the lencurrie life

Weight Loss Tip That Everyone Knows..

lencurrie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:45:19 +0000

It’s no secret to anyone that drinking more water will help you lose weight. Not only does it make you feel better, it also helps in two other key areas for weight loss that I can think of right now.

1. It makes you feel full. Drinking lots of water fills up your stomach so you don’t feel hungry or the urge to eat nearly as much. Very critical.

2. It ‘lubes’ up your system. Well, this sounds kind of gross, but it’s true.. it flushes out your system if you drink enough of it and carrying with it lots of crap that’s been bogging up your body! Awesome!

Now I’m not sure about you, but I’m not one to usually go to the faucet and fill up a glass and just go to town. Most times I have a jug filled with water (still just tap water.. but a lot colder) in the fridge, but at work.. to ’spice’ things up a bit.. I buy those Crystal Light singles and use them in 1 litre of water – it says to add them to 500mL each, but I find they taste just fine with a full 1L. So they taste great.. have no significant calories (yes.. yes… they have Aspartame.. I know..) and I can down a liter of water in the morning and afternoon. Pretty click considering 10 packets generally cost about $2.99 or so.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that

Do You Subscribe To Many Magazines…. Quick Question.. Why?

lencurrie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:08:03 +0000

Well ever since Maxim promised Canadians a years’s subscription and never ponied up.. I’ve been a bitter man. Everything looked legit when I signed up, and I got lots of other people signed up too, but here it is – months and months later.. and no Maxim. GRRR!!!

Personally I don’t have many subscriptions to magazines – I had a subscription to my favorite PC magazine called “Maximum PC” for a VERY long time but recently (as I think I posted) I didn’t renew as I wasn’t able to find one of the school kids that were selling the subscriptions. I would have subscribed to it via the many online subscriptions that are offered – but oddly enough, the school ones were the only ones that offered the subscription without a CD (and reducing the price significantly due to that reason). In any case I looked for awhile online to find the subscription a little cheaper or even on sale, but had no luck.

So I’ve found alternatives.. thank you Internet.

First – there’s a great site called ‘Maggwire’.

Unfortunately guys, Maggwire does not carry Maxim – but it does carry a LOT of magazines (including Maximum PC) which is great – and it’s all the articles that I could ever want to read. It truly is a great site for article reading – but it’s only in Beta so who knows how long it will be around.

Then, there’s the ole illegal torrents.

I didn’t really realize you could get magazines from torrents – but I really should have realized it I guess. The only downfall from this, is that you have to read it on a computer for now. That said.. what’s that new product that just came out? Oh yeah.. an iPad! This would be a great use for these in my opinion among many other things.

For example.. just did a quick Speckly search for Maxim Magazine and pretty sure you can see that you could very easily download the PDF for viewing. Not only are there LOTS of backissues – there seems to be a lot of seeders as well for fast downloading.

I’m going to try to find a way to ‘notify’ myself once a new magazine comes out that I want to read.. or perhaps have them automatically downloaded.. wow that’d be cool. I could just load up my recently purchased Kingston 16GB DataTraveler 102 USB Flash Drive (on sale at buy.com now for $33 USD), and take it where ever I go!

The only problem with the pdf’s like I say is having to read them on a computer which I’m not a fan of – if anyone out there has a better suggestion.. I’m all ears!

Start Saving Money Now! I Will Teach You How (Part 1)

lencurrie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:16:57 +0000

Let's get this party started.

On my blog here, I do pretty much what blog writers are told not to do. Instead of focusing on one specific topic or trend or idea, I write on every different topic that comes across my mind or that I find interesting. It’s my blog, and I’m allowed to do that It may not be the path to becoming the biggest money-making blog in the world, but I don’t care. It’s mine, and I’ll write what I want to write about. With that being said, I would like to take the time in this article to show you how easy it is to change your life and start saving for your retirement.. I’ll tell you something else too.. if you think someone else is going to do a better job of looking after YOU.. well, you’re in for an aweful big surprise.

I’m going to use Questrade for my example here, mainly due to the fact that it’s the one that I use.. it’s got all kinds of great support and service, and it’s cheap to make trades. I highly suggest it – but if you have another broker that you’d rather – go nuts, it just won’t apply to this article. Questrade is also one of the only online discount brokers that will refund you the trailer fees if you currently have mutual funds held with another broker – trailer fees are the fees which come off of your returns each and every year (around 1% generally) which go to the people that you bought them off of. A good article on this (Sept. 2009) is located here.

