Welcome to the first round up for 2011. Before we dive into this week’s collection of articles, I want to extend my best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.
- It’s that time of the year when analysts come out with their best picks to own in the New Year. The Wall Street Journal’s Brett Arends takes a look at how past “best ideas” picks fared. You might as well buy based on chimps throwing darts on the stock pages.
- Bonds yields are barely above inflation. With a sharp rally extending into two years, stock market valuations are hardly appetizing. Is it any wonder that John Bogle is calling it the most difficult time to invest in his entire career in this Money magazine interview?
- Larry MacDonald suggests that paying down debt is an excellent idea if you are wondering where to invest right now. I’d go even further and say that paying down debt is almost never a bad idea.
- The Blunt Bean Counter is a new blog from a Toronto-based accountant. In a recent post he says that a family meeting to explain your estate planning to your adult children, though fraught with difficulties, is likely a very good idea.
- With the dollar at parity once again, Canadian Money Forum members share their experience on saving money by buying a car in the United States
- Michael James points out that some investors in the top income brackets should prefer the RRSP over the TFSA.
- Canadian Financial Stuff has collected all his posts about RESPs and withdrawing money from them in one convenient place.
- In a guest post on Million Dollar Journey, Money Smarts Blog argues that due to a low inflation environment, low interest rates on even high interest savings accounts isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
- Canadian Couch Potato made some tweaks to his model portfolios.
- Thicken My Wallet shares the lessons he has learned during his blogging career.
That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!
