Emptying the notebook

In the proud tradition of lazy newspaper columnists everywhere, let's hammer out a smattering of unrelated tidbits on several different personal finance topics, shall we?

Item the First -- Kudos to City Girl for hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance this week. Lots of good stuff there, as always. And, unlike always, one entry by yours truly.

One day, when I'm so inclined, I'll have a go at hosting one of these.

B -- Loyal readers (Hi mom!) will recall my ambitious plan to have a net worth of $20,000 by the end of September.

Yes, I know it's the start of November now, but I'm pleased to say that I've more than met that goal. With a little over 16K in the brokerage account and $7,000 gathering dust over at ING, my net worth currently stands at around $23,000. I don't have any schmancy graphic to commemorate the event -- maybe I'll get on that. And maybe it's time for me to set myself another short-term financial goal, since the first one went better than expected. I suspect as the holiday season approaches (already!) finding the excess funds to save is going to get a bit trickier. So I'm glad I've got this benchmark to hang my hat on for now.

iii --On the trading desk, I put in an order in today for 140 units in Claymore's new Dividend Achievers ETF. Designed to emulate the Mergent Dividend Achiever's list, Claymore Investments only launched the product in September.

I like it for a variety of reasons: it's a decent defensive play since I think the economy is starting to cool off a little bit: it gives me excellent exposure to Canada's strong financial sector (something I've been lacking) and it has a higher yield and is more diversified than it's closest competitor, iUnits' XDV. Sure, it has a slightly higher MER, but I'm confident that the ETF's focus will make up for that. Plus, I like the focus on companies with growing dividends -- not just dividends per se.

If that's not enough, Canadian Capitalist is a fan. Works for me.

Thoughts, kudos, comments and critiques are welcome as always.