Creating Your Future Net Worth Statement

Having and updating your very own personal net worth statement is one of the most beneficial ways of viewing your current financial status and can be a deciding factor in decisions such as buying a house, car or taking time off work.

While I believe that it is crucial to create a monthly update of your personal net worth, I also think it is equally important  to make your future net worth statement as well.

Here is how it works. After you calculated your current net worth (hopefully it is positive!) Try to think out of the box and create a net worth statement sometime in the future. I usually create one a year from my current statement. Try to come up with realistic numbers of where you are expecting to be financially. The benefits of creating a future net worth statement are numerous and are as follows:

1. A future net worth statement is highly motivational as it is almost in the same line as goal setting. The more realistic the goals are, the better the chance of you reaching them and accelerate your motivation!
2. This statement can give you a much more clear picture of where you can expect to be down your road in life and can help you plan more precisely major buying decisions.
3. Creating a future net worth statement is a great way to teach self control as you strive to achieve your own expectations. A future net worth statement set a year from now is a little easier to meet compared to budgets as you do not feel as “hand-cuffed” on a weekly basis. (Budgeting is still a great way to achieve your goals. Consider a future net worth statement a beginners tutorial in budgeting!)

There are many other advantages that can be branched off from the above mentioned 3 points but the main benefits are there. I am currently in the process of making my own future net worth statement and will be positing it by the end of the month.

Terrible Neglect on Dog in Ontario

As most in Canada already know, there has been a terrible case of neglect on a dog found in the backyard of a Durham, Ontario resident.

This link shows the state the dog is in. I must warn you that, the images are graphic and should not be viewed if you are sensitive to images of this nature.

According to reports from the OSPCA, the dog does not have any fleas which leads to the assumption that the dog was living in a home and was likely dumped off somewhere by vehicle.

Currently, there are no suspects in this case.

I am extremely against abuse on dogs or any other animal for that matter. It is a shame that animals do not have the same rights as humans do just for the fact they are deemed as inferior beings and have the disadvantage of not having a voice to speak up for themselves.

I am writing this blog post to create some more awareness on this case and many more similar ones on animals. I hope this person gets caught and gets convicted for such crimes. News such as this makes me feel a variety of emotions: sadness, anger, discouragement and despair. However, motivation to end crimes like these rises above all else and I feel that voicing my opinion is the right thing to do.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

Upgrade Skills?

During the last few weeks, I have been debating if I should upgrade my skills at my current position at work by taking some extra classes during the evenings with the possibility of gaining a certificate in my field. Currently, I am having a hard time figuring out  if the extra money invested in education will be worth it in the long run in terms of my overall financial health.

The position I am currently in doesn’t have the most room for growth available without furthering my eductation as the industry I work for is very specific. I currently enjoy the field I work in but it will not be something I would want to do until retiremement. This has nothing to do with the job I am currently working for as it is more myself and the need to be free from work eventually. Since I am expecting higher pay by upgrading my skills, I am hoping this will result in more money saved and a faster road to financial freedom.

After viewing all of my options, I have broken them down to the following:

Option 1: Upgrade my Skills by furthering my eductation

This requires the most money from the 3 choices but can prove to be the most beneficial in the long run. I can realistically expect at least a slight increase in pay and more opportunities of getting a better job in the future if all doesn’t go well at my current employer.

Option 2: Look for a higher paying job

I tend to find this a little risky since the job I am currently in has been tolerable for the most part compared to jobs I had in the past. However, there is always something better out there and I might find some luck if I look hard enough.

Option 3: Wait it out

I work for a pretty big company so there is bound to be some form of opportunity in the future. I just feel that I have more potential in terms of responsibilities and income and feel the need to act now in investing in my career by upgrading my skills.

With classes starting in September, I have some serious thinking to do in order to come to the conclusion that I feel comfortable with and feel that will truly help me financially. Here’s hoping that I make that right choice!

