A second article of mine had been declined by Associated Content!

Oh no! Not again! It’s so…….. FUNNY, especially knowing that I received comments on my blog previously about my poor writing skills. But of course, I didn’t believe them and in result, well, of course lol, my article got rejected by Associated Content.

English is not my mother tongue and I only learn in English when I was attempting high school. That’s my excuse. I taught for a little while to open a My first 50 000$ Web site in French – it might be a good idea – without having a duplicate Web site of this current one.

Anyway, no worries, I plan to work again on the same article and resubmit it to Associated Content – one day. Like gees, those guys at AC are really reading the stuff that we are submitting… LOL.

I am not too sad about it. But just disappointed. I am going to review the article. I need someone to review the grammar and the spelling for me. The only reason why it’s been declined it’s in reason “Content must exhibit correct grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation per our Submission Guide”. The article is about me trying to reach 50 000$ in investment. So I cannot just go and ask someone to review the article for me as I don’t want everyone to know about… my secret. LOL. I am can of stock here, me and my poor English. But I might be able to do it by my own. As I said, one day.

Maybe I am not that of a writer – but I am one of those super good investor lol. My portfolio is doing quite well! And I am so regretful for Derek Foster! But will see if this is just a temporary “good” situation or if it will continue this way or – if stocks market will go crazy again. But for how…. it’s EXTRAORDINARY. Awesome to see TSX flying to close 10 000 points again. It’s been so difficult for me during those past years to make money from my investment. I think I did a good thing to begin to invest back in 2008 – in the middle of worldwide recession crisis. This might actually made of me one of the best investor of all time lol. As always, just making fun of the whole thing. Don’t forget I am almost lost myself with that Associated Content dudes who don’t want of my article – but which I can fully understand. My writing is just way too creative for Associated Content. Anyway, let’s move on.

Now, no matter if I am going to take vacation or not, I decide to purchase stocks anyway… but now, I hesitate between SIF.UN or PIF.UN… PIF.UN is quite tempting knowing that the dividend is higher than SIF.UN. I am just confused as always.

Let’s take a quick look at my stocks portfolio:

Sprott Inc. (SII): 500 stocks
April 19: 2 155$

Today at 12:14AM: 4.65$/stock: 2 325$

+170$

Timminco (TIM): 200 stocks
April 19: 760$

Today at 12:14AM: 2$/stock: 400$
-360$

Blue Note Mining (BN): 12 000 stocks (the company almost belong to me!)
April 19: 120$
Today at 12:14AM: no change.

Blue Note Mining is now from TSX-V and I don’t know what’s going on with it for now.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): 102 stocks
April 19: 3 411$

Today at 12:14AM: 37$/stock: 3 774$

+363$

Hanwei Energy Services (HE): 300 stocks
April 19: 543$

Today at 12:14AM: 2$/stock: 600$

+57$

Methanex Corporation (MX): 102 stocks
April 19: 1 290$
Today at 12:14AM: 15.21$/stock: 1 551.42$

+261.42$

Fortis (FTS): 101 stocks
April 19: 2 303$

Today at 12:14AM: 22.74$/stock: 2 296.74$
-6.26$

Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN): 519 stocks
April 19: 4 065$

Today at 12:14AM: 9.23$/stock: 4 790.37$
+725.37$

Livingston International Income Fund (LIV.UN): 102 stocks
April 19: 435$

Today at 12:14AM: 5.50$/stock: 561$

+126$

Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (PIF.UN): 101 stocks
April 19: 1 411$

Today at 12:14AM: 13.74$/stock: 1 387.74$

-23.26$

TOTAL:
April 19: 16 493$
Today: 17 806.27$

+ of 1 313.27$!!!

TSX, you rock my world.

