Debt Hopelessness and The Impending Insolvency Crisis

I read an article yesterday that said that half of Canadians are unsure if they can cover expenses without going deeper into debt. 

Here is a quote from the article: 

“The latest MNP Consumer Debt Index published Monday shows 50 per cent of respondents said they're within $200 of not being able to cover their monthly bills, and nearly an equal proportion of participants in the survey (49 per cent) said they aren't confident in their ability to cover expenses without going deeper into debt.”

The article itself can be found here (at time this blog entry was posted).

50% of Canadians face insolvency amid 'debt hopelessness': Survey

People keep saying that if you are in debt you got yourself there and so it is your fault. That said, so why should anyone or any level of government help you out.

What nobody talks about is the fact that it is expected and a “norm” of employment that nobody (except the rare few) gets a cost of living increase. 

We all know that the cost of living is steadily outstripping the raise in our wages. That gap keeps widening until people just can’t make ends meet anymore.

There are thousands of Canadians in the same boat (over half of the country). As the article said half of the country is $200.00 away from not covering expenses.

We are in a Debt Crisis, meaning that the average Canadian is mired in debt and have been so for so long that many feel hopeless that they will ever get out from under it.

The point of this blog entry is this: what happens if most, if not all, of those Canadians on the edge of not being able to meet their financial obligations finally do go bankrupt?

What if, since so many are in the same boat, a massive chunk, say, a quarter to half of the population goes into bankruptcy at the same time.

That would be an Insolvency Crisis, a crisis that could not be solved by outlawing or stringently regulating personal bankruptcies.

This would impact the financial sector like nothing else and might also trigger a housing crisis as well, as so much of that debt is tied up in mortgages.

I truly feel for the people who feel hopeless when it comes to their debt, for I was there and I truly understand how it feels. 

On a personal level, you can find a way to downgrade your lifestyle (significantly) to upgrade your cash flow. 

If you master your cash flow, you can tackle your debt, but it is not a quick or easy fix, it takes time and effort. Contact me, I can give you advice and a few tools to help.

As far as governments and politicians are concerned, I strongly urge you to deal with this Impending Insolvency Crisis before it actually arises.

(No, don’t bail out the banks, help out the people instead.)

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

What a Difference A Weekend Makes

I spent most of the weekend grumbling that I was promised a warm-up and wondering where it was. Thankfully, yesterday afternoon it arrived.

This meant that I had to scrub ice/water/slush off of the ceiling of my trailer. But that is to be expected when the weather warms up after a prolonged cold spell.

I have no idea how long this warm spell will last, but I am just enjoying the warmth that is happening now.  

This is but a break from the bitter cold as it were. January and February are the coldest months and so I expect cold to return before April.

The thing to do now is to arrange a jump start for my truck so I can go on a long drive to charge up the battery. There is not quite enough power left in the battery to start the truck as it is.

One problem at a time but I do plan to go on a nice long drive this evening (if I can persuade one of my co-workers to give me a jump-start).

At least it is warm.

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

My Journey So Far

My Journey to Fiscal Stability has been a long one that has taken many turns. It has gone through many phases.

From when I started working, I have always been in “Survival Mode” working to pay the bills with little to nothing left over for me at the end of the month. 

Between December 5, 2013 to October 22, 2017, the only thing there was, was getting debt free. I mean, paying off every last debt that I had. 

After that, 2018 was about properly funding (and determining what level that was) my Mid-Term Account as well as starting to fund my TFSA (in my Long-Term Account).

The focus was to have some money set aside just in case I was laid off. That was the drive for 2018, building my emergency fund.

2019 was an expansion on that to truly growing that fund into the place where I could not only survive but also have land and a home.

2020 and beyond will be an extension of that, of building my savings to the point where I can establish that homestead. 

Exactly where it will be located, or what form it will take (my home or a town) has yet to be seen, but owning land and a home are still important to me.

That is the current phase of this journey. 

Yet with each phase of this journey, it had to start with me believing that my goal, whatever the current one was, was possible; that I deserved it.

You have to believe in yourself, believe that you can do it and then just start working towards it. 

You can figure out the details along the way, and don’t be afraid to fail or change your plan mid-stream. 

Just define a goal, determine a plan (even a loose plan) and get started. 

You don’t have to have all the answers to get started, you just need to know what you have to do, today, this week in order to get started.

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

The Warm-up Begins Tom . . . Saturday

So, tomorrow, was suppose to be the day that things warm up and turn around, and it kinda does. 

