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A Beginner's Guide to Investing for Retirement
You (hopefully!) have a job and are making money. You may have some extra money if you're careful with your spending habits. There are a few options for what to do with this extra money. You could put it under your bed, or you could park it somewhere else. There are two problems with the bed option: 1) inflation and 2) lazy money.
Let's talk about inflation first. Inflation means that your money actually loses value as time goes on. Remember when a can of Coke was a buck and now it's a $1.50? That's inflation at work. A dollar was good for a whole Coke a few years ago, but now it's only good for 2/3 of a Coke. If you kept your money under your mattress for 10 or 20 years, the purchasing power (i.e. how many Cokes you could buy with the same dollar) would continue to go down. In the past two decades, inflation in the US and Canada has averaged 2% per year. Meaning that if a Coke cost $1 one year, it would cost $1.02 the next and, in 20 years, the same can would be expected to cost $1.50.
Now let's talk about lazy money. No one likes being lazy, and you shouldn't want your money to be lazy either. Money can do work for you. It can do this work by being invested in financial assets like stocks or bonds. We'll talk about what these are later, but the main point is that money can be put somewhere else other than under your mattress so that it can grow at a rate that's higher than inflation, and hopefully even more than that.
To make this money grow as fast as possible, it's important to start investing as soon as possible. This is because of the magic of compound interest: money that has has been invested longer will make you more money. For example, the graph below shows the investments from two individuals, one who started investing $5,000 per year at age 25, and the other who started investing $7,000 per year at age 35. We assume that they made 7% per year on their investments. Each invested almost exactly the same amount; however, as you can see, the one who invested earlier has almost double the amount of money when they are both ready to retire at age 65.
Why invest in the first place though? Why not use all your extra money to buy chocolate or gold-rimmed lamp shades? Sure, you could do that, but some people would like to retire, and having the option to retire earlier is a nice thing to have. This concept has sexy acronyms like FIRE (for Financial Independence Retire Early) and is taking over the blogosphere. By making your money grow as fast as possible, you can retire earlier than if it just sat around with your lost socks.
"Investing" sounds scary to some people. Stock market crashes. Photos of people in the 20's jumping off buildings right? Why not be safe and park it in a bank savings account, or, better yet, give it to a financial advisor and let the expert tell you where to put it?
Let's first talk about the "expert" option. This is a potential route for some people who have difficulty with, or can't be bothered with finances. The problem is some investment advisors can have conflicts of interest. They may recommend investment assets with higher under-the-hood fees because they get a kick-back from these fees. For example, Scotia Bank (a Canadian bank) offers an index fund (a collection of stocks - more on these later) of the Canadian stock market with an annual management fee of 1.00% while TD Bank (another Canadian bank) offers a similar fund for 0.33%! An investment advisor will probably recommend the investment offerings of their own institution, even if better prices for similar results can be gained elsewhere. Why do 10ths of a percent matter? Even a sliver of a percent lost, when accumulated over decades, will significantly affect how much you have when you retire. The graph below shows an individual investing $5000 annually into the same investment that earns 7% annually but with increasing fees. As you can see, if you chose the 1% vs. 0.1% investment, you would have lost out on about $200,000 at retirement age.
You may also be wondering: what do I know about buying something like stocks? Shouldn't I trust someone who does? This will become clearer later, but very strong research has shown that "expert" stock pickers, historically, have done no better than you can do, except that they take a fee.
So what's wrong with a savings account? Nothing really, except that you could be getting better bang for your buck for just a little bit more effort. The bank is able to give you a 1% return because they are putting that money in places that earn even higher returns. These other places aren't secret. And if you're willing to go the extra mile, you can do the same.
So where are these places you should be putting your money? Broadly, you can put your money into stocks and/or bonds. In the following sections we will talk a little about what exactly these are and how to invest in them. First, however, we need to talk a bit about the concept of risk.
Risk, simply put, is the chance that something other than the expected will occur. For example, we usually expect it to snow in Calgary, Canada in the winter. If one were to bet on whether it would snow or not the whole winter season, it would be a very safe bet that it would snow at least once. This is a very low risk bet as we are almost 100% sure, based on historical records, that it will snow at least once each year.
Let's look at the risk of something a bit more complicated. Below is the distribution of snowfall per year in cm over the past 25 years for Calgary, Canada.
The most common annual snowfall is within the range of 120-170 cm. However, we also see that snowfall varied significantly from year to year, making this a risky thing to bet on. We could not bet for certain that snowfall would be between 120 and 170 cm every year. In fact, there is a 46% chance snowfall would be outside this range in the coming year if history were to repeat itself.
What does this all have to do with finance? Investments also have risk. Your aim should be to choose an investment with a good expected most common return, but with a low amount of expected risk. Investments with higher risk are dangerous because, while they do have the chance to make a lot more than their most common value, you could also make nothing at all. The higher the risk of an investment the more you start to gamble, and no one should gamble with their future.
When comparing investments, how can we figure out which gives the best return with the lowest risk? One way is by looking at the 5th percentile. The 5th percentile is the value above which 95% of all the other possible values were found. For example, in our snowfall example, the 5th percentile is at about 70 cm. This means that you could be 95% sure that snow will fall above 70 cm in the future if history were to repeat itself.
Below you can see the historical performance of two hypothetical investments. Which should we buy? You might be tempted to buy Investment A as it has a higher most common return. Notice, however, that the spread of the possible values for Investment A is much wider than Investment B, making it a lot riskier. This results in Investment B having a higher return most of the time and a higher 5th percentile. Therefore, it's safest to invest in Investment B because, 95 times out of a 100, it will do better than Investment A.
One last thing you should also be aware of is the significant limitation of using historical data to make predictions for investments or anything else, as history may not necessarily repeat itself. In terms of our snowfall example, global warming may change the amount of snowfall in the future, influencing how much we can rely on past events as an accurate reflection of future snowfall patterns.
In the next two sections we will talk about places you can put your money - stocks and bonds - as well as their expected risk.
When you buy a stock in a company you purchase a little piece of that company. How much that little piece costs will depend on a few things: how good that company is currently doing and how good people think that company will do in the future. To illustrate the last point, let's imagine that Coca-Cola was about to release a new soft drink that people thought would be incredibly addictive. Coca-Cola's stock price might go up to reflect this expectation, even before the drink was on the market. This contribution of future expectation into a stock's price can make them unpredictable. If Coca-Cola's new drink doesn't actually do as well as as predicted (how can one really know how well a new fangled drink will do?), the stock might plummet. This factor likely explains the huge amount of risk involved in purchasing a single stock. Take Coca-Cola itself for example. Below is a histogram of annual returns of Coca-Cola stock from 1966 to 2015.
As you can see, while the most common return was between 0 and 10%, this varied widely from a low of -43% in 1974 to high of 60% in 1995. A huge variation, and, likewise, a large expected risk if you were to buy Coke stock today. Based on history, you have a 1 out of 4 chance of experiencing a negative return on your investment after a year.
This risk isn't just seen with Coke. Historically, any single large-company stock in the US stock market has a most common annual return of 15-20%, but any given stock's return can vary so much that you can still expect a negative return about 25% of the time over any given year. You may be wanting to shout: "But what about this awesome stock I read about! It makes [insert product here] and everyone is gonna buy them in a few years. Aren't I guaranteed an amazing return if I buy this stock?". Perhaps your company will in fact make an amazing product; however, this expectation is known to everyone else who is eyeing this stock as well, and is already built into its stock price. The only way to truly make a killing on a single stock is to know something before other people do. And unless you're doing something illegal (i.e. insider trading), this is unlikely.
Does this mean you shouldn't buy stocks? Absolutely not. But you should avoid buying a single stock, unless you want to gamble. There's something really interesting about the stock market: if you buy many stocks in different types of companies at once (this is called diversification in finance), you can still achieve a good most common return but with lower risk. Found in the same Coca-Cola return chart are the annual returns of the S&P 500 Index (a collection of 500 big stocks in the US stock market) from 1966 to 2015. The most common return is a bit higher than Coca-Cola's at between 10% and 20%, but, more importantly, the risk of being much higher or lower than this range in any given year is less, giving it a higher 5th percentile return (-19% versus -22% for Coca-Cola) as well.
How does diversification lower risk? Intuitively it makes sense: Are you going to bet that people buy more Coke in any given year or would you rather bet that the entire US economy is going to grow instead? The same concept applies when broadening a stock portfolio by investing internationally: if you add international stocks to a US portfolio, risk is reduced even further.
One last magical aspect of stocks that must be mentioned is that their annualized risk decreases the longer you hold onto them. There may be a big stock crash during any given year, but the market, historically, has always recovered. If you continue holding onto that collection of stocks over 20 years or more, it's almost as if the crash didn't happen at all. In fact, average annual total stock market returns (adjusted for inflation) have clustered within a few percentage points of each other if you analyze them over any 30 year period since 1926. This trend is shown on the histogram below, where we compare average annual returns of the S&P 500 over all possible 10, 20 and 30 year periods (increasing a month increment at a time) from 1926 to 2015.
If this concept still seems confusing, try looking at this chart of the US stock market over time. Notice that it's possible to lose money or make very little money if you only held onto stocks for a few years; however, in the long-run, the stock market always rises.
In summary, if you're going to choose to invest all your money in stocks, you should invest in a broad collection of stocks and be willing to hold onto them for 20 years or more before cashing out. This is the only way you can be reasonably certain of obtaining a positive return on your investment.
