Portfolio Update August 2015

Even though portfolio updates are pretty popular these days, my private nature kind of prevented me from posting updates of my own. I usually don’t like to blindly follow the crowd just because everyone is telling you it’s the cool thing to do.

So for a while, I was very hesitant to go ahead with this.

But under all that pear pressure, I still took time to carefully think about it and reconsider my position. I finally decided that publishing these numbers could do no harm. So here it is!

From now on, you can expect similar articles every 12 weeks or so. I’ll also publish Our DIY Portfolio Positions on a regular basis.

Before we begin, 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 to do all necessary research and consult a licensed financial professional if need be.

12-Minute Basics (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 January 12, 2012

Help To Change 

By suggesting simple methods and unique ideas, the 12-Minute Approach will help you implement change and improve.

For exemple, for most people, the optimum concentration period is only 12 minutes. That is, the time they can really focus on a task.

Using Popular Funds as Portfolio Benchmarks

Before my days as a DIY investor, I mainly invested my money thru mutual funds and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs).

Back then, as a Canadian, some of my popular choices included XIU (iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF) and RBF266 (RBC Canadian Dividend Fund) as I already was leaning toward dividend investing.

I now use these two funds as benchmarks to measure my performance as an investor.

Be careful here, I’m not advertising or promoting these two particular funds in any way. You should rather view them as examples or as proper representatives of their asset class. Many other funds could have been used and the illustration would have probably been pretty similar.

Some of you might think that beating these funds does not represent much of a challenge and that they constitute a pretty poor standards.

A Fresh Start

Earlier this year, after enduring somewhat serious health issues, I decided it was time for me to get back to writing. Both my physical and mental wellbeing were depending on it.

I started by focusing my efforts on the second part of my novel. After a while, it became obvious that the next step was to revive my blog, as I kind of neglected it following a strong year in 2012.

But was I in for a pretty bad surprise!

Stupid Technical Problems

A couple of careless manipulations later, I experienced some technical problems and erased all content of the blog. I also had committed the digital cardinal sin: no backup!

That was a huge disappointment! All those hours down the drain…

As a computer specialist, I should have known better. But let me loosely employ the French expression : « Le cordonnier est toujours le plus mal chaussé » by referring to the ill-shod shoemaker.

The initial shock passed, I managed to find old drafts and restore most posts. But all comments and pictures on the blog were still lost for good.  

After sobbing for about a week, I choose to view this huge misfortune as an opportunity to revamp the whole thing. So, here we are!

12-Minute Principles

There's more to the 12-Minute Approach than great number 12. Some principles and premises also inspire this revolutionary method.

They are exposed here with some brief explanations:

1-Realize Your Dreams  

Having dreams is essential. Dreams give life a meaning. They give you a purpose and a sense of direction.

Planning to realize your dreams is also important. By setting goals and making plans, you’ll move closer to your dreams.

Your unconscious and intuition will guide you thru the venture even if you don’t possess all the details right now.

2-Be Efficient

Being efficient allows us to make our life easier and to accomplish more. Working less but achieving more is always desirable.

Develop your lazy side. Famous inventions and colossal achievements often come from intelligent but somewhat lazy people.

12-Minute and Your Career

The 12-Minute Approach offers you a multitude of techniques to improve your job and career.

Here are some ideas we hope will inspire you on the way to becoming real happy and efficient professionals in your respective fields.

Achieve A Little More Each Day

A quick and easy way to start improving right away is to take 12-Minute to accomplish one simple extra action each day.

Try to evolve by taking one different action that really counts. This single additional task is pretty simple to implement.

It should slowly but surely spread improvement around you without disturbing you too much. After a while, you’ll be able to incorporate another new action in your routine. And so on…Little by little, you will adapt and things will get better without disrupting your routine excessively.