I’m very excited to share with you this breakthrough online invention called MyDrips.com.  As many of you know, I really suck at keeping track of things (especially my portfolio of dividends, ex-dividend dates etc.) and I suck at using excel (yes, I’m an anomaly in the generation Y world, I know).  Keeping track of when my dividends are being paid out, how much I will be getting, and how much will be reinvested is annoying to calculate (if you aren’t an excel expert like me).  MyDrips.com helps you keep track of your Dividend Re-investment Plan so you can stay on top of things.

I was uber excited when this company approached me by giving me a test run of their program called MyDrips.com where you can keep track of your dividend income.  There’s even a calender so that you can see when the next ex-dividend date is, when the dividend payout is etc. etc.  It calculates your forecasted dividend earnings for you and produces it quickly in a beautiful easy to read format.

The person who contacted me from MyDrips.com wanted to share this:

myDrips.com is currently focused on the main Canadian DRIP issuers (eg: BCE, RioCan, BNS) and we have 32 companies listed (the entire list can be found here, after logging in)(Editor’s Note: They have 33 listed companies because they added EIF.TO! How awesome are they??). This contains at least 5 years of historical OCP/DRIP pricing information for each company (sometimes going back 20-30 years). At myDrips.com we look to make drip investing simple and allow investors to live up to our motto- Drips Made Easy.

When developing an investor profile, investors can add a company, with the date they originally purchased the shares. The system will determine what has occurred since a purchase (dividends and splits), and myDrips.com will then create a list of transactions for the user. The investor can see their adjusted cost base throughout the history of their holdings.

The investor can also view what events are coming in the months ahead (when OCPs are due and when dividend record dates are). They can also view an estimate of their future monthly income (based on currently prices and dividend rates) and how their total investments will grow (Editor’s Note: this is my favourite part).

There is a 4 minute video that goes over the website and how to create a profile, add a company to it, approve & edit your DRIP transactions and add a sell transaction.

As well, we also want to offer your readers a special 30% discount off our normal membership rates (using Coupon Code: YOUNG30). Current prices are $5 a month or $50 a year (Canadian) but, with this coupon code/offer, the rate would be $3.50 a month or $35 a year (coupon is valid until April 30th, 2012).

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I’m happy to report that the winter doldrums I complained about at the end of Febuary are gone!  My seemingly frivolous purchase is still alive (and more importantly, well) and it doesn’t seem so frivolous after all (especially since it makes me smile every time I pass by the planter).

I spent some time in the garden today and planted some daisy seeds so hopefully my backyard garden won’t look so bleak in a few weeks.  I’ve been thinking about life balance, happiness, and stress as my term winds down and concluded that I would rather have time to do these simple things in life (like garden) than oodles of money.  I was getting carried away with stress, work, school, blog and my plate was overflowing.  Life’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet and piling up the plate with obligations really does catch up to you.  I was irritable with everyone around me (unbeknownst to me) and brushing those who I really care about off.  I don’t think I could ever be the 60-70 hour workweek type of individual.  Life’s too short for that.

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When my blogging buddy (and not to mention staff writer), Teacher Man from My University Money asked me to review his new eBook ETF Investing – Low Maintenance & Stellar Returns, I jumped at the opportunity.  This ebook is free and will only cost you a subscription to My University Money’s newsletter (there’s not much of a downside, really).

The ebook is great if you ever wanted to learn more about ETF Investing.  For those of you new to investing (or non-mutual fund investing, that is), ETFs stand for Exchange Traded Funds.  These are funds that are traded on the stock exchange and are basically composed of the same stocks that a mutual fund would have, except that these funds have a much much much much lower MER (2.5% compared to 0.7% in some instances).

When you have a lower MER, your money works harder for you and you’re spending less to maintain and invest your money.  This is a win-win situation in my books.

In his eBook, Teacher Man explains who he is and why you should listen to him (or at least read his eBook), he explains what an ETF is, and he also explains why you as a newbie investor (or any sort of investor in the stock market) should not try to beat the stock market because there really is no point.

This eBook is great because he actually gives you the inside scoop on the stocks that he included in his own personal ETF portfolio and explains step-by-step how you can get started with your very own ETF portfolio.

Of course, with him being a teacher, the analyzer in him comes out and he also explains the drawbacks of ETFs and also explains the cautionary side of not falling prey for exotic ETFs (if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!).

A lot of what he talks about is similar to the point that Andrew Hallam’s Millionaire Teacher was talking about in his books.

So if you want to get started on investing in ETFs in your brand spankin’ new Questrade account (after you have successfully transferred money in there, that is), read his eBook!

Onto so great PF Blog Love this week!

PF Blog Love

• Lovely Marissa at 36 months hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance.  She included all these awesome TED Talks videos within the carnival too- what a great idea!
• Cult of Money hosted the Financial Simplicity Carnival
• Krantcents explains why he started his business
• Boomer and Echo asks how you choose your bank (my bank, BMO was basically grandfathered from when I was a student and they had free banking for students.  Also, I like that they’re blue).
• My Own Advisor shares a story about hiring a professional and unfortunately getting amateur results
• Financial Samurai is loving his Facebook and is hoping to sell his house and utilize the Facebook effect 
• Frugal Fries (btw, LOVE your graphics- you do them by yourself?) asks whether you’re really saving money if you’re buying for life
• Financial Uproar shares some frugal tips that don’t suck, like cheap TV
• Dividend Ninja shares his recent (and my recent buy), Husky Energy (HSE)
• Loved this post by Canadian Finance Blog on 8 Tips to save money on utility bills
• Love this post by Money Crashers of 17 Free Items you should take from hotels (I love nice hotel shampoo!)

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Hey guys,

I’m sorry I haven’t been around much this week.  It’s just been so busy with assignments, life, and work.  Hopefully I get a chance to respond to the comments, but just keep in mind that I read each one!  Just that typing a reply out on an iPhone takes 2 hours to do (for me anyway).  Once they start building up, I feel overwhelmed to tackle them…and my procrastination continues.  I guess that’s similar to looking and responding to work emails after time off eh?

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Gonna keep it short!   Enjoy the links

PF Blog Love

• Boomer and Echo shares some smart tax planning strategies (I have not done my taxes yet still!)
• BankNerd.ca shares some critical ways you can save money on groceries
• Roshawn Watson asks whether there are any safe investments anymore
• Fabulously Frugirl talks about the importance of rebalancing your portfolio
• My Own Investor shares his love affair with Proctor and Gamble
• Invest it Wisely talks handyman and the satisfaction of doing your own projects
• Retireby40 wrote about how no one really gets rich by being frugal
• Money Infant shares 8 things you MUST do after paying off debt
• Million Dollar Journey gives a primer on de-listed stocks

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This week (Febuary 28, 2012) marked Pink Shirt Day where people were asked to wear Pink to support the anti-bullying campaign and raise awareness of the effects of bullying in schools.  Although it is known that bullying happens in schools, a lot of the time, bullying in the workplace, with ADULTS doesn’t get talked about much.  Perhaps it’s taboo, I don’t know.

Bullying in adults sucks and I think it’s probably worse than bullying as children.  Adult coworkers can be N-A-S-T-Y and spread rumors that could hurt your career and your reputation, your dignity, and your self-esteem.  Loud disagreements and acts of bullying in the workplace makes the workplace a bad place to work and makes it uncomfortable for everyone in the office.

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