All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Sell everything? Consider these costs and drawbacks first

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Depositphotos_14227153_s-2015My latest Financial Post blog addresses the controversial call earlier this week from the Royal Bank of Scotland to “sell everything.” Click on this headline for the blog: If you try to time the market to sell everything you have to time it to get back in.

In a nutshell there are both commissions and taxes to consider. It all depends on whether you’re in discount brokers, full-service brokerages or use Managed Money, and the split between Registered and Non-Registered Funds. It’s going to cost much more to liquidate individual stocks in a taxable portfolio than a single “Go anywhere” global ETF held in registered accounts. And depending on the kind of mutual funds you own, the costs could be negligible or significant.

Guess what Buffett isn’t doing right now

See also an excellent piece by investment writer Dan Solin that ran in today’s Huffington Post: What Warren Buffett isn’t doing. For starters, he’s not listening to media pundits. As Solin points out, the financial media loves market crashes because it creates fear and anxiety, hence more TV ratings or web traffic. And the more people panic by “selling everything,” the more commissions generated for the financial industry, as we demonstrated above.

If anything, people should be considering buying if markets sag much further, the very opposite of selling everything. But that’s a topic for another day. Generally, though refer to the series of videos we’ve been running the last few months, including the one earlier today titled Winning the Loser’s Game, part 5.

Happy volatile New Year! How to cope with turbulent markets

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Stock and fear concept on grunge backgroundAs I observe in my latest Financial Post blog, it’s not been the happiest of new years for investors heavily invested in equities. See How to play the market’s ugly start to the New Year: Top up your tax-free savings with ‘Bargains for the Brave.’ It ran on Wednesday.

Coincidentally, earlier that day the Hub ran the latest FWB TV video, on the timely topic of the difficulty of timing the markets, even if you’re a major economist like John Maynard Keynes.

See No one can time the market consistently.

That said, global shares have now been falling for six days as of Thursday and futures looked bleak for US markets, as Shanghai shares fell 7% and Chinese stock trading was suspended in less than a half hour after the market open: the second suspension in a week. European shares were down too. It certainly looks “ugly,” as one hedge fund manager told Reuters.

Watch my Twitter feed over the day for market updates. You can also see my latest tweets off to the right side of the Hub’s main page.

In the meantime, it may time to take a deep breath and put things into a long-term perspective. Here’s what regular Hub contributor Adrian Mastracci has to say on the current volatility.

Reduce effects of market jitters

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.”
— Jonathan Kozel, writer and educator.

 Continue Reading…

Time to top up your TFSA by another $5,500

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Canadian Tax-Free Savings Account concept with a piggy bank against black backgroundHere’s my first FP blog of 2016: How to find the money to max out your TFSA in January to make the most of your tax-free savings.

As intimated in the Hub’s New Year’s Day post on Friday, it’s about the first major investing action you can take in 2016: topping up your Tax-free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) by an additional $5,500 (down from $10,000 in 2015.)

On a personal note, since we eat our own cooking here at the Hub, I made contributions for myself and my wife on Friday. Depending on how you execute the transfers, this may or may not be an instantaneous process.

Transfers may not be instantaneous

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Review: The Longevity Revolution

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41s55U65qaL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_One of the most useful books I read in preparation for a recent talk I gave on longevity was The Longevity Revolution, published in 2008 by Robert N. Butler, M.D. Apart from being a Pulitzer Prize winner, Dr. Butler is also the founder of the International Longevity Centre.

The book is subtitled The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life. Butler observes that in less than 100 years, human beings have made greater gains in life expectancy than it did in the preceding 50 centuries. From the Bronze Age to the end of the 19th century, life expectancy grew by only 29 years or so, from 20 to just under 50 years. But in the 20th century, Life Expectancy surged another 30 years to reach over 77.

The paradox of a downside to what should be good news

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Happy 2016 and a few financial resolutions

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new years 2016 with champagne and fireworks

To all readers of the Financial Independence Hub, we wish a very happy — and Findependent! –2016. If you count the last few month of 2014 when the Hub launched, then 2016 will be the third calendar year for the Hub and we look forward to many more.

A reminder that as of today, you can contribute a further $5,500 to your Tax-free Savings Account or TFSA. That’s the first thing they remind you of at RBC Direct Investing, one of the main two financial institutions our family uses.

I have to admit that personally I’ve made no formal list of New Year’s Resolutions, although I have declared that I’d like to take my stress levels down a tad, perhaps by using the word “No” a little more often. We’ll see.

In the meantime, for a good formal list of financial New Year’s Resolutions, the Financial Post’s Angela Hickman recently published a good starting point. Click on Five financial resolutions for 2016, and how to (really) make them happen.

Below, I’ve taken the liberty of summarizing the 5 points. Again, click the red link above for the full piece.

1.) I resolve to figure out my finances

2. I resolve to stick to a budget

3. ) I resolve to get out of debt

4.) I resolve to save more

5.) I resolve to stop wasting money

These are all valid suggestions and especially useful for younger folks for whom financial independence is still a faraway goal.

7 eternal truths can also become New Year’s Resolutions

For more ideas, see my series of 7 “Eternal Truths of Personal Finance” that ran in the FP the past summer. Continue Reading…