Lazy Investor

I have been using NetworthIQ to track my networth for a while. Besides the fact that you can easily see where your networth is heading to by using it, there is another feature that I really like. I can run various comparison reports with NetworhIQ.

After updating my networth this month, I wanted to see where I am standing now. So I ran following comparison reports and discovered some interesting trends.

1. Networth Comparison Report

As you can see you can compare yourself among the people who have the same age, income, occupation, education as you do. I usually look at the median value in my age and income group since it will reflect how I am doing more clearly and correctly. Average value tends to be more skew. There might be some persons born with a silver spoon and drag the average networth ridicularly high in my age and income group. Also, I don’t look at the networth data in my occupation and education group since I don’t want to compare myself with a people with 10 more years experiences than me. They will and should be having more networth than me. Right?

So how am I doing in terms of networth? In my income group, I am doing pretty well and my networht is above the median value of $13,919, which means I have been well ahead of 50% of the people in my income group. And for the first time, I am almost there for the median value of $33,100 in my age group, just $61 short. I hope I will exceed the median networth of my age group next month!

2. Home Ownership

Interesting enough, it looks like in my age and income group nobody is owning a home or having a home mortgage now. Hum…….

3. Credit Card Debt

Wee~~~, I don’t have any credit card debt at all,which is a very good thing, while the median number of the debt is $800 and $700 for my age and income group.

4. Cash

I am well behind in this category. As I am building up my emergency fund now, I expect to see the situation got changed next month. The target for my emergency fund is $5000.

There are more reports you can check out in NetworthIQ other than those four mentioned above. Although the number will not be 100% correct and perfect, it is still nice to see where you are standing, well, roughly.

The Great Canadian Rebate is offering 5.25% cash back for Canadian Tire purchase this week. Time to buy the CT gift cards and save on gas!

Up to now, I have got my T3 from Scotiabank and T5 from ICICI(surprise, surprise, surprise, it actually came on time from ICICI. Maybe their service is getting better. Who knows). What I am still waiting for is the T3 from Questrade. I got an e-mail from them saying the T3 will be mailed out on March 31. More waiting game, I guess.

Also, I have been actively searching for a new job for about two months. Tomorrow, I will have an interview with ING for System Analyst position. It is a contract work, not something I would like. I prefer a permanent job. But I think I will go for the interview anyway. What is the salary I should ask for if they question me? Considering the job is in Atlantic Canada, I am thinking around 60k/yr. Is it too high?

I got the quote for my car insurance renewal from Monnex yesterday. To my surprise, with a speeding ticket last year, they drop my insurance by $366, almost $400!! I will be paying $790 all in for my one year old Mazda3 next year. It is a full coverage as well, including third-party liability, collision, and comprehensive. Not bad at all.

A happy day. I won’t complain.

It is tax time! Got my T4 from my company last Friday. ING Direct has sent me T5 and my RRSP contribution statement back in January. The forms I am still waiting for are:

1. T5/T3 from Scotiabank. I have less than $50 interest from my MoneyMaster Savings account in Scotiabank. So I don’t think they will send me a T5. But I do have mutual fund account with them as well. My fund distributed some capital gains last year. I should get a T3 for that.

2. T5 from ICICI Bank. ah, this Indian bank, I should get a T5 from them for my US$ account. However, I totally do not expect any form sent to me in time from them. The customer service from ICICI is as horrible as it can get. So rather than waiting for the T5 to come, I just calculated the interest income I need to file myself and get over with it. Fortunately, I don’t have any investment or RRSP account with them. They do have high savings rate. But I will recommend to have very simple investment account with them, such as savings and GICs.

3. T3 from Questrade. I don’t know what the deadline is for T3. I think it is sometime in March. I need the T3 to file the dividend paid out by my ETFs.

So after I got all the forms above, I can officially file my tax. As calculated roughly today, I should get back all my tax paid during 2007.

I do not want to rush the return this year. I want to identify every possible tax deduction/credit available to me although there might not be any more than I have already known. But it never hurts to double check. Now I just hope I can get all those forms as soon as possible. Then I will be a very happy person.