The After Vacation Payday Gamble

One thing that I have noticed is that after a vacation, it is hard to guestimate what my paycheque will actually be.

This is due to a few factors. For one, the replacement daily rate seems to sometimes not quite be what my actually daily rate is.

Then there is the complication of me not earning any commission on online sales (since I am not here to process orders).

Add into the mix the fact that at this time of year, fewer taxes are taken off, and you have a wide range of possibilities of what my paycheque on Tuesday will actually be.

The good news is that thanks to a few good days (in sales) and two extra days in this payperiod I should make at least my targeted minimum. 

Even if that is the case, I will still be able to pay off my two credit cards . . .

(Don’t yell at me, the second one was due to two automatic charges that hit it at the same time.) 

. . . and balance my budget all the same. 

The nice thing is that if I make more than my budgeted minimum, I will be able to actually put cash in my bank account . . . to stay!

This will mean that my Rebuilding Phase could . . . possibly . . . hopefully . . . just maybe . . . begin in less than a week.

We shall see what actually happens, as things could still take and abrupt nosedive. No matter what happens, though, I will persevere and continue to move forward.

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

Bracing for Winter

So, with cold temperatures on the way in the next day or so, I am getting ready for winter. 

This means I am not only finding my cold weather gear and putting them in the Ready 5 Position, but I am also going through my winter routines.

I am doing the little things that I have to do in order to function in full-blown Winter Mode, just to remind myself of what I have to do BEFORE I actually have to do them.

A dry run or two is a good thing for a few reasons. For one it gets me mentally prepared for the frozen tundra that will be my life for the next few months.

For another, it will help me work out the kinks and force me to find this little thingy or that little whatsit. 

Again, the last thing you want to be doing is looking for a key piece of your cold weather gear when it is actually cold. (That really sucks, I this know from experience).

I have seen this all before and while I could afford to rent a room somewhere to avoid all this, I will not, for one very good reason . . .

I have frozen my tuchus off to pay the banks off and earn my freedom, and I’m worth freezing my tuchus off for one winter at least to give myself a head start on building my finances.

After all, my next goal is to fully fund my Mid-Term Account up to contain two years worth of living expenses. 

At which time it will be nicknamed the “I’m not F*cked Fund.” 

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

Back To The Grind, Back To Winter Mode

I had a lovely vacation, but I am now starting back at work today. The weather was warm and the time was relaxing. 

I was nice and toasty inside Wanda, thanks to the campground’s electricity and my electric heater.

Well, all that took and abrupt nose-dive this morning, but such is life when you live in an RV in a Canadian Prairie town.

I got up this morning and before leaving the campground I dumped my tanks for what I guess is the last time until spring.

Why? Because I am now in Winter Mode. What is Winter Mode, you ask? Well, With regards to water and plumbing issues, I have there modes:

1) Summer Mode

Summer Mode is when I can get fresh water for my Fresh Water Tanks, and can dump my Grey Water (sinks & bathtub) and Black Water (Toilet), Tanks. 

This is because the weather is above freezing and I can readily get fresh water for the main tanks. This is usually between late May to early October. 

2) Sprint/Fall Mode

Spring/Fall Mode is when my trailer is “winterized” so as to prevent the freshwater lines from being damaged. 

I pay to have the RV dealership do this during their one day special that they hold in early October. 

For me this is winter insurance as I get it done right and I don’t have to worry about my waterlines freezing, cracking and causing considerable damage.

Yet this means I have no running water. I then have to use 5 gallon jugs of water that I can fill from a tap if I find one available or buy the water from a certain grocery store for $3.00 per fill.

I can still use my Grey and Black Water Tanks as long as the temperature does not drop below freezing. 

In the Fall, this mode lasts from early October until the weather dips below freezing and stays there. 

In the Spring, this mode lasts from when the weather goes above freezing and stays there until late May.

3) Winter Mode

Winter Mode is the least fun because it means that I can’t use any of my tanks, so no fresh water in the taps, no toilet and no using the sinks.

This is because once the weather stays below freezing, the valves to dump the Gray and Black Water Tanks are frozen shut until spring. 

