Investoid

I’ve listened to a few episodes of Vanguard’s Plain Talk on Investing. It is a bi-weekly show that covers basic topics for investing and retirement. The shows last 10 – 15 minutes, and usually have a host who interviews an expert from Vanguard or another firm on a particular topic.

I have found the podcasts to be concise and informative, although they are geared towards relative novices. A lot of the advice is specfically for American investors, so while the general principles transfer over, the tax and government program information is not useful for those who live outside of their borders.

For those of you looking to gain an understanding of the fundamentals regarding saving for retirement in a prudent manner, I would suggest you listen to:

• Why investment costs matter
• Achieving financial security fore retirement
• Bond funds: What you need to know
• Basic retirement withdrawal strategies
• The most important decision you can make (it’s about asset allocation)
• How much should I save for retirement

In the saving for retirement podcast, they suggest a minimum 10% saving rate. For the frugal savers out there, they will no doubt argue this is too low, but for many people I think this is a good starting point if they are used to spending 100% of their monthly net income.

Overall, I think it’s worth picking through the episodes to find topics that are of interest and relevance to you, but you don’t need to listen to every podcast.

First of all, I apologize for the lack of posts. I have been very busy recently and hope to write a bit more in the coming week.

I have been listening to the ValueLine Obersver by the Value Guys. They are Wall Street analysts with 25 years experience each. Each week on Friday they release a new podcast which reviews various stocks that are found in the Value Line Investment Survey.

The duo use a combination of fundamental analysis, growth prospects and valuation methodology to review stocks that they are interested in from the newsletter. They typically discuss valuation from a multiples perspective, using EBITDA and free cash flow more often than earnings.

Their podcast is definitely not the most exciting podcast on the block to listen to (don’t expect any Mad Money-style sound effects here), and you have to adjust to their extremely dry humor. Nonetheless, these podcasters provdie you with some expert opinons for free and their analysis is relatively insightful. You won’t get too excited by their stock picks either, but if you’re into value investing then that shouldn’t matter.

With shows running around 30 minutes, I think the Value Line Observer is worth listening to if you have some spare time, although I wouldn’t call it a ‘must listen podcast’. Check one out for yourself next time you’re on your way to work.

After a great few days in Miami, I am now back to my (snowy) home. It was interesting to see the concentration of wealth in Miami’s downtown, and all the development that’s going on (I counted over 20 40-story condominium projects going up). While there may be solid investment opportunities there, Miami seems to be the place to go to spend your wealth, not accumulate it.

A lot of the Canadian finance bloggers have posted several solid book reviews in the past few months. Instead of me treading on their already solid content, I’ve decided to start listening to some podcasts and review their quality (I still may review some of the books I have half-finished once I get around to finishing them).

Now that I’ve received my new phone (which I absolutely love), I am starting to listen to investment podcasts when I have time and duties that I can multitask. I started off with David Bach’s FinishRich minute. For those of you who don’t know David, he’s the author of such novels as the Automatic Millionaire and Start Late, Finish Rich. He has Canadian versions of his books for Canuck-specific information. His full bookology is available here.

It’s a daily podcast that quickly covers personal fianance topics, from real estate investing to stock selection. I’ve listened to about half a dozen of these podcasts, and while the general advice is decent, there is little substance (which I guess is to be expected for a 60 second promo). The biggest issue I have with the FinishRich Minute is that 20 seconds or so is advertising for himself and/or sponsors, leaving even less time for any real value. I find that the one-paragraph messages themselves do not provide enough useful information to be worth the time it takes to download them.

While I find the topics David covers interesting, the brevity of his messages is unappealing to me. Nonetheless, if you want to check out David’s podcast for yourself, you can subscribe to it via iTunes or at his FinishRich site.