She Thinks I'm Cheap! - Page 2 of 8 - Helping you make more money by sharing facts, stories and advice

The Flash Crash & 4 Ways To Protect Your Digital Security

Posted by Andrew on April 29, 2013 | 1 Comment

On April 24th, one fake Twitter tweet led to a flash crash in the US markets. I remember checking my portfolio that day and wondering what the huge dip was on my chart of the S&P 500 for the day. It turns out that a group of Syrian hackers broke into the Twitter account of the Associated Press and tweeted that there was an explosion at the White House and ... Read more »

POP Goes The Bitcoin Bubble – What’s your Risk Tolerance?

Posted by Andrew on April 15, 2013 | 2 Comments

In case you haven’t heard yet, there’s a new digital currency in town, Bitcoin. Bitcoins are created or “minted” through a complex technical process by vast numbers of computers. There is no central infrastructure and Bitcoins can be traded freely with no government oversight on exchanges including MTGox. The exchange tracks the price of the coins ... Read more »

From Toronto to London: Relocating Overseas and Re-Entering the Workforce – Part 2

Posted by Andrew on April 9, 2013 | 2 Comments

In my last post on moving from Toronto to London I discussed why we moved to the UK, finding short term accommodation, opening a bank account and starting to look for work. We are now into our 7th month here and I’ve got more information to share! Getting back into the work force Both my wife and I found jobs relatively quickly in our field which was fantastic. ... Read more »

Portfolio & Bull Market Update – Sold RioCan & Shoppers Drug Mart

Posted by Andrew on April 1, 2013 | 5 Comments

It’s been awhile since I posted my last portfolio update where I discussed buying TD bank for my LIRA account. This is actually a good thing as markets have been performing well lately so there hasn’t been a need to tweak anything, until now. I have a couple poor performers in my portfolio (Atmel, Baidu) and a couple of names that just don’t ... Read more »

Private Pensions, RRSPs and Retiring – Demystified

Posted by Andrew on March 25, 2013 | 1 Comment

Thank you to one of my readers for writing in and asking about retirement accounts and pensions. This whole subject is very complex and one that I don’t tend to focus on given how far away retirement is for my wife and I. However, this is an important topic for many of my readers so its an area I should improve upon. So to increase my own knowledge and ... Read more »

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Do Your Research – Save Thousands

Posted on February 20, 2013 | 3 Comments

Have you ever heard the phrase “take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves?” Those who worry about the little things like a restaurant bill being correct or bank chequing fees are generally on the right track financially. This would be a bottom up way of looking at finances. While many of us are good at this bottom up approach, we might be lacking the top down perspective. ...

Best of The Blogs – February 15th

Posted on February 15, 2013 | 5 Comments

To get started, Jeremy over at Modest Money has kicked off a blog contest for the top Canadian finance blogs of 2013. As loyal readers of She Thinks I’m Cheap, I encourage you to please vote for me! These types of contests go a long way to raising the profile of new blogs such as this one. You get 5 votes so you can spread the love around to some of the other Canadian bloggers as well! There have ...

The Consumer Technology Upgrade Cycle – What You Need To Know

Posted on February 13, 2013 | 7 Comments

The consumer technology upgrade cycle is relentless and potentially very costly. Apple comes out with new models of their iPhone and iPad on a yearly basis and the likes of Samsung and Nokia are the same. While the cycle may seem faster given the popularity of Apple products, this phenomenon has been around for a long time. We need a new laptop. It’s been 4 years or so since I got my current HP and ...

Time, Skills and Health – 3 Areas That Need Investment

Posted on February 11, 2013 | 1 Comment

Investing in real estate, stocks, bonds or other securities is a popular topic on She Thinks I’m Cheap and many other financial blogs. In this post I’d like to take a bit of a detour and discuss investing in some very different areas. One’s time, skills and health are three critical areas that shouldn’t be forgotten when creating a personal budget and allocating resources. After ...

Career Break Survey – The Results! – Part 2

Posted on February 8, 2013 | 0 Comment

It’s been a few weeks since I presented the first set of stats from the career break survey I conducted in December 2012. For those who missed it, you can find the results here. Conducting the survey was a great exercise and it really helped me to understand how people view career breaks. To get started, here’s how long people would like to take a break for. Career break length A full third of ...

Investor Confidence Is Coming Back – Is Now The Time To Buy?

Posted on February 4, 2013 | 0 Comment

We are now a month into 2013 and stock markets are off to a great start. There have been all sorts of articles recently about stock markets and investor confidence slowly improving for various reasons but they all seem to rehash the same ideas. Europe is on the mend, Greece isn’t going to explode, etc. So when I came across this article over at Bloomberg the other day, I took notice. Let’s ...

Why You Shouldn’t Contribute To Your RRSP – 2 Critical Factors

Posted on January 27, 2013 | 3 Comments

RRSP season is here again and the banks are stepping up their marketing campaigns to encourage you to contribute. Just to be clear, saving for retirement is of vital importance for everyone who wants to maintain a comfortable lifestyle as the years wind on. While contributing to an RRSP is a great thing to do, many members of the younger generation don’t take into consideration 2 very key issues, ...

Employee Share Purchase Plans – What You Need To Know

Posted on January 16, 2013 | 4 Comments

When it comes to compensation, people working full time usually just think about their base salary and/or commission as their compensation. For those who work at publicly traded companies, there is probably an employee share purchase plan that you can join. Participating in an Employee Share Purchase Plan (ESPP) is an excellent idea as they lead to building wealth over the long term! Since there are ...

Series: How to Travel Long Term and Experience the World – Starting to save

Posted on January 14, 2013 | 1 Comment

We’re now on the 4th installment of this series, I hope you are enjoying it so far! This next post will cover how to save the many thousands of dollars you’ll need for your career break adventure. To get the conversation started, here is a table that will simplify the discussion. Income Gross $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 $80,000 $90,000 $100,000 Net $34,038 $41,113 $47,998 $54,860 $61,514 $67,429 $73,088 Less ...

Career Break Survey – The Results! – Part 1

Posted on January 9, 2013 | 3 Comments

After a little break over the holidays I have started to put together the stats on the recent survey I conducted on the topic of career breaks. The survey was a great success and I am excited to bring some new research forward to help people realize their dream of taking time off to pursue their personal goals. Let’s get started with some basics. Career Type % Other 16% Accountancy, ...

2012 Portfolio Performance – Did we beat the market?

Posted on January 7, 2013 | 5 Comments

Is it strange that I was excited for the end of 2012 so that I could crunch the numbers on our investment performance?! Last year had a lot of ups and downs with the European debt crisis, US election, fiscal cliff and softening Canadian housing market. There are some people, my wife included, who like to park their money somewhere safe and forget about it. I however, like to be intimately involved ...

happy new year 2013 - financial planning and budgeting

Welcome to 2013! Time to think about your accomplishments and goals for the future

Posted on January 2, 2013 | 0 Comment

Happy new year and welcome to 2013! I hope everyone is rested and content after the holidays. A new year brings new ideas, opportunities and challenges! I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy the articles and TV shows that recap the events of the year. By the time we get to November or December, we forget what happened at the beginning of the year! Do yourself a favor and reflect back on your ...