Posted by Canadian Dream on February 10, 2010
Occasionally in life I feel the need to be absolutely brutally honest with people. I usually don’t do it to hurt the other person, but rather make a point strongly. I find I can be misunderstood at times because I was trying to be too nice about my wording. I never suspected that my financial situation would actually cause me to be more brutally honest with people.
Since realizing I technically don’t need my day job I’m giving myself permission to be more honest with people. At work is likely the biggest change, where I don’t have a problem telling someone: no or being honest in the fact I won’t get to something until next week or even next month. Yet I’ve also noticed it in other conversations. Recently I was discussing retirement with a family member and I was point blanked asked: when do you want to retire? Up until now I have always said something like: “Oh, 55 would by nice,” since I’ve never been comfortable taking about my dream to retire at 45 with family. That day I actually said “50 or less. Heck 45 would be ideal.” I think my family member thought I was joking.
Which is a hazard of dreaming big with my financial goals. People really just can’t wrap their heads around the concept that it is possible to retire at 45. They fail to understand I’m seriously trying to get there and yes I’ve done the math and it is a real possibility. So while even being brutally honest with people I confuse them. Not really because I was unclear, but rather they are not willing to accept the truth.
So in the future I’ve realized being honest is the right way to go. Not everyone will get it, so I won’t have to explain myself to everyone. The reality won’t likely hit them until I actually quit my day job, which is fine for me.
Posted by Dave on February 9, 2010
How much would you pay to fix yourself physically?
I have been feeling a moderate amount of pain in my lower back over the past few weeks and while golfing I have almost been put out of commission by a sore lower back. So I decided to go see a chiropractor, something I have never done before an appointment this morning. During the initial assessment, a scan was taken of my spine and the results were kind of shocking. Where most people’s back muscles should be equally strong on both sides, mine are most definitely not – looking something like a triangle pattern, which is not ideal.
I’m going in for my first adjustment tomorrow, and am hoping whatever I have done is fixable. I am basically willing to do anything to get myself in shape, I’m just hoping that it won’t be extremely expensive. My benefits cover the first $400 per year, but the initial appointment was $95 with each additional adjustment being $35 – this could end up being a $2,000 per year fix, which is not really good times for my budget.
For me, my health is my main focus (other then on Superbowl Sunday when I tried unsuccessfully to eat my weight in junk food). I eat things that don’t really taste good because I know they are healthy. I exercise when I really don’t want to because I know I am sedentary the rest of the day and the gym will help balance this out (at least partially). If I am not healthy, then basically everything kind of goes out the window – how much fun would retiring at 45 be if I can’t even lift a golf bag, let alone swing a club? There are a lot of things that I would like to do that would be less enjoyable or impossible if I were in poor health.
The problems with my back are probably caused at least partially (more likely totally) by the work I do. I’m sure I could fix my posture and perhaps my workstation, but the main problem is that I am still sitting around all day doing nothing – something I’m pretty sure humans were not evolved to do (not sure if there was anything in a swiveling posturepedic style 20,000 years ago). So I’m not really sure what to do. I guess listen to my chiropractor and hope that my back can be fixed and that I can spend another 15 years sitting around so that I can do whatever I want after that.
I’m hoping that whatever is the matter with me can be fixed, and fixed quickly (golf season is in less then 4 months now). Then hopefully I can learn how to sit properly so that I can continue to do the job that I do and won’t have to look into a career change that could potentially add years to my early retirement.
I realize that I don’t necessarily need to go to a chiropractor, and that more traditional medicine would be more then capable in treating my back. Yet having watched both of my parents go through back injuries, the only options typically offered by more traditional medicine are pills and/or surgery. I am looking for something a little less invasive where hopefully I can assist in fixing whatever is the matter. Having to pay for health care is a new experience, and makes me grateful for Canadian health care – no matter how messed up it seems sometimes.
I’m assuming that everyone in my situation would pay whatever it cost to fix what was wrong, but would you change a career, potentially changing your financial plan totally?
Posted by Canadian Dream on February 8, 2010
Habits in personal finance are your best friend and your worst enemy. On one hand when you develop good habits like using low cost investments like ETF’s or perhaps learning you don’t have to spend that last $20 in your pocket just because you have it. On the other hand when you are so used to saving a lot then hard to get in the habit of spending more when you can honestly afford it or given yourself permission to just enjoy spending some of your money.
I face this little push and pull on my savings all the time. It sort of creates an interesting internal debate on what I want in the future (ie: retire at 45) versus what I want now (today that is a toss up between a Blu-ray player or an extra half an hour sleep in). For the longest time I sort of avoided this debate by focusing mainly on what I needed rather than what I wanted, which worked fine for a while but recently has fallen apart.
Why? Well that’s easy. I’ve began to realize that any extra savings I do at this point is fairly minor in the overall picture. For example, I’m currently putting an extra $2900/month to my mortgage beyond my regular payment. At this rate the mortgage should be paid off in a bit over than 2.5 years. So yes I could save my next raise at work and shave off perhaps a month more, but really what’s the point? If a month going to help my long term goals out that much? No not really, so why not spend some of that next raise.
This is the point where I get into trouble. I’m not even sure what I would spend the extra money on yet. You see I’m nervous about getting in the habit of spending more on a monthly basis and falling into the lifestyle inflation trap where you just keep spending more for each raise that you earn. So I’m somewhat stuck in a saving groove and a bit nervous about getting out of it.
Perhaps the answer really shouldn’t be mind this time. Perhaps I should just turn it over to my wife and say “So what do you want most in life, beyond what you already have?” Then spend the money on that. After all I have to say several excellent compromises have come from my wife over the years like increasing spending money but focusing it on certain areas like eating out. She’s got a better intuitive balance on spending for today that I do.
So if you’ve been in the savings groove how did you get out of it? Or what do you want most beyond what you already have? I’m just curious what people spend their extra money on.
