Lazy Man and Money announces Two Years of Lazy Man and Money. Within the announcement, he confesses that he’s had thoughts of calling it quits. I think that a lot of consistent bloggers face burnout at one point or another.

The Digerati Life writes about a family friend who purchased an extremely risky $1 million dollar home along the cliff side. Find out what happens to this “investment” through the article “Bad Investment? Losing The Million Dollar House, Literally”

Generation X Finance explains that Spam Sales on the Rise, Common Sense at an All-Time Low. Seems that frugality is back in style in the U.S and one of the things that they’re cutting back on is quality meat!

Sun’s Financial Diary has a guest post that details How to Talk about Money in any Stage in a Relationship. The topic of Financial Infidelity seems to be a popular in the personal finance blogosphere.

Money Smart Life teaches us how to Save Money on Gas By Learning How to Ride the Bus.

Brip Blap explains how to save money on camping with “into the wild…without spending a lot of money.”

My Dollar Plan gives us tips on how to save on a wedding in the article “It’s Wedding Season! Tips to Keep the Costs Down.”

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$25 Amazon/Chapters Gift Card Giveaway

It seems to be a pattern as of late that we start off the weekend with a giveaway. No, it’s not a book this time, but a $25 Amazon or Chapters gift card/certificate.

What is this contest from? Readers who sign up for free online cash back discounts under my affiliate link automatically get put into the draw. Not only do you get to save money on your online purchases, you get the chance for a free gift card. After we get so many sign ups, we randomly pick a winner.

On the same note, Great Canadian Rebates is offering 6% cash back (instead of the regular 4%) on all Chapters purchases until June 1, 2008. Might be a good time to pick up some of those personal finance books you’ve been wanting to read.

Weekend Reading

The Restaurant Blogger has tried an abundance of restaurants located in Toronto but has narrowed down his favorites in his list of Top Toronto Restaurants.

We had the opportunity to guest post on The Financial Blogger about one of my favorite topics, net worth! The guest post was about when I expect to become a millionaire.

Canadian Capitalist describes and explains the Vanguard ETF VEU. I’m showing more interest in ETF’s these days as it’s a great way to diversify at a low cost.

WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo has another movie giveaway, simply leave a comment and you’ll be entered.

Consumerism Commentary has toned down his obsessive money tracking tendencies and explains it in his article “How to Track Your Spending: From Obsession to Reasonability“.

Canadian Dream hosted the 154th Carnival of Personal Finance and did a fine job of it. Tim included our article “Hedge Against Your Bills by Owing the Company“.

Mr. Cheap from Quest for Four Pillars explains How to Become an Expert in Anything.

Pinyo, the blogger behind Moolanomy, has created a website for voting up personal finance articles. Check out the The Official Launch of Personal Finance Buzz.

No Credit Needed writes about losing his personal finance focus, but is now back on track and lists 10 Steps For Getting Back On Track.

Stay tuned, more weekend reading to come!

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It’s the end of month financial checkup! Lets see, where do we start?

On the income front, my wife finally started getting her maternity benefits along with the monthly UCCB payments. Even though the benefits are much less than her regular paycheck, they help take some of the pressure off.

On the expense side of things, we didn’t make any major purchases but made many.. many smaller purchases for the baby. So much so that I am now on a first name basis with the Walmart greeter. … sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name …

Onto the markets, what is going on with the Canadian market? All time high? Wasn’t it just a couple months ago when we were all predicting doom and gloom with pending recession along with sub prime this and that? Has that all gone away? Seems that investors are confident in the Canadian market place, and it shows with the amount of money pouring into stocks like RIM and Oil & Gas Companies.

One more thing, you may notice a large drop in the mortgage balance. After all the talk in the Manulife One thread, it motivated me to take some of my savings ($15k) and dump it onto my mortgage debt. I don’t know why, but having a lot of cash around gives me a sense of security. Sometimes, however, the “feeling” of security isn’t the most efficient way to use the money.

Enough rambling, here are the numbers:

Assets: $574,450 (-1.13%)

• Cash: $4,500 (+0.00%)
• Savings: $26,800 (-27.57%)
• Registered/Retirement Investment Account: $55,200 (+5.14%)
• Pension: $ 22,350 (+0.00%)
• Non-Registered Investment Account: $19,200 (+4.92%)
• Smith Manoeuvre Investment Account: $25,400 (+0.40%)
• Investment Property: $ 124,500 (+0.00%)
• Principle Residence: $275,000 (+0.00%) (purchase price)
• Vehicles: $15,000 (2 vehicles) (-0.00%)

Liabilities: $263,820 (-5.62%)

• Investment Property Mortgage: $93,500 (-0.21%)
• Principle Residence Mortgage (readvanceable): $137,100 (-10.22%)
• HELOC balance: $25,220 (+0.40%)
• Other Liabilities: $8,000 (-0.00%)

Total Net Worth: ~$ 304,130 (+3.12%)

Started 2008 with Net Worth: $279,300

Year to Date Gain/Loss: +8.89%

Interested in seeing how my net worth has progressed up to this point? Check out my history of net worth updates.

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