How To Save Money By Downsizing

Downsizing -Not Always Bad

First Published Date: July 05, 2009

Recession or no recession, it suits any of us to find a way of saving a few dollars here and there. It’s not a bad thing, and none of us should be at all concerned about how it will be viewed. The truth of the matter is that anywhere a saving can be made, there is potential to re-direct funds that may be needed elsewhere or highly beneficial. Looking into your regular expenditure and thinking about what changes you can make, you can come to the conclusion that there is a lot of gain to be made from making a cut – although in some cases it may make for an emotionally challenging decision. However, if you steel yourself for the process and give it your honest appraisal, you may find that it was the best decision you ever made.

One decision that will never be totally comfortable is the sale o f the family home. After all, so many things happened there that made it the center of a life you would not swap for anything. Nonetheless, if the time has come that the kids have moved out – not just to college but to a place of their own, possibly even a marital home – then you are left with a house where at least one room is going empty.

Sure, your kids will visit pretty regularly and may well stay over when they do, and you may well run into a moral quandary when the issue of selling the house they grew up in happens to arise. However, you can take sentiment too far. If selling the house and relocating to a smaller property will make your retirement and the years preceding it any more comfortable, then your kids ought to understand. Moving from a big house to a smaller one can result in a very large lump sum to deposit in the bank.

Downsizing is not solely about making a change from one thing to another, physically smaller thing, of course. Neither is it something that needs to happen when your children have left home and any big home-life change is going to be a lot rawer. Often, the main point of downsizing is to cut on wastage. Most of us have been guilty of spending money that did not need to be spent.

It is worth looking at purchases which hold their value well – for example, a car is not a good choice for downsizing from the “profit” point of view. However much you paid for that when it was new, it is probably worth a fraction now. Even if you have spent hours lovingly maintaining it, it started losing value the moment you drove it off the forecourt. Conversely, items like laptop computers hold their value exceptionally well. If you find that you are using the laptop less frequently, then you can make a few hundred bucks and save on the electricity that a charge-demanding laptop swallows up every day. If you can make do with a desktop computer, it offers more memory and efficiency – and could help you make a saving, too.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on July 5, 2009.

Canada Cottage Country Real Estate – Part Five

Ontario Cottage Country Is Quickly Becoming A Real Estate Hot Spot

First Published Date: Jan 23, 2009

Muskoka, 1 ½ hours north of Toronto, is a land of beautiful lakes, waterfalls, and wooded pine forests that has become well known for its’ beautiful terrain. Long known as a home to wealthy sportsmen who settled here from the British Isles, this little piece of heaven is quickly developing into some of the most sought after real estate in the world.

Muskoka is comprised of a group of townships including Georgian Bay, Huntsville, Lake of Bays, Bracebridge, and Muskoka Lake Township. With over 2500 square miles of untouched wilderness in Muskoka there is an uncanny few amount of permanentresidents. Just over 50,000 residents call Muskoka their permanent home. There are nearly 100,000 more seasonal land owners that call Muskoka their home away from home.

The exciting natural beauty of this area has a setting of pristine lakes mixed in with natural rocky shores and magnificent landscapes. The real estate here is sought after because of the peacefulness it brings to calm your soul while still offering access to sports, shopping, and entertainment.

The 3 major lakes, Muskoka, Rousseau, and Joseph, offer more than 100 miles water for your boating pleasure. Residential cottages have hefty price tags but are a cherished family gathering place to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and are generally passed down through the generations. Some of the beautiful cottages here feature gazebos, boat houses, automobile garages, and full length cottage decks. Custom woodwork and one of a kind designs in fireplaces andstaircases are among the most beautiful and elegant features one could hope for. Custom stone walkways, upper decks on the boat houses and even specialaccommodations and extra rooms are some of the options that these countryside cottages offer.

As for activity options in Muskoka the list goes on and on. Nearby museums, sledding, and parks are just a few of the activities that are available in Muskoka. For the sportsmen there is plentiful fishing and hunting activities, not to mention snowmobiles, flying tours, camping, and incredibly beautiful golf courses. For the women there are numerous shopping venues, exhibits of fine art, and delicious restaurants about. Or perhaps spending the day in one of Muskokas’ full service spa and salons where you can restore health and beauty to your body and soul while being pampered to the highest possible standards.

Real estate prices range from $100,000 on the low end to upwards of $2 million for the extravagant properties. Real estate agents online have properties listed with plenty of pictures and well written content to help you learn about the area. If you are in the market for a vacation home and enjoy the peace and tranquility of preserved wildlife I highly recommend you look at Muskoka as an option. Of course you better have your cheque book ready too!

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Jan 23, 2009.

Two Best Brain Training Apps

Brain Game Apps

First Published Date: August 3, 2015

Today, I am not here to argue for or against brain training games – whether they are effective or not. The Stanford University Center on Longevity and the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Human Development released a statement in the past signed by 70 scientists mentioning there is no proof that brain games improve cognitive performance or prevent cognitive slowing and brain disease. You can read a lengthy article here on this. On the other hand, if you visit brain training app websites, they have various reports by scientists showing that brain games work. So, I wouldn’t worry or argue about who is right or who is wrong. The reason I play these games is because of the challenges they present and I find it a good way to entertain myself.

