Debt Free Kid

Hello! Happy New Year! Happy Easter! Like usual, I've been updating my sidebars but not any actual content with this blog. Everything is still going swimmingly, as we just keep swimming, just keep swimming, further into middle age (me), adolescence (Bean) and adult kittyhood (Baxter and Link). Bean is turning eleven at the end of this month! I know! I started this blog when he was three - although you wouldn't know I've been at it for eight years judging by the sound of crickets around here. He is very much a "tween" with his headphones on and his jeans showing his ankles since his legs are growing out of them. I was very fortunate when he was little, since his great-aunt handed down all the clothes her grandson - two years older - outgrew. But for the past couple of years this source dried up, and luckily I now make a little bit more money than I did when we were younger. We found a pair of jeans that he loved at The Children's Place and would buy three...

Yesterday I posted about my recent experience purchasing - and using - travel insurance. The bank did not give me a policy number at the time of purchase, and the overseeing insurance company did not receive the paperwork in a timely manner because of the holiday on July 1st. Something that made me smirk during the whole ordeal, was that I did have a policy number for the cat. Yeah. A couple of days before we left, I called the number on his collar tag to make sure his microchip was programmed with our current address. During the call, the nice representative managed to sell me an annual pet insurance policy for $20. I thought it was a good idea, mostly because I had a student staying at our house while we were away, and I wanted to minimize the effects of any emergency our adventure-loving kitten might encounter out in the wild. So when the NY hospital asked me for the policy number for Bean's "broken" arm, I checked my phone and found the pet insurance policy number...

Bean and I drove to New York State at the end of June for what is now our annual retreat. I paid $600 for our spots (meals and accommodation) back in May. I anticipated spending about $200 US at the gift shop, though I'm pretty sure I went over that because I brought a credit card with me. I knew from the year before that filling up the car usually meant pre-paying with cash, so two days before our departure I went to a bank branch to buy $100 US cash. It was a Saturday and there was a big line but I waited patiently and read all the ads on the screens behind the tellers heads. This bank already holds my mortgage, car loan, and two of four of my student loans, so they didn't advertise anything of interest to me. When I was waiting for the teller to process my request, I noticed a piece of paper taped to the counter that said "travel insurance." I asked the teller if my VISA included travel insurance, and was told no. So, I asked how much insurance would be for Bean ...

I had to re-do my budget after my relationship ended and I bought a house last October. Since then I was trying to live on just my employment income and child support. I had the child tax credit and other government incentives deposited into a separate account that I haven't used in years, one that charges me $1.25 per transaction, which for me is a good spending deterrent. My intention is to save the money until November 2015 and then decide whether to put it towards a student loan, the car loan, or spend a bit on the house. I would really like to buy a dishwasher, paint the bedrooms, and start renovating the bathroom. I have to be careful with house spending though, because in five to seven years I will have to replace the roof and maybe one or more of the appliances. Our collective agreement expires June 30, and hopefully by this November we will have a new contract negotiated. If we decide to strike, then the savings account will be my personal strike fund, as the union...

I might have mentioned 100 or so times on here that I get paid only once a month. I've been working at the same institution since 2002, so I'm over it. We get paid on the 28th, but if the 28th falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then we get paid on the Friday before. The days leading up to payday are full of anticipation for me, because I look forward to seeing the amount go into my chequing account, and I love removing bits and bobs of it into my various savings accounts. Then I calculate what bills are going to be removed electronically and leave that amount in chequing, while the amount of bills that I pay manually later in the month goes into a savings account. I usually have less than $200 on the credit card that I pay before the due date. This past weekend I knew I would leave extra in the chequing, because the kid would be home and we had lots of plans. Friday morning, I didn't receive an email about the deposit, and I logged into my account about a half dozen times, ...

What would I do if I didn't have to work? Near the end of my previous relationship, I was trying to make a case for early retirement (aka "financial independence.") Partner (ex) couldn't imagine not working his 45-hour-a-week job for the next 35 years and also could not imagine what he would do with all that time off. The only thing I could think of at the time was "travel!" but we knew if that were to become a reality we would have to have much much better finances. So, now I'm on my own, and I'm still planning my early retirement. Even though my collective agreement tells me that I can't access my pension until the first day of the first month following my 60th birthday, I hope to be finished working by 55, which is now 15 years from now. Ten years more of work would be even better. What would I do if I didn't have to work? - set my alarm for 7:30 am and get up around 8:00 - see my son off to school - practice yoga for two hours ...

Re-blogged from Fifty Weeks : In heaven the beer is Belgian. The bread and cheese are French and the beaches are Brazilian. The waves are from Australia and the landscape from New Zealand. All the prices are Cambodian. In heaven the soup is Vietnamese but the goulash is Hungarian. The city squares are Czech and the meadows are Irish. The bars are Irish too, but you don’t need to go to heaven to find an Irish bar. In heaven the wine is Italian and the mountains are Nepalese. Dinner is Indian and lunch is Thai. Breakfast is Spanish and served just before going to bed. Whatever the meal, the steak is from Argentina. The nights are short in heaven because the days are Swedish and it’s always July. The trains are German and always on time. The drug laws are Dutch. In heaven the sun is Greek and the rivers Lao. The golf courses are Scottish. The composers are Austrian and the school children are Korean; I didn’t spend long enough in either country to nominate anyone else.

I have mentioned here before that in 2005 I spent two months in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I don't have any more big trips on my radar for a while. I might have to wait until my son is an adult, or maybe we will go somewhere together. In the meantime, I will have to satisfy myself with the adventures of others. Are you planning a big trip in the near future? If so, you might want to check out Tyler Tervooren's (Advanced Riskology) free e-book Instant Adventure . Seriously, Karissa

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 budget is in place (in Excel anyways) and so far it looks pretty good. I'm saving an average of $350 in rent and bills thanks to the smart decision to move to the apartment. I have also canceled my internet cable (hello to the kind person who is currently supplying the wireless network, when I find out who you are I will make you some banana bread), which saves me another $35 a month. My Emergency Fund is almost complete and I have made arrangements to "pay myself first" by deducting 10% of my gross pay each month and transferring it to an ING-type account. The transfer is made only once a month because, well, have I ever mentioned that I get paid only once a month? Yeah. I have my $20 a week set aside for personal spending, and 20% of that goes to my version of titheing: $2 to my self-help group and another $2 to the offering plate at the UU church. I aim to be able to offer more to each once my savings account is established and I can skim a percentage from that acco...