This and That: Dog days of summer edition

I’ll be participating in a live discussion on investment topics on Globe Investor on Monday, August 17, 2009 at noon. I hope you can join in.

1. Investing is fairly simple — develop a good plan and stick to it. Many investors don’t even have a plan but even those that do have trouble with the “sticking to it” part. Dan Richards wrote in The Globe and Mail about the behavioural traps that keep investors from sticking to a plan. Michael James also noted that when stocks are down, investors fail to rebalance believing their plan might be too aggressive.
2. I don’t want to pick on The Star but its headline (Canadians paying through the ear for cellphones) is representative of a recent OECD report on cellphone prices in 30 countries. Dig deeper into the reports and you’ll find that Canada actually ranked 11th (out of 30 countries) in low-use, 3rd in “medium-use” and 12th in “high-use”.
3. Rob Carrick shows how to build a diversified portfolio with just three iShares ETFs.
4. Tim Cestnick listed the things that can help with winding down a loved one’s estate.
5. Thicken My Wallet says that financing a small business is a larger-scale version of personal money management and the lessons of one apply to the other.
6. Million Dollar Journey wrote about the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and its clawback. Personally, I’m hoping we won’t receive GIS!
7. Claymore is conducting the 2nd Annual Next Top Model Summer ETF Competition. Larry MacDonald has some tips on winning stock picking contests. Last year, I picked CLO, COW and GAS and finished somewhere near the bottom.
8. Kids will be back to school in a couple of weeks. Chaya Cooperberg wrote about how back to school shopping is stressing parents out.
9. Where Does All My Money Go? featured a guest post by Daniela Garritano on having a champagne wedding on a beer budget. Speaking of weddings, Realizing Retirement, a new financial blog, featured the first in a series of posts on planning an actual budget wedding.
10. Summer is also the time for vacations. Four Pillars says that to calculate the true cost of vacations, you have to net out the expenses of staying home.

With temperatures topping 30 degrees in Ottawa, summer seems to have finally arrived in Central Canada. Have a great weekend everyone!