# ~A 20 year old's journey out of the rat race~



## cannadian

This is basically my version of FrugalTrader's million dollar journey, hopefully I can achieve a similar level of success that he has!

I’m a 20 year old in Calgary, working and saving to hopefully move to Vancouver in the summer and attend UBC.

My goal is to break out of the rat race by age 35, I’d like to have at least a million in the bank by then – perhaps it’s an unreasonable goal, only time will tell – but that’s certainly not going to prevent me from trying!

I’m working on a blog at the moment to keep track of my progress. I started with zero knowledge in August 2011 and I want to track all the books I read, review them for others to see if they may be beneficial to them, keep track of my financial stats, holdings, thoughts etc etc…

So check it out if you like, all comments and support is greatly appreciated and if you want me to read a book and review it let me know!! My investing strategy (in detail) is up on there, as well as some more info about myself.

If anybody here has ever played a role playing game, the blog is supposed to be a sort of "character sheet" for my investing career, keeping track of everything to do with my portfolio/achievements as though it were a character in a game.
(yes I'm a nerd! haha)

http://ratracefreedom.net/


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## cannadian

Right now my main goals are to continue working, saving, learning, and investing. I want to max out my TFSA this year and save enough to put another 5.5k into it in 2013.

My net worth is around 15k at the moment, I’ve gotten ~40% returns since I started investing in late October, which is great – but something that cannot be expected and I attribute it mostly to picking good stocks at lucky times.

My holdings, at the moment, include:

DIA – 16 shares – market value: ~2k
SDRL – 150 shares – market value: ~5k
TGL – 600 shares – market value: ~5k
SLV – 75 shares – market value: ~2k

I’m a focus investor, so I try to find what I believe to be great stocks and bet big on them. My TGL owning is quite speculative (but I have quite a bit of confidence in it) so I would like to reduce that position if the stock price gets above $15. 

Other than that I have close to 10k left of contribution room to my TFSA, so I’d like to buy index funds every couple months (to curb commissions) with 6k of that, to help reduce the risk of my portfolio, which at the moment is very high, and I’d also like to build my cash reserves up to about 5k in the TFSA so I can buy during major market corrections.

That's it for my first update!! Looking forward to input from everyone!!


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## KaeJS

I know DIA is an expensive ETF.... but you really should not buy only 16 shares. Try to limit yourself to maybe 25 or even 50 as a minimum. The minimum amount of shares I buy is 50, except for in the case of AAPL, where I bought 10 (but this is a $425 stock).

It will be hard for you to realize capital gains with only 16 shares. I know this is probably for longer term, and I am not saying its "such" a bad thing. I just personally would not buy such a small amount of shares. DIA is not volatile enough and the swings aren't big enough to justify buying only 16 shares. The 52week high and 52 week low is only a $25 spread. This means if you managed to buy at the bottom and sell at the top, you'd still only make a profit of $400. If you had 50 shares, a spread of $8 would get you $400, and a spread of $25 would get you $1250. 

What I mean to say is that its a lot easier to grab the $8 spread within a $25 spread holding 50 shares, than it is to grab a $25 spread within a $25 spread holding 16 shares. Once again, I realize it's probably for the long term, so don't sweat it too much. But that's just my little "traders" tip.

Also, I would suggest using up all of your TFSA contribution room and saving the $5k in cash in a non-registered account to take advantage of market corrections.

You want to maximize compounding within a TFSA as none of it is taxed. It's no good waiting around for a correction that may not come for years. Put that $5k to work and compound those dividends! IF a correction comes, you can buy it in a non-registered account to take advantage of it.


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## cannadian

KaeJS said:


> I know DIA is an expensive ETF.... but you really should not buy only 16 shares. Try to limit yourself to maybe 25 or even 50 as a minimum. The minimum amount of shares I buy is 50, except for in the case of AAPL, where I bought 10 (but this is a $425 stock).
> 
> It will be hard for you to realize capital gains with only 16 shares. I know this is probably for longer term, and I am not saying its "such" a bad thing. I just personally would not buy such a small amount of shares. DIA is not volatile enough and the swings aren't big enough to justify buying only 16 shares. The 52week high and 52 week low is only a $25 spread. This means if you managed to buy at the bottom and sell at the top, you'd still only make a profit of $400. If you had 50 shares, a spread of $8 would get you $400, and a spread of $25 would get you $1250.
> 
> What I mean to say is that its a lot easier to grab the $8 spread within a $25 spread holding 50 shares, than it is to grab a $25 spread within a $25 spread holding 16 shares. Once again, I realize it's probably for the long term, so don't sweat it too much. But that's just my little "traders" tip.
> 
> Also, I would suggest using up all of your TFSA contribution room and saving the $5k in cash in a non-registered account to take advantage of market corrections.
> 
> You want to maximize compounding within a TFSA as none of it is taxed. It's no good waiting around for a correction that may not come for years. Put that $5k to work and compound those dividends! IF a correction comes, you can buy it in a non-registered account to take advantage of it.


Hey thanks man, I think I'll take your advice on the non-registered account. How do you pay taxes though on trades? Do you need to record every single trade you make? I imagine for "traders" that would be incredibly hard? (people who trade multiple times a day)

Also, I agree with only buying in larger lots. If you check out my blog under financial stats you'll see that I've gotten KILLED in the past on commissions (mind you that was mostly due to trading a penny stock that got a buy-out offer), I made like 3 grand on the trades, but ended up forking over something like 750 in commissions  I do want to build my DIA position, so I think I'll just buy it in ~5k lots and do it only on large market corrections.

Just curious, are you more of an investor or a trader? And do you have your own money diary I could follow?


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## andrewf

Don't worry about how many shares you buy. % capital appreciation does not depend on number of shares, and % return is what matters. I probably would not go crazy with too many ETFs when all you have is 5k to invest.


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## KaeJS

cannadian said:


> Hey thanks man, I think I'll take your advice on the non-registered account. How do you pay taxes though on trades? Do you need to record every single trade you make? I imagine for "traders" that would be incredibly hard? (people who trade multiple times a day)
> 
> Just curious, are you more of an investor or a trader? And do you have your own money diary I could follow?


Taxes are easy, and they are made easy by your broker. You do not need to keep track of the trades, as the broker keeps track for you. At the end of the year, there is a "scorecard", which is a PDF file of all the trades I made that year, showing the companies, amount of shares, and my profit/loss.

All I need to do is add up my profits, subtract my losses, and then I have a capital gain or a capital loss. Likewise, I do the same with dividends. I just add them up, then I gross it up and pay the taxes. Easy as pie.

I am an investor _AND_ a trader. I am part of both camps. I believe there are stocks that are meant to be held, some meant to be shorted, and others meant to be traded. I have some stocks that I do not touch very often and just let the dividends roll in for Buy and Hold (BCE, BMO, CPG, etc). And then I have my other various trading stocks. I feel that it is important to not fall into one style, but to learn all styles. There is always opportunity in the marketplace - Always. You just need to learn how to take advantage of it. Not only does your portfolio need to be diversified, but so do your skills. Buy and hold will get you nowhere fast, trading will probably get you nowhere fast - but if you put them together... 

I know andrewf said don't worry about the number of shares.... but you really should (to an extent). As I said, your 16 shares in DIA is not a big deal, but just keep an eye on it in the future, along with your commissions.

As for myself and my Diary, well, I was planning to actually start a "diary" for the end of this month, so you kind of ruined the surprise.  For now, I just have my spreadsheet which can be found in my signature, and the website I am working on which is not yet finished: www.fixedonfinance.com


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## Argonaut

There are only two cases where number of shares matters. The first is with options, which have control over 100 share lots. The second is with share-based commissions, which can end up charging big for penny stocks. As long as you're paying only $5-10 for that $2000 trade it's fine, the number of shares is irrelevant.

Good luck cannadian, it's a lofty goal but attainable. I'll hit a million by 35 if I do as well as I did last year every year. The odds of that are low, so I'll probably need to ramp up my income to compensate.


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## Jon_Snow

I went past a million in "net worth" when I was 36... but to have a mill in "the bank" that is going to take a bit longer. When I reach that point, I am done with the "rat race" for good as well. 

Good luck on your own journey, Cannadian....


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## cannadian

andrewf said:


> Don't worry about how many shares you buy. % capital appreciation does not depend on number of shares, and % return is what matters. I probably would not go crazy with too many ETFs when all you have is 5k to invest.


