BlueNote's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
BlueNote
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:26 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

Meetup


I attended a Toronto ERE meet up for the first time recently.

I had a great time and it was great to meet everybody face to face.

We should do it more often, maybe bi-yearly instead of just yearly when Rube makes his yearly visit.


Three years

It's been about 3 years since I started writing this journal about my journey to FI.

Heres a summary of my performance so far:

2013: started writing this journal

End of year Net worth = 2% of total needed to be FIRE

2014:

savings rate 53%

End of year Net worth = 7% of total needed to be FIRE

2015:

Savings Rate 59%

End of year Net worth = 14% of total needed to be FIRE

July 2016 Year-T0-Date

Savings Rate 62%

Mid year net worth = 24% of total needed to be FIRE

Estimated Retirement Age for 3-4% SWR

Image

July YTD 2016 Expenses

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Relative to others on this forum I spend a lot on vacation. Hoping that when my wife and I retire we can eliminate most of that expense by making travelling more of a lifestyle then a luxury.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

65%

I project that I will save 65% of my take home pay after taxes in 2016.

Taxes

I am running out of government tax shelter room in my investment accounts (RRSP and TFSA) rapidly.

I have begun to take a serious interest in the personal tax systems of Canada and the province of Ontario.

So far I have started building an elaborate spreadsheet tool that calculates my estimated future tax liability up until I am 100 years old.

Features that I hope to include are:

- Federal and Ontario employment related taxes that are accurate, under the current laws, to within $200 of the actual amounts (this is mostly done).
- Inflation adjustments (easy to build in)
- Tax credits for eligible dividends
- Tax credits/deductions for children
- Tax credits for being old (the Age credit)
- Various government subsidies (OAS, GIS and CPP) with the ability to easily run scenarios showing what it's like with and without these subsidies.
- Withdrawal Scenarios to get an idea of the most tax efficient way of drawing down my money.
- A design that allows one to easily tweak the settings and run scenarios.

I might add more stuff but that's already a large order.

Man down!

This tomato plant tipped over during a storm and managed to take out the better half of another tomato plant. Oh well, they were getting really blighty and my best plants survived unscathed.

Image

BlueNote
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

The Spreadsheet that ate Manhattan

Let's go through the list of features I wanted in my spreadsheet with an update as to where I am on those features:


- Federal and Ontario employment related taxes that are accurate, under the current laws, to within $200 of the actual amounts (this is mostly done). The amounts being generated are fine for my purposes now
- Inflation adjustments (easy to build in)built in, was easy
- Tax credits for eligible dividends Needs to be added
- Tax credits/deductions for children Needs to be added
- Tax credits for being old (the Age credit)included
- Various government subsidies (OAS, GIS and CPP) with the ability to easily run scenarios showing what it's like with and without these subsidies. half done
- Withdrawal Scenarios to get an idea of the most tax efficient way of drawing down my money. This is designed and partially built
- A design that allows one to easily tweak the settings and run scenarios. There are a lot of variables which I have built to be easily manipulated

I'm hoping to have this thing done by the end of November. My own personality gets in my way because I like to have a very comprehensive model but in reality I need a model that is good enough for the decisions I have to make. Therefore I end up making the model too complicated because I don't feel comfortable unless I look at all the angles.

Other stuff

I visited the state of Florida and had a good time. I secured a nice rental for a couple of weeks and it only cost me $1k CAD which is a steal.

Image


Savings rate is still 65%

BlueNote
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:26 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

This Journal

I have enjoyed writing this journal because it helps organize my thoughts and allows people to share their perspectives. I enjoy many of the other journals here and some of them are like mini-blogs with excellent writing, regularly occurring updates and other blog-like content. My journal isn't quite up to snuff compared to those journals but I never intended it to be.

My Blog

I've been seriously toying with the idea of starting a blog for awhile. I want to contribute more to the PF and FIRE space while continuing to organize my thoughts and share perspectives through the medium of writing. I might even want to try different mediums, like a podcast.I have no expectations that I'll develop a significant following or be able to make money doing this. I've never been good at selling or marketing, if I were I would have left my salaried job to start my own business long ago. My blog will be a labour of love with the payoff being the satisfaction of contributing something new and useful to my readers. So I've got a domain and have been tinkering with Wordpress. I've even got a couple of posts written. When I am ready to unveil I will post the URL in this Journal.

