Ladies Financial Freedom

Sally and Jesse Updates

2010-08-18T10:48:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I wrote about Sally and Jesse. Things have come to an end, at least for Sally. After a lot of fighting and a lot of money spent on lawyers and the legal system, Sally and her husband are now divorced. In the end Sally walked away with very little and believes that her ex hid money via his business. Did he or didn't he? At this point only he knows. Sally doesn't have a job since she spends her time with her young child who is border line special needs and wants to concentrate on improving her child academically to give the child a better chance of success in school. Sally received a lump sum of $38,000 and spousal and child support for 5 years until she can get on her feet. At the end of 5 years the spousal support will end and Sally will need to support herself and her children. Child support will continue until each child turns 18.

Sally didn't want to rent an apartment or house as she didn't want to be moving the children from place to place during their school years. Since she doesn't have a job she didn't qualify for a mortgage and she didn't receive a large enough settlement to pay cash for a house. She chose to move in with her boyfriend who had the ability to purchase a home in the desired neighbourhood close to a good school for the children. It has only been a few months but some cracks are starting to show in the relationship. Only time will tell how this will play out.

There's not much to update with Jesse. She is still in the family home and she and her estranged husband are continuing to co-operate with regards to the children and paying the bills. The legal costs are being kept to a minimum due to their co-operation on child care, support, and splitting of their 'stuff'. At this point they are waiting out the one year separation period until they can finalize their divorce.

Watching these two women go through their separation/divorces, it has driven home that as women or individuals we should not become dependant on anyone for our lives. Sally is dependant on her ex-husband for her income and her current boyfriend for her home. I understand needing to look after the needs of your child but at the same time if the current relationship ends she could end up worse off than she is now. Sally would be smart to start a part-time business, even if it doesn't make a lot at the beginning that she could grow over the 5 year time period that she has to work with. If she begins now and the worst happens at least she would have something to fall back on and she could grow it faster if necessary.

Jesse, at this point is independent of a husband/boyfriend. She is supporting herself with her husband paying child support for the children. Jesse, as well as Sally, would be wise to start building another stream of income in case she loses her job, at least there would be a second income even if it's small to help out.

Have you been through a divorce? How did you survive it? Were/are you still dependent on your ex? Do you have advice on how to survive a divorce emotionally or financially? Please feel free to leave a comment!

Receive John Chow's new ebook and a chance to win a new iPad!

2010-06-09T09:39:00.000-04:00

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Here’s the download link again: The Ultimate Blog Profit Model by John Chow

Book Review - The Wealthy Barber

2010-06-08T07:00:00.097-04:00

The road to financial freedom is as easy as or as hard as "live on less than you earn, invest the rest for long term growth, rinse and repeat." Ask any wealthy person and they will tell you the same thing, possibly in different works, but the gist is the same. Human nature being what it is and living in an "I want it now" society has left quite a few of us spending everything we make and then some. We end up living paycheck to paycheck and never getting ahead. We make budgets but they end up going out the window before the month is up. Trying to save what's left at the end of the month doesn't work because there is rarely anything left.

In 1989 David Chilton wrote - The Wealthy Barber - The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning. Chilton explains successful financial planning by using the tale of Dave, Sue, Tom, and Cathy. The setting is a small town in southern Ontario. Dave and Sue are expecting their first child and are looking at purchasing their first home. Dave approaches his father for some financial advise and is advised to talk to the small town's barber. Dave, Tom and Cathy make arrangements with the wealthy barber to get a financial education during the men's monthly haircuts. During the next 7 months the three learn how to get their financial houses in order.

Month 1 - The ten percent solution. Save ten percent of your income but instead of waiting until the end of the month to save it, have it automatically taken off your paycheck or out of your bank account before you can even touch it. Invest it for long term growth. This is to be used for the finer things in life not regular day to day living.
Month 2 - Wills and life insurance. Everyone needs a will so that your wishes for your money/estate are followed. If you pass on without a will the government steps in and disposes of your estate according to their rules and not your wishes. Life insurance is important to protect your dependents from financial hardship. All life insurance is not the same though. Term life insurance provides the most coverage for the least premiums.
Month 3 - RSP's. Use Retirement Saving Plan's to provide for your retirement. If you don't have a company retirement savings plan you will need to use RRSP's to provide your retirement.
Month 4 - Your home. This month the Wealthy Barber explains how valuable owning your home can be over time. Paying down or paying off your mortgage can help your financial success
Month 5 - Saving Savvy. After following the previous advice will it hurt if you don't have and follow a budget?
Month 6 - Insights into investment and income tax.
Month 7 - Graduation!

