Tag Archives: roundups

Sleeping Easily: A Money Management Roundup

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Recently I reviewed Sleep-Easy Investing a book I found that meshed well with many of my conservative investing ideas.

Then, earlier this week, Echo at Boomer and Echo wrote

a post about fixed versus variable rate mortgages. Despite his best efforts to sell us on the benefits of the lower cost of going variable rate, some of us readers insisted we’d rather pay more so we could sleep soundly. (I think he sleeps fine even with a variable rate but not all of us are wired that way.)

It led me to thinking about what financial achievements and decisions help us sleep better—and what financial difficulties keep us up nights.

The Blunt Bean Counter says that the government requirement to only have T3 and T5013s available at the end of March keeps many accountants up late every April. It’s not worry, though, it’s work.

An investor said that ““the clink, clink” of the cuffs may help him finally sleep through the night.” as his former investment advisor was led off to a 6-year jail term in The Star’s article Former Investors Group mutual fund seller jailed.

Joe at Timeless Finance, on the other hand, appears to be going to “forgo sleep in order to watch an entire season of TV episodes.” I regret to say I personally have never found any TV show that good.

In the Globe and Mail’s Lighten up on equities, sleep at night the financial advisors suggest reducing the amount of equities in an investor’s portfolio. In the comments, readers point out that taxation mistakes are costing the investor an unnecessary bundle.

Big Cajun Man, meanwhile, sleeps easily knowing his stash of gold bars is burglar-proof in his safe deposit box.

Some time ago, Michael James on money noted that it’s okay to allocate your assets in such a way that you can sleep at night but only if you stick with the allocation through the air pocket bumps.

In 14 Reasons To Be Debt-Free Forever, Gail Vaz-Oxlade lists the joys of sleeping in on Saturday mornings.

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Is there some aspect of finances that either costs you sleep or lulls you to sleep? Please share your insights with a comment.

Here Comes Retirement: Ready or Not

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The truth is that sometimes retirement arrives whether we’re ready or not. One day your boss walks in and says “You’ve got two choices: Retire or be fired.” It’s been on my mind a lot recently because of the RBC Outsourcing Fiasco, but also because it has happened to relatives and friends in every recession, from the 1980s to the 2009s.

Here are recent some articles dealing with retirement and readiness, on my site

and in other web worlds

  • Dianne Maley of the Globe and Mail writes “An entrepreneur’s path to early retirement” which leads to the usual bickering about financial advisor advice in the heated comments section. (But not as heated as usual as no one has a public service pension.)
  •  Michael James on Money discussed the idea that “up to 60% of portfolio growth may come after retirement” in Portfolio Growth after Retirement What does this mean, though, if your retirement starts 12 years earlier than expected? That’s 12 years of savings that won’t be invested and 12 additional years when withdrawals will be made ahead of schedule before the investments had time to grow. Not an encouraging prospect.

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Do you have an early retirement story to recommend? Please share your experiences and recommendations with a comment.