This topic fades away and is brought back time and again. I will add my thoughts here for anybody who happens by this thread in the future. The MOST important thing when getting into rabbits is to get the right type of cage, IMO. In the past, people used to recommend stacking cages with droppings pans underneath to catch the droppings. Let me tell you, this type of arrangement is a nightmare to deal with, especially once you get a doe with a litter that is hopping around with her. If you don't empty it daily, it will quickly start to overflow onto the rabbits beneath it. It is MUCH easier to just get a long row of cages with wire bottoms and let the droppings fall directly on the ground. You can corral it with cinder blocks or something and add some worms, and they'll turn it into worm castings for you, or you can shovel it once every month or two into a compost pile. The urine will soak into the ground and this method is about 10 times less smelly than the droppings pan method! I wish somebody had told me this back when I was beginning! For breeds, just research. I liked the rare breeds such as American Blues and Silver Foxes, but New Zealand Whites are fine, too. Just make sure you get your initial stock from somebody who is raising the rabbits with production goals in mind rather than "show" quality. There's nothing wrong with showing, but a show rabbit may average 4 or 5 kits per litter, while a rabbit that is raised from a mother who regularly throws 10 or 12 kits is more likely to be a good investment. Rabbits cannot take the heat. If you live in a place like Texas or Louisiana, you will probably lose rabbits during the summer unless you install a swamp cooler or misting system to keep them cool. Pigeons do much better in the heat--it doesn't seem to bother them at all. I would seriously consider the cost of a cooling system and the electricity to run it before I invested heavily in rabbits if I lived in a very hot location (I do--I live in Austin, TX, and my rabbits had a $500 swamp cooler blowing on them all summer long).

Available again this year (for 2010, not 2002, this time) ... limits about $25,000. single and $35,000. married. I was pleased with myself last year, in having arranged my affairs (via substantial charitable and some political contributions) ... ... to reduce my Federal tax load to zero. And the provincial liability was low, possibly nil, till I got down to the recently-initiated Health Levy and had to pay a few hundred for that. But I should not complain ... as I made substantial use of the healthcare services, for nil or minimal cost, during this past year. And I used to say that we should all be willing to pay a portion of the cost of running the country ... ... and then light fires under our legislators when we believed them to be running it/them improperly! At least ... we can do that, most of the time, without getting banged on the head for our trouble. Or locked up. ole joyful

This is the first time I noticed the 'retirement' forum! I too, have to scrimp. I was injured several years ago at work, and broke my neck. I am downsizing- my 4 bedroom home is no longer a 'dream', but a burden. It is paid for, thank goodness, as I cannot imagine other people who are on Social Security Disability having to pay a mortgage! I will be selling this house in Wyoming, and moving to Texas to build a 800ft2 house. I don't know that living the way that I will, would be good for other people, but I'll tell you what I plan to do. Sell this house (Wyoming). I will move to Texas, propbably some place between San Antonio and Austin (Austin is out because of high costs, unless any of you know of a way to live there). Build a small 800ft2 metal building- the same kind that barns, storage, garages are made from. It will be on a concrete slab, I will stain the concrete, so there will be no carpet/tile expense. (That is both for cost and severe asthma). There will be no interior walls, except for a bathroom, to save on building costs. Will try to do as much as I can, which is not much. If I am in Bexar County, I will be able to get a free water saving toilet from SAW. Buy a small, 'split' air conditioning unit, so there will be no central air to have to run through the house. I have been researching how to build with the lowest cost. I know of no 'plans' to help you build. I am trying to build for my health(allergic to 91 different things/severe asthma). The property taxes in Texas are horrible- even a small home would be about $3,000- 1/4th my income. I will try to get 11 acres on a privious 'ag exempt' property. That means I will have to raise '3 livestock'- 3 horses, 3 cattle- 3 hogs- whatever. I want to be legal. I will have to put out the cost to raise them, and then sell. I hope that will work, because I rarely eat meat- maybe once every month or two. I probably will not be able to be by a public transportation service, but that would sure be nice- saves gas. As far as food/household items, it does not make sense for me to have a Costco card, as it is just me- too many of their items are in such big bulk that it would go stale/bad. Works well for families like joyfulguy, but for a single person I am really good at buying on sale. Lately, I have found out that we really can go without- it doesn't kill ya! I really didn't need all those clothes that I accumulated while I was working! To the church they went! It will make things cleaner, and help me to be able to build a smaller place! The healthfood stores are good to buy organic, but a bit too expensive. Which is the way to go??? Use the library, or the computer- the computer is my one splurge- it keeps me in contact with the world. I used to use a wood stove, but now unable to chop/split wood- hopefully in Texas, I will not need to use a 'warmer' much, and will be able to do wood again. This was the first time I had heard of Angel Food- I will apply when I get there. I do not have a printer, so right now I cannot use coupons to shop, but somehow will try to find a way. It makes no sense to use the library computer, as they charge 15 cents for each printout. I will keep reading your site, and learn of other ways to save. If any of you can think of other ways to save, I am very happy to do so.

