantially lowering the taxes these professionals have to pay.

BUT in January of 2006 some enhancements were added that now make it, quite frankly, a NO-BRAINER to incorporate. You now have the ability to issue non-voting shares of the corporation to your spouse, children and direct parents. They do not have to be part of the business in any way - but now you can issue them dividends from the corporation and if they don't earn any money, they can effectively get $36,000 in dividends without having to pay any tax. (*Note: I am assuming that all other persons have no other income for the example below.)

Still don't know what the ramifications could be? Let me draw out a sample of BEFORE incorporation and AFTER:

                                Sole Proprietorship          Incorporated

Billed Earnings              $400,000                      $400,000

For the sole proprietorship, you would just claim all $400,000 on your personal tax return. With the incorporated entity you would pay yourself a salary of $198,470 (you'll see why below). 

Salary from Corp.          $0                                $198,470

Now, we apply personal tax (using Ontario tax rates) to $400,000 and $198,470 for each case. 

Personal Tax                 ($167,807)                    ($74,277)

The next line shows the after-tax personal income so far. For the sole proprietorship, this is as far as we get really. But with the corporation we still have $201,530 inside the corporation - so bear with me for a few more lines of math. 

Personal After Tax         $232,193                      $124,193 

Next we apply the corporate tax rate of roughly 18% - this only applies to the corporation. 18% of $201,530 is $36,275. That leaves us with $165,255 inside the corporation AFTER TAX which can now be dividended out.

Corporate Tax               $0                                ($36,275)

Dividend to Spouse        $0                                $36,000 (Tax free)

Dividend to Child 1        $0                                $36,000 (Tax free)

Dividend to Child 2        $0                                $36,000 (Tax free)

For the net personal spending using an incorporated entity, we have to add up the personal after tax earnings when a salary was paid out of the corporation to all the dividends. For the sole-proprietorship, we already know the after tax amount.  

Net personal               $232,193                      $124,193+$36,000+$36,000+$36,000

As you can see, they are equal. So at this point, what ever is left in the corporation is how much you have saved in tax in this example. This is known as the retained earnings in accountant-speak:

Retained Earnings        $0                                $57,255

So in this quick and dirty example, this doctor/dentist would realize a tax savings of $57,255. In both cases, the actual amount of money that was spent by the household was the exact same at $232,193, but with the incorporation the doctor dentist was able to retain $57,255. After 10 years that's almost $600,000 not even factoring in growth on the money. In other words, if you are a doctor or dentist, you need to incorporate. I know that for physicians, incorporation should cost you no more than $2500 from a lawyer, or if you can muddle through the process yourself with the College of Physicians and Surgeons in your own province it should run about $1500.  Annual costs to keep up your incorporation should be no more than $250. 

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395 2007-10-02 21:35:19 2007-10-03 04:35:19 open open doctors-and-dentists-january-1st-2006-was-the-best-day-of-your-financial-life publish 0 0 post 0 697 davidgrant@gmail.com http://www.davidgrant.ca 154.5.184.128 2007-12-10 23:10:08 2007-12-11 06:10:08 When you talk about $36,000 to each child and spouse, are you assuming that the spouse does not have another job? If the spouse already made $50,000/year are you saying that they can receive an additional $36,000 from the corporation tax-free?

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698 2007-12-11 02:30:47 2007-12-11 09:30:47 Hi David - thanks for bringing to my attention that I omitted to include the assumption I made that the spouse was "stay at home" and had no other income.

If the spouse already made $50,000/year than there would certainly be some tax on the dividends.

Sorry about that - I'll amend the post to include that assumption...

Preet

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Balanced Mutual Funds should be illegal http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/balanced-mutual-funds-should-be-illegal/ Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:00:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/04/balanced-mutual-funds-should-be-illegal/

I suppose that is a bold statement but once you understand the logic behind it you'll probably agree. A Balanced fund is nothing more than a fund that invests in equities and fixed income all in one mandate - in order to reduce volatility. But the problem is the fees of balanced funds are usually anything  BUT balanced.  In addition perhaps a fund company might have great equity managers but less than stellar fixed income managers (or vice versa).

Mutual_fund.jpgLet me start by dissecting the fee dilemma. Generally speaking, the management fees of a mutual fund are directly correlated with the degree of time, research and ongoing monitoring that a fund requires. So for example, a bond fund is comparatively easier to manage and monitor than an equity fund - hence the management fees are on the lower end of the spectrum. Equity funds on the other hand tend to require much more of a fund company's resources and accordingly have higher Management Expense Ratios (MER's). To take it even further, foreign equity funds have even higher MER's still (up around 3.5% in some cases) since the fund company may require offices in those foreign markets, and the trading costs for those foreign exchanges may be higher.

A balanced fund is merely a blend of equities and fixed income - for the sake of this argument, let's call it 60% equities and 40% fixed income. What I'm arguing, is that you should just go out and buy a pure equity fund for 60% of your portfolio and a pure fixed income fund for 40% of your portfolio.

Balanced funds in Canada tend to have MER's closer to that of pure equity funds, so let's draw up an example to see why choosing individual pure funds might be better from a cost point of view. Let's say that our Pure Equity Fund has an MER of 2.70%, our Balanced Fund has an MER of 2.45% and our Fixed Income Fund has an MER of 1.20%.

We know that to replicate the Balanced Fund's asset allocation we just need to put 60% of our money into the Pure Equity Fund and 40% into the Pure Fixed Income fund. If we calculate the weighted-average MER, it would look something like this:

60% x 2.70% MER + 40% x 1.20% MER = 2.10% Weighted-Average MER

So as you can see, the exact same portfolio would be cheaper by 0.35% in this case (2.45% versus 2.10%) - and while that may not seem like a big amount, consider that on a $500,000 portfolio that is an annual savings of $1,750. I don't care how much money you have, if you have two identical items why on earth would you be happy paying more than you have to?

The other argument for buying the pure underlying mandates in separate funds is that you are no longer tied to the manager of only one firm for your overall portfolio. Quite simply, some fund companies are known for the equity fund performance and some are known as fixed income specialists - it's pretty rare to find a company that is #1 in both respects - especially considering there are now 1,994 mutual funds to choose from in Canada according to the Investment Funds Institute of Canada!

Are you investing in a Balanced Fund? It might be time to take a look at your MER and see if you can save some FREE MONEY! :) 

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396 2007-10-04 02:00:21 2007-10-04 09:00:21 open open balanced-mutual-funds-should-be-illegal publish 0 0 post 0
Make sure to track when mutual fund managers move http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/make-sure-to-track-when-mutual-fund-managers-move/ Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:45:25 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/05/make-sure-to-track-when-mutual-fund-managers-move/

For those that invest in mutual funds I want to bring to your attention a point that often gets overlooked. You've often heard that you can't pick mutual funds based solely on their past performance - I'm not sure who said it, but to paraphrase: if that were the only selection criteria then librarians would be the richest people on earth!

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgThere are numerous reasons for not focusing on just the 10 year track record of a fund but the one I want to highlight today is that mutual fund managers, just like you and me, don't necessarily stay at the same job or employer for their whole career! Quite often they can be lured away by a higher paying offer at another fund company - or the promise of an ownership stake in a new fund company, etc.  So perhaps that index-beating performance you've "bought in to" has walked out the door and the incoming mutual fund manager may not be as sharp! The information on your mutual fund's manager is readily available and Morningstar will provide the history of all the different fund managers that your mutual fund has had.

So if you do a little digging and research you will find that maybe the fund you picked (based on it's past performance) is no longer being managed by the manager who guided that fund to it's spectacular performance! And say what you want about mutual fund managers, there ARE stars AND duds out there. I've come across many investors who are eager to quote the 10 year performance of their current mutual fund holdings only to inform them that the manager responsible for that performance was no longer managing the fund when they bought it...

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397 2007-10-05 00:45:25 2007-10-05 07:45:25 open open make-sure-to-track-when-mutual-fund-managers-move publish 0 0 post 0
5 New Book Recommendations http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/5-new-book-recommendations/ Sun, 07 Oct 2007 11:58:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/07/5-new-book-recommendations/

I've finally gotten around to adding some more readings to the Recommended Books section - five to be exact! There are now six books in total that are on my list and I think once you have read the first four - you would be well on your way to selecting your own stocks - or at the very least have a much better idea about stock market investing overall.

The newly added books are:

One Up on Wall Street by Peter S Lynch

Beating the Street by Peter S Lynch

The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G Hagstrom

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Phillip Fisher

I read Lynch's books and Hagstrom's book every couple of years - if you are serious about investing then these books are REQUIRED READING. Full Stop.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REVIEWS ON ALL BOOKS I RECOMMEND 

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398 2007-10-07 04:58:07 2007-10-07 11:58:07 open open 5-new-book-recommendations publish 0 0 post 0
The Rule of 72! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rule-of-72/ Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:34:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/09/the-rule-of-72/

If you are new to investing you will come across a concept known as "The Rule of 72". What it boils down to is a quick reminder that investment performance, in terms of long term rate of return, is VERY IMPORTANT, but TIME invested is even more important...

Money-BigStacks.jpgThe rule of 72 states that 72 divided by your long term rate of return will give you the time in years for your investment to double. Conversely, if you need to figure out the rate of return you need to double your money in a known number of years, you can take 72 and divide it by the number of years.

Example 1:

You expect that your investments will earn an average rate of return of 10%.

72 divided by 10% rate of return = 7.2 years to double your money.

So if you had $10,000 and it earned 10% every year, you would have $20,000 after 7.2 years.

Example 2:

You have $250,000 in your retirement savings account and you would like to retire in 7 years.  You have determined that you could comfortably retire if you had $500,000 in your retirement account.  In order to double your money from $250,000 to $500,000 in 7 years you could use the rule of 72 to get a rough idea of the rate of return you will need to achieve your goal: 72 divided by 7 years = 10.3. Therefore your investment will need to earn an average rate of return of 10.3% to double in 7 years.

Note that the rule does stray a bit with extreme values - for example if you wanted to double your money every 3 years the rule tells you that you need an annual rate of return of 24%, but if we work through the math you'll see you get close, but not quite exactly to double... 

Example 3:

If you wanted your money to double every 3 years(!), you would use the rule of 72 to calculate: 72 divided by 3 years = 24% annual rate of return.

Year 1 Beginning Investment Value = $100,000

Annual gain of 24% in year 1= $100,000 x 24% = $24,000

Year 2 Beginning Investment Value = $124,000

Annual gain of 24% in year 2 =  $124,000 x 24% = $29,760

Year 3 Beginning Value = $153,760

Annual gain of 24% in year 3 = $153,760 x 24% =  $36,902.40

Year 3 END Value = $190,662.40

So remember, you can use the Rule of 72 to quickly gauge how long it will take for your money to double if you know the rate of return, OR what rate of return you will need to earn for your money to double in a certain period of time. BUT it is not a hard and fast formula - it is only a rule of thumb.

Why is this important? Well the power of compounding is a serious thing. In fact, Einstein even said it was the most powerful concept he knew of (and this was after he discovered how to split the atom). If you took one thousand dollars, how many times would you need to double it to get to $1 million?

$1,000 x 2 = $2,000
$2,000 x 2 = $4,000
$4,000 x 2 = $8,000
$8,000 x 2 = $16,000
$16,000 x 2 = $32,000
$32,000 x 2 = $64,000
$64,000 x 2 = $128,000
$128,000 x 2 = $256,000
$256,000 x 2 = $512,000
$512,000 x 2 = $1,024,000
 
So $1,000 would need to double 10 times to reach $1 million. Remember, that's a ONE-TIME investment of $1000! So you can see the power of the rate of return, but you can also see the power of TIME.
 

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399 2007-10-09 23:34:10 2007-10-10 06:34:10 open open the-rule-of-72 publish 0 0 post 0
If you believe in diversification, don't invest too much in Canada! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/if-you-believe-in-diversification-dont-invest-too-much-in-canada/ Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:28:06 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/11/if-you-believe-in-diversification-dont-invest-too-much-in-canada/

The media and the financial services' marketing teams have done a good job preaching the virtues of "diversification" or, not putting all your eggs into one basket. By holding investments across different asset classes, different countries and different investment styles you can reduce the volatility in your portfolio (volatility is just another word for "risk").

EasterEggs.jpgBut far too often I will see people's portfolios with large concentrations in the Canadian stock market. Now, this is a tricky subject to broach because as you know the Canadian stock market has been one of the best performing stock markets for the last 5 years globally.

However, if you do believe in diversification then you would have a tendency to spread your money around a little bit more. One fact that gets tossed around often is that the Canadian stock market represents approximately 3% of the world's total equity. So for people who ONLY invest in Canada, but then tell me they have diversified across all 10 subsectors of the TSX I have to wonder if they have missed the point... While they are investing across the different major industry categories, they are still limiting their investment universe to 3% of the total spectrum!

Investing in the Canadian index is not that great when you consider that the top 3 subsectors (Financials, Materials and Energy) represent 75% of the TSX! Our stock market is not a very well diversified one to say the least. Healthcare stocks make up around 1% of the TSX so if you want any meaningful exposure to healthcare you would have to go south or overseas to Europe.

It has been proven time and time again, that if you expose yourself a little more to foreign equities (even though they may be more volatile), they tend to have different up/down cycles than Canadian equities. Adding these riskier asset classes to your portfolio in moderation can actually serve to DECREASE your overall portfolio volatility while increasing returns. 

Given that the Canadian stock market has had double digit positive returns for the last 4 calendar years and perhaps heading to a 5th, you know that when we have a strong over-performance above the long term average, eventually something has got to give! Currently, many institutional asset allocation services do not hold more than 30% of their portfolios in Canadian equities. Food for thought... 

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400 2007-10-11 03:28:06 2007-10-11 10:28:06 open open if-you-believe-in-diversification-dont-invest-too-much-in-canada publish 0 0 post 0 699 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-10-11 13:44:49 2007-10-11 20:44:49 Interesting. Thinking about this I may want to change my contribution instructions to my company RRSP/DPSP plan. They have an awesome plan where they match 6% of your income, but their investment options are patheticly limited. We actually only have 5 funds to choose from, A money market, a fixed income, a balanced, a Canadian equity, and a global equity.

So far I figured since I'm making 100% on my money I have everything going 60/40 in to the Canadian and Global Equity. The global equity asset mix chart simply shows the countries that they invest in, the largest is the USA which is 44% of the funds makeup. That puts 60% of my assets in Canada and 44% of 40% in the USA, or 17.6%.

Perhaps I should instead use a 75/25 mix in the global equity at 75%. That would put 25% of my funds in Canada, 33% in the USA and the rest around the world in small portions.

I originally opened the plan to buy a house since both the company match and my contribution are instantly vested and available for use, I figured if I can make the cash of the company match the house will get to me that much faster. Now that I am in a house I've been looking at it more like a retirement fund and not a house fund. Since I'm only 27 I figure the equity funds were the only way to go out of our HUGE 5 fund choice.

Do you think this is a prudent move to change my contribution instructions to better spread over the world (Both funds are listed having the same fees as far as I can tell)?

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700 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2007-10-11 14:02:45 2007-10-11 21:02:45 I would agree that investing in a broader Canadian index (i.e., ETFs such as XIC or XIU) does emphasize the sectors you mention (financial, materials, energy). Diversifying in emerging markets can be appropriate for some portfolios, particularly where there is a long term investment horizon.

However, many emerging markets share the same cyclical natural resource industries as Canada, and some analysts have observed that emerging and Canadian market indices have tracking characteristics when there are global impacts to that sector. In view of that, it's important to be aware of the risks and the nature of foreign exposure in a fund (mutual fund or exchange traded fund). Emerging market ETFs such as EEM or EFA are good starts (other emerging market ETFs such as Vanguard's have an even lower MER). If the reader doesn't have an online brokerage account to purchase ETFs, then research into mutual funds' (easily done using Globefund.com) holdings, MER, and fund managers, and/or discussing the merits of funds with an adviser is recommended.

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701 2007-10-11 18:27:29 2007-10-12 01:27:29 Traciatim: You may actually want to increase your fixed income exposure if you are planning on using the money for a short term goal. I may be a bit of an extremist but when people approach me for investment portfolios with a time horizon of less than 5 years GICs and 5 year bonds look pretty good! The reason for this I hope is obvious in that equities are much more volatile over the short run and it is quite possible that you will have less money after 5 years than your original investment - ESPECIALLY with the 75%/25% split you mention.

If your company's Group RRSP has someone you can talk to, perhaps you can give them a ring for some advice - and make sure to mention that your money will be withdrawn in the near term for a house down payment.

Certainly there is a trade-off to be made here. But I would strongly urge you to consider increasing the fixed income portion of your portfolio and to even use the money market fund.

I realize you are probably thinking that a money market fund is the lowest yielding option you have, but even your bond fund can have negative returns. So the question you have to ask yourself is whether you want a guaranteed slight increase in your possible down payment versus a 50/50 chance of a substantially higher or substantially lower down payment with all possible combinations in between.

I have an option for you nonetheless. Many people who have immediately vesting employer contributions will transfer their Group RRSP to an RRSP at a financial institution and advisor with a broader product selection. They make annual transfers so they can keep collecting their employer-matching but open up their investment options substantially. If you look into this, you will find that you can find a advisor you can talk to for more specific planning and investment advice.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to email me, or post here, before making any final decisions if you have any questions or if you want another second opinion.

Preet

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702 2007-10-11 18:33:50 2007-10-12 01:33:50 Hi Leslie! Thanks for your additional insight. Yes, it is worth noting that certain markets and economies ride in similar waves. If we extrapolate the analysis of systematic versus non-systematic risk within a market out to the global landscape then the addition of foreign market exposure would serve to reduce the non-systematic risk of a global portfolio, but you would still have the gyrations associated with systematic risk.

For those who are interested, here is the link to the article I wrote on Systematic Risk vs. Non-Systematic risk - it is an important one.

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703 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-10-11 19:38:29 2007-10-12 02:38:29 Hey Preet,
Thanks for the advice, but I think you misunderstood my post. I originally opened the account to buy a house a couple years back. I recently (in March) drained it and did in fact buy a house. I never bothered to stop my payments because I can't stand the thought of losing out one the free money, and I'm looking at a 42 year timeline (assuming 65 retirement). Before buying the house I was in a less aggressive stance, probably too aggressive, but it worked out for the best anyway.

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704 2007-10-11 21:36:16 2007-10-12 04:36:16 My apologies, it's been a hectic day at work and I totally missed that part in your original post! :P

Well, in that case, good for you on not stopping your payments - why turn down the free money? I would still recommend finding an advisor that you can work with on a personalized level and transfer your Group RRSP over every year to his/her management if you want to increase your product choice.

Which reminds me, I have to post on the different types of products available to different types of advisors - thanks for the reminder through your comment! :)

One thing you need to look into is if there are any "transfer-out" fees from your Group RRSP and if they are worth paying every year. Transfer out fees range from $50 + GST to $125 + GST - but they are normally $125 of course. Sometimes there are none with Group RRSP's though.

Now is a great time to have a financial plan drawn up - find a good advisor and have one drawn up. If you look on the search function on this website - you can enter in "financial plan" and find the post that has a link to download a sample financial plan - you can use that as a reference as to what you should be looking for.

Also, ask to see any sample work they may have.

Cheers,

Preet

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What are the different kinds of Financial Advisors out there? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-are-the-different-kinds-of-financial-advisors-out-there/ Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:37:55 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/12/what-are-the-different-kinds-of-financial-advisors-out-there/ In-Branch Financial Advisors: You will find these at bank branches. Generally speaking you need only be a client of the bank and whenever you have a question about starting to invest, a teller will refer you to one of these in-house financial advisors. They are normally restricted to selling mutual funds and GIC's and that's about it. In most cases they can only sell you their own bank's brand of mutual funds, but these days the product shelf is opening up to third-party mutual funds (which basically just means mutual funds offered by other banks and dedicated mutual fund companies). These advisors are paid a salary plus bonus based on the volume of business they generate. The mutual funds they offer are all "no-load" which means there are no out of pocket costs for buying or selling the mutual funds - only the ongoing MER's (Management Expense Ratios).  There is not much latitude afforded to them from the banks to create custom portfolios - rather they will have you fill out a short questionnaire which will dictate the packaged portfolio option of mutual funds for you to invest in. They are normally only required to be licensed by the MFDA (which is the Mutual Funds Dealers Association).  This means they are not licensed to speak to you about individual securities like stocks and bonds. They do not create complex financial plans, but can help you make certain financial projections for individual goals.  They do not offer estate planning, insurance planning, advanced tax planning, etc. like a full blown financial planner might. Mutual Fund Sales Representatives: Very similar to an in-branch financial advisor but commission-based for the most part. They can work for mutual fund companies directly (a tell-tale sign is if they only sell a certain line of mutual funds), or they can work for a financial services company that only deals with mutual funds and GIC's. There are two main differences between the Bank Mutual Fund Sales Reps and non-Bank Mutual Fund Sales Reps: The non-bank advisors earn their keep through commissions. Predominantly this is through the selling of back-end loaded mutual funds, also known as DSC funds in the industry which stand for "Deferred Sales Charge". Almost throughout the industry if a mutual fund is sold as a DSC fund, the advisor makes a 5% up front commission and a 0.25% trailer fee every year. Investors will pay a redemption fee (deferred sales charge) if they sell units in these funds within a certain time frame (normally 7 years).  The deferred sales charge also decreases every year until it eventually reaches 0% after the 7th year. Mutual Fund Sales Reps also have the option of selling Front-End load funds where a sales charge is charged right up front and payable by the investor immediately - this can range from 0% to 5%, but normally advisors will not charge more than 2%. The trailer fee is higher with Front End funds and No-Load funds, usually around 1 - 1.25% for equity funds per year. Mutual Fund Sales Reps can also be Life Insurance Licensed, which means they can also sell insurance and segregated funds (the Life Insurance industry's version of mutual funds). They can provide more personalized advice than a bank in-branch financial advisor since they have to bring more value to the table and are comissioned-based. A salaried advisor at a bank has no real "fire" lit under them to perform at a higher level. More senior Mutual Fund Sales Reps will have a CFP (Certified Financial Planner designation) and will argue that mutual funds are the best investment available because it downloads the actual investment management to a fund manager so the Mutual Fund Sales Rep will have more time to create detailed financial plans. Stockbrokers: Stockbrokers are licensed to sell anything. Instead of being limited to mutual funds and GIC's they can provide access to individual securities like stocks and bonds, alternative investments like hedge funds, options and other derivatives and tend to be more in tune with the markets. They can help investors employ complex investment strategies and basically have no limits on the investment products available. Stockbrokers can also be Life Insurance Licensed. They are commission based and can earn a commission on mutual funds just like a commissioned mutual fund sales rep and can earn transactional commissions on stock and bond trades. They can also charge their clients a flat fee instead of using a transactional fee structure. For example when investment portfolios get larger, they might instead charge a flat 1% fee to manage the client's portfolio which could include mutual fund trades, stock and bond orders, option writing, etc. and the fee doesn't change, nor does the broker earn the mutual fund trailers or up-front commissions.  A client making few trades per year might be better off with a transactional fee platform and an investor making 4 trades a month might be better with a flat fee.  More active traders generally do not use a full service stock broker and will trade their own portfolios using a discount on-line brokerage. Generally, a stockbroker will require that their clients have a minimum level of assets to invest (starting at $50,000 for some firms, but $100,000 is the norm for most). One criticism of stockbrokers is that they are more investment focused and not so much interested in full financial planning, but more and more stockbrokers are earning their CFP designations (Certified Financial Planner) or otherwise engaging in full financial planning for their clients. They will tell you if they engage in financial planning or not and the fees may vary depending on that. How do you know which one to use? First and foremost picking a financial advisor is a very hard thing to do.  Assuming that there is a financial advisor at every level who is knowledgeable, service oriented and professional then the choice of which one to use at different times might look something like the following description. When you are a student in high-school, no-one is going to give you the time of day, let's be honest. You will have a bank account and if you actually decide to start saving money for the long term you would use an in-branch bank financial advisor. You might continue on with using the bank branch advisors (who might be different every couple of years) until you are done school. Money hasn't really been much of a focus in your life up to this point so you might not have much to invest. A commissioned mutual funds sales rep might be knocking on your door at this point to offer a more personalized service - i.e. a regular advisor that you meet with who will develop your first real encounter with investing and some basic planning. You may continue on with this type of advisor until you reach the $50,000 - $100,000 mark. At this point, investing in mutual funds may not be the most cost effective method of investing.  If you are still at your bank, they will start to refer you up to their "Wealth Management" departments (which is where the Stockbrokers work). If you are with a non-bank mutual fund sales rep, then you might stay because you don't know any better or you might leave when your comfort and knowledge increases to the level where you realize the fees you are paying for mutual funds might be excessive. Once you get to the $250,000 mark you may switch to a flat-fee account with your stockbroker, or "wrap account" in order to further reduce your investing fees.  If you are more of a buy and hold type of investor with your individual stock and bond positions, you might stay with a transactional fee structure. You may stay at this "level" until the day you die. But, in some cases you may take another step.  Another option becomes available which is known as a "discretionary" account in which you sit down with your stockbroker and outline a disciplined investment philosophy for your portfolio and you allow your stockbroker to make trades in your account based on your guidelines and without having him call you every time for your blessing to enact the trade. If your account is large enough and you hold many different individual securities this option may save time and hassle. The End Well, sort of. I got the idea for this post from a reader who had asked for some advice on picking their asset allocation for their Group RRSP - so I suppose I should mention that many investors only have Group RRSP accounts (or pensions) for their retirement savings. The advisors for these Group RRSPs for the most part (if they are with large companies) are 1-800 numbers with licensed advisors on the other end who have no real connection to your financial situation. They will answer your questions, but will not assist in creating complex financial plans or developing as deep a relationship as you could find with a personal financial advisor. This post really only covers the three broad areas of financial advisors. I didn't write on the Insurance Agents out there who can sell segregated funds - one might say that while they are more knowledgeable on insurance matters, they might be best left out of the investing end of things... etc. If anyone has questions, fire away.  I've seen all sorts of advisors out there and of course many of the advisors I started my career with have diverged into countless different financial advisory roles - all of which I have to know if I am better able to compete with them. :) I also didn't speak about the fee-only planners who write up financial plans and provide basic asset allocation recommendations for more knowledgeable investors to implement on their own. They may charge an hourly rate for the financial planning and leave the investing up to you.]]> 401 2007-10-12 03:37:55 2007-10-12 10:37:55 open open what-are-the-different-kinds-of-financial-advisors-out-there publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1216041229 _edit_last 1 705 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2007-10-12 15:52:44 2007-10-12 22:52:44 Referencing your observation that as a young person (student or new grad): it's unfortunate there's little interest by investment advisors in the initial pittances they have to invest. It's even more important when you have little money, to invest it wisely. While you have a critical element of the wealth growth equation in your favour (time!), you don't want to see returns chewed up by fees. You work too hard for your money not to make the effort to learn about how to manage it properly so hit the personal finance books at the library or bookstore. Start with the Dummies series or David Bach's books. Learn what questions to ask before you give an advisor your money. Another option is to piggyback on the advisor your parents are using; a smart advisor will fall all over themselves to help you if they have any long term perspective on servicing their clients' inevitable estate planning.

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706 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.26.8 2007-10-13 00:05:01 2007-10-13 07:05:01 Thanks for the post, it was very informative. Here is my main question about a financial advisor. At what point should someone move from managing their own funds to moving to paying someone to assist?

I took a browse through the sample financial plan, but haven't read it yet. It seems to me the financial planner should be used after you get to a certain point. Kind of like the banks system of moving you up to the wealth management. I've always thought that I would be taking care of my own finances rather than letting someone else do it, but I guess it sometimes helps to get an objective set of eyes on things.

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707 2007-10-13 02:45:55 2007-10-13 09:45:55 Hi Traciatim - normally I've found that it goes the other way in that most people start with some sort of advisor and then they might switch to managing their own investments after they have been soured by their client-advisor relationship. Not many people manage their own investments from the get go, but there are those who do - and can do quite well for themselves with respect to their investments.

They do however, lack a good grasp of all the other important aspects of finances - like long term tax planning, estate planning, insurance planning, etc.

If I were you, I would start looking for a financial advisor to write up a financial plan for you NOW. Is there someone your friends or colleagues use and recommend?

When I started in the business, many of my clients were young, straight out of university looking for advice on how to save for their first house and start saving for retirement. Most, if not all, moved with me to my new firm which is more upscale, but they had saved and while they don't meet the firm's soft minimum level of assets yet, they have great potential and I treat them like my bigger clients. It's all about building a long-term relationship, so it is totally possible to find a planner who will work with you NOW. The clients that started out with me will probably be my best clients 10 years down the road in terms of assets and referrals - and the loyaltly (both ways) will be unbreakable.

So, if you can find yourself an advisor who is candid, intelligent and willing to work with you even though the pay off to them is years down the road - great. If you aren't sure about the advice you are getting, I'd be happy to give any financial recommendations a second look through for you - as a reader of my blog! :) (no charge)

Preet

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708 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.26.8 2007-10-13 16:04:41 2007-10-13 23:04:41 I actually did ask a few people at work who they used a while back. Most people just went to their bank and I found one person who talked up the company 'Money Concepts' and their contact there. I visited their website and was very un-impressed. Their brochures aren't even available in PDF. The Money Concepts site was also very lacking in details of what they do. At that point is when I figured I would just learn myself and figure it out as I went along.

That was a long time ago now, I hadn't even planned to buy a house at that point and was just saving for a down payment in the RRSP through work. Then my spouse decided to go back to school, then we decided to buy a house, now she's starting a business rather than getting a normal job so she won't have a huge income until she gets things up and running.

So as it stands we just RRSP for me, Individual RESPs for each of the kids (one through CST [YUCK!], and one using TD E-Funds), and trying to keep up with everything else while we basically have one income. That's probably the way we'll stay until next summer and we'll see if her business is taking off. If at that point her income is up then we will be opening an RRSP for her and starting investing in non-registered accounts, but I'll probably just do that through Questrade, or the at the time best discount broker for our situation.

As for the other things since she isn't going back to work we have to set up some disability insurance for her and set up a joint term life insurance for the two of us in case something happens to her or I to cover the cost of raising the kids. Once we have that all squared away I would be willing to bet we're much farther ahead than most of the population.

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709 2007-10-13 19:26:42 2007-10-14 02:26:42 Yes I think you are correct in your assertion that you would be further ahead than most of the population. :)

Re: the life insurance. You just inspired me as to what my next post can be on. You mention a joint-life policy for the two of you. Manulife has a family term product that is basically two separate policies instead of a joint-first-to-die (which is what you would normally use for your reason) and the cost is only 2 or 3 dollars extra per month than having a joint policy.

There are a couple of benefits:

1) If you and your spouse were to die in the same incident - then there is twice as much insurance available to the guardians.
2) If one of you dies first, the remaining person still has life insurance. With the joint-first policy when the first person dies the policy pays and is then complete - no more insurance in effect - perhaps the remaining spouse has become sick and uninsurable, but the kids are still not self-sufficient.
3) You can have different levels of insurance on each life - from what you mention right now, you would need more coverage on your life since you are the main bread-winner for the time being. If the low income earner right now were to pass, you may not need as much insurance to be able to carry on.

Morbid to think about, but you have to really examine your options.

Depending on the differing levels of insurance required on each life, the cost may actually work out to be the same as a joint policy, but with all the above-mentioned benefits.

Look into it, and look soon. If you want some quotes I have some insurance companies' quoting software installed on my laptop - I can give you a ballpark estimate, and then you can look on Kanetix.com to see what the going rates are for other carriers.

You shouldn't be without adequate coverage for a day when you have kids.

If you are so inclined, please look at the 12 part series I wrote on life insurance if you haven't already - it's a long read, but very worthwhile. I think part 12 is when I look at how YOU can determine how much coverage you need yourself, and use that in discussions with an insurance agent.

Disclosure: (although I'm sure you are aware) I'm a stockbroker and I am life-insurance licensed - so I would recommend taking everything I say with the knowledge that no matter how hard I try, or how gosh-doggone nice I am, a conflict of interest exists! :)

Nonetheless, I try my best to act only in others' best interests and I hope this answer was helpful.

Preet

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710 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-10-15 20:21:20 2007-10-16 03:21:20 That's an interesting product from Manulife. The problem is that my existing coverage through work is with them. I would kind of prefer to use a separate company for an external policy. Though I would find it hard to believe that an insurance company would be bothered but a couple hundred grand, what happens if we have a train crash all going to a Manulife customer appreciation event . . . who knows, stranger things have happened ;)

I've always thought that the best way to determine my insurance coverage is to make sure all debts are paid, and allow enough for 2 years living expenses plus 2 years of schooling. That way the surviving spouse can go back to school, pick up some more skills, make themselves more marketable and move on. If you can't live on one salary with no debt and no worry about the roof over your head there are probably other problems that need resolving anyway. Plus, my kids RESPs are included in our expenses, and we are planning only to pay for about half of a 4 year university program. I know I may sound cold hearted, but if they don't work themselves through I think it will just go to waste because they won't appreciate where they are as much.

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711 2007-10-16 00:34:36 2007-10-16 07:34:36 Couple of notes:

1) Work provided insurance is not as robust as private coverage. My former boss had a friend who had both private insurance and group insurance. He died in a snowmobiling accident and had trace amounts of alcohol in his system. The alcohol content voided his group coverage as the underwriting is done at time of death. The private insurance paid out immediately. With private insurance, since you have underwriting at time of application once the policy is approved you are paid out almost no matter what (your beneficiaries could get paid out even if you commit suicide after the policy has been in effect for 2 years). The payout to claim ratio might be (just for example) 80% for group insurance and 99% for private. Check the fine print.

2) Consider that most people do not remain with a company their entire careers - most people who leave their employer do not transfer over their insurance coverage and all the premiums that went to the insurance company is just gravy. They make tonnes of money on group insurance.

3) Insurance companies have insurance too. In some cases they re-insure themselves through other carriers - just another way to spread the risk out between them.

4) Your formula for calculating life insurance is fine, so long as you are sure that is what would happen - a death of a big part of the family may require more than 2 years to get back on track no matter what you see on Desperate Housewives... :) (tongue firmly planted in cheek) :P

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712 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.29.60 2007-10-17 00:02:17 2007-10-17 07:02:17 They actually are just hiking our rates on our disability coverage. You can now switch between two plans, one to save fees and one to actually have disability coverage from what I understand. I think our rate is going to 3.14/$100 of coverage for a plan that will cover you up to age 65 for long term disability and another plan that will go for 1.42/$100 for coverage for a 5 year period after the disability. I'm not too familiar with rates on group coverage, but is this pretty standard? (Or current rate is $2.43 for the 5 year plan, and they are hiking it, which is why the offer of the 5 year, since the general populous would flip out if they were forced in to the rate hike).

I realize that I won't be at the company forever, however I can get coverage for myself when I leave the company and/or my next employer will probably have a coverage as well.

I didn't realize that the insurance company could have insurance too. It doensn't seem to make much sense. Do the insurance companies that provide the insurance for other insurance companies also have insurance on their own polices that cover the other insurance companies?

My calculation for the life insurance doesn't have to be used for school. I mean, my spouse just actually got out of school and is trying to start her own business. She could take the money, have very little expenses (save taxes, food, bills, and maintenance on the house) and start up her own place rather than renting space from someone else in her line of work. I could go back to school and get some certifications on what I want to do. We'd just have the couple of years to figure out how to move on and get our bearings. It's not like I meant that things would be 'normal' after 2 years. Just because you're on the track doesn't mean the track doesn't go through a mountain range :)

I just think that if the most that the survivor would need is food (say 400/month), maintenance on the house (Say 150/month), property tax ($200/month), Random bills (400/month), and childcare (500/month, 2 kids), RESP's (250/month), that's around 1900/month or 22800 / year. So if you plan on having all the debt paid at your demise and maybe 100K to live for 2 years I think that's plenty to get by. In my own family that would be done on about 250K of insurance. 150K for debt (including the mortgage) and final expenses and 100K to live for the next while. That would last a few years if you wanted it to and should get things pointing back in the right direction.

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713 2007-10-17 20:31:03 2007-10-18 03:31:03 Sounds like a good game plan on the life insurance calculation - I think you are on the right track in that regards. Everyone's different, so by sitting down and actually thinking about what would happen and what you would WANT to happen is the key thing - which you have clearly done. Good on 'ya! :)

WRT your disability at work: you said it was $2.43 for the 5 year plan now, but did you mean it was $2.43 for the "to age 65" plan right now?

In any case, if you are forced into picking one or the other, know that you can always get your own private insurance with a 5 year waiting period that would kick in after your 5-year work coverage expired - with a 5 year wait period, it would reduce the coverage premium for the private insurance the average disability lasts about 2.9 years or so.

Let me know about those rates - it didn't read right.

Re: insurance companies insuring each-other. Some of the largest insurance companies are "re-insurers". It helps avoid the insolvency of any one company if they happen to get hit with many claims (i.e. hurricane insurers years ago) and they can't afford to pay the claims all at once. It helps spread out the risk between all the insurance players - and they are all about reducing risk.

I think it only goes the one extra level - i.e. no re-re-insurers. :)

In fact one re-insurer is called General Re (do a google search on them and click on about us --> Gen Re.

You will note they are owned by Berkshire Hathaway - Warren Buffett's holding company! :)

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714 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/07/13/finding-a-financial-advisor-part-1 64.111.114.14 2008-07-13 22:23:52 2008-07-14 02:23:52 1 pingback 0 0 715 http://starttags.com/tags/trace-element-distributions 98.240.245.202 2010-04-04 16:39:29 2010-04-04 21:39:29 1 pingback 0 0
An Advanced Investment Strategy: "The Option Straddle" http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-advanced-investment-strategy-the-option-straddle/ Sat, 13 Oct 2007 04:35:04 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/12/an-advanced-investment-strategy-the-option-straddle/ This is an Advanced Level Topic. I received a lot of comments about a recent guest article I wrote on Convertible Bond Arbitrage - it seems that a lot of people are interested in learning more about advanced investment strategies - even if it's just for academic purposes, or in other words - they don't want to necessarily engage in these strategies but are curious about them and want to know more. ...what the people WANT, the people GET! :) This brings us to this article on "Straddling". The "Straddle" might get its name because one way to think about this strategy is to liken it to "sitting on the fence"... at least until something significant happens that could move stock's price one way or the other DRAMATICALLY. But don't confuse this with "sitting on the sidelines" per se, because you are invested to a certain degree before this "dramatic turn of events". Clear as mud? Okay, let's make up a hypothetical example: There is a gold exploration company, let's call it Bre-Y. Okay, maybe that's cruel, let's call it the ABC Gold Company... They have just sent 20 core samples from 20 drill sites to a third party geology lab and everyone is anxiously awaiting the results.  If the samples comes back saying that their sites are full of gold and silver then you would expect that the stock's price will shoot through the roof. If they come back as being just a pile of petrified feces then you would expect that the stock's price might fall through the floor. In either case you are looking for an upcoming known event that would be a catalyst for a major price movement. It doesn't matter which direction for this strategy, what is important is that there is going to be a significant price movement in the near future. Okay, so we've set the stage for when you would employ the "option straddle", now let's explain what the "option straddle" is. Essentially what you are doing is buying an equal amount of call options and put options on ABC Gold Company's stock. You know that the Call options will be "in-the-money" if ABC's stock price shoots up and will expire worthless if ABC's stock price goes down. Conversely you know that the Put options will expire worthless if ABC's stock price goes up and will be "in-the-money" if ABC's stock price goes down. What makes this strategy work is when the money you make by exercising your call or put is more than the money you lose on the expired corresponding put or call; respectively. But I think it is best to demonstrate with an example. ABC Gold Company's common stock is trading at $50 per share (I know, I know - that's an unrealistic price for a non-producing gold exploration company, but bare with me for the sake of this explanation...) and it is January 1st. The core results are expected to be announced in February.  You would buy a Call option contract (a March 55 Call for example, which means that the strike price is $55 and the contract expires in March) and a Put option contract (a March 45 Put for example, which means that the strike price is $45 and similarly the contract expires in March). Let's say that each option contract costs $5. So let's run through  3 different scenarios: 1) ABC's stock price shoots up to $75. You have made money on your call option. The value of the option is worth $20 since the stock's price is $75 and that is $20 more than the $55 strike price (the point above which the call option is "in-the-money"). Don't forget that you paid $5 for the call option contract, so you have to subtract that from your gain. $20 - $5 leaves you with $15. You also have to factor in that your put option contract will expire worthless, so you are down the $5 to purchase that contract as well. $15 - $5 leaves you with $10. Since your total money invested to begin with was only the two option contracts at $5 each, your total investment was $10 to end up with $20. Again, after subtracting your initial outlay of $10, you have made a 100% return on your investment. 2) ABC's stock price plummets to $5 In this case you have made money on your put option. Since the strike price is $45, the value of the put option increases as the stock price drops below this price. At a stock price of $5 you would buy shares at $5 and then sell them through exercising your put option at $45 for a gain of $40. You would have to subtract the $5 for the price of buying the put option contract which leaves you with $35 on that side. On the flip side, the call option has expired worthless and you are out your $5 for the price of the call option contract. So, $35 - $5 now leaves you with $30. You have made a 300% gain on your investment. 3) ABC's stock price doesn't change (maybe the core samples are delayed). In this case, neither of your option contracts are in-the-money and they both expire worthless.  You are out $5 for each option contract for a total loss of $10 - or, you have lost 100% of your money. So by now you have seen some hypothetical examples of how derivatives can magnify risk and return! But you might be wondering about what the break even points are for this example. So let's go through one more set of equations. Except this time, let's work backwards and calculate the break-even points, instead of using a trial and error approach. We know that both contracts will expire worthless if the price stays between $45.01 and $54.99 since any value between, and including, these amounts is OUT-of-money for both options contracts. So if the stock's price does not change by 10% in either direction, you will have lost 100% of your investment. To find out the break even point is actually pretty easy. We know that no matter what, you are out $10 for purchasing two $5 option contracts. So you need to calculate how much of a gain you need on either side of the straddle in order to recoup your $10 costs. And since you can only make money on one side at a time (and the values used in our example have strike prices and option contract costs that are identical) if we calculate the break-even point for the "upside" it will be an exact mirror to the "downside" - in other words we will find the absolute value of the price movement required in order to break even with this strategy - so let's get started. In order to make $10 on either side of the straddle, we need to be $10 in-the-money for either option contract. So let's take the call option side. In order to make $10 in-the-money for the call option, ABC's stock price has to rise $10 above the strike price of $55 - or in other words $65. Therefore, in order to make money on this "straddle", the price of ABC's stock has to move by $15 in total in either direction - or roughly 30%  - after the release of the core sample composition results. Let's just do the math for the break-even one more time. ABC has risen to exactly $65. Your call option is in-the-money since the strike price is $55. You exercise your call option and hence the right to buy the stock at $55, and immediately sell it for $65. You have a gain of $10. But you have also to subtract the cost of the call option contract of $5 leaving you with $5. But then you ALSO have to subtract the $5 you spent on the put option contract which will expire worthless - leaving you with $0. So you can see, the break-even point is when ABC moves by $15 in either direction. A few more things to consider for the real world The examples I've used above were again created in order to demonstrate the mechanics of the option straddle. When you purchase a contract there is a commission to buy the option over and above the price of the contract. Also note that prices of options contracts increase when there is greater uncertainty of the underlying stock's price going forward. The price of the contracts will not necessarily be equal to the distance from the stock's current price to the strike price - and so if you are thinking about initiating a straddle you need to do the math ahead of time to see what the variance required is (in either direction) to break even. And a final note: option contracts are for multiples of 100 shares. So that $5 contract would be for 100 shares and so to purchase the contract would mean you would need to pay $500 for either side of the straddle for a total of $1000 to engage the strategy (in this case). So there you have the "Option Straddle"! Another advanced level investment strategy unearthed for you at WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com! :) Have a great weekend everyone.]]> 402 2007-10-12 21:35:04 2007-10-13 04:35:04 open open an-advanced-investment-strategy-the-option-straddle publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1220029997 716 brandon.alsup@gmail.com http://www.newlycorporate.com 72.128.82.215 2007-11-29 04:00:08 2007-11-29 11:00:08 Nice post, this explains to me what tax directors at my work couldn't explain to me. I'll be putting this new knowledge to work! Thanks

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717 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.130 2008-11-20 08:58:18 2008-11-20 13:58:18 1 0 0 718 v3yagnik@yahoo.com http://wherdoesallmymoneygo.com 183.87.31.158 2010-04-11 03:31:47 2010-04-11 08:31:47 1 0 0
The Canadian Tax Bracket System http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-canadian-tax-bracket-system/ Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:02:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/15/the-canadian-tax-bracket-system/ "progressive" manner. Basically the more you earn, the more you are taxed. In fact you may have heard people referring to high-income earners losing half of what they make to the government. While it is true that a high income earner will pay a lot of money in tax, they don't normally pay HALF of their income to the income tax collectors. Allow me to explain... There is no 50% tax bracket in Canada. In Ontario, the highest tax bracket that exists is 46.41% for income over $126,265 (for the 2009 tax year). So right off the bat you can see that someone would not lose HALF their earnings to income tax. But there is more to this story than just that. Let's start with an example and then work backwards... If Bob earned $130,000 for 2009, he would have a combined total federal and provincial income tax of $41,171. That would leave him with a "take-home pay" of approximately $88,829. As you can see this is clearly not half of his income. So what gives? The Candian tax system uses what are commonly called "tax brackets". Each bracket has its own rate of tax, and as you move up through the brackets the rate of tax increases until you reach the top tax bracket which is 46.41% (Ontario). Here are the tax brackets for Ontario (2009 Combined Federal and Ontario Provincial Personal Income Tax Rates as sourced from Ernst & Young):
Income Bracket Marginal Tax Rate
$0 - $10,320 0.00%
$10,321 - $12,269 15.50%
$12,270 - $15,658 27.60%
$15,659 - $36,848 21.55%
$36,849 - $40,726 24.65%
$40,727 - $64,881 31.15%
$64,882 - $73,698 32.98%
$73,699 - $76,442 35.39%
$76,443 - $81,452 39.41%
$81,453 - $126,264 43.41%
$126,265 + 46.41%
If you earned $130,000 you would be in the highest "Marginal Tax Bracket" subject to the highest "Marginal Tax Rate" of 46.41%, but that rate of 46.41% ONLY applies to the income over $126,265. As you can see from the table above, the first $10,320 of your income (no matter how much your total income is) incurs no personal income tax. The concept of "Average Tax Rate" is just a way of figuring out roughly how much of your income is going to the government in the form of personal income tax. If we go back to our high income earner ($130,000) and do the math, we will find: $41,171 Total Tax Bill / $130,000 Total Income = 31.67% Average Tax Rate. Average Tax Rates serve no purpose for tax filings - they are only calculated to see how much of what you earn is going to the government. MARGINAL TAX RATES come into play for many calcuations and are important in calculating the effects of certain financial strategies - so that number is ultimately more important. The Average Tax Rate is just nice to know... Or not! :) Here is a link for quickly figuring out your Marginal Tax Rate, Average Tax Rate and Tax Rates on different types of income.
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403 2007-10-15 18:02:27 2007-10-16 01:02:27 open open the-canadian-tax-bracket-system publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1269318944 719 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-02-16 00:11:04 2009-02-16 05:11:04 1 0 0 720 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 60.48.76.68 2009-03-09 10:23:18 2009-03-09 15:23:18 1 0 0 721 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-03-09 10:54:48 2009-03-09 15:54:48 1 0 0 722 http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/lobby/45389-many-americans-emigrate-canada.html#post1040842 63.247.137.122 2009-03-15 13:54:44 2009-03-15 18:54:44 1 pingback 0 0 723 atrickpay11@yahoo.ca 24.78.225.71 2009-06-28 12:45:51 2009-06-28 17:45:51 1 0 0 724 artisan1@telus.net 173.183.229.26 2009-08-04 18:01:10 2009-08-04 23:01:10 1 0 0 725 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-05 20:51:57 2009-08-06 01:51:57 1 0 0 726 http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/739682-oecd-countries-universal-healthcare-gets-high.html#post10370083 74.86.168.82 2009-08-20 13:35:01 2009-08-20 18:35:01 1 pingback 0 0 727 dlatam@shaw.ca http://n/a 70.65.111.24 2009-09-20 02:05:43 2009-09-20 07:05:43 1 0 0 728 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-09-22 21:18:32 2009-09-23 02:18:32 1 0 0 729 ivo.maljevic@gmail.com 66.203.207.67 2009-11-30 14:43:47 2009-11-30 19:43:47 1 0 0 730 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-30 20:53:45 2009-12-01 01:53:45 1 0 0 731 ivo.maljevic@gmail.com 66.203.207.67 2009-12-01 10:15:13 2009-12-01 15:15:13 1 0 0 732 ivo.maljevic@gmail.com 66.203.207.67 2009-12-01 11:15:21 2009-12-01 16:15:21 1 0 0 733 http://www.tribemagazine.com/board/tribe-main-forum/144856-nobody-cares-3926.html#post4310429 206.223.160.18 2009-12-15 15:10:29 2009-12-15 20:10:29 1 pingback 0 0 734 conradfernandes@gmail.com 93.41.212.140 2010-01-05 03:31:18 2010-01-05 08:31:18 1 0 0 735 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-01-05 18:37:47 2010-01-05 23:37:47 There is no room in this philosophy for a middle ground, or a series of gradations, between the passive and aggressive status. Many, perhaps most, investors seek to place themselves in such an intermediate category; in our opinion that is a compromise that is more likely to produce disappointment than achievement. As an investor you cannot soundly become “half a businessman,” expecting thereby to achieve half the normal rate of business profits on your funds. Unless you're going to become a professional forex trader, you ought to stay away from it entirely. Having said that, your hypothetical profits would be taxed as capital gains.]]> 1 0 0 736 yogipuff@hotmail.com 154.20.251.74 2010-01-10 12:46:40 2010-01-10 17:46:40 1 0 0 737 maggotcrew@hotmail.com 24.79.141.224 2010-02-10 01:38:39 2010-02-10 06:38:39 1 0 0 738 steveapt3@hotmail.com 173.35.116.136 2010-02-18 11:17:40 2010-02-18 16:17:40 1 0 0 739 steveapt3@hotmail.com 173.35.116.136 2010-02-18 11:23:45 2010-02-18 16:23:45 1 0 0 740 christophercleighton@gmail.com 24.57.67.54 2010-02-22 10:21:24 2010-02-22 15:21:24 1 0 0 741 atrickpay11@yahoo.ca 204.112.159.1 2010-02-22 10:42:56 2010-02-22 15:42:56 "Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion, by threatening dire penalties should the income not be forthcoming. That coercion is known as "taxation," although in less regularized epochs it was often known as "tribute." Taxation is theft, purely and simply, even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State's inhabitants, or subjects." - Murrray N. Rothbard]]> 1 0 0 742 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-02-22 12:24:27 2010-02-22 17:24:27 1 0 0 743 atrickpay11@yahoo.ca 204.112.159.1 2010-02-22 13:04:58 2010-02-22 18:04:58 1 0 0 744 http://ctya.org/blog/?p=646 77.232.68.226 2010-03-02 12:12:44 2010-03-02 17:12:44 1 pingback 0 0 745 pmootz@rogers.com 99.226.152.226 2010-03-22 14:09:39 2010-03-22 19:09:39 1 0 0 746 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.86.21.49 2010-03-22 23:34:41 2010-03-23 04:34:41 1 745 0 747 soul_fish@hotmail.com 63.228.73.181 2010-04-07 11:06:25 2010-04-07 16:06:25 1 0 0 748 sean.williams@suddenlink.net 74.192.150.173 2010-04-21 11:34:16 2010-04-21 16:34:16 1 0 0
We are approaching the 20th Anniversary of Black Monday on the Stock Markets http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/we-are-approaching-the-20th-anniversary-of-black-monday-on-the-stock-markets/ Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:48:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/16/we-are-approaching-the-20th-anniversary-of-black-monday-on-the-stock-markets/

I came across an article on the Wall Street Journal which gives a great insight into Black Monday. For those of us newer to the stock markets and investing, Black Monday occurred on Monday October 19th, 1987. The Dow Jones plummeted 22.6% on that day - taking everyone by surprise and sparking massive fear and uncertainty.

EmptyPockets.jpgLet me put that into perspective - The TSX would have to drop by 3,216 points tomorrow to match the performance of Black Monday! Remember, only just 2 months ago we had a huge panic about the TSX dropping 400 points in one day (it was actually about 600 points intraday, but gained 200 late afternoon) on August 24, 2007. If that happened on 8 consecutive days it would only then begin to match the single day drop of Black Monday...

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE ON THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE 

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404 2007-10-16 00:48:27 2007-10-16 07:48:27 open open we-are-approaching-the-20th-anniversary-of-black-monday-on-the-stock-markets publish 0 0 post 0 749 lindsay@ino.com http://club.ino.com/trading/?vidmar 63.146.14.254 2007-10-17 20:08:17 2007-10-18 03:08:17 There is a poll about Black Monday on the TradersBlog , asking "Black Monday - Can It Happen Again This Week?" I am amazed how divided traders are. Half say that there is nothing to worry about, the other half are sure that the markets will have a crash repeat performance. The poll results are really interesting. You can see it at http://club.ino.com/trading/?poll

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750 2007-10-17 20:17:04 2007-10-18 03:17:04 Thanks for pointing us to that poll Lindsay! It IS interesting to see how many people associate investing with numerology and the sort. So according to half the people who voted, there will be a repeat drop of over 20% THIS FRIDAY.

That is certainly the funniest thing I've seen all day - and it's been a whacky day for me in the office! :)

These must be the same people who call into psychic hot-lines and never wonder why the tele-psychics didn't call THEM in the first place... lol

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RRSP Loan Strategy: Pay off high interest debt with a big RRSP contribution http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rrsp-loan-strategy-pay-off-high-interest-debt-with-a-big-rrsp-contribution/ Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:00:00 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/17/rrsp-loan-strategy-pay-off-high-interest-debt-with-a-big-rrsp-contribution/

Another RRSP loan strategy that some people use who are behind on their RRSP contributions is to take a really big RRSP loan all at once and to use the big tax refund to reduce high interest debt.

MonthlyBudgetPicture.jpgOne of the reasons they would carry high interest debt is due to poor budgeting and you have to careful before contemplating a strategy like this that the "budgeting" problem has been fixed, but nonetheless I have seen many couples who have reached a fork in the road.  They have either overspent so much that they have maxed a bunch of credit cards and department store cards and can't get anymore. They realize that they are in trouble, and the only reason they don't continue to overspend is that all their money goes into maintaining the payments on their mortgage and other debts.

When this strategy is really good to look at is when you are trying to get back on track by making big monthly payments on your high-interest debt because you realize just how much money is being paid in interest carrying costs and you have decided to fix the problem once and for all.  You want to reduce your bad debts and put the interest savings perhaps into retirement savings. Great. But you feel like it's going to take an eternity to make headway, right? Well here is how this strategy might work for you...

Let's take a sample couple named Joe and Jane Timeforachange. They overspent their way to a bunch of maxed out credit and department store cards that looks like the following:

           Description     Interest Rate     Balance Owing     Monthly Payment

MasterCard            19%                $3,000                  $100

VISA                       19%                $7,000                  $100

Department Card     29%               $3,000                  $200

Department Card     29%               $2,000                  $200

In this case we have a total of $15,000 in high-interest debt and Monthly payments of $600 in total. The total amount of interest being charged PER MONTH is $279.16. Calculating the interest you are being charged to carry debts on assets that have long depreciated is a humbling experience. In this case, almost half of the payments are being directed to interest costs alone!

Let's assume that Joe and Jane are a single income family and Jane is the bread-winner - she earns $145,000 per year and Joe is a stay at home dad. This would put Jane in the highest tax bracket, which for Ontario is 46.41%. Since this couple has been playing catch-up with their finances, they have really fallen behind in their retirement savings so there is a LOT of unused RRSP contribution room (sound familiar? Only about 10% of Canadians maximize their RRSPs).

If Jane could make an RRSP contribution big enough, the tax refund could be large enough to completely wipe out her high-interest debts! So what would be involved?

Well, we know that they don't have the cash on hand (otherwise they would've paid off their high-interest debt long ago!) so they will need an RRSP Loan. They have to calculate how much of a loan they will need in order to generate a tax refund equal to $15,000. Most people at this point would just take the $15,000 and divide by 46.41% to arrive at $32,320. But I would caution you that you need to see if you drop through any tax brackets because that will affect your refund.

An easier way to figure it out is to log onto Ernst & Young's Personal Tax Calculators and specifically the RRSP Refund Calculator.  It will give you a very good idea as to how much you will need to borrow and contribute to your RRSP to get a certain amount of refund - just plug in the numbers until you get the desired refund.  For Jane, we arrive at the following amount of contribution needed for a $15,000 refund: $32,887. In this case, the number from the calculator was pretty close to the rough calculation we made, but for incomes that are closer to the threshold's for lower tax brackets, the difference can be SIGNIFICANT.

The next thing to do would be to get the RRSP loan! Ideally, what you want to do is keep your cash flow the same as before the loan, so you would like to find how long the loan should be for a $600 monthly payment.

Using a loan calculator we find that $32,887 paid back over 60 months (and assuming an interest rate of 7%) would be about $650 per month. That's close enough that it makes sense for our couple. Now, before getting the loan, you will want to look for a loan provider that allows for a 3 or 6 month deferral on your first payment.  The reason for this is that once you take out the loan and make your RRSP contribution you will have to pay for not only the loan ($650/month) but also the debt payments ($600/month) until your tax refund arrives! By having the ability to defer the first loan payment for 3 or 6 months you can eliminate the overlapping payments.

So, let's look at the situation they would be in assuming NO RRSP Loan, and that when they pay off their debts, they start contributing to their RRSP with the freed up money. We will assume in all cases that the RRSP investments yield an 8% average rate of return:

                       Debt          RRSP Value        NET          Cash flow 

Now                 ($15,000)        $0              ($15,000)    ($600)

3 years later     $0                   $0              $0              ($600)

5 years later     $0                   $15,610      $15,610      ($600)

Compare this to what their situation would look like if they used this RRSP Loan Strategy: 

                       Debt          RRSP Value        NET          Cash flow 

Now                 ($32,887)     $32,887          $0             ($600)

3 years later     ($14,525)     $41,428          $26,903     ($650)

5 years later     $0               $48,322          $48,322      ($650)

If we really wanted to compare apples to apples, we would have the couple take out an RRSP catch-up loan in the BEFORE strategy as soon as they pay off their debts. Additionally, we would immediately take their $15,000 refund at the end of year 3 to pay down the RRSP loan. This means they will have an RRSP loan balance of $17,887 starting in year 3. In which case it would look like the following:

                       Debt          RRSP Value        NET          Cash flow 

Now                 ($15,000)        $0              ($15,000)    ($600)

3 years later     ($17,887)        $32,887       $15,000     ($600)

5 years later     ($4,453)         $38,359       $34,404      ($600)

Hopefully by now you can see that the strategy does work by putting in a lump sum into the retirement savings now and by basically converting bad debt to good debt. But probably the best part of the strategy is the psychological lift you can get by not swimming in debt with high-interest credit cards and department store cards and having a substantial amount of savings to kick-start your RRSP.

Some critics will no doubt argue that anyone expecting an 8% rate of return would not expect a STATIC 8% return every year and the performance over the short term could be net negative. It is a valid point and you should consider what effect that would have both financially and psychologically by consulting a professional. It should be noted that if you buy fixed income investments inside your RRSP, while yielding less than 8% long term, the strategy would still make sense. Do the math for yourself - it is a good exercise and good practice to see the effects of different strategies with different rates of return... 

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405 2007-10-17 12:00:00 2007-10-17 19:00:00 open open rrsp-loan-strategy-pay-off-high-interest-debt-with-a-big-rrsp-contribution publish 0 0 post 0 751 99.252.185.109 2008-02-23 23:53:46 2008-02-24 06:53:46 I have been trying to do just this very thing but (if most people are in the same boat as me) my credit sucks and they wont give me the loan??? Any avenues to obtain the loan, even at a higher interest rate would be appreciated!

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752 2008-02-25 14:17:25 2008-02-25 21:17:25 Unfortunately that is a potential catch-22 that people can run into. Alternative forms of financing can be arranged through mortgage brokers on occasion. They might suggest a consolidation loan as another option, or they might have some information on private lenders (who take on higher risk cases and expect higher interest rates in return).

I hope that helps and good luck!

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753 sumit.rml@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/rrsp-loan-strategy-pay-off-high-interest-debt-with-a-big-rrsp-contribution/ 121.247.181.115 2008-07-18 17:22:24 2008-07-18 21:22:24 Debt Consolidation]]> 1 0 0
Riskless Profit through Pure Arbitrage http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/riskless-profit-through-pure-arbitrage/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:32:14 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/18/riskless-profit-through-pure-arbitrage/

The word "arbitrage" gets thrown around a little bit, but here follows the pure form of arbitrage which is defined as simultaneously being "long" AND "short" a security at the same time in order to make a riskless instant profit.

QuestionMark.jpgFirst a few definitions:

LONG - Means that you believe the security is going up so you own it (or indirectly own it, to be technical).

SHORT - Means that you believe the security is going down, so you sell it. And really, shorting means you sell something you don't own - hoping to buy it at a lower price.

Next, you'll probably be puzzled as to why you would be long and short a security at the same time - all else being equal you expect your gain on the stock you owned would exactly be offset by the loss on the short (or vice versa) - and you would be right.

SO - the first thing you have to understand is that this strategy only applies in certain circumstances.  Most often that circumstance would be when a stock is "inter-listed" - or, appears on more than one stock exchange. There are many stocks that are interlisted. For example, Pfizer is listed on the NYSE, as well as on the London stock market, Euronext and Swiss stock exchanges.

Sometimes the stocks trade at prices that are different, when factoring in the currency exchange rates etc. Now remember, these shares are all shares in Pfizer so no matter where they are traded, they represent ownership in Pfizer. So if you could buy a share in London and sell it in New York, that's fine.

Now if you wanted to earn a "riskless profit" you do the following. Whichever exchange (after figuring the currency effects and costs for converting) has the stock priced higher than the other is the exchange on which you would SHORT the shares. At the same time you would buy the LOWER priced shares on the exchange with the lower price.  You would then cover your short position by surrendering the shares you bought at a lower price from the other exchange. Simple as that.

Keep in mind any arbitrage opportunities are few and far between and you need to make sizeable transactions to really make a lot of money executing a "riskless" strategy.

For those who like examples with numbers:

Let's say that company ABC trades on BOTH the TSX and the NYSE. It is priced at $100.00 on the TSX and $101.00 on the NYSE. The current exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Loonie is $1.02 (i.e. the Canadian dollar is stronger). To calculate the price of each stock comparing apples to apples we would need to see what the cost of each is in one currency. Let's figure out the stock price in Candian Dollars for the NYSE listing:

$101.00 USD/share divided by $1.02 USD/CAD = $99.02 per share in Canadian dollars 

Since the same share is $100.00 on the TSX there is a price mis-match. In this case we would buy shares of ABC on the NYSE at $99.02 (in CAD) and simultaneously short the shares at $100.00 on the TSX. This is an instantaneous return of 0.98% with no risk (in theory).

There are, however, some risks in practice. First you have to consider that the currency exchange rates fluctuate constantly, and if the security is liquid and highly traded, it's price might move slightly before you can execute the orders.  You would have to place limit orders, and you also have to look closely at the market depth to make sure you can match the number of shares bought and sold (and that there are willing buyers/sellers).

In addition, if you want to make any great deal of money, you'll need large positions. Since the market IS relatively efficient, big pricing mismatches of very liquid securities ARE QUITE RARE - but they do exist. 

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406 2007-10-18 17:32:14 2007-10-19 00:32:14 open open riskless-profit-through-pure-arbitrage publish 0 0 post 0 754 matthewmoore2@gmail.com http://blog.daylife.com 24.10.246.22 2007-12-15 01:06:40 2007-12-15 08:06:40 Daylife adds:
Where does all my money go (a blog for Canadian personal finance empowerment)" gave an example of arbitrage (a strategy with much infamy itself wholly the result of the LTCM debacle) using the US dollar in relation to the Canadian dollar:" ...>
Read the rest here.

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Many Employers will MATCH your Charitable Contributions - all you have to do is apply... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/many-employers-will-match-your-charitable-contributions-all-you-have-to-do-is-apply/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:21:08 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/19/many-employers-will-match-your-charitable-contributions-all-you-have-to-do-is-apply/

If you happen to work for a very large company, chances are they have a program where they will match employee contributions to charitable donations dollar for dollar. So in other words you could double the amount of money going to your favourite charities!

unicef.jpgIt's one of those things where when you hear about it you think, "Hey, that's a great idea!" but then it gets filed away and forgotten. More often than not, when a company newsletter comes around reminding you of the program you think about the $20 or $50 you've given to charity and how you forgot to take advantage of the free-matching! You probably say to yourself, "I'll remember for next time!" and then next time comes, and you forget again? I certainly fall into that boat.

So here's my suggestion: Send an email to your HR person to ask two things.

1) Is there a charitable donation employer-matching program available? (if you don't know)

2) Ask if you can get 2 copies of the form. Even if you don't need one right now.

Then keep the forms at your desk. I know for me, usually the sporadic contributions I make to various causes are in the form of $20 here and $20 there, and I think subconsciously I can't be bothered with finding a form to get that amount matched. THAT'S JUST SILLY! Why do I do that? I know that if the form is already at my desk, I'll use it for sure.

Many large companies will match their employee's contributions to their favourite REGISTERED charities for up to $1,000. I think that if we all started to actively use these programs we could collectively make quite a big difference to a lot of beneficiaries in need of charitable donations!

Feel free to tell your friends by sending them a copy of this link, or emailing it to them by clicking on the "Email" link right below the post. Have a great weekend everyone! 

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407 2007-10-19 14:21:08 2007-10-19 21:21:08 open open many-employers-will-match-your-charitable-contributions-all-you-have-to-do-is-apply publish 0 0 post 0 755 ritches2000@yahoo.com 75.157.127.26 2008-09-25 15:21:25 2008-09-25 19:21:25 1 0 0 756 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-25 23:20:11 2008-09-26 03:20:11 http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/menu-eng.html should get you started in the right direction.]]> 1 0 0 757 ritches2000@yahoo.com 206.116.76.166 2008-10-01 17:52:48 2008-10-01 21:52:48 1 0 0 758 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-10-03 09:04:55 2008-10-03 13:04:55 1 0 0
Mutual Funds: "Global" vs "International" funds - there is a difference! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mutual-funds-global-vs-international-funds-there-is-a-difference/ Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:48:57 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/20/mutual-funds-global-vs-international-funds-there-is-a-difference/

I remember the first time I looked at investing in mutual funds was when I was 15 years old.  Upon getting my first job (McDonald's), my father made me setup an automatic contribution to a mutual fund - my small payment of $25 per 2 weeks would get sent to the mutual fund company the day after my pay cheque was deposited. I also remember looking at all the different booklets and informational brochures from that company and how there were about 50 different funds to choose from.  At that point, I had no idea that some were high risk and some were low risk and some were somewhere in-between. I also remember seeing some really long names for these various funds. Most of all, I remember being confused!

Mutual_fund.jpgYou can figure out a lot about a mutual fund based on the name it has. For example, a fund called the "U.S. Large Cap Value" fund will primarily invest in US companies with a large capitalization (meaning the companies are worth billions upon billions and hence are very recognizable names) that fit a "value investment criteria" which means that the fund manager is looking for stocks that he/she thinks are trading  below what the companies are actually worth (in a nutshell).

In any case, one distinction that is not so apparent is when a fund is called a "Global" fund versus an "International" fund. There is a distinct difference in that:

Global funds invest all over the world INCLUDING the home country of the mutual fund.

International funds invest all over the world EXCLUDING the home country of the mutual fund.

So for example, the XYZ Global Opportunities fund would invest all over the world, including the country you reside in. The ABC International Value fund would invest all over the world but would not hold any investments found in your home country.

This can be an important distinction to make when choosing the geographical allocation of your investments. If you hold a significant portion of assets in a Canadian Equity Fund and want to get foreign exposure you may not want to buy a Global fund (since you will have overlapping investments in Canada), but may instead want to purchase an "International" fund - which for Canadians will not hold Canadian investments.

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408 2007-10-20 17:48:57 2007-10-21 00:48:57 open open mutual-funds-global-vs-international-funds-there-is-a-difference publish 0 0 post 0 759 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.29.60 2007-10-20 21:01:18 2007-10-21 04:01:18 This is some excellent information to have. I probably would have never realized this on my own, and to my knowledge I haven't seen this broken down in any books I've read. Thanks for the tip.

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760 2007-10-21 04:07:59 2007-10-21 11:07:59 You're welcome! It might also be worth pointing out that international funds would be better to own (if there is an equivalent global fund) from a cost point of view since the higher MER's attributed to funds with foreign content would be applied to the Canadian investments.

My post: Balanced Mutual Funds Should Be Illegal goes through the math on the concept (except applied to holding equity and fixed income mutual funds versus holding just a balanced fund).

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Have you ever wondered where the word "Mortgage" came from? It's actually quite interesting! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/have-you-ever-wondered-where-the-word-mortgage-came-from-its-actually-quite-interesting/ Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:29:54 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/22/have-you-ever-wondered-where-the-word-mortgage-came-from-its-actually-quite-interesting/

It's a strange word when you sit down and think about it - doesn't seem to have any apparent roots like most other words. Mind you, no one probably thinks about it being a strange word seeing as how it is so commonplace... :)

housepicture.jpgBut the word does have a very interesting origination.

"Usury" which is "charging interest for a loan" was a SIN in the middle ages! Hence getting credit was pretty much impossible. But if you absolutely needed to borrow money, you could pledge your land for security of the loan. A "GAGE" is a pledge.

The lender would actually take possession of the land back in those days and get their interest through the crop yields or rent collected on the property - this is as opposed to today where the lender does not take possession, but charges interest.

When the person who pledged their land as security for the loan ultimately pays back the loan amount, then the GAGE became MORT (which means void). MORT and GAGE are words that originated in Normandy. 

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409 2007-10-22 19:29:54 2007-10-23 02:29:54 open open have-you-ever-wondered-where-the-word-mortgage-came-from-its-actually-quite-interesting publish 0 0 post 0
What is the "Beta" of a portfolio? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-the-beta-of-a-portfolio/ Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:22:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/23/what-is-the-beta-of-a-portfolio/

Beta is a term used to measure the correlation of volatility of a portfolio against the index in which it resides. The market has a Beta of 1 since it IS the market. Your portfolio would be more volatile than the market if it had a Beta higher than 1. Conversely, if your portfolio had a Beta of less than 1, it means that you have less volatility than the market.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgAs an example, let's say that you owned 20 stocks found in the S&P 500 and that the index (the S&P 500) returned 10% over the last 5 years. If your portfolio returned 10% but had a Beta of 0.5 than your portfolio (from a risk versus return point of view) was better than holding the index. This is because your portfolio had HALF the volatility of the index, yet produced similar returns.

Beta is useful information (and widely available information) when looking at mutual funds. If you see a mutual fund that has the same 10 year return as the market but the Beta is 1 or higher, is it worth owning? If you can find a fund that matches or exceeds market performance with a Beta below 1, than that would be a much better choice since your risk-adjusted returns would be higher - or in other words, you are getting all the returns, with less volatility!

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410 2007-10-23 18:22:07 2007-10-24 01:22:07 open open what-is-the-beta-of-a-portfolio publish 0 0 post 0 761 norablueskies@hotmail.com http://www.wisebread.com/nora-dunn 209.89.68.168 2007-10-23 19:06:49 2007-10-24 02:06:49 Awesome post! Funds with betas of less than 1 are few and far between, but great finds nonetheless! Is Beta information common information on fund profiles? Where would people find that info?

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762 2007-10-24 03:33:32 2007-10-24 10:33:32 Excellent questions Nora - and here are the correspondingly excellent answers ;)

In Canada, one of the better ways to look up fund Betas is to use Globefund. Specifically you would want to look up a "fund profile". It basically covers the universe of mutual funds in Canada.

Here is a link to a fund profile for AIC Advantage Fund. You can see it's 3 year Beta is 0.8. Note that the average fund in it's group has a Beta of 0.76 - and remember a lower Beta means lower volatility.

In the states you can look up Betas for over 17,000 funds using Morningstar. (Morningstar is also available in Canada). When you look up a fund snapshot, click on the navigation menu on the left under "Risk Measures" and you will find the Beta information. Click here to see a sample Beta reading for a US Mutual Fund.

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Do you know who owns your mortgage? You probably don't... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/do-you-know-who-owns-your-mortgage-you-probably-dont/ Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:34:11 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/25/do-you-know-who-owns-your-mortgage-you-probably-dont/

Similar to the capital markets, there exists a "primary" market for mortgages and a "secondary" market as well. You will be very familiar with the primary market - that is the market you deal in when you first get a mortgage or negotiate the terms of your mortgage renewal with your local bank (or other mortgage provider, like a trust company, etc.).

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgBut you may be surprised to find out that even though your mortgage statement reads "Royal Bank" or "Wells Fargo" or whomever your mortgage provider is, they may no longer actually hold your mortgage. Sounds confusing?

Well, what normally happens these days is that a bank will group a whole bunch of mortgages with similar terms, renewal dates and interest rates and package them together in a bundle and then "securitize" them - or in other words sell these packages to investors.  These "packages" are known as "Mortgage-Backed Securities" or MBS's. The banks do this to free up cash for operations and investments, etc.

The actual mortgages still appear to be owned by the bank since their names still appear on the statements - but the securitization of the mortgages involves retaining the bank as the operator for accounting, reporting and collecting payments on these mortgages on an agency basis. This is mainly for the optics (people may go berserk if the name on their mortgage statement changes every 6 months) and the existing infrastructure that the banks have make it more efficient for them to maintain the administrative duties.

You would be surprised how many employees at your bank won't know this information! :) 

My post tomorrow will be on Mortgage-Backed Securities and how and why you would buy them as an investor. 

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411 2007-10-25 03:34:11 2007-10-25 10:34:11 open open do-you-know-who-owns-your-mortgage-you-probably-dont publish 0 0 post 0 763 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-10-25 13:34:11 2007-10-25 20:34:11 As a mortgage holder is there any way to find this information? Does it even matter?

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764 2007-10-25 17:41:42 2007-10-26 00:41:42 You would have to go pretty far up the tree inside the bank to find out - and quite honestly the amount of run-around you would get would be enormous. I can't imagine finding the information would be easy or quick by any stretch of the imagination.

Having said that - Does it matter? It hasn't yet - and it probably won't ever matter.

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So what IS a Mortgage-Backed Security? (MBS) http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/so-what-is-a-mortgage-backed-security-mbs/ Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:47:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/25/so-what-is-a-mortgage-backed-security-mbs/

So yesterday you found out that your bank may not actually own your mortgage anymore (even though they still "operate the storefront"). And you know that this amazing feat was accomplished through the securitization of your mortgage into what is known as a Mortgage-Backed Security or MBS for short.

housepicture.jpgBut let's look at it from the investor's side today! You can buy and sell these MBS's all day long - but before you do that, it might help to learn a little bit more about their risk-return characteristics... :)

To cut right to the chase, MBS's trade just like bonds. They have a price, coupon payment, yield and maturity date. But there is a LITTLE bit more to know - because they are actually very attractive investments for more conservative investors.  You see, most MBS's are technically NHA MBS's. (Yeah, I know the financial industry has a love for acronyms - or as I like to say "TFIHALFA" which stands for "The financial industry has a love for acronyms").

NHA stands for National Housing Act. The National Housing Act guarantees the insurance (which is provided by CMHC - the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) on the default of the payments on certain mortgages. Let me take a step back... For everyone reading who has a mortgage and understands that if they put down less than 25% of a down payment: you know that you had to purchase CMHC insurance, right? The insurance is strange because YOU pay the premium and the beneficiary is the BANK because if you default, they make a claim to NHA who then reimburses them against losses.

In any case, an NHA MBS is a Mortgage Backed Security that is NHA insured - and these are the bulk of MBS's on the marketplace. This is effectively the same thing as having the Government of Canada guarantee the investment. So in that vein, many people treat NHA MBS's on the same risk level as a Canada Savings Bond - but you'll note that they generally have higher yields.

The moral of the story? If you like GIC's you may want to look at NHA MBS's since they offer the same guarantees and higher liquidity and yield than GIC's on average. However, as The Canadian Capitalist points out: "However, the main problem with MBS is that distributions are in the form of interest and principal repayments. Since most mortgages come with pre-payment privileges, when interest rates are falling, homeowners are likely to repay principal faster and slower in a rising interest rate environment. Investors, on the other hand, end up with the losing side of the bargain in both a falling and rising rate environment." Click here to read the rest of his comment.

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412 2007-10-25 19:47:10 2007-10-26 02:47:10 open open so-what-is-a-mortgage-backed-security-mbs publish 0 0 post 0
RIM was bigger than the Royal Bank... for a few hours http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rim-was-bigger-than-the-royal-bank-for-a-few-hours/ Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:47:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/26/rim-was-bigger-than-the-royal-bank-for-a-few-hours/

blackberry8800.JPGI don't know if many people caught this, but on Wednesday during the day Research in Motion (RIM - the maker of the Blackberry) increased in share price enough to become Canada's largest publicly traded company by market capitalization - overtaking the Royal Bank! By the end of the day though, RIM had fallen back to number two...

When investors refer to the IT sector in Canada - really they are referring only to RIM - there are no other major players anymore in that space - in fact, every analyst seems to chuckle when they mention the "IT sector in Canada" these days since it is strange to call one company a whole sector.

By the way, the last time a hi-tech company was the largest public company on the TSX was... Nortel. But don't worry, RIM actually has revenue and accountants... lol :) 

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413 2007-10-26 05:47:50 2007-10-26 12:47:50 open open rim-was-bigger-than-the-royal-bank-for-a-few-hours publish 0 0 post 0
Employment Insurance: Earned Income for RRSP calculations? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/employment-insurance-earned-income-for-rrsp-calculations/ Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:21:28 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/29/employment-insurance-earned-income-for-rrsp-calculations/

I'm just throwing out a quick one tonight as I have a full day tomorrow - out of the house before 7am and not back until midnight... :(

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgYou may or may not know that when calculating how much you can contribute to your RRSP you have to look at LAST year's earned income.  "Earned income" is the important thing, because not all sources of income are "earned" income - and therefore do not factor in for the calculation of your RRSP contribution.

One distinction is with respect to Employment Insurance Benefits. If you are on EI because you lost your job - then whatever you get in regular EI payments DOES NOT make up part of your earned income. BUT if you are receiving SUPPLEMENTARY EI benefits (which for most people is when you take EI for not being at work for maternity leave) then the supplementary EI benefits DO COUNT for your earned income.

So your EI payments don't create RRSP room - unless you're preggers! There - told you it was a quick one. I'll be back with my next post on Tuesday... :)

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414 2007-10-29 03:21:28 2007-10-29 10:21:28 open open employment-insurance-earned-income-for-rrsp-calculations publish 0 0 post 0 765 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-10-29 14:30:19 2007-10-29 21:30:19 I would also like to point out that when you are receiving EI benefits (Especially Parental or Maternity) make sure you figure out your taxes correctly. The EI office will not deduct anywhere near enough taxes. You will be held responsible for the difference come tax filing time and depending on your situation this could be a rather large amount. So be prepared come tax time.

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766 657@26up.com http://hubpages.com/hub/Thrive-Learning-Institute 212.235.107.57 2010-04-23 20:23:40 2010-04-24 01:23:40 spam 0 0
Canada Pension Plan: Good for another 75 years... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/canada-pension-plan-good-for-another-75-years/ Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:02:06 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/30/canada-pension-plan-good-for-another-75-years/

According to actuaries, the CPP (Canada Pension Plan) is viable and strong for another 75 years based on a report presented to government by the Office of the Chief Bean Counter Actuary. I took a look through the 132 page report and it is pretty detailed.

Canadaflag.jpgSection 6 outlines the uncertainty of the projections and further provides an analysis of a generally younger population and a generally older population than they are expecting. It further analyzes the impacts of varying levels of financial market "shock" - including consecutive years of negative double-digit returns coupled with higher equity exposure in the portfolio.

It looks like even if there was a triple-threat of 1) Longer life expectancies than they think (projected out to 2050), 2) People retiring earlier and 3) Moderate to Severe financial market shock that the legislated contribution of 9.9% would only need to be increased by 30-50 basis points (i.e. 9.9% increased to 10.2-10.4%). And if you are "employed" that would mean an increase of 15-25 basis points since the "employer" is responsible for half your contributions...

I constantly hear about how CPP may not be around when we retire and I've always wondered where this belief came from and if it was substantiated. There have been 22 previous actuarial reports on the CPP - I don't think any of them predict doom and gloom.  It seems that perhaps this "myth" was propagated by financial institutions? If there is a fear that retirement benefits won't be around, there is more impetus to invest... :)

I don't think this "news" means you should save less money now by any means - but if you had factored in CPP benefits in your financial plan, maybe now you'll feel a little better about their inclusion. AND if you are curious to see how your plan is affected without CPP benefits - just ask your planner to create a "what-if" projection - it's very easy to do.

If you want to read the report for yourself and make your own determination: CLICK HERE TO READ THE 23RD ACTUARIAL REPORT ON THE CANADA PENSION PLAN (link to pdf on the website of The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada)

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415 2007-10-30 13:02:06 2007-10-30 20:02:06 open open canada-pension-plan-good-for-another-75-years publish 0 0 post 0 767 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-10-31 11:50:38 2007-10-31 18:50:38 I think the fear that cpp will disappear comes from the US news where apparently social security is not on as good a footing as cpp. It also comes from the various "investment" companies.

Mike

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768 2007-10-31 13:45:57 2007-10-31 20:45:57 Yes, I think you're right. Perhaps some people are extrapolating the American problems across the border...

The Americans certainly seem to have their work cut out for them don't they?

While I think the CPP viability is fundamentally sound due to the mechanics of the plan, certainly it has been bolstered by our economic prosperity of late.

Slightly off-topic: I heard yesterday that a $10 swing in oil prices equates to about 3 cents for our dollar - I have yet to back test that myself, but certainly the premise is not new. I also heard from on Oil CEO that we are on the hump of "peak oil". With oil accounting for a significant chunk of our loonie, what are the forward prospects of being on the downward slope from peak oil this decade? Hmmm.... enquiring minds want to know! :)

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When "over"-over-contributing to an RRSP can make sense...? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/when-over-over-contributing-to-an-rrsp-can-make-sense/ Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:35:54 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/10/31/when-over-over-contributing-to-an-rrsp-can-make-sense/

This is an advanced level topic - keep reading to find out why... 

Piggy_Bank.jpgOne too many "over"'s? Well, first you have to be familiar with the lifetime $2000 over-contribution limit. As you are probably aware, when you make a contribution to your RRSP it qualifies as a tax deduction, but of course only when you are within your "contribution limits".

You may also be aware that there is a lifetime $2000 over-contribution limit which means you can exceed your contribution limit, but you won't be able to deduct the contribution from your tax return. So while you won't get a tax refund for that "over-contribution", many people will still suggest taking advantage of the over contribution limit as early as you can in order to take advantage of tax-free compounding on as much money as you can.

You may ALSO know that any balance you contribute over and above your allowed contribution (and $2000 over contribution) is subject to a hefty tax of 1% PER MONTH. Certainly a big deterrent to over-over-contributing.

But there does exist a specific situation when incurring that penalty may make good sense. But first we must review some tax semantics. Your RRSP contribution room is created based on your PREVIOUS year's earned income. That means the first time you file a tax return showing an income, you will be able to contribute to your RRSP in the following tax year.

Let me make that clear: If you earn $50,000 in 2007, you will create $9,000 in RRSP room on January 1st, 2008. (You create RRSP contribution room based on 18% of your previous year's income up to certain limits.)

So now back to when over-over-contributing may make sense: in the year you turn 71 (new age at which you can make contributions to an RRSP before winding it down) IF YOU ARE STILL WORKING you will still create contribution room for your RRSP and that room is created on January 1st of the year you turn 72.

So let's take an example to see why this is important: Joe turned 71 in June this year (2010) and is working. He earns $100,000 this year and therefore will create $18,000 of RRSP room on January 1st, 2011. Since Joe is turning 71 in 2010, he need to wind-down his RRSP and he chooses to create a RRIF account. He has maxed his RRSP until now and has no more allowable room. He has even made the lifetime $2000 over contribution.

Joe can contribute $18,000 in an over-over-contribution in December of 2010. He will be over his allowable limit and will incur a 1%/month penalty on the over-over-contribution balance... for one month. This is because his newly created RRSP contribution room becomes "active" on January 1st, 2011. The only caveat is that you have to make the over-over-contribution BEFORE converting your account to a RRIF (which does not allow for contributions - only withdrawals).

So in other words, for the price of $180 in penalties, you can contribute (in this case) $18,000 more money into your tax sheltered retirement account!

Please note that you should consult with a Chartered Accountant or other tax professional before engaging in any tax strategies for your own situation. And for aggressive strategies like this, it probably wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion or double check with the CRA yourself - they are easily accessible and very willing to answer your questions. "An ounce of prevention" as they say... :)

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416 2007-10-31 23:35:54 2007-11-01 06:35:54 open open when-over-over-contributing-to-an-rrsp-can-make-sense publish 0 0 post 0
The RRSP Overcontribution Limit - think twice before using it! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rrsp-overcontribution-limit-think-twice-before-using-it/ Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:50:55 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/01/the-rrsp-overcontribution-limit-think-twice-before-using-it/

Yesterday I talked about how over-over-contributing to your RRSP can make sense in a very special circumstance - since the balance is subject to a hefty 1% PER MONTH penalty. I thought I would talk today about the "regular" over-contribution limit since I have never really mentioned it before.

(I know a lot of people will have heard that you should use it - but I would warn you to read the following first - otherwise you could subject yourself to some nasty double-taxation!)

QuestionMark.jpgYou are allowed to over-contribute to your RRSP by $2,000 without incurring any penalties - but note that the contribution does not qualify as an income deduction for that tax year. Ultimately that means you can add the $2,000 to your RRSP account but not expect any tax reduction on your tax return for it.

So why would you want to over-contribute? That $2,000 will still grow tax-free once it is inside your RRSP - and I'm sure you've been beaten to death about the advantages of tax-free compounding - so you can probably figure out why this is a good thing.

This is really advantageous for people who maximize their RRSP from the get-go and continue to do so each year. The advantage becomes slightly more "academic" if you do not continue to maximize your RRSP thereafter since any new RRSP room created but not used will restore the $2,000 over-contribution limit.

Having the $2,000 over-contribution balance if you plan on making withdrawals from your RRSP (except for the home-buyer's plan and the lifelong-learning plan) is a VERY BAD IDEA - note that you will have been taxed TWICE on that money since you used "after-tax" dollars to make the over-contribution in the first place (since it was not deductible) and then you are taxed again when you withdraw funds from your RRSP - the government does not care what the tax treatment was for those funds as they went in.

So, let's say you were in a 40% tax bracket. You had to earn $3,333 in salary to take home $2,000 in the first place - if you put that money into your RRSP as an over-contribution (which you cannot deduct) and then subsequently take it out of your RRSP at a later date - it is again taxed 40%. Your original earning of $3,333 has been reduced to $1,200 by the time you get to spend it!

You can avoid that double taxation on the withdrawal if you generate new RRSP room and use the room to reduce the over-contribution balance first - but you may want to wait an additional 90 days to avoid the 89-day contribution deductibility rule! Check with your accountant on that to be sure.

Also note, that if you have an over-contribution balance, but don't have the means to make an RRSP contribution the following year, you can still deduct $2,000 the following year by claiming the un-deducted $2,000 over-contribution as new RRSP room is created.

So as you can see - there is more to the $2,000 over-contribution limit than meets the eye! 

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417 2007-11-01 23:50:55 2007-11-02 06:50:55 open open the-rrsp-overcontribution-limit-think-twice-before-using-it publish 0 0 post 0
The Traditional RRSP Loan http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-traditional-rrsp-loan/ Mon, 05 Nov 2007 04:59:24 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/04/the-traditional-rrsp-loan/

I routinely come across people who get an annual RRSP loan - so I thought I would talk about this common strategy - although I personally think there are better ways of saving regularly to an RRSP (i.e. without having a constant interest cost!)

QuestionMark.jpgIn a nutshell - you borrow money from a bank in order to make a larger lump sum contribution to your RRSP before the contribution deadline. This allows for a large tax refund, which is then applied to the outstanding RRSP loan balance. You can then choose to lower your monthly RRSP loan payments or shorten the duration of the RRSP loan due to the lump sum repayment from the tax refund.

Many people find it hard to "voluntarily" contribute to their RRSP's on a regular (i.e. monthly) basis. In fact, some people find that they take out the loan because they are less likely to miss a loan payment then they are to miss a voluntary contribution. I suppose we can blame this on the tendency for people to finance everything as opposed to saving up for it first.

Since many people are in this situation, or frame of mind, I will present the traditional RRSP loan strategy - although it does have it's drawbacks as I alluded to at the beginning.

We already know that whatever money you contribute to your RRSP (up to the amount of contribution room you have) earns you an income deduction. As a recap, let's say you earn $50,000. Your taxes that are with-held at source (at your employer) are based on you earning $50,000. But in the eyes of the government, if you actually "earn" less - remember the RRSP contribution reduces your earned income - then you will have overpaid your taxes. So if you made a $5,000 contribution to your RRSP, your earned income for the year will be $45,000 - not $50,000. That means you will have paid too much tax, and hence you get a refund at tax time.

Since many people do not budget effectively or save regularly, they will wait until the last minute to think about making their RRSP contributions. The combination of the pressure to save for one's retirement PLUS the dangling carrot of fat tax refunds has led to the growth in RRSP loans (and RRSP loan marketing by the financial industry).

So let's look at the math for someone who earns $50,000:

First we would look at how much total tax that person would pay if their earned income was $50,000. According to the tax calculators at Ernst & Young's website (as of tax legislation in place May 31st, 2007), they would be on the hook for $10,157 in tax (very depressing, I know).

To figure out how much they can save in tax with a $5,000 contribution to their RRSP we can look at the total amount of tax owing for someone earning $45,000, and then subtract that amount from the tax bill for the $50,000 income earner. A $45,000 income earner would owe $8,599 in tax.

So, subtracting $8,599 from $10,157 leaves us with a tax savings of $1,558. A good way to double check is to use the handy "RRSP Savings Calculator" (also on Ernst and Young's website) which will let you enter your Taxable Income and RRSP Contribution - it will then calculate your tax savings for you. In this case, it spits out $1,558 - which confirms our math.

Okay, so that was easy. But don't forget that we now have a loan that needs to be paid off!

The duration of the loan will have a big impact on the monthly payments, but if you are planning on making an annual contribution you'll want to have it paid off in 12 months, correct? That being the case, a $5,000 loan will cost you around $430/month for 12 months (assuming a 6.5% interest rate).

Once the tax refund arrives - which should be around the middle of June (assuming you filed on time) - you can then put the refund towards reducing the loan balance outstanding. Like I said, you can choose to either reduce the monthly payments from that point on, or continue with the $430/month and have the loan paid off early.

A feature that has become common with RRSP loans is the feature of "first payment deferral" and you normally have the option deferring your first loan payment for a period of 3 or 6 months. This feature is designed to explicitly address the fact that your tax refund does not arrive until mid June, but you need to make your RRSP contribution by the end of February.

I would suggest that if you feel the need to choose a 3 or 6 month deferral - you probably shouldn't be getting such a large RRSP loan if your ability to make the regular monthly payments is dependent on your refund. You should be able to comfortably carry the loan payments without that tax refund - otherwise you might be stretching yourself a bit thin - and that only leads to more money stress!

It would be preferable to elect to make your loan payments from the time you first get the loan and then apply the refund to the loan balance and then reduce your payments at that point. Like I said, If you are able to make the regular monthly payments until the refund comes in, then I think that is a good indicator that you have not over-extended yourself.

So in our case, the monthly loan payment of $430/month would start on May 1st (roughly 30 days after the loan was set up). If the tax refund of $1,558 came in mid-June and then was applied to the loan balance, you would then have the choice of  reducing your monthly payments to around $360/month OR you could reduce the term of the loan by about 2 months by keeping your payments at $430/month.

And that is the traditional RRSP Loan Strategy. As you can tell, I've been on an RRSP theme as of late and I will be talking about some other RRSP loan strategies in the near future. I suppose most people will be hearing about RRSP's in January/February - but I think by that time it's a bit too late! (That's probably a reason why the RRSP loan has become so popular!) :)

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418 2007-11-04 21:59:24 2007-11-05 04:59:24 open open the-traditional-rrsp-loan publish 0 0 post 0 769 not.politician@gmail.com 74.12.221.45 2009-01-28 23:29:32 2009-01-29 04:29:32 1 0 0
Google Finance Beta: My new favourite website! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/google-finance-beta-my-new-favourite-website/ Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:10:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/05/google-finance-beta-my-new-favourite-website/

Over the last few weeks I have been spending inordinate amounts of time playing with Google Finance. It has slowly become my site of choice for investigating both stocks and mutual funds - and I should point out I have a "special" version of Morningstar and Globefund on my broker terminal, not to mention a direct feed to Reuters. (I have to admit the info from Reuters is unbelievable - by clicking on a stock symbol you can pull up everything from market depth to option chains to technical analysis charting functions and on and on and on - in fact there are probably over 50 different views I haven't even gotten around to exploring.)

GoogleFinance.gifBut back to Google Finance - if I only had one financial research tool available to me, it might be this one. It is very intuitive to use, which is probably it's best feature. There is a search bar, just like with a regular google.com search, but when you start typing it will automatically suggest stock and mutual fund ticker symbols. Just click and instantly a wall of information and a beautiful chart pops up. There are discussion groups on popular stocks and information on MANY (if not ALL) stocks and mutual funds. I should point out that there is currently no information on individual bonds at this point.

All the key statistics appear instantly on the security... and the chart is a thing of beauty - you can scale it and get an instant cumulative return on any holding period, and also compare it against multiple other securities or indices.  For example, if you want to see the difference between two different exchange traded funds that both track the S&P 500 you could pull it up instantly and then throw in the index (the S&P 500 itself) just for kicks: here is the chart.

If you have the fund codes of your mutual funds, you can enter those in directly as well. Fund specific information will be shown. As an example I looked up a fund that the Canadian Capitalist uses in one of his portfolios, the TD e-Series Canadian Bond Index Fund. Just type in the fund code (TDB909) and viola! (Side note, when looking at the alpha: it is negative, but that is to be expected as there is no active management. The alpha for an index fund will usually be negative and equal to it's expense ratio. That's normal.)

So, go ahead and check out Google Finance Beta - and play around a bit. Just a warning - you may spend countless hours on this site - warn your family now! :) 

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419 2007-11-05 14:10:13 2007-11-05 21:10:13 open open google-finance-beta-my-new-favourite-website publish 0 0 post 0 770 http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2007-11-05 23:47:40 2007-11-06 06:47:40 I really like it to. Check out my post on the topic:

Click here to read The MoneyGardener's post on Google Finance!

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771 2007-11-06 00:49:16 2007-11-06 07:49:16 Thanks MG - read your post. Wish I had known about this little gem of a site a while ago - it's nice for when I need to make a comparison and show it to someone remotely who doesn't have access to Bridge Channel from Reuters. Very user friendly.

BTW - I love your blog - your investment philosophy is very much in line with my own and I find your posts to almost always act as confirmation on my analyses. :)

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Two RRSP Loans at the same time... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/two-rrsp-loans-at-the-same-time/ Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:25:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/06/two-rrsp-loans-at-the-same-time/ Some Canadians will take out TWO RRSP loans at the same time. Your first question might be, "Why not just get one bigger loan?". The answer (for them) is cash flow management. This strategy is similar to a traditional RRSP loan except if you know you are going to apply the tax refund towards reducing the monthly payments - this is an alternative way to do that which ensures your monthly cash flow directed towards the RRSP Loan repayments are reduced from the get-go.

QuestionMark.jpgLet's again look at our example Canadian, Joe. He earned $50,000 last year, and let's say he wants to contribute $9,000 in total. According to the now familiar Ernst & Young RRSP Savings Calculator, we know his refund will be approximately $2,804.

Instead of getting one RRSP loan for $9,000 - he will get one that is equal to the tax refund ($2,800) and one for the balance ($9,000 - $2,800 = $6,200). In addition, he will elect to defer starting the payments on the $2,800 loan for 6 months - this is more than enough time to get his tax refund back which he will use to pay off the $2,800 loan altogether. Now he is just left with the payment on the $6,200 loan all along.

Let's compare monthly payments:

A 1 year loan for $9,000 at 6.5% interest requires a $777 monthly payment.

A 1 year loan for $6,200 at 6.5% interest requires a $535 monthly payment.

The $2,800 loan doesn't ever require a payment since you have deferred the first payment for 6 months - and before that time comes, you will have received your tax refund and applied it against the loan and paid it off entirely. Keep in mind you will have to pay a little more than $2,800 since interest accrues from day one - so the amount required to pay off the loan will be closer to $2,860 if you wait 4 months to pay it off (for example).

Remember, this is one of those "six of one, half-dozen of another" scenarios. You could easily just get one big loan and apply a lump sum payment to it when you get your refund and have the bank reduce the monthly payment at that time. 

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420 2007-11-06 15:25:07 2007-11-06 22:25:07 open open two-rrsp-loans-at-the-same-time publish 0 0 post 0 772 eckhardt_b@hotmail.com 24.226.24.71 2008-10-03 11:55:50 2008-10-03 15:55:50 1 0 0 773 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-05 22:11:21 2008-10-06 02:11:21 1 0 0
Try to hold your fixed income positions inside your RRSP http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/try-to-hold-your-fixed-income-positions-inside-your-rrsp/ Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:55:12 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/07/try-to-hold-your-fixed-income-positions-inside-your-rrsp/

Since your RRSP is a tax-sheltered environment your investments and investment transactions lose their tax identity while they are inside it. In other words, nothing that happens inside your RRSP causes you to pay tax inside your RRSP.

canada_savings_bond.jpgThis can be used to your advantage to reduce your overall tax bill if you try to keep your fixed income investments inside your RRSP (and your non-fixed income investments OUTSIDE your RRSP). You probably already know that if you can reduce the tax your investments and investment growth is subject to, you can grow your assets more quickly.

Any interest income you earn on your fixed income investments is taxed in the year the interest is earned by the investment (and not when you actually receive it either!) at your highest marginal tax rate. That means that if you had earned 5% interest on a bond, the 5% in interest you receive this year is taxed at your marginal rate. If your marginal rate was, say 40%, then 40% x 5% interest payment = 2% - which is lost to tax. That leaves you with an after-tax gain of only 3%...

...UNLESS you held that bond in your RRSP account. In that case, the 5% interest payment is not subject to tax while it is inside your RRSP and you could re-invest ALL of it, instead of just a fraction of it.

Let's look at an example of how this can save you some money!

Suppose we had an investor, Joe, who had a total portfolio of $100,000 split equally into a $50,000 RRSP account and a $50,000 non-registered investment account. Joe knows his overall asset allocation should be 50% Equities and 50% Fixed Income (just as an example). All $100,000 is to be used towards retirement planning and each account is structured to hold an equal proportion of stocks to bonds - so each account has a 50% equity / 50% fixed income split as well.

For the sake of this argument, let's say that Joe's stocks are all non-dividend paying stocks and they only generate a capital gain over time. Let's also assume that his stocks grows at 10% per year and his bonds grow at 5% per year and that Joe is in a fictitious 50% tax bracket.

On an annual basis, his RRSP pays no tax on the investments or the growth. The long term rate of compounding growth on his RRSP is simply a matter of calculating the weighted average growth of each asset class. In this case, 50% weighting to stocks returning 10% (5%) would be added to a 50% weighting to bonds returning 5% (2.5%). This gives us a 7.5% average rate of return for his RRSP account (5% + 2.5%).

His non-registered account requires one more step as we have to calculate the after-tax gain on the investments before calculating the average rate of growth of this portfolio. In this case, the stocks only trigger a taxable event when they are sold, so assuming Joe never sells his stocks (a devout Warren Buffett fan), there is no annual loss to tax. But his bonds pay a 5% return every year and since it is interest income, it is subject to tax every year. Applying his 50% marginal tax rate to the 5% interest payments nets a loss of 2.5% in tax. This means Joe's bond portfolio averages 2.5% per year in after-tax growth in his non-registered account. Now we calculate the weighted-average growth of the non-registered portfolio as follows: 50% weighting in stocks averaging 10% added to a 50% weighting in bonds averaging 2.5% after-tax. This gives us a 6.125% rate of return on the non-registered portfolio.

When we add the two accounts together - we have a new overall weighted average return of ((50% x 7.5%) + (50% x 6.125%)) =  6.8125% average rate of growth on the $100,000 overall portfolio.

Now, let's re-arrange Joe's portfolio so that all his fixed income is in his RRSP account and all his stocks are inside his non-registered investment account. In this case the RRSP's return is 5% since all the returns are interest from the bonds, but are not subject to tax inside the tax-sheltered account. His non-registered account is all stock, earning 10%. Remember, Joe doesn't sell his stocks often, so he does not attract capital gains tax on the stocks - hence the non-registered portfolio is growing at 10%.

The new weighted-average return of the overall $100,000 portfolio is now ((50% x 5%) + (50% x 10%)) = 7.5%.

Joe has increased his overall long term rate of growth on his overall portfolio by almost 7/10ths of 1 percent. To give you an idea of how important that small difference is, consider that on a $100,000 portfolio for 25 years it would make for a difference of roughly $18,750!

Remember though that the overall asset allocation is the same as before, but each account will have a distinctly different asset allocation when looked at by itself - and would be expected to have a different risk/return pattern going forward. If your risk tolerance for both original accounts is the same, and the monies have the same time horizon - you would want to consider this strategy.

If, on the other hand, your non-registered portfolio has a different time horizon or risk tolerance than your RRSP - it is not so cut and dried. Most people would access funds before retirement from their non-registered portfolios first and as such may be better off holding more liquid investments (or safer investments) in their non-registered portfolios. Make sure to ask your advisor for some guidance if you are not sure. 

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421 2007-11-07 03:55:12 2007-11-07 10:55:12 open open try-to-hold-your-fixed-income-positions-inside-your-rrsp publish 0 0 post 0
Self-Directed RRSPs versus Managed (or Directed) RRSPs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/self-directed-rrsps-versus-managed-or-directed-rrsps/ Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:00:45 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/08/self-directed-rrsps-versus-managed-or-directed-rrsps/ When you decide to start saving for your retirement with an RRSP account, you will choose if it will be a "managed" (or "directed") RRSP account or a "self-directed RRSP" account. There are two main differences between the two types of accounts:

FlippingThroughBook.jpg1) The nature of the investment product shelf

and 

2) Fees

Managed (or Directed) RRSP's 

With a Managed RRSP - you are basically limited to GIC's (Guaranteed Investment Certificates), Canada Savings Bonds and a limited selection of Mutual Funds. There is usually no annual account administration fee - and to be blunt, the level of investment advice you will receive from the advisors will be adequate to get started and that's about it. The investment decisions will be based mostly on your answers to a standardized questionnaire.

Self-Directed RRSP's

I don't know if the name is as fitting as it could be. There are many investors who will setup a discount brokerage account for their RRSP's and these are very much self-directed RRSP's in the truest sense. But there are many investors who will work very extensively with a professional financial advisor for the care and management of self-directed RRSP's as well. I think the main difference is more that you have a virtually unlimited product shelf for your investments. You can hold GIC's and Canada Savings Bonds, a much wider variety of mutual funds from third party companies, stocks, bonds, and even physical gold these days. There are very few investment products that you cannot hold in a self-directed RRSP these days.

So, you can have a self-directed RRSP and have someone else manage (or help you manage) your account and provide advice etc. That is why I don't think the name is as well suited as it can be - you don't have to have any more involvement than with a managed RRSP. So again, it's more a decision of what type of investments you want to hold for your account - not the level of involvement you want to have with creating and managing an investment portfolio.

(Having a discount brokerage account [which can be for RRSP's OR non-registered accounts] is for those who are comfortable choosing the actual investment products themselves.)

Self-directed RRSP accounts will almost always have an annual account administration fee - which is normally $100 - $125 + GST per year. Financial institutions will say that the fees are standard and cover the extra costs associated with the extra tax reporting associated with a registered account - but I suspect once one of the big banks eliminates the annual fee - the rest will follow in short order. (They make plenty of money in the fees associated with investment management as it is).

If you are working with an advisor - and your account is large enough - you may be able to have the annual account adminstration fee waived for your self-directed RRSP account. Certainly, if your household investable assets are $100,000 or more - there should be no account adminstration fees!

A final note: you can have as many RRSP accounts as you like - some can be managed, and some can be self-directed. But note that all the limits and rules applies not to each account, but to all accounts viewed as a whole. In other words, if your allowable RRSP contribution room is $10,000 - you could have 10,000 RRSP accounts with $1 contributed to each or 1 RRSP account with $10,000 contributed to it. :)

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422 2007-11-08 03:00:45 2007-11-08 10:00:45 open open self-directed-rrsps-versus-managed-or-directed-rrsps publish 0 0 post 0
"Parking" your RRSP Contribution http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/parking-your-rrsp-contribution/ Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:16:38 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/08/parking-your-rrsp-contribution/

You may have heard this term thrown around (and probably towards the latter half of February every year in particular). It refers to the fact that if you have procrastinated to the point where you don't have time to make an informed investment decision with any funds you plan on contributing to your RRSP before the RRSP contribution deadline, you can just put the money into your RRSP account as cash (or in a money market mutual fund) to beat the deadline, and then make the investment decisions later - when you might have more time to do so.

QuestionMark.jpgThis is quite common actually, as many people will contribute on the very last day possible (the 60th day of the new year) - similar to the propensity of people to file their taxes on the very last day possible too!

By "parking" your RRSP contribution - and hence, beating the contribution deadline - you will be able to claim the contribution on your upcoming tax return you will be filing a few months later. As such, you will be able to reduce your overall tax bill - and hopefully get a healthy tax refund in short order.

Certainly, there have been many people who have waited until the last minute, mistakenly thought they had to also make the long term investment decisions at the same time (which might take a while to figure out) and for fear of rushing into a wrong decision, neglected to make the contribution to the RRSP.

This is not a reason to miss the contribution deadline. All you have to do is instruct your financial institution to deposit funds to your account - if it is a self-directed RRSP it will show up as cash. If it is a managed RRSP - it might go into a money market mutual fund. In either case, you will want to put it into a very safe and liquid investment that can be changed anytime in the future.

Once you DO have the time to sit down and decide what the long term investments will ultimately be for those funds, you can make the necessary changes or investments anytime - no deadlines. (Just be sure not to wait too long - cash or money market mutual funds will not keep up with inflation and hence will lose purchasing power if it just sits there TOO long! :) ) 

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423 2007-11-08 04:16:38 2007-11-08 11:16:38 open open parking-your-rrsp-contribution publish 0 0 post 0
Albert Einstein knew a thing or two about investing... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/albert-einstein-knew-a-thing-or-two-about-investing/ Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:27:56 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/10/albert-einstein-knew-a-thing-or-two-about-investing/

I'll explain down below. In the meantime, I want you to answer the following question as fast as you can based on your gut instinct:

albert_einstein.jpgYou have been offered a job contract for exactly 30 days and 30 days only. You have to choose between two ways of being paid:

1) $100,000 per day

OR 

2) You start at 1 penny for your first day, but every day your pay doubles. (i.e. your pay on day 2 is 2 pennies, and you earn 4 pennies on day 3, etc.)

Which pay structure would you choose? Make your decision RIGHT NOW.

...

If you were like me, you would have a feeling in the back of your mind that it probably would make more sense to choose the doubling pay since the power of compounding growth is explosive, given time. But then you would do the quick math and consider that $100,000 per day for 30 days is a cool $3,000,000! So, if you were like me, you would have chosen the $100,000 per day.

Let me give you some more information - and see if you would change your mind. I will tell you that for the "doubling pay" scenario:

On Day 10 you would have earned $5.12 for that day.

On Day 20, you would have earned $5,242.88 for that day.

Perhaps the $100,000 per day is starting to sound like it was indeed the right choice? Well if you DID pick the $100,000 per day like I did - then I'm glad I wasn't the only person who got it wrong! I'll spare the explanation and just show you the chart:

Day 1          $0.01

Day 2          $0.02

Day 3          $0.04

Day 4          $0.08

Day 5          $0.16

Day 6          $0.32

Day 7          $0.64

Day 8          $1.28

Day 9          $2.56

Day 10        $5.12

Day 11        $10.24

Day 12        $20.48

Day 13        $40.96

Day 14        $81.92

Day 15        $163.84

Day 16        $327.68

Day 17        $655.36

Day 18        $1,310.72

Day 19        $2,621.44

Day 20        $5,242.88

Day 21        $10,485.76

Day 22        $20,971.52

Day 23        $41,943.04

Day 24        $83,886.08

Day 25        $167,772.16

Day 26        $335,544.32

Day 27        $671,088.64

Day 28        $1,342,177.28

Day 29        $2,684,354.56

Day 30        $5,368,709.12

 

Okay, so without adding up the running total, you can just look at the last day and see that $5,368,709.12 for that one day is more than the $3,000,000 you would have earned with the $100,000 per day scenario!

This is an example of the power of compounding growth. It is such a powerful concept that when Albert Einstein was asked (during the height of the interest generated by his work in physics and the Special and General Theories of Relativity) if the concept of relativity was the most important concept man will ever discover: he answered, "The most powerful concept in the universe is compound interest."

And who am I to argue with Al? :)

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424 2007-11-10 01:27:56 2007-11-10 08:27:56 open open albert-einstein-knew-a-thing-or-two-about-investing publish 0 0 post 0 774 http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2007-11-10 04:35:26 2007-11-10 11:35:26 Great Post....to bad my portfolio doesn't move like that.

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775 2007-11-11 01:42:43 2007-11-11 08:42:43 Thanks MG - you and me both! :)

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776 bbkjbbkj@gmail.com http://dividends4life.blogspot.com 205.235.112.120 2007-11-29 00:41:53 2007-11-29 07:41:53 Great read! I enjoyed the post and plan to highlight it in my weekly carnival recap.

Best Wishes,
D4L

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777 2007-11-29 01:37:58 2007-11-29 08:37:58 Thanks D4L!

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Using your RRSP to level your income while you are working... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/using-your-rrsp-to-level-your-income-while-you-are-working/ Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:33:14 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/12/using-your-rrsp-to-level-your-income-while-you-are-working/

Certainly you may know that making a contribution to your RRSP will allow you to reduce the taxes you pay in a given year. And you know that in exchange for allowing you to deduct the contribution from your income now, you will have to claim the withdrawal of funds from your RRSP as income in exchange (and be fully taxed on it). And of course, while the money is in there for a long period of time, it is expected to grow faster since the RRSP is a tax-shelter.

QuestionMark.jpgBut RRSP's aren't always used for retirement planning.

Many people with cyclical income can use it as a way to level out their income in a very tax-advantaged manner. This would be applicable to salespeople or pretty much anyone who experiences years of high income and subsequent years of lower income. If your income levels vary substantially and tend to work in cycles - then you certainly will want to look at this strategy.

In a nutshell, you would make and claim RRSP contributions in years that you have high earnings and then make RRSP withdrawals in years that you have low income. The theory is that if you make the contribution when your earned income is very high - you get a refund based on a high tax bracket. When you make a withdrawal and you are in a lower tax bracket - you pay tax on that money at a lower rate than when you contributed it. Therefore you are able to effectively reduce the amount of taxes paid on your income.

One trade-off to note is that you will burn up RRSP room - so you have to weigh your retirement savings plans against this strategy to see if this makes sense for your situation.

But let's assume that our test subject (let's call him George) decides to save for retirement in a non-registered account as many people might actually do these days. Let's also use an extreme example (just to make the point clear). George works as a contract aerospace engineer. He earns $100,000/year when on contract and he likes to work for one year and take a year off. Then he will go back to work for a year, and subsequently take the following year off, etc.

Scenario One

In this scenario, George puts some of the money that he earns while working into a savings account and subsequently uses it in the years that he is not working. So when he is working and earning $100,000, he is paying $30,000 in tax. That leaves him with $70,000 to spend. He spreads this out over two years and therefore is able to get by spending approximately $35,000 per year.

Scenario Two

In this scenario, George puts money into his RRSP. Since he is limited to contributing 18% of his income we will assume he only contributes $18,000 to his RRSP for the tax years in which he is earning $100,000. This entitles him to a reduction in the taxes owed for that year. Depending on which province you are in, you are getting a reduction in taxes of about $8,000. The following year, when George has no employment income, he withdraws the entire amount out of his RRSP. Again, depending on which province you are in, you are paying in and around $2,000 in tax on a $18,000 RRSP withdrawal (if there is no other income for that year).

So in effect, he has reduced his tax bill by $6,000 over that two year period. His spending per year has gone up from $35,000/year to $38,000/year. But remember, for this particular example George has completely burned up his RRSP room in order to do this, so it would be expected that he saves for retirement out of his annual expenses in an alternate manner.

This scenario can also be used for people with NON-cyclical income, but just happen to be unemployed for a year. In this case, assuming you were using your RRSP for retirement savings you need to carefully weigh the long term cost of taking funds out of your RRSPs. Certainly, when you are in need of money for the here and now, savings for retirement is a luxury and not as much of a necessity as making the mortgage payment. :(

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425 2007-11-12 19:33:14 2007-11-13 02:33:14 open open using-your-rrsp-to-level-your-income-while-you-are-working publish 0 0 post 0 778 99.241.39.2 2007-11-13 22:24:46 2007-11-14 05:24:46 thanks for this post! i've been having a hard time finding out what the best strategy may be for a person like me who wants to take a year off to travel (i don't have the luxury of setting it up as a sabbatical with my employer so i'm saving up for it all on my own). i don't have an rrsp setup yet (gasp), so might it be best for me to setup an rrsp, contribute to it for 5 years or so (or whenever i plan to leave) and then pull out part of it, or all of it when i want to take that year off?

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779 2007-11-14 03:20:48 2007-11-14 10:20:48 Hi Jules, you would have to make sure that it fits into your overall plans of course - and that includes the impact it could have on your retirement planning.

I would suggest sitting down with a financial planner to really hammer out the details, weigh the pros and cons, etc.

An accountant could also help verify the tax effects for your own situation.

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780 99.241.39.2 2007-11-14 16:57:04 2007-11-14 23:57:04 thanks. :)

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781 209.47.22.60 2007-11-21 21:36:23 2007-11-22 04:36:23 I'm considering this strategy for my wife who will be taking a year off for maternity leave. I'm just not sure if RRSP withdrawals will affect her maternity EI benefits? Will EI consider this income and reduce her benefits?

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782 2007-11-22 02:10:42 2007-11-22 09:10:42 For EI you can get away with withdrawing money from your RRSP and not have that affect your earnings for the purposes of calculating EI benefits.

Click here to see text from Service Canada that confirms this.

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783 209.47.22.60 2007-11-23 15:53:16 2007-11-23 22:53:16 That's great. Thanks!

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784 scott@wightman.ca http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/using-your-rrsp-to-level-your-income-while-you-are-working/ 68.69.130.245 2009-12-05 02:22:54 2009-12-05 07:22:54 1 0 0 785 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/using-rrsp-contribution-room-to-avoid-taxes/ 216.227.218.225 2009-12-11 08:32:04 2009-12-11 13:32:04 1 pingback 0 0 786 reidtash@hotmail.com 75.159.65.182 2010-01-14 21:54:39 2010-01-15 02:54:39 1 0 0 787 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/12/10/using-rrsp-contibution-room-to-avoid-taxes/ 70.32.84.217 2010-01-28 23:00:20 2010-01-29 04:00:20 1 pingback 0 0
Holding your own mortgage inside your RRSP http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/holding-your-own-mortgage-inside-your-rrsp/ Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:36:48 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/13/holding-your-own-mortgage-inside-your-rrsp/

Normally the sequence of reactions to the discovery that you can hold your own mortgage inside your RRSP (and essentially pay yourself interest instead of the bank) goes from tremendous excitement to indifference (after some serious number crunching anyways).

housepicture.jpgTo cut to the chase: YES - you can hold your own mortgage inside your RRSP. The interest that you were paying the bank can instead be going to your RRSP. But don't confuse the "badge of honour" of crafting a complex financial strategy get in the way of a true financial analysis. I would say that this strategy (like many) has a real sweet spot in terms of who it is right for. Let's find out why...

HOW IT WORKS

First off, you need to have more money inside your RRSP than is outstanding on your mortgage (well, technically you can setup a mortgage sharing strategy with your bank - but that is beyond the scope of this discussion for now). What you are doing is essentially turning your RRSP into "the bank".

Instead of the bank loaning you funds: your RRSP is loaning you funds.

Consider that the interest rate you charge yourself is going to be the rate of return for your RRSP portfolio. (Or at least for the portion of your RRSP that holds your mortgage). You will make your mortgage payments to your RRSP instead of to the bank. It may be this point that makes most people stand up and take notice - more so for the fact that if they have to pay interest, they would rather pay it to themselves.

You'll have some costs to set it all up of course. Your financial institution will charge around $300 as a one time setup fee, a trustee and mortgage administration fee (the same financial institution normally acts as the mortgage trustee) of about $175 and self-directed RRSP fee of $60-$125 also applies (but you were probably paying that anyways for your self-directed RRSP).  Finally, there may be some legal costs associated which can take your total start up costs to the $1,000 range.

You'll also have to follow some rules. You cannot just arbitrarily charge yourself a low rate of interest to save on interest payments, nor can you charge yourself a high rate of interest to increase the rate of return on your RRSP.

You wouldn't want to charge yourself a LOW interest rate, because that would be offset by sacrificing RRSP growth.

You wouldn't want to charge yourself a HIGH interest rate, since... well, you would be charging yourself a high interest rate to borrow money from yourself. So even though your RRSP would be growing faster, you would by paying more towards interest payments on your mortgage.

But the decision as to what rate of interest to charge yourself is somewhat moot, because one of the conditions of holding your own mortgage inside your RRSP is that you charge yourself the going market rate. Hence, the posted mortgage rates of all the Schedule I banks might be all that you could reasonably use anyways.

ADVANTAGES

The main advantage is that you know that the portion of your RRSP that holds your mortgage will have a very safe and reliable rate of return equivalent to the posted mortgage rates - this can be higher than typical bonds and GIC's. I suppose  another advantage is that you have the benefit of paying interest to YOURSELF AS OPPOSED TO A BANK - but that might only serve to make you feel like you are not contributing to the gluttony of our venerable financial institutions more than anything else.

DISADVANTAGES

Well certainly there are the start up fees and extra annual administration costs. These alone may require that the total amount of your RRSP used for this strategy should be north of about $30,000 before you would even consider the strategy - otherwise these costs may outweigh the overall benefits.

There is also the requirement that if you invest in a "non-arm's length" mortgage (meaning you or someone related to you owns the property that is being mortgaged), then you are required to purchase mortgage default insurance (from CMHC or GE Capital Insurance Canada). Normally, you don't need mortgage-default insurance when you have a loan-to-value ratio of 80% or lower, but in this case, you will need to get it - and the lowest you can expect to pay is a premium of 0.50% of the total mortgage amount (for loan-to-value ratios up to 65%).

However, consider that this is actually a good investment as if you default on your mortgage, the insurance will serve to protect your retirement savings!

Speaking of defaulting on payments - you may be thinking that since you are lending yourself money you could be lenient on yourself since it is YOUR money. Well, remember that mortgage trustee and administration fee you are paying? The financial institution will act in the best interest of the lender (your RRSP) and not "you" per se. As such, they monitor the mortgage payments and if you miss them and/or default, they have the option of forcing a power of sale of your own house in order to protect your RRSP! So in short: you cannot skip payments.

I have heard many people indicate that when the interest rate environment is lower, this strategy becomes less attractive. I would argue that the current interest rate environment moves almost in lock-step with current mortgage rates, hence if you are looking to use this to replace only the fixed income portion of your RRSP - it doesn't really matter what the current interest rate environment is. However, if you do decide that you will hold your mortgage inside your RRSP and it represents the majority of your RRSP holding - then, yes - it would make more sense when interest rates are higher - especially if you are violating your asset allocation profile in order to engage in this strategy. 

CONCLUSION

So if you'll remember, I mentioned that there was a sweet spot as to who this strategy is good for. I would argue that the ideal candidate would look something like the following description:

A person who is probably in their 40's or 50's and has about $50,000 to $100,000 of a balance on their mortgage.
In addition, they have around $150,000 to $500,000 value in their RRSP. The reason for this "spread" is that if you were to only have enough in your RRSP to hold the mortgage, you are restricting your RRSP investment portfolio to a 100% fixed income investment - which may not be in line with your risk tolerance - hence you could be giving up long term growth. Instead, if you are supposed to have a basic asset allocation of 75% equities and 25% fixed income - you could use 25% of your RRSP for holding the mortgage and the rest to diversify and invest in equities appropriately.

Remember - consult a financial advisor with experience in setting these up if you want an analysis done on your own situation. 

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426 2007-11-13 02:36:48 2007-11-13 09:36:48 open open holding-your-own-mortgage-inside-your-rrsp publish 0 0 post 0 788 Qcash@Qcash.org http://www.Qcash.org 65.92.52.100 2007-11-16 14:37:03 2007-11-16 21:37:03 WDAMMG

There is one other scenario to consider.

Using a SDRRSP to finace the mortgage on a rental property.

In that scenario, not only to you get the interest that would go to the bank, but the interest you paid to the mortgagee (i.e. you) is also tax deductible against rental income.

Also, you say that you shouldn't have 100% in your RRSP, but consider this:

Each payment gives you cash inside your RRSP to buy other investments which would grow over time.

Finally, you can set the amortization and term of the RRSP mortgage to be the same so you have long term stability for both.

Q

PS As for the posted rate: When I deal with B2B trust on my arms-length mortgages, if I get questioned on the rate I am offering, I simply cut out the "rate" list from the local paper finance section. As long as my rate is on that list somewhere for the same term, they accept that as a "market rate".

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789 2007-11-16 21:11:53 2007-11-17 04:11:53 Hi Q - thank you for the additional insight.

You are quite right - the payments made to the RRSP mortgage can be used to invest in other types of investments.

Sorry, I didn't mean to leave the impression that you shouldn't have 100% of your RRSP as a mortgage in all situations - but rather to consider your asset allocation when choosing how much to hold.

Thanks for your comments! :) Especially about the rental property - that is a GREAT point.

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790 Qcash@Qcash.org http://www.Qcash.org 69.157.29.99 2007-11-18 23:42:24 2007-11-19 06:42:24 WDAMMG

I now look at the asset allocation of my entire portfolio of assets and consider the RRSP my "fixed income" component.

That way I put my growth and divident assets outside my RRSP.

So if my RRSP is 20% of my net worth and it is all "fixed income" then my fixed income is now 20% and that is where I am comfortable.

Q

PS Love your blog --- added it to my daily read.

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791 2007-11-19 21:05:42 2007-11-20 04:05:42 That is an excellent way to structure your investments - and good advice for others.

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792 pcrann@shaw.ca 24.85.79.44 2009-01-19 21:33:59 2009-01-20 02:33:59 1 0 0 793 agent_grey@hotmail.com 174.3.41.35 2009-12-25 18:19:21 2009-12-25 23:19:21 1 0 0 794 r-ibsen@hotmail.com http://wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.230.233.52 2009-12-27 09:55:21 2009-12-27 14:55:21 1 0 0 795 cmull@sympatico.ca 74.13.1.234 2010-01-21 12:24:24 2010-01-21 17:24:24 1 0 0 796 rborghese@aol.com http://www.BorgheseGardens.com/better-quote.htm 76.64.156.178 2010-02-16 15:59:00 2010-02-16 20:59:00 1 0 0
RRSP Withdrawals are subject to Withholding Taxes http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rrsp-withdrawals-are-subject-to-withholding-taxes/ Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:37:16 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/14/rrsp-withdrawals-are-subject-to-withholding-taxes/

Whenever you make a withdrawal from your RRSP there will be a withholding tax applied. Actually, it would be better to say that financial institutions "WITHHOLD tax" and remits it to the government on your behalf. The way the terminology is used makes it sound like a special type of tax - but it isn't: it's income tax!

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgThe reason your financial institution will withhold tax and remit it to the government is because when you take money out of your RRSP it is considered taxable income - just like you earned it in salary for example. If you remember, the tax reduction you get when you make an RRSP contribution is generated because the government lets you deduct it from your earned income for that year. Well, when it comes out again it then becomes taxable. Just as a Mountie always gets his man - the CRA always get their taxes!

Your financial institution is required to withhold the following amount of tax on a withdrawal from your RRSP:

Amount of Withdrawal        Amount of Withholding Tax

         $0 - $5,000                                 10%

     $5,001 - $15,000                             20%

   $15,001 and above                            30%

(The percent withheld is half of the above listed rates if you live in Quebec.)

So if you requested that $5,000 from your RRSP be withdrawn and transferred to your chequing account, only $4,500 would show up since $500 (10% of $5,000) was withheld and remitted to the government on your behalf. (If you needed $5,000 to spend, make sure to tell your financial institution to transfer $5,000 NET as opposed to GROSS.)

Think of the tax withheld on an RRSP withdrawal as being like the tax withheld on your pay cheque. The reason they do this is so that you won't have such a nasty surprise when it comes time to file your taxes - i.e. owe them lots of money instead of getting a refund. You'll note that the amount of tax withheld may not correspond to your marginal tax bracket - so you may still end up owing money nonetheless, especially if you are in a higher tax bracket than the withholding tax bracket:

Let's say that Sharon earns $150,000 from her job as the CEO of a company and is in the 46.41% marginal tax bracket. If she had to make a $5,000 withdrawal from her RRSP she would have to include $5,000 on her income for the year - on top of her $150,000 salary. While she was paying tax on $150,000 through payroll-deducted taxes - she will have to pony up at the end of the year because her actual earned income is $155,000. Applying a 46.41% marginal tax rate on $5,000 shows that she would owe $2,320.50 in income tax on this extra $5,000. But her financial institution only withheld $500. She will therefore have tax owing after filing her income taxes of $1,820.50 ($2,320.50 tax owing - $500 already withheld).

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427 2007-11-14 03:37:16 2007-11-14 10:37:16 open open rrsp-withdrawals-are-subject-to-withholding-taxes publish 0 0 post 0 797 kanwal_sarai@yahoo.com 209.202.115.133 2007-11-23 14:45:39 2007-11-23 21:45:39 What if you had no other income that year, and you withdrew $5000 from your RRSP, would the financial institution still hold 10%? Would you get that 10% back when you filed your taxes?

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798 2007-11-23 15:15:52 2007-11-23 22:15:52 Yes, the financial institution would still withhold 10% and remit to the Government on your behalf.

And Yes, you would get that back once you filed your taxes assuming no other income for that year.

As a disclaimer, you should always check with your tax advisor to confirm. :)

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799 99.235.39.247 2008-03-15 18:11:22 2008-03-16 01:11:22 I have $5,200.00 in my and $5,200.00 my wife's RRSP account. We both earns $22,000/year.[$44,000 combined and our ages are 54(mine) and 51(my wife)]. I am going to move from Canada to US in 5 years from now. So I am thinking of taking out my money. What is the most efficient ways of doing it so I save the most?

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800 aprildurnan@shaw.ca 209.53.139.57 2008-06-04 16:18:01 2008-06-04 20:18:01 1 0 0 801 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-04 17:59:52 2008-06-04 21:59:52 1 0 0 802 tag22@hotmail.com 72.141.148.178 2008-06-05 01:09:05 2008-06-05 05:09:05 1 0 0 803 adrienne_payette@yahoo.ca 99.241.126.184 2010-03-14 14:17:21 2010-03-14 19:17:21 1 0 0
Naming a Beneficiary for your RRSP: Avoid unnecessary tax http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/naming-a-beneficiary-for-your-rrsp-avoid-unnecessary-tax/ Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:27:22 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/15/naming-a-beneficiary-for-your-rrsp-avoid-unnecessary-tax/

If you've set up an RRSP account you'll know one of the standard questions on the application form will ask, "Who do you want to name as Beneficiary for this account?". If you opened the account a long time ago you may have forgotten who you originally named - it happens a lot actually: I've seen some accounts where the plan-holder's brother, sister, mother or father is named as beneficiary - and you may want to review that decision, especially if you've since started your own family.

Writing-fortaxwriteoff.jpgThe Beneficiary is the person who will receive the value of your RRSP should you die. Unless you name a QUALIFIED BENEFICIARY, the full value of the RRSP is taxable as earned income on your terminal return.

This can have unintended consequences since the remaining estate will be responsible for the taxes while the full value of the RRSP will have been transferred to the beneficiary. With the estate owing the taxes, and if there were other beneficiaries of the remaining estate - the other beneficiaries' share might be unintentionally reduced - leaving the estate unequally distributed after-tax.

On the other hand, by naming a qualified beneficiary to receive the value of the RRSP - the full value of the RRSP can be transferred without any taxes paid. Instead of the deceased plan holder including the RRSP income on the terminal tax return, the qualified beneficiary includes the RRSP income in their name - BUT also gets to claim an offsetting deduction for the same amount - hence, no tax is paid. One stipulation is that the actual transfer must occur BEFORE December 31st of the year FOLLOWING the death of the RRSP holder.

So to recap - you can avoid a massive tax bill by naming a qualified beneficiary. I should also point out that naming ANY beneficiary will avoid probate fees since the plan assets will pass outside of the estate upon death and directly to the beneficiary. (If you name the estate as beneficiary, then the RRSP assets will eventually have probate applied to them however.)

So who qualifies as a "qualified beneficiary"?

1. Spouse or Common-Law Spouse

2. Financially Dependent Child or Grandchild who is dependent because of a physical or mental infirmity

3. Financially Dependent Child or Grandchild under 18

All qualified beneficiaries except the financially dependent children under 18 (who are NOT dependent due to mental or physical infirmity) can choose to roll the plan assets into an RRSP, RRIF or life annuity. The financially dependent minor children or grandchildren who are not dependent due to infirmity only have the option of purchasing a Term Certain Annuity which must mature by age 18 (and all annuity payments are included as income until then).

Since an RRSP can have a value of $250,000 or more when a plan holder dies, it can generate a six-figure tax bill! So you can see, the beneficiary election is not something to take lightly at all as it can defer this big tax hit. If you haven't updated your RRSP beneficiary (or reviewed it) lately, you might want to.

Also, whenever reviewing your estate and tax planning - you should seek the counsel of a qualified lawyer or accountant to help you figure out the nuances that pertain to your own situation. 

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428 2007-11-15 02:27:22 2007-11-15 09:27:22 open open naming-a-beneficiary-for-your-rrsp-avoid-unnecessary-tax publish 0 0 post 0
Diversify your blog reading... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/diversify-your-blog-reading/ Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:49:35 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/15/diversify-your-blog-reading/

FrugalTrader over at the Million Dollar Journey blog had asked me to write a guest series on Call Options. Part I of III appears today on his blog - please click here to take a look.

And while you are at it - he was also gracious enough to host the latest round of the "Carnival of Personal Finance" which is a collection of personal financial articles written in the last week from almost 100 other blogs! It moves from being hosted on one site to another - and last week was The Million Dollar Journey's turn to host. I was lucky enough to get selected for an article I wrote on Google Finance Beta. Click here to see ALL the articles that made this week's carnival.

I'm pretty swamped today - don't know if I'll be able to post a proper article tonight or not - so perhaps these links will suffice for today! :)

Have a great day everyone!

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429 2007-11-15 21:49:35 2007-11-16 04:49:35 open open diversify-your-blog-reading publish 0 0 post 0
The Individual Pension Plan (IPP) - Convert your RRSP to a Defined Benefit Pension Plan http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-individual-pension-plan-ipp-convert-your-rrsp-to-a-defined-benefit-pension-plan/ Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:25:32 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/20/the-individual-pension-plan-ipp-convert-your-rrsp-to-a-defined-benefit-pension-plan/

If you A) own 10% or more of a company or B) earn more than $109,250 in 2007 you may be a candidate for setting up an Individual Pension Plan (or IPP for short). An IPP is best described as the Cadillac of defined benefit pension plans.

FlippingThroughBook.jpgFirst some clarification: A "Defined Benefit" pension plan is when the benefit payments are defined - or in plain English: you know exactly how much you will receive in pension payments every month until the day you die. This is as opposed to a "Defined Contribution" pension plan - where you only know how much you put into the plan, and based on your investment selection you may have more money than with a defined benefit plan... or less!

Defined Benefit plans are slowly going the way of the Dodo bird as companies are finding that their pension payment obligations are much higher and longer than they bargained for - hence they have been able to transfer the liability of retirement savings to the employee by dismantling Defined Benefit (DB) plans and replacing them with Defined Contribution (DC) plans.

The advantages of a Defined Benefit pension plan are pretty plain to see. You will never have to worry about running out of money.

Your RRSP is a form of Defined Contribution pension plan however - and as such, you know how much you put in, but you will not have the ability to say with certainty that you will have $X per month until the day you die upon reaching retirement.

...unless you convert it into an IPP (Individual Pension Plan).

The name comes from the fact that the IPP is normally set up for ONE person only. You'll note that I referred to the IPP as the "Cadillac of Defined Benefit Pension Plans" up above. This is because the IPP will allow you to create significant retirement savings tailored to only one person. Normally when a company was to create a defined benefits pension plan for its employees, it would create a plan that wouldn't cost the company an arm and a leg - but at the same time provide enough retirement funding benefit to entice and retain employees to stay. As a result of trying to keep costs in line for the masses - a company would normally pick a run of the mill pension benefit formula.

An IPP, on the other hand, is designed for "special" employees - either owner/operators or highly paid executives - and as such, an IPP is a method of setting up the maximum possible defined benefit pension payment for only one person at a time. The difference it can make is SUBSTANTIAL. Assuming a static rate of return on the investments inside an RRSP and an IPP, your nest egg can be 40-80% higher with an IPP - and this is owed mostly to the fact that you can contribute MUCH MORE to an IPP account than you can to an RRSP account.

For example, while an RRSP will allow a 60 year old to shelter up to 18% of their previous year's income up to $19,000 (for 2007), setting up an IPP will allow that person to shelter around 27% or $30,000.

An IPP will allow you to know how much money you will have every year until you die, while an RRSP will only let you know how much of a lump sum you have at the beginning of retirement - how much you use per year, and how many years you will have it for are based on market performance... and of course if you live to be very, very old - this can cause some problems.

Of course, there are extra costs and quirks associated with IPPs. One of the first things to note is that you must hire an actuary to determine exactly how much you can contribute to the plan, and the plan requires an actuarial evaluation once every three years on top of that. You can expect this to add up to approximately $1,100 per year (when averaged out or if using a flat annual fee service) - however, those costs are tax deductible (unlike administrative costs associated with RRSP accounts). The actuary is used to determine if the plan is over- or under-funded - and if it is under funded, you can actually top up your contributions in order to catch back up... and those top-up contributions are tax-deductible as well!

You can choose to convert your RRSP into the IPP, and you can also pay a lump sum to catch up for prior years of service. You can also continue to have separate IPP and RRSP accounts, but note that how much you can contribute to your RRSP is reduced since there is a maximum amount of money that can be contributed to your pension plan(s) in total.

And there certainly are disadvantages over and above the extra administrative costs as well. Namely, you don't have access to the funds while you are working. Remember, it's a pension plan now, and is governed under pension legislation. Also as such, you have some restrictions with the investments you are allowed to select - for example, you are not allowed to have any one security represent more than 10% of your IPP portfolio - this is also governed by pension legislation.

Here is an example of the difference an IPP can make to a 57 year old, who earned $150,000 since 1990 and has maximized his RRSP (which is now worth $500,000): by setting up an IPP he can collect an annual pension of approximately $91,000 per year versus $57,000 per year with an RRSP (assumes a flat 7.5% rate of return). Remember, the magic is really due to the increased contribution limits - not the investment portfolio differences. 

If you want to learn more about IPP's, there are a couple of places to look:

West Coast Actuaries provide an online quoting system if you are curious to see the effects of an IPP on your retirement funding. 

Gordon B. Lang and Associates provides further information on their website.

Executive Retirement Plan is a website that provides further information on a variety of topics relating to retirement, but they specialize in providing IPP set up assistance to financial advisors for their clients. 

 

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430 2007-11-20 04:25:32 2007-11-20 11:25:32 open open the-individual-pension-plan-ipp-convert-your-rrsp-to-a-defined-benefit-pension-plan publish 0 0 post 0 804 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2007-11-20 13:02:21 2007-11-20 20:02:21 Preet, thanks for the great article. I had no idea that individuals could set up a defined benefit plan for themselves.

One of the criteria was that you must own more than 10% of a company. Can this be any company?

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805 2007-11-20 14:21:36 2007-11-20 21:21:36 Hi MDJ, technically you need to either be a highly paid employee, or be a "Connected Person".

You need to be drawing T4 income from the plan sponsor - so if you owned 10% of Royal Bank but didn't work there, you would not qualify for an IPP.

If you worked for Royal Bank and they agreed to sponsor the plan, you could setup an IPP without owning 10% of the company if you qualified as a "highly paid employee".

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806 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2007-11-20 14:54:29 2007-11-20 21:54:29 To say there are administrative hurdles to setting up an IPP is an understatement. This is a very good alternative to the basic RRSP for qualified individuals, and he/she should be prepared to be patient as the process to set one up is time consuming and the red tape can be exasperating--anything where the CRA is involved! Throughout the life of the plan there are many parties involved including the actuary, an independent trustee, and investment advisor (who may also be the custodian of the funds). Another actuary to add to Preet's list is Canadian Western Trust (Disclaimer: I have no beneficial interest in this company but have dealt with them professionally).

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807 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 199.166.15.246 2007-11-20 15:14:10 2007-11-20 22:14:10 Thanks for the additional insight - you are right, I made it sound like it was very straight forward to set up - but Leslie is right, it can be an undertaking in some situations.

Thanks for the link to Canadian Western Trust - I will check them out! :)

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Call Options: The Basics http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/call-options-the-basics/ Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:36:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/21/call-options-the-basics/ A very highly respected Canadian financial blog, The Million Dollar Journey (which I read every day), had asked me to guest-author a series of articles on Call Options. FrugalTrader (the person who runs that site), has posted all three parts in the series on his website. I highly recommend checking out the articles and you can do so by clicking on the links below. The content was written such that new investors would be comfortable with the material, while slowly progressing to a level that would appeal to experienced "do-it-yourselfers" as well.

Click Here to Read Part I: The Basics of Call Options

Click Here to Read Part II: Examples of a basic Call Option in Action

Click Here to Read Part III: A Conservative Call Option Strategy I Recommend You Look At

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431 2007-11-21 05:36:50 2007-11-21 12:36:50 open open call-options-the-basics publish 0 0 post 0 808 feedback@financeandfat.com http://www.financeandfat.com 128.196.26.48 2007-11-21 14:15:56 2007-11-21 21:15:56 Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your series.

It has been years since I invested as much money in the market as I would like and I only tried options trading once (wrote a covered call), but I really hope to get back to it soon. Your breakdown was a great refresher and you made it simple to understand.

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809 2007-11-21 16:08:01 2007-11-21 23:08:01 Thank you for the kind words! :) I've said it before, but will say it again - the feedback give me motivation to keep on writing.

Thanks FinanceAndFat

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Two Ways to Kickstart your Child's RRSP Account http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/two-ways-to-kickstart-your-childs-rrsp-account/ Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:46:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/22/two-ways-to-kickstart-your-childs-rrsp-account/

Most people find out later in life just how important it is to start saving early. Here are two strategies you can use to help your children start saving early.

YOU CAN SET UP YOUR CHILD'S RRSP AS SOON AS THEY FILE THEIR FIRST TAX RETURN

You may have thought that you have to be 18 to set up an RRSP, but there is no minimum age restriction. The only requirement is that you have generated RRSP contribution room by claiming earned income - which can be done by filing a tax return. Some people choose not to file tax returns for their children because they may not be earning enough income to have to pay taxes. While that may be true, by filing a return for them nonetheless, you can start generating RRSP contribution room. Every little bit helps. Let's look at what $100 dollars grows to in progressively longer intervals (assuming a 10% rate of return).

10 Years = $259
20 Years = $673
30 Years = $1,745
40 Years = $4,526
50 Years = $11,739
60 Years = $30,448

So for those who are self-employed and pay their children a nominal wage to lick stamps for the family business, it is quite possible for a 10 year old to have generated some RRSP contribution room. In this case, for every $100 they contribute, it will equate to roughly $30,000 by the time they have to convert their RRSP to a RRIF account. Mind you, if we averaged 2.5% inflation during this whole time that $30,000 will only buy you $7,665 worth of stuff in today's dollars! Nonetheless, it's better than not having that money AT ALL isn't it? :)

YOU CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE $2,000 RRSP OVER-CONTRIBUTION LIMIT STARTING THE YEAR YOU TURN 19

LearningGraduation.jpgWhile there is no minimum age to set up an RRSP account, you cannot take advantage of the $2,000 overcontribution limit until the year the RRSP owner turns 19 years of age - in other words, you have to be 18 on January 1st of that tax year. So even though your child may not have built any significant RRSP contribution room through gainful employment, the year they turn 19 you can still deposit a lump sum of $2,000 to their RRSP over and above their contribution room at this time. Let's see what this present might look like by the time they convert their RRSP to a RRIF account at age 71 (again assuming a 10% rate of return):

$2,000 Overcontribution at Age 19 = $312,494.45 at age 71

If we again factor in an inflation rate of 2.5%, the spending power in today's dollars works out to $92,401. Close enough in my books to say that a $2,000 gift when your child turns 18 is worth about $90,000 to their retirement.

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432 2007-11-22 02:46:27 2007-11-22 09:46:27 open open two-ways-to-kickstart-your-childs-rrsp-account publish 0 0 post 0
Save to an RRSP or Pay off your Mortgage? Part 1 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-1-of-3/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:45:34 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/22/save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-1-of-3/

This is one of those debates that will probably rage on without ever clearly being decided anytime soon. So instead of telling you that either paying down your mortgage more quickly OR saving to your RRSP is unequivocally better than the other, I will instead provide you with some insight that will allow you to make a more informed decision for your own situation.

There have been some very adamant proponents for each strategy and I would caution you that when considering their arguments, look at what assumptions they are making with respect to the individuals' financial situations, investment experiences and attitudes. For example, not everyone has the same asset allocation, rate of return, mortgage interest rate, investment knowledge, etc. So while a compelling argument can be made based on a certain individual profile, the conclusions may not be transferable to other profiles - i.e. YOU! :)

With that in mind, let's take a look at the basic argument:

By putting money away into your RRSP you are increasing the amount of future retirement income and also increasing your net worth by doing so. By putting extra dollars against the mortgage instead, you are paying off debt - which also serves to increase your net worth since you will have a smaller number on the "liabilities" side of your personal balance sheet. So the argument is: Which strategy increases your financial picture in a better manner OVERALL?

I will begin by making some assumptions for the purposes of measuring and comparing strategies. After a first run through, we will then look at how differences to those assumptions can affect the analyses.

So let's make the following initial assumptions:

We are dealing with a 30 year old single male who earns $60,000 per year. His salary increases by 4% every year until he is 65, at which point he will retire. He will live to be 90. Inflation is 3%. His investments will earn an average of 8%. He has a mortgage of $300,000 as of December 31st, 2006, and he will average a 6.5% rate of interest on that mortgage which has an amortization of 25 years. His mortgage payment would be $2009.47/month and when that money is freed up after having paid the mortgage off, it will not increase with inflation or with his salary.

I will assume that he doesn't upgrade his house and that his current house appreciates by 6% per year. I will also assume that after his living expenses and set mortgage payments, he has 5% of his gross salary as a surplus every year (which will be used for savings or debt repayment and that surplus WILL grow by 4% per year in line with his salary). Once the mortgage is paid off in any scenario, the same cash outflow will be re-directed to his retirement savings. Once he reaches 65, I will calculate (using existing tax laws including OAS and CPP income) how much annual income he will have (after tax) to spend and that number will not include pulling out equity from his home at any point.

Scenario A: Saving to your RRSP Now, Not using the Tax Refund Productively

This is pretty straight forward - by putting any surplus funds you have into savings in the form of RRSP's you will earn a tax refund now and your contributions will grow over time as well. In this particular scenario we will examine what happens to our test investor if he were to take his 5% surplus and put that into his RRSP. Once the mortgage is paid off (which occurs in 2031), he will start taking that mortgage payment amount (which was $2009.47/month) and put it into his RRSP savings account in addition to his regular contributions starting in January 2032.

In this case, he ends up with the ability to spend almost exactly $40,000/year in after tax income (in today's dollars) from age 65 to 90. I actually pulled the graph from my financial planning software to show what this looks like below. There are a couple of points of interest that I have included, and the graph needs some explanation: 

ScenarioAGraph.jpg 

First let's start by looking at the greenish-blue area on the graph - this represents his total net worth. Next, you'll see a yellow line which according to the legend represents his "lifestyle assets" which is just another way of saying "his house" in this case. The area under the yellow line represents the portion of his total net worth that is made up of his house's value. Everything above the yellow line represents his RRSP (in this very simple example).

Further I have highlighted two areas: Point A and Point B. Point A is an inflection point in the rate of growth of his total net worth. You'll notice there is no corresponding inflection point IN THE SAME YEAR for the house value. This is the year he retires and the inflection can be explained by the fact that he is no longer saving to his RRSP and is now withdrawing from it. His total net worth from this point on is still growing because the increase in value of the house is more than the absolute decrease in value of his retirement savings from this point on.

If you direct your attention to the very right hand side of the graph, where the yellow line and the green area meet - at this point, our test investor has no more retirement savings left, and his entire net worth is made up solely of his house. I have used this "goal" (of completely depleting retirement savings and not encroaching on home equity) as a yardstick for comparing scenarios and I will address the disadvantages of this method later.

Point B on the graph is an almost imperceptible inflection point in the yellow line (the value of his house). Rather, it would be better described as his equity in the house. You would be correct if you surmised that the inflection point here represents the point at which he has finished paying off the mortgage as the rate of change in the slope up to that point is greater than after: this is because up until the mortgage is paid off, the home equity growth is based on principal repayment and growth in real estate value. After the mortgage is paid off, the line increases only by the growth in real estate value.

Based on this scenario - our test investor would have $40,000/year in today's dollars after-tax to spend in retirement.

This is going to be a lengthy post, so I will split it up into three parts. Next, I will look at the scenario of using the surplus to pay down the mortgage before starting RRSP contributions. In the third part, I will start playing with each variable (investment return, life expectancy, mortgage interest rates, etc) to see how this affects each strategy... stay tuned! :)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 2 

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433 2007-11-22 20:45:34 2007-11-23 03:45:34 open open save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-1-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 810 chuppe@sympatico.ca 67.71.117.86 2007-11-23 12:28:55 2007-11-23 19:28:55 I'm afraid the graph isn't showing up, making it difficult to follow the explanation...

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811 2007-11-23 14:34:21 2007-11-23 21:34:21 Hi Chris - it shows up fine for me from two different computers, usind different browsers and OS's. Although sometimes I used to see my headshot photo not show up correctly on one page from certain computers. Maybe it's the same problem - in which case I think it has something to do with the blogging engine? I'll look into it - in the meantime, can other people drop a line to let me know if everyone is having the same problem? (or not?)

Thanks,

Preet

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Save to an RRSP or Pay off your Mortgage? Part 2 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-2-of-3/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:35:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/23/save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-2-of-3/

Continuing from Part 1, now we will examine the next scenario...

Scenario B: Pay down the mortgage first - RRSP refund not used productively

In this scenario the set mortgage payment remains $2009.47 BUT, additional funds are directed over and above the set payment. The surplus (of 5% of the sample investor's gross salary - which is also growing in line with his salary at 4% per year) will serve to accelerate the mortgage - and once it is paid off, all of those funds ($2009.47/month + 5% of his ever growing salary) will be directed to his RRSP.

Here is the new graph:

ScenarioBGraph.jpg 

You are already familiar with the basics of the graph as described in Part 1 of this series - so let's just focus on what's different. Point A is of interest because in this scenario surplus funds are used to pay down the mortgage - so the net worth is equal to the equity in the house - hence there is no green area above the yellow line.

The mortgage is, however paid off much earlier than 25 years. In fact it is paid off 7 years earlier (2024). Now the 5% surplus in ADDITION to the $2009.47/month set mortgage payment from before is  now directed to the RRSP account. This is shown in Point B - which represents two points of inflection. The first point of inflection is the yellow line which represents the slowing growth in the house equity. This is due to the fact that payments are no longer going to reduce the mortgage and the remaining growth is just the 6% increase we have attributed to real estate appreciation. The second point of inflection (at Point B) is for the total net worth - which is now increasing more quickly since the surplus funds and the old mortgage payment amount is being directed to an asset with a higher growth rate than the real estate appreciation rate (8% vs 6%, respectively).

There is a third inflection point (which is not located at Point B), but occurs as usual at the time of retirement when our sample investor transitions from saving to spending.

In this scenario, our sample investor will be able to spend approximately $38,000/year after tax, in today's dollars from age 65 to 90. You can see that this is less than Scenario A. But don't let this fool you into thinking the debate is over - far from it... Let's look at what happens when we use the RRSP refund productively in the next two scenarios:

Scenario C: Save to RRSP now, use tax refund to pay down mortgage

This is the same as Scenario A, with the added difference of productively using the tax refunds generated by the RRSP contributions. 

First we will need to calculate the amount of the tax refund - it will be $935 in Ontario and we will apply this yearly (and index it at 4% to match the growth in his salary). Since his salary is growing faster than inflation, it is possible that our sample investor will move up through a tax bracket and start generating proportionately larger and larger tax refunds, but the difference will not be statistically significant as the differential between his salary and inflation is only 1% per year (and the tax brackets are supposed to increase with inflation). Once the mortgage is paid off, the RRSP refunds will be directed to a non-registered portfolio which will be used to augment retirement income later (also keep in mind the RRSP refunds will take a big jump once the mortgage is paid off as $2009.47/month will now be directed to the RRSP each year after that point). This portfolio will be in a taxable account, so we will use the same 8% long term rate of return but we will model the returns as 2% dividends, 1% interest, 1% realized capital gains and 4% unrealized capital gains per year - this way we can take into account the reduced growth due to taxation.

ScenarioCGraph.jpg
 

It might be hard to tell, but area above the home equity (yellow line) is "bulkier" than in Scenario A - this is because more money is being accumulated for retirement savings. When factoring the use of the RRSP refunds to first pay down the mortgage (which takes 2 years and 11 months off the 25 year amortization schedule), and then to fund a non-registered retirement account - this strategy allows for an annual, after-tax income in today's dollars of $46,300/year from age 65 to 90. So you can see, using the RRSP refunds productively is a big deal.

Now we must factor the productive use of the RRSP refunds for Scenario B to be fair...

Scenario D: Pay down mortgage first, then save to RRSP with productive use of RRSP refund

This is similar to Scenario B - with the addition of productively using the RRSP refund. 

So in this scenario, the surplus funds are going to be directed to aggressively paying down the mortgage first, and once that is done, the funds will be directed to an RRSP account. The resulting RRSP refunds will be directed into the same non-registered account as above.

ScenarioDGraph.jpg 

The above graph again shows that for the first little while, no net worth attributable to retirement savings exists as all money is being put towards the mortgage first, and then later to the retirement savings. You may be surprised at first to know that the annual after-tax income in today's dollars is $48,000/year from age 65 to 90 in this case - you'll notice the area above the home equity (yellow line) is the "bulkiest" of all 4 scenarios so far.

So to recap:

Scenario A = $40,000/year (RRSP all along, non-productive use of RRSP refunds)

Scenario B = $38,000/year (Mortgage first, non-productive use of RRSP refunds)

Scenario C = $46,300/year (RRSP all along, productive use of RRSP refunds)

Scenario D = $48,000/year (Mortgage first, productive use of RRSP refunds)

So Scenarios A and B might have led you to believe that saving to your RRSP all along might be the better way to go, but the tables are turned once we start using the RRSP refunds to productive use... 

The reason is mostly due to the fact that with the mortgage now aggressively paid off early, the mortgage payment amount which is then directed to the RRSP will generate very large tax refunds from a relatively early time (which is then used for non-registered retirement savings).

Okay, I've just hit you with three more charts and a few things to think about, so I'll wrap up Part 2 right here. In part 3, we will start playing around with return rates and interest rates. We w ill also examine some less quantitative aspects of the old "Mortgage versus RRSP" debate. Stay tuned yet again! :)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 3

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434 2007-11-23 01:35:01 2007-11-23 08:35:01 open open save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-2-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 812 chuppe@sympatico.ca 67.71.117.86 2007-11-23 12:30:10 2007-11-23 19:30:10 I'm afraid the graph isn't displayed in this article either...

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813 2007-11-23 14:35:53 2007-11-23 21:35:53 See reply to comment in Part 1.

In the meantime, if other readers could let me know if they can or cannot see it, it would be appreciated! :)

Preet

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814 mike@marsworks.com http://www.cutcommission.ca 216.191.226.18 2007-11-23 16:54:28 2007-11-23 23:54:28 I juts popped over from MDJ. Very interesting posts. My wife and I are agressivly paying off our mortgage. I'll be curious to read part 3 to see if our plan is best for our goals. Thanks.

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815 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-11-23 18:36:05 2007-11-24 01:36:05 I also can not see the graphs on either of these two posts in this series.

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816 2007-11-23 19:47:01 2007-11-24 02:47:01 Hmmm - the graphs appearing or not is beyond my scope of knowledge - I'm at a loss. Anyone have any ideas for me??? :(

I'll do my best to get it sorted it out guys, thanks for your patience...

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817 chuppe@sympatico.ca 67.71.117.86 2007-11-26 10:34:48 2007-11-26 17:34:48 Just a quick note to let you know that this morning I can see the graphs :)

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818 2007-11-26 16:11:58 2007-11-26 23:11:58 Hi Chris - thanks for the note. I'm afraid to say I didn't change a thing since making the original post! :)

Sometimes this whole outernet thing really confuses me... :P

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Save to an RRSP or Pay off your Mortgage? Part 3 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-3-of-3/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:16:00 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/23/save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-3-of-3/

Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 in this series, we will now explore what happens when we change our long term expectations of return on our investment portfolios. I looked at increasing the ROR from 8% to 10% (1% interest, 2% dividends, 2% realized capital gains, 5% unrealized capital growth) and I also looked at decreasing the ROR to 6% (1% interest, 2% dividends, 1% realized capital gains, 2% unrealized capital growth).

Here are the annual after-tax incomes, in today's dollars for the lower ROR of 6%, the base ROR of 8% and the higher ROR of 10%:

Scenario A - Surplus funds go to the RRSP first, tax refunds not used productively, once mortgage is paid off that money is re-directed to the RRSP

6% ROR = $31,250     8% ROR = $40,000     10% ROR = $54,800

Scenario B - Surplus funds go to the mortgage first, tax refunds not used productively, once the mortgage is paid off the RRSP is started

6% ROR = $31,500     8% ROR = $38,000     10% ROR = $48,000

Scenario C - Surplus funds go to RRSP first, tax refunds go to paying down the mortgage, once the mortgage is paid off, all extra money goes to the RRSP, and the tax refunds go to a non-registered account to augment retirement savings

6% ROR = $35,500     8% ROR = $46,300     10% ROR = $62,200

Scenario D - Surplus funds go to the mortgage first, once the mortgage is paid off the RRSP is started and tax refunds go to a non-registered account to augment retirement savings

6% ROR = $38,000     8% ROR = $48,000     10% ROR = $60,750

There are a couple of items of note from looking at the results:

1. Using your tax refund productively is a really good thing (duh).
2. Lower investment returns make paying the mortgage off quickly more attractive
3. Higher investment returns make contributing to your RRSP earlier more attractive
4. Paying the mortgage off quickly is LESS sensitive to changes in investment returns
5. Contributing to your RRSP earlier is MORE sensitive to changes in investment returns

Point 1 is pretty intuitive.

Points number 2 and 3 can be explained by the relative rates between the mortgage interest rate and the rate of return on your investments. Is there a magic number? Not really - it's more complicated than that. While early contributions to the RRSP are more attractive when the long term rate of return on your portfolio increases, you have to take that with a grain of salt since the risk in the portfolio increases exponentially with increased expected portfolio returns. By aggressively paying down the mortgage there is relatively no risk involved since you know what you will end up with (almost) no matter what (as measured by variance in net worth patterns).

With respect to risk and return, most people mistakenly assume that just because they are taking more risk with their portfolios that it automatically means you will have more money down the road so long as you can stomach increased volatility. It is not a given. It is very much a possibility that someone with a balanced portfolio will have more money at the end of the day than someone who was more aggressive. By taking on a more volatile portfolio, you can only assume that the "potential" is higher that you will have more money at the end of the day.

Let me demonstrate by running Scenarios C and D through Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analyses.

Actually, first let me talk a bit about Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analyses. A Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis will allow you to incorporate standard deviations of portfolios into your financial plan and randomize life expectancies. It shows you the effects of taking on more risk by showing you the probability of the success of your plans based on return patterns that are not static. In other words most financial plans that use an 8% rate of return assume your portfolio will earn 8% each and every year. That's okay-at-best for a lump sum investment - since the sequence of returns don't matter, but not okay since you may not actually achieve 8% - it could be higher or lower. It's horrible for regular contributions, and worse still for the withdrawal phase since, for example, if we look at the beginning of retirement: if the first few years of retirement are good years on the markets - you will substantially increase your average annual income. If they first few years are bad - the exact opposite is true. A static model will never show the true danger of this phenomenon. So the Monte Carlo simulations will model different life expectancies, different average rates of returns, and different sequences of returns all extrapolated from a model of risk/return that incorporates a parabolic relation between the risk and return. It will then spit out what amounts to a probability of success - where success is defined by certain variables (like dipping into a line of credit for more than $10,000 in any one year for example).

Having said that, here is the Monte Carlo Graph of Scenario C - it has a probability of success of 71% using an 8% ROR of attaining $46,300/year in retirement. Recall that this scenario calls for the saving to the RRSP from the get go.

MonteCarloScenarioC.jpg 

Compare that to the Monte Carlo Graph of Scenario D - it has a probability of success of 84% using an 8% ROR of attaining $48,000/year. Recall that this scenario calls for an aggressive paying down of the mortgage.

MonteCarloScenarioD.jpg 

You can look at the grids at the top of this post that shows the annual incomes for each scenario at the three different rates of return. From there you will see that you can eye-ball the sensitivity if you keep in mind that the probability of success decreases (RELATIVE TO THE STATED INCOME AMOUNTS) as the ROR increases.

For example, if you look from left to right, you will see that the range between income levels for each scenario are bigger or smaller depending on what strategy you are using. Look at Scenario C from left to right. The range is from $35,500 to $62,200. Scenario D ranges from $38,000 to $60,750. This can be accounted for by the difference in variance between the two plans, especially during the time the mortgage is still outstanding.  

While paying to an RRSP becomes more attractive as the rate of return on your portfolio increases, you have to keep in mind that the probability of having that higher annual income in retirement decreases. So the next logical step would be to instead model the Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis on Scenarios C and D for the same level of income, at different rates of return to really have a solid understanding as to which strategy is better.

But I'm not going to do that. I've already made a TONNE of assumptions. I'm predicting things 60 years into the future, and not to mention, I haven't looked at the variability in home equity, nor dipping into that equity. But I do think I've given a clearer pe rspective to the debate. Normally, I've seen commentary that will indicate that one way is better than the other based on some principles - but without delving into actual numbers, and ultimately conceding that their theory does not always hold true. We never see soft numbers and fairly in-depth assumptions being made, so I decided to do that. Not to prove one strategy better than the other, but rather to help you make up your own mind based on your own "money personality".

Not everyone has the stomach for investing aggressively, and as such this analysis would suggest that paying the mortgage down aggressively is very attractive. For those who believe they can manage double digit returns long term - they will find the early RRSP savings strategy to be more attractive.

But beyond the quantitative aspects, there are the more qualitative aspects to consider as well.

1. Not everyone uses their full RRSP refund productively.
2. Some people are happy to downsize their homes in retirement - this then frees up capital for retirement income.
3. Aggressively paying down your mortgage may lead to a string of ever more expensive houses, which may negatively impact your RRSP savings plans in the future.
4. Flexibility. This is a big one. By aggressively paying down your mortgage first you are sacrificing flexibility. If you had some sort of emergency that required you to access cash, chances are the reason that you have the emergency will also hinder your application for an extension of credit. For example, if you lost your job, or were fired - your ability to get money back from the bank is reduced as they will look at your new income level. Certainly setting up a HELOC ahead of time would help you out, as would proper insurance, etc. But you get the idea.
5. Will you indeed pump as much money into the RRSP as you did to your mortgage payment once it is paid off?

My personal point of view is that there is no "one size fits all" answer to this debate. You need to understand your own risk profile, personal values, and financial plans to determine which strategy is best for your own personal situation. Sorry to disappoint those who were waiting for my verdict! :) Nonetheless, I hope I provided some insights and analysis techniques that will help you to better decide the debate as it applies to your own situation.

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435 2007-11-23 16:16:00 2007-11-23 23:16:00 open open save-to-an-rrsp-or-pay-off-your-mortgage-part-3-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 819 99.247.70.142 2007-11-23 23:54:31 2007-11-24 06:54:31 Hi. I'm a relatively recent reader of your blog, and I must say I'm quite impressed with your analysis. This is by far the most thorough one I've seen on this whole debate. Thank you!

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820 adeem.zafar@rogers.com http://limitedcredit.blogspot.com 99.240.55.188 2007-11-24 03:37:23 2007-11-24 10:37:23 Very helpful series you have written. I did have a question though...this is about mortgage vs. RRSP...what about credit card debt versus RRSP?

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821 2007-11-24 04:06:54 2007-11-24 11:06:54 Fernando: thanks for the kind words. :)

Adeem: due to the high interest rates associated with credit cards - it is much better to pay that (and any other high interest debt) off first.

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822 http://thaddeus.freedownloadreport.info/top5payoffyourmortgageearlywebsites.html 89.216.84.4 2008-08-02 11:10:26 2008-08-02 15:10:26 1 pingback 0 0 823 rmckster@gmail.com 99.235.233.176 2009-01-29 00:35:43 2009-01-29 05:35:43 1 0 0 824 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-29 09:03:37 2009-01-29 14:03:37 1 0 0
The Home Buyer's Plan (HBP): Borrow from yourself to help with home ownership http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-home-buyers-plan-hbp-borrow-from-yourself-to-help-with-home-ownership/ Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:55:15 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/25/the-home-buyers-plan-hbp-borrow-from-yourself-to-help-with-home-ownership/

The Home Buyer's Plan (or HBP for short) was introduced by the Canadian government to assist first time home buyers with owning their first homes. It is actually a provision that allows you to take a zero-interest loan from your own RRSP for up to $20,000 that must be repaid over 15 years and without causing that RRSP withdrawal to incur any income taxes. (If you remember, if you make a withdrawal from your RRSP, those funds are normally included as income in the year of withdrawal - the HBP is one of a few exceptions to this rule.)

housepicture.jpgOne common misconception is that the funds need to be used towards the down payment. Actually, there is no requirement that the funds be used towards your home purchase in any way at all! If you wanted to take advantage of the program to pay for a cruise around the world, you are completely entitled to do so... but that may not make much financial sense... :)

There are some conditions that you must meet in order to qualify for the program, and of course there are a lot of rules to be cognizant about in order to avoid any nasty tax surprises. Let's explore the ins and out of the program in a little more detail:

Qualifying for the HBP

You can qualify to be eligible for a withdrawal under the HBP through a few different methods - the most commonly used approach is to qualify as a "first time home buyer". Strictly speaking, this means that you must not have occupied a home as a principal residence at any time from January 1st of the 4th calendar year before the year of withdrawal and up to 31 days before the date of the withdrawal in the current year. In other words, it is possible to qualify as a first time home buyer more than once - so the name is a *bit* misleading. Also note that if you have had a relationship with someone who owned their own home, and you were living with that person (whether you contributed to the mortgage or not), this could restart your clock on your eligibility as a first time home buyer. The eligibility as a first time home buyer is specific to the individual - so it is also possible that within a couple, only one person could qualify as a first time home buyer.

There are three exceptions to the condition of being a first time home buyer:

1. If you are a disabled person and you are acquiring a more accessible home.

2. If you are acquiring a more accessible home for someone who is disabled and will be living with you, and that person is related to you by blood, marriage, common-law partnership or by adoption.

3. If you are PROVIDING funds to a disabled person related to you as above, to assist them in acquiring their own more accessible home that you will NOT live in.

If you have satisfied the above conditions, you must additionally:

1. Be a resident of Canada

2. Have entered into a written agreement to buy or build a home

3. Buy or build your home before October 1st of the year AFTER the year of withdrawal

4. Intend to occupy the home no later than 1 year after buying said home (although if you do not actually move in by this time - i.e. delay in construction of a new home or condo - then so long as you had intended to be moved in by this time, you are okay) 

5. Make all withdrawals under the program within one calendar year (which includes January of the following year) so long as the last withdrawal is not more than 30 days after the closing date. (You can withdraw all the money you intend to withdraw in one lump sum, or you can make multiple withdrawals. You have to fill in a special form, a T1036, for each withdrawal and submit this with each withdrawal request to your RRSP plan provider.)

6. Have a current Home Buyer's Plan balance of $0 (this is important for those who are trying to use the program a second time - it basically means you must have made all the repayments to any previous HBP withdrawals before participating again).

Repayments

I hope you didn't forget that this is a loan to yourself - which means you have to pay back the funds you have borrowed from yourself! I mentioned in the beginning of this post that the loan is a zero-interest loan - but keep in mind that while those funds are NOT in your RRSP, they are NOT generating growth of your retirement savings - one of the reasons many people are not big fans of this program. However, the goal of home-ownership is a strong one and can be more of a priority than retirement planning - especially when you are younger. You should consult a financial advisor to determine the tradeoffs of using the HBP - many have found that they are better off not using it. Others find that it may be the onlyl way to get into their first house. It all depends on your specific situation.

Nonetheless, the HBP program requires that you repay your RRSP over 15 years, starting in the second year after the year of withdrawal. So basically that means you won't have to make any repayments in the year you make the withdrawal OR the following year either. In addition, since the repayment is technically due at the time you file your taxes - it can be around 3 years before you actually have to start making payments back to your RRSP.

The amount of the repayment will be 1/15 of the balance as a minimum in the first year of repayments. If you fail to make this minimum payment, then you will be forced to include the shortfall in your income for that tax year (and hence pay tax on that shortfall).

Let's look at an example: Let's say that you make a withdrawal of $20,000 from your RRSP under the HBP in February of 2007. You won't have to start making your repayments until 2009 - which means the payment is actually due by the first 60 days of 2010 to qualify as an RRSP contribution for the 2009 tax year. Since you took out the maximum of $20,000, you will have to repay 1/15th of $20,000 for the 2009 tax year which works out to $1,333.33. If you only pay $1,000 back to your RRSP and claim that as your HBP repayment for the year, then you are short by $333.33 and that will be included as taxable income on your tax return.

If you choose to make a repayment that is larger than the minimum required, this will reduce the amount of annual repayments in the future. For example, let's say you made a $5,000 repayment in the first year. In this case, you will be required to pay 1/14th of the remaining balance in Year 2 of the repayments which works out to $1,071.43.

In case you were wondering, any repayments made to your RRSP are not tax deductible since you are just repaying money that you had already contributed to your RRSP (and hence, had already deducted from your income).

Final Notes

There are many people who contribute to an RRSP when they are younger solely for the purpose of using the HBP since any contribution made will also be generating tax refunds. This would allow for the ability to accelerate the savings of one's first down payment. However, it is important to note that any RRSP contribution made must remain in your RRSP for 90 days in order for you to be able to deduct those contributions. Without the ability to deduct the contributions, you will not generate any tax refunds!

As always, I recommend consulting with your own financial advisor to see if this program is something that fits with your own financial plans.

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436 2007-11-25 23:55:15 2007-11-26 06:55:15 open open the-home-buyers-plan-hbp-borrow-from-yourself-to-help-with-home-ownership publish 0 0 post 0 825 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.24.117 2007-11-26 04:29:29 2007-11-26 11:29:29 I used this strategy recently to buy my home. My employer match to my RRSP is instantly vested and they match 100% of up to 6% of my salary. This means I was putting 12% of my salary away just to buy a house, when I was taking tax deductions the whole time.

So say for instance my salary was 60000 and I lived in Ontario. (neither are true. . .)

I would take 6% of my salary, or 3600 a year, and my employer would match that as well. My tax bill on the total 60K would be about $13272. By putting the 3600 in the RRSP it would save me 1121 in taxes. This puts me 3600 + 3600 + 1121 = $8321 closer to the down payment and closing costs. Plus you add in any investment gains, even though they were little as I had a very short time frame.

Also, a thing to remember is both you and a spouse can make a withdrawal for this purpose. This could get you up to 40K to get yourself in the door to home ownership. If both people had a similar RRSP plan as I do, think how quickly that 40K can be reached.

Many people are against borrowing from an RRSP to buy a home, but I think this is a near perfect way to get your foot in the door. Even without the company matching I still think it makes sense to do; Even if only for the extra tax savings helping get to the goal faster.

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826 2007-11-26 16:10:17 2007-11-26 23:10:17 Thanks so much for the comment - I was actually going to write about a few strategies concerning the HBP after writing this primer post. Your strategy was one of the strategies I am going to write about.

There is another strategy I am going to write which details why you may want to never pay back the HBP... you may find it of interest. Might not be for you - but I'm sure you'll find it interesting.

Stay tuned! And thanks for your contributions to the site! :)

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827 Canadianfinancialdiy@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 70.48.181.62 2007-11-26 23:29:15 2007-11-27 06:29:15 Useful post, well explained.
Though the interest-free loan is not earning the RRSP any interest, it is invested in the house, which gains in value over the years tax-free as a principal residence. Plus, it avoids the need to borrow money on the mortgage, and avoids the interest thereupon, which is not tax deductible. Unless my logic is wrong, the loan is in effect a way of converting non-deductible mortgage interest into tax-free interest, not in tangible terms but in opportunity cost terms.

Post suggestion: Maybe you should also write about using your RRSP to make a real mortgage loan to yourself.

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828 2007-11-27 02:52:05 2007-11-27 09:52:05 Thank you for your comment Jean - you are very correct - the trade off of lost growth is offset by the growth in the house.

For your post suggestion - do you mean holding your own mortgage inside your RRSP? I have covered that recently here: Click Here

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829 drhome@hotmail.co.uk http://www.secureasale.co.uk 194.90.209.189 2009-03-11 12:02:37 2009-03-11 17:02:37 1 0 0 830 djmreid@gmail.com 209.240.114.32 2009-07-08 15:55:17 2009-07-08 20:55:17 1 0 0 831 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-08 20:24:20 2009-07-09 01:24:20 1 0 0 832 whiteaw@dal.ca 207.236.68.2 2010-03-08 10:35:28 2010-03-08 15:35:28 1 0 0
Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP): Borrow from yourself to finance your education http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/lifelong-learning-plan-llp-borrow-from-yourself-to-finance-your-education/ Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:33:15 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/26/lifelong-learning-plan-llp-borrow-from-yourself-to-finance-your-education/

This program has a lot of similarities to the Home Buyer's Plan. The Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP henceforth) is a program that allows you to make a zero-interest loan to yourself from your RRSP for the purpose of financing the education of yourself, or a spouse/common-law partner. The withdrawal of those funds will not be subject to tax so long as you abide by some rules of participation.

The Basics

LearningGraduation.jpgUnder the LLP, you are entitled to withdraw a maximum of $20,000 from your RRSP (tax-free) for the purpose of enrolling into a qualifying educational program offered by a designated educational institution. You can use the funds for yourself, or for your spouse or common-law partner - but not for your children. The maximum you can withdraw in any one year of the program is $10,000, but you can make withdrawals (subject to the annual $10,000 limit and $20,000 overall limit) during the period of the calendar year you first make a withdrawal and up to January of the 4th year after that year as long you remain a qualified participant the entire time.

Repayment is over a period of 10 years (as opposed to 15 years with the HBP) and when the repayments start is not always in the 2nd year after the first year of withdrawal (like with the HBP) - more on that below.

You can take advantage of the program as many times as you want in your lifetime so long as you reduce your LLP balance owing back to $0 before using the program again, and of course, you need to have funds available in a valid RRSP (i.e. you cannot use this program against a RRIF account or Locked-In RRSP).

Conditions of Participation

In addition to having an RRSP, you must also be a Canadian Resident. Further, you must:

1. Be enrolled (or have received an offer to enrol before March of the following year)...

2. As a full time student (or as a part time student only if you are disabled)...

3. At a Designated Educational Institution...

4. Offering a Qualifying Educational Program.

You must meet these conditions EVERY YEAR you make a withdrawal from the program.

If you have only received an offer to enroll in a program, then you must actually BE enrolled before March of the following year. You must either finish the course or still be enrolled in April of the following year to remain eligible for withdrawals in those years for continuing with your studies.

FULL TIME versus PART TIME: the determination of whether you are enrolled as a full time student rests solely at the discretion of the educational institute. Remember you will need to be classified as a full time student to be eligible (unless you are disabled).

DESIGNATED EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION: A university or college or "other educational institution that qualifies for the education amount on line 323 of your tax return". If you need clarification on whether your course provider is eligible, you can call the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) directly at 1-800-959-2221. I have spoken with the CRA often and you should know that most of their call in lines can be busy. Once you do get a ring tone and access an automated menu, it normally takes no more than 5 minutes to speak to a tax officer - and they are VERY helpful and friendly, so don't be shy to call them and ask for clarification on any tax problems you may have.

QUALIFYING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: A program that requires 10 or more hours of work per week (not including study time) AND lasts 3 consecutive months or more, that is offered at a Designated Educational Institution that meets the criteria listed above.

Making the LLP Withdrawals

You need to fill out a special form, an RC96, and submit that to your RRSP issuer when you are making your RRSP withdrawal request. This will give them direction to NOT withhold taxes for the RRSP withdrawal. You will need to file a separate RC96 for each withdrawal you make under the LLP.

There are special rules around deducting the RRSP contributions you make within an 89 day period prior to making an LLP withdrawal. You will not be able to deduct the full value of those contributions from your income for that year, so when making your plans, make sure to make any contributions at least 90 days before any planned withdrawals in order to claim the maximum possible tax deductions for your RRSP contributions.

Repayments

Repayments CAN start as late as the fifth year after the year of your first withdrawal using the LLP. However, if you do not meet the conditions as listed above for eligibility every year, then your repayments will become due starting the first year AFTER the year you no longer meet the conditions. So, for example, if you are enrolling in university and take your 2nd year off, you may forfeit the ability to continue with the LLP and repayments will begin 2 years after the first withdrawal, even though you go back for another 3 years of schooling.

Your NOA (Notice of Assessment) will indicate how much you must repay for any given year. Again, similarly to the HBP, any amount not repaid when due will be included as taxable income in the year that it was due. 

Final Notes

Note that it is possible for both you and your spouse/common-law partner to participate in the program and use the proceeds for only one of you. Since the program allows you to access funds from your RRSP for use by yourself or your spouse/common-law partner, you can in effect access up to $40,000 in total for the program (with a $20,000 limit per year) for only one person's benefit.

There are some exceptions to all the rules listed above, and it is suggested you look up the official guide located on the CRA's website for your reference. The LLP is not used nearly as often as the HBP, and it has some more complex intricacies - as always, consult with a professional advisor when contemplating using the program to avoid any nasty tax surprises! :)

Usually, students do not have sufficient funds available in their RRSP's to take advantage of this program so it is more appealing to mature students looking to change careers. 

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437 2007-11-26 21:33:15 2007-11-27 04:33:15 open open lifelong-learning-plan-llp-borrow-from-yourself-to-finance-your-education publish 0 0 post 0 833 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-11-27 01:55:52 2007-11-27 08:55:52 Very good post.

I'd have to say that if I was going back to school full time (not bloody likely!) and had at least one year of low income, I would be inclined to just withdraw the money from my rrsp rather than borrow. The tax you pay on the rrsp withdrawals should be fairly low and you can "pay it back" once you are working (as contributions).

Mike

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834 2007-11-27 03:00:16 2007-11-27 10:00:16 Excellent suggestion Mike! That is certainly an option for people to consider. Another option would be to not pay it back at all if you do make the withdrawal - which I will highlight in a future post as part of a strategy for certain investors (involves a small leverage and is not for everyone).

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835 stephen.tedesco@gmail.com 69.172.72.45 2010-02-27 12:27:56 2010-02-27 17:27:56 1 0 0 836 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-27 16:26:27 2010-02-27 21:26:27 1 835 0
Minimizing the RRSP Withholding Tax on Withdrawals http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/minimizing-the-rrsp-withholding-tax-on-withdrawals/ Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:22:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/27/minimizing-the-rrsp-withholding-tax-on-withdrawals/ // --> You'll recall that withdrawals from your RRSP are normally included as income in the year that you make the withdrawals (save for a few exceptions). If you happen to be in a low income year and have the need to make a withdrawal from your RRSP, then it might make sense to space out your withdrawals such that you minimize the withholding tax that your RRSP issuer will remit to the Government on your behalf... For example we know that your RRSP issuer will withhold the following percentages if you ask to make a withdrawal from your RRSP: Withdrawal of up to $5,000          =    10% Withheld Withdrawal of $5,001 - $15,000    =    20% Withheld Withdrawal of $15,001 and above =    30% Withheld So let's say you are in a year where you have NO income from work and you decide that in order to pay your bills you will have to withdraw approximately $17,500 from your RRSP. In Ontario, someone with a taxable income of $17,500 would pay about $1,869 in income tax for the year (according to the trusty online 2007 tax calculators at Ernst & Young's website). FlippingThroughBook.jpgWell, according to the chart  up above, if you made a withdrawal of $17,500 from an RRSP account in one transaction - your RRSP issuer is obligated to withhold 30% of that $17,500 - or in other words: $5,250! Therefore, you would have to wait until you filed your taxes for 2007 before you would receive a tax refund of $3,381 (which is equal to $5,250 taxes paid minus $1,869 taxes owing). Would you loan any money to the government interest-free if you could avoid it? Well, most people wouldn't - and here is one way to go about it: You could space out your withdrawals so that instead of having one lump sum withdrawal of $17,500, you could structure it as four separate withdrawals of $4,375. In this case, each withdrawal would only be subject to a withholding amount of 10%, or $437.50 per withdrawal. $437.50 multiplied by four withdrawals equals $1,750. So in this case, you would actually be borrowing $119 from the Government interest-free until you filed your taxes ($1,869 taxes owing for the year minus $1,750 paid in the form of withholding tax). One thing to note is that if you ask your RRSP issuer for $5,000 NET (meaning that is how much money will be transferred to your bank account AFTER deducting withholding taxes) then that puts you in the $5,001 - $15,000 withdrawal range, since in order to provide you with $5,000 net, they will need to de-register $6,000 GROSS (20% of $6,000 = $1,200 withheld). Additionally, if you make a withdrawal from your RRSP in a higher income year, and the withdrawal is for under $5,000 - your RRSP issuer may not withhold ENOUGH tax and you will have a higher tax bill come tax time than you might have otherwise thought. For example, let us say you are in the top tax bracket in Ontario (46.41%) and for whatever reason, you decide to make a withdrawal of $5,000 GROSS from your RRSP account. Your RRSP issuer will withhold 10%, or $500, from the gross amount to leave you with $4,500. Therefore you have paid $500 in income tax in advance for this withdrawal. HOWEVER, as a top-tax bracket investor, you will actually owe a total of $2,320.50 in income tax on this withdrawal. Since you have only paid $500 "in advance", you will be on the hook for an additional $1,820.50 come tax time! And finally, I know that some RRSP issuers will not allow you to take advantage of this loophole of making separate withdrawal requests if they are too close together. Well actually, they will let you make the requests and they will process them, but they will add up the total amount of the separate requests and have a balloon withholding tax amount on the last withdrawal. One way to avoid this would be to make withdrawal requests from separate RRSP accounts or RRSP issuers if you have more than one. If you found this article of interest, please consider subscribing to my RSS Feed. If you want to learn more about what an RSS Feed is, click here. For special deals for readers of WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com (that's you!), please visit the "Deals For Readers" section.
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438 2007-11-27 05:22:07 2007-11-27 12:22:07 open open minimizing-the-rrsp-withholding-tax-on-withdrawals publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233627158 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1233627158 _edit_last 1 837 icicarole@yahoo.ca 64.230.110.30 2008-09-17 18:14:58 2008-09-17 22:14:58 1 0 0 838 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-17 21:39:54 2008-09-18 01:39:54 1 0 0 839 name@company.com 76.10.176.167 2009-01-19 22:12:16 2009-01-20 03:12:16 1 0 0 840 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-19 23:51:03 2009-01-20 04:51:03 by searching on this page.]]> 1 0 0 841 name@company.com 76.10.176.167 2009-02-01 09:45:36 2009-02-01 14:45:36 1 0 0 842 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-01 13:10:26 2009-02-01 18:10:26 1 0 0 843 carlz@sympatico.ca 69.156.148.192 2009-02-02 19:07:01 2009-02-03 00:07:01 1 0 0 844 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-02 21:14:45 2009-02-03 02:14:45 1 0 0 845 sdlewis@live.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 72.45.105.253 2009-03-09 21:45:47 2009-03-10 02:45:47 1 0 0 846 lperri@gmail.com 24.203.95.145 2009-07-02 20:58:45 2009-07-03 01:58:45 1 0 0 847 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-02 21:29:30 2009-07-03 02:29:30 1 0 0 848 derek@idirect.com 216.251.47.10 2009-12-29 13:06:52 2009-12-29 18:06:52 1 0 0 849 amensaghi@toughcountry.net 208.75.116.210 2010-01-17 09:53:31 2010-01-17 14:53:31 1 0 0 850 pannu16@sify.com 99.235.120.209 2010-02-17 11:55:02 2010-02-17 16:55:02 1 0 0
Are RRSP's the best way to save for retirement? Part 1 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-1-of-3/ Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:26:26 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/27/are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-1-of-3/

You may be surprised to learn that there are many people who absolutely detest the idea of RRSP's. I remember a meeting with a senior citizen, well into retirement, who became visibly red in the face with anger when explaining to me how much less he had to spend in retirement thanks to the tax laws surrounding RRSP's and RRIF's. And he is not alone.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgI don't want to scare you: RRSP's can be great for some/most people. BUT, if not planned properly, you can end up shooting yourself in the foot come retirement time. If anything, this section is designed more to get you thinking about how well you plan your finances and the future (as best as one can given the long time frames and uncertainty of capital markets and tax laws, etc.).

So let's begin by taking a sample Canadian. Let's assume our test subject, Anna, is 30 years of age today (2007) and earned $50,000 last year. She has decided that this year, and from now on, she will save 10% of her gross income for retirement which she plans on taking at 65. I'm going to assume inflation is 3%, but her salary increases at 4% per year (i.e. she is getting a raise over and above the increase in the cost of living in other words). Consequently, her savings will also grow at 4% per year in line with her wages.

I'm going to be comparing the same investment portfolio in all cases, but while the "tax identity" of the returns in the RRSP is insignificant (since the RRSP is a tax shelter), it IS significant from a taxation point of view in non-registered investment accounts. The long term rate of return is 8%, which is broken down as follows: 2% Interest Income, 1% Dividend Income, 2% Annual Realized Capital Gains, 3% Deferred Capital Growth. The portfolio has a Standard Deviation of 12%.

Standard Deviation is important to know if you are using Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analyses since you can use them to model the probabilities of outcomes with portfolios that actually behave like real life portfolios - in other words, I'm not going to assume that the portfolio returns 8% per year, every year. The standard deviation tells you a bit about the return pattern you can expect from a portfolio if you also have a good idea as to it's long term rate of return.

For example, for Anna's portfolio that has an 8% expected rate of return and a 12% standard deviation. That means the annual return in any given year will lie within ONE Standard Deviation (which is 8% plus or minus 12%) approximately 68% of the time. Another way of saying that is "68% of the time, the portfolio's annual return will be between -4% and 20% (which is 8% plus or minus 12%). Further to that, roughly 95% of the time the portfolio's annual return will be within TWO Standard Deviations (which is 8% plus or minus 24%). 99.73% of the time, the annual return will be within THREE Standard Deviations (8% plus or minus 36%).

Okay, so we've set the stage - let's get on with the topic at hand! :)

Case 1: Anna Saves 10% to Her RRSP - Doesn't Use Tax Refund Productively

As a base plan, I'm going to assume that Anna saves her 10% to her RRSP account, but does NOT use the tax refund productively. And I mean that purely from a "retirement planning" point of view, since if you spent your tax refund on an annual vacation down south, it can do wonders for the soul! :)

Based on this set of parameters and taking into account current tax legislation with respect to CPP and OAS, etc. Anna can expect to have $43,700/year after-tax, and in today's purchasing power in retirement from age 65 to age 90. Her probability of success when incorporating her portfolio's standard deviation is 76%. This is graphed below:

RetirementMonteCase1.jpg

Let's now compare this to saving to a non-registered portfolio instead of her RRSP...

Case 2: Anna saves 10% to a Non-Registered Portfolio, There is no refund to use

In this case, while Anna is no longer taxed her full marginal tax rate on all her withdrawals at retirement (she will only be taxed on the growth), she WILL have to pay some taxes along the way. If she is able to pay the annual tax bill as she is saving (which will get quite high closer to retirement) then she is in better shape AT retirement since her annual after-tax income in today's dollars is a whopping $51,300/year - that's an increase of $7,600/year! Her probability of success is 74%. The results are graphed below:

RetirementMonteCase2.jpg

There is one noticeable difference right away just from eye balling the graphs. You'll notice the overall distribution of the various "trials" are more squished together. You'll also notice that there are some more outliers in this graph (by outliers, I mean data points that are extremely unlikely, however possible). This serves to increase the scale of the Y-Axis - so if you compare the graphs with the same scale - they are actually more similar looking. This just happens to be an anomaly of this particular set of trials. I am only using 100 different iterations. To be more academic, I would have to use something like 10,000 iterations, but if I do that every time, my CPU would have melted by now. :)

In any case, we have just seen that by saving money to her non-registered portfolio instead of her RRSP, Anna would have more money to spend in retirement - and by a healthy margin. So how important are tax shelters if the withdrawals are taxed as income? Certainly something to consider.

Remember though, there are a few points to also consider that may affect the feasibility of this approach: the annual tax on the non-registered portfolio will grow and grow and we are assuming that Anna is paying for this out of her employment income up to retirement (after she retires I am fully factoring in all taxes on the non-registered portfolio).

We also haven't looked at what happens if we do indeed use the RRSP refunds productively. In Part 2, I will examine two other scenarios. One in which Anna is using her RRSP refund to contribute to a non-registered portfolio each year, and a second where she is taking the RRSP refund and putting it right back into her RRSP.

Part 3 will look at comparing the probabilities of each scenario against a fixed level of income (since each on their own will produce different levels of annual income, a comparison of probabilities of success for each will not be an apples-to-apples comparison). Part 3 will also include some commentary on the psychological aspect of each method as well as some other points to consider. I hope I have your interest piqued so far! :)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 2

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439 2007-11-27 15:26:26 2007-11-27 22:26:26 open open are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-1-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 851 http://declan.vidsdigest.info/bestuseofretirementtimejune2008.html 61.128.162.208 2008-07-09 21:38:46 2008-07-10 01:38:46 1 pingback 0 0
Are RRSP's the best way to save for retirement? Part 2 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-2-of-3/ Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:46:07 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/27/are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-2-of-3/

From what we have seen from Part 1, it seems that RRSP's deserve some more attention than previously afforded. Not in so much as to promote them further, but rather to see if they are truly in your best interest. Our basic analysis is not yet complete though, so let's keep trucking on! :)

First, let's recap the results from Part 1. We saw that by saving 10% to her RRSP account, Anna would have $43,700/year in retirement. By instead saving to her non-registered portfolio, she would be able to fund a $51,300/year retirement income. That is a SUBSTANTIAL difference.

Let's now look at the effects of putting the tax refunds to good use in the next two cases.

Case 3: Anna saves 10% to her RRSP, Uses tax refund to build up a Non-Registered portfolio

Just to be clear, this means that Anna continues to save her 10% every year. In this case, she is depositing the funds to her RRSP account and using the resulting tax refunds to contribute to a non-registered portfolio which will also be used to help fund her retirement income needs. This strategy will yield an after-tax annual income (in today's dollars) of $53,175/year. I will spare you the Net Worth Accumulation Graph with a Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis because it is very similar to the first two graphs, however the probability of success is 75%.

Now we see that the RRSP strategy comes out on top... but not by very much. In fact, by saving to a non-registered portfolio you will almost have the same amount of retirement income of someone who saves to an RRSP AND re-invests the annual tax refund into a non-registered portfolio.

Case 4: Anna saves 10% to her RRSP, re-invests RRSP refund right back to the RRSP

In this final case - we will see what happens if Anna takes the RRSP refund and instead of putting that into a non-registered portfolio, she re-invests it into her RRSP. Therefore, all of her savings and tax refunds are being put into her RRSP and her RRSP alone.

Her annual income decreases, but only slightly, to $52,675/year - with a probability of success of 72%.

Review of all 4 cases

Save to an RRSP, don't use the refund productively = $43,700/year, 76% Success Rate

Save to a Non-Registered portfolio, don't have a refund to use = $51,300/year, 74% Success Rate

Save to an RRSP, re-invest all refunds to a non-registered account = $53,175/year, 75% Success Rate

Save to an RRSP, re-invest all refunds to the RRSP = $52,675/year, 72% Success Rate

So what does this tell us? Well, it's too early to really draw solid conclusions, but we are heading in the right track. To really make sense of the Monte Carlo numbers, we need not only the probabilities of success for each scenario at their optimal income rates, but also the probabilities of success as compared to the baseline income level of $43,700/year.

So... I readjusted each financial plan to allow for $43,700/year in annual after tax income in today's dollars and calculated (make that: had the computer calculate!) the probabilities of success. Here are the graphs and Success Rates for each case except Case 1 (which we saw in Part 1):

Case 2 @ $43,700/year (Save to non-registered portfolio only) = 91% Success Rate:

RetirementMonteCase2B.jpg

Case 3 @ $43,700/year (Save to RRSP, refund to non-registered) = 87% Success Rate:

RetirementMonteCase3B.jpg

Case 4 @ $43,700/year (Save to RRSP, refund back to RRSP) = 89% Success Rate:

RetirementMonteCase4B.jpg

Remember to note the scale of the Y-axes for each graph.

Now we have some more data to analyze. While there were no surprises (it would be expected that if a strategy were able to yield a higher annual income with a similar success rate, that the success rate would increase dramatically if you decreased the withdrawal rate), we are getting close to turning over all the stones.

Right now, not much has changed with respect to what was revealed in Part 1 - that the belief that RRSP's are "hands-down" the best way to save for retirement may not be so "hands-down" after all. BUT, we also made some big assumptions that we need to examine. Namely, that Anna can afford to pay the tax on her non-registered investment growth until retirement out of her regular cash-flow. That may be easy to do when she is younger, but very difficult later on. If she can not, in fact, pay for the ongoing taxation, she would have to make withdrawals from her non-registered portfolio on a yearly basis prior to retirement.

Also, we need to look at the changing reality that many people work part-time in the beginning phase of retirement. Retirement is becoming less and less a "full stop" and more and more a smooth transition.

In Part 3, we are going to look at the pre-retirement withdrawal of non-registered investments (to pay the tax bill) as well as post-retirement income. We will conclude with some final thoughts on the reality of using 100% of the tax refund productively for these strategies.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 3 

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440 2007-11-27 18:46:07 2007-11-28 01:46:07 open open are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-2-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 852 sv650@telus.net 207.216.202.235 2008-01-04 23:49:49 2008-01-05 06:49:49 If Anna is to pay the taxes on the increasing non-registered portfolio, from income, would the comparison be more valid if she also increased her RRSP by the amount she subsidizes her taxable portfolio? In reality the taxable portfolio should pay its own taxes as will the RRSP on withdrawal.

DAvid

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853 2008-01-05 12:45:51 2008-01-05 19:45:51 Hi David - thank for your question. I wanted to stick to a set cash flow dedicated to retirement savings during the pre-retirement phase - hence, Anna should not pay the taxes out of her other income, but should instead liquidate part of her portfolio to pay those taxes. There is no tax payable by her RRSP during the pre-retirement phase.

Net-net: her cash flow out during pre-retirement is equal. This is the only fair way to make a true apples-to-apples comparison.

I did have all taxes paid for in retirement from ANY source of income. So her RRSP withdrawals and her withdrawals from her non-registered portfolio are all taxed as they should be - and the tax bill is paid for out of those withdrawals.

Since the purpose of this analysis was to compare the effectiveness of non-registered versus registered savings for retirement, I have to put an equal amount of "input" into either strategy. The comparison of the output for each strategy is essentially what we are trying to figure out.

You'll see I address this further in Part 3.

Does that make sense? If not, please let me know.

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854 65.93.6.253 2008-02-02 23:05:00 2008-02-03 06:05:00 As I belive that in 99.9% of cases the interest earning portion of one's nest egg is better in side an RRSP, I believe that you should have been investigating whether or not it's better to have the equity portion (which earns dividends & capital gains) inside or outside.

If you could re-run your models with the appropriate adjustment, I'd appreciate it.

I'm also curious as to equities with relatively high dividend payouts vs equities with insignificant dividends. These days, with the average Canadian bank common stock paying a dividend similar to a 5 year GIC, with the advantageous tax treatment of dividends, I wonder if it's better to hold such inside an RRSP or outside.

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855 2008-02-03 01:16:09 2008-02-03 08:16:09 Hi Globule2, thank you for your questions. The analyses I made are fairly broad-based and were trying to address what one needs to look at with respect to RRSP savings versus Non-registered savings. However, you'll note that I addressed some of your concerns in part 3 with the use of corporate class funds with a t-swp structure.

The broad question of equities versus fixed income and where to hold them are answered elsewhere on this blog, but perhaps I'll make a more in-depth post on the topic as the ones I've written are shorter and equally broad in nature.

Really, the answer to your questions need to be addressed by your own financial advisor as there are so many variables that affect the answer it would be impossible to address here (and making meaningful conclusions that could be extrapolated in a blanket like fashion to others).

...things like your tax bracket, rate of withdrawals, how much you are saving, etc.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful - but if you had specific numbers for me to look at, I'd be happy to run them for you.

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856 69.156.165.2 2008-02-04 19:51:10 2008-02-05 02:51:10 Thanks for the prompt reply.

I did see the bit about corporate class funds, but as someone approaching the question from a self-directed RSP perspective, it's not what I'm looking for.

If you could run your "Anna" model for the following four portfolios I'd appreciate it.

In all 4 cased, 20% is Canada bonds yielding 4% inside the RSP
a) 80% in XIU ETFs inside the RSP (currently yielding 1.88% dividend)
b) 80% in XIU ETFs outside the RSP
c) 80% in BMO inside the RSP (current div yield 4.75%)
d) 80% in BMO outside the RSP

another scenario, if you have the time, would be look at a combo of c) & d) with the annual % going into the RSP increasing with age (to reflect the fact that the effect of the div tax credit diminishes with income)

Thanks again,

~globule2 in Montreal

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857 2008-02-04 23:02:01 2008-02-05 06:02:01 Hi Globule - give me a few days as I'm completely swamped with my "other" work this week. :) I'll get back to you though...

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858 65.93.6.253 2008-02-05 04:38:15 2008-02-05 11:38:15 No rush - I understand that it's "RRSP season"!

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Are RRSP's the best way to save for retirement? Part 3 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-3-of-3/ Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:38:36 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/27/are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-3-of-3/

Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2, it's looking like saving for retirement through RRSP's versus non-registered portfolio savings is almost neck and neck - albeit having made some fairly large assumptions.

FlippingThroughBook.jpgNamely, we assumed that Anna can afford to pay the tax bill on her non-registered portfolio up to age 65. This may not be the case if she held individual securities or mutual fund trust units as the interest income, dividend income and realized capital gains distributions could be in the tens of thousands of dollars per year at this point. We cannot just arbitrarily pull money out of her day to day cash flow to pay these costs in one scenario and not for the RRSP savings scenario as well.

Unless... Anna had been investing in Mutual Fund Corporations. In today's day and age, the fund shelf of corporate class mutual funds offered by the larger mutual fund companies allows for a diversified portfolio all held within the corporate class structure. For example, a balanced portfolio (70% Equities, 30% Fixed Income) offered by *Name Withheld* Investments has not made a taxable distribution in 9 years according to an inside sales rep I just got off the phone with. In addition, the corporate class investments can be switched to the T-Series version of their funds when it is time to make withdrawals and as much as 8% per annum can be withdrawn as a Return of Capital - which means there would be no tax on up to 8% of your total invested capital per year for withdrawals. The Return of Capital distribution would slowly grind the ACB of your portfolio to $0, at which point all the remaining withdrawals would be taxed as capital gains - but this would take many years. This structure of non-registered investments is hard to beat for long time frames because of the special tax-advantaged structure.

I will analyze the cost of using tax-advantaged Corporate Class Mutual Funds versus lower cost (and higher yielding) investments in another post on this blog - I don't want to go too far off on a tangent just now.... :)

Getting back to Anna... let's look at the case of her not using tax-advantaged investments first. In this case, she has an ever-growing tax bill that she has to pay every year. I will assume, to make a proper apples to apples comparison, that she pays the tax bill through withdrawals from her non-registered portfolio. Just by doing that, her retirement income drops tremendously to $42,075. This is below even the level of income afforded by saving to an RRSP and NOT using the tax refund productively.

If she were to use tax-advantaged investments (i.e. corporate class investments), then her annual income would be closer to (and higher than) the $51,300 originally calculated since her withdrawals in retirement would also be a Return of Capital first, before triggering capital gains many years later.

So in this case, using the tax-advantaged investments in a non-registered portfolio can make a huge difference. In fact, if you have long-term, non-registered investments you should do your own analysis (or have a professional prepare one for you) to compare the extra costs involved versus the tax-preferential treatment. You *might* save more in tax than you pay in extra costs.

Getting back to the second question we wanted to address: What if there is part-time income in retirement? So far, we have just assumed that the retirement savings in all cases was the only source of income. But many people today are smoothly transitioning into retirement rather than stopping altogether. In fact, I have had more than one client retire and then go back to work part time to keep them from going stir crazy!

In this case, we need to remember that all RRSP withdrawals (or RRIF withdrawals) are taxed as income. If a person also has income from a job, it may not be necessary to withdraw money from the registered accounts, but in some cases you may be forced to do so. For example, once you turn 71, you must mature your RRSP. The most popular maturity option is to convert the RRSP into a RRIF account (a registered retirement income fund). RRIF's have minimum withdrawal amounts that you must adhere to, even if you don't need the money.

If your income from employment is enough to cover your expenses, then withdrawing funds when you don't need to will only attract taxes that are best left deferred if possible.

The problem of too much money in registered accounts is NOT an uncommon one. It is the very reason RRSP/RRIF meltdowns exist. Another example to stress the importance of retirement income planning is for people with defined benefit pension plans. If you have a substantial pension plan, you may not want to save to RRSP's at all as both RRIF income and pension income is taxable. With a defined benefits pension, you have very little (if any) control over the payment schedule.

Always keep an eye on the future when making decisions today.

EmptyPockets.jpgDon't believe me? Just visit a senior's centre and ask for anyone who has an opinion on OAS Clawback. (OAS, or Old Age Security, is a Government benefit that is income-tested - which means that it is subject to clawback if your taxable income is above a certain threshold.)

Having said all that, does this mean you should abandon your RRSP savings strategies? NO, not at all. It just means you have to be aware of certain situations that can make saving to an RRSP less attractive. I would say that for maybe 50% of people (just a rough guess), saving to an RRSP is the best thing they can do. Maybe for a further 25%, it may warrant a closer look (which may result in a reduced saving, but not a cessation of saving to the RRSP). And for the final 25% of people, it may not be a great idea after all (big pensions, other sources of income in retirement, etc.)

I really can't stress enough how important it is to make retirement income projections.

Using your RRSP Refund Effectively

Take all the analyses performed with a grain of salt. How many people actually use 100% of their RRSP refund towards re-investment? Certainly not everyone. This will dramatically change the results from a dollars and cents perspective. But what about psychologically? If someone used their tax refund for personal consumption, is that such a bad thing? Some would say yes, some would say no.

Psychologically, some people make bigger RRSP contributions just so that they can receive larger tax refunds. For some, a fat "Credit Owing" is a powerful reinforcer for savings behaviour.

Final Thoughts

Finally, we also haven't looked at putting the RRSP refunds against your mortgage in this set of posts. Nor have we looked at tapping into tax-free home equity. So certainly this analysis is not exhaustive.

Hopefully though, I have given you some food for thought when next reviewing your financial plan with respect to the importance (and intricacy) of retirement income planning.

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441 2007-11-27 21:38:36 2007-11-28 04:38:36 open open are-rrsps-the-best-way-to-save-for-retirement-part-3-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 859 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.24.117 2007-11-29 02:01:54 2007-11-29 09:01:54 Could you do one more scenario where the person gets a company match of 4% of their salary so they put 4% on their RRSP in to income producing assets (8% total including the match) and then also puts 6% in to equites outside the RRSP. This would keep all interest income taxed at it's appropriate level and keep the capital gains and dividends outside the RRSP to be taxed at the current level of income.

The answer I'm looking for is: "If your company matches, JUST DO IT ALREADY!" . . . I'm assuming it will work out for the best but would like to see it first hand included in the possible outcomes.

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860 2007-11-29 02:42:54 2007-11-29 09:42:54 If your company matches, JUST DO IT ALREADY!

:)

But I will work through that and post the results - hopefully tomorrow.

Preet

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861 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-11-30 02:18:26 2007-11-30 09:18:26 Great series - a lot of work!

It amazes me how even a lot of people (even bloggers) think that the rrsp is not a good idea because they "have to pay all that tax at the end". Clearly they don't understand the differences between rrsp & non-reg accounts and using pre-tax and after-tax money.

As for the "too much $ in the rrsp" problem - I just can't figure this one out - do these people blindly work until 65 and then realize at age 71 that they didn't have to? All it takes is a bit of planning.

Mike

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862 2007-11-30 03:58:32 2007-11-30 10:58:32 Hi Mike, thanks for the kind words.

Unfortunately, there are many people who are very intimidated with their finances. They may not have the same inclination as we do to learn enough to be self-sufficient.

You would be surprised at what the general level of finance knowledge is out there - it is EXTREMELY low on average.

It really needs to be taught. I'm going to be writing a book on personal finance basics (hope to be published Q42008) and maybe one day write a textbook for high-school level material.

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863 2007-11-30 18:53:51 2007-12-01 01:53:51 Traciatim: For your requested scenario, I omitted getting a refund since if you are getting company matching, they are probably reducing the withholding tax at source.

Nonetheless, and assuming corporate class investments, our sample investor would be living the high life with $58,750/year after tax, in today's dollars with a probability of success of 75%. Her probability of success of withdrawing $43,700/year in that scenario jumps up to a whopping 94%.

Compared to the other scenarios, this is hands down the best way to go. It is NOT apples to apples as you know since there is the free money added from the company matching.

Nonetheless, I hope this answers your question more definitively.

Preet

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864 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.24.117 2007-12-01 02:10:05 2007-12-01 09:10:05 Thanks for including my scenario. It's nice to actually see how much of an advantage this scenario brings. It also make me feel great that my company matches 6%. I only contribute up to the max that they match, as they have very little choice of dunds (5 to be exact).

I really need to get on getting my other 6% in to a self directed fund somewhere. Maybe that will be my 2008 goal once I get my yearly review/raise, to put 6% more in to a self directed RRSP.

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The RRSP Contribution Deadline http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rrsp-contribution-deadline/ Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:50:30 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/29/the-rrsp-contribution-deadline/

If you would like to claim your RRSP contribution(s) for a given tax year, you need to make the contribution(s) before the first 60 days of the following year. So for example, if you wanted to ensure you could claim an RRSP contribution for the 2007 tax year, it must be in no later than February 29th, 2008. This is the RRSP Contribution Deadline that you will hear about in the media at the beginning of every year.

QuestionMark.jpgFebruary 29th represents the 60th day of 2008. (Note that 2008 is a leap year - normally the deadline will be March 1st in non-leap years.) 

If you wait until the 61st day or later to make your contribution, then you lose the ability to claim the contribution for the preceding tax year - the earliest you would be able to claim those contributions would be for that current tax year.

Many people wait until the last minute to make a lump sum RRSP contribution, but more and more Canadians are spreading out their savings by making contributions on a monthly basis either on their own, or through payroll deductions to a Group RRSP at work. Further, for those that make lump sum contributions in February, many use RRSP loans in order to do so. The deadline causes a scramble because larger contributions allow for larger tax refunds a few months later come tax return time. The promise of these tax savings helps lessen the burden of making the larger contributions.

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442 2007-11-29 01:50:30 2007-11-29 08:50:30 open open the-rrsp-contribution-deadline publish 0 0 post 0
Making Regular Contributions to your RRSP instead of RRSP Loans http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/making-regular-contributions-to-your-rrsp-instead-of-rrsp-loans/ Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:41:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/30/making-regular-contributions-to-your-rrsp-instead-of-rrsp-loans/

Many people ask their RRSP issuer to take money directly from their bank accounts the day after they have their pay cheques deposited. On the other hand, there are droves of people who take out a loan every February to make their lump sum contribution before the deadline - only to have to make monthly payments on their RRSP loan until the following year.

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgIf you have the ability to get out of the rut of annual RRSP loans - there are a couple of advantages. BUT with our society being more disposed to financing everything as opposed to saving for everything, sometimes the only way to get people to save is to get the RRSP loan. Making a mortgage payment or car loan payment usually takes priority over savings since there are no immediate and potentially crippling consequences to not making a monthly savings contribution like there is with missing a loan payment.

Opportunity Cost 

If you can commit to making your savings automatic, one immediate gain is that you won't have interest to pay on these annual loans. As a simple example, let's take someone who takes out an annual loan of $10,000 for their RRSP contribution every year and let us further assume that the average rate of interest on these annual loans is 7%. If they contribute to their RRSP every year from age 30 to 70, that's 40 years of paying $700/year in interest - for a grand total of $28,000 over their career.

If you instead took that $700 dollars and contributed it to your RRSP, and assuming a rate of return of 8% on your investments, you are looking at a whopping difference of about $195,000!

Dollar Cost Averaging

Another advantage is that you might be able to sleep a little more soundly at night. This is because the monthly payments help to mask the volatility of your portfolio. This is best described using an example. Let's say that we have a mutual fund that starts the year on January 1st with a NAV of $10.00 per unit. Let us further assume that the unit price changes as follows for the next 6 months:

January = $10.00/unit
February = $9.25/unit
March = $9.00/unit
April = $8.75/unit
May = $9.00/unit
June = $9.75/unit

Let us further assume we have someone who purchases $100 worth of units per month on an automatic savings plan and another investor who just puts in a lump sum of $600 at the beginning. For the lump sum investor we know that he can buy 60 units of the fund since $600 divided by $10.00/unit equals 60 units. But for the "Dollar Cost Averager", he buys 10 units in January ($100 divided by $10/unit), 10.81 units in February ($100 divided by $9.25/unit), 11.11 units in March, 11.43 units in April, 11.11 units in May and 10.26 units in June for a total of 64.72 units.

Since the price in June is $9.75, we know that 60 units will be worth $585.00. So the lump sum investor had purchased 60 units in January, saw his investment go down in value and never return to it's original price.

His monthly statements would have looked like this:

January = $600
February = $555
March = $540
April = $525
May = $540
June = $585

In other words, he saw a lot movement in his portfolio's value (and a lot of it downwards!). Compare this to the Dollar Cost Averager whose statements looked like this:

January = $100
February = $192
March = $287
April = $379
May = $490
June = $631

His portfolio's value went up in absolute terms every month even though he was buying the same investment - and since he was able to buy more units when the unit values were down he actually ended up with a gain at the end of the same time period even though he had invested no more than the lump sum method... His average cost was $9.27/unit when you do the math (as opposed to $10.00/unit for the lump sum investor).

Of course, if the mutual fund had just steadily marched higher and higher in unit value than the lump sum investor would be better off since his investment's cost would be lower than someone whose average cost only increased with each successive monthly contribution - but you get the point.

So if you are just getting your feet wet with investing and RRSP's - here are two reasons to start with automatic contributions: 1) Savings tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars in interest payments and foregone growth on those interest costs and 2) helping you deal with portfolio volatility.

Once your portfolio gets big enough, the monthly fluctuations in your portfolio will be larger than your monthly contributions, but don't worry - that's normal, and there will normally (hopefully!) be more months where the fluctuations are POSITIVE as opposed to NEGATIVE! :)

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443 2007-11-30 01:41:21 2007-11-30 08:41:21 open open making-regular-contributions-to-your-rrsp-instead-of-rrsp-loans publish 0 0 post 0 865 jez.stefan@gmail.com 66.46.161.60 2007-11-30 18:43:40 2007-12-01 01:43:40 I would like to suggest perhaps a future topic that you could write about, that is related to this.

There are some cases where use an RSP loan in Feb. can help you "double" your contributon for the year. The typicall scenario is you do your monthly contributions, and you also take out a loan at the end of year, then using your tax refund to pay off the loan. This technic really grows your RSPs faster, while the interest charges are small, since you pay off the loan very quickly.

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866 2007-11-30 18:58:43 2007-12-01 01:58:43 Hi Stefan, thanks for the comment - you are quite right this is another RRSP Loan strategy that many people employ and I will definitely do a write up on it - it is on my list of to-do's for RRSP topics.

Also, I will talk about just filling out the form that reduces your taxes withheld at source, so that you don't have to wait until tax time to get your refund - you'll get it all along, therefore you can increase your monthly contributions and get the same effect.

Thanks Stefan!

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867 adeem.zafar@rogers.com http://limitedcredit.wordpress.com 99.240.55.188 2007-12-01 17:37:14 2007-12-02 00:37:14 Nice posting. Do you think it is advisable to use dollar-cost averaging for US dividend stocks or just on mutual funds?

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868 2007-12-01 22:55:28 2007-12-02 05:55:28 Hi Adeem - the only way to buy stocks (that I know of) without killing yourself with commissions is to set up a Share Purchase Plan with the company directly to avoid the brokerage commissions.

Some have the ability to allow purchases for as little as $50/month at a time, etc.

So you could use dollar cost averaging with stocks, and yes, I think it is generally a good idea to do so - especially if you are just starting out.

Preet

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The Preet Principle - Leveraging to Invest the Right Way! Part 1 of 4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-1-of-4/ Sat, 01 Dec 2007 05:06:16 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/11/30/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-1-of-4/

I picked the title of this series with my tongue planted firmly in cheek. At my old firm, I created an analysis to look at a combination of financial strategies involving leverage that were designed to mitigate the risks involved with most leverages. One of the advisors decided that the strategy should be named "The Preet Principle" and actually referred to it as such - and I think still does! :)

A word of caution before proceeding. Don't even think about implementing anything I write about (on this blog, but especially in this series) without first consulting your own professional advisor.

And with that, let us begin...

Certainly many people have heard the old adage "People get rich using Other People's Money". They are referring to borrowing money to make a lump sum investment since this can magnify your absolute gains. Unfortunately, most advisors will gloss over the fact that it can magnify your losses as well! I forget the actual statistic, but something like over 50% of all complaints against advisors deal with leverages gone bad.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgAs you are probably aware, advisors sell the sizzle of quickly increasing your net worth through these leverage strategies - but many times, advisors will not spend enough time telling you about all the ways in which you can get burned. And since most advisors' compensation is tied closely to the amount of assets they manage for their clients, they will be eager to set up these leverage strategies for their clients - sometimes too easily. I have seen many an advisor pitching leverage strategies throughout the year, and every year. I'll explain later as to why this is the first sign that your advisor may not have your best interests at heart.

Why do people leverage? 

First, let's look at the basic premise behind a leverage. As I mentioned above, leverage can magnify gains versus monthly contributions. You could intuitively figure this out if you looked at a long-term graph showing the various stock market's performance over the last 50 years. It basically goes "up and to the right" if you are standing far enough away from it! :) But if you start walking closer to the chart you will see numerous short-term gyrations that can make you sea-sick!

Unfortunately I don't have a chart that I can post here to show you, but I CAN direct you to AndexCharts.com which sells updated charts like this to advisors and investors alike - it really helps puts things into perspective. I have no personal gain for saying this, but I recommend buying a copy of this chart and correlating all the market events, wars, inflation rates, etc. with the market performance at those times - most "crises" in the short term were just "blips" in the grand scheme of decades of data. CLICK HERE TO SEE A SAMPLE ANDEX CHART - you can spend hours looking at one up close - I know I do.

Here is some interesting food for thought:

1. Since 1950 there has never been a 10 year rolling period where the TSX lost money. The lowest 10 year average rate of return was 3.3% from September 1964 to September 1974. The best 10 year average rate of return was a whopping 19.5% from August 1977 to August 1987.

2. The lowest 30 year average rate of return was 8.6% from June 1952 to June 1982. The highest: 12.7% from August 1970 to August 2000.

3. The single worst 1 year rolling period for the TSX was June 1981 to June 1982 during which time the index lost a massive 39.2%.

4. The single best 1 year rolling period for the TSX was the very next year from June 1982 to June 1983 when the market returned 86.9%.

But the take home message for most investors is that we DO believe the markets generally go up, and given enough time the returns on our portfolios will be positive. In reality, it can be VERY hard to stay the course, especially after a year like 1981-1982. How many people had the discipline to stay the course and actually take advantage of the next year's spectacular returns?

But back to my original question: Why do people leverage? To take advantage of the fact that a lump sum contribution now will be giving you the lowest possible cost on your investments compared to adding money periodically AS the market is going up - thereby increasing your average cost. And since you calculate your gain as "Price Sold at minus Price Paid" you can see why this is advantageous...

In Part 2, we are going to explore a simple concept that contrasts monthly savings versus leveraging in an apples to apples comparison.

In Part 3, I'm going to explain what normally goes wrong with these simple leverage strategies.

In Part 4, I'm going to actually introduce the "Preet Principle" which I believe addresses these concerns and I will back it up using statistical probabilities analyses. Having said that, it is still only intended for more experienced investors with aggressive risk tolerances - so keep that in mind.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 2 

 

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444 2007-11-30 22:06:16 2007-12-01 05:06:16 open open the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-1-of-4 publish 0 0 post 0 869 http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2007-12-01 04:31:51 2007-12-01 11:31:51 Interesting post. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

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The Preet Principle: Leveraging to Invest the Right Way! Part 2 of 4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-2-of-4/ Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:54:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/02/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-2-of-4/

Continuing from Part 1 where we discussed the basic concept of leveraging and why people can find it appealing, we continue with a few simple comparisons to explore the power of leveraging. These examples are similar to the ones provided by financial advisors - and you will see that they look very appealing. But remember, it won't be until Part 3 of this series that I really go into detail about why leverages can be a really bad idea - so remember to continue reading the series before making any conclusions of your own.

A Simple Example

Let's look at a simple 10 year scenario where we have made the following assumptions: Our investor has a marginal tax rate of 40%, he earns a rate of return of 9% on his investment portfolio and he has $1000/month to put away for his savings.

MonthlyBudgetPicture.jpgIf he were to put $1000/month into his investment account (non-registered), his savings and growth on his savings would total $194,965.63 at the end of the 10 years.

If he were to take out a 10 year loan with loan payments of $1,000/month, then with an interest rate assumption of 7% for the loan, he could afford to take out a loan of $86,628.76 which he could put into his investment account. $86,628.76 invested for 10 years with a 9% rate of return equals $205,081.78.

If he were to take out an "interest-only" loan, or a line of credit and make only the minimum required interest payments - $1,000/month could buy you a loan principal of $171,428.57 (since $171,428.57 at 7% equals $12,000/year in interest costs). $171,428.57 invested for 10 years with a 9% rate of return would give you $405,833.77. BUT, don't forget, our investor never made so much as a dent in the principal of the original loan, so we will have to subtract that from the investment balance at the end of the 10 years. $405,833.77 less the $171,428.57 loan balance leaves us with $234,405.00.

So to Recap:

Monthly Savings = $194,965.63

10 Year Term Loan = $205,081.78

Interest Only Loan = $234,405.00

Interest Deductibility of Leveraged Investments

There is one more important piece of information that we need to look at - and that is the interest deductibility of leveraged investments. If you are familiar with our tax system, and specifically for the area of business, you will know that if you take out a small business loan so that you can start or operate a business, then the interest that you pay on this loan is a "cost of doing business" - treated similarly to money spent on acquiring raw materials, spent on advertising etc. Costs of doing business are deducted from the company's income before being subject to tax. In other words, a company's NET INCOME is basically summed up by looking at their GROSS INCOME (from sales) and then deducting the costs of doing business - so again, the company does not pay tax on money used in order to carry on its business. Generally speaking, interest on a loan is tax deductible if the loan's proceeds are put towards endeavours that have a reasonable expectation of profit.

If you borrow to invest - either in a small business or in stock and bond market investments, you have a reasonable expectation of profit - and as such, you may be allowed to deduct the interest on your loan. I say "may" since technically, you should have this verified by your own accountant for your specific situation first - BUT, I have yet to hear of someone who has not been able to do so as long as they keep a proper paper trail that shows that the money borrowed was used exclusively for investing and nothing else.

(If you add other expenses to your Line of Credit - like home renovations or vacations, etc. - then you could potentially lose the ability to write off the interest on your leveraged investment! So remember to keep a GOOD paper trail and not to co-mingle funds.)

If we were to figure that our investor could write off the interest payments on the loan, then to maintain an out of pocket cash commitment of $12,000 to his investment strategy per year, he could actually support a monthly interest payment of $1,666.66.

12 interest payments of $1,666.66/month equals a yearly total of $19,999.92. If we take that amount and multiply it by his marginal tax rate of 40%, we get a tax refund of $7,999.97. $19,999.92 less the tax refund of $7,999.97 yields $11,999.95 - or in other words almost exactly $1,000/month.

So now we would figure out how much of a loan $19,999.92 would support (interest only) and we come up with $285,713.14, which if invested for 10 years with a 9% rate of return would give our investor a gross total of $676,386.92. Again, we have to subtract the loan balance (which never gets paid down during the 10 years) and we are left with $390,673.78.

Let's Recap the Monthly Savings versus the Leverage Again:

In both scenarios, our investor is spending $12,000/year (or $1,000/month) out of pocket: 

Monthly Savings = $194,965.63

Interest Only Loan = $390,673.78

Remember, this post was designed to show the upside potential of a leveraged investment - so don't go out and get a line of credit and just start implementing this strategy. We haven't looked at real-life scenarios as we have just assumed static rates of return and interest - if you could earn 9% per year, EVERY YEAR, of course this would make a lot of sense - but like we all know, theory and practice are two different things.

Just think, what if you averaged a rate of return that was less than the average rate of interest you paid on the loan? What if your investment lost money over 10 years? You would still have the original loan balance to pay, and your investments would not be able to cover this amount - you could have shelled out $1,000 month for 10 years and still owe another $100,000! Oh yes, a leverage can "blow you up real good!" 

Part 3 will look at the major problems that ruin most real-life leverage strategies.

Part 4 will introduce a solution that I think addresses many of these problems.

As always, leverage magnifies potential returns and risk. Getting a fixed rate loan introduces more risk and return potential, and going with an interest only credit facility introduces a WHOLE LOT MORE risk and return potential - BE CAREFUL!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 3 

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445 2007-12-02 06:54:21 2007-12-02 13:54:21 open open the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-2-of-4 publish 0 0 post 0 870 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-02 13:59:33 2007-12-02 20:59:33 Interesting series.

One other thing to watch for in terms of calculating the tax rebate of any potential plan is the different tax brackets. If someone who makes $80k has $12k in interest costs they are writing off then the tax rebate won't be just at their marginal rate since they will drop down a bracket or two. Same thing if they make rrsp contributions.

Mike

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871 2007-12-02 20:31:18 2007-12-03 03:31:18 Good point Mike - another reason why it's a good idea to run your strategies through a professional tax advisor.

A good tax resource are the Ernst and Young tax calculators: Click here to see how much your write offs save you in tax.

You should enter in your income before the write-offs and then write down the tax payable - THEN, enter in your income less the write-offs and it will give your new tax payable. The difference between the two will be your approximate refund.

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872 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 74.56.237.18 2007-12-09 01:12:13 2007-12-09 08:12:13 Salutations,

A very good post but I always feel compelled to add that interest deductibility of leveraged investments does not apply the same in every province. It does seem that Quebec is a distinct society lol. Since 2004, one can only deduct interests to a maximum of what was gained (*sigh*) although this is only true for the Quebec part of income taxes.

But (once again) as none should try leveraging without proper due diligence, any professional adviser will point this out.

Cheers

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873 2007-12-12 04:55:38 2007-12-12 11:55:38 Thanks for your comment CTR, that is an EXCELLENT point.

Always make sure to check with your own professional advisor, or even with the CRA directly - they are happy to take your call.

I know that may sound sarcastic, but it's actually true! :)

Preet

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The Preet Principle: Leveraging to Invest the Right Way! Part 3 of 4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-3-of-4/ Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:18:51 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/02/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-3-of-4/

Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 in this series, this part will deal with looking at why most leverages fail.

Lack of Experience with Investing

MonthlyBudgetPicture.jpgIt is a big No-No in my books to even consider leverage without having been actively investing for AT LEAST a few years. Even better would be for the investor to have actually experienced a full market cycle (or two!) before looking at leverages. This is simply because if you have not experienced the ugly side of the markets, you really can't prepare yourself for it. But even more importantly, if you HAVE been through a major correction or a bear market, then you'll have also noticed that the periods following the dark times are among the brightest times. It would certainly help psychologically to have witnessed the rebound so that when your leveraged investment goes south, you will not be so easily tempted to bail on your strategy (i.e. exactly at the wrong time).

Leveraging at the Top of a Market

If you ever pay attention to the business media you'll know that every month they report on the monthly "net inflows" or monthly "net redemptions" by mutual fund investors. A net monthly inflow means that people are contributing to or buying mutual fund investments at a rate greater than they are redeeming them - which signifies that investors have confidence in the markets. Having a net redemption for the month usually indicates people are getting weary of future performance. You may also notice that during periods of net redemptions is usually when the markets have been performing poorly; vice versa, there are massive net inflows when markets have been doing well.

Mutual fund investment flows are a good barometer of the average investor's sentiment since mutual funds represent the majority of investment vehicles for retail investors in Canada. But if you remember that you make money in investing by buying low and selling high, then you'll also realize that the average investor basically has no clue what they are doing if you look at the mutual fund investment flows and the corresponding market performance - the average investor is inadvertently buying HIGH and selling LOW by basing their contributions and redemptions on recent market performance.

If the market behaves in a cyclical manner (like it has since the beginning!), then a better time to invest is when the markets have just been performing poorly. If the markets have been performing really poorly, then it is an even better time to invest. Conversely, when the markets have just been performing well is statistically a worse time to invest since it is more likely that the markets will have a downturn the longer the current up-trend is.

However, similar to the mutual fund flows - leverages become more and more prevalent when the markets HAVE BEEN performing well since investors are enthusiastic about how they can magnify the good returns the markets have been returning if they employed some leverage. And this is one of the main causes of problems with leverage.

Investors had been thinking, "Wow, I've been making some good returns for the last 3 years - imagine how much more I would have if I borrowed to invest!". I have seen this first hand as there are tonnes of investors who borrowed to invest in high-tech stocks in the late 90's. Needless to say - they blew themselves up hard and fast once the bubble burst. A second wave of leverage loans occurred in 2006 and 2007. These were normally younger investors who had missed experiencing the boom and bust tech cycle - BUT they had witnessed multiple years of double digit returns since then - the market had already doubled in Canada within 4 years of the tech bubble bursting and double digit returns have been the norm for many younger investors. This latest wave of leveragers have been having a tough time in 2007!

Lack of Discipline

Behavioural finance researchers have found that people are two times as emotionally sensitive to losses in their portfolio as they are to gains. That means that the absolute magnitude of their emotional reaction to a 10% gain is the same as for a 5% loss (of course the nature of this emotional reaction is much different in each case!).

Further to this, I believe that investors over-estimate their resolve when it comes to market volatility.  They tend to focus more on the possible gains than the possible losses. When the tough times roll around, it becomes harder to stick to their guns than they had originally thought.

Also, even though your mortgage is a form of leverage you wouldn't particularly care too much if someone came to your house every day with an offer to buy your house for 20% less than you bought it for since you have a very in-depth understanding as to the value of your house. That's because you really know the ins and out of your house. You can't drive by your stock portfolio on the other hand and when the market offers you 20% less than what you paid you start to second guess yourself! 

Unrealistic Market Expectations

The long term market return is somewhere in the range of 8-11% nominal (nominal means NOT adjusted for inflation) which translates to about 5-8% real (real means that it IS adjusted for inflation). Of course, this doesn't mean it will always be that way, but it does give us a starting point for our expectations.

