One time I was at a memorial park, and my kids climbed onto a swag, chain fence with heavy, decorative, cast iron posts. The force of their weight made the weakly-anchored, heavy post fall over and NEARLY crushed the sibling’s foot! I was horrified at the near-accident, but more horrified that if could happen again with less lucky results. So we went home and called the park’s maintenance…. I just wanted to make sure it was repaired, but you would have thought that I was calling to sue them!!! Obviously they are used to people raging and fuming about simple “preventable” accidents. They were very defensive right off the bat, and I felt bad at the state of the world. I told them repeatedly that I understood that chain was a passive, decorative feature, NOT playground equipment, I was just letting them know (in case they didn’t) that it may have been broken! Hey, I did not expect it to fall over, but I was not angry that it did.
There are already too many safety restrictions and warning signs and big chain link fences around stuff around here, all to over-compensate for a lack of common sense and a lack of willingness to be accountable!

Small rant slightly off topic.

But to tie it in, I think it has become a HABIT in our society that is very hard to break that we expect everything to be taken care of, and we expect our safety (financial or personal) to be regulated so we can’t be hurt. We expect “someone to pay” if somebody gets hurt or was “tricked” into something.

(No use blaming society or lawyers, that’s not taking accountability for the situation either!)

Let’s try some independent thought here… if something is not what you expect, how can you make it better through your OWN actions… try it…

In regards to todays blog – my husband and I are pretty good at staying on track with the money. Recently, we have been considering buying an RV as tent camping is getting a little tiresome. The expense of it (not just RV but insurance and gas and …) is just too much for what we would get out of it. Our bathroom being remodeled is much more worth it – it is something we will use 365 days a year.

The RV would be a much sooner reward – but the bathroom will have a longer and more present impact – we will keep saving for the bathroom.

It is hard these days not to want the instant gratification of new toys – when it seems everyone else has new toys – but I wouldn’t want their new toy debt – we need to keep pressing on.

Have a good vacation Gail – I will miss reading your blog next week.

As a coach, I encourage my clients to connect with the big vision they have for themselves, whether that be to create more space in their lives for adventure, building a nonprofit organization, being self employed, etc. For example, someone who says “I want to be free to do x” – What does that mean to you, what would living this way feel like? What values are you honouring? By connecting what is important to us to our future plans, we’re likely to make and stick to a commitment to our big vision. Change happens when we’re committed and connected to the change. Sadly, as many of us have experienced, when we don’t connect, we fall back into our old habits and rack up more debt trying to buy things that add no real meaning to our lives.

I know am fully committed to the vision of sitting at a garden patio, somewhere in Italy next September, enjoying a coffee and pastry at dusk. I am willing to follow through with the financial behaviour and life choices to make this happen. I can already feel the sunshine on my face.

Of the 10% of your income that is dedicated towards savings, how much goes to RRSPs, how much to emerg fund, how much to RESPs etc? What’s your split?

I curious what others are doing.

Thanks

I think it’s helpful to have a plan for how to get back on track when you go off the rails, and to make it part of your plan from the start. “Make sure your budget contains some money for entertainment,” I’ve heard you advocate. Make sure there is some mad money. Follow the 80/20 rule when trying to lose weight–80% of the time eat as you know you should, but cut yourself some slack the other 20%. Build in days off when starting an exercise program. It’s not about never falling–it’s about picking yourself back up again every time you do.

My biggest mistake I’ve made while budgeting is deprivation for the small but fun things. Like going to the movies once in a while or going out for an ice cream. So I need to build the fun money back in to the budget.

I realize that no one can change anything but me, so I’m off to pull my head out of the sand again and start over, while trying to figure out how to pay that 3000 off fast..