Life Expectancy and Our Retirement

A big issue that is gaining a great deal of attention is the life expectancy of an average human being and how it has been slowly increasing in today’s age. With modern health practices, medicine and the latest in technological developments, the average adult life leading towards the ripe old age of 100 is becoming quite possible.

While this is great news, it can be quite worrisome when you throw retirement into the mix. 65 is the age most people aim to retire and many more are planning to retire at 60 and earlier. I for one am aiming to retire somewhere in my early 50’s and hopefully even leave the workforce much sooner if I can get a viable business up and running whatever it may be. One thing I am cautious about is the possibility of living 40+ years without an income from a job. It seems that us future retirees will have to be more strategic in the coming years!

If you, like me, are interested in receiving a calculated estimate on how long you will be alive, I would suggest you visit the Living to 100 life expectancy calculator. The questionnaire takes roughly 10 minutes to complete and it is free.

As our life expectancy continues to increase, I do not want to spend more of my time in the workforce then I have to. I value my time and I am looking forward to becoming financially independent while still being relatively young. I believe that sound investing at an early age is a great way to be prepared for life after work as well as being content with what you already have. Also, take advantage of employee matching to your retirement fund while you are employed as this is free money. Free money is always a good thing! If you consider your self in being far from financially savvy, I would suggest an investment in index funds. Index funds are a low cost alternative in investing and almost always out preform mutual funds. A great article from Financial Self Starter on index funds and can be found here.

While it is a smart idea to prepare living for the long haul and have as much saved as possible to enjoy your life, try not to stress too much about it. Besides, stress decreases our lifespan!

Remaining Debt

After I paid off the remaining balance on my car loan a few weeks ago, I enjoyed the luxury of a greatly reduced debt load and am highly motivated and focused on paying the remaining balance on my line of credit from a major bank and my MasterCard.

I created a chart below detailing the remaining debt that I have to pay off. Luckily, I only have two forms of debt remaining with one of them being a really low balance. I am aiming to be completely debt free in the next 3 months if possible.

 

As you can see, I owe just a little over $2,000 and I will be using the following method in eliminating the remaining debt:

• Entirely pay off the remaining balance on my MasterCard and put about $100 towards the balance on my line of credit.
• Once the credit card debt is eliminated, I will put all free money used to pay off the MasterCard on a monthly basis onto my line of credit.
• Stop adding money to my high interest savings account (usually around $150/monthy) and add this amount to repaying my line of credit
• All money remaining from my bi-weekly budget will go to debt repayment. This varies all the time depending on what part of the month I am as I tend to  pay more in expenses early in the month and barely any during the second half.

Once I receive some extra money from my budget or by any other means, I usually transfer the funds from my chequing account to my line of credit on-line. This eliminates any hassle of travelling to pay off debt and tackles the problem as quickly as possible.

If all goes according to plan, I should be debt free by the end of November! Excited is something that barely describes what I am feeling.  It is extremely hard to mimic the feeling you receive of being debt free. I know it has been a long road for me and I must say I am enjoying the journey but am much looking forward to the benefits of reduced stress financially by seeing a big fat 0 on my debt column.

However, with my wedding less than 14 months away and the pursuit of home ownership hopefully not in the too distant future, staying out of debt will be tough. Having a mortgage is debt I am willing to take on but  my fiance and I are trying extremely hard to pay for the wedding in cash rather than credit. Getting into debt for one night (even though its a great one!) is not something we are willing to do.

For the time being, I am going to focus on what I can control, and that is eliminating the last remnants of my debt.

10 Ways to a Fulfilling Life

Life can take us in many directions and for the most part, we have the choice of where we want our lives to be headed. Some people take the right choice and some do not. Sometimes, life gives us choices which are not as black and white. These grey choices are more geared towards our personal preferences and are unique to each and every one of us.

