Happy Thanksgiving!
October 13th, 2008
To all my Canadian readers: Happy Thanksgiving! I’ve always like this holiday because of all of the great food but recently I’ve also started liking it because it makes me pause and think about all of the little things in my life that I am thankful for. It also makes me stop and think about all the things I am taking for granted that I shouldn’t be. Be thankful for what you have not bitter and envious about all of the things you don’t.
For my American readers - you get to wait while we get our Turkey a month early! Sorry that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
To all my readers: Thank you - I appreciate the fact that there are so many of you and that you leave me comments and occasionally send me emails. You guys make keeping this site up a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time out of your days to read what I have to say.
Posted in News/Misc | No Comments
Its a Girl!!
October 7th, 2008
I wrote recently saying that my wife was expecting and this past weekend she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Both mommy and baby are doing fine though we’re all a little tired and getting used to our new life together. It’s very awe inspiring witnessing a birth and daunting realizing the breadth of the responsibility that we as parents have undertaken.
So a bit of details, she was born weighing 8lbs 3oz without any complications (other than a long labour).Her name is Claire and I’ll post up some pictures soon. I’ve been taking them I just haven’t had a chance to put them onto a computer yet.
Life at home is slowly taking some form of shape though I’m sure this will be ever changing for the next little bit. I’ll be posting as I can for the next couple days with regular posting coming back soon. The needs of the baby come before everything else.
Posted in News/Misc | 4 Comments
How to Survive in a Turbulent Economy
October 3rd, 2008
The stock markets are up and down like a very big yo-yo and we’re bombarded by talk of recession daily. We as investors are left to deal with it and somehow make sense of it. The fact of the matter is I don’t think most of my readers are active investors, they know to invest their money and to save for a rainy day but I don’t think a great many of them know the ins and outs of the planned bailout. I know I don’t. So where does that leave the majority of people? How are we supposed to survive in this turbulent economy?
Stay calm and don’t panic.
Panicking and pulling your investment when they’ve lost a good deal of money isn’t going to help anyone least of all you as the investor. If you stop and think about it yes we might be in some tough economic times but how likely are they to continue forever? The simple answer is not very. I know people will argue about the stock markets continuously making money but statistics really does back this claim. Using this logic if you pull your money out you’ll loose it.
Patience is a virtue and although you might end up loosing money in the end by being calm and letting the economic front settle a little you can save yourself a great deal of grief. Panicked selloffs are part of the problem that some of these banks are encountering; people are worried about their money they pull their investments and pull out their cash leaving banks with little reserves.
The economy will balance itself out.
If you don’t understand what’s going on in the economy educate yourself before making a large move with your investment money. The economy will fluctuate and this isn’t the first nor the last time we’ll encounter a recession. When the Dot Com bubble burst lots of people lost their money and it will be no different this time but this doesn’t have to happen. Be patient and if you don’t understand what’s going on to feel comfortable speak to an investment advisor.
Listening to the media is dangerous.
Newspapers and new sources are expected to sell their information, this has always been the case. Because of that these sources are always vying for the best story and most sensational headline to grab peoples attention. Unfortunately this doesn’t always convey the truth of the matter. Question what you read, especially if its highly sensational and rely on experts when you don’t know what to do. If you aren’t’ comfortable with what your investment banker is saying get a second opinion.
Stay calm, don’t panic and you’ll probably save yourself a lot of money.
Posted in Commentary, Financial Situation | No Comments
Weekly Budget - Week 19 (Sept 29 - Oct 5)
October 2nd, 2008
This weeks budget is very similar to that of the past few weeks and not too much has changed. This week I’ve got my monthly parking costs coming out and I’ve got a bit more driving to do but otherwise its pretty much status quo. My wife is now on maternity leave and we’ll be a bit tighter on the cash front for a little while until she goes back to work.
| Weekly Budget Sept 29 - Oct 5 |
||
| Budget | Actual | |
| Alcohol | $25.00 | |
| Food-Lunch | $15.00 | |
| Food | $100.00 | |
| Gas | $50.00 | |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | |
| Smokes | $25.00 | |
| Misc | $40.00 | |
| Transportation | $115.00 | |
| Stupid | $0.00 | |
| Total | $370.00 | |
I honestly thing my Alcohol consumption has gone down even more than it has before and I think the $25 for the week is being generous but until I see the results in the receipts it’ll be hard to tell. I think this weeks budget is very attainable and I will post up the results when I post my budget for next week on Sunday. This is a small change I’m making when I post these weekly budgets up, rather than having separate posts for budget and assessment they’ll be blended into one post on Sunday evenings (or the odd Monday morning).