The Wealthy Barber is a great book to start to get your finances in order. If you do nothing more than follow the advise that is in the book you will be well on your way to being financially successful. The sooner you start the sooner you will be one step closer to financial freedom.

What are your thoughts on the advise found in the Wealthy Barber?

Financial Freedom - The End!

2010-03-03T11:04:00.001-05:00

Now that you've found out where you are, you need to figure out where you want to go. If you don't have a destination you tend to wander aimlessly. If you say that you just want more money or to be rich, you will never get there. Your destination has to be defined. Even if where you want to be is to be financially free, you need to define what that means to you. What would it take for you to be financially free. What dollar figure would it take monthly for you to make the choice to work or to pursue your interests? What monthly dollar figure would it take to live the lifestyle that you want? The answer to these questions won't be the same for everyone. One person might want just enough to pay off their debts and to live simply in the country. Another person may want a lifestyle with a nice house and regular frugal travel eg., camping and hostels. Another may want to buy a large sailboat and sail around the world. Another might want a lavish lifestyle of travelling and staying in 4 and 5 star resorts.

As you can see there are many lifestyle choices that you can have. So how do you figure out what you want? You need to take some time alone and sit quietly and imagine what you want for your life. Do you want to travel? Do you prefer camping or do you prefer hotels with all the amenities? What size house do you want? Where do you want your house? Do you want to spend your time volunteering? Do you want to take up golfing, sailing, or another expensive sport? Do you want to ......? Write down all of the things that you see in your ideal lifestyle and beside each item figure out what the yearly cost is. Add up the numbers and make sure to add in expenses such as food, clothing, housing costs (mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc.) and any other day to day expenses. This is your yearly income goal. Next multiply your yearly income goal by 20-40 to get your total goal. Multiplying by 20-40 will allow for a safe withdrawal rate. This is the number you are striving for. These calculations are found on 7million7years.

Now that you know your goal you can begin looking at different ways to get there. Next we will look at brainstorm ways to get to your number. Feel free to share you number in the comments section.

On to Financial Freedom - Starting Point

2010-02-22T09:22:00.003-05:00

I've mentioned some stories where the worst case scenario has happened. Now it's time to make plans for our financial freedom and take action on those plans. You need to figure out two things, where you are, and where you want to go.

Where you are - This is a snapshot of your financial life with two parts. Let's start with day to day happenings. Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have money left at the end of the month or more month at the end of your money? Are all your bills paid every month or do you 'choose' which bills have to be paid that month? If you don't know these answers you need to figure it out. Take your bank statements and credit card statements (yes all of them) for the last 3-6 months and figure out how much you spend on average each month. If there's money left over every month Great! If you're in the hole every month growing those credit card balances We have work to do!

Next - What's your networth? Do you owe more than you own? Do you have credit card balances? Auto loans? Mortgage? Any other liabilities? What are your assets? Own your own home? Own stocks, bonds, real estate, or any other assets?

Definitions of liabilities and assets. I like to use Robert Kiyosaki's definitions of liabilities and assets from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. His definitions are very simple to use.

An asset is anything that puts money into your pocket e.g. income producing real estate, book royalties, dividend paying stocks, a business you have built, etc.
A liability is anything that takes money out of your pocket e.g. credit cards, loans, cars, expensive toys, etc.

Now take a sheet of paper and list all your liabities on one side. Credit card balances, loans, mortgages, student loans, anything that takes money out of your pocket. List all of your assets on the other side. Stocks, bonds, bank accounts,
401ks and Roths, (RRSP and TFSA in Canada), real estate (this can include your home for these calculations), etc. Add each column then subtract the two. Do you owe more in liabilities than you own in assets? Do you have a negative networth? Do your assets total more than your liabilities? Do you have a positive networth?

The house - asset or liability debate. Robert Kiyosaki calls a house a liability because it takes money out of your pocket. You pay mortgage, insurance, heating, maintenance, repairs, etc. In other words a house takes money out of your pocket every month and doesn't put any back in. On the other hand as long as you maintain your house and don't let if fall into disrepair a house will retain it's value and even become more valuable over time. Depending on your starting point you may choose to include your house in your assets. For me, I will be once I purchase a house in the next two years. Since when I buy a house I will be using a good portion of my networth to use as the downpayment.

Tomorrow I will discuss where we want to go.

Anything I may have left out? Any questions? Please feel free to leave a comment.

