Weekend Reading: Contest Winners Edition

The financial blogging community is outstanding in the way it supports each other online.  It was evident when reading the comments on our anniversary post this week that many of you came here for the first time after a mention on another blog.

Our top referring sites over the last four years include Carrick on Money, Million Dollar Journey, My Own Advisor, Canadian Finance Blog, Young & Thrifty, Financial Uproar, and Money Smarts Blog.

That said, nothing brings us more joy than getting comments from our regular (non-blogger) readers.  Your feedback and support this week has been incredible.  It’s encouraging to know that our blog has helped so many people get on track with their finances.

There were 90 entries in our anniversary contest.  Here is a reminder of what was at stake:

• One free financial planning consultation offered by Robb.
• One free financial planning consultation offered by Marie.
• A copy of The Wealthy Barber Returns
• A copy of The Behaviour Gap
• A copy of Stocks for the Long Run
• A copy of Clash of the Financial Pundits

Here are the winners of each prize:

• The financial planning session with Robb goes to Deen, who commented on August 11th at 8:19am.
• The financial planning session with Marie goes to Mary, who commented on August 11th at 7:29am.
• The winner of The Wealthy Barber Returns is Ginger, who commented on August 11th at 6:35am.
• The winner of The Behaviour Gap is Erin D, who commented on August 12th at 12:24am.
• The winner of Stocks for the Long Run is Bryan, who commented on August 11th at 5:01am.
• The winner of Clash of the Financial Pundits is Bill, who commented on August 12th at 6:52am.

We will contact all of the winners over the next few days to arrange the consultations and to mail out the books.  Thanks to everyone for entering and leaving such inspiring comments.

This Week’s Recap

Last Friday I shared 35 thoughts on turning 35.  On Wednesday my mom wrote about having that difficult money conversation.

Over on my Earn Save Grow blog, I wrote about why my investing approach is different than most dividend investors.  Mainly because I’m not expecting to live off the dividends in retirement.

My Toronto Star column looked at the hidden price of your consumer loyalty.

Weekend Reading

A lot of great reading to enjoy this weekend.  We start with Rob Carrick calling for amnesty on the 55,000 Canadians who ran afoul of the TFSA contribution rules last year.

Dan Bortolotti explains how to manage multiple family investment accounts – the key is to treat it as one big portfolio.

The Behaviour Gap is the difference between investment returns and investor returns.  Business Insider reminds us that we are ‘shockingly terrible’ at investing.

A ‘closet indexer’ is an actively managed mutual fund whose holdings closely resemble a cheaper index fund.  This Forbes article explains why your mutual fund may be too lazy.

Mark Seed from My Own Advisor dissects a book by Larry Swedroe called The Quest for Alpha.  An excellent discussion took place in the comments, including an appearance by the author himself.

Ben Carlson writes an excellent investment blog called A Wealth of Common Sense.  This post looks at why there’s no such thing as precision when it comes to investing and constructing your portfolio.

Pension expert Doug Runchey looks at some examples of people taking CPP after 60 while still working.

Sandi Martin explains why the influx of ‘robo-advisors’ is a good thing and will help fill a much needed gap when it comes to investment advice and execution.

Jon Chevreau is enjoying findependence and explains five myths of being retired or “financially independent”.

Nelson Smith at Financial Uproar asks if personal finance education even works, and suggests we look for another alternative when it comes to financial literacy.

Dan at Our Big Fat Wallet talks about handling expensive friends.

Stephen Weyman writes some of the most in-depth and well researched pieces on how to save money in Canada.  This one looks at the best cash back websites for Canadians.

Barry Choi at Money We Have tears apart another bank survey, this one conducted by BMO Financial about the average household debt in Canada.

Allan Whitton at Big Cajun Man talks about the merits of having a plan B (or C) when it comes to finances, using a Mike Tyson quote to drive the point home.

Thanks for reading, everyone.  Have a great weekend!