Another month

We are now in February, another month had passed by without me being able to reach my first 50 000$ lol But that’s ok.

The situation is looking a bit better at my jobs, even if the overtime had been cut at my evening job. And now, I begin to regret times where overtime was available and I wasn’t doing any or so little… But again, the overall is not looking so bad at the end, but only at the end. And I get a point where I get exhausted, just like for last Sunday evening. But I felt a lot more better Monday morning and I didn’t sleep in like I taught I would as I was feeling better than the previous evening. The weekly routine is quite awful for me. Week after week, day after day, I know exactly what my day will be, from 9 am to midnight, from Monday to Friday, no surprises, or almost none. And than, again, Saturday and Sunday….(lol)…. But good thing it’s only an 8 hours shift on the weekend. And the fact is that if it wasn’t from it, I wouldn’t be able to purchase as much stocks and I really enjoy investing, as I keep writing.

I plan maybe to take a couple of days of vacations from my evening job. I now accumulate something like 1 000$ in vacation pay. I try to cash in the money without having to take the vacations, but it’s seemed impossible. And I taught of that idea that it’s should be aloud by government to cash in vacation pay if it’s for RRSP investments. I am in this situation like now.

All my little efforts seem to be so vain lol. Concrete real-life example: I had 30 000$ in my TD Waterhouse portfolio and now the 30 000$ only worth 18 000$.... lol. And there is multiples reason for this. A bad market and bad choices. Let say I learn from by bad moves. But it’s not that it should be read as bad moves by itself, its just maybe that I am trying too hard. The worst for me was Sprott and Timminco. At this time, Sprott is doing better than Timminco. If only Sprott could reach at least its original stock price, I will sale them all, and instead I would buy TD stocks or BNS or PGF.UN or just something else lol. I doubt Timminco will ever reach back its 20$ or so as the price is so low now. However, I do no regret any my choices and I continue enjoying the market and act stupidly lol. I just be just out of my mind when I purchased BN lol… I am just an operator and a survey girl after all.

My good moves and the ones I am proud of: FTS and PGF.UN. But also BNS and MX. And let’s add to that list LIV.UN and also MX. At this time, I still need a low market so I can invest massively in stocks. Just in 2008, I invest more than 30 000$ in my portfolio. I only need to repeat the same thing for 2009 and 2010. In 2010, I will be 30 and I hope I will be able to reach 15 000$ in dividend earnings at that time. And if, by any chance, the market remain as low as it is now, I will probably be able to built a nice portfolio who could provide more or less 5 000$ in dividend income by the end of 2009. That’s really the goal for 2009. I keep calculating over and over again my dividends earning from the stocks I have so far and I am still like, Wow! I just hope I am getting the whole concept correctly. And who said anyway that you have to understand the company you invest in? Oh yeah, it’s DF again. Well, I do not understand it all but my idea is that if I keep investing, than, something good will come out of it. Stock, market, all those companies, it is all complicated and it make it impossible for me to understand. And I barely know the company I earn. I will not deny it.

Thinking again, the really best would be a 2 years of low market. By low market I mean a market where stocks are cheap enough so I can purchase them all lol. Because I don’t have that much money, when a stock price reach 20$ or more, that’s expensive for me.

I will probably be able to purchase 200 extra stocks of PGF.UN by next week. For a total of 500 at the end, as I already own 300 of those precious stocks. I just pray that the stock price won’t explode in the meantime… !!! I could invest 1 000$ right now, but I prefer to wait and be able to invest around 2 000$ or a bit more and than purchase 200 stocks. At 29$ per trading, I way prefer to wait until next week. I just need to be more patient. But I am pretty please with my portfolio the way it is right now, even if I lost a lot of money and I won’t be too sad if I would have to stop purchasing stocks for a while because of a lack of work, job lost or anything else. From my point of view, my portfolio show a good potential of growing as time pass by. And it’s getting ridiculous, working 70 or more per week as result of a sweet obsession. But as far as I remember working, I almost had been working like this for a long time. And it get at a point that I want to cash in my vacation pay, but it’s seem not to be possible and I find it very unfair knowing that the money could had served for my RRSP.

