Fantasy Escalation League

I'm a, now permanent, fill in for a pretty good escalation league, that being said, it’s no holds barred & completely blood thirsty. These guys are building to their strengths & exploiting every advantage they can squeeze out. They have much more eighth edition exp than I do, but I have the models to play any list I can come up with. I could face any of these armies at any given time; the races within the league are as follows:

Empire: 1,300 pt gun line list that beat me un-mercifully. (More gamey, less friendly)

Vampire Counts: 1,300 HtH Vamp, Vargs, ghouls and a massive screaming bat. (More friendly, less gamey)

Ogres: Fast moving HtH with Artillery to back it up. (More friendly, less gamey)

Warriors of Chaos: So far undefeated. Hell cannon, Heavily armored warriors & HUGE unit of marauders. (ALL game, 0 friendly)

Skaven: The kitchen sink (all game)

I’ve only played the one time so far, and I recognize some of the mistakes I made in the first game, so that will remain a work in progress for now. As far as what I can field I have the following:
Dragon mounted Lord/Hero
Dark Peg riding sorceress
Dark Peg Lord/Hero(The conversion is still WIP, need a good set of wings)
3 foot sorceresses
1 foot lord/hero
2 COB’s
Assassin
50+ spears
40+xbows
40+Corsairs
25 Dark Riders
10 Harpies
20 Witch Elves
20 Shades
25-30 Execs
20 Cold one Knights
2-4 Cold one Chariots
40 Black Guard
2 Bolt throwers
2 Hydra’s

The list I was leaning towards is the following, but I’m hoping to make it nastier keeping in mind that I don’t know what I may be up against on the 13th of Oct:

Leaders:668pts
Dred on Peggy with AoD, Dawnstone, Whip of Agony. 290pts
Lvl 2, Pendant, Tome of Furion & Dark Peggy for 235pts
Master BSB w Sword of Might, Ench Shield, full mundane 143pts

Core: 481pts
49 Spears, FC, 309
5 DR’s w music, 117pts
5 Harpies 55

Rare: 350pts
2 x Hydra’s 350pts
Total points: 1,499

So this Sat I got to the event with the final list in the thread and could have faced; Ogres; Empire; Skaven or Chaos. Chaos was just finishing off the Rats & the Ogres were evenly matched against the Empire, but I believe the Ogres eked out a win.

The Chaos player was still undefeated (he has two draws) to this point and everyone wanted to see him go down and pushed us together to face off. Was a very lucky day from the get go. I rolled to deploy terrain, sides & placement. I set up a bottleneck using a house just outside of my deployment left flank & forest just out of deployment on the right. I put a hill on the right inside of my deployment (first mistake) not remembering that we still had to roll for sides, though it didn’t matter in the end. I also rolled for a pitched battle (whatever the new name for it is). There was a forest in his left & right flank deployment. It was set up in a way as to filter his units into my bottleneck.

I put my spears into the receiving end of the bottle neck flanked by the hydra’s hiding behind the building & forest. The DL sat behind the building & the lvl 2 sat behind the forest. My Harpies & DR sat on the far left flank using the forest in the Chaos deployment area as a kind of partial shield from the Hell Cannon as it was placed just behind/beside it. I was very happy to only to have the Spears in threat of the Cannon, but in the end I got first turn and didn’t worry about it much.

His deployment, from my left to his right:
1 unit of 10 Khorne warriors, 1 unit of 10 Warriors(frenzied) with a caster of Tzeench, Hell Cannon in the center closer to his table edge, a horde of 40+ berserkers (whatever they are called), all sitting between the two forests and a unit of 10 Chaos knights on the far right.

1st turn: I move my DL, Sorc, as far up as possible to his lines. The DR’s and harpies move to piss with his Khorne warriors. They passed the leadership and all subsequent, so it became a moot point. Moved the DL in front of a warrior unit to put something between him & the Cannon & advanced the Hydra’s around the buildings and forest. Forgot to shoot with my DR’s as I was so excited for the spell phase (I had Doombolt, Soul Stealer & Black Horror). I cast Power of Darkness and got 4 dice(4 out of 6 rounds with the other two giving me three). I cast Doombolt on the knights killing one. Then Soul Stealer, which he failed to dispel, onto his horde. 22 total wounds out of 45. The blood ran from his face seeing his unit almost cut in half after the first turn. I then cast Black Horror onto his knights; he failed to dispell but passed his tests. No combat.

Chaos 1st: Turn he Charged the witch with his berserkers, who fled a whole 6 inches, but he still failed his charge. He charged the DR, I fled drawing him out into the left flank where the plan was to run him in circles with the harpies & DR’s. The unit of Knights tried to charge the Hydra also failing. He advanced with the last unit of Warriors. His magic phase was un-interesting though his spells were nasty(Lucky as my Witch was fleeing). The 6th in the shadow lore(never got it off). A spell that made me miscast on any double as well as cause my units to survive on their own leadership(Went through) and a third one that would make a whole unit disappear on a strength roll of 11-12 (also never went off the whole game). His shooting was as nasty as I assumed it would be. He shot at my spears and caused 12 wounds, just enough to cause a panic test on the units LD as I couldn’t use any army Characters LD. We passed, but a small template hitting 22 guys is NASTY!

