I had a great vacation in Bali (definitely got my dose of Vitamin D…probably enough to last me a year lol).

Bali was absolutely beautiful… everything about it was beautiful.  I have never seen any place so lush and fertile before.  The people were amazingly friendly, accommodating, and honest.  Most people we met were genuine, friendly, humble, and SO laid back.  Since everyone else was so laid back and the scenery was so serene, the normally frantic me was forced to chill out a bit.  Which is a good thing…haha.

I can see why Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat Pray Love fame “found” herself in Bali.  It’s just so beautiful.  Speaking of Eat Pray Love, I had to visit Ketut Liyer in Ubud.  He was depicted just like the movie and the book, he even pulled out his medicine book like he supposedly did all the time in the movie!

Of course I had to see what he had to say about my future.  Unfortunately because of the massive fame that has become of him, the local Balinese say he has memorized the English phrases and fortune telling and therefore he says the same thing to each tourist.  He told me that I was very verrrrry pret-ty, that my cheeks were good which made him hap-py, and that my lips were sweet like suuuu-gar.  He also said the exact same thing to every other English speaking tourist coming to see him.  It was a little disappointing but still a tourist novelty and a pretty cool experience.  His wife didn’t tell me to find a good man, but she did hustle and bustle about preparing dinner.  She also had a disgruntled look on her face like she meant business LOL.  Ketut is certainly doing very well for himself and has become a little bit of a business tycoon!

PF Blog Love

• My Wife Quit Her Job shows us how to start and find products to sell online

  

• Free From Broke shows us how to Hedge against inflation with education
• The Wealthy Turtle shows us 7 mothers day presents that will land you a night on the couch
• Planting Money Seeds shares 5 of the biggest lies freelancing clients could be telling you
• Out Of Your Rut talks about going global with an online business.
• Stupid Cents reminds us that there are opportunities online but watch out for scammers
• Balance Junkie shows us the purpose and the pessimism of no
• My University Money explains lifestyle inflation
• Financial Highway is GIVING AWAY $500 for sharing you best money saving tip
• Bible Money Matters shows us 50 Easy Ways To Save Money Every Month

 Carnival Fun

• Self Directed Investing For Retirement Carnival – Socialism is Winning Edition
• Festival of Frugality #336 – Bee In Your Bonnet Edition
• Totally Money Blog Carnival #65 – Success, Wealth & Happiness Edition

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$150, 237 (+1.02%)

Yay- reached my goal- one month ahead of time!  It feels great to reach this goal but now I want to set another goal (never satisfied, am I?).  A few factors helped in this- one is the acquisition of this website and the other is more scholarship money being granted.  However, I haven’t paid for my car insurance yet which is due next month and that’s a whopper.

The new owners of this site have graciously allowed me to keep the ING widget up until I unlock an ING bonus (there’s a little part of me that has OCD tendencies and seeks to unlock bonuses).  I think I just need two more referrals to do this.  So if you’re looking to get a new savings account- please use the orange key to your right side

The stock markets were pretty volatile it seems for the past few days.  I haven’t bought any more stocks and I don’t really intend to- I would like to focus on buying more bonds or adding more liquidity by increasing in my cash savings.

Also, just to let you know, I have divided the proceeds of the blog sale to average the amount I received when I was the owner for the next year and a half or so while I’m in school.  Sorry for the run-on sentence!  Basically, I’ll be adding X amount of dollars to my net worth updates every month to reflect the average income I received from this blog.

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for May 2012:

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About three years ago, I had a dream of starting a personal finance blog. My family and my boyfriend laughed at my lofty idea. I thought- I’ll show them! I can be successful if I work hard at it. It was my dream to make it successful and show the world that a female voice could swing with the big boys in the personal finance blog realm (woot!).

After two and a half years, I think I have achieved this goal. Never in a million years did I think that my blogging idol, Million Dollar Journey would link to me in his blog round up. Never did I think my name would be mentioned inGlow Magazine. Never did I think my blog would be mentioned in the Globe and Mail. David Chilton from The Wealthy Barber even had email contact with me! I have enjoyed every single minute of it and most of all, I have enjoyed making friends around the world and across Canada through people connecting with me through this blog. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity that the Yakezie has given me- I remember thinking “yeah! I’ll join this! This might be my big break to actually have people notice me!” Since then, it has been an absolutely amazing ride.

I clearly remember when I started that I thought the only person reading my blog was myself (which is 100% true). I was so excited when I got one comment. I was so excited when I got my first $100 cheque from Google. I was so excited when people actually realized my blog existed in this vast internet cyberspace. I can remember each “milestone” and these precious memories will never escape me. I’ve learned so much more than I could even imagine about investing, about personal finance, and life balance and I have you to all thank.

Despite the amazing growth of youngandthrifty.ca, this blog has grown into something so much bigger than I could handle with my current life of school, work etc. The marketing, coding, html stuff, and advertising made me feel like I was in over my head. With school, work, and relationship obligations, I wasn’t able to put in the amount of time and energy that I thought you readers deserved. Every day I spent hours working on my blog and putting the blog’s priority over my relationship and it really pained me to not have time in the day to go on my blog on a daily basis because of school.  I wonder if this is the answer to why there aren’t that many female personal finance bloggers going at it on a full-time basis. I had so many blog post ideas, but was so busy that I didn’t have time to write them. I was busy answering emails and busy trying to drive more traffic.