It’s may be the right time for a vacation

Talking about pager… a friend of mine call me 3 times this evening on my pager. I couldn’t call her right away because I was on calls. When arrived my lunch time, I finally gave her a call. I learn that she was planning to go to Vancouver this summer and wonder if I wanted to come. She plan to use the train, she had been giving away a free ticket because she’s military. The cost of the ticket for me would had been of 900$, and this being for the transportation only. I told her it was a bit too much for me. Than, she told me she was moving to Halifax to work at the base out there. She’s going at the end of May for 2 weeks. I told her I could go if my vacations will be accepted.

I fill out the form in a hurry this evening. I just hope to have an answer as soon as possible so I plan something for the accommodation. Halifax has actually 4 universities. It makes it pretty affordable to stay in for 2 weeks in a 2 bedrooms place. Its look like I am now going to use a bit of that more than 1 000$ I have in vacation pay!

I went to Halifax one time in my life when was a teenager and I would very much like to go once again. The delay is quite short to plan everything put hopefully it will work out. It will be very fun if I could also receive my vacation pay from my weekend job.

Now, knowing this, by next investment I wanted to make with Energy Savings Income Fund (SIF.UN) is being put on hold for now. Until I decide what to do and see what happen next.

Associated Content Team had answered to one of my post on Twitter!

I was so surprised to receive a response to one of my post from Associated Content. An inconvenient with Twitter is when someone answer to a post, the answer do not show up on the profile of the user. When I notice Associated Content had added me as follower, well, of course, I add them too… Just a few minutes ago actually. After what, I took a look at Associated Content profile… And there I saw it, a reply to one of my post…

Associated Content actually answers to the post were I was saying that I wanted to become a verified member of Associated Content in order to be eligible to receive payment. But the problem being that I only have a pager (I am old fashion) and the activation code being left on my voicemail only remain active for 5 minutes. On the post, I was saying that 5 minutes wasn’t long enough for me to run to a pay phone, listen to the message and go back to my place to than after enter the verification code on the Web page… Chaotic situation. Very kind of them to have answer to my post!

Which show just how miserable I am. But I like to have a pager for now because it’s cheap. One day, when I will be reaching my first 50 000$, I will get myself a cell phone and if possible, it’s going to be a pink Blackberry lol.

TSX is doing better

Investing in stocks had been a crazy adventure. Only 3 days left and I am going to be able to make my next investment – which may be the one and only one for the month of May since I have to deal with a lower overall salary until I decide to hit again the workplace and begin my job search. As announced previously, I plan to purchase 200 units of Energy Savings Income Fund (SIF.UN). This is the investment that will make me become a real investor :)

I had been looking into the TSX in this beautiful afternoon and my portfolio is doing well. Stocks price are going higher, for major part of my portfolio. SIF.UN had been falling to 12$, but is now at 12.10$... I look like to purchase 200 units of SIF.UN at 12$. A net value of 2 400$. And not to forget the very high commission of 29$ being charged by TD Waterhouse for the transaction.

I am definitely going to be job searching really soon.

I do not want to be slow down because of a lack of financial resources

I am almost there – I am missing less than 10 000$ to reach my first 50 000$ in investment. I am so close to my goal; it’s almost scandalous to be suffering from one lay-off and just, a few weeks ago, another bad news, a cut in my hours at what was my morning job. Anyway, I have to move forward. I am not the type who remains static for very long. I like to move and take actions. For now, I am still enjoying free-time during my morning. I am currently trying to make money online. OH YEAH lol…

And trying to make money online is… a painful experience… exhausting… frustrating… but, at the same time, very fun. See, I am using the word “trying” to make money online because fact is, I didn’t make any money online yet. Actually, if you check somewhere on the right column of this page, you’ll see a new paragraph title “Online revenue…” and under it, you will see 0$, that I put in green. A wealthy 0$ lol. It’s my way to have fun with it.

I really like what John Chow says on his blog about making money online. John Chow explains that his blog is not his main source of income and that he sees the money he makes from his blog as bonus money. By thinking the whole “making money online” type of deal over and over again, I begin to think (for once lol) and what John Chow said really made sense to me. For now on, this is exactly how I am seeing the whole “make money online” deal, as a hobby. On an upper scale, the deal is to turn the hobby into a dollars-machine-give-me-some-money-for-free lol. I really enjoy John Chow blog and I like to “Tweet” his posts all over the place on Twitter. It’s crazy.

