The Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) is rocking the TSX

I had been quite busy lately and it’s been a blessing because that way, I don’t have time to think much about my portfolio. Some readers are taking real pleasure at smashing my investments. To those little animals, I will say: check out my latest investment in Canadian National Railway Co (CNR)!

I had talked about investing in Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) for weeks! I finally made my move last week. I purchased some Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) stocks at only 65.19$! CNR had closed today session at a fantastic 70.98$!

Unfortunately, it’s not everything that I hold that is performing that well. Think about FR, NFI, DGI.UN, PHS.U, SII and other. BUT, some stuff like PPL, ENF, ATP, KBL, WEQ.UN, BNS and other are performing very well.

So I have a both side portfolio: part of my portfolio is performing well and another part not at all. Overall, the result is ok. I can live with the market volatility as long some stuff in my portfolio is performing well, I can basically go through almost everything. I think we had proved that since I am a 2008 stock market crash survivor.

Right now, I have this chance where I can put more than 1 000$ per month in my investment hobby. I am never getting enough of it. The cash flow and the boat float.

Deal or no deal: more about the Maple Group-TMX Group Inc. acquisition project

I had been living for this moment for MONTHS!

Let’s go back in time. It’s on February 10, 2011 that I decided to purchase some stocks of TMX Group Inc. (X) at 41.97$. For this new acquisition, I had used some of my margin account money. I made this acquisition shortly after learning the merger project between the London Stock Exchange and the TMX Group Inc. (X). There was no doubt in my mind that something important was going on and I wanted to be part of it and make a huge profit. So I place my investment, wait a couple of months, vote in favour of the merger. The vote did not even go through; the TMX decided to cancel the project and had to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the London Stock Exchange. I always find it very weak coming from the TMX Group not to go down to it. They could have made the vote happen, but they decided to cancel everything.

From that time, because the vote did not even happen AND I TOOK TIME TO VOTE AND READ THE BRICK I HAD TO READ BEFORE VOTING F, well, from that time, I knew the TMX Group was all about bullshit, I knew the Maple Group offer was going to go through.

The Maple Group is composed of many banks and pensions funds. Now those major financial institutions want the most precious thing Canadians own: the TMX. Our stock market is very strong. I lived in myself. I am a young investors, I cannot say I went many crash BUT, I went through the 2008 stock market crash. I started investing in stocks shortly before the crash. The effect had been disastrous. However, I had been able to go through this crash without experiencing any lost. Back then, I was using my own money ONLY. Just to add up to the excitement, I decided to borrow to invest and following what, I decided to open a margin account and used the margin account to pay off credit lines debt at a higher interest. It was a good idea, but it’s not exactly what happens. While having more than 50 000$ available in CASH in my broker account, well, I did not use the money to go shopping, but instead, I used part of the money to invest. Was it a good decision? Well, I won’t answer to this question but so far, from December 2011 (when I started the margin thing) to present, well, it all went fine. However, I am exposed to a high level of risk. So my margin thing happens, I lived it, and I am still under margin even on date of today.

So I used margin account money to invest in TMX Group because my chances to win big through a London Stock Exchange deal or even a Maple Group deal were good. I had my chance to make a nice profit out of money I never worked for. And that what turn me on.

Investors had until September 30 to vote for their TMX Group Inc. (X) preference: earn a maximum of cash or a maximum of stocks via the Maple Group acquisition. I picked the maximum of cash option because that will provide me a 50$ per stock. This is quite impressive because I will earn a 50$ per stock out of money I never earned and also, during that time, I also earned dividend from the TMX Group Inc. (X). So who’s being smart now? I am pretty sure the Maple Group offer will go through because financial world is all bullshit and while the Maple Group first rep is a Quebecker of the name of Luc Bertrand is trying to play it smart and corrupt a diamond belonging to Canadians. Because with Quebeckers involved, nothing good is going to happen for the TMX Group.

