# Just Saying Hi and This Is My Life



## Calgary_Girl (Apr 20, 2011)

Hi everyone...just joined the forum today and wanted to quickly introduce myself. 

As you can tell, I live in Calgary with DH and our two little girls who are 5 yrs old and 16 months. I'm 38 and DH is 41. I'm a SAHM and DH is in the energy industry (surprise, surprise who ISN'T in the energy industry in Calgary??).

Anyway, we've done fairly well over the years and our net worth, including our house equity, is approximately $1.6 million. Not including our house equity, it is approximately $960K. We try to practice LBYM (at least most of the time anyway ).

I hope to learn a lot from all of you!


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## I'm Howard (Oct 13, 2010)

38, Net Worth of almost $2,000,000., I think we can learn a lot from you?


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

I can usually figure out what the abbreciations used on this forum mean, but I'm afraid SAHM has got me stumped. What does it stand for? I'm sure it will seem very obvious and I'll be embarrassed when you tell me, but it can't be helped!


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Congrats on the $$. Please stop with the abbreviations tho.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

SAHM - Stay at home mom... for those of us with young kids =)


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## Financial Cents (Jul 22, 2010)

Wow, congrats on your net worth. VERY well done 

Maybe you should tell us more about your financial journey so we can learn from you!?

Cheers,
My Own Advisor


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## Calgary_Girl (Apr 20, 2011)

Four Pillars said:


> Congrats on the $$. Please stop with the abbreviations tho.


Sorry about that...I'm on another forum as well and I guess I'm just used to using acronyms. I'll try to revert to plain old-fashioned English .

SAHM = Stay at Home Mom
DH = Dear Husband


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## Calgary_Girl (Apr 20, 2011)

Financial Cents said:


> Wow, congrats on your net worth. VERY well done
> 
> Maybe you should tell us more about your financial journey so we can learn from you!?
> 
> ...


I guess it's just LBYM ("live below your means") but also partly due to luck/gutsy investing. My husband is American (recently became a Canadian citizen) and I lived with him in the States for a couple of years. During that time, we received some sizeable bonuses from our employer and when we moved back to Calgary the exchange rate was 1.5 in 2001 . We managed to buy our house in Calgary outright and were mortgage-free at the young ages of 29 and 31 and before we had children. This was also before the Calgary housing market exploded in 2005/2006 so our house has doubled in value over the past 10 years (at least on paper!).

Since interest rates have been very low and we had no debt, we decided to use a HELOC to invest in some stable dividend-paying stocks which has paid off. I know not everyone would feel comfortable doing this but we are very glad we did and the dividends we receive more than cover the interest on the HELOC. While everyone seemed to be panicking in 2008, we just kept investing and let the DRIP's run every month since we don't need the income.

That's basically it in a nutshell. LBYM but also had some luck on our side.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

Awesome story, congrats and your journey so far! You did very well for buying when the market crashed and paying your house off by age 29. 

You should join networthiq. It's a good way to share your financial achievement and compare with others. 

We look forward to you contributing to this forum and teaching us some tips. 

PS: 

Can I call you cowgirl?  lol


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Welcome to the forum. While I agree that the strange acronyms are confusing and annoying, I am sure you will gain a lot of financial knowledge from lurking and participating in the threads here. Any questions, just ask.


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## Financial Cents (Jul 22, 2010)

First of all: "We managed to buy our house in Calgary outright and were mortgage-free at the young ages of 29 and 31.."

You guys rock. Damn that's good.

Secondly: "I know not everyone would feel comfortable doing this but we are very glad we did and the dividends we receive more than cover the interest on the HELOC. While everyone seemed to be panicking in 2008, we just kept investing and let the DRIP's run every month since we don't need the income."

You guys roll. REALLY good 

I invest in dividend-paying stocks myself and DRIP a bunch of them, enough to date so most of my portfolio buys at least one "free" share each quarter, but I'm nowhere near the "don't need the income" category.

Kudos - keep up the LBYM and luck, err, investing smarts 


My Own Advisor - my blog about personal finance, investing and my journey to financial independence.


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## Calgary_Girl (Apr 20, 2011)

Financial Cents said:


> I invest in dividend-paying stocks myself and DRIP a bunch of them, enough to date so most of my portfolio buys at least one "free" share each quarter, but I'm nowhere near the "don't need the income" category.
> 
> 
> My Own Advisor - my blog about personal finance, investing and my journey to financial independence.


Thanks for the kudos!  Don't get me wrong, we can ALWAYS use the income but we manage just fine on my husband's salary and being debt-free has allowed me to take some time off of work and stay at home with my kids for a few years. Our dividend income replaces a little more than 60% of my previous GROSS income while I was working but without all of the taxes taken off! ha ha ha


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## Calgary_Girl (Apr 20, 2011)

Jungle said:


> Awesome story, congrats and your journey so far! You did very well for buying when the market crashed and paying your house off by age 29.
> 
> You should join networthiq. It's a good way to share your financial achievement and compare with others.
> 
> ...


Actually, I've never heard of networthiq but I may have to go and check it out now...thanks for the tip! Sure, you can call me Cowgirl if I can call you "hogboy"?


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

Welcome, Calgary Girl... I recognize you from another forum of which I am a member as well. I understood your acronyms perfectly well.


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## Calgary_Girl (Apr 20, 2011)

Jon_Snow said:


> Welcome, Calgary Girl... I recognize you from another forum of which I am a member as well. I understood your acronyms perfectly well.


Thanks and that's good to know someone understands what I'm saying


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## Larry6417 (Jan 27, 2010)

Welcome to the forum, Calgary Girl! Given, what you and your husband have done, I suspect you'll be doing more teaching than learning on this forum.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Just as a reminder to Calgary Girl et al, that it's not necessary to quote the exact post when adding to the thread. Just let the conversation flow and jump right into the typing. Quotes not necessary - see the thread I started about this in the General section of the forum.


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