Important Note #1: You may have noticed the term "Total" Return in the histogram above. What does this mean? Stocks usually make you money in more ways than by increasing in price. Many stocks pay dividends, which are basically a cut of the company's profit paid out to shareholders. Total return accounts for these dividend payments by assuming that, whenever dividends were paid out, they were immediately reinvested by buying more of the same stock. If you invest in the stock market, you should reinvest the dividends you receive as well. You shouldn't have cash sitting around as lazy money for very long.
Important Note #2: Is it possible to beat the performance of the stock market as a whole by betting on specific stocks other than through plain luck? Conceivably. But, very smart people (one author is a nobel laureate) have looked at the historical performance of investment managers' portfolios (people whose job it is to invest money). They show that a sizeable proportion of money managers underperformed the overall stock market AND the proportion of money managers who outperformed the market, in excess of fees, was no more than that you would expect than by chance. Incredible.
At their root, bonds aren't that hard to understand. When you buy a single bond, you are lending someone or some entity money. Terms of this loan will differ but will always have three characteristics: 1) how much money you are lending 2) the interest rate that will be paid on that loan and 3) when the loan agreement will be complete, or reaches maturity. For example, let's say you purchase a $1,000 bond with an annual interest rate of 3% and a maturity of five years. You will loan $1,000, and, in return you will be paid $30 a year for five years at which time you will be given the $1,000 back.
Simple, right? However, where bonds get a little bit complicated is that you can actually sell bonds before they reach maturity. Let's say you bought that same $1,000 bond, but a year in you lose the rest of your money buying gold-rimmed lamp shades and now need your money back. You can sell that bond to someone else, but they might not want to give you the full $1000. Why not? Imagine that when you want to sell your bond, 4-year bond interest rates have now increased to 5%. You would have to offer to sell your bond at a discounted price of $928 to make up for the fact that it will only be paying 3% for the four years remaining until the bond matures.
You don't really need to understand the math of how we arrived at the sell price: the big point you need to remember is that even though bonds are thought of as a "stable" investment because they pay a fixed interest rate, bonds can underperform for reasons other than rising interest rates: 1) the interest rate of the bond you bought for becomes lower than the current rate of inflation 2) the entity that issued the bond goes bankrupt and you lose both the value of the bond and all remaining interest payments.
Bonds come in a few different major flavours, but the ones that should concern you are primarily government or corporate bonds. Within these categories you also need to think about ultra-short (< 1 year), short (1 - 4 year), intermediate (5 - 9 year), or long (> 10 year) maturity. These flavours will determine just how risky a particular bond is. Bonds issued by a government, especially a stable government will have lower interest rates than bonds issued by a corporation because a stable government, like the USA, is much less likely to go belly-up and not repay its loans. Bonds of longer maturity will need to offer higher interest rates than shorter term bonds to account for the possibility that interest rates and/or that the rate of inflation may rise in the future. Both possibilities make long term bonds more risky.
You can observe the difference in annual rates of total return (this means, if you had a 10 year bond, you sold it after a year, reinvesting any any interest payments along the way) for US government bonds of varying maturities in the graph below.
As you can see shorter versus longer government bonds have a reduced risk at the expense of lower returns. So which should you buy? Long or short bonds, corporate or government? This is a complicated question and depends on if you want to buy stocks too, as well as your investment timespan. We'll discuss this in the next section.
Two last points that should be mentioned before we move on. First, bonds, unlike stocks, do not become significantly less risky the longer you hold onto them. Second, buying a collection rather than just one doesn't make as much of difference for bonds as it does for stocks; however, practically speaking, purchasing and especially selling a collection of bonds is a lot easier.
So what should you invest your money in, stocks or bonds? Simply put, stocks, and let's explain why. If you're young, you probably have more than 20 years to invest your extra income before you retire. Over long timespans, stocks have earned much higher returns than bonds. For example, the S&P index from 1926 through 2015 averaged over all possible 20-year timespans earned 7.2% annually adjusted for inflation. By comparison, US treasury bills (30-day maturity), intermediate-term treasury bonds (5-year maturity) and long-term treasury bonds (20-year maturity) earned 0.3%, 1.7% and 2.1% respectively. Historically, this has resulted in the fact that, 95 times out of 100, stocks have given the best return on your money when you hold on to them for long periods of time. This trend is shown below for 20-year holding periods with intermediate-term US government bonds representing bonds, and the MSCI USA and MSCI EAFE + Canada representing US and International stock respectively. Data was analyzed from 1970 to 2015.
You can see that at the almost worst-case scenario (i.e. historic return at the 5th percentile), 100% diversified stocks gave the best low-end return of 4.5%.
Notice that we put 80% US stock and 20% International stock for our stock allocation. This allocation has been shown historically to have lower risk over any given 1-year period than just 100% US stock alone. What if you're Canadian? If you do similar calculations, the less risky allocation turns out to be approximately 30% Canada, 55% US and 15% International.
What if you're already retired or are planning on retiring soon?
The explanation is a bit more complicated but, all stocks should still do best. This is because you will still probably live more than 20 years, and, if you do some historic computer simulations (see here for Canada, and here for US) you can withdraw more money, on average, each year during retirement with an all stock portfolio over any 20-year timespan. In addition, if a few crashes happen along the way (as illustrated by the low-end curves on the graphs), all stocks still performs well. Again, this is all relying on history repeating itself-ish, so keep that it mind.
Now there are a few caveats that should be discussed about this approach. If you go all stocks in retirement, you should be prepared to experience large swings in the value of your investment. Such swings can also occur if you are not retired, but may be especially worrisome to the retiree who has no other income but their investment portfolio. Historically, a 100% stock portfolio can go down by over 70% during a crash. If you don't think you could stomach such a possibility, a bit of bonds in your allocation may be right for you. You can test out different bond allocation possibilities on end-worth and on biggest historical drop in value utilizing the historical simulator featured on the homepage.
What if you need your money in a few years. Say for a down-payment on a house?
Bonds are the place to be, with a bit of stocks sprinkled in. The best proportion of bonds to stocks will depend on your specific investment timespan. Below are graphs showing historical average and 5th percentile returns from mixing both ultra-short (i.e. 30-day), intermediate (i.e. 5-year), and long (20-year) government bonds with stocks (S&P 500).
For all timespans, mixing a bit of stocks with mostly bonds improves the average return and gives a better 5th percentile return up to a certain point. This point turns out to be about 5%, 5%, 35% and 45% stocks for the 1-, 2-, 5- and 10-year timespans respectively. Ultra-short bonds works best at the 1- and 2-year timespans. For 5- and 10-year timespans, it's unclear what the absolute best maturity is because, unfortunately, long-term historic data does not exist for many bond maturities (3-year, 10-year, 15-years etc.). We only have access to data for 5-year and 20-year bonds. 5-year bonds obviously trump 20-year bonds, and we therefore suggest choosing bond products that approximate 5-year maturities. There are two such products you can choose from: short-term (1-5 year) or intermediate-term (5-10 year) bond funds. Of these, we'd go with the short-term funds.
What about government and corporate bonds? Again, this will depend on your investment timespan. From the linked graphs, we see that corporate bonds are probably the best choice for 1-year, 2-year, 5-year and 10-year timespans, when proportioned with stocks as suggested above. (Long-term historic corporate bond data only exists for 20-year bonds, and this why they were used for this analysis. However, there is every reason to believe that the same relationship exists for intermediate term bonds.)
You may also be wondering whether diversifying bonds internationally will help reduce risk. I haven't done this analysis, but the good people over at Vanguard (a financial company) have, and they don't really. So it's probably fine to keep it simple and just invest in your own country's bonds.
Confused? Here's a summary table of our suggestions for stock and bond proportions for different investment timespans.
|Stocks (Americans)
|Stocks (Canadians)
|95% ultra-short corp.
|4% US, 1% International
|1% CA, 3% US, 1% International
|95% ultra-short corp.
|4% US, 1% International
|1% CA, 3% US, 1% International
|65% short. corp
|28% US, 7% International
|11% CA, 19% US, 5% International
|55% short corp.
|36% US, 9% International
|13% CA, 25% US, 7% International
|80% US, 20% International
|30% CA, 55% US, 15% International
|80% US, 20% International
|30% CA, 55% US, 15% International
Ok so you now know where to invest your money, but how do you actually buy these stocks and bonds? Next section!
So you've decided how you want to invest your hard earned cash. We'll assume you have seen the light and will consider only buying collections of stocks or bonds. Extremely well-diversified collections of stocks and bonds can be found in two different types of products: an exchange traded fund (ETF) or a mutual fund. In each case a bank or company has bought many different bonds or stocks that sample a particular bond or stock index and bundled them all into a single product whose price reflects the underlying performance of these bonds or stocks.
There are many other index funds and associated ETFs including international, so-called "world" funds, bond funds and so on. In a few cases, such as index funds that track the S&P 500, the index funds actually own all 500 stocks exactly. But in most cases, the index funds consist of representative samples of the index being benchmarked to. For example, an index constructed by the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRPS) tracks the performance of more than 3,500 large, medium and small company stocks encompassing the US stock market, weighted by the size of the underlying companies. Vanguard, a US-based investment management company, markets an ETF, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, that attempts to buy every single stock in this index using the same weights. Small differences arise because companies are constantly being added and deleted from the index. For example, at this writing, the CRPS index has 3,605 positions while the Vanguard ETF invests in 3,635 companies. There are competing indexes and associated ETFs, with some indexes only sampling large companies, such as the S&P 500.
How much you will end up paying for an ETF or mutual fund will differ, even if they are tracking the same stocks or bonds. First, you may need to pay a transaction fee to obtain the product. Second, all companies also take a little bit off the top for managing the fund (this is called the expense ratio, referred to the MER in Canada, and is taken as a percent of the product's price), which will reduce the expected return. Expense ratios can vary widely, from as little as 0.05% to more than 2%.
