Posted by Dave on January 26, 2010
18,533 – this is how many days I have left if I were to live to the current life expectancy of a Canadian Male (Currently 80.4 years). When a lifetime is put into days that can essentially be ticked off rather then years which are large incomprehensible chunks of time, money decisions can really be put into perspective.
My end goal is retirement at 45 – this gives me a specific number of days to achieve my two-parted goal of minimizing expenses and saving enough money to live off of to support the lifestyle I want. Every spending decision between now and that deadline can be assessed against whether or not this is going to assist or hurt the attainment of that goal. For example, a couple of weeks ago I wrote about a vacation and how it is essentially a waste of money. Even though I am excited to go someplace warm and drink pina coladas for a week or so, the trade off is that my house is not getting paid off and my savings are not growing, (my two primary goals of the moment) all for a week away someplace warm – which, if this were something I did a couple of times a year would have a significant impact on my end retirement goal.
I have family members who are in their mid-to-late 50′s and have plans of continuing to work for several more years. All of these people are relatively well off, and to my knowledge really have no reason to work other then to maximize their pension money, or top up their retirement funds. The mindset of trading time in my 50′s because I have to work is foreign to me. I realize that my opinion on work may change at some point, but thinking that I have to work at 55 is a situation I don’t want to be in. At 55, with less then 10,000 days of expected life left (some of which may not be at optimal health) the last thing I would like to be doing is worrying about making more money. I’ve spoken with these family members and asked what they really want to do, and in general they don’t really have a plan. I think if they had a plan and knew what they wanted to do, they might realize that grinding their time away at work may not be the best thing they could be doing now, and they may have enough money to afford to retire.
I also know people who refuse to create a plan and “live for today”, which (from my observation) generally means living paycheque to paycheque (and going into debt when the paycheque isn’t enough) and justifying the lack of financial responsibility by thinking they may die tomorrow, which means these people don’t bother saving, paying off debts, creating a spending plan, setting goals (essentially everything that a site like this and a majority of readers of personal finance sites follow). What I see this attitude leading to in the long-term is a lack of freedom. Eventually (unless the people do die tomorrow) the debts that are being taken on need to be paid (or they increase exponentially), savings need to be created (or the person would have to work forever), and the “fun” that is being had today turns into tomorrow’s problem. I “live for today” as well, I just choose how I “live” so that if I am still around in my 80′s, I don’t have to be working.
I realize that this post is a little morbid in nature, but I think everyone needs to think about the future, and how much future is left. If you think of your life in (average) days remaining (for me anyways), it puts spending and financial decisions into perspective.
Am I the only one who thinks in this morbid manner, or are there other people out there that weigh money decisions in this frame of mind?
Posted by Canadian Dream on January 25, 2010
So it’s been a blizzard here in the last few days, so there is lots of snow and blowing snow. I dug my driveway once already but I’m not even sure if I can drive my car to work this morning because the roads are so deep. I wonder if my kid will have a snow day? Well regardless all this snow kept us in the house all day Sunday so I did some thinking.
I won’t lie to you having a six figure income helps with your ability to save easily. I’ve been there now for the last few months because of the second job and yep it’s damn easy to save. Yet what really makes the saving so huge in my case isn’t just the income, I would say a bigger part of it is being frugal.
You see I make six figures, but I’m still spending less than $35,000 a year. The fact I haven’t raised my spending with my salary has made a huge difference in where I am today. I’ve never felt the need to spend everything I make. I know a higher income isn’t a license to spend more. Yes I can if I want, but why bother? Am I not just as happy as I was before making this money? Yes. Am I still buying those things I REALLY want? Yes.
So what’s the other part of spending so little when you make so much. It’s going to sound cheesing, but: I know myself. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years getting to know myself. How I think? Why I think that way and what my emotional response is to many things? So this offers me many valuable saving options. Like the fact I know I’ve never becoming a VP of anything anywhere. I have no interest in the job. I’ve seen the demands they place on those in senior positions and often the salary to go with and in my mind it’s a poor trade. So I don’t feel the need to wear a suit to work each day or suck up to those in high places. I just focus instead on doing my job and answer questions truthfully.
So ironically that has actually helped my career in spots (I tend to just give senior management what they want and treat them like everyone else) and saved me a small fortune of money that I don’t spend to keep up appearances. I’m happy and generally so have most of my bosses once they realize my quirks.
So that’s my deep snow induced thinking. Now where’s my shovel?
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Posted by Canadian Dream on January 22, 2010
Alright, up until now I generally stay away from discussing politics on this blog (despite being an elected official for my second job). Other than the odd post on the latest budget commentary or complaint on the government not passing some kind of greenhouse gas regulations. Today’s post is going to different, so if you feel uncomfortable stop reading and regular posting will be back Monday. I just had to get this off my chest.
I’m currently very upset with the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue parliament on Dec 30, 2009. Why? Well in summary it’s all about the numbers.
I get that Stephen Harper is a control freak and it’s just his personality. I’m ok with that, but I do have a problem with him shutting down parliament just to avoid talking about the issues of the day for two months. Hello, Steve, recall who is paying all those MP salaries? It’s us. I don’t get a two month break from my day job when things get rough, so why can you do it? I understand that the government will still being doing some work while being prorogued, but I pay you do more than that. I understand you want to watch our hockey teams wins gold at the Olympics but do you need to avoid Question Period or any committee work to do that? Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t government pass laws like the 3o or so bills you sent to the trash can when you prorogued parliament.
Then when a group gets formed on Facebook in opposition to the move, Minister Tony Clement referrers to it as a bunch of elites and not significant. Could someone please explain to me how a group of 209,000+ members organizing rally’s across Canada is not significant? After all I’m fairly certain that the 225,000 people that lost their jobs from Oct 2008 until Oct 2009 are significant in most people’s mind. Does that last 16,000 really boost it so much?
Or is the government hiding from Mr. Page’s report which shows that the government is a dream world about not raising taxes or cutting programs to avoid a structure deficit of $19 billion or so by 2013/2014? Hello, Steve, it’s as basic as it gets. You are spending more than you earn. You either raise what you earn (taxes) or cut spending to solve the problem. I know lots of blogs you can read to help you learn the concept in case you forgot.
So despite the fact I’ve never been to a rally in my life I’m attending one on this Saturday to show my displeasure with the decision to prorogue parliament. I’m standing up to prove I’m more than a SIN number or just a vote to my government. I’m your boss and it’s time to get back to work.
If your interested in attending a rally yourself please check out either this site or here if you are on Facebook. Thanks for letting me rant.
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