Posted by Canadian Dream on August 18, 2011
Some times you read the right book just at the right point in your life and then interesting things start to happen to you. I recently had this occur to me when I borrowed The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. Chris’s name might be familiar as he has written the online manifesto “A Brief Guide to World Domination” which is the inspiration for the book.
The subtitle of the book is “set your own rules, live the life you want and change the world.” Basically Chris is trying to teach people that you don’t have to just live a conventional life of: get some post secondary, get a job you don’t really like and buy crap you really don’t need and save for a distant retirement.
We far too often in life settle for what we want. We settle for our jobs, what we do with our time, or how much of a difference we can make in the world. Chris is trying to teach people in this book how to live a different way where you point your compass to your dream life and actually get there. He also deals with the common issues that are going to come up from doing this: fear of the change, people saying ‘no’ and generally people not understanding how you really do want to change the world.
He also rightly points out that most people really don’t want to ‘do nothing’, but we often actually done something that we love so we don’t understand how ‘work’ can be an enjoyable thing. Would you ever really get tired of doing something you love to help others? Likely a lot more slowly than your current job.
In a nut shell it is basically required reading in my mind for anyone wishing to be retired early as the book might change how you view your current goal of early retirement. I know it did for me. You see I have always had this idea that once I’m financially independent that I could then write as much as I want. Now I realize that I’m approaching the problem in the wrong way. By aiming to be financially independent first I’m basically making the assumption that I can’t make a living writing, which is really what I’m after. The problem is that is an assumption that I have made. What if I can making a modest living at writing? Would I need to be fully financially independent? No, I could instead aim for being partly financially independent from my investments and the rest from self-employment income.
So overall I enjoyed the book which was fairly short so you can read through it rather quickly, but working some of the ideas through your mind afterwards might take a little bit longer.
So what’s your dream and why are you not doing it?
Posted by Canadian Dream on August 17, 2011
This is a guest post by Martin, who is preparing for retirement within the next 5 years; no later than his 40th birthday. He is married, has 2 young children and lives and works in rural Alberta as a regional finance manager for a large energy company. (As a reminder here was his last post)
Like most similar-minded readers of this blog, unconventional early retirement is possible for me because I respect money. I work as hard and smart as I can to earn it and am diligent in making sure that I add real value to my life when I spend it. Being an accountant only compounds the analysis and dissection that I place on my finances. This obsessive, objective approach has revealed a point of concern in executing my retirement plan.
My financial mind is having a hard time dealing with the thought of leaving money on the table.
When I philosophize about it, it is clear to me that I do not want to work a day longer than I have to. However, when I get into the details of determining how much do I need to retire, I keep reasoning that if I work an extra couple of years beyond what I need, I’ll add enough money to (a) provide a larger inheritance to my children, (b) not have to be so diligent about spending in the future and be able to afford the odd frivolous expenditure *gasp*, (c) buy a little cottage on a lake up north, or (d) <insert any of the reasons/excuses I’ve come up with add just a little more to my nest egg before retiring>.
I think my hang-up is derived from the notion that I haven’t yet been paid back in my career for the sacrifice it took to get where I am today. For those with experience in the corporate world, I’m just starting to bump up against the threshold where employees go from from being underpaid to overpaid commensurate to their qualifications and experience. The objective financial quadrant of my mind is urging me to hang on for a few more years to correctly compensate me for the years spent being underpaid.
Has anyone else gone through this idea that you owe it to yourself to hang on a few more years to validate the effort it took to get there? Any ideas on how to shake this idea and just walk away when the numbers are right?
Posted by Dave on August 16, 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.
Over the past few years, I would have to say that my fiscal and political views have definitely taken on a more libertarian flavour. I see waste and inefficiency in government that just makes me angry. We have people in office that don’t seem to understand (in my opinion) that running deficit budgets for years at a time is probably not the best way to do things, especially since they leave the repayment of the accumulated debt to the next generation or next party to get into office who starts the whole thing over again…..
But I digress (please read the disclaimer on the bottom far right sidebar, my views probably don’t reflect Tim’s at all, who owns the blog) even though I don’t agree with how most of the revenue is brought in, I will not (purposefully, I may by accident) cheat on my taxes. In the several taxation courses I have taken on-route to a CGA designation, I have realized that it really just isn’t worth it.
There are many, many ways that an individual can cheat on their taxes – they can decrease their level of income, Increase the amount of expenses claimed, a person can hold onto money that should have been remitted as sales tax, or claim credits that they shouldn’t have. An interesting site (if you’re into that kind of thing) to read about tax convictions on Canada Revenue Agency’s convictions page,which gives details of larger convictions and the reasons why they occurred.
I have come to realize that if I wish to live in this country (which I do), I need follow the tax laws as prescribed. It’s not something I enjoy doing by any means, but rather then grumble about it, or try to cheat to get around paying them, I attempt to pay what I’m supposed to and keep good enough records that if I’m questioned on anything I would be able to explain what I did. I never want to be in a situation where I have the CRA auditing me over my past 5 year’s worth of filings and knowing that I owe a substantial amount of money. From a personal finance perspective, this would probably clean out my savings and set back my plans significantly, which is far from ideal.
What I don’t think most people realize (especially those cheating on their taxes) is that they have a choice – if they don’t agree with how things are working here, they can go somewhere else with a more favourable system. Most people will not, and will continue to grumble and cheat and then wonder why they have to pay $84,547 in taxes and penalties (an example from the CRA site). I know of several people who actively sneer at the government and continuously cheat on their taxes – I just wouldn’t want to take the risk a few years down the road via a random audit. I figure if they don’t like the way things are running here, nobody is forcing these cheaters to stay in Canada.
What’s your stance on taxes? How do you try to minimize the amount paid? Would you consider moving due to your country’s taxes?