So, to prevent me from carrying around blocks of ice and frozen poop, I dump one last time before this happens. 

Winter mode, as you can guess, lasts between Fall Mode and Spring Mode. So I am at the mercy of the weather on this one.

I dumped this morning because, by the middle of this week, the temperature will drop below freezing and stay there, for the foreseeable future at least.

Again, this is all stuff that I have seen before, and I know how to handle it. I grumble, sear, bitch complain, and whine, but then just accept it and move on.

This is because the one constant in my life is change and adaptation. I must always change what I am doing to adapt to the conditions that are outside of my control.

I do this not out of weakness but out of the resolve and fortitude to see things through and achieve my goals. 

I will endure this winter in my RV as I have endured the past three. 

I will do this because each day that I am out here, each night that I am in my RV I move myself that much further ahead.

Again, this is not forever, just for now. So I will switch to winter mode and continue to carry on, towards a better future for myself and those around me.

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

Update From The Trough

Okay, so the budgetary dust has settled and I am now clearly looking towards the future. All in all, things are okay, but funds are still tight.

As I said earlier, after all is said and done and all of my bills were paid and expenses seen to, I have $29.87 in my bank account. 

(That’s actually $27.87, not $1027.87).

In order to pay off the Wanda Loan, I had to drain all of my bank accounts (other than my RRSP . . . seriously, don’t touch that one, the cash in there is no longer yours).

In order to pay off the Wanda Loan, for the previous two paycheques, I was doing everything that I could to keep as much cash in my account as possible.

This meant economizing as much as I could, but also putting my essential expenses on my low interest credit card. This is robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it worked and the Wanda Loan is done.

This next payday, the one on Nov 7, will see me pay off my credit card, and fund my expenses but leave me with little left over.

The payday on Nov 22, will see me officially start The Rebuilding Phase, for that is that payday that will see me fully fund my Personal Overdraft.

In so doing the phase of putting cash in my bank accounts for my: security, peace of mind and dreams will begin.

I have had savings over the past few years, this is nothing new. The difference is that even as I was building up those savings I knew that all of that cash was there for one thing . . . 

To pay off the banks.

Funfact: 

Remember kids, your credit card company is not loaning you a dime, they just shuffle paperwork around for (approximately) 4% off the top. 

It doesn’t matter what kind of loan you have or from whom, sooner or later, you are borrowing from a bank.

I have been through a lot, learned a lot, and grown a lot. I am appreciative for the process of earning my debt freedom, and above all for what I have learned.

I also know and accept that it was my own choices and actions that put me in the place I was in the first place. I did this to me, not the banks.

It was also my own choices and actions that got me out of it (not the banks). 

Yet, even after all that, I am now standing on the ground, next to the hole that I have climbed out of. 

I am simply back to zero. I am back to where I started when I started my working life at 18 years old.

I must now traverse a narrow path for the next month before I can begin to climb the mountain, ever upwards towards my dreams and the lush plains above.

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

Start Your Own Journey to Debt Freedom!

Here are a few things to think about if you are considering eliminating your debt. 

I will not talk about “Debt Management” or “Debt Reduction” as those two phrases will still leave you with debt. 

Debt is a tool, something to use in order to help you get something now, that you can’t/don’t want to save up for. A good example of this is a house or a car.

Yet all too often what happens is that we start to rely on debt to live. We get used to making those monthly payments and just start piling on debt to get ever more stuff.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, the most dangerous position to be in is where you are just treading water. 

Treading water is when you are making your payments and you are not falling behind, yet you are not getting ahead either. 

Credit cards and lines of credit are good examples of this kind of debt, as with them there is no end in sight; you just keep paying and paying.

With a mortgage or vehicle loan, there is an end date. Yet most of us keep moving from one house to another and/or trade in the car once we pay it off . . . WHY?

So let’s say you want to eliminate your debt, or at least the rotating debt (lines of credit/credit cards).

Let me just say that I think that you should keep the credit cards and lines of credit, but pay them off and don’t use them (unless you have to). Why? 

