Search found 633 matches

by SkaSka
06 May 2021 13:49
Forum: Property: Owning, Renting, Managing, Investing and Mortgaging
Topic: Housing Market 2021
Replies: 134
Views: 19144

Re: Housing Market 2021

Very surprised to see 5 year fixed mortgage rates at 2.69% at RBC - this was just around 2% only a few months ago at RBC (we got quoted at 2.14% at the beginning of the year).

We were quoted 1.69% for a 5 year fixed in January (by a CU), and then got a rate hold extension at 1.79% until June. Currently at this CU, new mortgages on 5 year fixed start at 2.14%.

Interested to see if these rising rates have any effect on slowing things down :?:
by SkaSka
15 Feb 2021 13:44
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Frothy Equity Markets
Replies: 1395
Views: 155882

Re: Frothy Equity Markets

deaddog wrote: 15 Feb 2021 12:44
big easy wrote: 15 Feb 2021 11:35 Agreed but what to do about it. I'm not going to do anything, so there's no point worrying about it.
The best thing is to follow your plan.

The only control you have is what you do.
100% this.

I continue to buy VT once a month, and believe me, my personal bearish-bias has made every single monthly buy since March 2020 torturous... but I just hold my nose and push the buy button according to plan.
by SkaSka
14 Feb 2021 17:14
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Bitcoin - bubble or the real deal?
Replies: 315
Views: 101368

Re: Bitcoin - bubble or the real deal?

DenisD wrote: 14 Feb 2021 13:08 Its already started.

India’s Crypto Investors Weigh Options Ahead Of Impending Ban
The prospect of a fresh ban on cryptocurrencies in India has sent an army of crypto investors scrambling to think of ways to protect or liquidate their holdings. This, as the government appears to be in final stages of bringing in a new legislation governing Bitcoin and other such tokens in India.
It's almost as if a sovereign power won't let any schmuck access one of the ultimate levers of power a sovereign wields... :roll:
by SkaSka
12 Feb 2021 11:55
Forum: Property: Owning, Renting, Managing, Investing and Mortgaging
Topic: Housing Market 2021
Replies: 134
Views: 19144

Re: Housing Market 2021

We started looking to buy a home in the lower mainland at the worst time possible. The situation is bonkers. At the beginning of January, we put in an offer a little over the asking price on a townhouse in Maple Ridge... it ended up going for $76,000 over asking with no conditions... So in this Maple Ridge townhouse complex, we just saw another townhouse sell for... :shock: In October 2020, or thereabouts, a non-end unit townhouse in this complex sold for $650. At the beginning of January 2021 when we attempted an offer on an end unit townhouse in this complex that was for sale, it listed at $675 and eventually sold for $751. Near the beginning of February, another end unit townhouse in this complex listed for $749 and just sold for $828. ...
by SkaSka
01 Feb 2021 15:46
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Play money
Replies: 180
Views: 78951

Re: Play money

All this excitement around the reddit revolution, gamestop, dogecoin, and whatever other countless momentum excitement in the stock market makes me want to play too, but I also know it's dangerous and foolish. Our regular monthly investments into VT is like watching paint dry on a wall relative to the cocaine infused action happening in the markets right now. Instead of jumping in with play money into the stock market or crypto market, I decided put some play money into a completely uncorrelated market: poker. Depositing $100 into online poker is my way to scratch the itch to want to participate in the current hopped up action. So far, I've taken the original $100, turned it into $280, withdrew the original seed "investment" of $...
by SkaSka
01 Feb 2021 14:56
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Play money
Replies: 180
Views: 78951

Re: Play money

All this excitement around the reddit revolution, gamestop, dogecoin, and whatever other countless momentum excitement in the stock market makes me want to play too, but I also know it's dangerous and foolish. Our regular monthly investments into VT is like watching paint dry on a wall relative to the cocaine infused action happening in the markets right now. Instead of jumping in with play money into the stock market or crypto market, I decided put some play money into a completely uncorrelated market: poker. Depositing $100 into online poker is my way to scratch the itch to want to participate in the current hopped up action. So far, I've taken the original $100, turned it into $280, withdrew the original seed "investment" of $1...
by SkaSka
31 Jan 2021 12:08
Forum: Property: Owning, Renting, Managing, Investing and Mortgaging
Topic: Housing Market 2021
Replies: 134
Views: 19144

Re: Housing Market 2021

We put in 3 offers in January: one at $5k over, one at $10k over, and one at $20k over.

Suffice to say, none of them worked out.

