It might not be the long weekend for everyone else, but CF and I are taking our long weekend this week as we try to spread out some of our days off in advance of our trip to the Okanagan coming up in August. It’s also CF’s birthday today, so we have lots of fun planned over the next three days. Happy Birthday CF!
Tonight is the first night in the Honda Celebration of Light – a free event on the waterfront of Vancouver. We’re splurging this time and going to see some Shakespeare at Bard on the Beach which includes some reserved seating for the fireworks. Should be a good time!
Photo Credit: Amani Hasan (http://www.flickr.com/photos/amani1306/2357549928/)
Some favorites from around the web this week:
- Earth and Money discuss Seven Reasons for Renting over Buying. For many people I think this is a great option. CF and I plan to own multiple properties (see the Master Plan), but this is a deliberate investment strategy – saving on housing costs to invest in other financial vehicles is just as valid.
- I had an interesting debate with Jeremy at Modest Money and Liquid Independence from Freedom Thirty Five Blog while we were at the Whitecaps game last week. Jeremy expanded on the thought this week as he asks Does Everyone Need An Emergency Fund? I still maintain that having at least a few thousand dollars in cash is a good strategy, however I do agree that keeping vast sums aside for ’emergencies’ would mean missing out on higher yield opportunities.
- Daisy at Add Vodka looks a her costs of transportation and figured out her costs are more than double her portion of the rent! Owning a car (and having payments on that car) is expensive – my solution (which is much more difficult when you don’t live in the middle of a city) was to sell my car, buy shares in a car-coop and take transit whenever possible. I reduced my monthly transportation costs from $400/month to approximately $200 depending how often I book a car.
Thanks to everyone that included The Outlier Model this week:
