Budgeting

I try to figure out if I can reach my first 50 000$ this year without too much trouble. My new part-time is paying 10$ per hour. It’s not that much, but I couldn’t find better. Anyway, I will work on Saturday and Sunday, 7.5 hours. After taxes, I believe I will made 130$ weekly. At my full-time job, I made around 1015$ bi-weekly after taxes.

I calculate for one year to be positive, it make an annual income of 33 150$. From those, let say I take an average of 1 000$ for my living. 33 150$ - 12 000$ = 21 150$. I love to calculate, even if sometimes I made mistake. So yes, I will be able to make it for this year! I only wish I can continue working at both places for one full year. Not that I am difficult as an employee, but it happen I get fired because lack of work at some place I previously work. Last time it happen was at that part-time job I have, but they recently call m back. I now back there working on Saturday and Sunday.

I become very passionate about reaching my first 50 000$. Absolutely no one I have as close friends, or relatives know I am trying that hard to reach my goal. No one have any idea of what my goal is. I prefer to blog anonymously about it as a hobby and keep it private. And as I don’t have TV, I like to blog when I have nothing else to do.

Something else I would like to do is buy stocks. I would like to buy those Visa stocks when they will be available in Canada. I believe it’s a good investment since almost everyone has a Visa credit card. I have a Visa credit card myself that I try to pay off. I just excited about the idea of buying stocks in a near future.

I now have a part-time job

I had received the confirmation by email that I had a part-time job at a place I use to work. I was quite happy about it. I am going to work on Saturday and Sunday, but no longer than about 8 hours each day. I wonder if a lot of my late co-workers will still be there. For myself, when it happen they had a lack of work, I immediately began my search for something else and I receive my vacation pay, which help a little.

Because of this part-time job, I plan to give an extra 500$ tomorrow on my credit card and than, in 2 weeks, I will pay the rest that need to be pay and I will be finally be out of credit card debt for now. I hope to remain debt free for a long time. At least I will try.

Time pass way too fast and I just hope I will keep working at the 2 jobs for the upcoming weeks. I really need it.

Are Caisses Desjardins covered by the CDIC?

According to the CDIC Web site: “Some financial institutions that take deposits are NOT members of CDIC—for example, credit unions and caisses populaires, Canadian branches of foreign banks and some Canadian chartered banks. Your deposits with credit unions and caisses populaires may be covered by provincial deposit insurance programs. Canadian branches of foreign banks, and those Canadian chartered banks that are not CDIC members are required by law to inform you that they are not CDIC members and that your savings at such banks are not insured.”

So, are “Caisses populaires” are covered or not by the CDIC? My savings are with Desjardins, and I wonder if the money I have in my bank account is insured or not. I ask the question via email to Desjardins. I just hope to receive a response. If they response “NO”, I just don’t know what I am going to do.

In the list of institutions covered by the CDIC, I notice “Desjardins Trust Inc.”, but not “Caisses populaires Desjardins”.

Why does it have to be so complicate? :))))))))))))))))

Diversify, diversify, diversify……..

I had post a thread in Canadian Business Forum, which title was Mutual funds and bank bankruptcy: is there a risk?

I invest quite a lot in mutual funds offer by major Canadian bank. But always a fear remains: loosing my money. And not loosing it because of a recession or because of natural ups and down of stocks, loosing it because of another reason. And than came the idea of “bank BANK-ruptcy” lol or something else. But my first taught was bank bankruptcy because I had read in the forum that CIBC could face bankruptcy or something similar to that. Anyway, my only fear is to loose money in something similar that some small investors, who could have been myself, had live with Vincent Lacroix and other lost personalities of Quebec finance. I read quite a bit on those. Never from my life I want to loose my money in such a way.

So, I ask in my own little words if there was a risk of losing money if it happens that a bank declared bankruptcy. It might be seen like a stupid question to ask, but I just post it anyway. But I was happy that I did, because I learn interesting things. I got good responses. I am not scared of looking stupid, the only thing I am scared is about loosing money, but not loosing money because of ups and downs of the market. By loosing money in another way.

