Budget Time and Short-Selling

It's time to have a look at tooling that household budget.
On paper, it looks good - there seems to be ample funds left over to do many good things. However.

Life is not a 'paper-respecting' kind-of-thing.

The problem comes in, I think, when you use that budget plan to make commitments to an auto-paycheque deduction to a locked-in savings like an RRSP (this comes highly recommended by many guru investors - paying yourself first). If I commit to a certain deduction, then find I've been too agressive, I might leave myself short on the clothing/grocery/living expenses side, no?
How do you just pick up the phone and change the auto-deductions of a registered plan when things look short? Can you?

Of course, the sensible answer screams out to me, "Of course you can!", and so I should just take a stab at it then watch it closely for the 1st month or two and make those fine-tuning type of adjustments. As this is a new endeavor, I know my agent will understand. If he doesn't, I can get a new one.

It's worth working out because this, after all, is the goal.

In other interesting news, a perusal through the Investing section on news.com.au, reveals a very nice explanation on Short Selling and Margin Loans by James Dunn.

It is clearly a gamblers game and shorting a stock is not part of the long-term strategy we are seeking. It ranks up there with lotto tickets. But at least we now know how it's done, by whom and why.