2nd turn: I fail to rally my DR and they flee again. The witch Rallies. I successfully charge my Hydra into his Knights, killing a couple, but brake from combat to be chased down. I charge my DL into combat with the Cannon killing the crew (the DL was in combat till turn 5 with this thing). I charge my other Hydra into the unit of 10 Warriors killing 3, taking two wounds and barely holding. Not so hot for my Hydra’s. Lesson: Attack with them as support to other fights only. I moved my harpies behind the Warriors thinking it would still affect the Frenzy, I was wrong. The Witch moved behind the berserkers but had a much less active magic phase, failed to dispel the RIP spell and lost all of her dice.

Chaos 2nd turn: His knights are well into my deployment with a forest between his knights and my Spears, so he has to march in order to get them in his sights. The Beserkers fail to hold their frenzy and fail a charge at my spears. The unit with the wiz moves towards the spears. The out of place unit of warriors re-face the spears. Magic fails. No shooting. Combat sees a wound come off of the cannon.

3rd Turn: I rally my DR and end up Marching them into 12 of the leftmost warriors. I move my harpies right behind the warriors. I charge my spears (needed a 9 to get into combat, rolled boxcars. There was no way I was going to risk getting hit by the remaining Knights) into & break his Berserkers and re-face them to hit the flank of his canon. The DL takes 2 wounds off of the Cannon. The Witch flys behind the unit of Warriors with the wiz, but doesn’t do more that take a warrior down.

3rd Turn Chaos: He has to play catch up with his knights again and position facing the spears. The combat DL/Canon sees another point of damage come off of the cannon (2 left). The unit with the wiz turns to face the witch. The 2nd group of warriors charges the DR I decided to SaS taking out 5 warriors before evaporating. He elects to turn in place to face the Harpies.

4th Turn: I move the harpies in order to draw the Warriors further into no man’s land. I move my witch behind the warriors with the wiz. I charge my spears into the Cannon, and lose a handful to the attacks there(Lesson: Turn around and face the knights, leave the monster alone) The knight takes off one more wound, only one to go.
4th Turn Chaos: Warriors charge Harpies, who flee to the table edge. Warriors chasing the witch are too busy doing anything so face the DL. The knights move into charge distance of the Spears. The Canon dies, so the DL faces the Warriors and the Spears re-form to face the Knights.

5th Turn: Harpies rally and face the chasing warriors, who are then charged by and destroyed by the DL. The Spears move backwards putting more room between them and the remaining knights. The Witch moves behind the remaining Warrior unit.

5th Turn Chaos: The warriors are unable to charge the DL or the spears and decide to move towards the spears. The knights try & fail a charge on the spears. Again, magic is a non-factor.

We call it there as the Chaos player has to pack up.
DE Losses: 15/49 spears 0 Points. Unit of DR’s 117pts. 2 Hydra’s: 350 for a total of 467pts killed.
Chaos Losses: Horde of berserkers+ 50 for a flag & the Cannon which came in at around 680pts lost.
DE’s Minor victory. Lessons learned: Hydra’s need B/U from another unit, or should be used against cheap infantry if going it alone. Need LOS for frenzy. The witch was a game changer & destroyed the confidence of the Chaos player. Hatred & AP x-bows contributed to some serious de-moralizing, reflected in his being unsure what to do with his knights. He didn’t even really want to move them in the last couple turns for fear of losing the final 2, which I’m sure the Spears could have handled.

The Chaos player was a) Surprised at how fast & mobile the DE’s were, this was the first battle he didn’t just march up to a wall of troops, so didn’t know what to do with units/characters sitting behind his lines harassing him.
b) Felt that this force was tailored to his army and made it known that he builds lists to beat anyone, but in the future will change his marks depending on who he faces. Bit of a poor sport, but I can’t wait to hand him his next defeat now that I know what to expect from his units.

News on the map: The dude I took over for didn’t have a single flag on the board, so I got my first this Sat bringing my total up to 3. The Vamp player has 4, The ogres have 7, while Skaven & Chaos both have 11. As there are no remaining open spaces on the map, it’s imperative that I attack my neighbors to start taking flags, which happens to be Chaos to the North and Skaven to the South, with some sort of 4 tile surprise territory in the center.

I’ll take photo’s of my next battle in two weeks for further clarity. I’m thinking that a highly mobile army is going to work well against both Skaven & Chaos, so for my next 200 points I was thinking of adding another unit of DR’s @ 117 + another unit of Harpies @ 55 leaving me a further 29points to beef up the master. List for the Nov 10th 200pt reserve:

Leaders: 689pts(40%)
~ Dred on Peggy with Armour of Destiny , Dawnstone, Whip of Agony, shield & SDC. 299pts
5 S5 re-rollable AP attacks (Whip +1 Attack, +1 Str with AP) , 2+ re-rollable AS(Dawnstone) & 4+ Ward. T4 (peggy).

~ Lvl 2, Pendant, Tome of Furion & Dark Peggy for 235pts
Extra spell per the Tome, Reverse WS per the Pendant (stronger the attack, the better the save. Str 6 will give her a 1+ ward), T4 (peggy).

~ Master BSB w Crimson Death, Armour of Darkness, 155pts.
3str 6 attacks(crimson death), 1+ AS, Str 6 is -3 to AS, banner from the spears brings it to -5(Armour Piercing).