These returns are quoted for a 100% exposure to equities. Equities are going to be more volatile than a balanced portfolio, but many people make the tradeoff for the higher return potential. But let's go back to the Andex Chart from Part 1. If you look in the bottom right quadrant you will see a text box which shows the annualized returns since 1950 of various indices. You'll note the performance of the Canadian stock market compared to a Moderate Balanced Portfolio since 1950. The risk is stated in Standard Deviation of annual returns during that time:

S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index Since 1950: 10.9% Return, 16.2 Standard Deviation

Moderately Balanced Portfolio Since 1950: 10.4% Return, 9.8 Standard Deviation

The Moderate Balanced Portfolio consists of 10% Cash, 30% Bonds, 20% Canadian Stocks, 20% U.S. Stocks, 20% World (ex-US, Canada) Stocks. This is a hypothetical sample portfolio - but it illustrates that over a long period of time a portfolio that is well diversified can reduce risk (or volatility) without sacrificing as much return as you would think. I'm not saying you have to pick a balanced portfolio by any means, but just to consider that if your are magnifying risk by engaging a leverage strategy, it might be prudent to reduce risk in other ways.

Stretching Yourself Too Thin

This refers to the fact that with an interest-only loan - you are committed to making your payments every month without fail. Compare this to making monthly contributions to your savings - while it's not a good idea to skip making a monthly contribution here or there, it's not the end of the world. Also, it gives you a bit of flexibility if things get tight - you can peel back the amount of the contributions any time you want without having to explain it to anyone.

In addition, if interest rates increase then your monthly payments with a leverage will also increase (for the in terest-only leverages and variable rate term loans). For example, if we look at our sample investor who had a monthly interest payment of $1,666.66 when interest rates were 7%, what would happen if interest rates increase by 2% over two years? His monthly payment is increased to $2,142.85 - a difference of $476.19 per month! If you find making the current interest payment a bit of a stretch as it is, an increase in interest rates is a double whammy: your payment increases which might facilitate collapsing part of the leverage in order to make your payments (and decrease them going forward) and it is more likely that you are selling part of your investments at an inopportune time as both stocks and bonds tend to decrease when interest rates increase. 

Adding it All Up

Many people will tell you that doing well in the markets is not about "timing the market" but rather "time IN the market" - and they are generally right. They are advocating that you can't time the market as your only strategy as if you could predict the markets with any great certainty, you wouldn't need to work for a living! Certainly more of the successful investors in history have been more of the buy-and-hold variety as opposed to market timers, but one thing to consider is that you can time the markets insofar as to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves as good entry points for long term strategies.

For example, if the market has a correction and is off 15% in the span of a week, well you are 15% better off to engage in your leverage today than you were one week prior weren't you? The tough part is having the strength to invest during pessimistic times - and there are no guarantees that the rebounds are just around the corner, you may have to wait it out still, or whether a few more corrections before the next bull run.

But people tend to do the opposite. They tend to leverage after the markets HAVE been performing well - at the height of market enthusiasm.

Also, if you start out your leverage and your first year or two has been bad for the markets, most people are inclined to collapse the strategy for fear of ever increasing losses. If the bad years happened after a couple of good years on the other hand, the investor may be more tempted to stick it out if they are "still ahead" on paper. For this reason, the first few years of the leverage are the most critical.

Add to this the loss of flexibility to deal with cash flow crunches, the risk of interest rate increases,  etc. and you can see that traditional leveraging is not for everyone at all. In fact I would be surprised if leveraging is suitable for even 10% of the investing public!

BUT - for those that do fit the criteria (which I will outline in the next post), I have a possible solution that is designed to address all of the above mentioned pitfalls. In Part 4, I will discuss this strategy, and provide supporting Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis data to provide what has humorously been nicknamed the Preet Principle. :)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 4

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446 2007-12-02 23:18:51 2007-12-03 06:18:51 open open the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-3-of-4 publish 0 0 post 0 874 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-03 04:08:33 2007-12-03 11:08:33 I did quite a bit of analysis for my leveraged plan and concluded that interest rates are the biggest risk you face. An increase of 2 or 3 percent might not affect your cash flow too much (unless you borrowed too much) but it will probably remove any profitability from your leveraged plan.

Mike

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The Preet Principle: Leveraging to Invest the Right Way! Part 4 of 4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-4-of-4/ Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:34:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/03/the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-4-of-4/

Continuing from Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 in this series we now actually come to what was named the "Preet Principle". The name actually doesn't make too much sense, it was more because my colleague wanted to come up with a name to describe this strategy similar to the "Smith Manoeuvre" or the "Singleton Shuffle". There really isn't any "principle" - except perhaps taking advantage of piggy-backing refunds... which will become clear as you keep reading.

Nothing in the strategy is uniquely mine. I simply took existing strategies and put them all together, created a more formalized step-by-step process, and then ran it all through a probability calculator to quantify the risk-return of the strategy.

QuestionMark.jpgThe Background

The strategy is not for everyone, which I think I've made clear in the previous parts to this series. It was originally developed for high tax-bracket investors as a means to both accelerate the growth of their net-worth through leverage and through tax reduction. Further, it is aimed at higher risk tolerant (aggressive to speculative) investors with lots of free cash flow.

I'll begin by introducing a base case study for the traditional saver, compare that to an alternative leverage strategy, and then introduce the "Preet Principle" - which again, is not actually a principle, but rather a strategy.

Assumptions

Out test investor is currently 40 years old and will be retiring at age 65. He will live until 90 years of age, with full entitlement to CPP and OAS. He lives in Ontario and earns $250,000/year which puts him into the top tax bracket of 46.41%. He has absolutely no retirement savings as of today, but has committed $1,000/month going forward to his retirement plan. He is an experienced investor, but has spent all his non-registered investments on toys and the like.

Any refunds he receives from RRSP contributions or interest deductibility from investment loans is ours to use as we see fit. 

His investment portfolio has a long term rate of return of 8% with a standard deviation of 12.5%. For non-registered purposes, he will use corporate class investments and as such his returns are calculated as 0.5% interest, 0.5% dividends, 0.5% realized capital gains distributions and 6.5% deferred growth. Any loans are calculated with an interest rate of 7%.

For calculating the impact of varying return patterns of his investments, we will run 500 different return patterns for his portfolios for each scenario assuming that a trial is successful if he does not have to tap into a line of credit for more than $15,000 in any given year. If he has to do this in any one year of his life - the trial will be considered unsuccessful. We will also randomize the life expectancies so that the computer will simulate living both longer and shorter than 90 years. 

Base Plan - The Traditional RRSP Saver

The base plan will serve as a reference point for the two strategies that follow. In this base plan, our test investor will save his $1,000/month to his RRSP account. That adds up to $12,000/year going to his RRSP which will generate a tax refund of $5,569. This $5,569 will then be deposited annually to a non-registered account starting the year following his first RRSP contribution (since the refund won't be owing until then).

So to sum up the base plan:

1. $1,000/month to his RRSP.
2. RRSP contributions generate a tax refund of $5,569.
3. Tax refund contributed to a non-registered portfolio.

Based on this, our test investor would have a healthy after-tax annual income in retirement of $49,875/year in today's dollars, and if we run this through a Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis, we find that this plan has a probability of success of 72%.

Comparison Strategy - A Straight Interest-Only Leverage

In this case, our test investor will take out an interest-only loan for $171,428.57 to deposit to his non-registered account, since a loan for $171,428.57 would cost $1,000/month in interest payments. He would generate a similar refund as with the RRSP contributions since the interest on the investment loan is tax deductible as well. His refund would also be for $5,569. BUT in this case we are going to put this into his RRSP on an annual basis from this point on, which will generate ANOTHER tax refund. His $5,569 contribution will generate a further tax refund of $2,584 per year. This $2,584 is deposited into his non-registered investment portfolio. (You might want to have two non-registered accounts for this strategy - if you ever need to make a withdrawal, you would take it from the account where you deposited the annual refunds so you don't affect the tax deductibility of the investment loan.) In order to take advantage of the refunds right away, you would actually set up an annual RRSP loan of $5,569 so that you could get your expected refund in one year earlier from the get go. This will be more clear when we list the steps of this strategy:

1. Take out an investment loan of $171,428.57 - costs you $1,000/month in interest (or $12,000/year).
2. Tax refund on interest payments equals $5,569.
3. Take RRSP loan out for $5,569 before RRSP deadline.
4. RRSP loan will generate another $2,584 tax refund.
5. Total tax refund for first year will equal $8,153.
6. $5,569 will be used to pay off RRSP Loan, the balance of $2,584 will be contributed to your non-registered account.

The beauty of this strategy is that you are using piggy-backing refunds. In this case, with an out of pocket cost of $12,000/year, our test investor is able to generate $8,153 per year in tax refunds. In this case, if our test investor only ever put the refunds into high-interest savings account that averaged 3.5% interest between now and the time he turns 65, he would have $328,672 - more than enough to pay off his interest-only loan, PLUS he would have whatever the original investment of $171,428 grew into over 25 years. So again, to re-iterate, the piggy-backing of the tax refunds help offset the risk of the leverage, and if you assume a long term rate of return higher than 3.5% on the refunds it only gets better. In fact, that is what we have done by assuming an 8% rate of return - let's look at the new results:

Based on this strategy, our test investor would have an even healthier after-tax annual income in retirement of $62,700/year in today's dollars, BUT if we run this through a Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis we find that this plan has a probability of success of only 65%.

One main point to remember, we have increased his annual income in retirement by a MASSIVE $12,825/year AND his out of pocket cost for each strategy is still only $1,000/month. But the drop in probability of success has been reduced to 65% and that may not be an acceptable trade-off for some. What if we were to calculate the probability of success for this strategy drawing the same income of the base plan of $49,875? It IS slightly higher at 74% (versus 72% of the base plan). That's more like it!

There is a big caveat however: As we know, we reviewed why most leverages fail in Part 3. To briefly sum it up, leverages usually fail because people tend to do the following:

1. Leverage at the top of the market.
2. Stretch one's self too thin with the monthly payment.
3. Have a lack of discipline or investment knowledge/experience to keep going in the tough times.

Further, the interest rate risk can be divided into two arguments. If inter est rates go up, there is more danger of stretching yourself to the point where you cannot support the payments. The other argument is that as interest rates go up, the differential between return rates and the interest rates may not make a leverage feasible - and that is true in most cases, but with the piggy-backing refunds, don't forget that this risk is slightly mitigated by being able to get more of a refund as well since the amount of your write-offs go up as the cost of borrowing increases.

So with that all in mind, I will now, FINALLY!, present a possible alternative:

The "Preet Principle"

It can be broken down to two parts. One part is the screen for qualifying potential candidates for this strategy and it is:

1. Your TDS Ratio must still fall at or under 40%. TDS = Total Debt Servicing Ratio.
2. You would ideally have been through a full market cycle during which time you were actively investing.
3. You need to wait until a correction of at least 10% before engaging the strategy.
4. You are either an Aggressive or Speculative investor, with respect to your risk tolerance.
5. You are comfortably in the highest tax bracket, have a high net worth, and have other assets.
6. You have a minimum 15 year time frame.
7. You will own between 20-40% of your portfolio in fixed income investments.
8. You expect the market to have another correction of 10-20% in the next 5 years.

I will describe the second part of the strategy before commenting on the screen:

After you have met the screen requirements, you would then engage a hybrid of the straight leverage and the traditional savings strategies, such that instead of $1,000/month going to either strategy, only $500 would go towards supporting the interest-only leverage, and $500 would go to monthly contributions to your RRSP... FOR AROUND THE NEXT 5 YEARS. At 5 years (or a different time as you will gather from below), you would then engage the second half of the original leverage for $1,000/month in total interest costs. (So at no time is your monthly commitment anything but $1,000/month).

I say for the next 5 years, but it was an arbitrary number because really you are going to monitor the strategy for the next few years looking for "something" to happen. By splitting the strategy up you are accomplishing a number of things, most of all: creating flexibility to react to bad events or take advantage of others.

1. Market has a big correction - in which case you would double down and convert the $500/month RRSP contribution to a second interest-only loan bringing you up to the original $1,000/month interest payment. This is in effect taking advantage of the market being "on sale" by making a lump sum purchase at this time. It also is sub-consciously convincing you to hope the market has a downturn so that you can take further advantage of it - which can help you to sleep at night - I know it sounds weird, but I LOVE when markets are going down - the opportunities that present themselves can be quite good.

2. Changes in interest rates - if interest rates go up, then you are not struggling since you can just reduce your monthly contributions to your RRSP to afford the increased interest payments.

3. Emergencies - if you have some sort of cash-crunch, you can just stop your $500/month contributions at anytime without explaining nuthin' to nobody!

4. Market performs really WELL - then you just collapse your leverage to lock in your gain. You would switch back to $1,000/month going to your RRSP until the market has a correction. At that time you would again engage the 1/2 and 1/2 strategy, waiting for a second correction to trigger the full $1,000/month leverage.

So, let's put it into perspective by running the numbers. I will assume our test investor uses the 1/2 and 1/2 method for 5 years and then converts to a straight leverage at year 5. (Note that the amount of tax refunds is exactly the same as the total amount of money eligible for deductions is always $1,000/month).

We already know that the annual income amount will lie somewhere between the base plan and the leverage based on what we know about leverage and return magnification... or do we? 

Based on this strategy, our test investor would have an after-tax annual income in retirement of $58,450/year in today's dollars (still a generous $8,575 more than the base plan!), AND if we run this through a Monte Carlo Sensitivity Analysis we find that this plan has a probability of success of 71%. If we further calculate the probability of success for the base plan income level of $49,875/year we get a massive 82%!

Let's recap all three scenarios:

Base Plan: 72% success rate at $49,875.

Straight Leverage: 65% success rate at $62,700; 74% success rate at $49,875.

Preet Principle: 71% success rate at $58,450; 82% success rate at $49,875.

BUT, I will tell you that the success rates for the Preet Principle would in reality be even higher still. This is because what the computer does not know is that we are waiting for a correction to engage the strategy - this increases our chances of success going forward. It also does not know that we have the flexibility to trigger the second leverage on a further correction, or collapse the initial leverage on a strong bull run whenever we want. Because of this additional information, I would speculate the success rates are quite a bit higher for the Preet Principle than stated above, but I just don't have the foggiest idea how to model that precisely.

Lastly, while the Preet Principle annual income amount is sacrificing some potential reward in the end (in the computer's mind) versus the straight leverage, keep in mind that by waiting until a correction before engaging the strategy will serve to not only increase the success rate, but the annual income amount as well. :)

So there you have it, this is my take on leveraging to invest - which, remember, is potentially only suitable, potentially, for certain investors... potentially. :P

If anyone has additional insight or criticisms, by all means fire away and maybe we can make this analysis even more accurate or correct any flaws, etc. So don't be shy with comments or questions good or bad. The more I have to defend a strategy, the better I learn how to use it! (Or better yet, know if it's complete crap after all!) :)

Thanks for reading the series everyone. Have a great day and happy investing.

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447 2007-12-03 16:34:41 2007-12-03 23:34:41 open open the-preet-principle-leveraging-to-invest-the-right-way-part-4-of-4 publish 0 0 post 0 875 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-04 04:05:08 2007-12-04 11:05:08 Great series!

Mike

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876 2007-12-05 01:16:57 2007-12-05 08:16:57 Thanks for the kind words Mike!

Preet

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877 ckpwong@yahoo.com 209.112.42.249 2007-12-06 01:13:35 2007-12-06 08:13:35 Hi, I'm wondering about some of the screening requirements, such as highest tax bracket. Would you mind to explain? Thanks!

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878 2007-12-06 04:38:46 2007-12-06 11:38:46 Hi Cindy, no problem.

The higher tax bracket will generate larger tax refunds, which help mitigate the risk. So in my example where $12,000 out of pocket was creating around $8,000 in refunds which were re-invested in one form or the other, the effect is less pronounced with lower tax bracket individuals.

For example if someone were in a 22% tax bracket, the $12,000 interest write off would generate $2,640 in refunds, which would in turn generate another $580.80 in refunds for a total of $3,220.80.

Also, if you are in a lower tax bracket, you face the possibility that you will write your income down to a lower tax bracket - and the refunds will be less.

This won't happen when you are "comfortably" in the top tax bracket - and also made for an easier analysis.

I have a spreadsheet I whipped together one day that allows you to play with interest rates, return rates and marginal tax rates - I'll post it up and you can play with it.

You will find some interesting results when you play with the numbers... stay tuned! :)

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879 129.97.230.80 2007-12-08 16:07:15 2007-12-08 23:07:15 I thought that the contribution to the non-leveraged non RRSP portfolio was kind of weak in all cases. It is relatively easy to show that the RRSP dominates the returns of Non-RRSP Non-Leveraged portfolios on an after tax basis in almost all cases so you might as well remove these from the analysis. There are two ways to remove the NREG component, either decrease your withholdings to the CRA (if you are self employed this is easy just pay slightly less in installment payments, if you are employed you can write a letter to CRA requesting they allow your employer to withhold less from you), or you can take out an RRSP loan. Basically you want to have spent your entire refund before you actually get it.

Instead of paying $12,000 in interest and using an RRSP loan of 5,569 you instead take a loan of $10,392. then your total refund is (12,000 + 10,392)*.4641 = 10392 which should be spent on paying back the RRSP loan. (This figure could be altered to take into account interest and fees on the loan).

Anyways the addition of this strategy will help out all of the strategies listed therefore it will not change the conclusion of the argument, it will just allow the person to either take out more cash each year without increasing the probability of failure or it will allow you to take out the same amount of cash with a reduced probability of failure.

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880 2007-12-12 04:49:42 2007-12-12 11:49:42 Hi CommanderT - I'm not sure I understand your first paragraph. Are you saying that there should not be any non-registered savings in all scenarios because the after-tax return for the RRSP will be better?

If so, this is not necessarily the case once you factor in CPP, OAS, pension income, etc. as those are all sources of taxable income at your marginal rate whereas you are only taxed on the growth of your non-registered assets.

It really depends on a number of factors (what your projected income will be, your current and future marginal tax rates, timeframe, expected rate of return, etc.)

I would agree that most of the time the RRSP will be a superior structure though - but not always.

With respect to using an RRSP loan for the amount you suggested, I would be most happy to run the projection to show the difference, but I didn't want to run off in too many directions all in one series. I did address this strategy in some other posts on the blog though - so the regular readers will be up to speed on that (well, at least MY view on it).

Also, the main reason there is a non-registered contribution was that the strategy was initially developed for a doctor who was maxing their RRSP but had more cash to invest so the original strategy was for a investment loan with interest payments large enough that the refund would max out his RRSP every year - therefore we would have no more room to use in the RRSP and would HAVE to use the non-registered account.

If you have a specific set of numbers you would like me to use (and indicate what scenarios you would like me to run), I will post the results as a comment in this thread.

Thanks for reading and commenting...

Preet

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881 99.232.113.185 2008-03-06 02:20:39 2008-03-06 09:20:39 I was under the impression that withholding tax can be reduced automatically by the HR department only if the RRSP contributions are made directly to the company's sponsered registered plan (and they deduct it directly from your pay). That is why the government has the T1213 form.

If you are making RRSP contributions early in a lump sum (or through a pre-authorized purchase plan) and it is not through an employer plan, you can fill out the T1213 form (available at the cra website) and send it in to the nearest tax service office. They will review your request. If approved they will send you a letter of confirmation which you then forward to your HR department. They will then reduce your withholding tax for the requested tax year.

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882 2008-03-06 03:00:24 2008-03-06 10:00:24 Hi Jon, you are correct. You can fill out the TD1 form (I think) when you start a new job to reduce taxes at source, but once you are on payroll, you will need to fill out a form and send to a tax office to have your payroll taxes adjusted as you mention.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Preet

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883 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.10 2008-04-07 19:32:55 2008-04-08 02:32:55 Hi,

I guess that we have to consider all strategies in conjunction with the mortgage payments, which most likely our investor (and majority of us) has to make. In this case we can create a real projection of possible retirement life stile. Taking in account that the "Smith Manoeuvre" can be utilized to generate an additional cash to invest (using tax refund from RRSP + investment loan interest), a huge mortgage interest saving during this 15 years might significantly influent the final conclusions.

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884 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.10 2008-04-09 20:25:48 2008-04-10 03:25:48 Hi,

One more comment… The last strategy assumes that an investor can take a leveraged investment loan or collapse leverage at any time. In reality, based on my experience, if a financial institution granted you an UNSECURED investment loan (I guess that majority of the leveraged investments are based on unsecured loans), they will force an investor to hold securities that THEY suggested for 7-10 years. I guess they think that a person, who takes $250,000 loan has no idea what he or she is doing and will sell everything with losses in a panic mode when the market condition gets ugly… Of cause, an additional loan to take an advantage of good buying opportunities is out of questions…Thus, it looks like to me that the second scenario – Comparison strategy has a better chance to be implemented and managed.

P.S. Thank you for fantastic series…

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885 2008-04-09 22:46:13 2008-04-10 05:46:13 Thanks for the insightful comments Acorn - you are right in that many lenders might put some restrictions on what exactly you can invest in if you go to them for an investment loan. One way around that is through using a line of credit, then you won't have that specific hurdle.

With respect to your first comment - again you are right in that there are many options available to look at and it is best to really run through favourable and unfavourable scenarios of each, compare them, etc. I'm sure someone out there has a combination of this and the SM going at the same time! :)

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Preet

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886 evgeny_malo@hotmail.com 99.225.184.197 2009-09-28 22:36:35 2009-09-29 03:36:35 1 0 0
The Man Who Broke the Bank of England http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-man-who-broke-the-bank-of-england/ Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:54:04 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/05/the-man-who-broke-the-bank-of-england/

George Soros has an interesting life story. One of the things he is known for is being the man who broke the Bank of England when, with some colleagues, he shorted the British Pound to the tune of $10 Billion. (That means he was betting that the British Pound would go down.)

He recorded a one day profit of $1 Billion.

GeorgeSoros.jpgIf that wasn't enough of a great story, consider this: The investment fund that he co-founded with Jim Rogers, The Quantum Fund, generated a 10 year return of 42.5% from 1970 to 1980. To put that into perspective, a one-time $10,000 investment would've turned into almost $350,000 in ten years.

George Soros is commonly cited as being one of the world's greatest investors. He is now very much devoted to philanthropy and political activism - in fact he spent almost $24 million dollars trying to make sure George W. Bush was not re-elected for a second term.

He is currently the 80th Richest Person in the World (2007). 

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448 2007-12-05 03:54:04 2007-12-05 10:54:04 open open the-man-who-broke-the-bank-of-england publish 0 0 post 0
The Preet Principle Calculator http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-preet-principle-calculator/ Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:35:05 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/06/the-preet-principle-calculator/

I'm providing a spreadsheet that allows you to play with some assumptions for the Preet Principle - this calculator is not perfect by any means, but it will allow you to examine how the Preet Principle might work for your own situation.

It allows you to adjust:

1. Monthly Savings Amount
2. Timeframe of the Strategy
3. Long Term Rate of Return on your Portfolio
4. Long Term Interest Rates
5. Your Marginal Tax Rate

Please, please note: the calculator was literally whipped up without the intent of providing a throrough analysis - it was more to provide a general tool for comparing strategies and to see how various variables can affect the strategies.

Further, it assumes that you liquidate all your investments on the last day of the time period specified and taxes all investments at the top tax rate for your province. It DOES take into account your marginal tax rate up to that time, but another fault is that it cannot tell when you drop a tax bracket.

I'm sure you'll have fun with it, but understand that it will only make sense if you read through the four part series on The Preet Principle - and understand that it is for rough estimation purposes only. To have a proper analysis done takes hours and will take into account even more variables.

Without further adieu: Click here to download The Preet Principle Calculator For Entertainment Purposes Only! 

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449 2007-12-06 05:35:05 2007-12-06 12:35:05 open open the-preet-principle-calculator publish 0 0 post 0 887 robgaudrault@hotmail.com 70.66.212.193 2008-06-05 17:52:27 2008-06-05 21:52:27 1 0 0 888 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-05 18:12:57 2008-06-05 22:12:57 1 0 0 889 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-05 18:23:46 2008-06-05 22:23:46 1 0 0 890 robgaudrault@hotmail.com 70.66.212.193 2008-06-10 03:32:25 2008-06-10 07:32:25 1 0 0
The Million Dollar Journey Contest! Win a Digital Camera! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-million-dollar-journey-contest-win-a-digital-camera/ Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:53:22 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/07/the-million-dollar-journey-contest-win-a-digital-camera/

I have had the great opportunity to write some guest posts for The Million Dollar Journey - which is another Canadian personal finance blog. FrugalTrader, who is the author of that blog, is currently holding a great contest to celebrate his One Year Anniversary of running the blog.MoneyClipCanadianDollars.jpg

The grand prize is a Digital Camera, but there are 6 prizes to be won... and trust me, the odds are much better than entering the lottery. :) 

The Million Dollar Journey is a great site and if you haven't already checked it out, please do so - and while you are there you should sign yourself up for the contest - it's FREE to enter! What could be better than that?

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CONTEST PAGE AT THE MILLION DOLLAR JOURNEY 

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450 2007-12-07 04:53:22 2007-12-07 11:53:22 open open the-million-dollar-journey-contest-win-a-digital-camera publish 0 0 post 0
What's the best time of the year to invest? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/whats-the-best-time-of-the-year-to-invest/ Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:45:20 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/11/whats-the-best-time-of-the-year-to-invest/

According to Peter Lynch, it's not worth thinking about. Peter Lynch is another name commonly mentioned in the list of world's greatest investors and he was also known for commissioning his research department to do some interesting studies.

Money-BigStacks.jpgOne of them looked at the difference between making your annual contributions to your investment account at the absolute lowest point of the year versus the highest point of the year. This particular study covered 30 years between 1965 and 1995 and assumed you saved $1000/year to the S&P500.

If you had picked the lowest point of the year your annual rate of return would have been 11.7% compounded.

If you had picked the highest point of the year to make your annual contribution, or as Mr. Lynch puts it: you were the real Jackie Gleason of the world - then your compounded annual return would have been 10.6%.

You can see that the difference isn't as significant as you would imagine! He also asked the research department to calculate the return for someone who just invested their money on the first day of the year - the result?: 11.0% compounded...

So if you pull out your hair trying to time the markets, maybe Mr. Lynch's study will help put you at ease... 

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451 2007-12-11 02:45:20 2007-12-11 09:45:20 open open whats-the-best-time-of-the-year-to-invest publish 0 0 post 0 891 142.245.59.3 2007-12-12 19:56:41 2007-12-13 02:56:41 Hi Preet, love your blog...great info for Canadians!

Do you have any links to these "studies" by Peter Lynch? I'd like to read more into it.

thanks!

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892 2007-12-12 20:11:15 2007-12-13 03:11:15 Hi Rose - thanks for reading! I don't know of any links off the top of my head - although two of his books that I have read are littered with these research studies.

They are: One up on Wall Street and Beating The Street.

Both books are excellent reads and I think his writings will give you some more insight into his methods.

I will point out though that his books are more geared towards the art of stock-picking.

No matter what your style of investment is however, you will probably pick up some valuable information from his books.

In the meantime - I will try to find some of his works or references online and create a small post on them in the next week.

Also, my post on "leveraging the right way" (Part 1) had some interesting information on the markets that you might like as well. I'll paste it here:

"Here is some interesting food for thought:

1. Since 1950 there has never been a 10 year rolling period where the TSX lost money. The lowest 10 year average rate of return was 3.3% from September 1964 to September 1974. The best 10 year average rate of return was a whopping 19.5% from August 1977 to August 1987.

2. The lowest 30 year average rate of return was 8.6% from June 1952 to June 1982. The highest: 12.7% from August 1970 to August 2000.

3. The single worst 1 year rolling period for the TSX was June 1981 to June 1982 during which time the index lost a massive 39.2%.

4. The single best 1 year rolling period for the TSX was the very next year from June 1982 to June 1983 when the market returned 86.9%.

But the take home message for most investors is that we DO believe the markets generally go up, and given enough time the returns on our portfolios will be positive. In reality, it can be VERY hard to stay the course, especially after a year like 1981-1982. How many people had the discipline to stay the course and actually take advantage of the next year's spectacular returns?"

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The Two Types of RRSP Meltdown Strategies Part 1 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-1-of-3/ Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:52:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/12/the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-1-of-3/

I've written before that there are some situations in which you would want to avoid saving too much to your RRSPs. In one way or another, the reason comes down to taxes.

The most common reasons cited for monitoring the value of your RRSPs:

1. Withdrawals are subject to your full marginal tax rate.
2. Registered withdrawals add to your earned income.
2. If your income is too high it may trigger clawback of your Old Age Security benefit.
3. You are required to make minimum annual withdrawals from age 72 onwards even if you don't need the money.
4. Non-Registered assets can be taxed much more preferentially (while living and at death).

Because of these main reasons, strategies have been developed to shift assets from registered accounts to non-registered accounts - these are known as meltdown strategies. 

Before I continue however, don't forget that many people would be envious of your problem! :)

MoneyClipCanadianDollars.jpgThere are actually two basic ways to melt down an RRSP. One involves simply withdrawing money from your RRSP while you are in a lower tax bracket and the other involves offsetting the RRSP withdrawal with tax deductible investment loan interest. Most people will marry the moniker of the "RRSP Meltdown" (or RRIF Meltdown) with the strategy that involves the investment loan - but the straight withdrawal method is also considered a meltdown.

1. STRAIGHT WITHDRAWAL MELTDOWN

This strategy mostly applies to higher net worth individuals who do not need to access the funds in their RRSP accounts for their retirement living expenses. In this strategy, you are simply withdrawing funds from your RRSP early and re-allocating them to a non-registered investment account where the funds will continue to grow (albeit taxed on a yearly basis for interest, dividends and distributed capital gains). The hope is that you will save tax on your terminal tax return since you had slowly converted assets from being fully taxed at your marginal rate to assets that are only taxed on the growth (and hopefully most of that growth was in the form of capital gains thereby further reducing the tax bill).

You can see that this strategy really fits only a few situations in real life - namely because it assumes that the money in the RRSP isn't needed for your living expenses, but is rather earmarked as an inheritance (for a non-qualified beneficiary).

Up until a few years ago, for this strategy to really make sense would depend on you NOT living too long as the extra growth afforded by the tax sheltered RRSP eventually offset the extra taxes owed by the RRSP. Since your death is mostly an unknown variable, you wouldn't know if the strategy would have played out in your favour until you were on your deathbed. Nowadays, we have more tax-efficient investments avaiable for non-registered environments so the appeal is starting to come back.

2. THE LEVERAGED MELTDOWN

The RRSP Meltdown strategy that everyone is normally referring to is this one. This is where you take out an investment loan in a non-registered investment account and the interest payment on the loan is used to offset the RRSP withdrawal.

I usually see examples that propose the interest on the loan be equal to the RRSP withdrawal which allows for a zero-sum tax event. For example, assuming you are in a hypothetical 40% tax bracket your $10,000 RRSP withdrawal would be deemed to be earned income in the amount of $10,000 - which would be subject to $4,000 in tax. BUT, if you had paid $10,000 in interest on your investment loan that year then you would have an offsetting income deduction of $10,000 which would cancel out the $10,000 RRSP withdrawal's effect on your tax return.

But consider that to have a $10,000 interest payment you would need an interest-only loan of about $143,000 (assuming 7% interest charged on the loan). To have a $10,000 interest payment on a term loan would necessitate an even larger loan amount since part of your payment will be a repayment of principal.

So while most people will promote the strategy with perfectly offsetting interest and withdrawal amounts - it is not necessary - and usually not practical.

The people using a leveraged meltdown strategy are trying to reduce the amount of tax they pay while they are living and as such, they want to slowly shift assets from being in a registered environment to a non-registered environment. Also note that you don't have to completely meltdown your RRSP to $0 either. It really will come down to a number of factors (such as rate of return, longevity, asset allocation, projected annual incomes, etc.).

You need to consult with a professional to see if either of these strategies even make sense for your own situation first, but then also to see to what degree you need to implement them. Also be cautious that the advice is genuine as if your advisor is paid based on the assets he/she manages this creates a conflict of interest since this will increase the amount of investment assets you hold with him/her.

In Part 2 and Part 3 I will explore a few examples of the Leveraged Meltdown Strategies. You will see that it only works if "all the stars are aligned". From the analyses that I had made, there are very few situations that justify taking on the amount of risk involved with interest-only leveraged meltdowns.

I suppose a third alternative is one I can propose now: RETIRE EARLIER DUMB-ASS! :)

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452 2007-12-12 23:52:21 2007-12-13 06:52:21 open open the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-1-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 893 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-13 02:46:00 2007-12-13 09:46:00 Haha, advice #3 is the best.

Never ceases to amaze me when I hear people complaining about "being forced to take money out of their rrif" or the like.

Mike

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894 http://www.aarongladders.com/2010/04/17/links-for-2010-04-17/ 208.113.196.16 2010-04-17 20:32:57 2010-04-18 01:32:57 1 pingback 0 0
Brand New Look for WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/brand-new-look-for-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:42:37 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/14/brand-new-look-for-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/

Hi everyone and welcome to the new look for WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com! I decided to make some changes and I think I'm about 90% done. The big change is that I've gone from 2 columns to 3 columns and moved 95% of the ads out to the sides - hopefully that makes for a more pleasant reading experience.

If you guys have any suggestions for how else to improve the site, please feel free to let me know! :)

Like this article? Subscribe to Email Updates or the RSS Feed and keep up to date.  Psst... it's FREE!
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453 2007-12-14 08:42:37 2007-12-14 15:42:37 open open brand-new-look-for-wheredoesallmymoneygocom publish 0 0 post 0 895 206.53.50.142 2007-12-14 13:54:46 2007-12-14 20:54:46 I like the new look.

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896 207.35.182.164 2007-12-14 15:16:34 2007-12-14 22:16:34 Enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the good work.

Thanks

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897 99.244.5.230 2007-12-15 04:59:27 2007-12-15 11:59:27 Hey Preet,

Love the new look - a great way to 'revitalize' a blog by giving it a new design.

Looking forward to reading your posts,

-Derrick

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898 http://www.stockweb.blogspot.com 213.31.11.80 2007-12-15 07:10:36 2007-12-15 14:10:36 Hello,
new design is very nice.
Vlada

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The Two Types of RRSP Meltdown Strategies Part 2 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-2-of-3/ Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:30:35 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/15/the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-2-of-3/

Continuing from Part 1, I mentioned that I would look more closely at leveraging a meltdown. I already stated that I think it would be pretty rare for someone to want to completely meltdown their RRSP and focus on offsetting the withdrawals with deductible interest since the risk involved in doing so would be fairly high, and the loan value enormous. From the calculations I made below (which don't even factor in variance of actual returns in the real world!) the risks in this strategy are too great for all but the most speculative investors.

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpg(SIDE NOTE: My post got so long that I'm deciding to increase the series to three parts - it was originally penned for two parts.) 

COMPLETE OFFSET

Let's look at what would be involved in completely offsetting the RRSP withdrawals with interest on an investment loan. First we need to make a few assumptions:

1. Our investor is 55, will retire at 65 and will live to 90.
2. He has $350,000 in his RRSP.
3. All his investments grow at 8%.
4. His loans are charged 7% in interest.
5. His marginal tax bracket is 45%.
6. He has other sources of income in retirement such that the income from his RRSP will all be taxed at his marginal rate.

If he wanted to completely meltdown his RRSP by the time he retires that gives him 10 years to melt down $350,000 that is growing at 8%/year. That means he would have to withdraw $48,300 (rounded) per year in order to have $0 in his RRSP by age 65.

If we tried to offset $48,300 in taxable income with deductible interest from an investment loan we need to calculate how much the loan principal would be to support that.  Assuming an interest only loan and working backwards we find that $690,000 at 7% per year equals $48,300. That's one heck of a loan!

Fast forward to age 65. Now our investor has $0 in his RRSP, but his non-registered investment has grown from $690,000 to $1,490,000 (rounded, growth at 8%). Since the RRSP is now depleted, we can no longer afford the interest on the loan so we will have to collapse the leverage. If we subtract the loan principal of $690,000 this leaves us with $800,000. But don't forget that in order to pay off the loan, we would have to sell some of the investment which would incur tax. So if we sold $690,000 (and to be conservative let's assume the whole amount is a capital gain) then there would be an additional tax bill of $155,250. Once this is subtracted from the $800,000 we are now left with $644,750.

Let's go back and see what his RRSP would have grown to by age 65 if he had not made any withdrawals: At 8%/year we have $755,623. So looking at the absolute values, it looks like the non-melted-down RRSP is actually better - but...

To be thorough, we should look at how the ongoing withdrawals are taxed (to see how much he would have to spend) if we depleted both accounts to $0 by age 90.

For the non-melted-down RRSP, $755,623 growing at 8%/year and being depleted to $0 by age 90 would allow for annual withdrawals of $65,500 (rounded). If they are taxed at 45%, then his net income per year would be $36,025 (rounded).

For the meltdown, the non-registered account of $644,750 would allow for annual withdrawals of $55,925. Again being on the conservative side, let us assume that ALL withdrawals are realized capital gains and therefore 50% of the withdrawals are subject to 45% tax. In this case, the net income per year would be $43,341 (rounded). That is a sizeable advantage of $7,000+ per year in his pocket versus the non-melted-down RRSP!

(For those who are interested in seeing the after tax effects if the RRSP or melted down RRSP was the ONLY source of retirement income, or in other words if his marginal tax bracket didn't apply to the full amounts, then I calculated the net income [including OAS Clawback] as follows for each: non-melted-down RRSP=$56,721, melted-down RRSP=$52,502; these figures may seem artificially high compared to the results above, but this is because I ADDED CPP AND OAS to these numbers since it makes a difference if we are calculating THROUGH multiple tax brackets. For the above numbers, if those income amounts were indeed taxed entirely at 45% then the tax on their CPP would be equivalent and their OAS completely clawed-back.) 

Okay, so we've seen that a leveraged meltdown works in theory for those who will be very much in the highest tax bracket in retirement. But look at the assumptions that we have made! Our investor had to take out an interest-only loan for $690,000! We also assumed that he would generate a static 8% rate of return on all his investments.

In practice, this person might have difficulty getting approved for an interest-only loan for $690,000.

Further, the risk in this strategy is enormous. The first few years will make or break you in a big way. If there were a bear market near the beginning of this strategy, consider that not only will your leveraged investment's balance look scary, but the odds of being able to keep up with the RRSP withdrawals while your RRSP is experiencing negative growth greatly diminish. If you ran out of funds in your RRSP, you might also be under water in your leveraged investment. That's a serious double whammy!

Let's see what happens when the market only provides your portfolio with a 5% return:

1. Your RRSP would be depleted at around 8.5 years.
2. At that time your leverage would be worth  $1,045,000.
3. You would no longer have funds to withdraw from your RRSP to pay the interest on the leverage so you would have to collapse the loan.
3. After paying off the loan of $690,000 that leaves you with $355,000.
4. After paying the tax for that, you are left with about $200,000!

Alternatively, if you just let your $350,000 RRSP grow at 5%, at 8.5 years in you would have about $530,000.

Hmmm... $530,000 with no leveraged meltdown versus $200,000 WITH a leveraged meltdown if the markets only return 5%... Can you see how much risk is involved with a completely offsetting leveraged meltdown??? From an earlier post you'll note that the lowest 10 year rolling average rate of return on the TSX was 3.3% so even if you had what it takes to buy and hold, yes you could "make a positive return" but the chances (to me) of having a rate of return LOWER than the interest charged on your loan are PRETTY GOOD. Too good in fact to make a strategy like this endorsable to all but the most speculative of investors.

In Part 3, we will look at what happens if we take out a term loan instead and didn't completely meltdown the RRSP...

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454 2007-12-15 02:30:35 2007-12-15 09:30:35 open open the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-2-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0 899 leeyuan03@hotmail.com 173.183.66.116 2010-04-09 21:38:42 2010-04-10 02:38:42 1 0 0
The Two Types of RRSP Meltdown Strategies Part 3 of 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-3-of-3/ Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:04:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/15/the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-3-of-3/

NOTE: I extended this series to three parts. Click Here for Part 2.

In Part 2, we discussed a sample, complete meltdown. We found that it might be much too risky. Let's now look at some alternatives... 

WHAT ABOUT A TERM LOAN?

This is complicated. If you were planning on withdrawing money from the non-registered account for living expenses - this strategy will flat out not work! Allow me to explain:

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgUsing a 10 year term loan for HALF the value of the RRSP (as opposed to an interest only loan and completely melting down the RRSP) requires us to point out a few items: With a term loan the amount of interest will be less than the RRSP withdrawal annually so there will be some tax owing. This is because the term loan payment is part interest and part principal. Since we did not use any "surplus cash flow" in the above scenario, it wouldn't be fair to just assume that our investor can make up the shortfall in this scenario caused by the tax on the RRSP withdrawals that are not offset by deductible interest. Therefore, he will have to pay for the extra tax by redeeming even more of his RRSP! :) (This is the main reason the strategy won't work).

Also, with a term loan, the interest makes up about half the loan payments in the first year, but in the last year only makes up about 7% of the loan payment - so his tax bill goes up every year, meaning he has to redeem more and more money out of his RRSP each year until the loan is paid off!

I created a spreadsheet to figure out the impact of the increasing redemptions to the RRSP on top of the static annual loan repayments of $25,057, and the rate of growth of 8% on the funds annually. I'll spare you the math: the RRSP value after 10 years is almost exactly $200,000 even.

So now let's check on the value of the $175,000 invested into the non-registered account (this is half of the RRSP's value at the start of the 10 years). This one is pretty easy as we just have to take the lump sum and grow it at 8%/year which gives us: $377,800 (rounded). Unlike before, we don't have a loan balance to pay off as we have been paying it off all along.

So in this case we have $200,000 in the RRSP and $377,800 in the non-registered account at age 65.

To figure out the combined net income after tax if our investor were to withdraw the funds annually such that both accounts would deplete to zero by age 90 would allow for... $34,937/year after tax? That is below the after tax annual amounts for a full meltdown AND if we didn't meltdown at all ($43,341/year and $36,025/year respectively). What gives?

Well, if you'll remember we took out a term loan of $175,000 over 10 years. That means that $175,000 of the payments over the 10 years was just PRINCIPAL - which cannot be deducted. Over the years that also added up to around $140,000 in extra tax owing. These drains are just too much to overcome for this strategy to be effective...

FINAL THOUGHTS

Does the RRSP Leveraged Meltdown work? In theory, yes it does, but only if you expect to be comfortably in the highest tax bracket throughout retirement. If your RRSP is the only source of retirement income (asides from CPP and OAS) then a meltdown would probably never make sense.

If you do fit the criteria of being comfortably in the top tax bracket, keep in mind that in the real world the risks involved are so great that I have to re-iterate that it is probably only suitable for the most speculative of investors (and even then it seems questionable)! If you are interested in this strategy, as always, make sure to check with your financial advisor to make your own determinations, but also remember that they might be more inclined to promote the strategy as it would mean they get to manage more money (and hence generate more fees).

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455 2007-12-15 06:04:21 2007-12-15 13:04:21 open open the-two-types-of-rrsp-meltdown-strategies-part-3-of-3 publish 0 0 post 0
Unused RRSP Contribution Room at Death http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/unused-rrsp-contribution-room-at-death/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:53:02 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/15/unused-rrsp-contribution-room-at-death/

QuestionMark.jpgWhat happens if you die with unused RRSP contribution room?

Naturally you would be inclined to think that your legal representative would file an RRSP contribution for you for your final tax year, thereby reducing your terminal tax bill... But there is a slight problem with that. Your your legal representative cannot make RRSP contributions to your RRSP after the date of your death! It just isn't allowed by the CRA.

What IS allowed, is for the legal representative to make a contribution to your spouse's Spousal RRSP up to the first 60 days of the year following the year of your death. This has the same effect on your terminal taxes. The only caveat is that you had the room prior to the year you died as NO RRSP CONTRIBUTION ROOM IS GENERATED BY INCOME YOU EARNED IN THE YEAR THAT YOU DIE. All I can say is "BOO to that!".

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456 2007-12-15 19:53:02 2007-12-16 02:53:02 open open unused-rrsp-contribution-room-at-death publish 0 0 post 0 900 http://starttags.com/tags/unused-room 98.240.245.202 2010-04-03 20:17:03 2010-04-04 01:17:03 1 pingback 0 0
Why Wait for your RRSP Refund? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-wait-for-your-rrsp-refund/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 08:55:08 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/16/why-wait-for-your-rrsp-refund/ We've seen that if you plan on saving for retirement by using an RRSP, you can really knock multiple years off your working life if you do something productive with the tax refund. That can be anything from paying down the mortgage, to saving to a non-registered investment account, plowing it right back to the RRSP (if you don't maximize your contributions), etc.

BreakingPiggyBank.JPGNo matter the case, if you have a tax refund that is owing to you IT DOESN'T EARN INTEREST while it's sitting with the government waiting for you to fill out your tax return. To counter that "problem", you could always fill out a form that tells the payroll department to withhold less income tax from each pay cheque. Now, your take-pay will be slightly higher per pay cheque and if you do your math right you will have neither a refund nor a balance owing once you file your taxes.

EXAMPLE

John lives in Ontario and earns $50,000 per year and contributes $500/month to his RRSP. His normal take-home pay is based on his $50,000 salary which means that he pays roughly $9,915 in taxes per year (2007), and his bi-weekly pay cheque will average $1,514.73 after taxes. If he waits until filing his tax return to get his annual refund from contributing to his RRSP he will get a cheque for $1,869 perhaps sometime in May.

If John instead requests that less tax be deducted from his pay cheque based on him continuing to contribute $500/month then his average take home pay will increase by $71.88 from $1,514.73 to $1,586.61. He won't have to wait until filing his return to take advantage of the income deductibility of his RRSP contributions - he's getting the tax back NOW.

Of course, if you normally put your tax refund right back into your RRSP,  then you would want to now increase your regular RRSP contributions by $71.88 per pay cheque (if paid bi-weekly). This way not only are you getting your tax refund immediately, it is also being put to good use immediately.

HOW TO DO IT

If you are starting a new job and you know how much you will be regularly contributing to your RRSP, you can enter the appropriate information on the TD1 form that your new employer will give you. This is a Personal Tax Credits Return that you fill out and remit TO YOUR EMPLOYER. If you want to reduce the amount of withholding tax that is already being deducted at source from your current employer, then you have to fill out a T1213 and submit it to your local tax service office. 

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457 2007-12-16 01:55:08 2007-12-16 08:55:08 open open why-wait-for-your-rrsp-refund publish 0 0 post 0
How to Get a 70%+ Return on Your Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-to-get-a-70-return-on-your-money/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:33:30 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/16/how-to-get-a-70-return-on-your-money/

This is just another idea you can use if you liked my series of posts on leveraging. I showed how you can mitigate some of the risk involved with leverages by capitalizing on the power of piggy-backing refunds. Specifically we looked at using the refund from the tax deductible interest from an investment loan (to a non-registered investment account), putting that into an RRSP to generate another refund and then using that refund to contribute to a second non-registered investment account.

Child-BabyWithhat.jpgHere is another strategy that will give you an instant return of around 70% on your out of pocket contributions to your savings:

1. Take out an interest only loan.
2. The interest is tax deductible and generates a tax refund.
3. The tax refund from the loan interest is contributed to your RRSP.
4. The RRSP contribution generates another tax refund.
5. The refund from the RRSP is contributed to an RESP for your child.
6. The RESP contribution generates a Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) of at least 20% (up to certain limits).

Of course, getting an interest only investment loan is pretty risky in and of itself, so you can't consider his strategy if you are anything BUT an aggressive to speculative type investor. Make sure to get the counsel of a professional (or two!) before implementing anything like this on your own.

Let's look at a real life example. Suppose we had an investor in the top tax bracket in Ontario, which is 46.41%. He has a child and so has the ability to contribute to an RESP. To make the math somewhat easier to follow, I will figure out how much of an interest only loan he would get in order to have an annual interest payment of $1,000 per year (based on a 7% loan interest rate). It works out to $14,285.71.

Okay, so his out of pocket costs are going to be $1,000/year - how far will that get him?

$1,000 in interest will generate a tax refund of $464.10.
He puts the $464.10 into his RRSP, which generates a tax refund of $215.39.
The RRSP refund of $215.39 is contributed to an RESP for his child which generates a 20% CESG.
20% of $215.39 equals $43.08.

So with an initial out of pocket cost of $1,000, we have generated $722.57 of new money.

If you wanted to calculate the maximum interest only loan you would need to generate the most amount of tax refunds and CESG without going over any limits (I suppose just for "efficiency's sake"), we need to work backwards:

The maximum CESG this person could generate would be $500/year (since he is in the top tax bracket).
$500 divided by 20% = $2,500 -> this is what he can contribute to the RESP to get the maximum grant.
$2,500 divided by 46.41% = $5,386.77 -> this is what he can contribute to an RRSP to get an RRSP refund of $2,500.
$5,386.77 divided by 46.41% = $11,609.92 -> this is how much loan interest he needs to pay to get a tax refund of $5,386.77.
$11,609.92 divided by 7% = $165,813.09 -> this is the value of the interest only loan he needs at 7% interest to be charged $11,609.92 in interest per year.

So working forwards again, his interest only loan of $165,813.09 would cost him $11,609.92 per year in interest and that would be his total out of pocket cost. Through the piggy-backing refunds and grant from there on, he would generate $8,386.77 in "new money". Again, this is over 70%.

Because we are generating so much new money, the risks involved in the interest only leverage are somewhat mitigated, to the point that you come out ahead even if you were being charged more interest on the loan than you are earning in your investments. (Mind you the CRA might have an easier time challenging the deductibility of the interest on that loan if that were indeed the case!).

While the strategy is very effective, note that you will not get a compounded 70% return on your money and the invested money on an ongoing basis. You would only get this "return" on the amount you spent on the annual interest costs to support the loan.

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458 2007-12-16 06:33:30 2007-12-16 13:33:30 open open how-to-get-a-70-return-on-your-money publish 0 0 post 0 901 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 74.56.36.178 2007-12-18 03:45:18 2007-12-18 10:45:18 Isn't the maximum grant 500$ now?

Otherwise, great reflexion.

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902 2007-12-18 05:26:11 2007-12-18 12:26:11 Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out CTR! I have amended the post accordingly...

Preet

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Productive Uses for Your RRSP Refund http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/productive-uses-for-your-rrsp-refund/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 14:22:45 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/16/productive-uses-for-your-rrsp-refund/

If you contribute to your RRSP on a regular basis and have a tax refund owing to you every year, what do you do with the money? Certainly you will hear the opinions of your friends, family and colleagues telling you to put it HERE or use it THERE - and you may be wondering what the right answer might be?

Piggy_Bank.jpgPersonally I'm of the belief that as long as you do something productive with it, you're on the right track. Nonetheless, let's look at the most popular options:

1. Contribute more to your RRSP

This is productive because you are adding even more money to your retirement savings. Of course, if you maximize your RRSP's then this is not an option. (And GOOD FOR YOU by the way!)

2. Make a lump sum payment to your Mortgage

This is a very popular option, especially for those who don't really know if accelerating the mortgage or maximizing your RRSPs is the best use of your discretionary funds. Since any extra payments to your mortgage go directly to reducing the principal owing, you will knock off a tonne of interest payments in the future for every extra dollar you pay off now.

3. Pay off Other Debts

Especially if your interest costs on your credit cards is in the double digit range. Suppose you have an interest rate of 19% and you carry a balance on your credit card. By paying that off, it's like getting a 19% return on your money. If you find that your RRSP refund doesn't completely pay off your high interest debt, perhaps you might consider reducing your RRSP savings and increasing your debt repayments. The logic is that the investments in your RRSP are probably earning less than what you are paying in interest.

4. Contribute to an RESP for your Children

This piggy backing of refunds is very effective, and feels great too. Not only are you getting money back from contributing to your RRSP, you are effectively growing that refund by using it to generate at least 20% more in the form of the Canada Education Savings Grant. Oh yeah: you're also helping to fund the education of your child!

5. Pay for an Insurance Portfolio

While this doesn't increase your net worth as much as some of the aforementioned items, it does make your overall financial picture more robust. Insurance can be expensive and quite frankly, for some people, the costs turn them off so much that they don't carry insurance period. There is something about the nature of an RRSP refund that makes it feel like "found money" and in some cases people who don't like paying for insurance out of their monthly cash flow may find paying for it on an annual basis with the RRSP refund more palatable. Remember, personal finance is as much about psychology as it is math!

6. Discretionary Spending

By this I mean something like an annual vacation. Again, it's not as good for your balance sheet but getting back to the psychological nature of finance: some people view the RRSP refund as a reward for the hard work of saving on a regular basis to their RRSP. If this annual vacation serves as a positive reinforcer to you to keep on saving in the future, then that is much better than saving to your RRSP one year, using the refund to pay down the mortgage and then not saving the next year because you "lost the faith".

7. Create a Rainy Day Fund

If you don't have an emergency fund, some might consider putting the money into a high interest savings account until you have 3 to 6 months living expenses accounted for. In today's day and age, and with the abundance of credit out there, many people are avoiding the rainy day funds since they feel they could tap into their RRSP's, home equity, or lines of credit for emergencies. It's a personal choice and there is no clear "winner".

8. Contribute to a Non-Registered Investment Portfolio

This portfolio might be to supplement retirement, or perhaps it is for a future "non-retirement" linked purchase. For example a cottage, home renovations in the future, or just a general "fun money" fund for whatever strikes your fancy. Going back to point 7, it could also serve as an emergency fund if an emergency were to strike.

9. A Combination of any or all of the above mentioned items

If you are on the fence as to which is the best option, remember that there really is no clear winner. If it makes you feel better, you could spread the refund around to multiple different strategies, or you could alternate based on one strategy this year and a different strategy next year.

Like this article? Subscribe to Email Updates or the RSS Feed and keep up to date.  Psst... it's FREE!
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459 2007-12-16 07:22:45 2007-12-16 14:22:45 open open productive-uses-for-your-rrsp-refund publish 0 0 post 0
RRSP Maturity or Conversion Options http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rrsp-maturity-or-conversion-options/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:05:05 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/16/rrsp-maturity-or-conversion-options/

You have up until December 31st of the year that you turn 71 to "mature" your RRSP. Upon maturity, you have 4 options to choose from:

1. Do Nothing (or "forget to do something")

Senior_citizens_free.jpgThis is bad. If you don't elect to convert your RRSP using one of the following three options, then the CRA deems you to have completely withdrawn all funds from your RRSP in the year you turn 71. This is bad because the entire value of your RRSP is now included as taxable income and you could be faced with a massive tax bill.

2. Convert to a RRIF

A RRIF is short for Registered Retirement Income Fund. It is very similar to an RRSP except you are no longer allowed to make contributions to it, only withdrawals. You can hold all the same investments as before - the only requirement is that you withdraw a minimum amount of funds every year (which are taxable as income). The CRA will let you know how much you have to take out as a minimum, but there is no maximum that you can withdraw with a regular RRIF. It is estimated that about three-quarters of all RRSP holders choose to convert their RRSPs to RRIF accounts at maturity.

3. Purchase a Life Annuity

This requires that you get a financial institution to exchange your lump sum value of your RRSP for a guaranteed stream of income payments for the rest of your life. You lose the ability to modify the amount and timing of income payments once you choose this option, but it does provide a guaranteed amount of income that will last as long as you do. This is certainly very appealing to more conservative investors.

4. Purchase a Term Certain Annuity to Age 90

This is different from a life annuity in that the term is "certain" (hence the name). If you lived to 94, this annuity's income stream would have run out on you. If you only live to 86 though, your estate or beneficiaries may or may not be entitled to any funds depending on the options you chose when you signed up for this annuity. Make sure to go over all the choices until you understand them. A general rule of thumb: the more "features" or "options" you select, the lower the monthly income payments will be.

Keep in mind that you don't have to commit all your funds to only one choice. Perhaps you like the features of a few of these different options for different goals. For example, it might make sense to purchase a life annuity with half your RRSP to guarantee a certain amount of income, and then use the other half of the RRSP to purchase a RRIF account so that you can access lump sums as necessary and control the investments in that half of your retirement savings.

Whatever you do, don't just wait until the last minute to make up your mind! You could potentially be locking yourself into a decision for the next 30 years or more! Think it over, get some professional help and perhaps talk it over with your family too. 

Like this article? Subscribe to Email Updates or the RSS Feed and keep up to date.  Psst... it's FREE!
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460 2007-12-16 09:05:05 2007-12-16 16:05:05 open open rrsp-maturity-or-conversion-options publish 0 0 post 0 903 Paul_hood@scotiamcleod.com 199.166.15.246 2007-12-19 19:34:46 2007-12-20 02:34:46 You should also mention that if you hold a RRIF at age 70, and you want to defer your payment until after you turn 71 (as per the new legislation), you do not have to retract the RIF back to a RSP.

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WIN A FREE 7.1 MEGAPIXEL CANON DIGITAL CAMERA! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/win-a-free-71-megapixel-canon-digital-camera/ Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:44:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/17/win-a-free-71-megapixel-canon-digital-camera/ // UPDATE: THE CONTEST HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED. THANKS FOR VISITING! WIN A 7.1 MegaPixel Canon Digital Camera! If you are a reader of The Million Dollar Journey, you will know that I was the grand prize winner of the contest that was just held there. The prize? A Canon a570 IS Digital Camera Package complete with Lowepro Rezo 50 Carrying Case AND a 1GB SD Card which is all valued at $220 and was graciously provided by Derek at RedFlagDeals.com. I HAVE DECIDED TO IN TURN GIVE THIS AWAY TO A READER AT WHEREDOESALLMYMONEYGO.COM! :) More about the Prize:camera-front-angled.jpg The camera is a top line brand (Canon) digital camera featuring 7.1 Mega Pixel resolution, 4x Optical Zoom, a 2.5" LCD Screen, Movie Recording capabilities, Image Stabilization and more. Click on the picture of the camera to link to a site that has more detailed specifications... I have to thank Derek from RedFlagDeals.com for agreeing to provide this prize first to The Million Dollar Journey for the contest there, and also for agreeing to hold on to it until we find a NEW winner! :) HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST The winner of this contest will be selected at random. You can enter the contest in a NUMBER of different ways (I decided to make you work a little if you want to increase your odds!), and you can gain more than one "entry" per person. If you want to increase your odds of winning, it doesn't really take that much work: 1. Sign up for an Email Subscription to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com (1 Entry) 2. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post (1 Entry) 3. Promote this contest on your own blog including a link to this post (1 Entry) BONUS ENTRIES! 4. REFER A FRIEND to sign up for an Email Subscription to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com (2 Entries)* 5. Sign up for an Email Subscription to The Million Dollar Journey (1 Entry) So you could get 1 Entry for signing up to an Email Subscription here (which is free), 1 Entry for leaving a comment (also free), 1 Entry for blogging about this contest (also free), 2 Entries for each person you refer to sign up for an Email Subscription (again free) and another Entry for signing up to The Million Dollar Jouney's Email Subscription (free again!). That's SIX entries, and you can earn even more still by referring more than 1 friend! THE FINE PRINT
  • You may only earn 1 entry for making a comment - and no inappropriate comments please! :)
  • You may only submit 1 email address for Email Subscriptions to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com
  • You may only submit 1 email address for Email Subscriptions to The Million Dollar Journey (Subscribing to both sites WILL earn you two entries)
  • Your submitted email address needs to be verified/validated (this is an automated process, you will receive an email asking you to click on a link to verify your email address after you have signed up for a subscription)
  • If you sign up for an Email Subscription, you ALSO need to contact me directly and let me know which email address you used so I can verify the email address you are using for the contest directly. Ditto for The Million Dollar Journey email subscriptions - you can contact that blog's author HERE after signing up for HIS Email Updates.
  • If you refer a friend to sign up for an Email Subscription to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, then make sure to tell them to send me an email using the "Email the Author" link and to specify both THEIR Email Address and YOUR email address as the person who referred them.
  • Email subscriptions must be active until at least the contest closes.
  • Contest Closes at 11:59pm EST December 24th, 2007 - Winner announced on Christmas Day!
rfdbanner125x125.gifI highly recommend visiting our sponsor of the prize: RedFlagDeals.com - it is a website that is geared towards unearthing all the hottest deals available to Canucks online or in-store (FOR ANYTHING) by providing news about new great sales, discount codes and coupons. There are forums for readers to alert everyone to the latest deals and you can even sometimes find "early" releases of Holiday Sale flyers - so you can plan your Boxing Day onslaught in advance! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! Thanks for reading and best wishes for the holiday season! Preet
Like this article? Subscribe to Email Updates or the RSS Feed and keep up to date.  Psst... it's FREE!
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461 2007-12-17 19:44:27 2007-12-18 02:44:27 closed open win-a-free-71-megapixel-canon-digital-camera publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1262873719 _edit_last 1 904 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 74.56.36.178 2007-12-18 03:41:17 2007-12-18 10:41:17 MAy I say, A nice gesture.

CtR

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905 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-18 03:42:16 2007-12-18 10:42:16 I don't really like working to enter a contest so I think I'll just do the comment thing.

Mike

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906 http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2007-12-18 03:50:59 2007-12-18 10:50:59 Count me in!

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907 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2007-12-18 12:26:59 2007-12-18 19:26:59 Is it wrong for me to enter this contest? :)

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908 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2007-12-18 13:11:59 2007-12-18 20:11:59 I'm in on that one too, my camera keeps turning itself off after a few pictures and it's getting really annoying. It sure would be nice to have a nice shiny new camera . . . hint hint. :)

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909 gayowski@hotmail.com 70.52.218.134 2007-12-18 13:22:30 2007-12-18 20:22:30 Great idea Preet.

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910 soetemansj@hotmail.com 216.16.230.2 2007-12-18 14:08:32 2007-12-18 21:08:32 I like cameras!

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911 rajiverma@hotmail.com 207.112.113.245 2007-12-18 14:22:57 2007-12-18 21:22:57 I love this blog bec i find all my answers here in detail and compliant with financial industry standard. i also really appreciate the effort you are putting in this blog for a common person to understand the complex financial industry terms and strategies. Being an insurance advisor i find this blog very helpfull and knowledgeable. i always recommend my clients for this blog for further reading and uptodate information. i hope you will keep the same spirit and mission of education to the common people who are overlooked by the financial services industry.
Once again congratulation for your wonderfull social effort........

Rajiv Verma

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912 brigusnf@rogers.com 209.47.33.228 2007-12-18 15:08:57 2007-12-18 22:08:57 Good luck everyone.

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913 sunshinemocha1@yahoo.ca 99.232.162.6 2007-12-18 15:19:07 2007-12-18 22:19:07 With a digicam I can take pics of where all my money goes!

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914 bal_gs@yahoo.com 207.35.182.164 2007-12-18 15:34:26 2007-12-18 22:34:26 Enter my name to the list, and keep on blogging. I enjoy your articles.

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915 jez.stefan@gmail.com 66.46.161.60 2007-12-18 17:40:06 2007-12-19 00:40:06 I like your idea! count me in.

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916 walk0080@gmail.com 207.112.43.237 2007-12-18 21:07:30 2007-12-19 04:07:30 Great blog and great camera!

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917 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2007-12-19 01:44:21 2007-12-19 08:44:21 COOL!!!!!!!! I can still win that camera!

Thanks and a great idea,
Tim

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918 thecontestman@gmail.com 24.150.12.112 2007-12-19 03:35:16 2007-12-19 10:35:16 Count me In!

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919 142.150.25.121 2007-12-19 06:35:29 2007-12-19 13:35:29 Awesome! Count me in!

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920 lornio@yahoo.com 24.207.134.55 2007-12-19 12:57:05 2007-12-19 19:57:05 Great blog...you're one of my daily reads.

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921 saskman7@yahoo.com 198.169.152.50 2007-12-19 14:42:27 2007-12-19 21:42:27 Way to "pay it forward". Sign me up for the contest.

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922 johnbagnell@hotmail.com 192.228.22.245 2007-12-19 15:17:53 2007-12-19 22:17:53 Great site, lots of good info.

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923 ian@home100.co.uk 24.89.245.33 2007-12-19 16:33:27 2007-12-19 23:33:27 Keep on blogging and send the camera my way as the inlaw wants one for xmas!!

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924 gurumurthy88@gmail.com http://blogging-contests.blogspot.com/ 122.164.54.74 2007-12-19 19:25:37 2007-12-20 02:25:37 Count me in,I'm mailing you seperately to tell you other ways i'm entering this contest.

Cheers..

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925 fsmontenegro@gmail.com 72.138.45.61 2007-12-20 16:38:37 2007-12-20 23:38:37 Hi!
Here's my contest entry. Thanks for the all the information on the web site. I'm still catching up...

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926 aztekh@gmail.com 220.255.83.93 2007-12-20 16:42:42 2007-12-20 23:42:42 Hi,

I've subscribed to your RSS via email and also to Million Dollar Journey's RSS via email.

Thanks!

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927 mikael.heroux@gmail.com http://www.thefinancialblogger.com 24.202.42.211 2007-12-21 11:29:44 2007-12-21 18:29:44 That's a smart move to get more people Preet!

Way to go!

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928 lorilovescontests@gmail.com 134.153.38.220 2007-12-21 12:34:12 2007-12-21 19:34:12 Good idea to get up cross-readership from MDJ! I'm know an RSS subscriber. :)

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929 70.49.13.42 2007-12-21 13:01:24 2007-12-21 20:01:24 Sharing the wealth...now that's another option on the 'million dollar journey'! Maybe we can convince
A-Rod to join in the prize give away...I am sure he can part with a million or two ;O)

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930 smitty67@sympatico.ca 70.49.13.42 2007-12-21 13:02:43 2007-12-21 20:02:43 Sharing the wealth...now that's another option on the 'million dollar journey'! Maybe we can convince
A-Rod to join in the prize give away...I am sure he can part with a million or two ;O)

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931 dbelci@gmail.com 76.69.148.40 2007-12-21 13:31:49 2007-12-21 20:31:49 Good job, I'm in!!!

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932 george.wenzel@gmail.com 66.128.81.33 2007-12-21 13:38:48 2007-12-21 20:38:48 Great idea! Consider me entered!

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933 ryan@knupnet.com 12.2.142.7 2007-12-21 13:47:07 2007-12-21 20:47:07 Great site. Great contest! I'm in, subscribed to email using the email in this comment and blogged about it at:

http://www.contestblogging.com/we-are-in/71-megapixel-canon-digital-camera/

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934 bebemiqui82@yahoo.com http://www.bebemiqui.blogspot.com 75.71.12.82 2007-12-21 14:05:18 2007-12-21 21:05:18 I just subscribed to your feed.

I'm on MDJ's feed

I blogged ya: http://bebemiqui.blogspot.com/2007/12/contests-of-day_20.html

And I commented. Whew!

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935 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2007-12-21 14:19:23 2007-12-21 21:19:23 Count me in. And Happy Holidays.

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936 skhandor@gmail.com 216.183.91.254 2007-12-21 14:31:12 2007-12-21 21:31:12 Count me in! I could use a nice camera like that!

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937 136.159.187.146 2007-12-21 14:33:55 2007-12-21 21:33:55 Me as well. Thx.

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938 alchemist7r@gmail.com 99.234.129.8 2007-12-21 17:13:29 2007-12-22 00:13:29 Awesome, count me in.

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1 0 0
939 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2007-12-21 17:38:09 2007-12-22 00:38:09 Free Stuff,
Free Stuff,

Rah, Rah, Rah

Free Stuff,
Free Stuff,

Hah, Hah, Hah

I Love Free Stuff.

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1 0 0
940 laketrout+wheredoesallmymoneygo@gmail.com 67.70.52.171 2007-12-21 18:20:09 2007-12-22 01:20:09 mmmm...shiny camera

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941 archunan@gmail.com http://N/A 69.46.164.109 2007-12-21 19:18:16 2007-12-22 02:18:16 It's very kind of you to pay it forward. I just found your site through MDJ. Seems just as good... maybe better :O watch out frugal! haha... really nice site though, both of you (incase your reading, frugal :) )
Thanks again for the second chance at that camera!

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942 cashmoneylife@gmail.com http://cashmoneylife.com 75.179.137.28 2007-12-22 01:31:58 2007-12-22 08:31:58 That's good fun passing along your winnings. I've done something similar with an iPod, but I got it for signing up for a bank account. I didn't want or need it, and it was a lot of fun giving it away! :)

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943 danielmorel@gmail.com 24.150.179.98 2007-12-22 03:07:49 2007-12-22 10:07:49 I'll wish for the camera and read a blog or two while I'm here. ;-)

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944 rbayer@telus.net 199.126.168.53 2007-12-22 05:09:23 2007-12-22 12:09:23 way to pay forward the kindness this Christmas! You'll be blessed.

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945 206.248.131.245 2007-12-23 05:09:15 2007-12-23 12:09:15 Good site, very useful!

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946 amw124@gmail.com 142.165.101.229 2007-12-24 02:17:55 2007-12-24 09:17:55 I love this blog. Thanks!!!

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1 0 0
947 99.244.189.31 2007-12-24 08:56:45 2007-12-24 15:56:45 Enjoying the current series on RRSP's, Happy Holidays.

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1 0 0
948 38.112.100.65 2007-12-24 19:38:25 2007-12-25 02:38:25 have a great holidays Preet!

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949 donald@jacksonfamily.ca 68.147.204.193 2007-12-24 21:04:34 2007-12-25 04:04:34 When I told my girlfriend about this contest, she told me that if I won, I would be getting her old camera and SHE would get the new one. I am ok with that!

Great contest, and a nice way to share your good fortune!

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950 69.1.19.151 2008-01-24 12:07:36 2008-01-24 19:07:36 I really need a new camera ;}

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951 2008-01-24 15:54:20 2008-01-24 22:54:20 Hi Lori - sorry but the contest closed on Christmas Day. But stay tuned as I'm about to launch a new contest!

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952 laptop13@163.com http://www.batterylaptoppower.com 218.17.248.144 2008-06-09 22:36:05 2008-06-10 02:36:05 1 0 0 953 latinhonni4eva@yahoo.com 76.108.149.198 2008-06-24 12:11:25 2008-06-24 16:11:25 1 0 0 954 pure_chocolate_luv@yahoo.com 70.247.55.209 2008-09-12 02:23:02 2008-09-12 06:23:02 1 0 0 955 CdnKarate_Girl@hotmail.com 99.242.136.143 2008-10-08 10:38:55 2008-10-08 14:38:55 1 0 0 956 kunedalo5@aol.com 69.124.168.172 2008-11-02 15:08:24 2008-11-02 19:08:24 1 0 0 957 hugo_castro_@hotmail.com http://www.conspiracaofm.tk 189.105.149.119 2008-12-07 18:45:01 2008-12-07 23:45:01 1 0 0 958 waqas708@yahoo.com 119.154.63.165 2008-12-23 10:09:45 2008-12-23 15:09:45 1 0 0 959 singstar4life@hotmail.com 67.182.123.159 2008-12-25 21:02:06 2008-12-26 02:02:06 1 0 0 960 masab007@yahoo.com 123.49.46.11 2009-01-13 06:07:03 2009-01-13 11:07:03 1 0 0 961 quincy@i-love-dogs.com 173.75.193.212 2009-03-28 15:48:10 2009-03-28 20:48:10 1 0 0 962 aazikacst@gmail.com 202.129.232.134 2009-05-07 22:40:17 2009-05-08 03:40:17 1 0 0 963 cotton_candi33@yahoo.com 70.248.144.230 2009-06-18 15:49:20 2009-06-18 20:49:20 1 0 0 964 justin_time4more@hotmail.com 74.184.94.34 2009-07-09 20:02:59 2009-07-10 01:02:59 1 0 0 965 silver-angel89@hotmail.com 24.94.40.75 2009-08-22 22:10:36 2009-08-23 03:10:36 1 0 0 966 katana02@shaw.ca 96.51.26.182 2009-08-24 11:49:26 2009-08-24 16:49:26 1 0 0 967 jmz@jameshodge.net http://darklikemysoul.com/imagery 194.75.244.138 2009-09-25 05:05:35 2009-09-25 10:05:35 1 0 0 968 redamitred@aol.com 122.173.128.219 2009-11-09 23:09:57 2009-11-10 04:09:57 1 0 0 969 marshap@semiconductor.com 207.61.67.10 2009-11-17 11:41:12 2009-11-17 16:41:12 1 0 0 970 edteneyckemail-signups@yahoo.com 71.197.77.33 2009-12-02 01:15:21 2009-12-02 06:15:21 1 0 0
You Don't Have to Take Your RRSP Loan in February http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-dont-have-to-take-your-rrsp-loan-in-february/ Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:21:54 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/19/you-dont-have-to-take-your-rrsp-loan-in-february/

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If you happen to be one of the many Canadians who take out an annual RRSP loan every year right before the deadline in order to make your contribution, AND you happen to be a higher risk-tolerant investor, here are a couple of ideas for you to consider:

GET AN RRSP LOAN WHEN THE MARKET HAS A CORRECTION 

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgIf you are able (i.e. have paid off your previous RRSP loan, or have the ability to take on another one), then there is no law that states you have to wait until February to get an RRSP loan. The reason this might be of interest is if you believe that you can take advantage of "dips" in the market (kinda like the "dip" we're having now!). If the market goes up between now and the RRSP deadline, it would be to your advantage to get your loan NOW as your cost base will be lower.

BUT... 

Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20 and it is a very real possibility that the market can continue to go down until that time, in which case it WOULD be better to wait until the deadline since your cost would be even lower still.

PARK YOUR RRSP CONTRIBUTION UNTIL LATER 

And to go in the other extreme, what if the market kept going down until July? Well, again, if you are being a speculator then you should know that there also is no law that says than when you take out an RRSP loan, the proceeds have to be "fully invested" in the market either. In this case, you would take out your RRSP loan, put the proceeds into an investment savings account or money market fund inside your RRSP and then wait to convert those funds into investments that match your long term asset allocation whenever you feel appropriate.

REMEMBER 

These strategies are only of interest to you if you think you can time the market successfully (and you have the inclination to try your hand at it) - plus strategies such as these are normally reserved for "speculative" investors which means that in exchange for the potential of a better return you are exposing yourself to a LOT more risk. History has shown that constantly trying to time the bottom of a market to invest and trying to time the top of a market to sell is almost futile. Having said that, I personally invest regularly and double down on the dips when they present themselves. If the market kept on going down, I would keep on buying. Mind you, I'm *relatively* young and my risk tolerance is very high.

Remember: If your risk tolerance is not very high, history has also shown that you'll do just fine by just investing regularly! Over long periods of time the graph always goes "up and to the right". :)

(The link takes you to www.andexcharts.com - you can buy a copy of their graphs from their website if you like. )

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462 2007-12-19 07:21:54 2007-12-19 14:21:54 open open you-dont-have-to-take-your-rrsp-loan-in-february publish 0 0 post 0
Contributing Investments (as opposed to cash) to your RRSP http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contributing-investments-as-opposed-to-cash-to-your-rrsp/ Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:36:24 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/20/contributing-investments-as-opposed-to-cash-to-your-rrsp/

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While the norm is to deposit money into an RRSP and then purchase the investments once the money has been deposited, it is also possible to contribute to your RRSP in the form of already-held investments. This in known as an "in-kind" contribution.  (Think of it as shifting your investments from one account to another without having to sell them.) If the source of the "in-kind" contribution is NOT from another RRSP account that you own, then you can use this contribution as your RRSP contribution for the year, just like the normal cash contributions. 

BondCertificate.jpgFor example, you can contribute stocks, bonds, mutual funds, GIC's, etc. directly into your RRSP and the Fair Market Value (FMV) of those securities (as of the previous day's close from the date of the transaction) will count as your RRSP contribution for that tax year.

Some people do this when they cannot make a regular cash contribution to their RRSP but still want a tax refund. Another reason is that your non-registered investment (which may have originally been intended for a short term use) is now no longer needed and can be put away for a longer period of time (i.e. for retirement). 

There are a few things to be aware of:

DEEMED DISPOSITION OF THE ASSET

Once you make this in-kind contribution from a non-registered account, it is deemed to have been sold at it's fair market value for tax purposes and you need to know how to handle the tax treatment. If the security has a capital gain, then you will have capital gains tax owing. If you contribute an interest bearing security between interest payment dates, then you will have to declare the accrued (but as yet unpaid) interest as income. If you sell a bond between interest payments AND it has a capital gain - you have both capital gains tax and interest income to declare.

YOU MAY WANT TO AVOID IN-KIND TRANSFERS OF SECURITIES WITH A CAPITAL LOSS

Usually, it would be better to sell the asset in the non-registered environment and then make a cash contribution with the proceeds to your RRSP. This is because the CRA will not allow you to claim a capital loss on the asset if it is being contributed in-kind to your RRSP. The only time you would proceed with an in-kind transfer of an asset with a capital loss is if the cost to sell the asset and then re-purchase it inside your RRSP was less than the tax advantage of being able to claim the capital loss - so basically, if the loss is VERY small (i.e. less than $50) it's probably okay to just transfer it in-kind.

CAPITAL LOSSES

Capital losses have to be applied against any capital gains or distributed capital gains in the current tax year first. If you still have a capital loss balance, that amount can then either be applied to the previous 3 tax years or carried forward indefinitely. Also note, that if you carry back a capital loss - you would want to apply it to the year of highest reported income (when you would be in your highest possible marginal tax rate) - there is no requirement to use up the balance in the first previous year, then the second, etc.

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463 2007-12-20 01:36:24 2007-12-20 08:36:24 open open contributing-investments-as-opposed-to-cash-to-your-rrsp publish 0 0 post 0 971 fullmer@telus.net 74.61.103.70 2008-10-30 15:36:40 2008-10-30 19:36:40 1 0 0
RRIF Withdrawal Minimums http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rrif-withdrawal-minimums/ Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:11:40 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/20/rrif-withdrawal-minimums/

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A RRIF account (Registered Retirement Income Fund) is what most people turn their RRSP accounts into once they turn 71. The main difference between an RRSP and a RRIF is that you can only withdraw funds from a RRIF account - you can no longer make contributions.

Senior_citizens_free.jpgWhile you are not required to mature your RRSP until the year you turn 71, the many people who choose the option of maturing their RRSP into a RRIF will make the conversion before this time (i.e. if they retire earlier than that). But regardless of what age you hold a RRIF account at, you are required to withdraw a minimum amount each year known as the prescribed minimum withdrawal amount. Any RRIF withdrawals are fully taxable as income in the year you receive them (just like an RRSP withdrawal).

The methods for determining how much you need to take out is shown below:

IF YOU ARE 70 OR YOUNGER

In this case there is a relatively simple formula for determining the minimum amount of money you need to withdraw from your RRIF: 1 / (90 - Your Age). So let's say that you were 65 on January 1st of the year in question. If we plug this into the formula we find: 1 / (90 - 65) = 4%. Therefore you would have to make a minimum withdrawal of 4% of the value of the RRIF. The value of the RRIF is based on the market value as of January 1st.

IF YOU ARE 71 OR OLDER

In this case, the minimum withdrawal amount needs to be looked up on a chart. Also note that if your RRIF account was opened before 1993 (known as a "qualifying RRIF"), then there are different rates from ages 71 - 78. The percentage amount you need to withdraw are as follows. The middle columns shows the percentage for RRIF accounts that were opened in 1992 or earlier and the right most column shows the percentage for RRIF accounts opened in 1993 or later.




Age
 Up to 1992
       1993 or Later
71 5.26 7.38
72 5.56 7.48
73 5.88 7.59
74 6.25 7.71
75 6.67 7.85
76 7.14 7.99
77 7.69 8.15
78 8.33 8.33
79 8.53 8.53
80 8.75 8.75
81 8.99 8.99
82 9.27 9.27
83 9.58 9.58
84 9.93 9.93
85 10.33 10.33
86 10.79 10.79
87 11.33 11.33
88 11.96 11.96
89 12.71 12.71
90 13.62 13.62
91 14.73 14.73
92 16.12 16.12
93 17.92 17.92
94 + 20.00 20.00
 
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464 2007-12-20 04:11:40 2007-12-20 11:11:40 open open rrif-withdrawal-minimums publish 0 0 post 0
You can base the RRIF Withdrawal on a Lower Aged Spouse to Reduce the Minimum Withdrawal Amount http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-can-base-the-rrif-withdrawal-on-a-lower-aged-spouse-to-reduce-the-minimum-withdrawal-amount/ Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:49:00 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/20/you-can-base-the-rrif-withdrawal-on-a-lower-aged-spouse-to-reduce-the-minimum-withdrawal-amount/

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If you find that you are in the enviable position of not NEEDING to make withdrawals from your RRIF account in order to cover your regular living expenses, there is a way to reduce the minimum required withdrawal each year. You can elect to have the withdrawal minimums based on the age of a lower aged spouse or common-law partner.

MonthlyBudgetPicture.jpgIf you recall from the previous post on RRIF withdrawal minimums, the younger you are, the less you have to take out.

Let's say you are 71 and converting your RRSP to a RRIF account. You don't have to make any withdrawals in the year you make the conversion, but starting the following year, when you are 72, you will. If you have a RRIF of $500,000 you will need to make a withdrawal of $37,400 - all of which is taxable as income.

BUT, if you happen to have a spouse who is 50, and you elected to base the withdrawal amount on THEIR age you would find that using the age formula (for ages under 71): 1 / (90-50) = 2.5%. This means you would only need to withdraw $12,500. Not only that - you have a spouse who is over 20 years younger than you - life is good! 

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465 2007-12-20 07:49:00 2007-12-20 14:49:00 open open you-can-base-the-rrif-withdrawal-on-a-lower-aged-spouse-to-reduce-the-minimum-withdrawal-amount publish 0 0 post 0
Deferring your RRSP Deductions to Higher Income Years http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/deferring-your-rrsp-deductions-to-higher-income-years/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:06:49 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/20/deferring-your-rrsp-deductions-to-higher-income-years/

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It is important to note the difference between an RRSP "contribution" and an RRSP "deduction". You "make a contribution" by putting money (or securities) into your RRSP account. You "claim a deduction" when you want that contribution to reduce your earned income on a tax return (to reduce your tax bill and get a refund).

QuestionMark.jpgYou may already know that you can carry forward contribution room - so if you didn't maximize your RRSP in any given year, you have the ability to make up for it later. But a lesser known fact is that you can carry forward your RRSP deduction as well.

The RRSP deduction is generated when you make an RRSP contribution, and the norm is to claim it in the same tax year you made the contribution. This is why you get your refund.

If you make an RRSP contribution but don't use the RRSP deduction, you can carry forward the deduction indefinitely as well. Of course your question now is: Why would I want to do something like that!?

Answer: You expect to be in a much higher tax bracket in the next few years.

Let me explain by using an example. Let's assume that you make an RRSP contribution of $1,000. If your marginal tax rate is 20% for that tax year, you will generate a $200 refund if you claim the RRSP deduction for that year. But if you know that you will be in a higher marginal tax bracket the following year, say 40%, then you could wait to use the deduction until that time and get a $400 refund. That is essentially a 50% guaranteed rate of return on that money.

A word of caution: it doesn't always make sense to defer the deduction if you are just waiting for a slightly higher marginal tax bracket year OR if the amount of time before claiming the deduction is too great. For example, if the difference between tax brackets is 5% but you won't be into the higher tax bracket for 5 years, the smaller refund (assuming it is re-invested) doesn't have to earn much growth for it to make more sense to claim the deduction now and invest the proceeds. Using our $1000 contribution and the 5% difference in tax brackets in 5 years: $1000 contributed might earn $300 (in a 30% tax bracket) now versus $350 in 5 years (35% tax bracket). Your $300 will have to earn $50 in growth over 5 years in order for it to make more sense to claim the deduction now (which can be accomplished if you can earn 3.13%/year after tax).

*Thanks to reader Sam for pointing out my mistaken example earlier. 

Please make sure to get an analysis done by a professional for your own situation!

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466 2007-12-20 19:06:49 2007-12-21 02:06:49 open open deferring-your-rrsp-deductions-to-higher-income-years publish 0 0 post 0 972 samvatsalu@yahoo.ca 74.14.116.127 2007-12-21 16:36:05 2007-12-21 23:36:05 hi preet,
sorry to dispute you...
in your example if we expect to be in a higher tax bracket in 3 years..we would get $300 refund instead of $200....in otherowrds the $200 should earn an additional $100 in 3 years..which works out to around 33% & not 10%
you calculated $100 on $1,000 & not $200..which is the cause for error.

thanks
Guest

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973 2007-12-21 17:25:16 2007-12-22 00:25:16 No problem Sam - thanks for posting. You are indeed correct - I have amended the post using a different example to showcase the example correctly. Thanks very much! :)

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974 pam.angel22@gmail.com http://www.Build-A-Biz.com/reportltr.html 59.96.56.9 2007-12-22 11:54:28 2007-12-22 18:54:28 If you contribute money to the RRSP in 2005, and withdraw it in 2006, the tax consequence is that your 2005 income is lowered by the contribution, while your 2006 income is increased. This can be a valuable tool for self-employed individuals or contractors, whose income varies significantly from one year to the next. For example, if you earned $150,000 in 2005 but only $50,000 in 2006, you could lower your taxes, and average your income stream, by using an RRSP contribution to defer some 2005 tax until 2006.
Start Your Own Business to Build Wealth, Reduce Taxes & Protect Your Assets.

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975 2007-12-22 18:43:41 2007-12-23 01:43:41 For a more detailed explanation of what Pam has referenced you can read my post on "Using your RRSP to level your income".

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976 iain_maclean@hotmail.com 24.141.230.112 2008-02-23 20:16:14 2008-02-24 03:16:14 I am a student. I have contributed about $4,000 to my RRSP over the past few years from summer job money. As I haven't made much money over the years (under 10k) I don't think I have actually received a deduction for any of it. (If I have it will have been a small fraction) By what has been said above, I am assuming that when I do start working full time in 2008 that this $4,000 can be used to deduct from my 2008 income?

If so, how does that happen? I use a tax program on my computer, is it likely that this will calculate this for me?

Thanks!

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977 2008-02-23 21:10:07 2008-02-24 04:10:07 Hi Iain - you can check your notice of assessment for the 2006 (and prior) tax years to see if you have been claiming the deductions. If you have, you will not be able to use them going forward.

Your tax program will not necessarily claim the deductions for you. If you entered in data from your RRSP contribution receipts and then told the tax software to claim those contributions for the tax year in question for the program, you will have used them up.

You need to claim making the contributions when you make them, but you can elect to defer claiming the resultant deductions until it suits you best (which most people don't realize, and I don't know how many software packages will ask if you want to defer them as part of any "tax optimizer" macros they offer). If I were a betting man, I would suspect that you have already claimed them without realizing it - I hope I am wrong though!

Your notices of assessment will let you know. In fact, your 2006 NOA will let you know if you have any unused deductions available - so that should be your first step for checking.

Thanks,
Preet

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978 compugirl@gmail.com 67.158.76.51 2008-03-21 20:28:46 2008-03-22 03:28:46 I have contributed $5,000 to an RRSP by taking out a loan last year. I was told it will result in a huge refund.
My rrsp deduction limit is about 1700 and my total income for the prior year was less then 2 grand. The question is how do I defer it, Quick Tax tell me I can but then doesn't direct me to how. Will I still have to pay the 1% my refund is showing me $960 with the full amount put in this year.

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979 2008-03-22 04:01:08 2008-03-22 11:01:08 With respect to your Quick Tax question, you will have to contact their support staff as I have never used Quick Tax myself. I'm sure there is a way - it is common to carry forward claiming the deduction.

With respect to your financial advice, I would go back to your advisor and ask them for assistance - you will have a penalty of 1% per month for the over-contribution balance over $2000. (You are allowed to have an overcontribution balance of $2,000).

Whether you claim your deductions or not, you will have to pay the penalty if you exceed your $2,000 overcontribution allowance.

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980 thecoach17@hotmail.com 206.53.157.41 2010-02-11 17:15:38 2010-02-11 22:15:38 1 0 0 981 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-12 09:29:47 2010-02-12 14:29:47 1 980 0 982 thecoach17@hotmail.com 67.225.11.67 2010-02-12 10:50:50 2010-02-12 15:50:50 1 0 0 983 name@company.com 76.10.176.167 2010-03-24 21:39:42 2010-03-25 02:39:42 1 0 0 984 carlosqu55@hotmail.com 64.72.230.66 2010-03-29 16:11:12 2010-03-29 21:11:12 1 0 0
RIM up 16% after "After Hours" Trading http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rim-up-16-after-after-hours-trading/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:41:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/21/rim-up-16-after-after-hours-trading/

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There are a few things I wanted to point out about the title of this post. The first is that RIM (Research in Motion - the maker of the Blackberry) had a great day on the markets, the second is that most of the "pop" came after the markets closed.

blackberry8800.JPGDuring regular market hours, RIM was up 4.67% on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Further, the company just released it's latest quarterly earnings "after-hours" - which means they waited until the regular markets closed. Once the information was assimilated by the markets - which they took to be better than what they had expected - after-hours trading really pushed up the stock price - another 11.19%. It reached a high of $120.10 USD before settling at just under $119 USD.

The earnings basically said that RIM's profit for the 3rd quarter of this fiscal year was about DOUBLE the profit they earned a year ago. A lot of this is attributed to the popularity of their new Blackberry Pearl phones. 

This means in all likelihood you should expect a big gap up in your RIM shares in the morning.

(I'll write about after-hours trading (and pre-market trading) in the New Year.)

Some other notes about RIM today: It was revealed that the FBI just placed an order for 18,000 Blackberries. Also, another company has launched a patent dispute against them. Ah, the roller coaster that is tech!

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467 2007-12-21 02:41:10 2007-12-21 09:41:10 open open rim-up-16-after-after-hours-trading publish 0 0 post 0 985 99.244.5.230 2007-12-21 10:17:03 2007-12-21 17:17:03 I'm glad I got in before the jump ;) Hope this growth sustains! I read that analysts predict $140+...but that's if it doesn't get downplayed by the whole credit crunch...

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986 99.244.5.230 2007-12-21 10:17:33 2007-12-21 17:17:33 And yes, an article about after-hours trading would be great!

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Security Swapping with your RRSP to Increase Tax Efficiency http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/security-swapping-with-your-rrsp-to-increase-tax-efficiency/ Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:44:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/21/security-swapping-with-your-rrsp-to-increase-tax-efficiency/

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If you read the post on "trying to hold fixed income positions inside your RRSP", you'll know that there can be a tax advantage to doing so. And that's great to know when you are starting out and making new investments as you go along. But what about if you only recently found this out and have substantial holdings in both accounts already? There can be some tax implications or transaction fees incurred in trying to re-order everything around for the maximum tax efficiency.

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgOne way to help circumvent this is through the "swapping" of securities between your non-registered account and your RRSP account. Essentially you would SWAP interest bearing securities from your non-registered account to your RRSP, and the swap would be for tax advantaged securities from your RRSP to your non-registered account. (By tax advantaged, I mean capital gain producing securities or Canadian dividend paying stocks, etc.)

It's important to note that the securities on each side of the swap must be of equal value, and that value is based on the Fair Market Value of the securities at the time of transfer. No RRSP contribution room is used up, and no RRSP de-registration is deemed to have occurred when you perform a swap.

This will allow for the interest bearing securities' income (which is taxed at your full marginal rate in a non-registered environment) to be tax sheltered in the RRSP and allow for the tax advantaged securities to be held in the non-registered environment. The net effect should be a reduction in ongoing taxes.

NOTES

This discussion assumes you do not violate your asset allocation or time horizon/risk profile within or between accounts. This means that this discussion is only valid if your non-registered account and RRSP account are both being used for the same goal. If your non-registered account has a shorter-term goal attached to it, then you will need to re-assess accordingly. 

You have to make sure your RRSP administrator can accommodate swaps (most should be able to), and there is usually a fee to do so (around $50 - $100 for individual security positions). 

The same tax treatment applies to the securities going into the RRSP as with the in-kind RRSP contributions. In other words, securities going in that have a capital gain will attract the capital gains tax for that tax year, and if you transfer between interest payments on a fixed income security, you have to pay tax on the accrued (but as of yet unpaid) interest.

If the securities going into the RRSP have a capital loss - you will not be able to claim the capital loss for your tax return if you contribute them in-kind to your RRSP (swap or not).

One other use for using a swap is to get access to cash inside your RRSP. For example, if you have a non-cashable GIC in your non-registered account and you don't want to pay excessive interest penalties to use the money for an emergency and happen to have a cash balance in your RRSP account, you could swap the GIC for the cash. The GIC remains a GIC and eventually will mature as cash in the RRSP - restoring balance to the force the original cash position in the RRSP. No de-registration, no interest penalty.

Make sure to run over the details of your specific situation with a qualified financial advisor as always.

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468 2007-12-21 23:44:01 2007-12-22 06:44:01 open open security-swapping-with-your-rrsp-to-increase-tax-efficiency publish 0 0 post 0
"Gentlemen Prefer Bonds" http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/gentlemen-prefer-bonds/ Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:38:34 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/22/gentlemen-prefer-bonds/

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE CONTEST TO WIN A FREE 7.1 MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA - CONTEST CLOSES CHRISTMAS EVE, 2007 - CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CONTEST PAGE!!!
 
AndrewMellon.jpg

"Gentlemen Prefer Bonds" is a famous quote in the financial services. It's attributed to Andrew Mellon, a wealthy financier and banker from the early to mid 1900's. Mr. Mellon has a fascinating story actually - he served as the Secretary of the Treasury under three different U.S. Presidents and is widely remembered for seemingly favouring the wealthy in lieu of the middle and lower class by cutting taxes for higher income earners tremendously.

However, his rationale was that the wealthy were being taxed so egregiously that they put all their money into tax-free bonds, thereby avoiding paying tax at all. Once the tax rates for the wealthy were reduced, the tax revenues to the country actually increased markedly! Such was his plan all along.

Perhaps his famous comment was a testament to this state of affairs of the rich before the tax reforms he spearheaded were introduced? The saying was later perverted by humourists into "Gentlemen prefer blondes" and later to "Gentlemen prefer blondes, but take what they can get." :) 

The Mellon family name is widely recognized throughout the banking world - and their interests are far reaching. If you've heard of CIBC Mellon, it is indeed from the same lineage. Canegie Mellon? Same family. :)

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469 2007-12-22 00:38:34 2007-12-22 07:38:34 open open gentlemen-prefer-bonds publish 0 0 post 0 987 bbkjbbkj@gmail.com http://dividends4life.blogspot.com/ 205.235.112.120 2007-12-27 19:21:02 2007-12-28 02:21:02 Good historical read. Thanks for sharing!

Best Wishes,
<A HREF="http://Dividends4life.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow">Dividends4Life</A>

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Warren Buffett's First Book Due in 2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/warren-buffetts-first-book-due-in-2008/ Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:15:40 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/22/warren-buffetts-first-book-due-in-2008/ // --> Considered by some to be the world's greatest investor, Warren Buffett has amassed a $52 billion fortune solely through investing. He is revered and idolized by many investors (both amateur and professional), and is a tremendously popular figure in the financial world. He has many fans, and countless books have been written about him - but he has yet to be actively involved in an authorized biography or investment-how-to book... is this about to change? Are the masses of Buffetteers finally going to get their wish? Maybe. BuffettCover.gifIt was announced back in 2005 that Alice Schroeder had signed a deal with a publisher to provide the first AUTHORIZED biography on Mr. Buffett that would be a "biogaphy on Warren's ideas". The title of the book is "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life". Buffett agreed to work with the author and the rights to the book were bought by Bantam Dell Publishing for $7 Million. It is slated for an April 28th, 2008 release. Schroeder has spent "thousands of hours" working with Buffett in a business capacity over the years - she initially met Buffett when she was an Insurance Analyst for Morgan Stanley. Buffett has agreed to collaborate with the author and to offer unprecendeted access to his "friends, files and associates" - the book promises to be an instant best seller. I've already pre-ordered my own copy - and you have to believe that I wouldn't normally recommend a book or product without first having read/studied it... BUT - this is Warren Buffett and to say that this book has been long awaited is a gross understatement. Click on the link below to make your pre-order. The regular price is $34.00 ($30.00USD), pre-order price is only $21.42 ($19.80USD). ]]> 470 2007-12-22 19:15:40 2007-12-23 02:15:40 open open warren-buffetts-first-book-due-in-2008 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1225681263 _edit_last 1 The Spousal RRSP - One of the Most Overlooked Strategies! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-spousal-rrsp-one-of-the-most-overlooked-strategies/ Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:33:24 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/23/the-spousal-rrsp-one-of-the-most-overlooked-strategies/

A Spousal RRSP is an account that is used for future income splitting purposes. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that it makes great sense to equalize income between spouses in order to reduce household taxes as much as possible - this is due to our progressive tax bracket system.

EmptyPockets.jpgThe lack of use of spousal RRSP's is one of most overlooked financial planning strategies I encounter on a regular basis - and it is almost imperative that you set one up if your current planning strategies do not allow for equal income in retirement between spouses. (If you are wondering about the new pension income splitting rules - don't worry, it still makes sense to set up spousal RRSP accounts and I'll explain why in a post in the next few days.)

WHAT IS A SPOUSAL RRSP?

A Spousal RRSP account is an RRSP account that a higher tax bracket spouse (the contributor) deposits funds to, but once deposited, the funds belong to the annuitant (your spouse or common law partner who is currently in a lower tax bracket). The contributor claims the income deduction now, but withdrawals are taxed in the hands of the annuitant (except in a few particular situations outlined below).

WHY WOULD YOU USE A SPOUSAL RRSP?

The short answer is that it provides for a mechanism to equalize retirement income down the road. If you are both claiming an equal amount of income in retirement, you are almost certainly paying the least amount of taxes as a household unit as possible.

EXAMPLE OF INCOME SPLITTING

If one person had a gross income of $100,000 in 2007 they would pay about $28,961 in income tax (Ontario). If that income were split between two spouses with each having a gross income of $50,000 - then each are paying $9,915 per year in income taxes for a grand total of $19,830.

Hmmm... $28,961 in tax vs $19,830 in tax... That is a difference of almost $10,000! Multiply that by a 30 year retirement and you are looking at $300,000 in taxes that didn't have to be paid. So you can see, it is not a subject to be taken lightly.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CONTRIBUTOR AND AN ANNUITANT?

Contributor: The person making the contribution of funds to the spousal RRSP account (the higher income spouse).
Annuitant: The person who owns the spousal RRSP (the lower income earning spouse). Withdrawals from the account are taxed in their hands (except in certain situations as noted below under the Three Year Rule).

Generally speaking, if you have one spouse in a higher tax bracket during the working phase of life they would make a contribution to their spouse's spousal RRSP account if it was necessary to allow for income equalization in the future. In other words, it is not necessary to set up a spousal RRSP account just because two spouses are in different tax brackets. For example, it is possible that a higher earning spouse has no pension, but the lower income spouse has a great pension. In this case, it might be better for the higher income spouse to just contribute to their own RRSP so that their RRSP/RRIF income will be approximately equivalent to the other spouse's defined benefit pension income. Remember: the goal is income equalization.

The reason you use spousal RRSP accounts is so that the contributor to the spousal RRSP would claim the contribution as an income deduction on their own taxes (being in a higher tax bracket) and at the same time allow for the lower income earning spouse to build up their retirement income for the future. If the lower income earning spouse just contributed to their own account, the tax refund would be less even though the contribution would be the same.

It makes no difference to the contributor as to which account they contribute to from an immediate tax refund point of view. No matter how they allocate their contributions, the amount of tax relief they generate is the same if they made their contribution to their own RRSP or to a spousal RRSP or any combination in-between.

CONTRIBUTION LIMITS

The contributor is limited to how much they can contribute to RRSP's (their own or spousal RRSP's) according to the same rules as usual. So, if they had $5,000 in RRSP contribution room they could elect to: A) Contribute $5,000 to their own RRSP; B) Contribute $5,000 to a spousal RRSP; C) Contribute $2,500 to their own RRSP AND $2,500 to a spousal RRSP; D) Any combination of contributions to both accounts so long as the total RRSP contribution made is within their limit. In other words, there is no extra RRSP contribution room allowed for making a spousal RRSP contribution.

THE THREE YEAR RULE

Any withdrawals from a spousal RRSP account are taxed in the hands of the annuitant BUT THERE ARE SOME EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE. The Three Year Rule states that contributions that are subsequently withdrawn during the same calendar year, or the following TWO calendar years, are taxable in the hands of the CONTRIBUTOR. This rule was designed to ensure that a high income earner would not set up a spousal RRSP account solely for the purpose of reducing taxes now by making the contribution (and claiming the deduction) and then withdrawing the money immediately from the spousal RRSP in the lower tax bracket annuitant's hands.

Senior_citizens_free.jpgAlso, even though the contributor can claim a deduction for making a spousal RRSP contribution in the first 60 days of the following tax year, note that the Three Year Rule applies for the calendar year you make the contribution, NOT the tax year you claim the deduction. In other words, if you made a spousal RRSP contribution on Dec 31st, 2007 you could indeed withdraw the money and have it taxed in the lower tax bracket annuitant's hands if you wait until Jan 1st, 2010. BUT, if you waited one more day to make the contribution on January 1st of 2008, even though you could still claim the deduction for the 2007 tax year, you could not claim the withdrawal in the lower tax bracket annuitant's hands until January 1st, 2011.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE THREE YEAR RULE

Their are some exceptions to the three year rule:

1. The money is transferred into an annuity.
2. Spouses are living apart due to a breakdown in the relationship.
3. The contributor dies in the year of the withdrawal.
4. EITHER spouse ceases to be a resident of Canada for tax purposes.
5. You convert your spousal RRSP into a spousal RRIF which is subject to minimum withdrawals. In this case, only the amount of the withdrawal within the Three Year Rule's range that is OVER the minimum annual withdrawal required for a RRIF account is subject to attribution back to the contributor.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Retirement income equalization is one of the most overlooked areas of personal finance - don't take it lightly. It should be an integral part of your financial planning from the get go - no matter how far off the goal line is. I've had some clients take me aside and express that they have doubts about the long term nature of their marriage and wonder about holding off on the strategy - don't worry, just do it. Division of property upon relationship breakdown almost always includes your future retirement income anyways, and if you hold off and your spouse finds out why - you may just solidify the dissolution of your relationship! That's a type of income splitting you want to avoid!

It should also be noted that the investments inside a spousal RRSP account need to fit the risk tolerance and time horizon, etc. of the annuitant - not the contributor. So if you think that just because you make the contribution, you have the final say on what the investments are - "technically" you don't - although this doesn't tend to matter to people much. But remember, "technically" the funds belong to the annuitant. Make sure you both understand this ahead of time.

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE CONTEST TO WIN A FREE 7.1 MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA - CONTEST CLOSES CHRISTMAS EVE, 2007 - CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CONTEST PAGE!!!

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471 2007-12-23 22:33:24 2007-12-24 05:33:24 open open the-spousal-rrsp-one-of-the-most-overlooked-strategies publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1267565355 _edit_last 1 988 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.17.35 2007-12-24 04:04:07 2007-12-24 11:04:07 One thing that confuses me here, does the annuitant have to have any income at all? For instance in a single income household could all RRSP contributions be split 50/50 between each spouse so that in retirement their incomes would be nearly equal?

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989 2007-12-24 07:53:32 2007-12-24 14:53:32 Traciatim - yes absolutely correct. There is no requirement for the annuitant to have an income.

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990 99.243.129.193 2008-02-27 23:16:16 2008-02-28 06:16:16 Just a question.
If a spousal rsp receipt is issued in the name of the annuitant stating the contbributor sin and name, but now both sin's are stated, can the annuitant elect to use this receipt for them if the contributor has discovered they are already contributed in their own rsp to the limit? Thanks,

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991 2008-02-28 03:03:07 2008-02-28 10:03:07 Hi L., if the official tax receipt from your spousal RRSP plan provider shows the contributor's name on it, then they will have to claim the contribution. Note that if the contributor has already maximized their RRSP, then you have a few options:

1. You can use the $2000 overcontribution limit to avoid the 1%/month penalty.

2. If the contribution was made in the first 60 days of this year, you don't have to claim the contribution for last year, you can claim it for the 2008 tax year on next years tax return. I'm not actually 100% sure, but I don't believe you will incur the overcontribution penalty this way - best to check with an accountant to be on the safe side.

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992 inpee@shaw.ca 192.210.10.253 2010-03-02 15:07:29 2010-03-02 20:07:29 1 0 0 993 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-03-02 16:29:43 2010-03-02 21:29:43 1 992 0
All the Boxing Day Deals in One Place http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/all-the-boxing-day-deals-in-one-place/ Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:33:19 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/25/all-the-boxing-day-deals-in-one-place/

As you may know, the original sponsor of the Digital Camera Giveaway contest was www.RedFlagDeals.com. If you haven't already done so, you can actually download the boxing day flyers for most major Canadian retailers from their website. They have a very easy to navigate section from which you can choose what flyers to browse through. Take a look around ahead of time and plan your post-Christmas assault!rfdbanner125x125.gif

Note: They also list deals you can find on many major online retailers' sites as well.

Speaking of the sponsor... the winner of the 7.1 Megapixel Canon Digital Camera is going to be announced shortly as the contest closes in about 3 hours to new entries. We have received just over 100 entries and I wanted to thank everyone who entered!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and wish you all the best!

Preet

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472 2007-12-25 01:33:19 2007-12-25 08:33:19 open open all-the-boxing-day-deals-in-one-place publish 0 0 post 0
Winner of the Digital Camera Giveaway Contest! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/winner-of-the-digital-camera-giveaway-contest/ Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:08:28 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/25/winner-of-the-digital-camera-giveaway-contest/

With the official close of the Digital Camera Giveaway at 11:59pm EST on Christmas Eve, and after having getting the list of new email subscribers confirmed from The Million Dollar Journey there was a grand total of 111 entries between comments, Email subscriptions, referrals and posts about the contest on other blogs. Thank you to everyone who participated!

rfdbanner125x125.gifI have to thank FrugalTrader for having the idea to hold the contest in the first place. He is the author of The Million Dollar Journey, one of Canada's top personal finance blogs. Also, many thanks to Derek from RedFlagDeals.com for sponsoring both the original contest and for agreeing to hold over the prize for the winner of this contest. Please be sure to visit both sites if you can - the more support we show for our sponsors, the more likely they are to sponsor future contests! :) 

And now for the moment you have all been waiting for! Without further adieu, the winner is: "JK". Congratulations JK and thank you to everyone who entered the contest.

I have just sent an email to you JK, but if you didn't get it, please contact me for details on how to claim your prize!

The contest was a success as during the past week we increased RSS subscriptions by 33% and Email Subscriptions increased from 0 to 40 (I had just added that feature). This blog is still in it's infancy, but since the first full month of existence (August 2007) we have managed an average increase in traffic by 52% per month - all thanks to YOU.

With the success of this contest I have decided I will be running numerous more contests for 2008 - so stay tuned! I'm going to be giving away books, DVD's and other prizes throughout the year - so if you didn't win this time, your turn may soon come... :)

One last thing: I elf'd myself. For those of you who have not yet witnessed these videos, allow me to share this holiday video card with you for your entertainment. It takes about 15 seconds to load on highspeed, but is well worth the wait if you want to see me dressed as an elf doing a jig... ENJOY!

Happy Holidays everyone.

Preet :)

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473 2007-12-25 07:08:28 2007-12-25 14:08:28 open open winner-of-the-digital-camera-giveaway-contest publish 0 0 post 0 994 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.56.90 2007-12-25 14:01:14 2007-12-25 21:01:14 Congrats on the successful contest Preet. I have no doubt that your blog will continue to grow at exponential rates in 2008. Happy Holidays!

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Locked-In Accounts: LIRA, LRSP, LRIF, LIF, and PRIF accounts http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/locked-in-accounts-lira-lrsp-lrif-lif-and-prif-accounts/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:23:02 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/26/locked-in-accounts-lira-lrsp-lrif-lif-and-prif-accounts/

The business of Locked-In accounts is a pretty messy one because there seem to be so many different names for the same things, yet many also have subtle, but important, rules differences and regulations.

*Note see the comment by Webster Webb (below the post) for some good information - he is a retirement planning specialist and much more versed in locked-in accounts than I am. 

WHAT ARE LOCKED-IN ACCOUNTS?

A locked-in account originates from being a member of a pension plan of a company (or government) that you no longer work for, and that relationship ended before retirement. Essentially, a locked-in account is where you hold the transfer of the value of your pension plan that you had accumulated. The pension can be either a Defined Benefits Pension Plan or a Defined Contribution Pension Plan.

Senior_citizens_free.jpgWhen you start working for a company (or government) that has a pension, your pension plan "vests" (normally after 2 years) which basically means that the value in the plan belongs to you after that vesting period has expired. Instead of just getting a cheque when you leave their employ, you get some paperwork from your HR department asking you to transfer the funds into a Locked-In RRSP (LRSP) or Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA). (Sometimes your new employer will have their own pension plan that can actually accommodate the proceeds of your old pension plan.)

Locked-In accounts get their name because the funds inside the accounts are essentially locked away and hard to access. They are designed to provide the same sort of benefit as the original pension plan - i.e. not accessible until retirement, and income provided for an extended period of time in retirement. Until retirement, you would hold the money in a LIRA or LRSP - which don't allow for an income stream or withdrawals. Once you reached retirement, you would have to hold the money in a LRIF, LIF, or PRIF account which are all locked-in accounts with minimum withdrawal amounts.

LRSP'S AND LIRA'S

When you leave a job and you have vested pension funds accumulated you will normally transfer the value to either an LRSP (Locked-In Retirement Savings Plan) or a LIRA (Locked-In Retirement Account). Whether it is an LRSP or a LIRA depends on the jurisdiction the pension plan is registered under and that is pretty much the biggest difference between the two!

Side Note: Pension plans can be registered under Federal jurisdictions or Provincial jurisdictions. 

The accounts are tax-sheltered just as with RRSP accounts, and you may also direct the investments inside the accounts as you wish. You may NOT withdraw the funds until you get to "retirement age" which is usually 55 (as low as 50 in Alberta) - Two Common Exceptions: you can prove financial hardship OR shortened life expectancy.

You can start withdrawing funds after converting the accounts into either an LRIF, PRIF or LIF - and the conversion must happen no later than December 31st of the year in which you turn 71.

(NOTE: There have been some recent proposed changes to pension legislation which affects how much you can withdraw and when. These proposals are not yet passed into law at time of writing and it is suggested that you check with your specific jurisdiction's websites to keep up to date with the changes. A good resource for checking can be found here.)

LIF - LIFE INCOME FUND

There are only two main points: 1) You have maximum annual withdrawal amounts (a RRIF has no maximum) - which is designed to ensure you have an income for an extended period of time. 2) If your pension falls under NEWFOUNDLAND pension legislation, it must be converted to a Life Annuity at age 80. (In most cases you can withdraw all money in a LIF if you reach age 90.) Also, according to Webster Webb: "LIF income is stable and built on an amortization of the payout of the fund based on conservative interest rates."

LRIF - LOCKED-IN RETIREMENT INCOME FUND

Available to pensions registered under Manitoba, Ontario or Newfoundland Pension Benefits Acts. Again, according to Webster Webb: "LRIF income is based on actual investment returns which can be much greater but which is far more volatile. If you have to count on more than a RRIF minimum then an LRIF may leave you short of cash some years."

Other than that, they can be held indefinitely with no requirement to be converted to a Life Annuity at age 80.

PRIF - PRESCRIBED RETIREMENT INCOME FUND

Only pertains to pensions registered in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Quite frankly, these are almost exactly like regular RRIF accounts as they DON'T have maximum annual withdrawal limits, only minimums. Once you have converted to a PRIF, you could take out all the funds if you wanted. There also is no Life Annuity requirement. The only difference is that your spouse is automatically designated as the plan's beneficiary. This can be changed with written consent from your spouse if needed.

Credit is owed to Mr. Webster Webb for his comment below. The post has been revised according to his notes. If you would like more information on him, you can visit his website at: www.websterwebb.com.

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474 2007-12-26 22:23:02 2007-12-27 05:23:02 open open locked-in-accounts-lira-lrsp-lrif-lif-and-prif-accounts publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1212500619 _edit_last 1 995 plan@websterwebb.com 205.200.153.208 2007-12-27 07:51:51 2007-12-27 14:51:51 This article is wrong in some of its oversimplifications. Among other things the statement that the distinction between a LIF and an LRIF is only important in Newfoundland misses the point that a LIF income is stable and built on an amortization of the payout of the fund based on conservative interest rates whereas an LRIF income is based on actual investment returns which can be much greater but which is far more volatile. If you have to count on more than a RRIF minimum then an LRIF may leave you short of cash some years.

It is also not true that people end up in LIRAs and LRSPs only from leaving work pre-retirement. That is generally true for people getting paid out (either for leaving the pension plan or for family breakdown) early . However normal retirement from a defined contibution plan also requires either a locked in RRSP or a life annuity. This is the major source of Locked in RRSPs.

A much better source than this site for accurate and timely information would be the website of the governing jurisdiction's pension commission. The 'province' of the pension is not necessarily whether the pensioner lived/lives - it is the jurisdiction that the pension plan was regulated under. for example the Manitoba Telecom Pension Plan is governed by Federal regulation - not Manitoba - so the Manitoba provision for a 50% unlocking does not apply for them.

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996 2007-12-27 08:34:22 2007-12-27 15:34:22 Thanks for the comment Webster - I have added your comments and amended the post accordingly.

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997 johnsnowy@hotmail.com 174.1.7.149 2009-07-17 12:55:03 2009-07-17 17:55:03 1 0 0
Unlocking Locked-In Accounts http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/unlocking-locked-in-accounts/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:49:43 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/26/unlocking-locked-in-accounts/

First remember to check for recent changes to various Pension Benefits Acts as many jurisdictions are now proposing more relaxed rules with regard to access to locked-in funds.

BUT, if you find that you still have funds that are locked in, there are a couple of strategies you can use to unlock some or all of those funds:

TWO STEP TRANSFER TO A REGULAR RRSP

lock.jpgIf you have reached the age where you can convert your LIRA or LRSP to a locked-in account that allows for withdrawals (usually 55), but you are not yet ready to retire then you may be a candidate for this strategy. You can simply elect to take the maximum permitted withdrawal from the locked-in account and then make a corresponding contribution to your RRSP account. The tax payable on the locked-in account withdrawals will be offset by the contribution to your RRSP. This will essentially unlock a portion of your locked-in account. Do this as much as you can and you will have more and more flexibility with your retirement income later on.

I call this a "two step transfer" as you cannot just transfer funds from a locked-in account directly to a regularly registered account. You have to perform the transfer in two stages: One to withdraw the funds from the locked-in account, and a second to contribute to an RRSP. 

A few caveats though: You will need to have the RRSP contribution room available to make the RRSP contributions, and you will also have to understand that you will be losing that RRSP contribution room as you use it. So if you have a large amount of RRSP contribution room available and it doesn't look like you'll be able to use it all up in your lifetime, you can use this strategy just fine. If you are maximizing your RRSP - you won't be able to do this.

SMALL PENSION VALUES MAY NOT NEED TO BE LOCKED-IN

Again, you will have to check with local legislation, but if the total value of all your locked-in accounts is below a certain limit (for example $17,480 for 2007 in Ontario) you may be able to withdraw all the money in ONE LUMP SUM once you reach 55. You will have to fill out a special form - and certainly be sure to forecast the effect on your taxes with a qualified advisor! If you have RRSP contribution room you could put it right back into an RRSP to cancel out the tax on the withdrawal. In this case, you will have completely unlocked your locked-in retirement funds.

The same warning applies as above - you will be using up RRSP contribution room so be sure that you don't unintentionally handcuff yourself by engaging the strategy and foregoing the ability to contribute to your RRSP in the future.

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475 2007-12-26 23:49:43 2007-12-27 06:49:43 open open unlocking-locked-in-accounts publish 0 0 post 0
Free Money? Consider A RRIF before age 71 to Save Tax http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/free-money-consider-a-rrif-before-age-71-to-save-tax/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:39:56 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/27/free-money-consider-a-rrif-before-age-71-to-save-tax/

Just because most people will naturally wait until the last minute to convert their RRSP account to a RRIF account (the year they turn 71), there is a good reason to consider doing it earlier - especially if you are planning any withdrawals between ages 65 and 71 (inclusive).

Money-BigStacks.jpgRecently the government announced that they had increased the pension credit from $1,000 to $2,000. This means that if you have $2,000 of pension income, you get a credit applied to your taxes. (Tax Credits are different from Tax deductions - a $2,000 tax credit will get you a savings of around $400 in tax payable depending on your province of residence.)

RRSP withdrawals do NOT qualify as pension income - but RRIF withdrawals DO QUALIFY as pension income. (Note that you must be 65 to claim the pension credit). This means that if you were withdrawing $2,000 from your RRSP from age 65 to 71, you would save an additional $2,800 (approx.) in taxes if you instead received the withdrawals in the form of RRIF income.

If you had unused RRSP contribution room - you could even offset the tax on the RRIF withdrawals by contributing them right back into an RRSP account. So in effect, you would be getting the pension credit in exchange for burning up RRSP contribution room. If you had no intention of using that RRSP contribution room otherwise, this strategy is free money.

You are able to hold a RRIF account simultaneously with an RRSP account in case you were wondering. In fact, you could even hold 100 RRIF accounts and 100 RRSP accounts at the same time if you wanted (so long as you are 71 or under)... I imagine you would feel guilty about being responsible for an entire tree's worth of account statements every month though... 

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476 2007-12-27 02:39:56 2007-12-27 09:39:56 open open free-money-consider-a-rrif-before-age-71-to-save-tax publish 0 0 post 0 998 canadianfinancialdiy@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 67.70.17.108 2007-12-30 15:57:28 2007-12-30 22:57:28 Excellent post! Learned something new - had not been aware of pension income tax credit and this useful difference between RRSP and RRIF withdrawals. Happy New Year!

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999 feedback@taxresource.ca http://blog.taxresource.ca 167.80.244.204 2009-04-23 11:50:31 2009-04-23 16:50:31 1 0 0 1000 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-23 20:19:33 2009-04-24 01:19:33 1 0 0 1001 feedback@taxresource.ca http://blog.taxresource.ca 206.53.147.238 2009-04-23 20:31:30 2009-04-24 01:31:30 1 0 0
You can Claim Unused RRSP Deductions after Age 71 too http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-can-claim-unused-rrsp-deductions-after-age-71-too/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:16:35 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/27/you-can-claim-unused-rrsp-deductions-after-age-71-too/

You may remember that you can make an RRSP contribution in a given year but carry forward the resultant RRSP deduction until a future year. This rule still applies even after you have matured your RRSP into a RRIF (or any of the other conversion options).

The RRSP deduction will reduce your taxable income in the year that you use it. So if you think that there will be a significant tax liability a few years into retirement, such as the sale of capital property that would result in a large tax bill, you could make your RRSP contributions but delay claiming the RRSP deductions until that year. In other words, you do not lose the ability claim the RRSP deductions once you mature your RRSP. 

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477 2007-12-27 06:16:35 2007-12-27 13:16:35 open open you-can-claim-unused-rrsp-deductions-after-age-71-too publish 0 0 post 0 1002 http://starttags.com/tags/rrsp-deduction 98.240.245.202 2010-03-30 11:07:16 2010-03-30 16:07:16 1 pingback 0 0
You can make Spousal RRSP Contributions after Age 71 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-can-make-spousal-rrsp-contributions-after-age-71/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:25:55 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/27/you-can-make-spousal-rrsp-contributions-after-age-71/

It is still possible to make RRSP contributions after the year in which you turn 71 - just not to your OWN RRSP. If you have a spouse or common-law partner who is younger than you, then you can contribute to a Spousal RRSP set up in their name. This allows you to claim a deduction on your tax return and reduce your tax bill.

Senior_citizens_free.jpgClick here to read about Spousal RRSP's in more detail. 

There are a few catches of course. You must have RRSP contribution room in order to make an RRSP or a Spousal RRSP contribution - and this is generally harder and harder to come by when you are over 71 as you are most likely retired by now. BUT - so long as you generate EARNED income, you generate RRSP contribution room. So, if you work as a part-time consultant and earn salary, commission, etc., then you can generate RRSP contribution room - even in retirement.

To sum it up: you can still generate RRSP contribution room after you turn 71 - you just can't use that contribution room to contribute to your own RRSP. 

The other "catch" is that your spouse or common-law partner must be 71 or younger, as the contribution must be made to their Spousal RRSP. Spousal RRSP's have to be matured by December 31st of the the year one turns 71 (just like with an individual RRSP). 

A final note: if you have unused RRSP contributions carried forward from previous years before you matured your RRSP, you can indeed also use them to make a spousal RRSP contribution after you have matured your own RRSP. The same restrictions apply as above.

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478 2007-12-27 06:25:55 2007-12-27 13:25:55 open open you-can-make-spousal-rrsp-contributions-after-age-71 publish 0 0 post 0
When Not Paying Back the Home Buyer's Plan or Lifelong Learning Plan Can Make Sense http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/when-not-paying-back-the-home-buyers-plan-or-lifelong-learning-plan-can-make-sense/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:21:38 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/27/when-not-paying-back-the-home-buyers-plan-or-lifelong-learning-plan-can-make-sense/

If you are aware of the Home Buyer's Plan or the Lifelong Learning Plan, you know that there are ways you can get money out of your RRSP (temporarily) through tax-free withdrawals. The programs require that you pay money back to your RRSP over time and the CRA will inform you of how much of the loan is required to be paid back in any given year.

housepicture.jpgThere is no rule that says you have to make the repayment - only that if you don't, then the year's required re-payment amount will be included as taxable income for that tax year. So if you are in a low income year and you have a repayment required - it might not be a bad idea to skip the payment and add the payment amount to your taxable income - it won't make a significant impact on your taxes.

So for example, if you contributed to a spousal RRSP for your spouse or common-law partner and used money for the HBP or LLP - if your spouse is a stay-at-home parent with no income - they won't pay tax on skipping the re-payments. Note that their income deemed to have been received may reduce the spousal credit if you qualify for it.

Additionally, you can make contributions to your RRSP and simply elect to not use the contributions towards the required HBP or LLP repayments IN ADDITION to not claiming the RRSP deduction. You would do this if you wanted to shelter money for long term growth NOW but wait until a higher income year in the near future to use the deduction to reduce taxes. 

As always, make sure to consult with your own qualified financial advisor before engaging in any financial strategies. 

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479 2007-12-27 07:21:38 2007-12-27 14:21:38 open open when-not-paying-back-the-home-buyers-plan-or-lifelong-learning-plan-can-make-sense publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1212500292 _edit_last 1 1003 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-27 16:22:40 2007-12-27 23:22:40 We're doing this very strategy with my wife's hbp since she is not working. There is a decrease in the spousal amount that I can claim (I can't remember how much) but it works out much better if she just claims the hbp amount owing as income.

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1004 2007-12-27 23:27:49 2007-12-28 06:27:49 Mike, I added a sentence to warn people of the reduction in spousal credit if they are eligible for it. Thanks again!

Preet

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Don't Qualify for the Lifelong Learning Plan? Who Cares... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dont-qualify-for-the-lifelong-learning-plan-who-cares/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:58:12 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/27/dont-qualify-for-the-lifelong-learning-plan-who-cares/

Mike from the Quest for Four Pillars blog commented on a post I had written about the Lifelong Learning Plan. He mentioned that if he were ever considering going back to school, he would be inclined to just withdraw the money from his RRSP since that year would probably be a lower income year and the tax hit not as bad as a "full" income year.

LearningGraduation.jpgIt is an excellent suggestion. In fact, for the LLP, you almost always have to be enrolled in a full-time capacity at a qualifying educational institution. That means it is indeed likely to be a lower income year.

Add to that:

1. You no longer have to worry about what program you take and making sure it qualifies under the LLP.
2. You don't have a set repayment schedule - you can make your repayments on your own terms, and probably in a higher tax bracket which will afford more tax refunds on your future contributions than tax paid on the withdrawal.

Perhaps this is why most people don't use the LLP... Thanks for the suggestion Mike!

Mike and Mr. Cheap run the Quest for Four Pillars blog and I suggest you visit their site to find out where the name comes from. I'm a subscriber to their site (it's free) and visit it daily. 

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480 2007-12-27 07:58:12 2007-12-27 14:58:12 open open dont-qualify-for-the-lifelong-learning-plan-who-cares publish 0 0 post 0 1005 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-27 15:27:14 2007-12-27 22:27:14 Thanks for the link and nice comments.

Another program of dubious value for adults is the RESP program which can be used for any age and starting this year, for part time studies as well. Problem is that if you are contributing as an adult, you don't get the grants so there is very limited benefit (if any).

Bottom line is that rrsps are perfectly suited for someone who has a much lower income for a relatively short period of time such as a student.

Mike

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Why are "Dollars" also called "Bucks"? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-are-dollars-also-called-bucks/ Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:54:53 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/29/why-are-dollars-also-called-bucks/

The slang "buck" or "bucks" when referring to money is so common-place that no-one really questions it's oddity. But it turns out that the word "buck" is short for "buck-skin" (from a deer). Buck-skin's were used as currency once upon a time.

MoneyUSDollars.jpgThe term "bread" has an origin from the United Kingdom. Specifically the Cockney phrase for money is "bread and honey" which was eventually truncated to just "bread". 

With regard to the $ symbol, seemingly the most popular theory as to it's origin is that it was created through the superimposition of the initials of "United States" (U and S) on top of each other. So Imagine an "S" with a "U" written right on top of it. The theory suggests that the bottom loop of the "U" was eventually lopped off to give us the more familiar "II".

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481 2007-12-29 06:54:53 2007-12-29 13:54:53 open open why-are-dollars-also-called-bucks publish 0 0 post 0 1006 bbkjbbkj@gmail.com http://dividends4life.blogspot.com/ 205.235.112.120 2008-01-04 01:22:28 2008-01-04 08:22:28 Interesting fun facts. thanks for sharing them!

Best Wishes,
D4L

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1007 jstem@trr.com 71.205.170.70 2008-07-19 16:06:49 2008-07-19 20:06:49 1 0 0
130/30 Funds Are Coming To Canada http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/13030-funds-are-coming-to-canada/ Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:21:48 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/30/13030-funds-are-coming-to-canada/

A new type of mutual fund may be entering the Canadian market in the near future. This particular type of mutual fund is known as the "130/30 Fund". Let me explain how it gets it's name:

Mutual_fund.jpgFor every $100 invested into the fund, the fund manger will invest the $100 according to an already established mandate (for example Canadian Large Cap Value). The manager will then also short $30 worth of securities (based on the most over-valued securities in his/her mandate). When you short a security, you are selling a security you don't already own (you borrow the security from inventory). The hope is that the stock will go down and then you can buy the stock at the lower price and "cover the short position". Think of it as selling high AND THEN buying low - so you make money when the stock goes down. When you open a short position, since you are selling a stock you will receive the money you sold it for from the buyer. In this case of 130/30 funds, the manager will take the proceeds from the short sale and add to his long position.

So 130 represents 130% exposure to the long position and the 30 represents the 30% exposure to the short position.

What does this mean for the investor? I don't have hard data to post (but will dig some up shortly), but all the claims of the fund companies that risk-adjusted performance should be higher seems unsubstantiated SO FAR. I have seen the performance of these funds in the States and they seem to lag the benchmarks and may be too complex for some investors.

Also it should be noted that holding a short position incurs interest costs, and increased turnover will increase brokerage transaction costs. My guess is that the management fees will also be higher...

The 130/30 fund structure will not only ask managers to pick winning stocks, it will ask them to pick losing stocks (to make money on by shorting them). Add this to two different types of leverage built in to the structure and it would seem that these funds might be worth watching for a while first. The leveraging components increase risk substantially. Make sure to seek out the advice of a professional advisor.

I will post some data and links tomorrow, so stay tuned... 

 

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482 2007-12-30 07:21:48 2007-12-30 14:21:48 open open 13030-funds-are-coming-to-canada publish 0 0 post 0 1008 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2007-12-30 13:57:38 2007-12-30 20:57:38 Oh come on! Why the financial industry introduce a complicated new product if it wasn't for the benefit of the investor? :)

Mike

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130/30 Funds' Past Performance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/13030-funds-past-performance/ Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:45:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2007/12/31/13030-funds-past-performance/

Standard and Poor's has announced that they will launch index coverage of the 130/30 Strategy. Note that this will be different from the actual universe of 130/30 funds' performance. (See yesterday's post on the 130/30 mutual fund structure for more information.) The key word is "Strategy". What the index will track is the S&P 500 as the core of the index plus a 1% overweight to 30 top stocks and a 1% underweight to 30 bottom picks. This is designed to provide a benchmark of sorts for the fund managers to try and beat.

Mutual_fund.jpgBasically, since there is no real 130/30 index they have attempted to create an index that is derived from the S&P 500 in a manner that is similar for the investment mandate of a 130/30 strategy. Their picks of the top 30/bottom 30 stocks is based on Standard and Poor's STARS stock ranking system.

Money magazine published a comparison between all 130/30 funds' performance and the "plain Jane" S&P 500 for a short period (July 19th, 2007 - October 9th, 2007) and found that the market returned 1.7% but the 130/30 funds underperformed by 2.1% for a total return of -0.4%.

For the full year ending November 9th, 2007 the S&P 500 returned 7.5% and again the 130/30 funds underperformed - this time by 1.2% for a total return of 6.3%.

ING Funds has a 130/30 fund and you can look at a Google Finance Chart here. I compared the fund's (short) performance against Vanguard Fund's Total Stock Market Exchage Traded Fund - which tracks the S&P 500. There isn't enough history to make meaningful conclusions - but so far the claims of adding Alpha are not being met (at least for ING).

I'm guessing that you can expect a absolute barrage of 130/30 fund marketing and advertising in the next few years. Personally, I'll be keeping an eye on which companies are selling them and maybe buy their stock instead!

Have a great New Year's Eve! 

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483 2007-12-31 03:45:17 2007-12-31 10:45:17 open open 13030-funds-past-performance publish 0 0 post 0 1009 ktravers@bigpond.net.au 58.174.96.143 2008-01-04 12:38:14 2008-01-04 19:38:14 Very interesting article about funds -

I just wanted to share a free video with anyone that explains a service we've been using recently to *passively* generate in excess of $100,000p.a (on top
my salary) without doing any extra work.

If you click on the free video link below it explains everything very concisely. This is the same research that private banks pay as much as pay up to $105,000
PER YEAR to access.

Here's the link:
http://www.investmentintelligence.com.au/cmd.php?Clk=2208474

Leave your email address and you will get access to an amazing video

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1010 Ren67v@yahoo.com http://link 203.172.198.181 2009-04-08 16:59:32 2009-04-08 21:59:32 1 0 0
A New Year's Resolution for 2008 if you carry high-interest debt http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-new-years-resolution-for-2008-if-you-carry-high-interest-debt/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:57:12 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/01/a-new-years-resolution-for-2008-if-you-carry-high-interest-debt/

With the New Year comes New Year's Resolutions of course!

If you are one of the many people who carry high interest debt on credit cards or department store charge cards on a regular basis - the first thing you need to realize is that you are not alone. The second thing to realize is that there is no time like the present to really get a handle on things once and for all.

EmptyPockets.jpgThere are some people who do not realize just how much money they spend in interest charges just for carrying a balance on their credit cards from month to month. And there are people who just see it as habit and don't think much of it at all. And of course there are many who would like to change the situation NOW, but don't see a viable solution due to the compromises involved.

What I can tell you is that if it were easy, you would've done it by now. So understand that it will be a task that requires serious effort and sacrifice, but the rewards will be more than worth it. The alternative is to keep running around the same vicious cycle, and if the balances keep growing - perhaps lose your mortgage and file for bankruptcy one day. You need to make a stand NOW.

Let me put it into perspective for you: If you carry a $10,000 balance on your credit card and your credit card charges 19% in interest, you are doling out $1,900 in interest per year to carry that balance. That works out to almost $160/month. Think about what $160 would pay for on monthly basis. You could take years off your mortgage, save for a healthier retirement or pay for an annual vacation.

If you have a different balance and/or interest rate take a few minutes to add up the total amount of interest you are paying across all your credit cards. It can be a sobering exercise - but well worth it as it may spur you on to take action to fix this problem. You shouldn't be carrying any high-interest debt - plain and simple.

So what can you do? Well the good news is that there are many blogs out there that have great articles educating people on credit and debt management. Perhaps a good New Year's resolution could be to find some good articles on debt management and start studying the subject. Just by constantly putting that kind of information in front of you can help to change your perception and behaviour - and hopefully speed your plans to finally rid yourself of high-interest debt.

I'm going to be writing some articles on debt-management over the course of 2008 - so you can stay tuned here too, but in the meantime... here are some sites to check out. Don't just rely on a few articles though, do some more reading and searching on the web. Many writers have the same overall themes, but some have some subtly different methods:

Article from "Get Rich Slowly"
Article from "Free Money Finance

These two articles should get you started. Happy New Year everyone! 

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484 2008-01-01 06:57:12 2008-01-01 13:57:12 open open a-new-years-resolution-for-2008-if-you-carry-high-interest-debt publish 0 0 post 0 1011 montyloree@hotmail.com http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca 24.72.130.86 2008-01-02 15:57:55 2008-01-02 22:57:55 That seems to be a common theme with personal finance bloggers.
Wouldn't it be nice if people tore up their high interest credit cards and paid cash for things!

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If it snows more than 5 inches today - many Canadians will get a free vacation! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/if-it-snows-more-than-5-inches-today-many-canadians-will-get-a-free-vacation/ Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:03:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/01/if-it-snows-more-than-5-inches-today-many-canadians-will-get-a-free-vacation/

I don't know if you were aware of the promotion a certain travel agency was running in 2007. They stated that anyone who went online between June 12th and December 7th of 2007 to book a vacation between the dates of November 1st, 2007 and April 30, 2008 would get their vacation FOR FREE if it snowed more than 5 inches where they lived on New BreakingPiggyBank.JPGYear's Day. If you win, you would still have to pay "taxes, fees and service charges" - and that usually adds up to a few hundred bucks. Nonetheless - the direct product costs would be covered - and that's better than nothing! :)

Apparently 30,000 people are potentially eligible. The official measurement will be taken from Environment Canada in four major cities. The official rules can be found here if you are interested. If each vacation averaged $1,500 and all 30,000 people got their vacations for free, then the company would be out $45 million.

But don't worry, they took out a special insurance policy that pays them $100 million dollars if it does indeed snow more than 5 inches. Good luck if you are one of the eligible contestants! 

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485 2008-01-01 18:03:27 2008-01-02 01:03:27 open open if-it-snows-more-than-5-inches-today-many-canadians-will-get-a-free-vacation publish 0 0 post 0
$100 Oil + The Higher Loonie = Gas prices still cheaper in the U.S.? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/100-oil-the-higher-loonie-gas-prices-still-cheaper-in-the-us/ Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:59:47 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/03/100-oil-the-higher-loonie-gas-prices-still-cheaper-in-the-us/

Newspaper.jpgIf your eyes and ears work, you will no doubt know that the price of Oil has been on a tear of sorts for the last few years. I just saw on the news that Oil was $15/barrel as recently as 1999 - yet we touched $100/barrel during the trading day yesterday (Wednesday, January 2nd).

But there is more to this story than meets the eye. Last year, the price of gasoline at the pumps in Canada was in the low 90 cent range when Oil was trading in the $60 range. During the past weekend, gas was around $1.05, yet Oil is 85% higher in price.

But here is what really irks me: Gas is about 85 cents a litre in the States - and has basically maintained this 20 cent/litre beneficial spread over the last 2 years, even though our Loonie has appreciated by over 20%. Check it out for yourself at GasBuddy.com  You can convert from dollars per gallon to cents per litre and you can also play with the time ranges. For a real hoot - you can overlay the price of Oil on top of that as well.

Nonetheless - the "tipping point" of high oil prices has not yet been reached - personally, I define that as when you start seeing people who commute to work in SUV's by themselves starting to carpool.

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486 2008-01-03 05:59:47 2008-01-03 12:59:47 open open 100-oil-the-higher-loonie-gas-prices-still-cheaper-in-the-us publish 0 0 post 0 1012 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-01-03 15:09:25 2008-01-03 22:09:25 Just another, you can use google calculator to do similar transactions, for instance normall you can type something like:

3 * 5

in the google search bar and google will return an answer like:

3 * 5 = 15

You can use this to do complex calculations, for instance you can say things like:

2.2 hectares in acres

you'll get back:

2.2 hectares = 5.43631839 acres

You can also go even more complex and do:

3.15 USD per gallon in CAD per liter

and get back:

3.15 (U.S. dollars per US gallon) = 0.818411472 Canadian dollars per liter

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1013 2008-01-03 15:23:55 2008-01-03 22:23:55 Thanks for the tip and Happy New Year Traciatim!

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1014 207.216.77.235 2008-01-04 06:24:14 2008-01-04 13:24:14 The rising price of oil is especially interesting if you subscribe to the "peak oil" theory. Basically the idea is that worldwide oil production has already peaked or will soon. This means shortages, spiking prices, and perhaps a prolonged global recession as we struggle to find cheap and plentiful alternatives over the next few decades (wind, solar, bio-ethanol etc don't even come close). So, worst-case scenario: stock markets take a beating like we've never seen before. But, energy sector stocks should do better, and maybe even make a killing, since energy will still be in relatively high demand as supplies dwindle.Or, would the overall slowing of the economy drag these stocks down along with everything else?

In other words, what do people think: would putting a chunk of money into energy sector ETF's be a smart hedge?

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1015 2008-01-04 18:39:25 2008-01-05 01:39:25 I spoke with the CEO of an Oil exploration company back in November who has been in the industry for 30+ years. We talked about Peak Oil and he made a very convincing argument that we are indeed AT Peak Oil now... In his words - the party is over - cheap oil is a thing of the past.

Given that almost half of the world's population is going through the growth stage that North America had decades ago - the global appetite for natural resources and infrastructure may be high for year and years to come. The ride will be bumpy though....

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2007 TSX Performance worse than you think... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2007-tsx-performance-worse-than-you-think/ Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:36:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/04/2007-tsx-performance-worse-than-you-think/

You may already know that Canada's TSX stock market is very poorly diversified. The energy, materials and financial sectors make up three-quarters of the index! Also, our Technology "sector" is basically RIM (Research in Motion) - so when an analyst says you should be overweight or underweight Technology, he's basically telling you to buy or sell RIM! :)

ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgAccording to Bloomberg, the TSX was up 7.16% for 2007 - and many are happy with the positive number even though it is not in the double digit range that we have been used to from 2003 to 2006 (inclusive). (As Financial Jungle points out in a comment on this post - the TOTAL return including dividends is approximately 9.62% as the dividend yield was approximately 2.5%)

An analysis of the point contributors to the TSX's performance for the 2007 year reveals that perhaps the Canadian market faired much worse than the headline numbers might indicate. It turns out that 72% of the market's performance can be attributed to only 3 stocks. The TSX started the year at 12,908.39 and ended at 13,833.06 for a total gain of 924.67 points. Here were the top 3 contributing stocks:

RIM - 275.02 points added to index

Potash - 260.914 points added to index

Alcan - 130.321 points added to index

And again, as FinancialJungle indicated - the dividends from the stocks in the index made up just over 25% of the total return. 

Does that change your take on the market's overall performance for 2007? 

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487 2008-01-04 06:36:17 2008-01-04 13:36:17 open open 2007-tsx-performance-worse-than-you-think publish 0 0 post 0 1016 http://www.FinancialJungle.com 216.19.187.94 2008-01-04 07:58:24 2008-01-04 14:58:24 TSX's total return is ~9.62%: 7.12% from capital gains and 2.5% from dividend yield. In other words, more than a quarter of the net gain comes from dividends alone.

Finally, I think it's only fair if the analyst removes both the top 3 as well as the bottom 3 stocks to reveal a clearer picture of how the the rest of the index did in 2007.

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1017 207.236.7.30 2008-01-04 17:59:32 2008-01-05 00:59:32 I thought you mentioned you were looking at BNS. Have you added some yet, I am starting to get interested in adding more myself.

..MG

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1018 2008-01-04 18:30:00 2008-01-05 01:30:00 Hi FJ - thanks for the additional info, I have added it to the post and included a link to your site.

MG - BNS is trading at 48.07 as I write this (yield of 3.91%). I may add some for clients between 3pm and 4pm depending on what the day's action bring from this point on since the day has been brutal so far. I'm also fine to wait until Monday too. I'm keeping an eye on volumes of bids to see where the institutions have pegged their orders - in that case I'll set my bid just a tick higher so the order gets filled first and I have an educated guess from the bid volume as to how low the stock will get to before the pro's decide to buy and stop the price from falling further.

But even if it kept falling, I'd be happy knowing I was getting almost 4% on my money since the dividend is strong and not going anywhere.

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1019 207.236.7.30 2008-01-04 19:12:50 2008-01-05 02:12:50 I'd like to get some more under $48. Let me know what you end up doing...

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1020 2008-01-04 20:50:16 2008-01-05 03:50:16 I ended up getting filled at 48.03. I also bought some more RIM at 104.33 today.

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1021 207.236.7.30 2008-01-04 21:31:37 2008-01-05 04:31:37 I held off, we'll see what next week brings...

Bank of America is also tempting me...

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1022 http://www.FinancialJungle.com 209.17.156.248 2008-01-04 22:38:08 2008-01-05 05:38:08 I like to add more to BNS and BAC too! I wished all these deals were available when I first began dividend investing. It isn't too hard to contruct a diversified 4% to 5% yield portfolio.

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1023 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 199.166.15.246 2008-01-04 23:01:58 2008-01-05 06:01:58 The negative sentiment may continue on to Monday - I think it was Peter Lynch who noted that Mondays tended to have a lot of downward pressure becuase people have the whole weekend to worry. :)

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1024 207.236.7.30 2008-01-07 18:22:53 2008-01-08 01:22:53 I doubled my position today at $47.39

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1025 2008-01-07 19:56:25 2008-01-08 02:56:25 I was thinking about you as my Reuters terminal glowed red enough to give me a (deeper) tan... :)

RIM touched $96.03 at one point, back up to $100 now.

But nice score on BNS! I would add more, but I'm at 5% of total portfolio as is - gotta stick to my investment policy - no exceptions!

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Take CPP Early? Or Late? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/take-cpp-early-or-late/ Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:12:58 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/05/take-cpp-early-or-late/

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) has a maximum monthly benefit of $884.58 for 2008 (for a 65 year old). That means that if you made the maximum annual contribution to CPP for a certain number of years, then if you were turning 65 this year and elected to take your CPP pension - you would receive this maximum amount. This works out to $10,614.96 for the year.

In addition, the monthly benefit is indexed to inflation every January - so if inflation (as measured by CPI) increases, so does your monthly benefit.

The CPP monthly benefit that you START AT is also adjusted by WHEN you elect to start receiving it. If you are under 65, you can elect to start receiving it if you are no longer working (actually, you only need not be working for 2 consecutive months, once you start getting your payments, you can go back to work - I'll write about that some other time.) Once you reach 65, you can elect to receive it even if you are working when you make the application.

For every month before your 65th birthday that you elect to begin receiving CPP you must subtract 0.5% from the monthly benefit you are entitled to receive. For every month AFTER your 65th birthday that you delay beginning to receive CPP benefits, you ADD 0.5% to the monthly benefit. These adjustments are applicable for 5 years either way - so if you elect to start taking CPP at 60 your STARTING benefit would be reduced by 30% (since this is 60 months early). If you elect to delay taking CPP until 70 (or later) your monthly benefit is 30% more (60 months late). This is essentially a one-time election since this calculation only applies to the starting benefit amount - thereafter it can only change with inflation.

Senior_citizens_free.jpgSo my question is: do you take it late to maximize your monthly benefit? That is the advice that seems to be given often. If we look at the example above, taking CPP at 60 would give you about $619/month versus $1,150/month if you wait until 70. So usually I will see advice dispensed that you should delay it if you don't need it since the benefit will be higher later.

Well, my response to this is: Just because you don't need it, does that mean you have to spend it? Can you not save it yourself? If you can arrange to take it early (stopping work for two months) and go back to work, you could contribute it all to your RRSP (tax neutral since CPP is taxable income).

This is especially significant if you have no eligible survivor who would qualify for a reduced survivor pension amount should you die. If you are single with no dependents, you may find that taking it early and saving it is a better option than waiting to take a higher amount.

Let's look at a simple, hypothetical example (we will ignore inflation for the time being):

If you took CPP early and put it in your RRSP from 60 to 70, you would be receiving $620/month for 10 years. Assuming you put it into a safe investment that yielded 4% - you would have a lump sum of $91,600 at age 70. From that point on, the interest earned on the lump sum (again assuming 4%) would be $3,664/year or $305/month. Add this to your ongoing CPP of $620 and you have $935/month.

If you had just waited to 70 to take CPP you would have $1,150/month - with NO LUMP SUM. So immediately we see that there is a "peace of mind" benefit if you take it early since you would have access to a lump sum of money in an emergency.

To really compare apples to apples, let's factor on depleting the lump sum to $0 by age 90 (a longer than normal life expectancy). In this case, the income we could generate from the lump sum amount if we deplete the capital would give us $553/month for 20 years (4% interest). Add this to $620/month from the ongoing CPP and we have a total monthly income of $1,173 if you took CPP early and saved it.

If you had confidence of achieving more than 4% on your money, then you could be even better off taking CPP early.

Even if you just put your early CPP benefits into a high interest savings account, if you died before 90 (in our example, using our made-up numbers) then additionally you would have a larger estate to transfer (or pay for your funeral) versus taking CPP late since you would have the lump sum savings. (Your CPP death benefit has a maximum of $2,500.)

 

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488 2008-01-05 14:12:58 2008-01-05 21:12:58 open open take-cpp-early-or-late publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1266373131 _edit_last 1 1026 samvatsalu@yahoo.ca 74.14.117.155 2008-01-15 18:16:02 2008-01-16 01:16:02 hi preet,

"If you took CPP early and put it in your RRSP from 60 to 70, you would be receiving $620/month for 10 years"

i assume that this client has not stopped working at 60..(he is having RRSP room year after year)...in a case where the client takes RRSP & is still working...

can you please factor in his lost free CPP money(i mean employer's CPP contribution to CPP)..if he starts taking CPP..the employer would put in no more free CPP contributions....

thanks

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1027 2008-01-15 20:41:22 2008-01-16 03:41:22 Once you start taking CPP you no longer have to worry about making contributions. You get what you get from that point.

I ignored inflation, but note that the benefit increases with inflation.

It is possible to contribute to your RRSP if you are not working as most people have quite a bit of unused RRSP room.

But in the case of someone working after they start claiming the CPP, there is no effect on the lack of further contributions to the CPP plan. Remember the benefit is determined based on what you had contributed to the plan up until the time you decide to claim it.

Does this answer your question? Or did I misinterpret?

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1028 samvatsalu@yahoo.ca 74.14.117.155 2008-01-15 21:10:58 2008-01-16 04:10:58 hi preet,
if i work after taking CPP..i undertand i don't need to contribute to CPP...but then don't i lose the free additional CPP contribution from employer..

for 2007 tax year if we assume the client still worked & had an employment income of $43,700

scenario1 - if he has already taken CPP there are no further contributions to be made either from employer or employee..

sceanrio 2- if he had deferred taking CPP..he will now
contribute $1,989.90 but will not the employer make their contribution of an additional $1,989.90 which is essentially free money...i am discussing this free money..

thanks

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1029 2008-01-15 21:30:33 2008-01-16 04:30:33 Oh I see. You should argue to your employer that since they were used to spending that $1,989.90 on the Employer's contribution that is no longer required, perhaps they can send it your way from now on. If they agree, then they experience no difference in their expenses - the destination of the money is the only thing that changes.

It is totally the call of the employer in this case.

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1030 LDykler@forefront.ca 216.106.101.109 2008-03-26 13:24:16 2008-03-26 20:24:16 Hi Preet, good blog... Re CPP early or late, if a couple decides to use available funds to live off, thereby leaving larger CPP income for later, one of them may die earlier than planned (it's always earlier than planned...), and in the meantime they have been using their own funds. The survivor then is left with only one CPP income source and survivor benefits (and possibly life insurance), which may impact the plan. Another reason for taking CPP early...
Tnx

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1031 2008-03-26 13:23:27 2008-03-26 20:23:27 Excellent point Leon - thank you for adding that! :)

Preet

(something funky is happening with my blog software, this comment is supposed to be appearing AFTER Leon's comment but for some reason it is not)

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1032 76.68.36.238 2008-04-03 02:38:01 2008-04-03 09:38:01 Two questions??
Q1.I am thinking of taking the CPP at age 60. I have just retired with a defined benefit plan. Ay 65 it will be reduced by about 800/Month which is supposed to be offset by the CPP at age 65 of the same amount. If I take the early CPP at age 60 I get approx 600 month. Should I wait till age 65?
Q2.I am working part-time now but only making 20K a year which is below the CPP maximum earnings amount. I am not sure how that reduces my CPP if I wait till 65.In other words could I end up with less than 600 month at age 65 which is what I would get at age 60 because I have stopped contributing at the YMPE level??

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1033 2008-04-03 22:08:04 2008-04-04 05:08:04 Hi Tom - thanks for your question. Please take the following as generalized food for thought as I can not make any specific recommendations to your situation based on the little information I have - and I would suggest contacting a qualified financial advisor for a personal meeting.

Q1. Essentially, you need to figure out the break-even point as to WHEN one strategy becomes more desirable than the other. In other words, sometime after you turn 65 if you had waited to take CPP and get the higher amount, the sum total of the CPP cashflows will be greater than taking the CPP at 60. That your penion decreases by 800/month is known and is constant for either choices. The next thing you need to do is figure out if you think you will live long enough to make waiting until 65 to take CPP beneficial.

Q2. You are indeed correct, you might be decreasing your CPP benefit BUT the calculation does allow you to drop up to 15% of your lower income years for the purposes of determining your benefit.

You have another option in that you can stop working for two months once you are 60 (so that you are eligible to start collecting CPP), start taking the CPP and then go back to part time work - this will give you the most amount of buffer overall. You will have your income from work, pension and CPP and you could make contributions to your RRSP to offset some taxes.

Again, make sure to see a qualified, knowledgeable advisor to help you with the projections so that you can decide on what's best for your individual situation.

Preet

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1034 99.249.100.5 2008-05-15 08:39:27 2008-05-15 15:39:27 Just wanted to point out that for a couple that BOTH qualify for a CPP pension, the maximum "survivor benefit" is the maximum CPP for one person.

As an example for a couple, if one person gets 700 CPP and the other gets 600 CPP, and one of the partners passes away, the survivor only receives a maximum of 884.58 total.

Therefore, for 2 people collecting a CPP, it is probably not a good idea to wait to collect as they BOTH have to live past 80 to gain from waiting.

Good article, as some financial planners have it totally backwards.

If a person NEEDS the CPP, they should wait until 65.

If a person DOESN'T NEED the money, the should take it and invest it.

A person can acquire a nice nest egg of cash to pass on to heirs, or to purchase items from time to time, which would save interest charges and make life easier during the years they can really use it.

Most 80 year olds, aren't trotting around the globe.

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1035 2008-05-15 16:17:17 2008-05-15 23:17:17 Thanks for the info Randy!

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1036 ldykler@forefront.ca http://www.investorsgroup.com/consult/leon.dykler/english/default.htm 216.106.103.207 2008-07-28 16:41:08 2008-07-28 20:41:08 1 0 0 1037 virulpatel@yahoo.com 76.70.4.220 2009-05-28 18:17:44 2009-05-28 23:17:44 1 0 0 1038 davecattanach@hotmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/take-cpp-early-or-late/ 99.236.205.233 2009-09-02 13:20:21 2009-09-02 18:20:21 1 0 0 1039 davecattanach@hotmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/take-cpp-early-or-late/ 99.236.205.233 2009-09-02 13:20:22 2009-09-02 18:20:22 1 0 0 1040 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-02-16 15:03:48 2010-02-16 20:03:48 1 0 0
The Henson Trust: An Important Estate Planning Tool for Families that include a Disabled Person http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-henson-trust-an-important-estate-planning-tool-for-families-that-include-a-disabled-person/ Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:56:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/05/the-henson-trust-an-important-estate-planning-tool-for-families-that-include-a-disabled-person/

Ram, the author of The Canadian Capitalist blog, recently wrote on the new RDSP program (Registered Disability Savings Plan) being offered by the government. I left a comment on the discussion mentioning that Henson Trusts are also worth looking at if you or someone you know has a family member who qualifies for Disability Support from the Government. Ram proposed that I write up a post on it, and I am dutifully obliging! :)

Here it is in a nutshell:

To qualify for Disability Support from the Government in the form of either payments or access to certain benefits (e.g. dental benefits, eye glasses, guide dog allowance, etc.) requires that you fall below certain income and asset levels. If you have too much income or too many assets, your assistance is reduced or cut-off altogether.

FlippingThroughBook.jpgIf someone closely related to the disabled person dies and leaves their estate to the disabled person, the inheritance may violate the eligibility to receive further support (since the assets/income may be too high now). A Henson Trust allows for the assets of the deceased to pass to an "Absolute Discretionary Trust", and therefore fall outside of the estate of the disabled - thereby allowing the support benefits to be maintained while still providing for the ability to increase their quality of life from the assets left to the trust.

The Origin

The name Henson trust refers to the name of the strategy as opposed to the actual type of trust you set up. The actual trust you set up is an Absolute Discretionary Trust. The name of the strategy comes from the person who first engaged it: Leonard Henson from the Guelph, Ontario area. He had set up the absolute discretionary trust for the ultimate benefit of his daughter Audra. The structure was challenged by the government, but after a number of appeals the strategy was upheld and has since been referred to as the "Henson Trust".

Some Useful Details

It is important to recognize that you must find an extremely reliable trustee (person or entity who administers the trust), because as the name implies the trustee will have absolute discretionary power over the trust. It is specifically this reason that the courts have allowed the assets in a Henson trust to NOT count towards the asset/income test for disability support eligibility. In other words, the disabled will technically not have any say in the governing of the trust. It is not uncommon to assign co-trustees in the form of a trusted family member in conjunction with a corporate trustee.

The trustees may use the funds as they wish for the benefit of the disabled person: they could pay for a trip to Europe, hire a full-time nurse, etc. But the disabled person has no right to demand money from the trustees. In fact the trust agreement or will should indicate that the trustees have the power to withhold income and capital as they see fit.

You can create a testamentary trust (which means it is created upon your death - "your last will and TESTAMENT") or you can create an inter-vivos trust (from the latin roots meaning "between" the "living"). As a general rule of thumb: Trusts are separate tax-payers in the eyes of the government, but Testamentary trusts are taxed with the same graduated tax rates of an individual while Inter Vivos trusts are generally taxed at the highest provincial and federal rates on all income. There is one additional provision allowable for inter vivos trusts when the beneficiary is a Preferred Beneficiary (by way of disability - subject to qualification) - it is possible to have income retained in the trust but taxed at the preferred beneficiary's tax rates. (You'll need to seek a qualified lawyer for clarification for your own situation and the viability of doing so.)

Final Notes

If you know of someone who has a family member who qualifies for disability support payments from the government, you may want to refer them to look into the Henson Trust strategy. They can allow for disabled persons to continue to receive vital disability support and program benefits in addition to benefiting from the estate of a deceased person - resulting in the maintenance or increase of quality of life.

You will definitely want to find a lawyer in your province to assist you though, as the structure is either challenged (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Newfoundland) or not allowed (Alberta) in a handful of provinces/territories. It IS ALLOWED in: Ontario, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI).

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489 2008-01-05 19:56:10 2008-01-06 02:56:10 open open the-henson-trust-an-important-estate-planning-tool-for-families-that-include-a-disabled-person publish 0 0 post 0 1041 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.56.90 2008-01-06 13:21:38 2008-01-06 20:21:38 Preet, this is a really interesting strategy. Do you have any more details on the challenge it had in Newfoundland? Any idea the ballpark figure it would cost for a lawyer to set up one of these trusts?

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1042 2008-01-06 23:03:47 2008-01-07 06:03:47 As far as I am aware, in Newfoundland and Labrador the trust cannot hold more than $100,000. If it does, the beneficiary becomes ineligible for government support.

The Henson trust strategy is "fragile" everywhere according to what I've read in that any change in legislation will invalidate the structure (as happened in Ablerta in 1999 when they changed the regulations).

Since you can create the trust testamentarily, you can have it written into your will - so whatever it costs you to have a will drawn up should be your cost.

Once the trust is established - you'll have the trustee fee and perhaps the accountant's fee for preparing the trust's tax return.

So as far as I know, it should be covered under the cost of drafting your will (or codicil if you are between reviews) and then maybe a few hundred bucks to maintain it. It would be better to ask a lawyer of course.

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1043 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-01-10 20:05:57 2008-01-11 03:05:57 Thanks for the mention Preet. I've included this post in my weekly roundup.

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1044 80.133.24.241 2008-02-28 20:10:12 2008-02-29 03:10:12 Sis is disabled receiving goverment supportin a private residential care facility.
Want to know how I as executor can set up an absolute discretionary trust for sis with a settlement received from an estate litigation. She is one of several beneficiaries . My father's will said for the executor to set up a trust from which sis would receive the income from all stocks in my name at the time of my death. These stocks were not in his name at the time of his death as they were held jointly with the second wife. We do want to enhance her quality of life. Can I as executor set up an absolute discretionary trust with her share of the settlement funds. I want to do this without having to go through any more long court procedures and little legal hassels. This is not in Ontario

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1045 2008-02-28 21:25:59 2008-02-29 04:25:59 Hi Patsy, something like that can only be answered by a qualified estate lawyer in your jurisdiction. Sorry I could not be of more assistance, but not only am I located in Ontario, I am not a lawyer. Again, I'm sorry that I don't have an answer for you, but I don't want to lead you astray: you need the counsel of a lawyer on this.

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1046 designsmlm@hotmail.com 99.230.195.169 2008-07-30 00:32:17 2008-07-30 04:32:17 1 0 0 1047 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-07-30 09:36:20 2008-07-30 13:36:20 1 0 0 1048 sahm@yahoo.com 142.163.249.238 2008-09-23 13:46:22 2008-09-23 17:46:22 1 0 0
I've Just Finished Writing My First Book... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ive-just-finished-writing-my-first-book/ Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:12:43 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/07/ive-just-finished-writing-my-first-book/

If you go to Amazon.com, Amazon.ca or Chapters.Indigo.ca and do a keyword search for "RRSP" you may be surprised to learn that there has not been a book solely dedicated to RRSPs for the last 4 or 5 years. Not only that, as a financial advisor it's actually quite a tedious task trying to locate one definitive source of information pertaining to RRSPs and RRSP strategies. You read about one strategy, then you have to cross-reference with CRA's rules, then you have to sift through varying opinions of different experts who may or may not agree with each other, etc.

goldcoverbigwithoutline2.jpgSo I decided to change that! :) The book is titled: "RRSPs" and contains 41 strategies for beginners to experts. It has nothing to do with investment selection, but rather how to save tax and take advantage of all the various ancillary RRSP benefits.

The book is more of a reference book than a "How to create wealth" book - so it's surely more of a dry read than something like The Wealthy Barber or The Automatic Millionaire, etc.

Perhaps the RRSP-heavy content of the past few months makes more sense: I've been using this blog to slowly write the book. The files are off to the publisher today and are awaiting final approval after I receive a proof later this week. If you are a regular reader of this site, then you will have read most of the content already. Nonetheless I will be giving away one hardcopy per month to readers of this site - starting as soon as I get the first shipment delivered!

ATTENTION ALL BLOGGERS: Contact me via email and I will provide the electronic copy of the manuscript to you now if you would like to do a review. I will also provide at least 1 free hard copy to give away to your readers (and an additional copy per 500 RSS subscribers to your blog.)

The review can be positive or negative - all criticisms and suggestions will be added to next year's edition as necessary. The book is what it is because of the discussions and debates that have taken place through commenter's remarks on this site, and from what I have learned from my fellow bloggers - and I hope you will continue to challenge and educate me in the future.

I will keep you posted on the progress of the book! 

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490 2008-01-07 19:12:43 2008-01-08 02:12:43 open open ive-just-finished-writing-my-first-book publish 0 0 post 0 1049 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.29.73 2008-01-08 01:08:46 2008-01-08 08:08:46 Excellent idea Preet, I've always found your information to be very educational, specific, and easy to understand. I hope you have success in your new venture.

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1050 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.56.90 2008-01-08 01:33:27 2008-01-08 08:33:27 Congrats Preet, I look forward to reviewing your new book!

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1051 FinancialJungleGuy@Gmail.com http://www.FinancialJungle.com 209.17.156.248 2008-01-08 03:41:53 2008-01-08 10:41:53 Exciting. If your book is anything like your blog, I'm sure it'll be a smashing success even if it's a reference book.

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1052 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2008-01-08 04:30:48 2008-01-08 11:30:48 Congrats - that was pretty fast.

Mike

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1053 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2008-01-08 18:25:48 2008-01-09 01:25:48 Congrats Preet! Your blog on this subject is well written and informative and this book will be very useful. Maybe Scotia will buy about 5,000 copies to distribute to selected clients; then it would be a 'best seller' :-)

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1054 2008-01-08 19:12:07 2008-01-09 02:12:07 Thanks for the comments guys! I have 3 more books on the to-do list (my girlfriend is going to kill me). :) I can't tell you how many late nights I've had in the last month polishing it up - it's tough falling asleep before 3am these days - I'm too used to working late... :(

The book would probably be of great benefit to financial advisors too - I have thought about aggressively marketing it to all the firms and even accountants.

There are no textbooks in the industry on RRSP's - at most they will be a chapter out of a licensing book.

It would be fantastic to have a firm buy it for their clients - but I wonder what their thoughts would be if they find out their clients know more about RRSP's than their advisors... :)

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1055 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.164.29 2008-01-09 16:54:26 2008-01-09 23:54:26 That's a pretty good idea. Specially for new immigrants in Canada. I've been learning a lot since I moved and I still have a lot to learn, but your blog has helped me :)

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Debt Rating Agencies - taking a beating... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/debt-rating-agencies-taking-a-beating/ Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:43:56 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/08/debt-rating-agencies-taking-a-beating/

With the seemingly swift onset of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown in the United States, one has to wonder exactly what the true value of debt/credit rating agencies such as DBRS (Dominion Bond Rating Service), Moody's, Standard and Poor's, etc. actually is...

Money-BigStacks.jpgIf they are experts at analyzing debt, why did the sub-prime mess come straight out of left field? I suspect the REAL answers will never truly be revealed. Invariably the whole ordeal will be dragged down to the old "he said, she said" between Wall Street and the debt rating agencies - some fines, some new regulations and a few heads rolling to appease investors.

But perhaps it is nonetheless time to look at the debt rating agencies in more detail. You might be surprised at some of these facts:

Based on pre-tax margins...

1. Moody's made more money than Microsoft or GOOGLE in the past 5 years.
2. Moody's was the third most profitable company IN THE ENTIRE S&P 500 FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS
3. Investors used to pay for subscriptions to ratings from debt rating agencies. Now, debt ISSUERS pay a fee to the rating agencies - if you could sell this structure as a drink at Starbucks it might be known as a "grande conflicto".

So, they make a PILE of money and they couldn't do what they were supposed to - and this has rattled some cages on Wall Street.

But, here is one more interesting tidbit: Do you know who the number 1 shareholder of Moody's is?

Berkshire Hathaway (aka Warren Buffett)!

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491 2008-01-08 20:43:56 2008-01-09 03:43:56 open open debt-rating-agencies-taking-a-beating publish 0 0 post 0 1056 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2008-01-10 04:54:22 2008-01-10 11:54:22 Very interesting...I had no idea they were so profitable. Obviously WB did!

Mike

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Update on "The RRSP Book"! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/update-on-the-rrsp-book/ Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:33:57 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/10/update-on-the-rrsp-book/ BookCoverThumbnail.jpgHi everyone, I've been pretty swamped this week with work relating to the book I just finished writing. I received the first physical copy (a proof) - and it is much more nicely produced than I thought it would be. :) I've had a number of bloggers take me up on getting a pdf copy ahead of time for a review (for which they will receive copies of the book for themselves and for giveaways on their own blogs.)

Thanks to all the bloggers who have offered to help out! It is much appreciated.

I still have some time to modify the book, as there are some spacing and editing fixes to be made (guess that's why they send a proof!), so I will gladly accept any comments from those who are providing reviews.

Since it will take a month (or more) to get the book listed online with Amazon.ca and Chapters.Indigo.ca, etc. I have decided to create a special website for Canadians so that they may order it ahead of time. (The publisher is U.S. domiciled, and even has a $US price on the book! You can order it from them, but it will cost $32 to get it across the border.)

Instead, I will be offering it directly to Canadians from a separate site for $25.00 (which INCLUDES all tax and delivery charges). It was pretty easy to set up the e-commerce side of the site as PayPal makes it very easy. Payments can be made through PayPal accounts or all the major credit cards.

I set up the site last night (it will take some more tweaking from here, but is almost done), and you can check it out if you like and give me some feed-back on how I could make it better: www.TheRRSPbook.com.

Don't be polite: let me know if you have any comments/criticisms about that site at all! I would appreciate it!

If there are any bloggers who would still like to get a copy of the manuscript for a review, the offer is still open. I'll send it immediately, and provide you with a hard copy when it's ready. One copy for yourself and extra copies for contests, giveaways, etc. for your site based on your readership.

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE! Your support and encouragement have been amazing! :)

Preet 

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492 2008-01-10 21:33:57 2008-01-11 04:33:57 open open update-on-the-rrsp-book publish 0 0 post 0 1057 mikael.heroux@gmail.com http://www.thefinancialblogger.com 24.202.42.211 2008-01-11 10:04:24 2008-01-11 17:04:24 Hey Preet!
Congrats on this big achievement! This must represent a lot of work. I looking forward to read it :-D

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1058 rajiverma@hotmail.com 99.234.188.199 2008-01-18 03:49:16 2008-01-18 10:49:16 One of the wonderfull financial information for Canadian’s (and that is FREE). The price of the book is nothing as compared to the value of the information for managing our hard earned money.Sometime i wonder how this guy is providing this kind of financial information free. But now i am a regular reader of his blog and appreciate the mission Mr Preet Benerge and other few honest bloggers has initiated to educate the ordinary canadians who are overlooked by the other big financial industry. I am recommending this blog"www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com" to all the people i know so that they can also become informed cosumers. Congratulations and hope you guys will keep this mission going on and on…

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1059 2008-01-18 14:46:58 2008-01-18 21:46:58 Thank so much for the kind words Rajiv! They are truly appreciated. I noticed you bought the book already - it has already shipped and you should have it very soon - hopefully by Monday.

Thanks for your support,
Preet

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The World's Cheapest Car - $2,500! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-worlds-cheapest-car-2500/ Sun, 13 Jan 2008 08:40:02 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/13/the-worlds-cheapest-car-2500/

You may have heard the buzz in the media this past week about the newest car on the market in India. It's called the Nano and is manufactured by TATA motors. For more information on the car, you can read this link from Forbes.com. It also includes a list of the world's cheapest cars. FYI: none of them are available to us. :(

tatanano.jpgNonetheless, the car (in it's most basic form) costs $2,500! No air conditioning, and not many frills at all. But consider that many families in India travel on a single scooter (Husband, wife and children!) which is not that safe or pleasant - so being able to travel in an enclosed mode of transportation for such a price can really make a difference to many families.

This is not a car guy's car obviously, but there is that eco-cool factor in that the total environmental footprint is low (materials required to manufacture and close to 50mpg). With the price of gas and consumerism the way it is, sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to trade in my current car for something plain, basic, simple and CHEAP like this!

It is interesting to note the price of commodities (i.e. steel) can change the price of this car quite easily - margins are quite low... 

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493 2008-01-13 01:40:02 2008-01-13 08:40:02 open open the-worlds-cheapest-car-2500 publish 0 0 post 0
Charitable Gifts of Life Insurance: Give more for less http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/charitable-gifts-of-life-insurance-give-more-for-less/ Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:24:16 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/14/charitable-gifts-of-life-insurance-give-more-for-less/

I routinely come across people who make regular monthly or annual contributions to various charities. They are often surprised to learn that there is a way to dramatically increase the amount of their charitable contributions to their favourite charities without costing them a dime more out their own pockets. This can be achieved through the gifting of life insurance policies.

Here's How It Works

WomanLookingAtPiggy.JPGNormally you would purchase a bare-bones permanent life insurance policy such as Term-to-100 - this allows for a set monthly (or annual) payment from now until the time you turn 100 years of age (if you make it that long!). The payment never fluctuates. The death benefit is known at the time of application, and that too never fluctuates.

The next step is to designate a charitable organization as the IRREVOCABLE beneficiary, and further to assign ownership of the policy itself to the charitable organization. You would continue to pay the premiums, but now the premiums are treated as charitable contributions which means they are eligible for the non-refundable charitable donation tax credit.

Example 

To give you a real-life example I recently provided a quote for a couple who were both 40, and they were donating $30/month to a local charity. If they both lived to 100 years of age, they would have contributed a total of $21,600 to this charity and they would have saved an additional $8,000 and change if they delayed claiming their charitable donations to once every 5 years to maximize their tax savings. Their total out of pocket cost to give $21,600 to this charity over 60 years would be roughly $13,600.

If they had instead gone with a charitable life insurance solution of roughly the same cost we found that $31.60/month would provide a $100,000 death benefit on a joint-last-to-die basis for them based on a term-to-100 policy. This means the policy would pay $100,000 to their charity once both of them had passed. They would have the same tax savings as before (well, *slightly* higher, but the cost is *slightly* higher as well) and the benefit to the charity has increased dramatically.

The one draw back for the charity is that they will have to wait for potentially a very long time before getting access to these funds as opposed to getting ongoing support right now. This might not appeal to some donors. On the other hand, if you die before then you will have made a substantial gift relatively soon.

Notes

By assigning the charity as the owner, they now have the ability to know if you decide to stop making premium payments (can't afford it or what have you). This means that the charity will receive the notice indicating payment is due to continue enforcing the policy should payments lapse. Normally the charity will continue to pay the policy premiums if the policy has been in place for some time because from their point of view the rate of return on their money will be very high from that point forward.

Alternatively, you can name your estate as beneficiary of the policy and make an equal bequest in your will to the charity. You will not generate any tax savings during your lifetime, but your estate will have a significantly higher dollar amount eligible for the charitable tax credit on your terminal return equal to the amount of the gift. 

If you are interested in these strategies, you can get an online quote from kannetix (not a sponsored link) or talk to your insurance advisor. Also be sure to consult with a qualified advisor if you have any questions. Make sure your charity is an approved and registered charity that is eligible for the charitable donation credit, too! :)

Finally, note that there are other ways to give to charity and I will explore them as well in future posts. 

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494 2008-01-14 03:24:16 2008-01-14 10:24:16 open open charitable-gifts-of-life-insurance-give-more-for-less publish 0 0 post 0
Management Fee versus MER - NOT THE SAME THING! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/management-fee-versus-mer-not-the-same-thing/ Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:34:46 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/14/management-fee-versus-mer-not-the-same-thing/ Specifically an MER (Management Expense Ratio) is made up of: Management fees paid to the mutual fund manager (this is what can be mistaken for the Management Expense Ratio) PLUS Fund administration expenses Advisor sales commissions and ongoing trailer fees Legal fees Audit fees Custodian fees Transfer agent fees Marketing and advertising expenses Goods and services tax (GST) Let me take an example from an actual Fund Prospectus. I will omit the name of the fund or the fund company, but the numbers are real. I will compare the "Management Fee" with the actual "Fund Expenses Indirectly Borne by Investor". "Fund Expenses Indirectly Borne by Investors" gives you a better approximation of the actual dollar amount of fees you would pay on every $1,000 invested if the fund earned a 5% return in that year, and the MER was the same as the previous year. This information can be found in all Mutual Fund Prospectuses. Mutual Fund "X" Management Fee listed: 1.85% Fund Expenses Indirectly Borne by Investors: $22.35 per $1,000 (=2.235% MER) So in this case, some might be under the impression that this fund has an MER of 1.85%, when in actuality it is 2.24% (rounded). Buyer beware!]]> 495 2008-01-14 23:34:46 2008-01-15 06:34:46 open open management-fee-versus-mer-not-the-same-thing publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1249417687 _edit_last 1 1060 abrahamdick@3web.com 204.40.1.129 2009-05-28 10:29:02 2009-05-28 15:29:02 1 0 0 1061 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 70.79.96.106 2009-05-28 17:02:00 2009-05-28 22:02:00 1 0 0 1062 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/free-investment-management/ 68.178.254.235 2009-08-04 15:29:23 2009-08-04 20:29:23 1 pingback 0 0 1063 antonypr@yahoo.com http://www.ourfirstmilliondollar.com 99.237.11.39 2009-09-27 11:52:25 2009-09-27 16:52:25 1 0 0 1064 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-28 14:42:34 2009-09-28 19:42:34 1 0 0 1065 gberegova@gmail.com http://mamba.ru 94.76.87.154 2010-04-23 17:07:31 2010-04-23 22:07:31 spam 0 0 1066 donotreply@wallpaperhungama.in http://www.wallpaperhungama.in 204.45.8.58 2010-04-23 17:11:53 2010-04-23 22:11:53 Bollywood Bollywood Wallpapers Bollywood Actress Aishwarya Rai Ayesha Takia Diya Mirza Neha Dhupia Nandana Sen Bipasha Basu Neetu Chandra Kim Sharma Zarine Khan Amrita Rao Aarti Chhabria Asin Celina Jaitley Deepika Padukone Geeta Basra Kareena Kapoor Katrina Kaif Sonal Chauhan Priyanka Chopra Aditi Sharma Hazel Crowney Kashmira Shah]]> spam 0 0 1067 donotreply@wallpaperhungama.in http://www.wallpaperhungama.in/ 204.45.8.58 2010-04-24 15:50:06 2010-04-24 20:50:06 Neha Dhupia Neha Dhupia Biography Neha Dhupia Filmography Neha Dhupia Photo Gallery]]> spam 0 0 Rogers Video Pay Per Day - Not working for me... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rogers-video-pay-per-day-not-working-for-me/ Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:41:46 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/16/rogers-video-pay-per-day-not-working-for-me/

I'm a serious movie buff. I mean, I really like movies - going to the movies AND renting movies. I saw I AM LEGEND twice - and it spooked me pretty good both times. The second time there was a girl rocking back and forth in her chair with her head buried in her dates' shoulder whispering, "This is wrong..." over and over again. If you were thinking of seing this movie - do try to see it in the theatres if you can... It's... an experience. :)

Bowl_Of_Popcorn.jpgBut back to my topic! Rogers Video is the local movie store we frequent and a few months ago they introduced a new Pay Per Day system where you pay $1 less for a movie rental for top new releases - but the catch is that if you don't return it the VERY NEXT DAY you get charged an extra $1 every day for a maximum of 4 days. After that time, they revert to their "No Late Fees" structure.

So if you can return it the next day - you save $1. If you return it within 2 days, you basically erase the upfront savings and end up paying the same as with a regular release. If you return it more than 2 days after you rent it, you will have lost out.

So far we are losing out. :(

Since we cannot get the movies back on time, we have decided to omit looking through the Pay Per Day selection and stick to the "less new" releases and classics. Which is actually fine by me - I have that list of AFI's Top 100 movies that I'm slowly working my way through (not that I fully agree with the list!).

Pay Per Day was introduced to keep the top new releases more widely available for customers because the whole "No Late Fees" promotions created a lot of empty shelves - and it seems to be working! Although in our case, in a slightly different way than intended...

In the spirit of movies - here is the trailer for "The Dark Knight" - sequel to Batman Begins.

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496 2008-01-16 01:41:46 2008-01-16 08:41:46 open open rogers-video-pay-per-day-not-working-for-me publish 0 0 post 0 1068 laketrout+wheredoesallmymoneygo@gmail.com 67.70.201.224 2008-01-17 23:45:20 2008-01-18 06:45:20 You might want to look into renting movies online. This article has links to the popular Canadian sites:
http://www.divine.ca/en/fun-and-entertainment/articles/c_19_i_2869/renting-dvds-online-1.html

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1069 2008-01-18 01:12:03 2008-01-18 08:12:03 Thanks Laketrout! I'll check it out...

Preet

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1070 savingforhome@gmail.com http://savingforhome.blogspot.com 141.214.17.17 2008-01-21 16:53:58 2008-01-21 23:53:58 I'm a big fan of RedBox. It's $1 per day...luckily, I'm cheap, so I return the movies the next day (or sometimes on the same day) to avoid paying more than $1!

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The RRSP Book Giveaway(s) http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rrsp-book-giveaways/ Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:21:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/18/the-rrsp-book-giveaways/

FlippingThroughBook.jpgI neglected to mention that The Canadian Capitalist wrote a review on The RRSP Book. He has also offered to raffle away 4 copies of the book through a contest he is running. All you have to do is leave a comment at the end of the review. There are 152 entries so far, so your chances are pretty good! Check it out - and while you are there you might want to consider subscribing to his RSS feed.

And earlier today, another review appeared on Quest for Four Pillars authored by "Mike" - who is one of two authors who contribute regularly to that blog. Mike is also running a contest offering to give away a copy of the book. The method of entry for their contest is the same: just leave a comment! You can enter both contests to increase your odds of winning the book. I subscribe to their RSS feed as well - another good daily read.

Of course you could just buy it and save yourself the suspense at www.theRRSPbook.com! Just kidding, try your hands at the contests first of course! :) 

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497 2008-01-18 01:21:41 2008-01-18 08:21:41 open open the-rrsp-book-giveaways publish 0 0 post 0 1071 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2008-01-18 03:05:24 2008-01-18 10:05:24 Thanks for the link and the review book. Contests are always fun especially when there is a demand for the book.

Mike

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1072 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-01-18 13:42:59 2008-01-18 20:42:59 Thanks for the plug Preet. And thanks for generously providing the copies for the giveaway. Cheers.

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1073 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.22.2 2008-01-22 04:26:53 2008-01-22 11:26:53 Looks like I'll be picking myself up a copy from the Canadian Capitalist. I'll be taking it in to work and leaving it out on my desk for everyone who stops by my desk to see. Hopefully it gets some people thinking about their finances.

Speaking of which, there is a financial industry professional (I don't know what that means, maybe they work at a pay-day loans place) coming in to my work in the next few days. I'm trying to think up some good questions but my finances are pretty simple. If anyone sees this, you should post a question so I can maybe ask something intelligent. It's unfortunate that I don't know the position of the person coming.

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1074 2008-01-22 15:40:37 2008-01-22 22:40:37 Hey Traciatim! Congratulations on getting the book! And thanks for any promotion of it at work. Maybe I should ask the readers of this blog if they want to become distributors. I get a discount on the books if I order them myself and then can just pass on the savings to the distributors. I think if there was enough interest I could sell them in bulk for $15 to the distributors who could sell them for $20 (still a discount) and they could make $5 a book...

Hmmm.. maybe I'll write a post to guage interest in such a plan...

If I can sell 5,000 copies, it will be a regional bestseller, and 10,000 qualifies as national bestseller. That would raise the cachet of the book for major distribution...

Uh, oh - there goes the rest of the day: brainstorming instead of working... :)

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$5,000 to Children in Canada who Don't Smoke Throughout Highschool... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/5000-to-children-in-canada-who-dont-smoke-throughout-highschool/ Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:47:13 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/19/5000-to-children-in-canada-who-dont-smoke-throughout-highschool/

*Note: Do you own due diligence, and the opinions expressed in this piece are for informational and entertainment purposes only. The math has not been verified by an outside source and it is possible that my calculations are completely wrong.* 

QuestionMark.jpgI heard on the radio yesterday that there was a new Canadian charity (The R.E.W.A.R.D.S. Foundation) which has been set up that promises to pay kids $5,000 upon graduating from high school if they remain smoke-free. Upon hearing about this new initiative, my reaction was, "Hey, that's a great idea! Free Money!". While the website indicated that they are looking for sponsors to foot the bills entirely, in the meantime the program users have to find sponsors who will commit to making donations to the foundation while the student is enrolled. So it is not as great as I initially thought.

There are some conditions however, and after doing some digging I made a note of some points that I think need to be addressed before a program like this really takes off. Students can only enroll when they are in Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. Based on which grade they are in when they enrol, they have a different amount of sponsor contributions they have to bring in to the program (from the time of enrollment until graduation):

Grade 5: 4 sponsors required contributing $15/month ($60/month total)
Grade 6: 4 sponsors required contributing $20/month ($80/month total)
Grade 7: 4 sponsors required contributing $25/month ($100/month total)
Grade 8: 4 sponsors required contributing $30/month ($120/month total)

Immediately I grabbed my financial calculator to see what kind of interest rates were required to get $5,000 at graduation. What follows are the interest rates required for each enrolment period, assuming that you enrolled at the beginning of those years:

Grade 5: -3.58%
Grade 6: -8.76%
Grade 7: -12.72%
Grade 8: -15.20%

Just in case I lost my ability to use a financial calculator, I decided that an acid test would be to just take the donor contribution amounts required and see what happened if you stuck them under a mattress (or in other words, made 0% on the contributions):

Grade 5: $60/month x 12 months x 8 years @ 0% interest = $5,760
Grade 6: $80/month x 12 months x 7 years @ 0% interest = $6,720
Grade 7: $100/month x 12 months x 6 years @ 0% interest = $7,200
Grade 8: $120/month x 12 months x 5 years @ 0% interest = $7,200

Wow. Okay, according to the rules you are considered to be in your grade until June 30th, so to take full advantage I suppose you could enrol on June 29th of the last year of Grade 8 and you will only have to be in the program for 4 years, in which case:

Grade 8 (end of year): $120/month x 12 months x 4 years @ 0% interest = $5,760.

Now let's factor in the fact that the contributions to the program are considered charitable contributions. You don't save that much tax on the first $200 of charitable donations you make, so many people will elect to carry forward the claiming of charitable contributions. Assuming the highest tax bracket, and assuming that you've made other charitable contributions such that all funds going into this program are given the greatest tax break would mean that the rates of return on the donations are pretty good on your money when you factor the tax savings.

BUT after looking through the foundation's website, I have more questions that need addressing:

1. Why the negative return on the money contributed? How expensive is it to run this foundation?
2. The website mentions that the funds are held in a separately managed trust, under the care of a highly credible management firm - doesn't give the name.
3. The website states that all their accounting will be handled by a highly credible accounting firm, but no name is given for the accountants either.
4. The website states that their financial statements are posted for all to see. There are no links that I found and the charity was established in 2002 from what I can tell.

They also mention that their trust will operate with an assumption of a long term rate of return of 4%. They also would like to have 100,000 children enrolled in the next few months. Based on this we can roughly project the administrative costs (if we assume the surplus is used to cover these expenses).

I won't get too detailed, so I will assume that all 100,000 students enrolled start at the beginning of Grade 7, therefore they are responsible for bringing in $100/month for 6 years in order to claim their $5,000 upon graduation. So based on a 4% rate of return that the trust expect to achieve, in 6 years time the trust will have accumulated a total of $814,933,056. If all 100,000 students graduate, having been smoke free for the entire program, the trust would have to payout $500,000,000. That leaves $314,933,056 for administrative expenses and program costs. Perhaps there will be a point when the interest earned in the trust will negate the need for signing up donors?

Additionally, it doesn't say so specifically, but it seems that if a student drops out of the program all the donor's funds are not refunded - which is fine - I have no problem with that. Suffice it to say, there will not be a 100% success rate, so there will be even more money available in the trust than the $300,000,000 or so calculated.

As you can see, there are some questions that need to be addressed. I'm pretty sure my math is correct, but feel free to offer up your own calculations and let me know if I'm the one who is out in left field here. Helping kids stay smoke free is a noble cause, but I don't know if this is the proper way to go about it. I think there needs to be more disclosure and some tweaks to the program before it would be something I would sign up for.

Here is the link to the website so that you can do your own digging: www.my5k.ca

Check it out, and I actually hope that you can show me that I've made some incorrect assumptions or conclusions so that we can all set the record straight.

I would very much appreciate your comments on this post everyone. 

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498 2008-01-19 19:47:13 2008-01-20 02:47:13 open open 5000-to-children-in-canada-who-dont-smoke-throughout-highschool publish 0 0 post 0 1075 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2008-09-22 11:08:59 2008-09-22 15:08:59 1 0 0 1076 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-22 12:38:32 2008-09-22 16:38:32 1 0 0 1077 raythemoneyman@yahoo.com http://rays-stock-world.blogspot.com 70.171.206.148 2008-10-25 18:08:19 2008-10-25 22:08:19 1 0 0 1078 pathutchinson40@hotmail.com 75.156.88.73 2008-12-09 14:04:06 2008-12-09 19:04:06 1 0 0 1079 vcfs@squarechair.net 24.66.47.74 2009-02-04 18:23:11 2009-02-04 23:23:11 1 0 0 1080 gleclerc@telus.net 198.166.35.111 2009-07-06 12:59:34 2009-07-06 17:59:34 1 0 0
TSX Drops 600 points in one day and I'm not worried http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/tsx-drops-600-points-in-one-day-and-im-not-worried/ Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:02:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/21/tsx-drops-600-points-in-one-day-and-im-not-worried/

The TSX dropped 604.99 points today for a percentage loss of 4.75%. If this kind of movement has caused you to second guess your asset allocation you're probably not alone. Which brings me to the real point of today's post. It's not to try and show off my nerves of steel, but rather to point out a personal belief that most people over-estimate their risk tolerances.

EmptyPockets.jpgI'll put forth that my premise for saying this is simply because if you had your risk tolerance nailed down before the market volatility hit, you would not be considering making any changes to your asset allocation going forward if you rely on a financial advisor and/or take a passive approach to long-term investing.

I think the problem with getting the right asset allocation is that sometimes people try to emulate a "model investor" when they are setting things up (perhaps by taking a risk tolerance questionnaire). Couple that to the fact that the market conditions at the time of set up probably skew your answers too, and you can see that perhaps there isn't enough attention devoted to the act and process of determining one's asset allocation (or the review of it over time).

And just as you might be thinking, "I should've been more exposed to fixed income", the opposite thought will be true when markets are back on a bull run - you might be thinking that you should've been more exposed to equities... alas, hindsight is 20/20 as always.

If there are any brave souls out there willing to comment (feel free to be anonymous), perhaps you can let us know how much time you spent figuring out the asset allocation of your portfolio when you first set it up? (Please use the "comment" link at the bottom of this post - thanks!)

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499 2008-01-21 23:02:01 2008-01-22 06:02:01 open open tsx-drops-600-points-in-one-day-and-im-not-worried publish 0 0 post 0 1081 76.64.110.90 2008-01-21 23:49:29 2008-01-22 06:49:29 I didn't put a whole lot of time into my current allocation - I looked at the MoneySense "couch potato" allocation, said "that's too much fixed income for me", and reduced it to a level I felt comfortable with, then allocated the rest, emphasizing Canadian equities (slightly) over US and International (individually). Total time? Maybe 5 minutes.

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1082 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.22.2 2008-01-22 03:04:00 2008-01-22 10:04:00 At first I didn't put much thought in to anything at all. I just signed up for the RRSP plan through work and set picked my own set of funds rather than using their 'life plan' allocations. There wasn't much choice in their plan at all. At the time (since the goal was saving for a house) I was a little easy on the equities. I still did end up losing a bit in the March/April range last year just before my house closed. Looking back once the decision was made to actually use the funds, I should have moved everything out of equities. If I remember correctly my withdrawals happened right in the dips in March '07 when the TSX was in the high 12800's or so. Grand scheme, I'm in a house and my kids love it way more than the 680 sq foot apartment (now 1150 sq foot house with a yard and a basement).

Now that I'm going for retirement in 37 years I'm 100% in equities in the RRSP. It's taken a hit lateley, but I don't even remember my logins to check. I have it fairly even in a Canadian, US, International mix that I like. I'll check it in a few years.

For my sons RESP I have a similar mix. He is 3, I'm using TD E-Funds. I actually used todays drop to move my contributions (which go in to a money market fund) in to the E series Canadian Index, the E series US Index (Canadian Dollar) and the E Series International Index. Is it a smart move? Maybe not . . . I'll know in 2009 . . . but I have about 15-17 years to recover. When he turns 10 I plan to start easing off slowly each year, but until then it's full steam ahead.

After my spouse is back to a full time income rather than school and building her business I think I'll switch the RRSP over to income based investments and go for gains and dividends outside to be a little more tax efficient. I'd really like to get ahead of my finances and eventually have equal incomes from investments and my work. That way, if either one fails I just fall back on the other. I dream of the day my plan becomes a reality.

As for the question of how much time? I'm not sure, if you spend all the time I spend reading about personal finance, then days. If you just take the time actually figuring out what I think is best and implementing it then I would say a couple hours.

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1083 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.231.244.235 2008-01-22 04:48:33 2008-01-22 11:48:33 Wow, Traciatim - you need a blog!

I have put way too much time into my asset allocation but I have to admit that the market decline doesn't bother me at all - in fact I am drooling at the buying opps!

Mike

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1084 2008-01-22 15:33:56 2008-01-22 22:33:56 Thanks for the comments guys, I think the bloggers and members of the personal finance blogosphere will certainly skew the results - but that is a testament to the value of self-education.

For the other 99% of the population, I think 10 minutes is the average amount of time spent on asset allocation.

Traciatim - I agree, you should start a blog - or maybe you would like access to this blog through a few guest posts perhaps? To see if you like it? :) Let me know!

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1085 207.35.182.164 2008-01-22 17:02:20 2008-01-23 00:02:20 I have been patiently waiting in cash since mid last year and will wait another half year or so. Retirement savings are dollar cost averaged -- I don't get to see these, so I don't care.

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1086 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.170.63 2008-01-22 18:03:24 2008-01-23 01:03:24 As I'm new here I'm still learning the best option for me. First, I'm reading a lot of blogs about PF. Yesterday I made my first investing - I bought a book - Stop Working. Here's how you can - from Derek Foster and I'd say I've read more than a 100 pages in one night. That's how I feel excited :) I also have a house.

I have is my RRSP and I contribute with an amount from my salary bi-weekly. I also buy stocks from my company as they match 50% at the end of the year. I can see the price is coming down, but I didn't change anything. IMHO, I really don't know if it is a good or a bad thing.

That's why I'm still learning. Hopefully, I'm doing right.

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1087 CanadianRetiredGuy@GMail.com 74.13.50.46 2008-01-24 07:30:54 2008-01-24 14:30:54 I'm retired and have spent almost two years out of the market, building a home, while owning a second one, using all available capital to float that exercise. I sold the original home in May, 2007 and slowly got back into the market. I spent a long time working on the asset allocation as I will have little to no money to add to the pot.

I subsequently read where John Bogle says that anyone who can't imagine a 20% drop in the markets shouldn't invest in stocks, So I took my numbers and worked a 20% drop into them and then a 30% drop just "for fun". It was gut wrenching to see the numbers, but confirmed my asset allocation was right for me. I was away last week and watched each day from Tuesday though Friday while I lost 2.5% per day. Then Monday and Tuesday happened. I'm bruised but not broken.

One interesting thing was seeing a 600 point drop on Monday followed by a 500 point recovery on Tueday. If one were to have slept through Monday, one would see a 100 point drop Tueday from Friday and wouldn't be terribly concerned.

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1088 2008-01-24 15:20:23 2008-01-24 22:20:23 Good point - as of the time that I write this, the TSX over 1 week is actually ahead.

On January 17th, we closed at 12,795.63
Today (24th, @ 10:11am) we are at 12,876.53

Short term abberations are standard, and no one can figure them out. If you are a long term investor, they shouldn't matter.

I remember reading somewhere that during the crash of Black Monday when the markets lost around 20%, Warren Buffett was playing bridge at the time, and when informed of the market action, just kept on playing. I don't know if that is a true story or not since I heard/read it many, many years ago, but sounds like him, doesn't it? :)

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Analysts have a tough job http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/analysts-have-a-tough-job/ Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:23:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/23/analysts-have-a-tough-job/

I studied neuroscience in university and I was supposed to be a bio-tech stock analyst when I first got into the financial industry - but as I was studying for the preliminary exams I found myself more attracted to the financial planning aspects of finance. I'm pretty happy in retrospect that I picked financial planning... I like the direct contact with retail investors.

SqueezingMoney.JPGAnalysts have a tough job. They are putting forth the views they have based on the information available to them - and I'm sure they do a much, much better job at that than I could ever do. But the problem then, must be that they do not have all the correct information in front of them, right? I'm not doubting their intelligence and powers of deductive reasoning - just pointing out a logical argument.

A case in point, here are some predictions from the same analyst (some consider him to be a maverick, and some consider him to be a star)...

December 11th, 2007: Predicts the TSX will hit 16,200 by the end of 2008.

January 22nd, 2008: Predicts the TSX will hit 11,000 by the middle of 2008, and then rebound to 13,000 by the end of 2008.

I'd also like to point out that six months ago, I don't recall anyone calling for a U.S. recession. So what does this mean? Remember to take any financial forecasts with a grain of salt - information changes all the time. Analysts dissect what is available to them, but no-one knows what new information can crop up all of a sudden. If you are a long term investor - don't let the headlines rattle you - no one can predict the short term movements with any real degree of accuracy. The next time you see a doom and gloom report, just remember: it could very well be wrong.

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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500 2008-01-23 01:23:50 2008-01-23 08:23:50 open open analysts-have-a-tough-job publish 0 0 post 0
The Toronto Maple Leafs are Hockey's Most Valuable Team at $413 Million http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-toronto-maple-leafs-are-hockeys-most-valuable-team-at-413-million/ Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:50:59 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/24/the-toronto-maple-leafs-are-hockeys-most-valuable-team-at-413-million/

Ah yes, the business of sports is a whacky one. Athlete salaries are reaching new highs every year as are the brands of the teams themselves. The Toronto Maple Leafs are hockey's most valuable team according to Forbes magazine. (This clearly has nothing to do with how well the team is performing.)

Here is a list of the the most valuable teams of different sports:

7. US Auto Racing - Roush Fenway NASCAR Team - $316 Million
6. Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs - $413 Million
5. Basketball - New York Knicks - $608 Million
4. Baseball - New York Yankees - $1.2 Billion
3. World Football - Manchester United - $1.4 Billion
2. American Football - Dallas Cowboys - $1.5 Billion
1. World Auto Racing - Ferrari Formula One Team $3 Billion

I was in the auto racing industry in my prior life, and am still passionate about racing. For anyone who is interested, I've included a neat video that tries to determine what is faster: An F1 car, a super-bike or a power boat. If you'll note the attention to detail and quirks of the F1 car, you may nonetheless still gasp to learn that the budget of some Formula 1 teams is nearing $500 Million per year!

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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501 2008-01-24 01:50:59 2008-01-24 08:50:59 open open the-toronto-maple-leafs-are-hockeys-most-valuable-team-at-413-million publish 0 0 post 0
Money Movie Giveaways! Win a free DVD! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/money-movie-giveaways-win-a-free-dvd/ Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:55:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/24/money-movie-giveaways-win-a-free-dvd/

I mentioned that I would be running some exciting promotions on this blog and here is the first! I'm going to be giving away a DVD Movie about Money every two months - and the movies were all featured on the Forbes list of "Top Movies about Money".

1. Wall Street
2. Boiler RoomWallStreetCover.jpg
3. Casino
4. Trading Places
5. Glengarry Glen Ross
6. Ocean's Eleven (The original from 1960)

Every two months I will be running a give-away and picking a winner at random and they will have their pick of one of the above listed movies. Once a winner picks a movie, it will be removed from the list. So the first winner will have their pick of any of the above listed movies. If he/she picks Wall Street (for example), then March's winner will have their choice of the 5 remaining titles, etc. I will announce winners at the end of January, March, May, July, September, and November - for a total of 6 winners.

To enter this month's contest, you just have to leave a comment on this post before midnight, January 31st, 2008 - so basically a week from today. You can also enter by having bought a copy of the RRSP book from the secure website. If you buy a book, you are automatically entered for all the contests, and you can still add an extra entry by leaving a comment on the appropriate posts. (Those who have already bought books are automatically eligible).

Thanks and Good Luck everyone!

The contest is open to everyone, but for delivery locations outside of Canada, the recipient is responsbile for shipping charges. Comments on this post will not earn an entry for March's contest - so make sure to leave a comment for each month's contest in order to enter.

p.s. The sequel to 'Wall Street' is either in production, or about to get under way and is titled 'Money Never Sleeps'. Michael Douglas is reprising his role as Gordon Gecko! 

Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance.
If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed.

If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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502 2008-01-24 15:55:10 2008-01-24 22:55:10 open open money-movie-giveaways-win-a-free-dvd publish 0 0 post 0 1089 quicklunarcop@gmail.com 192.197.178.2 2008-01-24 17:21:59 2008-01-25 00:21:59 Not only do I love your blog, but also all those movies. Great promotion!

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1090 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-01-24 17:36:56 2008-01-25 00:36:56 Count me in! Thanks Preet!

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1091 brigusnf@rogers.com 209.47.33.228 2008-01-24 18:07:44 2008-01-25 01:07:44 Count me in.

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1092 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.84.132.181 2008-01-24 18:43:30 2008-01-25 01:43:30 Cool. Didn't know about the sequel, thanks.

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1093 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 192.223.163.6 2008-01-24 19:01:23 2008-01-25 02:01:23 Count me in!

I want Wall Street.

Mike

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1094 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-01-24 20:48:45 2008-01-25 03:48:45 Stick me on that list, I love watching movies.

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1095 petercinat@hotmail.com 199.246.40.54 2008-01-24 22:15:55 2008-01-25 05:15:55 Movies are good. Money movies are great. Please count me in. Thanks!!

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1096 jez.stefan@gmail.com 66.131.121.75 2008-01-25 00:45:24 2008-01-25 07:45:24 I'm in!

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1 0 0
1097 randy.flynn@gmail.com 142.167.179.2 2008-01-25 01:47:07 2008-01-25 08:47:07 Sign me up please.

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1 0 0
1098 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.49.224 2008-01-25 03:37:45 2008-01-25 10:37:45 I'm in too.

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1099 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 99.234.37.20 2008-01-25 04:05:25 2008-01-25 11:05:25 I'm in :)
By the way I sent you an e-mail regarding your book this week.

Thanks

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1100 gayowski@hotmail.com 74.15.48.107 2008-01-25 12:26:19 2008-01-25 19:26:19 Great promo Preet. They should have you play the role of Gecko's new whiz kid.

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1101 abcstocks@gmail.com 76.69.68.118 2008-01-25 14:08:58 2008-01-25 21:08:58 Hi Preet,

Please sign me in.

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1102 pcollyer@rgers.com 99.244.194.104 2008-01-25 14:53:24 2008-01-25 21:53:24 What a great promotion, thanks and count me in.

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1103 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-01-25 19:18:09 2008-01-26 02:18:09 Check out the quote on the film case,

"GREED IS GOOD".

And I thought greed was a deadly sin?

Video does look cool, hence I'd still like to enter.

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1104 dcm970@hotmail.com 99.230.179.240 2008-01-25 23:37:27 2008-01-26 06:37:27 Although Glengary Glen Ross is one of my favourite films of all time and my fav Money film, that list of giveaway films is great.

Count me in.

PS... Does second place get a set of steak knives? LOL

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1 0 0
1105 szto@sympatico.ca 70.54.21.166 2008-01-27 03:21:47 2008-01-27 10:21:47 sign me up!

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1106 dawger911@gmail.com http://investing911.blogspot.com 142.162.68.168 2008-01-27 23:53:31 2008-01-28 06:53:31 I really liked Boiler Room. Stocks and gambing all in one ;)

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1107 paul@kupuk.com http://kupuk.com 99.231.191.116 2008-01-28 03:21:59 2008-01-28 10:21:59 This is a great idea. I luv the money movies!

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1 0 0
1108 142.213.183.5 2008-01-30 13:27:34 2008-01-30 20:27:34 Pick me! pick me!!!

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1 0 0
1109 72.138.22.239 2008-01-30 15:54:55 2008-01-30 22:54:55 "Lunch is for wimps!"

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1110 dianaroy@hotmail.com 76.65.201.244 2008-01-30 19:14:40 2008-01-31 02:14:40 Cool. Count me in too!

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1111 nblakley@dualinnovations.com 24.64.223.204 2008-01-31 14:32:32 2008-01-31 21:32:32 Great promotion. Please count me in!

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1112 yasser211@hotmail.com 74.14.146.8 2008-01-31 20:41:43 2008-02-01 03:41:43 Count me in!

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1 0 0
1113 mh00033@hotmail.com 74.14.146.8 2008-01-31 20:44:40 2008-02-01 03:44:40 Great work Preet. Please sign me up.

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1114 michael_kirkwood@hotmail.com 99.236.152.89 2008-01-31 23:44:26 2008-02-01 06:44:26 If I crumple my post in just the right manner, does that make it more likely to get picked?

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1115 agedvd@gmail.com http://www.agedvd.com 122.169.243.143 2008-02-04 09:48:38 2008-02-04 16:48:38 DVD disks are fairly brittle. Using internet, to enjoy your online download full dvd movies, dvd recorder software releases, online dvd video games.

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1116 win@ilovefreefilms.com http://www.ilovefreefilms.com 99.251.216.34 2008-02-11 18:38:35 2008-02-12 01:38:35 Hey I like the contest idea its similar to another one i saw...they are giving away a free dvd every day so now i have two chances to win movies lol

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1117 andrewsymonds19@yahoo.com http://www.widecircles.com 210.211.217.243 2008-06-04 03:26:24 2008-06-04 07:26:24 http://www.widecircles.com]]> 1 0 0 1118 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-06-09 08:00:53 2008-06-09 12:00:53 1 0 0 1119 nbdhirwani@aol.com 117.196.1.69 2008-07-17 15:49:35 2008-07-17 19:49:35 1 0 0
Are you saving comfortably? Maybe it's time to up the ante... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/are-you-saving-comfortably-maybe-its-time-to-up-the-ante/ Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:06:16 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/28/are-you-saving-comfortably-maybe-its-time-to-up-the-ante/

Usually when the new year rolls around, I will suggest to my clients who are saving through PAC plans (Pre-Authorized Contributions) to increase their regular contributions by a set percentage (usually by inflation if not more). The main reason is that they have normally gotten used to their regular savings activities, and while there may have been some "teething" problems at the beginning, maybe now it is not "cramping their style" anymore.

WomanLookingAtPiggy.JPGFor example, let's say someone set up a $100/month savings plan at the beginning of 2007. Come the New Year, I would ask them if they would like to try saving $110/month for a few months. The next year, we might increase to $121/month (a 10% increase over 2008), and so on. These baby steps are much easier to adjust to and over time it can make a big difference to one's retirement planning.

For example, let's look at someone who saves $100/month starting at age 18 until age 65, assuming a 7% rate of return (no tax calculations for simplicity). At retirement they will have amassed $409,739.

If they had increased their monthly contributions by 3% every January 1st ($100.00, $103.00, $106.09, $109.27, etc), then with not much extra "pain" they would have amassed $623,332 at age 65. This is a difference of over $200,000.

So you can see, even a small change can make a big difference. If you are saving through automatic contributions, why not try increasing those contributions by a few percent? You can always switch back if it is too much of a stretch, but if you can handle it - you'll be that much closer to retirement! 

NOTE: Don't forget to enter this month's Money Movie Giveaway! Click here for your chance to enter the contest. You can win a free DVD copy of Wall Street, Boiler Room, Casino and more! 

Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance.
If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed.

If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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503 2008-01-28 02:06:16 2008-01-28 09:06:16 open open are-you-saving-comfortably-maybe-its-time-to-up-the-ante publish 0 0 post 0 1120 lifelockblog@gmail.com http://lifelockpromocode.com/ 121.97.202.91 2008-01-28 06:32:47 2008-01-28 13:32:47 Good day,

I am Monalyn from Philippines. Your blog inspires me, you wrote meaningful topics and many readers were glad reading the content of your blog.

By the way, have you heard about identity theft? It is one of the common problems of the society. I have short content about identity theft and this is a good topic for your readers to be aware while surfing the world wide web. If it is okay, I would like to post a brief content about Identity fraud /theft into your blog, this content is just simple but has a great meaning for all of us.

I would be happy if you'll do. More power for your blog, and may it continue in getting popular.
Please response through my email address. Thank you very much.

Life Lock
http://lifelockpromocode.com/

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1121 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com/ 216.197.155.107 2008-01-28 16:28:31 2008-01-28 23:28:31 That's a great way to look at things. I would try to find out exactly how much I can live with (at least up to the RRSP contribution limit) as soon as possible, but some people might want to take it slower. As long as they're making increasing payments they're doing well!

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1122 samvatsalu@yahoo.ca 76.64.53.45 2008-01-28 17:43:32 2008-01-29 00:43:32 hi preet,
as usual a simple but powerful message from you..
just a small insignificant observation..

in the illustration where you increase by 10% the sequence was 100 ..110 ...121

but while the increase is 3 % it is
100....103..106...109 etc..should it not have been

100...103....106.09.....109.27..etc..

thanks

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1123 2008-01-28 18:13:03 2008-01-29 01:13:03 Yes, you are correct - I just rounded for simplicity's sake, but will amend to make it more clear. Thanks.

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1124 michael_kirkwood@hotmail.com 167.92.122.10 2008-01-28 23:02:08 2008-01-29 06:02:08 Great example.
I use up most of my RRSP/RPP room via payroll deduction at a fixed percentage of my salary so it increases with my pay rate.

I also do the pre-authorized withdrawal for my church, automatically deducting peoples offerings once a month. I'd love to see them ask for "COLA adjustments" to their tithes as well, however it doesn't quite happen that often.

That being said, once you have the flat rate per year down pat for savings (or charitable donations), an even greater stretch would be to increase your percentage each year.

Say this year I earn 40k and contribute 6% to savings (200 per month). Say I get a raise to 44k, then if I didn't change my savings rate I would now contribute 220 per month. However if I stepped my savings rate up a notch as well, to say 7%, I'd now contribute 256.67 per month.

Its really a psychological exercise but small, seemingly insignificant changes, can make a huge difference in the long haul. Consider making these chagnes on both your savings and your givings, and you'd be suprised the impact it can makk.

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Build Your Own Principal Protected Notes http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/build-your-own-principal-protected-notes/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:24:56 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/29/build-your-own-principal-protected-notes/ // *An intermediate level topic today. Principal Protected Notes have many critics - mostly because of the fees and all the clauses that seem to favour the issuer as opposed to the investor. For those who are not familiar with Principal Protected Notes (PPNs), essentially they are investments that will guarantee your principal investment for a set number of years, while at the same time allowing for the participation in the gains of riskier investments (if they make money). So on the surface, it would seem that you are getting the best of both worlds. You are guaranteed not to lose money as long as you hold your investment for a set period of time (normally around 5-7 years), and if the "linked" investment (like the broad Canadian index, or a foreign market index, etc.) makes money, then you make money too. There are many tradeoffs however. A GIC would outperform the PPN if the markets go down since all that is guaranteed is your original investment. Often, if the linked market goes up too much, there is a clause that allows the issuer to collapse the structure and only give you a fraction of the gains you could otherwise have earned. The "linked" markets generally have very little chance of losing money over any 7 year rolling period, so you might be paying for nothing. On top of all of that, there are the fees. Nonetheless, PPNs sell like hot cakes because they can look attractive to novice (or jittery) investors. You can create your own PPN by doing the following: For every $1 you want to invest you could find a Government of Canada AAA strip bond for 89 cents that matures at $1.00 in 3 years. With the left over 11 cents, you could purchase LEAPs (Long-term Equity AnticiPation Securities). A LEAP is basically a long term option - they can last for 3 years before expiring. The 89 cent strip bond that matures in 3 years is basically giving you a 4% return on your money. Since it matures at $1.00 this is in effect your principal guarantee. Even if the LEAP expires worthless, you will have your original $1 back from the strip bond. But, let's say you bought WIU on the Montreal Stock Exchange - this is a LEAP on the S&P/TSX 60 Index. If this LEAP is in the money after three years (above the strike price) then you will have your $1 from the strip bond PLUS the value of the LEAP at the end of 3 years. Let's say the LEAP has tripled in value to 33 cents (not always the case). Now your original $1 has grown to $1.33 in three years (a cumulative return of 33%, and an annualized return of 9.97%) and you had guaranteed your principal the entire time. If your investment amounts are large, your fees (on a percentage basis) are lower. You also don't have any clauses that collapse the structure on you - so you can participate in any positive performance of the underlying equity investment for as long as YOU want. If you wanted to collapse the structure, you get the market rates for the strip bond and the LEAP - both of which are liquid. (Many PPN secondary markets are provided by the issuers only.) I used the example of strip bonds for simplicity's sake. Note that transaction costs don't reach economies of scale until you are dealing with larger investments (as usual), so this normally won't work as well if you are trying to do this with $10,000. Please consult with your own qualified financial advisor before contemplating or engaging in a strategy like this.]]> 504 2008-01-29 02:24:56 2008-01-29 09:24:56 open open build-your-own-principal-protected-notes publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1260410922 1125 74.59.93.236 2008-02-06 13:17:36 2008-02-06 20:17:36 Great post. I noticed that the National Bank of Canada is offering an 8 year PPN linked to an index of 20 very specific stocks. Unless they buy back the PPN, they commit to a return equal to the return of that index. How do they do it with LEAPS...Are they rolling over the LEAPs to make it through 8 years.

What if the index does not go up high enough to cover the cost of the LEAPS...How do they deliver a marginal index return in that case..? Do you think they use their own mortage business to protect the note, instead of a CoG strip bond.

Many questions, I know.. Thanks

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1126 2008-02-06 14:51:04 2008-02-06 21:51:04 Hi Eric - I'm not sure how they actually construct the notes themselves, but I don't believe they use LEAPS or regular call options. I think that they may actually underwrite the risk themselves and make money on most notes and perhaps lose money on some. Perhaps the fees serve as the insurance premiums? If there are any financial engineers out there that would like to comment, please feel to do so (and you can do it anonymously if you like).

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1127 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/book-review-stop-working-too-you-still-can/ 216.227.218.225 2009-12-09 18:32:16 2009-12-09 23:32:16 1 pingback 0 0
The RRSP Book Gets National Press http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rrsp-book-gets-national-press/ Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:34:38 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/30/the-rrsp-book-gets-national-press/

BookCoverThumbnail.jpgI was quite surprised to see that Tuesday's National Post included a 3/4 page article on yours truly! I had a great chat with Jonathan Chevreau after he agreed to take a look at the RRSP book. You can read the article that appeared in the paper here. (I say 'surprised' because I didn't think it would be such a lengthy article.)

Mr. Chevreau even posted a follow up article on his blog, The Wealthy Boomer. You can read the follow up by clicking here. You'll note that there was a fair bit of coverage on some of the products I use (or don't use). I had some phone calls with mutual fund providers and ETF manufacturers today as a result - slightly different conversations though. :)

If you would like to order your own copy of The RRSP Book - click here to visit the secure website for purchase

*Don't forget, only one more day to enter the Money Movie Giveaway! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on the contest post and you are entered to win a free DVD. Click here to read the rules and enter for your chance to win. 

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  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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505 2008-01-30 02:34:38 2008-01-30 09:34:38 open open the-rrsp-book-gets-national-press publish 0 0 post 0 1128 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.116.10 2008-01-30 16:06:11 2008-01-30 23:06:11 That's an interesting interview. Congratulations!

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1129 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-01-30 17:28:44 2008-01-31 00:28:44 Hi Preet: Congratulations on the nice writeup. Cheers!

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1130 2008-01-30 20:01:42 2008-01-31 03:01:42 Thanks guys!

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1131 abcstocks@gmail.com 76.69.66.91 2008-01-30 21:10:14 2008-01-31 04:10:14 Preet, Congratulations for getting space on National Post. I feel more proud to see a fellow Indo-Canadian getting noticed for his knowledge and contribution.

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1132 FinancialJungleGuy@Gmail.com http://www.FinancialJungle.com 209.17.156.248 2008-02-01 03:10:07 2008-02-01 10:10:07 Well done, Preet!

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Selecting a Financial Planner http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/selecting-a-financial-planner/ Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:54:48 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/01/31/selecting-a-financial-planner/ Here is the original question: "I'm in young family mode, and have always known I'm leaving money on the table by not dedicating myself to my finances more. (tax planning, investments, retirement and now estate planning) I have RRSPs but no non-registered accounts. I, like many I suspect, am good (enough) at my day job, but don't have the energy (nor do I really enjoy) making sure my finances, insurance, budget etc. are all aligned with my needs, risk appetite and long term goals.... All this is a long way of asking: How would you recommend arming oneself with enough info to do a good job of selecting a financial advisor to work with? I've crossed paths with some professionals in the past, where I've ended up being in the "Is this what I'm paying you for? I can do this myself" mentality. (Finding mistakes on my professionally done tax return, for example). I suspect I know the answer to this already but how would you recommend going about this? Referrals seem to work best, but for whatever reason, my acquaintances seem to be in the same boat. (Or don't want to pay anyone for assistance). " My final answer is probably not what the reader wants to hear (I think they are knowingly in denial, however), but I think it is the best advice I can give: You simply cannot download the responsibility of your financial affairs to anyone else completely. Just as the other aspects of your life generally require work and effort on your part (raising children, studying, working, exercising, dieting, time management, chores, relationships, etc.) so do your finances. That might mean really taking some serious time to interview a number of advisors on your own, developing a collaborative relationship with one of them (by collaborative, I mean you are actively involved with the advisor and use them more as a resource to help present you with options such that you are ultimately making the decisions instead of being sold a strategy or product), and also relying on unbiased third party sources of information to keep yourself up to date. People achieve varying amounts of success (or failure) with their health goals and desires based in large part to how dedicated they are, and how seriously they approach these goals and desires. No pain, no gain unfortunately and the same relationship probably holds true with your finances. I have some ideas and questions I would like to ask the readers of this blog - so that perhaps we can help out this particular reader and others in the future. 1. Should I actually create a questionnaire or test for investors to take to their financial advisors (or prospective financial advisors) to see how well they score on various aspects of advising/planning/disclosures/etc? 2. Should I offer to call any of his/her prospective advisors on the reader's behalf and interview them on the phone, and then provide my direct assessment to the reader? (That would require you thinking that I know what I'm talking about though) 3. Any other suggestions or references you guys can point to would be welcomed in the comments section. Note that I don't have any experience finding a financial advisor/planner since I AM one (which also means anything written here has to be taken with a grain of salt because I am structurally biased), but perhaps those who feel they have a good relationship with their advisor could chime in as well with their thoughts.]]> 506 2008-01-31 02:54:48 2008-01-31 09:54:48 open open selecting-a-financial-planner publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1216041242 _edit_last 1 1133 CanadianRetiredGuy@GMail.com 74.13.50.46 2008-01-31 15:33:55 2008-01-31 22:33:55 It has been said that no one cares as much about your money as you do. The trouble might be that some folks simply don't really care enough about their money to work to have the basic understanding necessary.

I have yet to find a planner. I was too cheap when I had limited assets. When my assets grew I watched (actually didn't watch) them as they soared during the dot-com bubble and then fell like a stone.

I read more and more as my assets were now significant. The problem then was finding an advisor who (1) cared about my portfolio as opposed to his business (2) wasn't trying to have me sell everything and buy what he sold and (3) knew more than I now did.

I am in the process of writing a Financial Plan for where I am today and will then contact a few of the fee-only planners to have them give me their thoughts. I am sure I have made mistakes -- but this is a narrowing process where you are aiming for perfection -- but will never get there.

One thing I keep in mind is that fully 50% of the planners are worse than average and 50% of all investments are worse than average. With a little work one can choose from the pool of better than average advisors and better than average investments aiming for the never to be obtained perfection.

Perfection is nice, but better than average is acceptable and will out-perform the bottom half every time.

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1134 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2008-01-31 15:55:40 2008-01-31 22:55:40 Acknowledging what CanadianRetiredGuy says is true, there are also people out there who don't have a clue and sadly, don't want one. They just want to have someone look after their money who won't screw them. There are many excellent and easy to read personal finance books available to help a person create their own financial plan, and the couch potato portfolio featured on Moneysense to execute the investment portion of the plan. As Preet says, you can't totally abdicate your responsibility for this. So, even if you don't want to get a clue, you're going to have to suck it up & make some effort.

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1135 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-01-31 18:28:36 2008-02-01 01:28:36 Mmm, good question. I've stuggled in the past with thinking about seeing an advisor. I've known a couple of them personally in the past, yet I never seem to get it together enough to go see one.

Perhaps it's ego. I think I can do myself and I'm not sure paying someone to tell me to do something will help all that much.

In the end, I think it comes down to what CanadianRetiredGuy said "No one cares about your money as much as you do". I care, so I don't want to leave it to someone else. Perhaps some day I will see one for a second opinion, but I don't think I'm there yet.

Tim

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1136 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-01-31 19:06:47 2008-02-01 02:06:47 Good answers.

I would avoid the checklists. People use to come in and interview me off check lists you could find on the internet. It is like going to a job interview with canned questions- both sides know the answers the other side wants to hear and when you do a checklist type of meeting, it stunts personal interaction and a bad advisor/planner could just give you the answers you want to hear rather than digging down and getting to what they can do for you.

I would suggest asking any professional for 3 references of clients and one of those clients has to have been a client for at least 5 years to get a fair sample size. Anyone can fluke out and have 1-2 great years.

I put my advisor on annual goals and what I will and will not invest in (no wrap funds, no PPN's etc.)- it keeps me in line when I ask him about something not on plan and it keeps him focused. Plus, in the litigious environment we live in, once you give direct instructions in writing to a professional, they take notice (this gets back to your point about being responsible for your own financial destiny).

This may be subject to some debate as well but I deliberately chose a younger advisor- the book isn't big enough to make him indifferent to your needs. I am in my 30's so a younger advisor can relate to me more. Don't get me wrong- my advisor isn't 19 or something but sometimes finding someone who is approximately in the same life cycle as you helps quite a bit.

Those are suggestions off the top of my head.

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1137 johnn@bioware.com 204.50.199.4 2008-02-05 19:47:08 2008-02-06 02:47:08 I'm in the same boat - starting to take finances seriously and am thinking of getting a financial advisor.

My intended first step is to take advantage of several of the free review meetings offered to me by my bank, my credit union, my employer, and my wife's employer. I hope to pick up on some of the lingo, and learn how plans and planners might differ.

After that, I would prefer to read a good financial planning book or three so I can, as suggested, tap my planner as a resource while still maintaining control and keeping informed.

I've heard the Wealthy Barber is a good place to start. Any other reading recommendations?

Cheers.

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1138 2008-02-05 20:11:17 2008-02-06 03:11:17 That's a good place to start (The Wealthy Barber) - certainly many other Canadians would seem to agree! You could always wait for my financial planning book to be released... but that might be a year from now - I'm sure it won't take you that long to read the Barber... :)

I'm a big fan of "Richest Man in Babylon" it can be read in a day, but it hammers home the philosophy of financial planning at it's very fundamental levels. Author: George S. Clayson, originally published in 1926 I believe...

If anyone else has some favourites, feel free to chime in...

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1139 nancy@yourmoneybydesign.com http://www.nancyzimmerman.com 24.86.193.233 2008-02-06 06:45:28 2008-02-06 13:45:28 I completely agree -- it's all too easy to divest ourselves of responsibility and figure our f.p. is taking care of it all. I've talked to dozens and dozens of people who are generally confused about their investments, and slightly resentful towards their f.p. but too intimidated to bring it up, because they don't feel like they know the investment world well.
So, I would say high on the checklist should be, "does this person use everyday language so that I generally really 'get' what's going on with my investments?" or do my eyes glaze over?
If it's the former, the likelihood of an informed, empowered and trusting relationship being forged increases exponentially.

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1140 johnn@roleplayingtips.com 204.50.199.4 2008-02-06 19:04:33 2008-02-07 02:04:33 Preet, I see lots of books by Gordon Pape on the shelf all the time. Is he a worthwhile source to read?

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1141 2008-02-06 19:08:57 2008-02-07 02:08:57 I agree with a lot of what he writes, but there are some things I disagree with as well. I'm basing this on what I have read on-line, I have never read any of his books.

With any books that you read, it doesn't hurt to get other opinions as well. Better to have read the views from different perspectives on the same material I think - eventually you will be able to make up your own mind as to what is best for YOU.

Sorry I couldn't provide a more specific answer, but as I have not read any of his books, I am unqualified to really give any other answer... Sorry! :(

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1142 financetaxes5@gmail.com http://www.aboutpersonalfinance.info/ 121.246.163.233 2008-02-13 10:25:11 2008-02-13 17:25:11 I completely agree as i'm starting to take finances seriously and am thinking of a proper flanning planning. I would prefer to read a good financial planning book or three so I can, I came to know that the Wealthy Barber is a good place to start. Any other references?..

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1143 2008-02-13 15:26:46 2008-02-13 22:26:46 I've always been a big fan of "The Richest Man in Bablyon" - a quick read and it gives you the philosophy behind financial planning. There are tonnes of books out there, most of which I have not read - so I can't make any recommendations other than that.

I'll be writing one of my own in the next 2 years though... :) I'll certainly recommend that one when the time comes.

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1144 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/07/13/finding-a-financial-advisor-part-1 64.111.114.14 2008-07-20 22:23:20 2008-07-21 02:23:20 1 pingback 0 0 1145 cdxvxasfada@gmail.com 121.97.230.191 2009-01-10 04:50:26 2009-01-10 09:50:26 faxless payday loans .]]> 1 0 0 1146 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/finding-a-financial-advisor-part-1/ 75.119.202.206 2009-05-13 14:41:56 2009-05-13 19:41:56 1 pingback 0 0
Charitable Donations Tax Credit http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/charitable-donations-tax-credit/ Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:16:26 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/03/charitable-donations-tax-credit/

You might have figured out by now that the Government incentivizes behaviour with tax treatment. In other words, if they want to encourage something they will reduce taxes associated with that behaviour (like saving for retirement). If they want to discourage something they might apply extra taxes (sin taxes like on cigarettes).

MoneyIntoPiggyBank.jpgWell, giving to charity is something that they would like to encourage so they provide a special Charitable Donation Tax Credit which can help to reduce your tax bill. The first $200 dollars receives a tax credit which is basically equivalent to the lowest combined marginal tax bracket in your province. Every dollar above that limit will generate a credit which is basically equivalent to the highest combined tax bracket for your province. There is a limit as to how much you can claim which is 75% of your net income for a given year except in the year of your death and the year before your death in which case it is 100% of your net income.

Frugal Trader from The Million Dollar Journey has a great summary of the Charitable Donation Tax Credits by province for both contributions under $200 and over. Click here to see his post on the subject and his neat and tidy chart.

If we look at Ontario, we will see that the first $200 donated will generate a 21.55% tax credit, or $200 x 21.55% = a tax savings of $43.10. The NEXT $200 would generate a tax credit of 46.41%, or $200 x 46.41% = a tax savings of $92.82. I only used the example of the next $200 to show the commensurate tax savings over the first $200 - you could donate much more than that if you want of course! :)

The donation must be made to a registered Canadian charity OR a qualified Donee - you can click here to CRA's list of qualified donees and search through the database of registered charities. 

The Charitable Donations Tax Credit can be claimed by either spouse, and it can also be carried forward for the following five tax years. We'll explore some basic strategies to take advantage of these rules in the next post, and as a prelude to a long series on charitable giving strategies that I'm writing for a charity to help them with fundraising. 

 

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526 2008-03-03 20:16:26 2008-03-04 03:16:26 open open charitable-donations-tax-credit publish 0 0 post 0
Claim Charitable Donations On Only One Spouse's Tax Return http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/claim-charitable-donations-on-only-one-spouses-tax-return/ Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:15:34 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/04/claim-charitable-donations-on-only-one-spouses-tax-return/

The CRA allows you to pool together the charitable donations you and your spouse make and claim them on one tax return if you so desire. This is desirable since it would increase the tax savings for the household overall.

calculatorandmoney.JPGFor example, let's assume that a married couple John and Mary (living in Ontario) both make eligible charitable contributions of $200 to registered Canadian charities for the 2007 tax year. If they were to each claim the donations on their respective tax returns they would each generate a tax savings of $43.10 each for a total household savings of $86.20. If they were to instead claim the charitable donations on only one of their returns they would generate a total tax savings of $135.92. This is because the first $200 generates a non-refundable tax-credit equivalent to the lowest marginal tax bracket in your province and any amount over $200 generates a credit based on the highest marginal tax bracket in your province.

Let's do the math:

Scenario 1 - Each spouse donates $200 to charity and claims this on their respective returns

John claims $200 which earns a credit of $200 x 21.55% = $43.10 tax credit
Mary claims $200 which earns a credit of $200 x 21.55% = $43.10 tax credit

Total household credits earned = $43.10 + $43.10 = $86.20 

Scenario 2 - Each spouse donates $200 to charity and they claim $400 on only one tax return

John claims all $400 on his return.
Therefore the first $200 earns a credit of 21.55% which equals: $200 x 21.55% = $43.10.
The second $200 earns a credit of 46.41% which equals: $200 x 46.41% = $92.82

Total household credits earned = $135.92

Total tax savings = $49.72

Summary

You want to avoid getting credited at the low rate for the first $200 twice by only claiming charitable donations on one spouse's return. Note that a tax credit reduces your tax owing dollar for dollar no matter your marginal tax bracket.  So if you have earned $135.92 in tax credits as above, then you will reduce your taxes payable by that much. Since the Charitable Donation Tax Credit is a non-refundable tax credit, you will want to make sure that the person's return you are claiming the credit on has a tax liability of at least that much - otherwise you will be wasting some of the credit needlessly.

