Maybe it’s good karma, but this month’s net worth calculation falls nicely after the markets were on an upswing for the past few days (remember last month’s net worth calculation? The market was completely rollercoaster-like for a bit, almost made me nauseated).
Okay, so here’s the breakdown:
Continue reading youngandthrifty Net Worth Update: March 2010
Just what the doctor ordered, an apple a day keeps the financial gremlins away. Sorry that doesn’t really make much sense (what are financial gremlins, really?), but I felt like using the word doctor and apple together. Since apples are the ‘theme’ of youngandthrify.ca =) Speaking of doctoring… the apples look a bit brighter, thanks to Forest at Frugalzeitgeist.
I wanted to update you on how the Tax Free Trading Account that I got with Questrade is doing. My Tax Free Trading Account portfolio was funded with $5000 at the end of January and to date, I have about $46 in distributions, and total equity including distribution is $5607.
That’s a 12% increase in about 1.5 months time. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Because I was able to keep the trading commissions low ($4.95 with Questrade) I was able to preserve more of my hard earned cashola. I think this 12% definitely beats the 1-3% that a conventional Tax Free Savings Account offers.
It’s nice that the markets are cooperating these days!
Also in blog news, just wanted to share that Tom at Canadian Finance Blog kindly allowed me to guest post on his blog! Thanks to the Yakezie group for making this happen! This is my first guest post ever, so it is pretty exciting. Please go over and check it out (especially if you’re a family with children under 18 and you think Colin Hansen, our British Columbia finance minister is damn sexy).
Happy Friday everyone! I’ll be calculating my networth over the weekend and sharing my net worth on Monday. Hope it’s wayyy up in the green!
PS If you want $50 in free trades, sign up for a Questrade account and put in “youngandthrifty” under the promo code. You’ll be on your way to $50 a free trades and Questrade will credit you your money after 10 trades.
The Yakezie Challenge is an idea created by Financial Samurai, a highly entertaining personal finance blogger. It facilitates a sense of community in the personal finance world by encouraging us to work together to help increase each other’s Alexa rankings. Alexa, in case you don’t know, is the website that lets you know where your website ranks in the web world. LOL How many times did I use the word “web” in there?
Inspired by Deliver Away Debt’s awesome weekend links of Yakezie group members- he stayed up until 2-3am to write it, thought I’d do the same for mid-week (but try not to stay up too late past my bed time!). Anyway, here are some great links to lighten up your work week. Maybe you can peruse them at work if you’re not busy or if you’re having a bad Wednesday (hey look on the brighter side, you’re on hump day! Just two more days until the weekend).
I’m only going to post up the Yakezie members who are above the 200,000 goal for July 4, 2010 because I am falling asleep on my laptop as we speak… (My sincerest apologies to all you high ranked Alexa personal finance bloggers!)
Rainy Day Saver has a new webpage design- go check it out here!
Stay at Home Mom CFO writes about how she received a credit from the IRS (wow since WHEN did the government gladly give US money? =P )
My Money Minute enlightens us on the $40,000 video game… and how old stuff may actually be worth preserving- after reading that post I ransacked my old video game collection but alas, did not find any gems that were worth $40,000.
Chasing Prosperity talks about Lessons learned from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (Having experienced the Olympics here in Vancouver, I learned that 6 hour line ups all over the place kind of suck! And that trying to get into Heineken House three times and getting rejected three times hurts your feelings! And that Vancouver is really in the lime light now!)
151 Days Off has a picture that will surely excite your boring ol’ Wednesday–> Check out what they did at the Sydney Opera House.
Foreigner’s Finances talks about how to save money for retirement while working abroad. He’s teaching English in Japan right now- and while you don’t have to pay your home country’s tax, you also don’t get access to all the retirement planning!
Little House in the Valley also changed her theme- it’s really cool- check it out here!
The Amateur Finacier shares his Net Worth AND talks about how he jumped 100,000 spots on the Alexa Ranking- woo hoo!
Elle @ Couple Money also shares her Net Worth for last month
Downturn Living talks about the Price of Fame, a Story about Pre-Planning.
CJ Bowker explains to us what his response is when someone asks “What do you Do?”
Clarifinancial interviews Elle from Couple Money on his Fresh Perspective post =)
Money Reasons shares with us the Important Financial Lessons his Son Learned Today
Blog Income Life talks about Twitter and All That Social Media Stuff
Deliver Away Debt shares with us his Net Worth too!
WellHeeledBlog talks about Eat Pray Love’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book about her and her ex husbands relationship with money.
Evolution of Wealth defines Financial Planning, and what it REALLY means.
Money Funk also shares her family’s Net Worth. Check it out. She has automated most of her bills- good tip!
Wealth Pilgrim gives you the “in” on How You Know if You Are Saving enough for Retirement.
Ultimate Money Blog shares with us how she makes Embroidery Wall Hoops for her home. Cute!
Punch Debt in the Face justifies how he is planning to spend $4000 on his honeymoon (I say go for it!! People have to live their lives somehow. We need to be saving for the sake of enjoying aspects of life, not just for saving!) P.S. the picture associated with the post is hilarious. It could be on one of those Carlton cards!
My Journey to Millions talks about how cool the Yakezie Group is. It’s cool. Get in on the action!
Early Retirement Extreme talks about how you should Never Do Things for Their own Sake.
Enemy of Debt encourages us to Live Life to the Fullest by Getting Out of Debt.
