November Is Done

So, here we are on that odd thing of the last day of the month being the first day of the workweek. 

For me that means that my payday is also next Monday, meaning I will have to get through next weekend before getting paid. 

Yet it is not an unusual thing for me and I am not as desperate for my paycheque as I was in years gone by.

I am not swimming in cash, but I am okay enough to last through the weekend before getting paid.

November is down and with it comes in the last month of the year. It seems like only yesterday when January was new and the year was beginning.

This year has gone by quickly as with the worrying over the pandemic has taken up most of our time and mental focus.

Time goes by quickly yet slowly at the same time. When we are anticipating something, it goes by slowly, when we are dreading something it comes up quickly.

Yet time can also go by very fast when we are just focussed on living our lives: on just existing. Then you can blink and twenty, thirty years can go by. 

Such is life, and the dynamic of time. 

So, I keep encouraging people to do something about their debts today, start now, as time will move by quickly, so why not use that to your advantage?  

Why not get started on your own journey to Total Debt Freedom, start today, start by just declaring to yourself that you are going to do it! 

(Publicly declaring it helps force you to follow through).

If you need a word or two of advice feel free to drop me a line, if you need some tools to help you, there are some downloadable tools available on my other website www.homesteadfreedom.ca

At any rate do something about your debt and get started now! Leverage time to your advantage by making debt elimination part of your daily life.

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

Look For The Light

In times of darkness, it is then that it is most imperative that you look for the light.

It is far too easy to be swallowed up by the darkness and gloom that pervades troubling times. 

That is not to say that one must be naive or look at life through rose-coloured glasses as that would be as dangerous as succumbing to the darkness.

One must be realistic and pragmatic but one must also look for the good that is going on around you. 

There is good and light in this world just as there is evil and darkness. The balance shifts now and again and one side gets more attention, but the two are always there.

The key is to look for the light and focus on it. Keep an eye on the darkness but help nurture the light rather than help spread the darkness.

I choose to look for the light as I move to build a bright and bold future for myself and those around me. 

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

The Small Moments Of Today

So, if you want to build the future, a better future for yourself and those you care about, do something about it today.

For the future is built in what you do here and now, today. I have learned that the way to get debt free, and now build wealth is to manage my finances as best as I can today.

If I manage things well this day, this week, this payperiod then that will move me one step forward towards my goals.

The next payperiod is the same, and so I will choose to still manage my finances well during that payperiod and in so doing take one more step forward.

So goes the process, one step forward each payperiod, which is an agonizingly slow process, yet when you look back to where I started, you can see that I have come a long way.

The same holds true to any great and bold change that you want to make in your life and in your world. Do small things today to move yourself towards your goal.

Here’s the real secret . . . keep doing that . . . every . . . day . . . repeat until you reach your goal.

The future is uncertain, even in the best of times, so while you can’t control the future, you can control what you do today. 

Change builds on change and success builds on success, so set up a pattern of building towards your goals into your daily life. 

Then you can’t help but succeed, but determination and dedication are the key to success, that and  . . . 

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

Still Marching Forward

So, with so much uncertainty out there, it is easy to get mired down in the muck of . . . uncertainty . . . fear, apprehension and other such emotions.

Yet the future is not built only in happy and stable times, but in uncertain times too, perhaps more so.

All you can do in uncertain times is to cautiously and carefully move forward while holding true to that old adage “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” 

That is true and never more so than in uncertain times.

For while most of my wants to boldly charge on forward willing the happy future to come into existence simply by the power of my hope and force of will, that is foolish.

For while I may find a way to bring about the happy future for myself and others, I have to be realistic and plan for almost any eventuality.

Yet as I do so I have to stop well short of being a “doomsday prepper” or some paranoid, delusional conspiracy theorist.

Somewhere in the middle, closer to reality rather, is where I must walk my path in uncertain times.

I do hope that everything will be fine and that it will all work out well in the end, but you can never know what will or won’t happen, so you have to be prepared.

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

Credit Card Debt Freedom Anniversary

So, since my payday was on Sunday, and Monday’s blog was about the update on my Grand Savings Plan, today I get to talk about another, yet special anniversary of mine.

For it was on my payday of November, 22, 2015 that I paid off the last of my credit card debt. 

This was huge as I had been carrying a balance on 3 maxed out cards for years, about five years to be honest.

I was in perpetual stress trying to simply feed the beast that is credit card debt. Strangely enough, yet not unexpected I would suspect, paying of the credit cards was the hardest debt to do.

Credit cards are an unsecured form of debt, meaning that there is no big fat asset securing the loan, such as a house or a car.

What that means is that it is a greater risk for the bank. (Note you do not borrow money from the credit card company, but rather the issuing bank).

Since the loan is of a greater risk they get to charge more interest to make it worth their while (Usually around 20% no matter what the Prime Rate is).

That is why the minimum payments (which are almost exclusively interest) is so high, and why you never seem to be able to get ahead, because you are always paying interest, high interest.

So this is why I take a moment to pause and be thankful for paying off the last of the credit card debt that I had.

I still have credit cards, but I keep them at a zero balance, since I pay them off in full each and every payday.

Credit card debt is evil because there is no end date on that debt. With a car loan or a mortgage there is an end date, eventually. 

With credit cards, you can keep paying and paying and paying for years for a relatively small debt. 

This is why I always say pay off your credit cards as soon as you can and keep them paid off. Keep them, use them, but do not carry a balance on them. 

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

The Homestead Fund Update

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") 

Okay, so let’s see how I did . . .    

For review, here is how things looked from last payday . . .   

That is 48.8% (of my Savings Target).

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

That’s right things jumped up to 51.6% of my savings target. 

That means I put away 2.8% of my total Savings Target this payday.

THAT’S HUGE! Now, that wasn’t all me, in fact it was mostly not me, sure I put away what I could, but that was eaten up by losses in one of my investment vehicles.

The other one went up like a rocket over the course of the past two weeks and not only crossed off three squares for me (49. 50, & 51) but also finished a line for me and got me over the half-way mark.

So, like I said, this payday update is huge!

Now, all of those gains and losses are unrealized, meaning they won’t be real until I pull money out of the market by selling investments, in either of my investment vehicles. 

Don’t go asking me for investing advice, as I keep saying, I am not a financial expert and my gains I consider to be dumb luck rather than my “mad investing skills.”

I will take the win though, and keep pushing forward on my goal to get to “Insane” before the year is out, as something tells me, I may need to run for the hills sooner rather than later.

I still choose to believe in the positive future for us all, and I will continue to work towards that. 

I may hedge my bets a bit, but I will always choose to be the beacon of hope (in my own way) in times of trials, rather than hiding out in a hole with a hoard of supplies, doing nothing as I watch the world burn.

But, today is a good day (to save). I will keep trudging forward as best and as carefully as I can. It is good news to get over half way to my savings target!

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

Getting Back Into Winter Shape

So, the cold weather is here, and the even colder weather is just around the corner. I know this from history and experience. 

I also know how to handle the cold and what to do to survive . . . I just don’t like doing it . . . I f*cking hate the cold.

I despise the cold.

I loathe the cold.

I . . . I could go on but you get the idea.

This time of year is the time where I get myself mentally back in the game of dealing with the deep freeze that is January and February. 

(These current temps are nothing.) 

It is only a couple of months and then things get back to being not so bad. I can do this, I have done this before, and I will do this again (deal with the cold).

Simply because this is how I can and will build for my future. Dealing with the cold is one part knowhow and one part the will to endure it. I have both. 

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