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Canadian Couch Potato
Personal blog · canadiancouchpotato.comeconomicsbusiness
Canadian Couch Potato is a personal blog at canadiancouchpotato.com about economics and business. Since 2014, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 25 times, most often “Norbert’s Gambit: The Complete Guide”. The last post was in 2022, but the archive is still widely read.
25mentions?
16HN people?
2014–2026first – last linked?
Welcome to Canadian Couch Potato, a blog designed for Canadians who want to learn more about investing using index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
Most-linked posts?
- /5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-12-11
- Norbert’s Gambit: The Complete Guide3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-08-05
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-04-19
- /2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-part-1/2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-08-05
- /model-portfolios/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-04-23
What Hacker News says?
Easier said than done: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/01/26/the-trouble-with-l... You basically have to continuously time the bull-markets for the decade.
Comment linking /2010/01/26/the-trouble-with-leveraged-etf/
on “Buffett wins $1M decade-old bet that the S&P500 would outperform hedgefunds”Submitted Norbert’s Gambit: The Complete Guide as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI read that book this year. The entire book can be summarised as. Don't attempt to beat the market. The market cannot be beat (many examples in the book). Invest in index funds long term which is the right mix of risk/reward for most people. It does have a chart in the back which tracks your age and situation. For example as you approach retirement you should start to liquidate your funds and buy government bonds so…
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on “Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?”I was in a similar position. The following helped. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-L... https://canadiancouchpotato.com/
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on “S&P 500 Buybacks Now Outpace All R&D Spending in the US”For CAD-USD exchanges, Norbert's gambit is a popular procedure: > Here’s how you can use this ETF to exchange $10,000 Canadian: > 1. Get a quote for DLR and calculate how many shares you can buy for $10,000 Canadian. > 2. Place an order for that number of shares. The trade will settle in Canadian dollars. > 3. Call your discount brokerage’s customer service desk and ask them to take your DLR shares and “journal them…
Comment linking /2013/12/03/norberts-gambit-the-complete-guide/
on “Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer”We have quite a bit in line with this: https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/blog/ https://community.rationalreminder.ca/ https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.financialwisdomforum.org/forum/index.php https://canadiancouchpotato.com/ Also, we have Ben Felix's podcasts - Rational Reminder
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on “UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B”https://canadiancouchpotato.com/ is my go to! They put out amazing content over the years and have a great set of model portfolios for those just getting into investing.
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on “UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B”> The value of an asset is how much it will pay out. No, the value of an asset is how much you will get for it. Steve McQueen's 1968 Mustang Fastback from the movie Bullitt has neither dividends nor buybacks, but it was auctioned in January 2020 for US$ 3.4M. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt Paul Newman's personal "Paul Newman" Rolex Daytona sold for US$ 17.75M: * https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/paul-newman…
Comment linking /2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-part-1/
on “Stock buybacks are dangerous for the economy”> [...] and education to appreciate it. Also true with personal finance: * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2016/01/25/why-simple-is-sti...
Comment linking /2016/01/25/why-simple-is-still-a-hard-sell/
on “Simple Systems Have Less Downtime (2020)”For Canadians interested in learning about index-based investing I recommend the Canadian Couch Potato site[0]. If you don't want to put a lot of thought into it he has some sample portfolios, but also has a lot of resources for learning more. He's also very good about answering questions in the comments on his posts. [0] http://canadiancouchpotato.com/
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on “A Professor Who Was Right About Index Funds All Along”Not sure why there was such a knee-jerk reaction, but it's actually fairly straight forward and not scammy at all. You're performing two trades, using a money market ETF that trades at the currency exchange rate, and paying standard brokerage fees + spread instead of currency conversion fees. If you pay $20 in fees + spread for 2 trades, that'll be the cost of the conversion. For a $10k conversion, that's 0.2%. Unle…
Comment linking /2013/12/03/norberts-gambit-the-complete-guide/
on “London’s Lonely Unicorn: Two Frugal Expats and Their Billion-Dollar Startup”> Stocks are just like hens. They lay eggs called “dividends”, The general advice of not worrying about market dips/corrections is good. Even if you only invest at market peaks, if you stick with it and don't sell, things will turn out pretty well: > Meet Bob. > Bob is the world’s worst market timer. * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market... The specific advice of going after dividends is not…
Comment linking /2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-part-1/
