My Financial Journey Archives - Rags to Reasonable

Money Lessons from my Oma’s Tomatoes…

Chris — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 12:30:33 +0000

I’ve been missing home lately… I always do in the summer/fall.

I grew up on the prairies, and there’s nothing like the prairies when everything is green and growing and producing tasty things.

Here in Toronto I don’t grow things. The few plants in my house are not thriving. I blame the light levels, but I think if they could talk they might mention my inconsistent watering habits.

Whenever I go home, one of the stops I make is my Oma’s garden. Oma is what I call my grandmother. She and my Opa continue to have an incredible garden, even though they’re well into their 80s.

They grow carrots, corn, potatoes, peas, flowers, beans, cucumbers and of course… tomatoes.

And those tomatoes… they surprise me every time.

You see… If you focus just on the plants… they look like the ones in my apartment: very few leaves, barely able to hold themselves up… not the picture of health.

But on every sick-looking branch …. there are bunches of fruit.

Honestly, they look like grape vines, there are so many tomatoes.

And no matter the look of the plants, my grandparents reap huge tomato crops almost every year.

The secret of tomatoes:

How? When I asked, I could see the twinkle in my Oma’s eyes.

"We cut them back. We cut all that extra growth, that way all the nutrients go right into making the fruit, instead of being spilt between the fruit and a bushy looking plant."

Turns out the point of growing a tomato plant is not to have the healthiest looking tomato plan, it’s to grow lots of really good tomatoes.

CUE METAPHOR

Cutting back in order to get more of what you want…

No one really likes cutting back.

Cutting back on tasty dessert, cutting back on Netflix, or cutting back on your spending all seem to be things you know you ‘should’ do… but will definitely suck.

And the spending one can be especially tricky because some of you might look at your spending and say… this all makes sense. I want all these things. They’re important to me.

But there are lots of reasons to cut back.

Sometimes you have to because you can’t afford your life, and sometimes it’s about trying to focus your ‘nutrients’ on growing fruit, instead of growing out the plant.

Sometimes cutting back is the gateway to getting more of what you want…

Your plant VS your fruit

In my mind there are two things that we spend money on:

• maintaining the life we have

• pushing our life forward

Other people might use the word ‘lifestyle’ expenses to describe maintaining your life. But it’s basically the cost of your life - your monthly and annual costs that you’ve pretty much already decided you’re going to spend.

Then we have the big stuff we want to do. It might be paying off our debt, taking an awesome trip, saving for later in your life, or investing in your business.

It pushes our lives forward.

I know that the second one sounds way more sexy, but you can’t spend your money on ‘extra’ stuff until your life costs are taken care of.

In a way, it’s like your plant and your fruit.

Your plant’s health is essential in the growing of your fruit… but… like we see in my Oma’s garden, sometimes too many resources put into your ‘plant’ can reduce the amount of fruit you can grow.

There are a limited amount of resources, and you have to decide where you want to put them.

How to grow bigger, better life tomatoes…

Is there some big life stuff that you really want to get done?

Maybe you need to think about cutting back. Not because you’re not allowed to have nice things, but because you want to use your nutrients differently.

And here’s where we can learn from Oma’s tomatoes again.

There are all kinds of preconceived notions we carry around about what we need to do to ‘create fruit’.

But maybe that’s not the case.

Maybe we can do way more with way less, and the only way you’re going to find out is by doubling down on some experiments.

How much can you cut back before the base health of your life suffers? Which are the right places to cut back, and which places are non-negotiable?

I can’t encourage you enough to start to play with these ideas.. AND don’t decided before you start what the non-negotiables are.

Everything is on the table.

Talk to people who live differently than you do. Talk to people who are older than you and are way ahead in terms of experimentation. Come talk to me, either during OFFICE HOURS or through EMAIL… I’ve got lots of stories of how creative people are figuring it out.

Don’t assume you know the best way to grow a tomato… because maybe you don’t.

I sure didn’t.

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Emily Nixon

Rags to Reasonable Community Outreach Coordinator

Emily Nixon is an actor/writer/director/filmmaking Swiss Army Knife. She is also a big money nerd and Community Outreach Coordinator for Rags to Reasonable.

She came to this work after becoming completely fed up with living paycheque-to-paycheque and being too afraid to look in her chequing account. She is passionate about empowering other artists and variable income earners to keep doing what they love and feel confident about their finances.

Email Emily at emily@ragstoreasonable.com

Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

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5 ways to talk yourself out of buying a 1.7 million dollar house

Chris — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 14:23:00 +0000

I had a lovely weekend.

It was one of those rare weekends when you close the computer, set the smartphone aside and have wonderful quality time with the people you love.

I won’t bore you with the details, but it was capped off by a great day of diner brunch and walking through the neighbourhood with my girlfriend, and after 3 coffee stops and the discovery of a new secret perogie den we walked into our first open house.

I’m sure you’ve done it.

It was in our neighbourhood, and we were curious.

We’re not actively looking for a home, but we’ve definitely played around in the insanity of the Toronto mortgage market (if you want to read that whole sage check out THE MORTGAGE FILES, it's in 7 parts, and it's ridiculous).

So we walked into the house, and it was exactly what you’d expect.

Newly renovated. Shiny new kitchen. Everything white. Nicely staged.

It looked exactly like all the houses on the reno shows.

And I didn’t want it at all. It was interesting to see, and it even had a legal basement apartment (which is rare in Toronto… not the basement apartment part, but the ‘legal’ part).

But we left, and I was fully righteous in my “I don’t have the urge at all to buy something like that” feelings. Which led to even more self-righteous “prices are crazy, who can afford these things” conversations.

Oh. The house that we saw was listed at $980,000.

It was “way too expensive” I said. It just “wasn’t worth it” I said.

And so we kept walking. And I kept railing on about real estate, and its role in a balanced investing portfolio... all the things that I picked up from reading PF blogs, and through my coursework.

All the right answers.

And then we saw it.

Another open house.

This one was huge. A detached brick house in a great neighbourhood.

“How much do you think that one's worth?” I asked my girlfriend.

“1.5” she guessed.

I guessed 1.2 (prices are in millions).

The answer was 1.7 million, and by the time we left that house I wanted it so much.

Love is blind (and also completely unaware of the consequences of a 25 year amortization)

It’s just one of those houses. Full of real character. Creaky in the right places. It was 3 stories, with so many bedrooms, and nooks, and interesting spaces. You don’t see a lot of houses like that. Amazing little details. It could be separated into two units, basement/main floor and the upper two floors, really easily. We would, of course, live on the upper two levels (because this was clearly happening). Sure there was no kitchen there right now, but the connections existed, and we would just live with a hot plate and a bar fridge until we could put the work in.

You know those moments when you can see exactly what your life would look like?… a flash into your future. That’s what I had, sitting in those empty rooms… imagining family, great food, a full life…

And as we walked away this is how the conversation went.

“Man… that’s the kind of house I could really see us living in.”
“I know. Too bad we don’t have 1.7 million dollars.”
“Right? For another lifetime…”
“Unless….”

Was it really that unaffordable?

Honestly, when numbers get big it’s hard to tell the difference between 980,000 and 1.7 million (I know it’s actually $720,000… but the mental difference… just be cool, ok?!).

Houses in Toronto cost so much money that you become immune to the crazy prices after a while.. and so in this case we started thinking… would it really be so impossible?

"You don’t find a property that you fall in love with very often, not like this, this is special…"

It was clear (in this rational delusion) that it would be hard. But we weren’t afraid of hard work. What if we could make it work? We could scrounge together some kind of downpayment, as long as we could afford the mortgage…. AND of course we would rent out the main floor which would bring in a bunch of income.

Was it crazy?

Why it was completely crazy

Look. Deep down we knew it was crazy.

But it’s amazing how, at the same time, I think we both had built up a tiny glimmer of hope. A hope that you grow in the secret place in your heart when you find something you really really want. It has nothing to do with the financial. It has nothing to do with reality.

It’s like that feeling you get as a kid when your parents say you can’t have a dog because it’s too much work… but you know that you would do any amount of work if you could have a dog. You’d feed it. You’d walk it every day. They wouldn’t even need to worry about it… you would do EVERYTHING.

The little kid that lives in my heart felt that way about this house.

Until a mortgage calculator broke my dreams.

*All images come from the crazy awesome mortgage calculators at RateHub. Whether you’re buying, or just want to play with some numbers you should check them out… they’ll give you a great idea of the real cost for a home.*

First fun piece of news… no 5% downpayment on this puppy. Nope. But I could pay 20%. Which you know… is only 339,800. Easily affordable for two average people….

Why not 5%? They changed the rules! You can learn all about it here!

Then after choosing the lowest possible rate (that I probably wouldn’t qualify for) I ended up with the wonderful monthly mortgage payment amount of $6,028.

Okay.

After rental income, even if we gouged the crap out of our tenants, we’d be responsible for over 3000 dollars a month. Possible… maybe…

Just need to find 300,000 dollar for a downpayment…and then BAM. Land transfer tax.

I guess I need 400,000.

It was at this point that I concocted an elaborate scheme to secretly pose as our current landlord, sell the house that we’re renting now, and use the money to live the dream that I now held above any other dream.

If we could just get that downpayment… then we could maybe afford this thing.

And then RateHub smashed my dreams again… I mean… educated my dreams out of me….

Property tax. Utilities. And that’s all before some kind of emergency fund… because in a big house like this… stuff is going to go wrong.

Plus, we’re not even talking about all the money that we’d need just to make it rentable, and livable for us.

But even though the dream was dead at this point, I’ll leave this out there as well - the mortgage fee that I was dreaming about maybe possible affording (#notevenmaybe)… was the one at the crazy low interest rate that exists right now… but also might not last.

