One Step, Consistent Steps

I will say, and have said that time moves both slowly and quickly at the same time. For as it feels like the heat will never end, it also feels like fall, and then winter is right upon me.

It also feels like I have only just begun this journey of being an Urban Nomad in search of taking back control of my finances. Yet at the same time it feels like I have been living in Wanda forever and a day.

I am always looking to my finances and looking at two time periods at once, one is here today, now, and the other is the next pay period. That’s it, no more.

Further out than that is not assured, and what can happen then is only a guess. I do look to the future and I do plan and dream, but I don’t make plans written in stone.

I know that I have the cash in hand and that I will at least get my next paycheque. It may be my last paycheque from this employer, but that’s it.

We have all seen companies fold up without notice, or people get downsized, fired, dismissed or just plain lose their job for any number of a thousand reasons, most of which are not their fault.

This is why, living without any kind of savings is like being a trapeze artist without a net, one slip up could cause you serious harm. (As in splat!)

So this is part of the reason why I have my Mid-Term Savings Account (as modest as it is) and my “Personal Overdraft” in my Main Account; as a bit of a cushion, if I need it.

The Long-Term Savings Account is steadily building up to pay off Wanda and so I consider it spent and can’t be touched. Yet, at the same time it is there to be that extra fiscal buffer from total fiscal devastation.

Again, I don’t like working without a net or without any sort of savings, especially after having done so for so long.

I highly recommend getting one, even if it is just $500.00 and it takes you six months to save up that much. Just get started, just do it, do at least that much.

I focus on this payday and today, so as to control my spending. I am always aware of what I am spending and if I am on track to meet my fiscal targets I have set out for myself.

I have my budgets for my next two paydays laid out with projections and estimations, the further out they go into time. Again, this is to motivate me, to keep me on track.

By looking at the future, the near future, I can see what is actually possible if I stay on track and not do something fiscally stupid like make a big purchase.

I get to see what goals, however minor, that I can achieve if I keep spending as little as possible. This is not a glamorous or extravagant lifestyle, but it is necessary for now.

I do see a time when I am living in a house, somewhere and hopefully paid off, sooner rather than later.

I envision me standing on my porch, sipping my coffee as the sun rises over the trees of my acreage . . . and a dog . . . need a dog  . . . and a cat . . . for rodent control and bed warming.

To get there, I have to keep moving forward, one step at a time, one paycheque at a time, consistently improving my life and my fiscal health.

For no reason, here is your sunrise shot

  

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!