By Sheryl Smolkin

And before you know it it’s almost the middle of August. I haven’t seen any coloured leaves drifting down…yet. But already the days are getting shorter. This week we feature interesting blogs from top bloggers who kept on writing even when many of us were on vacation.

In GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca, Caroline Cakebread shares 5 ways to tap your home for cash in retirement. They are: sell and rent; sell and downsize; become a landlord; rent out your home  temporarily; and, get a reverse mortgage.

If you are in your 50s and starting to get really serious about planning your retirement, take a look at Rich at any age: In your 50s by David Aston, Romana King and Julie Cazzin on MoneySense. They suggest that you get a ballpark figure of what you will need; max out your savings; and then, pick the right moment.

Are you still agonizing over whether it makes more sense to save in an RRSP or a TFSA? Then take a look at RRSP Myth – Retirement Income Has To Be Lower For RRSP Benefit by Mike Holman on MoneySmart. He gives interesting examples to illustrate that even where income in retirement is a bit higher than in the earning years, RRSPs will likely still save you some taxes or at worst – won’t save you any tax, but won’t cost you anything either.

Mr. CBB gives advice to a couple with $5,000/month of discretionary income on Canadian Budget Binder about buying their first home. He says they should talk to a financial advisor about retirement savings and life insurance; figure out the size of mortgage they can afford on one income; factor in home maintenance costs before they buy; and understand how to be prepared for emergencies.

Dan Bortolotti writes on Canadian Couch Potato about Calculating Your Portfolio’s Rate of Return. Rate of return calculations fall into two general categories: time-weighted and money-weighted. If a portfolio has no cash flows (that is, the investor makes no contributions and no withdrawals), both methods produce identical figures. He says the key point to understand, therefore, is that any differences in reported returns come about as a result of cash inflows and outflows.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

 

Hi,

As part of the SaveWithSPP.com continuing series of podcasts with personal finance bloggers, today I’m talking to Mark Seed, author of the popular blog My Own Advisor.

Mark’s day job is Senior Designer of Quality Management Processes at Canadian Blood Services in Ottawa, but he is passionate about personal finance and investing. He started investing in his early twenties after reading David Chilton’s, The Wealthy Barber.

For the last five years, Mark has blogged about a broad range of topics ranging from asset allocation, to investor behavior, to retirement, to travel.

Welcome Mark!

Thanks for the opportunity, Sheryl. It’s great to talk to you.

Q: You have a demanding day job. You enjoy golfing, biking, hiking, and travel. When do you have the time? Why did you start a personal finance blog?
A: Good question. I try to find the time. I started off blogging because I wanted to share my story about saving and investing towards financial freedom. I figure running my own blog and sharing my own story could help people that are both new to investing and saving and those who are more experienced. 

Q: How frequently do you post?
A: Probably two to three articles a week. I have a demanding but also very exciting day job, so in the evenings I write and then I post the next day. 

Q: Do you have kids?
A: No, we don’t.

Q: So, how do you decide what you’re going to write about from week to week?
A: I get inspiration from quite a few sources, Sheryl. Sometimes it may be a workplace conversation, or it could be a chat with family and friends outside work. Often there’s a news headline I can play off and add my own perspective.

Q: That feeds well into the next question which is: what subjects do you like writing about the most?
A: Fixed and dividend investing — I practice that approach as you know. Taxation and insurance are also subjects I like to write about. And of course the travel stuff and investor behavior are fun subjects.

Q: There’s probably over a dozen well-known personal finance bloggers in Canada. What’s different about your blog and why do you think it’s a must-read?
A: I think it’s a must-read because I believe I am taking a holistic, DIY approach to investing and saving. I think people can relate to that quite well. I certainly don’t pretend to be an expert in every single field but I’m learning as I go.

Q: How many hits do you typically get for each blog?
A: I’m getting about 1,000 to 2,000 hits per article, which is great. So in some months that translates to maybe 50,000 hits a month.

Q: That’s fantastic! How long did it take for it to build?
A: Early on – I would say the first couple of years – it was really slow. There has been an upward trend in the third, fourth and fifth year and now there is an income stream from the site.

Q: You have to be patient though
A: You have to be patient, absolutely. It takes time.