Divorce and Money - Jessie's Story

2010-02-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

When I first met Jessie she was a stay-at-home mom who worked in a retail store in the evenings to help with the family finances. She eventually went back to school for a career that she liked and was in demand. She finished school and got a job in her field. She has changed jobs twice since then, each time getting better pay and better hours. Her life, while stressful at times, seemed idyllic. Jessie and her husband were all about family and fun. Their summers were always booked for camping and family and friends get togethers.

Then the crap hits the fan. Six months ago Jessie and her husband decided to separate and divorce. Unlike with Sally's nasty divorce, Jessie and her husband are doing their best to get along, both for the kid's sake and financially. Jessie is staying in the family home with the kids and her husband still pays half the mortgage until such time as they agree to sell it. They are working things out as best they can without using lawyers unless absolutely necessary.

Just like with Sally's story these breakups could not have been predicted from the outside. Both couples looked and acted like happy families. I've told these stories to illustrate how unpredictable life can be and you never know when it will change. There are many more stories out there about divorce, widows, and job losses all unexpected challenges facing women. Women need to take charge of their own financial futures, not only just being financially literate but by adding new income streams, so that if one income stream disappears there are others to fill in the gap.

30, 40, 50 years ago the majority of families lived off one income. The husband worked and the wife stayed home to look after the family and house. If there was an interruption in the husbands job the wife could start earning an income to keep the bills paid. As we have moved to two income families and became dependent on having two incomes there is no longer the safety net of creating an income from a spouse that doesn't work outside the home. With the poor economy and loss of jobs over the last year or two, parents have had to take on 2 or 3 jobs at lower wages to make ends meet. Having multiple income streams helps take off the stress of having to rely on your job. You can weather the latest round of layoffs with less stress if you have other streams of income coming in.

In a future post I will discuss possible sources of income and the pros and cons of each.

How about you? Do you have more than one source of income?

Win an Apple Ipad from John Chow and Urban Data

2010-02-17T09:41:00.003-05:00

John Chow dot com is hold a contest to give away an Apple Ipad. The contest is being sponsored by Urban Data a website that gives you advanced information about any website on the internet.

To enter write a blog post and tweet it. For more information go to John Chow dot com.

I'm entering since I blew up my laptop and have taken over my husbands. An Apple Ipad would allow me to give him back his laptop yet still be able to keep up with my blogs.

Your blog post is worth 10 entries, enter today. Why do you want an Apple Ipad?

Divorce and Money

2010-01-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

All names have been changed.

Sally's story. From the outside Sally and her family seemed to have a golden life. They met and fell in love at sixteen, quit school, but with intervention from family went back to school and then on to college. They got jobs and eventually he started his own business which did very well. Sally continued to work until she had their first child and then she became a stay-at-home mom. Baby number 2 came along and they decided they were happy with just two children. When child number 2 turned 2 Sally went back to work part-time but child number 2's immune system wasn't the best and Sally eventually had to give up her job for her child's health. Eventually Sally starts doing daycare for teachers at the local school. They live in a little village so there isn't a lot of call for daycare spaces.

Fast forward a few years and Sally's marriage falls apart and it gets nasty to the point where they are court ordered not to talk to each other except through their lawyers. Sally wants to stay in the house with the kids so that their lives aren't disrupted too much. He wants the house sold and has even found a buyer. Sally fights to stay in the home. They just had a court date and Sally has to vacate the home by the end of February. Sally can't afford to purchase another home in the rural community and as a result her only source of income (daycare) is in jeopardy and now has to move into the city to live with her retired mother to save some money to purchase another home.

Sally's daycare income only comes to about $1500 per month, child support payments will be approximately $600-$1000 per month. At best her total income will be $2500 per month. Sally plans on purchasing a single family detached house worth $250 000 after she gets her share of the marital home. She plans on recieving $50 000 after the dust settles which would leave her with a mortgage of $200 000. Running the numbers through Bankrate.com for a 25 year mortgage at %5 the monthly payment would be $1097.75 and adding in utility costs and the house will cost Sally over half of her income. Sally may have to lower her expectations and purchase a townhouse. The problem is housing prices in this city are quite expensive and even renting a 3 bedroom apartment is over $1000. Sally has a boy and a girl and they can't share a bedroom due to child protective laws.

How many times does this scenario get repeated? If you have ever met a divorced woman who was a stay-at-home mom during the marriage this scenario pops up time and time again. I'm not saying women can't be stay-at-home moms, we can, we just have to be aware of the pitfalls that can happen to us and put in place a plan to protect ourselves. I'll go into some choices you can put in place to make your financial life better. Whether you end up on your own or are one of the lucky %50 that stays married for 50+ years or you prefer to live on your own, just imagine the lifestyle you can have if you don't have to worry about where your monthly expenses are coming from and you have a nice chunk of disposable income to do with as you see fit.

