Pondering Press Pieces

I saw one of those “Your Memories” posts on Facebook this morning and it was the fact that one year ago today a newspaper did an article on me. They were following up from an article done a year prior to that (two years ago).

This causes me to reflect on the small amount of press attention that I have received and my own thoughts on it. I admit to having mixed feelings on it. 

(Disclosure: this blog entry does ramble a bit).

For one, let’s say that I do become some sort of (even for a short time) media sensation and massive cover story (unlikely). 

We all know that nobody’s life can survive such intense scrutiny and we as a society like to look for the bad about someone and rip them to shreds. 

This of course gives me a moment of pause, but I have always been honest with who I am and what I am doing. If you ask me something, I will answer honestly. 

If you complain or try to chastise me about some aspect of my life, I will listen, but I certainly won’t apologize if you don’t like something about me or my lifestyle. I am who I am, take me or leave me.

I do blog, so my life is out there and I suppose a matter of public record; fine, I accept that. If some reporter or other media person wants to talk to me, okay, drop me a line and let’s set up a meeting.

Part of the reason why I blog is not only to educate and enlighten people that there are other ways to reduce and eliminate debt but to also as a protest of sorts.

I blog to draw attention to the trap of debt and the expected “normal” structure of our society. Why is it that this is, my “Urban Nomad” lifestyle, is the most effective way to eliminate debt? 

What aggravates me furthermore is why should anyone have to do this to get rid of debt? The short answer is that people are not expected to get rid of debt, ever. 

We are supposed to carry debt and we are told by economists (and bankers) that debt is good. Don’t eliminate debt just “manage it.”  Sure, I’ll say it, debt is good . . . for them! 

I see debt for what it is, a trap, for once you have debt and/or a mortgage, you are trapped and will never do anything but pay bills until you die. 

Sure, you will live a comfortable life, but your money and assets are never truly yours and are always at risk of being taken away, why . . . debt.

So, I will continue to work towards Total Debt Freedom, and work my goals and keep saving up to achieve my dreams (they are many and grand and yes bold). 

The future is truly so bright, that I have to wear shades . . . and a hat, you always need a good hat. 

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

The Oops-Fund Imperative

Nothing chills the heart faster than looking at your bank balance and seeing, realizing that there is nothing left.

You have less than five bucks to last you a little over a week and a half . . . and you have expenses still coming: gas, food, bus fare, etc.

This is a place that I have been many times in my life, and is certainly not a place that I want to go back to.

This is the reason for the “Oops-Fund”, the “Contingency Fund” or whatever you call it; that little pot of cash that you can dip into when you need to.

The trouble is that for most people, that “Oops-Fund” is our credit cards. This is what got me into my troubles and why I monitor their balances, interest rates and use them a sparingly as possible.

This is also why I devised and maintain my “Mid-Term Savings” account. This is my Oops-Fund. This is where I will dip into if I need to, in order to make it to the next payday.

To be honest I have a “Contingency Wallet” with a bit of cash in it, and this is where I will steal from if I need to. This is my first line of fiscal defence against budgetary irregularities and overspending.

You know, if I need some groceries but my Groceries Wallet is empty. Or even if I need that extra bottle of Propane and my Utilities Wallet is empty.

The trick with this wallet is that you, you know, have to put the cash back into that wallet the next payday . . . or that cash never gets back in there . . . and won’t be there the next time that you need it.

Again, the concept of the wallets with cash in them is to separate the spending that I do to operate and function with my bank account. Thereby reducing and controlling my spending.

The Mid-Term Savings comes into focus today because in two paydays, as in the one on Sept 7th, I will have $1500.00 in it and I will be able to do one of two things. I have been pondering these two choices lately.

I can either take a chunk of $500.00 out of that IOU to the Long-Term Savings account, or I could pay it all off and completely drain that Mid-Term Saving account.

The danger of doing this second option is that it would leave me without an Oops-Fund, and this is a dangerous place to be. 

If any sort of large, unforeseen and unavoidable expense were to come along, I would have to either have to dip into my Personal Overdraft or even further into my actual overdraft. 

Either that or claw back cash out of the Long-Term Savings or yes put it on a credit card. Again, depending on the size of the expense, I may still have to do that.

This is why I want to trickle save that Mid-Term Savings account up over time so as it will be able to absorb such fiscal shocks in the future.