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527 2008-03-04 22:15:34 2008-03-05 05:15:34 open open claim-charitable-donations-on-only-one-spouses-tax-return publish 0 0 post 0
You Can Carry Forward Charitable Donations for 5 Years http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-can-carry-forward-charitable-donations-for-5-years/ Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:07:42 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/05/you-can-carry-forward-charitable-donations-for-5-years/

If you made a charitable donation to a registered Canadian charity (or other qualified donee) in the 2007 calendar year, you may claim it on your 2007 tax return OR you may defer claiming the donation on your tax return until one of the following 5 tax years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012 in this case).

Cashpicture.JPGThis is advantageous if you want to avoid the lower credit for donations up to the first $200 every year. For example, let's assume that our donor Rajiv makes charitable contributions of $200 per year and is domiciled in Ontario.

Scenario 1: Rajiv claims the donations every year

Every year Rajiv would claim $200 on his tax return and would receive a tax credit equal to the donation amount multiplied by the lowest marginal tax bracket for Ontario of 21.55%. Therefore, $200 x 21.55% = $43.10 in tax savings per year. If we multiply this out for 6 years, his total tax savings on $1200 of charitable contributions is $258.60.

Scenario 2: Rajiv carries forward the donations every other year

In this case, Rajiv carries forward the donations as long as possible. This means he claims 6 years worth of contributions in one year's tax return. The first $200 earns a credit of 21.55%, or $43.10. The next $1000 earns a tax credit of 46.41%, or $464.10. If we add it all up, his total tax savings is $507.20.

By carrying forward the donations, Rajiv was able to save $248.60. This is more than one year's worth of donations in his case. You can see that the common theme of avoiding the lower tax credit amount on the first $200 of donations can again be accomplished through spacing out when you claim your contributions.

Carrying forward deductions may not always make sense

If your charitable donations are high, carrying forward your contributions might not be advantageous since the most you can save in tax is $49.72 per year (Ontario). This becomes less significant when the total amount of your donations increase. In this case, while you may be missing out on $49.72 in tax savings for a given year, the total tax credit you earn per year may be higher and could potentially be re-invested and earn significantly more than this amount.

For example let's assume Rajiv contributes $10,000 per year. If he claims his donations every year, he will generate $4,591.28 in tax savings every year (or $9,182.56 over two years). If he waited to claim his donations every other year he would earn $9,232.28 in tax savings every other year. You can see that the savings are: $9,232.28 - $9,182.56 = $49.72. BUT, if he re-invested the tax savings of $4,591.28 when he claimed his donations every year, and assuming he used a 4% GIC, he would earn $183.65 in interest. (Even when that interest is taxed at his marginal rate, he is still ahead.)

So you can see, it makes more sense to carry forward claiming your donations when your annual donations are smaller. But once they get over $1000 per year, you'll probably want to look at claiming them every year regardless. 

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528 2008-03-05 19:07:42 2008-03-06 02:07:42 open open you-can-carry-forward-charitable-donations-for-5-years publish 0 0 post 0
No Hype: The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/no-hype-the-straight-goods-on-investing-your-money/ Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:13:05 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/06/no-hype-the-straight-goods-on-investing-your-money/

NoHype_Cover_107.jpgI had the pleasure of being contacted by self-published author Gail Bebee who recently launched the book 'No Hype Investing: The Straight Goods On Investing Your Money'. We sat down for a coffee yesterday and chatted about our experiences with self-publishing. I have yet to read the copy she provided for me so I can't offer up a review just yet, but there have been many reviews published on the internet so far and they have all been predominantly favourable. I'll provide links to the reviews so that you can read for yourself, and the very last link will be to Gail's website where you can purchase the book if you so choose:

Reviews:

Jonathan Chevreau (National Post)

Larry MacDonald (Canadian Business Online)

Canadian Capitalist (A blog I read regularly)

Canadian Financial DIY (Another blog I read regularly) 

The Author's Website:

www.nohypeinvesting.com

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529 2008-03-06 03:13:05 2008-03-06 10:13:05 open open no-hype-the-straight-goods-on-investing-your-money publish 0 0 post 0
Breaking News: RESP Contributions To Become Tax Deductible? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breaking-news-resp-contributions-to-become-tax-deductible/ Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:16:36 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/07/breaking-news-resp-contributions-to-become-tax-deductible/

Thanks to reader Nicolas for providing a gentle nudge to write a post on a private members' bill that was passed last night that would allow Canadians to deduct contributions to RESP plans (Registered Education Savings Plans). The bill (which is not final), proposes that contributions up to $5,000 per year (and up to a lifetime maximum of $50,000) be deductible from the contributor's income.

babyeinstein.JPGI have not found anything that indicates whether the CESG (Canadian Education Savings Grant) would still be awarded but my guess is that since there is stiff opposition to this bill (from the Conservative Party), the grant would be eliminated. Fingers crossed for both though! :)

For an Ontarian in the highest tax bracket, an annual $5,000 contribution to an RESP would yield  $2,320.50 in tax savings. Also, this program could be of benefit to older Canadians as it would provide an incentive to go back to school. Currently, the CESG is not available for adult Canadians themselves (only children), but you can actually set up an RESP for yourself now if you want to take advantage of the tax sheltering. If RESP contributions become tax deductible, then this opens up some new possible planning strategies and renders the RRSP Lifelong Learning Plan all but obsolete.

You can read more on this story through the following links:

Globe and Mail
Ottawa Citizen/National Post
Dan McTeague's Website (The MP who put forth the bill)

 

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530 2008-03-07 03:16:36 2008-03-07 10:16:36 open open breaking-news-resp-contributions-to-become-tax-deductible publish 0 0 post 0 1147 nicolas.lutz@alumni.uottawa.ca 74.56.41.160 2008-03-07 04:09:27 2008-03-07 11:09:27 Thanks for the mention.

Canadian Capitalist also got this one out on his blog. It seems to have flown under a lot of news websites. Perhaps we'll hear more of it tomorrow.

I say we all call our MPs and tell them what we think.

But one thing still remains. If passed, the next question is: will be will it be applied?

Nicolas

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1148 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.1.168 2008-03-07 11:29:18 2008-03-07 18:29:18 I wonder if this happens will the deduction be above line 236 on the T1 forms making the line 236 affected by the change. This would mean that the GST cheque and the baby bonus would then be changed as well. This means people can get guaranteed returns by reducing their income rather than relying on investments for people in the lower income ranges.

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1149 2008-03-07 15:45:34 2008-03-07 22:45:34 Good point Traciatim - there are many details that would need to be ironed out (or disseminated), including what affects this will have on the CESG.

Higher income Canadians will benefit most, and this might not be equitable, and a source of debate.

This will be an interesting story to watch from many angles...

I agree with you Nicolas - if we want our voices heard, we need to call our MP's. Every little bit helps.

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1150 monokini1@ukr.net http://kupalniki.my-php.net 193.111.115.224 2010-04-24 02:31:38 2010-04-24 07:31:38 монокини либо даже суперсоблазнительным бикини на популярных курортах вы уже никого не удивите. Модные дизайнеры и крупные марки делают ставки для сложносочиненные модели. Бал правят асимметричные вырезы, разрезы, запутанные переплетения лямок и тесемок. fashion-экспериментов оценят модели с зигзагообразным силуэтом: полоска лифа, диагональ ткани через жизнь и миниатюрные трусики с заниженной талией. Это форменный хит сезона! Когда же строгость геометрических линий вам не ужасно близка, выбирайте модели с драпировками, рюшами, завязками-лентами сиречь даже бахромой . Они отыщутся в коллекциях практически всех уважающих себя колготки. Ведь всетаки эти «лишние» детали быть правильном подборе помогут скорректировать недостатки фигуры. Драпировки по низу помогут спрятать животик, а рюши либо бахрома для бюстгальтере зрительно увеличат грудь. Целомудренное ретро Чистый и в прошлом сезоне, дизайнеры ищут влияние в моде 40–60-х годов. А тутто девушки не позволяли себе напрасно обнажаться. Итак уже другой сезон преемственно актуальны ретромодели с очень целомудренным силуэтом: высокие трусики, лифы с широкими бретельками, закрытая спина и живот. Подобные модели помогут вам видеться сильно элегантно и утонченно.]]> spam 0 0
Corporations Get a Deduction for Charitable Donations, Not a Credit http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/corporations-get-a-deduction-for-charitable-donations-not-a-credit/ Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:02:44 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/07/corporations-get-a-deduction-for-charitable-donations-not-a-credit/

Some of the biggest sources of charitable donations come from corporations. While a donation made by an individual receives a tax credit, a donation made by a corporation receives an income deduction. Tax credits are different from tax deductions.

Let's explain the difference by looking at a few examples. 

Tax Deduction

QuestionMark.jpgLet's assume we have an individual who has a marginal tax rate of 40%. If they had a $100 tax deduction, this means they can write off $100 from their income. They would normally have paid $40 in tax on that $100 of income. By having written down their income by $100, they conversely have saved $40 of tax in this case.

The value of tax deductions vary according to your marginal tax rate - so they are more valuable to higher income earners.

Tax Credit

If this same person has a $100 tax credit, this translates directly into a $100 tax savings. So you can see that $1 of tax credit is worth more than $1 of tax deduction. But note that a $100 charitable donation does not earn a $100 tax credit. Rather credits are earned according to a prescribed formula. With donations for an individual up to $200 the tax credits are earned at the rate of 21.55% (Ontario). Therefore, a $100 donation would earn $21.55 in tax savings. (Note that over the $200 threshold, tax credits on charitable donations are earned at the rate of 46.41% or $46.41 per $100).

The value of tax credits do not vary with your marginal tax rate and you earn the same tax savings no matter what tax bracket you are in. The charitable donation tax credit is a non-refundable tax credit - which means the credit you earn can only serve to reduce any tax owing - after that point, they are worthless.

A tax credit that IS refundable, can not only reduce your tax liability owing, but also generate a payment to you once it has eliminated your taxes payable for the year.

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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531 2008-03-07 20:02:44 2008-03-08 03:02:44 open open corporations-get-a-deduction-for-charitable-donations-not-a-credit publish 0 0 post 0 1151 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-03-07 21:53:06 2008-03-08 04:53:06 Great post! I actually have a post on the same topic in the que. :)

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1152 2008-03-07 22:18:18 2008-03-08 05:18:18 Thanks FT - have a good weekend!

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Receiving an "Advantage" Reduces Your Eligible Charitable Contribution http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/receiving-an-advantage-reduces-your-eligible-charitable-contribution/ Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:12:11 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/08/receiving-an-advantage-reduces-your-eligible-charitable-contribution/

FlippingThroughBook.jpgWhen you make a donation to certain charitable organizations, it is possible that your entire contribution will not be eligible for the Charitable Donation Tax Credit. This is because you must subtract the value of any "advantage" you receive from the organization in return for your donation.

For example, if you made a $500 contribution to a charitable organization and in turn they provided you with tickets to an event that were worth $100, the "advantage" you received was $100. Therefore, the amount of your donation that is eligible for the charitable donation tax credit is $500 - $100 = $400.

The good news is that you don't have to keep track of this yourself as the tax receipt provided to you by the charity will indicate the amount of the advantage and the eligible amount of your donation that you can claim. 

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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532 2008-03-08 04:12:11 2008-03-08 11:12:11 open open receiving-an-advantage-reduces-your-eligible-charitable-contribution publish 0 0 post 0
Public Foundations versus Private Foundations http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/public-foundations-versus-private-foundations/ Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:23:45 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/10/public-foundations-versus-private-foundations/

There are three types of designations registered charities may hold:

1. Charitable Organization
2. Private Foundation
3. Public Foundation

piggybankstetho.JPGCharitable Organizations

A charitable organization generally engages in charitable activities. An example of this would be a hospital.

Private Foundations

A private foundation can carry out charitable activities, but it normally gives funds to another registered charity (or other qualified donee). The foundation will be classified as Private if more than 50% of its board of directors or trustees deal with each other in a NON arm's length manner (meaning there are close ties) OR if more than 50% of the money donated comes from people who are not dealing at arm's length with each other. Many private foundations are single family foundations.

Public Foundations

A public foundation gives more than 50% of its annual income to other charities (or other qualified donees), although it can also carry out its own charitable activities. Contrary to private foundations, more than 50% of the board of directors or trustees must deal at arm's length (meaning there are less close ties between members). It will usually receive funds from a number of arm's length sources as well. An example of a public foundation cited by the CRA would be a hospital foundation which engages in fundraising activities which generate funds that are then given to the charitable organizations (the hospitals themselves).

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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533 2008-03-10 03:23:45 2008-03-10 10:23:45 open open public-foundations-versus-private-foundations publish 0 0 post 0
You Can Claim Donations to U.S. Charities in Certain Cases http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-can-claim-donations-to-us-charities-in-certain-cases/ Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:03:21 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/11/you-can-claim-donations-to-us-charities-in-certain-cases/

MagnifyingGlassOnPrint.jpgNormally if you want to claim a donation to charity and have that donation eligible for the charitable donation tax credit as an individual, the donation needs to be made to a registered Canadian charity or other qualified donee. However, there are a few exceptions in which you can receive tax advantages for donations made to U.S. charities.

If you live and primarily work in Canada you can claim donations made to U.S. charities if that type of donation is recognized as a charitable donation in the United States and only to the extent that the donation represents no more than 75% of your U.S. income. So in other words, it would only be of use to you if you had income originating in the United States.

If you live in Canada and work primarily in the United States (and most of your income is earned in the United States), than you will be able to claim charitable donations made to U.S. charities up to 75% of your total world income. So if you earned 60% of your income in the United States, you could still contribute up to 75% of your total world-wide income to U.S. charities and receive tax advantages.

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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534 2008-03-11 02:03:21 2008-03-11 09:03:21 open open you-can-claim-donations-to-us-charities-in-certain-cases publish 0 0 post 0
Charitable Bequests in Your Will http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/charitable-bequests-in-your-will/ Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:41:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/12/charitable-bequests-in-your-will/

You can make a charitable bequest in your will - which means that the charity of your choice will receive your charitable donation upon your death similar to how the other beneficiaries in your will receive their inheritances. Normally, a donation can only generate a credit for your taxes up to 75% of your income for the year - but an exception arises when a charitable bequest is made upon your death - in this case, you are allowed to make a donation equivalent to 100% of your net income in the year of death. Additionally, if it is advantageous to do so, you can also carry back donations to the immediately preceding tax year and claim a donation of up to 100% of your net income for that year as well. (Your personal representative will have to amend your prior tax returns if you had already filed the last year's return.)

MonthlyBudgetPicture.jpgSo for example let's assume our investor Andreas earns $100,000 per year and dies half way through his final year. Let's assume that he has a $150,000 bequest made to charity upon his death. He will be able to claim a donation to charity of $50,000 on his terminal return and carry back the additional $100,000 to the year prior. He will have completely offset all income tax paid for the last two calendar years which might free up $40,000 in tax savings that could additionally go to either charity or any other beneficiaries.

Note that it is possible to donate more than the 75% or 100% limits described above - you just won't generate any tax credits for doing so. We will address some planning strategies around this in an upcoming post. 

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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535 2008-03-12 03:41:01 2008-03-12 10:41:01 open open charitable-bequests-in-your-will publish 0 0 post 0
Help Me Name This Post! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/help-me-name-this-post/ Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:05:29 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/12/help-me-name-this-post/

Most other personal finance blogs that I follow have a weekly post dedicated to linking to other blogs that contain articles they think might be of interest to others. Up until now, I haven't really had a regimented weekly post doing such a thing - and the reason is stupid: I don't have a fancy title for such a weekly post!

Bear witness:

Writing-fortaxwriteoff.jpgThe Canadian Capitalist has a traditional Friday "This and That"

The Million Dollar Journey has a  "Weekend Reading"

The Quest for Four Pillars has a "Saturday Weigh-In and Linkstuff"

I've been trying to come up with something unique, and I'm open to suggestions. Some names I've jotted down (and feel free to add some creative suggestions):

Blogwatch
Articles of Interest
Weekly Weedings
Weekend Potpourri
I'm Not Allowed to Blog on Saturdays Anymore...

That last one just came to me and I like it best so far! :)

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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536 2008-03-12 04:05:29 2008-03-12 11:05:29 open open help-me-name-this-post publish 0 0 post 0 1153 70.55.216.235 2008-03-12 11:37:41 2008-03-12 18:37:41 Name the post, "I'm off today, spending my clients money so read this instead" or "Weekend Investing" or "Other places my money goes."

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1154 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-03-12 13:09:34 2008-03-12 20:09:34 Or even a misc title that summarizes the links that you are including.

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1155 donkhuth@hotmail.com http://www.donkhuth.com 64.228.219.210 2008-03-12 13:50:40 2008-03-12 20:50:40 What about...
"Where does all my link go?"
Yes, I know it's silly.. :P

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1156 petercinat@hotmail.com 199.246.40.54 2008-03-12 14:21:32 2008-03-12 21:21:32 How about:
"Bloogle - My search results to interesting blogs"

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1157 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.141.61 2008-03-12 18:02:32 2008-03-13 01:02:32 "Other people's money"

Nicolas

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1158 petercinat@hotmail.com 199.246.40.54 2008-03-12 21:07:17 2008-03-13 04:07:17 "BlogPlay"

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1159 rhof@101.net http://roberthof.com 67.193.127.219 2008-03-13 00:18:09 2008-03-13 07:18:09 How about, "Weekly Pagerank Optimizer"

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1160 brian@briansmoney.com http://www.briansmoney.com 99.236.101.117 2008-03-13 03:14:41 2008-03-13 10:14:41 How about Strategies for Weekend Reading?

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Buying an Annuity from a Charity as way to Make a Donation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/buying-an-annuity-from-a-charity-as-way-to-make-a-donation/ Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:29:03 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/13/buying-an-annuity-from-a-charity-as-way-to-make-a-donation/ 537 2008-03-13 00:29:03 2008-03-13 07:29:03 open open buying-an-annuity-from-a-charity-as-way-to-make-a-donation publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257515 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257515 _edit_last 1 1161 fixedannuity@hotmail.com http://www.freeannuityrates.com/annuities/fixed/fixed-annuity-guide.php 116.71.54.115 2009-03-26 05:46:34 2009-03-26 10:46:34 1 0 0 1162 fixedannuity@hotmail.com http://www.freeannuityrates.com/annuities/fixed/fixed-annuity-guide.php 116.71.40.195 2009-03-30 23:52:34 2009-03-31 04:52:34 1 0 0 Donate $10,000 to Charity for only $718 using Flow Throughs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/donate-10000-to-charity-for-only-718-using-flow-throughs/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:45:10 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/14/donate-10000-to-charity-for-only-718-using-flow-throughs/ The Baseline Case Let's assume the donor intends to give $10,000 to charity. If they were to just donate the money to charity, they would be able to claim the $10,000 as a charitable donation and receive a total tax savings of $4,641 (Ontario rates as usual for my examples). So in this case, the charity receives $10,000 and your out of pocket cost was $5,359. Investing in a Flow-Through First, Then Donating The Rolled-Over Mutual Fund to Charity In this case the donor first invests in a Flow-Through. The investor receives a 100% income deduction through the flow through of the tax savings from the Limited Partnership after applying the CEECs (Canadian Exploration and Expense Credits). For an Ontarian in the highest tax bracket, this equates to a tax savings of $4,641. 18 months later (average), when the Flow-Through's liquidity event is effected, the value of the investment is rolled-over into a mutual fund. Limited Partnerships do not qualify for in-kind donation to charities, but mutual funds do. Assuming no growth or loss on the initial $10,000, you would then generate another $4,641 in tax savings. So in this case, you have twice received tax savings of $4,641 for a total savings of $9,282. Your $10,000 donation to charity only cost you $718. But Flow-Throughs are Volatile... Very true. It's not uncommon for Flow-Throughs to be either up or down 30% within the 18 month investment period. Let's look at how this changes things. If the $10,000 originally invested is up 30% then you would be donating $13,000 in-kind to the charity. In this case you will have generated a tax savings of $6,033 for the in-kind donation. Add that to the original $4,641 and your total tax savings were $10,674. Not only did you "make" money, you also increased your donation to charity up to $13,000. How great is that? But in reality, losing 30% is more likely than making 30% on your flow-through investment. In this case, your original $10,000 would have decreased to $7,000 in value by the time you donated it in-kind to the charity. In this case you would have earned $3,248 in tax savings for the charitable donation. Add that to the original $4,641 in savings from the initial investment in the flow-through and your total tax savings in this case adds up to $7,889. In this case, your total out of pocket cost was $2,110 to make a $7,000 donation to charity. Notes I did not factor in that the first $200 in charitable donations receive a lower tax savings than amounts over $200 as it had no meaningful impact on this analysis. Also, I assumed that our donor was in the highest marginal tax bracket in Ontario. If you are in a lower tax bracket, then your tax savings from investing in the flow through will be less, but your tax savings from charitable contributions will remain as stated since they generate tax credits (not deductions). Finally, this strategy is common and not currently challenged in Canada - however, it is strongly recommended that you consult with a qualified financial advisor before engaging in such a strategy.]]> 538 2008-03-14 02:45:10 2008-03-14 09:45:10 open open donate-10000-to-charity-for-only-718-using-flow-throughs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257484 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257484 _edit_last 1 1163 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.141.61 2008-03-14 14:16:48 2008-03-14 21:16:48 Excellent post.

I'll put the emphasis on one line:

"not currently challenged in Canada"

Unless you read all tax cases, that's why you need a professional.

Nicolas

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Breaking News: RESP Bill gets Killed http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breaking-news-resp-bill-gets-killed/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:59:09 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/14/breaking-news-resp-bill-gets-killed/ Child-BabyWithhat.jpgThe RESP bill proposed by Dan McTeague which would allow RESP contributions to be tax-deductible like contributions to a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) has been effectively killed. The House of Commons passed a confidence motion yesterday to that effect. You can read more about the story here.
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539 2008-03-14 13:59:09 2008-03-14 20:59:09 open open breaking-news-resp-bill-gets-killed publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257485 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257485 _edit_last 1 1164 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-03-14 15:41:12 2008-03-14 22:41:12 This is a great thing, it should have been done in the budget from the start. Now it will still be an issue for next year, but done properly and planned for.

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A Lap of the Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-2/ Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:49:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/14/a-lap-of-the-blogs/

A-ha! I have found my trademark name for a weekly post on linking back to the community! Let me explain where the name comes from: I was in the auto racing industry for a few years (open wheel) and of course you can imagine that not only did I like driving, I was also a fan of the sport. There was a video series called "Lap of the Gods" which consisted of footage of top Formula 1 drivers taken from on-board of some of the most famous racetracks in the world. See below for a sample on-board video (although not an F1 car, and not part of the "Lap of the Gods" series).

Anyways, here we go through a "Lap of the Blogs":

The Canadian Capitalist reviews a survey that found people don't like free money.

The Million Dollar Journey provides a plentiful resource on The Smith Manoeuvre.

The Quest for Four Pillars hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance (Canadian Edition!)

Jonathan Chevreau uncovers a great resource for fixed income investors

Thicken My Wallet cover the ins and outs of the VISA IPO

Thicken My Wallet also hosted a guest review of a really, really good book on RRSPs. :) 

Larry McDonald explains why he hasn't yet weighed in on the proposed Tax Free Savings Account

I'll stop there for now and in addition leave you with a sample of an on-board video. This particular video is of a "hill-climb" (or a time trial up a hill). Take a peak - it's pretty cool! 

 

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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540 2008-03-14 22:49:01 2008-03-15 05:49:01 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-2 publish 0 0 post 0 1165 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-03-16 00:48:46 2008-03-16 07:48:46 Thanks for the mention Preet. That video is pretty sick. Is that similar to what you used to do?

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1166 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 72.141.2.64 2008-03-16 14:48:10 2008-03-16 21:48:10 Two entries in the "race"! Thanks for the mention.

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1167 2008-03-17 01:04:57 2008-03-17 08:04:57 I raced open wheel cars on road courses. The video is of a closed wheel car on a time-trial (i.e. no competitors on track at the same time).

I'll post some more videos in my new "lap of the blogs" posts which will include some info on racing (my other passion!).

I was actually at the track over the weekend seeing the newest fleet of cars at my old haunt. I'll probably only get one test day in this year - the sport is way too expensive and time consuming... :(

I trained here: Bridgestone Racing Academy

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Donating Investments Instead of Cash to Charity Has Big Tax Advantages http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/donating-investments-instead-of-cash-to-charity-has-big-tax-advantages/ Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:30:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/16/donating-investments-instead-of-cash-to-charity-has-big-tax-advantages/ 541 2008-03-16 23:30:01 2008-03-17 06:30:01 open open donating-investments-instead-of-cash-to-charity-has-big-tax-advantages publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257503 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257503 _edit_last 1 Double Your Donations to Charity Through Employer Matching http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/double-your-donations-to-charity-through-employer-matching/ Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:48:59 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/18/double-your-donations-to-charity-through-employer-matching/ . You probably say to yourself, "I'll remember for next time!" and then next time comes, and you forget again. I remember that happening a few times when I first started working in the financial services. So here's my suggestion: Send an email to your HR person to ask two things. 1) Is there a charitable donation employer-matching program available? 2) Ask if you can get 2 copies of the form. Even if you don't need one right now. Then keep the forms at your desk. I know that for me, the sporadic contributions I make to various causes are in the form of $20 here and $20 there, and I think subconsciously I can't be bothered with finding a form to get that amount matched. THAT'S JUST SILLY! Why do I do that? I know that if the form is already at my desk, I'll use it for sure. Many large companies will match their employee's contributions to their favourite registered charities for up to $1,000. I think that if we all started to actively use these programs we could collectively make quite a big difference!]]> 542 2008-03-18 00:48:59 2008-03-18 07:48:59 open open double-your-donations-to-charity-through-employer-matching publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257468 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257468 _edit_last 1 1168 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2008-03-18 23:04:55 2008-03-19 06:04:55 My company matches any money I give to my University, but it does not match my charitable donations (directly), they do however, support United Way and many other charities, so it is kind of the same.

Charity is a pillar of all religions, and it makes you feel good, so go do it!

--C8j

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Using Life Insurance to Increase Donations to Charity http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/using-life-insurance-to-increase-donations-to-charity/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:55:50 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/18/using-life-insurance-to-increase-donations-to-charity/ Advantages 1. You can donate a significantly higher sum to your charity of choice. 2. That same gift can be realized even if you die earlier than expected since the death benefit doesn't depend on how long the policy has been in effect. Disadvantages 1. You have to ensure that you can stick to this commitment for life. (The good news is that if you can no longer afford to pay the premiums the charity can potentially take over the payments temporarily or permanently if they choose to do so.) 2. The charity won't be receiving any funds from you until you die. 3. The cost of the policy goes up (or the death benefit goes down) if you are less healthy than average.]]> 543 2008-03-18 22:55:50 2008-03-19 05:55:50 open open using-life-insurance-to-increase-donations-to-charity publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257497 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257497 _edit_last 1 1169 charls413@hotmail.com 59.93.220.30 2008-03-19 01:58:23 2008-03-19 08:58:23 Hi,

Today I have visited your blog and found some quality information. I think you have maintained a great blog. That's why we would like to exchange links with your blog.

My blog is : http://moneyadvice.wordpress.com/

Please send me your link info.

Waiting for your reply.

With Best Regards,
Charles

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1170 antiage1230@yahoo.com http://termlife-insurance.info 120.28.81.165 2009-12-02 00:57:55 2009-12-02 05:57:55 1 0 0
A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-2-2/ Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:25:34 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/21/a-lap-of-the-blogs-2/

I have to apologize for not posting yesterday as I was tied up with my day job from 7am until 10pm and fighting a case of minor food poisoning to boot! However, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

Investing 101

The Motley Fool explains the basics of stocks

Interesting Articles 

Thicken My Wallet shows us how to Increase our chances of obtaining a loan.

Larry MacDonald thinks it's time to do some due diligence on potentially snapping up some shares in Google and makes a case as to why.

Mr. Cheap from The Quest for Four Pillars met Bill Gates in Boston... or did he? :) 

The Million Dollar Journey did a book review on "Rich Dad's: Increase Your Financial IQ". I had errently pointed to the book giveaway post before, but the contest is now closed.

The Canadian Capitalist discusses The Costs of Home Ownership

Racing Video of the Week

This is a short video of an F1 engine being tested for the first time after being mated to the car. A Formula 1 engine will idle at higher revs than a NASCAR engine at full throttle - and will reach 19,000rpm (in fact they are restricted to this speed). F1 engines can rev this high because the engines don't use valvesprings like a road car or other racecars would - the valvesprings can't keep up to the high engine speeds. Instead they used a pneumatic valvetrain filled with compressed air to operate the valves fast enough. Just one of the many intricacies of the world's most expensive sport. At about 20 seconds into the video you will see the exhaust pipes starting to glow with heat and they eventually become white hot once they start revving the engine!

 
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544 2008-03-21 03:25:34 2008-03-21 10:25:34 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-2-2 publish 0 0 post 0 1171 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 69.156.77.72 2008-03-21 12:38:48 2008-03-21 19:38:48 Thanks for the link Preet. Happy Easter!

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1172 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-03-21 13:39:56 2008-03-21 20:39:56 Thanks for the mention!

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1173 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-03-21 18:33:32 2008-03-22 01:33:32 Thanks for the link!

Mike

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1174 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 72.141.2.64 2008-03-23 14:43:17 2008-03-23 21:43:17 Thanks for the mention. Don't worry too hard.

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Jim Cramer Controversy Over Bear Stearns... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/jim-cramer-controversy-over-bear-stearns/ Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:01:27 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/22/jim-cramer-controversy-over-bear-stearns/ post by Michael James On Money that discusses analyzing Jim Cramer's picks as an investment strategy. But now on to the controversy. You have probably heard that the U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns was acquired for a measly $2/share after recently trading in the $160/share range only 1 year prior. The collapse of this bank has made the headlines round the world in a very public way. What was also public was Jim Cramer's answer to a question from a viewer about Bear Stearns days before this downfall occurred, which you can view here:
Of course, this is a bit embarrassing for Cramer, but apparently everyone misunderstood him. According to Cramer, he was addressing whether someone should take money out of their "accounts" at Bear Stearns, not whether they should sell their stock in Bear Stearns... Hmmm... Take a look at this clip:
Something doesn't seem right here. A little more digging was done by Don Harrold which indicates that on the show's website on March 11th, 2008 there was indeed a buy recommendation made by Cramer on that very day for Bear Stearns common stock:
The fact that he made a wrong call would be a drop in the bucket versus this type of back-peddling and attempt at cover-up if it is indeed true, but I will leave you to be your own judge. Have a wonderful Easter Weekend everyone!]]>
545 2008-03-22 04:01:27 2008-03-22 11:01:27 open open jim-cramer-controversy-over-bear-stearns publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257510 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257510 _edit_last 1 1175 http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-03-22 15:15:06 2008-03-22 22:15:06 Thanks for the link. I saw this clip of Cramer on the Daily Show. Funny stuff. Unfortunately, he wouldn't have a show if he told the truth saying: "I have no idea what is going to happen."

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1176 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 72.141.2.64 2008-03-23 14:47:52 2008-03-23 21:47:52 Did Cramer later say that the viewers "misremembered" his quote? Haha.

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1177 adinkin@centralfinancial.com http://www.momentonmomey.com 216.81.150.154 2008-03-24 18:51:50 2008-03-25 01:51:50 Put me in the camp that watches Cramer for his entertainment value. That said, wish I would have bought Bear Stearns at $2 so I could have sold today at $12+. Frankly, I think the stock stinks like a rotten fish and many shareholders are still going to lose a lot of money on it.

If you are taking your advice from a TV personality who doesn't know you from Adam, then you will get exactly what you paid for.

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1178 rhof@101.net http://roberthof.com 216.145.109.144 2008-03-25 00:27:38 2008-03-25 07:27:38 Even if he knew anything, he can't be seen to be causing a run on the bank. Disclaimers at the beginning (and end?) of every show aside, his opinions can move markets. And if he says "pull your money out" just before BS collapses, the litigation potential would be unimagineable.

Mommy always used to say "if you can't say anything nice, say nothing." While he's never been known to pull punches, in this case he might have been better not to have mentioned Bear at all if he knew something was going down.

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1179 http://ComicsPundit.com 69.95.103.162 2008-03-26 16:15:08 2008-03-26 23:15:08 Cramer's pretty good, especially when talking about the principles behind investing, and how to do your homework. And for the most part when his recommendations go wrong, he's willing to admit the mistake and analyze where he went wrong.

However, he does have a blind spot when it comes to finance and banking industries, and can go off the rails defending losing companies or crying for government actions to help the industry claiming the entire economy is on the line. You just have to remember that these guys are 'his people', and his analysis is affected by that.

Which is why you should never act on an analysts word alone, which Cramer himself says quite often by encouraging investors to do their homework on their investment choices.

That fact means that current controversy shouldn't be dwelled on too much, other than to note his flaws.

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1180 agivant@gmail.com 69.77.176.2 2008-03-28 18:12:19 2008-03-29 01:12:19 "Those who know don't say and those who say don't know".

Jim made mistake and doesn't want to say "I was wrong". <sarcasm> WOW, it's a new concern on Wall/Bay street, he is the first one to behave such way. </sarcasm>

The same problem happens with Garth Turner who was promoting Nortel heavily all the way down from $120 to under $1. When people called his mistakes on his own forum, what he did? He just shut the forum down. Nice way to deal with a problem.

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Win a free DVD! Money Movie Giveaway Contest For March is On! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/win-a-free-dvd-money-movie-giveaway-contest-for-march-is-on/ Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:33:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/24/win-a-free-dvd-money-movie-giveaway-contest-for-march-is-on/

It's time for Round 2 of the Money Movie Giveaway on WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com! Our Winner from January selected 'Boiler Room' so that is off the list for the remainder of the year, but everyone else will have the opportunity to win one of the five remaining movies from the following list. All you have to do is enter a comment on this post for a free entry!

1. Wall Street
2. Boiler Room Selected by January's WinnerWallStreetCover.jpg
3. Casino
4. Trading Places
5. Glengarry Glen Ross
6. Ocean's Eleven (The original from 1960)

Every two months in 2008 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com is running a Money Movie Giveaway Contest where the winner has their pick of a movie on the above list. Once a winner picks a movie, it will be removed from the list.

To enter this month's contest, you just have to leave a comment on this post before midnight, March 31st, 2008. Anyone who has bought a copy of The RRSP Book is also entitled to a bonus entry, so if you have bought the book you have an automatic entry, and you can also earn a second entry by leaving a comment on this post.

The contest is open to everyone, but for delivery locations outside of Canada, the recipient is responsbile for shipping charges. Comments on this post will not earn an entry for any other month's contest - so make sure to leave a comment for each month's contest in order to increase your chances of winning.

Thanks and Good Luck everyone!

For those who are interested, here is Alec Baldwin's famous scene from Glengarry Glen Ross. For those who don't know, Baldwin had one single 8 minute scene in this movie that many have described as the single best performance of his career and one of the most electrifying scenes in movie history:

 

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
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546 2008-03-24 00:33:41 2008-03-24 07:33:41 open open win-a-free-dvd-money-movie-giveaway-contest-for-march-is-on publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1216615258 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1216615258 _edit_last 1 1181 callmeabookworm@gmail.com http://abookwormsdiary.blogspot.com 71.123.181.182 2008-03-24 01:09:58 2008-03-24 08:09:58 I love your giveaway. The movie selections are really good and I have my eye on more than one of them :) Count me in.

Thanks!
~ aBookworm

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1182 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.49.224 2008-03-24 02:39:31 2008-03-24 09:39:31 Count me in too! :D Keep up the great work Preet.

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1183 brian@briansmoney.com http://www.briansmoney.com 99.236.101.117 2008-03-24 03:20:51 2008-03-24 10:20:51 Hey I'm in. There's still some good movies in that list!

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1184 four.pillars@hotmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-03-24 03:40:42 2008-03-24 10:40:42 Count me in!

Mike

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1185 207.161.198.249 2008-03-24 14:18:07 2008-03-24 21:18:07 I better win this time.

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1 0 0
1186 mikeisnt@telus.net 64.59.144.86 2008-03-24 16:07:30 2008-03-24 23:07:30 crossin my fingers.

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1 0 0
1187 alex_dilts@hotmail.com 66.38.140.4 2008-03-24 17:14:40 2008-03-25 00:14:40 Always
Be
Closing

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1 0 0
1188 ksnowden1@hotmail.com 192.197.253.19 2008-03-24 20:12:20 2008-03-25 03:12:20 Count me in.

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1 0 0
1189 sb@shawnbinda.com http://www.shawnbinda.com 70.54.20.206 2008-03-25 09:36:37 2008-03-25 16:36:37 I always like contests :D

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1190 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-03-25 11:19:19 2008-03-25 18:19:19 Haven't seen this movie yet! Count me in!

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1 0 0
1191 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.141.61 2008-03-25 14:17:06 2008-03-25 21:17:06 Ocean Eleven, original version. Nice.

Nicolas

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1192 quicklunarcop@gmail.com 192.197.178.2 2008-03-25 14:35:38 2008-03-25 21:35:38 Free movies, very frugal! Count me in!

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1 0 0
1193 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-03-25 16:38:54 2008-03-25 23:38:54 Greed is good! Count me in.

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1 0 0
1194 wahookin@hotmail.com 76.67.19.93 2008-03-25 23:40:01 2008-03-26 06:40:01 count me in :)

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1 0 0
1195 99.244.194.104 2008-03-26 01:47:46 2008-03-26 08:47:46 Thanks for sharing the clip very riveting, would love to have any of the remaining choices.

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1196 nancy@yourmoneybydesign.com http://www.nancyzimmerman.com 204.244.194.11 2008-03-27 00:13:37 2008-03-27 07:13:37 I'm in! (must.have.ggr for my life to be complete)

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1 0 0
1197 99.252.209.252 2008-03-27 02:50:06 2008-03-27 09:50:06 I love your blog! I'm a money magnet... Thank you, thank you, Thank you!

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1 0 0
1198 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-03-27 19:01:51 2008-03-28 02:01:51 I have such a weakness for free stuff.

Count me in!

Tim

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1199 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 47.248.0.45 2008-03-27 20:40:17 2008-03-28 03:40:17 I am a friend of Larry "The Ass Man" McDonald does that help?

--C8j

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1200 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-03-28 14:12:56 2008-03-28 21:12:56 Count me in Preet.

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1 0 0
1201 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 69.107.128.61 2008-03-28 17:36:30 2008-03-29 00:36:30 i liked the article on jim kramer controversy(!)...
and i like free stuff...!!!!

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1202 aspire650@hotmail.com 64.230.38.237 2008-03-29 14:45:12 2008-03-29 21:45:12 New to your blog after hearing about it on Canadian Capitalist. Enter me into the contest please.

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1 0 0
1203 bhojani_mohammad@hotmail.com 207.161.216.242 2008-03-31 10:31:48 2008-03-31 17:31:48 Carpe Diem!

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1204 Paul_hood@scotiamcleod.com 199.166.15.245 2008-04-01 13:33:03 2008-04-01 20:33:03 I enjoy the daily strategies/financial reminders. Too bad...more of the population should be tuning in daily!

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1205 william.s.munro@chase.com 159.53.46.140 2008-07-18 10:15:20 2008-07-18 14:15:20 1 0 0 1206 http://7wins.eu/cbprod/detail_22829/blogging+money+magnets.html 92.225.204.152 2010-01-05 14:26:00 2010-01-05 19:26:00 1 pingback 0 0
What My Broker Terminal Looks Like http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-my-broker-terminal-looks-like/ Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:07:31 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/24/what-my-broker-terminal-looks-like/ Money Movie Giveaway Contest for March for your chance to win a free DVD! Click on the picture below to enlarge it for a closer look. ]]> 547 2008-03-24 22:07:31 2008-03-25 05:07:31 open open what-my-broker-terminal-looks-like publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257472 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257472 _edit_last 1 1207 azn_lazyjai@hotmail.com 99.237.166.157 2008-03-25 14:26:40 2008-03-25 21:26:40 Interesting, out of your 44 programs would this be the one you'll recommend for DIY investors (student in particular) or could there be a better one for a better price?

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1208 2008-03-25 14:50:48 2008-03-25 21:50:48 I certainly use this the most as the other programs might only be used once a year. Some of them are very narrow in scope.

As a DIY, you can get a healthy amount of research and data through your online broker can you not? If not, there are data subscription packages for around $10/month I believe, but I will defer to other readers as I use BridgeChannel at no direct cost to me, but I imagine it is not cheap.

Some of the other programs are comparative tools (i.e. for dissecting portfolios, analyzing costs, looking up news, analyst reports, etc.) It's easy to get lost in the data.

The 80/20 rule certainly applies: 20% of the data/graphs/charts will tell you 80% of the story.

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1209 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.175.163 2008-03-26 19:10:42 2008-03-27 02:10:42 It is nice to see a screen like that.I do not have a brokerage account but I am working on this right now and maybe that's what I am going to see in the future.

BTW, I have received your wonderful book.

Thank you very much.

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Donating Old Life Insurance Policies to Charity Instead of Cancelling Them http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/donating-old-life-insurance-policies-to-charity-instead-of-cancelling-them/ Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:33:39 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/26/donating-old-life-insurance-policies-to-charity-instead-of-cancelling-them/ Charitable Gifts of Life Insurance, you'll know that you can substantially increase your donations to your favourite charities with life insurance policies. However that post dealt with initiating a new policy specifically for charitable giving. It is also possible to donate an existing life insurance policy that was originally purchased for other reasons. FlippingThroughBook.jpgAs you get older and your assets grow, eventually you might reach a point in life where you are self-insured or otherwise no longer have a need for life insurance. Some people will cancel any existing policies while others will continue paying the premiums since it may be more beneficial to do so. If you are considering cancelling any existing policies, note that another option exists: you can donate this policy to your favourite charity. If you assign the ownership of the policy to the charity and have the beneficiary irrevocably designated to also be the charity you can receive a charitable donation receipt for (at a minimum):

The Cash Surrender Value + Any Accumulated Dividends - Any Policy Loans

If you continue to pay the premiums going forward you would also be entitled to charitable donation receipts for the subsequent premiums paid. You'll note that the above formula is the bare minimum as you can take the policy to a life insurance policy evaluator who can assess the Fair Market Value of the policy (which might be valued at much more than the above formula). Even term life insurance policies can have a Fair Market Value greater than zero if your health has declined since time of policy issue. Consult with a financial advisor who is well versed with planned giving if you have any questions.

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548 2008-03-26 00:33:39 2008-03-26 07:33:39 open open donating-old-life-insurance-policies-to-charity-instead-of-cancelling-them publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218257168 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257168 _edit_last 1
Revocable or Contingent Life Insurance Beneficiary Designations for Charitable Giving http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/revocable-or-contingent-life-insurance-beneficiary-designations-for-charitable-giving/ Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:28:00 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/27/revocable-or-contingent-life-insurance-beneficiary-designations-for-charitable-giving/ QuestionMark.jpgBy naming the charity as a contingent beneficiary (which you can do right now), you are basically providing for the possibility that your first intended beneficiary either pre-deceases you or even dies at the same time (i.e. you both die in the same car accident). In this case, if you had no other beneficiaries, then your charity of choice will receive the death benefit. By naming the charity as a revocable (as opposed to an irrevocable) beneficiary, you can change your mind should something arise in life that would necessitate you leaving money to your heirs, your estate for liquidity purposes, etc. instead of to the charity. In both cases, there would be no immediate tax benefit and if you never did assign the policy and beneficiary designation to the charity irrevocably, the only tax relief you would receive would be upon death when you could claim the death benefit that was ultimately received by the charity up to 100% of your net income in the year of death, and the year immediately preceding death.
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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549 2008-03-27 00:28:00 2008-03-27 07:28:00 open open revocable-or-contingent-life-insurance-beneficiary-designations-for-charitable-giving publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257196 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257196
A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-3/ Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:02:57 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/27/a-lap-of-the-blogs-3/

If you would like a chance to win a free Money Movie DVD, don't forget to enter the contest I'm running by entering a comment in the Contest Entry Post. It's free to enter and your odds are much better than winning the lottery. :)

I'm Famous

Not really, but I was fortunate to have articles appear or linked to from two of the largest Canadian Blogs in the blogosphere. The Canadian Capitalist hosted a guest article written by yours truly on Charitable Remainder Trusts. Meanwhile, over at the Million Dollar Journey on Monday was this week's edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance which included a link to my article on the Jim Cramer Controversy over Bear Stearns.

Other Interesting Articles From Around the Blogosphere

Financial Jungle wrote about a stock trading simulator that lets you adjust the universal constant of time, thereby allowing you to examine the results of your trading strategies that would normally take months to determine in dramatically shorter times. Okay, they just use historical charts...

Jonathan Chevreau takes a look at the budget highlights for Ontario.

Thicken My Wallet asks about the true returns of Real Estate and some of his readers weigh in as well.

It turns out that Larry McDonald is an "ass" man, having written back to back posts on two types of bottoms: First asking if a Stock Market Bottom is in sight and then asking if we are at a U.S. Housing Bottom

This Week's Racing Video

The following video is about 9 minutes, but really you just need to watch the first 3 minutes to see how incredibly fast this little road-legal rocketship is as the host's face completely distorts in seconds after tromping on the gas! This car is known as the Ariel Atom and it is available for purchase. Though not exactly a commuter car, for the price of a fully loaded family sedan you could own a car with a higher horsepower to weight ratio than a $1 million Ferrari Enzo. 

Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance.
If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed.

If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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550 2008-03-27 18:02:57 2008-03-28 01:02:57 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-3 publish 0 0 post 0 1210 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 47.248.0.45 2008-03-27 20:39:27 2008-03-28 03:39:27 I have met Larry, and I am pretty sure he is not "The ASS MAN!".

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1211 2008-03-27 21:31:08 2008-03-28 04:31:08 "An" ass-man - not "the" ass-man like Cosmo Kramer! :)

Yeah, I know, a weak joke either way...

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1212 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-03-28 14:13:30 2008-03-28 21:13:30 Thanks for the mention Preet. Have a nice weekend.

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1213 FinancialJungleGuy@Gmail.com http://www.FinancialJungle.com 216.19.181.166 2008-03-28 16:02:45 2008-03-28 23:02:45 Thanks for the link.

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1214 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-03-28 17:29:01 2008-03-29 00:29:01 Thanks for the mention.

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Dying Intestate with No Living Blood Relatives? Your Estate Goes To The Government http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dying-intestate-with-no-living-blood-relatives-your-estate-goes-to-the-government/ Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:11:09 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/03/31/dying-intestate-with-no-living-blood-relatives-your-estate-goes-to-the-government/ Thanks to Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45 for the tip) I think these are all better options than leaving it to the Crown, don't you? :) Of course, my suggestion to leave it to me is a joke and you should seek independent legal counsel on matters such as this. Happy Monday!
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551 2008-03-31 00:11:09 2008-03-31 07:11:09 open open dying-intestate-with-no-living-blood-relatives-your-estate-goes-to-the-government publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257170 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218257170 1215 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.141.61 2008-03-31 13:06:20 2008-03-31 20:06:20 Good post. A will is important.

A holograph will might not require a witness, but it's always better to have one in the event the will is contested. Furthermore, the witness does not need to know the details in the will but just attest that you are the one who signed the and that you seemed to have all your head.

Nicolas

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1216 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2008-03-31 20:03:41 2008-04-01 03:03:41 Preet, I'm eagerly looking forward to when you publish your book about estate issues :-)

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1217 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-03-31 20:47:26 2008-04-01 03:47:26 Preet,

My memory may be incorrect on this, but I recall reading that a holograph will isn't legal in all provinces. For example, I believe BC you are required to have a will with two witnesses.

Just something to check on before you try to use it.

Tim

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1218 2008-04-01 01:13:47 2008-04-01 08:13:47 Thanks for the tip Tim! I just did a google search on it and found an authoritative looking site that mentioned that holograph wills are not recognized in BC.

Cheers!

Preet

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Where Does All Your Tax Money Go? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/where-does-all-your-tax-money-go/ Thu, 01 May 2008 07:01:03 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/01/where-does-all-your-tax-money-go/ Do you hear that sound? Another deadline passing us by. When you owe money, you can actually here it whistle as it approaches... :) I found a presentation from the government that explains where all the revenues and expenses of the lockedmoney.JPGGovernment comes from and goes to. Some highlights for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2007: (Note these won't add up since I'm only presenting some highlights, see link below for more info) Revenues ($236 Billion Total) $110.5 Billion - Income Tax $37.7 Billion - Corporate Tax $31.1 Billion - GST Expenses $33.9 Billion - Interest on National Debt $30.3 Billion - Elderly Benefits (OAS, GIS, etc.) $63.3 Billion - Operating Expenses of Government $6.8 Billion - Canada Revenue Agency $1.7 Billion - CBC (!) Surplus - $13.8 Billion You can view the government's presentation yourself by clicking here.
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577 2008-05-01 00:01:03 2008-05-01 07:01:03 open open where-does-all-your-tax-money-go publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213628625 _edit_last 1 1219 67.68.240.92 2008-05-01 14:19:32 2008-05-01 21:19:32 Sometimes, I think I would prefer not to know where governement money is spent.

Seeing how much debt, CRA and CBC cost does not encourage generating high income to pay more taxes!

I did not go see the presentation, not wanting to know more!!!

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1220 24.66.94.141 2008-05-18 05:46:36 2008-05-18 12:46:36 You realize that CRA has nothing to do with where tax money is spent (save their own budget). That is up to elected officials and the dept of finance, Which the presentation you linked makes obvious since it is from the dept of finance.

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1221 taxguyinthelbokc@taxcutsblock.com http://onthemoneyalways.com 76.16.139.21 2008-08-25 10:22:17 2008-08-25 14:22:17 1 0 0
Want to Start Your Own Blog? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/want-to-start-your-own-blog/ Thu, 01 May 2008 22:44:06 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/01/want-to-start-your-own-blog/

Note: This is a paid review for www.thoughts.com. Compensation received for reviews in part goes towards the Money Movie Giveaways this year, and as the income from that grows, so will the promotions. :)

GirlWithLaptop.JPGI'm really glad I started blogging back in July as I have met so many great members of the personal finance community and have learned and shared so much. I signed up with a paid blogging engine platform because I didn't know anything about blogs or blogging - I just threw myself in and managed to float so far. :) In retrospect, I think I might have been better off using a free blogging software engine and just worry about paying for hosting (since I own a unique domain name).

Even better still, would be to not pay for the software, and not pay for the domain name and just use someone else's resources for free! If you have been thinking about blogging, then perhaps you would want to check out www.thoughts.com as you can have your own Free Blog, with no start-up or ongoing costs. It also comes with an "instant community" so it might not be so lonely for the first couple of days or weeks. I remember the first few weeks felt like I was writing in a great big abyss, but 9 months later I seem to have almost 400 faithful readers and more and more interaction with the readership. I think it would be nice to have this built-in from the get go.

Also, note that you don't need to set up your blog for the purpose of getting on a soapbox (like I tend to do), but also as a means to have a website for your family, association or other group to visit and check in on you (kind of like Facebook). Another good feature of thoughts.com is that you can easily make certain content private with other content remaining public, and there is turnkey facilitation of adding podcasts, photos and posts for those who don't want to get caught up in the technical aspects of blogging. All in all, it seems like a great introduction to blogging or setting up a website without committing yourself to anything.

Thoughts.com seems pretty new so the community is still growing and of course only time will tell if it survives for the long term. One question I would have is how easy would it be to transfer your content to another platform should you decide to do so in the future. There are various reasons one might do this, for example if you want to monetize your blog (sell ads, etc), customize it in other ways, or if you are just unhappy with the service.

Anyways, thanks to Thoughts.com for ordering a review. That's worth another movie to add to the list! 

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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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578 2008-05-01 15:44:06 2008-05-01 22:44:06 open open want-to-start-your-own-blog publish 0 0 post 0
A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-8/ Thu, 01 May 2008 23:56:31 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/01/a-lap-of-the-blogs-8/

Sick as a dog the last few days, but hopefully I'll be back in tip top shape for the weekend. My father is in town for a meeting this weekend so Fiona and I will be taking him for a nice Indian buffet, then I start my coast-to-coast adventure spending two weeks in BC (where my parents live and where I also have a few clients), back for a few days then off to Newfoundland for a weekend for a pub crawl with Jeremy Siegel, author of Stocks for the Long Run and other great investing books (...if I can convince him to join me and FrugalTrader, that is - I'm just supposed to be seeing him speak at a work conference, I don't actually know him!).

A Lap Of The Blogs

Michael James On Money did an informal survey about what people are paying for interest rates on lines of credit and then followed that up with some questions about why someone would go to one of the big banks for a mortgage when their posted rates seem so much higher than the competition. Read the comments section and you will see a few attempts at explaining this.

The Boy Genius Report gives the absolute first look at RIM's new BlackBerry Flip Phone. BGR breaks news about this kind of stuff months before they come to market. I'm still holding out for a touchscreen berry with slide-out keyboard, but this news may be behind RIM's big intra-day stock price gains today (Thursday as I write this).

Remember George Bush's economic stimulus plan? If not, here it is: give people checks - they will spend it - we will prevail. Mike from The Quest For Four Pillars provides much more detail however... :)

The Canadian Capitalist gives some supporting evidence as to why stock market predictions are useless. My personal take on it is that if anyone really knew, they A) wouldn't be working B) wouldn't be telling. That's like Future Biff going back in time to give Past Biff the sports almanac and then Past Biff giving up the goods to everyone else thereby nullifying any advantage in Back To The Future Part II.

The Million Dollar Journey explains that Financial Infidelity may be the real reason behind high divorce rates.

This Week's Racing Video

Have you ever seen a racecar hit a wall? I'm sure you have. There is a saying in racing that there are two types of drivers: those who have hit the wall, and those who will hit the wall. In any case, one of the first things they teach you is that when you realize that a catastrophic impact is imminent, you need to take your hands right off the wheel, otherwise you will break your wrists. The reason for this is if the front wheels hit the wall (or other car, or whatever) they will transmit a great amount of force through the steering rack and violently spin the steering wheel. If your hands are on the wheel, you can kiss them goodbye. This video shows Juan Pablo Montoya driving an F1 car, losing control and hitting the wall. The first part is a side, on-board shot that shows him taking his hands right off the wheel before impact.



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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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579 2008-05-01 16:56:31 2008-05-01 23:56:31 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-8 publish 0 0 post 0 1222 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-05-01 18:03:22 2008-05-02 01:03:22 Thanks a lot for the link!

The pub crawl sounds fabulous - say hi to FT and Jeremy for me.

Mike

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1223 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-05-01 18:55:44 2008-05-02 01:55:44 Thanks for including my blog this week. I'm always happy to collect useful information from readers.

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1224 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-05-02 13:31:02 2008-05-02 20:31:02 Thanks for the mention Preet. You're getting to hear Jeremy Siegel in person. I'm jealous :)

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1225 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-05-02 16:12:41 2008-05-02 23:12:41 Hey Preet! I look forward to meeting with you. Give me another email as a reminder.

FT

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How Do You Benchmark a 130/30 Mutual Fund? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-do-you-benchmark-a-13030-mutual-fund/ Mon, 05 May 2008 05:04:19 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/04/how-do-you-benchmark-a-13030-mutual-fund/ Back in December I wrote about a type of mutual fund known as the 130/30 fund which I believe will be coming to Canada in the next few years. In a nutshell a 130/30 mutual fund allows a fund manager to not only go long the stocks he/she thinks will go up, but to also short the stocks that he/she thinks are over-priced. Every dollar invested goes into the long stocks and then the manager will short some stocks (equivalent to 30% of the money invested). When you short a stock (selling a stock you don't own), you still receive the sale proceeds. So now the manager has another 30 cents to play with, which he/she uses to go long more stocks. Hence the name 130/30. You can read my original post from back in December by clicking here. Mutual_fund.jpgThere has been some debate as to the best way to benchmark these funds' performance. Standard and Poor's indicated that they were going to launch coverage of the US 130/30 index by creating a screen for what stocks to be shorted by using the lowest 30 rated stocks of the S&P500 according to their proprietary STARS stock rating system and factor in their inverse performance into 130% of the S&P500 index. However, I came across this very interesting white paper from Standard and Poor's in which the authors conclude that the actual best benchmark to use would be the plain vanilla S&P500 index (or in Canada the S&P/TSX Total Return Index), and I am inclined to agree. The paper includes the CFA Institute's views on the criteria necessary for a proper benchmark in the paper, and the authors do a fine job supporting their conclusion. You can read the S&P's white paper by clicking here (PDF Download). I believe that the peer group performance of the 130/30 funds for each respective index in which they operate needs to be tracked so that you can compare each 130/30 fund to it's competitor, but then to use the plain index as the relative benchmark to assess if this structure is indeed providing alpha. After all, not only are you asking the fund managers to pick winning stocks (and there are many studies to show that this is hard enough), you are throwing in another variable into the mix by having them try to pick the losing stocks as well.
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580 2008-05-04 22:04:19 2008-05-05 05:04:19 open open how-do-you-benchmark-a-13030-mutual-fund publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213628663 _edit_last 1 1226 info@PAfunds.com http://thedealsleuth.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/negative-alpha-is-built-into-13030-funds/ 68.173.245.56 2008-05-24 01:31:46 2008-05-24 05:31:46 Note that the 130/30 manager can not utilize all the proceeds of the short sale to buy longs, because the broker must retain at least some of it. As a result, the manager must borrow to acquire the equivalent amount of stock that was sold short. The spread between the borrowing cost and the short rebate can affect returns quite significantly, as
this post by The Deal Sleuth shows.

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Active Funds Protect In A Down Market... Debunked http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/active-funds-protect-in-a-down-market-debunked/ Tue, 06 May 2008 07:54:47 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/06/active-funds-protect-in-a-down-market-debunked/ ChasingTheMarketsOrRisk.jpgWell, as Allan Roth points out, we're in a down market so let's ante up. The blinds are in and though we might be waiting for the river card to be turned over yet (we might not be through the down market is what I'm getting at), it looks like index funds have managed to outperform even in the downturn. He cites the Morningstar ratings for three popular index funds as proxies for index funds in general, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index for the US index, the Vanguard Total International Stock Index for global stocks and the Vanguard Total Bond Index for bonds. The Morningstar numbers represent the percentile in which the performance of a fund ranks against it's peers, so a rating of 1 means a fund is in the top 1% of returns for a peer group and a 100 rating means the fund is basically the worst (so a lower number is better). Therefore, if index funds were expected to underperform active management they should have a Morningstar number dramatically above 50 meaning that their return is worse than the average active fund. Here are the numbers from January 1st of this year until April 25th:

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index: 39 Vanguard Total International Stock Index: 26 Vanguard Total Bond Fund: 21

The author explains that the reason for this may be simple arithmetic since just as active management has an almost 2% fee hurdle to overcome in an up market, the same holds true in a down market lest anyone forget. In fact, he goes so far as to say that anyone who argues that active management protects in a down market doesn't believe in arithmetic. You can read his original article by clicking here.]]>
581 2008-05-06 00:54:47 2008-05-06 07:54:47 open open active-funds-protect-in-a-down-market-debunked publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1213628644 1227 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-05-06 18:49:15 2008-05-07 01:49:15 The situation is actually worse for actively-managed funds than it first appears. Morningstar's risk-adjusted return formula penalizes volatility far too severely. The cash that actively-managed funds tend to hold lowers their volatility somewhat compared to indexes. So, index ETFs get rated too low in Morningstar's ratings.

There have been severe down markets where actively-managed funds have performed comparably to indexes, but this can also be explained by cash holdings.

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1228 2008-05-07 04:03:46 2008-05-07 11:03:46 Excellent point Michael James. I have also not seen any evidence to suggest that managers who do hold substantial cash positions switched to cash before any initial downturn in performance (i.e. sometimes the cash positions come too late). I think a certain amount of their cash holding can be attributed to knowing that investor redemptions are ramping up as well.

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Book Giveaway: KPMG Tax Planning For You and Your Family 2008 Edition http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-kpmg-tax-planning-for-you-and-your-family-2008-edition/ Wed, 07 May 2008 10:30:29 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/07/book-giveaway-kpmg-tax-planning-for-you-and-your-family-2008-edition/

Win a Free Copy of KPMG's Tax Planning For You and Your Family 2008! 

KPMGTaxBook.jpgJust arrived in sunny Vancouver today for two weeks of visiting with my parents and with my BC clients, so I needed a quick post to whip up! As luck would have it, someone sent me an extra copy of KPMG's Tax Planning For You and Your Family 2008, so I thought I would give it away through a contest on the blog.

Every year I keep the updated copy with me almost at all times (home or work), and to be honest, I do even read it at night for fun on occasion. The book is not daunting at all, it's actually set up mostly in a point-form format with very quick and succinct information that is surprisingly easy to read. Anyone who has an interest in personal finance should consider buying a copy. I think most people would find a few tips that will save enough taxes to cover the purchase.

However, you might want to wait a few days before running off to make that purchase because you'll want to see if you won this giveaway contest that I'm running first. :)

Easy Rules:

  • Just leave a comment on this post by midnight (EST) on Sunday May 11th, 2008 (scroll down to see the comment link below) for a free entry.
  • Bloggers can earn a second free entry by providing a link to this contest post on any regular blog entry between now and midnight on Saturday May 10th, 2008 (and drop me a line, or let me know through your comment below that you did so, or are planning to so I know to look out for it and count it).
  • Random draw for the winner will take place at midnight on Sunday May 11th, 2008 with the winner announced on Monday May 12th, 2008.
  • You must provide a valid email address in the comment form (don't worry it is kept private and not shown to others)
That's it - Good Luck everyone!
 
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If you like this blog, you might like my book:
  RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

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582 2008-05-07 03:30:29 2008-05-07 10:30:29 open open book-giveaway-kpmg-tax-planning-for-you-and-your-family-2008-edition publish 0 0 post 0 1229 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-05-07 11:33:09 2008-05-07 18:33:09 I'd love to win the book!

Mike

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1230 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.125.185 2008-05-07 11:30:28 2008-05-07 18:30:28 Sounds like a great book to add to the library at home. Please count me in.
Pat

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1231 abcstocks@gmail.com 76.66.22.62 2008-05-07 12:13:34 2008-05-07 19:13:34 Sounds like a great idea. Please count me in.

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1232 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-05-07 12:09:14 2008-05-07 19:09:14 oooo.. sounds like a great book. If you're read Tim Cestnick's tax books, how do they compare?

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1233 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-05-07 12:19:38 2008-05-07 19:19:38 I'd also love a copy of this book, if there is one thing that it pays to know all the rules it's taxes.

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1 0 0
1234 david.longe@gmail.com 69.77.162.130 2008-05-07 12:26:49 2008-05-07 19:26:49 Sign me up!

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1 0 0
1235 nicolas.lutz@alumni.uottawa.ca 74.56.40.202 2008-05-07 12:37:21 2008-05-07 19:37:21 Another contest, when will you stop!

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1 0 0
1236 quicklunarcop@gmail.com 192.197.178.2 2008-05-07 12:41:21 2008-05-07 19:41:21 I read this book from the library, but I would love to have my own copy. Count me in for the draw!

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1 0 0
1237 liana_sury@yahoo.ca 207.112.118.79 2008-05-07 13:37:31 2008-05-07 20:37:31 Hello!

I would love to read your book on personal finance and so do other members of my family. Anything that allows
us to reduce our tax load will be read meticulously.

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1 0 0
1238 lblees@shaw.ca 70.68.216.42 2008-05-07 13:43:59 2008-05-07 20:43:59 sounds like a needed book for any of us! Sign me up.

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1 0 0
1239 jobetancourt@yahoo.com 72.1.201.82 2008-05-07 13:50:35 2008-05-07 20:50:35 I would like to have this book at home. Count me in.

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1 0 0
1240 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 96.52.40.35 2008-05-07 13:54:05 2008-05-07 20:54:05 Please Sign me up..

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1 0 0
1241 amw124@gmail.com 199.185.96.3 2008-05-07 13:57:03 2008-05-07 20:57:03 Count me in!

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1 0 0
1242 ad.ianson@gmail.com 204.191.165.33 2008-05-07 13:53:09 2008-05-07 20:53:09 You can never know too much about the Canadian income tax system!

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1 0 0
1243 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2008-05-07 14:04:09 2008-05-07 21:04:09 Hey Preet, I just started reading your blog, and I'm loving it so far. Keep up the great work. Count me in for the draw!

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1 0 0
1244 jamiemorell@gmail.com 198.164.246.13 2008-05-07 14:10:00 2008-05-07 21:10:00 Sign me up!

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1 0 0
1245 99.252.208.161 2008-05-07 15:34:05 2008-05-07 22:34:05 Sounds like a great book to read. I am looking forward to winning!

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1 0 0
1246 robgaudrault@hotmail.com 70.66.212.193 2008-05-07 15:43:01 2008-05-07 22:43:01 Dude! love the site :)

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1 0 0
1247 jez.stefan@gmail.com 38.108.65.109 2008-05-07 16:53:03 2008-05-07 23:53:03 count me in!

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1 0 0
1248 shervin_tey@yahoo.ca 24.82.150.212 2008-05-07 17:27:51 2008-05-08 00:27:51 Count me in
I wonder what is the best Tax Book for Canadian financial Savvy?

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1 0 0
1249 talcumboy@gmail.com 24.68.128.218 2008-05-07 19:50:16 2008-05-08 02:50:16 Pick me, pick me!

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1 0 0
1250 qubikal@yahoo.com 64.253.156.47 2008-05-07 22:02:12 2008-05-08 05:02:12 Ways to scam the government (j/k)... great.. sign me up!!

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1 0 0
1251 mike.signups@gmail.com 72.139.19.250 2008-05-07 22:17:53 2008-05-08 05:17:53 Sounds like a good book!

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1252 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.49.224 2008-05-08 02:45:58 2008-05-08 09:45:58 I'm in.

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1 0 0
1253 cashinstinct@gmail.com 65.95.35.252 2008-05-08 03:21:38 2008-05-08 10:21:38 Thanks for giving your 2nd copy, count me in!

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1 0 0
1254 nblakley@dualinnovations.com 24.69.39.197 2008-05-08 03:59:43 2008-05-08 10:59:43 Gotta have that book!!!
Thank you for keeping up your excellent blog. Been reading since last November.

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1 0 0
1255 rice.daddy@gmail.com 207.6.56.169 2008-05-08 06:20:23 2008-05-08 13:20:23 gimme the book! haha.

great blog btw

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1 0 0
1256 chuppe@sympatico.ca 67.68.219.101 2008-05-08 08:50:59 2008-05-08 15:50:59 You can't have to many personal finance books. Count me in :)

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1 0 0
1257 jbc1969@hotmail.com 68.179.56.65 2008-05-08 13:27:52 2008-05-08 20:27:52 Ditto

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1 0 0
1258 vsergiev@hotmail.com 206.222.70.71 2008-05-08 17:27:37 2008-05-09 00:27:37 I would like to participate in the draw!

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1 0 0
1259 amyhuang2005@gmail.com 68.179.121.193 2008-05-08 18:06:57 2008-05-09 01:06:57 Your site is one of my favoriate investment knowledge sites. Great job! Knowlege is power.... count me in for the book draw.... thx!

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1 0 0
1260 thebigjc@gmail.com http://chapters.indigo.ca 65.110.174.71 2008-05-08 19:01:12 2008-05-09 02:01:12 Count me in!

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1 0 0
1261 dsa330@gmail.com 70.73.50.15 2008-05-08 20:54:00 2008-05-09 03:54:00 Sign me up too!

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1262 milneepp@hotmail.com 146.131.120.2 2008-05-09 03:38:42 2008-05-09 10:38:42 sad but true... I like reading about tax.... but I don't like paying it... Pick me

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1 0 0
1263 Mikeisnt@telus.net 24.84.132.181 2008-05-09 03:42:22 2008-05-09 10:42:22 I'm holding my breath.

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1 0 0
1264 hxing1977@hotmail.com 76.66.133.132 2008-05-09 05:43:13 2008-05-09 12:43:13 count me in, email me if i win the book

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1 0 0
1265 xrouge@gmail.com 75.153.126.17 2008-05-09 06:33:13 2008-05-09 13:33:13 Each year I pay too much tax, maybe the book will teach me why.

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1 0 0
1266 204.50.168.206 2008-05-09 12:08:21 2008-05-09 19:08:21 I love doing taxes, and would love it even more with this book!

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1 0 0
1267 swsells@telus.net 205.206.157.31 2008-05-09 16:23:09 2008-05-09 23:23:09 Would love this book.

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1 0 0
1268 takethejump@yahoo.com 198.103.184.76 2008-05-09 16:42:46 2008-05-09 23:42:46 please enter me in the contest

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1 0 0
1269 tvenner@baystreet.ca 72.12.161.127 2008-05-09 19:10:12 2008-05-10 02:10:12 I love taxes!

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1 0 0
1270 tjklven@mountaincable.net 72.12.161.127 2008-05-09 19:12:08 2008-05-10 02:12:08 Put me in the draw.

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1 0 0
1271 guy.simard@gmail.com 192.75.88.231 2008-05-09 20:32:01 2008-05-10 03:32:01 count me in !!

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1 0 0
1272 yang.alfred@gmail.com 206.248.129.193 2008-05-09 21:19:36 2008-05-10 04:19:36 Count me in! =)

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1 0 0
1273 liyihong@gmail.com 66.18.214.184 2008-05-09 21:38:42 2008-05-10 04:38:42 Love it, count me in

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1 0 0
1274 aaron.warsylewicz@usask.ca 70.73.50.15 2008-05-10 00:45:39 2008-05-10 07:45:39 count me in !!
(Ignore the previous post as I typed my email address in wrong!)

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1 0 0
1275 76.68.104.131 2008-05-10 08:46:06 2008-05-10 15:46:06 Everyday one learns especially the rightway

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1 0 0
1276 jwmolyneaux@yahoo.com 76.74.194.84 2008-05-10 12:32:57 2008-05-10 19:32:57 Count me in

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1 0 0
1277 gayowski@hotmail.com 99.243.16.244 2008-05-10 13:28:54 2008-05-10 20:28:54 Keep up the good work (and free stuff).

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1 0 0
1278 dssargen@telus.net 154.20.154.66 2008-05-10 13:46:09 2008-05-10 20:46:09 count me in! I just recently started reading your blog. Loved the Ferengi rules of acquisition!

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1279 mrichard00@gmail.com 207.61.115.8 2008-05-10 14:28:46 2008-05-10 21:28:46 Sounds like a good one, would love a copy.

Marc

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1 0 0
1280 zahid.jafry@onusconsultinggroup.com http://www.onusconsultinggroup.com 74.14.104.23 2008-05-10 20:47:49 2008-05-11 03:47:49 An important book, it seems. Here's to you, Preet. For improving the personal finance skills of a lucky Canadian. Count me in the contest!

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1 0 0
1281 baoling_p@yahoo.com 205.200.209.148 2008-05-11 03:23:29 2008-05-11 10:23:29 Free stuff is usually under-appreciated. So whoever gets the book, make sure you read it.

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1282 RAJIVERMA@HOTMAIL.COM 209.90.142.189 2008-05-11 17:14:10 2008-05-12 00:14:10 ANOTHER VALUABLE TOOL FOR TAX INFORMATION IN YOUR HANDS JUST LIKE YOUR MOST VALUABLE BOOK ON RRSP....ANOTHER HONEST APPROACH FOR THE PEOPLE.

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1 0 0
1283 65.92.96.172 2008-05-11 22:56:09 2008-05-12 05:56:09 It's a great book - I've picked it up in the past. Count me in.

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1 0 0
1284 lilly.family@sympatico.ca 69.158.61.144 2008-05-13 15:06:52 2008-05-13 22:06:52 ...looking forward to seeing great tax info.

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1285 seelan45@gmail.com 67.212.15.82 2009-01-19 18:47:33 2009-01-19 23:47:33 1 0 0 1286 caicacai@163.com http://www.ed-hardy.cc/ 120.33.202.154 2009-07-16 03:07:06 2009-07-16 08:07:06 ed hardy shoes ed hardy men long sleeve tee]]> 1 0 0
Portfolio Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/portfolio-insurance/ Thu, 08 May 2008 03:47:01 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/07/portfolio-insurance/ So What Is It? Portfolio Insurance is actually provided in many different forms, but the one I'm going to focus in on is the Purchasing of Put Options. First, we must define what a Put Option is: A Put Option is a contract which gives the option holder the right, but not the obligation, to sell an underlying security (stock, bond, ETF, etc) for a set price during the life of the contract. Okay, so what the heck does that mean... Let's explain with an example. Let's suppose that you own a stock that is currently trading at $50/share. If you own it, that means you think it should probably go up, right? Well, you also know that stocks can move either up OR down in price and sometimes bad news can bring a stock's price down in a hurry. If you wanted to protect against a decline in price you would purchase a put option on this stock. Perhaps you would purchase a put option that gives you the right to sell this stock for $48/share at any point in the next 6 months. You have to pay for this option however, and the price might be $1/share. This means that if the stock suddenly fell in price below $48/share in the next 6 months, you wouldn't particularly care since even if the stock was trading at $40/share you could exercise your option to sell the stock for $48/share to the person you bought your put option from. If the stock never trades below $48 and you never exercise your option during the life of the contract that's fine - the contract just expires worthless. Whether you exercise your option or not, that price you paid for that contract ($1/share) is forever lost. And if you wanted your portfolio "insured" at all times, you would have to buy a new put option contract when the old one expires - which in this case would cost your portfolio 4% per year. That is a significant drag on your portfolio when the markets are moving up, however it's a perfectly acceptable cost when the markets are dropping and it works in your favour, right? Well, since the markets tend to go up 2/3 of the time and down only 1/3 of the time it may not be worth using on a constant basis. The graph below show the profit-loss of just buying our example stock for $50 (shown in the dashed grey line). You can see that the break-even point is the $50 mark of course (since you are neither up nor down at this point). If the stock's price goes up, so does your profit. If the stock goes down in price, you could lose up to $50/share if the stock became worthless (or 100% of your investment). The colourful line which goes from red to green shows the profit-loss profile of buying the stock and buying a put option with a $48/share strike price with a cost of $1/share. The investor is protected from ever losing more than $3/share - this is made up of the distance of the purchase price of the stock ($50/share) from the strike price of the put option ($48/share) PLUS the cost of the put option ($1/share). The cost of the put option also moves the breakeven point to the right to $51/share (purchase price of stock plus cost of the option), and it also creates a drag on the upside performance (just the cost of the option). In this case, the downside is limited while the upside is again unlimited, albeit with a slight drag.

MarriedPut2.jpg

If you are thinking about implementing portfolio insurance, there are a couple of things you can do to lessen the drag on your portfolio:

First, you can purchase a put option with a lower strike price, of say $42/share. This represents insurance that protects your investment from dropping more than 16% as opposed to 4% as would be the case with a $48/share strike price used in the above sample case. If you own an individual stock or even a broad market optionable ETF, a 4% movement (in either direction) is par for the course on a regular basis. I would rather buy a put with a strike price that you know would make you jittery if the underlying stock ever fell to those levels. You would dramatically cut the cost of the insurance (and resultant drag on the portfolio), and you wouldn't worry about a regular correction (since you are protected), meaning you are less likely to sell at the wrong times like most people.

Second, you can pick when to implement the insurance. When the markets have just tumbled, option prices go up for puts as there is more volatility and fear. You probably don't need the insurance after a correction just happened anyways, so I wouldn't be buying puts right now for example. On the other hand, when your portfolio has been growing faster than the long term average you expect for your portfolio, it might be a better time to consider the puts. When markets are chugging along, there is less fear and put options may be cheap to buy.

However, irrespective of put option pricing, i.e. even if puts always cost the same, I would still recommend giving more thought to puts after your portfolio has been on an upward tear as opposed to after it has tumbled - you are more likely to need the protection reverting down to the mean and less likely to need it after a market correction has just happened.

I think I'll stop right there since this has been a fairly lengthy post, but we have only begun to scratch the surface! I'll write more about options and strategies in the future if you guys are interested. As a final note, I should point out that 1 option contract is for 100 shares of the underlying security so if you wanted to buy 1 put option contract for $2/share you would want to own 100 shares of the underlying stock and the cost of the option contract would be $200 + commissions (maybe $15 at a discount brokerage).

Also, remember to enter the contest for the free tax planning book: click here.

Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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583 2008-05-07 20:47:01 2008-05-08 03:47:01 open open portfolio-insurance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265292682 _edit_last 1 1287 azn_lazyjai@hotmail.com 142.150.206.46 2008-05-08 22:31:05 2008-05-09 05:31:05 Awesome article on options, I am just starting to research about it and thinking about playing it as a DIY investor and here you have. A introduction made convenience for me. Thanks.

P.S. - I am still eager to hear your news about your little personal finance course. =)

Gary

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1288 2008-05-09 01:09:46 2008-05-09 08:09:46 Ah, yes - the personal finance course. I've put that on the back burner since I've been so busy with work. Even if I were to start working on it now bit by bit, I imagine it would take 6 months to write the content and then another 2 months to get it all set up. However, perhaps your note is motivation enough for me to get off my ass and get started! :)

Glad you liked this post - I'll start writing about options more in the future.

Preet

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1289 goog_guy_29@yahoo.com 65.93.209.66 2009-04-11 12:22:53 2009-04-11 17:22:53 1 0 0 1290 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-12 09:47:47 2009-04-12 14:47:47 1 0 0 1291 ng_hui_ying@hotmail.com 124.13.165.97 2010-02-04 06:52:04 2010-02-04 11:52:04 1 0 0 1292 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-04 09:04:02 2010-02-04 14:04:02 1 1291 0
A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-9/ Fri, 09 May 2008 00:18:45 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/08/a-lap-of-the-blogs-9/ Don't forget that I'm giving away a free copy of KPMG's Tax Planning For You and Your Family 2008 - entry deadline is this Sunday at midnight - you can enter by clicking here for details. I'm enjoying my pseudo time off in Vancouver where I've realized that I'm very much sleep deprived. It's amazing how a 'Control-Alt-Delete' on life re-energizes you. :) Without further adieu... A Lap Of The Blogs Investizmo is new to the blogosphere so I thought I would point to his entry on how Microsoft has switched its sights from Yahoo! to Facebook. The blog's author is a trader for a big Bay Street firm and so far his blog is focused more on market news and musings in a very readable tone. Good luck with the blog! The Canadian Capitalist asserts that currency hedging has its costs and might not be worth it in the long run. Personally, I believe that since the recent past has shown that hedging might have been nice with the run-up of the loonie, that's exactly why you might not want to hedge for the next while anyways. Canadian Financial DIY gives his two cents on why Standard Deviation and Correlation are not useless tools as espoused by the author of another website (linked from within the blog post). The Quest For Four Pillars would like you to know that 'it's the thought that counts' with Mother's day around the corner and provides some suggestions for gifts that won't break the bank. Thicken My Wallet suggests that you shouldn't judge your advisor when things are going well, but rather you should judge them when things are going wrong. That's Gold Jerry! Canadian Dream: Free at 45 has some 'Strange Thoughts' that he would like to share. They are actually not so strange, but definitely thought provoking! The author just welcomed a new baby into the family, so congratulations are in order too! Michael James On Money writes about one of Warren Buffett's latest investment strategies. He and I continue the discussion in the comments section. The Million Dollar Journey has a great post that summarized the different types of retirement investment accounts and their differences between Canada and the US. This Week's Racing Video So who are the craziest racers in the world? Consideration must be given to the participants of the annual Isle of Man TT Race - over 100 years there has been over 2 deaths per year in this famous event in which motorcycle racers drive as fast as they can through a 37 mile course through a small city. This is a 9 minute video, but just when you think you've seen crazy - it's gets even better! How about doing a wheelie at 300 km/h, and passing a guy on the outside of a corner with walls on either side? Does that qualify as crazy?
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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584 2008-05-08 17:18:45 2008-05-09 00:18:45 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-9 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297048 _edit_last 1 1293 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 158.140.1.25 2008-05-08 19:49:31 2008-05-09 02:49:31 Thanks for the link Preet. Have a nice weekend.

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1294 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-05-09 03:25:48 2008-05-09 10:25:48 Thanks for the link. Have a good weekend.

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1295 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 72.2.50.23 2008-05-10 18:33:59 2008-05-11 01:33:59 Thanks for the link. Enjoy the weekend.

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The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-ferengi-rules-of-acquisition/ Sat, 10 May 2008 06:01:17 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/09/the-ferengi-rules-of-acquisition/ Ferengi.jpg#8. Small print leads to large risk. #9. Opportunity plus instinct equals profit. #34. War is good for business. #35. Peace is good for business. #48. The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife. #59. Free advice is seldom cheap. #125. You can't make a deal if you're dead. #141. Only fools pay retail. #194. It's always good business to know about your customers before they walk in your door. And here are some of the more humorous ones: #1. Once you have their money, you never give it back. #11. Even if it's free, you can always buy it cheaper. #23. Nothing is more important than your health. Except for your money. #50. Never bluff a Klingon. #77. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies. #89. Ask not what your profits can do for you, but what you can do for your profits. #112. Never have sex with the boss's sister. #113. Never have sex with the boss's daughter. #114. Never have sex with the boss's wife. #115. Always have sex with the boss. #189. Let others keep their reputation. You keep their money. #255. A wife is a luxury... a smart accountant, a necessity.]]> 585 2008-05-09 23:01:17 2008-05-10 06:01:17 open open the-ferengi-rules-of-acquisition publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214533566 _edit_last 1 1296 141.119.184.10 2008-05-12 16:22:32 2008-05-12 23:22:32 How about this: “You can find a free cheese only in a mousetrap.”

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1297 lisa.spinelli@comcast.net 157.93.30.85 2008-05-19 17:11:45 2008-05-19 21:11:45 A huge fortune at home is not as good as money in use.

Lisa

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How Mutual Fund Sales Are Compensated In Canada http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-mutual-fund-sales-are-compensated-in-canada/ Sun, 11 May 2008 12:28:41 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/11/how-mutual-fund-sales-are-compensated-in-canada/ The Representative Sample Fund Our sample fund is a Canadian Equity mutual fund that has a management fee of 1.25% and 'other fees and expenses' of 0.25% (brokerage costs, administration expenses, etc). Therefore the mutual fund manufacturer's fee to operate this fund is 1.50%. The manufacturer is the company that actually picks the investments and runs the portfolio. The manufacturer also adds a 'service fee'. It is this service fee from which commissions are generated. The typical 'service fee' is 1.00%, with a few exceptions as noted below. To make a long story short the MER of this fund would be 2.50% which is made up of the management fee and other operating expenses (1.50%) plus the service fee (1.00%). Front-End Load Mutual Funds A front-end load version of this mutual fund pays an ongoing trailer to the advisor of the typical 1.00%. This means the advisor will receive 1.00% of the average value of your investment in this fund over the course of every year. The reason that it is called a front-end load version is because the advisor additionally has the ability to charge you a front end sales charge between 0% and 5% which gets deducted from your investment immediately. In many cases, fund companies will limit this to a maximum of 2% instead of 5%. (Further, many advisors will sell a front-end version of a fund with a front-end fee of 0% - they would do this when there is no specific 'no-load' version of the same fund available and they would like the features associated with that type of version of fund.) As an example, if you invested $100,000 into a front end load fund with a front end load of 2%, your initial investment would be docked $2,000 which goes to the advisor leaving $98,000 to be invested and your advisor would further earn a 1% trailer per year of the amount in your account. DSC Funds or Back-End Load Mutual Funds Most commonly known as DSC funds, and also as Deferred Sales Charge funds and Declining Sales Charge funds. Many funds are sold on a DSC basis - the reason for this is because it allows for the biggest up-front commission of any of the other versions (except for the advisor who would actually charge a 5% front-end load - which is pretty rare). It is important to note that DSC funds pay your advisor an up front commission of 5% even though this is not subtracted from your initial investment deposit. Rather, the fund manufacturer pays the advisor in advance for the future service fees that will be generated. The ongoing trailer fee to the advisor is reduced from 1.00% to 0.25% in exchange for the lump sum, up-front commission. It is also important to note that if you sell out of these funds you are subject to a redemption fee for the first 7 years (plus or minus depending on the fund company). The redemption fee normally starts at 5.0% in the first year and then gradually declines to 0% after 7 years, hence these funds sometimes being referred to as 'declining sales charge' funds. After the 7 years there would be no fees to sell out of these funds. This redemption fee is basically the fund company's assurance that the up front commission to the advisor will be accounted for should the investor sell out before the future service fees can be generated. Basically, if you sell out of your fund after year 1, you pay a 5% penalty that covers the fund company's initial commission to the advisor. The service fee charged by the fund remains at 1.00%. The service fee shouldn't be confused with the trailer fee the advisor receives, which for DSC funds is 0.25% as mentioned above. This means there is a 0.75% surplus the fund company is running every year and it is from this ongoing surplus that the up front commission liability is paid off over the course of a little more than 6 years (hence the 7 year redemption fee schedule). If you invest $100,000 into a DSC fund your advisor generates a $5,000 commission right away, and you still have $100,000 invested. The advisor additionally receives an ongoing trailer fee of 0.25% of the average value of your investment every year. If you sell out of your funds within the first 7 years, you are charged a redemption fee which goes to the fund company to offset it's up front payment to the advisor. Essentially you are making a promise that you will stay invested for 7 years otherwise you will pay a penalty. Because the fund company has this guarantee from you, they can afford to pay a large lump sum to the advisor right away. No Load Funds No load funds have no initial front end fees, nor do they have any DSC fees. In other words you only have to worry about paying the ongoing MER for as long as you hold the funds. The advisor will generate a 1.00% commission every year based on the average value of your investment - they receive no up-front commission for no-load funds, just the ongoing trailer fee. If you invested $100,000 to a no-load fund, you will have nothing deducted from your initial investment and you advisor will not earn an up-front commission but they will still earn a 1.00% commission based on the average value of your investment every year. (In some very rare cases, a no-load fund may have a higher trailer than other versions of the same fund - which means it would have a higher service fee as well.) Low Load Funds (Sometime referred to as Level Load) Just think of these as a scaled back version of DSC funds, with a bit of a twist. The up front commission is lower, averaging 3% versus the DSC's 5%. The redemption fees start at 3% and decline to 0% after 3 years instead of the fees starting at 5% and declining to 0% after 7 years for DSC funds. But here is the twist: while the trailer fee is initially set to 0.25%, it increases to 1.00% as the redemption fee schedule expires. This is why it is also known as 'level load'. If you invested $100,000 into a Low-Load fund (or Level Load fund), you are not docked any money up front. Your advisor receives $3,000 as an up-front commission and 0.25% of the average value of your account in the first year. He or she will receive 0.50% of the average value of your account in the second year, 0.75% in the third year and then 1.00% every year thereafter. F-Class Funds The 'F' stands for 'Fee based accounts' funds. These are relatively new types of accounts that charge clients a transparent fee that is easily seen on statements (called the Client Advisory Fee). This was introduced to address complaints of investors not knowing what they were paying their advisors as the compensation was essentially hidden and not well disclosed. For the F-Class version of a fund there is NO service fee. So for our sample fund that would mean that the MER of the fund has been reduced from the 2.50% in all the previous cases to 1.50%. BUT to make an apples to apples comparison, you would need to add the Client Advisory Fee to this amount to determine your all-in cost. While a fee-based account provides more transparency, it may not necessarily be cheaper. Typically the Client Advisory Fee for F-class funds is set to 1.00%, therefore it is exactly the same as a no-load fund in terms of cost and flexibility (i.e. no charges to buy and sell), although a bit more transparent. There is one important advantage of fee-based accounts for non-registered investment portfolios in that it is possible to claim the Client Advisory Fee as a tax-deduction on your tax return (you need to have your accountant verify this for your own situation to be sure). In this case, if your marginal tax rate was 40%, then the after-tax Client Advisory Fee would be effectively 0.60% instead of 1.00%, meaning your out-of-pocket costs for an f-class version of a fund in a non-registered account would be 2.10% versus 2.50% for all the other fund versions. If you invested $100,000 into an F-class mutual fund, your initial investment would not be docked any up-front charges, and your advisor would not receive any up front commission. The advisor would receive a percentage (typically 1.00%) of the average value of your account every year. There would be no cost to sell out of the f-class fund. For non-registered accounts, your Client Advisory Fee may be tax-deductible (check with your accountant). The Commissions and Trailers are Split by the Advisor and His/Her Firm As a final note, all the commissions noted above may not necessarily go to the advisor but may be split between the advisor and the advisor's firm. Depending on the situation the advisor normally receives between 40% - 80% of the commissions generated, although percentages below and above this range is also possible in certain situations.]]> 586 2008-05-11 05:28:41 2008-05-11 12:28:41 open open how-mutual-fund-sales-are-compensated-in-canada publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218286716 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif 1298 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-05-11 09:30:36 2008-05-11 16:30:36 Another great article Preet. I enjoy the "insider" type posts.

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1299 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-05-11 11:06:08 2008-05-11 18:06:08 It's amazing how much more we pay for mutual funds than Americans do.

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1300 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-05-11 12:58:20 2008-05-11 19:58:20 Nice post. It can be difficult to write a brief summary without leaving out important details, but I think you've done it. I think I'll try to put together a 1000-foot view for readers who might get lost in the details.

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1301 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/welcome-globe-and-mail-readers/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-09 08:17:08 2008-08-09 12:17:08 1 pingback 0 0 1302 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-genesis-of-dsc-mutual-funds/ 68.178.254.235 2009-07-21 21:49:19 2009-07-22 02:49:19 1 pingback 0 0 1303 xaverian77@hotmail.com 24.222.120.68 2010-02-22 14:33:46 2010-02-22 19:33:46 1 0 0 1304 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-24 19:31:53 2010-02-25 00:31:53 1 1303 0
KPMG Tax Planning 2008 Book Giveaway Winner! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/kpmg-tax-planning-2008-book-giveaway-winner/ Mon, 12 May 2008 11:10:18 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/12/kpmg-tax-planning-2008-book-giveaway-winner/ KPMGTaxBook.jpgThe book giveaway is now over and after using a random number generator I'm please to announce that the winner of the KMPG: Tax Planning For You And Your Family 2008 book is "Elizabeth" (commenter #10). I will be contacting Elizabeth via email to get her shipping details and the book will be sent out accordingly. In total there were 55 entries for the contest and you can visit the original contest post by clicking here. Congratulations Elizabeth and thank you very much to all those who entered. In only a few weeks I'll start the next installment of the Money Movie Giveaway so stay tuned and make sure to enter that contest for your chance to win a DVD copy of a movie about money!
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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587 2008-05-12 04:10:18 2008-05-12 11:10:18 open open kpmg-tax-planning-2008-book-giveaway-winner publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297053 _edit_last 1 1305 dcpaley@gmail.com 167.80.244.204 2008-05-12 17:18:12 2008-05-13 00:18:12 This book is an excellent choice for a give away. It provides excellent tips and advice for everyone.

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1306 dcpaley@gmail.com http://blog.taxresource.ca 167.80.244.204 2008-05-12 17:19:46 2008-05-13 00:19:46 This book is an excellent choice for a give away. It provides excellent tips and advice for everyone.

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1307 dcpaley@gmail.com 167.80.244.204 2008-05-12 17:18:12 2008-05-12 21:18:12 This book is an excellent choice for a give away. It provides excellent tips and advice for everyone.

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1308 dcpaley@gmail.com http://blog.taxresource.ca 167.80.244.204 2008-05-12 17:19:46 2008-05-12 21:19:46 This book is an excellent choice for a give away. It provides excellent tips and advice for everyone.

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TSX Reaches All Time High http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/tsx-reaches-all-time-high/ Tue, 13 May 2008 03:34:57 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/12/tsx-reaches-all-time-high/ Bank Of Montreal 52 week high: $71.48, 52 week low: $38.00, Current: $49.12 Bank of Nova Scotia 52 week high: $54.67, 52 week low: $42.00, Current: $48.37 CIBC 52 week high: $107.45, 52 week low: $56.25, Current: $73.30 Royal Bank 52 week high: $61.08, 52 week low: $42.82, Current: $48.74 TD 52 week high: $77.10, 52 week low: $58.57, Current: $67.05
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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588 2008-05-12 20:34:57 2008-05-13 03:34:57 open open tsx-reaches-all-time-high publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297027 _edit_last 1 1309 info@zeromoneytoheromoney.com http://zeromoneytoheromoney.com 142.46.199.2 2008-05-13 12:18:05 2008-05-13 19:18:05 I think the TSX high reflects a couple of canada's companies (think RIM) and not the market as a whole in Canada.

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1310 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-05-13 12:32:40 2008-05-13 19:32:40 It's only a matter of time before the big banks reach their old highs again, IMO!

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1311 2008-05-13 16:27:42 2008-05-13 23:27:42 Zeromoney: you are quite right. In fact only 8 stocks were needed to account for the majority of the gains YTD.

MDJ: patience is a virtue and you are being paid to wait for these recoveries with big fat yields to boot.

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You Guys Decide What Gets Written Here http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-guys-decide-what-gets-written-here/ Wed, 14 May 2008 07:04:59 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/14/you-guys-decide-what-gets-written-here/ I've added a new feature to this blog today: Skribit. If you look on the right hand side you will see a new widget that says "What should I write about?". If you ever want to make a suggestion for a topic that you would like to read more about, just click on the widget and enter in your suggestion. For example, you could click and then write something short like: skribitlogo.pngTFSA Option Strategies Market Action RRSPs Budgeting etc. You can also vote for topics that are listed - so if someone suggested 'option strategies' and then 50 other people voted for it, you can be sure to see more blog posts about option strategies on this blog since my goal is to more fully engage all the readers and deliver content that you want to see. NOTE: You can make your suggestions and votes anonymously, but I believe you can set up an optional profile with Skribit as well. (I'm still figuring it out). If you sign up for a Skribit profile you can choose to be notified when I write a post based on your suggestion. If you are a regular reader though, I wouldn't bother since you'll see it posted anyways and as I'm new to Skribit, I can't recommend the service yet. So, I'll try out this new feature for a while and see how it goes. As always, if anyone has suggestions or wants to otherwise get in touch with me, you can always send me a private message as well.
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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589 2008-05-14 00:04:59 2008-05-14 07:04:59 open open you-guys-decide-what-gets-written-here publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297018 _edit_last 1
Hedging a Canadian Stock Portolio with a Double Inverse ETF http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/hedging-a-canadian-stock-portolio-with-a-double-inverse-etf/ Thu, 15 May 2008 03:45:58 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/05/14/hedging-a-canadian-stock-portolio-with-a-double-inverse-etf/ I received an email a few days ago from a reader who asked about hedging a portfolio, specifically using HXD which is the Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX 60 Bear Plus Fund. What a mouthful! For those who are not familiar with double and double inverse ETFs, essentially they provide 200% of the daily performance of an underlying index which in this case is the S&P/TSX 60 index. (Click here to read a more in-depth description I wrote a while back) The regular Bull ETF will return 2% when the S&P/TSX60 is up 1%, and will return -2% when the index is down 1%. The Bear version gives you 200% of the inverse performance so if the S&P/TSX is up 1%, the Bear ETF IS DOWN 2%. If the index is down 1%, the Bear ETF is UP 2%. Here is the original email:
I enjoy your blog and wonder if you would consider a column on the ins and outs of using a hedge (notional or formal) to reduce investment risk. A concrete example might be based on a primary investment in the TSX index with a hedge using the Horizon S&P TSX Bear Plus ETF(HXD). Or bonds. Or ishares XIN. Or ...? When is it a hedge and when is it diversification? How much is enough? etc.
Hedging is the complete opposite of Speculation. Another way to put it is that speculation is the taking on of risk in the hopes of a higher reward, and hedging is the elimination of risk and the elimination of higher potential rewards. The two are diametrically opposed. Let's assume that our test investor invests in XIU - which is the iShares ETF that tracks the S&P/TSX60 index. In order to completely hedge the portfolio (reduce all risk), he would need to hold 1/3 of his portfolio in HXD (the double inverse ETF that tracks the same underlying index). While he was doing this, his portfolio will be a flat line (actually it will be a slightly negative line over time as the MERs of each ETF will create a small drag on the portfolio). If he only wanted to reduce a portion of the volatility he could use smaller amounts of HXD. The graph below shows the the effects of different levels of hedging.

hedgingoriginal80.jpg You can see that holding 33% HXD completely removes risk from the portfolio and completely removes all returns as well. This is a perfect hedge. By using smaller percentages of HXD you can reduce the level of volatility (and corresponding returns) as much as you want.

So when would you hedge? Clearly from above, it would make sense that long term investors would not need to hedge their portfolios. If the goal is to reduce volatility ONLY, then as a long term investor you would look for other investments that had similar return expectations and low or negative correlation to your existing assets. That is diversification and it is different from hedging specifically because you are only trying to reduce volatility, not returns (hedging does both).

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590 2008-05-14 20:45:58 2008-05-15 03:45:58 open open hedging-a-canadian-stock-portolio-with-a-double-inverse-etf publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1213297006 1312 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.49.224 2008-05-15 16:08:14 2008-05-15 23:08:14 Why would you ever hedge? At every point in time, the 100% XIU portfolio is higher than any of the other hedged portfolios, which just seems to indicate to me that you are losing out on returns, and there doesn't appear to be any advantage at all.

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1313 2008-05-15 16:21:54 2008-05-15 23:21:54 Over long periods of time I don't believe you should be employing a constant hedge. However, if we flip the graph so that XIU were to lose 10% over the course of the same time period, the whole graph flips upside down and you will instantly see the benefits of hedging!

Or, take a peak from XIU. Imagine you picked that time to invest $100,000. If XIU decreases in value, all the other portfolio decrease LESS (look at the slopes).

So to answer your question - people hedge when they thing there is bad news pending. The catch is, how would you ever know for sure? And if you REALLY knew, why wouldn't you just sell your investments and wait out the storm?

There are other factors as well. If you had held XIU for years and have a large unrealized capital gain, you could add a hedge to keep your portfolio from losing value, while not triggering a gain on your entire portfolio. Once you thought the rough patch was over, you could remove the hedge. You would have a capital gain on the hedge (in this case), but it would be less than realizing a long, built up capital gain of the overall portfolio.

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1314 jaime.edwards@cisco.com 64.101.176.143 2008-10-06 09:29:54 2008-10-06 13:29:54 1 0 0 1315 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-10-06 09:44:16 2008-10-06 13:44:16 1 0 0 1316 rx3864@gmail.com 198.235.31.250 2009-01-09 15:45:41 2009-01-09 20:45:41 1 0 0 1317 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/05/20/are-leverage-etfs-for-me/ 82.165.243.157 2009-05-20 04:02:47 2009-05-20 09:02:47 1 pingback 0 0 1318 anonymous@hotmail.com 199.166.14.239 2009-07-10 11:09:39 2009-07-10 16:09:39 1 0 0
A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-10/ Fri, 16 May 2008 06:37:16 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/2008/5/15/a-lap-of-the-blogs-10/ Today is such a beautiful day in West Vancouver that I'm actually sitting outside while I write! Unfortunately I have a lot of work to do so I'll make this shorter than normal. From Around The Blogoshpere Michael James On Money finds that the average market average is not very average! Zahid Jafry is concerned that Certified Financial Planners are writing FEWER financial plans than before. While many personal finance bloggers abhor active management, Financial Jungle discusses some managers that have "skin in the game" and beat the market too. And finally, Mike from The Quest For Four Pillars asks why some parents are morons. This Week's Racing Video In the spirit of brevity, this video is a Formula One pit stop during which all four tires are replaced and a simulated full tank of fuel added in mere seconds (this was just a practice stop, but they kept the car in place and simulated the time required to fill it up). I would actually enjoy filling up at the gas station if it was like this!
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591 2008-05-15 23:37:16 2008-05-16 06:37:16 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-10 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297055 _edit_last 1 1319 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-05-16 04:28:07 2008-05-16 11:28:07 Thanks a lot for linking to the "moron" article. The answer to the question is "they just are". :)

Mike

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1320 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-05-16 12:13:27 2008-05-16 19:13:27 Thanks for the not so average link to my post about non-average market averages :-)

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Advertise http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/advertise/ Sun, 18 May 2008 20:37:49 +0000 http://symbiantcapital.com/?page_id=2 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com is currently accepting new advertisers and sponsors. Listed below are some basic site statistics and advertising options, but note that custom solutions are also available (I'm easy...) :) Site Statistics (Updated June 14th, 2008) Monthly Visitors: 11,000+ Monthly Pageviews: 22,000+ Google PageRank: 2 Alexa Rating: 235,635 Advertising Options Leaderboard Banner Ad: $150/month Located at top right of sight, visible on every page 125 x 125 Button Ads: $100/month Located above the fold, right side of page, visible on every page 468 x 60 Banner Ad: $75/month Located on homepage, middle of page above list of articles Please click here to email me with any questions or requests to advertise. I'm open to any creative alternatives if you don't see an option above that suits your needs.  ]]> 2035 2008-05-18 13:37:49 2008-05-18 20:37:49 open open advertise publish 0 0 page 0 _edit_lock 1246931417 _edit_last 1 _wp_page_template default The Five Greeks of Options http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-five-greeks-of-options/ Tue, 20 May 2008 07:36:50 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/the-five-greeks-of-options/ Delta: Is the amount of change in the theoretical value of the option contract for every $1 change in price of the underlying stock. Gamma: Is the amount of change in the Delta for every $1 change in price of the underlying stock. So in other words, it is the rate of change in Delta (similar to how acceleration relates to speed - acceleration is the rate of change of speed). Vega: Is the amount of change in the theoretical value of the option contract for every 1% change in the volatility estimate of the underlying stock. Theta: Is the amount of decay in the price of the option contract for a given period of time. For example you would see data for 7-day Thetas which would measure how much of the change in price of the contract was due to time decay over 7 days. Rho: Is the amount of change in the price of the option for every 1% change in interest rates. If interest rates go up, it makes owning call options more attractive and owning put options less attractive. It's not the easiest of concepts to understand but if you were trying to decide between selling short a stock or owning a put option (both profit when the stock goes down), you would be more inclined to short the stock in a higher interest rate environment since your short proceeds would earn more interest.]]> 609 2008-05-20 03:36:50 2008-05-20 07:36:50 open open the-five-greeks-of-options publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1219106843 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/holdingquestionmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/holdingquestionmark220.gif 1321 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/inteview-with-a-professional-options-trader/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-18 19:56:17 2008-08-18 23:56:17 1 pingback 0 0 Calculate Your Own Portfolio's Standard Deviation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/calculate-your-own-portfolios-standard-deviation/ Thu, 22 May 2008 06:28:22 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/calculate-your-own-portfolios-standard-deviation/ You may know if your portfolio's average returns are better or worse than your benchmark or other comparison portfolio, but how can you compare the risk? One way to get a better picture would be to compare standard deviations. While the standard deviations of benchmarks and individual mutual funds are easily available, no one provides you with the standard deviation of your own portfolio - so here is an easy method to do just that. (Actually an even easier method is at the end of this post.) QuestionMark.jpg1. The first thing to do is list your calendar year returns, for example: 2000: 8% 2001: -6% 2002: -12% 2003: 3% 2004: 15% 2005: 17% 2006: 17% 2007: 6% 2. Now, calculate the average of these numbers which is simply adding up all the returns and dividing by the number of years in question. The sum of returns is 48 and if you divide by 8 (the number of years) you end up with an average of 6. Remember this number. 3. Now you need to find the sum of the squared deviations. This just means that for every year you subtract the calendar year return from the average you found earlier and then square it. In other words: (Average return - return for that year)2. So for example for 2000 the squared deviation is (6-8)2 which equals -22 which equals 4. The squared deviation for 2001 is just (6-(-12))2 which equals 324. You continue to do this until you have all the squared deviations for all eight years. Then you add up all these numbers together which gives you 804. 4. Divide this number by the number of the years LESS ONE. In this case it is 7 since 8 minus 1 is 7. So in our case we divide 804 by 7 to yield 114.8571 5. Finally, take the square root of this number. In our example this leaves us with 10.71714. And that's your final answer. Therefore, this portfolio has an average return of 6.00% and an annual standard deviation of 10.72%. And if you want to save time, you could just open an excel spreadsheet and enter in the annual returns in a column (for example cells A1 through A8). Then click on a new cell and type: "=stdev(a1:a8)" Note - don't include the quotes. Just type everything as shown from the equals sign to the closing parenthesis. You can take the numbers from this example and see if you come up with the same answer.
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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610 2008-05-22 02:28:22 2008-05-22 06:28:22 open open calculate-your-own-portfolios-standard-deviation publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297022 _edit_last 1 1322 76.66.5.122 2008-05-22 21:13:24 2008-05-23 01:13:24 Hi

1. The first thing to do is list your calendar year returns

A seemingly simple statement but in the messy-real-world is there a consensus on the right way to do that calculation?

q

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1323 2008-05-23 00:30:20 2008-05-23 04:30:20 Excellent point - calculating your annual return is not so simple unless you have a lump sum and no distributions - only capital growth. This is rarely the case. Taxtips.ca has a calculator that can help you out: Click here

Anyone else have any links to some good calculators?

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1324 sys_analyst47@hotmail.com 167.202.221.228 2009-03-03 08:20:14 2009-03-03 13:20:14 1 0 0
A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-11/ Fri, 23 May 2008 05:15:52 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-11/ What's Going On With Me I've been working on a number of different projects lately, one of which is planning the careful migration of this blog to a wordpress format. It's taking some time, and in order to maintain my search engine ranking I will have to manually edit the URLs in the new MySQL database for a seamless transition (and to maintain valid destinations for inbound links). (I think.) So hopefully you will bare with me as the posting frequency may go down until the launch of the new site which should be in mid-June. I think the site has gotten a bit ugly, and I'm looking to take it up a notch in presentation. Thanks for your patience! :) A Lap Of The Blogs I see that the top Skribit suggestion so far has been a request for information on a career in financial advisory. Along that vein, Investizmo has written about how to become a trader - which is totally different than a retail financial advisor, but I'm sure you'll find it interesting. The Canadian Capitalist takes a small tour of some ETFs from Vanguard that can be used for global diversification. Canadian Dream: Free at 45 reminds us what's really important in life: time - the ultimate luxury. Tim's been spending lots of quality time at home lately and it's reinforced his desire to retire by 45. Canadian Financial DIY has a very informative post on Mortgage Investment Corporations. It basically allows pools of investors to act like a bank and provide capital that is used for mortgages - instead of the bank getting interest - you do. The returns are higher because the people borrowing money may be higher risk borrowers (construction, second mortgages, etc.). The Million Dollar Journey discusses the Manulife One Mortgages, indicating the higher costs may not be worth it for most. The discussion continues in the comments section - make sure to check them out. This Week's Racing Video Would you believe that a Formula One steering wheel costs as much as a BMW M3? Here's a four minute video exploring the fascinating technology that gets packed into where the horn goes on regular cars. (No airbags in racecars)
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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611 2008-05-23 01:15:52 2008-05-23 05:15:52 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-11 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297062 _edit_last 1 1325 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-05-23 09:46:03 2008-05-23 13:46:03 Thanks for the mention Preet. If you need some help with the migration, let me know!

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1326 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-05-23 20:11:12 2008-05-24 00:11:12 Thanks for the mention Preet. Have a nice weekend!

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Jeremy Siegel, Rex Murphy and Frugal Trader - All in one weekend! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/jeremy-siegel-rex-murphy-and-frugal-trader-all-in-one-weekend/ Mon, 26 May 2008 06:57:00 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/jeremy-siegel-rex-murphy-and-frugal-trader-all-in-one-weekend/ I had a great adventure in St. John's, Newfoundland this weekend. What a beautiful backdrop to have a conference in - the countryside is gorgeous, and the people are just so welcoming and friendly. The conference was for stockbrokers and financial planners from my firm and we had the pleasure of hearing numerous speakers - two of which really stuck out: Dr. Jeremy Siegel (author of Stocks For The Long Run) and Rex Murphy (CBC personality). I won't go into too much detail right now about Dr. Siegel's talk since I plan on slowly disseminating the material of the presentation over the week. I will tell you it was the most informative presentation I've ever been to and it was quite a privilege to hear him speak. For those of you who don't know, his book Stocks for the Long Run (now in it's 4th edition) was ranked as one of the top 10 books on investing of all time. As good as Dr. Siegel's talk was, Rex Murphy's presentation was nothing short of spectacular. I have never been in the presence of a speaker so captivating, incredibly intelligent and dynamic ever before. If you ever get the chance to see him speak - don't walk, RUN to get tickets. He had us practically rolling in the aisles with laughter and received a standing ovation that lasted quite a while. He practically made up half the presentation on the spot too - no cue cards, no slides, nothing. Unbelievable. And if that wasn't good enough, I had the pleasure of having a coffee with none other than Frugal Trader, the author of The Million Dollar Journey. There is a reason that his blog is so popular - he is one heck of a cool guy and we got along very well. He provided me with some valuable advice on the pending migration of this blog to it's new format and of course we talked investing for quite a while as well. The trip out to Saint John's was well worth the price just to meet Frugal Trader. If you haven't done so already, you should visit his site and check him out. Well, that's my weekend wrap up. I have two exams this week and a seminar to prepare and deliver so I will keep the posts a bit shorter this week. Maybe I have time for one last pub crawl before I go... :)
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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612 2008-05-26 02:57:00 2008-05-26 06:57:00 open open jeremy-siegel-rex-murphy-and-frugal-trader-all-in-one-weekend publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213297051 _edit_last 1 1327 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.21.69 2008-05-26 10:40:34 2008-05-26 14:40:34 It's St. John's, or Saint John depending on which province you're in.

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1328 2008-05-26 12:07:02 2008-05-26 16:07:02 Fixed.

Thanks Traciatim! :)

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1329 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-05-26 13:14:31 2008-05-26 17:14:31 Thanks for the mention Preet. Again, the pleasure was all mine. Keep an eye out for my post regarding our investment discussion!

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May Money Movie Giveaway Contest Is On! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/may-money-movie-giveaway-contest-is-on/ Tue, 27 May 2008 01:24:43 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/may-money-movie-giveaway-contest-is-on/ 2. Boiler RoomWallStreetCover.jpg 3. Casino 4. Trading Places 5. Glengarry Glen Ross 6. Ocean's Eleven (The original from 1960) To enter this month's contest, you just have to leave a comment on this post before midnight, May 31st, 2008. The contest is open to everyone, but for delivery locations outside of Canada, the recipient is responsbile for shipping charges. Comments on this post will not earn an entry for any other month's contest - so make sure to leave a comment for each month's contest in order to increase your chances of winning. Thanks and Good Luck everyone! For those who are interested, here is one of the original theatrical trailers for Wall Street (originally released in 1987 so the cell phones look like WWII radio packs):
Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
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613 2008-05-26 21:24:43 2008-05-27 01:24:43 open open may-money-movie-giveaway-contest-is-on publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213296701 _edit_last 1 1330 nicolas.lutz@alumni.uottawa.ca 74.56.40.202 2008-05-26 22:15:31 2008-05-27 02:15:31 Ocean's Eleven (The original from 1960)!!!

Originals are always best (See the Italian Job)

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1331 solfestcapital@yahool.ca http://financialliferules.blogspot.com/ 142.59.65.126 2008-05-27 01:57:33 2008-05-27 05:57:33 How about Rogue Trader as a movie pick.

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1332 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.49.224 2008-05-27 03:23:54 2008-05-27 07:23:54 I'm in.

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1333 rice.daddy@gmail.com 207.6.56.169 2008-05-27 04:05:46 2008-05-27 08:05:46 I love Wallstreet!!!

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1334 robgaudrault@hotmail.com 70.66.212.193 2008-05-27 05:05:58 2008-05-27 09:05:58 Yay! I hope I win.

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1335 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.125.185 2008-05-27 10:17:18 2008-05-27 14:17:18 Count me in please.

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1336 yannick.tapsoba@live.ca 206.188.66.209 2008-05-27 11:12:16 2008-05-27 15:12:16 Greed is good. Count me in.

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1337 216.59.250.164 2008-05-27 11:13:21 2008-05-27 15:13:21 oooo.... free stuff!!!

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1338 jez.stefan@gmail.com 38.108.65.109 2008-05-27 12:24:38 2008-05-27 16:24:38 I want Wallstreet!

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1339 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.14 2008-05-27 14:12:47 2008-05-27 18:12:47 Thanks for another giveaway! Never seen Wall Street, but I recommend Boiler Room and Glengarry Glen Ross

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1340 abcstocks@gmail.com 32.97.110.142 2008-05-27 14:18:54 2008-05-27 18:18:54 Please count me in !!!

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1341 tkwedler@mac.com http://imwtff.blogspot.com/ 70.78.205.13 2008-05-27 18:16:07 2008-05-27 22:16:07 Free stuff!!!!!

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1342 huzzah@danielo.org http://danielo.org 24.117.110.8 2008-05-27 18:44:18 2008-05-27 22:44:18 Movies! Huzzah!

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1343 mikeisnt@telus.net 64.59.144.86 2008-05-27 22:44:06 2008-05-28 02:44:06 I'm holding my breath.

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1344 zahid.jafry@onusconsultinggroup.com http://www.onusconsultinggroup.com 74.14.104.62 2008-05-28 00:04:01 2008-05-28 04:04:01 I already hear the Talking Heads' "This Must be the Place" echoing in my head.

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1345 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 96.52.40.35 2008-05-28 00:21:27 2008-05-28 04:21:27 FREE STUFF..???? ANY TIME. COUNT ME IN, PLEASE..!!!

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1346 alex_dilts@hotmail.com 99.236.60.175 2008-05-28 00:26:20 2008-05-28 04:26:20 A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place - Gordon Gekko!!!!!

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1347 45free@45free.com http://45free.com 24.141.216.198 2008-05-28 00:35:25 2008-05-28 04:35:25 I cannot believe Wall Street made it past round one!!!

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1348 gayowski@hotmail.com 156.34.150.171 2008-05-28 00:39:08 2008-05-28 04:39:08 If I win, can I have one of those portable photo copy things that Sheen uses instead?

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1349 llisebuisson@gmail.com http://lisebise.blogspot.com 99.231.131.15 2008-05-28 03:02:36 2008-05-28 07:02:36 Casino for me! it's the only scorcese film I've never seen!

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1350 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-05-28 13:15:53 2008-05-28 17:15:53 What do I want?

- Free sh*t.

When do I want it?

- Now.

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1351 quicklunarcop@gmail.com 192.197.178.2 2008-05-28 14:51:31 2008-05-28 18:51:31 Count me in! I've never seen the original Ocean's Eleven, so I would love that one!

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1352 ted.patterson@gnb.ca 142.139.0.69 2008-05-28 16:57:45 2008-05-28 20:57:45 Great site. Hmmmmmm......Wall Street or Casino.....tough one. Hopefully I have to choose!

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1353 arudra17@yahoo.ca http://please-dont-take-me-seriously.blogspot.com/ 75.155.116.179 2008-05-29 02:19:35 2008-05-29 06:19:35 Enter Me, Please!

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1354 mpacker99@gmail.com 24.211.82.83 2008-05-29 02:21:55 2008-05-29 06:21:55 hope i don't have to be canadian to win... :)

they are all good movies!

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1355 easymoney509@aol.com 67.38.226.78 2008-05-30 14:14:22 2008-05-30 18:14:22 throw my hat in the ring.

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1356 cashinstinct@gmail.com 74.57.144.83 2008-05-30 21:21:50 2008-05-31 01:21:50 Wall Street here I am!!! :P

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1357 pascalambrosino@gmail.com 99.248.89.161 2008-05-31 02:15:09 2008-05-31 06:15:09 WALL STREET!!!

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1358 russhorner@primus.ca 207.112.5.242 2008-05-31 22:55:27 2008-06-01 02:55:27 Sounds good to me. Count me in.

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1359 cstockman+charlieClark@gmail.com http://www.seattleuntimely.com 67.168.165.168 2008-06-06 01:38:32 2008-06-06 05:38:32 1 0 0 1360 bellybutton100@hotmail.com 174.5.178.214 2010-03-06 18:42:46 2010-03-06 23:42:46 1 0 0 1361 652@42up.com http://www.mattfleeger.info 212.235.107.58 2010-04-24 12:09:25 2010-04-24 17:09:25 http://digitaltvonpc.com/sattv01.jpg All TV Channels Available Satellite Tv link software The Local & International programs defined below are superior the normal Television service, because we offer the following Worth Noting... - The software gained notoriety by Beryl Zyskind printing our technology in his internet trend report can be found published on Digg.com * Works with 56k modem (dial-up) and high speed internet (DSL, cable, T1, wireless, satellite, etc.) * Fast loading channels with no distortion * Payments accepted: - with secure 128-bit SSL encryption * No credit check required * Free lifetime software updates * Satellite TV Feeds on PC works with Windows®, Mac and Linux OS systems * Adult channels for ages 18+ included for free (no pay-per-view fees) * No censorship by governments or networks - you watch whatever you want TV Online @ Anytime, from Anywhere... International TV software & service internet site or you can read more about our Television Program]]> spam 0 0 1362 Heedaddibra@avventurosob-inculateb.info http://www.tedesco-sesso.cexok.info 212.235.107.114 2010-04-24 22:25:48 2010-04-25 03:25:48 www.afabile-ma.cexok.infowww.older-woman-pornographic-picture.enormia-culoa.infowww.omorphea-pedixou.kanapent-giont.infowww.tetas-tetas.sexor-librer-alicanter.infowww.risibile-alto.cazziy-anzianiy.infochicas brazileÚascomprensivo cinesealtas putasparaxenon erastinsesso sexmaforo P.S. Yahoo – everything will be found! Google: nothing was really lost… See you!]]> spam 0 0 1363 yurisydneymason@gmail.com http://www.squidoo.com/WWEExtremeRules 78.26.179.30 2010-04-24 23:30:11 2010-04-25 04:30:11 watch WWE EXtreme Rules 2010 for FREE This site watch wwe extreme rules 2010 has it for FREE Watch WWE Extreme Rules 2010 Online]]> spam 0 0 1364 654@42up.com http://matthewfleeger.info 212.235.107.35 2010-04-25 02:49:36 2010-04-25 07:49:36 Writer Beryl Zyskind has raised for the children and victims of the Chile earthquake Are you aware that over 500k people died in 1hr in Haiti's earthquake? Imagine a day without your cellphone and computer. Okay - get past that - now imagine a day that your entire city is under ground, your family is missing and the earthquake you just endured was over 7.0. Would you want help? Lobbyist Beryl Zyskind has raised for the children and victims of the Chile earthquake]]> spam 0 0
Breakfast with Dr. Jeremy Siegel Part 1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-1/ Wed, 28 May 2008 04:27:53 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-1/
  • US Stocks: $766,854JeremySiegel.jpg
  • Bonds: $1,320
  • T-Bills: $302
  • Gold: $2.45
  • The US Dollar: $0.06
  • The return on stocks represents a real return of 6.8% (real return means 'after accounting for inflation') over this 200+ year period. The real return on gold has been 0.1% annualized over this time - this even accounts for the bulk of the run up in price to the end of 2007 remember. Bonds represented a real return of 3.5%. His point in bringing up this data is that there is an "equity premium" of about 3 to 4% for stocks versus fixed income, and questions what is truly more risky over the long term: holding a basket of equities for the long term or holding a basket of fixed income? He then said the question of this relationship existing in other markets was answered by a group of researchers who performed the same studies across many different countries (I think it was 20+), and almost the identical equity premium of 3 - 4% existed for stocks over bonds/bills. Dr. Jeremy Siegel is author of Stocks for the Long Run, 4th Edition - ranked one of the top 10 investing books of all time. More to follow later this week... in the meantime, don't forget to enter May's Money Movie Giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on the contest post for a chance to win a free DVD Movie About Money.
    Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
    ]]>
    614 2008-05-28 00:27:53 2008-05-28 04:27:53 open open breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-1 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213294769 _edit_last 1 1365 131.137.245.199 2008-05-28 11:58:07 2008-05-28 15:58:07 Since the period from 1802-2007 includes the industrial revolution, I wouldn't expect those same returns in the stock market in the future.

    ]]>
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    1366 207.35.182.164 2008-05-28 13:26:53 2008-05-28 17:26:53 Equity will always have higher return then any other asset class because of the risk premium.

    Many profess it will be about a percent less then it had been in the past.

    ]]>
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    1367 2008-05-29 02:20:29 2008-05-29 06:20:29 Al: Good point, I will add Dr. Siegel's comments in the third installment on my coverage of his presentation.

    Willfly: Agreed on both points, but I would add the word "expected" before "higher return" since it is possible to have a higher return with less risky portfolios once you account for variance. Unfortunately, we don't live for 200 years yet so we have to be prepared for such a result.

    ]]>
    1 0 0
    1368 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/06/06/this-and-that-93 64.111.114.14 2008-06-06 00:21:55 2008-06-06 04:21:55 1 pingback 0 0
    Breakfast with Dr. Jeremy Siegel Part 2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-2/ Thu, 29 May 2008 05:52:17 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-2/ // --> Don't forget to enter May's Money Movie Giveaway - click here. Some other highlights from the breakfast presentation with Dr. Siegel:
    • JeremySiegel.jpgFrom 1957 to 2006 the S&P 500 index returned 10.83%
    • If you had just kept the original 500 stocks, instead of tracking the index as it changed over time, you would have returned 11.72% (not even factoring tax effects)
    • If you separated the 500 stocks into quintiles, the S&P 100 (top quintile based on yield) would have returned 13.80%, with a Beta of 0.94
    His findings regarding the top yielding stocks may be partly responsible for his involvement with Wisdom Tree Investments (which specialize in ETFs that are not weighted to market capitalizations, but rather fundamentally with emphasis on earnings and dividends). He also explained that the reason the S&P500 index (10.83%) lagged the original 500 (11.72%) was because for new constituents to qualify for inclusion into the S&P500 usually meant they had just been on a growth run, and hence are more likely to be in a state of overvaluation upon entry - which would explain the lag. Dr. Jeremy Siegel is author of Stocks for the Long Run, 4th Edition - ranked one of the top 10 investing books of all time. Don't forget to enter May's Money Movie Giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on the contest post for a chance to win a free DVD Movie About Money.
    Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
    ]]>
    615 2008-05-29 01:52:17 2008-05-29 05:52:17 open open breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-2 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213294292 _edit_last 1
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-12/ Fri, 30 May 2008 05:23:55 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-12/

    Don't forget to enter May's Money Movie Giveaway - click here.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    The Canadian Capitalist asks if a membership at Costco makes sense.

    Four Pillars explains that free burgers don't taste that great if you can't get one.

    The Million Dollar Journey suggests a great savings strategy: ask for savings! 

    Michael James on Money provides a great description on what exactly all the hub-bub is regarding BCE.

    Canadian Dream: Free at 45 is saving quite a bit of money by cutting his own hair.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Martin Brundle (ex-F1 driver and now a commentator) provides a very top level view on oversteer versus understeer in an F1 car. Sorry for the brevity this week - too much on the go in May! Have a great weekend everyone! 



    Don't forget to enter May's Money Movie Giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on the contest post for a chance to win a free DVD Movie About Money.

    Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance.
    If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed.

    If you like this blog, you might like my book:
      RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans

    ]]>
    616 2008-05-30 01:23:55 2008-05-30 05:23:55 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-12 publish 0 0 post 0 1369 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 69.156.77.195 2008-05-30 02:52:47 2008-05-30 06:52:47 Thanks for the mention Preet. Have a wonderful weekend!

    ]]>
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    1370 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-05-30 04:43:22 2008-05-30 08:43:22 Thanks for the link, Preet. Enjoy your weekend.

    ]]>
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    1371 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-05-30 10:17:36 2008-05-30 14:17:36 Thanks for the mention!

    ]]>
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    1372 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-05-30 17:53:22 2008-05-30 21:53:22 Thanks for the link.

    ]]>
    1 0 0
    1373 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-09 11:23:25 2008-06-09 15:23:25 1 0 0
    wallstreetcoverfeaturesize /wallstreetcoverfeaturesize-2/ Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:35:21 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wallstreetcoverfeaturesize.jpg 601 2008-06-01 22:35:21 2008-06-02 02:35:21 open open wallstreetcoverfeaturesize-2 inherit 599 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wallstreetcoverfeaturesize.jpg _wp_attached_file wallstreetcoverfeaturesize.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"177";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='77'";s:4:"file";s:30:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:38:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:38:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize-177x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"177";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:36:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} wallstreetcoverfeaturesize http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=604 Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:44:40 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1.jpg 604 2008-06-01 22:44:40 2008-06-02 02:44:40 open open wallstreetcoverfeaturesize-2-2 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1.jpg _wp_attached_file wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"177";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='77'";s:4:"file";s:31:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:39:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:39:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1-177x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"177";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:37:"wallstreetcoverfeaturesize1-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Announcement and Money Movie Winner http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/announcement-and-money-movie-winner/ Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:16:22 +0000 http://www.symbiantcapital.com/announcement-and-money-movie-winner/ // --> // --> Announcement Some of you may have read recently that I will be migrating this blog to a wordpress format. Well I'm going to try that this week, slightly ahead of schedule. Fingers crossed, it should work out smoothly. I will be backing everything up tonight and making the plunge on Wednesday. Since the URL structures between the old format and new are different, I have to manually re-direct about 400 URLs and as such I will NOT be making regular posts until the new blog is up and running. Worst case scenario, I will revert to the old format and try again later! Wish me luck. New Features Cleaner design Less advertising for regular readers You will be able to subscribe to comments via email (so you don't have to constantly check in for updates) Gravatar support (so you can have your picture appear beside any comments you leave) Money Movie Winner! The winner of May's Money Movie Giveaway contest was randomly selected by a Random Integer Generator, and the winner is comment #2: Solfest! Congratulations, I will be following up via email to get your mailing address and for you to select which movie to choose for your winnings!
    Subscribe to the free Email Updates to learn more about personal finance. If you use a feed reader, you can click here to add my RSS feed. If you like this blog, you might like my book: RRSPs: The Definitive Book on Registered Retirement Savings Plans
    ]]>
    617 2008-06-02 04:16:22 2008-06-02 08:16:22 open open announcement-and-money-movie-winner publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213292522 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1213292522 _edit_last 1 1374 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-06-02 23:30:20 2008-06-03 03:30:20 1 0 0 1375 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-02 23:59:07 2008-06-03 03:59:07 1 0 0
    underconstruction http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=619 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:01:40 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/underconstruction.jpg 619 2008-06-02 20:01:40 2008-06-03 00:01:40 open open underconstruction inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/underconstruction.jpg _wp_attached_file underconstruction.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"219";s:6:"height";s:3:"218";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:21:"underconstruction.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"underconstruction-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"underconstruction-219x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"219";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"underconstruction-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} About http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about-2/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:58:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?page_id=621 Welcome to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com - a personal finance weblog (or blog for short). If you are new to the world of blogs, let me explain what a blog is: it is an interactive website that is part soap-box, part journal. I write a new article or post about 5 times per week. Sometimes the articles will be instructional, how-to articles, and sometimes they will be just my own wacky commentary or philosophical musings. Many people decide to "subscribe" to the blog (more on that later), and as of right now there are almost 500 daily readers and about 10,000 unique visits per month.

    Who Reads This Blog?

    People who are brand new to investing, sophisticated Do-It-Yourself investors, financial journalists and seasoned financial advisors regularly read this blog. I try to mix-up the difficulty of content so you can feel free to skip over the posts that are too easy/too hard for you and just read the ones you like in detail. There's no law that says you have to read every word I write. Some posts will explain what the basic terms of a mortgage are, or how to create a monthly budget whereas others will deal with off-shore tax planning strategies or even reverse dispersion equity collar strategies.

    It's Interactive...

    You can sit back and just soak up the new articles on a regular basis or you can join in on the discussion and respond or provide feedback by leaving a comment on any article you choose. Feel free to criticize, question or commend me or any other contributors to the site on anything you read. (Of course, we just ask that you be polite and courteous when doing so!) In order to leave a comment, just scroll down to the end of the article in question, and it is pretty self-explanatory from there. If you are new and have never commented before, feel free to leave a comment anytime, even if it is just to say "hi". EVERYONE is welcome!

    Lots of Contests!

    In 2008, I have committed to giving away a Money Movie (which is a movie which has money as a central theme) every two months. For example, up for grabs this year are Casino, Wallstreet, Trading Places, Ocean's Eleven (The 1960's original), Boiler Room and Glengarry Glen Ross. All you have to do to enter the contests is leave a comment saying whatever you want on the designated contest posts (can't miss 'em!). I have also given away a Digital Camera and numerous books such as The Richest Man in Babylon, KPMG's Tax Planning For You And Your Family 2008, The Intelligent Investor and more. In other words, you should stick around and make sure to enter the contests because your odds are actually pretty good with an average of maybe 50 people entering each contest.

    Subscription Options (They're all free!)

    1. You can bookmark this website (that's so five years ago...) :) 2. You can subscribe to free e-mail updates which are delivered every day that there is new content available (which means you can expect an average of about 4-6 emails per week. The articles are short, and remember not everyone reads each one, so feel free to scan the headline and first few lines and decide if you want to read that day's post. (You can also unsubscribe very easily at the click of your mouse.) 3. If you are familiar with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) you can subscribe to the RSS feed. RSS feeds are somewhat new to the internet, but are widely used on almost all major websites now. What they do is allow you to collect the various feeds from your favourite website and have them all show up on one easy to scan page in your "feed reader". This way, you don't have to scan through all your bookmarks one by one which is very time consuming. Rather, all the fresh info from ALL your favourite sites show up on one easy to read page which you can scan and then click on the items of interest. BIG time saver.

    Who Am I?

    My name is Preet and I am a former Financial Advisor in Toronto. This blog is a product of passion and is intended to empower and educate all who want to learn more about personal finance in a fun, easy-going manner. It's not my intention to garner new business for my practice through this blog, however some readers do contact me for professional help if they feel they need the help of an advisor and many readers who are self-sufficient have referred their friends (who may have no interest in managing things themselves). That is fine, and I welcome it, but you are free to read without feeling like you owe me anything at all.]]>
    621 2008-06-02 20:58:59 2008-06-03 00:58:59 open open about-2 publish 0 0 page 0 _wp_page_template default _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1226376302 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/pushingupsign220.gif _wp_page_template default _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1226376302 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/pushingupsign220.gif
    Site Map http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/site-map/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:36:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?page_id=622 622 2008-06-02 21:36:29 2008-06-03 01:36:29 open open site-map publish 0 0 page 0 _edit_lock 1245850929 _wp_page_template sitemap.php _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1245850929 _wp_page_template sitemap.php _edit_last 1 manholdingcheckmark http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=624 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:39:43 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manholdingcheckmark.gif 624 2008-06-02 23:39:43 2008-06-03 03:39:43 open open manholdingcheckmark inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manholdingcheckmark.gif _wp_attached_file manholdingcheckmark.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:23:"manholdingcheckmark.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"manholdingcheckmark-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"manholdingcheckmark-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"manholdingcheckmark-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} manholdingcheckmark100 /manholdingcheckmark100/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:41:56 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manholdingcheckmark100.gif 626 2008-06-02 23:41:56 2008-06-03 03:41:56 open open manholdingcheckmark100 inherit 623 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manholdingcheckmark100.gif _wp_attached_file manholdingcheckmark100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:26:"manholdingcheckmark100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"manholdingcheckmark100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} We Are Live On The Scene! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/we-are-live-on-the-scene/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:43:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=627 Welcome to the new WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com! I was able to upgrade the site more smoothly than I thought so I'm proud to announce that regularly scheduled posting will start right back up again. There are a few new features that I'd like to point out:
    1. You can now subscribe to comments (so you have the option to get an email when someone replies to your comments instead of having to check back all the time just to see)
    2. You can use Gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatars) which means your picture will appear beside any comments you leave. Click here to sign up - it's free, instant and instantly works on other sites with Gravatar support.
    3. Cleaner and (hopefully) more aesthetic site design.
    I'll be adding new features in as I figure them out, and if anyone has suggestions by all means let me know. Don't forget to check out the Gravatar site and remember you don't have to use a mugshot if you want to remain anonymous, you can use a picture of a dollar bill or something... :)]]>
    627 2008-06-02 23:43:06 2008-06-03 03:43:06 open open we-are-live-on-the-scene publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark100.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark.gif _edit_lock 1212538298 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark100.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark.gif _edit_lock 1212538298 _edit_last 1 1376 petercinat@hotmail.com 199.246.40.54 2008-06-03 12:44:22 2008-06-03 16:44:22 1 0 0 1377 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-03 13:05:44 2008-06-03 17:05:44 1 0 0 1378 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.170.40 2008-06-03 15:57:34 2008-06-03 19:57:34 1 0 0 1379 dcpaley@gmail.com http://blog.taxresource.ca 167.80.244.204 2008-06-04 15:10:25 2008-06-04 19:10:25 1 0 0 1380 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-04 15:12:55 2008-06-04 19:12:55 1 0 0 1381 vld2czech@googlemail.com http://www.stockweb.blogspot.com 89.253.132.193 2008-06-05 15:27:43 2008-06-05 19:27:43 1 0 0 1382 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-05 16:11:55 2008-06-05 20:11:55 1 0 0 1383 vld2czech@googlemail.com http://www.stockweb.blogspot.com 89.253.132.193 2008-06-05 16:18:33 2008-06-05 20:18:33 1 0 0 1384 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-05 16:23:53 2008-06-05 20:23:53 1 0 0
    pushingupsign220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about-2/pushingupsign220/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:10:36 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pushingupsign220.gif 628 2008-06-03 00:10:36 2008-06-03 04:10:36 open open pushingupsign220 inherit 621 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pushingupsign220.gif _wp_attached_file pushingupsign220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:20:"pushingupsign220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"pushingupsign220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"pushingupsign220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"pushingupsign220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Useful Tools http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/useful-tools/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:50:58 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?page_id=629 Graphic Mortgage Calculator

    2008 Personal Income Tax Calculator for Canadians

    2008 RRSP Refund Calculator

    Grocery Alerts Canada

    ]]>
    629 2008-06-03 10:50:58 2008-06-03 14:50:58 open open useful-tools publish 0 0 page 0 _edit_lock 1246464151 _edit_last 1 _wp_page_template default _edit_lock 1246464151 _edit_last 1 _wp_page_template default
    2books220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/one-contest-two-books-to-be-won/2books220/ Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:44:42 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2books220.gif 631 2008-06-03 21:44:42 2008-06-04 01:44:42 open open 2books220 inherit 630 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2books220.gif _wp_attached_file 2books220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:13:"2books220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"2books220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"2books220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"2books220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 2books100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/one-contest-two-books-to-be-won/2books100/ Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:44:43 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2books100.gif 632 2008-06-03 21:44:43 2008-06-04 01:44:43 open open 2books100 inherit 630 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2books100.gif _wp_attached_file 2books100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:13:"2books100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"2books100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} One Contest: Two Books To Be Won! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/one-contest-two-books-to-be-won/ Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:48:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=630 Gravatar. In other words, if you leave a comment to enter this contest it will only count if your customized photo appears beside it. You can manage this by signing up for a Gravatar by clicking here. A Gravatar allows you upload a photo (it can be a mug shot or a non-specific picture if you wish to remain anonymous) that then follows you around the internet in case you make posts on other blogs that support Gravatars. It's quite a simple procedure to set up, so go ahead and click here to get started, then come back and leave a comment for your chance to win TWO of the greatest finance books ever written! NOTE: Once you have registered with Gravatar, it may take 30 minutes to see your picture show up. One winner will be selected by random draw. Contest will run until midnight on Sunday, June 8th, 2008. Good luck everyone!]]> 630 2008-06-03 21:48:26 2008-06-04 01:48:26 open open one-contest-two-books-to-be-won publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1212583461 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books100.gif _edit_lock 1212583461 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books100.gif 1385 http://www.financialmd.info/one-contest-two-books-to-be-won 72.249.11.142 2008-06-03 21:58:33 2008-06-04 01:58:33 1 pingback 0 0 1386 cashinstinct@gmail.com 67.68.235.14 2008-06-03 22:00:31 2008-06-04 02:00:31 1 0 0 1387 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-03 22:24:04 2008-06-04 02:24:04 1 0 0 1388 xrouge@gmail.com 207.6.239.155 2008-06-04 03:46:53 2008-06-04 07:46:53 1 0 0 1389 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.12 2008-06-04 08:38:09 2008-06-04 12:38:09 1 0 0 1390 quicklunarcop@gmail.com 192.197.178.2 2008-06-04 09:43:03 2008-06-04 13:43:03 1 0 0 1391 caitlin@clutter-cubed.com http://www.clutter-cubed.com 209.183.141.72 2008-06-04 15:33:14 2008-06-04 19:33:14 cashinstinct - Gravatar knows it's "you" on website by your email. If you use the same email for Gravatar as you use on a blog/website with Gravatar support, it will automatically display your avatar! I like Gravatar because it lets you see a little bit of the personality of the commenter along with their comment! Also please count me in for the contest. ;)]]> 1 0 0 1392 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.50.15 2008-06-04 17:48:54 2008-06-04 21:48:54 1 0 0 1393 talcumboy@gmail.com 24.68.138.6 2008-06-04 20:10:54 2008-06-05 00:10:54 1 0 0 1394 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.2.100 2008-06-04 20:26:05 2008-06-05 00:26:05 1 0 0 1395 darren.anspach@usask.ca 70.73.50.15 2008-06-04 20:41:03 2008-06-05 00:41:03 1 0 0 1396 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.50.15 2008-06-04 20:46:04 2008-06-05 00:46:04 1 0 0 1397 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-04 21:23:21 2008-06-05 01:23:21 1 0 0 1398 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.49.224 2008-06-04 23:01:21 2008-06-05 03:01:21 1 0 0 1399 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 99.249.29.204 2008-06-04 23:13:22 2008-06-05 03:13:22 1 0 0 1400 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.118.109 2008-06-05 16:54:50 2008-06-05 20:54:50 1 0 0 1401 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/lap-of-the-blogs11/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-06 22:36:24 2008-06-07 02:36:24 1 pingback 0 0 1402 mrichard00@gmail.com 207.61.115.69 2008-06-07 15:06:36 2008-06-07 19:06:36 1 0 0 1403 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-09 13:22:04 2008-06-09 17:22:04 1 0 0 1404 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-09 13:31:53 2008-06-09 17:31:53 1 0 0 1405 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2008-06-12 17:50:00 2008-06-12 21:50:00 1 0 0 1406 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-12 18:04:55 2008-06-12 22:04:55 1 0 0 manpushingupexclamationmark220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/vanguard-announces-2-for-1-split-on-vti-vwo-and-vxf/manpushingupexclamationmark220/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:13:51 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 634 2008-06-04 21:13:51 2008-06-05 01:13:51 open open manpushingupexclamationmark220 inherit 633 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif _wp_attached_file manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:34:"manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:42:"manpushingupexclamationmark220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:42:"manpushingupexclamationmark220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:40:"manpushingupexclamationmark220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} manpushingupexclamationmark100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/vanguard-announces-2-for-1-split-on-vti-vwo-and-vxf/manpushingupexclamationmark100/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:14:25 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif 635 2008-06-04 21:14:25 2008-06-05 01:14:25 open open manpushingupexclamationmark100 inherit 633 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif _wp_attached_file manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:34:"manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:40:"manpushingupexclamationmark100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Vanguard Announces 2 for 1 Split on VTI, VWO and VXF http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/vanguard-announces-2-for-1-split-on-vti-vwo-and-vxf/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:14:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=633 The share split entitles each shareholder of record at the close of business on June 13, 2008 to receive one additional share for every share of the ETF held on that date. The additional shares are expected to be distributed to shareholders on June 17. The shares will trade at the new split-adjusted prices beginning June 18. So if you own any of these popular ETFs, don't freak out on June 18th thinking that the markets crashed overnight - you should notice that the prices will be half what they were, but you will have twice as many shares.]]> 633 2008-06-04 21:14:57 2008-06-05 01:14:57 open open vanguard-announces-2-for-1-split-on-vti-vwo-and-vxf publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1212628497 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1212628497 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif 1407 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2008-06-05 09:34:22 2008-06-05 13:34:22 1 0 0 1408 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-05 09:41:39 2008-06-05 13:41:39 1 0 0 1409 derek2cold@hotmail.com 216.36.186.12 2008-06-14 00:51:16 2008-06-14 04:51:16 1 0 0 jeremysiegel220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-3/jeremysiegel220/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:03:10 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jeremysiegel220.gif 637 2008-06-04 22:03:10 2008-06-05 02:03:10 open open jeremysiegel220 inherit 636 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jeremysiegel220.gif _wp_attached_file jeremysiegel220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:19:"jeremysiegel220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"jeremysiegel220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"jeremysiegel220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"jeremysiegel220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} jeremysiegel100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-3/jeremysiegel100/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:04:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jeremysiegel100.gif 638 2008-06-04 22:04:02 2008-06-05 02:04:02 open open jeremysiegel100 inherit 636 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jeremysiegel100.gif _wp_attached_file jeremysiegel100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:19:"jeremysiegel100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"jeremysiegel100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Breakfast With Dr. Jeremy Siegel Part 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-3/ Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:02:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=636 The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New. But probably the most interesting part of his presentation was his study of the demographics of investors in the United States (and by extension Canada). Back in 1950, the average age someone retired was 67.4 while their life expectancy was 69. This represents an average retirement length of 1.6 years. Today the average length of retirement is 15.7 years. This in itself explains most of the reason defined benefit pension plans have lost popularity and more and more companies embraced defined contributions plans. Further, in 1950 there were 7 workers per every retiree. In 2007 that ratio decreased to 5 workers for every 1 retiree and in 2050 it is predicted to fall further to only 2.5:1. Statistically, he figured that the average length of retirement would have to come down from the current 15.7 years to 11.6 - meaning that people will have to forget about retiring early (and since we'll be living longer by then, even 65 would be early for most). With fewer workers per retiree, the savings of those who are approaching or in retirement will be worth less from a pure supply and demand point of view. Workers are generally the ones who buy the assets of the retired (in order to save for their own retirements), but as the ratio of workers to retirees declines, demand will dry up relative to supply. Our saving grace? The emerging economies' workforce who will need to buy assets from the West to save for their retirements, so long as the mechanisms for them to do so are improved (i.e. less barriers to retail capital flows through international securities markets).]]> 636 2008-06-05 22:02:49 2008-06-06 02:02:49 open open breakfast-with-dr-jeremy-siegel-part-3 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1212718882 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jeremysiegel220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jeremysiegel100.gif _edit_lock 1212718882 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jeremysiegel220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jeremysiegel100.gif A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/lap-of-the-blogs11/ Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:35:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=639 Don't forget to enter the contest to win The Richest Man in Babylon AND The Intelligent Investor! A very special lap of the blogs edition since this week's video is a lap of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, where the Formula 1 race is taking place this weekend - and as always, I will be there soaking up the action. A friend of mine is lucky enough to be having lunch with Kimi Raikkonnen (lucky guy!), but I will be much further from the action... such is the life of a mere peon. :)

    From Around the Blogosphere

    The Million Dollar Journey goes through the basics of fundamental indexing versus traditional indexing. The fees are higher than plain indexing, and many wonder if it is worth it or not. The Canadian Capitalist explains his Five Basics for Financial Success - as one of the most respected voices in the blogosphere, it's worth checking out. Michael James on Money points out the ETFs don't always mean lower costs. He highlights a new ETF with an MER of around 2%. Compare that to the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF with an MER of just 0.07%, and other ETFs with MERs in the 0.25-0.40% range. What to the extra fees pay for? Is it worth it? Canadian Dream: Free at 45 discusses the Great Disconnect between Time and Money. Another of his very thought provoking posts that go beyond just numbers. Canadian Financial DIY has a lengthy post on the investment philosophy and structure of the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP). This is a fantastic post, very detailed and insightful. Thicken My Wallet walks us through the basics of being sued - there are a lot of misconceptions out there, and TMW does a fabulous job explaining the subject in a practical manner. Mr. Cheap from the Quest for Four Pillars talks about the Art and Science of Boycotting. These guys kill me - always entertaining and informative at the same time!

    This Week's Racing Video

    As I mentioned, here is a lap of the track the F1 cars will be racing on this weekend, which is now there only North American stop for the season. Have a great weekend everyone! Don't forget to enter the contest to win The Richest Man in Babylon AND The Intelligent Investor! ]]>
    639 2008-06-06 22:35:20 2008-06-07 02:35:20 open open lap-of-the-blogs11 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1212722012 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1212722012 _edit_last 1 1410 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 74.56.40.202 2008-06-07 09:06:56 2008-06-07 13:06:56 1 0 0 1411 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 72.141.5.43 2008-06-07 10:18:29 2008-06-07 14:18:29 1 0 0 1412 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-06-07 12:30:26 2008-06-07 16:30:26 1 0 0 1413 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 70.48.54.144 2008-06-07 16:19:28 2008-06-07 20:19:28 1 0 0 1414 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-10 12:02:08 2008-06-10 16:02:08 1 0 0 1415 canadianfinancialdiy@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 86.156.203.236 2008-06-12 04:35:02 2008-06-12 08:35:02 1 0 0
    Contest Winner Announcement http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-winner-announcement/ Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=643 643 2008-06-09 13:30:00 2008-06-09 17:30:00 open open contest-winner-announcement publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books220.gif _edit_lock 1213032788 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books100.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books220.gif _edit_lock 1213032788 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2books100.gif 1416 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-06-10 08:44:00 2008-06-10 12:44:00 1 0 0 1417 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-10 10:39:00 2008-06-10 14:39:00 1 0 0 May Day: May 1st, 1975 - The End of Fixed Stock Commissions http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/may-day-may-1st-1975-the-end-of-fixed-stock-commissions/ Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:21:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=644 644 2008-06-09 16:21:12 2008-06-09 20:21:12 open open may-day-may-1st-1975-the-end-of-fixed-stock-commissions publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213056031 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl100.gif _edit_lock 1213056031 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl100.gif 1418 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-10 12:09:01 2008-06-10 16:09:01 1 0 0 happygirl220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/may-day-may-1st-1975-the-end-of-fixed-stock-commissions/happygirl220/ Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:36:33 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/happygirl220.gif 645 2008-06-09 19:36:33 2008-06-09 23:36:33 open open happygirl220 inherit 644 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/happygirl220.gif _wp_attached_file happygirl220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:16:"happygirl220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"happygirl220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"happygirl220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar 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#2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"happygirl100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} markets220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/is-this-current-market-turmoil-really-different/markets220/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:52:01 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/markets220.gif 648 2008-06-09 23:52:01 2008-06-10 03:52:01 open open markets220 inherit 647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/markets220.gif _wp_attached_file markets220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:14:"markets220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"markets220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"markets220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"markets220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} markets100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/is-this-current-market-turmoil-really-different/markets100/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:52:03 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/markets100.gif 649 2008-06-09 23:52:03 2008-06-10 03:52:03 open open markets100 inherit 647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/markets100.gif _wp_attached_file markets100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:14:"markets100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"markets100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Is This Current Market Turmoil Really Different? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/is-this-current-market-turmoil-really-different/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:30:31 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=647 647 2008-06-10 13:30:31 2008-06-10 17:30:31 open open is-this-current-market-turmoil-really-different publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213119431 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets100.gif _edit_lock 1213119431 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets100.gif 1419 rz8ur4@yahoo.ca 209.162.236.50 2008-06-11 10:04:47 2008-06-11 14:04:47 1 0 0 1420 icsharpcode@gmail.com 207.102.98.31 2008-06-11 18:53:42 2008-06-11 22:53:42 1 0 0 1421 JUHNLUCAS@SHAW.CA 68.144.98.117 2009-04-07 16:40:12 2009-04-07 21:40:12 1 0 0 f1220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-musings-about-my-trip-to-the-formula-one-race-in-montreal/f1220/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:32:56 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/f1220.gif 656 2008-06-10 22:32:56 2008-06-11 02:32:56 open open f1220 inherit 651 0 attachment 0 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2008-06-10 23:19:29 2008-06-11 03:19:29 open open holdingquestionmark100 inherit 655 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/holdingquestionmark100.gif _wp_attached_file holdingquestionmark100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:26:"holdingquestionmark100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"holdingquestionmark100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} holdingquestionmark220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fee-only-life-insurance/holdingquestionmark220/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:19:30 +0000 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#2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"holdingquestionmark220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Financial Musings About My Trip To The Formula One Race In Montreal http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-musings-about-my-trip-to-the-formula-one-race-in-montreal/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:26:17 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=651 Tickets First off, I think the prices are absurd. A pair of Gold tickets (best you can get outside of the executive suites and passes) are $990, or $495 each. Settle for a pair of Bronzes and you're looking at $450 (or $225 each). General admission entitles you to sit on the lawn, usually with a partially obstructed or cramped view and this can be had for a mere $200 (or $100 each) for access on all three days.

    Don't Go For All Three Days

    Here's my advice. Don't go for all three days - go for one. Generally I only go on the Saturday which is the qualifying day and I get my ticket from a scalper. In fact, I imagine almost a third of people going get their tickets from a scalper - they are everywhere. I don't care about not being there for the race since you can get a better sense of the race on TV - if you are at the track all you see is one corner. Plus - it's bloody deafening. You should only subject yourself to one day of the noise otherwise you will probably end up with some minor hearing damage (not joking). The best part of only going for one day is that you have the rest of the weekend to enjoy Montreal properly, instead of recovering from minor heat stroke all three days. Plus you get to leave early on Sunday and avoid the massive traffic.

    Scalpers

    As I said, the scalpers are everywhere. Transactions are not allowed to be made in front of the cops, who know who the scalpers are and don't really try to get in their way either. As soon as you get out of the metro station you will see about 20 guys selling tickets. You will negotiate first, and then walk out of sight to "make the exchange". As with any scalped tickets, make sure you are buying for the right day and that the seats are next to each other before agreeing to anything! :) The face value is right on the ticket so you immediately have a reference as to what you should be paying. I generally round up to the nearest multiple of $20. So for example, I bought a pair of Silver tickets which had a single day face value of $88. I paid $100 for each for a total of $200. First they offered a price of $250, to which I said "I only have $200". No back and forth after that - he agreed and we made the exchange. Stick firm to what you want to pay and be willing to walk away - there are tonnes of other scalpers. I lucked out this time in that this guy was not very good, but most play hardball. If you are not a good negotiator or have a hard time saying no, you may not get such a great deal. They will throw out all the regular stuff: 1) Almost sold out, 2) Someone else will pay that much, 3) These are better than other seats at the same ticket level...etc.

    Hotel

    Book about a year in advance if you want to stay somewhere affordable but decent. Normally I stay with friends, and this year I had free use of a condo whose owner was on vacation. We had pre-arranged for her to leave the keys with the neighbour who knew I was coming. Regular hotel rates get jacked up for this weekend if you don't have someone to stay with, and my best advice is to get a room at the Y! Yes, the Y. You still need to book early, maybe 2 months ahead of time at the latest, otherwise you'll end up with a room on a floor with a communal bathroom. But if you get a fancy room with your own bathroom, you are looking at $125/night if I remember correctly. There is also a minimum 2 night stay which is pretty much city-wide for that weekend.

    Travel

    I live in Ajax so the total round trip was about 1,000km which equated to about $100 in gas. Certainly higher that prior years and I'll tell you, on the way back the highway was empty! Even passing the 35/115 and towards Toronto the cottage traffic was markedly less than normal. Now I usually leave around noon on Sunday to avoid the race fan traffic on the way back, but even then the traffic slows down. Not this year. I would guess that traffic was less than half of what it normally is.

    Montreal

    The city is beautiful and there is no shortage of things to do. Beer and pizza is cheap and plentiful, and if you go on Grand Prix weekend you have to check out the street parties. Blocks upon blocks of city streets are cordoned off to make way for exotic car shows, outdoor fashion shows, bars and cultural activities. People travel from all over the world and most of them end up partying on Crescent Street and St. Catherine's street as well. There is such a unique vibe that it can only be understood by going and experiencing it for yourself. If you prefer to explore the city, you can visit Old Montreal and find many cafés to have some nice wine and cheese if you prefer. You may also want to visit some of the famous smoked meat shops and bagel shops too.

    Total Costs

    If you go all out, it's ridiculously expensive. Travel from Toronto, a hotel for 3 nights, 3 day Gold tickets and fancy meals could easily run a couple $2500 for the weekend. Compare this to my average trip where I spend about $400 and have a much more pleasant experience (less sun, more nightlife, more relaxed, less traffic). If you don't have friends to stay with, than you should still be able to manage the weekend for $650 and have a fantastic time. (There's nothing wrong with the Y!)]]>
    651 2008-06-11 13:26:17 2008-06-11 17:26:17 open open financial-musings-about-my-trip-to-the-formula-one-race-in-montreal publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213152016 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/f1220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/f1100.gif _edit_lock 1213152016 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/f1220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/f1100.gif 1422 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-11 15:55:51 2008-06-11 19:55:51 1 0 0 1423 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-11 16:10:35 2008-06-11 20:10:35 1 0 0 1424 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-11 16:51:31 2008-06-11 20:51:31 1 0 0 1425 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-11 20:44:49 2008-06-12 00:44:49 1 0 0 1426 cashinstinct@gmail.com 67.68.233.18 2008-06-11 22:29:53 2008-06-12 02:29:53 1 0 0 1427 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-11 22:43:31 2008-06-12 02:43:31 1 0 0 1428 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-06-12 09:43:08 2008-06-12 13:43:08 1 0 0 1429 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-12 11:43:09 2008-06-12 15:43:09 1 0 0 1430 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/06/12/this-and-that-94 64.111.114.14 2008-06-12 22:22:33 2008-06-13 02:22:33 1 pingback 0 0
    candlestick220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-candlestick-chart/candlestick220/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:23:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/candlestick220.gif 660 2008-06-11 21:23:24 2008-06-12 01:23:24 open open candlestick220 inherit 652 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/candlestick220.gif _wp_attached_file candlestick220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='117'";s:4:"file";s:18:"candlestick220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"candlestick220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"candlestick220-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"candlestick220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} candlestick100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-candlestick-chart/candlestick100/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:23:25 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/candlestick100.gif 661 2008-06-11 21:23:25 2008-06-12 01:23:25 open open candlestick100 inherit 652 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/candlestick100.gif _wp_attached_file candlestick100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:18:"candlestick100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"candlestick100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Fee Only Life Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fee-only-life-insurance/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:30:23 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=655 655 2008-06-12 04:30:23 2008-06-12 08:30:23 open open fee-only-life-insurance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213154458 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark100.gif _edit_lock 1213154458 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark100.gif 1431 http://www.financialmd.info/fee-only-life-insurance 72.249.11.142 2008-06-12 04:53:51 2008-06-12 08:53:51 1 pingback 0 0 1432 shannon@paragonwealth.com http://www.paragonwealth.com 76.8.218.181 2008-06-12 15:18:34 2008-06-12 19:18:34 1 0 0 1433 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/book-winner-news-and-weekend-reading.htm 64.131.72.71 2008-06-13 05:31:16 2008-06-13 09:31:16 1 pingback 0 0 1434 brian@mortgageplans.ca http://www.mortgageplans.ca 64.231.77.214 2008-06-22 17:25:57 2008-06-22 21:25:57 1 0 0 1435 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-22 22:34:57 2008-06-23 02:34:57 1 0 0 1436 tar.mimnagh@gmail.com 99.249.11.66 2008-06-27 19:29:16 2008-06-27 23:29:16 1 0 0 1437 brian@mortgageplans.ca http://www.mortgageplans.ca 64.231.67.35 2008-07-01 08:32:10 2008-07-01 12:32:10 1 0 0 1438 glenn@financeads.ca http://www.thetermguy.com 64.7.136.166 2008-10-29 12:31:49 2008-10-29 16:31:49 1 0 0 1439 glenn@financeads.ca http://www.thetermguy.com 64.7.136.166 2008-10-29 12:39:42 2008-10-29 16:39:42 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-13/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:57:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=662 Perhaps I could call this the "shameless self promotion" version of Lap of the Blogs... Canadian Dream Free at 45 wrote a two part series on the financial plan and investment policy statement I wrote for him very recently. Click here to read part two. Advisor's Edge is a magazine geared towards the financial services and I was lucky enough to be featured in a two page profile in their May 2008 issue. I also wrote an article for them (which will appear in July - but I'll link to it when it's available). Thicken My Wallet provides food for thought when considering the use of an advisor (or not) - he brings up the observation that the financially successful people he knows tend to have a gang of advisors working for them. Jonathan Chevreau covers the financial Canada Cup - and the focus on ETFs which are approaching one trillion dollars of assets under management. The Million Dollar Journey weighs the extra cost of a hybrid car versus the savings in fuel. Looks like getting a conventionally engined car makes more cents for the time being... The Canadian Capitalist reviews a book titled 'House Lust' which discusses the obsession involved in home ownership for many people. It sounds like a very interesting book. Last, but certainly not least, is Michael James on Money who describes a $1 million dollar bet that Warren Buffett has with a professional money manager that compares passive investing versus active (although it's not an apples-to-apples comparison if you read through the comments). Nonetheless, it's an interesting bet and I love reading about all things Warren and anything that comes out of Michael James' keyboard!

    This Week's Racing Video

    For those of you who don't know, every week during my Lap of The Blogs post that shares some of the interesting stories from other writers, I also post a video that has something to do with auto-racing - only because it is one of my other passions in life and I need to prove to you that I'm more than one dimensional! :) This week we have a very famous video which highlights the aerodynamic sensitivity of modern racecars. This Mercedes Benz racecar at LeMans literally takes off while travelling in a straight line and lands over the barriers. You have to see it to believe it! ]]>
    662 2008-06-13 04:57:03 2008-06-13 08:57:03 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-13 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213238283 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1213238283 _edit_last 1 1440 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-06-13 07:40:34 2008-06-13 11:40:34 1 0 0 1441 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-13 09:05:44 2008-06-13 13:05:44 1 0 0 1442 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-06-13 10:51:46 2008-06-13 14:51:46 1 0 0 1443 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-06-13 11:26:08 2008-06-13 15:26:08 1 0 0
    womanlookingatpiggy http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about-2/womanlookingatpiggy/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:54:39 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/womanlookingatpiggy.jpg 663 2008-06-14 00:54:39 2008-06-14 04:54:39 open open womanlookingatpiggy inherit 621 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/womanlookingatpiggy.jpg _wp_attached_file womanlookingatpiggy.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"425";s:6:"height";s:3:"282";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='84' width='127'";s:4:"file";s:23:"womanlookingatpiggy.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"womanlookingatpiggy-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"womanlookingatpiggy-300x199.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"199";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"womanlookingatpiggy-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"womanlookingatpiggy-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:2:"20";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:21:"Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1143728398";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:2:"58";s:3:"iso";s:3:"100";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:5:"0.008";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} preetcropped75 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about-2/preetcropped75/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:58:51 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcropped75.jpg 664 2008-06-14 00:58:51 2008-06-14 04:58:51 open open preetcropped75 inherit 621 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcropped75.jpg _wp_attached_file preetcropped75.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"173";s:6:"height";s:3:"431";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='38'";s:4:"file";s:18:"preetcropped75.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped75-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped75-120x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"120";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped75-173x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"173";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"preetcropped75-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} babyeinstein http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about-2/babyeinstein/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:01:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/babyeinstein.jpg 665 2008-06-14 01:01:58 2008-06-14 05:01:58 open open babyeinstein inherit 621 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/babyeinstein.jpg _wp_attached_file babyeinstein.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"419";s:6:"height";s:3:"286";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='87' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:16:"babyeinstein.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"babyeinstein-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"babyeinstein-300x204.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"204";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"babyeinstein-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"babyeinstein-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:2:"20";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:12:"Canon EOS 5D";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1195253050";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:2:"24";s:3:"iso";s:3:"100";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:5:"0.005";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} wallstreetcover http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about-2/wallstreetcover/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:05:30 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wallstreetcover.jpg 666 2008-06-14 01:05:30 2008-06-14 05:05:30 open open wallstreetcover inherit 621 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wallstreetcover.jpg _wp_attached_file wallstreetcover.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"240";s:6:"height";s:3:"240";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:19:"wallstreetcover.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"wallstreetcover-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"wallstreetcover-240x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"240";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"wallstreetcover-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Candlestick Chart http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-candlestick-chart/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:42:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=652 652 2008-06-14 04:42:41 2008-06-14 08:42:41 open open the-candlestick-chart publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213238803 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/candlestick220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/candlestick100.gif _edit_lock 1213238803 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/candlestick220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/candlestick100.gif Your Personal Savings Rate http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/your-personal-savings-rate/ Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:00:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=654 before income taxes and your NET income is your income after income taxes. If this person was putting away $4,000/year for long term savings then their personal savings rate is either 8% or 10% depending on which number you use for your total income. Many people will use the rule of thumb that you should save 10% - they don't really say of which number, but if you can manage it, try to aim for 10% of your gross income. For the example person above, this would mean saving $5,000 per year instead of $4,000. 10% is just a rule of thumb remember - if you can save more than that, even better. And no, it's not easy. You may only be saving 5% right now, or perhaps even less. The average personal savings rate in the United States was negative in 2006. That means the average person spends more than they earn, which means they pile on more and more debt (or eat into savings or home equity). As with many aspects of personal finance, this is mostly a psychological phenomenon. We have a tendency to spend what we earn, and most people will tell you that when they get their next raise, they will put it towards savings (or paying down debt), but in reality they have probably already decided what they will spend their raise on - which means they will never get ahead. The personal savings rate used to be much higher but has steadily declined - due to easy access to credit, a lack of personal finance education in school and the glamourization by the media of spending excesses. If there is only one thing you need to do to be successful financially, it start with savings. Until you can get a handle on that, you don't need to worry about investing (you'll have nothing to invest).]]> 654 2008-06-15 06:00:34 2008-06-15 10:00:34 open open your-personal-savings-rate publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213326317 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark100.gif _edit_lock 1213326317 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manholdingcheckmark100.gif 1444 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.3.95 2008-06-15 10:30:00 2008-06-15 14:30:00 1 0 0 1445 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-15 13:25:41 2008-06-15 17:25:41 1 0 0 1446 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-15 13:48:52 2008-06-15 17:48:52 1 0 0 1447 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-15 20:52:11 2008-06-16 00:52:11 1 0 0 1448 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 204.191.25.31 2008-06-16 18:01:50 2008-06-16 22:01:50 1 0 0 1449 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-16 20:26:29 2008-06-17 00:26:29 1 0 0 1450 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.3.95 2008-06-16 21:55:57 2008-06-17 01:55:57 1 0 0 1451 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-16 22:16:42 2008-06-17 02:16:42 1 0 0 1452 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.3.95 2008-06-17 06:23:23 2008-06-17 10:23:23 1 0 0 1453 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-17 09:44:31 2008-06-17 13:44:31 1 0 0 businessgirlatdesk http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about/businessgirlatdesk/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:42:30 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/businessgirlatdesk.jpg 670 2008-06-15 20:42:30 2008-06-16 00:42:30 open open businessgirlatdesk 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5D";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1158871127";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:3:"145";s:3:"iso";s:3:"100";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:4:"0.04";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} manscreaminghappy220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/price-vigilantes/manscreaminghappy220/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:40:44 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manscreaminghappy220.gif 672 2008-06-15 21:40:44 2008-06-16 01:40:44 open open manscreaminghappy220 inherit 650 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manscreaminghappy220.gif _wp_attached_file manscreaminghappy220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:24:"manscreaminghappy220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"manscreaminghappy220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"manscreaminghappy220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"manscreaminghappy220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} manscreaminghappy100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/price-vigilantes/manscreaminghappy100/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:40:46 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manscreaminghappy100.gif 673 2008-06-15 21:40:46 2008-06-16 01:40:46 open open manscreaminghappy100 inherit 650 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/manscreaminghappy100.gif _wp_attached_file manscreaminghappy100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata 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a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:17:"prettygirl220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"prettygirl220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"prettygirl220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"prettygirl220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} prettygirl100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/market-mavens/prettygirl100/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:25:25 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/prettygirl100.gif 675 2008-06-15 23:25:25 2008-06-16 03:25:25 open open prettygirl100 inherit 671 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/prettygirl100.gif _wp_attached_file prettygirl100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:17:"prettygirl100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"prettygirl100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} calculatorandmoney100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2008-personal-tax-calculator/calculatorandmoney100/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:50:18 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/calculatorandmoney100.gif 676 2008-06-15 23:50:18 2008-06-16 03:50:18 open open calculatorandmoney100 inherit 668 0 attachment 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http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2008-personal-tax-calculator/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:51:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=668 Click here to use the 2008 Personal Tax Rate Calculator for Canadians]]> 668 2008-06-15 23:51:59 2008-06-16 03:51:59 open open 2008-personal-tax-calculator publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213588319 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif _edit_lock 1213588319 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 1454 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.3.95 2008-06-16 06:51:07 2008-06-16 10:51:07 1 0 0 1455 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-16 09:14:20 2008-06-16 13:14:20 1 0 0 Price Vigilantes http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/price-vigilantes/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:13:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=650 The Tipping Point is a very popular book written by psychologist Malcolm Gladwell which discusses the phenomenon of how ideas, products and behaviours can "tip" in explosive ways. Some examples he cites in his book are: the seemingly instant drop in crime in New York, the resurgence of Hushpuppy footwear, and how the book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood went from selling 15,000 hardcover copies but then slowly gained momentum until it "tipped" a year later into selling 2,500,000 copies. There are many very interesting concepts discussed in the book such as the Law of the Few, the Power of Context and the Stickiness Factor which Gladwell posits are necessary for a behaviour or product to "tip". I found the concepts and message behind The Tipping Point to be incredibly eye-opening and thought provoking. If you are looking for reading material, click here for more information on The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. In any case, the reason for this post was to regurgitate a concept Gladwell in turn has borrowed from economists which is the concept of 'price vigilantes' and later, 'market mavens' (mavens will be discussed tomorrow).

    Price Vigilantes

    Grocery stores normally have many items that go on sale and are placed in plain view - naturally the sales volumes of these items increase when they are on sale and offered at a discounted price. However, Gladwell cites research in which items which are erroneously marked as being on sale even though no price discount is applied will have similarly increased sales volumes. In other words, the fact that signs indicating that a product is on sale is the reason for the increased sales, not the actual price discount. A price vigilante is one of the few people who would notice this and complain to the manager or someone else within the grocery store organization. While price vigilantes represent such a small percentage of the consumer public, if it were not for the price vigilante, more grocery stores (and by extension other retailers) would have false sales which would drive you to buy more even though you would not be saving any money.]]>
    650 2008-06-16 05:13:26 2008-06-16 09:13:26 open open price-vigilantes publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213587255 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy100.gif _edit_lock 1213587255 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy100.gif 1456 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/market-mavens/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-17 10:59:55 2008-06-17 14:59:55 1 pingback 0 0 1457 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/read-basic-stock-quote/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-25 10:11:33 2008-06-25 14:11:33 1 pingback 0 0
    ipod http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-ipod-tax-in-canada-up-to-75/ipod/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:40:59 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ipod.jpg 678 2008-06-16 10:40:59 2008-06-16 14:40:59 open open ipod inherit 300 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ipod.jpg _wp_attached_file ipod.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"225";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:8:"ipod.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:16:"ipod-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:16:"ipod-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:14:"ipod-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} ipod1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-ipod-tax-in-canada-up-to-75/ipod1/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:41:29 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ipod1.jpg 679 2008-06-16 10:41:29 2008-06-16 14:41:29 open open ipod1 inherit 300 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ipod1.jpg _wp_attached_file ipod1.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"225";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:9:"ipod1.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"ipod1-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"ipod1-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"ipod1-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} learninggraduation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-are-you-going-to-learn-from-this-site/learninggraduation/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:44:37 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/learninggraduation.jpg 680 2008-06-16 10:44:37 2008-06-16 14:44:37 open open learninggraduation inherit 299 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/learninggraduation.jpg _wp_attached_file learninggraduation.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"200";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:22:"learninggraduation.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"learninggraduation-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"learninggraduation-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"learninggraduation-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Market Mavens http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/market-mavens/ Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:36:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=671 Market Mavens Again taken from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: Market Mavens are people who truly enjoy helping others when making purchasing decisions. For example, if you were looking to buy a new car you may consult with a friend who is a 'car-guy' - who will tell you about all the features about the car you are considering buying. However, this is NOT necessarily a market maven. The 'car-guy' will talk to you because they like talking about cars, whereas the market maven will talk to you because they genuinely enjoy helping others and enjoy disseminating the information they collect to others solely for the purpose of their empowerment. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 'maven trap' in his book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. An example would be the placement of the customer information phone number that might be printed on the packaging of a bar of soap. How many people do you know would ever think about calling that number? Probably very few. The person who would call that number would either be very passionate about soap or very knowledgeable about soap - and this person would be a market maven. The soap company would be well advised to listen carefully to the opinions of mavens who, according to The Law of the Few, have very loud and respected voices on behalf of the larger population.

    Many Personal Finance Bloggers are Market Mavens

    Many personal finance bloggers would be market mavens in that they are very passionate and knowledgeable about personal finance and investment products and strategies, and are gladly willing to share that information with very little personal gain (for the most part, income from the advertisements on blogs are not enough to persuade one to quit their day job). In addition, many personal finance bloggers are also price vigilantes (see yesterday's post) - quick to point out the price-to-value ratio of various investment products.

    Some examples of Market Mavens and Price Vigilante personal finance bloggers are:

    The Canadian Capitalist Michael James on Money The Million Dollar Journey Canadian Financial DIY Thicken My Wallet The Quest for Four Pillars ...to name but a few.]]>
    671 2008-06-17 04:36:06 2008-06-17 08:36:06 open open market-mavens publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213714851 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl100.gif _edit_lock 1213714851 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl100.gif 1458 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-06-17 07:20:53 2008-06-17 11:20:53 1 0 0 1459 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-06-17 10:39:44 2008-06-17 14:39:44 1 0 0 1460 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-17 10:57:39 2008-06-17 14:57:39 1 0 0 1461 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-17 12:35:28 2008-06-17 16:35:28 1 0 0 1462 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 142.179.207.204 2008-06-17 19:23:17 2008-06-17 23:23:17 1 0 0 1463 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-17 23:32:46 2008-06-18 03:32:46 1 0 0 1464 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-17 23:41:34 2008-06-18 03:41:34 1 0 0 1465 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.236.33.187 2008-06-18 11:55:20 2008-06-18 15:55:20 1 0 0 1466 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-18 14:52:34 2008-06-18 18:52:34 1 0 0 1467 http://www.blogbookmarker.com/tags/market 67.228.47.154 2008-06-19 10:47:10 2008-06-19 14:47:10 1 pingback 0 0 1468 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/read-basic-stock-quote/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-25 10:13:22 2008-06-25 14:13:22 1 pingback 0 0 1469 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 86.157.46.13 2008-06-26 19:21:35 2008-06-26 23:21:35 1 0 0 1470 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-07-01 21:14:42 2008-07-02 01:14:42 1 0 0 1471 http://www.subprimeblogger.com/will-low-mortgage-rates-help-the-economy/ 67.205.36.215 2009-05-24 20:49:26 2009-05-25 01:49:26 1 pingback 0 0 1472 http://www.thefinancialsuite.com/?p=62 174.132.188.226 2009-05-25 10:11:11 2009-05-25 15:11:11 1 pingback 0 0 1473 http://blueskyrei.com/will-low-mortgage-rates-help-the-economy/ 65.254.224.23 2009-07-02 17:23:00 2009-07-02 22:23:00 1 pingback 0 0
    The Reverse Dispersion Equity Collar http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/reverse-disperson-equity-collar/ Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:04:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=681 The Equity Collar First, let's have a backgrounder on the equity collar. If someone wants to protect their portfolio from loss without selling out the portfolio (for example the investor has a large unrealized capital gain and only expects short-term market volatility), they can purchase put options. The put options gain in value if the portfolio falls and the gain on the puts offsets the loss on the portfolio. However, purchasing a put option contract costs money. To reduce that cost to the investor, they can in turn SELL call options. This gives someone ELSE the option of buying away the portfolio if it hits the strike price. The investor will receive money for selling these call option contracts which can offset in part, or in whole, the cost of the portfolio insurance (the put options). What this does is serves to limit the downside AND upside of the portfolio's performance for the length of the options - this is known as the equity collar. For a more detailed explanation, you may visit the guest article I wrote for the Million Dollar Journey that focuses strictly on the basic Equity Collar.

    The Reverse Dispersion Strategy

    In a nutshell, option pricing is heavily influenced by volatility of the underlying security. Generally speaking, the more volatile the underlying security (or portfolio) the higher the price of the option since more volatility means more chance of the underlying asset hitting the strike price. There are other variables that affect option pricing as well: 1) Time - the longer the option contract the more chance the underlying asset has to hit the strike price. 2) Distance to Strike Price - the closer to the strike price the underlying asset is, the more it tends to be worth (again, since it is more likely to become "in" the money). So here is the reverse dispersion strategy in motion using a basic example: 1. You buy put options on the entire portfolio for 1 year, that are perhaps 10% out of the money 2. You sell call options on the separate stocks that make up the portfolio for 1 month, that are perhaps 5% out of the money, and keep rolling them over every month for the year A more concrete, although more cumbersome, example would be owning the TSX/60, buying 1 year put options that are 10% out of the money on the index and selling monthly, 5% out of the money call options on each of the underlying 60 stocks, every month.

    Less Volatility on the Portfolio = Lower cost on the puts

    The volatility of the TSX/60 as a portfolio of stocks would be less than the volatility of any one constituent stock since at any time some of the 60 stocks are going up, and some are going down and some are not changing much. Since all the 60 stocks are not perfectly positively correlated, the volatility of the portfolio is decreased. Since volatility is decreased, the put option on the entire portfolio as a whole costs less than buying put options on each individual portfolio constituent separately. On the other hand, we are selling call options on each of the individual 60 constituents of the index, instead of selling call options on the entire index. Each of the constituent stocks separately are more volatile than the portfolio as a whole, hence the options are worth more and hence they are going to generate more income to offset the cost of the puts. Taken together, we have bought 1 set of put option contracts for 1 year which is 10% out of the money versus selling 720 sets of call option contracts (60 per month, for 12 months) which are each 5% out of the money. The odds of a stock hitting the 5% out of the money strike price in one month are low, maybe around 15%. That means you will have some additional turnover in the portfolio and you will need to replace some stocks every month, and write new calls. However, by using a lower strike price distance you increase the income received from the call options. If you pick your spots, you can earn more income from the calls than you spend on the puts, implementing a net-credit collar.

    What would be a situation for considering this?

    Let's say you are a large, active investor on the fence about energy in Canada. You see that it's been on a tear, but so many people are convinced it is a supercycle. You have a large unrealized gain, and want to protect against a near term correction, which could be severe, and still participate in any continued upswing. This might be appealing as you could in essence get free portfolio insurance (with a 10% deductible - which is another way of saying the puts are 10% out of the money). Further, a portfolio manager who runs this strategy often tells me that the time and distance-to-strike differentials of the reverse dispersion allows for only writing calls on half the positions to offset the cost of the put contract - which means only half of the portfolio may be capped on the upside in case there was an across the board surprise bull run. Please do not attempt to engage in a reverse dispersion equity collar without first consulting with a qualified financial advisor. This is a complex strategy, normally reserved for large portfolios or institutional money management. (Imagine having to enter 720 call option orders!)]]>
    681 2008-06-18 04:04:52 2008-06-18 08:04:52 open open reverse-disperson-equity-collar publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213759956 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg _edit_lock 1213759956 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 1474 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/read-basic-stock-quote/ 68.178.254.235 2008-07-07 19:29:11 2008-07-07 23:29:11 1 pingback 0 0 1475 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/my-new-job-part-ii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-11-12 23:10:29 2008-11-13 03:10:29 1 pingback 0 0 1476 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/indexing-and-options-and-the-value-of-stock-market-research/ 68.178.254.235 2009-04-22 22:21:47 2009-04-23 03:21:47 1 pingback 0 0
    An Interesting Fact About Private Equity http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/private-equity/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:00:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=682

    Private Equity in it's loosest definition is the ownership of companies that are, well, private. This would be as opposed to ownership in companies that are public - such as any company that is listed on your favourite stock market - which is a public exchange. Another way of putting it, is that if a company does not have shares trading on a recognized public stock exchange, it is a private company. Here is some interesting data about Private companies that you may not have known:
    • Of the 171,606 companies in the United States with revenues above $10 million per year, fully 151,345 of them are privately held companies - that's 88%
    • Of the 30,120 companies in the United States with revenues above $100 million per year, fully 22,696 of them were privately held companies - that's 67%
    Data taken from 2002 research by Dun & Bradstreet's Market Identifiers Database So, when you invest in a portfolio of US stocks (active or indexed), are you missing out by only investing in 12% of the companies with revenues over $10 million per year if you "limit" yourself to publicly traded stock?]]>
    682 2008-06-19 04:00:41 2008-06-19 08:00:41 open open private-equity publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213880839 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark100.gif _edit_lock 1213880839 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/holdingquestionmark100.gif 1477 svens@pobox.com 206.191.28.8 2008-06-19 07:15:13 2008-06-19 11:15:13 1 0 0 1478 http://madrascafeonline.com/McVenture/?p=398 74.52.141.130 2008-06-19 08:28:48 2008-06-19 12:28:48 1 pingback 0 0 1479 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-19 09:05:01 2008-06-19 13:05:01 1 0 0 1480 dev@devbasu.com http://devbasu.com 99.244.150.149 2008-06-19 10:47:10 2008-06-19 14:47:10 1 0 0 1481 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-14/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-27 09:00:56 2008-06-27 13:00:56 1 pingback 0 0 1482 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/read-basic-stock-quote/ 68.178.254.235 2008-07-07 19:29:26 2008-07-07 23:29:26 1 pingback 0 0
    Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/lap-of-the-blogs/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:10:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=683 From Around The Blogosphere... You always hear the advice that you should check your credit report yourself, but you'll get it again courtesy of The Canadian Capitalist PLUS you'll get instructions on how to do it. Now you have no excuses. The Quest For Four Pillars explains the ins and outs of the Canada Child Tax Benefit program. They even include a link to a calculator from the government that will help you determine what your benefit might be. Canadian Financial DIY brings up an often neglected topic of personal finance as he discusses 6 reasons for using testamentary trusts. My coverage on estate planning is pretty weak, so I'll start to ramp up the number of articles focussing on estate planning myself in the future. Michael James on Money shows you how to get rich. No fancy schemes, just good old fashioned discipline. The Million Dollar Journey offers an introduction to double exposure ETFs - these have been in the media a lot, and have also been covered by many of the personal finance bloggers as of late - and will continue to be for some time I gather.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Every week on WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, I have a weekly "Lap of The Blogs" post on Friday that provides links to other articles that I found interesting or that I think would be of interest to my readers. I also include a racing video simply because my other passion in life is auto-racing. This week's video gives some perspective as to how much faster racecars are than regular street cars. Specifically it compares an A-Series Mercedes Benz versus an E-Series Benz versus a McLaren Mercedes F1 car. The F1 car gives the A-Series Mercedes a 70 second headstart on a 3.2 mile course (and still wins).

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    683 2008-06-20 04:10:10 2008-06-20 08:10:10 open open lap-of-the-blogs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1213924541 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1213924541 _edit_last 1 1483 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-06-20 04:54:42 2008-06-20 08:54:42 1 0 0 1484 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-20 09:16:15 2008-06-20 13:16:15 1 0 0 1485 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-06-20 09:50:08 2008-06-20 13:50:08 1 0 0 1486 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2008-06-20 11:56:58 2008-06-20 15:56:58 1 0 0 1487 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-06-20 12:28:32 2008-06-20 16:28:32 1 0 0 1488 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-21 11:12:33 2008-06-21 15:12:33 1 0 0 1489 http://thebizinsidernews.com/?p=70 207.44.148.194 2010-03-31 14:42:13 2010-03-31 19:42:13 1 pingback 0 0 1490 http://rls31knowledge.zerorichparty.com/?p=70 207.44.148.194 2010-04-08 10:43:17 2010-04-08 15:43:17 1 pingback 0 0
    Groceries At Eye Level Cost More http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/groceries-at-eye-level-cost-more/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:23:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=685 their eye-level, i.e. on the lower shelves. It would seem that supermarkets have spent lots of money on hiring psychologists and marketers to make more money from consumers - and it seems the investment was worthwhile. They go so far as to analyze the probability of turning left versus right upon entering a store so that they can place higher priced items on the path most traveled - so that by the time that you have made your way through most of the store you will be getting to the lower cost items. Based on having seen the higher priced items earlier, the lower prices on the smaller items comparatively seem like a bargain, and you are more likely to purchase more of both if you start by seeing the higher priced items first. You can read more about slotting fees here.]]> 685 2008-06-22 21:23:41 2008-06-23 01:23:41 open open groceries-at-eye-level-cost-more publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214184221 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif _edit_lock 1214184221 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark100.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 1491 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-22 22:45:08 2008-06-23 02:45:08 1 0 0 1492 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 99.242.236.171 2008-06-22 23:40:36 2008-06-23 03:40:36 1 0 0 1493 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-06-23 16:39:01 2008-06-23 20:39:01 1 0 0 1494 http://www.blisstree.com/thriftymommy/savvy-shopping-tips-to-save-money/ 66.135.57.95 2009-12-21 09:37:20 2009-12-21 14:37:20 1 pingback 0 0 Contact http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contact/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:53:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?page_id=686 preet.banerjee@gmail.com... even if it's just to say 'hi'. :)

    Reasons for e-mailing me:

    1. You have a question that you would like to ask, but don't want to use the 'comment' function 2. You have a suggestion for a topic for me to write about 3. You would like to arrange placement of advertising on this site 4. You'd like to know where to send a check as a gratuity for the free information found on this site :) 5. Any reason not listed above - which basically means I would like you to feel free to contact me anytime 6. You would like to submit a guest article to be posted on this blog]]>
    686 2008-06-22 23:53:51 2008-06-23 03:53:51 open open contact publish 0 0 page 0 _edit_lock 1226376429 _edit_last 1 _wp_page_template default _edit_lock 1226376429 _edit_last 1 _wp_page_template default
    preetcropped73 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contact/preetcropped73/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:55:14 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcropped73.jpg 687 2008-06-22 23:55:14 2008-06-23 03:55:14 open open preetcropped73 inherit 686 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcropped73.jpg _wp_attached_file preetcropped73.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"166";s:6:"height";s:3:"417";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='38'";s:4:"file";s:18:"preetcropped73.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped73-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped73-119x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"119";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped73-166x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"166";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"preetcropped73-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} test http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=689 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:09:33 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/test.wmv 689 2008-06-23 18:09:33 2008-06-23 22:09:33 open open test inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/test.wmv _wp_attached_file test.wmv _wp_attachment_metadata a:0:{} greenredmarkets http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-storm-before-the-storm-as-opposed-to-the-calm/greenredmarkets/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:02:12 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/greenredmarkets.jpg 693 2008-06-24 16:02:12 2008-06-24 20:02:12 open open greenredmarkets inherit 692 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/greenredmarkets.jpg _wp_attached_file greenredmarkets.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"770";s:6:"height";s:3:"501";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='83' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:19:"greenredmarkets.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"greenredmarkets-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"greenredmarkets-300x195.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"195";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"greenredmarkets-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"greenredmarkets-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} greedredmarkets100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-storm-before-the-storm-as-opposed-to-the-calm/greedredmarkets100/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:07:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/greedredmarkets100.jpg 694 2008-06-24 16:07:02 2008-06-24 20:07:02 open open greedredmarkets100 inherit 692 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/greedredmarkets100.jpg _wp_attached_file greedredmarkets100.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:22:"greedredmarkets100.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"greedredmarkets100-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} greedredmarkets220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-storm-before-the-storm-as-opposed-to-the-calm/greedredmarkets220/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:07:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/greedredmarkets220.jpg 695 2008-06-24 16:07:04 2008-06-24 20:07:04 open open greedredmarkets220 inherit 692 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/greedredmarkets220.jpg _wp_attached_file greedredmarkets220.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"143";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='83' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:22:"greedredmarkets220.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:2:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"greedredmarkets220-150x143.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"143";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"greedredmarkets220-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Storm Before The Storm (As opposed to the calm) http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-storm-before-the-storm-as-opposed-to-the-calm/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:11:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=692 bad storms and forego the market appreciation while watching from the sidelines. Of course, it can be very difficult watching your portfolio see-sawing back and forth so I thought I would ask Russell Investments for permission to post a fantastic chart they have that might help you "batten down the hatches" and focus on the long term... (Note - you can click on the picture for a larger version. For email subscribers, please click here to view the photo if it does not appear.)

    Many thanks to Russell Investments Canada Limited for permission to post this.]]>
    692 2008-06-24 16:11:29 2008-06-24 20:11:29 open open the-storm-before-the-storm-as-opposed-to-the-calm publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214338329 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/greedredmarkets100.jpg _edit_lock 1214338329 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/greedredmarkets100.jpg 1495 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-24 16:53:35 2008-06-24 20:53:35 1 0 0 1496 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-06-25 15:00:32 2008-06-25 19:00:32 1 0 0 1497 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-25 15:52:36 2008-06-25 19:52:36 1 0 0 1498 http://www.businessuu.com/2008-06/the-storm-before-the-storm-as-opposed-to-the-calm.html 74.220.215.63 2008-06-26 03:57:32 2008-06-26 07:57:32 1 pingback 0 0 1499 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/06/26/this-and-that-95 64.111.114.14 2008-06-26 18:55:44 2008-06-26 22:55:44 1 pingback 0 0
    How To Read A Basic Stock Quote http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/read-basic-stock-quote/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:11:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=696 Price Vigilantes and Market Mavens for example. Along that vein, I decided to not only change the look of the blog, but also to change up the content slightly. I'm still going to post technical articles (such as the reverse dispersion equity collar), but I'm also going to include video blog entries (like the one on private equity) and starting today: Video Tutorials! So without further ado, here is a video tutorial on how to look up a stock quote on the internet and further, how to interpret the basic data. I'm using Google Finance in this tutorial, but I'll use many other tools in the future as well. (Feed and Email readers: click here if you cannot see the video)

    I really would appreciate your feedback as I plan on incorporating video tutorials on this blog more heavily in the future, and would like to know how to make it as good an experience as possible for the great readers of this blog. So? What do you guys think?

    ]]>
    696 2008-06-25 10:11:29 2008-06-25 14:11:29 open open read-basic-stock-quote publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1215473330 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/learninggraduation.jpg _edit_lock 1215473330 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/learninggraduation.jpg 1500 richard@garandnet.net 142.165.175.15 2008-06-25 11:28:58 2008-06-25 15:28:58 1 0 0 1501 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.25 2008-06-25 11:52:54 2008-06-25 15:52:54 1 0 0 1502 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-25 13:45:51 2008-06-25 17:45:51 1 0 0 1503 abcstocks@gmail.com 32.97.110.142 2008-06-25 14:30:19 2008-06-25 18:30:19 1 0 0 1504 casinoshark69@yahoo.com 142.201.5.100 2008-06-25 14:59:22 2008-06-25 18:59:22 1 0 0 1505 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.222.150 2008-06-25 15:23:17 2008-06-25 19:23:17 1 0 0 1506 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2008-06-25 15:59:32 2008-06-25 19:59:32 1 0 0 1507 richard@garandnet.net 142.165.175.15 2008-06-25 17:35:38 2008-06-25 21:35:38 1 0 0 1508 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-pe-ratio/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-26 11:46:33 2008-06-26 15:46:33 1 pingback 0 0 1509 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http:// 205.210.223.133 2008-06-26 15:43:36 2008-06-26 19:43:36 1 0 0 1510 billsmith1968@hotmail.com 192.228.22.245 2008-07-07 16:55:17 2008-07-07 20:55:17 1 0 0 1511 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-07-07 19:29:12 2008-07-07 23:29:12 1 0 0 1512 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/07/11/friday-linkstuff/ 67.205.18.215 2008-07-11 05:03:22 2008-07-11 09:03:22 1 pingback 0 0 1513 http://www.financiz.com/blog/Stock-Quote/2008/08/01/forex-broker-ibm-stock-quote-2/ 216.36.50.47 2008-08-01 09:01:16 2008-08-01 13:01:16 1 pingback 0 0 1514 http://www.financiz.com/blog/Stock-Quote/2008/08/10/daiichi-sankyo-co-ltd-4568t-stock-quote-stocks-reuterscom/ 216.36.50.47 2008-08-10 10:19:59 2008-08-10 14:19:59 1 pingback 0 0 1515 http://www.postsaver.org/tags/stockquote 67.228.47.154 2008-10-14 17:17:13 2008-10-14 21:17:13 1 pingback 0 0 1516 duncgster@gmail.com 24.64.198.31 2009-01-26 13:35:58 2009-01-26 18:35:58 1 0 0 1517 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-26 13:45:56 2009-01-26 18:45:56 1 0 0 1518 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 118.100.201.75 2009-02-13 10:11:55 2009-02-13 15:11:55 1 0 0 1519 hmalhans@yahoo.com 99.228.89.10 2009-03-03 22:09:33 2009-03-04 03:09:33 1 0 0 1520 dianne@hilltopmanor.ca 66.158.148.180 2009-07-20 08:38:53 2009-07-20 13:38:53 1 0 0 1521 admin@financemetrics.com http://www.financemetrics.com/ 203.188.230.24 2009-09-22 01:02:21 2009-09-22 06:02:21 1 0 0 1522 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Stocks-for-Safe-Investment 60.54.37.112 2009-09-26 04:03:49 2009-09-26 09:03:49 1 0 0 1523 peartree323@gmail.com 74.58.66.64 2009-11-14 12:46:21 2009-11-14 17:46:21 1 0 0
    peratio220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio/peratio220/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:02:11 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/peratio220.jpg 698 2008-06-26 01:02:11 2008-06-26 05:02:11 open open peratio220 inherit 697 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/peratio220.jpg _wp_attached_file peratio220.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:14:"peratio220.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"peratio220-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"peratio220-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"peratio220-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} peratio100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio/peratio100/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:02:12 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/peratio100.jpg 699 2008-06-26 01:02:12 2008-06-26 05:02:12 open open peratio100 inherit 697 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/peratio100.jpg _wp_attached_file peratio100.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:14:"peratio100.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"peratio100-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The P/E Ratio http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:00:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=697 Video Tutorial on How To Read a Stock Quote, one of the items pointed out was the P/E Ratio. I purposely skipped over giving an explanation as it would've taken the 10 minute tutorial to about 20 minutes! However, today I will follow up on that promise to explain it in more detail.

    The P/E Ratio, also known as...

    The P/E Ratio is such a widely used ratio that it has many different slang terms such as: 1. The Multiple 2. The Price to Earnings Ratio 3. The P/E Ratio 4. Earnings Ratio 5. Price Multiple ...and there are probably some others that aren't top of mind right now, too.

    Okay, so what is it?

    The price to earnings ratio is a number that is derived from the formula:

    P/E Ratio = Price Per Share / Earnings Per Share

    So the "P" stands for the Price of the share, and the "E" stands for the Earnings Per Share (or 'EPS'). If you had a stock that was trading at $50 per share on the market, and that stock had an EPS (earning per share) of $2.50, then according to this very simple formula, the P/E Ratio of this stock is 20.

    But seriously Preet, what IS it?

    There are a number of differet ways to look at it, but I will give you the one that makes the most sense to me. It is the price you are willing to pay today for $1 of annual income in perpetuity. So for example, for our sample stock above with a P/E of 20, that means you are willing to pay $20 today for an annual income stream of $1 for life. (It might be better to say that the market as a whole is willing to pay $20 today for that $1 annual income for life.)

    I'm going to borrow an example I read elsewhere, but if a stranger came up to you and asked you to buy a $1 dollar income stream from them for life, you would have no idea if they were able to keep this promise and you might only offer them $1 simply because you don't know or trust this person, but you think that you should be able to at least get your $1 back next year. But what if Bill Gates came up to you and offered to sell you $1 per year for life for $20? You might take him up at that price because you know that he will probably be making a lot of money for many years to come. Well, in essence Bill has a P/E ratio of 20 and the stranger has a P/E of 1.

    Your expectation of Bill Gates earning lots of money in the future is solid and hence you are willing to basically wait 20 years to get your money back, at which point the future $1 annual income is gravy. (Clearly I'm not factoring in opportunity costs or interest for this example - but I will in a follow up post that is a bit more technical.)

    Let's now relate it back to the stock market

    A high P/E ratio means that investors believe the future earnings of a company are expected to be strong. The stronger the earnings outlook, the more confidence people have in buying stock in the company because they believe there is a greater chance that the earnings will continue.

    If someone offers to pay a higher price for a stock, they are offering to purchase the stock at a higher P/E ratio - which means they are more confident about the future of that company.

    But there's more...

    When a P/E ratio really starts to get high this is due to investors not only believing the earnings are solid, but that they will probably GROW over time as well. This means that they are basically saying to themselves that they believe the $1 annual income stream will increase. Next year it might be $1.05, the year after it might be $1.12 and so on. Since they believe the earnings will grow (because the company is going to take off), they are willing to offer an even higher 'multiple'. For example, RIM has a P/E of over 60 right now. If you only assume that you are buying $1 of annual earnings per year for $60 today, that might seem a bit crazy. But if you think that RIM will continue to increase it's earning VERY rapidly, then you are not expecting $1 per year, but rather a very quickly increasing earnings stream. I'll end this primer here, but will continue in more detail with two follow up articles. One will explain in more detail how the increasing earnings expectation will affect the price someone is willing to pay for a share (and hence the very high P/E ratio), and the second will explain how to interpret the P/E when evaulating a stock and gauging the market sentiment overall in a more common manner.]]>
    697 2008-06-26 10:00:43 2008-06-26 14:00:43 open open the-pe-ratio publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214787405 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio100.jpg _edit_lock 1214787405 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio100.jpg 1524 casinoshark69@yahoo.com 142.201.5.100 2008-06-27 12:50:59 2008-06-27 16:50:59 1 0 0 1525 moneymonk33@gmail.com http://moneyliving.blogspot.com 158.111.4.26 2008-06-27 17:08:50 2008-06-27 21:08:50 1 0 0 1526 etstockideas@gmail.com http://www.FinancePuzzle.com 76.19.196.130 2008-06-29 17:39:19 2008-06-29 21:39:19 1 0 0 1527 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-pe-ratio-part-2/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-29 21:13:29 2008-06-30 01:13:29 1 pingback 0 0 1528 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-pe-ratio-part-3/ 68.178.254.235 2008-06-30 21:45:10 2008-07-01 01:45:10 1 pingback 0 0 1529 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-pe-ratio-part-4/ 68.178.254.235 2008-07-02 22:25:35 2008-07-03 02:25:35 1 pingback 0 0
    preetcropped77 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=701 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:27:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcropped77.jpg 701 2008-06-26 22:27:02 2008-06-27 02:27:02 open open preetcropped77 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcropped77.jpg _wp_attached_file preetcropped77.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"175";s:6:"height";s:3:"440";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='38'";s:4:"file";s:18:"preetcropped77.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped77-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped77-119x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"119";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"preetcropped77-175x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"175";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"preetcropped77-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-14/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:00:36 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=700 video entry on private equity and the video tutorial on looking up a stock quote. Well, starting soon I'm also going to start pod-casting. Look for an iTunes podcast feed to launch (as soon as I figure it out). This will allow people to download the feeds and listen to them on the way to work on their iPods (I think). :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau talks to Norm Rothery about how $10 trade commissions present some interesting portfolio options. The Quest For Four Pillars explains how anyone can probably create an extra $30 in passive income starting today. I'm convinced Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45 has figured out life almost completely. Read him explain how he thrives on $35,000/year. The Canadian Capitalist explains how you can deposit Canada Child Tax Benefit or Universal Child Care Benefit payments into an account in your child's name and have the interest payments treated as your child’s income. Thicken My Wallet talks about your options when you owe money to creditors but cannot pay them. Larry MacDonald talks about the conflict of interest real estate agents are exposed to. Michael James on Money further expounds on the alignment of interests between two parties. And last but certainly not least, FrugalTrader from The Million Dollar Journey talks about 10 ways you can save big bucks on campus.

    This Week's Racing Video

    If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, you should know that every Friday I post a 'Lap of The Blogs' which links to other articles of interest from around the internet. I also include an auto-racing video simply because cars and racing are my other passion. This week's video isn't actually a racing video, but rather is the future of the automobile should oil prices continue to rise. It highlights a car that 1) gets 100mpg 2) fits in an elevator and 3) has a top speed inversely related to your weight. :)

    ]]> 700 2008-06-27 09:00:36 2008-06-27 13:00:36 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-14 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214530761 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1214530761 _edit_last 1 1530 ccapitalist@yahoo.ca http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-06-27 09:29:37 2008-06-27 13:29:37 1 0 0 1531 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-06-27 09:50:16 2008-06-27 13:50:16 1 0 0 1532 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-06-27 10:09:48 2008-06-27 14:09:48 1 0 0 1533 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-06-27 10:36:44 2008-06-27 14:36:44 1 0 0 1534 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 72.141.5.43 2008-06-28 11:04:09 2008-06-28 15:04:09 1 0 0 1535 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.236.33.187 2008-06-28 12:10:20 2008-06-28 16:10:20 1 0 0 1536 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 99.249.29.204 2008-06-28 15:27:03 2008-06-28 19:27:03 1 0 0 dcfchart http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio-part-2/dcfchart/ Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:37:01 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dcfchart.gif 704 2008-06-29 19:37:01 2008-06-29 23:37:01 open open dcfchart inherit 703 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dcfchart.gif _wp_attached_file dcfchart.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"550";s:6:"height";s:3:"295";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='68' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:12:"dcfchart.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"dcfchart-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"dcfchart-300x160.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"160";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"dcfchart-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"dcfchart-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} dcfchart1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio-part-2/dcfchart1/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:21:39 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dcfchart1.gif 705 2008-06-29 20:21:39 2008-06-30 00:21:39 open open dcfchart1 inherit 703 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dcfchart1.gif _wp_attached_file dcfchart1.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"600";s:6:"height";s:3:"325";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='69' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:13:"dcfchart1.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"dcfchart1-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"dcfchart1-300x162.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"162";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"dcfchart1-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"dcfchart1-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The P/E Ratio Part 2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio-part-2/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:13:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=703 Part 1, I mentioned that one way of looking at the P/E ratio is to consider it as the price today of purchasing a $1 income stream for life. When people bid up a stock, and hence the P/E ratio, they are basically saying that they believe that company's future earnings outlook are more promising, and are willing to pay more to own a piece of those future earnings.

    So What's A Fair Price For A Company?

    Let's assume we have a company that is guaranteed to provide $1 per year for life no matter what (i.e. there is no business risk whatsoever - purely wishful thinking!). In this case, what would be a fair price to purchase that income stream? Well, if we assume that we are going to live for another 80 years, then you might say $80 as a starting point because 80 years times $1 = $80. You would think, I'm going to get $80 over the next 80 years - therefore this is the fair price. Right? Wrong.

    The Present Value of a Dollar From the Future

    You are essentially giving up $80 now in a lump sum today in exchange for getting eighty $1 dollar payments over 80 years which is crazy when you think that you could just get a high interest savings account and get 3% interest on your $80 lump sum starting today. In fact, the first year's interest alone would be $2.40 - that's much more than $1. And after 80 years, your original $80 dollars would've grown to $826.48, if you kept re-investing the interest. Let's start by figuring out what a better price would be to pay for $1 that will be received in the future, starting with next year. Basically, we need to start by asking: What do I need to invest at 3% today, to get $1.00 in one year? In this case, the answer is $0.97 (rounded). In other words, to have $1.00 NEXT year, you would need to invest 97 cents into that 3% high interest savings account. Therefore, you might pay $1 for this year's $1 income from the company, but you would definitely not want to pay more than $0.97 for next year's $1. Let's move to year 3. What would you need to invest TODAY at 3%, in order to get $1 in 2 years? The answer is $0.94 (again, rounded for simplicity's sake). $0.94 invested for one year at 3% equals roughly $0.97, which when invested for the second year at 3% will give you $1. So you can see, the further out that company's $1 annual income is, the less you would want to pay for it. If we fast forward to year 80, you would only need to invest 9 cents today in order to have $1 eighty years from now. Below, I have charted the present value of $1 for every year between now and 80 years from now, based on a 3% interest rate. If we add up all of those values, we then have $30.20. Therefore, assuming there is no business risk, and we are guaranteed an earnings of $1.00 per share every year for the next 80 years, $30.20 per share is a much fairer price than $80.00 to pay for this income stream. (If you can't see the graph, click here.)

    Still Not Done!

    We are not quite yet done with the discussion. There are two more things we need to factor in. 1) Investors expect to be compensated for the risk they take in making an investment that is more risky than a high interest savings account (this would bring the price that they are willing to pay DOWN), and 2) the price goes up if the company's earnings are expected to increase. We'll cover these off in the next post and then we will wrap up with a fourth post that explains some real world applications (I had originally thought I could do it in three posts, but I wanted to be thorough).

    ]]>
    703 2008-06-29 21:13:25 2008-06-30 01:13:25 open open the-pe-ratio-part-2 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214788464 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio100.jpg _edit_lock 1214788464 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio100.jpg 1537 somereader@nomail.com 207.35.182.164 2008-06-30 13:26:11 2008-06-30 17:26:11 1 0 0 1538 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-pe-ratio-part-4/ 68.178.254.235 2008-07-02 22:26:11 2008-07-03 02:26:11 1 pingback 0 0
    RSS Counts http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/rss-counts/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:06:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=706 Canadian Capitalist Million Dollar Journey Quest For Four Pillars Canadian Dream: Free at 45 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com]]> 706 2008-06-30 12:06:45 2008-06-30 16:06:45 open open rss-counts private 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1240836993 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1240836993 dcfearningsandpresentvalue http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio-part-3/dcfearningsandpresentvalue/ Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:14:41 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dcfearningsandpresentvalue.gif 708 2008-06-30 21:14:41 2008-07-01 01:14:41 open open dcfearningsandpresentvalue inherit 707 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dcfearningsandpresentvalue.gif _wp_attached_file dcfearningsandpresentvalue.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"550";s:6:"height";s:3:"298";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='69' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:30:"dcfearningsandpresentvalue.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:38:"dcfearningsandpresentvalue-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:38:"dcfearningsandpresentvalue-300x162.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"162";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:38:"dcfearningsandpresentvalue-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:36:"dcfearningsandpresentvalue-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The P/E Ratio Part 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-pe-ratio-part-3/ Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:45:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=707 The P/E Ratio Part 1 and The P/E Ratio Part 2... So far we been using some unlikely assumptions, namely that this fictitious company we are going to buy has a constant earnings stream and that there is no risk involved in that earnings stream. Of course the real world is quite different! Let's next decide on how a changing earnings stream can affect the present value of all those future annual earnings.

    The Math is Not Much Different

    The math is not really different, we just have to take an extra step. Before, we were just assuming that a company would produce $1 in annual earnings forever. But let's now pretend that our company is expected to grow it's earnings by 10% per year. Therefore, instead of an earnings stream that looks like this:

    Year 1: $1.00, Year 2: $1.00, Year 3: $1.00... etc.

    It will instead look like this:

    Year 1: $1.00, Year 2: $1.10, Year 3: $1.21... etc.

    If we just do the math for the first 3 years, you will get the picture of how a changing earnings stream can affect a price someone is willing to pay for a company. If you recall from Part 2 of this series on the P/E Ratio, we need to figure out what we need to invest TODAY at 3% (or whatever the "risk-free" rate of return is) to replicate the earnings that will be earned at some point in the future. In our new company here that grows it's earnings at 10% per year we find that we might pay $1.00 for this years $1.00. But it is going to earn $1.10 in the second year - so what amount of money invested today at 3% will give us $1.10 in one year? The answer is $1.07. Likewise for the $1.21 it is expected to earn in Year 3 - what amount do we need to invest today at 3% in order to replicate that $1.21 in two years from now? The answer is $1.14.

    At this point, I could show a revised graph which shows the present value of the income stream for a company that can grow it's earnings at 10% forever, but not many companies can do that. What is more realistic is to look at the following situation:

    A Hypothetical Company's Life Cycle

    Suppose we have a relatively new company that is turning a profit and is still in it's growth phase. During this growth phase it is expected to grow it's earnings at 20% per year for 5 years as it gains market share and more customers. After the first 5 years, earnings growth slows down to about +10% per year for the next 5 years, and then slows down to +5% for the next 5 years. At this point, it has reached it's market saturation point and perhaps earnings hold steady for the next 10 years. During that time, some competitor companies figure they can take a slice of their market and start up operations, and over time start to move some customers over away from "our" company. Our company therefore experiences an earnings decline of -5% per year for the next 10 years. At this time, our company and the competitors have found an equilibrium point and our company's earning are now not declining further, nor are they increasing from this point on until the end of the 80 years.

    The above Life Cycle might represent a more realistic earnings stream for a real-life company. Now that we have a projection of what the future income stream might look like, we can again add up all the present values of those annual earnings to figure out a fair price for those earnings. I have charted both the annual earnings (in red) and the present value of those future earnings (in green).

    If we add up all the present values this time we get a sum of $71.81. This is quite a bit higher than the $30.20 we came up with in part 2, but remember part 2 assumed $1/year for 80 years. Whereas in this case, the earnings grew from a start of $1/year to as high as $3.55/year, and then declined to about $1.56 per year. So you can see how earnings predictions are so important and why the market seems to be so sensitive to them.

    What About The Business Risk Preet?

    Ah, yes. Again we have yet to factor in that if we were to offer $71.81 for this future earnings stream, we are assuming there is no risk involved - and of course, this couldn't be further from the truth. There is the risk that this company goes out of business due to competitors, their product could be rendered obsolete by new technology, a poor economy in general, you name it. Any of those things could affect future earnings and there is a risk that our predictions for the income stream may not be fulfilled. We could put our $71.81 in a high interest savings account at 3% and basically replicate this earnings stream with no risk, therefore we would be crazy to offer $71.81 for this company - we would have to offer LESS money for this expected income stream to compensate us for this extra risk.

    If you offered $40/share for something you have calculated to be worth $71.81 today, this discount represents the compensation for the risk you are taking. The constant bids/asks on the stock market for shares of companies are basically people weighing in on what their perception of a good discount is for that future earnings stream for those particular companies.

    I'll end Part 3 there, and Part 4 will conclude by tying it all together and giving a more realistic sense of how P/E ratios are used in the real world.

    ]]>
    707 2008-06-30 21:45:06 2008-07-01 01:45:06 open open the-pe-ratio-part-3 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1214876706 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio100.jpg _edit_lock 1214876706 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/peratio100.jpg 1539 po@gmail.ca 99.242.236.171 2008-06-30 22:54:36 2008-07-01 02:54:36 1 0 0 1540 http://3some.morelyrics.co.uk/2008/06/30/the-pe-ratio-part-3/ 72.232.196.10 2008-07-04 12:59:59 2008-07-04 16:59:59 1 pingback 0 0 1541 deb_nick@yahoo.com 99.238.142.11 2008-07-11 08:25:00 2008-07-11 12:25:00 1 0 0 1542 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-07-12 00:52:20 2008-07-12 04:52:20 1 0 0
    how_fast_468x60 /how_fast_468x60/ Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:48:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/how_fast_468x60.jpg 755 2008-08-01 16:48:24 2008-08-01 20:48:24 open open how_fast_468x60 inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/how_fast_468x60.jpg _wp_attached_file how_fast_468x60.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"468";s:6:"height";s:2:"60";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='16' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:19:"how_fast_468x60.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"how_fast_468x60-150x60.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:2:"60";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"how_fast_468x60-300x38.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:2:"38";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"how_fast_468x60-270x60.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:2:"60";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"how_fast_468x60-90x60.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"60";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Winner of July's Money Movie Giveaway http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/winner-of-julys-money-movie-giveaway/ Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:16:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=756 756 2008-08-03 13:16:55 2008-08-03 17:16:55 open open winner-of-julys-money-movie-giveaway publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1217783815 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif deadcatbounce http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dead-cat-bounce/deadcatbounce/ Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:19:32 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/deadcatbounce.gif 759 2008-08-04 23:19:32 2008-08-05 03:19:32 open open deadcatbounce inherit 758 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/deadcatbounce.gif _wp_attached_file deadcatbounce.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:17:"deadcatbounce.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"deadcatbounce-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"deadcatbounce-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"deadcatbounce-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dead Cat Bounce http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dead-cat-bounce/ Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:24:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=758 Programmed Trading A programmed trade can be as simple as someone having a standing buy order for a stock. For example if company ABC was trading at $60, some investors might say they wouldn't be interested in owning that stock until the price dropped to $50. Instead of keeping an eye on the stockon a daily basis, they might just tell their broker to put in an order to buy it for $50 and just wait (and hope) it gets filled. Many times, there can be a large number of orders placed for a certain price. If the stock (or market) has been falling fast, then all of these orders can be triggered (and in most cases they then become standing market orders which means they will take the next available price for the stock). Since there can be a flood of buy orders (and not enough sellers), the price can be temporarily bid upwards. Once all the orders are filled, the decline can again resume.

    Speculation

    Another reason that could explain dead cat bounces is just pure speculation. Back on January 21st, 2008 when the TSX dropped 600 points many people put orders to buy stocks or index funds (or double-exposure index funds) late that afternoon since such a drop was larger than normal or expected. They were rewarded with similarly larger than expected gains. From time to time when these precipitous declines occur and speculators jump in to buy, the buying pressure can temporarily drive prices up - however, a dead cat bounce indicates that the speculators did not time the market bottom well as prices would then continue to decline after this temporary blip.]]>
    758 2008-08-04 23:24:08 2008-08-05 03:24:08 open open dead-cat-bounce publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1217906648 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/deadcatbounce.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/deadcatbounce.gif 1543 http://indexfunds.titeblog.com/?p=493 67.15.157.5 2008-08-05 01:44:43 2008-08-05 05:44:43 1 pingback 0 0 1544 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-08-05 10:10:09 2008-08-05 14:10:09 1 0 0
    Some History of Volatility and Market Returns http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/some-history-of-volatility-and-market-returns/ Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:34:28 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=760 Market Crises In this exercise you can pick between Canadian, US or Global stocks and see how these markets reacted to, and how long these markets took to recover, from certain market shocks like 9/11, or the 1987 Stock Market Crash. Click here to view

    Timing The Market

    This is a great tool that shows how badly your performance is affected by missing out on only a few days of being in the markets. You can choose from 6 different markets and see how your performance would've dropped if you had missed 10, 20, 30, or 40 of the best days on those markets during the 5.5 year period. For example in the US, if you missed only the best 10 days on the market over the time period, you gave up 35% of value in your portfolio. The point is that no-one can pick these days in advance, so just stay invested. Click here to view

    Stock Picking

    Although I didn't find this particular tool to be as valuable as the others, it does show the dichotomy of returns of the 10 best stocks versus the 10 worst stocks versus the market averages for various markets over various years. Personally, I took from this that it is better to have a well diversified portfolio since it's very hard to pick which stocks will be the winners and which will be the losers. Click here to view

    Unpredictable Returns

    I really like this tool. It allows you to pick from 6 different markets and give you the best and worst annualized performance for that market over different lengths of time periods. For example, you can look at the Canadian market and select "2 year time periods". It will then provide the best 2 year annualized return the Canadian market ever had (over the last 52 years) and the worst 2 year annualized return the Canadian market ever had. In this case, the TSX had a 2 year annualized return as high as 54.6% between February 1978 to February 1980, and a 2 year annualized return as low as -22.2% between August 2000 and August 2002. It might be a good exercise to see how long you need in each market before there were no negative returns. For example, in the Canadian market you have to increase the time period to 7 years before you eliminate a negative annualized return. How do the other markets compare? Click here to try All in all, this is a great site for people to explore and play with - especially if it helps them to understand the nature of volatility and to stay the course.]]>
    760 2008-08-05 18:34:28 2008-08-05 22:34:28 open open some-history-of-volatility-and-market-returns publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218572106 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif
    Relative Social Status Trumps Absolute Financial Status http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/relative-social-status-trumps-financial-status/ Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:36:23 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=761 A is waiting in line at a movie theater. When he gets to the ticket window, he is told that as he is the 100,000th customer of the theater, he has just won $100. B is waiting in line at a different theater. The man in front of him wins $1,000 for being the 1-millionth customer of the theater. Mr. B wins $150. Amazingly, most people said that they would prefer to be A. In other words, they would rather forgo $50 in order to alleviate the feeling of regret that comes with not winning the thousand bucks. Essentially, they were willing to pay $50 for regret therapy. There are some other interesting studies and commentary in the article written by Michael Shermer, and originally appearing in the January 13th, 2008 edition of the LA Times.]]> 761 2008-08-06 20:36:23 2008-08-07 00:36:23 open open relative-social-status-trumps-financial-status publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218069530 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 1545 richard@garandnet.net 142.165.175.116 2008-08-07 11:30:24 2008-08-07 15:30:24 1 0 0 1546 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/enough-wealth.htm 64.131.72.71 2008-09-11 06:31:56 2008-09-11 10:31:56 1 pingback 0 0 1547 multifoldreams@gmail.com http://www.multifoldreams.com 76.68.152.91 2008-09-11 20:54:05 2008-09-12 00:54:05 1 0 0 1548 http://hotlink.asia/finance/enough-wealth/ 74.50.25.165 2008-10-05 06:06:12 2008-10-05 10:06:12 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-20/ Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:44:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=762 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I've been busy putting the final touches on my official work website so I've been behind on posting information on DFA which I know many people are interested in reading. If anyone cares to, please check out www.ExecutiveFinancialPlanning.com and have a run through the site. While some readers of this blog contact me for professional advice, I'm under no illusions and I know that many are DIY investors who don't need to use an advisor for investments. However, I would like your input for the betterment of those who should be using a financial advisor. In particular, take a look at the $100 second opinion - I think this is a service that is lacking for investors. (p.s. - I'm open to suggestions for improvements)

    A Lap Of The Blogs

    The Million Dollar Journey surveys his readers to see if they have changed their driving habits due to the higher fuel prices. Ellen Roseman starts a discussion on the different ways to save on gas. Personally, I did an experiment many years ago when I used to travel quite a bit on the highway. By driving 100 km/h instead of 120 km/h, I was able to add an extra 100km to each tank of gas. Larry MacDonald highlights Standard and Poor's latest research report which indicates that during the 2000-2002 bear market, actively managed funds did not offer all the "downside protection" that many people espouse they do as most of the active funds did not beat the index. The Quest for Four Pillars gives a quick book review of "Your Money and Your Brain". Actually, the other half of the dynamic duo also reviewed it the next day. Michael James on Money wonders why we have so many commission-based financial advisors. Personally, I have to wonder who came up with the idea of paying fiduciaries commissions - it makes no intuitive sense no matter how you cut it. Canadian Dream: Free at 45 explains a few ways to have a "staycation" - which is the buzz word this year for those who choose to vacation near where they live to save money. The Canadian Capitalist gives a great primer on REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts).

    This Week's Racing Video

    This week's racing video highlights the fancy footwork required to properly drive a racecar. One of the first things a race driver is taught is how to properly use the pedals - specifically, you need to learn how to operate all three pedals at the same time without thinking (because you don't have time to). In this video, not only will you see how to use all three pedals at the same time (yes, with only two feet), but you'll also notice some other irregularities such as 1) tapping the brake with the left foot before a hard braking zone (to 'prime' the pedal and keep it from going soft, and also to make sure you have brakes in the first place) and 2) not always using the clutch on upshifts (the higher up in the gearbox you are the less precise you have to be with the clutch pedal and you don't even need to use it at all with some cars and gearboxes if you know what you are doing). In my old Honda CRX I used to go both up and down the gears without the clutch pedal to mess with wannabe 'car guys'. Anways - take a look:

    ]]>
    762 2008-08-07 21:44:55 2008-08-08 01:44:55 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-20 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218159897 _edit_last 1 1549 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-08 00:28:40 2008-08-08 04:28:40 1 0 0 1550 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-08-08 06:01:02 2008-08-08 10:01:02 1 0 0 1551 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 208.124.130.186 2008-08-08 08:45:26 2008-08-08 12:45:26 1 0 0 1552 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-08 09:54:55 2008-08-08 13:54:55 1 0 0 1553 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-08-08 10:03:23 2008-08-08 14:03:23 1 0 0 1554 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-08 10:18:16 2008-08-08 14:18:16 1 0 0 1555 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2008-08-08 23:20:04 2008-08-09 03:20:04 1 0 0 1556 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-08-09 20:18:48 2008-08-10 00:18:48 1 0 0 1557 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-09 20:49:04 2008-08-10 00:49:04 1 0 0 1558 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-10 15:16:00 2008-08-10 19:16:00 1 0 0 1559 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-10 18:49:20 2008-08-10 22:49:20 Part I and Part II Again, to be clear - back then I didn't have the $100 second opinion service - it was something I've only recently come up with as many people pointed out that they didn't know if they needed to fully engage another advisor (or in the case of DIY investors - if they had anything that might need addressing), so the $100 second opinion is designed to figure these things out. The $100 second opinion offers no concrete financial planning strategy recommendations or investment instructions - it is only to highlight areas of concern and to show you the various ways you might consider addressing them.]]> 1 0 0
    brokerterminal2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-my-broker-terminal-looks-like/brokerterminal2/ Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:45:54 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/brokerterminal2.jpg 764 2008-08-09 00:45:54 2008-08-09 04:45:54 open open brokerterminal2 inherit 547 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/brokerterminal2.jpg _wp_attached_file brokerterminal2.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1279";s:6:"height";s:3:"712";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='71' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:19:"brokerterminal2.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"brokerterminal2-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"brokerterminal2-300x167.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"167";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"brokerterminal2-1024x570.jpg";s:5:"width";s:4:"1024";s:6:"height";s:3:"570";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"brokerterminal2-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"brokerterminal2-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Welcome Globe and Mail Readers... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/welcome-globe-and-mail-readers/ Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:17:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=765 How Mutual Fund Sales Are Compensated in Canada.

    What is this site all about?

    While you are here, allow me to give you a quick explanation of this website: It is completely free to read the information here and as with most blogs (short for "web-log"), the site is a cross between a soap-box and diary. My particular focus is on educating Canadian investors on pretty much anything to do with money and investing. I generally write about 5 articles per week and sometimes I get pretty technical, and other times I get philosophical - the sky's the limit. If you have any particular questions you would like answered, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of any post and I'll do my best to answer it.

    Who is the author of this site?

    By day, I'm a professional financial advisor who believes in transparency in fees - but always remember that anything you read on the internet needs to be discussed with your own advisor or at the very least researched and verified by a different source. If you would like to see how I run my practice, please visit my work website: www.ExecutiveFinancialPlanning.com. There, you will find out more about how you can engage a financial advisor and the various types of fee arrangements that are available. You'll be happy to know that I'm one of a small minority of financial advisors who uses Exchange Traded Funds. I also have a sample Investment Policy Statement that you can download - please feel free to take a look.

    No Strings Attached...

    NOTE: you do NOT need to be a client to read this blog (nor have any intention of ever becoming a client). WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com is strictly a labour of love because I like to write and educate people about my passion in life: personal finance and investing. So stay a while and read through some other articles, and consider signing up for FREE email updates - you'll get an email delivered to you every day there has been a new article posted on this blog. You don't have to read them all, you can just choose to read the ones that sound interesting and you can cancel your FREE email subscription anytime. Your information will never be shared or sold to ANYONE.
    Enter your email address here for FREE email updates:
    For readers of my blog, please pick up a copy of today's Globe and Mail to read Ms Rasbach's article (you can click here to read it online). If you want to help promote the article you'll need to go to this temporary link (as long as it is valid) - and please feel free to click at the end of the article to vote for the article to be 'recommended' - the more people clicking the more awareness we can provide on mutual fund compensation. It'll look like this: ]]>
    765 2008-08-09 08:17:03 2008-08-09 12:17:03 open open welcome-globe-and-mail-readers publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218420910 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif 1560 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-08-10 07:17:10 2008-08-10 11:17:10 1 0 0 1561 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.154.181 2008-08-10 21:38:45 2008-08-11 01:38:45 1 0 0 1562 http://www.postsaver.org/tags/globe 67.228.47.154 2009-02-05 05:32:27 2009-02-05 10:32:27 1 pingback 0 0
    glassglobe220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/welcome-globe-and-mail-readers/glassglobe220/ Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:19:16 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/glassglobe220.gif 766 2008-08-09 08:19:16 2008-08-09 12:19:16 open open glassglobe220 inherit 765 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/glassglobe220.gif _wp_attached_file glassglobe220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:17:"glassglobe220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"glassglobe220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"glassglobe220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"glassglobe220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} globearticlerecommend http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/welcome-globe-and-mail-readers/globearticlerecommend/ Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:44:10 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/globearticlerecommend.gif 767 2008-08-09 08:44:10 2008-08-09 12:44:10 open open globearticlerecommend inherit 765 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/globearticlerecommend.gif _wp_attached_file globearticlerecommend.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"568";s:6:"height";s:3:"206";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='46' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:25:"globearticlerecommend.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"globearticlerecommend-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"globearticlerecommend-300x108.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"108";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"globearticlerecommend-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"globearticlerecommend-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} globearticlerecommend1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/welcome-globe-and-mail-readers/globearticlerecommend1/ Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:44:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/globearticlerecommend1.gif 768 2008-08-09 08:44:58 2008-08-09 12:44:58 open open globearticlerecommend1 inherit 765 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/globearticlerecommend1.gif _wp_attached_file globearticlerecommend1.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"568";s:6:"height";s:3:"206";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='46' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:26:"globearticlerecommend1.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"globearticlerecommend1-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"globearticlerecommend1-300x108.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"108";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"globearticlerecommend1-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"globearticlerecommend1-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part I http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-i/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:53:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=763 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles. Okay, so I know many people have been wondering about DFA (or Dimensional Fund Advisors). At the time of this writing, DFA's Enhanced Index Funds are ONLY available to investors who use one of the less than 100 financial advisors in Canada who are authorized to offer DFA funds to their clients. To put this in perspective, it is estimated that there are over 100,000 financial advisors in Canada - so basically only 0.1% of advisors can provide DFA funds to clients. That in and of itself doesn't say much until you give it more context. I suppose a jaded person would just assume that advisors don't like it, hence no one really offers it. However, this is about as far from the truth as one can get. In my humble opinion, it requires an incredible set of leaps in beliefs and behaviours from the current state of affairs of investing in general before you can truly appreciate DFA.

    Leap The First

    For financial advisors - who are bombarded with product presentations and red carpet treatment from mutual fund companies, structured product groups and other money managers - the first leap is to set aside the roar of the active money management community and open one's mind to an alternative (passive investing). I suppose this 'leap' applies to investors as well, but they are more inclined to take this leap because there is no financial incentive for active investing over passive investing for investors (as there is with advisors). But DFA is not just a set of passive index products.

    Leap The Second

    For financial advisors and investors - the next leap is a commitment to education. On the surface, it would be very easy to dismiss DFA as simple indexing products like a benchmark tracking ETF or plain vanilla index mutual fund as mentioned before - but don't make the mistake of doing this. If you are serious about investing, take the time to learn what makes DFA different. I will attempt to provide all the information imparted to me by DFA while I was attending their conference - but there is a lot of material to digest. You may decide that DFA is not a right fit for you in the end, but I can almost guarantee you will have a better perspective of the markets and investing in general from what teachings they have to offer.