Work

Lately I've been coming home from work feeling very exhausted. I think the reasons are as follows:
  1. I don't ride my bike to work anymore because I'm 'temporarily' on a huge ERP project which is located very far away and I'd need to bike on a highway to get there. I used to rely on my commute for my daily exercise and I haven't been good at scheduling bike time since I've been on the project.
  2. The project is under -resourced but I am still expected to deliver my requirements. I have become a trainer, writer, system analyst, accountant, project manager and computer programmer at various points during the last 2 years. I am the youngest and least tenured person on the team so it's been a great experience. The variety and workload has made things interesting but on the other hand it's like I'm expected to be this ERP Jack-of-all-trades because the company can't afford to spare more resources.Attempts to pre-emptively solve problems often fail due to lack of resources and accountability. In order to get resources we often have let something publicly fail so that everyone can see there really is a problem.
  3. The company has been on a cost cutting bender and has not been filling positions after people leave. There are now situations where one person is doing a job 3 people used to do only 3 or 4 years ago. I think that they're taking the approach of seeing how far they can push the system before it blows up. Typically no manager in a large organization wants to lose a resource even if they don't need it which is classic empire building and politics of budgeting behaviour. I can see the logic here because the only way you really know who is necessary is by what happens in their absence.
  4. Everyone is really stressed out and it's affecting my mood. It's tough to stay optimistic when everyone is under so much stress because they've been given objectives and deadlines that are basically unattainable.All the project performance data goes through a communications team before it gets to upper management so it's always been cleaned and massaged so the expectation is always there that we're going to achieve things that were decided long ago as part of some initial strategic planning process. People are becoming burned out and prone to outbursts, conflict, passive aggressiveness and other bad behaviours.
  5. Petty office politics. Several people I work with have suddenly decided that they're going to unilaterally assign work to me because they're too busy to do it. I then end up expending energy trying to help or stop them. When you're near the bottom of the totem pole you sometimes have to just play the hand your given and accept that shit rolls downhill.
Investing/Taxation inside baseball ( maybe useful if you're a Canadian)

Savings rate is still 65%

Within a year I'll have burned through all my tax sheltered account space and I'll have to invest in normal taxable accounts. This is definatley a first world problem but I accept your pity anyways ;) . I've been looking at ways of investing in a tax efficient manner. In Canada preferred shares produce an average yield that is about 5%. The yield on preferred is much more reliable then common shares because the companies that issue preferreds are required to pay the advertised dividend (not necessarily on schedule though) and they are required to pay the dividend before the common shareholders see any disbursal. Preferred shares are therefore a hybrid between bonds and commons shares. In Canada the interest on bonds is treated as normal income for tax purposes, this is the worst tax treatment possible. With bond yields being so low right now the after tax yield is usually less then inflation. Preferred shares OTOH pay in dividends which is subject to favourable tax treatment and the yields are, in aggregate, a lot higher then bonds due to the risks. I am thinking of establishing a significant preferred share allocation in my taxable fixed income portoflio so that I can't take advantage of the tax treatment. When it comes to fixed income I weigh more importance to the variability of income then the variability of price so it's a twist on MPT (modern portfolio theory) . MPT equates risk with return variability which includes price variability. Income variability is easier to predict and is more relevant than price variability in the drawdown phase IMHO.

I didn't expect this post to be so long.

Cornerman
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by Cornerman »

Your work environment is all to familiar for me. Work needs to be finished faster with fewer people and most of the time the scope is way too big. Even experienced people will say it's madness. As with a lot of things it's a race to the bottom. Which is bad very bad in the long term.

Nice perspective in income and price variability, I haven't gotten in debt with it. Just focused on expanding the portfolio at a reasonable price.

BlueNote
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

Cornerman wrote:Your work environment is all to familiar for me. Work needs to be finished faster with fewer people and most of the time the scope is way too big. Even experienced people will say it's madness. As with a lot of things it's a race to the bottom. Which is bad very bad in the long term.

Nice perspective in income and price variability, I haven't gotten in debt with it. Just focused on expanding the portfolio at a reasonable price.
It's true scope creep is a big problem. Good luck with your portfolio!

Cornerman
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by Cornerman »

BlueNote wrote:
Cornerman wrote:Your work environment is all to familiar for me. Work needs to be finished faster with fewer people and most of the time the scope is way too big. Even experienced people will say it's madness. As with a lot of things it's a race to the bottom. Which is bad very bad in the long term.

Nice perspective in income and price variability, I haven't gotten in debt with it. Just focused on expanding the portfolio at a reasonable price.
It's true scope creep is a big problem. Good luck with your portfolio!
Thanks !

BlueNote
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:26 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

2016 Financial Performance

70% savings rate! I never thought I would achieve that but here I am. My goal for 2017 is 75% (Yearly Savings/Take home income).

Free Forever After

I've been devoting some of my time to my blog (www.freeforeverafter.com). I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I don't post frequently but I am trying to craft high quality content.

Home Life

I pay below market rent now because Ontario (Canada) has rent control (basically I'm indexed to inflation). My wife and I are considering moving to a slightly larger unit but it's an outsized bump in rent because we'd have to jump back into a market rate. The building is asking for an above average rate, they're only trump card is that they are careful about screening tenants so the building is mostly nice families.

Investing

Not much has changed I'm still 60/40 stocks/bonds. Stock portion is 20% Canada 40% world. Bond portion is Canadian indexes with a new small twist. I'm investing 2% of my fixed income portfolio with a new P2P lending outfit called LendingLoop. They're the only P2P lending outfit in Canada right now, somehow they got through the very high Canadian regulatory hurdles. They only deal with business borrowers and currently all the loans appear to be un-collaterized high interest type loans. I have to admit that the super high interest rates compelled me to overlook the obvious risks making uncollateralized loans to small business corporations. My back of the envelope analysis, supported by research on P2P lending history in other countries, shows that there is a good chance of making good returns after taxes, fees, defaults and recoveries.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

Not a very good financial advisor

For awhile I thought about switching careers and becoming a financial advisor of some sort. However I don't think I'd be very good at the all important client relations part of the business. I guess I'm blunt and to the point, I also don't think I could deal with all the psychological issues that money creates in people. I think I can identify the issues but I'm not good at resolving them and I don't know if I want to go through the process of getting good.

For example I'm eating breakfast with a guy at work the other day and he mentions that he's looking into a using a Canadian robo-advisor. I told himI'd looked into them and found, at the time , that they were all basically mickey-mouse startup versions of the American variety. He said they were a good idea , I agreed except that in Canada they cost a lot more and provide fewer features then the American systems. I suggested a wait and see approach and perhaps looking into a fee only traditional advisor. He said I didn't understand investing, all advisors try to beat the market and therefore are too risky. I told him that there are advisors who will index his portfolio according to his desires, handle the taxes, optimize his different accounts (RRSP, TFSA, RESP, LIF etc.) , do estate work etc. Registered investment advisor fees are generally tax deductible (in Canada) so the net fee's are often competitive with what a robo offers in Canada right now. It was at this point he started describing some complicated trust scheme he'd cooked up on his own (he's not a financial professional) and I realized that we were not having an intellectual conversation, he felt threatened and was engaging in oneupmanship and I was blindly going along with it. Suddenly I change conversation to a new topic to avoid getting him angry. It must be a rare and valuable skill combination for one person to be able to deal with all these people''s issues and be able to invest the money and do the other financial work competently. Most advisor firms probably have to split to the client relations from the 'real' financial work in order to ensure the requisite skills are available. Outside of the FIRE community there appear to be few who learn all the skills to DIY.

BlueNote
Posts: 501
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

Weight Loss

I've been on a new diet recently. It's high protein and low carb/sugar. So far I'm down about 10 pounds over two weeks (a lot of which is water). The best part about this diet is that I never feel hungry and don't have to count calories or weigh my food. I can eat as much protein as I want.

