I have been doing interviews for the past couples of weeks. That is the main reason why I have not been posting for a while. I got a call from one of the recruiters last week and was asked to fly over to Alberta to talk about the job a little bit further. They said I am going to talk to the senior manager who had interview with me and also the director of the department. I think this is a good sign and hopefully I can score the job eventually. Let's keep my fingers crossed. :)
People should have the perfect look to impress others while they are in a mood of flirting. How you look is actually very important as well when you try to flirt.
One of our sponsors, Extreme Style by VO5, has created a website with an online game called Ultimate Flirting Championship. With this game, you can test your flirting skill and see if you can achieve the victory hair in the virtual world. This game allows to you to be the judge, choosing questions, best answers, and picking winners. If you don’t want to be a judge and believe that you can provide the best flirtatious answers, you can play as a contestant too. It is a great game which could help people to pick up some new skills in flirting. In order to achieve your victory hair, you need a plan. Mine will include something like inviting her to dinner, chatting on the phone or online a lot, helping her with anything you could, and sending her some flowers.
So what is your plan? Can you achieve the victory hair? Click on the widget in this post and test out your flirting skill! Most importantly, have fun!
I have finished my salary review for my current year. Not surprisingly, I got the average 5% increase as others. After tax, I will probably get $50 more each pay cheque. I have decided to put all of them into my mutual fund purchase. From now, I will be contributing about $500 each month to my mutual funds.
I love traveling and hope I am able to go to a place which I have never been to before every year. Based on my own tracking on Facebook, I have been to fifty cities in eight countries. As I am searching for my next travel destination, it seems that hilton head south
Many of you may have heard of Vista Print before. I have even purchased some products from them a long time ago. They are a huge online customizing, printing and distributing company. They have a large variety of products including business cards, business card holders, invitations and announcements, rubber stamps, business card magnets, postcards, t-shirts, and return address labels. The best part about their products is that they are attractive and affordable.
Currently they are having a Special Sale on their website. Everything from business cards, sticky notes, pens to car door magnets, window decals and rubber stamps plus much more are all FREE! All you need to do is to pay a tiny shipping fee like you would for any other mail item. No catch at all! It is hard to pass by a FREE item. Maybe you are considering getting yourself a business card which can reflect you and your business; or you are having an upcoming event and you want to offer the t-shirt with your own design as a presents to the guests; or you want to send out a party invitation to your friends and families, you should check out Vista Print for their high-quality and affordable products.
August is the start of the new fiscal year for my current company. It is also the time of the salary review. Some of my friends has just finished theirs today. It looks like most of them have got a 5% raise this year. I have not got my review scheduled yet. Hopefully, it will come soon. As for the percentage raise, I think it should be at 5% level as well. We will see.
How often is your salary review? What is the usual percentage of raise?
What is carpal tunnel syndrome? Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) or median neuropathy at the wrist is a medical condition in which the median nerve is compressed at the wrist, leading to pain, paresthesias, and muscle weakness in the forearm and hand. A form of compressive neuropathy, CTS is more common in women than it is in men and has a peak incidence around age 42, though it can occur at any age. The lifetime risk for CTS is around 10% of the adult population.
Most cases of CTS are idiopathic (without known cause). Repetitive activities, such as typing, are often blamed for the development of CTS along with several other possible causes.
Many people that have carpal tunnel syndrome have gradually increasing symptoms over time. The first symptoms of CTS may appear when sleeping and typically include numbness and paresthesia (a burning and tingling sensation) in the fingers, especially the thumb, index, and middle fingers.
There are many treatments available to cure CTS. Some of them are acupuncture, massage therapy, carpal tunnel release surgery, and physiotherapy and so on. Alternatively, you can try the new innovation of carpal tunnel relief produced by IMAK that offers comfort for CTS syndrome. This Glove comes with loads of exciting features which includes washable, long standing, more comfort with cushions, improves circulation of blood and mainly it is reversible so that it can fit both left and right hand. You can check out more information on their website.
I am leaving this afternoon to SixFlags New England. It has been a long time that I want to visit this amusement park. Here I go! As a big roller coaster fan, I am so excited. We will be staying at the Sheraton in Springfield for two nights and then heading to the Wrentham Village Outlet mall on Sunday.
Originally we would like to stay in Springfield for one night and then two nights in Boston. But due to the big conference in Boston, the hotel is so expensive in Boston for this Saturday. Therefore, we twisted our plan a little bit. We paid $60 per night for Sheraton in Springfield and $88 per night for Omni Parker House in downtown Boston.
Also, there is a big promotion for SixFlags currently, everybody pay kids price! The admission is reduced to $29.99 if you buy online. I think it is a good time to visit SixFlags if you like coasters!
