I was walking home from the first day of school and it just hit me, no matter where you live how can you consider your town to be poor? There are 22,000 people living in the community that I am in. Let's assume (for the sake of easy calculations) that there 5000 houses in my community. Let's also assume that each house is worth $200,000. That makes the assets just in real estate to be one billion dollars. Something to think about...
Check out the Carnival of Money Hackers here as well.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Links (some money and some math)
Here are a few good links that I found around the web:
Internet Teens Failing Math - The basis of this article is that with the compressed time schedule in high school (four years of high school math rather than five) that students aren't learning as much and having a much more difficult time in University math programs. Additionally, less time leads to less practice of the fundamentals.
Be Suspicious When Managing Your Money - Just good common sense advice, that you have to rely on yourself (and think!!!) when managing your money. Do some reading, use some common sense and if something sounds too good to be true it likely is!
Flipping Houses for Profit - One of my favourite blogs, MillionDollarJourney discusses flipping properties and if it is worthwhile and the difficulties that can arise. A related link (from the same site) is Converting Your Residence into a Rental Property. I hope to have some rental property in the next five years and one of my philosophies is to be well read upon the subject so posts like this peak my interest.
What are REITs - For those that are interested in real estate, but less risk (and less cash), Real Estate Investment Trusts are another option for you (to diversify your portfolio). One of my fears with a rental property is that all of a sudden $200,000 of my portfolio is in real estate, and with that chunk in there it is difficult (impossible) to be diversified. This is a good way to test the waters.
Internet Teens Failing Math - The basis of this article is that with the compressed time schedule in high school (four years of high school math rather than five) that students aren't learning as much and having a much more difficult time in University math programs. Additionally, less time leads to less practice of the fundamentals.
Be Suspicious When Managing Your Money - Just good common sense advice, that you have to rely on yourself (and think!!!) when managing your money. Do some reading, use some common sense and if something sounds too good to be true it likely is!
Flipping Houses for Profit - One of my favourite blogs, MillionDollarJourney discusses flipping properties and if it is worthwhile and the difficulties that can arise. A related link (from the same site) is Converting Your Residence into a Rental Property. I hope to have some rental property in the next five years and one of my philosophies is to be well read upon the subject so posts like this peak my interest.
What are REITs - For those that are interested in real estate, but less risk (and less cash), Real Estate Investment Trusts are another option for you (to diversify your portfolio). One of my fears with a rental property is that all of a sudden $200,000 of my portfolio is in real estate, and with that chunk in there it is difficult (impossible) to be diversified. This is a good way to test the waters.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Donations
The one part of my investment plan that I haven't followed through with that much yet is donations. In Canada, if you donate up to $200 you get a tax deduction at the lowest rate, and then get a tax reduction at the highest rate for any donations over $200.
My plan would be to pick my favourite charity and then (like everything else in my financial life) to make it automatic. Every month (or every paycheque more likely) I will automatically donate to my favourite cause. Being frugal I will also get some money back in tax time.
My other suggestion is that whenever you donate to a charity, please check the "Send a tax receipt" check when you register. Even if the receipt is for $20 or whatever your donation is, it will help yourself in the end. The Canadian government is encouraging us to donate so we should take advantage.
Check out the website for more information.
My plan would be to pick my favourite charity and then (like everything else in my financial life) to make it automatic. Every month (or every paycheque more likely) I will automatically donate to my favourite cause. Being frugal I will also get some money back in tax time.
My other suggestion is that whenever you donate to a charity, please check the "Send a tax receipt" check when you register. Even if the receipt is for $20 or whatever your donation is, it will help yourself in the end. The Canadian government is encouraging us to donate so we should take advantage.
Check out the website for more information.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Planning and Spending and Back To School
This post will be a bit of a rant. In this morning's local paper, I read that it will be difficult for parents to send their children back to school because of the expenses related to the beginning of the year (notebooks, calculators, etc.).
I am a big believer in a few things when it comes to money. #1) if you realize that expenses will come up, you should plan for them. That is, Christmas, back to school shopping, birthdays, etc. I have a bucket dedicated to "clothing", so that when I need a new pair of winter boots this winter I won't need to go to MasterCard. As well, I am a teacher so I bought myself a new shirt and tie and pants for the school year out of this. I have another bucket dedicated to "XMas", so I will be able to comfortably give around the holidays and not feel financially burdened by it. I don't contribute that much to each bucket ($20 every two weeks), but it is nice to have that cash set aside so when I do need to make a purchase I can easily do so.
#2) If you aren't saving 10% of your income you are living beyond your means. What does that mean? Simply, if you paycheque is $500, you should save at least $50 out of it. If you can't afford to do it, you may have to make some changes in your life: another part time job on this side, finding a cheaper place to live, going down to one (or no) vehicle, cutting some discretionary spending. I try to do most of these things: I tutor, where all this money goes toward paying off bills, and I also worked summer school. I had renters for the last two years in my condo to help defray the costs. I have no vehicle, and knew this would be the case so I purchased my condo close to my school. As far as discretionary spending goes, I set aside $200 every two weeks that goes towards groceries, gifts, clothing, video games, courses and upgrades on the condo, and leave $80 for me to spend on what I want. Once I run out of money, I have to stop spending. My lifetime goal is to have my MasterCard at $0. Is it easy to do this? Not at first, but it gets easier every paycheque to do.
I am a big believer in a few things when it comes to money. #1) if you realize that expenses will come up, you should plan for them. That is, Christmas, back to school shopping, birthdays, etc. I have a bucket dedicated to "clothing", so that when I need a new pair of winter boots this winter I won't need to go to MasterCard. As well, I am a teacher so I bought myself a new shirt and tie and pants for the school year out of this. I have another bucket dedicated to "XMas", so I will be able to comfortably give around the holidays and not feel financially burdened by it. I don't contribute that much to each bucket ($20 every two weeks), but it is nice to have that cash set aside so when I do need to make a purchase I can easily do so.
#2) If you aren't saving 10% of your income you are living beyond your means. What does that mean? Simply, if you paycheque is $500, you should save at least $50 out of it. If you can't afford to do it, you may have to make some changes in your life: another part time job on this side, finding a cheaper place to live, going down to one (or no) vehicle, cutting some discretionary spending. I try to do most of these things: I tutor, where all this money goes toward paying off bills, and I also worked summer school. I had renters for the last two years in my condo to help defray the costs. I have no vehicle, and knew this would be the case so I purchased my condo close to my school. As far as discretionary spending goes, I set aside $200 every two weeks that goes towards groceries, gifts, clothing, video games, courses and upgrades on the condo, and leave $80 for me to spend on what I want. Once I run out of money, I have to stop spending. My lifetime goal is to have my MasterCard at $0. Is it easy to do this? Not at first, but it gets easier every paycheque to do.
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