Head Hunter part 2

If you go back to around last year of my journal you'll see that I wrote about being head hunted, accepting a job offer and then reneging on that offer to accept a counter offer from my current employer. That decision has been great so far and I'm happy I stayed (got another raise today). However the head hunter called me back a week ago to tell me that the original company I reneged on still wants me. They're like a desperate ex or something :lol: . I asked for some compensation numbers and details out of pure curiosity and the head hunter offered to match my current package. I said "no" in such a firm and decisive manner that the head hunter laughed. I guess it's a good sign that I am getting a market rate. I told her to send me better opportunities and I'd consider going for an interview so I can keep in good form.It goes to show how hot the job market is in my line of work in Toronto right now.

Tomatoes

I got a new bed for Christmas. It's a great big king size bed (Novos bed) made of high quality memory foam and I LOVE it. I moved my old bed into the room I was using to grow seedlings. My future child(ren) will use that bed because it's only 10 years old. I ended up outsourcing the tomato seed growing to a guy I work with who is probably better at it then me. In exchange he gets free Klee tomato seeds.

Transportation


I'll be biking part of the way to work again starting soon. My bike chain rusted like crazy and it looks like I need to replace it. I also need to replace the grip shift at some point. I'm thinking of also getting the wheels trued because I can't get the break pads very close to the wheels without rubbing which means I don't have a lot of leverage on the break levers. I'm thinking of doing all this work myself or perhaps selling the bike and replacing it with a better one from craigslist. Not sure how much it costs to get someone else to do this or perhaps there's some lesser known way of getting cheap bike repairs. Wheel truing isn't something that's easy to do without the right equipment from what I understand.

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jennypenny
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by jennypenny »

How did you decide on which mattress to buy? We're shopping now because we're desperate for a new one. DH picked out one that's $5K, so I'm stalling while I shop around for a better price/something cheaper.

ellipsis_has_expired
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by ellipsis_has_expired »

@jennypenny
$5K?? Great Buddha!
I spent a couple hundred on one by a company that actually take old hotel mattresses and completely refurbishes them with new stuffing and fabric. Looked brand new to me.

Aside from finding a recycled mattress store, I hear good things about Amazon foam mattresses.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

jennypenny wrote:
Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:10 pm
How did you decide on which mattress to buy? We're shopping now because we're desperate for a new one. DH picked out one that's $5K, so I'm stalling while I shop around for a better price/something cheaper.
I researched it like crazy on the Internet without ever setting foot in a store to try out the bed. The foam beds sold in B&M stores, in my area, are almost all priced around 2x what you can buy on the net. The thing with beds is that many suppliers don't provide very good information about the materials and workmanship. Much of the bed industry seems to be based on selling the lowest quality bed possible for the highest price (with a warranty full of weasel clauses). It sort of makes sense because it's something most people only buy every 10-15 years so they're ignorant and by the time they realize the beds got issues it's too late or they lost the warranty or didn't even get a warranty. I've yet to meet anyone ,outside of the Internet, who did the level of research I did to buy a bed. It wasn't a lot of time relative to the amount of time I will spend in the bed. I went with Novos bed because they have extremely good ratings and reviews from a great many sources. They offer a decent warranty and will provide a special topper to make the bed firmer or softer if the version you order isn't the right level of firmness. They also clearly indicate the type of memory foams used and how the bed is constructed. They were a tad more expensive upfront but I'm hoping for a lower total cost of ownership. I've heard good things about other online bed dealers as well like Casper and Tuft & Needle but I went with Novos for the overall reported quality level.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

ellipsis_has_expired wrote:
Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:34 pm
@jennypenny
$5K?? Great Buddha!
I spent a couple hundred on one by a company that actually take old hotel mattresses and completely refurbishes them with new stuffing and fabric. Looked brand new to me.

Aside from finding a recycled mattress store, I hear good things about Amazon foam mattresses.
That's compelling, never heard of it before but I assume hotels would have really good bed procurement procedures so a refurb at those prices is likely a good deal.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

Expensive month

My wife and I went to the states (USA) for a little R&R on her birthday. I paid for a hotel and restaurant and some clothes from a discount place. I'll probably only save 50% of my take home this month.

Work

I like my new job, manager and co-workers. I can already feel the stress melting away being away from the pressure of my former role in the giant never-ending ERP project. I have received assurances that I won't be sucked back into that project again except for minor consultations. That project seems only about half done so I'm not sure what the plan is to complete the work but I'm happy to have a 'normal' job again.