So the good folks at RateHub gave me this tasty treat... a show of what the payment would be if rate went up.

12,352, eh? A month you say?

I’m not saying that I could almost live the entire year on that.

But I could.

And I have.

5 ways to talk yourself out of buying a 1.7 million dollar house

I know you want it. I want it too.

But maybe you shouldn’t get it.

Why?

Number 1: You can’t afford the downpayment

It’s the first thing that people look at. Sometimes I feel like it’s the only thing that people look at…

The downpayment is big, but it’s also more than just the 5/10/20 percent that you’re putting on the house. There are closing costs, and land transfer tax. There’s the cost of renovating, and the costs of setting up an emergency fund.

You’ll probably need a lot more than you think you do. Talk to people who have bought, ask them what the surprises were, and plan ahead.

Don’t just talk to the bank.

Banks are made up of a whole bunch of nice folks, but they don’t always have your best interests in mind. Find someone you trust, and ask a whole lot of questions so you know exactly how much you need to have up front.

Number 2: You can’t afford the monthly payment

When you go to a regular mortgage calculator and type in your downpayment and the cost of the house… it spits out a monthly payment.

And it might look super affordable.

But usually it’s leaving a whole bunch of things out.

The monthly cost of a home is so much more than just a mortgage payment. It’s insurance, and maintenance, and utilities. RateHub's calculators can give you a better idea of what to expect, but here’s another situation in which talking to people who own houses can be a great idea.

It doesn’t matter if you can afford the downpayment. It’s the monthly payment that you have to worry about… for the next 25 years.

Make sure you can afford it. And make sure you can afford it with wiggle room, because like we talked about above… interest rates can change…

Number 3: You don’t want your entire savings sunk into one thing

When smart people talk about investing they talk a lot about ‘diversity’.

Basically, it boils down to… if you have all your money in one kind of thing, and that thing loses value… all your money is gone. BUT if you have your money spread around in a few areas, then even if one is doing badly the other ones might be doing okay.

Putting all your money in one kind of investment, like a house… is risky.

I know lots of people (boomers) like to talk about how their house was the best investment they ever made, and that’s great for them. A lot of people bought cheap houses, and they gained a lot of value. But that doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

Having all your money in one kind of asset is a big risk. It might pay off, it might not pay off.

Do you want to take that risk?

Number 4: You don’t want to lose the flexibility

If you’re really rich, you don’t have to worry about flexibility, but if you’re really rich, why are you reading this article?… not a judgement, just a question.

For the rest of us, we need to think about the fact that even if you can afford the downpayment, and the monthly payment, and want to take on the risk…. there’s a good chance that this house is going to take a huge percentage of your resources to maintain.

Time and money.

It’s like when you’re a kid and you want something really big for your birthday, and your parents say that it’s too much… but you say it will count as your next 5 birthdays, and Christmas presents.

It’s great when you get that big present, but come Christmas.. It kind of sucks. And then the next Christmas … it’s worse.

Are you willing to give up the other luxuries that money/time could go to? Things like vacations. Fun toys. Or just the peace of mind that having some extra cash sitting around gives you.

When you take on a huge asset, like a wonderful house, you’re probably going to take a hit in the flexibility department.

Something they talk about a lot in investing is opportunity cost. Whenever you invest in something, you lose the opportunity to spend that money on something else. What you need to figure out is whether the loss of that opportunity is worth it.

Is it?

Number 5: You don’t want to worry about all the things that could go wrong

The bigger the house, the more things that can go wrong. People don’t talk about their big old houses as money pits because it’s a romantic turn of phrase…

They really can be.

If reno shows have taught us anything it’s that nightmares live behind the walls: electrical problems, plumbing problems, mold problems.

Owning a giant asset like a giant house can be really stressful, and it’s not for everyone.

I know we like to talk about home ownership like it’s everyone’s dream, but I really don’t think it is. More and more people are renting. More and more people are finding other ways to spend and invest their money.

Sometimes it’s about a better return on investment, and sometimes it’s because the idea of homeownership just isn’t worth the trouble.

I rent, and when something goes wrong… I send an email to my landlord.

Which is pretty awesome.

Does the idea of being on the hook for everything that could go wrong stress you out, or fill you with the excitement and gravitas of a young elk?

Should you buy a big, expensive, beautiful house?

I don’t know.

I shouldn’t. That’s abundantly clear.

At least not right now.

There are so many opinions out there on what you should be doing with your money. I tell you, if I had the money for a house like that, and the income to support it… man … it would be a tough call.

Because I really loved it.

And that’s a great reason to buy a home. Except also… I couldn’t afford the downpayment, or the monthly costs, nor was I willing to take on the risk, and I love my flexibility…

So turns out, for me, this was more of a ‘catch and release’ situation…

What about you? How do you talk yourself out of making crazy, insane financial decisions? Would you try to buy it (if you had the money)? Remember… it’s super beautiful…. 🙂

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Chris Enns

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.

The post 5 ways to talk yourself out of buying a 1.7 million dollar house appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

How I made my first dollar on the internet

Chris — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 16:35:09 +0000

A dollar buys you nothing.

Well… a dollar can buy you some things… in fact there’s a whole menu of choices at your nearest Taco Bell.

But I think we can all agree that a dollar isn’t really anything to write home about.

Whether it’s a lot of money or not… I have to say that making my first dollar online felt like a real accomplishment.

How did I do it?

In late January I wrote a post about “how you make money on the internet’. In it I sketched out my plan to finally turn this site from a time consuming hobby into something that resembled a business (or so I hoped).

Step one was to earn my first dollar.

One dollar. That’s not hard, right?

You might think that the distance between 0 and 1 is just … 1. But that’s real math, and has nothing to do with the mental difference between making no income, and making some income. The difference between 0 and 1 is an impossible chasm.

It wasn’t hard to find something that I thought I could sell for a dollar. I had put together a debt workbook for some of the workshops I run … and figured that was worth at least a dollar!

But how do I take a physical object that I made and transfer it to someone else over the internet after taking their money…?

Action is worth more than the ‘perfect solution’

At a conference last fall I heard a line that’s really stuck with me…

“If you’re 75% sure that you’ve got the right answer… just do it. Sometimes the right decision is that one you make RIGHT NOW.”

So if you’re wondering how I ended up choosing the service GUMROAD to sell my workbook, the answer will most likely be unsatisfying.

I had heard of it. It ended up being insanely easy to use. And it cut down on the excuses my brain was trying to throw at me:

“Is this the best way? Whoa, those fees look a little high… you should just keep looking to see if there’s something better… you don’t want to look dumb, do you?”

The act of making my first dollar was much more a mental exercise than a real financial plan. I didn’t give much thought to scalability or market positioning…

I thought about how to change my mental stance about this site. I thought about how to finally admit publicly that I wanted to make money, to make a business… and how I wanted to offer something that I hoped people who find useful (or at least useful enough to spend a dollar on).

The cost of making money:

Gumroad charges a 5% processing fee, which seemed totally fair to me… especially at that point.. the point at which I didn’t even know where to begin. They were offering to do all the heavy lifting by providing safe, secure transactions as well as hosting for my workbook.

The thing that nailed me, though (at least in terms of my ‘1 dollar offer’), is that they also charged 25 cents a transaction.

So for every dollar that I ‘made’ … I was actually only taking home 70 cents.

Yay?

The 25 cent transaction fee will hurt less when the price of something I’m selling is higher, since it’s not a percentage, but it stung a bit to realize that even when my first sale came through (it was from my girlfriend… she’s very sweet) I hadn’t yet made it to my very humble goal.

The final numbers:

In the flagging days of January, I did manage to sell a few copies of my workbook. The first few that went out were to family and friends (which is always so appreciated, and also… a little bitter sweet).

The real joy was when subscribers and strangers bought in (and then sent very nice comments about how it was worth more than a dollar… which it will be soon… so if you want the DEBT DOLLAR DEAL… buy now!!…. And if you’re reading this later… sorry you missed it).

So in four days (the four final days of January) this is how it turned out:

Copies sold: 17 workbooks
Total fees: 5.1 dollars
Profit: 11.9 dollars

I don’t know what I expected, so I can’t tell you if I feel great about that, or disappointed. All I know is that I successfully made my first dollar on the internet…

and that’s pretty damn cool.

Don’t miss next month’s instalment to see how I managed in February when I try to double the stakes…. TWO dollars. Doesn’t seem hard… but I still don’t know how I’m going to do it (and February is already half over… yikes).

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Why community is your most important asset (and how to build one for free)

Chris — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 13:51:46 +0000

I haven’t had a lot of jobs in my life, but the ones I’ve had have been in very different fields:

Farmer. Opera singer. Personal finance blogger.

I’m not sure if there are any 3 businesses out there that are more different (#gauntletthrown), but one thing I’ve learned from all of them is the importance of community.

Community is one of those words that gets tossed around a lot in business. Sometimes people call it their network, or their contacts. People born before 1970 refer vaguely to a Rolodex… but what most people will agree on is that, no matter what you call it, there is little that is more valuable to your business than the connections you make, the people you meet, and the ‘community’ you can draw support from.

But it can turn out to be a real hurdle for small businesses. How to you build that support system? How do you create a network? How do you make contacts in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re just trying to ‘get something from them’?

It’s something I’ve really struggled with, both as as artist and on the blog.

So today, we’re going to talk about why a network is so important, the myth of the self-made man (person), and a few ways that you can build a killer network/community/contact list for free.

Why a community is essential for business (and also life):

Farming, opera singing, and blogging. That’s my resume.

Yikes.

While it doesn’t really qualify me to work a serving job at Applebees, it does qualify me to talk about community. In those three worlds I have learned some specific lessons about community that I’ll never forget.

