Introduce Yourself

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Bylo Selhi
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Gosso wrote:he has such a wonderful way of explaining things and bringing it all together that I cannot help but smile
May your portfolio grow into a galaxy of "billions and billions" of dollars ;)

P.S. He never actually used that phrase in the TV series. He did however say this just to keep us all humble.

Sedulously eschew obfuscatory hyperverbosity and prolixity.
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Gosso »

Bylo Selhi wrote:
Gosso wrote:he has such a wonderful way of explaining things and bringing it all together that I cannot help but smile
May your portfolio grow into a galaxy of "billions and billions" of dollars ;)
Pfff...forget about "billions and billions", I want "infinite and infinite"!

I went for a walk after watching an episode of Cosmos, and started to think to myself that everything around me (including myself) was originally born in a star...then I made a snowball and thought I was holding a piece of the Rings of Saturn -- it was really trippy.

Don't worry, I'm kinda back to 'normal' now :)
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RomaneeConti
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by RomaneeConti »

i am in my forties, love learning about companies and picking stocks. i am an ex-chartered accountant, owned my own businesses, and am retired for the moment. i have learned a lot from the posts, grateful for this community. oh yeah, i love fine food and wine, too!
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by sunkenradish »

Removed - Administrator
Last edited by Peculiar_Investor on 07 Feb 2014 07:04, edited 1 time in total.
Ramo
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Ramo »

Hi all, I have just recently found this forum and some good posts around here.
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scomac
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by scomac »

Welcome to the forum, Ramo. Feel free to join in the discussion with whatever is on your mind. :)
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Rooster »

I've been lurking for a few years and post occasionally (mostly take in info). Thought I'd introduce myself as I've posted a bit more lately. I sincerelly appreciate the great information avaialble here and hope to contribute as I can.

I'm in my mid 30s, married and have a young daughter. Wife is a teacher and I'm a lawyer. Been practising for a little over 10 years now, half of which with a large national firm and the other half with a private equity fund. I've recently accepted a gov position still in the general financial field. I have a post grad business law degree from Oxford, but no formal financial education.

We're decent savers and are in good financial position for our ages. Finished paying the mortgage last year and have decent savings which should now grow at a higher pace. Fairly methodical planner by nature, so that's probably the first source of my interest in personal finance. Have been reading more and more and finding that i actually enjoy the subject for its own sake.

Long term goal is to have the option to retire early. Remains to be seen if we'll actually do it. The primary goal is the option. Longer term goal is to grow capital for our daughter.

My equity portfolio is all broad based index etfs, roughly by global market cap (overweighing for canada and a bit for emerging markets).

Looking forward to continue to learn.
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northbeach
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by northbeach »

Welcome aboard Rooster. Look forward to your posts.
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Sumaco
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Sumaco »

Hi Everyone...

Just recently created an account after browsing on this forum for sometime and hopefully will be a little more educated from the readings, rantings and advice.

I am in my late 40's, married, no kids and for the past few years have been a DYI investor managing our own portfolios. My wife and I have been saving since early 20's and unfortunately got caught it the 80-90's hype of MF's with financial advisors with their best interest in mind. Anyway... Here we are rebuilding/managing a sizable portfolio in recovery mode which is invested in stocks, indexes, GIC ladder and HISA's. Investing temperament is mostly value, dividend and conservative but have caught myself shorting a few things here & there for a quick buck for my slush fund.

When not traveling around for business we spend our spare time doing nature & landscape photography and spending time around the house gardening or other honeydo stuff from the list... :)
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kcowan
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by kcowan »

Welcome Sumaco
You will find this forum more polite than many. Naturally there are people who are passionate about what they do.
That sometimes spills over into investing styles.

I am sure you will find us generally cordial.
For the fun of it...Keith
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infoprospector
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by infoprospector »

Hi everyone!

I'm a 52-year-old man who eaks out living as an ink-stained wretch (that'd be... writer). I'm within a few years of shifting gears and looking, not so much to retire as to switch to projects that interest me, that may make money, but not as steadily as the salary I will give up.

I'm here to create a portfolio of ETF-type index funds and figure out the best allocation and instruments to generate an income while extending (though likely not preserving forever) my capital. I will soon be posting questions in the forums. I'm currently devouring articles on the Canadian Couch Potato website, which matches my philosophy. The closest thing I've found to a description of what fits my needs is in this excellent article: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/wp-conte ... tfolio.pdf

I look forward to your help in answering my questions in the weeks and months ahead! :D
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Shakespeare
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Shakespeare »

Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
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northbeach
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by northbeach »

infoprospector,
Welcome.
You will gain much. This forum has been an invaluable help for me over the years.
nadernasr
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Post by nadernasr »

I would just like to take this opportunity to say hello to the financial webring community.

I am a Montreal based investment and insurance advisor and I look forward to contributing in discussions that may help you on your path to wealth independence.

