We had a rough last week in July and things are looking bumpy in August as well.
But instead of being down and pessimistic about it, I’m actually excited to be able to purchase some really good stocks at a good price.
Are we at the bottom yet? Don’t know. The market can drop some more.
If you [...]

Posted in Finances, Retirement Progress, Retirement Progress No Comments »

Submitted posts to 2 Carnivals this week:
Carnival of Family Life, hosted at Colloquium, where you find great articles about family, life, stuff in general. Good place to take your mind off $$$$$$$$. Always remember that life isn’t just about how much money you have in your bank. It’s also about who do you have around [...]

Posted in Carnivals, Finances No Comments »

A few months ago I met a couple from my distant home country (and town). They had good jobs back home (both in the IT industry) and had a good life, but their company was acquired and they lost their jobs, making them decide (after a few frustrating years trying to get back on their feet) to come to [...]

Posted in Finances, Lifestyle 5 Comments »

I tried, but couldn’t resist. The market has been tumbling these past days and I couldn’t resist, but jump in.
I sold one of my old positions (since 2002) that wasn’t really performing that well and I wasn’t seeing a bright future for it (Nortel - NT).
I used that money and added some more fresh money [...]

Posted in Finances, Investment 2 Comments »

My second son was born a few weeks ago, so I’ve been spending a lot time taking care of my oldest. He just turned 2, and you’re probably familiar with the “Terrible Twos” expression.
Needless to say, sometimes he drives me nuts and I lose my temper and raise my voice with him. A couple of [...]

Posted in Family, Finances 3 Comments »

Looks like those 2 new credit cards did hurt my score quite a bit.
It’s down to 742 from last month. I was hoping these 2 new cards would help my score a bit by increasing my credit line, but the limits I got in these cards were not that high ($7k for my Toys R [...]

Posted in FICO Progress, Finances, Retirement Progress No Comments »

I went through an exercise of researching some mutual funds and building a “Target Portfolio”.
Why go through this exercise? My current investments are way too risky. Over 50% of my mutual funds are international funds. And that’s not including some ETFs and ADRs I have. So I decided to build a more balanced portfolio.

It will probably [...]

Posted in Finances, Investment No Comments »

To be honest, I can’t remember the reason I bought FSDAX. It’s a mutual fund focused in Defense. I guess with the war going on and rumors of invading Syria or Iran, I thought it could do well.
Anyways, this week I decided to let it go and switched the funds to DODFX, another international mutual [...]

Posted in Finances, Investment No Comments »

It’s frustrating how I put almost $2k every month into my mortgage, but the principal only goes down $500.

The good part is that I was able to make a significant dent in my car loans this month. Can’t wait to see these loans paid off and out of my life.

Posted in Debt Progress, Finances, Retirement Progress No Comments »

I had an eye on Netflix (NFLX) for a while. I like their business model, but they’re in a tough market. They crushed Amazon and Walmart and now are trying to crush Blockbuster. But after this battle is over, they’ll need to enter another war with VOD suppliers (Cable providers, iTunes + Apple TV, etc).
It [...]

Posted in Finances No Comments »