Core: 469pts(28%)
30 Spears(6x5), leaders w banner of Murder(Armour piercing): 220pts

6 DR’s w music & rbx, 139pts

2x5 Harpies 110pts

Special: 190pts(11%)
19 Witches 190pts

Rare: 350pts(21%)
1 x Hydra’s 175pts
1 x Hydra’s 175pts

Total 1,698

We rolled the watchtower and the Ogre placed a regular unit of guys into the tower, and placement began from there with me denying him the hill for his cannon units.

I had a unit of harpies circling the left flank as my DR’s sat just behind them waiting to Vanguard a few shots into his giant. Just to the right of the DR’s was my first Hydra, flanked by my witch, they were eyeing the unit of two Mournfangs nervously while trying to size up the Butcher unit in order to steal future magic phases. My unit of 30 spears bolstered by a master was in charge of securing the flank of the watchtower. With the possibility of crossing blades with the mournfangs & or a unit of 5 Iron guts & Tyrant they were in for a very un-enviable day. The 20 witches had one objective, and that was to wrest control of the tower from the Ogres & generally carve a swath until they died of blood lust. Here’s where my fear/general ignorance of leadbelchers came to the fore. I placed my Hydra behind a building with the plan that they would act as back-up if the tower fell back out of my control. The Lord was placed in the same place, but had a more proactive role of hitting those blechers one at a time. I made the mistake of being over protective since losing him to one round of combat vs. a hell blaster in my prior game(Psychology is an amazing game changer) as you’ll see.

Vanguard: I move my DR onto the hill towards the Giant. 12 inches away

1st Turn: I declare a charge into the tower by my witches. No other charges.
I move 1 unit of harpies within 3 of the giant and the other within 6 of the Mournfangs.
I pop my witch up behind the forest (but by the way it’s sitting lose my cover to the move & shoot capabilities of the belchers) so that I can cast death spells at the butcher.
The spears adjust frontage so that they can charge a unit hitting it from the left believing that the witches will take it with no issue.
The reserve Hydra held his ground.
The Lord flew to the other side of the field and took cover behind a house just outside of the Ogre deployment.
The witch took two wounds from the butcher..
The DR’s shot @ and failed to wound the Giant. I should note that I placed the harpies in such a way as to draw the Giant off of the table and hopefully the remainder of the game as that flank was to collapse into the center giving him nothing to do but wander into my clean-up detail.
The Witches put a world of hurt onto the unit of 6 Ogres, killing 4 and maiming the 5th(2 wounds) thanks to hatred every single attack hit, 6 of them with poison. He fled. Here’s where the rules for watchtower saved them and it was decided, by the Ogre player & his retinue (6 people booing & hissing at everything Druchii), that the Ogre’s fled out and the witches thundered in, looking in every corner for hiding Ogres. This decision ended up saving his little band of fatties, but cost him the game.

** I’ll get into this now as opposed to later, because I still have questions. Since it was decided that I couldn’t pursue, I naturally held. It was later stated, correctly, that they also couldn’t charge out of the building (Within turn 2 when I stated that I wanted to charge the remaining Ogre’s, in the hopes that they would destroy them and carry forward into the unit of belchers that shot my witch) . So, I can’t charge out of a building & frenzy rules state that a unit must charge if it’s able. So which rule one governs here? It was decided that the witches would resume house sitting until they were cleaned out. This doesn’t seem right to me, even though it worked to my advantage, I didn’t want to win this way. Just because we play with unfriendly lists doesn’t mean I want to abuse the rules to win, can anyone clarify? **

Ogre turn: Giant Charges the Harpies who flee 5 inches to sit right in front of my DR’s. They were placed so that if they fled, they would flee directly towards my DR’s, who I theorized would receive a S’n’S sacrifice dependent on the number of wounds they inflicted in my shooting (not scoring any I would have fled). The giant is now un-able to hit my DR in a re-direct, but feels that since he rolled the distance to hit the DR, should be able to wipe my harpies and negate my S’n’S reaction. Then when the dies down, just takes out my harpies and plants his Giant 1’ away from my DR’s. Another discussion breaks out and he’s forced to move the giant back to where he wiped my harpies out. Works for me, more shooting once I circle around him, which breaks into a discussion about 360 single models.
Mournfangs charge my Harpies, same results. They roll two 1’s and a 2. They are wiped out sit idle out of position.
He moves his Tyrant retinue to the tower, filling the air with insults and bad wind. Both units of belchers move, one facing the exposed with, and the other towards the witch filled tower.
Magic sees him casting a buff onto his Tyrant unit so I could save my DD for his initiative spell which he failed anyway as well as a wound(3).
He shoots at my witch & causes a wound thank-you pendant! The other unit eats 4 witches in the tower. Following are photos of turn one’s end.