I don't have anything to invest at the moment - it's all invested.

But yeah, I'm just on a mission to curb commissions from now on and avoid buying small amounts/trading till I have a $50k account.



KaeJS said:


> Taxes are easy, and they are made easy by your broker. You do not need to keep track of the trades, as the broker keeps track for you. At the end of the year, there is a "scorecard", which is a PDF file of all the trades I made that year, showing the companies, amount of shares, and my profit/loss.
> 
> All I need to do is add up my profits, subtract my losses, and then I have a capital gain or a capital loss. Likewise, I do the same with dividends. I just add them up, then I gross it up and pay the taxes. Easy as pie.
> 
> I am an investor _AND_ a trader. I am part of both camps. I believe there are stocks that are meant to be held, some meant to be shorted, and others meant to be traded. I have some stocks that I do not touch very often and just let the dividends roll in for Buy and Hold (BCE, BMO, CPG, etc). And then I have my other various trading stocks. I feel that it is important to not fall into one style, but to learn all styles. There is always opportunity in the marketplace - Always. You just need to learn how to take advantage of it. Not only does your portfolio need to be diversified, but so do your skills. Buy and hold will get you nowhere fast, trading will probably get you nowhere fast - but if you put them together...
> 
> I know andrewf said don't worry about the number of shares.... but you really should (to an extent). As I said, your 16 shares in DIA is not a big deal, but just keep an eye on it in the future, along with your commissions.
> 
> As for myself and my Diary, well, I was planning to actually start a "diary" for the end of this month, so you kind of ruined the surprise.  For now, I just have my spreadsheet which can be found in my signature, and the website I am working on which is not yet finished: www.fixedonfinance.com


Hey buddy, 

first: just checked out your site - I'm definitely digging the domain name and your slogan. I don't really like the all capitals for your menu titles (but hey, I don't know how to fix that myself hah, maybe I just need to get a better theme lol).

I'll definitely follow your blog, you gonna post all your holdings and whatnot on there? You should check out my site if you haven't already, maybe we can help each other learn this website stuff if you're new to it as well hah).

Anyways, thanks for the tax info - definitely easier than I expected it'd be lol. 

And yeah I'm working on curbing the commissions.

But yeah I definitely want to have an open mind in the investing business as well. Right now I'm learning mostly value investing/fundamental analysis, but in the future I'd love to learn some Technical Analysis stuff and get into hedging with options and all that.

How long've you been in the game if you don't mind me asking?


Argonaut said:


> There are only two cases where number of shares matters. The first is with options, which have control over 100 share lots. The second is with share-based commissions, which can end up charging big for penny stocks. As long as you're paying only $5-10 for that $2000 trade it's fine, the number of shares is irrelevant.
> 
> Good luck cannadian, it's a lofty goal but attainable. I'll hit a million by 35 if I do as well as I did last year every year. The odds of that are low, so I'll probably need to ramp up my income to compensate.


Hey man, my commission is actually $30 right now, I'm using a TFSA at TD Waterhouse and they charge you up the *** (like all the other banks with decent online investing platforms) until you have a 50k account - when they lower it to like $9.

It sucks for now but I'm saving more due to not having to pay taxes than I'm losing from increased commissions.. And as soon as I get 50k the commissions will be fine.

How far off from 35 are you?


Jon_Snow said:


> I went past a million in "net worth" when I was 36... but to have a mill in "the bank" that is going to take a bit longer. When I reach that point, I am done with the "rat race" for good as well.
> 
> Good luck on your own journey, Cannadian....


Hey dude, is your name actually Jon Snow or are you just a big fan of a song of ice and fire/game of thrones?

And thanks, good luck to you as well my friend! 

I'm planning on living well below my means for a good amount of time, working in finance after I graduate from uni, and then saving most of my money with the only luxury being travelling the world on a 4-5k budget per year.

That, plus if I can become a savvy investor I can compound all the money I save through investing and hopefully grow it to a million by 35...

But we'll see haha - one thing I've learned so far since graduating high school is that the real world throws quite a few roadblocks and problems your way that you never see coming lol, but I'm still going to shoot for it. A man has to dream right?


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## KaeJS

cannadian said:


> Hey buddy,
> 
> first: just checked out your site - I'm definitely digging the domain name and your slogan. I don't really like the all capitals for your menu titles (but hey, I don't know how to fix that myself hah, maybe I just need to get a better theme lol).
> 
> I'll definitely follow your blog, you gonna post all your holdings and whatnot on there? You should check out my site if you haven't already, maybe we can help each other learn this website stuff if you're new to it as well hah).
> 
> Anyways, thanks for the tax info - definitely easier than I expected it'd be lol.
> 
> And yeah I'm working on curbing the commissions.
> 
> But yeah I definitely want to have an open mind in the investing business as well. Right now I'm learning mostly value investing/fundamental analysis, but in the future I'd love to learn some Technical Analysis stuff and get into hedging with options and all that.
> 
> How long've you been in the game if you don't mind me asking?


Thanks for the feedback on my site. It's appreciated. 
As I said, it's a work in progress... has been for a while. I've been slacking and taking a lot of time "off" as I've got some other stuff to worry about. And let's be honest - making a website isn't as fun as doing other things 

I will be posting all my holdings and trades under the "My Plays" section, with reasons as to why I bought/sold/held a stock. I posted some of them up for last year, but as I said, I was slacking. I am going to keep it consistent this year and update every trade I make and document why I've made it.

I've checked out your site as well, even before you mentioned it in your post.  It's a great start. It's a lot cleaner than mine. I like that.

As for being in the investing game.. well, I bought my very first (penny) stock on April 1, 2010. I can't even remember the name of it now. Petro something... But for the most part, 2010 was a write off. I really started investing in 2011 somewhat seriously, so I'm quite new to the game.

By the way, I am an INT*J* . Saw that you were an INTP on your website.


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## Argonaut

$30 is outrageous, I paid that in the past and after looking at its effect on my returns it convinced me to switch to Questrade. You may want to hold what you have at TD, and look into the e-Series for commission-free additions. And then open an account at Questrade if you want to make some regular non-index trades during the buildup to $50k.

I'm 25, so I've got 10 years to go to reach a million if I can. I'm talking about a million in net-worth Jon Snow style. To have a million cash I would need to have $4-5 million in assets as per my allocation.. will be a while yet..

Winter is coming. Or not, it seems to have been skipped this year.


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## Payday Expert

What you need is, an investor AND a trader. You may be part of both camps. Believe me, there are stocks that are meant to be held, some meant to be shorted, and others meant to be traded. You have some stocks that You do not touch very often and just let the dividends roll in for Buy and Hold (BCE, BMO, CPG, etc). And then You have your other various trading stocks.


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## HaroldCrump

Jon_Snow said:


> I went past a million in "net worth" when I was 36... but to have a mill in "the bank" that is going to take a bit longer. When I reach that point, I am done with the "rat race" for good as well.


I assume the rest is home equity?
You can in fact monetize it right now, if you want to.
Sell the property, get the home equity out and now you have your magic $1M in cash.
The only catch is - you'll have to rent for the next little while.


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## Plugging Along

JON- Just curious, what do you consider 'cash'. Does your other real estate factor in to it?


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## Jon_Snow

HaroldCrump said:


> I assume the rest is home equity?
> You can in fact monetize it right now, if you want to.
> Sell the property, get the home equity out and now you have your magic $1M in cash.
> The only catch is - you'll have to rent for the next little while.


My wife has informed that she will never be a renter... muttering something about "throwing our money away" under her breath.


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## Financial Cents

Jon_Snow said:


> I went past a million in "net worth" when I was 36... but to have a mill in "the bank" that is going to take a bit longer. When I reach that point, I am done with the "rat race" for good as well.
> 
> Good luck on your own journey, Cannadian....


Still, great work Jon 

When I have a paid off home and a mill in the bank, I'm most definitely done working as well.


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## KaeJS

KaeJS said:


> I am an investor _AND_ a trader. I am part of both camps. I believe there are stocks that are meant to be held, some meant to be shorted, and others meant to be traded. I have some stocks that I do not touch very often and just let the dividends roll in for Buy and Hold (BCE, BMO, CPG, etc). And then I have my other various trading stocks.


^ Yes, I said this.



