BUILDING WEALTH AND DEBT FREEDOM GOES BEYOND A WAGE INCREASE Unless you get a wage increase that is far beyond your norm the only gratification most people get is seeing the bigger number on their pay cheque. Even then if you’re not putting that wage increase to work you’re hiring and firing your own staff costing your more money in the long run. Reality is that without doing something with that money to help increase your net worth it won’t make a blind bit of difference. This perspective of a wage increase simply leaves you right back where you started. November is financial literacy month and I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about why a wage or salary increase isn’t always the answer to our financial problems. You have to start somewhere ** Let that be your motivation for the day, month, year ** You may not be in debt but you’re certainly not going to get ahead financially if you aren’t making changes to the way you manage it. The key: Financial Literacy. If you’re in the negative you may still be in the negative but climbing out from the hole. You’re still […]
A Wage Increase Is Only Instant Gratification On Paper : Our Net Worth Update October 2017 (+0.79%)
How To Prepare Yourself Financially For a Union Strike
A UNION STRIKE AFFECTS EVERYONE FINANCIALLY WHO ARE DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY INVOLVED When a union goes on a legal strike not everyone is prepared financially especially when the union strike lingers on for weeks and in some cases months. I’ve followed current College strike news in Ontario as the teacher’s head into the third week on the picket lines and wanted to learn more about the financial plight that everyone suffers, including students and businesses. The last thing you think of when you start the College year whether you’re away from home or not is how you will survive a union strike. Listen, I’m not union expert but what I am certain of is the financial impact a union strike can have and I’ve got some critical financial planning tips today for those of you who work for a union or are directly involved with a union. Most of the post will revolve around the current Ontario Colleges Union strike as an example. What does it mean to go on strike? A union strike means that the union and management are unable to come up with negotiations that meet each others needs. After this the workers walk off the […]
Emergency Financial Assistance For Fixed Income Senior Parents : The Saturday Weekend Review #237
ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS TO DO IS WATCH THE HEALTH AND WEALTH OF YOUR PARENTS DETERIORATE AS THEY AGE One minute you can be fine with your money and the next you’re on the verge of disaster and in desperate need of financial assistance. Not everyone will admit to needing financial help because they are too proud but there comes a point where thinking about the best options is better than what something might cost down the road if other things start going wrong. It is not just the young folks who seek help with financial assistance, debt problems and health care. There are always seniors who keep themselves hidden away or placed in old-age retirement homes because they simply can’t do what they used on their own. That or they can’t afford it. Having senior parents who are living on a fixed income, small pensions and old-age security from government savings with no other savings apart from small work pensions can be heartbreaking. Although owning a house is good it may not yield enough to take care of them in retirement. I know many of you might say that it’s their problem for not saving money for […]
5 Point Checklist For Hosting A Successful Moving Sale : The Saturday Weekend Review #233
NOT ALL SALES ARE EQUAL ESPECIALLY WHEN SELLING YOUR BELONGINGS. Whether you’ve lived in a house for one year or 25 years you will accumulate stuff that gets shoved away in a dark corner and collects dust. We all do it unless you’re an extreme minimalist which wouldn’t be so bad for some people who can’t stop shopping for stuff to fill up their home. It’s after you are ready to move house and de-clutter for your first moving sale that memories and things start popping up. Then you have to make decisions about these items and sometimes selling or donating memories can be the hardest thing to do. Two questions pop into my head when I find stuff I haven’t used, we haven’t used or won’t use; Did we spend our money to buy it? Should we sell it or donate it? If it wasn’t our money then we don’t have to worry about a loss because we didn’t fork out the cash for it. Do you sell the stuff or do you take it with you? This is a question you need to ask yourself or sit as a family and discuss before even beginning to think […]
Fixed Income Seniors Struggle To Learn How To Budget
DON’T LEAVE YOUR FINANCIAL DREAMS SCATTERED ON THE GROUND Learning how to budget after never using one has caused two seniors we know anxiety over their financial future. If they could do it all over again they would change so much about the way they managed their money. They know they can’t turn back the clock and must face the reality of living on a fixed income with little to no retirement savings and lots of grandchildren. They are not alone as many Canadians on a fixed income struggle to make ends meet and must juggle their money to balance their budget, if they use one. Living on a fixed income is a big deal especially for seniors or individuals who rely on money from sources other than from an employer. Cost-of-living increases can cripple those who live on a fixed income especially if they have no other sources of extra money to take from. People are talking about finance and income so much these days particularly in Ontario because most people are struggling with soaring utility costs and high debt loads. Comparing a Hydro bill to a mortgage payment is not unusual for some homeowners these days. If […]
Stop Blaming The Government For All Of Your Debt Problems
DEBT= Don’t Ever Buy Things On Credit Debt for most Canadians is still a reality and likely will be for a long time unless something changes but not necessarily from a political aspect but a personal one. Is the Canadian government to blame for all of our debt problems or should we start taking responsibility for the way we are spending and saving money? The past few days I’ve spent what little free time I have in between working 7 days a week, family responsibility and blogging to catch up with what’s happening in the world of Canadian Finance. With the internet flooded with resent for the Wynne Liberal government who are under fire right now especially with the increase in hydro costs that are creating energy poverty for Canadians who simply can’t afford to pay these price hikes. Our hydro has more than doubled in the past year and our habits have not changed which means we continue to be conscious of utility usage. What’s even worse is there are plans in the works to phase out natural gas, homes will need an energy audit when put up for sale and renovations based on energy efficiency. This is […]
I Doubled My 20% Savings Rate By Cutting Out These 5 Things
YOU CAN ALWAYS SAVE By: Des from Half Banked One of the fastest – and safest – ways to reach your financial goals is to increase your savings rate. I say that as a millennial who isn’t making the “big bucks”, so this is a widely applicable concept. Increasing your savings rate isn’t just for people looking to retire early! Related post: A Beginners Guide To Early Retirement Let’s say you’re saving $100 a month, and your goal is to build a $5000 emergency fund. At $100 a month, it will take you just over 4 years to hit your goal, assuming you’re saving your emergency fund in a high-interest savings account that pays 1% interest, compounded monthly. If you were to double that savings rate, and put $200 towards your emergency fund every month, you’d reach your goal in just over two years. You’ve just slashed the time it will take you to reach your savings goal in half, just by increasing your savings rate. You didn’t need to rely on any high-risk investments, and your emergency fund is good to go a lot sooner. Why did I increase my savings rate? As a millennial, I’m […]
Why I No Longer Hate Making a Budget
YOU EITHER LOVE THEM OR HATE THEM Fifteen years ago you could not have twisted my arm enough to make a budget. It wasn’t going to happen. My wife had tried several times making a budget but I hadn’t given any input and I certainly didn’t think one was necessary. It’s safe to say I hated them. Budgets were for “those people” who were in massive debt or who wanted to control an overspending spouse. They weren’t for normal people like us who lived off our paycheck from week to week and could afford pretty much everything we needed. Some months we’d have some money left over at the end of the month to put into our savings account. Other months we wouldn’t. Things seemed fine to me so I didn’t see the big deal. Then came the first kid. Suddenly spending patterns changed. No longer was it just my wife and I. We had another person to account for, one who would have some very expensive habits. Can anyone say 10 diapers and 6 meals a day? So we set out again to tackle the monthly budget. We actually managed to make a budget that we thought would […]