The final way where ETFs and mutual funds differ is where and how they are purchased. ETFs trade just like stocks on a stock exchange and are therefore available on any online brokerage platform. Mutual funds too can be accessed on many brokerage platforms, but because they aren't actually a stock, you may only be able to access some from a bank or an investment company that markets them. For example, Tangerine (a Canadian Bank) only makes their mutual funds available if you have a Tangerine online account. Tables speak stronger than words, so see below for a simple comparison of how transaction fees, expense ratios, and where you can purchase them differ between ETFs and mutual funds.
|Exchange Traded Fund
|Mutual Funds
|Transaction Fee
|Usually around $5-$10
|Usually none (but be careful)
|Management Fee
|Can be a lot more
|Available From
|Anywhere that sells stocks
|Some at any online brokerage, others only from the company or bank
|Usually require a minimum initial contribution
So what should you buy, ETFs or mutual funds? We make specific suggestions later, but in general Canadian mutual funds have much higher MERs and Canadian readers are advised to choose ETFs. On the other hand, American readers should consider buying mutual funds as their MERs are about the same as ETFs, but without the transaction fees.
Finally, let's talk a little bit more about the places you can actually purchase ETFs and mutual funds. All stocks and many mutual funds can be purchased from online brokers. What are online brokers? These are companies, including banks, that have created a website that allows you to tap into a stock exchange to make a trade. There are dozens of these available. Canadians are directed to this recent Globe and Mail article talking about the pros and cons of the various brokerages that exist in Canada. US citizens can see this Wikipedia page for a review of their options.
One final point, technically you can purchase stocks on any stock exchange, not just your specific country's. However, to do so, you would need to convert your currency into the specific country's currency with all the associated fees. Therefore, you're probably safest just sticking to your own exchange; and don't worry, there are plenty of ETFs and mutual funds holding international stocks that can be found in both the Canadian and US stock exchanges. In the next section, we'll talk about which specific ETF and mutual fund products you can purchase to obtain a balanced portfolio.
Below are a few major non-actively managed (i.e. no stock picking!) ETFs and mutual funds that you can buy to sample the total international stock market and the North American bond market. There are many products that we have not listed. This is not because we are biased, but because these funds charged much higher fees than comparable funds without any additional benefits.
For the bond proportion in our suggested 5- and 10-year investment portfolios, we present options for short (1-5 year) investment-grade (i.e. from corporations that aren't likely to go belly-up) corporate bond funds. For investment timespans of 1- and 2-years, purely corporate ultra-short funds are hard to come by, so government/corporate mixes are presented for these investment instruments. Note: Current (as of September 2016) ultra-short bond interest rates are comparable to many bank savings accounts. These might be the easiest and even cheaper (when fees are taken into account) option for your ultra-short bond allocation.
The funds are arranged by management fee to help you choose, but there is one other thing you should be aware of that can affect your potential return for the stock funds. Some stock products contain more stocks than others. More stocks may make a tiny difference, especially when sampling those from smaller companies, in improving both risk and return. Again, these changes are expected to be very small. For example, over a 12 year period from 1994 to 2016, the MSCI USA IMI index (2,494 large, medium and small companies) outperformed the MSCI USA index (922 large and medium companies) by ~0.4% per year.
You may read about products that are "hedged" to a certain currency. Currency-hedging tries to do away with increased risk from currency fluctuations (because international stocks are bought in the local currency) by using financial voodoo. However, sometimes currency fluctuations can help reduce risk by going in the opposite direction of a drop in return. So should you hedge? It turns out, for buying US stocks as a Canadian at least, that hedging doesn't make a difference with long investment time horizons, and that's why we haven't included these products.
All these options still giving you a headache? At the end of this section, we show what we would do after going over the math.
|Gov. or Corp.
|Bond Maturity
|Corp. + Gov.
|SPDR SSGA Ultra Short Term Bond ETF
|Corp. + Gov.
|iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF
|Corp. + Gov.
|PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active Exchange-Traded Fund
|Mutual Fund
|Corp. + Gov.
|Vanguard Ultra-Short-Term Bond Fund Admiral Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $50,000; not technically ultra-short, has a proportion of 1-3 year bonds as well
|Mutual Fund
|Corp. + Gov.
|Vanguard Ultra-Short-Term Bond Fund Investor Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $3,000; not technically ultra-short, has a proportion of 1-3 year bonds as well
|Corp + Gov.
|iShares Premium Money Market ETF
|iShares 0-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF
|Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF
|SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Corporate Bond ETF
|Mutual Fund
|Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund Admiral Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $10,000
|Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF
|BMO Short Corporate Bond Index ETF
|iShares Core Canadian Short Term Corporate + Maple Bond Index ETF
|Stock #
|Schwab U.S Broad Market ETF
|Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
|Mutual Fund
|Fidelity Total Market Index Fund
|minimum initial contribution: $10,000
|Mutual Fund
|Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $10,000
|Mutual Fund
|Schwab Total Stock Market Index
|minimum initial contribution: $1,000
|Mutual Fund
|Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $3,000
|World excl. US
|Vanguard Total International Stock ETF
|World excl. US
|iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF
|Mutual Fund
|World excl. US
|Fidelity Total International Index Fund
|minimum initial contribution: $10,000
|Mutual Fund
|World excl. US
|Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $10,000
|Mutual Fund
|World excl. US
|Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares
|minimum initial contribution: $3,000
|Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap Index ETF
|iShares Core S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF
|BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF
|Mutual Fund
|TD Canadian Index Fund
|minimum initial contribution: $100
|iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF
|Vanguard U.S. Total Market Index ETF
|Mutual Fund
|TD U.S. Index Fund
|minimum initial contribution: $500
|World excl. North America
|iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI Index ETF
|World excl. North America
|BMO MSCI EAFE Index ETF
|World excl. Canada
|Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap ex Canada Index ETF
|contains US stock, take this into account when calculating total proportion of US stock in your portfolio
|Mutual Fund
|World excl. North America
|TD International Index Fund
|minimum initial contribution: $100
|Ultra-Short Bonds
|Short Bonds
|Canadian Stock
|US Stock
|International Stock
|High Interest Bank Savings Account
|VSC (Vanguard ETF)
|VCN (Vanguard ETF)
|XUU (iShares ETF)
|VXC (Vanguard ETF)*
*Has US component, ensure to take this into account
|Initial Investment
|Ultra-Short Bonds
|Short Bonds
|US Stock
|International Stock
|High Interest Bank Savings Account
|SLQD (iShares ETF)*
|VTSMX** (Vanguard Mutual Fund)
|VGTSX** (Vanguard Mutual Fund)
|High Interest Bank Savings Account
|VSCSX (Vanguard Mutual Fund)
|FSTVX or VTSAX (Fidelity or Vanguard Mutual Fund)
|FTIPX or VTIAX (Fidelity or Vanguard Mutual Fund)
*Once you've reached >$10,000 invested, convert to the lower cost VSCSX
**Once you've reached >$10,000 invested, convert to the lower cost Vanguard Admiral Shares
I bet you're now itching to buy some stocks and slowly watch them grow as you go grey, but there's one more thing you need to know about that we'll discuss next: rebalancing.
Rebalancing is a key concept that you need to know about to effectively manage your collection of stocks. Let's say you're an American and have two stock ETFs that you initially bought with $10,000 of money that was just lazing around. You wanted 80% US and 20% International, so you initially bought $8,000 worth of SCHB and $2,000 worth of VXUS. You check back on your holdings a year later and behold, they have grown! SCHB is now worth $8,800, while VXC actually lost a bit and is now at $1,800. This gives a current proportion of 83% US and 17% International. What should you do? You may be tempted to buy more US stock because it's been doing so well, but don't be brash. Smart people have shown (warning, this link is for math lovers!) that if you periodically rebalance your portfolio to maintain the same proportion of assets (i.e. always keeping that 80% US and 20% International split), you will usually get a better average return with less risk in the end. Why is this? The over-performing US market may actually be overvalued at the moment, while the International market may be undervalued. Markets usually increase at the same rate, and if they're doing better or worse than each other, you can expect them to correct themselves in the near future.
So to rebalance the portfolio, we should sell some SCHB and buy some VXC. Or, if you have some money to contribute, invest a bit more than 20% this time around in VXC.
One other option for those who do not want to worry about rebalancing is to invest in a multi-component mutual fund containing the combination of bonds and stocks you'd like and to let them rebalance the portfolio for you. This convenience is at the expense of a higher MER. The best option for Canadians appears to be the Tangerine mutual funds, which charge about 1.07% MER per year. Americans can check out Vanguard's selection of funds, most charging a very attractive 0.15% or so per year. Be careful if you go this route: some banks are charging more than 2% per year on their combined funds, which will really eat into your future earnings. Furthermore, none of these funds have the optimum mix of bonds and stocks we suggest.
We're just about done. The next section summarizes all that we've learnt.
Money lying around as cash is lazy money that will lose value due to inflation. You should put it somewhere where it can grow. You should also start saving your money as soon as possible.
Stocks have historically outperformed bonds over long time horizons with almost equal risk. If you're planning on retiring in 20 years or more OR if you are already retired and you expect to slowly deplete your funds over 20 years or more, you should probably invest your money in 100% stocks. If you need all your money in a few years, you might be best holding most of your money in ultra-short maturity corporate bonds or a bank savings account.
Buy large collections of stocks (via ETFs or mutual funds) across the globe to maximize return and minimize risk. If you live in the US, you can try 80% US and 20% International. Canadians can try 30% Canada, 55% US and 15% International.
Buying a single stock at a time (that isn't a broad ETF) is high risk and is basically gambling. Even holding onto a collection of stocks for less than a decade or two is gambling. If you want to gamble, it's your money, but be aware of the considerable risk you are taking.
Try and keep the same proportion of assets through time.
The above points assume that, overall, the future stock market will behave as it has in the past. Many believe it will; however, if you don't, you should not follow this strategy.
Click here for our suggested asset mixes, and here for the specific stock/bond funds we suggest you should buy.