Some of these lessons are about the ‘business network’ side of community, and some of them are about the ‘support’ side of community… but I believe that both sides of the coin help build a successful infrastructure for business.

Lessons from the farm

I grew up on a small farm in Southern Manitoba (right in the middle of Canada for those of you who have no idea), which is worlds away from way I live now in the ole city of Toronto.

On the surface, everything about where we lived was more isolated than in the city where I live now. Instead of being a few feet away from my neighbour, we were miles away. The closest town had 2 streets and boasted a church, and… that’s basically it.

The crazy thing is that I talked to more people in a day on the farm, than I do most days in Toronto.

People would constantly be driving onto our yard. Neighbours wanting to talk about the weather. Sales people wanting to chat about seed or chemical prices. There was never a shortage of people.

That’s where I learned my first few lessons about community:

Lesson number 1: When times are tough community is NOT optional

Why are rural communities so tightly knit? Well… I have a theory. When farmers first settled the bald prairie, life was hard. Really hard.

A bit of bad weather could wipe out your crop. A disease could take away the livestock you depended on for food.

Alone, farmers were vulnerable, but together they were stronger… together they could make it through those 6 month winters and, even after the worst of years, try again.

And still now, while farmers are way more independent than they used to be, you see the collective-good attitude in action every year. When someone’s machinery breaks right at the peak of harvest… there will be a handful of neighbours who take time away from their own work and finish that farmer’s field… no questions asked.

They learned that they needed each other. It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.

I don’t live on the bald prairie, but I do live among a generation of people who are having a hard time making it on their own. It’s hard to find work, hard to pay down student debt, hard to actually build any real kind of wealth.

In our post modern independent mindset, community can feel like a weakness.. Like a crutch… but I learned from the farm that you can accomplish things together that you couldn’t dream of doing alone.

Lesson #2: Even when it’s all about business… it doesn’t have to be about business

I was reminded about this just this last Christmas.

A salesperson stopped by my dad’s farm a few weeks into December. It’s a slow time for farmers, and she just wanted to touch base and deliver a gift from the company.

They sat there for an hour and chatted over coffee.

Never once did they talk business.

They talked about the community, they talked about restaurants, and family.

And when she walked away, even though I have no need to buy fuel in bulk, I knew that if I ever needed to… I would call her first.

It’s not always about selling, it’s just about connecting. Real connection is what builds a network.

Lessons from the world of opera:

“It’s not what you can do… it’s who you know.“

How often have I heard that in a opera ‘business’ class?

At first I took that to mean conductors, directors, and wealthy patrons… basically anyone that could possibly have hired me or influenced the person hiring me. But over time I’ve realized that my opera network/community is soo much more than that.

Lesson #3: Your network is (potentially) everyone… not just the people that can do something for you right now

This has been a huge thing to learn (and then forget, and learn again).

It’s easy to focus on building a professional community. One that will help you grow your business.

But I found that my community had to be so much more than that. It was everyone: colleagues that I worked with, the people backstage on gigs I did, the admin staff at companies, and OF COURSE the audiences that come to the show.

On the one hand, I’ve gotten more work from colleagues recommending me for gigs than I ever did from cold auditions, and I’ve also been exposed to great projects by audience members I’ve met who suggested companies that I’d never heard of before. But that’s just the business side of things.

The true worth of my network so far has been the dozens of couches that I’ve stayed on. The seemingly hundreds of meals that have been made for me by friendly patrons, and colleagues. The support sent by email and text, or delivered in person that gets you through the thousand moments when this business is really hard. It’s the worldwide network of artists that I’ve met, so that whenever I’m in a city (anywhere in the world) there’s someone to call… for a beer, or a word of advice…

It’s worth more than any ‘one job’ could possibly pay.

It’s easy to get blinded by who can help you get to the next level professionally, but that can cause you to miss out on building a real community/network that doesn’t just pay out ‘right now’, but continues to support you for years to come.

Lesson #4: Learning how to give generously…. And how to receive generously

I’ve talked a lot what you can ‘get’ from a community.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through opera is how to ‘give back’ to a community, and how important that is.

Almost everything about the life of an opera singer is variable… and so sometimes you can afford to give, and sometimes you can’t.

The benefit of my community is that when I’ve needed help, someone has always been willing to give it. And so when I can afford to give: a room, a meal, or a bit of support… it’s my job to give it right back.

Some people will feel more comfortable with giving, and some with taking… but it’s been my challenge to get used to both sides of the coin: to accept that I am not a failure for accepting help, and to embrace the opportunities when I have enough to help someone else.

A community is sustained by giving into it AND taking from it. It’s that give and take that keeps it balanced.

Lessons from the blogosphere

When I jumped into blogging I had no idea what I was doing (there’s a very good chance I still don’t know).

I was under the delusion… even though everything I read told me otherwise, that just by writing good stuff … the magic lords of Google would bring me a hand-delivered perfect audience.

Nope.

I was, for the first time, tasked with figuring out how to build a community from scratch. Not just how to function in an already well-established one like in farming and the arts.

It’s one of the things that made me think really hard about the lessons I’ve already talked about, and also made me learn a few new ones.

Lesson #5: Connecting with people isn’t about saying the ‘right things’, it’s about authenticity

I know that a ton of people swear by the ‘fake it till you make it’ mantra… but it’s never worked for me.

I think that people can smell ‘faking it’ a mile away.

People don’t want to hear you tell them sweet little lies… they want an authentic connection.

What does that mean? Just be you.

For me that meant not being afraid of showing my inexperience, but it also gave me permission to show my completely dorky passion, and my very real desire to help people figure out their money.

It also taught me that being authentic means that when you stop worrying about saying the ‘right things’, some people leave…. because authenticity gives people a clear choice:

Do I like this, or not?

Authentic connection means that you won’t connect with everyone, but the ones that you do connect with will be real contacts, real resources, and real sources of support.

Lesson #6: The best thing to ask somebody for (when you don’t know them at all) is nothing

It’s tempting to want to cold email every blogger and internet guru on the internet and say:

“I’ve got an amazing site with killer content and you should tell EVERYONE about it…. Also… buy my e-book… and can I guest post on your site?”

I’ve written a few forms of that email.

I thought that’s what I was ‘supposed’ to do.

But lately I’ve started writing another kind of email. When I find someone that I really want to connect with… I’ll send them a note that simply explains how I found them, why I really like their work, and introduces myself.

That’s it.

Because they don’t know me… and I don’t know them. We don’t have a relationship… and I’m not going to start things out by asking them for a favour.

For me, it just does’t feel natural.

The crazy thing is that I’ve gotten a way better response from these emails than I have using the first style. I’ve really connected with people, and slowly built relationships that resulted in a bunch of really cool opportunities – things I wouldn’t have ever thought to ask for.

Take it slow. Community/network/contacts are built on relationships. Relationships take time.

Why community is essential:

So that’s a weird jumble of lessons for you. What are you supposed to take from that?

Well, you may have noticed that no matter where I learned them… the lessons are basically the same…

You can’t do it alone (no matter what ‘it’ is)
Community is built on real people talking to real people (not people saying the ‘right things’ or working ‘their agenda’)

Community is a huge, multi-faceted thing, but it’s the thing that’s sustained me over the long haul.

The myth of the self-made person

I love to think of myself as a self-made man.

Someone who worked hard for everything I got. Who didn’t get any of the breaks that other people had. Someone who deserves everything he’s achieved.

But that’s soo not true.

I’ve needed people, and so do you.

On the farm I needed a community to support my family if (read: when) something went wrong, also to keep me sane in the long Manitoba winters.
In the arts I’ve needed a community to help me grow my career, by giving me connections, places to stay, and the support to keep going.
On the blog I’ve needed a community that trusts me and wants to buy the tools and services that I’m starting to make… because that’s how a business works.

Those are just three out of the hundreds of reasons why my community, my network, my contacts have been essential in my life.

There have been times when I’ve tried to be a self-made man. I’ve ignored the resources that other people could have offered me because I wanted to do it on my own.

Those were never the right choices.

In my experience I think the idea of a ‘self-made person’ is complete bullshit. I think we’ve all received help. And instead of being ashamed of needing it… we should be grateful for it… and maybe even pay it forward a bit.

Some tips on how to build a community (for free)

So, community is great. Having a network is essential.

It’s still a hard thing to build. It takes time. It takes effort…

But it doesn’t have to take a lot of money.

Here are three tips to building a great community and that won’t cost you a cent.

Answer your email

Yup. It’s simple, but there is nothing that has created a bigger change in my network than when I really changed my emailing habits.

I’ve historically been a terrible email responder, I’m also bad at phone calls and texts, and so when I would go out and ‘make contacts’… I wouldn’t follow up, I wouldn’t keep in touch, my emails were weeks/months apart.

That doesn’t create an actual network.

Recently, I’ve been much better about responding and it’s been awesome.

I’m talking to so many more people regularly and it actually feels like a network that I can reach out to for support or advice.

If you’re feeling swamped by the idea of catching up on a packed inbox, check out THIS ARTICLE on inbox zero. I started using this method at the end of 2015 and it’s changed… everything.

Take care of the community you have before worrying about making a bigger/better one

In blogging it’s really easy to get sucked into thinking about stats.

The number of email subscribers you have. The number of people visiting your site.

How do you grow those numbers? How do you compete?

It’s the same in lots businesses. How do I get more customers, or get more people to come to my shows?

My advice? Before you start worrying too much about how to increase those numbers… take care of the people who are already there.

For the longest time I was focused on increasing my email subscriber list. I wanted it to be thousands of people. The thing was … I didn’t know what I wanted to do with those people after I ‘got’ them.

Now I’ve completely changed tactics. I’m fully focused on creating a community with the people who are here now. That way, when new people come… they step into something that’s already thriving.

