Seems that there was quite a bit of interest in the book “Super Trader” as there were numerous entries.  Out of all the entries, 3 were randomly chosen as winners of a free copy.  Here are the winners:

1. Linda
2. Jeff W.
3. Desmond C.

Top 5 Posts of October 2009

1. How Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Works - With the big hype about the tax efficiency of dividend income, the AMT makes sure that the government gets their share.
2. Prepaid Credit Card Comparison - After receiving a generous prepaid credit card as a gift, I wrote a review discussing the merits and pitfalls.
3. Tips for buying and selling on Kijiji - Staff writer Kathryn discusses some tips when doing business on Kijiji.
4. Why Don’t Financial Planners Plan Finances -  This article lists various reasons why financial planners don’t create basic financial plans for their clients.  What do you think?
5. Creating a Frugal Halloween – Even though Halloween has just passed, here are some great tips for Halloween in future years.

Top Referrers

1. Canadian Capitalist
2. Canadian Money Forum
3. The Globe and Mail
4. Four Pillars
5. Frugal Dad

Top Comment Contributors

• cannon_fodder
• Four Pillars
• Ms Save Money
• Canada Deals
• Kathryn

Popular Posts:

• Canadian Discount Brokerage Comparison
• Top 6 ways to Save on Auto Insurance
• High Interest Rate Savings Accounts
• Top Cash Back Credit Cards in Canada
• Questrade Review
• Are Hybrid Vehicles Worth it?
• Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA)

Copyright 2009 MillionDollarJourney – All Rights Reserved

To qualify as a long-time resident, you must have owned and lived in your current residence for at least five years of the previous eight years.

$6,500 Home Buyer Tax Credit

Here are the requirements for the $6,500 home buyer tax credit:

• Your new home must have a signed contract by April 30, 2010 and you must close on the new home by June 30, 2010.
• Income phaseouts will begin at $125,000 for single filers and $225,000 for married filing joint.
• The credit is for primary homes that cost $800,000 or less.

For more information, see the original First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.

Click here to leave a comment on this article.
© My Dollar Plan
Get free subscriptions to hundreds of popular magazines!

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

As a reminder, here are some of the rules for the first time home buyer tax credit:

• The credit is for $8,000 or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less.
• The credit is refundable.
• The credit is for primary homes that cost $800,000 or less.

The income limits also went up with the extension. Original phaseouts were for incomes between $75,000 to $95,000 for single and $150,000 to $170,000 for couples. Phaseouts will now begin at $125,000 for single and $225,000 for couples.

In addition to extending the date, the bill also included a $6,500 Home Buyer Tax Credit for Existing Homeowners.

Click here to leave a comment on this article.
© My Dollar Plan
Get free subscriptions to hundreds of popular magazines!

As noted in this article (October 2009 Unemployment Rate 10.20% – Chart of the Day) unemployment’s high.  Too high.  I was in the 10.2% for about a week, but as of next week I’m right back at it with the same client after they got a budget increase.  Although I’m glad to return to work, what with the economy the way it is, I’m a little bit sad that my “break” only lasted about 7 days.  It was a very productive break in almost every category (except, obviously, blogging).  We made a trip to visit relatives, I got a lot of the paperwork related to our looming close on our new house done, and I even managed to surprise my son by picking him up from school on my bike. 

So due to the busy week, I’ll fly through a few links:

• Relocating To End Unemployment: Ten Things To Consider:  I didn’t specifically relocate to find work, but it’s not the worst idea.  One of my colleagues at my client does this routinely.  It’s tough to buy, sell, buy, sell (not to mention tough on his kids) but it might be better these days to be flexible.
• Best Ways To Invest Small Amounts of Money:  If you get $100 extra dollars, I’m not sure I’d apply it to bad debt, but otherwise – solid tips.  Invest in yourself – that’s never bad advice.
• Americans Not Ready for Retirement:  In the category of “where are all of the 80 year olds going to work, exactly”?
• Energy Gal’s Easy Homemade Hummus Recipe:  We make hummus from time to time, without the blender – I just use a fork, a bowl and lots of what the old-timers called “elbow juice.” 
• College Savings Accounts for a Bad Economy
• Our Journey To Debt Freedom: Cresting The Hill
• Finding Time for Positive Change
• How to Save on Health Care Without Skimping on Quality
• When Money Doesn’t Matter
• How to Earn Income for the Rest of Your Life: The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Annuities

linklings, dude, where’s my break? edition is an original article from the website brip blap.

In the latest job report, the government said that the nation’s monthly unemployment rate reached 10.20%, the highest level in more than 26 years. For a long time, we have been warmed that the unemployment rate may reach double-digit, but it seems that it came a little earlier than expected.