Does that seem like I'm dreaming? Well it can come true with some work and dedication. Join me on my journey to financial freedom!

Money and Protecting Yourself

2010-01-07T22:42:00.003-05:00

I started this blog to help women and myself realize how important it is to be financially responsible for themselves. I homeschool my daughter and as a result a lot of my friends are stay at home homeschooling moms. Most live on one income and the husbands take care of most of the finances. the women gave up careers to be stay at home parents, a choice made by both parents. In these families everyone is happy, the children are being educated and looked after, the wife gets to spend quality and quantity time with the children, the husband gets to come home to a (usually) happy family and makes sure the lights stay on and roof stays over their heads. It seems idyllic doesn't it? In the families that I'm close to, this is their reality. The only thing is, it can change in a heartbeat.

Currently in North American society the reality is approximately 50% of marriages end in divorce. In most cases the women become the custodial parent and now have to provide the roof, the lights, the food and the clothing. While the men do pay support for their children, combined with the woman's (quite often) lowered income reduces the lifestyle that the children grew up with. Add in marital debts and the cost of the divorce itself and it can become difficult to put food on the table or even keep the roof over their heads never mind try to put money away for emergencies, college or even retirement. The man also has a reduced standard of living. Now he not only has to pay for his own expenses and his share of the debts, but he has to help support a second household through child support. There aren't any winners in a divorce.

What does this have to do with you? You are in a wonderful relationship. You may have decided to not have kids so you can continue with your career. You may have had kids but decided to go back to work after your year off. The thing is your life might be perfect (or close to it) right now and you can't imagine anything going wrong. The future looks rosy. The reality is at some point in your life without the proper planning something could go wrong. It might not be divorce. It could be a death, a serious illness or a serious accident. Anything can happen to send your life into a downward spiral which can turn your comfortable, cozy, perfect life upside down.

Over the next three posts the lives of three women that I know that have recently had their lives turned upside down and their future isn't as great as it used to be. If you would like your story told, leave me a comment and your email address.

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

With the new year I thought it was time to revive my old blog. My financial life hasn't changed in the past 11 months since I blogged last. That means I'm still deeply in debt and not on my path to financial freedom. I haven't held myself accountable and I only have myself to blame. I've decided this is a perfect time to get on track with taking care of my future and becoming financially free. It's time to become accountable for my future.

Every year I have a lot of goals that I would like to achieve. So many in fact that they become overwhelming and I end up not doing anything towards achieving them. This year I'm going to simplify things and only work on 3 main goals to achieve by December 31, 2010.

1)Increase income by $500 per month
2)Pay down my credit card debt by $2000
3)Increase efund to $1500

At this point I don't have extra money to throw at my debt. Even cutting back my spending would only produce an extra maximum $50 per month. I don't eat out, I don't buy coffee regularly (so no latte factor), I also don't purchase clothes unless absolutely needed. So with all of that my best option is to increase my monthly income. I will be using this blog to document my extra monthly earnings. I plan on earning the extra income through blogging and other internet businesses.

We only have so many hours/minutes each day and while I could get a part-time job to earn the extra income, I only have so many hours with which to devote to working. With internet income, while it takes time to build up that income, the income continues to roll in even while I'm sleeping. Internet income can (with a lot of work) outpace any $10 an hour job. Minimum wage here in Ontario will be raised to $10.25 at the end of March. In order to earn my goal income of $500 per month, I would have to work 50+ hours. Taxes will have to be considered to allow for a net of $500. With an internet business it is quite possible to earn $100 per day without leaving the comfort of your home.

Back to my debt. Just so I have a starting point to gage my progress throughout the year I will state it here.

My credit card debt stands at $14 350. Ouch! First priority will be to earn extra money so I have something to work with. Second priority will be to get the efund built up to $1500 so that I won't need to add to my debt. And finally the debt has got to go!

What are your plans for 2010? Do you have debts that need to be paid down/off? Do you have an emergency fund? Do you have a plan for becoming financially free?

No matter what stage you are at make a plan to make 2010 the best year ever and continue working towards your financial freedom!