However, at the same time, I felt like I was being squished with my school and relationship obligations. I wanted to study more, learn more but had to commit to my blog. I felt pulled in all directions. I thought I could handle it but to be honest, it was difficult balancing everything without feeling like I was spreading too thin. I’m sure you’ve all read my constant “weekend ramblings” whining updates on how stressed I was feeling

This blog is my baby and I don’t know how many hours I’ve poured into this blog. Probably thousands and thousands of hours…It was a seriously difficult decision to make and I wanted to make sure that the new owners would take care of this blog like it was their own. I wanted to make sure the new owners would keep my voice present in the blog (basically allow me to continue to write on here).

Never did I think that my own staff writer, Teacher Man, would be interested in taking care of my blog! When I saw My University Money appear on the personal finance blogosphere, I knew they were supremely talented. So now the tables have turned and I’m the new staff writer lol. As Alanis Morisette said (by the way random fact about me: I used to be a huge Alanis fan when I was 12) “Isn’t it ironic?”

I can’t think of a better transition to this story. I am so lucky to be able to hand over my blog to a group of talented guys that I trust and I’m so lucky to be able to continue writing on here and concentrate on my true passion!

So don’t worry my friends- I’m still here. Youngandthrifty.ca will be better than ever! You’ll see me post twice a month and share my weekend ramblings twice a month (because I know some of you like my weekend ramblings- I like them too since I get all philosophical on life and I know you like that lol). I think I’ll still continue my net worth updates since I like to keep accountable with my finances and y’all help me so much in that respect (unless you don’t want me to). I know how fun it is to look at net worth updates too. I’m also still on twitter. You’ll probably not even notice that I’m not around as much. I’m excited to work with the dynamic duo at My University Money and I know that they will take this blog to greater heights. This beautiful new beginning starts tomorrow!  I’m excited to see what’s in store for youngandthrifty.ca.

Stay frugal my friends- with much much love, Y&T.

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According to the Globe and Mail and considering that the average wedding costs over $25,000 these days, it doesn’t make much sense at all to go into debt when you start your new life together.  After the lavish one day celebration together, there’s the rest of your life together that you need to work on… To me, starting your life together in consumer debt (not to mention student loan debt, or credit card debt from each individual) whilst at the same time trying to save up for a down payment for a home together doesn’t make much sense.

$25,000 is a LOT of money.  That is a 10% down payment on a $250K condo/house (depending on where you live).  That’s like an entire undergraduate degree in Canada (probably less in Quebec too!).

Many couples these days are shacking up prior to getting married.  For many, it makes sense to share the shelter costs and to “test the waters” out by cohabitating before marriage.  Therefore, many couples already have a toaster, a blender, sheets, delicate China (or maybe not), glassware, furniture, electronics… the list goes on.

The one thing that couples who already live together (and even those who don’t) really really want is money.

Money would help pay for the honey moon.  Money will help pay for the down payment.  Money will help offset the cost of the $25,000 wedding.

The tricky thing is how to ask for it in a tactful manner?

How do you ask for money without having to resort to the money dance (unless it’s an expected custom of your culture)?

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Here’s a great post by staff writer on youngandthrifty.ca, Teacher Man from My University Money. 

If you turn on the news these days, people are all hot and bothered about inflation.  There is some reason to be afraid of that big bad wolf – it kills the value of your savings after all, and when costs inflate faster than earnings (as has been the case over the last 30 or so years) your standard of living drops as well.  For the most part though, a little inflation is not a bad thing.  Our government actually plans to have a little bit of inflation (somewhere between 1.5-2% is usually considered ideal).  To have the proper amount of liquidity in your economy, and to encourage borrowing for growth, there has to be a small amount of inflation.  As long as it is controlled, and earnings inflate with costs, then there is honestly no real issue (despite what people who obsess over the prices on gas pumps might tell you).  Even with the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada pumping money into the economy at unprecedented rates, we are not seeing inflationary levels as high as one might expect.  That being said, many people smarter than me believe that they will catch up with us eventually.  So why is the government so adamant that we need more money shoved down our throats? Related: Lifestyle Inflation

Thy Name Is Deflation

The short version is because the powers that be are far more worried about the devil they don’t know.  This devil is called deflation, while its big brother inflation can be rude once in a while, deflation is a real jerk.  On the surface, deflation looks ok to the average person.  I mean, who doesn’t like when prospective houses get cheaper to buy, and the cost of things at the supermarket goes down a little right?  The problem is, that the deflation cycle can quickly spiral out of control.  For example, would you buy a house if you heard prices were falling (and were likely to keep falling)?  No, you probably wouldn’t.  That means no new houses get built, which means that there are fewer people with jobs to buy houses, which means there is less demand for houses, which means that the price continues to fall.  See how quickly that whole thing worked?  This scenario can be extremely destructive to the overall economy, and as long as people believe things are bad and prices are bound to go lower, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you want to know how bad things really are, consider that the US Government (under their big bank subsidiaries – er, arm’s length corporations?) is actually bulldozing hundreds of foreclosed homes right now, to restore the supply and demand equilibrium.  Yes, you heard that right, homes are being bulldozed purely so that new ones can be built in the same place.

Why Shouldn’t I Go Into Debt Again?

While inflation is tough on savers (especially those who refuse to have any exposure to asset classes other than GICs or government bonds), it can actually help governments who are in debt.  The less every dollar is worth, the less they owe bondholders in real terms.  When much of your debt is held by the country that is your international rival (hidden Dragon, crouching Eagle?) there is actually some positive incentive to have relatively high inflation rates.  Inflation rates were through the roof at times in the ‘70s and ‘80s yet things turned out pretty alright then didn’t they?  How about during periods of deflation like the Great Depression?  I guess the name of the era kind of gave it away on that one.

Around and Around We Go

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