I think the first thing to do as I try to figure out what direction I'm taking with this is to haul out my list of long term goals and take a good, hard look at them. Right now they just sit there in that sidebar, mocking me. Am I still interested in them? Am I still working towards them? Is there something else that should be on that list? In other words, is this still a goal, or not?
So that leaves me with 4 out of my 10 goals that I can use or rework. I'm going to add one more now that will take me up to 5 goals and then I'll rework all my microgoals.
1. Become fluent in Hebrew.
2. Grow lavender.
3. Find a way to partner with others to develop a kosher wine business, including the possibility of fruit wines.
4. Get totally out of debt and stay there!
5. Develop at least two alternative income streams (in addition to my current employment) and use the money I make to accomplish my other goals, starting with getting out of debt.
So, my microgoals are the small steps I will be taking *now* in order to move ahead with each goal.
1. Go back to Rosetta Stone and figure out how to log in again.
My Dear Child and I wanted to get ahead in Hebrew, so I bought the Rosetta Stone course a few months ago when it was on sale. We tried it a few times and then got really busy. Now I don't remember our log in. If I can't figure it out, I'm sure there's a way to reset it.
2. Go to a few gardening centres (like Home Depot, Art Knapp's, etc.) and look at lavender plants. Only buy if I find the types of lavender I'm looking for.
3. Get together with someone who expressed interest in this project.
Maybe meet for coffee and discuss the project? This person suggested another mutual friend and perhaps that would be the first thing for us to follow up on.
4. Stay current on the regular bills, paying things every payday.
5. Go to the start up meeting for 31 Canada in BC on April 7 and enroll that night. Do as much pre-planning as possible ahead of time so I can start strong.
Not bad. I think I can live with these goals for now. The underlying theme behind these goals is happiness, something I would like to expand upon soon. For now, I think I'll just finish getting this post up and editing the sidebar. It is after 2 am, after all.
Showing posts with label retirement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retirement. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Thinking About TFSAs
I just wrote about my TFSA last week here on my blog and then I got into talking about them over on Trent's blog too. In fact, I had to deal with a commenter who both twisted what I said and told everybody I was wrong! Uh, no. Actually I wasn't.
In case you don't want to go over there and poke around the comments, here's the story. Trent responded to someone who asked him about opening a Roth IRA and using it as an Emergency Fund. He was against it, because the Roth has a $5,000/yr limit that expires at the end of each year (instead of being carried forward like a TFSA). Trent's point was that if you deposit $5k and then use it for an emergency you can't put it back. You've lost that year's contribution and that $5k is gone from your retirement account forever.
Several others pointed out that you might not have an emergency, and then you'd be ahead whereas if you had the emergency you wouldn't be any worse off than if you hadn't opened a Roth and had just put the money in an Emergency Fund. I chimed in to talk about how a Roth and a TFSA are similar but different, and how you can take money out and put it back into a TFSA.
I used the example of someone with a $5,000 contribution limit depositing $2,500 then withdrawing $2,000 for an emergency. I said this person could replace the $2k this year.
Kevin then jumped in to say:
In the interest of avoiding any confusion, I just wanted to correct Shevy’s inaccurate information regarding the Canadian TFSA accounts. Some of his information is completely wrong.
The TFSA does indeed have a $5,000/year contribution limit, and any gains in the account are tax-free, like a Roth IRA. Contributions are not tax-deductible. Shevy is correct that you can take money out, without penalty. Where his information goes off the rails, however, is his suggestion that you have to put the money back in that same year. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. You CAN’T re-contribute the money that same year. You can put it back, but you have to wait until the next year to do so. Money you withdraw is added to next year’s contribution limit. Unused contribution room rolls forward.
Thus, to correct Shevy’s example, say you contributed $2,500 to your TFSA in year 1, then had an emergency that required you to take out $2,000. Assuming you don’t do anything else in year 1, then next year, your limit will be $9,500 ($2,500 unused contribution room from year 1, plus the $2,000 you took out in year 1, plus your new, $5,000 limit for year 2).
So, of course, I went back to correct all of his errors, starting with where he mistook me for a guy!
First of all, there's a world of difference between being able to do something and being required to do it. I never said the person had to replace the money that same year but they could if they wanted to. Why? Because the person still had enough contribution room to be able to do it. In my example the person would have used $4,500 out of his or her $5,000 contribution room (and would have had $2,500 in the account at the end of the year). There are lots of good reasons for wanting to put the money back as soon as possible, interest being only one. Perhaps the person had to pay for something and then got reimbursed by insurance. So it really should go back in and, if it doesn't, maybe it will end up getting spent on something else. It's a way of focusing on savings and making them a priority.
Kevin is only right that you can't repay the money in the case where you've already used up all your contribution room. For example, if you put $400/mo into your TFSA and then have an emergency in October that costs $2,000 you won't be able to repay it until next year. Why? In October you have $4,000 in the account and you have another $800 that is scheduled to go in over the next 2 months. If you put the $2,000 in you would be over the limit for the year by $1,000 right away and by $1,800 by the end of the year. CRA charges 1% tax per month on the overlimit amount so that's a very bad idea.