Payday Expert said:


> What you need is, an investor AND a trader. You may be part of both camps. Believe me, there are stocks that are meant to be held, some meant to be shorted, and others meant to be traded. You have some stocks that You do not touch very often and just let the dividends roll in for Buy and Hold (BCE, BMO, CPG, etc). And then You have your other various trading stocks.


^ Bot? Spammer?


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## cannadian

*Sorry for the delay everybody - my computer crashed -.-*



KaeJS said:


> Thanks for the feedback on my site. It's appreciated.
> As I said, it's a work in progress... has been for a while. I've been slacking and taking a lot of time "off" as I've got some other stuff to worry about. And let's be honest - making a website isn't as fun as doing other things
> 
> I will be posting all my holdings and trades under the "My Plays" section, with reasons as to why I bought/sold/held a stock. I posted some of them up for last year, but as I said, I was slacking. I am going to keep it consistent this year and update every trade I make and document why I've made it.
> 
> I've checked out your site as well, even before you mentioned it in your post. It's a great start. It's a lot cleaner than mine. I like that.
> 
> As for being in the investing game.. well, I bought my very first (penny) stock on April 1, 2010. I can't even remember the name of it now. Petro something... But for the most part, 2010 was a write off. I really started investing in 2011 somewhat seriously, so I'm quite new to the game.
> 
> By the way, I am an INT*J* . Saw that you were an INTP on your website.


Haha yeah I hear ya about the website thing, for me it's just a hobby that I hope to work on/learn about over time. If there's nothing going on on a Thursday or something I love having a couple beers and spending a few hours updating stuff lol

That's what I'm planning on doing as well - record each trade/document why the trade was made - I figure it'll help in the long run after seeing which trades/investments were successful, which were not, and then comparing the reasons etc.

And that's sweet that you're an INTJ - quite a few of my buddies are INTJs... I could definitely picture one running a hedge fund or something like that if that's something you're eyeing 




Argonaut said:


> $30 is outrageous, I paid that in the past and after looking at its effect on my returns it convinced me to switch to Questrade. You may want to hold what you have at TD, and look into the e-Series for commission-free additions. And then open an account at Questrade if you want to make some regular non-index trades during the buildup to $50k.
> 
> I'm 25, so I've got 10 years to go to reach a million if I can. I'm talking about a million in net-worth Jon Snow style. To have a million cash I would need to have $4-5 million in assets as per my allocation.. will be a while yet..
> 
> Winter is coming. Or not, it seems to have been skipped this year.


Love the game of thrones reference 

Yeah the $30 thing does get to me, the thing is though is that I end up saving more because of the whole "tax free" aspect than I pay in commissions, so it seems to still be worth it when I factor in taxes - does questrade allow TFSAs?

I might just keep filling up my TFSA contribution room and then open a second investing account up on a website like questrade/etrade/thinkorswim or something like that

Good luck on your goals/investing journey man!!



Jon_Snow said:


> My wife has informed that she will never be a renter... muttering something about "throwing our money away" under her breath.


Haha, $1 million in net worth by 35 is still an amazing feat though, props!



Financial Cents said:


> Still, great work Jon
> 
> When I have a paid off home and a mill in the bank, I'm most definitely done working as well.


Hey man I checked out your blog and I'm wondering if the theme was free or not? It seems a bit sexier/sleeker than my theme, and you don't have capitals for all the sidebar/menu titles like my theme forces...

Anyways, goodlooking blog man, hope mine looks like that eventually hah


KaeJS said:


> ^ Yes, I said this.
> 
> 
> 
> ^ Bot? Spammer?


Looks like it


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## cannadian

*TGL's lookin good*

My largest holding, TransGlobe Energy, which is a high-risk, high-reward value play based on the current political instability in Egypt, just released their year end reserve updates and the street liked it enough to push the stock up more than 4% today:



> Year-End 2011 Reserves*
> 
> Proved Reserves ("1P")
> 
> TransGlobe's total proved reserves increased 38 percent to 28.2 million barrels of oil ("MMBbl") at December 31, 2011 from 20.5 MMBbl at December 31, 2010. This increase in proved reserves represents a production replacement in 2011 of 275 percent. The Company produced 4.4 MMBbl of reserves during 2011.
> 
> Proved Plus Probable Reserves ("2P")
> 
> Total 2P reserves grew 45 percent to 44.2 MMBbl at December 31, 2011 from 30.4 MMBbl at December 31, 2010. The increase in 2P reserves represents a production replacement in 2011 of 412 percent.
> 
> Proved Plus Probable Plus Possible Reserves ("3P")
> 
> *Total 3P reserves grew 43 percent to 59.8 MMBbl at December 31, 2011 from 41.9 MMBbl at December 31, 2010. The increase in 3P reserves represents a production replacement in 2011 of 507 percent.*


I'm really liking this company right now. Excellent management, took the company from around $35 million of shareholder equity to over $350 million in under a decade and they're expanding rapidly at the moment, and all of their ratios are great, here's a more thorough review at my blog:

http://ratracefreedom.net/?p=250#more-250


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## cannadian

*sold SDRL, bought G*

Sold off SDRL on Monday for a 10% gain.

I noticed that G (Goldcorp) has been, throughout the past year, oscillating between $45 and $55. It's now at the lower end of that oscillation at $45.

I am expecting the market in general to correct though so I placed stop losses in at $43.43 in case the 44$ to $45 level doesn't hold.

Anyways, picked up 101 G for $45.60, this will be one of my first swing trades  I'm mostly a long-term investor, but there's little downside (~$200) to this and about $500-800 of upside, and the track record looks favourable - so let's do it!

The exit plan is to place stop losses at around $48 to $49 when G hits $50, and then to hopefully ride it up to 52-55 range, keeping stops around 1.50 below the spot price.


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## cannadian

The Goldcorp trade is going well at the moment, as it approaches $55 I may take the profits from that trade and my SDRL trade to purchase $1k worth of CLL and $1k worth of BAC or MS or something of the sort.

My reasoning is that CLL is primed to be bought out, the CEO who was holding the process back was just fired and the company announced that they're hiring Goldman Sachs to help them sell the company. The stock price is around $1 right now and the NAV of CLL is well over $4 a share - so I don't think the buyout will be for anything under $1.50. Even $1.20 is good though - and who knows, a home run could be hit with a $2.50 buyout or something. I'm VERY confident they will be bought out within the next 6 months.

My reasoning for BAC or MS is that I think in the near-term they may not perform well, but eventually the economy will turn itself around, and when it does I see these stocks exploding. Probably 400% or so from these prices.

So $2000 isn't a huge part of my portfolio, and these are basically longish term, confident bets.

Looking to buy some new finance/investing books in a bit too.


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## Sherlock

I've heard good things about Money Road by Garth Turner.

You say you're 20 and you have 10k. So to get to a mil by 35, assuming you get an average 10% return annually (unlikely), you'd need to save about $2400 a month. Is that really something you're capable of? I think your goal is not achievable unless you get some really good luck, eg land a really high paying job that lets you save $2400/month, or make a lot of really lucky trades.


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## cannadian

Sherlock said:


> I've heard good things about Money Road by Garth Turner.
> 
> You say you're 20 and you have 10k. So to get to a mil by 35, assuming you get an average 10% return annually (unlikely), you'd need to save about $2400 a month. Is that really something you're capable of? I think your goal is not achievable unless you get some really good luck, eg land a really high paying job that lets you save $2400/month, or make a lot of really lucky trades.


Thanks, I'll check it out!

The portfolio is closer to $15k now, but that really doesn't make much of a difference when we're talking about getting to a million 

I'm very confident that by 25 I will have 100k saved and invested. I will find *some* way to do it. By the time I'm 21 I will have scholarships, some support for parents, and savings that will fully fund my tuition and much of my living expenses for the 4 years needed to get my degree. 

That being said, I will be working part-time saving most of what I earn throughout the year. During the summers I will work full-time, and if need be, to make the $100k goal by 25, I will work at the Alberta oil sands during the summers.

From that point I have 10 years to read my goal of freedom from the rat race by 35.

By this time I would like to have developed a very strong foundation of investment knowledge/savvy. And combined with my 100k working in the markets and growing for me, I will hopefully get a decent finance-related job, work hard at that while keeping my living expenses very low (for a life-time of freedom, I'm more than willing to live in a sh*thole for 10 years) should allow me to save and grow the required amount.