Anyway, from what I understand, GIC and money being in bank are safe if they are secured under CDIC. For savings and GIC, I am probably ok. Regarding mutual funds, the money remain mine since it’s money invest in stocks and not into the bank itself. And it’s make it more appealing now to buy stocks. I might start a thread on the really basic stuff about buying stocks. It’s seemed like the most important things of life haven’t been explained to me.

The reason I only invest in mutual fund offer by major Canadian bank is I believe it’s saver to invest through a bank than from a private institution, not to name them. The only way to be sure that my money is put at safe is to invest my money in different funds offer by different banks, and diversify, diversify, diversify…

I finally find a pat-time job! YE!

I didn't really find it actually, I got call back by the place I was working before. It's seem like they got a new contract or something, and they are now in need of people. I appreciate the fact they call me back to work, because I wasn't able to find a part-time job. I was going to apply to several job offers when I notice their email, at the old place, that they had send in date of today.

So I am going only work there on Saturday and Wednesday, for which I will made after taxes I believe something like 130$ weekly, which will cover my rent. I was getting tired of looking around for a part-time job and it's seem like my search is finally offer. I don't know for how long their contract will last for, but I am willing to take what they have to offer for now.

I wouldn't like to work more there than Saturday and Sunday because I already work 50 hours weekly at the other job. So let say I will have from now on a weekly income of 650$ after taxes, which is cool.

Doing it by my own

I get another 1 000$ paycheck for 2 weeks are work. And for the next pay, I am only missing 6 extra hours to reach 1 000$ for the next pay. So things are not going so bad after all. I also notice an ad in a newspaper for a part-time job that could match my present work schedule. I just need to apply to it. Since January, I have been looking around for a part-time job, but I wasn’t able to find one. So I really hope this one is the good one. I am getting use to the job I currently have, so it will make it easier for me to get another part-time job. Nothing really work out like I wanted in 2007, I just hope 2008 will be just a bit better for me, for jobs, investments, debts.

I was quite surprised to see my Visa bill of the past month: I only spend 170$ on my Visa. Which mean I only spend 170$ in groceries and other. I actually pay all my expenses with my credit card; I pay it all when I receive the bill. Or it’s what I am trying to do and I have been doing so. I scrapped my credit when I was about 24-25 by opening too much credits at the same time. Now I am 27, I don’t know what my credit is, but I keep paying each month my credit card bill, which was quite low for this February.

I am really getting good at the « non expense » thing; I am quite impressed with myself. I didn’t need to cut many things. I buy less coffee at cafe; it’s doing help a lot. I try to save as much as possible and I not having too much trouble to stop spending money around. I never had been a huge shopper, which help. I really cut on everything I could cut, that’s why my current budget for March is less than 1 000$:

Rent: 520$
Metro Pass: 67$
Other (food…): 170$
Student loans: 165$

That’s all…… It’s an inexpensive little living at 922$. I can make it with 922$ or less. Even if for this month, I would like a hair cut… ;)

Conclusion: it’s possible to make it and life with about 1 000$ if not less, even with a hair cut.

There are a bunch of things that I don’t have and I sometimes think of buying, like a microwave, a TV, a sofa, DVD, MP3, a new digital camera... But each times, I just keep looking, and I never buy. I keep thinking on how much I had to work hard for that money: that is what stops me of buying what I don’t really need. But I have to say, it could be nice to sit on a nice couch, instead of that chair that I am currently sitting on right now.

Anyway, I believe life won’t remain like this forever. The biggest challenge for now is to pay off that terrible credit card debt and to remain debt free. Even if I wrote earlier that I wanted to invest in more mutual funds, I prefer for now to just pay off that credit card debt first and after, I’ll see. I just need a part-time job and it’s too bad I cannot get quickly what I want.