Aside from my regular goals, I have composed a list for myself expressing my 10 ways to a more fulfilling life. I tried to make this list as generic as possible so it can be used by others but a few of the points are unique to me. Every one of us on Earth is unique in some way, shape or form and no 2 lists should look exactly the same. I decided to post my 10 points on my blog so others can view and hopefully, inspire people to make there own unique list.

10 Ways to a Fulfilling Life

1.       Think Positive: I try to think positive as much as I can. Whenever a problem comes up in my life, I feel that it is important to embrace the challenge and not say such things as: “Why did this happen to me?” Or “I can’t handle a problem like this in my life.” Being positive through your mind and words helps keep you at ease and deal with the situation head on.

2.       Live a Healthy/ Active Lifestyle: Being active not only keeps you looking and feeling great. It also helps you stay young and is linked to happiness. Enjoy playing your favourite sports; be active with your friends, kids and loved ones. If others are not willing to join you, why not join a recreational sports league or go it alone with a nice run!

3.       Keep Your Free Time Free: Free time should be for things that you enjoy. Personally, I love reading a good book or playing a video game as it helps me escape the daily stress of life. I like the feeling of getting into a story and feel like I am in a different world altogether. The important thing to remember is that free time should never involve work.

4.       Appreciate What You Have:  Having the most expensive clothes or car is not really important in the long run. If these things really are important to you, make sure you save for them and pay in cash. The amount of time needed to save will eliminate impulse buying and who knows; maybe once you have enough to purchase one of these items you may realise you would rather do something else with the money. I try to appreciate what I already have while planning for future purchases. When I have the itch to purchase a new car for example, the first thing I do is take my car to a car wash and clean it inside and out. This decreases the itch and makes me feel proud of the car I already have.

5.       Have Goals: Goals are really important and I extremely recommend that everyone have a list of there own to follow and aim to achieve. Achieving your goals is one of the most fulfilling things imaginable. Make sure you take your time and really pick goals that are meaningful to you.

6.       Always Learn Something New: I find this to be somewhat fun as it helps me grow as an individual and it keeps my mind active and alert which is known to fight off mental illnesses. Pick a topic that interests you and try to learn something about it everyday if possible. Another popular method is trying to learn a new word in the dictionary everyday.

7.       Follow Your Strengths: The hard part is to discover what your strength is in life. Most people give up at this stage but I try everyday to bring out the strengths in myself. Once discovered, try your best to embrace it and use it to your advantage. You could even use your personal gifts to make a business somehow and that is something extremely fulfilling!

8.       Give to Others in Need:  Nothing feels as good as helping others who really need it. This can be done by donating to various charities or helping out a close friend or family member. Sure, personal gain is important but helping others along the way gives you a feeling that is hard to duplicate in any other way. I would suggest trying this out even if the gift or donation is small.

9.       Live less like an adult: Being an adult sure has its advantages, such as being able to drive, making your own decisions, and being fully independent. Adults also tend to live rather unhappy and unfulfilling lifestyles. Sometimes, I try to live less like an adult and still like to dream as if I was a kid. Children see the world as something beautiful and worthy of exploring while adults see the world as a cruel, harsh place. The child has the better view of Earth in my opinion.

10.   Enjoy Your Life:  The ability to enjoy our life seems difficult with so many obstacles. Things in our lives such as work, bills and the cost of living tend to eat up all of our thoughts and free time. This should never be the case. Life goes by really fast and we must make the most of it. Many years from now, I want to personally look back at my life with happiness and with minimal regrets. I plan to do as much enjoyable activities while I can and for as long as I can!

I hope you enjoyed this list and were somewhat inspired to make one of your own. If that is the case, please share with me!

Saving for a House

Ever since the beginning of 2009, My fiance and I have been aggressively saving money in a joint savings account in hopes of having enough for a down payment for spring/summer 2010.

Initially, we started with a small amount of $240 each bi-weekly on the Friday we got paid. After a few deposits with this amount, we realized that we needed to pick it up if we were ever going to reach our goal of $40,000 in such a short amount of time. Slowly we increased our  amounts as we started to deposit $260 bi-weekly and then $300.