The following post is sponsored
I, as a big seafood lover, like fish, shrimp, oyster and so on. I have some really nice seafood recipes that I can share with you. One of them is the microwave steam fish. Here is the steps and what you need to make it:
Let’s start cooking. Firstly, you need to clean up the fish by just washing it under running water for a bit. Then place the fish steaks in the plate, cover them with another bowl or plate or anything you can find to cover it in the microwave. This is an important step. Do not put the fish in the microwave without cover as it will let the moisture escape and leave you a very dry fish in the end.
Now, turn the microwave on for about five minutes at the high level. You can turn the fish once when it is half way through. After it is done, remove the plate from the microwave. You may find some water in the dish. Do not worry. It is normal. Just get rid of the water. Remember that we have some green onions silk prepared to use? It is the time to put them evenly on the fish.
The next thing we want to do is to heat up some cooking oil. Turn on the stove, pour some cooking oil into it (probably about 5-10 table spoons depending on the amount of fish you are having) and heat it up until you see a slight smoke coming out of it. Pour the heated cooking oil directly and evenly onto the fish. You will hear some nice sizzling.
The last step is to add the light soy sauce. Just pour the light soy sauce equally onto the fish and…..you are done!I have finally got my GCR rebate check in the mail yesterday in the total amount of $65.05. It took me about 45 days to receive my check from the date I requested. I just had the worst timing. They process checks on the 15th of each month. I submitted my request on June 16th,one day after the dead line!
So if you would like to pay by checks, you should pay attention to when you should submit your request. Of course, the best date will be the 14th. Or you can simply choose to pay by paypal.
I have an interview scheduled on Aug 12 from a financial institution in Alberta. The job is exactly what I am looking for in an industry I want to work for. I hope I can score it on Aug 12. To prepare for the interview, I have searched on the internet for how to answer those questions usually pop up during the process. The particular useful one I have found is Interview Questions on About.com. If you are interested, you can follow this link.
Good luck to all the job seekers! :)
The following is a sponsored post
Have you ever wanted to buy the police gear such as 5.11 tactical series , watches, Sunfire LED flashlights, tactical boots and so on? Check out LA Police Gear website on which you can find a lot of those kinds of stuffs.
I have decided to do a passive income report each month. Right now, most of my passive income come from blogging and investment income such as interests and dividends. In the month of June, I have been able to generate about $285 dollars. It has been pretty good. I hope the trend can continue into the future.
Information technology, computer, and Internet have become a must for today’s business and our daily activities. Without any doubt, IT industry presents many opportunities and has grown very fast in these days. There are many companies that need to hire someone who has IT background and knowledge. It is very important and necessary in my opinion to get yourself some IT certificates if you are considering a career in IT industry since without a proper certificate many companies will have doubts in your abilities.
There are so many different companies who provide IT certificates and offer related trainings. You will have to choose very carefully based on both your career stream in IT you want to head to and the trustworthy of the company who is offering the certificates. You certainly do not want a certificate without any value. If you are considering a career as a Network specialist, I would recommend Cisco certification. It holds a large value in today’s IT industry. The Cisco Learning Network is offering all kinds of Cisco certification programs such as IP Networking (CCENT), Routing&Switching (CCNP), Design(CCDP) and so on. If none of those sounds interesting to you, specialist certifications are also available for fine-tuning your skills in particular areas such as wireless LANs, security and more. All the certifications would be a validation of your knowledge and skills for internet networking and at the same time a ticket to wider career opportunities. If you are interested, you can check out the website of Cisco Learning Network to find out more.
I logged into my GCR account today. My account shows that the check has been cut and mailed. My total rebate is $65. Until today, I have not seen the mail coming yet. I will wait until Friday before I send them an e-mail. Hopefully, I will be receiving it soon.
Although I am not a big movie fan, I like to watch some movies from the 80’s, such as Indiana Jones, Sixteen Candles, Back To The Future and so on. I feel the movies from the 80’s have more stories to tell than today’s. They might not use a lot of stunts and high tech animation, but still fun to watch.
WarGames is celebrating its 25th Anniversary and it will be back in the theaters nationwide this coming Thursday, July 24. The showing is one night only and will include never-before-seen interviews with film’s creators and the cast (including Broderick and Ally Sheedy) and crew on how the movie was ahead of its time and its relevance today. Additionally, only at this one night event, get a sneak peek at the making of the sequel – WarGames: The Dead Code. If you are interested, do not miss this opportunity.
Scotiabank Reaches Agreement To Buy E*TRADE Canada. The announcement has been made yesterday although the deal has not been finalized yet. It looks like there is going to be less and less competition for the discount brokerage firms in Canada.
