It’s hard to believe that we’ve been writing about personal finance and investing here at Boomer & Echo for six years! Thanks to all of our subscribers and readers for following along on this journey. This week we reached an incredible milestone – 4 million page views all time!
Despite all the success we’ve enjoyed with our blog, web traffic hasn’t always been consistent. We count on you – our regular readers – to visit and read our articles three or four times a week. It’s a lot to ask, so we appreciate you coming back and reading what we have to say week in and week out.
But the ultimate driver of web traffic comes from Google search. It’s true that if your content doesn’t appear on the first page of Google’s search results, it might as well be on the 299th page. Your blog won’t attract new readers.
We found the most success with Google back in 2012, but then the search giant made some changes to its algorithm and a lot of our articles that used to rank at the top of the search results suddenly disappeared. Search traffic dropped by 80-90%, which was pretty depressing.
Related: How I turned a blog into a profitable online business
We kept going, thinking if we just continued to deliver interesting and useful content that eventually traffic would come back. Well, it seems that effort has finally paid off.
I noticed an uptick in blog visits this January, a trend that continued for the rest of the year. In July, a traditionally slow period for web traffic, we saw our highest visits and page views of all time!
Getting more traffic is not the be-all and end-all for this blog, but it is motivating and encouraging to see a growing audience of readers. So thanks to all of you who read, share, and forward our content on to your friends and family. We appreciate your support!
This Week’s Recap:
Last week I reviewed a new investing book by Spencer Jakab called, Heads I Win, Tails I Win, and promised to give away a copy to one lucky reader. We had 40 entries, and a lot of interesting comments about your bad investing habits. Your randomly selected winner is AndrewGr, who left a comment on July 31 at 6:10 AM. Congratulations, Andrew!
On Monday I updated you on my freedom 45 goal and was pleased to report that our finances are still on track.
On Wednesday Marie asked readers to share their frugal dating stories.
And on Friday I shared how we juggle competing financial priorities and still manage to achieve our goals.
Continuing my Air Miles media junket (I’ve been interviewed on 10 CBC radio shows since the beginning of July), I was interviewed via Skype for this consumer story on Global BC about how frustrated Air Miles collectors are struggling to redeem their miles.
Weekend Reading:
Let’s start with some other personal finance bloggers who’ve recently hit milestones of their own.
First up, happy blog anniversary to Des Odjick at Half Banked. This blog has become one of my favourite reads this year.
Jordann Brown has been busy saving for a house downpayment and finally took the plunge, buying a 1,000 square foot home in Atlantic Canada. Congrats!
Alyssa at Mixed Up Money got married, stayed under budget, and is still debt free. An impressive accomplishment!
From a house to a bedroom, here’s what $1,000 a month can rent across Canada.
This writer tells Wealthsimple why she hasn’t given herself a raise since 2009.
Your mortgage, RRSP, or TFSA: What’s the priority?
Why a return to ‘normal’ interest rates would crush Canadians.
How do you keep peace in the family when money comes up in conversation?
A couple put $10,000 in a penny stock in their son’s RESP which is now worth a small fortune. Now he has to spend it. What to do with a $2M RESP?
Why your parents deserve a college graduation present, too.
Why do we so harshly judge the financial choices other people make?:
“You can choose to waste your money now or waste your money later, on educating your children or on traveling the world. One choice isn’t necessarily superior to the other. It just has to be your choice. When others make a different choice, it isn’t wrong when it’s their choice.”
Online entrepreneur Ryan Guina on what financial health means to him.
Sketch Guy Carl Richards on the law of diminishing returns, or learning to stop before ‘just enough’ becomes ‘way too much’.
Should you work part-time in retirement? Jon Chevreau argues that even a low paying job can make a dramatic difference.
A lesson learned from the lure of a high-yield return:
“You can improve investment returns by shopping around, but if an investment offers a rate that seems to be good to be true, it probably is.”
John Heinzl shares a thoughtful post about the seven things he’s learned about investing.
Frugal Trader on why he doesn’t DRIP his leveraged Smith Manoeuvre portfolio.
PWL Capital’s Ben Felix on spotting subtle conflicts of interest with your financial advisor:
“Most financial advisors are oblivious to the fact that high fee products are likely to do more harm than good for their clients. Their heads are full of attractive sales pitches and compensation structures from fund companies instead of the academic evidence that should be driving decisions in the client’s best interest.
Any time a financial advisor mentions DSC, low load, or back end load, it is a red flag. It means that the advisor is going to earn a large commission, and the client is going to be locked in to a high-fee fund for at least three years.”
Great stuff, Ben!
Adam Mayers says that when banks make changes to fee packages it is often hard to compare old with new. They’re counting on your inertia.
Canadian cinemas are finally introducing in-theatre drinking, which will make every move instantly better 🙂
Finally, if you’ve made it this far, wish me a happy 37th birthday! I’m off to find one of those movie theatres, but in the meantime, enjoy this throwback post: 35 thoughts on turning 35.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
If your thirties are (or were) anything like mine, it can be a juggling act to try and balance all of your competing financial goals. We can’t afford to make the maximum contributions to each of our RRSPs, TFSAs, and the kids’ RESPs – let alone top-up our mortgage payments and still have money left over to, you know, live a little.
