Besides our “adult” piggy-bank, I utilize an ING account for my own personal spending – I save $20 per paycheque that I use to save up for golf, video games, and other money-losing purchases.  Because I don’t make withdrawals from this account very often once in a while I’m able to have a balance over $1,000 to finance my expensive hobbies.

None of these savings amounts are working towards my end goal of financial independence.  Slowly but surely, I have built a buffer for my sometimes poor purchasing decisions, a strategy that could be carried into my early retirement years, either because I have stopped making these kind of decisions totally (which would certainly help in reducing the amount of stuff in my house), or because my “fun” savings has built up significantly.

This kind of long-term saving, something that I have done from a young age onward (something my parents both drilled into me) bodes well for an early-retirement goal – expanding the same type of mentality to gradually watch my debt decrease (my mortgage disappearing) and eventually passive income increasing (dividends or interest) is something I have “trained” for over a 20-year period.

If someone has never experienced delayed gratification, they would think I was nuts, waiting until all that loose change reached to top of the bottle before making plans for a relatively cheap weekend away in the grey days of January.  Yes, I could easily afford this purchase but I have already ear-marked a significant portion (around 75% of my paycheque) to paying down my mortgage.  If I chose to spend that money on a weekend away it would be putting me further away from my ultimate goal of exiting the workforce as quickly as possible.

Do you have a “piggy-bank”?  Do you never splurge, or how do you afford the odd amount of overspending?

Bonus content:

1. This article shows how not to spend a $6 billion fortune (Not a problem I’m concerned with, but I’m not exactly sure what demographic reads this Blog).
2. I recently taught myself how to bake pies (from scratch).  This discovery has definitely made it much easier to decide what to bring to people’s houses when you’re invited over – everyone loves homemade pie.  I would highly recommend learning how to make this relatively cheap dessert for the holiday period.

Now onto the links:

Speaking of part time work you have to read this post from Mr. Money Mustache: The Joy of Part-Time Work.

JD over at Get Rich Slowly talks about what to buy and stuff.  Given my recently challenge on not buying stuff it was interesting food for thought.

Preet has a good post over at the Globe and Mail on being wary of online financial advice…I hope that wasn’t including me!

Krystal has a good post which is debating are teenagers out of touch with financial reality…good points on both sides.

Boomer Echo has a interesting post on the penny.  I’m personally ok with getting rid of it, if for no other reason that it costs 1.8 cents to make a penny!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tim

I am all about self-experimentation.  I lift weights at the gym and am constantly changing my workout in order to optimize my time (meaning I try to get the most gain with the least amount of work).  On top of that, I tend to gravitate towards the more “fringe” trends in diet and health as I discussed a while ago in a post on intermittent fasting (how I save 20% on my grocery bill) for at least a short period of time, to see if they work for me.

A few weeks ago, I read Tim Ferris’ “The 4-Hour Body” which included a chapter on significantly increasing fat loss, up to 50% faster than diet and exercise alone.  The catch – it involves immersing yourself in a bathtub filled with ice water for 20 minutes 3 times a week.  The premise of doing something like this (which some would term insane) is the ice water forces the body to shiver, forcing it to burn significantly more calories than it would in its normal state.

I have yet to try an ice bath, it just seems too out there, even for me who “starves” myself for two 24 hour periods a day and gets most of my calories from “unhealthy” fatty meats, eating like a caveman.  The premise  of the ice bath is to throw off your normal balance (in this case freezing yourself for a short period of time) – the same thing can be applied to personal finance, especially when your goal is early retirement.

Your “ice-bath” could be challenging yourself like Tim, where he is not going to buy anything until the New Year, it might be an attempt to cut your grocery bill down to $10 per week following Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme’s grocery buying plan, or go car-free for a month to cut down on your expenses.  On the income side, you could pick up a part-time job to add income to invest or pay down debt, or start selling the stuff you have laying around and not being used.

I am all for boring personal finance – paying off debt, investing for retirement and sticking to the plan but I need a jolt once in a while as well.  I generally don’t spend a lot of money, but I am also a gadget junkie.  I have found myself constantly looking at an iPhone and iPad over the past few weeks – neither of which I need.  Because I don’t really spend a lot of money, I have found myself with a significant surplus in “personal” cash that could be used to purchase both of these toys.  I was looking at my mortgage calculation though, and found that if I could come up with an extra 13,000 in the next 2.5 years, I could pay off this debt in under 5 years (which was my initial goal on buying my house).

So, rather than buying toys which I may really enjoy initially I am going to pay off my mortgage, so that I can get to my ultimate goal – financial freedom by the time I’m 45.

Can you think of a challenge that would shock your financial plan?

Bonus content: This American Life had an interesting show on last year where an individual intentionally infected himself with hookworm (a parasite) in order to cure his terrible allergies.  If you haven’t heard about it, I would highly recommend reading about the Hygiene Hypothesis and the possible effect that our super-clean hand-sanitizing society is having on us (and also why you should let your kids eat dirt, among other things)…..Definitely on the same page as ice baths.