This being said, I encourage investors to go in favour of a maximum of cash position because the Maple Group is not an existing society being trade on the TMX. No want can really know how much the Maple Group worth. And I don’t myself believe in the value of the Maple Group. Banks and pension funds to own the TMX? Right there, something is not right. As retail investors, we’re pretty much powerless while facing such events, BUT you can decide to avoid the bullshit by selecting a maximum of cash option.

Think twice, once created, the Maple Group could worth a lot less than 50$ per stock. Maple Group is not an active company that is currently being trade on the TSX. That’s my point here. I am not a Maple Group believer and I vote and make my choices following what I think is good or bad. The Maple Group is a real bad thing. Better stay away from it.

I believe in the power of my choices and I believe in the power of the CASH.

My next investment: Enbridge Inc. (ENB)

I had set up an automatic purchase for some stocks of Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) at a value not exceeding 66$ per stock today this early morning. Once I came back home from work, I log in to my broker account and after what I saw that my purchase order go through today at 9:30AM, directly at the opening, at only 65.19$! CNR closed today session at a fantastic 67.34$! That’s quite an awesome profit made in one day only! +2.15$ per share!

My newest investment had performed very well, but I cannot say it’s the case with everything else I hold in my portfolio. My non-registered portfolio closed today session at 103 043.07$. Everything is pretty much down, but stuff like FTS, EIF, ENF, PPL, KBL, PGF and a few other are doing well no matter what.

While being fully invested, the only way to go through this actual recession for me is to continue to purchase high quality blue chips stocks. Now that I am all settle with my new job and my old bedroom, I have the opportunity to save more than ever before. Not that my salary is that huge, but while living in the suburb located far away from the entertainment of the city, it never been easier than this for me to save money. I even find a part-time job here that I may apply to, just to spend more time outside my place you see what I mean? Because my place is also my mom place and my father place... Family life, heavy talking, heavy TV sounds and everything and anything you can’t even imagine! Bla bla bla. I want to hear SILENCE when I blog. I hate noises. I hate to be annoyed and disturb. It’s actually not as bad as its sound. :0)

Now, my only concern is in what to invest next. It’s extremely difficult to target high quality stocks. I want to add some new stuff to my portfolio. I previously wrote about stocks I wanted to add in. While being fully invested, the only good thing to do while facing a recession is... to continue. Because I am totally to BOOST things up on Bay Street with my few thousand dollars. SO BE READY.

Want to know what my next stock investment of October will be?

Enbridge Inc. (ENB). ENB is a Derek Foster stock and Gordon Pape has provided a positive review in his column that appears in my TD Waterhouse account. I think Susan Brunner own some ENB stocks as well, but I am not totally sure. 

It's the blue chips mania. I am ready so be ready.

Welcome in CNR!

I won't be able to purchase my stocks in real time, but I place an order to buy a few stocks of CNR. Despite the fact that its a company based in Quebec province, CNR chart is very impressive and I am in need of something like this. I need a strong company in a week economy to help stabilize my portfolio. Going on with blue chips is the only way to go at this time. I am happy with this future today acquisition. I wanted CNR in for quite sometime.

Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) as next investment

Now this is a real stock crash! But it’s just “another” one. Today, the TSX lost close to the 400 points. This is much more than a little correction. It’s a stock crash. August had been rough enough, but seem like investors are under deep panic and the fear of a global recession is driving the market crazy. Currently, my non-registered portfolio is at a very low 102 780.02$. Usually these days, I was around 107k. Despite being a very beautiful day, at least here in New Brunswick, well the day had been difficult for my portfolio. I was at work, but I gave a quick look at the market and gees, it wasn’t easy to watch. So I quickly moved on to something else and that was it.

Fact is, no matter what, I believe that we are right now in a global recession. It’s not something I myself fear. I am not afraid, but of course, I worry for my investments. I don’t plan to sell anything. The crash of today is enormous and time had come to do something I wanted to do for a real long time: to invest in Canadian National Railway Co (CNR).

Back in August, following the crash, I invested in TransCanada Corp (TRP). TRP closed today session at 41.30$ (+0.10%) and Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) at 65.82$ (+0.26%). And that being despite the fact that the TSX lost closed to 400 point. It’s something that needs to be kept in mind. No matter how bad the market reaction is, CNR and TRP are not being affected by the recession we live in. 

