Mega investment portfolio pow-wow

My non-registered portfolio is now at 112 492.28$. It’s a good 2k+ increased compare to November 11. Whenever my portfolio value is up, I usually post an update for the entire portfolio but for now, I am not feeling like it. If you ever have check out my portfolio, it’s composed of multiple stocks, multiple mutual funds, segregated funds, GICs... It’s getting harder and harder to update it each and single time the TSX is finishing the day in a pow-wow note.

It’s a job by itself and my portfolio grows, grows and grows. I might be close to the 160k now but it’s not like we are going to know for sure tonight. Some readers also request a dividend income or dividend yield value update. Well, guess what, you can do that part by yourself! Having access to my entire very precious portfolio, my top players, my debt and my dividend income should be more than enough, don’t you think so? At a point, some people have to learn to respect the fact that I cannot do it all. This blog is a hobby and it meant for entertaining, I am not under the obligation to provide specific information upon request. I write on what I feel can be an interested. I am not feeling like doing some research for lazy readers. Want to know which of my stocks had experiment a dividend yield increased this year? You have my investment portfolio and all the stocks I hold, so you can the search yourself. LOL.

Personally, I have a clear overview of what’s going on in my portfolio because I do my best to follow my stocks. I do a lot of reading. I won’t become specific on stuff that no longer matter to me. Dividend yield is good info, but I am no longer keeping my interest on dividend yield, either on kicking the 200k mark. Actually, I don’t care about much those days.

Can you imagine that I am at more than 112k in my non-registered portfolio alone? That’s quite good actually. This is reducing my capital loss to 4 283.77$ inside my non-registered portfolio part alone. Not too bad! It’s getting much better. As for the dividend income, I guess I will be at 7k for the end of 2012.

2011 had been a difficult but successful investment year.

DNI Metals Inc. (DNI): This is the WOW factor!

I am a fan of a US TV show name Storage Wars that played on the channel A&E. First time I listen to Storage Wars, I really got into it, all that auction deal, and it was all really interesting. But even more interesting are the “characters” of the show. There’s a cute couple, Jarrod Schulz and Brandi Passante. They have 2 (?) kids and they own a store.

You have the hot looking senior collector, Barry Weiss. I watched Barry Weiss throwing away what he had bought at the storage auctions many many times. The man is a collector. Anything that is collectible has an interest to Barry Weiss. From painting, to sculpture, to anything else that could fit in a museum. And even while finding something collectible, it happen that if a piece is interesting enough, he won’t sell the item; he will simply keep it for himself. He’s certainly the only one doing that on Storage Wars! You have the friendly auctioneers’ couple: Dan and Laura Dotson. “And don’t forget to pay the lady” had become her punch line, as she probably had said that line thousands of times in and off the Storage Wars show. YUUUP!

That’s probably what Dave Hester would have answer to that! When Dave Hester is in fired, he screams YUUUP!! And when Dave Hester wants something, he gets it. But watch out! Dave Hester is not the only hard players of Storage Wars!

“This is the WOW factor” is actually a punch line of Darrell Sheets, known as Darrell the Gambler. If you watch Storage Wars, the chances are you’ll also see is son, Brandon Sheets. If you are curious to see what kind of stuff Darrell Sheets have, and if you’ll like to buy from his store, you now can. Just click here.

As you can see, Storage Wars is very entertaining. It could be seen as a reality TV show, actually, but in better. So welcome to the Storage Wars!

That Storage Wars is all very entertaining but what’s the relation between ME and The WOW factor? Well, today, once again, DNI Metals Inc. (DNI) was a WOW factor! I wrote a lot about DNI Metals Inc. (DNI) in the pass couple months. But that’s because DNI keep getting deeper and deeper into the WOW factor baby! This penny stock is performing very well. Just today, DNI registered a gain of 5.71%! That was today alone! Because DNI keep going and going...

That’s the WOW factor!

MONEY OWN THIS BLOG.

:)

My top stock performers of the time

While the TMX keeps playing the yo-yo, well, even during those times, some of my best stocks pick are actually strong enough to register a capital gain. It’s not all of my stocks who perform that well, but I have a couple stocks on which I had done very well.

I am still holding those stocks. I am not looking forward to sell any of them.

