I love my reading list this month, I really do. I know I say that almost every month, but guys: there’s some real gold in here for everyone, whether you’re spending the month of August toiling away at work like you do every month, relaxing in a canoe or on a beach somewhere, or panicking because if we round up, summer’s practically over and we might as well pull out our winter coats already (just me?)

Some of the gold is meaning of life stuff (like this piece on taking a break, or this piece from my friend James Osborne on the social pressure to look successful). Some of it is pretty deep retirement theory (like this mathematically dense and so fascinating look at whether randomized portfolio projections overstate the risk that retirees will have to adjust their portfolio withdrawals), and still more gold waiting to be discovered in tools for people who do things for themselves (like this comprehensive discount brokerage comparison tool and this post from my good friend John on estimating whether you’re on track for retirement or not.)

As always, the entire list is down there after the top three, so let's dig in:

Money Lessons from my Oma's Tomatoes

From Chris Enns

First, let me just get this out there: I might have cried a little over the memory of my grandparents’ garden when I read this. NO, YOU’RE CRYING.

I struggle with the idea of telling clients to spend less, although I do it because sometimes it’s the right prescription. The language around it is hard stuff, though, which is where Chris’ post comes in. It’s not on this list because of nostalgia, powerful though it may be; it’s here because of the elegantly simple turn of phrase in the very last section that is about to go into heavy rotation in client meetings where this conversation is on the table. I’m not even going to spoil it for you, you just have to read the story from start to finish.

Read the full article here.

Why Judging the Poor Isn’t Actually Helping Anybody

From Ashley C. Ford

Ashley Ford is one of my favourite writers, and her Instagram is so funny and real and tender that you’ll be a better person for seeing it.

This post from Ashley isn’t only about fEeLiNgs (although I’d be A-OK if it was “just” that), it’s about catching a glimpse of what life looks like for people who aren’t like us, so that when we look at what’s broken in the world and what our role is in patching it up, our perspective is wider than just the experiences we’ve personally confronted.

Read the full article here.

What’s New With My Model ETF Portfolios (and Why?)

From Justin Bender

Tax efficient asset allocation and selection across accounts is HARD, folks. It’s one of the decisions that people who pay for investment management are (supposed to be) getting for their higher fees (whether they’re getting it consistently or accurately is another conversation for another time).

If you’re keen on doing it yourself, you probably already know who Justin Bender at Canadian Portfolio Manager is. If by some weird twist of fate you’re trying to allocate your own DIY index portfolio and don’t know Justin...get thee to CPM.

His latest update is poorly titled, frankly. It should be called “How to not tear out your hair if you’re managing your own portfolio and you have significant non-registered investments.” Yeah, that’s definitely a better title. I spy a new side-gig for yours truly.

Read the full article here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

Take a Break: The Importance of Rest and Relaxation | Kitty

"New tasks have rushed in to fill our empty hours—and very few of them are leisure" 

Shame, Status and the American Dream | James Osborne

"How many Americans would think 'Wow, good for them. They have figured out what makes them happy and are spending/saving money in that way.' Can’t say I think it would be many." 

Can currency-hedged ETFs protect you? | Dan Bortolotti

"It pays to settle on a long-term strategy and stick to it even if it occasionally suffers over shorter periods." 

Fat Tails In Monte Carlo Analysis vs Safe Withdrawal Rates | Michael Kitces

 A dense but very worthwhile read for anyone interested in retirement income research, the 4% rule, sequence of return risk, Monte Carlo simulations, and safe withdrawal rates (so, maybe four of us) 

Baby Boomers Will Live Long But Might Not Prosper | Ben Carlson

"People exhibit a decline in cognitive abilities over time that leads to a decrease in investment performance and financial literacy skills as they age. Older investors also prefer more certainty, meaning lower equity exposure, which could be a problem with increased time horizons and the need to keep up with inflation over the long haul. It’s also difficult for older people to see their own decline in financial skills and abilities." 

Arguments Against Index Investing | Michael James

"The passive versus active debate isn’t going away any time soon. There are too many people who make their livings from expensive mutual funds to expect them to just give up." 

Canada's Best Online Brokerages 2017 | Money Sense

Compare online brokerages side-by-side. 

