Slow and Steady Should Win the Race

This is a blog entry to encourage people who are reading this while still mired in debt, feeling that they will never ever be able to be out from under it to just start tackling it!

Slow and steady really does win the race. No change, no large change, happens overnight. It would be more accurate to say that that change should not happen overnight.

If you get a large sum of money dropped into your lap, you will not know how to handle it. 

Most likely, and I’m speaking from experience here, you will find ways to fritter it away, because you are not used to having it.

It will take time to change your fiscal habits and attitudes towards money and cash flow.

Once you have done that then you will be in a position to better handle larger sums of money when you do get it.

Paying off Debt is not easy, nor is it quick; but that’s okay, you need the time to learn. 

It will take time to unlearn the bad habits that have been taught to us in order to keep us perpetually indebted. Just ask me about my “Trickle-Up Theory of Economics.”

I have said this before and I will say it again: being constantly mired in debt is not normal! This is not something to just throw up your hands and accept.

Find a way, make a plan, devise some (legal and ethical) way to get out of debt! 

Clean debt, such as a mortgage is fine. Buying a car is okay too, but constantly buying a new one just to always have a new one? Why?

There are many ways to squeak out a bit of cash from your budget and put that towards your debt. You can do this, you got this.

If you are like I was and awash in debt, please do something about it. If you need an encouraging word or perhaps a bit of advice, message me and I will be happy to help. 

For clarification and legal reasons, I am not a financial planner or other financial professional and I do not claim to be one. I am just an average guy who has figured out how to get my debt gone.

A good place to start would be to download the spreadsheets that are in the column to the left and play with your budget. 

Once again, for no reason whatsoever, here is your sunrise shot:

  

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

Back in The Black!

Due to an oddity, I actually have my next paycheque in my hands now . . . early . . . as in 12 days early. 

Why? Because my boss is going on vacation and won’t be back till after the aforementioned payday. 

Add to that that he’s not a jerk who would make us wait (yay Boss) and you have all of us with our next payday in our hot little hands even as he is away. (Talk about trust.) 

Not that this does me much good, as it is dated for the actual payday and minor trickery aside, I won’t cash it, even if I could. 

I am not due that money until that date so I will not even attempt to deposit it until that date. 

Besides, then I would have an even longer period to wait until the paycheque after that . . . and a pissed off boss (or ex-boss).

What this does allow me to do is put my budget in place for my next payday cycle, while just starting this one. 

Since I am able to budget and stick to it, I can predict to the penny what I will have left in the bank at the end of this payday cycle. 

This is a big deal when it comes to budgeting what to do and what I have to work with at the beginning of the next payday cycle. 

What this all means is that, due to the boss dipping a bit more into my well-stocked holiday pay fund, this upcoming payday is also generous. 

With a bit of scrimping, saving and budgetary magic on my part, I will be able to fully fund (back to the minimum acceptable levels) my Mid-Term Savings Account. 

This is huge, as it means that I can start to focus on paying back that IOU I have to my Long-Term Savings Account that must be paid (so sayeth the me) before the end of this year.

I will admit that I am not enthused to be back to having drivers buzz my house at +60KMH or going back to my other miserly ways.

It is good to remind myself that things are moving forward, that my situation is steadily, if incrementally. 

Again, the key to this is to have those small, achievable and measurable goals sprinkled along the path towards your larger goals. 

For no reason whatsoever, here is your sunrise shot.

  

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

My Own Credit Card

Okay, so first of all, yesterday was Payday for me, so that meant running around and ending up in my Western Home. 

With the help of a bit of budgetary trickery I was able to put some cash into my Mid-Term Savings Account. This was my depleted “Vacation Fund.” 

I am hoping that by the end of next month, to have that sucker back up to its “minimum acceptable level of $1000.00. 

Just before going on my vacation I talked to the bank and “activated” the savings button. 

As in, I had them point the “Savings” button on any of those Debit payment machines to point to my Mid-Term Savings Account.

What this meant was that I was able to go on vacation and still keep my main account and regularly scheduled budgeting on track and not be obliterated.

Coming back, what this means is that I can spend cash directly out of that account. So, in effect, what I have done is made my own personal credit card. 

I was shopping yesterday, after buying my groceries I realized that there were a few household items that I needed, so across the parking lot I went to buy them from my host store.

As I neared the cash register, I was going to put it on the credit card, and pay it off when I get paid again. 

It has been a game where I steal from the next payday cycle for stuff that I want now. I decided to break that cycle and just buy these items out of my Mid-Term Savings Account. 