Here they are, by best stocks performers:


Canadian National Railway Co (CNR)
Initial amount of money invested: 2 144.40$
Current investment value: 2 359$
Capital gain: + 214.60$

Corby Distilleries Limited (CDL.A)
Initial amount of money invested: 1 500$
Current investment value: 1 810$
Capital gain: + 310$


Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (ENF)
Initial amount of money invested: 5 898.90$
Current investment value: 6 627$
Capital gain: + 728.10$

Exchange Income Corporation (EIF)
Initial amount of money invested: 6 898.08$
Current investment value: 7 177$
Capital gain: + 278.92$

Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation (FC)
Initial amount of money invested: 510.79$
Current investment value: 518$
Capital gain: + 7.21$

Fortis Inc. (FTS)
Initial amount of money invested: 2 710.73$
Current investment value: 3 507$
Capital gain: + 796.70$

Horizons Gold Yield Fund (HGY.UN)
Initial amount of money invested: 2 019.91$
Current investment value: 2 020$
Capital gain: + 0.09$ (!)


K-Bro Linen Inc. (KBL)
Initial amount of money invested: 2 034.99$
Current investment value: 2 110$
Capital gain: + 75.01$

iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index (XRE)
Initial amount of money invested: 2 106.37$
Current investment value: 2 324$
Capital gain: + 217.63$

Methanex Corporation (MX)
Initial amount of money invested: 1 626.80$
Current investment value: 2 537$
Capital gain: + 910.20$

Pembina Pipeline Corporation (PPL)
Initial amount of money invested: 6 846.70$
Current investment value: 13 354$
Capital gain: + 6 507.30$

TMX Group Inc. (X)
Initial amount of money invested: 4 285.69$
Current investment value: 4 455$
Capital gain: + 169.31$

TransCanada Corp (TRP)
Initial amount of money invested: 1 016.74$
Current investment value: 1 076$
Capital gain: + 59.26$


WesternOne Equity Income Fund (WEQ.UN)
Initial amount of money invested: 2 061.99$
Current investment value: 2 413$
Capital gain: + 351.01$

Westshore Terminals Invest Corp (WTE.UN)
Initial amount of money invested: 4 631.99$
Current investment value: 4 782$
Capital gain: + 150.01$

DNI Metals Inc. (DNI)
Initial amount of money invested: 690$
Current investment value: 977.50$
Capital gain: + 287.50$

Claymore Gold Bullion ETF (CGL)
Initial amount of money invested: 3 587.30$
Current investment value: 5 280$
Capital gain: + 1 692.70$


Emera Incorporated (EMA)
Initial amount of money invested: 5 340.18$
Current investment value: 7 030$
Capital gain: + 1 689.82$

TOAL OF CAPITAL GAIN: 14 445.37$

The stock market is the place for smart girls: How to make of few hundreds of dollars without working

It’s been a great week for my portfolio. I closed the week at a fantastic 110 894$ (for my non-registered part). So it was certainly something. On Friday December 2, DNI Metals (DNI) finished on a happy note. So watch it out. I am a specialist when it comes to DNI Metals (DNI) (or something like it lol!). I had followed this stock since June 2009. In June 2009, I wanted to experience what I now know under the name of day trading. I wanted to perform a short buy-and-sell move in order to make a couple of bucks.

Back in June 2009, DNI Metals (DNI) was under the name of Dumont Nickel (DNI). It’s following the 8 to 1 fusion, that Dumont Nickel (DNI) became DNI Metals (DNI). I prefer Dumont Nickel better because I find it more enigmatic. Who is Dumont anyway? DNI Metals is just a repetition of the stock ticket inside the appellation of the name. And it sucks. Dumont and Nickel were giving a meaning to the company name. DNI Metals is not a half better as name.

However, the now DNI Metals (DNI) had rocked the Venture once again. If I would have sold my DNI stocks Friday following the HIT, I would had made a profit of close to 400$. I was smart enough to transfer DNI from my non-registered account to my TFSA. This mean that whenever I sell DNI at profit, I won’t have to pay taxes on the capital gain made baby. That’s really how smart I had moved with DNI. This stock had worked extremely well for me. But in June 2009, I had been disappointed at a point because I wasn’t able to sell immediately at profit. However, it’s not something that upset me, I could live with it and I told myself, 600$ is not going to bankrupt me.

