Another Loonie's worth

In November, I celebrated my 100^th post, with a look back at the various topics I had covered to date on the blog. Well, you're currently reading my 200^th post here at Loonies And Sense. The blog is 277 days old, and my pace has increased from 0.58 posts per day for the first 100, to 0.95 per day for the last 100. I really love maintaining the blog, and it's nice to see this reflected in the numbers.

To celebrate this latest milestone, here are the highlights of posts 101-199:

Canadian Stuff

• Looking into RESPs - I decided to learn more about RESP rules, and determine whether this is a solution that makes sense for me. As far as I'm concerned, RESPs are a great idea, and well worth the associated risks. Proposed legislation would make some significant changes to the tax treatment of RESPs.


• Early RRSP withdrawals - I wrote about the HBP and LLP, two ways to pull money out of your RRSP tax-free before retirement.


• Tax Free Savings Account: a Roth account for Canadians? - With the 2008 federal budget, Canadians may get to see a very interesting savings vehicle starting next year.


• Person-to-person lending: not just for Americans any more... - Canada saw the launch of its first P2P lending community in February. However, before the month was up, the service had been suspended due to regulatory concerns.

Blogging

• The 37^th Carnival of Money Stories - In December, I hosted my first carnival, with 18 submissions.


• Will the six-month milestones never cease?! - The blog turned six months old in December.

Money Mistakes

• 'Tis the season for cash flow slip-ups - In December, while trying to finagle a cash-only Christmas, I made more than my monthly allotment of free withdrawals, incurring a $1.25 fee. Fortunately, I was able to get the fee waived.


• Paying the stupidity tax - By managing my finances "to the penny", I ended up overdrafting my primary chequing account when my renewed auto insurance payment went through for $0.01 more than I was expecting. This cost me an NSF fee, but taught me that I should plan for the unexpected.

Interest Rates

• Moving my Emergency Fund - I decided to move my Emergency Fund to HSBC Direct, because of their various access methods, and their (at the time) competitive rate. Unfortunately, the next day, HSBC reduced their rate. D'oh! HSBC has tried to make up for their dropping rates by offering a limited time rate promotion.


• Playing the 0% balance transfer game - I applied for an MBNA MasterCard with a 0% promotional rate on balance transfers. In January, I transferred $14,800 of my line of credit balance onto the card. This balance will sit at 0% until March 2009, at which point I'll transfer it back onto the line of credit.


• Feeling the Bank of Candada rate cut - The Bank of Canada dropped its rate by 0.25% in January, which lowered the interest on my line of credit, but unfortunately also affected my savings account rates.


• Another rate cut - Tuesday's rate cut of 0.50% marked the largest one-time change to the Bank of Canada rate since 2001. Bank prime followed suit with a 0.50% drop, and online savings account rates have also been dropping.

Important Dates

• The aftermath - My first Christmas since starting the blog ended up being a successful cash-only affair. I certainly used credit cards for my purchases, but I immediately paid off the purchases, generating no new debt from the holidays. Not too shabby...


• December update; 2007 in review - New Year's Day brought my first year-end review here at Loonies And Sense. I also set my first round of annual goals.


• Monday is "Family Day" - Ontario residents celebrated their first Family Day on February 18.


• This month has 29 days - Because of the Leap Year, the RRSP deadline this year was February 29, not the usual March 1.

Cash Flow

• And the lightbulb goes on... - I examined my budget, and discovered a couple of things about where my money actually goes, and a new way to think of my debt reduction.


• Coping with the January pay-cut - I griped a bit about the fact that, if you max out your CPP and EI contributions before the end of the year, they start up again in January. This is a nice problem to have, but it's an essential part of financial planning in the new year, nonetheless.


• Another look at the treadmill - I decided to take another look at the paycheque-to-paycheque cycle, and whether I'm actually starting to step off the treadmill. Turns out I've come a long way.


• Building a chequing cushion - I talked about building up a cushion in my chequing account, to be able to live "one cycle ahead" of my paycheque. Part of the benefit of this is to bring my own cash flow in sync with Ms. Loonie's cash cycle.

That's a lot of different topics. Let's see what the next 100 posts bring.