It doesn’t cost me anything to keep in contact with the people who are already here (except time), but the payoff has been immediate. By talking to my wonderful subscriber base regularly I’ve not only had the chance to offer really specific support, but I’ve gotten a lot of support coming back at me.

Take a minute to write down who your network/community is, send them a few check in emails or maybe even make a phone call…. It won’t cost you anything and it might be worth it.

Talk to people

I think about community a lot. I know it’s important… and so I’ve spent far too many hours brainstorming the best ways to build the greatest community ever.

The brainstorming was a waste of time. Here’s the secret:

Just talk to people. All people. Any people. Online or in person.

Learn their stories. Tell them yours. Ask about what they love doing, and what their struggles are.

It may not seem directly connected. It might not even seem like an efficient use of your time and energy, but I’ve started stumbling into ‘contacts’ that I never could have ‘planned for’. I’ve fallen into opportunities I could have never seen coming.

Community is just people talking to people. That’s all. So start talking.

If you’re looking for a finance/money support community/network… try this one!!

So… that’s a lot of writing about community. As you can tell, it’s something I feel pretty strongly about.

It’s always been a huge part of my life, and I will always consider it my biggest asset.

If you’re looking for support, a network, a community I’d be honoured if you joined us here at R2R. We’re a collection of artists, freelancers, and anyone else who’s looking for a more creative way of looking at money.

You’ll get exclusive tools and content, as well as support to make that changes that you’ve been wanting to make.

It can feel pretty lonely when you’re a freelancer out there in the wide world….

But we’re stronger together.

The post Why community is your most important asset (and how to build one for free) appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

How do you make money on the internet?

Chris — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 14:17:54 +0000

This is not a how-to.

For those of you who may have only skimmed the title, you’ll find no answers here. This is just a second year blogger honestly wondering “how the heck do you make money on the internet?”

I started Rags to Reasonable just over a year ago, and it wasn’t just because I wanted to spend 20+ hours a week making pictures and writing about finance. I was trying to start a side business. Something that would help supplement my life as an artist.

On some levels I’ve been successful. I did start …. something. I wrote articles (I think some of them might have even helped people) and 10s of thousands of people passed through my little corner of the internet this year.

But it’s not really a business.

Businesses make money.

Wait… no… that’s not entirely true. Not all businesses make money… but all businesses are trying to make money.

The things that I haven’t told you

My family and friends know that I have a bad habit of leaving things out when I share news.

In fact, I often leave out the most important bits, or throw them in at the last second.

“Things are good. Weather has been cold. You should have seen the sandwich that I ate yesterday … also I’ve been dating a girl for two years and I’ve never felt this way before.”

…. Wait… what was that about a sandwich?

So you’ll excuse me if I’ve kept the business side of R2R completely private for the last year. Part of the reason was that I didn’t want to scare you away, but the other bigger part was that I know so little about making money on the internet I didn’t want to fail quite so publicly.

But what’s failure if it’s not spectacular, right???

So here’s what’s been going on behind the scenes:

I’ve been taking finance courses. I’m actually one course and two exams away from getting a certification in financial planning. Why? Well… for two reasons:

I don’t want to talk out of my ass about finances. I want you to have the best possible advice and information
I want to work with individuals, families, artists, freelancers, and anyone else who struggles getting their finances in order. I want to coach you through making budgets, and debt plans, setting up your insurance, and preparing for when you’re working less. I want to help you create a stable framework so that you can spend less time worrying, and more time actually living your life.

I’ve been doing workshops with schools, young artist programs, and freelance groups.

I absolutely love getting in the classroom with a group of people and initiating what is often the first actually positive, empowering conversation around money that people have encountered.

It’s a rush. It’s a privilege. And it’s the only thing I’ve been doing with the blog in the last year that could actually be called business activity (that’s right… ’cause I don’t do it for free).

Lastly, I’ve been making stuff. Workbooks, courses, all kinds of stuff. And you know what?… I really like that, too.

The more questions that come up, the more I’ve been thinking about tools that can help you with those questions. Some of them I’ve offered for free (which I will always continue to do), and some of them have been part of my workshops or I haven’t even released them yet.

How do you turn something that you ‘like to do’ into something that makes money?

Everyone has their baggage about money. That baggage is the main reason why I’m here…and as I’ve made abundantly clear through many posts… I’m not an exception to that rule.

I think it’s a pretty common artist/freelancer problem to not know how to price your skills. To not know how to turn a thing that you enjoy doing… into something that actually pays the bills.

That’s the problem that I’m facing with this project right now. And man… is it hard to talk about. I’ve been waffling back and forth all week about whether or not I should put these thoughts out there into the world.

But I’ve decided to talk about it, because it’s such a classic freelancer/artist/creative entrepreneur problem.

It’s also one of my big projects for this year.

The R2R money goals for 2016!!

A few nights ago, I couldn’t sleep. I was staring at the ceiling and thinking about … money (you know the feeling). I was trying to wrap my head around trying to make a decent income off of a website.

Look, I know people do it. The internet is full of articles telling you how… but it still seems like magic to me.

I thought of Stefanie O’Connell, a fellow artist and personal finance blogger (yes… there are two of us) who just wrote a piece on how to make your first 100 dollars…

But, can I be honest? (sorry Stefanie)… 100 dollars seemed insanely daunting.

So, after a few hours of busy brain I eventually settled on a realistic goal for me in the month of January.

1 dollar.

I’m going to try to make 1 dollar online this month.

Now that might seem like I’m setting the bar way too low. But the truth is, 1 dollar or a thousand dollars, the initial excuses are the same. I honestly don’t understand how to create income off of my website.

Yes, I’ve read all the lists and how-tos. 99% of them are the same. There’s lots of advice, but just like anything… it’s always different when it’s your project.

So even though 1 dollar isn’t very much, I still have no idea how it’s going to happen. And since I’m being honest with you… just thinking about it for the last while has made my brain jump into overdrive with excuses. Things I ‘should’ do instead… things that ‘have to’ be done right now.

I am clearly terrified of trying to make even 1 dollar off of my little piece of the internet.

But I’m going to try anyway. And it’s not going to stop there.

After the one dollar, the year’s plan is to play a game of ‘2048’. You know that fun little phone game? If you haven’t heard of it, you basically double up on numbers until you reach 2048. Here’s how it plays out in terms of my money goals:

#Yikes

Top 4 ways the internet says I should make 1 dollar

In my mind… that chart fits squarely in the ‘ridiculous goals’ category. So I went where anyone with ridiculous goals and no money goes… TO GOOGLE! (the source of all the helpful advice and mentorship I’ve been craving since the demise of ‘Ask Jeeves’)..

Here are the helpful hints that the internet provided in response to my Google search of: how to make 1 dollar on the internet (and why they’re not that helpful):

So, those were the top 4 results that came up in so many lists. There were other suggestions as well, and to tell the truth there were also some really rational, thoughtful articles on how difficult it is to make money online… about the time it takes, and that there are no one-size-fits-all methods.

I guess I’ll have to keep figuring it out on my own. So much for the internet solving all my problems.

It’s all about the money… except, of course it isn’t

It feels weird to talk about trying to make money on this site. R2R is generally a place where we don’t talk about the ‘how’ of making money… but focus on the ‘what to do’ after you’ve made it.

That will remain the focus, but I wanted to bring you all into the process, as this site continues to grow.

There are so many marketing guides out there that talk about creating product funnels, and how to seemingly ‘trick’ people into buying things.

I’m not trying to make money off of you.

But yes, I am trying to make money off of this project, and I need to learn not to be ashamed of that.

It doesn’t have to be a secret, and it doesn’t have to be something that messes up our (you the reader, and I the maker of stuff) relationship.

I want to make awesome shit for you. Courses. Workbooks. Talks. One-on-one coachings. Individual plans. And tons more blog posts.

I want you to have a better relationship with your money, and I really want to help you get there.

How’s this going to work?

I’m a big podcast guy, and one of my favourite podcasts right now is “Start Up”, a really open, honest look at how to start a business (a big tech start up type business). I love how they don’t shy away from talking about the parts of business that normally happen behind closed doors.

We’re going to do it that way here at R2R as well.

This year I’m going to try to make some money online. I know talking about the income that we make isn’t something that makes anyone comfortable, but for the sake of learning… we’re going to make this an open experiment.

I’ll keep you in the loop as to whether I’m meeting my goals, and I’ll keep developing things that I think you might find useful.

Your job?… let me know what you like and what you don’t. Tell me if there’s a tool or course that you’d really love to see. Tell me if something I made really helped, or was a complete waste of your time.

What can you buy for a dollar?

So this week I’m launching a fun NEW MENU ITEM!! YAYYYYY!!

Tools and Courses!

And if you find your way over there you’ll discover the 1 dollar deal for January.

It’s a 20 page workbook to help you tackle your debt. It’s downloadable, printable, and honestly… worth more than a dollar…

But since I’m wading into the shallow end of monetization you get to benefit.

If you’re tired of your debt, or if debt-free sounds like an intriguing concept for you… check it out.

… it’s only a dollar… what do you have to lose?

And you’ll help me fulfil my January dreams.

Do you guys struggle with pricing your work? What solutions did you come up with… inquiring minds would love to know :-)!

The post How do you make money on the internet? appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

The Epic Guide to changing everything in 2016: 6 ways to actually follow through on your resolutions

Chris — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 15:13:47 +0000

It has recently come to my attention that I’m really bad at follow through.

I have big plans. Big ideas. In fact, the last few weeks have been full of statements like:

“I think this year… once a month we should….* insert activity*"

They’re all nice ideas, but since I’m up to a few dozen ‘once a month activities’, at this point my girlfriend is just rolling her eyes every time I send out a new one. She’s the one who very kindly informed me that maybe I should temper my expectations because I wasn’t the best at… following through.

