Category: Announcements

I thought it would be interesting to give an update on a few of my old posts as well as a bit of news.

After ranting about the fact that we still use pennies, Ram from Canadian Capitalist mentioned using a coin star machine so I took all my pennies and nickels over to a local machine and got rid of them all! They do charge 10% but who cares? I still have a lot of dimes but I’m planning to roll them if I can find some dime rollers, however they might end up in the CS machine as well.

I wrote a book review on James Grant’s “Money of the Mind” a while back. This book dealt with the problem of financial institutions becoming too lax in their lending standards when times are good and when things go south then they lose a lot of money, get too conservative and won’t lend any money for a while. Sound familiar?

And one other update – in my Chasing China post I described how I sold my China mutual fund even though it was doing very well because it didn’t fit with my style of investing. Since I sold it the fund has gone up 48% over the last ten months. But I’m not (very) bitter and it still doesn’t fit with my investing style!

And as for the title of the post…

I’d like to announce that we are expecting our second child next year. We’ve had a great time (so far) raising our son and we are really looking forward to having another kid.

Not sure how much this will impact our finances since we really didn’t have to pay for much of anything with our son. We kept all of his clothes and will undoubtedly start receiving shipments of used little “girl” clothes any time from friends and family.

The only expenses I can think of off hand are a new bed for our son since the new baby will get his old crib and eventually a second car seat once she grows out of his old newborn car seat.

Perhaps this will lead to a second baby expense theme entitled “Costs of having a second child?”?

Quick update on the weight situation. I weighed 188 this morning so down a pound this week.

I took Gates’ advice and weighed myself almost everyday. The numbers were so variable however that I think it confirms my belief that frequent measurement is a waste of time. Regardless I’ll try to keep weighing myself at least twice a week.

Beer – Not a great week – on Tuesday night I went out with some friends who were from out of province. Also had a few last night so didn’t exactly abstain this week.

Diet – Generally pretty good (except for Tues night). Another item I reduced is milk. I like drinking a lot of milk and since it’s skim, I had assumed it had very little calories. Last week I checked the milk bag and much to my amazement it turns out that skim (or 0%) milk has 90 calories per cup – ooops! Now I just drink a small amount.

Exercise – I only rode my bike three times to work this week because of the weather. I don’t mind riding if it’s cold or wet but not both. I’ll have to address this issue soon because I think the riding season is getting very near the end. Either I’ll have to start jogging more (but how much?) or possibly join a gym and workout at lunch.

BMO Trading Action – In other news I bought 25 shares of BMO yesterday at $58.25. I have to admit that I’m sorry I wasn’t more patient with my leveraged investing plan purchases this year. I bought 100 shares of BMO back in May for $71 and then another 200 shares at $68.60 shortly after. I’ve read so many times that these types of stocks are best bought on dips but I couldn’t seem to follow that advice.

Even yesterday I bought the 25 shares early in the afternoon thinking I was getting a great deal (and I might have) but then shortly afterwards the stock dropped down to $56.56 where it closed.

But – as Bernstein says – you have to be able to weather the ups and down when investing in equities and you also have to be focused on the long term (which I am) and to welcome poor returns (initially at least) because it provides for good buying opportunities. I do think that BMO is a good buying opportunity at the moment (although it could get better).

An update on the weight situation:

• Weight – 189 this morning which is a whopping 3 pounds less than a week ago. This seems a bit suspicious so part of the loss might just be the normal weight variations. Regardless, it’s a bit less so that’s a good thing!
• Beer – I hardly drank any beer this week although after helping Mr. Cheap move some stuff to his new apartment on Wednesday he made me drink some beer and nachos with him at a local bar 🙂
• Diet – not bad, I’ve been making a pretty good effort this week although Halloween didn’t help.
• Exercise – did my usual stuff this week but I went running on Tuesday night which was an extra.

This week Millionaire Mommy Next Door hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance and included the post ETFs vs Mutual Funds. She added a cool voting feature so I suggest going and voting for my favourite post on the carnival Follow the White Rabbit to Financial Freedom by Brip Blap. If you are a Matrix fan then you will love his post.

A quick note to say that we were in the recent #123rd Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by “The Dough Roller“.

If you have ever thought about giving a reference for someone you don’t really know that well then read this post first.

And lastly for anyone who likes to invest in Canadian junior mining stocks or anyone who thinks we actually have law and order in Canada when it comes to securities then read this bizarre and almost unbelievable tale.

Link, links and more links…

The BagLady had quite a post this week – if anyone out there has been through potty training their kid (I haven’t) then feel free to comment on this one. On an unrelated note – check out her sitemeter stats for the last month.

Canadian Dream did a bit of an expose on his recent history – incredible story if you ask me.

