This is a great option if your RRSP contributions are short and you need to add some RRSPs to lower your taxable income. Personally, it adds some extra flexibly that I can use the extra contributions for either the 2007 or 2008 tax year.

Plus, 2007 was the year I made my first time home buyers purchase using my RRSPs to fund the purchase. The great thing about doing that is you can make up to $20,000 to a first time home purchase from your saved up RRSPs. However, the catch is I have to replace the RRSP money back into my savings. So I have 15 years to pay back my home purchase deposit and the extra contributions should give me some extra flexibility when I start re-filling my savings.

Oh, by the way, February 10 was my 31st birthday. My Facebook page was loaded with over 30 birthday greetings. Good to know that I am loved.

January’s Progress:

AdSense: $6.59
Kontera: $0.92

Not bad, every bit counts. I hope to do a couple of things that might bring in some extra revenue, but that will be directly related to how busy work keeps me going. Plus, I hope to get a few more posts done this month than I did in January.

As some of you might know I created a very basic web page this month, it is Sonic Word of the day Resource. It is a web page built to function in relation to a local radio station promotion. It allows my friend and I to track key words on specific days to earn points that can be used for prizes. What is really cool about it, within 5 days the keywords like “sonic word of the day” was placing the web page higher than the related page from the radio station itself. What a surprise when considering their was only this website linking to it and it had been up for a few short days.

So far the web page has received close to 200 hits in 2 short weeks. I am planning on expanding the functionality of the web page by using Wordpress to apply more functionality and a blog. Plus, I will add more thought to the design. It is kind of ugly right now. Hopefully, it will pan out and I can get more people discovering the site and eventually clicking on the ads. Considering that it is very localized, I don’t expect it to be a big money maker, but it might help create more exposure for My Retirement Project dot com.

Additionally, I have decided that it would be best to lead by example. It is generally good practice to have automatic contributions to your retirement savings on a monthly basis that is automatically deducted before you have a chance to spend the money. So I have decided to give up buying a DVD a month (not to say that I do by a DVD a month, but figuratively speaking of course). Starting February, I am contributing $25 per month of my own money each month to the retirement project investment. I know it isn’t a lot, but every bit helps and I really don’t need to by the newest DVD.

This time around the testing material isn’t an IQ test, it is Trivia from the year 2000 to today. The test is pretty simple and fun to take. I think I could have done better, but they put a 20 second timer on the questions so a couple I answered hasty. Still 46/60 is a respectable score. Here is the break down of my scores:

• Pop Culture: 6/6
• Earth and Beyond: 4/6
• Rich and Infamous: 3/4
• Technobabble: 4/5
• Poli-Sci-Fi: 2/5
• Lightning Round: 5/6
• So Scandalous: 3/5
• World at Large: 5/6
• Body Politik: 5/6
• Say What?: 3/5
• Indulge Me: 6/6

What surprised me is that there was very little Sports Trivia. Which is good because I really suck at sports trivia.

You can try the free quiz yourself at: http://www.cbc.ca/testthenation/

Let me know how you did by commenting below.

The premise for the page is that there is a local radio station running an on going campaign using specific words that lets listeners earn points that can be used for contests and prizes.

My buddy Darryl and I started by emailing each other the secret/blurb words, but we both felt there was a better way. The Sonic Secret Word of the Day Resource page I created is a good first attempt. The static web page uses an embedded Google Calendar to showcase the words on specific days. Using this tool is great because it is simple to update and I can control who enters in the Secret Words that can be used to collect points.

For now, I will see how effective it is and if people are actually using the page. If there is a certain level of success, I might take this a step further and add extra functionality on as needed basis.

Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

So.. Let me get this straight. You are trying to save up a million dollars, yet you buy lotto tickets?

I can totally understand his confusion as to why I would be doing something that is obviously a frivolous thing. Trust me, I know this all to well, since I went into depth about the potential waste of money lotto tickets can be on a persons savings. But, regardless, there is that dream that a lotto ticket just can’t deny.

Imagine winning a couple million dollars on the lotto. The lure is at times irresistible. Especially, when it comes to office pools. I just can’t say no to those. Imagine being the only guy left in the office when everyone else is now enjoying the millions they won. Just would suck going to work.