There's always the possibility of starting some sort of business on my own as well...


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## humble_pie

i think that this young man does indeed have a chance of slipping through the eye of the needle into milliondollarland by 35, or at least in his 30s. If one looks at his contributions here in cmf forum, they are amazingly substantial. Only the enthusiasm betrays a hint of his youth.

he's worked up a first-rate analysis of an obscure canadian energy labouring in, of all places, egypt. I won't be buying this myself - too much geo risk for an ordinary pie - but imho the OP took a well-calculated, well-researched shot at it. If he owns the shares now, i'm keeping fingers crossed for his good fortune.

he's on the right career path, heading for the portfolio management stream at UBC business faculty.

nice website, too. Well-designed, thoughtful, smooth & appealing around the edges.

it seems the OP is moving from a learning & research stage into active trading mode. Wishing him every success & looking forward to hearing more.


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## zidane

I'll be following you on twitter good sir.

I'm 21 and I'm astonished about your wealth of knowledge. I wish my group of friends thought about their future and money more instead we are spoiled and spend our disposable income on superficial needs.

I hope to see you in UBC. I am planning to transfer into 3rd year BCOM in 2014.


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## cannadian

humble_pie said:


> i think that this young man does indeed have a chance of slipping through the eye of the needle into milliondollarland by 35, or at least in his 30s. If one looks at his contributions here in cmf forum, they are amazingly substantial. Only the enthusiasm betrays a hint of his youth.
> 
> he's worked up a first-rate analysis of an obscure canadian energy labouring in, of all places, egypt. I won't be buying this myself - too much geo risk for an ordinary pie - but imho the OP took a well-calculated, well-researched shot at it. If he owns the shares now, i'm keeping fingers crossed for his good fortune.
> 
> he's on the right career path, heading for the portfolio management stream at UBC business faculty.
> 
> nice website, too. Well-designed, thoughtful, smooth & appealing around the edges.
> 
> it seems the OP is moving from a learning & research stage into active trading mode. Wishing him every success & looking forward to hearing more.


Hey thanks a lot for the vote of confidence! And excellent prose as well, haha.

I do indeed still own TGL, and it's looking great right now. The production is up 40% from last quarter, and they're issuing up to $97 million of bonds to make more acquisitions this year. I think they'll buy up East Ghaz which just went on sale (they own the other 50%), and hopefully start diversifying out of Egypt a little bit..

TransGlobe Energy is up almost 10% this week on the production news, and the bond issuing just happened today so we'll see what the market thinks of it - I think it's great news personally. The CEO is awesome at getting great deals for the company.

And I am slowly-but-surely moving more into "the game" but the learning and research has only just begun: and the more skin I have in the game the more I'll make sure to learn first.


zidane said:


> I'll be following you on twitter good sir.
> 
> I'm 21 and I'm astonished about your wealth of knowledge. I wish my group of friends thought about their future and money more instead we are spoiled and spend our disposable income on superficial needs.
> 
> I hope to see you in UBC. I am planning to transfer into 3rd year BCOM in 2014.


Thanks man, I really don't know very much at this stage of the game, what I have learned is the very basic foundations of investing/trading, so I'm still a complete amateur but I kind of know the language of investing so-to-speak..

Agreed, I'm shocked more people aren't more interested in learning how to put their money to work for them. Whether any of us like it or not money is going to be a major part of our lives, so why not learn how it works you know?

I'll cya at UBC man!


----------



## cannadian

*Portfolio update coming soon...*

I'll most likely be updating my portfolio holdings/performance this weekend. 

Goldcorp has corrected a little bit, hopefully now that it's in the $47 region more traders will hop on board. Other than that SLV, TGL, and DIA are all doing quite well at the moment.


----------



## GreenAvenue

Take your time, it's always nice to follow your blogs & postings, you make a lot of sense on this forum. I'm watching over your shoulder, I think we have the same "millionaire dream".


----------



## cannadian

GreenAvenue said:


> Take your time, it's always nice to follow your blogs & postings, you make a lot of sense on this forum. I'm watching over your shoulder, I think we have the same "millionaire dream".


Thanks man! I'll check out your thread right now,

currently I'm trying to do a lot of work on the website, I just want to get something I'm pleased with so I can just throw my info/trades and whatnot up on the site without needing to constantly fix things up (last theme wasn't very good).

Also, I'm going to start reading a LOT more, and I'm considering looking for work up at the oil sands (works out to $30-$40 an hour) for the next 6 months to make some connections and money.

Also, I will officially be going to UBC next year!! I'm accepted 

Girlfriend of 4.5 years just left me for someone else so my motivation is through the roof right now to make some major life changes... I think as a person I tend to channel anger/sadness into motivation - whenever something really bad happens to me I don't sit around and sulk about it, I try to get to work fixing myself so the bad things don't come around twice....

Really upset right now, but hopefully I can make something good of the situation..


----------



## Barwelle

cannadian said:


> Girlfriend of 4.5 years just left me for someone else


I don't like this, but...



cannadian said:


> my motivation is through the roof right now to make some major life changes... I think as a person I tend to channel anger/sadness into motivation...


I like this.

Take advantage of it, man. You only answer to yourself now, so you have freedom. Do what you want to do, go learn about things, set the good habits in place. Become who you want to be. 

Just don't go smashing windows, slashing tires, or anything else considered illegal hehe.

Congrats on being accepted into UBC!


----------



## Koala

I'm more on the slow and steady path than reach a million in my mid 30s, but I look forward to following along!

Sorry to hear about the girlfriend, timing is probably for the best though if it wasn't going to work out. Dealing with long distance relationships not going well while in school gets stressful - I know this from experience!

My only other advice is don't do a thesis-based grad degree if you want to build a fairly large amount of wealth when you're young. If you're really into it, you can do one later when you're retired in your 40s or 50s


----------



## cannadian

Barwelle said:


> I don't like this, but...
> 
> 
> 
> I like this.
> 
> Take advantage of it, man. You only answer to yourself now, so you have freedom. Do what you want to do, go learn about things, set the good habits in place. Become who you want to be.
> 
> Just don't go smashing windows, slashing tires, or anything else considered illegal hehe.
> 
> Congrats on being accepted into UBC!


Thanks, the ubc thing was one of the unknown variables in my future equation so I'm pretty happy that I'm in and can now look at places to rent in Vancouver for next year.

I'm more of the drink a bottle of wine and write a sad song type as opposed to the smashing things 



Koala said:


> I'm more on the slow and steady path than reach a million in my mid 30s, but I look forward to following along!
> 
> Sorry to hear about the girlfriend, timing is probably for the best though if it wasn't going to work out. Dealing with long distance relationships not going well while in school gets stressful - I know this from experience!
> 
> My only other advice is don't do a thesis-based grad degree if you want to build a fairly large amount of wealth when you're young. If you're really into it, you can do one later when you're retired in your 40s or 50s


Hey do you have a thread I could follow as well? 

I agree that the timing is for the better, especially since I'll be moving to Vancouver - the relationship was doomed to end in a few months anyways. Just kind of sucks that it came out of nowhere and she left me for someone else you know?

I'm not really thinking about doing a grad degree anymore (used to want to be a physicist haha), I just really want to get into UBC's portfolio management program. I think I'd learn a ridiculous amount in it and meet a bunch of awesome investors, some of which can hopefully hook me up with a job when I graduate


----------



## kcowan

cannadian said:


> I'm more of the drink a bottle of wine and write a sad song type as opposed to the smashing things


Maybe write a song about it (You're Beautiful has been done already.) and make some pin money! Seriously, you can now make some decisions unencumbered. Take full advantage!


----------



## Argonaut

cannadian said:


> I'm considering looking for work up at the oil sands (works out to $30-$40 an hour)(


Hey, is this entry-level? Can you give some details.. the oil sands have always tempted me for the paycheque alone and I have a background in manual labour.


----------



## humble_pie

canna i know it hurts for now but the truth is the poor girl has made a terrible mistake. Just wait another 15 years & you'll be a founding partner of a significant canadian investment banking house specializing in energy resources, while she'll likely be married to mister nebbische ...

and a summer in the oil sands fields could pay you double in terms of the insights it would give you into how the petroleum industries operate at ground level & below.