I am fully invested and I always put on the market everything I could. From my point of view, this is the best way to create financial health overtime.

So tomorrow, I am going to boost the Canadian market of a few hundred dollars by investing in a few stocks of Canadian National Railway Co (CNR).

My first car...

One week had passed at my new job. I cannot complaint. It all went very fine for the big major part of it. For the car thing, my mom decided to give me her car. My mom very much like Toyota Yaris car. It’s a cool little car. She went for a second hand silver Yaris. I don’t have too much problems to drive my mom car, an Echo. So now, I am now the owner of an Echo car, which worth about 5 000$ with the winter tires.

After work Friday, I went for registration for my first car insurance. The cost? 1 297$. I took a real basic package that covers for as much as 1 million dollar in case I caused somewhat of a car incident. I could have save close to 200$ if I would have took the 200k protection. Problem being that in case of a major accident, it could happen that the damage reached much more than 200k. So to keep my peace of mind, I went with the 1 million protection and pay in cash the 1 297$ for the car insurance. The amount is quite heavy, but it’s because I never had a car of my own before, I never had been registered as second driver for a car. Personally, I always prefer to use public transportation. A lot more cheaper and safer.

As you can imagine, now I am kind of broke but confident I will be able to catch up in the next couple weeks. My trip to Ottawa, my move from Montreal to New Brunswick, car insurance and ho... shopping, shopping, shopping... you know, all those things needed but I never bother to buy. Like a travel suitcase, shoes, new running shoes, tops, pants and how many other things... But won’t thing for sure, I won’t have to buy anything for a little while and I am currently on a frugal mode. I now have everything I need. And currently, what I really need is fresh new CASH.

Here are my current expenses:

Balance accumulated on different credit cards: 1 918.51$
Car insurance for 1 year paid in onetime payment to avoid the interest fee of 3%: 1 297$

TOTAL: 3 215.51$

Yeah, I know...

I currently have a 1 500$ available in my banking account that I can transfer over my credit cards. I will be receiving a pay check next week for my current job. I am also waiting for a big paycheck of 1k+ from my old job for money that I had left for my vacations. I should be all right to pay it all and I am very lucky to be able to do so. Because I really don’t hold anything in term of immediate available cash. I live paycheck per paycheck. However, I do have some savings, it’s just everything is fully invested and untouchable. An emergency, laid off are among the kind of events that will make be sell my stocks. I lived emergencies before, I been through laid off. I never had to sell my stocks. It represent much more than you can even imagine to me. And it’s not anytime soon that I will be canceling my DRIP.

I will see how it goes, but I may not be able to invest again anytime soon. I want to invest in a few stocks of CNR to help stabilize the value of my portfolio. I know I didn’t update my portfolio value since a really long time, but with the stock market going upside down, I didn’t feel like updating my portfolio was a necessity and I still feel the same in date of today. My non-registered portfolio closed Friday session at 107 192$. Before the stock crash of August, my non-registered portfolio was at a very good 113k. I am at minus a 6k here. Do I feel like updating my portfolio value? No not at all. I don’t have anything to hide, I always been fully exposed here on my blog, it’s just going through a -6k phase inside my portfolio is difficult to go through, but I am able to deal with is. I mean now, my strategy is to invest in extra high quality stocks, exclusively blue chips. One part that really don’t like with that strategy is that high quality stock, the type I am trying to add to my portfolio, well, those ones only pay very little in dividend. I guess I will get use to it. At this point, I find EnerCare Inc. (ECI) very tempting. I wouldn’t like to invest in it when the price hit 8$ see what I mean. On the long run, I guess I could mix blue chips with other whatever chips and alternate...

While moving back home in New Brunswick, my monthly budget is about to change but I will do my best to control my expenses because I really need to control them.

