Welcome to the weekend! I was thrilled to be featured in this CBC story about Air Miles and how miles earned before 2012 are set to expire at the end of this year. The author, Sophia Harris, was a pleasure to work with and, incredibly, turned this story around in just a couple of days.
It’s amazing what a hot-button issue this has become for Air Miles and its collectors. Even with the tragic events unfolding south of the border late Thursday night, plus a potential work stoppage for Canada Post looming, this story remained firmly in the ‘most read’ articles on CBC throughout the weekend and has been shared over 12,000 times.
Not be be outdone, Canada’s top personal finance columnist Rob Carrick shared a list of expert tips that was published on my Rewards Cards Canada blog about how to spend 52,436 Aeroplan miles.
Carrick has always been a tremendous supporter of the personal finance blogging community, constantly linking to and sharing content that he finds around the blogosphere in his columns and through his newsletter.
It’s uplifting, especially for new bloggers on the scene, to gain some attention and recognition from major media. Journalists often look to bloggers as sources for their stories, usually after reading a passionate blog post about a particular topic. Bloggers like me are more than happy to help journalists tell their story, but it’s unfortunate when the journalist or media outlet doesn’t think to include a link back to our blogs.
That’s never an issue with Rob Carrick, and it wasn’t for CBC’s Sophia Harris either, who found my name after reading a blog post I wrote about Air Miles expiring. But it’s frustrating to see Yahoo Finance pick up the Air Miles article from CBC, only to strip out all of the links.
Similarly, Jonathan Chevreau quoted me in the Financial Post after reading my take on CPP expansion on Boomer & Echo last month. Unfortunately, whoever control the online content at the Financial Post decided not to include a link back to my website or the blog post from which I was quoted.
Attention major media: Links are the currency of the web. Please show some courtesy and respect to your blogger sources and include a link back when it makes sense (like when taking quotes verbatim from a blog post).
/rant
This Week’s Recap:
On Monday I posted my biannual net worth update and revealed that I’m on track to reach $500,000 by year’s end.
On Wednesday Marie wrote about bartering for goods and services.
And on Friday Marie reviewed Psych Yourself Rich by Farnoosh Torabi.
We’re halfway through Financial Uproar’s 2016 stock picking competition and my picks are badly lagging the field – down an embarrassing 38.7%. My picks of Under Armour, Fitbit, GoPro, and MasterCard were destined to finish first or last place, so at this point it looks like I swung for the fences and struck out.
Oh well. This is why I index in real life.
Weekend Reading:
More big changes coming for Canadian investors – who will be the winners and losers?
Jason Heath with a great argument as to why we need regulations to protect seniors from unscrupulous advisors.
Are some advisors worth their fees? Andrew Hallam weighs-in with a surprising answer.
The president of the association representing financial advisors argues that banning mutual fund commissions will do more harm than good. My response:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it”
Pollack says that advisors are needed because ‘financial products are getting more complex’. Well, who created the complexity to begin with?
Meanwhile, robo-advisors, who stand to pick up the slack from the so-called advice gap that Pollack says we should fear, are now offering group RRSPs which could slash fees by 50% or more.
Michael James looks at the possible ban on trailing commissions and describes two narratives that characterize the fund industry in Canada.
Thanks, John Heinzl, for writing what I’ve wanted to for years: Anti-RRSP arguments are merely financial urban legends.
One Millennial’s response to last month’s Toronto Life feature story – Young, saving, and hopefully one day buying a house.
Canada’s banking watchdog is cracking down on mortgage lending as home prices continue to surge.
Rob Carrick says new banking rules won’t cure our greatest housing threat; the finances of people after they buy – not before.
Millennials, here’s how to keep your home ownership dream alive.
Meanwhile, Ottawa is creating a working group to study the state of the Canadian housing market and to make recommendations this summer. John Bruk argues that the time for studying Canada’s housing crisis has passed.
In other news, the liberal government has gone silent on its pledge to let more home buyers dip into their RRSPs.
On the Jessica Moorhouse blog, 4 women share their debt-payoff stories to inspire and motivate others to crush their debt too and never give up.
Wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time and invest in Apple or Microsoft stock while in their infancy? What about creating a real-life time machine for your money, starting now?
Cait Flanders on why your salary is not your self-worth, and why she gave herself permission to earn less.
Million Dollar Journey blogger Frugal Trader shares his favourite personal finance apps.
Two Toronto couples pooled their money to live under one roof in one of Canada’s most expensive housing markets.
“We’re going on blind faith that neither of us will screw each other over.”
The story of Sobeys and what looks to be its miserable takeover of Safeway Canada. Their CEO abruptly quit after the company wrote down half of its $5.8B acquisition.
Tim Cestnick on why every word in your will can matter.
Finally, Lethbridge entrepreneur and creator of fanciful playhouses lays out his plans for expansion. Leavitt is currently building a playhouse for basketball star Steph Curry’s daughter, and is in the midst of filming a show on TLC. He also lives just down the street from me.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
The title of this book is unfortunate – Psych Yourself Rich will not teach you how to sit on a cushion and attract wealth through meditation. Rather, the author combines the latest behavioural psychology with practical advice on how to develop the mindset, discipline and habits that are needed to build a strong financial foundation.