For more on this, please follow this link
This year is definitely very tough. Stock market is down. Home value has been beaten up very much. Everything seems to be heading the direction we do not want it to. What can we do? I do not think there is much we can do other than stay calm and stay the course. In the mean time, to get through this tough time, you might want to consider increasing your take-home pay by generating some side income. There are several ways to do this. One is to blog, and the other one is to take some paid surveys at home. If you would like to try to take some paid surveys at home, you should check out GetPaidToTry.com. If you sign up now, you will get $20.00 after completing the member bonus. Moreover, unlike other survey sites, there will be no credit card information required during the sign up process. The registration was very quick and simple. Once confirmed, you are free to do whichever offers you wish to do when you feel like doing them. The offers are categorized which allows you to easily find those you are interested in. Furthermore, GetPaidToTry has a referral system as well. You will be able to earn more cash by referring your friends to GetPaidToTry. Sounds interesting? You can Click here to begin.
If you shop at Footsmart.com this week through Canadian Great Rebates, you will get 10% in Cash Back Rebates. Plus, until the end of July save 15% Off the purchase of lower body health items with Coupon Code: WBFSS10.
For the past two months, I have been able to bring a little bit extra money by taking the sponsored post opportunities from SocialSpark. The result is so much better than I have thought. On average, I am able to generate about $100 additional income each month. It might looks small, but it certainly pays for my food each month. I think it is pretty cool that I can eat free for the rest of my life.
These days there are many mommies who stay home, look after their family, take care of the kids and do the entire household work. Moreover, among those stay-home mommies, many of them are bloggers as well. They are writing posts about their daily life, the persons they care and love, the things they are passionate about, and so on. Blogs are their diary online. If you are a mommy blogger, I encourage you to check out SocialSpark and join the community where bloggers and advertisers unite. At SocialSpark, you will be able to share your thoughts through your blog and earn some money from it. The typical pay out for each post will be in the range from $5 to $30 with the requirement of 50 to 300 words. Based on my personal experience, it will take about 15 to 30 minutes for me to write up a post, post it and submit the URL at SocialSpark. Don’t worry. It is a very easy task. If I can do it, you can do it too. So, take the time to sign up at SocialSpark, start blogging away and earn some hard cold cash.
Today is a big day for iPhone lovers as it is the time the iPhone 3G comes to the market. For Canadians, Rogers is the wireless provider who will offer this phone in Canada. If you would like to get one from Rogers, here is the list of plans they are offering now:
New iphone black 16G $299
1st 2 month is free
1st 3 month is unlimted call time
each month $35 with NO data plan
250 day time min, free after 6pm.
free call display, call waiting
$60/month - 150 anytime minutes, 75 outgoing SMS, and 400 MB data
$75/months - 300 anytime minutes, 100 outgoing SMS, and 750 MB data
$100/month - 600 anytime minutes, 200 outgoing SMS, and 1 GB data
$115/month - 800 anytime minutes, 300 outgoing SMS, and 2 GB data
Basically, we are looking at, at least, $45 per month with NO data plan or $75 for a plan with 400 MB data. For me, that price is just too high. $900 per year is enough to pay for a small nice trip. I would rather go traveling instead of having an iPhone. How long will I feel it is a fun gadget? Probably 6 months maybe? After 6 months, I will be stuck for another two and a half year of it. I don't think I will be getting one.
Do you wear glasses? I do. I used to buy my prescription glasses in store. Those prescription glasses are so expensive. After the $150 deductions from my insurance, I still need to pay around $170 out of my own pocket. If you hate the high price just like me, you need to check out ZenniOptical.com which sells stylish prescription glasses online from $8. You will find huge selection of frames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic)lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens. The Secret to Zenni’s Low Prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. Even Fox News is talking about ZenniOptical as well. For the full story, you can check it out by the following link,Zenni on Fox
This post is a sponsored post
As the change to the act, there will be no 40-year mortgage in Canada anymore. The maximum amortization period will be limited to 35 years. Also, 5% down payment will be required when purchasing a house/condo. The change will take effect on October 15.
This is a sign of credit tightening. Apparently, the federal government is worried about the similar sub-prime crisis might happen in Canada.(Just take a look at the real estate market in BC and AB) Will this change cool off the real estate market in Canada? I think only time can tell. But this is a correct decision to make. Good move for the federal government.
Gaming industry has become larger and larger. Nowadays, there are more and more people especially kids and teenagers who play all kinds of games, such as video games and computer games. Gaming is truly enjoyable and addictive. Among all different games, the massively multiplayer role-playing games are very popular. People love to play this kind of RPG games because they can interact with lots of people, make friends and team up with them in a quest. Although I am not a big fan of online games, I found the new Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, Dungeon Runners, quite engaging and entertaining. In the online video game, players can play as a hero, fight monsters and explore exciting magical places. Also, players will obtain magical Bling Gnome that eat their unwanted items and turn them into gold by taking a golden squat. This game is very simple but fun. You might think that you need to pay a big price or high monthly subscription fee for such a fun game. No, you do not have to. Although there is an option to purchase a subscription, you can still download and play the game for free.