Here was the “before” budget, while living in Montreal:

Rent: 555$
Internet: 50$
Cell phone: 41$
Line of credit #1 minimum payment: 100$
Line of credit #2 minimum payment: 65$
RRSP loan: 108$
Credit card balance transfer minimum payment: 44$
Student loan: 100$
Groceries and other: 450$

Total: 1 513$

And here’s the “after”:

Rent: NONE
Pension for my parents: 300$
Internet + extra cable channels: 50$
Cell phone: NONE
Line of credit #1 minimum payment: 100$
Line of credit #2 minimum payment: 65$
RRSP loan: 108$
Credit card balance transfer minimum payment: 44$
Student loan: 100$
Groceries and other: NONE
Gas (for my new car!!): 40$
Extras: 100$

TOTAL: 907$

Money saves by being in New Brunswick: +606$

Yeah, so while living in New Brunswick, I won’t be paying any rent. So I asked my mom who much she wanted. She said 300$ so ok, it will be 300$. I could even give her 400$ that it wouldn’t be a problem at all. For now, I won’t be complaining, it will be 300$ and I gave her a 150$ for this month.

I now have Internet installed at home and I am very happy! I got it with Rogers. The 50$ include the Internet and a few extra cable channels for my dad. I am pretty much all set now. Moving from Montreal to New Brunswick hasn’t been difficult, but it involves a lot of preparation.

While living in Montreal, I was spending a lot of time outside of my apartment, that’s why my expenses were higher. Here in X town of New Brunswick, we barely have any cafes at lot, if not a Presse Cafe. And ho misery, there’s no Second Cup! Right there alone, it’s a 50$ per month that I am saving... I no longer buy coffees most of the time.

I guess this post was detailed enough to give you a portrait of what my life is now that I am living in that X town of New Brunswick. My life had changed drastically, maybe for the best. I no longer hear customer speaking in my ears (I am not missing my old job in a X call center) and I no longer lived in the Quebec corruptible province. Have all a good weekend.

My non-registered portfolio closed September 13, 2011 session at 106 278.49$

It’s my first week at my new job and so far, I guess it’s been ok. I currently don’t have Internet at home and I try to avoid to actually surf – or even worst – blog – at my job. This mean that I don’t have a clue of how good or bad the stock market is doing those days. My schedule is currently from 8 to 5 and it’s now impossible to follow my stocks in real time like I was doing before. It’s a real drastic change. Do I miss my old job? Certainly not.

I wouldn’t have continued to work in a call center forever certainly not. I don’t miss earring customers in my ears. Despite everything bad I wrote about Quebeckers, I have to say, I never had problems to pay my bills while being in Montreal. I was living in a nice neighbourhood. I sometime get back home very late at night and I never had any trouble. Most of the 100k+ portfolio that you are seeing in here had been build in Montreal. I bought my first stocks in Montreal, made a lot of money, lost a lot of money too... But despite it all, while being in Montreal, the gains always exceeded the lost. That’s what I really focus on. I don’t care if I lose money from time to time. What’s really important is the overall result. My overall result had always been good in Montreal. Would it be as good while living here in New Brunswick? That’s what we are going to figure out in the months to come.

What I do miss is the stock market. But even there, I wasn’t doing much management. In front of a stock crash, my portfolio followed the crash. I wasn’t practicing any management, I just like watching. I learned most of what I know by watching the stock market. Some people like to watch TV, but I like in life, is to be there in front of the thing. I want to be able to watch the destruction or at the opposite, to be able to get my self-satisfaction just by looking at the gains. But now, there’s no more of the stock market in my life and it kind of suck. Do I miss Montreal? Well, now, after a couple of days, yes, but just a tiny bit.

I cannot say I had completed and gave my heart in an intensive job search while being in Montreal. I just didn’t give too much a damn of what I was doing as work. Just being in front of my laptop watching my stocks during daytime was enough to satisfy me. I don’t have that much, but I felt confident I was able to significantly increase my dividend income. In a previous post of this last month of July, I wrote about a reorganization of my portfolio that could have brought something like 8k in dividend income.