1. Most beautiful post – By far I would have to say this post was my best where I told the story of how I dealt with my son being born 10 weeks early.
2. Most popular post – I have to say I don’t have the slightest clue how to rank posts as I don’t keep that close of an eye on the stats for each one.  Yet I think Dave’s post about wanting to live in a tiny house was great.
3. Most controversial. This is sort of hard to measure, but the one that stands out for me was the post when I talked about charity and how I don’t ever give money to any group that feeds people.
4. Most helpful post . I would have to say that should go to Robert’s post on TFSA Misconceptions…heck I even learned something from it.
5. Post whose success surprised me . Ugh, how do you really know that anyways?  I guess that one that did got a lot of attention was when I realized I no longer needed my day job.
6. Post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved. I have always had a soft spot for this post, where I talk about how to start with personal finance and it doesn’t involve money.
7. Post I’m most proud of. It was a minor thing, but when I started to blog under my own name for the first time I felt really good about the decision.  Not to mention that paid off nicely when I got the offer to write for Moneyville which requires you to use your real name.

Who else should do this link post….hell I’m not going to research who has been missed so far on this one.  So consider this an open invitation for anyone else to post their seven links.

Now onto some links.

What is it with people and their food budgets? Krystal cuts her budget down to $100/month and people freak out about it?!? My food budget is $300 for two adults and two kids (round up to three adults) so that is $100/month/adult and I do it all the time. We don’t go hungry and every eats healthy.  Granted that doesn’t include lunch for the wife and kids (the daycare pays that five days a week), but still even if you boost my budget by 25% to cover that off my regular budget isn’t much higher.

The low down on how to really use that cast iron skillet you have in your kitchen that you barely use.

How much is that bitch costin’ ya? Damn good title for a post (I almost wish I thought of it).  I will be impressed if you don’t click to read the post out of curiosity.

Oh, here is an interesting discussion.  Should you tithe 10% of your income to your church before saving for your long term goals?  The first post on this topic and then a reply post. My thoughts, if you want to give that is fine, but make sure it is a realistic amount.  Keep in mind, the church is inspired by God, but not made by God.  Thus the church can create some incredibly dumb rules since humans are fairly flawed, I’m fairly certain it you explain it to God why you have to give less he will be ok with it.  After all the guy specializes in forgiveness.

Oh, the endless debate continues: save or pay down debt? I personally think most people should focus on debt first as long as you have a little cash cushion.  After you kill off the high interest debt than you can pick what works for you.

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)

Now onto the links:

Speaking of the books, Krystal over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks did a nice review on my book, Free at 45.  You can also win a copy if you are interested.

So what is a father worth?  Depending on the measure…a LOT! (Globe and Mail)

Another Father’s Day one…Should you celebrate Father’s Day at all? We plan to just hang out together and grab a breakfast out. (Walletpop.ca)

Should you decide to skip doing anything for Father’s Day feel free to play around with this retirement calculator and dream of early retirement instead.

Great minds think alike…JD Roth answers a question on paying back your mortgage or investing and comes up with nearly the same answer as I did. (Get Rich Slowly)

A good article on the state of Defined Benefit pensions in Canada and why that is the heart of the Air Canada strike. (Moneyville.ca)

So after having a bit of tablet obsession for a bit, I finally managed to get some time in at a store playing around with a few models and determined that I really don’t want one.  Why?  If you type with anything more than two fingers the things suck for writing as you can ‘type’ six keys at once.  So back to the drawing board to find something that meets my needs of being a lighter weight option for getting some writing work done on the go.

First up: attention all bloggers…do you want to write for Moneyville?  Well they are holding a new contest to find their next blogger.  You can win a contract worth $4000 or second place prize at $500.  Also their editor, Adam, is great to work with.  I’ve done about seven article with him and he really helped me shift from my usual writing style to a more condensed format.  [Oh, I'm not getting compensated for this plug...I really do like working with him.]

Why your clutter may be costing you $175 a square foot? (Globe and Mail)

Squawkfox puts Costco savings to the test vs Superstore…the results are interesting.

An interesting discussion on the moral aspects of spending (Get Rich Slowly)

I really enjoyed this one about breaking free from consumerist chains (Zen Habits)

I loved the data in this post on personal inflation…don’t believe the CPI is your inflation rate. (Boomer & Echo)

I’m impressed with this one…why I won’t buy an ebook reader. You may not actually like every piece of technology out there. It takes something to understand that. (Give Me Back My Five Bucks)

Now onto the links:

Well so much for the theory that brand name batteries last longer, see here (Walletpop.ca).

Moolala, what a title for a book? Check out a review and how to win a copy here. (Million Dollar Journey)

JD Roth has a list of 42 goals to complete in 42 months (3.5 years), I liked #3 Become Semi-Retired (Get Rich Slowly)

Apparently the idea that Canadians are withdrawing from their RRSP at an ‘alarming rate’ is overblown.  (Money Smarts Blog)

Some thoughts on how to create an allowance system for your kids, see here (Globe and Mail)

Seven things you don’t want to skimp on, its nice to see lists like this to remind you it pays to invest in some things (Brip Blap)

I loved this post on Time Management for Freelancers.  It reminds me of my own crazy schedule, but just insert ‘kids time’ from 6pm to 8pm every night.

Now onto this week’s links:

Jim Yih has a good post reminding people you don’t pay half your salary to tax.

I love this post from Thicken My Wallet when he asks is it time to end tax deduction and tax credits…mmm I would love a one page tax form.

Can money buy anything…include a wife?!? One guy is trying it out for $10,000.  See here.

Excuses…oh yes we are good at those.  Here is five excuse for holding you back from wealth.

I have to admire Krystal’s goal this year of earning an additional $25,000 from her freelancing work.  Here is her progress so far.

Over at Moneyville.ca, the question is asked: can you live with just 100 things?  It’s an inspiring read.  It’s got me thinking about some of my recent work to get rid of my excess stuff.

An interesting post on the conflict of building wealth for yourself and helping others from Bripblap.