I’d love to argue, but sadly it’s pretty freaking true.

And so, with the dawning of a new year I’m left with a couple of choices. I can toss all my big plans, dreams, goals, and resolutions up against the wall and hope something sticks… or maybe I just don’t commit to doing anything this year.

I’ll just see how things turn out. Go with the ole flow…

OR… I can dive headlong into mystery box number three and figure out how I can get better at actually changing some of the things that I’d love to change.

TO THE INTERNET!!!!!

My initial findings were pretty tepid… a whole bunch of articles on ‘making a list’ and ‘setting a timetable’, which I’m not saying aren’t fine ideas, but we’ve all tried these things (or we’ve read them and decided we don’t want to try them)! And yet still, so many of us dream up these big start-of-the-year goals… that never make it past January (ya, I said ‘us’… I know I’m not the only guilty one here).

But luckily there are a whole bunch of insanely smart people out there doing some really interesting research on this very thing. And so, I’ve put together a few actually useful ways to stick to those new year’s resolutions.

Number 1: You can’t change something you don’t think it’s possible to change

This seems like common sense, but it’s the first trap that so many of us fall into.

Resolutions are so often born out of the feeling that we really ‘should’ be different. But that’s not the same as actually ‘wanting’ to be different, actually believing that we can change.

The ‘should’ resolution plays out like you think it would: a few months of half-hearted attempts. But since these kinds of resolutions don’t mean anything to us, they ultimately fall by the wayside.

So a few weeks of budgeting, say, will completely implode the first time money gets stressful, because the truth is … you never really wanted to do it in the first place, and you probably don’t actually believe it will make a difference.

There’s some pretty interesting research out there on the importance of belief in the process of changing things. Scientists have looked at things like Alcoholics Anonymous and tried to pin down exactly what helps addicts find lasting change, and one of the big pieces to that puzzle is: belief.

Charles Duhigg mentions in his book on habits: “we know that for habits to change, people must believe that change is feasible”.

It may seem like an oversimplification but it’s exactly the question that you should ask yourself before diving into the huge amount of work it takes to actually follow through with your resolutions…

Do I actually believe that this is possible?

If the answer is no, don’t get too sad. Maybe the timing isn’t right for you to work on that right now, or maybe you just need some inspiration. Dig down into stories of people who have accomplished what you’re trying to do, or go down to number 6… which is going to help you a ton!

Number 2: Get to know your habits… intimately

So you’ve got something you’d like to change.

You’d like to shop less, or maybe make a budget.

There’s a good chance that the cause of and solution to your problem is nestled in something called the basal ganglia. That’s the part of your brain where your habits live!

I’ve become completely obsessed lately about a book called The Power of Habits: by Charles Duhigg (I mentioned him in number 1). It’s given me the wonderful ability to twist every topic of conversation around to habits, causing the people in my life and to love me (and my obsessions) even more.

But despite the annoyance of my friends, family and that guy on the subway who kept pretending he didn’t hear me, I’m completely convinced by Duhigg’s argument that habits are at the core of everything we do. And there’s one simple concept that he talks about that can help you right now, and you don’t even have to read the whole book!

It starts with understanding how a habit breaks down (stick with me… this is awesome). According to Duhigg, there are three parts:

A cue —— a routine —— a reward

So, in my shopping habit, my cue could be feeling stressed. My routine would be going shopping. And my reward the happiness of having new things.

He goes into depth about how to change this pattern, and it’s not an easy thing, but there is one simple lesson you can take from his work right now that will put you way ahead in the quest for new year’s dominance:

Awareness changes everything.

Habits happen without thinking, but as soon as you shine a light on them and think about what sets them off, and what you’re getting out of it… you’ve made a huge step.

In fact, Nathan Azrin, a developer of habit reversal training, says: “it seems ridiculously simple, but once you’re aware of how your habit works, once you recognize the cues and rewards, you’re halfway to changing it.”

So there it is. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of habit reversal (although it’s really interesting). Just take a look at the habit, or pattern, or behaviour that you want to change and get to know it a bit.

Once I know that I want to shop when I’m feeling stressed, and that what I’m really looking for is the happiness of having a new thing, I can look for a way to get that result without dropping a few hundred at the mall.

So, what’s the habit at the core of the thing you’re trying to change? What sets it off? What do you get out of it? Does it flare up in certain situations? Places? Around certain people?

Knowledge is power, people. And awareness is the simplest thing you can do to create the biggest possible change.

Number 3: Get used to starting over (Understanding the Fresh Start Effect)

There’s a reason why so many people try to start up new habits on January 1^st. It’s a new year, and it’s easy to put some distance in between that person that you were (gross) and the person that you were clearly always meant to be (AMAZING).

But here’s the truth, even if you master all the things on this list, you’re going to have days, weeks, or months in which your new habit just doesn’t really stick.

For most of us, that cues a feeling of failure and we never really try again.. at least not until next year.

I’m here to tell you, you don’t have to wait until next year… and science agrees.

Meet Katie Milkman, an associate professor of behavioural economics, who has been researching something called “the fresh start effect”. It’s basically just a fancy name for a thing you’ve already felt: that feeling of ‘I can be anything’ that you get at the beginning of the year.

She confirms that it’s a great time to try to start something new, but it’s not the only time.

People also get that feeling at the beginning of the month (or even the week), after holidays and birthdays. You’ll also get a fresh start buzz after a big move.

Knowing that the body gets a new batch of ‘can do’ energy every time you land on one of these fresh starts can be a huge tool for anyone. The year is full of fresh starts. If (read: when) you fail, don’t worry. Shake it off, and start fresh all over again.

Number 4: Science your problem with some hardcore experimentation

The problem with trying to change something in the new year is that I usually only make a half-assed attempt that ends up falling short, and then I’m left wondering… did I just not fully commit to making a change, or am I trying to change something that isn’t really possible?

I don’t learn anything.

This is one of the many reasons economist Austin Frakt is better than me. I stumbled across his New Year’s Resolution article in the New York Times and immediately fell in love with his ideas.

He starts by approaching every resolution with 2 questions:

Why don’t I do this already?
Why do I feel the need to do this know?

The point is so his economist brain can try to figure out:

What’s the practical barrier that’s keeping me from changing?
What’s the emotional motivation that’s going to help me smash that barrier?

Already I think his simple thought process is awesomely useful, but then he continues:

He suggests testing a change with a ‘time limited commitment’.

What’s that?

Basically, he’s saying you should go really hard for a certain amount of time. Be super disciplined. Don’t give yourself any outs. That way at the end of the time period (a month, a few weeks, several months) you know for sure if this new habit, or change in lifestyle, is actually helpful or not.

I love it because it keeps us from falling into a really familiar resolution trap: assuming that if we could only do this one thing that would solve all our problems.

The truth is… we don’t do it, so we don’t know if it will solve all our problems.

Adopting an attitude of experimentation can help you actually find the change that helps you live the life you’re imagining for yourself in 2016.

For example, I’ve got a bit of a problem with eating out that spiralled out of control in December. It’s bad. It’s not just about the money, it’s also about the fact that my body is now craving all the things that come with eating out all the time: salt, sugar, booze.

The goal I set for myself is to only cook at home for the entire month of January. It seems like the right kind of goal, but who knows. I might find that I spend far more on eating in, than I did eating out semi regularly. I might find that I cook really unhealthy food at home.

But hopefully at the end of the month, if I’m really disciplined I will, at the very least, have another piece of information that will help me solve my problem.

Take one of your resolutions and ask Austin’s questions. What’s a time limited commitment that makes sense to you? Write it down, and commit to not letting yourself off the hook!

Number 5: Temptation Bundling

There are things that I do that I feel guilty about doing and there are things that I don’t do that I feel guilty about not doing.

Temptation bundling is a concept from the mind of Katie Milkman (of Fresh Start Effect fame) that tries to smash those two things together.

The idea is simple.

Do you love watching The Office on Netflix every night, but kind of feel bad about it because you ‘should’ be doing something else?

Do you never manage to do your budgeting because you kind of hate it, but then feel guilty about not doing it?

Why not only let yourself watch The Office (or whatever show you like) when you’re doing your budgeting??

You’ve combined a guilty pleasure with a guilty ‘should’ and are now killing at life.

I first heard of the concept on an episode of Freakanomics called When Willpower isn’t enough. Check it out if you’d like to learn more.

But in the meantime here are a bunch of other (non financial) temptation bundle ideas:

get a pedicure while answering work emails
only go get a favourite burger when you’re with a relative that drives you crazy
drink scotch while folding laundry #mmmmm

Number 6: Don’t try to do it alone

There is a ton of information in this piece, and so I expect you might forget half of it before you reach the bottom of this page… But if there’s one thing that you should absolutely retain from all of my blabbing on it is this:

DON’T TRY TO CHANGE IT ALONE.

I don’t care what ‘it’ is. If it’s money related, or fitness related, or about your relationships.

There’s often so much shame associated with these ‘flaws’ that we’re trying to change. We’re hoping to change them in secret and then do a huge reveal to our friends and family.

Look how different I am!!!

But doing it alone is so much harder than bringing together a team that can help you… people to keep you accountable.

Take it from Lee Ann Kaskutas, a senior scientist at the Alcohol Research Group:

“There’s something really powerful about groups and shared experience. People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they’re by themselves, but a group will convince them to suspend disbelief. A community creates belief.”

Belief. There it is again. We’ve come full circle.

Over and over again as I read about following through and habit change I came across that word. Maybe it’s the artist in me that immediately attaches myself to the least concrete concept, but I love how essential it seems to be.