I am not a big fan of CashCrate, pay-per-click programs or others of the same type. I just don’t like to complete online surveys. And I cannot stand being on front of my computer and be clicking on some ads or completing offers. Look like I am going to be job searching soon lol.

I way prefer to work on my blog. What I love about blogging is writing. And about writing, just yesterday, I submit an original article of mine to Associated Content. It will be the second try-out for me. And I hope this one will be the one! Stay tune and take a look at my profile on Associated from time to time. Maybe one day you’ll see one of by article being publish under my profile. One day... lol...

About my next investment: Energy Savings Income Fund (SIF.UN)

Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN) and Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (PIF.UN) are both great, but I guess adding another company to my portfolio cannot hurt. Since I do not have that much money, I prefer to diversify my investments in different companies. It makes me feel more confident about me, my little money and my investments.

I had been thinking about Energy Savings Income Fund (SIF.UN) for a while now. I will soon take actions – but not before my next paycheck, which will be next week. Last Wednesday came that good news for SIF.UN with the acquisition of Universal Energy Group. I was expecting a major boom around SIF.UN after the agreement was made, but it was actually not the case. On this last Friday, SIF.UN was loosing 2 cents to close at 12.48$. But why? Shouldn’t be the complete opposite that should happen?

I am never going to understand the stocks market.

Another good example of the non-sense of stocks market: on April 29th Pembina Pipeline Income Fund announced an agreement with Talisman Energy Canada to acquire its Cutbank Complex midstream gas gathering and processing facilities. Fantastic! And I was expecting a major BOOM around my wonderful PIF.UN. But it’s quite the opposite that happens. Pembina Pipeline Income Fund value is now down of 63 cents to be now at the value of 13.45$ per stock. I will be surprise to see the price false down under 12$ – which is the price I purchase units of PIF.UN back on March 13th of this year.

In both case, 2 super great companies had announced acquisition. After what, their value haven’t rise.

The stocks market definitely does not make any sense at all!

Updating my debt situation

Life was great when I was making more than 3 000$ per month after deductions in salary. But now, things begin to be rough, for the first time ever since I am in Montreal. I didn’t have too much problems to find work in Montreal I have to say. My situation had been good and 2008 had been a wonderful year as I almost reach 45 000$ in income. But now, with massive job lost of mine – one lay-off and one job were my hours had been cut, I felt almost desperate about the whole situation. Great thing I have this blog it help me to focus and keep my mind clean.

The whole situation is not that bad as I plan to be able to make just a bit more than 2 000$ per month. I will be able to meet ends and my bills, but as my goal was to. Earning an average of 3 000$ per month was the perfect situation for me – I have enough to pay my expenses and I have enough to invest in stocks every 2 months or so and so on. I guess I will have to slow down until I find another day job. As for now, I am getting lazy – I stay up very late at night and wake up… late… just like I love to do.

I still be able to invest in 200 units of Energy Savings Income Fund (SIF.UN) next month, as soon as I received my next pay check. So far, I am happy with my overall portfolio and dividend earnings are super good. I just cannot wait to see my dividend earnings rise over time.

Another interesting that I find about myself is that I really like to work in call center. Lately, we had been receiving calls like crazy. Time pass very quickly and one thing I pray for is for having my overtime back at my evening job. I am so in need of money right now! The problem with me is I want too much. I plan to take a couple of weeks off of morning jobs and just enjoying the rest for now.

About my debts situation:

Student loans debt: 10 627.99$

Credit cards debt: 3 000$ at 4.99% for 6 months

Credit line debt: 2 992.74$
Total: 16 620.73$

Having to manage 16 620.73$ is not that bad. But can online money be of any help? That’s what I want to check over. I plan to take the month of May to invest my time on my blog and other way to make money online. Will see if I can make money online.