You could put $200 back (bringing you right up to the $5,000 limit) and put the other $1,800 back at the beginning of the next calendar year or you could just wait until January to redeposit the whole $2,000. In January there's another $5,000 limit, plus anything you didn't use from a previous year, plus the amount of any withdrawal you made. So, every year the amount people can have in their TFSAs grows by $5,000 and in 10 years time everybody will be entitled to have $50,000 in their account (regardless of how much they actually deposited or withdrew during that decade).
The thing is, how many people are really fully funding their TFSAs? In fact, how many people even opened one in 2009 when they first became available? As I mentioned last week, I'm certainly not fully funding mine with $50 per pay period, especially when you consider that I'm one of the ones who didn't open the account until 2010 (so my contribution limit for this year is $10,000). I think a lot of people who are struggling aren't able to fully fund anything, whether it's 18% to their RRSP or $5,000 to a TFSA or whatever the current maximum to receive the full government match is in an RESP, or even the 1/3/6 or more months we're all encouraged to have in an Emergency Fund.
So what's an average Joe or Jane to do in this circumstance? I think the first thing is to start paying down debt. Then open a TFSA and put whatever you can in there. It could be $10 per week or $416.66 per month or anywhere in between. If you have a baby, open an RESP right away and start putting something into it. I pay $50/month into an RESP. If you've fully funded your TFSA for the year and you have contribution room left over from a previous year, I'd keep going with that. Otherwise you should start a separate Emergency Fund. Once there's $1,000 in the Emergency Fund (and your TFSA is still fully funded) you can split the deposits that were going into the EF in half. Half still goes into the EF, the rest can go into an RRSP. As you finish paying off each debt, snowball it into the remaining debt. When you have no debt other than mortgage you can split the debt repayment money between paying down principal and adding to your RRSP (up to your contribution limit, of course).
Sounds so easy, doesn't it? But I'm still in the very early stages. I'm paying down debt. I have a small TFSA and a smaller Emergency Fund. I have an RESP for my daughter. I have RRSPs but I'm not putting anything into them at this point in time. The money in them is still earning interest though. I prefer the TFSA to the RRSP because of the flexibility inherent in it but I think each has a place in my retirement plans.
In case you don't want to go over there and poke around the comments, here's the story. Trent responded to someone who asked him about opening a Roth IRA and using it as an Emergency Fund. He was against it, because the Roth has a $5,000/yr limit that expires at the end of each year (instead of being carried forward like a TFSA). Trent's point was that if you deposit $5k and then use it for an emergency you can't put it back. You've lost that year's contribution and that $5k is gone from your retirement account forever.
Several others pointed out that you might not have an emergency, and then you'd be ahead whereas if you had the emergency you wouldn't be any worse off than if you hadn't opened a Roth and had just put the money in an Emergency Fund. I chimed in to talk about how a Roth and a TFSA are similar but different, and how you can take money out and put it back into a TFSA.
I used the example of someone with a $5,000 contribution limit depositing $2,500 then withdrawing $2,000 for an emergency. I said this person could replace the $2k this year.
Kevin then jumped in to say:
In the interest of avoiding any confusion, I just wanted to correct Shevy’s inaccurate information regarding the Canadian TFSA accounts. Some of his information is completely wrong.
The TFSA does indeed have a $5,000/year contribution limit, and any gains in the account are tax-free, like a Roth IRA. Contributions are not tax-deductible. Shevy is correct that you can take money out, without penalty. Where his information goes off the rails, however, is his suggestion that you have to put the money back in that same year. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. You CAN’T re-contribute the money that same year. You can put it back, but you have to wait until the next year to do so. Money you withdraw is added to next year’s contribution limit. Unused contribution room rolls forward.
Thus, to correct Shevy’s example, say you contributed $2,500 to your TFSA in year 1, then had an emergency that required you to take out $2,000. Assuming you don’t do anything else in year 1, then next year, your limit will be $9,500 ($2,500 unused contribution room from year 1, plus the $2,000 you took out in year 1, plus your new, $5,000 limit for year 2).
So, of course, I went back to correct all of his errors, starting with where he mistook me for a guy!
First of all, there's a world of difference between being able to do something and being required to do it. I never said the person had to replace the money that same year but they could if they wanted to. Why? Because the person still had enough contribution room to be able to do it. In my example the person would have used $4,500 out of his or her $5,000 contribution room (and would have had $2,500 in the account at the end of the year). There are lots of good reasons for wanting to put the money back as soon as possible, interest being only one. Perhaps the person had to pay for something and then got reimbursed by insurance. So it really should go back in and, if it doesn't, maybe it will end up getting spent on something else. It's a way of focusing on savings and making them a priority.
Kevin is only right that you can't repay the money in the case where you've already used up all your contribution room. For example, if you put $400/mo into your TFSA and then have an emergency in October that costs $2,000 you won't be able to repay it until next year. Why? In October you have $4,000 in the account and you have another $800 that is scheduled to go in over the next 2 months. If you put the $2,000 in you would be over the limit for the year by $1,000 right away and by $1,800 by the end of the year. CRA charges 1% tax per month on the overlimit amount so that's a very bad idea.
