February's Great Reads
Winter weather often brings blankets, fireplaces, and hot drinks. While you’re thawing your toes, you may feel inclined to dream a little, and I have the reads for you to do just that. Dreams about retirement, and who you might be when you stop working, are right up my alley.
If you find yourself in dreams that present themselves as reality - like forecasts on anything from sports to financial markets - I hope you’ll treat them like entertainment rather than hard truths. If your dreams start leading you down dark paths, with nightmares of recessions, I invite you to take a page from the book of Kitty and Piggy, who ask you to focus on managing only that which sits firmly in your areas of control.
The full list of great reads has some fabulous writing, including three by my colleagues in the Advice Only Planners Forum. I hang out with them for good reasons! Whether you’re wondering about Canadian Equity ETFs, the Canada Pension Plan, Optimizing Government Benefits, or why so many finance folks were crying on Twitter when Jack Bogle died, there are many answers - and quite a few questions - for you to consider.
How Retirement Changes Your Identity
From Teresa Amabile
Who are you when you’re not working? Fascinating research on the transition of self-identity when work ends (and a reminder that you don’t have to wait until retirement to decouple your fundamental sense of self and purpose from wage earning!)
Read the full article here.
Delusions
From Josh Brown
On forecasts (sports, economics, matters, and otherwise):
“There’s nothing wrong with being entertained by information, and to enjoy making and receiving predictions based on it. If we have to make decisions about the future, some information is better than no information. But the extrapolation – that even more information would be better than just some, and having the most information would be better than even more, and so on – it simply doesn’t work this way.”
Read the full article here.
Ask the Bitches: How Do I Prepare for a Recession?
From Kitty
“If the thought of a recession still keeps you up at night, remind yourself that you have no control over what the broader economy does. Everything from weather and agriculture to politics and war influences the global economy. That shit is beyond you.
What you do have control of is yourself. Be prudent and thoughtful in your passive preparations for lean times. Then sit back, relax, and let life deal whatever bumps it may.”
Read the full article here.
You can read this month's entire list below:
Understanding Canadian Equity ETFs | Justin Bender
A remarkably clear look at what’s going on inside the different Canadian Equity ETFs. Looking forward to the rest of this series!
Common Investment Mistakes by Retirees | Jason Heath
An outstanding summary of some seductive ideas to think critically about in retirement, like dividend investing, claiming CPP early if you have enough savings, and too much in unrealized capital gains.
Optimizing Your Government Benefits: Both Now and In Retirement | Owen Winkelmolen
A great one-stop list of the different income-tested benefits available to Ontarians and the thresholds to watch for if you want to maximize them.
On Jack Bogle (1929-2019) | Jason Zweig
A collection of almost everything Jason Zweig has written over the years about Vanguard’s founder and the father of indexing, Jack Bogle. Bogle passed away in January, and was inflexible in his championing of low-cost investing.
Making a Plan: With a Sketch and a Whole Lot of Stretch | Chris Enns
“A plan is not a strict schedule that I must adhere to, but an exercise in which I use my imagination to sketch a version of the future which helps me answer one question: what should I do next?”
10 Things Investors Can Expect in 2019 | Ben Carlson
An almost word for word repeat of Ben’s column of (almost) the same name in 2018, and the only forecast worth paying close attention to.