YOUR FAVOURITE POSTS OF 2010

Welcome to 2011. As usual, let's start by reviewing what you read here on Riscario Insider in 2010.

Overall

After nearly four years, blogging feels like a normal part of life. In that sense, 2010 felt "routine". Long time readers may have noticed the blog redesign by thirtyseven interactive, the first since the launch in 2007.

The Top 10 Posts

Here's what you read most.

1. Quotes related to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (#2 in 2009)
2. Iron Man didn't save Leslie Bibb but another superhero did
3. Does Warren Buffett "Buy Term and Invest The Difference"? (#3 in 2009)
4. Toodledo does more than Remember The Milk
5. Three keys to getting your insurance claim paid
6. Six basic fears from 70 years ago [Napoleon Hill] (#4 in 2009)
7. Secret 7: The best tax sheltering in Canada (#5 in 2009)
8. The most dangerous part of driving
9. PersonalBrain 5: Data to information to knowledge (#1 in 2009)
10. Dealing with the staggering cost of dementia

Five of these posts were also in the top 10 for 2009 and four (#2, #5, #8 and #10) were selected by Rob Carrick for his Personal Finance Reader in The Globe & Mail.

Work A Peek

These 2010 posts didn't make the most read list but may interest you.

Various

1. Why I finally joined Toastmasters
2. TED to TEDx to TEDxToronto
3. Highlights from Maker Faire Detroit
4. How to visit India
5. You (yes you) are a genius [The Linchpin Session from Seth Godin]

Life Insurance

1. Three reasons life insurance prices are shooting up
2. The fine print taketh away … except in life insurance
3. Case study: What to do when your Term 10 rates are about to spike
4. Lease or buy? How life insurance compares with getting a car
5. How advisors really prepare term life insurance proposals

Financial

1. The foolproof measure of trust
2. 13 questions to evaluate an investment that's "too good to be true"
3. Three ways for hockey players (and you) to save for retirement
4. Do financial doctors make as many mistakes as medical doctors?
5. Donation guidelines from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates

The Top 5 Podcasts

If you prefer, you can listen to podcasts. Here are the top five.

1. Does billionaire Seymour Schulich help you "Get Smarter"?
2. "The Snowball" rolls into Warren Buffett (#1 in 2009)
3. PersonalBrain 5: Data to information to wisdom (#2 in 2009)
4. The three major obstacles to growth according to Brian Tracy
5. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: Mastery plus Opportunity trumps Talent (#4 in 2009)

The Top 5 Countries

You read from 128 countries (down from 139).

1. Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton
2. United States: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston
3. United Kingdom: London, Manchester, Edinburgh
4. India: Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad
5. Philippines: Manila, Mandaluyong, Ceby

Sources of Traffic

1. Search engines: 53% (up from 48%)
2. Referring sites: 22% (down from 40%) [main sources: Globe & Mail, Canadian Capitalist, Canadian Business]
3. Direct: 20% (up from 14%)

I spent less time time leaving comments on other blogs and this shows in the lower referrals. When you leave conversations, you get forgotten.

Keywords

Here are the top keywords typed into search engines to get here.

1. 7 habits of highly effective people quotes
2. seymour schulich
3. toodledo vs remember the milk
4. quotes from 7 habits of highly effective people
5. 7 habits quotes
6. warren buffett life insurance
7. quotes from the 7 habits of highly effective people
8. 6 basic fears
9. personalbrain 5 review
10. pros and cons of financial leverage

Notice the variations of "7 habits" and "quotes"? Different paths lead to the same destination.

Browsers Used

1. Internet Explorer: 44% (down from 59%)
2. Firefox: 32% (down from 34%)
3. Chrome: 12% (up from 2%)
4. Safari: 9% (up from 2%)

Operating Systems

• Windows: 83% (down from 85%)
• Macintosh: 11% (down from 12%)
• iOS: 3% (up from 0.2%)
• Linux: 2% (unchanged)

Screen Resolution

• 1280x800: 20% (unchanged)
• 1024x768: 18% (down from 23%; was 35% in 2008)
• 1280x1024: 13% (down from 15%)
• 1680x1050: 9% (unchanged)
• 1440x900: 8% (down from 11%)

Mobile Devices

About 3.5% of you are visiting with your mobile devices.