Investing like a pro of Bay Street with no or little knowledge: possible or not?

This is basically my own personal challenge at this time. I had the time of my life since I begin this blog back in 2007. Even before that, I had done my first investment with Desjardins Fidelity True North Fund. It was a 1 000$ investment back than. I will never forget – first, all the misery made by Desjardins over me just for one little investment. It’s just they are trying to cover themselves through too much paper works and investor profile. And after what, I am supposed to be satisfied with the quality of their services?

I do not recommend Desjardins financial services to anyone. As for myself, I remain as far as possible of whatever is call a “Desjardins advisor”. Annoying, inconvenient, bad services and the list could be longer. I actually live another bad experience with Desjardins not too long ago for my 2008 RRSP. I just didn’t get the change to write about it yet. But it shouldn’t be too long.

Anyhow, for me, the real fun begins when I purchase my first stocks earlier in 2008. Back than, it’s 500 stocks of Sprott Asset Management (SII) that I had purchased at almost 10$ per stock. In date of today, this investment could be seen as a mistake as SII stock only worth less than 5$ each but – there’s a but – SII provide dividend and they also provide a one time special dividend of 10 cents per stock. Overall, the investment was not too bad made from my part, I could have done worst. But I did worst with Timminco (TIM).

My biggest mistake was when I purchased Timminco – now worth less than 2$ per share – just to follow the natural investment flow. There was a time in 2008 when Timminco was very popular – it had been called the “TSX darling” and so on. I was stupid and I invest in Timminco just to do like the big guys. And talking of big guys, I am thinking of Sprott Asset Management who own 16.9% of common shares of Timminco, AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. (50.7%!!!), and Fidelity Management & Research Company (14%!!). Again today, I had received another “voting package” coming from Timminco. All of those Management Information Circulars I had received lately are just too much reading for one person.

Let’s say that for now on, I stay away from “popular” stocks. In order to get a good portfolio I copied Derek Foster portfolio. From my portfolio, Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN), Livingston International Income Fund (LIV.UN) and Pembina Income Fund (PIF.UN) are directly coming from Derek Foster portfolio or from what use to be Derek Foster portfolio. As for the rest, like Fortis (FTS), Hanwei Energy Services (HE), Methanex Corporation (MX), and also Sprott Asset Management (SII), they come from my reading and other.

I don’t know for sure if it’s possible to invest like a real pro without having any good knowledge of the whole investment deal. But for sure, what I know, is that no major mistake can be made if instincts are being followed and if not too much money is being involved in each investment. By “not too much money” I mean an investment of less than 5 000$. As a small investor, 5 000$ represent a lot of money.

Like nothing is easy. And especially now, as my revenues had been cut because of different factors – job looses and other. And also add to this the fact that I had to pay almost 3 000$ in income taxes. This year, the Canada Revenue Agency had received a big paycheck from my little person. And knowing how much I had work so hard, well, it’s not fair! I am not giving away my precious money so our Governor General Michaëlle Jean can travel the world on myself! I would just like to travel alone without her husband – it will make it cheaper for poor Canadian tax payers.

Anyhow, I guess it is possible to invest like a pro if diversification rules are being followed – the same one that had been ignored by Henri-Paul Rousseau former CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. And just to thank you more, we are offering you 378 750 $ so you can live with your peace of mind. I do not have any investment made at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and I do not plan to invest any of my money with Caisse de dépôt – even with their new CEO Michael Sabia who had gave up on almost everything he had for Quebec. Quebec Province does not deserve someone like Michael Sabia to be in charge of a major part of its finance. Quebec just deserves what happen in 2008 - a $40-billion drop. I won’t ever invest in the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec because it’s too much of Quebec stuff in a one investment and their new CEO Michael Sabia – who’s a look-a-like Woody Allan if you ever notice – won’t remain CEO of the Caisse forever. After Mr. Sabia, a new CEO will come one day and will do what Henri-Paul Rousseau did – screwing up everything!

