Back on February 2nd, 2009, the first post went online at Canadian Finance Blog. Is was just a simple welcome message, that would also serve as the original about page.

Now, one year later, I look back at that original post and can say that I accomplished all but one of the goals I had listed. When the real estate market dipped, we sold our townhouse and moved into a house. We also used the move as an opportunity to choose a readvanceable mortgage at a record low 5 year fixed rate. We have not started a Smith Manoeuvre yet as I still expect the market will have another major correction before gradually improving. Most importantly, we had our healthy baby boy! My wife is now on maternity leave, which we were prepared for with the fixed mortgage as well as saving money wherever possible.

While this past year was certainly filled with quite a few major life events, I’m looking forward to what the next year will bring. One thing’s for sure, if it’s related to personal finance, I’ll be writing about it here!

There are many ways to measure the success of a website. Here are some of the “by the numbers” milestones that I’m most proud of:

• 65th on Wise Bread’s Top Top 100+ Personal Finance Blogs, which currently tracks 424 blogs.
• 1 feature article and 5 mentions in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper.
• 11th place on the Top 100 Domains at Tip’d.
• Included in Bible Money Matters’ 50 Personal Finance Bloggers To Watch In 2010.
• The 78th spot on FIRE Finance’s Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs, tracking a massive 825 blogs.
• #25 in the Top 100 Personal Finance Bloggers on Twitter, put together by The Debt Hawk.
• 2,788 followers and included on 107 lists on Twitter.
• Plus, thanks to all those who have mentioned Canadian Finance Blog in post roundups, included my articles in carnivals or added the site to your blogrolls!

Now I’d like to get to the giveaways. We have two giveaways with thirteen winners in all. Total value of the giveaways is $530!

Giveaway #1 – Ten Finance Books!

Thanks to McGraw Hill for supporting our giveaway with 10 books! Available to win, will be two copies of the following:

Make Sure It’s Deductible

No matter what kind of small business you have, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of every legitimate business deduction and personal tax planning advantage at tax time. In the newly updated fourth edition of Make Sure It’s Deductible, Evelyn Jacks, Canada’s bestselling and most trusted tax author and educator, delivers vital tax facts that will save you money. Presented in a clear, friendly style that’s easy to read, understand and apply to your own business.

The Meltdown Years

The Meltdown Years offers the most lucid and useful explanation to date about why home values, life savings, job security, and investments around the world are in peril.What is inherently wrong with the global monetary system? What happened to the regulatory process? What role did the credit market, hedge funds, and investment banks play? These are the types of questions one must answer in order to truly comprehend what caused the meltdown and, more importantly, to understand what must be done to repair it.

Understanding Wall Street

For over 30 years this comprehensive, easy-to-read guide has served well as the definitive reference for successful investing. Now in its fifth edition and completely updated, Understanding Wall Street helps investors prosper in today’s challenging economy—whether you’re just beginning or among the millions soon to retire.

Winning the Loser’s Game (Review)

With refreshing candor, straight talk, and good humor, Winning the Loser’s Game helps individual investors succeed with their investments and control their financial futures. Ellis, dubbed “Wall Street’s Wisest Man” by Money magazine, has been showing investors for three decades how stock markets really work and what individuals can do to be sure they are long-term winners.

Benjamin Graham on Investing (Review)

Legendary investing author and philosopher Benjamin Graham lived through interesting times. During these events, and perhaps inspired by them, Graham began putting to paper his earliest ideas on value investing and security analysis. For the first time, these important works have been anthologized into a single volume. Benjamin Graham on Investing is a treasure trove of rare and out-of-print articles that document the early flashes of genius from a man whose ideas and theories would revolutionize investment philosophy.

How To Enter #1

To enter to win one of the books, leave a comment (use valid email address so I can contact the winners) in this article before the end of next week.

After leaving a comment so that I know you’re interested in these books, you can get bonus entries by doing either (or both) of the following:

• Subscribe to The Canadian Finance Blog email, where you’ll get each article, 5 days a week with no spam emails. If you’re already subscribed and leave a comment, you will automatically get this bonus entry!
• Follow The Canadian Finance Blog on Twitter and re-tweet any of our tweets during the two weeks!

This contest is for the ten books above and is open to anyone in Canada or the United States. The deadline for entries is Friday, February 12th at 11:59PM MST and the winners will be contacted by email on Saturday. There will be ten winners, chosen with a random number generator from Random.org. Once I email the winners, first response gets first choice of book, second response get’s second choice and so on. If a winner does not reply within one week, a new name will be drawn. Good luck!

Giveaway #2 – Three 1-year Premium PocketSmith Subscriptions! (Review)

PocketSmith also wanted to be a part of the anniversary celebration, so they will be upgrading three free accounts to premium for one year!

The unique forward-focus of PocketSmith tells you what sticking to budget means for the future of your money. It is a crystal ball for your bank accounts.

PocketSmith lets you plan and budget for what might happen. Predict what would happen if your car broke down. Find out what a pay raise would mean for a family vacation. This knowledge allows you to hope for the best, but reliably plan for the worst.

How To Enter #2

To enter to win one premium subscriptions to PocketSmith, simply sign up for a free account and then email me the email address you used to sign up.

There will be three winners, chosen with a random number generator from Random.org. The first three email addresses drawn, and confirmed to have a free account, will be upgraded to a premium account for one year. This contest is open to anyone in Canada or the United States. The deadline for entries is Friday, February 12th at 11:59PM MST. Good luck!

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