I recently read this article by the CBC about a man who converted a Vancouver storage unit into a livable apartment. Although this is illegal and crazy, I have to admit that this is one of the most ingenious set-ups I've ever seen. You probably shouldn't do this:
I recently finished the "8 Wealth Habits of Financially Successful People" by Ron Malhotra. This book is an introductory guide to personal finance, which I thought was succinct (with less than 80 pages). However, I felt that it was less entertaining than other introductory personal finance books such as: The Wealthy Barber (Chilton), The Millonaire Teacher (Hallam), or The Automatic Millionaire (Bach).
The 8 wealth habits as described by Ron are:
Think Differently
Invest in Yourself
Don't Trade Time for Money
Invest to Increase Wealth
Preserve and Protect Wealth
Don't Take Unnecessary Risks
Be Conscientious About Your Money and Future
Surround Yourself with Trusted Experts
This book is very short, so it works well as a review of basic personal finance concepts. However, it lacks any real depth into any particular personal finance topic.
Here's a short video from Ron explaining some psychological hurdles that keep us from becoming making wise financial decisions:
I came across an interesting article the other day from Money Sense by Romana King that listed the 6 best and worst places to buy rental property in Canada. I decided to summarize her tables in one place:
I was recently living in Vancouver and would agree that the real estate prices there are ridiculously expensive. It would be very difficult to succeed as a real estate investor in Vancouver, however it's an awesome city to live in. Charlottetown on the other hand would be a much easier place to become a real estate mogul, given that you like potatoes and Ann of Green Gables.
The 11 Best Tips For Buying Your First Investment Property:
I am an avid dividend investor. I think owning dividend paying stocks are a great way to supplement and diversify your income streams. As the saying goes "you shouldn't have all your eggs in one basket", meaning you shouldn't rely solely on one income stream (i.e. your job).
You might be asking yourself, what is a dividend? Firstly, companies can issue shares of their company in the form of stocks to raise expansion capital. When you purchase company shares, you are investing in the company, thus becoming a part owner of the company. This entitles you to the company's profits (if there are any). Typically when a publicly traded company earns a profit there are two ways in which they can use them to benefit the shareholders: 1) The company can retain the earnings with the intent of eventually increasing the share price, or 2) The company can give some of the profits to the shareholders in the form of a dividend.
What are the best tips when it comes investing in dividend stocks? I recently stumbled onto an article by Jimmy Atkinson at Dividend Reference entitled "101 Dividend Investing Tips from the Experts". You can find it here: http://dividendreference.com/guides/dividend-investing-tips/
I've selected what I found to be the seven best dividend investing tips from the article above:
Diversify but don’t over diversify. Adding one stock to a 10-stock portfolio adds a great deal of value, but adding 10 stocks to a 100-stock portfolio may not add any value. Most studies show that a diversified portfolio of 15 to 30 stocks is the optimal number of individual investments. — Ken Faulkenberry, The AAAMP Value Blog
While dividend yield has its importance, an intelligent investor should pay greater attention to a stock’s dividend growth rate and yield-on-cost. An investment that pays 3 percent on your cost is good, but what’s even better is an investment that pays you 10 percent on your cost down the line. Divided growth is what makes this possible. — Quinn Mohammed, Dividend Beginner
Be a net accumulator. Contrary to what the financial media blitzes us
with on a minute-by-minute basis, there’s nothing glorious about buying
and selling stocks. If you ascribe to that manic strategy of trying to
cycle in and out of equities, you’ll wind up emulating the proverbial
hamster on the wheel rather than Warren Buffett. Don’t get me wrong, I’m
not blindly advocating buy and hold either. What I am suggesting is
that you focus on being a net accumulator of assets; my favourite being
dividend growth stocks. In my years of investing, I have only sold a
single stock. — Ryan, Get Rich Brothers
I like to buy shares (new position or adding on) soon after the ex-dividend date. Share prices tend to hit a short term peak just before ex-dividend and the price will often drop below the ex-dividend share value in the couple of weeks following ex-dividend. In many cases the price savings will be several times the just paid dividend amount. This strategy will produce a lower average cost per share and higher effective yield. — Tim Plaehn, Investors Alley
To gain an instant dividend portfolio consider low-cost indexed mutual funds or ETFs. Vanguard offer several dividend focused funds with low fees which pay qualified dividends. — Trevor, Dividend Life
A good portfolio is like a garden. It takes maintenance, time and attention to detail, but ultimately should grow by itself. It should not take continuous work, but occasional pruning. A well understood and well balanced portfolio can be a piece of beauty. — AlphaTarget
The first place any investor should look for high quality dividend stocks is the Dividend Aristocrats list. This is how I constructed my own long term dividend investing portfolio. It’s a great starting point for further filtering and research to find some of the highest quality companies that have a long history of annual dividend raises. — Keith Park, Div Hut
In addition, here is Dan Caplinger from The Motley Fool with three things you probably didn't know about dividend investing:
I recently finished a two week cross-country road trip
starting from Vancouver and ending in Toronto. I decided to go
through the US
because I had not seen much of the interior US and I thought gas and
accommodations would be cheaper (even with a weak Canadian dollar of about 70
cents to the US dollar).
Gas did end up being cheaper, even with the US exchange
rate. One of the biggest savings came from staying at the many Airbnb’s
available along my route. Since the US
has more populated city centers than in Canada it wasn’t hard to find an
affordable Airbnb at each destination. Also, with more Airbnbs to choose from
at each destination, the competition usually kept the prices lower. It helps if you have a vehicle and are able to travel to the
Airbnb since lower prices are usually available outside of the city centers.
Airbnb’s website provides a price filter which helps you find the cheapest
places to stay around your destination.
Another important note when using Airbnb is that you should book your stay a
few days in advance, since your booking requires the host’s approval. It’s
important to keep an up-to-date profile (on Facebook or Airbnb). There are
however “instant books”, which do not require a host’s approval. With “instant
books” you get the room booking as soon as you submit your payment information.
I always stayed in a place with a few reviews (the more the
better), always with a score of at least 4 stars out of 5. This will also
factor into the price, since places with great reviews may charge a slight
premium over rooms with no review history.
The most expensive Airbnb I booked was just outside of Yellowstone National Park. This area had few Airbnbs
to choose from and because of the park’s popularity the hosts were able to
charge a premium. The cheapest Airbnb I booked on my trip was in Chicago. I booked a room just
outside of the Chicago city center which saved tens of dollars a night. I
was still able to access downtown via the subway.
To sum up my 5 Airbnb user tips:
Keep
an up-to-date profile (either through Facebook or Airbnb). This will help
your hosts get to know you and therefore accept your booking request. The
more information you give them the better, so be sure to send them a
friendly message about yourself and your trip. As you stay at more Airbnbs
you will also be reviewed as a guest, good guest reviews will help your
future booking requests.
Choose
a high population destination. More people usually equates to more high
quality Airbnbs and lower prices.
Have a
car. If you can get to Airbnbs slightly outside of city centers you can
usually save more.
Book
in advance. Unless you’re booking with an “instant book”, you’ll have to
book a day or two in advance to give your host a chance to review your
profile and to accept your booking request.
Check
the review. Be sure to book accommodations with a few reviews (the more
the better), with a score of at least 4 out of 5 stars. If there are no
reviews it may be cheaper, however you run the risk of having a creepy
host or accommodations that do not match the description.
