October Budget 2012

I finally bit the bullet. There's no way that $100 is enough for food because to be honest, that's where I spend the most money. I rarely buy anything else. Hopefully I can keep within the new limit.

-the Paperboy

Recent Market Plays September 2012

Today I finally made a move and purchased more shares of LIF.UN.TO. This allowed me to average down and bring my overall yield up. I still have my eye on RET.TO and some other stocks because I still have a little bit of cash left so maybe I'll be able to get that done before the end of the month.

-the Paperboy

Investing 101: Bonds

Let's talk about what to do with all that money that you've worked so hard on saving up. In this section titled Investing 101, I'll go over different terms and ideas that every investor should know. Hopefully the information provided will help give you a general idea of how things work and build a foundation for you to go and further educate yourself. Welcome to class. Today's topic? Bonds.

August Budget 2012 Review

August turned out to be a pretty expensive month for me.  I really have no excuses for the food category. What can I say? I like to eat. I already went over for September as well, even though we just passed the half-way mark. I'm thinking I may have to raise the limit because I feel that I'm already very restricted when it comes to going out to eat and always going over budget is frustrating since I'm trying hard to not eat out. When I originally put the budget in place, the numbers I set were arbitrary and I was going to adjust them until they were more realistic. Since I feel that I'm honestly trying to stay under budget and it's making me unhappy, I think I should raise the limit. Then again, maybe I'm simply spending too much...

I went over budget in August due to having to pitch in for my little sister's early birthday gift and I had to buy some clothes because I realized that I didn't have t-shirts. With the gift taken out I' d still be on target so I don't feel too bad about last month but I have to do something about the food.

On another note, I was able to put away $1536.44 in August which is great since I wasn't able to work full time this summer. I'm not going to compare one month to another because my income fluctuates so I won't be able to draw many conclusions from that.

-the Paperboy

Common Cents

Find a penny pick it up. All day long you'll have good luck... unless of course it's tails. Then you ask your buddy to go flip it over for you so that you can pick it up.

In all seriousness, do you pick coins up off the floor or do you walk right by them? Maybe you have a threshold; passing by nickles and dimes but jumping on anything worth more than a quarter. So is it worth the effort to be picking up all this loose change or is your time better used doing something more productive? Regardless of which side of the coin is facing up, let's see if we can come out ahead (and the bad puns keep rolling out).

Dividend Progress Report: August 2012 Edition

Total yield of portfolio - 4.52% (+ 0.04%)
Actual dividends received - $946.35 (+ $101.81)
Expected dividends return if the current positions are held for 1 year -  $1682.47 (+ $77.54)
Average dividends received per month: $118.29 (- $2.36)

My total yield inched higher last month even though I purchased units of CLF which lowered my average yield. This was due to increases in dividends by four of my holdings! This is great news especially after the hit from CFX I took last month. Again I was caught off my game as I missed the announcement of Royal Bank increasing dividends, but before I could rectify the issue in this update, the company hiked its dividends again! Now everything should be accounted for.

Dividends received this month were a little below average bringing the average dividends/month down to $118.29. Due to all the dividends increases and the purchase of CLF, the expected dividends return if current positions are held for 1 year climbed back up after the hit from CFX. I'm really hoping to reach $2200 by the end of December but I'm doubtful it will happen. I'll just keep putting away as much as I can and see how close I can get to my goal.

Overall, August wasn't a bad month. Here's hoping September will be good to me as well.

-the Paperboy