I've written before about my decision to move my Emergency Fund to HSBC Direct. Their rates have been quite competitive in the past, and they have very flexible access methods, including bank-to-bank transfers, ABM withdrawals and online bill payment. Granted, their rates have been slipping lately, but they still offer a very convenient place for your savings to keep up with inflation.
Well, I have received two e-mails in the past week, drawing my attention to a promotion going on at HSBC. The first message (to my personal address) was from HSBC proper, telling me to "tune in on February 4" for an exciting interest rate promotion. The second (to this blog's address) seems to be from their PR firm, inviting me personally to check out the rate. The second, more spammy e-mail kind of irks me, but I already deal with HSBC, and I've been happy with my experience, so OK, I'll bite.
Here's the deal: any new deposits into an HSBC Direct savings account between now and May 2 will be subject to a 4.75% APR until May 2. Whether you already have an HSBC account or not, any net-new money you deposit will earn 4.75% interest. This interest is compounded daily and paid monthly, just like the regular interest (currently at 3.70%). You don't need any promo codes or anything; this automatically applies to any new deposits.
If you're interested, then you should open an account or transfer your balance now, so that you can start earning the higher rate as soon as possible. The account opening process at HSBC can be a bit slow, but the account is easy and convenient once you've jumped through the appropriate hoops.
Remember that the promotional rate expires at the beginning of May, so if you're a rate chaser, plan to look for greener pastures at that point.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Weighing in
One of my goals for 2008 is to lose 25 pounds. I put this out there as what I thought would be a realistic, yet significant, level of weight loss for the year. Since setting that goal, I've been doing some thinking about exactly how to go about this.
Obviously, the first step in achieving (and tracking) my weight loss is to determine where I'm starting from. So, this morning, I approached my old nemesis, the bathroom scale. I know these aren't exactly known for their accuracy, but as long as I use the same scale to track myself over time, I should at least know I'm going in the right direction.
The result: 212lbs. At a height of 6'1", this gives me a BMI of 28.0, which puts me in the "overweight" camp. So, based on my 25-pound goal for the year, I'm shooting for 187lbs by December 31, which will give me a BMI of 24.7, putting me smack in the "normal weight" range.
25 pounds was just a good-sounding number I kind of pulled out of the air, but it turns out it's actually a great goal.
Who knew?
Obviously, the first step in achieving (and tracking) my weight loss is to determine where I'm starting from. So, this morning, I approached my old nemesis, the bathroom scale. I know these aren't exactly known for their accuracy, but as long as I use the same scale to track myself over time, I should at least know I'm going in the right direction.
The result: 212lbs. At a height of 6'1", this gives me a BMI of 28.0, which puts me in the "overweight" camp. So, based on my 25-pound goal for the year, I'm shooting for 187lbs by December 31, which will give me a BMI of 24.7, putting me smack in the "normal weight" range.
25 pounds was just a good-sounding number I kind of pulled out of the air, but it turns out it's actually a great goal.
Who knew?
Monday, February 4, 2008
Costco carnage
Last week, the Loonie household ran out of several household staples simultaneously. We suddenly found ourselves with no sandwich bags, coffee filters, facial tissues, or toothpaste. So yesterday morning, with a short list in hand, we braved the crowds at Costco to do some bulk buying.
As always happens when we go to Costco, several "extra" items somehow found their way into our cart. We always find ourselves drawn in by the fantastic price of their salmon filets ($20 for ten servings' worth), and their pharmacy has a great discount on our allergy medicine.
Overall, our bill came to $172.71, which, although money well spent, kind of takes a bite out of our grocery budget. I think I need to take Jaimie's advice to think long-term about my grocery spending.
When I put $172.71 in terms of getting a few months' worth of staples, I feel good about planning ahead and buying in bulk.
When I put it in terms of riding out the days until Thursday's paycheque... ouch.
Perhaps my Freedom Account should acquire a "bulk" category...