Q: Tell me about some of the more popular blogs you’ve posted.
A: I think my article earlier this year about driving a fourteen year old car got a lot of hits and comments. The essence of the story was I don’t need a new car so why should I buy one? It works fine and it’s not costing me money. Why spend money on a nicer ride when I can put it in my RRSP or TFSA?

I also got a lot of attention when I wrote about why I’m no longer investing in costly mutual funds and paying fees I don’t understand for underperformance. There have also been well-received blogs about my passive investment strategy and some mistakes I’ve made, like when I paid the wrong bill.

It happens, right? And I think if you publicize those things people go, “Everyone is fallible, nobody’s perfect” and it’s funny to read these things.

Q: Right. So you’ve focused on dividend investing – why do you embrace this strategy and how does it work?
A: I’ll try to keep it fairly short and sweet. One reason is I like having an income stream is because as a shareholder of an established company with a track record of paying dividends, I basically get paid to be an owner of that business. And that dividend payment is very real, because I see the cash coming into my brokerage account every month or every quarter.

The second main reason is that some of these established companies have paid dividends for many years – decades upon decades, in fact, maybe even a generation or more – so they tend to increase their dividends every year as their net earnings go up. So the amount I receive tends to grow over time which is a pretty good inflation-fighting strategy.

The global financial crisis from 2008-2009 was very bad for many people. But most of the companies I owned or started owning and buying at that time paid their dividends even when their stock prices went down 30, 40 or 50%. So there’s value sticking with those companies through thick and thin.

And even though I’ve adopted both indexing and dividend investing, I think it’s the blend that’s important. I’m getting the best of both worlds.

Q: What’s a DRIP account and what are some of the pros and cons?
A: A DRIP account stands for a dividend reinvestment plan, and really it’s an approach to reinvesting dividends paid by the companies that you own free of charge. Not paying transaction fees is huge in my opinion.

There are really two types of those dividend reinvestment plans. One is called “a full DRIP” and the other is called “a synthetic drip.” You can read about how they work in more detail on my blog.

Q: Many investors have multiple accounts: RRSPs, TFSAs, unregistered investment accounts. As a rule of thumb, what kind of securities should they hold in each account and why?
A: Very good question, actually. I do follow some of those rules of thumb. In the RRSP accounts we hold both Canadian and U.S. ETFs but we also own a few U.S. stocks.

The reason why is that we escape withholding taxes applied to some U.S. listed securities. So putting U.S. stocks or U.S. ETFs in an RRSP, a locked-in retirement account or a RRIF is tax effective.

Because there is a 15% withholding tax if U.S. stocks are held in TFSAs (and also RESPs), in our TFSAs we hold basically Canadian content, including Real Estate Investment Trusts, ETFs and some blue chip stocks.

And in our non-registered account we only hold Canadian dividend-paying stocks because those stocks are eligible for a Canadian dividend tax credit if they’re not in registered accounts.

Q: Do you have a favorite personal finance blogger that you read religiously?
A: I have a few, actually. Million Dollar Journey is one guy that really inspired me to create my own blog. I’m a big fan of Dan Bortolotti’s site, Canadian Couch Potato. I think he’s a very gifted writer and certainly one of the strongest advocates I’ve met in terms of the interests of the retail investor. And I also like a Canadian living in the U.S., Mr. Money Moustache.

Q: What, if any, money-making opportunities or spinoffs have there been as a result of your blogging career?
A: You know, there have been a few, which has been great. I think the blog has certainly opened doors to meet some great people, folks I would probably have normally not met. In recent years I’ve managed to develop excellent partnerships with folks in the insurance industry and the mortgage industry as well.

Rob Carrick at the Globe and Mail has very kindly referenced me in a number of articles. I’ve also been interviewed on the radio and I’ve been quoted in MoneySense Magazine,

What does the future hold? Who knows? I’ll keep writing. I’ll keep sharing my stories. I’m certainly passionate about personal finance and investing and I enjoy interacting with others who feel the same.

Q: If you had only one piece of advice to readers about getting their finances in order what would it be?
A: Spend less than you make. It may sound utterly boring. But I think when it comes to finance and investing, boring works because you can’t invest what you don’t save and if you’re not saving then you’re obviously spending every dime you make. So spending less than you make and having money for your future is a pretty good plan.

