I heart you guys

The PF community is amazing. Since I started this blog, I’ve felt such a sense of camaraderie with all of you. I appreciate the articles you e-mail to me, the wonderful, thoughtful comments you leave in my blog, and the general sense of togetherness we’ve created in this tiny section of cyberspace. Are you sick of my mush yet? Don’t lie, you love it.

I think what really got me was yesterday, Nancy commented on how she didn’t know I drove a scooter, and asked if I would post about riding a scooter (costs, insurance, gear, money spent, etc) … and before I even got a chance to reply, an anonymous poster wrote a comment directing Nancy to the appropriate entry from last week. You guys sure are swell.

Anyway, Saving Diva and Canadian Retired Guy have both sent me really useful articles over the past couple of weeks, and I feel awful I haven’t had a chance to reply to your e-mails yet, so instead thought I’d thank you here instead. :)

Saving Diva sent me a really interesting article called Soaring Canadian ‘Loonie’ Spurs U.S. Border Shopping. It was about how Canadians are flocking across the border to shop … and why wouldn’t they? With the exchange rate so good right now, and with products much cheaper in the U.S., it seems almost ridiculous to buy in Canada if you can avoid it. I can relate to this article, because I remember there was a time where American stores refused to take my Canadian pennies. And now, they’ll take most of our change up to a quarter. I wonder if there’ll ever come a time where Canadian stores will refuse to take American change!

Canadian Retired Guy sent me a link a while back to an article called Longevity ultimately leads to success. It was really interesting, and basically stated that those people who are always chasing the newest, hottest money-making strategy … they usually end up getting into the game at the wrong time – and they ultimately end up getting burned. We get caught up in the noise of day-to-day market action. I know I’m guilty of that, although I haven’t actually had the guts to invest my money in anything past mutual funds. I’m impatient when it comes to my finances, and that’s a huge problem I have. I want my debt to be gone NOW, my money to grow faster, my dream home to be affordable now … now now now! And I usually have to take a step back and tell myself that I’m 24 years old, and nothing’s going to get handed to me. The only way to get what I want is to work hard.

So I just wanted to say thank you again to all of you! I really appreciate it.