CARNIVAL OF PASSIVE INVESTING; The Stuff Happens Edition

Welcome to the Stuff Happens October Edition of the Carnival of Passive Investing. As I’m sure you noticed, it’s way past October 31st. The reason this carnival is late is because……stuff happens. Scheduling conflicts actually have me hosting two carnivals this week!

WHAT IS PASSIVE INVESTING?

Passive investing suggests choosing an asset allocation of diverse index funds, appropriate to your risk tolerance, and rebalancing these holdings every year or so. Or, you might choose to dollar cost average regularly into your chosen funds. This type of strategy does not guarantee out-sized returns nor does it shield your assets from losses. What it does is make sure you don’t make stupid moves in your portfolio which will lead to lower than market returns. It also frees up your time for other activities. And finally, passive investing keeps your investing costs rock bottom.

In passive investing you obtain a market return commensurate with the percentages invested and indexes chosen. And, if you believe world economies will continue to grow, and historical trends will continue, then the long term return should be in the 7% range. But in investing, as in life, stuff happens. Your long term returns won’t be consistent, there will be up some up years and some down others. Just like in life, there are ups and downs.

EDITOR’S PICKS

Our guest editor this edition Jerry Tweddell, author of Winning With Index Funds, generously agreed to pick our winner for this carnival.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

1. Glen Craig presents What is DRIP Investing and How Can it Grow Your Wealth? posted at Free From Broke .We hear how dividends can grow your wealth. One way this is done is through a dividend reinvestment plan. But what is a DRIP and how exactly can it grow your wealth? If you are new to investing, this is a great way to get started.

THE RUNNERS UP

2. Suba presents This little piggy wants to retire posted at Wealth Informatics. A very clever investing tale, inspired by an old story.

3. The Wealthy Canadian presents Becoming An Index Investor: The Strategy | The Wealthy Canadian posted at The Wealthy Canadian.This article discusses incorporating index funds and ETFs as part of one’s overall investment strategy. Part 1 of 3.

ENJOY THE REST

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey presents Was The “Lost Decade” Really Lost For Investors? posted at My Personal Finance Journey. The past 10 years have often been coined as “the lost decade” since the overall stock market indices are more or less where they were 10 years ago. However, this post examines whether or not the use of passively managed portfolios with rebalancing to maintain proper asset allocation targets would actually have resulted in a lost decade. The results make for some interesting reading.
Mike Piper presents Evaluating Vanguard’s New LifeStrategy Funds posted at Oblivious Investor.Vanguard recently announced major changes to their “LifeStrategy” funds. Are the changes positive? And what type of investors should be considering these funds?
Glen Craig presents Say Goodbye to Paper Bonds, Say Hello to Electronic Bonds posted at Free From Broke .  Remember the days when you’d get a bond in an envelope for your birthday from Grandma? Well say goodbye to paper bonds and hello to electronic bonds as the Treasury is changing how bonds are issued.
The Wealthy Canadian presents The Dividend Growth Portfolio Project: My 3 Picks posted at The Wealthy Canadian.A group of like-minded dividend investors launched, “the Dividend Growth Index”, which is a portfolio of dividend-paying stocks that offers long-term growth prospects for the investor.
The DIV-Net presentsRoth IRAs posted at The DIV-Net. Learn how to invest in dividend paying stocks without ever having to pay taxes on your investment.
Bob presents 2 Important Questions To Ask Your Financial Planner posted at ChristianPF. Keep your family covered for the future with these two personal finance questions.
Glen Craig presents Will Your Investments Cover 30 Years of Retirement? posted at Free From Broke . Lifespans lengthen, is your money keeping up?
Darwin presents When Faith Kills – Life, Death and Your Finances posted at Darwin’s Money. Faith will cannot replace smart investment planning.
Evan presentsWhat Other Dividend Lists Exist Besides the Dividend Aristocrats? posted at My Journey to Millions. I think I am going to jump ship on the Dividend Aristocrats and start using the Dividend Champions as my first line of selection. Whether the stock is part of the S&P doesn’t particularly matter when looking for undervalued quarter century dividend payers.
Paula @ Afford Anything presents How I Make $70 Per Hour Working From Home posted at Afford Anything. Buying a fixer-upper, rehabbing it myself, and then becoming a landlord — and collecting passive income on it once the property is fully repaid — is my passive income strategy. Hear why it’s worth my time to fix up the home rather than buy one in mint-condition.Buying a fixer-upper, rehabbing it myself, and then becoming a landlord — and collecting passive income on it once the property is fully repaid — is my passive income strategy.
YFS presents Dollar Cost Averaging: A Safer Way to Invest in the Stock Market posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. YFS explains dollar cost averaging, how it works , how safe it is, its criticisms and its benefits.
Jeremy Waller presentsAre Annuities A Good Investment? posted at Personal Finance Whiz. I’ve seen a lot of popular financial advisers and finance bloggers preach the evils of this vehicle. For some people, that advise is solid. But for others, annuities might actually be useful. So are annuities a good investment?

Dough Roller presents How To Pick Your First Mutual Fund posted at Dough Roller.Don’t over-complicate things and make sure you don’t wait long before picking your first mutual fund.
SB presents What is Passive Income and How do I Create It? posted at One Cent at a Time. What is a passive income and what qualifies as a passive income and what not. Learn what are the most basic ways to earn a passive income. In addition to interest and dividends from investments, learn about other ways to make some “passive” cash.
Dough Roller presents Six Great Ways To Introduce Kids to Stock Investing posted at Dough Roller. I owned Pixar stock at a young age, and even though it was just a few shares, my interest in investing began.There is no substitute for time in the market to grow long term wealth.
Flexo presents Betterment Review posted at Consumerism Commentary.Opened up a Betterment account to see if their higher fee structure will result in a higher return. This start-up has quite an interesting platform
Ryan presents Betterment Review: Incredibly Simple Investing posted at Outlaw Finance. How Betterment works and what it costs.
Mike Holman presents Canadian Discount Brokerage Comparison posted at Money Smarts Blog. Comprehensive comparison of Canadian discount brokerages.
Billy Hart presents Stock Market Indexes, What are The Dow, The S&P 500 and The NASDAQ – Investing Basics posted at inMessment – Life Investments | Stocks | ETFs | Money.
Mike Holman presents How To Buy Canadian Dividend Stocks posted at Money Smarts Blog.Guide to buying Canadian dividend stocks.
SB presents Get Excited By Red and Depressed By Green posted at One Cent at a Time. Why I love it when market goes down and stays low, because I get chance to buy stocks for cheap. When market is at high, even though my net worth increases, I can’t enter the market for investing further due to already inflated stock prices.
John Border presents Best Investments for long term posted at Learn Stock market basics. The articles describes the best investments for today as well as from a longer term perspective. It is all about time in the market as opposed to market timing when it comes to investments for the future.
Dividend Growth Investor presents How dividend stocks protect investors from inflation posted at Dividend Growth Investor. A portfolio of quality dividend stocks with rising earnings and dividends will deliver sufficient income growth to provide an inflation adjusted stream of dividend income while also delivering capital gains in the process.
Mike Holman presents How To Buy Canadian Dividend Stocks posted at Money Smarts Blog. Guide to buying Canadian dividend stocks.

Remember to submit your articles for next months Carnival of Passive Investing

image credit; amol sawant