2009 april reading

• Generation Finance talks about lessons in a market bust including the importance of liquidity matching - nice term
  
  
• As an exit strategy in a volatile market, The Dividend Guy's advice "Sell only when you need the cash. My suggestion is to never sell, but if you have to then do so only when you actually need to." Same as "buy and hold" but answers "until when?" Also suggests that returns over the next few years will be around 4%, down from 9% in recent years.
  
  
• If we see inflation levels of 10% or 15% (the same as the 70's), the impact to daily lives will be noticeable.
  
  
• John Hussman observes "policy-makers ... attempt to address this problem by making lenders whole with public funds. This is an ethical abomination, putting the public in the position of absorbing the losses that should properly be borne by those who provided capital to these institutions"
  
  
• Since I'm looking for blogs to read, it is nice to come across a list like FIRE Finance's Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - Ranked By Traffic
  
  
• In Deliberately Misplaced Blame, Sean W. Malone explains the general misunderstanding regarding corporatism "(what some in the media unfortunately like to call "crony capitalism"), where government colludes with businesses and provides special benefits and tax provisions, and looks the other way on accounting fraud and other crimes."
  
  
• If Marc Faber says We're In For A 5% to 10% Correction, then we likely are. Even if it doesn't happen quite like he predicts, Faber is a pretty interesting guy with a great track record and a caustic wit.
  
  
• I don't always agree with the guy at Free Money Finance, and some posts are better than others. This one on Investing Safeguards seems pretty reasonable.
  
  
• How much life insurance do you need? CashMoneyLife says Only buy term life insurance for income replacement and family protection. Think of life insurance in terms of income replacement. How much income will you need and for how long?
  
  
• Million Dollar Journey suggests Real Return Bonds as a hedge against inflation. Real return bonds pay their distributions adjusted for inflation. For example, iShares ETF, XRB.
  
  
• Another Top 10 financial books list - this one from Canadian Capitalist
  
  
• Why have only one in five opened up "no-brainer" TFSA accounts? asks Wealthy Boomer. Lots of reasons - lack of funds, lack of understanding of rules for distribution and benefits
  
  
• Consumerism Commentary provides Eight Tips for Living Through a Recession. These are pretty basic but sometimes that is enough to get you thinking and taking some action.