Torabi discusses how to map out a plan of action that matches your needs and goals and, most importantly, how to put that plan into action. To add interest, she includes lots of examples and case histories. Woven throughout the chapters are anecdotal stories of the author’s life.
Psych Yourself Rich chapters include:
Craft Your Money Philosophy
Your money philosophy is a basic statement about how you should manage your financial life (based on your goals and values): how you personally should save, spend, invest, donate, and control (your money), in addition to your backup plan should money become tight.
Organize. Don’t Agonize
Three clear-cut steps can help you put your financial life in order. 1 – Understand your priorities and goals. 2 – Cut the clutter from your life. 3 – Establish the right habits and stay committed.
Be Your Biggest Advocate
The average person often remains on the sidelines even when getting into the game means the chance for a better deal or rate. We come up with excuses to avoid change and this reinforces the status quo.
Being an advocate means being in charge of your financial decisions, knowing your rights, being insistent and keep pressing for what you expect, understand your risks and assume accountability.
Make Your Money Count
Just because something is affordable doesn’t make it worthy.
“Worth” includes purchases that are of benefit to you and are satisfying; investing in yourself; making the most of your earnings, savings and investing by securing better rates and avoiding unnecessary fees.
Think Five Years Ahead
When it comes to our life savings, we often refer to two primary buckets: rainy day and retirement. But what about everything else in between?… What about all those tremendous milestones (buying a home, getting married, starting a family, changing careers) that help shape the purpose and meaning of life?… For those events we tend to just fly by the seat of our pants and hope we’ll have the means and resources to handle them when they occur.
Embrace the Entrepreneurial Spirit
The world around us is changing, and we need to adapt.
We are shifting toward an individual-based economy, turning away from corporate conglomerates that evolved after the industrial revolution, going back to our roots of individual-based services.
Final thoughts on Psych Yourself Rich
I am not of the demographic this book is aimed at. Nevertheless, I did enjoy reading it.
The target audience is young adults starting out in life. Psych Yourself Rich shows how to build a healthy view of money, investing, wealth and aspirations, and shares tips for clearly evaluating your personal finances.
It has good, practical, common-sense advice written in an engaging and friendly manner.
There was an interesting post some time ago in the Financial Uproar blog called The Financial Planning Affordability Paradox which noted that the people who could most benefit from financial planning advice are the least likely to be able to afford it.
I fully agree with Nelson that when someone is up to his or her ears in debt and looking for a plan to manage and reduce it hearing, “Sure, I can help you. That will be $1,000 up front, please,” (yikes!) will likely make them back off rather quickly.
It puts me in mind of my relationship with my 24-year-old niece. You see, I’m a complete computer dufus. Anything that can go wrong no doubt will, especially when what I’m doing is time sensitive. “What did you do?” is a question I hear from my husband all the time.
So, my go-to person is my niece. As are many people her age, she is a computer whiz, and most of all she’s very patient.
“Call me anytime, Auntie. I’ll take a picture of the screen with my phone so you can see what it’s supposed to look like.”
In return I help her with her finances.
A couple of years ago she landed a lucrative position in the oil patch earning a salary almost twice what my husband and I had earned together. She’s quite a good spender, and I know she doesn’t always accept my advice. Nevertheless, she owns a condo, a brand new VW Tiguan, and has a pretty decent RRSP/TFSA portfolio for her age.
When she paid off her car loan I recommended that she put the equivalent amount into savings. This was not bad advice considering she was laid off from her job in the late spring and was evacuated when a forest fire decimated her city.
She’s now living with Mom and Dad again and working at a temporary job until, she hopes, she will be called back. I’m sure things will work out just fine for her.
This arrangement used to be called bartering.
Back in pioneer times, neighbours would use their skills to help each other build a soddy, then a log home and raise a barn. Afterwards, they had a big party.
Similarly, today friends and neighbours – especially valuable are those in the trades, such as electricians and plumbers – help each other develop the basements in their new homes. Afterwards, they have a big party.
The exchange of goods and services rather than paying cash for things you need is a concept that is still alive and well today.
Sally bought a new gas barbeque. Evan is a pipefitter with the necessary tools. In exchange for setting it up, Sally bakes a cake and organizes a birthday party for Evan’s preschool daughter.
Cashless transactions provide a mutual benefit to both parties. It’s a creative way to lower expenses and/or save money.
Final thoughts on bartering
Do you have a special skill set, or do you own something that someone else wants? Trade it for something that you need.
Kids have a way of figuring things out when they want something badly enough – everything from trading lunch items at school to the ultimate deal, “I’ll do your chores/let you play with my Gameboy/give you my allowance – if you don’t tell Mom!”
Why does this stop when we become adults? We either pay the price or do without.
With bartering, two parties can get something they want or need from each other without having to spend any money.