Portfolio Update May 2018

With this year’s late blooming spring first warm sunny days comes another update of our DIY Portfolio. As usual, you can expect our following update in about 12 weeks, in August 2018.

You can also access our previous portfolio updates here:

Portfolio Update August 2015

Portfolio Update November 2015

Portfolio Update February 2016

Portfolio Update May 2016

Portfolio Update August 2016

Portfolio Update November 2016

Portfolio Update February 2017

Portfolio Update May 2017

Portfolio Update August 2017

Portfolio Update November 2017

Portfolio Update February 2018

After several quarters of what we have called Trump’s rally, markets finally noticeably stumbled. It may be in part due to somewhat artificial and what can look like improvised measures. Markets sure don’t like trade wars or even talks about them. They also worry when you are always picking a fight, especially with the likes of Russia and Iran. Will it all transform into Trump’s bubble? No one can tell.

To be fair, stock markets cannot go up forever. It’s in their nature and healthy for them to take a pause or even meaningfully correct once in a while as it wouldn’t be sustainable for them to only go up for long periods.   

You know we have been expecting a market decline as we have been talking about it for some time. It’s normal and the long-term trend should still continue on its usual way up. In the end, markets going bad is good news. After all that patient waiting, we will, at last, be buying some more stocks as very interesting deals are coming!

In fact, at this point, we have been a little more active than usual and started doing some buying…after some selling.

Magical Number 12 (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on October 12, 2012

The more we look at it, the more Number 12 appears Magical!

In its original stages, our research revolved more around number 15.

But, as soon as we dug deeper, 12 evidently became the front running candidate. 

For one thing, a dozen always fits way better in a box!

More seriously, remarkable Twelve as deep roots throughout History; 
it even has some kind of mystical character associated to it.

The Number of Nature

Our Wonderful Disney World Holiday Venture (Part 2 of 2)

This is the second chapter of our latest Disney trip report which comes to you with just a few pictures but much more words. You can read the first installment here.

You’re probably eager to hear about all our best Disney advices.

Be patient as we first start by talking about our fantastic once-in-a-lifetime New Year’s Eve experience at Magic Kingdom.

After that, we’ll also get into discovering apparently infinite possibilities always pleasantly surprising us at Disney.

The New Year at Disney World

Spending New Year’s Eve at Magic Kingdom was an amazing experience. It sure gave us the chance to check off one major item from our bucket list.

In fact, I was personally so excited that a had a hard time sleeping and woke up for good at about 4:30 am that morning. I ended up being a little tired after the previous day airplane traveling and shopping at Disney Springs. All that adrenaline still kept me going but I remained a bit out of phase. My two girls laughed quite a lot about it because they are supposed to be the Disney nuts of the family. With retrospect, I would still qualify myself as the Disney planning nutcracker.

Because it is such a busy day, we had to plan New Year’s Eve at our preferred Disney park accordingly.

Our Wonderful Disney World Holiday Venture (Part 1 of 2)

As I said on several occasions before, going to Disney World is always exciting and a lot of fun. For us, it was even more special this time around as it was our first visit during the Holidays. My open schedule also allowed for some extensive planning and the freak planner in me really enjoyed the whole process.

Sorry it took a while to write these posts, but it gave me an excuse to continue savoring this magical once-in-a-lifetime trip even more.

We’ll do our best to give you a glimpse and pointers regarding our incredible experiences like our second visit ever to Cinderella’s Royal Table, the remarkable restaurant inside the famous Disney World castle or the fact we were finally blessed to land a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest.

Temperatures were cold, even sometimes freezing which is very rare and atypical for Florida, but it didn’t ruin our pleasure being Canadian and kind of prepared. You can read more about it in the second part of this brief Disney series that will include some of our best strategies and tips to accommodate any vacation at Disney, along with other always interesting Disney related topics.

As usual, we’ll use this opportunity to talk about Disney’s amazing values. In fact, let’s start with one of their most profitable ones.

Investing The 12-Minute Way (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on September 12, 2012

Keep It Simple

You should only use financial products you understand. So, stick to the basics. Complex and complicated products often only serve those who sell them.

Same goes for stocks, only invest in solid companies you know and understand.

In this great Internet/Information era, it’s relatively simple to get data on any public company. To stay effective, we recommend you only take 12-Minute when you first analyze a potential candidate for your portfolio or watch list.

Gradually Building Up a 12-Minute Workout Program

Till my late thirties, I remained quite fit. I had no real merit as exercising came easy to me. In fact, I always used to do it having fun, playing games or doing sports like golf, badminton, hockey, etc. 

A couple injuries and a knee surgery later, things were getting a tad more complicated. Predominantly due to a lack of time, of interest and opportunities, more and more, working out became a hassle. Far from being a workout maniac, I have to say gyms are not really my thing.

The problem is, even if you don’t like it, exercise is kind of mandatory for us, mere human mortals. Over time, I gained weight and my general health gradually deteriorated. My morale eventually started to be affected as I was increasingly prone to illness. I had to do something to get out of that lethal spiral. 

Then, the 12-Minute Method came to the rescue. I got the ball rolling with workout sessions of only 12-Minute every 3-4 days and progressively built up to 48 minutes every other day.