The idea is to bring back the real pain of the spend and cause me to really wonder if I need to buy this item or that. 

It worked as I was not pleased to see that account diminished, even by the $30.00 of this transaction. 

A healthy portion of it was office supplies that I stock up on during the “Back to school sales.” 

One such item are the simple and plain zip up pencil cases that are great for storing cables, chargers and other small items in. 

So, I will continue to do this and do my darndest to only spend online purchases on the credit card. I hope to keep this card down to zero, and never carry a balance. 

I thought that I would share this little trick and see if it could help others.

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

Vacation in Review

Okay, so I was able to make it back safe and sound and in good time yesterday. I was also able to make it from the eastern edge of Kamloops back home (with fumes to spare) on one tank of gas.

Today is payday, or rather Friday actually was, so there should be a paycheque waiting for me when I get to work. 

So this is back to the grindstone for me, and well timed as I have a fresh paycycle to help me adjust back to the regular work routine.

Already as I blog this I have Monday morning traffic buzzing by my trailer all eager to get to work and seemingly to see how close they can drive to my trailer.

It was good to get away and it was good to see family, some I have not seen in years. It was not long enough, but perhaps enough for me to remind them that I am alive and perhaps not who they remembered that I was.

Likewise I could see them as they are now and not as they were. Time and life move on and those small ones grow up and have families of their own. Those bundles of joy that my brother had have grown up and are all but ready to leave the nest.

As it always does, it throws my life, or rather lack of family life into sharp contrast. Again this is always something that happens.

I have made my choices and I still continue to make them. I am not a victim of life or any conspiracy. If I am a victim of anything, it is of the choices that I have made: the ghosts of the road not taken.

I will keep going, keep endeavouring to look forward towards a brighter future. I know not what exactly this way comes, but I know that the future is of my own design.

Remember kids: the future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.

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

Day 16 - Rolling Into Revelstoke

Okay, so it seems that once I got diving, I just kept going. 

I got up and packed, on schedule. As an added twist, I noticed after I was all packed up that there was an obscure and hidden box behind the electrical hookup . . . The cable vision hookup.

I had 'suffered' through a week of crappy TV with signal dropping out regularly while using my 'digital rabbit ears' on the roof, rather than use the cable vision connection that was there. . . And the cable vision cable that I had bought specifically for this purpose ah well.

I made it to the 11:00 ferry and we made it to the other side by 12:30. After that I drove through to Hope, took an early exit, got kinda lost . . . As in the scenic route to the McDonalds but managed to find a place to fill up first. 

After that I drove to Kamloops and after topping up and getting a snack I ended up driving to Revelstoke, where a large RV/Truck rest area called to me. So I stayed here for the night. 

This morning I was greeted by this view.

Well, I need to finish up breakfast, as I am Blogging on my iPad in the local Tim Hortons. It is about time that I got back out on the road again. 

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

Day 15 – Travel Day 1

So, today is a travel day which means that I will be driving most of today. I have looked at the map and decided to stop for the night in Kamloops.

Sure, I could drive all the way home, but I don’t see the point. After all I don’t have to be home until Monday morning for work, and I am dragging my house behind me.

So, this means that I will have less stress as I have an easy and manageable target, one that is sorta half way home. 

So, after posting this blog I will do my dishes, pack up the inside of the house yet not do anything outside, or noisy until after eight, local time. 

This way I can be at least somewhat considerate to my neighbours before heading out. I still plan to be wheels rolling by nine this morning. 

So, I should get going as I have work to do. 

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

Day 14

My how time flies, it is now two full weeks since I have started this vacation. This is the last day of my real vacation as the next two days are travel days. 

I did rest an do very little yesterday, and I will do the same today. Sometime in the afternoon I will do my laundry and later still I will pack up the house somewhat.

As I have done before, I will wait until eight in the morning before packing up, so as to not make too much noise. I still plan to be hitched up and be driving out of here or “Wheels Rolling” by nine.

I still have no idea which sailing of the ferry I will catch, but I plan to drive to Kamloops and stay there for the night and drive the rest of the way home on Sunday.

As far as the vacation fund goes, my estimations were right as it is or will be all but drained by the time I get home. 

Again that is fine, as it was a vacation and this was the time for me to spend a bit of cash and see family. 

I will go back to my miserly ways and fill that fund back up and yes, keep my savings plan on track. I will be fine, I will be debt free and in so doing be truly free.

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