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When businessman Gary Yeow had saved enough money to dip his toe in the stock market in the early 2000s, he made some common investment mistakes — not having a plan and following the herd. These mistakes cost him a few hundred thousand ringgit. As a result, he avoided the stock market for many years after that.
"I trusted my remisiers and friends when they said they had hot tips. One of the stocks I was interested in at the time was priced at RM2. My friend said it could go up to RM5, so I believed him and bought a few lots," says Yeow.
"Then it went down to RM1.70. The same friend convinced me that this was normal and an opportunity for me to buy more, which was exactly what I did.
"Not long after, the price crashed and I lost a lot of money — enough to make me resent investing. Why should I invest if I end up losing money? It is just like gambling, and that is not my style."
Several years later though, he discovered something that would get him back in the saddle — value investing — an investment strategy introduced by influential investor Benjamin Graham and popularised by Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett.
In 2008, Yeow got acquainted with Singaporean Ken Chee when he attended Warrior Training Camp. Chee is a prominent entrepreneur and investor in the city state, having co-founded 8 Investments Pte Ltd at the height of the Lehman Brothers collapse. He subsequently transformed the start-up into a private investment business and eventually listed it on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2014.
"We did not get along at all. At every activity, we would always argue because of our opposing points of view. At the end of the camp, we agreed to disagree. I did not hear from him after that," says Yeow.
"But in 2011, I reconnected with him and learnt that he had started a business teaching people value investing. I decided to give it a go."
After attending the programme, Yeow's attitude towards investing changed completely. Previously, he had no idea that he had the ability to determine the value of a company by doing his own due diligence and that investments could give steady returns over a long horizon.
After finding out that their goals were aligned, Yeow forged a partnership with Chee to establish 8VIC Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which operates Value Investing College in the country. They started running the Value Investing Masterclass (VIM) programme in the Klang Valley in May 2012. Back then, the team only ran four programmes a year, with an average of 30 participants per session. Today, the growing team is running two programmes a month, with an average of 60 to 80 participants each.
Apart from conducting various financial literacy programmes, the parent company — 8I Holdings — also undertakes investments in the public and private equity markets. Its portfolio of investee companies includes Velocity Property Group Ltd, Digimatic Group Ltd, CT Hardware Sdn Bhd and 8 MAD Group Sdn Bhd.
Estimating what a company is really worth
Value investing is defined as a long-term strategy where investors look for stocks they believe are undervalued by the market. By looking at the business fundamentals, a value investor can estimate what the company is worth, regardless of what the market has priced it at. Value investors often conduct a discounted cash flow analysis in their attempt to assess the current value of all future cash flows of a business, based on a variety of operating and efficiency factors.
"The best example I can give to illustrate how value investing works is a property purchase. If a dealer tells me that the value of a property is RM1 million, I know I have made a profit if I managed to buy it at RM800,000. However, in the stock market, nobody would provide you such a valuation. This is the gap we want to fill. We want to teach people how to value businesses themselves so they do not have to rely on other people's hot tips," says Yeow.
8VIC's programme focuses on the 3R concept — right business model, right management and right valuation versus price — to identify good companies. However, to determine whether a company has the right business model, investors need to have an understanding of how the industry or company operates. So, investors should grow their own "circle of competence". This plays a significant role, says Yeow, who is 8VIC's general manager.
"Each investor has his own circle of competence and within the circle are industries or companies they are familiar with. It is not wise for them to invest in things they do not understand. If they want, they can slowly learn about the industries they are unfamiliar with, grow their circle of competence and start investing when they are confident," he adds.
The circle of competence concept is explained by Buffett in his 1996 letter to shareholders. He says investors do not need to be an expert on many companies, but they have to be able to evaluate companies within their area of understanding. While the size of the circle is not very important, knowing its boundaries is vital.
8VIC's programme recommends that individuals invest in companies that have at least 40% of their shares held by management, says Yeow. "In fact, it is best if the listed company is their [the management] only business. That is because if anything goes wrong with the company's performance, they will hurt more than us. The management cannot let this happen, so they will try their best to prevent it."
The third "R" — the right valuation versus price — requires investors to learn how to use financial ratios in analysing a company's fundamentals. The metrics used in this process include the price-earnings ratio (PER), free cash flow, PER-to-growth ratio and debt-to-equity ratio. The programme uses a layman's approach to teach the concepts so that they are understood by investors of all ages, says Yeow.
"The best thing about being a value investor is peace of mind. We buy into 7 to 10 companies, monitor them quarterly or half-yearly, and exit the companies we think are not doing well. If our valuation at the beginning was correct, then we can hold the stock and let it grow for the next 5 or 10 years, or even longer, and wait to receive our dividends. This peace of mind is something that money cannot buy," he adds.
Although it may not be the most tangible indicator of a good business, 8VIC also teaches participants to look at a company's culture. It is often neglected by investors, despite being a common practice among prominent investors such as Buffett and Charlie Munger.
"Personally, I attend the companies' annual general meeting and chat with the employees. I ask them how long they have worked with the company, whether it has an employee share scheme and if their bosses are treating them well. Most people will answer yes, but you can tell based on the conversation whether they are genuine," says Yeow.
"Normally, if the work culture is good and the employees are happy, the share price will go up. For example, the employees of Hartalega Holdings Bhd and Hup Seng Industries Bhd love their founders very much because they visit the factories almost every day. And we can see that the performances of these companies are rock solid. This is something non-value investors would not see."
There are a few programmes of this nature in Malaysia. But 8VIC stands out from the crowd by addressing the issue of investors' emotional stability in the face of a fluctuating stock market as it is the most important element of a successful investor, says 8VIC's head of operations Low Chern Hong.
"We realise that most investors — although they buy books, attend a lot of courses and know a lot of different tactics — still lose money. We believe this has to do with how they react towards market movements. So, we make an effort to address this by holding a money management class on Thursdays," he says.
Never too early to start
When 8VIC started conducting its programmes, most of the participants were in the 40 to 50 age group. This changed when then 25-year-old Low joined the team. Before coming on board, he was a fresh graduate working as an auditor at Deloitte and he had used all his ang pow money to learn about technical analysis to fulfil his dream of becoming a successful investor.
"When I was a student, I used the 1Malaysia Book Voucher to buy books on technical analysis to learn about this investing technique on my own. Then, I opened investment accounts with eight brokerages and signed up to receive daily tips in my inbox. Within two weeks, my initial investment of RM3,000 grew to RM6,000. I was very happy. It boosted my ego and I felt like the 'Wolf of Wall Street'," says Low.
"It did not last long at all. For the next two weeks, I burnt almost all my money by following those tips and was left with only RM220. One day, I spoke to my good friend Alex, who despite sleeping in classes most of the time, made good money from the stock market. When he told me about value investing, I was curious. I had to give it a try."
After attending 8VIC's programmes, he did not want to stop there. He was determined to continue improving his value investing skills. He even went so far as to be certified as a trainer by the Human Resources Development Fund Malaysia in 2016, which allowed him to be the youngest trainer and speaker at 8VIC.
In the beginning, Low used his own money to invest. Then, when his parents saw his results, they gave him the responsibility of managing his family's funds. "They no longer ask me questions like when I am going to get married. Instead, they ask me about the investments. Our conversations now revolve around which stock I bought, whether the share price has shot up, whether we can sell, and what we think the valuation of a certain stock is," he says.
When the more senior participants of 8VIC's programmes realised that it is never too early to start learning about investing, they prompted their children to attend the programmes. Yeow says the average age of its participants is now much lower than before. In fact, its youngest participant to date is a 13-year-old.
"This is good because value investing takes time to compound. Two of my daughters attended the programme when they were 17 and 21 respectively. Afterwards, they were more careful with their spending and invested whatever money they had saved," he says.
"One of them, who is now in university, already has a portfolio of investments. She receives dividends every three months. She is not easily swayed by her peers to spend money on expensive coffee every day. When she finishes university and earns a fresh graduate's salary of about RM2,500, she will get another RM500 from her investments, which means she is a step ahead of her peers. This is the kind of mindset we want to instil in the younger generation."
People do not need a lot of money to start investing. Yeow says that in most cases, RM1,000 is more than enough. "In Malaysia, one lot is only 100 shares. There are even lots that cost as little as a few hundred ringgit. When they see the dividends come in, they will feel a sense of ownership and empowerment, which is very rewarding," says Yeow.
If done correctly, value investing can be very beneficial for investors. Stocks can generate exponential returns over time as their earnings improve and they are accorded higher valuations by other investors. Yeow says value investing also gives investors an attractive risk-reward as value stocks are usually traded at fairly low valuations, which means that the downside risk is capped.
However, there are a few mistakes that investors can make in value investing. Yeow says the most common one is being overconfident. "Sometimes, because they trust their own abilities so much that they do not want to hear the opinions of others. When their friends tell them a stock is undervalued, they just brush it off because they think their calculations are accurate. In reality, their calculations are a bit off because they are not familiar with the industry," he adds.
There is also the other side of the coin, when investors trust their friends to the extent that they piggyback their friends' due diligence. To overcome this problem, investors will have to grow their own circle of competency and familiarise themselves with all the industries involved in the local stock market, says Yeow.
Every month, 8VIC holds a free class for previous participants, who can leverage these classes to increase their circle of competence and share their experiences. Those who are experienced in the food and beverage industry, for example, can come to a class on oil and gas companies. They can also share their knowledge when there is a class on F&B companies. Yeow says if they attend the classes often, they will be familiar with the entire Malaysian stock market within three years.
The challenge of peer pressure
Value investing has its shortfalls. For one, investors need to buy and hold their investments for a long time, relying on the compound effect for better returns over the years. This may be a problem for a lot of beginners, especially in Malaysia where there are a lot of get-rich-quick schemes, which may lead them to believe that investments should generate good money in a short amount of time.
However, value investing is very relevant in the current investing landscape, says Low. He points out that while growth stocks do not give consistent returns over the long term, value stocks can provide consistent returns over decades.
"Additionally, we are buying into the actual business instead of on paper. In a short-term investing strategy, there is no way for you to assess whether the company is sustainable," says Low.
"But in value investing, investors have this ability because they know what the business is all about. That is why we think this strategy will be very beneficial to investors over the next decade at least."
8VIC recognises the need for investors to generate returns over a shorter period. So, it offers monthly classes on trading options in the US stock market, which can provide a return of about 2% a month. However, the company strongly suggests that investors allocate a maximum of 20% of their portfolio to this asset class due to the risks associated with options trading. It also advises participants who consider themselves to be very active investors to allocate a maximum of 10% of their portfolio to investments that bring them excitement, such as cryptocurrencies or foreign exchange trading.
Yeow says he may not be able to convince all investors that buy and hold is a good investment strategy, but they should be aware that get-rich-quick schemes do not last and will only harm an investor's portfolio in the long run. "I am sure that most Malaysians have been scammed at least once in their lives — I know, I am one of them. Those who are in get-rich-quick schemes should ask themselves, how many times do I want to be in this cycle?
"I do not want to tell them that they can make millions in a matter of months. I want to teach them how to fish. Once they have perfected their fishing skills, they can go fishing anywhere on their own. They can have a lifetime of experiences as an investor. It pays to be patient."
Another challenge in getting Malaysians to adopt this strategy is the fear of missing out, which is very apparent among local investors, he says. They tend to be envious of their peers' instant success in investing, which may lead them to quit their investments very early, thinking it is a waste of time.
"A typical statement I hear is, 'That person is so young. How can his investment returns be better than mine?' Everyone has their own skillsets and experiences. If you keep comparing, you will only make yourself feel bad. That is why it is important to trust in your abilities and your own due diligence," says Yeow.
8VIC frequently holds preview classes for potential participants. Yeow says it is common for the company to get feedback from investors who are reluctant to change their investment strategy, but are curious and sceptical. "They ask me how is it that my strategy is less stressful and less time consuming, but consistently delivers returns of 25% every year while their strategies require them to review their investments every week and still give them returns of only 15% to 20% each year.
"My response to them is, try to attend a programme first with an open mind. Then, try to implement what they have learnt. If it is better, then adopt it. If not, thank you for coming, we hope that they are successful in their investments. It is as simple as that."
He adds that by joining such programmes, these budding investors can meet other like-minded value investors who can help them or share their knowledge — even beyond local shores. The VIC network supports more than 12,000 programme graduates, with a presence in Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, so former participants can reach out to other graduates to find investment opportunities abroad.
A lot of investors choose to become value investors because they want to replicate Buffett's success story. However, critics have argued that Buffett's past successes cannot realistically be repeated today as the market dynamics have changed and it is almost impossible to find the kind of bargains Buffett found decades ago.
But Low disagrees. He says it is possible for investors to gain even more than what Buffett gained per year when the returns are considered in terms of percentage. "Investors are only looking at the number of zeroes in his returns. That is why they think it is impossible. Actually, Buffett's returns are only about 20% per year. It is a normal percentage of return, not outrageous at all. In fact, today, if you say you are earning 20% from your investments per year, people will ask you why you are earning so little."
There are still a lot of high-growth companies in Malaysia, says Low. He cites the example of Hartalega, which has grown more than 300% over the past four years. So, it is not impossible to find bargains even on our shores.
8VIC's programmes in Malaysia are currently available in two languages — English and Mandarin. Yeow says there are plans to offer programmes in Bahasa Malaysia early next year to expand the financial literacy programme to an even wider audience.
In Malaysia, the programme costs RM6,500 per participant. It also allows participants to attend the programme anytime at any of the venues held around the world.
"We recently tied up with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to co-create a programme endorsed and certified by the university. In the future, we want to offer a diploma in value investing too. Hopefully with this, we can spread the knowledge further," says Yeow.

