# Poor Student Diary



## deeppockets (Oct 31, 2015)

Hey there everybody,

Have lurked for awhile, and finally decided to make my first post. I am 23 years old working towards my B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering.

Currently I am working 3 days a week in between my school days. I got a great part time job that pays fairly well and manage about 30 hours per week (roughly $2000/mo.). I grew out of the 'spend everything you make' high school habit about two years ago and have been slowly accumulating cash to invest. 

Basically all my money has been invested in stocks. I traded small/mid cap stocks for about a year after high school and did very well. Having limited capital and doing well really early on I made the mistake of getting into some fairly speculative plays on heavy amounts of margin (over confidence + limited experience). This did not end well for me and had to re-evaluate my way of trading. I'm now working my way out of a margin hole and am going to go a more conservative route when investing in stocks. 

My goal is to shift some profits from stocks into purchasing my first investment property once I graduate. Also I absolutely love reading and have allocated a substantial budget for books. So for any of you readers out there that would like to talk books I'm all ears! 

Heres a breakdown of my finances so far:

2015/10/30
*Current Assets:*

Car - $6000
Aftermarket Parts - $2500
Stocks - $16,500

*Cash* - $3000

*Liabilities* - $0


Anyways I'm very excited to be able to have a place to formally track my progress and hopefully chat with some of you guys  

Cheers!


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

I am sure you love the aftermarket parts you have put into your car, but really, they may have cost you a whack but they are really not an asset. 

As to reading, while some of his publications are getting a little dated, as to investment government regulations, Gordon Pape is a good financial education author, and should be available in most Canadian public libraries.

I have recently re-read his '6 steps to 1 million'. Of course a million in 2000 when the book came out to me means 1.27m, if you cumulatively figure in the rise in the CPI in the intervening time. I have likely read most than a dozen of his personal finance books and guides over the years. A lot of his stuff talks mutual funds, but after a while now ETF's a re a better long term option for most. 

If your investment property is not a near term thing - you need to pull a bit more together usually to buy real estate, consider start getting your holdings into a TFSA, once you hit 18. 

A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Malkiel is also an older book that still sits on my book shelf.


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