I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but mid February I paid off my mortgage. A twenty-five year mortgage paid off in less than nine years.

I was telling a friend and he said "Wow! You should do an e-book on how you did it."

The steps are really quite simple, but the process is difficult.

First, get the best interest rate possible.
Second, make bi monthly payments.
Third, make lump sum payments as early on as you can.
fourth, put as much as you can towards your mortgage as often as you can.
Fifth, for God's sake, don't miss or skip a payment..

And, thats pretty much it.

Maybe I can expand that into an e-book; a small one.

A friend of mine invested in China Mobile, PetroChina, and I think he said the Shanghai index. They are all stocks that "should" do well, but unfortunately he bought before the recent downturn. So, the way I see it is, his thesis is correct, but his timing is wrong. Of all of them He recommended buying China mobile now.

These stocks are;
China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL)                     $44.90
PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR)     $98.19
Dow Jones Shanghai Index (INDEXDJX:DJSH)        $263.83

Looking at these and just applying my +5% rule [to avoid getting stuck with wrong timing] these are my thoughts;

The most recent low of China Mobile was $44.75 so, with no lower low, we shouldn't buy in till $46.99.

The most recent low of PetroChina was feb 3rd at $94.75  so, we shouldn't buy in till $99.48. But on march 4th it hit $104.99 and has trended down since till today's low of $97.40. So, if there is no lower low, and we see the trend change to up, $99.48 would still be a good purchase target price.

The most recent low of the Shanghai index was $260.93, so, again, with no lower low, our target buy price should be $273.97.

This gives me some time to gather more money.

I seem to be obsessing over Goldcorp, especially in this blog. I'm not really, but I do have a fair amount of money riding on it. Hmmm. So I guess I am obsessing, a little bit anyway. Goldcorp broke $31.60 today, so that's a good thing. Hopefully it has broken the $30 barrier.

Goldcorp seems to be stuck at $30. Its funny, all this trouble in the Ukraine didn't seem to do anything to gold. It quivered, but that's about it. Silver moved up more. Oh well, just got to watch it.

Well, finally I'm at the point where I'm not underwater with Goldcorp. Across all portfolio's I'm probably breaking even. It just goes to show, don't jump in until you see an upturn, or you may be holding it for a long time.

Actually, from last June till now I've done just about everything contrary to my investing thesis. I bought Goldcorp while it was still going down, hung onto it as the drop passed 5, 10, 15, even 20%, and sold other winners.

I didn't sell Goldcorp because I was, and still am, sure it would turn around an go higher. I'm aiming for a high of $50.

I sold other winning stock because I wanted to gather enough money to pay my mortgage off, and I did.

In dribs and drabs I've gathered little bit of money and bought HSBC, TD, and a tiny tiny amount of Royal Bank. All the banks are doing well and pay a fairly good dividend. So, I am pretty happy. Now just for Goldcorp to go higher.