subset: commoncrawl


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Playing with my new iMac. It has a creepy function on photobooth which gives you the eyes of an insect (or of Gaga in Bad Romance) but it also makes a lovely Coptic icon. Here is me as Abbot Makarios the Terminally Dim.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
1 comment:
- Cerdo said...
Although everything is rather distorted (to say the least!), I rather like this likeness of you. It looks no more warped than say, some of Modigliani's portraits of Jeanne Hebuterne. And rather than being "terminally dim", I would say it gives you an almost serene air.
All it lacks is some form of Coptic inscription or invocation to make it complete !
- 24 March 2012 at 12:23
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Sui Juris, volume 08, number 04
Publication of the Student Bar Association of the Boston College Law School. This issue includes an announcement of the death of Professor Wendell F. Grimes and of the first Wendell F. Grimes Moot Court Competition, named in his honor.
This paper has been withdrawn.


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Shree RK Packers and mover Thane: Situated to the north-east of Mumbai, Thane is known as the city of lakes. Going through recorded past, the city has made its identity under different names. We, Shree R K Packers and Movers in thane, situated at Thane, Maharashtra (India) are one of the major office and house shifting companies providing exceptional transport Services, Packing, moving, loading and unloading. Not just in Thane, but we are well known as one of the most reliable Home packers and movers in Mumbai.
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Make use of the expertise of R.K packers and movers. If you engage us to pack the goods then our professional team can easily perform that for you. Our trusted and friendly moving staff is a eligant team you can depend on to make sure that the day of packing and moving goes perfectly. Need house or office shifting at quick notice? Weekends, late nights or public holidays? Need storage and warehousing services for your goods? You are welcome!
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Backstory: "Not Everything's in Manhattan"
Chicken Adobo is one of the very first things I cooked after moving to New York. After realizing no one was gonna cook for me, (read: no parents around) I wanted to try something that tasted familiar. Made for my friend Thuy's friend's potluck, I packed it in a heavy Pyrex container and lugged into to the given address in Manhattan. ...Only to find that, when I got there, the address I was *supposed* to be at was a BROOKLYN address. So I had two choices: either I could take the Adobo home, eat it all by myself for the next month and end up resenting the dish, or find the correct address and take it to its original destination. I decided to go with the latter. So, a few hours and a few more erroneous train transfers later, I finally made it to the potluck--albeit late--but still in time to feed the drunken and hungry masses.
Chicken Adobo
2-3 heads of garlic, chopped2-3 tbsp oil1.25 - 1.75 lbs chicken--any cut1/2 cup white vinegar1/2 soy sauce2-3 bay leaves5-8 whole peppercorns1-2 tsp ground pepper
1. Rinse the chicken under cold water and rub some salt and the juice of one lemon all over. Pat dry.
2. In a large pot with a lid, heat oil over medium. When it begins to shimmer, drop in the garlic until it begins to brown a little. Then, put in the chicken and continue to flip till they're brown on all sides.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
4. Turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes, or when chicken is tender.
5. Serve over rice.
Notes:--Adjust amount of soy sauce and vinegar to taste.--To sweeten the recipe, add 1/4 cup of Ginger Ale (or to taste) in the last 5 min of cooking.--A friend recommended adding a few teaspoons of oyster sauce to deepen the color of the sauce.--This is one of those recipes that tastes even better the next day and next.


