Archive for September 2014
What is the Best MasterCard for Costco Shoppers?
For Costco shoppers, you may have heard the news that Costco has replaced American Express with MasterCard and using Capital One as the issuer. The rumour is that the two large publicly traded companies, Costco ($55B market cap) and American Express ($95B market cap), could not come to terms on transactions fees. The official news…
Read More3 Ways to Find Quality Tenants and Protect Your Rental Property
I recently celebrated my second year as a proud homeowner and landlord. While being a first-time homeowner has been tough, being a first-time landlord has been even tougher. It hasn’t been an easy journey to say the least, but with over half my mortgage paid off in only two years, it has been well worth…
Read MoreChoosing Mutual Funds in your Employer Pension/RRSP
Typical employer pensions are defined contribution based where they match your RRSP up to a certain percentage of your salary. For example, my previous employer offered 5% RRSP matching which means that if my salary was $50,000, they would match up to $2,500 in RRSP contributions for the year. It’s a great deal because it’s…
Read MoreHome Renovations vs. Early Retirement, Market Timing, Life Insurance when Traveling, and more!
There has been some notable financial news lately (this type of news is regularly shared with my twitter followers). First, later today Alibaba (BABA) will IPO at a price of $68 per share, helping the company raise around $22 billion (the largest IPO in history). This will give the company a market cap of around…
Read MoreNet Worth Update September 2014 – Nobleea
Welcome to the Million Dollar Journey September 2014 Net Worth Update – Team MDJ edition. A select group of readers were selected to be part of Team MDJ which was conceived after the million dollar net worth milestone was achieved in June 2014. Nobleea was selected as a team member and will post net worth…
Read MoreThe Risk of a Defined Benefit Pension
A government based defined benefit pension is considered the gold standard of retirement benefits. The requirement is that you need to work for the government for 25-30 years, contribute a small portion of your salary towards the pension and in return, you get 60-70% of your working income monthly (some pensions are even indexed to…
Read MoreSave Money and Have Fun with a Staycation
If you are trying to save money, a vacation is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. However, what’s the point of living if you can’t actually live a little? The good news is that enjoying life doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, you can get away even in your own backyard when you…
Read MoreReader Mail: Should I Sell or Hold during Stock Mergers/Acquistions?
The big financial news in Canada these days is that Burger King is acquiring Tim Hortons in a cash and stock deal worth $12 billion. When big events like this happens, I typically get a number of emails on the topic, this time around, readers are wondering what to do with their shares of Tim…
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