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moneysense.ca, 6/06/08
This and That
- Ellen Roseman says that dividend tax breaks make blue chips a wise buy.
- Rob Carrick recently profiled money manager Francis Chou. Steady Hand’s Tom Bradley wrote that a contrarian bent is why Mr. Chou is a successful money manager.
- Money magazine’s financial industry insider on what areas planner can add value and what areas they can’t.
- The Dividend Guy picked his top three dividend investing books.
- Preet is writing a series of posts on his breakfast with Jeremy Siegel (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).
- Canadian Personal Finances finds out the real cost of that airline ticket.
- Million Dollar Journey wrote about the basics of Fundamental Index ETFs.
- Larry MacDonald points out the disadvantage of paying down the mortgage first and then saving for retirement.
- Thicken My Wallet on why he became a passive investor.
- Four Pillars on the joys of using a manual mower to mow the lawn.
Have a great weekend everyone!
moneysense.ca, 6/06/08
I really do enjoy the manual mower!
TMW – it’s about friggin’ time!
Mike
Thanks for the link have a great weekend -c8j
Thanks for the link CC!
Thanks for the link. Have a good weekend.
[...] “Dividend tax breaks make blue-chips a wise buy” in the Toronto Star (linked from the Canadian Capitalist), Ellen Roseman says: Buying blue-chip Canadian stocks can be a good strategy for do-it-yourself [...]
When I lived in Vermont and had more lawn to mow than I do now, I did a test: I timed myself using a gasoline-powered push mower (mowing my lawn took two tanks of gas) and then using the manual human-powered push mower. The human-powered one won! For two reasons: 1) I didn’t have to stop to fill it with gas, and 2) the human-powered one was a bit wider than the gasoline one, so it cut a bigger swath. I’ve been using a human-powered push mower ever since.
The only drawback I’ve found in over 15 years of mowing with a push mower is that if you let the grass grow too high, you’re toast. Most of the tall grass (especially the flower spikes) just bends down under the blades and doesn’t get cut. So you have to be diligent, and sometimes even that doesn’t work if you get two weeks of rain or you go away on vacation. But otherwise, I’m a fan. I don’t think it provides any more exercise than a regular gasoline-powered push mower, and in fact maybe less because the human-powered ones are lighter. But obviously if you compare it to a sit-down mower you get more exercise. And at today’s fuel prices, of course you can save a significant amount of money over the life of the mower as well.
What mind altering substances is Larry MacDonald consuming? He states: “Even if Canada is insulated to a large extent from such dramatic declines, they still can occur on a local basis as when, for example, your house is destroyed by some event not covered by your insurance.
How would the investment portfolio have any benefit over having paid off the mortgage? You’re still into the bank for your uninsured losses, and while you can pay some of it by collapsing your portfolio (with tax costs) you would be financially ahead of the game having paid down your mortgage.
DAvid
Thanks for the links CC – hope you had a great weekend!
brad: I’m always a few days too late in mowing our lawn, so I couldn’t manage with a reel mower. I wonder how effective the rechargeable electric mowers are these days.
DAvid: Good point. Unfortunately, in Ontario, unlike some other places, we can’t just walk away from our mortgage, so we’ll still be on hook for our debt.