Hi again, all you Canadians, Suppose, when the bank stock was at about $105.00, I'd decided to borrow $40.00 using those certificates as collateral (a lot more that the $4.00 original value!), and having certificates issued for the new shares and giving them to the bank to add to the collateral. When the original stock dropped to $68, a drop of about 1/3, (thanks almost entirely to that dratted U.S. sub-prime mortgage debacle - smells a lot like a hot shot lender-generated scam, to me) ... that would have been a real "loss" had I lost my nerve and sold it. If I'd used that $40. to have bought more stock of the same bank (not a good idea - best to own a variety of issues), that $40. stock value bought with the loan, having also declined by 1/3, to $26, would, added to the $68 of the original, produce $92.00 total current value ... more than double the $40.00 that I'd borrowed. So I'd have avoided a margin call on the loan, i.e. bring in some money to reduce the lender's loan to below 50% of total asset value, or more shares to add to the worth of the collateral ... by late today, tomorrow at the latest! And it would have been a lot wiser had I had stocks in about three not only actual companies, but types of industry, used as the collateral: less risky ... or, rather, spreading the risk over a wider area. Also, I still owed the bank $40. .. but the asset that it had bought was now worth only $26. By the way: note this aspect of calculating. The stock price dropped from 105 by a third to 68 ... but it's gotta gain by a half to break even: 68 + 34 = 102. It's a quality stock - it'll recover. I've got time to let it happen ... well, if, at 79, I don't, the executor of my will does. Neither of my major beneficiaries are under any more pressure to liquidate under pressure than am I. The pressure would be to pay income tax, about a year or slightly more later ... and there are other assets at close to real value to take care of that. Or, if everything were undervalued, she could use some of them to borrow to pay the tax, repaying the loan after recovery ... but the trouble with that would be that the loan interest wouldn't be deductible. Further to the rule of 72. At the price of $68., the stock price has doubled from the original $4.00 or so about 4 times: 8, 16, 32, 64. When one divides the 41 year period by the number of doubles, or 4, one gets 10.25, i.e., it took 10.25 years on average to double. Divide 72 by 10.25, one gets 7.02: the growth rate of the basic asset was about 7%. On the other hand, if you know the rate of interest that you expect a certain investment to achieve and divide that number into 72, say, 6%, you'll get a result of 12 ... it'll take your investment about 12 years to double (with no allowance for erosion of the income by tax, or of the value of the asset by inflation). In addition to the approximately 7% growth rate that my bank shares achieved, over the years they paid me about 3% in dividends, for a total growth rate of 10% or so: not too shabby ... especially when it's tax-advantaged, deferred and also tax-advantaged. And the annual rate of dividend grew since my last report to $3.48, which I think that they will make a strong effort to maintain, despite the drop in value of the stock. If they drop it back somewhat, it'll likely hit the stock price for a while, but I won't cry too hard. Earlier, at $105., or 4.5 doubles (8, 16, 32, 64, 128), dividing the 40 years by 4.5 gives 8.888, which is the rate of growth that the stock developed. Add about 3% or a little more of dividends that the shares paid over the years, and you get a total growth rate of close to 12%. I can handle that ... especially when I remember that I pay a low rate of tax on all of those dividends. I use the full amount earned by the loan-purchased stocks, plus part of that earned by my original cash amount invested to pay the interest on the loan, which interest is deductible (as it would not be were I to borrow to purchase an RRSP) and I think that you may get an idea of the reason that I prefer non-RRSP investing in a number of situations. Especially since, were I to cash out at either $105. or $68., after I deducted the $4.00 of original investment, I'd get half of the difference with no tax liability. But every dollar that I withdraw from an RRSP (or successor RRIF after age 69) ... gets added directly to income, and taxed at regular rate. If you can't avoid tax, defer it. But if you can pay some tax now and not only arrange for ongoing income to be taxed at a low rate ... but defer a substantial portion ... and then arrange for a major portion of it to be tax-free ... so much the better. So ... I think that sometimes it makes sense to pay some now, in order to arrange major tax benefits ... not only ongoing ... but later, as well. Not only that, when you have a major portion of your assets in an RRSP ... ... supposing that you need some money during those years of living and want to ask your lender for a loan. Can you use your RRSP assets as collateral for a loan? Officially, no ... unless you have a very accomodating lender, who'll make one without collateral (since they already carry your RRSP). Some will - some won't. Even so, the rate of interest might be higher. Good wishes for increasingly effective management of both your income and your assets. ole joyful P.S. Have you read my thread somewhere around here that outlines how to borrow to invest at almost no net cost (without making any allowance for possible increase in value of the invested asset)? Plus another asking which ordinary person/investor gains from the erosion in value of one's investment by inflation? o j