Cheers!
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by NotJustDreaming »

Hello!
Thanks to 'peculiar investor' for pointing out the Introduce Yourself thread. I think I've been committing forum offences by putting too much personal information in my posts instead of sticking to the point of the thread.

I've been following some financial blogs and exhausting my library reading list but it never occurred to me to look for a Canadian personal finance forum. This is a great place to find! All these years I’ve been missing out...

I’m 43 and my husband is 44. We have three kids, ages 12, 11 and six. I’m the CFO in our family and I love doing all the financial planning. I’ve certainly made some bad decisions though. Misunderstood lots. And am still learning.

I started investing in 1997 with RRSPs at our financial institutions. Investor series TD mutual funds and credit union Ethical Funds. Not much expertise at that point but I did read the Wealthy Barber so knew to max out registered investments, have a 10% fund for wants, and use no load funds. That was pretty much it. Once our kids came along we opened RESPs and contributed $2500 per year each to get the maximum CESG. We also lucked out by buying our first and only home prior to the housing boom and managed to pay the mortgage off in 10 years through accelerated biweekly payments and an annual lump sum. That was thanks to the TD mortgage broker who did the paperwork.

So we were doing okay in a fairly oblivious way. Sometime around 2005 we sought out a financial advisor for help with an imminent buyback for my husband’s pension. We made it clear that we wanted no load and needed the bulk of the cash in the near future. At the time I think we had about $100K. He moved that over to pretty much the same asset allocation in pretty much the same funds except they were advisor series so higher MERs. And they were DSC! Wow. He told me they were not front end load so he wasn’t lying. But... it still stings. At the time, I didn’t really know what the DSC was. Fortunately it was only the TD investments that ended up going that way as Ethical Funds wouldn’t allow it. Insert bad name for him here.

Shortly after, I started reading about what he’d done. Looking back I should have put in a complaint. Anyway, fortunately I had been focusing on getting rid of the mortgage in the years prior, otherwise we would have had a lot more tied up.

And that started my crazy interest in personal finance. I found a few blogs. I pretty much exhausted the library’s selection of personal finance books. I ended up rereading some of the gems multiple times, taking away things I missed or that didn't apply the first times around.

I’m comfortably settled in couch potato investing and have almost everything in the TD e-series funds. My intention was to move them to ETFs but I haven’t managed to get around to it.

We live well below our means saving about 60% of our income for several years now, on top of pension contributions. Yet in our opinion we live a pretty stellar lifestyle. Though we have a pretty good income so it is not a chore. Our living expenses are under $36K. This includes subsidizing my mom a bit. Bad habits like the line 'alcohol' in my spending spreadsheet. It does not include vacation/travel and my husbands pursuit of education. It does include piano lessons and camp for the kids and all our other 'wants' though. We have no mortgage payments so that’s all recurring discretionary spending. I don’t include the travel and education because we could give that up if our financial plans go south. All the rest of our money we spend on travel. I'm mostly good with that though since we're already saving. It counts toward my pursuit of balance in life - can't save all the fun for future.

I’m interested in early retirement. We both have DB pensions (mine with the municipal government and my husband with the military). I’m happy to defer mine until I'm 60 though when my husband receives his at 47. (He joined when he was 17 and after 30 years service receives an immediate annuity).

For several years now I've been jabbering away about early retirement. We came up with the original plan together. But I'm the one with a long attention span. Both of us leaving at 46 and 47. Buying a sailboat. Travelling all over while the kids are young. My husband's been nodding his head all this time. Took live aboard sailing lessons with me and chartered sail boats in the Caribbean. I've been giving him regular financial reports as a responsible CFO should. Last year he interrupted my jabbering and said he didn't think we could do it financially. Fffffffth, that's the sound of my bubble deflating.

We crossed $700K in personal investments a few months ago, prior to the giant jump in returns this last month. A mortgage free house at $400K in 2009 (I no longer increase the value annually). And the military pension more than covers our annual expenses. We won't even have to touch our registered investments. I'll get a small DB at age 60. With pension splitting taxes won't be that high. I don't count CPP because we have a bridge benefit that disappears at age 65. OAS is a bonus if it's around for us and we are below the threshold for clawback at current values. Travelling in many countries can be less expensive than living at home depending on how you do it. I thought I had it more than covered.

My husband is one of those people who thinks he needs millions of dollars to retire. On top of his golden pension no less. He has no interest in personal finances whatsoever. And apparently he's bad at math!

Right away we came to a compromise. In January 2017 we are heading to South America for a year. I applied for a Sabbatical at work and have another 20% of my pay set aside over four years. I'll receive deferred pay during the Sabbatical year. The kids will be 15, 14 and nine. My diabolical plot will be to make it the most amazing year that everyone will want to do it a few more years. I'll need to keep our expenditures below the pension. But $60K is a lot of moolah for South America. Three to four countries at three to four months at a time. Long term rentals as a place to branch off from. Slow travel for sure.

