ALL WE CAN CONTROL IN RETIREMENT ARE OUR SPENDING HABITS We often over-estimate how much money we will need in our retirement years when we are healthy only because we have this bucket-list of things to do and want to make sure the money is available. The sad part is that not everyone will get to cross off places they want to visit or things they want to do because of the funds aren’t available, health decline or travel insurance is far too expensive. When my father-in-law passed away earlier this year my mother-in-law was left to pick up the pieces which in all honesty was a terrible mess. Shortly after she was deemed unable to care for many things on her own we had to step in and do her finances for her. This is how dementia starts to rob you of your independence, slowly even though we can look back and now see it has been happening for years. With no income coming in but a small Canada Pension Plan cheque which she managed to get early when she didn’t need it that’s really all the money she had coming in. Had she been in the right […]
Purchasing Weekly Groceries Offers The Best Customer Perks – GGC 2018 #3 Sept 17-23
Honestly, how many times do you really need to go to the grocery store each month? Today I want to explain why I believe buying weekly groceries will save you more money in the long-run provided you stick to your budget. You can ask just about anyone about grocery shopping and you’ll soon see that views differ based on lifestyle and the enjoyment of planning and executing a trip to the shop. Honestly, how many times do you really need to go to the grocery store each month? This is what my neighbour said about his wife who must grocery shop once a week. Well, that depends on your meal plan, cooking methods and if your plan is for weekly groceries you may come out ahead with the better deals while giving up time. Time differs for everyone, let me explain. Over the years Mrs. CBB and I have trialed different times of grocery shopping such as shopping bi-weekly, weekly, once a month and daily and each offered us something different. Before we had our son for example it was a breeze doing weekly groceries or even daily because we could without any issue. Add couponing to […]
What Does Your Retirement Lifestyle Plan Look Like?
YOUR RETIREMENT LIFESTYLE PLAN IS ABOUT PREDICTING THE WAY YOU WANT TO LIVE IN THE FUTURE Last month as we sat with our financial advisor to review our portfolio one of the questions we were asked pertained to our retirement lifestyle now that we were 100% debt free. With a young child and in our early 40’s the last thing we want to think about is retirement but we both know that we must. Depending on who you ask their retirement lifestyle might be painted as, resort-type community living (retirement villages), lavish holidays, mini-trips, restaurants, activities and organizations outside of the home. Others might be happy living a simple life in an apartment or their home hopefully mortgage free although for many reaching retirement years that’s not even happening. What do you want your retirement lifestyle to look like? That’s what our advisor asked us and we both blankly stared at each other and said, I don’t know. We didn’t know but what we did know was that we had to keep socking away money to max out our retirement savings for future reasons. Over the years Mrs. CBB and I have vaguely discussed what we’d like to do […]