Bike

I'm finally biking to work again. I actually bike half way and then take the subway. If I biked the whole way I'd likely be a sweaty mess and would need to get a gym pass to shower off and get dressed. I do plan on doing some biking rehearsals to see how long it would take me and how sweaty I'd be if I biked the whole way.

My amateur bike mechanics continue.

I now feel comfortable with the following bike maintenance:

1. Replacing tube
2. Patching a tube
3. Replacing a tire
4. Indexing the derailleur (preventing chain skipping and getting the gears running smoothly)
5. Replacing and adjusting brakes

The internet is full of videos, tutorials and other material explaining exactly how to do this stuff.


I replaced my rear tire about a year or two ago and it has degraded rapidly. The side walls are breaking down and bulging out a tiny bit in spots. The tire must have been crappy so I'll need to get a better model. The front and rear wheels are out of true. I found a loose spoke on the back wheel. I tightened it up with a spoke wrench. I flicked the loose spoke as I was tightening it and compared the tone it was making to the other spokes and essentially tuned it up like a guitar string. I think I read about this crude technique before and I don't have a proper wheel truing tool so hopefully it works out.

I'm thinking of either replacing my bike with a better condition used model, building my own bike from parts, buying new or refurbishing the existing bike. I'll need to spreadsheet this up but I'm leaning towards refurbishing because it's likely the cheapest option and also builds more mechanical skills. I'd like to get replacement wheels , but keep the old ones for backups. I'd like to replace my grip shift (it's getting dodgy), chain (rusting and a cheap part) and seat (falling apart and slightly uncomfortable). I'd need to make sure the the new rear wheel has the same gear cassette specs as the old so that I don't have to re-index my derailleur after changing wheels. Maybe I can find used parts or cannibalize a used bike.


Weight

I'm down about 21 pounds and still eating the high protein diet. I have more energy and feel healthier too.

I eat a lot of lean meats. It's not the cheapest source of protein. For the cheapest source of protein that isn't mixed in with carbs I think it'd be hard to beat egg whites. Chicken eggs are generally a very cheap source of protein and they're easy to find on sale all year round. I do a lot of meat price matching as well. I have been able to consistently get 50-60% off the sticker price of beef, chicken and pork products this way. I'll eat fish but my wife hates fish so it's rare to have it around.

I generally also eat a vegetable with each meal and again it's not hard to find deals by buying in season products and using price matches via the Flipp app.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

One handed

I got tendonitis in my wrist so I haven't really been able to type much for the last couple of weeks, I'm recovering well.

It got so bad that my left hand (my dominant hand) become almost totally useless for a about 10 days. I am catching up on alot of chores and activities (balcony garden!) that I couldn't do with the bad hand.

Family

My wife and I are still working on having children. We're starting to look at the more expensive treatments like IUI (a financial annoyance) and IVF (a serious financial outlay). If we get into IVF that'll set me back on FI a little, like a year at the most. Failing IVF we'll probably have to look at adopting, surrogacy and the like.


Money

I'm getting a little more aggressive with my portfolio , it's more like 70/30 (risky stuff/Fixed Income) now. I am making smaller tweaks then I used to , I'm definitely in a comfortable place. There is still ground to cover though. I am getting interested in options/derivatives and am in the early stages of researching various strategies. I have started investing in my non-tax sheltered "normal" accounts so I'll be getting a bigger tax bill from 2017 until I FIRE , at which point the plan is to take my tax rate down to the single digits.

Housing

Houses (freehold and condo/strata) in my area are still ridiculously priced when compared to median salary's of locals and/or rents. When my wife and I FIRE we may consider moving to a lower COL area and buying. I do like the idea of owning my own home but an investment in bricks and land comes with tax, utilities and maintenance (in big unpredictable chunks) which I don't like much. I've been researching different parts of Canada to find the best place for us. Victoria Island seems interesting (Cowichan Valley area in particular) for the weather and COL but it's really far away from "home". I'd also be open to international living but not too sure how much I'd want to do that with a child in tow.

Work

I enjoy my new job so far, the people I work with are stimulating and nice, a really good team. The work itself is financial accounting and up to this point I had been mostly involved in FP&A work so I am enjoying building up my skills in this new area.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

One Handed Part II

After my tendonitis (see last post) I proceeded to get 2nd degree burns on my dominant hand in a cooking accident. I am thankful that my hand recovered relatively quickly with no scarring.