1. iPhone (54%)
2. iPad (17%) [longest visits]
3. iPod (11%)
4. Blackberry (8%) [shortest visits]
5. Android (6%)

In all, Apple devices account for 82% of mobile visits. I'm glad I don't use Adobe Flash anywhere.

Links

• Your favourite posts of 2009
• Your favourite posts of 2009 for entrepreneurs
• Your favourite posts of 2008
• Your favourite posts of 2008 for entrepreneurs
• image courtesy of Billy Alexander, Charlotte, North Carolina

Podcast Episode 98 (8:33)

direct download | Internet Archive page

PS There won't be as many statistics in the next post.

How Seth Godin Sparks Your Flame of Insight

"I'm just here to learn."

Learning is fine. Listening is good. Consensus is natural.

But initiating is rare and valuable and essential.

How often do you or your brand initiate rather than react? How often do you tweet instead of retweet? Invent rather than exploit?

--- The Initiator Seth Godin's blog July 31, 2009

What you do and know you may assume others do and know. Take Seth Godin for example. He's become an important part of my life yet I keep meeting people who haven't heard of him. Yet.

Seth Who?

Seth helps us market better. Since we're all in marketing, we can all benefit. You may have heard of his books, which include Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Small Is The New Big, Free Prize Inside and Permission Marketing.

You can learn marketing by reading, courses, seminars and doing. That's not enough. We need ongoing reminders and up-to-date ideas. Otherwise, the helium escapes from our balloons and we crash back into our comfort zones.

Seth uses an unusual mechanism to help us soar: blogging. He has over 3,000 posts. Not tweets, but actual blog posts. He's currently ranked ranked #9 on Technorati but teams write all the blogs with more readers. Seth writes everything himself (just like me). No guest writers or collaborators. Since he grew up in Buffalo, New York, he's even heard of Canada.

Why Does A Blog Matter?

I've listened to most of Seth's audiobooks (most recently, Meatball Sundae twice) and have read several too (most recently, The Dip).

However, I only subscribed to Seth's blog a few months ago. You'll find a new email daily including weekends. At first, this was too much. Now it's not enough because each post packs insights to help you improve. The length varies. Most posts are short and easy to understand. They generally arrive early in the morning.

The Subtle Effect

You can blow out a candle,
But you can't blow out a fire.

Once the flames begin to catch,
The wind will blow it higher.

--- Peter Gabriel, Biko

At first, reading a daily blog post feels like work. You're behind with yesterday's and there's another one waiting in your inbox. I saw the ideas at the wrong time of day, generally when getting ready to do something else. Now, I read the posts when I have time to reflect or need a jolt of inspiration. This works well. Like coffee without the caffeine. Or a vitamin-infused fruit smoothie without the calories.

Leading By Example

As you read Seth, you see how remarkable he is. He could easily earn more money but doesn't. Why? I've pondered this often and concluded this: he feels he has more than enough and isn't out to take all he can get. His blog has no advertising. He doesn't do paid endorsements. When he links to specific products any revenue goes to charity.

You end up feeling that Seth shares the best of what he knows for free. This makes him authentic. You don't feel he's conniving to squeeze you for money. He's certainly building his reputation, which gets him requests for keynote presentations and consulting assignments. He sells books, which is the main way he can earn money directly from us. He could easily have a paid monthly newsletter but doesn't. He could easily tour the speaker circuit but doesn't. He could easily conduct regular seminars but doesn't. Instead, he blogs, which helps more people in ways he can never truly know.

When I have an idea, my brain automatically asks two questions:

1. What would Seth do?
2. What would Seth say?

I've been offered rewards worth hundreds of dollars as thanks for posts I voluntarily wrote. The money would help offset my costs (books and audiobooks aren't free). I've declined to avoid the appearance of self-interest but recently introduced Google Ads.

Having Seth as another conscience gets annoying but in a good way.

How You Benefit

Do you want to improve as a person? Do you want to advance in your career? Do you want to grow your business? Do you want to motivate others to change? You get valuable insights from Seth in these areas and many more. You feel empowered and energized.

How Do You Help A Mentor?

They say you can't take it with you,
but I think that they're wrong.
'Cause all I know is I woke up this morning,
and something big was gone.

--- Bruce Springsteen, Terry's Song

When someone helps you, you want to help them (unless you're a mooch). What can you do to help Seth? I puzzled over this.