Ever since, from time to time, DNI had boom in value and had made me really happy. I think that DNI had the opportunity to later become a dollar stock. By dollar stock, I mean a stock that trade at 1$ (at least). The road from a penny stock situation to a dollar stock could still be long, but I had been holding DNI since 2009 so I can certainly hold it for a couple of years and see what happen. At this point of my journey, not that I did it all when it come to stocks. I never invested in options or bonds. There are many things I don’t know about the stock market but those other things don’t really interest me at this time. I read Derek Foster book about options but following what, I didn’t get it all, my reading wasn’t enough to make me understand options and it wasn’t of a real interest for me. I didn’t try to understand options.

Also, don’t go and think that all of my trades are this successful. I had lost 4 000$ in Timminco (TIM). At the time the incident happen, in 2008 or 2009, I didn’t know too much about stocks and I mess around, even more than now lol. Timminco (TIM) was promoted by Eric Sprott and at the time, my confident in Eric Sprott was unbelievable. So when Timminco (TIM) plunges, I didn’t sell because it was an Eric Sprott stock. I didn’t know better. I took a hugeeee burn, but this is how I learn that when a stock is in trouble: SELL WITHOUT A MOMENT OF HESITATION. Because I learned something from this experience, I had been able to sell Yellow Media (YLO) when trouble really began. That was a couple of months ago. In result, I had kept in my pocket thousands of dollars. I only lost something like 300$ in term of capital loss. GENIUS. And the best thing is, because of this blog, you have access for free to my very awesome portfolio, you have access to all my strategies, everything I know about the stock market so enjoy and try to be smart as I am now ok?

If it takes bad experiences to learn, well, I certainly learn a lot from the Timminco (TIM) disaster and you know what? Eric Sprott own me 4 000$. Eric Sprott is the reason behind my failure.

However, I kept following Eric Sprott because I find the man could had made a mistake, but I really want to get the hell out of him and take whatever the best damn thing could be coming out of him. And what had been that best damn thing? SILVER. Why did I stick to the advices of a man that made me lost 4 000$ on the stock market anyway? Can somebody explain that to me?

Well, because he’s Eric Sprott. That’s the only reason why and the only thing that I share with Eric Sprott is a love for Native art, craft. That’s the only part that I share with Eric Sprott ok, nothing else. Really nothing else. Don’t ever think that my Timminco (TIM) experience had burned my wings, because it didn’t. I think that event happen in 2008 because in 2009-2010, I totally recover. And among the same time, my Sprott Inc. (SII) stocks had decreased from 10$ to 4$ or 3$. What a mess! However, I did what I do best: I hold and later on, the title recover, hitting back close to 10$. Currently, SII trade under 10$. But it won’t be long that the title will exceed the 10$. This stock had the capacity to reach the 20$ later on in the future. You know of course that Eric Sprott is going to start a bank. When it happen, big $$$ to me!!!

You like to double your money on a stock? It happens to me once with Methanex (MX). My Methanex super starrrrrrrrrrrrrr! And it’s going to happen too with SII, in case you didn’t know.

TMX Group Inc. and Maple Group Acquisition Corporation: will the deal come to an end?

Several months ago, while learning about the TMX Group project to get acquired by someone else, I felt that I had my chances to make big bucks. Without thinking twice, I made that spectacular moves, I bought 100 stocks of the TMX Group (X). It was something spectacular because here I was, using margin account money to place a close to 5k investment.

Several months had passed and the TMX Group (X) is still the same. Why? Because of that Maple Group Acquisition Corporation bullshit. The Maple Group is not an existing company. It doesn’t have any head quarters. The Maple Group doesn’t trade itself on the TMX. In other words, the Maple Group is an artificial company build by banks and other financial players in order to but even more bullshit in the system. Banks want to have a complete control over the TMX and it’s certainly the scariest thing ever. It means more power for the banks. And that’s not all. 

Among the 13 players or something like of that number involved in the Maple Group, many of them are Quebec based banks and companies. I don’t think Canadians want to have the precious TMX darling being control directly or indirectly control by some dumb Quebeckers. They are cheaters of the Canadian country and they have nothing to do about our financial health. See what Brian Mulroney had done. That’s just a quick overview of Quebec bad leadership. Many Quebeckers vote for the Bloc Québécois, an independent movement lead by Pauline Marois. I had lived in Quebec province for a couple of years and I had kept a horrible experience from my stay in the Quebec province. No access to health care, no equity, poor paying jobs. That’s what I had experimented in Quebec, not to say the very bad customer services I got from the Eaton Center TD Waterhouse office located in Montreal, from the Scotiabank located on McGill, and not to talk about the RBC bank located at the Place-des-arts, many of my financial related experiences were very very bad in Quebec province. Why? Because it’s difficult for Quebeckers to act correctly in front of a girl who has money and knows exactly what she wants to do with it.