Just for Fun

2009-02-25T09:40:00.000-05:00

What's Your Personality Type?-->
You Are An ENTP
The VisionaryYou are charming, outgoing, friendly. You make a good first impression.You possess good negotiating skills and can convince anyone of anything.Happy to be the center of attention, you love to tell stories and show off.You're very clever, but you are not disciplined enough to do well in structured environments.In love, you see everything as a grand adventure. You enjoy taking risks for love.And if things don't work out, you're usually not too much worse for the wear!You would make a great entrepreneur, marketing executive, or actor.At work, you need a lot of freedom to pursue your own path and vision. How you see yourself: Analytical, creative, and peacefulWhen other people don't get you, they see you as: Detached, wishy-washy, and superficial

Credit Card #1 Update

2009-01-27T06:00:00.001-05:00

It's almost the end of the month and time for an update. This month I was able to payoff $223.56 after interest. This brings my balance to $307.49. Where did the money come from? $60.00 automatically paid from each pay check (3 in January), $51.12 from my cash back credit card, $90.78 from a government check and an extra $21.66 'found money'. Next month I won't be planning to pay off quite as much since I'll only have 2 paychecks, I only get cash back once a year and the found money is always iffy. Also the dog will have to have a vet visit due to allergy issues, poor thing.

Total credit card debt update.

I started the year off with credit card debt of $15400 and after making payments it now stands at $14926.36. That's a payoff of $473.64. That leaves $5526.36 to reach my end of year goal of paying off $6000. Baby steps! As I pay down the balance there will be less and less of my payments going to interest and more and more towards the balance. Yay! This is getting exciting.

How are you doing with your debt pay down or 2009 goals?

The Car is Fixed!!!

2009-01-26T11:04:00.002-05:00

It's been a long 3 weeks but we were finally able to get the car fixed on Saturday. Due to the lovely January freeze here in Central Ontario, it was too cold to work on the car outside. This weekend my friend was able to borrow the shop at his work to work on the car. Total cost was $160. The cost of parts $140 (wheel bearing and rim) and $20 to have the garage switch the tire over to the new rim. If I had to have the car fixed immediately it would have cost me between $400 - $500 parts and labour. Since my son isn't working and is staying at his girlfriends we had the truck to drive and didn't need the car. It'll be nice having 2 vehicles though. We've been a one vehicle family for 13 years. I'm getting to like having my own vehicle again and once my son gets a job, which should happen in the next 2 months once the construction industry picks up, and I increase my sales income to save some money I'll be shopping for a new to me car.

Back to the car. Since the car was sitting for 3 weeks in the middle of a deep freeze the battery has started to act up. Now that I will be driving it everyday it should be fine but I'm prepared to replace it if necessary. If all goes well and the car starts reliably until September/October I will purchase a new battery then. We're pretty sure that the battery in the car is the original and the car is now 6 years old so it's time for a new one. After all is said and done we were able to cover the cost of the repair and leave the efund intact. Yay!

Car Update

2009-01-13T08:41:00.003-05:00

I had my friend look at my car on Sunday and he can't see anything broken or bent and he's pretty sure that it's only the wheel bearing that needs to be replaced. My rim was also damaged. Yesterday I went to an auto wreckers and picked up the new wheel bearing and rim. The wheel bearing was only $75 vs $150 new and $50 for the new rim. Total with taxes came to only $141. Now I just have to wait until my friend has time and a warm day with good weather for him to fix it. We're heading into our regular extreme January cold with highs of -24C or -11F. Either way you say it it's going to be c-c-c-old! It should only last about 3 or 4 days. So it will be another week before I can get my car fixed.

So far I haven't had to touch my efund as I still had money left in my checking account. Now that I actually have an efund I'm very protective of it and don't want to use it unless I absolutely have to. I'll see how the rest of this month plays out as to whether I'll need to touch it.

How about you, have you been able to keep your efund intact while building your beginner efund?

Using the Snowball Method

2009-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

The snowball method of paying off credit card debt is very easy to implement and sounds simple. It is easy and simple and only requires dedication to do it. You take all your credit cards, in my case 4, and look at which one has the highest interest. You make minimum payments to all of them. The one with the highest interest you apply any extra money you can get out of your budget or by increasing your income. Once that first card is paid off you then apply all the money used to pay it off to the next card and so on. If you need to see results faster you could take the lowest balance card to pay off first. The dedication comes in when you find an extra $20 and have to force yourself to pay it on the debt instead of going out for lunch or buying those cute shoes that are on sale. If your interest rates are at 20% like mine are every $10 paid off is a guaranteed return of 20% on your money. For every $10 paid that's $2 saved that could go somewhere else like an efund or investing.