So yes I admit it, I do purchase a lotto ticket once in a while. It might be a couple dollars a month for that sense of hope and elation that would go along with the dream of winning a large sum of money. But I am still focused on saving towards my retirement. Will I be able to earn $1 million by 2012? Only time will tell, but wouldn’t it be nice to achieve retirement now?

The new job at Norquest has been going really well. I am enjoying the experience of being able to develop full time and my skills are growing every day. The co-workers I am with are fantastic and the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed than when I was working for The Brick. Also, having my own office with a view is a great perk!

So another month and another dollar, lets see what My Retirement Project earned with me doing absolutely nothing:

AdSense: $5.42
Kontera: $0.57
Interest: $47.91

Wow! Almost $60.00! Just shows how handy interest income can become! Over the course of 2007, My Retirement Project earned $1,592.74 towards my goal of retiring early!

The most surprising thing to me was that my feedburner numbers didn’t dip as much as I would have thought. Aswell, the website still has a page rank of 3, I would have thought that would have dripped for sure.

So what is in for the project in 2008? Well, I am going to try to focus more on retirement based entries, less junk entries. I am going for a “Less is More” mindset this year. After all, I am not a professional blogger and this is just a hobby that lets me learn and earn.

Speaking of learning, I will be doing lots of that. The new job is pushing me to new ideas. PLUS, they ordered me the Master collection from Adobe and I will need to learn Premiere and Aftereffects! Yay for me!

Honestly, it is hard to leave a company that you have spent 4 1/2 years with and it is even more hard to leave the people you have gotten to know so well over the years. The group of people I worked with at The Brick Corporate offices were a hard working group that where nice enough to make a $100 contribution to My Retirement Project! Every little bit helps, but more importantly, it is the gesture of the gift. I will miss that group of individuals…

But change is good!

My new job as Multimedia Developer at Norquest will allow me to use my skills I have acquired from school, work and creating My Retirement Project dot com. So with a new challenge in my life that I need to dedicate to, the time I will spend on My Retirement Project will become less. Now this doesn’t mean that I am giving up on my dream of retiring early, it means I am stepping up to my new challenge to become the leader in my career that Norquest has hired me for. If life happens to lead me to my goal of early retirement, then life works in very mysterious ways. Until then, I will continue to add posts and try new methods of earning money online.

November’s Progress:

AdSense: $4.36
Kontera: $1.72
Donations: $101.15 (Big Thanks to Kim!)
Other: $20.00 (Won $20 from a lotto ticket)

Not a bad month considering I only did 2 posts. I will try to be a better blogger this month.

Thanks for the support everyone!

Here is a photo of the wall being torn out and cleaned up:

Once I had removed all the mold, rotten dry wall, and broken tiles I needed to replace the rotten dry wall with mold resistant green board:

With the dry wall in place I plastered the walls together and painted the walls for the glue to have better adhesion.

The new shower is 5 plastic pieces glued on the wall. The edges are sealed with grout and caulking and will ensure that my hard work will last for a long time.

As you can see the shower looks great and with a bit of elbow grease it looks professionally done and should last for a long time.

So how much do you think this cost me? $1000? $800? $500? Nope! I renovated my shower for less than $300. Sure it was a chunk of my time, but I enjoy working with my hands and I learned a lot about laying tile, dry walling and plumbing.

So, what do you think? Did I do a good job?

October Progress:

AdSense: $13.24
Kontera: $1.62
ReviewMe: $5.00
Advertising Sold: $120.00

October turned out to be a more fruitful month than I ever expected. Mostly, because of the advertisement I sold on the First time Home Purchase posting. Yup, that is right, I got paid an impressive $120 to post a paragraph with my posting. Pretty sweet, however it required a bit of back and forth with the guy who purchased the ad space. If you are interested in getting connected with the individual who purchased the space from me, leave a comment in this post and I will get back to you.

Also, I thought WidgetBucks might work out nicely with the $25 sign up bonus, however we all know about the hidden link fiasco and it is unlikely I will be able to make the additional $25 to get paid by this system. As well, I began to investigate Weblo.com and I see there is potential there, but the lack of simplicity makes it a bit of a pain to get it to work and it isn’t clear when the payout will happen.

SO, what is up for November? Well, I have to renovate my bathroom for one and that will take a good chunk of my time. Also, I really want to do some house keeping on My Retirement Project dot com and finally get around to looking at new template options. Also, work is keeping me incredibly busy.

It is good to be busy, it keeps me out of trouble.