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Visiting Cornwall Reciprocal Links - Page 2
Back to Visiting Cornwall Home page
The links on this page are here as a result of reciprocal links to Visiting Cornwall being added to other websites.
Visiting Cornwall has no control over the content of these websites and makes no recommendations for any of them (unless specifically stated). If these links go to
websites and we are made aware of this, we will remove the links as soon as possible.
See also Visiting Cornwall Reciprocal Links - Page 1
Tours to China
- Top China tour operator providing China tours and travel service. Specialized in Tailor-Made and Customized private tours to china for personal, family and group!
Advice on self publishing your book
Created and maintained by
Amdow Web Design
Back to the Visiting Cornwall Home Page
Links to websites related to Cornwall (UK) or to the Cornish people.


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Silver Line Specialties - Your Ticket to Success
Will always keep you updated on current supplier specials. Our suppliers offer a vast amount of marketing products to help you increase your trade show traffic. These promotional products will also make any Grand Opening a success!
Toddy Twist Cable and Cord Organizer.
Toddy Twist is the latest development in cable organization products. It's flexible and organizes multiple cables and cords at once. Simply wrap the Toddy Twist around the cables and done! Providing the convenience of organizing virtually any cable or cord, it features a full-color digital imprint the entire length, on both sides of the Toddy Twist and an expanded imprint on the ends. Branding has never been this organized!


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Whether your brand is luxurious or lean, today's market moves at speed and your presence is required. You, in turn, require a well targeted strategy and on time market delivery. The core of our work together is a question – what do you want to achieve? We provide original art and powerful storytelling that back your answer. Then we build web and print experiences that resonate with your audience, and hit the mark in the marketplace.
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- PowerPoint Slideshows
- Copywriting


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Ozzi Kleen Wastewater Treatment System Installation Video18-Jan-2011
Easy & cheap to install - almost invisibleThe Ozzi Kleen is 2.7m high x 1.95m diameter and weighs approximately 400kg. It can be installed quickly, easily and cheaply by a single mini-excavator, even on sites with severly restricted access. Compare this with some other systems which can weigh anything up to 6 tonnes. When buried in your garden the system can be easily camouflaged by plants.
Tell A Friend


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Are you a High School, College or Pre-Health Student looking for help to ace AP Biology or Biology 101?
Find out why over 150,000 Medical & Nursing Students already love Picmonic in under 90 seconds!
Learn and master tough biological concepts such as mitosis and meiosis with a highly memorable video-like study tool that is research proven to improve memory retention and exam scores.


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One hurt in three-car crash on I-10
A three-car crash on Interstate 10 sent one person to an area hospital for observation, according to information from Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Stephanie Davis.
The accident happened at 8:30 a.m. in the eastbound lanes of I-10 near FM 365.
A Ford Mustang was traveling east on Interstate 10 when, for an unknown reason, the driver lost control and struck the cable barrier, Davis said. After striking the cable barrier, the car was pushed back into the eastbound traffic lane where it was then struck by a Ford pickup truck. A third vehicle, also traveling eastbound, could not avoid striking both Ford vehicles.
The passenger in the Ford Mustang was transported to Baptist hospital, Davis said. No on else was hurt in the crash, she said.


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I saw this video on a post a few months ago and was completely floored by how lucky, or skilled this four wheel driver is. He climbs all the way up to the top of this huge sand dune and flips his ride at the top. The outcome could be devastating if he rolled his truck all the way to the bottom…but he didn't. He stuck it, he somehow corrected at the top of the hill and probably saved his life or some of the spectators at the bottom of the hill.
When Summer and I were in Puerto Rico I wanted to show this to my buddy down there but we couldn't find it still online anywhere…hence, me posting it for him and all you guys to see.


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What we know about the Syria strikes
April 15, 2018 | Politics | No Comments|
The US, UK and France coordinated to launch strikes against targets within Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Who was involved?
US officials at a Pentagon briefing Friday described the strikes as a joint operation consisting of American, British and French forces.
"Today, the nations of Britain, France, and the United States of America have marshaled their righteous power against barbarism and brutality," US President Donald Trump said during aseparate announcement from the White House.
Shortly after Trump's statement, UK Prime Minister Theresa May released a statement saying she had "authorized British armed forces to conduct coordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian Regime's chemical weapons capability and deter their use."
A statement released Friday by French President Emmanuel Macron said a "red line set by France in May 2017 has been crossed. So, I ordered the French armed forces to intervene tonight, as part of an international operation in coalition with the United States of America and the United Kingdom and directed against the clandestine chemical arsenal of the Syrian regime."
What was hit?
Three sites were targeted, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters:
- A scientific research center in Damascus;
- A chemical weapons storage facility, located west of Homs;
- And a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and command post near Homs.