To go along with the snowball method I learned about snowflaking from I've Paid For This Twice Already. With the snowball method you try to earmark an extra chunk of money to go to that credit card debt whether it be $20 or $100 or more. Sometimes coming up with an extra $20 can seem overwhelming. With snowflaking you use all those little bits of money a dime that you found while walking, a dollar in your pocket you didn't know was there, five dollars for a survey you did, etc. With snowflaking you didn't even realize how much money you're "finding" that you can put towards your debt. You can read more about it at Paid Twice.

Are your going to start the New Year right, snowflaking your way to debt free?

January 2009 Goals

2009-01-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

Staying with my three yearly goals of increasing efund, paying down debt, and increasing monthly income, here are my three main January goals.

1) Add $100 to efund bringing it to $509.33

2) Pay down $200 on credit card number 1.

3) Increase sales income from $0 to $300.

I have already increased my efund by sending $100 to my ING account. There was some money left in my checking account so I sent it off before I had a chance to touch it. I'm not sure how long my efund will stay intact as my son was driving my car last week and smacked it off a curb in a snowstorm and now there is a "noise" when we drive it. We're only driving it if necessary. I have a friend who usually does my mechanical work and he'll look at it as soon as his schedule allows to see if he can fix it. We're probably looking at a wheel bearing and maybe a few other minor parts. Just before Christmas during another snowstorm (gotta love living in the snow belt) I got stuck in traffic half under a bridge and of course a snowplow goes across the top of the bridge showering my car and the ones around us with snow and ice balls cracking my windshield. Thankfully the whole thing didn't cave in on us. The crack is at the bottom of the windshield and as long as it doesn't get worse I'll put off that repair until the spring. The other repair will get done when time allows.

I will still be able to pay off $200 on my credit card as I'm waiting on money that I have earmarked for it. I will have 3 paychecks this month, the first was on January 2nd. Since I already had the $100 for the efund I will take my $20 per pay earmarked for the efund and apply that to the credit card, I've already sent the first $20. That's $60. I have about $50.00 coming from my cash back card. I also have a check coming for $90. $90+$60+$50=$200.

Earning $300 from sales is my only stretch goal since I haven't had sales for a few months. Given the time of year and the snow and cold I don't see a lot of people to have Tupperware parties with. I will have to get creative in meeting people and creating the desire to have a Tupperware party. I set the other 2 goals low so that I would have a nice easy start to the year with some immediate success. Car repairs not withstanding. Also they were set low so that I could concentrate on my Tupperware sales.

If you're looking at my goal of only paying off $200 on my credit card this month compared to wanting to pay off $6000 for the year, I fall $300 short already. That will change when my son gets a job and starts paying for his vehicle which will allow me to redirect my income to paying down the credit. Also as I increase my sales income that money will be utilized for credit pay off and some other items.

2009 Goals

2009-01-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post I will only be setting 3 major goals this year. They will be broken down into smaller monthly goals so that I don't get overwhelmed with the big picture.

Before I start with my goals I just want to mention that they may seem to be too easy. I read many other personal finance blogs where the goal is to save $1000 a month and pay $1000 a month on credit card debt. For me, at this point those goals are beyond the moon in terms of achievability. I would love to achieve those bigger goals by the end of 2009 but I know that I'm not there yet and need to deal with the here and now. Baby steps!

Increase efund to $1500. Currently it is at $409.33. I will leave the $200 cash at home part at home in case we suffer another emergency like the 2003 blackout where we couldn't access money from the banks. One major emergency could wipe out the $1500 but it is a nice starter cushion as I work on paying down the credit card debt.
Pay down $6000 of credit card debt. Our current credit card debt combined is at $15400. There are other debts but I'm concentrating on the credit card debt.
Increase my personal income from $600 a month to $5000 a month.

In these goals I am not taking into account my husbands salary. That money is eaten up by our everyday expenses and living. My $600 a month income currently is being eaten up by loan payments and insurance for a vehicle we purchased last year for our oldest child. We paid for his vehicle while he was in college, he has now finished college and as soon as he finds a job he will be taking over the payments and insurance. That will free up my income for my first 2 goals.