OK, I just got the e-mail reply from Questrade. It looks like the executed price was correct. They execute the DRIP order the day after the dividends payout, which is July 2nd in this case. The trade will settle in 3 business days, which is July 7th. In their back end system, Pension, the correct executed price(July 2nd price) was recorded. However, in their trading platform, Webtrader, the executed price was recorded as the price at the close time of the day the trade settled which is July 7th price. So, the number in Pension is correct but the number in Webtrader is not. I am glad the problem has been figured out. But this kind of issue is still not acceptable. Basically, I could not use the records in Webtrader to calculate my adjusted cost base. I have to go back to the back end system to figure that out. Oh, well, let's just hope there is no more issues with Questrade. Otherwise, I am ready to switch.
People are blogging for many reasons. Some write posts to sell a product; some are blogging to make some extra money; some are just blogging for fun and want to meet some new friends. No matter what you are blogging about. Every blogger is looking for more traffic to their blogs. What are some ways you have been using to drive more people to your blog? Obviously, there are many different techniques and websites which can bring more people to read your blog. Have you noticed that there is one called TrafficeXplode2.0? The TrafficXplode2.0 was designed with “Owners”, “Visitors” and “Invitees” in mind. In other words, it creates a “win-win-win” situation for all 3 parties. As an owner of the blog, you will get more traffic to your site. If you are the visitor, you will be getting some free gifts. As an invitee, you will get to know about a great resource that might potentially be something of value. TrafficXplode2.0 is basically a tell-a-friend solution. Visitors to your blogs get to introduce your blog to their friends by importing and inviting their contacts through either email contacts such as Gmail and Yahoo or social networking contacts like Hi5, MySpace, Friendster and even Facebook. The software will keep track of the referrals. To award your readers, you can choose gifts that in the price ranges you are comfortable with. I think this is a quite interesting and innovative idea. If you are interested , please check out their website for more information.
I just noticed a problem with my DRIP order in my Questrade account. The executed price shown in my webtrader account is different than the one shown in its backend system Penson. The net difference is 2%!! They are not sure what is going on now, but will e-mail me back when they figure it out! I will sure not be letting this go without a proper reply. Let's see what they come up with.
Every one loves to have more money in their accounts. One way to achieve that is to save more. How do you save more? There are several ways to do it. You can either make more or spend less or doing both. At the beginning of this year, I have made several moves to cut down my expenses such as switching my cell phone monthly plan to the prepaid service (save me at least $30 per month), canceling my cable TV and watch my favorite show on the internet and so on.($25 per month save). If you pay attention, you will find a lot of ways to find a little bit extra dough. Here are some I would like to share with you:
1. Get a coffee mug and bring your morning coffee with you instead of going to the drive through of McDonald’s to get yours.
2. Start car pooling with your colleagues.
3. If you are not a big talker like me, consider switching your cell phone to the prepaid service. Feel need to chat on the phone? Pick up your land line.
4. Clip coupons and reading the flyers to find the best deals for your purchase. I just got a leg of lamb last weekend for 60% off last weekend by simply looking for the deal at the grocery store!
5. If you need to make a lot of long distance calls, consider using Skype or other VOIP services to save big.
6. Are you in debt and looking for Debt help? March over to bills.com to find some information on Debt consolidation, Debt relief and Consolidate debt. You will find a lot of information about how to save the interest charge on your debt.
Building up a personal net worth is not an easy job. It takes a penny a day to achieve your final financial freedom.
I have been regularly posting my net worth on this blog. But, actually, how do you determine your net worth? What is the standard for rich and poor? Is a person with $40,000 in assets and $1000 monthly expenses richer than the one who only has $30,000 but $500 monthly expenses?
Obviously, there are many ways to measure your net worth. Besides the numbers, I typically like this one: how many months you can live on without having a pay cheque? Using the example above, Person A would be able to go without having a pay cheque for 40 months while Person B will be able to do so for 60 months. Although Person A has higher net worth in numbers, Person B is actually has more net freedom.
This method not only measures wealth, but it measures wealth against lifestyle costs as well. It gives higher score to those who live below their means since they are truly more flexible than those who just live larger than life.
So, what is your score in terms of your pay cheque free month?
Are you new parents or soon-to-be parents? Do you know that thousands of babies and toddlers die each year from drowning and choking and yet most Parents do not know CPR or have not been trained in CPR in the last couple of years? Do you want to learn the skills that you need to help your babies or young children in an emergency? Traditional CPR course will take about four hours to complete. Most of the parents or soon-to-be parents do not have the time and resources to do so. Online Baby CPR has provided a new way for new parents to learn the skills at home, at their pace, for an affordable price with online CPR course designed for parents.