Today, I will talk about 2 games I find very exhilarating and they are the best two apps I came across.

Peak: Peak games focus on improving language skills, mental agility, problem solving, focus and memory. You can let the app know your profession and it will show you how you are doing compared to others in the same line of work. Peak is designed by neuroscientists and cognitive scientists from Yale, Princeton, and U. of Cambridge. Peak is a highly engaging game with great sound and eye-catching aesthetics. What I like about Peak is that anyone who has the basic knowledge of how to read can play this game. This game comes in both a free and a paid version and I play the free version sometimes.

Elevate: Apple selected Elevate as app of the year for 2014 and I can see why. Elevate takes a different approach than other brain games focusing on reading comprehension, grammatical errors, vocabulary, mathematics, and so on. What I noticed about Peak is that this is not a game for someone with basic reading knowledge, as it is highly engaging in grammar, mathematics, reading, writing and listening comprehension, etc. This games comes in both a free and a paid version and I have the paid version and try to play it regularly, as each daily session is short and I can finish them very fast.

There are so many other brain training apps out there. You can install a few of them and try it for a few days to see which ones you like most.

Lessons To Learn From The Financial Crisis

The most obvious lesson from this crisis is the fact that banks have been lending excessively and irresponsibly

First Published Date: July 12, 2009

The credit-led financial crisis in which the world still languishes at present carries some quite profound lessons for us all, much though there will be people queuing up to say that they saw it all coming all along. The undeniable truth is that the world has been hit by this crisis in a way that has left few people untouched – and if it could happen at a time when we are supposed to know more about finance, and about everything, than we all knew a decade or two ago, then what is to stop it happening again? Well, this is what our government are looking at, and along with them the governments of several other countries. Will this put an end to future recessions? Not indefinitely, but we’ll see how long it holds them off.

There were numerous possible reactions when this whole house of cards came crashing down. One was schadenfreude, and it was much in evidence from people who had held on to their jobs and full pay, directed towards those who had made their living from the financial sector. This in all honesty was completely unhelpful – even though the whole crisis was down in some part to the banks, banking policy is dictated not by the guys at the bottom who lost their jobs, but by the people at the top who miraculously survived. Another possible reaction would be to look at this crisis and see what we can learn from it. If we can learn from our mistakes, we can stop them happening in the future, can’t we? Or is it that we will know them when we make them again?

The most obvious lesson from this crisis is the fact that banks have been lending excessively, and irresponsibly, to people whose hopes of actually maintaining the payments were always flimsy. It seems absurd now that the banks could play so free and easy with their money. Was a crisis like this not completely inevitable in the circumstances? The banks have promised that the lesson is learned in any case, and it is noticeable that they have been less keen to lend to anyone recently. Is that really a sign that they have learned the lesson, though, or a sign of over-correction? Who knows?

As people, it would be hoped that we have learned that credit is like a firework – to be treated with caution, but capable of facilitating wonderful things if handled correctly. It is tempting to use borrowing to fund our dreams and our pleasures, but there is always the danger that it could lead to a situation that no-one really enjoys. It shouldn’t need to be a matter of advice – spending money you can’t really afford will lead to bad things! – but if the message needs to be reinforced, just look at the newspapers every day. Do we really want to keep reading about companies going to the wall? Apart from anything else, that is becoming very tedious. Let’s start making good news.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on July 12, 2009.

This Is How I Save $1,500 to $5,000 Yearly

My Daily Bike Commute

First Published Date: August 8, 2015

One of the easiest ways to money on an ongoing basis is to live near where you work. Living close to work, however, saves you something else more precious than money and can’t be measured or replaced by anything else: time. Today, I will only look at the monetary aspect of living close to work.

I live in downtown Toronto, very close to my work. I have the option to walk, bike, or take a streetcar to work. What I do, instead of walking 100 percent, is use Toronto’s city bike sharing system Bike Share Toronto to cover part of my commute and walk to cover the rest. When it rains or snows heavily, I either walk or take a TTC street car.

By living close to work, I save a staggering $1,500 to $5,000 annually. These costs are very conservative and the actual savings can be even higher than my estimates. Here are my breakdowns:

$1,500 – Assuming I am using TTC and buying a monthly pass, which is nearly $130 a month.

$5,000 – Assuming I am using my own car. $5,000 includes monthly payment for car, insurance. However, to keep things simple, I am not including other costs that are involved having a car such as gas, parking, maintenance, tickets, etc.

As you can see, my $1,500 to $5,000 yearly estimates are actually lower than real costs someone could have incurred by driving or taking public transit to work in Toronto.

Living close to work to save money and time is great, but I understand that this is not possible for everyone for various reasons. There is no need to be discouraged if you are one of those. There are various other practical and smart tips to save money in my book

Money Hacks: How Small Changes Can Save Big Money

And there is no reason why you can’t save at least $100 a month applying what I have discussed in this book. You can download this book from Amazon (the link is on the very top right) and start saving money today.