Time to do a wrap up to summarize the most popular columns on Million Dollar Journey for the month of August. In addition, I would like to give thanks to our readers, contributors, referrers and sponsors. Top 5 Most Popular Posts for August 2008: 1. The Pitfalls of Index Investing This post generated a good debate [...]

Due to popular demand, QCash has graciously offered to provide more details into his financial life. For those of you who are new here, QCash retired at the age of 36 with a net worth of over $1.5 million. After my last post (how I achieved $1.8 million in net worth), I suggested to [...]

Some readers have written me interested in a breakdown of my expenses. I thought it would be an interesting exercise and it would give a big picture of where we spend out money. Our expenses include (on an annual basis): Housing Expenses: $24,500 Mortgage: $14,300 Property tax: $3,000 Maintenance/Furnishings/Upgrades: $3,600 Utilities: $3,600 Car Expenses: $6,280 Car payment: $0 Gasoline: $3,600 Maintenance: $2,400 Registration: $280 Home [...]

I now have more books to review than time to read them, they just keep rolling in. As I know that you guys enjoy the reviews and giveaways, I will make sure to chug through them as fast as possible. The book to be reviewed this time is called “Work the System - The Simple [...]

Happy Labour Day Weekend! Since it’s a long weekend, I have compiled a large list of great personal finance reads to catch up on. I’m going to take a break and enjoy the rest of the weekend. So no post Monday but back to regular programming on Tuesday with a book giveaway! Consumerism [...]

Welcome to the recurring monthly net worth update - The August 2008 edition. This summer is turning out to be a little expensive. As predicted a few months back, now that my wife is back on her feet and settled into the baby routine, she is now in home decorating mode! Of course with [...]

For those of you just joining us, this is my portfolio that is leveraged with money borrowed from my home equity line of credit (HELOC). As the money borrowed is used to invest, the interest charged is tax deductible. For more detail, check out the modified smith manoeuvre strategy. Onto the business at hand. [...]

The personal finance blog world is all about index investing. Rightfully so as indexing provides a cheap, efficient, easy and profitable method of investing for the long run. Up until recently, my investing style has been a mix of indexing, stock picking and short term trading. However, after learning more about the [...]

I’ve gotten a couple emails from readers lately regarding getting rid of their credit card debt by withdrawing from their RRSPs/retirement account. My first thought was that it is a very bad idea. Before we start with the scenarios, lets look at some of the basics: RRSP Withdrawals and Withholding tax: Withdrawals from an RRSP [...]

This is a guest post by The Restaurant Blogger who is a major foodie and restaurant entrepreneur. If you’re interested in the food and restaurant industry, make sure to check out The Restaurant Blogger for insider tips. When we talk about millionaires, we normally never include chefs. We just never would imagine [...]

Hopefully you are enjoying the last bit of summer! If you are stuck indoors for a bit, here are some great personal finance articles for you to browse through: My Dollar Plan has continued with her early retirement announcement in “Leaving the Workforce at 29: Where Do I Go From Here?” Frugal Dad explains Why You [...]

Cheap Banking and Books A little birdie has told me that PC Financial is about to have some serious competition. In the fall, Citizens Bank will be offering a no fee chequing account with no minimum balanace! Including in the no fee account are free cheques, interac and ATM transactions. You can find [...]

Regular reader, Gil, emailed me with a question regarding withholding taxes on U.S securities. I am wondering if you can provide some insight (to me or as an article for all of your readers) regarding what the self-directed individual investor must know with regards to non-resident withholding tax for Canadians specifically when buying USD ETFs such as Vanguard. Some topics [...]

This is a guest post from Cara, a personal development coach and the founder of Carajaz Coaching.  With money issues, Cara works with people to find and resolve the root cause so that old thoughts about money no longer hold them back from the prosperity that they desire. An old post that I wrote “Cats [...]

Yesterday’s article explained the basics of the taxation of private Canadian corporations. Today, we’ll go through a couple of scenarios to see the tax implications of withdrawing money from the corporation. Scenario 1: Say that Jim from Newfoundland had a private incorporated business that made $10k/yr. Jim also makes $65k/yr in his regular job. If [...]

For those of you with personal businesses that are growing, it may come to the point where you will want to incorporate. There are numerous benefits of setting up a private corporation for your small business, among them include: Litigation protection. Lower business income tax. The ability to sell your business up to $750k tax free ($1.5 [...]

TheMoneyWriters have added a new member to the group who writes from a frugal perspective. As one of the fastest growing personal finance blogs out there, we are pleased to announce FrugalDad as part of the team! Here are some articles from TheMoneyWriters this week that has caught my attention: My Dollar Plan has a timely [...]

Costco This week I renewed my Costco Membership. As I have a hard time paying full price for anything, I found the latest online coupon code (GSWEB24) for a $25 gift card with a new Costco membership. The great thing about getting the membership online is that you can get the discount AND start [...]

Regular reader, commenter, and personal finance enthusiast, DAvid, has shared with us some of his thoughts on how to determine the true “value” of a defined benefit pension. As an avid follower of Frugal Trader’s Million Dollar Journey, and subsequent to some discussion on the topic, I began to wonder about where a Defined [...]

A few personal finance bloggers contacted me to contribute to their group writing project about wills and estate planning. I’ve written about wills before with it being a must have item if you care at all about where your assets go upon passing. However, I’m going to be honest with you, procrastination [...]