About a month ago I finally made my first stock purchase. BNS, which I had been watching, dropped down to $35 and I got in. Since then it has fluctuated and it was kind of fun to see how much money I’ve “made”. But today for the first time I noticed I “lost”. That’s ok though because I’m in for the long haul. It almost makes me wonder if I should buy more!

Another stock I am watching is SC.

But I have also once again been toying with the idea of starting my own business, on a smaller scale than I was thinking before just to make it more doable. So I’m hesitant to tie up all my money in stocks, I’d like to keep some extra for starting-up expenses.

My plan of trying to live on a strict budget kind of backfired, as I miscalculated and left myself so little money that a cheque I’d written bounced. There’s $35 thrown out the window.

Maybe I shouldn’t try to cut it so close. Anyway, the experience left me a little exasperated but I’m ready to try again. I wonder if I would have better success trying this while not using a credit card. I find my bill is sometimes higher than I expect. Although sometimes things are on there that I’m getting reimbursed for, like work expenses or health expenses (reimbursed by benefits).

I think I’m falling into the trap of trying to ‘time’ the market. I can’t decide if I should get in now or wait until the worst of the carnage is over. Maybe what I should do is just get in slowly, although the problem with that is paying the trading fee each time.

I bought more of the index fund I’ve been buying today, but I really would like to do buy some stocks.

Maybe tomorrow? People keep telling me there is no rush to get in to the market the way things are, so maybe it’s ok to just take my time.

I am watching BNS which closed at 48.70. I’d be a lot more keen on getting in at around 43, or even 46.

Urg. The markets have slightly rebounded since I was ready to buy some stocks and I haven’t bought any yet because the money is still “in transit.”

I’m really feeling like I missed the boat on that one. Live and learn I guess. I don’t think the tumultuous times are over so I will sit tight and wait a few months for a new opportunity. In the meantime I need to research ways that will allow me to access money to buy stocks quickly, but still have my reserves parked in a high interest savings account. Perhaps a line of credit tied to my brokerage account?

Some people call it retirement, but I call it financial independence because people look at me funny when I say I want to retire ASAP. I am after all only in my late 20s and haven’t even started on a career path. Retirement also has connotations of sitting around doing nothing and that’s the last thing I want to do. In fact I have a ton of things I love to do, but I just don’t find I have enough hours in the day because I spend the bulk of my time at work.

When I’m feeling cheeky and someone asks me what my career aspirations are, I say “Retirement.” And they laugh, but don’t take me very seriously.

In fact, I haven’t taken that goal super seriously because I had other things I wanted to do, like travel the world and live in other countries. But for the past year or so I have been back in Canada and putting a lot of serious thought into identifying a career path for myself. And still no dice.

Actually, I’ve been trying to figure out a career path in some capacity for the past 10 years ever since we had to start mapping out career plans and taking aptitude tests in early high school. I don’t feel much closer to figuring it out than I did 10 years ago and I’ve finally decided it’s time for a new game plan and that game plan is definitively financial independence. So let’s see if I can make it happen in a timely fashion.

I randomly came across the blog Early Retirement Extreme today while not even looking for anything to do with the topic, but wow is it ever a good extra push for me!

The points on maximizing savings are good ones. I always thought my 15%+ guideline was good enough, but I can definitely push it higher if that means reaching financial independence sooner! I worked with my numbers and while I can’t do the 75% without some major life changes (moving would be one big one, I do after all live in downtown Vancouver and rents are what they are), I figure I should be able to easily do 41%. If my math is right, that means I should be able to reach financial independence by 50. Not quite the 37 I’m aiming for but better than 65.

That is a good start and I am happy with that. If I were willing to spend the next 19 years without leaving Vancouver, I could do 51%, but life is for living and I’m willing to postpone financial independence another 4 years for a vacation once in a while.

So this is how I’m going to be dividing my pay cheques:

• 45% on all monthly spending – including regular expenses and splurging (previously it was 60%)
• 10% on long term savings – vacations and other life enhancing goodness (previously 20%, half of which was supposed to be for education and other knowledge enhancing activities)
• 4% on gifts – could be readjusted but i want to see how this goes (down from 5%)
• 41% savings and investments – (previously 15%)

Let’s see how this rolls!

It may seem obvious, but it’s taken me this long to figure it out. It’s difficult to take action when you don’t have a clear goal to work towards. I’ve been fluffing around and not really feeling like I was accomplishing anything.

Last night I remembered something I told myself I wanted to do 3 years ago: retire early.

My first action item will be to buy some dividend paying stocks. I had a little bit of money in my TD Waterhouse account and I was going to buy some stocks today. Seems like a good day to buy some long-term holdings.

But when I realized the little money I had in my account would only get me a few shares, I decided I needed to add money to it. So I’m pillaging my cushion fund (which I *just* got to where I wanted it) and set it up (it takes time to move money around), and I am hopefully going to buy my first stocks by the end of this week or early next week.

I am going to buy either BNS or L. I have been watching L for 3 years and it’s totally plummeted, but I believe the company can turn itself around. Regardless, I think the value of their real estate holdings should keep the stock from going down much further. And if I am totally wrong it will only cost me a few thousand and I’m ok with that.

The appeal of BNS is that I can enroll in a DRIP.

Could be that my analysis sucks, but I gotta start somewhere.

I think another reason why I have been neglecting this blog is because the state of my finances has been a bit depressing. I just don’t feel like I have been building any kind of savings and that bums me out. It’s like everything that comes in goes back out.

It’s been a little tough because I had a huge expense a couple of months ago (a once in a lifetime thing) so that wiped out what little savings I had. And next month I am moving and that’s never cheap.

I also feel a little frustrated with my income. I need to find a better paying job or a way to gain additional income.

The weather has just been so nice lately and I have been taking full advantage of it. And also neglecting this blog.

I’ll be riding my bike to work tomorrow and will have met my goal of riding to work at least 3 times a week, exceeding it even because it will have been the 4th time this week. I’m actually a little bit surprised at how much I am enjoying riding my bike to work. The bike ride involves a bit of a hill right before getting to the office, and a whole lot of uphill on the way home. But I’ve actually kind of grown to like it because it really makes me feel like I am getting some exercise.

I started off the month by riding my bike to work and then decided that I can do this and not buy a bus pass. So my goal for the month will be to ride my bike at least 3 times a week.  If I do this I will have saved about $40 on bus fare and gotten some good exercise!

My main challenges with riding my bike to work are being scared off by a forecast of rain and trying to figure out what can be office appropriate but still work on the bike. Thankfully Fridays are casual days so that will help a bit.