Nothing else had been done this week for my RRSP. I am really getting bored when it get to it. The only left that I see I could do about it is the Fidelity Frontière Nord mutual fund and also the little money left in ING Direct. But lucky am I if I can reach 5 000$ this way for my 2008 RRSP. The best would be to be able to reach the max possible of 7 000$. But it’s look like things never turn out the way I want.

Another busy week

This week was quite a busy one, as I get another step in the 2008 RRSP direction lol. I transfer the mutual funds I had at CIBC into RRSP. I proceed over the phone only and everything went smooth. The guy was super good with me and once, I just cut him off and I ask him if he was going to offer me to take a loan lol! (I was still shock from my experience with RBC!!lol). And than he told me that no, he was just letting me no that he could had work out something better for my RRSP, like one of their portfolios but I said no. But it was gentle from him to offer me that and it’s really the best experience I had with an advisor. And it was over the phone. The name of the guy appears on the paper and it’s seem like it might be a sexy Italian guy. He had a very nice voice.

Even with those changes ahead, even with my new RRSP mutual funds at RBC, I do not reach the 7 000$ I need to save in taxes. Anyway, I try very hard. One thing that didn’t help me at all is the fact that the RBC O'Shaughnessy Canadian Equity Fund is close. Which make it impossible to move it into RRSP. At this time, the only « transformation » left and possible is the Fidelity Frontiere Nord mutual fund I own at Desjardins. Lucky am I if, in total, it make an overall of 5 000$ for my RRSP.

Other than that, I am quite busy with all my jobs and other, but the hardest is my morning job, where I have to call almost 2 times per day on weekdays to see if there work available for the next morning. At a point, it’s really driving me crazy and I got tired. I am lucky enough that when I end earlier or when no work is available, I can run to my evening shift and do overtime, as overtime is available even if we are not that much busy. I find it really strange that’s some overtime is available, but I believe they still need, as a contractor, meet their hours and that’s why overtime is available. But it make it very long to make a 12 hours shift at the same job in one day and sometimes, when I learn in the morning that there’s not enough work for me, I just go back home or I go to a coffee shop or do something.

Like right now, I don’t know for sure if I will be working tomorrow morning, but form my end, I don’t think so. Worst part is not having a phone or cell at home so I could call before actually getting out, but I do not have a phone. So each morning, I get ready, phone in when I close to their office, and if they told me yes, there’s work, I just go in and if not, well, at least, there’s my evening job.

But right now, I am tired and if something happing tomorrow, well, I will just go back to sleep. I will be able to sleep in until 14h30 if I feel like it.

But the worst coming from the inside of my left hand. I have this pain since the end of December. Its all begin when I invite that guy to try to fix my laptop for free to the movie, just for fun. But unfortunately for me, he didn’t know where was located the parking lots – its true it’s was a bit difficult to find. And unfortunately for me again, he park in a place where the snow was in ice and once he wanted to go, he was stuck there for good. So I push and I push so hard on the back of his car, there was nothing to do. We were stock until someone stop by and had the proper equipment to get the car out of the snow.

Not that it’s that painful, but it’s very annoying, that little feeling I have in my left hand. I don’t think my hand is broken, as I have no problem to open or close or move my fingers, but anyway, I feel that pain and its make me realize that hey, inside my hand, there might be muscle or something like that lol.

For now, the overall portrait is not looking so bad, but I desperately need a hair cut lol

Working to make it happen

This past week had been quite awful for me. Other than the RRSP at RBC part, I invest in Livingston International (LIV.UN). I purchase the stocks at 5.99$ or 6$. I purchase 100 of them. The annual dividends was supposed to be at 1.70$ or so, but now its down to 50 cents. Facing dividends cut is very sad, but its look likes its part of the game. I don’t regret the purchase any way. And it might be the reason why the stock price false down to less than 6$. Facing dividend cuts like taking away the dream of financial freedom. But still, the overall portrait is not looking that bad for now.