At least during the day it will be a smidgen warmer at -25C and during the overnight it will be -28C (so, again, a smidgen warmer). 

Saturday it will be -20C during the day and -23C overnight. So again warmer still and warming up. 

Sunday it will be -6 during the day and -10C overnight. All in all Sunday is the day to look forward to. 

I know that weather predictions can and will be wrong, and this deep freeze could stick around for some time yet. 

My point is that hope is what gets me through, hope and a dream to cling to. I have thought about possibly renting a room come the end of this year (2020).

I have also thought about buying/building a more appropriate portable house (like a tiny house trailer, yet perhaps built on the back of a delivery truck.

Sure that would be nice and make the current situation nicer, as it would have proper insulation and a wood burning stove to keep me warm on these cold nights.

Yet it would also take me further away from my real dream of land and home ownership. That is what really keeps me going, knowing that I will have that some day.

Cold weather will come and go and I know how to deal with it. I can survive it; I don’t like it, but I can get through it.

I for one will keep happy thoughts of Sunday on my mind as I bundle up and hibernate tonight. 

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

Cooking In -20C Sucks

This is something I probably didn’t have to tell you, but hey, yeah, it’s true. It takes more time to cook things because everything you are cooking has been in a deep freeze.

So, there is that, that’s fun.

Add to that the fact that you are cooking in full outdoor gear complete with gloves. Yet now and again you have to take those gloves off to handle food or what have you. 

If your hands are out in the cold for too long you have to heat them up by putting your hands in the various hot spots of the human body (quite undignified looking).

Then when you start to eat you have to heat the metal utensil (fork/spoon, etc) before you touch it so you don’t stick your tongue or lips to it. 

When you are done you have to wash and dry REAL fast because water will freeze real fast to the almost clean dishes.

So you are then trying to “wipe” ice off of the “clean” dish. After doing your best you decide to just wash this stuff again when your house is not a deep freeze.

But on an upside, you don’t have to worry about leftovers spoiling . . . because your house is a deep freeze.

It is for that reason that for the foreseeable future, I will be eating dinner at work. You know: microwaving, eating and cleaning up at work, in regular office temps.

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

I Slept Like a Turtle

There really is no other way to describe how I ended up sleeping last night. It was -10C in my house when I went to bed, but -22C in my house when I woke up.

That’s not that bad, because it was the big bad -30C outside my house last night and this morning.

So, I slept with my sleeping toque on my head and two pairs of thick socks on my feet. I started out sleeping with my head on the pillow as usual. 

During the night I ended up pulling back under the sheets and making a tunnel of sorts to the “outside”, as it were, for fresh air.

I was curled up most of the night but I did stay warm and I did sleep well. At least I got enough sleep, because I feel fine this morning and everything is still attached.

It is all part of the plan to just get through this really cold snap any way I have to in the most cost-effective way possible. 

All because I want that house and that land, all paid for in advance, again, with no debt. That is worth curling up under the covers for a few nights.

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

The Homestead Fund Update (2019 Review Edition)

Okay, so it is that time again, when I update how my progress is going on my “Grand Savings Plan!” (to build my “Homestead Fund”).

This time we will be looking at 2019 as a whole. How? Well, I added a new tab to my Pay Period Budgeter.

This one takes the information from all of the individual budgets and compiles it on one large sheet.

This way I can see how I did in one year overall rather than just each individual payday budget.

I can ask the ultimate question (with regards to this budget) that is: How much of my Take Home Pay went into my savings accounts, this year, and stayed there?

Okay, so let’s see how I did . . .

   

For review, here is how things looked from last year (2018)

  

 (Data not available)

(Okay technically the data is available but, I’d have to manually compile it, and I don’t feel like doing it right now.)

That is X% (of my Savings Target).

And this is how things look like, after the dust settled on last year’s budget . . .

   57.34%

That’s right I put 57.37% of my Take Home Pay into Savings.

That means that 42.63% if of my Take Home Pay was spent and did not go into savings.

I bought a few things and what have you but that number is not where I wanted to be. My Debts & Expenses were double what my target is (20%).

This is where real life and real numbers can and will deviate from what you intended and what you budgeted.

Do not get discouraged, I tend to focus on the fact that if I hadn’t budgeted and had a focus on savings, I would have spent a whole lot more than 42.63% of my Take Home Pay, I can tell you that.

I will use this tab to see how I am doing as the year goes, so as to try to keep myself closer to that 80% target (80% of my Take Home Pay going into my savings and staying there).

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