February 21

Two hours, 5 km walk through the neighbourhood. Zero degrees, wind in the open, but none in the bush. 

 

February 16

 

Luc and I have been taking Tae Kwon Do on Saturdays. He's a blue belt. I'm white. We went for a walk around a pond and took a break to practice Poomsae patterns. 

February 14

 

It has been so mild this winter, that I was able to do some yardwork. Cleaning up deadfall from a danger tree we removed in November. 

February 11

 KINUSEO FALLS, TUMBLER RIDGE

Dinosaur Track Way, Tumbler Ridge

February 9

 

February 8

 

Book Review: When Can I Retire

 Dear Cindy, 

Since our road trip, I've been thinking a lot about Gilles' retirement. I don't think I'll quit working early as I like my job, it provides for time off flexibility and there is a growing pension at the end of it. 

I recently finished the book: "When Can I Retire" by Andrew Allentuck. 

It was published in 2008, so it is slightly dated and doesn't include the subprime mortgage crash or covid or other events of market swings since then. 

In the book, there were some recommended references to projecting and calculating retirement financial needs in Chapter 9. I looked them up. The links no longer were valid - as this is 13 years since publication. 

Well, I figured since the Wealthy Barber, David Chilton published an updated version of his book, I thoght perhaps Andrew Allentuck may have insight on current links to explore. 

I found his gmail address and sent him an email with the question of updated links. We emailed back and forth a few times. Then he sent me an email to say he would telephone me! 

So, I gave him my number and we chatted about investing and markets for about 45 minutes. 

He recommended three books for fun reading to aid my my personal investing strategies. 

1. This Time is Different by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. 

2. Why Stock Markets Crash by Didier Sornette

3. In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio by Andrew W. Lo and Stephen R. Foerster. 

My other take-aways from the book is that in the book he recommends a bond investment mix equal in percentage to your age. So, 50 years old, 50% bond investment. During our conversation, he gave very different advice and no longer recommends a heavy bond mix due to their inadequacy for high returns. Where as the growth on stocks is infinite. 

At the end of it, he did not answer my question. So I'm still on my own to create an excel spreadsheet that will tell me when we will run out of money in retirement. 

I think I need to rebalance our portfolio to be heavier in dividend paying index funds or Canadian banks, rather than my will-nilly strategy of random mining stocks - that don't pay dividends and rely on growth only.

I also need to do some research on Annuities. I learned about them when I took the Canadian Securities Course. But I found them confusing and not relevent to that stage of our lives, so I didn't focus for a full understanding of that vehicle.