Q: Thank you very much Mark, it was a pleasure to talk to you.
A: Thanks again, Sheryl, this was a lot of fun. I appreciate it.

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This is an edited transcript of a podcast you can listen to by clicking on the link above. You can find the blog My Own Advisor here.

By Sheryl Smolkin

I recently put together a list of 40 highly-regarded but very different personal finance blogs and this week Best from the Blogosphere taps into this resource to bring you some new voices.

Switching careers is a life-altering decision, and one that needs to be thought through with care. The gals at Frugalista Finance have been there and done that. In Careers 101: Planning for a career change, they compile a step-by-step checklist to help you make sure you’re on the right track to career bliss.

If you are lucky enough to have a defined benefit pension plan, you may wonder if there is any point also belonging to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan or contributing to a personal registered retirement savings plan. The author of the blog Use RRSP with DB Pension? on “Blessed by the Potato,” says the answer depends on a few factors, chief amongst them your expected tax rate in retirement versus your tax rate now (or in the near future if you choose to contribute now but defer the deduction).

Have you been waffling about finding a financial advisor? Sandra Schmidt, an advisor with Sun Life in Vancouver says there are five financial planning milestones an advisor can help you prepare for:

• Buying your first home.
• Merging your finances.
• Starting a family.
• Setbacks.
• Retirement.

Dan Bortolotti is an investment advisor with PWL Capital in Toronto and author of the award-winning blog Canadian Couch Potato: Your complete guide to index advising. While Dan is well known as an advocate for using exchange traded funds, he readily acknowledges implementing such a strategy is more complicated if you and your partner have several accounts.

The Model portfolios he typically recommends are ideal for investors who have a single RRSP account. But life isn’t so simple once you’ve accumulated a significant portfolio. Chances are you’ll be managing two or three accounts, and if you have a spouse there may well be a few more. In Managing Multiple Family Accounts he says it’s generally most efficient to consider both partners’ retirement accounts as a single large portfolio.

And finally, in order to enhance their income, many people opt to get a part-time job in addition to their regular day job. Nelson Smith on Financial Uproar mines twitter postings to come up with a humorous series of tweets he calls How Not To Get A Part-Time Gig. Bad grammar and spelling certainly don’t help these people make their case.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

 

Hi,

As part of the savewithspp.com continuing series of podcast interviews with personal finance bloggers, today I’m talking to the “Big Cajun Man,” author of the Canadian Personal Finance Blog.

In real life, he is actually, Alan Whitton, a mild-mannered government civil servant and father of four, living in Ottawa. Alan has been blogging about finance and consumerism for about ten years, focusing on real life experiences.

As a result, he has written extensively about Registered Disability Savings Plans and parenting a disabled child.

Welcome, Alan.

My pleasure Sheryl.

Q: First of all Alan, tell our listeners where your alter ego name, “Big Cajun Man,” came from.
A:  Well, I was playing golf with friends and was wearing a straw hat and someone yelled at me, “What do you think you are, some kind of big stinking Cajun man?” and the guys I was playing with have called me that ever since.

Q: Why did you start blogging?
A: Well, I started initially just on BlogSpot as sort of an open letter to my mother because at the time, my wife was pregnant with our fourth child, who was a bit of a surprise. Then I realized I could write about other things and I was always interested in money so I figured I’d just start blogging about it.

Q: How frequently do you post?
A: I try to write four or five posts in a week. The Friday post is usually a ‘best of’ what I’ve seen during the week.

Q: How long are the blogs and how complex are they? Do they vary?
A: Oh, it’s usually somewhere between four and eight paragraphs. What shows up, or what I read about or something that happens in my life is usually the catalyst for the more interesting ones.

Q: Tell me about some of the topics you write about.
A: Well, family and money and how families work with money, a little bit on investing, a lot more on disability and how families can deal financially with kids with disabilities or loved ones with disabilities. And that really, again, arose because when Rhys was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, I had to learn about all this so I figured I’d write about it too.

Q: And, how old is Rhys now?
A: He is 9. I have three beautiful daughters who are 24, 22 and 20, and my son who has just turned 9. It’s a multi-generational family. That’s why I end up writing about things like university costs and parenting a 9-year old.