The problem being that I can be lazy and barely nothing can satisfy me. My move to New Brunswick was a real quick one but now I guess everything is more or less back to normal. If I apply to the job and accept it, despite knowing what I was about to loose – the liberty to watch my stocks in real time – it’s because my work began to annoy me and I needed a change. And it’s all happen by magic. I still don’t understand any of it but I won’t try to get it. I know more than anyone else how much the workplace can be terribly difficult. I apply to the job but it was kind of a miracle it happen because I wasn’t much interested at first because I knew what I was about to lose. And one major thing had to be taken care of: to refresh myself on how to drive a car and to actually buy one. We talk about that before.

I am terrible driver. On the afternoon of September 11, after spending the morning in my pyjama crying while hearing 9/11 family member victims testimony, my mom took me and asked me to drive her car. Aren’t you scare that I broke something? All I wanted is to stay away from the machine. But my mom know me, she actually the one who initiate the whole thing. At least, I have my driver license. The problem being this is that after spending 5 years in the Montreal area, you can easily imagine, I never drive while being in Montreal. And while visiting home, I drove a couple of times, that really all. I always dislike driving. The car annoys me, the engine. Currently, one of my biggest challenged is to actually stay on line lol..

I am not that of a bad driver ok. I just need more practice. This is causing an immediate distraction to my activities. I am completely disconnected of what use to be my life of before and that side bother me. But that’s not all. I saw that girl in Ottawa that I used to go to high school with. I try to avoid her but since I notice she recognize me, I went to her to say hello. And there she basically made fun of me because I left overseas and I never wrote to her. Like that girl was just someone I knew like that. Someone I used to go out with from time to time, but it never been a real friendship. Like we were not calling each other, she never went to my home, that kind of stuff. She said to her husband something of the like oh after a while she find herself smart, went overseas and we never heard of her ever again. Just like if I ever care! I am not interested in superficial friendship. There’re that kind of people who just want to take a seek at you just to find out what you are doing, are you married, do you have a good job, are you rich? Well, for me, all the answers to those questions were and are still a big NO. BUT, I have the liberty to do what I want and that’s how I live my life. While my mother being there, I try to remain friendly and when she asked for my telephone number and email address, I gave it to her. But if I would have been alone, without my mom next to me, I wouldn’t have stop by, I wouldn’t have talk to her, I wouldn’t give her my telephone number and email address. I am not under the obligation of doing anything of that. I don’t want to reconnect with old friends. They all annoyed me and never provided any support on what I was going. You didn’t know, but I will tell you. I won’t be here in X town of New Brunswick forever. But I am for now.

Wow, I know, the fact that I move to New Brunswick haven’t change anything. It didn’t change me. I won’t deal with any kind of bastards. My non-registered portfolio closed today session at 106 278.49$, which is not too bad knowing the current market fluctuation. My portfolio is able to be without me. I had been through this kind of things before, not be able to follow my stocks in real time. That I am there or not doesn’t change anything, it’s just provide a feeling of not being there in the action, not being there when the real important stuff happen. I am happy with the number. I checked everything on a regular basis. In term of dividend earning, I am now very close to the 5k. Quite good at this stage.

My goal is to boost the dividend earning to an annual 15k. It will take a lot more in cash, but I think I may be able to do it. Certainly not in a year of now, but still, it will be interesting to see how it goes. So of course, as always stay tune, dear readers.

Remembering 9/11

On September 11, 2001, when the terrible events happen, I was in my hometown in New Brunswick. And today, 10 years later for the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, I am where I was on date of September 11, 2001. In the same town, same province and about the same place. And this is very special because 10 years ago, I never taught I would be able to find work in my hometown, but it actually happen.