A Framework for Estimating “Am I On Track?” | John Robertson

"we just want to get a ballpark idea of whether we’re on track or not, and we want to do it ourselves with a whiteboard and spreadsheet" 

Should I use the institution's internal “ombudsman“? | Ken Kivenko

"The firm may “encourage” you to use their internal "ombudsman". The banks and insurers have created these entities to give the institution a second chance. We view the diversion from regulator-approved OBSI as an unnecessary step"

This list of questions at the end is pointed--fierce, even. And the answers (or, more likely, no -answers, will tell you all you need to know about whether you should skip the "ombudsman" and take your complaint directly to the Ombudsman. 

Another monster list for your July reading pleasure. These top three are the ones you shouldn't miss, but the whole list is down there...I'm sure you'll find something interesting on retirement income satisfaction, how to handle a windfall, surviving close encounters of the banking kind, how the 4% rule works outside of the US (where most of the retirement income research has come from), and the first article I've read about market bubbles that didn't blame it on fear and greed (plus more...lots more).

Let's dig in:

FAIR Canada Submits Brief to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance

Frustrated by the recent stories about high-pressure, unethical sales practices at Canadian Banks? (For a refresher, here's the first one on CBC Go Public) FAIR Canada (Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights) has submitted recommendations to make banking fairer for consumers, including:

"a requirement for a best interest standard that includes acting fairly, honestly, and with a duty of loyalty to the client and avoiding conflicts of interest. A best interest standard would combat the proliferation of harmful products, damaging sales practices and financial incentives not in the client’s interest, would remove structural conflicts of interest (notably embedded commissions) and require banks to adapt their business practices so that employees no longer prioritize sales over the interest of the consumer.”

And for those of you who want the committee to act on FAIR's recommendations, here's the list of MPs who serve as members  or associate members and how to contact them. 

Read the full brief from FAIR Canada here.

Build your own financial planning spreadsheet

From Lars Kroijer, an <insert your own superlative here, because I'm running out> series in which he literally builds an incredibly practical spreadsheet in front of your eyes, complete with commentary and mistakes that he corrects in real time. Watching his screencasts has made me a better planner, and even if you ultimately don't use the spreadsheet for planning, just copying what he's doing will make you smarter about your own money.

Watch them all here.

The Subjectivity of Wealth, Or: Don't Tell Me What's Expensive

From Piggy at Bitches get Riches, a(nother) smart and saucy reminder:

"If you lack the empathy to be able to imagine financial circumstances more dire than your own, perhaps you should retire from polite society and eat your avocado toast in silence...

"Fortune does not smile equally upon us all. If you started your life healthy, debt-free, and unfettered by familial financial obligations, you should count yourself lucky. And yes, you can acknowledge that luck while still taking pride in your accomplishments. But the fact remains that sometimes the only thing separating you from a poorer but equally talented, driven, and worthy person is an accident of birth."

Read the rest here.

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.)

It's great to be back in the reading saddle again, and have I got some outstanding pieces for you!

For those of you who are new around these parts, I'm a reader. (My friend Noel asked me the other day if I'd gotten to the last page of the internet yet. I haven't, but I'm working on it.) I curate what I read and send it out into the world on Twitter, but like to come back to my list at the end of the month and pick out some of the most interesting, thought-provoking pieces and share them in one place

.In the past, this monthly exercise went out to email subscribers only, which just seemed selfish of me. From now on you can expect a couple of good reads to get you through the month right here on the regular.

Let's dig in:

Bond Basics 3: Should You Wait for Higher Yields?

From Dan Bortolotti, a simple answer to a question I know you're asking: "With yields so low now, is it even worth it to invest in bonds? Wouldn't I be better off waiting until interest rates go up?"

Read Dan's response here, and while you're at it, listen to the podcast episode he released on the same topic here.

Why is it so hard to close the gender wage gap?

From Kate McInturff, and with the help of two monkeys named Fred and Ginger who are returning pebbles in return for delicious grapes (for Fred) and blah cucumbers (for Ginger), we have this:

"He did his task. He got the grape. Clearly he is a wiz with the pebble. Who knows what Ginger is up to? Don’t tell Fred he doesn’t deserve his grape or that the grape was merely the result of luck on his part. No one wants to hear that.Consider that 74% of members of parliament have lived a lifetime of getting grapes. Not to mention 98% of the top 100 CEOs in Canada. Add in three-quarters of all senior managers in the country.

