Recent content by GreatLaker

Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam and If You Can by William Bernstein are my 2 favourite intro level investment books. Millionaire Teacher is an inspirational story of frugal living and low-cost investing, broader than most investing books and a great starting point. For more detail I like...

Here is Quicken's data access guarantee. Can still use it but no online access for transaction downloads etc. https://www.quicken.com/support/what-quicken-data-access-guarantee When it went to a subscription model a few years back I just kept using my old expired version, entering transactions...

I keep a sinking fund / savings fund for large irregular expenses that may have been easy to fund when I was earning, but in portfolio spending mode could be difficult. Specifically it is for vehicle replacement and major household expenses including new roof, driveway, HVAC, and major...

Something many people probably don't know is that when someone passes away their FB account may get memorialized, which means no one can log in to it any more. Consider adding a Legacy Contact to your FB profile. What will happen to my Facebook account if I pass away? What is a legacy contact...

It was used a lot where I w*rked. A former colleague that I lost touch with recently reached out to me as his retirement is impending. And there are a few old w*rk associates I keep in touch with so it's worth keeping the account even though I rarely access it. I loved the comments by...

I live alone and no family within 500 miles. I created two documents. First is an Emergency Contact Info file with family and medical contact numbers. Printed copies are on my fridge and my desk corkboard. Second is a Personal and Financial info file that is password protected. It has account...

I still use Q2014, which expired almost 2 years ago. No problem using it. It just does not d/l transactions or update security prices. I always entered all transactions manually anyway. And I only hold 10 securities and don't trade much so not a big deal to enter prices once a week to track...

I have a savings fund for large expenditures like car, and replacement home items like roof, driveway, hvac and major appliances. I estimated the cost and lifespan of those items, than annualized the total. I take that amount every year and save it in a balanced mutual fund. The annual amount...

I upsized when I retired around age 60. I lived for 15 years in a 2BR condo apartment downtown in a big city. It was a 10 minute walk from w*rk, lots of great nearby shopping, Chinatown, 20 min walk to downtown and the lake, and close to 2 major surface transit routes. I also had a recreational...

The change in portfolio value in the example with TWR = 146.5% and MWR = -30% is extreme. The portfolio holdings went up 450% by June 1, then dropped 45% by the end of the year. And the investor had the misfortune of depositing 9 times the starting portfolio value at the market peak. Unlikely...

I use TWR to compare to benchmarks. How well my portfolio did compared to a blend of index returns that has a similar asset allocation to my own holdings. I use MWR to compare to my expected rate of return in my financial plan. I project x.x% return in my plan, and if my MWR drops below that...

Yes, consistent monthly purchases results in buying more units when the price is lower and fewer units when the price is higher.

Yes, our government likes to make sure we get good value for our tax dollars, including universal healthcare.:) The reports you refer to also include investment costs, although the cost calculation is limited to trading commissions and fees paid to the broker, but not the entire MER on funds...

My last car was a '94 Honda Civic CX that I kept for 18 years and 250 k km (about 155 k miles). It was so cheap even the right hand exterior mirror and body side moldings were options. Living in a big city a lot of my driving was city traffic jams and freeways, and highway trips. It was still...

There are also different cartridge designs, primarily moving coil (MC) and moving magnet (MM). MM have higher output than MC, so if your receiver's phono input is designed for MC and you have a MM cartridge it might not be providing the output voltage your receiver needs. I have been out of the...