Canadian Personal Finance News | January 2016

A new year begins. What are you working on? Are you on a mission? Yes, you're working hard but are you doing something meaningful? For a company that stands for something? Do you wake up without an alarm clock because the mission beckons?

January 4th, 2016 by Potato Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) are great ways to let your investments grow tax-free - with the added benefit of making your paperwork simpler because you won't have to track or report the gains of individual investments within them.

"My initial findings were pretty tepid… a whole bunch of articles on ‘making a list’ and ‘setting a timetable’, which I’m not saying aren’t fine ideas, but we’ve all tried these things (or we’ve read them and decided we don’t want to try them)! And yet still, so many of us dream up these big start-of-the-year goals… that never make it past January (ya, I said ‘us’… I know I’m not the only guilty one here)."

"The idea that side-stepping a bear market is of equal importance to the steady accumulation of risk assets is, in this context, a giant joke."

"Price creates the reality for investors, because investors take their behavioral cues from price and the media fashions its headlines from it."

"All in all, a diversified portfolio did quite well in the “year when nothing worked.” Yet another reminder of why it is so important to hold all of the major asset classes all the time and ignore the noise. Let’s look at the details."

"People need a different financial media—one less focused on dispensing investment tips and what’s happening on Wall Street, and more focused on dispensing realistic advice about how to make big financial decisions. "

"One of the most difficult obstacles investors face is the nagging feeling that there’s something better out there. Market returns can now be had for less than 10 basis points, and these are almost certainly enough to allow investors to reach any realistic financial goal. Yet we sabotage ourselves by rejecting an easy A-minus and instead wind up with a C or D. 'It’s amazing how easy it is to do worse by trying to do better.'"

"you have the potential to SERIOUSLY change your relationship with both your money and stuff. Remember: The success of your shopping ban [or budget, or any attempt to align your money and your life] depends on the stories you tell yourself throughout it. If you tell yourself it sucks, you’ll fail and binge after. But if you appreciate what you have and only buy what you need, the results could be life-changing."

"People who obsess over the best possible outcome are less happy — and more susceptible to ‘buyer’s remorse’ — than people who are satisfied with outcomes that are good enough"

"It's hard to argue. Despite the record of things getting better for most people most of the time, pessimism isn't just more common than optimism, it also sounds smarter. It's intellectually captivating, and paid more attention to than the optimist who is often viewed as an oblivious sucker."

If you read a lot of personal finance stuff, this won't be the first time you've come across something like this, but it's Kristen's gentle style and common-sense realism that really makes this one a stand-out

December's list of the best Canadian personal finance news, articles, and blog posts from around the internet, expertly curated for interest and relevance.