There are two key investment strategies that all folks need to have, that are obvious, but rarely ever spoken about. The second strategy is the one that most folks seem to forget about.
A Buy Strategy
Why are you buying? What is the reason you are investing? Is this for a retirement fund, emergency fund, or just savings in your TFSA ? You need to answer that question and that is the cornerstone of your buy strategy.
When are you going to buy can be important, but market timing isn’t going to work out. When are you going to start investing is more important in your buy strategy.
What are you going to buy? Stocks, mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, and GICs are just some of the investment vehicles you can use to invest your money. Depending on what you buy, you will then need to think about how often and when you buy.
How much are you going to buy? How much money do you have to invest? Another important aspect of your buy strategy.
The other aspect of your key investment strategies is one that far too many folks don’t have.
What are serial refinancers ? These are folks who keep consolidating their debt with consolidation loans, but never deal with the core issue of why they can’t stop getting farther into debt. Much like serial murder, this is bad!
My wife found a great article about RDSPs, What happens to our sons and daughters with disabilities when we die from Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network. The title is quite literally what most parents of kids with disabilities wake up worrying about at 2 AM (or at least the ones I have spoken to). It points out that the RDSP program has only a 29% participation rate (for folks who have DTCs), which is depressing. What is the cause of this? Maybe it is hard to set up, or maybe folks aren’t aware of it? I asked my Member or Parliament that question, haven’t heard anything back.
Easter is here, and for most of us it is a time of reflection and then a feast. If you are not so inclined remember it can be a time of reflection and starting new things like:
Seeing which credit cards you don’t use, and then cancelling them. I don’t want to hear from anyone about how this hurts your credit score, that is nonsense. If it does, you have 1 less way to get further in debt, so it is a fair swap.
Look at your health situation, and then plan an exercise or diet regimen (that you can live with for the rest of your life) and implement it. You can plan your retirement all you want, but if you are dead before it happens, you have wasted your time.
An easy one is look at all the worrying you did in the past little while, did it change anything, aside from ruining a good night sleep? Maybe it is time to find a way to stop that? Talk to a professional if you really have problems in this area (I speak from experience).
Farewell Rusty, hope you hit them all over the Right Field Scoreboard at Parc Jarry
While my beloved Montreal Expos still are not on the field, I am starting to become a Blue Jays fan (don’t worry I will never be a Blue Team Hockey fan, my Montreal DNA will not allow it). Hope the games speed up a bit this year, I am tired of watching 4 hour games.
Didn’t write much this week. I have started a whole bunch of things, but nothing worth reading yet. I keep meaning to finish my writing, but life does get busy.
Micro Blogging on Finance
A heart wrenching story about what folks have to do day-to-day just to keep their kids safe.
While you ponder upcoming #elections and think about #taxes or #leadership, ponder this… https://t.co/qDhvEEQqiK … Callum's family is paying 7 different respite workers to help their son, he can't go to school because he isn't safe. This needs to change, NOW!
“As of December 31, 2016, approximately 29% of Canadians aged 0 to 49 who were eligible to claim the DTC had opened an RDSP.” – Those are folks that HAVE the DTC , WHY such a low usage? @ChandraNepean those numbers need to change – Banks don't care, why? https://t.co/it0nmTda7apic.twitter.com/raSGcecX4t
Spring is here ? That is a question most of us are asking in Ottawa. Previous years we have had warmer temps and things starting to grow, but not yet this year. For those thinking financially, good time to start thinking about doing your taxes, and what to do with your refund, if you are getting one. Possibly the RRSP to TFSA pas de deux?
Saw this in My Backyard, I think I agree
Will you be removing your Facebook account? Remember that we are on Facebook as well, but yeh lots of folks are talking about Facebook betraying them? Really? What did you think they were going to do with all the data they had? You were all Facebook had to sell, and that is their business. Yes, I have a Facebook account, yes I share photos and make personal quips on it, but do they have all my data? I hope not.
A more colon tightening expression could not have been thought up, yet I received an email with the title, “3 Reasons Your Retirement Is One Big Math Problem”. If you are trying to convince people they can’t do their own retirement planning, that is the headline you want. People are paranoid about anything to do with Math, and will run from it like a frightened deer, if it is mentioned. The headline while truthful is almost a false flag to convince them they need to get a retirement financial advisor. No, you don’t need that, it’s arithmetic really, which wasn’t that hard, was it?
What do I have planned for the coming personal finance year? Not sure, still working on that.
My Recent Writings
I am still astounded it has been 13 years since I started writing here, but Still Financially Crazy after 13 Years does outline some of my favorite topics. There are more than 3000 articles here, need to make it easier for you folks to be able to find them, I think.
K. Trevor Wilson is a very good comedian, and not a bad financial advisor, as I point out in More Financial Advice from a Comedian. It really is cheaper to go see a comedian than it is to go to a financial advisor, think about it.
Micro Blogging on Finance
I am trying a small experiment with the tag #FinancialDeepThoughts where I precurse something from my archives with a quote from a smart person. See what you think.
"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."