Fast forward all the way to the present and we decided to start depositing $400 each bi-weekly! On an average month, we are saving a combined total of $1,600 which we are extremely proud about.

We do not have automatic withdrawals from our chequing accounts into our savings account. We really enjoy the whole process of depositing the money ourselves either by direct transfers or through an ATM machine as it motivates and encourages us to save even more. Motivation is key as it is easy to get discouraged from saving since a down payment for a house is usually one of the largest sums of money you will have to come up with in your lifetime.

Currently, we have a combined total of just over $8,000 in our joint savings account but believe that this will increase more rapidly due to our larger deposit amounts. However, we do not know how much more we can increase our payments since we are reaching our limit of disposable income. To reach our goal, we will be required to save an additional $900 a month!!  This will not be, in any way, an easy task but hopefully my fiance and I can come through and figure out a way.

What are some of the ways you save money to reach a financial goal?

The Stress From Work

The last few days have been very stressful for me at work. I am in the process of learning new procedures that are taking place in my company and in the near future, I will be the “go to guy” for all these new processes. I am going to work earlier and going home later trying to learn as much as possible and trying not to fall behind on my existing priorities. Overall, not a good week for me at all.

Stress!

After quitting my second job, I thought my work related stress was going to be reduced significantly.  That has not been the case so far.

For a person such as myself who doesn’t really enjoy working to begin with, the added stress caused by extra work, annoying co-workers or just living through the daily grind of Monday to Friday is something I do not want to do for the rest of my life.

In the mean time, I must find ways to reduce stress at all costs as it poses a  really serious health risk in the future. In times like this, I try anything possible to limit the amount of work related stress by doing the following:

Take Breaks

Taking a breather every now and then helps cool me down. Doing something as simple as walking around the office or taking a quick stroll around your building quickly makes you regain control of your nerves. I have done this and never heard any complaints from anyone.

Eat Lunch Outside the Workplace

I am not suggesting going out and spend money on food. What I do sometimes, if the weather permits, is go outside to a park close by and eat my lunch there. It is really peaceful as you have nature surrounding you and it literally feels like you escaped work for a while as the scenery and environment are so different.

Enjoy Personal Time After Work

Very simple yet so many people do not follow this rule. I for one am also at fault here sometimes as stress from work does get to me. I would suggest trying to do activities that you enjoy and do not give you time to reflect on your day at work. Playing sports is great for occupying your mind as well as activities such as reading a book, hanging out with friends, loved ones and pets.

Have Goals

A great stress relief, in my opinion is planning for an escape. Even if your plan for escape is a while away, planning makes you feel like you are heading in the right direction. Maybe your dream is to start your own business? If that is the case, why not take some continuing education courses to set you on your path? Want to be a writer? Start up a blog! The world wide web is an excellent place to write about  your hopes and dreams and you might even be profitable from  it.

Nothing can completely relieve you from work related stress but doing things you love is always beneficial in the long run. You might even be one of the lucky ones and actually enjoy your job. If that is the case, good for you! Sadly, a large percentage of people in North America are unhappy at the workforce.

For now, I am going to continue to pursue my goals and try to live each day as it comes. This is never an easy task, but nothing really is in life. If life were easy, we wouldn’t have to work to begin with. 🙂

Review – Journey to the Edge of the Universe

Last night, I was having a difficult time trying to sleep. I was feeling restless and would not stop tossing and turning for the life of me. I decided to turn on the television to ease my mind. As I will flipping through the channels, I came upon this special presentation titled “Journey to the Edge of the Universe” on the Discovery Channel(although it is a National Geographic special).

I was lucky enough to catch the show from the beginning and was pleasantly surprised at the journey that was unfolding before my eyes! This animated story is simple: a  journey to the end of the universe from a first person perspective, with wonderful shots of our solar system, our galaxy, black holes and into inter galactic space.