Credit is something you get when you don’t need it, so you have it when you do. This is because when you do need credit, “they” won’t give it to you . . . because you need it (and are therefore a bad risk).

The first thing you need to do (if you haven’t already) is to stop the bleeding. Find a way to balance your budget. (If you don’t have a budget, make one, and stick to it.) 

You can only do two things (or a combination thereof) to deal with fiscal problems. One is to increase your Income and the other is to decrease your Expenses.

While it is possible to increase your income, you are unlikely to double it anytime soon. The more effective thing to do is to decrease your expenses.

We have all done some cost cutting, so this is nothing new. The trick this time is to look at everything you are spending on and ask yourself if you really need it and could you do without it? (Or do with less of it.)

To really get out of debt will require a radical downgrade of your lifestyle. Perhaps not living an RV, but certainly making do with less.

To help you picture what this will require, imagine for a moment that your income was cut in half. Take a look at your budget with that in mind.

What would you have to do, be forced to do, in order to survive on half of your income? This may take a bit of time, (and a few heated discussions) but you will find a solution.

It doesn’t matter what you make, there are people out there right now living on half of what you make. Their lifestyle may not be as nice as yours, but they are surviving.

Now that you have determined a game plan on how you could live on half of your income you need to ask yourself the big question . . . could you actually do it?

Again this is not a permanent downgrade of your lifestyle, just a temporary one. A short term measure, say a few years, in order to get yourself out of debt.

If you need a bit of motivation, think for a moment how freeing it would be to be out of debt? 

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

Westlock’s Fiscal Directives

Okay, it was a busy day yesterday and I am still kept busy today, so much for a lazing around vacation.

With regards to paying off the Wanda Loan and what was left over let me say this. After all is said and done, I will have $29.87 in the account. That will have to last me until I get paid on the 7th.

I will be okay, as I make sure that I have enough to function without touching the bank account. This is just one of the secrets of my success. I shall now share a few more.

Now that I have paid off the last of my debts, I will now focus on savings and wealth building. 

In order to do that I have come up with 11 rules or “directives” which will help guild me as I move forward. I want to balance savings with spending a bit on things I want.

The lower the number of a directive, the higher its importance, or ranking you might say, on this list. 

So you should start at the top and work your way down fulfilling each directive, one after the other as you go down the list. 

Do this each payday, or as you build your budget of face financial decisions.

Here goes: 

1)  It is desired, but not required, that all Budgets balance.

This means that for each payperiod your total: Debts, Expenses and Savings should not exceed your total Income for that pay period. 

You can spend more than you bring in, but this should be a rarity which is thought through first and done for a very good reason. 

2)  Pay all Bills and Debt Service Payments.

These are the things that you have to pay, the bills that you have a contractual obligation to pay and you are usually expected to pay the full balance. 

EG: the power bill, rent, or a car payment.

3)  Whist it is not required, it is strongly desired that the outstanding balances of all credit cards be paid off in full, each and every payday.

This is for those folks who have been able to pay their credit cards down to nothing (such as me). 

This allows me to still use my credit cards but ensures that they will never get out of control. 

Yet it is worded in such a way that I can carry a balance on a credit card if I need to. Once again this should only be done for a short term and after careful consideration.

4)  Fund Operational Expenses.

Operational Expenses are the ones that you need to pay so you can go about and do what you need to do. 

If you drive, then you need gasoline. If you take the bus, then you need a bus pass. Don’t forget about food, you need to eat. 

Make sure you set aside enough in your budget so you can go about your business and do what you need to do. 

Not only that, but make sure that you can last until you get paid/get money again.

5)  Enact Special Project Spending (if desired).

Special Project Spending is a one-time, thing that you want to spend money on. 

This is usually something big, such as me buying a new mattress that I have needed for the past 2 years (I’m practically sleeping on plywood).

For those who are in debt, this is where you would put all the extra cash you have freed up in your budget towards debt elimination.

6)  Budgetary Deficits may be paid for with funds from either the Main or Mid-Term Accounts.

This means that I can run a deficit if I choose to. For small deficits, I can just dip into my Personal Overdraft (as in go below $1000.00 in my Main Account. 