You could put $200 back (bringing you right up to the $5,000 limit) and put the other $1,800 back at the beginning of the next calendar year or you could just wait until January to redeposit the whole $2,000. In January there's another $5,000 limit, plus anything you didn't use from a previous year, plus the amount of any withdrawal you made. So, every year the amount people can have in their TFSAs grows by $5,000 and in 10 years time everybody will be entitled to have $50,000 in their account (regardless of how much they actually deposited or withdrew during that decade).
The thing is, how many people are really fully funding their TFSAs? In fact, how many people even opened one in 2009 when they first became available? As I mentioned last week, I'm certainly not fully funding mine with $50 per pay period, especially when you consider that I'm one of the ones who didn't open the account until 2010 (so my contribution limit for this year is $10,000). I think a lot of people who are struggling aren't able to fully fund anything, whether it's 18% to their RRSP or $5,000 to a TFSA or whatever the current maximum to receive the full government match is in an RESP, or even the 1/3/6 or more months we're all encouraged to have in an Emergency Fund.
So what's an average Joe or Jane to do in this circumstance? I think the first thing is to start paying down debt. Then open a TFSA and put whatever you can in there. It could be $10 per week or $416.66 per month or anywhere in between. If you have a baby, open an RESP right away and start putting something into it. I pay $50/month into an RESP. If you've fully funded your TFSA for the year and you have contribution room left over from a previous year, I'd keep going with that. Otherwise you should start a separate Emergency Fund. Once there's $1,000 in the Emergency Fund (and your TFSA is still fully funded) you can split the deposits that were going into the EF in half. Half still goes into the EF, the rest can go into an RRSP. As you finish paying off each debt, snowball it into the remaining debt. When you have no debt other than mortgage you can split the debt repayment money between paying down principal and adding to your RRSP (up to your contribution limit, of course).
Sounds so easy, doesn't it? But I'm still in the very early stages. I'm paying down debt. I have a small TFSA and a smaller Emergency Fund. I have an RESP for my daughter. I have RRSPs but I'm not putting anything into them at this point in time. The money in them is still earning interest though. I prefer the TFSA to the RRSP because of the flexibility inherent in it but I think each has a place in my retirement plans.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
$33 Million?
Krystal over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks brought up the fact that the 6/49 is estimated at $33 million tomorrow. I asked what she'd do if she won and she posted about it. Then she turned the question back to her readers.
What would I do with $33 million?
What would I do with $33 million?
- Although most people seem to think they'd jump up and down (just like in the commercials) I think I'd sit down fast and stay there until I was sure I wasn't going to faint because, you know, starting my new life as a multi-millionaire with a concussion wouldn't be very much fun.
- I'd obsessively check and recheck the numbers.
- I'd arrange to collect my money from the BCLC office in Richmond and, ideally, I'd work an elaborate scam to get all my family members to the BCLC office all dressed up without knowing what was going on, by saying that I'd won a family photo that had to be done at a specific time and just giving them the address. Hey, it wouldn't be a lie, they do a free photo of your family as you collect that giant mockup of a cheque!
- I'd deposit the cheque and take 20% off the top that would go to charities I've already picked out. Many of them are religious but some of the top secular ones are Children's Hospital, the Rick Hansen and Chris & Dana Reeve Foundations and Habitat for Humanity.
- Pay off every penny of debt right away.
- I'd pay for new cars for hubby and all the adult kids, including the annual ICBC premium and pay for Young Drivers for an adult child who still only has a learner's permit.
- Buy each of the adult kids a home, which would be specific to their individual situations and preferences. This would include paying out the mortgage on Eldest Daughter's home (where we also live).
- Finish renovations both at this house and at our rural home (even though I would ultimately be selling it).
- Buy the land I want in the Okanagan, with a lake view. Plant lavender and grapes. Build my "dream house" (about 2,000 to 3,000 square feet in a country style with extensive gardens, including lots of fruit and vegetables).
- Build a kosher winery.
- Plan to travel, whether immediately or when school is out. I have a long list of countries I visited as a child and want to return to with my own kids. I'd also like to travel by RV around the US and Canada and see a lot of historical sites. We've also talked about doing a family trip (all the kids and grandkids) to Disneyland at some point in the next couple of years but are waiting for the baby to be at least 3. I wanted to be able to pay cash for the trip and we could certainly do that!
- Go on a very non-frugal spending spree that would include furniture I've been wanting or needing for more than a year, lots more books, some clothes and accessories and a laptop for my hubby (so we don't have to share).
- Get new glasses and have a considerable amount of family dental work done.
- Go back to school (easier to do if I stopped working).
- Spread out my money at different banks and credit unions and invest most of it very conservatively. Then live off of the interest and dividends.
Things I'm not sure I'd do:
- Quit my job. I kind of enjoy it and I only work a little more than half time. It also wouldn't be fair to quit unless I'd hired and trained a replacement. So I certainly wouldn't be one of the folks who go in and tell the boss they quit on the spot. I might take a Leave of Absence or two though and then retire a little later.
- Disappear for 3 to 6 months. That's okay if you're single or just have a spouse but it's pretty complex if you have kids in school.