So this is why I will do this $500.00 chunk bite out of my $1500.00 IOU (to myself) three times and hopefully complete it before the end of the year. All while keeping my Oops-Fund intact.

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

Broken Poop-Chute

So, all in all I had a good weekend. In true to form of this lifestyle I had three different parking spots on the three different days that I was in my Western Home.

That is just the way of things, each time I move to go run errands, someone else might park where I was parked. 

That is, after all fair, as none of the spots that I park in, belong to me. I have the spots that I like to park in, but I can’t demand that someone moves, I am by my very nature, nomadic.

I did go to my library and I did get ahead on Book Two, I was able to nudge forward a portion of new material on a chapter, and that is a pattern that I plan to extend.

Yesterday was payday so that means that I did my running around and my errands, after which I did my online banking, paying bills and shuffling money around.

It is official, I now have my minimum acceptable levels in my three bank accounts. So for, me I am back in the black and a stress has been lifted from my shoulders.

What that means is that I am working on paying off that IOU to my Long-Term Savings Account using only salvaged money . . . this will be a close one.

You see, what I call “Salvaged Money” is the surplus that I can squeeze out of my budget after all of my bills and obligations have been met. 

As you can imagine, this is not all that much each payday. Sure these last two paydays I got lucky but usually my budgets are somewhat tight.

I know that this is not a large debt and that it is an arbitrary deadline. If I do have to push this one into next year, that is okay. The real deadline is January 15, 2018 (Total Debt Freedom Day)!

The interesting thing (and the reason for the name of this blog entry) happened when I went to my free dumping station on yesterday afternoon. 

I pulled up and there was sign that said “Out of order, sorry for the inconvenience” and that trusty padlock locking the sewer dump opening closed.

I was momentarily worried as this is the only place that I have found where I can get water. I was relieved to find that the water had not been turned off.

I can still dump at the place in my Eastern Home but that is a place where I pay to dump. So, I will wait to dump until Wanda’s molars are floating (as in when her tanks are completely full.) 

I know that I may come by next week to this RV dump station and find that it is “fixed” (unlikely) or more than likely find that they have turned their water off. 

It is possible that there is something wrong with their sewer connection but since it is just a pipe going straight down, I seriously doubt it.

Most likely they have closed it because people like me were not paying their high prices for gasoline and just using their free RV dump station. 

Since they have water, I would pay them if their price was reasonable and their water was available. 

Ah well, as always I will adapt and survive, even if I have to switch to “Fall/Spring” mode in mid August. 

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

P.S. Side Project Note

I have a long term goal/dream to build a scientific research centre that would be focussed on science as well as “people refurbishing” where money is not a factor within the place. 

To do this I need to raise some funds to at least purchase the property and get the ball rolling. To do this I need someone who is skilled in social media/crowd funding. I would be willing to pay a commission. 

If you are interested, check out the website that defines the project (www.terran.foundation) and if interested drop me a line.

Back on Track

Okay, so this weekend is payday, Sunday specifically and I am thankful that I am doing business with a bank that is open on Sundays. So I can actually do my deposit and running around on Payday.

(I won’t mention their name because they haven’t sponsored me 

(Hint, Hint, sponsors? Anyone? Sponsor me?)

What this means is that I will officially be back on track from my Vacation by funding my Mid-Term Savings back up to minimum acceptable levels ($1k). 

Now I will continue to stuff all of my surplus cash into my Mid-Term Savings account. The difference is that when it crosses over $1500.00 I will then transfer $500.00 into my Long-Term Savings Account.

Why? Well, I still have that IOU to that High-Interest Savings Account from when I paused my paydown in May. If I put three blocks of $500.00 into that High-Interest Savings Account then I will have paid that off. 

This is important to me to do before the end of the year, as I want my Savings Plan to be back on track before crossing into the New Year. 

After that IOU is paid off then comes paying off my Low interest credit card that I put about 2K onto with: glasses, tires for Wanda, a new laptop, and a few other things.

Since this card is 4.25%, my minimum payments are still somewhere south of $20.00. Even now I am putting $150.00 per payday onto it to make sure that I stay in their good books.

After that is paid off, I plan to top up my Mid-Term Savings Account so that I could live for a year on it (post total Debt Freedom) if I needed to. 

If that somehow happens before January 2018 (total debt freedom) I will then just double down on what I put into the High-Interest Savings Account.