Another disclaimer I’ll make is that I’m not going to tell you what to buy or give you stock tips – you have to make that decision for yourself. I will however, show you the benefits of dividend paying stocks, the biggest picture, dollar cost averaging, etc. My goal in this series of articles is to get people informed about their choices as a LOT has changed over the last 10-20 years as far as where to put your money and the vehicles for saving.

I will tell you one other thing before you get going (and thank you for reading this far) – and that is this.. This is going to be one of the most rewarding things you ever do for yourself – and it is extremely EASY!

First things first!

Open an account with Questrade. Obviously in Canada we have all kinds of different types of accounts you can open up with the fairly recent TFSA, RRSP, Margin, etc, accounts.. what we would like to do – is open up an RRSP account. Obviously there will be different opinions on which you should open.. but I recommend the RRSP.. after all, we’re saving for retirement – and this will allow you to contribute money regularly, make it difficult (and stupid) to withdrawal – and you get a nice refund (hopefully) during tax season.

It’s free – it’s easy. Let’s go through it together which will conclude this Section.

Step 1. Go to Questrade
Step 2. Click on “Open an Account”
Step 3. Choose Registered Accounts (2nd column)
Step 4. Choose Self-Directed RRSP
Step 5. Choose Trade Currency for your Default Currency
Step 6. Choose ‘Stock, Options and Gold’ as what you’d like to trade
Step 7. Fill in all the rest of your personal information
Step 8. In the promo field – you may as well say you heard about Questrade through me – Referral – Another Questrade Client

So the application may take about 10-20 minutes to complete. But after it is complete, you will have a new account which you can start adding money to.. and this, my friends is the first step in saving for your retirement. Stop putting it off… do it now!

Let me know via the comments if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Tax Refund – What to do with it?

lencurrie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:24:43 +0000

If you’re one of the lucky people whom end up getting a tax refund year after year, I’ve a question for you.. what do you do with it?

I filed my taxes last week via Netfile, and generally the turnaround for the cheque to come in the mail is around 2 weeks (if I remember well). Originally, and up until today.. I was thinking that the best way thing to do would be to put it on my line of credit, now.. I’m not so sure.

It’s a sizable amount which would definitely put a dent in my line of credit – but I have to think longer term here, and I have to think realistically. You see, I’m really good at paying off my line of credit lately when I get a chance. Every spare few dollars I have is going on there, I’m living fairly frugally in hopes that I’ll get it paid off sooner than later. That said.. the whole point of the Smith Maneuver is to pay off the mortgage with the tax refunds , as well as build up a portfolio of equities and investments in order to have a great head start when it’s time to retire. So now I’m stuck.

One one hand, I think the sooner that I get the LOC paid off the more I’ll be able to put down on the mortgage and get it paid off faster – on the other hand, I’m thinking that as soon as I DO get the LOC paid off, I’ll likely end up driving it up a bit again taking a trip or something and being back at square one.. but will I do that after having paid all of that debt off?

I think I’m going to need some assistance in this decision – hopefully I get some quality comments to aid in my decision as I search the net for answers.

Pay down debt vs Pay down mortgage… which to choose?

My favorite Twitter and Facebook reactions to the HUGE Canada win!!

lencurrie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:18:22 +0000

Had to post some of these.. they’re hilarious!!

Mike Comrie & Hilary Duff engaged – [Photos] BEWARE

lencurrie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:05:43 +0000

Yeah.. so it’s not news that they’re going out.. but during a recent vacation in Hawaii – Comrie pops the question and from the looks of things.. she said yes.

There’s pictures of both of them looking pretty darn happy…

Will you.....

Obviously shocked (way to go Comrie!)

Happy Hilary.. HUGE ROCK! (Cost nearly $1 million)

30 seconds later, she must have dropped her ring..

Paparazzi are everywhere...

I think if Comrie ever comes to PEI, I better get some better life insurance.

If Anyone Ever Gives You Any Of That ‘USA is Better Than Canada’ BullSh$t..

lencurrie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:28:20 +0000

Take a deep breath.. chill out.. and watch this video, it may be a good idea to have whomever you are arguing with, watch it as well.