- Allow myself to be talked into business deals. I have some specific business ideas of my own but I don't need to help my high school buddies open a restaurant or a long-lost relative open a sports bar, or whatever.
As I pointed out in my comment on Krystal's blog, the really nice thing about lotteries in Canada is that What You See Is What You Get. You get the full amount of the win right away and there are no income taxes due on that! Lotteries are a form of voluntary taxation and people pay for lottery tickets with after-tax dollars.
But, if I won, I'm afraid I'd have to stop blogging because it's pretty impossible to stay even semi-anonymous when you win an amount like that. And that would make me sad.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Financial Good News Too
Okay, so things aren't all bad (although they really seem that way right now). On Thursday I sat in my bank discussing my RRSP's with one of their financial services reps. It was actually a bit surreal because I knew about the cost we were incurring for the car and yet I was sitting there discussing moving thousands of dollars around.
It's not like I could access the money anyway. I'd have to pay taxes on anything I took out and I'm not allowed to because I took out money a little over a decade ago to use as a downpayment on my condo and I'm still repaying it. (The Canadian government allows you to take it out without penalty for that purpose so long as you replace it within 15 years. I'm almost done with that but still have a couple of years to go.)
I've mentioned before that I have the bulk of my RRSPs in GICs. I may not be making a fortune in interest, but I haven't lost any money yet (and my deposits are guaranteed by CDIC). Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc. aren't!
So, I had a GIC mature a couple of weeks ago and it's been sitting in my money market account making an atrocious .05% (yes, that's 5 one hundredths of one percent per annum!) ever since. I just didn't have time to go in earlier and I knew that I had another one maturing any time. So, at this moment, I have 2 of them sitting there and a 3rd one maturing early next week! The 4th one also matures in October, but not for another year.
Now, there are a couple of ways to handle GICs and maturity dates. Trent was just talking about laddering his CDs as a higher interest (but still very accessible) emergency fund. I'm actually doing the opposite. I'm combining the 3 of them and putting them into a 2 year GIC paying 4% because I don't want to have to worry about a bunch of different maturity dates. Next year I'll probably take that last one and put it into a 1 year GIC even though the rate won't be terrific (they're currently 1.9% to 2.5%) so that I can finally put them all together in late 2010.
Will I change them to a laddered format later? Possibly, as we get close to actually retiring. But, for now, it's more important that they be as simple as possible. And that they get the best guaranteed rate possible.
It's not like I could access the money anyway. I'd have to pay taxes on anything I took out and I'm not allowed to because I took out money a little over a decade ago to use as a downpayment on my condo and I'm still repaying it. (The Canadian government allows you to take it out without penalty for that purpose so long as you replace it within 15 years. I'm almost done with that but still have a couple of years to go.)
I've mentioned before that I have the bulk of my RRSPs in GICs. I may not be making a fortune in interest, but I haven't lost any money yet (and my deposits are guaranteed by CDIC). Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc. aren't!
So, I had a GIC mature a couple of weeks ago and it's been sitting in my money market account making an atrocious .05% (yes, that's 5 one hundredths of one percent per annum!) ever since. I just didn't have time to go in earlier and I knew that I had another one maturing any time. So, at this moment, I have 2 of them sitting there and a 3rd one maturing early next week! The 4th one also matures in October, but not for another year.
Now, there are a couple of ways to handle GICs and maturity dates. Trent was just talking about laddering his CDs as a higher interest (but still very accessible) emergency fund. I'm actually doing the opposite. I'm combining the 3 of them and putting them into a 2 year GIC paying 4% because I don't want to have to worry about a bunch of different maturity dates. Next year I'll probably take that last one and put it into a 1 year GIC even though the rate won't be terrific (they're currently 1.9% to 2.5%) so that I can finally put them all together in late 2010.
Will I change them to a laddered format later? Possibly, as we get close to actually retiring. But, for now, it's more important that they be as simple as possible. And that they get the best guaranteed rate possible.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Look Ma, No Goals
I always make lists of goals. Right now I have a list of long term goals but I'm not keeping up with creating microgoals to lead me in the right direction. In fact, I can't name all my long term goals off without checking back to the post where I outlined them.
That is what is known as: Fail to plan; plan to fail. How can I have any success if I don't keep all those goals up front where I can see them all the time. So, I've come up with an idea. I've added both my long term goals and my current microgoals as sidebars.
Now, every time I open my blog, it's there in black and white. These are the things I want to do and here's my next step for getting there.
That is what is known as: Fail to plan; plan to fail. How can I have any success if I don't keep all those goals up front where I can see them all the time. So, I've come up with an idea. I've added both my long term goals and my current microgoals as sidebars.
Now, every time I open my blog, it's there in black and white. These are the things I want to do and here's my next step for getting there.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
CPP and Me
I wanted to know how much money I could expect from my Canada Pension, so I asked for a Statement of Contributions. According to the government, if my earnings continue at this level until I turn 65, I could expect to get $385.91/mo in CPP benefits. It’s nowhere near the current maximum of $884.58 thanks in part to all the years I spent as a SAHM, but I can have those years “dropped out” and have the amount refigured. Or I could apply to split my ex-spouse’s CPP for the duration of our marriage. Now there’s a way to bring your ex back into your life after almost 25 years – just arrange to have the government take half his pension eligibility for a 7 year period!