I have plans, I have goals all of which are achievable and will be achieved because I choose to believe in them, myself and yes work towards them. There is always a solution if you put your mind to it. 

There shall never be any prison so effective or cruel as the one you devise for yourself out of your own attitudes, outlooks and assumptions. 

As the wise man said:  “Free your mind and your butt will follow!” 

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

Arnie’s Rules For Success

This blog entry started with me scrolling through my Facebook Feed, as we always do and coming across a Meme that caught my attention. 

Again, nothing new, but this was one which attributed a list of “Six Rules of Success” to “Arnold Schwarzenegger.” 

I will post that pic, but admit that I have no idea where it came from or who owns the right to it, but post it here for educational purposes.

  

Also, in the interest of clarity and fairness, I give Arnold Schwarzenegger credit for the list as it has been attributed to him. 

What I will do is offer my own take on what each of these “Rules” mean.

I was going to do my own list but quickly found out that not only did I agree with these rules but I am also following them . . . and succeeding . . . who knew.

I have taken to even put them up on my “Inspiration Board,” That place above my stove where I can look up and remind myself that I am not a total failure. 

  

1) Trust Yourself

To me, this means that you need to trust in yourself to follow through and have faith in your abilities. 

You need to believe in yourself and know really know that you will steadily improve and know, trust that you will succeed. 

(Once again, you are not the failure that you tell you tell yourself that you are.)

2) Break Some Rules

I don’t think that this implies to try to by food at a fast food place without wearing shoes or a shirt, or even running around with scissors. 

I also don’t think that it means to go out and break the law. At least I don’t advise you to.

What this means to me is don’t be afraid to break some rules of convention. As in, don’t always do what the crowd or society expects you to do. 

Don’t be afraid to go out there and do something different that will most likely make people wonder what you are doing and even perhaps laugh at you. 

(As in live in a trailer, that you tow behind your vehicle wherever you go, sleeping as you park on the roadside or in parking lots.)

3) Don’t Be Afraid to Fail

This is a big one and is the one rule that stops most people. We want to win every time that we try something. Every time we get to bat we want to hit that home run. 

Life is not like that and we learn and gain much more from our failures than we ever do from our successes. 

I am talking from personal experience on this one. So get out there, try something and fall flat on your face! You will be better for it, trust me on that one.

4) Ignore The Naysayers

This one is also a big one that stops a lot of people from doing something new and different. 

A few friends or associates or the collective wisdom of the internet says that something can’t be done or is a bad idea so we don’t even try.

Once again, if you have a dream an idea, or a vision, just get out there and try, and ignore the people who say that you can’t or shouldn’t do it. 

You don’t want those people in your life anyways. The greatest gift negative people can give you is the silence after they finally leave you alone . . . I also know this one from personal experience.

5) Work Like Hell 

I like the term “Work your butt off,” as I have seen two versions of this list. This one is a simple rule, get out there and work towards your dream, vision, goal etcetera. 

Nothing comes to you, so you will need to get out there and work for it, and be prepared to work hard and sacrifice to get what you want. 

Standing there with your hand out or demanding freebees from family and friends will get you nowhere. (At least with me.)

6) Give Something Back

This is a good rule and motto for life in general, as it helps to keep thing in balance. As you succeed and get better it is good to help others as well. 

I will not go into the various ways that I have been helpful or charitable as I believe that true charity is done in private and not for glory or recognition.

I would like to think that one way I give back is through this blog. I give back by letting people know my experiences and what I have learned. 

I hope that someone has found something useful through this blog.   

In order to end on a happy note and just because the sunrise looked great this morning, here is your sunrise pic.

  

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

New Pay Period Budgeter

With my Vacation over, the next phase in this journey is to buckle down and get to some serious savings. 

To help accomplish this I have tweaked my Pay Period Budgeter Spreadsheet that I use to budget and keep my savings plan on track.

I have not only updated the link that always remains on the left side of this blog but also will include it in this blog entry. 

The changes I have made will allow me to monitor the impact of the current budget on my three different bank accounts. 

As in I want to see how much they go up or down as a result of what I do during this current pay period. 

Once again all of the boxes encased in a purple border are for you to input information in and all others are calculated for you. 

If you do download this spreadsheet for your own use (which I encourage you to do) keep an untouched backup copy before you tweak it to suit your particular fiscal needs. 

After that, before using it I recommend “Protecting” the sheet so that you don’t inadvertently type over a formula or otherwise damage the sheet.