Fact is, Quebeckers don’t have the integrity and willingness it takes to be part of something really major like the Canadian country. So let’s please forget any involvement of Quebeckers in our TMX. Everything Quebec does as a province and a future country is out of movement and out of distinction and integrity. The very arrogant Luc Bertrand, Vice-Chairman of the National Bank Financial is the spoke person of the Maple Group. In reality, the Maple Group does not exist. It’s not an entity who had made its proof. The Maple Group doesn’t have a real existing market value.

The Maple Group had been pushing over the TMX stockholders to have a deal approved. At 50$ per stock + divided earned during the waiting approval period, I can tell you for sure that the best option to go with, is to move with the maximum cash offer.

The major Canadian banks are into the Maple Group just to rip us off. What do I have to say to the Maple Group and to Luc Bertrand? Kiss ME and I am out of there!

I am saying a big NO to the Maple Group and is saying HELLO hundreds of $$$ in profit.

I know, sometime I really got it all.

Stop the disaster, say NO to Quebec province bad leadership, say YES to an independent TMX. And, of course, say YES to the cash.

Maximum cash is the way to go. Want to fuck with investors? Well than, it’s going to cost those bankers some big cash. That’s what I call an interesting move. Will it go through or not by January 31, 2012? I don’t know. But what I do know for sure is that I don’t want to have any Quebeckers being involved in the Canadian financial system.

Now, the question being is will Stephen Harper Tories government will let this happen?

Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation (FC) is now offering a 2% discount to its dividend reinvestment plan

I am quite happy this evening as despite the fact that the TSX lost some points, my non-registered portfolio is at 111 585$. Anything exceeding the 100k is quite awesome in the stock market reality that we are in. I received my paycheque today, and despite receiving a couple of hundreds in fresh cash, well, I don’t have any investment plan for it. This is the first time ever I am not investing while having access to some real cold cash. I made a deposit and took 600$ to pay off my credit card. I know! 600$!!! I had spent money on a new pair of glasses, among other. My expenses will be much lower next month.

2011 had been an adventurous year where I invested in all kind of stocks. My dividend income for 2011 will probably be of 7k. It will probably be the same for 2012 if not getting excited by new investment. But a 7k in very good, no need to push it too hard at this time. Especially while being close to 90k in debt. Slowly but certainly, those debt are going to be paid off. It’s not anytime soon that I will be able to live from my dividend income anyway.

I wrote about this in a comment, but I am totally against cancelling my DRIP to use the dividend money earned to pay off debt. Fact is, some companies like JE and FC are offering an interesting discount.

This Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation (FC) is a Gordon Pape investment. Recently, FC came with this great move: the company is now offering a 2% discount to its dividend reinvestment plan. Cool! I am now getting a discount with Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation (FC).

Is it already over?

The TSX had quite of a strange problem today. Something about stocks from M to Z... Whatever!! I didn’t trade today... But tonight is pay night! So what am I going to do with those couple of hundreds of dollars?

I had talked before about the difficulties I am living now as a “stock addict”. Truly, I don’t know if I am a stock addict, but what I know for sure is that I really like to trade, I absolutely love to be 100% fully invested, even if it come with some risk. I think I had been very honest about my financial situation. I couldn’t explain what a margin account is better than I did in my last post. Now, you know once for good what margin is really is.

Ok, this is all very interesting as always, but I still don’t know what I am going to invest in! This is tragic. Especially knowing that my non-registered portfolio section is EXTREMELY close to the 112k! Yeahhhhh!

I always wanted to add new stuff in my portfolio. I once wanted ENB, TRP, CNR, SFI.UN and all the other ones. All of what I ever wanted and dream of is now in my portfolio. I feel completed, financially speaking. Nothing new really appeals me. And what about Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)? And Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC)? I really don’t know. I don’t feel it.

In a desperate act, I may, for once, put the money aside to pay off some debt. But I really try to seek for something that will get my interest. I didn’t get a buzz over POT or CTC or any other thing. To invest in a stock, I need to be completely emerge, be excited over the stock I will be investing in. Right now, I am not having a love affair with anything and I find it quite scary, actually. This is the first time that it’s happening to me in the 7 years that I had been investing (since 2005).