As always happens when we go to Costco, several "extra" items somehow found their way into our cart. We always find ourselves drawn in by the fantastic price of their salmon filets ($20 for ten servings' worth), and their pharmacy has a great discount on our allergy medicine.
Overall, our bill came to $172.71, which, although money well spent, kind of takes a bite out of our grocery budget. I think I need to take Jaimie's advice to think long-term about my grocery spending.
When I put $172.71 in terms of getting a few months' worth of staples, I feel good about planning ahead and buying in bulk.
When I put it in terms of riding out the days until Thursday's paycheque... ouch.
Perhaps my Freedom Account should acquire a "bulk" category...
Fitness on the brain
JD at Get Rich Slowly has a great post on the shady marketing practices of athletic clubs. This post resonated with me, as Ms. Loonie and I recently checked out a local gym based on a promotional flyer we had received. The flyer basically claimed to offer "$15 per month" to the first 50 new customers, but when we went over the details after taking a tour of the club (which was, admittedly, a very nice facility), we found out that only the $15 applies only to the first two months, after which you are subject to their regular rates. The cheapest option was for us to use the corporate discounts available to our respective employers, and even that would come out to more than $50 per month per person.
Needless to say, we left without signing anything. There just isn't $100 extra in the budget at this point, especially when we already have some basic fitness facilities available to us through our condo.
We've since looked at the flyer that initially piqued our curiosity, and there is some minuscule type that lays out the "first two months" terms, but the advertising still seems quite disingenuous.
We were probably hopelessly naïve to expect a gym membership for $15 per month, but those were the only terms under which we were ready to commit to an ongoing membership. At the very least, we want to make sure that we're able to commit to using our current facilities before making a significant financial commitment.
Needless to say, we left without signing anything. There just isn't $100 extra in the budget at this point, especially when we already have some basic fitness facilities available to us through our condo.
We've since looked at the flyer that initially piqued our curiosity, and there is some minuscule type that lays out the "first two months" terms, but the advertising still seems quite disingenuous.
We were probably hopelessly naïve to expect a gym membership for $15 per month, but those were the only terms under which we were ready to commit to an ongoing membership. At the very least, we want to make sure that we're able to commit to using our current facilities before making a significant financial commitment.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Credit where credit is due
Looking at my January progress, I just realized that my $510.08 in revolving debt reduction is actually a little more impressive than I thought. The reason for this: I incurred a $148 balance transfer fee from MBNA this month, so I've actually made $658.08 in payments against my debt.
$510 isn't a huge amount, but it's certainly in line with my rate of debt reduction over the past several months. If nothing else, it's nice to know that the 0% balance transfer is "bought and paid for", as the transfer fee is already built into my revolving debt. Any progress made from here on out will only be encumbered by the accrued interest on my remaining line of credit balance.
That's good to know.
$510 isn't a huge amount, but it's certainly in line with my rate of debt reduction over the past several months. If nothing else, it's nice to know that the 0% balance transfer is "bought and paid for", as the transfer fee is already built into my revolving debt. Any progress made from here on out will only be encumbered by the accrued interest on my remaining line of credit balance.
That's good to know.
Goals for February 2008
On the first business day of every month, I post my update for the previous month's progress, and set goals for the month to come.
Here are my goals for February:
Here are my goals for February:
- Reduce my revolving debt to $22,300 (currently at $22,887.63) - This is a bit of a stretch, so let's see if I can make it happen.
- Grow my Emergency Fund to $1,250 (currently at $1,229.59) - All I'm looking for here is to keep up my bi-weekly $10 contributions.
- Obtain copies of my credit report from each of the three Canadian reporting agencies - Pretty straightforward. I identified one inaccuracy yesterday, so it's about time I did a full check of my credit history.
- Set up an automatic monthly charitable donation - I already contribute $45 out of every paycheque to medical charities, so to get me toward my $2,000 goal for the year, I'd like to contribute to the arts, among other causes.