(aside to argo) i hear the td is excellent at working out leaves of absence. Just don't quit your desk job totally, they need you. Plus you could give some thought to branding & marketing Argo's Takeout Classic 5-Pack. It's a point-of-sale item.

(to barwelle) ottomh you're too young for these 5-year GIC jobs. They are way too conservative. Need some common stock exposure. How about you settle down in the 1st big career job, identify what you can save & then give some thought either to canadian equity e-funds or Argo's handy 5-Pack takeout.


----------



## Koala

cannadian said:


> Hey do you have a thread I could follow as well?


It's Learning as I go:
http://canadianmoneyforum.com/showthread.php?t=10276&page=2


----------



## KaeJS

cannadian said:


> whenever something really bad happens to me I don't sit around and sulk about it, I try to get to work* fixing myself so the bad things don't come around twice*....


Fixing yourself? 

Now you're talking like a woman! 

Sorry to hear about the break up. Been there, done that. But if she stayed with you for 4.5 years and is only leaving now.. I'm sure you're not the one that needs "fixing".

Hey, look on the bright side. Women are expensive. Now you've got more money to save.


----------



## GreenAvenue

cannadian said:


> Also, I will officially be going to UBC next year!! I'm accepted


Congratulations! A big step forward!




cannadian said:


> Girlfriend of 4.5 years just left me for someone else so my motivation is through the roof right now to make some major life changes... I think as a person I tend to channel anger/sadness into motivation - whenever something really bad happens to me I don't sit around and sulk about it, I try to get to work fixing myself so the bad things don't come around twice....
> 
> Really upset right now, but hopefully I can make something good of the situation..


That sucks, I'm sorry. You will have quite a few dark weeks but it'll get better, I've been there. PM me if you need to vent, it can help. It's a good thing you stay focused here on your target for the future, I wish I had done the same.


----------



## Barwelle

@ Argo:

I can give you some details on one work option. A friend of mine started working for a fracking company a few months ago. They paid for his training (confined space, first aid, Class 1 licence, etc) in exchange for a 1 year commitment. (he would have to pay for the cost, around $9000, if he broke that agreement.)

The job consists of a fair bit of driving, a couple hours of manual labour, and a fair bit of... waiting around doing almost nothing while the pumps do their thing. And he says they have a lot of safety meetings.

There is a health hazard involved. He says that the chemicals they use are known to cause cancer. Of course the person handling the chemicals is decked out with PPE but I'm sure it's never perfect protection. Only specific members of the crew get close to the chemicals.

The pay structure is a bit different because the work is not constant. They are paid a monthly salary, with bonuses for how much work you do. Guys doing this get $100k a year. He works 15 on, 6 off. Some long days, some boring days when they stay at the shop doing make-work projects because there is no fracking to do that day.

@ humble: 

Any money I put in GICs will be for a down payment. I'm currently putting 10% of gross income into TD e-series for retirement, and putting 20+% away for land or a house. Only considering GICs cause I really don't have a timeframe for when I'll use that money, and right now the long term GICs have a better return in case I don't use that money for a while. Also have some old mutual funds that I'll keep for house/land... I'll start a diary of my own soon though with more details. Looking forward to comments.



Now to post something semi-relevant to this thread (Sorry Cannadian!)... Seems like there are a bunch of people going to UBC/Vancouver! Cann it sounds like, in addition to being part of that portfolio management program, you could start a Vancouver CMF Club?


----------



## cannadian

*Portfolio Update!*

Bar - it would be cool to meet up with all the Vancouver people once a week for some beers and some investing/money/career/savings type discussions.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! One thing I love about the internet is finding out just how many people out there have gone through the same things you have and have come out better people.

Anyways, here's what the portfolio looks like as of the market close today:



> Current Holdings:
> 
> Cash – $936.09
> DIA – 16 shares – $2,045.60 (+6.90%)
> G – 101 shares – $4,637.92 (+0.70%)
> SLV – 75 shares – $2,438.25 (+16.52%)
> TGL – 600 shares – $6,168.00 (+35.09%)
> 
> Total Portfolio Value: $16,225.86
> Net Portfolio Return: +42.71%


http://ratracefreedom.net/2012/02/10/portfolio-update-10022012/

And here are my thoughts/plans for the next little while:



> I believe that the market will be consolidating or correcting for the next week or 2. After that I think possible QE out of the US, China, UK, and the second round of “unlimited loans” (sounds like QE to me) issued by the ECB to Eurozone banks in late February will ultimately drive the markets, and precious metals, higher. Not to mention that we’re in an election year so Obama has good reason to try and keep the markets up.
> 
> 1. I’ll be looking to put in trailing stops on my G position once it pops over $50 per share.
> 2. I’ll also be looking to add 400 shares of TGL to the portfolio if it corrects and I have cash on hand to take advantage.
> 3. I’ll be looking, in the near future, to hopefully add some NASDAQ, biotech, and TSX index funds to the portfolio.
> 4. I’m looking into making a bet on Connacher Oil and Gas (CLL) in the near future if it stays below $1.00.
> 5. My plan for SLV remains to put trailing stops in once it hits $40, and to hopefully follow it much higher if the US announces QE3.


Oh and I figured out the new website template for my blog so it's starting to finally look like a real website haha. Still have tons of work to do on it though.

If I ever post an article anybody enjoys or has a problem with I would love for you guys to comment on them. Positive or negative - honest feedback flowing around makes everything clearer I find.

Still plan on studying/reading about investing for 2-3 hours each night before I go to sleep to keep building a strong foundation, as well as trying to find a good job + work on my blog. If there's any time left over after that I also kind of want to start working out a few days a week.


----------



## kcowan

What do you like about CLL?


----------



## mrPPincer

I just checked out your site.. looks good.

I particularly liked the lecture* from Robert Shiller on behavioral finance: the role of psychology.
I have recently checked out at lot of lectures and interviews with Fama and French** and really like their work, but Shiller really clearly shows to me, by graphing stock price (or expected value) with actual future dividends over time that we as humans collectively are not valueing risk vs returns rationally.

* link - http://ratracefreedom.net/2012/02/15/refuting-efficient-markets/
**link - http://www.dimensional.com/famafrench/

One could say that there is no way to factor out this irrationallity so we might as well ignore it and call the markets efficient, because they are as efficient as possible with any knowledge we have being factored in to stock price, but after watching Stiller's lecture I for one am gonna try to avoid using the term market efficiency as I think it can be kind of deceptive terminology without another side of the coin, human psychology.

Thought provoking stuff, thanks


----------



## cannadian

kcowan said:


> What do you like about CLL?


It used to have a terrible management, and it has a terrible balance sheet - BUT - it does have a solid asset.

I think the company is trading at less than 25% of its NAV still, and the old management just got kicked out and they hired Goldman Sachs to sell the company (and GS has been buying lots of shares recently). A couple private investors own a decent amount of CLL so they want a good deal if it is sold. And China is looking to invest 200 billion over the next couple of years I believe in the canadian oil sands: CLL is the PERFECT takeover target for a large company.

CLL sucks on its own because of its massive debt and lack of free cash to expand their operations, but they're sitting on a goldmine (of oil...). A chinese company could buy them out for less than 50% of their Net Asset Value and the shareholder would still get a 25-50% premium. The large oil company gets a steal of a deal, the shareholders benefit, and the large company can immediately pay off the debt, expand operations, and exploit the asset.

That and I think they'll rock earnings next week.

I set my target price at $1 and bought 2500 shares at 0.98, waited a day to see if it would drop more, then bought 2500 more at 1.02 for an avg of 1.



mrPPincer said:


> I just checked out your site.. looks good.
> 
> I particularly liked the lecture* from Robert Shiller on behavioral finance: the role of psychology.
> I have recently checked out at lot of lectures and interviews with Fama and French** and really like their work, but Shiller really clearly shows to me, by graphing stock price (or expected value) with actual future dividends over time that we as humans collectively are not valueing risk vs returns rationally.
> 
> * link - http://ratracefreedom.net/2012/02/15/refuting-efficient-markets/
> **link - http://www.dimensional.com/famafrench/
> 
> One could say that there is no way to factor out this irrationallity so we might as well ignore it and call the markets efficient, because they are as efficient as possible with any knowledge we have being factored in to stock price, but after watching Stiller's lecture I for one am gonna try to avoid using the term market efficiency as I think it can be kind of deceptive terminology without another side of the coin, human psychology.
> 
> Thought provoking stuff, thanks


Thanks man! I'm actually completely overhauling the site at the moment, trying to make it a more simple and enjoyable site to read/navigate, less cluttered and more personal/minimalist you know?

