Debt Free Kid

I just updated the side bars and I noticed - unless I made an error previously - that my student loan balance is going UP instead of DOWN. I have read about this happening to other people, but because I have diligently applied and been accepted for the Repayment Assistance program every six months, I thought my balance was actually going down. This puts the pressure on me to shift my fast-track payment from the car loan to the student loans. This is starting to feel right, because the student loans are old, so old, from 1996 - 2005 and I don't want to deal with them anymore. I am making an extra $20 a month car payment and now I am going to increase the student loan payments. I haven't increased the mortgage payment yet. The big news is that I started a full-time job in August, and I saw my first, full, real paycheque on Oct. 28. I saw an increase of $588 in my take-home pay, which is nothing to sneeze at, but our expenses for before and after-school care will increase dr...

It took me half a year to figure out that I might run out of money before year-end. According to my spreadsheet, overspending and indulging has left me with only $1300 to cover groceries, gas, and spending money for the next five months (Aug - Dec). It shocked me to see this, since I don't feel like I live an extravagant lifestyle at all. I haven't bought any new clothes or shoes for myself in 2016, and I last had a cheap haircut in August 2015. I still haven't called the plumber in to fix the leak in the bathtub / kitchen sink either. I did move $1000 from a savings account onto the car loan back in April. And I plan to do so again in August. I really want to get rid of the car loan. Some expenses have gone up, such as house and car insurance, property taxes, and hydro but heating gas has gone down by half to make up for it. I have my 2017 spreadsheet all set up and if I stick with it properly, everything will be covered, including savings goals AND I will st...

In three years I will be 44. Bean will be 13. In three years our car will be paid off. As soon as Bean's legs are long enough, I will teach him to drive it, and we will share it until it no longer runs. I don't plan to buy another car. In three years I will owe less than $10 000 on my student loans. In three years I will owe just over $110 000 on the mortgage. In three years I will either be working full-time, or I will take the leap and reduce my work hours and practice living minimally and mindfully. In three years we will be thinking about which high school Bean will attend. Will he go into the international baccalaureate program at our local school, or will he commute to the other end of town to continue French Immersion? We will have another year to decide. In three years I will have hopefully reached my savings goal. In three years I will have struck another couple of items off my bucket list in the sidebar.

There are a few job postings where I work, and I'm qualified for all of them. They are all full time - 35 hours a week vs the 28 hours I am paid to work. I know from experience that this would be a net pay increase of around $550 per month, but it might jeopardize my interest relief status with the student loan centre, as well as my child care subsidy. And I will definately need the child card subsidy since I would be in the office for 1.5 more hours per day. I ultimately make the important decisions at our house, but my kid is smart and I always ask his opinion. He even helped me pick out the house I bought last fall. Today we talked about what it might be like if I worked longer hours each day. We talked about what would be better for us: more money or more time together? I reminded him that more money meant more sushi dinners (I really need to learn to make futomaki). Bean decided that more time was more important to him. We have a leisurely morning routine and our after...

For a couple of years I have been telling Bean that his first job will be a paper route. Most semi-responsible people I have encountered started their employment history this way, so it seems like a good thing to do. Kind of like what working at McDonalds was when I was much younger (except now anyone under 18 rarely gets to work in food services, since adults moved into that sector when the good jobs disappeared). I even bought him a wagon for xmas in 2012 to encourage him, and figured we would have a route by his 7th birthday. However by that date I didn't think he was ready and would find it more of a curse than a blessing. Also I'm still a bit hesitant because as kids, my sister had a route but pawned it off on me (without pay!) so I know how much work can be involved. And I never knew how low the pay is! The route I have a lead on is for "the free paper" in our town. We will deliver to 27 houses on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and the pay is $22 for ...

My kid turned eight years old a couple of weeks ago. I booked him an amazing party at the local laser tag place for under $400. He invited eleven friends, and they all showed up! He got a lot of Lego, which he was thrilled with. I got him a new two-wheel bike, because his old one was getting too small. I also bought him new soccer cleats and shin guards, but I would have bought them regardless of his birthday. It was an expensive weekend! Spending on my kid now has its own category in my spreadsheet. I track all the expenses in their own categories (daycare/camps; sports; RESP; life insurance - something I would not purchase now but I bought the policy when I was less informed, and it is universal life, so I keep paying for it - only $24 a month; misc - includes birthday party and more frivolous expenses like tiny shopping sprees). I add up all the amounts and apply it against the amount of child support I get each month. If there are any funds leftover they go into his savings accou...