We are tapping out and just going to take a breather and watch the show from the sidelines and just continue renting for now :lol:
by SkaSka
24 Jan 2021 15:15
Forum: Property: Owning, Renting, Managing, Investing and Mortgaging
Topic: Housing Market 2021
Replies: 134
Views: 19144

Re: Housing Market 2021

We started looking to buy a home in the lower mainland at the worst time possible. The situation is bonkers. At the beginning of January, we put in an offer a little over the asking price on a townhouse in Maple Ridge... it ended up going for $76,000 over asking with no conditions. We then were looking at making an offer on a townhouse in Langley... ended up going $26,000 over asking with no conditions. We looked at a house in Maple Ridge... went $200,000 over asking with no conditions within 3 days. We looked at another townhouse in Langley... it got an accepted offer in the first 2 days... and I thought we were moving quick to try and take a look at it within the first couple of days it hit the market. The latest was a townhouse in Surrey...
by SkaSka
08 Jan 2021 21:00
Forum: Property: Owning, Renting, Managing, Investing and Mortgaging
Topic: First time home purchase.
Replies: 13
Views: 4260

Re: First time home purchase.

We're finally in the adventure of looking for a home purchase after 8 years of renting.

There is great advice in this thread!

I was wondering if anyone had home inspector recommendations for the lower mainland in BC?
by SkaSka
04 Jan 2021 19:34
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Bitcoin - bubble or the real deal?
Replies: 315
Views: 101368

Re: Bitcoin - bubble or the real deal?

Found this analysis from Twitter hilarious:

Bitcoin as Religion.jpg
(184.96 KiB) Not downloaded yet
by SkaSka
19 Dec 2020 13:28
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Starting Over
Replies: 76
Views: 5772

Re: Starting Over

From the prospective of someone 8 or so years into their investment journey, if I were to start over again, I would just buy a total world market stock index fund on a monthly basis and be done with it. Instead, what happened was this over the past 8 years: personal_learning_curve_1200x720-thegem-blog-default.jpg I think I am now firmly in the "this actually makes sense" stage, even though I knew in theory that at the beginning of this journey, I should have been doing what I am currently doing from the start all along... I guess I'm just a slow learner. When I got started, I was really excited about the whole world of finance and investing. I absorbed a college degree worth of books and textbooks on the topic over the years (I ev...
by SkaSka
04 Nov 2020 22:14
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: to buy new or used car?
Replies: 1590
Views: 126869

Re: to buy new or used car?

It looks like our gamble to repair/replace the brakes, drums, and calipers on the 2003 Corolla for ~$1300 paid off as all of the issues with the braking appear to be gone.

As we have a BCAA membership, we got the repairs done at a BCAA Service Centre and the experience was very good and I would recommend them for car maintenance/repairs.
by SkaSka
04 Nov 2020 22:10
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: The End of Shakespeare's Primer
Replies: 53
Views: 4628

Re: The End of Shakespeare's Primer

Thanks Shakespeare - your primer is what lead me here and helped start my DIY journey many years ago!
by SkaSka
11 Sep 2020 17:53
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: to buy new or used car?
Replies: 1590
Views: 126869

Re: to buy new or used car?

Zipper wrote: 11 Sep 2020 17:37
SkaSka wrote: 09 Sep 2020 20:48 We decided to put in the ~$1500 into replacing the brakes, replacing the calipers, and some other general bake related maintenance. Fingers crossed that these are the last major repairs we do for the remaining lifetime of our time for the car.

I guess we like our 2003 Corolla too much to say good bye to it yet.
Why would you do that? That makes absolutely no sense.
Because we don't want to purchase a newer car at the moment when the current one runs fine besides the brake issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
by SkaSka
09 Sep 2020 20:48
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: to buy new or used car?
Replies: 1590
Views: 126869

Re: to buy new or used car?

We decided to put in the ~$1500 into replacing the brakes, replacing the calipers, and some other general bake related maintenance. Fingers crossed that these are the last major repairs we do for the remaining lifetime of our time for the car.

I guess we like our 2003 Corolla too much to say good bye to it yet.
by SkaSka
19 Aug 2020 14:05
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2016-2021)
Replies: 647
Views: 78554

Re: Best Credit Card (2016-2020)

After some thought on what card to replace the Capital One card, decided on the MBNA World Elite MasterCard - 30,000 bonus points (upon meeting conditions), a $120 annual fee, and 2% points generation if the reward points are used to book travel through MBNA’s website.

Obviously not as great as what Capital One used to be, but the environment has changed.