Currently, Online Baby CPR is offering some demo courses which include topics such as Drowning and Choking Prevention, Infant Child CPR, What is AED, How to use AED and so on.. The lessons include pictures, video, and audio. I think every parent should learn the CPR skills and online course is a great way to learn it. If you would like to know more, please visit Online Baby CPR website
Great Canadian Rebate is offering 15.0% Cash Back Rebate, save 10% instantly and FREE shipping on orders over $37.00 from Yves Rocher this week. You can check it out here.
Do you know who is Glenn Beck? He is the funny guys who is known for his political comedy and hosts his radio program with a wide range of topics. I have never paid much attention to Glenn Beck before. Today, I watched several videos on his website. I like the way he talks about politics. In his video, "Real Story- Energy
There is going to be a summer political tour for Glenn Beck. He will be in
I think most of the people got their pay directly deposit into their bank account. Therefore, many just do not bother to walk to the admin's cubical to get their pay stub. If you are on fixed salary each month, there should be no problem. I, however, am on the two weeks' on-call rotation. Therefore, once in a while, I will get the extra on-call pay. Surprisingly, my on-call pay for last month was not processed. I immediately noticed that when I got my pay stub from the admin. It turned out to be a error from the pay roll team and they assured me the pay will be processed next time and show up on my next pay stub. So, if you are like me and will sometimes get additional OT or other extra payment, it might be a good idea to check your pay stub because errors do happen.
Every one finds Glenn Beck funny. He talks about politics with his unique style and a sense of humor in his radio program. I do not consider myself a politics fan of any kind. But as I read through Glenn’s blog about the wearing of Dr.Oz in Oprah show, I had a good laugh and agree with him that in this society many people tends to judge others by his/her appearance or think others will judge them in this way.
If you are a fan of Glenn Beck, make sure that you check out his blog which he updates regularly with videos, articles and his radio shows with a wide range of topics. Moreover, Glenn Beck is doing a summer comedy tour. The
As my previous post stated, I have made my target to bring in additional $80 for June. I think it is interesting to see what amount of money I am able to generate besides my employment income. For now, it is pretty simple. All of my side income fall in two categories: Blogging income and money from investment such as interest and dividend. For the month of June, my blogging income is $120. The interest and dividends from my investment adds up to $80. Overall, I am able to bring in around $200 per month besides my regular pay cheque. $200 a month is enough to cover my monthly food expenses plus the cost of my car insurance with a little bit extra left. I am working towards two more ideas to generate a little bit more money each month. Both of the projects should go live in the month of July. Let's wish me luck. I will provide an update later on.
I have been doing some sponsored posts through the opportunities provided by SocialSpark.com for about two months. From the blogger point of view, the results have been phenomenal. Within two months, I have been able to bring in average $100/month additional income. But if SocialSpark is only beneficial to the bloggers, it will not be as successful. For any advertiser, it is one powerful marketing tool. First of all, it is the fastest way to create a buzz for your new products or services. After the advertisers published the opportunities, the bloggers have 12 hours to complete the post, which means within 12 hours or even less time you will be able to bring thousands of potential buyers to your products/services. Secondly, it is more cost effective. Even if you do not have large budget for your product promotion, with SocialSpark you will be able to maximize the result. It is like having thousands of bloggers working as a marketing team for you.
As a personal finance blog, in the future, I hope I can see some financial services companies, such as broker firms, can join SocialSpark to promote their new products and services. That will be a perfect fit for my blog.
It is the time of the month again to update my net worth. My total net worth is up exact 2% from the month of May. Let's take a look at the number:
Assets:
Cash: $1100 (-88.25%)
Stocks: $27569 (+47.97%)
Retirement: $18533 (+1.27%)
Car: $26400(-1.12%)
Debts:
Car loan: $20318（-2.10%）
Total NetWorth: $53284 (+2%)
We see a big drop on the cash part of my assets. That is because I transfered $10,000 to my Questrade Account to balance my portfolio. I have also added $400 to my RRSP. Again, my company pension is included in my net worth calculation.
The market has been pretty bad now. Therefore, even with several hundred dollars added, I did not see a big increase for my retirement funds.
Do you like cleaning? I know I do not. And I believe most of people do not like cleaning either. It is a boring, time consuming, and labor intensive job. It takes me a long time to just make the decision to clean. Let alone the actual cleaning job. I live in a two-bedroom apartment with my two roommates. Different from me, they seem to like cleaning. I do not know how, but they have decided that every Saturday morning is the time that we should clean our apartment and have the vacuuming job assigned to me. I usually do not wake up until noon on weekends. Our heavy, noisy, and energy inefficient vacuum makes the job even worse for me. In order to save energy, I opt to mop our laminate floors in our apartment instead of vacuuming. Sometimes, I even try to avoid the cleaning job by not waking up on time. J My roommates are nice enough not to knock at my door and drag me out of my bed to clean! To thank them, I will usually cook the dinner for them.