Is it the beginning of the end for the Dividend Girl?

Am I going to pay off my debt from now on?

Stay tune, because we are going to find out!

This blog is going to be reallll boring without new lovers! Sorry if I am slow at falling again for a stock.

Margin Class: Everything you need to know about a margin broker account

Margin Class #1: Get use to the stock market BEFORE opening a margin account

I first open my margin broker account in 2008. I open the account at TD Waterhouse. At first, I didn’t have margin in my broker account. I wait until 2010 to add that wonderful margin feature in. If the stock world is all new to you, I strongly suggest skipping, at least at first, the margin part of the broker account. You’ll be able to add margin on later, once you’ll be use to be around stocks.

I began to invest in 2005. So we can say that I had wait 5 years before getting a margin account. Back in 2005, I wasn’t investing in stocks and I didn’t know back than what margin is. But I quickly learn. I began to invest in stock in 2008. And following what, I open my margin account in December 2010.

Fact is, the stock market alone is complicated enough, you should have a good sense of what the stock market is really is before even opening a margin account. Simply things like just following your investment, reading financial stuff every week, watching the TSX going up and down... Those simply things will help you to quickly have an overview of what the stock market is all about. Once you get in touch with that reality, you’ll be able to understand that the stock market is volatile.

Margin Class #2: Build up a nice investment portfolio with your own money BEFORE opening a margin account

In December 2010, my portfolio was pretty much established. I had all the big players in. Not all, but a lot of them. I had some very hot stuff like PPL, ENF, FTS etc. I had in my portfolio very good investments that bring very strong value and that value had been quite stable and reliable. And that gave me the opportunity to open a margin account. Because I was already established, when I open my margin account, my stock value was so strong that I had more than something 50k available coming from my margin account itself. 50k is quite some money. But I had been able to get that money from an already established portfolio. I truly believe that the best way to start margin is to start when you are already establish. That way, you get more a complete overview of what the stock market is, you get a better pulse of the market and more important, you know how to react to the stock volatility. And that’s by giving no reaction at all. But even there, you need to be able to recognize the difference between a normal stock volatility and a trouble stock.

My personal example of that kind of situation would be with Yellow Pages (YLO). I was an investor of YLO for a couple of years. But when the stock value declined, I quickly sell. YLO is a Quebec based company that had already a bad reputation. It wasn’t stable, the dividend income was excessively high, the company had a large amount of debt, investors complain about the lack of direction – they were not able to see the company vision, etc. You could easily tell that YLO was a Quebec company because of the extreme bad management. So when YLO decline in value, I did what I had to do. I sell. I experiment a capital loss of 300$, but 300$ only. How many investors had lost a fortune on YLO? Unfortunately many of them because they just ignore my blog. So continue ignoring me, continue to invest in Quebec companies and continue to lose your money. I don’t care. But I what I do know is that I had came with a technique to manage margin account and that stuff can help you if you are like me 100% fully invested and if, like me, you have a margin account situation.

Margin Class #3: BEFORE opening a margin account, set yourself some rules and ALWAYS follow them

Ok, for my part, I didn’t respect this third Margin class rule. Because when I open my margin account, I was supposed to use 30% of the available money on the margin account to pay off some credit lines of mine who are at higher interest than the margin. And that was supposed to be it. That was the plan. Pay off debt using margin. It wasn’t made for investment purposes. At least at first. No matter what, I did not respect the initial plan. I don’t regret my moves and what I did with my margin, but this expose myself to a very extremely high level of risk. The only reason why I sleep well at night is that I have an infinite confidence in the market. It’s a confidence that the stock market crash of 2008 did not destroy and it’s a confidence that the August 2011 stock crash did not destroy either. I wasn’t destroyed because my margin situation did not destroy my portfolio. But no matter what, that could change because I am fully exposed to stock. I don’t control the stock market, tomorrow or the day after, the economy worldwide could collapse. The only reason why I sleep well at night, actually, is that I strongly believed that the nightmare won’t ever happen. But it’s something I am totally aware of. You need to be aware of that reality and accept the risk. Margin is dangerous.

