Now We're Talking . . . .

Talking about summer, that is!  Warm days, pleasant evenings, limited number of insects, and no time for golf!  That's o.k., though, as I am getting some cycling in.

Wednesday Market in downtown Nelson

The 400 Block of Baker Street is closed off every Wednesday for our market day, during the summer months.  This has become a very popular community event.  They have organic vegetables, as well as flowers, massages, crepes and even kettle corn.  This photo was taken about 2:30 this afternoon, and some of the tents are already being taken down, as they had sold out of their produce.

Do You Know A Buyer For This Home?

 4310 Viewridge Road, in Bonnington, less than 15 minutes from Nelson.  This 3 - 4 bedroom home, has 3 bathrooms, plenty of room for further development in the walk-out basement, a double garage and sits on just under 2 acres of treed privacy.  More details available on our web-site.  $395,000

Here is a delightful video that one of my friends sent me in the past month.  It takes nearly 10 minutes, but is well worth the investment in your time.  Please check it out here.

This next article was sent to me by one of our local mortgage brokers.  It contains some very good information about compounding interest, and how to benefit from it:

Compound interest can work for you or against you. When raking in the cash from the fruits of your investments, this can be a wonderful thing. However when you are in the ring against a larger, more fierce competitor (the lender), you need to have a good trainer in your corner telling you what to do. In this situation, I am your hypothetical trainer and the following are my suggestions to win this fight and minimize damage to your pocket book.
When going up against a lender/ bank, I suggest four strategic moves to minimize the impact of the compounding interest punch:

1. Always choose weekly or bi-weekly accelerated mortgage payments. I personally don’t like the weekly payment myself. Knowing I have to make a payment every week freaks me out and there isn’t much difference from the biweekly anyways.
2. Take a 25 year amortization or less. In Vancouver this is very difficult considering the disturbing cost of housing but I would recommend attempting this. If anything, take a 30 year but make your payment the equivalent of the 25 year amortization in case of emergency. Then you can revert to the lower payment if need be.
3. Increase your payments monthly. We recommend using a lender (such as Street Capital) who allows you to easily control your mortgage payments. If you get a raise at work, add that money towards your mortgage payment.
4. Use the lump-sum payment option. When you get your tax return or bonus, toss that onto your mortgage. A $5,000 lump-sum payment on a $300,000 mortgage with a 25 year amortization will save you $8,249.75 in interest cost.

Remember to Own Your Life and have a nice day!

Why Some Countries CAN'T Go Metric!
If the metric system did ever take over, we'd have to change our thinking to the following:
* A miss is as good as 1.6 kilometers.
* Put your best 0.3 of a meter forward.
* Spare the 5.03 meters and spoil the child.
* Twenty-eight grams of prevention is worth 453 grams of cure.
* Give a man 2.5 centimeters and he'll take 1.609 kilometers.
* Peter Piper picked 8.8 liters of pickled peppers.
*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*







This coming weekend, I am planning to do a bicycle ride, which is a fund-raiser in support of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.  The proceeds will go toward the work of the West Kootenay Chapter of that organization.  I will be riding 220 kilometers over a 2 day period, starting in New Denver, riding to Nelson, and then returning to New Denver on the 2nd day, via Kaslo.  I have been working with the organizing committee for this ride and am grateful for the opportunity to participate, if only because I am not affected by the debilitating effects of MS.  I would invite you to take advantage of whatever activities you are able to participate in.  If your passion isn't cycling, then pursue what you enjoy.  In the meantime, if you are able, you might consider making a donation and sponsoring me toward my fund-raising target.  You can do that here and then click on the "Pledge Me Online" button.  Thank you!

Last weekend we were on Vancouver Island, staying with friends in Nanaimo.  The weather there was just about as nice as it could be, and we enjoyed our dessert in their back yard.  While sitting out there, we got these surprise visitors.

What really surprised me about this was that these deer had to cross a paved driveway, walk through a narrow opening, with a gate, and then past a storage shed before getting to the back lawn (& the tomato plants).  The property owner closed the gate once they left, in order to protect his tomatoes!

On the August long weekend, I volunteered to help out with the Cyswog'n triathlon, which Nelson has hosted for more than 25 years.  I don't do triathlons, but for several years I have volunteered to be on the sweeping crew to make sure the highway is in good shape for the cyclists who will be racing over it.  We begin this task about 5 a.m. on the morning of the race.  Fortunately, the highways contract crew had done a good job of cleaning the road, so we didn't have a lot of work to do.  However, along the way, I had to stop to take this shot of the rising sun.

About 5 years ago, I had a similar shot to this with my previous car, when it turned over 100,000 kms.  which I used in my newsletter.  It reminded me of an old John Denver song that spoke of their old family car.  There was a line in it that said "When it had gone a hundred thou -- we got out a pushed it a mile."  I can't remember the name of the song, nor could I track in on YouTube, so I don't have a link for you.  If you know the song, please let me know and I'll share it next month.

Thanks for reading.  Your comments are always welcome, and thanks to those who send me information to pass along to you.  I also invite you to check out my "business blog".

Lorne & Drew