Tag Archives: Money

Wealthy in All Areas of Life

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MoneybagWe often equate people who have a lot of money as being wealthy.  They are typically people who own a business or are successful entrepreneurs in various fields and industries.  Wealth, depending on what your value system is, can take on many forms.  I think the average mentality of wealth is someone who is rich, has millions, has a lot of investments and owns multiple businesses.  I could be wrong but I’m going to put a stake in the ground based on what I hear from people over the years.  Wealth doesn’t necessarily have to just be money, I think the biggest thing that’s missing from the wealth equation is time.

Time is the most expensive commodity and something we can never get back once it’s gone.  Time is the most expensive resource known to man and should be included within your wealth and treated with more importance than money.  You can be rich and have all the money in the world yet if you are a salve to whatever is creating that money then to me your not wealthy at all.  What good is a ton of money if you don’t have the time to spend any of it?  Personally I’d rather have more time than money as I believe it’s more important.  I’d rather be debt free, have all the time in the world and have a small amount of money than a large amount of money and no time to do anything with it.

You hear of many parents who run a family business that are pretty much a slave to the business, they cannot step away from it and while they may have turned a profit after the initial 2-5 years, they need to continue working at it.  Not saying every business is like this but talk to your Pita Pit, Subway, or any other traditional franchise and ask if the owner is working. I’d say about 80% of the time its the owner making your food.  I love talking to these guys and have talked to many, that’s where I come up with the 80% that owners are the ones slaving away.  Its almost sad in a way because with the recession that’s still going on a lot of these businesses have had to let their staff go and the wife and husband are the ones working behind the counter. 

So money and time are pretty big in wealth, but how about your relationship with your spouse.  Is it a healthy one?  Are you constantly at battle and stressed at each other? (Top reason most couples fight is because of money).  Do you have that time thing I talked about before and spend enough of it with your spouse?  Are you doing things to ensure you work at your marriage instead of letting it slip away.  Do you respect your spouse?  I think that’s a huge one and to be honest most of us don’t respect our spouses and I’ll give you some examples right now.

  1. Calling your wife the old lady, ball in chain, etc. I used to hear “old lady” from my x-boss all the time, to me that’s just disrespectful. 
  2. When your with “the guys” and people end up talking about their wives in a negative way.  This also goes for when girls are with “the girls”.  What right do you have to put your spouse down when amongst your friends?  I see this ALL the time at lunch time or when I’m out with the guys golfing or having a drink.  You will never catch me say anything negative about my wife.
  3. I could go on with many more examples but I think you get the picture, have some respect for your significant other 24/7, regardless of who your with.

I think those three combined is what determines someone as being “Wealthy”.  It’s not just as simple as having a lot of money, as said before if you have no time to spend it, what does it matter?  When you have that time and money how is your relationship so that when you are together do you take advantage of it in a great way.  Everyone has their own opinion and really it’s based on your value system of what makes you wealthy.  More to think about I guess.

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Canadians Looking for a Business

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EntrepreneurshipThe latest RBC Canadian consumer outlook states that 1 in 5 Canadians are thinking about starting their own business in the next 5 years.  To be honest I’m not surprised by this news article and the mentality of people these days.  People are looking for other opportunities outside of their full time jobs that hardly pay them enough.  Without question I hear it almost every day that people complain about not enough money, have bills to pay, not enough time in a day, want to spend more time with my family, I’m working two jobs just to make it, and it goes on and on and on.  Don’t believe me? Start opening your ears and you’ll hear it as well.

So out of this article what’s the biggest challenge to starting a business, getting enough money to start or expand.  28% of people said this was a concern.  It also says that 14% of people worry about getting clients and others feel it would take to long to turn a profit.  To be honest those numbers are pretty low when it comes to concerns and shouldn’t stop people from exploring the potential to reach whatever goals and dreams they have.

I just happen to know of a business opportunity that’s got a pretty low cost to running a business and know a few people who have been successful in helping others reach those types of goals and dreams.  Woah, low and behold that opportunity is the Amway business opportunity.  Surprised?  If you’ve been reading this blog you shouldn’t be, if your new maybe you are then.  What other business can you start that doesn’t require a loan at the bank of some business grant from the government?  Not very many, in fact I don’t know any outside of this opportunity.

Our business is backed by an amazing company that has been around for over 50 years and is continually growing in revenue year after year.  So if your worried Amway is going to pack it in with the reception, you better give your head a shake.  It’s not going anywhere but up.

We’ve got great brands such as Nutrilite and Artistry that are tops when compared to the competitors and are products that people use every single day month after month, so clients are not hard to find, at least for us anyway.  Our business is based on helping others succeed first before we do and coaching & mentoring people through the business as many who start don’t know how to run a business.  I know the government sure isn’t mentoring you through a business that’s for sure.

Anyway the thing is people are looking for opportunity outside of what they are doing and that’s what entrepreneurship is cool. You are given that freedom to build however large of a company you want with little roadblocks and restrictions, and because you run a business your entitled to some pretty substantial tax benefits as well.  I’m not going to sit here and say you have to build this business, but this business does work and compared to other start-ups is pretty darn cheap to get into and has mentorship like no other with World Wide Dreambuilders.

Check out the full article here - http://money.canoe.ca/money/business/canada/archives/2011/05/20110525-075228.html

Been Waiting 17 Months For This!

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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:

 

FinancialFreedom

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

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.

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