I take a review of my futures dividend earnings, and it should be something like this:

LIV.UN : 100 x 50 cents = 50$
PGF.UN : 300 x 2.70$ = 810$
SII : 500 x 10 cents = 50$
MX : 100 x 0.62 cents = 62$
BNS : 100 x 1.96$ = 196$

Total Dividend earnings with stocks I have so far: 1 168$

Which I am quite happy with. I just can’t wait to see the money coming or seeing it « dripping » - if only it can. I enroll in an automatic DRIP. I gain one MX stock that way back in December. I hope to gain enough money in 2009 to continue to purchase stocks from time to time. What I wish for is a low market so I can continue to purchase stocks at cheap price. Investing in stocks is very addictive and the more I buy, the more I am being additive.

Other than the RRSP part, I have 2 horrible news. At my daytime morning job, they are facing lack of work, which mean I probably won’t be able to make my 22.5 hours per week every weeks. This is quite awful for me. And also, at my weekend job, even if I call to confirm my weekend schedule, its seem like I am not on the schedule for next weekend, so I have to call this Monday. And even for tomorrow morning, I do not know if I am working for sure, as I totally forget to call at the end of the day on Friday… It’s getting more and more complicated and I just can’t wait to leave the workplace forever! It’s driving me crazy.

For now, I just have to complete the very complicated RRSP part. After what, I will see next if I return job searching again. My life is pretty exhausting.

And another bad luck of mine, like if I needed another one, the zipper of my winter coat is broken!! I cannot just put on my coat probably. I might need to purchase a new one. The coat is so old and looks a bit old; it just doesn’t worth it to get just the zipper change on it. I guess I will purchase a new one. Just like if I needed an other bad luck…

SOS 2008 RRSP

Yesterday, I finish (again!) early at my morning job, so I call RBC to transfer the mutual funds I transfer too quickly into the free of tax savings account into RRSP. And it was quitted of a challenge. At first, I call and ask if they could transfer the mutual funds I had in the free of tax account outside of it, so after, I could just visit a financial advisor who could had just transferred everything into RRSP and printed out the taxes paper I desperately need. I got the entire plan in my head on how it should have been done, but it didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted!! lol!! The person I first talk to over the phone explain to me that they would be able to do all the transactions needed onsite. So I ask if someone was available for that afternoon. I had an appointment an hour later with a financial advisor. Until there, everything was working find. Until I actually meet the financial advisor lol!!!

It didn’t turn out the way I wanted. The financial advisor didn’t agree with the move, from moving the mutual funds out of the free of tax account into RRSP. She wanted me to take a RRSP loan at 4.75% with no payment for the first 2 months or something like that.

But hey, where in the world was I going to take the money for a loan? I already have 15 000$ or so in debts right now. Anyway, as I saw she just didn’t want to follow my plan, I apologize to her, saying I had to think about it. But the worst part was when she actually tell me that investing in mutual funds was for long term investment (like am I looking that dumb) and explain I should definitely take a loan and invest in… no mutual funds (that was the worst part was to come) but in MONEY MARKET FUNDS. And I the end, forget about making money through my investments!!! What a shame!

BUT WHY DID SHE WANT ME TO INVEST IN MONEY MARKET FUNDS?

I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to destroy her self-esteem forever.

She gave me a card that I throw away in a garbage can. Before that, she told me she would give me a call to see if I was interested. But I told her not too bother, that I was going to call her (lol) and that anyway, the number I had was just paging number.

Immediately after, I call RBC. And over the phone I explain what I wanted without talking about the meting I just had and without talking about the RRSP loan. But the agent I talk too also suggest me a RRSP loan him too! I was liked what the hell is going on?

RBC is too sell oriented and a bank should be there to help out small investor and it’s a real shame that having to deal with the stupidest financial advisors of all time and ever of my life I will invest through a financial institution. With a brokerage account – no investor profile, no « update » needed (because if I do not update, everything get freeze and out of control).

Anyway, at the end, I explain to the agent that I didn’t have any money left for new investment this year and that I already had a student loan. It was like a desperate situation. It was like no one was willing to help me! I am the one who’s working 80 hours per week for the money and things are going to be one the way I want them! And it did!

But he finally agrees to help me out. But before that, he put me on hold, and I wait and wait and than, I learn the happy news, it was going to be ok; he will transfer everything into RRSP.

But there again (lol!!), I run out of luck.

He calls me in the evening around 8PM because one of the funds I have is now close and it couldn’t be move into RRSP. Financial system is so suck, the only thing it make me wanna do is to run away and never look back. For the rest, it was ok, but the other funds had been put into RRSP. Finally.

