Posted by Canadian Dream on August 26, 2011
With a deep sigh I realized that summer is coming to a close faster than I would like which means it will soon be back to school time from my oldest son and….myself.
The little guy is much easier out of the two of us as we got his school list which includes crayons, pencils, glue, paint shirt and of course some new clothes and shoes (the kid is growing like a bad weed). As of today we got just about everything the kid needs for a mere $132. A fraction of the average Canadian back to school spending that comes in at $319.
How do we keep the costs down? Well here is what works for us:
- Shop the deals. For example Staples provided a lot of basic items like glue and pencils because of their sale prices. Old Navy had a good sale that my wife got a lot of clothing for a steal and then Walmart rounded out some of the clothes and shoes.
- Does it have to be new? Then we recycled several items from last year that were still fine like his pencil case and lunchbox. For a paint shirt I dug into my shirts to find the one I liked the least and stuffed it in his backpack. Look around your house and you might be surprised to find out what you already own.
- Buy Quality for Some Items. We made the mistake last year of getting a backpack that our son loved, but it was poorly made. It only lasted a year unlike his first backpack which got several years of use because we bought better quality.
As for me I’m heading back to take some adult education classes to get a Professional Management Certificate from my local university. You might wonder why I would bother to get more education when I plan on retiring early? Well the classes are mostly business based which will provide some useful skills for my day job, my school board job and even my own business. My philosophy in life is learning something new never kills you and often more helpful than I expect.
I haven’t even started my classes yet, but I’ve learned a few important things about my adult education so far:
- Get it Free. My day job is actually paying for me to take this certificate as they are looking for people to have more business skills in the company. Talk about a nice $4000 job perk! If that isn’t possible check out this article on ways to pay for it.
- Try to Get Paid Time Off. Beyond the generous paying for the classes my work is also paying me my usual wage to attend. So how is that for a nice touch to make you want to attend class: get paid to learn.
- Giving Up Some Things. Beyond the obvious purely financial support to attend these classes I also know I will have to give up some of my free time to study. So that means less books to read and movies for entertainment for a while, but I think it will be worth it.
So how much have you spend on your kids for back to school spending? Or would you bother taking some extra classes yourself?
Posted by Canadian Dream on August 25, 2011
As I was looking back at an older post over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks about making over $100,000/year would mean you are successful, it occurred to me that idea is more common that I would give it credit for. If you do a few Google searches you can see that idea is still somewhat common from its start in the 1980′s, but some people are questioning how far that money will take you now (for example see here).
The reality is $100,000 in savings to me is much more impressive than $100,000/year income as the latter doesn’t tell me a damn thing about your spending habits. Income levels only really matter when you compare it back to expenses, without that second piece of information telling me how you earn is a useless bit of data. I’m much more impressed if you earn only $50,000/year and save half of that, than someone who saves half of their $100,000/year income, since I understand how at higher incomes it is easier to save more.
Also speaking from experience my combined income (from all my jobs) is currently kissing that threshold and frankly it is more of a pain in the ass than anything. Why? In a word: taxes. In a progressive tax system like Canada’s you end up paying more tax when you make more income so by earning $100,000/year you’ve put a big target on your back that says to the government: bleed me dry of my money. So while earning more does have the potential to help you reach your goals faster you do spend a lot more time considering the tax implications of your decisions. For example, maxing out my RRSP contributions gets a lot more important when you are at a 40% marginal tax rate.
This isn’t to say that earning more is a bad thing, it just complicates matters, at least in my experience. A more useful measure of success depends largely on what you want to do with your life. Money is all well and good, but you don’t need to define your success in life by it. I would rather know that I’m happy most of the time at a job I like than a large income. Does that mean your success is any less because you use a subjective measure? No, it doesn’t change the feeling of pride that comes from meeting a goal.
In the end, don’t fall for the six figure income myth as being success unless you want it to mean something to you. Pick your own measures of success regardless of how odd they may be and strive towards those. Life is too short to chase other people’s dreams.
So have you ever made six figure income? If so, did it change anything or not? If you have never made that income, do you want to earn that much and why?
Posted by Canadian Dream on August 24, 2011
This is a guest post from Gwen in Ontario, who is 39 years old with a grown daughter, and is trying to rebuild her retirement dream just 20 years too late for early retirement.
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Gwen and although I love the concept of retiring early: I’m starting about 20 years too late. I’m now 39 years old, don’t play the lottery, and have no wealthy people about to pass their fortunes to me, so my “early” retirement will be before I’m 60.
After several years being in a dysfunctional marriage that ended in divorce, I’m now working towards the life I feel I is my true path, and I feel that I am at the best part of life life to date, except financially. The end result is that the last 20 years has left me with a negative net worth (any assets from the marriage were consumed by lawyers, and a few other bad decisions).
When I signed the mortgage in February for my residence, that was a real awakening. Do I really still want to have a mortgage when I’m over 70 years old? That terrifies me, and I know I am the only one who can change that.
Now, by educating myself by reading books and blogs such as this one, my goal is make my future different. I am currently not married, but am in a committed relationship with a man who shares my views on money (although we do not combine our money). I also have a child on the edge of adulthood. That being said, until anything changes in my personal life, I will be doing this on a single income.
Over the next several years, I plan on getting out of debt, increasing my net worth, and generally steering my life towards the future I want. I know there will be bumps along the road (for example my residence is a condo in a 25 year old building that still has all the original appliances), and I hope that by sharing my story, I can encourage others to change their lives as well regardless of their age.
