by Chris | Jan 26, 2016 | Money Meditations
I’ve been thinking a lot about exchange rates this week. This declining dollar isn’t great for most Canadians, especially those of us who have to travel south of the border (or to any country, really) for work.
But there are advantages.
Having a low dollar brings lots of Americans up to the land of the polar bears. It’s good for tourism. It’s great for the film industry (especially in Vancouver and Toronto).
So what should you be thinking about as a freelancer? Is the poor dollar a bad thing, or an opportunity?
I really don’t know what the answer is, but in my discussions with various people, both on the finance and freelance spectrums, a few questions came up that I really wanted to put out in the world. (more…)
by Chris | Nov 14, 2015 | Money Meditations
I love the thrill of having a great idea. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere, just appears in my head and makes me burst out laughing. Other times I can feel it coming on for days, but every time I try to grab on to it, it slips in to the shadows…. Until finally I look over my shoulder and it’s there… ready to greet me.
It’s seriously one of the best feelings, and one those of us in the creative fields actively try to nurture. We are trying to be creative on demand after all, and it’s a lot easier when you have a steady flow of ‘great ideas’.
But you know what’s the absolute worst? That moment after the great idea. Sometimes it’s instantaneous, and sometimes it waits for the next day as you’re re reading what you wrote, or listening back to a lesson.
That moment when a voice pipes up in your head and says “that’s so dumb. How did you ever think that was good? Not only is that idea dumb, but you’re soooo dumb for thinking of it, and then thinking it wasn’t dumb. DUMMMMMMMBBBBBB!” (more…)
by Chris | Oct 27, 2015 | Money Meditations
Ladies and gentleman… today is the greatest day of the year… I know we’ve had some great ones so far, but this one trumps them all.
It’s the opening of the NBA season. That’s right, basketball is BACK!!!
Now, I’m a huge basketball fan, but I’m an absolutely terrible basketball player. I can’t do anything.
So I pour all of my energy into being a fan. And because I’ve been absorbing all the pre-season podcasts and ‘crazy prediction’ posts, my brain has melded basketball in with all my personal finance thinking and created a truly ungodly metaphor.
Personal finance as the good old game of basketball…
And honestly, it’s less of a stretch that you might think (so bear with me).
There are two ways you can win a basketball game… by your offence or by your defence (there’s technically a third way, but it has to do with being Lebron James… so for most of us that’s probably not a realistic goal).
And on the financial side of the metaphor there are two ways you can win your money battle and finally fix those finances: earn more… or spend less.
So what kind of a money player are you? (more…)
by Chris | Oct 25, 2015 | Money Meditations
Okay. Confession time.
I don’t want to be rich.
I have no interest in it, and here’s the thing… I don’t think most of you want to be rich either.
I think that if you really wanted to be rich you’d be doing a lot of things differently. You might have gotten a different kind of education (not that general/science degree, or the opera school diploma that I’m rocking). You might also think a little less about how much you’d like to SPEND a million dollars, and might be taking more time to try and actually SAVE a million dollars.
Honestly, I think if you really thought about it, you’d have to admit that most of the things you do aren’t really helping you “get rich”.
That’s okay… I’ve come to terms with that fact for myself.
What I really want is to have the freedom to live one of those… what are they called… lives that fulfill me.
“Wait…” you might say “but wouldn’t money help a whole ton with that whole ‘freedom’ thing? Isn’t that the whole Findependance (financial independence) thing that the internets keep talking about?”
Excellent point, faceless stranger. Yup, and I’m going to need some sweet bucks to get there, but money is just the tool… it’s not the goal. And when I realized that, it kind of changed the whole game. (more…)
by Chris | Oct 18, 2015 | Money Meditations
I have recently become absolutely obsessed with Bill Watterson’s (the Calvin and Hobbes guy) commencement address to Kenyon college in 1990 (proving yet again that I am hopelessly behind the times).
He titles it ‘Some thoughts on the real world from one who glimpsed it and fled”.
He is officially my new favourite person (#apologiestomylifepartner).
I’ve been reading it every morning, because it reminds me of a few things that I so often forget.
It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done for ourselves.
It seemed the more artistic training that I got… the less I made things for fun. The more I worked, the less I thought about the kind of art that I actually wanted to make.