Agreed, people are very bad at predicting future dividends. And you're right that it is hard to factor this irrationality - I don't think it's impossible though. For example, history consistently shows that people always wished they'd bought stocks during economic crises. Fear is a very powerful thing. I'm not sure it would be possible to tell when we're in bubble phases, but I do think the objective person can prey on the market when there's a lot of doom and gloom in the air.

Portfolio Update:

My portfolio is now worth around $17,000, I added more TGL to it, and recently picked up CLL. Sold most of my other positions to lock in decent gains.


----------



## cannadian

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I last posted - I moved out to Vancouver a few weeks back (will be studying finance/accounting at UBC come September!!), found work, and am currently in the interview process to volunteer at a cognitive neuroscience lab which I'm stoked about (just something I've always wanted to experience)!

Anyways, I took some of the money that I've recently made and purchased 25 ounces of silver when it was at @27 CAD. Other than that there haven't been any TFSA contributions for a while as I'm trying to build a firewall/emergency fund of 4-6k before I start moving more money into the TFSA. I'm going to attempt working 2-3 days a week throughout the school year and I hope that by Christmas time, if I get a chance to sell this silver for $40+ I'll be able to add 3-4k more to my TFSA.

So the portfolio has been changed up quite a bit - and I'll post my reasoning behind each of those positions all in due time, but I'm very happy with it right now and every holding in it is a minimum of 3-5 years unless something very significant happens to any of the individual companies. I took a beating when the market rolled over, and that was compounded by my attempting to learn how to day trade - I won't be making that mistake again for a long time. 

The portfolio, as it stands, is a value/contrarian portfolio. My goal is to find the place where value-oriented investments intersect with growth-oriented investments - which usually only occurs during some sort of contrarian situation, the portfolio:

TGL - 600 shares
PEY - 175 shares
BAC - 250 shares
FEZ - 65 shares

Total portfolio equity: $13,717.83
Total portfolio return: +20.65%


----------



## humble_pie

i each: this post.

so, you now have over half a kilo of silver hidden in the sock drawer, plus old friend transglobe, new friend peyto, a contrarian big name US bank plus something that suggests you think europe has broken down sufficiently & will be on the mend soon ...

it's a great portf for a smart, cool kid. There's a lot of risk but i'm sure you know that. Somehow i think the sock drawer is going to pay up. Wishing you all the best.


----------



## cannadian

Appreciate it humble - I wrote up a brief little tidbit on my view of natural gas/peyto if you want to check it out here: http://canadianmoneyforum.com/showthread.php/12467-Peyto-Exploration-and-Development

let me know what you think!

On Europe - I think the Europe/the world can't afford a full-scale collapse of the eurozone, even for Germany who would be bailing out the peripheral countries, the costs associated with leaving seem to be far greater than the costs associated with making it all work out.

They still have a ton of problems ahead - but I think they'll gradually move towards eurobonds, more political, fiscal, and banking union (i.e., a proper monetary union, kind of like the united states of europe type thing...) And that when that happens people will wish they'd bought in the height of the crisis when the European market is down over 240% and the total market cap of all of europe's banking industry is less than that of Canada's, whose GDP isn't even a tenth of theirs...

The risk is very high, I agree, but I just can't see any other way out of this mess - so I think over the next few years this is what'll happen, and that just like in the midst of the US crisis nobody wanted to invest in stocks - it proved to be THE time to invest in them (when fear and uncertainty are high, sometimes people get caught up in seeing their wealth evaporate and they forget that the problems are only temporary).

Anyways, I'm tired and that's very brief - just a short bit on my views on Europe..

Just working full-time now until school really starts to pick up (usually mid-late September), trying to stash $250 a week into my "rainy day fund" until it hits 5k. Does anyone have any advice on how to hold that 5k emergency fund? High-interest savings account? Treasuries? Money markets? GICs? Where's the best place to store cash that needs to be available for emergencies??


Also, how's your portfolio comin along humble??


----------



## GOB

There are two schools of thought on where to stash an emergency fund.

1) HISA or chequing account

You know the cash will always be there ready for you to use. However, you sacrifice return on this money which could be significant. 

2) Invest the funds normally, use a credit card for emergencies and pay it off as soon as you can

This is obviously higher risk but will allow you to make full use of your available dollars. If you have any investments you want to sell, you can do so and pay off the card without any problems. If not, it may take a few months to save up the money and you would pay interest on the balance. Your total gains over time on the money invested may or may not easily cover this interest expense so it is a definite uncertainty.

The decision will be based on many factors - what is your risk tolerance, your age, if you have any dependants, the size of the emergency fund, etc. Often if you have $5000 in a chequing account your bank may waive any fees and offer a decent credit card with no annual fee so that may be a good option, as it provides some sort of "return" on those funds. However, if you are making 20% investment returns you're essentially giving up $1000/yr by not investing the money (although consistent 20% gains is unlikely).

I currently have no dependents and am young so I personally don't keep a defined emergency fund. I have investments I can take profit on if the need arises. Health care is covered and my car is under warranty. People I care about are in the position to support themselves if they happen upon a large unexpected expense. If I lose my job I'll get a few weeks of severance pay. The odds of needing $5000 immediately are low for me, so I've chosen option 2. If you have been tracking my diary you'll see how much I can potentially make from $5000 so the decision is quite easy for me at this point in time. Once I have a family of my own I'm sure I will ramp down my level of risk.


----------



## humble_pie

what i'd like to comment on is your writing style. You may not realize it, being such a young person, but the language signature is casual, easygoing, friendly, with an appealing hint of argot here & there. It's perfect for a young writer addressing a population of youthful investors who might never have the time or even the inclination to read the stodgy, formal reports by professional analysts which proliferate in the industry.

at the same time your reports are serious enough to command respect from all age groups. Your insights are good & your arguments & conclusions are well backed up (not to say i necessarily agree with all of them, though.)

might i mention one slightly negative thing, now that we are on the subject of branding. I don't much care for this rat stuff, if i may say so. If it were myself, i might consider dumping the rat, choosing a more appealing animal as totem & changing the name of the blog away from ratrace. You're in BC now; there are lots of totem creatures in first nation mythology.


----------



## cannadian

GOB said:


> There are two schools of thought on where to stash an emergency fund.
> 
> 1) HISA or chequing account
> 
> You know the cash will always be there ready for you to use. However, you sacrifice return on this money which could be significant.
> 
> 2) Invest the funds normally, use a credit card for emergencies and pay it off as soon as you can
> 
> This is obviously higher risk but will allow you to make full use of your available dollars. If you have any investments you want to sell, you can do so and pay off the card without any problems. If not, it may take a few months to save up the money and you would pay interest on the balance. Your total gains over time on the money invested may or may not easily cover this interest expense so it is a definite uncertainty.
> 
> The decision will be based on many factors - what is your risk tolerance, your age, if you have any dependants, the size of the emergency fund, etc. Often if you have $5000 in a chequing account your bank may waive any fees and offer a decent credit card with no annual fee so that may be a good option, as it provides some sort of "return" on those funds. However, if you are making 20% investment returns you're essentially giving up $1000/yr by not investing the money (although consistent 20% gains is unlikely).
> 
> I currently have no dependents and am young so I personally don't keep a defined emergency fund. I have investments I can take profit on if the need arises. Health care is covered and my car is under warranty. People I care about are in the position to support themselves if they happen upon a large unexpected expense. If I lose my job I'll get a few weeks of severance pay. The odds of needing $5000 immediately are low for me, so I've chosen option 2. If you have been tracking my diary you'll see how much I can potentially make from $5000 so the decision is quite easy for me at this point in time. Once I have a family of my own I'm sure I will ramp down my level of risk.


Thanks GOB, that's a pretty interesting idea - hadn't really thought of it before since I have a phobia of debt! 

I guess to clarify the purpose of the "emergency fund" - it's for stock market emergencies as well as life emergencies. I would never go below 2k in it, period, but in the event that there's a major stock market crash or correction I never want to be fully invested - I'd like to have enough on the sidelines to jump in if things get really cheap you know? A 5k e-fund would allow me to move ~3k into the market on a whim while still having a solid rainy day fund left over for real life.

