Globe and Mail personal finance columnist Rob Carrick brings you the Personal Finance Reader, his twice-weekly picks for the best online reading about money, the markets and more. If you're having trouble reading this newsletter or want to read the archives, click here.
Found something on the Internet that your fellow investors might enjoy? Talk to me at rcarrick@globeandmail.com.
Must reads from The Globe and Mail
Putting household debt in context. In this column, I take a look at what Canada's debt-to-income ratio really means
Pay down your debt in record time. David Bach shows you how in this excerpt from his new book, Debt Free For Life
Author urges Canadians to see the real cost of debt. Carmen Wong Ulrich puts spending into perspective in The Real Cost of Living
The loonie's rise cuts both ways. Sure, a high dollar makes foreign equities cheap, but beware of its long-term effects on your retirement portfolio
Don't be snowed under by the sequence of returns. Worried about outliving your retirement savings? The solution isn't to pay high fees for a guaranteed income product, says adviser Ted Rechtshaffen.
It may be time for your first adviser. Once you have money to invest, no matter how little, it's a good time to start looking for advice, writes Preet Banerjee
Do your investments fit your retirement plans? When buy and hold turns into buy and forget, your portfolio becomes a muddle
Should near-retirees remortgage their home? In this week's Cash Clash, a couple wants to hit $1-million target in savings for the golden years but are struggling over the risk factor
The life stage formerly known as retirement. The author of Stayin' Alive shares his thoughts on how boomers will work, play and find meaning in the second half of their lives
Must Reads From Around the Web
The Economics of Sex
Basic economic theory holds that demand goes up when price goes down. The authors of the new book Spousonomics explain how to apply this to improving your sex life.
Look Hot, Feel Cold
How turning down the thermostat in winter may help make you skinnier (not to mention making your heating bill cheaper).
Portfolio Measuring Sticks
Print or bookmark this page - it's a handy chart of returns for benchmark stock and bond indexes over the past 30 years. Perfect for measuring the returns in your portfolio. Here's an explanation of how to do that from a recent Portfolio Strategy column.
Bulls on Borrowed Time
A commentary from the respected money manager Jeremy Grantham that says the current strong stock market uptrend has some legs - for a while.
Don't Fall Into These Traps
We all like to think we're too sophisticated to be caught up in investing scams, but the fact remains that scam artists are perpetually being exposed after duping people. Here's a list of the most common traps.
A former identify thief explains how debit and credit card fraud works from the criminal's point of view.
The Bull Market in Complacency
That's a phrase used by money manager and writer John Mauldin in this video, where he discusses what worries him about the current global investing environment.
A Decade of Fund Duds and Gems
Best and worst fund categories of the past decade. I offer this to in the hopes of generating some caution about buying the hottest performing stuff and some curiosity about whether the worst performing sectors might be worth buying.
Editor's note: If you don't receive Rob Carrick's newsletter twice weekly by email, you can sign up to get it for free at The Globe and Mail. All you need to do is register for the site, or if you've already registered, login and go to your profile at the top of the homepage. Once you're in your profile, look under Newsletters and Alerts and look for the Personal Finance Reader and other newsletters. Other financial newsletters include:
Business Ticker, a summary of the day's top business stories
Berman's Market Update, a summary of the markets at the open, noon and close
All-Star Investor, investment ideas from the best and the brightest minds in the business using StarMine's equity analyst rankings and Lipper's mutual fund manager rankings.