Archives 2013

In the Short Course On Investments, you will learn the basics of investing through simple everyday language. The course covers the same material as The Short Book On Investments.

In Episode 7, I talk about the mertis of investing in an average home.

Transcript:

Hello, my name is Jin Choi and I’m the founder of MoneyGeek, and welcome to the 7th episode of the short course on investments.

And today, we’re going to cover something that most Canadians care about: real estate.

But before we begin, I want to clarify that I’m not saying you should either buy ...

Music: I invested in a background music company, which ended up ripping me off

In this series, I talk about my stated goal of reachin $1 million in my Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) by 2033. For an easy explanation of the TFSA, please read our free book.

In this episode, I'll talk about how my TFSA did in November, and I'll also talk about my unhappy experience with a penny stock I hold

But before we continue, some disclosure: I own shares in Emedia, but this does not constitute a recommendation for or against buying ...

Snapchat: Facebook offered to buy this 2 year-old app maker for $3 billion, which the company turned down.

On November 13, the Wall Street Journal reported that a 2 year old social media company called SnapChat turned down an offer from Facebook to buy the company. The price? $3 billion. All cash.

Some people couldn't believe it. Here was a company that had no revenue, so a $3 billion valuation seemed more than generous. How could SnapChat's founders be so crazy to turn this offer?

However, there is some logic to this valuation. In this article ...

Poker table: Investing is a lot like poker. Drawing analogies from poker helps to explain why simple investment strategies such as dividend investing don't work.

Many people today like to invest in higher yielding dividend stocks. In this series, I explain the reasons why I'm not a fan of this approach.

In our last installment, I explained why dividend stocks aren't any safer than other stocks. In this article, I will explain why I think you shouldn't follow the dividend investing strategy, or any other simple investing strategy for that matter.

The Perceived Advantages ...

In the Short Course On Investments, you will learn the basics of investing through simple everyday language. The course covers the same material as The Short Book On Investments.

In Episode 6, I talk about index funds and ETFs, which are things I believe everyone should know about.

Transcript:

Hello, my name is Jin Choi and I’m the founder of MoneyGeek, and welcome to the 6th episode of the short course on investments.

In this episode, we’ll talk about index funds and ETFs. So let’s first talk about index funds.

Index funds are actually a type of mutual ...

Coach Bags: I'm currently invested in Coach, a company that made a name for itself selling bags like the one above.

In this series, I talk about my stated goal of reachin $1 million in my Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) by 2033. For an easy explanation of the TFSA, please read our free book.

In this episode, I'll talk about how my TFSA did in October, and I'll also talk about why I'm currently invested in Coach, Inc (Ticker 'COH').

But before we continue, a disclaimer: Although I own shares in Coach, this article ...

Employees: A company is really about its people, and that's worth keeping in mind as you invest in one

When I meet a fellow stock picking investor, I always ask them what they invest in, and why. After having many such conversations, I noticed a pattern. Many people often choose a stock, just because they like the product.

For example, a lot of people bought Apple stocks couple of years ago, because they liked their iPhones and their iPads. I also imagine that a lot of people today are buying Tesla shares, just because they like Tesla's ...

A nice big house: If you buy this house and live in it, at least you won't have to pay rent. Does this make the house a good investment?

In my book 'The Short Book On Investments', I cautioned my readers not to look at a house as an investment. But as a few people pointed out, the discussion was incomplete. 

I failed to consider the rent not paid (called 'imputed rent') in the discussion of investment returns.

When you own a home, the rent that you don't pay is like an income stream. Money saved ...

In the Short Course On Investments, you will learn the basics of investing through simple everyday language. The course covers the same material as The Short Book On Investments.

In Episode 5, I talk about mutual funds - what they are, and why I'm personally not a big fan of them.

Transcript:

Hi, this is Jin Choi from MoneyGeek, and welcome to the 5th episode of the short course on investments.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about mutual funds.

So back in the day, before mutual funds came, people had a problem.

People understood that if ...

XPEL Clear Bra: I had invested in Xpel Technologies, a penny stock company that installs paint protection film on high end cars

In this series, I talk about my stated goal of reachin $1 million in my Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) by 2033. For an easy explanation of the TFSA, please read our free book.

In this episode, I'll talk about how my TFSA did in September, and I'll also talk about my investment in Xpel Technologies, a microcap (i.e. very smalll public) company that installs paint protection film on cars.

Transcript:

Hello ...