My current income of $600 comes from a part-time job in the fast food industry. I am also a Tupperware Consultant although over the last 3 months I haven't been working on my sales. As a result my sales have dropped to $0. While I know that I could move up and make more money than currently in the fast food industry I've decided against that. As a manager with my current employer the hours would be crazy and would not leave time for a family life or really any kind of life at all. The income for a lower level manager is only $25000 per year and that's working 44 hours a week hardly seeing your family. Days off are usually during the week when kids, spouses and friends are at work. If it were necessary to do this to put food on the table and a roof over our heads I would work it. It's not necessary and even though the extra money would make it easier to pay off the credit card debt the time and stress is not worth it. Back to Tupperware. Currently my income from sales is $0 and this is what I'm going to be working on. With sales I am in total control of my income, time, schedule, etc. I am motivating myself to start selling again and build a customer base so that as I increase my income from sales I can quit the part-time job. This has been a "want" for me for a long time. After I have achieved $1000 a month from Tupperware I will be quitting and having a party! As my income increases above that amount I will adjust my first two goals.

I have made these 3 goals my priority for 2009. You never know when changes will happen and I want to be prepared to weather the storm.

How about you? Have you set goals for this year? Are you able to focus on them? Have you made achieving your goals a priority?

Year End Efund and Various Ramblings

2009-01-06T07:00:00.001-05:00

I finished out 2008 with my cash efund at $205.02 and my ING efund at $204.31. That brings the total efund up to $409.33. Now I understand that the entire efund can and will be wiped out with one emergency even a minor one. However it is a start and I'm still taking baby steps and working to grow the efund bigger.

At the beginning of 2008 I posted a post that listed a large shopping list of goals that I wanted to accomplish. Obviously I didn't accomplish them. I could have just deleted this blog and started fresh with another one. I didn't do that. I am facing my embarrassment and continuing on with this blog. I know that I'm not the only one out there that decided to set goals and then didn't work towards them. I am writing this blog to inspire myself and others to keep on keeping on. That just because you didn't accomplish something in the past doesn't mean you can't start over. I forgot that we start walking by taking baby steps. There is another thing besides baby steps and that is focus. When I listed my shopping list there were sooo many things that I wanted to accomplish and I wanted to do them all that it became overwhelming and nothing got accomplished. Finally near the end of the year I decided to work on an efund. I wanted $400.00 in an efund by the end of the year and since I focused on that and made it a priority I accomplished it.

I will be posting my goals for 2009 but I will be limiting them to 3 financial goals. I won't be working on all of them at the same time. I will be focusing on only one at a time and they will be broken down into monthly goals.

So now it's your turn. Did you accomplish your 2008 goals? If not what are you going to change for 2009?

Efund November 3, 2008

2008-11-03T15:43:00.002-05:00

For the last 2 weeks I've managed to add $13.25 to my cash efund bringing the total to $152.24.
I've added $20 to my ING efund bringing the total to $80.02. For the month of October my ING account paid me $.14 interest to bring the account total to $80.16. The total cash and ING efund is $232.40. $167.60 to reach my year end goal of $400.

Efund October 20

2008-10-20T09:24:00.002-04:00

Life has been busy but here is my efund update. I've added $22.81 to my cash efund bringing the total to $138.99. My ING efund is currently at $60.02. In September I was paid $.02 in interest, not very exciting but it is a start. My combined efund total is $199.01. I am about half way to my efund goal of $400 by the end of this year.

Efund Sept 17, 2008

2008-09-17T08:47:00.002-04:00

This week I've added $6.40 to my efund bringing the total to $116.18. Only $83.82 to go!

The goal for my ING efund by December 31 is $200. That's a total of $400. Again it may not be large but $400 will feed my family for one month, pay for gas for the car for 3 months, pay for a minor car repair, pay the minimums on our credit cards for one month. It will cover almost 2 weeks off my second job at a fast food restaurant. Even though my efund is small every little bit means it will be a little easier to sleep at night as the cushion grows.

Eventually my goal for the efund is $22000. This is 6 months of take home pay. If an emergency happens I can cut back quite a bit and make it last a lot longer than 6 months. My main job is in sales so having six months of income socked away will give more peace of mind for those months when sales aren't as good.

Future Plans for This Blog

2008-09-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

My future plans for this blog start with posting regularly. For the next little while I may only post every few days due to time constraints with family/work issues. Also I will be working on future posts that I can 'stockpile' so that I will be working about 2-3 weeks into the future.

There will be two main things that I will be blogging about. The first is personal finances for women. Women of all ages and economic status need to get control of their finances and be able to be self reliant no matter what the future holds for them. There will be several topics ranging from debt reduction, building an efund, saving, and investing. To be in control of your finances and your future you need to control your finances in all four of these areas. I will be working my way through these areas myself since I am deeply in debt with no savings. I will be pointing out and linking to other bloggers who have more experience in each of these areas and to give different perspectives. Getting my finances in order is necessary for my entry into entrepreneurship.