Today is the day before July 1st, Canada Day. It is super quiet in the office. Most of the people is taking the day off. Anyway, let's look at the special from Great Canadian Rebates for this week:
Great Canadian Rebate is offering 5.0% Cash Back Rebate and shipping starting at 3.99 per Order for purchase on Barnes & Noble.com Today. If you are looking to pick up some books, it might be worthwhile to do it within this week.
If there is an equation to rich, I would put it this way: Spend Less+Make More+Invest Intelligently= Wealth. I am living within my means. In fact, I could not find any more ways to stretch the dollar, not until I am ready to be starving anyways. In the meantime, I am investing. Hopefully, I am doing it intelligently. Having said that, I think I can be working towards making a little bit more.
Early this month, I have set a goal for myself to generate $80 additional income. Up till now, I am proud to say that not only I hit my target, but I am actually making additional $102 for the month of June, more than 120% mission accomplished.The money mostly comes from blog sponsorship and the sponsored posts I have been writing. Here I really want to thank SocialSpark and PayPerPost for all the wonder opportunities. I hope that it is sustainable for me to bring in about $80-$120 each month by continuing doing this. Considering the money is after tax, it would be equivalent to about $1370~$2057 annual pay increase to me. (My marginal tax rate is around 30%) Not bad at all!
The following is a sponsored post
Try to repair your car from a collision? Need to have some auto body shop job done to your car? Although there are many auto body shops to choose from, very few of them are expert collision repairers. You certainly do not want to take a chance with your vehicle and your safety. Check out this website, auto body san jose, to find experts in the field of collision repair and bring your car back to the pre-accident condition.
I sent an e-mail to Great Canadian Rebates yesterday about my cheque request yesterday. Within 24 hours, they have replied me. It looks like I won't get my cheque until July 15th, the earliest. Here is the reply from them:
“Greetings,
Cheques are mailed on the 15th of each month, your request was received on the 16th of June and thus will be eligible for payment on July 15th.”
Therefore, if you would like to request the cash back payment by cheque, you probably want to pay attention to your request date and make sure it is before the 15th of the month.
Are you a fan of
Try the game using the widget embedded in this post. I am sure you will have fun playing!
I still have not received the cash back cheque from GCR yet. I submitted the cheque request around June 12th. After the submission, they did send an acknowledgment e-mail to me about the request. I just shot them another e-mail asking the estimated date when I can receive the money. Hopefully, it will be sometime next week. :)
iShares
XRE: $0.22096 per share
XBB: $0.33506 per share
XIU: $0.49049 per share
XIN: $0.35008 per share
XSP: $0.12630 per share
Based on my average cost of each ETF and the percentage of each one in my portfolio, the current yield of my portfolio for this quarter is around 1.07%. If this rate is sustainable through out the year, my overall yield for this year will be around 4%. Not bad at all.
I have been thinking about adding XTR to my portfolio due to its high dividends payout ratio and VWO to diversify myself into BRIC. However, I still need to do more research on both.
Have you ever heard of Victory Hair? If your answer is no, don’t worry! Let me explain it for you. Victory Hair is the messed up state that hair gets after magic happens between good looking couples with great hair style.
One of our sponsors, Extreme Style by VO5, has created a website with an online game called Ultimate Flirting Championship. With this game, you can test your flirting skill and see if you can achieve the victory hair in the virtual world. This game allows to you to be the judge, choosing questions, best answers, and picking winners. If you don’t want to be a judge and believe that you can provide the best flirtatious answers, you can play as a contestant too. It is a great game which could help people to pick up some new skills in flirting. In order to achieve your victory hair, you need a plan. Mine will include something like inviting her to dinner, chatting on the phone or online a lot, helping her with anything you could, and sending her some flowers. ：）
So what is your plan? Can you achieve the victory hair? Click on the widget in this post and test out your flirting skill! Most importantly, have fun!
This is the first time when I filled up the tank of my car and the total bill came to more than $40. The gas price is going crazy at 1.40/l here and well above $1/l over the border. I am not driving a fancy car with 6 or 8 cylinders. But the gas price has actually started to hurt.....
The following is a sponsored post
Have you ever wanted to buy the police gear such as Luminox watches, Sunfire LED flashlights, tactical boots and so on? Check out LA Police Gear website on which you can find a lot of those kinds of stuffs.
LA Police Gear was founded by
So if you are interested, check it out using the link in this post and gear up in the summer.
Great Canadian Rebate is offering 15 Day Free Trial and $18.00 Cash Back Rebate for joining the Privacy Protection Plus Today.