Despite the huge amount of money the government has spent to pull the economy out of the deepest recession in 70 years, the job market is still very weak. In October, U.S. employers shed 190,000 non-farm positions. The number of jobs lost in a month is the lowest so far in 2009, but the number of unemployed person increased 558,000 in October, pushing the total number of people without a job to 15.7 million. Since the recession began in December 2007, more than 8.2 million workers have lost their jobs.

The economy may be recovering (GDP grew 3.5% in the third quarter), but we probably won’t feel any real improvement until we all have jobs.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• Citi Forward Card 11,000 Bonus ThankYou Points
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in October
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

I’ve discussed how to avoid foreclosure and how to avoid bankruptcy in the past, but in some cases, things don’t work out too well, and there are people who end up becoming casualties of the real estate bust, credit crisis and weak job market.

Lots of people have been forced into homelessness due to a variety of reasons. Many cases of homelessness are because of mistakes and choices people make in their lives. There are those who fall into substance abuse and become stuck in this kind of existence. But there are other cases — particularly in recent years — that are not from bad choices. In some situations, it may be due to poor planning.

But this is not the entire story because there are those who fall into homelessness even with reasonable planning. Sometimes, even when you think you’re sufficiently ready for any kind of emergency, the sky does fall on you and you find yourself reeling from an unrecoverable financial predicament. Bad health can do it. Extended job loss can do it as well. Sheer bad luck and misfortune can just be in the cards for a while.

I used to think that with enough savings and preparation, nothing is insurmountable. Well, I’m halfway through my life now and I’ve seen enough to think otherwise. Sometimes, it’s about crossing your fingers too, and hoping that you never have to face a financial tsunami in your lifetime.

On that note, I’d like to share this CNN video that I found quite surprising in many ways. It’s about “tunnel dwellers” in Las Vegas; not everything is what it seems…

Steve Dommer and his girlfriend, Kathryn, live in the depths below the Vegas Strip. They created an elaborate 400-square-foot space, complete with a living room, bedroom, kitchen and workshop to fix bicycles. Everything is elevated off the floor with wooden pallets or milk crates because of potential flooding.

The guy in the video does not look homeless, yet he is. He’s coping, somehow. I guess this is the type of story that reminds us that homelessness can befall anyone, and why public awareness of programs like Help USA is important.

Personal Finance Articles

• Credit Karma Blog: Annoyed By Ridiculous Overdraft Fees?
• Free Money Finance: Ten Ways to Make Your Boss Love You
• Bargaineering: Will Your Recession Changes Stick?
• One Mint: What is an ETF?
• Plugged In Finance: On No/Low Cost DRIPs
• Gen X Finance: The Good, The Bad, And Ugly of Annuities
• Lazy Man and Money: Amazon Friday Sale: L.A. Clippers For the Win Edition
• Gather Little By Little: Are you preparing for the worst?
• Budgets Are Sexy: Try Working On Finances When You’re In The Mood
• Sun’s Financial Diary: October 2009 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth
• Brip Blap: How Working Overseas Helps Your Career
• Financial Samurai: Never Call In Sick On Friday, Slacker!
• Million Dollar Journey: Why Canadians Don’t Redeem Coupons

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Personal Finance
• Carnival of Debt Reduction

How One Homeless Person Lives: Coping With Homelessness

Here’s a reminder to those of you who’ve been contemplating on getting your finances in order. Ramit Sethi, the blogger and New York best selling author behind “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” is offering a personal finance boot camp — or interactive online course, if you will — that will run from November 9 through December 20. It will cover all topics from debt and credit management, to budgeting, saving, investing and entrepreneurship, and promises to help you get yourself financially organized.

I’ve written about this boot camp in detail here, so if you’re thinking of registering, this is the final day to get signed up. The regular cost is $199, but I am offering a $50 rebate if you complete the course and register through this link. To those who’ve already signed up, this offer extends to you as well.

Personal Finance Boot Camp: Last Call To Register

Early this week, Charles Schwab, who introduced Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund in May with 0.09% Expense Ratio (ER), launched its first batch of exchange-traded funds that are again featured with super-low expense ratios. Four ETFs debut this Tuesday are

• Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF (SCHB): Index - Dow Jones U.S. Broad Stock Market Index; ER - 0.08%
• Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF (SCHX): Index - Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Total Stock Market Index; ER - 0.08%
• Schwab U.S. Small-Cap ETF (SCHA): Index - Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Total Stock Market Index; ER - 0.15%
• Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF): Index - FTSE Developed ex-US Index; ER - 0.15%

So how are these ETFs compared against similar offerings from Vanguard?

• Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI): ER 0.09%
• Vanguard Large-Cap ETF (VV): ER 0.13%
• Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB): ER – 0.15%
• Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF (VEA): ER – 0.16%

Well, Schwab’s ETFs are cheaper, but the difference isn’t that significant (percentage wise it is) except the large-cap ETFs. However, the Vanguard funds have already established a track record (at least two years) in terms of returns. For the new funds at Schwab, there’s no way to evaluate the performance. So I won’t be jumping in any of these funds right away, despite the lower expense ratios.

In addition to the ER, the other part of the cost of owning ETFs is the commission charged by brokers to invest in ETFs. Since ETFs are traded on exchanges the same ways as individual stocks are, buying and selling ETFs usually involve commissions, anywhere from $2.95 per trade to $10+ depending on which broker you are using. That’s why you can dollar-cost averaging mutual funds from fund providers (if you buy mutual funds from a broker, you may also have to pay a fee), but not ETFs. However, there’s an exception for these Schwab ETFs if you also use Schwab as your broker because it appears that you can get these funds with zero commission. If you don’t have to pay any commission, then buying ETFs regularly with a small amount makes sense.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• Citi Forward Card 11,000 Bonus ThankYou Points
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in October
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

A hummus recipe yesterday and an Amazon Friday Sale today?!?! If this site hadn't jumped the sharked so long ago, this would surely be a jump the shark post... or maybe I'm just reducing your expectations so that I can knock your socks off next week. We'll go with the later. Be prepared to lose your socks.

However, for today, I'm back to picking out some products that Amazon has put on sale for today and today only. So if you like it then you should put a ring on it (or something like that).

• NBA Kids' L.A. Clippers Future Star Watch - This is my product of the week. This watch has a nice early 80's look about it. I like to think that it's because it's actually from the early 80's and the Clippers are still waiting for their "Future Stars."
• Portable Folding Hammock - Being lazy isn't always as easy as it seems. For instance it's tough to find a good hammock. When you do they take up so much darn space. And ever try to bring your hammock to the beach? There's never any trees to tie it to. This portable folding hammock solves that problem and at least two dozen other hammock problems that you probably don't even know you have. With 14 of the 17 reviewers giving it 5 stars it's got to be quality.
• Collapsible Pet Feeder - Much like the hammock, saving space is key thing that I look for in products. This pet food and water dish is a nice way to save a little space when your pet isn't eating. My only issue is that we leave water for our dog Jake all the time. So if we bought this it would never be collapsed. Maybe someone else can find a good use for it though.
• Umbra Aquala Bathtub Caddy - I had to include this just for the Lazy factor alone. I mean a bathtub, books, and wine... wow.
• Stainless-Steel Beer-Can Chicken Rack with Drip Pan - You had me at "beer can chicken." I don't know how I missed this phenomenon, but I'm going to have to look into it... soon. Sounds delicious.

Related posts:

1. Amazon Friday Sale – “Hammock Finally?” Edition For those of you who don't follow my Twitter...
2. Amazon Friday Sale: Overload of Awesomeness Edition I usually only find a couple of interesting/humorous things...
3. Amazon Friday Sale (Awesome Queen Mattress Sale Edition) As many of my regular readers know by now,...
4. Amazon Friday Sale – Health Edition It's been close to 6 months since I put...
5. Amazon Friday Sale – Cruzin Cooler Scooter Edition On some Friday, I look at Amazon's Friday Sale...

Open enrollment deadlines are one date you don’t want to miss.  Choosing the best insurance options and benefits at your job is an important part of your personal finances.

Open Enrollment Window

October and November are the time when many companies have open enrollment, a time period during which you can make changes to your benefits for the coming year.  Open enrollment is often the only time during the year you can make changes to your health insurance and flexible spending plans unless you have a qualifying change in status during the year such as a marriage or new baby.

In many cases if you do nothing during the open enrollment period, your insurance coverage and benefits will remain the same as previous year, one common exception are flexible spending plans. Due to federal laws, if you want to continue your health care or dependent day care flex spending contribution, you have to re-enroll each year.

Benefit Changes

Typically when you go through the enrollment process you’ll elect or decline coverage for benefits such as medical, dental, flexible spending accounts, dependent day care, and vision. Take care to add and update your dependent and beneficiary information so that your family members have sufficient coverage.

Open Enrollment Deadlines

Most companies are pretty strict about enforcing their open enrollment deadlines.  Any changes you try and make after the deadline passes will typically be denied.  You can always work with your human resources department to get an exception but it’s much easier to take the time and finish your open enrollment before it becomes a huge hassle or is too late. So stop procrastinating and enroll now if you haven’t already!