Welcome to the Globe and Mail Personal Finance Reader. I’m Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist at The Globe, and each week I compile a list of articles, blog postings and websites that represent the best of what the online world has to offer on money-related subjects.
The numbers out of Canada’s housing market are the best show in town if you’re a financial journalist. While the U.S. housing market continues to struggle, ours is growing by such huge monthly increments that there’s now a ripping good debate about whether house prices are a bubble. You’ll find the latest thinking on housing in this edition of the Reader, as well as a selection of year-end investing predictions, forecasts and advice.
Your credit card is sure to have had a workout these past few weeks, so check out the tools and tips for cardholders. In case you’re not tapped out from your holiday buying, there’s also a bargain hunter’s guide to visiting New York. In case you’ve blown the budget, read about how to find free banking.
Found something on the Internet that your fellow investors might enjoy? Talk to me at rcarrick@globeandmail.com
From the Globe and Mail and Globe Investor
When is it really too late to start saving for retirement? Do you have to start in your 20s, or should paying down debt be a bigger early-life priority for families?
Your questions on TFSAs answered. Financial author Gordon Pape took dozens of reader queries on this new tool for tax-sheltered saving in an online discussion.
Just got a job? How to handle spending, saving and debt. Writer Lesley Scorgie explains what takes priority -- TFSAs, RRSPs or saving for a home
How to handle tax-loss selling properly: Vance LeCocq, tax services partner at Grant Thornton, took your questions in an online discussion.
Putting off saving for retirement? In this video, financial planner Ted Rechtshaffen explains how and when young couples should start saving for their golden years
Why you save: A bedtime story. In this video, meant to for parents and children, we explain why only dumb bunnies buy things on a credit card that they can't afford to pay back right away.
Must Reads From Around the Web
Housing Developments
Economist Jeff Rubin called the last housing bubble back in 1989, and now he’s warning about what rising interest rates will do to the future affordability of mortgages taken out to buy homes at today’s high prices.
Here’s a nice overview of why people are worried about the Canadian housing market.
Economist David Rosenberg has brought his gruffly bearish view back to Canada after a stint on Wall Street. Here, he explains why he believes there’s a bubble in the Canadian housing market. I’d like to see this analysis added to the list of documents homebuyers must read through before making an offer.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is worried that people are buying homes right now because of low interest rates that will climb in the next few years in a way that makes mortgage payments much more expensive. Here’s the outlook for interest rates as assembled by the ever-essential Canadian Mortgage Trends blog.
A lively online back-and-forth about whether homes are an investment. It got me thinking about how it cost us several thousand dollars to put a new roof on our “investment” last year.
Year-End Invest-O-Rama
The investment industry is starting to respond to the skittishness of Canadian investors with products tailored to conservative types. This very useful Macleans story will make you a smarter consumer of these products.
Fortune magazine’s 2010 investor guide includes top stock picks and strategies for 2010.
Check in with the 2010 outlook from three U.S. investing heavyweights – Abby Joseph Cohen, Bob Doll and John Bogle.
10 predictions for 2010 from Richard Bernstein, a money manager who was previously chief investment strategist for Merrill Lynch.