In the morning of September 11, 2001, I was actually at the library when I first hear of what was going on in New York. I was about to travel overseas to complete a degree (in French of course) on that year. Previously, I had completed a first year overseas in another degree and I was just about to leave again for another year. Without having a lot of money, I was able to manage my student budget and I basically got all the degrees I wanted overseas. I don’t like the actual university structure in Canada. I find the education system being way too much expensive. Just like if being around those university professors really worth it. I find it all a very fresh, artificial and superficial system as well as extremely arrogant. You need to be a fool to enroll in a Canadian university and pay those high tutorial fees. I will never hold a Canadian degree and so far, I do not have any regret. It’s not something that was actually plan a long time ahead, it just happens like that. But no matter what, I got pretty much what I wanted in term of education. I don’t want to be an individual in the bunch of fools, sorry if I sound very offensive. I don’t want to participate in feeding the pension plan of those arrogant Canadian university professors. I am against capitalist when it comes to education. But in Canada, citizens accept the fact that we have to pay high fees to get an education. I do not agree and as long I am concern, I will reject that form of oppression. But it true that for the past couple of weeks, I taught about going back to school, this time in Canada. That was before finding the job I am about to begin really soon.

That being said, I am currently watching the memorial of 9/11 at TV and I guess that back in 2001, I did not understand what was going on, I did not understand the plan crash. That day was a beautiful sunny day. I return home and my dad was there, asking me not to panic. I went straight to the TV and saw 2 building in fired. It could sound strange, but I never heard of the World Trade Center before. Later on, I went to my grandmother house. I remember going outside the house and looking at the backward, where we have a view of the State of Maine. There, it was calm as always and there was no sign of the actual chaos going on in New York. I remember thinking of how much close to New York we were and it’s about all of what I remember of September 11, 2001. Many things happen since that time and it’s about all I can remember. That and the confusion. I remember also looking outside and thinking that a war was going on. It was clear it was some sort of an attack. It was breathtaking. Here a picture of our backyard. The land you see on the other side is the Maine:

I find the 9/11 memorial very beautiful but the memorial ceremony is very difficult to watch without crying. Here in New Brunswick, the day is as beautiful as it was back on September 11, 2001 and I am where I was 10 years ago, I am home. This is somewhere closed to the unreal.

And following 9/11, I was taking the plan. I wasn’t scare, but while waiting in line for the security, there was a dead silence. Usually, there’s a lot of noise at the airport and while waiting on line, people chat. But at the time, it was a complete silence. And when I show up for another schooling year, there’s one teacher, he was actually a Latin teacher who could not believe his eyes that I was actually there. I guess it was a mix of being there shortly following the 9/11 and also, a surprise to see me while I had a difficult time to adjust to their educational system just a year before. There was more work that I was actually able to handle. They shouldn’t have given me the degree lol... Anyhow, I was happy to be back. I was young, without any fear of nothing and there I was for another university year. That’s how I was in my twenties. I am still the same person 10 years later. I am now 31 but I am pretty much the same of what I was 10 years. Nothing has really changed, at the exception that I am now about to work full-time in my hometown. That never happens before, if not during the summer. I am still very chock about this sudden move to my hometown in New Brunswick. Many things happen in the last 10 years but my recent move to back home is certainly the most surprising, stunning one.

Barack Obama favourite cookies are Canadians

While being in the process of moving from Montreal to New Brunswick, I had the super good idea of bringing in my mom for what had become a trip that we’ll remember for a very long time. At first, my mom didn’t want to come to Montreal, but after her and after arguing, she finally decides to come. But I have to say, traveling from X town in New Brunswick to Montreal is not something easy. The bus ride is quite rough and the more I ride in bus, the more I find it difficult and really not comfortable. I can barely stand sitting on their sometime leather, sometime material made in bus seat. Anyhow, my mom and I, we are both done with traveling for the next couple months, that’s for sure.

My mom arrived in Montreal on Friday night last week and the following day, we were on our way to Ottawa. I know the city of Ottawa very well because I had lived in the area for about 2 years before leaving for Montreal. I left my unpack suitcases in Montreal and we quickly went to Ottawa for 2 days. It was the first time I was visiting Ottawa since I had left.

We arrived to my brother place late on Saturday evening. On Sunday, we wake up late, get ready and we went for an outdoor visit of the Parliament. We went for a walk downtown Ottawa. We continue our way to the Rideau Canal and later on Sussex Drive.

We stop by the Byward Market and we went to a cafe name Le Moulin de Provence that Barack Obama had visited during his Canadian Tour back on February 19, 2009.