Posted in Budgeting and Planning | No Comments
A Brief Hiatus
September 28th, 2008
Every now and then we all need to take some time to pause and reconnect with ourselves. This past week I’ve been doing just that. Last weekend I posted that I was in an introspective mood and that I was going to take the weekend to figure things out. Well its turned into a full week already and I’m still figuring things out.
I decided that I wasn’t ready to just randomly start posting again in the middle of the week I was still trying to figure a few things out. The reality is that I’m still in that headspace but this blog did afford me something unique. There are no gray areas when it comes to this site I enjoy it and although I didn’t have any set goals there were some underlying ones such as write posts and try growing the site.
So for me to continue a hiatus for this site would be rather pointless. I know I want to write on this site and I’m going to continue this. I’m still thinking about a lot of my goals and trying to get a perspective on where I am and where I am going. As I was going through my roles I did find a few of them that were clear and the goals were obvious. For the next couple weeks my goals for this site are going to be very simple: write.
As for the other goals in my life as soon as I’ve managed to get a handle on them I’ll post a few of them up here. One of the things I found interesting about this exercise is just how many of our roles are interrelated and linked somehow. Tomorrow I’ll post up my weekly budget.
Posted in News/Misc, Commentary | No Comments
Reflecting on Goals
September 19th, 2008
From a young age we’re taught to set goals for ourselves and when we grow up these goals become larger and more important. Some of us start using goals later in life than others and really some of us just never get the hang of it. Personally I like using goals to set targets for myself but they don’t always work out. My projects and goals can from time to time go into limbo.
Every now and then I like to stop and reflect on my goals and projects and as it turns out i don’t think I’ve done this for a little while. This weekend I’m planning on taking a bit of a step back to look over my goals and in particular my finances and my financial goals. I’ve been coming up with weekly budgets for a while now and I think I’ve got a sense of what’s happening. I know there are some changes that need to be made but without taking that step back and look at the direction I’m going then I might keep plugging away in the wrong direction.
I’ve always struggled with goals mostly because its easy to come up with them but the follow through can be a bit more difficult. I want to make sure I actually meet my goals and projects rather than doing a lot of work and talking about them but not accomplishing very much. This weekend will be about introspection so that I can see where I’m at and to pull back to make sure that I’m able to do all the things I want to do. I’ve been interchanging goals and projects in this post because they’re often tied very directly but they can be different. I think its time to really figure out where I’m at and where I want to go.
Without perspective goals and projects can become lost.
Posted in News/Misc, Commentary | No Comments
The Cost of Vices
September 17th, 2008
We’ve all got our vices some of them are mostly innocent such as having a latte in the morning or watching some completely brainless TV. Regardless most of us have some form of vice or another and most of us have a few vices that we probably shouldn’t have. I definitely fall into the category of having a few vices too many and the worst part is that these vices aren’t cheap.
Vices in general aren’t cheap
Most vices are things that we do over and over again maybe not all the time but often enough to consider them a bit of a habit. The other bad thing about vices is that most of them cost us money. I know there are examples of vices that are essentially free but a very large amount of them aren’t.
My vices cost me lots of money
My particular vices happen to be smokes and having a few beers (or some wine). I’ve managed to keep them fairly low key since they were getting expensive. But even though I’ve cut back, my vices still cost me lots of money. The smoking is probably the worst once since it’s extremely bad for you and at over $8 per pack it really adds up. I’m smoking about a pack every two days so each month I’m spending about $120 on smokes. Not a huge amount but when you think about it that’s $1,440 per year! A simple vice such as smoking can be killing you financially.
Now if I were to tabulate all of my vices that cost me money it very quickly ads up to about $60 a week, give or take. Again $60 for something you enjoy isn’t that much (I do enjoy having a few beers or a glass or two of wine); but that amount grows very quickly and amounts to $3,120 per year.
I’m using two pretty common examples with vices and the truth is the $60 per week that I spend on these two really isn’t a great deal. Without much effort you can increase the numbers a lot especially if you live in a big city and like to go out for a couple drinks.
Cutting back on Vices can speed up debt repayment
Now that I’ve got a baby on the way and I’m still in debt (and still frustrated by my debt) I’ve been thinking about my vices and the fact that there’s a lot of money going into them (even though I’ve toned them down). I know that I should cut back or even eliminate my vices but I do like them. Its a bit of a catch-22 in that I like them and enjoy a few drinks but the extra $60 per week would mean I get a head that much quicker. As a temporary move cutting back on vices can really help me repay my debts.
