Sean Cooper

Oct 20: Best from the blogosphere

October 20, 2014

By Sheryl Smolkin

What’s the buzz in the blogosphere this week? Here are some interesting articles that popped up in my inbox.

If you did any house or office cleaning over the Thanksgiving weekend you will be very impressed with what Cait Flanders has accomplished. In Post-Declutter: How Does My Condo Look Now? she notes that she removed a total of 377 items from her home! Not only are her before and after pictures inspiring, I love the view of the mountains from her desk.

With the market drops of the last few weeks, it’s good to know what elements of investing you can control. On the Tangerine Bank blog Forward Thinking, Joe Snyder writes about How to leave your (investing) worries behind.

Jim Yih on Retire Happy discusses a simple way to track your spending. He no longer has time to enter data in spreadsheets or phone apps. Instead, he and his wife put all their expenses on one credit card so the monthly credit card statement has become their tool to know how much money they spend in any given month.

After Thanksgiving excess eating, you may be interested in Sean Cooper’s blog on Million Dollar Journey about how survives on only a $100/month in groceries. Sean is single and has cut meat out of his diet.

Engineer Your Finances suggests that one way to make some extra money is to Make Some Extra Cash By Renting Out Things You Own. For example, rent your car, storage space in your garage or attic or tools and sports gear. There are suggestions for websites that facilitate short-term rentals.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.


July 7: Best from the blogosphere

July 8, 2014

By Sheryl Smolkin

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After two weeks of vacation in lovely (except for the mosquitoes) Muskoka, I’m back. And so are all of our favourite personal finance bloggers with lots of interesting material. In particular, we welcome back Kerry K. Taylor (aka Squawkfox) who has been on sick leave.

In her classic comeback post Kerry questions whether Dollarama’s $3 HDTV antenna is worth it.  The bottom line is that she was able to receive as many channels on the $3 antenna as on the $67 model she bought at Future Shop. Her readers also have made interesting comments about what worked and what didn’t in their part of the country when they ditched cable or satellite TV.

Alan Whitton (The Big Cajun Man) gives us three financial rules of thumb to live by: Spend less than you make; don’t confuse spending less with saving money if you are buying an item you don’t really need; and lifestyle creep is dangerous and an excuse to build up debt.

Sean Cooper wrote about how he reached $500,000 in net worth by age 29 in this post on Million Dollar Journey. He worked at multiple jobs, lived with his parents until he had a significant down payment on a house and rented out the top floor of his home while living in the basement apartment.

Mark Seed at My Own Advisor joins the legion of Canadians who are opting for VOIP telephone services instead of Bell or Rogers. For $4.95/month he got to keep his home phone number using Fongo Home Phone and after several months he states categorically that it was the right decision.

And last but not least, a free e:book Understanding Unretirement written by Today’s Economy blogger and Sun Life Financial Assistant Vice-President, Market Insights Kevin Press draws on six years of company research to explore why retirement in today’s economy is different and harder to achieve but could be better than ever before.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.


Jan 20: Best from the blogosphere

January 20, 2014

By Sheryl Smolkin

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“Best from the blogosphere” took three weeks off, but all of our favourite bloggers kept right on writing, so there is lots of great content for our first issue of 2014.

Many of you may have made financial New Year’s resolutions like paying off debt, spending less and saving more. On retirehappy.ca, Jim Yih says you will achieve your goals if you keep it simple, take responsibility and stay disciplined.

Krystal Yee’s top financial goal is to retire as early as possible. Therefore, on givemebackmyfivebucks.com she explains that she decided to divert $110 bi-weekly from excess mortgage payments to RRSP savings to ensure she saves at least $750/year for retirement. Then she will use her annual tax refund to pay down her mortgage.

Marie Engen at Boomer & Echo says you can save money by making major purchases at the right time of year. If you plan ahead you can realize substantial savings. For example, her Calendar of Saving Money suggests that January white sales are a good time to stock up on linens.

If you are looking for new ways to boost your earnings, a guest blogger on the Canadian finance blog offers 4 ways to generate income in your personal life. So if you have decided to finally clean out overflowing closets and drawers, you may be able to sell everything from good as new clothing to DVDs online.

And finally, if you are one of those lucky people who belong to a defined benefit pension plan, Sean Cooper’s blog on milliondollarjourney.com explains the financial implications of retiring early, depending on whether your pension will be reduced or you are eligible for an unreduced retirement.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere. Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.


Nov 25: Best from the blogosphere

November 25, 2013

By Sheryl Smolkin

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Today we report on a series of interesting blogs with no particular theme.

If reality shows like Income Property have you thinking about whether or not you should buy and rent out part of your house to help cover the mortgage, you may want to read Sean Cooper’s blog 5 Lessons Learned as a First Time Landlord on Million Dollar Journey.

There is a lot of media coverage lately about the merits of buying index funds to keep fees down and ultimately earn more than if you invest your savings in actively traded mutual funds. On Boomer & Echo, Robb Engen says active investing may not be dead yet in  Score One For Active Management? Check Out These Index Beating Funds.

Every dollar counts when you retire, so you want to make sure you get everything that’s coming to you from the Canada Pension Plan. But on Retire Happy, Jim Yih says that of the CPP audits that he has conducted in the past six months, almost half of the clients were receiving less than they were entitled to because not all earnings were included in the pension calculation. He has suggestions how you can ensure you are being paid the correct amount of CPP.

My Own Advisor gives a Financial Literacy month primer on Old Age Security benefits and offers his controversial wish for OAS:  keep it afloat but overhaul this sacred cow so any individual senior making $70,000 or more is ineligible for OAS benefits.

And finally, on Brighter Life, Kevin Press asks, Should we worry about seniors living in poverty? Answering his own question, he says that although one in five Canadians is worried about being able to cover basic living expenses in retirement, we live in a country considered a world leader in the fight against senior citizen poverty.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere. Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.