1. Give Seth's books away or encourage others to get them (buy or borrow from the library)
2. Use Squidoo, a free site Seth started for us to share information with others (you create your own web pages)
3. Participate more on Triiibes, the free closed community related to the Tribes book

For reasons I can't explain, the answer came from listening to Terry's Song yesterday. I'm telling you about Seth, someone you may not know about. Yet. Why not check out his blog and subscribe? See if you improve and feel compelled to help others the way only you can. Once the initiatives start, the flame takes hold and you can't stop.

Links

• Seth Godin's blog
• Squidoo.com
• Triiibes.com
• Seth's ranking on Technorati
• Seth Godin - Tribes - Hear It For Free
• Thoughts on The Dip by Seth Godin
• photo courtesy of Rainer Berg

Podcast (7:21)

direct download Internet Archive page

The 100th Post!

(Feb 2012 update: If you think 100 posts is worth noting, how about 5 years | 500 posts | 250,000 words?)


You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you've got something to say.
--- F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is the 100th post on Riscario Insider! That's nearly two years of writing, one article at a time.

Did you read the very first post: What's In A Name?

We've stayed close to the topic of helping Canadians learn about financial risks and how to reduce them. For variety, we've also looked at ways to improve ourselves --- which indirectly helps us quash our financial risks.


The Lie
We're supposed to write about what we know. I intended to write to help typical Canadians: stagnant family incomes create major financial risks. But how? I primarily help the small sliver of the wealthy. They have different issues. I slowly shifted the focus to wealthy Canadians.


What If You're Not Among The Wealthiest?

Study well what the billionaire does. It may make you a millionaire.
--- John Emmerling

We can learn from those who have what we want. This gets us ready for when we join them, Wealth is more than money. The wealthy think differently. They act differently --- in ways that may not make sense to others.

Want an example? Most of us can use more life insurance and more investments. Street wisdom says buy cheap term insurance and invest separately. Instead, the wealthy pick permanent life insurance because melding protecting with investing releases many tax advantages and saves money. Chocolate and peanut butter are fine apart but wonderful together.

The Future
Thanks for reading. We're getting older and better. As always, your input is welcome and welcomed.

Links

• the first post (Feb 18, 2007)
• Stagnant Family Incomes (Feb 28, 2007)
• The 100th post on Marketing Actuary (Apr 29, 2009)
• Blogging milestone: 5 years | 500 posts | 250,000 words (Feb 2012) (new)

Your Favourite Posts of 2008 And More

Welcome to 2009. Let's start the year by looking back at what you read here on Riscario Insider in 2008.

Overall

The trends look great. Your visits more than doubled (increased by 2.4 times) and 80.5% of you were new. You stayed 6.0% longer per visit and viewed an average of 1.6 pages each time (an increase of 11.6%). 

The Top 10 Posts

Here's what you read

1. Does Warren Buffett "Buy Term and Invest The Difference"?
2. The Friendly Way: Remember The Milk and Everything Else
3. Should You Switch To An Actuarial Career?
4. Six Basic Fears From 70 Years Ago [Napoleon Hill]
     (also see The Six Financial Fears of Canadians)
5. The Problem of "Trapped" Retained Earnings
6. The Pros and Cons of Financial Leveraging
7. "10-8" Leveraging: Creating Tax Deductions
   
8. Tax Planning: Top Five Insured Strategies
    (also see "10-8" Leveraging: Turbocharging the Top 5 Insured Strategies)
9. How Much Do You Really Earn?
10. The Two Drawbacks of Investing in Life Insurance

Other statistics follow.

The Top 5 Countries

You read from 99 countries. Here are the top five. 

1. Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal
2. United States: California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Florida
      (by city: New York, Chicago, Ames, West Hollywood, Brooklyn)
3. United Kingdom
4. India
5. Australia

Source of Traffic

1. Search Engines: 61% (95% via Google and 3% from Yahoo)
2. Referring Sites: 24% (StumbleUpon, Thicken My Wallet, Canadian Capitalist, Ellen Roseman)
3. Direct: 15%

Keywords

Here are the key words typed into search engines to get here.