The sense of wonder created from watching this program was worth the 2 hours of viewing time alone.  Journey to the Edge of the Universe really does a great job of showing the beauty, mystery and awesome power of the universe while hinting throughout how insignificant us humans, as a race really are. This film is not meant to leave you in despair, actually, it is quite the opposite. After watching, I immediately wanted to begin learning more about our universe and try to uncover some of its vast assortment of mysteries. I am even concidering  stargazing as a potential new hobby.

Take the Journey!

If you are feeling down and are finding your life unbearable from anything that is causing you worry, or  love adventure and mystery and have a keen interest in outer space, then I strongly suggest you go watch this movie. I believe this movie will leave you in awe as you will realize there is so much to life that we don’t know. We take Earth for granted daily in our lives and after watching this movie, I now know how beautiful our planet really is. If humans as a whole keep taking from the Earth without trying to nurture and preserve it, we will come to realize that the options in our solar system and beyond for human residency is harsh indeed.

Even if you find that after watching this movie, your interest into the world around you hasn’t changed, you will at least think that this was a good animated movie worth watching.

As a child, I always had a keen interest in our solar system and space in general. As I slowly creeped into adulthood, I sadly lost interest striving to live my busy lifestyle from work and chasing money. The Journey to the Edge of the Universe, has rekindled my interest.

For more informtion on this movie, Please click here

Freedom! – My Second Job is No More

The last couple of days have been pretty hectic for me as 2 major events just took place in my life.

Yesterday, I finally paid off the remaining debt on my car loan which I am extremely proud of. Today, I gave notice to my part time job that I am leaving in 2 weeks. I was debating with myself when would be the proper time for me to once again, live on a single income. I like to move fast and see results, so I decided to pull the plug on the second job very quickly.

I must admit, it is going to be tough to adapt to living on the income only generated from my day job. Even though I was only working 2 jobs for a short amount of time, I really have grown accustomed to that extra $450 I got on a monthly basis. I am usually a creature of habit and like things to be pretty normal during my life.

I had somewhat of a plan before my dreams of quitting my second job became a reality. Paying off the car was the first step as it costed me nearly $300 a month. I am going to mentally think that the $300 not spent on my car will act as a supplement to the income I lose from quitting my second job. The way I look at it, I am only down $150 a month and  that is something I believe I can adapt to quickly.

My next step is going to be to figure out other means to generate income minus the slavery from working at a job. I am hoping to somehow earn some passive income or, work at something I really enjoy in which money earned would be a bonus. In the meantime, I am going to continue saving as much as possible while trying to enjoy life.

Time

One thing I am looking forward to is the extra time that I will be having once I am only at my day job. I am so used to working all through the night and day with barely anytime to sleep. Free time for me was just a memory.

That is not the case anymore! I am going to take full advantage of this free time by:

Trying to learn as much as possible  – I really like to learn by reading books and articles about subjects that are of interest to me. I fully expect to begin reading more books by borrowing them from the library and the occasional purchase at Amazon or the local bookstore.

Spend more time with family and fiance – Before my second job,  I always felt like I never had any free time on my hands. I now know the value of time and will try not to waste it doing meaningless activities all the time. More time spend with my immediate family and my fiance is something that I am planning on doing.

Spend time with nature – Sometimes, walking alone in a park surrounded by trees and hearing the trickle of a flowing creek creates inner peace and lets your imagination and thoughts come alive. Spending time and becoming one with nature is something that I plan to do more of.

Fun things!– I am a big believer in keeping some of your childhood with you as it gives you a greater appreciation of life and sort of calms the daily pressures and stress of adulthood. Playing video games, watching and playing sports, and just hanging out are all things I like to do and am not ashamed to admit it. One of our main weaknesses, in my opinion is losing our childhood as we grow older. How many of you think back to your childhood as the good old days? I sure do on some occasions.

I am really looking forward to the day when I will be financially free and will not need any income from a job. The thought of having that kind of freedom alone gives me the strength to carry on.