Gout

About a week after I finally got my hand back up and running my gout flared up again. If you've never experienced gout pain it's wicked. If I had to make a choice between the second degree burn pain and the gout pain I'm not sure which I'd choose. Burn pain has a higher initial intensity but , for me, it diminishes much faster then gout pain. My rheumatologist prescribed an oral steroid regimen. The medicine fights the inflammation but doesn't touch the root cause of high uric acid levels. Medicine to treat the root cause is hard on the renal system and is prescribed for the duration of ones life. Therefore, in order to minimize the risk of a liver transplant in my old age, we try to treat the root cause through diet and lifestyle.

Investing

I'm glad I have a significant asset allocation towards Canadian preferred shares. The BoC (Banks of Canada) is probably going to start raising rates next week which is causing bond prices to go down. Rate reset preferred prices are positively correlated with interest rates unlike bond prices which are , generally, negatively correlated to interest. Also rate reset preferreds throw off reliable semi variable dividends that are eligible for Canadian dividend tax credits if held in a taxable account. I invest in this asset class through an index fund that tracks the S&P/TSX Preferred Share Index which tracks the entire Canadian preferred share market. Another index (which has an ETF that tracks it) is the Solactive Laddered Canadian Preferred Share Index which more closely follows rate reset preferreds if you want to isolate the aforementioned interest rate to price correlation more closely.

My lending loop P2P portfolio is also doing well (no delinquencies yet). I like that the platform has some due diligence built in and that the loan payments are coming from small businesses as opposed to individuals. I treat this portfolio as an equal weighted index fund in that I buy loans as they become available in $50 increments in order to get good diversification (shooting for no loan to be more then 1-2% of entire portfolio). These are early days for the platform, I think they're going to have trouble finding quality borrowers once more lenders get involved. I am already seeing loans funded so quickly that I miss the opportunity to invest. Luckily the Canadian regulations on who can invest are keeping the lender pool significantly smaller then the population of individual investors who invest in normal stock and bond portfolio's. It's like a nice little club right now. The main problem is that this is all very private and mostly unregulated so it could all go to hell in a hand basket if the platform screws something up.

BlueNote
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by BlueNote »

Pregnancy

It's still very early but so far everything is going very smoothly this time. I have reason to believe that I'll probably be a father early next year.

Image

Pretty mind blowing stuff.

I've been getting poor sleep worrying if it will stick this time but so far it has. Sometimes I wake up worrying that the child will have <insert debilitating disease here> and will have a poor quality of life. Apparently that's pretty common. My wife is also getting poor sleep because she's "growing a tiny human" as she likes to remind me when I forget or ask her to do something that I didn't realize a pregnant woman shouldn't do. We haven't really seen the hardest part(s) yet so wish me luck.

Investing/Finance

Canadian interest rates did go up , as predicted by almost everyone, and preferred shares went up a little bit as well. I think the preferred market had already baked in most of the interest rate increase and probably the next couple as wxell. Otherwise my boring balanced, diversified, globally exposed index portfolio has been treading water.

The lending loop P2P loan platform experiment is going well so far. I have a couple of delinquencies right now but still no write off's. The platform recently enabled a feature whereby they auto invest a set amount of my available cash into whatever loans are available. My portfolio is on auto-pilot now , basically an equal weighted small business loan fund.

I need to start researching life insurance.

Work

Work has been alright, could be a lot worse. I'm enjoying working close to home again and will probably start biking the 8 km (5 miles) to work and home on a more regular basis. I need to change a few things in my repetoire in order to reduce my sweat profile but since the ride there is almost all down hill it shouldn't be too hard.

rube
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by rube »

Congrats and wishing you and DW all the luck.

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jennypenny
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Re: BlueNote's Journal

Post by jennypenny »

I really hope it works out this time!

Don't stress too much over kids not being perfect. One of ours has one of the 'scary' diseases. It's meant our life is a little different than we planned, but it's still just as wonderful.

I'm shepherding a horde of teenagers on vacation this week. Trust me, nobody's kid is perfect. ;)

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