Weekend Reading: Investing Podcast Edition

No, I’m not starting my own podcast. But I have started listening to a few good investing podcasts lately and I wanted to share three of them with you. I like these podcasts because they’re smart, quick-hitting, 30-minute talks about investing, personal finance, and current market trends.

The first one, which you’ve likely heard of, is Dan Bortolotti’s Canadian Couch Potato podcast. It’s published infrequently, perhaps once a month, but each one is well worth a listen. Dan typically interviews an expert, from financial planners to financial journalists, to investing and real estate analysts. Then he gets into one of the better podcasting segments out there, Bad Investment Advice, where he’ll call out a poor or misinformed article from a major publication (usually with a scary headline like this crap, Are We Headed For A Passive Indexing Meltdown?). Finally, Dan answers a reader question on investing before wrapping up the episode.

Second on my list is the Animal Spirits podcast with Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick, two incredibly smart financial writers who work for Ritholtz Wealth Management. Although U.S. based, Animal Spirits explores everything from financial markets to personal finance, to recent articles and books they’ve read, or movies they’ve watched. It’s fast, funny, and full of interesting tidbits from inside their world of wealth management. Animal Spirits airs weekly.

My latest investing podcast subscription is The Rational Reminder podcast with Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore of PWL Capital. This new weekly podcast started in August and has already proven to be one of the top investing podcasts in the country. Ben and Cameron have a great rapport and they riff on current events related to personal finance, investing, and financial markets, while unafraid of tackling complex topics like factor investing, behavioural finance, and regression analysis on investment returns. Think of Rational Reminder as Animal Spirits North.

Not investing related but an honourable mention goes to the Freakonomics podcast by Stephen Dubner. Like the Freakonomics’ books, the podcast explores the hidden side of everything. You’ll be smarter after every episode.

This Week’s Recap:

Earlier this week I compared one-ticket investment solutions from Vanguard and Horizons. Lots of interest in this super simple investing approach that will likely give the robo-advisors a run for their money.

Speaking of podcasts, I’m excited to be a guest on The Rational Reminder podcast with Ben and Cameron next week. Stay tuned for that and I’ll promote and share it when it gets published.

Next week I’ll also be comparing cash back websites Great Canadian Rebates vs. Ebates.ca to see which one can help put more money back into your wallet from your online shopping activities.

Weekend Reading:

Industry regulators have already proposed a ban on discount brokerages charging trailing commissions to self-directed investors. Trailing commissions are intended to pay for ongoing financial advise from a human advisor, but discount brokerages are not legally able to offer advice and so DIY investors who hold such funds are paying for a service they’re not able to obtain.

Ahead of the proposed ban are now two class action lawsuits against TD and CIBC by investors looking to recoup those fees.

That brings up a heated debate over who is at fault: the industry for knowingly charging investors for services they cannot legally provide, or do-it-yourself investors who shoulder the responsibility of looking after their own investments.

Is investing 100% in an S&P 500 index ETF a smart thing to do? While not a bad strategy, experts suggest diversifying globally.

Ben Felix shares his latest Common Sense Investing video and explains why the 4% rule is probably not the best way to plan for retirement, especially if you plan on retiring early:

Jason Heath helps a reader who is concerned about the tax withholding on his RRIF withdrawals. He’s not sure he’s drawing down his investments properly.

Michael James weighs in on the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement: What does FIRE mean?

He also looks at the interest tax deduction when borrowing to invest, a follow up to a previous post about the Smith Manoeuvre.

Kerry Taylor writes the best way to repay credit card debt is by siding with math over behaviour and tackling your highest interest rate debt first.

Nick Maggiulli offers a different perspective on the global financial crisis. He was just starting his first semester at Stanford:

“Coming back to have my first meal at Stanford in January 2009 was when I realized that the university was taking the crisis seriously. At my first meal back my dining hall ran out of croissants and I couldn’t believe it. While houses were being foreclosed and jobs were being lost by millions of Americans, my version of the recession was my parents losing their home and my university running out of pastries.”

Morgan Housel writes about the lessons of predicting financial markets: Fool me three times and I give up.

Finally, a shocking (but not surprising) undercover investigation by CBC to expose Ticketmaster’s secret scalper program.

Have a great weekend, everyone!