Tag Archives: Money

11 Ways to save money at the movies

May 16 12:45 pm ,

To lose one's self

The movies can break the bank.

It never used to. At least where I was from, movies can be had for, say, less than $5. So we would watch every week, and sometimes, we would watch a movie twice. And so I was surprised to find that it is a luxury (at $12.50!) in Canada, a first world – and that’s even without popcorn! Or maybe I am just a new immigrant and still doing my maths and my conversions in my head.

And so this guest post by Andrea Woroch appealed to me. Hope it gets you your movie fix too, at half the price.

Read More →

Posted in: Canada, The Basics of Finance , Tagged: , ,

Mutual Funds: Magic of Larger Numbers

January 9 12:02 pm ,

 

Hop In

I think I first heard about Mutual Funds from Bo Sanchez.  He likens it to a vehicle that almost anyone, with some funds to invest, can jump into, and that it should be a staple in the portfolio of any smart investor.

I was not entirely convinced (I did not really understand).

To further dispel the mystery of this so-called staple – Mutual Funds – I did some further reading and some interviews.  It is simpler than I thought.

Mutual Funds, turns out, is an investment vehicle where people can pool their resources to take advantage of the magic of larger numbers, that is, because a lot of people invest into “the fund”, they have a large number, and thus, the mutual fund manager – a professional who will manage the investment – can get better rates of return for them.  The mutual fund manager trades the “pooled” money on a regular basis and the net proceeds or losses are then typically distributed to the investors annually.  As my friend Salve Duplito said in one of her articles in MoneySmarts, with as little as USD$100, the regular John or Juans can get their feet wet in an instantly diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or both.

A sort of safe haven for the cautious investor.

Read More →

Posted in: Financial Education, The Basics of Finance , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Of Mothers, Children and Money

August 29 1:38 am ,
Sunflowers

Sunflowers

I wanted to give my mother some money.

“Oh good!”, she says. “I can have your brother borrow it because he just got his credit card statement and he owed so much… You know your brother, he and his wife, they spend so much and they are at the mall all the time, buying this and that, and you know, they spend so much on their children, all the time…” She went on and on.

I was not sure I liked where the conversation was going and I told her so.

I asked her, trying to control my emotions (it is after all my money), “But mom, tell me… what good will that do? What will that achieve? Will that stop him from using his credit card or make him money smart?  And you, what will you gain? She said, “Well, I can nag him.” My mother’s not-so-secret and ineffective weapon. “But that would only make him deaf, mother, not make him learn life’s lessons.”
Read More →

Posted in: Children's Stories , Tagged: , ,

Do You Want to be Rich?

June 12 12:08 pm ,
ytb-rich-headshot1

A Look Into the Future

It just happened.

I was in law school, one daughter, one husband, a house, no mortgage, no money.  Husband wanted to quit work and start business and asked my permission to which I said, um, okay, how…?, yes.

If there is one important thing I learned in married life, it is the power of believing.  If I believed in D, let’s call my one husband D, he suddenly soared, flew, made miracles, painted rainbows.  If I nagged him, he would flail, shrink to nothingness, felled by my ungraciousness and unbelief.  In the many years of our marriage, I always resorted to lashing out.  In my years of law school, I who never put food on our table all those remaining law school years, would slay D with my words  – and everything that remained – our confidence, peace, sanity – would shatter.

Read More →

Posted in: The Beginning , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,