The Weekly Lineup: Post Christmas Edition

First off, although a little late to the party, I wanted to wish everyone the best for the holiday season! I hope all of you enjoyed your Christmas and spending time with family and friends.  This is a wonderful time of year for us to reconnect with family, and spend time with those who are close to us. For me that opportunity will come in January.

I worked on Christmas and Boxing Day. So I was pleased to make the extra over-time in healthcare. As well as the stat income I’ll make on New Year’s day, I couldn’t really think of a better Christmas present! It is far more fun to make money this time of year.

A New Computer

Unfortunately, all of this money is going right back on the  credit card (instead of investing).  When my trusted laptop died this month, I was unfortunately spending money to get a new system – an unexpected Christmas surprise. At least it’s tax-deductible. 😉

While I was certainly considering just switching over to Mac, once I started adding up the costs it was just going to be too prohibitive. As well as buying the Mac itself, I’d also need to purchase Adobe CS (Creative Suite) and Office for Mac. With both a desktop and laptop, as well as software, that was going to run thousands!

In the end I decided to stay with PC as I could simply transfer the existing licenses for my Adobe and Microsoft programs.  Although there are some great systems out there, and boxing day sales were just around the corner, I decided to go with a custom system.

So that leaves the Ninja with a true Ninja machine: 1TB (Terabyte) hard drive, 3.5 GHZ processor, 8GB RAM, full Intel graphics, and a nice clean and crisp 21″ monitor. In fact the colours were so bright and crisp, I initially thought there was something wrong with it – LOL.  I have Windows 7 Pro, a computer without all the propriety bloat-ware, and the use of my existing software licenses. I also have a machine that boots in 30 seconds! How cool is that? 😉

The Outlier Model

If working full-time healthcare shifts this month wasn’t enough to keep me busy, fellow Vancouver bloggers Brian and CF decided to retire from blogging. We began discussions in late November, and I’m pleased to announce I’ve taken over full-time management of The Outlier Model. I’m pleased to take the reins, and grateful to them for the opportunity. You can read more at A Fresh Start.

I already have a new design and template ready to go, and will be rolling that out after January 3rd!  The new Facebook header, Twitter background, and distinct yellow maple leaf (seen right),  will give you a good idea of the new branding. 😉

The Weekly Lineup

Here were some great reads around the web this holiday season:

• The Passive Income Earner with Is Your TFSA Rocking?
• Money Cone with what to do if you shopped at target.
• Dividend Mantra with another great post in Find Your Investment Style.
• Mark gives a personal review of his blogging successes with, 2013 Blog Year in Review.
• Great investing posts on this blog! Retire Before Dad with 10 Years of Buying and Holding Verizon. Another solid reason why buy-and-hold is the way to go.
• Prudent advice in this post. Ben Carlson reminds everyone why you shouldn’t become emotional towards your investments, in Remember How This Feels.

It’s hard to believe that Christmas was here and gone, and another year is almost over. With that said, I’ve been working on the Ninja’s Year in Review for 2014. It’s going to be a big one. 😉

Thank you to everyone, bloggers and readers alike, who have made the Dividend Ninja a success in 2013.

Have a nice weekend everyone! 🙂