I also have an annuity that was purchased for me by a previous employer that will pay me $98 or $100/mo, so let’s just say that I can count on $485.00 per month. Next there’s Old Age Pension. How much does that pay? It looks like $505.83. So, that’s a total of $990.83 per month, or $11,880 annually just for me.
My hubby should apply for his Statement of Contributions too, but I know he’ll make more in CPP because he makes more money than I do. However, he doesn’t have that handy dandy little annuity waiting for him. The average amount of CPP is currently $481.46, so let’s use that for him. Combined with OAS that would give him a monthly pension of $987.29 or an annual amount of $11,847.48. That’s a total of $23,727.48, or just a hair under the $24,000 in today’s dollars that I estimate we’ll need to live at a fairly basic level in retirement.
(It should be noted that all the money for CPP and OAS is in today’s dollars and that the amount of our CPP pensions would continue to rise if our incomes continued to rise over the next 15 years. The OAS pension amount is set annually and gets adjusted upwards.)
All of this makes it look as though my fears of us being destitute in our senior years are not based in fact. You can even go back to work after you retire and continue to receive your CPP. You just don’t contribute to CPP anymore and your pension amount doesn’t change. (In contrast, if you put off applying for CPP until your 70th birthday and continue to work in the meantime you’ll be given 30% more than the pension you would have received at 65.) Now, that’s not to say that I want to work until I’m 70, or want to retire and then start working again. I’m just stating the possibilities.
And what about our RRSPs? Well, they would give us money on top of our basic needs to do the kinds of things we want to do in retirement. Right now we have about $13,000 in RRSPs between the 2 of us and will put in another $16,800 over the next 15 years at our current (extremely low) rate of savings, for a total of at least $30,000 (ignoring interest at about 3%). At a 4% withdrawal rate, that would mean we could take out $1,200/year or $100/month. That’s not enough money for much in the way of travel, although it might improve our general standard of living slightly.
So, I’m going to say we still don’t have enough in our RRSPs. We need to improve on our savings in order to live it up just a little in our old age. But we’re unlikely to be fighting Dog for his dinner, which is good news.
I also have an annuity that was purchased for me by a previous employer that will pay me $98 or $100/mo, so let’s just say that I can count on $485.00 per month. Next there’s Old Age Pension. How much does that pay? It looks like $505.83. So, that’s a total of $990.83 per month, or $11,880 annually just for me.
My hubby should apply for his Statement of Contributions too, but I know he’ll make more in CPP because he makes more money than I do. However, he doesn’t have that handy dandy little annuity waiting for him. The average amount of CPP is currently $481.46, so let’s use that for him. Combined with OAS that would give him a monthly pension of $987.29 or an annual amount of $11,847.48. That’s a total of $23,727.48, or just a hair under the $24,000 in today’s dollars that I estimate we’ll need to live at a fairly basic level in retirement.
(It should be noted that all the money for CPP and OAS is in today’s dollars and that the amount of our CPP pensions would continue to rise if our incomes continued to rise over the next 15 years. The OAS pension amount is set annually and gets adjusted upwards.)
All of this makes it look as though my fears of us being destitute in our senior years are not based in fact. You can even go back to work after you retire and continue to receive your CPP. You just don’t contribute to CPP anymore and your pension amount doesn’t change. (In contrast, if you put off applying for CPP until your 70th birthday and continue to work in the meantime you’ll be given 30% more than the pension you would have received at 65.) Now, that’s not to say that I want to work until I’m 70, or want to retire and then start working again. I’m just stating the possibilities.
And what about our RRSPs? Well, they would give us money on top of our basic needs to do the kinds of things we want to do in retirement. Right now we have about $13,000 in RRSPs between the 2 of us and will put in another $16,800 over the next 15 years at our current (extremely low) rate of savings, for a total of at least $30,000 (ignoring interest at about 3%). At a 4% withdrawal rate, that would mean we could take out $1,200/year or $100/month. That’s not enough money for much in the way of travel, although it might improve our general standard of living slightly.
So, I’m going to say we still don’t have enough in our RRSPs. We need to improve on our savings in order to live it up just a little in our old age. But we’re unlikely to be fighting Dog for his dinner, which is good news.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Another Kind of Snowflake
The topic of goals and microgoals came up the other day on The Simple Dollar and it’s pretty cool. Basically, you come up with 10 goals that you want to achieve over the next several years and then you choose a small action (the microgoal) to take towards each large goal every day.
This is a really good way to achieve your goals because as long as you’re taking regular steps (no matter how small) towards your goal you’re in good shape. The key is that you’re always moving and moving in the right direction. It’s really very much like the debt snowball and snowflaking.
With the debt snowball you list your debts, order them either by interest rate or size of debt and plug away at them. You pay the minimum on all but your target debt. That one gets hit with everything you can throw at it. When the target debt is eliminated you move on to the next one in line. This debt gets battered down even faster because now you’re paying the minimum on it plus all the money you were putting towards the original debt. Rinse and repeat until all the debt is gone.