1. riscario
2. buy term and invest the difference
3. buy term invest the difference
   
4. retained earnings
5. warren buffett life insurance
6. six basic fears

Browser used

• Internet Explorer: 59%
• Firefox: 34%
• Safari: 4%
• Chrome: 2%

Operating System

• Windows: 91%
• Macintosh: 7%
• Linux: 1%
• iPhone: 0.2%

Screen Resolution

• 1024 x 768: 35%
• 1280 x 800: 18%
• 1280 x 1024: 12%
• 1440 x 900: 9%
• 1680 x 1050: 9%

That's probably more than you want to know. Thanks for reading. There's more to come. 

Links

• Who's Reading What: Jan-June 2008
• Your favourite posts of 2008 for entrepreneurs
• Your favourite posts of 2009

Google Locks This Blog As Spam ?!?

I'm a big fan of Google and their approaches and rely on many products:

1. Google 411 at 1-800-GOOG-411 (free directory assistance; now in Canada)
   
2. Google GrandCentral (your own free phone number which people can call without even knowing your number)
   
3. Google Search Engine (to find stuff)
   
4. Google Mail (where you can save every email you get forever)
   
5. Google News (for news selected by algorithms instead of editors)
6. Google Blogger (where this blog is hosted)
7. Google Analytics (to track web traffic)
8. Google Feedburner (to send you new posts by RSS or email)
   
9. Google Notebook (to capture snippets of the web)
10. Google Maps (to verify directions from my GPS navigator)
    
11. Google Picasa (for photos)
    

These products are getting increasingly integrated, which makes them even easier to use. And there are others that I don't currently use much.

What Went Wrong
I ran into my first ever problem with Google on Friday night, the start of a long weekend. I got an email saying this blog might be spam. I checked message to make sure it was real. It was. Here's an excerpt:

Your blog has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at [link].


Your blog will be deleted within 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and you'll be unable to publish posts during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

The message is pleasant enough, but still unnerving. I clicked on the link and waited impatiently for reactivation.

While Waiting
While you wait, you can draft blog posts, but not publish them.

The Issues
The reactivation, took place two calendar days later on Sunday. This is faster than the commitment of two business days (which would have been Tuesday). However, I missed my schedule of posting early on Sunday morning. Surprisingly, Google didn't send an email to say my account was reactivated. I only found out by logging in.

Here's the scary part. What if you're on a long vacation and can't reply withing 20 days? Your blog gets deleted!!! You could have your blog hosted on your own site, but there are other issues

• requires technical knowledge
• may be less robust
• costs money (your credit card might expire or get suspended while you're away)
  

Why Use Google?
There are many reasons to use Google products. Since they have the most popular search engine, using their other Google products may give higher rankings in searches (certainly can't hurt). There are ongoing enhancements and since Google's offerings are web-based, you skip the hassle of installing upgrades. What's more, Google's tools are completely free. There's no obligation to show any advertising.

What does Google do about potential spam blogs hosted elsewhere? Maybe they get removed from Google web searches without warning. At least I got a friendly email. So I'm sticking with Google until I decide to start spamming for real!

Three Tips for Holiday Spending

If your outgo is more than your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. --- Unknown

It's the time of year when many spend on others ... and themselves. Without self-restraint, the January bills can be a downer.

Through The Years
Since the days when you could say "Merry Christmas" without offending anyone, we've celebrated the special, joyous holiday season. Good will towards all. We had a tree and presents.

In the early 1980s, I started celebrated Boxing Day instead. At Sam The Record Man where everything was on sale. And stereo equipment stores. Remember these were the days before VCRs, computers and even audio CDs.

Nowadays, even Boxing Day has lost its charm. Retailers like Best Buy and Future Shop start their sales online on December 25th. Boxing Day sales start at crazy times like 7am --- with lineups!

Lessons Learned
Here are three tips to deal with overspending:

1. Know your prices
2. Know your limits
3. Delay opening impulse buys

Know Your Prices
Big ads and long lines don't mean big savings. If you don't know the regular selling prices, you could overpay for an item on "sale". Last year, I indulged in a GPS navigation system. I started researching in the fall and monitoring prices. Prices dipped lowest in late November/early December. That's when I bought. On Boxing Day and beyond, discounts off the normal prices were smaller. On Boxing Day, I saw brands I'd never seen before or since. Retailers must bring in items they didn't normally stock just to mark them down for unwary customers.

Know Your Limits
Naturally, buying is easier than paying. It helps to know how much you can afford before you go shopping. Some items decrease in price or improve in quality. Computers, for example. You can benefit by waiting.

