The Canadian dollar is now worth 1.002 US dollars, I’m not sure why but something has gone wrong with the US economy lately. It is good and bad for us. It is good if we want to purchase goods and services from the US, But this is going to hurt our exports to the US. I can personally see how the dollar is affecting my investments, I have stocks and mutual funds in the US markets and although the price per share of the stocks and funds have gone up, the amount that I would get for them in Canadian funds if I were to sell is less. It seems that we are in a transitional period of the US economy, they lowered their prime interest rate (to encourage spending and to boost their economy / which also further devalues their dollar) and I think they are going into a depression. I think it is going to last three to five years before their economy will come back. As for investments in American companies I say sell now then rebuy when their dollar is lower, as for what I’m going to do; I’m going to ignore my own advice and hold on to what I have and maybe buy more when the price drops further. Although if I can gain a quick fifteen percent gain out of any of my stocks where I think they are over priced I’d sell to help fund the house building then reinvest later this year, but I doubt it’s going to happen.
As for the house building, we’ve gotten quoted on the framing, windows, electrical, plumbing, roofing, drywall, and siding, we just need to get quotes for paint, moldings, septic, well, foundation and pad and it seems that they are on the way. If I’m lucky I’ll get them before we go to the bank on Monday. This paperwork is horrible, I almost think building the thing is easier than pricing it out, but if I had to do it again knowing what I know now it would be a lot easier.
I bought Wanda a new hard drive and a cheap version of Vista for her computer. Computers have gotten a lot easier to work on in the past few years, you just buy the parts then plug them in, everything is pretty much compatible. The hard drive install went well, she now has 2 hard drives, and vista installed easily. I haven’t reinstalled all her stuff yet, but it is on her slave hard drive so she can access it rite away if she needs to. I think she likes it.