real estate investing posts

"Why are houses such money pits?" It was an actual lament from a friend of mine recently. Although I don't think there is any one single person who can answer that question definitively, I think a panel of experts might be able to nail it down.

Timing being what it was, I just happened to be speaking with a panel of experts on the matter for Your Home, a series of homeowners' articles we're putting out this month on Walletpop.ca.

Realtors, contractors, landscapers and insurance adjusters all have a different view of the family home and the myriad of ways it can cost people money. To see if we might get answers (and perhaps some insight or help managing the inevitable costs), we asked each of them the very same question from my friend: Why are houses such money pits?

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Early Retirement with Kids
If you think that having kids makes it harder to retire early, you're right. But a guest blogger over at Canadian Dream: Free at 45 says that there are some ways that having kids makes retiring early easier. Read about his family's approach to saving money while having kids.

Where Do You Include Dividends in Asset Allocation?
In a classic asset allocation model, there are essentially 2 types of assets: Asset class A: Fixed income and Asset class B: Equities. Fixed income assets are pretty easy to define because they all pay a steady interest income. Equities are shares issued by public companies. Dividends could fall into both camps. So where do you put a share of a public company paying steady dividends? The Dividend Guy explains how he sees this.