I know a lot of personal finance bloggers have mentioned the Latte Factor at some point or another, but I really like it- it really ‘hits home’ for me so I wanted to write about it too. What is the Latte Factor, you ask? The Latte Factor is a phrase coined by David Bach, the author of The Automatic Millionaire. He says that most people have these small seemingly insignificant purchases daily (like the latte that you get at Starbucks before you head to work) that really add up.
If you spend $3.50 on a latte every day when you go to work, that adds up to be about $17.50 a week (for a five day work week). Multiply that by 52 weeks and you get $910 a year. Yes, that’s almost a grand per year on coffee!
Let’s say for example you decided to sock away the $3.50 per work day into savings instead every year for 25 years. If you compound interest that amount at a reasonable rate of 6% per year for 25 years, you’d end up with $56,827.91. So that grand that you end up saving per year becomes 55 grand in 25 years. Pretty crazy, huh?
If you somehow manage to cut those daily expenses out, you’re saving money big time. I’m not saying deprive yourself of your life and its perks, like if you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE that latte, maybe you can buy one of those machines to make your own before work. Compromise, right?
When I was younger, my mom once asked me a question that really helps you understand yourself a bit better, and what your values are.
Although it may not seem so blatant and in-your-face, money is the currency of the experiences and material goods that we assign value to.
She asked me if I had a million dollars (yeah yeah, a cool million isn’t that much nowadays–can’t even buy a detached house in Vancouver for that, really), what would I spend it on? Let’s play ‘pretend’ for a bit.
The options are:
In an earlier post this week, I wrote about a step by step guide on how to negotiate with the contract yielding wireless providers. Today I’ll reveal the actual flow of the conversation I had when I called in for my sister.
My sister was paying about $31 a month including tax (from a previously negotiated contract by yours truly two years ago) for:
Being the young-un that she is, many of her friends text. As you know, texting can add up! She wanted text messaging included in herr next plan. She was paying an extra $3-5 more a month just for text messages sent and received (texting on the very very low end hence restricting herself from unleashing the texting beast). She had one more week left on her contract.
So I called in to the Retentions Department for her, spoke to Tristan (names have been changed) from the Retentions Department who said that if she added $5, then she can have 250 texts, AND she would have to recommit for another 2 years. (In my head, I was thinking WTF- what kind of deal is that? Pay more??) I firmly but nicely said that she didn’t want to pay any more, and that I am with Telus and I get all the above for LESS per month including 100 long distance minutes per month, web browsing, and 200 incoming and outgoing texts (which is true, by the way).
Continue reading Negotiating with Rogers Wireless- Head to Head Battle!
Here in Canada we are ruled by only a few wireless service carriers. Namely these fall into the “big three” otherwise known as: Rogers (also bought out Fido Mobile), Bell (also in May 2009 bought out Virgin Mobile), and Telus (also carrier of Koodo Mobile)… UH… can you say MONOPOLY?? These guys have been fighting head to head with each other, to keep prices of contracts up. I was paying $40-50 a month for my measly serviced cell phone bill back in 2004 (I was constantly over in talk time, thus getting dinged a 25 cents per minute) until I one day I called in to complain. I think I fluked it by calling when my contract was up (unbeknowst to me at the time, it was when I was un-edumacated in personal finance still).
I called back then and said I didn’t like how much I was paying. The CSR (customer service rep) then told me that they can reduce my bill and increase what I was getting (e.g. minutes, texts, free long distance). I was like “what??” why had I NOT done this earlier?? I could have saved so much cashola! I had reduced my monthly bill (and was getting more bang for my buck) to $28 a month- never over.
Ever since then, I’ve been getting good deals on contracts for mr. youngandthrifty, my mom, my sisters, my friends…you could say that I’m addicted to the art of negotiation (on the phone– not so much in person cus I’m kinda shy).
First of all, you need to decide whether you want to be on a contract. Currently WIND Mobile has come into play and they are straight up no contracts, so you’re not tied down. They have very competitive rates (much to the Big Three’s dismay) without having to negotiate to get something you’re happy with.
If you’re down with signing up for a 1, 2, or 3 year contract then please continue reading.
Continue reading Step-by-step Guide on How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Contract
Yesterday, Jim Flaherty announced some tighter rules before getting a mortgage in hopes deterring the inflation of Canada’s potential housing bubble.
Beginning April 19, 2010, all new borrowers from the banks (e.g. moi and other first time home buyers) will have to conform into a standard 5 year fixed term even if they plan to use the shorter terms and variable-rate mortgage.
It means that you have to be able to afford the standard 5 year fixed term (right now about 5.25% posted).. it doesn’t mean that you have to use it.
There was speculation that they would eliminate the 35 year mortgage (so people can spread their payments out further and pay less per month, but more interest) or increase the minimum downpayment amount from 5% to 10%.
So far, Ottawa hasn’t implemented the elimination of the 35 year mortgage or increased the minimum downpayment to 10%. But it can’t be ruled out.
It’s that time of year again! TAX TIME! If you didn’t get a chance to implement any of my 16 Tax Tips for Year End, don’t fret, my friend, there’s still time to get more money back from your tax return!
NOTE: These suggestions are for the Canadian Tax system. If you are claiming your taxes in the US, then sorry, this post ain’t for you!
I started filing my own taxes last year. Before that, I hired an accountant to do my taxes (my taxes were really simple) and paid about $125 for his services. He gave me a few good tips which I carried on to use for the next year, when I learned to do it myself. I decided to do my own taxes because:
Continue reading How to Get More Money Back from your Tax Return