Turn 2 I declare a charge into the fangs with my hydra.
I scoot my DR’s out of danger from the Giant so that I can shoot at the Butcher unit.
I didn’t have anywhere for my witch to avoid more belcher shooting so rolled the dice on sitting still to draw concentrated fire to the tower [b](seeing 4 of them disintegrate, I decided it was worth the risk if I could death spell the Butcher) I moved the lord his full 20 to stand in front of the Tyrant then re-adjusted my spears to nab the tower if/when the witches wiped. The final Hydra sat out of sight.
Magic was a bust. My lass is in trouble.
Short range shooting landed 4 wounds. Makes up for Magic.
I killed one of the fangs and caused a wound on the other. There was discussion on how the handlers worked. It was figured out by the end, even though they didn’t agree that he couldn’t allocate attacks/wounds to the handlers.
[b]Ogres[/b] Charges my Lord with the Tyrant. Moves his Giant towards my Spears. Moves his two belchers towards the tower.
Casts a buff on his Butcher unit with IF. Then proceeds to lose all of his Magic levels & dice.
Shoots at my witch killing her. 2nd unit shoots at the tower only removing 2 of my ladies.
DL combat: He strikes me first(sword) and doesn’t cause a wound (2++&4+ward is plain nasty) and cause two wounds. I lose combat by one and roll two sixes. I roll for distance fled and get 8. As I’m getting ready to move him I remember that my BSB is right behind him and as if he’s ok with my re-rolling my LD because of it.
**[b] This leads me to another problem I would like to ask for advice on: I’m usually pretty strict on myself and don’t ask for a mulligans, but am very liberal if it happens to my opponents[b] (Admittedly this is because I would rather see all of my opponents rules then it is my being nice) . I hadn’t picked my model off of the table as yet, so felt it was still ok to ask, but as I rolled my flee(5in) dice, I am conflicted. ** So, at what point, after forgetting something, is it OK to reverse course and go back to something forgotten (I forgot to roll my peggy’s A’s the whole time, I didn’t bring it up to avoid insult to injury) ?[/b] Second roll is a success.
Hydra combat: The last fang drops leaving the Hydra with 2 wounds to spare.
Post battle observation: Not too bad, as I believe that fangs are 55pts each, but taking out the Butcher unit later, regardless of him not having any magic lvl’s remaining, these monsters are a bit cheap. They tend to either do really well or really terrible (failed large against the WoC and broke even against the Empire).

Turn 3
No photo’s, I charge my hydra into the Butchers unit, and finish them off in his turn.
I move my Spears to accept a possible turn 4 charge from the Giant.
I move my Hydra from behind the house to scare him into shooting at it. Which he does, rolls terribly followed by my roll of three 6’s for my re-gen & ogre shooting at the Tower saw the end of 2 more witches.
I shoot at some of the remaining Ogre’s from the first turn massacre, which leads me to question first turn charges? (I’ll have to re-read the rules for that scenario, not that it would have changed the results, just prolonged them to turn 2) .
The DL combat saw: 1 more wound on the Tyrant & no wounds on my DL.

Turn 4
I try to breathe fire on the Belchers but miss. They fire back & I save the two wounds, again. The Ogre cheerleading squad told him to concentrate fire on the tower, correctly, as he was rolling against the hydra. I didn’t say a word past asking who I was playing against. I’m a pretty laid back guy, but this was starting to grate. If it happens again, I’ll encourage the choice of tower, but I was so taken aback by the cheerleader squad that my hackles were raised. This is my only regret of the game
The Other Hydra moves to the rear of his 2nd unit Belchers.
The Giant fails his charge.
The Tyrant falls to the DL.


Turn 5
The Hydra on my right charges the belchers. Forcing them to flee but failing to catch them as they do.
My second hydra reforms to face his second unit of belchers. Who will shoot into the tower Killing two more witches.
My DL challenges his hero, who understandably tucks tail, kills an ogre then takes two wounds from the unit.
The Giant charges and jumps up & down killing 4, but not after having all but one wound removed from his profile.
DR’s shoot at the whittled unit, doing no damage. We roll, and play a turn 6.
Turn 6
The Hydra on my right charges and destroys the remaining 2 belchers.
The Second Hydra moves behind the second unit of belchers in order to charge later, or more importantly draw fire from the belchers, didn’t happen. They shot at the tower killing another 4 witches. Leaving 4
The DR’s shot at the lone Ogre, taking off a wound.
The Giant jumped up & down killing another 4 before having his last wound removed. He then proceeded to fall into the spears, removing another 6. There were many prayers around the table that I would flee in order to chance a 7th turn. The spears held and the Ogre played conceded.

No photo of the finale as I didn’t want to be rude, because in the end, I only lost the 110 in harpies and the 235 for the Witch.

This opponent is the only one that doesn’t really field disgusting lists, but, I did mention that he should field a thundertusk, turns out he didn’t field it because he wasn’t finished painting it. That & a Giant should make the list a bit nastier. We’ll see what happens when he challenges the WoC player with it in two weeks.

Retirement Plan

So with the snot sprite almost 2, & a second bun in my pretty li knocked up oven, I have come to the realization that I need a concrete plan for the Bride & I's retirement. I've been working on this for the past year and am very happy with the results so far, except for some of my direct investments, I believe that I am looking to hit the 7% mark for 2012. This is a picture of what we have built and how, I originally penned this for a friend who is looking to start investing for her fututre & thought I would put it out there for other beginners to read.

Retirement Plan:

First things first: Pay off your high interest debt, obvious I know, but totally correct. The reason behind this is pretty simple. Most (current) investment portfolios can make you anywhere from 3%-8% total which just can’t compete with high interest CC’s or lines of credit.

1)      If you’re carrying anything in the 15%-29%: Talk to your bank about a line of credit, which should have an interest rate of anywhere from 5%-10% (or much less depending on your credit history). Get one for about $5K and use it to pay off your CC’s, if you have any.