- Walk to and from work every day, and work out at least three times a week - This is pretty self-explanatory; I want to blow my 25-pound weight loss goal out of the water this year.
- Blog 30 times in February - Keep up the one-per-day average, with a bonus.
- Finish my review of Getting Things Done - Apologies to anyone who's already tired of this one; I'm not ready to give up yet.
January update
Welcome to February. Here in Toronto, at least, we're celebrating the new month with a full day of slippery, blowing snow. Most schools are closed, and the roads are far less busy than usual. Look forward to a winter wonderland for the next few days.
Let's start off with how I did with my January goals:
Assets:
Online Savings - $1,751.04
Self-Directed RSP - $37,193.41
Employer Group RSP - $8,992.44
Debts:
Credit Cards - $18,322.33
Line of Credit - $4,565.30
Student Loans - $29,557.08
Net Investable Assets: ($4,507.82)
Net Liquid Assets: ($50,693.67)
My liquid savings dropped a bit, due to some new-year subscription fees and car maintenance, all of which were "in-budget", and managed through my Freedom Account. The biggest change this month is my retirement savings, which jumped by $4,192.18 since December 31. Don't mistake this for any kind of market wizardry on my part; this is the net change after pumping $6,418.94 into my retirement accounts, mostly due to a $6,000 year-end bonus that I diverted directly into my RRSP. This really illustrates the dismal month we had in the markets, which eroded over $2,200 in forward progress in my retirement savings.
The other big change this month is that my debts moved around quite a bit, with a re-distribution of my line of credit onto a 0% MBNA card for 15 months. Overall, my net investable and net liquid assets increased by $4,993.27 and $801.09, respectively. My NetworthIQ profile has also been updated (including loose cash, home, car and mortgage).
Let's start off with how I did with my January goals:
- Reduce my revolving debt to $22,900 - Nailed it, with $22,887.63 in revolving debt (including accrued interest). I started the year without a financial hangover from the holidays, and this helped me come out swinging with my debt reduction for 2008. Let's keep this up.
- Grow my Emergency Fund to $1,220 - I met this goal even before the end of the month. Once interest had posted to all my accounts, my Emergency Fund stood at $1,229.59. It wasn't a particularly ambitious goal, but I reached it nonetheless.
- Blog 31 times in January - Yesterday's flurry of posts put me over the top. I ended up with 32 posts for the month.
- Finish my review of Getting Things Done - Less rosy here. I did manage to squeak a tiny bit of progress under the wire with last night's review of chapter 3, but I didn't even come close to finishing my review of the book (for those paying attention, there are 11 chapters left). I don't know why this one is causing me so much grief. It's probably the topic I feel least confident writing about, and that may be getting in my way a bit, but ultimately I think I just haven't been setting much of a framework to get this review written.
Assets:
Online Savings - $1,751.04
Self-Directed RSP - $37,193.41
Employer Group RSP - $8,992.44
Debts:
Credit Cards - $18,322.33
Line of Credit - $4,565.30
Student Loans - $29,557.08
Net Investable Assets: ($4,507.82)
Net Liquid Assets: ($50,693.67)
My liquid savings dropped a bit, due to some new-year subscription fees and car maintenance, all of which were "in-budget", and managed through my Freedom Account. The biggest change this month is my retirement savings, which jumped by $4,192.18 since December 31. Don't mistake this for any kind of market wizardry on my part; this is the net change after pumping $6,418.94 into my retirement accounts, mostly due to a $6,000 year-end bonus that I diverted directly into my RRSP. This really illustrates the dismal month we had in the markets, which eroded over $2,200 in forward progress in my retirement savings.
The other big change this month is that my debts moved around quite a bit, with a re-distribution of my line of credit onto a 0% MBNA card for 15 months. Overall, my net investable and net liquid assets increased by $4,993.27 and $801.09, respectively. My NetworthIQ profile has also been updated (including loose cash, home, car and mortgage).
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