I usually only feel comfortable buying stocks when it looks like the apocalypse is coming hah!

Would a money market fund perhaps be the best place to store 5k?



humble_pie said:


> what i'd like to comment on is your writing style. You may not realize it, being such a young person, but the language signature is casual, easygoing, friendly, with an appealing hint of argot here & there. It's perfect for a young writer addressing a population of youthful investors who might never have the time or even the inclination to read the stodgy, formal reports by professional analysts which proliferate in the industry.
> 
> at the same time your reports are serious enough to command respect from all age groups. Your insights are good & your arguments & conclusions are well backed up (not to say i necessarily agree with all of them, though.)
> 
> might i mention one slightly negative thing, now that we are on the subject of branding. I don't much care for this rat stuff, if i may say so. If it were myself, i might consider dumping the rat, choosing a more appealing animal as totem & changing the name of the blog away from ratrace. You're in BC now; there are lots of totem creatures in first nation mythology.


Thanks for the compliments humble! 

1. Rat thing - Don't worry, I love constructive criticism. Initially I liked the name because the blog is supposed to track my journey out of the rat race, but after I had already built the site I kind of changed my mind. However, I'm so busy with work, reading, studying, etc, that the blog is more of a very small hobby at this point so I just don't have the time/motivation to start a new site and move everything over just yet - perhaps next summer? I liked the name "GuruInvesting" but that was already taken 

Anyways, I appreciate your comments on my writing (though too much of it is done when I'm running on no sleep!), but I still feel way too "nooby" if you know what I mean. I've only been at this for about 8 months so far and I'm only now beginning to realize how little I actually know. Over the next couple of years I want to expand my knowledge/understanding of business, economics, accounting, finance/investing etc to an absurd level. I know it sounds lame, but I truly want to become a guru at this.

And I'm in a very fortunate position where half my tuition is covered through scholarships, and my parents will help me out with the other half provided I keep my grades up. And I talked to my dad about my plan, and him being a frugal guy himself loved it, he's paying my rent for this year and officially cutting me loose next year on all bills except tuition (he made me sign an agreement hah!).

So basically throughout the school year I'll keep all of my monthly expenses below $400 (it's easy to do when in uni, especially with the free bus pass), bring in ~$1000 a month through working, which'll allow me to do three things:

1. Put $200 a month into my rainy day fund (which the silver, once sold, will also be added).
2. Put $200 a month into my checking account - to prepare/build a buffer for living completely on my own next year.
3. Put $200 a month into my TFSA.

That's a very rough outline, it'll definitely change - I basically want this rainy day fund completed within the next 6 months, and have a 1-2k buffer in the checking account by next summer, then I'll work full-time and put almost all of it into the TFSA.

So I'll be able to expand not only my knowledge/understanding of investing over the next couple of years, but also my investment account/financial position itself 


Edit: the numbers themselves are very small, mind you, but what matters to me is continually making progress/moving forward towards my goal.


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## cannadian

Also, if anyone has been following TGL some good events are coming up:

1. Al-Azayem-1 is being spud soon - this is a convoluted story, but goes something like this - some company did a bunch of 3D seismic on the south mariut property, found a large 4 way closure with several stacked horizons going over 14,500 feet deep which could contain over 250 million barrels of recoverable oil. They were bought out before they got a chance to drill it though. The company that bought them out only want their refinery assets so they sold off all the exploration properties. The company that bought the exploration properties wanted nothing to do with Egypt so they packaged it with 50% of south alamein and sold it to TGL for cheap.

This could be a game changer for the company, and that's based on only 1 well on the concession (there could be others). This could more than double the company if successful.

2. EGPC bid results - the bid results should be announced in the next few weeks. TGL bid on 4 properties, 3 of which are located near their current powerhouse of West Gharib/West Bakr. Good news is that Egypt recently had an offshore natural gas bid round which didn't go over so well, which is bad for Egypt but good for TGL (increases their odds of successful bids).

3. Political environment seems to be settling in Egypt.

4. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been aiding Egypt through the economic turbulence. The IMF is meeting with Egypt's finance minister this week to discuss a 4.8 billion dollar aid package - conditions for it are providing an economic plan for egypt, and crucially important - one condition was that Egypt must make itself favourable to foreign investment. Obviously good news for TGL.

5. Yemen is back online, but who knows for how long, I've basically written those assets off but for the time being they're providing cash flow to TGL.

There's lots more. To be honest their last earnings were a little disappointing. Their accounts receivables is a little worrisome as well, but it's all owed to them by EGPC - and if egypt wants to make itself favourable to foreign investment the last thing they can do is default on payment. They're working with TGL right now to address the AR problem.

All in all I think it's a really exciting little company with a ton of explosive potential. And I'm probably missing a ton of other updates here, but ah well. Another plus is brent prices are quite high right now - all this is just cash in the bank..


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## humble_pie

everything sounds good. You're certainly not a noob, you have talent. Also never mind the accounts are still small, they're being built on a strong foundation.

just one little thing. I'm not sure your ex-rent $400 is enough spending money for Fun. Stuff like girls, nice dinners out occasionally instead of fast food, parties, girls, weekend trips out of town now & then, xmas presents, girls, travel, really expensive leather boots ...

perhaps you could add $100-150 to your spending budget even though it would mean cutting the savings budget by the same amount. Put it down to tuition at the School of Life. The memories you will end up with will be worth far more than the 1200 per annum lost from savings.


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## SkyFall

Wow! I just finished reading your thread...very inspiring! I'm 21 living in Quebec, I'm a little bit like you. I really like what you are doing. Is it crazy the way we view things (in my case) in the financial world, we keep learning stuff just to realize we know so little hheheheh.

I'm trying to learn stuff by myself too, reading, researching, etc... pulling late night reading at financial stuff, learning things...times goes by so fast  I'm starting uni too it's crazy how your story is inspiring me! even tho sometime it's hard because around me people aren't interested in finance...anyways

keep your good job gonna follow your work!


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## cannadian

humble_pie said:


> everything sounds good. You're certainly not a noob, you have talent. Also never mind the accounts are still small, they're being built on a strong foundation.
> 
> just one little thing. I'm not sure your ex-rent $400 is enough spending money for Fun. Stuff like girls, nice dinners out occasionally instead of fast food, parties, girls, weekend trips out of town now & then, xmas presents, girls, travel, really expensive leather boots ...
> 
> perhaps you could add $100-150 to your spending budget even though it would mean cutting the savings budget by the same amount. Put it down to tuition at the School of Life. The memories you will end up with will be worth far more than the 1200 per annum lost from savings.


Thanks humble, that's a good suggestion - and I did cut the savings down slightly, but to be honest I don't really spend that much to have fun anyways. I'm a musician and the funnest thing in the world for me to do is have a few beers and play/write music with my band on weekends, and that costs less than 10 bucks 


SkyFall said:


> Wow! I just finished reading your thread...very inspiring! I'm 21 living in Quebec, I'm a little bit like you. I really like what you are doing. Is it crazy the way we view things (in my case) in the financial world, we keep learning stuff just to realize we know so little hheheheh.
> 
> I'm trying to learn stuff by myself too, reading, researching, etc... pulling late night reading at financial stuff, learning things...times goes by so fast  I'm starting uni too it's crazy how your story is inspiring me! even tho sometime it's hard because around me people aren't interested in finance...anyways
> 
> keep your good job gonna follow your work!


Good stuff sky, it's always refreshing seeing younger people who "get it" financially.. Time is on our side, especially when it comes to compounding gains!


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## cannadian

*Update!!*

Hey everyone, I haven't been posting much, super busy with work and school and I currently have strep throat/just finished midterms hah.

I'm pretty pleased with my developments so far though, I ended up purchasing another 100 ounces of silver for $28.50 (physical) and then sold all of it when silver hit $34.

I made another realization - the interest rates I'm getting on $1000 in an every day savings account (need 5k for a HISA) is 20 cents a month. I feel as though if I keep the rainy day money in my TFSA it will still be accessible to me in an emergency, but I will also be able to deploy it at any time in the market if there's another 08/09 or something of the sort... Basically the opportunity cost of not having immediate access to invest that money is far greater than a measly 20 cents a month.

So I moved almost all the money from my silver sale, as well as cash I had been saving from working so much into my TFSA (I was working 30-35 hours a week for most of sept, but recently cut back to 24 hours as I couldn't really handle that much).