When you snowflake you do all of that but you also take any windfall money (bottle refunds, eBay sales, tax refund, money for taking a survey, etc.) and also apply it towards your target debt. Snowflaking gets you where you’re going even faster. Why? Because you’re focused on your goal and you’re always moving towards it, even with teeny tiny steps.
So the goal and microgoal system is just snowflaking applied to goals other than debt reduction!
I mentioned yesterday that I like this idea a lot and now I’m ready to share my list of goals.
1. Take Religious Studies courses, potentially leading to an undergraduate degree.
2. Become fluent in Hebrew.
3. Study oenology and viticulture, potentially leading to a degree.
4. Grow lavender for sale.
5. Buy a minimum of 5 acres of land in our chosen retirement area.
6. Build a home on the land.
7. Plant grapes and open a kosher winery.
8. Get totally out of debt and stay there!
9. Lose 10 pounds.
10. Accumulate enough retirement funds to supplement our pensions and other income streams.
These goals are ones to be achieved between now and 15 years from now, when we’re due to retire.
Here are my current microgoals (not so much for today, as for this week).
1. Talk with my husband about taking a Biblical Hebrew course starting in September. It’s a weekly class from September to May. Done!
2. This course actually fits into both my first 2 goals. Done!
3. Bookmark information regarding the introductory course at Okanagan College, which can be taken online. Done!
4. Replant 5 lavender plants in larger pots.
5. Check mls.ca for interesting properties. Done!
6. Look online for information on rubber roof tiles that look like slate. Done!
7. Buy yeast and potassium metabisulphite. Done!
8. Pay our share of utility bills for city house. Done!
9. Go to the gym. Do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes stretching.
10. Look for the form regarding the reinvestment of my maturing GIC. Well, I found one but I think there was another one too.
How about you? Are you interested in snowflaking towards non-financial goals?
This is a really good way to achieve your goals because as long as you’re taking regular steps (no matter how small) towards your goal you’re in good shape. The key is that you’re always moving and moving in the right direction. It’s really very much like the debt snowball and snowflaking.
With the debt snowball you list your debts, order them either by interest rate or size of debt and plug away at them. You pay the minimum on all but your target debt. That one gets hit with everything you can throw at it. When the target debt is eliminated you move on to the next one in line. This debt gets battered down even faster because now you’re paying the minimum on it plus all the money you were putting towards the original debt. Rinse and repeat until all the debt is gone.
When you snowflake you do all of that but you also take any windfall money (bottle refunds, eBay sales, tax refund, money for taking a survey, etc.) and also apply it towards your target debt. Snowflaking gets you where you’re going even faster. Why? Because you’re focused on your goal and you’re always moving towards it, even with teeny tiny steps.
So the goal and microgoal system is just snowflaking applied to goals other than debt reduction!
I mentioned yesterday that I like this idea a lot and now I’m ready to share my list of goals.
1. Take Religious Studies courses, potentially leading to an undergraduate degree.
2. Become fluent in Hebrew.
3. Study oenology and viticulture, potentially leading to a degree.
4. Grow lavender for sale.
5. Buy a minimum of 5 acres of land in our chosen retirement area.
6. Build a home on the land.
7. Plant grapes and open a kosher winery.
8. Get totally out of debt and stay there!
9. Lose 10 pounds.
10. Accumulate enough retirement funds to supplement our pensions and other income streams.
These goals are ones to be achieved between now and 15 years from now, when we’re due to retire.
Here are my current microgoals (not so much for today, as for this week).
1. Talk with my husband about taking a Biblical Hebrew course starting in September. It’s a weekly class from September to May. Done!
2. This course actually fits into both my first 2 goals. Done!
3. Bookmark information regarding the introductory course at Okanagan College, which can be taken online. Done!
4. Replant 5 lavender plants in larger pots.
5. Check mls.ca for interesting properties. Done!
6. Look online for information on rubber roof tiles that look like slate. Done!
7. Buy yeast and potassium metabisulphite. Done!
8. Pay our share of utility bills for city house. Done!
9. Go to the gym. Do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes stretching.
10. Look for the form regarding the reinvestment of my maturing GIC. Well, I found one but I think there was another one too.
How about you? Are you interested in snowflaking towards non-financial goals?
Time to Get Real
One of the things about being a compulsive reader is that when I pick up the mail at work I always scan quickly through any papers or magazines. Today my Executive Director got a copy of a paper, Business Edge, and I found a full page ad in it for a Real Estate Income Gain program with the headline: They've discovered the key to aging gracefully. Money.
Okay, then. I guess I won't be aging gracefully because I realized today, more than ever, that I. Don't. Have. Enough. Money. Put. Away.
Coincidentally, today The Simple Dollar featured a reader's mailbag post that inspired the following comment from me:
Hmm. What about if you figure out what you really want from life in the next 15 years (i.e. retirement time), add up how much you need, subtract what you already have put away, divide it to end up with a monthly amount to set aside and discover that this amount is larger than your entire family take home pay for the month?
