August 2016 best reads Kathy Waite Saskatchewan

I’m going to assume for a minute that you’re one of the millions of people who have a recurrently frustrating relationship with spending. It probably starts with a commitment to sticking to your budget, and you do for a few days. Then, despite your resolve, you break down, pull out the credit card and do something that you promised you wouldn’t. You wake up in the morning ashamed and resolve never to do it again.

I am so busted with this . Yesterday I went to buy ear rings and a bracelet for a wedding and came out with an extra 2 necklaces and an extra bracelet. Well they were really good value, may not find anything like that again. Excuses really isn't it .
I am going to try the 72 hour rule

I fear the clever marketing in the traditional financial services industry continues to confuse many people. They see the title “financial adviser,” “financial planner” or “financial” anything and expect to receive unbiased advice.

CRM2 Overview: Canadian investors will be seeing two new mandatory reports (one on COST and one on PERFORMANCE) from their financial institutions starting July 15th, 2016. This video provides the overview of these reports, with additional videos provided for more in-depth explanations.

The " cost of living" stats may show its not going up by much but many of the things like electricity that seniors buy are at 5% or higher increases.
How is your interest bearing account going to keep up with that ?

At the supermarket, shoppers receive detailed receipts of their scanned and bagged items. After restaurant meals, wait staff hand diners itemized bills. But trying to find out what your investments cost is a maze of jargon
Often called " loads" double blow of the “expense ratio” is the most costly of all:
First, as the account balance increases, so does the amount skimmed off the top to cover fees. And every dollar paid in fees is one less dollar left to compound and grow.
In reality it doesn't cost more to run larger account so why should you pay more?
look for a flat fee advisor who will charge a set amount for the work done , not a % ever increasing

This is i written in a Canadian magazine but about US. We will see fee disclosures on Canadian statements in 2017
It won't be the whole fee just what the advisor is paid though , could be only 20% of the true cost

A new report has shown once again that past performance do not predict future success

An important simplifying assumption in William Bengen’s research is that retirees spend constant inflation-adjusted amounts throughout retirement. This may be at odds with the spending patterns of many retirees. An exploration of the data should give us an idea of how people actually change their spending during retirement.

A more recent contribution to the retirement spending debate is David Blanchett’s May 2014 article from the Journal of Financial Planning, “Exploring the Retirement Consumption Puzzle.” Blanchett’s “puzzle” concerns how spending tends to decrease both at and then during retirement at a real spending averages rate of about 1% per year.

Ok so if you read around my lists you will realize I like writing by Dr Pfau . I find him along with Dr Moshe Milvesky to be very factual. I have trouble with some of the proclamations from insurance company, bank , fund company, marketing departments. They either try to persuade you that you are doomed and to save double or over promise results from their wonderful products
If we follow what the academics tell us and then compare that to the product pushers we have far more chance of getting a happy outcome.

Based on a recent survey of more than 5,000 Canadian investors, advisors have a lot of improving to do"

Only slightly more than half (54%) of investors indicate their advisor helped set goals and discussed risk," the report says. "Barely one-third (34%) say their advisor effectively delivered on all three stages."

Another finding was that, in spite of the coverage and attention that news media have devoted to fee transparency recently, only 27% of investors say they completely understand the fees they pay, down from the 2012 figure of 30%.

Regulators “have dropped the ball” says Glorianne Stromberg
They hold themselves out as offering advice, but it’s all a sales transaction. Their compensation structures are designed to force those so-called advisors or representatives to deal in those products (proprietary products or those underwritten by the company), or they’re without a job. They’re setting up irreconcilable conflicts of interest on all sides of every transaction.” G. Stromberg article

1. A successful financial life comes from increasing your career prospects and saving the difference, but that doesn’t happen with lifestyle creep. Most personal finance experts talk about how much you can save from cutting back, but very few talk about the benefits of finding ways to earn more money. A combination of the two helps with financial security, but the biggest thing most people have a hard time with is keeping their standard of living relatively constant when they do finally start making more money. The secret sauce comes from making more money while not wanting more stuff.

Lately I’ve been noticing an increasing number of stories about people who have managed to save a decent chunk of money in a relatively short period of time to be able to retire at a very young age. Here are a few I’ve seen recently along with some advice from each.

Ever since the financial crisis investors have been bombarded with books, blog posts, articles and advice about how to survive the next bear market/Lehman Brothers/black swan/recession/subprime/1987/big short moment in the markets.
And don’t get me wrong, preparing yourself mentally for market downturns can be a helpful exercise. These things are inevitable so planning for a wide range of outcomes that includes the potential for large losses in risk assets is a decent way to ensure that you don’t panic when markets do fall.
But there’s another risk in the markets that most investors don’t spend too much time worrying about — a melt-up in prices.