Q: There are probably over a dozen personal finance bloggers in Canada. What’s different about your blog. Why do you think it’s a must read?
A: I don’t know. I mean, my point of view as a father of a multi-generational family is interesting. I always have had a different perspective on things. I leave a lot of the specific investing ideas to some of the more qualified chaps like Michael James and Rob Carrick. I mostly just talk about John Public’s point of view of things.

Q: How many hits do you typically get for your blogs?
A: Between 8,000 and 12,000 a month. It started off very slowly and I think with the backlog of over 2,500 posts there’s a lot of people who just search and end up finding me accidentally.

Q: What are some of the more popular blogs you’ve posted?
A: Well, anything under my RDSP and RESP menus are popular, like how to apply for your child’s disability tax benefits. And on the RDSP side of things all the fights I’ve had with TD about putting money in and taking money out. Also, surprisingly, I wrote one simple blog that just said “I am a civil servant,” and let me tell you, that one caused no end of excitement.

Q: What is the essence of that particular blog?
A: I was trying to blow up some of the very negative views people have about civil servants. I mean, I worked in the private sector for over 20 years. I‘ve been a civil servant for 4 years.

Q. Tell me some of the key features of Registered Disability Savings Plans and what parents of disabled children need to know about them.
A: Well, just that right now they’re sort of the poor stepson at most financial institutions. I mean they’re not very flexible. Typically, at worst, they’re really just savings accounts. You can buy GICs or the bank’s mutual funds, which usually have very high management fees.

From what I can tell so far, TD Waterhouse is the only trading partner or trading house that has an RDSP where you can actually buy whatever you want like ETFs. But even the TD plan is not very well set up. It’s pretty cumbersome to put money into.

Q: What’s cumbersome about it?
A: Well, I can’t set up a weekly automatic withdrawal. I have to put money aside into another TD trading account. Then I have to phone up every once in awhile and transfer the money from the trading account into the RDSP. And then I have to call back after the money’s cleared to say, “And now I want to buy these ETF’s or index funds.”

Q: Why is that?
A: I don’t know. I’ve asked TD that a whole bunch of times. It’s just the way the system works. I’ve poked at them as best I can. I’ve asked a few other people to poke at them, but I haven’t really received a satisfactory answer.

Q: Are there legislative rules about how you can invest RDSPs?
A: Not, necessarily. It’s just the banks are putting that kind of limit on things because it’s not a big money maker for them. They’re not going to make a fortune on amounts people deposit into RDSPs.  Whereas with RESPs, there are more people with kids going to university.

Q: What are the contribution limits on RDSPs?
A: The overall lifetime limit for a particular beneficiary is $200,000. Contributions are permitted until the end of the year in which the beneficiary turns 59. Up to a certain amount every year, depending on how much money you make, will be matched by the government.

Based on parental income, an RDSP can get a maximum of $3,500 in matching grants in one year, and up to $70,000 over the beneficiary’s lifetime. A grant can be paid into an RDSP on contributions made to the beneficiary’s RDSP until December 31 of the year the beneficiary turns 49.

Q: Do you have a favorite personal finance blogger that you read religiously?
A: I’ve got a couple. I like reading Michael James “On Money”, but he’s a friend of mine. I really like the Canadian Capitalist, but he’s sort of taken a hiatus. “Boomer & Echo” and the “Canadian Couch Potato” are quite good and so is “My Own Advisor.” I’ve met most of these guys at various conferences. I also read Squawkfox and have had extensive correspondence with her on Twitter.

Q: What, if any, money making opportunities or spin-offs have there been as a result of your blogging career?
A: Well, I don’t do this for the money which is obvious given how little I make at it. This is more of a cathartic thing for me.

Q: If you had only one piece of advice to readers or listeners about getting their finances in order, what would it be?
A: Get out of debt. Debt is a bad thing. There’s no such thing as good debt. It’s all bad. Don’t fool yourself into thinking there’s livable debt like a mortgage or maybe paying for your university. Somehow carrying debt has been normalized in the last 30 years or so but it’s still really not ok.

Thank you very much, Alan. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

Thanks for the opportunity Sheryl.

—

This is an edited transcript you can listen to by clicking on the link above. You can find the Canadian Personal Finance Blog here.