Admittedly we aren't saving enough right now (about 3% of our gross when we're allowed by the Canadian government to save 18% for retirement plus $2,500 for educational purposes plus $5,000 annually in a tax free savings account, let's say a total of 30% of gross) but even if we saved half our money we still wouldn't be in the ball park (and we'd still have to pay taxes on that other 20%).
That's a little depressing, even leaving aside how unrealistic it would be to go from saving 3% to 30% or 50% overnight. What would you do?
So, let's be clear. I cannot turn around and start saving a lot more money than we're saving right now. For one thing, if I were to do so (or, conversely to somehow increase our income significantly) the money we pay for tuition would go up until we reached the point where we were paying at scale.
So, does that mean I just throw up my hands and give up? Accept that we'll be at the mercy of Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Pension, plus my $100/month annuity and abandon all hope of buying land, etc.? Should we just quit now and move to the country, taking our DC out of school and homeschooling her? Do we just abandon the rest of our family (the adult kids and the grandkids)?
No. I just can't accept that. There has to be another answer. I have to find a way to save at least some more money on a regular basis. I have to make some money getting rid of the things that are stacked beside the front door, waiting for a new home. I have to find a way to pay off our debt and get back into balance so we're not spending more than we make. And I have to find a way to take baby steps continually towards my goals without having great piles of cash.
I don't think there's a quick and easy answer for this, but I'd welcome suggestions that don't violate my religious beliefs.
In the meantime, I'm going to concentrate on the advice in one of Trent's posts from yesterday and make a list of 10 goals to achieve over the next several years and start setting microgoals towards them. I figure if I just keep actively moving in the direction of my goals I have to achieve more than I'm doing currently, even if I'm taking teeny tiny baby steps!
Okay, then. I guess I won't be aging gracefully because I realized today, more than ever, that I. Don't. Have. Enough. Money. Put. Away.
Coincidentally, today The Simple Dollar featured a reader's mailbag post that inspired the following comment from me:
Hmm. What about if you figure out what you really want from life in the next 15 years (i.e. retirement time), add up how much you need, subtract what you already have put away, divide it to end up with a monthly amount to set aside and discover that this amount is larger than your entire family take home pay for the month?
Admittedly we aren't saving enough right now (about 3% of our gross when we're allowed by the Canadian government to save 18% for retirement plus $2,500 for educational purposes plus $5,000 annually in a tax free savings account, let's say a total of 30% of gross) but even if we saved half our money we still wouldn't be in the ball park (and we'd still have to pay taxes on that other 20%).
That's a little depressing, even leaving aside how unrealistic it would be to go from saving 3% to 30% or 50% overnight. What would you do?
So, let's be clear. I cannot turn around and start saving a lot more money than we're saving right now. For one thing, if I were to do so (or, conversely to somehow increase our income significantly) the money we pay for tuition would go up until we reached the point where we were paying at scale.
So, does that mean I just throw up my hands and give up? Accept that we'll be at the mercy of Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Pension, plus my $100/month annuity and abandon all hope of buying land, etc.? Should we just quit now and move to the country, taking our DC out of school and homeschooling her? Do we just abandon the rest of our family (the adult kids and the grandkids)?
No. I just can't accept that. There has to be another answer. I have to find a way to save at least some more money on a regular basis. I have to make some money getting rid of the things that are stacked beside the front door, waiting for a new home. I have to find a way to pay off our debt and get back into balance so we're not spending more than we make. And I have to find a way to take baby steps continually towards my goals without having great piles of cash.
I don't think there's a quick and easy answer for this, but I'd welcome suggestions that don't violate my religious beliefs.
In the meantime, I'm going to concentrate on the advice in one of Trent's posts from yesterday and make a list of 10 goals to achieve over the next several years and start setting microgoals towards them. I figure if I just keep actively moving in the direction of my goals I have to achieve more than I'm doing currently, even if I'm taking teeny tiny baby steps!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Nothing New Under the Sun
I've been going through boxes of books recently and, in one, I found an old book on personal finance that was given to me by a friend. I chose to read through it again before deciding whether to give it away and found a lot of familiar ideas, combined with an 11 page chapter on the American government and a few snicker-inducing comments.
Now, this isn't the book review I promised for July. I can hardly do an official "review" of a book that was written in 1983 and probably hasn't been in print for years. I mean, really, how would you go about getting the book if you were interested in reading it (other than borrowing it from me, I guess)? However, I thought there were some interesting things I'd like to comment on.
The book is "Never Say Budget! How to put money in the bank and still have freedom to spend" and it was written by Mark and JoAnn Skousen. After reading the book I did a Google search on Mark's name and discovered he's a well-known economist and libertarian who is still active. He has a Ph.D. in economics and she was majoring in English and economics when the book was written (back when they were thirtysomethings).
I have to say that I'm surprised because I wasn't tremendously impressed by the book in terms of content, writing or organization. I would say that the gist of the book is well summed up by the 'Seven Golden Rules for Financial Success' listed in Chapter 11. The rules are:
1. Put savings first.
2. Save at least 10% of your income.
3. Make it easy to deposit your savings.
4. Make it difficult to withdraw your savings.
5. Invest your savings wisely.
6. Control your spending.
7. Control your credit.
Did anything there make your jaw drop at first glance? Didn't think so. But there are actually a few unusual aspects to the rules.