You will be able to get your FREE credit report and credit score by joining Privacy Protection Plus. Also, you'll have a full 15 days to try Privacy Protection Plus FREE. I think it is a great time to find out what your credit score is. Join Privacy Protection Plus, know your credit score immediately, cancel the plan within 15 days, and pocket the $18 cash rebate.
If you are interested, please check it out here.
Have you ever watched the show about Criss Angel on TV? This guy is awesome. To provide you a little bit background information if you do not know who he is. He is a young magician or illusionist just like David Blaine and Harry Houdini. When he is performing on TV, seriously, I could not believe what I have seen. This guy seems to be able to read people’s mind! There seems to be nothing that he could not achieve, such as walking on the water, telling what is in YOUR mind without you telling it, driving with his eyes covered (do not try this yourself) and so on..
If you are a big fan of Criss Angel just like me and would love to witness his magic. Here is your chance. In Luxor Hotel Las Vegas, there will be the new Cirque Du Soleil performance featuring Criss Angel called CRISS ANGEL Believe. Different from the traditional magic-themed shows, Criss Angel Believe transcends any preconceived notion of what it means to be emotionally engaged by the arts of mysticism and illusion. The stunning illusions in CRISS ANGEL Believe will not be presented as standalone elements, but as interdependent components using heightened imagery, fantastical creatures and impossible feats of legerdemain, all of which will be integrated into the dazzling, colorful fabric of the story.
If you are interested, you should try to enter the Text Message contest- just type Text 'Believe' to 22122 to win 2 tickets to CRISS ANGEL Believe
Early this year, at the end of January, I switched my cell phone plan to the prepaid service. Now, five months have passed. What is my cell phone bill each month? $4.2!! Yes, you read it right. Now I am paying only $4.2 each month for using my cell phone. Compared with the monthly plan I used to have and pay $37 per month, I am saving $32.8 more each month which adds up to $393.6 per year(about half of my auto insurance annual cost). Not only I am saving tons on my cell phone bill, I am actually getting more features with prepaid service as well, such as caller ID which I have to pay extra to get with the monthly plan.
Although some of you might say why not just get rid of your cell phone completely, it is not an option to me since I need it once a while especially when driving.
If you do not talk a lot on your cell phone, you might want to consider to switch to the prepaid service as well. Keep your cell phone for emergency and occasional use only. If you feel that you really want to talk, pick up your land line or chat using Skype.
Have you ever heard of Victory Hair? If your answer is no, don’t worry! Let me explain it for you. Victory Hair is the messed up state that hair gets after magic happens between good looking couples with great hair style.
One of our sponsors, Extreme Style by VO5 , has created a website with an online game called Ultimate Flirting Championship. With this game, you can test your flirting skill and see if you can achieve the victory hair in the virtual world. This game allows to you to be the judge, choosing questions, best answers, and picking winners. If you don’t want to be a judge and believe that you can provide the best flirtatious answers, you can play as a contestant too. It is a great game which could help people to pick up some new skills in flirting. In order to achieve your victory hair, you need a plan. Mine will include something like inviting her to dinner, chatting on the phone or online a lot, helping her with anything you could, and sending her some flowers. ：）
So what is your plan? Can you achieve the victory hair? Click on the widget in this post and test out your flirting skill! Most importantly, have fun!
Do you feel good when you can provide some good advice and suggestions to other people? I think most people do. Since I am so obsessive about personal finance, I talk about it quite a lot when I am hanging out with my friends. Last couples of months, I have seen some of them actually changing their spending habit and behavior towards money issues. Two of my friends have finished reading The Wealthy Barber and one of them have finished The Automatic Millionaire. Moreover, many of them have started to ASP(automatic saving plan) to pay themselves first. I think it is a good start. It does feel good when you can guide people to a correct direction. :)
How do you start a conversation with a stranger or someone you would like to know? Do you use pick-up lines? What is the worst pick-up line you have ever heard? Here is the worst one I have heard many years ago: “My love for you is like the Energizer bunny, it keeps going and going.” Humorous, current commercials, slogans and jingles are great pop-culture references to start conversations. These puns, however, are not great pop-culture references to start relationships. Your hair will never been turned into Victory Hair if you use pick-up lines like that one just mentioned.
Great Canadian Rebate is offering 50 Free Prints and $9.50 Cash Back Rebate for joining Snapfish Today.
Also, I have sent the cheque request today to them for my cash back, in a total amount of $50.05. Let's see how long it will take them to mail it to me. I will do an update when I receive it.
Do you live in
On the website, there is an original, first of its kind review section. This section is created solely for the clients who require an unbiased feedback about the property they are interested in purchasing. The tenants and owners can rate their Toronto Condominiums and state their honest opinions about the building they are living in. I think it is extremely useful for someone who is looking to buy a condo.
