Friday Reading: Retirement Dreams

By Harry Sit

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Are you shopping on Black Friday? I bought this rugged waterproof camera for $83 with my Amazon gift card. It’s supposed to withstand dust, shock, water, and cold temperature better than other more delicate cameras. I’m planning to take it on my hiking and skiing trips.

Now the interesting articles I read this week:

How Far Does $300,000 of Retirement Savings Go? by Mike Piper at Oblivious Investor

I very much look forward to my retirement years. Don’t have to work. Do whatever I want. Live wherever I want. Go to places whenever I want, not just holidays and weekends. Low housing expenses. Subsidized health care. Tax free income.

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Can You Choose Your Own HSA Provider? by Michael at Financial Ramblings

My employer is changing its HSA provider next year. I will take out my balance at the current provider and roll it over to my own provider Alliant Credit Union, but I will have to wait until the contribution from the last paycheck of the year is deposited.

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Are You For Or Against Labor Unions? by Sam at Financial Samurai

Unions come to the front page of national news because of the Hostess bankruptcy and liquidation. Unions are great for the employees, especially the early ones.

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Reward Checking Account Allows Credit Card Instead of Debit Card Purchases by Ken Tumin at DepositAccounts.com

I want to bring to your attention this bit in the article:

"From my reward checking contact, I learned that it won’t be easy for credit unions and community banks to add credit cards to their reward checking accounts. One reason is that a credit card with a rolling balance is, essentially, a loan. This can allow banks to earn more revenue from interest, but it adds risks to the banks’ loan portfolios. There’s also an added operational cost with credit cards."

Lest anyone thinks issuing credit cards is all gravy, credit unions and community banks actually give up this business because they don’t want the risks and operational costs.

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Bonds As A Hedge For Equities by Michael at Long-Term Returns

At low yields, bonds’ power to hedge stock market declines is not as high as before. This is a mathematical fact, but Michael says that’s not the point of holding bonds. As my "double the bond yield" experiment demonstrated so far, for people with under $1 million invested, there are many better alternatives to a total bond market fund.

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Do Not Try This Social Security Strategy by Mike Piper at Oblivious Investor

Don’t believe everything you read, especially from sources you are not familiar with. People make mistakes. Sometimes people write outside their expertise. You do better if stick to more careful sources.

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Posted on November 23, 2012 under News. Keywords: , , , .

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Comments

2 Comments on Friday Reading: Retirement Dreams

  1. Canadian Budget Binder on November 23, 2012
     

    NO Black Friday Shopping here, I was nearly trampled on yesterday at TSC.. I’m out. Great weekend reading list. Enjoy your weekend. Mr.CBB

  2. Harry on November 25, 2012
     

    Thanksgiving is in October in Canada. Is there a shopping event at that time too?

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