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On Harry PotterThe advent of Post-Potterdom
Harry Potter, Harry Potter, you're fictional and more famous than real people. Your world is more exciting than mine, it seems, and you're not scared by it, no, not even by those giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest. But if I were in a book I'd be in something really fantastical, like Naked Lunch where they do drugs and stuff and nobody's ever heard of narrative. As it is, I'm quite firmly rooted in this world thank you very much, and hopefully not going out of it anytime soon.
Whilst cases of so-called 'JK Rowling envy' have been toited up around the country, not least by Clive James, I'm beginning to think the deeper jealousy is of Harry Potter himself. He's young, powerful, Things Happen To Him, including girls. Sure, he gets a bit confused sometimes, makes blundering errors, but things always and excruciatingly end up rosy. He's the goody-two-shoes you love to loathe, that person in your class at school who was always one step ahead, that nonce.
But there is a more serious reason for contemplating Harry. It's tempting to think the Potter phenomenon has been written about so widely because it gives commentators the hook they'd been looking for in order to write about values, religious censorship, capitalist economy, mass-marketing, behavioural analysis, cross-cultural appeal, the master narrative: all are united in one grand theory of HP. Down with the postmodern (or lazy) idea that no single theory can explain everything about society.
In fact, such is the interest in the phenomenon surrounding the Boy That Lived that there is dearth of critical engagement with the book themselves. Instead, a whole new vocabulary or 'discourse' has sprung into being: Pottermania. (If nobody has yet coined it, let's get it over with - we're officially into Post-Potterdom.) Instead of engagement with the text there's been an obsession with petty moralising and the rags-to-riches rise of JK Rowling and empty analysis of the mechanics behind Potter's worldwide fame. Apparently there are lessons to be learned about the dark side of celebrity: being bullyed, being laughed at, having poison-plumed journalists lie about your private life to the nation…. but whilst these petty traumas distract the lesser characters, battles are being fought, bigger issues are burning.
And talking about bigger issues, most alarming was the tag line for the fifth film - 'the rebellion begins' - a perfectly accurate and economical description, but fantastic that it got emblazoned on buses zooming round the capital. This 'message' of Harry Potter - that individuals can outdo themselves and change the world in which they live - is at its most explicit, and digestible, in the widescreen wizardry of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Voldemort is back, and the self-serving Ministry for Magic, unwilling to inform the magical community and mobilise resistance, does its best to bury its head in the sand. Onwards the march of media censorship, shocking propagandist tendencies made flesh, onwards risk-averse interventionist policies. The Ministry becomes a presence at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the form of Imelda Staunton's fuscia-suited Dolores Umbridge. And as Hermione explains in pained stage whisper - to any in the audience who haven't yet 'got it' - the Ministry is 'interfering' with Hogwarts. A bit like all those new educational documents from New Labour you may say, this centralised interference with school syllabuses, a bit like Real Life? Well, a bit maybe, but this isn't political analysis: it's a kids' movie.
Or is it? Just as the books were released both in child-friendly colour and much maligned adult-attracting sedate black sleeves, so the films appeal variably to awed and terrified kids and adults alike. This dual appeal is not carried off so crassly as in one of those films you see with younger relatives/the child you followed in, where the story pleases the young and the awful puns amuse the old, but is more subtle, more structural. Grown up fans have been attacked for their awful escapist tendencies, as if that's the only reason for enjoying Rowling's work. Whilst a healthy dose of disbelief-suspension goes a long way, the balm of Potter has little to do with fantastical imaginative romping and more to do with its easy explanations of today's world. As many have realised, Harry Potter isn't at all a new story, it's an updated version of the very old (see Joseph Campbells' Hero with a Thousand Faces). Whereas, the point of all of this devolution of the master narrative business is not about updating old stories, but radically recreating them, coming up with strange and new ones.
If anything, Harry Potter shows what stories can mean to people and what they can do when they grip the popular imagination. His popularity shows that, no, stories aren't dead; they can inspire, motivate and comfort, they can say something about contemporary society - however obvious - they mean things to people. Perhaps moral certitude has reached an all time low; the Conservatives confusingly changed their logo from green back to blue; some Christians weirdly both condone Potter for its depiction of witches but champion CS Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (where all the witches get killed); cultural relativism is on the up and we're supposedly being attacked by both Terror and The Planet. No wonder we turn to stories to make sense of it all, and no wonder we envy Harry's being one step ahead.
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For Labor Day weekend this year Kirk and I decided to take another trip up to the North Shore. When we were up there we found a book called "61 Gems on Highway 61" and decided to visit as many as possible in one day. Our goal going into it was to make it all the way up to Temeperence River State Park which is about 100 miles from where we were staying in Jay Cooke State Park.
We woke up on Saturday Morning, had a quick breakfast and made it to Duluth, the start of highway 61, by 9 A.M. and we were off on our one day road trip. We made it to 16 stops but only up to Tettegouche State Park (80 miles from Jay Cooke). Here are all of the stops we made!
01) Pierre the Voyageur - Two Harbors, MN
02) Two Harbor Trains - Two Harbors, MN
03) Edna G. Tugboat - Two Harbors, MN
04) Crusader II - Two Harbors, MN
05) Lookout Point Trail Head - Two Harbors, MN
The start of this little trail led to a great view of Lake Superior that had a lot of rocks to climb on. There was a really strong cold wind when we were out there!
06) Breakwall - Two Harbors, MN
From the Look Out Point we had a really good view of the breakwall and were lucky enough to see a large ship coming in!
07) Flood Bay - Two Harbors
Flood Bay is just past Two Harbors and was a really great place to stop for rock hunting! Kirk and I love trying to find cool rocks from all of our camping trips so this was a lot of fun for us.
08) Silver Cliff Tunnel and Overlook Point - Two Harbors, MN
This was one of my favorite spots mainly because I love driving through this tunnel! The road just drives right through a massive cliff but it used to run on the path that we are standing on in the second photo. The view wasn't as great as the book made it seem mainly because it was extremely foggy when we were out and the plants on the edge of the cliff were really tall and hard to see around. Still a great place to stop and stretch your legs!
09) Gooseberry Falls State Park - 13 Miles NE of Two Harbors, MN
The first of the State Park stops of this trip! The photos below aren't from our trip this year but from last year. When we tried to stop there on our trip this year the park was so busy we couldn't even find parking! We decided to skip it this time since it's a park we've been to before.
This state park offers great hiking, camping, views of superior, and has a lot of history stops throughout the park. This isn't one I've camped at before but a lot of their site are reservable and they have a few first come first served sites as well. I always suggest reserving a site if you know you'll be camping just to be safe. Plus, you can usually see photos of each site before you reserve so you can choose one that looks best to you!
10) Split Rock River - 18 Miles NE of Two Harbors, MN
A cool underpass that led to this tiny little beach
This beach had a cool mix of gray and pink rocks.
One of my favorite rocks I found here - a mix of the gray and pink.
11) Split Rock Lighthouse State Park
The second state park on the road trip!
There is a rocky beach behind the campsites at this park which had a great view of the lighthouse. It's a little hard to see in this photo but it's definitely a location to check out. We saw a lot of people kayaking in this bay which seemed to have a little bit of calmer waters since it was tucked away.
A little more than half of the campsites here are reservable so once again, I would reserve if you plan on camping here! This state park is great for fishing, rock skipping, and hiking! It's also located next to the Gitchi-Gami State Trail which is a huge paved biking trail that connects Two Harbors, MN and Grand Marais, MN. It's not all paved yet but over 29 miles are!
In this state park there is also a Minnesota Historical Society location which is the lighthouse! Since it's not actually apart of the state park it is an extra cost to visit but it's worth it to go! You learn all about the history of the lighthouse and the use of the lake as a shipping lake and can even go up into the top of the lighthouse. There are a few walking paths connected to the site that bring you down to the water and where I was able to get the second photo.
12) Silver Bay Marina - Silver Bay, MN
The Silver Bay Marina is a great place to get out and stretch your legs and have lunch. You can see all the sail boats and even adventure out to an island that has a lot of large boulders leading to it.
13) Rocky Taconite - Silver Bay, MN
This guy is the mascot for the local taconite company and just fun to take a picture with :)
14) Black Beach - Silver Bay, MN
This was one of my favorite stops of the trip! It's a beach with black rocks that is tucked away and off the beaten path. The sand leads up to an island that is really easy to climb on and gives great views of the lake. I would highly recommend stopping here!
15) Palisade Head - Silver Bay, MN
This is another stop that I think is a must! You drive up a winding road (which is one lane and a little scary when other cars are coming down) but the view is spectacular!
This is the 300' cliff that shoots right out of Lake Superior.
This photo always makes me laugh because you can tell how hard I am holding on because I was so scared being that close to the edge!
Kirk was brave enought to get a photo looking down the ledge!
16) Tettegouche State Park - Silver Bay, MN
The last state park we made it to on our one day North Shore road trip! This is our favorite state park (so far) in Minnesota! We haven't camped at it yet but we've spent a lot of time here! If camping is full at Tettegouche I suggest checking out Finland State Forest because it's only six miles away and camping is cheaper! It's a state forest so you don't have the amentites of the state park but it's still a great area! Kirk and I stayed here last summer and loved it!
One of the main attractions at Tettegouch State Park is the High Falls! They are absolutely breathtaking! There's a lot of hiking around the area that lead you from the top of the falls, down to the bottom, and even to another area called the Two Step Falls. If you're going to visit I would definitely give yourself plenty of time to explore this park as there is so much to see!
Kirk and I bought new ENO hammocks for this summer's adventures and the bridge across the top of the falls was the perfect place to hang them! This was the last stop of our trip and it was around 5pm by the time we got here so we were exhausted. It felt so good to get off our feet!
I laid in the hammock most of the time while Kirk worked on some rock sculptures
This is another view from the top of the High Falls that shows the river at the bottom.
Further away from the falls and closer to the park entrance you can explore the area where the river reaches Lake Superior. This is one of the rock sculptures Kirk built last summer when we were here. This is one of my favorite places at the park. I highly suggest investing in a good pair of water shoes or Keens because your feet will get wet and the rocks are very sharp.
It was about 7pm by the time we left Tettegouche State Park and we just didn't have the energy to drive all the way up to Temperance River State Park because it was another 20 miles away! We decided we will plan a trip for another summer and start at Temperance River State Park and make it all the way to the tip of Minnesota!
If you want to buy the book 61 Gems on Highway 61 you can do that here.
It provides all the directions to these locations plus a lot more!
I will be updating this post soon to include directions to all of these sites but I highly recommend buying this book if you are planning on traveling the North Shore!
Let me know what your favorite stops are on the North Shore in the comments below!


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Water Temperature: 72 degrees & rising
Lake Level: Approx. 1068.09
Stripers: Look for the stripers to be out on the points until the water temperature rises into the mid seventies. Once the water temperature rises to the mid-seventies the stripers will put out to the deeper water. It is usually late June before this happens. The better fishing will be on the north end of the lake for the most part until the water quality begins to be an issue. This is not to say there will not be any stripers on the points on the south end of the lake. They will just be harder to find unless you spend a good deal of time on the water. The fish will get deeper with each passing day. The downline bite is starting a little early this year. With the down line, use a 1-1/2oz. swivel sinker and a four-foot leader and fish the baits straight down just off the bottom on the points. On the leader, be sure to use fluorocarbon line to increase your number of bites. Most of the time I use 15-pound test line. Herring will be the bait of choice on the down line. Be sure to take plenty of bait. A lively bait is crucial. A few stripers are still being caught on topwater but it is decreasing each passing day. The best topwater baits are Cotton Cordell Redfins and Heddon Super Spooks. If the water is calm, use the Super Spook or Lucky Craft Sammy. Use the walk-the-dog technique with these two baits. If the water is choppy, use the redfin. The best retrieve with the Redfin is to reel slowly and let the bait v-wake across the surface. I have caught more fish on the Redfin this year than any year I can remember. Large Storm Chug Bugs will work as well. On the sunny days be sure to use the chrome colored baits and on cloudy days use shad colored baits.
Bass: June can be a fun month on Lanier for the bass. Keep several topwater baits tied on and let the explosive strikes begin. Year after year, the Storm Chug Bug is a very productive lure. Rip the lure across the surface with short pauses. The chrome and blue and bleeding pearl are the best two colors to use on Lanier. Use the pearl Chug Bugs early in the morning and the blue chrome chug bugs during times of bright sunlight. Other dependable top water lures include Lucky Craft Sammies (Ghost Minnow& Aurora Black), Heddon Baby Torpedoes (Natural Frog), and Mirrolure Top Dogs. Zoom white pearl Super Flukes are an excellent choice as well. Nose hook the bait on a 2/0 red octopus hook just like you would a live bait. Be sure to use a swivel 8 to 10 inches above the hook. Twitch the bait so that it darts in a zigzag motion. Use this rigging method when casting on points and over brush. If fishing heavier cover, be sure to use a 5/0 wide gap hook and rig it weedless. Don't be surprised to find some nice bass very shallow on a 3/16 oz. texas rig this month as well depending on the weather. Green pumpkin as usual will be hard to beat on the texas rig. If the bass are deeper on the points, drop a dropshot rig down to the fish. Variations of different hooks to use on the dropshot rig are readily becoming available. In a nutshell, the hook is placed 12 to 18 inches above the sinker and fished vertically under the boat. Some good plastics to try include Zoom meatheads and Roboworm 4 inch sculpins in natural baitfish patterns. For the finer points of the dropshot rig, visit your local tackle stores like Lake Lanier Fishing & Outdoors. This will save you tons of trial and error.
Crappie: During June, most of the crappie fishing will continue to be at night using lights under the bridges. Three of the best bridges are Wilkie Bridge, Six Mile Creek Bridge, and Wahoo Creek Bridge. Any type of light or lantern will work but the Hydroglow fish light is the best. The light is neon green and approximately 4 feet long.