on “Yield curve is blaring loudest recession warning since 2007”I know who Dalio is. I've read his Principles . He's a smart cookie. I think he's wrong. The inflationists have been squawking about since QE started under Ben Bernanke way back in 2010: > We believe the Federal Reserve's large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called "quantitative easing") should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The p…
Comment linking /2015/07/06/raining-on-the-all-seasons-portfolio/
on “No one knows how much the government can borrow”Portfolio of index funds based on http://canadiancouchpotato.com 25% TSX (Canadian market) 25% S&P500 (US market) 25% MSCI EAFE (Developed market excluding Canada/US) 25% Fixed Income - cash,bonds,'high' interest savings account, etc. Requires about 4-5 hours of time once per year to rebalance portfolio and update some partially automated Google Docs files to track performance. Works for me...also planning to get a…
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on “Ask HN: What are your passive income sources?”"Sadly" I don't really have much cash on the sidelines to buy more equities as prices dip as I generally don't try to time to market / buy the dip: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co... I'm not generally 100% equities, often 80/20, so things will be rebalancing on their own at least at least: * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/ * https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Asset_allocatio…
Comment linking /model-portfolios/
on “Wall Street sell-off turns 'ugly' as US recession fears grow”Millionaire Teacher[0] is what I read for a layman's approach to index investing. It approaches it mostly from an expat's perspective, but the core approach is the same regardless of where you are or plan to retire. And for Canadian-tilted advice I read the Canadian Couch Potato blog[1]. 0 - https://andrewhallam.com/ 1 - http://canadiancouchpotato.com/
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on “Ask HN: How did you learn about stocks and the market?”This book is an excellent start and the author has made it available for free as a PDF (you can also get it on Amazon) http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/ifyoucan.pdf It lays out an effective retirement strategy in the first paragraph or so, and spends the rest of the book explaining it. Short and easy read. The strategy has to be adapted somewhat for non-Americans - if you're Canadian, the adaptations can be fo…
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on “The financial literacy industrial complex”> If you're in Canada you almost certainly want to diversify from Canadian indices. US markets have tended to outperform. If you buy "all-in-one" VEQT/XEQT (100% equities) you are buying an index funds of index funds: all Canadian equities, all US equities, EU, etc : * https://canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolio... * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/ If you don't want 100% equities,…
Comment linking /model-portfolios/
on “Bull markets make you feel smarter than you are”Canadian Couch Potato and PWL Capital have a rate-of-return calculator: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2015/07/13/calculating-your-p... and scroll down to "Use the Rate of Return Calculator": https://www.pwlcapital.com/en/Forms/Return-Calculator-Simple It's a spreadsheet and you just fill in your cashflows.
Comment linking /2015/07/13/calculating-your-portfolios-rate-of-return/
on “Ask HN: Which personal investing tools do you use?”> If you exclude dividend paying stocks, then the entire stock market starts to look like a giant pyramid scheme casino. Stocks can start paying dividends in the future: MSFT did not in the past, and does now. AAPL did, stopped in the 1990s, and started doing so again. You should be indifferent to the company's dividend scheme since it's the underlying business activity that drives total returns, and not its distrib…
Comment linking /2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-part-1/
on “SpaceX Is Buying Cursor”I've heard that leveraged funds aren't great as long-term vehicles[0]. Even the summary of TQQQ says this: Due to the compounding of daily returns, ProShares' returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amount and possibly direction from the target return for the same period. Though if you are into market timing, they seem cool. 0 - http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/01/26/the-trouble-with-l... ED…
Comment linking /2010/01/26/the-trouble-with-leveraged-etf/
on “Why I'm Selling My Google Stock Grant”I'll be in this situation soon and was hoping to be able to use Norbert's Gambit: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2013/12/03/norberts-gambit-th...
Comment linking /2013/12/03/norberts-gambit-the-complete-guide/
on “Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?”> While it's true that share buybacks are a nice way to return value to shareholders compared to dividends from a tax perspective they also have little to do with a business's growth or improvements in profitability. Dividends also "also have little to do with a business's growth or improvements in profitability." At the end of the day, with either 'system', company management has decided that they cannot find inter…
Comment linking /2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-part-1/
on “U.S. Corporations' Repatriation of Offshore Profits: Evidence from 2018”> I’ve never seen anyone recommend 60/40 at least in the era of forums like Reddit personal finance and Bogleheads. It's recommended all the time in (e.g.) /r/PersonalFinanceCanada if you want a more conservative portfolio (e.g., in or nearing retirement): * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/ or if it suits your risk profile (you'd lose sleep over large dips in your portfolio, even if you aren't in/ne…
Comment linking /model-portfolios/
on “The death of the 60/40 portfolio”Maybe these sites: https://canadiancouchpotato.com/ https://www.bogleheads.org/ (Unfortunately the best resources I know of are in my mother tongue, but the links above might be good starting points.)
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Best Book for Personal Finance and Investment”