Financial advisors really suck and they are just like sale persons and I really dislike financial advisors. I try many times to deal with them, but each time, it didn’t work out too well, as they wanted to keep too much control on my assets. Like I don’t have too much money here and all the decisions regarding my money will be mines. All mines, for the better or the worst.

Dealing with bank, financial advisor and mutual funds, but especially mutual funds is complicated. Its seem like I couldn’t just get the thing transfer like that. They had to sell, and purchase back to transform it into RRSP. Or something like that. But I do not really want to learn more about it. What a nightmare. Or what a nightmare am I.

Next step, is CIBC and Desjardins. I am basically taking everything I have out of RRSP (as mutual funds) and turning them into RRSP. It’s taking a lot of my time and I find taxes, RRSP and financial advisors very annoying and frustrating.

I now understand how it’s all work

And I am very excited and I need more cash! Because I want to Stop working right now! But in 2 hours from now, I will be back at work.

At the time I write this, I taught that PGF.UN was provided a 2.04$ annual dividend…. I was so wrong, but I don’t remember I get the 2.04$ info from where. No better source than the Web site of the company itself… I visited PGF.UN Web site… and oh surprise, the annual dividend is being set at 2.70$... Knowing I purchase last week 300 stocks, I will earn, in 2009, the income of 810$ of that investment alone… WOW!

It took me times and 3 DF books to understand but I finally get it, purchasing stocks is the way out. And it’s part of the reason why it didn’t take me too long before purchasing PGF.UN. For a 9.70$ per stocks, I received 2.70$. Which is around 21% of the initial value of 9.70$ in return.

I read here and there that there was going to have a dividend cut around this stocks. But still, I do not mind and I do not worry too much about it. On this date, the PGF.UN Web site still advertise 2.70$ in annual dividend.

I just keep thinking about it and went with this idea:

I do not make any big expenses and usually, my expenses for a month are around 1 200$, up to 1 500$ when I am in a shopping mood. So lets say I am need of a total income of 15 000$ per year. PGF pay 2.70$ per share.

If I calculate: 15 000$ ⁄2.70$ = 5 556 stocks. Which mean I need 5 556 stocks of PGF.UN to reach an income of 15 000$ per year. It’s about all I need for my little living.

Right now, PGF is at 9.81$.

5 556 x 9.81$ = 54 504.36$

All I need is the amount of 54 504.36$ and invest in all in PGF.UN.

But of course, I cannot just invest in a one stock. But….. It’s quite tempting to do so! Especially with PGF.UN.

My goal is not to become rich, it’s just to make my life easier and, if not retired early, just make a more comfortable living and move in something that’s a bit bigger than a 1 and a half apartment lol. And after that, who care about the market volability?

On my every day life

As I just get up early to go to work this morning for nothing. There was no work for me and I had been send back home. I am getting sick of this situation as sometime there’s work and some time not. It’s getting really frustrating. But it was part of my fault, as I didn’t call the previous evening to see if there was work for the next morning. I didn’t call because I taught there was enough work. Yesterday, I did my full shift, 4.5 hours, and everything went fine. Anyway, it’s a chance I can write about it, its provide at least a small release. I call it therapeutic blogging.

The trick with having multiple jobs is to remain calm when critical situation like this one happen. But I feel I deserve better treatment. In the morning, I am free from 8-9am until 3pm the latest. I can barely work 22.5 hours per week at the morning job I have right now and it’s been going on like this for several weeks now. And not only for me, for all other employees too.

I do not really want to get involve into job searching as I dislike searching for job and at a certain point, I just gave up, get into 3 jobs and that’s all. But now the plan is getting hurt a bit because one of them is just not working out correctly. I give myself until the end of the week to see what I will do about it. For now, I enjoy my free morning. But I am just not using the time correctly as I had my RRSP to look at and other. At this time, the situation is not critical. Last week, I work around 19 hours or so, and earn 200$. I just want to earn extra cash at this time.

I just take a quick look at my stocks and right now, PGF.UN is up to 9.83$, FTS is at 24.27$, SSI remain at 4$, which is better, and TIM down to 4.29$, BNS up at 31.52$, MX up at 12.04$, my funny BN down at 0.02 cents… and I could continue watching like this all day long, but it wouldn’t make any difference.

