Happy New Year, A Reflection And A Few Links

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all have a great 2011.

Personal Review

When I look back at 2010, it was a very good year financially for my family – record income, record mortgage payments, record RRSP contributions.  Health-wise, it wasn’t so good.  It seemed like some or all of us were always sick – especially last fall.  My son started junior-kindergarten in September and I would assume that was one of the reasons for the constant colds.  Everyone told me that when the kids go to daycare/school they bring home bugs all the time – I swore that wouldn’t happen to me (like I had a say in it), but sure enough – it happened.

So above all else, I’m hoping for a healthier 2011.

Blog Review

This year saw some major changes with the blog – Mr. Cheap left the blog which meant the end of an era, since he had been writing here since the fall of 2007.  I also decided to focus on more Canadian financial topics since that’s what I like to write about the most.  This year, I can promise there will be nothing new: no innovations, additions, departures or changes of any kind.  🙂

Updates on my other blogs:

• ABCs of Investing – I decided to mothball this site.  It is still available for search engine visitors, but I won’t be writing new content.  Earlier this year, I had to cut back on my blogging activities and ABC was the victim.

• Blogthority is my “blogging” blog, which I occasionally update.  It has posts mostly related to blogging and self-publishing.

The RESP Book

I published my first book – The RESP Book this year.  It took me a couple of years to finally decide to write a book and I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger.  The book got lots of great reviews and while sales haven’t been Steig Larsson-like, they are enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Thank you for everyone who purchased the book or helped spread the word.  Great thanks to all the bloggers who took the time to read the book and write a review.

A special thanks to the writers and editors at the Globe & Mail, who were very supportive of the RESP Book.  Rob Carrick, Dianne Nice and Chaya Cooperberg all featured articles about the book or used interview material from me.

MoneySense magazine also mentioned the book in a great article by Dan Bortolotti, which was appreciated.

Thanks also to Adam Mayers from MoneyVille who published a very short excerpt from my book which he listed as one of his top articles of 2010.

I’m already working on my next book which might be available in the spring, but more likely in September.  It’s going to be about TFSA accounts.  Can you guess what the title will be?

Ok, enough of the blather…

On with the links!

The CBC published a list of banned words for 2011.  “Epic” is one of them, which I found pretty funny since it is the word most used by lifestyle design bloggers.  Best quote from the article:

“Standards for using ‘epic’ are so low, even ‘awesome’ is embarrassed.” said Mike of Kettering, Ohio

The Prairie Eco-Thrifter (new Canadian green, finance blog) wonders if being Green is futile?  I don’t think so, every little bit counts.  She also explains how to become a compost master.  I need help with composting – after two years, I finally got some dirt from mine – I know I need to do more to make it happen faster.

New York Times had a great article by a victim of the Madoff ponzi scam and what he learned from the experience.

A few more links

• 2011 Tax Brackets: What Will Change and How Should We Plan for It?
• Average amount of time to find a job? 211 Days!
• 5 Smart End-of-the-Year Money Moves
• Dividend Mutual Funds
• How to Overcome a Personal Debt Crisis — You’re out of money and you’ve got bills to pay. You’re in a personal debt crisis and it isn’t pretty. Here are 5 basic steps to help you overcome a debt crisis.
• Give The Gift Of Stock – ING and ShareBuilder Want To Help You Achieve Financial Independence Check out ING’s Gift of Stock package and see how you can enter to win one.
• The Importance of Running Financial Battle Drills in Your Family. One thing that is guaranteed is that the unexpected will occur. Be prepared by running financial drills in your household.