Hi there, my name is Jay Harris.  I am a 21 year old guy living in Vancouver, B.C. I’ve been considering organizing my finances for a while now, but while I was a student I never felt that I was making/spending enough money to justify the effort of creating/maintaining a budget. However, having run out of money for school and being forced to find gainful employment – and with the hope that I will be able to save up enough money to return to school and finish my degree – I am today starting down the road of financial accountability, and I would like to invite you all to participate with me.

I will be penning a weekly article here on Four Pillars chronicling my exploration of this scary new world of financial accountability. Seeing as you may choose to read these articles from here on out, there are a few things that you should know.

  1. I’m not writing as an expert; I doubt you will ever see me do an “answer the reader’s questions” article on budgeting here on Four Pillars.
  2. I believe that budgeting my time to be at least equally as important as financial budgeting is, and I will be spending equal amounts of time covering the financial costs of things as well as the time cost/benefits of things.
  3. I am young, and while it is true that sometimes I feel like I have all the answers, this is not one of those times. I would greatly appreciate feedback and advice in the comments section. I am – for all intents and purposes – Four Pillar’s very own sentient budget lab rat with access to the internet. Don’t be afraid to blast me if you think I’m wrong, but please offer a counterpoint when you do so.

Okay, that’s about all I’ve got to say for the moment.  Next week I will take an in-depth look at my financial situation, my immediate and long term goals, as well as what kind of budget system I’m using to reach those goals.

Again, I’m really excited to be doing this, and I hope you all can help me as I try to implement solid budgeting skills that will hopefully stick with me for the rest of my life

I can’t promise to make budgeting sexy, but I will try to make it fun.

Many thanks to Mike for allowing me to have this opportunity; I sincerely hope that I can become an excellent addition to Four Pillars.

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LinkStuff For Sunday, March 7

by Mike on March 7, 2010

One of the scarier parts of being a parent is worrying about safety hazards to your child. Parenting Squad has a list of food choking hazards and surprisingly (to me) is that hotdogs are by far and away the worst for your kid.
Brip Blap had an absolutely brilliant story about a smart couple that got the upper hand in a real estate negotiation by using FaceBook.

Canadian Capitalist discusses the stock option tax break in the recent budget.

Kathryn from Million Dollar Journey says to succeed financially you must know yourself first.

The Financial Bloggers asks what will the Canadian prime interest rate be at the end of 2010?

Thicken My Wallet has some ideas about why some small businesses fail.

Carnivals

Budgets are Sexy!

Festival of Frugality

Money Hackers Carnival

Carnival of Road to Financial Independence

Festival of Frugality

Festival of Stocks

Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Taxes

Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances

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TFSA Rules And Contribution Limits For 2010

by Mike

The tax free savings account (TFSA) has been available to Canadians for over a year now.  One of the benefits of being a year older is that you now have another $5,000 of contribution room available to invest in your TFSA.  If you turn 18 in 2010 then you only have [...]

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One Technique to Improve Learning from Text

by Mr. Cheap

Increasingly, in today’s world, it is necessary to continually learn.  Whether reading books about real estate investing, pouring over a company’s annual report or retraining for a new job (or new position) life-long learning is moving from being an asset to a necessity.
As a long-term student (currently in my 9th years post high school and [...]

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How To Start An Online Business

by Mike

Recently I was discussing with my wife an idea she had for an online business.  One of her hobbies is genealogy, which is basically researching your family tree so she had the idea of offering a genealogy research service for money.  I don’t know if this business idea will ever get going [...]

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Buying An iPhone From Rogers? – Don’t Believe A Word They Say

by Mike

I recently wrote about my experience buying an iPhone from Rogers. To summarize: when I called, I had only planned on trying to get the $35 activation fee waived. I was fairly confident I’d be able to accomplish this since I’d read online that it was fairly common for [...]

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