We all order one of those now famous “Obama cookie” and it was real funny.

I pay for my mom and I and 2 Obama cookies with 2 regular coffees cost me something like 13 bucks. But hey, that was the cost behind eating a cookie that got eat before by Barack Obama himself... We later on went for super but eat really little, as we were still full of our Obama cookie... lol... Getting an Obama cookie was something in my mandatory what to do list.

So I did it, I had eat an Obama cookie.

Adios Montreal, thank you and goodbye

The past couple days had been quite busy. I had been working moving from Montreal to X town in New Brunswick. I had been able to find a job in my field AND in my hometown, which is quite incredible. This was my ultimate chance to escape from my actual work. I had been working in 2 Montreal call center for quite some time. It wasn’t a job related to my field at all. I enjoyed the work, but after a while, I got enough of working during holidays and of my 7 days a week work. For financial reasons, I was working at 2 jobs. I was doing well, but I had reached the point where I really needed a change. And the change had come. All naturally.

The past 2 weeks had involved a lot of cleaning, packing, shopping and phone calls. Knowing I was about to move back home, I call everyone from the Quebec government to my credit cards to make my address and number change. Just doing that part was quite something. I cleaned and donated to charity a lot of stuff I didn’t need anymore. Movers were asking between 700$ to 2 000$ to move my personal items from Montreal to New Brunswick. I did not have any furniture, just personal belonging, about 20 of things composed of box, suitcases, etc. I taught I was able to get the thing done for about 400$, but movers were asking a lot more than that. So I decided to ship everything using the bus transportation service and it work out very well. Everything had been shipped for less than 300$. The reception delay had been of 24 hours. I proceed with 3 shipments and already 2 had been received. Today shipment was the last one.

Even if I had been extra busy, I asked my mom to join me for my moving. We had a fun time. My mom arrived on Friday night of last week. On Saturday night, we travelled to Ottawa. We visit my brother. We were supposed to take the train, but we finally took the bus because it was easier for the schedule since there was one departure every hour to Ottawa by bus. We spent 2 days with my brother. My mom never went to Ottawa before and I wanted to bring her with me. We visit and even went to eat an Obama cookie, which was very funny. I took pictures of all that of course. We left Ottawa Monday evening. I spent the past couple days concentrate on my moving.

While hitting back to Montreal, I bring in my cousin to my one and a half apartment as a surprise and my mom was happy to see him. Surprise! All together, we went to a fancy Japanese restaurant located on St-Laurent boulevard. It was quite fun. I am leaving Montreal in peace. My cousin is doing ok.

I am now closed to the 2k in all kind of expenses: clothes, shoes, jacket, restaurants, bus and metro tickets, etc... I was in need of a lot of things but I never bother getting any of them. I got a nice pair of shoes and some nice tops, among other. I am done with shopping for a little while. Money had been made to be spend and trust me, I had spend quite some money during the past couple days. However, I am confident that my today pay check will be able to cover major part of those expenses because I had some vacations accumulated that were supposed to be paid.

While moving back to New Brunswick, I will be moving back to my parent house. At least for now. It will help me to save some money. My one and a half Montreal apartment was cute, but I began to feel trap, especially while receiving some visitors. My next major expense will be a car. Sooner or later, I will need one. I have my driver license, but while living in cities, I never bother to get a car. I am always looking at new ways to save money, so just having a metro or bus pass had always been enough. But now that I am moving to that X town in New Brunswick, I will no longer have access to public transportation anymore for the simple and good reason that there is NO public transportation to the “city” where I am about to move. The Dividend Girl is simply moving to where she truly belongs: to the bush... lol.....

At first, I wasn’t really happy about that car thing. But fact is, my parents won’t be giving me rides and they want me to get a car. Thanks mommy and dad! lol... It began to be a complete trauma. I mean, me driving a car? Do you really want me to drive a car? Holly f*.

It’s unfortunate, but I need a car.

And during that time, my portfolio had been doing well. My non registered portfolio closed today session at more than 109 500$, which is really good. I should be able to place my next investment by next month I guess even with that car thing.