Margin Class #4: Follow the 30% using margin rule

No matter how much you have available in your margin account, you shouldn’t use more than 30% of the money available on the margin account. Let say that currently, your margin worth 50k, you shouldn’t use more than 15k of that 50k for investment purposes. In case of market volatility, you won’t be under a margin call. Fact is, the value of money available on your margin fluctuate. One day you can have 60k available, and the next day, just 40k. It’s something you need to realize; the margin value is not steady, you don’t have any control over it. Currently, I do not respect this 30% rule. That makes me confront to a high level of risk.

Margin Class #5: From the time you open a margin account, you need to understand that your broker now have control over you

This is very important. Let say we are living an in deep stock crash. TD Waterhouse has plenty of customers like myself who have margin account. Margin is money that the bank gave to you in form of a credit line kind of. And the money available on that “credit line” vary depending of your portfolio value. If the stock market crash, your portfolio will lose value immediately. If the situation is critical and the market take an in deep plunge, well, it could happen that because TD had borrowed money to a serial of investors like myself, well, it could happen that while facing a disaster, TD could sell my stocks without informing me first. There could be no margin call.

A margin call is when your broker call you because your stocks had lost so much value that you own in your account. Your account is negative. Let say I had borrowed 50k on my margin account. Because the market lost points let say today, my margin account do no worth 50k anymore, it only worth 40k. Well, at that time, I immediately need to put 10k in order to stabilize the situation.

While facing such situation, TD may or may not call. It’s under their discretion.

So you need to be aware of that.

Ok, you may say: if that investor babe had been able to manage her margin account properly, I can too. LOL. It is not that easy. It’s a miracle that I am doing that great on the stock market. Simply remind you of who I am. I am the Beauty Queen Next Door.

Conclusion

Before thinking of margin account, you need to have a good understanding of the stock market. Also, your portfolio needs to be established. If you really want a margin account, do it, but establish yourself with real cash first.

Learn how to deal in front of the market volatility before going further. Are you nervous while facing volatility in your portfolio? Is it a source of stress? If so, you should totally forget about margin.

Margin is what I will name a “product” that brokers like TD Waterhouse had came around with to make even more money from their business. You pay a commission to your broker each time you sell or buy stocks. Well, that was simply not enough for them. They decided to set up a loan service based on the value of your portfolio. And because your portfolio value varies every day, margin could quickly become a source of unnecessary stress. Margin is a risky loan. You are taking a huge amount of risk just to get a 4.25% interest rate. Does it worth it? Not at all.

Be careful with margin, realize the risk and, if possible, don’t open a margin account. It is not healthy and on the loan run, you’ll realize that only getting in control is hard enough. Everything regarding the stock market is not especially easy and margin is difficult. The only reason why it is remaining in my account is because I had been doing great. But great for how long?

Nothing is define when it come to the stock market, nothing is sure. With margin, you double the risk.

That's pretty much what I had to say about margin for today.

Despite owning a margin account situation in my very own broker account, I don’t recommend you to do the same. I hope my 2 cents about margin will help you to understand better what a margin account is all about in a broker account.

Suze Orman Money Class at TV: taking advantage of the US recession to sale books – Part 2

While living in Montreal, I didn’t have a TV, but I had my laptop and the Internet. That been my reality for a couple of years but I never missed watching TV. I was quite busy working at my multiple jobs, blogging, building my portfolio and following my stocks.

Now that I am move back to my hometown (I had the chance to get a better job, better salary better everything right where I least expected it to come from), I have my mom listening to her TV in the launch and I have my father watching his own channel in their bedroom. Here at night, I hear TV noises one over the other. What I miss the most from Montreal is the dead silence of my one and a half apartment. It was silent, I could hear myself think.

Moving back with my parent wasn’t something planned but while living in this small not even city, moving back with my old folks had been a strategic move. My expenses are lower than over. The only thing that changed is me now driving a car. I have a few related expenses but that’s not a big deal. I am about to get my passport soon and I just cannot wait to travel to the US! I haven’t gone in the US in an eternity. According to what I had heard, the little X town hasn’t changed that much in the past couple of years. I am just extremely curious to go and seek around. It will be fun.

My lifestyle had changed, but the adjustment had gone through pretty smoothly. Since I am from New Brunswick, I knew what to expect. I find myself more relax and calm. While living in Montreal, I was working at different jobs, all paying a terribly low wage, I was burned. The August 2011 stock crash didn’t help me in any way. However, I had the surprised of my life when I learned I got a job here in New Brunswick. But not just here, in my XX hometown. Hitting back to New Brunswick with a job in my field, better paid, better everything, well, it cut my breath away.