    Some Interesting Points Before We Get Started

    One of the portfolio managers is literally a former rocket scientist, having worked for General Dynamics in space shuttle related projects. Another Vice President has a Ph.D. in aeronautics. In fact, the board of directors and executive management team is littered with Ph.D.s in everything from theoretical physics, to applied mathematics and economics. There are two Nobel Prize winners in Economics sitting on the board (there was a third, Merton Miller, but he passed away in 2000). The two current laureates are Myron Scholes and Robert Merton. Most people believe that another board member, Eugene Fama will receive the Nobel Prize in the future. More on Eugune Fama -  He's considered the father of Efficient Market Hypothesis. His work with Ken French is pretty much solely repsonsible for why you see the 3x3 Size and Style boxes on popular fund manager analytics like Morningstar and Globefund. (More on this later in the series.) Two other members of the board of directors (David Booth and Rex Sinquefield) were among the first people to set up index funds (independently, although they knew each other) back the 1970's. Both were students of Fama at the University of Chicago (pretty the much THE hotbed of finance academics). Their oldest fund has beaten it's benchmark by almost 2% on an after fee basis for the 25 years ending 2007. This means that after subtracting DFA's managment fee of 0.52% on this fund (a micro cap fund), it has still beaten it's benchmark (the Russell 2000). Note that normally there will be a 1.00% advisor fee added to this expense, but on the other hand to just replicate the Russell 2000 would require a small drag created by the plain vanilla index ETF as well. DFA is the only fund company or investment product provider that interviews and assesses financial advisors based on their knowledge and business models (they only work with fee-based or fee-only advisors who they judge are able to understand what and how DFA funds work). Even though there are very few advisors worldwide authorized to offer DFA funds, DFA has still managed to grow their assets under management to over $150 billion. The institutional clients include the largest pension funds in the world, banks, and many university endowment funds. Timothy Middleton wrote a good article on DFA which you can read by clicking here, if you are eager to learn more right away. But again, there is more to this story and I will do my best to really get you the nitty gritty details that I don't really see written anywhere. Stay tuned... it's going to take a while! :) CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART II]]>
    763 2008-08-10 21:53:45 2008-08-11 01:53:45 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-i publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251906171 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 1563 http://indexfunds.titeblog.com/?p=549 67.15.157.5 2008-08-10 23:32:51 2008-08-11 03:32:51 1 pingback 0 0 1564 http://life.ezineaerticles.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-i/ 208.43.196.98 2008-08-11 16:49:11 2008-08-11 20:49:11 1 pingback 0 0 1565 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2008-08-11 18:47:57 2008-08-11 22:47:57 1 0 0 1566 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-12 18:48:55 2008-08-12 22:48:55 1 0 0 1567 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-12 18:51:11 2008-08-12 22:51:11 1 0 0 1568 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-12 19:39:07 2008-08-12 23:39:07 1 0 0 1569 paradise_billy@yahoo.com 216.145.100.38 2008-08-18 17:58:30 2008-08-18 21:58:30 1 0 0 1570 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-18 20:44:39 2008-08-19 00:44:39 1 0 0 1571 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-19 16:22:22 2008-08-19 20:22:22 1 0 0 1572 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-19 19:55:36 2008-08-19 23:55:36 1 0 0 1573 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-19 20:31:50 2008-08-20 00:31:50 1 0 0 1574 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-20 19:21:44 2008-08-20 23:21:44 1 0 0 1575 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-20 19:50:44 2008-08-20 23:50:44 1 0 0 1576 http://www.ilinkshare.com/tagged/managment 67.228.47.154 2008-10-22 16:19:42 2008-10-22 20:19:42 1 pingback 0 0 1577 http://www.mynetfaves.com/tags/dfa 67.228.47.154 2008-11-01 12:05:11 2008-11-01 16:05:11 1 pingback 0 0 1578 http://www.traffictest.cn/?p=1365 208.113.190.4 2008-11-06 21:07:24 2008-11-07 01:07:24 1 pingback 0 0 1579 cycle2day@gmail.com 207.245.43.154 2009-05-15 11:29:11 2009-05-15 16:29:11 1 0 0 1580 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-18 17:39:19 2009-05-18 22:39:19 1 0 0 1581 cycle2day@gmail.com 207.245.43.154 2009-05-19 07:50:43 2009-05-19 12:50:43 1 0 0 1582 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-19 20:35:07 2009-05-20 01:35:07 1 0 0 1583 http://starttags.com/tags/dimensional-fund-advisors 98.240.245.202 2010-03-27 05:40:50 2010-03-27 10:40:50 1 pingback 0 0
    magnifyingglassonprint http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ii/magnifyingglassonprint/ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:09:10 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 770 2008-08-11 21:09:10 2008-08-12 01:09:10 open open magnifyingglassonprint inherit 769 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _wp_attached_file magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:26:"magnifyingglassonprint.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"magnifyingglassonprint-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"magnifyingglassonprint-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"magnifyingglassonprint-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part II http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ii/ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:11:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=769 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    Markets Work, Capitalism Works

    This is one of the core beliefs behind DFA. The Director of Research, Eugene Fama, is often credited as the father of the efficient markets hypothesis which is widely quoted within the industry and between investors. However, they will explain that they prefer using the term "equilibrium markets". This is based on the realization that there ARE mispricings periodically in the market, and efficient market hypothesis is too rigid. But the premise behind it is sound: capitalism works. There are so many people out there watching the markets that any potential mispricings that can be exploited do not crop up often enough. The competition is just too stiff.

    It's possible to beat the market, but it doesn't happen nearly as often as we think

    DFA believes that it is possible to beat the market, and that some managers can do it even after having accounted for chance - in other words there ARE truly skilled money managers out there. The problem then, is that this happens much less often than you think, and there is no way to pick them in advance anyways. There are numerous studies they cite that support this argument, but let me highlight some powerful observations.

    Peter Lynch

    I'm skipping ahead a bit because we have yet to talk about the Fama-French 3 factor model versus CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model), but take my word for now: according to a more improved metric for measuring money manager performance than the one predominantly used now (CAPM), Peter Lynch did indeed provide Alpha (returns greater than predicted by the models). In other words, Lynch was identified as being one of the truly skilled managers who could beat the market. For those who don't know, Peter Lynch was manager of the Fidelity Magellan fund from 1977 to 1990 during which time the fund returned an annualized 29% per year. He is widely cited as one of the best stock-pickers who ever lived - and I think it is safe to say that he is a better stock picker than you or I could ever be. The performance of Magellan from 1990 (after Lynch left) until the end of 2006 when compared against the improved model exhibited negative alpha (meaning it underperformed what would be expected when using the 3 factor model). Some people may point out that it continued to outperform the S&P500 - and that is true, but again, you will have to take a leap for now until I explain later: the S&P500 is an almost meaningless benchmark for Magellan. (I will back up that assertion later in this series.) I don't think it is a stretch to say that part of Lynch's job nearing the end of his tenure running Magellan was to select and/or train his replacements. So the moral of this observation is that if Peter Lynch, arguably one of the best stock pickers of all time, cannot find the next great manager, what makes other people think they can?

    More to come...

    The next part in this series on DFA will look at an observation about Warren Buffett and we will also look at some more research on active management versus passive management. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART III]]>
    769 2008-08-11 21:11:22 2008-08-12 01:11:22 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220496575 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 1584 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-12 09:11:17 2008-08-12 13:11:17 1 0 0 1585 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-12 19:51:50 2008-08-12 23:51:50 1 0 0 1586 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-08-13 03:15:43 2008-08-13 07:15:43 1 0 0 1587 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-08-13 14:06:55 2008-08-13 18:06:55 1 0 0 1588 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-i/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-21 13:34:42 2008-08-21 17:34:42 1 pingback 0 0 1589 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xiii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-06 22:00:42 2008-10-07 02:00:42 1 pingback 0 0
    businessman http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-benefits-of-a-professional-executor/businessman/ Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:42:09 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/businessman.gif 772 2008-08-12 21:42:09 2008-08-13 01:42:09 open open businessman inherit 771 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/businessman.gif _wp_attached_file businessman.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:15:"businessman.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"businessman-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"businessman-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"businessman-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Benefits of a Professional Executor http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-benefits-of-a-professional-executor/ Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:00:19 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=771 Today is a group writing project conducted by a few blogs on the topic of estate planning. I've written about The Benefits of a Professional Executor today, but the following bloggers have written articles about estate planning as well please feel free to check them out: The Quest for Four Pillars wrote: "My last will and testament" The Million Dollar Journey wrote: "Why you need a will and the basics of estate planning" The Financial Blogger wrote: "Common mistakes in a will" Thicken My Wallet wrote: "5 myths about wills" The Canadian Capitalist wrote: "Getting your wills done through your lawyer" ...and now on to my contribution:

    The Benefits of a Professional Executor

    When you are creating your will (or updating it) you should probably consider your choice of executor carefully. The job of an executor is not a trivial one and in some cases can be very complex and time consuming. Since many people choose a close and trusted person to fill the role of executor, chances are pretty good that this person will also be emotionally affected by your death as well. The loss of a loved one can affect some more than others, and there is the possibility of impartiality and emotional drain of being in the middle of any potential family quibbles. An alternative to choosing someone close to you is to hire a professional executor - for example a trust company. They can assign a designated trust officer who has years of experience in settling estates and final affairs in a very efficient, and impartial manner. An alternative arrangement is to ask the trust company to act as co-executor or to provide estate assistance services for the non-professional executor. I think readers of this blog know me to not usually talk about my employer, but in this case I will make an exception. Scotiatrust is under the umbrella of BNS and provides a wonderful service for our clients through a team of dedicated will and estate planners. As you may know, executors may be entitled to collecting an executor's fee. In exchange for naming Scotiatrust as executor of the estate, the will and estate planners will assist in the full blown will and estate plan and additionally review it every three years for no other charge than the executor's fee which they will receive later. (Note - they can work in conjunction with your lawyer in the preparation and execution of the will, and sometimes they have net worth thresholds for this service.) I'm years away from having a complex estate plan (I'm 30, not married, no kids), but as my situation develops, I would not think twice about engaging a trust company to act as executor for my estate. Asides from the reasons listed above, the trust company has continuity. They will be around when I die. I can't necessarily say that about any individual I know. To me, paying a professional for this service is money well spent - knowing that my wishes will be carried out with all the i's dotted and the t's crossed, and knowing that I wont be leaving potentially onerous amounts of tedious work for a loved one who may not be as financially "involved" as I am.]]>
    771 2008-08-13 05:00:19 2008-08-13 09:00:19 open open the-benefits-of-a-professional-executor publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1218647130 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 1590 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2008/08/13/top-5-myths-about-wills/ 82.165.243.157 2008-08-13 05:02:43 2008-08-13 09:02:43 1 pingback 0 0 1591 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/basics-of-estate-planning-part-6-common-mistakes-on-a-will/ 216.17.106.121 2008-08-13 06:02:49 2008-08-13 10:02:49 1 pingback 0 0 1592 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/why-you-need-a-will-and-the-basics-of-estate-planning.htm 64.131.72.71 2008-08-13 06:39:17 2008-08-13 10:39:17 1 pingback 0 0 1593 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/08/13/my-last-will-and-testament/ 67.205.18.215 2008-08-13 06:59:22 2008-08-13 10:59:22 1 pingback 0 0 1594 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-08-13 07:41:42 2008-08-13 11:41:42 1 0 0 1595 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-08-13 13:51:27 2008-08-13 17:51:27 1 0 0 1596 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-08-13 15:28:18 2008-08-13 19:28:18 1 0 0 1597 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-13 15:48:43 2008-08-13 19:48:43 1 0 0 1598 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-08-13 22:43:20 2008-08-14 02:43:20 1 0 0 1599 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-13 23:08:44 2008-08-14 03:08:44 this post for why you might not want to take an executor's fee. As for the minimum estate sizes: yes, the younger you are the larger they would like to see the estate to be in general. I have been told by some people that the reason for this is that you can change who your executor is down the road after they have done much of the planning work for you, thereby getting cut out of their fee they were expecting down the road. A larger estate is less likely to change the arrangement (as the estate can be more complex and you may feel that a professional is the only way to go). Conversely, if you are very old or very sick, the minimums DROP. While the fee may be ultimately lower, the chance of them getting it is higher.]]> 1 0 0 1600 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/08/21/thursday-linkstuff-and-rob-carrick-is-god/ 67.205.18.215 2008-08-21 05:02:07 2008-08-21 09:02:07 1 pingback 0 0 1601 jdbucky@shaw.ca 70.66.242.86 2008-08-21 19:44:18 2008-08-21 23:44:18 1 0 0 1602 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-21 21:56:57 2008-08-22 01:56:57 1 0 0
    markwolfinger220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/inteview-with-a-professional-options-trader/markwolfinger220/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:58:06 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/markwolfinger220.gif 775 2008-08-13 21:58:06 2008-08-14 01:58:06 open open markwolfinger220 inherit 773 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/markwolfinger220.gif _wp_attached_file markwolfinger220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:20:"markwolfinger220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"markwolfinger220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"markwolfinger220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"markwolfinger220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part III http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iii/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:02:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=774 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles. While many readers of this blog are completely up to speed on the debate between active and passive management and are eager to move beyond this, I feel it is necessary to continue with supporting this background information for those readers who are new to this concept. So for those who find this information redundant, I will ask you to please bear with me a bit longer... :)

    The Warren Buffett Argument

    Undoubtedly one of the best defenses surrounding active management has to be the performance record of Warren Buffett. But consider that Warren Buffett himself has indicated that he only comes up with a few good ideas every couple of years and then contrast this to the average money manager who may easily have 100 ideas per year. Clearly we are dealing with two separate schools of thought on active management and even though there are many money managers out there declaring they follow a deep value investment philosophy, they do not have the same results as good old Warren. Part of this is due to the 'institutional imperative'. The institutional imperative can be thought of as the tendency for managers to do what everyone else is doing out of fear (or ignorance). For example, if a manager follows the crowd there is less chance that he will get fired as if everyone does poorly he can simply point to his relative performance being no worse than everyone else. If everyone does well, than he can look good because he has done well notwithstanding how everyone else has done. But consider what happens when someone decides to stick their neck out and do something different. In this case, if you outperform the crowd you can look like a star. But if you underperform the crowd than you are more likely to be pointed towards the door. So, if you follow the crowd you should be fine. If you stick your neck out and do something different, you stand to potentially lose your job (or investors who invest their money with you). In order for a money manager to reference Warren Buffett as proof that active management works, they will need to be as different from the crowd as Buffett is. Otherwise, it's a meaningless assertion in my mind.

    The Berk Green Study

    In the 2002 paper entitled Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets the authors find that 80% of money managers actually have enough skill to make back their fees. However, while some people have erroneously cited this paper as being support for actively managed investing, that is not the case the paper is trying to make. Rather, it explains that capital flows freely to managers who are perceived to add value to the point where the manager can no longer add value. The paper is in effect an argument for capitalism. In a rational market, investors will see the past performance of a manager and direct their capital to the exceptional managers to the point where the inflows become less and less effectively deployed by the manager. In the end, the study concludes that partly due to this reason, future outperformance cannot be predicted by past performance. In Part IV of this series, we are going to look at investing versus gambling after which I will start getting into some of the details I know many people have been waiting for. Part V will start by examining the Capital Asset Pricing Model - which is where we get the concepts of Alpha and Beta from - and serves as a good launching point to get into the Fama-French 3 Factor model details which plays an instrumental part of DFA's philosophy and products. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART IV]]>
    774 2008-08-13 23:02:13 2008-08-14 03:02:13 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220496558 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif 1603 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-08-14 07:40:17 2008-08-14 11:40:17 1 0 0 1604 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-14 11:01:17 2008-08-14 15:01:17 1 0 0 1605 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-14 11:09:50 2008-08-14 15:09:50 1 0 0 1606 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-14 14:40:13 2008-08-14 18:40:13 1 0 0 1607 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-14 20:41:59 2008-08-15 00:41:59 1 0 0 1608 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/08/14/this-and-that-105 64.111.114.14 2008-08-14 22:38:23 2008-08-15 02:38:23 1 pingback 0 0 1609 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-21 13:35:36 2008-08-21 17:35:36 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-21/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:06:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=776 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Not much to report this week so I'll get right to it...

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Larry MacDonald shows us that investors are pulling their money out of investments they were supposed to hold for a long time. The Million Dollar Journey puts Cash Back Mortgages under the microscope. The Canadian Capitalist reminds us that you don't have to use ETFs to track indices, you can use mutual funds to do that as well. (Make sure to check out the article he references in the Globe - it's bloody brilliant!) :) Michael James on Money explains that he sees right through a promotional offer designed to entice him back to a previous service provider. Four Pillars chronicles his experience in creating his last will and testament. If anyone needs a contingent beneficiary for their wills, please feel free to name me: I will then give away your estate as a prize for an upcoming contest. Canadian Dream: Free at 45 shows us a simple way to cut your family's food bill. Canadian Financial DIY uncovers some interesting information about the evolving Chinese capital markets.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Found a bit of a gem from yesteryear. This week's video is one of the smoothest drivers of all time (Jackie Stewart) narrating a lap around the famed Nordshcleife (also known as the Nurburgring), which has over 100 turns and laps are almost 10 minutes long. It was deemed to be much to dangerous for Formula 1 years ago. This clip is only two minutes but has some of the most beautiful footage I have seen from this era.

    ]]> 776 2008-08-14 22:06:01 2008-08-15 02:06:01 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-21 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1218765961 _edit_last 1 1610 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-08-14 22:34:03 2008-08-15 02:34:03 1 0 0 1611 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-08-15 08:03:44 2008-08-15 12:03:44 1 0 0 1612 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-15 10:05:07 2008-08-15 14:05:07 1 0 0 1613 sam@fixmypersonalfinance.com http://fixmypersonalfinance.com 203.131.67.106 2008-08-21 04:38:48 2008-08-21 08:38:48 1 0 0 1614 http://arjun.newsinfoworld.info/100dollarbill.html 122.197.139.184 2008-08-25 07:02:47 2008-08-25 11:02:47 1 pingback 0 0 Dimensional Fund Advisors Part IV http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iv/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:38:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=777 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles. Okay, so today we are going to talk about some of the differences between investing and gambling. Rather, I should clarify that this is my own personal take on it - if you look up "investing" you may find many different explanations from the one I present here. Feel free to debate it as I think of it as more of a fluid concept rather than a hard and fast delineation.

    Gambling

    It's probably best to draw an analogy with going to a Casino. Every now and then, someone comes out ahead. Even more rarely, someone wins big. But for the most part, the house always wins and more people have stories about how they lost money rather than won it. The potential of making lots of money in a short period of time is the appeal of gambling, or playing the lottery. Consider the lifelong lottery player. If they were to spend $20/week for 40 years (yes there are people who do this) they will have spent $41,600 on lottery tickets. If they had instead regularly added $20/week into an indexed portfolio of equities over 40 years, you might expect a long term rate of return of perhaps 8%. Had they done this, they might have slightly over $300,000 at the end of 40 years. The odds of winning the 6/49 are approximately 1 in 13,983,816 according to this website. Compare this to perhaps a 9 in 10 chance of having $300,000 by the time you retire. If people were completely rational, they would just stick with investing in an indexed portfolio over playing the lottery. But of course, people are not Vulcans. I play the lottery on occasion too - even though I know the odds are against me. The reason I play, and the reason most other people play, is that you have the chance of creating incredible wealth in a very short period of time. Instant gratification.

    Investing

    Investing is boring (relatively). There is almost no instant gratification in the sense that you will never create phenomenal wealth in a very short period of time. I define investing in equity markets as the participation in the long term growth that the capital markets overall will provide. I believe Capitalism works, and that the market does a fairly good job of setting relative prices with respect to risk and return. A true investor looks at a stock and sees a business first and foremost. A gambler looks at a stock and sees a number first and foremost. However, even for the investor, there can be elements of gambling.

    Most Investors are Gamblers

    I've given an extreme example of what a "gambler" is, and I don't anyone to shoot me for saying this but most investors are gamblers to varying degrees. Fortunately the dichotomy between investing and gambling is not as extreme as between playing the lottery versus systematically saving to a well diversified portfolio. But let me provide an example: I recently spoke with someone who posited that by just selecting the top 10 companies by market cap in the market, they would've handily beaten the mutual funds his advisor had put him into over the last 10 years. That may very well be true. However, simply because a strategy may have worked out better does not make it qualify as prudent investing. Picking the 10 stocks still has an element of gambling in it. Let's suppose we had a very well respected analyst from Bay Street (or Wall Street) who was really known for doing his homework. He decides to pick only three companies to invest his own personal money in because he wants the biggest bang he can get for his buck. No one could accuse this guy of not knowing what he was buying and based on his analysis he could convince anyone that his decisions were sound. But what if one of the companies he bought had improper accounting and ended up going bankrupt suddenly? One third of his portfolio will have vanished. This example is just to show that no matter how well you think you know a situation, you can't account for "life" happening.

    Setting The Record Straight

    I want to be clear that when I refer to prudent investing I am referring to the fact that you are making a trade-off. Prudent investing is giving up the chance at a making a killing for the certainty of never getting killed. It's possible to stray a bit from prudent investing and take small bets against the market, and it's possible to stray a lot from it by taking large bets against the market (by only investing in one area, or sector, or even just a handful of stocks for example). DFAs approach is very much along the lines of not betting against the market. But while people may point to the DFA fund returns being different from the market returns I will give a bit of a prelude now: what most people believe to be the "market" is actually not the market... (more on this later) In Part V on the DFA series, we will look at systematic versus non-systematic risk. I was going to include it in this post, but it would've been too long. Our discussion of CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model) will begin in Part VI. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART V]]>
    777 2008-08-17 22:38:10 2008-08-18 02:38:10 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iv publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231299939 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pushingupsign220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pushingupsign220.gif 1615 http://blog.lowerautoinsurance.net/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iv.html 74.220.215.249 2008-08-17 23:06:13 2008-08-18 03:06:13 1 pingback 0 0 1616 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-21 13:36:51 2008-08-21 17:36:51 1 pingback 0 0
    Inteview With A Professional Options Trader http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/inteview-with-a-professional-options-trader/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:50:23 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=773 I’m pleased to present the following interview I conducted with Dr. Mark Wolfinger, an expert on options trading. Mark has decades of experience as a professional options trader and has written three books on options, on top of maintaining his own blog for investors interested in learning more about option trading. My questions appear in bold, and Mark's answers appear in plain text. Mark, you have more than 30 years experience trading options. How have the options markets evolved since you first began? Night and day! When I started as a CBOE market maker in 1977, we only had call options. Puts did not begin trading until later, and that made hedging more difficult. But everyone was much less sophisticated in those days. We had computer help in determining the theoretical value of an option, but if I wanted to hedge an options trade with stock, I had to call my clearing firm's desk (clearing firm is to a market maker as a broker is to an individual investor) and have them place the order by phone. Slow process, and there were no immediate fills. We also had to do everything in our heads or with pencil and paper. That includes keeping track of positions, estimating our position delta and gamma etc. That lack of sophistication gave the floor traders an edge over most individuals, but it was much more difficult to minimize risk. We had to do the best we could. Today computers crunch all the numbers instantly. It's also very different from the perspective of an individual trader. Being able to see all the bids and offers in real time, the ability to receive fills in less than one second, the ability to see my Greeks instantaneously [for more information on 'greeks' as they relate to options click here] - all makes trading and managing risk so much easier. And commission costs are so low that I pay less as a customer today than I did as a new market maker in 1977! You spent more than 20 years as a market maker - can you describe briefly what a market maker does? A market maker makes markets! Thus, when a broker (representing an order from his/her customer) enters the trading pit and asks for a quote on a specific option or spread, the market makers announce a price at which he/she is willing to buy the option quoted (that's the bid price) as well as an ask price (price at which willing to sell). That must be done for every option that trades in the pit. When I started there were three or four stocks and a bunch of market makers in each pit. The most actively traded options, such as IBM attracted the most market makers, but no pit was vacant. The market makers were supposed to compete amongst themselves to present the highest bid or the lowest offer in order to get the broker (who represented the customer order) to trade with them. Obviously when selling, the broker chose the highest bid. Our bids and offers were posted for all to see, but it was a manual process. When the price of the underlying stock changed, we had to change all the option quotes. That was certainly a nuisance. Today, those bid and ask prices are established by computers. The parameters used to make those bids and offers are established by the specialists and the quotes change as the stock price changes. Much more efficient today. Many readers of this blog are curious about careers in the financial sector. In today's world, what qualifications would be necessary to become a professional options trader and what kind of income could someone expect in that career? I have no idea. The world has changed dramatically since I left the CBOE eight years ago. It's difficult to get started as an independent market maker. Most now work for large trading firms. Income would vary from poverty level to wealth, depending on the skill of both the individual trader and his or her partner (trading firm). There are proprietary firms that teach and hire traders, but most charge enormous fees to teach, and I simply have no way of knowing how the process works after one is 'taught.' Do you have any preferred option trading strategies that you use on a regular basis? I believe in keeping it simple. When I write, I describe easy to learn, uncomplicated strategies, and those are the only methods I use with my own trading. Right now, I buy iron condors (on broad based indexes) exclusively. When implied volatilites are low (at least low in my opinion), I add double diagonals to my trading arsenal. If I had a strong market opinion, I would still trade iron condors, but 'lean' my positions in favor of that bias. I never have such a bias (history has convinced me I am unable to correctly predict direction), but I mention that for your readers who do. I used covered call writing and cash-secured naked put selling for years and believe that's a decent strategy for people who want to learn how options work. But, those are bullish methods and do not perform well in down markets. I know that you are an ardent proponent of investors educating themselves and experimenting with paper-trading before putting real money on the line - do you have any recommendations for sites that allow for good paper-trading of option strategies? No. If an investor's broker does not offer such capability - at no cost - then it's time to get a new broker. One extra reason for using a broker to paper trade is that you gain familiarity with the broker's order entry system and risk management tools. That's important because you never want to enter an order backwards (selling when you intend to buy) - and that can happen if the trading software is unfamiliar. Because risk management is crucial to long-term success (IMHO) when paper-trading it's a good time to become very familiar with those risk management tools. To me those tools must include risk graphs and the ability to monitor position 'Greeks.' I've noticed that the notional interest in derivative products (equities, indices, interest rates, etc) has just exploded in the last five to ten years, and the rate of growth seems to be increasing to boot. Do you have any thoughts as to why the derivative market is growing faster than the traditional equity and fixed income markets? Is this a red flag? This record-setting pace is continuing this year. I cannot know for certain, but my belief is that more and more institutions are using derivatives. The amazing profits of hedge funds appears to be a thing of the past, but more and more hedge funds are in business, and they use derivatives on a constant basis. I'm sure the number of individuals who use options is growing as well, but I don't believe they contribute significantly to the total option volume - which will top 3 billion contracts this year. I don't see a 'red flag.' Bubbles occur all the time, but increased volume should not be such a bubble. Remember that options were designed as risk-reducing tools, and if used that way, nothing terrible should happen to 'the markets.' However, as we have seen with Barings Bank, and especially Long-Term Capital Management etc, rogue traders or intelligent trading firms can lose enough money to shake confidence in the entire system. There seems to be numerous "option seminars" out there that promise to teach people how to trade options based on either proprietary trading algorithms or just a set of rules to follow blindly - in my mind, it seems that these 'systems' skip over the fundamental knowledge and understanding required to prudently trade options - which I think is a philosophy that you share: i.e investors need to educate themselves properly first, practice second and then use common sense when trading. What's your advice to the would-be option trading investor who is just thinking about getting into options? Those firms that sell costly seminars are out to make money, not educate profitable traders. Consider this: If they had great proprietary methods, they would never sell those methods to anyone at any price. Thus, to me, those algorithms and trading rules are not worth much. To the extent they 'teach' the investor to think for him/herself, they may be worth something. But, I'd avoid them as overly expensive and simply a bad idea. The problem is that too many fall for the hype of a 'get-rich-quick' scheme and take these classes. Anyone can get lucky, so some people make instant riches. But, the vast majority fall by the wayside. These seminars give the options world a bad name. I believe, as you say, that each investor should learn for himself. It's not complicated to adopt the simple strategies I encourage. My recent book: The Rookie's Guide to Options, provides a detailed explanation of how options work and the benefits of using options. It provides details that allow the reader to learn to use options. By 'learn' I mean to think for him/herself and really understand how options work. I stress the importance of risk management. Others may tell a reader how to open a trade, but I discuss opening, managing and closing positions. The goal is long-term profits, not instant riches. Advice: Go slowly. Read. Paper trade. Ask questions. When using real money, start small. Don't allow ego to get in the way. If you don't yet understand what you are trying to accomplish with each trade - and what can go wrong - you are not yet ready to use real money. Again, be patient. You have the rest of your life to trade. Thanks for taking the time to participate in this interview Mark. My pleasure. I appreciate what you are trying to do for your readers. UPDATE: Mark and four of the other top options bloggers on the internet have set up a paid educational site designed for those interested in really learning about trading options for the first time, as well as providing advanced material for those who have been trading options for years. Click here to learn more. For those who are interested in learning more, make sure to check out Mark's website (http://www.mdwoptions.com) and his blog (http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/). Both contain links to a free ebook, which is a sampler version of his most recent book. In total, Mark has authored three books on options which are available through Amazon.com]]> 773 2008-08-18 19:50:23 2008-08-18 23:50:23 open open inteview-with-a-professional-options-trader publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268619050 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/markwolfinger220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/markwolfinger220.gif 1617 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-08-19 14:23:14 2008-08-19 18:23:14 1 0 0 1618 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblins/ 216.17.106.121 2008-08-23 06:00:57 2008-08-23 10:00:57 1 pingback 0 0 1619 http://www.mynetfaves.com/tags/trader 67.228.47.154 2009-01-05 06:05:39 2009-01-05 11:05:39 1 pingback 0 0 1620 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/writing-a-put-and-buying-a-put-at-the-same-time-to-accumulate-stock/ 68.178.254.235 2009-02-09 21:18:18 2009-02-10 02:18:18 1 pingback 0 0 1621 http://www.jabbertags.com/popular/firm 67.228.47.154 2009-02-25 10:49:25 2009-02-25 15:49:25 1 pingback 0 0 1622 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/options-gurus-set-up-paid-educational-website/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-14 21:11:54 2010-03-15 02:11:54 1 pingback 0 0 holdingquestionmark220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-five-greeks-of-options/holdingquestionmark220-2/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:32:35 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/holdingquestionmark2201.gif 779 2008-08-18 20:32:35 2008-08-19 00:32:35 open open holdingquestionmark220-2 inherit 609 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/holdingquestionmark2201.gif _wp_attached_file holdingquestionmark2201.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:27:"holdingquestionmark2201.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:35:"holdingquestionmark2201-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:35:"holdingquestionmark2201-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"holdingquestionmark2201-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part V http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-v/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=778 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    A Concession

    I will concede that certain investors can beat the markets, for even extended periods of time. And some investors may have tremendous outperformance (perhaps one of their original investments they made was a penny stock that is now a billion dollar company), but this is simply a reflection of the tremendous risks they may have taken. And further I will concede that there are people who exist who can flat out beat the markets (like Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett), however these people are either extremely rare or not known to the public. (Why would anyone who could beat the markets tell you about it and thereby negate their advantage?) I believe them to be so rare that there is no point in spending time and energy in trying to identify them in advance. According to Dr. Kenneth French - 40 years of 1000's of Ph.D.s trying to find a way to do so has proved fruitless.

    An Assumption

    There is one assumption that I will make that will be implied from this point forward: we are dealing with well-diversified portfolios. This is one of the free lunches in investing in that you can eliminate one type of risk that doesn't seem to have a solid relationship to future returns: non-systematic risk.

    With respect to any given securities market there exists Sytematic Risk and Non-Systematic Risk.

    Systematic Risk

    Systematic risk is the general ebb and flow of the market as a whole - or the tendency for all stocks to increase or decrease in value at the same time with a certain degree of positive correlation.  For example, ‘Black Monday’ on October 19th, 1987 was a Systematic event in that almost all stocks fell in value on that single day.  Macro-economic events and stimuli can be expected to have broad systematic effects on capital markets - positive or negative - on an on-going basis such as interest rate levels, political events, war, etc. It is important to note that systematic risk cannot be diversified away. In other words, you could have a portfolio that is diversified with 1000 different stocks from a given market and there will always be a base level of return variance (shown as the asymptote in the figure below).

    Non-Systematic Risk

    Non-Systematic risk is the element of overall portfolio risk than can be largely eliminated through sufficient diversification within a particular asset class. The best way to describe it is to build an analogy. Let us assume you owned one stock - if that company went bankrupt you will have lost 100% of your portfolio. If you owned one hundred stocks, and one company went bankrupt you would have lost 1% of your portfolio. Conversely, what if that one company doubled in value? You either doubled your money or only gained 1% if you held 1 stock or 100, respectively.  Non-Systematic risk is the individual business risk associated with the underlying stock - if this company goes bankrupt - this is a non-systematic risk event and generally has very little to do with the general ebb and flow of the overall markets.

    (You can click on the graph for a larger view)

    It is generally debated as to how many securities one needs to hold to eliminate non-systematic risk.  Research has shown that between thirty and forty securities are enough to eliminate non-systematic risk. A rational investor would be expected to take measures to eliminate non-systematic risk from one’s portfolio by increasing the number of holdings within each distinct asset class - a task that is easily accomplished through asset class indexing products which may routinely hold hundreds of asset class constituents. The non-systematic risk amounts to "noise" that an investor doesn't necessarily get compensated for (the expected return for the random noise is zero), so it would make sense to get rid of this risk if possible. So to re-iterate: going forward the discussion assumes we are talking about well diversified portfolios in all cases. The next part in this series will look at CAPM (the Capital Asset Pricing Model). CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART VI]]>
    778 2008-08-19 20:00:04 2008-08-20 00:00:04 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-v publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220496546 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 1623 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-iv/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-21 13:37:36 2008-08-21 17:37:36 1 pingback 0 0 1624 http://starttags.com/tags/dimensional-fund-advisors 98.240.245.202 2010-03-27 05:40:50 2010-03-27 10:40:50 1 pingback 0 0
    banner300 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-v/banner300/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:27:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/banner300.gif 780 2008-08-20 11:27:58 2008-08-20 15:27:58 open open banner300 inherit 778 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/banner300.gif _wp_attached_file banner300.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"250";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='115'";s:4:"file";s:13:"banner300.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"banner300-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"banner300-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"banner300-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part VI http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-vi/ Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:15:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=785 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

    As I mentioned before, this series on DFA is going to be long if you really want to understand what they are about. Further, there is some background knowledge that is required before we can truly make sense of what is going on. At the same time, I don't want to go too far down some tangents so I am going to provide the coles notes on many topics. To that end I thought it would be best to have a refresher on CAPM. CAPM stands for Capital Asset Pricing Model and the acronym is pronounced "Cap-ehm". Basically CAPM is model that predicts what your expected return should be in your portfolio based on a few factors (actually just one factor). First let's begin with some logic... The "risk free" rate is equivalent to the T-bill rate (or the high interest savings account rate, if you prefer). This is basically the rate of return you can get on a portfolio without taking any risk. If you were to subject your portfolio to any risk, then you would expect to be compensated in the form of extra return, over and above the risk free rate. But the question then arises: how much extra return should you expect for each unit of risk? CAPM basically says that the expected return you get should be based on how much exposure you have to the market factor plus the risk free rate. The "market factor" is also known as "the equity premium" or the extra return of stocks over the risk-free rate. So, to re-iterate, CAPM is saying that your exposure to the market factor explains your expected return on your portfolio.

    The Formula

    Here is the CAPM formula:

    E(Rp) = Rf + β(Rm - Rf)

    Where:

    E(Rp) = Expected return on the portfolio Rf = The Risk Free Rate β = Beta (Which is the measure of exposure to the market factor) Rm = Return of the Market

    Note: the term in brackets, (Rm - Rf), is "the market factor" (or "equity premium")

    Before we use some test numbers to see how this works, lets first put on our thinking hats. Let's assume we are investing using an index tracking fund (like an ETF). Since our portfolio will move in tandem with the market, we have a β of 1. Let's put this in the formula (and nothing else).

    E(Rp) = Rf + 1(Rm - Rf)

    So if we multiply (Rm - Rf) by 1 we will have (drum roll please)... (Rm - Rf). So this makes the equation as follows:

    E(Rp) = Rf + Rm - Rf

    You can see that the Rf terms cancel each other out, leaving:

    E(Rp) = Rm

    Which is what we want with an index fund. We want the return to equal the market return. But now let's plug in some numbers for a non-index portfolio and see what happens. We'll assume that the "risk free rate" is 3% since that is what a high interest rate savings account might yield. We'll assume our portfolio tends to move up and down one and a half times as much as the market, therefore β is equal to 1.5. The return on the market is 10%. Now we can solve to see what CAPM says our expected return should be.

    E(Rp) = 3% + 1.5(10% - 3%)

    E(Rp) = 3% + 1.5(7%)

    E(Rp) = 3% + 10.5%

    E(Rp) = 13.5%

    So in this case, CAPM says that if our portfolio is 1.5 times as volatile as the market, then for it to be a worthwhile investment, our portfolio needs to earn 13.5% versus the market's 10% in order to be fairly compensated for taking on the extra risk over the risk free rate.

    I'll stop there for today, but will continue in the next post in the series to discuss what happens when the ACTUAL return of the portfolio does not match the Expected Return.

    CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART VII

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    785 2008-08-20 20:15:51 2008-08-21 00:15:51 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-vi publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231300199 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 1625 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-20 21:18:25 2008-08-21 01:18:25 1 0 0 1626 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-20 22:11:13 2008-08-21 02:11:13 other things.]]> 1 0 0 1627 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-20 23:29:54 2008-08-21 03:29:54 1 0 0 1628 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-08-21 10:36:21 2008-08-21 14:36:21 1 0 0 1629 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-v/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-21 13:38:04 2008-08-21 17:38:04 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-22/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:57:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=787 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I had the pleasure of having dinner with John Chow tonight who is in town for a wedding this weekend. For those of you who don't know, John Chow earns over $30,000 per MONTH on his blog about blogging. In fact, if you go to his site, JohnChow.com, you will see that he "makes money online by telling people how much money he makes online".

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Larry MacDonald hypothesizes about the effect of differing restrictions on day traders in Canada versus the US. Could relaxed rules increase volatility? Ellen Roseman is frustrated with the problems consumers face and creates a short list of things she would like to change first. Canadian Capitalist reveals that there is a new option for those looking to save money on their chequing accounts (a no fee option). Michael James on Money explains a different way of looking at risk versus return that might be more intuitive than standard deviation numbers. The Million Dollar Journey hosts a guest post about The Psychology of Money. Canadian Financial DIY surveys some information on executor and trustee fees. Four Pillars writes about how some grants are handed out to everyone who applies because fewer people apply than might be expected. Last but not least, Canadian Dream: Free at 45 explains how you can cut your energy bill and keep your home cool in the summer with a great list of tips and tricks.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is actually a commercial for Shell, but it's nothing short of beautiful. Shell is the fuel partner for the Ferrari Formula 1 team and this commercial (presented in it's full length form which runs two minutes) chronicles the evolution of the Ferrari F1 cars over decades. Check it out:

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    787 2008-08-21 22:57:42 2008-08-22 02:57:42 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-22 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1219373862 _edit_last 1 1630 http://www.getfreeinsurance.net/a-lap-of-the-blogs/ 208.43.196.98 2008-08-21 23:32:25 2008-08-22 03:32:25 1 pingback 0 0 1631 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-22 01:56:38 2008-08-22 05:56:38 1 0 0 1632 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-08-22 08:53:23 2008-08-22 12:53:23 1 0 0 1633 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-08-22 10:30:14 2008-08-22 14:30:14 1 0 0 1634 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-08-23 21:43:36 2008-08-24 01:43:36 1 0 0
    walmartgrowth220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=789 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:08:23 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/walmartgrowth220.gif 789 2008-08-24 20:08:23 2008-08-25 00:08:23 open open walmartgrowth220 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/walmartgrowth220.gif _wp_attached_file walmartgrowth220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"402";s:6:"height";s:3:"402";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:20:"walmartgrowth220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"walmartgrowth220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"walmartgrowth220-300x300.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"walmartgrowth220-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"walmartgrowth220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Visualizing Walmart's Growth Over Five Decades http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/visualizing-walmarts-growth-over-five-decades/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:10:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=791 You don't have to do anything other than click this link and sit back and watch. The whole thing takes about one minute.]]> 791 2008-08-24 20:10:20 2008-08-25 00:10:20 open open visualizing-walmarts-growth-over-five-decades publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/walmartgrowth220.gif _edit_lock 1219623026 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/walmartgrowth220.gif 1635 45free@45free.com http://www.45free.com 204.101.88.2 2008-08-25 08:15:08 2008-08-25 12:15:08 1 0 0 1636 tomt@findcollegecards.com http://www.findcollegecards.com/blog 71.238.44.138 2008-09-14 12:53:24 2008-09-14 16:53:24 1 0 0 Dimensional Fund Advisors Part VII http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-vii/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:02:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=792 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles. Continuing from Part VI, where we saw the formula for CAPM (the Capital Asset Pricing Model), we found that the model suggests that, given a diversified portfolio, your sensitivity (β, or "beta") to the market factor (also known as the "equity factor") should explain your expected return. As a refresher, here is the formula:

    E(Rp) = Rf + β(Rm - Rf)

    Let's look at a hypothetical 10 year period where the risk free rate was 3%, the market returned 10% and a mutual fund manager we selected to run our portfolio earned 15% on our portfolio. The portfolio was 1.5 times as volatile as the market. According to CAPM, we can calculate what performance we should have expected, given the level of sensitivity to the market:

    E(Rp) = 3% + 1.5(10% - 3%)

    E(Rp) = 3% + 1.5(7%)

    E(Rp) = 3% + 10.5%

    E(Rp) = 13.5%

    So we see that CAPM says that we should have expected an annualized return of 13.5%. BUT - you'll note that I indicated that the manager returned 15%. (N.B.: returns are assumed to be after fees.) So in other words, the expected return (Rp) was less than the actual return. This is where Alpha comes in....

    Alpha

    Alpha is represented by the symbol "α". If you go by some standard definitions, α represents the excess return of a manager over and above that which is expected by a benchmark or predicted return of a model. Calculating α is very simple. In the example above it's 1.5%, which is calculated by taking the actual return (15%) and subtracting the return of the benchmark (which in our case is the return predicted by the model to account for the fact that the portfolio is 1.5 times as volatile as the market) which is 13.5%. This is where we get 1.5%. Note that it is possible to have negative alpha (in fact that seems to be the norm) - this indicates that the manager is underperforming what is expected, after having taking into account the risk adjusted return of the portfolio. To put it into a formula, the actual return of the portfolio (Rp) (and not E(Rp) which is the expected return) is as follows:

    Rp = Rf + β(Rm - Rf) + α

    I'm going to write it again and highlight a few terms:

    Rp = Rf + β(Rm - Rf) + α

    What I've highlighted is E(Rp), the expected return and is simply the CAPM formula from the top of this post. If we simply substitute E(Rp) into the above formula we get:

    Rp = E(Rp) + α

    Which is basically saying that the return on the portfolio equals the expected return plus alpha. If we re-arrange the terms to bring E(Rp) to the left hand side we get:

    Rp - E(Rp) = α

    Which is exactly what we defined alpha above when we said alpha "is calculated by taking the actual return and subtracting the return of the benchmark or expected return predicted by the model".

    Prevalence of CAPM

    CAPM is very prevalent. If you go to morningstar, globefund, etc. you will see Beta numbers (usually 3 year Beta numbers) for every fund. Alpha is harder to find (my guess is because it's usually negative). And when you do see a fund with positive alpha, it gets trumpeted by advisors (or by wholesalers to advisors) endlessly. Positive alpha is a good thing and is supposed to measure the excess return earned on a portfolio over and above what is predicted by CAPM. Now that you are up to speed on CAPM, I regret to inform you that it has been all but invalidated. However, it is still used extensively in the retail financial services (and even institutionally) and is still taught in MBA schools. Part VIII will begin to look at some data that is behind part of the research and theories behind DFA (Dimensional Fund Advisors). CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART VIII]]>
    792 2008-08-25 20:02:06 2008-08-26 00:02:06 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-vii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231301352 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 1637 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-vi/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-25 20:23:28 2008-08-26 00:23:28 1 pingback 0 0 1638 dill@gmail.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-25 22:44:54 2008-08-26 02:44:54 1 0 0 1639 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-26 00:05:32 2008-08-26 04:05:32 1 0 0 1640 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-26 09:39:26 2008-08-26 13:39:26 1 0 0 1641 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/08/28/this-and-that-107 64.111.114.14 2008-08-28 22:05:40 2008-08-29 02:05:40 1 pingback 0 0
    coinstacks220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/does-buy-and-hold-work/coinstacks220/ Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:42:21 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/coinstacks220.gif 794 2008-08-26 21:42:21 2008-08-27 01:42:21 open open coinstacks220 inherit 793 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/coinstacks220.gif _wp_attached_file coinstacks220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:17:"coinstacks220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"coinstacks220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"coinstacks220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"coinstacks220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Does Buy And Hold Work? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/does-buy-and-hold-work/ Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:57:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=793 Question From A Reader A reader has asked me to comment specifically on an article that recently appeared in The Globe and Mail titled, 'With funds, buy and hold doesn't always pay off' written by Mr. Rob Carrick. You'll probably need to read the article to put my answers in context. (I don't really have anything negative to say about it, but if you read through the comments at the bottom of the Globe article there are some readers of the Globe who took issue with it.) Specifically, the reader mentioned that her advisor always touts the buy and hold philosophy and she was beginning to question the blind practice of this strategy.

    The Quick Answer

    Long answer short: buy and hold is the way to go, so long as you are in the right investments and understand the ride you can and should expect when investing in equities. Trying to time the market, or constantly switching between strategies or investments more often than not produces sub-standard results.

    Food For Thought

    One of the questions posed by the author was to ask if readers thought 5 years or even 10 years was a good, long time to hold a fund (in order to reap the benefits of equity investing). He then goes on to show some funds that have had poor performance during this time. This is actually quite good from an educational perspective: consider a post that I wrote earlier which indicated that some academics indicate that you may need 30 years before you can say with statistical confidence that stocks will outperform T-bills. And in actual historic performance, T-bills outperformed US stocks for 17 years from 1964 to 1981. If you are going to invest in equities, you need to be prepared for years of negative performance (perhaps even decades although this would be extremely, extremely rare). Given that even the largest stock market in the world (the US) can have years of negative performance, it is worth looking into diversifying into other markets. Of course, staying the course is really a matter of easier said than done!

    A Wrinkle...

    Since this article is dealing with actively managed funds, then there is an extra variable to consider: relative performance of the manager versus the peer group and the index. In the context of the article, you certainly need to pay attention to the manager's relative performance. It's a given that equities can have long periods of negative performance, but periods of relative underperformance (even if the absolute performance is positive) is an investing sin - but can also occur over short periods of time. I'm not much of an ajudicator of active funds, I gave that up a while ago, but the logic that a longer leeway should be afforded to managers with longer track records seems prudent. Even Warren Buffett can underperform his benchmark during short timeframes.

    Side Note

    I suppose there is one minor point to which I might offer up an alternative approach. Mr. Carrick suggests that with newer managers, it would be best to let them demonstrate good performance for a while before investing your money with them (in the hopes of benefitting from their good performance after they have established themselves as being worthy). An alternative would be to just stay away from them altogether since research has shown that newer, unidentified managers who provide good performance will eventually lose this ability as more and more money is given to them. One way of thinking about this is that if a manager has $50 million dollars worth of good ideas per year then they look great when they are managing $50 million dollars. But as the fund grows organically and then from money invested by new investors, perhaps the fund is now worth $500 million. $50 million of good ideas and $450 million worth of less than good ideas doesn't seem so attractive.

    Conclusion

    In the end, if you are investing in actively managed funds I think the article raises good points. If you are still unsure about your advisor's recommendations, it never hurts to get a second opinion (or a third). If you would like to subscribe to Rob Carrick's RSS feed you can click here for the feed details.]]>
    793 2008-08-26 21:57:06 2008-08-27 01:57:06 open open does-buy-and-hold-work publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1219805894 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 1642 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 71.155.241.163 2008-08-26 22:25:22 2008-08-27 02:25:22 at all other times buy and hold lags. The strategies: Collars for the most conservative; covered call writing for those who want to maintain a bullish stance. And other strategies are available that depend on the investors investment goals, tolerance for risk, and comfort zone. Learn more: http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ Mark]]> 1 0 0 1643 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-08-26 22:53:40 2008-08-27 02:53:40 1 0 0 1644 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 71.155.241.163 2008-08-26 23:19:05 2008-08-27 03:19:05 understand how options work before trying to use them (or any other investing tool). That's why people like you are needed - to provide good guidance and good advice. Keep up the good work. Mark]]> 1 0 0 1645 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.165.87 2008-08-27 11:19:41 2008-08-27 15:19:41 1 0 0 1646 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-27 13:03:18 2008-08-27 17:03:18 1 0 0 1647 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-08-27 15:59:32 2008-08-27 19:59:32 1 0 0 1648 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-08-27 16:15:02 2008-08-27 20:15:02 1 0 0 1649 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/08/29/friday-linkstuff-4/ 67.205.18.215 2008-08-29 05:02:32 2008-08-29 09:02:32 1 pingback 0 0 1650 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/labour-day-weekend-roundup-aug-31-2008.htm 64.131.72.71 2008-08-31 06:31:26 2008-08-31 10:31:26 1 pingback 0 0 1651 http://hotlink.asia/finance/labour-day-weekend-roundup-aug-31-2008/ 74.50.25.165 2008-10-05 05:59:04 2008-10-05 09:59:04 1 pingback 0 0
    sizeeffectus1926to2006 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii/sizeeffectus1926to2006/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:48:29 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sizeeffectus1926to2006.gif 796 2008-08-27 23:48:29 2008-08-28 03:48:29 open open sizeeffectus1926to2006 inherit 795 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sizeeffectus1926to2006.gif _wp_attached_file sizeeffectus1926to2006.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"476";s:6:"height";s:3:"285";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='76' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:26:"sizeeffectus1926to2006.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"sizeeffectus1926to2006-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"sizeeffectus1926to2006-300x179.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"179";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"sizeeffectus1926to2006-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"sizeeffectus1926to2006-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} valueeffectus1926to2006 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii/valueeffectus1926to2006/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:15:29 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/valueeffectus1926to2006.gif 797 2008-08-28 00:15:29 2008-08-28 04:15:29 open open valueeffectus1926to2006 inherit 795 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/valueeffectus1926to2006.gif _wp_attached_file valueeffectus1926to2006.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"476";s:6:"height";s:3:"283";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='76' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:27:"valueeffectus1926to2006.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:35:"valueeffectus1926to2006-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:35:"valueeffectus1926to2006-300x178.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"178";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:35:"valueeffectus1926to2006-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"valueeffectus1926to2006-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part VIII http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:27:31 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=795 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    The Problem With CAPM

    A quote taken from a piece written by Eugene F. Fama, Jr (son of the researcher Dr. Eugene Fama, Sr):
    "The single-factor model (CAPM) is grounded in an elegant theory. The rationale is sensible. It's a great model in every respect except for the fact that it doesn't work. It did a decent job when the world of investments was mostly managed versions of the market, but the further the portfolios got from the market, the less the model explained their returns."
    What is being said here is that CAPM does a poor job explaining the variability in returns when a portfolio is too different from the broad market. I think the best way to explain this is with hard data.

    Dissecting The Market

    First of all, we need to be clear that the data is regarding the US stock markets in US dollars. We'll discuss other markets (i.e. Canada) in due course. Fama and French looked at many ways to dissect the market in order to find other factors that lead to higher returns - two factors they identified were Size and Value, but let's see why they think these are additional factors over and above the market factor.

    The Size Factor

    The chart below is the US stock market which consists of all stocks in the NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX except for ADRs, closed-end funds and tracking stocks from July 1926 to  December 2006. The 'market' portfolio is all stocks that fit this criteria. The 'large' portfolio is composed of stocks with market caps in the top 30% of NYSE market cap. The 'small' portfolio is composed of stocks with market caps in the bottom 30% of NYSE market cap. The performance shown is the annualized average of the monthly rates of return and is originally sourced from Fama & French's research.

    You'll note that Small cap stocks outperformed Large cap stocks quite handily. The difference in this case is an annualized average of 4.69% and is a statistically significant result (i.e. not due to chance according to the data).

    The Book-to-Market Factor (Value Factor)

    I suppose I should avoid calling this the "value" factor where possible since calling it that is a bit of a misnomer. For the most part, investors today relate "value" as stocks that are temporarily mis-priced by the market and you'll see that the data does not actually support such a notion. This is one of the areas which will seem to contradict conventional wisdom (i.e. that value stocks are less risky than growth stocks). First we need to define Book-to-market. This is simply the Book Value of a stock versus the Market Value of a stock. Book value is like the accountant's estimate of the value of a company based on assets minus liabilities and market value is just the overall market capitalization as determined by the stock price. So if a stock is trading at a low price, than the ratio of Book value to Market value is higher - and this indicates a "value" stock. If a stock is trading at a higher price, than the ratio of Book value to Market value is lower - this indicates more of a "growth" stock. For the purposes of explanation, I will use value and high book to market interchangeably, and growth and low book to market interchangeably. The chart below shows the annualized average rates of return for the market versus 'value' (or 'high book to market') stocks and 'growth' (or 'low book to market') stocks, again based on monthly rates of return from July 1926 to December 2006. Value stocks are identified as stocks with positive BtM's in the top 30% of NYSE BtM distributions and Growth stocks are identified as stocks with positive BtM's in the bottom 30% of NYSE BtM distributions.

    This time we see that Value stocks handily outperformed growth stocks by an annualized average of 4.79%, which is again reliably different from zero (i.e. not due to chance).

    To Be Continued...

    We're not done yet. While we have looked at 80 years of data to see that small stocks outperform large stocks and value outperforms growth, there is more data to sift through before we look at the model that Fama and French proposed that is now known as the Fama-French Three Factor Model, which has significantly more explanatory power than CAPM. You'll remember that CAPM was a one factor model (it looked at exposure to the market factor). The FFTFM (Fama French Three Factor Model) essentially looks at exposure to the market factor, exposure to the size factor and exposure to the value factor - hence the name. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART IX]]>
    795 2008-08-28 00:27:31 2008-08-28 04:27:31 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220496558 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 1652 http://cool.getfreeinsurance.net/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii.html 208.43.196.98 2008-08-28 00:57:20 2008-08-28 04:57:20 1 pingback 0 0 1653 http://www.thegameoflove.net/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii.html 74.220.207.171 2008-08-28 01:20:43 2008-08-28 05:20:43 1 pingback 0 0 1654 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 199.246.40.54 2008-08-28 09:02:39 2008-08-28 13:02:39 1 0 0 1655 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-28 09:06:01 2008-08-28 13:06:01 1 0 0 1656 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-28 09:24:32 2008-08-28 13:24:32 1 0 0 1657 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-vii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-08-28 10:14:37 2008-08-28 14:14:37 1 pingback 0 0 1658 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ix/ 68.178.254.235 2008-09-03 22:42:45 2008-09-04 02:42:45 1 pingback 0 0 1659 http://www.mynetfaves.com/tags/dfa 67.228.47.154 2008-10-11 13:05:39 2008-10-11 17:05:39 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-23/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:36:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=798 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. There is a Lindt Chocolate Outlet store near my office so tomorrow I'm going with a friend to check it out. Apparently they have a lot of discounts and for a chocoholic this is music to my ears! I'll write a bit about my experience next week... I remember I brought back over 20 different types of chocolates and chocolate bars on a trip to Switzerland a few years ago - ah, the memories! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    The Canadian Capitalist takes a look at a report on RESPs which highlights some interesting facts. A lot of people talk about retiring early, but Canadian Dream: Free at 45 hosts an interview with someone who retired recently at the age of 44. Good read. Michael James on Money isn't a fan of pennies and normally refuses them when getting change for cash transactions. Personally I always toss them into the "take a penny, leave a penny" jar if there's one around. Canadian Financial DIY asserts that Pros will not automatically beat DIY investors. Thicken My Wallet writes about the upcoming changes to income trust taxation and what it could mean for your distributions. Million Dollar Journey has a list of celebrity chefs and how much they earn. Four Pillars discusses that higher priced items can cost less over the long run than lower priced, and lower quality alternatives. Ellen Roseman explains that many Canadians have walked out of a store due to lack of service. I fall into this camp as I regard customer service to be paramount if you want my money in most cases.

    This Week's Racing Video

    If you ever watched Saturday morning cartoons, you know that the coyote can follow the road-runner off a cliff and just hang suspended until he reads a text book on gravity and then falls. I'll just leave it at that and let you enjoy the video. :)

    ]]> 798 2008-08-28 22:36:54 2008-08-29 02:36:54 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-23 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1219977414 _edit_last 1 1660 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-08-28 22:46:33 2008-08-29 02:46:33 1 0 0 1661 http://www.businessuu.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs/ 74.220.215.63 2008-08-28 23:24:57 2008-08-29 03:24:57 1 pingback 0 0 1662 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-08-29 07:33:07 2008-08-29 11:33:07 1 0 0 1663 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-08-29 10:27:14 2008-08-29 14:27:14 1 0 0 1664 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-08-29 11:54:32 2008-08-29 15:54:32 1 0 0 1665 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 84.13.99.225 2008-09-03 18:48:32 2008-09-03 22:48:32 1 0 0 piechart220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/investing-in-gold/piechart220/ Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:49:23 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/piechart220.gif 800 2008-09-01 21:49:23 2008-09-02 01:49:23 open open piechart220 inherit 799 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/piechart220.gif _wp_attached_file piechart220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:15:"piechart220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"piechart220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"piechart220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"piechart220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Investing in Gold http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/investing-in-gold/ Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:56:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=799 799 2008-09-01 21:56:06 2008-09-02 01:56:06 open open investing-in-gold publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220320567 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif 1666 http://blogs.lowerautoinsurance.net/5836 74.220.215.249 2008-09-01 22:35:33 2008-09-02 02:35:33 1 pingback 0 0 1667 http://www.thegameoflove.net/investing-in-gold.html 74.220.207.171 2008-09-01 22:48:21 2008-09-02 02:48:21 1 pingback 0 0 1668 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-02 10:01:01 2008-09-02 14:01:01 1 0 0 1669 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-02 10:36:57 2008-09-02 14:36:57 at the end of 2006 there was 158,000 tonnes of gold ever mined in history (that they know of). This is confirmed by The World Gold Council as well. It is also interesting to note that the same article estimates that the gold supply will last another 45 years at current consumption rates. Perhaps with a limited supply and seemingly increasing demand there is some hope for gold as a long term investment/speculation? Again, I'm happy to watch from the sidelines. However, an additional consideration is that the transaction costs, but more importantly the storage and insurance costs, will eat into the returns as well. So if gold continues at 3.4% real gross of costs, then the real returns after costs will be less than half of that I would guess.]]> 1 0 0 1670 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 199.246.40.54 2008-09-04 13:57:43 2008-09-04 17:57:43 1 0 0 1671 http://www.ilinkshare.com/tagged/gold 67.228.47.154 2009-01-18 16:03:18 2009-01-18 21:03:18 1 pingback 0 0 The TFSA May Put A Dent Into Life Insurance Sales http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-tfsa-may-put-a-dent-into-life-insurance-sales/ Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=803 Universal Life Universal Life Insurance generally has two components: an insurance component and an investment component. When a UL policy is "overfunded", it means that money over and above what is needed to pay for the insurance premiums gets deposited to the investment component which is a tax-sheltered environment as long as you stay within certain limits (dictated by what is known as the MTAR line - "Maximum Tax Acturarial Reserve").

    The Tax Free Retirement Plan

    A very popular financial planning strategy is called the leveraged deferred compensation strategy (also referred to as the "Insured Retirement Plan" and even "the tax-free retirement plan") which involves overfunding a UL policy and letting the tax-sheltered investment grow over time, usually 10 years or more. Since you can't take the money out without triggering capital gains, the strategy involves pledging the account as collateral for a loan from the bank (which you don't make monthly payments on so the outstanding amount owing grows slowly over time).  It eventually gets paid off when you die by the proceeds of the insurance policy and there should be money left over as well. Since there is no tax paid to use these funds which were allowed to grow on a tax-sheltered basis you can see why it looks so appealing. This strategy is normally pitched to investors over 40 and who have maximized their RRSPs and have a significant amount of surplus cashflow.

    TFSA Replaces This Strategy For Some

    However, now that the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) is on the horizon this may put a dent into the smaller UL policies sold with this intention since the TFSA is tax-sheltered and better yet, the funds can be withdrawn without any tax being triggered. Better still is that you don't have to fund the cost of permanent life insurance if you don't really need it. However, since TFSA contributions are limited to $5,000 per year if you are maximizing it from the get go, the LDCP will still be appealing to higher net worth investors who may want to use up more room than this.]]>
    803 2008-09-02 20:00:20 2008-09-03 00:00:20 open open the-tfsa-may-put-a-dent-into-life-insurance-sales publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _edit_lock 1220383945 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 1672 http://www.coverage4usa.com/insurance-blog/?p=18105 72.52.133.135 2008-09-02 20:03:48 2008-09-03 00:03:48 1 pingback 0 0 1673 http://lifeinsurance.blogtite.com/?p=2776 69.89.31.210 2008-09-02 21:30:30 2008-09-03 01:30:30 1 pingback 0 0 1674 http://www.getlifeinsurancenow.com/the-tfsa-may-put-a-dent-into-life-insurance-sales.php 64.13.223.151 2008-09-02 21:32:47 2008-09-03 01:32:47 1 pingback 0 0 1675 http://insurance.relatedpages.net/the-tfsa-may-put-a-dent-into-life-insurance-sales-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 67.205.63.238 2009-11-10 18:33:13 2009-11-10 23:33:13 1 pingback 0 0
    chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ix/chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds/ Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:48:53 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds.gif 805 2008-09-03 21:48:53 2008-09-04 01:48:53 open open chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds inherit 804 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds.gif _wp_attached_file chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"434";s:6:"height";s:3:"181";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='53' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:36:"chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:44:"chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:44:"chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds-300x125.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"125";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:44:"chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:42:"chartofsizeandvaluereturnsandsds-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 2x2sizeandvalueeffects http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ix/2x2sizeandvalueeffects/ Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:03:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2x2sizeandvalueeffects.gif 806 2008-09-03 22:03:58 2008-09-04 02:03:58 open open 2x2sizeandvalueeffects inherit 804 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2x2sizeandvalueeffects.gif _wp_attached_file 2x2sizeandvalueeffects.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"510";s:6:"height";s:3:"397";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='123'";s:4:"file";s:26:"2x2sizeandvalueeffects.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"2x2sizeandvalueeffects-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"2x2sizeandvalueeffects-300x233.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"233";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"2x2sizeandvalueeffects-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"2x2sizeandvalueeffects-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part IX http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ix/ Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:37:47 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=804 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    Risk and Return Revisited

    If we are looking at the long term numbers of a diversified portfolio of value stocks outperforming growth stocks, and small cap outperforming large cap, then we should see increased risk in the form of increased standard deviation if risk and return are truly related. After all, one of the main beliefs of DFA is that "markets work" and risk and return are related - so if there is more return to be had, it MUST come with additional risk. Here are the return numbers presented again, but this time with the standard deviation numbers added as well:

    You can see that the Value stocks and the Small stocks carry much higher standard deviations to go along with their higher annualized returns. The data showing Value stocks having higher returns and higher risk than Growth stocks may be against the conventional wisdom - most people assume growth stocks are riskier, but the long term data shows otherwise.

    Let's Take Another Step...

    Now, let's take a look at the Value effect WITHIN Large Cap stocks and WITHIN Small Cap Stocks. In other words, we are going to see if Large Cap Value outperforms Large Cap Growth, and we are going to see if Small Cap Value outperforms Small Cap Growth - and again we will toss in the standard deviations to serve as the main proxy for risk.

    Data and Chart sourced from DFA Canada

    Compounded Returns versus Average Return

    First thing to note is that you actually see two sets of returns for each item we are looking at. It is important to note the distinction as pointed out by Michael James on Money in a comment in the last part in the series. The "Annualized Compound Return" is more meaningful since it allows you to figure out what your experience would've been if you had (and could have) actually invested in these indices (we're not taking into account transaction costs, or the fact that you couldn't really invest in anything that could track these indices since their inception). The "Annual Average Return" is simply taking all the annual returns and  dividing by the number of years to get the average return you would expect for any year. (You can visit Michael James' blog by clicking here)

    More Support...

    Nonetheless, we see that for Large Cap stocks, there is again a Value premium in that Large Cap Value outperformed Large Cap Growth. We also see that within Small cap stocks the Value premium still shows up in that Small Cap Value outperformed Small Cap Growth. (However, we do also notice that the standard deviation on Small Cap Growth is not as low as we would expect relative to Small Cap Value. This indeed one of the very few anomalies with the Fama-French Three Factor Model [which I have yet to explain in detail!] since the data implies that the risk and return relationship in the value premium does not really show up for Small Cap stocks. This is acknowledged by Fama and French.)

    I'll end there since we've again covered a lot of ground. In Part X, we will finally see the Fama-French Three Factor Model formula and then start comparing this to the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

    CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART X

    ]]>
    804 2008-09-03 22:37:47 2008-09-04 02:37:47 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ix publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220929213 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif 1676 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-viii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-09-03 22:49:27 2008-09-04 02:49:27 1 pingback 0 0 1677 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2008-09-04 00:00:19 2008-09-04 04:00:19 1 0 0 1678 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-04 09:15:18 2008-09-04 13:15:18 1 0 0 1679 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 199.246.40.54 2008-09-04 09:18:57 2008-09-04 13:18:57 1 0 0 1680 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-04 09:36:34 2008-09-04 13:36:34 1 0 0 1681 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-04 12:08:15 2008-09-04 16:08:15 1 0 0 1682 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 99.225.225.35 2008-09-05 14:17:20 2008-09-05 18:17:20 1 0 0 1683 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-05 19:21:35 2008-09-05 23:21:35 looks good it is worth noting that there can be very long periods of underperformance. You'll note that in a previous blog post, it was indicated that the equity premium takes maybe over 30 years to reliably show up with statistical confidence - same sort of story with small and value. You can "tilt" towards small and value to differing degrees with DFA instead of going all out - but it won't be apparent until later the effects of momentum on small cap mandates which can be crippling if they aren't 'immunized' - which you can't get with regular index tracking ETFs.]]> 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-24/ Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:44:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=807 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. So I ventured down to the Lindt outlet store in Scarborough and while it was impressive in that they had many different types of chocolates (like dark chocolate with red chilis in it!) the prices weren't great except on only a small portion of the items. My friend Scott picked up quite a bit of dark chocolate that was 60% off, but most everything else was priced in line with anywhere else you can find Lindt. Soooo... we decided to head down the street to the Dad's cookie factory. They have a small store on the side where you can pick up fresh cookies for about 50% off. I had a bachelor party in Muskoka to go to over the weekend so I picked up about 7 bags of different cookies, all of which were basically demolished the first night - oh well, at least it was cheap! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau notes that the mutual fund industry has no sympathy for Ol' Yeller funds - unfortunately, this is not really a good thing for investors. Thicken My Wallet is a sports nut, and explains some easy way to save money on sporting events. Four Pillars signed away their lives by installing the new browser from Google, called Google Chrome. When you agree to the EULA (End User License Agreement) you should know (if you bother to read it), that Google now owns anything you type, post or upload using the browser! Apparently they are amending the EULA to be a little less big-brotherish going forward as many people quite rightly raised a stink over it. Canadian Dream: Free at 45 shows you the proper way to invest in yourself: exercise, nutrition and not being "that guy". Michael James on Money notes that Canada missed a recession (so far) only on a technicality. Ellen Roseman explains that a complaint is a gift to businesses - if they understand it. And last but not least, Canadian Capitalist responds to the Million Dollar Journey's post about the "pitfalls" of investing in index tracking investments. My guess is that MDJ deliberately stirred the pot! :)

    This Week's Racing Video

    They say the first auto race occured shortly after the second car was built. It seems people will race anything - including airplanes! The Red Bull Air Racing Series has been around for a few years and features acrobatic planes capable of over 400km/h and up to 10 G's during these racing competitions - check it out:

    ]]>
    807 2008-09-05 00:44:34 2008-09-05 04:44:34 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-24 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1220589875 _edit_last 1 1684 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-09-05 05:44:18 2008-09-05 09:44:18 1 0 0 1685 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-09-05 06:59:52 2008-09-05 10:59:52 1 0 0 1686 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-05 08:05:50 2008-09-05 12:05:50 1 0 0 1687 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-09-05 09:38:40 2008-09-05 13:38:40 1 0 0 1688 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-09-05 09:58:36 2008-09-05 13:58:36 1 0 0
    bengraham http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=809 Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:04:16 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/bengraham.gif 809 2008-09-06 21:04:16 2008-09-07 01:04:16 open open bengraham inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/bengraham.gif _wp_attached_file bengraham.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"108";s:6:"height";s:3:"147";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='95' width='70'";s:4:"file";s:13:"bengraham.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"bengraham-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Father Of Security Analysis Eventually Gave Up On Security Analysis http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-father-of-security-analysis-eventually-gave-up-on-security-analysis/ Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:06:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=811 Security Analysis. The book is almost the equivalent of the Bible to investors. In Arnott's book, The Fundamental Index: A Better Way To Invest, he cites this 1976 quote from Graham (who wrote Security Analysis in 1934):
    "I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 years ago, when our textbook Graham and Dodd was first published; but the situation has changed a great deal since then. In the old days any well-trained security analyst could do a good professional job of selecting undervalued issues through detailed studies; but in the light of the enormous amount of research now being carried on, I doubt whether in most cases such extensive efforts will generate sufficiently superior selections to justify their cost."
    ]]>
    811 2008-09-06 21:06:13 2008-09-07 01:06:13 open open the-father-of-security-analysis-eventually-gave-up-on-security-analysis publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bengraham.gif _edit_lock 1220749574 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bengraham.gif 1689 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/09/12/this-and-that-109 64.111.114.14 2008-09-12 07:55:39 2008-09-12 11:55:39 1 pingback 0 0 1690 simms.matt@gmail.com 207.6.238.91 2008-09-13 03:01:45 2008-09-13 07:01:45 1 0 0
    The S&P 490 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-sp-490/ Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:59:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=814
  • From March 2000 to March 2002 the S&P 500 lost more than 20%, meanwhile the average U.S. listed stock gained more than 20% - this seemingly anomalous result is due to the market-cap weighted nature of the S&P 500 where more value is place on larger stocks
  • If you look at only the top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 from 1926 to 2006 (a full 81 years of data), they outperformed the average US stock only 31% of the time over any 10 year rolling period
  • What's worse, is that if you try to find the number of years where 6 or more of the top 10 stocks by market cap in the S&P 500 beat the average stock: It never happened during the entire 81 years
  • So based on this, one could argue that if you bought a index tracking investment, one that tracked the S&P 490 (a fictitious index comprised of the S&P 500 less the top 10 stocks by market cap) instead of the S&P 500 might be better. The reason for this underperformance is attributed to the fact that the top 10 stocks tend to get that way because they are overvalued, and they also happen to represent about 25% or more of the S&P500 - again based on the market-capitalization nature of the index constitution.]]>
    814 2008-09-07 20:59:13 2008-09-08 00:59:13 open open the-sp-490 publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/holdingquestionmark220.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/holdingquestionmark220.gif _edit_lock 1220836883 _edit_last 1 1691 multifoldreams@gmail.com http://www.multifoldreams.com 65.94.29.34 2008-09-07 21:53:06 2008-09-08 01:53:06 1 0 0 1692 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-07 22:29:31 2008-09-08 02:29:31 1 0 0 1693 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-08 10:19:05 2008-09-08 14:19:05 Here is a link comparing three ETFs that track these indices.]]> 1 0 0 1694 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-08 10:39:18 2008-09-08 14:39:18 1 0 0 1695 45free@45free.com http://www.45free.com 204.101.88.2 2008-09-08 11:31:32 2008-09-08 15:31:32 1 0 0 1696 multifoldreams@gmail.com http://www.multifoldreams.com 65.94.29.170 2008-09-08 21:35:03 2008-09-09 01:35:03 1 0 0 1697 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-09 21:22:33 2008-09-10 01:22:33 1 0 0
    rawquintiles http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-x/rawquintiles/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:22:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/rawquintiles.jpg 816 2008-09-08 22:22:24 2008-09-09 02:22:24 open open rawquintiles inherit 815 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/rawquintiles.jpg _wp_attached_file rawquintiles.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"420";s:6:"height";s:3:"146";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='44' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:16:"rawquintiles.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"rawquintiles-150x146.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"146";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"rawquintiles-300x104.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"104";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"rawquintiles-270x146.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"146";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"rawquintiles-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} capmquintiles http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-x/capmquintiles/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:38:18 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/capmquintiles.jpg 817 2008-09-08 22:38:18 2008-09-09 02:38:18 open open capmquintiles inherit 815 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/capmquintiles.jpg _wp_attached_file capmquintiles.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"421";s:6:"height";s:3:"145";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='44' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:17:"capmquintiles.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"capmquintiles-150x145.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"145";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"capmquintiles-300x103.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"103";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"capmquintiles-270x145.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"145";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"capmquintiles-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} fftfmquintiles http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-x/fftfmquintiles/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:46:56 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/fftfmquintiles.jpg 818 2008-09-08 22:46:56 2008-09-09 02:46:56 open open fftfmquintiles inherit 815 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/fftfmquintiles.jpg _wp_attached_file fftfmquintiles.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"420";s:6:"height";s:3:"146";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='44' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:18:"fftfmquintiles.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"fftfmquintiles-150x146.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"146";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"fftfmquintiles-300x104.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"104";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"fftfmquintiles-270x146.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"146";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"fftfmquintiles-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part X http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-x/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:59:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=815 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    Introduction To The Fama-French Three Factor Model

    First, as a refresher let's look at the CAPM. Remember, this asset pricing model (the "single" factor model) says that an investor's expected return is based on their exposure to the market factor (or Beta). Here is the formula again:

    E(Rp) = Rf + β(Rm - Rf)

    As I alluded to in the last part of this series, the Fama-French Three Factor Model (FFTFM henceforth) uses three factors to explain expected return: 1) Market Factor, 2) Size Factor, and 3) Value Factor. Just as CAPM includes a measure of the amount of exposure to the market factor, the FFTFM includes measures of the exposure to each of the three factors.

    The Fama-French Three Factor Model:

    E(Rp) = Rf + β(Rm - Rf) + s(Small - Big) + h(High BtM - Low BtM)

    (Small - Big) and (High BtM - Low BtM) are analogous to (Rm - Rf). Remember that (Rm - Rf) is the equity premium or market factor - it is just the excess return of stocks over t-bills. Similarly (Small - Big) is the excess return of Small stocks versus Big stocks, and (High BtM - Low BtM)  is the excess return of Value stocks over Growth stocks. You can think of each as having their own Beta, except it's not called Beta for each - it's only called Beta for measuring the sensitivity to the market factor. There is not really a name for the "other" Betas, they are just represented as "s" and "h" - each is just a measure of the amount of exposure to the other two factors (size and value).

    In fact, the way the formula is normally written uses SMB to represent "Small Minus Big" and HML to represent "High BtM Minus Low BtM". Therefore you will see the formula written as follows (but it means the same as above):

    E(Rp) = Rf + β(Rm - Rf) + s(SMB) + h(HML)

    And, just to bash you over the head again with the same old thing, in plain english this is saying that the investor's expected return is equal to the risk-free rate PLUS their exposure to the market factor PLUS their exposure to the size factor PLUS their exposure to the value factor.

    Okay Preet, So What?

    Well I suppose the best way to explain why this three factor model has garnered so much attention is to look at how Fama and French looked at it. They took the total stock market and they chopped it up into a 5 x 5 matrix (Book to Market quintiles by Size quintiles) as follows:

    It is also important to know what R² is - according to Wikipedia: "the coefficient of determination, R2, is the proportion of variability in a data set that is accounted for by a statistical model... R2 is a statistic that will give some information about the goodness of fit of a model. In regression, the R2 coefficient of determination is a statistical measure of how well the regression line approximates the real data points. An R2 of 1.0 indicates that the regression line perfectly fits the data." Basically the closer to 1.0 the R² is, the more "explanatory power" of a model.

    If you look at the CAPM regressions for "monthly value-weight portfolio returns from July 1963 to December 2007" for a total of 534 months of data (information sourced from Eugene Fama and DFA) then the R² values for this 5x5 cross-section of the total market looks as follows (remember, this is for the CAPM):

    So what is being said here is that for each slice of the 25 slices of the market based on differing size and value factors, the CAPM really only does a half decent job for larger stocks with low Book to Market values - coincidentally, the S&P 500 has many large cap growth stocks. But once we stray away from this, the CAPM does an increasingly poorer job of explaining the variation in returns. Of course, this begs the question: what about the Three Factor regressions? I have to admit, my life changed a bit when I saw the next slide.

    Here are the "Three Factor Regressions for Monthly Value-Weight Portfolio Returns from July 1963 to December 2007", again a total of 534 months of data and this was sourced from Eugene Fama and DFA, and again looking at the R² values:

    I'll stop there for today, but Part XI will address some of the early criticisms of this model. Part XII will look at how widespread this model has become, even though you many not realize it.

    CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART XI

    ]]>
    815 2008-09-08 22:59:10 2008-09-09 02:59:10 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-x publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1222356287 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 1698 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-ix/ 68.178.254.235 2008-09-08 23:00:55 2008-09-09 03:00:55 1 pingback 0 0 1699 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-09 10:23:07 2008-09-09 14:23:07 1 0 0 1700 SD@gmail.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-09 13:07:55 2008-09-09 17:07:55 1 0 0 1701 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-09 14:29:47 2008-09-09 18:29:47 1 0 0 1702 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-09 21:41:08 2008-09-10 01:41:08 1 0 0
    50dollarbillgiftwrapped http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/someone-has-to-be-buying-for-the-stock-market-to-go-down/50dollarbillgiftwrapped/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:07:36 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/50dollarbillgiftwrapped.jpg 820 2008-09-09 22:07:36 2008-09-10 02:07:36 open open 50dollarbillgiftwrapped inherit 819 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/50dollarbillgiftwrapped.jpg _wp_attached_file 50dollarbillgiftwrapped.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"2752";s:6:"height";s:4:"1949";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='90' 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Stock Market To Go Down http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/someone-has-to-be-buying-for-the-stock-market-to-go-down/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:08:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=819 819 2008-09-09 22:08:34 2008-09-10 02:08:34 open open someone-has-to-be-buying-for-the-stock-market-to-go-down publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1221012767 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 1703 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-09-10 09:36:37 2008-09-10 13:36:37 1 0 0 1704 Acres@gmail.com 199.166.15.245 2008-09-10 10:39:47 2008-09-10 14:39:47 1 0 0 1705 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-09-10 14:21:05 2008-09-10 18:21:05 1 0 0 1706 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-10 15:51:37 2008-09-10 19:51:37 1 0 0 1707 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/financial-reporters-say-the-darndest-things/ 68.178.254.235 2008-09-14 20:34:37 2008-09-15 00:34:37 1 pingback 0 0 1708 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/09/18/this-and-that-110-nightmare-on-wall-street-edition 64.111.114.14 2008-09-18 21:56:32 2008-09-19 01:56:32 1 pingback 0 0 1709 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2008-09-22 11:44:55 2008-09-22 15:44:55 1 0 0 1710 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-22 12:40:29 2008-09-22 16:40:29 1 0 0 50dollarbillwrapped220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/someone-has-to-be-buying-for-the-stock-market-to-go-down/50dollarbillwrapped220/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:12:45 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 821 2008-09-09 22:12:45 2008-09-10 02:12:45 open open 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inherit 822 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/1927-2007.jpg _wp_attached_file 1927-2007.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"487";s:6:"height";s:3:"294";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='77' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:13:"1927-2007.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"1927-2007-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"1927-2007-300x181.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"181";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"1927-2007-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"1927-2007-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi/summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:54:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods.jpg 826 2008-09-10 21:54:58 2008-09-11 01:54:58 open open summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods inherit 822 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods.jpg _wp_attached_file summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"872";s:6:"height";s:3:"193";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='28' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:41:"summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:49:"summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:48:"summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods-300x66.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:2:"66";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:49:"summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:47:"summary-statistics-for-all-us-periods-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} dfaeafedata http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi/dfaeafedata/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:15:52 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dfaeafedata.jpg 827 2008-09-10 23:15:52 2008-09-11 03:15:52 open open dfaeafedata inherit 822 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dfaeafedata.jpg _wp_attached_file dfaeafedata.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"477";s:6:"height";s:3:"303";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='81' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:15:"dfaeafedata.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"dfaeafedata-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"dfaeafedata-300x190.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"190";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"dfaeafedata-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"dfaeafedata-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} dfaemergingmarketdata http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi/dfaemergingmarketdata/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:16:38 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dfaemergingmarketdata.jpg 828 2008-09-10 23:16:38 2008-09-11 03:16:38 open open dfaemergingmarketdata inherit 822 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dfaemergingmarketdata.jpg _wp_attached_file dfaemergingmarketdata.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"479";s:6:"height";s:3:"305";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='81' width='127'";s:4:"file";s:25:"dfaemergingmarketdata.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"dfaemergingmarketdata-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"dfaemergingmarketdata-300x191.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"191";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"dfaemergingmarketdata-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"dfaemergingmarketdata-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi/dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:43:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets.jpg 829 2008-09-10 23:43:04 2008-09-11 03:43:04 open open dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets inherit 822 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets.jpg _wp_attached_file dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"473";s:6:"height";s:3:"285";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='77' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:32:"dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:40:"dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:40:"dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets-300x180.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"180";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:40:"dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:38:"dfavaluepremiaforeignmarkets-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part XI http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:03:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=822 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    Criticisms of The Initial Findings

    As noted at the end of Part X, there were some early criticisms of the Three Factor model after the publication of the paper The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns in 1992. (As an aside, I understand that this paper has been the most cited finance paper in the last 20 years.) One of the main criticisms has been that Fama and French were simply data-mining. After all, the paper had only looked at the period from 1963 to 1990 and only at the US stock market. Some argued that with all the academics sifting through the reams of data on the markets it's only natural for someone to find some patterns that work really well, but have no real explanation other than 'it was observed'. To address the short sample size, when the data was available going back to 1927 the same analysis was done and the results even more robust. (I don't have the R² numbers for the 5x5 matrix of the market for the Three Factor model on hand, but here are the summary statistics for the annual returns for the market and different sections of the market.) I have included this data which was provided by Eugene Fama and DFA (ditto goes for all other data in this part). The original data from 1963 to 1990 was extended to 2007, and 1927 to 1962 was analyzed separately and then finally all the data from 1927 to 2007 was looked at as well: For those who are interested, here are the numbers in table form, which you can click to enlarge: One thing to note is that Small Growth seems to have anamolous results with respect to the standard deviation numbers. It would seem that investors in small growth stocks do not get as fairly compensated for the risk they are exposed to compared to other sections of the market.

    But What About Different Markets Altogether?

    Okay, so we've seen some data from an earlier time period and the results were basically in line with the theory, and of course looking at both the original time period and earlier time period and then adding on the data for recent history also showed that there seems to be size and value premia. ...at least for the US market. But what about other markets? According to William Bernstein, "Value and size premia were found on every hill and under every rock." You can read his full article which commemorated the 10th anniversary of the now famous Fama French paper by clicking here. Note that he also provides some hints as to how a non-DFA investor might take advantage of these premia, which I will also address later in this series. But for those who are satisfied to stay here and look at more charts, next up is some data for the MSCI EAFE index:

    Followed next by some data on Emerging Markets:

    And finally, here are the observed value premia for 13 individual equity markets from 1975 to 1995.

    A value premium shows up in 12 of the 13 markets with the exception of Italy. I will add that in 1975 there were only 72 companies in the Italian equity market sample and it had an annual standand deviation of 43.77 during this time. (Many of the other markets had few companies in their public markets as well, and the reasons for not seeing a value premium in Italy could also explain why we see a value premium in those other markets to be fair: the time and size of those market samples are relatively small.) Okay, I think I've bombarded you with enough charts for one sitting. Hopefully this isn't getting too boring. In Part XII we will look at how the Three Factor Model has crept into the world of retail financial services and this will be a bit more interesting. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART XII]]>
    822 2008-09-11 00:03:42 2008-09-11 04:03:42 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1222134978 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif 1711 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-09-22 15:22:56 2008-09-22 19:22:56 1 0 0 1712 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-22 15:31:31 2008-09-22 19:31:31 1 0 0 1713 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-09-22 15:38:32 2008-09-22 19:38:32 1 0 0 1714 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-22 21:54:55 2008-09-23 01:54:55 1 0 0 1715 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-x/ 68.178.254.235 2008-09-25 11:17:47 2008-09-25 15:17:47 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-25/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:25:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=830 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. For anyone who is interested, I'm hosting two wine and cheese seminars in Oakville titled "Increase your returns and lower your fees with Index Investing". The two dates are September 25th and October 2nd and will be held at the Glen Abbey Golf Course. If you would like to attend, or know anyone who might want to (or should) learn about index investing please send me an email at preet_banerjee@scotiamcleod.com.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Ellen Roseman has a post titled "No RESP-ect for group scholarship plans". Canadian Capitalist examines the claims about just how low the costs are on Group Scholarship Plans. Michael James on Money (played by Kevin Spacey in the movie 21), looks at the real cost of that free steak dinner that you might get offered when losing money at a casino. Jonathan Chevreau explains that many Canadians don't understand the new TFSA that will be introduced in January. It stands for TAX FREE SAVINGS ACCOUNT and if fall into that camp, you may want to bring yourself up to speed - it's groovy. Thicken My Wallet discusses the ethics of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bailout. Million Dollar Journey was trying out his new TV and got excited about a show that examined why people with good incomes and net worth can still feel inadequate. Wait until he discovers Showcase on Friday nights. Larry MacDonald discusses the unloading of hedge funds in the context of today's market. Four Pillars discusses buying in bulk and notes that a good price on 12 pounds of nutmeg might sound good, but do you need it? Price of gas got you down? Canadian Dream: Free at 45 explains how you can eat breakfast for pennies a day. Canadian Financial DIY notes that Canadians living abroad need to get cracking on making their votes count in upcoming Canadian federal election.

    This Week's Racing Video

    I don't know how to introduce this week's video other than to say it's a 400 horsepower V8-powered chainsaw.

    ]]> 830 2008-09-11 22:25:15 2008-09-12 02:25:15 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-25 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1221186315 _edit_last 1 1716 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 69.159.8.227 2008-09-11 23:59:48 2008-09-12 03:59:48 Wait until he discovers Showcase on Friday nights. Haha! That chainsaw is something else - not sure how it ranks for safety but I can't imagine those guys care. :)]]> 1 0 0 1717 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-09-12 09:10:40 2008-09-12 13:10:40 1 0 0 1718 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-09-12 11:40:46 2008-09-12 15:40:46 1 0 0 1719 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-12 18:40:26 2008-09-12 22:40:26 1 0 0 marketsgoingup220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-reporters-say-the-darndest-things/marketsgoingup220/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:11:29 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/marketsgoingup220.gif 832 2008-09-14 20:11:29 2008-09-15 00:11:29 open open marketsgoingup220 inherit 831 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/marketsgoingup220.gif _wp_attached_file marketsgoingup220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:21:"marketsgoingup220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"marketsgoingup220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"marketsgoingup220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"marketsgoingup220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Financial Reporters Say The Darndest Things http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-reporters-say-the-darndest-things/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:14:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=831 Someone Has To Be Buying For The Stock Market To Go Down was pretty popular so I thought I would follow up on that theme. Bill Cosby hosted a show called Kids Say The Darndest Things which was partly a resurrected version of Art Linkletter's House Party from 20 years earlier. Part of the attraction was that most of the things the kids said were funny because they were trying to communicate with imprecise language. The financial media can be guilty of similar imprecision (as can I). Here are two good examples of things you might hear or see on the radio or television:

    “Wall Street was in a selling mood as stocks moved down today.”

    Since there must be someone willing to buy the stocks that get sold, this doesn’t make much sense. What mood were the buyers in? Really all you can say is that the transactions that took place between the buyers and sellers priced stocks lower than the previous trading day. In fact, since they are normally referring to the performance of market-cap weighted indexes (like the S&P 500 and the TSX) it's possible that the market as a whole actually moved higher as the main indexes are only representative of a sub-section of the overall markets. For example, the S&P 500 covers only about 500 stocks (it varies a bit) in the US market, but there are well over 10 times as many stocks in the US.

    “Stock XYZ is quickly going up today.”

    Misleading. You can only say where a stock HAS gone. If a reporter indicates a stock IS moving one way or the other, they shouldn’t be wasting their time telling you about it and should be busy placing their order. But since they aren't placing their orders, perhaps you should think twice about doing the same based on their comments.]]>
    831 2008-09-14 20:14:03 2008-09-15 00:14:03 open open financial-reporters-say-the-darndest-things publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1221450826 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 1720 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 99.225.225.35 2008-09-14 21:19:07 2008-09-15 01:19:07 1 0 0 1721 thebigjc@gmail.com 69.196.134.233 2008-09-14 23:51:51 2008-09-15 03:51:51 1 0 0 1722 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-14 23:57:09 2008-09-15 03:57:09 the Dow's price-weighted nature here if you want to take a look.]]> 1 0 0 1723 somereader@nomail.com 207.35.182.164 2008-09-15 11:59:55 2008-09-15 15:59:55 1 0 0 1724 finance.invest.analytical@gmail.com http://finance-invest-analytical.blogspot.com/ 90.12.100.214 2008-09-15 18:56:51 2008-09-15 22:56:51 1 0 0
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17:33:18 open open etfguideguide inherit 835 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfguideguide.gif _wp_attached_file etfguideguide.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"975";s:6:"height";s:3:"259";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='34' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:17:"etfguideguide.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"etfguideguide-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"etfguideguide-300x79.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:2:"79";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"etfguideguide-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"etfguideguide-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} etfguideguide1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=838 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:51:29 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfguideguide1.gif 838 2008-09-15 13:51:29 2008-09-15 17:51:29 open open etfguideguide1 inherit 835 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfguideguide1.gif _wp_attached_file etfguideguide1.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"971";s:6:"height";s:3:"257";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='33' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:18:"etfguideguide1.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"etfguideguide1-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"etfguideguide1-300x79.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:2:"79";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"etfguideguide1-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"etfguideguide1-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} etfebookcover100 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=839 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:17:06 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfebookcover100.gif 839 2008-09-15 18:17:06 2008-09-15 22:17:06 open open etfebookcover100 inherit 835 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfebookcover100.gif _wp_attached_file etfebookcover100.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:20:"etfebookcover100.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"etfebookcover100-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"etfebookcover100-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"etfebookcover100-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Free Guide to Canadian-Listed ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=835 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:58:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=835 For those who like free stuff I'm happy to offer a Guide To Canadian-Listed ETFs for FREE to all Email Subscribers and RSS Subscribers of WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com. Instructions on how to download the guide are down below.

    What You Get

    This simple to use guide provides a list of all the Canadian-Listed Exchange Traded Funds in one place along with information on their MERs and assets under management (AUM). For more information, there are also direct links to more detailed descriptions of the funds (direct to the product provider's information page where possible). And finally, there are quick links to a list of each fund's complete holdings so you can see exactly what is in the indexes that these funds track (instead of just the top 10 or top 25 holdings). Here's an example of what you will find for all Canadian Listed ETF's (please click to enlarge):

    How Do I Get The Guide?

    Easy: if you are an RSS subscriber or Email subscriber, simply click on the link that is included in the footer of either the RSS feed or the most recent Email you have received from WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com. And that's it! Click on this next picture to see what it looks like:

    What If I'm Not A Subscriber?

    No problem, subscriptions are free! You can even unsubscribe after getting the guide. Clearly, this is a promotional offer to try and generate interest in the blog and I'm hoping that some new subscribers will stick around a while and help spread the word about the blog. But if you just want the guide, yes you can just unsubscribe after getting your first update and clicking on the download link.

    Enter your email address:
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    Help Spread The Word...

    If you know anyone who would be interested in getting a copy of the guide, I would appreciate it if you could send them to this page so that they can sign up for a free subscription to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com in order to get their download link. They might find that they enjoy some of the "other" content on the blog too! :) Thanks everyone!]]>
    835 2008-09-15 18:58:41 2008-09-15 22:58:41 open open free-guide-to-canadian-listed-etfs draft 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1255525739 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/etfebookcover220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/etfebookcover220.gif 1725 noname@gmail.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-16 00:00:18 2008-09-16 04:00:18 1 0 0 1726 yves.blais@worleyparsons.com 74.200.27.250 2008-09-16 09:19:00 2008-09-16 13:19:00 1 0 0 1727 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.115.34 2008-09-16 13:01:43 2008-09-16 17:01:43 1 0 0 1728 peter@nomail.ca 199.166.15.246 2008-09-16 17:01:22 2008-09-16 21:01:22 1 0 0 1729 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-16 20:59:58 2008-09-17 00:59:58 1 0 0 1730 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/weekend-reading-sept-19-2008.htm 64.131.72.71 2008-09-19 06:31:34 2008-09-19 10:31:34 1 pingback 0 0 1731 http://moneygrubbinglawyer.com/2008/09/20/the-weekend-round-up/ 69.89.22.139 2008-09-20 18:24:11 2008-09-20 22:24:11 1 pingback 0 0 1732 http://hotlink.asia/finance/weekend-reading-sept-19-2008/ 74.50.25.165 2008-10-06 05:18:42 2008-10-06 09:18:42 1 pingback 0 0 1733 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-33/ 68.178.254.235 2009-01-08 21:49:14 2009-01-09 02:49:14 1 pingback 0 0 1734 acsooley@gmail.com 216.246.243.1 2009-02-09 22:14:07 2009-02-10 03:14:07 1 0 0 1735 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-09 22:18:25 2009-02-10 03:18:25 1 0 0 1736 dougko@yahoo.ca 99.230.252.75 2009-02-12 16:58:59 2009-02-12 21:58:59 1 0 0 1737 ksykoo@hotmail.com 67.71.41.121 2009-03-05 12:08:58 2009-03-05 17:08:58 1 0 0
    etfebookcover220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=840 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:48:47 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfebookcover220.gif 840 2008-09-15 20:48:47 2008-09-16 00:48:47 open open etfebookcover220 inherit 835 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etfebookcover220.gif _wp_attached_file etfebookcover220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"400";s:6:"height";s:3:"400";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:20:"etfebookcover220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"etfebookcover220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"etfebookcover220-300x300.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"etfebookcover220-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"etfebookcover220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Greenspan Put and AIG's $85 Billion Loan From The Government http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-greenspan-put-and-aigs-85-billion-loan-from-the-government/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:18:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=841 AIG Receives $85 Billion Loan From US Government As I write this, there are reports trickling in that AIG (American International Group, ranked as high as the 18th largest company in the world by Forbes in 2008, known mostly for being an insurance company) has received an $85 billion dollar loan from the US Federal Reserve in exchange for a 79.9% ownership stake. AIG has been making headlines as it's exposure to bad debt is so large that they were facing going out of business this week unless something could be done. Their share price has effectively fallen around 90% since the beginning of the credit crunch. You may have heard that Lehman Brothers had announced it was filing for bankruptcy just a few days ago, which prompted the start of the week to be rather ugly. The complete failure of AIG was deemed to be too catastrophic for the financial system to bare, so the federal government has stepped in.

    The Greenspan "Put"

    This action by the US Federal Reserve to effectively bailout the markets is not all that rare. Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve for many years often dropped interest rates during times of market crisis. Lower interest rates generally bode well for financial markets for a few main reasons: 1) Cheaper access to money for everyone means they are more inclined to spend money on anything which improves profits of all business and 2) Cheaper access to money means investors have more money with which to buy stocks which increases buying pressure which props up prices. The action of dropping interest rates to stem the decline of financial markets came to be known as "The Greenspan Put". A "put" refers to "put options" which are a financial instrument that make money when markets go down - often used as a type of hedge or portfolio insurance. So if your investment goes down from $50 to $30, but you had a put option for $40, then you are pretty much guaranteed not to end up with less than $40 even if the original investment goes to $0. (That's a very simplified version, but you get the picture.) So the Greenspan Put was effectively a type of market insurance for everyone because the markets assumed that if things got really bad the "fed" (as it's known for short) would step in and take steps to stop the losses. As Greenspan handed over the reins to the now current chairman Ben Bernanke, we now hear the term the "Bernanke Put" being used. This latest lifeline from the government, while not in the form of lowering interest rates but rather as a loan in exchange for majority ownership is a similar manoeuvre.

    Good or Bad?

    One of the problems is that since everyone assumes that the fed will step in whenever things get really bad, the markets essentially have priced this in the form of higher prices and perhaps, higher risk taking overall. If you are wondering about why the fed would choose to save AIG and not Lehman, consider this argument from Michael James on Money about how some businessesmust fail in order to maintain a healthy economy.]]>
    841 2008-09-16 23:18:43 2008-09-17 03:18:43 open open the-greenspan-put-and-aigs-85-billion-loan-from-the-government publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1221622344 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/aig220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/aig220.gif 1738 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-17 08:35:17 2008-09-17 12:35:17 1 0 0 1739 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-09-17 12:30:37 2008-09-17 16:30:37 1 0 0 1740 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-17 21:56:17 2008-09-18 01:56:17 1 0 0 1741 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/09/19/friday-linkstuff-5/ 67.205.18.215 2008-09-19 04:59:22 2008-09-19 08:59:22 1 pingback 0 0 1742 http://starttags.com/tags/alan-clayson 98.240.245.202 2010-04-03 03:17:12 2010-04-03 08:17:12 1 pingback 0 0
    aig220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-greenspan-put-and-aigs-85-billion-loan-from-the-government/aig220/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:31:23 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/aig220.gif 842 2008-09-16 23:31:23 2008-09-17 03:31:23 open open aig220 inherit 841 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/aig220.gif _wp_attached_file aig220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:10:"aig220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"aig220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"aig220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:16:"aig220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Breaking News: US Bans Naked Short Selling http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/breaking-news-us-bans-naked-short-selling/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:09:02 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=845 SEC bans naked short selling article on TheStreet.com SEC puts naked short sellers on notice article on CNNMoney]]> 845 2008-09-17 13:09:02 2008-09-17 17:09:02 open open breaking-news-us-bans-naked-short-selling publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif _edit_lock 1221671502 _edit_last 1 1743 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-09-17 22:56:57 2008-09-18 02:56:57 1 0 0 1744 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-09-18 04:57:34 2008-09-18 08:57:34 1 0 0 1745 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-18 11:11:57 2008-09-18 15:11:57 1 0 0 dontbethatguy1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=847 Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:29:22 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dontbethatguy1.gif 847 2008-09-18 13:29:22 2008-09-18 17:29:22 open open dontbethatguy1 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dontbethatguy1.gif _wp_attached_file dontbethatguy1.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"474";s:6:"height";s:3:"283";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='76' width='127'";s:4:"file";s:18:"dontbethatguy1.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"dontbethatguy1-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"dontbethatguy1-300x179.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"179";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"dontbethatguy1-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"dontbethatguy1-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} dontbethatguy2 /dontbethatguy2/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:32:18 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dontbethatguy2.gif 848 2008-09-18 13:32:18 2008-09-18 17:32:18 open open dontbethatguy2 inherit 846 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/dontbethatguy2.gif _wp_attached_file dontbethatguy2.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"476";s:6:"height";s:3:"284";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='76' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:18:"dontbethatguy2.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"dontbethatguy2-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"dontbethatguy2-300x178.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"178";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"dontbethatguy2-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"dontbethatguy2-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} An Example of How Reacting in Fear Can Hurt Portfolios http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-example-of-how-reacting-in-fear-can-hurt-portfolios/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:51:28 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=850 An Example This chart shows the performance of the TSX from a random period of time. I also plotted a hypothetical GIC type investment which shows up as a straight line with a shallow slope.

    When the TSX had this 14.52% correction, you can be sure many investors ran for the hills and purchased money market funds or GICs. But look what happened after the correction. The TSX came back up. Let's plot a portfolio of an investor who was invested in the TSX and then switched to a GIC out of fear during the correction.

    If the portfolio started with $10,000 (and not assuming transaction costs or management fees, etc.), than the buy and hold investor basically doubled their money. The person who switched out of fear gave up half of their potential returns with an ending amount only slightly above $15,000.

    Always A Step Behind

    But the real problem is that now this investor might look at this chart and say, "Yup, equity is the way to go - I'll switch back now." If we fast forward the chart, and the investor then switched back to the TSX his total portfolio value today might be back down to $10,000 as the TSX soon entered a bear market after the end of the above charts.

    The investor is now thinking, I was right all along - should've stayed in GICs. And you can see how the vicious cycle can repeat.

    It is important to stick to a plan. By just holding GICs the investor would be better off than constantly switching between equities and GICs at the wrong times (like many investors are inclined to do due to emotions.)

    If you are going to commit to a long term investment plan, you can't focus on the short term performance if you expose yourself to equities. As Canadian Capitalist put it, "...the higher returns from equities come from bearing the risk of holding stocks through times such as this."

    ]]>
    850 2008-09-18 13:51:28 2008-09-18 17:51:28 open open an-example-of-how-reacting-in-fear-can-hurt-portfolios publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif _edit_lock 1221760411 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 1746 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-09-18 14:37:44 2008-09-18 18:37:44 1 0 0 1747 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-18 18:09:40 2008-09-18 22:09:40 1 0 0 1748 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-09-18 23:54:18 2008-09-19 03:54:18 1 0 0 1749 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-19 09:02:32 2008-09-19 13:02:32 1 0 0 1750 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-09-19 23:20:47 2008-09-20 03:20:47 1 0 0 1751 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-09-19 23:25:29 2008-09-20 03:25:29 1 0 0 1752 acorn1@sympatico.ca 64.231.8.215 2008-09-20 15:10:19 2008-09-20 19:10:19 1 0 0 1753 qasimodo9@yahoo.com 76.66.5.213 2008-09-20 18:03:28 2008-09-20 22:03:28 1 0 0 1754 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 99.242.236.171 2008-09-20 23:00:43 2008-09-21 03:00:43 1 0 0 1755 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dont-decide-to-become-a-short-term-investor/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-09 23:55:16 2008-10-10 03:55:16 1 pingback 0 0 1756 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-28/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-16 23:05:59 2008-10-17 03:05:59 1 pingback 0 0
    Funds With MERs Over 8% http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/funds-with-mers-over-8/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:40:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=851 There's High, And Then There's HIGH! Just for fun, I decided to use Globefund.com to look up funds with the highest MERs that are RRSP eligible. I've listed all the funds with MERs over 8%, but note that many of the funds have performance bonuses - for example, they may charge a set management fee, but have a performance bonus of 20% of the excess returns generated over and above a benchmark - which can lead to these astonomical MERs. Many of the funds fall into the LSIF category which may or may not have performance bonuses, as well as stiff base fees. Many investors have been burned by investments in Labour Sponsored Investment Funds - being locked into funds for 8 years to avoid clawing back of the tax savings they earned for first investing in them. Many investors can be lured by the dangling carrot of extra tax savings, but it's important to pick your investments based on their mandate and fundamentals first.

    Funds with MERs Over 8%

    Dynamic Power Hedge Fund-F 13.94%
    Dynamic Power Hedge Fund-A 12.63%
    Dynamic Power Emerging Markets 11.24%
    DMP Resource Class 10.44%
    VenGrowth III Invst Fd Inc.Cl-A SrA 9.99%
    VenGrowth III Invst Fd Inc.Cl-A SrB 9.99%
    VenGrowth III Invst Fd Inc.Cl-A SrC 9.93%
    Front Street Energy Gw Fund Ser-III 8.89%
    VentureLink Brighter Future V 8.47%
    Stone & Co. Longevity Global Div C 8.44%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Income II 8.31%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Diversified II 8.28%
    Stone & Co. Longevity Global Div B 8.27%
    VentureLink Brighter Future IV 8.27%
    VentureLink Brighter Future III 8.26%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Growth II 8.24%
    Sprott Bull/Bear RSP (08/29) 8.24%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Financial II 8.21%
    Advantage Venture 8.20%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Balanced I 8.18%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Growth I 8.10%
    GrowthWorks Cdn Diversified I 8.07%
    ]]>
    851 2008-09-21 21:40:25 2008-09-22 01:40:25 open open funds-with-mers-over-8 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1222121269 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 1757 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 72.141.29.86 2008-09-22 01:01:26 2008-09-22 05:01:26 1 0 0 1758 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-22 10:00:22 2008-09-22 14:00:22 1 0 0 1759 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 99.225.225.35 2008-09-22 13:29:40 2008-09-22 17:29:40 1 0 0 1760 investor.irwin@gmail.com 207.6.102.149 2008-09-22 16:17:47 2008-09-22 20:17:47 1 0 0 1761 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-22 18:01:33 2008-09-22 22:01:33 1 0 0 1762 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/09/29/mondayy-linkstuff/ 67.205.18.215 2008-09-29 04:59:15 2008-09-29 08:59:15 1 pingback 0 0 1763 http://starttags.com/tags/lsif 98.240.245.202 2010-03-26 16:34:34 2010-03-26 21:34:34 1 pingback 0 0
    stylebox http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xii/stylebox/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:15:20 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/stylebox.gif 853 2008-09-22 21:15:20 2008-09-23 01:15:20 open open stylebox inherit 852 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/stylebox.gif _wp_attached_file stylebox.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"272";s:6:"height";s:3:"202";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='95' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:12:"stylebox.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"stylebox-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"stylebox-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"stylebox-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part XII http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xii/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:51:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=852 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    How Accepted Is The Three Factor Model?

    The acceptance of the Three Factor Model is probably more widespread than people realize. While most investors have probably heard of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), most have not heard of the Fama-French Three Factor Model. In fact, of all the textbooks I've had to study to become a financial advisor or attain new designations they all seem to have a refresher section on CAPM - but no mention of the Fama-French Three Factor Model (FFTFM). So why then, would I say that the FFTFM is more widespread than people realize? One need only look at the following style box which might be very familiar:

    These types of style boxes became popular in the mid 1990's and have been used ever since to characterize the holdings of mutual funds and other portfolios. For the most part, investors and advisors learned to compare "like with like" - such that if you had a portfolio or fund that fell into the Large-Value box, then the straight performance comparison to a Small-Growth fund was considered an apples-to-oranges comparison (and not an apples-to-apples comparison). Today, everybody just "knows" that such a comparison isn't fair.

    If the only major determinant of portfolio performance was exposure to equities (as according to CAPM), then looking at these style boxes shouldn't really give you any more information. That investors and advisors DO look at the fund's size and value characteristics is a testament to the FFTFM and that the other major factors in determining portfolio peformance could indeed be Size and Value (and not just exposure to the market in general).

    The Lipper Indices

    The Lipper Database also converted to a multi-factor framework in 1999. Here are the Equity Indices as of March 9th, 1998:

    1. Capital Appreciation
    2. Growth Fund
    3. Small Cap Fund
    4. Growth & Income
    5. Equity Income Fund
    6. Science & Tech Fund
    7. International Fund
    8. Gold Fund
    9. Balanced Fund
    10. Emerging Markets
    Here were the Equity Indices as of November 20th, 2000:
    1. Large-Cap Growth
    2. Large-Cap Core
    3. Large-Cap Value
    4. Multi-Cap Growth
    5. Multi-Cap Core
    6. Multi-Cap Value
    7. Mid-Cap Growth
    8. Mid-Cap Core
    9. Mid-Cap Value
    10. Small-Cap Growth
    11. Small-Cap Core
    12. Small-Cap Value
    13. Equity Income Fund
    14. Science & Tech Fund
    15. Gold Fund
    16. International Fund
    17. Emerging Markets
    18. Balanced

    To Be Continued...

    Well that's all fine and dandy, but where this is really going to start getting interesting is when we start using a Three-Factor analysis instead of CAPM to measure mutual fund manager performance. I'll spoil a bit of the surprise when I say that CAPM alpha does not usually translate into Multi-Factor alpha which isn't good news for the few managers who have beaten their benchmarks. Stay tuned! CLICK TO HERE TO GO TO PART XIII]]>
    852 2008-09-22 21:51:45 2008-09-23 01:51:45 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1223344893 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif 1764 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xi/ 68.178.254.235 2008-09-22 21:56:33 2008-09-23 01:56:33 1 pingback 0 0
    houseofcash220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/20-year-returns-for-canadian-residential-real-estate/houseofcash220/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:53:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/houseofcash220.gif 856 2008-09-23 22:53:24 2008-09-24 02:53:24 open open houseofcash220 inherit 855 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/houseofcash220.gif _wp_attached_file houseofcash220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"280";s:6:"height";s:3:"280";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:18:"houseofcash220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"houseofcash220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"houseofcash220-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"houseofcash220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 20 Year Returns for Canadian Residential Real Estate http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/20-year-returns-for-canadian-residential-real-estate/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:54:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=855 20 Years Ending March 31st, 2008

    Toronto Homes: 3.3% Annualized Return, 9.5% Standard Deviation

    Vancouver Homes: 7.3% Annualized Return, 12.0% Standard Devitation

    Calgary Homes: 7.6% Annualized Return, 8.7% Standard Deviation

    Halifax-Dartmouth: 4.5% Annualized Return, 18.6% Standard Deviation

    Ottawa-Carleton: 4.1% Annualized Return, 9.6% Standard Deviation

    As a comparison, I looked up the annualized return of the TSX from March 1988 to March 2008 through DFA's Returns Software and found it earned 9.93% with an annual standard deviation of 14.03%.

    As per the request of a reader, here are some other index data from March 1988 to March 2008:

    Russell 3000 (CAD$):   9.60% Annualized Return, 13.02% SD S&P500 (CAD$):   9.61% Annualized Return, 13.06% SD CRSP 1-10 (CAD$):   9.63% Annualized Return, 13.18% SD

    The above data is adjusted to Canadian dollars, and I should point out that all the annual standard deviation data shown on this entire post is calculated based on the monthly returns (which I actually think might be better than just looking at the annual returns for calculating standard deviation). The CRSP 1-10 refers to the "crisp" database, deciles one through 10. CRSP = Center for Research in Security Prices and deciles one through ten represent every US stock.

    Just in case anyone is curious, here are the US index numbers in their native US currency:

    Russell 3000 (US$): 10.72% Annualized Average, 13.63% SD S&P 500 (US$): 10.73% Annualized Average, 13.57% SD CRSP 1-10 (US$): 10.75% Annualized Average, 13.87% SD

    Canadian Inflation as measured by CPI was 2.40% during this time period.

    ]]>
    855 2008-09-23 22:54:15 2008-09-24 02:54:15 open open 20-year-returns-for-canadian-residential-real-estate publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1222267307 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif 1765 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-09-24 05:56:08 2008-09-24 09:56:08 1 0 0 1766 istephaniew8d@gmail.com 207.219.39.250 2008-09-24 07:34:01 2008-09-24 11:34:01 1 0 0 1767 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-24 09:20:22 2008-09-24 13:20:22 1 0 0 1768 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-24 09:21:10 2008-09-24 13:21:10 1 0 0 1769 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-09-24 10:23:16 2008-09-24 14:23:16 1 0 0 1770 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-24 10:34:33 2008-09-24 14:34:33 1 0 0 1771 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-24 10:39:28 2008-09-24 14:39:28 1 0 0 1772 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-09-24 10:50:40 2008-09-24 14:50:40 1 0 0 1773 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-24 11:31:51 2008-09-24 15:31:51 1 0 0 1774 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-09-24 13:25:14 2008-09-24 17:25:14 1 0 0 1775 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-09-24 13:53:46 2008-09-24 17:53:46 1 0 0 1776 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-24 15:11:06 2008-09-24 19:11:06 1 0 0 1777 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 199.246.40.54 2008-09-24 16:44:36 2008-09-24 20:44:36 my opinion of buying a home.]]> 1 0 0
    rebalancestudy http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=858 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:28:48 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/rebalancestudy.gif 858 2008-09-24 15:28:48 2008-09-24 19:28:48 open open rebalancestudy inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/rebalancestudy.gif _wp_attached_file rebalancestudy.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"795";s:6:"height";s:3:"569";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='91' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:18:"rebalancestudy.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"rebalancestudy-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"rebalancestudy-300x214.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"214";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"rebalancestudy-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"rebalancestudy-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Power of Rebalancing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-power-of-rebalancing/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:36:30 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=861 Rebalancing Goes Against Emotions If stocks dropped, human nature might make us avoid wanting to rebalance since that would mean shifting money from well performing assets to buy ones that have been lousy as of late. But, keep in mind you would be buying low and selling high. You would be buying stocks at a potential low, and selling your bonds at a potential high. Let's take a simple example to see how this might help a portfolio. Thanks again to DFA's very powerful Returns 2.0 software, I have pulled up the actual performance of the TSX Composite Index and the DEX Universe Bond Index from January 1st, 1980 to August 31st, 2008 - almost a full 29 years. I compared a simple 60% Equity / 40% Fixed Income portfolio that never rebalances to a similar portfolio that rebalances only once per year. The annually rebalanced portfolio earned an annualized 10.51% return (assumes no transaction costs or other fees), whereas the portfolio that never rebalanced earned 10.25%. For a $10,000 initial investment, this translates into a $11,500 difference at the end of these 29 years. Here is the performance graph from the software:

    (Click to enlarge)

    Keep in mind this is a simple analysis. There's more to discuss when it comes to rebalancing. For example - the annually rebalanced portfolio was actually slightly more volatile than the non-rebalanced portfolio (10.64% SD versus 10.25% SD respectively). There are probably better ways to pick a rebalancing schedule - i.e. based on a set deviation from your target allocation as opposed to based strictly on time periods, etc...

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    861 2008-09-24 15:36:30 2008-09-24 19:36:30 open open the-power-of-rebalancing publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif _edit_lock 1222285133 _edit_last 1 1778 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-09-25 01:26:45 2008-09-25 05:26:45 1 0 0 1779 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-25 09:59:01 2008-09-25 13:59:01 1 0 0 1780 deb_nick@yahoo.com 99.238.142.11 2008-09-26 04:37:35 2008-09-26 08:37:35 1 0 0 1781 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-09-26 09:43:27 2008-09-26 13:43:27 1 0 0 1782 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.com 99.249.116.66 2008-10-01 06:18:40 2008-10-01 10:18:40 1 0 0 1783 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-10-01 09:12:16 2008-10-01 13:12:16 1 0 0 1784 Dugmink@yahoo.com http://wiser-investor.blogspot.com/ 76.251.222.158 2009-12-17 14:07:59 2009-12-17 19:07:59 1 0 0
    The Largest Bank Failure In The History Of The World http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-largest-bank-failure-in-the-history-of-the-world/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:17:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=862 862 2008-09-26 00:17:59 2008-09-26 04:17:59 open open the-largest-bank-failure-in-the-history-of-the-world publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1222403392 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 1785 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2008/09/26/random-thoughts-financial-apocalypse-edition/ 67.205.7.217 2008-09-26 06:22:50 2008-09-26 10:22:50 1 pingback 0 0 1786 liewp@yahoo.com 38.99.165.34 2008-09-29 09:57:27 2008-09-29 13:57:27 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-26/ Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:33:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=865 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. For anyone who is interested, I will be speaking at the 4th Annual ETF and Indexing Assembly in New York City which will be held on January 28th and 29th, 2009. Other than that, life's been a whirlwhind with 3 weddings in 7 days and I was just invited to another wedding on top of that. I imagine I'll be advising on lots of RESPs for friends in the next few years... :) I have to apologize for missing last week's Lap Of The Blogs - things have been very busy lately!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    The Simple Dollar discusses how one could view their career as an integral part of their portfolio mix. Canadian Personal Finance Blog summarizes his views on the U.S. Financial Crisis. Larry MacDonald notes that insiders are buying more than normal right now, a bullish indicator. Canadian Financial DIY criticizes a study out of UBC on housing prices in Canada. Canadian Capitalist gives a brief history of the Income Trust taxation issue, now that it seems to be back on the table for the upcoming election. Jonathan Chevreau talks about Five ways boomers are redefining retirement. Thicken My Wallet asks if you would pay for a professional second opinion. As you'll see, I think it's a good idea! :) Million Dollar Journey gives a quick overview of a career in the financial services (focusing on the role of a retail advisor). Michael James On Money goes through the math of Obscene MERs - for many readers it might be beating a dead horse, but consider that this dead horse is alive and kicking for many investors. Get Rich Slowly gives us some tips for how to tackle shopping for big ticket items so you can avoid spending more than you need.

    This Week's Racing Video

    I found a nice montage of on-board shots of some MotoGP racing - which is the top form of motorcylce racing. My only experience on motorcycles has been through the Ganaraska forest on two occassions, one of which ended with me flying into a tree backwards. I'm way better with four wheels, tarmac, and no rocks... :P

    ]]>
    865 2008-09-27 14:33:43 2008-09-27 18:33:43 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-26 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1222540424 _edit_last 1 1787 http://www.exclusivebike.com/racing-motorcycles/racing-motorcycles-racing-motorcycles/a-lap-of-the-blogs/ 74.53.140.226 2008-09-27 17:31:10 2008-09-27 21:31:10 1 pingback 0 0 1788 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-09-27 18:57:29 2008-09-27 22:57:29 1 0 0 1789 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2008-09-27 19:11:22 2008-09-27 23:11:22 1 0 0 1790 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-09-28 23:02:05 2008-09-29 03:02:05 1 0 0 1791 happinessisbetter@gmail.com http://happinessisbetter.com 192.31.106.34 2008-09-30 14:49:30 2008-09-30 18:49:30 1 0 0
    10portfolios http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures/10portfolios/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:16:33 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/10portfolios.gif 867 2008-09-28 22:16:33 2008-09-29 02:16:33 open open 10portfolios inherit 866 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/10portfolios.gif _wp_attached_file 10portfolios.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"714";s:6:"height";s:3:"442";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='79' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:16:"10portfolios.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"10portfolios-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"10portfolios-300x185.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"185";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"10portfolios-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"10portfolios-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 10portfolios220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures/10portfolios220/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:18:38 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/10portfolios220.gif 868 2008-09-28 22:18:38 2008-09-29 02:18:38 open open 10portfolios220 inherit 866 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/10portfolios220.gif _wp_attached_file 10portfolios220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"436";s:6:"height";s:3:"436";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:19:"10portfolios220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"10portfolios220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"10portfolios220-300x300.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"10portfolios220-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"10portfolios220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Risk and Return in Pictures http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:22:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=866 Let's Make It Visual I've put together a graphical back test of 10 portfolios that vary in exposure to equities from 10% equity to 100% equity. The 100% equity portfolio is allocated as follows: 35% Canada 25% US 25% EAFE 15% Emerging Markets The 90% equity portfolio has 10% exposure to fixed income (which is represented by the DEX Canadian Broad Bond Index). Each of the equity components' percentage allocation is reduced by 10% accordingly, such that the 90% equity portfolio looks like this: 31.5% Canada 22.5% US 22.5% EAFE 13.5% Emerging Markets 10.0% Fixed Income ...and so on, until the 10th portfolio is only 10% equities and 90% fixed income and looks like this: 3.5% Canada 2.5% US 2.5% EAFE 1.5% Emerging Markets 90% Fixed Income Here is how they each looked from the period of January 1988 until August 2008, assuming annual rebalancing and no transaction costs or other fees:

    (Click image to enlarge)

    (Graph created using software from DFA Canada Inc.)

    The "safest" portfolio which was 90% fixed income would have taken $1 and turned it into $6.04 during this time. The "riskiest" portfolio which was all equity would have taken this $1 and turned it into $7.96. To put this into perspective, consider that this represents an increase of 31.79% of the end amount. Alternatively, you can think of $100,000 turning into $604,000 versus $796,000. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART II]]>
    866 2008-09-28 22:22:57 2008-09-29 02:22:57 open open risk-and-return-in-pictures publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1223425978 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif 1792 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-09-28 23:55:05 2008-09-29 03:55:05 1 0 0 1793 http://wtf.7aq.org/uncategorized/risk-and-return-in-bpicturesb 66.35.79.122 2008-09-29 03:00:45 2008-09-29 07:00:45 1 pingback 0 0 1794 ahhbeebee@hotmail.com 136.159.21.2 2008-09-29 11:50:04 2008-09-29 15:50:04 1 0 0 1795 peter@nomail.ca 199.166.15.245 2008-09-29 13:36:26 2008-09-29 17:36:26 1 0 0 1796 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.20.218 2008-09-29 18:21:00 2008-09-29 22:21:00 1 0 0 1797 amw124@gmail.com 68.144.137.20 2008-09-29 19:18:06 2008-09-29 23:18:06 1 0 0 1798 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-09-29 19:48:39 2008-09-29 23:48:39 1 0 0 1799 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/10/02/this-and-that-112-credit-crisis-firefight-edition 64.111.114.14 2008-10-02 20:04:15 2008-10-03 00:04:15 1 pingback 0 0 1800 daniel.goertzen@gmail.com 24.77.73.107 2008-10-02 23:02:24 2008-10-03 03:02:24 1 0 0 1801 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-10-03 09:11:09 2008-10-03 13:11:09 1 0 0 1802 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-05 22:02:30 2008-10-06 02:02:30 1 pingback 0 0
    Do Not Call Registry Goes Live Today in Canada http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/do-not-call-registry-goes-live-today-in-canada/ Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:01:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=872
  • Registered charities looking for donations
  • Newspapers looking for subscriptions
  • Political parties and their candidates
  • Companies with whom you have an existing relationship, or have done business with in the past 18 months
  • To sign up for the official Do Not Call Registry: www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca *****NOTE: THE SITE SEEMS TO BE DOWN TODAY**********

    But Wait! There's More...

    Canadian Capitalist pointed out earlier this year that iOptOut.ca allows you to also request to be removed from the calling lists of entities exempted from the Do Not Call Registry legislation. From iOptOut.ca:
    Exempted organizations are permitted to make unsolicited telephone calls despite the inclusion of the number in the do-not-call registry. However, organizations must remove numbers from their lists if specifically requested to do so. IOptOut takes advantage of this approach by allowing Canadians to create and manage a personal do-not-call list that begins where do-not-call list ends.
    Click here to visit iOptOut.ca Click here to visit the Do Not Call Registry site *****NOTE: THE DO NOT CALL REGISTRY WEBSITE SEEMS TO BE DOWN TODAY******]]>
    872 2008-09-30 00:01:10 2008-09-30 04:01:10 open open do-not-call-registry-goes-live-today-in-canada publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/telephone220.gif _edit_lock 1222786437 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/telephone220.gif 1803 george.wenzel@gmail.com 207.102.157.94 2008-09-30 07:37:47 2008-09-30 11:37:47 1 0 0 1804 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-09-30 10:21:41 2008-09-30 14:21:41 1 0 0 1805 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-09-30 11:54:38 2008-09-30 15:54:38 1 0 0 1806 themoneygardener@gmail.com http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2008-09-30 22:46:30 2008-10-01 02:46:30 1 0 0
    tinafey220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=874 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:21:33 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/tinafey220.gif 874 2008-09-30 22:21:33 2008-10-01 02:21:33 open open tinafey220 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/tinafey220.gif _wp_attached_file tinafey220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:14:"tinafey220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"tinafey220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"tinafey220-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"tinafey220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} tinafeysplash /tinafeysplash/ Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:33:51 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/tinafeysplash.gif 877 2008-09-30 22:33:51 2008-10-01 02:33:51 open open tinafeysplash inherit 873 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/tinafeysplash.gif _wp_attached_file tinafeysplash.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"450";s:6:"height";s:3:"281";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='79' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:17:"tinafeysplash.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"tinafeysplash-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"tinafeysplash-300x187.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"187";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"tinafeysplash-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"tinafeysplash-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Tina Fey = Power and Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/tina-fey-power-and-money/ Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:40:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=876 Click on the following picture to view an interactive graphic on Tina Fey "By The Numbers"

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    876 2008-09-30 22:40:51 2008-10-01 02:40:51 open open tina-fey-power-and-money publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/tinafey220.gif _edit_lock 1222829370 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/tinafey220.gif 1807 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-10-01 08:31:38 2008-10-01 12:31:38 1 0 0 1808 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-10-01 09:15:48 2008-10-01 13:15:48 1 0 0 1809 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 69.49.34.98 2008-10-01 12:22:45 2008-10-01 16:22:45 1 0 0
    $700,000,000,000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/700000000000/ Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:28:37 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=880 880 2008-10-02 01:28:37 2008-10-02 05:28:37 open open 700000000000 publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg _edit_lock 1222925353 _edit_last 1 1810 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.165.87 2008-10-02 11:13:43 2008-10-02 15:13:43 1 0 0 1811 themoneygardener@gmail.com http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 207.236.7.30 2008-10-02 11:48:03 2008-10-02 15:48:03 1 0 0 1812 deb_nick@yahoo.com 99.238.142.11 2008-10-02 18:08:13 2008-10-02 22:08:13 1 0 0 1813 deb_nick@yahoo.com 99.238.142.11 2008-10-02 18:11:07 2008-10-02 22:11:07 1 0 0 1814 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-27/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-03 00:16:50 2008-10-03 04:16:50 1 pingback 0 0 1815 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2008/10/03/random-thoughts-is-this-the-end/ 67.205.7.217 2008-10-03 06:22:15 2008-10-03 10:22:15 1 pingback 0 0 1816 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-10-03 09:08:04 2008-10-03 13:08:04 1 0 0 1817 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-10-03 09:09:00 2008-10-03 13:09:00 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-27/ Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:16:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=881 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. In the last two weeks I've had the pleasure of attending lunch presentations from Norm Lamarche (Front Street Capital), Eric Sprott (Sprott Asset Management), Dave Picton (Picton Mahoney) and Peter Puccetti (Goodwood). For those that remember the Sprott IPO, you have to wonder how much he's bought back at half price! As for this upcoming weekend, Fiona is taking me away to Niagara-on-the-Lake for some golf, gambling and cross-border shopping - maybe we'll pick up a house for under $2 while in the States - like the one that was sold on eBay recently. :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Michael James on Money explains why the returns of your portfolio may not match the returns reported by the investments you own. Canadian Dream: Free at 45 explains that when you run out of toner, you may not actually be out of toner. Four Pillars reminds us that you make money when you buy low, sell high. Larry MacDonald relays that massive redemptions might be predictive of market bottoms. Canadians set a record for mutual fund redemptions in September with just south of $5 Billion redeemed - an all time record. Million Dollar Journey, inbetween surfing for pictures of Tina Fey, questioned if there will be a real estate crash in Canada. Thicken My Wallet explains the basic differences between banks, credit unions, trust companies and more. Jonathan Chevreau points out that only 11% of Canadians know about ETFs! Canadian Capitalist talks about keeping the faith in stocks. I would like to remind you that $700 Billion could buy every Canadian a brand new compact car.

    This Week's Racing Video

    As part of a marketing campaign, BMW commissioned the production of a number of short films which showcased some BMW automobiles in the story lines in one way or the other. This is probably the most famous and it runs approximately 9 minutes. Enjoy!

    ]]>
    881 2008-10-03 00:16:12 2008-10-03 04:16:12 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-27 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1223007372 _edit_last 1 1818 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-10-03 07:28:16 2008-10-03 11:28:16 1 0 0 1819 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-10-03 08:08:14 2008-10-03 12:08:14 1 0 0 1820 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-10-03 10:29:16 2008-10-03 14:29:16 1 0 0 1821 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2008-10-04 13:08:55 2008-10-04 17:08:55 1 0 0
    sep2000toaug2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii/sep2000toaug2008/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:18:43 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sep2000toaug2008.gif 883 2008-10-05 21:18:43 2008-10-06 01:18:43 open open sep2000toaug2008 inherit 882 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sep2000toaug2008.gif _wp_attached_file sep2000toaug2008.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"838";s:6:"height";s:3:"524";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='80' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:20:"sep2000toaug2008.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"sep2000toaug2008-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"sep2000toaug2008-300x187.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"187";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"sep2000toaug2008-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"sep2000toaug2008-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} sep2002toaug2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii/sep2002toaug2008/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:25:17 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sep2002toaug2008.gif 884 2008-10-05 21:25:17 2008-10-06 01:25:17 open open sep2002toaug2008 inherit 882 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sep2002toaug2008.gif _wp_attached_file sep2002toaug2008.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"855";s:6:"height";s:3:"515";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='77' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:20:"sep2002toaug2008.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"sep2002toaug2008-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"sep2002toaug2008-300x180.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"180";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"sep2002toaug2008-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"sep2002toaug2008-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} logplot http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii/logplot/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:56:00 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/logplot.gif 885 2008-10-05 21:56:00 2008-10-06 01:56:00 open open logplot inherit 882 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/logplot.gif _wp_attached_file logplot.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"851";s:6:"height";s:3:"511";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='76' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:11:"logplot.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"logplot-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"logplot-300x180.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"180";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"logplot-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"logplot-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Risk and Return in Pictures Part II http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:02:24 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=882 Risk and Return in Pictures" received some requests to chop up the data in different ways, so this follow up post will try to do just that. I suggest taking a look at the original post by clicking here if you want a refresher.

    Request 1: Use Different Start Points

    One commenter posited that starting at different points in time might make the results look quite different, namely starting the portfolios in 1999 would make the results less dramatic. I think what he was getting at was to look at the peak of the All Equity portfolio and start the charts from there. The peak occured during September of 2000. When we plot the charts from here and again until the end of August 2008 we get this:

    (You can click the graphs to enlarge them)

    CLICK TO ENLARGE

    If we had data to the end of September 2008, the outperformance of the 10% equity portfolio would certainly be more dramatic still since September was a horrible month for equities. However, getting back to the task at hand and since we have the luxury of cherry picking the data, let's now look at the trough of the All Equity portfolio when the tech bubble burst as a starting point. This will probably have more significance today as many people are pondering a switch from equities to fixed income due to the recent market declines.

    (Click to enlarge)

    As we see from the above graph, switching to a safer portfolio when the market last crashed would've been quite detrimental to your bottom line. The All Equity portfolio had an annualized average return of 17.03% during this 6 years, versus the 10% Equity porfolio's annualized return of 6.94%.

    Request 2: How Did Rebalancing Affect the Volatility?

    Going back to the original time span of January 1988 to August 2008 here are the annualized Standard Deviations (higher numbers mean more volatility) for each portfolio WITHOUT ever rebalancing versus WITH annual rebalancing: Portfolio     No Rebalancing      Annual Rebalancing 10% Equity             5.10%                            5.03% 20% Equity             5.63%                            5.37% 30% Equity             6.46%                            5.98% 40% Equity             7.46%                            6.80% 50% Equity             8.54%                            7.77% 60% Equity             9.67%                            8.83% 70% Equity             10.81%                          9.96% 80% Equity             11.96%                          11.14% 90% Equity             13.11%                          12.36% 100% Equity           14.25%                          13.61% Here we see that rebalancing had the effect of slightly lowering the portoflios' volatilies, however as mentioned before, I prefer to use a dynamic rebalancing schedule which is based on reaching a set allocation deviation as opposed to just picking a periodic rebalancing schedule. Also, I'll note that the performance differences were minimal - but this is a separate discussion altogether (one which involves looking at how much the allocations drift over time, and also the effect of pretty much 20 years of falling interest rates until now - my guess is that the next 20 years will not be the same!)

    Request 3: Log Plot to Highlight Earlier Changes

    Capping off today's post is the original graph using a logarithmic Y axis. This serves to highlight the changes in the earlier periods of the graph most notably. Whereas in the non-log graph, all the portfolios seemed to move in lock-step for the most part, now we see some more dramatic swings in line with the latter part of the chart.

    Conclusions...

    The charts in this post and the previous part in the series leave us lots to talk about, and quite frankly I'd love to start writing about it here but Fiona will have my head on a plate if I don't call it a night - so I'll leave it to you guys to start with the discussions and I'll continue my own thoughts later this week. (And yes, I know the next part in the DFA series is long overdue - also on the to-do list!) :) CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART III]]>
    882 2008-10-05 22:02:24 2008-10-06 02:02:24 open open risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1223425742 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 1822 http://wtf.7aq.org/uncategorized/risk-and-return-in-bpicturesb-part-ii 66.35.79.122 2008-10-05 22:18:38 2008-10-06 02:18:38 1 pingback 0 0 1823 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-10-06 08:51:59 2008-10-06 12:51:59 1 0 0 1824 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-10-06 09:46:43 2008-10-06 13:46:43 1 0 0 1825 mikes_trip@yahoo.ca 64.46.1.180 2008-10-07 11:16:24 2008-10-07 15:16:24 1 0 0 1826 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-10-07 11:49:50 2008-10-07 15:49:50 1 0 0 1827 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-iii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-07 20:27:48 2008-10-08 00:27:48 1 pingback 0 0 1828 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-07 20:30:05 2008-10-08 00:30:05 1 pingback 0 0
    basefftfmgraph http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xiii/basefftfmgraph/ Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:32:32 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/basefftfmgraph.gif 887 2008-10-06 21:32:32 2008-10-07 01:32:32 open open basefftfmgraph inherit 886 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/basefftfmgraph.gif _wp_attached_file basefftfmgraph.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"646";s:6:"height";s:3:"527";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='117'";s:4:"file";s:18:"basefftfmgraph.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"basefftfmgraph-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"basefftfmgraph-300x244.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"244";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"basefftfmgraph-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"basefftfmgraph-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Dimensional Fund Advisors Part XIII http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xiii/ Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:58:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=886 This article is one in a long series which I hope will help explain the ins and outs of DFA - Dimensional Fund Advisors. NOTE: This is my interpretation and explanation only. For the final word, please refer to the DFA Canada Website. To read other parts in this series, please CLICK HERE for a listing of all articles.

    Picking The Right Benchmarks

    For Canadian equity fund managers, beating the TSX Composite Total Return Index is a big deal. Not many managers can do it for long periods of time and those that do are celebrated with the holy label of "adding alpha". The same can be said of US Equity Fund managers, International Equity Fund managers, et cetera with respect to their traditional benchmark indices. The problem is that the practice of comparing an equity fund manager's performance using a CAPM world is that you assume that returns are simply a matter of exposure to the market factor (Rm - Rf). Given what we've learned about the dimensions of returns, namely that there are three factors (market factor, size factor and value factor) and not one factor that determines returns, ajudicating alpha based on exposure to only one factor seems a bit outdated. Yet this is how the industry operates. Why we are comfortable drawing on science and academic research from decades ago (CAPM) but have yet to adopt newer research (Three Factor or even other models that do a better job of explaining the variations in portfolio returns) is a bit puzzling... until you realize how much money is earned in an industry in which CAPM alpha falsely identifies value more readily.

    Measuring Alpha In A Three Factor World

    Things don't look so rosy once we start recognizing that the performance expectations change when we examine the Size and Value loadings a manager's portfolio takes. So for example, if a fund tilts towards smaller cap stocks than the index it is expected that the long term returns will be higher. Likewise, if a manager tilts towards value stocks (as measured by higher Book-to-Market ratios than the index) then again a long term increase in performance is expected. Let's take a look at this graphically. The following graph has quite a bit of information to digest, but we'll tackle it bit by bit:

    (Click to enlarge)

    The first thing to notice is that we're looking at two dimensions of the market and not three. We are assuming that we are dealing with an all equity portfolio and we can measure the size and value loadings on this graph. The total stock market is represented by the point at the cross-hairs. A portfolio can tilt towards Value or Growth, and towards Small Cap or Large Cap versus the total market portfolio (which is all stocks in the market together on a cap-weighted basis). You'll also notice that the S&P 500 index is plotted on the graph and it is NOT the same as the total market portfolio. This is because the S&P 500 tilts towards Large Cap. Considering that the total market consists of thousands of stocks and the S&P 500 only consists of about 500 of the largest stocks on a cap-weighted basis it only makes sense for the S&P 500 to tilt towards Large.

    Taking Loadings Into Account Changes Performance Expectations

    The second thing to notice is the "sample fund" data point in blue. This sample fund tilts towards Small Cap stocks and as a result it's return is expected to be quite higher than the total market over time. With a higher expected performance in the Three Factor world, alpha which appeared in a CAPM world may not exist. As I alluded to in Part II of this series, the Fidelity Magellan fund when helmed by Peter Lynch provided both CAPM alpha and Three Factor alpha, but post-Lynch it provided negative Three Factor alpha even though it beat the S&P 500. This is because once you take into account the Size and Value loadings of Magellan you'll see that it's performance was expected to be higher than the S&P 500, but the post-Lynch performance was somewhere between the performance of the S&P 500 and the expected performance - which muddies up the optics for most investors and advisors who are used to a CAPM world.

    Next Time

    Okay, I'm going to start getting into what I think is the true differentiator of DFA versus all other index funds - the engineered trading. Any "manager-less" portfolio normally has a mandate to reduce tracking error - DFA rejects this as a costly and potentially foolish objective. So if you've ever wondered why a DFA fund has a large tracking error when comparing it to a seemingly similar benchmark there is a method to their madness! :) ...stay tuned.

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    886 2008-10-06 21:58:00 2008-10-07 01:58:00 open open dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xiii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1223344838 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/basefftfmgraph.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/basefftfmgraph.gif 1829 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/dimensional-fund-advisors-part-xii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-06 22:01:37 2008-10-07 02:01:37 1 pingback 0 0
    pacfull http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=889 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:03:41 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pacfull.gif 889 2008-10-07 20:03:41 2008-10-08 00:03:41 open open pacfull inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pacfull.gif _wp_attached_file pacfull.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"746";s:6:"height";s:3:"426";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='73' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:11:"pacfull.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pacfull-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pacfull-300x171.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"171";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pacfull-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"pacfull-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} pacpeak /pacpeak/ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:06:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pacpeak.gif 890 2008-10-07 20:06:04 2008-10-08 00:06:04 open open pacpeak inherit 888 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pacpeak.gif _wp_attached_file pacpeak.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"746";s:6:"height";s:3:"425";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='72' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:11:"pacpeak.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pacpeak-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pacpeak-300x170.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"170";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pacpeak-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"pacpeak-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} pactrough /pactrough/ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:10:46 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pactrough.gif 891 2008-10-07 20:10:46 2008-10-08 00:10:46 open open pactrough inherit 888 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pactrough.gif _wp_attached_file pactrough.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"725";s:6:"height";s:3:"425";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='75' width='127'";s:4:"file";s:13:"pactrough.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"pactrough-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"pactrough-300x175.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"175";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"pactrough-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pactrough-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Risk and Return in Pictures Part III http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-iii/ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:27:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=893 Risk and Return in Pictures” received some requests to chop up the data in different ways, so this is the second follow up post to try to do just that. I suggest taking a look at the original post by clicking here if you want a refresher, and then also take a look at Risk and Return in Pictures Part II by clicking here.

    Dollar Cost Averaging

    A reader indicated that it would be interesting to see the results of Dollar Cost Averaging versus Lump Sum investing when looking at these portfolios. What the readers want, the readers get... sometimes. This happens to be one of those times. :) First, I only took three sample portfolios: All Equity, 50% Equity and All Fixed Income. This should be enough to tell us what we want to know. Let's start by looking at the full period I had previously used, January 1988 to August 2008:

    The total amount invested would've been $24,800 in all three cases and the all equity portfolio had 28.64% more value when compared to the all fixed income portfolio ($76,277 versus $59,296).

    Next, let's look at $100 monthly starting at the peak of the tech bubble:

    In this case there were only 96 months, so the total investment would've been $9,600. The all equity portfolio had a 26.94% advantage over the all fixed income portfolio at the end ($15,414 versus $12,143).

    And finally, let's look at $100 monthly starting at the bottom of the market after the tech bubble burst:

    This was the shortest time period and had only 71 months and $7,100 invested. The all equity advantage was 27.30% over the all fixed income portfolio ($10,576 versus $8,308).

    In all three cases, the All Equity portfolio returned superior results when using dollar cost averaging versus the All Fixed Income portfolio. The conclusions are not as clear as you would think though. Over time as more money is invested the volatility differences between portfolios would increase - eventually you get to a point where the monthly fluctuations in the portfolio become larger than the amount of money you are adding monthly. As always, there is more to discuss and I will revisit these graphs in the future.

    ]]>
    893 2008-10-07 20:27:41 2008-10-08 00:27:41 open open risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-iii publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _edit_lock 1223425662 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 1830 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/risk-and-return-in-pictures-part-ii/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-07 20:29:07 2008-10-08 00:29:07 1 pingback 0 0 1831 http://wtf.7aq.org/uncategorized/risk-and-return-in-bpicturesb-part-iii 66.35.79.122 2008-10-07 21:33:49 2008-10-08 01:33:49 1 pingback 0 0 1832 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-08 05:24:56 2008-10-08 09:24:56 1 0 0 1833 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.165.87 2008-10-08 11:30:37 2008-10-08 15:30:37 1 0 0 1834 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-08 13:50:38 2008-10-08 17:50:38 1 0 0 1835 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-08 21:31:57 2008-10-09 01:31:57 1 0 0 1836 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.165.87 2008-10-09 12:07:36 2008-10-09 16:07:36 1 0 0 1837 brian.tabios@gmail.com 70.72.71.92 2008-10-12 15:50:37 2008-10-12 19:50:37 1 0 0 1838 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-13 22:09:48 2008-10-14 02:09:48 1 0 0
    etn http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/etns-exchange-traded-notes/etn/ Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:10:51 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etn.gif 895 2008-10-09 01:10:51 2008-10-09 05:10:51 open open etn inherit 894 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/etn.gif _wp_attached_file etn.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:7:"etn.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"etn-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"etn-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"etn-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} ETNs - Exchange Traded Notes http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/etns-exchange-traded-notes/ Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:13:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=894
  • An ETN does not hold direct investments in the underlying assets that it tracks, whereas an ETF does
  • An ETN is actually an unsecured debt obligation of the issuer, which has a maturity date, usually set to 30 years - if you hold the ETN until maturity, it will mature and you will receive cash, but I suspect most investors will buy and sell them just like ETFs
  • While structured as a senior debt note, the return is linked to the performance of a stated index or benchmark - basically, it is an IOU from the issuer to provide the performance of a designated security or index
  • They do not pay interest or dividends
  • ETNs have credit risk of the issuer unlike an ETF. If an ETF provider went under, you still own the underlying securities in the ETF portfolio. If an ETN provider went under, you may be out of luck.
  • ETNs have no tracking error since the notes don't actually buy the linked assets
  • There is the potential that the IRS may elect to treat gains from ETNs as interest income due to the debt note structure (this is still up in the air)
  • MERs are normally around 0.75% (some currency pair tracking ETNs are 0.40%, and of course as new products are launched these figures are subject to change)
  • ETNs are currently used for commodity type investments, emerging market exposure and alternative investment class tracking - they were designed to ease the access to special asset classes and investment categories
  • Given the current state of affairs in global financial institution credit worthiness, notwithstanding the ambiguity of the future tax treatment and higher fees for accessing 'exotic' assets, you should really consider the disadvantages of using ETNs in your portfolio before making any decisions to purchase them. Remember to consult with your own qualified financial advisor first. Barclay's has about $5 Billion in ETNs on the market, you may know them as the iPath product (the ETFs are iShares).]]>
    894 2008-10-09 01:13:43 2008-10-09 05:13:43 open open etns-exchange-traded-notes publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1223529259 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/etn.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/etn.gif 1839 http://advisordebts.com/?p=923 70.87.90.130 2008-10-09 05:01:46 2008-10-09 09:01:46 1 pingback 0 0 1840 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/10/16/this-and-that-114-so-why-exactly-did-we-spend-300m-on-an-election-edition 64.111.114.14 2008-10-16 18:03:58 2008-10-16 22:03:58 1 pingback 0 0 1841 http://www.hotlink.asia/finance/airline-fuel-surcharges-economy-and-weekend-reading/ 74.50.25.155 2008-11-07 09:14:16 2008-11-07 13:14:16 1 pingback 0 0
    Don't Decide To Become A Short Term Investor http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dont-decide-to-become-a-short-term-investor/ Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:55:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=898 you. You need to talk to your advisor about when might be an appropriate time to make any changes if it keeps you from sleeping at night - together you might decide to wait until after your portfolio recovers to make any changes (in order to fully participate in the recovery), while others may opt to make changes now because the worry of waiting for that recovery is too stressful. I'd recommend revisiting an earlier post on "An Example of How Reacting in Fear Can Hurt Portfolios".]]> 898 2008-10-09 23:55:05 2008-10-10 03:55:05 open open dont-decide-to-become-a-short-term-investor publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif _edit_lock 1223610944 _edit_last 1 1842 http://starttags.com/tags/correlator 98.240.245.202 2010-04-02 19:46:18 2010-04-03 00:46:18 1 pingback 0 0 breakeven http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=900 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:56:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/breakeven.gif 900 2008-10-13 11:56:04 2008-10-13 15:56:04 open open breakeven inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/breakeven.gif _wp_attached_file breakeven.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"438";s:6:"height";s:3:"446";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='94'";s:4:"file";s:13:"breakeven.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"breakeven-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"breakeven-294x300.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"294";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"breakeven-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"breakeven-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 50% Equals 100% When It Comes To Sell Offs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/50-equals-100-when-it-comes-to-sell-offs/ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:01:58 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=902 50% = 100% Here's the best example: Let's say your portfolio is down 50% - it was worth $100,000 and is now worth $50,000. Just to get back to where you were would require a 100% gain - your $50,000 would have to double to get back to $100,000. Here's a chart which shows the recovery you need after suffering from various levels of declines:

    ]]>
    902 2008-10-13 12:01:58 2008-10-13 16:01:58 open open 50-equals-100-when-it-comes-to-sell-offs publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif _edit_lock 1223913718 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif
    audition220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/should-i-host-my-own-tv-show-on-the-w-network/audition220/ Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:07:50 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/audition220.gif 904 2008-10-14 21:07:50 2008-10-15 01:07:50 open open audition220 inherit 903 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/audition220.gif _wp_attached_file audition220.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"323";s:6:"height";s:3:"322";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:15:"audition220.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"audition220-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"audition220-300x299.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"299";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"audition220-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"audition220-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Should I Host My Own TV Show on The W Network? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/should-i-host-my-own-tv-show-on-the-w-network/ Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:14:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=903 Open Call For The Next Expert Host The Expert Host Challenge is trying to find a new expert host for the network, in what capacity I don't specifically know - I imagine it will depend on who the winner is and if they are good enough to warrant their own program or to just serve as a sporadic guest expert on some existing shows. They asked for submissions from any field of expertise (financial planning, gardening, fitness, etc.).

    How The Contest Works

    Step 1. People submit videos that demonstrate their expertise and personality. (This part is done) Step 2. Viewers vote on the videos, and based on the results and the opinions of the network judges, 20 finalists are chosen who must then complete a further video assignment. (This is the part we are at right now) Step 3. The final 20 competitors will get voted on and a Final 6 will be chosen who then compete in a reality mini-series about finding the next expert host. Winner appears on the W Network as an expert host.

    My Video...

    I've submitted my video and it was designed to be a bit cheesy, and I hope it stands out from the others. You can vote for it by clicking on the stars under the video (the one furthest to the right is a "5 out of 5"). You can also leave your name and a comment if you like - that would probably help out more than just a vote for any of the videos you vote on if you choose to do so.

    If you want to check it out you can click here to see my video submission!

    By all means, vote for anyone you like. You might like my blog, but you might think I'd make a terrible TV host! :)

    I'll Keep You Posted...

    I'll keep you guys updated on how things go. The first stage of voting lasts until October 26th and they will decide on the final 20 on Hallowe'en. Wish me luck and thanks in advance to anyone who votes for me!]]>
    903 2008-10-14 21:14:54 2008-10-15 01:14:54 open open should-i-host-my-own-tv-show-on-the-w-network publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1224034688 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif 1843 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2008-10-14 22:12:42 2008-10-15 02:12:42 1 0 0 1844 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-14 22:23:50 2008-10-15 02:23:50 1 0 0 1845 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-10-15 06:10:37 2008-10-15 10:10:37 1 0 0 1846 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-10-15 09:18:12 2008-10-15 13:18:12 1 0 0 1847 mauricio_cervantes@yahoo.com 99.253.93.233 2008-10-15 21:40:10 2008-10-16 01:40:10 1 0 0 1848 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 24.76.248.143 2008-10-15 23:37:24 2008-10-16 03:37:24 1 0 0 1849 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2008-10-16 10:38:12 2008-10-16 14:38:12 1 0 0 1850 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2008-10-16 18:25:35 2008-10-16 22:25:35 1 0 0 1851 sean.blake@gmail.com 99.246.129.211 2008-10-18 18:28:23 2008-10-18 22:28:23 1 0 0 1852 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/10/24/linkstuff-for-a-bear-market/ 67.205.18.215 2008-10-24 04:55:42 2008-10-24 08:55:42 1 pingback 0 0
    Liquidity of ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/liquidity-of-etfs/ Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:48:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=907 Liquidity Normally investors will take into account the average trading volume of a stock when considering it's purchase. If there are few shares trading hands on average then it might be difficult to buy or sell a stock because there may not be enough investors willing to trade with others. If you placed a Market order, it might get filled at a dramatically different price than the last traded price - many investors have discovered this the hard way. In this case, you may want to consider a limit order and it's possible that you may not get your order filled at all. This is why many experts will encourage you to look at the average volume of a stock before deciding to purchase it.

    Exchange-Traded Fund Liquidity

    As you probably know, an exchange-traded fund is normally made up of many individual securities held together in one entity that trades on an exchange. Usually these ETFs are tracking a highly recognized index. However, with the explosion of ETFs in the marketplace there are numerous strategy ETFs and sector specific ETFs which aren't as popular as the more broad index based ETFs. These specialized ETFs can have very low daily trading volumes, some often have zero volume many days in a row. But note that this does not necessarily indicate poor liquidity for this ETF. There are special market participants who are designated to be "market makers" whose job it is to ensure that a "market is made" (duh!) for the particular ETFs in question. Really, the liquidity of the ETF is based on the liquidity of the collective underlying securities inside the ETF, and not the ETF itself. So for example if you had an ETF which just bought an equal weighting of the top 10 stocks on the TSX, this may not be a popular ETF since it is so narrow in scope. It may have a very low average daily trading volume. But, if you wanted to buy 100,000 shares of it, it wouldn't be much of a problem as the liquidity of the top 10 stocks in the TSX are very liquid. The market makers would ensure that the value of the ETF remained in line with the value of those 10 stocks. Arbitrageurs would make sure that the bid/asks remain relatively tight to the NAV (Net Asset Value) of the underlying portfolio of securities.

    That's Not The Whole Story

    Having said this, it's possible for the market makers to occassionally "fall asleep" as I have heard from colleagues in the field who were placing large orders for certain ETFs. As such, I tend to use limit orders even though the liquidity is ample for some of the less traded ETFs that some clients may want to use. Better safe than sorry. Note that for DIY investors, there may be extra costs associated with placing limit orders.]]>
    907 2008-10-16 00:48:41 2008-10-16 04:48:41 open open liquidity-of-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif _edit_lock 1224132522 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif 1853 http://bailout.trippinpipe.com/liquidity-of-etfs/ 67.223.230.11 2008-10-16 06:10:05 2008-10-16 10:10:05 1 pingback 0 0 1854 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2008-10-17 08:18:24 2008-10-17 12:18:24 1 0 0 1855 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-19 19:55:42 2008-10-19 23:55:42 1 0 0 1856 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/saturday-investment-talking/ 216.17.106.121 2008-10-25 06:49:04 2008-10-25 10:49:04 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-28/ Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:05:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=908 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. As many of you might already know, I've thrown my hat into the ring to try to become the next W Network Expert Host. The competition is in the first voting stage and you can click here to watch my submission and by all means feel free to vote and leave a comment if you want to help me out.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Four Pillars (who seems to desparately want to see me in a dress?) makes an interesting point in that not selling can be the same as buying in a market like this. I would like to make the point that he loves Tina Fey. Larry MacDonald forwards some good tips from Warren Mackenzie, President of Second Opinion Investor Services. Warren and I appeared together on the Linda Leatherdale show back in February of this year and he runs a great service for investors who work with advisors that allows them to get an independent opinion on the value one's advisor is bringing to the table in terms of planning and portfolio management. Canadian Capitalist discusses his personal allocation to fixed income and why he's thinking of reducing it. Many investors may be paralyzed by the recent market action, and Michael James on Money asks if you have the nerve to rebalance right now? Thicken My Wallet discusses how you can potentially avoid self-inflicted investing wounds, which investors are particularly prone to during times of duress. Some really good points to consider here folks, please check it out! :) Frugal Trader talks about giving yourself an allowance. Lots of examples in the comments section. And finally, I would like to re-point your attention to the piece I wrote about How reacting in fear can damage portfolios. You'll note I used a 14.52% correction in the example which seems almost trivial compared to what's been happening, but the same thinking applies then and now.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time. Ricardo Patrese is an ex-Formula One driver and in this video he is driving his wife around a racetrack in a regular street car. You may want to turn your speakers DOWN because she starts yelling quite loudly about two-thirds through the video. I would liken Ricardo to an informed long-term investor and his wife to a nervous investor with a portfolio that has too much equity exposure for their liking... I believe she's speaking Italian, and it sounds like there could be some non-work friendly language in there... beware! :)

    ]]> 908 2008-10-16 23:05:13 2008-10-17 03:05:13 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-28 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1224212713 _edit_last 1 1857 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2008-10-16 23:20:09 2008-10-17 03:20:09 1 0 0 1858 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-10-17 07:10:45 2008-10-17 11:10:45 1 0 0 1859 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-10-17 09:26:43 2008-10-17 13:26:43 1 0 0 1860 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-10-17 11:52:53 2008-10-17 15:52:53 1 0 0 1861 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2008-10-19 12:03:14 2008-10-19 16:03:14 1 0 0 1862 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.255.32.8 2008-10-19 20:34:36 2008-10-20 00:34:36 1 0 0 1863 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-20 18:44:12 2008-10-20 22:44:12 1 0 0 Index Funds and the Liquidity Premium http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/index-funds-and-the-liquidity-premium/ Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:51:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=909 Index Reconstitution Indices are not entirely static. Their constituent stocks change from time to time based on the index providers parameters or committee's discretion. For example, let's say that the Dow adds a company to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They make the announcement on January 1 and then set the effective date to be January 10. Since there are significant dollars invested in index funds that track the Dow, the market knows that there will be massive buying pressure on the stock to be added come January 10 (the main goal of index funds is to minimize tracking error). Liquidity providers will be buying up this company between the announcement date and the effective date to make sure that all the index funds can purchase this stock as necessary.

    The Index Fund Investor Loses Out

    The liquidity providers, in buying up the stock to provide liquidity on the effective date, generally run up the price of these stocks so they form part of the index funds at potentially artificially high prices. A double whammy is that the price of the stock then tends to drop back down to the pre-announcement date price, but only after it has been included in the index fund. So what does this mean for the index fund investor? They are potentially losing out on some returns by paying for the costs of liquidity that are required by index funds that strive to minimize tracking error. I don't have the reference papers in front of me to cite and I'm due on the couch to watch a movie with Fiona, so I'll have to dig up some references later... sorry! You'll have to take my word for now that this phenomenon exists reliably.]]>
    909 2008-10-19 19:51:49 2008-10-19 23:51:49 open open index-funds-and-the-liquidity-premium publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1224460309 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 1864 http://indexfunds.titeblog.com/?p=1058 67.15.157.5 2008-10-19 21:50:16 2008-10-20 01:50:16 1 pingback 0 0 1865 http://stocks.eat-and-drink.org/index-funds-and-the-liquidity-premium/ 67.223.230.11 2008-10-20 03:43:22 2008-10-20 07:43:22 1 pingback 0 0 1866 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-20 14:16:29 2008-10-20 18:16:29 1 0 0 1867 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-20 18:38:56 2008-10-20 22:38:56 1 0 0 1868 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-21 03:05:56 2008-10-21 07:05:56 1 0 0 1869 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.222.150 2008-10-21 13:23:09 2008-10-21 17:23:09 1 0 0 1870 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/free-stock-trading-tools-scam-alert-and-weekend-links.htm 64.131.72.71 2008-10-25 12:00:43 2008-10-25 16:00:43 1 pingback 0 0
    Active Share: Will The Real MER Please Stand Up? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/active-share-will-the-real-mer-please-stand-up/ Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:01:56 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=910 Closet Indexing Large actively-managed mutual funds can sometimes fall into the category of being a "closet indexer". This refers to the fact that the holdings in the fund can closely resemble the stocks that make up it's benchmark index. This begs the question: Why pay 2.5% for something very similar to an index fund which can be had for about a tenth of the cost?

    Active Share

    Oh it gets worse when you look at it a different way! Active Share is a concept which examines how much different a fund is from it's benchmark index. Let's pretend that we have a market index that is only made up of two companies, ABC and XYZ and both have a market cap of $1 billion. Let's further pretend we have an actively managed mutual fund with $1 million in assets. It holds $450,000 worth of ABC and $550,000 worth of XYZ. In the index, both ABC and XYZ represent 50% of the index. In the mutual fund ABC is 45% and XYZ is 55% of the fund. The fund has a 5% Active Short Position in ABC (50% - 45%), and a 5% Active Long Position in XYZ (55% - 50%). The overall Active Share of the fund is calculated by adding up the Active Long and Short positions and dividing by 2. For this fund we get (5% + 5%) / 2 = 5%.

    So What Are You Paying For?

    This is an extreme example, but you should calculate the MER based on the Active Share, not the portion of the fund that is indexed. You can replicate 95% of this fund by buying an index fund and only paying 0.25% on it. The remainder 5% of the fund is what you should apply the Management Expenses to to calculate the REAL Management Expense Ratio. So if the fund's MER is 2.5% in the prospectus it equates to $25,000 on $1 million. If you instead apply this $25,000 to the active share of 5% or $50,000 the MER skyrockets to 50%!

    Say That Again?

    You could buy an index fund for 0.25%/year with $950,000 of your $1 million and then you would have $475,000 in each of ABC and XYZ since this index fund mirrors the index. To achieve $450,000 exposure to ABC, you could short $25,000 worth of ABC stock. To achieve $550,000 of XYZ you could go long $75,000 worth of XYZ stock. Now you have the same composition of the original actively managed fund: $450,000 exposure to ABC and $550,000 exposure to XYZ. The $950,000 in the index fund cost you $2,375/year ($950,000 * 0.25%). Is the decision to additionally go short $25,000 worth of ABC stock and to go long an additional $75,000 worth of XYZ stock really worth an extra $22,625? ($25,000 - $2,375) Probably not when you look at it that way.

    To Be Fair...

    You'll note that I alluded to the Active Share MER being 50% for this example. It would be more accurate to say the Active Share MER is 45.25% since part of the $25,000 in fees would be the 0.25% cost on $950,000 of the portfolio is $2,375 (which you can't really get for less). Therefore you divide the remaining $22,625 into $50,000 to get 45.25%.]]>
    910 2008-10-20 21:01:56 2008-10-21 01:01:56 open open active-share-will-the-real-mer-please-stand-up publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1229598404 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 1871 webmaster@articlelegend.com http://www.articlelegend.com/onlinestocktrading/index.html 85.230.200.101 2009-04-18 05:16:49 2009-04-18 10:16:49 1 0 0 1872 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-77/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-11 20:15:05 2010-03-12 01:15:05 1 pingback 0 0
    Market Impact And Small Cap Stocks http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/market-impact-and-small-cap-stocks/ Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:13:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=911 What Is Market Impact? Market Impact refers to the price of a stock being affected by orders for that stock. The larger the orders the larger the Market Impact. The thinner the volume of a stock the larger the Market Impact as well. For example if we have a stock that is trading at $5 and a large institutional investor decides to buy 100,000 shares it's pretty rare for all 100,000 shares to cross at $5 with a small cap stock that only has trading volume of 10,000 shares per day. It's more likely that the first shares cross at $5 and the last shares of the 100,000 cross at maybe $6. That increase from $5 to $6 is a 20% market impact. If the investor has a sell target of $7 then they were expecting a 40% return from buying at $5 and selling at $7. But the Market Impact also works on the sale of those 100,000 shares. So if the stock reaches $7 and the investor decides to unload all 100,000 shares again the first few shares may cross at $7 and the last few shares may cross at $6. It's conceivable that the Adjusted Cost Base was $5.50 and the Average Sale Price was $6.50. This represents something closer to an 18% return versus the desired 40%.

    Market Impact Is Prevalent For Small Caps

    This is a crude example and an institutional investor would not blindly trade like this, they would be well aware of Market Impact. However,  Small Cap Index funds would be required to make trades in order to minimize tracking error and therefore ignores the costs of Market Impact. This may be a major reason that Small Cap fund managers have a slightly easier time beating their benchmark indices (although the results on average are still not anything to write home about) - they can spread out their purchases over time so as to not impact the stock's price so quickly that they eat much of their potential gains through Market Impact costs.]]>
    911 2008-10-21 21:13:13 2008-10-22 01:13:13 open open market-impact-and-small-cap-stocks publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269828530 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 1873 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-10-22 05:06:18 2008-10-22 09:06:18 1 0 0 1874 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-22 22:16:47 2008-10-23 02:16:47 1 0 0 1875 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 124.82.73.39 2008-11-10 07:49:58 2008-11-10 11:49:58 1 0 0 1876 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-11-11 00:23:16 2008-11-11 04:23:16 1 0 0 1877 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/new-canadian-small-cap-etf-available/ 208.109.181.85 2010-03-28 20:24:09 2010-03-29 01:24:09 1 pingback 0 0
    CONTEST: Money Movie Giveaway for October! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-money-movie-giveaway-for-october/ Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:10:18 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=912 Free DVD Movie To Be Won For those who are new to this blog, I've been running a series of "Money Movie Giveaway" contests every few months. Entering for a chance to win is easy, just leave a comment (say anything you want [within reason!]) at the bottom of this post and that's it. No strings attached.

    Round 5

    Our previous winners have now selected Boiler Room, Glengarry Glen Ross, Trading Places and Wallstreet so they are off the list for the remainder of the year, but everyone else will have the opportunity to win one of the 2 remaining movies from the following list. All you have to do is enter a comment on this post for a free entry. For those who subscribe in a reader or get the updates via email, just click here to visit the blog to enter the contest. (Official Rules below) Here were the movies that were available: 1. Wall Street 2. Boiler Room 3. Casino 4. Trading Places 5. Glengarry Glen Ross 6. Ocean's Eleven (The original from 1960)

    Rules

    • Every two months in 2008 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com is running a Money Movie Giveaway Contest where the winner has their pick of a movie on the above list. Once a winner picks a movie, it will be removed from the list. To enter this month's contest, all you have to do is enter a comment below. You must provide a valid email address on the form, but note that it is NOT shared with anyone.
    • You must leave a comment before midnight of October 31st, 2008
    • You can earn an extra entry if you have a valid "Gravatar" - a gravatar is a 'globally recognized avatar' which is basically just a photo you choose to associate with your identity. It can be an actual photo, or just a random picture - click here to sign up and for more information - it's completely free and works on all sites with Gravatar support.
    • The contest is open to everyone, but for delivery locations outside of Canada, the recipient is responsible for shipping charges. Comments on this post will not earn an entry for any other month's contest - so make sure to leave a comment for each month's contest in order to increase your chances of winning.

    Here's a trailer for the original Ocean's Eleven. Enjoy and good luck everyone! :)

    ]]> 912 2008-10-22 20:10:18 2008-10-23 00:10:18 open open contest-money-movie-giveaway-for-october publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1224720739 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wallstreetcover.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wallstreetcover.jpg 1878 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2008-10-22 22:13:20 2008-10-23 02:13:20 1 0 0 1879 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.217.65 2008-10-22 23:00:46 2008-10-23 03:00:46 1 0 0 1880 multifoldreams@gmail.com http://www.multifoldreams.com 67.212.20.39 2008-10-22 23:06:15 2008-10-23 03:06:15 1 0 0 1881 cpullum@yahoo.com 68.124.63.66 2008-10-23 00:22:41 2008-10-23 04:22:41 1 0 0 1882 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-23 01:33:15 2008-10-23 05:33:15 1 0 0 1883 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.125.185 2008-10-23 07:38:27 2008-10-23 11:38:27 1 0 0 1884 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.61.57.100 2008-10-23 08:19:58 2008-10-23 12:19:58 1 0 0 1885 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2008-10-23 08:58:26 2008-10-23 12:58:26 1 0 0 1886 pfpuim@hotmail.com 209.82.26.132 2008-10-23 09:17:33 2008-10-23 13:17:33 1 0 0 1887 sollyom@hotmail.com 216.191.53.98 2008-10-23 09:28:41 2008-10-23 13:28:41 1 0 0 1888 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2008-10-23 10:03:40 2008-10-23 14:03:40 1 0 0 1889 amw124@gmail.com 199.185.96.5 2008-10-23 10:11:08 2008-10-23 14:11:08 1 0 0 1890 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2008-10-23 11:01:57 2008-10-23 15:01:57 1 0 0 1891 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2008-10-23 11:44:02 2008-10-23 15:44:02 1 0 0 1892 gilsilber@gmail.com 99.235.41.209 2008-10-23 12:13:36 2008-10-23 16:13:36 1 0 0 1893 gene2u@mts.net 216.55.210.194 2008-10-23 15:00:36 2008-10-23 19:00:36 1 0 0 1894 fephoo@yahoo.fr http://theprofitmaze.com 70.81.141.137 2008-10-23 21:42:19 2008-10-24 01:42:19 1 0 0 1895 terrichan13@gmail.com 76.69.77.253 2008-10-23 23:25:59 2008-10-24 03:25:59 1 0 0 1896 xoeskie1@gmail.com http://bluedotfrog.blogspot.com 68.33.24.57 2008-10-23 23:34:21 2008-10-24 03:34:21 1 0 0 1897 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-29/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-23 23:47:51 2008-10-24 03:47:51 1 pingback 0 0 1898 howie.wong@gmail.com http://N/A 70.79.98.4 2008-10-24 01:01:54 2008-10-24 05:01:54 1 0 0 1899 walk0080@gmail.com 205.239.196.6 2008-10-24 11:20:10 2008-10-24 15:20:10 1 0 0 1900 lrp@luc-rock.com 192.197.178.2 2008-10-24 14:08:01 2008-10-24 18:08:01 1 0 0 1901 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-10-24 14:49:40 2008-10-24 18:49:40 1 0 0 1902 milneepp@hotmail.com 146.131.120.2 2008-10-24 17:56:53 2008-10-24 21:56:53 1 0 0 1903 cashinstinct@gmail.com 74.57.144.83 2008-10-24 23:14:07 2008-10-25 03:14:07 1 0 0 1904 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-collection-of-famous-quotes-about-investing/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-26 21:05:47 2008-10-27 01:05:47 1 pingback 0 0 1905 lcyca@nutok.com http://lukecyca.com 24.85.75.130 2008-10-27 02:31:45 2008-10-27 06:31:45 1 0 0 1906 mkono@sympatico.ca 65.95.48.26 2008-10-29 01:05:26 2008-10-29 05:05:26 1 0 0 1907 mkono@sympatico.ca 65.95.48.26 2008-10-29 01:18:26 2008-10-29 05:18:26 1 0 0 1908 xchaosvirusx@hotmail.com 99.243.172.190 2008-10-31 21:06:30 2008-11-01 01:06:30 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-29/ Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:47:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=913 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. 1. Don't forget to enter the contest (free to enter) to win a Money Movie DVD of either Casino or the original Ocean's Eleven. Click here for details. 2. If you like a good laugh, I threw my hat in the ring to be an expert host for the Women's Network. You can click here for more details and if you are feeling generous you can vote for me and leave a comment.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Million Dollar Journey links to and summarizes Warren Buffett's recent article in thy NY Times in which he discusses why he is buying stocks right now and why others should too. One of the keys to his success is to "be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy". Sir John Templeton also remarked that the time to buy is when blood is running in the streets, and I think now qualifies. Personally I can tell you that this sell-off is welcomed by me as I'm 31 and have many decades until I will need my retirement savings, this recent route will only serve to accelerate my retirement date. While many investors are running for the hills, others are wringing their hands figuring out what to invest in with cash on hand. But whether or not you fall into either of these two groups or even if you have no cash with which to invest, Thicken My Wallet reminds us that you can always invest in yourself. He discusses some frugal ways of doing just that. Your most important asset is your personal human capital! The Canadian Capitalist is celebrating a few major milestones: 1,000 posts and 1,000,000 visitors. And as if that wasn't enough, he's running a contest where you can win a $50 gift certificate to any major retailer of YOUR CHOICE. Hurry though, contest closes SOON. Want a chance to win MORE free stuff? Tim over at Canadian Dream: Free at 45 is also celebrating a milestone with his 500th and is giving away $50 in books of your choice. All you have to do to enter is leave a brief comment with the best advice you have for retiring early. Here's my advice, enter his contest and have a chance to win $50 worth of personal finance books! :) Michael James on Money tells us a story about a friend with a problem: what he thought he was paying for was not what he was getting with respect to his life insurance. If you read through the comments as well you will see that there is a lot to be said for getting private life insurance versus participating in group benefit provided life insurance which may not cover you as well as you think. In the end, if you pay for coverage you don't have - what's the point? Quest For Four Pillars explains a recent problem with sending some cheques via mail - i.e. they didn't get there. This is what happens when Cliff Claven delivers your mail. But seriously, does anyone have any suggestions? Perhaps Canada Post can hire a Mailer Daemon like the one that occasionally contacts me when an email goes undelivered... Jonathan Chevreau discusses something that I've been curious about myself lately. Normally when markets go to hell in a handbasket money flows into gold and gold prices tend to go up. Not so this round. Gold was $1,000/oz in the summer and is around $700/oz now - a 30% drop, flying in the face of conventional thinking. Truth be told, I've never invested in gold and have never counselled anyone to do so either, but nonetheless found this interesting.

    This Week's Racing Video

    With the recent market volatility, and repeated triple digit swings watching the market is like watching a car crash - you can't help but watch. It might feel like this next video looks - we know it's treacherous and we keep getting more of the same... Enjoy the weekend everyone!

    ]]> 913 2008-10-23 23:47:43 2008-10-24 03:47:43 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-29 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1224820063 _edit_last 1 1909 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-24 06:15:48 2008-10-24 10:15:48 1 0 0 1910 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-10-24 08:00:31 2008-10-24 12:00:31 1 0 0 1911 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-10-24 10:43:18 2008-10-24 14:43:18 1 0 0 1912 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-10-24 10:43:34 2008-10-24 14:43:34 1 0 0 1913 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-25 12:05:41 2008-10-25 16:05:41 1 0 0 1914 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-10-25 12:10:37 2008-10-25 16:10:37 1 0 0 1915 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2008-10-25 13:58:22 2008-10-25 17:58:22 1 0 0 1916 joshua.jackup@gmail.com 61.17.177.48 2008-11-12 22:53:54 2008-11-13 02:53:54 1 0 0 A Collection of Famous Quotes About Investing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-collection-of-famous-quotes-about-investing/ Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:05:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=915 REMINDER: Don't forget to enter Round #5 of the Money Movie Giveaway - you could win a copy of "Casino" or the original "Ocean's Eleven" on DVD! Click here for more details - free to enter, contest ends October 31st, 2008. Thanks to everyone who voted and/or left a comment on my Women's Network audition tape. The Top 20 will be selected by Monday, November 3rd and I'll be sure to let you know if I made the first cut! In the meantime, I've rounded up some great quotes from some investing giants for your enjoyment... so enjoy! (NOTE: Some were picked because I found them insightful, while other were included because I found them humorous)

    Peter Lynch

    “Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections or trying to anticipate corrections than has been lost in corrections themselves.” “Nobody can predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy or the stock market.  Dismiss all such forecasts and concentrate on what is actually happening to the companies in which you’ve invested.” "The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them." "You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don't understand that's going to happen, then you're not ready, you won't do well in the markets." "When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower. I've bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they later went to $30. You just don't know when you can find the bottom." "I've found that when the market's going down and you buy funds wisely, at some point in the future you will be happy. You won't get there by reading 'Now is the time to buy.'" "Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it." “Although it's easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket... it's part-ownership of a business.”

    Warren Buffett

    “If you expect to continue to purchase stocks throughout your life, you should welcome price declines as a way to add stocks more cheaply to your portfolio.” “Calling someone who trades actively in the market an investor is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic” “If you are not willing to own a stock for 10 years, do not even think about owning it for 10 minutes” "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway." "I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years. " "If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians." "In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield. " "Our favourite holding period is forever. " "The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective. " "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful. "

    George Soros

    “Stock market bubbles don't grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception.” “Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman.”

    Shelby Davis

    “You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time” “The hangover is the worst where the party was the wildest.”

    John Bogle

    “Your success in investing will depend in part on your character and guts, and in part on your ability to realize at the height of the ebullience and the depth of despair alike that this too shall pass.”]]>
    915 2008-10-26 21:05:42 2008-10-27 01:05:42 open open a-collection-of-famous-quotes-about-investing publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1225069542 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif 1917 http://www.casinoorleans.info/a-collection-of-famous-quotes-about-investing 69.89.31.241 2008-10-26 21:22:35 2008-10-27 01:22:35 1 pingback 0 0 1918 http://riled.localferret.com/a-collection-of-famous-quotes-about-investing/ 67.223.230.11 2008-10-27 00:14:25 2008-10-27 04:14:25 1 pingback 0 0 1919 http://playercasino.info/?p=10772 66.35.79.122 2008-10-27 08:35:31 2008-10-27 12:35:31 1 pingback 0 0 1920 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2008-10-27 09:25:12 2008-10-27 13:25:12 1 0 0 1921 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2008/10/31/random-thoughts-happy-haloween-edition/ 67.205.7.217 2008-10-31 03:09:09 2008-10-31 07:09:09 1 pingback 0 0 1922 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/10/31/this-and-that-116-thank-goodness-october-is-over 64.111.114.14 2008-10-31 06:46:05 2008-10-31 10:46:05 1 pingback 0 0 1923 http://playercasino.info/?p=18187 66.35.79.122 2008-10-31 22:41:25 2008-11-01 02:41:25 1 pingback 0 0 1924 http://moviesberry.com/vids/vid_gutterballs.html 82.146.52.228 2009-05-03 06:41:54 2009-05-03 11:41:54 1 pingback 0 0 1925 mcgeary5@yahoo.com 67.8.184.136 2009-11-17 20:56:19 2009-11-18 01:56:19 1 0 0 1926 pobierzto5@tlen.pl http://pobierz-to.com/ 74.118.193.143 2010-04-23 11:42:55 2010-04-23 16:42:55 spam 0 0 1927 bagsshank@mainru.com http://internationalpropertyinvestment.com/ 195.216.197.101 2010-04-23 16:23:42 2010-04-23 21:23:42 spam 0 0 1928 pobierzto5@prokonto.pl http://pobierz-to.com/ 74.118.193.143 2010-04-23 20:14:07 2010-04-24 01:14:07 spam 0 0 1929 bymnpyncgep@pozitifff.com http://www.lennyhosting.com 195.216.197.104 2010-04-24 07:08:35 2010-04-24 12:08:35 spam 0 0 1930 aspisksaumbem@lviv.in http://www.cakaltube.net 195.216.197.103 2010-04-24 11:40:45 2010-04-24 16:40:45 spam 0 0 1931 kareprortipse@krim.ws http://www.rachaelwestdesigns.com/nutrisystemcoupons/ 195.216.197.101 2010-04-24 16:32:17 2010-04-24 21:32:17 spam 0 0 1932 addesedag@uganska.net http://www.boutikemode.com 195.216.197.106 2010-04-24 18:56:33 2010-04-24 23:56:33 spam 0 0 1933 yurisydneymason@gmail.com http://www.squidoo.com/WWEExtremeRules 78.26.179.30 2010-04-25 06:21:05 2010-04-25 11:21:05 spam 0 0
    Boiler Rooms http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/boiler-rooms/ Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:50:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=916 What is a Boiler Room? A boiler room is very much as depicted in the movie: a room filled with small workstations to maximize the number of people that can be fit in one small space with the goal to constantly cold call prospects and bombard them with high pressure sales tactics in order to sell them penny stocks as part of a "pump and dump" scheme.

    Pump and Dump

    Pump and Dump refers to manufacturing excitement in a stock such that prospects might be tempted into purchasing said stocks. Normally, the stocks that are pumped are thinly traded penny stocks which might only trade on Over The Counter markets (OTC) or on the Pink Sheet exchanges - in both cases these exchanges are lightly regulated and prime hunting grounds for deception. Share prices can be driven up quickly when there is light volume. The Dump happens when the boiler room stops hyping the stock to prospects and the "market" for the stock evaporates. Essentially the prospects are now left with the hot potato and no one to pass it too. The boiler room may buy stocks that are all but defunct for pennies per share, and then create a market through calling hundreds and thousands of investors in order to drive up the price. Ultimately they will sell off their shares for maybe dollars per share, clearing a tidy sum in short periods of time. While the boiler rooms of the past were effected by cold callers, today more stocks are pumped and dumped via spam emails and internet chat forums. In fact, 15 year old Jonathan Lebed made almost $1 million dollars doing just this during the tech boom. He would buy a thinly traded stock and promote it on message boards. Readers of the forums would drive the prices up until Lebed sold at a handsome profit, at which point he would stop promoting the stocks. Eventually he was fined for part of his gains, but still walked away with around $500,000. He never admitted any wrongdoing and actually indicated that his behaviour is no different from fund managers and analysts appearing on TV voicing their opinions on stocks which they own.]]>
    916 2008-10-27 20:50:57 2008-10-28 00:50:57 open open boiler-rooms publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif _edit_lock 1225155057 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 1934 fellinmess@hotmail.com http://www.stocktrades.ca 70.52.130.13 2008-11-03 17:19:58 2008-11-03 21:19:58 1 0 0 1935 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-11-04 00:39:59 2008-11-04 04:39:59 1 0 0 1936 fellinmess@hotmail.com http://www.stocktrades.ca 70.52.130.13 2008-11-04 10:06:48 2008-11-04 14:06:48 1 0 0
    The Now Infamous "Carry Trade" http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-now-infamous-carry-trade/ Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:00:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=917 REMINDER: Don’t forget to enter Round #5 of the Money Movie Giveaway - you could win a copy of “Casino” or the original “Ocean’s Eleven” on DVD! Click here for more details - free to enter, contest ends October 31st, 2008. There is much new lingo in the investing world as of late, such as LIBOR, the Baltic Dry Index, and "carry trades". The carry trade is getting some serious play in the media so I thought I would give a very basic explanation of what it is, and why it may be playing a very large role in the "global de-leveraging" (another new buzz phrase) that we are experiencing now.

    The Yen Carry Trade

    A carry trade is, at the very elementary level, shorting a currency in which the native country has low interest rates and using the proceeds to purchase currency in a country that has higher interest rates. So long as there are no changes in the exchange rate, your rate of return is very close to the differential in interest rates. Example: If you sell 100 Japanese Yen and pay interest of 0.5% in Japan, you could take that 100 Yen and convert it to $1 Canadian Dollar (not the actual exchange rate, just an example). You can take that $1 Canadian Dollar and buy a Canadian Government Bond that pays 3%. Your rate of return is 3% less 0.5% which equals 2.5%.

    Levering Up The Carry Trade

    Here's where the leverage comes into play. Forex and CFD brokers can allow for hideous amounts of leverage - I've seen factors as high as 200:1. If we take a *cough, cough* "conservative" leverage factor of 10, essentially you can earn 25% on the above carry trade example on your original principal.

    Supply and Demand

    Here's another factor. The Yen Carry Trade is well practiced, there are trillions of dollars wound up in it, and all the shorting pressure on the Yen served to depress the Yen - which was even better for carry traders since when they received their interest and principal repayments from the other currencies and then converted them back to Yen to pay off their short positions, they made money on the conversion since the Yen had weakened. The money being made on the Yen Carry Trade was hideous.

    A Paradox

    Normally, if someone were to try and execute a carry trade, the theory of uncovered interest rate parity would dictate that the differential in interest rates signalled the direction in change of the currencies - such that no money should be made by executing a carry trade - kind of like a self-correcting arbitrage mechanism. However, the tremendous short positions required to initiate the Yen carry trade worked to throw this in reverse, keeping the Yen depressed and further fuelling the fire.

    De-Leveraging

    The Yen has been exceptionally strong as of late and this may have caused a massive unwinding of the Yen Carry Trade all at once. This entails de-leveraging and short covering which further exacerbates the rapidity of the unwinding, since short covering drives up the Yen. It has been estimated that there is over three times as much money tied up in the Yen Carry Trade as there is value in all the known oil reserves in the world. Now that is truly scary. The rise in the value of the Yen is near the top of the list of concerns for the G-7 nations who only this week issued a statement singling out the Japanese currency and it's role in the current global economic crisis.]]>
    917 2008-10-28 22:00:01 2008-10-29 02:00:01 open open the-now-infamous-carry-trade publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1225247967 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 1937 douglas@nomail.what 173.33.144.118 2008-10-28 22:39:03 2008-10-29 02:39:03 1 0 0 1938 http://interest.biggersister.com/the-now-infamous-%e2%80%9ccarry-trade%e2%80%9d/ 208.97.175.16 2008-10-28 22:46:54 2008-10-29 02:46:54 1 pingback 0 0 1939 http://www.thebestforexbrokers.info/the-now-infamous-%e2%80%9ccarry-trade%e2%80%9d/ 88.214.224.30 2008-10-28 23:39:49 2008-10-29 03:39:49 1 pingback 0 0 1940 gammafriend@shaw.ca 99.224.150.144 2008-10-29 07:52:33 2008-10-29 11:52:33 1 0 0 1941 deb_nick@yahoo.com 99.238.142.11 2008-10-29 08:24:14 2008-10-29 12:24:14 1 0 0 1942 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-10-29 15:11:18 2008-10-29 19:11:18 1 0 0 1943 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/possible-ramifications-of-the-yen-carry-trade-unwinding/ 68.178.254.235 2008-10-30 00:28:02 2008-10-30 04:28:02 1 pingback 0 0 1944 http://playercasino.info/?p=20198 66.35.79.122 2008-11-01 18:28:12 2008-11-01 22:28:12 1 pingback 0 0 1945 mcclearycapital@yahoo.com 74.213.225.46 2008-11-11 21:16:06 2008-11-12 01:16:06 1 0 0 1946 mcclearycapital@yahoo.com 74.213.225.46 2008-11-11 21:26:19 2008-11-12 01:26:19 1 0 0
    Possible Ramifications of the Yen Carry Trade Unwinding http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/possible-ramifications-of-the-yen-carry-trade-unwinding/ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:27:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=920 REMINDER: Don’t forget to enter Round #5 of the Money Movie Giveaway - you could win a copy of “Casino” or the original “Ocean’s Eleven” on DVD! Click here for more details - free to enter, contest ends October 31st, 2008. Yesterday's post described the Carry Trade, and specifically the pesky Yen Carry Trade which is currently being unwound. I suggest reading that post before continuing with this article.

    Possible Ramifications

    We discussed how borrowing Yen on the cheap and investing the proceeds in higher yielding securities in other countries earned a return basically equal to the differential in interest rates. Further, a carry trader could magnify this return through leverage. Well, if you aren't happy enough with that you could increase the return further by seeking out higher yielding investments, like say real estate in the form of sub-prime mortgages packaged into triple-A rated investment bundles. So what happens when there is hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars carry traded from Yen to sub-prime mortgages and real estate prices start to fall due to defaulting homeowners or exchange rates change and your leveraged carry gets a margin call from your forex broker? You need to unwind your carry trade fast. The Yen skyrockets with all the short covering and assets are sold at a loss in order to cover the Yen short. Japanese exports get more expensive for the rest of the world so this is bad news for Japanese companies and the Nikkei 225 plummets. Unwinding of the carry trade also exacerbates real estate downward price pressures and the home equity which had been the source of American discretionary spending evaporates, which triggers a recession. Recession means less spending which equals less earnings for companies and since stock prices are basically fueled by earnings, stock prices drop. Stock prices drop causing margin calls which are covered by forced selling of more stock which creates more downward pressure on stocks. Many hedge funds had redemption notice deadlines of September 30th which means investors could get money out by requesting it by that date - a lot of investors did and hedge funds may be selling assets to fund the redemption requests (which may be required to be paid out 45 days later) - so you might get a lot of selling pressure (and a lot of rally-killing pressure). It's vicious out there, and these are only but a few of the possible causes for all the volatility.

    Precedence

    The Russian Financial Crisis. There was a Yen Carry Trade back in 1998 with proceeds going into Russian debt which was paying high interest rates. When those Russian debt securities started defaulting, short-covering the Yen pumped up the Yen by about 30% in the span of two months. Many hedge funds were wiped out. Currently, it's hard to really guage how much money is/was tied up in the Yen Carry Trade. If you look at the actual amount of shorted Japanese treasuries it's only a fraction of the picture. Shorting Japanese currency futures does not show up on official records for the Bank of Japan's reports - these are essentially side bets which have the same price effects on the currency. Needless to say, what's happening is a mess and there are a lot of secondary and tertiary negative pressures at work beyond just market fundamentals (which themselves seem to be out to lunch).]]>
    920 2008-10-30 00:27:55 2008-10-30 04:27:55 open open possible-ramifications-of-the-yen-carry-trade-unwinding publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/holdingquestionmark220.gif _edit_lock 1225341085 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/holdingquestionmark220.gif 1947 http://forex.jomduit.com/category/possible-ramifications-of-the-yen-carry-trade-unwinding/ 210.48.153.132 2008-10-30 00:59:30 2008-10-30 04:59:30 1 pingback 0 0 1948 http://antiaging.reviewk.com/?p=126288 216.222.198.4 2008-10-30 01:14:24 2008-10-30 05:14:24 1 pingback 0 0 1949 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-10-30 04:45:04 2008-10-30 08:45:04 1 0 0 1950 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-10-30 13:03:41 2008-10-30 17:03:41 1 0 0 1951 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.10 2008-10-31 09:27:23 2008-10-31 13:27:23 1 0 0
    preetrace1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-30/preetrace1/ Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:05:30 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetrace1.jpg 922 2008-10-30 23:05:30 2008-10-31 03:05:30 open open preetrace1 inherit 921 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetrace1.jpg _wp_attached_file preetrace1.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"2544";s:6:"height";s:4:"1696";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:14:"preetrace1.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace1-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace1-300x200.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"200";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"preetrace1-1024x682.jpg";s:5:"width";s:4:"1024";s:6:"height";s:3:"682";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace1-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"preetrace1-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:3:"6.3";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:20:"Canon EOS-1D Mark II";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1222612467";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:3:"280";s:3:"iso";s:3:"500";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:5:"0.002";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} preetrace2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-30/preetrace2/ Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:08:50 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetrace2.jpg 923 2008-10-30 23:08:50 2008-10-31 03:08:50 open open preetrace2 inherit 921 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetrace2.jpg _wp_attached_file preetrace2.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"2544";s:6:"height";s:4:"1696";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:14:"preetrace2.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace2-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace2-300x200.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"200";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"preetrace2-1024x682.jpg";s:5:"width";s:4:"1024";s:6:"height";s:3:"682";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace2-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"preetrace2-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:2:"14";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:20:"Canon EOS-1D Mark II";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1222612757";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:3:"300";s:3:"iso";s:3:"500";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:5:"0.004";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} preetrace4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-30/preetrace4/ Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:12:45 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetrace4.jpg 924 2008-10-30 23:12:45 2008-10-31 03:12:45 open open preetrace4 inherit 921 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetrace4.jpg _wp_attached_file preetrace4.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"2544";s:6:"height";s:4:"1696";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:14:"preetrace4.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace4-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace4-300x200.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"200";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"preetrace4-1024x682.jpg";s:5:"width";s:4:"1024";s:6:"height";s:3:"682";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"preetrace4-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"preetrace4-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:2:"18";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:20:"Canon EOS-1D Mark II";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1222613481";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:3:"300";s:3:"iso";s:3:"200";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:17:"0.016666666666667";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-30/ Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:13:47 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=921 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. 1. Don’t forget to enter the contest (free to enter) to win a Money Movie DVD of either Casino or the original Ocean’s Eleven. Click here for details. Deadline to enter is this Friday! 2. Thanks to everyone who voted for me on the W Network's search for a new Expert Host - I've made it to the Top 20! They are sending a crew to film a challenge sometime in the next two weeks and I'll call on you again for more support to get to the next stage: The final 6 who then compete in a reality show to find the eventual winner. Fingers crossed!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Million Dollar Journey examines the impacts of a lower Canadian dollar. Thankfully I crossed the border into Buffalo last winter when the loonie was above par - picked up a nice top-coat for about $100 Canadian! :) Interest rates have been dropping in the United States, but this is not being passed on to people seeking mortgages (see the second graph). The federal funds rate has fallen from 5.25% to 1.00%, but 30 year fixed mortgage rates have actually gone UP! Wonderful. Mutual Fund performance and fee disclosures are not easily digested by retail investors. Michael James on Money has his recommendation to fix it here. Further, Canadian Financial DIY goes so far as to write an open letter to the OSC. Canadian Capitalist asks if thrift is making a comeback. Is frugal the new cool? Or is belt-tightening just going to be a short fad? Thicken My Wallet talks about obtaining effective recommendation letters and offers up a gem of an example!

    This Week's Racing Video

    ...is actually just a few pictures instead of a video. A reader asked what kind of cars I used to drive when I was involved with auto racing and I promised I would post a few pics, so here they are! You can click on the pictures to see larger versions.

    ]]>
    921 2008-10-30 23:13:47 2008-10-31 03:13:47 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-30 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1225422832 _edit_last 1 1952 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-10-31 05:24:07 2008-10-31 09:24:07 1 0 0 1953 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2008-10-31 09:57:03 2008-10-31 13:57:03 1 0 0 1954 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-10-31 12:49:43 2008-10-31 16:49:43 1 0 0 1955 http://www.casinoorleans.info/a-lap-of-the-blogs 69.89.31.241 2008-11-01 05:24:12 2008-11-01 09:24:12 1 pingback 0 0
    ANOTHER Contest: Win Warren Buffett's New Biography http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/another-contest-win-warren-buffetts-new-biography/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:04:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=925 First: Money Movie Giveaway Round 5 Winner Congratulations to GENE who is the winner of Round 5 of the Money Movie Giveaway for 2008. I will be contacting Gene via email so that he may pick which movie he would like to receive.

    Second: ANOTHER Contest! (Now CLOSED)

    I received a copy of they highly anticipated biography of Warren Buffett which is titled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life. What makes this book different from all the other books on Buffett (apart from requiring good health in order to lift the book - it's HUGE) is that this is the first book that Warren Buffett has provided the author with personal access to him, his friends/family/colleagues and his files. The book is 976 pages long - make no mistake, it's a whopper. I'm going to give away a hardcover edition (lists for $39.95 CAD) to one lucky reader of this blog. How to enter? Same as always. Leave one comment on this post and that's it! Very simple. (Bloggers can also earn an extra entry by promoting this contest on their own blogs.) Official rules below - Good luck everyone!

    Rules

    • To enter, simply leave a comment on this post below (say anything you want, but anything offensive will be removed)
    • You must leave a comment before midnight of Friday November 7th, 2008
    • You can earn an extra entry if you have a valid “Gravatar” - a gravatar is a ‘globally recognized avatar’ which is basically just a photo you choose to associate with your identity. It can be an actual photo, or just a random picture - click here to sign up and for more information - it’s completely free and works on all sites with Gravatar support.
    • Bloggers can earn a further entry still by linking to this contest from their own blog to promote the contest
    • The contest is open to everyone, but for delivery locations outside of Canada, the recipient is responsible for shipping charges.
    ]]>
    925 2008-11-02 23:04:59 2008-11-03 03:04:59 open open another-contest-win-warren-buffetts-new-biography publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1226279860 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wb.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wb.jpg 1956 brian.dorion@gmail.com 99.254.169.225 2008-11-02 23:45:47 2008-11-03 03:45:47 1 0 0 1957 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.217.65 2008-11-03 01:55:23 2008-11-03 05:55:23 1 0 0 1958 amw124@gmail.com 68.144.137.20 2008-11-03 01:58:08 2008-11-03 05:58:08 1 0 0 1959 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-03 06:06:33 2008-11-03 10:06:33 1 0 0 1960 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.125.185 2008-11-03 08:21:05 2008-11-03 12:21:05 1 0 0 1961 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-11-03 09:16:30 2008-11-03 13:16:30 1 0 0 1962 mkono@sympatico.ca 142.108.62.183 2008-11-03 09:56:13 2008-11-03 13:56:13 1 0 0 1963 renate_c2001@yahoo.com 66.130.117.201 2008-11-03 10:18:16 2008-11-03 14:18:16 1 0 0 1964 rromeo@gmail.com 38.108.65.109 2008-11-03 10:41:53 2008-11-03 14:41:53 1 0 0 1965 tvenner@baystreet.ca http://hamiltonfinanceadvice.vpweb.com/ 72.12.161.127 2008-11-03 10:51:00 2008-11-03 14:51:00 1 0 0 1966 tjklven@mountaincable.net 72.12.161.127 2008-11-03 10:51:42 2008-11-03 14:51:42 1 0 0 1967 kirksavoie@yahoo.com 66.46.199.130 2008-11-03 11:43:21 2008-11-03 15:43:21 1 0 0 1968 fellinmess@hotmail.com http://www.stocktrades.ca 70.52.130.13 2008-11-03 11:44:33 2008-11-03 15:44:33 1 0 0 1969 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2008-11-03 11:50:38 2008-11-03 15:50:38 1 0 0 1970 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2008-11-03 12:02:09 2008-11-03 16:02:09 1 0 0 1971 brigusnf@gmail.com 66.207.109.227 2008-11-03 12:12:12 2008-11-03 16:12:12 1 0 0 1972 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 199.246.40.54 2008-11-03 13:11:47 2008-11-03 17:11:47 1 0 0 1973 accounts-01@brettstover.ca 24.67.32.33 2008-11-03 13:20:37 2008-11-03 17:20:37 1 0 0 1974 howie.wong@gmail.com http://N/A 204.50.7.200 2008-11-03 13:31:14 2008-11-03 17:31:14 1 0 0 1975 AWarsylewicz@devry.edu 199.185.96.5 2008-11-03 14:02:23 2008-11-03 18:02:23 1 0 0 1976 walk0080@gmail.com 205.239.196.6 2008-11-03 14:14:28 2008-11-03 18:14:28 1 0 0 1977 jobetancourt@yahoo.com 72.1.201.82 2008-11-03 14:48:55 2008-11-03 18:48:55 1 0 0 1978 desouza.david@gmail.com http://www.taxfix.co.uk/blog 99.255.196.100 2008-11-03 15:35:38 2008-11-03 19:35:38 1 0 0 1979 45free@45free.com http://www.45free.com 204.101.88.2 2008-11-03 15:39:26 2008-11-03 19:39:26 1 0 0 1980 lasso.voltaic@hotmail.com 209.82.119.194 2008-11-03 16:03:11 2008-11-03 20:03:11 1 0 0 1981 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.12 2008-11-03 16:41:41 2008-11-03 20:41:42 1 0 0 1982 gbebee@nohypeinvesting.com http://www.nohypeinvesting.com 99.227.30.182 2008-11-03 17:42:08 2008-11-03 21:42:08 1 0 0 1983 KyleC@ottawapolice.ca 72.1.194.43 2008-11-03 18:23:03 2008-11-03 22:23:03 1 0 0 1984 cfaucher@allied-eng.com 24.97.239.43 2008-11-03 18:44:31 2008-11-03 22:44:31 1 0 0 1985 ryantissera@hotmail.com 216.121.182.157 2008-11-03 19:14:02 2008-11-03 23:14:02 1 0 0 1986 gayowski@hotmail.com 99.254.229.52 2008-11-03 19:39:34 2008-11-03 23:39:34 1 0 0 1987 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-11-04 00:32:05 2008-11-04 04:32:05 1 0 0 1988 xchaosvirusx@hotmail.com 99.243.172.190 2008-11-04 00:38:32 2008-11-04 04:38:32 1 0 0 1989 mvidov@hotmail.com 38.112.115.125 2008-11-04 09:38:56 2008-11-04 13:38:56 1 0 0 1990 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.169.49 2008-11-04 14:24:32 2008-11-04 18:24:32 1 0 0 1991 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/re-thinking-high-yield-fixed-income/ 68.178.254.235 2008-11-05 00:39:57 2008-11-05 04:39:57 1 pingback 0 0 1992 thebigjc@gmail.com 76.10.169.172 2008-11-05 01:33:02 2008-11-05 05:33:02 1 0 0 1993 lrp@luc-rock.com http://www.quicklunarcop.com/ 192.197.178.2 2008-11-05 08:26:18 2008-11-05 12:26:18 1 0 0 1994 habs33@gmail.com 207.179.140.110 2008-11-05 08:47:35 2008-11-05 12:47:35 1 0 0 1995 trevor.schofield@gmail.com 24.82.3.105 2008-11-05 12:16:30 2008-11-05 16:16:30 1 0 0 1996 pitpasscrew@gmail.com 24.224.224.219 2008-11-05 13:23:57 2008-11-05 17:23:57 1 0 0 1997 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 207.34.120.71 2008-11-05 13:58:42 2008-11-05 17:58:42 1 0 0 1998 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.com 99.249.120.195 2008-11-06 03:41:54 2008-11-06 07:41:54 1 0 0 1999 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2008-11-06 09:49:01 2008-11-06 13:49:01 1 0 0 2000 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.225.128.199 2008-11-06 14:02:34 2008-11-06 18:02:34 1 0 0 2001 linsyrotar@yahoo.ca 24.84.196.189 2008-11-06 16:23:22 2008-11-06 20:23:22 1 0 0 2002 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/11/07/this-and-that-stocks-are-cheap-but-could-get-even-cheaper 64.111.114.14 2008-11-07 00:37:16 2008-11-07 04:37:16 1 pingback 0 0 2003 contestwinner@mycybernet.net 76.74.193.122 2008-11-07 09:33:21 2008-11-07 13:33:21 1 0 0 2004 arthur@brokenaxe.ca http://frogoffinance.blogspot.com/ 70.55.123.133 2008-11-07 09:34:13 2008-11-07 13:34:13 1 0 0 2005 nderraugh@gmail.com 99.225.6.28 2008-11-07 10:39:32 2008-11-07 14:39:32 1 0 0 2006 krys.vollans@gmail.com 216.8.138.85 2008-11-07 10:59:10 2008-11-07 14:59:10 1 0 0 2007 bhabus@gmail.com 208.65.73.101 2008-11-07 11:21:10 2008-11-07 15:21:10 1 0 0 2008 jdilillo@gmail.com http://www.jdilillo.com 165.115.26.106 2008-11-07 11:30:37 2008-11-07 15:30:37 1 0 0 2009 dirklancer@shaw.ca 209.115.231.212 2008-11-07 12:18:07 2008-11-07 16:18:07 1 0 0 2010 julie@revnyou.com http://www.revnyou.com 75.157.150.50 2008-11-07 13:29:48 2008-11-07 17:29:48 1 0 0 2011 cbetanc@hotmail.com 165.115.26.105 2008-11-07 13:39:36 2008-11-07 17:39:36 1 0 0 2012 brucewayne100@hotmail.com 70.72.21.204 2008-11-07 14:02:22 2008-11-07 18:02:22 1 0 0 2013 cashinstinct@gmail.com 74.57.144.83 2008-11-07 14:07:57 2008-11-07 18:07:57 1 0 0 2014 karefoe@gmail.com 209.53.237.143 2008-11-07 14:50:26 2008-11-07 18:50:26 1 0 0 2015 tdiodati@aipm-architects.com 70.54.111.208 2008-11-07 14:59:55 2008-11-07 18:59:55 1 0 0 2016 simms.matt@gmail.com http://n/a 143.112.144.129 2008-11-07 15:06:47 2008-11-07 19:06:47 1 0 0 2017 willh@telus.net 142.205.241.254 2008-11-07 15:39:15 2008-11-07 19:39:15 1 0 0 2018 ronald_douglas@telus.net 207.216.63.41 2008-11-07 17:49:59 2008-11-07 21:49:59 1 0 0 2019 manishamawji@gmail.com 130.15.186.144 2008-11-07 18:10:55 2008-11-07 22:10:55 1 0 0 2020 scott.t.leblanc@gmail.com 142.68.150.92 2008-11-07 18:53:56 2008-11-07 22:53:56 1 0 0 2021 soetemansj@hotmail.com 69.157.79.151 2008-11-07 20:38:49 2008-11-08 00:38:49 1 0 0 2022 spam@iwritestuff.ca http://www.iwritestuff.ca 24.71.223.142 2008-11-07 23:59:37 2008-11-08 03:59:37 1 0 0 2023 lancem@ripnet.com 66.78.111.199 2008-11-08 01:03:12 2008-11-08 05:03:12 1 0 0 2024 parsons8@mts.net 204.112.159.234 2008-11-08 01:17:25 2008-11-08 05:17:25 1 0 0 2025 pmoriarty@yahoo.com 201.29.177.21 2008-11-08 10:07:17 2008-11-08 14:07:17 1 0 0 2026 mike@treehugger.com http://michaelgr.com 74.14.216.119 2008-11-09 19:20:26 2008-11-09 23:20:26 1 0 0 2027 jbiadog@yahoo.com http://jbiadog.multiply.com 202.124.139.4 2009-08-21 13:01:51 2009-08-21 18:01:51 1 0 0
    wb http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/another-contest-win-warren-buffetts-new-biography/wb/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:10:15 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wb.jpg 926 2008-11-02 23:10:15 2008-11-03 03:10:15 open open wb inherit 925 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wb.jpg _wp_attached_file wb.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:6:"wb.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:14:"wb-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:14:"wb-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:12:"wb-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} gasbuddy http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/gas-prices-in-canada-versus-the-usa/gasbuddy/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:32:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/gasbuddy.gif 928 2008-11-03 23:32:02 2008-11-04 03:32:02 open open gasbuddy inherit 927 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/gasbuddy.gif _wp_attached_file gasbuddy.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"677";s:6:"height";s:3:"327";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='61' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:12:"gasbuddy.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"gasbuddy-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"gasbuddy-300x144.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"144";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"gasbuddy-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"gasbuddy-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Gas Prices in Canada versus the USA http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/gas-prices-in-canada-versus-the-usa/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:59:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=927 The average gas price in Canada has dropped from about $1.40/Litre to just around $1.00/Litre. In fact, it is predicted that gas prices in Toronto will be around 85 cents by the time you read this (assuming you read it on November 4th!). Below is a chart which shows the gas price history for the last five years - note that it also includes the average price of gas in the United States adjusted to our more familiar cost per litre, and further adjusted for currency. (In other words, you can see what the average American is paying for fuel in Canadian dollars per litre.)

    What you'll see is that Americans (on average) are paying about 63 cents per litre right now, which is about 25% less than what we are currently paying. One major factor is the amount of tax collected at the pump level. Canadians pay about 33% in combined taxes on average on the price of fuel, and Americans pay about 11%.

    Breakdown of Fuel Taxes in Canada

    Breakdown of Fuel Taxes in United States

    (You can click on the graph below to enlarge it)

    ]]>
    927 2008-11-03 23:59:06 2008-11-04 03:59:06 open open gas-prices-in-canada-versus-the-usa publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1225771146 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2028 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-04 05:12:56 2008-11-04 09:12:56 1 0 0 2029 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-11-04 12:26:08 2008-11-04 16:26:08 1 0 0 2030 gene2u@mts.net 216.55.204.68 2008-11-08 01:50:54 2008-11-08 05:50:54 1 0 0 2031 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/11/10/linkstuff/ 67.205.18.215 2008-11-10 04:58:29 2008-11-10 08:58:29 1 pingback 0 0 2032 rjones2@toronto.ca 206.130.173.37 2008-11-25 12:21:44 2008-11-25 17:21:44 1 0 0 2033 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.163.166 2008-11-25 20:47:11 2008-11-26 01:47:11 1 0 0
    Re-Thinking High Yield Fixed Income http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/re-thinking-high-yield-fixed-income/ Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:37:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=929 Don't forget to enter the contest to win a copy of the first authorized biography of Warren Buffett - "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life". Click here for details - free to enter! Over long periods of time, the conventional wisdom of diversifying your bond portfolio with longer-term bonds and/or lower-credit bonds (in order to get higher yields) seems silly on a risk-adjusted basis. But let me explain the logic behind this assertion.

    A few assumptions

    1. A diversified basket of equities might earn 8% nominally (meaning before factoring loss in purchasing power to inflation).
    2. A diversified basket of shorter-term, investment grade bonds (BBB or higher) might earn 4% nominally.
    3. Longer-term and/or higher credit risk bonds (BB and below) might earn 6.5% nominally.
    Let's assume we have an investor with a 50% equity / 50% fixed income portfolio, and that the fixed income portion consists of the shorter-term and high credit quality bonds. The investor might have a long term return of 6%, which is just the weighted average of 50% equities x 8% return added to 50% fixed income x 4% return. Someone might advise this investor that they can add high-yield fixed income to their portfolio in order to increase their return - and they might take their 50% fixed income and split it into 25% high quality fixed income and 25% high yield fixed income. Therefore instead of earning 4% on their fixed income portion they would earn 5.25% on the fixed income portion of their portfolio (50% x 4% + 50% x 6.5%). If we then re-calculate the expected long term return of this new portfolio we would get 50% x 5.25% + 50% x 8% for a total expected return of 6.63%.

    An Alternative

    An alternative to adding high-yield fixed income to increase returns would be to simply have more exposure to equities. Doing some quick math we find that a 66% exposure to equities and a 34% exposure to high quality fixed income will give us a 6.64% long term return (66% x 8% + 34% x 4%).

    Adding Equity Exposure Is A Better Solution

    What's described above does not tell you much about the risk-adjusted returns, so let's explore that some more. First, the equity premium (return of stocks over t-bills) has been 8.25% for the US stock market between 1927 and 2005. The "maturity" factor (excess return of long term government bonds over short term government bonds) is only 2.09%, and the "default" factor (excess return of long term corporate bonds over long term government bonds) is only 0.36% for the same 78 year period. To put it another way, you have to spend much more risk (in the form of lengthening terms or decreasing quality) to eek out higher returns from fixed income investments. Secondly, short term US fixed income has very poor correlation with the S&P500, but the correlation gets larger as the maturities of the fixed income extends. Maturity              Correlation with S&P 500 1 Month                   -0.08 6 Month                   +0.01 1 Year                      +0.05 5 Year                      +0.22 20 Year                    +0.30 If you have multiple asset classes (each with net positive long term return expectations), the overall risk-adjusted returns will be higher if the correlations between asset classes are lower.

    Conclusion

    Taking this all together, the risk adjusted returns will be much higher by increasing the equity exposure as opposed to trying to seek a higher return through high-yield fixed income (by extending maturities or decreasing credit quality).]]>
    929 2008-11-05 00:37:46 2008-11-05 04:37:46 open open re-thinking-high-yield-fixed-income publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1225860479 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif 2034 qasimodo9@yahoo.com 76.66.7.163 2008-11-05 07:43:54 2008-11-05 11:43:54 1 0 0 2035 45free@45free.com http://www.45free.com 204.101.88.2 2008-11-05 09:41:59 2008-11-05 13:41:59 1 0 0 2036 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-11-05 10:19:43 2008-11-05 14:19:43 1 0 0 2037 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 205.210.223.133 2008-11-05 10:27:39 2008-11-05 14:27:39 1 0 0 2038 qasimodo9@yahoo.com 76.66.7.163 2008-11-05 10:38:58 2008-11-05 14:38:58 1 0 0 2039 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2008-11-05 10:58:55 2008-11-05 14:58:55 1 0 0 2040 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-11-05 23:31:49 2008-11-06 03:31:49 1 0 0 2041 http://www.thewellheeled.com/?p=357 69.93.90.170 2008-11-28 11:13:23 2008-11-28 16:13:23 1 pingback 0 0 2042 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/04/01/high-yield-bonds-new-name-same-old-junk/ 82.165.243.157 2009-03-31 23:57:17 2009-04-01 04:57:17 1 pingback 0 0
    fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-extending-bond-maturities-hasnt-paid/fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:47:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity.gif 931 2008-11-05 23:47:24 2008-11-06 03:47:24 open open fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity inherit 930 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity.gif _wp_attached_file fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"906";s:6:"height";s:3:"599";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='84' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:38:"fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:46:"fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:46:"fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity-300x198.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"198";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:46:"fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:44:"fixedincomeriskandreturnbymaturity-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} How Extending Bond Maturities Hasn't Paid http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-extending-bond-maturities-hasnt-paid/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:57:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=930 Don’t forget to enter the contest to win a copy of the first authorized biography of Warren Buffett - “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life”. Click here for details - free to enter! Yesterday's post on Re-Thinking High Yield Fixed Income garnered some insightful comments from a reader (Returns Reaper - love the name!). Further to that, I thought I would bring up some data and perspective on how extending bond maturities does not provide a good risk-adjusted return payoff. The following chart (please click to enlarge) shows the returns of US Government fixed income securities from 1964 to 2007, along with their standard deviations (a measure of the volatility or variance in returns). What is evident is that while returns increase marginally with longer terms, the volatility increases dramatically. (Many thanks to DFA Canada for providing this graph.)

    Click on graph to enlarge

    Why?

    One possible explanation is that longer term bonds are used primarily for the purpose of matching assets to liabilities. This would fall into the realm of pension plans and insurance companies (who have death benefits to pay out many decades into the future but who build in actuarial calculations based on current interest rates and other factors). For them, their definition of risk is "not having the money to pay their obligations in their entirety". Having and holding long term bonds with known maturity values is their prime concern, not trading these instruments to make gains over and above what they need.]]>
    930 2008-11-05 23:57:52 2008-11-06 03:57:52 open open how-extending-bond-maturities-hasnt-paid publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1225943873 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif
    Contest Winner Announcement! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-winner-announcement-2/ Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:14:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=932 MANISHA Congratulations Manisha! I will be contacting you via email to arrange delivery of your prize.

    For Those That Didn't Win...

    You can read a little bit more about this book on Amazon. You may want to order it for yourself or perhaps buy it for someone else and cross off a Christmas present from your list! :) Click HERE to see "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" on Amazon.ca Thanks to everyone for participating and I hope to bring more great prizes to you in the future.

    ]]>
    932 2008-11-09 21:14:49 2008-11-10 01:14:49 open open contest-winner-announcement-2 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1226279873 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wb.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wb.jpg
    preetcroppedheadshot http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/i-am-no-longer-a-financial-advisor/preetcroppedheadshot/ Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:57:36 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcroppedheadshot.jpg 934 2008-11-10 23:57:36 2008-11-11 03:57:36 open open preetcroppedheadshot inherit 933 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/preetcroppedheadshot.jpg _wp_attached_file preetcroppedheadshot.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"138";s:6:"height";s:3:"163";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='81'";s:4:"file";s:24:"preetcroppedheadshot.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"preetcroppedheadshot-138x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"138";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"preetcroppedheadshot-138x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"138";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"preetcroppedheadshot-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} I Am No Longer A Financial Advisor http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/i-am-no-longer-a-financial-advisor/ Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:00:38 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=933 933 2008-11-11 00:00:38 2008-11-11 04:00:38 open open i-am-no-longer-a-financial-advisor publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1226979876 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/preetcroppedheadshot.jpg 2043 howie.wong@gmail.com http://N/A 70.79.98.4 2008-11-11 01:00:41 2008-11-11 05:00:41 1 0 0 2044 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 69.159.0.11 2008-11-11 01:03:43 2008-11-11 05:03:43 1 0 0 2045 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-11 06:54:10 2008-11-11 10:54:10 1 0 0 2046 gammafriend@shaw.ca 99.224.150.144 2008-11-11 07:33:50 2008-11-11 11:33:50 1 0 0 2047 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2008-11-11 08:56:14 2008-11-11 12:56:14 1 0 0 2048 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 99.225.225.35 2008-11-11 09:21:08 2008-11-11 13:21:08 1 0 0 2049 klein.jason@yahoo.ca 61.227.240.107 2008-11-11 09:44:51 2008-11-11 13:44:51 1 0 0 2050 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.169.49 2008-11-11 11:02:32 2008-11-11 15:02:32 1 0 0 2051 yparesh@gmail.com 209.202.107.203 2008-11-11 13:01:06 2008-11-11 17:01:06 1 0 0 2052 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 24.76.238.217 2008-11-11 13:02:32 2008-11-11 17:02:32 1 0 0 2053 mkono@sympatico.ca 69.156.20.236 2008-11-11 13:03:58 2008-11-11 17:03:58 1 0 0 2054 davidrphipps@hotmail.com 74.15.169.212 2008-11-11 13:53:48 2008-11-11 17:53:48 1 0 0 2055 sean.blak@gmail.com 99.246.129.211 2008-11-11 16:21:18 2008-11-11 20:21:18 1 0 0 2056 parsons8@mts.net 204.112.159.234 2008-11-11 19:02:50 2008-11-11 23:02:50 1 0 0 2057 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2008-11-11 22:12:57 2008-11-12 02:12:57 1 0 0 2058 nerdmoney@gmail.com http://nerdmoney.ca 99.241.195.196 2008-11-11 23:29:05 2008-11-12 03:29:05 1 0 0 2059 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/my-new-job-part-i/ 68.178.254.235 2008-11-12 00:20:16 2008-11-12 04:20:16 1 pingback 0 0 2060 adrianvm@rogers.com 99.250.104.71 2008-11-12 08:09:29 2008-11-12 12:09:29 1 0 0 2061 abcstocks@gmail.com 76.69.65.55 2008-11-12 09:25:51 2008-11-12 13:25:51 1 0 0 2062 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-49/ 216.17.106.121 2008-11-15 07:31:57 2008-11-15 11:31:57 1 pingback 0 0 2063 javaman99990@hotmail.com 125.60.235.203 2008-11-16 08:57:32 2008-11-16 12:57:32 1 0 0 2064 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.executivefinancialplanning.com 173.33.144.118 2008-11-16 17:46:43 2008-11-16 21:46:43 1 0 0 2065 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/11/17/monday-linkstuff/ 67.205.18.215 2008-11-17 05:04:11 2008-11-17 10:04:11 1 pingback 0 0 My New Job Part I http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/my-new-job-part-i/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:19:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=935 I am no longer a financial advisor. I will respond en masse:

    I Believe There is A Tipping Point Coming...

    Two tipping points actually. The tipping points I am referring to is the growing number of advocates (both individual investors and advisors) towards a change in the financial services when it comes to the passive versus active debate, as well as to the mechanism by which most investors receive financial advice and/or interact with financial advice providers.

    1. Most Investors Will Need An Advisor

    The reality is that most investors will need financial planning and investment management advice, and while there are many truly outstanding financial advisors who are well educated, with exceptional knowledge levels and with high morals and ethics they are sadly the exception and not the norm. I have been extraordinarily lucky, it seems, to have garnered a fair amount of media exposure given that I have spent only four years as an advisor. But when you consider that the attention was earned for essentially doing what I thought my job was (acting as a true fiduciary and trying to put the investor's interests above anything else), it makes you step back and think about how broken the system really is. There are many people out there who will manage their own affairs, and are perfectly capable of "Doing It Yourself" through rock bottom cost discount brokerages and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), and picking stocks or what have you. But for many reasons, these investors are the exception. I'm not worried about them - they'll be fine. They are, however, few and far between in the grand scheme of things.

    2. Active Management / Passive Management

    With respect to the active versus passive debate, I have a few points to make. I've met many advisors who are much more experienced than I, much more educated than I, and much more analytical than I and yet the collective unwillingness to understand the core arguments of passive investing versus active investing is mind boggling. I should point out that my personal take on the matter is that the focus needs to shift from "active versus passive" to "active and passive". The two can co-exist in portfolios everywhere. There are investors who are well suited for a purely passive portfolio, and there are investors who are well suited for a completely active portfolio, but I would venture to guess that there are plenty more investors who would be better off with both (the proportions of which can also vary). Just as there is a spectrum of the degree of allocation to equities/fixed income, the world might be better off if we start thinking about active/passive allocations. (Plus doesn't it help you come to terms with a world in which both a Buffett and a Bogle can peacefully co-exist and are equally brilliant?) :)

    3. Financial Advice Delivery Models

    So why the lop-sided, great divide within the advisor channel? Over 70% of advisors are not even licensed to trade ETFs for clients (the vehicle of choice for indexing), and of the remaining 30% who ARE licensed to provide ETFs, I believe less than a quarter would use them regularly. So if you do some hypothetical math (using admittedly unscientific numbers) and assume that 90% of investors use an advisor, then only 25% of the 30% of advisors who deal with 90% of investors are even talking about the fastest growing investment vehicle in the world. That works out to under 7% of all investors in Canada. Given no shortage of data which casts a favourable light on lower costs and indexation, this is simply a broken system. That advisors are supposed to act in the best interests of the clients while being predominantly remunerated based on commissions (which can further vary with different products) is purely laughable. Given that most indexation products do not provide commensurate compensation to advisors as active products, it doesn't take a genius to see that the denial or reluctance to address the scientific and practical evidence behind passive investing is a textbook definition of justification of a cognitive dissonance.

    4. Education

    The educational hurdle to becoming a financial advisor is low. I've mentioned before that with less than $500 and successful completion (60% pass mark) of a two-weekonline course one can qualify to advise Canadians on their lifelong finances and investments. Again, I want to point out that there are many great advisors who take it upon themselves to further their education and knowledge for years, if not decades. But again this is not the norm. Compare this to a doctor or lawyer who would have perhaps 5 to 10 years after having completed a university undergraduate degree before being fully accredited. Clearly the bar needs to be raised. As well, personal finance education is sorely lacking around the world. In my opinion, the basics of money management needs to incorporated into the education system from the time that kids start learning math. Of course you would start with simple concepts like creating a budget, but it makes sense to teach people about getting your first mortgage, the importance of saving, credit scores, etc. Perhaps a mandatory requirement would be to educate people up to the level of how to deal with financial advice providers (because most people will still not be able to manage it all on their own), and to leave the nitty-gritty as electives for those who are interested in doing it all themselves or want to get into the industry.

    So...

    So my choice to no longer remain a financial advisor is in part due to these factors. A colleague whom I very much admire once told me that in order to help try to change the landscape for investors and advisors would require remaining inside the industry to effect any real change. An alternative would be to walk away entirely and take a draconian stance on the way things are, but this type of approach has not worked well for others in the past (with respect to effecting change). So I have not left the industry, but rather have taken what may on the surface seem like a paradoxical role... which I will explain in detail tomorrow since this post has gone on long enough! :) Thanks for all the well wishes in the comments section and in through personal emails - it is much appreciated Preet]]>
    935 2008-11-12 00:19:12 2008-11-12 04:19:12 open open my-new-job-part-i publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1226465600 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif 2066 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-11-12 16:30:23 2008-11-12 20:30:23 1 0 0 2067 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2008/11/14/thoughts-financial-extinction-week/ 67.205.7.217 2008-11-14 02:02:44 2008-11-14 06:02:44 1 pingback 0 0 2068 mark@mawhinney.ca http://www.mawhinney.ca 24.80.235.80 2009-01-14 14:56:23 2009-01-14 19:56:23 1 0 0 2069 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-14 22:15:48 2009-01-15 03:15:48 1 0 0
    My New Job Part II http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/my-new-job-part-ii/ Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:10:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=936 So What's The Job? I started the next stage of my career this past Monday as Senior Vice President with Pro-Financial Asset Management. Pro-Financial Asset Management (PFAM for short) has a number of divisions: 1) Index Mutual Funds, 2) Hedge Funds, 3) Closed-End Funds, and 4) a Private Client Division. I mentioned that the move might seem paradoxical but there is a method to my madness. When we first started talking, I made it clear that the only way that I would consider giving up my license to advise individual clients would be if certain conditions were met. Essentially, I decided to write a wish list of what I would think would be an ideal job for me.

    I Asked For The Following

    1. To write a blog for the company that educates investors about personal finance, discusses the active versus passive management debate, and explains how the industry works (including explaining the exact nature of commissions). While the blog for investors will have copious amounts of information about fundamental indexing as well, I will do my best not to ram it down people's throats as I think it has appeal without having to "sell" it, rather the focus will be on educating the consumer. If they choose to do it themselves with ETFs, I have no problem with that. If they choose to use an advisor they may then want to consider the Fundamental Index funds. There may be duplicate content between this blog and that blog, and hopefully I can get some of the personal finance bloggers to contribute as well. 2. To write a second blog for advisors. This blog will provide advisors with support materials, more detailed information (i.e. more technical) and I will strive to keep most of the content available to non-advisors who may also be interested in the information. This site will hopefully serve as a reference for advisors who are open to learning more about promoting transparency, openly and objectively discussing the merits of both passive and active management, and are looking to for ideas on how to potentially transition their practices to follow this approach if they agree with it. 3. To re-do the company's website - and to fully incorporate the blogs prominently. 4. To retain the ability to keep writing this blog and to speak my mind as I wish without restriction or worry. 5. Assist in product development. They are considering launching a closed end fund based on the post I wrote about the Reverse Dispersion Equity Collar which essentially combines indexing with buying put options and selling call options to create a low cost equity index investment with capped downside performance. That article was recently published in Advisor's Edge Report - an industry trade magazine. I have also discussed the idea of mutual funds that drop the MERs after the service fee has paid off upfront commissions for DSC funds - in order to reduce fees for the investor.

    They Asked For The Following

    1. Traditional Wholesaling - to speak to advisors directly to introduce the Fundamental Indexation methodology. I will be working with advisors in Ontario (Scarborough eastwards), Quebec and British Columbia. The bonus for me is that my parents live in Vancouver so I may be travelling to BC as much as one week per month in perpetuity. I can't tell you how deaf my mother made me when I told her... :) 2. Engaging the media and further promoting the dissemination of the merits of passive investing. 3. Thinking outside of the box and stirring the pot - no problem, boss!

    Conclusion

    To address the points I made in Part I: 1. Most Investors Will Need An Advisor - given that most advisors cannot sell or advise on ETFs, having an indexing product available in a mutual fund form will allow for many more advisors to provide competitive indexation products. 2. Active Management / Passive Management -  as mentioned, I'm not going to tell advisors what they should do - their role is to figure out what is best for their individual clients. I will, however, promote the message of considering that "active and passive" may be more prudent than looking at is as "active versus passive". My guess is that this will be a more of an olive branch and once more people start indexing, perhaps it will further gain traction in the advisor channels... 3. Financial Advice Delivery Models - We will openly discuss the various types of advisors and compensation structures that exist in the industry to further educate investors on the choices available to them. Changing the predominant delivery model is no small task, but for now I can certainly intensify the discussion and raise awareness. 4. Education - addressed by the proposed blogs for the most part, but I would like to further raise awareness of all the great educational resources available to investors today - like Ken Kivenko's Canadian Fund Watch and Warren MacKenzie's Second Opinion Investor Services, in addition to all the great personal finance blogs out there. So in the end, as as corny as it may sound, I really do want to make a difference to the financial services landscape in Canada and I think this new role will accomplish the most amount of change for who and what I am. The gap between what I think is best and where the industry stands now is huge, and there are many steps and stages we will need to go through before we bridge that gap (if ever) - hopefully this transition is a step in the right direction at the very least... Wish me luck! Preet]]>
    936 2008-11-12 23:10:22 2008-11-13 03:10:22 open open my-new-job-part-ii publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1226545823 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2070 nerdmoney@gmail.com http://nerdmoney.ca 99.241.195.196 2008-11-13 00:35:16 2008-11-13 04:35:16 1 0 0 2071 drejmd@gmail.com 137.186.212.39 2008-11-13 01:50:27 2008-11-13 05:50:27 1 0 0 2072 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 78.151.62.254 2008-11-13 05:45:06 2008-11-13 09:45:06 1 0 0 2073 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-13 06:27:37 2008-11-13 10:27:37 1 0 0 2074 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-11-13 08:45:50 2008-11-13 12:45:50 1 0 0 2075 stephaniew8d@gmail.com 207.219.39.250 2008-11-13 09:50:45 2008-11-13 13:50:45 1 0 0 2076 mkono@sympatico.ca 142.108.62.183 2008-11-13 09:56:21 2008-11-13 13:56:21 1 0 0 2077 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2008-11-13 12:29:23 2008-11-13 16:29:23 1 0 0 2078 ask@howtoliveincanada.com http://www.howtoliveincanada.com 70.49.169.49 2008-11-13 12:44:20 2008-11-13 16:44:20 1 0 0 2079 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-11-13 12:49:44 2008-11-13 16:49:44 1 0 0 2080 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2008-11-13 23:46:37 2008-11-14 03:46:37 1 0 0 2081 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2008-11-14 07:58:57 2008-11-14 11:58:57 1 0 0 2082 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.225.128.199 2008-11-14 20:24:16 2008-11-15 00:24:16 1 0 0 2083 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.225.128.199 2008-11-17 12:23:01 2008-11-17 17:23:01 1 0 0 2084 dbenedet@rogers.com 199.198.251.108 2008-12-02 11:39:52 2008-12-02 16:39:52 1 0 0 2085 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2008-12-03 00:16:09 2008-12-03 05:16:09 1 0 0 2086 fathersez@gmail.com http://fathersez.com 219.95.199.166 2008-12-11 18:26:52 2008-12-11 23:26:52 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-31/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:13:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=937 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I've spent the week settling into the new job. The location is beautiful - the office is right on the Glen Abbey Golf Course (where they held the Canadian Open this year), but unfortunately that's in Oakville and I live in Ajax. It's about 110kms one way! As I get settled in I will be spending maybe 3 days in the office at most, so I'll just have to grin and bear it in the meantime. In other news, the W Network had me complete my follow up challenge on Wednesday. Turns out there were 400 contestants so making it to the top 20 means there is stiff competition. My challenge was to wear a sandwich board that read "Free $$ Advice" and stop people on the street and try to explain how the stock market works. The challenge will be put up on the W Network website in December and will be shown on TV in January - during which time they will also select the Final 6. I'll be in India for most of December, but I'll try to keep the blog semi-active during that time (because I'll need all the votes I can get!!) :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Thicken My Wallet discusses the role of dividends in long term stock returns. I would add that in the early 1950's the dividend yield of the S&P500 was around 8%. Michael James on Money discusses two investment strategies from one of Derek Foster's latest books - selling put options and leveraging your house. Good discussion in the comments section as well... Million Dollar Journey has compiled four strategies one might consider for the new Tax Free Savings Account. Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45 is celebrating the second anniversary of his blog by giving away free stuff! First prize is a $75 gift card to the store of your choice! Canadian Capitalist examines the latest SPIVA scorecard (Standard and Poor's Index Versus Active Scorecard) which found that 60% of actively managed Canadian equity mutual funds outperformed the index in Q3. (I'll sheepishly point out that my new firm's Canadian Fundamental Index Fund outperformed the TSX by around 9% in Q3, and by about 3.5% in October. Sorry, one quarter means virtually nothing but I couldn't resist...) :) Jonathan Chevreau interviews Jonathan Chevreau on Jonathan Chevreau's new book. Larry MacDonald takes a look at some possible explanations for Thursday's tremendous intraday rally. Four Pillars gives a review of a book cited as one of the 10 best investing books of all time: Jeremy Siegel's Stocks For The Long Run. Big Cajun Man reminds us about Remembrance Day.

