How to save money in 2011

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I much prefer using credit cards to buy things, because I don't have to keep the paper receipts - the credit card company/bank will do it for me electronically.

My bf and I use mint.com to keep track of our spending. If you can get over the fact that you have to give it all of your account(s) info, it does most of the work for us (spreadsheets, fancy graphs, pretty pictures, etc.).

Discipline is the most important thing. If you aren't disciplined, consider auto-deduction from your pay cheque to 'force' you to save (or pay off debt).
 
Chaos said:
As long as you're comfortable with volatility. Some people say they are, but when their portfolio drops 10% in value, they freak out.
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LOL....volatility? Take alook at this chart...guess where my money will be going in 2011? If you left your money in the bank account, your losing money.

Futures%2BYTD.jpg

http://financetrends.blogspot.com/2010/12/cotton-palladium-silver-lead-futures.html
 
Going to check if I can submit my old T2202A forms for motorcycle courses
 
Be careful about charts like that posted above. Don't just use something like that on its own. Often the reason for a spike in a certain commodity's price is due to some one-time event. This is particularly true of agricultural commodities, since they are very susceptible to year-to-year fluctuations in climate or even one-time weather events. Something that went up big one year could very well regress to the mean and go down big the next.

Look at the "big picture". The world is demanding more oil and gas, but there's only limited supply. Natural gas is in a supply-glut situation, hence why it has gone down, but at some point this IS going to reverse. Fear over certain major world currencies - notably the US$ and the Euro - is leading people to invest in precious metals, and that's unlikely to stop. The auto industry is recovering - and catalytic converters use platinum and palladium. Copper is tied to industrial demand. Silver is both an industrial metal and as a "store of value". Are these trends likely to reverse within your investment time horizon?

I have a basket of high-yielding small-cap and mid-cap Canadian companies, and many of you would see their brand names every day. On top of that, I own stocks in several mining companies and I write covered calls against them each month, and if they get called away then I look for the next buying opportunity; this results in me being in and out of them but that's how it is. I have not had any luck with day-trading (I still have a real job ...) but this strategy works for me and I only *really* have to pay attention to it the day after each monthly options expiration date.

Example: Gold went through a little correction last week; I took the opportunity to buy some Eldorado Gold (ELD) at just over $17 (seeing that it had gone down big on one day) and immediately wrote a February covered call against it at $19. It recovered a good chunk of it today. Now I'm in the odd position of hoping that it goes up but not TOO much by February expiration. If it does go up too much ... I'll be forced to sell it at a price higher than what I paid and close to its recent high. I'm OK with that. If it does what I think it will, I keep the option premium and write another call against it next month (and keep doing that until I misjudge it and it gets called away). Certainly it's possible that it will go down, but I don't think that's the long-term trend with gold.

I am 0% invested in the American market because I don't trust the US dollar, and I am 0% invested in bonds because I think the next direction for interest rates will be up, and that's not good for bonds.
 
Brian P said:
I am 0% invested in the American market because I don't trust the US dollar, and I am 0% invested in bonds because I think the next direction for interest rates will be up, and that's not good for bonds.
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Personally, I think there are some good securities in the US market - particularly those with a multinational presence. Performance around the world can act as a hedge against the local market. Think Coke.

You're right about bond holdings. Even if the rates don't change, the returns on them are not that great. And if the rates do go up (where else can they go?), bond prices go down and you're left with a loss.
 
Don't give to charities.
 
Charts and graphs? We all have "wants and needs".Just stop spending.
 
Yamaha_Gurl said:
Thanks Strictlye!

So my understanding is, in the situation I gave...there really is no way to boost that score?
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I can't understand the credit score system at all. My situation is this...

got 1 credit card over 15 years ago, made 1 purchase, and cut the card up less than week after getting it.
never had a auto loan.
never had any other loan from a bank.
never had an over draft.
I have only ever had 1 chequing account, 1 savings at the same bank and a self directed investment account...
any borrowing I've ever done has been personal.