And that’s why it’s essential that you believe me when I tell you to find someone to help you: a family member, a best friend, a stranger, or some guy who writes a blog about finance (I will totally be your resolution accountability partner … if it’s about money/finance).

So how’s 2016 going to be different?

What do you really want to change? What’s the resolution that keeps coming up at every one of your ‘fresh starts’ but never seems to get done? Maybe this is the year, maybe this is time to try something new: temptation bundling, or maybe a limited time commitment.

The incredible thing for me, as I read all of these methods and studies, was realizing how much more possible it is to change habits and lifestyle than I had previously liked to believe.

If I keep telling myself it’s impossible and really hard, it serves as a great excuse for not doing anything.

But the more I realize how possible it is, the excuses just strip away.

And I’m starting to believe that the only thing coming between me and the life that I want to live… is me.

What’s coming between you and your resolutions? Which one of these methods sounds the most interesting to you?

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Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

Chris Enns

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.

The post The Epic Guide to changing everything in 2016: 6 ways to actually follow through on your resolutions appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

How my brother and I lifehacked Christmas

Chris — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 16:09:53 +0000

Does anyone else find adult gift giving kind of crazy?

Every year I’m asking the people in my life what they’d like for Christmas and it’s always: “I don’t really need anything”, or “I don’t know”.

And that’s how I feel, too.

But I’m still going to buy them something, because… I don’t know… it’s what we do, and it feels super mean to just give up the tradition. Plus, giving gifts is fun! Right?

Stuff vs Experiences

The solution so many come up with in response to this whole gift giving problem is to give experiences instead of stuff.

YES!! Awesome! Right?

Instead of this thing that you don’t need, or really even want, how about I give you this experience that will be super fun?? It’s a great idea.

The problem is… cool experiences are expensive yo!

I’ll send you bungee jumping! $$$$$$
How about a yoga membership? $$$$$$
Maybe just a ticket to a minor league baseball game? $…..$$ (beer and hotdogs…)

And although there might be a few cheap experiences that fit the bill, generally for those of us living on less… it’s not the amazing solution you might have been hoping for.

The problem is… how do you give something that someone really wants that doesn’t completely destroy your financial future?

Enter the greatest idea ever thought of while loading a truck full of wheat

My brother and I have it rough. We go through this Christmas debacle twice a year.

No, we don’t celebrate Christmas twice, but since our birthdays are one day apart, we do the gift exchange thing twice… basically on the same day. Just because there’s a pine tree at one of them really doesn’t make much of a difference, it still means that twice a year I end up racking my brain trying to come up with a decent gift for the bro.

Which is what I was doing early September a year and a half ago.

I was loading up a big truck of wheat (as you do), and thinking about the gift I’d love to give my brother if money weren’t an issue.

I’d love to take him on a trip to Japan.

Traveling with my brother has always been something I’d like to do, but that’s not exactly something your average opera singer can afford to put under the tree (the birthday or Christmas variety).

But then I thought… what if I apply all this financial dogma that had been rolling around in my head to this particular problem? You know, the stuff I write about all the time…

Big numbers are made of small numbers
Build up a savings habit
A journey of a thousand steps starts with the first blah blah blah

What if instead of giving a ton of small gifts every year, we joined forces and started saving up for something that we both really wanted!

Another savings fund is born

You may be sick of all of my savings funds by now. But I’m really not sick of talking about them.

This one, is one of my favourites.

Every Christmas and birthday my brother and I take the amount that we would have spent on gifts and throw it into a savings account.

It’s for our brothers trip.

When’s it going to happen? I don’t know. Where are we going to go? No idea! But I know that whenever and whereever it happens, we’ll have some seed money. Maybe if we wait long enough there will actually be enough to cover the whole trip.

Think that’s the least fun present ever…?

I disagree.

There might not be something to unwrap under the tree, but I feel an excitement every time I add money to that account. An excitement that I just wasn’t getting from the stuff we used to trade back and forth.

Now, instead of opening a present from each other we sit and talk about where we would go. We talk about what we would see.

It’s a really cool moment we get to have… twice a year.

And it’s kind of funny how this gift, even though it won’t be delivered for years, already feels like it’s paying off.

Have an incredible Christmas, everyone (or whichever holiday you happen to be celebrating!

What’s your favourite Christmas lifehack?

The post How my brother and I lifehacked Christmas appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

How my business ate my money in 2015

Chris — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 14:59:10 +0000

Reflection abounds in December, and I sure haven’t been spared from it. Over the last few weeks I’ve broken down my favourite ways to save in 2015, and all the many ways I spent my take home pay.

Today I’m breaking down my business investment. That’s a much fancier way to talk about how I spent money on my (now) two business ventures: singing, and this whole financial thing.

And just like I did in the breakdown of my personal spending, I’ll use my handy dandy YNAB charts to show you exactly where the money went this year!

A few things first:

This is my spending, not my income. Sometimes income gets squirrelled away for next year’s spending, and sometimes money gets spent from a previous year’s savings. There are lots of ways to look at that, but today we’re just looking at what went out the door. Pure spending.
Just because these are in my business budget doesn’t mean that they’re all taxable business expenses. I sort things in a way that makes sense for me (and I still keep finding things that don’t quite make sense in the macro sense). This isn’t a list of deductions… just spending.
Sorry, no real numbers. I mentioned in my personal spending breakdown that I’m still trying to figure out the whole share-your-real-numbers thing and whether or not it’s useful. But for now, it’s all shown in percentages… if you really want to figure out how much money I make and spend I guarantee you can read all my posts and piece it together, but I don’t think that sounds like a fun use of time.

Okay! Let’s dive in!!

How I spent my business bucks!

Ooh pretty. All the colourful fun of the personal side, but none of the dental bills. Lots of payroll, lots of deductions, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Let’s break it on down.

You GOTS to get PAID!!!

2015 is the first year that I set myself up to pay a fixed monthly salary. It was by far the best financial choice I made all year.

Payroll dominates 50% of my business spending, but isn’t that what my business is for? To make sure that I can pay my bills?

It’s not a huge salary, but it makes sure that every month I don’t have to worry about my rent, my food, or whether I can pay my phone bill.

You’ll see that I have a few different categories here:

Salary: is money that was made that month and goes directly to the next month’s salary

Buffer: is money that gets stored in a payroll buffer for months when I’m not making enough income (or any at all).

Bonus: Sometimes I need a bit more money to cover the bills, or I just feel I deserve a little extra.

Set up a salary for yourself in 7 easy steps!!!
If you have any trouble or want some help send me an email: ragstoreasonable@gmail.com

It’s NOT YOUR MONEY!!

25% of the money I spent this year was money that I made… but it never actually belonged to me.

I’ve written before about figuring out what is and what is not your money, and I won’t pretend it doesn’t suck to get a cheque and realize how much of it belongs to someone else. But worse than that is getting hit with a bill from someone for money you already spent.

So I separate it out right away, so when it needs to be paid… it’s ready.

In 2015 I ended up with extra tax money in both my income and HST accounts, and so that was a nice treat in May when I paid my taxes.

Income tax: belongs to the government #yourewelcomejustin

Commission: belongs to my agent

Union dues: belongs to Canada Actors Equity Association

HST: also belong to the government… because free health care costs a lot

I’ve been served…

Services is a really boring name for a budget category… I wish I could deliver the fun a little better, but it’s pretty important.

For me it was largely training costs, with a little slice going to my accountant.

Voice lessons: I try to have one once a week, and it’s a category that I put a lot of money in when I get a big cheque. Too often when you have the time for lessons, you have no money to pay for them. This year I made sure that when I had the gift of time, I could afford to use it.

Coaching: I was really lucky to have a few friends donate their coaching services to me for really cheap rates, so I got world class training for not a ton of money… proving yet again that your greatest resource is an amazing community.

Accounting: I love talking tax, but when the rubber meets the road I want to have an ally in the tax trenches. I love my accountant. She answers all my questions even when they come at 2 in the morning about some obscure tax law that I’ve stumbled across while being a financial nerd.

Generally … I like it

*Slow clap* for the budget categories Chris. Way to use your fine arts degrees. The creativity… it’s staggering.

General is where I put all the day to day costs of business. This year it was mainly food. Food that I bought while on tour, on a gig, or for specific business meetings.

If you want to learn more about food costs start with these articles:

The Mystery of Food Deductions

Attention Fellow Travelers: How to deduct food without keeping any receipts

And if general isn’t bad enough, there’s a misc category in it! Amazing.

You need a place to dump all the costs that are definitely business, but aren’t worth making a category for. Like the Aeropress I bought for making my hotel room coffee experience 8000 times better.

The office may be in my mind, but the printer still needs ink

This was such a small category until that fateful week in November when everything broke. *Sigh*.

I had to buy a new computer. Obviously it isn’t only used for business, but between professional correspondence for opera, and the amount of blogging and online work I do for R2R, it is essential for my business.

I’m going to totally nerd out in a few months about how to deduct a capital cost, so start getting excited for that.

The rest covers pens, highlighters and a big desk calendar that I use instead of a digital one because I’m basically an 80 year old man.

I also know that I have headphones here… this is an example of those ‘non deductible’ expenses I was talking about. I’ll have to move this one over in the new year.

You’ll also notice that internet makes a small appearance. I pay for my home internet with my personal account, but sometimes have to pay for it when I’m traveling, let’s say… 3% of the time.

We have lift off…

Hey look, I spent more on bikes, than on plane/train and bus tickets combined.

How did that happen and why is it a business expenses? The answer lies in the fact that I was a part of an opera company that tours by bicycle. So I bought a road bike this year… unfortunately that road bike had a bad habit of breaking… all the time. So during the tour I had to replace 3 spokes, and eventually both wheels.

It wasn’t the cheapest thing.