2)      DO NOT GET RID OF YOUR CARD(1), keep it to pay for groceries then transfer the amount from your bank account to your credit card as soon as you get home, same with gas for the car. Pay the balance every month, the reason for doing this is to avoid card usage & interest fees as well as continue racking up good credit.

3)      Get an Air miles or reward credit card without fee’s annual or otherwise. We use our Air miles to help pay for gas. Not a bad idea to see if your bank will offer you a better rate than other cards, always shop around and once a year call your lending agency for a better rate.

The first step to a successful investment strategy is to be aware of where your money goes and controlling the amount of debt you carry. I recommend this site to work on a budget: http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/ she’s a Canadian financial consultant that really seems to care about helping people. She’s got a lot of free resources to use in order to identify and control spending & debt. The budget worksheet, holiday spending plan & most of the other resources are all really helpful.

Things to keep in mind:

1)      Canada’s retirement income system link: http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/isp/cpp/soc/50-70/today.shtml

a)      Government pensions: CPP, OAS & GIS.

b)      Employer pensions.

c)       Personal Savings.

2)      Government pension, if they still exist when you retire, is less than people think.

a)      CPP: Canada Pension Plan. You have to be 60(They are thinking of raising it to 65) in order to collect. You must apply for it when the time comes. You can still work & receive the pension, so no worries there. You get penalized for taking it before 65. You can visit the services Canada website in order to estimate what you’ll get, but as you’re still a wee lass I’m not sure what it’ll show you. Don’t count on more that $500/month. This is fully taxable.

b)      OAS: Old Age security. You get this at the age of 65, again, you have to apply. This is almost guaranteed to every Citizen of Canada. Don’t count on more than a few hundred dollars (currently the average is roughly $508.35), all of which is fully taxable.

c)       GIS: Guaranteed Income Supplement: A supplement, hopefully you won’t qualify for this as it’ll generally mean you’re below the poverty line.

d)      Total income from the Government per month: $1K give or take. Think about how far this will go in a month, and figure out the difference. That difference, percentage wise, is you rough estimate for retirement savings.

3)      Employer Pensions: These are few & far between nowadays, but if you can score one, all the better. My work offers an RRSP matching program, which is one of the only reasons to get an RRSP account. The government offers a Pension, as do a few other public sector jobs. The private sector has basically cut them, unless it a massive multinational and it makes tax sense.

4)      Personal savings is where the majority of your retirement will come from. There are a number of way to accomplish this:

a)      RRSP: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/rrsp-reer/rrsps-eng.html

i)Pro’s:  a) Can give you a cash windfall in the form of a Tax refund, this can be used to pay off high ratio Credit Cards.

              b) Companies & Government are hinting at lowering/dropping pension plans in place, and since we’re living longer, an RRSP is a good way to force saving for retirement.

              c) Allows you to borrow in order to buy a house and pay back within 15years. (This is a double edged sword, so beware)

ii) Con’s: a) Re-invest the Tax refund into the RRSP, or it loses most of the point in having one. Example: A $3K contribution to an RRSP can net a refund of $1,200. If this refund is spent elsewhere, the contribution will only be worth $1,800 when you retire(Not including gains/losses within the plan) because you will have to pay tax on the $3K when you start withdrawing for retirement (The tax may even be more in the future, so the $1,200 you get now, may be $1,500 paid back later). May as well re-invest the $1,200 and have it make you money inside of the RRSP.

                b) After the age of 71, you have to either empty your RRSP completely and pay all of the tax at once, this is also known as a tax bomb, or set up a fixed withdrawal schedule with the government that cannot be altered. Both of these severely limit your retirement flexibility.

b)      TFSA: http://www.tfsa.gc.ca/

i) Pro’s: a) Everything that is earned in the account is 100% tax free. If you invest $1K and at withdrawal it’s worth $2K, you don’t owe anything in Tax.

ii) Con’s: a) Contribution confusion. You can only contribute up to your allotment per year. This means that if you withdraw everything, lets say to buy a home, and you re-contribute all of it back, you win a lottery(I’m using extremes to make it more obvious, as the penalties are much too subtle). EG: 2012 you have $20K total in TFSA room, $15K of which is filled, $5 of which was contributed this year. You withdraw the whole amount to put a down payment on a house in June. Come July you win a million dollars in the lotto. When it comes time to preserving your winnings, most people assume that they have $20K in a TFSA to contribute to, and they would be right, except for the fact that you have already invested $5 K in 2012. So, in order to save yourself paying penalty, the proper way of re-contributing to you TFSA would be to invest the $15K in 2012 ($5K already contributed prior to withdrawl, and $15K to round out your $20K allowable contribution for the year 2012. In 2013, you would then be allowed to contribute $10K, $5K for the 2013 increase, and $5K to refill the space from prior. Clear as mud)

Something to remember: It is never a good idea to use a High interest savings account as your TFSA. The ‘High interest’ is governed by the BOC and based on the Canadian Interest rate, which is .5% or something ridiculous, so at most it’ll make you 1%. But if you use a Mutual fund, you can see a return of 5%-8% depending on the market, anything less and you need to take a close look at the way the fund is set up, which I’ll get further into later.

c)       Mutual Funds: These are a good idea as long as the fee’s are low, and you spend the time building a ’balanced’ mix. When one market, bonds/money/natural resources/tech ect,  suffers, another is building. Building a balanced portfolio/mutual fund attempts to mitigate losses by providing an upside, and in the long run, as theory stands, will grow.

d)      Direct Investment: Risky, but potentially rewarding. Very stressful without proper investigation/research/time investment. This can be a full time job.

e)      Other: I may come back to this. I added it in case something came to mind that I may have missed.