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Baby Luna Does Disneyland
Posted on: March 10, 2018 /
Categories: CELEBRITY NEWS
John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, and their sweet daughter, Luna, visited Disneyland while in Hong Kong. The family reportedly had an amazing time there, meeting all the lovely Disney characters and sharing their experiences on social media. Legend also managed to perform to fans while there.
Image via Instagram/chrissyteigen


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Every piece at Cha Cha is made by hand with a mix of new and repurposed leathers and fabrics. With a heavy emphasis on ethical production I seek out local suppliers to ensure I can offer the best quality products made with the lightest ecological footprint. All canvas used has been hand dyed and silkscreened with original art work thus ensuring every single item is unique. Cha Cha is made in Canada.
Designer Lori Chalmers:
I have sewn most of my life. I was sewing in the background for many years while I worked as a waitress, graphic designer and cook. On one particular rainy day I went into a job I hated and was fired. I realized that all those temporary jobs had run out and rent was due. I had no other choice but to do what I loved and make it work. I set up a blog that night and started selling handbags.


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text: Rattonboy 26 Report post Posted May 30, 2013 I just found out that I can change the frequency under battery but I am assuming that minimal is only 600mhz which it is set at. Is it possible to go any lower? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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I could never have chosen a better person than Jacques and I am glad he chose me, very glad he chose me.
These are the words every groom would love to hear. Jacques and Le-Ann thank you so much for a wonderful day, even thou it was 41 degrees we loved every single moment of it. May you be blessed as you walk hand in hand together forever.


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Hey everyone. Just a quick note to say happy New Year from both Tess and Bree! We want to thank you all so much for sticking with us and for continuing to support Inkspiration as it changes and grows. Inkspiration was started in 2012 and we hope for it to survive to see everything 2013 has to offer.
Thank you to every single one of you, and we wish you all the best in 2013. We can't wait to share our experiences with you in future, and we really cannot wait to hear all about your writing adventures.
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When I was a little girl, for years, my dad would tuck me in bed and sing me Lullaby. I'm not sure of the official lyrics to this song, but here is what I fell asleep to:
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your daddy is watching….
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your daddy is here.
Lullaby …go to sleep…for your daddy is watching…
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your daddy loves you.
My dad would sing these 4 lines over and over again until I eventually drifted into a coma like state and was completely at peace. Most times I would be conscience enough to sense him leave my side, and tip toe out the room. I smiled inwardly, at the thought of him proudly believing he successfully got me to sleep.
I know I was little, but I remember it vividly.
Many years later, when I too became a parent, I instinctively found myself singing this same song, with modification to one word:
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your mommy is watching….
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your mommy is here.
Lullaby …go to sleep…for your mommy is watching…
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your mommy loves you.
As I would tip toe out of my son's room, I truly understood the heart felt satisfaction my Dad must have experienced when you know your child is at peace, and you helped them get there.
On January 18, 2016 my dad suddenly collapsed into a coma from a blood clot that had traveled to his brain. I stood over him in the ER looking at his Cat Scan while listening to the doctor explain that the bleeding was massive. My dad could possibly survive, but the pressure on his brain was great. It could be released by cracking the skull, but irreparable damage had surely been done, and he would most likely be in a vegetative state for the remainder of his life.
Per my parent's Advanced Directive, it was his wish to not resuscitate or extend life beyond what his own body could handle. So, the decision to allow his body to shut down naturally and drift from this life to the next, was already made years ago, by him.
I stood over my dad, holding his hand, and kissing his forehead as he lay in the hospital bed. As tragic and devastating as it was, he looked so peaceful. He looked just like he did whenever he would fall asleep watching television in his chair: his head cocked to one side, mouth open, and quiet audible breathing to be heard.
What happened next I was not prepared for. The song… our song… the lullaby; it began to chime from inside the hospital room. I literally shook my head, in disbelief, for surely I was delusional and the sound was just in my imagination. My sister, who was standing on the other side of the bed, looked at me with wide tearful eyes, I knew she heard it too. I glanced back at my dad, sleeping so peacefully and I began to mentally place the words to the lullaby in accordance to the chimes. Except this time, the song was being sung to him. Not by me, but by his Heavenly Father…
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your Father is watching….
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your Savior is here.
Lullaby …go to sleep…for your Father is watching…
Lullaby…go to sleep…for your Daddy loves you.
A moment later, a nurse walks in and casually asks, "Did you hear the lullaby chimes?" I just stared back at her; a loss for words. She smiled and continued, "Lullaby chimes play through out the whole hospital, each time a baby is born in our delivery room."
God's timing is always perfect. In that moment I could feel my Father's arms around me as I placed mine around my dad.
Exactly one week later, my dad finished sleeping …and I'm sure woke to see the face of the One who was always watching, was always here, and has always loved you.


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Halloween is on its way, so now is a great tome to bring out delicious fall flavor.
The passing of summer is always a bit bittersweet. The warm air and sunny, blue sky is replaced by a new crisp atmosphere. The leaves change and a cool breeze comes in, and now pumpkin spice has permeated what seems like every coffee shop, cafe and restaurant in America.
Be prepared. Stock up on all of the fall favorites to keep your customers coming back this season.
Lollicup USA carries all of the products you need to keep up with the demand. The company carries many different brands with top-notch products.
Earlier this year, the company brought in premium quality syrups by 1883 Maison Routin, a French company that focuses on creating extremely authentic flavors. 1883 offers several flavors that would be delicious in a fall treat. Try out pumpkin spice, hazelnut, caramel, apple and more.
Torani offers a delicious pumpkin pie sauce that can be drizzled over a refreshing coffee drink, hot chocolate or dessert item. Torani also offers syrups that work perfectly for celebrating fall.
Chai is another great flavor that is enjoyed all year, but is especially great in the fall. Lollicup USA offers many chai options, from latte mixes to flavored syrups.


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Wild babies
I've fallen behind on posting but this is our busiest time of year so "bear" with me. Sorry it's a dad joke I know but I couldn't help it. I always like to share pictures of our farm babies but we also get to see a lot of wild babies. Usually I don't get a chance to grab a camera in time to capture them, but over the last couple of weeks I've been lucky. So I thought I'd share. These two twins keep showing up on our trail cam but they are usually only a blur. We crept up on them in our orchard and got a few still shots and a bit of video.
Without mom close they didn't seem that afraid of us and even when they returned to the woods they stayed within sight of us until mom caught wind and they all ran.
Also since the last time I wrote here we were really lucky to get to see a young bear that was captured. He's likely a yearling and without mom's supervision he got himself into some trouble and was using the neighbor's dumpster as his party pad. So the conservation officer put out this little tube and he said the secret to luring the bear in is jelly donuts! Funny that's the secret to luring me just about anywhere. I prefer glazed, raspberry filled.
This lucky young fella headed out to another county to a breeding program where lovely bear ladies will await.
Now for the rest of the story, a couple of days after young Mr. Bear left for his new home our friend drove by the neighbor's house and surprise there was another small bear hanging out in the dumpster. It seems they may have been twins from last year and only half the team was captured. I love living here it's never boring. I'm off to search for a jelly donut. I leave you with a picture of a bear butt. Ok that's my last dad joke for the day, really I couldn't bear to make another.


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General Question
How do I remove pen stains from a leather wallet?
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I must have had an open pen in my purse because I have some lines now on my leather wallet. Anyone have any experience removing ink from leather? It's not the kind of pen that leaks – it's one of those cheap disposable pens, like a bic pen.
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