The rest probably makes more sense. Tickets for auditions, including transit and some cab fares.

Practice space might be one you non-singers don’t have to worry about, but when I’m in New York for a week in some small room, I have to find a place to sing a bit. Thank goodness for Opera America!

Obvious moral: bikes are more expensive than planes.

Wait… R2R is what I’m reading right now…

Turns out blogs don’t only cost an insane amount of time, they also cost money. Fun!!!

This year, in the hopes of diversifying my income I birthed a blog baby, and just like a normal baby it costs money before it starts paying out.

Course Fees: not wanting to add my voice to the many people talking out of their butts, I’ve been taking financial courses online and hope (fingers crossed) to have a certification in financial planning by this summer!! It’s been a super fun thing to be able to work out a different part of my brain after a long day of rehearsals.

Website Hosting: it costs money to host a website. I use Bluehost. I like them.

Printing: as well as writing for y’all, I’ve been having a blast doing workshops for artists in universities and other arts programs. Usually I bring workbooks and stuff, which have to be printed.

Advertising: I plan to get a Super Bowl ad this year, but that’ll be on the 2016 budget. This year was mainly Facebook ads. Which are easy to buy, and hopefully are effective… I really don’t know.

Health (I promise there are no more dental costs here)

These may seem like luxury or personal spending (like the headphones), but I’ll actually stand by these.

Massage: is key for singers. When things get tight, singing gets really hard. The union covers some massage expenses when you’re on contract, but not when you’re not.

Fitness: image matters these days in opera, so I won’t pretend like that’s not part of it, but more than that, fitness matters. Staying healthy can be the difference between getting paid, and coming home with nothing cause you had to back out of the concerts. So anything that helps you stay healthy, is a must.

These days I try to invest more in preventative health spending, a lesson that I’m painfully learning every day from my dental bills.

Hopefully it will pay off in the long run.

You wanna buy…. Me?

Sometimes this category looks a little sexier, with publicity photos, and recording costs thrown in. This year it was just printing and maintaining my other (opera) website.

Apparently people still want you to show up with a printed headshot… even though they’ll just throw it away.

*Thinking happy thoughts*

For my opera website I use Squarespace, which is actually a pretty great platform if you don’t want to spend a lot of time building a good looking site.

They’re affordable, adaptable… and now it sounds like I’m doing a commercial. Oh well.. do what you will, but I like it.

#squarespaceforpresident

All the rest of the stuff

The chartless other stuff includes:

Music: scores and recordings
Personal Float: the same as my business float for those times that I cover a personal cost on my business credit card or accounts
Wardrobe: for business only (read: fancy) clothes

I cut down on the amount I spent on music this year by spending a lot of time at the library, finding as much free stuff as possible. Photocopying isn’t cheap, but it’s cheaper than a brand new score (sometimes).

And that’s all she wrote…

That was my business in 2015. There’s always so much more that I wish I could do, so much more money that could have been spent, but I know that after covering my basic life costs I poured every cent I could back into growing the businesses that I have.

The hope is that year after year, they’ll make a little more, keep expanding… and support me until I’m as old as I feel!

What do you think was the most important money you spent in your business this year? Marketing? Training? Diversifying? What about next year? Is it the same, or are you looking forward to investing in a different way?

The post How my business ate my money in 2015 appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

5 things I’m doing to get ready for 2016

Chris — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 16:11:01 +0000

It usually happens around December 5^th. Something in my brain clicks over and I start to defer every thing I need to do to ‘next year’.

Even though I’ve got weeks left in this year… my brain has thrown in the towel.

Don’t pretend that you don’t know how it feels. It feels like there’s no reason to invest in big change. No reason to start something new. No reason to even do some of those little things that I’ve been putting off for most of the year.

I’ve pretty much decided that 2015 is over.

Which is a little crazy.

December is a weird month

I usually end up spending a big chunk of December back on the homestead (in good ole Winnipeg, Manitoba). It’s great to see friends and family, but it’s always weird to be tossed out of my routine for a few weeks. It’s a new place, it’s harder to get work done, there are so many events related to the holidays, so many people to see. It’s easy to decide any personal progress must wait!

There are just a lot of distractions in December.

But riddle me this…

Are those distractions really the reason I’m not doing any work or have I just decided that I don’t want to?

There are some December distractions that only happen once a year and I’m so grateful for them. Coffee with friends I barely see, moments with family, and even a few real minutes of the kind of absolute rest that everyone deserves after a long year.

But if I’m honest with myself, there’s still a lot of time that I spend wasting and making excuses. So here’s what I’m thinking…

What if I didn’t wait to till January to get started?

I dream all December of the hyper productivity that the month of January will be. I will be better, different, perhaps even awesome. I spend most of the month building lofty expectations, tack on a few resolutions at the end and then jump into the month so lethargic and weighted down by ridiculous goals that I’m instantly overwhelmed.

It’s inertia my friends.

An object at rest (December Chris) will not immediately become an awesome ball of change, just because the calendar flipped over. #Science

So this year I’m going to try something different.

My head has been bouncing around lots of idea of things I want to do in the New Year, and instead of waiting, I’m going to pick a few of them (it is Christmas after all… a few is enough) and get started right now.

#1: I’m going to chase the dream of inbox zero

My friend Cait who blogs over at Blonde on a Budget (awesome blog… you should read it) mentioned the idea of inbox zero in her last post (if you’re not sure what it is, it’s really well explained HERE.)

For an organizational disaster case like me it’s a wonderful, and seemingly unattainable goal. One of my big hopes for 2016 is that I can get my records and general life into a bit more of an adult structure. So here’s one of the biggest things I’m going to try to do in the few weeks left in 2015…

There are around 10,000 unsorted emails in my inbox right now. Ya… it’s gotten a bit out of hand. If I can get my inbox cleared out and sorted, I’ll be ready to actually achieve and maintain inbox zero in the new year.

This is one of the biggest jobs I’ve set myself for the rest of 2015, but I think I can do it. GOOO CHRIS!

#2: I’m going to work on my un-resolutions

This one was also inspired by another favourite bloggers, Regina over at www.byregina.com sent an email out a few weeks ago challenging here readers to think about what they’d like to ‘un-resolve’.

I have so many lists of goals. I made a list just a few months ago that I actually called “my super unrealistic list of goals for 2015”… and they’re insane. I have achieved one of them, and it was by accident. That list was not great for my morale.

Goals are great, and I’m not going to stop making lists, but when you get 100 items deep, you know what goals become? Weights tied around your neck. And every day in which I don’t somehow achieve all of them, is another day that I have objectively failed at life (there’s a little artistic dramaticism for you).

So before I jump into new years resolutions, I’m going to start un-resolving a bunch of stuff. I’m going to go through those lists and start stroking off items that are just stressing me out.

A clean slate in 2016 can’t happen if I don’t actually clean the slate.

#3: I’m going to delete a ton of stuff off my phone

For the last six months I daily get a reminder from my phone that the I have no storage left. When I want to take a picture I need to delete a podcast. 6 MONTHS PEOPLE. I’ve somehow decided that it’s okay for my life to be this way.

No more.

Things need to be deleted. I have over a 100 podcasts downloaded and ready to be listened to. I’m not going to listen to all those podcasts, and I don’t need to have them all prepared, ready to go at any time.

Does this affect my finances or my business? Um… I’m going to say yes, because it’s really annoying.

My phone will be free. This is the definition of the least I can do! #andtheexpectationsbegin

#4: I’m gonna build some awesome finance stuff for all y’all

It’s been almost a year since I started talking artists and finance, and I’ve got to say I’m having a blast.

After a whole year, I’m more convinced than ever that we have to blow up the conversation about money in the arts, and I’m so excited to try out some new ways of doing just that come 2016.

But I’m not going to wait either.

I’m working on a course for January that I’m super pumped about. I’m pretty sure it’s something that will help people who have maximum stress around money start to realize how it can be used as an awesome tool for their awesome artistic lives.

If you are a person who wants to change their money habits, but really has no idea how to get started (or you know someone like that) stay tuned, because this course is definitely for you!

#5: I’m going to connect to my base

I love being home. Being near the farm grounds me. Being around family and old friends grounds me. But sometimes I get so concerned about all the things I ‘should’ be doing that I don’t really let myself take advantage of it all.

It’s a huge advantage to be home, with the time and flexibility to spend a ton of quality time with the people I love.

In the few weeks left to 2015 I want to take in all that love so that I’m ready to hit the ground running when the calendar does finally flip over.

Real rest.

Because it’s going to be a great year… and I’m not going to wait to get started!

What if you didn’t wait until January? How could you get the ball rolling for 2016? What would make your New Year’s resolutions way more possible if it were done before the 1st?!

The post 5 things I’m doing to get ready for 2016 appeared first on Rags to Reasonable.

Where did I spend my money in 2015

Chris — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 15:34:04 +0000

It’s hard to work in December, so I’m throwing in the towel on starting new projects. What I’m going to do instead is talk a little bit about the last year.

One of the coolest things about budgeting consistently is that at the end of the year you can take a look back at how you spent your money. It’s like a financial scrapbook, and if you’re budgeting in YNAB they even make the reports pretty and shaped like pies… so, double plus!!

So I’m going to break it down for you guys.. where my money went and how I feel about that.. but first, here are a few provisos (#fancyword).