Balanced Portfolio: There is always debate on this, but I really believe that the theory is sound, the markets are organic and as predictable as weather. So, instead of trying to guess the direction of the markets, you build a portfolio that can roll with the punches thrown. Better to bend with the wind then try to stand firm in a tornado. Anyway, there are numerous models out there to guide you to making a balanced portfolio, I personally use, and am happy with the following:

8% guaranteed. This means that 8% of my total investment into my mutual fund never exceeds 8%. This allocation is invested into a daily & compounded interest account (Interest fluctuates with the overall rate set out by the BOC). Once rates in Canada rise to a ‘normalized’ level, I’ll bump it up to 10% of my investments.

40% Balanced/Diversified: Canadian & Foreign equities that pay stable dividends. Dividends are great, but keep an eye on where the company takes them from. If it’s strictly based on earnings, and is generally comparative to the dividend history, all is usually well. If they are drawn from reserves or sales/debt, this could be a sign that a company is attempting to manipulate stock price and general worth of the company. For the most part, this is the homework of a mutual fund, so you don’t need to worry too much about this level of attention; it’s what you pay the Mutual fund fees for.

37% Equity: Stock market direct investments. This is where a little time needs to be invested. Look through the available choices the mutual fund has available, and choose something you are comfortable with. Right now Markets in Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand all look stable, in an unstable market, so I have mine allocated in that direction. Once interest rates ‘normalize’ I’ll take 2% off of the allotment and apply it to the guaranteed portion.

15% Fixed income: Money markets(forex), Bonds and index bonds. Forex means the foreign exchange, investing in currency. Bonds are, at a basic lvl, investing in the future of Countries by lending money in exchange for a higher than normal interest rate. The higher the risk of losing your money, the higher the rate & vice versa. Index bonds are similar to bonds except that you’d be investing in overall markets;    “A bond in which payment of income on the principal is related to a specific price index - often the Consumer Price Index. This feature provides protection to investors by shielding them from changes in the underlying index. The bond's cash flows are adjusted to ensure that the holder of the bond receives a known real rate of return.”

Every year, usually in November, I take a look at the total %’s in my portfolio, & depending the fee’s involved, I’ll make movements within my build to ensure that the overall percentages remain fairly intact. For example, if my Balanced/diversified shoots out to over 50% of my total invested amount (I like it to stay close to 40%) I’ll take the 10% difference (This can be thought of as harvesting return) and investing it into a portion that is lagging (this can be thought of buying low).

Feel free to research other models, but this one should fill your need in the short term, or potentially long term. The key to successful retirement saving is research and evolution. Keep on top of the big picture and leave the immediate up’s & down’s in the newspapers as a good balanced build should weather them.

Now the fun stuff. Open up a TFSA as opposed to an RRSP. The reason for this is that an RRSP is a Tax Deferral program, meaning that you may not pay any tax on this money now and will sometimes generate a tax refund, read: TAXBOMBAGEDDON. A TFSA is ideal because you will have already paid tax on the money invested in the first place and everything that the account gains will be tax free.

If you have no credit card debt, or even if you have credit card debt, open a line of credit with your bank at $5K (Anything more and it could get out of control) and invest it, using the percentages I’ve stated above, in a mutual fund. If you have debt, pay off the debt and work on getting your balance back to 0 in order to invest in your portfolio.

When looking into Mutual funds, pay attention to fees, most specifically, wihtdrawl fee’s, inner portfolio type adjustments/moves and anything else that will leach from your gains. Weigh this against gain percentage targets. 2ndly, take a look at the history of the fund, keeping in mind that 2009-current has become the new ‘normal’ and lower forecasts are not necessarily a bad sign (5%-8% is reasonable, below and above is riskier & requires more research into why/how they got that way).

In closing, a warning, take EVERYTHING you hear & all advice given(paid for or not) with a grain of salt. Do your own research and you’ll avoid the BreX’s, Nortel’s, .Com’s & Real Estate trappings behind. The real estate one is blowing up all around us, Calgary is going to fall a bit later then Van & Toronto, but don’t believe the Hype that all is well. So do not invest any of your portfolio anyplace there for a while. The government has killed the 30 year, the CHRA has scaled back support to lenders as well as made the requirements to the insurance much stricter, and the interest rate can go nowhere but up, all three of these examples are Canada wide, so Calgary is in as much trouble as anyone else. Get a bag of popcorn, sit back & watch the fireworks of a country that has over extended in a higher percentile than our southern neighbors.

If you have any questions, drop me a line and I’ll see if I can help.

Good luck!!

J

Mad rants of a Cunninglinguist: Punisher vs. Batman prt 1

Mad rants of a Cunninglinguist: Punisher vs. Batman prt 1: This is a post from a "Super Hero  Movie" debate that I am ashamed to admit I got myself involved in. I wrote this in reply to a post boosti...

