The other day I was sitting at home and I started to reminisce about the things my family did growing up.  My parents immigrated from Portugal in the 70’s having grown up under the shadow of the dictator Salazar.  They had 4 boys when they came over and they eventually had me here in Canada making me the 5th boy. [...]

Currency hedging is one of those things people tend to bring up but never really explain. They’ll say vague statements why they are for or against hedging and if you don’t have an understanding of the process then you are left in the dark.
What is currency hedging?
Currency hedging is an attempt to try and minimize the risk associated with currency [...]

This week I responded to a post by Four Pillars about “What Frugal Means to Me“.  I continue my quest for the right credit card.  I’ve also started looking into refinancing my mortgage. I emailed my mortgage broker a series of questions to get the ball rolling.
Carnivals
My Favorite Lesson From The Market Crash was an editor’s pick in Carnival of [...]

I’ve been contemplating for a while about refinancing our mortgage and have finally decided to take steps and get the ball rolling. This morning I sent my mortgage broker the following email with some questions. Hopefully I’ll get a response today.
Hi XXXXX,
This is XXXXXXXXX at XXXXXXXXXXXX. I’m currently considering refinancing my mortgage. I’m looking at both the 5 year [...]

I continue to contemplate getting a new credit card to use in place of my GM Visa card despite the impact it would have on my credit score.  I wanted make sure this is the last time I need to get a new card for a very long time so I ran through a series of questions in my mind. [...]

This is a post I’ve had sitting awhile waiting to be written and with Four Pillar’s recent post “What Does Frugal Mean To You?” I’ve decided to actually write it.  Now FP lists some common interpretations of frugality and does a good job looking at them from different perspectives. I just wanted to add how they apply to me:

I spend [...]

This week I looked at my favorite lesson from the market crash. It’s definitely something I will take with me for the rest of my investing life. I also looked at why I work the hours that I do and posted a question to readers. I also posted the questions on the Canadian Money Forum. Things continue to be busy [...]

Monday night was the beginning of a 20 hour shift for me. I started at 10PM Monday and finished at 6PM Tuesday.  This isn’t the first time I’ve worked these sort of hours  and probably won’t be the last. The hours are somewhat excessive so I’m never surprised when I get asked “Why do you do it?”.
Why I do it..
I [...]

A lot of people will be looking at this market crash in the years to come and remember the great buying opportunities, but not me. I remember when this whole mess started, I was holding my Bank of America stock which I bought at a 10% discount and was ready to make out like a bandit. Well I didn’t and [...]

Well another week has come and gone. This week I came to realize that tax software isn’t as idiot proof as I thought.  You should at least do some of the research yourself.   I also got some bad news that one of my credit cards felt it necessary to cut my limit.   However I’m a bit happier after the significant [...]

This month was another big month where we saw our net worth increase by nearly 10%. Not only did the market trend further upwards but the banks soared even further causing my investment portfolio to increase by 24%. Savings had an increase of 76% mostly from my tax return. I had a return of $8k and it will only sit [...]