I have been working on my food blog these days. You can check it out, It is called easychinesefoodrecipes.com

I have decided to move this blog to the new address as follows:

http://lazyinvestor-lazyinvestor.blogspot.com

There will be no new post on this blog from now on. People who link to my site, please kindly update your link.

Thanks.

Finally, after bidding for two days, we got our room at DC. It is 4* Convention CTR Renaissance. We got it for $135 per night ($158 after tax). Looks like everything requires a little bit persistent.

Three of my friends and I are planning a trip to DC for this May Long Weekend. The process of booking flight tickets went flawlessly. We booked the tickets through Priceline for $178 per person, round trip, including tax and fees. With the rebate of $14 from GreatCanadianRebates, the deal is even sweeter.

Now we need to book the hotels for our stay in DC. This has been extremely difficult. I have been bidding up to $110 on Priceline for 4-star hotel in Downtown area without success. People seems to be able to get the same level hotel in the same area for not more than $100 outside the long weekend week. There must be something going on in DC, such as conference, etc. I just don’t know what! Well, I have to keep on bidding tonight. Wish me luck!

I have been eager to update my net worth for this month. With the tax refund and the pension statement I just got from my employer, I should see a big jump on my net worth. And it did! I am so happy to see my net worth jump into the $40,000 level and almost hitting the $50,000, only $550 to go. $550 is not a big number to achieve I think. I should be able to get into that level next month!

I got my pension statement from my employer in the mail this Friday. According to the statement, after two years service, I have accumulated $6094 in my pension including my contribution, my employer’s contribution and any investment earnings.

To my surprise, despite the sub-prime crisis in the stock market, my pension still generated a 3.3% investment return over 2007. After I looked more closely at the statement, I think I found the reason.

The pension fund has been divided into four parts. 45% of the fund has been invested in the Bond fund(38% in CIBC Cdn Bond Core;another 7% in PH&N Cdn Bond Core);10% in International market(Putnam EAFE Equity);31% in Canadian Equity(Jarislowsky Fraser Cdn Equity);and the last 14% in US Equity(Northwater US Equity). I think the heavy weight, 45%, on the bond market has been the major reason for the 3.3% return over 2007.

The investment style for my pension has been very conservative considering 45% of it is in Bond. I am not sure what the average age in my company is. If it is around 45-50 years old, I will certainly understand the assets allocation. When it comes to invest for pension, security of the money is more important than the possible return,especially when my company is still offering the DB Guarantee. The company does not want to get into the situation when it could not afford to support people’s retirement. For individuals, if you have a lot of pension, you might want to see how it will affect your overall assets allocation for your portfolio and adjust accordingly.

The way I contributed to my RRSP has always been putting the money I got from my tax refund into my RRSP account all and at once. After I did it, I do not need to worry about my RRSP for a whole year. That worked fine when the money has been put into savings or GICs, but not a great strategy for buying mutual funds inside RRSP. This year I want to take a different approach.

For the tax refund I am getting, I will save it under my regular savings account until it hit the amount of $10,000. When I have $10,000, I will transfer the money into my Questrade account and balance my ETF holdings there. In terms of my RRSP, I have just called my mutual fund associate to set up a monthly contribution of $400. By the end of the year, I will have my RRSP being taken care of as well.

The major benefits of this approach are:

1. Dollar Cost Averaging for my RRSP mutual fund purchase. The stock market turbulence has shrunk many investors networth. I am not the exception. However, the Scotia Dividend Fund I purchased right before the stock market sink is still in green. How is it possible? Because I am doing dollar cost averaging and continue to buy it each month. I would certainly like to apply this technique and take advantage of it for my RRSP account as well.

2. Keep my ETFs transaction cost down. By saving the tax refund I got and investing it into my ETF portfolio when the amount hits $10,000 allows me to keep my total trading cost under 1% of the money added.

3. Mostly importantly, I will be saving $400 more per month instead of blowing it away by taking this new approach to my RRSP.

Have a great weekend!

Skype is introducing new monthly subscription to its unlimited calling. There are three plans, $2.95/month for unlimited US&Canada, $5.95/month for unlimited Mexico, and $9.95/month for unlimited World. All plans include voice mail and Skype To Go (unfortunately, not available in Canada).

In terms of call quality, based on my previous experience, it is not superior, but acceptable. As I call overseas very frequently to my family and friends, I think I will try the unlimited world.(Skype is having Save 1/3 when you buy a 3 or 12 month subscription promotion until June 1st as well).

You can find more information here.

It has been more than three months since ING Direct Canada introduced its new and first Index fund series (it is actually a fund of index funds), ING StreetWise Fund. I have been thinking if I should put some money into it every month as my investment outside RRSP.
After I did some more in-depth study of the fund, I think it is NOT a good idea to hold it as an investment outside RRSP. One simple reason is that the StreetWise Fund will be balanced every quarter to maintain its original assets allocation. In order to be rebalanced, this wrapped fund will have to sell one or more index funds within it. That will force the investor to realize some unnecessary capital gains. Hence, there will be more tax payable at the end of the year.
If you know how to buy ETFs and rebalance them once a year, it will be better to go with the ETFs route. It is cheaper and more tax efficient.
Just my 2cents.

Will you live in the log style home as follows for 7 days a week? Personally, I don’t mind live in such a house for maybe one week. Anytime longer than that, I cannot deal with. Nevertheless, this is a house with a very different style, personality and characteristics. However, it is a style more suitable for a cottage rather than a regular HOME. The possible market size for this kind of home is very small due to its unique style. It explains why the house has been on the market for around 2 years with 20% price reduce from its original asking price and yet to be sold.

When you build/buy your house, if you might want to sell it in the future, try to neutralize it as much as possible. “Keep it simple stupid” has its root in real estate invesment as well.