Watched this after talking about it the other day about someone who understand selfless acts and it’s just another reason why we build this business. I cannot wait to do something like this for my parents. Doesn’t HAVE to be a truck but we’ve got many different ideas of how we can give back and honour our parents and that excites me big time.
Whatever it is you do from small things to big things, honour your parents!
I came across this article as a re-tweet from someone on my twitter feed and thought it was a little ray of sunshine this weekend since my last blog post on people living paycheque to paycheque as it wasn’t very positive news.
The article from the Edmonton Journal states that “Albertans expect to be among the youngest to be debt free”. That’s good news and maybe that means some people are starting to get it? There has been some question as to what “debt free” means however this article somewhat says it to the point where people have successfully paid down all of their debt, which we’ve done. “Being debt-free is a long-term financial goal for many Canadians, and this poll suggests Albertans are optimistically looking ahead to the stage of life they will be in when they successfully paid down all of their debt,” said Christina Kramer, executive vice-president of retail distribution and channel strategy for the CIBC”
So in those terms I’ll agree that we are debt free despite those who say we are not. Really it doesn’t matter what others think to be honest. Outside of us renting we don’t owe any bank or credit organization any money. That’s a very freeing feeling to be consumer debt free.
I’m glad to see others are starting to think they will be debt free younger, that’s very positive news. Have a great Sunday.
This week has been pretty real for me and has put things into perspective baby wise. On Tuesday we visited the St. Albert Sturgeon Hospital where we had a tour of the facilities to make sure there were no surprises when we show up in about a month. It was great to see the different rooms and where things happen so we can focus on what matters, each other and making sure Lindsay is comfortable during the process. We got to see the themed rooms which I was quite surprised at, they are pretty much like a hotel room! They are first come first served so we may or may not have one after we deliver, if we do have one I’ll send a quite tweet!
After the tour I said to Lindsay “Woah, that just got real” and it sure did. However both Lindsay and I are as ready as we can be that is in our control. We are debt free and adding to the positive side of our ledger so that’s good, we are not starting off behind the 8 ball. We have the babies room all decorated and ready to go and we are starting to buy baby products through our own store to make sure he/she has diapers, and all the other cleaning stuff needed for baby. Mentally, well we are as prepared as we can be, but I know that will ALL change come the day he/she is born. It’s going to be an amazing experience and I am really looking forward to expanding our family by +1.
I’ve often wondered how we will build our business when the new bundle of joy arrives, however we have so many great examples in our upline, downline and crossline of people rocking this business with kids. Part of the reason why we build this business is for our family and now that we have that addition to our family it makes it more real. We’ve already achieved one of our goals that we know many of our friends are fortunate to experience and that is to have a mom that is home with her children. They don’t need to experience a day care and that is our choice (I know some people are pro-daycare and that’s fine) but we’d rather instil our own values and experience everything our kids do. We are working on getting myself free so that I can wake up and experience every day with my kids and that experience is worth doing whatever it takes to make it happen. One thing I’ve been contemplating at work is do I take full parental leave? I could take 8 months off of work if I really wanted to. Or do I take just one month off so I don’t fall to far behind at work and risk my position as I’m not ready to step away from that job yet. Tough decisions, one I will for sure counsel on and get perspective.
So am I ready to be a father yet? You bet!
And no we don’t know what we are having, we want it to be a surprise.
Its been 17 months since we decided to take our heads out of our arses and get responsible about our debt. Today, May 2nd, 2011 we are 100% debt free. We do not owe anyone a single cent! Now with all the money we’ve been paying down our debt with, we can finally start to put it on the positive side.
So just how deep in debt were we? What was the final tally? Well in the 17 months we did have some set backs so there was a bit more debt in the end however we stayed the course and paid every single cent back. Here are the numbers:
| RBC Visa | $30,000 |
| TD Visa | $5,000 |
| HBC Master Card | $7,000 |
| TD Home Equity Line of Credit | $30,000 |
| TD Line of Credit | $10,000 |
| HSBC/Scotiabank Car Loan | $27,000 |
| Condo Mortgage | $265,000 |
| Total Consumer Debt | $109,000 |
| Total Mortgage | $265,000 |
| Total Debt Paid Off | $374,000 |
So there you have it, $374,000 paid off in 17 months. However I’m not excited about the mortgage being paid off, I’m excited about the consumer debt we paid off. That’s the more important because that was us being stupid, status’y, and feeling entitled to have pretty much whatever we wanted. Trips, furniture, games, eating out, wine, wine, wine, wine and more wine. I was asked the other day, did we sacrifice a lot of things? I’d honestly say we’ve not sacrificed as much as you think we have. I would do it all over again because our marriage is 1000 times stronger because we don’t have the stress of owing people money and we don’t have the stress of fighting over money.
What’s next? Well we will be better prepared for life’s accidents or life’s misfortunes that’s for sure. No longer will we need to draw against our Line of Credit or swipe our credit card for those things. We will make sure to have a proper reserve in place. We will now start saving for a newer vehicle that’s a few years old so that we have a safer vehicle for when our child arrives in July. We are excited for that.
Being debt free will finally allow us to take our eyes off ourselves and start to bless our parents and be able to give more to charity. Obviously that won’t happen right away however we can now honestly start to look at things like that. Other then that we we don’t know yet, we are still getting over the shock of what we’ve done in the last 17 months. Because of great examples in our lives we were able to get back control of what we thought was a train wreck and start moving our finances in a positive direction. We can now say we are financially free, truly amazing.
*Update* Check out this great blog by a friend of mine Jode in Vancouver who’s getting serious about her debt situation. So proud of you Jode! http://veronihilverius.jigsy.com/entries/dollars-sense/debt-be-gone
I find it funny how people are frustrated with the price of gas going up. It’s not new news, gas prices have been going up ever since I was alive. I remember prices around $0.35 cents a litre however we will never see that price ever again. Just like eventually we will never see sub $1.00 / litre prices. Its a fact of life and no matter how many emails go out asking people to boycott the price of gas, it will never change the fact gas prices are going up and will continue to go up.
This recent frustration comes as gas prices in Edmonton just went up over $1.20 / litre and everyone is up in arms. They are frustrated and I believe for most (not all) people they are frustrated because they are busted financially and have debts that need repaying causing them to have no room in their budget to take into account the additional hike in price. I was asked today how debt has anything to do with the frustration of gas prices going up. It’s very relevant because people who have debt and are busted with other commitments are going to be frustrated when things go up and affect their budget. Someone who doesn’t have debt has a lot less frustration (yes it’s okay to be frustrated) because there are no other debt commitments pulling them from side to side. Lastly there are those who have no debt and have low income and yes for those people it will be tough and frustration is truly understandable, however there are many opportunities out there to better your situation, that’s my opinion.
How do I know? Well we are going to be debt free in a few weeks here and I know our frustration level have gone down to the point I honestly don’t care how high it goes, we will make changes in our lifestyle and look at ways of increasing our means if need be to afford the gas. When you don’t have debt you have other options. Honestly it’s not like this news is new, I’ve been mentioning since September interest rates will go up, prices will rise, and so have others such as the government and people like Garth Turner. People who choose not to listen and take their debt seriously will be the people who complain and are frustrated the most. Stop complaining and start putting a plan of action together and kill that debt!
Comments Welcome for relevant conversation.