An Even Better Reason to Fix Your Portfolio + MORE Aug 23rd

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A fugitive former technology company CEO who frustrated federal authorities by living comfortably in exile in southwest Africa for the past 10 years has agreed to return to the United States to face charges he hatched a scheme to pocket millions of dollars by secretly manipulating stock options and is expected to plead guilty, prosecutors revealed on Tuesday.
In a letter to a judge, the prosecutors said Jacob “Kobi” Alexander had dropped his extradition fight in Namibia and would plead guilty to securities fraud on Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn.
Defence attorney Benjamin Brafman said Alexander would plead guilty to one count “relating solely to backdating” and would seek release on a $25 million bond secured with $10 million in cash. He said he was hopeful Alexander would get a lenient sentence.
The government has said it will oppose bail.
Alexander vanished in 2006 while under investigation for backdating stock options for his Woodbury-based company, voicemail software maker Comverse Technology Inc…

So your portfolio is a disaster. Your RRSP is full of high-cost mutual funds, sprinkled with some random stocks and a bunch of exotic ETFs that seemed like a good idea at the time. You know it’s time to clean house, but you’re not sure where to begin. Well, here’s your chance to fix your portfolio and support a great cause at the same time.
Until last spring, Alex was a healthy, thriving four-year-old who loved playing soccer, swimming, riding his bike and playing with his two brothers. But in late April he was air-lifted from their home on Vancouver Island to the intensive care unit at BC Children’s Hospital, where he spent two weeks fighting for his life. Alex was diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia and has been receiving treatment for this disease throughout the summer.
Alex’s parents—who are clients of PWL Capital—are grateful for the excellent care their son is receiving, and they’re raising funds for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation with the goal of helping other families dealing with childhood cancer…

Learn, save, invest and prosper with My Own Advisor.
The following is a contribution from an avid My Own Advisor reader – Cannew.  You can read other articles from Cannew including this one, about an average retirement plan to wealth here.  Cannew followed the investing path in that article to help him earn close to $100,000 per year in retirement income. Here are some of his favourite investing quotes his lives by.
“The novice investor looking for an income stock often starts and ends the search by seeking out the highest yielding stock. Wrong!  Heed the hoary advice: If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.” – Joseph Tigue, dividend-investing author
“If history repeats itself yet again, the current bear market trend is a signal to investors that they may be in for a fairly long stretch of disappointing returns, especially from price appreciation.” – Gary E. Stroik, Vice-President, Chief Investment Officer at WBI Investments Inc.
“If you are a saver and a buyer of shares–as most investors are and will continue to be for many years–your real long-term interest is, curiously, to have stock prices go down quite a lot and stay there so you can accumulate more shares at lower prices and therefore receive more dividends with the savings you invest…

Q: We have a small mortgage, only $80,000. Coming up for renewal at 2.35% for a five-year fixed rate. We have some money (approximately $25,000) that we can either put on the mortgage or invest or put into our RRSP. What is the best way to go?
—Linda
A: Most of us have debt and most working adult Canadians will have RRSP and TFSA room. Some of us have group plans with matching contributions at work as well, just to complicate things. Making sure your cash flow is properly funneled is an important part of financial planning.
In your case, Linda, I note that you refer to your mortgage as a “small” mortgage. Small can be relative or based on your own perspective. If that feels like a small debt to you, that suggests to me that you’re not that “worried” about it. If someone has a modest mortgage relative to their home value, I would agree that’s less of a reason to focus on debt repayment versus investing. If you had 10% home equity, on the other hand, I’d be that much more inclined to build a bit of a buffer by paying down debt over investing…