    This Week's Racing Video

    No particular reason for this week's video other than it's just fun to watch. Top Gear is a BBC show that highlights everything automotive and they routinely have their "unidentified" test driver, affectionately known as The Stig, take cars around their test track to see how fast they can go. This time they give him a Renault F1 car (2004) and see if it can lap 20 seconds faster than a Ferrari Enzo.... and it does.

    ]]> 937 2008-11-14 01:13:54 2008-11-14 05:13:54 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-31 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1226639764 _edit_last 1 2087 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2008-11-14 07:22:54 2008-11-14 11:22:54 1 0 0 2088 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-11-14 09:16:46 2008-11-14 13:16:46 1 0 0 2089 mkono@sympatico.ca 142.108.62.183 2008-11-14 10:43:07 2008-11-14 14:43:07 1 0 0 2090 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2008-11-14 10:46:54 2008-11-14 14:46:54 1 0 0 2091 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-11-14 10:51:16 2008-11-14 14:51:16 1 0 0 2092 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.153.111 2008-11-14 11:28:26 2008-11-14 15:28:26 1 0 0 2093 robertdonald3@gmail.com http://www.my-foreclosures.info 61.17.177.48 2008-11-17 03:05:23 2008-11-17 08:05:23 1 0 0 2094 mike@erollover.com http://www.erollover.com 71.56.67.224 2008-11-20 12:31:12 2008-11-20 17:31:12 1 0 0 2095 miles.jun@hotmil.com 207.112.62.87 2008-11-28 20:23:32 2008-11-29 01:23:32 1 0 0 2096 coldwaterfish@ns.sympatico.ca http://www.corporatebully.ca 142.177.153.167 2008-12-15 16:44:13 2008-12-15 21:44:13 1 0 0 magellangps http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-win-a-gps-system/magellangps/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:50:21 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/magellangps.gif 939 2008-11-16 20:50:21 2008-11-17 01:50:21 open open magellangps inherit 938 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/magellangps.gif _wp_attached_file magellangps.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"279";s:6:"height";s:3:"279";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:15:"magellangps.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"magellangps-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"magellangps-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"magellangps-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} magellangps2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-win-a-gps-system/magellangps2/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:52:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/magellangps2.gif 940 2008-11-16 20:52:04 2008-11-17 01:52:04 open open magellangps2 inherit 938 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/magellangps2.gif _wp_attached_file magellangps2.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"418";s:6:"height";s:3:"212";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='64' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:16:"magellangps2.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"magellangps2-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"magellangps2-300x152.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"152";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"magellangps2-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"magellangps2-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Contest: Win a GPS System! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-win-a-gps-system/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:58:07 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=938 Tigerdirect.ca. They are not sponsoring the prize, but I'm just mentioning them because I've always got some pretty good deals at the store so you may want to check them out too. A brand new unit currently retails for about $240 and the refurbished units sell for about $100. If you want to learn exactly what it means to be refurbished, TigerDirect has a whole page describing the ins and outs of it: click here to learn more about refurbished products. Here's a pic of what you get (followed by the official contest details):

    Contest Entry Details

    • To enter, simply leave a comment on this post below (say anything you want, but anything offensive will be removed ) - NOTE: if you receive blog updates by email or RSS, you will have to visit the site in order to leave a comment - CLICK HERE
    • You must leave a comment before midnight (EST) of Saturday November 22nd, 2008
    • You can earn an extra entry if you have a valid “Gravatar” - a gravatar is a ‘Globally Recognized avatar’ which is basically just a photo you choose to associate with your identity. It can be an actual photo, or just a random picture - click here to sign up and for more information - it’s completely free and works on all sites with Gravatar support.
    • Bloggers can earn an additional entry by linking to this contest from their own blog to promote the contest and leaving a link to their post in the comments section (pingbacks will count)
    • The contest is open to everyone, but for delivery locations outside of Canada, the recipient is responsible for shipping charges.
    That's it everybody - GOOD LUCK! :)]]>
    938 2008-11-16 20:58:07 2008-11-17 01:58:07 open open contest-win-a-gps-system publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1226887292 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/magellangps.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/magellangps.gif 2097 mkono@sympatico.ca 69.156.20.236 2008-11-16 22:37:45 2008-11-17 03:37:45 1 0 0 2098 ryantissera@hotmail.com 216.121.182.157 2008-11-16 22:37:52 2008-11-17 03:37:52 1 0 0 2099 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com 99.225.225.35 2008-11-16 23:28:08 2008-11-17 04:28:08 1 0 0 2100 talcumboy@gmail.com 24.68.138.6 2008-11-16 23:53:20 2008-11-17 04:53:20 1 0 0 2101 guinness416@gmail.com 64.56.245.189 2008-11-17 00:03:33 2008-11-17 05:03:33 1 0 0 2102 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.217.65 2008-11-17 01:05:09 2008-11-17 06:05:09 1 0 0 2103 tdehnke@me.com 207.47.225.88 2008-11-17 01:59:26 2008-11-17 06:59:26 1 0 0 2104 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.com 99.249.120.195 2008-11-17 02:24:25 2008-11-17 07:24:25 1 0 0 2105 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-17 05:23:00 2008-11-17 10:23:00 1 0 0 2106 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2008-11-17 07:18:48 2008-11-17 12:18:48 1 0 0 2107 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2008-11-17 07:31:47 2008-11-17 12:31:47 1 0 0 2108 deb_nick@yahoo.com 99.238.142.11 2008-11-17 07:57:05 2008-11-17 12:57:05 1 0 0 2109 gstivaletti@hotmail.com 199.202.95.22 2008-11-17 07:58:34 2008-11-17 12:58:34 1 0 0 2110 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.61.57.100 2008-11-17 08:19:26 2008-11-17 13:19:26 1 0 0 2111 lrp@luc-rock.com http://www.quicklunarcop.com 192.197.178.2 2008-11-17 08:40:26 2008-11-17 13:40:26 1 0 0 2112 eileen.lasswell@advisor.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2008-11-17 08:56:17 2008-11-17 13:56:17 1 0 0 2113 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2008-11-17 09:18:10 2008-11-17 14:18:10 1 0 0 2114 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paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2008-11-17 10:45:26 2008-11-17 15:45:26 1 0 0 2125 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-11-17 10:46:09 2008-11-17 15:46:09 1 0 0 2126 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 96.52.57.239 2008-11-17 10:49:59 2008-11-17 15:49:59 1 0 0 2127 bbnoad@hotmail.com 99.249.87.237 2008-11-17 10:55:13 2008-11-17 15:55:13 1 0 0 2128 walk0080@gmail.com 205.239.196.6 2008-11-17 11:09:12 2008-11-17 16:09:12 1 0 0 2129 baglog2000@yahoo.ca 137.186.246.254 2008-11-17 11:15:20 2008-11-17 16:15:20 1 0 0 2130 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2008-11-17 11:17:09 2008-11-17 16:17:09 1 0 0 2131 jobetancourt@yahoo.com 72.1.201.82 2008-11-17 11:25:15 2008-11-17 16:25:15 1 0 0 2132 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2008-11-17 11:43:21 2008-11-17 16:43:21 1 0 0 2133 hallamjay@gmail.com 24.79.211.215 2008-11-17 11:58:50 2008-11-17 16:58:50 1 0 0 2134 habs33@gmail.com 76.70.125.75 2008-11-17 12:08:43 2008-11-17 17:08:43 1 0 0 2135 sturrock@telus.net 154.5.50.105 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amw124@gmail.com 68.144.137.20 2008-11-17 18:28:44 2008-11-17 23:28:44 1 0 0 2147 billbutt@shaw.ca 24.83.160.233 2008-11-17 19:43:15 2008-11-18 00:43:15 1 0 0 2148 sean.blake@gmail.com 99.246.129.211 2008-11-17 20:15:19 2008-11-18 01:15:19 1 0 0 2149 chuppe@sympatico.ca 70.48.80.51 2008-11-17 21:20:18 2008-11-18 02:20:18 1 0 0 2150 rhayward.temp@gmail.com 76.65.17.95 2008-11-17 21:20:34 2008-11-18 02:20:34 1 0 0 2151 trmichaud@Shaw.ca 24.69.247.68 2008-11-17 22:27:06 2008-11-18 03:27:06 1 0 0 2152 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/long-term-bonds-have-an-attractive-historybut/ 68.178.254.235 2008-11-17 22:43:21 2008-11-18 03:43:21 1 pingback 0 0 2153 parsons8@mts.net 204.112.156.169 2008-11-18 00:25:02 2008-11-18 05:25:02 1 0 0 2154 gene2u@mts.net 216.130.83.39 2008-11-18 00:35:12 2008-11-18 05:35:12 1 0 0 2155 parsons8@mts.net 204.112.156.169 2008-11-18 00:40:34 2008-11-18 05:40:34 1 0 0 2156 pfpuim@hotmail.com 68.148.103.102 2008-11-18 02:01:43 2008-11-18 07:01:43 1 0 0 2157 a.antonioni@personainternet.com 67.204.204.84 2008-11-18 07:42:22 2008-11-18 12:42:22 1 0 0 2158 cjlebel@gmail.com http://www.carlj.ca 142.46.57.29 2008-11-18 08:46:43 2008-11-18 13:46:43 1 0 0 2159 vdire@hotmail.com 96.20.245.146 2008-11-18 09:37:19 2008-11-18 14:37:19 1 0 0 2160 cmegelas@hotmail.com 96.20.245.146 2008-11-18 09:39:59 2008-11-18 14:39:59 1 0 0 2161 45free@45free.com http://www.45free.com 204.101.88.2 2008-11-18 10:18:10 2008-11-18 15:18:10 1 0 0 2162 genevivesav@yahoo.com 208.113.15.203 2008-11-18 10:54:13 2008-11-18 15:54:13 1 0 0 2163 wjc@quickclic.net 207.210.9.113 2008-11-18 11:38:36 2008-11-18 16:38:36 1 0 0 2164 sherrymirshahi@yahoo.com http://www.InterviewRoadmap.com 65.160.251.254 2008-11-18 12:04:51 2008-11-18 17:04:51 1 0 0 2165 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.130 2008-11-18 12:37:01 2008-11-18 17:37:01 1 0 0 2166 gerry_chew@yahoo.ca 206.108.31.35 2008-11-18 13:46:13 2008-11-18 18:46:13 1 0 0 2167 synaesthesia@hotmail.com 142.46.200.42 2008-11-18 13:51:49 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brigusnf@gmail.com 66.207.109.227 2008-11-21 11:00:47 2008-11-21 16:00:47 1 0 0 2190 mikes_trip@yahoo.ca 64.114.199.1 2008-11-21 12:31:25 2008-11-21 17:31:25 1 0 0 2191 wbishop@teksavvy.com 76.10.132.53 2008-11-21 20:16:50 2008-11-22 01:16:50 1 0 0 2192 totallydoug@gmail.com 99.253.48.180 2008-11-21 21:42:46 2008-11-22 02:42:46 1 0 0 2193 flapew@yahoo.com 71.17.243.68 2008-11-21 23:54:22 2008-11-22 04:54:22 1 0 0 2194 rbayer@telus.net 199.126.245.122 2008-11-22 01:33:04 2008-11-22 06:33:04 1 0 0 2195 jack@jackchung.com 99.251.66.57 2008-11-22 11:02:02 2008-11-22 16:02:02 1 0 0 2196 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/11/24/monday-linkstuff-for-nov-24/ 67.205.18.215 2008-11-24 09:58:45 2008-11-24 14:58:45 1 pingback 0 0 2197 boptis@hotmail.com 206.235.255.194 2008-11-26 11:50:44 2008-11-26 16:50:44 1 0 0 2198 rajiv.abraham@gmail.com 76.66.200.240 2008-12-08 17:00:15 2008-12-08 22:00:15 1 0 0 2199 Lesbiche7067@yahoo.com http://themexicandream.com/vamonos/lesbiche.php 85.21.191.33 2009-01-27 07:29:50 2009-01-27 12:29:50 1 0 0 2200 robdemeritt@gmail.com 96.229.74.217 2009-09-18 19:37:17 2009-09-19 00:37:17 1 0 0 2201 ccdsunkiss@live.com http://dunno 76.14.225.68 2009-09-27 23:14:12 2009-09-28 04:14:12 1 0 0 2202 mhanen@live.ca 204.244.59.188 2009-10-04 13:13:40 2009-10-04 18:13:40 1 0 0 2203 mhanen@live.ca 204.244.59.188 2009-10-07 12:22:46 2009-10-07 17:22:46 1 0 0 2204 4tacoma@charter.net 24.183.189.40 2009-10-18 20:16:03 2009-10-19 01:16:03 1 0 0 2205 nakedmidgets@hotmail.com 205.200.78.136 2009-11-27 15:02:51 2009-11-27 20:02:51 1 0 0 2206 stepetor@gmail.com http://osdir.com/ml/scsi/2003-11/msg00063.html 95.79.23.147 2010-04-25 04:28:41 2010-04-25 09:28:41 valium without prescription, MfY5SzuEc3]]> spam 0 0
    Long Term Bonds Have An Attractive History...But http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/long-term-bonds-have-an-attractive-historybut/ Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:43:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=943 Don't forget to enter the contest to win a FREE Magellan Maestro GPS system! It's free to enter, and all you have to do is visit the contest page and leave a comment - say anthing you like, even "fuzzy wuzzy was a woman". The DEX Long Term Bond Index has posted an annualized return of 10.92% from January 1980 until October 31st, 2008. This is almost 2% higher than Canadian stocks during this time, and it did this with about two-thirds the volatility! Sounds like a compelling argument for just sticking to long term bonds... ...however, consider where interest rates were in the early 1980's (around 20%!). The last 28 years has basically seen a long-term decline in interest rates. Bond prices rise in a falling interest rate environment and long-term bonds rise in price even more quickly than short- and mid-term bonds. So before you go out and purchase a long term bond index, take some time to think if interest rates will have the same trend over the next 28 years, because it's possible that long term bonds could have some decidely unattractive returns over long time horizons going forward if interest rates slowly creep up during this time.]]> 943 2008-11-17 22:43:08 2008-11-18 03:43:08 open open long-term-bonds-have-an-attractive-historybut publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif _edit_lock 1226979789 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 2207 http://definedebt.com/long-term-bonds-have-an-attractive-history%e2%80%a6but/ 70.87.90.130 2008-11-17 23:16:21 2008-11-18 04:16:21 1 pingback 0 0 2208 richard@garandnet.net 142.165.175.116 2008-11-18 09:15:51 2008-11-18 14:15:51 1 0 0 2209 gene2u@mts.net 216.55.218.100 2008-11-19 15:15:27 2008-11-19 20:15:27 1 0 0 2210 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/11/21/this-and-that-another-week-another-drop 64.111.114.14 2008-11-21 00:38:42 2008-11-21 05:38:42 1 pingback 0 0 2211 cmstlist@yahoo.ca 24.82.139.90 2008-11-21 10:57:15 2008-11-21 15:57:15 1 0 0 findependence http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=945 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:10:32 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/findependence.jpg 945 2008-11-19 21:10:32 2008-11-20 02:10:32 open open findependence inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/findependence.jpg _wp_attached_file findependence.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"200";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='64'";s:4:"file";s:17:"findependence.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"findependence-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"findependence-200x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"200";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"findependence-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Findependence Day by Jonathan Chevreau http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/findependence-day-by-jonathan-chevreau/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:12:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=947 Don’t forget to enter the contest to win a FREE Magellan Maestro GPS system! It’s free to enter, and all you have to do is visit the contest page and leave a comment - say anthing you like, even “fuzzy wuzzy was a woman”.

    First Some Notes:

    1. I'm really busy getting adjusted to the new job and preparing for a three-week vacation in December to India so the content is thin these days (and probably will be until the New Year). 2. The GPS contest is still on AND I'm sweetening the pot by adding a second prize to a second winner who will be selected from the current contest entrants - so if you've entered the GPS contest you now have a chance to win wither a GPS or a copy of Jonathan Chevreau's new book!

    Findependence Day

    Today I attended the book launch for 'Findependence Day' written by Jonathan Chevreau (author of the Wealthy Boomer blog, and columnist with The National Post). Jonathan signed a copy for me (two actually, but I'm keeping the other!). You can read more about the book by reading the interview he gave to himself here. :) In a nutshell, it is actually written as a novel - a la The Wealthy Barber, and gives a more realistic perspective to financial planning - I haven't read it yet, but I love Jonathan's writing style and wit, so I know it will be a keeper.]]>
    947 2008-11-19 21:12:49 2008-11-20 02:12:49 open open findependence-day-by-jonathan-chevreau publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/findependence.jpg _edit_lock 1227147260 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/findependence.jpg 2212 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.125.185 2008-11-20 08:13:15 2008-11-20 13:13:15 1 0 0 2213 abcstocks@gmail.com http://canadianstockstrader.blogspot.com/ 129.42.208.179 2008-11-20 15:29:03 2008-11-20 20:29:03 1 0 0 2214 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/01/13/book-review-findependence-day/ 67.205.18.215 2009-01-13 05:51:52 2009-01-13 10:51:52 1 pingback 0 0 2215 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/02/04/the-great-canadian-book-giveaway/ 67.205.18.215 2009-02-04 05:02:02 2009-02-04 10:02:02 1 pingback 0 0
    Make Your Kids Fill Out A Paper Tax Return http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/make-your-kids-fill-out-a-paper-tax-return/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:28:44 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=950 Don’t forget to enter the contest to win a FREE Magellan Maestro GPS system! It’s free to enter, and all you have to do is visit the contest page and leave a comment - say anthing you like, even “fuzzy wuzzy was a woman”. I had dinner with one of my best friends tonight and he mentioned that he reads the blog but understands very little of what I write. We had many neurosci classes together and if ever there was a smart guy, it would be him. I realize that many more people would read this blog if I wrote less technical articles, and when I've mentioned that before some readers have mentioned that the only reason they read this blog is because of the nitty gritty details I sometimes get into. I'll continue to write posts that require some background knowledge, but I'm going to make an effort to write some less technical articles as well (and this would be one of them).

    Thank You Mr. McNeely

    Mr. McNeely was my highschool economics teacher and over the course of one week our class had a project to complete a paper tax return. We were given a very simple test subject with only a T4 and some background information, but we had to completely fill out the paper tax returns, including looking up on the tax tables the amounts of tax owing to both federal and provincial governments, look up tax credits, etc. At the end of the week, we took up the return line by line as a class. It actually took a full class period to go over the return (even though it was a very simple case), since we asked questions and were explained some subtleties along the way. I was recounting this experience to my friend and he mentioned that it was a fantastic idea and should be mandated for all students in elementary school and/or high-school. Couldn't agree more! I remember being fascinated by the exercise - probably the first clue that working in finance was in my future, and certainly made me feel more comfortable with money matters as a whole. The magic was just in doing it, as what had seemed like an insurmountable task when first presented felt almost trivial by the time we completed it.]]>
    950 2008-11-20 23:28:44 2008-11-21 04:28:44 open open make-your-kids-fill-out-a-paper-tax-return publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _edit_lock 1227241834 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2216 mike@solution4u.com 24.83.133.149 2008-11-21 00:58:09 2008-11-21 05:58:09 1 0 0 2217 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2008-11-21 11:27:28 2008-11-21 16:27:28 1 0 0 2218 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 84.13.214.88 2008-11-22 06:14:19 2008-11-22 11:14:19 1 0 0 2219 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2008-11-23 00:42:24 2008-11-23 05:42:24 1 0 0 2220 http://www.thewellheeled.com/?p=443 69.93.90.170 2008-12-12 15:39:02 2008-12-12 20:39:02 1 pingback 0 0
    Contest Winners! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-winners/ Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:54:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=951 The winner of the GPS System is: JME!

    The winner of the signed copy of 'Findependence Day' is: Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45!

    Congratulations! I'll be contacting the winners by email to arrange delivery of their prizes.]]>
    951 2008-11-23 21:54:26 2008-11-24 02:54:26 open open contest-winners publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1227495290 _edit_last 1
    Cap-Weighting Magnifies Your Exposure to Pricing Errors In The Wrong Ways http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/cap-weighting-magnifies-your-exposure-to-pricing-errors-in-the-wrong-ways/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:56:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=954 Example  Let's suppose we have 2 stocks in our stock market and that we magically know the true value (or fair value, or intrinsic value) of each. They each have a fair value of $10/share, but stock A has a stock market price of $20/share (market participants have bid the price up) and stock B has a stock market price of $5/share (market participants have bid the price down). If we assume that the market is fairly efficient for the most part, then it isn't crazy to see what would happen if the stock prices converged to their fair value prices ($10/share in both cases). First we have to see that our index is heavily weighted to Stock A which now represents 80% of our index ($20/share and a the total market is only $25). Stock B is similarly calculated to be only 20% of our index ($5/share out of a total market cap of $25 for the index). If Stock A were to retreat from $20/share to $10/share, then 80% of our index will have lost 50% in value. If Stock B were to increase from $5/share to $10/share, then 20% of our index will have gained 100% in value. The net effect is that you will have lost 20% overall.

    You Can Have Good Pricing Errors and Bad Pricing Errors 

    In this little example, our universe had only two stocks and in fact only two shares (one share per company). The company that was over-priced ($20 stock market price versus $10 fair value) had a very high weighting in our index simply because a market cap weighted index is constructed such that weighting is dictated by market cap (duh!). In this case we were over-exposed to this over-pricing error. The company that was under-valued ($5 stock market price versus $10 fair value) represented very little of our index, so our exposure to the stock that was going to go up was diminished.  ]]>
    954 2008-11-24 21:56:55 2008-11-25 02:56:55 open open cap-weighting-magnifies-your-exposure-to-pricing-errors-in-the-wrong-ways publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif _edit_lock 1227581816 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif 2221 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-11-25 00:14:56 2008-11-25 05:14:56 1 0 0 2222 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2008-11-25 08:55:32 2008-11-25 13:55:32 1 0 0 2223 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.12 2008-11-25 15:25:37 2008-11-25 20:25:37 1 0 0 2224 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.163.166 2008-11-25 20:45:15 2008-11-26 01:45:15 1 0 0 2225 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/indexing-based-on-fair-values-instead-of-market-cap/ 68.178.254.235 2008-11-25 22:42:37 2008-11-26 03:42:37 1 pingback 0 0 2226 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/fundamental-index-returns-for-15-years/ 68.178.254.235 2009-01-13 22:04:21 2009-01-14 03:04:21 1 pingback 0 0
    Indexing Based on Fair Values Instead of Market Cap http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/indexing-based-on-fair-values-instead-of-market-cap/ Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:42:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=955 Fair-Value Weighting an Index First: This is impossible! No-one knows the true fair value of a company, so keep in mind the purpose of this demonstration is strictly academic, theoretic and shouldn't create a pandemic. (Rhymes coutesy of Fiona...) In yesterday's post, we looked at how our cap-weighted index overweighted the overvalued companies and underweighted the undervalued companies, thereby magnifying our pricing errors in the exact opposite way that one would desire. Today we are going to re-weight these same stocks based on their fair value.

    Take Two

    We will take the same values from yesterday: Stock A and B both have a fair value of $10, but Stock A is priced in the market at $20 and Stock B is priced in the market at $5. If we weight them in our index based on their fair value, then they will each represent 50% of our new index. (The total fair value of the entire index is simply the sum of the fair values of the constituents, so with each stock having a fair value of $10 the fair value of the entire index is $20 - with each stock having a fair value of $10 they must each have a 50% weighting.) Now, if the stock market prices converge to fair value we will find the following: Stock A goes from $20 to $10, and 50% of our index has fallen 50%. Stock B goes from $5 to $10, and 50% of our index has risen 100%. The net effect is that you have gained 25%. Remember that the market cap-weighted index had a net effect of losing 20% in the same scenario.

    So What?

    Good question - it's all academic since we will never know what the fair value of an index is. However, the question now posed should be: is there a way to approximate fair-value weighting better than cap-weighting? This is the goal of "efficiency weighting" - which can take many forms. Cap-weighting works if you assume CAPM works, and markets are efficient all the time - in which case you believe that future prices are randomly distributed around current prices. Given that CAPM has been invalidated and that the father of EMH (Efficient Markets Hypothesis) basically rejects all three froms as individually good enough (Strong, Semi-Strong and Weak), it seems like a question worth exploring. According to Harry Markowitz, efficiency weighting assumes that current price is randomly distributed around fair value. (More on this later.) Tomorrow I will look at one method of efficiency weighting which demonstrates one possible way of approximating fair-value weighting...]]>
    955 2008-11-25 22:42:29 2008-11-26 03:42:29 open open indexing-based-on-fair-values-instead-of-market-cap publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1227670949 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif 2227 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/determining-fair-value/ 68.178.254.235 2008-11-30 21:45:06 2008-12-01 02:45:06 1 pingback 0 0 2228 http://www.thewellheeled.com/?p=396 69.93.90.170 2008-12-05 15:43:25 2008-12-05 20:43:25 1 pingback 0 0
    Fair Value Weighting Part II http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fair-value-weighting-part-ii/ Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:04:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=958 Any portfolio that differs from fair value weighting in a manner that is uncorrelated with the error in price will match the return of a fair-value weighted portfolio. The specific numbers in this exercise was provided by Mr. Markowitz, but I'll break down the calculations in the next post (after the lap of the blogs tomorrow). For those who don't know, Harry Markowitz is a Nobel Prize winner in Economics for his contributions to CAPM, and is considered one of the fathers of Modern Portfolio Theory.]]> 958 2008-11-27 00:04:03 2008-11-27 05:04:03 open open fair-value-weighting-part-ii publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _edit_lock 1227762323 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2229 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2008-11-28 15:18:59 2008-11-28 20:18:59 1 0 0 2230 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-ii/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-27 20:58:39 2010-01-28 01:58:39 1 pingback 0 0 Help Us Name A New Product http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/help-us-name-a-new-product/ Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:53:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=961 High Cost of Peace of Mind (Canadian Capitalist) Hard Sell (Michael James on Money)l Follow up comments from Michael James Comparing to a Bond Portfolio (Canadian Capitalist) Don't Ignore Dividends (Canadian Capitalist) The argument basically boils down to the fact that these products are very long term in nature and you are paying extra fees for guarantees you statistically might not ever need. We have decided that since these products are going to be sold no matter what, we might as well address one main critique (very high cost) and take some market share and hopefully save investors some money. We are working overtime to bring this to market for the beginning of February.]]> 961 2008-11-27 22:53:16 2008-11-28 03:53:16 open open help-us-name-a-new-product publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif _edit_lock 1227844397 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 2231 chemicker@hotmail.com 67.204.0.125 2008-11-28 00:04:57 2008-11-28 05:04:57 1 0 0 2232 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-11-28 00:56:06 2008-11-28 05:56:06 1 0 0 2233 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-28 03:22:04 2008-11-28 08:22:04 1 0 0 2234 george.wenzel@gmail.com 207.102.157.66 2008-11-28 07:39:59 2008-11-28 12:39:59 1 0 0 2235 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2008-11-28 07:40:31 2008-11-28 12:40:31 1 0 0 2236 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-11-28 08:36:39 2008-11-28 13:36:39 1 0 0 2237 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2008-11-28 08:58:30 2008-11-28 13:58:30 1 0 0 2238 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.143.230 2008-11-28 09:46:01 2008-11-28 14:46:01 1 0 0 2239 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2008-11-28 10:26:57 2008-11-28 15:26:57 1 0 0 2240 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2008-11-28 10:49:03 2008-11-28 15:49:03 1 0 0 2241 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2008-11-28 12:32:50 2008-11-28 17:32:50 1 0 0 2242 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.10 2008-11-28 14:41:57 2008-11-28 19:41:57 1 0 0 2243 mkono@sympatico.ca 69.156.20.236 2008-11-28 22:37:10 2008-11-29 03:37:10 1 0 0 2244 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-11-30 00:00:11 2008-11-30 05:00:11 1 0 0 2245 gene2u@mts.net 216.55.212.44 2008-11-30 21:43:33 2008-12-01 02:43:33 1 0 0 2246 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.239 2008-11-30 21:56:45 2008-12-01 02:56:45 1 0 0 2247 gene2u@mts.net 216.130.69.245 2008-12-03 12:13:37 2008-12-03 17:13:37 1 0 0 2248 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.108.71 2009-10-27 19:24:47 2009-10-28 00:24:47 1 0 0 2249 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-27 20:04:33 2009-10-28 01:04:33 1 0 0 2250 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-10-29 17:30:39 2009-10-29 22:30:39 1 0 0 2251 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-29 18:57:08 2009-10-29 23:57:08 1 0 0 2252 Jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-10-31 05:00:47 2009-10-31 10:00:47 1 0 0 2253 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-31 17:09:56 2009-10-31 22:09:56 1 0 0 2254 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-11-02 14:02:15 2009-11-02 19:02:15 1 0 0 Determining Fair Value http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/determining-fair-value/ Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:45:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=962 Where Were We?... Continuing on from the conversation about fair-value weighting versus market-capitalization weighting, we already know that we can never construct a fair-value weighted index or portfolio simply because no-one can know the true fair value of a company - ultimately, the best we can do is guess - which is basically the stock market's function. It is a compilation of the current guesses as to the fair value. Sometimes it seems right, and sometimes it seems just plain loopy.

    We're Just Guessing In The Short Run 

    Based on financial theory, most guesses as to the price of a stock is based on another guess: a guess of the future earnings of that company (and it's profitability). If you go back and read the series on P/E ratios you'll see that growth stocks (companies' whose earning are expected to grow rapidly) can have very high market capitalizations. If those earnings expectations are not met in the future, or the future expectations change negatively, then these same companies' stock prices can fall dramatically. I think most people would agree that a company's stock price probably oscillates above and below it's fair value throughout a company's lifetime. Over long periods of time, and across thousands of stocks, the pricing errors probably cancel each other out for the most part. The discussion above basically explains the famous Benjamin Graham quote:
    "In the short-run, the market is a voting machine - reflecting a voter-registration test that requires only money, not intelligence or emotional stability - but in the long-run, the market is a weighing machine."
     Again, as long as we are talking about long timeframes, the market eventually comes to it's collective senses. The short-term is another story though - investor psychology (fear and greed) can drive the market to excesses. That the market behaves like a weighing machine in the long run is a testament to the notion that capitalism works, but you can't say that confidently unless you have a long time horizon. ]]>
    962 2008-11-30 21:45:00 2008-12-01 02:45:00 open open determining-fair-value publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1228099500 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bengraham.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bengraham.gif 2255 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/investment-talking-6/ 216.17.106.121 2008-12-07 08:31:28 2008-12-07 13:31:28 1 pingback 0 0
    FTSE RAFI http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ftse-rafi/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:26:58 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=963 FTSE FTSE got its name because it was a collaboration between the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. It is best known for being an index data provider. You are probably most familiar with the FTSE 100 - which is the most widely followed UK stock market index. It is often mentioned in the same breath as the Dow or the S&P 500. FTSE currently provides index data for many thousands of indices globally.

    RAFI

    RAFI is an acronym for Research Affiliates Fundamental Index. It is a specific fundamental indexation methodology developed by Rob Arnott. Fundamental indexation can take on a variety of forms, mostly based on single metrics (i.e. just sales-weighting, or just dividend-weighting), but RAFI is a more well-thought out design which utilizes a composite of four separate fundamental metrics, and then further uses a five-year rolling average of those numbers. Research Affiliates is Arnott's company and it gets its name because they are very "research" oriented and then license the use of research-driven products through various affiliates around the world. For example, the company I work for (Pro-Financial Asset Management) is an affiliate in that we provide the unit trust structure of index funds that track FTSE RAFI mandates around the world. There is roughly US$35 billion in assets indexed according to Research Affiliates methodologies globally. I'll flesh out the the nature of the methodology in the next post.]]>
    963 2008-12-03 00:26:58 2008-12-03 05:26:58 open open ftse-rafi publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _edit_lock 1228282019 _edit_last 1
    FTSE RAFI Methodology http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ftse-rafi-methodology/ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:49:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=966 Index Construction It's probably helpful to go over how a cap-weighted index (vernacular for Market Capitalization Weighted) is constructed. If we had 100 companies in a market, and the total sum market capitalization of all the companies put together was $100 Billion, then if Company 1 had a market cap of $4 Billion, it would have a 4% weighting in a cap weighted index. If Company 100 had a market cap of $50 million it would have a weighting of 0.05% in the cap weighted index. To weight on fundamentals is very much the same process, you just use different numbers. So let's say our 100 companies have combined sales of $100 Billion, and Company 1 had sales of $2 Billion. In the sales-weighted index it has a weighting of 2%. With FTSE RAFI there's a bit more to it. You do the same for Cash-Flow, Book Value and Dividends. You then take the average of the four weightings to create a composite weighting. (If a company does not pay dividends, then you take an average of the first three only.) There's one more step: you then take the rolling 5 year average of this composite to create the final FTSE RAFI Weightings (the index is reconstituted once per year, based on receiving all the audited annual financial statements for the market constituents once per year). So you can see, none of these metrics or calculations have anything to do with the stock market price - therefore the structural link between portfolio weight and pricing error is removed. Pricing errors still occur, but the point is that they are random and they cancel each other out - instead of having most of your over-pricing errors magnified and most of your under-pricing errors diminished.]]> 966 2008-12-03 21:49:00 2008-12-04 02:49:00 open open ftse-rafi-methodology publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif _edit_lock 1228358941 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif 2256 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-12-04 07:04:20 2008-12-04 12:04:20 1 0 0 2257 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2008-12-04 11:12:00 2008-12-04 16:12:00 1 0 0 2258 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2008-12-04 18:48:00 2008-12-04 23:48:00 1 0 0 2259 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.163.166 2008-12-06 00:22:27 2008-12-06 05:22:27 1 0 0 2260 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/fundamental-index-returns-for-15-years/ 68.178.254.235 2009-01-13 22:03:40 2009-01-14 03:03:40 1 pingback 0 0 2261 patapia@gmail.com 91.132.96.221 2009-03-26 11:15:51 2009-03-26 16:15:51 1 0 0 10% Interest on Bank Deposits in India http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/10-interest-on-bank-deposits-in-india/ Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:58:24 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=967 Please take a look at the website for the Ramathra Fort - it is breath-taking. If you are planning a trip to India, I highly recommend spending a few days here. One of my cousins will take you for a hike to see the rural (and I mean RURAL) villages of India - a side of the country not normally seen by tourists.]]> 967 2008-12-12 21:58:24 2008-12-13 02:58:24 open open 10-interest-on-bank-deposits-in-india publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1229137105 _edit_last 1 2262 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/uncategorized/investment-talking-7/ 216.17.106.121 2008-12-13 07:00:37 2008-12-13 12:00:37 1 pingback 0 0 2263 samvatsalu@yahoo.ca 74.14.119.117 2008-12-26 10:58:17 2008-12-26 15:58:17 1 0 0 2264 thelex2007@yahoo.com http://buylikebuffett.com/ 69.251.37.46 2009-01-01 17:29:55 2009-01-01 22:29:55 1 0 0 Market Cap Per Employee http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/market-cap-per-employee/ Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:00:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=968 968 2008-12-15 05:00:13 2008-12-15 10:00:13 open open market-cap-per-employee publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1229222949 _edit_last 1 2265 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2008-12-15 08:55:52 2008-12-15 13:55:52 1 0 0 2266 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 117.196.225.166 2008-12-18 01:46:07 2008-12-18 06:46:07 1 0 0 More Tales From the Tech Bubble... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/more-tales-from-the-tech-bubble/ Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:00:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=969 969 2008-12-17 05:00:10 2008-12-17 10:00:10 open open more-tales-from-the-tech-bubble publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1229223301 _edit_last 1 2267 cjlebel@gmail.com http://www.carlj.ca 142.46.57.29 2008-12-17 09:58:55 2008-12-17 14:58:55 1 0 0 Time-Weighted vs Dollar-Weighted Returns http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/time-weighted-vs-dollar-weighted-returns/ Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:29:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=970 Still in India, but I have access to a computer ever now and then so it thought I would keep writing! Unfortunately, Fiona has been a bit ill  - I think we both got a bit of food-poisoning, but it's hit her harder than me. The rest of the family are off to Ranthambore on a tiger safari, but Fiona and I are still in Jaipur - not to worry though, as I'm getting some quality time with my aunts! :)

    Time Weighted Returns

    When you see the return of mutual funds, it's important to make a distinction between the time weighted return which is similar to what is reported on performance charts and the dollar-weighted returns, which represents what the average investor actually earned - the two can be dramatically different. If we have a fund that has an average annual return of 20% for three years, it can attract a lot of new investors (performance chasers). Let's suppose that the fund had $100 million invested at the beginning of this spectacular three year run. Now let's further suppose that $1 billion of new money gets added to the fund due to the great performance, but that the NEXT three year period results in a flat performance of 0% each year. The time-weighted average return over the 6 years is 10% - still sounds great.

    Dollar Weighted Returns

    The dollar weighted returns tells you what the average investor experienced since it links the performance to the amount invested in the fund at the time. From above we see that only $100 million earned a great rate of return, but the $1 billion that followed after the first three years earned nothing. On a dollar weighted basis the average investor earned less than 2% - a far cry from the 6 year average of 10%.]]>
    970 2008-12-19 08:29:16 2008-12-19 13:29:16 open open time-weighted-vs-dollar-weighted-returns publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1229693356 2268 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2008-12-19 09:19:12 2008-12-19 14:19:12 1 0 0 2269 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 117.196.231.223 2008-12-19 10:14:56 2008-12-19 15:14:56 1 0 0 2270 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/an-example-of-how-performance-chasing-damages-wealth/ 68.178.254.235 2008-12-20 00:19:26 2008-12-20 05:19:26 1 pingback 0 0 2271 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 190.157.73.168 2008-12-21 22:14:46 2008-12-22 03:14:46 1 0 0 2272 jctaylor11@gmail.com 199.43.32.99 2009-05-04 13:27:31 2009-05-04 18:27:31 1 0 0 2273 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-04 13:37:40 2009-05-04 18:37:40 1 0 0 2274 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-05-04 14:18:09 2009-05-04 19:18:09 1 0 0 2275 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-05 08:09:05 2009-05-05 13:09:05 1 0 0 2276 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-05-05 10:21:06 2009-05-05 15:21:06 here.]]> 1 0 0
    An Example of How Performance Chasing Damages Wealth http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-example-of-how-performance-chasing-damages-wealth/ Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:19:21 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=971 Yesterday's post explained the difference between time-weighted returns and dollar-weighted returns. If you read between the lines you'll have noticed that negative excess returns of dollar-weighted returns over time-weighted returns would indicate a proclivity to performance chase by investors. Some interesting data comes from Russel Kinnel who examined both the time-weighted returns and dollar-weighted returns of various mutual fund categories (US data), through April 2005:

     

    Dollar-Weighted 10 Year Return

    Official 10-Year Return

    Difference

    Large Value

    9.60%

    10.02%

    -0.40%

    Large Blend

    7.46%

    9.05%

    -1.59%

    Large Growth

    4.35%

    7.76%

    -3.41%

    Mid Value

    10.43%

    12.16%

    -1.73%

    Mid Blend

    10.59%

    11.41%

    -0.82%

    Mid Growth

    6.32%

    8.84%

    -2.53%

    Small Value

    11.64%

    13.63%

    -2.00%

    Small Blend

    8.95%

    11.32%

    -2.37%

    Small Growth

    5.35%

    8.41%

    -3.06%

    Source: Russel Kinnel from Morningstar, Inc. as cited in "The Fundamental Index" by Robert Arnott.
    ]]>
    971 2008-12-20 00:19:21 2008-12-20 05:19:21 open open an-example-of-how-performance-chasing-damages-wealth publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1229750866 _edit_last 1 2277 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/12/22/linkstuff-for-dec-22-week/ 67.205.18.215 2008-12-22 05:04:15 2008-12-22 10:04:15 1 pingback 0 0
    Quadruple Witching Days on The Stock Markets http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/quadruple-witching-days-on-the-stock-markets/ Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:39:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=972 Mark Wolfinger pointed out earlier on his blog that the market (US market) had 22 days where there was a 5% swing in price during the two months of October and November alone. To put this into perspective, this only happened 27 times between 1950 and 2000, a span of 50 years. Mark sourced the information in turn from a blog on Time Magazine's site. But I digress. A quadruple witching day is when you have a number of exchange traded derivatives expiring all at the same time. In this case we are talking about:
    1. Index Futures
    2. Index Options
    3. Options on individual Stocks
    4. Futures on individual Stocks
    Each set has their own schedule of expiry dates, and it so happens that all four have expiry dates on the following four dates of every year - the third Friday of the following months:
    • March, June, September and December
    So this past Friday was a Quadruple Witching Day, but could anyone tell? Normally, the higher experienced volatility would be reflective of positions being closed out for futures, and hedges being extended for those who wish to keep hedging, and all the other things that happen with derivatives trading.]]>
    972 2008-12-21 09:39:12 2008-12-21 14:39:12 open open quadruple-witching-days-on-the-stock-markets publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1229870353 _edit_last 1
    Happy Holidays http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/happy-holidays/ Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:04:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=973 973 2008-12-22 13:04:54 2008-12-22 18:04:54 open open happy-holidays publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1229883007 _edit_last 1 2278 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2008-12-23 09:28:42 2008-12-23 14:28:42 1 0 0 2279 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2008-12-28 06:55:25 2008-12-28 11:55:25 1 0 0 Boxing Day Sales Don't Seem Cheap After Returning From India http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/boxing-day-sales-dont-seem-cheap-after-returning-from-india/ Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:53:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=974
  • We had a chauffeur service and as an example, for one leg of the trip he drove us around 800km between cities (return) and before, during and after was at our beck and call if we wanted to go out for lunch, go sight-seeing or shopping, etc. He would just sit in the car and wait for us to finish. For this particular three day stretch the total cost was $162 CAD. Our cab ride from Pearson to Ajax was $83.
  • Two lattes from the local version of Starbucks was $4, instead of $3.xx for one which is what we pay in Canada.
  • We picked up a 100% cotton table runner and 8 cotton napkins for $8. They were labelled as Pier 1 products. Similar items from Peir 1's website would be over $60 all together.
  • Fiona had some henna applied to one of her hands, took the artist about 20 minutes and cost about $1.25.
  • I miss India already!!!]]>
    974 2008-12-28 06:53:03 2008-12-28 11:53:03 open open boxing-day-sales-dont-seem-cheap-after-returning-from-india publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1230465183 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg
    How Good Are The Guests on BNN? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-good-are-the-guests-on-bnn/ Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:18:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=975 They Sure Look Smart It would be hard to find people more well versed in many of the stocks they comment on, but you have to ask yourself a few questions as to if and how you should act on the information that is being doled out. A cynic would suggest that if they are giving away free information, it's either not that valuable or they are hoping people will act on their comments which in turn benefit the speaker (example: a fund manager buys a position the day before and then proclaims it to be the next big thing, viewers buy it over time and the manager sells it after riding the price up).

    Are Looks Deceiving?

    Well, the good news is that there is a site out there that keeps track of pretty much EVERYTHING that is said by visiting guests. It includes the guest's name, the stock's price at the time of the recommendation, the date and any comments (in point form). You can search by stock (to see all the various guests' opinions and recommendations on that one stock over time), or you can search by guest (to see all of their recommendations they have made over the years on various stocks). www.stockchase.com - I've set the link to point to the list of guests whose last names start with A to E. Feel free to check out this great site and feel free to let us know if you can find anyone who is consistently right.]]>
    975 2008-12-29 19:18:51 2008-12-30 00:18:51 open open how-good-are-the-guests-on-bnn publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1230669225 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 2280 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2008-12-29 22:36:29 2008-12-30 03:36:29 1 0 0 2281 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 142.165.175.116 2008-12-30 09:33:56 2008-12-30 14:33:56 1 0 0 2282 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2008-12-30 16:19:17 2008-12-30 21:19:17 1 0 0 2283 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/conspiracy-theories-about-investment-managers-on-tv/ 68.178.254.235 2008-12-30 16:37:48 2008-12-30 21:37:48 1 pingback 0 0 2284 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 142.165.175.116 2008-12-30 16:58:03 2008-12-30 21:58:03 1 0 0 2285 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2008-12-31 10:18:57 2008-12-31 15:18:57 1 0 0 2286 bill.bruner@gmail.com http://www.stockchase.com 72.136.26.167 2009-02-20 10:37:19 2009-02-20 15:37:19 1 0 0 2287 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.148.7 2009-02-21 09:20:36 2009-02-21 14:20:36 1 0 0 2288 bill.bruner@gmail.com http://www.stockchase.com 72.136.26.167 2009-04-13 15:11:40 2009-04-13 20:11:40 1 0 0 2289 npyhod@hlrsxl.com http://zhrrkdlkecvu.com/ 217.23.12.204 2010-04-24 15:01:56 2010-04-24 20:01:56 qpymcogaojtx, [url=http://abfqywtgoqfq.com/]abfqywtgoqfq[/url], [link=http://cmqbarrykjwc.com/]cmqbarrykjwc[/link], http://ecbnvwrkpvtf.com/]]> 0 0 0
    Conspiracy Theories about Investment Managers on TV http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/conspiracy-theories-about-investment-managers-on-tv/ Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:37:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=976 yesterday's post about the great website Stockchase.com in which I mentioned that a cynic might suspect an investment manager might give away free stock picks for dubious reasons... Here's a conspiracy theorist's short list of some strategies one might use:
    1. Pound the table on a stock because they already bought it and it's been going down and they want to pump the price up before dumping it. A case of hot potato.
    2. Espouse staying away from a stock at all costs, recommend selling it if you have it. Why? So they can pick it up more cheaply.
    3. Scream the sky is falling - because they have many short positions.
    On another note - if your fund manager got up there and starting giving away his top picks for free, wouldn't you be inclined to ask for a discount? You might be paying an arm and a leg for active management, but viewers who don't hold units of his/her fund are getting some of his/her best ideas for free. :) Mind you, if you look at some of the calls as listed on stockchase.com that might be more in line with the value. Thank You! I'm here all week... try the fish. :)]]>
    976 2008-12-30 16:37:39 2008-12-30 21:37:39 open open conspiracy-theories-about-investment-managers-on-tv publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1230673060 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif 2290 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2008-12-31 09:29:58 2008-12-31 14:29:58 1 0 0 2291 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2008-12-31 10:17:27 2008-12-31 15:17:27 1 0 0 2292 gammafriend@shaw.ca 96.50.134.180 2008-12-31 16:43:34 2008-12-31 21:43:34 1 0 0 2293 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/01/10/saturday-jan-10-linkstuff/ 67.205.18.215 2009-01-10 04:01:59 2009-01-10 09:01:59 1 pingback 0 0
    Personal Finance Bloggers' Stock Picking Contest 2009 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/personal-finance-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-2009/ Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:22:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=977 I Shy Away From Talking About Individual Picks I initially hesitated since I was worried that some readers might take some of these picks to heart and actually buy them themselves as part of their investment portfolios. However, I decided to participate anyways deciding that I'll just disclaimer the heck out of it. To that end:

    This Is Just For Funsies

    THIS STOCK PICKING CONTEST IS JUST FOR FUN, IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THE STOCKS LISTED HERE OR ON ANY OF THE OTHER BLOGGERS' SITES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING A PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR. IF YOU BUY THEM ANYWAYS, YOU MUST RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER AND REPEAT, "I AM A NUTBAR". Okay, with that now having been made clear, here are my four picks for this contest (in no particular order).

    1. Direxion Small Cap 3x Shares (TNA.us)

    This is an ETF that seeks to track 300% of the daily price movement of the Russell 2000 Index, which is a proxy for Small Cap US stocks in general. My decision on this one was based on the data which supports small caps leading the way out of a bear market before the general market. If that is indeed the case and 2009 shapes up to be a good year for small cap US stocks, this thing will fly. Plus, the ticker symbol is TNA. :P Purchase Price: $34.09/share

    2. Direxion Emerging Markets 3x Shares (EDC.us)

    Similar to the first pick, this is an ETF that provides 300% built-in leverage, only this time the underlying index is the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. This pick is simply a contrarian bet, and I'm hoping that since emerging markets were clobbered in 2008 they may have the most bounce in 2009. (Can you see how professional I'm being?) :) Purchase Price: $51.94/share

    3. Enablence Technologies (ENA.tsx-v)

    Enablence Technologies is based in Ottawa and to sum up in a nutshell the story behind this pick: The internet is said to be experiencing an "exaflood" which means that traffic and bandwidth demand is growing exponentially due to video sharing and other new technologies. There is a bottleneck that needs to be alleviated in that data can flow well up until it gets to your house (that's where the bottleneck is). Enablence has the technology that basically opens up that bottleneck. News coupled with a turn in the markets could make this a 10-bagger in the next few years. Or you could lose money on it. You know how it goes... Purchase Price: $0.30/share

    4. Horizons BetaPro Nymex Crude Oil Bull Plus ETF (HOU.tsx)

    This ETF seeks to track 200% of the daily price movement of the Nymex Crude Oil Index - in other words it's a leveraged bet that oil will go up in 2009. While I'm a fan of low fuel prices, I could see oil prices more likely to move up than down from where we are now over the next 12 months. Purchase Price: $2.42/share

    What The Other Guys Are Picking...

    Here is a list of links to the other participating members' picks: The Million Dollar Journey The Quest For Four Pillars (and Tina Fey) The Financial Blogger The Wild Investor Dividend Growth Investor Zachstocks My Traders Journal The Intelligent Speculator We'll each provide updates every quarter. Stay tuned, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)]]>
    977 2009-01-01 02:22:03 2009-01-01 07:22:03 open open personal-finance-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-2009 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1230825076 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2294 http://debtunlending.com/personal-finance-bloggers%e2%80%99-stock-picking-contest-2009/ 216.36.52.228 2009-01-01 03:23:43 2009-01-01 08:23:43 1 pingback 0 0 2295 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/stock-picking-competition-for-2009-my-4-stock-picks.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-01-01 06:31:07 2009-01-01 11:31:07 1 pingback 0 0 2296 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2009/01/01/2009-stock-picks/ 66.96.128.62 2009-01-01 07:52:42 2009-01-01 12:52:42 1 pingback 0 0 2297 http://zachstocks.com/2008/12/stocks_for_2009/ 69.89.31.97 2009-01-01 08:45:49 2009-01-01 13:45:49 1 pingback 0 0 2298 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/12/31/happy-new-year-and-stock-picks-for-2009/ 67.205.18.215 2009-01-01 08:54:54 2009-01-01 13:54:54 1 pingback 0 0 2299 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/4-stocks-to-consider-in-2009/ 216.17.106.121 2009-01-01 09:02:12 2009-01-01 14:02:12 1 pingback 0 0 2300 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/free_stock_picks/4-winners-for-2009/ 216.17.106.121 2009-01-01 14:29:06 2009-01-01 19:29:06 1 pingback 0 0 2301 thelex2007@yahoo.com http://buylikebuffett.com/ 69.251.37.46 2009-01-01 17:26:56 2009-01-01 22:26:56 1 0 0 2302 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-01 17:53:23 2009-01-01 22:53:23 this post which demonstrates why tracking the daily performance is not so straight forward.]]> 1 0 0 2303 thelex2007@yahoo.com http://buylikebuffett.com/ 69.251.37.46 2009-01-01 22:45:14 2009-01-02 03:45:14 1 0 0 2304 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-%e2%80%93-stupidest-ad-timing-ever-getting-sentimental-and-giving-to-children%e2%80%99s-wish-edition/ 216.17.106.121 2009-01-03 08:23:38 2009-01-03 13:23:38 1 pingback 0 0 2305 dustbusterz@yahoo.com 70.126.157.138 2009-01-04 21:52:59 2009-01-05 02:52:59 1 0 0 2306 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/stock-picks-competitions-q1-results/ 216.17.106.121 2009-03-31 16:18:29 2009-03-31 21:18:29 1 pingback 0 0 2307 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/03/31/top-stock-picks-for-2009-competition-q1-update/ 70.32.84.217 2009-03-31 19:38:58 2009-04-01 00:38:58 1 pingback 0 0 2308 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/bloggers-2009-stock-picking-contest-q1-results/ 68.178.254.235 2009-03-31 20:30:39 2009-04-01 01:30:39 1 pingback 0 0 2309 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/04/05/stock-competition-2009-quarterly-update-april-and-1000-giveaway/ 74.208.148.118 2009-04-05 22:24:04 2009-04-06 03:24:04 1 pingback 0 0 2310 http://www.postsaver.org/tags/journal 67.228.47.154 2009-06-25 06:47:22 2009-06-25 11:47:22 1 pingback 0 0 2311 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/stock-picks-for-2009-quarterly-update-july.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-07-05 14:31:17 2009-07-05 19:31:17 1 pingback 0 0 2312 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/07/05/stock-picks-for-2009-quarterly-update-july/ 174.120.10.130 2009-07-05 14:55:10 2009-07-05 19:55:10 1 pingback 0 0 2313 http://thewildinvestor.com/4-stocks-to-buy-in-2009/ 74.220.207.142 2009-09-30 20:03:11 2009-10-01 01:03:11 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-32/ Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:38:27 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=978 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. It's been a while since the last edition of A Lap Of The Blogs as my attention has been pulled in many different directions in the last two months of 2008, but I'm happy to say that we're back to our regularly scheduled programming. Thanks for putting up with the sporadic posting schedule and Happy New Year to you all!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    The Canadian Capitalist has a succinct summary of the year that was 2008. Michael James on Money made his way through the more than 800 pages of Warren Buffett's new biography and offers up some insight into the "Oracle of Omaha". Million Dollar Journey produced a primer on RRIF accounts (Registered Retirement Income Funds). Maybe he's retiring earlier than we think? :) Thicken My Wallet lists 10 of the biggest investing mistakes. Both amateur and professional investors can be guilty of these. Four Pillars explains thier first run in with margin calls. Big Cajun Man reminds us that we don't have to buy lots of stuff just because there are lots of sales.

    This Week's Racing Video

    A lap around Le Mans (of the 24 hours of Le Mans fame) in a 1967 GT40.

    ]]> 978 2009-01-01 18:38:27 2009-01-01 23:38:27 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-32 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1230853108 2314 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-01-02 01:32:10 2009-01-02 06:32:10 1 0 0 2315 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2009-01-02 18:21:30 2009-01-02 23:21:30 1 0 0 One Step Closer To Getting On TV... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/one-step-closer-to-getting-on-tv/ Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:45:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=979 The Next Challenge Is Complete! The next stage in the challenge was to be assigned a surprise task by the W Network and to have it filmed by one of their crews. My task was to walk around with a sandwich board that read "Free $$$ Advice" in a parking lot and try to get people to ask me questions (and to try and answer them). It certainly was a challenge as the trick was to answer in a way that pure lay-people would appreciate, and to do it without skipping a beat. If I had time to think about my answers, they certainly would've been different, but all things considered it went very well and I think the challenge was designed more to see how I would be on-camera.

    Round Two Of Voting

    Unfortunately, the second video was posted in mid-December and I didn't get around to promoting it in time for you to all see it - the second round of voting has ended! The final winners will be announced on January 9th. Wish me luck!]]>
    979 2009-01-04 14:45:45 2009-01-04 19:45:45 open open one-step-closer-to-getting-on-tv publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1231207105 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif 2316 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2009-01-04 19:39:53 2009-01-05 00:39:53 1 0 0 2317 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-01-04 22:05:57 2009-01-05 03:05:57 1 0 0 2318 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-05 02:50:21 2009-01-05 07:50:21 1 0 0 2319 derrick.fung@utoronto.ca 99.244.5.103 2009-01-05 05:46:38 2009-01-05 10:46:38 1 0 0 2320 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-01-05 13:51:22 2009-01-05 18:51:22 1 0 0 2321 gene2u@mts.net 216.55.219.87 2009-01-05 17:54:43 2009-01-05 22:54:43 1 0 0 2322 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-05 20:39:07 2009-01-06 01:39:07 1 0 0 2323 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-05 20:41:01 2009-01-06 01:41:01 1 0 0 2324 mkono@sympatico.ca 142.108.62.183 2009-01-06 08:53:40 2009-01-06 13:53:40 1 0 0 2325 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-01-06 16:28:48 2009-01-06 21:28:48 1 0 0 2326 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-06 21:01:55 2009-01-07 02:01:55 1 0 0 2327 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-06 21:02:32 2009-01-07 02:02:32 1 0 0
    Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETFs Tracking The Same Index Can BOTH Lose Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/leveraged-and-inverse-leveraged-etfs-tracking-the-same-index-can-both-lose-money/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:32:35 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=980 ALL LOST MONEY for the 1 year periods ending November 30, 2008. Anyone want to venture a guess as to how this happened?

    S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index

    HBP S&P/TSX Energy Bull Plus ETF

    HBP S&P/TSX Energy Bear Plus ETF

    -25.58%

    -59.44%

    -30.19%

    S&P/TSX Global Gold Index

    HBP S&P/TSX Globl Gold Bull Plus ETF

    HBP S&P/TSX Globl Gold Bear Plus ETF

    -16.10%

    -59.76%

    -73.67%

    I also wrote about this a few months ago here with a more detailed explanation.]]>
    980 2009-01-05 20:32:35 2009-01-06 01:32:35 open open leveraged-and-inverse-leveraged-etfs-tracking-the-same-index-can-both-lose-money publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231207082 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif 2328 http://www.blogbookmarker.com/tags/inverse 67.228.47.154 2009-01-22 01:23:16 2009-01-22 06:23:16 1 pingback 0 0 2329 tietneassezem@mymail-in.net http://pettags.com/forum/members/Soma-without-a-prescription-canadian.aspx 68.84.73.174 2010-04-24 18:18:37 2010-04-24 23:18:37 order viagra uk firewall phentermine discount sequitors buy soma online flyer cheap overnight tramadol jimmie online doctor consultation for Topamax Baker is propecia addictive Fairfield no rx ultram LINDA phentermine saturday minors cialis state contractor licensing board NASIONAL order chead soma dozen purchase Topamax uk delivery 030401d tramadol online medication attendant buy prozac cheapest dj carisoprodol no prescriptions needed Gaidi lowest cost tramadol Intelligent buy cod Doxycycline enemies ]]> spam 0 0
    tsxchart2009 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/market-rally-proceeds-of-tax-loss-selling/tsxchart2009/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:21:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/tsxchart2009.gif 982 2009-01-06 21:21:58 2009-01-07 02:21:58 open open tsxchart2009 inherit 981 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/tsxchart2009.gif _wp_attached_file tsxchart2009.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"400";s:6:"height";s:3:"322";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='119'";s:4:"file";s:16:"tsxchart2009.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"tsxchart2009-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"tsxchart2009-300x241.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"241";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"tsxchart2009-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"tsxchart2009-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Market Rally: Proceeds of Tax Loss Selling? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/market-rally-proceeds-of-tax-loss-selling/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:36:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=981 What Is Tax Loss Selling? In a nutshell, if you sell a security that is trading at a loss from when you first purchased it you can sell it to realize the loss. You can carry forward this loss and apply it against future capital gains - net result is that you can reduce your tax bill by doing this. This all assumes we are talking about non-registered accounts. One further caveat is that you cannot just purchase the same security you sold the very next day - you have to either buy something different or wait 31 days to buy back the security you sold in order to be eligible to claim the loss. Further, in order to qualify for a certain calendar year your trade has to settle before the end of the year - that meant that December 24th was the last day to sell any securities at a loss and have it qualify for the 2008 tax year (since there were only three trading days after that, and trades take three days to settle!). For a more detailed explanation of tax loss selling, please read this article on the Million Dollar Journey.

    Is It Just Money Looking For a Home?

    With 2008 being such a dismal year, many people had planned on doing some tax loss selling (or tax loss harvesting as it's also referred to). For those people, they may have planned on waiting to re-deploy their cash proceeds until the day after the last day for tax loss sales eligible for 2008 to take place, since in theory people would be selling right up until that point (the ones selling for tax purposes anyways). Selling pressure = more price declines so it makes sense to wait to buy until you think the selling pressure has subsided. Given that there is potentially a lot of money sitting on the sidelines, this shoot from the hip theory isn't all that far fetched. Take a look at the chart to see the recent market action.

    It's worth noting that the price of oil has been on a tear as well, and since the TSX is so heavily swayed by the price of oil perhaps the timing of the last day for tax loss selling is just trivial. In either case, it's worth noting that volume hasn't been anything to write home about during this brief rally - which from a technical perspective indicates caution is warranted that this rally may be short lived. What's that? Forget trying to figure it out and just buy an index? ...bah! You're singing to the choir. :)]]>
    981 2009-01-06 21:36:16 2009-01-07 02:36:16 open open market-rally-proceeds-of-tax-loss-selling publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231295966 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 2330 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-01-07 10:57:26 2009-01-07 15:57:26 1 0 0 2331 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-01-07 10:59:08 2009-01-07 15:59:08 1 0 0 2332 antonypr@yahoo.com http://www.canadianinvestmentblog.com/ 209.139.192.243 2009-01-07 14:07:13 2009-01-07 19:07:13 1 0 0 2333 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-01-07 14:28:07 2009-01-07 19:28:07 1 0 0 2334 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-07 15:08:57 2009-01-07 20:08:57 1 0 0 2335 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-07 15:09:52 2009-01-07 20:09:52 1 0 0 2336 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-07 15:11:40 2009-01-07 20:11:40 1 0 0 2337 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-07 15:14:35 2009-01-07 20:14:35 1 0 0 2338 antonypr@yahoo.com http://www.canadianinvestmentblog.com/ 209.139.192.243 2009-01-07 16:35:06 2009-01-07 21:35:06 1 0 0 2339 http://www.thewellheeled.com/?p=510 69.93.90.170 2009-01-16 14:19:04 2009-01-16 19:19:04 1 pingback 0 0
    Superficial Loss Rules in Canada http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/superficial-loss-rules-in-canada/ Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:20:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=983 Example Let's say we bought 1 share of company ABC for $5000. It later loses value over the year and is now only trading at $3000. Let's assume we sell this share now for $3000. Let's further look at buying it back at $3000 within 30 days and buying it back at $3000 after 30 days (obviously the stock will not just wait around to be bought at the price we want, so understand that this is for demonstrative purposes). Finally, we will assume that ABC increases to $6000 later on and we will sell it at that time.

    We Immediately Buy It Back

    In this case we are not allowed to claim the capital loss because the superficial loss rules apply, but we can add the loss to the adjusted cost base. We have a new investment with a cost base of $3000 + $2000 = $5000. When we eventually sell it for $6000 we now have a capital gain of $1000. The "taxable capital gain" is 1/2 of your capital gain which means that 1/2 of $1000 is subject to tax. $500 multiplied by the Marginal Tax Rate of 50% means we pay $250 in tax in this case. If we did not sell the stock and just held it from $5000 to $6000, we would have had a capital gain of $1000, a taxable capital gain of $500 and tax payable of $250. The same result. What's the big deal about avoiding the superficial loss rules you say??? Read on.

    We Wait 31 Days Before Buying It Back

    In this case we now have the ability to claim the capital loss. The "allowable capital loss" is 50% of the capital loss. This means the "allowable capital loss" is $1000. This allowable capital loss can be used to offset taxable capital gains in the year the disposition was made and up to three calendar tax years prior or carried forward indefinitely. When we re-purchase ABC at $3000 after 30 days and then later sell it at $6000 again we have a capital gain of $3000, and a taxable capital gain of $1500. The taxable capital gain can be reduced by the $1000 allowable capital loss for a total taxable capital gain of $500. When multiplied by the Marginal Tax Rate of 50% we find that in this case only $250 of tax is owing. Wait a sec, this is the same tax payable as above. So really, what's the big deal?

    The Big Deal

    The big deal is that by avoiding the superficial loss rules you can save money in tax today AND/OR in the future as opposed to only in the future if you trigger the superficial loss rule. By being allowed to claim the loss you have more flexibility as to the timing of your tax savings. Disclaimer: Check with a tax professional before making any financial decisions based on anything written by me (a NON tax professional!). Ditto with investing and other planning information I write. I reserve the right to be wrong. Always look both ways before crossing the street and for heaven's sake don't eat yellow snow! :P]]>
    983 2009-01-07 22:20:06 2009-01-08 03:20:06 open open superficial-loss-rules-in-canada publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _edit_lock 1231384807 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 2340 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-08 05:34:38 2009-01-08 10:34:38 1 0 0 2341 antonypr@yahoo.com http://www.canadianinvestmentblog.com 70.79.114.197 2009-01-08 09:53:18 2009-01-08 14:53:18 1 0 0 2342 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-01-08 10:57:58 2009-01-08 15:57:58 1 0 0 2343 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-01-08 11:01:14 2009-01-08 16:01:14 1 0 0 2344 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-08 15:07:05 2009-01-08 20:07:05 1 0 0 2345 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/01/09/this-and-that-giveaway-edition 64.111.114.14 2009-01-09 08:03:37 2009-01-09 13:03:37 1 pingback 0 0 2346 cmstlist@yahoo.ca 96.49.134.88 2009-01-09 12:26:57 2009-01-09 17:26:57 1 0 0 2347 antonypr@yahoo.com http://www.canadianinvestmentblog.com 209.139.192.230 2009-01-09 16:40:35 2009-01-09 21:40:35 1 0 0 2348 awardtour@gmail.com http://awardtour.net 173.34.37.182 2009-01-10 14:43:07 2009-01-10 19:43:07 1 0 0 2349 mjpisni@mts.net 207.161.57.66 2009-01-11 08:46:40 2009-01-11 13:46:40 1 0 0 2350 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-12 05:18:48 2009-01-12 10:18:48 1 0 0 2351 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-12 05:20:43 2009-01-12 10:20:43 1 0 0 2352 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-13 15:24:16 2009-01-13 20:24:16 1 0 0 2353 http://www.thewellheeled.com/?p=488 69.93.90.170 2009-01-17 10:39:27 2009-01-17 15:39:27 1 pingback 0 0 2354 dcpaley@gmail.com http://blog.taxresource.ca 167.80.244.204 2009-02-24 10:53:20 2009-02-24 15:53:20 1 0 0 2355 laura4csc@hotmail.com 70.49.142.152 2009-03-29 09:23:30 2009-03-29 14:23:30 1 0 0 2356 cmstlist@yahoo.ca 174.6.81.148 2009-03-29 11:41:19 2009-03-29 16:41:19 1 0 0 2357 laura4csc@hotmail.com 70.51.212.14 2009-04-03 11:40:29 2009-04-03 16:40:29 1 0 0 2358 cmstlist@yahoo.ca 174.6.81.148 2009-04-03 12:40:22 2009-04-03 17:40:22 1 0 0 2359 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-03 15:12:54 2009-04-03 20:12:54 1 0 0 2360 laura4csc@hotmail.com 70.48.5.38 2009-04-04 15:54:46 2009-04-04 20:54:46 1 0 0 2361 jun_l_2512958@hotmail.com 204.50.157.181 2009-04-24 12:10:16 2009-04-24 17:10:16 1 0 0 2362 http://www.phitempest.com/2010/02/25/superficial-loss-vs-capital-loss-rules-in-canada/ 69.163.203.185 2010-02-25 13:04:59 2010-02-25 18:04:59 1 pingback 0 0 2363 http://www.quantisan.com/forex-trading-income-or-capital-gain-tax-in-canada/ 216.86.146.15 2010-04-07 19:39:34 2010-04-08 00:39:34 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-33/ Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:48:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=984 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. If you are reading this on Friday then the results of the W Network Expert Search will have been published on the TV network's website. (I had auditioned with 400 other people to become the "W Network's Next Expert Host"). I think the results will be posted sometime during the day, but you can try your luck now by clicking here and maybe it's already posted. Hopefully, I will have been selected so I can start telling the world about the evils of MERs and the such! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    I did a small interview for Desi Life magazine in the Toronto Star as part of a story on the new Tax Free Savings Account. Michael James on Money finds a flaw in a recent newspaper article that stated that CEO's make in 4 minutes what the average Canadian makes in a year. The truth isn't quite so bad, but... Canadian Capitalist explains that the 15 bps (0.15%) extra fee on currency hedged versions of some iShares ETFs pale in comparison to their drag from high tracking errors. Million Dollar Journey has a guest article on how a family of four can feed themselves for $100/week. Four Pillars looks at 11 Things To Consider When Buying a House. Big Cajun Man adds up the cost of his daughter's first term at university. Yikes! I've recently wondered at what point during an MBA does someone get educated enough to realize the ROI wasn't worth it... (I keed, I keed) Larry MacDonald questions why so many efforts to teach kids about money and investing seem to focus around what are now generally considered to be gambling techniques. :) Thicken My Wallet has a two part series on Preferred Shares. You can read Part I here, and Part II here. Jonathan Chevreau blogs about the first actively managed ETF for sale in Canada: the Horizons AlphaPro Managed S&P/TSX 60 ETF. Guess this means I'll have to update the Guide to Canadian Listed ETFs. Phooey.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is a video of Colin McRae explaining why he left foot brakes in his World Rally Car to a passenger who I'm sure is much more frightened than they are trying to let on. The exterior shot at the very end is nice...

    ]]> 984 2009-01-08 21:48:20 2009-01-09 02:48:20 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-33 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231469797 _edit_last 1 2364 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-01-08 23:33:09 2009-01-09 04:33:09 1 0 0 2365 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-01-09 07:56:43 2009-01-09 12:56:43 1 0 0 2366 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-01-09 09:33:54 2009-01-09 14:33:54 1 0 0 2367 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 65.94.113.161 2009-01-09 11:45:35 2009-01-09 16:45:35 1 0 0 2368 mkono@sympatico.ca 70.48.229.186 2009-01-09 21:08:32 2009-01-10 02:08:32 1 0 0 Total Return Indices' Calendar Returns for 15 Years http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/total-return-indices-calendar-returns-for-15-years/ Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:16:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=985 one of the finalists. Filming will be for two weeks in late spring and they will produce between 1 and 3 shows to be aired later this year (tentative). From the ratings from those few episodes, I think they will determine if any of the 7 finalists will get a permanent spot. Thanks everyone!

    Calendar Year Return History

    I'm going to be posting some data this week, including index returns, mutual fund index returns and some fundamental index returns as well as some other material as I've been compiling data for some projects at work and thought I would share some of the info. Below are the annual calendar year returns for five different "total return" equity indices from 1994 until 2008. Total Return means that dividends are included in the calculations (a price-only index excludes dividends).

    Annual Returns 1994-2008, Cap-Weighted Total Return Indices in Canadian Dollar Terms

    S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index S&P 500 Total Return Index (CAD) MSCI EAFE & Canada - Gross (CAD) MSCI Emerging Markets - Gross (CAD) MSCI Hong Kong - Gross (CAD)
    1994 -0.18% 7.25% 13.95% -1.90% -24.74%
    1995 14.53% 33.90% 8.83% -7.74% 19.30%
    1996 28.35% 23.34% 7.52% 6.36% 33.49%
    1997 14.98% 39.12% 6.99% -7.77% -19.99%
    1998 -1.58% 38.36% 20.47% -19.66% 4.48%
    1999 31.71% 13.68% -9.82% 56.29% 49.82%
    2000 7.41% -5.61% -16.27% -27.94% -11.46%
    2001 -12.57% -6.42% -16.17% 3.68% -13.57%
    2002 -12.44% -22.71% 14.52% -6.74% -18.43%
    2003 26.72% 5.25% 12.53% 27.82% 12.96%
    2004 14.48% 3.25% 11.35% 17.29% 16.39%
    2005 24.13% 1.62% 11.35% 30.32% 4.99%
    2006 17.26% 15.75% 26.19% 32.54% 30.30%
    2007 9.83% -10.54% -4.25% 18.53% 19.72%
    2008 -33.00% -21.96% -29.68% -42.00% -39.55%
    Note that Canadian Capitalist had a post outlining some asset class returns for 2008 as well, and in that post he links to a spreadsheet with calendar returns with more history (back to 1970). Check it out by clicking here. Tomorrow I'm going to post the returns for the commensurate Morningstar Mutual Fund Indices (it ain't pretty).]]>
    985 2009-01-11 22:16:43 2009-01-12 03:16:43 open open total-return-indices-calendar-returns-for-15-years publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231789539 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif 2369 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-01-12 00:21:35 2009-01-12 05:21:35 1 0 0 2370 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-12 05:12:42 2009-01-12 10:12:42 1 0 0 2371 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.88 2009-01-12 13:01:27 2009-01-12 18:01:27 1 0 0 2372 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2009-01-12 14:28:28 2009-01-12 19:28:28 1 0 0 2373 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/mutual-fund-return-indices-for-15-years/ 68.178.254.235 2009-01-12 21:30:10 2009-01-13 02:30:10 1 pingback 0 0 2374 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/01/16/random-thoughts-for-a-bad-week/ 67.205.7.217 2009-01-16 01:33:50 2009-01-16 06:33:50 1 pingback 0 0 2375 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/01/16/friday-jan-16-linkstuff/ 67.205.18.215 2009-01-16 11:04:39 2009-01-16 16:04:39 1 pingback 0 0
    Mutual Fund Return Indices For 15 Years http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mutual-fund-return-indices-for-15-years/ Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:29:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=986 Yesterday's post looked at some Total Return Indices' Calendar Year Returns for the past 15 years. Today we are going to look at the same returns for the mutual fund averages as sourced from various sources (but all ultimately coming from Morningstar).

    Mutual Fund Index Calendar Year Returns, 1994 - 2008

    Morningstar Canadian Equity Mutual Fund Index (CAD) Morningstar US Equity Mutual Fund Index (CAD) Morningstar Global Equity Mutual Fund Index (CAD) Morningstar Emerging Markets Equity Mutual Fund Index (CAD) Morningstar Asia Pac-Rim ex Japan Equity Mutual Fund Index (CAD)
    1994 -3.85% 3.07% 6.22% n/a -11.59%
    1995 12.05% 24.46% 12.90% n/a 9.89%
    1996 23.77% 17.90% 15.37% n/a 14.70%
    1997 12.04% 30.92% 15.68% -6.35% -30.56%
    1998 -2.67% 24.31% 10.40% -20.70% 0.74%
    1999 24.62% 10.12% 20.18% 63.17% 48.31%
    2000 8.98% -5.67% -4.90% -28.04% -23.40%
    2001 -7.53% -11.59% -6.76% -0.91% -6.83%
    2002 -12.71% -22.49% -18.05% -12.06% -17.80%
    2003 22.70% 5.86% 10.55% 26.65% 14.34%
    2004 13.43% 2.26% 6.47% 12.03% 6.64%
    2005 22.33% 2.04% 5.84% 28.57% 15.98%
    2006 16.79% 12.25% 18.01% 32.28% 35.46%
    2007 8.45% -10.73% -6.69% 18.25% 16.61%
    2008 -35.20% -29.30% -29.80% -45.90% -36.50%
    Just a sea of numbers unless you can compare them side by side to the total return index benchmarks. Or create a new chart that just shows the *ahem* excess returns of mutual funds over the benchmark indices. If the number is negative, it indicates the mutual fund index average for that category underperformed it's benchmark.

    Excess Returns of Mutual Fund Indices over Benchmark Total Return Indices

    Canadian Market US Market Foreign Developed Markets Foreign Emerging Markets Hong Kong China Market
    1994 -3.67% -4.18% -7.73% n/a 13.15%
    1995 -2.48% -9.44% 4.07% n/a -9.41%
    1996 -4.58% -5.44% 7.85% n/a -18.79%
    1997 -2.94% -8.20% 8.69% 1.42% -10.57%
    1998 -1.09% -14.05% -10.07% -1.04% -3.74%
    1999 -7.09% -3.56% 30.00% 6.88% -1.51%
    2000 1.57% -0.06% 11.37% -0.10% -11.94%
    2001 5.04% -5.17% 9.41% -4.59% 6.74%
    2002 -0.27% 0.22% -32.57% -5.32% 0.63%
    2003 -4.02% 0.61% -1.98% -1.17% 1.38%
    2004 -1.05% -0.99% -4.88% -5.26% -9.75%
    2005 -1.80% 0.42% -5.51% -1.75% 10.99%
    2006 -0.47% -3.50% -8.18% -0.26% 5.16%
    2007 -1.38% -0.19% -2.44% -0.28% -3.11%
    2008 -2.20% -7.34% -0.12% -3.90% 3.05%
    Before anyone asks, I am trying to determine if these number are adjusted for survivorship or not, and what fees were used in calculating the mutual fund index returns. Stay tuned as I'll post that info when I find out. Notwithstanding, I think the data is interesting as it is.]]>
    986 2009-01-12 21:29:59 2009-01-13 02:29:59 open open mutual-fund-return-indices-for-15-years publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif _edit_lock 1231813800 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif 2376 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-13 05:41:52 2009-01-13 10:41:52 1 0 0 2377 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-15 19:13:03 2009-01-16 00:13:03 1 0 0 2378 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/01/16/friday-odds-and-ends-2/ 82.165.243.157 2009-01-16 04:06:28 2009-01-16 09:06:28 1 pingback 0 0
    Fundamental Index Returns For 15 Years http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fundamental-index-returns-for-15-years/ Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:03:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=987 Fundamental Index methodology, click here.

    Fundamental Index Calendar Year Returns From 1994 to 2008

    FTSE RAFI Canada Total Return Index FTSE RAFI US 1000 Total Return Index (CAD) FTSE RAFI Global ex-US Total Return Index (CAD) FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Total Return Index (CAD) FTSE RAFI Hong Kong/China Total Return Index (CAD)
    1994 5.09% 6.12% 19.63% 18.73% -23.66%
    1995 15.94% 33.59% 8.58% -23.01% 15.96%
    1996 36.33% 22.55% 11.33% 20.19% 36.22%
    1997 35.74% 39.32% 5.87% 10.97% -21.11%
    1998 5.20% 29.84% 28.65% 1.41% -7.09%
    1999 26.52% 4.00% 25.87% 62.72% 41.76%
    2000 30.93% 15.01% 0.35% -17.64% -4.41%
    2001 2.11% 8.10% -11.16% 13.31% -1.12%
    2002 -11.93% -18.50% -11.63% 0.87% -8.29%
    2003 31.82% 9.57% 18.78% 53.53% 30.81%
    2004 14.50% 6.92% 13.84% 24.43% 16.13%
    2005 23.30% 2.81% 12.03% 37.46% 10.37%
    2006 17.41% 19.64% 29.20% 40.54% 38.66%
    2007 8.29% -12.62% -2.94% 22.99% 30.40%
    2008 -31.15% -25.67% -30.50% -37.16% -35.40%
    And again, I'm sure most will want to compare this to the traditional cap-weighted index returns so the below chart does that (and yes, I'm using the cap-weighted TOTAL returns indices). The numbers below are the excess returns of the FTSE RAFI indices over the cap-weighted indices.
    Canadian Market US Market Foreign Developed Markets Foreign Emerging Markets Hong Kong China Market
    1994 5.27% -1.13% 5.68% 20.63% 1.08%
    1995 1.41% -0.31% -0.25% -15.27% -3.34%
    1996 7.98% -0.79% 3.81% 13.83% 2.73%
    1997 20.76% 0.20% -1.12% 18.74% -1.12%
    1998 6.78% -8.52% 8.18% 21.07% -11.57%
    1999 -5.19% -9.68% 35.69% 6.43% -8.06%
    2000 23.52% 20.62% 16.62% 10.30% 7.05%
    2001 14.68% 14.52% 5.01% 9.63% 12.45%
    2002 0.51% 4.21% -26.15% 7.61% 10.14%
    2003 5.10% 4.32% 6.25% 25.71% 17.85%
    2004 0.02% 3.67% 2.49% 7.14% -0.26%
    2005 -0.83% 1.19% 0.68% 7.14% 5.38%
    2006 0.15% 3.89% 3.01% 8.00% 8.36%
    2007 -1.54% -2.08% 1.31% 4.46% 10.68%
    2008 1.85% -3.71% -0.82% 4.84% 4.15%
    Since the cost of tracking a fundamental index is roughly 40bps more in management fees than a cap-weighted index tracking fund (currently), and if you are generous and assume double the portfolio turnover from about 6% to 12% resulting in slightly less tax efficiency then perhaps any year above with a positive performance of more than 0.75% could be considered a "win". You'll note that the less efficient markets (ones susceptible to bigger and more frequent pricing bubbles) look particularly attractive for fundamental indexation. This might be made more clear by reading this previous post about how cap-weighting magnifies your overpricing errors and reduces your underpricing errors.]]>
    987 2009-01-13 22:03:34 2009-01-14 03:03:34 open open fundamental-index-returns-for-15-years publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1231902256 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 2379 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-01-14 13:46:43 2009-01-14 18:46:43 1 0 0 2380 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-14 22:13:12 2009-01-15 03:13:12 1 0 0 2381 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-01-20 21:29:47 2009-01-21 02:29:47 1 0 0
    Sample Portfolio of FTSE RAFI Funds versus Cap-Weighted ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/sample-portfolio-of-ftse-rafi-funds-versus-cap-weighted-etfs/ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:30:36 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=990 Having Said That... One sample that I thought I would share with you is a comparison of a portfolio of the five different mandates mentioned in the previous posts this week with the f-class management fee deducted from the annual returns for the FTSE RAFI fundamental indices and with the cap-weighted ETF MER deducted from the cap-weighted total returns. This is designed as a comparison for "fee-based" advisors who charge a separate client advisory fee so that they can see the approximate "after-management fee performance" of the two strategies. Again, I have to re-iterate that back-testing does not account for market impact and tracking error, so the real world performance difference may have been different and perhaps to a material degree. Also, this is in no way a recommendation for a portfolio allocation (though I've seen much worse!). :)

    (You can click on the graph for a larger version)

    Thanks for sticking with the blog during this week of charts and graphs. Back to some more regular posts next week... :)]]>
    990 2009-01-14 22:30:36 2009-01-15 03:30:36 open open sample-portfolio-of-ftse-rafi-funds-versus-cap-weighted-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _edit_lock 1231991109 _edit_last 1 2382 johnston.scott@gmail.com 207.245.36.116 2009-01-15 09:08:00 2009-01-15 14:08:00 1 0 0 2383 johnston.scott@gmail.com 207.245.36.116 2009-01-15 09:21:44 2009-01-15 14:21:44 1 0 0 2384 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-01-15 10:39:03 2009-01-15 15:39:03 1 0 0 2385 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-15 17:18:57 2009-01-15 22:18:57 1 0 0 2386 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-15 18:41:54 2009-01-15 23:41:54 1 0 0 2387 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-15 18:53:47 2009-01-15 23:53:47 1 0 0 2388 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-22 21:36:56 2009-01-23 02:36:56 1 0 0 2389 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-22 22:35:56 2009-01-23 03:35:56 1 0 0
    comparisongraph http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=989 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:35:19 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/comparisongraph.gif 989 2009-01-14 22:35:19 2009-01-15 03:35:19 open open comparisongraph inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/comparisongraph.gif _wp_attached_file comparisongraph.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"604";s:6:"height";s:3:"462";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='125'";s:4:"file";s:19:"comparisongraph.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"comparisongraph-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"comparisongraph-300x229.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"229";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"comparisongraph-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"comparisongraph-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} comparisongraph1 /comparisongraph1/ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:41:30 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/comparisongraph1.gif 992 2009-01-14 22:41:30 2009-01-15 03:41:30 open open comparisongraph1 inherit 988 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/comparisongraph1.gif _wp_attached_file comparisongraph1.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"604";s:6:"height";s:3:"462";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='125'";s:4:"file";s:20:"comparisongraph1.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"comparisongraph1-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"comparisongraph1-300x229.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"229";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"comparisongraph1-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"comparisongraph1-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-34/ Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:16:31 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=993 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I like lattes, but they're so expensive if you don't make them yourself. With my new commute to work taking 75 minutes on a good day my morning caffeine has become much more important to me. I bought an espresso maker and an automatic milk frother for $250, which came with a $100 credit for the pods used to make espresso. This gives me roughly 172 espresso shots. If you add in the costs for milk I'm probably paying about 80 cents for a latte now. I further found a great deal on The Source by Circuit City for two travel mugs (his and hers) which plug into your car or laptop and keep the contents at 155 degrees farenheit - for $14.99. I've been in heaven this past week - and the lattes taste as good as Starbucks. An even better idea would be to stop drinking coffee, but I'm no miracle worker here people... :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist has a fantastic post which looks at the true costs of currency hedging. Michael James writes about QuickTax's new Audit Defence service. If I were the CRA, I'd try to find out everyone who enrolls in it and audit them because psychologically, buying this might make you a bit more creative with your tax return. Million Dollar Journey explains 9 Ways He Saved Taxes last year. All on the up and up, probably won't need Audit Defence. :) Four Pillars looks at why the Stock Market is a Giant Distraction. Just like Showcase on Friday nights (I know, I've used that one before but it's always a winner). Big Cajun Man's story about his employment at Nortel and the fate of some colleagues is stirring. A good read. Thicken My Wallet gives his take on how to be good at creating opportunities for success. Canadian Dream reviews the book "Crash Proof" which predicted the current market crash, and was written in 2006 and published in 2007.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is one worth watching. This is an updated version of a video that compares just how much faster a Formula 1 car is versus any other racecar and even a street car. Mind blowing!

    ]]> 993 2009-01-15 20:16:31 2009-01-16 01:16:31 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-34 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1232068591 _edit_last 1 2390 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-01-15 20:30:19 2009-01-16 01:30:19 1 0 0 2391 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2009-01-15 20:51:20 2009-01-16 01:51:20 1 0 0 2392 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2009-01-16 06:47:02 2009-01-16 11:47:02 1 0 0 2393 bigcaunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.25.170 2009-01-16 07:46:56 2009-01-16 12:46:56 1 0 0 2394 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-01-16 07:59:33 2009-01-16 12:59:33 1 0 0 2395 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2009-01-16 10:38:42 2009-01-16 15:38:42 1 0 0 2396 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-01-16 12:27:30 2009-01-16 17:27:30 1 0 0 2397 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.26.234 2009-01-16 18:24:45 2009-01-16 23:24:45 1 0 0 The World Stock Markets Lost $17 Trillion in 2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-world-stock-markets-lost-17-trillion-in-2008/ Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:14:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=996

  • The 10 year annualized return of the S&P 500 was -3.03% to the end of 2008.
  • Imagine holding for 10 years with the end result being you have lost money. Hopefully if you needed the money now, you weren't too heavily weighted in equities. If you have time on your side, hopefully you are licking your chops! From an industry perspective, there is lots of "money in motion", as they say. Investors are changing strategies, changing advisors and changing expectations. Personally, I'm increasing my exposure to equities to 100%, but I suspect more people are going the opposite direction. Anyone care to discuss if they are making changes or not?]]>
    996 2009-01-18 23:14:03 2009-01-19 04:14:03 open open the-world-stock-markets-lost-17-trillion-in-2008 publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif _edit_lock 1232338955 _edit_last 1 2398 tstrump@gmail.com http://www.thestrump,com 24.82.94.249 2009-01-19 02:46:14 2009-01-19 07:46:14 1 0 0 2399 nonobstant@hotmail.com 66.244.207.166 2009-02-08 02:44:51 2009-02-08 07:44:51 1 0 0
    ferrari http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-bmw-or-a-civic-plus-a-ferrari/ferrari/ Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:42:12 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ferrari.jpg 998 2009-01-19 23:42:12 2009-01-20 04:42:12 open open ferrari inherit 997 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ferrari.jpg _wp_attached_file ferrari.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:11:"ferrari.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"ferrari-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"ferrari-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"ferrari-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} A BMW? Or A Civic Plus A Ferrari? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-bmw-or-a-civic-plus-a-ferrari/ Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:43:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=997 Say what? Yes, that's right. If you were willing to spend $750/month on that fancy BMW lease you would be willing to pony up $9,000/year. Not to mention paying for premium gas, and more expensive insurance. A bare bones civic (at least at the time I originally thought of this) could be had for as little as $200/month, or $2,400/year. This leaves you with $6,600 left over plus the savings on gas and insurance - call it $8,000 in total savings. To rent a Ferrari F430 in Toronto for a Friday to Sunday (includes 300km of use) costs $2,999. Extra insurance per day is $99. So two of these weekends would cost you approximately $6,600. I got these prices from GTA Exotics, but I am in no way affiliated with them. That leaves you with $1,400 left in your pocket. Good for a last minute trip down south in the winter to boot. :)]]> 997 2009-01-19 23:43:00 2009-01-20 04:43:00 open open a-bmw-or-a-civic-plus-a-ferrari publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1232426581 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ferrari.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ferrari.jpg 2400 rendell@brandlessblog.com http://brandlessblog.com/ 218.186.12.202 2009-01-20 06:01:19 2009-01-20 11:01:19 1 0 0 2401 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-01-20 09:59:43 2009-01-20 14:59:43 1 0 0 2402 hughdillon2000@yahoo.com 67.225.70.114 2009-01-20 23:00:27 2009-01-21 04:00:27 1 0 0 2403 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/01/22/this-and-that-bank-of-canada-rate-cut-warren-buffet-interview-and-more 64.111.114.14 2009-01-22 21:46:55 2009-01-23 02:46:55 1 pingback 0 0 2404 cmstlist@yahoo.ca 24.83.168.115 2009-01-23 00:27:06 2009-01-23 05:27:06 1 0 0 2405 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/01/23/linkstuff-friday-jan-23/ 67.205.18.215 2009-01-23 05:01:30 2009-01-23 10:01:30 1 pingback 0 0 2406 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-01-23 08:54:27 2009-01-23 13:54:27 1 0 0 2407 wolfe_communications@videotron.ca 70.82.185.156 2009-01-23 13:31:03 2009-01-23 18:31:03 1 0 0 2408 joao_icaro@yahoo.com 89.181.74.69 2010-04-21 08:32:53 2010-04-21 13:32:53 1 0 0 ellen http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1000 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:48:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ellen.jpg 1000 2009-01-20 21:48:24 2009-01-21 02:48:24 open open ellen inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ellen.jpg _wp_attached_file ellen.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"191";s:6:"height";s:3:"184";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='99'";s:4:"file";s:9:"ellen.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"ellen-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"ellen-191x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"191";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"ellen-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Ellen Roseman is a Saint! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ellen-roseman-is-a-saint/ Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:50:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1002 Please feel free to visit Ellen's blog where more stories like this are published all the time by clicking here.]]> 1002 2009-01-20 21:50:51 2009-01-21 02:50:51 open open ellen-roseman-is-a-saint publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ellen.jpg _edit_lock 1232506252 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ellen.jpg 2409 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-21 05:25:14 2009-01-21 10:25:14 1 0 0 2410 http://www.ellenroseman.com/?p=286 64.34.233.203 2009-01-21 18:14:47 2009-01-21 23:14:47 1 pingback 0 0 2411 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-22 20:28:39 2009-01-23 01:28:39 1 0 0 The Latte Factor Re-Visited http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-latte-factor-re-visited/ Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:39:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1003 Take away my lattes? ...from my dead cold hands! Here's my solution (as alluded to recently): Nespresso Essenza Espresso Maker and Aeroccino Milk Frother: $299 CAD Less $100 credit for espresso pods: -$100 (special promotion) 2 Electrically Heated Travel mugs (Car adapter and USB adapter) - keeps the drinks at 150 degrees farenheit: on special for $14.99 from Circuit City. Equals total cost of $213.99 + tax for "capital outlay". Cost of pods (including shipping) = $0.60 per drink Cost of milk (approximation) = $0.10 per drink Equals total cost of drink of $0.70. Since a Starbucks latte is $3 (for a tall), I save $2.30 per drink 5 times per week (yeah, more like 10). That means I pay off the machine with the savings after about 19 weeks (8.5 weeks). At that point, I'm starting to realize real savings even over and above regular coffee from Tim's! Oh, and the quality of the lattes is actually just as good (if not better) than Starbucks.]]> 1003 2009-01-21 20:39:52 2009-01-22 01:39:52 open open the-latte-factor-re-visited publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1232588393 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif 2412 45free@45free.com http://45free.com 204.101.88.2 2009-01-22 11:13:43 2009-01-22 16:13:43 1 0 0 2413 steinkec@shaw.ca 66.11.67.229 2009-01-22 13:28:49 2009-01-22 18:28:49 1 0 0 2414 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-22 20:29:48 2009-01-23 01:29:48 1 0 0 2415 http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/01/24/wander-reading11/ 64.15.147.100 2009-01-24 15:28:29 2009-01-24 20:28:29 1 pingback 0 0 2416 themoneygardener@gmail.com http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2009-01-25 21:10:42 2009-01-26 02:10:42 1 0 0 2417 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.150.59 2009-01-25 22:24:18 2009-01-26 03:24:18 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-35/ Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:25:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1004 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I keep forgetting to mention that a few months ago I met someone who was involved with marketing in the financial services - they will remain nameless, but they confessed to me that they had a hand in the introduction of mutual fund trailers (the annual ongoing fees advisors may receive for the funds they sell you). They were originally designed as a temporary marketing ploy to advisors to buy their funds (and hold them). It worked really well. Really, REALLY well.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Mr. Cheap from Four Pillars talks about his philosophy on beggars. Remember, this is the guy who wants to wear a t-shirt that has a picture of a tuxedo on it to his wedding. (No, he's not engaged in case you were wondering.) Thicken My Wallet responds to a reader question about payout ratios exceeding 100% for REITs and Utility Trusts. Good? Bad? Depends... Jonathan Chevreau looks at some statistics about ETF growth and Mutual Fund redemptions. Note that there is more to this than meets the eye - just examine the comments section! Canadian Capitalist suggests you may want to consider a secured line of credit now... just in case. Michael James on Money examines the "Market-Linked GIC" - might not be worth the trade offs in many cases. Million Dollar Journey explains the terms "ex-dividend date" and "cum dividends" - important to know if you are buying dividend paying stocks! Larry MacDonald writes about bank bailouts and bonuses. It's true, these guys are clearly from a different planet. Canadian Dream posts a Layoff Survival Guide. Hopefully you won't need it, but there is great information here.

    This Week's Racing Video

    If you can't see the link, you'll have to click on the title above ("A Lap Of The Blogs") to go to the website and watch the embedded video. This week, I'm pulling out an oldie but goodie. These are a few clips of some Formula 3000 cars (one step down from the "big show") - but instead of racing around a track, they are racing up mountain roads. Enjoy your weekends everyone!

    ]]>
    1004 2009-01-22 20:25:59 2009-01-23 01:25:59 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-35 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1232673960 _edit_last 1 2418 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 64.231.1.227 2009-01-22 21:47:46 2009-01-23 02:47:46 1 0 0 2419 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2009-01-23 06:53:17 2009-01-23 11:53:17 1 0 0 2420 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-01-23 08:24:09 2009-01-23 13:24:09 1 0 0 2421 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-01-23 09:01:13 2009-01-23 14:01:13 1 0 0 2422 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-01-28 07:31:11 2009-01-28 12:31:11 1 0 0
    Book Giveaway: Findependence Day by Jonathan Chevreau http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-findependence-day-by-jonathan-chevreau/ Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:44:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1006 just personal finance. This is a story that happens to teach a lot of valuable lessons, and challenge some long-held beliefs, all the while being an engaging read. "Guerilla Frugality" is a concept mentioned in the book which is worth the price of admission alone. This term may gain much traction in the coming years - not only because its necessary, but partly because I see a new trend of "frugal being the new cool" - in other words, it's very timely. The book starts with a young couple being berated about their spending habits on a TV show about personal finance. Oh, didn't I mention? This book is a fictional story! The reader learns a lifetime of knowledge about managing money and finances vicariously through a couple named Jamie and Sheena who experience a roller coaster of both financial and emotional highs and lows. The book spans a few decades of their lives and the characters' every triumph and failure are well discussed - and you almost forget that you are learning more about what mistakes to avoid with your own finances as the book is written as a story that is both easy to follow and emotionally engaging. I recommend buying a copy for yourself, and perhaps a few more copies for friends and family - the purchase price is a small price to pay for the financial lessons sure to be learned - especially for those who find personal finance intimidating. Click here to order the book directly from the publisher - but you may want to wait until the weekend to see if you've won a free copy first!

    Win a Free Copy!

    Rules and Regulations:
    1. To enter, just leave one comment at the end of this post indicating a topic suggestion for me to write about in the future. Your suggestion can be detailed (like, what is convexity as it relates to bonds?) or it can be broad (like, what is a bond?). Sky's the limit as long as it's related to money, investing or the economy (or cars, I guess). :)
    2. Entries must be made by Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time.
    3. Winners will be announced on Sunday.
    4. Good luck!
    ]]>
    1006 2009-01-25 21:44:34 2009-01-26 02:44:34 open open book-giveaway-findependence-day-by-jonathan-chevreau publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1232937874 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/findependence.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/findependence.jpg 2423 mikeisnt@telus.net 70.79.63.235 2009-01-25 22:49:47 2009-01-26 03:49:47 1 0 0 2424 fsmontenegro@gmail.com 99.247.63.246 2009-01-25 22:58:05 2009-01-26 03:58:05 1 0 0 2425 drejmd@gmail.com 137.186.242.241 2009-01-25 23:01:12 2009-01-26 04:01:12 1 0 0 2426 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-01-25 23:12:21 2009-01-26 04:12:21 want to do a good job for their clients? Mark]]> 1 0 0 2427 tjeveret@yahoo.com 66.183.89.176 2009-01-25 23:39:59 2009-01-26 04:39:59 1 0 0 2428 howie.wong@gmail.com 70.79.98.4 2009-01-26 00:51:51 2009-01-26 05:51:51 1 0 0 2429 mtalev@gmail.com 24.85.145.248 2009-01-26 01:54:23 2009-01-26 06:54:23 1 0 0 2430 deb_nick@yahoo.com 173.33.100.192 2009-01-26 05:40:45 2009-01-26 10:40:45 1 0 0 2431 finlinfo@hughes.net 69.19.14.29 2009-01-26 07:04:33 2009-01-26 12:04:33 1 0 0 2432 george.wenzel@gmail.com 207.102.157.66 2009-01-26 07:40:33 2009-01-26 12:40:33 1 0 0 2433 djsamsa@gmail.com 76.68.155.73 2009-01-26 07:46:53 2009-01-26 12:46:53 1 0 0 2434 mkono@sympatico.ca 142.108.62.183 2009-01-26 09:06:29 2009-01-26 14:06:29 1 0 0 2435 billbutt@shaw.ca 24.83.160.233 2009-01-26 09:48:37 2009-01-26 14:48:37 1 0 0 2436 tyaworski@shaw.ca 69.46.127.7 2009-01-26 10:24:00 2009-01-26 15:24:00 1 0 0 2437 lancemd@gmail.com 207.161.201.33 2009-01-26 10:58:37 2009-01-26 15:58:37 1 0 0 2438 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-01-26 10:59:08 2009-01-26 15:59:08 1 0 0 2439 timothywtam@gmail.com 69.159.197.157 2009-01-26 11:11:34 2009-01-26 16:11:34 1 0 0 2440 bbnoad@hotmail.com 99.249.87.237 2009-01-26 11:18:42 2009-01-26 16:18:42 1 0 0 2441 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.88 2009-01-26 11:48:19 2009-01-26 16:48:19 1 0 0 2442 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-01-26 12:20:48 2009-01-26 17:20:48 1 0 0 2443 q.h.2005@hotmail.com 70.48.252.55 2009-01-26 12:28:03 2009-01-26 17:28:03 1 0 0 2444 erickfield@yahoo.com 207.236.147.118 2009-01-26 12:40:55 2009-01-26 17:40:55 1 0 0 2445 thebigjc@gmail.com 65.110.174.71 2009-01-26 13:38:11 2009-01-26 18:38:11 1 0 0 2446 shukla.ap@gmail.com http://canadianstockstrader.blogspot.com/ 129.42.208.179 2009-01-26 13:38:35 2009-01-26 18:38:35 1 0 0 2447 afrobear@yahoo.com 209.82.12.77 2009-01-26 13:41:35 2009-01-26 18:41:35 1 0 0 2448 jesmith32@hotmail.com 65.95.2.219 2009-01-26 14:04:09 2009-01-26 19:04:09 1 0 0 2449 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-01-26 14:14:17 2009-01-26 19:14:17 1 0 0 2450 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2009-01-26 15:24:30 2009-01-26 20:24:30 1 0 0 2451 icsharpcode@gmail.com 207.102.98.31 2009-01-26 16:06:40 2009-01-26 21:06:40 1 0 0 2452 pub+wheredoesallmymoneygo@banikanada.com 206.186.114.231 2009-01-26 16:59:18 2009-01-26 21:59:18 1 0 0 2453 sylvain.lapointe@hrsdc-rhdsc.gc.ca 198.103.223.51 2009-01-26 18:05:46 2009-01-26 23:05:46 1 0 0 2454 lisebuisson@gmail.com http://lisebise.blogspot.com/ 99.232.150.182 2009-01-26 18:49:36 2009-01-26 23:49:36 1 0 0 2455 bklunder@telus.net 142.59.229.61 2009-01-26 19:08:16 2009-01-27 00:08:16 1 0 0 2456 rfingland@shaw.ca 139.173.54.11 2009-01-26 20:13:08 2009-01-27 01:13:08 1 0 0 2457 rajesh_sampath@hotmail.com 173.32.106.29 2009-01-26 21:18:20 2009-01-27 02:18:20 1 0 0 2458 redskins1@gmail.com 99.255.62.60 2009-01-26 22:31:44 2009-01-27 03:31:44 1 0 0 2459 yourstruly@gmail.com http://www.youaretheworst.com 205.210.132.6 2009-01-27 11:51:58 2009-01-27 16:51:58 1 0 0 2460 parsons8@mts.net 204.112.156.169 2009-01-27 12:41:18 2009-01-27 17:41:18 1 0 0 2461 tvenner@gicfinancial.com http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2009-01-27 17:01:16 2009-01-27 22:01:16 1 0 0 2462 lorenzo_difonzo@hotmail.com 64.231.201.32 2009-01-27 17:13:47 2009-01-27 22:13:47 1 0 0 2463 hasama@minsthins.com 69.118.22.67 2009-01-27 17:30:33 2009-01-27 22:30:33 1 0 0 2464 jaspinatami@hotmail.com 207.81.61.188 2009-01-28 01:09:42 2009-01-28 06:09:42 1 0 0 2465 artisan1@telus.net 142.59.144.148 2009-01-28 22:06:10 2009-01-29 03:06:10 1 0 0 2466 kimspam66@yahoo.com 173.67.12.51 2009-01-29 11:53:01 2009-01-29 16:53:01 1 0 0 2467 pgroberge@hotmail.com 99.224.180.137 2009-01-29 14:21:49 2009-01-29 19:21:49 1 0 0 2468 tvenner@gicfinancial.com http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2009-01-29 15:09:04 2009-01-29 20:09:04 1 0 0 2469 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-36/ 68.178.254.235 2009-01-29 23:21:51 2009-01-30 04:21:51 1 pingback 0 0 2470 birving60@hotmail.com 206.186.108.242 2009-01-30 11:52:26 2009-01-30 16:52:26 1 0 0 2471 wc@thewealthycanadian.ca http://www.thewealthycanadian.ca 64.141.48.15 2009-01-30 16:16:47 2009-01-30 21:16:47 1 0 0 2472 takethejump@yahoo.com 99.224.152.27 2009-01-30 21:17:18 2009-01-31 02:17:18 1 0 0 2473 asardus@yahoo.com 207.112.103.145 2009-01-31 09:36:14 2009-01-31 14:36:14 1 0 0 2474 esp1@sympatico.ca 69.157.18.6 2009-02-01 23:09:27 2009-02-02 04:09:27 1 0 0
    Book Giveaway #2: No Hype! The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money by Gail Bebee http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-2-no-hype-the-straight-goods-on-investing-your-money-by-gail-bebee/ Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:03:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1007 outsider. Her knowledge about investing is self-taught after having once used an advisor. Overall I think this book deserves high praise simply because it covers off a lot of material without becoming intimidating - the book is quite slim, yet delivers quite a punch. My only caveat is that this book is a great starter's manual - but more reading is required of other books which may be more in-depth for certain subject matters. For example, with respect to individual stock picking: those who may be tempted to make their first dabble into stocks after reading this book will want more information before getting started. I might suggest Peter Lynch's books (One Up On Wall Street and Beating The Street) as good companion pieces if you want to start looking at buying individual stocks. However, the book is very well written and I would suggest it as a good read for beginners. It covers a lot of ground and you may purchase a copy of the book through Chapters by clicking here. Again, though, you may want to wait until after the weekend to see if you've won a free copy first!

    The Contest

    If you already entered yesterday's contest, I have good news for you: you are automatically entered into all four book giveaways this week. Same goes for comments on this post and the rest of the week's post if you haven't already entered. Essentially, any comment on any of the four book giveaway posts this week enters you for a chance to win any book. There will be four winners announced on the weekend. For those who haven't already entered, here are the rules and regulations:
    • One copy of the book No Hype! The Straight Goods On Investing Your Money by Gail Bebee will be given away in this contest
    • To enter for a chance to win this book (or any of the other books featured this week) all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this or any other post this week with a suggestion of a post topic for me to write about in the near future
    • Comments must be made by Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 11:59pm
    • You must include a valid email address in the comment form (but don't worry, your email isn't shared with anyone)
    • Good luck!
    ]]>
    1007 2009-01-26 23:03:08 2009-01-27 04:03:08 open open book-giveaway-2-no-hype-the-straight-goods-on-investing-your-money-by-gail-bebee publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1233028989 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/NoHype_Cover_107.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/NoHype_Cover_107.jpg 2475 trevor.schofield@gmail.com 207.216.17.248 2009-01-26 23:50:12 2009-01-27 04:50:12 1 0 0 2476 greg.wiseman+wdammg@gmail.com 99.255.200.97 2009-01-27 00:15:11 2009-01-27 05:15:11 1 0 0 2477 ereobc@gmail.com 76.64.181.188 2009-01-27 07:50:43 2009-01-27 12:50:43 1 0 0 2478 nicole.leaper@ontario.ca 204.40.1.129 2009-01-27 08:21:49 2009-01-27 13:21:49 1 0 0 2479 gbebee@nohypeinvesting.com http://www.nohypeinvesting.com 99.227.30.182 2009-01-27 08:36:19 2009-01-27 13:36:19 1 0 0 2480 rippiezhotline@hotmail.com 69.196.131.108 2009-01-27 09:31:36 2009-01-27 14:31:36 1 0 0 2481 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-01-27 10:14:50 2009-01-27 15:14:50 1 0 0 2482 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2009-01-27 10:21:01 2009-01-27 15:21:01 1 0 0 2483 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-01-27 11:04:20 2009-01-27 16:04:20 1 0 0 2484 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-01-27 11:30:09 2009-01-27 16:30:09 1 0 0 2485 jobetancourt@yahoo.com 72.1.201.82 2009-01-27 12:19:54 2009-01-27 17:19:54 1 0 0 2486 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2009-01-27 13:20:47 2009-01-27 18:20:47 1 0 0 2487 tvenner@gicfinancial.com http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2009-01-27 16:41:35 2009-01-27 21:41:35 1 0 0 2488 kevintickle@gmail.com 70.52.94.89 2009-01-27 17:42:22 2009-01-27 22:42:22 1 0 0 2489 hughdillon2000@yahoo.com 67.225.70.89 2009-01-27 21:10:56 2009-01-28 02:10:56 1 0 0 2490 billbutt@shaw.ca 24.83.160.233 2009-01-29 10:29:45 2009-01-29 15:29:45 1 0 0 2491 kirksavoie@yahoo.com 66.46.199.130 2009-01-29 17:52:18 2009-01-29 22:52:18 1 0 0 2492 rmurray@gmail.com 216.123.150.4 2009-01-30 12:16:32 2009-01-30 17:16:32 1 0 0 2493 arankun@yahoo.com http://synergeticstocks.com 198.246.222.7 2009-01-30 12:45:51 2009-01-30 17:45:51 1 0 0 2494 frank.palermo@sympatico.ca 69.158.124.57 2009-01-30 16:36:04 2009-01-30 21:36:04 1 0 0 2495 desouza.david@gmail.com http://www.taxfix.co.uk 99.230.195.240 2009-01-30 20:45:39 2009-01-31 01:45:39 1 0 0 2496 amright.here@yahoo.com 165.247.0.207 2009-04-07 08:42:28 2009-04-07 13:42:28 1 0 0 2497 http://starttags.com/tags/tdsr 98.240.245.202 2010-03-27 12:42:50 2010-03-27 17:42:50 1 pingback 0 0
    newrulesretirement http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-3-new-rules-of-retirement-by-warren-mackenzie-and-ken-hawkins/newrulesretirement/ Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:21:30 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/newrulesretirement.jpg 1009 2009-01-27 22:21:30 2009-01-28 03:21:30 open open newrulesretirement inherit 1008 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/newrulesretirement.jpg _wp_attached_file newrulesretirement.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"500";s:6:"height";s:3:"500";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:22:"newrulesretirement.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"newrulesretirement-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"newrulesretirement-300x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"newrulesretirement-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"newrulesretirement-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Book Giveaway #3: New Rules of Retirement by Warren MacKenzie and Ken Hawkins http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-3-new-rules-of-retirement-by-warren-mackenzie-and-ken-hawkins/ Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:22:37 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1008 Canadian Capitalist and Four Pillars - please check out what they had to say. I can't imagine adding more to the aforementioned reviews other than to say that I really appreciated the main message of the first half of the book in which they challenge a lot of widely held beliefs about retirement - guess the title was a good pick! :) Instead I'll comment on the two authors since I've met them both. Warren MacKenzie is the founder and president of Second Opinion Investor Services and we met when we were both guests on the TV show "Moneyline" with Linda Leatherdale. We found that we instantly had a lot in common and have stayed in touch ever since. Warren is a former financial advisor who eventually decided that he needed to do his part to address a broken industry - namely that transparency and professionalism were lacking. I couldn't agree more. Warren and his team are a real boon to Canadian investors. I've spoken to Ken Hawkins on the phone for a bit of an interview. Back when I was an advisor, Warren mentioned that they have an advisor and manager search in which any clients of theirs who are seeking financial advisors to work with are introduced to "approved" persons. They don't receive fees or kickbacks from the advisors, only a flat service fee from the investors - which means that they are offering a truly unbiased service. Part of the process of getting vetting by Second Opinions was to speak to Ken (who is a CFA). Again we shared many of the same philosophies and I can tell you that there are very few people who shoot straighter then Ken Hawkins. I feel lucky in that the books being reviewed this week are all "keepers" in MY book. If you don't win a copy, I'd recommend adding this to your wish-list. This would be especially well-received by Canadians in their fifties I would think - since retirement is top of mind and a very confusing issue right now. Having said that, the book is suitable for all ages since there is no time like the present to start planning! :) If you can't wait, feel free to purchase a copy from Amazon.ca now.

    The Contest

    If you've already entered a comment on the other contest posts this week, I have good news for you (if you didn't already know): you are automatically entered into all four book giveaways this week. Essentially, any comment on any of the four book giveaway posts this week enters you for a chance to win any book. There will be four winners announced on the weekend. For those who haven’t already entered, here are the rules and regulations:
    • One copy of the book New Rules of Retirement by Warren MacKenzie and Ken Hawkins will be given away in this contest
    • To enter for a chance to win this book (or any of the other books featured this week) all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this or any other post this week with a suggestion of a post topic for me to write about in the near future
    • Comments must be made by Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 11:59pm
    • You must include a valid email address in the comment form (but don’t worry, your email isn’t shared with anyone)
    • Good luck!
    ]]>
    1008 2009-01-27 22:22:37 2009-01-28 03:22:37 open open book-giveaway-3-new-rules-of-retirement-by-warren-mackenzie-and-ken-hawkins publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233113000 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/newrulesretirement.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/newrulesretirement.jpg 2498 irene.mark@shaw.ca 96.49.178.173 2009-01-27 22:53:22 2009-01-28 03:53:22 1 0 0 2499 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-01-27 23:07:59 2009-01-28 04:07:59 1 0 0 2500 george.wenzel@gmail.com 207.102.157.66 2009-01-27 23:26:33 2009-01-28 04:26:33 1 0 0 2501 blair_conrad@alumni.uwaterloo.ca 76.64.106.232 2009-01-28 06:57:47 2009-01-28 11:57:47 1 0 0 2502 emroc@telus.net 75.156.223.47 2009-01-28 08:52:16 2009-01-28 13:52:16 1 0 0 2503 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.125.185 2009-01-28 08:52:58 2009-01-28 13:52:58 1 0 0 2504 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2009-01-28 09:32:46 2009-01-28 14:32:46 1 0 0 2505 billbutt@shaw.ca 24.83.160.233 2009-01-28 10:06:55 2009-01-28 15:06:55 1 0 0 2506 bsobey@shaw.ca 142.179.154.46 2009-01-28 11:04:50 2009-01-28 16:04:50 1 0 0 2507 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-01-28 12:03:37 2009-01-28 17:03:37 1 0 0 2508 yparesh@gmail.com 72.138.200.102 2009-01-28 13:38:04 2009-01-28 18:38:04 1 0 0 2509 mike.signups@gmail.com 198.165.119.1 2009-01-28 14:23:29 2009-01-28 19:23:29 1 0 0 2510 hasama@minsthins.com 69.118.22.67 2009-01-28 19:18:30 2009-01-29 00:18:30 1 0 0 2511 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.225.128.199 2009-01-28 20:54:29 2009-01-29 01:54:29 1 0 0 2512 tkowkd77@yahoo.com 99.249.116.14 2009-01-28 21:51:03 2009-01-29 02:51:03 1 0 0 2513 ishariff17@hotmail.com 99.225.131.7 2009-01-28 22:55:45 2009-01-29 03:55:45 1 0 0 2514 kimspam66@yahoo.com 173.67.12.51 2009-01-29 09:41:00 2009-01-29 14:41:00 1 0 0 2515 ashburn476@hotmail.com http://Wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 65.92.124.228 2009-01-29 13:15:55 2009-01-29 18:15:55 1 0 0 2516 gene2u@mts.net 216.130.84.249 2009-01-29 13:45:59 2009-01-29 18:45:59 1 0 0 2517 tvenner@gicfinancial.com http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2009-01-29 15:11:50 2009-01-29 20:11:50 1 0 0 2518 bud.davidge@nf.sympatico.ca 142.163.197.21 2009-01-30 13:58:25 2009-01-30 18:58:25 1 0 0 2519 getgvo@gmail.com 142.46.4.94 2009-01-30 19:31:26 2009-01-31 00:31:26 1 0 0 2520 futuregeneralich@gmail.com http://futuregenerali.wordpress.com/ 122.169.242.108 2009-02-06 04:49:41 2009-02-06 09:49:41 1 0 0 2521 http://moneygrubbinglawyer.com/2009/03/27/book-review-and-giveaway-the/ 69.89.22.139 2009-03-27 09:00:35 2009-03-27 14:00:35 1 pingback 0 0 2522 http://7wins.eu/cbprod/detail_18399/jackpot+options+options+and+stock+trading+service.html 85.179.164.25 2009-06-07 02:05:21 2009-06-07 07:05:21 1 pingback 0 0
    rrspbookcover http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-4-rrsps-by-yours-truly/rrspbookcover/ Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:59:34 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/rrspbookcover.png 1011 2009-01-28 21:59:34 2009-01-29 02:59:34 open open rrspbookcover inherit 1010 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/rrspbookcover.png _wp_attached_file rrspbookcover.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"164";s:6:"height";s:3:"231";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='68'";s:4:"file";s:17:"rrspbookcover.png";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"rrspbookcover-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"rrspbookcover-164x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"164";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"rrspbookcover-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Book Giveaway #4: RRSPs by Yours Truly http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-4-rrsps-by-yours-truly/ Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:01:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1010 RRSPs: The Definitive Guide to Registered Retirement Savings Plans by Preet Banerjee How do I review my own book? I wouldn't. I'll just direct you to some other reviews by others (NOTE: some of these reviews included a contest - these all expired last year as the reviews are all about a year old) Larry MacDonald (Canadian Business) Financial Post Million Dollar Journey Canadian Capitalist Financial Post Four Pillars The Financial Blogger

    The Contest

    If you’ve already entered a comment on the other contest posts this week, I have good news for you (if you didn’t already know): you are automatically entered into all four book giveaways this week. Essentially, any comment on any of the four book giveaway posts this week enters you for a chance to win any book. There will be four winners announced on the weekend. For those who haven’t already entered, here are the rules and regulations:
    • One copy of the book RRSPs: The Definitive Guide to Registered Retirement Savings Plans will be given away in this contest
    • To enter for a chance to win this book (or any of the other books featured this week) all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this or any other post this week with a suggestion of a post topic for me to write about in the near future
    • Comments must be made by Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 11:59pm
    • You must include a valid email address in the comment form (but don’t worry, your email isn’t shared with anyone)
    • Good luck!
    ]]>
    1010 2009-01-28 22:01:39 2009-01-29 03:01:39 open open book-giveaway-4-rrsps-by-yours-truly publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233198157 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/rrspbookcover.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/rrspbookcover.png 2523 talcumboy@gmail.com 24.68.82.14 2009-01-28 22:45:35 2009-01-29 03:45:35 1 0 0 2524 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-01-29 02:13:21 2009-01-29 07:13:21 1 0 0 2525 paulsekhon@gmail.com 24.79.175.35 2009-01-29 08:44:47 2009-01-29 13:44:47 1 0 0 2526 david.v.macleod@gmail.com 64.229.226.50 2009-01-29 08:45:13 2009-01-29 13:45:13 1 0 0 2527 miles.jun@hotmail.com 142.245.59.4 2009-01-29 08:49:11 2009-01-29 13:49:11 1 0 0 2528 walk0080@gmail.com 205.239.196.6 2009-01-29 09:14:05 2009-01-29 14:14:05 1 0 0 2529 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2009-01-29 09:27:12 2009-01-29 14:27:12 1 0 0 2530 jez.stefan@gmail.com 66.11.89.241 2009-01-29 09:55:12 2009-01-29 14:55:12 1 0 0 2531 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-01-29 10:00:34 2009-01-29 15:00:34 1 0 0 2532 shukla.ap@gmail.com http://canadianstockstrader.blogspot.com/ 129.42.208.179 2009-01-29 10:54:04 2009-01-29 15:54:04 1 0 0 2533 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-01-29 13:16:12 2009-01-29 18:16:12 1 0 0 2534 mwebber@terraenergy.ca 161.184.174.201 2009-01-29 13:43:59 2009-01-29 18:43:59 1 0 0 2535 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.88 2009-01-29 16:20:07 2009-01-29 21:20:07 1 0 0 2536 jcinvancouver@gmail.com 142.221.110.4 2009-01-29 16:28:41 2009-01-29 21:28:41 1 0 0 2537 milum@persona.ca 66.244.204.17 2009-01-29 22:26:50 2009-01-30 03:26:50 1 0 0 2538 ryantissera@hotmail.com 129.97.218.149 2009-01-29 23:56:50 2009-01-30 04:56:50 1 0 0 2539 jlyons65@yahoo.com 209.195.87.1 2009-01-30 06:43:57 2009-01-30 11:43:57 1 0 0 2540 mesaana14@gmail.com 173.33.50.106 2009-01-30 08:14:55 2009-01-30 13:14:55 1 0 0 2541 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2009-01-30 09:09:02 2009-01-30 14:09:02 1 0 0 2542 matthew@tanh.net http://www.tanh.net 132.205.28.201 2009-01-30 11:20:11 2009-01-30 16:20:11 1 0 0 2543 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 70.27.179.7 2009-01-30 11:32:35 2009-01-30 16:32:35 1 0 0 2544 lindalin76@gmail.com 24.114.255.99 2009-01-30 13:21:18 2009-01-30 18:21:18 1 0 0 2545 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/01/30/linkstuff-for-jan-30-2009/ 67.205.18.215 2009-01-30 20:26:55 2009-01-31 01:26:55 1 pingback 0 0 2546 dan.gavin@gm.com 99.252.218.106 2009-01-31 19:26:59 2009-02-01 00:26:59 1 0 0 2547 brigusnf@gmail.com 206.235.255.234 2009-02-05 09:51:40 2009-02-05 14:51:40 1 0 0 2548 scott@wightman.ca 68.69.130.245 2010-01-13 21:10:34 2010-01-14 02:10:34 1 0 0 2549 livinglarge@ymail.com 205.210.223.133 2010-02-01 13:52:49 2010-02-01 18:52:49 1 0 0 2550 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-01 22:39:07 2010-02-02 03:39:07 1 0 0 2551 h.ahonen@shaw.ca 70.72.143.166 2010-03-18 21:46:05 2010-03-19 02:46:05 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-36/ Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:21:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1012 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Wow, what a day today - out of the house at 7am and not back until 10:45pm - which means today's links will be fewer than normal. Of interest perhaps to some, is that I had a wonderful lunch with Dave Chilton (author of The Wealthy Barber). That guy is seriously funny, and a real gentleman too. He's working on a new project which I think will be well received, but mum's the word for now. I'm such a tease... :)

    From Around the Blogosphere

    Don't forget to enter this week's big book giveaway. I'm giving away lots of books - you have until midnight tonight to enter (assuming you read this on Friday!). Just click on any of the following book reviews for rules and regulations:
    1. Findependence Day
    2. No Hype! The Straight Goods On Investing Your Money
    3. New Rules of Retirement
    4. RRSPs: The Definitive Guide to  Registered Retirement Savings Plans
    Thicken My Wallet discusses the pros and cons of buying stocks with high dividend yields. There seem to be a number of stocks that look attractive based on the yield alone. Buyer beware... Big Cajun Man is fed up with hearing about all the people who predicted the financial apocalypse. Michael James on Money is being stalked by Bell. Big fonts don't entice him though. Canadian Capitalist (who was also featured in the Globe and Mail!) discusses the poor performance of stocks for the past 10 years and shows that it's not out of the ordinary. Million Dollar Journey discusses some of the finer points of income trust distributions and taxation.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Okay, I love this video and even if you don't like auto-racing but like this blog, you'll appreciate it. This video explains, using telemetry from the car, exactly why Michael Schumacher was so much faster than all his teammates. It examines the throttle trace, speed and steering input during a corner between Schumi and his then teammate Johnny Herbert - it all boils down to Michael Schumacher being right on the knife's edge versus Herbert who leaves a larger margin of safety with his traction budget. I'm just itching to get back on track!

    ]]> 1012 2009-01-29 23:21:46 2009-01-30 04:21:46 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-36 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233289306 _edit_last 1 2552 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2009-01-30 07:27:33 2009-01-30 12:27:33 1 0 0 2553 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-01-30 08:01:08 2009-01-30 13:01:08 1 0 0 2554 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-01-30 08:04:25 2009-01-30 13:04:25 1 0 0 2555 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-01-30 08:04:54 2009-01-30 13:04:54 1 0 0 2556 howie.wong@gmail.com 70.79.98.4 2009-01-30 09:00:56 2009-01-30 14:00:56 1 0 0 2557 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-01-30 09:09:54 2009-01-30 14:09:54 1 0 0 2558 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.152.30 2009-01-30 10:14:52 2009-01-30 15:14:52 1 0 0 2559 wfanglin@telus.net 216.18.65.146 2009-01-30 13:26:07 2009-01-30 18:26:07 1 0 0 2560 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 60.48.99.44 2009-01-31 09:12:10 2009-01-31 14:12:10 1 0 0 2561 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-04 00:23:36 2009-02-04 05:23:36 1 0 0 2562 ravi.raghav84@gmail.com http://www.helpmegetajob.co.uk/ 122.162.239.227 2009-02-07 07:26:17 2009-02-07 12:26:17 1 0 0 Why Are Shops Closed When People Are Free? ...and Contest Winners! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-are-shops-closed-when-people-are-free-and-contest-winners/ Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:57:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1014 Contest Winners There were 119 comments left for the contest last week, and needless to say I'll have tonnes of material to write about as the suggestions were fantastic - thank you to everyone who participated! Unfortunately, there can only be 7 winners and here they are: Findependence Day Winners Marianne O. Lise Frank Palermo Dan G. No Hype! The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money Winner Mourad New Rules of Retirement Winner Gail Prue RRSPs Winner Patricia Congratulations! I will be contacting the winners via email to arrange delivery of their prize.]]> 1014 2009-02-02 02:57:57 2009-02-02 07:57:57 open open why-are-shops-closed-when-people-are-free-and-contest-winners publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233561478 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happygirl220.gif 2563 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-02 08:25:03 2009-02-02 13:25:03 1 0 0 2564 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-02-02 10:59:04 2009-02-02 15:59:04 1 0 0 2565 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-02 12:37:19 2009-02-02 17:37:19 1 0 0 2566 fathersez@gmail.com http://fathersez.com 60.49.77.239 2009-02-06 06:53:00 2009-02-06 11:53:00 1 0 0 bro http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-much-of-an-resp-should-be-invested-in-fixed-income/bro/ Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:10:45 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/bro.png 1016 2009-02-02 22:10:45 2009-02-03 03:10:45 open open bro inherit 1015 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/bro.png _wp_attached_file bro.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"451";s:6:"height";s:3:"412";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='105'";s:4:"file";s:7:"bro.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"bro-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"bro-300x274.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"274";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"bro-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"bro-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} How Much Of An RESP Should Be Invested In Fixed Income? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-much-of-an-resp-should-be-invested-in-fixed-income/ Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:36:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1015 Do you have a rule of thumb for how much of an RESP should be invested in fixed income? Please refrain from cyber-hitting me after hearing my answer:

    No
    Pretty flippant, eh? :) I'm pretty sure some people were expecting some sort of sliding increase in fixed income as my recommendation, but that's going to have to wait. While it may not be a bad starting point, it's not necessarily the right answer for DJ. Catch-all answers just don't work. For example, Michael James on Money is a big believer of holding 100% equities unless you expect you'll be needing money in three years, whereas Canadian Capitalist holds roughly 25% in fixed income in his long term portfolios. Both make compelling cases for their choices, so who is right? I would suggest that they are both right - for themselves. They both have the confidence to make the decision and stick with it - which is in part due to the amount of time they have put into researching the answers for themselves. Additionally, if you come to your own conclusions you are more likely to stick with them over the long haul. How easy would it be to justify an outcome that isn't meeting your expectations as being due to the wrong strategy if you didn't come up with it yourself? Very easy. And this is one of the main reasons that investors are behind the curve when it comes to the returns on their portfolios and their relative ease in switching strategies (and normally at the wrong time). Not too long ago, someone with a lifetime of investment management experience said the following, "30 years in the business running portfolios, an MBA and a CFA and I can tell you it's all comes down to psychology." I believe the same applies to all of personal finance in general. There are a number of paradigm shifts going on in the financial industry in the next while: increased regulation (hopefully), wider acceptance on the active versus passive investment management "debate", increased financial literacy and maybe way down the road some sort of reform with respect to delivery of financial advice in general (away from commissions). But at the top of that list needs to be psychology. More precisely: how people react to financial decisions and why. If we begin to really understand these questions, the investment landscape will be much better off. I realize I've gone on a bit of a rant here. :) While I hurry up and wait for the financial world to reach my utopia, DJ may want to consider the following: 1. If you are going to be adding contributions on a regular basis, you can increase your risk tolerance as dollar cost averaging allows one to start off with a riskier portfolio to begin with while still allowing one to sleep at night. Personally, I would put monthly contributions into 100% equities. 2. You can slowly ween off of equities by the time your child is expected to matriculate. Again, I would personally start at 100% equities (in the form of monthly contributions) and every birthday, change the current portfolio to have 5% fixed income more than the previous year. So my monthly contributions would be to an all equity portfolio always, but each year I would slowly convert more assets to fixed income. By the time my child was 10, the monthly contributions would still be going to equities, but the overall portfolio already invested would be at about 50% fixed income. By the time he/she was 15, monthly contributions are still all equities, but overall portfolio is closer to 75% fixed income. Is this the perfect answer? Absolutely not. The best thing would be for DJ to come up with something on his own based on studying the markets, historical portfolios, and reading some books on personal finance in general. I realize that many people don't have the time or inclination to really want to commit to educating themselves on this stuff, but money is a big part of everyone's lives, like it or not. No one should be more interested in your personal finances than YOU. Now, some people cannot even tolerate a monthly loss of $100 on $10,000 (1%), so if DJ were to fall into this group, he/she would want to consider a GIC ladder or a high interest savings account. Theory is great... in theory. But in real life, it's a whole different ball game. DJ, sorry for taking a while before actually giving you some food for thought on your question. I urge you to do some further digging and perhaps share with us what you've come up with - I would be happy to post your answer and discuss it some more for everyone else's benefit too. Who knows, you might even change how I plan to manage my future child's RESP! :)]]>
    1015 2009-02-02 22:36:22 2009-02-03 03:36:22 open open how-much-of-an-resp-should-be-invested-in-fixed-income publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1233632183 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/bro.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/bro.png 2567 http://refundingdebt.com/how-much-of-an-resp-should-be-invested-in-fixed-income/ 72.44.80.59 2009-02-02 23:55:48 2009-02-03 04:55:48 1 pingback 0 0 2568 khawkins@sceondopinions.ca http://www.secondopinions.ca 173.33.220.206 2009-02-03 06:54:20 2009-02-03 11:54:20 1 0 0 2569 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-03 07:53:11 2009-02-03 12:53:11 1 0 0 2570 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-02-03 08:36:57 2009-02-03 13:36:57 1 0 0 2571 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-02-03 11:01:14 2009-02-03 16:01:14 1 0 0 2572 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2009-02-03 12:04:46 2009-02-03 17:04:46 1 0 0 2573 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-04 00:10:25 2009-02-04 05:10:25 1 0 0 2574 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/02/05/this-and-that-falling-brics-edition 64.111.114.14 2009-02-05 21:53:25 2009-02-06 02:53:25 1 pingback 0 0 2575 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/02/06/book-winner-and-weekend-links-feb-6-2009/ 74.208.148.118 2009-02-06 07:27:59 2009-02-06 12:27:59 1 pingback 0 0 2576 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/02/13/linkstuff-feb-13/ 67.205.18.215 2009-02-13 05:02:10 2009-02-13 10:02:10 1 pingback 0 0 2577 shortex.seo@gmail.com http://www.shortex.com/market-trends.php 121.246.72.128 2009-11-25 09:26:15 2009-11-25 14:26:15 1 0 0
    How Well Does Passive Investing Do In A Secular Bear Market? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-well-does-passive-investing-do-in-a-secular-bear-market/ Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:58:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1017 discussed the latest SPIVA Q4 Scorecard (which stands for Standard and Poor's Index Versus Active scorecard) - the report indicated that active fund managers just barely managed to beat the S&P/TSX Composite Index in the fourth quarter of 2008 as a whole. Is there something to this? Further, I've spoken to a number of advisors who paradoxically had recently been leaning towards indexation strategies only to now perceive active managers as being akin to kids in a candy store, that there are so many value opportunities that it should be easy-pickings and active management will deliver great returns going forward.

    Wishful Thinking

    First, let's not forget how much money goes into marketing of active management. Actively managed mutual funds pull about $10 billion out of Canadians' pockets every year if you assume an average cost of 2% on total mutual fund assets of about $500 billion (thanks to Michael James for pointing out my previously erroneous calculation of only $1 billion!). The industry knows what butters its bread - and they'll spare little expense to convince investors and advisors of the merits of active management (in ANY market). Second, according to a report I read recently (but the name and location of which escapes me at the moment) about 20% of the market is indexed. That means that 80% of the market is being actively managed in some way, shape or form. Active managers haven't gone away, so there is no great "return" in the first place. If the best they can claim is that they don't go down as much in a bear market (good) and don't go up as much in a bull market (bad), then given that the market tends to go up twice as much as it goes down it's not a very compelling argument, is it? Third, 80% of the market is actively managed (yeah, same as the point above). So being able to outperform the market has the same hurdles as it ever did. Let's pretend for a minute that there are no management fees for passive or active investors. Passive investors will get the market return no matter what because they hold the market. The rest of the investors (the active investors) in aggregate will get the market return too, since for every one who is overweight RIM, there must be someone underweight RIM, and so on for all the stocks in our universe. Some will beat the average, and some will lose to the average - but put them all together and they will get the market return too. So now, we re-introduce fees. Passive investors pay very little to blindly track an index, but active investors pay a lot. It's a mathematical truth that a passive investor will beat the average active investor - and that holds true in bull markets, bear markets and everything in-between. Another way to sum this up is to examine the statement "everyone being better than average" (and average represents the index). This can't happen. The average is the average. And for passive investors the "average" costs less. Finally, I'm not going to argue that all active managers simply cannot beat the average going forward, it's just that there is no way to reliably identify these out-performers in advance... and I don't care how many hours you spend on Morningstar or Globefund. :)]]>
    1017 2009-02-03 23:58:13 2009-02-04 04:58:13 open open how-well-does-passive-investing-do-in-a-secular-bear-market publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1234112358 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 2578 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 65.94.115.14 2009-02-04 08:11:29 2009-02-04 13:11:29 1 0 0 2579 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-02-04 09:27:59 2009-02-04 14:27:59 1 0 0 2580 rmckster@gmail.com 99.236.114.43 2009-02-04 09:36:05 2009-02-04 14:36:05 1 0 0 2581 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-02-04 09:48:42 2009-02-04 14:48:42 1 0 0 2582 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-02-04 09:50:56 2009-02-04 14:50:56 1 0 0 2583 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-04 10:23:16 2009-02-04 15:23:16 1 0 0 2584 rmckster@gmail.com 99.236.114.43 2009-02-04 11:16:37 2009-02-04 16:16:37 1 0 0 2585 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-04 11:20:48 2009-02-04 16:20:48 1 0 0 2586 btrivers@peistuffonline.com http://www.peistuffonline.com/cri 198.103.184.76 2009-02-05 09:17:47 2009-02-05 14:17:47 1 0 0 2587 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-02-05 15:06:58 2009-02-05 20:06:58 1 0 0 2588 gbebee@nohypeinvesting.com http://www.nohypeinvesting.com 99.227.30.182 2009-02-05 16:52:12 2009-02-05 21:52:12 1 0 0 2589 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-02-06 09:45:55 2009-02-06 14:45:55 1 0 0 2590 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/investment-talking-14/ 216.17.106.121 2009-02-07 07:30:43 2009-02-07 12:30:43 1 pingback 0 0
    polar-bear-tongue http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-secular-market/polar-bear-tongue/ Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:44:17 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg 1019 2009-02-05 01:44:17 2009-02-05 06:44:17 open open polar-bear-tongue inherit 1018 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg _wp_attached_file polar-bear-tongue.jpeg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"410";s:6:"height";s:3:"399";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='98'";s:4:"file";s:22:"polar-bear-tongue.jpeg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"polar-bear-tongue-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"polar-bear-tongue-300x291.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"291";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"polar-bear-tongue-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"polar-bear-tongue-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} What is a Secular Market? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-secular-market/ Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:45:07 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1018 What Is A Secular Market? A secular market is basically a very long term "trend". There are three main types of "trends" that get thrown around with rudimentary technical analysis: Primary Trend: this can last for about a year or up to a few years. Secondary Trend: this is an interruption in the primary trend (in the opposite direction) for a few weeks to a few months Secular Trend: this can last for very long periods of time, generally ranging from 5 years to a few decades. A secular trend is not so much interrupted by Primary trends as it is a string of Primary trends (alternating Bull and Bear) in which the Primary trend that opposes the Secular trend is routinely smaller in magnitude than the Primary trends that make up the Secular trend. Uh... that's best explained with an example! A Secular Bull Market would be one in which the market goes up for say 20 years and is made up of alternating Bull and Bear Primary trends. BUT the Primary Bear trends tend not to completely wipe out all the gains of the previous Primary Bull trend, so it's kind of like two steps forward and one step back for many years. A Secular Bear Market is one in which the Primary Bull Markets don't fully erase the losses of the previous Primary Bear Market.]]> 1018 2009-02-05 01:45:07 2009-02-05 06:45:07 open open what-is-a-secular-market publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233816465 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg 2591 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 124.82.74.145 2009-02-05 07:12:35 2009-02-05 12:12:35 1 0 0 2592 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-02-06 10:29:37 2009-02-06 15:29:37 1 0 0 2593 http://www.canvestor.com/2009/02/the-emerging-home-buyers-market/ 67.222.16.90 2009-02-06 11:30:21 2009-02-06 16:30:21 1 pingback 0 0 2594 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-58 216.17.106.121 2009-02-14 06:40:19 2009-02-14 11:40:19 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-37/ Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:04:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1020 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I'm in Vancouver this week and will continue to be in BC until Tuesday, I sure do enjoy getting to see my parents more often with the new job as they live in West Vancouver. We have a tradition of going out for dinner to a restaurant called Ho Yuen Kee which has a garlic chilli crab signature dish and a two course peking duck dish that we order without fail, every time. If you live in Vancouver - I HIGHLY recommend checking it out - people get smacked if I go to Vancouver and DON'T get to eat there during the trip!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Dream points out that financial bloggers are generally not very representative of the wider population. Is that why I think getting a Golden Doodle and calling him Chewbacca is fine without checking with Fiona first? Thicken My Wallet wonders if we are going to have a pension plan crisis in the future, given that there are so many underfunded Defined Benefits pension plans out there. A reader had asked me to do a review on Mint.com (an online personal finance organizer of sorts) - and to that I say: maybe I'm off the hook because the President of the Canadian chapter of the Tina Fey Appreciation Society has written a review of Mint.com this week! Don't forget to enter their Great Canadian Book Giveaway - contest ends Saturday at 8pm. Since the sky is falling, Million Dollar Journey has put together a primer on two types of insurance that help to cover your savings and investments should your financial institution go out of business: CDIC and CIPF. AFAIK, you may not be SOL AAISAD. (Translation: As Far As I Know, you may not be S#it Out Of Luck After All Is Said And Done.) BTW, the financial services has more acronyms than any other industry -believe me. Canadian Capitalist gives us some light at the end of the tunnel: good returns are more likely to follow bad returns. Unfortunately, many people are usually one step behind - they gain confidence after the markets have been on a bull run so they usually miss out on all the fun, but at least they have front row seats for the next correction... :P Last but not least, Michael James on Money explains what poker can teach us about investing. If you read all the comments too, you'll find some more interesting material. Very cool post.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Many thanks to the reader who submitted this week's video suggestion. It runs for only 1 minute and is titled "5 Kinds of Lucky" - all I can say is WOW. Enjoy and have a great weekend everyone!

    ]]>
    1020 2009-02-05 22:04:45 2009-02-06 03:04:45 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-37 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1233889485 _edit_last 1 2595 http://www.easyforexinvestments.info/a-lap-of-the-blogs-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 88.214.241.54 2009-02-06 00:18:11 2009-02-06 05:18:11 1 pingback 0 0 2596 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-06 00:40:38 2009-02-06 05:40:38 1 0 0 2597 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 71.17.96.32 2009-02-06 06:35:31 2009-02-06 11:35:31 1 0 0 2598 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-02-06 07:40:36 2009-02-06 12:40:36 1 0 0 2599 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2009-02-06 11:09:19 2009-02-06 16:09:19 1 0 0 2600 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-02-06 13:06:00 2009-02-06 18:06:00 1 0 0 2601 russellcavanagh@hotmail.com http://russellcavanagh.com/2/ 78.148.123.209 2009-02-10 15:42:47 2009-02-10 20:42:47 1 0 0
    Writing Puts Instead of Buying A Stock http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/writing-puts-instead-of-buying-a-stock/ Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:06:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1021 The Rookie's Guide to Options" before getting started with option trading. Have you ever had your eye on a stock and thought to yourself, "I'd like to buy it if it becomes cheaper"? Some people may decide to enter in a limit order to buy the stock for 5% or 10% below what it is currently trading at. For example, stock XYZ is trading at $50/share and you would like to buy 100 shares for $45/share. You could just enter in an order to purchase 100 shares with a limit order of $45/share. If the stock never dips down to $45/share, your order goes unfilled and you aren't out any money. But if it does go down to $45 (or lower) then your order gets executed. Many people put in "stink" bids on stocks all the time, knowing full well their orders may never get executed and some may get filled at what they perceive to be great bargains.

    An Alternative: Writing a Put

    Another way of accomplishing essentially the same thing (and perhaps with an advantage) is to write a put option on that stock with a strike price of $45/share. A "put option" is a contract that gives the holder the right to sell a stock for the strike price indicated for as long as the contract is in force (the "term"). These contracts have value, and by "writing" a put contract you are SELLING someone else this contract. This contract holder will have the right to sell their stock and you must agree to purchase it at the strike price. So let's go back to our example. Stock XYZ is trading at $50/share and you would love to be able to buy it for $45/share. Instead of placing a stink bid for $45/share, you sell someone a put option on the stock with a strike price of $45/share (1 contract is for 100 shares) and a term of 6 months. You sell this contract for $1.50/share (or $150 total for one contract). No matter what happens, this $150 is yours to keep. If in the next 6 months, stock XYZ never makes it down to $45/share the option holder won't have any reason to force a sale of XYZ to you at $45 and the contract will expire worthless. If you still wanted to potentially buy it for $45/share, you could just turn around and sell another contract and collect the premium again. If XYZ does make it down to $45/share (or lower), then the option holder may exercise their option to sell the stock to you at $45/share. So what has happened? The stock that you were willing to purchase for $45/share is yours for $45/share plus you pocketed $1.50 share extra. So really the cost is more like $43.50/share.

    Disadvantages

    If XYZ completely takes off, you would miss out on the potential gains if it never made it down to $45/share. If XYZ drops like a stone quickly, you could be forced to buy it for $45/share when it could've gone down as low as $35/share (but if you had a stink bid in, it would've been subject to the same problem).

    Conclusion

    What's been described definitely is riskier if you don't have the cash in your account to buy the shares if the stock is "put to you". Having the cash makes this "writing a cash-secured naked put". Naked means you don't have an offsetting short position in this stock at the time of writing the put. This is dangerous when you don't have the cash to make the purchase (although many discount brokerages don't allow writing of puts if you don't have the cash to secure it in the account). Having said that, for people who are used to placing limit orders for securities at a significant discount to the market price, you may well want to look more into writing a put instead. It's not unheard of for people to continuously write puts against a stock, not have the stock get put to them, and just pocketing the premiums over and over.]]>
    1021 2009-02-09 10:06:57 2009-02-09 15:06:57 open open writing-puts-instead-of-buying-a-stock publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1234192018 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2602 rmckster@gmail.com 99.236.114.43 2009-02-09 10:57:50 2009-02-09 15:57:50 1 0 0 2603 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-02-09 16:04:52 2009-02-09 21:04:52 want to accumulate stocks.]]> 1 0 0 2604 brook.c.low@gmail.com 75.156.74.25 2009-02-09 23:18:02 2009-02-10 04:18:02 1 0 0 2605 gwynn.serenejourney@gmail.com http://www.serenejourney.com 64.42.218.85 2009-02-11 10:21:07 2009-02-11 15:21:07 1 0 0 2606 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-02-14 08:40:08 2009-02-14 13:40:08 1 0 0 2607 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.148.7 2009-02-14 12:10:52 2009-02-14 17:10:52 1 0 0 2608 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-02-14 16:36:29 2009-02-14 21:36:29 1 0 0 2609 admin@forexcare.net http://forexcare.net 83.148.82.217 2009-02-15 07:02:24 2009-02-15 12:02:24 1 0 0 2610 deb_nick@yahoo.com 173.33.100.192 2009-02-20 23:35:10 2009-02-21 04:35:10 1 0 0 2611 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.148.7 2009-02-22 11:10:23 2009-02-22 16:10:23 1 0 0 2612 brook.c.low@gmail.com 75.156.74.25 2009-02-22 20:31:19 2009-02-23 01:31:19 1 0 0 2613 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-02-22 21:25:36 2009-02-23 02:25:36 1 0 0 2614 brook.c.low@gmail.com 75.156.74.25 2009-02-23 00:32:25 2009-02-23 05:32:25 1 0 0 2615 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/write-a-put-buy-a-put/ 68.178.254.235 2009-02-24 22:53:48 2009-02-25 03:53:48 1 pingback 0 0
    30-years-of-time-magazine-covers http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:58:56 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers.pdf 1024 2009-02-10 22:58:56 2009-02-11 03:58:56 open open 30-years-of-time-magazine-covers inherit 1023 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers.pdf _wp_attached_file 30-years-of-time-magazine-covers.pdf _wp_attachment_metadata a:0:{} timemag http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers/timemag/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:04:11 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/timemag.gif 1025 2009-02-10 23:04:11 2009-02-11 04:04:11 open open timemag inherit 1023 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/timemag.gif _wp_attached_file timemag.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"303";s:6:"height";s:3:"303";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:11:"timemag.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"timemag-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"timemag-300x300.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"timemag-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"timemag-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 30 Years of Time Magazine Covers http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:06:17 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1023 I stumbled upon a presentation floating around on the internet which looks at the past 30 years of Time Magazine covers as they relate to the stock markets. Essentially, one theme is that once the market meltdowns make the front page it’s not a bad time to get back into the equity markets – such is the nature of investor and media psychology. The presentation notes the stock market index level at time of the magazine cover appearance and then shows the subsequent 10 year returns following that.

    To be clear, this is not a recommendation to buy more equities, just food for thought.

    I’m not entirely sure where credit goes, or if the presentation is not meant to be shared (although I think it is). From the document properties the stated author is Eric Harrison, although this could just be the person who converted it into a PDF file.

    If anyone knows who put this together, please let me know so that I may give him/her credit (or take it down if they request.) In the meantime, click here to download the file (PDF document).]]>
    1023 2009-02-10 23:06:17 2009-02-11 04:06:17 open open 30-years-of-time-magazine-covers publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1234325177 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/timemag.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/timemag.gif 2616 http://nobrainerprofits.com/30-years-of-time-magazine-covers/ 203.211.129.97 2009-02-11 07:18:53 2009-02-11 12:18:53 1 pingback 0 0 2617 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-02-11 09:36:47 2009-02-11 14:36:47 1 0 0 2618 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-02-11 10:03:31 2009-02-11 15:03:31 1 0 0
    Where To Find A Fee-Only Financial Planner http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/where-to-find-a-fee-only-financial-planner/ Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:26:33 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1026 Where to find a fee-only financial planner. IAFP - The Institute of Advanced Financial Planners - administers the RFP designation (which is much more difficult to earn and maintain than a CFP designation) and they have a fantastic resource on their website that allows you to search for an RFP in your area based on various criteria. DISCLAIMER: I do not personally vouch for any planner listed on either resource, do your own due diligence when selecting a financial advisor.]]> 1026 2009-02-11 21:26:33 2009-02-12 02:26:33 open open where-to-find-a-fee-only-financial-planner publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1234405594 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif 2619 http://nobrainerprofits.com/where-to-find-a-fee-only-financial-planner/ 203.211.129.97 2009-02-12 05:31:09 2009-02-12 10:31:09 1 pingback 0 0 2620 janderson@moneypower.ca 207.188.64.155 2009-02-12 07:27:25 2009-02-12 12:27:25 1 0 0 2621 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-02-12 12:40:27 2009-02-12 17:40:27 1 0 0 2622 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-38/ 68.178.254.235 2009-02-12 20:57:30 2009-02-13 01:57:30 1 pingback 0 0 2623 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.160.251 2009-02-12 23:57:43 2009-02-13 04:57:43 1 0 0 2624 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/02/13/this-and-that-valentine%e2%80%99s-day-edition 64.111.114.14 2009-02-13 08:16:02 2009-02-13 13:16:02 1 pingback 0 0 2625 melmarten@hotmail.com http://www.claroconnect.com 63.78.3.186 2009-04-09 12:01:40 2009-04-09 17:01:40 1 0 0 2626 downtoearthbabygear@gmail.com 208.103.243.6 2009-06-03 20:21:22 2009-06-04 01:21:22 1 0 0 2627 shortex.seo@gmail.com http://www.shortex.com 121.246.72.128 2009-11-25 09:28:11 2009-11-25 14:28:11 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-38/ Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:57:24 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1027 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau linked to my last post which listed some resources for finding fee-only financial advisors in Canada. Jonathan discusses the difference between "fee-based" and "fee-only" - I'm sure there is a lot of confusion within the investing public on this distinction - and a very important distinction it is. Michael James on Money has a fantastic post which looks at the concept of emotional accounting and investing. This is a must read. Thicken My Wallet has a two part series which discusses severance pay entitlements, a very pertinent post for the times. Click here for Part I, Click here for Part II. Canadian Capitalist explains the newly proposed HRTC (Home Renovation Tax Credit). Million Dollar Journey has a post about the various ways a couple can manage their household spending. Some systems work better than others, but the important thing is to find a system that works for each person involved. Some people are happy to take a back seat, while others may resent it.

    This Week's Racing Video

    I pulled out another repeat video this week, simply because it's one of my favourites. It's starts out slowly, but the video keeps getting better and better and better as it progresses. This is another rally video, this time showcasing the passion (insanity?) of some rally fans who really are flirting with their lives doing what they are doing in this video.

    ]]> 1027 2009-02-12 20:57:24 2009-02-13 01:57:24 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-38 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1234490245 _edit_last 1 2628 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-12 23:05:27 2009-02-13 04:05:27 1 0 0 2629 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-02-13 08:14:59 2009-02-13 13:14:59 1 0 0 2630 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-02-13 09:39:31 2009-02-13 14:39:31 1 0 0 2631 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.25 2009-02-13 11:16:53 2009-02-13 16:16:53 1 0 0 Guest Post: Looking Inside Insider Transactions http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/guest-post-looking-inside-insider-transactions/ Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:48:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1028 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This is a guest post by the Intelligent Speculator which is a blog about investing, news and market events. It also supplies readers with free stock picks with the goal of generating new investment ideas. You can visit the blog at IntelligentSpeculator.net and subscribe to the RSS feed here. It is always very interesting to me to hear investors looking at insider transactions to decide on buying or not a stock. Just to explain further, insider transactions are when senior executives of a company either buy or sell stocks of their own company. Executives are required to report these trades to the authorities for various reasons and there are many ways for investors to access this information. It has been used as a point of analysis by many and I have always found it simply bogus. Why? Quite easy, because you have no idea what is REALLY going on. Let's use an example. Say you hear about a CEO buying stock of his company or you look and see that they own a very important amount of shares and so you would automatically assume that: -This CEO has a major financial interest in the company's success -This CEO believes the stock has a good opportunity to go higher (and he should know right? He is the guy in charge). The argument is flawed on so many levels but to me the most obvious one is trades done off market. For example, let's say the CEO of Goldman Sachs owns 1 millions shares of the company, giving him a crazy $1 million loss for every dollar the stock loses. Feel sorry for him yet? Ok maybe not. But there is potentially something you do not know. You do know that he owns 1 million shares. But let's say for a second that he did an off-market equity swap? Say what? Basically, he is paying the return of 1 million shares of Goldman Sachs in return for the return for the same amount of the general market. Not clear? Basically, the CEO owns 1 million shares and will gain $1 million for any 1$ increase in the stock of the price. However, off market he must pay the return on the same quantity of stock. So basically, this CEO will not make a dime on the increase or decrease of Goldman Sachs. And how you will know he did this? You won't. The CEO did the trade off market and he does not have to report this trade. Why would he do that? You know, the guy did not reach the CEO status by being dumb. He might not believe the stock is going higher, but he won't make a big announcement saying so. Instead, he will quietly make this trade (there are many different ways to do this), and feel happy to know that all investors still think he has a major financial interest in the future of his company. So please, next time you hear someone saying you should buy a stock because the executives are buying. Please just let them know that it might be the case, but it could not be as it seems... This concludes the guest post by the Intelligent Speculator - thanks very much for the article. You can read a little more about Equity Monetizations (the strategy referred to in the article) here.]]> 1028 2009-02-15 21:48:20 2009-02-16 02:48:20 open open guest-post-looking-inside-insider-transactions publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1234752501 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif 2632 http://nobrainerprofits.com/guest-post-looking-inside-insider-transactions/ 203.211.129.97 2009-02-16 05:52:56 2009-02-16 10:52:56 1 pingback 0 0 2633 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-02-16 09:44:33 2009-02-16 14:44:33 1 0 0 2634 richarddarku@mail.ru 194.8.75.159 2010-04-23 10:50:23 2010-04-23 15:50:23 Tramadol Without Prescription from Reliable Supplier of Generic Medications Free Shipping (COD, FedEx). Next Day Delivery. 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Continued http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fee-only-versus-fee-based-continued/ Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:33:40 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1029

    Regarding fee-only advisors, I really hope you will highlight Jonathan Chevreau's comments which were posted here http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/wealthyboomer/archive/2009/02/12/where-to-find-a-fee-only-planner.aspx
    You know as a former advisor that a "fee-only" advisor who charges their client 1.5% of assets is no different than the majority of your former colleagues who would happily offer the same deal.
    Drill down into the numbers and I think you will find that the vast majority of the advisors listed here  http://www.canadianbusiness.com/my_money/planning/article.jsp?content=20080310_110229_7096
    are actually more expensive for the typical client.  Ok, fine to say you charge 0.5% on assets over $2,000,000 - but the vast majority of clients are in the $250 to $500K range.  It's a bait and switch - advertise a very low percentage of assets for the one or two accounts they have that are big, and then charge the majority of their clients more than they would pay with most brokers.
    I really like Jonathan's article - but I will bet you that very very few of the advisors listed in Duncan Hoods article will ever reference it.
    Keep up the good work.
    It's a good point. A TRUE fee-only advisor relationship is one in which they charge strictly by the hour, or a flat rate, and there is no management of assets (or custodianship). I see that there are some fee-only advisors who further calculate their flat fee based on how large your portfolio is - but only in extreme cases does that really change the level of complexity of the financial planning.
    So, if you are looking for someone to work on your financial planning and you are looking for an unbiased professional who earns a living through hourly or flat rates, make sure to look for a fee-only "financial planner" whose rates do not change with the size of your assets (if your situation is more complex, it will take longer to figure out and the charge will be higher, so you are not short-changing them).
    A fee-only investment advisor, who may change their fees based on how large your portfolio is, is not necessarily a bad thing - you just have to understand the value you are receiving and what you are paying for.
    There is enough grey area that there are those out there (perhaps unwittingly) who are taking advantage of the good will associated with the fee-only name. Certainly, there are more blog posts to discuss the ins and outs of "fee-only versus fee-based" to come!
    ]]>
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    Fee-Only Based on Net Worth, not Portfolio Size http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fee-only-based-on-net-worth-not-portfolio-size/ Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:11:47 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1030 this blog and on Jonathan Chevreau's). Just to add a little spice to the mix: did you know that some fee-only planners charge a fee based not on investment portfolio size, but instead by net worth in total? Assuming that your fixed assets are larger than your liabilities, this means that the fee could be based on not only your portfolio size, but also on the equity you have in your house, cottages, real estate and incorporated entities, etc. Certainly this changes the game quite a bit. There are some planners out there who may only deal with a few families, offer a very special level of service, and the value may in fact be there - think Tom Hagen to the Corleone family. :) But, I think the main message is that there are a lot of options out there, and unfortunately the bulk of advisors do not go out of their way to bring clarity to the topic of fees. It's tough painting with such a broad stroke, but the sad reality is that the deck is stacked against the average investor.]]> 1030 2009-02-17 19:11:47 2009-02-18 00:11:47 open open fee-only-based-on-net-worth-not-portfolio-size publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1234916044 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 2658 JordanClark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-02-18 07:14:46 2009-02-18 12:14:46 1 0 0 2659 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.148.7 2009-02-18 20:14:11 2009-02-19 01:14:11 1 0 0 2660 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/02/20/when-financial-bloggers-meet/ 67.205.7.217 2009-02-20 01:11:29 2009-02-20 06:11:29 1 pingback 0 0 2661 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/02/20/linkstuff-for-feb-20/ 67.205.18.215 2009-02-20 05:01:52 2009-02-20 10:01:52 1 pingback 0 0 2662 derekvanbrussel@gmail.com 70.52.73.71 2009-03-01 12:10:28 2009-03-01 17:10:28 1 0 0 Financial Advisors and Derivatives Training http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-advisors-and-derivatives-training/ Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:11:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1031 1031 2009-02-18 21:11:46 2009-02-19 02:11:46 open open financial-advisors-and-derivatives-training publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235009510 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 2663 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-02-18 23:31:52 2009-02-19 04:31:52 1 0 0 2664 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 60.48.103.243 2009-02-19 09:50:10 2009-02-19 14:50:10 1 0 0 2665 ishan1bansal@yahoo.com http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com 75.30.248.96 2009-02-21 06:30:17 2009-02-21 11:30:17 http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com]]> 1 0 0 2666 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 173.33.148.7 2009-02-22 11:01:24 2009-02-22 16:01:24 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-39/ Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:07:53 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1032 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Well now this was a special week for me. I had the privilege of meeting up with some fellow bloggers face-to-face for the first time while on a 24 hour trip to Ottawa. I had the pleasure of meeting the bloggers behind The Canadian Capitalist, Michael James on Money, Canadian Personal Finance Blog, and Canadian Money Review. I was looking forward to meeting Larry MacDonald as well, but he was under the weather - oh well, maybe next time. I had a great time chatting with everyone and I look forward to sitting in on more meetings in the future. Big Cajun Man was even so kind as to put me on his blogroll for the NCFBA (Nation's Capital Financial Bloggers Association) - I'm honoured!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist (one of my favourite blogs) looks at some directions blame has been laid with respect to dropping portfolio values and wonders if it's pointing in the right direction. Michael James on Money (who should consider changing his blog's name to Tobey Maguire on Money because he is a spitting image of said actor who plays the web-slinger) explains why it's unlikely that Warren Buffett's track record is merely a fluke. Big Cajun Man shares some tips for deductions to claim on your taxes - yep, it's tax time! He is as entertaining in person as his blog's unique writing style would indicate - very funny guy! Canadian Money Review (Guillaume) wrote about the current interest rates being offered by various high interest savings accounts. I don't actually follow this blog, but I met Guillaume at the meeting and decided to dedicate this week's lap of the blogs to the attendees. Larry MacDonald, while not present, was with us in spirit I'm sure, has a post relating to behavioural finance - something that I think is greatly underappreciated by investors and the industry alike.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is a test of a Formula 1 engine mounted to a car (perhaps for the first time for a new model?). What's amazing about this video is that after 20 seconds you start to see the exhaust pipes start to glow, but once they start giving it some juice, the pipes glow white hot and the whole car looks like it could torque itself off the stands. F1 cars are not designed to stay in one place, if they sit with the engine running too long the cars actually start to melt. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1032 2009-02-20 00:07:53 2009-02-20 05:07:53 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-39 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235106474 _edit_last 1 2667 http://finance.linkablez.info/?p=32424 67.228.60.138 2009-02-20 02:12:07 2009-02-20 07:12:07 1 pingback 0 0 2668 http://f1-racing.tootblog.info/?p=531 74.86.186.66 2009-02-20 02:31:52 2009-02-20 07:31:52 1 pingback 0 0 2669 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-02-20 06:21:55 2009-02-20 11:21:55 1 0 0 2670 michael.james.money@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-20 09:45:57 2009-02-20 14:45:57 1 0 0 2671 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-02-20 12:55:45 2009-02-20 17:55:45 1 0 0 2672 ishan1bansal@yahoo.com http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com 75.30.248.96 2009-02-21 06:25:55 2009-02-21 11:25:55 http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com]]> 1 0 0 The Credit Crises Explained For Beginners http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-credit-crises-explained-for-beginners/ Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:56:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1033 The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.]]> 1033 2009-02-22 10:56:34 2009-02-22 15:56:34 open open the-credit-crises-explained-for-beginners publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235842493 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif 2673 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://financelearners.blogspot.com 124.82.77.35 2009-03-05 04:04:06 2009-03-05 09:04:06 1 0 0 2674 shortex.seo@gmail.com http://www.shortex.com 121.246.72.128 2009-11-25 09:29:43 2009-11-25 14:29:43 1 0 0 How Are The Pros Investing Their Money Right Now? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-are-the-pros-investing-their-money-right-now/ Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:42:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1034 Where The Financial Gurus Are Putting Their Own Money. It's quite an interesting read on a number of fronts. Quoted in the article are Jeremy Siegel (Stocks for the Long Run), Robert Arnott (Fundamental Indexation), John Bogle (Vanguard), Muriel Siebert (brought the first national discount brokerage to the US!), and David Dremen (Dremen Value Management LLC). Each reveal some information about their personal portfolios. It's probably not surprising to learn that if you ask six people the same question about investing, you get six different answers for the most part. What they do have in common is patience, a long term outlook, and discipline. You'll also note that some may have taken on large losses just like the majority of non-professional investors... :) Click here to read the article...]]> 1034 2009-02-23 17:42:15 2009-02-23 22:42:15 open open how-are-the-pros-investing-their-money-right-now publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235429116 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jeremysiegel220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jeremysiegel220.gif 2675 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-02-24 04:39:36 2009-02-24 09:39:36 1 0 0 2676 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-02-24 09:14:23 2009-02-24 14:14:23 1 0 0 2677 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/02/27/random-thoughts-12/ 67.205.7.217 2009-02-27 06:29:09 2009-02-27 11:29:09 1 pingback 0 0 2678 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/02/27/linkstuff-feb-27/ 70.32.84.217 2009-07-15 10:45:15 2009-07-15 15:45:15 1 pingback 0 0 Write a Put, Buy a Put http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/write-a-put-buy-a-put/ Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:53:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1035 writing puts as an alternative way to accumulate stock. To re-cap, writing a put option means you are selling someone else the option of selling a stock to you at a certain price for a certain amount of time. They may choose to exercise this option when the stock in question is trading below the strike price of the put option contract. If this happens, the stock is "put to you" - meaning you are forced to buy it. As an example, let's assume that stock XYZ is trading at $50/share. If you sell a put option for $45/share then if the stock drops in value to $45/share, you may end up being forced to buy it. If XYZ never gets down to $45/share you may not end up being forced to buy it. No matter what though, you will get to pocket the sale price of the put option contract. If XYZ never makes it to $45/share by the time the option contract expires, your obligation to buy the shares also expires and in this case you just pocket the premium. I mentioned that there were a few scenarios where writing a put might not be so great. The first is if the stock takes off in price (remember you were willing to accumulate it) without first getting to $45/share. In this case you are potentially foregoing participation in that upside. The second is if the stock drops dramatically. It could suddenly be trading for $35/share, and you would still be forced to buy it for $45/share. One way to adjust for this latter risk, is to also buy a put option with a lower strike price with the same expiry date. As an example, in this case we sold a put with a $45/share strike price and we purchase a put with a $43/share strike price. Because the put we purchased has a lower strike price, it will cost less than the put we sold - known as a net credit. Now, if the stock suddenly drops to $35/share we are forced to purchase it for $45/share but we've acquired the right to sell it for at least $43/share - thereby limiting our loss to $2/share (commissions are not factored in yet). You can increase you net credit by buying a put with an even lower strike price, but note that you are increasing your potential loss. Funny how this "risk and return" concept crops up everywhere no matter where you look... :) So who would use this? One situation would be an investor who is willing to accumulate stock but wants to get paid to wait for prices to come down a little bit more, while at the same time guarding against the risk of a quick and severe collapse in the stock's price. They must also accept that they may miss out on the opportunity to acquire the stock. More to come... Disclaimer: option trading can be conservative or risky - it pays to take some time and educate yourself. A great start would be to check out Mark Wolfinger’s “The Rookie’s Guide to Options” before getting started with option trading.]]> 1035 2009-02-24 22:53:39 2009-02-25 03:53:39 open open write-a-put-buy-a-put publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1235534020 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 2679 ishan1bansal@yahoo.com http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com 75.30.248.96 2009-02-25 01:20:13 2009-02-25 06:20:13 1 0 0 Dividend Capture Strategy http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/dividend-capture-strategy/ Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:31:31 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1036 Sounds great, doesn't it? Hold the phone. On thing about stocks that pay dividends is that there is a slight run up in price (on average) approaching the ex-dividend date and then a drop in price (on average) on the ex-dividend date approximately equivalent to the dividend per share amount. So you could be paying a premium to purchase the stock and selling at a lower price after the ex-dividend date. If the dividend payment only makes up the capital loss, what was the point? Daily fluctuations can mask the run-up and drop in the share price, but over time it averages out. Many funds that have tried to run a dividend capture rotation strategy have not only failed to live up to the hype, they were especially clobbered in 2008 due the high allocation to financials. Today's post was brought to you by the letter Q, and the number 4. (God I miss watching Sesame Street!)]]> 1036 2009-02-25 21:31:31 2009-02-26 02:31:31 open open dividend-capture-strategy publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235615492 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 2680 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-02-26 10:29:22 2009-02-26 15:29:22 1 0 0 2681 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.88 2009-02-26 12:31:59 2009-02-26 17:31:59 1 0 0 2682 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.23.138 2009-02-26 13:15:31 2009-02-26 18:15:31 1 0 0 2683 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-02-26 17:22:52 2009-02-26 22:22:52 1 0 0 2684 dividendgrowthinvestor@gmail.com http://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com 78.90.253.7 2009-03-06 14:25:34 2009-03-06 19:25:34 1 0 0 2685 mail@FearLES.otherinbox.com 206.174.203.250 2009-03-09 16:07:48 2009-03-09 21:07:48 1 0 0 2686 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-03-10 14:52:23 2009-03-10 19:52:23 1 0 0 2687 mail@FearLES.otherinbox.com 206.174.203.250 2009-03-11 12:16:19 2009-03-11 17:16:19 1 0 0 2688 ryan.mckown@gmail.com 216.220.227.180 2009-09-22 10:40:55 2009-09-22 15:40:55 1 0 0 2689 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-09-22 12:16:18 2009-09-22 17:16:18 1 0 0 2690 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-09-23 09:18:01 2009-09-23 14:18:01 1 0 0 2691 Perrybrow@Gmail.com 68.50.151.36 2009-10-02 10:43:36 2009-10-02 15:43:36 1 0 0 2692 TJDwill@aol.com 70.116.87.53 2009-10-13 08:12:53 2009-10-13 13:12:53 1 0 0 2693 contact@dividendium.com http://www.dividendium.com/ 71.20.96.206 2010-03-30 14:02:45 2010-03-30 19:02:45 1 0 0 2694 pcroscia@yahoo.com 74.232.110.22 2010-04-09 23:40:53 2010-04-10 04:40:53 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-40/ Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:14:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1037 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.

    Shameless self-promotion

    I was quoted in a few articles in the mainstream media this week... 1. Paul Brent's article Trim Investing Fees To Boost RRSP Returns was on the front page of Thursday's RRSP Investing section of the National Post. 2. Jonathan Chevreau featured a small quote in a piece that also ran in the same day's edition of the National Post titled Despondent? It's Probably Time To Buy 3. Larry MacDonald also had a few quotes in his Globe and Mail piece A Relief Valve For RRSP Holders

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Financial DIY takes a look at the performance of "the Caisse" and asks some questions that have yet to be answered. Canadian Capitalist looks at the lessons that can be learned from the Japanese stock market. Million Dollar Journey has a guest post on the costs of owning a dog. For those of you who don't know, I plan on buying a Golden Doodle one day and naming him Chewie (short for Chewbacca, natch). Ellen Roseman asks if you can trust your financial advisor. Michael James on Money gives us a great perspective on looking at the Auto Bailout proposal in Canada. Thicken My Wallet looks at the costs/benefits of various types of graduate studies. Big Cajun Man notes that EI claims are way up.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is another video showing the testing of a Formula 1 engine (next week, I'm going to show a video of how they tested them in the "old days"). This particular Renault powerplant consumes 70L of fuel per 100km. A typical road car would consume perhaps 8L of fuel per 100km!

    ]]> 1037 2009-02-26 23:14:04 2009-02-27 04:14:04 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-40 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235708045 _edit_last 1 2695 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 89.242.197.55 2009-02-27 04:55:11 2009-02-27 09:55:11 1 0 0 2696 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-02-27 06:31:49 2009-02-27 11:31:49 1 0 0 2697 michael.james.money@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-02-27 08:15:42 2009-02-27 13:15:42 1 0 0 2698 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-02-27 08:29:58 2009-02-27 13:29:58 1 0 0 2699 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-02-27 10:04:11 2009-02-27 15:04:11 1 0 0 2700 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-02-27 10:48:57 2009-02-27 15:48:57 1 0 0 ctvnewsnet http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/appearance-on-ctv-newsnet/ctvnewsnet/ Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:11:08 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ctvnewsnet.png 1039 2009-03-01 17:11:08 2009-03-01 22:11:08 open open ctvnewsnet inherit 1038 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/ctvnewsnet.png _wp_attached_file ctvnewsnet.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"429";s:6:"height";s:3:"386";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='106'";s:4:"file";s:14:"ctvnewsnet.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"ctvnewsnet-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"ctvnewsnet-300x269.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"269";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"ctvnewsnet-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"ctvnewsnet-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Appearance on CTV Newsnet http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/appearance-on-ctv-newsnet/ Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:12:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1038 Click here to watch the clip (NOTE: Small video advertisement plays before the clip) ]]> 1038 2009-03-01 17:12:34 2009-03-01 22:12:34 open open appearance-on-ctv-newsnet publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1235945554 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ctvnewsnet.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ctvnewsnet.png 2701 brian.tabios@gmail.com 96.51.164.46 2009-03-01 20:17:58 2009-03-02 01:17:58 1 0 0 2702 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2009-03-01 21:09:31 2009-03-02 02:09:31 1 0 0 2703 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 89.242.197.55 2009-03-02 04:25:20 2009-03-02 09:25:20 1 0 0 2704 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2009-03-02 06:19:58 2009-03-02 11:19:58 1 0 0 2705 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.88 2009-03-02 10:32:12 2009-03-02 15:32:12 1 0 0 2706 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-03-02 10:56:52 2009-03-02 15:56:52 1 0 0 2707 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2009-03-02 12:45:18 2009-03-02 17:45:18 1 0 0 2708 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-03-02 16:40:47 2009-03-02 21:40:47 1 0 0 spx-1825-2008-return http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/total-returns-from-1825-to-2008/spx-1825-2008-return/ Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:00:00 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/spx-1825-2008-return.png 1041 2009-03-02 17:00:00 2009-03-02 22:00:00 open open spx-1825-2008-return inherit 1040 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/spx-1825-2008-return.png _wp_attached_file spx-1825-2008-return.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1031";s:6:"height";s:4:"1302";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='76'";s:4:"file";s:24:"spx-1825-2008-return.png";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"spx-1825-2008-return-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"spx-1825-2008-return-237x300.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"237";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"spx-1825-2008-return-810x1024.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"810";s:6:"height";s:4:"1024";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"spx-1825-2008-return-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"spx-1825-2008-return-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Total Returns From 1825 to 2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/total-returns-from-1825-to-2008/ Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:08:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1040

    Source: Value Square Asset Management, Yale University as found on Ritholz.com/blog]]>
    1040 2009-03-02 17:08:13 2009-03-02 22:08:13 open open total-returns-from-1825-to-2008 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236031840 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2709 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-03-02 20:12:40 2009-03-03 01:12:40 1 0 0 2710 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-03-02 21:45:23 2009-03-03 02:45:23 1 0 0 2711 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/03/06/random-thoughts-spring-ahead/ 67.205.7.217 2009-03-06 01:36:44 2009-03-06 06:36:44 1 pingback 0 0 2712 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/03/06/this-and-that-iceland-bubble-edition 64.111.114.14 2009-03-06 09:16:12 2009-03-06 14:16:12 1 pingback 0 0 2713 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-equal-short-bull-bear-as-the-ultimate-negative-correlator/ 68.178.254.235 2009-05-27 02:42:56 2009-05-27 07:42:56 1 pingback 0 0
    The Grid And The Penalty Box http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-grid-and-the-penalty-box/ Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:21:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1042 Where it hits the grid determines the split of the commission between the advisor and his/her firm. Generally the grid is a matrix with "ticket" sizes across one dimension and "annual gross commissions" across the other. The higher the ticket size (commission generated on one transaction) and the higher the total gross commissions (for the year), the higher the payout. The payout can normally range from about 30% to 60% for big brokerages, and 60% to 100% for independent shops. If the payout in our example was 40%, then the $500 gross commission hits the grid and the net commission to the advisor would be $200, with $300 going to the firm. Anyways, the "penalty box" as described in the linked article is a very low payout range which may kick in when gross commissions fall to a certain level. It is designed as a motivator and also as a mechanism to weed out low producers. In any case, thanks to reader to Marianne for pointing out the following article which she thought might be of interest to readers of this blog - Big Firm Conflict of Interest: The Penalty Box]]> 1042 2009-03-03 22:21:03 2009-03-04 03:21:03 open open the-grid-and-the-penalty-box publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236136864 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 2714 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.206.138.14 2009-03-04 09:00:56 2009-03-04 14:00:56 1 0 0 2715 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2009-03-04 10:52:44 2009-03-04 15:52:44 1 0 0 2716 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-grid/ 68.178.254.235 2009-03-04 21:39:53 2009-03-05 02:39:53 1 pingback 0 0 2717 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-03-06 23:04:09 2009-03-07 04:04:09 1 0 0 The Grid http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-grid/ Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:39:38 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1043 I gave a brief description of the "Compensation Grid". Today, I'm going to give an example of what a real grid might look like. Across the top, we have the gross commission generated by an individual transaction. Down the left hand side, we have the gross annual commissions generated by the broker.

    For the broker who is generating about $350,000 in gross commissions, if he/she sold $5,000 worth of a DSC mutual fund which generates a gross commission of $250 for that transaction then that $250 would hit the grid in the 43% payout level. Therefore, the broker would get a net commission of $107.50 (43%) and the firm would keep $142.50.

    $0 - $100 $100 - $200 $200 - $300 $400 - $500 $500+
    $0 - $100K/year 10% 20% 20% 20% 20%
    $100K - $200k/year 25% 25% 25% 25% 47%
    $300k - $400k/year 35% 39% 43% 44% 49%
    $400k-$500k/year 40% 42% 44% 46% 51%
    $500k - $1M/year 42% 44% 46% 48% 53%
    $1M - $2M/year 44% 46% 48% 50% 55%
    $2M+/year 49% 51% 53% 55% 57%
    You can see how "behaviour" can be modified based on how the grid is structured. In this particular case, high producers are rewarded (advisor retention) and low producers are given little incentive to remain where they are (that could mean motivation to sell more, or they quit due to lack of income). Further, incentive is given to placing trades that generate higher commissions as well (either by looking for more money to get the client to invest, putting them into a higher allocation to equities which generally generate higher commissions than fixed income products, or charging higher commissions on stock trades). Another by-product of some grids is that by the end of the year, if you are near the next production level (i.e. you have generated annual gross commissions of $375,000 for the year), then by finding a way to generate another $25,000 in commissions in the final month moves you up a grid level. The new payout may apply retroactively to all your commissions for the year. For example, let's assume that our broker has $399,999 in gross commissions for the year. If they ended the year at that level (and assuming all tickets were at the $500+ level) then they would have earned $195,999.51 in net commissions. If they made only one more dollar of commissions (gross) then they jump up a grid level and their net commission jumps to $204,000. So that $1 dollar in extra gross commissions was worth about $8,000 (net) to the advisor.]]>
    1043 2009-03-04 21:39:38 2009-03-05 02:39:38 open open the-grid publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236220991 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif 2718 michael.james.money@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-03-04 23:07:39 2009-03-05 04:07:39 1 0 0 2719 http://nobrainerprofits.com/the-grid/ 203.211.129.97 2009-03-05 05:46:37 2009-03-05 10:46:37 1 pingback 0 0 2720 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-03-05 07:47:30 2009-03-05 12:47:30 1 0 0 2721 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-03-06 23:12:06 2009-03-07 04:12:06 1 0 0 2722 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 67.70.206.60 2009-03-07 20:06:09 2009-03-08 01:06:09 1 0 0 2723 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-03-08 15:32:53 2009-03-08 20:32:53 1 0 0 2724 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/03/13/this-and-that-warren-buffett-marathon-edition 64.111.114.14 2009-03-12 23:04:52 2009-03-13 04:04:52 1 pingback 0 0 2725 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/03/12/this-and-that-warren-buffett-marathon-edition/ 74.208.148.118 2009-03-13 00:01:03 2009-03-13 05:01:03 1 pingback 0 0 2726 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/investment-talking-18/ 216.17.106.121 2009-03-14 07:01:43 2009-03-14 12:01:43 1 pingback 0 0 2727 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-financial-advisor-retirement-plan/ 68.178.254.235 2009-09-08 21:00:27 2009-09-09 02:00:27 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-41/ Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:35:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1044 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. In case you missed it, I made an appearance on CTV Newsnet last weekend. You can click here to watch the interview. Other than that, I flew into Calgary this morning and am flying back this evening (I'm writing this as I wait to board the plane home). That's 8 hours of travel time for what amounted to 6 hours of meetings. Don't think I could manage this commute everyday, suddenly Ajax to Oakville doesn't feel so bad! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist asks us if there is anything better than stocks for long term investing. FungMoney.com gives the 411 on how to read a stock quote. Dr. Wolfinger lists some common misconceptions about options. Tobey Maguire on Money reveals Warren Buffett's recipe to prevent mortgage abuses. Four Pillars asks, Who Do You Trust? Big Cajun Man gives an example of how incompetence can be expensive when it comes to filing your taxes. Larry MacDonald (who I'm hoping to finally meet next week!) reviews the book When Giants Fall: An Economic Roadmap for the end of the American era. Million Dollar Journey has a great tip for money decisions: sleep on it!

    This Week's Racing Video

    A friend sent this to me on facebook: it's a montage of some great Formula 1 clips with a more artistic slant. I love watching the slow-motion clips of what we refer to as moments that rank high on the "sphincter pucker factor". Enjoy and have a great weekend everyone!

    ]]> 1044 2009-03-05 18:35:39 2009-03-05 23:35:39 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-41 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1236296140 2728 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-03-05 19:08:04 2009-03-06 00:08:04 1 0 0 2729 michael.james.money@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-03-06 06:18:54 2009-03-06 11:18:54 1 0 0 2730 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-03-06 10:15:57 2009-03-06 15:15:57 1 0 0 2731 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 69.156.77.120 2009-03-06 11:41:01 2009-03-06 16:41:01 1 0 0 jonstewart http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/john-stewart-skewers-cnbc/jonstewart/ Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:23:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jonstewart.png 1046 2009-03-08 15:23:04 2009-03-08 20:23:04 open open jonstewart inherit 1045 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jonstewart.png _wp_attached_file jonstewart.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:5:{s:5:"width";s:3:"424";s:6:"height";s:3:"321";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='95' width='126'";s:4:"file";s:14:"jonstewart.png";s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} John Stewart Skewers CNBC http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/john-stewart-skewers-cnbc/ Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:27:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1045 CanadianFundWatch.com) was kind enough to send me this link over the weekend. It's a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which Jon Stewart puts CNBC on trial for it's coverage (and recommendations) through the Credit Crisis (so far). The video is about 10 minutes long, but is WELL worth the time. I highly recommend you check it out. NOTE: A short commercial may play before the clip starts. Click here to access the video.]]> 1045 2009-03-08 15:27:10 2009-03-08 20:27:10 open open john-stewart-skewers-cnbc publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236544030 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/jonstewart.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/jonstewart.png 2732 http://thedailyparr.com/jon-stewart/posts-about-jon-stewart-as-of-march-8-2009-6/ 70.32.90.245 2009-03-08 18:42:20 2009-03-08 23:42:20 1 pingback 0 0 2733 rmckster@gmail.com 99.236.219.64 2009-03-09 17:03:01 2009-03-09 22:03:01 1 0 0 2734 brian.tabios@gmail.com 96.51.164.46 2009-03-09 21:42:50 2009-03-10 02:42:50 1 0 0 Third Place Is You're Fired http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/third-place-is-youre-fired/ Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:33:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1047 ICI Chief Favours Fiduciary Role For Advisers". This article is written for an American audience, but should apply equally here. It's amazing that this isnt already a requirement, and it's also amazing that such thinking is considered pushing the envelope!]]> 1047 2009-03-09 20:33:34 2009-03-10 01:33:34 open open third-place-is-youre-fired publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236648814 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 2735 http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/03/10/wander-reading-13/ 64.15.147.100 2009-03-10 07:16:16 2009-03-10 12:16:16 1 pingback 0 0 2736 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-03-10 08:52:01 2009-03-10 13:52:01 1 0 0 2737 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-03-10 08:52:42 2009-03-10 13:52:42 1 0 0 2738 howie.wong@gmail.com http://N/A 70.79.98.4 2009-03-10 21:03:22 2009-03-11 02:03:22 1 0 0 2739 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/03/13/linkstuff-march-13/ 70.32.84.217 2009-03-13 09:22:35 2009-03-13 14:22:35 1 pingback 0 0 Prop Traders http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/prop-traders/ Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:34:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1048 Nick Leeson who took down the entire Barings Bank.]]> 1048 2009-03-11 05:34:29 2009-03-11 10:34:29 open open prop-traders publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236767737 _edit_last 1 The Social World versus The Financial World http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-social-world-versus-the-financial-world/ Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:46:44 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1049 Experiment 1 In experiment 1 there were three groups of subjects. Group one was told they would be paid $5 for the task, Group 2 was told they would receive 50 cents, and Group three was asked to perform the task as a favour to one of the experimenters. Group one had on average moved the object 159 times. Group 2, who were paid less, moved the object about 101 times on average. As you can imagine, this would support the notion that the higher the financial reward, the more motivation is generated. But a funny thing happened with Group 3 - they moved 168 objects on average - about the same as the $5 group. This could be explained by a different thought process in which operating in a social context (being asked a favour) is different from operating in a financial context (relative reward).

    Experiment 2

    They ran the exact same experiment but this time they chose "social" rewards for all three groups. Group 1 received $5 in fancy Godiva chocolates, Group 2 received a 50 cent chocolate bar and Group 3 was again asked to perform the task as a favour. This time, all three groups scored in the 160s - or in other words, performed about the same. By changing the context from one of financial reward to social reward (money replaced with gifts) the results changed and in this case it really was the thought that counts, not so much the actual reward. So we can see that our behaviour is influenced by the framework in which we are working. If we are operating with our "financial" mind we behave differently than when we are operating with our "social" mind. There are many ramifications of this finding as it relates to decisions people make about "money" versus "financial goals".]]>
    1049 2009-03-12 00:46:44 2009-03-12 05:46:44 open open the-social-world-versus-the-financial-world publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236836804 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 2740 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-03-12 08:01:58 2009-03-12 13:01:58 1 0 0 2741 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2009-03-12 08:29:02 2009-03-12 13:29:02 1 0 0 2742 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-03-12 11:35:11 2009-03-12 16:35:11 1 0 0 2743 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/03/13/random-thoughts-bye-bye-bernie/ 67.205.7.217 2009-03-13 05:47:36 2009-03-13 10:47:36 1 pingback 0 0 2744 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-03-15 22:22:57 2009-03-16 03:22:57 1 0 0 2745 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/03/20/another-quicktax-giveaway-and-weekend-links/ 74.208.148.118 2009-03-20 19:51:39 2009-03-21 00:51:39 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-42/ Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:10:27 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1050 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I had the pleasure of sitting in on another NCFBA meeting this week while in Ottawa for business (NCFBA = Nation's Capital Financial Bloggers Association) which was attended by Canadian Capitalist, Big Cajun Man and Larry MacDonald. Other than that, the only thing to report is that I'll be off for two weeks filming the last leg of the W Network challenge - I'll let everyone know when the three episodes air (unless they are embarassing in which case all the members of the NCFBA will let you know when they air!)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Larry MacDonald notes that Berkshire Hathaway stock is trading below book value, the shares subsequently tripled in value the last time that happened, but how much longer will Buffett be at the helm? Big Cajun Man has been finding some really great videos and posting them to his site. Not really money related (but then again, neither are my racing videos!). Remember "The Sweater"? You will... Canadian Capitalist discovered that Canada's Youngest Retiree who sold many books espousing the virtues of holding dividend paying stocks forever, sold all of his holdings in February. Is he taking his book off the shelf? Nope. Jonathan Chevreau wonders if pessimism serves as a reverse indicator. Tobey Maguire on Money notes that DIY (do it yourself) investing can mean different things. Four Pillars explains how you can rent-to-own instead of just renting, and instead of taking the ownership plunge right away. Million Dollar Journey found out that you can get a free flight anywhere in North America by signing up for a new credit card. Is it all it's cracked up to be? Check out the comments to learn more. Mark Wolfinger talks about emotional diversification. This has nothing to do with polygamy. Thicken My Wallet explains how NOT to get a job.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Not really a racing video this week, but this one had me howling the first time I saw it. It's nice and short (less than 45 seconds), but all I will say is that there is a reason automobile manufacturers list a maximum towing capacity rating... :)

    ]]> 1050 2009-03-12 20:10:27 2009-03-13 01:10:27 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-42 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1236906628 _edit_last 1 2746 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 70.49.84.53 2009-03-12 20:34:06 2009-03-13 01:34:06 1 0 0 2747 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2009-03-12 21:05:34 2009-03-13 02:05:34 1 0 0 2748 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-03-12 21:41:27 2009-03-13 02:41:27 1 0 0 2749 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-03-12 23:05:14 2009-03-13 04:05:14 1 0 0 2750 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-03-13 09:17:45 2009-03-13 14:17:45 1 0 0 2751 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/learn-about-stock-market.html 60.51.18.78 2009-03-13 22:41:54 2009-03-14 03:41:54 1 0 0 2752 cahollie@hotmail.com http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.138.53.150 2009-04-07 19:06:29 2009-04-08 00:06:29 1 0 0 2753 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-08 08:02:11 2009-04-08 13:02:11 1 0 0 Proceeds of Crime are Taxable http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/proceeds-of-crime-are-taxable/ Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:19:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1051 proceeds of crime are taxable. Upon doing some more digging I found some material which seemed to indicate that there are special liaisons between the CRA and law enforcement agencies who coordinate to ensure that known criminals engaging in illegal activities are taxed on any income received - primarily to minimize the funds and property accumulated by criminals. Apparently, many years ago the courts ruled that illegal income was considered business income and was therefore taxable. Must be an interesting job being one of those investigators - can't imagine there are easily decipherable paper trails to go through...]]> 1051 2009-03-15 22:19:05 2009-03-16 03:19:05 open open proceeds-of-crime-are-taxable publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1237173546 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 2754 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-03-16 10:12:35 2009-03-16 15:12:35 1 0 0 2755 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-03-16 11:17:06 2009-03-16 16:17:06 1 0 0 2756 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-03-16 12:57:13 2009-03-16 17:57:13 1 0 0 2757 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 206.47.180.174 2009-03-16 16:05:14 2009-03-16 21:05:14 1 0 0 2758 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/03/20/random-thoughts-march-hoops-madness/ 67.205.7.217 2009-03-20 01:04:20 2009-03-20 06:04:20 1 pingback 0 0 2759 duncan@cbslimited.co.nz http://cbslimited.co.nz 118.90.77.198 2009-03-20 04:44:30 2009-03-20 09:44:30 1 0 0 2760 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 206.47.180.174 2009-03-20 22:10:47 2009-03-21 03:10:47 1 0 0 The Less You Know, The More You Make http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-less-you-know-the-more-you-make/ Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:04:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1052 Fact 1Knowledge is Power Expressed mathematically: Knowledge = Power

    Fact 2

    Time is Money Expressed mathematically: Time = Money

    Fact 3

    From physics, Power = Work / Time So now we just replace a few terms: PowerKnowledge = Work / TimeMoney Remember, Knowledge IS Power and Time IS Money. Or written more cleanly: Knowledge = Work / Money Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge Therefore, Money approaches infinity as Knowledge approaches zero, regardless of the amount of Work done. Perhaps this explains why executives at failed institutions are still making the big bucks!]]>
    1052 2009-03-20 22:04:25 2009-03-21 03:04:25 open open the-less-you-know-the-more-you-make publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1237903685 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 2761 mark@mawhinney.ca http://rhmarkmawhinney.wordpress.com 70.77.45.185 2009-03-21 11:22:08 2009-03-21 16:22:08 1 0 0 2762 sean.blake@gmail.com 99.246.129.211 2009-03-22 18:51:17 2009-03-22 23:51:17 1 0 0 2763 http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/03/24/wander-reading-15/ 64.15.147.100 2009-03-24 07:04:32 2009-03-24 12:04:32 1 pingback 0 0 2764 dzone_db@yahoo.com http://www.craigslisttool.info 61.247.243.26 2009-04-09 01:18:05 2009-04-09 06:18:05 1 0 0
    Financial Advisor Suicide http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-advisor-suicide/ Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:27:36 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1053 Thanks to everyone for putting up with the lack of posts for the last two weeks. I was filming the next step in the W Network's Expert Search which airs in June and July - I'll post the exact schedule when it is finalized. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming... I received an email from Joe Killoran, the author of Investorism.com, which linked to a sad article about financial advisor suicide. There was one advisor in the New York area who knew personally of four financial advisors who committed suicide within a four month time-span. You can read the short article by clicking here. There are a few obvious reasons which potentially explain the behaviour, but one that I think needs more attention is taken from the suicide note quoted in the article.  The advisor mentioned that he essentially felt betrayed by his firm's investment recommendations which he then in turn passed to clients. Financial advisors are perhaps lacking in investment/portfolio management education (in general). It's enough that investors have a hard time coping with periods of extreme market volatility, but one of the main roles of a financial advisor is to guide investors through tumultuous times. It's fine that advisors may rely on their firm's research, but if they cannot interpret and communicate the research/recommendations in a manner that client's expectations are managed appropriately, or if they just blindly follow it without understanding it, then there is a problem. In short, while there are many competent financial advisors out there, my feelings are that there are more financial advisors who rely on internal firm research (or third party research) without understanding it fully. I've written before that the bare minimum entry requirements to becoming a financial advisor in Canada include a short online course which can be completed in two weeks - and while there are many diligent professionals who take their education into their own hands beyond that, there are many who do not. Without a doubt there will be increased financial service regulation, and I sure hope that includes raising the entry requirements. The system is partly responsible for these advisor deaths.]]> 1053 2009-03-29 21:27:36 2009-03-30 02:27:36 open open financial-advisor-suicide publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif _edit_lock 1238380224 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 2765 tstrump@gmail.com http://www.thestrump.com 24.82.164.107 2009-03-30 01:27:21 2009-03-30 06:27:21 1 0 0 2766 gorecki.tom@gmail.com http://tomaszgorecki.com/blog 69.156.104.253 2009-03-30 08:43:36 2009-03-30 13:43:36 1 0 0 2767 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-03-30 08:51:46 2009-03-30 13:51:46 1 0 0 2768 http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/03/31/wander-reading-16/ 64.15.147.100 2009-03-31 07:22:14 2009-03-31 12:22:14 1 pingback 0 0 2769 batcloth@hotmail.com http://CanadianMoney 64.180.196.137 2009-03-31 15:40:30 2009-03-31 20:40:30 1 0 0 2770 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investing_commentary/financial-ramblings/ 216.17.106.121 2009-04-04 14:41:55 2009-04-04 19:41:55 1 pingback 0 0 Bear market = More insurance sales http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/bear-market-more-insurance-sales/ Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:37:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1054 1054 2009-03-30 20:37:16 2009-03-31 01:37:16 open open bear-market-more-insurance-sales publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1238463436 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/markets220.gif 2771 mart@4-sightfinancial.co.uk http://www.life-critical-illness.co.uk/blog 86.165.64.17 2009-03-31 03:40:02 2009-03-31 08:40:02 1 0 0 2772 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-03-31 06:13:19 2009-03-31 11:13:19 1 0 0 2773 gorecki.tom@gmail.com http://tomaszgorecki.com/blog 69.156.105.85 2009-03-31 08:10:46 2009-03-31 13:10:46 1 0 0 2774 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-03-31 11:24:24 2009-03-31 16:24:24 1 0 0 2775 http://www.blogbookmarker.com/tags/bear 67.228.47.154 2009-03-31 16:22:21 2009-03-31 21:22:21 1 pingback 0 0 2776 melmarten@hotmail.com http://www.claroconnect.com 24.182.169.42 2009-03-31 16:38:17 2009-03-31 21:38:17 1 0 0 2777 shortex.seo@gmail.com http://www.shortex.com 121.246.72.128 2009-11-25 09:31:33 2009-11-25 14:31:33 1 0 0 Bloggers 2009 Stock Picking Contest Q1 Results http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/bloggers-2009-stock-picking-contest-q1-results/ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:30:32 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1055 ...and when I gamble, I go big or I go home, Baby! :) My picks were pure swing for the fence plays - two of them were 300% leveraged ETFs, one was a 200% leveraged ETF and the fourth was a penny stock play. Leveraged ETFs only do well if the underlying investment goes in the intended direction with little to modest retracements (if you are holding them for any extended length of time). This is due to a compounding/de-compounding leverage risk. So far, the extreme market gyrations have decimated the picks - the total portfolio of four picks is down around 22% for the year! Of course, the year is young and compounding leverage can still work in my favour if markets turn around. So it is still possible to whup ass with three quarters to go. (It's also possible to have my ass handed to me on a plate!). You can read the original rationale for the picks on my original post back on January 1st, 2009. In case you don't read the original post, read this: THIS STOCK PICKING CONTEST IS JUST FOR FUN, IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THE STOCKS LISTED HERE OR ON ANY OF THE OTHER BLOGGERS’ SITES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING A PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR. IF YOU BUY THEM ANYWAYS, YOU MUST RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER AND REPEAT, “I AM A NUTBAR”. That being said... Here are the individual stocks' results on a year to date basis:
    TNA -49.08%
    EDC -22.24%
    ENA 33.33%
    HOU -49.09%
    All together on an equal weighted basis, the portfolio is down a whopping 21.77%. And here are the portfolio results for all the participants: (Note you can click on the names to visit their stock pick reports for more details)
    1 IntelligentSpeculator 4.33%
    2 TheFinancialBlogger -0.94%
    3 FourPillars -2.67%
    4 MDJ* -2.96%
    5 Dividend Growth Investor -8.27%
    6 WildInvestor -8.90%
    7 Wheredoesallmymoneygo -21.77%
    8 ZachStocks -24.19%
    9 MyTradersJournal -27.54%
    * denotes these blogs are posting their updates shortly.]]>
    1055 2009-03-31 20:30:32 2009-04-01 01:30:32 open open bloggers-2009-stock-picking-contest-q1-results publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1238677837 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 2778 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/03/31/top-stock-picks-for-2009-competition-q1-update/ 70.32.84.217 2009-03-31 20:34:13 2009-04-01 01:34:13 1 pingback 0 0 2779 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/stock-picks-competitions-q1-results/ 216.17.106.121 2009-03-31 20:38:25 2009-04-01 01:38:25 1 pingback 0 0 2780 http://zachstocks.com/2009/03/4stocks/ 69.89.31.97 2009-03-31 22:08:39 2009-04-01 03:08:39 1 pingback 0 0 2781 http://www.thetradingreport.com/2009/04/01/high-yield-dividend-stocks-for-2009-1q-update/ 74.205.61.228 2009-04-01 05:59:14 2009-04-01 10:59:14 1 pingback 0 0 2782 dividendgrowthinvestor@gmail.com http://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com 78.90.253.7 2009-04-01 07:17:47 2009-04-01 12:17:47 1 0 0 2783 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2009/04/01/2009-stock-picks-q1-review/ 66.96.128.62 2009-04-01 09:12:00 2009-04-01 14:12:00 1 pingback 0 0 2784 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/4-top-stock-picks-for-2009-contest-update/ 216.17.106.121 2009-04-02 05:02:38 2009-04-02 10:02:38 1 pingback 0 0
    Real Estate Agents Adopt Hedge Fund Commission Structure http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-estate-agents-adopt-hedge-fund-commission-structure/ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:01:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1056 Update: This was an April Fool's Prank! In what can only be classified as bad timing, a handful of real estate agents at Dewey Cheetham and Howe Realty have announced plans to adopt the now infamous "two and twenty" fee structure popularized by hedge fund managers on both sides of the border. (It should be noted that two former hedge fund managers recently took an ownership position with the firm).

    The Two and Twenty Fee Structure

    Hedge fund managers have long used a two and twenty fee structure (or other variants, like one and twenty, for example) which means that they would collect an annual 2% management fee based on assets managed in the fund, and they could potentially take another 20% performance fee of the fund's return over and above a certain hurdle. For example, if you had a Canadian Equity hedge fund whose benchmark was the TSX and the fund returned 20% when the TSX returned 10% for the year the fee to the investor for that year would be 2% as a base, and then an additional 20% of the 10% excess return of the fund over the TSX index's return. In this case the performance fee would be 2%, which when added to the 2% base fee equals a total annual fee of 4%.

    Initially Cheaper, But Over The Long Term

    Well, now this model is being applied to real estate commissions. The firm has not posted any example calcuations, so let me throw one up. Let's assume you buy a house today worth $300,000. Let's further assume that you sell that house in 5 years for $400,000. The initial commission for a traditional real estate agent would be 5% of the sale price, or $15,000. With a two and twenty structure, the agent is only getting 2% of $300,000 (or $6,000) up front. BUT 5 years later, when you sell your house for a gain, that original agent is also entitled to 20% of your gain - or 20% of $100,000 - for another $20,000 pay day (but they waive their 2% on the second transaction). So what initially sounded like a healthy savings in commissions ($6,000 upfront versus $15,000 upfront) turned into a raw deal ($26,000 over 5 years versus $15,000 once). Also note that not only would you pay $20,000 in commission to the original agent upon the sale of the house, you would also potentially pay 2% upon the sale to a new agent if you didn't retain the services of the agent who had helped you purchase that house in the first place. This is not a step in the right direction. ...Happy April Fool's!]]>
    1056 2009-04-01 00:01:12 2009-04-01 05:01:12 open open real-estate-agents-adopt-hedge-fund-commission-structure publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1238629673 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif 2785 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-04-01 06:15:23 2009-04-01 11:15:23 1 0 0 2786 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-04-01 06:34:28 2009-04-01 11:34:28 1 0 0 2787 http://www.reallybetterrealestate.com/archives/2066/posts-about-real-estate-agent-as-of-april-1-2009/ 67.205.4.178 2009-04-01 07:04:39 2009-04-01 12:04:39 1 pingback 0 0 2788 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-04-01 09:39:21 2009-04-01 14:39:21 1 0 0 2789 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/april-fools/ 68.178.254.235 2009-04-01 18:46:53 2009-04-01 23:46:53 1 pingback 0 0 2790 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.171.148 2009-04-01 22:31:00 2009-04-02 03:31:00 1 0 0 2791 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.248.162 2009-04-02 12:14:11 2009-04-02 17:14:11 1 0 0 2792 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-04-02 13:16:21 2009-04-02 18:16:21 1 0 0 2793 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-02 17:17:56 2009-04-02 22:17:56 1 0 0
    April Fool's! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/april-fools/ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:46:44 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1057 Real Estate Agents Adopt Hedge Fund Commission Structure" was an April Fool's prank. I thought the name of the realty firm in the post would have been a dead giveaway: "Dewey, Cheetham and Howe" = Do We Cheat 'em, and How. ...but perhaps the idea is not far-fetched enough? :)]]> 1057 2009-04-01 18:46:44 2009-04-01 23:46:44 open open april-fools publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1238629605 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif Mutual Fund Manager Gives Back His Fees http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mutual-fund-manager-gives-back-his-fees/ Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:15:21 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1058 You can read more about it here. Bravo Francis!]]> 1058 2009-04-02 17:15:21 2009-04-02 22:15:21 open open mutual-fund-manager-gives-back-his-fees publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg _edit_lock 1238710522 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 2794 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/04/03/random-thoughts-jobs-again/ 67.205.7.217 2009-04-03 06:04:15 2009-04-03 11:04:15 1 pingback 0 0 Should You Cut Your Children's Allowance in a Recession? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/should-you-cut-your-childrens-allowance-in-a-recession/ Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:21:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1061 1061 2009-04-07 19:21:08 2009-04-08 00:21:08 open open should-you-cut-your-childrens-allowance-in-a-recession publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1239150068 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/bro.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/bro.png 2795 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-04-07 22:44:46 2009-04-08 03:44:46 1 0 0 2796 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2009-04-08 06:06:58 2009-04-08 11:06:58 1 0 0 2797 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-04-08 06:23:05 2009-04-08 11:23:05 1 0 0 2798 fred.elkins@gmail.com 204.101.88.2 2009-04-08 06:47:04 2009-04-08 11:47:04 1 0 0 2799 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-08 08:04:45 2009-04-08 13:04:45 1 0 0 2800 cahollie@hotmail.com http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.138.53.150 2009-04-08 15:51:54 2009-04-08 20:51:54 1 0 0 2801 themoneygardener@gmail.com http://themoneygardener.blogspot.com/ 99.247.226.51 2009-04-08 20:56:14 2009-04-09 01:56:14 1 0 0 2802 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-09 16:47:11 2009-04-09 21:47:11 1 0 0 2803 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-09 18:05:06 2009-04-09 23:05:06 1 0 0 2804 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-09 18:08:16 2009-04-09 23:08:16 1 0 0 2805 http://commomcentsmom.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-bank-of-mom-and-kids-allowances/ 74.200.246.66 2009-04-09 20:51:52 2009-04-10 01:51:52 1 pingback 0 0 2806 http://commoncentsmom.com/2009/04/10/how-to-teach-kids-about-money-every-day/ 74.200.245.177 2009-04-09 20:59:46 2009-04-10 01:59:46 1 pingback 0 0 2807 cahollie@hotmail.com http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.138.53.150 2009-04-09 21:04:47 2009-04-10 02:04:47 1 0 0 2808 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-43/ 68.178.254.235 2009-04-09 23:47:55 2009-04-10 04:47:55 1 pingback 0 0 2809 http://www.fathersez.com/links-%e2%80%93-the-national-park-of-malaysia-edition/ 203.175.163.223 2009-04-24 19:30:04 2009-04-25 00:30:04 1 pingback 0 0 2810 http://hot-news.dreamhosters.com/children-of-the-recession 67.205.53.219 2009-05-18 21:40:35 2009-05-19 02:40:35 1 pingback 0 0 2811 lee@fivepencepiece.com http://www.fivepencepiece.com/ 92.29.27.0 2009-09-08 19:50:15 2009-09-09 00:50:15 1 0 0 2812 me+gary@stevendclark.com http://www.kidswealth.com 189.176.158.142 2009-11-15 03:11:16 2009-11-15 08:11:16 1 0 0 I Can't Make This Stuff Up http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/i-cant-make-this-stuff-up/ Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:45:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1062 1062 2009-04-08 20:45:25 2009-04-09 01:45:25 open open i-cant-make-this-stuff-up publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1239241727 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg 2813 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-04-08 23:57:12 2009-04-09 04:57:12 1 0 0 2814 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.115.63 2009-04-09 12:06:36 2009-04-09 17:06:36 1 0 0 2815 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-09 17:02:47 2009-04-09 22:02:47 1 0 0 2816 http://starttags.com/tags/rafi-peer 66.77.233.18 2010-03-05 03:17:51 2010-03-05 08:17:51 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-43/ Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:46:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1063 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jon Chevreau notes that seniors have until April 14th to make contributions to their RRIF accounts (yes you read that right!). Read the article to understand why we have this exception this year... Mark Wolfinger echoes my opinion that advisors need to learn more about the responsible application and utility of options. Thicken My Wallet looks at the fine line between legal and illegal multi-level marketing (MLM) structures. Canadian Capitalist discusses if the decision between Variable Rate Mortgages versus Fixed Rate Mortgages needs to be re-thought, given the low interest rates and other factors. Peter Parker on Money is not impressed with the potential $4,000,000 prize he may have won. Million Dollar Journey has some great advice for when incomes start rising again: bank the increases. Larry MacDonald notes that the iShares business has been sold by Barclays. It's been in the works for a while, but what I found more interesting was the withdrawal from the IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada). Big Cajun Man notes that the unemployment rate now stands at 8.0% in Canada after a rapid increase of late. Last but not least, Common Cents Mom has a follow up post of her own after my post earlier this week on children's allowances.

    This Week's Racing Video

    A longer one this week at about 10 minutes. This is an appearance on a very popular British TV show by Lewis Hamilton (a Formula 1 driver). One of the features of these interviews is that they get the guests to drive a very pedestrian car around their local test track. Fast forward to the 6:00 minute mark to cut to the chase. This kid can drive alright.

    ]]> 1063 2009-04-09 23:46:57 2009-04-10 04:46:57 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-43 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1239338994 _edit_last 1 2817 cahollie@hotmail.com http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.138.53.150 2009-04-10 01:17:06 2009-04-10 06:17:06 1 0 0 2818 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-04-10 06:04:56 2009-04-10 11:04:56 1 0 0 2819 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-04-10 06:53:04 2009-04-10 11:53:04 1 0 0 2820 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2009-04-10 07:25:17 2009-04-10 12:25:17 1 0 0 2821 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.214.47 2009-04-10 11:52:27 2009-04-10 16:52:27 1 0 0 What If The Entire Market Was Indexed? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-if-the-entire-market-was-indexed/ Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:27:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1064 “I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 years ago, when our textbook Graham and Dodd was first published; but the situation has changed a great deal since then. In the old days any well-trained security analyst could do a good professional job of selecting undervalued issues through detailed studies; but in the light of the enormous amount of research now being carried on, I doubt whether in most cases such extensive efforts will generate sufficiently superior selections to justify their cost.”

    So as more and more people index the market, a new equilibrium will be reached. Eventually active stock picking can be a reliably worthwhile activity again - but as it stands today, it is not for large and efficient markets. Moral of the story: low-cost index funds are a prudent alternative to actively managed (long-only) portfolios in today's day and age. That may change as indexing becomes more popular (and markets less efficient), but given human nature that may not happen.]]>
    1064 2009-04-12 12:27:10 2009-04-12 17:27:10 open open what-if-the-entire-market-was-indexed publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1239557231 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif 2822 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-04-13 07:31:11 2009-04-13 12:31:11 1 0 0 2823 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-04-13 10:23:17 2009-04-13 15:23:17 1 0 0 2824 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-13 11:17:49 2009-04-13 16:17:49 1 0 0 2825 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-04-13 17:59:58 2009-04-13 22:59:58 1 0 0 2826 brian.tabios@gmail.com 96.51.164.46 2009-04-13 21:16:09 2009-04-14 02:16:09 1 0 0 2827 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-shoots-of-recovery-week-edition/ 64.111.114.14 2009-04-16 17:00:56 2009-04-16 22:00:56 1 pingback 0 0 2828 ioanadance@yahoo.ca http://miss_colombina.livejournal.com 173.34.13.243 2009-04-17 16:27:53 2009-04-17 21:27:53 1 0 0 2829 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/04/20/linkstuff-monday-april-20/ 70.32.84.217 2009-04-20 04:02:12 2009-04-20 09:02:12 1 pingback 0 0
    sellinmaychart http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/sell-in-may-and-go-away/sellinmaychart/ Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:36:57 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sellinmaychart.png 1066 2009-04-13 12:36:57 2009-04-13 17:36:57 open open sellinmaychart inherit 1065 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/sellinmaychart.png _wp_attached_file sellinmaychart.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"500";s:6:"height";s:3:"226";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='57' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:18:"sellinmaychart.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"sellinmaychart-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"sellinmaychart-300x135.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"135";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"sellinmaychart-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"sellinmaychart-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Sell In May and Go Away? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/sell-in-may-and-go-away/ Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:04:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1065 Where's The Beef? Support for this particular seasonal investing strategy is simple to mine (perhaps, therein lies the answer to it's future applicability?). Brooke Trackray noted in his book Thackray's 2009 Investor Guide that if you had systematically put $10,000 into the S&P500 on May 6th, left it there until October 27th and then taken your proceeds from that run and deposited it back into the market on May 6th of the following year, and then further repeated this from 1950 (inclusive) to 2008, your annualized rate of return would be -0.2%.

    If on the other hand you had only invested in the S&P500 from October 28th until May 5th of the following year, and repeated that cycle from 1950 to 2008, your annualized gain would be 7.6%. While I can't see from the data source, I'm presuming these figures exclude dividends or re-investment of dividends (which make a big difference).

    Sure looks convincing doesn't it? How about if we frame it a different way (credit to Thackray for providing the numbers). If you had taken an initial $10,000 investment, those who were invested every year from May 6th to October 27th ended up with $9,465 in 2008 (after 58 cycles of doing this). Those who sold in May, and bought in October every year from 1950 to 2008 ended up with $806,204.

    Additional Food For Thought

    There are a number of considerations to highlight, however.
    1. Transaction expenses - Your portfolio turnover will be 100% per year, generating substantial annual tax drag in taxable accounts.
    2. You would receive roughly 50% of the dividends available. Dividends have accounted for a very significant portion of an investor's total return over time.
    3. You still got crushed in the past cycle.
    4. You might miss out on great gains in the 2009 summer period (or not).
    5. Somehow, I imagine that as hard as "buy and hold" is, forced periodic buying and selling would be psychologically harder to deal with.
    6. Past performance is no indication of future performance.
    7. As more people react on this information, the market will arbitrage any advantage away over time because the market is sufficiently efficient that gross pricing errors, once discovered, become negated (or priced in).
    8. The S&P500 Total Return index annualized from 1950 to 2007 was 11.9% ($US). Even though 2008 was an outlier, the resulting annualized number would still be higher than the 7.6% for those who sold in May and went away. (Granted, that 7.6% number would be slightly higher with the half-serving of dividends you would receive.)
    9. What did your money do for those other 6 months of the year? At 7.6% annualized, but for only half the time (even including half the dividends of the market) you had half as much time for your money to compound.
    So while it sounds interesting, I'd prefer buying and holding an index fund and managing the risk with the proper use of options.]]>
    1065 2009-04-13 18:04:45 2009-04-13 23:04:45 open open sell-in-may-and-go-away publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1239650591 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 2830 thaczuk@hotmail.com 24.64.93.185 2009-04-14 00:01:34 2009-04-14 05:01:34 1 0 0 2831 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-04-14 06:48:26 2009-04-14 11:48:26 1 0 0 2832 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.139.15 2009-04-14 07:41:38 2009-04-14 12:41:38 1 0 0 2833 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-14 08:06:24 2009-04-14 13:06:24 1 0 0 2834 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-14 08:39:32 2009-04-14 13:39:32 1 0 0 2835 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.130 2009-04-14 14:58:06 2009-04-14 19:58:06 1 0 0 2836 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-04-15 03:13:20 2009-04-15 08:13:20 1 0 0 2837 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-15 20:26:28 2009-04-16 01:26:28 1 0 0 2838 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-04-15 20:31:30 2009-04-16 01:31:30 1 0 0
    standarddeviation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/standard-deviation/standarddeviation/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:10:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/standarddeviation.gif 1068 2009-04-14 20:10:04 2009-04-15 01:10:04 open open standarddeviation inherit 1067 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/standarddeviation.gif _wp_attached_file standarddeviation.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"615";s:6:"height";s:3:"322";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='67' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:21:"standarddeviation.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"standarddeviation-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"standarddeviation-300x157.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"157";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"standarddeviation-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"standarddeviation-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Standard Deviation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/standard-deviation/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:17:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1067 (You can click on the figure for a larger view)

    While the standard deviation in the first few years may result in performance that is dramatically different than the expected long term return of the portfolio, over time this is expected to balance out and revert to the expected average (as depicted by the heavy black arrows).

    Portfolio B, which has a higher expected return (8%) and higher standard deviation (10%), will be more volatile and it is expected that the potential return is higher - although it should be noted that this is not guaranteed. For example, referring to the graph above - while the expected return line would be higher (by 2 %), the range of ending values (as depicted by the ends of the black arrows) would have a greater distance between them, with the lower bound expected to be lower than the higher bound of the 6% portfolio - in other words, it is possible that Portfolio B will have a lower long term return than Portfolio A.

    In summary, Portfolio A with a long term expected return of 6% and a standard deviation of 6% may behave as follows:

    14 Years out of 20 the annual return will be between  0% and 12% 5 Years out of 20 the annual return will be between -6% and +18% 1 Year out of 20 the annual return will be between -12% and +24%

    After 30 years the portfolio may have returned between 5% and 7% on an annualized basis.

    If we apply the same calculations to Portfolio B which has a slightly higher long term expected rate of return of 8%, and a much higher standard deviation of 10% we will see the following possibilities:

    14 Years out of 20 the annual return will be between -2% and +18% 5 Years out of 20 the annual return will be between -12% and +28% 1 Year out of 20 the annual return will be between -22% and +38%

    After 30 years the portfolio may have returned between 6% and 10% on an annualized basis.

    In conclusion, a portfolio with a higher expected rate of return may in fact return a lower long term average than a less risky portfolio. In the above examples, it is possible that Portfolio A would have returned 7%, and it is possible that Portfolio B would have returned 6%. The point is that more risk does not guarantee higher returns, it only offers the potential of higher returns.

    ]]>
    1067 2009-04-14 20:17:51 2009-04-15 01:17:51 open open standard-deviation publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1239758609 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif 2839 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-04-15 07:29:50 2009-04-15 12:29:50 1 0 0 2840 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-04-15 20:31:09 2009-04-16 01:31:09 1 0 0
    portfolioturnover http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-importance-of-low-portfolio-turnover/portfolioturnover/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:46:41 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/portfolioturnover.png 1070 2009-04-15 18:46:41 2009-04-15 23:46:41 open open portfolioturnover inherit 1069 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/portfolioturnover.png _wp_attached_file portfolioturnover.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"653";s:6:"height";s:3:"373";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='73' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:21:"portfolioturnover.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"portfolioturnover-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"portfolioturnover-300x171.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"171";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"portfolioturnover-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"portfolioturnover-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} portfolioturnover1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-importance-of-low-portfolio-turnover/portfolioturnover1/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:47:27 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/portfolioturnover1.png 1071 2009-04-15 18:47:27 2009-04-15 23:47:27 open open portfolioturnover1 inherit 1069 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/portfolioturnover1.png _wp_attached_file portfolioturnover1.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"653";s:6:"height";s:3:"373";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='73' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:22:"portfolioturnover1.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"portfolioturnover1-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"portfolioturnover1-300x171.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"171";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"portfolioturnover1-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"portfolioturnover1-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Importance Of Low Portfolio Turnover http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-importance-of-low-portfolio-turnover/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:58:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1069 One of the benefits espoused by proponents of index funds is the low turnover rate. I thought I would explain just what portfolio turnover is, and the further provide some concrete evidence to really make you stand up and take notice.

    What Is Portfolio Turnover?

    Portfolio Turnover is a measure of how much buying and selling is taking place in a fund. It is defined as the dollar value of buys or sells (whichever is less) during a year divided by the total assets in the fund. It a mutual fund had $100 million in the fund and there were $50 million dollars worth of sales and $50 million worth of purchases (with those proceeds) in a given year, the turnover would be 50%. A turnover rate of 100% would indicate that the manager has effectively sold the entire portfolio and bought new holdings during the course of the year. Another way of viewing it is to say that a fund manger with portfolio that has a turnover rate of 50% has an average holding period of two years for each stock the manager buys. A portfolio that has a turnover rate of 100% has an average holding period of 1 year of each holding within the fund, etc.

    Why Is It Important?

    Two main reasons: 1) Trading Expenses and 2) Tax Drag.

    The brokerage commissions a fund manager pays is NOT included in a fund's MER. So the more trades, the higher the commissions, and the higher the drag on your returns. According to Suzanne Abboud, you can expect to add between 0.65% to 3.12% to your fund's MER to get a better sense of your total cost!

    Tax drag is the other biggie. Let's assume that you have a taxable account portfolio that you are managing yourself. We will also assume a 33% Marginal Tax Bracket. Take a look at the following chart put together by a third party.

    I'll cut to the chase: A portfolio with lower performance, but low turnover managed to keep pace with a portfolio with higher performance, but higher turnover.

    ]]>
    1069 2009-04-15 18:58:03 2009-04-15 23:58:03 open open the-importance-of-low-portfolio-turnover publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1239842401 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 2841 http://www.blogbookmarker.com/tags/portfolio 67.228.47.154 2009-04-16 04:01:05 2009-04-16 09:01:05 1 pingback 0 0 2842 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/04/17/friday-links-11.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-04-17 05:11:49 2009-04-17 10:11:49 1 pingback 0 0 2843 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-65/ 216.17.106.121 2009-04-18 07:21:23 2009-04-18 12:21:23 1 pingback 0 0 2844 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/tax-deadline-2009-tax-year-2008-rate-drop.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-04-24 05:31:24 2009-04-24 10:31:24 1 pingback 0 0 2845 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/04/24/tax-deadline-2009-another-rate-drop-and-weekend-reading-april-24-2009/ 74.208.148.118 2009-04-24 06:26:23 2009-04-24 11:26:23 1 pingback 0 0 2846 http://www.ikvq.com/?p=35 174.120.10.130 2009-05-05 14:33:41 2009-05-05 19:33:41 1 pingback 0 0 2847 http://www.neurosoftware.ro/finance/insurance/money/friday-links-%e2%80%93-anniversary-edition/ 82.77.23.104 2010-02-05 06:23:43 2010-02-05 11:23:43 1 pingback 0 0 2848 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2010/02/05/friday-links-51.htm 208.53.168.6 2010-02-05 08:43:44 2010-02-05 13:43:44 1 pingback 0 0 2849 http://starttags.com/tags/portfolio-turnover 98.240.245.202 2010-03-31 06:35:44 2010-03-31 11:35:44 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-44/ Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:53:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1072 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Oh boy. Easter is horrible for me every year since I'm a chocaholic. A few years ago I went to Switzerland for a vacation and brought back over 40 different types of chocolate with me - yeah, it's clinical.... :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    How would you like to have a marginal tax rate of 93%? It's happened in Canada as reported by Michael James on Money (alter ego). Speaking of taxes, chances are pretty good that people claimed capital losses on some investments in 2008. Learn how you carry back capital losses to offset capital gains from previous years, courtesy of the Canadian Capitalist. Still speaking of taxes, Million Dollar Journey shows you how to claim a home office to reduce your tax bill. Hmmm, lots of posts on taxes. Ah yes, taxes are due soon. Phooey! Four Pillars rants about life insurance that has underwriting at time of claim (as opposed to underwriting at time of application). I've got some war stories from the trenches on this as well. My two cents: get the underwriting done at the time of application. Big Cajun Man shares with us his story about the price-matching policy as it relates to Best Buy and Future Shop - interesting read, check it out. Thicken My Wallet talks about some of the ancillary benefits of volunteering your time. Get Rich Slowly has a guest post from a financial advisor who has some questions you may want to ask when interviewing for a new financial advisor (as many people tend to do during and after a bear market).

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is a shocking indictment of NASCAR driver training.... hey, it's still April! ;) Enjoy!

    ]]> 1072 2009-04-16 21:53:25 2009-04-17 02:53:25 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-44 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1239936805 2850 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-04-17 05:20:27 2009-04-17 10:20:27 1 0 0 2851 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-04-17 06:59:49 2009-04-17 11:59:49 1 0 0 2852 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-04-17 08:23:41 2009-04-17 13:23:41 1 0 0 2853 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-04-17 09:00:55 2009-04-17 14:00:55 1 0 0 2854 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-04-17 12:16:28 2009-04-17 17:16:28 1 0 0 A Dealership That Doesn't Want To Sell Cars That Badly http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-dealership-that-doesnt-want-to-sell-cars-that-badly/ Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:47:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1073 Isn't A Contract A Contract? As you can imagine, my friend is not too happy. I'm not a lawyer, but my mind is that if the contract has been signed by both parties, that's it. As was brought up by someone else, what transpired is the equivalent of the customer going back to the dealership and saying, "Oh, geez. I just realized that the $550/month lease payment I signed up for was a mistake. I thought someone had mentioned it was going to be $450/month - do you mind sending me a cheque for the cumulative difference over the next 4 years of the lease agreement and we'll call it even?" Regardless of the letter of the law, what ever happened to doing the right thing? If the business made the mistake, perhaps they should suck it up and not upset a customer (especially in the current environment of auto sales), who until now was having a great customer experience. Now, he's so upset he's not even driving the car while waiting for a manager to call back and provide a decision (my friend indicated he would not pay the extra money and would be happy to have the car picked up and returned).

    Was It Worth It?

    The security deposit lease is refunded upon the expiry of the term of the lease. In this case, the dealership has potentially foregone a customer for life for less than $200 (the accumulated interest on $2,200 over four years at just over 2%). That doesn't make sense to me. Anyone in the auto sales world care to enlighten us? Is there more to this than meets the eye? Comments appreciated.]]>
    1073 2009-04-19 20:47:26 2009-04-20 01:47:26 open open a-dealership-that-doesnt-want-to-sell-cars-that-badly publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1240972517 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 2855 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-04-19 21:58:32 2009-04-20 02:58:32 1 0 0 2856 tom_drake@shaw.ca http://canadianfinanceblog.com 96.52.179.154 2009-04-20 00:03:35 2009-04-20 05:03:35 1 0 0 2857 howie.wong@gmail.com 70.79.98.4 2009-04-20 01:16:34 2009-04-20 06:16:34 1 0 0 2858 eric@rachner.us 75.92.152.4 2009-04-20 01:19:39 2009-04-20 06:19:39 1 0 0 2859 eric@rachner.us 75.92.152.4 2009-04-20 01:23:19 2009-04-20 06:23:19 1 0 0 2860 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-04-20 09:05:25 2009-04-20 14:05:25 1 0 0 2861 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-04-20 09:08:42 2009-04-20 14:08:42 right to tell the customer that they made a mistake, as long as that is the truth. It's up to the customer to agree to pay or keep his 'good' deal. But they have no right to tell the customer to return the car as the alternative. They must eat the loss - and should do it with a smile. If customer suspects a scam, he should threaten to prosecute. Mark]]> 1 0 0 2862 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-04-20 09:16:43 2009-04-20 14:16:43 1 0 0 2863 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-20 09:19:54 2009-04-20 14:19:54 1 0 0 2864 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-04-20 10:23:26 2009-04-20 15:23:26 1 0 0 2865 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 70.75.175.176 2009-04-20 10:46:23 2009-04-20 15:46:23 1 0 0 2866 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-20 12:42:20 2009-04-20 17:42:20 1 0 0 2867 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-04-20 16:04:53 2009-04-20 21:04:53 1 0 0 2868 promodcares@gmail.com http://blog.riscario.com 99.234.16.4 2009-04-20 21:37:23 2009-04-21 02:37:23 1 0 0 2869 andyamo@gmail.com 74.210.31.92 2009-04-20 22:14:39 2009-04-21 03:14:39 1 0 0 2870 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.138.105 2009-04-21 10:01:52 2009-04-21 15:01:52 1 0 0 2871 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/04/27/nice-weather-edition-of-linkstuff-april-27/ 70.32.84.217 2009-04-27 04:08:24 2009-04-27 09:08:24 1 pingback 0 0 2872 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/anyone-looking-for-a-smokin-deal-on-a-lexus/ 68.178.254.235 2009-04-28 21:36:47 2009-04-29 02:36:47 1 pingback 0 0
    The Money Belt Website http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-money-belt-website/ Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:35:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1074 CanadianFundWatch.com (an incredible resource for Canadian investors) kindly sent me a link to a website that is published by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. The Money Belt (www.themoneybelt.gc.ca) is designed to increase financial literacy in Canada (mostly aimed at younger Canadians aged 15-29, but there are some tools that are applicable to everyone).

    Handy Tools For Everyone

    1. Interactive Credit Card Comparison Tool - This is a fantastic little web application that allows you to narrow down the universe of credit cards based on features that are important to you. Now, this particular tool is more geared to people looking for their first credit card, but I think this would be a great tool for parents to go through with their kids when they are ready to get their first credit card. I suggest taking it for a spin yourself - you might find a better deal than what you have now.
    2. Interactive Bank Account Comparison Tool - Similar to the credit card tool, filling out the questions in the tool will narrow down your choices progressively. For example, by selecting Ontario I started with a list of 43 possible bank accounts to choose from. By entering my age, the selection drops to 20. You can enter your average monthly balance and this filters the results even more. Once you are ready to see the choices, you are presented with a handy table that summarizes all the information to compare the various accounts quickly and easily.
    3. A Beginner's Guide to Signing a Contract - this is a simple to read primer discussing the basics of a contract. I think this would be a great resource for anyone, but again is aimed more at students who are about to tackle their first contracts like cell phone service subscriptions, gym memberships, etc.

    Every Little Bit Helps

    We probably all agree that financial literacy is severely lacking in Canada (if not the majority of the world). This site is a great step in the right direction. It won't cover all the bases, but starts with some important fundamentals. You may want to browse the site and perhaps share it with friends and family if you see fit. For more technical information, if you already know the basics, make sure to check out Ken's site (CanadianFundWatch.com) and be prepared to go down the rabbit hole... :)]]>
    1074 2009-04-20 20:35:49 2009-04-21 01:35:49 open open the-money-belt-website publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1240277749 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pushingupsign220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pushingupsign220.gif 2873 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/04/24/random-thoughts-springsummer-begins/ 67.205.7.217 2009-04-24 01:08:58 2009-04-24 06:08:58 1 pingback 0 0 2874 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/04/24/friday-links-12.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-04-24 06:03:39 2009-04-24 11:03:39 1 pingback 0 0
    Faith-Based Investing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/faith-based-investing/ Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:37:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1075 Sharia Compliant Funds One example are investment funds which are Sharia compliant. Sharia is the religious body of law of Islam, and some notable rules state that you cannot sell something you do not own which means you can't short a stock. Also, fixed income instruments that pay interest are not allowed by Islam. However, there are Sharia compliant funds that manage to achieve substantially the same results of these types of investments through some extra layers of transactions. Sharia compliant investment funds are one of the fasted growing class of investments in the world.