For larger deficits such as buying that mattress or buying a new phone, those I could transfer cash out of my Mid-Term Account, so as to stay out of my Personal Overdraft.

7)  Top up the Main Account to $1000.00.

This is where that Personal Overdraft comes in. This means that if I dip into Personal Overdraft, I need to put it back, preferably the following payday.

For those of you working on debt elimination, I would recommend working on this first. 

As in get your hiney out of your actual overdraft and then put $1000.00 in your checking account and teach yourself that $1000.00 is really $0.00.

8)  Top up the Mid-Term Account to [two years of living expenses].

This is me building up my Mid-Term Account to be my own personal line of credit, as it were. 

As I have said I want to have enough in there for me to live on for two years, if need be. This will also serve me well if and when any financial emergencies come up. 

One key thing to remember if you are on a path towards debt elimination is to first stop relying on debt! 

Why bother to try to pay down your debt if you just keep racking it up? Plug all holes in your fiscal boat first before starting to bail the water out.

9)  Funds over [two years of living expenses] in the Mid-Term Account (in multiples of $10.00) must go into the Main Account.

This means that since my Mid-Term Account is a savings account it will earn interest (at some point). That interest in multiples of $10.00 will be transferred to the Main Account to serve as a modicum of income. 

10)  All Budgetary Surpluses (in multiples of $100.00) must go into the Long-Term Account.

This is where saving for the long-term comes in. Another name for the Long-Term Account is the Dream Account. This is where I put my money in order to one day fund my dreams. 

The Long-Term Account is an investment account that takes about two days to get cash out of it, so I had better plan ahead and really want to spend it. For me it is a TFSA investment account.

11)  Unless absolutely necessary, funds in the Long-Term Account must stay in the Long-Term Account.

This means that unless there is a major fiscal emergency, or I am actually enacting my dream (such as buying land) any cash that goes into the Long-Term Account should stay in that account!

There you have it, my fiscal directives, feel free to copy them down and even modify them to suit your own needs.

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

PS: if you want a copy of the directives for yourself, here they are:

Westlock’s Fiscal Directives

1)  It is desired, but not required, that all Budgets balance.

2)  Pay all Bills and Debt Service Payments.

3)  Whist it is not required, it is strongly desired that the outstanding balances of all credit cards be paid off in full, each and every payday.

4)  Fund Operational Expenses.

5)  Enact Special Project Spending (if desired).

6)  Budgetary Deficits may be paid for with funds from either the Main or Mid-Term Accounts.

7)  Top up the Main Account to $1000.00.

8)  Top up the Mid-Term Account to $15,000.00.

9)  Funds over $15,000.00 in the Mid-Term Account (in multiples of $10.00) must go into the Main Account.

10)  All Budgetary Surpluses (in multiples of $100.00) must go into the Long-Term Account.

11)  Unless absolutely necessary, funds in the Long-Term Account must stay in the Long-Term Account.

It Is Finished!

It is done and I am free. I have paid off the Wanda Loan, but once again I prove the need for a woman in my life to . . . to take pictures and record such events. 

I was a little distracted with a side project that was going on at the time, but I am now totally debt free. 

Okay, to be honest there is one credit card that has had a balance for the past six weeks, but that card will be paid off in full next payday. 

I now no longer have any contractually obligated payments. I only have my cell bill, that’s it!

I have no: 

• Rent

• Power Bill

• Gas Bill

• Water Bill

• Car Payments

• TRAILER PAYMENTS

• Mortgage payments

You get the idea. 

This means that I can now live on approximately $400.00 - $500.00 a month BEFORE ECONOMIZING! 

This means that most of my pay will be going into savings, you know, for me to do with as I please and build for my future. 

As far as the emotions go, it hasn’t really hit me yet. I am still doing my running around errands after payday.

I am sure it will hit me later on, but for now, I am off to get some groceries before hitting the road to Banff for the week. 

I will relax and celebrate achieving this Crossroads Goal this week. I will then get back at it and start my journey towards my next Crossroads Goal: Land Ownership.

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