Doesn’t that seem a little backwards?
It blows me away when I fall into a project that I’m doing just for the pure joy of it. The minutes become hours, and before I know it I’ve missed three meals and I can’t wipe the grin off my face.
Seems like there should be a lesson in there somewhere….
If there's one thing I've learned from being a cartoonist, it's how important playing is to creativity and happiness.
Being creative for a living can get a bit tricky, because a certain amount of ‘play’ is really really helpful for the quality of your work. Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s really important for my work. It’s so hard for me to ‘give myself a break’ to stretch my brain in other ways… but every time I do, it pays off hugely.
Selling out is usually more of a matter of buying in.
I love this. It wraps it all up in a big package. Selling out doesn’t have any specific guidelines… it simply means buying in to someone else’s idea of what’s important.
It can be so easy to get sucked into other people’s ideas of ‘success’ or ‘happiness’… but then you’re selling out your own.
Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it afford him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential - as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
How amazing is the quote. Seriously?
I know it's a big block of text, but if you skipped it... go back and read it again.
I try to read it every week. It is one of the fundamental principles that I live my life by.
To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.
Something about that sentence got me quite teary the first time I read it.
I think it’s the permission that it gives. The permission to try to figure out what you want to make your life about. What you want to invest your resources in, and what return you’re looking for on that investment.
The dollars and sense of it all
What does it have to do with money? Well… everything.
This is why personal finance jumped from being an ideal curiosity of mine to a full blown passion.
It’s not about more, it’s not about excess (unless that’s what you want), it’s about building a life according to your own definitions. It’s about not “buying in” to the narrative around you. It’s about being the main character in your own story.
Money is one of the tools that you can use to build that life, but it doesn’t just happen. It’s hard to ‘invent your own life’s meaning’. It means swimming upstream when everyone else is swimming down.
You need a plan. A firm idea of what it is you’re trying to build, and after that… a whole ton of discipline to make sure that your daily resources are going exactly where they need to, where you want them to.
But how will you pay the bills?
All that flowery talk is nice, but what about the real world?… what about getting through every day?… how will you pay the bills?
That’s the thing… it doesn’t matter.
It does matter that you pay them… seriously… bills gotta get paid. But it doesn’t matter how. You can market yourself as an artist, or you can take a job that may seem ‘undemanding’ because it “affords you the time to fulfill other interests and activities”.
Your life doesn’t have to be about how you make money. The source doesn’t have to matter (although you do need to make some).
What your life could be about is just how you choose to spend that money.
Making a home for your family. Building a business you love. Traveling the world. Playing. Working.
It's allowed.
Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?
Financial Planner/Opera Singer
Money never came naturally to me. In fact... I was a bit of a disaster. I remember (very clearly) what it feels like to be 'financially out of control'.
And honestly, I still get stressed about money... that doesn't stop... the difference is that now I have the tools to deal with that stress.
And those tools are what's made it possible for me to build a life full of the things I want: art, creativity, travel, family and more.
If you want to start getting control of your money I'd love to help. You can start with THIS QUIZ, visiting my GETTING STARTED PAGE or by checking out my SERVICES page.
by Chris | Sep 11, 2015 | Money Meditations
I have a lot of stuff.
I don’t know how it happens. I move a lot. I don’t have a ton of money. I honestly don’t really buy stuff anymore… but I still have a whole ton of it.
And it all feels pretty necessary. For one reason or another, whether it’s an emotional reminder, or a physical ‘necessity’, it’s hard to imagine living without the avalanche of stuff that I’ve surrounded myself with.
That’s where minimalism comes in. Lots of people these days, especially in the personal finance sphere, are going through the exercise of paring down.. trying to figure out what they really need, cutting the ‘fat’ out of their chaotic lives.
It’s a nice thought: maybe I could live with just 50 things! But I think it’s a bit like trying to have a ‘small’ wedding. Once you actually start writing things down on a list … it becomes real big… real fast.
So the extent of my minimalism has been reading blogs and articles about minimalism. Which, as you might be able to guess, isn’t quite the same as actually following through…
Sound familiar? Well… for any of you who might be in a similar situation may I recommend… (more…)
