It’s portfolio checkup time on the Sunday Reads.

Next week, the Sunday Reads will fall on boxing day. And for the record, I will not be rushing through the doors (throwing elbows) trying to get my hands on the 3 large screen TVs selling at 80% off! at Best Buy. Yes, the year is drawing to a close. As the first full year of the pandemic, it has been more than trying. We close out the year with nature’s not-so-funny early XMAS present known as the Omicron variant. I guess as a species, we’ve been naughty. Omicron has created a mountain of uncertainty in a year when investment gains have been more than plentiful. It’s portfolio checkup time on the Sunday Reads.

It will likely be another year of double digit returns for U.S. stocks. In a recent post for MoneySense I looked at the double digit returns hat trick for U.S. stocks. That post shows the stock market history of how often that event has occurred, and what happens after those hat tricks. We could be in for double digits again in 2022. We could have a major correction. We could have anything in between.

Canadian stocks are also in line to deliver double digit returns in 2021. That would be two out of the last three years. In 2019, Canadian stocks delivered over 20%. 2020 offered about 5%.

Have you been rebalancing as per your investment mandate? It may be time to move those incredible stock gains to bonds and other portfolio risk managers. You might consider moving proceeds from high-flying stocks to stocks that offer greater value.

Of course the rebalancing is done for you if you hold one of the all-in-one asset allocation ETFs, or if you’re investing with one of Canada’s Robo Advisors.

Benchmarking your returns

It’s always a good idea to see how your returns stack up against benchmarks. If you are underperforming (over longer periods)figure out why. Do you need to fix something?

You might compare your returns to the asset allocation ETFs.

Here’s the performance of the Canadian Robo Advisors.

Are you investing within your risk tolerance level? Anything can happen. Are you prepared for a major stock market correction that could last many years?

How much are you paying in fees? High fees are a wealth destroyer. If you are a reader of this blog you know that there is no reason for any Canadian to pay fees anywhere close to 2%.

Do you need to make any year-end tax moves? That may involve selling losers to create capital losses. It may be time to sell some winners. Consider the management or your RESP accounts.

Are you drawing down your retirement portfolios in the most efficient manner?

Here’s a helpful tax page on Get Smarter About Money.

Do you need a financial plan? Don’t just invest. Know where you are going, and know how to get there. A financial plan goes well beyond investing.

The Sunday Reads

On Eat Sleep Breathe FI, a very sensible message on how to save a little each month. There can be a lot of debate around the latte effect. That is, can you really make a major impact on your financial destination by continually walking past the Starbucks?

At My Own Advisor, Mark offers two (other) expenses that are stealing your retirement dreams. Mark suggests that you sweat the big stuff, such as housing and transportation costs. True. I’ve had more than one financial planner suggest to me that if you get your home ownership and vehicle costs ‘right’, you’ve done most of the heavy financial lifting.

I am also in the camp that the small stuff can add up. Here’s one of my favourite posts on Cut The Crap Investing – Oh Look, I just found $888,000 in your coffee. You might come at personal financial budgeting from all sides. If you need to sweat the small stuff, then do it. If you can reach your financial goals while you consume two Starbucks BRÛLÉ BLISS a day, congrats.

Wow, does that look good, or what? I’ll be right back after a trip to Starbucks. I’m in a festive state of mind. You can sing that to a famous Billy Joel song.

The Jay Powell show …

In my MoneySense weekly I looked at rate hike plans of Jerome Powell and the U.S. Federal Reserve. I also covered ‘green inflation’, a REIT sector update and Apple is looking to be the first $3 trillion company.

On My Own Advisor, we have the one more year edition. How long should you keep working when you reach your retirement number? Should you give it another year or two to build that buffer? Is time more valuable than money?

On Million Dollar Journey a good look at “Free” stock and ETF trading in Canada. One note of caution. Wealthsimple Trade is wonderful for no commission trades on Canadian stocks and ETFs. If you trade U.S. listed stocks and ETFs the fees are almost 2% each way. On a buy and sell round trip, you’d pay a massive fee near 4%. Look for other options for your U.S. dollar holdings.

On the Maple Money podcast we have the answers to your biggest mortgage questions.

Supply chains and portfolio disruption

The Dividend Guy is feeling the impact of inflation and supply chain disruption. Mike will be selling a stock, Lazard (LAZ) the laggard.

I have been fortunate and have not had to sell any of our stock holdings. I recently reported on our perfect dividend growth record through the pandemic and our recent total returns for the U.S. stock portfolio.

Here’s an awesome retirement post on the Findependence Hub – a Q&A on FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) and the Geo-Arbitrage (global travel and tips).

And let’s stay in retirement stage with – how the 70’s could be your best decade ever.

A very thoughtful post from Fritz at The Retirement Manifesto – make the most of a crisis. That deals with mid-life crisis and more. I have certainly felt that, we have to redesign our life as we move through life’s stages. For me, the most difficult transition was the period when the kids no longer count on you for everything, when you don’t have to be their everything. Your kids define your life and every aspect and that purpose lessens over time.

You have to fill that purpose void.

We always check in on the weekly review with Dividend Hawk.

And this is more than timely, from Banker on Wheels – the best personal finance books to give this year.

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays. To create some Joy you can follow this blog. Look for the subscribe button on the right hand side of this page. 🙂

Cut your fees, get some offers here …

While I do not accept monies for feature blog posts please click here on the mission and ‘how I might get paid’ disclosures. Affiliate partnerships help me pay the bills for this site. That will allow me to keep this site free of ads and easy to read.

You will also earn a break on fees by way of many of those partnership links.

Canada’s top-ranked discount brokerage

Cut the Crap Investing readers can earn a break on fees at Questrade by way of that partnership link.

Here’s Canada’s top-performing Robo Advisor.

I have partnerships with several of the leading Canadian Robo Advisors such as Justwealth, BMO Smartfolio ,Wealthsimple, Nest Wealth and Questwealth from Questrade.

Consider Justwealth for RESP accounts. That is THE option in Canada with target date funds that adjust the risk level as the student approaches the College or University start date.

Our savings accounts

Make your cash work a lot harder at EQ Bank. RRSP and TFSA account savings rates are at 1.25%. You’ll find some higher rates on certain GICs. They now also offer U.S. dollar accounts. They have been awesome.

Our cashback credit card

We make between $60 to $70 every month! And that’s on everyday spending. There are no fees with …

The Tangerine Cash Back Credit Card

Kindly use the buttons below to share this post.