I’m not going to use exact figures. This isn’t just because I’m not entirely sure how I feel about sharing my numbers online yet (it’s kind of a weird thing to think about), but because I think that exact numbers can be misleading.
I can spend 3000 dollars a month on rent and have that be a completely reasonable expense if I’m making six figures, but that sounds insane to someone who’s making just above the poverty line. A number means something different to everyone.
Instead, I’m going to use percentages of total income. That shows where the big chunks are going, and where my financial priorities are.
This is not a clear representation of all my spending. I’m going to start with just my personal side, so there’s no business stuff in here. One of the things that I separate between business and pleasure is food costs. When I’m on a gig it’s a business cost, when I’m not it’s usually a personal cost. So my food costs on the personal side of my record keeping are way lower than they actually are in total, because sometimes food is a business cost.
There are a few things like that… I’m not trying to trick you, or show false date… it’s just the way I order things.
This is just my spending. Not my income. Seems like they should be related, and they are, but a bunch of my spending (particularly the dental costs) came from previous savings… not from income I made in 2015. These charts just talk about how I spent all the money that I spent this year.

What I’m trying to show is how I order my spending, and what kinds of things I’ve chosen to invest in (ya… it all counts as investing).

How the non-business me spent his money in 2015

There it is, in all its splendour. A year boiled down into unarguable facts.

You see, I can talk as much as I want about the things that I care about, the things that I want in my life, but a budget report is black and white (or in this case, multiple colours).

So let’s break it down even further, and stick to the facts. What did I spend my money on?

Housing: You gotta live somewhere…

Housing is 100% rent, and accounted for 25% of the money that I spent in 2015.

I live in a three bedroom apartment on the second and third floor of a house in Toronto. I live with my girlfriend and another roommate, which keeps costs down.

The official financial planning rule of thumb when it comes to how much you should be spending on housing is ‘no more than 32% of your income’. Obviously, that can be a ridiculous goal if you have a low income and have to live in a big city like Toronto or New York. But if you’re curious, it’s a place to start.

Housing is always a huge cost, but it’s one that most of us have.

Not included in this: all of my housing for gigs and business trips. It’s only my personal home (although I do use part of that home for my business).

Travel: When I do it… it’s not a luxury

13% of my spending was on travel. And remember, that’s not business travel… that’s all personal. It may seem like I’m living large and fancy free but I don’t see it that way.

The lion’s share of my travel money went to my long distance fund . My girlfriend and I are apart for about half the year, and since we generally want to see each other during that time we set up a way to put aside money every month so that we are both sharing the cost, and investing in our relationship.

You can read more about how it works (and if you’re in an LDR, how to set one up for yourself) HERE!

The rest is from once-a-year expenses. I only ended up heading home once this year at Christmas, and the rest is from one of my best friend’s bachelor party when I traveled back home and we rented a cabin. It was a pretty great weekend.

The reason I don’t think of this travel as a luxury is that it’s not travel for travel’s sake. These days I’m not spending on vacations to a beach (not that there’s anything wrong with that… it’s just harder to argue that it’s not luxurious), I’m spending money on the relationships that are important in my life: my partner, my family, and my closest friends. In my books that’s a necessity.

Non-consensual savings (is that the same as forced savings?)

Savings are a part of my monthly salary, and are automatically taken out of my account. You can set up ‘forced savings’ programs with your bank, so that they take a certain amount every month and put it in a savings or investment account.

At some point I’ll get around to talking to you guys about how I invest, but suffice it to say that I put almost all of my money into a TFSA instead of using my RRSP (except apparently for 2%… I don’t really remember doing that). The decision to do that needs a longer post all to itself. If you have questions about it that need to be answered right now… send me a note.

These savings aren’t for now… or even 5 years from now. Barring some sort of catastrophe they’ll sit around there for the next 30 years harnessing the magical powers of compound interest.

Chickpeas and rice… rinse… repeat…

This category couldn’t be less interesting… mainly because the big questions when it comes to groceries don’t have to do with percentages.

How much do I actually spend on food?

It varies. Not only does it vary, but this chart is one of the parts of this report that isn’t all that accurate. Like I mentioned above, I split food in my records depending on whether I’m away on a gig, or whether I’m at home.

In months when I have some extra breathing room my grocery costs can by as high as 350 dollars, and in lean months they can be as low as 200 dollars (which is really hard for me).

LOWER YOUR GROCERY BILL WITH A SIMPLE PLAN… A MEAL PLAN. FREE WEEKLY TEMPLATE HERE!

I also feel the need to say that spend more than 1% of this budget on my hygiene costs! I only recently made it a special category in my records and I don’t always enter it (bad finance blogger). I buy my shampoo at the grocery store so it all gets lumped together sometimes. #notthatdirty

My cell phone is the bane of my budget

I think my secret shame is how much I spend every month on my cell phone. I know that it’s expensive in Canada, but I feel like I should be able to find a way to make it cheaper. I just chicken out every time I consider cutting my data.

So that’s how I end up spending a huge portion of this Utilities section on my phone.

Internet doesn’t end up costing much when you split it with a few roommates.

Now, bank fees. I have talked a lot about how great no fee banking is, and that’s true. But I still hold an account with TD which charges me some fees. I do it for a few reasons: I like having separate accounts for my business and my personal, and I have investments with TD that I like. So I stay… and because I stay, I also pay. #poetpoints

Girls just want to have fun (and since genders are equal….so do boys?)

By looking at this section you might come to the conclusion that in my mind, fun = food.

You would be correct.

Why do I have restaurants here in the ‘fun’ section, and not in some kind of ‘food’ category?

Because I like to remind myself that restaurants are a luxury. I don’t have to go to them. I do it for a treat, and when I’m lazy (which is all too often). And they’re fun.

Not included: all the times restaurants aren’t just ‘fun’… which is when they’re for business. That’s all in my business budget and spending.

Another section of the pie is that tiny portion for haircut… again with the embarrassingly small number dedicated to personal grooming (hello ladies), which I will justify by saying… I moved haircuts to another area in my budget early in the year, and for some reason I guess I didn’t get them all written down! It’s a glitch, but it’s a glitch that I’ll stand by. The data doesn’t lie: I think haircuts are fun, so much fun that I only get one a year (#jokehashtagincasesomeonethinksimserious).

Spending money is an absolute must in the budget of Chris. No matter how little money I’m budgeting with I always stick in a section for random spending. It means I can grab a magazine or some lip smackers just for me. It doesn’t have to be much, but in my mind, it has to be there.

Christmas is coming…

It’s December. I’ve managed to limp into the last few Decembers with not a lot of money, which sucks because Christmas is expensive.

I save a few bucks for Christmas every month of the year. That way when I get there… it’s fun! I do the same for birthdays and date nights. By throwing 30 bucks into my ‘events’ category every month it keeps stuff like birthdays and other holidays low stress, because instead of trying to scrape up the cash to buy little Johnny a pair of skates… it’s already there waiting to be spent.

It’s all well and good to say that you’re going to cut back on presents, but life events cost money. It’s part of the cost of having family and friends. Instead of lying to myself about how I’m going to cut costs, I’m steering into the skid and making sure there’s money there when I need it.

Vroom vroom vrooooooomm

Transportation makes up a tiny fraction of my spending for a few reasons.

I bike everywhere when I’m home (even in the winter) so I only need to take transit when it really storms.
I don’t own a car. Cars are expensive, but also necessary if you don’t live downtown in a major city. So that’s a luxury for me!
I steal coins from everywhere possible whenever I need to take the bus… that money often doesn’t get recorded in my budget. So… I’m basically cheating.
I can be pretty introverted, especially in the winter. The best way to save money is never to leave your neighbourhood.

The spending here is pretty clear. A little for bike maintenance (although I should really be spending more… my bike needs a tune up), a little more for transit, and the odd taxi to fill out the list.

I have some fuel costs even though I don’t own a car. It comes from the times that I borrow a car and fill it up, or chip in for gas when someone else drives.

How I paid for my dentist’s vacation

I’ve talked a lot about my dental woes this year. I won’t go into them again, but trying to fix my teeth has been the biggest cost of my year.

During 2015 I had:

6 root canals
over 20 fillings
20 hours spent in a dental chair
so many freezing needles
achieved a decay free mouth (except for my wisdom teeth, which still need to be pulled).

There’s more work to do, but I don’t feel bad about spending that much on my teeth. They needed to be fixed, and I’m fixing them. That’s the end of that.

Where did the money come from?

Part of the initial payments came out of savings from the last few years, the rest came from scrimping and saving. I pay myself a fixed income every month from my business, and so I needed to find the extra money in that to pay my dental bills. I borrowed some money during the year to get the work done, and then I paid it back by November. It was hard, it’ll continue to be hard, but that’s how debt repayment works (and yes… what I’m dealing with is debt… dental debt).

All the other stuff

YNAB won’t make me a chart for the last few categories, so I’ll have to do it without the flair. There are three categories here:

Giving
Clothing
Business Float

Giving refers to charitable donations, which I’ve been trying to step up in December by giving at least 5 dollars every day. It’s been fun, and reminded me how good it feels to put your money at work in the world.

Clothing. I don’t spend much on clothes. Sometimes I wish I did because most of my clothes have holes in them… which isn’t great. But the facts are there. Expect that category to be higher in 2016.

My business float is a really useful budget category. It comes in to play all the times I end up using my personal money to cover a business cost. It happens, and it can be a bit of nightmare to record properly. So I keep a little money on hand to cover those business costs, and then my business account pays me back. I’ll write more about how that works in a later post, but if you have questions feel free to send me a note.

2015 in a financial nutshell

It’s a pretty crazy way to look back at the year.. all the little choices that I made, all the little successes and lapses displayed in a few colourful pie charts.

It’s actually been fun to look back and spend some time with my records over the last week. I feel like the way I’m spending my money these days is pretty in line with how I want to be spending it… and that feels pretty good.

What about you? How did you spend your money this year? Is it in line with what you wanted or did you have to put out a lot of financial fires? Why not share some of your 2015 money memories in the comments starting with the following sentence…

2015 was the financial year of the __________
(for me it was the year of the tooth)

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