Punisher vs. Batman prt 1

This is a post from a "Super Hero  Movie" debate that I am ashamed to admit I got myself involved in. I wrote this in reply to a post boosting the Punisher as the ultimate Anti-Hero, I would post it but it was mostly "Bat Pussy" type slurs as well as other choice chest thumping playground speak popular among the net nerds. I will however post his rebuttle as soon as I see it and finish off the series with my closing words, so without further ado:

It's hard to argue Punisher vs. Batman as they are my VERY close 1&2...but:

The punisher feeds his ultimate sociopathic, irrational desire for revenge. He is pure, pent up barbaric aggression. He gets things done on the fly and a lot of luck. He is bad ass, no argument here. But really. Who the fuck are his enemies? None of them are impressive. NOT A ONE.

Barracuda: Zzzzzzzzz. Any low level [strike]green beret[/strike] weekend national guard could foil this mook.

Bullseye: Really. I've heard that "Guns are for show, while knives are for a pro", but then really, who "brings a knife to a gun fight" Bullseye = One dead toss pot.

Jigsaw: Nope. Love child of Prune face crossed with 2face. No dice.

The Medallion: This one has always made me laugh. It's Bob from fight club &  Jabba the hut. Even a pinko panzy like the Daredevil could place crosshairs on that fat fuck.

The Russian: They don't even have real names now? Just obvious stereotypes? Can’t wait for the updated one: The Mulla.

Bengal: The lamers version of the Black Panther. Another idiot bringing a knife to a gun fight.

The Bushwacker: He turns his arm into a gun. Fires bullets from his index finger. I did that like crazy...when I was 7 and not allowed to get a cap gun. Pinko Canadian parents.

The Kingpin: I have to give this bad ass his due as he has both the Punisher & Daredevil constantly fucking his shit up and he still gets away with murder. If there was no Kingpin the Punisher would be irrelevant.

Mister Badwrench: This guy was invented on the fly while the writer was waiting to get his oil changed at the dealership. He has a wrench that replaces one of his hands….and he’s good at fixing cars…

Slug: Because The Medallion fit in most of the panels….and captain America had issues foiling him.

Bruno: Created the punisher and came back a whipping boy for a demon named Oliver. Calling a demon Oliver is like calling Sylvia Plath a writer.

General Kreigkopf:  = Gny.Sgt. Hartman with less entertaining lines. Gomer Pyle took him out, so even Robin could make short work of this guy. Go! Go! Chris O!

Gnucchi: Punisher took both legs & arms, but still can’t quite finish the job? Way to get revenge on Snooki’s grandma.

Persuader: HAHA. Awesome. He can make anyone do his bidding, the only catch is that it doesn’t work on the suspecting….so he decks himself all in white, wears bright yellow rubber boots and adds a bulls eye to his chest (also yellow presumably to Cialis the Punishers failing eyes) to level the playing field??

The Tinkerer: I like this guy, he’s got a hobby to be proud of, as well as a gaggle of grandchildren, bad eyesight and terrible denture adhesive but yet the Punisher has a challenge?   

Blastfurnace: A teleporting robot furnace. I’m pretty sure Ralphie’s dad kicked his arse right out of the Christmas story.

Burnout: Exactly. Look what happened to Amy Winehouse. It’s always better to burnout then fade away, I just wish this terrible list of “super villans” would do just that….but…

Elite, The Holy & U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.

If this is all Crime has to offer, where do I pick up a pair of tights?  

None of these guys can even hold a candle to the Joker. NOT A ONE. This guy represents everything society fears. Complete, unpredictable chaos, and he does it with a flair that no super villain can touch. This is the ultimate bad guy; a sociopath in its most base & feral nature. Line up any comic /Hollywood/book “villain” and the Joker will come up roses, usually dripping acid. The only one that will come close is Ichi the Killer….. but he’s Japanese and if you had to deal with a housing crisis like they have, you’d have a little empithy.

I haven’t even gotten to Bane, never mind Ra’s al Ghul. That’s not even taking into account the literal 100’s of lesser known villains who would be a joke solo, but like the Chinese army, are a fright in numbers. An anti-hero isn’t made up of the nameless goons that end up chum, but by the quality of the room you fill in Arkham Asylum.

So, put on your party dress Nancy, because your pro Punisher ranting argument have been thoroughly violated.

Goings on

Math Trades:

I picked up a few board games in a math trade which closed the other day. I’m actually pretty excited to see them hit the table once they drop through the slot. I turned over a few stones to find a website called Fortressat.com. It’s kinda like Boardgamegeek.com ‘s cooler cigarette smoke’n , whisky swill’n, profanity drop’n cousin. If you’ve actually been to a family reunion you know the one, that being said, if you’ve been to enough to spot him, you also know you’re not him. So maybe this site isn’t for you.

I got War of the Ring, Mighty Empires from my wants list as well as Britania from my interest list and Nun’s on the Run from my filler list. I sent out Republic of Rome, Funny Friends, Roll through the Ages as well as the final pieces of an O&G fantasy army. Besides Republic, all I had to give up was chaff for two coveted gems and two others that will see some table time.

I’ve been hunting for a deal on War of the ring for a while now. The price tag for shipping has always been a bear never mind that the game itself weighs in slightly less. It’s a two player game that takes a few hours to get through but really pays off in strategy. To date my best outcome was  a Free Peoples military victory.  I’m interested in seeing how well my beautiful bride plays this one, she’s a thinker, so getting any sort of victory would be an accomplishment.

