Jakobs Financial Planning

OK, so you want to learn more about personal finance, but there are a lot of books to choose from, and limited reading time, so which one(s) to choose? If you have time to read exactly one finance book, then my recommendation is Balance, by Andrew Hallam . Andrew is a former schoolteacher and well known best selling author of  Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School .  He also runs finance seminars around the world and writes columns for a number of publications too. What I like best about Balance, is how Hallam can give the reader practical investing and portfolio advice while also offering food for thought about our relationship with money, family, and friends.  It's not just a collection of Hallam's personal beliefs either, though it's clear he subscribes to them.  He backs up his guidance with evidence based research; see the 18 pages of studies and sources listed in the notes section at the back of the book....

A cash reserve is a cash buffer (sometimes called a bucket or wedge strategy) for retirement expenses in lieu of drawing those expenses directly from your investment accounts.  It is a popular belief in the advisor community that a portfolio should have a cash reserve to reduce the risk of having to sell investments during market lows to meet spending needs and to avoid what is called sequence of returns risk (more on sequence of return risk in a future blog post). With evidence from a financial perspective pointing to a cash reserve strategy being suboptimal, retirees should instead concentrate on proper portfolio design.  Nonetheless, it is entirely reasonable from a behavioral perspective to have enough (or as little) of a cash reserve to feel less stress and allow you to sleep easier at night, especially when markets are falling. For some, this may mean holding next to no cash reserve.  That is, they are confident that their portfolio design and carefully planned mix ...

I received a great question the other day.  A friend of mine asked "I'm looking for a good investment for my TFSA that pays nice dividends, what do you suggest"? What seems like a simple question gives us much food for thought.  Most importantly, and the real thrust of this post, is that questions like these should not be asked (or answered) in a vacuum.  Y ou really need to take a step back and consider your overall goals, current assets, saving strategy, investment plan, and retirement strategy across all of your investment accounts. What do I plan to use my TFSA for? Given that you can only contribute so much into a TFSA, you may want to ask yourself what is the goal and purpose of the TFSA and how does it fit into your overall financial plan. Some practical examples of how TFSAs can be used: Some people have enough money and/or pension income to draw funds needed in retirement from RRSPs, non-registered accounts, or elsewhere (see the article linked bel...