In a time when flag waving and patriotism is at its peak with all the Olympic coverage going on.. remember that it’s all in fun, in sport, in game.. and when it comes down to push and shove – we’ve got each others back.

RRSP Deadline is soon, and I’m making some moves.

lencurrie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:22:56 +0000

As the March 1st RRSP contribution deadline approaches, I’ve been relatively busy trying to get things in order.

I must say that Questrade has become a large reason why this is happening. I am re-discovering and really appreciating Questrades’ services lately. Firstly, I realized not that long ago that I can trade mutual funds really easily using Questrade. Second, and probably a bit more important – is that they have what they call ‘the Mutual Fund Maximizer’.

The Mutual Fund Maximizer sounds pretty stupid, but in actuality it can save you a TON of money. How? Read on my friend.. see, when you or I go the bank or a broker to buy mutual funds – you don’t actually think they do it for free do you? I’ll give you an example.. if I were to stroll into my Royal Bank and purchase a mutual fund for my RRSP account in the amount of say about $5000. The mutual fund which I chose has a MER (management expense ratio) of 2%. Part of that 2% (which comes directly from my $5000 investment on a yearly basis) goes right back to the company that holds the fund, manages the fund, and sells the fund.. forever!

This may seem fair to you, but not to me! I can understand why they would get it perhaps when I first bought the fund.. but why say, after 10 years of doing nothing.. are they still getting it?

Questrade does their best by rebating you or giving you the portion that they recieve directly (called trailing fees) into your account. After all, you’re doing all the work – why should they benefit? In most instances, the trailing fees are around 1% of the MER, but they have a pretty handy lookup tool where you can find out exactly what it is.

Just for an example – I just purchased $400 worth of RBC Global High Yield Advisor Series today. This fund has a NAV (current price) of $9.25 approximately, which is really irrelevant to me. I’m actually purchasing it by the dollar amount. The MER on this fund is 1.64% which equals to around $6.56 yearly. Ok, this really is a bad example as the amounts are so small, but add a few zeros into that number and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Mutual Fund Maximizer

So if I had purchased this fund through RBC between the fund manager, and the bank – they would receive the $6.56 MER every year for as long as I owned the fund. With the Mutual Fund Maximizer however, I looked up the % I get back using Questrades rebate lookup tool, and it’s 0.720%. Which means I get $2.88 back into my account, which reduces the MER to 0.92%, and I’m only paying $3.68 back to ‘the man’.

This may seem like small potatoes to you, but let’s look at some different numbers.

Say for example I purchased $400 a month for 12 months for 10 years and the fund stays at $9.25. Quick math tells me that equals $48,000. If I were to have simply bought that fund through RBC or a broker – I would have paid $4329.60 to RBC during that time. If I purchased via Questrade the same way – I would only have paid $2428.80. Simply by using Questrade and getting back the trailer fees (which is what they call it) I saved myself $1900.80!!

On another note – I just opened up a TFSA account as well at Questrade. Why? Well.. if I do any regular trading.. why not?? The basic principle is that I can contribute up to $5000 a year and trade to my hearts content.. with no tax implications. If I made $20,000 the first year by getting some crazy options trades to come into my favor.. I can cash that out and pay no taxes on it baby! Sweet!! I also ‘believe’ that since the account was at $20,000 – I can re-contribute that amount as well instead of being held to the $5000 yearly limit. I’m not sure about that however… I can’t see myself going above the $5000 ‘play around amount’ for quite some time.

The way I look at a TFSA is exactly that.. a play around trading account, and I’m not funding it until my line of credit, and all other bills.. are looked after first

Trailers: Recut – these are unreal! Can’t believe I’ve not seen them before

lencurrie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:42:37 +0000

I find myself Internet savvy to say the least, but the fact that I’ve never heard of any of these worries me

The first one here, “The Shining” was uploaded 4 years ago!! And I’m sorry.. I laugh so hard mid-way through.. unreal!

The Shining – Feelgood Movie Of The Year

The Ring – A Love Story

Wedding Crashers – Very Suspenseful

Toy Story – Scary Stuff

Top Gun – Brokeback in the Skies?

