October 2014 has been a great month for me. My main investments are comprised of VTI and VCE and VTI went up by whooping 3% over the month which grew my TFSA and RRSP over $3,000. Even though I intend to hold them for at least a couple of years which should make me feel indifferent to short term fluctuations, I feel great when my investments perform well.
As I mentioned in the previous month’s net worth update, my wife and I moved to a downtown condo. Typically, I write blog posts during the weekend as I would burnout after working for 8-9 hours and commuting for 2 hours during weekdays however guess when I wrote today’s post? Yes it is Monday. It literally takes 5 minute of slow walk from/to work/home which is awesome. My time is my best asset and finally I am able to spend this free (?) time to do something I enjoy.
Cash– It has been great. For Nov 2014 rent, I only paid just half of the rent for the downtown condo. I chatted with the previous occupant a lot when I come down to see the unit as he is a portfolio analyst from TD bank (How exciting to talk about portfolio, bond market, ETFs, mutual fund etc…) The unit was clean, well maintained and really close to my work. From the chats, he told me he wanted to get out of the lease as soon as possible as he was just engaged with his fiancé and got a new place. I would never miss this chance so I made a decision immediately saying “I like you and I like the unit. We can go down to the bank and I will write you a certified cheque right now but let’s split the rent for November 2014 as I am stuck one more month with my current lease” I knew he wanted to get out of the lease as soon as possible and I love the place, all I had to do was flashing my money in front of him to show how serious I am and how soon he could get out of the contract which would give the professional less headache from showing the unit to other people until it is rented out.
TFSA& RRSP
Even though VCE went down little bit, VTI’s growth was just enormous for the month. I don’t know how high it will go this year but I am very confident that the economy will always improve in the long run and so will the index fund. I was looking into buying a couple of thousands of oil&gas stock during October when the price dropped quite significantly but cash flow was hurting as I have paid first and last month rent to the new place but did not get my deposit back from the old place.
Credit card
I was going to cut off my Amex credit card soon as Costco won’t accept it from next year and Amex’s acceptance rate in Canada is just plain terrible (Not like US) however I realized that I could get 5% cash back on restaurant purchase as Amex is throwing a promotion to retain all the excited Costco customers (as they now can use mastercard in Canada). I went to a restaurant with my team members for a business meal which I paid and will be reimbursed by the company and I got $12 back for that transaction. Isn’t it crazy? I intend to keep it until the promotion is over.
October was awesome and I hope this momentum continues in November. Let’s go VTI and VCE!
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