    FaithShares ETFs

    FaithShares Advisors in Oklahoma have filed to launch five index ETFs which essentially screen large cap stocks based on certain religious values:
    1. FaithShares Baptist Values Fund
    2. FaithShares Catholic Values Fund
    3. FaithShares Christian Values Fund
    4. FaithShares Lutheran Values Fund
    5. FaithShares Methodist Values Fund
    Each will hold the top 100 stocks based on the screens, and will then hold the positions on an equal weighted basis. Do any readers screen their investments based on social screenings?]]>
    1075 2009-04-21 20:37:16 2009-04-22 01:37:16 open open faith-based-investing publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1240364283 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif 2875 Info@jayperoni.com http://Www.jayperoni.com 72.71.205.219 2009-04-22 06:50:13 2009-04-22 11:50:13 1 0 0 2876 slsfadify@yahoo.co.uk 88.211.30.66 2009-04-22 09:34:03 2009-04-22 14:34:03 1 0 0 2877 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 129.97.58.107 2009-04-24 20:40:47 2009-04-25 01:40:47 1 0 0 2878 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-66/ 216.17.106.121 2009-04-25 05:03:01 2009-04-25 10:03:01 1 pingback 0 0
    Indexing and Options, and The Value Of Stock Market Research http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/indexing-and-options-and-the-value-of-stock-market-research/ Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:21:40 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1076 The Reverse Dispersion Equity Collar about a year ago which is a complicated example. Note that if your portfolio is not large enough to accommodate holding 100 shares of each of the TSX60 companies as noted in the example, you could also just buy a longer put on, say XIC (the iShare that tracks the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index) and write monthly calls. You won't get the reverse dispersion benefit, but you can still reduce the cost of the collar, and perhaps run a net credit. Whenever I talk options, I always note that required reading is Mark Wolfinger's book: The Rookie's Guide To Options.

    The Value Of Stock Market Research

    Also of note today, is that Thicken My Wallet is running another of his Insider Series Conversations. This time, he interviewed myself as well as Brad from Triaging My Way To Success and we are discussing some of the aspects of stock market research.  Part I is up and live and you can read it by clicking here, and Part II appears tomorrow (which may be today by the time you are reading this...).]]>
    1076 2009-04-22 22:21:40 2009-04-23 03:21:40 open open indexing-and-options-and-the-value-of-stock-market-research publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1240456901 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2879 http://www.onlinestockresearch.info/indexing-and-options-and-the-value-of-stock-market-research/ 88.214.241.54 2009-04-22 23:20:34 2009-04-23 04:20:34 1 pingback 0 0 2880 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-04-23 09:21:50 2009-04-23 14:21:50 1 0 0 2881 nurseb911@gmail.com http://www.nurseb911.com/ 99.249.75.187 2009-04-23 12:12:12 2009-04-23 17:12:12 1 0 0 2882 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.115.63 2009-04-23 12:49:52 2009-04-23 17:49:52 1 0 0 2883 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-24 12:25:51 2009-04-24 17:25:51 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-45/ Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:11:21 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1077 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. I was a bit late ordering some new wheels and tires now that winter is over (new wheels because I didn't want to keep flipping the snow and summer tires on the same wheels, and new tires because I'm racking up 50,000km per year with the long commute!). But, I did save some money. I ordered a package deal from TireRack.com but had them delivered to Buffalo to a place called U.S. Address Inc. This is a business that allows you to register to receive packages in your name from US shippers to avoid exorbitant shipping fees. I pay a few bucks and just cross the border and pick up the items myself and save maybe a hundred bucks. (Still have to pay duty.)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    In case you missed it, the Bank of Canada reduced it's key overnight lending rate to 0.25%. More info from Big Cajun Man. If you are looking to learn more about options, make sure to know the difference between index options and ETF options, as described by Mark Wolfinger. Thicken My Wallet hosted a two part Insider Series on his blog. This time he was asking Brad from Triaging My Way to Financial Success and myself about the value of stock market research. Part I here, and Part II here. Canadian Capitalist hosts a guest post discussing the differences between private life insurance versus creditor-provided mortgage life insurance. Very important stuff. Michael James on Money explains what an MER is. Frugal Trader shares some lessons learned part way through his journey to a $1 million net worth by age 35.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Two minutes of the best drivers in the world in an era when men were men. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1077 2009-04-23 21:11:21 2009-04-24 02:11:21 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-45 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1240539315 _edit_last 1 2884 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-04-23 22:46:15 2009-04-24 03:46:15 1 0 0 2885 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-04-24 05:08:38 2009-04-24 10:08:38 1 0 0 2886 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-04-24 06:17:22 2009-04-24 11:17:22 1 0 0 2887 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-04-24 08:27:15 2009-04-24 13:27:15 1 0 0 2888 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-04-24 09:09:28 2009-04-24 14:09:28 1 0 0 2889 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.27.167 2009-04-24 23:33:22 2009-04-25 04:33:22 1 0 0 investors-guide-to-effective-complaints /investors-guide-to-effective-complaints/ Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:13:57 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/investors-guide-to-effective-complaints.pdf 1078 2009-04-26 20:13:57 2009-04-27 01:13:57 open open investors-guide-to-effective-complaints inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/investors-guide-to-effective-complaints.pdf _wp_attached_file investors-guide-to-effective-complaints.pdf _wp_attachment_metadata a:0:{} grenade /grenade/ Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:57:47 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/grenade.png 1080 2009-04-26 20:57:47 2009-04-27 01:57:47 open open grenade inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/grenade.png _wp_attached_file grenade.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"596";s:6:"height";s:3:"498";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='114'";s:4:"file";s:11:"grenade.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"grenade-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"grenade-300x250.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"250";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"grenade-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"grenade-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Investor's Guide To Effective Complaints http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/investors-guide-to-effective-complaints/ Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:00:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1079 The Investor's Guide To Effective Complaints which is published under the Kenmar Associates banner (which is Ken's other endeavour focused at investor protection and education).

    Some Highlights

    • Don't forget that a firm's compliance officer is paid by the firm.
    • You may want to make notes on your meetings and phone calls with your advisor (because they are making notes for their records).
    • Keep copies of ALL paperwork (your copy of the initial account opening agreement and all transaction confirmations, etc.)
    • There is a list of organizations that can assist you if you feel overwhelmed
    • You'll get an idea if restitution is possible and the costs potentially involved in going down that road
    If you are an investor you would do well to learn about making an effective complaint. You can build a stronger case for yourself if you follow some simple steps outlined in this guide. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE INVESTOR'S GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE COMPLAINTS. Thanks Ken!]]>
    1079 2009-04-26 21:00:25 2009-04-27 02:00:25 open open investors-guide-to-effective-complaints publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1240797625 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/grenade.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/grenade.png 2890 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-04-27 08:54:55 2009-04-27 13:54:55 1 0 0 2891 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/fixing-trading-errors/ 68.178.254.235 2009-05-10 18:06:08 2009-05-10 23:06:08 1 pingback 0 0
    The Market Can Stay Irrational Longer Than You Can Stay Solvent http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-market-can-stay-irrational-longer-than-you-can-stay-solvent/ Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:26:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1082 The Wealthy Boomer, columnist for the National post, Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/JonChevreau) earlier today he dissected it much better than I could. You can read Jonathan's thoughts by clicking here. One point that that I'll add to Jon's notes are that the eVestment Alliance returns are GROSS of management fees, but do adjust for survivorship bias - meaning that they include the returns of now "inactive" funds. If you would like to read the actual RAFI Fundamentals newsletter, you may click here. The title of my post today is a quote taken from the article which is attributed to John Maynard Keynes, and every time I hear it, it brings a smile to my face so I thought i would share it in turn with you.]]> 1082 2009-04-27 19:26:01 2009-04-28 00:26:01 open open the-market-can-stay-irrational-longer-than-you-can-stay-solvent publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg _edit_lock 1240889958 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg 2892 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.139.15 2009-04-28 08:32:50 2009-04-28 13:32:50 1 0 0 2893 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-28 08:43:13 2009-04-28 13:43:13 1 0 0 Anyone Looking For A Smokin' Deal On A Lexus? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/anyone-looking-for-a-smokin-deal-on-a-lexus/ Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:36:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1083 which you can read from the beginning here) went from bad to worse. Nine days after being asked to pay up the $2200 (and after hearing my friends' response which was "No, I won't pay any more and if you don't like it the car is in my driveway if you won't honour the contract") he gets an ominous phone call indicating that a new contract was being couriered and that it NEEDED to be signed right away. There was no mention of what changes were in this new contract. Needless to say, my friend was not just going to sign it and asked to have it faxed over so he could take a look at it first. He left a message for the person who had called, but no response until the next day at 3pm. She still hadn't sent over the fax, and still wasn't explaining what was being sent that "had" to be signed. My friend asked to speak directly to the sales managerand when my friend told him the whole story and that someone had asked for more money, this was all news to the sales manager. The sales manager understood the frustration, and tried to address the situation, but it was too late at this point. Now after talking to the manager, it turns out that the new contract that had to be signed was actually in good faith in that it included a change that stated that the dealership would provide the $2200 themselves so that the lease agreement with Lexus Finance could go through. Apparently the rush to get a new contract signed was a requirement of Lexus Finance who simply would've rejected the lease agreement with the security deposit stated on the original contract. So the dealership was trying to do the right thing it seems, but by indicating that a contract had to be rushed over immediately for signing (without telling my friend what the changes to the contract were) was also very frustrating. Had the person who indicated this new contract had to be signed immediately just indicated the contents of the new contract, chances are my friend would've signed it. But when he asked (since it seemed very strange that someone had to be sent over right away to get the signature), they refused to tell him this. So imagine someone doing that to you - how would you feel? Annoyed? My friend told the sales manager that the experience up until then was enough. Since the original contract is not being honoured the dealership would have to take back the car. That they offered to pay the difference in the security deposit was appropriate, but that they bungled up in the delivery of that offer is nothing less than head-scratching. So to make a long story, short: there will be a smokin' deal on a 2008 Lexus GS350 (blue) as of Monday (or thereabouts) since it is now technically a USED car. I'll post further updates as I get them...]]> 1083 2009-04-28 21:36:41 2009-04-29 02:36:41 open open anyone-looking-for-a-smokin-deal-on-a-lexus publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1240978732 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 2894 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-04-29 06:38:51 2009-04-29 11:38:51 1 0 0 2895 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-04-29 07:22:53 2009-04-29 12:22:53 1 0 0 2896 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-29 11:35:29 2009-04-29 16:35:29 1 0 0 2897 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-29 11:36:32 2009-04-29 16:36:32 1 0 0 2898 http://lex-luther.linkedz.info/2009/04/28/anyone-looking-for-a-smokin-deal-on-a-lexus/ 67.228.60.138 2009-04-30 18:36:01 2009-04-30 23:36:01 1 pingback 0 0 2899 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/05/01/friday-random-thoughts-when-pigs-fly-and-swine-flu/ 67.205.7.217 2009-05-01 05:34:14 2009-05-01 10:34:14 1 pingback 0 0 enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l /enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l/ Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:51:19 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l.jpg 1084 2009-04-29 19:51:19 2009-04-30 00:51:19 open open enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l.jpg _wp_attached_file enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"400";s:6:"height";s:3:"400";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:26:"enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l-300x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Save Money On Wheels and Tires http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-wheels-and-tires/ Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:04:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1081 Wheels And Tires On The Cheap(ish) With the warmer weather upon us it was time to spring for new wheels and tires. For a set of really nice 17" wheels (bigger is more expensive for wheels AND tires) and a set of decent tires my total cost was around $1,550 CAD (which I bought from a US company and picked up in the US)... Which sounds okay, until you factor in that if I had bought the same wheels and tires here in Canada, my cost would've been quite a bit higher. Each wheel, including shipping, from an eBay store which has decent prices would've been $310 EACH. So the wheels alone would've been $1230 CAD. For a decent set of all-season tires comparable to the ones I bought might be $800 (still cheaper than the snow tires I bought). So we are looking at perhaps $2,000. So how did I save so much money?

    TireRack.com

    I used a very popular online discount wheel and tire store, TireRack.com (not a paid advertisement). It's a great site and you can even picture the wheels on your car with their handy tools. The entire package (wheels and tires) was $1120 USD including shipping to a US address (and they mount the tires and balance the wheels before shipping). Shipping to a Canadian address would've been $260USD, versus shipping to a US address which was $90USD. So I had them shipped to U.S. Address Inc - which is a business that just accepts deliveries for a fee and holds them for you (all you have to do is email them with your request to be set up to accept packages, provide your full contact details and that's it - they send a confirmation message and you are all good to go!). The holding cost was $40USD. Add in the gas to get there (for me it was maybe $20 since I work in Oakville and Buffalo is right across the border). So I ended up saving an additional $190 (CAD) by having them shipped there and driving across the border to pick them up. I still had to pay duty crossing back which was roughly $170 CAD. Total cost (including gas to get there) was roughly $1550 CAD. So in all, almost a 25% savings. The picture above (if you are reading the feed, you'll have to visit the site) are the actual wheels I picked and I love them. They look great, and I paid a lot less than I thought I would.

    ...but the best part

    But the best part was that on the way back as I was getting out of the car to go in to pay the duty, one of the border guards pointed at me and said, "Preet Banerjee!... From the blog!" I was totally taken back, and I bet I was WAY more excited than he was that he recognized me. Turns out he's a regular reader of Million Dollar Journey and only knew about me from one of Frugaltrader's links... oh well, no accounting for taste...:) JUST KIDDING FT! You're the best! :)

    Also...

    I have to give credit and thanks to Ancaster Sasquatch (not his real name, but it could be). Not only was he the source of the inspiration behind finding U.S. Address Inc., he also single handedly swapped my wheels and tires in his driveway (I was wearing a suit and have become a wuss since once being a mechanic many moons ago). We ended up going out for dinner and had a great time catching up on old times... Thanks you sexy beast! :)]]>
    1081 2009-04-29 20:04:03 2009-04-30 01:04:03 open open save-money-on-wheels-and-tires publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1242174933 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/enkeitun_sc03_bs_ci3_l.jpg 2900 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-04-30 06:11:21 2009-04-30 11:11:21 1 0 0 2901 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-30 08:49:37 2009-04-30 13:49:37 1 0 0 2902 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 72.139.38.9 2009-04-30 10:09:52 2009-04-30 15:09:52 1 0 0 2903 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-04-30 12:52:49 2009-04-30 17:52:49 1 0 0 2904 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-swine-flu-edition/ 75.119.202.206 2009-04-30 23:45:46 2009-05-01 04:45:46 1 pingback 0 0 2905 evannoble@hotmail.com 72.29.250.1 2009-05-01 10:11:11 2009-05-01 15:11:11 1 0 0 2906 arosher@dal.ca 205.194.127.36 2009-05-01 11:27:13 2009-05-01 16:27:13 1 0 0 2907 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.27.167 2009-05-02 20:10:29 2009-05-03 01:10:29 1 0 0 2908 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-04 12:37:42 2009-05-04 17:37:42 1 0 0 2909 planetdave@mac.com http://www.messinwithsasquatch.com 69.157.98.124 2009-05-08 10:21:47 2009-05-08 15:21:47 1 0 0 2910 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-12 19:14:01 2009-05-13 00:14:01 1 0 0 2911 planetdave@mac.com http://www.messinwithsasquatch.com 69.157.98.124 2009-05-12 19:18:14 2009-05-13 00:18:14 1 0 0 2912 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-12 19:20:28 2009-05-13 00:20:28 1 0 0 2913 planetdave@mac.com http://www.messinwithsasquatch.com 69.157.98.124 2009-05-12 19:23:58 2009-05-13 00:23:58 1 0 0 2914 simondale88@gmail.com http://www.hydroponicswholesale.com 121.54.64.7 2010-03-10 00:34:52 2010-03-10 05:34:52 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-46/ Fri, 01 May 2009 02:32:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1085 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Seems like I just got over a cold, and now I have another. Yay. With that I'm going to head to bed soon, so I'm just going to let 'er rip with the weekend links: Moneygardener shows us how to check your credit report for free. Thicken My Wallet discusses how Facebook can affect your career (badly). Canadian Financial DIY finds an estimate of the future equity risk premium of 3.5%. Mark Wolfinger answers a reader question: Can an out-of-the-money option be exercised? Big Cajun Man gets a discount on his car insurance. Four Pillars asks how strict you have to be with your asset allocation when you are in the early accumulation phase. Million Dollar Journey has a guest post on seven ways that saving money is like losing weight. Your friendly neighbourhood web-slinger, who is normally out saving the day, is wondering if it's worth saving Nortel. And last but never least, Canadian Capitalist addresses the size at which a passive investor might want to consider making the switch from index mutual funds to Exchange Traded Funds.

    This Week's Racing Video

    The Ford RS200: quirky, deadly fast, a ticking time bomb. Enjoy.

    ]]> 1085 2009-04-30 21:32:01 2009-05-01 02:32:01 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-46 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1241145122 _edit_last 1 2915 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-04-30 21:54:16 2009-05-01 02:54:16 1 0 0 2916 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-05-01 05:35:54 2009-05-01 10:35:54 1 0 0 2917 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-05-01 06:45:38 2009-05-01 11:45:38 1 0 0 2918 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-05-01 07:28:56 2009-05-01 12:28:56 1 0 0 2919 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-01 15:24:17 2009-05-01 20:24:17 1 0 0 AGF Eliminates Underperformance Bonus http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/agf-eliminates-underperformance-bonus/ Mon, 04 May 2009 00:48:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1086 read about the "AGF Elements Advantage" here (this will become an invalid link shortly, I presume) You can read the press release that announced that they were canceling the program here (it's found near the bottom of the release). Anyone who bought units while the program was still running will be grandfathered, but the program will no longer be offered to units purchased on June 22nd, 2009 and after. Too bad - it was a step in the right direction. If we didn't have such a market meltdown, it would be interesting to see if they still would've eliminated the program since statistically it's very likely that investors would collect the Elements Advantage very often as most mutual funds underperform their benchmarks on a routine basis.]]> 1086 2009-05-03 19:48:41 2009-05-04 00:48:41 open open agf-eliminates-underperformance-bonus publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1241398121 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif Should MFDA advisors be allowed to sell ETFs? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/should-mfda-advisors-be-allowed-to-sell-etfs/ Tue, 05 May 2009 02:01:40 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1087

  • Both hold a portfolio of stocks, or bonds (excluding some of the sector specific ETFs which may have very few holdings).
  • Both allow small investors to have a well diversified portfolio with small sums of money.
  • MFDA advisors are allowed to sell high beta mutual funds to their clients (high beta means the funds are more volatile than the index), so why can't they sell a fund that has a beta of 1? (The index has a beta of 1, a portfolio with a beta higher than 1 is more volatile than the market, and a portfolio with a beta below 1 is less volatile than the index). Further, they are just as easy to do due diligence on since there is no manager - there is nothing complicated to know, and certainly they would be easier to keep on top of than an actively managed mutual fund. Of course, the real problem is compensation. Most mutual funds are sold with embedded commissions in the MER - meaning that the funds pay an ongoing fee to the advisor. ETFs don't do this (except for some Claymore ETFs). So even if the MFDA could overcome the hurdle of being able to sell a product that trades like a stock, the firms still have to figure out how to compensate the advisors. Not all MFDA firms offer the "fee based" accounts - where a client advisory fee is charged separately from the product fees. What do you think? Any ideas?]]>
    1087 2009-05-04 21:01:40 2009-05-05 02:01:40 open open should-mfda-advisors-be-allowed-to-sell-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1241488900 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 2920 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-05-05 06:40:45 2009-05-05 11:40:45 1 0 0 2921 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-05 08:12:24 2009-05-05 13:12:24 1 0 0 2922 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.139.15 2009-05-05 08:13:47 2009-05-05 13:13:47 1 0 0 2923 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-05-05 09:00:56 2009-05-05 14:00:56 1 0 0 2924 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-05-05 09:03:44 2009-05-05 14:03:44 1 0 0 2925 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-05 10:17:01 2009-05-05 15:17:01 1 0 0 2926 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-05 10:26:31 2009-05-05 15:26:31 1 0 0 2927 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/05/14/is-it-your-fault-or-your-investment-advisors/ 82.165.243.157 2009-05-14 03:57:57 2009-05-14 08:57:57 1 pingback 0 0 2928 jdol42@hotmail.com 99.225.128.199 2009-05-17 06:11:44 2009-05-17 11:11:44 1 0 0 2929 c.s.godfrey@rogers.com 99.238.109.57 2010-01-29 16:54:58 2010-01-29 21:54:58 1 0 0 2930 dddwightr@hotmail.com 69.157.7.106 2010-01-31 18:30:07 2010-01-31 23:30:07 1 0 0
    Fee-Based Advisors May Not Always Be More Ethical By Default http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fee-based-advisors-may-not-always-be-more-ethical-by-default/ Wed, 06 May 2009 02:27:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1089 1089 2009-05-05 21:27:55 2009-05-06 02:27:55 open open fee-based-advisors-may-not-always-be-more-ethical-by-default publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1241576875 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 2931 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-05-05 23:04:24 2009-05-06 04:04:24 possible that the client's needs come second.]]> 1 0 0 2932 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-05-06 06:16:55 2009-05-06 11:16:55 1 0 0 2933 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.70.229.195 2009-05-06 12:54:07 2009-05-06 17:54:07 1 0 0 2934 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-market-melt-up-edition/ 75.119.202.206 2009-05-07 22:49:01 2009-05-08 03:49:01 1 pingback 0 0 2935 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/05/07/this-and-that-market-melt-up-edition/ 74.208.148.118 2009-05-07 23:43:56 2009-05-08 04:43:56 1 pingback 0 0 2936 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/05/08/random-thoughts-for-all-you-mothers/ 67.205.7.217 2009-05-08 01:06:13 2009-05-08 06:06:13 1 pingback 0 0 2937 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/05/15/linkstuff-may-15-nhl-and-car-companies/ 70.32.84.217 2010-01-27 22:38:59 2010-01-28 03:38:59 1 pingback 0 0 2938 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/05/15/linkstuff-may-15-nhl-and-car-companies/ 70.32.84.217 2010-01-27 22:38:59 2010-01-28 03:38:59 1 pingback 0 0 Turn on Assets http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/turn-on-assets/ Thu, 07 May 2009 02:40:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1090 1090 2009-05-06 21:40:46 2009-05-07 02:40:46 open open turn-on-assets publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1241664046 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 2939 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-06 22:01:05 2009-05-07 03:01:05 1 0 0 2940 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/05/08/weekend-reading-personal-finance-books-stocks-and-cpp/ 74.208.148.118 2009-05-08 06:25:46 2009-05-08 11:25:46 1 pingback 0 0 2941 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/05/08/weekend-reading-personal-finance-books-stocks-and-cpp/ 174.120.10.130 2009-05-08 07:08:13 2009-05-08 12:08:13 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-47/ Fri, 08 May 2009 03:12:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1091 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Another non-embellished post today - just came back from seeing the Star Trek movie (in IMAX no less!), and I need some rest tonight as I'm heading to Mosport in the morning to put in a few laps in some formula cars...

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Eric Lam of the Financial Post quoted me in a story on Loblaws anouncement of a DRIP plan for shareholders, although I should point out that the article incorrectly identifies me as an advisor, which I am no longer. Larry MacDonald shows us that investing like Buffett isn't so straightforward as you think. Canadian Capitalist looks at CARP's call for a Universal Pension Plan. Michael James on Money explains the challenges of shorting stocks successfully. Million Dollar Journey shows us the difference between Defined Benefits pension plans and Defined Contribution pension plans. Four Pillars asks what "Frugal" means. Big Cajun Man talks about the high cost of active kids. I hope this doesn't stir up another debate between active and passive... :) Mark Wolfinger explains why you might want to use options. Last but not least, Thicken My Wallet talks about how often he checks his stock portfolio.

    This Week's Racing Video

    The French apparently spend 9 hours sleeping and 2 hours eating on average per day. If that wasn't enough, they hire people to do this:

    ]]> 1091 2009-05-07 22:12:39 2009-05-08 03:12:39 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-47 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1241752360 _edit_last 1 2942 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-05-07 22:24:03 2009-05-08 03:24:03 1 0 0 2943 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-07 23:48:25 2009-05-08 04:48:25 1 0 0 2944 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-05-08 04:48:01 2009-05-08 09:48:01 1 0 0 2945 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-05-08 07:17:57 2009-05-08 12:17:57 1 0 0 2946 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-05-08 09:16:51 2009-05-08 14:16:51 1 0 0 2947 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-05-08 09:34:53 2009-05-08 14:34:53 1 0 0 Fixing Trading Errors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fixing-trading-errors/ Sun, 10 May 2009 23:06:02 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1092 actually earned. The first error was corrected simply by pointing out the problem to a service representative. Addressed in but a few minutes. This phantom security position has yet to be addressed because I just found it. I'm pretty sure it will be automatically cleared up on Monday, but am ready to call customer service in the afternoon if it hasn't. When working with a full service advisor, human errors can be made when placing trades (either by the advisor or the associate advisor). It's always important to follow up on your trade instructions and check your confirmation statements when they arrive. Any human errors can be reversed by simply pointing them out to your advisor. Now, if you run into problems correcting trades you know you did not authorize, you may want to read through the Guide To Effective Investor Complaints. What you may not know is that in some cases, a trading error can work out in favour of the firm. For example, if you wanted to buy 10 shares of XYZ but your advisor actually bought 100 by mistake, they might sell off 90 shares once the error has been discovered. If XYZ has gone up, the firm pockets the profits. If XYZ has gone down the branch manager might choose to absorb the loss for the broker, or the broker may be on the hook for the loss. It varies by case. In the end, it shouldn't affect you. So if you have losses in your portoflio due to a processing error, you shouldn't have to worry - but if you have losses because you picked an investment that went down, well you'll just have to suck that up!]]> 1092 2009-05-10 18:06:02 2009-05-10 23:06:02 open open fixing-trading-errors publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1241996763 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 2948 activeweb707@gmail.com http://www.mutuo-prestito.org 119.30.36.73 2009-05-22 18:56:59 2009-05-22 23:56:59 1 0 0 The Market Versus The Index http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-market-versus-the-index/ Tue, 12 May 2009 01:26:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1093 For example, the S&P/TSX Composite Index is an index that is widely followed to track the performance of the overall Canadian stock market. The members of the S&P/TSX Composite Index are weighted based on their market capitalization. This means that if there are 1 million shares of company XYZ in existence and the shares are trading for $10 per share, the entire company is valued at $10 million – this is known as its “market capitalization”.

    By adding up all the companies’ market capitalizations we might find that the total market capitalization of the index (comprised of hundreds of companies) might be $1 billion. So on a market capitalization-weighted basis, our example company XYZ would represent 1% of the index ($10 million divided by $1 Billion). The larger the market capitalization of a company, the more weight it has in a portfolio.

    Note: I'm using small, round number for the purposes of easy illustration - there are many companies that individually are worth many billions of dollars each.

    At the end of 2007, there were 3,951 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but note that the S&P/TSX Composite index only has 209 constituents. However, these 209 companies represent roughly 70% of the total market value of the Toronto Stock Exchange as many companies not listed in the index (but are part of the 3,951 constituents in the overall market) are quite small in relative value.

    ]]>
    1093 2009-05-11 20:26:46 2009-05-12 01:26:46 open open the-market-versus-the-index publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1242091606 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/graphmagnifyingglass220.gif 2949 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.139.15 2009-05-12 07:30:15 2009-05-12 12:30:15 1 0 0 2950 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-12 15:49:20 2009-05-12 20:49:20 1 0 0 2951 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/05/15/random-thoughts-when-bloggers-meet/ 67.205.7.217 2009-05-15 05:15:56 2009-05-15 10:15:56 1 pingback 0 0 2952 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/05/15/friday-links-15.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-05-15 06:07:53 2009-05-15 11:07:53 1 pingback 0 0
    Canadian Mutual Fund Fees A Failure According To Morningstar http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/canadian-mutual-fund-fees-a-failure-according-to-morningstar/ Tue, 12 May 2009 20:45:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1094 B. On the individual categories:
    • Investor Protection: A
    • Transparency in Prospectus and Reports: A
    • Transparency in Sales and Media: A
    • Fees and Expenses: F
    • Taxation: C
    • Distribution/Choice: B+
    • OVERALL: B
    I want to stress that these are relative to the other 16 countries, I'm not too sure if these grades would be so high on an absolute basis. For example, I know there are some people who will fall off their chair when they see that Canada scored a grade of A in Investor Protection and Transparency... like I did. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL REPORT]]>
    1094 2009-05-12 15:45:29 2009-05-12 20:45:29 open open canadian-mutual-fund-fees-a-failure-according-to-morningstar publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1242161130 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 2953 howie.wong@gmail.com 204.50.7.200 2009-05-12 16:20:25 2009-05-12 21:20:25 1 0 0 2954 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-12 17:22:40 2009-05-12 22:22:40 1 0 0 2955 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.139.15 2009-05-13 08:56:36 2009-05-13 13:56:36 1 0 0 2956 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-05-13 09:59:29 2009-05-13 14:59:29 1 0 0
    pratte http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-wheels-and-tires/pratte/ Wed, 13 May 2009 00:17:15 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pratte.jpg 1095 2009-05-12 19:17:15 2009-05-13 00:17:15 open open pratte inherit 1081 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pratte.jpg _wp_attached_file pratte.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"273";s:6:"height";s:3:"277";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='94'";s:4:"file";s:10:"pratte.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"pratte-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"pratte-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:16:"pratte-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} pratte1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-wheels-and-tires/pratte1/ Wed, 13 May 2009 00:18:37 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pratte1.jpg 1096 2009-05-12 19:18:37 2009-05-13 00:18:37 open open pratte1 inherit 1081 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/pratte1.jpg _wp_attached_file pratte1.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"273";s:6:"height";s:3:"277";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='94'";s:4:"file";s:11:"pratte1.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pratte1-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"pratte1-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"pratte1-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Advisors Ostracized For Passive Investing Opinions http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/advisors-ostracized-for-passive-investing-opinions/ Thu, 14 May 2009 02:48:30 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1097 1097 2009-05-13 21:48:30 2009-05-14 02:48:30 open open advisors-ostracized-for-passive-investing-opinions publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1242269311 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 2957 mike.bayer777@gmail.com http://mikebayer.wordpress.com/ 69.158.127.29 2009-05-13 23:30:49 2009-05-14 04:30:49 1 0 0 2958 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-05-14 08:23:50 2009-05-14 13:23:50 1 0 0 2959 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-the-age-of-frugality/ 75.119.202.206 2009-05-15 06:27:42 2009-05-15 11:27:42 1 pingback 0 0 2960 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/05/15/this-and-that-the-age-of-frugality/ 74.208.148.118 2009-05-15 07:22:27 2009-05-15 12:22:27 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-48/ Fri, 15 May 2009 04:27:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1098 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Well, hitting the track last Friday was an absolute blast. It's amazing how badly the desire to get back to it more permanently still burns deep. It's also amazing how out of shape I am (for those who think auto-racing is not physical, you have no idea how wrong you are!)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau wrote a few blog entries: one on Black Hat advisors, and one on White Hat Advisors (which featured yours truly quite prominently!). Jon mentioned that he wanted to post a photoshopped picture of me riding a horse, with a white hat - so I'm going to whip one up and see if he really posts it! :) Mark Noble, one of the best industry writers in the biz, also had an article in which I was quoted which is titled "ETFs have same issues as mutual funds" which is reference to the fact that great products can still be misused. Canadian Capitalist questions if a flat tax system would work. Did you know that the economics of the future don't involve money? Did you know I saw the new Star Trek movie twice already? Thicken My Wallet fleshes out denied insurance claims the way only he can, i.e. brilliantly. Michael James on Money explains the flaw of those "learn to trade" schools that purport to teach you the secrets of making money all the time in the stock market. To learn the real secret, you have to sign up for MY course which only costs $995 + GST - I have a proprietary method involving tea leaves, dice and an ovaltine decoder (all included). Million Dollar Journey has a two-parter: one on the basics of Passive Investing Strategies and one explaining the basics of some Active Investing Strategies. Four Pillars explains that breaking a mortgage has penalties and provides some tips on reducing said penalties. You like tips? Don't eat yellow snow. Big Cajun Man looks into the Canadian unemployment rate. The gravity of so many job losses is saddening when you think of all the people and families affected. Larry MacDonald reviews the latest Morningstar report which takes a shot at Canadian mutual funds (and advisors). Did someone just turn that into a sport or something? :) Mark Wolfinger discusses the versatility of writing covered calls.

    This Week's Racing Video

    A real quick one today. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you forgot to tighten your lug nuts? It would look a lot like the following video... (reminder to feed readers, you might have to visit the actual blog website to view videos). Enjoy and have a great long weekend!

    ]]> 1098 2009-05-14 23:27:29 2009-05-15 04:27:29 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-48 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1242361649 _edit_last 1 2961 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-15 00:05:06 2009-05-15 05:05:06 1 0 0 2962 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-05-15 05:17:47 2009-05-15 10:17:47 1 0 0 2963 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-05-15 07:25:00 2009-05-15 12:25:00 1 0 0 2964 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.115.63 2009-05-15 08:45:59 2009-05-15 13:45:59 1 0 0 2965 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-05-15 14:00:43 2009-05-15 19:00:43 1 0 0 2966 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 69.159.10.183 2009-05-15 23:39:48 2009-05-16 04:39:48 1 0 0 2967 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.30.249 2009-05-16 17:59:38 2009-05-16 22:59:38 1 0 0 2968 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-18 09:46:37 2009-05-18 14:46:37 1 0 0 2969 cbcg@rogers.com http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/category/larry-macdonald/ 99.224.150.145 2009-05-21 18:12:54 2009-05-21 23:12:54 1 0 0 copy-of-smoking-calculator /copy-of-smoking-calculator/ Fri, 15 May 2009 22:10:54 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/copy-of-smoking-calculator.xls 1099 2009-05-15 17:10:54 2009-05-15 22:10:54 open open copy-of-smoking-calculator inherit 715 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/copy-of-smoking-calculator.xls _wp_attached_file copy-of-smoking-calculator.xls _wp_attachment_metadata a:0:{} alexander http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-and-fake-billionaires/alexander/ Tue, 19 May 2009 00:42:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/alexander.jpg 1101 2009-05-18 19:42:02 2009-05-19 00:42:02 open open alexander inherit 1100 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/alexander.jpg _wp_attached_file alexander.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"100";s:6:"height";s:3:"149";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='64'";s:4:"file";s:13:"alexander.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"alexander-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} alexander1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-and-fake-billionaires/alexander1/ Tue, 19 May 2009 00:44:20 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/alexander1.jpg 1102 2009-05-18 19:44:20 2009-05-19 00:44:20 open open alexander1 inherit 1100 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/alexander1.jpg _wp_attached_file alexander1.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata 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#2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"steven-spielberg-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} donald http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-and-fake-billionaires/donald/ Tue, 19 May 2009 01:09:41 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/donald.jpg 1120 2009-05-18 20:09:41 2009-05-19 01:09:41 open open donald inherit 1100 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/donald.jpg _wp_attached_file donald.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"412";s:6:"height";s:3:"341";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='115'";s:4:"file";s:10:"donald.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"donald-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"donald-300x248.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"248";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"donald-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:16:"donald-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} wagon http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-and-fake-billionaires/wagon/ Tue, 19 May 2009 01:11:31 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wagon.jpg 1121 2009-05-18 20:11:31 2009-05-19 01:11:31 open open wagon inherit 1100 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wagon.jpg _wp_attached_file wagon.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"320";s:6:"height";s:3:"240";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:9:"wagon.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"wagon-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"wagon-300x225.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"225";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"wagon-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"wagon-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} mr-burns-wallpaper http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-and-fake-billionaires/mr-burns-wallpaper/ Tue, 19 May 2009 01:12:35 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/mr-burns-wallpaper.gif 1122 2009-05-18 20:12:35 2009-05-19 01:12:35 open open mr-burns-wallpaper inherit 1100 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/mr-burns-wallpaper.gif _wp_attached_file mr-burns-wallpaper.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1024";s:6:"height";s:3:"768";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:22:"mr-burns-wallpaper.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"mr-burns-wallpaper-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"mr-burns-wallpaper-300x225.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"225";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"mr-burns-wallpaper-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"mr-burns-wallpaper-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Real and Fake Billionaires http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/real-and-fake-billionaires/ Tue, 19 May 2009 01:19:47 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1100 . . Alexander the Great - Tens or Hundreds of Trillions? (having conquered most of the known world) . . . . John D. Rockefeller - $392.2 Billion (the oil guy) . . . . Henry Ford - $194.9 Billion (the car guy) . . . . Bill Gates - $40.0 Billion (the computer guy) . . . . Warren Buffett - $37.0 Billion (the investing guy) . . . . Scrooge McDuck - $29.1 Billion (the duck guy) . . . . Michael Bloomberg - $16.0 Billion (Mayor of New York, and the "Bloomberg" guy) . . . . Pablo Escobar - $15.4 Billion (Columbian Drug Czar guy) . . . . Queen Elizabeth II - $14.0 Billion (including Crown property, a more modest $650 million without) . . . . Richie Rich - $12.3 Billion (the kid guy) . . . . Gordon Gekko - $8.5 Billion (the 'Wall Street' movie guy) . . . . Jabba the Hut - $8.4 Billion (the Outer Rim crime lord guy) . . . . Phil Knight - $8.2 Billion (the shoe guy) . . . . James Simons - $8.0 Billion (the hedge fund guy) . . . . Tony Stark - $7.9 Billion (the Iron Man guy) . . . . Bruce Wayne - $5.8 Billion (the Bat guy) . . . . Steven Spielberg - $3.1 Billion (the movie guy) . . . . Donald Trump - $3.0 Billion (the billionaire guy) . . . . Oprah Winfrey - $2.7 Billion (the talk show lady) . . . . C. Montgomery Burns - $996 Million (the Simpson's guy) . . Feel free to make suggestions for additions, I'll throw them up as time goes on... :)]]> 1100 2009-05-18 20:19:47 2009-05-19 01:19:47 open open real-and-fake-billionaires publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1242782428 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/brucewayne.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/brucewayne.jpg 2970 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 69.159.27.165 2009-05-18 21:39:48 2009-05-19 02:39:48 1 0 0 2971 http://ford.dailynewsabout.com/archives/117 67.205.45.99 2009-05-18 22:27:42 2009-05-19 03:27:42 1 pingback 0 0 2972 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-05-19 10:06:52 2009-05-19 15:06:52 1 0 0 2973 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-05-19 10:15:04 2009-05-19 15:15:04 1 0 0 2974 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-05-19 14:01:38 2009-05-19 19:01:38 1 0 0 2975 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-19 20:03:47 2009-05-20 01:03:47 1 0 0 2976 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/05/25/don-jail-alcatraz-and-linkstuff-edition-for-may-25/ 70.32.84.217 2009-07-15 10:35:42 2009-07-15 15:35:42 1 pingback 0 0 2977 http://finance.perfectargument.com/2009/08/senate-finance-committee-is-the-real-death-panel-said-bill-maher/ 67.205.15.118 2009-08-20 02:56:36 2009-08-20 07:56:36 1 pingback 0 0 what-is-an-index /what-is-an-index/ Tue, 19 May 2009 17:47:12 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/what-is-an-index.pdf 1123 2009-05-19 12:47:12 2009-05-19 17:47:12 open open what-is-an-index inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/what-is-an-index.pdf _wp_attached_file what-is-an-index.pdf _wp_attachment_metadata a:0:{} martin-luther-king2 /martin-luther-king2/ Wed, 20 May 2009 00:58:36 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/martin-luther-king2.jpg 1125 2009-05-19 19:58:36 2009-05-20 00:58:36 open open martin-luther-king2 inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/martin-luther-king2.jpg _wp_attached_file martin-luther-king2.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"347";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='111'";s:4:"file";s:23:"martin-luther-king2.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"martin-luther-king2-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"martin-luther-king2-300x259.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"259";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"martin-luther-king2-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"martin-luther-king2-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Ethics, Advisors And The Framework Within Which They Operate http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ethics-advisors-and-the-framework-within-which-they-operate/ Wed, 20 May 2009 00:59:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1124 a blog post on Jonathan Chevreau's Wealthy Boomer blog. I'm re-linking to it because there is some good reading in the comments section which is worth a read. I warn you now though, the comments are long and the material will probably be a bit dry to some. For others, I'm sure you'll find it worth your time. Essentially some of the other commenters are trying to figure out a new framework for financial advice, planning and investment management instead of just bashing the current one. Even if you don't read all the comments, what do you think would need to be done to the financial advice and planning landscape in Canada to make it ideal? I'd love to hear your thoughts, be it simple, single ideas (like get rid of mutual fund trailers) or suggestions for a complete overhaul of the system.]]> 1124 2009-05-19 19:59:15 2009-05-20 00:59:15 open open ethics-advisors-and-the-framework-within-which-they-operate publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1242781155 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/martin-luther-king2.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/martin-luther-king2.jpg 2978 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-05-20 11:33:19 2009-05-20 16:33:19 1 0 0 2979 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-05-20 12:01:53 2009-05-20 17:01:53 per se, but the difference is in the details. They sell honest products and are not out to cheat. But unless the products they sell are good for the individual to whom they are sold - unless products that are just as good but which carry smaller sales loads are offered to investors, then the advisor doing the selling is acting in a manner that is absolutely not in the best interests of the client. That's a lack of integrity. But if full of integrity, the salesman cannot earn a living. There must be a compromise, but I don't believe that's possible. How can that be resolved? should the advisor spend hours and earn 20 bucks, or should the advisor take the $1,000 fee and hope the client can overcome the bad start? It's more than a question of ethics, but how can this be resolved? I don't believe it can. Salesmen work on commission, and the higher the better from their point of view. You can make as many intelligent suggestions as you care to make, but who is going to force the salespeople to accept less and offer better service to clients?]]> 1 0 0 2980 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-20 21:22:46 2009-05-21 02:22:46 1 0 0 2981 jfroache@sympatico.ca 70.48.237.98 2009-05-21 12:18:22 2009-05-21 17:18:22 1 0 0 Make Money In A Volatile, Flat Market: Short Sell Leveraged ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/make-money-in-a-volatile-flat-market-short-sell-leveraged-etfs/ Thu, 21 May 2009 00:49:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1126 Flat Market - also could be called a sideways market. Normally the definition is a market in which prices change little, so I threw in an added caveat: a volatile flat market. This would imply prices change quite a bit from day to day, but overall the prices are relatively flat over longer periods of time (i.e. the market goes up for a stretch, down for the next, up again, down again, etc.). Leveraged ETFs - These are Exchange Traded Funds that track an index with built in leverage. The most popular have a 200% daily exposure to the market. If the index went up 1%, the 200% leveraged ETF would go up 2%. Leveraged ETFs normally come in two flavours: Bull and Bear (or regular and inverse). The "bear" or "inverse" leveraged ETF will provide leveraged exposure in the opposite direction of the index. So if the index GOES UP 1%, you would LOSE 2% with a 200% bear etf. The problem with leveraged ETFs is that most people don't understand how they work. I'll cut to the chase (but you can read here for more detailed info). The initial 200% exposure (or whatever the case may be according to the fund's mandate) is based on tracking the daily movement of the index. It falls apart when you hold it for longer periods of time (in terms of providing a 200% constant exposure). Here's a basic example of how this would work: Let's say your ETF is trading at $100.00/share and it is a 200% leveraged bull ETF. Your index goes up 10% on the first day, therefore your ETF goes up 20%. The ETF now trades at $120.00/share. Let's say the next day the index goes down 10%, therefore your ETF goes down 20% again as well. EXCEPT this time 20% is of $120.00/share which is $24.00/share, leaving you with $96.00/share. Think about this: the index was down 1% over the two days, yet your ETF has lost 4%. If you want more proof as to how holding leveraged ETFs can be a losing proposition in volatile markets, look no further than the calendar year performance for 2008 of Horizon BetaPro's Global Gold Bull+ AND Global Gold Bear+ ETFs: -44.56% and -84.47%, respectively. This is not a knock on Horizon BetaPro - their products do what they are supposed to do brilliantly. In any case, if you had shorted either of those Bull or Bear 200% leveraged ETFs, you would've been a very happy camper. In a sideways market with even modest volatility, the bull and bear leveraged ETFs' values will slowly erode. Therefore, if you short them you could make money in a flat or sideways market. According to Horizons BetaPro (according to a report by Morningstar Canada), if an index was flat over a year with 25% volatility then you would lose 6.1% (before fees), 50% volatility would incur a loss of 22.1% (before fees). Once you further subtract fees, it only looks better for the leveraged ETF short seller. To make money holding leveraged ETFs you have to be right both in the direction and the path of the underlying index. I'm not saying you should go out and short these things, what sound good in theory may not work in practice, and remember 2008 and 2009 are turning out to be quite anomalous years. I've set up a simulated account and am experimenting with shorting some 3x leveraged Direxion ETFs, I'll keep you posted on what happens (in a semi-live environment). Once I've seen the results I'm going to put some real money into it in my own discount brokerage account and report my findings over time. Should be educational at the very least! :)]]> 1126 2009-05-20 19:49:59 2009-05-21 00:49:59 open open make-money-in-a-volatile-flat-market-short-sell-leveraged-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1243264401 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg 2982 dave@nomail.doo 99.254.229.90 2009-05-20 20:32:06 2009-05-21 01:32:06 1 0 0 2983 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-05-20 22:30:32 2009-05-21 03:30:32 1 0 0 2984 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-20 23:23:26 2009-05-21 04:23:26 1 0 0 2985 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-21 00:27:30 2009-05-21 05:27:30 link]]> 1 0 0 2986 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-05-21 10:55:05 2009-05-21 15:55:05 1 0 0 2987 http://r180.com/blog/2009/05/21/posts-about-morningstar-as-of-may-21-2009/ 74.208.16.20 2009-05-21 11:18:39 2009-05-21 16:18:39 1 pingback 0 0 2988 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-05-21 11:38:47 2009-05-21 16:38:47 1 0 0 2989 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-05-21 15:13:21 2009-05-21 20:13:21 1 0 0 2990 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/05/22/broker-survey-and-weekend-reading-may-22-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-05-22 06:08:45 2009-05-22 11:08:45 1 pingback 0 0 2991 cmstlist@yahoo.ca 174.6.81.148 2009-05-22 11:57:31 2009-05-22 16:57:31 1 0 0 2992 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-05-22 12:15:54 2009-05-22 17:15:54 I did a query on HXU on interactive brokers They also provide inventory (it was 85,000 when I checked), so yes it can be done - although I have not done it myself (yet!).]]> 1 0 0 2993 ptgannon@hotmail.com 24.150.205.14 2009-05-22 12:37:02 2009-05-22 17:37:02 1 0 0 2994 mweerapura@hotmail.com 206.12.12.123 2009-05-22 17:40:28 2009-05-22 22:40:28 1 0 0 2995 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-05-23 20:29:52 2009-05-24 01:29:52 1 0 0 2996 rosestan@comcast.net http://na 24.61.27.79 2009-05-31 10:53:19 2009-05-31 15:53:19 1 0 0 2997 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-31 17:55:22 2009-05-31 22:55:22 1 0 0 2998 speppercorn@debthelpquick.co.uk http://www.todayloan.co.uk 81.136.144.79 2009-11-11 07:25:44 2009-11-11 12:25:44 1 0 0 2999 jiminvestor5@yahoo.com http://financeandinvestments.blogspot.com 99.140.243.82 2010-03-08 04:11:34 2010-03-08 09:11:34 1 0 0 3000 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-03-08 09:57:36 2010-03-08 14:57:36 1 0 0 3001 mevvazz@go2.pl http://greatadventures.in/tour/virtual-tour-of-jerusalem 87.118.94.85 2010-04-23 18:44:35 2010-04-23 23:44:35 how fast does the wind travel what people in jordan travel be us airport parking flight travel seat http://greatadventures.in/plane-tickets/cheap-plane-tickets-hotels pine island travel agency top twenty places in united states to travel caribbean island package vacation cheap snowboarding vacation packages through travel agents http://greatadventures.in/tourist/el-paso-tourist-destination travel agents and california flight 1295]]> spam 0 0 3002 newku@o2.pl http://autoexpress.in/romeo/alfa/romeo/pillar/trim 87.118.98.191 2010-04-23 21:08:21 2010-04-24 02:08:21 volkswagen diesel 2008 price singer auto ulrich maybach children automobile death lyric http://autoexpress.in/radiator/diy/radiator/valve/repair mercedes benz 500e for sale riley site for auto plans ford dealer saleen mustang midway auto sales montgomery ny http://autoexpress.in/scooters f1 racing car find auto websites saleen h281]]> spam 0 0 3003 mefdx@o2.pl http://atravel.in/tourist_oxford-tourist-information-centre 87.118.100.56 2010-04-23 21:30:30 2010-04-24 02:30:30 travel packages caribbean from canada r vision owners manual for travel trailers cheap vacation packages reno japan amenity travel http://atravel.in/motel_locate-motel-8 start a travel business from home travel article lesson plans expedia reviews adventure travel tips trek http://atravel.in/cruises_panama-canal-full-transit-cruises tennessee laws on travel trailor hotel del ice rink]]> spam 0 0 3004 myhgg@go2.pl http://livetravel.in/tours/rugby-league-express-tours-of-catalan 87.118.94.197 2010-04-24 04:41:04 2010-04-24 09:41:04 travel physical therapy travel eviews on reserve with northwest new airline attendant sta travel new zealand http://livetravel.in/adventure/kenya-adventure-holiday irs foreign travel reimbursement policy vintage travel art direct flight from lon to clt travel to south america http://livetravel.in/adventure/adventure-vacation-europe adventure travel world trips south america travel classification of tourist bird cage travel carrier discount air plane tickets to 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http://atravel.in/inn_red-clover-inn government lost reciept form travel documents become our tour guide toronto]]> spam 0 0 3007 newku@o2.pl http://autoexpress.in/oldsmobile/stroked/oldsmobile 87.118.98.191 2010-04-25 05:29:30 2010-04-25 10:29:30 mercedes r class review auto detailing in spokane map circle oldsmobile indiana cascade auto http://autoexpress.in/rally/xpand/cross/rally/extreme/help cchicago auto show sigma auto columbus oh inventory buell s1 lightning bmw automobile international awareness promotion http://autoexpress.in/racing/playstation/3/racing/wheels salvage auto auctions columbia mo volkswagen organizational chart scooter for adults]]> spam 0 0 3008 mevvazz@go2.pl http://greatadventures.in/tour/chauffeured-tour-london 87.118.94.85 2010-04-25 07:08:31 2010-04-25 12:08:31 esure travel insurance travel club melbourne list of items you can take on delta airlines belgium dog travel move http://greatadventures.in/motel travel trailer bunk house double slide used global services travel wyndom hotel pa travel guide usa http://greatadventures.in/airport/portland-airport-shuttle-service travel all in one printer thai international airways]]> spam 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-49/ Fri, 22 May 2009 01:00:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1127 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. If you don't normally watch the weekly racing videos, you may want to check this week's edition - it's priceless (video at the bottom of the post). Off to Vancouver for a week, but posts will (probably) continue... :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist looks at Steadyhand Mutual Funds (run by former PH&N top dog Tom Bradley). I've walked past their offices in Vancouver once or twice, if I'm not mistaken they are next to a Lamborghini dealership. Michael James on Money explains why a mutual fund may suddenly change its name. Expect another round of that in the next few years. Million Dollar Journey looks at Old Age Security and the OAS clawback. Big Cajun Man writes about some folks who tried to rip off Air Miles. L-Mac (street name for Larry MacDonald) uncovers a treasure trove of tv clips of financial forecasters dating as far back as 1979 on the CBC archives. Mark Wolfinger wrote a great book on Options for Rookies, aptly titled Options for Rookies. (I own it, and recommend it.) Canadian Financial DIY discovered that bloggers are starting to get some real respect in the mainstream media. Thicken My Wallet talks about investing in a low interest rate environment.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Okay, first I want to point out that there is more to this video than meets the eye. Second, no one was seriously hurt (although it looks like someone gets his head run over, he didn't). And third, the magic of this video is truly revealed at the 1:45 mark. Hint: just watch the guy standing on the side of the car, and pay attention to his pants. That's all I'm saying... enjoy! :)

    ]]> 1127 2009-05-21 20:00:52 2009-05-22 01:00:52 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-49 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1242954053 3009 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-05-22 05:26:27 2009-05-22 10:26:27 1 0 0 3010 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-05-22 06:45:43 2009-05-22 11:45:43 1 0 0 3011 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-22 08:49:40 2009-05-22 13:49:40 1 0 0 3012 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-05-22 08:53:44 2009-05-22 13:53:44 1 0 0 3013 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.152.153 2009-05-22 12:13:28 2009-05-22 17:13:28 1 0 0 3014 activeweb707@gmail.com http://www.mutuo-prestito.org 119.30.36.73 2009-05-22 18:52:33 2009-05-22 23:52:33 1 0 0 3015 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 84.13.64.207 2009-05-28 02:11:45 2009-05-28 07:11:45 1 0 0 Short Selling Doesn't Have to Have Infinite Loss Potential http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/short-selling-doesnt-have-to-have-infinite-loss-potential/ Mon, 25 May 2009 06:12:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1128 Mark Wolfinger's blog.]]> 1128 2009-05-25 01:12:22 2009-05-25 06:12:22 open open short-selling-doesnt-have-to-have-infinite-loss-potential publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1243231942 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 3016 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 206.191.118.34 2009-05-25 07:24:20 2009-05-25 12:24:20 1 0 0 3017 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-05-26 00:34:32 2009-05-26 05:34:32 1 0 0 3018 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-i%e2%80%99m-back/ 64.6.103.97 2009-05-30 09:10:50 2009-05-30 14:10:50 1 pingback 0 0 3019 shnrosenberg@yahoo.com http://www.stocks-simplified.com 207.50.147.147 2009-05-30 23:18:56 2009-05-31 04:18:56 1 0 0 3020 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-05-31 18:37:41 2009-05-31 23:37:41 1 0 0 Hard-To-Borrow Fees http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/hard-to-borrow-fees/ Tue, 26 May 2009 06:05:32 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1129 1129 2009-05-26 01:05:32 2009-05-26 06:05:32 open open hard-to-borrow-fees publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1243317932 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 3021 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-05-26 09:14:09 2009-05-26 14:14:09 1 0 0 3022 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-27 08:33:03 2009-05-27 13:33:03 1 0 0 3023 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.80.193.239 2009-05-27 10:17:35 2009-05-27 15:17:35 1 0 0 3024 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-27 12:21:52 2009-05-27 17:21:52 1 0 0 3025 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 216.251.147.10 2009-05-27 12:37:32 2009-05-27 17:37:32 1 0 0 3026 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/05/29/random-thoughts-50-billion-is-a-lot-of-money/ 67.205.7.217 2009-05-29 06:02:50 2009-05-29 11:02:50 1 pingback 0 0 3027 hh_guan@hotmail.com 75.68.83.98 2009-10-07 06:57:04 2009-10-07 11:57:04 1 0 0 3028 jholub5216@yahoo.com 69.146.76.253 2010-01-26 23:16:34 2010-01-27 04:16:34 1 0 0 3029 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-27 20:36:17 2010-01-28 01:36:17 1 3028 0 3030 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http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-equal-short-bull-bear-as-the-ultimate-negative-correlator/attachment/7/ Wed, 27 May 2009 07:22:56 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/7.png 1139 2009-05-27 02:22:56 2009-05-27 07:22:56 open open 7 inherit 1130 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/7.png _wp_attached_file 7.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"543";s:6:"height";s:3:"430";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='121'";s:4:"file";s:5:"7.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"7-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"7-300x237.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"237";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"7-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:11:"7-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Equal Short Bull-Bear As The Ultimate Negative Correlator? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-equal-short-bull-bear-as-the-ultimate-negative-correlator/ Wed, 27 May 2009 07:42:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1130 Okay, first things first - I think I've officially lost my mind or made a simple formula error, but it's late enough that my brain has turned to mush. I was toying again with the idea of the equal short paired leveraged ETF strategy (e.g. holding an equal short position on HXU/HXD for example). Reader Jordan Clark suggested I should back-test it and one thing led to another. Instead of dissecting it (because it will take some time), I'm going to throw out the results tonight and then discuss later... I started by downloading the daily data for the TSX Composite index. Pictured here: Next, I created a fictitious 2x Bull index, pictured here: As you can see it was a wild ride, but since over the long term the index was mostly up, the 2x Bull was net positive (but definitely not 200% of the annualized return, and heck it was less than the regular index!). But let's next add the 2x BEAR index: The 2x Bear was decimated. You lost about 80% of your money over this time if you tracked this index. Now, Michael James on Money did an interesting experiment in which he looked at equal weighted positions in the bull and corresponding bear (although he simulated daily rebalancing). Let's take that idea and show the hypothetical investment in a 50% 2x Bull and 50% 2x Bear index (although note, I did not simulate daily rebalancing, just fire and forget): Okay, as expected it is between the pure 2x Bull and 2x Bear. It happened to have lost money over this time. I had tossed around the idea that you could short each index in equal amounts and perhaps you could capture some of the decay in these leveraged ETFs (not to mention their management fee). So let's throw that into the mix: It would seem that we are cooking with gas now... Or are we? The graph is getting pretty noisy, so let's get rid of some lines and just look at the TSX and the equal short 2x Bull and 2x Bear... Okay we see that the strategy of holding an equal short position (to start) of the corresponding Bull and Bear indexes gave us some outperformance versus anything else so far. The TSX was up 19.68% during this time (Jan 2000 to May 2009), but the equal short Bull Bear (without rebalancing) was up 42.00%. That might sound compelling, but take a closer look at where the outperformance came from. There is still a certain path dependency in the return. Note that when the pure index has a severe correction is when the equal short bull bear experiences significant upside. Ultimately what I think is going to be significant is the sequence of returns (hmmm, same old story eh?). For example in a constant rising market, the bull's leverage compounds. It starts at 200% daily exposure (to your initial capital) but increases if the index keeps going up. The bull gains steam in an upmarket. Vice versa, the bear decompounds its leverage in the same up market. It starts at 200% daily exposure (of your initial capital) but then decreases so long as the market keeps going up. But if a market is in a long bull run, the bear still gets killed and you are making gains there on the short. I think the reason that the equal short bull bear looks so good in this case is because the compounding/decompounding can work in your favour in the more volatile down markets and in the less volatile up markets it doesn't work against you as much. In short (pardon the pun) it might seem that an equal short bull bear strategy might work over long periods of time if the market tends to go up more than it goes down (historically the market goes up 70% of the time and down 30% of the time - if the US market is a proxy). If corrections are severe it could be even better because the decay from volatility of leveraged ETFs are a killer (and you are shorting them). If markets went down more often than up, and if the up markets were more volatile than the down markets, then I think that the equal long bull bear would be better to own. More backtesting and different sequences of returns may confirm this. But here's the kicker. If the markets do tend to go up more than down, and the equal short bull bear provides it's biggest bang for the buck in a correction, then it may have a place in portfolios as a long term negative correlator. Witness the following graph showing a comparison of the TSX versus a portfolio of 50% TSX and 50% equal short bull bear: Very interesting. Not only did you outperform the TSX (+30.84% versus the TSX's 19.68%), you did it with WAY LESS volatility. The risk adjusted return on this strategy would've been phenomenal. The standard deviation on the portfolio was 67% LESS than the regular index, with a 50% relative increase in return. Like I said, I must've made an error on my formulas in my excel spreadsheets... I'll go over it in more detail later and try looking at different return sequences to see if my shoot-from-the-hip conjectures are just crap or what. It could also just be a product of data-mining with no future validity. If it isn't, then you could short the bull/bear pair and use the proceeds to buy the plain index. But something tells me it isn't that easy. Stay tuned... ]]> 1130 2009-05-27 02:42:46 2009-05-27 07:42:46 open open the-equal-short-bull-bear-as-the-ultimate-negative-correlator publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1244044293 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/5.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/5.png 3031 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-05-27 07:19:01 2009-05-27 12:19:01 1 0 0 3032 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-27 08:25:33 2009-05-27 13:25:33 1 0 0 3033 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-05-27 14:08:24 2009-05-27 19:08:24 1 0 0 3034 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-the-cost-of-thrift-market-recovery-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-05-29 09:34:22 2009-05-29 14:34:22 1 pingback 0 0 3035 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/05/29/this-and-that-the-cost-of-thrift-market-recovery-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 74.208.148.118 2009-05-29 10:28:50 2009-05-29 15:28:50 1 pingback 0 0 3036 ghandy49@gmail.com 129.173.199.39 2009-05-29 12:57:00 2009-05-29 17:57:00 1 0 0 3037 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-02 00:38:01 2009-06-02 05:38:01 1 0 0 3038 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-02 13:42:11 2009-06-02 18:42:11 1 0 0 3039 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-02 13:46:31 2009-06-02 18:46:31 1 0 0 3040 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-02 14:07:14 2009-06-02 19:07:14 1 0 0 3041 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-02 14:17:13 2009-06-02 19:17:13 1 0 0 3042 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/testing-out-the-hypothesis-on-shorting-paired-leveraged-etfs/ 68.178.254.235 2009-06-03 22:27:00 2009-06-04 03:27:00 1 pingback 0 0 3043 http://www.mesotheliomalawyer4u.com/news/20090429/1 72.9.228.239 2009-06-08 02:05:36 2009-06-08 07:05:36 1 pingback 0 0 3044 http://www.stockrants.com/forum/us-stock-picks/1492-i-could-use-some-advise-please-2.html#post17226 204.14.95.202 2009-06-14 15:24:29 2009-06-14 20:24:29 1 pingback 0 0 3045 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/update-on-the-experimental-portfolio/ 68.178.254.235 2009-06-23 20:55:44 2009-06-24 01:55:44 1 pingback 0 0 3046 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-19 08:41:19 2010-01-19 13:41:19 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-50/ Fri, 29 May 2009 06:14:40 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1140 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Well my week in Vancouver is almost over, but the weather has been great and I managed to get out on the water for some whale watching and also went go-karting with John Chow (the guy who makes $40,000/month blogging about how much money he makes blogging).

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Mark Wolfinger thinks out loud about passive investing and using options on top - I concur, it is a combination that is looked over and not given enough consideration. Million Dollar Journey discusses the Scanning Code of Practice. Did you know you might get your next purchase at the grocery store for free if they scan in an incorrect price? Find out more... Canadian Capitalist highlights some major changes coming to the CPP (Canada Pension Plan). Michael James on Money explains the similarity in his contractor and Nortel's pension plan. Man, this guy is creative - he should be an actor or something artsy like that.... :) Four Pillars talks about experience with peer-to-peer lending, and it ain't good. Peer-to-peer lending is essentially an internet service that hooks up people looking for money with those looking to lend it, so anyone can become a creditor. Big Cajun Man reminds us that $1 a litre gas is back. Thanks a lot. Thicken My Wallet explains the changes that are proposed for credit cards in Canada.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This actually has NOTHING to do with racing - it's just a bloody funny video. I laugh out loud every time I watch it. Priceless! :)

    ]]> 1140 2009-05-29 01:14:40 2009-05-29 06:14:40 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-50 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1243578559 3047 http://real-url.org/twitted.php?id=1958333963 94.23.51.159 2009-05-29 05:30:46 2009-05-29 10:30:46 1 pingback 0 0 3048 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2009-05-29 05:47:34 2009-05-29 10:47:34 1 0 0 3049 Jordan@Oldies.com 64.46.1.62 2009-05-29 06:08:29 2009-05-29 11:08:29 1 0 0 3050 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-05-29 07:42:26 2009-05-29 12:42:26 1 0 0 3051 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-05-29 08:43:29 2009-05-29 13:43:29 1 0 0 3052 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-05-29 08:55:33 2009-05-29 13:55:33 1 0 0 3053 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 69.156.78.87 2009-05-29 09:43:54 2009-05-29 14:43:54 1 0 0 Indexes Don't Charge Trailers http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/indexes-dont-charge-trailers/ Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:30:33 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1141 1141 2009-05-31 22:30:33 2009-06-01 03:30:33 open open indexes-dont-charge-trailers publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1243827034 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif Why are they called "Bull" or "Bear" markets? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/why-are-they-called-bull-or-bear-markets/ Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:12:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1142

  • Bearskin traders would sell bearskins they didn't own (kind of like short selling!), and hope to make a profit by later purchasing skins from trappers at a lower price (the delivery of the skins to the ultimate end use would occur later). So since the bearskin traders made money in a falling market, a falling market became known as a bear market. The term "bull" market comes from the idea that people used to be entertained by bull versus bear fights - thus the bull and bear were mortal enemies and if a bear market meant a falling market, then a bull market must mean the opposite. The practice of bull versus bear fighting was popular both in California and in London during Elizabethan times.
  • Another explanation posits that a bull attacks by using an upward swinging motion with its horns, and a bear attacks with a downward swipe of its claws on its enemies.
  • I vote for #1 - makes for a better story anyways... :)]]>
    1142 2009-06-01 22:12:43 2009-06-02 03:12:43 open open why-are-they-called-bull-or-bear-markets publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif _edit_lock 1243912642 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif 3054 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-06-02 10:02:07 2009-06-02 15:02:07 1 0 0
    The Countdown Begins... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-countdown-begins/ Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:21:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1143 General Description Of The Show Description Of The Three Episodes Original Videos (you can toggle between the original video submissions and the follow up challenge videos by clicking right under the player)]]> 1143 2009-06-02 21:21:52 2009-06-03 02:21:52 open open the-countdown-begins publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1243995713 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif 3055 gammafriend@shaw.ca 99.224.150.197 2009-06-03 06:11:43 2009-06-03 11:11:43 1 0 0 3056 srichardhfx@gmail.com 159.33.10.92 2009-06-03 07:11:03 2009-06-03 12:11:03 1 0 0 3057 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-06-03 10:02:21 2009-06-03 15:02:21 1 0 0 3058 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-03 11:39:15 2009-06-03 16:39:15 1 0 0 3059 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-06-03 16:40:04 2009-06-03 21:40:04 center of the group of 7, so clearly you're going to win (one by one their pictures will be removed until just you remain in the center) :-) Good luck! I don't have cable right now, but I'm going to do my best to catch your segments.]]> 1 0 0 3060 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-06-03 16:40:30 2009-06-03 21:40:30 1 0 0 3061 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-03 22:41:30 2009-06-04 03:41:30 1 0 0 3062 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/06/05/random-thoughts-stay-in-balance/ 67.205.7.217 2009-06-05 02:44:50 2009-06-05 07:44:50 1 pingback 0 0 Testing Out The Hypothesis on Shorting Paired Leveraged ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/testing-out-the-hypothesis-on-shorting-paired-leveraged-etfs/ Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:24:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1144 The Equal Short Bull-Bear As The Ultimate Negative Correlator". I had posited that instead of putting 100% of your money into an index, you would've been better off (since 2000 anyways) to have put 50% in the index and then put 50% into shorting (in equal amounts) a 2x Bull and 2x Bear ETF (on that same index). The first spreadsheet is displayed below and has an inception date of June 3rd, 2009, and you can click on the tabs at the bottom for a more detailed version. UPDATE: A second spreadsheet is located at the bottom which has back-tested data. The Performance Tabs show the values adjusted for paying the interest owed on holding your short positions, and the Detailed Tabs show the non-interest-adjusted strategy returns. NOTES:
    1. I'm using $100,000 of market exposure. Technically you could take the proceeds from the shorts to invest in the long part of the portfolio. So essentially, if you had $100,000 in cash, you could get yourself more than $100,000 of total market exposure, but I'm not going to look at this. I'm strictly comparing $100,000 of market exposure in the long only strategy (100% invested in XIU) versus $100,000 of market exposure in "the strategy" which is 50% long XIU, and 25% short HXU and short 25% HXD.
    2. On the Performance tab, I have subtracted the running interest total for holding $50,000 short, calculated at 3.75% (prime + 1.5% as quoted by one of my discount brokerages).
    3. The spreadsheet updates automatically every 5 minutes.
    4. The above portfolio has an inception date of (intraday) June 3, 2009.
    5. The BELOW spreadsheet shows the data for as far back as all three ETFs have history (to January 9, 2007).
    6. Feel free to make suggestions for improvement!
    ]]>
    1144 2009-06-03 22:24:15 2009-06-04 03:24:15 open open testing-out-the-hypothesis-on-shorting-paired-leveraged-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1244086609 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 3063 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-04 05:47:34 2009-06-04 10:47:34 1 0 0 3064 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2009-06-04 08:39:08 2009-06-04 13:39:08 1 0 0 3065 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-04 12:02:39 2009-06-04 17:02:39 1 0 0 3066 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-04 12:04:34 2009-06-04 17:04:34 1 0 0 3067 akarvat@gmail.com 68.151.11.0 2009-06-04 12:54:09 2009-06-04 17:54:09 1 0 0 3068 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-04 16:59:23 2009-06-04 21:59:23 1 0 0 3069 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-04 17:18:00 2009-06-04 22:18:00 1 0 0 3070 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-04 23:12:44 2009-06-05 04:12:44 1 0 0 3071 ptgannon@hotmail.com 24.150.205.14 2009-06-05 09:27:07 2009-06-05 14:27:07 1 0 0 3072 bobj.transcon@gmail.com 24.64.211.3 2009-06-08 09:18:18 2009-06-08 14:18:18 1 0 0 3073 bobj.transcon@gmail.com 24.64.211.3 2009-06-08 09:27:06 2009-06-08 14:27:06 1 0 0 3074 dougko@yahoo.ca 69.156.15.222 2009-07-07 11:51:43 2009-07-07 16:51:43 1 0 0 3075 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.69.140.74 2009-07-08 12:45:54 2009-07-08 17:45:54 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-51/ Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:04:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1145 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Leveraged ETFs seem to be the talk of the town, although mostly in a negative light. I should opine that they do what they are supposed to do, but people may be mis-using them as they are not well understood. In any case, Jonathan Chevreau mentions them (and me) in a recent blog post. Use them if you want, but do your homework. Larry MacDonald discusses securities lending by ETF manufacturers. This is worth reading, as is the article he links to which discusses securities lending practices by mutual funds. Briefly, securities lending is when a fund lends out securities (that YOU own) to short sellers (who must eventually give them back). The fund collects interest on the borrowed securities - but how much of that interest is passed on to the investor? Read on. Canadian Capitalist explains away some misconceptions about holding US listed securities with exposure to international companies - specifically the misconception about which currency fluctuations you are exposed to. Michael James on Money helps explain why some penalties to break a mortgage are higher than others. If you break a mortgage to get a better deal, that means your current lender is losing out - enter the Interest Rate Differential. Million Dollar Journey just reviewed Squawkfox's new book: 397 Ways To Save Money, and you can still enter the giveaway contest to win a copy! Four Pillars continues with the next installment of the Scam Series - always a great read, and you might save yourself from getting hoodwinked, bamboozled, etc... Thicken My Wallet wonders if a house should be viewed purely as an investment.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This week's video is a very short clip. This is a demonstration pitstop of one of the most beautiful racecars ever made: The Aston Martin DBRS9. If I ever won the lottery, I would buy one. Note that these enduro racers have jacks built in - so when it comes in for its pitstop, the crew don't have to jack up the car, just plug an air hose into the car, which then forces the jacks down, causing the car to lift. Enjoy!

    ]]>
    1145 2009-06-04 23:04:12 2009-06-05 04:04:12 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-51 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1244174653 3076 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-06-04 23:13:40 2009-06-05 04:13:40 1 0 0 3077 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-06-05 10:27:10 2009-06-05 15:27:10 1 0 0 3078 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-06-05 15:00:47 2009-06-05 20:00:47 1 0 0
    What To Teach Newbies About Money? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-to-teach-newbies-about-money/ Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:28:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1146 1146 2009-06-07 19:28:54 2009-06-08 00:28:54 open open what-to-teach-newbies-about-money publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1244421147 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/learninggraduation.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/learninggraduation.jpg 3079 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-06-07 20:06:08 2009-06-08 01:06:08 1 0 0 3080 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.98.4 2009-06-07 20:20:53 2009-06-08 01:20:53 1 0 0 3081 gammafriend@shaw.ca 99.224.150.197 2009-06-08 06:08:17 2009-06-08 11:08:17 1 0 0 3082 noemail@noemail.com 167.206.189.6 2009-06-08 09:10:58 2009-06-08 14:10:58 1 0 0 3083 drejmd@gmail.com 75.159.24.27 2009-06-08 12:23:20 2009-06-08 17:23:20 1 0 0 3084 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 174.88.125.3 2009-06-08 13:11:31 2009-06-08 18:11:31 1 0 0 3085 madolph@environicspr.com 74.51.45.94 2009-06-08 13:28:24 2009-06-08 18:28:24 1 0 0 3086 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-08 21:45:44 2009-06-09 02:45:44 1 0 0 3087 adriantheelite@yahoo.com http://financialindependent.net/31/improve-my-credit-score/ 203.177.74.135 2009-06-19 10:08:07 2009-06-19 15:08:07 1 0 0 Financial Advisor Qualification Series: The CSC http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/financial-advisor-qualification-series-the-csc/ Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:37:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1147 Learning what those fancy letters mean to your financial future". Take a read, because it's an interesting topic - I'm pretty sure you could put the whole alphabet behind your name in this industry. I've decided to write an ongoing series on the various designations and courses out there so that investors (and aspiring advisors) can wade through the alphabet soup...

    The CSC (Canadian Securities Course)

    The CSC (Canadian Securities Course) is pretty much the entry point into the financial services for the vast majority of people. (There is an alternative path for those who only want to be involved with mutual funds, which I will cover in a future part of this series). The completion of the CSC is sometimes listed as a requirement for many jobs even for those who do not aspire to a front line role (dealing directly with clients) since it covers a fairly broad body of knowledge about the basics of the capital markets. If you complete the CSC you would be qualified to sell mutual funds, but if you want to go on and sell individual securities on a retail basis you will also need to complete the CPH (Conducts and Practices Handbook), and a 90 day training course. After completing these requirements, your registration gets confirmed and you can start advising and trading on individual securities and will be under a period of supervision for 6 months. You are also required to complete the WME (Wealth Management Essentials) course within 30 months. The cost of the CSC is $880 + GST with a PDF textbook, and with a physical textbook it increases slightly to $960 + GST. You will learn the very basics of economics, investment management, fundamental analysis, taxation and investment products. There are two 2-hour exams, each consisting of 100 multiple choice questions. Each has a pass mark of 60%. You have one year to complete both exams, and the course is self-study. I'm pretty sure most people don't take that long to study the material though, I would peg the average at maybe one month of study per exam and a keener could certainly finish the entire course and both exams in one month. The CSC is an introductory course, and you do NOT earn a "CSC" designation for completing it. For a complete description of the course, please visit the CSI (Canadian Securities Institute) website for more information.]]>
    1147 2009-06-08 21:37:08 2009-06-09 02:37:08 open open financial-advisor-qualification-series-the-csc publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1264377266 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 3088 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-06-09 07:41:15 2009-06-09 12:41:15 1 0 0 3089 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-09 21:05:27 2009-06-10 02:05:27 1 0 0 3090 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-choosing-an-advisor-currency-hedging-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-06-12 10:14:30 2009-06-12 15:14:30 1 pingback 0 0 3091 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/06/12/this-and-that-choosing-an-advisor-currency-hedging-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 74.208.148.118 2009-06-12 11:10:04 2009-06-12 16:10:04 1 pingback 0 0 3092 tom_drake@shaw.ca http://canadianfinanceblog.com 96.52.4.155 2009-06-17 22:59:09 2009-06-18 03:59:09 1 0 0
    Cash For Clunkers http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/cash-for-clunkers/ Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:03:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1148 Cash For Clunkers" program. It is designed to give up to $4500 to consumers who trade in gas guzzling cars towards purchasing a fuel efficient car. If you have a car that has been insured at some point in the last year, and is not older than 25 years, and currently achieves less than 18 miles per gallon (combined highway/city) you can turn it in and receive a voucher worth either $3500 or $4500 towards a new car purchase. If the new car gets 10 miles per gallon MORE than your old car, you get the $4500. If the new car gets more than 4 miles per gallon MORE but less than 10 miles ger gallon MORE than your old car you get $3500. $4 Billion has committed to this endeavour for a period of one year (but note that it has passed the House vote, but has yet to be passed by the Senate), which means the government could be stimulating sales of one million new cars. US auto sales in total were 16 million in 2007, and 13 million in 2008 (source: MSNBC).]]> 1148 2009-06-09 21:03:12 2009-06-10 02:03:12 open open cash-for-clunkers publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1244599444 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3093 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-06-09 22:07:31 2009-06-10 03:07:31 1 0 0 3094 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-06-10 08:07:58 2009-06-10 13:07:58 1 0 0 3095 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-06-10 09:01:57 2009-06-10 14:01:57 1 0 0 3096 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-06-10 09:02:01 2009-06-10 14:02:01 1 0 0 3097 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.233.108 2009-06-10 09:57:12 2009-06-10 14:57:12 1 0 0 3098 http://www.vklip.com/cash-for-clunkers/2009/06/10/ 74.53.58.9 2009-06-10 15:28:33 2009-06-10 20:28:33 1 pingback 0 0 3099 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-10 20:52:42 2009-06-11 01:52:42 1 0 0 3100 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-06-12 09:18:37 2009-06-12 14:18:37 1 0 0 promoimage http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/watch-me-compete-on-the-w-network/promoimage/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:29:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/promoimage.jpg 1150 2009-06-10 20:29:02 2009-06-11 01:29:02 open open promoimage inherit 1149 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/promoimage.jpg _wp_attached_file promoimage.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"576";s:6:"height";s:3:"511";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='108'";s:4:"file";s:14:"promoimage.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"promoimage-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"promoimage-300x266.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"266";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"promoimage-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"promoimage-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Watch Me Compete On The W Network http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/watch-me-compete-on-the-w-network/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:35:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1149

    Who will be the next W expert?

    After a nationwide search, seven finalists in food, design, style, finance, and personal development have been selected to go head-to-head in competitions, screen tests and challenges, to see who has what it takes to be the next W Expert.
    Watch THE ULTIMATE W EXPERT CHALLENGE starting June 21st at 7PM EST, then watch part 2 - June 28th and the finale on July 5th to see who will to be crowned the next W Expert!
    To check out audition videos, confessionals, bios and out-takes go to http://experts.wnetwork.com/
    ]]>
    1149 2009-06-10 20:35:22 2009-06-11 01:35:22 open open watch-me-compete-on-the-w-network publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1244684843 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/promoimage.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/promoimage.jpg 3101 rmckster@gmail.com 99.236.218.185 2009-06-10 22:24:04 2009-06-11 03:24:04 1 0 0 3102 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 204.50.7.200 2009-06-11 09:05:17 2009-06-11 14:05:17 1 0 0 3103 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/06/12/random-thoughts-with-oil-spiking/ 67.205.7.217 2009-06-12 01:25:03 2009-06-12 06:25:03 1 pingback 0 0 3104 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-69/ 64.6.103.97 2009-06-14 07:35:03 2009-06-14 12:35:03 1 pingback 0 0 3105 http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/06/18/the-winner-wander-reading/ 64.15.147.100 2009-06-18 07:19:05 2009-06-18 12:19:05 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-52/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:18:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1151 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. Lucky me! I'm taking Friday off to rip around in some Formula 2000's again - except this time I'll have the pleasure of driving with Firestone Indy Lights Championship driver James Hinchcliffe. I've known James and his family for a while now (we met at the Bridgestone Racing Academy) and I'm pretty sure we'll see him racing Indy Cars in the near future.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau writes about a recent report on the perfect storm derailing pension plans and retirement planning. Larry MacDonald writes about a new entrant to the ETF market in Canada - none other than the Bank of Montreal! Thicken My Wallet explains why your condo fees might keep going up. Four Pillars chronicles the great auto bailout that occured in the UK - and did NOT work. Michael James on Money gets a telemarketer trying to explain to him how $15/month is less than $7/month. Did you abandon your portfolio recently? Canadian Capitalist notes that you may have missed out on what has now become approximately a 40% bull market rally on both sides of the border. You've probably heard of the RRSP Home Buyer's Plan, but have you heard of the Life Long Learning Plan? Million Dollar Journey explains. Big Cajun Man shows us that Canadians are generous. Mark Wolfinger found out that Google offers a free 411 service (and I tried from Ontario and it works here too!)

    This Week's Racing Video

    I think I posted this one a year ago or so, but it's definitely worth a repeat - this is a hill climb... in a very fast car. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1151 2009-06-11 20:18:41 2009-06-12 01:18:41 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-52 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1244769525 _edit_last 1 3106 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-06-11 21:34:26 2009-06-12 02:34:26 1 0 0 3107 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-06-11 23:42:07 2009-06-12 04:42:07 1 0 0 3108 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-06-12 06:03:15 2009-06-12 11:03:15 1 0 0 3109 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-06-12 10:17:57 2009-06-12 15:17:57 1 0 0 3110 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-06-15 12:09:54 2009-06-15 17:09:54 1 0 0 jonstewart1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1153 Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:16:24 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/jonstewart1.png 1153 2009-06-13 12:16:24 2009-06-13 17:16:24 open open jonstewart1 inherit 0 0 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http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/great-idea-for-the-best-fathers-day-gift-ever/classroom/ Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:56:27 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/classroom.png 1155 2009-06-14 10:56:27 2009-06-14 15:56:27 open open classroom inherit 1154 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/classroom.png _wp_attached_file classroom.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:0:{} mosportddt http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/great-idea-for-the-best-fathers-day-gift-ever/mosportddt/ Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:57:28 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/mosportddt.png 1156 2009-06-14 10:57:28 2009-06-14 15:57:28 open open mosportddt inherit 1154 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/mosportddt.png _wp_attached_file mosportddt.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1219";s:6:"height";s:3:"479";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='50' 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#2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"reynards-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} driving_duet http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/great-idea-for-the-best-fathers-day-gift-ever/driving_duet/ Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:31:05 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/driving_duet.jpg 1158 2009-06-15 08:31:05 2009-06-15 13:31:05 open open driving_duet inherit 1154 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/driving_duet.jpg _wp_attached_file driving_duet.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1280";s:6:"height";s:3:"853";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' 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http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/great-idea-for-the-best-fathers-day-gift-ever/ Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:32:35 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1154 by far the bulk of graduates were those with no such aspirations - the bulk of customers were just there to have a good time and enjoy a once in a lifetime experience in a safe environment.

    Thrill Of A Lifetime for $245CDN

    One of the more popular programs are the "Thrill Of A Lifetime" courses which are either a partial day, half day or a full day in length. The very entry level course costs $245 + GST - you can click here for a description of the course - which is ideal for those with absolutely no experience at all, and is still challenging enough for those who have lots of experience. The great part is that the instructors will divide drivers into groups based on their comfort and experience and everyone gets a chance to explore the awesome capabilities of a real racecar in a safe environment. The only caveat is that you must show that you are capable of going fast while maintaining control (your driving is monitored). If you don't want to go fast, that's not a problem either - you control your day.

    Why Is This The Best Father's Day Gift Ever?

    I'll put it in financial terms - that's kind of my thing right? :) If you know anyone who is a big race fan, perhaps they go down to the Toronto Indy every year (just as an example). What does that cost? The best grandstand tickets are $225 (each) this year, plus you'll have transportation and/or parking (estimate a conservative $50 for the weekend), you'll get gouged for food and drinks just like with any public event, so budget another $100 for the weekend and already we are at $375. Sometimes, a race fan will bring a non-race fan with them because they don't want to go alone - maybe we are at $750 now? So to go to the Toronto Indy, the best grandstand tickets in the house are going to cost you close to $400 for one person, and maybe $750 for two people, one of whom is just there for "moral support". :) OR, for $245 you can get the mother of all seats. I can personally attest to the fact that not only will the lucky recipient (or YOU) truly experience something that only a handful of people in the world will ever experience, they(you) will have a greater appreciation for racecar driving going forward. It will take your passion and magnify it to a level you cannot believe.

    24 Year Injury-Free Safety Record

    Some people may be intimidated to come to the school or send a loved one because auto-racing is perceived as dangerous. It certainly deserves respect, but the school has operated with a 24 year injury-free safety record because the staff takes safety as priority #1. Students are given a classroom session first before heading out to the cars and track. The first session is a warm-up session in which you crawl around the track to get used to your new environment. After the warm up session you come back to the pits before going back out - led by an instructor pace car. The instructor makes sure you follow him and as long as you drive in control, he will drive faster and faster. Those who just want to soak up the feeling of driving a real live racecar without testing its capabilities are allowed to do so as well. Some people just plant their foot on the throttle on the straightaways and coast around the corners - the point is, you are allowed to do whatever you want to do as long as you are in control. You are also grouped with those who are like-minded, or of the same demonstrated skill level.

    NO DAMAGE RESPONSIBILITY

    The school uses a "three strikes" rule for these types of programs. You are not responsible for any damage, BUT they have an "early graduation program" in which your day finishes early if you spin the car out, or drive off the asphalt track, more than three times. They can also do this because there is tonnes of run-off room and only one "wall" on the track. This means that if you make a mistake and go off the track, it's very unlikely that you will hit anything. Mostly you will just come to a rest in the middle of a grass field - the track is designed for beginners and is very safe.

    The Best Kept Secret In The World

    The Bridgestone Racing Academy does not have a large advertising budget, which is why it is probably the world's best kept secret. Back when I was there I looked at some exit surveys which showed that over 80% of the business was by word of mouth. I'd like to help get the word out.

    Get It For Yourself, Or Get It For A Loved One

    If you go to the Indy every year, I recommend you sign up at the school - you're crazy if you don't. If you know someone who is a race fan, this is a great idea for a Father's day gift (or any other celebration, quite frankly). NOTE: I can personally attest to the fact that women are the best students (they don't come in with any preconceived notions and tend to listen better - many times they end up being the best drivers of the day - so you can go as a couple and feel free to buy a school for a female.) If you know someone who just like cars, this is a great gift too. I'm going to be taking Fiona to the school this summer (she has no interest in cars at all and is excited to go), and I HIGHLY recommend you check out the website for more info...

    Upgrades

    There are other courses which allow you to driver even faster cars, get your actual racecar driving license etc. You can explore the website for more info and if you go to the Academy, they would be happy to explain all your options. Some people go back regularly as hobbyists after getting a taste (while maintaining their day jobs!)

    Other Info

    If you are enrolling yourself, you can register online with the date and time of your choice (subject to availability). If you are buying a gift for someone, you can pre-register them but you can also purchase a gift certificate which allows the recipient to pick a date of their choice later - which is a very popular option.

    Please Check It Out - You'll Be Glad You Did

    CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF ALL THE "FIRST TIMER" COURSES - note that the entry level course with the older Reynard F2000s is more than fast enough to impress anyone. The faster cars are cooler for sure, they even have the shift lights built into the steering wheel like a Formula 1 car, but a beginner will be equally blown away by an experience in either car, trust me. Thanks everyone! Let me know if you sign up or buy a gift certificate for someone else! (NOTE: I receive no compensation for writing about the school or promoting it, I am just trying to help get the word out.)]]>
    1154 2009-06-15 08:32:35 2009-06-15 13:32:35 open open great-idea-for-the-best-fathers-day-gift-ever publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1245072757 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/driving_duet-300x199.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/driving_duet-300x199.jpg 3111 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-06-15 10:41:58 2009-06-15 15:41:58 1 0 0 3112 http://trendzy.info/?p=7576 97.74.24.10 2009-06-15 11:32:56 2009-06-15 16:32:56 1 pingback 0 0 3113 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-06-16 10:40:16 2009-06-16 15:40:16 1 0 0 3114 http://www.baby-parenting.co.uk/father/father.html?ccSID-7ca89b469f29e99d131f68a001c091d1=a67ec5d12560616a09c0e689e47de577 72.9.228.239 2009-06-19 07:28:36 2009-06-19 12:28:36 1 pingback 0 0 3115 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-fathers-day-edition/ 75.119.202.206 2009-06-19 09:00:00 2009-06-19 14:00:00 1 pingback 0 0 3116 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/06/19/this-and-that-father%e2%80%99s-day-edition/ 74.208.148.118 2009-06-19 09:55:20 2009-06-19 14:55:20 1 pingback 0 0 3117 mobitronia@yahoo.com http://www.mobitronia.com 222.127.15.250 2009-06-20 02:19:18 2009-06-20 07:19:18 1 0 0 3118 eaglelover@gmail.com 130.63.59.39 2009-06-23 15:53:58 2009-06-23 20:53:58 1 0 0 3119 myndmachine43@gmail.com 67.205.85.53 2009-06-23 18:09:29 2009-06-23 23:09:29 1 0 0 3120 ryanladisa@hotmail.com 99.227.83.55 2009-06-24 21:08:49 2009-06-25 02:08:49 1 0 0 3121 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/06/26/random-thoughts-when-celebrities-go/ 67.205.7.217 2009-06-26 01:28:00 2009-06-26 06:28:00 1 pingback 0 0 3122 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/dave-ramsey-post-rebuttal-and-linkstuff-for-june-29/ 216.227.218.225 2009-07-10 19:23:18 2009-07-11 00:23:18 1 pingback 0 0 3123 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/06/26/next-linkstuff/ 70.32.84.217 2010-01-27 22:25:59 2010-01-28 03:25:59 1 pingback 0 0
    Single Inverse ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/single-inverse-etfs/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:18:23 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1159 Better for Retirement Accounts? In retirement accounts which don't allow short selling, you can now mimic the effect by buying a single inverse ETF. For example, let's suppose you think the market might be poised to head down in the near term - you could purchase a single inverse ETF with part of your portfolio. But the problem is that this is expensive. For example, let us assume your portfolio is 100% invested in IVV (iShares S&P500 Index Fund). If you think the market is going down and you want to protect your portfolio, you could sell 50% of your IVV holdings and purchase SH (Single inverse S&P 500 Index ETF). But now your portfolio will get a zero rate of return as your profit/loss on one position is offset by the loss/profit on the other position... but you are still paying a small expense in the form of the ETF MERs (on both positions). If you wanted to eliminate your exposure to the market, you would be better off to sell the entire holding of IVV - there's no management fee on cash. The same logic applies for partial hedging - you should consider just selling off a portion of your portfolio to reduce your exposure (and risk).

    Better Than Holding A Short Position (In a short eligible account) When Hedging?

    What about accounts that do allow short selling? These accounts are usually taxable accounts and you may have been holding IVV for a long time and may be sitting on a large unrealized capital gain. You think that long term, IVV will continue to rise but are worried about short term volatility, a sideways market, or even a temporary bear market. In this case, blindly selling off your portfolio will trigger the capital gains and a tax bill. You could short shares in IVV, which would hedge your portfolio's risk - but that just seems odd: holding a long and short position in the same security? I'd prefer to to just own less, and take the balance and put it elsewhere, bonds, foreign index ETFs, etc. To purchase a single inverse ETF (assuming no new contributions) would require you to sell part of your portfolio anyways. And when you think it's time to release your hedge, you would have to sell off your single inverse ETF and then re-purchase your original long position. Seems like the trading costs will add up using this strategy, and you will still incur some taxable gains.

    What About For Speculating?

    Remember, hedging and speculating are completely opposite. Hedging is a reduction of risk. Speculation is the taking on of risk. Let's pretend you don't own any IVV, but you do think that the S&P 500 Index is heading south. You could speculate by shorting IVV or buying SH. Shorting a security directly means your potential loss is theoretically unlimited as the underlying stock could keep going up. So in this case, buying SH (single inverse S&P 500 index ETF) limits your theoretical loss to your capital at risk - but in all seriousness, what are the chances of the S&P 500 going to zero? Also, we have to pay interest on our short position (we have to borrow the shares to sell them short). The MER on SH (0.95%) is probably going to be less than the interest we pay to short IVV plus IVV's MER (which is teeny-tiny at 0.09%.

    Compounding/De-Compounding Risk Still There

    So it seems that the single inverse ETFs may hold utility as very short term speculative plays. Since they seek to track the inverse of daily returns of the underlying indexes, we still have the risk of these not tracking like you might intuitively think they would. Let's say our index starts at 100, goes up 25% to 125 and then goes down 20% to 100. Our inverse ETF (let's stay it too started at 100) goes down 25% to 75. It then goes up 20%, but this only brings it up to 90. So we still get our "decay" from volatility. There is something interesting to point out though. A single inverse ETF will outperform a short position in either market direction in a slowly trending market. When a market is going down, your inverse ETF is compounding in your favour. When a market is going up, your inverse ETF is de-compounding in your favour. Introduce volatility, however, and this effect can be lost. For example, let us say our index goes from 100 to 80 to 60. A short position of $100 would've ended up being worth $140. But a single inverse ETF went up 20% of 100 on day one (=120) and then up 25% of 120 on day two (=150) so you have $150 instead of $140 with the short. In the opposite direction, the index might go from 100 to 120 to 150. A short would have lost $50. The single inverse ETF would've lost 20% (down to 80) and then 25% (down to 60) for a total loss of $40.

    Nasty Tax Surprises

    Pro-Shares announced some large capital gains distributions on their short ETFs last year and if you happened to have picked up some of these ETFs, you could've been stuck with someone else's tax bill. For example, SH's short term capital gains distribution was $11.94 per share - that's massive. You may want to avoid using these towards the end of December every year if you think the performance over the year might warrant similar distributions in the future. Another way to circumvent these problems would be to avoid overnight positions? More fodder for using these vehicles as extremely short term, speculative plays.

    Perhaps Buying Puts Is A Better Alternative...

    Given all the above information, I will stick to using these types of securities as strictly short term, speculative tools. In fact, given that purchasing put options provides more leverage, risk limited to capital invested in the puts, and possibly costs less (due to the leverage), I might be more inclined to consider these over the single inverse ETFs as a hedging tool.]]>
    1159 2009-06-16 22:18:23 2009-06-17 03:18:23 open open single-inverse-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1245209080 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif 3124 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-17 11:24:21 2009-06-17 16:24:21 1 0 0 3125 mark.noble@rci.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-06-17 11:33:21 2009-06-17 16:33:21 1 0 0 3126 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-17 16:00:12 2009-06-17 21:00:12 1 0 0 3127 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/06/19/weekend-reading-july-19-2009/ 74.208.148.118 2009-06-19 06:29:09 2009-06-19 11:29:09 1 pingback 0 0 3128 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/06/19/weekend-reading-july-19-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-06-19 08:19:16 2009-06-19 13:19:16 1 pingback 0 0 3129 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/06/19/more-free-trading-videos-and-weekend-reading-june-19-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-06-19 09:36:36 2009-06-19 14:36:36 1 pingback 0 0 3130 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-70/ 64.6.103.97 2009-06-20 05:14:31 2009-06-20 10:14:31 1 pingback 0 0 3131 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-06-20 23:46:05 2009-06-21 04:46:05 1 0 0 3132 derek2cold@gmail.com 216.36.186.12 2009-06-25 00:29:06 2009-06-25 05:29:06 1 0 0 3133 http://www.getmoneyenergy.com/2009/07/proud-to-be-canadian-best-canadian-personal-finance-blogs/ 69.89.31.240 2009-10-03 17:39:54 2009-10-03 22:39:54 1 pingback 0 0
    397 /attachment/397/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:48:53 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/397.png 1161 2009-06-17 21:48:53 2009-06-18 02:48:53 open open 397 inherit 2147483647 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/397.png _wp_attached_file 397.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"326";s:6:"height";s:3:"506";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='61'";s:4:"file";s:7:"397.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"397-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"397-193x300.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"193";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"397-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"397-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Book Giveaway! 397 Ways To Save Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/book-giveaway-397-ways-to-save-money/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:50:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1160 SquawkFox.com. Kerry started her foray into all things money by graduating with $17,000 worth of student debt. She managed to pay that all off in only 6 months! I'll cut to the chase and tell you that I'm going to keep a copy of this book handy in my library because it is full of some great, everyday savings tips - there is definitely something for everyone. I'll give you some quick examples of what kind of tips you can find:

    Buy perennials instead of annuals for your garden - while the initial cost is five times as much, perennials grow back every year. Over time this will work in your favour, saving you hundreds over time. Personally, I avoid the garden like the plague - but this is something that Fiona would appreciate.

    There's a chapter focusing on five-minute meals you can prepare for $5. (And they are healthy meals too!) Recipes are included and it couldn't be easier.

    With 397 ways to save money, I have to point out that there is a great chance that the cost of this book will be re-couped within minutes of opening it. So my honest recommendation is that most people should probably pick up a copy. If you are a frugalist, you may have the "mental DNA" to naturally save money, but then you could give this book as a gift to someone you know. Students will learn tonnes for example, as they have much to learn about money management. They can try to figure it all out for themselves, but Kerry has done it for them and has made it dead simple to learn. The writing style of the book is engaging and easy to read - excellent for those who are normally overwhelmed by anything to do with money or finances!

    Book Giveaway Contest

    As always very simple rules:
    1. You can enter the contest by simply leaving a comment on the blog (no profanity, etc.)
    2. You must include a valid email address in the comment entry box (but don't worry, your email will not be displayed and is never shared with anyone). This is simply so I have a way to contact you if you win.
    3. Comments (entries) must be left before June 21st, 2009 (Sunday) at noon (Eastern Standard Time).
    4. One winner will be selected by random draw.
    5. Contest is only open to residents of North America.
    6. You can only enter once.

    Other Reviews

    This book has been reviewed by lots of other bloggers, such as: If you just can't wait to see the results of the contest, you can just click here to purchase it from Amazon.ca. ]]>
    1160 2009-06-17 21:50:08 2009-06-18 02:50:08 open open book-giveaway-397-ways-to-save-money publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1245424926 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/397.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/397.png 3134 talcumboy@gmail.com 24.68.82.14 2009-06-17 23:06:47 2009-06-18 04:06:47 1 0 0 3135 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.111.50 2009-06-18 00:41:49 2009-06-18 05:41:49 1 0 0 3136 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.62.166 2009-06-18 06:35:50 2009-06-18 11:35:50 1 0 0 3137 rhayward.temp@gmail.com 76.65.19.85 2009-06-18 06:43:57 2009-06-18 11:43:57 1 0 0 3138 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.35.210.35 2009-06-18 07:33:58 2009-06-18 12:33:58 1 0 0 3139 fred.elkins@gmail.com 204.101.88.2 2009-06-18 07:44:44 2009-06-18 12:44:44 1 0 0 3140 gautierlucie@gmail.com http://google 68.148.225.122 2009-06-18 07:51:40 2009-06-18 12:51:40 1 0 0 3141 habs33@gmail.com 142.167.251.80 2009-06-18 07:54:30 2009-06-18 12:54:30 1 0 0 3142 sofmonster@yahoo.com 142.150.170.137 2009-06-18 08:15:24 2009-06-18 13:15:24 1 0 0 3143 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.12 2009-06-18 08:15:56 2009-06-18 13:15:56 1 0 0 3144 pub@banikanda.com 206.186.114.231 2009-06-18 08:23:27 2009-06-18 13:23:27 1 0 0 3145 pub@banikanada.com 206.186.114.231 2009-06-18 08:24:28 2009-06-18 13:24:28 1 0 0 3146 ad.ianson@gmail.com 204.191.165.104 2009-06-18 08:54:08 2009-06-18 13:54:08 1 0 0 3147 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.56.21 2009-06-18 08:57:17 2009-06-18 13:57:17 1 0 0 3148 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.139.88 2009-06-18 09:10:50 2009-06-18 14:10:50 1 0 0 3149 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-06-18 09:15:26 2009-06-18 14:15:26 1 0 0 3150 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-06-18 09:33:26 2009-06-18 14:33:26 1 0 0 3151 george.wenze@gmail.com 198.103.145.50 2009-06-18 10:32:31 2009-06-18 15:32:31 1 0 0 3152 Paula_A_Thorne@yahoo.com 131.137.245.200 2009-06-18 13:48:10 2009-06-18 18:48:10 1 0 0 3153 jsabo@astm.org 198.137.232.6 2009-06-18 14:15:55 2009-06-18 19:15:55 1 0 0 3154 jobetancourt@yahoo.com 72.1.201.82 2009-06-18 14:30:48 2009-06-18 19:30:48 1 0 0 3155 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.23.194 2009-06-18 16:00:30 2009-06-18 21:00:30 1 0 0 3156 jessica@fan.com http://jess-vents.blogspot.com 65.117.148.196 2009-06-18 16:31:55 2009-06-18 21:31:55 1 0 0 3157 virnsky@gmail.com 99.232.173.197 2009-06-18 17:48:18 2009-06-18 22:48:18 1 0 0 3158 fephoo@yahoo.fr 70.81.141.137 2009-06-18 17:55:02 2009-06-18 22:55:02 1 0 0 3159 trevorphillips12@gmail.com 64.30.107.98 2009-06-18 19:26:00 2009-06-19 00:26:00 1 0 0 3160 rajesh_sampath@hotmail.com 173.32.108.179 2009-06-18 20:41:27 2009-06-19 01:41:27 1 0 0 3161 akarvat@gmail.com 68.151.11.0 2009-06-18 21:38:45 2009-06-19 02:38:45 1 0 0 3162 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-18 22:35:19 2009-06-19 03:35:19 1 0 0 3163 coffeeordeath@gmail.com 24.80.151.172 2009-06-19 00:11:53 2009-06-19 05:11:53 1 0 0 3164 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.239.221.140 2009-06-19 01:43:22 2009-06-19 06:43:22 1 0 0 3165 bklunder@telus.net 137.186.43.192 2009-06-19 07:06:17 2009-06-19 12:06:17 1 0 0 3166 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.138.105 2009-06-19 13:14:49 2009-06-19 18:14:49 1 0 0 3167 nickonchuks@gmail.com http://pharmadaddy.blogspot.com 64.178.148.229 2009-06-19 22:03:32 2009-06-20 03:03:32 1 0 0 3168 squawkfox@gmail.com http://www.squawkfox.com 96.1.4.246 2009-06-22 09:10:20 2009-06-22 14:10:20 1 0 0 3169 semichaud@gmail.com 170.225.12.33 2009-06-22 10:05:23 2009-06-22 15:05:23 1 0 0 3170 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/contest-update-and-henri-the-pocket-rocket-richard/ 68.178.254.235 2009-06-22 21:40:10 2009-06-23 02:40:10 1 pingback 0 0 3171 rds1983@hotmail.com 24.89.91.130 2009-07-13 21:20:33 2009-07-14 02:20:33 1 0 0 3172 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/book-review-397-ways-to-save-money/ 75.119.202.206 2009-07-21 17:41:07 2009-07-21 22:41:07 1 pingback 0 0 3173 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/07/21/book-review-397-ways-to-save-money/ 74.208.148.118 2009-07-21 17:58:13 2009-07-21 22:58:13 1 pingback 0 0 3174 akarvat@gmail.com 68.151.28.93 2009-08-18 11:06:08 2009-08-18 16:06:08 1 0 0 3175 http://www.squawkfox.com/2009/06/23/book-giveaway-397-ways-to-save-money/ 173.45.233.86 2010-01-24 02:41:17 2010-01-24 07:41:17 1 pingback 0 0
    The Ultimate W Expert Challenge Starts Sunday! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-ultimate-w-expert-challenge-starts-sunday/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:28:50 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1162 Ultimate W Expert Challenge airs THIS Sunday at 7pm (repeats the following Wednesday night). Set your PVR's and be ready to laugh at my expense. At this point, I still don't know how it's all been edited so whatever happens.... be gentle. :) A slight spoiler appears in the linked article which pegs the show as one of the editor's picks for TV Guide. Have a great weekend everyone!]]> 1162 2009-06-18 15:28:50 2009-06-18 20:28:50 open open the-ultimate-w-expert-challenge-starts-sunday publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1245356931 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/promoimage.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/promoimage.jpg 3176 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-06-18 19:24:07 2009-06-19 00:24:07 1 0 0 3177 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/06/19/random-thoughts-summer-is-in-the-air/ 67.205.7.217 2009-06-19 01:11:24 2009-06-19 06:11:24 1 pingback 0 0 3178 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.97 2009-06-19 08:51:58 2009-06-19 13:51:58 1 0 0 3179 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-06-19 09:12:34 2009-06-19 14:12:34 1 0 0 3180 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-19 09:50:26 2009-06-19 14:50:26 1 0 0 3181 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-06-19 09:57:18 2009-06-19 14:57:18 1 0 0 3182 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.23.194 2009-06-19 15:51:14 2009-06-19 20:51:14 1 0 0 3183 howie.wong@gmail.com 24.86.170.45 2009-06-21 01:41:49 2009-06-21 06:41:49 1 0 0 reynard20-3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/win-a-free-driving-school-in-a-formula-2000-racecar/reynard20-3/ Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:24:34 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/reynard20-3.jpg 1164 2009-06-21 18:24:34 2009-06-21 23:24:34 open open reynard20-3 inherit 1163 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/reynard20-3.jpg _wp_attached_file reynard20-3.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1280";s:6:"height";s:3:"853";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:15:"reynard20-3.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"reynard20-3-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"reynard20-3-300x199.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"199";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"reynard20-3-1024x682.jpg";s:5:"width";s:4:"1024";s:6:"height";s:3:"682";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"reynard20-3-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"reynard20-3-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:2:"18";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:20:"Canon EOS-1D Mark II";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1217101482";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:3:"170";s:3:"iso";s:3:"400";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:5:"0.008";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Win A FREE Driving School in A Formula 2000 Racecar! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/win-a-free-driving-school-in-a-formula-2000-racecar/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:30:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1163 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, Canadian Capitalist and Four Pillars have teamed up and are holding a joint giveaway for one lucky recipient to receive a FREE driving school in an open-wheel racecar courtesy of The Bridgestone Racing Academy! You can learn more about the exact prize by clicking here: A Thrill Of A Lifetime (Reynard 1 Session) CONTEST RULES:
    1. You can earn an entry by copying any one sentence from anywhere on the school's website (www.race2000.com) and pasting it in a comment on ANY or ALL THREE of our blogs' respective contest posts (you can click on the links at the top of this post to access the other contest posts).
    2. You can earn up to one entry per blog. So if you leave a valid comment on all three blogs, you will have three (3) entries into the contest.
    3. Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm EDT Saturday, June 27th, 2009. A winner will be announced and/or contacted on or before Monday June 29th, 2009.
    4. Winner is responsible for their own transportation and/or accommodations if necessary.
    5. The prize has no cash value, but is transferable, and is only good for enrollment in the "Thrill Of A Lifetime Reynard 1 Session" school.
    6. You are subject to all the Bridgestone Racing Academy's rules and restrictions.
    7. You must provide a valid email address in the comment form - but note that your email address will not be visible to anyone but the blog owners, and your information is never shared or sold. The winner will be contacted by this email address. If the winner has not responded to us within 1 week, a new winner will be selected from the other entries. (So make sure you get your email address right and you check your junk-mail folders after the contest ends!) :)
    8. If you receive this post via e-mail, click on the article heading to visit the website, scroll down to the end of the page, type in your comment under "Leave a Comment" and click "Submit" (and don't forget to visit the other blogs and leave comments there to increase your odds of winning!).
    Thanks again to The Bridgestone Racing Academy and GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!]]>
    1163 2009-06-21 22:30:04 2009-06-22 03:30:04 open open win-a-free-driving-school-in-a-formula-2000-racecar publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1245723742 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/reynards.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/reynards.png 3184 akp.forde@gmail.com 70.30.5.189 2009-06-22 06:48:39 2009-06-22 11:48:39 1 0 0 3185 joehatz@rogers.com 99.224.153.218 2009-06-22 06:49:22 2009-06-22 11:49:22 1 0 0 3186 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/giveaway-thrill-of-a-lifetime-in-a-formula-2000-racecar/ 75.119.202.206 2009-06-22 06:50:50 2009-06-22 11:50:50 1 pingback 0 0 3187 renaud00@gmail.com 131.137.240.209 2009-06-22 06:51:53 2009-06-22 11:51:53 1 0 0 3188 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.35.210.35 2009-06-22 07:24:49 2009-06-22 12:24:49 1 0 0 3189 ahmad.rafique@rogers.com 99.229.234.151 2009-06-22 07:30:21 2009-06-22 12:30:21 1 0 0 3190 chrispwins@gmail.com 208.65.73.114 2009-06-22 07:47:20 2009-06-22 12:47:20 1 0 0 3191 sofmonster@yahoo.com 142.150.170.137 2009-06-22 08:11:03 2009-06-22 13:11:03 1 0 0 3192 worcth@gmail.com 207.195.109.71 2009-06-22 08:40:00 2009-06-22 13:40:00 1 0 0 3193 azn_lazyjai@hotmail.com 173.35.180.80 2009-06-22 08:45:22 2009-06-22 13:45:22 1 0 0 3194 brigusnf@gmail.com 206.235.255.235 2009-06-22 08:59:37 2009-06-22 13:59:37 1 0 0 3195 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.97 2009-06-22 09:18:03 2009-06-22 14:18:03 1 0 0 3196 intelmic@hotmail.com 206.47.245.252 2009-06-22 09:35:21 2009-06-22 14:35:21 1 0 0 3197 evannoble@hotmail.com 72.29.250.1 2009-06-22 10:27:58 2009-06-22 15:27:58 1 0 0 3198 abcstocks@gmail.com http://www.canadianstockstrader.blogspot.com 32.97.110.58 2009-06-22 11:05:41 2009-06-22 16:05:41 1 0 0 3199 wahookin@hotmail.com 69.196.180.193 2009-06-22 11:23:58 2009-06-22 16:23:58 1 0 0 3200 imran@toorawa.net 142.245.193.11 2009-06-22 11:40:26 2009-06-22 16:40:26 1 0 0 3201 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 204.50.7.200 2009-06-22 12:01:41 2009-06-22 17:01:41 1 0 0 3202 marianne.ono@ontario.ca 142.106.220.190 2009-06-22 12:08:48 2009-06-22 17:08:48 1 0 0 3203 rippiezhotline@hotmail.com 206.248.153.148 2009-06-22 12:38:46 2009-06-22 17:38:46 1 0 0 3204 kelle.dunlop@videotron.ca 70.82.217.170 2009-06-22 13:02:42 2009-06-22 18:02:42 1 0 0 3205 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.15 2009-06-22 14:47:30 2009-06-22 19:47:30 1 0 0 3206 michalsz@gmail.com 69.165.154.254 2009-06-22 16:13:29 2009-06-22 21:13:29 1 0 0 3207 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/contest-update-and-henri-the-pocket-rocket-richard/ 68.178.254.235 2009-06-22 21:38:01 2009-06-23 02:38:01 1 pingback 0 0 3208 jhansen@mac.com 64.231.155.121 2009-06-23 06:24:05 2009-06-23 11:24:05 1 0 0 3209 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.12 2009-06-23 07:34:25 2009-06-23 12:34:25 1 0 0 3210 bypassmuss@yahoo.com 204.187.63.106 2009-06-23 08:51:26 2009-06-23 13:51:26 1 0 0 3211 jcrimi@rogers.com 99.245.220.220 2009-06-23 10:11:40 2009-06-23 15:11:40 1 0 0 3212 retrocrx@rogers.com http://none 70.53.58.212 2009-06-23 11:31:57 2009-06-23 16:31:57 1 0 0 3213 walk0080@gmail.com 207.112.42.108 2009-06-23 14:33:28 2009-06-23 19:33:28 1 0 0 3214 mawjia@yahoo.com 67.193.234.34 2009-06-23 14:53:26 2009-06-23 19:53:26 1 0 0 3215 azn_lazyjai@hotmail.com 173.35.180.80 2009-06-23 15:07:35 2009-06-23 20:07:35 1 0 0 3216 rick.shire@cms.ca 72.39.10.211 2009-06-23 16:28:32 2009-06-23 21:28:32 1 0 0 3217 kevin@rcmb.ca 70.52.92.161 2009-06-23 19:53:17 2009-06-24 00:53:17 1 0 0 3218 afrobear@yahoo.com 209.82.12.77 2009-06-24 11:18:33 2009-06-24 16:18:33 1 0 0 3219 ryanladisa@hotmail.com 99.227.83.55 2009-06-24 21:02:40 2009-06-25 02:02:40 1 0 0 3220 ryanladisa@hotmail.com 99.227.83.55 2009-06-24 21:03:55 2009-06-25 02:03:55 1 0 0 3221 ngphili@hotmail.com 209.50.91.70 2009-06-25 09:37:30 2009-06-25 14:37:30 1 0 0 3222 svivera@hotmail.com 209.50.91.70 2009-06-25 10:17:39 2009-06-25 15:17:39 1 0 0 3223 takethejump@yahoo.com 198.103.184.76 2009-06-25 10:18:00 2009-06-25 15:18:00 1 0 0 3224 vsloan@gmail.com http://thegreencanadian.blogspot.com/ 69.165.155.233 2009-06-25 10:47:13 2009-06-25 15:47:13 1 0 0 3225 manisha@campusbookstore.com 130.15.186.144 2009-06-25 12:13:07 2009-06-25 17:13:07 1 0 0 3226 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-53/ 68.178.254.235 2009-06-25 22:19:12 2009-06-26 03:19:12 1 pingback 0 0 3227 elisabeth.laett@sympatico.ca 70.29.234.205 2009-06-26 07:47:40 2009-06-26 12:47:40 1 0 0 3228 trish.mermuys@gmail.com 206.191.6.194 2009-06-26 08:17:47 2009-06-26 13:17:47 1 0 0 3229 contestwinner@mycybernet.net 76.74.206.53 2009-06-26 08:36:25 2009-06-26 13:36:25 1 0 0 3230 adil_katchi@yahoo.ca 80.156.47.202 2009-06-26 09:01:01 2009-06-26 14:01:01 1 0 0 3231 kcarl55@gmail.com 74.12.1.220 2009-06-26 09:53:34 2009-06-26 14:53:34 1 0 0 3232 tiec00n@yahoo.com 77.25.149.189 2009-06-26 11:21:29 2009-06-26 16:21:29 1 0 0 3233 ptgannon@hotmail.com 208.87.12.183 2009-06-26 12:08:38 2009-06-26 17:08:38 1 0 0 3234 erickfield@yahoo.com 207.236.147.118 2009-06-26 16:37:50 2009-06-26 21:37:50 1 0 0 3235 dan@danbortolotti.com http://www.danbortolotti.com 174.115.42.147 2009-06-26 18:26:47 2009-06-26 23:26:47 1 0 0 3236 deb_nick@yahoo.com 173.33.100.192 2009-06-27 07:53:31 2009-06-27 12:53:31 1 0 0 3237 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 24.79.175.35 2009-06-27 18:02:26 2009-06-27 23:02:26 1 0 0
    meandthepocketrocket http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1166 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:36:02 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/meandthepocketrocket.jpg 1166 2009-06-22 21:36:02 2009-06-23 02:36:02 open open meandthepocketrocket inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/meandthepocketrocket.jpg _wp_attached_file meandthepocketrocket.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"800";s:6:"height";s:3:"600";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:24:"meandthepocketrocket.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"meandthepocketrocket-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"meandthepocketrocket-300x225.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"225";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"meandthepocketrocket-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"meandthepocketrocket-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:15:"BlackBerry 9000";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Contest Update and Henri The Pocket Rocket Richard http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-update-and-henri-the-pocket-rocket-richard/ Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:37:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1168 Henri The Pocket Rocket Richard(click for the Wikipedia link) - for email readers, you can see the photo by clicking on the title of this post above to go to the website.

    Contest Updates

    1. The links to the other contest posts are now up and running: Canadian Capitalist and Four Pillars - make sure to maximize your chances by entering on all three blogs. And in case you missed it, we're giving away a free school in a Formula 2000 racecar at The Bridgestone Racing Academy!
    2. Don't forget you have to leave more than just a comment - you have to copy and past one sentence from the racing schools website. (Ahem... Sean!)
    3. The winner from the book giveaway (397 Ways to Save Money by SquawkFox) is Luci. Luci will be contacted privately to arrange delivery of the book. Congratulations!
    ]]>
    1168 2009-06-22 21:37:45 2009-06-23 02:37:45 open open contest-update-and-henri-the-pocket-rocket-richard publish 0 0 post 0 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/meandthepocketrocket.jpg _edit_lock 1245727039 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/meandthepocketrocket.jpg home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/meandthepocketrocket.jpg 3238 sean.blake@gmail.com 142.206.2.12 2009-06-23 07:38:46 2009-06-23 12:38:46 1 0 0
    Update On The Experimental Portfolio http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/update-on-the-experimental-portfolio/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:55:37 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1169 a double short pair of leveraged ETFs might be a great negative correlating investment to hold in tandem with a regular long position on a plain vanilla ETF. The double short pair would be expected to have a positive rate of return if the volatility of the underlying index was high enough, and a hypothetical backtest had shown that it could smooth overall portfolio volatility. I still want to re-iterate that you shouldn't be playing around with this stuff unless you understand it. Having said that, I set up a live mock portfolio on June 3rd with $100,000. The strategy has added about roughly 3% of net alpha for the period to date (June 3rd to June 23rd). Simply holding XIU and you would be down 5.84%. By holding 50% XIU and 50% in the paired short, you were only down 2.84% (and that includes subtracting the interest you would pay on the short based on prime + 1.5%). Unfortunately I can't plot the path of the portfolio as Google Docs doesn't support macros (so I can't pluck daily values out), but just from eyeballing it, the return is higher and the overall volatility has indeed been lower as expected. Below are the live results (updates every few minutes during trading hours) - I don't know if this will show up in emails, so click on the title of this post to see the results on the website. ]]> 1169 2009-06-23 20:55:37 2009-06-24 01:55:37 open open update-on-the-experimental-portfolio publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1245808538 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/7.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/7.png 3239 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-24 19:56:07 2009-06-25 00:56:07 1 0 0 3240 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-25 15:16:29 2009-06-25 20:16:29 1 0 0 3241 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-25 23:15:28 2009-06-26 04:15:28 1 0 0 3242 gbelcher0@yahoo.com 98.220.232.112 2009-12-15 06:11:06 2009-12-15 11:11:06 1 0 0 chris-young-banner http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about/chris-young-banner/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:44:18 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/chris-young-banner.gif 1170 2009-06-24 08:44:18 2009-06-24 13:44:18 open open chris-young-banner inherit 2 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/chris-young-banner.gif _wp_attached_file chris-young-banner.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='42' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:22:"chris-young-banner.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"chris-young-banner-150x100.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"chris-young-banner-270x100.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"chris-young-banner-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Credit Card Payoff Calculator http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/credit-card-payoff-calculator/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:06:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1171 here to visit the calculator online.)

     

    ]]>
    1171 2009-06-24 22:06:15 2009-06-25 03:06:15 open open credit-card-payoff-calculator publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1245899821 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/babyeinstein.jpg 3243 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-25 06:10:16 2009-06-25 11:10:16 1 0 0 3244 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-06-25 15:00:00 2009-06-25 20:00:00 1 0 0 3245 http://creditcards.newsdropper.com/?p=2326 66.135.33.45 2009-06-25 23:16:16 2009-06-26 04:16:16 1 pingback 0 0 3246 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/06/26/friday-links-21.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-06-26 04:05:39 2009-06-26 09:05:39 Friday Links... Financial Highway helps us understand ETFs. Canadian Mortgage Trends asks when will prime go up and does it matter? Larry MacDonald from the Canadian Business Online Blog questions if the two new iShares ETFs are worthwhile? Moolanomy shows how to ach...]]> 1 trackback 0 0 3247 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-71/ 64.6.103.97 2009-06-27 06:25:15 2009-06-27 11:25:15 1 pingback 0 0 3248 lakhatri@gmail.com http://www.rickackerman.com 116.71.30.118 2009-07-02 02:58:00 2009-07-02 07:58:00 1 0 0 3249 http://creditcards.newsdropper.com/?p=8197 66.135.33.45 2009-07-02 05:16:52 2009-07-02 10:16:52 1 pingback 0 0 3250 http://creditcards.onlinedebtcure.com/?p=5618 66.135.33.45 2009-07-09 04:04:51 2009-07-09 09:04:51 1 pingback 0 0 3251 admin@financemetrics.com http://www.financemetrics.com/ 219.90.110.165 2009-09-15 01:03:46 2009-09-15 06:03:46 1 0 0
    creditcardcalculator http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/credit-card-payoff-calculator/creditcardcalculator/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:14:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/creditcardcalculator.png 1172 2009-06-24 22:14:58 2009-06-25 03:14:58 open open creditcardcalculator inherit 1171 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/creditcardcalculator.png _wp_attached_file creditcardcalculator.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"481";s:6:"height";s:3:"438";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='105'";s:4:"file";s:24:"creditcardcalculator.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"creditcardcalculator-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"creditcardcalculator-300x273.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"273";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"creditcardcalculator-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"creditcardcalculator-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-53/ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:19:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1173 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.

    Two reminders first:

    1. Episode 2 of 3 in the Ultimate W Expert Challenge airs this Sunday, June 28th at 7:00pm (EST and PST). 2. I'm actually surprised that the number of people entering the contest for a free Formula 2000 school is as low as it is - but that's good news for those that enter as their odds are looking pretty good! If you do want to enter, you can earn up to three entries by following the rules at the following spots: WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, or Canadian Capitalist, or Four Pillars.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Michael James on Money shows us how a flight to Bogota advertised at $295 ends up being close to $1,000 after all the surcharges. It's laughable that this stuff is allowed to go on. Jonathan Chevreau writes about two new Canadian listed iShares: World and Emerging Markets ETFs. Larry MacDonald also looks at the new ETFs and digs up some interesting points. Thicken My Wallet looks at the Hail Mary School Of Investing. Million Dollar Journey interviews someone who retired at 31. Big Cajun Man notes that EI claims are still rising, but not as much - it this the beginning of the turnaround? Canadian Financial DIY looks at the benefits of diversification for retirees - specifically, the effect on the "safe withdrawal rate".

    This Week's Racing Video

    An old re-hash, but well worth it. Especially when you see Jeremy Clarkson's jowels flapping in the wind (literally!) as he tests out the Ariel Atom. At the very least - check out what happens around the 3:00 mark - priceless. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1173 2009-06-25 22:19:05 2009-06-26 03:19:05 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-53 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1245986345 _edit_last 1 3252 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-06-26 05:39:29 2009-06-26 10:39:29 1 0 0 3253 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-06-26 09:27:21 2009-06-26 14:27:21 1 0 0 3254 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 204.50.7.200 2009-06-26 09:32:23 2009-06-26 14:32:23 1 0 0 3255 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-06-26 10:00:05 2009-06-26 15:00:05 1 0 0 3256 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-06-26 10:18:29 2009-06-26 15:18:29 1 0 0 Shameless Self Promotion Video http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/shameless-self-promotion-video/ Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:11:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1174 you can pre-register to get the first two modules free by clicking here). More details to follow, in the meantime, here's the video: (If you are not reading this on the website, click here to view the video.)

    And here is the link for the Globe and Mail Top Blog Contest.]]> 1174 2009-06-26 20:11:26 2009-06-27 01:11:26 open open shameless-self-promotion-video publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1246070605 _edit_last 1 3257 http://www.web2designer.org/news/index.php/2009/06/web2design-shameless-self-promotion-video-news/ 69.65.43.107 2009-06-26 20:52:50 2009-06-27 01:52:50 1 pingback 0 0 3258 http://www.cityauftrag.de/2009/06/27/shameless-self-promotion-video/ 195.42.120.23 2009-06-26 22:12:21 2009-06-27 03:12:21 1 pingback 0 0 3259 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-06-26 22:22:59 2009-06-27 03:22:59 1 0 0 3260 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-06-27 02:30:34 2009-06-27 07:30:34 1 0 0 3261 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-27 08:34:11 2009-06-27 13:34:11 1 0 0 3262 hylaride@capybara.org 207.112.124.86 2009-06-27 09:36:38 2009-06-27 14:36:38 1 0 0 3263 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-06-27 11:05:00 2009-06-27 16:05:00 1 0 0 3264 promodcares@gmail.com http://blog.riscario.com 216.13.43.162 2009-07-06 21:07:25 2009-07-07 02:07:25 1 0 0 3265 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.69.140.74 2009-07-08 12:42:53 2009-07-08 17:42:53 1 0 0 Twitter and Formula 2000 Contest Winner http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/twitter-and-formula-2000-contest-winner/ Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:27:58 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1175 You can follow me on Twitter instead - because from now on, every time I update the blog my twitter feed will be updated within an hour and will include the specific blog post's title. The only problem is that if you follow a lot of people on Twitter, you may miss my posts because any new updates from your other twitter feeds will push older tweets down the list... Nonetheless - you can follow me on twitter by clicking here. (Also note, you'll get some random, mindless thoughts thrown in here and there - such is the nature of twitter.)

    Wait - Don't Know What Twitter Is?

    Twitter is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. TIME Magazine has an article that explains the origins of twitter and you can read it by clicking here.

    Winner of the Formula 2000 School

    I'm pleased to announce that we have selected a winner for the Bridgestone Racing Academy's Thrill of A Lifetime 1 Session (Reynard). The winner is "Sam" for the comment he/she left on Four Pillars' blog. The winner was picked at random (I counted up all the valid entries and then used a random number generator to pick a number at random). Sam, if you are reading this, you should expect to get an email from Four Pillars shortly - make sure to claim your prize and CONGRATULATIONS! Also, a thank you to all who entered. If you didn't win, please consider the Bridgestone Racing Academy in the future if you would like to give someone (or yourself) a Thrill of A Lifetime starting from $245 CAD. Finally, a big thanks to Canadian Capitalist and Four Pillars for the cross-promotion!]]>
    1175 2009-06-28 17:27:58 2009-06-28 22:27:58 open open twitter-and-formula-2000-contest-winner publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1246228079 3266 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/canada-day-linkstuff-and-new-canadian-blog-spotlight/ 216.227.218.225 2009-07-10 19:25:50 2009-07-11 00:25:50 1 pingback 0 0
    Collecting Commissions To Become Illegal For British Investment Advisors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/collecting-commissions-to-become-illegal-for-british-investment-advisors/ Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:37:30 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1176 James Langton covered the story on June 25th here. Click here to read more about the details as reported by Philip Porado from Advisor.ca.]]> 1176 2009-06-29 21:37:30 2009-06-30 02:37:30 open open collecting-commissions-to-become-illegal-for-british-investment-advisors publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/martin-luther-king2.jpg _edit_lock 1246900464 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/martin-luther-king2.jpg 3267 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 78.144.180.66 2009-06-30 02:33:32 2009-06-30 07:33:32 1 0 0 3268 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 67.70.207.191 2009-06-30 07:49:23 2009-06-30 12:49:23 1 0 0 3269 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-06-30 08:53:00 2009-06-30 13:53:00 1 0 0 3270 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-06-30 09:19:27 2009-06-30 14:19:27 1 0 0 3271 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-06-30 12:51:52 2009-06-30 17:51:52 1 0 0 3272 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/07/03/blogger-poll-and-weekend-links-july-3-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-07-03 07:30:16 2009-07-03 12:30:16 1 pingback 0 0 3273 http://business.imremarkablebonus.org/collecting-commissions-to-become-illegal-for-british-investment/ 96.9.145.84 2009-10-18 20:15:06 2009-10-19 01:15:06 1 pingback 0 0 3274 http://moviesberry.com/vids/vid_breaking_the_waves.html 82.146.52.228 2009-12-27 16:53:27 2009-12-27 21:53:27 1 pingback 0 0 q2-update http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2009-q2-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-update/q2-update/ Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:07:18 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/q2-update.png 1178 2009-06-30 23:07:18 2009-07-01 04:07:18 open open q2-update inherit 1177 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/q2-update.png _wp_attached_file q2-update.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"808";s:6:"height";s:3:"315";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='49' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:13:"q2-update.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"q2-update-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"q2-update-300x116.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"116";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"q2-update-270x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"q2-update-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} 2009 Q2 Bloggers' Stock Picking Contest Update http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2009-q2-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-update/ Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:27:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1177 If you missed Episode Two of the W Network Expert Challenge on Sunday night, it is being re-aired tonight Wednesday, July 1st 2009 at 8:30pm on the W Network. The Financial Blogger had asked a bunch of other personal finance bloggers if they wanted to participate in a friendly stock picking contest for 2009. The criteria was to pick four securities in equal dollar amounts listed on a Canadian or American exchange (not including derivatives) to just sit on for the duration of 2009 with no changes allowed. We are to provide updates every quarter and the contest ends on the last trading day of 2009. The initial prices will be based on the closing prices of December 31st, 2008 (i.e. yesterday).

    Disclaimer

    My picks were pure swing for the fence plays - two of them were 300% leveraged ETFs, one was a 200% leveraged ETF and the fourth was a penny stock play. Leveraged ETFs only do well if the underlying investment goes in the intended direction with little to modest retracements (if you are holding them for any extended length of time). You can read the original rationale for the picks on my original post back on January 1st, 2009. In case you don’t read the original post, read this: THIS STOCK PICKING CONTEST IS JUST FOR FUN, IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THE STOCKS LISTED HERE OR ON ANY OF THE OTHER BLOGGERS’ SITES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING A PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR. IF YOU BUY THEM ANYWAYS, YOU MUST RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER AND REPEAT, “I AM A NUTBAR”.

    Performance Update

    The second quarter was kind to most equity portfolios and having a significant degree of leverage further enhanced that performance. My four picks were up 50.29% for Q2, after having been grossly underwater in Q1 (-21.77%). The cumulative performance for the first six months of 2009 now stands at +28.52%. A brief recap of the picks: 1. TNA.us: Direxion Small Cap 3x Shares (-18.54% YTD) 2. EDC.us: Direxion Emerging Markets 3x Shares (+54.95% YTD) 3. ENA.v: Enablence Technologies (+96.67% YTD) 4. HOU.to: Horizons BetaPro Nymex Crude Bull Plus ETF (-19.01% YTD)

    On a relative basis I went from 7th out of 9 competitors to 4th out of 9. You can click on the other bloggers' names below to read their performance updates too. (If they have not yet updated their blogs, you will be directed to their homepages.)
    Q1 Performance Q2 Performance Cumulative
    Four Pillars -2.67% 51.50% 48.83%
    Intelligent Speculator 4.33% 38.99% 43.32%
    The Wild Investor -8.90% 50.35% 41.45%
    Wheredoesallmymoneygo -21.77% 50.29% 28.52%
    The Financial Blogger -0.94% 14.23% 13.29%
    Million Dollar Journey -2.96% 7.72% 4.76%
    Dividend Growth Investor -8.27% 8.97% 0.70%
    ZachStocks -24.19% 21.15% -3.04%
    My Traders Journal -27.54% 16.18% -11.36%
    ]]>
    1177 2009-06-30 23:27:34 2009-07-01 04:27:34 open open 2009-q2-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-update publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1246899315 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/q2-update.png 3275 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2009/06/30/2009-stock-picks-q2-review/ 66.96.128.62 2009-07-01 05:51:10 2009-07-01 10:51:10 1 pingback 0 0 3276 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investing_commentary/2009-stock-picking-competition-q2-results/ 216.17.106.121 2009-07-01 06:49:48 2009-07-01 11:49:48 1 pingback 0 0 3277 http://zachstocks.com/2009/06/4stocks-second-quarter/ 69.89.31.97 2009-07-01 07:46:36 2009-07-01 12:46:36 1 pingback 0 0 3278 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/stock-competition-another-quarter-another-champion/ 64.6.103.97 2009-07-02 19:29:50 2009-07-03 00:29:50 1 pingback 0 0 3279 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/07/05/4-hot-stocks-to-buy-in-2009-competition-update/ 70.32.84.217 2009-10-01 20:19:48 2009-10-02 01:19:48 1 pingback 0 0 3280 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/stock-picks-for-2009-quarterly-update-oct.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-10-04 07:01:23 2009-10-04 12:01:23 1 pingback 0 0 3281 http://reimodels.com/real-estate/?p=208 64.6.100.18 2009-10-07 15:11:31 2009-10-07 20:11:31 1 pingback 0 0
    TSX Performance Year To Date http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/tsx-performance-year-to-date/ Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:47:32 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1179
    View the full .TTT-T chart at Wikinvest
    Lots of people are talking about a new culture of increased savings and decreased spending, which might lead to lower stock market returns going forward versus historical rates. What do you think? Will people permanently change their ways? Or only temporarily (if at all)?]]>
    1179 2009-07-01 22:47:32 2009-07-02 03:47:32 open open tsx-performance-year-to-date publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1246506560 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/glassglobe220.gif 3282 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-02 08:20:57 2009-07-02 13:20:57 1 0 0 3283 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/07/03/random-thoughts-canada-week/ 67.205.7.217 2009-07-03 05:59:02 2009-07-03 10:59:02 1 pingback 0 0 3284 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-72/ 64.6.103.97 2009-07-04 11:41:54 2009-07-04 16:41:54 1 pingback 0 0 3285 lakhatri@gmail.com http://www.rickackerman.com 116.71.28.250 2009-07-10 03:21:12 2009-07-10 08:21:12 1 0 0 3286 susanne@northstamford.info http://vigara.cheapvigra.info/site_map.html 80.245.86.19 2010-04-23 11:50:25 2010-04-23 16:50:25 vigara buy online Canada 2]]> spam 0 0 3287 katharina@northstamford.info http://vigra.cheapvigra.info/site_map.html 80.245.86.19 2010-04-23 15:38:39 2010-04-23 20:38:39 vigra online ordering 1]]> spam 0 0 3288 liz@northstamford.info http://viagara.cheaprx.info/site_map.html 80.245.86.19 2010-04-24 12:54:33 2010-04-24 17:54:33 cialias Charlotte 6]]> spam 0 0 3289 caitlin@northstamford.info http://livitra.cheaprx.info/site_map.html 80.245.86.19 2010-04-24 15:53:55 2010-04-24 20:53:55 cealis buy Michigan 5]]> spam 0 0 3290 angelique@northstamford.info http://ciallis.cheapvigra.info/site_map.html 80.245.86.19 2010-04-24 18:46:30 2010-04-24 23:46:30 lavetra cheap Florida 8]]> spam 0 0
    A Very Special Lap Of The Blogs... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-very-special-lap-of-the-blogs/ Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:23:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1180 Reminder #1 The third and final episode of the Ultimate W Network Expert Challenge airs on Sunday night at 7pm on the W Network. Thanks to everyone who has been watching and I hope you have enjoyed it - it was definitely fun to be a contestant!

    Reminder #2

    I don't know how much longer the Globe and Mail's Best of the Blogs online poll will be running, but thanks to everyone who has cast a vote for yours truly. If you haven't voted yet, I would love for you to click on the following link and scroll to the bottom of the page where the voting is taking place. You can vote for up to five of your favourite blogs - last time I checked I was running fourth but losing ground fast! I would appreciate your vote!

    Click here to Vote!

    This Week's Racing Video

    Don't worry, the weekly links will appear below - just thought I'd shuffle things around this week and place "this week's racing video" first. This video shows just how fast an electric car can be - a 1972 Datsun fitted with an electric motor destroys some pretty powerful gasoline powered muscle cars at the local dragstrip! (If you are reading this via email, click here to view the video.)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Howard Atkinson (President of Horizons BetaPro) talks to Jonathan Chevreau about his firm's bull and bear ETFs - and helps explain the nuances quite nicely. Jonathan Chevreau blogs about "parenting your parents" - it's possibe that at some point you may need to take care of your parents when they get older. Jon provides some links to great information on the subject. Thicken My Wallet has a great post about how giving some to get some in negotiating can be worthwhile. Larry MacDonald asks if BCE's dividend is safe. Four Pillars has a post on the city garbage strike in Toronto - the comments section are well worth the price of admission. Big Cajun Man recounts his conversation with Michael James about athletes going so broke so fast. Michael James on Money give some free financial planning advice to future wealthy athletes. Canadian Capitalist discusses the 5-cent levy on grocery bags, and explains how it has turned into a study of how incentives influence behaviour. Million Dollar Journey provides a net worth update and also wonders about buying a new car. No one seemed to catch my quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the comments section! :) Mark Wolfinger highlights his guest authoring of an article that discusses the investment option that no one discusses. If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.]]>
    1180 2009-07-02 21:23:55 2009-07-03 02:23:55 open open a-very-special-lap-of-the-blogs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1246587835 _edit_last 1 3291 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-07-02 22:20:35 2009-07-03 03:20:35 1 0 0 3292 http://realurl.org/twitted.php?id=2448417855 94.23.51.159 2009-07-02 22:38:12 2009-07-03 03:38:12 1 pingback 0 0 3293 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.155.212 2009-07-02 22:58:53 2009-07-03 03:58:53 1 0 0 3294 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-07-03 05:25:10 2009-07-03 10:25:10 1 0 0 3295 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 24.224.176.200 2009-07-03 06:17:32 2009-07-03 11:17:32 1 0 0 3296 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-07-03 08:28:14 2009-07-03 13:28:14 1 0 0 3297 ad.ianson@gmail.com 204.191.165.104 2009-07-09 09:10:29 2009-07-09 14:10:29 1 0 0
    Ultimate W Expert Challenge Finale http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ultimate-w-expert-challenge-finale/ Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:14:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1181 Ultimate W Expert Challenge has just aired and a winner was selected. For those of you who missed it but still want to watch, you can catch it again this Wednesday at 8:30pm on The W Network. I was just over at Daniela's place with Marc and Kristine and some of our significant others to watch the final episode together (these were the Ontario based competitors) and we had a great time recounting the trials and tribulations of the filming. It's amazing to think that about 90 hours of tape went into making 69 minutes (23 minutes per episode) of TV - there's a lot that you didn't see. I'm also happy to say that Daniela is going to write a few guest posts for this blog on ways to save money when it comes to interior design, event planning (weddings), and other topics that I think will be very useful. Stay tuned and thanks for watching!]]> 1181 2009-07-05 21:14:54 2009-07-06 02:14:54 open open ultimate-w-expert-challenge-finale publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1246847074 _edit_last 1 3298 janderson@moneypower.ca 207.188.65.55 2009-07-06 06:06:28 2009-07-06 11:06:28 1 0 0 3299 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-07-06 14:54:45 2009-07-06 19:54:45 1 0 0 3300 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-06 14:59:32 2009-07-06 19:59:32 1 0 0 3301 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-07-06 16:47:26 2009-07-06 21:47:26 1 0 0 3302 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/07/10/unemployment-numbers-up-a-little/ 67.205.7.217 2009-07-10 06:11:10 2009-07-10 11:11:10 1 pingback 0 0 Test Your Financial Literacy in 3 Questions? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/test-your-financial-literacy-in-3-questions/ Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:22:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1182
  • Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: more than $102, exactly $102, less than $102?
  • Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year. After 1 year, would you be able to buy more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in this account?
  • Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”
  • In a recent study published by Annamaria Lusardi and Olivia S. Mitchell (March 2009), and brought to my attention by investor advocate Ken Kivenko of CanadianFundWatch.com, the authors indicated that in a study of 50+ year old Americans who were administered these three questions:
    • Only 56% of respondents answered the first two questions correctly
    • Only 52% of respondents answered the last question correctly
    The paper (which you can access from Dartmouth College's website here) goes beyond just testing these questions, in fact they developed a more comprehensive set of questions and tested a larger range of ages in a study that found a link between financial literacy and retirement readiness.]]>
    1182 2009-07-06 19:22:22 2009-07-07 00:22:22 open open test-your-financial-literacy-in-3-questions publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1246926143 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/piechart220.gif 3303 promodcares@gmail.com http://blog.riscario.com 216.13.43.162 2009-07-06 20:38:02 2009-07-07 01:38:02 1 0 0 3304 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-07-06 20:51:36 2009-07-07 01:51:36 1 0 0 3305 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-07 08:43:25 2009-07-07 13:43:25 1 0 0 3306 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-07-07 09:23:21 2009-07-07 14:23:21 1 0 0 3307 steve@steveonline.ca http://www.steveonline.ca 216.191.6.204 2009-07-07 11:57:45 2009-07-07 16:57:45 1 0 0 3308 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 204.50.7.200 2009-07-07 12:46:11 2009-07-07 17:46:11 1 0 0 3309 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://four-pillars.ca 99.236.27.42 2009-07-07 14:45:17 2009-07-07 19:45:17 1 0 0 3310 steve@steveonline.ca http://www.steveonline.ca 216.191.6.204 2009-07-08 07:57:21 2009-07-08 12:57:21 1 0 0 3311 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.69.140.74 2009-07-08 12:42:03 2009-07-08 17:42:03 1 0 0 3312 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-07-09 11:24:56 2009-07-09 16:24:56 1 0 0 3313 sv650@telus.net 75.157.102.61 2009-07-09 23:49:57 2009-07-10 04:49:57 1 0 0 3314 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-07-10 12:03:31 2009-07-10 17:03:31 1 0 0 3315 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.2.21 2009-07-11 11:16:02 2009-07-11 16:16:02 1 0 0 3316 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-07-11 12:29:35 2009-07-11 17:29:35 1 0 0 3317 bmxkid48@hotmail.com 70.25.57.172 2009-07-15 10:42:40 2009-07-15 15:42:40 1 0 0 3318 admin@financemetrics.com http://www.financemetrics.com/ 219.90.110.120 2009-09-08 02:48:49 2009-09-08 07:48:49 1 0 0
    chrisyoung2banner http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about/chrisyoung2banner/ Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:18:50 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/chrisyoung2banner.gif 1183 2009-07-06 20:18:50 2009-07-07 01:18:50 open open chrisyoung2banner inherit 2 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/chrisyoung2banner.gif _wp_attached_file chrisyoung2banner.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='42' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:21:"chrisyoung2banner.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"chrisyoung2banner-150x100.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"chrisyoung2banner-270x100.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"100";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"chrisyoung2banner-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} feetweetergif http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ing-direct-embraces-twitter-with-feetweeter/feetweetergif/ Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:26:18 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/feetweetergif.gif 1185 2009-07-07 20:26:18 2009-07-08 01:26:18 open open feetweetergif inherit 1184 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/feetweetergif.gif _wp_attached_file feetweetergif.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:17:"feetweetergif.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"feetweetergif-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"feetweetergif-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"feetweetergif-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} ING Direct Embraces Twitter with @FeeTweeter http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ing-direct-embraces-twitter-with-feetweeter/ Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:29:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1184 heard about Twitter. But fret not, you are not alone if you don't have a twitter account and now ING Direct is offering you a way to 1) get your feet wet with the twitter experience and more importantly 2) raise awareness on bank fees. A friend put me in touch with ING Direct's Social Media Lead who was kind enough to answer some questions about their new FeeTweeter application. My questions are in italics and ING Direct's responses are in regular text. Please note: I am not being compensated or have any affiliation with ING for writing this post - just thought it would genuinely be of interest to some readers. **********

    What is the FeeTweeter application in a nutshell?

    The FeeTweeter application is a Twitter app that allows users (and non users) of the micro-blogging tool to keep track of the bank fees they’re being charged. The application is located at http://FeeTweeter.fairfees.ca, where you can choose to tweet using your own account or a guest account. You’ll be able to create your tweet by selecting the type of fee, how much it was, and whether or not you think it was fair. You can even customize your message; we’ve received some hilarious ones so far!

    The application tallies all of the Fee Tweets that you’ve submitted via @FeeTweeter, and direct messages your totals to you every two weeks. We built out this application in support of our Fair Fees movement, which began early May at http://www.fairfees.ca. It’s a community where you can Listen, Speak, and Act against unfair bank fees, presented in a fun and interactive way.

    How can people join in on the fun? Is there a cost or do you have to submit any personal info to sign up?

    It’s easy! You don’t necessarily have to have an account or even be that familiar with Twitter (even better, you can get acquainted by trying out FeeTweeter). You don’t have to submit any personal information – even if you log in using your own Twitter account through our application on the FairFees.ca website, it’s only so you can publish the tweet to your stream. How many tweets have been sent to FeeTweeter so far?

    We launched officially July 2, 2009. The running total right now is about 300 tweets and about $4,500 in total bank fees tweeted. Keep ‘em coming Canada!

    What's the biggest fee you've seen tweeted?

    The largest one we’ve received so far has been $250.00 for Product Transfer Fees. That’s huge, if you consider the average Canadian’s day to day bank fees are about $175 a year.

    What is the most common type of fee that people complain about?

    ABM Fees are definitely up there. Overage and transaction fees are something that many Fee Tweeters have a beef with as well.

    **********

    ]]>
    1184 2009-07-07 20:29:16 2009-07-08 01:29:16 open open ing-direct-embraces-twitter-with-feetweeter publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247016557 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/feetweetergif.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/feetweetergif.gif 3319 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.18.97 2009-07-07 22:27:36 2009-07-08 03:27:36 1 0 0 3320 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 67.69.140.74 2009-07-08 12:44:30 2009-07-08 17:44:30 1 0 0 3321 stephanie65@hotmail.com 64.12.116.67 2009-07-08 18:44:30 2009-07-08 23:44:30 1 0 0 3322 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-08 21:03:46 2009-07-09 02:03:46 1 0 0
    Asset Gathering Quotas For Advisors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/asset-gathering-quotas-for-advisors/ Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:59:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1186 1186 2009-07-08 20:59:49 2009-07-09 01:59:49 open open asset-gathering-quotas-for-advisors publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247104789 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 3323 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.110.138 2009-07-09 07:59:57 2009-07-09 12:59:57 1 0 0 3324 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 204.50.7.200 2009-07-10 16:39:12 2009-07-10 21:39:12 1 0 0 3325 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.110.138 2009-07-11 18:39:12 2009-07-11 23:39:12 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-54/ Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:58:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1187 From Around The Blogosphere Jonathan Chevreau looks at reasons why shorter term investors might want to consider the Canadian listed ETFs over their US listed counterparts (quotes from yours truly are in the article - thanks Jon!) Big Cajun Man explains how you can check how many months you have left on your cellphone contract without going into the store. Personally, I just call the customer service number... Michael James on Money explains how to use silence in a negotiation (it works very will by the way). Canadian Capitalist is a fan of active management afterall... well, you'll see what I mean. :) Larry MacDonald explains the 398th way to save money (this is in reference to Squawkfox's great book 397 Ways To Save Money). Million Dollar Journey explains how we can learn a little about money management from a board game. Four Pillars talks about some of the dangers a small scale landlord can fall into. Thicken My Wallet discusses the correlation between the thickness of magazines and the health of the economy.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This week I'm posting a video of one of the greatest drivers of all time, Ayrton Senna. But what makes this video especially memorable is that he is driving a Honda NSX (the Acura brand doesn't exist in Japan if I'm not mistaken) around Suzuka wearing loafers and no helmet! (Email subscribers will have to visit the website to see the video).

    If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world.]]> 1187 2009-07-09 20:58:01 2009-07-10 01:58:01 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-54 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247191082 _edit_last 1 3326 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-07-09 21:00:38 2009-07-10 02:00:38 1 0 0 3327 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.152.193 2009-07-09 22:50:23 2009-07-10 03:50:23 1 0 0 3328 http://honda.netne.net/a-lap-of-the-blogs.html 216.108.239.38 2009-07-10 03:44:41 2009-07-10 08:44:41 1 pingback 0 0 3329 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-07-10 06:05:02 2009-07-10 11:05:02 1 0 0 3330 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-07-10 08:02:04 2009-07-10 13:02:04 1 0 0 3331 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 24.224.176.200 2009-07-11 16:37:26 2009-07-11 21:37:26 1 0 0 Highly Paid Government Workers http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/highly-paid-government-workers/ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:42:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1188 Ontario Government's website here. British Columbia also publishes data, although the only link I could find (albeit after only looking for about 5 minutes) shows executive compensation for senior executives and the next four levels of executives who earn more than $125,000 per year. You can find the link here. Some highlights from Ontario: CEO of Hydro One 2008 Salary - $924,436.94 CEO of Independent Electricity System Operator - $597,588.01 Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission - $705,604.65 CEO of University Health Network - $736,799.55 While these are large numbers, they actually pale in comparison to their private sector counterparts. However, it is interesting to note that their collective boss, the Prime Minister of Canada, has a salary of approximately $300,000 (thanks to reader Sean for the info!)]]> 1188 2009-07-12 20:42:41 2009-07-13 01:42:41 open open highly-paid-government-workers publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247706203 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3332 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-07-13 13:29:57 2009-07-13 18:29:57 1 0 0 3333 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-13 15:08:23 2009-07-13 20:08:23 1 0 0 3334 sime_p233@yahoo.com http://www.pickcandu.ca/TAKEACTION/tabid/59/Default.aspx 99.231.82.253 2009-07-13 15:10:31 2009-07-13 20:10:31 1 0 0 3335 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 99.246.27.137 2009-07-15 12:09:23 2009-07-15 17:09:23 1 0 0 3336 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.14 2009-07-15 12:43:15 2009-07-15 17:43:15 1 0 0 3337 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-15 20:00:58 2009-07-16 01:00:58 1 0 0 3338 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/stockpiling-ponzi-schemes-and-other-links-july-17-2009.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-07-17 05:31:32 2009-07-17 10:31:32 1 pingback 0 0 3339 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/07/17/stockpiling-ponzi-schemes-and-other-links-july-17-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-07-17 06:48:31 2009-07-17 11:48:31 1 pingback 0 0 3340 thefatlossauthority@gmail.com http://www.thefatlossauthority.com/fat_loss_tips 24.36.164.6 2009-07-17 12:20:37 2009-07-17 17:20:37 1 0 0 3341 livinginlotusland@hotmail.com 24.68.41.95 2009-07-17 19:34:17 2009-07-18 00:34:17 1 0 0 3342 livinginlotusland@hotmail.com http://deleted 24.68.41.95 2009-07-17 20:58:21 2009-07-18 01:58:21 1 0 0 danielaheadshot http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-200-home-makeover-by-daniela-garritano/danielaheadshot/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:01:13 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/danielaheadshot.jpg 1190 2009-07-13 20:01:13 2009-07-14 01:01:13 open open danielaheadshot inherit 1189 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/danielaheadshot.jpg _wp_attached_file danielaheadshot.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:19:"danielaheadshot.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"danielaheadshot-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"danielaheadshot-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"danielaheadshot-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The $200 Home Makeover by Daniela Garritano http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-200-home-makeover-by-daniela-garritano/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:03:48 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1189 Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Today I'm excited to feature a guest post by none other than the beautiful Daniela Garritano - designer extraordinaire, and one of the competitors on the Ultimate W Expert Challenge. Daniela is available for design consultations (email her here) and you can learn more about her on her Facebook Fan Page. Without further ado, take it away Daniela! In a less than stellar economy, we could all use a little good news when it comes to how to improve our lifestyle on a budget, right? Well, what if I told you that you could makeover your home for less than 200 hundred bucks? Pretty sweet deal I'd think. So, here are my personal tried, tested and true secrets that really go the distance. Three elements will get you farther than most, but I'll give you 5. Because any friend of Preet, is a friend of mine!

    1) Paint the town red! (Or green, or blue...)

    Get your coveralls ready! Colour with paint is by far the most affordable and vital design tool. And, did you know that with a simple coat of paint, you can instantly increase the value of your home by thousands of dollars? How's that for incentive! Daniela's pick: Ralph Lauren Exceptional Quality Paint, $39.99 per gallon, available at the Home Depot. They may have a limited colour palette when compared to other major paint retailers, but think of how much easier your choice will be! And the best part? The coverage is so incredible, that one coat is often all it takes! Imagine not only the time you'll save, but also the coin, since you can likely get away with only one can as opposed to the standard two gallons for an average sized room. Happy painting! D's Tip: Take your paint swatch with you when you shop! You'll have a much better idea of what to match and it will cut down on back and forth trips to the store.

    2) Let there be light!

    Every room needs a practical lighting plan with a mix of ambient and task lighting. So, what you want to do is softly illuminate your space through layers of diffused light. Try incorporating table-side lamps, or floor lamps to have a balanced level of background and direct lighting. For a warm and traditional look, opt for finishes in bronze or wood. For a more modern take, chrome or brushed nickel is your best bet. Daniela's Pick: Style at Home Floor Lamp in Espresso, $39.99 available at Rona. D's Tip: Use halogen or incandescent bulbs over fluorescent ones. They are the most effective artificial light and they offer the same softness and subtly that natural light delivers.  

    3) Baby, pillow talk is cheap

    Now, here's your chance to really have some fun! There's nothing that adds comfort and texture to a room quite like big squishy pillows! Their plush seduction of softness is what makes a room so inviting and they're super affordable for a quick fix. Silk, suede and chenille are some of the most luxurious linens. Use similar fabrics to layer in the softness with gentler hues like blues and lavenders to make a room calming and serene. For an atmosphere of warmth, choose rich dazzling jewel tones like pomegranate or topaz. Daniela's Pick: Faux Suede Throw Pillow, $9.99 (for a pack of two!) available at Zeller's D's Tip: Instead of using multiple pillows of the same shape and size, try mixing pillows of different dimensions. Stick with the same colour scheme throughout, and you're golden!

    4) Come along with me, on a magic carpet ride...

    An area rug is what I consider to be the anchor that really unifies all of the design elements together (Preet says: like the rug that really tied the room together in The Big Lebowski. Okay, I'll shut up now.) and it's a foolproof way to add some whimsy and texture to any room. Don't be afraid to add some zing! Bold patterned rugs add texture and color without being overwhelming and they have a chameleon-like effect, by blending with other colours throughout the room. Natural or organic fibres are better choices because of their durability. They live up to high traffic areas, and are low maintenance when it comes to removing dirt and stains. Daniela's Pick: Select Edition 60"x 96"Area Rug in Beige, $48.88 available at Wal-mart. D's Tip: Look for a rug with rubber backing to hold still and prevent you from slipping and sliding all over the place! You'll thank me for it later when your furniture doesn't budge.

    5) In Full Bloom

    Whatever your style, fresh flowers really are a flawless way to pump up your space. They look fabulous and they're an inexpensive way to add some vibrant and eye-popping graphics. And best of all, you don't have to be a genius of floral design to pull off a hot looking arrangement! Stuck for a vase? If it can hold water, it can hold flowers! Old watering cans and even teapots make a charming base for any arrangement. Daniela's Pick: Loblaws Superstore Fresh Flower 10 Day Bouquet, $9.99. D's Tip: To hold onto your bouquet a bit longer, look for a bunch that has yet to be in full bloom. Trim the bottoms on an angle under some running tepid water, and your arrangement should last even longer. My personal favourite place to display is on the bedside table. The aroma is close by, and those beautiful blooms are the first thing you see when you wake. What a wonderful way to start the day on a positive note!

    Next time from Daniela: Gettin' hitched? How to have a champagne wedding on a beer salary!

    ]]>
    1189 2009-07-13 20:03:48 2009-07-14 01:03:48 open open the-200-home-makeover-by-daniela-garritano publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1252371309 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg 3343 http://www.workfromhomeindia.net/online/2009/07/the-200-home-makeover-by-daniela-garritano-workathome/ 69.65.43.107 2009-07-13 20:10:24 2009-07-14 01:10:24 1 pingback 0 0 3344 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-07-14 01:34:59 2009-07-14 06:34:59 1 0 0 3345 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.97 2009-07-14 10:18:57 2009-07-14 15:18:57 1 0 0 3346 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-14 12:47:44 2009-07-14 17:47:44 1 0 0 3347 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-14 12:48:44 2009-07-14 17:48:44 1 0 0 3348 gfred6171@gmail.com http://www.pomegranatediets.com/ 74.86.225.187 2009-07-14 14:54:04 2009-07-14 19:54:04 1 0 0 3349 info@promisedeco.com http://www.promisedeco.com 202.40.137.196 2009-07-25 03:54:26 2009-07-25 08:54:26 1 0 0 3350 maroyt@yahoo.com 99.242.249.153 2009-07-28 11:11:54 2009-07-28 16:11:54 1 0 0 3351 green_eyed_girl13@yahoo.com 99.243.19.64 2009-08-03 16:36:18 2009-08-03 21:36:18 1 0 0 3352 christopherg1325@gmail.com 173.33.137.61 2009-08-07 21:31:01 2009-08-08 02:31:01 1 0 0 3353 ldunster@telus.net 75.157.152.142 2009-09-27 13:47:10 2009-09-27 18:47:10 1 0 0
    glassdoor http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/glassdoorcom/glassdoor/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:17:11 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/glassdoor.jpg 1192 2009-07-14 21:17:11 2009-07-15 02:17:11 open open glassdoor inherit 1191 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/glassdoor.jpg _wp_attached_file glassdoor.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"500";s:6:"height";s:3:"426";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='112'";s:4:"file";s:13:"glassdoor.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"glassdoor-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"glassdoor-300x255.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"255";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"glassdoor-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"glassdoor-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Glassdoor.com http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/glassdoorcom/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:28:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1191 Glassdoor.com. This site allows users to anonymously share their salaries and job titles and the site compiles the data for all registered users to see (you have to register and submit your details to see everyone else's info, but you don't have to submit your name or even your company name if you don't want to). So for example, you can see what all Project Managers for Company ABC earn, and the range of entries is listed along with Salary, Cash Bonuses, Commissions, Stock Compensation, etc. There is lots more data for US companies, but there are over 1,200 Canadian companies listed (and almost 4,000 salary listings). Check it out if you are interested... and hey, the more data samples they get, the more the utility.

    ]]>
    1191 2009-07-14 21:28:52 2009-07-15 02:28:52 open open glassdoorcom publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247624935 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 3354 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-stock-market-history-emerging-markets-international-diversification-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-07-16 22:29:33 2009-07-17 03:29:33 1 pingback 0 0
    Ontario Announces $10,000 Rebate On Purchase Of Electric Cars http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ontario-announces-10000-rebate-on-purchase-of-electric-cars/ Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:38:51 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1193 The Details:
    • Size of rebate will be related to the capacity of the batteries
    • Vehicles must be capable of highway travel (this therefore excludes the ZENN for now)
    • Drivers will be able to use HOV lanes even with only one person in the car until 2015
    • Drivers may have access to priority parking spots at certain venues (i.e. grocery stores)
    • Drivers may have access to charging facilities at Government parking lots and GO stations

    What Cars Might Be Available For The Rebate Next Year?

    1. Chevy Volt - est MSRP $40,000
    2. Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid - est MSRP $47,000
    3. Mini Electric - est MSRP $50,000
    4. Mitsubishi i-MiEV - est MSRP $30,000 - $40,000 (?)
    5. Tesla Roadster - est MSRP $101,500
    6. Tesla Model S - est MSRP $57,400
    7. cityZENN - Highway Capable version of ZENN - est MSRP $25,000 - $30,000
    So, what do you think? Is this incentive going to work? Or will it just eventually destroy future pent up demand (by getting some people to buy a new car a few years earlier than they had planned)? Will that necessitate future incentives, thereby propagating auto manufacturer inefficiency? Or does it put more expensive hybrids and electrics on a more equal footing with conventional cars until their prices achieve more parity? Comments welcome as always...]]>
    1193 2009-07-15 21:38:51 2009-07-16 02:38:51 open open ontario-announces-10000-rebate-on-purchase-of-electric-cars publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247755261 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3355 info@ev-motion.com http://www.ev-motion.com 99.231.174.139 2009-07-15 22:02:21 2009-07-16 03:02:21 1 0 0 3356 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-15 22:16:23 2009-07-16 03:16:23 1 0 0 3357 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-07-16 02:34:40 2009-07-16 07:34:40 1 0 0 3358 hallamjay@gmail.com 24.79.207.17 2009-07-16 03:43:33 2009-07-16 08:43:33 1 0 0 3359 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.2.21 2009-07-16 04:51:08 2009-07-16 09:51:08 1 0 0 3360 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.14 2009-07-16 08:50:09 2009-07-16 13:50:09 1 0 0 3361 hylaride@capybara.org 216.235.10.210 2009-07-16 08:59:37 2009-07-16 13:59:37 1 0 0 3362 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.233.108 2009-07-16 09:01:37 2009-07-16 14:01:37 1 0 0 3363 walk0080@gmail.com 216.254.169.223 2009-07-16 09:33:18 2009-07-16 14:33:18 1 0 0 3364 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-16 09:46:06 2009-07-16 14:46:06 1 0 0 3365 info@ev-motion.com http://www.ev-motion.com 99.231.174.139 2009-07-16 10:46:38 2009-07-16 15:46:38 1 0 0 3366 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-16 14:05:46 2009-07-16 19:05:46 1 0 0 3367 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-16 16:02:17 2009-07-16 21:02:17 1 0 0 3368 jameslachapelle@yahoo.com http://www.jlrealtor.com 206.53.157.50 2009-07-22 13:11:25 2009-07-22 18:11:25 1 0 0 3369 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/big-blog-salepurchase-and-linkstuff-for-july-20/ 216.227.218.225 2009-07-28 22:37:24 2009-07-29 03:37:24 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-55/ Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:03:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1194 Ultimate W Expert Challenge (because I still get phone calls and emails asking who won as I didn't actually post the results on the blog, only in the comments section). I'm happy to announce that yours truly was the winner and the prize was a development deal with the W Network to create a show for me to host. I'll keep you posted on the progress and thanks for everyone's support!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau writes about the pie in the sky that is the RRSP Meltdown. It works sometimes, but is rarely worth the risk. Canadian Capitalist looks at the Pixar Phenomenon - how do they keep cranking out hit after hit? The white cheddar topping for your popcorn: crack. Million Dollar Journey talks about Financial Regrets. I regret not winning the lottery. Larry MacDonald discusses how NOT to pick an advisor. Money Grubbing Lawyer has been cellphone free for 7 months. Apparently life goes on. Thicken My Wallet explains some of the do's and dont's of a job interview. I'll add my own: DO show up on time, DON'T forget to google yourself to see what the interviewer will have learned about you ahead of time. Mark Wolfinger finds some data that demonstrates what a constant collared equity index portfolio would've have down for the last 20 years. Great find! Michael James on Money explains how much money might be earned by ponzi schemers. Mr. Cheap discusses the professional beggar. Big Cajun Man starts a discussion on who is the worst overspender these days: Canada or the US?

    This Week's Racing Video

    Since I just bought a go-kart (picking it up on Saturday), I thought I would post a go-kart video. But not just any go-kart, a go-kart that can go crazy fast. The kart I bought is capable of about 100km/h or so, not the ones you see at the indoor karting tracks for kiddies, that's just too slow... :) Enjoy!

    If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video - it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it... ]]> 1194 2009-07-16 20:03:45 2009-07-17 01:03:45 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-55 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1247778262 _edit_last 1 3370 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-07-16 22:06:04 2009-07-17 03:06:04 1 0 0 3371 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-07-16 22:41:40 2009-07-17 03:41:40 1 0 0 3372 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-07-16 23:32:59 2009-07-17 04:32:59 1 0 0 3373 http://googles.veblogu.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com.html 79.171.18.208 2009-07-17 00:20:28 2009-07-17 05:20:28 1 pingback 0 0 3374 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-07-17 03:35:25 2009-07-17 08:35:25 1 0 0 3375 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-07-17 08:39:58 2009-07-17 13:39:58 1 0 0 3376 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-17 09:16:55 2009-07-17 14:16:55 1 0 0 3377 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-07-17 09:44:14 2009-07-17 14:44:14 1 0 0 3378 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-07-17 13:31:49 2009-07-17 18:31:49 1 0 0 3379 mgl@moneygrubbinglawyer.com http://www.moneygrubbinglawyer.com 209.128.21.10 2009-07-17 14:30:00 2009-07-17 19:30:00 1 0 0 3380 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-07-17 15:15:49 2009-07-17 20:15:49 1 0 0 3381 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-07-20 09:32:39 2009-07-20 14:32:39 1 0 0 3382 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 216.251.147.10 2009-07-20 15:42:31 2009-07-20 20:42:31 1 0 0 3383 marco@polo.ca 68.147.39.172 2009-08-17 13:03:14 2009-08-17 18:03:14 1 0 0 Three Major Market Misconceptions Today http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/three-major-market-misconceptions-today/ Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:59:49 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1195 MoneyWatch.com in which he discusses three common precepts about investing and explains how they are misused. 1. Stocks may not be for the long run afterall 2. Taking on more risk to get higher returns is not how it works 3. Diversification fails temporarily, but doesn't mean you should give up on it I've been a big fan of Arnott's work for some time now and I enjoyed this video. I think it is well worth the five minute running time. If you are reading this via facebook or email, don't forget to visit the website to see the video.

    ]]> 1195 2009-07-20 00:59:49 2009-07-20 05:59:49 open open three-major-market-misconceptions-today publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1248069592 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif 3384 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.97 2009-07-20 10:14:26 2009-07-20 15:14:26 1 0 0 3385 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-07-20 13:38:59 2009-07-20 18:38:59 1 0 0 3386 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 216.251.147.10 2009-07-20 15:34:04 2009-07-20 20:34:04 1 0 0 3387 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 216.251.147.10 2009-07-20 15:37:27 2009-07-20 20:37:27 1 0 0 3388 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-07-21 13:33:14 2009-07-21 18:33:14 1 0 0 3389 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-74/ 64.6.103.97 2009-07-26 09:38:53 2009-07-26 14:38:53 1 pingback 0 0 Wall Street Prison Consultants http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wall-street-prison-consultants/ Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:28:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1196 click here if reading via email or facebook) - interesting to note that Madoff will apparently not be in a minimum security prison since the dollar sum of the crime was off the chart. Click here to see where he currently is in the Bureau of Prisons system. He will be in a facility with violent offenders serving life sentences (and with nothing to lose). I'd advise him not to drop the soap, but I don't think that will matter... Click here to visit Wall Street Prison Consultants.

    ]]> 1196 2009-07-20 20:28:54 2009-07-21 01:28:54 open open wall-street-prison-consultants publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1248141773 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/1gordon-gekko.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/1gordon-gekko.jpg 3390 http://www.vklip.com/wall-street-prison-consultants/2009/07/20/ 74.53.58.9 2009-07-20 21:32:36 2009-07-21 02:32:36 1 pingback 0 0 3391 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.15 2009-07-21 09:09:40 2009-07-21 14:09:40 1 0 0 mutfundassetgrowth http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-genesis-of-dsc-mutual-funds/mutfundassetgrowth/ Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:36:50 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/mutfundassetgrowth.jpg 1198 2009-07-21 21:36:50 2009-07-22 02:36:50 open open mutfundassetgrowth inherit 1197 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/mutfundassetgrowth.jpg _wp_attached_file mutfundassetgrowth.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"385";s:6:"height";s:3:"302";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='122'";s:4:"file";s:22:"mutfundassetgrowth.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"mutfundassetgrowth-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"mutfundassetgrowth-300x235.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"235";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"mutfundassetgrowth-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"mutfundassetgrowth-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Genesis of DSC Mutual Funds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-genesis-of-dsc-mutual-funds/ Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:49:09 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1197 DSC - stands for Deferred Sales Charge (and is also sometimes referred to as Declining Sales Charge). For more information on the different types of loads a mutual fund can have, click here. Ken Kivenko, investor advocate and author of the fantastic website CanadianFundWatch.com sent me this article on the history of the DSC fund. I thought it would be worthwhile to the readers of this blog so I asked Ken for his permission to reproduce it. Take it away Ken.... The DSC was an innovation of Mackenzie Financial back in 1987 with the launch of the Industrial Horizon Fund. It was a brilliant marketing move by Jim O'Donnell, founder of Mackenzie. At the time, the load funds were the only serious contenders in the market, and all were sold by front-end load. Most had a load of 9% that declined based on the amount invested. If you had $10,000 to invest in 1986, you would have to be a very lucrative or lucky client to negotiate that down to 5%. Given that scenario, to sell DSC funds proved to be very easy. Supposedly everybody wins! The client pays no direct or visible sales commission if they hold the fund for seven years or so, and the mutual fund sales person gets paid upfront for their services by the fund Company. Another simultaneous innovation, the trailer fee involved a 0.5 % p.a. (per annum) payment to salespersons as long as investors held the units. Thus, salespeople had a 5% upfront payment and about 0.5%x 6 years =3% payment over the DSC period ( and beyond ) and the excellent prospect of dramatically increased sales.

    In 1987, mutual fund sales took off as unsuspecting investors poured in money. To pay for the upfront commission to the advisors, the fund companies increased the MER, which of course is passed on to the fund thus lessening your return and adding liquidity issues. If there had been an Investor Advisory panel at the time, they would have undoubtedly counselled then OSC Chairman Stanley Beck not to approve the new sales tactic. Like the old industry adage says, Mutual funds are sold not bought.

    (Preet's note: Ken wanted to acknowledge and give credit that Mr. Beck now is on the board of directors for FAIR Canada - Canadian Foundation for the Advancement of Investor Rights Canada - and he supports Investment Advisory Committees.)

    ]]>
    1197 2009-07-21 21:49:09 2009-07-22 02:49:09 open open the-genesis-of-dsc-mutual-funds publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1248233253 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 3392 http://www.yonikatz.com/wootube/?p=10218 77.232.92.23 2009-07-21 22:54:48 2009-07-22 03:54:48 1 pingback 0 0 3393 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-financial-advisor-comments-on-the-genesis-of-dsc-funds/ 68.178.254.235 2009-07-26 20:18:52 2009-07-27 01:18:52 1 pingback 0 0 3394 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/07/31/weekend-reading-twitter-edition-july-31-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-07-31 07:36:20 2009-07-31 12:36:20 1 pingback 0 0
    silverdollarolympics http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/massive-giveaway-contest-this-blog-turns-two-years-old/silverdollarolympics/ Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:08:09 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/silverdollarolympics.jpg 1200 2009-07-22 21:08:09 2009-07-23 02:08:09 open open silverdollarolympics inherit 1199 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/silverdollarolympics.jpg _wp_attached_file silverdollarolympics.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"125";s:6:"height";s:3:"129";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='93'";s:4:"file";s:24:"silverdollarolympics.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"silverdollarolympics-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} silverdollarflight http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/massive-giveaway-contest-this-blog-turns-two-years-old/silverdollarflight/ Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:08:33 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/silverdollarflight.jpg 1201 2009-07-22 21:08:33 2009-07-23 02:08:33 open open silverdollarflight inherit 1199 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/silverdollarflight.jpg _wp_attached_file silverdollarflight.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"125";s:6:"height";s:3:"123";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='97'";s:4:"file";s:22:"silverdollarflight.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"silverdollarflight-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Massive Giveaway Contest: This Blog Turns Two Years Old! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/massive-giveaway-contest-this-blog-turns-two-years-old/ Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:26:58 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1199 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com will be turning two years old. In order to celebrate, I thought it would be nice to have a big giveaway since the reason I keep blogging and the reason this blog keeps growing is because of YOU the reader! Prizes and details are down below, but first a bit of retrospection:

    Readership Statistics

    In the first year this blog received 62,731 visitors and this almost tripled to 176,898 in year two. Similarly, "pageviews" increased from 128,144 to 305,626. Cumulatively this means the blog has had 239,629 visitors and 433,770 pages read in total. It's kind of neat to think that people have read almost half a million pages of my stuff in two years. Regular readership is always increasing too - currently there are 1,341 daily subscribers, 744 of which choose to receive the email updates (sign up here) and 597 of which choose to subscribe using an RSS reader (click to sign up here).

    The Prizes!

    I kind of like the idea of rewarding as many people as possible, so there will be a few prizes up for grabs:

    Win One of Two Real Silver Canadian Dollars

    The Royal Canadian Mint produces some spectacular commemorative coins, and this first one commemorates the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games (retail value $54.95). The second coin commemorates 100 Years of Flight in Canada (retail value $39.95). I should point out that the face value of each coin is only $1 and I trust the winner will NOT try to spend the coins! :)

    Win One of 10 Movies About Money (On DVD):

    1. Wall Street
    2. Boiler Room
    3. Brewster's Millions
    4. Casino
    5. Ocean's Eleven (The Original)
    6. Rogue Trader
    7. Trading Places
    8. Glengarry Glen Ross
    9. Other People's Money
    10. Barbarians At The Gate

    Win One of 5 Books About Money:

    1. Findependence Day by Jonathan Chevreau
    2. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
    3. The Rookie's Guide to Options by Mark Wolfinger
    4. Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy Siegel
    5. Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein

    How To Enter

    You may earn multiple entries, each method is as follows:
    1. You can earn one entry by submitting a comment on this post (maximum of 1 comment), you must include a valid email address in the form, but your email is never shared with anyone.
    2. You can earn another entry by promoting this contest on your own blog (pingback required).
    3. You can earn another entry by tweeting the URL of this contest post (Must include @PreetBanerjee in your tweet so I know you tweeted it). Not following me? Click here to follow me on Twitter.
    So you can earn up to three entries in this contest, and there are 17 prizes (you can only win once). All winners will have exactly 1 week to claim their prize (I will notify you via email or twitter), or they will forfeit their winnings. The contest runs until midnight (EST) on July 31st, 2009. Prizes will be shipped to addresses in Canada and the USA only. Winners will be drawn at random, and will be first come, first served in terms of prize selection. GOOD LUCK and thanks for joining me on this blogging journey so far! :) Preet]]>
    1199 2009-07-22 21:26:58 2009-07-23 02:26:58 open open massive-giveaway-contest-this-blog-turns-two-years-old publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1248316429 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 3395 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.111.142 2009-07-22 22:05:01 2009-07-23 03:05:01 1 0 0 3396 info@financialhighway.com http://financialhighway.com 99.243.246.102 2009-07-22 22:34:21 2009-07-23 03:34:21 1 0 0 3397 chemicker@hotmail.com 67.204.26.139 2009-07-22 23:17:27 2009-07-23 04:17:27 1 0 0 3398 garnerp@gmail.com 24.141.171.41 2009-07-22 23:52:14 2009-07-23 04:52:14 1 0 0 3399 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.245.94 2009-07-23 00:02:52 2009-07-23 05:02:52 1 0 0 3400 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.56.21 2009-07-23 00:12:12 2009-07-23 05:12:12 1 0 0 3401 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-07-23 02:27:16 2009-07-23 07:27:16 1 0 0 3402 Jordanclark@gmail.com 24.114.236.25 2009-07-23 05:39:43 2009-07-23 10:39:43 1 0 0 3403 brianfay@golden.net 69.63.53.147 2009-07-23 05:54:10 2009-07-23 10:54:10 1 0 0 3404 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-07-23 06:26:20 2009-07-23 11:26:20 1 0 0 3405 financialtactics@gmail.com http://financialtactics.blogspot.com 76.67.61.239 2009-07-23 06:45:21 2009-07-23 11:45:21 1 0 0 3406 mpacker999@gmail.com 12.16.144.70 2009-07-23 06:52:31 2009-07-23 11:52:31 1 0 0 3407 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.35.210.35 2009-07-23 07:15:10 2009-07-23 12:15:10 1 0 0 3408 jason@maximumedge.com 99.231.34.136 2009-07-23 07:21:39 2009-07-23 12:21:39 1 0 0 3409 habs33@gmail.com 142.167.253.23 2009-07-23 07:21:51 2009-07-23 12:21:51 1 0 0 3410 walk0080@gmail.com 207.112.34.149 2009-07-23 07:51:50 2009-07-23 12:51:50 1 0 0 3411 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2009-07-23 08:02:21 2009-07-23 13:02:21 1 0 0 3412 billbutt@shaw.ca 24.83.160.233 2009-07-23 08:07:04 2009-07-23 13:07:04 1 0 0 3413 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.140.38 2009-07-23 08:21:45 2009-07-23 13:21:45 1 0 0 3414 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-07-23 08:42:41 2009-07-23 13:42:41 1 0 0 3415 pub@banikanada.com 206.186.114.231 2009-07-23 08:46:49 2009-07-23 13:46:49 1 0 0 3416 alaa.abed@gmail.com 38.99.165.166 2009-07-23 08:47:55 2009-07-23 13:47:55 1 0 0 3417 hallamjay@gmail.com 24.79.207.17 2009-07-23 09:06:16 2009-07-23 14:06:16 1 0 0 3418 penny18@telus.net 99.199.159.119 2009-07-23 09:08:21 2009-07-23 14:08:21 1 0 0 3419 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.14 2009-07-23 09:16:48 2009-07-23 14:16:48 1 0 0 3420 elisabeth.laett@sympatico.ca 70.31.222.126 2009-07-23 09:22:21 2009-07-23 14:22:21 1 0 0 3421 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-07-23 09:31:02 2009-07-23 14:31:02 1 0 0 3422 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 204.50.7.200 2009-07-23 09:36:12 2009-07-23 14:36:12 1 0 0 3423 bsobey@shaw.ca 70.75.19.249 2009-07-23 09:58:44 2009-07-23 14:58:44 1 0 0 3424 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-07-23 10:01:08 2009-07-23 15:01:08 1 0 0 3425 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.233.108 2009-07-23 10:15:52 2009-07-23 15:15:52 1 0 0 3426 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 70.70.150.62 2009-07-23 10:22:11 2009-07-23 15:22:11 1 0 0 3427 lancemd@gmail.com 207.161.201.33 2009-07-23 10:34:04 2009-07-23 15:34:04 1 0 0 3428 gilsilber@gmail.com 99.234.205.225 2009-07-23 10:40:28 2009-07-23 15:40:28 1 0 0 3429 akarvat@gmail.com 70.70.150.62 2009-07-23 10:41:18 2009-07-23 15:41:18 1 0 0 3430 bbnoad@hotmail.com 99.249.87.237 2009-07-23 10:54:08 2009-07-23 15:54:08 1 0 0 3431 eddysabbah@hotmail.com 204.19.151.8 2009-07-23 11:09:53 2009-07-23 16:09:53 1 0 0 3432 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.199.155 2009-07-23 11:23:27 2009-07-23 16:23:27 1 0 0 3433 bertnam@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2009-07-23 13:01:34 2009-07-23 18:01:34 1 0 0 3434 malek_a80@hotmail.com 76.65.239.137 2009-07-23 13:50:28 2009-07-23 18:50:28 1 0 0 3435 erickfield@yahoo.com 207.236.147.118 2009-07-23 14:45:35 2009-07-23 19:45:35 1 0 0 3436 joeblowyy@hotmail.com 99.226.125.238 2009-07-23 16:02:13 2009-07-23 21:02:13 1 0 0 3437 tom_drake@shaw.ca http://canadianfinanceblog.com 96.52.4.155 2009-07-23 18:03:48 2009-07-23 23:03:48 1 0 0 3438 kevin.mackie@gmail.com 99.224.64.4 2009-07-23 18:05:09 2009-07-23 23:05:09 1 0 0 3439 wbishop@teksavvy.com 69.165.145.49 2009-07-23 18:12:27 2009-07-23 23:12:27 1 0 0 3440 ishariff17@hotmail.com 99.226.45.144 2009-07-23 19:22:22 2009-07-24 00:22:22 1 0 0 3441 vsergiev@hotmail.com 66.212.173.70 2009-07-23 19:36:38 2009-07-24 00:36:38 1 0 0 3442 jason.rider@gmail.com 24.68.149.89 2009-07-23 19:49:04 2009-07-24 00:49:04 1 0 0 3443 me@lukecyca.com 174.6.17.198 2009-07-23 20:03:03 2009-07-24 01:03:03 1 0 0 3444 artisan1@telus.net 173.183.227.129 2009-07-23 20:16:18 2009-07-24 01:16:18 1 0 0 3445 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-best-bets-for-a-bull-market-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-07-23 20:28:45 2009-07-24 01:28:45 1 pingback 0 0 3446 janetandalex@primus.ca 64.56.240.135 2009-07-23 20:47:02 2009-07-24 01:47:02 1 0 0 3447 rajesh_sampath@hotmail.com 173.32.108.179 2009-07-23 21:18:41 2009-07-24 02:18:41 1 0 0 3448 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-07-23 22:09:11 2009-07-24 03:09:11 1 0 0 3449 tenvuong@gmail.com 99.254.121.68 2009-07-23 22:15:16 2009-07-24 03:15:16 1 0 0 3450 april151952@gmail.com 99.233.68.202 2009-07-23 22:44:42 2009-07-24 03:44:42 1 0 0 3451 rajiverma@hotmail.com 99.254.143.242 2009-07-23 22:46:36 2009-07-24 03:46:36 1 0 0 3452 jnedila@gmail.com 24.84.168.182 2009-07-24 00:45:22 2009-07-24 05:45:22 1 0 0 3453 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/07/24/random-thoughts-happy-christmas/ 67.205.7.217 2009-07-24 01:35:18 2009-07-24 06:35:18 1 pingback 0 0 3454 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.62.166 2009-07-24 07:04:56 2009-07-24 12:04:56 1 0 0 3455 http://www.realizingretirement.ca/?p=85 174.143.244.91 2009-07-24 07:28:51 2009-07-24 12:28:51 1 pingback 0 0 3456 sollyom@hotmail.com 216.191.53.98 2009-07-24 07:52:07 2009-07-24 12:52:07 1 0 0 3457 kirksavoie@yahoo.com 66.46.199.130 2009-07-24 08:12:14 2009-07-24 13:12:14 1 0 0 3458 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 132.156.138.105 2009-07-24 08:22:41 2009-07-24 13:22:41 1 0 0 3459 dean.lewis@shaw.ca 142.152.102.38 2009-07-24 08:37:22 2009-07-24 13:37:22 1 0 0 3460 jocelyn_cleary@hotmail.com 205.210.47.14 2009-07-24 08:38:32 2009-07-24 13:38:32 1 0 0 3461 jamiemorell@gmail.com 208.124.133.122 2009-07-24 08:59:49 2009-07-24 13:59:49 1 0 0 3462 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-07-24 09:07:44 2009-07-24 14:07:44 1 0 0 3463 maryw416@hotmail.com 67.68.45.81 2009-07-24 09:58:05 2009-07-24 14:58:05 1 0 0 3464 dan.gavin@gm.com 198.208.251.21 2009-07-24 10:09:18 2009-07-24 15:09:18 1 0 0 3465 http://financialhighway.com/weekly-review-recession-over-edition-guest-posts/ 174.120.28.34 2009-07-24 10:33:03 2009-07-24 15:33:03 1 pingback 0 0 3466 flayto@hotmail.com 64.7.128.242 2009-07-24 11:11:26 2009-07-24 16:11:26 1 0 0 3467 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.com 99.249.27.207 2009-07-24 12:03:06 2009-07-24 17:03:06 1 0 0 3468 michael.bhadauria@gmail.com 206.248.186.97 2009-07-24 12:07:30 2009-07-24 17:07:30 1 0 0 3469 johnfettes@hotmail.com 207.195.38.250 2009-07-24 12:27:30 2009-07-24 17:27:30 1 0 0 3470 wjc@quickclic.net 207.210.13.196 2009-07-24 13:10:05 2009-07-24 18:10:05 1 0 0 3471 wjc@quickclic.net 207.210.13.196 2009-07-24 13:10:09 2009-07-24 18:10:09 1 0 0 3472 elmanl@canada.com 66.183.23.160 2009-07-24 15:15:53 2009-07-24 20:15:53 1 0 0 3473 KawaiiNeko2008@aol.com 76.237.229.107 2009-07-24 16:10:57 2009-07-24 21:10:57 1 0 0 3474 lasso.voltaic@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2009-07-24 16:16:18 2009-07-24 21:16:18 1 0 0 3475 ga100@the-archers.ca 76.65.2.116 2009-07-24 16:39:42 2009-07-24 21:39:42 1 0 0 3476 xrouge@gmail.com 217.132.29.225 2009-07-24 18:08:43 2009-07-24 23:08:43 1 0 0 3477 cjzsombor@shaw.ca 24.69.235.80 2009-07-24 19:16:49 2009-07-25 00:16:49 1 0 0 3478 comox@shaw.ca 96.54.111.3 2009-07-24 23:53:53 2009-07-25 04:53:53 1 0 0 3479 comox@shaw.ca 96.54.111.3 2009-07-24 23:54:40 2009-07-25 04:54:40 1 0 0 3480 djevans@cablerocket.com 207.102.203.6 2009-07-25 07:40:07 2009-07-25 12:40:07 1 0 0 3481 schamp1x@yahoo.ca 70.80.116.121 2009-07-25 14:27:24 2009-07-25 19:27:24 1 0 0 3482 kiik@golden.net 209.213.253.193 2009-07-25 14:34:32 2009-07-25 19:34:32 1 0 0 3483 todd_tran@hotmail.com 124.155.113.142 2009-07-25 17:15:47 2009-07-25 22:15:47 1 0 0 3484 zachgreenberg4@hotmail.com 173.33.200.110 2009-07-25 18:05:22 2009-07-25 23:05:22 1 0 0 3485 feizalmerali@shaw.ca 70.72.6.183 2009-07-25 23:39:47 2009-07-26 04:39:47 1 0 0 3486 davies.saskatoon@shaw.ca 174.2.9.45 2009-07-26 00:50:19 2009-07-26 05:50:19 1 0 0 3487 mattsheldon@rogers.com 99.229.18.40 2009-07-26 09:32:30 2009-07-26 14:32:30 1 0 0 3488 andrew@moneyandwealth.ca http://www.moneyandwealth.ca 99.227.203.233 2009-07-26 11:57:13 2009-07-26 16:57:13 1 0 0 3489 marianne.ono@ontario.ca 142.106.220.190 2009-07-27 08:34:28 2009-07-27 13:34:28 1 0 0 3490 kennyrogers3@hotmail.com 99.253.90.190 2009-07-27 12:58:23 2009-07-27 17:58:23 1 0 0 3491 garrytink@shaw.ca 96.51.217.141 2009-07-27 17:27:54 2009-07-27 22:27:54 1 0 0 3492 contests@mpatz.endjunk.com 75.153.83.248 2009-07-27 22:47:32 2009-07-28 03:47:32 1 0 0 3493 Paula_A_Thorne@yahoo.com 131.137.245.197 2009-07-28 10:03:48 2009-07-28 15:03:48 1 0 0 3494 alastair.clarke@gmail.com 142.47.248.4 2009-07-28 12:33:05 2009-07-28 17:33:05 1 0 0 3495 johnbennett20012001@yahoo.ca 99.226.111.245 2009-07-28 21:46:41 2009-07-29 02:46:41 1 0 0 3496 husseinjunk@hotmail.com 142.106.249.216 2009-07-29 08:58:38 2009-07-29 13:58:38 1 0 0 3497 gemnitya@aol.com 115.240.203.137 2009-07-29 09:58:25 2009-07-29 14:58:25 1 0 0 3498 bklunder@telus.net 142.59.49.134 2009-07-29 10:17:10 2009-07-29 15:17:10 1 0 0 3499 gbebee@nohypeinvesting.com http://www.nohypeinvesting.com 99.226.231.239 2009-07-30 07:28:26 2009-07-30 12:28:26 1 0 0 3500 frappachino22@yahoo.com 174.102.147.232 2009-07-30 12:22:24 2009-07-30 17:22:24 1 0 0 3501 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-56/ 68.178.254.235 2009-07-30 21:43:00 2009-07-31 02:43:00 1 pingback 0 0 3502 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 24.79.175.35 2009-07-31 07:25:03 2009-07-31 12:25:03 1 0 0 3503 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 70.70.150.62 2009-07-31 10:08:30 2009-07-31 15:08:30 1 0 0 3504 s4d33@hotmail.com 142.205.241.254 2009-07-31 10:37:59 2009-07-31 15:37:59 1 0 0 3505 steve@steveonline.ca http://www.steveonline.ca 99.241.79.12 2009-07-31 22:17:00 2009-08-01 03:17:00 1 0 0 3506 ajolkaaa2@gawab.com http://debtsettlementz.com/loan-bank/ 78.26.187.217 2010-04-23 10:59:19 2010-04-23 15:59:19 spam 0 0 3507 mutuelllllfsdfsdffsfsde@gawab.com http://mutuelle.compareo.net/ 59.149.65.231 2010-04-23 14:12:36 2010-04-23 19:12:36 viagra]]> spam 0 0 3508 vianthish@gawab.com http://sdls.info 213.191.25.208 2010-04-24 00:55:04 2010-04-24 05:55:04 spam 0 0 3509 yilima80@gmail.com http://www.sportshoesgo.com 117.40.196.156 2010-04-24 15:34:29 2010-04-24 20:34:29 spam 0 0
    A Financial Advisor Comments On The Genesis of DSC Funds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-financial-advisor-comments-on-the-genesis-of-dsc-funds/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:18:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1202 Last week I had a guest post by Ken Kivenko titled "The Genesis of DSC Mutual Funds". Financial advisor and author of the book Professional Financial Advisor II,  John De Goey, CFP adds his comments:

    Ken,

    According to your latest article re: The Genesis of DSC (forwarded to me by Preet, BTW), you refer to trailers as “fees”. Please don’t.  As you will recall from previous conversations, all prospectuses and regulators refer to trailers as “commissions”.  The “re-branding” of the actual status of trailers is something the industry does in trying to legitimize their services as being offered by professionals, not salesmen.  If, as you so often say, mutual funds are sold, not bought, then surely you would agree that the term “Trailing Commission” is not only technically correct, but that it is also a more accurate term from a moral perspective, as well. The mutual fund industry seems determined to engage in a clandestine form of re-branding.  Specifically, they figure that if enough people will refer to trailing commissions as “trailer fees”, then these commissions will undergo a metamorphosis into fees simply by virtue of having been re-positioned by other people in the broader marketplace. Alas for mutual fund companies (and thank goodness for consumers), calling an apple an orange doesn’t turn it into an orange. Trailers were, are and always will be a form of commission.  Here’s why the difference is critical: professionals charge fees; sales representatives earn commissions.  The fund industry wants to position representatives as professionals without having them actually ACT like professionals.  As of today, many commentators, journalists and others have been unwittingly co-opted into this subtle, but highly dangerous re-branding scheme. Thanks to John for his comments and his permission to post them to this website. Comments are welcome as always. ]]>
    1202 2009-07-26 20:18:42 2009-07-27 01:18:42 open open a-financial-advisor-comments-on-the-genesis-of-dsc-funds publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1248657524 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/coinstacks220.gif 3510 http://www.yonikatz.com/wootube/?p=11317 77.232.92.23 2009-07-26 21:20:10 2009-07-27 02:20:10 1 pingback 0 0 3511 melmarten@hotmail.com http://www.claroconnect.com 97.87.182.212 2009-08-18 23:15:27 2009-08-19 04:15:27 1 0 0
    Earl Jones http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/earl-jones/ Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:07:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1203 You may want to share this with friends and family, tweet it, or share it via other social media like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, etc. This is a simple, but very important post. If you haven't heard by now, there was a "financial planner" in Montreal who defrauded Canadian (and some US) investors of an estimated $50 million in what looks to be a giant ponzi scheme. His name is Earl Jones, and he is being described as Canada's Bernie Madoff. He was just arrested today, thankfully. You can read more about the Earl Jones story here, but one thing that I want to point out was that Earl Jones was not registered as an advisor in any way. While being licensed does not guarantee a good advisor, or even guarantee that an advisor can't find a way to defraud investors of money, it is certainly worth the 30 seconds of your time to see if your advisor is registered with your provincial securities commission. You know what they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

    How To Check If Your Advisor Is Registered (QUICKLY!)

    Here is a list of all provincial regulators, and links or details on how to quickly check on your advisor's registration status: Alberta Securities Commission - Web search form. You can search by first or last name. British Columbia Securities Commission - Web search form. You can search by last name. Manitoba Securities Commission - Web listing. You can scroll through a giant list to find your advisor. New Brunswick Securities Commission - Web listing. You can scroll through an alphabetical listing. Securities Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador - No web listing or search function, but you can call (709) 729-4189 to ask someone to manually check. Northwest Territories Department Of Justice - Phone number to call, no web search or listing: Call (867) 920-3318 to have someone check for you. Nova Scotia Securities Commission - Web search form. Search by first or last name. Nunavut Securities Registry - No web search or listings. You must call (867) 975-6591 to check by phone. Ontario Securities Commission - Web search form. Search by last name. Prince Edward Island Securities Office (PEISO) of the Office of the Attorney General - Web listing: Search by firm name first then scroll to find your advisor. Quebec (Autorité Des Marchés Financiers) - Web search form: search by first or last name. Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission - Web search form: make sure to switch to "Search by individual" mode first, then search by first or last name. Yukon Securities Office - Weird: the Yukon Securities Office (for what reason I do not know) explicitly prohibits people from linking to their website or even providing the URL for the website without written consent (it's in their disclaimer!). Is the internet new there? The number they provide for contacting the Yukon Securities Office is (867) 667-5225. If you call to check up on your advisor, make sure to tell them not to worry about the Y2K bug in case they are still wondering about that...]]>
    1203 2009-07-27 21:07:42 2009-07-28 02:07:42 open open earl-jones publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1248747139 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/grenade.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/grenade.png 3512 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.180.97 2009-07-28 10:07:31 2009-07-28 15:07:31 1 0 0 3513 http://www.lawsia.net/blog/Securities/2009/07/28/appliance-sales-%c2%bb-major-appliance-sales/ 67.219.63.243 2009-07-28 10:16:49 2009-07-28 15:16:49 1 pingback 0 0 3514 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-28 16:03:19 2009-07-28 21:03:19 Yukon Securities Office for you! Prohibitions against linking to web sites are not only absurd; they are unenforceable.]]> 1 0 0 3515 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/providing-the-website-for-the-yukon-securities-office-is-prohibited/ 68.178.254.235 2009-07-28 19:17:03 2009-07-29 00:17:03 1 pingback 0 0 3516 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/07/30/this-and-that-retroactive-tfsa-contribution-room-financial-literacy-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 74.208.148.118 2009-07-30 20:56:21 2009-07-31 01:56:21 1 pingback 0 0 3517 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/07/31/random-thoughts-clean-up-that-garbage/ 67.205.7.217 2009-07-31 06:15:49 2009-07-31 11:15:49 1 pingback 0 0 3518 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-08-02 20:20:22 2009-08-03 01:20:22 1 0 0 3519 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-03 19:34:20 2009-08-04 00:34:20 1 0 0 3520 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/how-a-reader-was-taken-for-200000/ 68.178.254.235 2009-08-18 22:26:03 2009-08-19 03:26:03 1 pingback 0 0
    Providing the Website for The Yukon Securities Office is PROHIBITED! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/providing-the-website-for-the-yukon-securities-office-is-prohibited/ Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:16:56 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1204 how to check if your advisor is registered with your provincial securities commission yesterday, the last entry showed the process for those living in the Yukon. It was also the only one which didn't have a link to the commissions' website. Why you ask? Well, their Disclaimer page indicates that no one is allowed to create or provide links or hyperlinks without written authorization from the Yukon Securities Office. In reality, I'm sure it's something they would be happy to correct, and I imagine they would never go after someone for linking to them or any of their pages - but in the meantime, think about how silly a policy like that is: If you google "Yukon Securities Office", the search page provides a link - and I doubt Google has written permission from the commission. So technically, the Yukon Securities Office should be very angry with Google. :P They should be just fine with me though. Look Ma! No links!]]> 1204 2009-07-28 19:16:56 2009-07-29 00:16:56 open open providing-the-website-for-the-yukon-securities-office-is-prohibited publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _edit_lock 1248826618 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 3521 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-29 07:49:51 2009-07-29 12:49:51 link to a government web site with a disclaimer that prohibits linking. On the other hand, I, as a commenter, feel no such compunction, thanks to a rather important document I once read about on Wikipedia.]]> 1 0 0 3522 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-07-29 15:02:19 2009-07-29 20:02:19 1 0 0 3523 waynekp@hotmail.com http://networthcanada.org 99.237.30.114 2009-07-30 13:15:04 2009-07-30 18:15:04 1 0 0 An Investment Company Owned By Its Clients http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/an-investment-company-owned-by-its-clients/ Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:27:31 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1205 Vanguard Funds in the United States is in fact owned by the clients. With management now being responsible to the clients it is easier to understand why the average expense ratio for Vanguard Funds is a miniscule 0.20% and why they manage about $1 trillion in assets: they are guided by accountability to the client and no-one else. I heard an unconfirmed report that Vanguard will be setting up shop in Canada in 2010. I have to stress there is no confirmation of this, but if it were to happen it would be the impetus for a lot of change in the financial services in Canada - guaranteed.]]> 1205 2009-07-29 20:27:31 2009-07-30 01:27:31 open open an-investment-company-owned-by-its-clients publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1248917253 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/martin-luther-king2.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/martin-luther-king2.jpg 3524 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.109.78 2009-07-30 08:13:27 2009-07-30 13:13:27 1 0 0 3525 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-07-30 10:11:04 2009-07-30 15:11:04 1 0 0 3526 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-07-30 14:16:28 2009-07-30 19:16:28 1 0 0 3527 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-30 18:24:04 2009-07-30 23:24:04 1 0 0 3528 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.109.78 2009-07-31 08:55:11 2009-07-31 13:55:11 1 0 0 3529 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-31 10:05:37 2009-07-31 15:05:37 1 0 0 3530 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.109.78 2009-07-31 15:06:49 2009-07-31 20:06:49 1 0 0 3531 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-07-31 15:36:19 2009-07-31 20:36:19 1 0 0 3532 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.109.78 2009-07-31 19:41:31 2009-08-01 00:41:31 1 0 0 3533 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-07-31 20:04:49 2009-08-01 01:04:49 1 0 0 3534 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.109.78 2009-08-01 09:42:39 2009-08-01 14:42:39 1 0 0 3535 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-03 19:32:39 2009-08-04 00:32:39 1 0 0 3536 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.109.78 2009-08-03 20:47:21 2009-08-04 01:47:21 1 0 0 3537 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/08/07/random-thoughts-back-to-work-edition/ 67.205.7.217 2009-08-07 06:05:12 2009-08-07 11:05:12 1 pingback 0 0 3538 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/bastardization-of-indexing/ 68.178.254.235 2009-08-30 18:59:41 2009-08-30 23:59:41 1 pingback 0 0 3539 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/vanguard-starts-rolling-out-eight-page-prospectuses-simplifying-things-for-investors/ 208.109.181.85 2010-04-06 22:31:25 2010-04-07 03:31:25 1 pingback 0 0 3540 http://rls31knowledge.zerorichparty.com/?p=73 207.44.148.194 2010-04-08 10:44:13 2010-04-08 15:44:13 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-56/ Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:42:44 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1206 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video - it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Don't forget that you only have until midnight on Friday, July 31st (2009) to enter the massive giveaway contest to celebrate this blog turning two years old. Right now your chances are about 1 in 6 to win something. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment - can be anything, like "bonds are for losers" (even though all the kids who bought bonds in high school end up getting the hot girlfriends/boyfriends later in life). :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    In case you missed it, I provided a list of all the provincial securities commissions' web forms or phone numbers for quickly checking if your advisor is registered as a financial advisor in your province. Jonathan Chevreau notes that 90% of boomers want to travel in retirement, but 60% of boomers have no financial plan to do so. You know what they say, experience is something you tend to get just AFTER you really needed it. :) I recently met Ermanno Pascutto and Steve Garmaise from FAIR Canada (Foundation for the Advancement of Investor Rights). Great guys, tonnes of experience and I'm really grateful for their contributions. Like this: Noting that Canada needs a more transparent bond market. Money Grubbing Lawyer writes about Lies, Damn Lies and Formulas. This blog is quickly becoming one of my mostest, favouritest reads. Read on and you'll see why! What is the best type of account for holding Canadian dividend paying stocks? Canadian Capitalist provides some detailed insight. Million Dollar Journey wonders if it is better to pay off lower balance debts first or highest interest debts first. The answer is not as cut and dry as you might think (psychological factors). Do you consider spending cash the same as borrowing if you still carry debts? Four Pillars weighs in.

    This Week's Racing Video

    I don't think I've ever posted in-car footage from a run down the quarter mile. This is a blindingly fast car, but it's amazing to think that the fastest dragsters in the world will reach 480 km/h before you finish reading this sentence. (This one is nowhere near that fast, but still REALLY impressive). Check it out and have a great long weekend everyone!

    ]]> 1206 2009-07-30 21:42:44 2009-07-31 02:42:44 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-56 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1249008174 _edit_last 1 3541 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-07-30 22:22:31 2009-07-31 03:22:31 1 0 0 3542 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-07-31 09:36:04 2009-07-31 14:36:04 1 0 0 3543 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-07-31 11:09:57 2009-07-31 16:09:57 1 0 0 Two Year Anniversary Giveaway Winners! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/two-year-anniversary-giveaway-winners/ Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:24:27 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1207 Winner Name Comment Cam Birch Congratulations on the blog Andres (Camacho) Preet I wonder when Penny Please include me into your contest Xenko Happy Anniversary Mike Wee I like contests Erick Sign me up. Stevie Congrats on your success Canadian Capitalist Pingback SW Wow, 2 years James Congrats! Love the advice on this Brian Count Me In PoorFella Congrats! Love the advice on this Brian Happy 2 years Abhad Good luck in the years to come Ethan please enter me to win Alan I'll pass on the books Sean (Realizing Retire by twitter) Tweet ]]> 1207 2009-08-03 17:24:27 2009-08-03 22:24:27 open open two-year-anniversary-giveaway-winners publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1249338412 _edit_last 1 3544 gene2u@mts.net 71.17.216.69 2009-08-03 18:06:16 2009-08-03 23:06:16 1 0 0 3545 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.199.155 2009-08-03 20:22:02 2009-08-04 01:22:02 1 0 0 3546 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-04 00:25:30 2009-08-04 05:25:30 1 0 0 3547 ria.altax@gmail.com http://numia.biz 122.164.224.184 2009-08-11 08:50:03 2009-08-11 13:50:03 1 0 0 Free Investment Management http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/free-investment-management/ Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:29:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1208 Management Expense Ratios) being very low on index tracking ETFs (for example Vanguard charges a piddly 0.07% MER on VTI - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index ETF), you wouldn't think there could be ways to offer still cheaper ETFs. Did you know there is now an ETF out there with an MER of 0.00%? Don't believe me? Then click here to learn more about the db x-trackers DJ Euro Stoxx 50 Index ETF. (You may have to click a box to accept the terms for use of the website and then reload the page.) Of course, if anyone actually believes that this ETF is not designed to make the company money, you are unfortunately mistaken. Part of the reason they can charge a 0.00% MER is that the revenues from securities lending more than offsets the cost of running the fund. Securities lending means the fund lends out stocks in the fund to short-sellers (who need to borrow stocks in order to short sell them). The fund collects interest on the lending of these stocks. This is exactly what Larry MacDonald had proposed (tongue in cheek) in a blog post of his some time ago...]]> 1208 2009-08-04 15:29:03 2009-08-04 20:29:03 open open free-investment-management publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1249417744 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/pushingupsign220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/pushingupsign220.gif 3548 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-04 17:42:48 2009-08-04 22:42:48 1 0 0 3549 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-08-04 19:15:32 2009-08-05 00:15:32 1 0 0 3550 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-04 20:23:33 2009-08-05 01:23:33 1 0 0 3551 markcnoble@gmail.com 24.114.255.3 2009-08-05 12:51:57 2009-08-05 17:51:57 1 0 0 3552 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-05 13:10:21 2009-08-05 18:10:21 1 0 0 3553 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-05 13:34:19 2009-08-05 18:34:19 1 0 0 3554 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-05 15:02:03 2009-08-05 20:02:03 1 0 0 3555 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-05 15:14:02 2009-08-05 20:14:02 1 0 0 3556 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-risks-of-securities-lending/ 68.178.254.235 2009-08-05 18:07:05 2009-08-05 23:07:05 1 pingback 0 0 3557 http://www.realizingretirement.ca/2009/08/rr-top-5-in-the-news-edition/ 174.143.244.91 2009-08-07 07:03:56 2009-08-07 12:03:56 1 pingback 0 0 3558 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/manulife-dividend-cut-and-links/ 216.227.218.225 2009-09-09 12:02:30 2009-09-09 17:02:30 1 pingback 0 0 3559 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/08/06/manulife-dividend-cut-and-links/ 70.32.84.217 2009-12-16 00:11:57 2009-12-16 05:11:57 1 pingback 0 0 The Risks Of Securities Lending http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-risks-of-securities-lending/ Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:06:56 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1209 charge a 0.00% MER was due in part to the revenues it collects on lending out securities to short-sellers. Below is a short list of risks involved in securities lending* (taken on by the unitholder, which is important to note).

    1. Credit / Counterparty risk - the short seller defaults on returning the securities they borrowed
    2. Market risk - Adverse or abrupt movements in the underlying security's price (which can affect the short sellers' ability to return the security)
    3. Cash Re-investment risk - when the cash collateral is invested in something that falls in value
    4. Foreign Exchange risk - when the collateral is denominated in a different currency than the security being lent
    5. Legal risk - the enforceability of the contract between the fund and short seller, especially if the companies operate in different countries
    6. Mismatch risk - risk of differing price movement behaviour of the collateral and the securities on loan
    7. Recall risk - risk of delayed return of securities when requested by the fund
    8. Operational risk - inadequate technology or infrastructure to facilitate securities lending properly and competently
    9. Settlement risk - if the securities are not returned at the same time that the collateral is given back, there is risk borne in what is known as "daylight" exposure
    It should also be noted that there are numerous controls and protocols that are in place to deal with these risks, but given that the total dollar volume of securities on loan in 2007 reached $5.5 Trillion (USD), more attention needs to be paid by regulators. Additionally, the retail investor may or not be participating in the securities lending taking place in their investment funds, but they are most certainly taking part in the risks involved.
    *Source: RBC Dexia Investor Services - Demistifying Securities Lending, July 2009
    ]]>
    1209 2009-08-05 18:06:56 2009-08-05 23:06:56 open open the-risks-of-securities-lending publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1249513621 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 3560 financialtactics@gmail.com http://financialtactics.blogspot.com 76.68.36.50 2009-08-06 06:55:36 2009-08-06 11:55:36 1 0 0 3561 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-06 07:47:51 2009-08-06 12:47:51 1 0 0 3562 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-the-10-life-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-08-06 21:41:05 2009-08-07 02:41:05 1 pingback 0 0 3563 roy.zimmerhansl@googlemail.com http://www.stocklendingtoday.com 87.83.175.202 2009-08-10 10:47:40 2009-08-10 15:47:40 1 0 0 3564 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-10 11:28:38 2009-08-10 16:28:38 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-57/ Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:34:23 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1210 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video - it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… The W Network has just re-launched their website and the pictures they've decided to use for me were taken at the height of a nasty cold I had during filming. On top of having a cold, I also had pink eye and the make-up artist had me dousing my eyeballs with some magic eye-ball whitener. Anyways, I'll always chuckle to myself when I see that picture. And so can you: click here for the pic!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Tonight is date night, but Fiona has graciously given me 20 minutes to whip off this week's lap of the blogs so you'll have to excuse the lack of commentary on each link: Larry MacDonald: ETF Screener Canadian Capitalist: Investing in Stamps, Coins, Comic Books, Baseball Cards and more… Jonathan Chevreau: Wake-up call for financial advisors catering to the wealthy The Money Gardener: Manulife cuts its dividend! Big Cajun Man: I didn't know I was that far in debt Michael James on Money: Spending Mind Games Million Dollar Journey: Getting the best deal on currency exchange Thicken My Wallet: How to be a better employee Four Pillars: Extreme Cheap!

    This Week's Racing Video

    As you may know, I bought a serious racing kart a few weeks ago and last weekend was the first time I was able to let 'er rip! I took a short video to show how much faster a 2 stroke kart (like mine) is compared to a 4 stroke kart (and these ones are probably faster than the indoor karts most people would be used to). There is no contest, and it's a LOT of fun to drive. I'll work on getting some on-board footage in the next month or two. P.S.: That's my friend driving. He's way slower than me. :) lol

    ]]>
    1210 2009-08-06 20:34:23 2009-08-07 01:34:23 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-57 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1249608865 3565 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2009-08-06 21:00:41 2009-08-07 02:00:41 1 0 0 3566 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-08-06 21:28:15 2009-08-07 02:28:15 1 0 0 3567 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 70.48.53.126 2009-08-06 22:14:01 2009-08-07 03:14:01 1 0 0 3568 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-08-07 00:11:14 2009-08-07 05:11:14 1 0 0 3569 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.26.94 2009-08-07 04:53:52 2009-08-07 09:53:52 1 0 0 3570 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-08-07 09:45:43 2009-08-07 14:45:43 1 0 0 3571 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-07 10:02:45 2009-08-07 15:02:45 1 0 0 3572 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-07 12:22:41 2009-08-07 17:22:41 1 0 0
    Highest Grossing Movies Of All Time http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/highest-grossing-movies-of-all-time/ Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:52:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1211 Highest Grossing Movies Domestically Below are the top 10 grossing movies in North America of all time, unadjusted for inflation. This explains why the list is dominated by recent releases... $600,788,188 - Titanic $533,345,358 - The Dark Knight $460,998,007 - Star Wars $441,226,247 - Shrek 2 $435,110,554 - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial $431,088,301 - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace $423,315,812 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $403,706,375 - Spider-Man $393,701,000 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $380,270,577 - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith See the full list from the source: BoxOfficeMOJO.com

    Now Let's Adjust For Inflation...

    Note how the list changes. In this case, the total number of ticket sales for each movie is multiplied by the 2009 average ticket price ($7.18 USD). Movie goers didn't pony up $7.18 back in 1939 to see Gone With The Wind because $7.18 went a lot farther back then than it did today. But if Gone With The Wind was released today, and the same number of people went to see it (presumably over and over again) as back then, it would've blown away all other movies... $1,450,680,400 - Gone with the Wind $1,278,898,700 - Star Wars $1,022,542,400 - The Sound of Music $1,018,514,100 - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial $940,580,000 - The Ten Commandments $921,523,500 - Titanic $919,605,900 - Jaws $891,292,600 - Doctor Zhivago $793,883,100 - The Exorcist $782,620,000 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs See the full list from the source: BoxOfficeMOJO.com

    Worldwide Box Office Gross

    This list looks at the worldwide ticket receipts. It is NOT adjusted for inflation, but note that many movies can earn as much as 50-75% of their worldwide gross internationally. $1,842,900.00 - Titanic $1,119,100.00 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $1,066,200.00 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $1,001,900.00 - The Dark Knight $974,700.00 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone $961,000.00 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $938,200.00 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $925,300.00 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers $924,300.00 - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace $919,800.00 - Shrek 2 View the full list at the source: BoxOfficeMojo.com

    Highest Return On Investment

    With action films normally topping the box-office receipts, and budgets of hundreds of millions it is almost expected that these types of movies bring in $50 million on opening weekends. But these movies carry a lot of risk. With a budget of $200 million, a film can be a flop and end up losing the studio money. The annual box office winner films are normally returning 300-1000% on their original investment. The absolute returns are often high, but of course, the holy grail would be a low budget, blockbuster - like 1976's Rocky. This movie was produced for a lowly budget of $1,100,000 and yielded $225,000,000 at the box office - this represented a return of 22,400%. Source: Wikipedia

    If It Ain't Broke...

    Once Hollywood cranks out a winner, it is less risky to continue with that formula in the form of sequels. Here is the list of ten highest grossing film series to date (not adjusted for inflation). Note that the James Bond series has 22 installments while some others have "only" 3. $5,243,609,875 - Harry Potter $4,914,400,000 - James Bond $4,279,632,749 - Star Wars $2,915,155,189 - The Lord of the Rings $2,681,440,232 - Pirates of the Caribbean $2,627,539,384 - Batman $2,496,346,518 - Spider-Man $2,203,206,138 - Shrek $1,978,055,564 - Indiana Jones $1,902,110,926 - Jurassic Park Source: Wikipedia]]>
    1211 2009-08-09 18:52:06 2009-08-09 23:52:06 open open highest-grossing-movies-of-all-time publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1249862076 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/jabba.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/jabba.jpg 3573 http://www.movies.blogsq10.com/?p=4283 95.211.9.164 2009-08-09 20:04:22 2009-08-10 01:04:22 1 pingback 0 0 3574 http://www.ifilmnews.com/?p=6458 69.89.31.122 2009-08-09 20:36:01 2009-08-10 01:36:01 1 pingback 0 0 3575 http://realurl.org/twitted.php?id=3219361832 94.23.51.159 2009-08-09 22:30:25 2009-08-10 03:30:25 1 pingback 0 0 3576 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-08-09 23:17:06 2009-08-10 04:17:06 1 0 0 3577 http://seven-lotus.net/movies/no-catagories/highest-grossing-movies-of-all-time-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 98.130.2.61 2009-08-09 23:46:33 2009-08-10 04:46:33 1 pingback 0 0 3578 http://www.kotihost.com/?p=6029 74.52.124.2 2009-08-09 23:53:12 2009-08-10 04:53:12 1 pingback 0 0 3579 http://realurl.org/twitted.php?id=3221290854 94.23.51.159 2009-08-10 01:35:13 2009-08-10 06:35:13 1 pingback 0 0 3580 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.15 2009-08-10 09:04:45 2009-08-10 14:04:45 1 0 0 3581 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-08-10 10:43:47 2009-08-10 15:43:47 1 0 0 3582 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-10 14:48:38 2009-08-10 19:48:38 1 0 0 3583 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-10 14:51:19 2009-08-10 19:51:19 1 0 0 3584 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-10 14:54:29 2009-08-10 19:54:29 1 0 0 3585 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.15 2009-08-10 15:03:50 2009-08-10 20:03:50 1 0 0 3586 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/132edi 208.74.66.43 2009-09-01 06:01:07 2009-09-01 11:01:07 1 pingback 0 0 3587 mike3316@go.com 198.203.175.175 2009-10-23 10:58:35 2009-10-23 15:58:35 1 0 0 3588 http://moviesberry.com/vids/vid_beyond_the_poseidon_adventure.html 82.146.52.228 2009-12-27 19:16:46 2009-12-28 00:16:46 1 pingback 0 0
    Champagne Wedding On A Beer Budget http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/champagne-wedding-on-a-beer-budget/ Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:36:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1212 Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Today I’m excited to feature another guest post by the vivacious Daniela Garritano - designer extraordinaire, and one of the competitors on the Ultimate W Expert Challenge. Daniela is available for design consultations (email her here) and you can learn more about her on her Facebook Fan Page. Without further ado, take it away Daniela! You're engaged! Congrats! Soooo.....now what? Working together to create a flexible and realistic financial plan is a terrific way to start the planning process! The trick is not only to save, but to know where to save. Read on for 5 great ways to reduce the price of big ticket items, and disguise the fact that you've saved hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, yet still look as though you've pulled out all the stops!

    1) You're Invited!

    Wedding invites always seem to be outrageously priced based on what you're getting. Aside from the hardship in finding a decent style that really reflects the both of you, inviting a larger crowd can run you an invite price tag of anywhere from $400-$900+! So, why not make your own? When I design an invite for a client, the best part of it all is not only the incredible savings by the hundreds, but the invite being custom tailored to illustrate and celebrate the couple's uniqueness. And you deserve no different! So, hit up your local craft or scrapbooking store to start sourcing paper, prototypes and in some cases, free classes to show you how to pull it all off! Plus, it's a super fun and rewarding project to do with those lovely bridesmaids or groomsmen who will happily help you out! Daniela's Pick: Not crafty? Try invitation templates! Just fill in the blanks and print! Try Canadian Bride's all inclusive invites. $54.99 for a box of 40 sold at Michael's Craft Superstore. D's Tip: Consider investing in an embosser. It can cost less than half the cost of printing address labels and you can use it for holiday cards and invites in the future to keep up the savings! Yay!

    2) Stop and smell the roses!

    Wedding flowers seem to carry the same emotional price tag baggage as Valentine's Day flowers - vendors know you need them, so they can often get away with hiking up the price. However, did you know that the floral departments in some of the bigger grocery chains cater to special events, with absolutely stunning arrangements at a fraction of the cost of a florist? (Skeptical? Don't be! Back in the day, my prom date bragged about my beautiful $5 corsage when everyone else was forking out at least $20 to a florist! Suckers!) Daniela's Pick: A&P (or its sister store, Metro or Dominion). Ask for their special occasion's price listing. Their all inclusive bridal package is priced at $499.99! Get going! D's Tip: For added savings, try choosing flowers that are home grown and locally produced.  Anything flown in and grown in exotic places can increase your costs by twice as much!

    3) Cut a little rug (and coin!)

    Okay, I'll say it. Lame music can make a wedding bleak and just plain hurting! The DJ at a friend's wedding charged them $700 and all he did was click the play button on his laptop. The song list was heinous, and there was no killer mixing or shout outs to the party people in the back. It was painful! Sadly, finding a good DJ can be a crapshoot at best. Until now! Daniela's Pick: We all have a friend who was born to entertain (I'm guessing that it's you Preet within your posse?). You can have the power to create your own sweet play list for next to nothing courtesy of your laptop, ipod and a good friend you trust to act as DJ and Emcee. Plus, just imagine how extra special it will be having someone you both know and adore play a personal role in such an amazing day!   D's Tip: Bust it! Try downloading albums from well known club DJ's. You get a continuous playlist with no mixing required!

    4) Tis the Season!

    Remember, when it comes to a wedding, almost everything is negotiable! With venue's, if you can avoid saying "I do" on a Saturday, you can possibly save thousands of dollars on your wedding bill! Most venues charge by way of a "per plate" fee. However, depending on the time of year you get married, along with the day of the week, in some cases, vendors can lower their prices of up to $20 - $30 less per plate - for the exact same menu! Daniela's Pick: Peak wedding season typically begins in April ending in October. If you can avoid this window, and brave the cooler temperatures, you can likely negotiate extras into the price! D's Tip: The absolute cheapest time of year for most venues? January!

    5) The Centre of Attention!

    A centerpiece is what truly makes your table shine! They can cost hundreds so try collecting pictures of your favorite looks in order to recreate them on your own.  It's a great way to showcase your personality and it can really up the ante when it comes to faking the look of an expensive show piece. The illusion of a really expensive centerpiece comes from its height and colour. The higher the piece, and the more intense the colour, the most extravagant the table will look. An elegant mixture of candles and flowers is a perfect way to not only make a beautiful ambient statement, but also add instant glamour! Daniela's Pick: Try placing pillar candles of different heights and widths on mirrored plates or coasters in groups of 3 or 4. Then scatter some rose petals along the tabletop focusing on the centre. Try using Crafts Brand pillar candles, mirrored coasters and large bag of faux rose petals available in a variety of colours. $1.00 for each item! Available in the craft and candle aisle at Dollarama! D's Tip: Hands full with the DIY invites? Some venues even offer standard centerpieces that can be rented for the day as a part of your package for a small added fee. Just ask your vendor! In the end, with all of the rigmarole in planning a wedding, it may seem like extra work to take on these projects yourself. However, with a little patience, and the right resources, you'll not only stick to your budget, but the wedding itself will reflect the most important thing of all - the two of you. To the happy couple! Next time from Daniela - In renovation hell? Affordable finishes that really go the distance! ...and remember: Daniela is available for design consultations (email her here) and you can learn more about her on her Facebook Fan Page.]]>
    1212 2009-08-10 18:36:45 2009-08-10 23:36:45 open open champagne-wedding-on-a-beer-budget publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1252371316 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg 3589 http://thestylishwedding.com/champagne-wedding-on-a-beer-budget-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 74.53.239.178 2009-08-11 11:39:59 2009-08-11 16:39:59 1 pingback 0 0 3590 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-11 11:45:04 2009-08-11 16:45:04 1 0 0 3591 peachesisaprissy@yahoo.com 99.254.89.124 2009-08-11 18:02:16 2009-08-11 23:02:16 1 0 0 3592 micmikadelic12@yahoo.com 99.254.89.124 2009-08-11 18:10:58 2009-08-11 23:10:58 1 0 0 3593 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-dog-days-of-summer-edition/ 75.119.202.206 2009-08-13 16:15:12 2009-08-13 21:15:12 1 pingback 0 0 3594 maroyt@yahoo.com 99.242.249.153 2009-08-13 23:23:29 2009-08-14 04:23:29 1 0 0 3595 mandycandypandy@yahoo.com 99.254.89.124 2009-08-14 13:28:24 2009-08-14 18:28:24 1 0 0 3596 tresametutto@yahoo.com 99.243.19.64 2009-09-06 18:55:08 2009-09-06 23:55:08 1 0 0 3597 flowerprices777@gmail.com http://www.mayweddingflowers.com 125.162.69.114 2009-10-17 02:23:02 2009-10-17 07:23:02 1 0 0
    usdebtclock http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/us-debt-clock/usdebtclock/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:46:09 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/usdebtclock.jpg 1214 2009-08-11 21:46:09 2009-08-12 02:46:09 open open usdebtclock inherit 1213 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/usdebtclock.jpg _wp_attached_file usdebtclock.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"883";s:6:"height";s:3:"555";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='80' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:15:"usdebtclock.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"usdebtclock-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"usdebtclock-300x188.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"188";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"usdebtclock-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"usdebtclock-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} US Debt Clock http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/us-debt-clock/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:50:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1213 or here) to see the clock being updated in real time. Absolutely staggering stuff. Makes me want to decrease my allocation to US equities...

    US Debt Clock

    ]]>
    1213 2009-08-11 21:50:20 2009-08-12 02:50:20 open open us-debt-clock publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1250045423 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 3598 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.136.159 2009-08-12 01:37:23 2009-08-12 06:37:23 1 0 0 3599 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 142.206.2.12 2009-08-12 08:25:00 2009-08-12 13:25:00 1 0 0 3600 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-08-12 11:13:30 2009-08-12 16:13:30 1 0 0 3601 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/08/14/random-thoughts-tgif/ 67.205.7.217 2009-08-14 02:04:38 2009-08-14 07:04:38 1 pingback 0 0 3602 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/08/14/financial-independence-is-taken-not-given/ 82.165.243.157 2009-08-14 04:00:06 2009-08-14 09:00:06 1 pingback 0 0 3603 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/08/14/weekend-reading-%e2%80%93-august-14-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-08-14 05:53:19 2009-08-14 10:53:19 1 pingback 0 0 3604 ciceve30@gmail.com http://instateinsurance.com 85.175.197.37 2009-08-21 09:45:03 2009-08-21 14:45:03 1 0 0 3605 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-21 11:56:58 2009-08-21 16:56:58 1 0 0 3606 http://randomhotnews.com/us-debt-clock 174.132.78.2 2009-08-24 18:31:49 2009-08-24 23:31:49 1 pingback 0 0 3607 http://www.ftp2ftp.net/us-debt-clock/6729/ 74.55.4.226 2009-08-25 09:19:04 2009-08-25 14:19:04 1 pingback 0 0 3608 http://minikk.us/us-debt-clock-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 74.53.58.9 2009-09-09 19:17:32 2009-09-10 00:17:32 1 pingback 0 0 3609 carsoncafe@yahoo.com 74.132.130.222 2009-11-16 23:20:21 2009-11-17 04:20:21 1 0 0
    Is Warren Buffett Managing Your Money? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/is-warren-buffett-managing-your-money/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:26:08 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1215 This is a guest article by Jim Stark. Jim Stark is a pseudonym for a practicing Canadian financial advisor. The article is written to financial advisors, but we both thought that readers of this blog would appreciate it. Take it away Jim... The thing about the ongoing ‘debate' between active (markets are largely inefficient) and passive (markets are largely efficient) management is that no side has been able to score an incontrovertible ‘knock-out punch'. By the way, I use the term ‘debate' loosely, as I'm unsure if you can call it that, given that few people in the active management camp seem willing to truly engage the logic and evidence that goes into a real debate. I digress... The point that I make repeatedly is that the large majority of active managers lag their benchmarks and that the few that actually beat them are pretty much impossible to identify in advance (i.e. their performance does not ‘persist'). This is a compelling two-pronged argument, but many people have pointed out that one need only identify one (that's right, one) person who can reliably be identified as a market-beater and victory for the active management side would be realized. Overwhelmingly, the one name that is thrust forward when it comes down to this is: Warren Buffett. I have nothing but admiration for Mr. Buffett (who has encouraged most investors to use passive products more than once). By the way, "most" means at least 50% + 1. It means if 8,000 read this article, Buffet thinks at least 4,001 and one of them should use passive (assuming readers represent a representative sample of overall investors). With great respect, however, pointing to Buffett and saying "checkmate" rather misses the point. What's the use of going through the trouble of finding that one in a million person who can reliably beat the market if you don't- you know- actually hire him to manage your money? It makes about as much sense as developing a foolproof way if picking winning lottery numbers- and then never buying a ticket! If a tree falls in the forest... My impression is that MFDA registrants (Mutual Fund Dealers Association registrants - Financial advisors who can only sell mutual funds, GICs and Government savings bonds. They represent about 75% of all Canadian financial advisors- Preet) are somewhat more pro-Buffett than IIROC advisors (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada licensed advisors - they are allowed to also sell individual stocks and bonds and ETFs and other investments - Preet). It's just my impression. The thing is this - MFDA registrants couldn't hire Buffett to manage their clients' assets if their lives depended on it. Berkshire Hathaway is a security and buying Berkshire Hathaway for clients requires a securities licence. Why people who are not licenced to sell securities extol the virtues of someone they cannot actually hire and an investment they are not licenced to sell makes no sense to me. If you're an MFDA advisor who likes Buffett, please write to me to explain yourself. Don't bother trying to convince me about how great the man is - I'll only agree with you. What I want is for you to explain your behaviour to me. (Technically, access to Berkshire Hathaway WAS available to MFDA advisors through single-security Principal Protected Notes - but the uptake was minimal and the PPN structure is all but dead for the time being anyway. Not taking away from Jim's point, in fact it may even add to it. - Preet) Let's turn our attention to our Buffett-loving IIROC friends. What percentage of your client assets are managed by this icon of a man? My guess is that the number is an extremely small one. In fact, let's open this up a little more. Who else is there with a great track record? My understanding is that it takes about a quarter century of data before performance histories can be considered statistically significant (i.e. to discern between luck and skill). How many managers (good, bad or otherwise) even have a 25-year track record? More to the point, what percentage of your asset base is managed by someone with a 25 year track record of clear market-beating performance? (Pauses for effect and to allow the reader to actually think about it). I see. So let me get this straight: only a handful of managers outperform, but those outperformers remain largely unidentified in advance and the one person that has been reliably identified manages probably less than 1% of assets under management for the combined readership of this column? Again I ask you, if you could offer your clients a ‘bird in the hand' instead of a ‘pig in a poke', why wouldn't you do it? And yet, most advisors don't even tell their clients that passive options exist. Thanks Jim! Look forward to your next guest article! :) - Preet]]> 1215 2009-08-12 18:26:08 2009-08-12 23:26:08 open open is-warren-buffett-managing-your-money publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1250110010 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/buffett.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/buffett.jpg 3610 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-08-12 20:22:03 2009-08-13 01:22:03 1 0 0 3611 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.111.50 2009-08-12 21:17:07 2009-08-13 02:17:07 1 0 0 3612 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-13 06:31:31 2009-08-13 11:31:31 1 0 0 3613 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 129.97.58.107 2009-08-13 11:10:19 2009-08-13 16:10:19 1 0 0 3614 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-08-15 13:30:00 2009-08-15 18:30:00 1 0 0 3615 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 67.70.207.162 2009-08-18 10:25:30 2009-08-18 15:25:30 1 0 0 3616 mijan1988@gmail.com 210.1.242.2 2009-08-24 06:48:52 2009-08-24 11:48:52 1 0 0 3617 blog@mdwoptions.com http://www.mdwoptions.com 98.223.116.134 2009-09-03 08:09:55 2009-09-03 13:09:55 1 0 0 3618 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2010/02/18/how-long-should-you-give-an-investment-advisor-before-dumping-them/ 82.165.243.157 2010-02-18 03:46:51 2010-02-18 08:46:51 1 pingback 0 0 3619 http://starttags.com/tags/alan-clayson 98.240.245.202 2010-04-03 03:17:12 2010-04-03 08:17:12 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-58/ Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:42:36 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1217 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video - it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I'm on my second week of the Stronglifts 5x5 program which is a free-weight strength training program I decided to try out since it's been over two years since I've worked out (I had a health scare in 2006 in which I honestly didn't know if I would be able to walk in a straight line among other things, but symptoms have slowly been dissipating since.) The program has a rigid set of rules, such as starting out with an empty barbell for some exercises. The first workout is fine, everyone thinks you're just warming up. But the second workout is funny because since you add 5 lbs per workout you are using a hulking olympic barbell with dinky 2.5 lb weights on each end and it just looks funny. If you are interested in this program, you'll certainly need to check your ego at the door. The first main goal of Stronglifts 5x5 is to squat 1.5x your bodyweight. According to the spreadsheets (provided), I should be squatting 250 lbs by the end of October. Personally, I would be amazed to squat 200 lbs by the end of the year! If you want to learn what Stronglifts is all about, check it out here.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Thicken My Wallet explains why it might be easier to raise taxes than cut spending programs. Canadian Capitalist posits that with large deficits, tax increases may not be too far away. Michael James on Money talks about the disadvantages of changing your asset allocation, or failing to rebalance, after severe market movements. Mark Wolfinger explains how one would learn how to trade options. Four Pillars talks about the TRUE cost of your vacations. It might be less than you think, but in the end is not a determining factor for many people anyways. An example: You go away for a week, you don't spend $100 in groceries, $100 in gas, and $50 in parking. This reduces your net cost of your vacation because you have some expenses that you don't pay while you are away. Million Dollar Journey explains the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and the GIS clawback.