Some how, my credit score is 834...!?
 
turbodish said:
I do momentum day-trading in selected high volume stocks for part of my portfolio. These days my preference is the bank stocks because you can buy and sell these at the drop of a hat, and their value is unlikely to plunge to nothing in a trading day. For insurance I set automatic sell stops as soon as I buy them, and I constantly update those stops for as long as I'm holding the given stick.

Another part of my portfolio is in opportunistic mid-term speculation. In the days immediately following 9/11, I bought into a few big airline stocks for pennies on the dollar, then sold at a nice gain when they recovered a year later. I got into Canadian banks in the middle of the global financial crisis near the end of 2008, and doubled my money by the following summer when things recovered. Sold the bank stocks and jumped right into auto parts Linamar, Martinrea, and Azure Dynamics just as that market began its recovery. Those stocks are worth more than double now, and I plan on holding them for another six months to a year as the auto industry continues its comeback. I just keep updating my automated sell stops in case the stocks ratchet back too far when I'm not around.

Third part is my long-term stocks - mostly Apple and IBM. Once my day to day living expenses are covered, any excess profits from my day-trading and mid-term investments get invested into these. I make enough doing this that working for someone else is a thing of the past, and I have a nicely building reserve of capital tucked away for the day when I decide to stop even the stock market "work".
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Thanks for this post. Im always interested to see what others are doing. I'm always looking for new ideas. I have been very one dimensional with day trading. When the global recession hit, I zoned in on Energy Trusts like Baytex & Arc and some bank stocks when they hit rockbottom lows. They all saw great growth but my problem usually tends to be that I sell too early and don't really capitalize fully on the opportunity. As of late, I've been playing with mining stocks, mostly gold/silver and I saw some good gains at the end of last year. The forecast is promising this year so I will likely stay close but I've been trying to round out my portfolio so I am not completely exposed to the volatility in metals. Sometimes the volatility is great and sometimes it surely makes my stomach turn.
 
This is a bit of a rehash but here is what I recommend:

1. Pay off all debts.
2. Start to save at least 10 percent of your salary.
3. Never, ever buy things like watches, phones, or the like unless you have the money first.
4. If you buy a house, pay it off as soon as possible. Renovate later but repair now.
5. Try to restrict all borrowing to things that appreciate in value or offer a hedge against inflation.
6. Try not to borrow for things like cars or other things that will depreciate.

Long term, try to achieve financial independence by your late 40s to mid 50s. As you get older, unless you are extremely agile and have what the market wants, you become less and less competitive in the marketplace. It will get tougher to hold on to high-paying jobs based on seniority alone. Plan to retool periodically so that you can remain competitive.
 
Just to bring up an old thread....

You know that goal of buying a house by the end of the year? Screw that noise! Bought a house already! Really started looking into the whole mortgage/costs/shopping for a house and realized that we can actually afford a place right now outside of the city. Not a big deal for me as i work in Bolton anyways but my g/f will have to commute now (now she works literally 2 km from our apt).

Anyways, it just shows what you can accomplish with the right mindset. Ofcourse the end of the year budget was never met, but with the way the money was being put away, in 4 months i already maxed out my TFSA limit, which was then transferred over to RRSP before tax deadline to be used for First Time Home Buyer rebate program. Buying a home outside of GTA also meant i didnt have to pay the Toronto Land Transfer Tax, i made sure we were eligible for HST rebate and First time home buyer Ontario land transfer tax (up to 2K). We also got a smoking deal on the house because we agreed to some of the sellers requests. Basically we low balled thinking they will come back with a higher counteroffer but they accepted our first over as long as we moved the closing date earlier (we originally wanted a 90 day closing date).

overall i'm ecstatic!