Here is an overview of the Pay Period Budgeter. 

The sheet is broken down into 6 sections: 

1. Liquid Asset: As in my bank accounts.

2. Income: As in where am I getting money from during this pay period.

3. Debts: These are the bills that I pay, where there is an obligation to pay. (Credit card, Cell bill, etc.)

4. Expenses: These are things you spend money on, but there is no obligation to pay. (Groceries, Fuel, etc.)

5. Savings: This is what I will be putting into each of my savings account each pay period (Hint: The end goal of all of this fiscal restraint is to be able to actually do this.)

6. Final Summary: This is the area that sums up just what you spent in what area and how you did. (This is a handy tool for budgeting.)

Here are some screenshots of the spreadsheet. 

   

Once again, the purpose of this blog is not to brag or even to be mere entertainment, but to inspire. 

I want other people to see that it is possible to get out from under crushing debt by primarily “Downgrading your lifestyle so you can upgrade your finances.”

Not only that, but by showing people what I am doing and the results thereof, people can (hopefully) learn from my mistakes. 

I never claim to be an expert, just a regular guy clomping about figuring out what works and what doesn’t as I go. 

If anyone has any questions or just needs a nudge to get started on your own journey, drop me a line via the contact form on the upper left

Without further fuss, here is the link for the revised Pay Period Budgeter.

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

Well That Sucked

Okay, so you all know that I had been using my Mid-Term Savings Account as my personal Credit Card. I had also used it to spend out of when I was on my vacation.

I did this because I didn’t want to affect the budgeting of my Main Account. After my vacation I decided to spend out of this account when I wanted to nudge things along or otherwise cheat a bit on my budget. 

This was because I wanted to show myself how my spending was directly stealing money from my savings account. Well, this is where things get interesting when I looked at my account this weekend.

I do this on a regular basis to not only ensure that my regular payments when through okay, but also to see if there was any funny or fraudulent transactions which went through.

Well, there was a chunk taken out of my Mid-Term Savings account to the tune of $96.00! I thought that this was a fraud of some sort, and in a way it was.

My bank charges me $2.00 for every withdrawal but they give me one free one per month (how generous). That means I was dinged $2.00 each time I spent out of that account. 

As a “Hail Mary/Long Shot” I called my bank to see if anything could be done about this. Again, my expectations were very low because this is a bank we are dealing with.

The customer service rep explained the debit dinging thing that I just told you and that due to the nature of this account that I couldn’t add a package to cover withdrawals from this account.

They were nice enough to put $75.00 back into the account, as they did have a bit of discretion with regards to what they could do.

This goes to show never take your anger and frustration on the customer service representative that you are dealing with. 

They are not the problem and don’t deserve to be yelled at or otherwise put up with your bad attitude.  If you get a snarky or inept customer service rep, hang up and try again. 

There are times when you are dealing with what I term as “hubots” and in such a case, you are pretty much hooped. 

These people are given such stringent and rigid limitations as to what they can say or do, that they are practically robots. (Again, not their fault.) 

This is the company’s way of keeping strict control over the interaction with their customers, and to actively encourage you to just shut up and go away. 

So, as a result of this debit dinging thing, I will go back to charging up my budget cheating on Card #2. I will pay it back down to zero each and every payday, thereby not paying any interest at all.

I was asked about what happened with regards to the business that offered to let me stay there. I thought it over and I haven’t talked to them at all and most likely won’t. 

This may seem silly, particularly when winter is coming and a steady plugin does sound nice and all, but I have a few reasons for declining their offer. 

 For one, I like the thought and feeling of being mobile, of being home wherever I go. I can drive where I want, when I want and always have my home and everything I own with me. I am truly a Nomad and I like that.

For another, I don’t like feeling responsible for the security of that or any business. I know me and if I were to stay there I would feel bad if there was a break in while I was sleeping there and I had nothing useful to report the next morning.

Finally, I don’t like the thought of being that much on display, the hermit in the corner of the lot, so to speak. Imagine if everyone who worked there saw me coming, going and milling about their large lot.

 Sure, I am somewhat on display now, as most of the people in the area know who I am or see me parking in my regular places. That is not the same; I am on a public street and nobody’s guest.

I will manage, and I will make it through another winter and on towards total debt freedom. I will do so on my own terms, beholden to nobody. As Frank said, when it is all said and done I can say . . . “I did it myyyyy way!”

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