    This Week's Racing Video

    ...is not a racing video. This is a jumbo jet landing on one of the trickiest runways in the world with a dose of high crosswinds thrown in. Just incredible. Enjoy your weekends everyone!

    ]]> 1217 2009-08-13 22:42:36 2009-08-14 03:42:36 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-58 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1250221358 _edit_last 1 3620 moneyenergy@hotmail.com http://www.getmoneyenergy.com 128.135.118.21 2009-08-14 00:46:39 2009-08-14 05:46:39 1 0 0 3621 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-08-14 06:57:25 2009-08-14 11:57:25 1 0 0 3622 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-08-14 07:14:50 2009-08-14 12:14:50 1 0 0 3623 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-08-14 08:34:05 2009-08-14 13:34:05 1 0 0 3624 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2009-08-14 08:51:17 2009-08-14 13:51:17 1 0 0 3625 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-08-14 09:11:57 2009-08-14 14:11:57 1 0 0 3626 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-14 14:27:15 2009-08-14 19:27:15 1 0 0 3627 kalia.te@gmail.com http://fwisp.com/ 74.72.249.31 2009-08-15 09:23:25 2009-08-15 14:23:25 1 0 0 3628 http://www.manageyourassets.net/higher-taxes-in-the-offing 74.53.109.194 2009-08-15 21:48:28 2009-08-16 02:48:28 1 pingback 0 0 3629 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.218.119 2009-08-16 12:55:47 2009-08-16 17:55:47 1 0 0 Save Money on Going to the Movies: Become a Mystery Shopper http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/save-money-on-going-to-the-movies-become-a-mystery-shopper/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:47:48 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1218 Become a Mystery Shopper Canada's largest movie chain, Cineplex Entertainment LP, has a Mystery Shopper program that allows you to get a discount on going to the movies in exchange for providing feedback on your movie going experience. They are not looking for movie reviews, they are looking for reviews on the actual theatre operation.

    How Does It Work?

    Very simple: there is an enrollment fee of $50 (+ GST) and you will receive two passes plus vouchers for some concession purchases. You have three weeks to return your feedback form. As long as you return your feedback on time, you'll get at least three more sets of passes with concession vouchers. It is possible to get more than that depending on the number of mystery shoppers in your area. For more details click here for the official Frequently Asked Questions.

    How Do I Enroll?

    Just click here for the online registration. One of their representatives will contact you to see if there are openings in any theatres in your area... and that's about it. Enrollment is not guaranteed, but if you get it you can count on some decent savings when it comes to going to the movies. My understanding is that Cineplex does not operate east of Quebec unfortunately.]]>
    1218 2009-08-16 21:47:48 2009-08-17 02:47:48 open open save-money-on-going-to-the-movies-become-a-mystery-shopper publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1250477271 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 3630 siecleod@gmail.com 205.150.124.101 2009-08-18 16:03:40 2009-08-18 21:03:40 1 0 0 3631 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-18 17:29:24 2009-08-18 22:29:24 1 0 0 3632 brook.c.low@gmail.com 24.67.176.150 2009-08-19 23:48:22 2009-08-20 04:48:22 1 0 0 3633 vsloan@gmail.com http://thegreencanadian.blogspot.com 199.246.40.54 2009-08-21 09:42:24 2009-08-21 14:42:24 1 0 0 3634 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-21 11:55:59 2009-08-21 16:55:59 1 0 0 3635 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-08-23 07:19:05 2009-08-23 12:19:05 1 0 0 3636 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 99.246.27.137 2009-08-23 16:56:40 2009-08-23 21:56:40 1 0 0 3637 siecleod@gmail.com 205.150.124.101 2009-08-24 08:58:54 2009-08-24 13:58:54 1 0 0
    wheat2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rumplestiltskinator/wheat2/ Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:57:21 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wheat2.jpg 1220 2009-08-17 19:57:21 2009-08-18 00:57:21 open open wheat2 inherit 1219 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wheat2.jpg _wp_attached_file wheat2.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:10:"wheat2.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"wheat2-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"wheat2-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:16:"wheat2-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} wheat21 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rumplestiltskinator/wheat21/ Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:58:00 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wheat21.jpg 1221 2009-08-17 19:58:00 2009-08-18 00:58:00 open open wheat21 inherit 1219 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wheat21.jpg _wp_attached_file wheat21.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:11:"wheat21.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"wheat21-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"wheat21-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"wheat21-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Rumplestiltskinator http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-rumplestiltskinator/ Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:07:14 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1219 This is a another guest article by Jim Stark. Jim Stark is a pseudonym for a practicing Canadian financial advisor. The article is written to financial advisors, but we both thought that readers of this blog would appreciate it. Take it away Jim…

    The Rumplestiltskinator

    Sometimes, advisors make audacious promises that no reasonable person would make. I know an advisor who got a call from a fellow who was referred to him who said he was retired and wanted to know if he could get him 10% a year - forever. The advisor told him candidly that he could not. The referred guy apologized for wasting the advisor's time and continued in his search for an advisor who could. My sense in hearing this story was twofold. My first impression was that the first advisor who promised the guy 10% annually would land the $400,000 account. The second was that the guy looking for an advisor wouldn't have to make too many calls before finding someone who would make such a promise.

    I've decided to fight back. Telling the truth can be bad for business, so I've built a contraption I call the Rumplestiltskinator. Simply bring in a few bails of hay and I'll turn it into gold for you. Just one bail yields 13 or 14 bars of bullion. My fee is one bullion bar per bail. Beats the tar out of 10% a year, that's for sure. Please don't ask to see my machine - it is proprietary technology. I don't want anyone else stealing it.... and oh! - the accounts I'll be landing! Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net I'm also getting a bunch of reasonable investors together to launch a class action lawsuit against advisors who make wild promises that they can't substantiate like the ones who promise 10% a year. I've built a better mousetrap and I'm going to destroy all comers with it. I simply can't decide on what my next step ought to be. Should I try to corner the world's hay market or should I get a patent for my contraption so that everyone who ever uses it would have to pay me to do so? I've got a buddy who says that either of the two options above would be a rational response for someone in my situation and that what I'm doing now is just foolishness. Helping a few dozen measly families manage their life savings is small potatoes, he says. Apparently, I should either buy up all the hay in the world- even if I have to bid up the price substantially (take that, Hunt brothers!) or else apply for a global patent to protect my intellectual property rights immediately. It seems there are economic theories that suggest that, in order to become fabulously wealthy and successful, a rational person with whizbang technology like mine would do either one or the other, but never neither. In applying this principle to my advisors, I would expect them to either be managing billions of dollars for their deliriously satisfied clients or to have written the definitive text about how anyone can beat the market herself. The advisors who purport to have "proprietary frameworks for superior security and/ or mutual fund analysis and selection" strike me a being Rumplestiltskinator-inventor wannabes. I suspect the advisors who claim to provide consistently superior performance for their clients are probably overstating their value proposition a wee bit. As such, would all those people who claim that they can and do reliably beat the market for their clients put kindly forward an audited third party verification of their process done by a reputable expert? These sorts of advisors should either demonstrate the superiority of their method or immediately cease and desist from making such outlandish, baseless, unsubstantiated claims in the first place. While I wait for those advisors who make such claims to do either one or the other, I'd like to forewarn them that they'll soon be losing many of their best accounts to the Rumplestiltskinator. After all, my only slightly less plausible sales pitch easily trumps theirs... and we all know there are clients out there who will believe almost anything. Thanks Jimbo! 'Til next week...]]>
    1219 2009-08-17 20:07:14 2009-08-18 01:07:14 open open the-rumplestiltskinator publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1250557914 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wheat21.jpg 3638 http://hublawyer.com/truck-accidents-and-your-truck-accident-attorney/ 64.237.59.164 2009-08-18 00:43:13 2009-08-18 05:43:13 1 pingback 0 0 3639 gsue5831@gmail.com http://www.grantbailoutstory.com/ 74.86.225.187 2009-08-18 04:39:07 2009-08-18 09:39:07 1 0 0 3640 anonymous@hotmail.com 99.240.6.100 2009-08-19 19:20:14 2009-08-20 00:20:14 1 0 0 3641 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-08-19 21:44:02 2009-08-20 02:44:02 1 0 0
    How A Reader Was Taken For $200,000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-a-reader-was-taken-for-200000/ Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:25:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1222 A regular reader of this blog sent me an email describing how she and her husband had been defrauded of $200,000. She agreed to have her story posted here. I've changed some names, but the story is absolutely true and absolutely heart-breaking. Dear Preet, This is in response to your blog post: http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/earl-jones I love your blog. Definitely one of my favorites. I have no idea what you want to do with this information. I am completely okay with you sharing it. It is quite cathartic to write it out and see where we've been. Current situation: We have just had our dealer/agent removed from our account. It takes a great deal of work (I worked on it off and on for about 6 months). We no longer have the unregistered agents on our account although I believe that other people have them on their accounts. History: I have a long sad story about the beginning of our investment career. We were defrauded of $200,000 by John Doe out of Quebec and his partners John Doe II and John Doe III. They are being investigated (with our help) by the RCMP. There is also a civil case in progress to sue the Errors and Omissions Insurance Company because John Doe was a registered Mortgage Broker and John Doe II was a CA. The reason I am telling you this is because we have a bit of left over yuckiness due to that bad investment. John Doe II invested our money in an investment account. The account dealer/agent is Jimmy Financial, his daughter Jane Financial is also an advisor. Neither of them show up in that Ontario Database. Their company is Investment Company One (Jimmy Financial) and Investment Company Two (Jane Financial). The addresses are as follows: ***Omitted*** But both companies are registered to the same building. **** Now we didn't have any clue that the the dealer/Agent was at all associated with John Doe I, John Doe II, or John Doe III until Jimmy Financial hired an assistant or another agent (I am not sure what her qualifications are) who was John Doe I, II, and III's assistant --- Debbie Dallas, who the RCMP guy let slip is also under investigation. At that point I tried to take Jimmy Financial and Jane Financial off of our account. It took some doing because most of the account was loaned out to people for their mortgage (self-directed mortgage) and we could not simply close or transfer the account. As well it was complicated by the fact that the company that administers our account only deals with dealer/agents (but is not allowed to recommend any), another Ontario department is supposed to recommend replacement dealer/agents but they did not have any way to know which ones handle the kind of investments we are using. Eventually instead of replacing the dealer/agent we are now represented by the account administrator's general helpline. I cannot buy stocks or mutual funds until I get that fixed but that is a problem for another day. Click Here for a related CTV W-5 story. Thank you for letting me share the story. That is gut-wrenching just to hear, I cannot imagine actually going through a situation like this. My heart goes out to you, and I hope others are inspired to double check their advisor's credentials after having read this post. ]]> 1222 2009-08-18 22:25:57 2009-08-19 03:25:57 open open how-a-reader-was-taken-for-200000 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1250652358 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 3642 http://world.veblogu.com/how-a-reader-was-taken-for-200000-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com.html 93.186.118.44 2009-08-18 23:22:32 2009-08-19 04:22:32 1 pingback 0 0 3643 http://www.bestrealestatemortgages.com/8140/how-a-reader-was-taken-for-200000/ 74.53.140.226 2009-08-19 02:44:27 2009-08-19 07:44:27 1 pingback 0 0 3644 http://www.besthomemortgagestoday.com/9214/how-a-reader-was-taken-for-200000/ 74.53.140.226 2009-08-19 03:11:20 2009-08-19 08:11:20 1 pingback 0 0 3645 steven.westman@gmail.com 216.110.240.196 2009-08-19 08:57:57 2009-08-19 13:57:57 1 0 0 3646 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-19 10:17:36 2009-08-19 15:17:36 1 0 0 3647 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-08-19 10:36:34 2009-08-19 15:36:34 1 0 0 3648 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-19 11:50:39 2009-08-19 16:50:39 1 0 0 3649 steven.westman@gmail.com 216.110.240.196 2009-08-19 11:53:51 2009-08-19 16:53:51 1 0 0 3650 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-19 12:28:36 2009-08-19 17:28:36 1 0 0 3651 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-08-19 20:59:17 2009-08-20 01:59:17 1 0 0 3652 markcnoble@gmail.com 24.114.255.3 2009-08-20 10:25:00 2009-08-20 15:25:00 1 0 0 3653 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/08/21/indications-are-good-and-some-random-thoughts/ 67.205.7.217 2009-08-23 01:10:50 2009-08-23 06:10:50 1 pingback 0 0 3654 viliyana89@abv.bg http://finances-news.com 213.31.232.166 2009-09-10 08:17:33 2009-09-10 13:17:33 1 0 0 Commissions Being Banned For Financial Advisors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/commissions-being-banned-for-financial-advisors/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:53:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1223 UK To Ban Commissions to Financial Advisors Earlier this year in June, it was reported that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the United Kingdom had decided that commissions to financial advisors would be flat out banned starting in 2012. The FSA has published a consultation paper on the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), which as its name indicates, reviews the retail distribution of financial products and services. The proposals for change are listed here and you can download the Retail Distribution Review paper by clicking here. This has been all the buzz lately when chatting to people in the industry because now that a precedent has been set, will other countries follow? Yep.

    Australian CFPs May Not Be Allowed To Accept Trailing Commissions

    I read an article by Mark Noble yesterday titled, Australian CFPs Forced To Abandon Trailers, in which he explains that members of the association which is responsible for giving out the Certified Financial Planner designation (CFP) in Australia will no longer be allowed to collect trailing commissions from product providers if they wish to maintain their CFP designation. You can read Mark Noble's article by clicking here.]]>
    1223 2009-08-19 22:53:59 2009-08-20 03:53:59 open open commissions-being-banned-for-financial-advisors publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1250740441 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 3655 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 67.70.207.162 2009-08-20 10:33:06 2009-08-20 15:33:06 1 0 0 3656 gws000@hotmail.com http://gws000@hotmail.com 67.71.195.166 2009-08-20 12:32:31 2009-08-20 17:32:31 1 0 0 3657 markcnoble@gmail.com 24.114.255.3 2009-08-20 14:06:18 2009-08-20 19:06:18 1 0 0 3658 http://www.realizingretirement.ca/2009/08/the-rr-top-5-or-7/ 174.143.244.91 2009-08-21 07:03:20 2009-08-21 12:03:20 1 pingback 0 0 3659 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-08-21 08:40:52 2009-08-21 13:40:52 1 0 0 3660 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-08-21 11:39:44 2009-08-21 16:39:44 1 0 0 3661 webbookmarkeing@gmail.com http://www.askpnvijay.com 122.163.232.234 2009-09-11 06:06:26 2009-09-11 11:06:26 1 0 0 3662 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/09/24/will-more-mutual-fund-regulation-doom-the-etf-market/ 82.165.243.157 2009-09-24 03:57:05 2009-09-24 08:57:05 1 pingback 0 0 3663 t@yahoo.com 58.246.30.243 2009-09-29 04:00:44 2009-09-29 09:00:44 1 0 0 3664 t@yahoo.com 58.246.30.243 2009-09-29 04:05:45 2009-09-29 09:05:45 1 0 0
    Capitalism: A Love Story - Michael Moore Takes On Wall Street http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/capitalism-a-love-story-michael-moore-takes-on-wall-street/ Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:29:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1224 Capitalism: A Love Story, is set to screen at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival and scheduled for wide release on September 23rd, 2009. A brief trailer appears below. I'm definitely going to try to catch this at TIFF this year.

    ]]> 1224 2009-08-23 18:29:29 2009-08-23 23:29:29 open open capitalism-a-love-story-michael-moore-takes-on-wall-street publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251070171 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 3665 http://entertainment.b4news.net/?p=50 92.61.152.187 2009-08-23 19:00:20 2009-08-24 00:00:20 1 pingback 0 0 3666 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-08-23 22:09:36 2009-08-24 03:09:36 1 0 0 3667 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2009-08-24 09:47:41 2009-08-24 14:47:41 1 0 0 3668 nadeeneb@hotmail.com 99.242.201.241 2009-08-29 21:58:17 2009-08-30 02:58:17 1 0 0 Great Expectations http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/great-expectations/ Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:40:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1225 This is a another guest article by Jim Stark. Jim Stark is a pseudonym for a practicing Canadian financial advisor. The article is written to financial advisors, but we both thought that readers of this blog would appreciate it. Take it away Jim…

    Great Expectations

    Of all the Dickensian references to choose, you'd think something more akin to Oliver Twist's "Please sir, may I have another?" might be more apt in describing what people might reasonably be thinking about their current financial advisor. Still, it seems many financial advisors have difficulty in seeing eye to eye with the people they hope to serve and assist. My own view is that this is more accurately described by the more contemporary movie line of "what we have here is a failure to communicate". In essence, most advisors are good people who have good intentions and most people working with advisors want nothing more than clear directions about what should be done and expected. Unfortunately, part of the miscommunication is due to expectations that are presumed, but not promised; implied but not codified. As in any healthy relationship (think of your marriage or your work life, for instance), a lot of trouble can be avoided if all parties can agree to the rules of engagement at the outset. An obvious example here is the notion of making reliable forecasts. There's simply no evidence that anyone can reliably "make the big call" about market tops or bottoms or when currencies will peak or when or by how much interest rates will fluctuate. Here's an old Benjamin Graham quote that I'm fond of:
    If I have noticed anything over these 60 years on Wall Street, it is that people do not succeed in forecasting what's going to happen to the stock market.
    If any investor thinks an advisor can do this, that person is almost certainly deluding themselves with a false and unreasonable sense of security. Of course, if any advisor aids and abets in this sentiment, that would constitute a fairly clear signal that that advisor is less than reputable, too. When looking for someone to work with, it is likely most important to find someone who is aligned with your own values, philosophical approach and world-view. Questions to consider might include:
    • Does the advisor espouse active trading or a buy and hold approach?
    • Will the advisor contact me with ideas or is it up to me to initiate contact?
    • Are we going to do business over the phone, via e-mail or face to face?
    • Will we use individual securities, mutual funds, notes or other vehicles to build our portfolios?
    • Are we going to work together or will I grant the advisor discretionary trading authority?
    In every instance, you could ask yourself those same questions, but think about your own answers. In other words, irrespective of what the advisor believes, what do you believe about those things? Here's the important part: there's no single, definitive right answer. Many elements of portfolio management are more art than science. That being said, you're likely to be more compatible with someone who thinks similarly. It might even be said that finding a good fit comes down to just two primary elements:
    1. What is the most appropriate modus operandi for doing business; and
    2. What are the most suitable levels and types of contact needed to do so?
    The first question deals with value propositions and business models. If you're an active trader who believes in fundamental and technical analysis, then look for an advisor who thinks and acts like you do. Speaking for myself, I believe both fundamental and technical analysis are a waste of time and money. I don't believe in forecasting, fund picking, stock picking or market timing. If someone comes to me wanting to work with me because they heard good things from a colleague or relative, but who wants to do those things, I politely advise them to keep looking- no matter how much they have to invest. Regarding the second question, there are many relationships that end up on rocky shoals for no other reason than having unreasonable expectations set at the outset, then not adhered to. Both parties can be guilty of this and neither constituency (advisor or client) can be said to be lily-white. What matters is that the two sides can come to a working accommodation of one another's legitimate interests on an ongoing basis in order to reach reasonable and mutually-agreed objectives over long timeframes. What one client calls regular contact, another might call annoying and overbearing pestering. The old saw about children comes to mind. You can ‘treat them the same by treating them differently'. As a result, for advisors, there's really no substitute for keeping the lines of communication open and being adaptive. In the end, advisors have to ask clients what their expectations for contact are. Meanwhile, clients absolutely need to speak up if they're feeling uncomfortable, too. Most elements of communication can be addressed if both parties are willing to listen with the intent of hearing and respecting the other side's point of view. Perhaps the industry could develop a ‘know your advisor' questionnaire and/or form to be completed upon opening a new account. Maybe the people at e-Harmony could branch out a little in their matchmaking enterprise. No matter what you think about the current level of communication, that sort of service could certainly be useful. Another though provoking article from Jim Stark, with my thanks. I should have another one posted next week.]]>
    1225 2009-08-24 18:40:20 2009-08-24 23:40:20 open open great-expectations publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251157222 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/businessman.gif 3669 http://forex4trader.net/wp/?p=10159 66.231.190.135 2009-08-24 21:40:21 2009-08-25 02:40:21 1 pingback 0 0 3670 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/08/28/weekend-reading-%e2%80%93-august-28-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-08-28 06:00:28 2009-08-28 11:00:28 1 pingback 0 0 3671 http://makemoney.imremarkablebonus.org/great-expectations-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 96.9.145.84 2009-10-06 11:25:03 2009-10-06 16:25:03 1 pingback 0 0
    Your $38,000 Dog http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/your-38000-dog/ Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:20:38 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1226 I'm really swamped with work so you'll have to pardon the deluge of guest articles. I'll get back to writing my own content shortly. In the meantime, this is a guest article by Lewis Bennett, who writes about finance for a number of websites including Remortgage.com. Lewis owns a 10-month-old German Sheppard named Frank that eats about $340 worth of dog food every year (and $165 worth of shoes). :)

    Your dog could end up costing you $38,000

    Most Canadians would have a hard time trying to calculate the actual cost of their dogs. Dog lovers would likely say that the love and companionship that comes from their pet is priceless and could not be put in dollar form. Other prospective pet owners do look into the costs of owning a dog but what they'll end up doing is adding the price of food with the cost of the dog. By using a calculation like this you would be greatly underestimating the real cost of your furry friend. It might peek your interest to know that, over it's lifetime, a dog could end up costing you $38,000 or more.

    Food

    A number of factors are important when calculating the cost of a dog: where you live, breed of the dog, health, and size are a few important factors. Size definitely plays a large part in the cost of the dog's food over a lifetime. It's common sense that a bigger dog is going to eat more food but when you look at these numbers over 10 or 15 years it will start adding up fast. For example, over it's lifetime a Bull Mastiff eats as much as $7500 worth of dog chow while a Chihuahua would only end up costing you around $1750. That's a significant difference, but it's something you might want to keep in mind before choosing your pet. If you're buying pricier food or you live in a more expensive city than those numbers could end doubling or even tripling.

    Health

    A dog is much like a human in that it needs exercise and proper eating habits in order to stay healthy and happy. Dogs are also at risk of many unforeseen diseases and conditions that could end up being very costly. Like humans, they are susceptible to epilepsy, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, as well as a number of viral diseases such as rabies. Veterinarian costs can add up and pet surgery and medicine can cost you thousands of dollars. Picking a healthy pet is mostly a matter of luck but you can often find out about a dog's family's history of health. If a dog comes from healthy genes then you're more likely to also have a healthy dog. This isn't always the case but it's a safer bet. Sinking more and more money into medical bills for your dog is worth it for most families - but your accountant might not agree.

    Breed

    A cloned Labrador retriever sold for $155,000 at an auction last year (CBS story here). Most people aren't in the market for a cloned Labrador so you'll likely end up paying less than that but the breed of a dog will determine how much you end up spending. It's quite normal to spend anywhere from zero to a couple hundred, or even thousands of dollars. If you're trying to keep under that $38,000 cap then you're going to struggle to make it happen. In most cases people who spend a lot of money on a dog can afford to cover the food, toys, and medical bills that come along with it. Some people have no problem spending $1000 on a dog but they might soon realize that they can't afford the payments that come along with it. Don't be one of these people. There are enough neglected and abandoned pets in Canada as it is. I did a quick Craigslist search and there are 10 to 15 dogs per day being offered up for homes in Vancouver alone. Adopting a pet from someone else or finding a pet at your local SPCA is great way to rescue a dog while saving money.

    "Spayed or neutered"

    I'll quote Bob Barker from The Price is Right on this one and say that you should "Help control the pet population and have your pets spayed or neutered." Unfortunately, we're not all sitting on a pile of money that we've made from 114 years of hosting a popular television program. But that doesn't mean we can avoid the responsibility of getting our pets fixed. Of all the costs for your pet, this is one of the most important and it's not that expensive when compared to how much you could end up spending. The stress and financial cost of having to deal with a litter of puppies is significantly higher than the vet's fee to get them spayed or neutered.

    Additional costs

    There are literally hundreds of small costs that we don't think about when we're calculating the cost of a pet. If your dog makes a mess on your carpet you might need to purchase stain cleaner. What about flea control or chew bones? Or treats, beds, collars, bowls, grooming, dental care, deworming, crates, leashes, waste disposal, boarding, vitamins, shampoo, vaccines, etc. The list could go on. At the end of the day, you probably shouldn't put a value on your dog but it's very important to understand that they do come with a cost and a responsibility. Thanks Lewis! I had a dalmatian as a kid and he had this funny habit of chewing the walls. Yes, the walls. He would press his lips up to the wall and then just start chewing. When he was younger, he slept in his own room and one morning he had chewed straight through to the bricks!]]>
    1226 2009-08-25 21:20:38 2009-08-26 02:20:38 open open your-38000-dog publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1251253241 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3672 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/1g0P0Y 208.74.66.43 2009-08-26 13:55:28 2009-08-26 18:55:28 1 pingback 0 0 3673 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-08-27 07:34:46 2009-08-27 12:34:46 1 0 0
    Benjamin Graham on Investing Giveaway Contest http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/benjamin-graham-on-investing-giveaway-contest/ Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:48:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1227 If you didn't (can't?) watch the embedded video, then here are the highlights:
    • McGraw Hill kindly gave me a copy of the new book "Benjamin Graham on Investing" to review and give away
    • The book will be dry if you don't know who Benjamin Graham is already
    • The book is a gem if you have ever spent time looking through financial statements
    • It is a collection of Graham's writings between the end of the First World War and up to the stock market crash of 1929, all gathered into one book
    • McGraw Hill have given me one copy to give away and the rules are down below
    If you wish to go ahead and purchase it, please click here for more information from Amazon.ca.

    How To Enter

    1. You can earn one entry by submitting a comment on this post (maximum of 1 comment), you must include a valid email address in the form, but your email is never shared with anyone.
    2. You can earn another entry by promoting this contest on your own blog (pingback required).
    3. You can earn another entry by tweeting the URL of this contest post (Must include @PreetBanerjee in your tweet so I know you tweeted it). Not following me? Click here to follow me on Twitter.
    So you can earn up to three entries in this contest. The winner will have exactly 1 week to claim their prize (I will notify you via email), or they will forfeit their winnings. The contest runs until midnight (EST) on August 29th, 2009. Prize will be shipped to addresses in Canada and the USA only. Winner will be drawn at random.]]>
    1227 2009-08-26 20:48:45 2009-08-27 01:48:45 closed open benjamin-graham-on-investing-giveaway-contest publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251723474 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 3674 tom_drake@shaw.ca http://canadianfinanceblog.com 96.52.4.155 2009-08-26 21:36:49 2009-08-27 02:36:49 1 0 0 3675 talcumboy@gmail.com 66.183.173.250 2009-08-26 22:59:04 2009-08-27 03:59:04 1 0 0 3676 garrytink@shaw.ca 96.51.217.141 2009-08-26 23:04:46 2009-08-27 04:04:46 1 0 0 3677 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.56.21 2009-08-26 23:30:29 2009-08-27 04:30:29 1 0 0 3678 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 24.79.175.35 2009-08-27 07:23:47 2009-08-27 12:23:47 1 0 0 3679 rmansfield@gmail.com 209.226.137.107 2009-08-27 07:27:57 2009-08-27 12:27:57 1 0 0 3680 jobetancourt@yahoo.com 74.56.42.86 2009-08-27 08:12:10 2009-08-27 13:12:10 1 0 0 3681 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2009-08-27 08:18:32 2009-08-27 13:18:32 1 0 0 3682 marianne.ono@ontario.ca 142.106.220.190 2009-08-27 08:20:01 2009-08-27 13:20:01 1 0 0 3683 hylaride@capybara.org 216.235.10.210 2009-08-27 08:29:24 2009-08-27 13:29:24 1 0 0 3684 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-08-27 08:48:18 2009-08-27 13:48:18 1 0 0 3685 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.140.162 2009-08-27 08:53:18 2009-08-27 13:53:18 1 0 0 3686 Brandon.Noad@gmail.com 99.249.87.237 2009-08-27 08:53:47 2009-08-27 13:53:47 1 0 0 3687 azzr34@hotmail.com http://LittleRishi.blogspot.com 68.50.166.53 2009-08-27 09:52:37 2009-08-27 14:52:37 1 0 0 3688 gws000@hotmail.com 67.71.195.166 2009-08-27 09:52:46 2009-08-27 14:52:46 1 0 0 3689 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2009-08-27 10:16:43 2009-08-27 15:16:43 1 0 0 3690 bklunder@telus.net 142.59.237.72 2009-08-27 13:57:33 2009-08-27 18:57:33 1 0 0 3691 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-money-mistakes-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-08-27 15:37:04 2009-08-27 20:37:04 1 pingback 0 0 3692 lasso.voltaic@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2009-08-27 17:41:22 2009-08-27 22:41:22 1 0 0 3693 sean.blake@gmail.com http://www.realizingretirement.ca 99.246.27.137 2009-08-27 19:47:03 2009-08-28 00:47:03 1 0 0 3694 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-59/ 68.178.254.235 2009-08-27 20:38:38 2009-08-28 01:38:38 1 pingback 0 0 3695 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/08/28/friday-links-30.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-08-28 04:09:34 2009-08-28 09:09:34 1 pingback 0 0 3696 http://www.realizingretirement.ca/2009/08/fridays-rr-top-5-2/ 174.143.244.91 2009-08-28 07:02:26 2009-08-28 12:02:26 1 pingback 0 0 3697 ddubeauis@gmail.com 208.65.73.114 2009-08-28 08:23:14 2009-08-28 13:23:14 1 0 0 3698 billbutt@shaw.ca 24.83.160.233 2009-08-28 09:05:49 2009-08-28 14:05:49 1 0 0 3699 simms.matt@gmail.com 143.112.144.129 2009-08-28 11:19:46 2009-08-28 16:19:46 1 0 0 3700 brigusnf@gmail.com 206.235.255.235 2009-08-28 13:04:07 2009-08-28 18:04:07 1 0 0 3701 http://topsy.com/tb/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/benjamin-graham-on-investing-giveaway-contest/ 208.74.66.43 2009-08-28 16:29:01 2009-08-28 21:29:01 1 pingback 0 0 3702 wu.kad4@gmail.com 174.7.83.177 2009-08-28 22:15:18 2009-08-29 03:15:18 1 0 0 3703 comox@shaw.ca 96.54.111.3 2009-08-29 12:16:44 2009-08-29 17:16:44 1 0 0 3704 nadeeneb@hotmail.com 99.242.201.241 2009-08-29 19:53:38 2009-08-30 00:53:38 1 0 0 3705 ahamilto@nbnet.nb.ca 205.210.223.133 2009-08-31 07:28:49 2009-08-31 12:28:49 1 0 0 3706 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 96.23.36.134 2009-08-31 07:42:46 2009-08-31 12:42:46 1 0 0 3707 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-60/ 68.178.254.235 2009-09-03 21:51:58 2009-09-04 02:51:58 1 pingback 0 0 3708 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/monday-august-31-linkstuff-%e2%80%93-end-of-summer/ 216.227.218.225 2009-09-17 23:38:06 2009-09-18 04:38:06 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-59/ Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:38:30 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1228 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video - it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Not much to report this week, so I'll leave you with a simple driving tip. If you can see the side of your car in your side-view mirrors, they should be turned out more to decrease the size of your blind-spot. The sides of your car aren't going anywhere. And now, on with the show!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau wonders if the current level of stock market optimism is justified. Don't forget: I'm giving away a copy of Benjamin Graham on Investing. Thicken My Wallet discusses the limits of advisor designations in helping find a truly good advisor. Note, he recommends that you "taste test" your potential advisor. Sounds interesting. Canadian Capitalist looks at a report which describes the average Canadian family has a total tax burden of around 45% - is it an exaggeration? Interesting points in the comments section as well. Michael James on Money reminds us that you have to read the fine print, especially when someone is trying to tug at your heartstrings. Million Dollar Journey provides a primer on Canada Savings Bonds and Canada Premium Bonds.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Which car would win in a five-way drag race between an Audi R8, Mercedes McLaren SLR, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari F430 and a Maserati Gran Turismo? Find out in the video... Enjoy your weekends everyone!

    ]]> 1228 2009-08-27 20:38:30 2009-08-28 01:38:30 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-59 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251488246 _edit_last 1 3709 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.218.135 2009-08-27 21:35:44 2009-08-28 02:35:44 1 0 0 3710 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-08-28 00:16:09 2009-08-28 05:16:09 1 0 0 3711 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-08-28 06:52:26 2009-08-28 11:52:26 1 0 0 3712 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-08-28 09:32:31 2009-08-28 14:32:31 1 0 0 3713 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-08-28 13:11:18 2009-08-28 18:11:18 1 0 0 Bastardization Of Indexing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/bastardization-of-indexing/ Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:59:31 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1229 IndexUniverse.com, which as you can imagine has a focus on the world of indexed investments. But even though indexers are known more for their appreciation of science, facts and figures, the writers at IndexUniverse.com are really entertaining. Matt Hougan recently wrote a post titled Index Funds Behaving Badly. Here are some highlights from the article: The highest annual expense ratio for an index mutual fund in 2008: 5.49% Largest tracking error for an ETF in 2008: 11.9% The post is designed to highlight some of the not-so-flattering points about indexing. Of course, with billions of dollars flowing into index funds and ETFs, it should come as no surprise that many product manufacturers are taking bad ideas from other areas of the industry to capitalize on where the money is flowing. It's good for shareholders, but bad for investors. (The ultimate conflict? For more discussion on this, see the post on Vanguard. Vanguard is owned by it's clients.)]]> 1229 2009-08-30 18:59:31 2009-08-30 23:59:31 open open bastardization-of-indexing publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif _edit_lock 1251676772 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/manscreaminghappy220.gif 3714 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-08-30 21:04:44 2009-08-31 02:04:44 1 0 0 3715 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 129.97.58.107 2009-08-31 11:06:37 2009-08-31 16:06:37 1 0 0 A Hedge Fund That Returned 80% in 2008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-hedge-fund-that-returned-80-in-2008/ Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:01:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1230 I had written about him because his compensation in 2006 was $1.7 Billion - derived from his management and performance fees for managing the Renaissance Technologies Medallion Fund, a hedge fund. That year, the fund returned 79% while managing $6 Billion. Well fast forward and the Medallion Fund returned 73.70% in 2007 and did even better in 2008 - it returned 80%. Simons' compensation was up to $2.8 Billion for 2008. I'll stop you right now: the fund is closed to new investors. Read the original post here.]]> 1230 2009-08-31 21:01:29 2009-09-01 02:01:29 open open a-hedge-fund-that-returned-80-in-2008 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251771045 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barchartshorizontal220.gif 3716 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.142.219 2009-09-01 07:31:44 2009-09-01 12:31:44 1 0 0 3717 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2009-09-01 08:04:29 2009-09-01 13:04:29 1 0 0 3718 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-09-01 08:53:33 2009-09-01 13:53:33 1 0 0 3719 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-01 09:05:39 2009-09-01 14:05:39 1 0 0 3720 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-09-01 18:36:12 2009-09-01 23:36:12 1 0 0 3721 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-09-01 20:48:27 2009-09-02 01:48:27 1 0 0 3722 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-09-02 04:01:19 2009-09-02 09:01:19 1 0 0 3723 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-02 09:01:54 2009-09-02 14:01:54 1 0 0 3724 markcnoble@gmail.com 24.114.255.3 2009-09-02 09:48:47 2009-09-02 14:48:47 1 0 0 3725 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-02 09:55:59 2009-09-02 14:55:59 1 0 0 3726 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/labour-day-beaches-and-air-show-%e2%80%93-linkstuff-%e2%80%93-sept-6/ 216.227.218.225 2009-09-19 14:58:54 2009-09-19 19:58:54 1 pingback 0 0 3727 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/09/06/labour-day-linkstuff-sept-7/ 70.32.84.217 2009-10-01 20:43:54 2009-10-02 01:43:54 1 pingback 0 0 Hate Mail To The Mutual Fund Dealers Association http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/hate-mail-to-the-mutual-fund-dealers-association/ Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:23:09 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1231 distribution side of the Canadian mutual fund industry. The MFDA was incepted in 1988 and some would consider the regulation of distribution back then to be something akin to Dodge City and the Wild West. There were some people who felt incredibly threatened by the MFDA. Larry has given me permission to post this letter from an angry industry participant (who shall remain anonymous) in its entirety.

    September 5, 2000 M.F.D.A. 121 King Street West, 16th Floor Toronto, Ontario M5H 3T9 Dear Hitler and the S.S.: I am writing in regards to all your rules and regulations that your so called commission group is implementing without consulting anyone that they affect. As a citizen in a free country run by a democratic government, I am concerned with who is dictating these rules. You are sticking your big bank noses into places that I don't think you are welcome. Years ago when the big banks didn't want to sell mutual funds, there weren't any "rape and pillage the private person committees" telling us what we could and could not do with our money. If I find a person that I trust with my life affairs, I believe that is my business and not some bureaucratic jerk's business. I am also very upset that you are sticking your nose into other affairs that some investors do just for their clients. For example: Income Tax Returns. As a private citizen I can and should be able to let any capable person complete these forms for me. This is my right as a so-called free citizen. There is no law that I am aware of stating that I need to hire a Chartered Accountant to do my personal taxes. If I feel this person is able and willing to do my taxes or invest my money, I should and I will let them, providing they are helping me achieve my goals. This is also one way for our financial advisors to get to know their clients, which is something you want them to do. As people from the big banks, you do not get to know your clients personally, for you care about only one thing, profits for all the pigs at the trough. Sincerely yours, xxxxxxxxxxxxx (once a free man)
    This person certainly had a flare for the dramatic. My understanding is that this was one of the more tame letters, too! I wasn't in the industry back then, but I'll offer my advice (you get what you pay for, remember!): if you want someone to take you seriously, I would reconsider addressing them as Hitler at any point in your correspondence. Stay tuned for the interview which should run in the next two weeks. I asked a number of questions, including one about the possibility of MFDA advisors being allowed to sell ETFs - why can't they, and what are the options for these investors? Thanks to Larry Waite, CEO of the MFDA for his permission to post this letter.]]>
    1231 2009-09-01 22:23:09 2009-09-02 03:23:09 open open hate-mail-to-the-mutual-fund-dealers-association publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251861792 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 3728 http://www.thebestmutualfunds.info/hate-mail-to-the-mutual-fund-dealers-association/ 88.214.241.54 2009-09-02 00:01:59 2009-09-02 05:01:59 1 pingback 0 0 3729 http://rapasasolutions01.com/121/hate-mail-to-the-mutual-fund-dealers-association/ 98.130.2.43 2009-09-02 03:20:58 2009-09-02 08:20:58 1 pingback 0 0 3730 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2009-09-02 08:04:03 2009-09-02 13:04:03 1 0 0 3731 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.142.219 2009-09-02 08:21:46 2009-09-02 13:21:46 1 0 0 3732 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-02 08:30:59 2009-09-02 13:30:59 1 0 0 3733 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-02 08:38:22 2009-09-02 13:38:22 1 0 0 3734 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.142.219 2009-09-02 12:40:21 2009-09-02 17:40:21 1 0 0 3735 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-02 13:19:10 2009-09-02 18:19:10 1 0 0 3736 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/09/04/etfs-are-the-devils-work/ 67.205.7.217 2009-09-04 01:07:17 2009-09-04 06:07:17 1 pingback 0 0
    Stop Loss Orders on Mutual Funds? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/stop-loss-orders-on-mutual-funds/ Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:46:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1232 A Stock Doesn't Care If It's Owned, But A Mutual Fund Does Whether or not you believe in the strategy of using stop loss orders, I was wondering why these types of orders are not allowed for mutual fund holdings. Then you realize that a stock doesn't care who owns it (or doesn't own it), but a mutual fund does since there are fees being collected from the holders. The more units, the more fees. If investors were allowed to place stop loss orders on mutual funds, assets under management (and hence revenues) could dry up quickly in certain market conditions. Further, since the embedded trailing commissions to financial advisors who use loaded mutual funds would also drop,  how would they put food on the table with the current predominant compensation structure of the industry? This doesn't seem to be in the interests of investors first and foremost.]]> 1232 2009-09-02 21:46:34 2009-09-03 02:46:34 open open stop-loss-orders-on-mutual-funds publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1251945996 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/businessgirlatdesk.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/businessgirlatdesk.jpg 3737 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.142.219 2009-09-02 22:40:57 2009-09-03 03:40:57 1 0 0 3738 http://www.thebestmutualfunds.info/stop-loss-orders-on-mutual-funds-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 88.214.241.54 2009-09-03 00:00:19 2009-09-03 05:00:19 1 pingback 0 0 3739 chihhsianghu@gmail.com 65.93.142.219 2009-09-03 07:52:55 2009-09-03 12:52:55 1 0 0 3740 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-09-03 10:20:58 2009-09-03 15:20:58 1 0 0 3741 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-03 14:00:50 2009-09-03 19:00:50 1 0 0 3742 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-03 14:04:19 2009-09-03 19:04:19 1 0 0 3743 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-09-03 14:36:29 2009-09-03 19:36:29 1 0 0 3744 http://rapasasolutions01.com/121/stop-loss-orders-on-mutual-funds-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 98.130.2.43 2009-09-03 17:52:36 2009-09-03 22:52:36 1 pingback 0 0 3745 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-09-03 20:36:07 2009-09-04 01:36:07 1 0 0 3746 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.223.116.134 2009-09-03 22:41:57 2009-09-04 03:41:57 1 0 0 3747 http://www.realizingretirement.ca/2009/09/rr-top-5-back-to-school-edition/ 174.143.244.91 2009-09-04 07:48:28 2009-09-04 12:48:28 1 pingback 0 0 3748 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-04 15:54:53 2009-09-04 20:54:53 1 0 0 3749 admin@financemetrics.com http://www.financemetrics.com/ 219.90.110.76 2009-09-28 00:39:55 2009-09-28 05:39:55 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-60/ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:51:48 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1233 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video - it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Yeah, so I've been a bit late in announcing the winner of the Benjamin Graham On Investing book giveaway contest. The winner is Gary for his comment "Great site! Thanks for the chance at a great book." - his name was picked at random.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Rob Carrick describes the new "Ally" you might have when it comes to online banking. Thicken My Wallet explains that simply having a will tucked away doesn't mean your done with monitoring your estate plan. Canadian Financial DIY proposes that if we can invest in SRI investments (socially responsible investments), then perhaps we should look into Shunned and Sinner Investments. He even came up with an acronym (because the financial world doesn't have enough): TWANG - Tobacco, Weapons, Alcohol, Nuclear and Gambling. Big Cajun Man takes on Rogers and printers in his always amusing rants. He seems to be winning, by the way... Michael James on Money explains that the government came up with a nifty calculator to help inform Canadians about cell phone contract costs. Unfortunately industry lobbyists had it shut down because an informed consumer can't be taken to the cleaners as much as a confused consumer! Ever heard of "Ramen Profitability"? Four Pillars explains that it has to do with money and noodles and entrepreneurship. Yes, you read that right. Million Dollar Journey has a guest post on money personalities and dating. How important is it to find someone with similar ideas about money as you? Canadian Capitalist lists his contributions to the Globe and Mail's list of top investment deals. I'm surprised no one mentioned employer matching contributions to group RRSPs, etc.

    This Week's Racing Video

    This one is a short compilation of some rally footage focusing in on jumps. Some successful... some, not so much. Enjoy your long weekends everyone! :)

    ]]> 1233 2009-09-03 21:51:48 2009-09-04 02:51:48 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-60 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1252032710 _edit_last 1 3750 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-09-03 23:15:17 2009-09-04 04:15:17 1 0 0 3751 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-09-04 04:53:22 2009-09-04 09:53:22 1 0 0 3752 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-09-04 06:24:32 2009-09-04 11:24:32 1 0 0 3753 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 65.94.112.177 2009-09-04 08:37:37 2009-09-04 13:37:37 1 0 0 3754 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.218.135 2009-09-05 11:30:37 2009-09-05 16:30:37 1 0 0 3755 fpfgdbs@ecwmm.com http://www.flowergirldressforless.com 202.70.158.59 2009-10-02 18:58:11 2009-10-02 23:58:11 1 0 0 Affordable Renovation Finishes http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/affordable-renovation-finishes/ Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:29:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1234 Beautiful Daniela is back again! This time she is writing about Affordable Renovation Finishes. If you would like to secure her services, don't be afraid to email her by clicking here. It looks like Daniela will be writing articles regularly in the future for WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com since she has been so popular. Welcome aboard D! :) Over the years and after hundreds of clients, I know first hand that the idea of a renovation can bring on a whole slew of emotions. But, you too can have a stress free renovation if you go into it with a realistic budget, a plan of action and an informed decision. When it comes to finishes in particular, you want to look for those that are not only pleasing to the eye, but are worth the investment to protect the integrity and value of your home – or better yet, increase it! Generally speaking, man-made materials typically come in under cost when compared to natural. But what’s the better choice? Natural or man-made? The cheapest or the most expensive? Which begs the question: how often do you want to renovate? Read on for 5 finishes that are not only worth the money, but can last as long as your home is still standing.

    1)         The Chopping Block

    The beauty of a kitchen counter is that it can really set the look of your kitchen in one shot. I also believe it to be a finish you just shouldn’t chince out on because it always seems to be the home’s headquarters. Plus it gets the brunt of abuse - you cook, chop, serve, entertain, touch, stain, scratch, and spill on it! Daniela’s Pick: Quartz! Quartz countertops are man made and engineered from a mixture of minerals, bonding agents, resins and color which are ground, compressed and heated until solid. It’s then polished to bring out a high gloss shine. Quartz is super hard, scratch resistant, non-porous and impervious to water, moisture and bacteria. As an affordable alternative, granite is often the number one choice for countertops because of its durability and resistance to food stains, heat and burn markings. It does need to be sealed every now and then, but because it’s all natural, each piece of granite is unique!

    2)         Have a Seat!

    With how much you invest in a renovation, consider ditching that bush league futon from your college dorm, and invest in some quality pieces of furniture that will not only help you achieve your desired look, but are strong enough to take you into the next decade (or two!) Because a sofa is subject to daily wear and abuse, three fabric clinchers to look for are, fade resistance, impermeability to stains and a high weave or fiber content which helps the fabric holds its shape and prevent tears or pilling (those annoying little fuzz balls that develop after repeated wear. Ick!) Daniela’s Pick’s: Leather (faux or real, it’s up to you!) is a great choice for upholstery fabric because of its durability, longevity and versatility. Its colour choices are endless, it’s super easy to clean, it doesn’t absorb odors and it becomes softer with age. If you have a tighter budget, try Microfiber! It’s a suede-like material made from ultra fine polyester. It’s durable, extremely affordable and it’s amazingly resilient when it comes to cleaning and stain removal. D’s Tip: When shopping for fabric, the retailer may present you with a “fabric grade”. This is based on the intricacy of the weave, fiber content and construction. Grade “A” is considered cheaper leading up to “F” which is more expensive. However, don’t be hoodwinked by the grade as it does not necessarily mean the fabric is of higher quality!

    3)         The Checkerboard

    When it comes to flooring, the first thing you should consider is where the finish will be used. More importantly, something that won’t discolor over time and can really stand up to the elements or high traffic areas. Natural tiles can be porous and stain easily if not properly sealed, while others can be slippery or show imperfections if not treated suitably. Daniela’s Pick: Porcelain tile. It’s hard-wearing and fireproof! Plus, its scratch, fade, moisture and stain resistant! It can actually be more affordable than natural finishes, and it has a great “what if” factor - because it has an extremely low absorption rate, the floor will remain undamaged if you were to ever have an unfortunate leak or other potentially damaging problem. D’s Tip: To prevent your floor from looking too choppy, try matching your grout as close as possible to create the look of a seamless floor.

    4)         Walking on a Cloud

    Carpeting is always an affordable and practical option for flooring, as it really adds an instant softness to the home. It absorbs sound, is warm and toasty on the feet and is offered in literally thousands of colors and patterns. Because carpet can be susceptible to spills and heavy traffic, look for carpet fibers that offer durability, crush resistance and are low maintenance when it comes to removing dirt and stains. Daniela’s Pick: Nylon. It’s the strongest of the synthetic carpet fibers which makes it the perfect choice for an active and traffic heavy household. Nylon is very resilient, has great abrasion resistance and can repel mildew and moisture. Also, because nylon has a strong yarn memory, it has minimal pilling and shedding and has high resistance to crushing! D’s Tip: Try choosing carpet that has anti stain treatments designed directly into the fiber for easier cleaning and stain removal.

    5)         The Scrubbing Factor

    Choosing the proper paint finish may seem like an obvious choice, however, difference finishes offer different advantages. Some create a certain atmosphere, while others are easier to clean and even hide blemishes and flaws. Truth be told, the shinier the paint, the easier the cleaning. But perhaps a higher gloss isn’t for you? There is a right and a wrong choice for paint finishes to be used throughout the home – you just need to know where to use them! This week’s picks are based on durability, ease of cleaning, suitability to the room and endurance. Daniela’s Picks:
    • Semi-gloss - For rooms subject to steam or moisture like kitchen’s and bathroom’s
    • Matte/Flat - Great for hallways and can hide bumps or cracks as it doesn’t reflect light.
    • Eggshell – The happy medium! Perfect for living rooms, bedrooms and family rooms.
    • Satin – Great for kids’ rooms and any area of heavy traffic.
    • Glossy – Celebrated for use on furniture, some cabinetry or trim
    D’s Tip: Remember, sparkle and shine means mega glitz and glamour! Try leaving the high gloss finish to doors and trim! Next time: Is your home lingering on the market? How to get more than your asking price!

    Over the years and after hundreds of clients, I know first hand that the idea of a renovation can bring on a whole slew of emotions. But, you too can have a stress free renovation if you go into it with a realistic budget, a plan of action and an informed decision. When it comes to finishes in particular, you want to look for those that are not only pleasing to the eye, but are worth the investment to protect the integrity and value of your home – or better yet, increase it!

    Generally speaking, man-made materials typically come in under cost when compared to natural. But what’s the better choice? Natural or man-made? The cheapest or the most expensive? Which begs the question: how often do you want to renovate? Read on for 5 finishes that are not only worth the money, but can last as long as your home is still standing.

    1) The Chopping Block

    The beauty of a kitchen counter is that it can really set the look of your kitchen in one shot. I also believe it to be a finish you just shouldn’t chince out on because it always seems to be the home’s headquarters. Plus it gets the brunt of abuse - you cook, chop, serve, entertain, touch, stain, scratch, and spill on it!

    Daniela’s Pick: Quartz! It’s synthetic and engineered from a mixture of minerals, bonding agents, resins and color, which are ground, compressed and heated until solid. It’s then polished to bring out a high gloss shine. Quartz is super hard, scratch resistant, non-porous and impervious to water, moisture and bacteria.

    As an affordable alternative, granite is often the number one choice for countertops because of its durability and resistance to food stains, heat and burn markings. It does need to be sealed every now and then, but because it’s all natural, each piece of granite is unique!

    2) Have a Seat!

    With how much you invest in a renovation, consider ditching that bush league futon from your college dorm, and expend in some quality pieces of furniture that will not only help you achieve your desired look, but are strong enough to take you into the next decade (or two!)

    Because a sofa is subject to daily wear and abuse, three fabric clinchers to look for are, fade resistance, impermeability to stains and a high weave or fiber content which helps the fabric holds its shape and prevent tears or pilling (those annoying little fuzz balls that develop after repeated wear. Ick!)

    Daniela’s Pick’s: Leather (faux or real, it’s up to you!) is a great choice for upholstery fabric because of its durability, longevity and versatility. Its colour choices are endless, it’s super easy to clean, it doesn’t absorb odors and it becomes softer with age.

    If you have a tighter budget, try Microfiber! It’s a suede-like material made from ultra fine polyester. It’s durable, extremely affordable and it’s amazingly resilient when it comes to cleaning and stain removal.

    D’s Tip: When shopping for fabric, the retailer may present you with a “fabric grade”. This is based on the intricacy of the weave, fiber content and construction. Grade “A” is considered cheaper leading up to “F” which is more expensive. However, don’t be hoodwinked by the grade as it does not necessarily mean the fabric is of higher quality!

    3) The Checkerboard

    When it comes to flooring, the first thing you should consider is where the finish will be used. More importantly, something that won’t discolor over time and can really stand up to the elements or high traffic areas. Natural tiles can be porous and stain easily if not properly sealed, while others can be slippery or show imperfections if not treated suitably.

    Daniela’s Pick: Porcelain tile. It’s hard-wearing and fireproof! Plus, its scratch, fade, moisture and stain resistant! It can actually be more affordable than natural finishes, and it has a great “what if” factor - because it has an extremely low absorption rate, the floor will remain undamaged if you were to ever have an unfortunate leak or other potentially damaging problem.

    D’s Tip: To prevent your floor from looking too choppy, try matching your grout as close as possible to create the look of a seamless floor.

    4) Walking on a Cloud

    Carpeting is always an affordable and practical option for flooring, as it really adds an instant softness to the home. It absorbs sound, is warm and toasty on the feet and is offered in literally thousands of colors and patterns. Because carpet can be susceptible to spills and heavy traffic, look for carpet fibers that offer durability, crush resistance and are low maintenance when it comes to removing dirt and stains.

    Daniela’s Pick: Nylon. It’s the strongest of the synthetic carpet fibers which makes it the perfect choice for an active and traffic heavy household. Nylon is very resilient, has great abrasion resistance and can repel mildew and moisture. Also, because nylon has a strong yarn memory, it has minimal pilling and shedding and has high resistance to crushing!

    D’s Tip: Try choosing carpet that has anti stain treatments designed directly into the fiber for easier cleaning and stain removal.

    5) The Scrubbing Factor

    Choosing the proper paint finish may seem like an obvious choice, however, difference finishes offer different advantages. Some create a certain atmosphere, while others are easier to clean and even hide blemishes and flaws. Truth be told, the shinier the paint, the easier the cleaning. But perhaps a higher gloss isn’t for you? There is a right and a wrong choice for paint finishes to be used throughout the home – you just need to know where to use them! This week’s picks are based on durability, ease of cleaning, suitability to the room and endurance.

    Daniela’s Picks:

    · Semi-gloss - For rooms subject to steam or moisture like kitchen’s and bathroom’s

    · Matte/Flat - Great for hallways and can hide bumps or cracks as it doesn’t reflect light.

    · Eggshell – The happy medium! Perfect for living rooms, bedrooms and family rooms.

    · Satin – Great for kids’ rooms and any area of heavy traffic.

    · Glossy – Celebrated for use on furniture, some cabinetry or trim

    D’s Tip: Remember, sparkle and shine means mega glitz and glamour! Try leaving the high gloss finish to doors and trim!

    Next time: Is your home lingering on the market? How to get more than your asking price!

    ]]>
    1234 2009-09-07 20:29:29 2009-09-08 01:29:29 open open affordable-renovation-finishes publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg _edit_lock 1252617565 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg 3756 http://www.vklip.com/affordable-renovation-finishes/2009/09/09/ 74.53.58.9 2009-09-09 06:40:35 2009-09-09 11:40:35 1 pingback 0 0 3757 http://www.vklip.com/affordable-renovation-finishes/2009/09/09/ 74.53.58.9 2009-09-09 06:40:35 2009-09-09 11:40:35 1 pingback 0 0 3758 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/09/11/first-home-budget-spreadsheets-gold-and-more/ 174.120.10.130 2009-09-11 06:30:48 2009-09-11 11:30:48 1 pingback 0 0
    The Financial Advisor Retirement Plan http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-financial-advisor-retirement-plan/ Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:00:21 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1241 Advisor Compensation I'm going to use a hypothetical example, although I do know that a situation pretty much exactly like this has happened many times before. An advisor who has had a successful career has amassed a book of client assets totaling $100 million over about 400 families. The average gross commissions being earned are going to be in the $1 million range, and if he/she is at a bank-owned brokerage firm, they are probably getting about 50% of that after hitting "the grid". This means that their net commissions are $500,000 and this is what they would report on their income tax return as their income (they may pay salaries for assistants, and other overhead expenses, but we will leave that out for now for simplicity's sake).

    The Cross

    Firms are always trying to recruit big producers. Depending on the profitability and business plans of the brokerages there are times when branch managers from competing firms can offer a recruiting bonus equivalent to the annual gross production of a broker. So from above, our financial advisor who was grossing $1 million in commissions could be offered $1 million to "cross the street". There will usually be conditions included where "x percent of assets must be signed over in 12 months" or a pro-rating schedule applies. There may also be a clause stating that the assets and advisor must remain at the new firm for a minimum of 2 years, 3 years, or whatever, or there may be some sort of penalties.

    The Walk

    After the assets and clients have been transitioned it is possible for an advisor to then sell their book to another advisor at the firm. They can negotiate the price, but for argument's sake let's assume they decide on "one-times gross commissions". In this case, since the gross commissions are $1 million, the purchase price would be $1 million.  The purchasing advisor can take a loan to pay the $1 million (in this case) and rather quickly pay off the loan with the commissions generated by the new assets under his/her name.

    So What?

    Selling a book of clients to another advisor is one thing because it doesn't affect the clients from a purely monetary perspective. The fees they were paying will most likely stay the same. (From a non-monetary perspective, there are some other issues, but that is beyond the scope of today's post). But with respect to the recruitment bonuses: that $1 million dollars comes from somewhere. Both advisors and clients should be asking "where?". If these recruitment bonuses were not allowed, then commission grid payouts could be higher for advisors OR overall fees could be lower for clients (or net earnings could be higher for the brokerages). Some might suggest that these are just investments from a brokerage's perspective, they are paying now for a long term income stream. True, but they lose assets to other firms as much as they buy assets - so while there are some who are gaining more than they are losing, in many cases it's just a costly game of musical chairs.]]>
    1241 2009-09-08 21:00:21 2009-09-09 02:00:21 open open the-financial-advisor-retirement-plan publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1252462016 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 3759 http://www.lowloanrefinancing.com/the-financial-advisor-retirement-plan/ 69.73.185.185 2009-09-08 21:23:56 2009-09-09 02:23:56 1 pingback 0 0 3760 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/4hG7Jj 208.74.66.43 2009-09-09 07:35:57 2009-09-09 12:35:57 1 pingback 0 0 3761 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-09-09 10:09:40 2009-09-09 15:09:40 1 0 0 3762 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/09/11/random-thoughts-remembering-911/ 67.205.7.217 2009-09-11 01:10:12 2009-09-11 06:10:12 1 pingback 0 0 3763 http://www.realizingretirement.ca/2009/09/top-5/ 174.143.244.91 2009-09-11 10:33:51 2009-09-11 15:33:51 1 pingback 0 0 3764 paul.fettes@fettesworld.com 99.226.148.34 2009-10-05 12:55:48 2009-10-05 17:55:48 1 0 0
    houseofcash220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-financial-advisor-retirement-plan/houseofcash220-2/ Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:05:50 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/houseofcash2201.gif 1246 2009-09-08 21:05:50 2009-09-09 02:05:50 open open houseofcash220-2 inherit 1241 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/houseofcash2201.gif _wp_attached_file houseofcash2201.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"280";s:6:"height";s:3:"280";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:19:"houseofcash2201.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"houseofcash2201-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:27:"houseofcash2201-270x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"houseofcash2201-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Off-Topic: TEDxTO http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/off-topic-tedxto/ Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:08:37 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1250 TED.com TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design (although it has expanded from there since it started in 1984), and it is a forum for the world's greatest ideas that are worth spreading. Guests are invited to present "the speech of their lives" in 18 minutes, and recently they started publishing the videos on the internet. There have been some truly mind-boggling presentation. Below is a sample (you may have to click on the post title to view the embedded video on the website if reading this by email). After the sample video, there is an invitation to watch the live-streaming TEDxTO webcast which is happening THIS Thursday. (TEDxTO is a separately organized TED event hosted in Toronto.) This sample TED Talks video is pretty interesting. The video's description: "Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing."

    Here's the invite from ING Direct:

    We're inviting you to get inspired and embrace ideas from TEDxToronto on September 10, 2009 via live feed at our Save Your Money Café.

    What is TEDxToronto?

    In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design)-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

    The TEDxToronto event promises to be a riveting experience with 13 talented leaders, following the theme of "What's Next?"

    Some of the leaders speaking include:

    Steven Woods - Google's Vision for a Mobile Web Google Canada Engineering Site Director

    Richard St. John - Success is always asking 'What's Next?' Success Analyst

    Peter MacLeod - Imagining 2017 and Why it Begins Now Principal, MASS LBP

    Min Sook Lee - Raising My Toxic Baby Writer, Director

    For more information on TEDxToronto, visit www.tedxto.com.

    When is it?

    The event will take place on September 10, 2009 starting at 11:30am EST.

    Where can I watch it?

    We're inviting you to come and watch the live feed from the exclusive presentation from the comfort of our Save Your Money Café. While the event takes place in Toronto, ING DIRECT is a proud supporter of TEDx Toronto, as the lead sponsor for the Webcast and YouTube Channel.

    Vancouver Save Your Money Café 8:30am - 4:00pm

    466 Howe Street Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 2X1

    Calgary Save Your Money Café 9:30am - 5:00pm

    600 6th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2P 0S

    You can also follow TEDxToronto live from Twitter.com/CEO_INGDIRECT

    Keep up to date with us on Facebook.com/SuperStarSaver and Twitter.com/SuperStarSaver.

    ]]>
    1250 2009-09-09 18:08:37 2009-09-09 23:08:37 open open off-topic-tedxto publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1252537752 _edit_last 1 3765 brian.tabios@gamil.com 142.179.155.118 2009-09-10 08:58:50 2009-09-10 13:58:50 1 0 0 3766 Objellglype@free-lesbian-pic.in http://googpovenius2.freepornhosting.com/index.php?p=132 212.117.183.169 2010-04-24 06:31:18 2010-04-24 11:31:18 brixiade hotel cochem may other despatch best wrinkle creams consumer reports may other letters bk stacker nutrition facts may other wire bill nunn carpets may other icq:67567456 email: deferateraser@federa.com]]> spam 0 0 3767 vad.olman.is77@gmail.com 91.212.226.246 2010-04-24 16:31:23 2010-04-24 21:31:23 Morsel! чат знакомств бесплатно Yon us Well-received to one of the to the max's largest grown up dating sites! We has been introducing intimacy partners recompense deck 10 years. If you are a manservant or lady, gay or straight, our making love personals are chimerical in support of your needs. Most of all, colloquium members is enjoyment! Gesticulation up today and start promulgation neighbourhood union partners in your area. online знакомства ] Find goof with in condition to contain shire screwing with explicit missus in your borough or city. We arrange on top of in unison million members and thousands of profiles are added daily. Fuse on the side of open and look throughout our grown up personals with repose, and be met about that specialized someone tonight. Every gazabo or bird needs to probe their coarse side every ages in a while. Fair if you don't layout on cheating on your ball or cheating on your scrimp, tons members brook to the dream of having alliance best of their relationship. Uncountable of our members speech us that matured personals is an unequalled alternate to spending a usefulness on bars and clubs. In the direction of less than a dollar a daylight you can put one's strike on someone locally pro screwing and up to the minute, and require provoke access to over a million co-worker profiles. If scantiness to have a partner during screwing and inventiveness, measure up to us today. So traverse your smutty side, hang around your inhibitions and dream close by being an grown-up dating superstar in your future. We attraction grown up dating. вольск знакомства The whole world wants to agile upon that lover or associate that can make him or her happy. If you requisite to perceive comment on at security and do nothing around it, then that is your prerogative. Extent, if you demand to do something here it from haunt, then fucking dating and personals is undeniably where you should start. Most of our members realize a making out girl within the wit week of joining; believe disburden to steal in our chap testimonials section. The most excellently stir to start looking for the benefit of that valuable someone is at present; Protection you on the inside. All members are 18 or Over. jdu ru знакомства майл знакомств сайт mon amour сайт знакомств мамба знакомства ru галактика знакомств знакомства в краснодаре без регистрации знакомства в самарской области изврат знакомства знакомства planet ru знакомства дубна]]> spam 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-61/ Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:48:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1259 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… My brother is getting married later this month and while looking up flights to Los Angeles online, Fiona discovered that we can save about $500 (less gas to and from for the extra distance) if we fly out of Buffalo instead of Toronto - what more could a personal finance blogger ask for? :) I'll write about it in more detail in the next few weeks...

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Are you a Microsoft Money user? Then you should know that Microsoft will be discontinuing updates for it soon. Canadian Capitalist found some ways for users to cope. Do you have kids who need bank accounts? Million Dollar Journey has some advice on where you might find the best deals. Four Pillars discusses what to look at when considering if you should break your mortgage for a better interest rate. Mrs. Michael James on Money (Kirsten or Mary Jane??? - inside joke) explains that free shipping on book orders are not always so cut and dry! Big Cajun Man explains that teaching your kids about frugality on their first foray on their own is a pretty good time to start (or at least cement some ideas) into their temporarily sober heads. Larry MacDonald talks about how your genes might affect your propensity to certain investing styles. Thicken My Wallet discusses a Supreme Court case in the US which might have implications for the limits of investing fees. Jonathan Chevreau writes about the ongoing battles between leveraged ETF providers and investor advocates. It's getting heated!

    This Week's Racing Video

    This is one of my favourite videos. A former F1 driver takes his wife around a racetrack and she goes nuts trying to get him to slow down, which only makes him drive faster. I'm pretty sure he's deaf in his right ear... :)

    ]]> 1259 2009-09-10 17:48:25 2009-09-10 22:48:25 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-61 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1252623105 3768 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 65.94.114.113 2009-09-10 19:50:41 2009-09-11 00:50:41 1 0 0 3769 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-09-10 22:37:51 2009-09-11 03:37:51 1 0 0 3770 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-09-11 05:03:45 2009-09-11 10:03:45 1 0 0 3771 webmaster@milliondollarjourney.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 142.163.211.51 2009-09-11 06:33:39 2009-09-11 11:33:39 1 0 0 3772 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-09-11 08:32:05 2009-09-11 13:32:05 1 0 0 3773 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-09-11 11:05:50 2009-09-11 16:05:50 1 0 0 3774 loan_machine@yahoo.co.uk http://www.todayloan.co.uk 86.16.225.102 2009-09-17 06:41:16 2009-09-17 11:41:16 1 0 0 3775 admin@savemoneyhound.com http://www.savemoneyhound.com 122.111.175.32 2009-09-18 20:18:20 2009-09-19 01:18:20 1 0 0 3776 dkonnect@hotmail.com http://www.MyFinanceAdviser.com 216.113.168.128 2009-09-19 07:51:34 2009-09-19 12:51:34 1 0 0 Protecting Your Mortgage and Other Assets with Term Life Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance/ Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:46:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1265 This is a guest post written by Denise Mancini from Accuquote.com. I normally get offers for guest writers who have something to promote and they offer to write a free article in exchange for links to their websites. They do this because more links from more websites make them rank higher in Google searches. Normally I turn them down because they are irrelevant or poorly written. However, this post has some good main points so I decided to run it. Over to Denise. One of the largest purchases in your lifetime will most likely be your home. If you have bought one or are planning to, chances are that you have looked into a mortgage in order to afford one. As time passes, and you pay your monthly mortgage payments, have you ever given any thought to what might happen to your family or for that matter to your home itself if you die suddenly? Would your spouse or children have to give up their home and loose a precious asset in the bargain? A sound financial plan would considerably help matters in such instances. And part of such a plan would have to be a comprehensive term life insurance policy. Term Life Insurance is the ideal vehicle for protecting your family and your home. This type of insurance can offer stability in terms of your finances when you most need it. If you have a term life insurance policy and you die, the death benefits of the policy can be used in a number of ways. For example, they can offset the cost of the funeral, they can be used to pay off any remaining debts, they can act as a source of income for your family in your absence and they can also pay off your mortgage. If you die within the term of the policy, you can be assured that your entire mortgage will be paid off. Such security would obviously depend on the length of the term and the amount of coverage taken. For example, if your mortgage were a 30-year one, it would be wise to choose a 30-year term life policy as well. That said, term life insurance also covers more than only your mortgage. When you choose the amount of coverage, you need to calculate all your other debts (auto loans, personal loans, credit cards) that will be left to your family to pay off in your absence. Life insurance can protect your assets and pay off any pending debts. Your family might otherwise find it impossible to clear your medical bills, car loans and credit card debts. In this way, life insurance can leave your other assets for your family to use. By providing much needed liquidity to your estate, life insurance prevents cashing in and selling off your other investments to make ends meet. The benefits of a policy are made available immediately after a death, thus averting a financial crunch. When you purchase your mortgage, you might be offered a mortgage life insurance as well. However, before signing up for one, do weigh the pros and cons versus a normal term life insurance policy and you may end up saving a lot of money. For example, with mortgage life insurance, the amount of coverage is determined by the amount of mortgage owed. Unlike a term life policy where you can decide how much coverage you need. Once your mortgage is paid, the mortgage insurance is not applicable whereas a term life policy can be kept in effect for as long as you require. And finally, with a term life insurance policy, you determine who your beneficiaries are but with a mortgage life insurance, the lender is automatically the beneficiary. With the right investigations and questions, you will soon realize that a term life policy will have lower premiums and offer more flexibility and coverage than a mortgage life insurance policy.]]> 1265 2009-09-13 19:46:55 2009-09-14 00:46:55 open open protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1252889219 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 3777 http://newmortgage.info/?p=78232 174.120.40.130 2009-09-13 20:28:23 2009-09-14 01:28:23 1 pingback 0 0 3778 http://newmortgage.info/?p=78258 174.120.40.130 2009-09-13 20:33:13 2009-09-14 01:33:13 1 pingback 0 0 3779 http://www.glfbook.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance.html 92.63.110.10 2009-09-13 20:33:34 2009-09-14 01:33:34 1 pingback 0 0 3780 http://www.insurancesreference.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance/ 69.163.144.160 2009-09-13 21:31:57 2009-09-14 02:31:57 1 pingback 0 0 3781 http://www.dipkolej.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance.html 74.52.117.66 2009-09-13 21:36:48 2009-09-14 02:36:48 1 pingback 0 0 3782 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.220.237.165 2009-09-13 21:51:02 2009-09-14 02:51:02 1 0 0 3783 http://earn-money-tips.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance 75.119.216.163 2009-09-13 21:52:48 2009-09-14 02:52:48 1 pingback 0 0 3784 http://mortgage.freeonwebs.com/?p=8156 74.54.143.242 2009-09-13 22:41:22 2009-09-14 03:41:22 1 pingback 0 0 3785 http://ajf7688.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance/ 208.89.218.103 2009-09-13 22:54:30 2009-09-14 03:54:30 1 pingback 0 0 3786 http://kozmom.com/25212-protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance.htm 95.211.2.173 2009-09-13 23:13:49 2009-09-14 04:13:49 1 pingback 0 0 3787 http://www.usatodayinsurance.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance-2.html 69.89.31.74 2009-09-14 01:11:53 2009-09-14 06:11:53 1 pingback 0 0 3788 http://www.mortgageinsuranceblog.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance/ 69.163.144.160 2009-09-14 01:39:51 2009-09-14 06:39:51 1 pingback 0 0 3789 http://eamico.com/?p=16878 97.74.144.177 2009-09-14 02:27:56 2009-09-14 07:27:56 1 pingback 0 0 3790 http://www.getlifeinsurancenow.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance.php 64.13.223.151 2009-09-14 04:46:15 2009-09-14 09:46:15 1 pingback 0 0 3791 http://my100tips.com/blog/?p=1592 77.79.12.117 2009-09-14 07:56:30 2009-09-14 12:56:30 1 pingback 0 0 3792 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.242.220 2009-09-14 11:10:39 2009-09-14 16:10:39 1 0 0 3793 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-14 11:41:10 2009-09-14 16:41:10 1 0 0 3794 http://insurance.blogging.sitefrost.com/protecting-your-mortgage-and-other-assets-with-term-life-insurance 64.191.80.213 2009-09-15 00:30:16 2009-09-15 05:30:16 1 pingback 0 0 3795 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-09-15 02:34:02 2009-09-15 07:34:02 1 0 0 3796 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-16 11:48:10 2009-09-16 16:48:10 1 0 0 3797 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/09/18/friday-links-33.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-09-18 04:02:33 2009-09-18 09:02:33 1 pingback 0 0 3798 pr@accuquote.com http://www.accuquote.com 206.231.16.229 2009-09-21 08:40:41 2009-09-21 13:40:41 1 0 0 3799 reclame@officerental.nl http://www.officerental.nl 82.170.239.164 2009-09-28 03:45:38 2009-09-28 08:45:38 1 0 0 3800 wireworks1@gmail.com http://www.creditsmartpro.com 121.96.151.26 2009-09-30 03:29:12 2009-09-30 08:29:12 Do it Yourself Credit Repair . I'm sure you'd find it useful. thanks!]]> 1 0 0 3801 insurance011@gmail.com 122.50.130.23 2009-10-13 01:10:13 2009-10-13 06:10:13 1 0 0 3802 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/12/23/best-of-friday-links-2009.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-12-23 05:03:34 2009-12-23 10:03:34 1 pingback 0 0 3803 brian@rightinsurance.ca http://www.rightinsurance.ca 64.231.67.174 2010-04-24 10:00:08 2010-04-24 15:00:08 1 0 0 coinstacks220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1270 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:31:16 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/coinstacks2201.gif 1270 2009-09-14 22:31:16 2009-09-15 03:31:16 open open coinstacks220-2 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/coinstacks2201.gif _wp_attached_file coinstacks2201.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:18:"coinstacks2201.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"coinstacks2201-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"coinstacks2201-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"coinstacks2201-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} You are going to Interview the CEO of ING Direct Canada http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/you-are-going-to-interview-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada/ Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:34:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1269 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com Yes, you read that correctly. YOU are going to interview the President and CEO of ING Direct Canada, Peter Aceto. Well, let me explain further... I will actually be the one asking the questions, but the questions I will ask are going to come from the readers of this blog. I would ask for you to please leave your questions as a comment on the bottom of this post. If you are reading via email or Facebook, then please click here to go the blog's website where you will find the comment form. Not all questions will be selected for the interview (like: "Peter, what's your shoe size?"), but I encourage you to think of something and contribute (like: "Peter, are you going to launch a no-fee chequing account to complement the no-fee savings account anytime soon?"). Peter looks like a pretty cool guy, note how "plugged in" he is:

    I'm looking forward to the interview and I'm counting on your questions, so don't be shy! :) Before I go, here is a video from Peter discussing unfair banking fees.

    ]]> 1269 2009-09-14 22:34:42 2009-09-15 03:34:42 open open you-are-going-to-interview-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1252985685 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 3804 drew.miller@shaw.ca 174.2.6.80 2009-09-14 23:04:00 2009-09-15 04:04:00 1 0 0 3805 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-09-15 02:23:41 2009-09-15 07:23:41 1 0 0 3806 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.27.105 2009-09-15 04:33:53 2009-09-15 09:33:53 1 0 0 3807 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.27.105 2009-09-15 04:35:48 2009-09-15 09:35:48 1 0 0 3808 sollyom@hotmail.com 216.191.53.98 2009-09-15 08:12:32 2009-09-15 13:12:32 1 0 0 3809 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.233.108 2009-09-15 08:15:47 2009-09-15 13:15:47 1 0 0 3810 brook.c.low@gmail.com 24.67.176.150 2009-09-15 10:18:08 2009-09-15 15:18:08 1 0 0 3811 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.com 99.249.27.207 2009-09-15 13:13:22 2009-09-15 18:13:22 1 0 0 3812 http://insurance-canada.net/you-are-going-to-interview-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada 74.53.110.130 2009-09-15 13:41:22 2009-09-15 18:41:22 1 pingback 0 0 3813 Terrier123@rmsservice.ca 174.0.42.170 2009-09-15 14:39:56 2009-09-15 19:39:56 1 0 0 3814 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-09-15 18:06:49 2009-09-15 23:06:49 1 0 0 3815 brian.tabios@gmail.com 96.51.164.46 2009-09-15 18:36:40 2009-09-15 23:36:40 1 0 0 3816 leafs_rule@msn.com 69.77.177.50 2009-09-16 08:45:06 2009-09-16 13:45:06 1 0 0 3817 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-09-17 09:45:47 2009-09-17 14:45:47 1 0 0 3818 jjdan2@gmail.com 70.26.4.46 2009-09-17 22:45:02 2009-09-18 03:45:02 1 0 0 3819 williams.tricia@gmail.com 75.159.121.136 2009-09-18 00:49:59 2009-09-18 05:49:59 1 0 0 3820 di_vito@hotmail.com 216.98.57.38 2009-09-18 07:50:14 2009-09-18 12:50:14 1 0 0 3821 jamiemorell@gmail.com 208.124.133.122 2009-09-18 11:49:05 2009-09-18 16:49:05 1 0 0 3822 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/nice-weather-edition-of-linkstuff/ 216.227.218.225 2009-09-24 00:02:45 2009-09-24 05:02:45 1 pingback 0 0 3823 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/09/21/nice-weather-edition-of-linkstuff/ 70.32.84.217 2009-10-01 20:43:54 2009-10-02 01:43:54 1 pingback 0 0 3824 leafs_rule@msn.com 69.77.177.50 2009-10-09 12:47:55 2009-10-09 17:47:55 1 0 0 3825 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/ing-offers-to-double-your-interest-on-early-2010-tfsa-contributions/ 68.178.254.235 2009-10-15 18:57:49 2009-10-15 23:57:49 1 pingback 0 0 3826 m.wang@rogers.com 199.198.223.108 2009-11-17 10:05:35 2009-11-17 15:05:35 1 0 0 3827 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-22 12:32:39 2009-11-22 17:32:39 1 0 0 3828 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/interview-with-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada-part-i/ 68.178.254.235 2009-12-13 21:00:47 2009-12-14 02:00:47 1 pingback 0 0 Vanguard ETFs have Different Tax Considerations Than Other ETFs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/vanguard-etfs-have-different-tax-considerations-than-other-etfs/ Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:57:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1275 WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com A little known fact (it seems) is that the Vanguard lineup of ETFs are not stand-alone products to the same extent as other ETF manufacturers' ETFs. Rather, Vanguard ETFs are simply a special share class of Vanguard's Index Mutual Fund lineup. While on the surface this might not sound like an important distinction, it is important to note the implications. There are certain tax advantages of the ETF structure over and above the mutual fund open-ended trust structure. All other things being equal, suppose we have an index fund which has had a strong performance since inception. Further, let us assume a large investor redeems half the fund. An open-ended mutual fund trust will be forced to sell stocks at a realized gain in order to fund the redemption request. This creates a taxable event in which all the remaining unit-holders are subject to. A traditional ETF, on the other hand, can simply redeem ETF units on an in-kind basis to fund the request, thereby potentially sparing the remaining unit holders from any capital gains distributions. So, it is important to note that Vanguard funds do not offer this one advantage of other ETFs from a tax efficiency perspective since they are, again, just a separate share class of the open-ended mutual fund trust index funds. If there were large redemptions causing realized capital gains, these could flow through to the Vanguard ETF holders. However, it is also important to note open-ended mutual fund trusts have one advantage over traditional ETFs in that they can harvest capital losses to offset future capital gains. In this case, Vanguard ETFs have an advantage over other ETFs because they participate in the benefits of tax loss harvesting that is normally reserved for the mutual fund structure. So at the end of the day, are Vanguard ETFs better or worse from a taxation perspective compared to other ETFs? Long term it's close enough to a wash for me that it wouldn't impact my decision to purchase Vanguard ETFs on a retail basis.]]> 1275 2009-09-15 21:57:04 2009-09-16 02:57:04 open open vanguard-etfs-have-different-tax-considerations-than-other-etfs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1253070252 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 3829 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-09-15 22:34:15 2009-09-16 03:34:15 1 0 0 3830 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-09-16 00:44:19 2009-09-16 05:44:19 1 0 0 3831 chihhsianghu@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/07/17/best-canadian-rewards-credit-card/ 65.93.142.219 2009-09-16 08:09:33 2009-09-16 13:09:33 1 0 0 3832 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-09-16 09:41:23 2009-09-16 14:41:23 1 0 0 3833 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-09-17 08:58:30 2009-09-17 13:58:30 1 0 0 3834 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/tax-efficiency-of-vanguard-etfs-follow-up/ 68.178.254.235 2009-09-21 21:09:33 2009-09-22 02:09:33 1 pingback 0 0 3835 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/even-more-clarity-on-vanguard-etf-taxation/ 68.178.254.235 2009-09-22 21:13:49 2009-09-23 02:13:49 1 pingback 0 0 3836 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-bears-turning-into-bulls-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-09-24 22:01:04 2009-09-25 03:01:04 1 pingback 0 0 3837 heydang@gmail.com 74.15.9.191 2009-09-26 14:51:38 2009-09-26 19:51:38 1 0 0 3838 http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/tax-efficiency-of-vanguard-etfs/ 205.207.146.97 2010-04-12 16:15:56 2010-04-12 21:15:56 1 pingback 0 0 Maximize The Sale Price Of Your Home http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/maximize-the-sale-price-of-your-home/ Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:19:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1281

    Designer extraordinaire, and guest author Daniela Garritano returns and this time she is writing about Selling Your House For More. If you would like to secure her services, don’t be afraid to email her by clicking here. Take it away D...

    In my line of work, you never know what you’re going to find when you walk into someone’s home. I always admire my client’s for making a valiant effort to really improve the atmosphere in which they live. I know making a change can be hard. Much harder for some. But if you’ve made the fearless decision to sell your home, you can either call in a pro (ahem…) or read on for some proven tricks of the trade that can lessen the fear factor and even help you embrace the change for the better.

    Truth is, buyers notice everything. And if you put a little pride into your property, it is sure to shine through. A properly staged home not only stands out amongst the competition and entices buyers, but it helps prove the worth of your asking price. Or even increase it. These small changes will not only be a personal victory, but can be a financially rewarding one as well.

    1) Clean up your act!

    Even the most beautiful house on the block will linger on the market if it’s dirty. Dirt isn’t exactly the best selling feature. That means no toothpaste in the sink, no bits on the floor that stick to your socks, no laundry exposed, and no clutter or dirty hockey equipment at the front door. When potential buyers see a clean home, it shows them that you have not only taken pride in your home’s appearance, but have also honored it as a valuable asset.

    Daniela’s Pick: Have little ones? Consider purchasing a few inexpensive ottomans that look like furniture, but actually double up as secret storage for toys and other clutter. Try the faux leather ottoman in brown, $39.99 available at Bou Clair Home.

    D’s Tip: Give each mirror in the house a quick wipe. The extra gleam will make the house seem brighter and even more immaculate!

    2) Paint it out!

    Buyers typically look for a home that is move-in ready. As much as you may love your tang colored walls, some buyers may not feel the same and really don’t want the extra burden of having to re-paint after a big move. Remember - for some buyers, more work for them translates to their expectation of a lower price because of the ‘extra work’ involved.

    Neutralizing your décor palette can increase your asking price because it gives your home mass appeal. More traffic means more interest, more offers and potentially more money! Case in point: after 3 months of zero interest and grape-colored walls, I convinced a client to make the change and paint out the grape ASAP. Within a week, a bidding war ensued where he managed to get $30,000 more than what he paid for it – 5 months prior. Jackpot!

    Daniela’s Pick: Ralph Lauren Exceptional Quality Paint, $39.99 per gallon, available at the Home Depot. Try “Countess” or “Antique Brown” for a more buyer friendly color!

    D’s Tip: While you’re up there, try re-positioning your wall art in a more uniform and symmetrical pattern for a clean, tailored look.

    3) Home Sweet Home

    If you were to think of what helps you feel most comfortable at home, the smell of a home cooked meal and a full belly is likely on that list. A simple and effective trick I like to use when getting a home ready to sell, is the “home sweet home” factor. A plate of brownies displayed on the kitchen counter or the smell of fresh baked cookies always seem to comfort buyers enough to feel as though they’re already home – which is the comfort they want to feel from the time they walk in.

    Daniela’s Pick: In addition to displaying a plate of treats, light a scented candle as well. Try Scented Jar Candle in ‘Baked Cookies’. Available at Michael’s Craft Superstore. $9.99. Yum!

    D’s Tip: Create a welcoming atmosphere conducive to the time of year you’re selling, which can allure buyers into coming back for multiple showings. Selling in the winter months? Light a cozy fire or candles! Or, open the windows for a soft, subtle summer breeze if you’re selling during the warmer climates. Sigh!

    4) Get De-Personal

    Most realtors would agree that once the selling sign is pitched on the front lawn, you can no longer view the home as your own. It has to become a show home. The reason Designers do what they do is because their clients are not visual. Some find it extremely difficult to see the potential in a space unless it is all placed out in front of them. Buyers need an emotional connection to the home. They want to envision themselves living there and not another family.

    D’s Tip: It’s always a good idea to de-personalize the space. That means more emphasis on the structure, design and finishes of the home, and less on the mounds of family photos, trophys, plaques and any other personalized pieces scattered throughout the home. Pack ‘em up!

    5) Musical Chairs

    Once you have de-cluttered and de-personalized your home, bring out your inner Home Stager by coming up with a new floor plan that may just be the help your home needs. It’s common to plunk down furniture wherever there is space and it can end up living in that spot for as long as you have the home (A good test? Move your sofa and look at the difference in flooring color underneath compared to the exposed flooring.) By changing the floor plan, your space can become more functional, appealing and even more spacious making the home appear much bigger. Increased space can mean increased price!

    D’s Tip: Before lugging furniture around to find its niche, take measurements of the room and your furniture . Sketch a few different layouts and go from there.

    ....annnd SOLD!

    Next time from Daniela: Baby, its getting cold outside! How to keep warm at home for less!]]> 1281 2009-09-20 22:19:52 2009-09-21 03:19:52 open open maximize-the-sale-price-of-your-home publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1253503197 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/danielaheadshot.jpg 3839 Idonotwantjunkmail@hotmail.com 173.34.132.99 2009-09-21 10:22:13 2009-09-21 15:22:13 1 0 0 3840 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 75.159.185.171 2009-09-23 12:40:47 2009-09-23 17:40:47 1 0 0 3841 johnmartinez@remaxrealty.com 173.33.137.61 2009-09-23 17:38:15 2009-09-23 22:38:15 1 0 0 3842 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/09/25/friday-links-34.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-09-25 04:06:15 2009-09-25 09:06:15 1 pingback 0 0 3843 jjbanks12@hotmail.com 173.34.132.99 2009-09-30 10:30:24 2009-09-30 15:30:24 1 0 0 Tax Efficiency of Vanguard ETFs Follow Up http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/tax-efficiency-of-vanguard-etfs-follow-up/ Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:09:18 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1289 Vanguard ETFs had slightly different tax considerations than most other ETFs due to their unique structure (they are actually a separate share class of Vanguard index mutual funds.) Larry MacDonald from Canadian Business Magazine has added some more information to the mix in his most recent blog post. He even provides a short side by side comparison of the capital gains distributions of a traditional ETF and the Vanguard commensurate ETF. The differences are quite large in some cases/years. There were also some follow up questions on my original blog post, the answers to which may be of interest to other readers so I'm including it here for your reference. A reader had asked if there was any way to figure out the unrealized capital gains liability that has accrued in any one Vanguard ETF. And there is. The answer can be sourced directly from Vanguard's website. Just click on the fund in question, then select the "Distributions" tab and you'll find a line that says "Unrealized appreciation/depreciation". Right below that is the amount as a percentage of the NAV. For example, for VWO (which is a share class of VEIEX, the index mutual fund) here is the link.]]> 1289 2009-09-21 21:09:18 2009-09-22 02:09:18 open open tax-efficiency-of-vanguard-etfs-follow-up publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1253585365 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif 3844 chihhsianghu@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/09/13/10-tips-back-to-school-savings-for-college-students/ 65.93.142.219 2009-09-22 07:48:42 2009-09-22 12:48:42 1 0 0 calculatorandmoney220 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1298 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:13:03 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/calculatorandmoney2201.gif 1298 2009-09-22 21:13:03 2009-09-23 02:13:03 open open calculatorandmoney220-2 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/calculatorandmoney2201.gif _wp_attached_file calculatorandmoney2201.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:26:"calculatorandmoney2201.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"calculatorandmoney2201-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"calculatorandmoney2201-220x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"calculatorandmoney2201-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Even More Clarity on Vanguard ETF Taxation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/even-more-clarity-on-vanguard-etf-taxation/ Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:13:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1293 A well informed authority on indexing emailed me to offer some further insight into the taxation nuances of Vanguard ETFs. Without revealing the source, I can assure you that what follows comes from a real expert on the subject matter. For those who have missed it, you may want to read these related posts first: Vanguard ETFs have Different Tax Considerations that other ETFs, and Tax Efficiency of Vanguard ETFs Follow-Up. The claim that the activity of the investors in the Vanguard traditional index funds will cause adverse tax consequences for holders of the ETF class of shares has been raised before. However, this has yet to materialize and the proof is in the pudding. Out of the 39 ETFs, only the REIT ETF paid a small capital gains (in 2004, 2005, and 2006), and the Consumer Staples ETF paid a small gain in 2004. Not one of the large, broadly diversified ETFs, like VTI or VWO, has ever paid a gain. The same can't be said for other ETF manufacturers' commensurate products. Vanguard’s ETF structure, which combines a conventional class of index fund shares with exchange traded shares, leverages the advantages provided by both classes of shares. I’d cite three primary advantages: cost efficiency, tax efficiency, and tracking efficiency. First, the structure enables Vanguard to offer some of the lowest-cost ETFs in the market. Introducing a separate share class of an existing fund substantially reduces the start-up costs that can encumber the launch of a stand-alone ETF, and it leverages the economies of scale of an existing large pool of assets to minimize ongoing operating and trading costs. That’s why they are able to offer the Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) at one-third the cost of the most similar competitor product, and a Total Bond Market ETF (BND) at less than half the cost of competing products. Second, unlike stand-alone ETFs, this share-class structure gives Vanguard additional ways to maximize after-tax ETF returns relative to competitors. All ETFs can minimize capital gains by distributing their lowest-cost shares to meet redemption requests -- Vanguard does this too. However, they have an additional tool in their arsenal. As you noted, as cash flows into the funds’ conventional shares, they purchase stocks at a wide variety of tax lots, and when investors redeem shares of the conventional funds, or when there are index changes that require sale of a security, they sell the highest cost lots first, typically resulting in the realization of capital losses. These losses are stored in the fund for up to eight years to be used to offset capital gains that might be realized in the future, and they benefit both conventional share investors and ETF investors. However, contrary to your post, conventional open-ended funds can "in-kind" shares to investors -- if there was a large enough transaction that might cause a capital gain, an open-ended fund could do an in-kind redemption of securities instead of cash. It's rarely utilized (although it has been done) and in Vanguard's case, rarely necessary. In fact, Vanguard's index funds are so large, and take in such steady cash flow, that they can typically "cross" incoming cash with outgoing redemptions, thereby avoiding the need to buy or sell stocks altogether. For these reasons, the suggestion that if there were large redemptions from Vanguard's traditional index funds the ETF shareholders would be impacted is a hypothetical situation that we haven't seen manifest. We have just experienced the second worst stock market decline in history, and index funds experienced positive cash flows. If investors were going to redeem en masse, we'd have seen it in 2008. Vanguard routinely “stress tests” their portfolios to see how much of a fund could be redeemed before it realizes a capital gain. For instance, the largest stock index fund (and largest ETF) Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (and its ETF share class VTI) could be redeemed in its entirety and still not realize a capital gain. That's every investor selling every share, and still no capital gains realized. Even in bull markets, about 75% of the fund would need to be redeemed to trigger a gain. It is highly unlikely that 75% of a $105 billion mutual fund is going to be redeemed. Could transactions in the traditional shares ever impact the ETF shares? Perhaps -- in a fund with a very small asset base that doesn't have steady cash flows, and if an in-kind redemption wasn't practical in that case for one reason or another. Is that slim possibility the only factor that should be considered when comparing products? Clearly not. I think that the best way for investors to compare ETFs is not on the merits of one structure over another, or even on whether a fund paid a gain or didn't. The better measure of success is after-tax return. If you select a fund that has terrible tracking relative to its index and is high-cost, but didn't happen to have a capital gain, what does that tell you? Not much. Finally, the share class structure. It gives them a leg up on benchmark tracking. With an established base of assets, exchanged-traded shares can track with a greater degree of precision because they own significantly more securities than ETFs that do not have a critical mass of assets. The funds can fill in around the creation basket, buying other securities with the cash flow from the conventional share class. Cash flows into the underlying fund also give the portfolio manager greater investment flexibility to adjust the portfolio for benchmark changes. Frequently, the fund can be re-targeted without having to sell any stocks, just by using incoming cash. On the other hand, stand-alone ETFs may have to sell securities in order to purchase new index entrants, and weight their portfolios appropriately because all of their cash flows are paid in kind, not with real cash. Thank you kind stranger! Here's hoping you weigh in again in the future, because you are always welcome to do so, as are all readers. Cheers!]]> 1293 2009-09-22 21:13:42 2009-09-23 02:13:42 open open even-more-clarity-on-vanguard-etf-taxation publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1253672027 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3845 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-09-23 09:14:53 2009-09-23 14:14:53 1 0 0 3846 siliconprairieblog@gmail.com http://www.siliconprairieblog.com 71.17.12.120 2009-09-23 09:42:12 2009-09-23 14:42:12 1 0 0 3847 chihhsianghu@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/09/11/are-canadian-cell-phone-wireless-costs-too-high/ 129.97.58.107 2009-09-23 11:45:02 2009-09-23 16:45:02 1 0 0 3848 steele@wharton.upenn.edu 174.57.59.36 2009-10-10 11:08:27 2009-10-10 16:08:27 1 0 0 3849 http://feelam.com/213-how-to-get-a-leg-up-on-more-experienced-investors/ 206.225.16.215 2009-10-19 18:18:39 2009-10-19 23:18:39 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-62/ Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:32:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1300 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday (and occasionally lagging into Saturday like today!)  I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I have to apologize for being late with this week's Lap Of The Blogs installment - I'm currently in LA for my brother's wedding. It's been quite a nice trip so far. Had the opportunity to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant which is always a gastronomical delight, and while I'm here I decided to visit one of my work's major partners - Research Affiliates - the creators of the Fundamental Index. Their offices are located in Newport Beach and the neighbourhood is as opulent as it gets. I don't know how they get any work done here, the weather is incredible and the beach is basically across the street! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau writes about Jeremy Siegel's book, Stock for The Long Run and how some have been questioning it as of late. Do stocks outperform bonds over time in ways that investors can rely on? Following that theme, Canadian Capitalist explains that fixed income investors are subject to emotions too - because they are subject to less volatility over the long run does that mean they are devoid of making emotional decisions about their investments altogether? Michael James on Money then shows us that while the returns (for now) on fixed income looks high enough as espoused by some financial authors, the small differences in long term performance add up to huge differences in wealth. Thicken My Wallet asks if heightened mutual fund regulation has caused investment product providers to flee to the ETF market, witness the explosion of ETFs from basic index trackers to niche mandates, active mandates, etc. Four Pillars discusses how you might want to go about finding tenants for your rental properties. Million Dollar Journey has a post about how guest writer Kathryn doesn't offer financial advice to people when they talk about their finances (and point out glaring problems or missteps). Big Cajun Man notes that cell phone plans are cheaper in the US than in Canada thanks to the higher competition.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Another oldie but goodie. I first posted this video over a year ago so for the benefit of the newer readers I'm posting it again. This video actually won a few awards at various film festivals and it shows legendary driver Ari Vatanen taking a modified rally car up Pikes Peak at break-neck speeds, coming close to falling off the mountain as you'll see! Enjoy!

    ]]> 1300 2009-09-25 18:32:55 2009-09-25 23:32:55 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-62 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1253921581 _edit_last 1 3850 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-09-25 18:49:47 2009-09-25 23:49:47 1 0 0 3851 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-09-25 20:41:45 2009-09-26 01:41:45 1 0 0 3852 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-09-25 22:24:40 2009-09-26 03:24:40 1 0 0 3853 mosekim08@yahoo.co.uk http://kenyantykoon.wordpress.com/ 81.199.17.19 2009-09-27 07:50:00 2009-09-27 12:50:00 1 0 0 3854 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-09-27 17:56:03 2009-09-27 22:56:03 1 0 0 3855 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-09-28 16:43:00 2009-09-28 21:43:00 1 0 0 3856 moneyenergy@hotmail.com http://www.getmoneyenergy.com 68.51.79.244 2009-10-04 02:20:28 2009-10-04 07:20:28 1 0 0 babyeinstein-150x150 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/planet-orange-an-attempt-to-teach-young-kids-about-money/babyeinstein-150x150/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:48:36 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/babyeinstein-150x1501.jpg 1305 2009-09-28 19:48:36 2009-09-29 00:48:36 open open babyeinstein-150x150 inherit 1304 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/babyeinstein-150x1501.jpg _wp_attached_file babyeinstein-150x1501.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:25:"babyeinstein-150x1501.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:1:{s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"babyeinstein-150x1501-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} learninggraduation http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/planet-orange-an-attempt-to-teach-young-kids-about-money/learninggraduation-2/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:04:26 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/learninggraduation1.jpg 1309 2009-09-28 20:04:26 2009-09-29 01:04:26 open open learninggraduation-2 inherit 1304 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/learninggraduation1.jpg _wp_attached_file learninggraduation1.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"200";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='85' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:23:"learninggraduation1.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"learninggraduation1-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"learninggraduation1-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:29:"learninggraduation1-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Planet Orange - An Attempt To Teach Young Kids About Money http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/planet-orange-an-attempt-to-teach-young-kids-about-money/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:05:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1304 The earlier the better I say. Clearly the material taught has to reflect the life stage of the pupil, and since I have no kids and only recently starting hanging out with babies, I have very little working knowledge of how to effectively engage children. However, ING Direct has just launched "Planet Orange" which is designed as an interactive way to teach young kids (Grades 1 through 6) about the very basics of money. They sent me a press release and I checked it out earlier tonight. I signed up for an account and completed about 25% of the program. It is set up as a website/game that kids log into and they control a spacecraft that can travel to four different worlds. On each world are four different lessons/stories about money ranging from the origins of money and budgeting and eventually getting up to the very basics of portfolios. They earn money for hearing stories and completing quizzes and they have to budget their money in order to buy fuel to go to the other worlds, etc. So not only do they learn about money's history, they actually get to put budgeting into practice. Like I said, I don't know what works with kids, but perhaps some readers with more experience with children would like to check out the site and let us know your thoughts? Here's the site: http://www.orangekids.ca/]]> 1304 2009-09-28 20:05:01 2009-09-29 01:05:01 open open planet-orange-an-attempt-to-teach-young-kids-about-money publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1254186331 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/learninggraduation.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/learninggraduation.jpg 3857 veronicaw@rogers.com 209.29.254.82 2009-09-29 08:12:15 2009-09-29 13:12:15 1 0 0 3858 info@realbench.net http://www.realbench.net 75.77.30.129 2009-09-29 12:43:12 2009-09-29 17:43:12 1 0 0 3859 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-09-29 12:51:41 2009-09-29 17:51:41 1 0 0 3860 admin@financemetrics.com http://www.financemetrics.com/ 219.90.110.118 2009-09-30 00:36:47 2009-09-30 05:36:47 1 0 0 3861 cahollie@hotmail.com http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.89.211.181 2009-10-17 19:36:15 2009-10-18 00:36:15 1 0 0 3862 http://commoncentsmom.com/2009/10/18/snapshot-saturday-my-favorite-reads-this-week/ 72.233.96.155 2009-10-17 20:12:30 2009-10-18 01:12:30 1 pingback 0 0 Secret Children http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/secret-children/ Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:59:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1313 1313 2009-09-29 22:59:06 2009-09-30 03:59:06 open open secret-children publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1254283149 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/bro.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/bro.png 3863 http://www.greatmortgagereview.com/20933/secret-children/ 174.120.11.34 2009-09-29 23:16:37 2009-09-30 04:16:37 1 pingback 0 0 3864 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-10-01 11:56:13 2009-10-01 16:56:13 1 0 0 3865 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-10-01 11:56:30 2009-10-01 16:56:30 1 0 0 3866 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-01 20:42:08 2009-10-02 01:42:08 1 0 0 3867 paul.fettes@fettesworld.com 99.226.148.34 2009-10-05 13:01:17 2009-10-05 18:01:17 1 0 0 2009 Q3 Bloggers' Stock Picking Contest http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2009-q3-bloggers-stock-picking-contest/ Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:25:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1317 Disclaimer My picks were pure swing for the fence plays – two of them were 300% leveraged ETFs, one was a 200% leveraged ETF and the fourth was a penny stock play. Leveraged ETFs only do well if the underlying investment goes in the intended direction with little to modest retracements (if you are holding them for any extended length of time). You essentially have to be right both on direction AND path. There's more potential reward, but more risk (yup, they're still related!). You can read the original rationale for the picks on my original post back on January 1st, 2009. In case you don’t read the original post, read this: THIS STOCK PICKING CONTEST IS JUST FOR FUN, IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THE STOCKS LISTED HERE OR ON ANY OF THE OTHER BLOGGERS’ SITES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING A PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR. IF YOU BUY THEM ANYWAYS, YOU MUST RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER AND REPEAT, “I AM A NUTBAR”.

    Performance Update

    My four picks now have a YTD collective performance of +43.01%, which is better than the +27.25% average of all the bloggers' picks in total. I'd gloat, but what's the point? As I stated before, my rationale for the contest was to bet big and hope for the best, hence three leveraged ETFs and a speculative tech play (which has fallen from it's almost +100% performance at the half-way point). There is still one more quarter to go and it's still anyone's game. Emphasis on "game". A brief recap of the picks: 1. TNA.us: Direxion Small Cap 3x Shares (+32.36% YTD) 2. EDC.us: Direxion Emerging Markets 3x Shares (+161.24% YTD) 3. ENA.v: Enablence Technologies (+10.00% YTD) 4. HOU.to: Horizons BetaPro Nymex Crude Bull Plus ETF (-31.57% YTD) Here's the list of the other players and their performance so far. I'll update their links to point to there respective performance updates as they become available...
    IntelligentSpeculator 73.05%
    WildInvestor 56.78%
    FourPillars 44.26%
    Wheredoesallmymoneygo 43.01%
    TheFinancialBlogger 24.49%
    Dividend Growth Investor 11.51%
    MDJ 8.49%
    MyTradersJournal -3.16%
    ZachStocks -13.17%
    ]]>
    1317 2009-09-30 20:25:06 2009-10-01 01:25:06 open open 2009-q3-bloggers-stock-picking-contest publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1254790210 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 3868 http://thewildinvestor.com/4-stocks-to-buy-now-q3-stock-results/ 74.220.207.142 2009-09-30 20:57:29 2009-10-01 01:57:29 1 pingback 0 0 3869 http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/investment-talking/stock-picks-q3-update-back-on-top/ 216.17.106.121 2009-09-30 21:04:57 2009-10-01 02:04:57 1 pingback 0 0 3870 http://pennystocknewsletter.info/uncategorized/2009-q3-bloggers%e2%80%99-stock-picking-contest 67.202.92.6 2009-09-30 23:03:59 2009-10-01 04:03:59 1 pingback 0 0 3871 http://pinksheetblog.us/2009-q3-bloggers%e2%80%99-stock-picking-contest/ 96.9.130.166 2009-10-01 01:42:39 2009-10-01 06:42:39 1 pingback 0 0 3872 http://www.pennystockinvestment.info/2009-q3-bloggers%e2%80%99-stock-picking-contest/ 88.214.241.54 2009-10-01 03:47:34 2009-10-01 08:47:34 1 pingback 0 0 3873 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/best-stocks-2009-q3-contest-results/ 64.6.103.97 2009-10-01 04:35:31 2009-10-01 09:35:31 1 pingback 0 0 3874 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2009/10/01/2009-stock-picks-q3-review/ 66.96.128.62 2009-10-01 06:39:17 2009-10-01 11:39:17 1 pingback 0 0 3875 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/YQtuq 208.74.66.43 2009-10-01 14:01:29 2009-10-01 19:01:29 1 pingback 0 0 3876 ashish.bhandari@gmail.com 117.240.78.38 2009-10-02 01:52:10 2009-10-02 06:52:10 1 0 0 3877 smithjhon996@gmail.com 117.240.78.38 2009-10-02 01:53:40 2009-10-02 06:53:40 1 0 0 3878 smithjhon996@gmail.com 117.240.78.38 2009-10-02 01:53:55 2009-10-02 06:53:55 1 0 0 3879 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/10/04/stock-picks-for-2009-quarterly-update-oct/ 174.120.10.130 2009-10-04 08:18:32 2009-10-04 13:18:32 1 pingback 0 0 3880 stockexplosion@gmail.com http://www.pennystockexplosion.com 121.1.46.242 2009-10-09 12:34:41 2009-10-09 17:34:41 Penny stock investing is more volatile.]]> 1 0 0 3881 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/stock-picks-for-2009-quarterly-update-oct.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-10-11 16:39:12 2009-10-11 21:39:12 1 pingback 0 0 3882 stockexplosion1@yahoo.com http://www.pennystockexplosion.com 121.1.46.242 2009-10-19 11:40:49 2009-10-19 16:40:49 Hot Penny Stocks]]> 1 0 0 3883 capitalgainsreport@gmail.com http://www.thecapitalgainsreport.com/ 122.50.216.35 2009-11-12 05:49:01 2009-11-12 10:49:01 1 0 0 3884 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2009/12/31/2009-stock-picks-end-of-year-review/ 66.96.128.62 2009-12-31 19:32:10 2010-01-01 00:32:10 1 pingback 0 0 3885 http://thewildinvestor.com/twis-4-stocks-to-buy-in-2009-finishes-up-70/ 74.220.207.142 2010-01-05 17:44:25 2010-01-05 22:44:25 1 pingback 0 0
    Energy Saving Tips For Cold Weather http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/energy-saving-tips-for-cold-weather/ Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:20:32 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1323 Designer extraordinaire, and guest author Daniela Garritano returns and this time she is writing about Energy Saving Tips For Cold Weather. If you would like to secure her services, don’t be afraid to email her by clicking here. Take it away D… Brrr! It’s coming! We all know the signs. Mornings are crisper, evenings are darker, and summer jammies have turned to flannel. Love it or hate it folks, a great Canadian winter is just around the corner! I actually love the change of season! However, there are concepts of the colder months, that aren’t so lovely. Cold weather can mean cranked thermostats with sky rocketing energy costs. Truth is, the hindrance of a cold home can come from any given factor such as age, the elements themselves or regrettably, poor construction. You can pay top dollar for a Home Inspector or Energy Auditor to pinpoint the problem, or you can try some simple DIY tips to tackle it on your own. Plus, the beauty of weather proofing your home isn’t just the economical benefits, but also the environmental. Less energy means less carbon you’re pumping out into our beautiful planet. Yay! Below is a list of the most common heat sucking culprits found within your home. Nipping these in the bud won’t only keep you super toasty, but it will be keeping you warmer, for less! 1)         The Window Have you ever noticed that you could have the fire going, the heat jacked, and be buried under a sea of blankets, but still feel cold? Like an unwanted guest, a draft has likely snuck its way in! Daniela’s Check: Tackle every window in the house to really make sure you’ve covered your tracks! Hold a lighter or lit candle close to the window frame, and trace its perimeter to ensure you have covered each inch. If the flame does a little dance, there’s a draft! D’s Fix it: Bust out the caulking gun! Start at a corner, and pump a thin line around the window frame against the leak.  Neatly glide your index finger over the caulking line to fully fill in the leak and get a smooth finish. If the caulking gets too tacky, dip your finger in some water and smooth it over again until you have a seamless finish.  Try Mono Window and Door Leak Caulking, $3.99 available at the Home Depot. Bonus Tip! In some cases, plastic sheeting is a big hit to ‘winterize’ your windows. To do, wash the window frame and once dry, trace it with double sided tape. Starting at the top, spread out a plastic sheet and pull it out, covering the entire window. Fasten to the tape and leave about an inch on each side. Trim any excess. To smooth out any wrinkles, slowly pass a heat gun (or blow dryer!) over top of the plastic and watch it shrink! Voila! Cold air is blocked! 2)         The Door The window isn’t always the sole offender. My home was inexplicably frigid, until one night during a power outage, there was a glow beaming through the frame of the front door! Eureka! Daniela’s Check: This is best to check in the evening when it’s super dark. Shut off all of the lights inside your home and have a buddy shine a flashlight from the outside of the house towards the door. If you see a glow around the frame, you’ve likely found a leak! D’s Fix: A super easy fix is with waterproof weather stripper (you can use this around the windows as well if caulking is a challenge) Simple apply the self adhesive backing to the inside of the door frame against the leak and smooth into place. Try Tago Foam Tape Self Adhesive Weatherstripper for Window’s and Door’s, $4.47 available at the Home Depot. 3)         The Garage Door The garage door is a major heat hauling perpetrator because of its scale. In some cases, gaps in between the door and the frame can measure up to a quarter inch thick without being visible! Daniela’s Check: Much like the front door, the ‘ol flashlight and glowing doorframe can be applied in this case as well. Doors that lead to the garage or cellar should be checked and weatherproofed along the base too! D’s Fix: Apply foam rods or rubber gasket strips to the top and bottom of the garage door. They’re made for larger gaps and drafts that find their way inside your home each time the garage is accessed. They can be packed in to fit snuggly inside the gap and are moisture resistant. You may want to apply a thin line of caulking after it has been inserted, just for extra grip and seal. Try Tago Backer Rod Foam Insulator, $5.67 available at Home Depot. 4)         The Outlet Dryer hoses, bathrooms vents and kitchen fans can be a gateway for the cold to seep its way in. Proper insulation not only protects you from the elements, but can also extend the life of the vent itself. Electrical and cable outlets are also easy access for Old Man Winter, so bundle up! Daniela’s Check: Unscrew an electrical plate that is connected to an exterior wall and take a peek behind the outlet. Do you see a light peering through? Or perhaps an empty shell? If so, it’s just one extra nook for cold air to make its way in! D’s Fix: Brilliantly easy and truly a perfect fit! Simply insert foam outlet insulation to the back of your switch or electrical plate! They’re pre-cut to size, moisture resistant and take two seconds to install. They also work for television and phone cables! Try Tago Electrical Outlet & Switch Insulator, $4.47 for a pack of 10, available at Home Depot. Happy Saving! Next time: Trick or Treat! Be a big hit for little bucks! ]]> 1323 2009-10-06 17:20:32 2009-10-06 22:20:32 open open energy-saving-tips-for-cold-weather publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1254867894 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 3886 green_eyed_girly13@yahoo.com 173.34.132.99 2009-10-10 07:49:02 2009-10-10 12:49:02 1 0 0 3887 info@crazybillionaire.org http://crazybillionaire.org 81.97.212.144 2009-10-20 15:35:52 2009-10-20 20:35:52 1 0 0 Cash For Clunkers Worked Too Well? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/cash-for-clunkers-worked-too-well/ Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:49:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1332 www.aaegroup.com, car sales in September (which was the first month AFTER the Cash For Clunkers program ended) were down by 45% at GM and 42% at Chrysler. He also goes on to note that researchers at the University of Delaware added up all the benefits and costs of the program and found that there was a net COST of $2,000 per vehicle for the program (benefits were reduced gas consumption, environmental improvements and some other items). So given that 700,000 cars qualified for the program, he states "the program made the nation as a whole $1.4 billion poorer." The story was emailed to me, and I can't find a link, but you can visit Ralph Schroeder's website at www.aaegroup.com.]]> 1332 2009-10-07 22:49:04 2009-10-08 03:49:04 open open cash-for-clunkers-worked-too-well publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1254974232 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ford_model_t_henry.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ford_model_t_henry.jpg 3888 http://cashforclunkerstalks.info/cash-for-clunkers-worked-too-well-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 174.132.145.98 2009-10-08 07:37:02 2009-10-08 12:37:02 1 pingback 0 0 3889 karenc@cars4charities.org http://www.cars4charities.org/ 208.105.229.102 2009-10-08 09:18:57 2009-10-08 14:18:57 1 0 0 3890 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/10/09/random-thoughts-on-gobblers/ 67.205.7.217 2009-10-09 01:57:29 2009-10-09 06:57:29 1 pingback 0 0 3891 joel@creditcardchaser.com http://www.creditcardchaser.com 68.200.252.73 2009-10-09 20:30:28 2009-10-10 01:30:28 1 0 0 3892 georgesalarcon@yahoo.com http://www.debtsettlement.vg 75.213.235.61 2009-11-09 14:24:32 2009-11-09 19:24:32 1 0 0 3893 pittskatterine@yahoo.com http://dentalcool.blogspot.com/2009/10/dental-checkup-need-5-extractions-upper.html 75.30.122.230 2009-11-09 23:56:55 2009-11-10 04:56:55 1 0 0 wadofcash http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-do-you-get-for-winning-a-nobel-prize/wadofcash/ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:00:58 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wadofcash.jpg 1337 2009-10-12 20:00:58 2009-10-13 01:00:58 open open wadofcash inherit 1335 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/wadofcash.jpg _wp_attached_file wadofcash.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:13:"wadofcash.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"wadofcash-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"wadofcash-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"wadofcash-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} What Do You Get For Winning A Nobel Prize? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-do-you-get-for-winning-a-nobel-prize/ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:03:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1335 Origins Of The Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes were created by the last will and testament of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist who invented dynamite. There were originally five prizes: Chemistry, Physics, Peace, Literature and Physiology/Medicine, but a sixth prize was added in 1968 for Economics.

    What Is The Prize?

    The Nobel Prize is strictly a monetary prize, although the prestige associated with being a Nobel Laureate may be more valuable today. Alfred Nobel intended that the vast majority of his (sizable) estate was to be invested safely and the interest earned each year would be given to the prize winners. When Nobel died, his estate was worth approximately US$186 million, and has since grown to about US$400 million. The current monetary prize per category is US$1.4 million(source: Wikipedia). Image source: Freedigitalphotos.net]]>
    1335 2009-10-12 20:03:03 2009-10-13 01:03:03 open open what-do-you-get-for-winning-a-nobel-prize publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1255395787 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg 3894 pjwilsonn@hotmail.com 68.151.58.135 2009-10-13 13:59:21 2009-10-13 18:59:21 1 0 0 3895 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-13 17:31:31 2009-10-13 22:31:31 1 0 0 3896 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 173.33.218.135 2009-10-13 21:15:24 2009-10-14 02:15:24 1 0 0 3897 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-10-14 16:25:32 2009-10-14 21:25:32 1 0 0 3898 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-10-14 16:25:54 2009-10-14 21:25:54 1 0 0 3899 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-15 21:32:32 2009-10-16 02:32:32 1 0 0
    Managed Futures http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/managed-futures/ Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:52:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1340 However, I didn't see many reports which looked at managed futures during 2008. The Altegris 40 Index, which is an equal weighted index of 40 managed futures trading programs adjusted for survivorship bias, returned +15.47% for the 2008 calendar year. (This is not a recommendation to blindly add managed futures to your portfolio, fyi. Talk to your advisor or someone who knows more about managed futures - they can be very risky.)

    Lest ye accuse me of cherry picking data for the sake of something to write, it is worth noting that for the nineteen full calendar years between 1990 and 2008, there was not a single year when both the Altegris 40 Index and the S&P500 Total Return Index both produced negative annual numbers. More importantly, if we look at stress testing the respective indices we find that the single worst month's performance for each index was -8.16% for the managed futures (January 1992) and -16.79% for stocks (October 2008). If we further look at the worst overall draw-down periods: -15.00% for the managed futures between December 1992 and April 1992 (that's only five months) versus -50.95% for stocks between October 2007 and February 2009 (a full seventeen months). So is it managed futures that warrant discomfort? Or stocks?

    When we look at certain systemic events, returning to our draw-down analysis theme, we see that holding managed futures can really save a portfolio. The CME Group reports that during the market crash of 1987 and the days that followed, managed futures reported returns over +20%. At the time of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the US stock market dropped by 16.3% while managed futures added 8.3% during the same time.

    If there is interest, I'll write about CTAs (Commodity Trading Advisors) and CPOs (Commodity Pool Operators) and the various types of managed futures trading programs. To skip ahead, they can be completely algorithmic and they can also be discretionary. There probably should be interest, especially as the assets invested in this asset class have grown 700% over the last 10 years - which is normally a warning sign. You'll certainly want to watch this space.

    ]]>
    1340 2009-10-14 19:52:41 2009-10-15 00:52:41 open open managed-futures publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1255567966 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif 3900 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-10-14 20:37:13 2009-10-15 01:37:13 1 0 0 3901 http://www.stocksmarketinvesting.info/managed-futures/ 88.214.241.54 2009-10-14 23:29:42 2009-10-15 04:29:42 1 pingback 0 0 3902 http://www.onlinestocksinvesting.info/managed-futures/ 88.214.241.54 2009-10-14 23:33:50 2009-10-15 04:33:50 1 pingback 0 0 3903 k_9_corps@hotmail.com 68.147.243.143 2009-10-15 08:25:49 2009-10-15 13:25:49 1 0 0 3904 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-10-15 08:56:18 2009-10-15 13:56:18 1 0 0 3905 bklunder@telus.net 142.59.227.104 2009-10-15 20:05:09 2009-10-16 01:05:09 1 0 0 3906 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-10-15 21:31:42 2009-10-16 02:31:42 1 0 0 3907 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/book-winners-and-weekend-reading.htm 64.131.72.71 2009-10-17 09:06:02 2009-10-17 14:06:02 1 pingback 0 0 3908 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/10/17/book-winners-and-weekend-reading-%e2%80%93-oct-17-2009/ 174.120.10.130 2009-10-17 09:40:03 2009-10-17 14:40:03 1 pingback 0 0
    ING offers a way to get 2010 TFSA Contributions in early http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ing-offers-a-way-to-get-2010-tfsa-contributions-in-early/ Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:57:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1345 Programming note - a while back I had mentioned that readers of this blog were going to get the chance to ask questions to Peter Aceto, CEO of ING Direct Canada. Just a quick update since it has been a while since that was first posted: the interview will be a video interview and I expect it will be completed in the next few weeks. Any questions that don't get answered in the interview, Peter has agreed to provide written answers to. I suspect we will get it posted by November 1 - so thanks for your patience. ING sent me a press release indicating that they are offering 2010 TFSA Kick Start Accounts (as of right now). Essentially, for those who have maxed their current TFSA room and want to get a leg up on putting money into their TFSA for 2010, you can open a 2010 TFSA Kick Start Account. This is essentially just a "regular" high-interest savings account, but since the interest earned between now and the end of the year is subject to tax, ING is offering to double the interest earned in these accounts until the end of 2009. Once we hit 2010, they will then transfer the account automatically into a proper TFSA account. Essentially you are getting the after tax equivalent of being able to make your 2010 TFSA contribution a few months early. In fact, the lower your marginal tax rate is below 50%, the greater the value add. For example, if you had a $5000 balance earning 1% per year for 3 months in a TFSA, you would earn $12.50 in interest. It would be tax-free interest income inside a TFSA, since a TFSA is a tax sheltered account. But the Kick Start account is not a tax-free environment. So you are going to be subject to tax on this $12.50. IF you had a 50% marginal tax bracket you would lose $6.25 to the taxman, leaving you with $6.25. However, since ING Direct is doubling the interest you would earn $25 instead of $12.50. That $25 is subject to your marginal tax bracket and in this case $12.50 goes to the taxman leaving $12.50 for the client. Now, if you are in a lower tax bracket, say 30%, then you would only lose $7.50 to the taxman in this case leaving you with $17.50. So the lower your marginal tax bracket, the better this deal is for you. If you already have an ING account, then setting up a kick start account looks pretty compelling. Since we are in such a low interest rate environment, it seems that ING Direct is hoping that this extra juice (orange juice?) is enough to get those who've been procrastinating about opening their first ING account once step closer. If an ING account hasn't been on your radar, then you have to weigh whether $12.50 or so is enough incentive to put them on your radar.]]> 1345 2009-10-15 18:57:41 2009-10-15 23:57:41 open open ing-offers-a-way-to-get-2010-tfsa-contributions-in-early publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1255712698 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash220.gif _wp_old_slug ing-offers-to-double-your-interest-on-early-2010-tfsa-contributions 3909 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-10-16 11:56:37 2009-10-16 16:56:37 1 0 0 3910 rmak@fairloanrate.com http://www.fairloanrate.com/ 116.71.166.212 2009-10-17 14:02:38 2009-10-17 19:02:38 1 0 0 Using Galvanic Skin Response To Improve Stock Trading http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/using-galvanic-skin-response-to-improve-stock-trading/ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:08:37 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1352 Second Opinion Investor Services sent me a link to an article about a contraption known as The Rationalizer. Essentially, it is a two part device that measures Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and reports it to the user visually through a device that emits different colours and light patterns depending on the magnitude of the GSR response. The user wears a simple bracelet which measures GSR, which is basically a change in the electrical conductivity of your skin. Last time I checked, GSR alone does not tell you what type of emotion you have, but just the absolute magnitude (or intensity) of that emotion. In other words, "very angry" and "very happy" might be reported as the same GSR level. The bracelet then transmits the results to the visual device (I'm thinking along the lines of those orbs that you can buy that change colour with the daily performance of the stock markets - click here to see what I mean, but I don't think they are available anymore). The point behind The Rationalizer is that when GSR reaches a certain point, and hence the visual device reaches a red colour (for example), it might be a signal for the investor to stop trading as studies have shown that under stress and periods of heightened emotion (either way - big winning streak or losing streak) people make different decisions than they normally would. I would not be surprised to see a future device like this on a trading floor - except instead of glowing orbs, it would just be data sent to the guys overseeing the traders. They could use this data to shut down trades for a particular trader on any given day as part of a risk management protocol. Click here to read the original article that Ken had sent a link to.]]> 1352 2009-10-18 20:08:37 2009-10-19 01:08:37 open open using-galvanic-skin-response-to-improve-stock-trading publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif _edit_lock 1256006842 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 3911 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/hnInV 208.74.66.43 2009-10-18 22:39:06 2009-10-19 03:39:06 1 pingback 0 0 3912 http://www.stocktradingtipsonline.info/using-galvanic-skin-response-to-improve-stock-trading/ 88.214.241.54 2009-10-19 00:53:27 2009-10-19 05:53:27 1 pingback 0 0 3913 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-10-20 09:24:27 2009-10-20 14:24:27 1 0 0 ETF Does Not Mean Index http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/etf-does-not-mean-index/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:37:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1359 Look on page 13 of the most recent prospectus, under the overview of the legal structure. (Note: you may have to indicate your status as an individual investor, financial advisor, or institutional investor first on an splash page - once you've done that you can re-click the link above to go straight to the prospectus.) Imprecision irks me, and it certainly clouds the issues for everyone when anyone discussing active/passive or ETFs/Mutual Funds uses sloppy terminology. That's my rant for the week. :)]]> 1359 2009-10-19 21:37:45 2009-10-20 02:37:45 open open etf-does-not-mean-index publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256006272 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/polar-bear-tongue.jpeg 3914 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/kItil 208.74.66.43 2009-10-20 02:18:27 2009-10-20 07:18:27 1 pingback 0 0 3915 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-10-20 08:31:07 2009-10-20 13:31:07 1 0 0 3916 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 129.97.168.151 2009-10-20 13:37:38 2009-10-20 18:37:38 1 0 0 Do You Want To Be On The W Network with me? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/do-you-want-to-be-on-the-w-network-with-me/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:42:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1364 General Purpose Pictures) and The W Network have been developing a concept and now it is time to cast for the pilot. If all goes well, then a series may come out of it. In any case, they are looking for people who want to be on the show and they asked me to post the casting notice in case any readers want a chance to earn some money and have me personally help you with your overall finances. Please feel free to pass the notice on to anyone you might know. Here is the casting notice:

    CASTING FOR A NEW W NETWORK TV SERIES

    The co-creators of Holmes on Homes and Save Us From Our House have an exciting new financial series that will tackle your spending and help you plan for your future. You will get the tools and tips to make every dollar count while having some fun along the way.

    Financial Expert and winner of the W Expert Challenge Preet Banerjee will eliminate the excess and give you the opportunity to make some CASH. Families/ couples please send your story to casting@generalpurposepictures.com]]>
    1364 2009-10-20 20:42:22 2009-10-21 01:42:22 open open do-you-want-to-be-on-the-w-network-with-me publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256090672 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif 3917 thewild@thewildinvestor.com http://thewildinvestor.com/a-leveraged-etf-is-it-a-good-investment/ 75.75.89.235 2009-10-20 22:05:33 2009-10-21 03:05:33 1 0 0 3918 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/OzU4o 208.74.66.43 2009-10-20 22:08:46 2009-10-21 03:08:46 1 pingback 0 0 3919 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-10-20 22:58:40 2009-10-21 03:58:40 1 0 0 3920 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-10-21 01:54:10 2009-10-21 06:54:10 1 0 0 3921 elizabetser@yahoo.ca 99.253.226.73 2009-10-21 07:32:10 2009-10-21 12:32:10 1 0 0 3922 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2009-10-21 08:48:15 2009-10-21 13:48:15 1 0 0 3923 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-10-21 09:15:03 2009-10-21 14:15:03 1 0 0 3924 me@fabulouslybroke.com http://www.FabulouslyBroke.com 74.210.83.150 2009-10-21 10:21:05 2009-10-21 15:21:05 1 0 0 3925 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-63/ 68.178.254.235 2009-10-22 20:15:50 2009-10-23 01:15:50 1 pingback 0 0 3926 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-w-expert-challenge-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-10-22 21:42:53 2009-10-23 02:42:53 1 pingback 0 0 3927 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/10/22/this-and-that-w-expert-challenge-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 74.208.148.118 2009-10-22 21:59:37 2009-10-23 02:59:37 1 pingback 0 0 3928 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/10/23/random-bond-and-tfsa-thoughts/ 67.205.7.217 2009-10-23 01:51:34 2009-10-23 06:51:34 1 pingback 0 0 3929 1999shakti@gmail.com http://www.gmail.com 59.94.116.223 2009-10-23 04:34:16 2009-10-23 09:34:16 1 0 0 3930 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/10/29/random-thoughts-during-a-haloween-pandemic/ 67.205.7.217 2009-10-29 16:58:34 2009-10-29 21:58:34 1 pingback 0 0 3931 http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/do-you-want-to-be-on-the-w-network-with-me/ 174.129.104.191 2009-11-04 16:49:33 2009-11-04 21:49:33 Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by PreetBanerjee: New Blog Post: Do You Want To Be On The W Network with me? http://bit.ly/OzU4o...]]> 1 trackback 0 0
    Does A Lower Equity Premium Mean Lower Allocations To Stocks? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/does-a-lower-equity-premium-mean-lower-allocations-to-stocks/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:44:24 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1370 the cost of capital being the investor's expected return".]]> 1370 2009-10-21 20:44:24 2009-10-22 01:44:24 open open does-a-lower-equity-premium-mean-lower-allocations-to-stocks publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256176135 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 3932 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-10-22 09:08:08 2009-10-22 14:08:08 1 0 0 3933 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.220.236.231 2009-10-22 09:55:58 2009-10-22 14:55:58 1 0 0 3934 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-10-22 11:37:55 2009-10-22 16:37:55 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-63/ Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:15:44 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1374 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I had a chance to take out the kart again last weekend, but I made the mistake of not wearing the rib-protector for one stint. It felt like I almost broke ribs on both sides when I hit a particular bump on the track. For those of you who don't know, this kart does well over 100km/h and there's no suspension. It is a wild, wild ride - and I highly recommend it! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Don't forget about the casting call for the W Network pilot I'll be shooting. You can read the casting notice here, but to cut to the chase: send an email to casting@generalpurposepictures.com. The Canadian Capitalist recently had to help settle a loved one's estate and shares some valuable advice from his experience. Million Dollar Journey has some tips for buying and selling on Kijiji and Craig's list. Four Pillars has a great post on how to work best with computer nerds. This is a brilliant post, IMHO - well worth checking out, and well worth the time. Michael James on Money explains that the recent proposed changes to the TFSA may actually protect investors (from themselves). Big Cajun Man has posted one of the greatest National Film Board of Canada videos in history on his site. "The Sweater" recounts the tale of a young boy in Quebec who was mistakenly sent a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey from Eaton's in the 1940's. Last and certainly not least, Thicken My Wallet has a fantastic post which asks what we would do in a world without financial advisors.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Racing drivers are always in search of "the perfect lap". It never happens, you are never 100% satisfied - or at least you always feel you could've done just a bit better when you think back on it. Part of the reason is that when you are really "on it" the car is dancing on a knife's edge constantly, it is in a constant state of almost snapping out from under you. Luckily, even though we may never get to that perfect lap, sometimes you are in the zone and everything is just working. Getting a lap that is 98% perfect is enough to blow away the competition (assuming the cars are equal). This video is Australian V8 Supercar driver Greg Murphy during qualifying and he is just on fire. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1374 2009-10-22 20:15:44 2009-10-23 01:15:44 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-63 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256260548 _edit_last 1 3935 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.111.50 2009-10-22 21:04:20 2009-10-23 02:04:20 1 0 0 3936 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-10-22 21:23:43 2009-10-23 02:23:43 1 0 0 3937 http://autoblog.otonesia.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs.shtml 70.85.204.226 2009-10-22 22:12:41 2009-10-23 03:12:41 1 pingback 0 0 3938 mistymays09@yahoo.com http://www.mistymays.com 99.163.101.206 2009-10-22 22:21:49 2009-10-23 03:21:49 1 0 0 3939 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-10-22 23:21:07 2009-10-23 04:21:07 1 0 0 3940 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-10-23 08:43:57 2009-10-23 13:43:57 1 0 0 3941 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-10-23 08:45:48 2009-10-23 13:45:48 1 0 0 3942 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-10-23 09:23:07 2009-10-23 14:23:07 1 0 0 3943 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 209.128.29.254 2009-10-23 10:24:21 2009-10-23 15:24:21 1 0 0 3944 http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-63/ 75.101.226.43 2009-10-25 20:51:14 2009-10-26 01:51:14 Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by PreetBanerjee: New Blog Post: A Lap Of The Blogs http://bit.ly/6niKq...]]> 1 trackback 0 0 Commodity Trading Advisors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/commodity-trading-advisors/ Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:40:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1378 Managed Futures and there seemed to be a fair amount of interest from readers in learning a little bit more so today I'm going to introduce the concept of CTAs - Commodity Trading Advisors.

    What Is A Commodity Trading Advisor?

    A CTA is a US-specific registration for advisors or firms who provide advice or management on portfolios using derivative instruments (futures, forwards, options). An advisor or firm may advise or execute derivatives trading without being registered as a CTA if they deal with less than 15 clients or only very rarely use these types of securities. CTAs generally use one of three trading styles: 1) Systematic (Blackbox), 2) Non-Systematic (Discretionary) or 3) a blend of the two.

    Systematic Approach

    This is the most common type of CTA program and the trading is automated to varying degrees. Technical analysis is used heavily along with other variables which serve as inputs into proprietary trading models which then provide outputs to determine trading. As such, they are often referred to as, or perceived to be, blackboxes.

    Non-Systematic Approach

    The non-systematic approach is also referred to as discretionary trading. For the most part, these CTAs rely on experience and personal judgment. Perhaps this should be referred to as more black art if systematic CTAs are regarded as blackbox? The next time I write on Managed Futures, I'll get into the main systematic CTA program: trend-following.]]>
    1378 2009-10-25 20:40:45 2009-10-26 01:40:45 open open commodity-trading-advisors publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256521317 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3945 http://forex4trader.net/wp/?p=21427 67.208.75.69 2009-10-26 01:34:03 2009-10-26 06:34:03 1 pingback 0 0 3946 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/10/30/book-giveaway-variable-discount-and-weekend-links/ 174.120.10.130 2009-10-30 06:42:33 2009-10-30 11:42:33 1 pingback 0 0 3947 toomuch@yahoo.com http://www.tritonca.com 121.1.46.242 2009-11-13 22:16:53 2009-11-14 03:16:53 managed futures]]> 1 0 0 3948 fwb@investing-101.net http://investing-101.net 74.65.236.4 2009-11-16 00:35:54 2009-11-16 05:35:54 1 0 0 3949 http://currencytradingexchangeguide.com/208/the-national-futures-association-as-market-watchdog/ 174.120.203.66 2010-04-17 21:35:30 2010-04-18 02:35:30 1 pingback 0 0
    ETFs with Few Holdings... What's the point? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/etfs-with-few-holdings-whats-the-point/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:14:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1384 BMO has launched 8 new ETFs to complement the 4 they launched earlier this year. I took a look at the new kids on the block and immediately I gravitated towards ZEB.to which seeks to track the S&P/TSX Equal Weight Diversified Banks Index. This ETF has an MER of 0.55% and it holds only six stocks in equal positions: BMO, CIBC, Royal Bank, Scotia, TD and National Bank. As Norm Rothery pointed out in a Wealthy Boomer video interview, with the advent of discount brokerages you might be better off buying the underlying stocks yourself. For example, suppose you had $100,000 to invest in this strategy. You could either spend $10 per order x 6 orders = $60 to buy an equal weight starting allocation to these six stocks, or you could pay $10 for one order of the ETF. If we assume that this basket of stocks grows at a compounded rate of 8% for 10 years, the MER would've taken roughly another $8,000 from your portfolio in fees. So on one hand, we have $60 to execute this strategy versus about $8,000. Some may argue that there are benefits to rebalancing to consider. Fine - take the dividends as cash and once per year put the accumulated cash into the worst performing bank stock. This adds $10 per year for a total of $150 instead of $60. Still not satisfied? Even if you fully rebalanced to an equal weight on a quarterly basis (which I think most would agree is excessive) the ETF would be more than 10 times more expensive than just buying the underlying holdings. I think narrow ETFs for the most part might only be useful for market timers looking for specific sector beta for short periods of a time. (Beta means market exposure, essentially.) For those of you who are interested, here is Jon's interview with Norm Rothery in which they talk about how $10 trades was a game-changer. Note, they also talk about the disadvantage of cheap trades, too. :)]]> 1384 2009-10-26 20:14:13 2009-10-27 01:14:13 open open etfs-with-few-holdings-whats-the-point publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256607129 _edit_last 1 3950 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/B0IFg 208.74.66.43 2009-10-27 09:37:55 2009-10-27 14:37:55 1 pingback 0 0 3951 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-spendthrift-celebrities-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-10-29 21:20:09 2009-10-30 02:20:09 1 pingback 0 0 3952 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2009/10/30/friday-links-39.htm 208.53.168.6 2009-10-30 04:03:31 2009-10-30 09:03:31 1 pingback 0 0 3953 markcnoble@gmail.com 24.114.255.3 2009-10-30 09:18:16 2009-10-30 14:18:16 1 0 0 3954 markcnoble@gmail.com 24.114.255.3 2009-10-30 10:06:00 2009-10-30 15:06:00 1 0 0 3955 davext@hotmail.com 99.234.64.75 2009-11-01 19:42:17 2009-11-02 00:42:17 1 0 0 3956 davext@hotmail.com 99.234.64.75 2009-11-01 19:42:17 2009-11-02 00:42:17 1 0 0 3957 westcoastfp@gmail.com http://westcoastfinancialplanner.blogspot.com/ 207.81.13.62 2009-11-02 01:08:17 2009-11-02 06:08:17 1 0 0 3958 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-02 19:34:46 2009-11-03 00:34:46 1 0 0 3959 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/11/06/random-thoughts-flip-flop-and-flu/ 67.205.7.217 2009-11-06 02:28:46 2009-11-06 07:28:46 1 pingback 0 0 3960 http://www.thickenmywallet.com/blog/wp/2009/11/10/the-problems-with-etfs/ 82.165.243.157 2009-11-10 03:49:55 2009-11-10 08:49:55 1 pingback 0 0 Sovereign Wealth Funds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/sovereign-wealth-funds/ Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:58:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1394 What is a Sovereign Wealth Fund? A sovereign wealth fund is essentially an investment fund set up by a government for the purpose of long term investment of surplus funds. Not all governments have SWFs, because as you may have noticed as of late, not all governments have surpluses. For example, the only Canadian provincial government with an SWF is Alberta - owing to it's royalties on natural resources which have been a cash cow for that province. The top three SWFs worldwide have assets of roughly $1.5 trillion - originating from oil royalties and revenues.

    What Do They Invest In?

    Anything they please.

    What Are The Investment Management Costs?

    We're dealing with some of the largest investment funds in the world so of course they are going to get institutional investment management pricing which is lower than retail pricing (what you and I pay), and it is much more negotiable too, meaning they will pay on the low end of institutional rates. For example, the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund which has total assets of about $14 billion paid an expense ratio of 0.09% in 2008. This covers investment management into the following areas: stocks, bonds, real estate, private equity, and hedge funds. For a deeper look inside an SWF, click here to view the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. I should point out that the investment manager (AIMCo - Alberta Investment Management Company) is looking for a new CIO (Chief Investment Officer)... :)]]>
    1394 2009-10-27 21:58:41 2009-10-28 02:58:41 open open sovereign-wealth-funds publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256698788 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg 3961 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/some-canadian-linkstuff-ing-referral-code-and-book-links/ 216.227.218.225 2009-11-07 23:35:39 2009-11-08 04:35:39 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-64/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:30:41 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1401 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Thanks to everyone who contacted the production company to apply for the pilot of the TV show, a few people had asked about the potential for non-couples/families to apply and it looks like they will be looking at individuals if a show ends up being put to series. I was in earlier this week for some test shooting and I found out the show will be filmed in high-def. Guess I better get some wrinkle cream or something... :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jonathan Chevreau writes: Why the insurance industry doesn't see a need for pension reform. Rob Carrick writes about income trusts with a future. Ellen Roseman asks if your furnace needs to be replaced. Canadian Capitalist explains the future cost of going to university could be over $90,000 for an undergraduate degree. Million Dollar Journey has some tips for dealing with collection agencies. Four Pillars notes that the money-back guarantee has become very common, and there could be too many loopholes. He suggests a workaround... Michael James on Money why investing is different than many other endeavours. Big Cajun Man has a great post equating debt to fat. Very interesting analogy. Thicken My Wallet asks: how effective are dividend paying stocks in a downturn?

    This Week's Racing Video

    Oh, it's a beauty. This is an onboard lap of a legendary car, the Nissan R90CK, qualifying for the 24 hours of Le Mans. What is particularly interesting is that there was a problem with the car's turbocharger (the wastegate was stuck) which resulted in the developing more power than what was intended. In fact it is estimated that it was running at about 1,100hp - a ticking time bomb. It propelled Mark Blundell to 366km/h on the straightaways. Fast forward to 2:20 in the video to catch the start of the flying lap - it's amazing!

    ]]>
    1401 2009-10-29 22:30:41 2009-10-30 03:30:41 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-64 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1256873512 _edit_last 1 3962 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-10-29 23:18:31 2009-10-30 04:18:31 1 0 0 3963 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-10-30 05:21:46 2009-10-30 10:21:46 1 0 0 3964 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2009-10-30 09:38:03 2009-10-30 14:38:03 1 0 0 3965 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 192.223.226.6 2009-10-30 12:01:37 2009-10-30 17:01:37 1 0 0 3966 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-10-30 15:36:32 2009-10-30 20:36:32 1 0 0 3967 joel@creditcardchaser.com http://www.creditcardchaser.com 68.200.252.73 2009-10-30 18:57:10 2009-10-30 23:57:10 1 0 0 3968 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.34 2009-11-01 12:04:14 2009-11-01 17:04:14 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-65/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:16:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1403 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… You've probably noticed there haven't been any posts this week - nothing dramatic to report, just busy with work and I felt I wasn't getting enough sleep so the blog had to take a back seat this week. I'll get back to regularly scheduled programming in the next week or so. Thanks for your patience!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Larry MacDonald writes about Charles Schwab's new ETFs which have MERs comparable to Vanguard and are available for purchase without commissions for Schwab account holders. If I were a betting man, I would imagine BMO would be looking at this option for their new ETF line-up as well - since they aren't attracting much in the way of assets as far as I can tell. Jonathan Chevreau covers the new Ontario push for financial literacy in school. Better late than never I suppose. Rob Carrick writes about the same issue here. Ellen Roseman writes about big companies behaving badly. Canadian Capitalist discusses the Globe's discount broker survey for 2009. Million Dollar Journey explains that Canadians don't use coupons as much as they could. Four Pillars answers a reader's question about a strategy using margin. Michael James on Money wonders if you really can profit from "the end of oil"? Big Cajun Man explains the RDSP  (Registered Disability Savings Plan) account for Canadians. Thicken My Wallet talks about the meaning we can infer from Buffett buying railways and India buying gold this week. No video this week, but have a great weekend everyone!]]>
    1403 2009-11-05 18:16:39 2009-11-05 23:16:39 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-65 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1257463001 _edit_last 1 3969 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-11-05 18:50:10 2009-11-05 23:50:10 1 0 0 3970 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 67.71.153.230 2009-11-05 22:01:58 2009-11-06 03:01:58 1 0 0 3971 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-11-05 22:20:35 2009-11-06 03:20:35 1 0 0 3972 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-11-06 06:53:48 2009-11-06 11:53:48 1 0 0 3973 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 209.128.29.254 2009-11-06 07:08:20 2009-11-06 12:08:20 1 0 0 3974 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-11-06 10:07:00 2009-11-06 15:07:00 1 0 0 3975 nicholasking3rd@gmail.com http://totaldebtservices.com 115.85.38.234 2009-11-16 04:57:40 2009-11-16 09:57:40 Debt Settlement]]> 1 0 0 3976 ThinkDividends@gmail.com http://www.thinkdividendsblog.com/ 130.63.255.91 2009-11-20 23:27:34 2009-11-21 04:27:34 1 0 0
    What Is A Mutual Fund? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/what-is-a-mutual-fund/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:53:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1405

    What Is A Mutual Fund? from Preet Banerjee on Vimeo.

    ]]>
    1405 2009-11-08 23:53:46 2009-11-09 04:53:46 open open what-is-a-mutual-fund publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1258077881 _edit_last 1 3977 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/ 98.212.48.193 2009-11-09 09:06:53 2009-11-09 14:06:53 1 0 0 3978 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2009-11-11 09:50:49 2009-11-11 14:50:49 1 0 0 3979 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-11 22:39:24 2009-11-12 03:39:24 1 0 0 3980 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-11 22:39:38 2009-11-12 03:39:38 1 0 0 3981 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/11/13/random-thoughts-remembering-is-important/ 67.205.7.217 2009-11-13 01:51:18 2009-11-13 06:51:18 1 pingback 0 0 3982 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-11-13 09:21:55 2009-11-13 14:21:55 1 0 0
    High Frequency Trading Explained http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/high-frequency-trading-explained/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:35:56 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1412 High Frequency Trading The general description of HFT is the buying and selling of securities at lightning fast speeds, which are facilitated by computers running on pre-programmed algorithms. Programs are out there that take inputs and parameters from programmers to look for specific patterns or situations and then immediately execute a trading strategy based on the HFT firm's proprietary models.

    An Example of an HFT Strategy

    This is only one type of HFT strategy, there are other which are based on news releases, or technical trading signals. Let's pretend that a mutual fund manager wants to buy 100,000 shares of XYZ which is trading at $10.00/share. The manager has determined that they do not want to pay more than $10.20/share and therefore places a limit order of $10.20/share. Some exchanges provide HFT firms with the ability to see new market orders before everyone else for a fee, but only by milliseconds at a time. So our HFT firm will see that there has been a flood of demand for XYZ stock and will start trying to figure out the limit price, after having bought up some XYZ stock. So for example, it will buy 100,000 shares of XYZ at $10.00/share and then start issuing small sell orders at specific prices. For example, it would start selling small positions at $10.50 which might get rejected because this is above the limit price set by the fund manager. It might then send a small order for $10.25/share, which would also get rejected. It would then send a small order for $10.13 which would get filled. It might continue to send small orders until it figures out that the limit price is at $10.20/share and then flood the market with a large order at $10.20/share. This is a fictitious example designed to illustrate how HFT could work, and all of this could happen in less than a second. Profits per share are measured in pennies but the high volume of trading means that HFT firms can make big bucks. According to the TABB Group, HFT firms represent only 2% of the trading firms in the US, but 70% of the trading volume. I've mentioned before that the algorithms behind the Renaissance Technologies Medallion Hedge Fund are rumoured to be responsible for 10% of the NASDAQ trading volume alone. The TABB Group report estimates that over $21 billion in profits were earned by HFT firms in the US in 2008. We'll look at it some more in future posts...]]>
    1412 2009-11-11 22:35:56 2009-11-12 03:35:56 open open high-frequency-trading-explained publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1257997015 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 3983 http://topsy.com/tb/feedproxy.google.com/~r/Wheredoesallmymoneygocom/~3/Xc3uhxe0N6c/ 208.74.66.43 2009-11-12 05:52:48 2009-11-12 10:52:48 1 pingback 0 0 3984 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-11-12 08:43:14 2009-11-12 13:43:14 1 0 0 3985 bruno@nulli.com 66.18.228.44 2009-11-12 12:55:37 2009-11-12 17:55:37 1 0 0 3986 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-11-12 13:38:54 2009-11-12 18:38:54 1 0 0 3987 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-12 21:27:21 2009-11-13 02:27:21 1 0 0 3988 http://www.getmoneyenergy.com/2009/11/junior-gold-miners-etf-bubble-in-gold/ 69.89.31.240 2009-11-13 04:32:52 2009-11-13 09:32:52 1 pingback 0 0 3989 kelvinfine@yahoo.com http://whichuniversitybest.blogspot.com/2008/12/us-specialty-ranking-finance.html 124.82.78.182 2009-11-26 03:36:53 2009-11-26 08:36:53 1 0 0 3990 Jason@investing.com http://www.investinglikeapro.blogspot.com 70.72.55.217 2009-11-26 16:54:20 2009-11-26 21:54:20 1 0 0
    The High Frequency Trading Arms Race http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-high-frequency-trading-arms-race/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:21:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1423 1423 2009-11-12 22:21:03 2009-11-13 03:21:03 open open the-high-frequency-trading-arms-race publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1258082572 _edit_last 1 3991 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-11-13 09:20:32 2009-11-13 14:20:32 1 0 0 3992 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-11-17 07:42:28 2009-11-17 12:42:28 1 0 0 3993 ish@unx.ca 24.108.210.159 2009-12-04 03:49:39 2009-12-04 08:49:39 1 0 0 The Alphabet Soup of Financial Advisor Designations http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-alphabet-advisor-of-financial-advisor-designations/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:25:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1426 NOTE: To use the map, first click on the "play" button to activate it. To make it easier to see, I recommend switching to the full screen mode which can be accessed under the "MORE" option on the bottom right. If anyone has suggestions for other designations to add, just let me know and I'll add them to the map. I plan on updating this with more detailed information in stages such as: brief study description, cost of program, and general description of the benefits of each designation. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1426 2009-11-16 21:25:12 2009-11-17 02:25:12 open open the-alphabet-advisor-of-financial-advisor-designations publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1258424728 _edit_last 1 3994 blog@mdwoptions.com http://www.mdwoptions.com 98.212.48.193 2009-11-16 23:17:37 2009-11-17 04:17:37 1 0 0 3995 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-11-17 08:52:50 2009-11-17 13:52:50 1 0 0 3996 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.149.152 2009-11-17 11:26:07 2009-11-17 16:26:07 1 0 0 3997 erickfield@yahoo.com 207.236.147.118 2009-11-17 17:10:12 2009-11-17 22:10:12 1 0 0 3998 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2009-11-17 23:20:41 2009-11-18 04:20:41 1 0 0 3999 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.111.50 2009-11-18 01:16:24 2009-11-18 06:16:24 1 0 0 4000 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-11-19 16:42:50 2009-11-19 21:42:50 1 0 0 4001 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-100x-etfs-tfsas-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-11-19 17:40:37 2009-11-19 22:40:37 1 pingback 0 0 4002 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/11/20/random-thoughts-for-a-parasitic-website/ 67.205.7.217 2009-11-20 02:52:03 2009-11-20 07:52:03 1 pingback 0 0 4003 mark.noble@advisor.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2009-11-20 09:58:16 2009-11-20 14:58:16 1 0 0 Daniela3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/gift-giving-for-less/daniela3/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:37:29 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/Daniela3.jpg 1439 2009-11-23 20:37:29 2009-11-24 01:37:29 open open daniela3 inherit 1437 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/Daniela3.jpg _wp_attached_file Daniela3.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"200";s:6:"height";s:3:"188";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='95' width='102'";s:4:"file";s:12:"Daniela3.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"Daniela3-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"Daniela3-200x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"200";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:18:"Daniela3-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:3:"3.6";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:8:"DSC-S750";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:10:"1254842513";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:5:"10.44";s:3:"iso";s:3:"400";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:17:"0.033333333333333";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Gift Giving For Less http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/gift-giving-for-less/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:44:02 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1437 Designer extraordinaire, and guest author Daniela Garritano returns. If you would like to secure her services, don’t be afraid to email her by clicking here. Take it away D…

    Daniela3

    Do you hear what I hear? The sound of bustling shoppers, registers chiming, pocket change jingling and customer’s sighing. Tis’ the sounds of the holiday season! The most common season to break the bank.It’s all too easy to get caught up in the expectation of taking on a second mortgage in order to show someone how much you care. But one of the most important things you can give yourself this holiday season is some spending limits. Read on for some money saving tips that will keep you out of the red and still show your loved one’s why they’re on your nice list!

    1) The Flat Fee Gift

    When thinking about what I would like to possibly buy for my loved ones, I admit, I never consider the additional annoyance of tax. And the tax alone could likely add up to a week of groceries or even a phone bill. So, what if we eliminated that extra cost by sticking with flat fee gifts? Cash for cards are an even swap my friends! Daniela’s Pick: Gift cards. They often have a stigma of being impersonal, but not if they’re tailored to the recipient for a retailer they actually like and use. D’s Tip: One of the coolest gifts I ever received was a two month credit on my cable bill! So, think about trying a ‘practical’ gift card. You can purchase gift cards for pretty much any standard living expense nowadays. How nice would it be if someone you care about didn’t have to pay for gas, groceries or utilities for a month? It’s an unexpected gift, totally helpful and oh-so appreciated!

    2) The Universal Gift

    Wouldn’t it be super easy if there was one affordable gift out there that could literally be applied to any given person on your list? (one that is NOT the singing bass…) Well, now there is! And it can capture the hearts of any special someone! Your parents, your best girl or even your closest buddy! A while back, a friend of mine showed me this amazing video she had created as a gift for her parents. It had all of these beautiful images of her family celebrating the holidays throughout the years, along with inspiring quotes, video messages from loved one’s and a soundtrack near and dear to her family’s heart. Plus, it was beautifully wrapped in its own customized case. Bullseye! Daniela’s Pick: Reel Life Productions. They specialize in the conversion of all media types to digital archives and capture your special moments in a memorable way. Visit www.reellife.ca for contact information, amazing sample videos and pricing guide.

    3) The Name Pick

    Not just for work colleagues anymore! An old tried, tested and true way to save during the holiday season is the name pick. While there are some exceptions to the rule, (I’m sorry, but your parents, better half and children should never be chosen from a hat!) this especially works well for those who have larger families, or a group of friends with whom you celebrate. D’s Tip: When picking the names, discuss what a reasonable limit is to spend and agree on it. It will give everyone the opportunity to express what they feel most comfortable in spending and give you a clear guideline when you’re out shopping for your lucky pick!

    4) The Charitable Gift

    Instead of exchanging gifts with each of your friends and even their children in some cases, try pooling your money together for someone who truly needs it. Whether it’s your local homeless shelter or a donation to your favourite charity (no George Costanza’s with ‘The Human Fund’ please...) this will not only make a big difference in your own holiday, but also those who will experience a beautiful holiday because of your generosity. Daniela’s Pick: Looking to be more involved? Get together and volunteer! Whether you’re serving Christmas dinner at a soup kitchen, or taking part in an adoption drive for some adorable critters that need a loving home, your time alone with make someone’s holiday season that much more special. D’s Tip: If you’re not entirely sure what’s around you, Log onto www.charity-charities.org to get a list of local charities that can be found throughout the entire planet. Literally! How smart!

    5) The Homemade Party

    I’m a huge advocate of the homemade gift. To me, it’s just so much more lovely and meaningful than an expensive one. I always look forward to the gorgeous homemade cookies my aunt brings me each year, or the Christmas cards adorned with glitter and glitz made especially for me by my two beautiful God kids. Something so simple, yet so incredibly thoughtful, heartwarming and in tune with the holiday spirit. Daniela’s Pick: Make it fun! Each year, my fabulous group of girlfriends (hey girls!) gather for our annual Christmas get together in lieu of exchanging gifts with everyone. The party generally consists of obscene amounts of food, hilarious tales, and a super duper holiday craft that I typically personalize and give out to my loved one’s as a little extra special something! D’s Tip: They don’t call her the domestic goddess for nothing! Visit www.marthastewart.com for some amazing holiday crafts that are super affordable, and super easy to make! Happy Saving! Next time: Decorate for the holidays like a pro for less]]>
    1437 2009-11-23 20:44:02 2009-11-24 01:44:02 open open gift-giving-for-less publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259106628 _edit_last 1 4004 http://www.lifeinsurance.gen.in/?p=1206 67.228.206.68 2009-11-23 21:07:43 2009-11-24 02:07:43 1 pingback 0 0 4005 http://topsy.com/tb/feedproxy.google.com/~r/Wheredoesallmymoneygocom/~3/Nnmm0Fx5MYo/ 208.74.66.43 2009-11-23 22:18:31 2009-11-24 03:18:31 1 pingback 0 0 4006 gabevalella@gmail.com 173.33.137.61 2009-11-24 08:51:08 2009-11-24 13:51:08 1 0 0 4007 jayformosa@hotmail.com 99.254.89.124 2009-11-25 17:55:15 2009-11-25 22:55:15 1 0 0 4008 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/11/27/random-thoughts-on-a-black-friday/ 67.205.7.217 2009-11-27 01:37:10 2009-11-27 06:37:10 1 pingback 0 0 4009 acelinus@gmail.com http://www.acecashexpress.com 114.198.145.132 2009-11-27 14:00:37 2009-11-27 19:00:37 1 0 0 4010 thegoldandoilguy.ca@gmail.com http://www.thegoldandoilguy.com/ 112.200.45.157 2009-12-16 03:32:04 2009-12-16 08:32:04 1 0 0 4011 LoveNikeAir@hotmail.com http://www.nikespain.com/category/8-air-max-2009.html 218.17.90.105 2009-12-17 22:56:38 2009-12-18 03:56:38 1 0 0
    Investor Advisory Alert - Year End Tax Distributions http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/investor-advisory-alert-year-end-tax-distributions/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1452 Today's entry is from another guest author - Ken Kivenko from CanadianFundWatch.com. Ken is an investor advocate and regularly provides good material to consider and discuss. He recently sent me this article by email I thought it would be worthwhile to share, with Ken's permission... It’s that time of year again. Time to think about mutual fund income and capital gains distributions. Most actively managed funds are structured as open–ended mutual fund trusts. Mutual fund trusts are taxed at the highest tax rate for all forms of income earned. As a result, fund companies typically avoid paying this tax by distributing to investors the interest/dividend income and capital gains earned within the fund since the last distribution date, net of fees and expenses. This makes sense since unitholders may hold the fund in a RRSP or be in a low tax bracket. Unitholders thus pay income tax on these distributions at their marginal tax rate according to the type of income or capital gain earned. The accumulated taxable capital gains distributions are unfortunately usually made in December sometimes leading to “unitholder shock ” if a large purchase of a fund in a non-registered account was made toward the end of the taxation year but before the distribution. This may not be too serious for low turnover income and dividend funds but check the distribution history before investing. Some funds may be able to provide you an indication of expected distributions near calendar year end. Additionally, if an investor doesn't have the cash he or she may have to sell some investments thus reducing ongoing income. That can be especially disturbing if he/she paid a sales commission on purchase or must pay a DSC charge for early redemption. If however he/she has net capital losses for the year there is no tax problem. Several commentators actually suggest avoiding purchasing a mutual fund after October to avoid this effective prepayment of income tax. This might be appropriate but only done after considering the investment merits of deferring the purchase. The inability of individuals to time capital gains/losses is one of the important disadvantages of mutual fund investing. Here’s how the convoluted system works: Suppose John D. invests $100,000 in a Dividend and Income fund at $10.00 per unit to purchase 10,000 units for a non-registered account (e.g. not a RRSP). The mutual fund has been, and intends to, continue paying $0.035 per unit per month. i.e. 4.2% annual yield. John will be delighted to receive a monthly cheque for $350 much of it tax advantaged as dividend or capital gain income. But unknown to unsuspecting John, the fund has realized considerable capital gains during the year. On December 31, the fund declares a distribution of $1.00 per unit taxable as a capital gain in the current tax year. John must declare a capital gain of $10,000($1.00 x 1000) and that will result in an income tax liability of about $1800-$2500 depending on his tax bracket and province of residence. Assuming John reinvests the distribution in units of the fund it will cause no change in his gross monthly income. Each fund unit will now have a NAV of $9.00 as cash has left the fund. Gross monthly distributions remain the same but there being more units, the distribution per unit will decline accordingly. John will now own his original 10,000 units at a cost of $10 each and will have purchased $10,000 worth of new units at the reduced price of $9.00 per unit for a total of 1,111.11 units .The Adjusted Cost Base for income tax purposes will be $9.90/unit ($110,000 spent to purchase 1,111.11 units) so that he or his estate will realize that much smaller a capital gain upon disposition. The bottom line is that John must pay income taxes now in exchange for reduced capital gain and tax liability downstream. In effect he is providing an interest-free loan to the government for the term from April of the following year until he liquidates the holding. Be tax Smart. Ken Kivenko P.Eng.]]> 1452 2009-11-24 19:00:39 2009-11-25 00:00:39 open open investor-advisory-alert-year-end-tax-distributions publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259370851 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 4012 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-11-24 22:39:20 2009-11-25 03:39:20 1 0 0 4013 richard@garandnet.net 71.17.12.120 2009-11-25 09:33:07 2009-11-25 14:33:07 1 0 0 4014 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-25 21:44:16 2009-11-26 02:44:16 1 0 0 4015 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/tax-advantages-of-segregated-funds-versus-mutual-funds/ 68.178.254.235 2009-11-25 21:54:11 2009-11-26 02:54:11 1 pingback 0 0 4016 richard@garandnet.net 71.17.12.120 2009-11-26 09:43:28 2009-11-26 14:43:28 1 0 0 4017 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-11-26 16:50:57 2009-11-26 21:50:57 1 0 0 4018 leefxing@hotmail.com 164.107.230.106 2009-11-26 20:32:26 2009-11-27 01:32:26 1 0 0 4019 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-lessons-from-the-crash-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-11-26 22:59:27 2009-11-27 03:59:27 1 pingback 0 0 4020 pscull@telus.net 216.232.152.2 2009-11-27 20:08:53 2009-11-28 01:08:53 1 0 0 4021 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-27 20:12:09 2009-11-28 01:12:09 1 0 0 4022 leefxing@hotmail.com 164.107.230.106 2009-11-27 23:41:20 2009-11-28 04:41:20 1 0 0 4023 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-30 21:02:54 2009-12-01 02:02:54 1 0 0 4024 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.97.175 2009-12-10 19:22:20 2009-12-11 00:22:20 1 0 0 4025 http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/01/22/couch-potato-basics-part-5-tax-efficiency/ 72.233.104.15 2010-01-22 09:02:53 2010-01-22 14:02:53 1 pingback 0 0 Tax Advantages of Segregated Funds versus Mutual Funds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/tax-advantages-of-segregated-funds-versus-mutual-funds/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:54:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1457 year end mutual fund distributions, I should point out that Segregated funds (which are very similar to mutual funds in that they are essentially investment funds but with certain guarantees on capital over time or upon death) are markedly different. Specifically: 1. Segregated funds (seg funds for short) can flow through capital LOSSES to the contract holder. These capital losses can be carried back 3 years, or forward indefinitely. Mutual funds cannot do this. 2. Seg fund distributions can be time-weighted (it depends on the company in question). This means that if you invested for only two months, you will get 2/12ths attribution on the distributions (interest, dividends or capital gains). This does not exist for mutual funds. Again as noted yesterday, if you invest in December before the year-end distributions are made, you could be taking on someone else's tax liability. These are not inconsequential differences!]]> 1457 2009-11-25 21:54:04 2009-11-26 02:54:04 open open tax-advantages-of-segregated-funds-versus-mutual-funds publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259204048 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 4026 http://www.xmlinsider.com/tax-advantages-of-segregated-funds-versus-mutual-funds.html 174.120.130.2 2009-11-26 00:02:34 2009-11-26 05:02:34 1 pingback 0 0 4027 http://www.thebestmutualfunds.info/tax-advantages-of-segregated-funds-versus-mutual-funds/ 88.214.241.54 2009-11-26 01:11:07 2009-11-26 06:11:07 1 pingback 0 0 4028 http://www.ikvq.com/2009/11/28/basics-of-investing-carnival-and-6-figure-income/ 174.120.10.130 2009-11-28 11:28:13 2009-11-28 16:28:13 1 pingback 0 0 4029 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-i-feel-like-having-the-h1n1-edition/ 64.6.103.97 2009-11-29 10:55:46 2009-11-29 15:55:46 1 pingback 0 0 4030 rajiverma@hotmail.com 99.254.143.242 2009-12-01 11:51:23 2009-12-01 16:51:23 1 0 0 4031 s_moorthy69@yahoo.com 76.69.116.168 2010-02-20 13:04:42 2010-02-20 18:04:42 1 0 0 4032 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-22 09:05:04 2010-02-22 14:05:04 1 4031 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-66/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:21:17 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1462 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Filming wraps up this Saturday for the pilot of a TV show in development with the W Network. It's been a wild experience, and I've really enjoyed working with the crew. The next stage is to see if the network likes it and will order up a series. I'll keep you posted, and wish us luck in the mean time! :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist is celebrating five years of blogging with a great giveaway of $100 gift cards to retailers of your choice! Five years is quite a milestone. My blog is only 2.5 years old, or 50% of CC's blog. BUT consider this: when CC's blog turns 10, my blog will be 7.5 years old, or 75%... so I'm catching him, and I may pass him eventually. :P Thicken My Wallet discusses the taxation surrounding severance pay. Canadian Dream wonders how much people spend on sex. Ellen Roseman talks about those people who come to your door "telling" you that your water heater needs to be replaced. I had a guy recently come to our door at 8pm on a Friday night. He insisted he wasn't a salesperson and I burst out laughing. Michael James on Money explains how RRSP savings can negatively affect your GIS (Guaranteed Income Supplement). Million Dollar Journey lists some unlimited chequing account options for Canadians. Four Pillars talks about the problems with property management. Big Cajun Man wants you to know that if you give to charity on his behalf, you aren't impressing him. Larry MacDonald talks about risk assessment and asset allocation. Mark Wolfinger explains his prerequisites for new option traders to be.

    This Week's Racing Video

    When men were men... a tribute to the Group B rally cars. Back then, almost as fast as F1 cars, even though they were on gravel. Mind-boggling stuff. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1462 2009-11-26 20:21:17 2009-11-27 01:21:17 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-66 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259285006 _edit_last 1 4033 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-11-26 20:49:01 2009-11-27 01:49:01 1 0 0 4034 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 69.156.76.190 2009-11-26 22:38:49 2009-11-27 03:38:49 1 0 0 4035 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-11-27 00:58:20 2009-11-27 05:58:20 1 0 0 4036 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 209.128.29.254 2009-11-27 08:30:14 2009-11-27 13:30:14 1 0 0 4037 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-11-27 18:38:56 2009-11-27 23:38:56 1 0 0 The Saga Continues: New ETN+ Notes try to address Leveraged ETF criticisms http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-saga-continues-new-etn-notes-try-to-address-leveraged-etf-criticisms/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:58:27 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1467 1467 2009-11-29 19:58:27 2009-11-30 00:58:27 open open the-saga-continues-new-etn-notes-try-to-address-leveraged-etf-criticisms publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259542807 _edit_last 1 4038 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-11-29 22:35:20 2009-11-30 03:35:20 1 0 0 4039 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-11-30 10:08:30 2009-11-30 15:08:30 1 0 0 4040 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.149.152 2009-11-30 11:46:31 2009-11-30 16:46:31 1 0 0 4041 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-30 20:58:51 2009-12-01 01:58:51 1 0 0 4042 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-30 20:59:30 2009-12-01 01:59:30 1 0 0 4043 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2009-11-30 21:00:11 2009-12-01 02:00:11 1 0 0 4044 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-12-02 06:35:26 2009-12-02 11:35:26 1 0 0 compare_touch20090909 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1476 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:44:49 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/compare_touch20090909.jpg 1476 2009-11-30 21:44:49 2009-12-01 02:44:49 open open compare_touch20090909 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/compare_touch20090909.jpg _wp_attached_file compare_touch20090909.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"218";s:6:"height";s:3:"278";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='75'";s:4:"file";s:25:"compare_touch20090909.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"compare_touch20090909-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:33:"compare_touch20090909-218x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"218";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:31:"compare_touch20090909-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Reader Appreciation: iPod Touch Giveaway! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/reader-appreciation-ipod-touch-giveaway/ Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:47:46 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1473 I've decided to give away an Apple iPod Touch. This will be the 8GB version, and for more information you can click here to learn all about the iPod Touch. My brother and (new) sister-in-law got me an iPod for my birthday recently and I have to admit, it is amazing. Truly amazing. Contest Rules:

    1. You earn an entry by commenting on this post. I reserve the right to delete any comments that are inappropriate.
    2. Comments must be submitted by 11:59pm Monday, December 7th.
    3. Winner will be determined by random draw.
    4. You can earn a bonus entry by tweeting (or re-tweeting) this post's URL.
    5. Winner will be notified promptly, and will have exactly 7 days to respond.
    6. I will ship the iPod anywhere in Canada or the USA.
    Good luck everyone!]]>
    1473 2009-11-30 21:47:46 2009-12-01 02:47:46 closed open reader-appreciation-ipod-touch-giveaway publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1260328316 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/compare_touch20090909.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/compare_touch20090909.jpg 4045 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 70.80.133.214 2009-11-30 22:04:36 2009-12-01 03:04:36 1 0 0 4046 toby.kruger@gmail.com 96.49.132.85 2009-11-30 22:18:49 2009-12-01 03:18:49 1 0 0 4047 http://ipod-news.oz-blog.org/index.php/2009/12/reader-appreciation-ipod-touch-giveaway-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 210.56.82.31 2009-11-30 22:39:51 2009-12-01 03:39:51 1 pingback 0 0 4048 andrejbl@gmail.com 99.242.11.97 2009-11-30 23:06:44 2009-12-01 04:06:44 1 0 0 4049 blindman_234@hotmail.com 70.48.53.62 2009-11-30 23:25:38 2009-12-01 04:25:38 1 0 0 4050 talcumboy@gmail.com 66.183.161.126 2009-11-30 23:41:45 2009-12-01 04:41:45 1 0 0 4051 ishariff17@hotmail.com 99.226.45.144 2009-11-30 23:42:18 2009-12-01 04:42:18 1 0 0 4052 shaun.kiernan@gmail.com http://shaunk.com/blog 24.68.249.5 2009-12-01 00:00:45 2009-12-01 05:00:45 1 0 0 4053 financialtactics@gmail.com http://financialtactics.blogspot.com 76.65.28.176 2009-12-01 00:07:46 2009-12-01 05:07:46 1 0 0 4054 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.56.21 2009-12-01 00:50:16 2009-12-01 05:50:16 1 0 0 4055 ian.hoffman@gmail.com 71.92.106.25 2009-12-01 00:50:32 2009-12-01 05:50:32 1 0 0 4056 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.28.209 2009-12-01 00:58:10 2009-12-01 05:58:10 1 0 0 4057 http://topsy.com/tb/feedproxy.google.com/~r/Wheredoesallmymoneygocom/~3/K2Sf30ZHdGw/ 208.74.66.43 2009-12-01 00:59:58 2009-12-01 05:59:58 1 pingback 0 0 4058 dan@danbortolotti.com http://www.danbortolotti.com 174.115.42.147 2009-12-01 01:31:35 2009-12-01 06:31:35 1 0 0 4059 Brandon.Noad@gmail.com 99.249.87.237 2009-12-01 01:32:59 2009-12-01 06:32:59 1 0 0 4060 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-12-01 02:28:21 2009-12-01 07:28:21 1 0 0 4061 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.219.16 2009-12-01 02:45:59 2009-12-01 07:45:59 1 0 0 4062 ryantissera@hotmail.com 174.113.189.157 2009-12-01 03:03:56 2009-12-01 08:03:56 1 0 0 4063 xrouge@gmail.com 173.183.23.246 2009-12-01 03:52:18 2009-12-01 08:52:18 1 0 0 4064 chuppe@sympatico.ca 70.53.250.153 2009-12-01 05:26:20 2009-12-01 10:26:20 1 0 0 4065 blizzard093@gmail.com 67.158.78.74 2009-12-01 07:01:27 2009-12-01 12:01:27 1 0 0 4066 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.62.166 2009-12-01 07:09:46 2009-12-01 12:09:46 1 0 0 4067 alaa.abed@gmail.com 67.204.17.134 2009-12-01 07:18:51 2009-12-01 12:18:51 1 0 0 4068 lorilovescontests@gmail.com 134.153.38.227 2009-12-01 07:40:30 2009-12-01 12:40:30 1 0 0 4069 Fred.elkins@gmail.com http://www.financebanter.com 24.114.232.26 2009-12-01 07:41:34 2009-12-01 12:41:34 1 0 0 4070 thaczuk@gmail.com 24.64.93.185 2009-12-01 07:48:45 2009-12-01 12:48:45 1 0 0 4071 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-12-01 07:55:24 2009-12-01 12:55:24 1 0 0 4072 http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/reader-appreciation-ipod-touch-giveaway/ 174.129.176.172 2009-12-01 08:02:13 2009-12-01 13:02:13 Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by Preet Banerjee: New Blog Post: Reader Appreciation: iPod Touch Giveaway! http://bit.ly/6rZetM...]]> 1 trackback 0 0 4073 mesaana14@gmail.com 173.33.50.106 2009-12-01 08:02:13 2009-12-01 13:02:13 1 0 0 4074 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.10.239 2009-12-01 08:03:06 2009-12-01 13:03:06 1 0 0 4075 habs33@gmail.com 192.156.112.32 2009-12-01 08:16:47 2009-12-01 13:16:47 1 0 0 4076 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-12-01 08:27:31 2009-12-01 13:27:31 1 0 0 4077 elizabetser@yahoo.ca 99.253.226.73 2009-12-01 08:31:24 2009-12-01 13:31:24 1 0 0 4078 rhayward.temp@gmail.com 198.96.178.33 2009-12-01 08:41:23 2009-12-01 13:41:23 1 0 0 4079 kcarl55@gmail.com 70.31.173.29 2009-12-01 08:52:54 2009-12-01 13:52:54 1 0 0 4080 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 24.79.175.120 2009-12-01 08:59:11 2009-12-01 13:59:11 1 0 0 4081 james.moser@gmail.com 204.101.172.18 2009-12-01 09:06:19 2009-12-01 14:06:19 1 0 0 4082 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thefinancialblogger@gmail.com http://www.thefinancialblogger.com 24.202.29.56 2009-12-02 08:52:56 2009-12-02 13:52:56 1 0 0 4138 acorn1@sympatico.ca 141.119.184.130 2009-12-02 12:09:10 2009-12-02 17:09:10 1 0 0 4139 catherinejyou@gmail.com 142.221.110.4 2009-12-02 12:16:22 2009-12-02 17:16:22 1 0 0 4140 John.M.Kirk@hotmail.com 216.8.177.78 2009-12-02 14:11:07 2009-12-02 19:11:07 1 0 0 4141 gws000@hotmail.com 67.71.195.166 2009-12-02 14:19:17 2009-12-02 19:19:17 1 0 0 4142 jbareilly@yahoo.com 198.169.188.225 2009-12-02 15:46:39 2009-12-02 20:46:39 1 0 0 4143 heera.singh@gmail.com 99.236.139.155 2009-12-02 19:36:29 2009-12-03 00:36:29 1 0 0 4144 wdixon1121@rogers.com 99.252.22.86 2009-12-02 19:42:09 2009-12-03 00:42:09 1 0 0 4145 schamp1x@yahoo.ca 70.80.119.210 2009-12-02 20:43:45 2009-12-03 01:43:45 1 0 0 4146 fephoo@yahoo.fr http://festivalspots.com 70.81.142.247 2009-12-02 20:53:41 2009-12-03 01:53:41 1 0 0 4147 stephenwong7@gmail.com 99.246.130.32 2009-12-02 21:37:38 2009-12-03 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2009-12-04 01:21:05 2009-12-04 06:21:05 1 0 0 4169 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/12/04/random-thoughts-advent-begins/ 67.205.7.217 2009-12-04 01:50:45 2009-12-04 06:50:45 1 pingback 0 0 4170 antonioquepasa@gmail.com 69.70.67.190 2009-12-04 07:49:23 2009-12-04 12:49:23 1 0 0 4171 pradeep.kanchan@gmail.com 74.59.84.252 2009-12-04 08:22:23 2009-12-04 13:22:23 1 0 0 4172 tom@canadianfinanceblog.com http://canadianfinanceblog.com 96.52.4.155 2009-12-04 08:33:26 2009-12-04 13:33:26 1 0 0 4173 cpassmore@pwlcapital.com 64.34.151.162 2009-12-04 08:56:36 2009-12-04 13:56:36 1 0 0 4174 pdcthompson@hotmail.com 209.202.82.139 2009-12-04 09:21:02 2009-12-04 14:21:02 1 0 0 4175 robertaves@gmail.com 76.70.27.150 2009-12-04 09:24:19 2009-12-04 14:24:19 1 0 0 4176 tvenner@gicfinancial.com http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2009-12-04 09:25:33 2009-12-04 14:25:33 1 0 0 4177 clark_michael@hotmail.com 142.166.4.68 2009-12-04 09:28:03 2009-12-04 14:28:03 1 0 0 4178 sean@ertw.com http://smallpayroll.ca 204.187.150.30 2009-12-04 09:35:42 2009-12-04 14:35:42 1 0 0 4179 phorst@gmail.com 129.42.208.167 2009-12-04 09:38:23 2009-12-04 14:38:23 1 0 0 4180 lrp@luc-rock.com 192.197.178.2 2009-12-04 10:18:45 2009-12-04 15:18:45 1 0 0 4181 matt.wishman@gmail.com 24.109.247.227 2009-12-04 10:38:05 2009-12-04 15:38:05 1 0 0 4182 nashdjian@yahoo.com 99.237.70.30 2009-12-04 10:43:59 2009-12-04 15:43:59 1 0 0 4183 ioanatimariu@yahoo.com 208.76.75.5 2009-12-04 10:49:25 2009-12-04 15:49:25 1 0 0 4184 frugalnyc@gmail.com http://frugalnyc.blogspot.com 24.239.155.30 2009-12-04 11:05:16 2009-12-04 16:05:16 1 0 0 4185 jroth17@gmail.com 96.57.37.50 2009-12-04 11:10:56 2009-12-04 16:10:56 1 0 0 4186 erranz@hotmail.com 198.231.24.240 2009-12-04 11:15:50 2009-12-04 16:15:50 1 0 0 4187 emc2_1977@hotmail.com 206.172.6.34 2009-12-04 11:18:03 2009-12-04 16:18:03 1 0 0 4188 jtford@canada.com 24.226.1.232 2009-12-04 11:34:59 2009-12-04 16:34:59 1 0 0 4189 flapew@yahoo.com 64.201.201.45 2009-12-04 11:52:15 2009-12-04 16:52:15 1 0 0 4190 ahhbeebee@hotmail.com 136.159.197.2 2009-12-04 12:08:33 2009-12-04 17:08:33 1 0 0 4191 nickdblu@gmail.com 24.69.107.219 2009-12-04 12:09:20 2009-12-04 17:09:20 1 0 0 4192 idiot.savant.dude@gmail.com 75.24.145.24 2009-12-04 12:27:12 2009-12-04 17:27:12 1 0 0 4193 rickpenn@mts.net 66.46.138.11 2009-12-04 12:29:11 2009-12-04 17:29:11 1 0 0 4194 thornton.sj@gmail.com 142.104.154.184 2009-12-04 12:31:50 2009-12-04 17:31:50 1 0 0 4195 smschach@gmail.com 209.53.152.205 2009-12-04 12:47:20 2009-12-04 17:47:20 1 0 0 4196 nelsonh.ca@gmail.com 148.87.1.172 2009-12-04 12:49:14 2009-12-04 17:49:14 1 0 0 4197 karefoe@qcislands.net 209.53.237.143 2009-12-04 12:52:18 2009-12-04 17:52:18 1 0 0 4198 dennis@mks.com 198.73.193.2 2009-12-04 12:53:57 2009-12-04 17:53:57 1 0 0 4199 RoccoDigirolamo@yahoo.com 64.194.250.99 2009-12-04 12:54:24 2009-12-04 17:54:24 1 0 0 4200 kyp27@yahoo.com 206.248.133.2 2009-12-04 12:55:15 2009-12-04 17:55:15 1 0 0 4201 wdh@gwl.ca 64.42.217.69 2009-12-04 13:02:11 2009-12-04 18:02:11 1 0 0 4202 frodick@idirect.com 199.212.27.243 2009-12-04 13:04:13 2009-12-04 18:04:13 1 0 0 4203 ziad_sl@hotmail.com 38.108.65.109 2009-12-04 13:39:46 2009-12-04 18:39:46 1 0 0 4204 deborahbrouwer@gmail.com 96.50.1.253 2009-12-04 13:40:31 2009-12-04 18:40:31 1 0 0 4205 byrne.e.e@gmail.com 209.90.190.127 2009-12-04 13:51:25 2009-12-04 18:51:25 1 0 0 4206 joannecripps@qlinesolutions.com 24.235.143.41 2009-12-04 13:51:41 2009-12-04 18:51:41 1 0 0 4207 haroldsphsu@gmail.com 209.121.28.150 2009-12-04 13:53:39 2009-12-04 18:53:39 1 0 0 4208 vanbergen@netscape.ca 64.10.5.254 2009-12-04 14:36:19 2009-12-04 19:36:19 1 0 0 4209 wu.h.mike@gmail.com 38.99.165.166 2009-12-04 14:40:54 2009-12-04 19:40:54 1 0 0 4210 jereld_pratt@hotmail.com 207.229.3.97 2009-12-04 15:51:53 2009-12-04 20:51:53 1 0 0 4211 comox@shaw.ca 96.54.111.3 2009-12-04 17:06:01 2009-12-04 22:06:01 1 0 0 4212 deefna@gmail.com http://deefna.blogsot.com 69.92.135.21 2009-12-04 17:08:31 2009-12-04 22:08:31 1 0 0 4213 allisonbrown@rogers.com 99.226.233.252 2009-12-04 17:56:53 2009-12-04 22:56:53 1 0 0 4214 mvidov@hotmail.com 99.226.125.238 2009-12-04 18:58:12 2009-12-04 23:58:12 1 0 0 4215 kettick@mail.ru 174.6.104.218 2009-12-04 19:13:58 2009-12-05 00:13:58 1 0 0 4216 aaronshack@yahoo.com 99.242.76.105 2009-12-04 19:55:06 2009-12-05 00:55:06 1 0 0 4217 troy.n.jones@gmail.com 209.139.218.241 2009-12-04 20:34:25 2009-12-05 01:34:25 1 0 0 4218 thecataloguer@yahoo.ca 216.197.188.105 2009-12-04 22:52:24 2009-12-05 03:52:24 1 0 0 4219 faddy.arbuckle@gmail.com 99.246.115.245 2009-12-04 23:00:35 2009-12-05 04:00:35 1 0 0 4220 lboswall@gmail.com 76.67.77.23 2009-12-04 23:18:56 2009-12-05 04:18:56 1 0 0 4221 macfarlane.matt@gmail.com 206.75.129.125 2009-12-05 00:24:29 2009-12-05 05:24:29 1 0 0 4222 lapaire@shaw.ca 174.7.73.196 2009-12-05 00:58:57 2009-12-05 05:58:57 1 0 0 4223 Carl@CarlRobitaille.org 24.230.201.6 2009-12-05 01:28:58 2009-12-05 06:28:58 1 0 0 4224 rbayer@telus.net 198.166.224.55 2009-12-05 01:36:13 2009-12-05 06:36:13 1 0 0 4225 scott@wightman.ca 68.69.130.245 2009-12-05 02:32:11 2009-12-05 07:32:11 1 0 0 4226 harrylin008@gmail.com 24.81.1.114 2009-12-05 02:43:53 2009-12-05 07:43:53 1 0 0 4227 wahookin@hotmail.com 206.248.163.68 2009-12-05 13:18:27 2009-12-05 18:18:27 1 0 0 4228 mattsheldon@rogers.com 99.229.235.78 2009-12-05 13:49:11 2009-12-05 18:49:11 1 0 0 4229 andre.jc.king@gmail.com 173.33.115.174 2009-12-05 15:05:22 2009-12-05 20:05:22 1 0 0 4230 margaret.stimson@gmail.com 24.76.167.136 2009-12-05 15:14:00 2009-12-05 20:14:00 1 0 0 4231 kev_krystik@hotmail.com 70.75.93.47 2009-12-05 15:55:48 2009-12-05 20:55:48 1 0 0 4232 baesu1@hotmail.com 74.56.167.192 2009-12-05 16:48:48 2009-12-05 21:48:48 1 0 0 4233 rcmathison@gmail.com 174.3.103.55 2009-12-05 18:05:01 2009-12-05 23:05:01 1 0 0 4234 mib5@shaw.ca 68.146.73.16 2009-12-05 18:14:10 2009-12-05 23:14:10 1 0 0 4235 lasso.voltaic@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2009-12-05 18:20:14 2009-12-05 23:20:14 1 0 0 4236 diasozo@gmail.com 70.64.65.177 2009-12-05 19:04:38 2009-12-06 00:04:38 1 0 0 4237 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2009-12-05 19:40:58 2009-12-06 00:40:58 1 0 0 4238 jeffcampbell77@gmail.com 70.78.211.49 2009-12-05 20:26:02 2009-12-06 01:26:02 1 0 0 4239 rajeevc@shaw.ca 68.145.35.246 2009-12-05 21:30:43 2009-12-06 02:30:43 1 0 0 4240 kevink087@gmail.com 99.236.20.225 2009-12-05 21:33:14 2009-12-06 02:33:14 1 0 0 4241 inbox.ck@gmail.com 75.155.190.165 2009-12-06 08:41:00 2009-12-06 13:41:00 1 0 0 4242 qbresident@gmail.com 70.162.159.163 2009-12-06 08:44:14 2009-12-06 13:44:14 1 0 0 4243 jessica.cowling@gmail.com 76.10.151.27 2009-12-06 09:10:08 2009-12-06 14:10:08 1 0 0 4244 tchodan@hotmail.com 75.156.153.193 2009-12-06 09:58:35 2009-12-06 14:58:35 1 0 0 4245 jf.desjeans.gauthier@gmail.com 70.82.5.63 2009-12-06 11:33:13 2009-12-06 16:33:13 1 0 0 4246 jrumlena@gmail.com 24.84.38.98 2009-12-06 12:51:27 2009-12-06 17:51:27 1 0 0 4247 rickshire@yahoo.com 72.39.10.211 2009-12-06 13:45:06 2009-12-06 18:45:06 1 0 0 4248 lisa_rebane@hotmail.com 72.39.10.211 2009-12-06 16:44:56 2009-12-06 21:44:56 1 0 0 4249 milum@persona.ca 66.244.204.31 2009-12-06 17:03:22 2009-12-06 22:03:22 1 0 0 4250 jared@jawwak.com 99.241.156.228 2009-12-06 18:30:31 2009-12-06 23:30:31 1 0 0 4251 kcfung@shaw.ca 70.79.99.200 2009-12-06 19:04:56 2009-12-07 00:04:56 1 0 0 4252 snufflesbear@shaw.ca 70.79.99.200 2009-12-06 19:05:58 2009-12-07 00:05:58 1 0 0 4253 santonef1@bell.net http://none 174.88.221.253 2009-12-06 19:37:39 2009-12-07 00:37:39 1 0 0 4254 kcaldwel@sympatico.ca 70.49.159.29 2009-12-06 20:27:51 2009-12-07 01:27:51 1 0 0 4255 philipyates@geron.ca 99.243.48.114 2009-12-06 20:28:26 2009-12-07 01:28:26 1 0 0 4256 mihai_zen@yahoo.com http://www.scripturefortheday.net 66.183.143.126 2009-12-06 21:11:44 2009-12-07 02:11:44 1 0 0 4257 lydia_oprescu@yahoo.ca http://www.findtutors.ca 66.183.143.126 2009-12-06 21:12:32 2009-12-07 02:12:32 1 0 0 4258 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-elves-index/ 68.178.254.235 2009-12-06 21:15:35 2009-12-07 02:15:35 1 pingback 0 0 4259 stephen.yue.wang@gmail.com 69.172.107.94 2009-12-06 21:43:47 2009-12-07 02:43:47 1 0 0 4260 captaindbrown@gmail.com 142.162.14.113 2009-12-07 08:12:24 2009-12-07 13:12:24 1 0 0 4261 gill126@hotmail.com 75.155.138.236 2009-12-07 08:13:00 2009-12-07 13:13:00 1 0 0 4262 emroc@telus.net 75.156.223.47 2009-12-07 08:36:29 2009-12-07 13:36:29 1 0 0 4263 pletosum@yahoo.com 207.219.70.70 2009-12-07 09:40:21 2009-12-07 14:40:21 1 0 0 4264 stottd@sympatico.ca 216.129.28.178 2009-12-07 09:41:15 2009-12-07 14:41:15 1 0 0 4265 rmansfield@gmail.com 209.226.137.106 2009-12-07 09:42:04 2009-12-07 14:42:04 1 0 0 4266 gczerr@rogers.com 192.197.77.130 2009-12-07 09:43:29 2009-12-07 14:43:29 1 0 0 4267 rajiverma@hotmail.com 99.254.143.242 2009-12-07 11:06:01 2009-12-07 16:06:01 1 0 0 4268 rajiverma@hotmail.com 99.254.143.242 2009-12-07 11:09:51 2009-12-07 16:09:51 1 0 0 4269 kk@is-alive.com 142.229.80.103 2009-12-07 12:20:28 2009-12-07 17:20:28 1 0 0 4270 robparsons1988@gmail.com 142.161.116.96 2009-12-07 12:27:08 2009-12-07 17:27:08 1 0 0 4271 melissa_sequeira@shaw.ca 204.239.148.2 2009-12-07 12:39:37 2009-12-07 17:39:37 1 0 0 4272 promotion@robgravelle.com http://www.robgravelle.com 205.194.127.36 2009-12-07 13:11:13 2009-12-07 18:11:13 1 0 0 4273 pat@point2media.com http://patfurlong.com 142.203.1.9 2009-12-07 13:15:25 2009-12-07 18:15:25 1 0 0 4274 psowlles@att.net 99.137.223.85 2009-12-07 14:08:26 2009-12-07 19:08:26 1 0 0 4275 clayton.macfarlane@gmail.com 99.239.138.18 2009-12-07 14:38:47 2009-12-07 19:38:47 1 0 0 4276 milneepp@hotmail.com 146.131.120.2 2009-12-07 14:41:32 2009-12-07 19:41:32 1 0 0 4277 a2@milneepp.com 146.131.120.2 2009-12-07 14:42:25 2009-12-07 19:42:25 1 0 0 4278 mrichard00@gmail.com 74.198.8.57 2009-12-07 14:47:16 2009-12-07 19:47:16 1 0 0 4279 jeepinyj@hotmail.com 204.50.113.29 2009-12-07 15:15:14 2009-12-07 20:15:14 1 0 0 4280 trent.abbott@cdsbeo.on.ca 70.30.44.134 2009-12-07 15:37:47 2009-12-07 20:37:47 1 0 0 4281 erickfield@yahoo.com 207.236.147.118 2009-12-07 15:48:52 2009-12-07 20:48:52 1 0 0 4282 masantos32@yahoo.com 69.235.12.109 2009-12-07 17:08:14 2009-12-07 22:08:14 1 0 0 4283 acct_wheremoneygo@vorwerk.ca 74.14.227.221 2009-12-07 17:20:29 2009-12-07 22:20:29 1 0 0 4284 steve@groceryalerts.ca http://www.groceryalerts.ca 96.50.96.245 2009-12-07 18:05:52 2009-12-07 23:05:52 1 0 0 4285 mjmd@shaw.ca 192.197.50.196 2009-12-07 18:38:42 2009-12-07 23:38:42 1 0 0 4286 ben_payne@hotmail.com 24.69.135.174 2009-12-07 20:55:45 2009-12-08 01:55:45 1 0 0 4287 ahamilto@nbnet.nb.ca 142.167.26.172 2009-12-07 21:36:07 2009-12-08 02:36:07 1 0 0 4288 cjzsombor@shaw.ca 24.69.235.80 2009-12-07 21:47:00 2009-12-08 02:47:00 1 0 0 4289 gpbrighton@hotmail.com 66.183.150.197 2009-12-07 22:30:18 2009-12-08 03:30:18 1 0 0 4290 kevincliu@optonline.net 69.118.121.106 2009-12-07 22:53:58 2009-12-08 03:53:58 1 0 0
    How the new ETN+ Notes can catch investors off guard http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-the-new-etn-notes-can-catch-investors-off-guard/ Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:56:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1481 1481 2009-12-01 23:56:00 2009-12-02 04:56:00 open open how-the-new-etn-notes-can-catch-investors-off-guard publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259729764 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 4291 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 70.73.149.152 2009-12-02 11:33:07 2009-12-02 16:33:07 1 0 0 4292 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-02 11:49:35 2009-12-02 16:49:35 1 0 0 4293 danieldeyoung@hotmail.com 205.210.222.150 2009-12-03 18:51:47 2009-12-03 23:51:47 1 0 0 4294 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-28 03:55:37 2010-01-28 08:55:37 1 0 0 Pets and Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/pets-and-insurance/ Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:30:30 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1483 Don't forget to enter the iPod Touch giveaway. Click here for more details. BONUS: The Financial Blogger is also giving away an iPod Touch on his blog, so go there and enter his contest to increase your odds of winning. Pets are like to children to many people. We had a few cats growing up, but the last one was Peter and we also had a dalmatian, Budweiser. They both died within a few months of each other and I was gutted. Those events have partly kept me from getting another pet because I don't want to go through losing a loved one again. In any case, the reason I'm writing about this today is that I was doing some surfing/research on the differences between US online insurance sales and costs and Canadian online insurance sales and costs and I came across an article talking about the differences in how some people spend money on health-care with regards to their pets versus their children (US focused audience - for all our American readers you can check out their insurance quotes and let me know how they stack up).

    You are more likely to go into debt for your kids than your pets

    People, on average, are more likely to go into debt to treat their children than they are to go into debt to treat their pets. If people had the means to avoid debt, then the level of care secured might be more equitable. This is when pet insurance might make sense for people. If you are willing to do whatever it takes to treat your pet, but want to guard against a catastrophic loss (monetary), then you will definitely want to consider pet insurance. The article provides some good points to consider if you are thinking about going down the route of pet insurance, such as exclusions based on breed/species of your pet, per-incident caps on benefits, multi-pet discounts, etc. It's not enough to just get pet insurance if you think you need it, you need to check the fine print - especially as it's easier to glaze over these kinds of details on decisions heavily influenced by emotions. But if the time comes, and your expectations are not met you'll be doubly upset. My opinion on insurance in general is that you should insure only against events that have the potential to ruin you. Buying that extended warranty on electronics doesn't make sense to me. If you always buy that  insurance, I would bet that the total claims you make over your lifetime are less than your total costs. Of course, if you are a klutz, that might be a different story. But the point is, it would be an inconvenience if your iPod broke, but it wouldn't mean you are now teetering on losing your house. If you lost your income, on the other hand, that will ruin you - so it's imperative to have disability insurance. With pet owners, I think they would be more inclined to seek more treatment if insured, but this is notwithstanding the quality of life issues to deal with.]]>
    1483 2009-12-02 22:30:30 2009-12-03 03:30:30 open open pets-and-insurance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1259811035 _edit_last 1 4295 http://www.coverage4usa.com/insurance-blog/?p=12123 72.52.133.135 2009-12-02 23:00:49 2009-12-03 04:00:49 1 pingback 0 0 4296 http://topsy.com/tb/feedproxy.google.com/~r/Wheredoesallmymoneygocom/~3/K-SWeMvnMtw/ 208.74.66.43 2009-12-02 23:06:54 2009-12-03 04:06:54 1 pingback 0 0 4297 http://www.ezshop4me.com/1969/12/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 74.220.215.225 2009-12-02 23:11:01 2009-12-03 04:11:01 1 pingback 0 0 4298 http://blog01.info/2009/12/02/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 91.203.133.121 2009-12-02 23:44:34 2009-12-03 04:44:34 1 pingback 0 0 4299 http://abbey.byabout.com/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 66.147.244.178 2009-12-02 23:54:49 2009-12-03 04:54:49 1 pingback 0 0 4300 http://www.youinsurance.info/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 69.65.33.41 2009-12-03 01:14:32 2009-12-03 06:14:32 1 pingback 0 0 4301 http://acid.byabout.com/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 66.147.244.178 2009-12-03 01:42:42 2009-12-03 06:42:42 1 pingback 0 0 4302 http://insurance.justtome.com/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 66.147.244.178 2009-12-03 08:58:12 2009-12-03 13:58:12 1 pingback 0 0 4303 http://www.budgetinsuranceonline.co.uk/cheap-insurance/pets-and-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com? 91.208.99.11 2009-12-03 09:32:08 2009-12-03 14:32:08 1 pingback 0 0 4304 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-12-03 09:48:17 2009-12-03 14:48:17 1 0 0 4305 ssuon023@hotmail.com http://www.trupanionpetinsurance.com 204.13.165.18 2009-12-03 17:30:01 2009-12-03 22:30:01 1 0 0 4306 http://www.kotihost.com/?p=27618 74.52.124.2 2009-12-03 18:49:33 2009-12-03 23:49:33 1 pingback 0 0 4307 whateveremail@yahoo.com 24.79.175.120 2009-12-03 21:43:33 2009-12-04 02:43:33 1 0 0 4308 http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/pets-and-insurance/ 174.129.176.172 2009-12-04 03:25:19 2009-12-04 08:25:19 Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by PreetBanerjee: New Blog Post: Pets and Insurance http://bit.ly/4ouea0...]]> 1 trackback 0 0 4309 mike__storm@hotmail.com 208.66.249.70 2009-12-04 07:51:30 2009-12-04 12:51:30 1 0 0 4310 Jason@investing.com http://www.investinglikeapro.blogspot.com 70.72.55.217 2009-12-04 20:59:06 2009-12-05 01:59:06 1 0 0 4311 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 123.201.86.106 2009-12-07 22:03:13 2009-12-08 03:03:13 1 0 0 4312 http://eamico.com/?p=96139 97.74.144.177 2009-12-13 02:59:58 2009-12-13 07:59:58 1 pingback 0 0 4313 xhlpgk@wihyzu.com http://pglloeyqvtrv.com/ 62.141.54.101 2010-04-24 08:02:26 2010-04-24 13:02:26 fypjvubxbjrd, [url=http://jcyxeojwfupi.com/]jcyxeojwfupi[/url], [link=http://nvyblceqcxis.com/]nvyblceqcxis[/link], http://yxvnggnapwnr.com/]]> 0 0 0
    The Elves Index http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-elves-index/ Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:15:28 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1486 First a reminder: you only have a few hours left to enter the contest on this blog to win an iPod Touch. Click here for more details and to enter, but essentially all you have to do is leave a comment on the contest post page to earn an entry. At the time of writing this, entrants have a 1 in 232 chance of winning - not too bad!

    The Elves Index

    Christmas is upon us and I saw the Will Ferrell movie "Elf" last weekend on TV which reminded me of a story I came across about something known as The Elves Index. This was an an index that tracked the sentiment produced by technical signals used by analysts who appeared on Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser on a regular basis. Rukeyser referred to the technical analysts themselves as The Elves. Wall Street Week aired for about 36 years from 1970 until 2005 but Rukeyser abandoned the Elves Index in 2001. One of the reasons could be that the index was notorious for being wrong more often than it was right. In fact some people even used it as a contrarian indicator - when the Elves recommending selling or shorting the market, it was considered a good time to buy. There is no shortage of "Elves" on TV today (talking heads and guest analysts) pontificating about the market's direction. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell in advance if they actually have enlightened insight, or if they just sound smart. At best, analysts just narrow the range within which we guess.]]>
    1486 2009-12-06 21:15:28 2009-12-07 02:15:28 open open the-elves-index publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1260152132 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 4314 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.92 2009-12-06 23:18:50 2009-12-07 04:18:50 1 0 0 4315 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-12-08 08:46:34 2009-12-08 13:46:34 1 0 0 4316 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/time-to-give-a-few-things-away/ 64.6.103.97 2009-12-11 07:04:59 2009-12-11 12:04:59 1 pingback 0 0 4317 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2009/12/21/random-thoughts-for-a-monday/ 67.205.7.217 2009-12-21 01:22:27 2009-12-21 06:22:27 1 pingback 0 0
    Contest Winner and IKEA Christmas Tree Deal http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/contest-winner-and-ikea-christmas-tree-deal/ Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:09:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1489 Great blog Preet, thanks for all the info over the years … no more RRSP book promotion though? That was how I first heard about your blog. Note, the comment had nothing to do with the winner being selected! :) I've contacted Paul by email for him to claim his prize.

    IKEA Christmas Tree Deal

    I was shooting the final scenes for the pilot of the TV show I have in development with the W Network today and the line producer told me that she picked up a Christmas Tree at Ikea. She got a great deal and you can too: For $20 you can pick up a (real) Christmas Tree and receive a coupon for $20 off your next purchase over $75 from Ikea between January 2nd, 2010 to March 1st, 2010. Click here for the flyer. Thanks again to everyone who entered the contest, and especially to the regular readers!]]>
    1489 2009-12-08 22:09:10 2009-12-09 03:09:10 open open contest-winner-and-ikea-christmas-tree-deal publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1260328244 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/compare_touch20090909.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/compare_touch20090909.jpg 4318 holliep@live.ca http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.89.211.181 2009-12-08 23:19:16 2009-12-09 04:19:16 1 0 0 4319 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 174.5.138.177 2009-12-09 08:53:42 2009-12-09 13:53:42 1 0 0 4320 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-12-09 12:40:50 2009-12-09 17:40:50 1 0 0 4321 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 174.5.138.177 2009-12-17 21:34:05 2009-12-18 02:34:05 1 0 0
    Modified Dietz Return Calculations http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/modified-dietz-return-calculations/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:01:17 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1495 Performance Reporting for Investors You would be surprised how much more (relatively) difficult it is to calculate portfolio performance when you are not dealing with lump sum investments made at the beginning of a reporting period with no distributions (or re-invested distributions). For example, it's really easy if you start the year with $100,000 and at the end of the year you have $110,000 and no distributions were made during the year. It's easy to figure out that you earned 10%. But what happens if you're portfolio spat out $10,000 in a dividend on June 30th, and you still ended up with only $110,000 by the end of the year (and the $10,000 was re-invested)? Your $100,000 earned 10% for 6 months, but then your $110,000 earned 0%. Your end performance would therefore have been less than 10% overall. There are two main categories of calculating and reporting performance: Time-weighted returns and Dollar-Weighted Returns (aka Money Weighted Returns and both are also used interchangeably [depending on who you ask] with IRR, or Internal Rate of Return).

    Time Weighted Returns

    Time weighted returns aren't as precise when you have large cash flows in a portfolio. For example if a portfolio had three years of 20% returns each year and then 0% return for the next three years the time-weighted return is 10% over the 6 years (arithmetic return, and we'll ignore geometric returns for the purpose of this post). But what if you had $1 invested the first three years and then added $100,000 at the beginning of year 4? At the end of year 6 you would have just under $100,002. That certainly doesn't seem like an average 10% return does it?

    Dollar Weighted Returns

    A dollar weighted return would calculate the above as follows: $1 earned 10% for 6 years, and $100,000 earned 0% for three years. Since the bulk of the portfolio did nothing, this would be reflected in the dollar weighted return being really close to 0%. So which is the Modified Dietz? The Modified Dietz is actually somewhat of a dollar weighted return which becomes time-weighted because performance is calculated for sub-periods which are then linked together. Huh? It's funny if you look it up because some authoritative sources call it time-weighted, and some call it dollar weighted. Perhaps the mathematicians out there (Michael James?) can help us out on this. Here is the wikipedia link for Modified Dietz and the formula. From the formula you can see it is dollar weighted, but by linking the returns between periods (which is a time weighted method on top of the dollar weighted calculation) it is somewhat of a hybrid.

    Can you just tell me if it's good or not?

    Yes, it's fine most of the time. The only time it will really distort your results is if you have multiple cash flows within one period and the markets are volatile (2008 & 2009 anyone?). This is because the sub-periods require proper portfolio valuations at the beginning and end of those periods and it is very onerous to do so. The Modified Dietz assumes an average rate of return for each sub-period. The Modified Dietz is (currently) an accepted methodology for portfolio performance reporting according to the GIPS standards (Global Investment Performance Standards), but it should be noted that GIPS (which is run by the CFA Institute) has recommended that performance reporting start calculating portfolio valuations when large cash flows occur (positive or negative) so that a more accurate rate of return can be calculated (as opposed to just using quarterly or monthly valuations and ignoring large cash flow timing as it stands now). These recommendations are to be adopted in January of 2010 (don't know if it will apply to the reporting of dealer firms to retail clients though). In the end, Modified Dietz is fine most of the time, but it's not perfect.]]>
    1495 2009-12-09 22:01:17 2009-12-10 03:01:17 open open modified-dietz-return-calculations publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1260414362 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 4322 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinglikeapro.blogspot.com 70.72.55.217 2009-12-09 22:10:18 2009-12-10 03:10:18 1 0 0 4323 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-09 23:52:28 2009-12-10 04:52:28 1 0 0 4324 melissa_sequeira@shaw.ca 204.239.148.2 2009-12-10 11:38:50 2009-12-10 16:38:50 1 0 0 4325 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-12-11 01:34:29 2009-12-11 06:34:29 1 0 0 4326 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/tiger-woods-linkstuff-for-dec-10/ 216.227.218.225 2009-12-11 08:32:32 2009-12-11 13:32:32 1 pingback 0 0 4327 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-11 11:55:42 2009-12-11 16:55:42 1 0 0 4328 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2009-12-11 16:18:52 2009-12-11 21:18:52 1 0 0 4329 http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/12/10/tiger-woods-linkstuff-for-dec-10/ 70.32.84.217 2009-12-15 23:51:17 2009-12-16 04:51:17 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-67/ Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:55:56 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1502 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… The pilot is being edited right now and the decision now rests on the W Network if it will be greenlit into a series. I don't know when the decision will be made, but I'll be sure to let you know as soon as I do...

    From Around The Blogosphere

    The CEO of ING answers the first of your questions in Part I of our video interview series. This time he addresses the question as to whether ING is launching a no-fee chequing account. Rob Carrick informs us that Canadians increased their net worth by $141 billion between April and June of this year. Michael James on Money explains the angle of the new swath of door knockers - hot water tank salespeople. Also, a hat tip for his comments on my recent post on Modified Dietz. Jonathan Chevreau reminds us that the RDSP deadline is fast approaching. Thicken My Wallet shares some personal finance lessons from the rich and infamous. Million Dollar Journey lists the 10 wealthiest Canadians. Canadian Capitalist lists some important financial deadlines that are coming up quickly. Four Pillars explains another way to use RRSPs to reduce taxes. Big Cajun Man likes to play chicken with his banks.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Gigi Gali is one of the most electrifying rally drivers you've never heard of. Here is but one short clip of his driving prowess. Take note of the incredible drift at the end - well worth the price of admission (free!).

    ]]> 1502 2009-12-10 19:55:56 2009-12-11 00:55:56 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-67 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1260492960 _edit_last 1 4330 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-12-10 21:49:30 2009-12-11 02:49:30 1 0 0 4331 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-11 00:06:30 2009-12-11 05:06:30 1 0 0 4332 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.34 2009-12-13 13:37:35 2009-12-13 18:37:35 1 0 0 4333 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 70.48.52.129 2009-12-13 14:58:14 2009-12-13 19:58:14 1 0 0 4334 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-12-14 18:17:53 2009-12-14 23:17:53 1 0 0 PreetandPeter http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1506 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:51:54 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/PreetandPeter.jpg 1506 2009-12-13 20:51:54 2009-12-14 01:51:54 open open preetandpeter inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/PreetandPeter.jpg _wp_attached_file PreetandPeter.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"374";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='75' width='127'";s:4:"file";s:17:"PreetandPeter.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"PreetandPeter-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"PreetandPeter-300x176.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"176";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:25:"PreetandPeter-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"PreetandPeter-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Interview with the CEO of ING DIRECT Canada - Part I http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/interview-with-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada-part-i/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:53:58 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1504 Click here for a refresher on how this all came about, but essentially I had asked the readers of WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com to come up with the questions to ask Peter. This first video is Peter's response to the overwhelming request for information on a possible no-fee chequing account... check it out:

    More to come in the next while, and I'll post up the videos as they are sent to me (production was handled by ING). Thanks everyone!]]> 1504 2009-12-13 20:53:58 2009-12-14 01:53:58 open open interview-with-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada-part-i publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1260756108 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/PreetandPeter.jpg home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/PeterAceto.jpg 4335 http://cxoo.com.cn/interview-with-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada-%e2%80%93-part-i/ 74.220.207.122 2009-12-13 21:36:38 2009-12-14 02:36:38 1 pingback 0 0 4336 financialtactics@gmail.com http://financialtactics.blogspot.com 76.69.123.206 2009-12-14 00:30:45 2009-12-14 05:30:45 1 0 0 4337 http://direct.xxoome.com/interview-with-the-ceo-of-ing-direct-canada-%e2%80%93-part-i/ 66.147.244.178 2009-12-14 03:27:55 2009-12-14 08:27:55 1 pingback 0 0 4338 westcoastfp@gmail.com http://westcoastfinancialplanner.blogspot.com/ 207.81.13.62 2009-12-14 03:36:09 2009-12-14 08:36:09 1 0 0 4339 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/5B21u0 208.74.66.43 2009-12-14 10:13:57 2009-12-14 15:13:57 1 pingback 0 0 4340 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2009-12-14 13:14:56 2009-12-14 18:14:56 1 0 0 4341 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/ing-direct-canada-to-launch-discount-brokerage/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-05 22:17:38 2010-01-06 03:17:38 1 pingback 0 0 4342 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/coming-soon-ing-chequing-accounts/ 75.119.202.206 2010-03-10 08:36:00 2010-03-10 13:36:00 1 pingback 0 0 4343 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2010/03/10/coming-soon-ing-chequing-accounts/ 74.208.148.118 2010-03-10 08:54:33 2010-03-10 13:54:33 1 pingback 0 0 4344 http://dev-moneysense-ca.rogers-hosting.com/2010/03/10/coming-soon-ing-chequing-accounts/ 204.225.248.113 2010-03-22 10:58:11 2010-03-22 15:58:11 1 pingback 0 0 4345 http://starttags.com/tags/ing-direct-canada 98.240.245.202 2010-04-01 15:12:26 2010-04-01 20:12:26 1 pingback 0 0 PeterAceto http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1509 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:00:21 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/PeterAceto.jpg 1509 2009-12-13 21:00:21 2009-12-14 02:00:21 open open peteraceto inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/PeterAceto.jpg _wp_attached_file PeterAceto.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='96'";s:4:"file";s:14:"PeterAceto.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"PeterAceto-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"PeterAceto-220x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"220";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"PeterAceto-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Stream Videos From Your Computer To Your TV and Get a Free Blu-Ray Player and Playstation 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/stream-videos-from-your-computer-to-your-tv-and-get-a-free-blu-ray-player-and-playstation-3/ Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:27:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1511 Windows Media Centre "Extender" was about $350. After some further research and some guidance from my best friend Andy (who was the mastermind behind my audition video for the W Network!) we discovered that a Sony Playstation 3 can access your wireless network and stream video (and other multimedia content) almost effortlessly from your PC. The only snag was that anything recorded on Windows Media Centre (a Microsoft product) would not work out of the box (but it would on an Xbox, which is also a Microsoft item). I wanted the PS3 as it had a Blu-Ray player, and also is the only console that plays Gran Turismo (my favourite racing game from my video game days). Best of all, the PS3 was now only $299 for the version with a 120GB hard drive. I googled and found a transcoder (Tveristy) that transcodes most video formats to a format that can be read by a PS3 - so when you stream something from your computer it transcodes it on the fly and hits the PS3 in a version that will work. Tversity has a free version which does everything you need it to for this purpose. So, all in all, instead of spending $250-$350 for a device that streams wireless video from a PC to my TV, I spent $299 (+tax) and got that ability PLUS a Blu-Ray player, PLUS the latest gaming console. I thought I would post that since others may want to look into it. Happy savinggaming!]]> 1511 2009-12-14 22:27:12 2009-12-15 03:27:12 open open stream-videos-from-your-computer-to-your-tv-and-get-a-free-blu-ray-player-and-playstation-3 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1260847635 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 4346 http://tvphonemedia.com/stream-videos-from-your-computer-to-your-tv-and-get-a-free-blu-ray/ 97.74.24.38 2009-12-14 22:54:34 2009-12-15 03:54:34 1 pingback 0 0 4347 http://consolegaming.dailytidbit.com/console-gaming/stream-videos-from-your-computer-to-your-tv-and-get-a-free-blu-ray-player-and-playstation-3/ 174.132.225.204 2009-12-15 01:27:21 2009-12-15 06:27:21 1 pingback 0 0 4348 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/8nvQGk 208.74.66.43 2009-12-15 02:49:48 2009-12-15 07:49:48 1 pingback 0 0 4349 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2009-12-15 04:40:45 2009-12-15 09:40:45 1 0 0 4350 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-12-15 09:28:00 2009-12-15 14:28:00 1 0 0 4351 gordon@doxxx.net 74.213.161.10 2009-12-15 10:43:19 2009-12-15 15:43:19 1 0 0 4352 gordon@doxxx.net 74.213.161.10 2009-12-15 10:44:00 2009-12-15 15:44:00 1 0 0 4353 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 209.89.16.113 2009-12-15 12:11:38 2009-12-15 17:11:38 1 0 0 4354 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 204.83.191.12 2009-12-15 12:53:07 2009-12-15 17:53:07 1 0 0 4355 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2009-12-15 16:42:24 2009-12-15 21:42:24 1 0 0 4356 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 64.56.144.43 2009-12-15 23:50:57 2009-12-16 04:50:57 1 0 0 4357 rgaragan@gmail.com 69.45.121.14 2009-12-21 11:06:05 2009-12-21 16:06:05 1 0 0 4358 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-12-23 15:40:14 2009-12-23 20:40:14 1 0 0 4359 http://voiphub.org/rogers-high-speed/stream-videos-from-your-computer-to-your-tv-and-get-a-free-blu-ray/ 66.96.243.21 2009-12-30 08:46:44 2009-12-30 13:46:44 1 pingback 0 0 4360 http://asploded.com/life/tv-setup 69.89.31.63 2010-02-02 21:11:03 2010-02-03 02:11:03 1 pingback 0 0 4361 johnb945@aol.com http://yieapxo.com/qroxsqq/5.html 195.238.167.141 2010-04-23 16:51:58 2010-04-23 21:51:58 0 0 0 Big Changes for Cellphone Competition in Canada for 2010? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/big-changes-for-cellphone-competition-in-canada-for-2010/ Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:40:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1514 Chat: $15 per month Unlimited WIND to WIND calling (Canada wide) Unlimited incoming text 100 province-wide voice minutes 50 text messages Always Talk: $35 per month Unlimited WIND to WIND calling (Canada wide) Unlimited province-wide calling Unlimited incoming text 50 outgoing text messages Always Shout: $45 per month Unlimited Canada-wide calling Unlimited incoming /outgoing text messages Voicemail Data Plans Infinite Mobile: $35 per month (used with any voice plan) Unlimited internet for phones (tethering too) Again, these are unconfirmed, and sourced from HowardForums. The pricing might be live on the website if you click here, if not - it should be shortly.

    But Wait, There's More

    You may or may not know that Google is rumoured to be bringing out a GPhone - or Google Phone. The latest scuttlebut has it that it won't operate on cellular service at all, but rather be a data-only device that uses VOIP to operate like a phone. So no voice and data plans, just an unlimited data plan and it will act like an unlimited voice and data device for, presumably, a lower price. Low enough to be game changing. Only question is, does this mean Google will now know even more about you and your habits? Bottom line - if you are thinking about switching carriers anytime soon, it might be better to hold off until these two players announce their full intentions. You might switch to them, or you might have more clout dealing with client loyalty and retentions for the big three to keep your business... ]]>
    1514 2009-12-15 23:40:06 2009-12-16 04:40:06 open open big-changes-for-cellphone-competition-in-canada-for-2010 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1260938411 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 4362 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/70F5RL 208.74.66.43 2009-12-16 03:24:25 2009-12-16 08:24:25 1 pingback 0 0 4363 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-16 07:37:49 2009-12-16 12:37:49 prediction about cell phones is coming true faster than I guessed. I'm looking forward to dumping my expensive $8 per month Petro Canada phone for a new VOIP phone that has no per-call charges. I may still be waiting for a while to get a phone that costs less than $8 per month, but I'm sure it'll come eventually.]]> 1 0 0 4364 chihhsianghu@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/09/11/are-canadian-cell-phone-wireless-costs-too-high/ 65.95.28.180 2009-12-16 08:32:40 2009-12-16 13:32:40 1 0 0 4365 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-12-16 11:50:23 2009-12-16 16:50:23 1 0 0 4366 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-mark-carneys-wise-counsel-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2009-12-17 23:14:42 2009-12-18 04:14:42 1 pingback 0 0 4367 http://www.moneyvsdebt.com/2009/12/17/this-and-that-mark-carney%e2%80%99s-wise-counsel-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 74.208.148.118 2009-12-17 23:30:58 2009-12-18 04:30:58 1 pingback 0 0 4368 caitlin@cluttercubed.com http://www.cluttercubed.com 70.49.0.58 2009-12-18 09:45:36 2009-12-18 14:45:36 1 0 0 4369 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2009-12-19 23:43:57 2009-12-20 04:43:57 1 0 0 4370 http://www.bestcellphoneplansreview.com/1904/big-changes-for-cellphone-competition-in-canada-for-2010/ 174.120.60.226 2009-12-30 20:23:25 2009-12-31 01:23:25 1 pingback 0 0 4371 http://www.bestcheapcellphoneplans.com/4949/big-changes-for-cellphone-competition-in-canada-for-2010/ 174.120.60.226 2009-12-30 22:14:06 2009-12-31 03:14:06 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-68/ Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:13:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1516 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I was in Calgary on Tuesday and Wednesday but luckily a chinook rolled in and the temperature wasn't as bad as it has been of late. In Vancouver now until Sunday. It's interesting how different the general portfolio management philosophy is from province to province. Without generalizing too much, I'm not the only one who has noticed that Albertan advisors are much heavier into commodity exposure and oil and gas plays, and BC advisors seem to have more exposure to OM products (investment funds requiring Offering Memorandums as opposed to Simplified Prospectuses - this means hedge funds, concentrated real estate plays, MIC-like investments, etc.). Anyways...

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist notes that the new HST in Ontario and BC doesn't seem to mean as much extra burden as bandied about in the media of late. Big Cajun Man notes that the desire to avoid shooting pool with a rope means men are healthier in general than they've ever been. This is definitely worth a read - insightful and very funny! Jonathan Chevreau notes that two-thirds of Canadians are planning on skipping their RRSP contributions this year. Perhaps one other reason could be that TFSA room is competing for long term savings/investment dollars? Million Dollar Journey has a post about charitable giving. I, too, do not give the $1 donations at the cashier because I don't get a tax receipt and I have a budget for charitable giving. I also only give to certain charities. I'd love to give to them all, but you have to draw a line somewhere. It shouldn't make you feel bad. Thicken My Wallet talks about Holiday Savings and Holiday Scams. Michael James on Money no longer believes in recycling mouse traps, he reached his frugality limits on this one. Four Pillars has a last minute cheap gift guide. Canadian Financial DIY has a post explaining how to maintain asset class exposure whilst avoiding superficial losses if you have a capital loss you'd like to crystallize. Ellen Roseman explains that while credit cards can protect you from online fraud, they don't protect you from not reading the fine print.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Why drive on a controlled, closed circuit race track when you can take a behemoth of a car and drive it on public roads? Welcome to the world of hill-climbs... Enjoy!

    ]]> 1516 2009-12-18 02:13:39 2009-12-18 07:13:39 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-68 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1261120426 _edit_last 1 4372 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/4vwMyZ 208.74.66.43 2009-12-18 03:18:47 2009-12-18 08:18:47 1 pingback 0 0 4373 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2009-12-18 05:54:53 2009-12-18 10:54:53 1 0 0 4374 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-18 08:20:06 2009-12-18 13:20:06 1 0 0 4375 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 192.223.226.6 2009-12-18 08:38:50 2009-12-18 13:38:50 1 0 0 4376 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2009-12-18 10:51:55 2009-12-18 15:51:55 1 0 0 4377 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.96.254 2009-12-19 21:50:44 2009-12-20 02:50:44 1 0 0 4378 5minutetrader@gmail.com http://www.2stocktrading.com/discount.html 122.162.170.145 2009-12-24 07:45:50 2009-12-24 12:45:50 1 0 0 How Much Did Avatar Cost To Make? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-much-did-avatar-cost-to-make/ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:54:47 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1518 click here to view on YouTube).

    ]]> 1518 2009-12-21 22:54:47 2009-12-22 03:54:47 open open how-much-did-avatar-cost-to-make publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1261454155 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg 4379 nxknue@ycjprc.com http://zenvvdqneabs.com/ 125.64.94.68 2010-04-24 08:02:16 2010-04-24 13:02:16 smvpuwtrsthq, [url=http://oqfahqowjmgr.com/]oqfahqowjmgr[/url], [link=http://ldgybgcvdbaw.com/]ldgybgcvdbaw[/link], http://gsmyujqchnzf.com/]]> spam 0 0 Capture_007 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-much-are-tickets-for-the-mens-gold-medal-round-ice-hockey-game-in-vancouver-2010/capture_007/ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:44:23 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/Capture_007.jpg 1523 2009-12-22 20:44:23 2009-12-23 01:44:23 open open capture_007 inherit 1522 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/Capture_007.jpg _wp_attached_file Capture_007.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"693";s:6:"height";s:3:"244";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='45' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:15:"Capture_007.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"Capture_007-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"Capture_007-300x105.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"105";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"Capture_007-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"Capture_007-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} How Much Are Tickets For The Men's Gold Medal Round Ice Hockey Game in Vancouver 2010? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/how-much-are-tickets-for-the-mens-gold-medal-round-ice-hockey-game-in-vancouver-2010/ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:59:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1522 Capture_007

    Absurd. The face value of the tickets is $775 each, but organizers have decided to set up this "fan-to-fan" ticket marketplace so people can still try to get tickets. Sure they are hot commodities, and no one is forcing you to pay the asking prices, and if they didn't set it up scalpers and ticket brokers would do this anyways.

    VANOC is collecting 10% of the sale price from BOTH the seller and they buyer. So if someone snags these tickets from the picture above not only will VANOC have collected $1,550 (original sale price for 2 x $775 tickets), they will have collected an additional $6,000 from the fees for providing the fan-to-fan marketplace.

    That assumes that someone is crazy enough to shell out that kind of money. Just because someone is posting it at that price doesn't mean it will sell.

    Nonetheless, this is certainly a controversial service. I wonder if it comes with sippy-cups made of unobtanium...

