Weekend Reading: Holiday’s Over Edition
I’ve been on holidays since December 12th and the break has been fantastic, giving me a chance to relax with family and recharge my batteries. Unfortunately, the holiday has come to an end and it’s back to work on Monday. I hope you all enjoyed some time off at Christmas and New Year’s as well.
We’ve tinkered with the posting format here for 2015 and so you can expect to see new articles published on Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and Friday’s, in addition to a Weekend Reading update on, you guessed it, the weekend. It amounts to one more article every week, so enjoy the extra content!
This week’s recap:
Every year I enter a stock picking competition over at the Financial Uproar blog. Each contestant submits four stocks at the beginning of the year and the winner gets to gloat in the comments section.
Last year, my picks of Canadian Oil Sands, Agrium, Teck Resources, and (I can’t remember the fourth one) were bad enough to put me in last place with a -15.6% return for the year. Well done, Robb!
On Monday I posted my annual net worth review and was happy to be closing in on $400,000.
On Wednesday, Marie shared her thoughts on some of the more interesting news and events of 2014.
And on Friday I wrote about an easy way to save money this year – by reviewing your annual and monthly subscriptions.
Over on my Rewards Cards Canada blog I looked at what made headlines in the credit card and loyalty program space in 2014 – including Aeroplan’s move to TD and Costco breaking up with Amex and partnering with MasterCard.
Weekend Reading:
Uncomfortable seats, endless fees – here’s why airlines want to make you suffer.
Dan Bortolotti shows why even so called expert predictions are useless in the folly of forecasts.
Downtown Josh Brown looked back at investing in 2014 – the year that nothing worked.
Dan Solin offers his 100% accurate financial predictions for 2015. My favourite is that, “more investors will realize that what correlates most closely with higher expected returns is low cost.”
This entrepreneur started his own business at 21 and just six years later is already pondering retirement.
Episode 25 of the Because Money podcast dealt with budgeting – what is a budget good for, how to keep a budget, and why many people give up on budgets.
Even Santa Claus thinks we need to save more for retirement.
A fascinating read in The Economist about the baseball-card bubble – how a children’s hobby turned into a classic financial mania.
This post looks at the richest people by century, from William the Conqueror to … Muammar Gaddafi?
With life expectancy continuing to rise, the Financial Independence Hub explores the possibility of a 40-year retirement.
Dan Wesley looks back at his first home purchase and suggests some potential pitfalls for new buyers to avoid.
A question we get often – where’s the best place to park short-term savings – is answered perfectly here by MoneySense columnist Bruce Sellery.
Norm Rothery says that adding a low-fee balanced fund is a wise resolution for the new year.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Thanks for the mention Robb, always much appreciated. I would have picked Teck and Canadian Oil Sands too but of course no one could have predicted the oil crash. Have a good weekend
Power Corporation. Your final pick was Power Corporation. Including the dividend, it went up a whole 3.04%.
Good luck in the contest in 2015. You really only have one direction to go.
Dont be so optimistic, he still has two directions to go, it is just a bit tougher to go more negative. I know how he feels, the tsx went up and down this year, and this is the first year in 5 i missed beating the index. Strange year, and i hope next will be easier for him and me
Good luck in the competition Robb, just shows how hard it is to stock pick and why most fund managers don’t manage it consistently. As you often say: just index and get your fair share of market returns at a low cost.
If you do stock pick do it with money you can afford to lose .