One word of advice: If you were like me and bought everything in cash, didnt have any credit cards etc etc....do yourself a favour and get one CC. Basically at 29 years of age, they were scratching their heads how i dont have any credit score (only thing on there is my Fido bill, and they consider no credit score almost as bad as bad credit score). So i had to open a CC to start my history, luckily the Mortgage Broker was able to use my g/f as primary on the Mortgage application and we were approved no problem.

Closing date is April 29th and i cannot wait!

Oh another hint: Do your research...i've learned more about mortgages, and prime rates, and interest fluctuations, and what is necessary for RRSPs and Land transfer tax and all that other BS in the last 2 months than i ever did in all the years before that. NEVER trust what anyone says from any bank institution, I was getting different answers on clear/cut subjects from different banks. Half the time they have no clue what they are saying, the other half they are screwing up.

Anyways lets revive this thread!!!
 
I got the ultimate solution to cut down to the fuel and maintenence of the car. Take a breath as this you never were told before.



Ready?






STOP DRIVING SO MUCH!!

Take transit, or better yet walk. The less you drive, the slower the car deteriorates. Saves you gas and maintenence.
Add to that by storing your car in the winter. If it wasn't for Canadian winter, cars here will last twice as longer.
 
My favourite way of saving money is buying used. Very few of my high ticket items were bought new – cars, bikes, sound system, furniture etc, were sourced through Kijiji, Craigslist and various other classified. For cheap everyday goods and appliances, there's Goodwill and Value Village. I'm amazed what I find there. Kensington Market is great for clothes. When I buy new, I scan the flyers that get delivered. Canadian Tire sale items are fantastic. My groceries are mostly the specials at No Frills. When I feel like a quick snack, McDonald's value menu is my go to, medium coffee, 2 apple pies and a blueberry muffin = $2.97.
 
We've been paying cash for our groceries and that seems to help quite a bit. Groceries have always been a category that we go over on every pay, something about having 2 teenagers in house, I dunno. So we took a page out of "Till debt do us part" tv show and have gone to cash for a few things. We really like this.

We tried using a CC for all our groceries but did not work out so well for us. Problem became that the info online was always a few days to a week behind and we paid off the CC every pay. Then there are all the places we go to like local markets that take cash only. So we switched to cash and this has really helped. In fact we don't really use the CC's for anything anymore.

We also buy all our meat at a local butcher and fruit and vegetables at the local farm/market. This is in fact cheaper and supports local businesses. About the only thing we get at the local grocery store is processed stuff, tomato sauce, wraps , things like that and toiletries.

Having a realistic budget and following it is a big must.

Watch till debt do us part a few times and try to implement some of the concepts for paying down debt and overall money management. What have you got to lose? If you always do what you've always done, you'll always have what you've always got. So if you're happy with the state of your finances and are achieving your goals, then great. If not, perhaps it's time to change something? I've read there are 2 ways to building wealth (not including winning the lottery), spend less or make more.
 
I'd also like to add that having a goal is proving quite important and very motivating. Right now we are working on plans for a RTW trip. And everything seems to be related to that. Instead of just buying something because it's on sale and we could use it at some point, it's more of: we don't need it. It was easier to spend $ without having a specific goal to work towards. It seems to have lit a fire under us.
 
raginduck said:
I can't understand the credit score system at all. My situation is this...

got 1 credit card over 15 years ago, made 1 purchase, and cut the card up less than week after getting it.
never had a auto loan.
never had any other loan from a bank.
never had an over draft.
I have only ever had 1 chequing account, 1 savings at the same bank and a self directed investment account...
any borrowing I've ever done has been personal.

Some how, my credit score is 834...!?
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Thats rare but basically you have 15 years of positive credit history and you don't have any late payments in the last 7 years, no liens, and no inquiries to obtain new credit. So the thought you can afford to buy what you want so if you request credit you should have no problem servicing it.

Obviously you can manage credit and debt really well and your score reflects that. You're score would be even higher if you used that credit card occasionally and kept a very low balance on it.
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