Posted by Canadian Dream on February 2, 2012
I’ve recently just started to admit to myself that I have a new habit and its measured in grams. No, for the record it is completely legal. Yet I do get a little thrill paying for my little bags of black, green and multiple colours looking mulch. It also involves varies types of compounds steeped in hot water at precise intervals…yes I have a loose tea habit.
For years, I’ve been mostly a coffee sort of guy and yes I’m ok spending $10/lb on decent coffee. So you might think this new habit must be expensive, but I recently worked it out and no it really isn’t much more money. I’ve spent perhaps $30 total over the last three months since I already had most of the equipment. Instead it is a shift in spending, which actually happens fairly frequently around my house. You see I don’t believe in being purely a creature of habit. I change my interests in reading fairly regularly, as do I on my eating and drinking habits. I consider it an ongoing evolution.
So the point of the matter isn’t that fact I have a not habit, but rather what am I reducing my other spending on to support the new habit (mainly through less coffee drinking). You can have anything you want, just not all at once. The fact of the matter is if you really want to retire early you will have to master this concept. The overall level of your spending needs to stay fairly constant, but that doesn’t sentence you to a boring life or the exact one you have now. Feel free to splurge once in a while on something or try something new. Just remember that something else is going to have to give to support that.
Overall this isn’t a bad thing if you keep in mind your level of satisfaction/happiness from your spending on something. You need to get something out of your discretionary spending, and if you aren’t getting something positive out of it you need to reconsider what you are spending it on. Or another way to free up cash is to look at some frugal ideas around your fixed spending. There really isn’t a wrong way to do this, but rather find out what works for you.
After all spending money is the easy part, as I can always find something to spend money on. The trick is to keep the total the same, which involves a balancing act.
Posted by Dave on January 31, 2012
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 previously wrote about problems I was having with my back. At the time, I decided to go to a chiropractor and physiotherapist in order to attempt to rid myself of the back pain I was experiencing. I did this for a few months, and the outcome was somewhat unsatisfactory. Rather than continuing to spend money (well, my benefits provider’s money) I chose to go another route.
Starting about this time last year, I worked to get stronger and more flexible, rather than focus on having a chiropractor or physiotherapist work on little muscles. I have been able to almost triple the amount I can squat, approaching almost twice my body weight (along with increasing my strength in other ancillary exercises) – in the process, my back pain has essentially disappeared. I’m no doctor or anything, but I don’t think it has hurt me by getting stronger.
I plan on maintaining this level of strength as far into the future as possible in order to stay as mobile as possible for as long as I can. This, along with a healthy diet will hopefully give me a good chance of being mobile into my 80′s.
Similarly, I have attempted to build a strong core financially. I am repaying my only outstanding debt (my house) as quickly as possible, and I am going to invest as much as possible in order replace employment income with investment income. At the core of my financial plan though is the simplicity of keeping my expenses low.
Low expenses, as a part of my financial plan has provided me with more financial independence than anything else I have done. I make pretty good money right now, enough that I can keep my goal of retiring at 45 in my sights. If I decide that I don’t want to do the job I’m doing right now (or something like it), I could find a job that pays minimum wage and I’d be fine financially. Working a minimum wage job would limit my early retirement opportunities but it does provide a certain amount of security knowing that I won’t be on the street if my company decides they don’t like something I’m doing or I decide I don’t want to work there anymore.
Much like building my core muscles in my body, I constantly maintain the core of my financial plan by monitoring my spending. I don’t consider myself a miser or anything, I just ensure that if I’m going to spend my money on something, it’s not a waste.
What do you consider to be the core of your financial plan? How do you maintain your focus on this over time?
Posted by Canadian Dream on January 26, 2012
I’m currently on a business trip which I made the mistake of packing for at the last minute. While heading out the door I had the feeling that I was forgetting something, but could not determine what it was. So I left anyways.
After driving for an hour with that feeling I finally figured out missing: my dress shoes and my bag of all toiletries. So I had some time to determine what I was going to do about this.
The dress shoes I determined I was just going to live without. I had black hiking boots on in the car and some jeans. So I’ll skip my dress pants and wear the jeans to make due. I’m not buying a new pair of shoes for just two days.
The toiletry bag was more of a problem. I’m not going away for two days without brushing my teeth..ick. So I first went to the hotel to assess what they had in the room. I was somewhat in luck that they had a little tub of shaving cream along with the standard soap, shampoo, conditioner and hand cream. I also check the guest services list to see if they offer a program to offer a free…whatever…in case I forgot something. No luck there.
So I then tracked down the nearest drug store and went shopping. I skipped any of my usual products and strictly looked for the cheapest thing I could get (its just for two days so I live with it). I found a toothbrush on sale ($2) and travel size toothpaste ($1.29) and disposal razors ($4). So including tax I covered my mistake for $8. Overall not too bad.
Yet what stuck me about this entire event was how people tend to over pack as not to forget something when traveling. I forgot two fairly important things and it only cost me $8 and some minor inconvenience. If you stay flexible about your plans the reality is forgetting something is likely not a big deal. It will certainly cost you money for the odd mistake, but really carrying every little thing you may need is more of inconvenience with overly heavy bags in my mind.
So how about you? Do you pack light and accept the odd ‘oh crap’ moment or do you pack everything but your kitchen sink?