That means prioritizing our goals; deciding which ones get funded and which ones get left on the cutting room floor. It means striking the right balance between pleasing our present and future selves. It sometimes means spending instead of saving, or vice-versa.
Our competing financial goals
Financially savvy or not, we’re still a single-income household and need to make tough choices when it comes to our budget. We can’t max-out everything, so we pick the savings goals that are most important to us right now. For us that has meant making the maximum contribution to my RRSP and to the kids’ RESPs.
Sure, we could have funded one more savings goal, such as putting $5,000 onto the mortgage, or contributing that amount to one of our TFSAs. But that would have come at the expense of our summer vacation, which we look forward to and enjoy every year. Or at the expense of keeping an emergency fund, which, incidentally, came in handy when our hot-water tank died the night before we left on vacation. There’s a $350 service call I didn’t need, thankyouverymuch.
The good thing is that we continue chipping away at our goals. We don’t have to worry about my RRSP or the kids’ RESPs anymore because those contributions are automatic and have been for years. So what’s next?
We went through our list of big financial priorities and found that most have been taken care of. We already bought a new car and paid it off. Two years ago we developed the basement in our home and will have that loan paid off soon. We (okay, I) loosened up the purse strings and put more money towards our family vacation. Life is good.
Now we find ourselves with an extra $10,000 per year to start funding a new goal or two. Without any major expenses on the horizon it seems like a no-brainer to put the entire amount into our TFSAs. I say TFSA, and not extra mortgage payments, because with mortgage rates in the low 2 percent range I think it’s reasonable to assume we’ll get a better long-term rate of return investing in an ETF like VCN or VXC.
Final thoughts
It’s nice to put some of our major expenses behind us and start knocking off another savings goal. We’ll keep going down this path until we do manage to max out all of our savings opportunities.
That might be years away, but with a good financial plan, open lines of communication between spouses, and the right balance between the present and future, I have no doubt we’ll achieve financial freedom soon.
It can get expensive when you’re dating. Going out to a fancy restaurant, movie and overpriced bars for drinks afterwards can really do a number on your finances if you do it often.
Do you:
- Really need to maintain an image of having plenty of money?
- Always dress to the nines on a date when you normally dress to the sixes?
- Think that women expect to be expensively wined and dined during courtship?
- Think that someone who describes themselves as frugal with a dollar will take you on a sub par date?
Why would you spend a lot of money to impress a brand new acquaintance when you don’t even know if you have any chemistry together? You’re better off going to a more casual place to get to know each other. The type of person who is turned off by this is probably not right for you anyway.
Times have changed, and frugal dating is no longer frowned upon. In fact, it’s a great way to test whether your date would be financially compatible with you. There are plenty of inexpensive and creative dating activities that won’t hurt your wallet.
Remember the point of a date is to get to know someone, or spend time with someone special. And, going into debt to impress a date is not smart or sexy.
Some frugal dating ideas
Treating someone needn’t be expensive. Here are a few activities which are fun and cost less than two movie tickets.
- Rather than going out for dinner and a movie, meet your date at a local coffee shop for a few hours of casual conversation.
- Take advantage of free outdoor music festivals or plays.
- Show off your cooking skills with a romantic dinner – go to the grocery store or farmers’ market together and buy a reasonably priced bottle of wine.
- Instead of a fancy, high-priced restaurant, find a more low-key, smaller place – perhaps serving ethnic cuisine – that can be unique, budget friendly and have good quality food
- Have a picnic at the beach or city park
- Have a date night in. Share your favourite takeout then snuggle on the couch with some popcorn and watch a movie.
- If you’re dying to check out an expensive new restaurant, meet there for a drink and split an appetizer at the bar. The dinner menu is always the priciest. But this way, you’ll get to sample the ambiance and the menu for a fraction of the cost, and if you like it, you can always go back when you want to splurge.
- Go for a hike, run or bike ride.
I dare you to use a coupon on a first date
According to a survey done by Coupon Cabin a couple of years ago, nearly 20% of adults have used a coupon on a first date and received a positive reaction. Of the remaining respondents, 75% said they wouldn’t be offended if their date used a coupon to pay.
Before you whip out a coupon, though, gauge whether your date would be OK with it or not. If you think your date may be into couponing, crack a joke about the great deal you got on Groupon, present the coupon to the server, and carry on with your conversation. However, if you think your date might freak out, you can always sneak the coupon to the server enroute to the washroom.
You may also want to save your coupons until a little later on in the relationship.
Thrifty – not stingy
“I had two spring rolls and you had three, so maybe we should go 60/40 on the bill instead of 50/50.”
In university, I dated a guy who lived in the affluent Calgary community of Elbow Park. Between classes we met for coffee. I was a bit startled when he sat down at the table with two cups of coffee and said, “You owe me 10 cents for your coffee.” A turnoff, or what?
Final thoughts
I’m not saying that you should never splurge, especially when you have something to celebrate, and sometimes you want to get all fancy and dress up. But it is possible to have a good time without spending a lot of money or going into debt.
I was twenty when I got married, so I didn’t have a lot of years of dating experience. Being students we were frugal out of necessity. We got student tickets to concerts, tossed a football or Frisbee around in the park, or brought a cheap bottle of wine to a friend’s party and chipped in for pizza. We got to know each other and had fun as well. And isn’t that the whole point?
Now, tell me your frugal dating stories. What did you do?