                        Mighty Empires looks like it could be similar to War of the ring, but scaled down in complexity if not in play time. I’ve always liked games like civilization focusing on military victory, so I have high hopes this will satisfy. If not, well there is always e-bay or another math trade.

                        Britania looks like it’ll go over ok with my game group. I’ve yet to play it so it really could go either way.

                        Nun’s on the run is a great filler game if we have more players then the selected game allows, or less time to get through one of the behemoths we usually play finished. It plays ok with 2, but really shines with 4+.

Low Brow & High Art:

I read through an article today about Bjork, spurred on by a post about music on F:AT about an upcoming music review, which lead me to think about Mat Barney and his Cremaster cycle (I get a serious hard on for these sorts of thought streams). So I thread jacked to talk about it. Really good shit. I’ve also put together a group on FB which has collected a fair number of really interesting articles, images and artists over the years. I started it in 2007 but let the ball drop in the great group purge of 2010 by FB, so the number fell to 0. The numbers are still low, but have been picking up lately. I want to especially give a shout out to David Irvine who “Re-Directs” paintings. He takes paintings you find on street corners, flea markets, garage sales and add’s his personal touch. Tres cool!

Investing:

So, I’ve been spending a lot of energy playing within my TFSA lately. I’m $200 up in less than a year on $2K, half of it is in a natural gas co, that is currently eating into the captured gains, but I have faith in the co overall, so a bounce back is inevitable. The other half is mostly invested in a midstream in anticipation of $200 oil after July, and the remainder was tossed into a mining co with some serious potential in the Shafter mine as well as promising expansions at La Negra. Since getting married and spawning a wee snot sprite, I’ve had to cull my vices & this TFSA fills a void. The overall goal is to raise $5K for a trip to Brazil for the World cup and so far I believe that I could end up with $’s left over. But, then again, the captain of the titanic believed the hype and went full steam ahead.

Sleep well Angel.

Friday, Feb 2 2012, a very dear friend passed away. Ying was a dear friend taken so suddenly and cruelly that I am having a hard time accepting the fact that I’ll never hear her laugh, or benefit from her non biased advice again.

I remember catching up with Ying a few months ago for lunch. She told me that she had cancer and that her treatments were done. She looked so frail and tired, but the same playful Ying spark was alive and well in her eyes, she told me she was ok and that I shouldn’t worry and everything was good. I took her for what she gave me and was grateful to have her back. So it came as a serious surprise when I got a call Thursday morning that Ying was in hospice and that she had been there for the past 5 days and that she may not make it through the weekend. I am naive, I realized after the fact that she had told me that she was finished with her treatments not because they worked, but because she wasn’t getting anywhere with them, and I just kept eating my noodles like she was invincible.

I’ve lost a few friends when I was younger, through car accidents, booze & drugs as well as suicide, but I saw those coming. The demons my friends wrestled with were dealt with when they passed. Ying wrestled with and defeated hers months before she passed, a true testament to her strength and determination, something I will remember if/when I have the need.

Rest In Peace Ying, you did enough that those of us that were lucky enough to know you will never forget the times we spent together. You continue to live on as strongly in our hearts and memories as you did in life.

xoxo

Congressional Perks!

Hey all, I've been reading the Money Morning publications for the past 6 or so months and have to say that there are a few really smart and interesting reads to be had there. The last one I posted by Shah was one of those, and another from this morning is just as good.

I find it hard to believe that while things continue to look so bleak, the American electorate (as well as those in other countries ie: Italy, Greece, Canada etc.) continues to devour “Perks” with a sense of entitlement that contribut(s)ed to the fall of their respective economies in the first place. If there was ever a time to take control by way of our votes, it is now.


Put An End to Congressional "Perks"
By Jason Simpkins, Managing Editor, Money Morning

With a median net worth of $891,506, Congress members are nine-times wealthier than the average American household - and some Congressional leaders are exceedingly richer.

In fact, a recent analysis of financial disclosure forms showed Congress members' collective net worth was more than $2 billion in 2010 - a 25% leap from 2008.

If members of Congress are that rich, then why are average Americans footing the bill for so many of their luxurious perks?

Just look at what a member of Congress gets in addition to base pay of $174,100 a year:

• Three-day workweeks.
• A 401(k)-like plan that "matches" up to 5% of its input.
• The chance to choose from 10 different first-rate health plans and access to an on-site doctor.
• A full pension.
• Retirement benefits.
• Gym memberships.
• Car service.
• Free parking at two regional airports.
• Free flights to almost anywhere in the world.
• And a per diem travel allowance of $3,000 per trip.

And yet members of Congress still find time (and the audacity) to complain about political gridlock and federal spending.

Well, if we want to reduce "capital waste" we might as well start by scaling back Congressional perks. And if we want a governing body that's more solutions-oriented, then maybe we should increase urgency by making members of Congress live like the rest of us.

How?

A good start would be by voting in Money Morning's online survey by clicking here. We want to know if you believe members of the U.S. Congress should be subjected to the same economic realities the rest of us must face.

We're going to make the results public in Money Morning and share the poll results with major media outlets across the country. Our goal? To eliminate their excessive, taxpayer-funded perks and make Congress pay its own way - just like the rest of us.

That means we need as many votes as possible.

The more votes we have, the better chance of getting our voices heard. So forward this information to your friends, and share it on Facebook and Twitter - anything you can do to get the word out and send Congress a message.