Want to communicate with your neighbors and maybe make friends? The forum section is designed for owners and tenants who reside in the same building to communicate with each other. It can be utilized to plan sports events, meet new people or discuss meaningful subjects.
Besides the review and forum sections, there are also Listing and Blog sections where you can locate your dream property and check out the real estate news in
We all know that market timing is bad and does not work in the long term. But can we eliminate it completely? I don't think it is possible though. I have just come to realize how difficult it is to try NOT to time the market.
Currently, I have around $10,000 in my Questrade trading account. I plan to use the money to balance my ETF portfolio that I have set up by following the couch potato approach. But I have not done it yet. Every time, when I saw the market went up, I said to myself,"Um, it might go down tomorrow. I probably should not be buying today. I should just wait." Then, it did go down the next day. Did I pull the trigger? No, I did not because I am afraid it might go down further.
The similar thing could happen when you try to sell. People keeps post ponding the selling because they always want to sell for more. Fear and greedy are really the worst two enemies of individual investors. We can only not to time the market when we have overcome them.
Um......Should I balance my portfolio today?
As many of you have noticed, I have been doing some sponsored posts quite a lot recently. First of all, I am sorry for that many sponsored posts if it annoys you. To be honest, I hope I can generate some income while doing post on this blog. I agree with Brown Eyed Girl and Money. Sometimes you need more than one motivation to get you going. And the possibility to make some money out of it is one of them.
I have set up a goal to make around $80 this month from doing sponsored posts. Currently, I am half way through($45 right now). I think $80 a month is a quite realistic and achievable goal. At the end of the month, I will be doing another update on this and see how I have been doing.
Do you like cleaning? I know I do not. And I believe most of people do not like cleaning either. It is a boring, time consuming, and labor intensive job. It takes me a long time to just make the decision to clean. Let alone the actual cleaning job. I live in a two-bedroom apartment with my two roommates. Different from me, they seem to like cleaning. I do not know how, but they have decided that every Saturday morning is the time that we should clean our apartment and have the vacuuming job assigned to me. I usually do not wake up until noon on weekends. Our heavy, noisy, and energy inefficient vacuum makes the job even worse for me. In order to save energy, I opt to mop our laminate floors in our apartment instead of vacuuming. Sometimes, I even try to avoid the cleaning job by not waking up on time. J My roommates are nice enough not to knock at my door and drag me out of my bed to clean! To thank them, I will usually cook the dinner for them.
Today, I have found out that Dirt Devil is introducing its new AccuCharge Stick Vac and Hand Vac. It seems to be a new way to save energy. The new vacuum that Dirt Devil brings to us has the first cordless cleaning technology that earns Energy Star approval. The AccuCharge technology with their new vacuum enables a 70% reduction in energy consumption compared to other cordless vacuums. I might just find a better way to save energy during cleaning. To find out more, please visit their website using this link.
Scotiabank, the bank I am using, has been pretty innovative currently. Earlier this year, they have introduced a new service called Bank the rest. Now, it is partnering with Western Union to allow you to send money to friends and family in over 200 countries and territories using ScotiaOnline.
I don't know how much they will charge for the service yet. But I really like it. Since I have many family and friends overseas, it just make sending money to them so easy. Also, I have been thinking about those who want to retire outside Canada. Now they can send money to themselves with a matter of several clicks online. It is a pretty cool feature from Scotiabank, I will say. :)
I am a lazy person and tend to buy everything online if I could. Personally, I have kept three credit cards. One of them has only $1000 credit limit which is the card I will use for shopping online. The reason why I keep such a low credit limit for the card I use for shopping online is that I am worried about the identity theft and fraud which I might encounter online. With the low credit limit, I feel that I will be able to minimize the damage if that would happen. Today, I have found another way to protect myself from identity theft and fraud. It is called Shop Shield. Shop Shield® is a new consumer service offering complete protection against identity theft and fraud when you shop online. This is a free, new, unique, complete, and cutting edge privacy solution to protect your identity when shopping online. It can protect consumers’ credit card numbers, bank accounts, billing address, Email address, and login information. With Shop Shield, the consumers never have to worry about hackers and insiders gaining access to customer databases, stealing their name, credit card number, password or even their email address, because this information is never entered into the databases of web sites they are shopping. Companies they buy from will not be able to sell their information – because consumers never give it to them. There’s no risk your information could be compromised at a merchant site, because it’s never sent there. Shop Shield is able to guarantee that because of the following technologies it is using:
* Consumer data is stored in a fortress of security systems
* All personally identifiable information is broken into undecipherable fragments, then encrypted
* Encrypted data is stored in multiple independent databases.
* Every transaction is monitored and recorded using technologies that exceed even federal banking standards
* Hardware that stores data is modeled after Department of Defense security standards.
Currently, Shop Shield is conducting a live beta test. You can Visit Shop Shield® to Learn More