I increased my TFSA contribution room to $18,000 - I'm 2k away from maxing it out, which I should be able to do before Christmas - so I'm pretty stoked about that!

I've made some additions to the portfolio, here's what it currently looks like:

1. TGL - 800 shares - $8.515 per share cost avg (bought 200 more shares at 11.22, it tanked down to 10 shortly after, oh well - I can't time the market, I'm in this for the long haul)
2. PEY - 175 shares - $17.38 per share cost avg
3. BAC - 250 shares - $7.65 per share cost avg
4. FEZ - 65 shares - $27.00 per share cost avg
5. HUZ - 100 shares - $22.30 per share cost avg
6. Cash - $2292

Will soon be increasing the cash position to $4292 (within the next 2 months)...

Total Portfolio Value - $21,885

I basically just added a little bit to my tgl position, added some silver to the portfolio and some cash on hand in case of a big correction.


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## My Own Advisor

@cannadian - good luck! Take some time to check out my site and drop me a line. Starting off investing in your 20s like you are, you definitely have a chance to quit the rat race in <20 years. 

Be mindful of what humble said....life tends to get in the way - which can be a great thing


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## humble_pie

may your tfsa exceed your age in 2012 each:

it looks like that looming 2k contribution is going to clock it, as long as the market holds up.


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## Argonaut

A tip regarding silver. If you intend to trade it in a short period of time, stick to the paper markets. Less commission that way. If you have USD kicking around, the best avenue is with SLV. If not you can use your HUZ, but I'm not a fan of the low volume. Then of course there's options and futures for leverage, but not for the average guy. I would hoard physical metals indefinitely or at least for long periods.


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## cannadian

humble_pie said:


> may your tfsa exceed your age in 2012 each:
> 
> it looks like that looming 2k contribution is going to clock it, as long as the market holds up.


Cheers humble! It dawned on me the other day while riding the bus that despite the fact that the amount of money in the account is still exceedingly small compared to what would be needed to retire, it's starting to approach the size of a down payment - so I'm making some progress at least! It's starting to become a not-so-insignificant amount of money 


My Own Advisor said:


> @cannadian - good luck! Take some time to check out my site and drop me a line. Starting off investing in your 20s like you are, you definitely have a chance to quit the rat race in <20 years.
> 
> Be mindful of what humble said....life tends to get in the way - which can be a great thing


Thanks mate, sleek looking site you got there, you have a new follower 



Argonaut said:


> A tip regarding silver. If you intend to trade it in a short period of time, stick to the paper markets. Less commission that way. If you have USD kicking around, the best avenue is with SLV. If not you can use your HUZ, but I'm not a fan of the low volume. Then of course there's options and futures for leverage, but not for the average guy. I would hoard physical metals indefinitely or at least for long periods.


Hey, I actually didn't pay any commission on the physical silver as I bought at market prices off people instead of dealers and then sold at above market prices. 

I understand that HUZ is lower volume than SLV, but with QE^infinity, and the possibility of the euro area stabilizing (a ton of money fled the euro and went to the usd for safety over the last few years), these 2 scenarios I believe could put substantial pressure on the USD, so I would rather be holding my silver ETF in CAD...

Or do I have the wrong idea here? If the USD drops faster than the CAD, would SLV's gains outpace HUZ's gains proportional to the divergence between the 2 currencies?


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## cannadian

Oh, and what I thought was strep throat... I got the test results back today... Turns out I have the dreaded mono 

I have no idea how I managed to get it, but oh well. At least I get more time to study for this econ midterm haha. The last week was AWFUL, but I'm feeling much better now, though extremely fatigued all the time.


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## Argonaut

Yeah, theoretically HUZ is hedged to Canadian dollars but the ETF has not done a good job at all of tracking. In the last three years it has diverged from SLV to the tune of 34%. Compare this with the perfect lock-step performance of CGL and GLD. That's 34% totally lost in the void for no reason, this is inexcusable. I retract my earlier comment that one should buy SLV if they have $US to spare and HUZ otherwise; HUZ should not be bought under any circumstance. I had not looked at it this closely enough before, as the low volume turned me off right away. 

Horizons really is the back-alley amateur of the ETF world.


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## humble_pie

cannadian said:


> Cheers humble! It dawned on me the other day while riding the bus that despite the fact that the amount of money in the account is still exceedingly small compared to what would be needed to retire, it's starting to approach the size of a down payment - so I'm making some progress at least! It's starting to become a not-so-insignificant amount of money


it's a stunning amount of money. It's not small at all. The most wonderful aspect of it, to my mind, is the fact that a good part of it was earned with your own investing brains & wits & smarts.

turning now to mononucleosis, what bad news. I am so sorry. There will come a time - hopefully before Xmas - when all your energy will return & you'll have difficulty remembering the days of fatigue that mono delivered. But it must be difficult right now, in your very 1st year at university. I hope you will put your health & your studies first. Hoping also that you are getting good medical care.


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## My Own Advisor

@cannadian - thanks for following!


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## cannadian

humble_pie said:


> may your tfsa exceed your age in 2012 each:
> 
> it looks like that looming 2k contribution is going to clock it, as long as the market holds up.


The TFSA now exceeds my age 

I posted a little update on how things are going on my blog if anybody wants to check it out. I think other than doing book reviews I'm going to disappear for a little while, work hard, and pray that there's a big correction in the market so I can scoop up a bunch of companies that I've been eyeing. I don't want to post their names just yet because some of them have market caps below $50M and next to no liquidity.

Hopefully the next time I post the portfolio will be over $25,000 and I will have some new additions to it. I am also going to start studying "Equity Asset Valuation" in the next 10 days (or whenever it arrives), pretty excited to enhance my technical knowledge for fundamental analysis..


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## cannadian

Hey everyone, added a new beauty to the portfolio and bought more TGL since its taken a dip due to political instability despite having won 4 fantastic blocks in the recent bid round. I'll be doing an update on TGL pretty soon, but I like the company more than ever and I'm very bullish on Egypt (I'll explain why in the update).

So I exited silver and Europe. I'm still bullish on both, particularly Europe - but I find that these 2 picks are more speculative/intuitive rather than based on solid analysis. Besides, I think the downside risk in the company I picked up is less, and the upside more.

The new entry is Automodular Corporation, I bought 2,425 shares @ $2 each. I wrote up the analysis here: http://ratracefreedom.net/2012/12/11/automodular-corporation/

The portfolio is now worth about $22,500, maybe a little more, and I've almost added the full $20,000 into it. It looks like this:

TGL - 1112 shares
AM - 2,425 shares
PEY - 175 shares
BAC - 250 shares


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## cannadian

Hey guys it's been a while since I updated this so here it is:

The new kid to my portfolio is AAPL - I wrote the thesis up and put it here: http://contrarianville.blogspot.ca/

The portfolio looks like this at the moment:

AAPL - 20 shares
TGL - 1000 shares
PEY - 175 shares
BAC - 250 shares

~25k 

I got accepted into Sauder business school so that's pretty exciting! Currently reading through Security Analysis and spending a lot of time analyzing different sectors and industries and companies. I think that you can only quantitatively boil down so much of any company and that the key distinguishing factor between good investors and great investors is a keen insight into and understanding of the qualitative factors of a business, so I'm spending a lot of my time trying to develop my qualitative insight and intuition by reading as much as possible.

I want to start some sort of bi-weekly letter or podcast or something this summer too!


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## Dmoney

cannadian said:


> I got accepted into Sauder business school so that's pretty exciting!


Congrats. Undergrad correct?

Keep up the learning, use every opportunity while in school, keep up the investing.
Looks like you're well on the right track.


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## cannadian

Dmoney said:


> Congrats. Undergrad correct?
> 
> Keep up the learning, use every opportunity while in school, keep up the investing.
> Looks like you're well on the right track.


Thanks!

Yeah I got accepted into second year commerce as a transfer student, so stoked 

I'm planning on starting up a value investing club to meet other like-minded investors (network too etc) and trying my best to get into the portfolio management program (get to manage ~5 million dollars and get to meet mentors and internship experiences and the like)


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## Young&Ambitious

Hi cannadian, there are some Vancourites on the board, let me know if you plan to arrange a meet as I may be interested in going and I know kcowan has previously expressed interest. I need more nerdy investing friends


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