The second thing that I will focus on is entrepreneurship. I have dreamed of owning my own business and building it big for years. I will be discussing planning, starting, financing and building businesses. As I have very little money to start with I will be bootstrapping the startup phase of my business. I will look at different businesses during my search for the business that I will choose to build. Different marketing techniques and advertising will be looked at and discussed. Building a business is a great way to build wealth. About 45% of the Forbes 400 made their money by building businesses. It's not an easy way to wealth or get rich quick. Building a profitable business requires time, dedication, and a stick-to-it-ness. Do you have what it takes to build a profitable business despite the many obstacles you'll face?

Is there anything that you would like to see discussed either in personal finance or business building? Just leave a comment or drop me an email.

Reasons for Blogging

2008-09-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

Since I'm back from a long time away I'd like to start by sharing why I started this blog and where I plan on taking it.

Originally I started this blog to be like everyone else. Once I started reading personal finance blogs I wanted one too. A case of keeping up with the Joneses! The second reason was making money. If I could make enough money online I could give up my job at a fast food restaurant and work from home when "I" wanted to work instead of following someone else's schedule. The third reason was creating a blog for women who were starting from scratch or deeply in debt and not earning a lot of money. Most of the bloggers that I read usually have an above average income and are further ahead than I am financially. If I'm in this bad financial situation then so are a lot of other women. My thoughts are that if they can follow successes and backsteps that they will be motivated to take action and fix their financial situations too.

Trying to keep up with the Joneses usually is what gets everyone into trouble. What works for the Joneses won't always work for other families. Making money online doesn't just happen just because you take 15 minutes to throw up a blog. It requires time, passion, dedication, and some creativity. Up until now I've just played with blogging and my financial future. I haven't dedicated the time necessary to achieve my blog goals of making money online and reaching other women who need to create their own financial independence. I'll be working on networking and marketing to attract more traffic to my blog and increase the earning capacity.

Do you blog? Why?

Efund Update!

2008-09-10T09:27:00.003-04:00

Gosh it's been a long time. While I have allowed my finances to get worse I have rebuilt my efund to $109.78. For a lot of financially savvy people this piddly amount is nothing. For me that's gas for the car for 3 weeks or groceries for a week...you get the idea. It's a starting point. Everyone needs to start where they are. Baby steps are key. Start out taking baby steps to financial freedom and before you know it you'll be running towards your goals. You have to keep focused on your goals. First you need to set goals, then plan how to get there, then DO IT! I have to remind myself of this constantly. I can set goals and plan how to get there but I let life push me around instead of taking action.

My goal for the balance of 2008 is to have $200 in my efund #1. This efund I will keep at home in cash. Some people will be shocked at this but after going through the blackout in 2003 where all of Ontario and several states in the northeast lost power for between 18 hours (us) to 3 or 4 days. Living in our plastic society a lot of people were caught not having cash to pay for things like a jug of water, canned food, and other necessities. While I had everything I needed at home and didn't have to have cash plus our power was on in 18 hours you never know what the future holds.

This weekend I'll be opening an ING account to build the main efund for those bigger emergencies. I'll only be putting $20 in every 2 weeks (payday) as my main focus will be paying down the credit cards. Instead of putting all my money towards credit card debt I want to have some money in case some emergency creeps up. If I put all my money towards debt and an emergency hits I would be forced to use credit again. This way with having an efund even if small I can put the emergency on a credit card and pay it off with the efund.

More updates coming in the next few days.

How are you doing with your efund?

2008-06-04T10:00:00.002-04:00

Last week I was at work and talking to a co-worker. She surprised me by asking "how do you pay a bill?" I was blown away as this wasn't one of the teens that I work with. This was an adult woman who is 31-33 years old. She had just split up with her husband and had never in her life paid a bill. Her husband took care of everything. She didn't even know when her payday was since it was automatically deposited into "their" account. Since the split she has had to learn everything about looking after herself financially that she should have learned/been learning over the last 10-15 years.

In this day and age it is surprising that women don't take more of an interest in the family finances and know what money comes in and where it's going. Unfortunately it's not uncommon. I have met many women of all ages and all walks of life that have left the finances up to their spouse to deal with. While the spouse may be better at investing and keeping the bills paid, women should still know what money comes in and where it goes. How much is owed? to who? for how long? for what? Is there a sufficient emergency fund to weather any storms?

Single people obviously know how to deal with every day bill paying and to look after themselves financially. Those in relationships need to take financial stock and know where they are financially today so they can figure out if they have to change anything. They should also make sure of where the money is for that "just in case".