Why hello there. We’re 12 days into the new year. Happy 2015! We’ve been moving slowly for the last two weeks. I didn’t mean to take time off from the blog; I tried to write a few posts during the holidays, but we just relished in the fun and celebration. In fact, we had to much fun that we needed 12 days to recover!
Aaaand I’m back after having been MIA for a whole month! Where did all the time go?
It’s been one heck of a whirlwind summer: I haven’t been home for more than two weeks at a time since our trip to Brazil back in June. September was a welcome break from the work travel and we spent it offline on a digital detox. Volunteering for the mayoral campaign in Toronto’s municipal election started to kick into high gear as well, taking up remaining free time through to October 27. More on that later.
In the midst of all the chaos, we decided our kitchen is due for some updating, especially since we’re going to stay in our condo for the foreseeable future. Along with that comes some news that will be divulged in due course. With a work trip scheduled again next week and a weeklong trip to pass my birthday will take us through until Christmas and the end of yet another year.
One good thing that has come from all this time away: the abundance of great content from some of my favorite bloggers, obviously much better focused. Here are a few good reads I found as I connected back with the land of the living.
Michael James shines a light on his investing strategy and explains his asset allocation.
Steve the Kapitalust, in an incredible post, spills the beans on the investing styles of 36 popular personal finance bloggers.
We recently used some Aeroplan reward miles for the first time, and my, was it a frustrating experience. Mark, My Own Advisor, breaks down his experience with Aeroplan rewards.
Dan, from our Big Fat Wallet, explains how joint bank accounts can save money.
Stay tuned; I’ll be back before December. Promise.
After a month away from the news, social media and other distractions, trying to catch up with with the land of the living has been rather time consuming. The past couple days have been like an extended episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. I’ve browsed through many of my feeds and found that I haven’t really missed much of consequence, but there was a little something that caught my attention that is cause for some excitement. You may already be in the know, and it’s already been covered in the news, but here’s my take on last week today.
Costco has partnered with Captial One and is accepting MasterCard branded credit cards in Canada!
Costco will be offering the Capital One Platinum MasterCard that will double as a Costco membership card. Only available to members, this card offers 3% cash back on purchases made at restaurants, 2% on gas, and up to 1% on all other purchases. Cardholders will earn
double the rewards for the first three months. The card carries no annual fee and there is no limit on how much cash back you can earn at these rates.
In addition to accepting the Capital One Platinum card, Costco members will be able to use ANY Mastercard in store. This definitely works in our favour. We can finally start earning travel points on our Costco purchases with our Capital One Apire World Travel card!
Costco + Mastercard. Does it work out for you?
It was day 30 of our media fast. Daniel and I were sitting on our living room couch sharing an egg tart. In between every other nibble of egg tart, we’d our sip tea- my usual Harney and Son’s Paris Blend for me, some coconut one from Tealish for him. Daniel was working on a post for HowToSaveMoney while I flipped through the latest book I was reading- the ninth or tenth one since the start of the month. Music from Bahamas, an artist I discovered during our vacation in Prince Edward County, played in the background.
The dessert may change and sometimes we may find ourselves on the bed rather than the couch, but the most evenings during our media fast was similar in nature: quiet, relaxing, productive.
Every time I watch an episode involving real estate purchases in the US on HGTV, I marvel at how affordable some of the properties are. Houses with acreage can be purchased for $250,000- granted none of these homes are not located in large metropolitan areas. Housing prices in Toronto have been steadily increasing with no ceiling in sight. So much so to the point that descriptions of our housing market often include the words over inflated and potential bubble. Is it really that bad?