Impulse Byes
If you bought an item on impulse, wait 48 hours before opening the package (assuming it won't go bad, you have self-control, and it's returnable). You can pretend you bought online and are waiting for delivery. If you lose interest, return the item. This works very well for me. Right now, here's what's going back unopened: car DC-to-AC converter, aluminum computer case and a backpack. They may soon be joined by a LED flashlight you can recharge by winding up. The following passed the wait: nonstick cookware, vacuum cleaner. They were worth the wait.

Other Tips
Read other posts on holiday spending from the Canadian Tour of Personal Finance Blogs.

Life on the Road: The Canadian Tour of Personal Finance Blogs Returns

When you're riding sixteen hours
and there's nothing much to do
And you don't feel much like riding,
you just wish the trip was through.
--- Bob Seger, Turn The Page

Life's tough on the road even when you're a big rock star with an entourage. Imagine the plight of a personal finance blogger --- in Canada. No personal jet. Not even a tour bus. Instead, we travel in cyberspace. Here's the good news for you: admission is free. You simply visit one of the sites on the tour and follow the links to the other "performers".

The organizer, Monty Loree of Canadian-Money-Advisor.ca has suggested a timely theme: views on holiday spending as it relates to personal finance. Drop by on Tuesday November 27 and see the results.

And these towns all look the same.
We just pass the time in our hotel rooms
And wander 'round backstage.
Till those lights come up and we hear that crowd
And we remember why we came
--- Jackson Browne, The Load Out/Stay

Attention Bloggers
Do you write about Canadian personal finances? How about joining the joining the tour, here's the registration page.

Feedback in Unexpected Places

And he sang from his heart
and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang;
It just made him whole.
--- Harry Chapin, Mr. Tanner

Whether your hobby is singing/dancing/writing, there's value to creating in solitude. But there's not much joy without interaction. To my surprise, I've been getting more feedback by email than from comments to posts. I didn't know.

I generally post once a week, which makes visiting Riscario Insider daily of little value. So you're best served by subscribing for updates by email from Zookoda. If you reply, your response comes back to my sending email account. Who knew? To my surprise, I've been getting emails. I didn't know because I wasn't checking those accounts ... until today.

How Many Email Accounts?
How many email accounts do you have? To organize and reduce spam, I use the following email accounts

1. work-related (2 accounts linked to my Blackberry)
2. personal (Gmail)
3. blogging (one per blog, using a commercial provider since Gmail only allows 500 outgoing emails per day --- think big!)
   
4. junk (Gmail)
   

Gmail's great because of the space, permanence, spam filtering and ease of finding messages. There's one problem: you can only sign into one account at a time and I have three. So I was only checking my personal account. My blog email addresses are now forwarded to one Gmail account, which I'll check regularly.

So I'm catching up with belated replies. You may also have emails waiting for you unexpected places.

Live Comments
By the way, your comments now go live without moderation.

Further Down The Path We're Already On

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves.
--- E.M. Forster

The quote above has had me thinking for days. It's so true. When I started reading personal finance blogs a few months ago, I tried many different ones because they were novel. Now, I'm finding there are only a few I revisit. Time is scarce, after all. My preferred sites feel more comfortable, perhaps because I'm on a similar path already. Do you find the same yourself?

For exposure to new ideas, we might read publications we'd otherwise skip or talk to folks we'd otherwise avoid. Even so, when it comes to being influenced, we're more likely to follow someone on our own path.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. --- Robert Frost

So rather than taking the road less travelled, we follow a tad further down a path we've already selected. Followers, not pathfinders. Maybe you feel the same?

Canadian Financial Blogs

You ain't been around
You ain't seen nothin' yet, that's what she told me
She said, I need an education, go to school
--- Bachman Turner Overdrive, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Have you visited Canadian financial blogs (besides this one)?

For whatever reason, I didn't think they existed. They do. I found a list of Canadian financial blogs at CanadianCapitalist.com while searching for something else. What's especially nice is the brief summary of the blogs shown. I visited some and was pleased with what I found.

I'm surprised at how many authors don't give out their identities. What do they think will happen to them? Maybe it's our renowned Canadian modesty. Unless we lost it with The Trailer Park Boys. Unless you're doing something wicked (a word which here means "something you'd get in serious trouble for doing"), then hiding your identity means that you can't get credit for your work.

If you're looking for more to read, take a peek. Support Canadian content before the regulators step in :)