Debt Free Kid

This week I turn 40 years old. Last week I became a house owner. I am sore, grumpy, and slightly overwhelmed, but I am also proud and ecstatic. I had two goals to reach by my 40th birthday: 1) to get married; 2) to buy a house. I reached goal # 2 with a week to spare. I have modified goal # 1 to read: 1) to find a suitable life partner in my 40s; 2) or not. So, Partner (ex) informed me that he found another place to live about a week into September. I realized quickly that I had three choices: 1) Keep our rental house and sublet one of the bedrooms (Rent = $1250 + $320 utilities + $57 internet); 2) Move into another rental, hopefully in the same neighbourhood; 3) Cash in $8500 RRSP account and buy a house of our own. First I went to Kijiji and searched the "room wanted" ads. There were a few single women who had teaching contracts who were looking for a room. I thought this would be ideal; but since Partner (ex) dropped the bomb a week into September, thes...

This morning Bean had a very serious look on his face as he told me that he wished he had kept a friend's birthday gift for himself. As I noticed the hurt look I thought of the friend mentioned, and realized that the gift purchased and given was BACK IN DECEMBER. 2013. It was a Lego set of a type that Bean has recently become quite fanatical about, especially since there is a tie-in cartoon of the Lego series now on Netflix. He has been watching it every day when we get home from work and day camp, while I am making dinner. I try not to get annoyed but I can't help it. The friend who received the toy in question is the kid who seems to have everything. I really like his mom and I always wonder how she gets by as a single mom, with two kids, a mortgage, and under-employment. Every time my kid gets excited about a new toy trend it is because this kid, and a couple of others, brought the toy to school and made it the next big thing. All of these kids have single moms, and I don...

"A normal life is defined as graduating high school, getting a college degree, buying a car, buying a house, filling it with furniture, clothes, television sets, washing machines, and lawn mowers, and then spending the next forty years working 9-5 to pay it all off. This cycle of earning and spending is usually offered in forty different flavors of vanilla. You can have any flavor you want as long as it’s vanilla. People mistake this for choice, but it is just variations of one single choice; different choices are not considered. Fish don’t see the water in which they swim: it is an invisible part of their experience." From Early Retirement Extreme Seriously, Karissa