I'm looking forward to this trip but I'm not really satisfied with the compromise. In my mind, we're both staying retired. Marginal utility.... I don't know what I'm saving for anymore if not for this.

I come here to drown my sorrows now.

Sorry for the long post. Something happens to me when I jabber.

Oh... I'm off today... shift work. I cannot view forums and blogs at work! In case you were wondering.
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kcowan
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by kcowan »

Welcome to the forum. Make sure to read the finiki.

It sounds like your are pretty grounded and will benefit from the advice you get here.

Off the top, I would say you are in pretty good shape and are following your dreams while you are young. You need to gain the confidence of your spouse. That might involve some simple project (not involving DSCs or high MERs). Good luck.
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bpp
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by bpp »

Just wanted to properly introduce myself, since I have made a few posts in the past day.
I know several posters here from other boards (Hi, snowback!), and while I do not live in Canada (though I grew up on the border with Canada, so feel some affinity), as an American in Japan, I share many of the same issues as some here.

I apparently originally registered in 2006, though I hadn't logged in since then, spending most of my time on the bogleheads.
I noticed peculiar_investor contributing to the "Taxation as a US person abroad" wiki at bogleheads, which led me back here.
I may pop in again from time to time, particularly concerning issues of cross-border taxation and asset allocation.

Cheers!
:beer:
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LadyGeek
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by LadyGeek »

Hi, bpp. I'm also a member here.

finiki is also available for editing, if you wish to contribute.
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by bpp »

Hi LadyGeek!
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always_learning
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by always_learning »

Hi, all. Time to finally introduce myself, I figure. I was born in Stanford, California in the mid-1960s, studied physics and philosophy, got a PhD in philosophy, followed my wife here to Halifax in the mid-1990s, and then helped create two great kids.

Since moving to Halifax from the US, I've worked as a technical writer, instructional designer, editor and -- my current gig -- writer. (Finiki writing and editing looks very appealing for when I retire.)

After reading about investing, I finally left my full-service investment advisor in the 1990s. In a warm, polite way, he looked me in the eye and said, "I have only one piece of advice for you for when you start doing this on your own: please don't overload on tech!" By following his advice, I avoided the ensuing tech meltdown of 2000, so he deserves a big shoutout. :) As a DIY buy-and-hold investor (very passive), I use individual stocks in North America, and US-based ETFs outside of North America.

My main hobby is hiking, especially backpacking in New Zealand, the Himalayas, and the Andes. My wife is a professor, and we've been able to spend both of her sabbaticals so far in the beautiful town of Dunedin, in New Zealand's gorgeous South Island. For me, as an avid hiker, New Zealand is Heaven on Earth.

Within finance, I enjoy learning about financial theory and statistics. Outside of finance, I'm interested in mathematics, astronomy, physics, evolution, geology, history and philosophy.

A huge thank you to all the posters here who have helped me so far. As I learn more, I'll try to help others.

a_l
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

always_learning wrote:Finiki writing and editing looks very appealing for when I retire.
Why wait? Send me a PM and I'll create an account for you. Dabble at your leisure. Don't know if you saw this post about gaining access to the finiki lounge forum (it hides from view of non-group members).
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki New editors wanted and welcomed, please help collaborate and improve the wiki.

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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by George$ »

always_learning wrote:Hi, all. Time to finally introduce myself, I figure. I was born in Stanford, California in the mid-1960s, studied physics and philosophy, got a PhD in philosophy, followed my wife here to Halifax in the mid-1990s, and then helped create two great kids.

A huge thank you to all the posters here who have helped me so far. As I learn more, I'll try to help others.

a_l

Welcome and good to hear a bit about you.

Interesting about California - I was at LINAC at Stanford from 1968 to 1971, while living in Sunnyvale - and our twins were born at the Stanford hospital in early 1969. Today their families with their 6 children live near us. How great! :)
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Bylo Selhi
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Bylo Selhi »

First, welcome aboard.
always_learning wrote:My main hobby is hiking, especially backpacking in New Zealand, the Himalayas, and the Andes. My wife is a professor, and we've been able to spend both of her sabbaticals so far in the beautiful town of Dunedin, in New Zealand's gorgeous South Island. For me, as an avid hiker, New Zealand is Heaven on Earth.
My main outdoors hobby is also hiking, especially in the Alps. New Zealand, including the Milford Track, is high on our bucket list.
Sedulously eschew obfuscatory hyperverbosity and prolixity.
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by newguy »

Bylo Selhi wrote:New Zealand, including the Milford Track, is high on our bucket list.
You just want to go on the Great Annual Nude Tunnel Run.

newguy
Cla4finances
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Re: Introduce Yourself

Post by Cla4finances »

Hello... I am Clarice, I am from Brazil and I study Finance... :D
Love to ready... learn... and share...

Good to be here!!!
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