This and That: Investor mistakes, Interest rates and more…

One of the common investor mistakes is to confuse the familiar with the safe. In this short clip, Larry Swedroe of Buckingham Asset Management talks about this and other common investor mistakes. Hat tip to Cameron Passmore of PWL Capital for sharing the video.

1. The Bank of Canada decided to keep interest rates steady this week. The Prime Rate to which variable-rate mortgages and lines of credit are linked remains at 3 percent. Markets interpreted the announcement to mean that the Bank will start bumping up interest rates starting in September.
2. If you are interested in investing in commodity ETFs, you might want to check out this Wall Street Journal column on the differences between the major commodity indexes.
3. Dealing with customer service at many companies can sometimes be a very frustrating experience. Support Spy, a new blog written by an industry insider, offers tips and tricks to get the best out of customer support. You can check out some sample posts here.
4. In a pair of posts (here and here), Canadian Financial Stuff explains the chances he missed to strike it rich.
5. Canadian Couch Potato explains how to build DFA-like portfolios with ETFs.
6. Larry MacDonald shares some useful insights on how annuities can help in retirement.
7. Million Dollar Journey also featured a post on new covered call ETFs from BMO and Horizons AlphaPro.
8. Michael James explains why it is pointless searching for billions missing in a Ponzi scheme.
9. Preet Banerjee says that thinking only about monthly payments on a big ticket item adds up to a huge cost over a lifetime.
10. My Own Advisor, who has a new look website, says the Bank of Canada should be bumping up interest rates already. I would cut the Central Bank some slack on the tough job of managing our monetary policy.
11. The Blunt Bean Counter explains the two main “relief” provisions that taxpayers can take advantage of in dealing with the Canada Revenue Agency.

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