I was also surprised at how quickly the approval process was - a minute after the application was submitted.
by SkaSka
26 Jul 2020 20:20
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2016-2021)
Replies: 647
Views: 78554

Re: Best Credit Card (2016-2020)

Insomniac wrote: 26 Jul 2020 14:39
SkaSka wrote: 25 Jul 2020 18:47
I just paid my annual $120 fee last month so I called today to complain about the change. First rep on the phone only offered $30m, then once I got to an 'account manager' they offered me a $100 credit on the account. 30 minutes total on the phone.
I would have taken the $30m. Maybe I'm just greedy.
I just wanted to know what it felt like to have early retirement in my hands, just to turn around and throw it away for a hundred bucks :wink:
by SkaSka
25 Jul 2020 18:47
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Best Credit Card (2016-2021)
Replies: 647
Views: 78554

Re: Best Credit Card (2016-2020)

Capital One supervisor offered me a $100 one-time credit when I called to complain about changes to the card, saying I expected 10 000 bonus points soon. - these bonus points were 11 months after annual fee has been paid. You need to ask to speak to a supervisor, first level rep can offer typically $30 or $60 crédit... My annual fee is due August 20, unsure yet what I will do. Probably will cancel, I don’t have enough products with extended warranty that I could benefit from the card staying openZ —- Other cards might be devalued soon with the reduction in transaction fees from MasterCard and Visa, so I don’t plan to pay an annual fee for a card that might not keep same benefits for the whole year. MasterCard has a new level above World El...
by SkaSka
21 Jul 2020 17:29
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: to buy new or used car?
Replies: 1590
Views: 126869

Re: to buy new or used car?

We're at that point where our 2003 Corolla requires $1500 worth of maintenance on the brakes/callipers and have to decide if we'll do the repair and maybe drive it for another 5 years (with fingers crossed that no other major maintenance/repair is needed in that time) or just look for a used vehicle to purchase.

We'd probably look to spend around $15,000 for a used vehicle (maybe a reliable SUV), so this maintenance repair is 10% of the cost of getting a replacement vehicle in our cost range.

We've really, really enjoyed the decade plus of not having to think about purchasing a car and starting on some preliminary looking around... I am not enjoying car shopping in the least :lol:
by SkaSka
05 Jun 2020 01:02
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Frothy Equity Markets
Replies: 1395
Views: 155882

Re: Frothy Equity Markets

If the markets are so forward looking... why didn't it forward look in December 2019 when reports of a novel coronavirus in China started coming out and connect the dots that this virus would obviously spread worldwide given the interconnectedness of the planet?

Better yet, if the markets are so forward looking, why didn't it see that the US Fed would 'do whatever it takes' and print infinite QE to stop any market haemorrhaging?

For such a logical and forward looking entity, freaking out in March seems rather out of character ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
by SkaSka
22 May 2020 15:45
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2020) - rates
Replies: 787
Views: 54698

Re: High interest savings, GICs and MMFs (2020) - rates

After consolidating all accounts to RBC and RBC Direct Investing over the last several years, opened up an account at EQ Bank to place excess cash sitting in RBC to earn that 2% rate.

It was shockingly simple and fast to open an account and transfer money over. I would recommend the product to family and friends.
by SkaSka
13 May 2020 17:58
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Science is amazing
Replies: 818
Views: 55673

Re: Science is amazing

Watching this video of a salamander growing from an egg, especially the very beginning when the first sets of cell divisions occur in the egg, gives me the same chills and mystical feeling as when you gaze up at the stars at night in a remote place far away from city lights.

by SkaSka
02 May 2020 20:41
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Buffett Buffet
Replies: 806
Views: 247113

Re: Buffett Buffet

So everyone's been wondering what Buffett has been doing so far in this bear market... looks like so far just selling shares in the airlines . He did say he was an 'aeroholic' once upon a time: If a capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk back in the early 1900s, he should have shot Orville Wright. He would have saved his progeny money. But seriously, the airline business has been extraordinary. It has eaten up capital over the past century like almost no other business because people seem to keep coming back to it and putting fresh money in. You've got huge fixed costs, you've got strong labor unions and you've got commodity pricing. That is not a great recipe for success. I have an 800 (free call) number now that I call if I get the ur...
by SkaSka
22 Apr 2020 11:38
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Oil
Replies: 1564
Views: 224760

Re: Oil

Yikes I feel terrible for the guy (even though it's his fault for being so dumb and greedy): he went back to Go on the board of life because he bet it all on oil futures...

I guess the only thing going for him is that he is still relatively young and can recover financially eventually.
by SkaSka
20 Apr 2020 14:54
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Oil
Replies: 1564
Views: 224760

Re: Oil

Absolutely fascinating and bizarre. Not sure if I'll see this again!