This may go some way towards explaining why it is so very difficult to convince those with the power to do so to close the wage gap."

Read the rest here

So I Got Chickens

From Kitty at Bitches get Riches, a smart and saucy reminder:

"Life is about more than financial optimization. Financial optimization frees you to make interesting, irrational choices about how to spend your time on Earth. One day I will lay upon my deathbed (hopefully in the air conditioned apartment with a good wifi signal supplied to me by those thoughtful lions). I will look back across my life and think of all the choices that I made."

Read the rest here (No, seriously. You need to get acquainted with Kitty and Piggy.)

Normally on the first or second Tuesday of the month I'm compiling and sending out a Top Three email to subscribers, highlighting the latest collection of thought-provoking, or informative posts on investing, the finance industry, retirement planning, or budgeting that stood out for me as I read.

(If this is news to you, you can subscribe over there in the sidebar, or down at the bottom of this post if you're on mobile.)

I didn't send it out this month, what with the launch of season three of Because Money, the rapidly-approaching public launch of the new and improved Canadian online investing fee calculator (which currently lives on a public Google sheet but is moving to its own website on November 20th), and some important client work that just has to take precedence over my more extravagant reading tendencies. (Who am I kidding? It's all important.) 

I have a list of over a hundred articles, blog posts, and journal papers published in November that I didn't get to but will still read through and combine for the Top Three email in December, but in the meantime I'll leave you with two related things that are making me think today: 

Why I (Kinda, Sorta, Sometimes) Hate Calling Myself a Minimalist, by Cait Flanders

Cait is one of the most thoughtful writers online right now, and if you haven't read her stuff before, this post is a great example of the kind of personal growth she's transparently sharing, and one (of many) that resonated deeply with me. 

Here's Cait, on minimalism as a privilege: 

Even my personal definition of what minimalism means to me is a privilege. Being able to decide what adds value to your life and letting go of what doesn’t – how fortunate am I to be in the position to apply that to any area of my life!? If my diet is making me feel bad, I can walk into a grocery store and buy better food. If the work I do is leaving me unfulfilled, I can find other work. If I need/want to learn a new skill, I can take a class. The list goes on and on.

And, from Frances Woolley in the Globe and Mail: 

November is financial literacy month. Canadians are being advised: Start with a budget. It is about as effective as declaring National Fat Shaming month, and advising Canadians: Start with a diet. Saving money, like losing weight, requires fundamental lifestyle changes. But it is hard for anyone to change the way that they live.

You see, we money writers, planners, and coaches are often blind to the privilege we enjoy, and are quick to judge the choices other people make on the scales of our own affluence. Our lack of empathy for people who struggle with concepts that come easily to us translates into contempt and hopelessness when the actions we prescribe turn out to be harder to follow than we make them out to be.

It translates into people not asking for advice, because they're positive they've made too many mistakes to bother. 

It translates into a laser-like focus on optimizing our money and an iron-clad list Things That Are Good (emergency funds, DIY investing) and Things That Are Bad (credit cards, except if rewards points are involved and affiliate commissions are available).

It translates into advice for where people should be, instead of for where they are. 

Looking back, I've often been blithely ignorant of my own privilege many times as I've written, tweeted, or laughed my way through a blog post or podcast episode. I've given clients advice that they aren't yet equipped to follow, instead of focusing on the next right thing. I think I'm getting better at treating people with empathy and starting from where they are, but there's lots of work to do.

The easy finance answers we sell, most starting with that terrible four-letter word "just", as in "just start budgeting" or "just stop using a credit card", might only be easy for people who grew up on an economic spectrum with access to resources and opportunities, or with employed parents and fairly decent money habits, or with healthy bodies and minds.

As we hand out advice, let's remember that we are where we are because of where we came from, and - almost certainly - because of an incredible amount of luck. Let's not chalk it up solely to personal achievement without acknowledging the privilege that made it possible.