Sandi Martin reads a lot - and she tells everyone which ones were the best every month. Starting in January, we will be sending you her reading list directly (if you've signed up for our email newsletter). In the meantime, here's a sneak peek:
December 2016
You know that feeling when everything happens at once? Yeah. I never thought I'd say this, but: bring on the winter.
This fall was crammed so full of project deadlines, intense professional development, solid client conversations, and steady progress towards the merger between Spring Personal Finance and JYC Financial, that I hope we get snowed in and nothing new happens for at least a month. Julia...does not hope for that.
I've finally managed to settle back into my reading routine, so for those of you who are also hoping to get snowed in, here's some interesting, thought-provoking, or maybe just entertaining stuff to read, watch, and listen to:
Three great reads you might have missed in November
Fascinating stuff that didn't quite make the top three for November include an interesting pair of articles coming at the same issue from different sides: do you invest a lump sum all at once or over time (PDF) and do you get out of a losing position all at once or wait until it recovers...if it does?
We continue with a pair of rather dense articles from Andrew Teasdale and Edward Waitzer (PDF), both worth digging into if you really want to understand how CIBC (and TD, and Scotia, and...) can get away with charging double fees for years on managed accounts.
There are more, so you can search through November's entire ten-item list here, and scroll through past months here. Follow December's list on LIst.ly (or me on Twitter) for a preview of what you'll read here in less than 30 days.
And now...
How Bad Could Bond Market Losses Get? by Ben Carlson
Bond allocations have been a major topic of conversation with clients recently, and I've found myself sharing this post multiple times in the last two weeks.
"A bad year in the high quality, intermediate maturity bonds is typically the same as a bad day or week in the stock market."
Read more here...
How to Build an ETF Portfolio by Justin Bender
Justin is uploading DIY Investing tutorialsYouTube for most of the major discount brokerages, with more yet to come. This post is a good introduction to the entire series.
"My initial videos will focus on the basics of implementing an ETF portfolio at each of the big bank discount brokerages. Viewers will learn how to calculate the number of ETF shares to purchase and also how to place limit orders (this is great stuff for beginners)."
Read more here...
How to Organize Your Money (When You're an Unorganized Artist) by Chris Enns
Chris says this is for artists...I say this is for everyone. A simple sketch of my own money infrastructure, inspired by a discussion with Chris when he was thinking through this post, has resulted in a couple of major, long-overdue, very welcome changes of my own!
"The problem was that every time I sat down with my money I had to make 7 transfers to get things where I wanted them to go. I had to haul out the pen and paper and use the calculator app on my phone. I had to log in to two bank websites and go back and forth between them just to keep up with this ‘organized structure’ I had built for myself."
Read more here...