And that’s why how I found watching one of the two TV we have here in this house. And there I was yesterday, watching Suze Orman desperately trying to sale her financial books. She gave good advices ok, no doubt about it. I am able to recognize the importance of having an emergency fund even if I don’t have one ok. But yesterday, one man appears at the Money Class of Suze Orman.

The courageous man had 18 000$ in credit card debt and he had 100 000$ worth in student loan debt following a master degree. I don’t get if the degree he took was an MBA. I know MBA are the kind of degrees who are extremely expensive like that. I don’t know. But the guy spoke to Suze Orman about his situation. He was earning 20 000$ a year while holding a master degree. And if I understand correctly, the guy had declared bankruptcy before. And his question seems to be at the time about declaring bankruptcy regarding his huge student loan. Well, good news being that no one can clear off a student loan while declaring bankruptcy. The way Suze Orman was talking to the man, it seem like for him, there was no hope.

Come on! A 100k worth in debt is not the end of the world. Myself, I have close to 90k worth in debt and I can manage everything quite properly. During the past couple of years, my earning salary had exceeded the 40k. But that’s nothing considering how much in tax I had paid on that salary. In a certain way, I am pretty much to the same level of that man who earned 20k annually and have 118k worth of debt.

Instead of explaining to the guy that bankruptcy won’t clear his student loan, Suze Orman should have say something intelligent enough and motivate the guy to get a second and, why not, a third job. I handle 3 jobs at a time for quite a while when I was living in Montreal. And on top of that I was managing my portfolio and I was blogging. I had built my portfolio even if I wasn’t earning much, but what I had earned; I make it work for me.

No one should declared bankruptcy just because of a 118k worth in debt. That level of debt is manageable. It’s just the individual have to seek for another source of income. That’s difficult of course, but once again, it is manageable. I won’t be saying the same thing if we would be talking here about a 200k, 300k or up worth of debt. Anywhere below 150k in debt is manageable. You don’t need to destroy your life and your spirit by declaring bankruptcy. There’s nothing an individual cannot handle, I think I am the living proof of that. But Suze Orman totally goes in the opposite way.

Also Suze Orman said during her yesterday show that student loan debts are the type of debt that an individual should be looking to pay as soon as possible. Why? Because a student loan debt cannot be add in a bankruptcy procedure. So see, for Suze Orman, bankruptcy is the financial solution that resolves all problems. But it’s not the case. Bankruptcy destroyed life, it’s the most difficult event that can’t happen to somebody.

If you take the marvelous me (who’s now a superstar on Raymi the Minx by the way – go check it out), I am on the MINX!! as example, I still carry a student debt loan even now and I don’t give a damn. Why? For several reasons. Here they are:

I preferred to build myself a super portfolio for the future instead paying my debt.

Student loan interest is low (below 5%).

A student loan is not a credit line. Once you make a payment on a student loan, you cannot access the money no more. The money disappeared forever. So why should I stressed about paying a student loan? Please explain Suze Orman!

A student loan interest gives you a tax receipt.

For all those reasons, I decided to completely flush the payment on my student loan. Well, not totally flush, because I make the minimum payment on the loan every months but that all. The payment is of 98$.

I think Suze Orman is out there just to make people feel bad about their debt.
It’s just money after all.

My best advice: manage to make the minimum required payment on your loan every single month. Make sure the total of those multiple minimum payments is reasonable. Mine is something like 400$ only.

Asked yourself: if I would be to go under unemployment insurance, would I still be able to make the minimum required payment on my debt? If the answer is yes, your situation is not that bad at all.

Also, always make sure that you have something worth in term of net worth following an improvised payment on your debt.

My personal example:

Total in assets: 156 233.56$
Total in debt: 87 123.22$
Net worth after debt: 69 110.34$

See, even after I paid off completely my debt, I would still have a little something left.

My personal example is dangerous because I am even lucky to be at this stage. I took several risks that I was aware of. However, I considered myself extremely lucky. You have to handle your debt in an extremely efficient manner that it will make you a winner at the end. But be careful on the amount of debt and ho, please, don’t get under a margin account if you are a stock lover because you will sooner or later satisfy your impulse on your broker margin account. I wasn’t able to control myself and I used more than 40k to purchase, not clothes, not boots (I still didn’t purchase a new pair of boots) , no men BUT STOCKS.