The Lord Of The Rings – Sam & Frodo – a forbidden love

<3>Mary Poppins – on of my favorites.. wow

Silence Of The Lambs – Clarice Falls In Love

If you want to see more, just go to Youtube and do a search for ‘recut’.. lots of results.

Great Name for a Site – Great Idea for a Steak – Mom Advice

lencurrie — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:25:01 +0000

Mom’s have great advice, there is no question about that. Sadly as hard as I try to recreate some of Mom’s home cooked recipes in my own kitchen they just don’t turn out the same. Of course, as long as Mom is cooking FOR me every so often, I really don’t feel that bad about it

While I was browsing the net I came across a the site named momadvice.com which I think is pretty self-explanatory in what information it contain, but I thought to myself “I need to read this blog!” hell, there are tons of things that Mom knows how to do well that I have no idea!

Not saying that the following is one of those things, but I would suggest you go take a look at the site or bookmark it when you’re looking to do different things around the house.

Ok, got off topic there.. I guess it’s due to the fact that I’m starving right now and I don’t want to write about Steak.

After I read the article located here, I immediately want to try it. I especially like the part where they called going out to eat on New Years Eve and Valentines Day as ‘Amateur Night’. Heh heh.. I think Liz would get a kick out of that.

They list a great recipe for a total dinner which cost them $30 (including Wine.. of course, that’s in the States, but with my home Wine making, it’s a non-issue). Another great things is that you don’t need to BBQ the steak! Bonus Winter Time!

I’m going to copy the Recipe from their site for easy reading, enjoy.. even if you’re going to need to go on that diet with that wonder-drug phentermine afterwards.

Yes, this DOES look delicious

Steakhouse Steak Marinade (adapted from Recipezaar)

2 steaks (whatever is on sale and looks good)
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or white vinegar
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoon soy sauce
Freshly ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together and place steaks into freezer bag with marinade overnight. This makes enough marinade for two large steaks.

Below is an approximate timetable for how long to cook your steaks for a medium steak. I opt for a little shorter cooking time and prefer my meat to be medium rare. If you are unsure, a meat thermometer is the best gauge for the perfect steak!

Grilling Steak Timetable

Filet: 13-18 minutes
Ribeye, Boneless: 6-8 minutes
Ribeye, Bone-In: 9-12 minutes
T-Bone /Porterhouse: 14-16 minutes
Top Sirloin: 13-16 minutes
Strip, Boneless: 10-12 minutes

Cooking steak, to me, is not easy. I know it is not easy to a lot of other people too because I often get asked how to cook the perfect steak. Use the above timetable for steak as a loose guideline for how long to cook it. The best gauge for cooking will always be the scientific approach… a handy meat thermometer.

(Quick temperature guidelines: Rare is 120 degrees, Medium is 125 degrees, and Medium is 130 degrees)

More important than the degrees though is letting your meat rest. Don’t cut into it to check it when you pull it out of the pan. Give it plenty of time to let everything redistribute itself and then slice into it. That is the real secret to a deliciously juicy steak.

I love steak cooked out on the grill, but refuse to venture out there in the cold. Pictured above is my favorite tool for cooking steak and I got it at Goodwill! It is a cast iron grill pan that had rusted and been poorly cared for. I loved it up and got it in much better condition, and this is my favorite tool for cooking a beautiful steak without getting cold. I found one similar to it on Amazon, should you also be in the market for staying warm, and it costs less than $20!

So simple, so good..

Bella’s Rosemary Red Potatoes (adapted from Allrecipes Dinner Tonight Cookbook)

2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together melted butter and oil; pour into a 9×13? baking dish. Place the potatoes into the dish and stir until coated. Sprinkle with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Stir potatoes to ensure even cooking. Yields four servings.

Great idea - One Veggie, but lots of it!

Pan-Fried Asparagus (adapted from Allrecipes Dinner Tonight Cookbook)

1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound fresh asparagus spears, trimmed

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cook garlic in butter for one minute, but do not brown. Add asparagus and cook for five to ten minutes or until crisp-tender, turning asparagus to ensure even cooking. Yields two servings.

This dinner was served with a loaf of french bread (on sale), festive bakery cupcakes (on sale), and a bottle of red wine (guess what? ON SALE!!)