June's Great Reads
I've got a monster reading list for you this month, and I'm still fighting that nagging feeling that there was way more good stuff out there than I managed to catch.
If you've got the time, scroll through the entire list down there at the bottom, and catch Preet Banerjee's conversation with Dan Hallett (especially around minute 40), Dan Bortolotti's advice for people rebalancing a Couch Potato portfolio across multiple accounts, and Bob French's game where you have to guess which chart of daily stock moves is Netflix and which is the a random old coin toss. You won't be sorry.
Let's dig in to June's Great Reads:
When Your Financial Plan Gets Thrown Out the Window
From Ben Carlson, a guy who clearly has his financial house in order, a reflection on how his family priorities have changed now that he and his wife have brought home twins, including this gem (the italics are all mine, naturally):
"Normal personal finance advice works. Beyond a good savings rate to give us some wiggle room the simple personal finance principles such as avoiding credit card debt, paying down our mortgage debt, living below our means, having a good credit score, etc. didn’t seem to matter until they really mattered. This stuff seems boring but it can be extremely helpful when you really need it.”
Read Ben's entire piece here, especially if pictures of sweet, wee little babies are your thing (they so are).
These are the most common myths about bankruptcy in Canada
From Scott Terrio, who's running one of the most informative Twitter accounts I follow right now, a good primer on the things we hear from our friend's friend about bankruptcy and accept as truth.
Knowing what your rights and options really are before you run into financial trouble might help you make better decisions in the teeth of it. Scott's list includes myths like losing your house or job if you file for bankruptcy and what happens to outstanding taxes or your spouse's credit score.
It does not, unfortunately, include this gem, which I've taken the opportunity to remedy:
Read Scott's post in Maclean's magazine here.
How to Start Investing in Your Canadian Actors' Equity Group RRSP
From my friend John Robertson, on my other friend Chris Enn's blog From Rags to Reasonable, an all-round top of the line post about how to get over the burning need to make the perfect choice from a list of mutual funds in a group RRSP or Defined Contribution Pension Plan and just do it already.
Although John writes some specific advice to members of the Equity Group RRSP, everyone who's even slightly nonplussed by the options available in their plan and letting that stop them from making any choice at all for fear of being wrong should read this.
"Few of them are what you find in the model portfolios you see in The Value of Simple or funds that everyone talks about on Reddit or in MoneySense. Remember that picking something and getting enrolled is far preferable to picking nothing while you try to research to identify the “optimal” fund (or mix of funds)."
Read the rest here (Also, who's excited that Chris is coming back soon from his Grand European Tour? All of us? Thought so.)