Wednesday 12 April 2017

Exuberance and Prudence

I have been working on this problem of how and by what date to pay off this the last of my debts . . . the Wanda Loan.

This has been a hobby of mine but I suppose focussing on improving your finances is a better hobby than some. 

The date I have tossed around as “Total Debt Freedom Day” has moved around so much that I have come to understand that there is no way to accurately predict when that will be.

The range has been from as early as August 7 to December 22 of this year. The typical date that it has been has been September 22.

I have been trying to squeeze as much as I can out of my budgets in order to move that date ever further up. So much so that my budgets have become unrealistic.

They have been unrealistic in the fact that they relied on me making more than I do. Whilst my paycheque will vary, it won’t vary that much, and not that frequently.

So thus I tried the deficit financing option in order to make up the shortfall. I am not a government, however, so I can’t live in a deficit for long. 

So, this forced me to rethink and rework my budget plan and lower the Large Wanda Payments a bit, in order to free up room in my budget.

The result of this was to push that date back one payday to October 7. The trouble with this date is that I would have to drain all of my funds in order to do this.

This would mean that the following paycheque would be spent trying to refill my cash reserves. Not a smart plan for only one payday, yet in reality, not really.

With the Truck Loan it made sense as those payments were $541.00 and were monthly, so draining finances for that one payday made sense. 

The Wanda Payments are $122.00 bi-Weekly, not all that large in comparison so pushing things a payday or two is less urgent. 

What all this means is that the new date is sitting at (currently) October 22, 2017. Still not a bad thing as this is certainly done before the end of this year (my stated pledge).

The October 22 date will mean that I will be able to pay off my extortion from the Taxman in November and December (RRSP repayment).

This, of course, means that if I stick to my “no vacation until debt free” plan I won’t take a vacation until November . . . and then take another one over Christmas.

So, I will just go somewhere nearby, sometime in August and park my butt for a week. I can still do this and be debt free by Oct 22.

This brings us to the point of this blog entry. While on such large quests as this, you need to find that balance between completing it as quickly as possible and the realities of the situation. 

This is the balance you must strike between Exuberance and Prudence.

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

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