Now that the holiday banquets are over, you're probably wondering what you should do with all that leftover turkey. The monotony of eating the same turkey sandwich all week is enough to drive anyone to the brink of insanity. So I've scoured the web to find the top 3 quick and delicious recipes to make your leftover turkey go further. It'll be a nice way add some variety to your leftovers that your family will love and help you save lots on your grocery bill.
I just recently learned about something called the "Scanner Price Accuracy Voluntary Code" (SPAVC). That sounds like quite a mouthful, but it can lead to some pretty big savings. The way the SPAVC works is that if an item under $10 is scanned and the price that shows up at the till is not the price that matches the one on the shelf you get the item free! If the item is over $10 than you get $10 off the price of the item.
Some retailers will try to get away with just giving you the lower price of the two (the shelf price or till price), but you should request to have the item free of charge. This worked for me the other day at Valu-mart when I was purchasing some juice. The price on the shelf was $2.99, but when I got to the till it scanned in at $3.99. I asked the cashier about the price discrepancy, she then called a clerk to check the shelf price. I was indeed correct so I got the juice free!
This may not seem like huge savings but it adds up. According to a recent study, approximately 2% of items scanned are mispriced (Marketplace 2009). If you are spending about $500 a month on groceries this can amount to $360 is savings each year. Here is a short list of major stores in Canada that participate in the act:
Shoppers Drug Mart Pharma-save A & P Loblaws Sobeys Metro Costco Home Depot Canadian Tire Toys r Us Wal Mart Giant Tiger Best Buy/Future Shop
Be sure to check out this CBC Marketplace video on the SPAVC:
This may be some radical advice, but I truly believe that your investments (retirement fund, child's education fund, new home account) are best left to the person who cares about them the most. That's you! When we let others handle our investments (i.e. Manulife, Sunlife, Investors Group, etc...) we believe that they know better. How could they not, with all their sophisticated certificates and fancy business cards. Well it is statistical fact that investment advisers on average have underperformed the market indices (Malkiel B., 1973). So why do we constantly fork over our hard earned dollars to somebody in a suit who has convinced us that they know better?
One main reason that we continue to seek out investment adviser services is that we are led to believe that we cannot handle the responsibility ourselves. There is a multi-billion dollar industry built on this mentality. The more complicated they make the investment world seem, the more likely it is we will have to seek their services. A great book written by Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad series, entitled Conspiracy of the Rich talks about how we are deliberately led to believe that we cannot handle our own investments so that the banking industry and other financial institutes can continue to reap large profits. For more information check out: conspiracy-of-rich.html.
When you are looking at investment vehicles be sure to ask about the Management Expense Ratio or MER. The MER is a % annual fee of the capital you invest that goes into the investment adviser's pocket. MER's typically range from 0.5% to 2%. Paying this fee does not garuntee positive growth of your investments. In fact, even if the markets take a tumble and your investments take a loss the investment adviser still gets paid. Although 2% may not seem like a lot of money over the long haul it adds up to big bucks and companies that offer portfolio management services know this.
My suggestion is to seek out the lowest MER's or even better learn how to handle your investments yourself. Low MER's can be found in the form of Index Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). For more information on ETF's traded in Canada visit Claymore investments (http://www.claymoreinvestments.ca/) and iShare (http://www.ishares.com/). These types of investments offer some of the lowest MER's. Over the long term low MER's and funds that mirror the market index will outperform 70% of all actively traded funds (Bogle J., 2007).
Even better is to manage your investments yourself. After all nobody cares more than you do. Another plus is that although you may have a couple losses in your investment career you can use those losses to build on your investment knowledge and develop your own investment style. If you pay someone else to do it, they can lose your whole nest egg and what you're left with is an empty pocket and no new investment knowledge to help you get out of the hole. The only thing you may gain from that experience is not to trust investment advisers.
Investing is risky business. As you increase your investment knowledge and gain valuable experience the risk levels will decrease. One key to unlimited wealth and prosperity is literacy and a local library card (free-books-magazines-dvds-and-music-cds.html). There have been a plethora of literature about how to build and keep your wealth. That being said, it's important to focus on the best books, because a lot of rubbish has been published on the subject. I've included a short of good reads I've come across at the end of this article
Knowledge is the new wealth. You can only attain this knowledge through actively managing your own investments, not by paying someone else to do it. Vultures are waiting around every corner to put their hands in your pocket. You can handle your own investments and you can develop your own investment style. Why pay others to gain valuable investment experience and play roulette with your nest egg?
Here is a short clip about ETF's:
Great Personal Finance and Investing Books Worth Reading
Bogle J.C. 2007. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Malkiel B.G. 1973. Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y.
What's better than waking up to a free cup of coffee? There ain't nothing better.
Some McDonalds will give you any size coffee. You'll be saving about $1.50 a coffee. We'll all be getting the jitters from caffeine overload over the next two weeks. Be sure to stop by a McDonalds on your way to work or school! You have two weeks to take advantage of this incredible promotional offer.
If you only drink Tim Horton's coffee be sure to check out this article:
There have been a lot of personal finance articles here at Cash Saving Tips over the past couple of months. A lot of basic concepts about personal finance have been covered such as:
1) Paying off debt and the horrors of credit card interest
This brings us to the important topic of investing. There are numerous investment vehicles that exist, so it can be very difficult to know what to pick. Choosing the best investment option for you will depend on your risk tolerance and the return you expect on your investment. This article is about investment strategies in the stock market.
The stock market is inherently a very volatile investment arena. Prices can fluctuate wildly in a span of one trading day. Trying to spot trends in price volatility is the basis of what is known as technical analysis. Technical analysis attempts to spot patterns in price volatility and tries to time the buy and sell of a particular stock (which can be extremely risky). An opposing school of thought is fundamental analysis. This is where the investor rigorously researches the financial statements of a company before making an investment decision. This is the type of investing Warren Buffett practices (in conjunction with technical analysis to spot bargains).
Why should we care about how this Warren Buffett character invests? The reason is he is the most successful stock market investor of all time and has developed his net worth to over $45 billion US. We could all learn a thing or two from how Mr. Buffett has done this. One explanation is that Warren Buffett is a mathematical genius. When he looks at a companies financial statements, the numbers tell him a story. Just like how reading a book can tell a story, Buffett can piece together a story from pages and pages of financial statements.
You're probably thinking, "that's great that this guy can do this, but how does this help my investment portfolio?" Well, we need to study the methods and principles used in Buffetts investment decisions and implement them in our own investing. Buffett is not a day trader, nor is he a risk taker. He deliberately makes investment decisions after thoroughly doing his homework and we should too. One of the best books I've read about Buffet's investment style is entitled the "The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor" by Robert G. Hagstrom (borrow it from the library today).
If you are thinking of investing in the stock market or already have dabbled in it, I would highly recommend this book. Stocks aren't the only investment vehicle, but are an excellent option if you are tyring to find a very liquid (accessing your money fairly quickly) investment option. The stock market can be a very risky investment environment, however your risk will decrease as you do more research on the topic. Start doing your homework today and invest for tomorrow!
Check out this video about investing like Warren Buffett. Just ignore the endorsement at the end of the video.