Not all Vices are created equal
I guess part of any discussion on the cost of vices needs to be tempered by the fact that some vices are considerably more costly than others. A chocolate bar with lunch isn’t the same as having a $200 bottle of wine with dinner each night. Vices can be completely benign or they could be illegal and extremely expensive. You have to know your limits and adjust as necessary which is why I think I might have to trim my smoking and drinking even further and possibly eliminate them completely for a time just to get the debt under control.
What vices do you have? Have you considered how much they ‘re costing you and what you could do with the money? If your vices are of the once in a blue moon variety and don’t cost much then it’s not really a big deal but when they’re regular and costly they can add up.
Posted in Commentary | 2 Comments
Baby on the Way
September 16th, 2008
There are times in your life when you become incredibly busy and have to prioritize what time you do have in the best possible way. This past summer I had to do just that for a very specific reason. In the next few weeks my wife will be giving birth to our first child. I’ve kept this information mostly private but with the little one due shortly it I figured I would put the good news out there.
With the impending addition to the family we needed to buy a bigger house to ensure we had everything we needed space wise for the child and ourselves. With the new house and getting everything ready for the baby I’ve been incredibly busy with offline projects. Most of these are now starting to wind down and I’m trying to get a bit ahead of myself and making sure everything is ready for the baby. I expect that once the little one arrives the craziness from the summer will seem like down time.
Needless to say I’m very excited for this event even if our finances aren’t as cleared up as I would have liked them to be for starting a family. What I can say about the experience so far is that it has been awe inspiring to see the ultrasounds and feel the baby moving around. There has been a great deal of work up to now and I’m sure there will be a great deal more to come but I’m looking forward to meeting my little one.
Request for guest posts - if anyone is interested in writing a guest post for this blog drop me a note. I’m likely to need a few just in case I get too busy to post around the time of delivery.
Posted in News/Misc | 2 Comments
Weekly Budget - Week 17 (Sept 15-21)
September 15th, 2008
Another week has gone by in a whirlwind and we’re now halfway through September. Unfortunately due to a bit of laziness the windshield is still unfinished, things have been a bit busy. For the most part my budget from the past couple weeks hasn’t changed and it won’t change for this week. I’m expecting a bit less driving this week but otherwise everything is pretty much the same. Here is this weeks budget:
| Weekly Budget Sept 8-14 |
||
| Budget | Actual | |
| Alcohol | $25.00 | |
| Food-Lunch | $20.00 | |
| Food | $80.00 | |
| Gas | $30.00 | |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | |
| Smokes | $25.00 | |
| Misc | $40.00 | |
| Transportation | $325.00 | |
| Stupid | $0.00 | |
| Total | $545.00 | |
I’m slowly getting through an incredibly busy period and I am planning on getting a bit ahead on posting and my finances in general to make sure that everything is caught up. I’ll be posting about why I’ve been really busy this summer and what’s in store for the site tomorrow.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning | 1 Comment
Week 15 Budget Assessment
September 10th, 2008
I finally had a chance to go through last weeks expenses and as it turns out that my expenses were not as I had expected them not by a long shot. I ended up being below budget but that’s because I didn’t replace my cracked windshield as planned which means that had I gotten to it I would have been grossly over budget. Here are the numbers from last week:
| Weekly Budget Sept 1-7 |
||
| Budget | Actual | |
| Alcohol | $25.00 | $39.96 |
| Food-Lunch | $20.00 | $24.94 |
| Food | $80.00 | $40.00 |
| Gas | $45.00 | $60.00 |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Smokes | $25.00 | $16.90 |
| Misc | $40.00 | $181.17 |
| Transportation | $325.00 | $115.00 |
| Stupid | $0.00 | $5.00 |
| Total | $560.00 | $482.96 |
Spent more in most of the categories but this was kept in check by the fact that I didn’t spend nearly as much as I was expecting on the car. I didn’t end up getting the windshield as I was expecting what I did end up spending a fair amount of money on was a lot of house stuff for fixing up the walls in the basement.
There ended up being a fair amount of driving for me this week and that translated into more gas costs than I was expecting. This was nicely tempered by the fact that I didn’t spend nearly as much on food. I was a bit lazy this week in that I didn’t bring lunch with me at all and this drove my lunch costs up.
Overall I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with the results from this week because although I was expecting to spend a lot of money I wasn’t expecting there to be this much spending. Had I ended up spending money on the windshield then I would have been grossly over my budget.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning | 1 Comment
