Tag Archives: Finances

Borrow to Get Ahead?!

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Borrowtogetahead2The latest marketing campaign from Scotiabank is enough to make me puke.  Their latest tag line is “Borrow to Get Ahead”.  On one of the pictures they show a middle aged couple on a beach making the appearance they borrowed money to “get ahead” by taking a vacation.  Its this playing on the fears of Canadians who are already up to their ears in debt that sickens me.  People need to stop borrowing and start paying down their debts and that means to stop taking that yearly all inclusive trip they feel entitled to.  If your in debt and need to pay for that trip on your credit card then maybe you should re-think that idea.  Its this thinking in this simple example that has Canadians living paycheck to paycheck complaining they don’t have enough money.  Scotiabank’s new tag line really should be “Your broker than you think”.

The solution isn’t borrowing from the bank to “get ahead” it’s making smarter choices and maybe streamlining your life.  It’s living on simple principals that have been around for thousands of years in a book called “Richest Man in Babylon”.  Where do you think the pay yourself 10% came from?  Your parents, yup, but before them it came from the ancient Babylonian times and yet is still applicable today.  I highly suggest picking that book up, it was just one thing that helped us get out of debt.

What’s sad is that people are so desperate these days they will walk into Scotiabank or some other bank and fall pray to these gimmicks that really only make the bank more money.  Why not go talk to someone that had massive amounts of debt and ask them what they did to get out of it.  The people at the bank more than likely are just in as much debt as you are so why the hell would you take their advise?! Not that I’m big on investments but if someone at the bank pushes an investment on you, why not turn around and ask them how much of the investment they are pushing they have.  Tell them you’ll take as much as they have invested, which 9/10 will be nothing.  Funny how that happens.

Start getting educated and stop relying on gimmicks as “borrow to get ahead”.  You CAN get ahead on your own as long as you have someone else coaching and or mentoring you that’s been through the tough times on debt.  If you do that, you’ll get out of debt 10 times faster than any other way.

 

Borrowtogetahead

Have a High Debt Load? Watch Out for the Fallout

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DebtLoad

Yet again another debt warning message this time from BNN about the fall out of having a high debt load.  While everyone is lounging around in the debt buying ways and enjoying the “high life” with stuff they cannot really afford the big issue that is going to sink people is the risk of higher interest rates which ARE coming.  We are not just talking about consumer debt here, we are talking about mortgages as well and while you lock your mortgage in right now at the low rates, you better pray because after 5 years when your mortgage comes due, you could be walking away from that new house you just bought.

“The story is not about subprime in Canada, that’s not where the focus should be…the story is that higher interest rates will shift consumption from what we buy towards servicing debt,” he says. “As a society we became more sensitive to the risk of higher interest rates.  The result of such a shift in consumption will alert the standard of living. The credit that was there to support a life style that you could not afford will not be there because you will not have the wealth effect [from rising real estate values].”

So what should we be doing now?  We should stop buying stuff we cannot afford and look to reduce or eliminate our debt.  Its the ones without debt that will be laughing all the way to the bank where the people with huge amounts of debt will be crying as they walk away from the bank.

I’m not saying don’t buy a house, I’m saying whatever you do, you need to be taking into consideration the future and not just the immediate present day.  Some interesting times are coming and you better be keeping an eye on the financials.

How Valuable is Your Time?

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A recent tweet to my personal account got me thinking about time again and how your job values it.  To be honest they don’t value your time at all and will make you work for the least amount of money they are willing to pay to have you replaced. “…Does your work value your time so little” was the response I got when I mentioned that I had driven 12 hours yesterday to Medicine Hat to shut down one of our offices and yet the total amount of time it had taken me to actually rip out the IT Infrastructure was about 40 minutes.  So I could see how someone may see that as being a bit ridiculous but when your based in Edmonton and there is no body else closer to the office that can do it, your required to do it.

Yes that is part of my job, so I’ll stop that line of thinking right there.  I’m not complaining at all about the drive because I was actually able to listen to a couple of great CD’s and a few audio books that I have during the drive.  Also driving 12 hours gives you some great reflection time as well so if there are some positives those would be it.  However that was a whole Sunday I was away from my pregnant wife when we could have been doing a lot of other things.focus_on_the_family

However jobs don’t value your time, if they did they wouldn’t continuously ask you to work over time which takes you away from your spouse, partner or family.  I’m a big believer in work life balance while I continue to work out the last year of where I’m at.  However its very hard to get buy in on that and while our company speaks it and says we should have a good work life balance, they don’t actually walk the talk.  A lot of companies are like this, at least the last three I’ve worked for.  I don’t profess to know how all companies work, I can only go by what I’ve seen in my previous jobs and what the IT industry has shown.  However I’d bet I’m not far off base with what other companies are like, especially after hearing many friends complain about what is required of them at their jobs.