That’s why since I start investment – I pick my own fund and do what I want with my money because when it’s come to my money, I do not trust no one, especially Quebeckers. I am just not open to any suggestions at all and if it happens that I find another fantastic mutual fund like Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund, I will, again, invest in mutual funds. I am not closing the door to mutual funds. Because I find Derek Foster too much into the market and in his books he literally closes the door to any mutual funds.

My Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund is one of those funds! The minimum investment to be made is of 1 000$, which is pretty affordable. The only inconvenient is at the time of the selling – if it had to happen. It cost 50$ to sale the investment, no matter how much you have at the time of the selling. Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund is the type of investment you made for the long run.

Amateur can bet the pro without any trouble if simple rules are being followed. And for this, the reading of Derek Foster books had been more than helpful. In my life, I never read anything else related to finance other than Derek’s Foster books. I recommend them to anyone even if he had decided to sale out EVERYTHING and almost kill me along the way lol. An interview of Derek Foster with the very good looking George Stroumboulopoulos host of The Hour can be view at:

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=1063578735

And what if amateur investor like me would have more gut and be more powerful than the Henri-Paul Rousseau and Derek Foster of this world? I guess I have the answer to my question lol. But on this, of course, I am only joking. And only time will tell if I can beat, if not the TSX, the pros.

Being out of morning job is not that bad after all

I was first quite frustrating about loosing my morning shift, but now, things are getting pretty easy as I begin to really have enough of the job. But for now, I keep the weekend shift. Their surveys were long, a lot of answering machine along the way – and than they cut my morning shift because of my low productivity. But it’s not my fault if I was always reaching answering machine.

Anyway, it’s been 2 days now that I haven’t been working during the morning and I quite enjoy the rest. I would very much things to stay the same for a while. Working at my evening job and there at the weekend give me something close to 550$ after deductions. I will have enough to reach ends. But knowing myself, things won’t probable remain the same for too long. I am in need of money and my first 50 000$ is waiting for me. I also more than 10 000$ to invest in my RRSP of 2009. This year, I am going to invest in my RRSP as much as I can – I do not want to pay around 3 000$ extra in taxes again this year. NEVER AGAIN.

This makes it a good opportunity to take a break and after begin a job search. I will try to look for a better job – something else than surveys. My evaluation of last week at my job was quite better and do not fear anymore. The month of April has been quite something and I hope May will be better. I also plan to purchase 200 units of Energy Savings Income Fund (SIF.UN) on the first week of May. I couldn’t do anything with my money in April because of all those taxes I have to pay. Very annoying. And now I am going to work again for my evening shift.

My first vote as a shareholder of Methanex Corporation, Fortis, Sprott Asset Management and Livingston International Income Fund

I received the voting package one after the other through the mail not too long ago. The last one I received was the one coming from Livingston International Income Fund. And of course, none of the annual general meeting of shareholders is taking place in Montreal. I suppose I will vote through the Internet.

Strangely, for me who is French, I had received all of the above documentation in English. Last time, for Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), I had received the voting package in French, which I quite enjoy because I find the reading interesting. It was of a good reading and easy to understand – even for beginner like myself. I find it disgusting for those companies to send me their reports in English as my broker account is set-up in French. In consequence, I might vote against all directors.

As for the rest, I find the reading of the other report I had received pretty reading and I actually gave up on the reading. The one coming from Livingston International Income Fund is the worst one as its do not content any picture of its directors, among other things. As for the Methanex documentation, I quickly gave up on the reading. How annoying! The documentation coming from Bank of Nova Scotia was much more enjoyable. At least, there not too much things shareholders have to vote for. One question I find pretty annoying to vote for is the verification the company hired. Please, just be smarter and hired the cheapest one and no one will actually have to vote on such stupidity. The question appears on all documentation, including the one from Bank of Nova Scotia.

I just hope to be done with the reading and the voting very soon.