Posted by Dave on August 23, 2011
This is a guest post by Dave, who is also looking to retire no later than 45, but unlike Tim has no kids and doesn’t want any. Dave is from Ontario and is working towards his CGA certification.
I like some kinds of junk food. I try to limit how much of it I eat, but I have a weakness for pad thai. I have searched around at the 5 – 7 thai restauarants by my house and the average cost to buy it is around $11 an order, which I gladly paid up until about a year ago when I found out that pad thai really isn’t all that difficult to make. The thing that really makes this recipe is the sauce, which includes 4 ingredients (fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind paste, and chili powder/sauce), and very little skill to create.
For the same $11, I can make almost 4 portions of the same junk food I love – all I do is make extra sauce when I’m cooking and after that I’m just as fast at cooking it as a restaurant.. The added benefits to making my own is that I know exactly what is going into it, and I don’t need to leave the house or pay delivery fees to get it. My wife does not really like Thai food at all, so it helps her as well, as her normal order at a Thai restaurant is a bowl of white rice.
My charcoal barbeque also replaces many super-expensive restaurant meals. I can find as good or better cuts of meat as can be found in an up-scale steakhouse and have learned how to cook it very well. For the fraction of the cost of a restaurant meal, I can cook something as good or better and not have to deal with people (hmmm, maybe it’s not so much the cost of the restaurant as the people I’m trying to get away from).
Learning to cook, and cook well doesn’t take much – I learned from having a laptop with YouTube going in the kitchen (this is also how I learn to do most of my home repairs). There is so much information out there that there’s really no excuse to not try to learn.
I watch and care about what I eat as much as possible. I buy my meat locally from “green” farms who pasture-feed their animals, rather than sticking their pigs and cattle in a very unhealthy feedlot. I like to know what goes into my meals, and the skill of cooking, and cooking well has allowed me to have more control over what I’m eating the vast majority of the time.
I will freely admit that I do go out and spend money on food that other people have cooked. My wife and I are going to be attending our second rib-fest of the year this weekend, where we’ll probably spend somewhere between $100 and $150 on ribs; ”carnival food” such as blooming onions, butterfly fries (a personal favourite), elephant ears; and beer.
Would you say you’re a good cook? What’s your favourite meal to cook at home?
Posted by Robert on August 22, 2011
This is a guest post by Robert, who lives in Calgary and works as a financial adviserretired at 34. He is married, has three kids. Robert and his wife then plan to return to school and become teachers, eventually living and working overseas.
Life sometimes feels like a long stream of choices. When we are faced with an income that’s not unlimited, our personal finances are defined by the choices we make. There are lots of things we can do with our money, but they can mostly be categorized into three groups: spending, debt service, and saving and investing. In order to have a certain outcome, such as retiring at age 45, we need to make tradeoffs between these three groups of choices.
Spending. The reason we work is to provide for our needs and the needs of those we care about. We use money as a medium of exchange to reduce trading costs. Money has no inherent value, except to enable consumption or to store value for future consumption. We spend on our needs and wants, but we also have other spending obligations and choices. We spend on taxes, because it’s mandatory and because the government provides services. Some people gamble and others buy insurance, for the possibility of either future gains or protecting future losses. Spending money produces our quality of life.
Debt service. This group should probably have come first in the list, because it is the least flexible. Before a person can make any other spending decisions, they need to make their debt payments to their lender, with interest. For every $1 borrowed, $1.05 (more or less) must be paid back. The interest is a leakage that represents money you never get to make choices about. It’s effectively money that you earn, but don’t get to spend or save. Sometimes debt is necessary, but the interest cost should always be minimized.
Saving and investing. For every $1 saved, $1.04 (more or less) is available for spending in the future. With a goal to retire early, saving becomes important because it allows future spending without working. But the goal is still to spend the money. Money that is saved but never spent is wasted. Most people that I’ve spoken with appear to have a goal to smooth spending over their lifetime, not being able to spend far more either now or in old age.
I’m the kind of person who would rather have my cake than eat it. My personal values are to keep spending low, in order to pay back debt quicker and also save and invest for the future. Some people would rather not plan to retire, but spend and enjoy their earnings now. I wouldn’t say that’s “wrong”, only a different set of priorities.
What tradeoffs do you make between spending, debt service and saving? What would you do differently?
Posted by Canadian Dream on August 19, 2011
I feel almost embarrassed by how much time has passed since my last link post. I read some great content at times and then forgot to share it with you. Oh well, I will have to try and remember to do this a bit more frequently.
An excellent post about should you go directly to post secondary after high school or do the travel/work route for a while first? My favorite quote: “It’s important for students to be at school for the right reasons and not because someone is telling them t.” (Walletpop.ca)
The Next Stage of Retirement begins: Kindergarten. It’s worth reading for the title alone right? (Mr. Money Mustache)
Why Freedom 55 may be really Freedom 70. While the author has points he seems to lumping everyone into the issues with defined benefit pension plans despite the fact most pe0ple don’t have them. (Toronto Star)
Marketing for people that don’t like marketing (including me). See here. (Zen Habits)
An over looked method of dealing with debt: get a second job. How else do you think I’m paying down my mortgage this fast? (Finance Fox)
Preet lands a new writing gig on investor education…first up: management fees.
For those who don’t use a discount broker here is a step by step guide to selling a stock or ETF. (Money Smarts)
What are you working or saving towards? Damn good question that everyone needs to answer. (Fabulously Broke in the City)
A neat trick to use Google spreadsheets to create a watch list (or even track your portfolio if you are spread out over a number accounts). (Million Dollar Journey)
An interesting post on exploring discipline…perhaps my only issue with this is it doesn’t discuss how habits relate to discipline. After all it is easy to be disciplined when it is a habit. (Canadian Fiance Blog)