    ]]>
    1522 2009-12-22 20:59:39 2009-12-23 01:59:39 open open how-much-are-tickets-for-the-mens-gold-medal-round-ice-hockey-game-in-vancouver-2010 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1261533838 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg 4380 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 98.220.235.164 2009-12-22 22:01:01 2009-12-23 03:01:01 1 0 0 4381 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2009-12-23 08:49:23 2009-12-23 13:49:23 1 0 0 4382 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2009-12-23 09:22:39 2009-12-23 14:22:39 1 0 0 4383 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2009-12-23 15:31:55 2009-12-23 20:31:55 1 4381 0 4384 steve@groceryalerts.ca http://www.groceryalerts.ca 96.50.96.245 2009-12-23 17:44:08 2009-12-23 22:44:08 1 0 0 4385 canadianhockeyplaya@hotmail.com http://howtohockey.com 24.146.20.198 2009-12-25 21:49:30 2009-12-26 02:49:30 1 0 0 4386 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2009-12-25 22:06:38 2009-12-26 03:06:38 1 0 0 4387 rd@spendadollar.info http://www.spendadollar.info 24.141.27.116 2010-03-02 19:47:52 2010-03-03 00:47:52 1 0 0
    Ramblings... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ramblings/ Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:56:24 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1534 1534 2009-12-30 01:56:24 2009-12-30 06:56:24 open open ramblings publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1262156189 _edit_last 1 4388 ultimatemoneyblog@gmail.com http://www.ultimatemoneyblog.com 74.130.19.110 2009-12-30 09:47:50 2009-12-30 14:47:50 1 0 0 4389 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.26.244 2009-12-30 22:58:59 2009-12-31 03:58:59 1 0 0 4390 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 208.57.70.164 2009-12-31 01:32:56 2009-12-31 06:32:56 1 0 0 4391 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2009-12-31 10:16:50 2009-12-31 15:16:50 1 0 0 4392 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 24.150.19.227 2009-12-31 11:01:35 2009-12-31 16:01:35 1 0 0 4393 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-01-08 16:21:55 2010-01-08 21:21:55 1 0 0 4394 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.6.213 2010-01-08 22:22:56 2010-01-09 03:22:56 1 0 0 2009 Bloggers' Stockpicking Competition Results: Up 56.14% for the year http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2009-bloggers-stockpicking-competition-results-up-57-76-for-the-year/ Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:45:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1536 Compared To The Other Guys... I finished 3rd out of 9. The average performance of all picks (among all bloggers in the contest) was 34.16%. Interestingly the S&P/TSX Composite was up 32.69% (half way through trading on the final day anyways). The S&P500 was up 26.47%. The best set of picks was up 81.56%, the worst was -9.36%. The single best stock pick was +214.95% (BIDU) and the worst was -70.08 (BCF). Here is the link to the spreadsheet with all the picks and results. For the recaps from the other bloggers click on their names below (not all of us have our recaps posted, so I'll link to their homepages until they are all up to date.): First place at +81.56%: The Intelligent Speculator Second place at +68.57%: The Wild Investor Third place at +56.14%: WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com Fourth place at +41.37%: The Financial Blogger Fifith place at +35.16%: Quest For Four Pillars Sixth place at +18.17%: Dividend Growth Investor Seventh place at +16.05%: Million Dollar Journey Eighth place at -0.24%: MyTradersJournal Ninth place at -9.36%: ZackStocks]]> 1536 2009-12-31 13:45:26 2009-12-31 18:45:26 open open 2009-bloggers-stockpicking-competition-results-up-57-76-for-the-year publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1262748421 _edit_last 1 4395 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2009/12/31/2009-stock-picks-end-of-year-review/ 66.96.128.62 2009-12-31 22:18:29 2010-01-01 03:18:29 1 pingback 0 0 4396 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/top-stocks-for-2009-competition-finish/ 216.227.218.225 2010-01-01 00:23:43 2010-01-01 05:23:43 1 pingback 0 0 4397 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/2009-stock-picks-competition-results.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-01-01 10:01:52 2010-01-01 15:01:52 1 pingback 0 0 4398 http://zachstocks.com/2009/12/four-stocks-for-the-new-year-a-2009-recap/ 69.89.31.97 2010-01-01 11:26:38 2010-01-01 16:26:38 1 pingback 0 0 4399 financiallysmart@gmail.com http://www.financiallysmartonline.com 72.27.190.239 2010-01-09 18:41:16 2010-01-09 23:41:16 1 0 0 Personal Finance Bloggers' Stock Picking Contest 2010 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/personal-finance-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-2010/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:01:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1541 This Doesn't Sound Like You Regular readers know that I don't normally talk about specific investments. For the first year's contest I initially hesitated since I was worried that some readers might take some of these picks to heart and actually buy them themselves as part of their investment portfolios. However, I decided to participate anyways deciding that I’ll just disclaimer the heck out of it. To that end:

    This Is Just For Funsies

    THIS STOCK PICKING CONTEST IS JUST FOR FUN, IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THE STOCKS LISTED HERE OR ON ANY OF THE OTHER BLOGGERS’ SITES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING A PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR. IF YOU BUY THEM ANYWAYS, YOU MUST RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER AND REPEAT, “I AM A NUTBAR”. Okay, with that now having been made clear, here are my picks for this year (and the rationale): 1. Cedar Fair L.P. (FUN:NYSE) I picked this because the competition is supposed to be FUN, and this is the ticker symbol for Cedar Fair L.P. (they run a bunch of amusement parks). Stock price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 11.41. 2. Hathor Exploration Limited (HAT:TSX-V) With the cold months upon us, I think I need a new HAT. Hathor is a mineral exploration company. Stock price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 1.81. 3. Arctic Star Diamond Corp. (ADD:TSX-V) I can win the competition this year if all my picks ADD up to the highest number. Also, these guys are looking for diamonds in Canada - just like my girlfriend. Stock price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 0.055 4. AVIS Budget Group (CAR:NYSE) If you are a regular reader, you'll know that I'm a CAR guy. AVIS Budget group operates the AVIS and Budget rental car agencies. Stock Price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 13.12. Let the games begin!

    What The Other Guys Are Picking…

    Here is a list of links to the other participating members’ picks (if their 2010 posts aren't ready, it will just link to their homepage until I update the links): The Million Dollar Journey The Quest For Four Pillars The Financial Blogger The Wild Investor Dividend Growth Investor Zachstocks My Traders Journal The Intelligent Speculator We’ll each provide updates every quarter. Stay tuned, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)]]>
    1541 2010-01-01 00:01:15 2010-01-01 05:01:15 open open personal-finance-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-2010 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif _edit_lock 1262748417 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 2 http://googleprice.com.cn/personal-finance-bloggers-stock-picking-contest-2010/ 74.220.207.122 2010-01-01 00:22:05 2010-01-01 05:22:05 1 pingback 0 0 3 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/4-top-stock-picks-for-2010-competition/ 216.227.218.225 2010-01-01 00:24:20 2010-01-01 05:24:20 1 pingback 0 0 4 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2010/01/01/2010-stock-picks/ 66.96.128.62 2010-01-01 07:55:23 2010-01-01 12:55:23 1 pingback 0 0 5 http://zachstocks.com/2009/12/2010-zachstocks-recommendations/ 69.89.31.97 2010-01-01 11:30:47 2010-01-01 16:30:47 1 pingback 0 0 6 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2010-01-01 22:09:18 2010-01-02 03:09:18 1 0 0 7 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/top-4-stock-picks-for-2010.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-01-02 08:20:17 2010-01-02 13:20:17 1 pingback 0 0 8 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/4GTApA 208.74.66.43 2010-01-02 10:31:40 2010-01-02 15:31:40 1 pingback 0 0 9 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 208.57.70.164 2010-01-03 02:01:46 2010-01-03 07:01:46 1 6 0 10 squawkfox@gmail.com http://www.squawkfox.com 74.198.148.32 2010-01-04 00:27:22 2010-01-04 05:27:22 1 0 0 11 http://thewildinvestor.com/4-stocks-to-buy-in-2010/ 74.220.207.142 2010-01-05 17:46:18 2010-01-05 22:46:18 1 pingback 0 0 12 financiallysmart@gmail.com http://www.financiallysmartonline.com 72.27.190.239 2010-01-09 18:35:11 2010-01-09 23:35:11 1 0 0 13 http://www.saving-a-dollar.com/?p=118 69.89.31.129 2010-01-10 13:39:48 2010-01-10 18:39:48 1 pingback 0 0 14 roma.sing22@gmail.com http://www.gachisites.com/ 117.196.238.127 2010-01-25 06:34:40 2010-01-25 11:34:40 1 0 0 15 antonypr@yahoo.com http://1stmilliondollar.net 99.237.18.66 2010-02-11 20:59:26 2010-02-12 01:59:26 1 0 0 16 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-12 09:17:21 2010-02-12 14:17:21 1 15 0 17 assiwal@gmail.com http://www.bulwarkpestcontrol.com/ 117.196.225.249 2010-02-18 02:26:40 2010-02-18 07:26:40 1 0 0 18 http://asknolanmatthias.com/stock-picking-competition-2010/ 67.205.76.251 2010-02-25 16:54:20 2010-02-25 21:54:20 1 pingback 0 0 19 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/2010-q1-stock-picking-contest-results/ 208.109.181.85 2010-03-31 19:43:47 2010-04-01 00:43:47 1 pingback 0 0 20 http://www.tickerwatcher.com/2010/04/01/top-dividend-stocks-for-2010-1q-update/ 74.220.215.87 2010-04-01 04:02:02 2010-04-01 09:02:02 1 pingback 0 0 21 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/top-stock-picks-2010-quarterly-update-april.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-04-02 06:31:08 2010-04-02 11:31:08 1 pingback 0 0
    ING DIRECT Canada to Launch Discount Brokerage? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ing-direct-canada-to-launch-discount-brokerage/ Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:17:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1550 click here to view), Peter Aceto and I move the discussion to some of their other product offerings and discuss the possibility of their own discount brokerage, as well as his reaction to new competitors in their business. With respect to the mutual fund line-up, I should point out that I work for a Fundamental Index manufacturer (Pro-Financial Asset Management) and am a proponent of Fundamental Indexation. There are plenty of cap-weighted indexation options out there, and Peter explains ING's value proposition in this space. For more information on Fundamental Indexation, click here for a brief synopsis. But now on to the next part in the interview... Enjoy!

    ]]> 1550 2010-01-05 22:17:29 2010-01-06 03:17:29 open open ing-direct-canada-to-launch-discount-brokerage publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/PreetandPeter.jpg _edit_lock 1262747854 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/PreetandPeter.jpg 22 dougwood@shaw.ca 68.145.63.157 2010-01-06 15:16:24 2010-01-06 20:16:24 1 0 0 23 flarsen@sasktel.net 24.227.192.14 2010-01-06 19:24:01 2010-01-07 00:24:01 1 0 0 24 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-troubles-at-scotia-itrade-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-01-07 23:18:09 2010-01-08 04:18:09 1 pingback 0 0 25 williams.tricia@gmail.com 75.159.99.85 2010-01-08 00:44:05 2010-01-08 05:44:05 1 0 0 26 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.98.89 2010-01-12 16:58:27 2010-01-12 21:58:27 1 0 0 Capture_008 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/google-phone-not-a-game-changer/capture_008/ Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:47:21 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Capture_008.jpg 1556 2010-01-06 19:47:21 2010-01-07 00:47:21 open open capture_008 inherit 1555 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Capture_008.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/01/Capture_008.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"203";s:6:"height";s:3:"378";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='51'";s:4:"file";s:23:"2010/01/Capture_008.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"Capture_008-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"Capture_008-161x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"161";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"Capture_008-203x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"203";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"Capture_008-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Google Phone Not A Game Changer http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/google-phone-not-a-game-changer/ Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:48:36 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1555 Capture_008On January 5th, Google held a press event to launch the much heralded Google Phone. After going through the details, there's not much to get excited about (yet) from a personal finance perspective. While not yet available in Canada, the device is being sold directly by Google: $529USD unlocked (meaning you don't have to lock into a contract and can choose which network to use it on with certain limitations) or $179USD with a two year contract with T-Mobile locking you in to pay $79.99USD per month. If you are an existing T-Mobile customer then the price of the phone increases to $279USD. I know some people were hoping for the ability to only use the phone in wi-fi mode (to remove the requirement for a voice plan and only pay for a data plan) or to have Google offer a free plan in exchange for serving up ads on the screen - which I would be fine with. Free rocks! Oh well - guess we'll have to wait some more. :)]]> 1555 2010-01-06 19:48:36 2010-01-07 00:48:36 open open google-phone-not-a-game-changer publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1262825322 27 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/01/08/random-thoughts-so-many-questions/ 67.205.7.217 2010-01-08 01:48:43 2010-01-08 06:48:43 1 pingback 0 0 28 lakhatri@gmail.com http://www.taxplannercpa.com/online-income-tax-preparation.php 110.37.23.213 2010-01-08 02:30:13 2010-01-08 07:30:13 1 0 0 29 jkibler500@aol.com http://www.increasenow.com 64.12.116.67 2010-01-09 20:54:36 2010-01-10 01:54:36 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-69/ Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:13:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1560 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Mark your calendars for January 21st from 6pm to 10pm EST if you would like to join Peter Aceto (CEO of ING DIRECT Canada), Matt Hartley (technology reporter with The National Post), and myself for a "Meet and Tweet" at the Darkhorse Espresso Bar in Toronto. It would be great to meet with some readers and seeing as how the event is scheduled for four hours, I'm sure there will be lots of time to chat and discuss lots of topics. If you are interested, why not check out the following link to register? http://ingmeetandtweet.eventbrite.com/

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist offers Kevin O'Leary a scolding. Jonathan Chevreau looks at The Elements of Investing. Million Dollary Journey has a guest post from a "30-something financially independent woman". Michael James on Money explains how hedge fund performance fees don't really align the interests of the manager completely with the investor. Four Pillars reviews Malcolm Gladwell's new book "What the dog saw". Big Cajun Man explains why your paycheck might have just dropped with the New Year. Thicken My Wallet explains why many New Year's resolutions fail.

    This Week's Racing Video

    I found a few of these slow-motion videos that are just a blast to watch. This one has some great footage of Formula 1 cars, sportscars, rally cars and motorbikes. It's really neat to see the slip angles of the bikes - just when you thought those guys were nuts as it is... :) Click here if you can't see the embedded video below.

    ]]> 1560 2010-01-07 22:13:16 2010-01-08 03:13:16 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-69 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1262920401 _edit_last 1 30 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-08 02:39:58 2010-01-08 07:39:58 1 0 0 31 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 99.224.85.155 2010-01-08 06:12:48 2010-01-08 11:12:48 1 0 0 32 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-01-08 10:28:20 2010-01-08 15:28:20 1 0 0 33 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2010-01-08 12:49:14 2010-01-08 17:49:14 1 0 0 34 alisha.seo@gmail.com http://www.acne-reviews.org/ 123.238.120.181 2010-01-22 05:25:25 2010-01-22 10:25:25 1 0 0 35 gachies@gmail.com http://www.gachisites.com/ 123.238.120.181 2010-01-22 05:26:05 2010-01-22 10:26:05 1 0 0 36 assiwal@gmail.com http://www.bulwarkpestcontrol.com/ 117.196.225.249 2010-02-18 04:52:45 2010-02-18 09:52:45 1 0 0 37 orrapy@capzdu.com http://ekdfloaelonu.com/ 87.106.41.253 2010-04-24 19:32:10 2010-04-25 00:32:10 fdpeyqkurnyb, [url=http://hqbkmahofmme.com/]hqbkmahofmme[/url], [link=http://wuutnrppovxp.com/]wuutnrppovxp[/link], http://llhtthfarshx.com/]]> spam 0 0 Car Insurance http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/carinsurance/ Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:33:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1562 6 Ways to Save on Auto Insurance A number of factors determine car insurance premiums. They can also be lowered when it comes time for renewal by following a simple number of steps throughout the year. A good driving record can equal reasonably low insurance premiums. At the start, this can save drivers a lot and keeping it clean can add up to more savings over the years. Car accidents, traffic violations and convictions can all cause a raise in costs. Drivers that choose luxury cars will end up paying more for insurance premiums. A new car can also cost more so be sure to check insurance rates before committing to a car purchase. The IBC (Insurance Bureau of Canada) will give ideas on how much makes and models cost in terms of insurance. In addition, checking the top stolen cars in Canada and applying an immobilizer to a car can keep costs down. Automobiles keep insurance premiums running. The more that one is driven the more expensive that the premium may be. For this reason, a car must not be driven everywhere and the mileage should be kept low. Consider other options to getting around town. Only have the insurance coverage that is needed so that unnecessary charges can be avoided. This means that older cars can go without collision coverage and those who drive the car should be low risk drivers. Having a higher deductible will lower the cost too. Other ideas for lower premiums include paying home and auto insurancetogether, having one company take care of every car in the home and attention to detail with the premium costs. Keeping a line of communication open with the insurance company is a great way to keep premiums low. Changes in life can mean discounts for insurance. Being employed for a certain company or a part of a professional group may also mean bigger discounts, as well. ]]> 1562 2010-01-10 14:33:20 2010-01-10 19:33:20 open open carinsurance publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1263355668 _edit_last 1 38 http://www.a2zwebindia.com/car-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 174.120.171.194 2010-01-10 14:58:24 2010-01-10 19:58:24 1 pingback 0 0 39 http://www.comparecarinsurancepremiums.co.uk/compare-car-insurance-premiums/car-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 74.53.88.50 2010-01-10 16:48:07 2010-01-10 21:48:07 1 pingback 0 0 40 http://makemoneyblog.smrits.com/making-money/car-insurance-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com 209.85.113.26 2010-01-10 19:34:21 2010-01-11 00:34:21 1 pingback 0 0 41 mattsheldon@rogers.com 99.229.235.78 2010-01-11 09:07:21 2010-01-11 14:07:21 1 0 0 42 feedback@taxresource.ca http://blog.taxresource.ca 167.80.244.204 2010-01-11 15:46:43 2010-01-11 20:46:43 1 0 0 Advertisements On This Website Going Forward and Bourne Trilogy BluRay or DVD Giveaway! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/advertisements-on-this-website-going-forward-and-bourne-trilogy-bluray-or-dvd-giveaway/ Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:18:07 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1564 Read below to enter the contest to win a copy of the Bourne Trilogy on Blu-Ray or DVD! Contest closes Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 11:59pm. I had a negative comment on the blog from a new reader about a recent sponsored blog post. A sponsored blog post means that someone has paid for a link within the post to a certain website (these links make their websites rank higher in search engine results). I thought I would take the opportunity to explain my position on advertisements on the website, and also institute a new policy I was thinking about for a few weeks. The reader was upset that the sponsored blog post (on Car Insurance) was not indicated as being paid for by a third party. I think they understand that many blogs run ads to help cover the costs of running a website and also to pocket a side income, but they just wanted a heads up when the ads start intruding more into the main content. I understand and partially agree. I actually didn't mean to publish that post until the weekend and until after I had explained my new policy on ads (which would've given the appropriate indication), but I was working on a mobile device that I was unfamiliar with and didn't realize I had published it as opposed to saving it in draft mode. In any case... here is the new policy which you need to know: I get inundated with companies who want to advertise on the site. So what I've decided to do is run sponsored posts on the weekends (published either Friday or Saturday nights and they would arrive on Saturday or Sunday morning if delivered by email). This way you'll know ahead of time if they are sponsored posts. BUT I'm also going to use part of the proceeds to run more contests. That way, the readers may benefit from it too. For example, part of the proceeds for the sponsored post on Car Insurance that ran yesterday will go to fund the prize for the following contest:

    Win a copy of the Bourne Trilogy on Blu-Ray or DVD

    This includes The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum - three of my most favourite movies! :) All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. You can leave any comment you want, but if you would like to weigh in on whether or not you like the proposal of running sponsored posts on weekends in exchange for more contests, I'll take the comments into consideration and if everyone thinks it's a bad idea I may discontinue the practice. Full contest details are below the video (which is a promo for the Bourne Trilogy on Blu-Ray). If you are reading this via email or on a feed reader, you will have to visit the website to see the video.

    • You may earn one entry by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post on the website.
    • I reserve the right to delete any comments that are inappropriate.
    • You must submit a valid email address in the comment form. Don't worry, it will not be visible to anyone but myself and it will never be shared or sold to anyone either.
    • Winner must answer a skill testing question.
    • Comments must be submitted by 11:59pm on Friday, January 15th, 2010.
    • Winners will be contacted using the email address provided only, and will have exactly one week from that point of contact to provide their full contact details in order to claim their prize.
    • I reserve the right to disqualify any entries for any reason.
    ]]>
    1564 2010-01-11 21:18:07 2010-01-12 02:18:07 open open advertisements-on-this-website-going-forward-and-bourne-trilogy-bluray-or-dvd-giveaway publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1266457458 _edit_last 1 43 lutznicolas@yahoo.ca 74.56.243.20 2010-01-11 21:31:11 2010-01-12 02:31:11 1 0 0 44 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 142.167.3.175 2010-01-11 22:27:15 2010-01-12 03:27:15 1 0 0 45 matt.wishman@gmail.com 24.109.247.227 2010-01-11 22:31:59 2010-01-12 03:31:59 1 0 0 46 hylaride@capybara.org 99.254.22.35 2010-01-11 22:48:17 2010-01-12 03:48:17 1 0 0 47 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 71.57.95.27 2010-01-11 23:15:08 2010-01-12 04:15:08 1 0 0 48 davemcquillen@hotmail.com http://www.davemcquillen.com 74.210.179.170 2010-01-12 00:07:25 2010-01-12 05:07:25 1 0 0 49 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 209.89.16.113 2010-01-12 00:12:15 2010-01-12 05:12:15 1 0 0 50 jasey200.9@gmail.com http://globolstaff.com/website-promotion.html 113.162.85.56 2010-01-12 02:40:12 2010-01-12 07:40:12 1 0 0 51 alaa.abed@gmail.com 67.204.16.94 2010-01-12 07:12:45 2010-01-12 12:12:45 1 0 0 52 pfpuim@hotmail.com 68.148.103.102 2010-01-12 07:46:54 2010-01-12 12:46:54 1 0 0 53 habs33@gmail.com 192.156.112.32 2010-01-12 07:47:33 2010-01-12 12:47:33 1 0 0 54 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.62.166 2010-01-12 07:58:15 2010-01-12 12:58:15 1 0 0 55 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.35.210.35 2010-01-12 08:12:28 2010-01-12 13:12:28 1 0 0 56 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2010-01-12 08:14:42 2010-01-12 13:14:42 1 0 0 57 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2010-01-12 09:45:31 2010-01-12 14:45:31 1 0 0 58 jason.rider@gmail.com 24.68.149.89 2010-01-12 09:56:12 2010-01-12 14:56:12 1 0 0 59 xenko22@gmail.com 68.147.243.143 2010-01-12 10:08:52 2010-01-12 15:08:52 1 0 0 60 trevorphillips12@gmail.com 68.145.109.116 2010-01-12 10:35:47 2010-01-12 15:35:47 1 0 0 61 birving60@hotmail.com 206.186.108.242 2010-01-12 10:51:47 2010-01-12 15:51:47 1 0 0 62 lancemd@gmail.com 207.161.201.33 2010-01-12 11:23:47 2010-01-12 16:23:47 1 0 0 63 wjc@quickclic.net 207.210.21.246 2010-01-12 11:58:18 2010-01-12 16:58:18 1 0 0 64 wjc@quickclic.net 207.210.21.246 2010-01-12 12:00:00 2010-01-12 17:00:00 1 0 0 65 roland.beaulne@rogers.com 99.241.178.193 2010-01-12 12:08:52 2010-01-12 17:08:52 1 0 0 66 kelledunlop@yahoo.ca 70.82.217.170 2010-01-12 12:27:57 2010-01-12 17:27:57 1 0 0 67 raymondtong1306@hotmail.com 204.101.16.234 2010-01-12 13:55:12 2010-01-12 18:55:12 1 0 0 68 rickpenn@mts.net 66.46.138.11 2010-01-12 15:30:02 2010-01-12 20:30:02 1 0 0 69 bertnam@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2010-01-12 16:30:13 2010-01-12 21:30:13 1 0 0 70 kevin@rcmb.ca 70.50.165.78 2010-01-12 17:19:30 2010-01-12 22:19:30 1 0 0 71 jasonrancourt@gmail.com 64.251.77.110 2010-01-12 19:00:24 2010-01-13 00:00:24 1 0 0 72 financialtactics@gmail.com http://financialtactics.blogspot.com 76.68.75.241 2010-01-12 19:34:00 2010-01-13 00:34:00 Three colours trilogy, but what the heck...]]> 1 0 0 73 dizzybloom@gmail.com 24.112.6.59 2010-01-12 19:42:47 2010-01-13 00:42:47 1 0 0 74 walk0080@gmail.com 173.206.249.196 2010-01-12 23:37:22 2010-01-13 04:37:22 1 0 0 75 thaczuk@gmail.com 24.64.76.227 2010-01-13 07:14:51 2010-01-13 12:14:51 1 0 0 76 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-01-13 11:47:55 2010-01-13 16:47:55 1 0 0 77 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2010-01-14 11:55:15 2010-01-14 16:55:15 1 0 0 78 chimpattack@gmail.com 99.241.77.224 2010-01-14 18:04:43 2010-01-14 23:04:43 1 0 0 79 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.219.16 2010-01-14 19:55:58 2010-01-15 00:55:58 1 0 0 80 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-70/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-15 08:49:22 2010-01-15 13:49:22 1 pingback 0 0 81 carel70@hotmail.com 24.222.39.211 2010-01-15 08:58:35 2010-01-15 13:58:35 1 0 0 82 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 203.187.238.30 2010-01-15 22:24:57 2010-01-16 03:24:57 1 0 0 83 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/what-you-can-expect-on-this-blog/ 75.119.202.206 2010-01-19 21:58:58 2010-01-20 02:58:58 1 pingback 0 0 84 thecynical@ymail.com http://www.thecynicalinvestor.net 209.202.125.54 2010-01-19 23:09:16 2010-01-20 04:09:16 1 0 0 85 j@s.com 99.231.140.216 2010-01-20 09:51:47 2010-01-20 14:51:47 1 0 0 86 clark_michael@hotmail.com 142.166.4.68 2010-01-20 10:04:46 2010-01-20 15:04:46 1 0 0 87 jamiemorell@gmail.com 142.167.27.204 2010-01-20 10:38:04 2010-01-20 15:38:04 1 0 0 88 thomaslbeckett@gmail.com 142.205.241.254 2010-01-20 11:43:26 2010-01-20 16:43:26 1 0 0 89 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.net 142.158.254.71 2010-01-20 17:24:27 2010-01-20 22:24:27 1 0 0 90 elmanl@canada.com 66.183.23.160 2010-01-20 17:29:18 2010-01-20 22:29:18 1 0 0
    January's Returns Predict Rest of Year's Performance 74% of the time http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/januarys-returns-predict-rest-of-years-performance-74-of-the-time/ Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:00:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1570 1570 2010-01-12 18:00:12 2010-01-12 23:00:12 open open januarys-returns-predict-rest-of-years-performance-74-of-the-time publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif _edit_lock 1263337283 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 91 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 71.57.95.27 2010-01-12 23:52:33 2010-01-13 04:52:33 1 0 0 92 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-01-13 12:19:31 2010-01-13 17:19:31 1 0 0 93 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-13 23:12:45 2010-01-14 04:12:45 1 0 0 94 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-13 23:16:03 2010-01-14 04:16:03 1 0 0 95 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/01/15/random-thoughts-lets-all-skate/ 67.205.7.217 2010-01-15 01:31:34 2010-01-15 06:31:34 1 pingback 0 0 96 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/linkstuff-for-january-14/ 216.227.218.225 2010-01-15 06:53:23 2010-01-15 11:53:23 1 pingback 0 0 97 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-83/ 64.6.103.97 2010-01-17 08:14:27 2010-01-17 13:14:27 1 pingback 0 0 98 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-19 08:35:47 2010-01-19 13:35:47 1 0 0 99 dugmink@yahoo.com http://www.wiser-investor.com/ 76.252.76.67 2010-01-22 21:26:06 2010-01-23 02:26:06 1 0 0 100 Jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-23 00:57:40 2010-01-23 05:57:40 1 0 0 101 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-02-02 05:04:56 2010-02-02 10:04:56 1 0 0 Fama French Three Factor Model Challenged... http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/fama-french-three-factor-model-challenged/ Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:04:01 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1575 The Cross Section of Expected Stock Returns which showed that, historically, a model that incorporated sensitivity to what are known as the "size" and "value" factors in addition to sensitivity to the "market" factor did a better job explaining portfolio returns across portfolios of different characteristics. CAPM, for reference, really only seemed to work for large, growthy portfolios. I know "growthy" is not a real word, but humour me. :) I've written extensively on this "Fama French Three Factor" model (FFTFM), but should point out that recently a new model has been proposed that seems to do a better job explaining some anomalies that the FFTFM can't. One of these factors is "momentum": this is the tendency for stocks that have been falling to continue falling, or vice versa for stocks that have been rising to continue rising. Other researchers are beginning to find data to support the notion that value stocks (represented by high book-to-market metrics) do not indeed compensate investors given the higher volatilities they exhibit. This would be a problem for the FFTFM as well which assumes the opposite. So to that end, I'm including a link to a paper that proposes a newer model, the Neoclassical Three Factor Model which suggests a solution to the momentum and distressed firm anomalies. Click here to access the paper. NOTE: CAPM, FFTFM and the Neoclassical Three Factor Models are just that: models. They are just attempts to explain stock market behaviour but realistically even if anyone could perfectly explain past stock market returns it would hold decreasingly little predictive behaviour on a go-forward basis as this new information would then be incorporated by the market, thus changing the very nature of market valuation techniques.]]> 1575 2010-01-13 23:04:01 2010-01-14 04:04:01 open open fama-french-three-factor-model-challenged publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1263441995 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/tsx_2xbull2xbear.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/tsx_2xbull2xbear.png 102 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-14 12:08:26 2010-01-14 17:08:26 1 0 0 103 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-01-15 09:23:04 2010-01-15 14:23:04 1 0 0 104 richard@garandnet.net 71.17.12.120 2010-01-15 19:28:57 2010-01-16 00:28:57 1 0 0 105 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-17 18:26:32 2010-01-17 23:26:32 1 0 0 106 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.101.89 2010-01-21 12:16:53 2010-01-21 17:16:53 1 0 0 107 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-interest-rates-couch-potato-blog-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-01-22 08:35:50 2010-01-22 13:35:50 1 pingback 0 0 108 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-24 18:56:08 2010-01-24 23:56:08 1 106 0 109 richard@garandnet.net 71.17.12.120 2010-01-25 10:28:17 2010-01-25 15:28:17 1 0 0 110 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-25 20:45:51 2010-01-26 01:45:51 1 109 0 111 richard@garandnet.net 71.17.12.120 2010-01-26 10:04:53 2010-01-26 15:04:53 1 0 0 112 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-27 20:34:42 2010-01-28 01:34:42 1 111 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-70/ Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:11:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1579 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Well I have a great solution for the sponsored posts. There is a tool I installed on the blog that will block sponsored posts from showing up in the RSS feed so regular readers will be spared from them. Plus I'll put the disclaimer on them so they are clearly identified and will stick to running them on weekends. We'll see how it goes, but hopefully this is a good solution for everyone and thanks for all the support! Of course you get to enjoy in the revenues generated by the extra contests that will be running in 2010 - starting with the Bourne Trilogy on Blu-Ray giveaway. Click here to enter the contest.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Million Dollar Journey has a post titled "Carrying Forward RESP Contributions / CESG". Larry MacDonald looks at dollar cost averaging versus dollar value averaging. Jon Chevreau shares some professional forecasts for asset class returns for 2010. Canadian Capitalist shares actual asset class returns for 2009. One of the golden rules of negotiations and sales: know when to stop talking. Thicken My Wallet explains. Ellen Roseman is putting on another course for beginners who want to learn more about personal finance. Michael James on Money writes about the possible genetic link with risk taking behaviour. Big Cajun Man talks decluttering... and relates it to money, don't worry. :) Four Pillars discusses interest rates and housing prices two years ago, and the writer slightly reconsiders the wording this week. Four Pillars is written by two guys, by the way - but between them they have more personalities than that.... lol

    This Week's Racing Video

    This week we have some on-board footage of one of the best drivers of all time, in any form of driving: Ari Vatanen. Click here if you can't see the embedded video.

    ]]> 1579 2010-01-14 22:11:04 2010-01-15 03:11:04 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-70 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1263563662 _edit_last 1 113 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2010-01-14 22:40:46 2010-01-15 03:40:46 1 0 0 114 cheapcanuck@gmail.com http://four-pillars.ca 99.236.27.42 2010-01-14 22:55:45 2010-01-15 03:55:45 1 0 0 115 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2010-01-15 07:34:58 2010-01-15 12:34:58 1 0 0 116 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-15 07:56:02 2010-01-15 12:56:02 1 0 0 117 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-01-15 13:10:54 2010-01-15 18:10:54 1 0 0 I Gladly Paid A 9.8% Fee To Have My Coins Counted http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/i-gladly-paid-a-9-8-fee-to-have-my-coins-counted/ Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:50:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1583 1583 2010-01-17 18:50:25 2010-01-17 23:50:25 open open i-gladly-paid-a-9-8-fee-to-have-my-coins-counted publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1263772315 _edit_last 1 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 118 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 71.57.95.27 2010-01-17 19:41:13 2010-01-18 00:41:13 1 0 0 119 hylaride@capybara.org 99.254.22.35 2010-01-17 20:27:09 2010-01-18 01:27:09 Select TD branches have free coin sorting machines, even if you're not a TD customer.]]> 1 0 0 120 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2010-01-17 21:12:02 2010-01-18 02:12:02 1 0 0 121 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-17 21:47:39 2010-01-18 02:47:39 1 0 0 122 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2010-01-18 00:12:32 2010-01-18 05:12:32 1 0 0 123 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 205.194.74.10 2010-01-18 09:03:34 2010-01-18 14:03:34 1 0 0 124 dan@danbortolotti.com http://canadiancouchpotato.com 174.115.42.147 2010-01-18 09:24:29 2010-01-18 14:24:29 1 0 0 125 pub@banikanada.com 206.186.114.231 2010-01-18 10:27:49 2010-01-18 15:27:49 1 0 0 126 mark.noble@advisor.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2010-01-18 11:06:16 2010-01-18 16:06:16 1 0 0 127 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-18 11:09:52 2010-01-18 16:09:52 1 0 0 128 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2010-01-18 15:39:52 2010-01-18 20:39:52 1 0 0 129 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-18 20:53:23 2010-01-19 01:53:23 1 0 0 130 http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/5MItpt 208.74.66.43 2010-01-19 12:15:14 2010-01-19 17:15:14 1 pingback 0 0 131 davidyho@gmail.com 99.234.64.75 2010-02-14 22:10:43 2010-02-15 03:10:43 1 0 0 The Counter-Intuitivity of Fixed Income Indices http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-counter-intuitivity-of-fixed-income-indices/ Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:25:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1587 Click here for more info, but in a nutshell a market capitalization weighted index assigns more weight of a stock in an index based on the relative market capitalization of the stock in question compared to the overall index. So if stock XYZ has a market cap of $5 billion and the index has  a total market cap of $100 billion, then stock XYZ has a weighting of 5% in that index. As the price goes up of the stock, so does the market capitalization and hence its weighting in that index. Theretofore price bubbles (irrationally high prices) leads to over exposure to overvalued stocks and underexposure to undervalued stocks (the exact opposite strategy that a rational investor would desire. The same quirk holds true to fixed income indices which are also market capitalization weighted. For example, a fixed income index would assign the most weight to the largest fixed income issue. In other words your exposures are largest to the companies/entities that have the most debt. Doesn't that strike you as counter-intuitive?]]> 1587 2010-01-18 21:25:04 2010-01-19 02:25:04 open open the-counter-intuitivity-of-fixed-income-indices publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1263867911 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/10portfolios220.gif 132 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2010-01-18 23:11:30 2010-01-19 04:11:30 1 0 0 133 xenko22@gmail.com 68.147.243.143 2010-01-19 00:57:38 2010-01-19 05:57:38 1 0 0 134 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-19 08:24:32 2010-01-19 13:24:32 1 0 0 135 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2010-01-19 09:05:37 2010-01-19 14:05:37 fundamentally-weighted indexing but I for one don't buy it. With all due respect, it's just another form of actively managed fund, and for those to work, they must exploit either persistent market inefficiencies or market fluctuations (ie. market timing). Given the weight of evidence behind the efficient-market hypothesis, I'm still waiting for evidence that either approach works.]]> 1 0 0 136 xenko22@gmail.com 68.147.243.143 2010-01-19 10:15:00 2010-01-19 15:15:00 1 0 0 137 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-19 20:39:56 2010-01-20 01:39:56 1 0 0 138 xenko22@gmail.com 68.147.243.143 2010-01-19 21:29:34 2010-01-20 02:29:34 1 0 0 139 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/01/22/random-thoughts-without-inflating-it/ 67.205.7.217 2010-01-22 01:41:33 2010-01-22 06:41:33 1 pingback 0 0 140 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/severing-the-link-beween-price-and-weigh/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-25 21:57:18 2010-01-26 02:57:18 1 pingback 0 0 Efficient Market Hypothesis http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/efficient-market-hypothesis/ Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:31:24 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1590 Weak Form Believers in the Weak form believe that past prices have no bearing on future prices, therefore technical analysis is useless. More precisely, any information that could be gleaned from past behaviour is fully reflected in the current price.

    Semi-Strong Form

    Believers in the Semi-Strong form believe that current prices reflect all past prices, and all publicly available information. Therefore, not only is technical analysis of no use, neither is fundamental analysis. Any new public information made available to the market results in completely random (overall) of the affected stocks.

    Strong Form

    Believers in the Strong form believe that prices reflect all past prices, all public information, and all insider information. The market is perfectly priced.

    My Take

    Well, you have to put it into context. The EMH is just a model for trying to explain how prices and markets tend to work - even the person most often credited as the father of the theory will point this out. No form is right enough in my opinion. They are all too rigid. It's like someone asking you if you are a liberal or a conservative. I'm liberal about some things, and I'm conservative about other things.  Putting me solely into only one camp wouldn't describe me. Plus, EMH can fall apart at times. I think what can be taken from EMH is the overall lesson that it's quite a task to beat the market consistently, or identify the person to do it next.

    Equilibrium Markets

    I view the market as more dynamic (in a different way than volatility). There is an equilibrium that exists between market efficiency and inefficiency, and that equilibrium point moves. For example, if everyone believed strongly enough in EMH and therefore decided to index in large proportions then the market would lose its efficiency as investors as a whole become "price-takers". They will just take whatever price is out there because they assume it to always be right. For example if 95% of invested dollars indexed the market then it might be quite easy to build a case for fundamental analysis and stock picking and active management because there are few active players who ultimately dictate prices. In a room of 5 people it is easier to identify the alpha dog. But if 95% of invested dollars were actively invested, the market starts looking pretty efficient as there are millions of educated analysts and investors looking under all the same rocks you are. Now there are a billion people in the room. I don't know if we'll ever get to the point where most of the invested dollars are indexed however. Beyond the efficiency-inefficiency spectrum, black swan events (1987 and 2008 for example) exist which in hindsight seem clearly irrational. In the end, I choose to believe the markets are efficient enough most of the time with periods of irrationality and just leave it at that. I find EMH to be a good way of thinking about the markets in an academic way, but we invest in the real world.]]>
    1590 2010-01-19 22:31:24 2010-01-20 03:31:24 open open efficient-market-hypothesis publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1263958303 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 141 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 71.57.95.27 2010-01-20 00:05:26 2010-01-20 05:05:26 1 0 0 142 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-01-20 10:58:38 2010-01-20 15:58:38 my blog entry on the EMH in its current state. I just don't seem to have the energy or expertise to get that article to the state I wanted.]]> 1 0 0 143 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-22 17:05:28 2010-01-22 22:05:28 1 0 0
    Part 3 of 3 with the Big Cheese http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/part-3-of-3-with-the-big-cheese/ Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:35:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1594 ]]> 1594 2010-01-20 18:35:55 2010-01-20 23:35:55 open open part-3-of-3-with-the-big-cheese publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264030887 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/PreetandPeter.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/PreetandPeter.jpg 144 rhayward.temp@gmail.com 198.96.180.245 2010-01-21 09:45:33 2010-01-21 14:45:33 1 0 0 145 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.62.166 2010-01-21 13:14:23 2010-01-21 18:14:23 1 0 0 146 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2010-01-24 17:11:40 2010-01-24 22:11:40 1 0 0 147 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-25 20:37:48 2010-01-26 01:37:48 1 146 0 148 moneymonk33@gmail.com http://www.moneymonk.net 158.111.5.34 2010-01-27 13:06:31 2010-01-27 18:06:31 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-71/ Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:28:48 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1599 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I had a great time at the Tweet-up tonight. Peter Aceto (CEO of ING DIRECT Canada) opened the event and Matt Hartley, Technology Reporter for the National Post, gave a great talk about Twitter as a two-way newswire (among other things). I spoke about how social media has impacted me personally and professionally. For those of you who are interested, I'll be launching my first iPhone app in the next few weeks (if approved by Apple). Stay tuned!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    The W Network has launched their next W Expert Search - why not give it a shot? Jonathan Chevreau hints you might need to a TFSA and an RRSP in order to have the retirement you want. Thicken My Wallet does what I do: when you get credit card offers in the mail, shred them before scrapping them. Michael James on Money asks if we should save to RRSPs or not. Canadian Capitalist notes that Canadian REITS may no longer be bargains.

    This Week's Racing Video

    A modern day racecar has as many aerodynamicists working on it as an airplane - so it shouldn't come as a surprise to see them take off once in a while. Yes, this racecar was just travelling down the track when it launched itself in the air. Driver was okay, but this happened a few times during that weekend and eventually the team pulled out of the event when it turned out to be a design flaw. Enjoy!

    ]]>
    1599 2010-01-21 23:28:48 2010-01-22 04:28:48 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-71 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264134533 _edit_last 1 149 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-22 09:17:51 2010-01-22 14:17:51 1 0 0 150 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-01-22 10:24:25 2010-01-22 15:24:25 1 0 0 151 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-01-23 17:32:34 2010-01-23 22:32:34 1 0 0
    Health Care Bill in Trouble? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/health-care-bill-in-trouble/ Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:50:39 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1601 cheap insurance for you if you can prove you are healthier than average, and hence less of a risk to the insurer.]]> 1601 2010-01-23 18:50:39 2010-01-23 23:50:39 open open health-care-bill-in-trouble publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264711196 _edit_last 1 152 dugmink@yahoo.com http://fundtips.blogspot.com/ 76.247.129.89 2010-01-26 15:43:41 2010-01-26 20:43:41 1 0 0 Warren Buffett Exists Because He Has To Exist? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/warren-buffett-exists-because-he-has-to-exist/ Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:59:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1603 has to exist. Click here for a little primer on Warren Buffet if you are not familiar with him. The argument here is that his performance is nothing more than a rare, but statistically explainable, occurrence. In his article "Beware of the 5 sigma", Matt Koppenheffer explains that 95% of all US males are between 5'5" and 6'2". 95% represents two standard deviations, or sigmas. He goes on to point out that Manute Bol at 7'6" is a 10 sigma event. Clearly he exists, and we all know that it is just a rare occurrence. Warren Buffett's track record is estimated to be between a 3 sigma and 5 sigma event. So is it that much of a stretch to infer that his record is nothing more than luck?

    Maybe

    I don't doubt that there are people who exist with superior stock picking abilities. I know I am not one of them, and I'm pretty sure that Warren Buffett is one of them. So how do I reconcile the statistics and the phenomenon of Warren? There are a couple of things to consider: 1. Buffett has real and direct influence on the direction of the companies he buys (either in part or in whole). He, or someone close to him, sits on the boards of these companies and imparts his business wisdom. It's clear he knows what needs to exist for a company to be profitable and sustainable. 2. These days, when Buffett buys a company so do a lot of other investors just because Buffett bought it. It could very well be that Buffett was really lucky in the early part of his career for long enough until he was considered a demi-god. After that point, anything he bought benefited from cult-like loyalty and copy-cat investors - two facts that can help drive a price of a stock up (or keep it from falling as fast). "He's done so well for so long, that he must know what he is doing!" The truth is, we will never really know what was behind his stellar record when it eventually comes to an end with his passing. At least, it would be hard to prove it because his track record does not fall outside the bounds of what is possible. I choose to believe that there is skill there and that there will be future Buffetts, but I also know that I will never be able to identify any of the Buffetts before they establish their track records. And that's the problem. What are your thoughts on Buffett? Skill or luck? Here's another article (posted on this blog a few months ago) which offers more food for thought.]]>
    1603 2010-01-24 19:59:59 2010-01-25 00:59:59 open open warren-buffett-exists-because-he-has-to-exist publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264381204 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/buffett.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/buffett.jpg 153 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-24 20:46:00 2010-01-25 01:46:00 1 0 0 154 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-01-24 21:33:25 2010-01-25 02:33:25 1 0 0 155 mark.noble@advisor.rogers.com 24.114.255.3 2010-01-25 11:28:11 2010-01-25 16:28:11 1 0 0 156 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-25 20:39:10 2010-01-26 01:39:10 1 153 0 157 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-25 20:43:04 2010-01-26 01:43:04 1 154 0 158 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-25 20:48:17 2010-01-26 01:48:17 1 155 0 159 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-27 04:29:05 2010-01-27 09:29:05 1 0 0 160 thecynical@ymail.com http://www.thecynicalinvestor.net 209.202.125.54 2010-01-27 21:22:55 2010-01-28 02:22:55 1 0 0
    Severing The Link Between Price and Weight Part I http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/severing-the-link-beween-price-and-weigh/ Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:57:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1607 market-cap weighted fixed income indices, it was noted by reader Xenko that one way to overcome overweighting overvalued companies and underweighting undervalued companies (counter to what a rational investor would desire) could be to inversely weight constituents of an index. While the original post was about fixed income indices, I'm assuming the thought was directed at equity indices so I will speak directly to that (there is an extra step with respect to fixed income indices that we'll go over some other time). Here is the problem with that suggestion: if you assigned more weight to a company based on its inverse cap-weighted rank then you run into the problem of running up the price of smaller cap stocks. A large market-cap stock might be worth $50 billion and is highly liquid. If it is the largest stock by market cap in an index it will have the most weight. But if the smallest company in an index (say with a market cap of $100 million) had the highest weight then if there were a lot of people trying to track that index their might be additional pressure on that stock's price because it might be illiquid. Let's explain with an example. Let us say that the total market capitalization of all companies is $1 trillion. The $50 billion company would have a 5% weight in this index by market-cap and the $100 million company would have  a 0.01% weight in this index. If we created another index which reversed these weightings so that the $100 million company represented a 5% weight in this new index (let's called it the 'inverse index' for now) and the $50 billion company had only a 0.01% weight in this index, this wouldn't be a problem for the $50 billion company. But what if this index had $4 billion worth of investors' money pouring into it on day one because they liked the concept. The index fund traders would have to allocate 5% of $4 billion into the $100 million company. 5% of $4 billion is $200 million. This would send the $100 million company's stock soaring artificially. This is a problem of "index capacity". So in practice, this would not work. This is essentially the same line of thinking which explains why an equal weighted index will not work as well in practice as it does in theory. An equal weighted S&P500 index would allocate a 0.2% weighting to each stock in the S&P500 index. Now, your exposure to pricing errors is randomized instead of the tendency to overweight overpriced stocks and underweight underpriced stocks. Maintaining a 0.2% weighting to each stock would have higher turnover than a regular cap-weighted index, but the same problem of capacity concerns on the smaller stocks exist as with the above example. In the next part of this series we will look at how else we can randomize the exposure to pricing errors without these ancillary problems cropping up. (We can never eliminate pricing errors.)]]> 1607 2010-01-25 21:57:05 2010-01-26 02:57:05 open open severing-the-link-beween-price-and-weigh publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264643855 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 161 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-25 23:24:19 2010-01-26 04:24:19 1 0 0 162 xenko22@gmail.com 68.147.243.143 2010-01-26 10:34:09 2010-01-26 15:34:09 1 0 0 163 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-26 10:40:41 2010-01-26 15:40:41 1 0 0 164 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-ii/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-26 21:56:23 2010-01-27 02:56:23 1 pingback 0 0 165 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-27 03:23:10 2010-01-27 08:23:10 1 0 0 166 richard@garandnet.net 71.17.12.120 2010-01-27 06:05:38 2010-01-27 11:05:38 1 0 0 167 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-27 20:33:56 2010-01-28 01:33:56 1 161 0 168 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-27 20:35:04 2010-01-28 01:35:04 1 162 0 169 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-01-27 20:36:53 2010-01-28 01:36:53 1 165 0 170 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-iii/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-27 20:56:31 2010-01-28 01:56:31 1 pingback 0 0 171 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-getting-rich-off-rich-dad-teaser-interest-rates-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-01-28 20:07:15 2010-01-29 01:07:15 1 pingback 0 0 172 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/01/29/random-stuff-now-thats-chutzpah/ 67.205.7.217 2010-01-29 01:42:09 2010-01-29 06:42:09 1 pingback 0 0 173 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/rental-properties-new-etfs-allowance-and-more.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-01-29 05:31:24 2010-01-29 10:31:24 1 pingback 0 0 174 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/financial-ramblings-84/ 64.6.103.97 2010-01-31 12:57:11 2010-01-31 17:57:11 1 pingback 0 0 175 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-iv/ 68.178.254.235 2010-02-01 22:30:33 2010-02-02 03:30:33 1 pingback 0 0 Severing The Link Between Price and Weight Part II http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-ii/ Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:56:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1611 the first part of this series we discussed the impracticality of inverse cap weighting (also note Michael James' comments at the bottom of that post.) In this part we will look at what needs to be done to sever the link between price and weight so as to avoid overweighting overvalued stocks and underweighting undervalued stocks. Not intending to be patronizing: to sever the link between price and weight you must weight stocks based on something not directly related to price. The question then, is to figure out what metric to use. Many people use stock market indices as long term proxies for measuring the growth of an economy. If that is a loose assumption we can make, then any metric which accomplishes this can be used. We could look at the number of employees in a company versus all employees in all companies. We could look at the number of telephone lines in a company versus all the telephone lines in all companies. I'll see if I can dig up the actual research, but these two methodologies both outperformed cap-weighting over long periods of time. Whether one uses these metrics (they don't in practice) or metrics found in the audited financial statements (like gross sales), they all accomplish the goal of randomizing pricing errors instead of magnifying the overpriced weightings and decreasing the weights to underpriced companies. This is the important concept in all of this and it is spelled out in detail in this post. Disclosure: I work for a company which manufactures index funds which seek to break the link between portfolio weight and stock price, so take all of this with the grain of salt that I have a bias. Part III click here.]]> 1611 2010-01-26 21:56:16 2010-01-27 02:56:16 open open severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-ii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264645961 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/babyeinstein-150x150.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/babyeinstein-150x150.jpg 176 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/severing-the-link-beween-price-and-weigh/ 68.178.254.235 2010-01-27 20:57:38 2010-01-28 01:57:38 1 pingback 0 0 Severing The Link Between Price And Weight Part III http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-iii/ Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:56:22 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1613 Part I and Part II... Actually, tonight I`m going to share some thoughts that struck me in the shower this morning when I was thinking about inverse cap-weighting a slice of the market (as reader Jordan had suggested to avoid market capacity constraints). Another reason this won`t work in practice is that you are foregoing the participation in the growth of companies since your exposure to companies declines as they become more highly valued by the market. Again, I`m going to reiterate that we are operating with the assumption that over the long term, market prices are efficient enough that taken en masse, a rising total market capitalization indicates long term growth in an economy. I don`t think that is a stretch by any means. If you were to inverse cap-weight the stocks in an index the long term winners would be less and less represented in your index. This long term drag would counter much, all, or more than the gains produced by the goal of overweighting underpriced stocks and underweighting the overpriced stocks. So, by trying to correct a small drag in returns that occurs when stocks are mis-priced and then revert to their fair value in a cap-weighted index, you may suffer a larger drag by systematically decreasing your exposure to the long term winners in the index. With respect to this drag of cap-weighting, note that this occurs in small and large cap stocks (and everything in between), remember - just because a stock is large cap doesn`t mean it is overpriced and similarly just because a stock is small cap does not mean it is underpriced. This is important to understand for the previous parts in this series and the next ones too... stay tuned! :)]]> 1613 2010-01-27 20:56:22 2010-01-28 01:56:22 open open severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-iii publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264643786 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 177 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-01-28 03:42:21 2010-01-28 08:42:21 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-72/ Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:03:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1620 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I'm heading to Atlanta this weekend, but just for Saturday. While it was 17 degrees there today, it will only be 4 degrees while I'm there - bah! Oh well, if anyone has any suggestions on what to do while I'm there let me know - otherwise I'll just take a tour of the CNN studios and grab a slaw-dog. (I worked in Atlanta for a few weeks back in my racing days, but there was no time to do anything except work and eat slaw-dogs.) :)

    From Around The Blogosphere

    "Why are we so clueless about the stock market?" is a book reviewed by Thicken My Wallet. Big Crotchety Man regales us of his misadventures in buying a new (to him) van. Jonathan Chevreau writes a piece in which the TFSA account is shown to be a superior investment vehicle over the RRSP in some cases. Rob Carrick discusses your mortgage options: fixed or variable? Yes. Michael James on Money asks if people WANT to be fooled by car ads. Four Pillars explains personal finance at Ridgemont High. Million Dollar Journey explains that we don't have to give up lattes to save money: there are other ways less painful (to some). Canadian Capitalist highlights a recent documentary that looks into the world of credit card companies from the inside. Great video.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Have you ever thought about strapping a jet engine onto a truck? Neither have I. Enjoy! :) (Email Subscriber: click here to view)

    ]]> 1620 2010-01-28 22:03:52 2010-01-29 03:03:52 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-72 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264734240 _edit_last 1 178 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/01/29/random-stuff-now-thats-chutzpah/ 205.194.74.10 2010-01-29 08:28:14 2010-01-29 13:28:14 1 0 0 179 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-01-29 08:29:24 2010-01-29 13:29:24 1 0 0 180 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-01-29 10:59:58 2010-01-29 15:59:58 1 0 0 181 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.38.46 2010-01-31 08:49:29 2010-01-31 13:49:29 1 0 0 182 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-01-31 13:03:11 2010-01-31 18:03:11 1 0 0 Hedge Fund Gating http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/hedge-fund-gating/ Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:04:34 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1627 1627 2010-01-31 22:04:34 2010-02-01 03:04:34 open open hedge-fund-gating publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1264993481 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 183 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/01/do-you-have-a-financial-gps/ 205.194.74.10 2010-02-01 09:16:08 2010-02-01 14:16:08 understand an investment and all it's inherant "bug-a-boos", then you should be ok.]]> 1 0 0 184 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.149 2010-02-01 10:32:03 2010-02-01 15:32:03 1 0 0 Severing The Link Between Price And Weight Part IV http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-iv/ Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:30:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1629 Part I, Part II, and Part III. The final thoughts I wanted to share with you about this refer to the assumptions under which market cap-weighting an index suffers a drag when linking portfolio weight to price. We have already shown that overpriced stocks will be overweighted and underpriced stocks will be underweighted. These mispricings happen in every sector, and in every size of stock (small-, mid- and large-caps). How do we know which are overpriced and which are underpriced? We never know. No one knows what "fair value" is for any stock. But because the market has so many participants we assume that prices tend to revert towards fair-value more often than not. This does not preclude the market from getting prices drastically wrong at times, but with so many participants these mispricings are eventually identified and this is acted upon by the market and the result is the reversion to fairer prices. So let me throw this out there to you: If the market is efficient enough that you can't reliably outperform it, then is it fair to say that the market will tend to revert to fair prices on average? If it is fair to say that, then is accepting the drag of the price-weight link a necessary evil?]]> 1629 2010-02-01 22:30:25 2010-02-02 03:30:25 open open severing-the-link-between-price-and-weight-part-iv publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265081913 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 185 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-02-02 14:31:01 2010-02-02 19:31:01 1 0 0 186 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/05/random-thoughts-financial-shock-collar/ 67.205.7.217 2010-02-05 01:49:06 2010-02-05 06:49:06 1 pingback 0 0 Research or Marketing Gimmick? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/research-or-marketing-gimmick/ Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:53:18 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1632 This is a another guest article by Jim Stark. Jim Stark is a pseudonym for a practicing Canadian financial advisor. So I hopped on to my computer one morning and typed in the phrase “scientific method” into my search engine to see what came up. Click here for the  definition that our friends at Wikipedia use. Then read the following: As far as I can tell, the preponderance of evidence supports the notion that the majority of active products and strategies fail to outperform and that the ones that do cannot be reliably identified in advance. It’s sort of like lottery tickets. The majority of tickets sold are losing tickets and the ones that are actually winners cannot be reliably identified until the winning numbers are called. The obvious rhetorical question that begs asking is: “Should advisors actively encourage their clients to buy lottery tickets?” To be absolutely clear, everyone (advisors and investors alike) is entirely entitled to do what they personally feel is best. My concern is when people make decisions (and recommendations) without a reliable basis of factual evidence and fail to disclose that lack of reliable evidence. Is the question of appropriateness of approach one of fact or opinion? If it is a question of fact, there is considerable empirical evidence in support of passive products and strategies. If it is a question of opinion, then surely it ought to be disclaimed as such. What I find particularly telling is the notion of full disclosure. Irrespective of how you might personally feel about this conundrum, do you fairly disclose this fact/opinion and bring both alternatives to your clients? Thanks Jimbo - 'till next time! -Preet]]> 1632 2010-02-02 20:53:18 2010-02-03 01:53:18 open open research-or-marketing-gimmick publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265231615 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/businessman.gif 187 claytonwalls@shaw.ca 68.145.173.114 2010-02-03 15:00:38 2010-02-03 20:00:38 1 0 0 188 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-04 08:59:44 2010-02-04 13:59:44 1 187 0 Money Making Decluttering http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/money-making-decluttering/ Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:48:10 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1637

    Daniela3Designer extraordinaire, and guest author Daniela Garritano returns. If you would like to secure her services, don’t be afraid to email her by clicking here. Take it away D…


    Happy New Year everyone!


    Today’s class is all about becoming a de-clutter bug! Now, I don’t know about you, but every year after the holidays, I somehow manage to have additional clutter in my home, not knowing where it actually came from. So, this can be a project we take on together!


    Clutter is all around us. Nowadays with reality t.v shows zeroing in on compulsive hoarders or shopping addicts, it’s in the limelight more than ever. Whether it exists in our own home, our cars or even our jobs, it can be an overwhelming task that can easily become an emotional burden. It can not only weigh down our home, but it can also weigh down our lives. It can leave us feeling unmotivated, stressed out, helpless or even embarrassed.


    However, with these easy tips (along with me cheering you on! Yay!) you’ll be well on your way to a clutter free home. You just have to remind yourself, that in the end – it’s just stuff. And with any luck, it can make you a little extra of the stuff you actually want: the green stuff!


    1) One step at a time


    If you’re a fan of Oprah, you may have seen superstar de-cluttering coach, Peter Walsh, as a regular fixture on the proverbial yellow couch. The great thing about Peter, is that he really breaks it down into the simplest of terms when it comes to tackling the muddle. Your first task is to simply start with one room at a time. Then, separate your clutter into four major self explanatory categories: The Keep Pile, The Junk Pile, The Sell Pile and The Donation Pile. When sorting through the jumble, try to refrain from just throwing everything back into the keep pile. Take a deep breath, ask yourself if you really need it and if you hesitate for even a second, you can likely live without it!


    D’s Tip: If you find yourself getting flustered, take a short break to clear your head, and come back to it. If you find yourself overly frazzled, make a list of what you are doing to clear the chaos and check it off one at a time when each task is complete. i.e. fold clothes and put away, make the bed, clear the nightstand etc.


    2) Pack it up!


    An easy step I often take with client’s who have real difficulty in letting go of the clutter is the cardboard box trick. To start, pick a room that is filled with confusion. Grab all of the things you do not use or need on a regular basis, shove them in a box and store it away. Come back to the box a week later, and see how you react when you open it. Are you excited to see it? Did you forget what was even in there? Or does it just look like junk in a box? Also, think about what your living space has been like without it. I am thrilled to report that very few clients ever revert back to their messy ways. When you enjoy a clutter free room, it becomes increasingly harder to fill it up with junk again.


    3) Re-gift without the guilt!


    So simple, so entertaining and oh so much fun!


    Gather up your bestie’s and hold a swap party for all of the gifts you have ever received but have never used (I have plenty of those. Singing trout anyone?) This includes everything from birthdays, Christmas’, anniversaries and even wedding favours that are just sitting in your home collecting dust. You may not want it, but it may be an absolute treasure to someone else. Plus, it may give you the chance to get rid of something you don’t need and get something you do need. And, if you’re all looking to make a little extra cash, have a swap for a toonie party. Same rules apply, but everything costs a toonie!


    D’s tip: Make a pact with your guests in that whatever doesn’t get picked up, does not go back home with the owner! Toss all of the leftovers or donate them to the charity of your choice.


    4) Fun & Games


    If getting your kids to clean up is like finding the Holy Grail, try finding a way to make it fun! In our family, we made it a habit that after every special gift giving occasion, a trip to the local shelter was made the following week. It not only taught us to live without the need of excess, but it also reinforced the notion that the clean up was not only benefitting our home, but other’s as well.


    D’s Tip: Kids giving you a hard time? Check out these kid friendly clean up games that will get the whole family involved! http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11690


    5) Seasonal Spring Cleaning!


    A great habit to get in to, is to clean out your closet at the beginning of each season. Try keeping a special hamper solely for the purpose of tossing in clothes that you never wear. Rule of thumb: if you have not worn it through an entire cycle of the seasons (that’s one full year folks!) you will never wear it again.


    Each time you come across something you have never worn or no longer want, toss it in the hamper immediately before you have a chance to justify why you haven’t worn it. Before you know it, the hamper will be full, and it will be time to donate it to a shelter. Then, start all over again when the hamper is empty. Try getting the whole family involved in this process too!


    D’s Tip: Most people are always looking for a bargain on the latest and greatest. Try posting your unwanted hubbub on sites like Kijiji or Craigslist for a little extra green. Where else do you think all of those unwanted bridesmaid dress go?


    Next time from Daniela: The suggestion box!

    ]]>
    1637 2010-02-03 19:48:10 2010-02-04 00:48:10 open open money-making-decluttering publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265333797 _edit_last 1 189 jason.t.hall@gmail.com 207.195.37.13 2010-02-04 10:07:35 2010-02-04 15:07:35 1 0 0 190 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-earl-jones-documentary-new-etfs-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-02-04 22:46:32 2010-02-05 03:46:32 1 pingback 0 0 191 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2010-02-07 01:31:17 2010-02-07 06:31:17 1 0 0 192 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/rewards-credit-cards-diy-will-and-bug-out-bag.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-02-12 07:30:53 2010-02-12 12:30:53 1 pingback 0 0 193 gabevalella@gmail.com 173.33.136.247 2010-02-12 09:43:40 2010-02-12 14:43:40 1 0 0 194 micah.amritpunni@gmail.com 110.55.179.212 2010-02-16 04:57:24 2010-02-16 09:57:24 1 0 0 195 http://organizing.articleberry.com/making-space-letting-go-of-clutter 70.84.173.226 2010-02-17 18:40:36 2010-02-17 23:40:36 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-73/ Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:07:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1666 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… I made a 24 hour commando-mission to Atlanta last weekend and the result is that I will be co-authoring a new book which we hope to have published in May. I'll fill you in on details as we near the end of the project, but I think I will have another book in me for 2010 or early 2011 as well which will be focused on sharing some horror stories with the hopes of helping figure out what NOT to do when it comes to managing personal finances - that was inspired by Larry MacDonald - who writes a blog here.

    Mentions In The Media

    Financial Post Magazine: 2010 RRSP Playbook National Post: Investors have met 'the enemy in the mirror' Toronto Star: Requiem for a Bay Street Titan.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Dan Bortolotti has recently launched an entire blog devoted to Couch Potato Portfolios. I see it quickly becoming a very popular website. Rob Carrick talks about Post-Traumatic Stress Investing. Jonathan Chevreau discusses a poll which found that 20% of people hope CPP and potentially winning the lottery will be enough to fund retirement. Yikes! Ellen Roseman says it's time to stop the madness. Michael James elaborates on Ellen's thoughts. Canadian Capitalist links to an exposé on the Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminars. A must read. Thicken My Wallet explains why the Latte Factor doesn't work. Million Dollar Journey shows us how one could save 70% off their grocery bill. Four Pillars has an interesting post on bank accounts and dating. Big Cajun Man wants a financial GPS.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Rally drivers are bonkers. This short 22 second clip shows one driver jumping half a football field during an event. Holy moly guacamole!

    ]]> 1666 2010-02-04 21:07:05 2010-02-05 02:07:05 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-73 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265335758 _edit_last 1 196 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2010-02-04 22:50:40 2010-02-05 03:50:40 1 0 0 197 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-02-04 23:24:49 2010-02-05 04:24:49 1 0 0 198 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/05/random-thoughts-financial-shock-collar/ 205.194.74.10 2010-02-05 07:45:04 2010-02-05 12:45:04 1 0 0 199 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.38.46 2010-02-05 08:47:26 2010-02-05 13:47:26 1 0 0 200 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-02-05 10:59:42 2010-02-05 15:59:42 1 0 0 201 mccolumn@yahoo.com http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/ 99.224.165.244 2010-02-05 15:04:34 2010-02-05 20:04:34 1 0 0 202 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-02-07 10:06:30 2010-02-07 15:06:30 1 0 0 203 http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-73/ 75.101.226.43 2010-02-12 19:29:31 2010-02-13 00:29:31 Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by PreetBanerjee: New Blog Post: A Lap Of The Blogs http://bit.ly/dyyBXx...]]> 1 trackback 0 0 204 ynlzyo@mxsjpi.com http://dxxxcpetvyvt.com/ 221.248.22.118 2010-04-25 08:52:13 2010-04-25 13:52:13 wljsjqtenwph, [url=http://urcsourdmqlj.com/]urcsourdmqlj[/url], [link=http://rifjkkrcfozo.com/]rifjkkrcfozo[/link], http://sphhkkvfuyds.com/]]> spam 0 0 Guest Article: DSC Index Funds http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/guest-article-dsc-index-funds/ Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:52:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1669 This is a another guest article by Jim Stark. Jim Stark is a pseudonym for a practicing Canadian financial advisor. Why are there no DSC Index Funds?  On one hand, pretty much any advisor knows that there is no such thing as a DSC index fund and why that is so.  On the other hand, many retail investors probably never thought about it- and likely wouldn’t be able to accurately explain why this little wrinkle exists even if they did.  There’s likely a pretty severe disconnect on this- a topic that could have applications in the fields of practice management, ethics, client suitability and advisor ‘value propositions’ to name a few. (Note: there actually are DSC Index funds these days, but they are far from ubiquitous - Preet) In order to be clear, it needs to be underscored that mutual fund companies “manufacture” products, while financial advisors “distribute” them.  Obviously, no one could be expected to distribute a product if no one is manufacturing that product in the first place.  So, to modify my original question in the interest of specificity, “why don’t mutual fund companies manufacture DSC index funds?” I’ll try to grapple with the question by confessing my concern right off the bat.  To me, this is a case of undue bias.  I would hope that all readers would agree that in an advisory relationship, the interests of the client should always come first.  Still, advisors are absolutely allowed (indeed, expected) to advocate for whatever products and processes they feel are best and are absolutely allowed to choose their own business model, too. Many advisors insist that they are “independent”.   When asked by someone who understands the industry, however, one quickly finds that many “independent” advisors have an attitude that is similar to Henry Ford’s early take on car colours: “you can have any colour you want, as long as it is black”.  My take on those advisors who use mutual funds is that they effectively tell their clients that they suggest that they can: “have any mutual fund they want, as long as it pays an embedded compensation”. This isn’t a topic that is confined to index funds, obviously, since there are dozens of credible actively-managed mutual funds available that never make it on to many advisors’ product shelves, either.  I chose to explore index funds because in the case of actively-managed funds, advisors can always find a similar fund that offers an embedded compensation and skirt the ‘advisor value’ conversation that might otherwise ensue. The problem, as I see it, is when the business model drives the product recommendations to the potential detriment of the client interest.  The implicit premise of much financial advice is that the advisor is more likely than a layperson to reliably identify outperformers in advance.  Indexing drops all pretense of doing that.  As such, it begs the question of what one might reasonably expect from an advisor.  It has been suggested that the three primary functions of good financial advisors are to:

    1. Spot problems and identify solutions.

    2. Motivate people to act/change their behaviour.

    3. Help people to emotionally detach from investment market events.

    Notice that picking stocks and picking people who pick stocks (i.e. picking actively managed funds) is not on the list.  When talking about index funds that offer no embedded compensation, there’s no product alternative available today that has a similar mandate, but with advisor compensation built in.  In essence, advisors that use a commission model simply do not offer index products to their clients. Obviously, the absence of a DSC index option would be a complete non-issue if actively managed products were demonstrably superior.  But what if substantial evidence suggests otherwise?  What if there are a number of clear and compelling reasons for a rational, self-interested investor to prefer an index product?  That brings us to what I believe is one of the fundamental questions in our industry today.  Where does one reasonably draw the line in regard to required disclosures regarding the risks and limitations for competing products and strategies where the relative efficacy of two or more alternatives is not obvious? When giving presentations to ten or more members of the public, what if the following disclaimer was used:
    The views expressed are those of (advisor name) and are not necessarily shared by (firm name).  Debate regarding market efficiency, the usefulness of fundamental and technical analysis, active vs. passive management and the efficiency of payments is ongoing.  To date, neither side has been able to claim unchallenged victory.
    I cannot help but notice that people who favour active products and strategies, but fail to compare the two are not required to use the disclaimer.  The question that it begs is: “if neither side has been able to claim unchallenged victory, then how can an independent advisor recommend only one side to clients with a clear conscience”?  The corollary is: “how can it be acceptable to avoid an important disclaimer by simply avoiding a direct comparison”?  At the very least, shouldn’t all advisors be required to disclose that both alternatives exist, irrespective of the approach they favour- especially if there’s a reasonable possibility that the alternatives they favour is inferior to the one being recommended?  The industry hides the ugly truth by tolerating the non-disclosure of material considerations that could alter the decision-making process. From my vantage point, the issue is not whether or not advisors should be allowed to advocate for one product line or business model or another.  Clearly, they can do whatever they feel is best.  The issue is whether or not they should be allowed to deliberately withhold credible and viable alternatives from their clients and still be considered independent professionals. Thanks Jimbo. So what do you guys think? I realize this is written more towards advisors (as Jim's articles usually are), but there is certainly food for thought for everyone.]]>
    1669 2010-02-08 18:52:12 2010-02-08 23:52:12 open open guest-article-dsc-index-funds publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265731874 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/businessman.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/businessman.gif 205 Poussez@hotmail.com 70.50.166.85 2010-02-09 00:03:02 2010-02-09 05:03:02 1 0 0 206 paulsduane@yahoo.ca 204.101.172.18 2010-02-09 09:26:48 2010-02-09 14:26:48 1 0 0
    Home Bias http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/home-bias/ Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:42:12 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1674 1674 2010-02-09 21:42:12 2010-02-10 02:42:12 open open home-bias publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265952556 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 207 walshsurvey@rogers.com 99.241.160.143 2010-02-10 01:45:53 2010-02-10 06:45:53 1 0 0 208 mcshaun.finsurance@gmail.com http://www.myfuneralinsurance.com.au 121.54.48.2 2010-02-11 20:46:36 2010-02-12 01:46:36 1 0 0 209 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-mls-access-rrsp-season-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-02-11 22:39:32 2010-02-12 03:39:32 1 pingback 0 0 210 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-12 00:15:31 2010-02-12 05:15:31 1 0 0 211 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/12/random-valentines-thoughts/ 67.205.7.217 2010-02-12 02:01:51 2010-02-12 07:01:51 1 pingback 0 0 212 bh@gmail.com 99.240.13.145 2010-02-13 09:05:37 2010-02-13 14:05:37 1 0 0 213 bh@gmail.com 99.240.13.145 2010-02-13 09:08:12 2010-02-13 14:08:12 1 0 0 214 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/finanical-ramblings-2/ 64.6.103.97 2010-02-13 10:47:18 2010-02-13 15:47:18 1 pingback 0 0 215 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/valentine%e2%80%99s-day-book-deals-and-linkstuff/ 216.227.218.225 2010-02-14 09:32:48 2010-02-14 14:32:48 1 pingback 0 0 216 mp@pergler.org 157.191.2.16 2010-02-15 13:02:13 2010-02-15 18:02:13 1 0 0 217 davidyho@gmail.com http://analystanalyzer.com 99.234.64.75 2010-02-15 15:07:29 2010-02-15 20:07:29 1 0 0 218 contactdoctorstock@gmail.com http://www.investinthemarkets.com 70.72.55.217 2010-02-15 16:03:49 2010-02-15 21:03:49 1 0 0 219 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-02-20 00:05:39 2010-02-20 05:05:39 1 0 0 220 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.99.25 2010-02-27 09:27:39 2010-02-27 14:27:39 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-74/ Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:10:27 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1676 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… So has everyone lined up their Valentine's Day celebrations? I'm taking Fiona to La Bodega Friday night for dinner and then making dinner at home on Sunday. I used OpenTable to make the reservations and what's nice about OpenTable is that you can accumulate points which can be exchanged for discounts at many restaurants with no enrollment fees. If you book a reservation during promo periods (which happen fairly often) you can earn 1,000 points. 2,000 points gets you $26 off your next visit to an OpenTable registered restaurant. I prefer booking online and it saves you money too - what's not to like? It has about 130 restaurants in the Toronto area and about the same for Vancouver (not much utility for smaller cities yet though). Check it out here (not a sponsored link): OpenTable.com

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Jon Chevreau notes that the CD Howe Institute is calling for RRSP contribution room to almost double. Rob Carrick covers an investment strategy some people are looking at for 2010. Michael James on Money explains his problem getting Good Life to stop taking money from him. I recently spoke to someone at Good Life about a membership and tried to pay up front for a three month membership. They told me it would be cheaper to pay monthly and told me they would write "no termination fee" on MY copy of the contract (not theirs) so I would sign up for a 1 year term but be able to cancel after three months. I thanked them for the laugh and walked right out. Canadian Capitalist discusses real estate agent incentives. Thicken My Wallet gives you three ways to set yourself apart from other job-seekers. Big Lovin' Man explains Financial Valentine's Day. Four Pillars has A Numbers Approach to Finding True Love.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Some funny crashes. The last one looks painful. Have a great weekend everyone! (Email/Feed readers click here)

    ]]> 1676 2010-02-12 00:10:27 2010-02-12 05:10:27 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-74 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1265951432 _edit_last 1 221 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/12/random-valentines-thoughts/ 99.224.85.155 2010-02-12 06:38:41 2010-02-12 11:38:41 1 0 0 222 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-02-12 09:34:25 2010-02-12 14:34:25 1 0 0 223 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-02-12 11:14:03 2010-02-12 16:14:03 1 0 0 224 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 69.159.19.165 2010-02-13 23:15:53 2010-02-14 04:15:53 1 0 0 New Firm Focusing On Reducing Currency Conversion Fees For Canadians http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/new-firm-focusing-on-reducing-currency-conversion-fees-for-canadians/ Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:03:28 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1680 Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange Inc.:

    1. Explain in a nutshell what you do.

    Knightsbridge provides better than bank foreign exchange rates (and free wire transfers) to individuals (i.e. foreign property buyers, estate transfers, car/boat, and other large personal FX requirements) and small and medium sized businesses.  Knightsbridge provides its clients the level of service banks provides to its largest clients (market commentary, unique understanding of FX requirements, FX rate alerts, market orders, risk management policy development, and hedging tools - ability to lock in an exchange rate today for the future).    When dealing with a bank, customers often speak to a "representative" that does lending, mortgages, visa, chequing accounts, etc.  All we do is foreign exchange - we have to be better than the bank - otherwise no one would use us.

    2. How are you able to provide better rates than banks?

    Banks have a monopoly and significant market share.  As a result, they charge high currency margins.  Banks don't pay much attention to the small business banking market.  Knightsbridge's management team has strong relationships with financial institutions (Knightsbridge's CEO is the former global co-head of RBC's FX sales and trading group), which allows Knightsbridge to obtain superior pricing.

    3. Why don't more firms do what you do?

    Currently, there are several competitors in the marketplace, especially in the UK, and there are several regional participants in the U.S. and Canada. However, due to stricter anti money laundering and terrorist financing legislation, barriers to entry for new participants are increasing. Because banks ultimately provide foreign exchange and liquidity services to all market participants, they are selective with whom they work with, and do significant diligence prior to allowing companies such as Knightsbridge to partner with them. Knightsbridge’s primary banking relationship is Bank of Montreal, and all client funds are held with BMO or other Canadian banks. Also, Knightsbridge is regulated by FINTRAC.

    4. Are you as safe to deal with as a bank? Why?

    • Knightsbridge is a foreign exchange and payment company - as funds are received they are sent to the beneficiary.  Think of PayPal, Western Union, but much better FX rates and no wire transfer fees.
    • Knightsbridge does not hold deposits on behalf of clients.  Client funds are sent to the beneficiary, generally, by the end of the day.
    • Strong management team.  Rob Wittmann, CEO of Knightsbridge, has over 30 years of financial services experience and is the former Global Co-Head and Managing Director of RBC's FX Sales and Trading group.
    • Rahim Madhavji, President of Knightsbridge, former investment banker at RBC and worked at a $550 million private equity fund.
    • Michael O'Neill, Knightsbridge's head trader, has 30 years of foreign exchange experience at global financial institutions.
    • Knightsbridge is registered with and regulated by FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada).
    • Knightsbridge's primary banking and FX liquidity relationship is with the Bank of Montreal.  The Bank of Montreal has conducted diligence, including reviewing Knightsbridge's comprehensive compliance policy, prior to establishing client trust accounts, payment, and a liquidity relationship with Knightsbridge.
    • Knightsbridge's works with TSX listed and private equity portfolio companies.
    • Knightsbridge has no bank debt.
    • Knightsbridge only operates on a "cleared funds" basis with clients (no settlement risk) and has policies and procedures in place to prevent fraud.
    • Knightsbridge does not extend credit to clients.
    • Knightsbridge does not take open market positions, and as a result is not exposed to market risk. All transactions are covered immediately (i.e. back-to-back). Forward contracts require margin to be posted to ensure against contract default.
    • Knightsbridge has developed and provided a comprehensive, risk based Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Policy Compliance Manual to our liquidity providers and banking relationships.
    • Knightsbridge has also developed a comprehensive business plan, which incorporates data backup and business resumption plans, as well as detailed client on boarding and transaction processing requirements.
    • Knightsbridge and its clients are mutually bound by the terms and conditions found in the client application form.

    5. What are the smallest and largest transactions your firm handles?

    Minimum of $15,000 and maximum of $40 million.  Anything larger or smaller is on a case by case basis.]]>
    1680 2010-02-15 19:03:28 2010-02-16 00:03:28 open open new-firm-focusing-on-reducing-currency-conversion-fees-for-canadians publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1266332989 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 225 bunnbear1980@gmail.com 66.203.207.67 2010-02-16 13:02:25 2010-02-16 18:02:25 1 0 0 226 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-02-19 23:13:13 2010-02-20 04:13:13 1 0 0 227 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-02-19 23:59:09 2010-02-20 04:59:09 1 0 0 228 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-22 09:06:54 2010-02-22 14:06:54 1 227 0 229 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-02-22 09:16:30 2010-02-22 14:16:30 1 0 0 230 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-02-22 19:48:16 2010-02-23 00:48:16 1 0 0 231 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-02-22 21:54:11 2010-02-23 02:54:11 1 0 0 232 rmadhavji@knightsbridgefx.com http://www.knightsbridgefx.com 69.156.29.253 2010-02-25 18:28:51 2010-02-25 23:28:51 1 0 0
    New Mortgage Rules For Canadians Starting April 19th 2010 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/new-mortgage-rules-for-canadians-starting-april-19th-2010/ Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:04:11 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1688
  • Borrowers will be tested on their ability to make payments on a five year fixed-rate mortgage, even though they may choose different terms (e.g. a three year variable mortgage). Currently borrowers are tested against a three year fixed rate mortgage. This means people will qualify for lower maximum mortgage amounts. This will protect people from taking out larger mortgages than they can really afford. What some people are doing is opting for variable mortgages (with lower payments) and this exposes them to the risk that gradually increasing interest rates over time (because interest rates can really only go up from here) will make their mortgages unaffordable later on because they bit off more than they could chew up front.
  • The maximum a mortgage can be refinanced has been lowered from 95% to 90% of the value of the home. This reduces how much a borrower can tap into the equity of their house.  Again this will curb the ability of people to stretch themselves too thin.
  • Mortgages for homes in which the borrower will not occupy will now require a 20% down payment. It was 5% previously. This reduces speculation in residential real estate since borrowers now have to put up serious money in order to buy.
  • It should also be noted that these rules apply to those seeking CMHC insured mortgages (or an equivalent private sector mortgage insurer). So if you can find someone willing to offer you an uninsured mortgage you don't have to worry about these rules. In the end these seem like very prudent moves by Flaherty. The government doesn't need to risk dollars insuring risky mortgage behaviour and those who are overextending themselves unwisely. In addition, these measures will hopefully make the Canadian lending industry that much more resistant to what happened in the United States in 2008.]]>
    1688 2010-02-16 23:04:11 2010-02-17 04:04:11 open open new-mortgage-rules-for-canadians-starting-april-19th-2010 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1266417531 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 233 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-02-19 23:03:16 2010-02-20 04:03:16 1 0 0 234 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-02-19 23:56:28 2010-02-20 04:56:28 1 0 0 235 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-02-22 09:10:49 2010-02-22 14:10:49 1 233 0 236 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/canadian-tax-filing-deadline-%e2%80%93-april-30-and-plutus-awards/ 216.227.218.225 2010-02-28 06:27:19 2010-02-28 11:27:19 1 pingback 0 0 237 rcmlog@gmail.com 96.54.171.126 2010-03-05 00:58:13 2010-03-05 05:58:13 1 0 0 238 mr_ahmad85@hotmail.com 99.228.112.149 2010-03-17 22:07:21 2010-03-18 03:07:21 1 0 0 239 scolescole@gmail.com 142.162.175.163 2010-03-23 19:27:40 2010-03-24 00:27:40 1 0 0 240 nataz76@hotmail.com 76.71.55.225 2010-03-30 07:17:26 2010-03-30 12:17:26 1 0 0
    QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?attachment_id=1694 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:37:15 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300.gif 1694 2010-02-17 20:37:15 2010-02-18 01:37:15 open open qt09-standard-3dhi-300 inherit 0 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300.gif _wp_attached_file 2010/02/QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300.gif _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"165";s:6:"height";s:3:"220";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='72'";s:4:"file";s:34:"2010/02/QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300.gif";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300-150x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:34:"QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300-165x150.gif";s:5:"width";s:3:"165";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:32:"QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300-90x90.gif";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} GIVEAWAY: Two Copies of QuickTax Standard from Intuit http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/giveaway-two-copies-of-quicktax-standard-from-intuit/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:44:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1691 Intuit's QuickTax Standard (handles up to 8 returns) for a giveaway on the blog. With the deadline for filing your taxes coming up I thought I would agree to the giveaway if they would explain exactly how they can guarantee the maximum refund possible. Their answer is as follows.
    Theoretically, if you follow the tax code to the letter, and you know about every possible credit and deduction available to you, you should end up with the same refund/amount owing no matter what method you use to prepare your taxes. In practice, the number can vary quite a lot. Variations in results tend to be due to the quality of the preparation, and with tax software, that comes down to how questions are asked, the interview process, the optimizer tools and the types of support available to the customer. Regarding the latter, QuickTax offers the best support in the business with free phone, email and chat support on all paid products, Live Community and the Ask a Tax Expert option with QuickTax Online. Last year more than four million Canadians counted on QuickTax to get every penny they deserve by ensuring that they have the best possible information relevant to their specific tax situation. Last year QuickTax introduced the Maximum Refund Guarantee. Users who get a bigger refund using any other tax preparation method can get their money back. It’s that simple. The typical Canadian wants to get their taxes done and be confident that their return’s accurate and they’re getting back getting back every penny they deserve. That’s what the Maximum Refund Guarantee does. In addition, Intuit offers the 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee. If you do pay a penalty or interest because of a QuickTax calculation error, we will reimburse you the penalty and interest.
    *Note: I am not being compensated by Intuit nor do I have an opinion on the product - I've never used it myself. Contest Rules:
    • You may earn one entry by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post on the website.
    • You may earn a second entry by re-tweeting the contest. If you have a twitter account, just click here. It will take you to your twitter homepage and all you have to do is click the "update" button.
    • I reserve the right to delete any comments that are inappropriate.
    • You must submit a valid email address in the comment form. Don't worry, it will not be visible to anyone but myself and it will never be shared or sold to anyone either.
    • Winner must answer a skill testing question.
    • Entries must be submitted by 11:59pm on Friday, February 19th, 2010.
    • Winners will be contacted using the email address provided only, and will have exactly one week from that point of contact to provide their full contact details in order to claim their prize.
    • I reserve the right to disqualify any entries for any reason.
    ]]>
    1691 2010-02-17 20:44:15 2010-02-18 01:44:15 open open giveaway-two-copies-of-quicktax-standard-from-intuit publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1266805180 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/QT09-Standard-3Dhi-300.gif 241 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.30.84 2010-02-17 22:53:00 2010-02-18 03:53:00 1 0 0 242 ara13@sfu.ca http://www.investingthesis.com 207.81.17.212 2010-02-18 00:47:56 2010-02-18 05:47:56 1 0 0 243 xrouge@gmail.com 173.183.15.240 2010-02-18 03:05:51 2010-02-18 08:05:51 1 0 0 244 enleclair@sympatico.ca 70.51.57.170 2010-02-18 07:17:15 2010-02-18 12:17:15 1 0 0 245 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2010-02-18 07:18:26 2010-02-18 12:18:26 1 0 0 246 nutraceutical@sympatico.ca 70.51.57.170 2010-02-18 07:18:32 2010-02-18 12:18:32 1 0 0 247 habs33@gmail.com 192.156.112.32 2010-02-18 07:21:15 2010-02-18 12:21:15 1 0 0 248 bmaloney0571@rogers.com 204.191.163.205 2010-02-18 07:36:40 2010-02-18 12:36:40 1 0 0 249 lancemd@gmail.com 24.79.136.22 2010-02-18 07:49:05 2010-02-18 12:49:05 1 0 0 250 chrispwins@gmail.com 208.65.73.114 2010-02-18 08:30:56 2010-02-18 13:30:56 1 0 0 251 antonioquepasa@gmail.com 69.70.67.190 2010-02-18 08:45:07 2010-02-18 13:45:07 1 0 0 252 sanjay.chitte@gmail.com 137.207.96.191 2010-02-18 08:56:44 2010-02-18 13:56:44 1 0 0 253 loangreg@rogers.com 24.114.255.99 2010-02-18 09:10:18 2010-02-18 14:10:18 1 0 0 254 alaa.abed@gmail.com 38.99.165.166 2010-02-18 09:17:29 2010-02-18 14:17:29 1 0 0 255 svetlanad@fastmail.fm 142.108.139.106 2010-02-18 09:18:09 2010-02-18 14:18:09 1 0 0 256 canuckfamily@gmail.com 96.51.213.228 2010-02-18 09:37:03 2010-02-18 14:37:03 1 0 0 257 bud.davidge@nf.sympatico.ca 142.162.60.223 2010-02-18 09:41:10 2010-02-18 14:41:10 1 0 0 258 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-02-18 09:57:42 2010-02-18 14:57:42 1 0 0 259 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-02-18 09:59:03 2010-02-18 14:59:03 1 0 0 260 bklunder@telus.net 142.59.227.104 2010-02-18 10:49:58 2010-02-18 15:49:58 1 0 0 261 smanzuik@gmail.com 142.233.100.221 2010-02-18 11:07:59 2010-02-18 16:07:59 1 0 0 262 rickpenn@mts.net 66.46.138.11 2010-02-18 11:12:14 2010-02-18 16:12:14 1 0 0 263 sollyom@hotmail.com 209.112.51.132 2010-02-18 11:36:18 2010-02-18 16:36:18 1 0 0 264 pub@banikanada.com 206.186.114.231 2010-02-18 11:45:20 2010-02-18 16:45:20 1 0 0 265 markcnoble@gmail.com 66.241.134.187 2010-02-18 12:50:58 2010-02-18 17:50:58 1 0 0 266 l9e3e@sympatico.ca 70.51.244.190 2010-02-18 12:57:50 2010-02-18 17:57:50 1 0 0 267 ddubeauis@gmail.com 208.65.73.114 2010-02-18 13:13:50 2010-02-18 18:13:50 1 0 0 268 larry.beaudry@hotmail.com 96.54.178.143 2010-02-18 13:29:37 2010-02-18 18:29:37 1 0 0 269 kb@space98.com 99.245.231.35 2010-02-18 15:06:50 2010-02-18 20:06:50 1 0 0 270 timenext@hotmail.com 70.53.39.83 2010-02-18 15:44:10 2010-02-18 20:44:10 1 0 0 271 publicjunk@hotmail.com 70.53.39.83 2010-02-18 15:45:39 2010-02-18 20:45:39 1 0 0 272 jbohun@ualberta.ca 129.128.143.25 2010-02-18 15:47:20 2010-02-18 20:47:20 1 0 0 273 js_cooldude@hotmail.com 207.61.145.4 2010-02-18 16:55:51 2010-02-18 21:55:51 1 0 0 274 bertnam@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2010-02-18 16:57:41 2010-02-18 21:57:41 1 0 0 275 kevinjohnston@videotron.ca 74.56.36.59 2010-02-18 17:18:14 2010-02-18 22:18:14 1 0 0 276 claytonwalls@shaw.ca 68.145.173.114 2010-02-18 17:31:59 2010-02-18 22:31:59 1 0 0 277 cp_nielsen@hotmail.com 96.51.215.235 2010-02-18 17:45:36 2010-02-18 22:45:36 1 0 0 278 rick.mckinlay@gmail.com 76.71.88.22 2010-02-18 18:20:35 2010-02-18 23:20:35 1 0 0 279 ctoan72@gmail.com 198.96.223.164 2010-02-18 18:53:27 2010-02-18 23:53:27 1 0 0 280 http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/giveaway-two-copies-of-quicktax-standard-from-intuit/ 204.236.194.99 2010-02-18 20:30:34 2010-02-19 01:30:34 Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by gene2u: RT @PreetBanerjee GIVEAWAY: Two Copies of QuickTax Standard from Intuit : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com http://bit.ly/9nzsPp...]]> 1 trackback 0 0 281 wu.kad4@gmail.com 174.7.75.119 2010-02-18 20:33:30 2010-02-19 01:33:30 1 0 0 282 Kevintickle@gmail.com 70.50.166.85 2010-02-18 21:54:21 2010-02-19 02:54:21 1 0 0 283 scott@wightman.ca 68.69.130.245 2010-02-18 22:58:51 2010-02-19 03:58:51 1 0 0 284 maciej386@gmail.com 206.248.152.55 2010-02-19 01:14:42 2010-02-19 06:14:42 1 0 0 285 sunasdf@hotmail.com 193.23.51.61 2010-02-19 08:29:25 2010-02-19 13:29:25 1 0 0 286 brigusnf@gmail.com 206.235.255.235 2010-02-19 12:49:44 2010-02-19 17:49:44 1 0 0 287 maxxum@rocketmail.com 70.26.51.34 2010-02-19 17:08:33 2010-02-19 22:08:33 1 0 0 288 elmanl@canada.com 66.183.23.160 2010-02-19 18:59:32 2010-02-19 23:59:32 1 0 0 289 jeffccl@gmail.com 199.60.113.30 2010-02-19 20:22:41 2010-02-20 01:22:41 1 0 0 290 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-02-19 22:40:23 2010-02-20 03:40:23 1 0 0 291 vsergiev@hotmail.com 38.99.160.74 2010-02-25 12:05:59 2010-02-25 17:05:59 1 0 0 292 bells_four_her@hotmail.com 69.60.228.150 2010-03-05 00:11:18 2010-03-05 05:11:18 1 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-75/ Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:15:02 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1701 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… The W Network has extended the submission deadline for the 2010 W Expert Search until February 22nd. Click here to see the videos of the accepted applicants so far - and don't by shy! You still have time to put a video together and enter!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Thicken My Wallet wonders how long you should give a financial advisor before you decide to terminate them. Hasta la vista baby. Jonathan Chevreau notes that the 50-plus crowd is sitting on $300 billion in low-growth investments. Rob Carrick believes that the new mortgage rules won't hurt homebuyers. Canadian Capitalist finds more evidence that investors are masochists. Million Dollar Journey is giving away a bunch of free copies of Ufile - you have until Saturday at 5pm (EST) to enter. Four Pillars gives some reasons why you would want to use a real estate agent. Shocking. Michael James on Money explains how his struggles with GoodLife Fitness ultimately came to an end. I doubt it's this smooth for most people. Big Saving Man reminds us that it is RRSP season.

    This Week's Racing Video

    11 minutes of ecstasy. Old rally cars, no music and full engine sounds. Love it. Enjoy! (Feed readers and Email subscribers can click here to see the video.)

    ]]> 1701 2010-02-18 21:15:02 2010-02-19 02:15:02 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-75 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1266545707 293 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.245.245 2010-02-18 21:45:53 2010-02-19 02:45:53 1 0 0 294 ian.hoffman@gmail.com 71.92.106.25 2010-02-18 22:21:09 2010-02-19 03:21:09 1 0 0 295 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-02-18 23:06:48 2010-02-19 04:06:48 1 0 0 296 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/12/random-valentines-thoughts/ 99.224.85.155 2010-02-19 06:05:08 2010-02-19 11:05:08 1 0 0 297 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-02-21 11:37:31 2010-02-21 16:37:31 1 0 0 GIVEAWAY: 4+ Free Tax Return Preparations From Ufile.ca http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/giveaway-4-free-tax-return-preparations-from-ufile-ca/ Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:12:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1705 Housekeeping: Last week we had a giveaway from Intuit for their QuickTax program. The winners were comment #9 (Lance D.) and comment #29 (Kel). Congratulations! I'll be contacting the winners to arrange delivery of their prizes. This week I'm happy to announce that the good people at Ufile.ca contacted me to offer up 2 box copies (8 returns per copy) and 2 online vouchers for Ufile.ca. Just as with QuickTax, I am not receiving any compensation from Ufile, nor do I officially endorse either product. To re-iterate: There will be FOUR winners which means that your chances are pretty good. Contest Rules:

    • You may earn one entry by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post on the website.
    • You may earn a second entry by tweeting the contest post URL and including @preetbanerjee in your tweet.
    • I reserve the right to delete any comments that are inappropriate.
    • You must submit a valid email address in the comment form. Don’t worry, it will not be visible to anyone but myself and it will never be shared or sold to anyone either.
    • Winners must answer a skill testing question.
    • Entries must be submitted by 11:59pm on Friday, February 26th, 2010.
    • Winners will be contacted using the email address provided only, and will have exactly one week from that point of contact to provide their full contact details in order to claim their prize.
    • I reserve the right to disqualify any entries for any reason.
    ]]>
    1705 2010-02-21 21:12:55 2010-02-22 02:12:55 open open giveaway-4-free-tax-return-preparations-from-ufile-ca publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1267493561 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 298 hylaride@capybara.org 99.254.22.35 2010-02-21 21:17:06 2010-02-22 02:17:06 1 0 0 299 Thaczuk@gmail.com 24.64.76.227 2010-02-21 23:20:59 2010-02-22 04:20:59 1 0 0 300 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.30.84 2010-02-22 00:26:10 2010-02-22 05:26:10 1 0 0 301 http://daitax.com/giveaway-4-free-tax-return-preparations-from-ufile-ca/ 98.142.214.18 2010-02-22 04:08:40 2010-02-22 09:08:40 1 pingback 0 0 302 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.35.210.35 2010-02-22 07:23:09 2010-02-22 12:23:09 1 0 0 303 elisabeth.laett@sympatico.ca 174.89.236.184 2010-02-22 08:23:26 2010-02-22 13:23:26 1 0 0 304 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 174.5.138.177 2010-02-22 08:48:41 2010-02-22 13:48:41 1 0 0 305 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 68.151.25.253 2010-02-22 09:04:29 2010-02-22 14:04:29 1 0 0 306 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/20/quicktax-software-give-away-time/ 205.194.74.10 2010-02-22 09:13:41 2010-02-22 14:13:41 1 0 0 307 sollyom@hotmail.com 209.112.51.132 2010-02-22 09:14:31 2010-02-22 14:14:31 1 0 0 308 js_cooldude@hotmail.com 207.61.145.4 2010-02-22 09:30:24 2010-02-22 14:30:24 1 0 0 309 alaa.abed@gmail.com 38.99.165.166 2010-02-22 09:45:06 2010-02-22 14:45:06 1 0 0 310 coolhayward@gmail.com 192.197.54.32 2010-02-22 10:21:43 2010-02-22 15:21:43 1 0 0 311 canuckfamily@gmail.com 96.51.213.228 2010-02-22 10:26:13 2010-02-22 15:26:13 1 0 0 312 larry.beaudry@hotmail.com 96.54.178.143 2010-02-22 10:29:37 2010-02-22 15:29:37 1 0 0 313 puzoo@mail.ru 173.178.251.74 2010-02-22 11:06:18 2010-02-22 16:06:18 1 0 0 314 ryankli@aim.com 96.48.128.232 2010-02-22 11:18:10 2010-02-22 16:18:10 1 0 0 315 acwong@ualberta.net 96.52.238.200 2010-02-22 11:35:16 2010-02-22 16:35:16 1 0 0 316 kevin@rcmb.ca 70.50.166.85 2010-02-22 13:24:35 2010-02-22 18:24:35 1 0 0 317 robertaves@gmail.com 76.70.27.150 2010-02-22 13:45:16 2010-02-22 18:45:16 1 0 0 318 antonioquepasa@gmail.com 69.70.67.190 2010-02-22 13:46:32 2010-02-22 18:46:32 1 0 0 319 l9e3e@sympatico.ca 65.93.167.212 2010-02-22 14:14:08 2010-02-22 19:14:08 1 0 0 320 socamaster@rogers.com 99.244.59.141 2010-02-22 14:16:53 2010-02-22 19:16:53 1 0 0 321 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-02-22 15:20:14 2010-02-22 20:20:14 1 0 0 322 elmanl@canada.com 66.183.23.160 2010-02-22 15:26:13 2010-02-22 20:26:13 1 0 0 323 bertnam@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2010-02-22 15:43:52 2010-02-22 20:43:52 1 0 0 324 lewis.rossman@gmail.com 99.246.13.86 2010-02-24 15:51:26 2010-02-24 20:51:26 1 0 0 325 rajesh_sampath@hotmail.com 64.231.254.185 2010-02-25 20:25:29 2010-02-26 01:25:29 1 0 0 326 boisvert.richard@gmail.com 173.179.74.247 2010-02-25 22:18:23 2010-02-26 03:18:23 1 0 0 327 ikatkov@gmail.com http://www.katkovonline.com 209.167.16.29 2010-02-26 16:54:44 2010-02-26 21:54:44 1 0 0 328 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/im-chatting-with-michael-moore-tomorrow-send-in-your-questions/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-01 20:38:39 2010-03-02 01:38:39 1 pingback 0 0
    iShares Now Commission-Free For Yanks with Fidelity http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ishares-now-commission-free-for-yanks-with-fidelity/ Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:51:07 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1711 Take a look here to see the details and ETFs available. Remember, this isn't available for Canadians. We're special.]]> 1711 2010-02-22 21:51:07 2010-02-23 02:51:07 open open ishares-now-commission-free-for-yanks-with-fidelity publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149387 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 329 dan@danbortolotti.com http://canadiancouchpotato.com 174.115.42.147 2010-02-23 09:03:38 2010-02-23 14:03:38 1 0 0 330 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-24 19:27:37 2010-02-25 00:27:37 1 329 0 CANCELED: Watch Me On CBC's Lang And O'Leary Exchange Wednesday February 24th http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/watch-me-on-cbcs-lang-and-oleary-exchange-wednesday-february-24th/ Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:13:19 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1715 I was invited to get grilled by Amanda Lang and Kevin O'Leary on The Lang and O'Leary Exchange on CBC News Network. The show starts at 4:30pm EST on Wednesday February 24th and assuming no last minute guest/schedule changes I'll probably be on half-way through the show if anyone wants to tune in. If they open up phone lines for calls, please do call in with your questions as I'd love to hear from any readers and their questions. The topic will be RRSPs. Seems like a popular topic lately... :)]]> 1715 2010-02-23 21:13:19 2010-02-24 02:13:19 open open watch-me-on-cbcs-lang-and-oleary-exchange-wednesday-february-24th publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1267039804 _edit_last 1 331 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 209.128.28.2 2010-02-24 07:22:01 2010-02-24 12:22:01 1 0 0 332 dougwood@shaw.ca 68.145.63.157 2010-02-24 11:48:39 2010-02-24 16:48:39 1 0 0 333 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.11.161 2010-02-24 12:31:50 2010-02-24 17:31:50 1 0 0 334 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-24 19:24:51 2010-02-25 00:24:51 1 333 0 335 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-24 19:26:20 2010-02-25 00:26:20 1 332 0 336 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-24 19:26:54 2010-02-25 00:26:54 1 331 0 Lang and O'Leary Exchange Interview CANCELED http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/lang-and-oleary-exchange-interview-canceled/ Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:47:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1719 1719 2010-02-24 14:47:29 2010-02-24 19:47:29 open open lang-and-oleary-exchange-interview-canceled publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1267041100 _edit_last 1 337 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-02-24 17:02:09 2010-02-24 22:02:09 1 0 0 338 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-02-24 19:23:52 2010-02-25 00:23:52 1 337 0 339 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/20/quicktax-software-give-away-time/ 205.194.74.10 2010-02-25 09:09:07 2010-02-25 14:09:07 1 0 0 340 frank_boyaner@sympatico.ca 174.88.124.182 2010-02-25 09:32:25 2010-02-25 14:32:25 1 0 0 341 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/26/olympic-and-rrsp-random-thoughts/ 67.205.7.217 2010-02-26 01:27:38 2010-02-26 06:27:38 1 pingback 0 0 342 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-03-05 09:41:49 2010-03-05 14:41:49 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-76/ Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:19:59 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1722 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Don't forget to enter the Ufile.ca giveaway - four winners will be selected and the deadline is Friday at midnight. Click here to go to the contest entry page - and good luck!

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Canadian Capitalist finds that Tim Horton's DRIP and SPP plans come with some questionable fees. Million Dollar Journey offers 5 tips for financial de-cluttering. Jonathan Chevreau offers up a financial fraud quiz you can take. Four Pillars asks questions about having servants. One in particular, "Can you just have them do laps around the house?" Thicken My Wallet shows you how to prove your value to your employer. Michael James on Money tries to extrapolate investing lessons from hockey. Big Cajun Man shares some religious views on credit cards. Larry MacDonald reviews the latest SPIVA report (Standard and Poor's Index Versus Active funds scorecard).

    This Week's Racing Video

    The start of a grand prix must be one of the most electrifying moments in sports. Here is some amateur footage of the start of an F1 race. I could watch this ten times in a row and I still get goosebumps! Enjoy! (Feed readers click here for a link to the video.)

    ]]> 1722 2010-02-25 21:19:59 2010-02-26 02:19:59 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-76 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1267152993 _edit_last 1 343 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/12/random-valentines-thoughts/ 99.224.85.155 2010-02-25 21:24:24 2010-02-26 02:24:24 1 0 0 344 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 99.253.251.208 2010-02-25 21:44:42 2010-02-26 02:44:42 1 0 0 345 ian.hoffman@gmail.com 71.92.106.25 2010-02-25 22:07:51 2010-02-26 03:07:51 1 0 0 346 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-02-25 22:09:14 2010-02-26 03:09:14 1 0 0 347 cbcg@rogers.com http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/category/larry-macdonald/ 99.224.165.244 2010-02-26 10:04:59 2010-02-26 15:04:59 1 0 0 348 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-02-26 13:14:46 2010-02-26 18:14:46 1 0 0 349 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.38.46 2010-02-27 08:12:01 2010-02-27 13:12:01 1 0 0 350 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-02-28 21:09:59 2010-03-01 02:09:59 1 0 0 351 auctions97@gmail.com http://www.alka.dk/Privat/Ny%20kunde/Forsikringer/Koeretoejer/Bil.aspx 202.156.10.254 2010-03-07 12:00:32 2010-03-07 17:00:32 1 0 0 352 lihuahu20@gmail.com http://www.nflinstyle.com 117.40.196.156 2010-04-23 13:15:29 2010-04-23 18:15:29 spam 0 0 353 holohako@gmail.com http://www.pursestrade.com/JEWELRY_Tiffany_Jewelry.htm 117.40.196.156 2010-04-24 07:17:52 2010-04-24 12:17:52 spam 0 0 354 zluzft@vmfygk.com http://wuxyjzfcnkrk.com/ 187.34.144.71 2010-04-25 01:06:17 2010-04-25 06:06:17 kwtaxfghespp, [url=http://cnezbotgvlou.com/]cnezbotgvlou[/url], [link=http://jtfyarkmmqkl.com/]jtfyarkmmqkl[/link], http://figjtjsqhogn.com/]]> spam 0 0 michaelmoore http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/im-chatting-with-michael-moore-tomorrow-send-in-your-questions/michaelmoore/ Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:35:12 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/michaelmoore.png 1731 2010-03-01 20:35:12 2010-03-02 01:35:12 open open michaelmoore inherit 1730 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/michaelmoore.png _wp_attached_file 2010/03/michaelmoore.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"243";s:6:"height";s:3:"234";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='99'";s:4:"file";s:24:"2010/03/michaelmoore.png";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"michaelmoore-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"michaelmoore-243x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"243";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"michaelmoore-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} I'm Chatting With Michael Moore Tomorrow - Send In Your Questions http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/im-chatting-with-michael-moore-tomorrow-send-in-your-questions/ Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:38:14 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1730 Bowling For Columbine, Farenheit 9/11, Sicko and Roger And Me. His latest project is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray on March 9th (Capitalism: A Love Story). I thought I would extend the opportunity to readers of this blog to help me come up with the questions for our interview since after all, this blog is written for you! Please submit your questions in the comments section and I'll try to ask as many as I can. Housekeeping: I've randomly drawn 4 winners for the Ufile giveaway. The winners will be contacted by email, but are also listed here: Congratulations to Christopher Hylarides (box copy), Brian C (box copy), canuckfamily (online voucher), and Antoine (online voucher)!]]> 1730 2010-03-01 20:38:14 2010-03-02 01:38:14 open open im-chatting-with-michael-moore-tomorrow-send-in-your-questions publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149379 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/michaelmoore.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/michaelmoore.png 355 admin@darwinsfinance.com http://www.darwinsfinance.com 76.116.189.59 2010-03-01 21:05:43 2010-03-02 02:05:43 1 0 0 356 hylaride@capybara.org 99.254.22.35 2010-03-01 21:18:17 2010-03-02 02:18:17 1 0 0 357 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-01 21:47:02 2010-03-02 02:47:02 1 0 0 358 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.149 2010-03-01 22:25:30 2010-03-02 03:25:30 1 0 0 359 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-03-02 06:40:15 2010-03-02 11:40:15 1 0 0 360 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/20/quicktax-software-give-away-time/ 205.194.74.10 2010-03-02 08:08:29 2010-03-02 13:08:29 1 0 0 361 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-03-02 09:38:57 2010-03-02 14:38:57 1 0 0 capitalism http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/capitalism-a-love-story-giveaway/capitalism/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:23:09 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/capitalism.jpg 1741 2010-03-02 19:23:09 2010-03-03 00:23:09 open open capitalism inherit 1739 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/capitalism.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/03/capitalism.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"236";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='75'";s:4:"file";s:22:"2010/03/capitalism.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"capitalism-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:22:"capitalism-236x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"236";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:20:"capitalism-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} capitalism2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/capitalism-a-love-story-giveaway/capitalism2/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:32:09 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/capitalism2.jpg 1743 2010-03-02 19:32:09 2010-03-03 00:32:09 open open capitalism2 inherit 1739 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/capitalism2.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/03/capitalism2.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:4:"1704";s:6:"height";s:4:"2160";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:22:"height='96' width='75'";s:4:"file";s:23:"2010/03/capitalism2.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"capitalism2-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"capitalism2-236x300.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"236";s:6:"height";s:3:"300";}s:5:"large";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:24:"capitalism2-807x1024.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"807";s:6:"height";s:4:"1024";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"capitalism2-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"capitalism2-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} Capitalism: A Love Story - Giveaway! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/capitalism-a-love-story-giveaway/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:49:47 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1739 Contest is now closed. *Congratulations to "The Rat" - winner by random selection. Thanks to everyone for submitting their questions for Michael Moore. I spoke with him today and tried to get in as many of them as I could, but ran out of time (he's a popular guy!). He was very nice to chat with. He remarked I was the only person he talked to that day wearing a tie, and commented positively about Canada's relative financial position versus the US. He also chuckled when I told him my day job was in the financial services... :) (The interview will appear in the next few days.) I've graciously been offered a DVD copy of Capitalism: A Love Story to giveaway to a lucky reader of this blog. Here are the contest rules (a synopsis of the DVD follows the rules): Contest Rules:

    • You may earn one entry by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post on the website.
    • You may earn a second entry by tweeting the contest post URL and including @preetbanerjee in your tweet.
    • I reserve the right to delete any comments that are inappropriate.
    • You must submit a valid email address in the comment form. Don’t worry, it will not be visible to anyone but myself and it will never be shared or sold to anyone either.
    • Winners must answer a skill testing question and provide their full mailing address and phone number.
    • Entries must be submitted by 11:59pm on Saturday, March 6th, 2010.
    • Winner will be contacted using the email address provided only, and will have exactly one week from that point of contact to provide their full contact details in order to claim their prize.
    • I reserve the right to disqualify any entries for any reason.

    Synopsis of Capitalism: A Love Story

    In presenting a “fireball of a movie that might change your life” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), Moore “skewers both major political parties” (Claudia Puig, USA Today) for selling out the millions of people devastated by loss of homes and jobs to the interests of fat cat capitalists. Moore has “dug up some astonishing dirt” (Brian D. Johnson, Macleans), stories told in the faces of the foreclosed and evicted, in the food stamps received by hungry airline pilots, and in the courage of fired factory workers who refuse to go quietly. But more than a cry of despair, Moore’s film raises the possibility of hope. Capitalism: A Love Story is “The most American of films since the populist cinema of Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life)” (Dan Siegel, Huffington Post ), “a movie that manages shrewdly, even brilliantly, to capitalize on the populist anger that has been sweeping the nation” (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal). Bonus Features: ·  Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren on How Wall Street Got Away with Murder ·  The Man Who Might Save Flint ·  U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings on Why We Should Consider Discarding Capitalism ·  Pulitzer Prize-winning NY Times Reporter Chris Hedges on Capitalism: the Killer ·  Father Dick Preston on Why the Rich Man Can’t Buy His Way Into Heaven ·  What if We had Listened to Jimmy Carter? ·  Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and People Who Grow Food Without Capitalism ·  “You Talkin’ to Me?”  -  Taxi Drivers in Wisconsin Go All Crazy for Democracy ·  The Ideas Behind a Worker-Owned Business ·  Here's an Idea: The People’s Bank of North Dakota ·  Miami Max Has a House for You]]>
    1739 2010-03-02 19:49:47 2010-03-03 00:49:47 closed open capitalism-a-love-story-giveaway publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149293 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/capitalism2.JPG post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/capitalism2.JPG 362 jordanclark@gmail.com 64.46.1.62 2010-03-02 19:54:36 2010-03-03 00:54:36 1 0 0 363 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.149 2010-03-02 19:55:39 2010-03-03 00:55:39 1 0 0 364 colleen.c63@gmail.com 99.227.176.196 2010-03-02 19:58:49 2010-03-03 00:58:49 1 0 0 365 dan@danbortolotti.com http://canadiancouchpotato.com 174.115.36.91 2010-03-02 20:36:47 2010-03-03 01:36:47 1 0 0 366 js_cooldude@hotmail.com 74.59.201.49 2010-03-02 23:44:51 2010-03-03 04:44:51 1 0 0 367 financialtactics@gmail.com http://financialtactics.blogspot.com 76.68.73.184 2010-03-03 01:20:34 2010-03-03 06:20:34 1 0 0 368 pcollyer@rogers.com 99.245.62.166 2010-03-03 01:30:21 2010-03-03 06:30:21 1 0 0 369 obesecowkidney@hotmail.com 204.160.206.23 2010-03-03 07:34:25 2010-03-03 12:34:25 1 0 0 370 gayowski@hotmail.com 207.35.210.35 2010-03-03 07:35:07 2010-03-03 12:35:07 1 0 0 371 habs33@gmail.com 192.156.112.32 2010-03-03 07:56:26 2010-03-03 12:56:26 1 0 0 372 tvenner@baystreet.ca http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2010-03-03 08:43:13 2010-03-03 13:43:13 1 0 0 373 chuppe@sympatico.ca 70.55.209.11 2010-03-03 08:46:07 2010-03-03 13:46:07 1 0 0 374 loangreg@rogers.com 24.114.255.99 2010-03-03 08:54:07 2010-03-03 13:54:07 1 0 0 375 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/20/quicktax-software-give-away-time/ 205.194.74.10 2010-03-03 09:03:35 2010-03-03 14:03:35 1 0 0 376 frank_boyaner@sympatico.ca 65.94.120.198 2010-03-03 09:11:52 2010-03-03 14:11:52 1 0 0 377 rizwan.saleem@gmail.com 192.75.118.46 2010-03-03 09:17:49 2010-03-03 14:17:49 1 0 0 378 svetlanad@fastmail.fm 142.108.139.106 2010-03-03 09:30:55 2010-03-03 14:30:55 1 0 0 379 pfpuim@hotmail.com 209.82.26.132 2010-03-03 09:48:38 2010-03-03 14:48:38 1 0 0 380 jared@westdirect.ca 66.225.130.26 2010-03-03 11:25:46 2010-03-03 16:25:46 1 0 0 381 sollyom@hotmail.com 125.24.116.103 2010-03-03 11:32:54 2010-03-03 16:32:54 1 0 0 382 andres.camacho@nbpcd.com 192.139.71.69 2010-03-03 11:33:12 2010-03-03 16:33:12 1 0 0 383 rickpenn@mts.net 66.46.138.11 2010-03-03 11:39:21 2010-03-03 16:39:21 1 0 0 384 subs.kevin@shaw.ca 142.52.203.66 2010-03-03 11:39:21 2010-03-03 16:39:21 1 0 0 385 raymondtong1306@hotmail.com 204.101.16.234 2010-03-03 11:58:11 2010-03-03 16:58:11 1 0 0 386 bklunder@telus.net 142.59.227.104 2010-03-03 12:03:11 2010-03-03 17:03:11 1 0 0 387 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.19.165 2010-03-03 12:27:37 2010-03-03 17:27:37 1 0 0 388 tleippi@gmail.com 207.195.37.13 2010-03-03 12:54:34 2010-03-03 17:54:34 1 0 0 389 marianne.ono@ontario.ca 142.106.220.190 2010-03-03 12:58:43 2010-03-03 17:58:43 1 0 0 390 holliep@live.ca http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.89.252.58 2010-03-03 13:59:03 2010-03-03 18:59:03 1 0 0 391 bertnam@hotmail.com 129.192.170.250 2010-03-03 15:27:24 2010-03-03 20:27:24 1 0 0 392 gammafriend@shaw.ca 24.68.11.161 2010-03-03 18:48:36 2010-03-03 23:48:36 1 0 0 393 wu.kad4@gmail.com 142.22.186.7 2010-03-03 20:27:12 2010-03-04 01:27:12 1 0 0 394 rhayward.temp@gmail.com 76.71.117.120 2010-03-03 21:28:15 2010-03-04 02:28:15 1 0 0 395 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.111.50 2010-03-03 23:54:01 2010-03-04 04:54:01 1 0 0 396 vsergiev@hotmail.com 38.99.160.74 2010-03-04 10:27:45 2010-03-04 15:27:45 1 0 0 397 matt.wishman@gmail.com 24.109.247.227 2010-03-04 11:22:20 2010-03-04 16:22:20 1 0 0 398 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/michael-moore-interview-with-preet-banerjee/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-05 00:16:51 2010-03-05 05:16:51 1 pingback 0 0 399 mikeisnt@telus.net 24.83.219.16 2010-03-05 03:38:16 2010-03-05 08:38:16 1 0 0 400 amw124@gmail.com 70.73.56.21 2010-03-05 08:46:07 2010-03-05 13:46:07 1 0 0 401 antonioquepasa@gmail.com 69.70.67.190 2010-03-05 08:58:01 2010-03-05 13:58:01 1 0 0 402 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-03-05 09:39:30 2010-03-05 14:39:30 1 0 0 403 pjwilsonn@hotmail.com 68.151.58.135 2010-03-05 09:53:12 2010-03-05 14:53:12 1 0 0 404 lesmcfadyen@telus.net 198.53.126.47 2010-03-05 10:28:50 2010-03-05 15:28:50 1 0 0 405 ashvinkarvat@yahoo.ca 68.151.4.121 2010-03-05 10:38:24 2010-03-05 15:38:24 1 0 0 406 candian.dream.free.at.45@gmail.com http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com 204.83.191.12 2010-03-05 10:46:42 2010-03-05 15:46:42 1 0 0 407 garymaiato@hotmail.com 99.233.115.245 2010-03-05 13:44:49 2010-03-05 18:44:49 1 0 0 408 bmaloney0571@rogers.com 75.156.134.152 2010-03-05 22:19:55 2010-03-06 03:19:55 1 0 0 409 fromaway@dccnet.com 24.207.17.188 2010-03-05 22:58:53 2010-03-06 03:58:53 1 0 0 410 kb@space98.com 99.245.231.35 2010-03-06 17:04:49 2010-03-06 22:04:49 1 0 0 411 elisabeth.laett@sympatico.ca 65.92.21.137 2010-03-06 18:48:12 2010-03-06 23:48:12 1 0 0 412 artisan1@telus.net 173.183.235.180 2010-03-07 21:37:44 2010-03-08 02:37:44 1 0 0
    CanadianCouchPotato.com http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/canadiancouchpotato-com/ Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:17:32 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1728 CanadianCouchPotato.com. In a nutshell, the purpose of the blog is to help investors who are thinking about dumping their advisor to start investing on their own, without making it a part-time job. The "couch potato" term refers to the fact that the portfolios are very low maintenance, often requiring no more than 15 minutes per year for rebalancing. Investing doesn't have to be complicated or expensive - and if it sounds like something you are interested in learning more about, I recommend checking out the site. I should point out that there are many fans of couch potato portfolios, but there are also alternatives. It's not right for everyone, but after doing some reading on the site you'll have a better idea if it is for you or not. I'm copying verbatim the "About" page on the site down below in italics for anyone too lazy to click on a link. (Hey, it happens...):

    Welcome to Canadian Couch Potato. This blog is designed for Canadians who want to learn more about investing using index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The Couch Potato strategy—also called index investing, or passive investing—is growing in popularity as more people become disillusioned with mutual funds and stock-picking strategies that try, usually in vain, to beat the market.

    The blog’s creator is Dan Bortolotti, a professional journalist who has written about personal finance for many Canadian magazines, including MoneySense, Financial Post, More, Chatelaine and Today’s Parent. He completed the Canadian Securities Course in 2009.

    During his work, Dan has spoken to many small investors who have been badly served by the financial industry. Advisors put these investors’ money in high-cost, poorly performing mutual funds, or in undiversified portfolios of individual stocks. Many of these hard-working savers had little idea how or where their money was invested, or how much risk they were taking on. In many cases, their portfolios were wholly inappropriate and absurdly expensive.

    After reading Dan’s articles about the Couch Potato strategy, many investors contacted him directly. They loved the strategy, but they weren’t sure how to implement it. Should they buy index mutual funds or ETFs? How should they compare one ETF to another? Which asset classes should they invest in, and in what proportion? The answers are not straightforward, and while there are many books and websites devoted to index investing, virtually all of them are aimed at US readers. Nothing similar has been available in Canada—until now.

    If you’re a Canadian investor who is thinking about embracing the Couch Potato strategy—or if you’re already one of the enlightened—you’ll find all the information you need right here.

    Yep... what he said. Click here to visit the site if you haven't already.

    ]]>
    1728 2010-03-03 20:17:32 2010-03-04 01:17:32 open open canadiancouchpotato-com publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149290 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/houseofcash2201.gif 413 markcnoble@gmail.com 66.241.134.187 2010-03-04 11:40:25 2010-03-04 16:40:25 1 0 0 414 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.102.209 2010-03-04 13:07:40 2010-03-04 18:07:40 1 0 0
    Michael Moore Interview With Preet Banerjee http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/michael-moore-interview-with-preet-banerjee/ Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:16:37 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1757 enter a chance to win a free DVD copy by entering the contest on this site by clicking here. And now... on with the interview! :) (Feed and Email readers click here to watch the video)

    ]]> 1757 2010-03-05 00:16:37 2010-03-05 05:16:37 open open michael-moore-interview-with-preet-banerjee publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1268149348 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/capitalism2.JPG post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/capitalism2.JPG 415 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-05 08:28:47 2010-03-05 13:28:47 1 0 0 416 frank_boyaner@sympatico.ca 65.94.123.235 2010-03-05 09:17:39 2010-03-05 14:17:39 1 0 0 417 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.149 2010-03-05 09:21:23 2010-03-05 14:21:23 1 0 0 418 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.178.143 2010-03-05 09:57:19 2010-03-05 14:57:19 1 0 0 419 http://1stmilliondollar.net/2010/03/week-in-review/ 72.167.131.221 2010-03-05 19:08:11 2010-03-06 00:08:11 1 pingback 0 0 420 bellybutton100@hotmail.com 174.5.178.214 2010-03-06 18:55:30 2010-03-06 23:55:30 1 0 0 421 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-77/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-11 19:58:08 2010-03-12 00:58:08 1 pingback 0 0 422 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/movie-review-capitalism-a-love-story/ 216.227.218.225 2010-03-12 06:28:37 2010-03-12 11:28:37 1 pingback 0 0 423 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/quicktax-ufile-giveaway-winners-links.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-03-13 13:30:45 2010-03-13 18:30:45 1 pingback 0 0 424 http://rlsjournal.thebizinsidernews.com/?p=55 207.44.148.194 2010-03-31 15:51:02 2010-03-31 20:51:02 1 pingback 0 0 ctvnewsnet2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ctv-newschannel-interview-on-retirement-and-the-budget/ctvnewsnet2/ Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:08:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/ctvnewsnet2.png 1765 2010-03-06 23:08:04 2010-03-07 04:08:04 open open ctvnewsnet2 inherit 1764 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/ctvnewsnet2.png _wp_attached_file 2010/03/ctvnewsnet2.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:5:{s:5:"width";s:3:"428";s:6:"height";s:3:"384";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='107'";s:4:"file";s:23:"2010/03/ctvnewsnet2.png";s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} CTV Newschannel Interview on Retirement and The Budget http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ctv-newschannel-interview-on-retirement-and-the-budget/ Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:10:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1764 Click here to view the interview (there will probably be a 15 second advertisement video before the segment starts).

    ]]>
    1764 2010-03-06 23:10:42 2010-03-07 04:10:42 open open ctv-newschannel-interview-on-retirement-and-the-budget publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149397 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ctvnewsnet2.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/ctvnewsnet2.png 425 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-07 07:57:24 2010-03-07 12:57:24 1 0 0 426 paulsekhon2001@hotmail.com 174.5.138.177 2010-03-07 10:42:24 2010-03-07 15:42:24 1 0 0 427 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-03-07 22:57:54 2010-03-08 03:57:54 1 425 0 428 tvenner@baystreet.ca http://financematters08.blogspot.com/ 72.12.161.127 2010-03-08 10:42:46 2010-03-08 15:42:46 1 0 0 429 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-03-13 12:43:34 2010-03-13 17:43:34 1 0 0 430 zycnyy@zajsob.com http://gnqccqnyexgy.com/ 118.122.87.24 2010-04-24 08:02:15 2010-04-24 13:02:15 jbouwcfejeby, [url=http://kbtxmtoohnwn.com/]kbtxmtoohnwn[/url], [link=http://dtfqhgltsivf.com/]dtfqhgltsivf[/link], http://mmfrquzgdden.com/]]> spam 0 0
    Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada: Part 1 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-1/ Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:49:32 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1768 "Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada" is a series written by Common Cents Mom (Hollie Pollard) who, in her own words, "really had no sense when she was young but she is a fast study and is learning that you can recover from financial mishaps." Hollie shares what she is learning and doing on her blog Common Cents Mom.

    The Road to Bankruptcy

    I wish I knew what I know now when I was a young woman just starting to make financial choices. I wish there had been more talk about managing money but that didn't happen and well, the next 20 years were filled with financial mishaps. Many things can happen that can change your financial future in the blink of an eye. One can prepare the best they can and still things can get out of hand. I want to share my experience so that maybe someone can avoid a few of the pitfalls that can lead to bankruptcy . Did you know every year 100,000 Canadians declare bankruptcy? This year I am one of them. My road to bankruptcy began when I was 18 and took out my first loan. It was a student loan so I could go to university. As a teen, credit cards were also sent my way. Back in the 80's it was easy to get credit. I am sure today it still isn't that hard. I then left school a little early as my mother got cancer and I took care of her. I then married and divorced and was busy raising a child with special needs all the time accumulating more debt and loads of interest along the way. My word of warning to Canadian students: before you go for that loan, look at the cost of borrowing versus your expected pay and then knock at least $10,000 a year off that (because we all think we will get a decent job) and see if you really can afford to pay it back. I went to school for 4 years and took out $13,000 in loans. Well that nice little loan turned into a $40,000 debt. Interest over years adds up. There are many things that lead to the road to bankruptcy:
    • illness: either your own or the need to care for a close family member
    • divorce
    • a weak economy
    • poor money management choices
    All those are just some of the factors that can contribute to getting you in financial trouble. How do you recognize if you are on the road to bankruptcy? Ask yourself these questions:
    1. Are you living in overdraft or taking out payday loans?
    2. Do you really know how much debt you have?
    3. Are you fighting over money?
    4. Are you avoiding picking up the phone?
    5. Are you spending more in a month then you earn?
    If you recognize yourself as a Canadian in financial trouble you are not alone. Over the next month we will look at what can be done to get you and me back on the road to financial health. The series will include: Part 2: Consolidation and Other Alternatives to Bankruptcy Part 3: Bankruptcy Defined Part 4: Rebuilding After Bankruptcy Thanks Hollie! We look forward to the rest of the series. Click here to go to part 2. ]]>
    1768 2010-03-07 22:49:32 2010-03-08 03:49:32 open open going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-1 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149281 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 431 http://commoncentsmom.com/2010/03/08/menu-monday-more-one-pot-recipes-to-try/ 72.233.69.18 2010-03-08 17:14:04 2010-03-08 22:14:04 1 pingback 0 0 432 info@thefinancialpower.com http://www.thefinancialpower.com 72.39.84.118 2010-03-08 18:39:12 2010-03-08 23:39:12 1 0 0 433 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-2/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-08 20:56:35 2010-03-09 01:56:35 1 pingback 0 0 434 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-3/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-09 23:37:47 2010-03-10 04:37:47 1 pingback 0 0 435 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-4/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-10 18:13:52 2010-03-10 23:13:52 1 pingback 0 0 436 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/03/12/random-thoughtsspring-has-sprung/ 67.205.7.217 2010-03-12 01:10:32 2010-03-12 06:10:32 1 pingback 0 0 437 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/friday-linkstuff-and-blog-freeloaders-edition/ 216.227.218.225 2010-03-13 07:30:56 2010-03-13 12:30:56 1 pingback 0 0 438 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/another-ufile-giveawayweekend-reading.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-03-28 16:12:28 2010-03-28 21:12:28 1 pingback 0 0 439 http://rlsjournal.thebizinsidernews.com/?p=64 207.44.148.194 2010-03-31 15:56:45 2010-03-31 20:56:45 1 pingback 0 0
    Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada: Part 2 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-2/ Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:56:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1778 “Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada” is a series written by Common Cents Mom (Hollie Pollard) who, in her own words, “really had no sense when she was young but she is a fast study and is learning that you can recover from financial mishaps.” Hollie shares what she is learning and doing on her blog Common Cents Mom. Click here for Part I.

    Consolidation and Other Alternatives to Bankruptcy

    Yesterday I shared what lead me to declare bankruptcy very recently. The road was long and when I finally made the choice that I wanted a second chance at real financial health I had to look at the options. The bankruptcy laws here in Canada are there to give people a second chance and I am thankful for mine but before I decided on declaring bankruptcy I did look at the other options.

    There are several other options before bankruptcy:

    First you can contact your creditors and see if they are willing to work out a better payment plan for you at perhaps a lower interest rate. This one I recommend if you are a little behind and have had a decent history of paying your bills.
    Another possibility is a consolidation loan.You talk to your local bank or financial  institution about combining your debts into one loan. The bank then pays off all your debts and then you make one payment direct to them often at a lower interest rate. If you do this one, do yourself a favor and take on no more debt while paying this off as you don't want to dig a deeper hole. As well you may want to shop around for a decent interest rate.
    If you live in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island you could think of a consolidation order. A Consolidation Order sets out the amount and the times when payments are due. You pay the court and they pay your creditors. This part of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. You have only 3 years to work with this method though but it does get rid of any garnishees.

    If you live in Quebec, the voluntary deposit scheme is similar to a Consolidation Order. You must make a  payment based on your income and number of dependents to the court. This service is usually available at the local courthouse.

    Next come the proposals. You have to have a trustee or administrator and a proposal is filed under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. A proposal is an arrangement between you and who you owe (creditors). With this you could have to pay part of what you owe or have extra time to pay the debt (or a combination: it depends on your agreement).

    There are two types of proposals an individual can file:

    • Consumer Proposal: Your debt must total more then $75,000. You have to be able to pay it back within 5 years. Counseling is required. If you do not meet your obligations you are automatically bankrupt.
    • Other Proposals: There is no restrictions on what you owe. It can be more or less then $75,000. There is a creditors meeting and if your creditors do not agree, you are bankrupt as of that date. No counseling is required.
    Now if none of these are working for you or you feel like I did, totally weighed down by huge debt, it may be time to think about bankruptcy and get that fresh start that the bankruptcy act wants us to have. There will be more about what is bankruptcy and what to expect when meeting with a trustee next post.]]>
    1778 2010-03-08 20:56:26 2010-03-09 01:56:26 open open going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-2 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268149278 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 440 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-1/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-08 20:58:43 2010-03-09 01:58:43 1 pingback 0 0 441 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-4/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-11 14:30:20 2010-03-11 19:30:20 1 pingback 0 0 442 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-3/ 68.178.254.235 2010-03-12 22:07:29 2010-03-13 03:07:29 1 pingback 0 0 443 http://getcashmaker.com/debt/2010/03/17/its-true-credit-repair-works-2/ 70.38.12.121 2010-03-17 06:35:27 2010-03-17 11:35:27 1 pingback 0 0
    Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada: Part 3 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-3/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:37:33 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1833 “Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada” is a series written by Common Cents Mom (Hollie Pollard) who, in her own words, “really had no sense when she was young but she is a fast study and is learning that you can recover from financial mishaps.” Hollie shares what she is learning and doing on her blog Common Cents Mom.

    Bankruptcy Defined

    In Part 1 we looked at what can lead you down the road to bankruptcy and in Part 2 we looked at the ways you might want to try to avoid Bankruptcy by consolidating or by using other means. Today we are going to talk about the actual bankruptcy. As defined by Wikipedia:
    "Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring. In the majority of cases, however, bankruptcy is initiated by the debtor that is filed by the insolvent individual or organization."
    To go bankrupt in Canada you have to owe at least $1,000 and not be able to pay your debt. I owed just over $40,000 I filed bankruptcy just a few days ago. When I went to my first appointment at my local trustee's office I was nervous and well to be honest filled with dread. I first met with a credit counselor and we went over my debt load, my income and my options. In this case there was only one path that was viable and that was bankruptcy. My monthly budget was looked at. Because of me being a single parent of one child earning less then $2,300 a month I do not have to make monthly payments. How much you will be required to pay will be determined by a number of factors: income, family size and ability to pay. Your assets are also looked at. You are allowed to keep:
    • your primary residence (if you are a home owner, you will want to seek out separate representation because if your home has equity you may be required to sell the home, as well rules vary province to province so do ask. In most cases though with representation and a plan the residence can be kept.)
    • tools of your trade
    • sometimes a vehicle
    • pensions
    • food
    • household furniture
    For more information on your own personal situation I recommend Bankruptcy Canada. Remember every situation is unique and you will want to ask lots of questions about the process  and what you get to keep and what exactly applies in yours. Basically if you have funds available after there set thresholds then you will have to make regular payments.If you have items of value you may be required to liquidate them depending on value. Again ask questions. You will have  to go back to sign the papers and make your first payment. For me this was $250. At this meeting you will actually meet the trustee who will  ask you some basic questions to make sure you understand what you are doing If your creditors request a meeting you have to attend that. Most of the time time these are not requested. Basically from then till the time you are discharged the trustee is responsible for making sure you follow the rules. The rules for me for the next 9 months:
    1. File a monthly budget; basically I have to account for income and how I am spending it.
    2. Attend 2 money management sessions
    3. Take on no new debt
    4. Allow the trustee to file tax returns on my behalf
    5. Make my monthly payments on time.
    6. Surrender all credit cards
    If I do all of this then for me I will be discharged (how long you will be bankrupt depend on certain factors relevant to your case) and I will have that 2nd chance in a mere 9 months. Once those 9 months are done then it will be time to rebuild. Next week we will conclude the series with how to rebuild your credit. Thanks again Hollie for sharing your story so far. We look forward to the last installment tomorrow...]]>
    1833 2010-03-09 23:37:33 2010-03-10 04:37:33 open open going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-3 publish 0 0 post 0 _headspace_page_title filing for bankruptcy in Canada _edit_lock 1268451128 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif _headspace_description A description about going bankrupt and rebuilding your credit in Canada 444 marianne.ono@ontario.ca 142.106.220.190 2010-03-10 10:45:28 2010-03-10 15:45:28 1 0 0 445 patti@creditsupportservices.ca http://creditsupportservices.ca/ 76.10.161.214 2010-03-10 13:05:04 2010-03-10 18:05:04 1 0 0 446 patti@creditsupportservices.ca http://creditsupportservices.ca/ 76.10.161.214 2010-03-10 13:14:18 2010-03-10 18:14:18 1 0 0 447 holliep@live.ca http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.89.252.58 2010-03-10 19:14:25 2010-03-11 00:14:25 1 0 0
    Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada: Part 4 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-4/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:13:33 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1837 “Going Bankrupt and Rebuilding Credit in Canada” is a series written by Common Cents Mom (Hollie Pollard) who, in her own words, “really had no sense when she was young but she is a fast study and is learning that you can recover from financial mishaps.” Hollie shares what she is learning and doing on her blog Common Cents Mom.

    Rebuilding after Bankruptcy

    In the first part of this series we talked about the things that can lead to bankruptcy and then we looked at all the alternatives to bankruptcy and then we defined bankruptcy. After everything is said and done you do get a discharge. I can't wait for that day. The next day the challenge then becomes: What are you going to do with that second chance? The job of rebuilding must begin. So how does one rebuild after bankruptcy? First you have to remember that the bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for 6 years. So remember rebuilding will be a slow process but it can be done. Now with work you can rebuild. What will you and I need to do? First keep your budget and pay all your bills on time. Even at the bank make sure there are no NSF fees (insufficient funds). Then the easiest way to rebuild is to start with a secured credit card. With a secured card you have to make a deposit sometimes equal to your credit line. Here in Canada you can apply for a Mastercard with Capital One or a Visa with Home Trust. Once you get those cards you will want to make sure you use them and pay them on time. There are usually annual fees with these cards so be prepared for them. Creditors also look for stability: the longer you are at one job and at one residence the better from the perspective of the lenders. Try for stability. Now if you are having trouble re-establishing things you might try a car loan or a store credit card but watch for the interest rates. If you do get a store card please do yourself a favor and use it minimally. Whatever you do you must make it habit to pay your bills on time. If you can't pay a bill in full make at least the minimum payment. This is how I plan on rebuilding: paying thing on time and I will apply for a secured card while also preparing for the future with an emergency fund and a savings plan. This concludes Hollie's four part series on her story of going bankrupt and how she plans on rebuilding credit going forward. It certainly sounds like she is on the right track and I wish her the best of luck! Thanks Hollie.]]>
    1837 2010-03-10 18:13:33 2010-03-10 23:13:33 open open going-bankrupt-and-rebuilding-credit-in-canada-part-4 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268449401 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif 448 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-03-11 13:54:08 2010-03-11 18:54:08 1 0 0 449 holliep@live.ca http://www.commoncentsmom.com 24.89.252.58 2010-03-12 00:42:59 2010-03-12 05:42:59 1 0 0 450 http://1stmilliondollar.net/2010/03/week-in-review-march-13/ 72.167.131.221 2010-03-14 08:26:42 2010-03-14 13:26:42 1 pingback 0 0 451 http://1stmilliondollar.net/2010/03/week-in-review-march-13/ 72.167.131.221 2010-03-14 08:26:42 2010-03-14 13:26:42 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-77/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:57:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1844 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Couple of things to mention this week:
    1. I'm tentatively booked on the Lang and O'Leary exchange tomorrow. They've moved to an hour format, and the show is now on at 7pm.
    2. I was in Ottawa on Tuesday night and had dinner again with the Canadian Capitalist, who runs such a good blog that MoneySense magazine has partnered with him and his site. A few commenters are worried about any relinquishment of editorial control and believe me, if you meet Ram in person you'll quickly discover you have nothing to worry about.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Refinancing your mortgage is getting tempting with the banks in a competitive mood as of late as Rob Carrick explains. He also warns to make sure to check on the penalties for breaking your existing mortgage first. Jonathan Chevreau's debit card was compromised recently, ironically right after he had written about various types of financial fraud. Maybe he should write about what happens when you win the lottery! :) L_Mac (Larry MacDonald's street name) writes about outperforming investment managers versus high performers in other endeavours. Four Pillars reviews Michael Moore's latest flick, Capitalism: A Love Story. For those that missed it, I interviewed Michael Moore about the film last week. Million Dollar Journey shares six signs it might be time to quit your job. Michael James on Money reviews William Bernstein's new book, The Investor's Manifesto. Canadian Capitalist discusses Active Share as it pertains to managed investment funds. I also discussed it a while ago for more colour if you really want your jaw to drop. Big Cajun Man looks back at the last twenty years of his financial life.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Pulling out an oldie, but goodie. In tribute to the F1 season starting up this weekend, here is a short video of an F1 engine being tested. You won't be able to see where the exhaust headers are until they get hot, because they start to glow white-hot after only a few seconds. F1 cars don't have rad fans, the cars can only cool themselves by moving at high speed to force air through the rads. That's one of the reasons you see so many cars stalling or overheating at the start of a race as they sit to take the green flag. They are super hot after the warm up lap, but aren't being cooled. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1844 2010-03-11 19:57:25 2010-03-12 00:57:25 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-77 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268356491 _edit_last 1 452 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-11 20:26:57 2010-03-12 01:26:57 1 0 0 453 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2010-03-11 22:18:25 2010-03-12 03:18:25 1 0 0 454 cbcg@rogers.com http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/category/larry-macdonald/ 99.224.165.244 2010-03-11 22:20:27 2010-03-12 03:20:27 1 0 0 455 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.243.15 2010-03-11 22:21:24 2010-03-12 03:21:24 1 0 0 456 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-03-12 11:32:45 2010-03-12 16:32:45 1 0 0 457 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-03-12 17:09:26 2010-03-12 22:09:26 1 0 0 458 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-03-13 12:37:08 2010-03-13 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http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/appearance-on-cbcs-lang-and-oleary-exchange/ Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:32:03 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1851 Click here for the link (there will be a 15 second commercial that plays before the video starts, then you can just drag the slider to fast forward.)]]> 1851 2010-03-13 17:32:03 2010-03-13 22:32:03 open open appearance-on-cbcs-lang-and-oleary-exchange publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268569305 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/lolx.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/lolx.png 469 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.149 2010-03-13 18:16:28 2010-03-13 23:16:28 1 0 0 470 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2010-03-13 19:23:41 2010-03-14 00:23:41 1 0 0 471 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-03-13 22:27:56 2010-03-14 03:27:56 1 470 0 472 cambirch@cambirch.com 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2010-03-19 13:46:52 2010-03-19 18:46:52 1 0 0 Questrade Promotion: $50 in Free Trades http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/questrade-promotion-50-in-free-trades/ Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:15:11 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1857 Note: this is an affiliate program which means that any time someone signs up for this offer, I will potentially receive monetary compensation in the future. I'll explain my thoughts on why I accepted participation in this affiliation below... If you do just a bit of searching on the web you'll find lots of useful reviews on the various discount brokerages available to Canadians. You'll find no such thing here, but only because I haven't used them all (or even visited their sites to really check them out). I can tell you that I personally use Questrade for my discount brokerage accounts and my decision was based purely on the fee schedule. There are no account fees, and equity trades are as little as $4.95 and no more than $9.95. If you buy US listed securities in your RRSP there are no forced currency conversions (and corresponding forex drag) and so on and so forth. For me, the price was right. I had read some of the blogs which reviewed Questrade and noticed a few complaints here and there - enough that I opened my account with my eyes open and on the lookout. I haven't had any issues so far with Questrade. However, to recognize that others have had some issues in the past, when Questrade contacted me to see if I wanted to participate in their affiliate program I told them that I would consider it only if they provided me with the contact details of a senior client support person that I could contact if any of my readers signed up and had problems they couldn't reasonably have sorted out when contacting the regular client service personnel at Questrade. So if you have recently been thinking about switching discount brokers, or are looking to open your first discount brokerage account, you might want to look into Questrade. They are offering $50 in free trades for new accounts through this offer. Click here if you are interested in signing up. For a bit of a primer on Questrade's services you can visit this page.]]> 1857 2010-03-14 00:15:11 2010-03-14 05:15:11 open open questrade-promotion-50-in-free-trades publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268543715 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg 481 antonypr@yahoo.com http://1stmilliondollar.net/ 99.237.18.66 2010-03-14 07:46:50 2010-03-14 12:46:50 1 0 0 482 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-03-15 09:03:47 2010-03-15 14:03:47 1 481 0 483 antonypr@yahoo.com http://1stmilliondollar.net/ 99.237.18.66 2010-03-16 06:49:50 2010-03-16 11:49:50 1 0 0 484 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-03-16 08:59:34 2010-03-16 13:59:34 1 483 0 485 http://www.forexautomatictradingrobots.net/forex-trading-courses-online/good-online-trading-courses 74.52.145.82 2010-03-30 19:27:02 2010-03-31 00:27:02 1 pingback 0 0 Options Gurus Set Up Paid Educational Website http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/options-gurus-set-up-paid-educational-website/ Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:11:02 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1859 Expiring Monthly". One of the contributing authors is Dr. Mark Wolfinger, and you may want to read the interview I had with him on this blog by clicking here. I consider him to be a real straight shooter and so when he approached me to help promote his site there was absolutely no hesitation on my end. However, he did indicate that he was offering affiliate commissions for referrals to the site who end up subscribing, so in the interests of disclosure let me make it clear: I receive monetary consideration for people who sign up for the Expiring Monthly website (price is $99/year). I realize that over the weekend I had posted an affiliate link for Questrade, but rest assured the back-to-back affiliate offers are simply a matter of coincidence. I don't actively look for affiliate opportunities, and it will probably be months and months before you see another, and it will always be disclosed. The flip-side is that I'm planning on giving away an iPad on the blog in the near future (as soon as they are available for pre-order in Canada which should be in a few weeks). I'll let the guys behind Expiring Monthly provide their own commercial and simply cut and paste their introduction page below, but the amount of knowledge Dr. Wolfinger gives away on his blog for free is testament to the value he can provide. Now multiply that by 5 authors. I normally don't endorse anything on this blog, but if you have ever considered signing up for one of those ridiculous option trading system seminars which you pay $1000 for a three day workshop near you and promise you that you can quit your job and sustain yourself trading options, save yourself. In this case, I would say you should really consider Expiring Monthly as you will learn practical, no nonsense information. So, like I said - if you have an interest in options trading check it out. If not, then stick around anyways because I'll be announcing an iPad giveaway in the near future for having to put up with the back to back affiliate posts! :) One final note - they are holding a raffle for all people who sign up for their website and prizes will be a number of books and an private mentoring session with an options trading pro. Now to Expiring Monthly's description: ***** Expiring Monthly is the brainchild of five of the top options bloggers on the Internet:

    Our goal is to provide a monthly magazine in digital format that’s informative to new option traders, yet interesting to the most experienced traders. If you trade options, Expiring Monthly is your magazine.  We never want you to outgrow this publication Every issue of Expiring Monthly contains a Feature Interview and an Extended Feature Article.  Our Follow The Trade feature tracks at least one trade per month from entry to exit, with appropriate commentary. We have a few humorous trading anecdotes, along with all the insight, analysis,  market commentary, and trading tips you expect from our writers. More features are planned, including Book Reviews.  If you suggest a feature, we’ll give it serious consideration. ***** Click here for more information: Expiring Monthly Website.]]>
    1859 2010-03-14 21:11:02 2010-03-15 02:11:02 open open options-gurus-set-up-paid-educational-website publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268619066 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif
    Higher Deductibles for Lower Insurance Premiums http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/higher-deductibles-for-lower-insurance-premiums/ Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:40:55 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1864 1864 2010-03-15 16:40:55 2010-03-15 21:40:55 open open higher-deductibles-for-lower-insurance-premiums publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268689257 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/06/manpushingupexclamationmark220.gif 486 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-15 17:54:24 2010-03-15 22:54:24 1 0 0 487 myjourney@myjourneytomillions.com http://www.myjourneytomillions.com 24.184.36.104 2010-03-15 20:14:29 2010-03-16 01:14:29 1 0 0 488 howard.wong@alumni.ubc.ca 70.79.111.50 2010-03-15 22:29:52 2010-03-16 03:29:52 1 0 0 489 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2010-03-16 08:42:17 2010-03-16 13:42:17 1 0 0 490 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-03-16 09:05:13 2010-03-16 14:05:13 1 489 0 491 cambirch@cambirch.com http://www.cambirch.com 209.89.16.113 2010-03-16 14:27:09 2010-03-16 19:27:09 1 0 0 492 http://blog.medicarenational.com/2010/03/17/yahoo-news-search-results-for-medicare-supplemental-insurance-2/ 174.132.194.226 2010-03-17 07:36:33 2010-03-17 12:36:33 1 pingback 0 0 493 http://blog.medicarenational.com/2010/03/17/yahoo-news-search-results-for-supplemental-insurance-2/ 174.132.194.226 2010-03-17 09:36:54 2010-03-17 14:36:54 1 pingback 0 0 494 http://canadianfinanceblog.com/2010/03/19/friday-links-57.htm 208.53.168.6 2010-03-19 05:03:50 2010-03-19 10:03:50 1 pingback 0 0 495 http://www.neurosoftware.ro/finance/insurance/money/friday-links-2/ 82.77.23.104 2010-03-19 06:14:44 2010-03-19 11:14:44 1 pingback 0 0 496 gene2u@mts.net 204.112.18.195 2010-03-21 14:12:08 2010-03-21 19:12:08 1 0 0 497 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 24.86.21.49 2010-03-22 09:08:47 2010-03-22 14:08:47 1 496 0 498 http://www.insurancesalvagecars.info/if-2-cars-are-insured-under-the-same-insurance-policy-do-you-have-to-pay-2-deductibles-if-both-are-damaged/ 174.120.6.194 2010-03-27 11:21:10 2010-03-27 16:21:10 1 pingback 0 0 499 http://www.insurancesalvagecars.info/finding-auto-insurance-today-can-be-challenging/ 174.120.6.194 2010-03-27 23:09:40 2010-03-28 04:09:40 1 pingback 0 0 500 http://www.insurancesalvagecars.info/auto-insurance-premium-explained/ 174.120.6.194 2010-03-28 08:57:33 2010-03-28 13:57:33 1 pingback 0 0 501 http://www.insurancesalvagecars.info/tips-to-get-car-insurance-for-less/ 174.120.6.194 2010-03-28 22:49:15 2010-03-29 03:49:15 1 pingback 0 0 502 http://www.insurancesalvagecars.info/auto-insurance-company-wont-pay-garage-storage-fee/ 174.120.6.194 2010-03-29 09:38:56 2010-03-29 14:38:56 1 pingback 0 0 503 http://www.junkcarsforsale.info/if-2-cars-are-insured-under-the-same-insurance-policy-do-you-have-to-pay-2-deductibles-if-both-are-damaged/ 174.120.6.194 2010-03-31 05:43:03 2010-03-31 10:43:03 1 pingback 0 0 504 http://www.get-carinsurancequotes.com/648/how-not-to-overpay-for-your-car-insurance-policy/ 174.120.81.130 2010-04-02 18:39:58 2010-04-02 23:39:58 1 pingback 0 0 505 http://www.squawkfox.com/2010/04/03/easter-links/ 173.45.233.86 2010-04-03 12:38:35 2010-04-03 17:38:35 1 pingback 0 0 506 pijgwh@gbyxpc.com http://dmzeqvskfuon.com/ 41.226.22.13 2010-04-24 08:02:40 2010-04-24 13:02:40 qgysqkwcfopb, [url=http://kapizlthjdcq.com/]kapizlthjdcq[/url], [link=http://qtskldhvqoxi.com/]qtskldhvqoxi[/link], http://rfshdmsmawkf.com/]]> spam 0 0 Reader Question on Multiple RRSP Accounts http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/reader-question-on-multiple-rrsp-accounts/ Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:22:53 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1868 Question

    My question is specific to my situation obviously, but could apply to anyone in their 30s who's changed jobs a few times and now has multiple RRSPs.

    The first RRSP is a mutual fund group plan left over from my previous employer, that I still contribute to monthly, and that I borrowed 20,000 from to buy a house with 2 years ago.  It's managed by a private investing firm here in Ottawa.  The second RRSP is a mutual fund group plan with my current employer that I also contribute to monthly (it also has a Deferred Profit Sharing Plan portion that also has a matching employer contribution).  This one is managed by Manulife but I can make changes to it online if I want.

    For a few years, I was transferring all the money from my current employer RRSP to my previous employer RRSP because I thought it was better to keep one larger account growing steadily rather than having 2 separate RRSPs each of lower value.  This way I also had access to an advisor whenever I called them up, but I didn't trust their advice since it would likely have me put all my investments with them anyway.

    I hope that's clear as mud!  What's your take on something like this?

    Answer

    First a clarification - this could apply to pretty much anyone, not just people in their 30's. Many people will contribute to their current Group RRSP to enjoy the free company matching benefit, and once the employer contributions have vested (usually a two year period, but it can be longer or shorter) they will transfer the assets out annually to a different financial advisor/firm to enjoy greater investment options or cheaper investment options in some cases. The rationale provided by the reader is actually a little different though - he postulated it was better to have one larger account as opposed to two. Mathematically, there won't be any difference - all things being equal. Again, the main reason someone would annually transfer out vested contributions is to take advantage of lower costs and/or greater investment options. You will also want to keep an eye on annual account fees - not all firms have RRSP annual account fees, but some can be more than $100/year. If you have multiple accounts, each with annual fees - it can really add up. The last statement is a bit confusing though as the reader indicates that by doing it this way he would have access to an advisor, but didn't trust him anyways. Group RRSPs *can* offer less personalized advice, sometimes only a call centre with an occasional on-site workshop, but sometimes they are administered by "regular" advisors just like any other account. But the bigger question is the lack of trust in the advisor. Perhaps he should consider finding a more transparent advisor, or a fee-for-service advisor who works by the hour - their compensation would not be derived from product recommendations. Hope that helps. I know there are some knowledgeable readers on this site - feel free to chime in with other suggestions or experiences.]]>
    1868 2010-03-16 20:22:53 2010-03-17 01:22:53 open open reader-question-on-multiple-rrsp-accounts publish 0 0 post 0 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1268789213 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/magnifyingglassonprint.jpg 507 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/short-linkstuff-for-friday-march-18/ 216.227.218.225 2010-03-19 12:30:56 2010-03-19 17:30:56 1 pingback 0 0
    Discretionary Investment Management http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/discretionary-investment-management/ Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:46:43 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1873 1873 2010-03-17 20:46:43 2010-03-18 01:46:43 open open discretionary-investment-management publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/businessman.gif _edit_lock 1268876875 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/08/businessman.gif 508 http://INSIDERFOREXSECRETSGUIDE.COM/20058/hsfx-asset-management-a-path-to-financial-freedom/ 174.132.169.2 2010-03-18 06:39:38 2010-03-18 11:39:38 1 pingback 0 0 509 http://INSIDERFOREXSECRETSGUIDE.COM/21021/the-3-things-you-should-know-about-a-managed-forex-account/ 174.132.169.2 2010-03-18 19:31:39 2010-03-19 00:31:39 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-78/ Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:26:29 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1877 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Work is taking me out to BC for the next week, but while I will be away from home I will have the opportunity to have dinner with Squawkfox who runs a fantastic blog. Check it out here.

    From Around The Blogosphere

    Mortgage Free? Ask for a discount on your home insurance by Canadian Capitalist. In defense of hedge funds appearing on Dr. Mark Wolfinger's blog. How Annuities Work by Million Dollar Journey. Tenants paying my mortgage by Four Pillars. Is your financial advisor a Yes-Man? by Michael James on Money. Property tax redux by Big Taxin' Man. One over-looked tax credit by L_Mac. Can hackers read RFID chips on credit cards? by Jonathan Chevreau. How many bank stocks should be in your dividend portfolio? by Thicken My Wallet.

    This Week's Racing Video

    The British program "Top Gear" has a test track that celebrities and race drivers attack in an underpowered compact car to compete for bragging rights. This video has F1 star Mark Webber trying his hand. Enjoy!

    ]]> 1877 2010-03-18 21:26:29 2010-03-19 02:26:29 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-78 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1268965592 _edit_last 1 510 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/03/19/random-thoughts-let-the-madness-begin/ 99.224.85.155 2010-03-19 05:25:20 2010-03-19 10:25:20 1 0 0 511 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-19 07:04:45 2010-03-19 12:04:45 1 0 0 512 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-03-19 08:14:31 2010-03-19 13:14:31 1 0 0 513 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2010-03-19 08:56:59 2010-03-19 13:56:59 1 0 0 514 cbcg@rogers.com http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/category/larry-macdonald/ 99.224.165.244 2010-03-20 17:09:45 2010-03-20 22:09:45 1 0 0 Fee Chart http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-staying-power-of-mutual-funds-finally-at-risk/fee-chart/ Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:17:32 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Fee-Chart.jpg 1881 2010-03-22 00:17:32 2010-03-22 05:17:32 open open fee-chart inherit 1879 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Fee-Chart.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/03/Fee-Chart.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"574";s:6:"height";s:3:"291";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='64' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:21:"2010/03/Fee-Chart.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"Fee-Chart-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"Fee-Chart-300x152.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"152";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"Fee-Chart-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"Fee-Chart-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} The Staying Power of Mutual Funds: Finally At Risk http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/the-staying-power-of-mutual-funds-finally-at-risk/ Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:21:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1879 This is a guest post penned by Shishir Nigam. I met Shishir a few years ago while giving some presentations at the University of Toronto. Now, he is the Founder of ActiveETFs | InFocus (http://etfshub.com), the only site on the web providing focused coverage of Actively-Managed ETFs. He is also Chief Editor at Young & Invested (http://youngandinvested.com).

    The Staying Power of Mutual Funds

    Mutual funds are ingrained in nearly all retirement portfolios, whether we’re talking about RRSPs in Canada or 401(k) plans in the US. They’re so ingrained that in the US, most of the operational systems used to invest client funds can only handle mutual funds because they are designed to settle 1 day after a purchase or sale, whereas other products such as ETFs and stocks settle 3 days after a purchase or sale. When operational limitations like this are the biggest challenges to new products entering these retirement portfolios, instead of the actual merits of the product, you know the incumbents will not be giving up share to ETF issuers easily.

    The Numbers

    When Preet gave me the opportunity to write something for the readers of WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, I decided I’ll start by presenting the most important facts people need to know about the mutual fund versus ETF debate. Canadian mutual funds are considered to have some of highest fees in the world. This was first concluded by a study in 2007. Canadians on average had to pay an expense ratio of 2.56%, compared to 1.29% worldwide and 1.11% in the US. This is largely a product of the oligopoly that is the Canadian mutual fund space, with the 5 major banks taking up the biggest market share. Here’s what this means in $ terms. The chart below shows you what two portfolios, one using ETFs and one using mutual funds would look like over 20 years, with markets providing a 5% annual return. I’ve given the mutual funds the benefit of the doubt by using a 2.20% expense ratio, assuming they would have become slightly more competitive since 2007. And I’ve used a 0.75% expense ratio for ETFs. The difference in fees creates a final difference of more than $5,300 on a portfolio that started off with $10,000.

    Fee Chart

    What’s keeping mutual funds in their place?

    What I’ve presented above is not news to anyone reading this article, the benefits of ETFs have been clear and well-discussed on this blog and many others since ETFs really took off in the last few years. But despite this, the penetration of ETFs into traditional portfolios has been slow. I have a theory on why that is, and why that might be about to change. The superiority of ETFs was confirmed in 2009 when for the first time assets managed by Index ETFs overtook those managed by index mutual funds. But take note, this progress was restricted to the passively-managed space. Passive or index mutual funds make up only about 10% of all mutual funds, with the other 85-90% being actively-managed. Which brings me to my point – despite years of debate on the inability of active management to provide any benchmark beating returns, investors have continued to pile into active funds. This I believe is due to investors just not being satisfied with index returns. People like to put their faith in a star manager whom they believe can do well, and faith is an often underestimated quality. People want a knowledgeable market expert to at least attempt to beat the market, rather than settle for the market return. Given an offer to receive a guaranteed $25 or a 10% chance to receive $200, most people will take the chance even though the math is against making that choice, because they believe in themselves to beat the odds. And this is what we see in the active versus passive debate as well, where investors believe they can choose the market-beating manager. With most people looking to invest their money in active strategies, ETFs haven’t been an option because of their passive nature even though they are cheaper and more tax efficient etc. But that’s changing.

    Actively-Managed ETFs enter the stage

    Actively-Managed ETFs differ from traditional ETFs in that the money you put into these products is actually managed by a portfolio manager practicing active management, attempting to beat the market and their benchmark, just like every active mutual fund. So in essence, Active ETFs now provide those investors looking for active management (which is most of them) the option to get what they are looking for through an ETF structure. Active ETFs debuted in the US in 2008 and in Canada in 2009. Today, there are 5 providers of Active ETFs in the US and 1 in Canada. Head here for a complete listing of current actively-managed ETFs. Most of these products are managed by stars from the active space that investors can put their “faith” in. What all this means is that finally, both categories of investors, those looking for active managers and those just looking to follow an index, have a way to invest through ETFs and benefit from the 4 main advantages that they bring. Mutual fund issuers might have just lost their monopoly on the last carrot they had been able to dangle in front of investors all this while – the promise of active management. Thanks Shishir - some good points to consider. I'll add that the long-term fee impacts are magnified when using a lower cost index ETF portfolio which may have a blended portfolio MER of lower than 0.75% - which makes it all the more compelling. ]]>
    1879 2010-03-22 00:21:42 2010-03-22 05:21:42 open open the-staying-power-of-mutual-funds-finally-at-risk publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269235373 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/Fee-Chart.jpg 515 http://insurancearticledepot.com/the-staying-power-of-mutual-funds-finally-at-risk/ 69.89.31.179 2010-03-22 01:05:28 2010-03-22 06:05:28 1 pingback 0 0 516 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/growing-active-etf-market-means-mutual-funds-should-consider-allowing-f-class-units-for-sale-through-discount-brokerages/ 208.109.181.85 2010-03-23 19:46:34 2010-03-24 00:46:34 1 pingback 0 0 517 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-03-23 23:40:03 2010-03-24 04:40:03 1 0 0 518 http://topsy.com/trackback?url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/the-staying-power-of-mutual-funds-finally-at-risk/ 208.74.66.43 2010-03-24 10:18:13 2010-03-24 15:18:13 1 pingback 0 0 519 shishirn@gmail.com http://etfshub.com 206.188.66.42 2010-03-24 23:38:00 2010-03-25 04:38:00 1 0 0 520 endingtheratrace@yahoo.ca http://www.endingtheratrace.com 142.166.157.254 2010-03-25 15:42:19 2010-03-25 20:42:19 1 0 0 521 http://shop.osxsixtyfour.com/wp-music/2010/03/john-hogan-an-irish-harvest-day/ 174.132.177.142 2010-03-30 07:44:21 2010-03-30 12:44:21 1 pingback 0 0 522 http://thebizinsidernews.com/?p=73 207.44.148.194 2010-03-31 14:43:29 2010-03-31 19:43:29 1 pingback 0 0 523 http://www.hotdailygossip.com/business-highlights.html 174.132.115.194 2010-04-04 21:48:36 2010-04-05 02:48:36 1 pingback 0 0
    TER http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ter-the-trading-expense-ratio-or-total-expense-ratio/ter/ Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:11:50 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/TER.png 1887 2010-03-23 00:11:50 2010-03-23 05:11:50 open open ter inherit 1886 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/TER.png _wp_attached_file 2010/03/TER.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"554";s:6:"height";s:3:"149";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='34' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:15:"2010/03/TER.png";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"TER-150x149.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"149";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:14:"TER-300x80.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:2:"80";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:15:"TER-270x149.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"149";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:13:"TER-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} TER: The Trading Expense Ratio or Total Expense Ratio? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ter-the-trading-expense-ratio-or-total-expense-ratio/ Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:18:44 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1886 Meaning 1: TER = Trading Expense Ratio (Canada) When you look at a Canadian fund's MRFP (Management's Report on Fund Performance), it is now required to show the Trading expense ratio of the fund which represents the amount of trading commissions incurred to manage the portfolio as a percentage of the total assets of the fund. For example, if you had a $100 million fund and the trading commissions for the year incurred by the fund manager to manage the portfolio was $1 million then the Trading expense ratio is 1%. This is NOT reflected in the MER. Funds with higher portfolio turnover rates (meaning the manager buys and sells more often) or funds that invest in less liquid securities (like micro-caps for example) will have higher Trading expense ratios. Funds with low turnover and that invest in larger-cap names will have lower Trading expense ratios. Here is a screen-shot of an MRFP report which shows where you can find the Canadian TER:

    TER

    In this case, you can see that the TER is 0.73%. If you add this to the fund's MER of 2.46% you will get a truer sense of the total costs to run this fun.

    Meaning 2: TER = Total Expense Ratio (US and UK)

    Now to really throw a wrench into things: TER as the Total Expense Ratio means different things based on what country you are in. In the UK, the Total Expense Ratio is the same thing as the MER in North America. But in the US (predominantly) the Total Expense Ratio is the MER + Trading Costs. Here's a little breakdown... In the UK the TER stands for Total Expense Ratio and is equal to the US or Canadian definition of MER In Canada the TER stands for Trading Expense Ratio which is the cost of commissions paid in the fund as a percentage of the fund's total assets. In the US, TER stands for Total Expense Ratio and is equal to the US or Canadian MER + Trading Expense Ratio. Yeah, I know.]]>
    1886 2010-03-23 00:18:44 2010-03-23 05:18:44 open open ter-the-trading-expense-ratio-or-total-expense-ratio publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269322014 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif 524 http://news.worldonlinereview.com/2010/03/23/napoleon-total-war-online-battle-003-france-vs-austria/ 97.74.144.200 2010-03-23 00:50:09 2010-03-23 05:50:09 1 pingback 0 0 525 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-03-23 10:15:03 2010-03-23 15:15:03 1 0 0 526 http://aboutfunds.net/4771/how-are-the-fees-for-a-mutual-fund-paid-are-they-removed-from-your-dividends-and-capital-gains/ 174.120.242.226 2010-04-03 11:23:24 2010-04-03 16:23:24 1 pingback 0 0 527 http://www.investingthesis.com/personal-finance/10-essential-personal-finance-and-investing-resources-you-may-have-missed/ 70.32.68.33 2010-04-04 16:26:40 2010-04-04 21:26:40 1 pingback 0 0 528 http://aboutfunds.net/4968/why-are-mutual-fund-companies-with-high-expenses-still-around/ 174.120.242.226 2010-04-05 06:28:19 2010-04-05 11:28:19 1 pingback 0 0 529 http://www.opcup.com/2010/04/student-loans-not-in-repayment-or-in-deferral-included-in-a-mortgage-loan-application-as-an-expense/ 96.44.151.202 2010-04-15 18:54:21 2010-04-15 23:54:21 1 pingback 0 0
    Growing Active ETF Market Means Mutual Funds Should Consider Allowing F-Class Units For Sale Through Discount Brokerages http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/growing-active-etf-market-means-mutual-funds-should-consider-allowing-f-class-units-for-sale-through-discount-brokerages/ Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:46:25 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1891 please make sure to read the guest post here. Today's post title would be the logical reaction to the "threat" of actively managed ETFs. By allowing the widespread sale of F-class units of mutual funds through discount brokerage accounts the fund industry could help stem any potential losses.

    F-Class Mutual Fund Units

    For those not familiar with F-class mutual fund units, they were developed for Fee-based accounts where advisors would charge a transparent fee which was not embedded in the fund's MER. For example, let's say that Mutual Fund ABC had A class units with a 2.50% MER, of which 1.00% went to the advisor annually as their compensation. The investor would not explicitly see the portion of the fee going to the advisor (1.00%), nor would they see the 1.50% going to the fund company for the portfolio management, reporting, etc. If the return for the year was 10.00%, the portfolio's actual return would've been 12.50%, but the 2.50% would reduce that to the 10% the investor sees. Now, that same mutual fund could be offered in a F class unit (same portfolio) which has an MER of 1.50%. The advisor might charge a "client advisory fee" of 1.00%. The total cost is still 2.50% but in this case the 12.50% portfolio return is only reduced by 1.50% so the investor sees a portfolio return of 11.00% BUT they also see 1.00% in fees deducted explicitly on their statement which goes to the advisor, leaving them with the same 10.00% net portfolio return. It should be pointed out that the 1.00% client advisory fee is potentially tax deductible for non-registered accounts, which would leave the investor slightly ahead versus the A class units with the same overall fees. So what's the big deal? Well, for one that Client Advisory Fee is negotiable, but that's beside the point. Right now, you can buy A-class units of actively managed mutual funds through a discount brokerage and bypass the use of an advisor, but you still pay the 1.00% that would go to an advisor. Essentially, you are paying more than you have to. Many fund companies have blocked the sale of F-class units through discount brokerage accounts in order to appease financial advisors who would be threatened by this practice. Presumably, when bought through a discount brokerage account, an F-class unit would be absent any advisor compensation and in our sample mutual fund, the investor would pay an MER of 1.50% versus 2.50%. (These MERs are just examples, they could be higher or lower.)

    Hop On or Get Out Of The Way

    So... if the proliferation of Actively Managed ETFs accelerates (which it has) then DIY investors will be more inclined to circumnavigate financial advisors in order to access active management without the advisor compensation drag on portfolio returns. If the fund companies are unwilling to realize that there will be an exodus then they stand to lose market share going forward. Let me be clear with my own perspective: there is value in advice and I believe that most people will be better off with an advisor. But, the truth is that there is a significant portion of the investing public who wish to do it themselves and that demographic will increase. Witness the FSA in the UK moving to ban commissions for financial advisors, and similar directives in Australia for CFPs. The advice delivery mechanism is changing to an unbundled structure (advice not tied to products), so making F-class units available through discount brokerages is only logical for fund companies from a business perspective. It wouldn't signal the end of financial advisors as some might fear. I believe there is an equilibrium (like with pretty much everything) which would shift from 10% DIY / 90% Advice to perhaps 30% DIY / 70% Advice whether the fund companies do this or not. If they do it though, they should be better off. Comments welcome.]]>
    1891 2010-03-23 19:46:25 2010-03-24 00:46:25 open open growing-active-etf-market-means-mutual-funds-should-consider-allowing-f-class-units-for-sale-through-discount-brokerages publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269391672 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _headspace_page_title Growing Active ETF Market Means Mutual Funds Should Consider Allowing F-Class Units For Sale Through Discount Brokerages _headspace_description This past Monday I had a guest post about how Actively Managed ETFs will signal a threat to the staying power of mutual funds as portfolio stalwarts. 530 http://jpbaidu.com/search/growing-active-etf-market-means-mutual-funds-should-consider/ 67.208.116.218 2010-03-23 23:45:53 2010-03-24 04:45:53 1 pingback 0 0 531 http://www.xmlinsider.com/growing-active-etf-market-means-mutual-funds-should-consider.html 174.120.130.2 2010-03-24 00:47:58 2010-03-24 05:47:58 1 pingback 0 0 532 gbebee@gailbebee.com http://www.gailbebee.com 12.229.230.10 2010-03-24 07:51:24 2010-03-24 12:51:24 1 0 0 533 investor@investor.com 174.4.55.201 2010-03-24 22:25:40 2010-03-25 03:25:40 1 0 0 534 brian@rightinsurance.ca http://www.rightinsurance.ca 64.231.64.38 2010-04-13 07:44:59 2010-04-13 12:44:59 1 0 0
    Index Fund Tracking Error Sources http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/index-fund-tracking-error-sources/ Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:10:45 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1897 NOTE: I'm scrambling to write this before I get on a plane and my laptop battery is near death, so pardon any typos for the time being - I'll edit it tomorrow, and may even re-write it! It's good to be my own editor.... :) Not all index funds are created equal. Some actually track their indices pretty well, and some do a poor job. Most people think that tracking an index would be a relatively simple thing but you know what they say, "in theory, theory and practice are the same but in practice they are not." Some sources of index fund tracking errors:

    1. Resampling (Or Optimization)

    If an index has 500 constituents, then it is impractical to replicate all the holdings when the fund has a small amount of assets. For example when an index fund first starts trading, it may only buy another manufacturer's ETF to get market Beta until there are enough assets in the fund to actually go out and buy some or all the holdings itself. The index fund manager may also choose to hold a portion of the 500 holdings until the fund gets really big (to minimize transaction costs). How do they pick which stocks to hold and which they don't? It's up to them, but one method is to pick a combination of stocks that allow them to replicate the GICS sector allocations in the index (Global Industry Classification Standard). That means that if financials are 20% of the index and consumer discretionaries are 20% and so on, they will pick the combination of stocks that allow them to match those numbers - in this case they are seeking to match sector Betas.

    2. Cash Flow timing

    When money is added to a fund it must then be deployed into the holdings. In the case of ETFs, if not enough money is added to a fund to buy a creation unit, it might sit in cash until the next day. If the underlying stocks move between the positive cash flow and the cash deployment, this could affect the index fund's performance. In the case of a mutual fund, the portfolio manager (yes, index funds have them too actually!) might get a small cash flow and not be able to deploy it into all the underlying constituents - they may choose to buy an ETF for market or sector beta, or buy a portion of the underlying constituents and make up the difference the next trading day when new money comes in, or if money leaves the fund for a redemption.

    3. Proxies

    Some index funds (with foreign exposure) may buy the foreign holdings on foreign exchanges, and some may buy ADRs or GDRs (American Depositary Receipts or Global Depositary Receipts). ADRs trade in the US but may trade at a premium or discount to the actual underlying stock.

    4. Market Access

    Again, index funds with foreign exposure may have stocks that trade in markets that are closed when domestic markets are open and vice-versa. If the index fund buys the direct stocks, someone has to deploy the cash overnight - it can be the fund custodian who sub-contracts out to a foreign prime broker, or the fund might have an office in that market. But if the fund operates in a different market, they can only receive the money during their hours of operation, so the underlying stocks can change in value between the time the cash comes to the fund and when it gets deployed. If the fund buys ADRs then you still have the issue of the ADR lagging the movement of the underlying stock since money gets deployed right away, but in a security (the ADR) that can itself be moved by supply-demand issues on the market it trades even though the underlying security is not being traded. Again, this can introduce tracking error.

    5. Dividend Drag

    This really falls into the cash flow management arena, but instead of the cash flows being due to investors adding or subtracting money from the fund, with dividend drag it is due to the receipt of dividends earned on the underlying stocks being held. The fund receives cash which has to wait to be deployed.

    6. Securities Lending Income

    Same principle as with dividend drag, except the positive cash flow is due to the income generated from loaning out stocks in the fund to short sellers.

    7. Brokerage commissions

    The fund itself has to pay commissions to buy and sell stocks, so this will create a drag on returns too.

    8. MER

    Ah yes, can't forget this one! The Management Expense Ratio is made up of the Management Fee and Operating Expenses, and of course these will drag down performance of the fund as well.

    Conclusion

    These are some of the areas which can introduce tracking error and I haven't even talked about currency concerns. Different index companies tracking the same indices can have dramatically different tracking errors and its certainly something that doesn't get enough attention. Note that some of these factors may generate positive or negative tracking errors and some (i.e. fees) can only generate negative tracking error. In its purest form, tracking error is the absolute magnitude of the deviation from the index and is not normally referred to as being positive or negative, but breaking it down this way is helpful.]]>
    1897 2010-03-24 19:10:45 2010-03-25 00:10:45 open open index-fund-tracking-error-sources publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269483610 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif _headspace_page_title Index Fund Tracking Error Sources _headspace_description NOTE: I'm scrambling to write this before I get on a plane and my laptop battery is near death, so pardon any typos for the time being - I'll edit it tomorrow, and may even re-write it! It's good to be my own editor. 535 http://topsy.com/trackback?url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/index-fund-tracking-error-sources/ 208.74.66.43 2010-03-25 07:43:16 2010-03-25 12:43:16 1 pingback 0 0 536 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-03-25 08:36:53 2010-03-25 13:36:53 1 0 0 537 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/03/26/random-thoughts-health-care-week/ 67.205.7.217 2010-03-26 01:20:02 2010-03-26 06:20:02 1 pingback 0 0 538 jean.lesperance@googlemail.com http://canadianfinancialdiy.blogspot.com/ 92.24.152.176 2010-03-26 04:03:12 2010-03-26 09:03:12 1 0 0 539 http://thesimpleapproach.com/south-korea-etf-falls-in-us-as-nations-naval-vessel-sinks-bloomberg/ 69.89.31.190 2010-03-26 17:23:29 2010-03-26 22:23:29 1 pingback 0 0 540 http://aboutfunds.net/4069/legg-mason-fund-manager-how-to-beat-the-market/ 174.120.242.226 2010-03-29 04:01:31 2010-03-29 09:01:31 1 pingback 0 0 541 http://thebizinsidernews.com/?p=77 207.44.148.194 2010-03-31 14:44:52 2010-03-31 19:44:52 1 pingback 0 0 542 http://rls31knowledge.zerorichparty.com/?p=66 207.44.148.194 2010-04-08 10:41:50 2010-04-08 15:41:50 1 pingback 0 0
    A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-79/ Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:53:26 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1903 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Well I'm a day late with this week's Lap Of The Blogs, but I'm sure you'll forgive me, and as a special treat I'm going to share some of my creative writings... from nursery school! I'm visiting the parentals and found a collection of old school work which had me rolling on the floor laughing. A masterpiece will follow the weekly roundup of links... In other news, I had the pleasure of meeting Squawkfox this week in Kelowna and we had a great time talking about the genesis of our respective blogs. If you haven't taken a look yet, click here to check out one of the most successful Canadian blogs on the net. Lastly, I have to admit to something of an indulgence this week: I went in to get measured for some bespoke suits. Since I wear a suit roughly 250 days per year I thought I would give it a try as a bespoke suit should actually last longer than an off-the-rack suit which is much cheaper. From what I've been researching, this is due to a floating canvas as opposed to a fused canvas with production line suits. A floating canvas means that the canvas (the layer of material between the jacket and the lining) hangs independently between the layers. It will be about two months for the suits to be ready, and I'll give a report at that time.

    Around The Blogosphere

    Thicken My Wallet: Why people fail in investing with ETFs. Jonathan Chevreau: $500 million to Ontarians for the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund. Squawkfox: Reviews the book One year to an organized financial life L_Mac Online: Mutual fund commissions BANNED in the UK Big Cajun Man: Free Speech and Financial Questions Michael James on Money: Misalignment of interests on Wall Street (and Bay Street) Four Pillars: Middlemen Million Dollar Journey: Wealth and Socioeconomical Class Canadian Capitalist: How do you say "bubble" in Chinese? Rob Carrick: Before breaking your mortgage, read this

    This Week's Racing Video

    As I mentioned, I'm going to skip this week's video in lieu of sharing some of my childhood creative writings... because they are so nonsensical! Enjoy! When I went to the fair the first thing we did was go for a walk, and then we went on the Rocket Ride. The Rocket Ride was very weird because we saw a crab and it fell on the roof top, and then we came down on a baseball field and the crab went down on the field. The crab caught a boy's pants and pulled them down. Then the crab started to eat the pants. Next we went to the moon with the crab and we left the crab on the moon and went back to Earth and then we ran out of fuel. Then we crased into a plane that was flying to Italy. The End. ]]>
    1903 2010-03-26 20:53:26 2010-03-27 01:53:26 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-79 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269654813 _edit_last 1 _headspace_page_title A Lap Of The Blogs _headspace_description If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo. 543 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.243.15 2010-03-26 21:01:13 2010-03-27 02:01:13 1 0 0 544 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-27 00:17:52 2010-03-27 05:17:52 1 0 0 545 http://topsy.com/trackback?url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-79/ 208.74.66.43 2010-03-27 01:29:52 2010-03-27 06:29:52 1 pingback 0 0 546 cbcg@rogers.com http://blog.canadianbusiness.com/category/larry-macdonald/ 99.224.165.244 2010-03-27 05:39:46 2010-03-27 10:39:46 1 0 0 547 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com 99.224.85.155 2010-03-27 06:22:51 2010-03-27 11:22:51 1 0 0 548 frugaltrader@gmail.com http://www.milliondollarjourney.com 174.116.38.46 2010-03-27 18:06:42 2010-03-27 23:06:42 1 0 0 549 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 99.225.225.35 2010-03-27 22:04:32 2010-03-28 03:04:32 1 0 0 550 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-03-28 20:25:47 2010-03-29 01:25:47 1 0 0 551 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.243.15 2010-03-28 22:37:48 2010-03-29 03:37:48 1 0 0 552 cc@canadiancapitalist.com http://www.canadiancapitalist.com 139.99.16.28 2010-03-29 09:54:01 2010-03-29 14:54:01 1 0 0 553 myazzi@dpryuo.com http://brvmqohjqcnp.com/ 58.1.237.70 2010-04-25 06:32:30 2010-04-25 11:32:30 ummpbsbhcqsc, [url=http://qxutdhyxsvbn.com/]qxutdhyxsvbn[/url], [link=http://hshcipkvqjnf.com/]hshcipkvqjnf[/link], http://wcteahtmddja.com/]]> spam 0 0
    New Canadian Small Cap ETF Available http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/new-canadian-small-cap-etf-available/ Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:23:57 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1905 CNDA.

    1. The ETF is listed in the US

    While you won't have to monitor the currency fluctuations while invested, but you will have a forex drag as you would have to convert your money into USD before purchasing the US-listed ETF. Vice versa, you will have to switch it back when you want to sell your investment and spend the proceeds.

    2. The MER is higher than what's available already

    The MER is 0.69% for CNDA, but iShares has an ETF with Canadian small cap exposure with an MER of 0.55%. This trades as XCS.

    3. Liquidity

    ETF liquidity is based on the liquidity of the underlying holdings, so the daily shares that trade are not as useful a gauge as with individual stocks. A designated broker will (usually) ensure that any orders are filled without the ETF price straying too far off of the NAV. Having said that, since this ETF deals with less liquid stocks, liquidity is more of a concern. And since it is new, there is risk that it can shut down if it doesn't get enough assets to make it viable. The incumbent already has $100 million in assets (the iShares ETF XCS).

    4. Index Selection

    One of the first things I noticed is that the IndexIQ ETF tracks its own proprietary index for Canadian Small Caps. Presumably this would be to avoid the licensing fee for the S&P/TSX Small Cap Index. You would think the indices looked somewhat similar nonetheless, but you would be wrong. The IndexIQ index has a 50% allocation to materials, whereas the iShares offering is closer to 30%. So there is more than meets the eye. CNDA holds 100 names, but XCS holds 181.

    5. Capacity

    This is one area where CNDA might have an advantage. It looks like CNDA has a higher market capitalization minimum for inclusion - meaning that companies have to be of a certain size and if they are too small, they are excluded from the index. If there are days when there is a lot of buying or selling pressure on both of these ETFs, CNDA's index is less likely to suffer from capacity constraints (meaning that the smallest names won't have their prices materially affected by large purchases and sells). For more explanation on "capacity" or "market impact" click here.

    Conclusion

    This might be a better ETF for US investors, but Canadians looking for domestic small cap exposure can skip it for now.]]>
    1905 2010-03-28 20:23:57 2010-03-29 01:23:57 open open new-canadian-small-cap-etf-available publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269825842 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/06/markets220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/06/markets220.gif _headspace_page_title New Canadian Small Cap ETF Available _headspace_description IndexIQ has launched a new ETF which attempts to give investors exposure to small cap Canadian stocks, but as a Canadian you will probably want to avoid this particular ETF for now. 554 http://topsy.com/trackback?url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/new-canadian-small-cap-etf-available/ 208.74.66.43 2010-03-28 20:47:19 2010-03-29 01:47:19 1 pingback 0 0 555 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-03-28 20:57:39 2010-03-29 01:57:39 1 0 0 556 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 64.214.144.254 2010-03-29 08:47:59 2010-03-29 13:47:59 1 0 0 557 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-03-29 13:56:41 2010-03-29 18:56:41 1 556 0 558 http://www.citizens-automobile-finance.info/valuing-your-uk-private-number-plate-get-the-best-price-you-can/ 174.120.233.66 2010-04-02 02:46:23 2010-04-02 07:46:23 1 pingback 0 0 559 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-pensions-dollar-parity-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-04-08 16:44:51 2010-04-08 21:44:51 1 pingback 0 0 560 http://www.moneysense.ca/2010/04/08/this-and-that-pensions-dollar-parity-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 204.225.248.52 2010-04-09 06:41:45 2010-04-09 11:41:45 1 pingback 0 0
    Buying ADRs to Avoid Stamp Duty http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/buying-adrs-to-avoid-stamp-duty/ Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:16:06 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1908 In a post from last week I had mentioned how using ADRs and GDRs could be a source of tracking error, but there is more to that conversation lest you think you should always avoid depositary receipts. One reason is political risk. For example, our global and emerging markets index funds try to hold the direct stocks on their foreign exchanges as much as possible, but for the case of Russian stocks there is enough concern that getting your money out of the Russian stock exchange might not always be feasible that using ADRs is preferable. Another reason to consider using ADRs (or GDRs) is that you can avoid paying Stamp Duties. Stamp Duties are levied by certain countries for buying and/or selling stocks - it is simply a tax. In the UK, the stamp duty is 0.5% of the value of the transaction, and to give you an idea as to how much revenue is generated from stamp duties it was as high as 4.5 billion pounds in 2001 (so it likely isn't going anywhere anytime soon). By buying an ADR instead, you would avoid the stamp duty. So as long as you monitor the premium or discount to NAV of the ADR and deem it to be liquid enough it may very well be a superior option than buying the direct stock and incurring an instant tracking error of 0.5% off the hop.]]> 1908 2010-03-29 21:16:06 2010-03-30 02:16:06 open open buying-adrs-to-avoid-stamp-duty publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1269915370 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif _headspace_page_title Buying ADRs to Avoid Stamp Duty _headspace_description Coincidentally, I was talking to the portfolio manager of our index funds today and part of the conversation was surrounding tracking error and the use of ADRs and GDRs. 561 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/buying-adrs-to-avoid-stamp-duty/ 208.74.66.43 2010-03-29 21:27:42 2010-03-30 02:27:42 1 pingback 0 0 562 http://jpbaidu.com/type/buying-adrs-to-avoid-stamp-duty-wheredoesallmymoneygocom/ 67.208.116.218 2010-03-30 03:17:18 2010-03-30 08:17:18 1 pingback 0 0 Is Your Brokerage's Bond Desk a Profit Centre? http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/is-your-brokerages-bond-desk-a-profit-centre/ Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:21:56 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1910 1910 2010-03-30 23:21:56 2010-03-31 04:21:56 open open is-your-brokerages-bond-desk-a-profit-centre publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270009321 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/06/prettygirl220.gif _headspace_page_title Is Your Brokerage's Bond Desk a Profit Centre? _headspace_description Not a question a lot of people ask, but it's an important one. 563 chuppe@sympatico.ca 70.55.204.59 2010-03-31 08:12:43 2010-03-31 13:12:43 1 0 0 564 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-03-31 15:02:25 2010-03-31 20:02:25 1 563 0 565 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.96.165 2010-04-06 14:55:00 2010-04-06 19:55:00 1 0 0 566 http://colitis-cures.com/american-racing-capital-inc-amra-targets-two-separate-auto-enhancement-and-reproduction-companies 174.120.154.2 2010-04-19 17:04:38 2010-04-19 22:04:38 1 pingback 0 0 2010 Q1 Stock Picking Contest Results http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/2010-q1-stock-picking-contest-results/ Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:11:15 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1912 As alluded to in my post that discussed my picks initially – don’t take these contests too seriously. A one year horizon is nothing more than gambling. This year I decided to pick stocks at random, well... kinda. I picked some random words and then found the ticker symbols to match those words and that was basically it! Here were the words I picked: FUN, HAT, ADD, CAR

    And here are the corresponding companies:

    1. Cedar Fair L.P. (FUN:NYSE) Stock price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 11.41 and after Q1: 11.94 plus 0.25/unit dividend. YTD Performance = +6.84% 2. Hathor Exploration Limited (HAT:TSX-V) Stock price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 1.81 and after Q1: 1.96. YTD Performance = +8.29% 3. Arctic Star Diamond Corp. (ADD:TSX-V) Stock price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 0.055 and after Q1: 0.065. YTD Performance = +18.18% 4. AVIS Budget Group (CAR:NYSE) Stock Price as of December 31st, 2009 (close): 13.12 and after Q1: 11.50. YTD Performance = -12.35% So on an equal weighted basis the picks are up 5.24% as a group. This puts me about mid-pack so far in the contest. Not bad considering the whole 7 seconds I took to pick my stocks, but the year is far from over!

    Here are the other bloggers' results so far:

    1. Dividend Growth Investor: +9.58% 2. Wild Investor: +9.30% 3. My Trader's Journal: +5.78% 4. WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo: +5.24% 5. The Financial Blogger: +2.87% 6. ZachStocks: +2.55% 7. Four Pillars: -1.01% 8. Intelligent Speculator: -1.27% 9. Million Dollar Journey: -11.83%]]>
    1912 2010-03-31 19:11:15 2010-04-01 00:11:15 open open 2010-q1-stock-picking-contest-results publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270313975 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/mr-burns-wallpaper.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/mr-burns-wallpaper.gif _headspace_page_title 2010 Q1 Stock Picking Contest Results _headspace_description A few personal finance bloggers decided to have a friendly stock picking contest for 2009 and we decided to do it again for 2010. 567 http://thewildinvestor.com/4-stocks-to-buy-in-2010-q1-results/ 74.220.207.142 2010-03-31 21:31:05 2010-04-01 02:31:05 1 pingback 0 0 568 http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/2010/03/31/2010-stock-picks-contest-q1-review/ 66.96.128.62 2010-03-31 22:05:00 2010-04-01 03:05:00 1 pingback 0 0 569 http://zachstocks.com/2010/04/2010-zachstocks-recommendations-q1-update/ 69.89.31.97 2010-03-31 23:13:04 2010-04-01 04:13:04 1 pingback 0 0 570 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/best-stock-picks-for-2010-competition/ 216.227.218.225 2010-04-01 00:36:19 2010-04-01 05:36:19 1 pingback 0 0 571 http://worlddailynewsblog.com/best-stock-picks-for-2010-competition-q1-update-%e2%80%93-i-demand-a-recount/ 216.227.218.225 2010-04-02 09:30:45 2010-04-02 14:30:45 1 pingback 0 0 572 http://www.hotdailygossip.com/research-in-motion-symbol-rimm.html 174.132.115.194 2010-04-02 18:42:51 2010-04-02 23:42:51 1 pingback 0 0 573 http://rls31knowledge.zerorichparty.com/?p=68 207.44.148.194 2010-04-08 10:42:35 2010-04-08 15:42:35 1 pingback 0 0 574 http://rls36release.theinsiderdailyblog.com/?p=49 207.44.148.194 2010-04-08 12:01:21 2010-04-08 17:01:21 1 pingback 0 0
    New ETNs Allow Investors to Profit on Market Volatility... or not http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/new-etns-allow-investors-to-profit-on-market-volatility-or-not/ Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:00:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1921 Gotcha! Many writers and experts have commented on the proliferation of bad ETFs as manufacturers cash in on the caché of the ETF name. We've seen leveraged ETFs, niche sector ETFs, and alternative strategy ETFs pop up and uninformed investors flock to them still. (For the record, I don't have anything against leveraged ETFs or sector ETFs and the sort, I take issue with uneducated investors/advisors not knowing how to use/sell them properly). I attended a press conference yesterday on a new company launching some pretty wild ETNs, and ironically I ran into the author of the Canadian Couch Potato blog, Dan Bortolotti. It's ironic because the couch potato portfolios stress using the most simple, low-cost, broad ETFs and well, keep reading... If there is an exotic investment strategy out there, there will soon be an ETF conjured up to make it accessible for the masses. Witness the latest offering from a new company out of California which had previously offered turn-key derivative strategies to pension consultants but have now decided to make these strategies available to retail investors through the use of ETNs (exchange traded NOTES as opposed to FUNDs - which means the investments are senior debt issues of the company, the investor only owns a promise from the company to pay out). This particular strategy, actually a pair of strategies, are essentially straddle strategies. Think of buying a put and a call on the same stock while waiting for a news release. After the announcement, the stock might shoot up or down and either the put or the call will be worth a lot and the other expires worthless. These ETNs are somewhat similar to this... One ETN will give you a return of +2.5% after fees for one month if the underlying index (the S&P 500) does not increase or decrease more than 5% from the index price at the beginning of the month. Essentially, you will make 2.5% for the month if the market is relatively "flat", and as such the ticker on this ETN is FLAT. If the index increases/decreases by more than 5% (at any time during the month) then you earn nothing and you get your money back, less the MER. The other ETN will give you a return of +5% after fees for one month if the underlying index (again, the S&P 500) DOES increase or decrease by more than 5% at any time during the month. In this case, you can earn 5% for the month if the market is "volatile", and as such this ETN ticker is FAT. If the index doesn't increase/decrease by 5% then you earn nothing with FAT and you get your money back, less the MER. Each ETN essentially resets at the end of the month. The MERs for FLAT and FAT are 2.5% and 3.0%, respectively.... PER MONTH. But here is the kicker: creation units will only be issued if there are relatively equal amounts of FAT and FLAT being bought. Why is this important? Because the market will either increase/decrease by more than 5% or not, and in each case the fund company has one winning hand and one losing hand. (I'm relating it to gambling for a reason!) In either case, the fund company is essentially guaranteed to make a killing. Since the fee on FLAT is 2.5% per month and if you "win" you get 2.5% - they lose no money, but they make 3.0% on FAT - so they are net ahead 3.0%/month when the market is not too volatile. When the market IS volatile, they pay out 5% since they "lose" on FAT but collect a 3% fee for the month on FAT. This puts them behind 2% BUT also are ahead by 2.5% on FLAT because those investors would have "lost" - meaning they are again ahead by a net of 0.5%/month. If you think you can time volatility, be my guest and use these. Personally I would rather buy the stock of the company instead. But for those who need a little active management but still want to stick with plain indexing, Dan is actually in the midst of setting up a couch potato portfolio advisory service with an option of some *slight* market timing with the portfolio allocations, but I think he may use some of these ETNs as hedges for his market calls! Sounds interesting, although I think it is tainting the nature of the couch potato philosophy... Check out Dan's blog for more details, and I would be interested in your comments.]]> 1921 2010-04-01 06:00:13 2010-04-01 11:00:13 open open new-etns-allow-investors-to-profit-on-market-volatility-or-not publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270313619 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/6.png post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/6.png _headspace_page_title New ETNs Allow Investors to Profit on Market Volatility... or not _headspace_description UPDATE: THIS WAS AN APRIL FOOLS PRANK!Gotcha!Many writers and experts have commented on the proliferation of bad ETFs as manufacturers cash in on the caché of the ETF name. 575 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/02/20/quicktax-software-give-away-time/ 205.194.74.10 2010-04-01 06:50:02 2010-04-01 11:50:02 1 0 0 576 http://forexmobboss.com/blog/forex-trading-tip-this-forex-tip-could-lead-you-to-triple-digit-gains 174.120.172.2 2010-04-01 07:03:24 2010-04-01 12:03:24 1 pingback 0 0 577 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/new-etns-allow-investors-to-profit-on-market-volatility-or-not/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-01 07:24:03 2010-04-01 12:24:03 1 pingback 0 0 578 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-04-01 08:27:43 2010-04-01 13:27:43 1 0 0 579 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.30 2010-04-01 09:36:57 2010-04-01 14:36:57 1 0 0 580 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 66.212.184.146 2010-04-01 14:14:57 2010-04-01 19:14:57 1 575 0 581 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-80/ 208.109.181.85 2010-04-02 00:00:24 2010-04-02 05:00:24 1 pingback 0 0 582 lencurrie@gmail.com http://www.lencurrie.com 142.68.245.187 2010-04-02 10:55:17 2010-04-02 15:55:17 1 0 0 583 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-04-03 11:44:56 2010-04-03 16:44:56 1 582 0 584 lencurrie@gmail.com http://www.lencurrie.com 142.68.245.187 2010-04-03 16:21:00 2010-04-03 21:21:00 1 0 0 585 http://aboutfunds.net/4989/trade-short-term-mutual-funds-instead-of-stocks-and-options/ 174.120.242.226 2010-04-05 11:07:33 2010-04-05 16:07:33 1 pingback 0 0 586 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2010-04-06 10:01:28 2010-04-06 15:01:28 1 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-80/ Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:59:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1927 If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com, every Friday I run a post called “A Lap Of The Blogs” which provides links to articles I found interesting and think that others may want to read for themselves. I also sometimes include some commentary on what’s going on in my personal life and a weekly “racing video” since my former life was in the auto-racing industry. The name “Lap of the Blogs” is in reference to “A Lap Of The Gods” which is an old video series which chronicled on-board footage of the world’s greatest F1 drivers lapping various racetracks from around the world. NOTE: you have to visit the actual website to see the embedded video – it may not appear in your email. Just click on the title of the email to see it… Hopefully everyone realized yesterday's post about the new FAT and FLAT ETNs was an April Fool's joke, but I hope I didn't give anyone any ideas in the industry! :) This week's roundup will be exclusively prank posts...

    From Around the Joke-osphere:

    Arguably one of the most famous pranks pulled was that of the BBC which had many people convinced that spaghetti grew on trees and was harvested in the spring. Here is a link to a copy of the original broadcast from 1957! Dan Bortolotti, who writes CanadianCouchPotato.com introduces his new advisory service for investors: Passive-Aggressive Solutions. Michael James on Money explains the scourge of dihydrogen monoxide.

    This Week's Racing Video

    Following the theme of April fool's pranks, this video shows one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, Michael Schumacher entering a soap box derby (wooden carts with no engines essentially) with a special cart which had a tiny silent motor. The crowds were mesmerized by his blinding speed and no-one could explain it. Everyone was completely duped... Click here to view the video and have a great weekend everyone!

    ]]>
    1927 2010-04-01 23:59:05 2010-04-02 04:59:05 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs-80 publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270184370 _edit_last 1 _headspace_page_title A Lap Of The Blogs _headspace_description If you are new to WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo. 587 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs-80/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-02 00:03:53 2010-04-02 05:03:53 1 pingback 0 0 588 michael.james.wiener@gmail.com http://michaeljamesmoney.blogspot.com/ 99.224.156.74 2010-04-02 07:22:36 2010-04-02 12:22:36 1 0 0 589 dan@danbortolotti.com http://canadiancouchpotato.com 174.115.36.91 2010-04-02 09:03:03 2010-04-02 14:03:03 1 0 0
    Mentally Spending Your Next Raise Before You Actually Get It http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/mentally-spending-your-next-raise-before-you-actually-get-it/ Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:58:54 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1936 1936 2010-04-04 09:58:54 2010-04-04 14:58:54 open open mentally-spending-your-next-raise-before-you-actually-get-it publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg _edit_lock 1270393141 post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg _headspace_description living within your means, balanced budget, spending your next raise before you get it _headspace_page_title Mentally Spending Your Next Raise Before You Actually Get It 590 http://hideipology.com/how-would-state-govt-find-out-if-ppor-is-ip-somersoft-property/ 174.120.168.98 2010-04-04 10:01:36 2010-04-04 15:01:36 1 pingback 0 0 591 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/mentally-spending-your-next-raise-before-you-actually-get-it/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-04 10:01:37 2010-04-04 15:01:37 1 pingback 0 0 592 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.166.92 2010-04-05 15:39:52 2010-04-05 20:39:52 1 0 0 593 amygriffith@gmail.com http://www.pricebonus.com/ 209.107.217.10 2010-04-18 13:15:12 2010-04-18 18:15:12 1 0 0 Options Licensed Advisors Are Rare http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/options-licensed-advisors-are-rare/ Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:10:16 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1940 How many financial advisors are in Canada? To give you a rough idea as to the number of financial advisors in Canada as a whole, there are about 75,000 MFDA advisors (mutual fund sales reps), 125,000 Life-Licensed advisors (insurance agents) and 25,000 IIROC advisors (licensed to sell individual stocks). Those are rough numbers for a few reasons: I'm going by memory (which may be flawed) for the life-licensed advisor number, and there are many advisors who are dual-licensed (MFDA + Life License or IIROC + Life License). Further, not all life-licensed advisors sell investments (for them, this would be segregated funds and annuities for the most part). So let's call it about 125,000 to 150,000 financial advisors in Canada who are giving investment advice to investors.

    How many advisors are licensed to use options?

    In order to buy, sell or advise on options (puts and calls) you not only have to pass additional licensing exams, it is only available to IIROC advisors which we have seen is a pool of about 25,000 advisors. I don't know the exact number of options licenses there are out there, but going from experience I would say that perhaps 1 in 5 IIROC advisors were options licensed and of those that were licensed maybe 1 in 4 actually engaged in any option related activity. That leaves us at about 1,250 advisors (give or take, and based on unconfirmed estimates by yours truly) who are using any kind of option strategies with clients. That's about 1% of the total advisor population. Now, this post is not intended to persuade everyone to trade options, but I do believe that option strategies can play very important roles in portfolios. There were actually invented to reduce risk, but have become associated with risk taking for laypeople.

    Portfolio Insurance as just one example

    A simplistic strategy would be the purchase of put options to protect the value of a portfolio from black swan events such as the credit crisis. Purchasing a put option essentially means that you buy the option to force someone to buy your investments at a certain price for a certain period of time. Think of it as portfolio insurance (indeed some people promote the strategy as such). For a cost of a few percent of your total portfolio value per year you could limit the possible decline in value for that year. Again, this is a simple strategy being described here, but for people who were a few years from retirement and therefore in that "retirement risk zone" you could have selectively insured your portfolio for a few years, trading off the annual "premiums" for guarantees against catastrophic loss when you most needed that protection/assurance. There are plenty of other option strategies, and again this isn't meant to be an endorsement of this particular strategy for everyone but if more people had been asked or informed of these strategies I think that would've been a good thing (for clients and advisors).]]>
    1940 2010-04-05 18:10:16 2010-04-05 23:10:16 open open options-licensed-advisors-are-rare publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270509025 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif _headspace_description There are very few advisors in Canada who are licensed to trade put and call options 594 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/options-licensed-advisors-are-rare/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-05 18:30:46 2010-04-05 23:30:46 1 pingback 0 0 595 http://indicard.com/independent-cards-worldwide/options-licensed-advisors-are-rare-wheredoesallmymoneygo-com/ 66.147.242.157 2010-04-05 20:52:52 2010-04-06 01:52:52 1 pingback 0 0 596 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.30 2010-04-05 22:34:44 2010-04-06 03:34:44 1 0 0 597 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-04-05 22:48:55 2010-04-06 03:48:55 Options for rookies]]> 1 596 0 598 http://investment.wisdomoffinance.com/managed-futures-portfolio-strategies-investment-analysis-and-the/ 174.120.150.34 2010-04-05 22:54:19 2010-04-06 03:54:19 1 pingback 0 0 599 http://beautyblogr.com/answers-to-common-cosmetic-surgery-questions/ 74.54.108.130 2010-04-05 23:15:14 2010-04-06 04:15:14 1 pingback 0 0 600 http://www.fourpillarsofincome.com/financial-freedom-blog/build-wealth/which-equity-mutual-fund-is-better-to-build-wealth-in-long-run10years 74.53.94.146 2010-04-06 18:07:31 2010-04-06 23:07:31 1 pingback 0 0
    Vanguard starts rolling out eight page prospectuses - Simplifying things for investors http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/vanguard-starts-rolling-out-eight-page-prospectuses-simplifying-things-for-investors/ Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:31:13 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1946 US moves to enhance disclosure on investment funds In 2009, the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission, the US regulator) decided that fund companies could use what is called a Summary Prospectus to satisfy the delivery requirements for selling mutual funds so long as it contained all the pertinent information in an easily digested document. The spirit of this decision is to enhance disclosure to investors. These Summary Prospectuses must have the following information ONLY:
    1. Investment objectives/goals
    2. Fee and expense tables
    3. Principal investment strategies, principal risks and performance table
    4. Management information
    5. Purchase and sale information
    6. Tax information
    7. Financial intermediary compensation information
    The documents may not contain any additional information. As long as these requirements are met, and the long form Statutory Prospectus is available online then a fund company may use these forms to satisfy the delivery requirements.

    Slow Adoption - Industry not enthusiastic about full disclosure

    Not all fund companies have started using this yet. One notable exception (and there may be others) is Vanguard (a company which is actually owned by its clients). They have started rolling out these Summary Prospectuses. One is only eight pages and you can view it by clicking here to download a PDF copy. Pretty impressive stuff. Some will be even less than eight pages and if you subtract the cover and closing page (which contain nothing more than contact information) we're getting it down to five or six pages of plain English disclosure. So when is this coming to Canada?]]>
    1946 2010-04-06 22:31:13 2010-04-07 03:31:13 open open vanguard-starts-rolling-out-eight-page-prospectuses-simplifying-things-for-investors publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1270611080 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/marketsgoingup220.gif _headspace_description simplified prospectus replaced by new summary prospectus for mutual fund delivery requirements in the United States. 601 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/vanguard-starts-rolling-out-eight-page-prospectuses-simplifying-things-for-investors/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-06 22:53:53 2010-04-07 03:53:53 1 pingback 0 0 602 neilsmurphy@gmail.com http://www.weighhouse.com 99.243.80.155 2010-04-07 07:21:57 2010-04-07 12:21:57 1 0 0 603 http://blog.stocksnmoney.com/can-i-move-a-mutual-fund-to-a-roth-ira-account-and-not-pay-any-taxes/ 72.167.232.132 2010-04-07 10:07:09 2010-04-07 15:07:09 1 pingback 0 0 604 http://aboutfunds.net/5181/vanguard-dividend-growth-fund-a-managers-view-of-the-markets/ 174.120.242.226 2010-04-07 10:22:58 2010-04-07 15:22:58 1 pingback 0 0 605 thickenmywallet@gmail.com http://www.thickenmywallet.com 99.253.244.32 2010-04-07 19:52:21 2010-04-08 00:52:21 1 0 0 606 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-04-07 21:41:14 2010-04-08 02:41:14 1 0 0 607 http://devblogr.com/facebook-application-development-%c2%bb-blog-archive-%c2%bb-who-uses/ 174.120.150.34 2010-04-08 00:17:52 2010-04-08 05:17:52 1 pingback 0 0
    Gold Plated Member of Parliament Pension Plans http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/gold-plated-member-of-parliament-pension-plans/ Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:38:05 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1970 the original article by Joan Bryden of The Canadian Press. Readers of this blog know that I rarely give a loud opinion, but this is madness. Government gluttony really has to stop. It used to be that you would get a lower income in exchange for great benefits and a good pension if serving the public. Today, not only can you make more than a private sector equivalent, you get a better pension and better benefits and better job security. A friend of mine who recently joined the government was telling me how his new co-workers gave him the evil eye if he didn't use up his sick days, even when he didn't need to. God forbid he works past 4:30pm - he might get lynched. I don't want to paint with broad strokes - I know there are many public servants who work very hard and deserve what they earn - but there are enough examples of mismanagement that warrant heightened scrutiny. Note: as a point of clarification, the MP pension scheme is different than the average public servant's pension which is actually paid into. Thanks to Big Cajun Man for his comment to those not familiar with government pensions - the vast majority of public servants do not have the gold plated plan described for MPs above.]]> 1970 2010-04-07 21:38:05 2010-04-08 02:38:05 open open gold-plated-member-of-parliament-pension-plans publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_last 1 _edit_lock 1270733911 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/wadofcash.jpg _headspace_description taxpayers fund gold plated pension plans of members of parliament who get a guaranteed rate of return 608 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/gold-plated-member-of-parliament-pension-plans/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-07 21:43:35 2010-04-08 02:43:35 1 pingback 0 0 609 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 205.194.74.10 2010-04-08 07:09:20 2010-04-08 12:09:20 1 0 0 610 Qffpillars@gmail.com http://Www.four-pillars.ca 24.114.232.37 2010-04-08 07:11:43 2010-04-08 12:11:43 1 0 0 611 bikergofast@gmail.com 192.75.47.13 2010-04-08 09:31:04 2010-04-08 14:31:04 1 0 0 612 AlexZ76@yahoo.com 68.147.92.83 2010-04-08 12:14:54 2010-04-08 17:14:54 1 0 0 613 brian.tabios@gmail.com 142.179.155.118 2010-04-08 13:54:06 2010-04-08 18:54:06 1 0 0 614 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/04/09/random-thoughts-a-financial-haiku/ 67.205.7.217 2010-04-09 01:13:45 2010-04-09 06:13:45 1 pingback 0 0 615 http://www.neurosoftware.ro/finance/insurance/money/friday-links-2/ 82.77.23.104 2010-04-09 06:15:11 2010-04-09 11:15:11 1 pingback 0 0 616 larry_b@shaw.ca 96.54.166.92 2010-04-09 14:53:08 2010-04-09 19:53:08 1 0 0 617 dlljay2@yahoo.com 69.158.97.164 2010-04-10 08:39:43 2010-04-10 13:39:43 1 0 0 618 oilnilllcf@live.com http://www.selljewelrytampa.com/about.html 117.254.121.71 2010-04-16 02:50:00 2010-04-16 07:50:00 1 0 0 619 http://www.islandpeoplesearch.com/blog/318/what-are-the-functions-of-caricom-single-market-and-economy/ 174.120.245.226 2010-04-18 18:33:30 2010-04-18 23:33:30 1 pingback 0 0 620 info@investitwisely.com http://www.investitwisely.com 216.252.86.119 2010-04-20 22:03:44 2010-04-21 03:03:44 1 0 0 iPhoneMacroJogging http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/my-new-iphone-macro/iphonemacrojogging/ Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:29:04 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPhoneMacroJogging.jpg 1977 2010-04-12 21:29:04 2010-04-13 02:29:04 open open iphonemacrojogging inherit 1974 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPhoneMacroJogging.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/04/iPhoneMacroJogging.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"229";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='125'";s:4:"file";s:30:"2010/04/iPhoneMacroJogging.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"iPhoneMacroJogging-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:30:"iPhoneMacroJogging-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"iPhoneMacroJogging-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} iPhoneMacroPhone http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/my-new-iphone-macro/iphonemacrophone/ Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:29:34 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPhoneMacroPhone.jpg 1978 2010-04-12 21:29:34 2010-04-13 02:29:34 open open iphonemacrophone inherit 1974 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPhoneMacroPhone.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/04/iPhoneMacroPhone.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"412";s:6:"height";s:3:"376";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='95' width='105'";s:4:"file";s:28:"2010/04/iPhoneMacroPhone.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"iPhoneMacroPhone-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"iPhoneMacroPhone-300x273.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"273";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:28:"iPhoneMacroPhone-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:26:"iPhoneMacroPhone-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} My New iPhone Macro http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/my-new-iphone-macro/ Tue, 13 Apr 2010 03:10:18 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1974 iPhoneMacroJogging

    Also, it's phone functions are best used on speakerphone because holding up the phone to my head is a bit of a balancing act, but necessary if you want to keep your calls private.

    iPhoneMacroPhone

    It's actually called the iPad...

    This was a total impulse buy. It was a beautiful day on Saturday and I felt like a mini road trip, so I hopped across the border and went to the Apple store in the Walden Galleria in Buffalo, New York. They were sold out of 16GB models before I got there, but the 32GB and 64GB models were still available. (I wonder if they only carried, like,  two of the 16GB in stock per store so that everyone would ante up for the higher priced models?). The price was $599USD (vs $499USD for the 16GB model). After tax it was pretty close to $650USD even. Then you also had to pay GST/PST when crossing back into Canada, which was another $85 CAD. (Yes, I had to pay GST/HST on the base price PLUS the New York State tax - a tax on tax! Boo to that. Make sure to check with vendors across the border if they will refund the tax at time of purchase - some do and some don't.)

    Assuming parity, we’ll call it a grand total of $735 CAD.  If we assume that the Canadian prices are the same at launch as the US prices, a Canadian bought 32GB iPad would be $599CAD + GST/PST of 13% for a total of $676.87.

    Canadian Pricing...?

    If the rumours are true that the prices will be $50 higher across the board, then we are looking at $733.37 after tax for that same model in Canada. Almost even to the $735 CAD I paid. But of course, there is the matter of the $40 in gas and $3.00 in tolls across the Fort Erie bridge to add in. So to be fair, I traded about $45 for being able to have the iPad (oh yeah, that’s the real name!) a few weeks early. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. This thing is pretty awesome. I prefer surfing the web on the iPad then on my desktop or laptop. Perhaps tomorrow I will give a bit of a review...

    Once it is launched in Canada, I’ll be giving one away on the blog… so stay tuned!

    ]]>
    1974 2010-04-12 22:10:18 2010-04-13 03:10:18 open open my-new-iphone-macro publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271129636 _edit_last 1 621 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/my-new-iphone-macro/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-12 22:10:51 2010-04-13 03:10:51 1 pingback 0 0 622 qffpillars@gmail.com http://www.four-pillars.ca 173.33.243.15 2010-04-12 22:32:33 2010-04-13 03:32:33 1 0 0 623 blog@mdwoptions.com http://blog.mdwoptions.com 24.13.84.30 2010-04-12 22:36:57 2010-04-13 03:36:57 1 0 0 624 chuppe@sympatico.ca 70.55.206.172 2010-04-13 04:21:34 2010-04-13 09:21:34 1 0 0 625 bigcajunman@gmail.com http://www.canajunfinances.com/ 205.194.74.10 2010-04-13 09:28:36 2010-04-13 14:28:36 1 0 0 626 budsmail@gmail.com 70.26.25.137 2010-04-13 14:34:21 2010-04-13 19:34:21 1 0 0 627 jr2walsh@gmail.com http://www.forallyourmortgageneeds.com 99.241.160.143 2010-04-13 19:25:02 2010-04-14 00:25:02 1 0 0 628 gene2u@mts.net 216.130.80.128 2010-04-18 00:11:36 2010-04-18 05:11:36 1 0 0 629 http://hearsay.bowflex-ultimate-2-home-gym.com/?p=39 174.123.63.130 2010-04-22 15:13:27 2010-04-22 20:13:27 1 pingback 0 0
    iPadPricing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ipad-review/ipadpricing/ Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:52:43 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPadPricing.png 1991 2010-04-13 19:52:43 2010-04-14 00:52:43 open open ipadpricing inherit 1990 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPadPricing.png _wp_attached_file 2010/04/iPadPricing.png _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"266";s:6:"height";s:3:"155";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='74' width='128'";s:4:"file";s:23:"2010/04/iPadPricing.png";s:5:"sizes";a:3:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"iPadPricing-150x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:23:"iPadPricing-266x150.png";s:5:"width";s:3:"266";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:21:"iPadPricing-90x90.png";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} iPadpic http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ipad-review/ipadpic/ Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:55:12 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPadpic.jpg 1992 2010-04-13 21:55:12 2010-04-14 02:55:12 open open ipadpic inherit 1990 0 attachment 0 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iPadpic.jpg _wp_attached_file 2010/04/iPadpic.jpg _wp_attachment_metadata a:6:{s:5:"width";s:3:"496";s:6:"height";s:3:"454";s:14:"hwstring_small";s:23:"height='96' width='104'";s:4:"file";s:19:"2010/04/iPadpic.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:4:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"iPadpic-150x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"150";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:6:"medium";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"iPadpic-300x274.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"300";s:6:"height";s:3:"274";}s:10:"Sidebar #1";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:19:"iPadpic-270x150.jpg";s:5:"width";s:3:"270";s:6:"height";s:3:"150";}s:10:"Sidebar #2";a:3:{s:4:"file";s:17:"iPadpic-90x90.jpg";s:5:"width";s:2:"90";s:6:"height";s:2:"90";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:10:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";}} iPad Review http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/ipad-review/ Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:56:04 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1990 iPad Models There are six models to choose from, but the only factors of differentiation are memory size (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) and whether or not it has WiFi or WiFi + 3G. 3G just refers to the ability to connect to the internet when you are not in the range of a wireless network. Here are the prices in the US:

    iPadPricing

    It should also be pointed out that if you want to take advantage of 3G services, you have to subscribe to a plan. Currently the only plans available are $14.99/month for 250MB of data or $29.99/month for unlimited data (this is through AT&T, the only service provider in the States). There are no contracts and you can activate the service right from your iPad - no need to call anyone or go into a store - and you can cancel anytime. Realistically, I can't imagine these price points and non-contract feature will trickle through to Canada, but the Canadian pricing has not been officially released yet.

    Do you need 3G service?

    In my opinion, no. Think of it this way: do you have a laptop with wifi? It does the trick, right? Right. No need for the monthly costs. Stick with a WiFi only model and save some money now and forever. There are apps available that allow you to cache web pages for future offline browsing.

    Do you even need an iPad, period?

    Funny that you ask. Just yesterday I ran into an old colleague and he said he was due for a new desktop and laptop computer and was trying to figure out if he needed a laptop now that the iPad was available. After playing with the iPad he realized that it was capable of doing about 95% of what he needed a laptop to do while he wasn't using his desktop. It would also be about 50-65% of the price of the laptop he was looking at getting. So to him, it makes sense. If you already have a laptop and desktop, you don't need an iPad - it would be just for cool factor and nothing more.

    What does an iPad do?

    Where to begin. The entire interface is built on a touch screen which encompasses the entire front of the device. It really is just like a giant iTouch (aka iPod Touch). The main difference is that it's much bigger which makes for a great experience. Any app you have for your iPhone or iPod Touch will migrate over once you plug it into your iTunes account, but the apps appear just as they do on your iPhone (i.e. small). You can double the size of these apps to use up the screen real estate, but they become pixelated. There is nothing different about them. The new iPad specific apps are gorgeous though, with much more functionality (hovering toolbars and pop-up windows). One of the central apps will be the iBookstore application which is Apple's ebook reader app. It is not available to Canadians yet (it's turned off for Canadian iTunes accounts so far). However, you can download the Amazon Kindle app where apparently, the same books are cheaper anyways. You can also plug it into your TV to watch movies and TV show you download from iTunes.

    What doesn't an iPad do?

    Lots. And it was probably designed that way to get a lot of recycled sales for the 2nd gen models to follow. It does not have a camera - so no video conferencing. It does not have USB ports. It does not work as a phone (out of the box anyways). You can simply get the Skype app and use it as a phone, but only as a speakerphone. I have a Skype Out account so I can make unlimited calls to computers and phone in North America for a whopping $2.95/month.  But since Skype In accounts are not available in Canada, you can only receive calls from computers, not landlines. The iPad has become our new home phone line and we don't have regular home phone service anymore.

    So what's the verdict on the iPad?

    If you are looking for a new laptop and you already have a desktop for the heavy lifting applications, I recommend it. It's pretty rare that someone needs a full laptop and a full desktop. If you don't want a desktop and are wondering about laptop versus iPad: get the laptop. It wouldn't replace a smartphone because it is too cumbersome, and isn't a real, fully functional phone. So essentially, it's a cool gadget but you don't need one. Having said that, it is a dream to use and to surf the web with. It's very intuitive and the ingenuity of the app designers is pretty much unlimited these days. I've been using it for meetings for presenting powerpoint presentations to small groups of people, or individuals - and it is very useful in this capacity. It turns on instantly and you can pull up a presentation and have it running in literally 5 seconds. It's definitely a winner. But you don't NEED it. Perhaps you should just wait for my contest to launch for a chance to win a FREE iPad. Stay tuned... :)]]>
    1990 2010-04-13 21:56:04 2010-04-14 02:56:04 open open ipad-review publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271214095 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/iPadpic.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/iPadpic.jpg _headspace_description iPad in Canada pricing and specifications 630 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/ipad-review/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-13 22:14:05 2010-04-14 03:14:05 1 pingback 0 0 631 http://ipad.reolab.com/?p=1999 174.120.170.98 2010-04-13 23:58:35 2010-04-14 04:58:35 1 pingback 0 0 632 holypotato@gmail.com http://www.holypotato.net 174.91.173.53 2010-04-14 13:51:53 2010-04-14 18:51:53 1 0 0 633 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com 99.254.229.90 2010-04-14 19:23:53 2010-04-15 00:23:53 1 632 0 634 http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/shoppers-drug-mart-clutter-budgets-and-more.htm 64.131.72.71 2010-04-16 05:31:49 2010-04-16 10:31:49 1 pingback 0 0 635 szussino@gmail.com http://www.groceryalerts.ca/ 96.50.96.245 2010-04-16 11:13:02 2010-04-16 16:13:02 1 0 0 636 bweselake@shaw.ca 24.79.236.238 2010-04-16 17:31:16 2010-04-16 22:31:16 1 0 0 637 krisbee99@hotmail.com 207.134.76.50 2010-04-22 10:23:27 2010-04-22 15:23:27 1 0 0 638 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-interest-rates-etf-clutter-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-04-22 15:47:40 2010-04-22 20:47:40 1 pingback 0 0 639 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/this-and-that-interest-rates-etf-clutter-and-more/ 75.119.202.206 2010-04-22 15:47:39 2010-04-22 20:47:39 1 pingback 0 0 640 http://www.moneysense.ca/2010/04/22/this-and-that-interest-rates-etf-clutter-and-more%e2%80%a6/ 204.225.248.52 2010-04-23 06:42:25 2010-04-23 11:42:25 1 pingback 0 0
    Name That Visionary... and win a 32GB iPhone 3GS http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/name-that-visionary-and-win-a-32gb-iphone-3gs/ Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:24:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=1998 Advisor.ca is a website geared towards financial advisors that is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. One contest it is holding promises the winner a 32GB iPhone 3GS (service plan not included).

    Name That Visionary

    To enter, all you have to do is submit up to 10 nominations on an online form indicating your choice(s) for people who are going to change the advisor universe over the next 10 years. This will take place in two phases. First they will gather the nominations to determine the top 10 names, then readers will vote again to determine the ranking of the top 10. Who is the industry's top visionary? It's up to you to help figure that out. Each name you submit can earn you a ballot in the draw for a 32GB iPhone 3GS. Brief explanation of contest: click here. Official rules: click here.

    To enter the contest: CLICK HERE.

    ]]>
    1998 2010-04-14 19:24:20 2010-04-15 00:24:20 open open name-that-visionary-and-win-a-32gb-iphone-3gs publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271292742 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/2008/09/50dollarbillwrapped220.jpg 641 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/name-that-visionary-and-win-a-32gb-iphone-3gs/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-14 20:05:42 2010-04-15 01:05:42 1 pingback 0 0 642 p.r.doyle@gmail.com http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/ 199.246.40.54 2010-04-15 08:09:56 2010-04-15 13:09:56 1 0 0 643 marianne.ono@ontario.ca 142.106.220.190 2010-04-15 12:37:40 2010-04-15 17:37:40 1 0 0 644 preet.banerjee@gmail.com http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.co 66.212.184.146 2010-04-19 12:02:21 2010-04-19 17:02:21 1 0 0
    Changes And Facebook Fan Pages http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/changes/ Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:22:23 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=2001 1. Facebook Fan Page for the WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com I have a personal facebook page but I only accept friend requests from people I know for privacy reasons. I'm sure I also have friends on facebook who couldn't give a rats ass about the NAV decay in leveraged ETFs. Therefore I will be removing the blog feed from my private facebook page and moving it over to a specific Fan Page for the blog. If you want to keep up to date with new blog posts on WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com please click here. You will now get blog updates on your facebook account.

    2. Facebook Fan Page for Preet Banerjee

    Since I will be potentially hosting my own show on the W Network, I will be gearing some new content to a more mainstream audience. Let's be serious - most people won't find what I write on WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com to be essential reading. Sometimes it gets too technical for the casual investor. I'll be creating a new blog in the future that is more mainstream (and keeping WDAMMG what it is - although that may get rebranded in the future as well). The new blog content will be fed to the Preet Banerjee Fan Page along with more personal updates and other mainstream content. I'll have other content, like photos from the TV sets and updates on what I'm going from time to time that may not be specifically money-related on that Fan Page. If you would like to become a fan on facebook of "Preet Banerjee" click here. Thanks everyone! The pages will be a bit sparse for the next 24 hours, but will slowly have content added. Banerjee... OUT]]>
    2001 2010-04-18 21:22:23 2010-04-19 02:22:23 open open changes publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271644389 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/audition220.gif 645 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/changes/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-18 21:39:38 2010-04-19 02:39:38 1 pingback 0 0 646 http://san-mateo-county.cacountyrealestate.com/are-the-new-mortgage-disclosures-adding-transparency/ 174.120.246.34 2010-04-19 15:26:29 2010-04-19 20:26:29 1 pingback 0 0 647 http://san-mateo-county.cacountyrealestate.com/are-the-new-mortgage-disclosures-adding-transparency/ 174.120.246.34 2010-04-19 15:26:30 2010-04-19 20:26:30 1 pingback 0 0
    Iceland's Smoke Monster http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/icelands-smoke-monster/ Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:35:40 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=2007 2007 2010-04-19 16:35:40 2010-04-19 21:35:40 open open icelands-smoke-monster publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271713265 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/coinstacks220.gif _headspace_description volcanic ash cloud highlights fragility of some travellers' financial situations 648 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/icelands-smoke-monster/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-19 16:37:22 2010-04-19 21:37:22 1 pingback 0 0 649 http://www.canajunfinances.com/2010/04/23/random-thoughts-happy-earth-day/ 67.205.7.217 2010-04-23 01:35:25 2010-04-23 06:35:25 1 pingback 0 0 Detailed Explanation of HST for Business Owners http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/detailed-explanation-of-hst-for-business-owners/ Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:59:20 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=2012 HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) Explained Youtube video series: click here. Powerpoint presentation deck: click here.]]> 2012 2010-04-20 20:59:20 2010-04-21 01:59:20 open open detailed-explanation-of-hst-for-business-owners publish 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271998230 _edit_last 1 home_feature_photo http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif post_thumbnail http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/storage/calculatorandmoney220.gif _headspace_description HST Harmonized Sales Tax explained for business owners 650 http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2&url=http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/detailed-explanation-of-hst-for-business-owners/ 208.74.66.43 2010-04-20 21:09:37 2010-04-21 02:09:37 1 pingback 0 0 651 http://www.generalledgersoftware.net/here-are-the-reasons-why-blogging-should-be-an-important-part-of-your-business/ 74.220.215.215 2010-04-21 06:18:51 2010-04-21 11:18:51 1 pingback 0 0 652 http://www.blogconglomerate.com/headlining-news/clear-sky-clock-homepage.html 69.89.31.142 2010-04-23 10:04:19 2010-04-23 15:04:19 1 pingback 0 0 653 http://webtrafficsiphon.com/1186/make-money-online-with-traffic-exchange-websites/ 174.120.136.194 2010-04-24 03:32:54 2010-04-24 08:32:54 1 pingback 0 0 654 http://webtrafficsiphon.com/5012/im-looking-for-paranormal-questionscommentsstories-to-feature-on-our-website/ 174.120.136.194 2010-04-25 01:54:05 2010-04-25 06:54:05 1 pingback 0 0 655 http://samotech.net/?p=529 64.128.190.65 2010-04-25 06:10:20 2010-04-25 11:10:20 1 pingback 0 0 A Lap Of The Blogs http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/a-lap-of-the-blogs/ Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:12:52 +0000 http://www.wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/?p=2016 2016 2010-04-22 23:12:52 2010-04-23 03:12:52 open open a-lap-of-the-blogs trash 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1271995975 _edit_last 1 _wp_trash_meta_status draft _wp_trash_meta_time 1272206401 Hello world! http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/hello-world/ Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:24:44 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=1 1 2010-04-24 02:24:44 2010-04-24 02:24:44 open open hello-world trash 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1272083330 _edit_last 1 _wp_trash_meta_status publish _wp_trash_meta_time 1272206396 _wp_trash_meta_comments_status a:1:{i:1;s:1:"1";} 1 http://wordpress.org/ 2010-04-24 02:24:44 2010-04-24 02:24:44 To delete a comment, just log in and view the post's comments. There you will have the option to edit or delete them.]]> post-trashed 0 0 About http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/about/ Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:24:44 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?page_id=2 2 2010-04-24 02:24:44 2010-04-24 02:24:44 open open about publish 0 0 page 0 _edit_lock 1272209064 _edit_last 1 _wp_page_template default _genesis_layout full-width-content Testing http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/testing/ Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:31:57 +0000 http://www.bondsareforlosers.com/?p=4 4 2010-04-24 00:31:57 2010-04-24 04:31:57 open open testing trash 0 0 post 0 _edit_lock 1272083518 _edit_last 1 _wp_trash_meta_status publish _wp_trash_meta_time 1272206396