Don’s Blog

Below I have outlined my current investments and briefly explained my investment style (which is probably best described as “value oriented” and “global” with a long term perspective.)

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Four years of economics in university (and many years of learning and investing since then) has convinced me that selecting individual stocks is a tough way to make money unless (1) you have a lot of time to get to know a company really, really well or (2) are in a unique position to know more about a company’s prospects than the stock analysts.  (I used to be in that unique position for many IT stocks–but then the dot com boom/bubble got everyone interested in them and now most price changes are driven by hype and speculation rather than any fundamentals.) 

As a result, much of my portfolio is invested in Exchange Traded Funds spread across the big ETF companies (both in Canada and the US.)  From my perspective their are two big benefits to investing in ETFs:

- Broad exposure to markets/economies.  I believe in both “efficient markets” and “globalization”–this means I prefer investments based on macroeconomic fundamentals and I am comfortable with 50% of my portfolio invested outside of Canada (Canada’s economy is <5% of the global economy–and there’s a lot of risk involved in limiting your investment options to what is available in Canada.)

- Lower costs/better long-term returns.   Management Expense Ratios on many mutual funds are high with little or no value added.  When compounded over 20 years, a difference in MERs of .5% versus 2.5% has a very big impact on your net worth when you go to retire.

Claymore (Canada) (CRQ/CIE)

iShares (Canada) (XIC/XIU/XMD)

iShares (US/International) (EEM/ILF,EWT, EWJ)

PowerShares (US/International) (PIV/PID)

State Street (US/International) (DGT)

Vanguard (US/International) (VWO)

Wisdom Tree (US/International) (DOO)

Mutual Funds

The mutual funds that I own are to provide me with more value/small-cap exposure.  I would really like to be using ABC Funds for this (but unfortunately they have a $150,000 minimum investment which is more than I want to invest in value/small-cap stocks at this point in time.)  I had looked at iShares CDN Value Index Fund (XCV) but a quick review of their holdings convinced me that this wasn’t the value/small-cap exposure that I was looking for.

Saxon Small Cap

Mackenzie Cundill Value

Trimark Canadian Small Companies (closed to new investments)

Mackenzie Cundill Recovery Fund (closed to new investments)

 

Speciality Investments

The options available to the individual investor have increased significantly in the past few years.  Using these speciality products, it is possible to better manage your investment risk–or if you would rather, you can use them to stake a position further out on risk/return curve.

DB Commodity Funds (for commodities exposure)

Rydex CurrencyShares (for decreasing or increasing your currency risk)

Horizons BetaPro Funds (for leveraged and inverse exposure)

Rydex Investments (for leveraged and inverse exposure and other alternate investments)

 

*Warning*

I am not a financial planning or investment professional and the above should not be construed as financial or investment advice. 
These are investments that I have made and/or am planning to make–and are probably not suitable for anyone else other than myself. 

Only one more week to make your RRSP contributions for the 2006 tax year–and then two months to file your income tax return…

Most people hate this time of year, however I’ve come to enjoy look forward to it–as I know that the government will finally give me some of my money back (between charitable and RRSP contributions I usually get enough back to justify all the paperwork and headaches.)

However, if you are one of those people that hate RRSP and tax season then you might want to check out some of the websites and blogs below that will answer some of your questions and help you make sense of the barrage of RRSP related advertising that takes place at this time of year.

taxtips.ca – Canadian Income Tax and Financial Information (the best that I’m aware of)

Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Financial DIY

Canadian Financial Stuff

Canadian Money Blogs Reviewer

Investing Intelligently

Canada Revenue Agency (the authoritative answer to any questions–but not great for advice)

…and if you don’t have enough time to review the above information in the next week, then I’ll summarize it for you:

Make an RRSP contribution this year–and start planing for next year’s contribution (for most Canadians this is one of the best financial moves possible.)

However don’t rush your investment decisions–the important part is make the RRSP contribution.  You can put it into a short-term deposit or money market account–and then take your time to decide where to invest it in the long term.  (In my next post, I’ll share some ideas on possible investments and approaches to take to your investments.)

…is the author of a blog that I read on a regular basis.  He’s Mexican–but lived in Finland for a while and is now living in Belgium (and based on his current review of Belgian beers, he’s almost my Mexican alter ego.)

Some of his postings are insightful–and others are just plain funny.  Some samples are below:

 

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Note to self

Mole poblano doesn’t always work with foreigners.
At least not the first time…

Posted by Chiva Congelado at 10:58 PM

Labels: Food, in English, Mexico

 

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

They’re afraid of me…

One of the funniest things that has happened to me in Brussels is that when I find Finns in the street and talk to them in Finnish, they get scared as hell. Why? Because I sure as hell don’t look Finnish, so they don’t know what’s going on.
At least with the younger generation that’s not such a big problem anymore, but I sure hope it’d change.

Posted by Chiva Congelado at 9:41 PM

Labels: Belgium, culture, Finland, in English, languages

 

..and another: Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!

I’ve heard of the idea of “life lists” before–but became more interested the other day when I stumbled on a life list created by John Goddard when he was 15.  This was a life list that I could relate to–and reminded me of my “Big To Do” list that I’ve been maintaining for the last couple of years (all travel destinations–except for my interest in fireworks..)

My Big To Do List:

- climb Mount Kilimanjaro / visit the Serengeti
- raft the Zambezi / visit Victoria Falls
- travel in India
- travel in Thailand / visit Angkor Wat
- get my pyrotechnics license

A quick search of the internet will come up with lots of material on life lists.  I really liked the lists at Outpost Magazine and the Travel Channel, but the 43 Things and SuperViva websites are probably more interesting to the general population (and have piles of neat things listed–as well as a few that I don’t understand…)

It’s easy to understand why it’s necessary to plan for the big things in life (like buying a house, taking a year off, retiring, etc.) but these life lists are far more fun and interesting (although a lot still have “buy a house”, etc. on them.) 

Check them out….

Links:

Outpost Magazine’s Adventure Life List

Travel Channel’s 99 Things to Do Before You Die

Life Goals Lists on SuperViva

43 Things