A Conversation With Gail!

I was surfing this morning and I happened to land on a site where I noticed that they were going to have an on-line discussion with Gail Vaz-Oxlade titled "Keeping your head above water in a recession" and they were inviting readers to send in questions for her to answer. Well, all week we have been trying to decide if putting money into RRSP's was a smart idea this year and now here was my chance to get some advice from a real expert! So, I fired off my question to the comments section...

Hi Gail, I listen to your advice all the time and I love your show.

We have about $10,000 in our savings (thanks to you, in part!) and we want to take the most advantageous use of the money. We want to put it into an RRSP and then use the tax refund to pay down on our mortgage. The question that keeps us up at night is, with the financial state of the world right now, is this a good time to be buying into mutual funds? Would we be better off applying all the money to the mortgage this year and waiting to see some recovery before investing in RRSP's next year?

Thanks,

Two hours later I checked back and, wow, they'd added my question and Gail wrote a response!! I was so excited.

Gail Vaz-Oxlade: *, you're asking me if I think market timing is a good idea and my answer is absotively, posolutely NOT!

Since the markets are down, the money you put in now will actually buy you more units of the mutual fund of your choice than it would have a year or two ago. And that's the beauty of a commitment to regular investing. You don't have to worry about timing the market, you can focus on just doing the right thing. Your plan to maximize your RRSP and use your refund to pay down your mortgage is a good one. Go with it. If the markets scare you, consider an index linked GIC that will tie your return to a positive move in the market, but keep your principal safe. Good luck. G

Wow, what a day!!!!!

That's not all. After lots of discussion, we decided to open a TFSA today and I nearly maxed out my contribution room for this year at $4,600.00. Yay, today was a really goooood day! Plus hubby surprised me and he took the day off work,too. Life doesn't get much better than this.

We are also going through with the above mentioned RRSP some time this week and when we get the tax refund it's going straight down on the mortgage. With all the extra money we have put down over the last 2 years it is starting to drop quickly. My side bars are now adjusted to show this.

I bought a Sandisk Fuze MP3 player on the weekend and hubby and I are trying to figure out how to use it. Actually, it's just me who is having problems, as I've mentioned before, I'm not the most techy person around, but I'm learning. I know that it's not an I-Pod but I really counldn't justify the price of the I-Pod over this unit. With taxes in it was just under a $100.00. I'll let you know what I think of this new purchase in the upcoming months.




I've added some more pictures of my baking which I did last week.
Banana muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Yum, and they didn't last long either so I guess there is no taste testing.

Oh, and here's a picture of the delicious Chinese fondue we had this weekend. This is one of our most favorite meals.

I got my paycheck last week with my retro pay and new raise. It works out to be about $120.00 more a month so now I will have to budget as to where this new found money should go.

Today is Ground Hog day and yes, the bugger saw it's shadow, so another 6 weeks of winter for sure. Plus, I just heard on the news that we are supposed to get another storm and 10 centimeters more of snow. Urg. Poor Hubby as he is the one who has to blow out the driveway each morning and night before we can get in or out. (He is my hero).