The fact is your job will pay you as little as possible for your efforts and time.  Why do you think you get that measly 2-3 weeks of holidays for the WHOLE year to start at most companies.  Then it takes you anywhere between 5-10 years to get another week.  Those who are reading this don’t even try and defend your job because you’ve complained at least once about the crappy amount of holidays you get.  If you say you don’t your lying. 

I’m really just stating the obvious here and I’m not saying that Amway is the answer to this however it is the opportunity that we’ve decided to purse to allow us greater freedom in our lives and that’s why I can say this is the last year that I’ll be working.  I’ve got a family on the way and I intend to spend a lot of time with that family and less time working for someone else while they spend more time with their family.  The Amway opportunity along with World Wide Dreambuilders is paving the way for time freedom as well as financial freedom down the road.  It does come with some work however, and anyone that tells you this is a get rich quick is lying.  We are very transparent with how we build this business with prospective entrepreneurs because we value their time and want them to know just what it takes to build this business.

So how valuable is my time?  More valuable then any company can ever pay me and that should be the same thought for everyone.

Paycheque 2 Paycheque

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Not that this is new news by any means but it came out today that 6 in 10 workers are living paycheque to paycheque.  It doesn’t go into details on what their debt is, etc… regardless as a whole this isn’t very surprising.  If you don’t believe me, be honest with yourself and put your paycheque away and see if you can live without it.  Not saying this applies to everyone but 6/10 is pretty damn high!

To me it means a few things, people are getting in way over their head in debt (Which they are, the recession and low interest rates just put people further into debt), and that plan A isn’t working out.  It’s time people figure out a plan B.  I’m not going to say what that plan B needs to be, it’s whatever it is for you.  I’ve got my plan B and it’s working out so far, and will become our plan A late next year.

People are just not getting the message about retirement, debt, finances, etc…  Even with the recession that we were and still are in, people are not understanding they need to make changes.  It’s scary and it’s only going to get worse.  When will people realize?  When it’s to late.

CTV News – Most Canadians Living Paycheque to Paycheque

Missing a Paycheque

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paycheck Today’s entry was sparked by a conversation Lindsay and I had on the way home from work this afternoon.  She mentioned to me she had an interesting conversation with her boss where he told her he was broke and cannot pay her right away.  Now Lindsay works for three financial advisors (yeah funny how one of them is broke and they tell you what to do with your money??) and all three of them pay her individually under contract so it’s not like your regular paid every two weeks auto deposit type deal.  Either way she’s never had a problem until now. 

He basically called her into his office and let her know that he’s broke for a few reasons.  First his property taxes came out, and some other bills, plus he just got back from a three week vacation to China.  With his line of work if he stops working then so does the money.  He does not have any residual income that keeps paying him for the efforts he did in the past.  Instead he is paid for performance and when your away from your business for three weeks there is no performance which equates to no money.  Again pretty funny coming from a financial advisor eh?  This is a guy who YOU invest money with?  Someone that tells you what is best for your money, yet he cannot even manage his own?  For all of you out there Paycheque2Paycheckthis isn’t new news for these type of people.  Lindsay has been around this industry for at least 1 1/2 years and has seen a lot of this go on. 

Anyway, going back to the original story, he basically says I have some business coming in and some I’ve  done for which I have yet to be paid for so don’t worry your paycheque is coming.  Lindsay actually has some great respect for this guy over the other two despite his short comings with his finance and knows that he will pay her.  The biggest thing though is if we were in a much difference situation (which most people are in these days) we would NEED that paycheque and would be saying I don’t care if your broke or not I need to be paid.  Some of the other people around the office said if that was them they would be pretty pissed off because they cannot do without that money.  Which brings me to our situation where while Lindsay is a bit upset, she’s not demanding that he pay her because we’ve been able to get out of debt, have some ongoing residual income in our side business and are in a much better situation then where we were in November of last year. 

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying we are anything special; I’m just trying to point out a situation that affects so many people that are living paycheque to paycheque or in financial trouble.  I’m also not saying you need to build a business like we are or do direct selling or anything like that.  However because of the smarter decisions we’ve made in the recent 6 months we are able to not let this situation affect us like it has for others or even us 6 months ago.  Sure we would like that money because that money is going directly onto debt but at the same time we don’t NEED that money in order to get by.

joneses It’s a scary situation out there in these tough economic times.  If you think it’s going to get better in the coming months or years you are mistaken.  People need to stop the excessive spending, stop trying to “keep with the Joneses”, stop living beyond your means, stop taking those vacations when your still in debt (paying with credit), stop paying with credit, and put a stake in the ground and move forward with your financial situation.  Take some responsibility for the stupid decisions made in the past and start making smart ones. 

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Please check out these other all-star bloggers in the 2010 Summer Blogging Challenge. Cliff – Peer Pressure Works, Chad – The Grind, Kelly – ‘Round the Bend, Kim – In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Kyle – Teacher, Tinkerer, Farmer, Geek, Liam – In the Now, Brad – Kick Me Out Soon, Tammy – Tam I am, Erron – From The Inside Looking In, James – Feelings of White, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine - Because