I had a friendly talk, if I can call with a colleague of mine. It was getting really quiet and than he begins to ask me why I was working at this place, the salary is low; I am bilingual (!!) and so on. The funny part came when he told me that I was the only one around who was a Quebecker and than, I told him proudly that I wasn’t a Quebecker, that I am from New Brunswick and so on… I didn’t go through the overall explanations, but part of the reason I have that night shift because its allow me to have a morning and beginning of the afternoon other job. And its also allow me to wok at another place during the weekend. But of course, I didn’t go through all this with him.

And another part of the reason why I remain like this is that before I had a well paying job, back in somewhere 2006, I was around 20$ per hour, but too much was taking away from the pay check – part of it was for the wealth benefits we were receiving and they were also taking money for my RRSP. That year, for the taxes, I was all mess up and really dislike the initiative, as I almost end up investing too much in my RRSP. Anyway, at the end, I was only touching 535$ after taxes per week on my pay check and I couldn’t take any other job with that one because it was too much. It’s after that job experience that I begin to make big money and invest in stocks and so on. And I am happily ever after and never regret the move.

Why Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund is such a pain?

I invest 1 000$ in the Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund back on January 5th over the phone with my broker. I taught everything was fine… until I consult my account online. Than, on the 9th, at the time I purchase some PGF stocks, the order had not been executed. I could clearly see that the order had been placed as I wanted, but the problem was that the order haven’t been executed and it date of today, the issue is still the same, even if I had been told by TD that the order would had been executed by Friday (of the 9th). I was quitted disappointed because when I proceed to the purchase over the phone on the 5th of January, I wasn’t told anything regarding the time of the process.

TD Waterhouse really suck and those people do not give a damn about small investors. If I would had knows it would had take so much time, I would probably not invest in the Crestsreet Alternative Energy. Instead, I would have purchased an extra 100 stocks of PGF.UN, which would had made a total of 400 stocks at an annual dividend of 2.04$...

Last week that just pass, I do not what happen to me, I just borrow almost 5 000$ on my credit lign and I invest in that miserable mutual fund and all the rest in PGF.UN. I really wanted to make my move. I was fascinated by Crestsreet Alternative Energy and I was totally enthusiast by the 2.04$ annual dividend of Pengrowth Energy.

And just like a fellow reader wrote to me previously, there’s never been a better time to invest, and I really believe it’s true. My only regret is not having enough money to invest. I do not worry too much of the money I took form my credit line.

I now have a tax-free savings account

I was quite busy this week as I try to figure out a plan to make things better for me. I realize – but too lately, that I have invested too much in mutual funds. But I believe it was something I had to figure out by myself. It took be time and several reading if DF books. However, I do not regret any attends I made.

I finally read Money for Nothing of DF. At first, the reading was difficult, but I bring the book at work with me to read over again and some guy notice I was reading and come to me, asking what I was reading. At work, it’s aloud to read a book when do not received calls, but we are not allowed to magazines. And recently, we are not receiving as much calls as usual. I just hope I won’t loose my job.

Anyway, I show him the book and he asked me if I had money invested in stocks. I told him that no, that I was only reading the book for fun, telling him that the author was pretty good and that he had self-published 2 other one before this one and so on. I never told anyone about my investments I do not plan to do so. No one knows about my 50 000$. Let say I do not talk to others about my money. I prefer not too and its part of the reason why I prefer to blog anonymously and just to have fun with it by my own. And I have to say, I would look pretty stupid if I would go out about it, as my 3 jobs pay, 10.68$, 12$ and 10$ per hour.

Earlier this week, I open a tax-free savings account at RBC and I transfer some of my mutual funds in there. I was quite happy to learn that it’s possible to reinvest the amount of money I could withdraw from the savings account. It’s a huge benefit. But knowing how much I am paying in taxes, I really needed something like this at this time as my overall earnings before taxes make it around 43 000$. It’s not that much, but for me, it’s a lot. And it might be a lot for the government too as I expect to be paying extra taxes on this salary, unless I invest in my 2008 RRSP.