It’s important to turn yourself into a passionate investor because the stock market will bring you to a level of richness you cannot simply imagine. Quite powerful stuff. So powerful that it can ruin you or make you rich. One or the other.

And yes, at 69k net worth, I consider myself quite rich. But don’t forget, I am in New Brunswick. A net worth of more than 50k is considered a million here, or almost.

People need to feel confident about their future but Suze Orman is not helping in any way. And at a point, by emphases too much about bankruptcy, she’s bringing it to nothing.

It’s possible to have debt, be enjoying those debts and have a terrific portfolio. It’s possible and achievable, no matter what Suze Orman has to say. That’s my word over her. And I always get the final word. At least here on my blog. :)

Suze Orman Money Class at TV: taking advantage of the US recession to sale books

I am currently listening to Suze Orman Money Class at the television. It’s pretty much a sale book pinch. However, her stuff that can eventually help people with dealing with their money, there’s no doubt about that. I am not that a fan of Suze Orman since the time she mistreated Nadya Suleman with the help of Oprah, the TV queen. I think she must be a very frustrated person thinking she knows it all. It’s not because Suze Orman is a bestselling author that she’s necessarily a good person. Personally, I never had been able to watch a full TV episode of the Oprah show. There’s something about her that disturbed me and I don’t know exactly what it is.

But my feelings are completely different when it comes to Rosie O’Donnell. Back when I was a teenager, I used to listen to her show and I was just very entertain by her interaction with her guests and also the piano man even if I didn’t exactly understand all of what it was said because it was all in English. However, the Rosie O’Donnell show was absolutely terrific. She now has a new show on the Oprah channel but I didn’t have the chance to watch since it started.

Suze Orman is a big talker of emergency fund. And I am not. I don’t have saving. Everything is pretty much pack in stocks. That’s because of what I am trying to build. And it does also have a lot to do with my personal situation. I am a single fresh babe (lol) with basically no responsibilities what so ever and I am proud of that. I don’t have a huge payment to do on a mortgage each month and I don’t have children to take care of. Emergency funds are a must, but are not a necessity when your portfolio is full of stocks and especially when you are a single fresh babe like myself or single fresh man.

There’s many ways to deal with money and it’s all about finding the right way for you.

In my case, the risks I am taking are calculated. Being in Canada help also. We are not completely immunized from a recession, but chances are lower here in this side of the bother than it is in the US. How could had predicted that one day, the American dream would had become Canadian? I wasn’t ready for the 2008 events and for everything else that followed after that.

Currently, Suze Orman is talking about dividend saying that is have nothing to do if the market is down or up, it’s about getting paid each quarter. And I think that this reach a lot of what Susan Brunner was said in her last comment, to focus more on dividend payment and not that much on the current value of my portfolio. I must be around 10k in capital loss right now. Major part of the current capital loss I am experiencing is related to the current value of my portfolio. There’s no real capital loss unless stocks are being sold. While holding, capital losses are papers stuff only. It has nothing to do with the real value. There’s the market value that played the yo-yo all the time and there’s the essence value.

Do you really think that the real value of Just Energy (JE) is below 10$? I don’t think so, but that’s the value it is trading on in the market. The smartest move would be to buy now when some amazing stocks like Just Energy are trading so low. Because those stocks won’t remain under valued forever. But this is certainly the most difficult part of all, to think outside the box. Each single time a stock crash happens, it’s extremely difficult to remain believer and think that, one day, again, the market will rebound. Right now, that’s the major problem I am dealing whit.

There’s a huge space in between what I really want and hoping for and what is happening right now in the market. And that in between became to be quite frightening. Just like if it will never get better.

In the right column of my blog, I have this section name “My investment portfolio is now at 156 233.56$”. Under that section I had “Only missing 43 766.44$ before reaching my FIRST 200 000$”. I am getting rid of that second line right away. No more money goal, no more cold hard contact with the reality that is disturbing and disgusting. I think it best way to protect myself from doing anything stupid, like selling my stocks, that being just one example.

In case you’re asking, I am not a fan of Suze Orman. Not at all.

While Suze Orman with her blond short hair and super white teeth is desperately trying to sell her books at television, I am going to check on what’s going to be my next investment while wearing my brand new perfume if you don’t mind. This upcoming week is payday. So be ready.