Last day and the Beginning of Something New
December 29th, 2006
I think it’s pretty fitting that today is my last day at my job especially since today is also the last business day of the year. I don’t think I could have planned it any better than this, I start my new job in the new year, a fresh start doing something a bit different than I’ve done before.
I’m quite looking forward to the new year and the new challenges that will be there. Over the next couple days I’ll be posting about the resolutions/goals for the new year. For now I’ve got to close up shop at the existing job and head out for good.
Technorati Tags: New Job, Last Day
Posted in News/Misc | No Comments
2006, A Personal Review
December 28th, 2006
Well it’s that time of year, where we take a moment to look back and see how things have transpired over the year. See what went wrong, see what went right and make some adjustments to make sure that the next year will be better than this one. Personally I had a pretty up and down year. In March I was packaged out of my previous position, in May I got a new position. At the end of May and early June my fiancé and I found a great property but the deal fell through at the very last minute due to poor information given to us by our bank (I’m still bitter with the bank about this). Later in June we got engaged. Spent most of the weekends in the summer at the boat which we finally fixed up this year, it made for some really relaxing weekends. In September my job started becoming rather intolerable and in December this finally got resolved when another position came up. Unfortunately this also came with a considerable price tag (a 33% drop in pay) and I took it (the benefits outweigh the costs).
On a far sadder note my grandfather passed away this summer, I was hoping he would be able to make it to our wedding but unfortunately he wasn’t. At least he didn’t suffer; personally I would hate to suffer through a slow painful death.
In September I also started this site up and I’m grateful that I did. I have learnt so much in the past four months that I am amazed. I’m still struggling to contain my finances and my spending but at least there is headway where before there was simply struggling. There have been some bad decisions along the way but most of them are further in my past and I have become much more conscious of my money and money in general.
Finally one of my biggest frustrations for the year is that I wasn’t able to quit smoking, I’ve tried and I was doing really well until I lost my job in March. I wasn’t as ready as I would have thought. I believe that this will end up being priority number 1 for the next year. I’m in far better shape than I was this time last year and I intend to keep this part up, I’m down about 15 lbs since this time last year which is amazing. But I’m still partaking too much in excess, too much going out, too much drinking, not enough paying attention to my health and my body. But overall this year was a considerable improvement over the past few.
Over the next couple days I’m going to continue my review (though more likely this will be in my head and not on this site) and I’ll start putting some goals to paper.
Technorati Tags: Review, 2006, Assment
Posted in Commentary | 1 Comment
Overspending this Christmas
December 27th, 2006
This year I was intending to spend between $350 and $400 dollars on Christmas presents. Unfortunately the reality is I spent closer to $630 on gifts this year. I bought more gifts for my fiancé then I was planning, I got my parents 2 gifts instead of the one that I was planning and the simple gift I wanted to get for my grandmother turned into a $70 gift. I was conscious of the fact that I was spending more money than I wanted to but the moment that I gave into the fact I was going to spend more I spent way too much. I guess the saving grace here is that I didn’t spend anything on credit cards and I bought gifts for more people than I was originally intending. To cap this off I did receive a $200 cash gift from my grandmother which if you add everything together would put me close to my intended target. But I’m not going to take that cash gift and apply it to my bank balance but I’m going to deposit it into my mutual funds account that I’ve earmarked for wedding savings.
The goal this year was to spend less on Christmas this year and even though I overspent I spent a lot less money than I did last year. It didn’t take away from the spirit of the season and next year it will be a lot of the same!
Overall I’m very happy with the outcome of this years Christmas both in loot given and received but also in the fact that it was a fun and happy time with so much eating that we’ll have leftovers for days! Now for the next big challenge keeping New Years tame and set up some very realistic goals for the New Year!
Technorati Tags: Christmas Roundup, Spending, Overspending, Christmas, Money
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary | 1 Comment
Merry Christmas and an Update
December 27th, 2006
I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year, I know that I did. I spent a bit too much money but that’s about normal for this time of year. I’ve started doing the tallying for how much money I ended up spending. I believe it will be over my budgeted amount but far below the past couple Christmases.
Since I was out of town for the holidays I couldn’t post so I really hope everyone had a very merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you happen to celebrate).
I’ll be posting my post Christmas update later on today and I’ll start looking forward to the new year.
Technorati Tags: Christmas, roundup, budget, New Years
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary | No Comments
The Pre Christmas Roundup
December 22nd, 2006
Well as of today there are only three shopping days left before the stores close. That’s right boys and girls you’ve only about 60 hours to get everything taken care of and in some places you’ve even got less time than that. Have I hit any consumerist panic buttons yet?
I could continue on a rather sarcastic jaunt into mocking the absolute consumerism of this holiday but I won’t, I’ll play nice today. I’ve just barely started my Christmas shopping but I’m not in panic mode nor will I be. I’ve got about half my gifts, maybe a bit more left to buy but I know exactly what I’m planning on getting, where and when I’m going to get out to these stores to get these items and here’s the best thing I’ve got the time to do it.
I am planning to spend a little more than my originally budgeted $350 on gifts but not a great deal more. I made sure to be careful with my spending this year because last year I spent too much and had difficulties paying all of my bills when January rolled around. With all of the consumerism around this holiday I think we miss the fact that it’s more about spending time with those you love than it is trying to outspend yourself from last year.
Are you ready for Christmas yet?