Becoming Cheap was featured in the 96th Festival of Frugality hosted by Fire Finance. This post was also featured by Rocket Finance as well as My Good Cents.

Rental Income vs. Property Value made the grade at TwoWiseAcres – a rather funny real estate blog. They also posted this article which shows what can happen when two bloggers try to share a blog 🙂 .

Getting Fired was hi-lighted by Brip Blap who liked Mr. Cheap’s analogy regarding firings.

The Dividend Guy had a book contest and guess what? I was lucky enough to win a book in the second contest in a row! Me open library any day now!!

Mighty Bargain Hunter included Recession Investing in the Carnival of Personal Finance #122 with a clever Dr. Suess theme.

Some quick links for a Saturday.

Canadian Financial DIY posted an excellent article comparing the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” to investing – check it out and see for yourself.

The Financial Blogger addressed one of my pet peeves regarding lack of financial education in schools.

Canadian Capitalist posted an article pointing out that high investment costs (which we are all obsessed with) are not the worst enemy of the investor.

Million Dollar Journey wrote about how blogging has influence his finances.

Mr. Credit Card hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #121 and

My Retirement Blog hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #120

For those who may have missed the announcement, krystal from “Give Me Back My Bucks” was fired last week. I’ve been wanting to write something on her blog, or e-mail her, or post something but have been holding off as the last thing I want to do is make her feel worse (so its more important than usual to actually make sure I express what I want to convey).

To shift the conversation back to me (which I love to do), I’ve been fired twice. I’ve “mutually gone separate ways” from other jobs / contracts more than twice. It sucks.

I was sitting around one time with a group of people (this was after I’d been fired once), and they were all stating with pride that they’d never been fired. I kept my mouth shut and nodded approvingly as they patted themselves on that back. This felt really crappy.

To shift from a depressing topic to a more depressing topic (happy Canadian Thanksgiving!) supposedly miscarriages are far more common then people realize. No one talks about them, so people are shocked when they lose a baby, then traumatised and they never talk it. This makes it even more painful for couples in the future who go through the same thing without warning (its a vicious cycle). I think getting fired is similar. Lots of people probably go through it, then they keep their mouths shut and don’t talk about it. Then people who do get shit-canned feel like they’re the only ones its ever happened to and that makes them feel even worse about an already crappy experience.

After getting fired the second time I had, not necessarily what I’d call a breakdown but definitely an “extended period of self-reflection”. I spent about 6 months playing Everquest, drinking instant french vanilla coffee and eating bagels with cream cheese (I wasn’t working and lived off of my savings during this time).

I think possibly these two negative experiences early on contributed to my aversion to 9-5 work and why I want to ideally be financially self-sufficient, or at the very least be captain of my own ship when it comes to earning a living. To this day, if I’m having a bad day and I see “higher ups” at a company I’m working at talking discretely I start getting paranoid.

Getting back to you Krystal. You’re a super-star! Your blog is proof of what a great communicator you are, and you shouldn’t doubt yourself because some silly people at a company thought you needed to be part of their clique. As much as North American society puts a large emphasis on our job and skills in our chosen profession, you’re more than what you do, and don’t let arbitrary staffing decisions at some company lead you to doubt yourself. Perhaps this company is being incompetently run, maybe they’re total idiots who are hurting themselves by letting you go, only time will tell…

Its great that you’ve jumped right back on the wagon at your old position, it sounds like they’re happy to have you back, which says nothing but good things about you. Perhaps 10 years from now you’ll look back and decide that not wasting any more time at your old company is the best thing that ever happened to you. I’m doubtful (having gone through the experience myself) that spending a lot of time doubting yourself will lead you to any great insights or understanding. Bad things happen to good people unfortunately.

Happy Thanksgiving Krystal and congratulations on the terrific person you are and all the wonderful things you have to be thankful for!

Just a few links to posts that really stuck to my mind lately:

Violent Acres, who is easily my favourite blogger came out with this gem recently. I should warn you that her posts are not for family viewing. It’s a bit early but that post might be the post of the year for me.

PaidTwice attempted what I consider to the be the ultimate test in black belt frugality – Making her own baby wipes. As a relatively new father (13 months), I would rank this feat up there with jumping the Snake River Canyon or perhaps sewing your own seat belts. It didn’t really work out for her, but she sounds like she will give it another shot.

The Baglady wrote about her SuperDuperUltraCheap x-boyfriend. This guy puts Mr. Cheap to shame, and I have to agree with Baglady that she made the right choice. There’s something wrong with that guy!

I was in the latest Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Blunt Money. My interview with favourite reader “Telly” regarding her situation of living in Canada and working in America was listed in the Carnival. I have no idea what “Blunt Money” refers to but she did a pretty good job with hosting the carnival and even created a special puzzle which was quite nice.

This material is original.