I paid off the last bit of credit card debt (again!) in December. I owed about $500 on a low-interest card; I think it was left over from 2012's yoga teacher training or perhaps it was half of what I paid for 2013's meditation retreat. Either way, it is paid. I actually paid $900 for debt re-payment last month, since I accidentally sent a $500 payment to one of my student loans instead of to the credit card. Whoops!! I felt stupid when I caught the mistake, but realized it was ok because the student loans also have to be paid. I cashed out my savings for the first payment, and most of my mutual funds for the second payment. I also contributed $600 to my RRSP savings account, making up for the $50 a month that I used to save, but ceased when I began my debt-free journey back in 2009. In a couple of months I will contribute another $600 to cover the year ahead. Since I last posted, I took on a few more part-time hours at the university, which I believe has tipped me into th...

Today I am back. I just decided to pop on here and make a post. I thought about writing it yesterday but I did not know where to begin. I actually still do not know where to begin but here I am. The last time I posted was almost two years ago, when I paid off the last of my $20 000 credit card debt. Prior to that I updated irregularly. When I started the blog I had just had the cable cut off to save money, and did not have internet at home. I do have access at my office, but rarely felt inspired to post anything in that environment. I also struggled with what I wanted to write about here. I was afraid of saying too much because I wanted to keep the blog anonymous. I wanted to protect the anonymity of my son, Bean (not his real name). I eventually stopped reading other people's blogs because I felt a bit guilty about lurking on their personal photos and details, while not contributing similar information about myself. I wanted to educate people about wellness and a simplified ...

Recently my sweetheart and I had a conversation about lotteries. I told him that all I wanted was one million dollars. It's a ton of money for my purposes but really on the grand scheme of things it's not much. Think about it, all you have to spend is one cent and you're no longer a millionaire. Anyways, if I won a million dollars - which I wouldn't, because I don't buy tickets - I would spend it like this: $400 000 - one good piece of property to live and retire in. It doesn't even have to cost that much, but I would like to put aside a cushion for utilities and maintenance. $40 000 - pay off every last cent of my credit card debt and student loans $60 000 - take a trip around the world with my son and my sweetheart That's only half. The other half I would put into trust funds for charitable donations, maybe a bursary at my university, and of course savings for my future and Bean's too. It's really not that much but it's a fortune to me,...

My time is valuable. Isn't yours? I switched to a more part-time work position so that I would have time for my son. My job is great, my work hours are somewhat flexible. Not as flexible as work-at-home or freelance, but I don't have the skills for that. By working part-time I am able to spend more time with Bean in the morning - let's face it, we are dawdlers. Once I drop him off at daycare I meander to my office, unless I have a meeting scheduled which makes our morning hectic, but thankfully that is only once every month during the school year. Some days I leave work early so that I can go to the grocery store alone, or attend a self-help meeting (my version of "me time").  I know I can't handle the stress of "I want this! I want that!" so I rarely take Bean to the store with me. A couple of weeks ago though I was feeling rushed. It felt like a thousand degrees outside and I was hurrying through Price Chopper, getting the things we needed ...

I have three savings accounts with PCF. I allocated one as "Car Fund," where I would save up funds for gas, maintenance (oil changes) and repairs, and optimistically a six-month chunk for the insurance company, so that I could get out of paying month-to-month - adding another $100 to my monthly income. I just can't seem to keep more than $400 in that account, so I've deleted the tracking from my sidebar. Ideally I need at least $800 for my goal, more if I want to add snow tires to the roster. I'm thinking again of getting a part-time job. I'm a Telus customer, and I was thinking of putting my resume in to the store at the big mall. The main setback is that I have only weekends to work, but there are occasional weekends that Bean's dad does not take him. Also, if I make too much money my daycare subsidy decreases, increasing cost of daycare. This won't be an issue once Bean starts kindergarten in 2010. As well the student loan goons might not be as frie...