think warm thoughts!!

Here is a weather snapshot for our weekend here in Saskatchewan that shows the temps with the windchill.

 

Coldest start to March on record. ever.

 

It's going to be fun!

 

 

Change for February

It was a short month, where I spent most of it with an ear then a sinus infection. I usually like February but we really weren't that great of companions this 2014.

Change this month was not too bad. I happily added it as snowflake money towards my current goal of Summer 2014.

I had:
1 roll of toonies - $50
1 roll of loonies - $25
1 roll of dimes - $5

for a total of $80 in change this month.  Keep in mind that often when I shop for groceries with cash, whatever coin change I get goes  into the snowflake jar, rather than back into the grocery jar.

RRSP Update

As I work my way through the piles of non time sensitive mail that accumulated while I was sick, I see that I received my RRSP Update.

At the last RRSP update in November, I had a value of $6376.13. The portfolio had gained $260 between Nov/13 and the prior update in Aug/13.

Since then I added $1500 at the end of 2013 that I had saved. At the least I was hoping for the straight math addition of $7876.13.

You can imagine my smiles when I saw that my consolidated portfolio is now worth $8162.46. That gives me an increase of $286.33!

My account remains divided between Canadian Bond Fund (40%) and Canadian Equity (60%)

The gain comes purely from the Equity. It had a gain while the Bonds had a loss.


Since I started my RRSPs, I have invested $7000.

I do wish I understood more about investments so I could feel more informed about what everything means.

Goal!!!

Ok I am tuning in to the Can/US women's hockey game shortly, but that isn't the goal I am cheering for.

I am happy to say that as of 30 minutes ago, I have now achieved my TFSA/EF goal of $2000.

I headed down to the bank to make the final deposit and have them do the paperwork to make it all official.

I have scrimped and skimmed, mostly from my grocery account (hello pantry and freezer cooking) and used most of my spending money each week ($20/week) and a bit from gas.

I now have $5000 in my TFSA account. I am excited about that but I also recognize that $5000 was the yearly allotment I could have put in for the first year of my TFSA, which was 2010 I believe. As of now I could, in theory, have $25 000+ in there.

But I must be happy for what I have done, and promise myself to keep at it each year. I have approximately 11 years of work left, so hopefully I can add at the very least $25 000 to it before R day.

For  those of you Canadians with a TFSA out there, do you have it in a regular savings account or do you have it in a fancier form of investment? 

a PF read

I got this book recommendation off someone else's blog early in January, but for the life of me I cannot remember who. If it was you, thanks so much!

Over the weekend I read Stop Over-Thinking Your Money: The five simple rules of Financial Success, by Preet Banerjee.

I've read a few PF books over the years and this does a good job. I am a die hard Gail V-O fan, but I love reading the POV of others as well. Sometimes they may just say it in a way that resonates with me.  It's worth checking out if you are ready to make that step to learning more about how to be in control of your money.

As I read my latest Money Sense magazine today I saw Banerjee and this book mentioned. I had never connected that he was a contributor regularly to the magazine. small world.