How I made a thousand dollars ‘on the internet’

by Chris | May 10, 2016 | Making Money

I haven’t been thinking much about making money these last two months.

But that doesn’t mean that I’ve abandoned my ‘turn R2R into a mega-income-making-machine’ plan (even though the ‘mega’ part of that has never really been the plan).

One of the big lessons that I learned during the first few months of trying out a few income methods was that I was most drawn to the idea of working with people one on one.

I’m less interested in making a product that helps thousands of people (although as I type that… it does sounds epically cool).

But I am fascinated by the challenge of helping someone figure out their own unique circumstance..

..how to help someone really connect to their money and turn it from a major stress to a major tool.

It might not sound as huge as it is, but knowing what kind of work I want to do is a MASSIVE piece of information in the process of building this business.

Turns out it’s hard to get what you want when you don’t actually know what you want….

….but it’s also a big indicator of how I want to be earning my income.

From realization … to laying the ground work (more…)

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Who’s buying homes in Canada – Infographic

by Chris | May 4, 2016 | Infographic, Real Estate

I don’t know if housing has always been a loaded conversation in Canada… but it sure seems to be right now.

The housing ‘discussion’ has gotten out of hand… with warring sides yelling their arguments at each other without ever increasing rage.

I find lots of things annoying about this discussion, but a few things rise to the top…

1. It’s not about Canada… it’s about Toronto and Vancouver… which really isn’t a Canadian conversation
It rarely captures what people are actually thinking… like the people that are actually buying the house (not the 100s of people commenting on it)

And so I was really happy to stumble across a survey that tossed some data at a few interesting questions (or at least tried to get some answers from real people):

What’s the most challenging part of buying a home?
Do you think buying a home/condo is a good investment?
Where is the money coming from?

Now, these results aren’t fresh off the boat, they’re from early 2016, but I think they’re still interesting.

For example: did you know that first time buyers looked at an average of 13 HOMES before buying their current home.

Cool right?

Now, I completely understand if this infographic doesn’t change how you feel about housing, but it’s colourful and I poke gentle fun at middle aged folks with a carefully crafted cartoon (calm down boomers we all know that you’ll live forever).

9 out of 10 people believe that buying a house/condo is a good investment

That’s a lot of people.

But what I found really interesting about these results is that when you break that information into generations… the number starts going down the younger you get.

89% of 45 - 54 year olds are on the good investment train… but only 76% of 18 - 24 year olds.

So maybe the housing bears are slowly winning this ‘discussion’ that we’re having… or maybe the big city markets have just broken the spirits of 14% of today’s youth.

At the very least it seems like the statement ‘buying a house/condo is a good investment’ is insanely situational.

Not only is it tied to region, it’s tied to personal situation and life goals and all that other fun stuff.

I find it hard to believe that buying a house/condo is a good investment for 90% of people, but maybe that’s my own bias showing.

(IF YOU WANT TO READ SURVEY RESULTS.... HERE'S THE LINK FOR THE ORIGINAL SURVEY.)

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Lindsay vs Her Debt: Part 3 – Breaking all the Rules

by Chris | May 3, 2016 | Artist 2 Artist, Debt

*The following is part 3 of a year-long series. If you want to start from the beginning, learn about who Lindsay is, and check out how much debt she started with… check out PART 1.

Hello again, friends! I can’t believe two whole months have gone by since I started. Time flies!

Today I wanted to talk a bit about my debt paying strategy, why personal finance is personal, and why I’m breaking the rules. I feel like a bit of a debt paying bandit!

Somewhere out there, Dave Ramsey just had a chill up his spine, but has no idea why…

Anyway! Let’s start from way back at the beginning, because to me it’s extremely important that if you ARE going to break rules, you need to know:

that you’re breaking them, and
why you’re breaking them.

Why I’m breaking the rules: (more…)

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6 reasons you still haven’t done your taxes

by Chris | May 2, 2016 | Taxes

I have been reading a really great book called “The Productivity Project”.. in an effort to be less of an organizational disaster.

It may not be ‘working’ yet… but I’m still really digging it, and I stumbled across something that I just had to share with you… especially those of you who haven’t managed to start their taxes yet… #nojudgement

It has to do with ‘procrastination’ … something that I’m really really good at. The author Chris Bailey (henceforth known as ‘other Chris’) talks about the 6 triggers of Procrastination.

In his research he stumbled across a study that stated that you’re more likely to procrastinate if the task at hand is one or more of these things: (more…)

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Freelancer Taxes: How to make your travel tax deductible

by Chris | Apr 30, 2016 | Taxes

*I am not a tax professional. This is meant to be an educational tool and NOT a recommendation. Each personal situation is different and there’s a lot of grey area in self-employed deductions. If you have questions (even just little ones) … talk to a tax expert.*

Travel is the one of the best parts of being an opera singer.

Sure, there are the weeks when it’s really not that fun… the non-descript hotel rooms, the 12th meal in a row at Applebees… but at the end of the day, I really like it.

And the only thing that makes it better is that all of that travel is tax-deductible!

Or is it? (more…)