Risk proof your life they said…
It’ll be great they said…
If things go wrong you’ll be peach keen financially they said…
The problem is sometimes something goes wrong, and other times lots of things go wrong… all at once… right before Christmas.
This has been my last few weeks. (more…)
2015 was another year in which I tried to do way more than I had the money to actually afford.
I attempted to fix a decade’s worth of dental neglect, invested in education, started an online business, all while trying to run and grow my opera career.
Generally when you’re spending a ton, and not making a ton, it’s not a formula that leads to happiness… unless you love to be in debt. But I’ve managed to end another year without any debt on the books (by the hair of my teeth… thanks, surprise root canal).
So, how’d I do it? Well, I shaved off money where ever I could, and put it where it would do the most good (or at least where I hoped it would do the most good).. and I want to share 6 of my favourites with you (aren’t you lucky?).
A lot of these might not be perfect fits for your life, and that’s fine. When it comes to saving money or cutting expenses you’ve got to find the areas you don’t mind cutting in, and that’s going to be different for everyone.
What I will say is that in most of these cases I found that the benefits of cutting back weren’t just in saving money, and that’s probably why I stuck to them throughout the year.. because it doesn’t matter how good the savings idea is… you actually have to do it.
These are the ones that worked for me! (more…)
I celebrated an anniversary two weeks ago… The anniversary of last year’s disastrous American thanksgiving, when a slightly sensitive tooth flared up into a full-blown infection leading to the first of what would be many dental procedures over the next 12 months.
You see, for the 10 years before that date I had been avoiding the dentist.
Some of my favourite excuses were:
I know there’s stuff that needs to be done, but I don’t have the money.
It doesn’t really hurt that badly.
I don’t really need my teeth… I can just live off of milkshakes… they’re good…
But the truth was, I was just pretty scared of the dentist. Ever since I was a little kid, I hated it there. The sounds, the smells, they just made my muscles tense up.
Plus…there was the money thing…
So it was an occasion worth celebrating when, a year after that first root canal, I was CAVITY FREE for the first time in years. I had bitten the bullet, gotten the work done… and doggone it… it was worth it.
Well done, past Chris, you’re finally growing up into an adult.
And the very next morning after my joyous anniversary I woke up with a terrible toothache… (more…)
So, apparently ‘Giving Tuesday’ is a thing now… I’m not sure when that started, but I will say that somehow it loses a little bit of its authenticity when it comes right after Black Friday and Cyber Monday (which I had also never heard of until this year).
Nonetheless, there was some pretty spectacular giving going on. I love how many great causes people were posting about. It was an amazing burst of positivity on my newsfeed. But I think we can all agree the winner has to be Mr. Facebook himself who pledged 99% of his Facebook shares to charity. Billions of dollars.
That’s a whole lot of giving.
It’s pretty easy as an artist living on less to not think about ‘giving’ all that often. In fact, in the arts, we often are the ones people are ‘giving’ to. And so, too often, the conversations artists have about charity and donations are about how people aren’t giving us enough.
I think it’s easy to become a little selfish when you’re having trouble making ends meet. At least, it’s easy for me. It’s easy to forget exactly how lucky I am, and how many things I have.
And it’s really easy to assume that because I can’t give billions of dollars away… the few dollars that I could afford couldn’t possibly matter. (more…)
In the personal finance sphere it seems like there’s no greater fate than being broke. NO MONEY??? That must be absolutely terrible, you must be doing everything wrong.
The thing is, having no money doesn’t mean you’re broken. In fact there are lots of people who don’t mind living with no money (and some of them are even… gasp… happy).
On the other hand, broke can also be a really shitty place to be. The stress, the sense of shame (whether it’s deserved or not), the desperation.
But that feeling is shitty not necessarily because you don’t have any money, it’s because you don’t have enough money to do what ever it is you want to do.
Recently, a friend posted a video of a guy who swore he had hit rock bottom. Things had gotten so low that he had to buy a Ford Focus.
Yikes. (more…)
I'm an opera-singing financial planner, and I want to help you start getting control over your money.
You can connect with me HERE or SUBSCRIBE to get access to my monthly OFFICE HOURS where I give away 30 minute money coachings for free.
Want to get control of your money, but don't know where to start?
Answer a few questions, and get a personalized 'next step' for you and your money.