As usual, I did not invest in a month-to-month basis in my RRSP. With my terrible job situation, I prefer, as always, to wait at the beginning of the New Year. And with all the investments I made this year, I do not have extra money to invest in my RRSP. At this point, I realized I might have done my move too quick in the savings account. The issue being that if I do not invest the max of my limit for the 2008 RRSP, I will probably have to pay extra in taxes. And I currently do not have a penny left to pay on taxes.

I consider moving some of my non RRSP mutual funds into my 2008 RRSP.

May 2009 be the year

I had been searching lately for a mutual fund or stock that would had help me gain money – knowing that I had lost so much so far. That’s part of the reason why I purchase Fortis. And its part of the reason why I purchase Dereck Foster third book just today actually.

Today I was off from my 2 jobs and I really enjoy the stay. I sleep in and I went downtown. Some stores were open until 9pm. It was amazing.

On my way, I went to Chapter. Read on some magazines about Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears and so on and, it wasn’t plan from me, I went on the upper floors and there, I saw it, it was it, the third book of Dereck Foster. So I told myself, why not? And there you go, I went home with the book. At first, I read a couple of pages, and I was like gees, he is repeating himself from his previous books, talking about mutual funds and their fees and blabla… But than, I begin to read some new content, something about options… There, I decide to purchase the book, as I felt there was something new right there. And I felt that it was important to purchase and not just to read directly on the spot. One of the reason why of this is that everyone deserve to earn money from what they want to share with others and second, I couldn’t understand at first what it was all about so I decide to buy to study the book at home… oh lol! And I didn’t read it yet.

In the meantime, I am just looking for easy alternative to make money. And I am really sucked at investing. I lost around 15 000$ if not more. But anyway, I just continue doing my way. And there it comes, the Creststreet Alternative Energy Fund (CAM400). The fund had provided a very huge benefit of 21.33% within the last 3 months. This is the kind of return I am looking for. I first did a search on MorningStar. Only the Horizons BetaPro catch my eyes, but those are closes now, from what I understand. After what I go through La Presse Affaires. And there I read Creststreet Alternative Energy Fund. The minimum investment is of 1 000$, which is perfect for me. I read in Canadian Business about the fund and for some people, the fund is kind of suspicious. And no one seems to know about the fund fees. And someone told that the fund had provided 1% in return per week…. For 1 000$, I have nothing to loose. And after loosing so much, I decide to give it a try. My next purchase, on Monday 5th will be Creststreet Alternative Energy Fund.

I am now a little engineer

Yesterday, on Christmas evening, I went to an Internet cafe I am use to go, and I test my Wireless connection. It’s now working perfectly well after proceeding with another scan of my computer. I now have Avast as anti-virus. After the scan, I disable the drivers for the Wireless connection. From there, I taught that if I had mess up, I would had purchased a new laptop on Boxing Day… But it’s seem like God might be from my side…

After the drivers were disable I restart the computer and… than, a miracle happen, on Christmas Day, something happen… I got connect on the Wireless connection of the Cafe, which status was Excellent... Just to make sure it wasn’t just a one time deal, I restart my computer, and…. I was still able to connect…. I am really happy about this because I don’t really have enough to cover the cost of a new laptop. I am just having problem to realize that I make this all by myself. Not like I am working on my laptop every day, I just connect to the Internet a few times a week, and than go online for a couple of hours, that enough for me. And its part of the reason why I do not have Internet at home. I just don’t want to pay for something I barely use.

Before I went to the Cafe, I withdraw some money from my banking account, since I was running out of cash, and oh my god, I never smell that kind of smell before, there was a homeless and it was smelling very badly. He was lying somewhere in the back. There’s always some homeless at that place. But I never got any trouble. I thing they are just looking for a place warm for the night. And knowing there’s no bed for all homeless living in Montreal, I don’t mind seeing some when I withdraw money, as long I am not being attack.

Yesterday, I calculated my overall earning, and I have less than ever, not even 30 000$ now. But I believe market will react positively to Barack Obama after January 20 and I should than have at least 35 000$. Market went down really badly. And what’s happening is terrible.

And its part of the reason why I am looking for the next best thing, the product that will make me or believe that I am rich, and I think I have find it. More to come… :)