Technorati Tags: consumerism, shopping, Christmas
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Commentary | 3 Comments
Reduced Car Insurance Costs
December 21st, 2006
I have to say I’m quite impressed by the drop in my insurance that I was able to arrange. My car insurance was extremely high even for the region that I live in. I was paying $475 per month because of some stuff on my driving record in the past. I’m not entirely innocent on that front but not entirely at fault either. The net result is I’ve been paying really high insurance for close to three years. But this is changing starting now!
I managed to get my monthly rate dropped to $328 per month for a savings of almost $150 a month. This is definitely going to make my life a whole hell of a lot easier once my lower pay starts kicking in. When I was considering my new salary I was using the higher value to calculate if I would be able to pay all my bills and I was so this should allow me to pay down my debt a bit more and save some money for the wedding as well.
I’m definitely happy I was able to get the car insurance dropped by as much as I did. When was the last time you had your car insurance rates re-evaluated?
Technorati Tags: car insurance, insurance, cost reduction, bills
Posted in Saving Ideas, Monthly Planning | 3 Comments
Credit Card Fraud
December 20th, 2006
Last night my fiancé hopped onto her online banking to pay a few bills and low and behold she discovered something very strange. Someone had made a bunch of charges on her credit card, ones that she couldn’t have possibly made since they were out of town. This is the first time that I’ve seen this happen in literally years. She promptly called the bank up and explained the situation looking for a way to get those charges reversed.
Thankfully the bank was well equipped to deal with this they asked her a bunch of questions and in a matter of about 10 minutes the complaint had been filed and the bank was investigating the charges. Now if it was something small then it’s not a big deal but in this case the charges amounted to close to 1000 dollars. Someone had a great time charging 2 very large bills at a restaurant out of town and then paid for 3 full fill ups of gas a week later. Realistically this isn’t possible since my fiancé doesn’t have a drivers license and has never paid for my gas with her credit card.
I’m not entirely sure how this happened but it goes to show that it’s good to keep close tabs on your credit cards and your bank information. She caught this problem while it was still early. Her card has been destroyed and hopefully this person(s) will be caught. Even if they aren’t at least the bank is looking into getting those charges reversed for her.
Technorati Tags: credit card fraud, credit card, identity theft
Posted in Commentary, Debt | 4 Comments
Book Review – Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
December 19th, 2006
Last week I finished T. Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and I have to say that overall I was quite impressed by the book. With one caveat: while reading the book the rather constant plugs and suggestions that the reader take his seminars was a bit distracting.
The book is essentially broken down into two main parts, the first one is the description of the financial blueprint. This is the first time that I’ve seen this referenced and when it boils down to it, it’s how ones upbringing leaves a blueprint on our behavior for how we deal with money. Our financial blueprint; it’s an interesting idea that makes perfect sense. When I was growing up my family didn’t have a lot of money and it shows in my blueprint. I need to make some adjustments to my blueprint to be better able to make money.
The second part of the book is 17 primary points about what rich people do that the poor and middle class do not. Most of them are pretty obvious points and not necessarily tied to money though that is a very strong undercurrent. Essentially it points out that rich people approach money from the point of view of wanting/needing it to achieve their goals. In doing this they look for opportunities and take control over their lives in order to take advantage of them. Mr. Eker goes into detail about each point and every one of them is logically sound (at least to me).
I really enjoyed the book even though the plugs for his conferences distracted me from the content a bit. I’ll be happy to add this book to my PF collection.
Technorati Tags: book review, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker, financial blueprint
Posted in Books | No Comments
Resigned!
December 18th, 2006
A little while ago I posed that I’ll be taking a 33% pay cut and today, shaking a little, I handed in my two weeks notice. I haven’t resigned my position many times in the past and I have to say that it’s a little unnerving. Two weeks from now I’ll be sleeping in and taking a week off to just relax before starting my new job.
This is the start of something completely new. I’m going to have to scramble to get all the necessary money for the wedding and making sure that all of my bills are paid on time. I like the idea of change and being forced to think and figure out what to do next. This is a good start, the new position will make me think more and challenge me.
Technorati Tags: New Job, Resigning, Money
Posted in News/Misc | 5 Comments
Tagged!
December 18th, 2006
The Ladies at No Limit Ladies have tagged me to reveal 5 things about myself that aren’t common knowledge, secrets if you will. This shouldn’t be too hard:
- My first attempt at completing my undergrad degree lead to me being suspended from my University for poor grades. I promptly started working then finished my degree online from the University of Phoenix 6 years later.
- Most of my Blogging occurs when I’m at the office because I’m not engaged in my work, it keeps my brain occupied and engaged.
- I’m a Canadian but emigrated from Poland when I was just a child, I still speak Polish fluently.
- I love hockey and play at least once a week for most of the year, I only started playing when I was 25. I didn’t play as a child because my parents thought it was too violent.
- I had the idea for this blog while on summer vacation; specifically it was while sailing on my little boat (19 ft). I’ve never looked back.
Wow that was harder than I thought it would be. Now for the part that I really thought was going to give me some trouble: Figuring out who to tag (especially since a lot of people have been tagged). Here are the five people I’m tagging for this:
My Money Path
2$ Million
Medicated Money
The Simple Dollar
We’re in Debt
I’m sorry if you’ve already been tagged, I tried picking blogs/bloggers who haven’t been tagged before.
Technorati Tags: tagged, five things, fun
Posted in News/Misc | 4 Comments
