Yay cost of living increase

I was going to write about something else today, but the long awaited cost of living increase finally came in. I got a $0.75, or 4.7% increase, which is roughly in line with local inflation. There was an article in the paper about how the average working wage has gone up about 4% this year. However my memory is a little foggy so I can't really say if I got more than the average, or less. While my increase is greater than 4%, I forget when the previous cost of living increase was. Though I'd be very surprised if it was exactly a year ago.

Realistic Long Term Returns

Just an idle thought I have. If I buy a house, it's value should increase by roughly inflation over the long run. Either that or housing will start becoming a disproportionately large portion of the cost of living. If I buy common stock, the growth has the potential to beat inflation because the company can experience real growth and increase the volume of their business. I'm not sure if I expect that to go on for effectively a human life span, but it can certainly go on for a while. If I go for broadly based index funds, will my returns grow at a rate of inflation plus real economy growth? Maybe. Where does the growth of the economy take place? Small industries with firms that have not yet gone public is certainly one. Though with things like the dot com boom and bust, is the trend to form bubbles before returns start or does some growth get missed? Small companies that are not yet part of the index growing into larger firms is another area where things get missed. Large companies that shrinks however are typically included in indexes. Now I've certainly lost sight of where I was going in this ramble, but I was going somewhere wit h it, I think.

Weekend review

I do my weekend review a little early because I work the weekend shift. We're at it Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so this a natural transition in my week. Anyway, I got a portion of my room cleaned. Lack the drive to do it all at once. Did not open a new brokerage account like I had wanted. Still need to do that. Didn't file my tax return yet. Though I have assembled a shopping list of what I'd like to be in my long term holdings. It's a roughly $30K shopping list right now and it'll be nice. It should take me roughly 17% closer to the red line, for a total of 19% or so. Umm, where is the green line again? I think that need stamp that on my desktop wall paper, or perhaps round it to something. Anyway, that'll be 10.4%. It makes things look so quick when I look at it like that, though I'd still need to get the $30K to buy all of it.
I've also tentatively scheduled a location scouting trip into the USA. I've got a friend there who I think will give me all the help he can relocating. However there is still a border there and it'll be pesky. I'm guessing E-2 might be the easiest visa for me to get, though I'm going to be very reluctant to empty my investment portfolio to focus on one thing. That'll make things take a little longer. I'll also need to bump my lines a bit to cover health insurance. Maybe I can take that trip to China while I wait for funds to build up.
Also for location scouting, it seems the bank has given me a little gift. I'll be surprised if this doesn't brutally murder the formatting...

                              Real            Housing            Retail
                              GDP             starts             sales

                                             Thousands

                         07    08    09    07    08    09    07    08    09
                         --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --
   NFLD.                9.0   0.5   1.0   2.6   2.5   2.0   9.5   5.5   2.0
   P.E.I                1.9   1.2   1.4   0.8   0.7   0.6   8.2   4.4   3.7
   N.S.                 2.4   2.5   2.8   4.8   4.6   4.0   4.0   4.7   6.5
   N.B.                 2.5   2.4   2.5   4.2   4.0   3.4   6.2   4.4   4.0
   QUE.                 2.1   1.1   2.2  48.6  47.1  40.0   4.4   4.1   4.4
   ONT.                 1.8   0.8   1.9  68.1  66.8  59.4   3.9   3.8   4.5
   MAN.                 3.5   2.8   2.9   5.7   5.6   4.5   9.5   8.1   7.6
   SASK.                4.6   3.6   3.2   6.0   6.1   4.5  12.7   9.0   8.0
   ALTA.                4.3   3.3   3.0  48.3  41.6  35.3   9.0   7.4   7.0
   B.C.                 3.1   2.3   2.8  39.2  37.2  30.5   7.1   6.2   7.5
   CANADA               2.7   1.6   2.3   228   216   184   5.8   5.1   5.5

                          Employment            CPI

                         07    08    09    07    08    09
                         --    --    --    --    --    --
   NFLD.                0.6   0.2   0.3   1.5   1.0   1.3
   P.E.I                1.0   0.5   0.2   1.8   1.3   1.6
   N.S.                 1.3   2.0   2.0   1.9   1.1   2.0
   N.B.                 2.1   1.9   0.9   1.9   1.2   1.7
   QUE.                 2.3   1.1   1.1   1.6   1.2   1.8
   ONT.                 1.6   0.9   1.0   1.8   1.4   1.8
   MAN.                 1.6   2.1   1.7   2.0   1.8   2.1
   SASK.                2.1   2.4   1.9   2.8   3.3   2.9
   ALTA.                4.7   2.2   1.8   5.0   2.9   2.8
   B.C.                 3.2   2.0   2.2   1.8   1.1   1.6
   CANADA               2.3   1.4   1.4   2.1   1.4   1.9

I've highlighted the two provinces in this country I've been seriously considering in purple. Green is one that I've had someone ask me to consider, possibly jokingly. Those last figures also highly the dangers of not building up enough money. If I've got a return of 6% on my fixed income investments, and inflation reaches say, 5%, which it was for Alberta in 2007, 5/6ths of my income needs to be reinvested to keep up with inflation and I only have a 1% return to cover my expenses. Dividends from common shares, however, are typically linked to corporate profits, which typically increase with inflation. Anyway, enough rambling, I need food, then food shopping. Adjusting for inflation though are for goals I set after I've cleared the yellow line and need to start setting new goals.