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.

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (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 August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

Portfolio Update February 2021

Another 3 months have gone by, so it’s time to report on our DIY Portfolio progress. As usual, expect our next update in about 12 weeks.

You can have a look at previous portfolio updates here:

All Portfolio Updates
Portfolio Update August 2018
Portfolio Update November 2018
Portfolio Update February 2019
Portfolio Update May 2019
Portfolio Update August 2019
Portfolio Update November 2019
Portfolio Update February 2020
Portfolio Update May 2020
Portfolio Update August 2020
Portfolio Update November 2020
 
On the human scope of things, those last few months have been rocky to say the least. Yet we all were lucky because events could have been even harsher, disasters were and are still just at our corner. Let’s hope for all our sake that things will get better now that the wolf is out of the sheepfold.
 
The air already feels fresher as common sense, cooperation and decency are getting back to the forefronts. Let’s hope most conservative Americans can wake up and really see the benefits of being kind to each other and sticking together.
 
Investing-wise, it has been smooth sailing, at least for us. We’ll briefly report on it next. Our main topic today will be to talk about our adventures withdrawing from our big banks RESPs. We’ll conclude with another quick review of our latest DIY Portfolio transactions.  
 
Once more, I’ll remind you that I am not an investment or tax professional of any kind. The intent of this blog is not to give specific investing advice. Before investing yourself, we suggest you do all necessary research and consult a licensed financial professional if need be. 
 
Still Going Strong
 
As always, we manage to stay patient thru all this. Markets and our morale were up and down (or maybe down and up) all last year. Our DIY Portfolio finally did quite well in 2020 with an overall return just under 15%, so our long-term average climbed a little to about 13%.

12-Minute Ways to Have a Better Day (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 July 12, 2012

Here are some simple 12-Minute Ideas to help things go smoothly; to have a brighter and merrier day.

Sometimes, 12-Minute it’s all it takes!

1-Wake Up 12-Minute Earlier

This will allow you to take time to smell the roses and relax before you start your morning routine or

to take a little more time before you embark in a busy work day.  

2-Take 12-Minute to Breathe

Take a break during an hectic day and just breathe!

3-Invest 12-Minute to Plan Your Day

Plan you day early in the morning or the next one late at night.

Investing Success: Just Plain Luck?

 

In this post, we will access if our DIY approach is doing better than indexing in the long run. We will also try to determine to what it can be mainly attributed.

 

Many assume it can only be plain luck. They think DIY investors aka stock pickers can only beat indexing if they are lucky. Lucky to identify and cash in on big winners or to avoid big losses or even both.

 

In the end, the big question boils down to knowing if DIY Investing is worth the trouble?

 

We’ll have a look at our own investing situation to have a better idea.

 

To be clear, indexing is probably a better approach for most people. But we are trying to verify what’s better for us and it definitely may not be better for you.

 

Why Did We Get into DIY Investing?

 

Let’s get back to why we got into DIY investing in the first place.

 

Our initial DIY assumptions were to try to obtain similar capital returns (8%) as our expensive-on-fees mutual funds (indexing was not that accessible yet in those days) but to do a little better on dividends (4% instead of 3%) and fees (almost zero versus 2%). Here, we’ll note that indexing solutions, with fees around 0.5% or even under, are now quite easy to find. In that context, indexing is already much better than archaic mutual funds.

 

From the start, our overall objective was to make 12% long-term (8% capital + 4% dividends + 0% fees) instead of 9% with our old-fashioned funds (8% capital + 3% dividends - 2% fees).

 

In fact, doing 2-3% better seemed to be worth the hassle for us.

12-Minute Meetings (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 June 12, 2012

Sometimes, meetings can be a drag, especially when your boss likes to listen to himself for endless and countless hours. Furthermore, he’ll probably be upset afterwards because you missed some of his points and you lacked time to complete all your work.

Maybe someone could introduce him to the 12-Minute Segment Rule.

Use The 12-Minute Segment Rule

During a meeting, each speech or presentation should be limited to 12-Minute segments because for most people, the optimum concentration period is only 12 minutes. Beyond that, the average person won’t be able to focus and follow explanations.