This is where your finance takes place

While you are reading those lines, I am writing my Personal Financial Planner (PFP) exam. This is a 10-15 pages case which you have 3h30 to resolve. You basically have to write down observations and recommendations for each of the 7 fields of financial planning. It is quite a challenge but I think I am ready for it. I’ve been studying quite hard during the last week and I feel comfortable now. So while I am writing a dozen pages of text, I’ll leave you with some weekend readings:

Money Ning wrote an interesting article about how much you really make when you save money. While saving money can be quite a pain, don’t forget that when you save a buck, it’s a buck after taxes and other contributions. Therefore, you are saving a lot more than a simple buck

 

Invest in India is telling us why Equity funds hold cash in their portfolio. The purpose of an equity funds is to be heavily invested in stocks so it can provide a good return. While liquidity is technically reducing the expected return of the portfolio, there are some reasons hidden behind fund managers investment strategies.

 

There is a great post about Risk management via insurance written by Brian Poncelet as a guest writer for Million Dollar Journey. While insurance is not my favorite topic, I must admit that there is a great deal of risk that can be reduced with insurance.

 

I found some funny pics from The Digerati Life who shows us what a market crash looks like. I recognized this kind of expression since I experienced the market crash feeling once… what a painful experience!

 

Mr. Cheap from Four Pillars wrote the a small guide about making $30 a month in passive income. With a title like that, it caught my attention right upfront! He also had the great idea of splitting them by poor/rich and no skills/skills categories.

 

The stock you are holding is decreasing its dividend? There are 3 ways to react to a dividend drop. The Dividend Guy is telling you what you could possibly do and why. I would personally re-evaluate the stock and find out why the company decided to decrease its dividend. Sometimes, you are better off sticking to your investment strategy!

 

 

 

 

Carnivals:

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Careers (Yipee! another Edtior’s Pick!)

Festival of Frugality

Carnival of Money Stories

 

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While you are running among all those people, you start thinking about how you got there. You woke up at 5am on a regular basis to run outside regardless if it was raining or not. You endured the pain, you made sacrifices and there you are: you are running your first marathon. It appeared that your workout program was good enough to bring you to the competition level.

You end up first and while you are desperately taking your breath back, while you sweet like a pouring rain, while your heart is tearing down your t-shirt to get out of your body; someone get beside you and say ”You are lucky! You finished first!”.

Lucky? Yeah, LUCKY. I am sure that many of you hear that remark at least once in your life. It usually happens more when people think that you are doing well on the financial plan. “You were lucky to get that job” or “you were lucky since your parent backed you up during college” or even “you are lucky to have all of this, most people work hard their whole life and don’t have what it”. Lucky… really?

I personally think that there is no such thing as luck in life. Off course there are opportunities and you can benefit a great deal from them. However, opportunities are offered to everybody. It’s more a matter of recognizing them and benefit from them.

Some people will walk on their side of the sidewalk without even looking what is going on on the other side of the street. They work hard and they are honest, but they are walking with blindfold eyes. Those people use the word lucky a little to much.

While I am very far away from being rich, I think I am having a good start on the financial plan considering my age what I have accumulated so far. Some people have the guts to tell me I am lucky and that really frustrates me.

There is no such thing as working hard day after day, making sacrifices and being told that all that you have is not related to your efforts but you owe a big one to lady luck!

When I see a successful person, regardless in which field, I am not telling myself “oh boy, this one is lucky to be so good at what he does” but I am asking “I really wonder how he made it that far”.

Sorry for the rant of the day, but I really needed to write it down so I can feel better I don’t think there is a magic secret for success. In fact it is quite simple. Make a plan, work hard, don’t loose your objective and wish the best for you and for everybody around you. With this kind of attitude, you won’t need luck anyway

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In exactly one week, I’ll be writing my PFP exam and finally get over it. Once this exam is over, I’ll be able to concentrate on my MBA and obviously my alternative income project. My wife just stopped receiving her maternity leaves pension and she is only starting to work in August. Let say that extra income would be more than welcome

I found a great read from Brip Blap. He explained how he suffered his way up to a 6 figures income. In his post, he describes the 8 steps to make it happens. Are you ready to make sacrifices?

 

Canadian Capitalist comes back with another vengeance against the Smith Manoeuvre. He is wondering who are the real beneficiaries from the Smith Manoeuvre. While his analysis is correct in a sense that both advisors and banks are making money out of this strategy, I still believe that the individual setting up the whole process is making money as well. Will you stop putting gas in your car because somebody else is making money of your back?

 

She Wants More Money! Find out about Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s latest idea of finding ways to spend more and more money along with ways to create that extra cash flow. Is she going to survive this 30 days experience?

 

The Digerati Life talked about one of our biggest mistake as parents : she listed 5 reasons why we spoil our kids. She also find some crazy ideas if you still have money left to spoil them

 

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance (I got selected as editor’s pick! yipee!)

Carnival of Financial Planning

The Festival of Stocks

The Festival of Frugality

Money Hack Carnival

 

 

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