First, when he says to put savings first that's exactly what he means. You should put money into savings before you pay your mortgage, or buy food for your kids and you should do it even if you're on welfare. That's pretty hard line.
But when he talks about saving 10%, he's talking about your take home pay, whereas gross pay is what is more often recommended. And when he suggests making it difficult to withdraw your savings, he doesn't mean something like ING that takes a couple of days to transfer back into your bank account (ING Direct didn't exist then anyway). No, he's recommending things like choosing mutual funds with a back end load, the inconvenience of having to auction off antiques or tying up your money in real estate so you'd have to pay commissions! I don't want those kind of costs associated with accessing my money. After all, I'm going to have to take it out eventually in order to use it and I want the most money possible. I just don't want to be able to go to an ATM and yank it all out this second.
"Invest your savings wisely" is a no-brainer. I mean, who sets out to invest unwisely? Finally, I wouldn't have thought of separating credit cards out from the rest of the family spending. It's all money going out; it all needs to be controlled.
The weirdest thing about the book, in my opinion, is that it's ostensibly about saving and controlling your spending without using a traditional budget. But it takes forever to get to the point. As I said earlier, there's 11 pages on the US government, Keynesian economics and how Congress spends money. Then there's a summary of an Andy Rooney segment on how he's spent all the money he's made in his lifetime that probably takes longer to read than it took Andy to tell it. Oh yes, and the text of the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken". Because that has everything to do with saving money. There's also a chapter on how budgets don't work for Americans, but that the answer is tracking all your expenditures instead. Okay. I just happen to consider tracking my expenses to be pretty much, uh, budgeting.
Finally, we get to all the rules, chapter by chapter. It's really here that I can see the influence of the inflation of the early 80's. There are at least a couple of disparaging comments about passbook savings accounts that 'only' return 5 1/4% (we'd love to see that again) and a mention of .25 candy bars (ditto), along with a recommendation that every investor should have some portion of their portfolio in gold and silver coins.
But there's a lot that sounds like 2008 too. There are discussions on credit cards with high interest rates, debit cards, consolidation loans and bankruptcy. There are the requisite explanations of American retirement savings plans, such as the IRA and Keogh (relatively new at the time the book was written) and dividend reinvestment plans (a la Derek Foster). And the discussion of short-term interest only mortgages and their dangers eerily foreshadowed the current sub-prime mess. From p.143-4: "Yet real estate slumps seldom hit everyone at once. Not being able to make payments or sell your house is a private emergency, not a national one.....those who overextend themselves are likely to lose their homes."
All in all, it was an interesting, if not particularly well-written, book although I didn't end up with much in the way of new information. It seems there truly is nothing new under the sun. So, ultimately, I think it really is one for the give-away box. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy a .25 chocolate bar!
Now, this isn't the book review I promised for July. I can hardly do an official "review" of a book that was written in 1983 and probably hasn't been in print for years. I mean, really, how would you go about getting the book if you were interested in reading it (other than borrowing it from me, I guess)? However, I thought there were some interesting things I'd like to comment on.
The book is "Never Say Budget! How to put money in the bank and still have freedom to spend" and it was written by Mark and JoAnn Skousen. After reading the book I did a Google search on Mark's name and discovered he's a well-known economist and libertarian who is still active. He has a Ph.D. in economics and she was majoring in English and economics when the book was written (back when they were thirtysomethings).
I have to say that I'm surprised because I wasn't tremendously impressed by the book in terms of content, writing or organization. I would say that the gist of the book is well summed up by the 'Seven Golden Rules for Financial Success' listed in Chapter 11. The rules are:
1. Put savings first.
2. Save at least 10% of your income.
3. Make it easy to deposit your savings.
4. Make it difficult to withdraw your savings.
5. Invest your savings wisely.
6. Control your spending.
7. Control your credit.
Did anything there make your jaw drop at first glance? Didn't think so. But there are actually a few unusual aspects to the rules.
First, when he says to put savings first that's exactly what he means. You should put money into savings before you pay your mortgage, or buy food for your kids and you should do it even if you're on welfare. That's pretty hard line.
But when he talks about saving 10%, he's talking about your take home pay, whereas gross pay is what is more often recommended. And when he suggests making it difficult to withdraw your savings, he doesn't mean something like ING that takes a couple of days to transfer back into your bank account (ING Direct didn't exist then anyway). No, he's recommending things like choosing mutual funds with a back end load, the inconvenience of having to auction off antiques or tying up your money in real estate so you'd have to pay commissions! I don't want those kind of costs associated with accessing my money. After all, I'm going to have to take it out eventually in order to use it and I want the most money possible. I just don't want to be able to go to an ATM and yank it all out this second.
"Invest your savings wisely" is a no-brainer. I mean, who sets out to invest unwisely? Finally, I wouldn't have thought of separating credit cards out from the rest of the family spending. It's all money going out; it all needs to be controlled.
The weirdest thing about the book, in my opinion, is that it's ostensibly about saving and controlling your spending without using a traditional budget. But it takes forever to get to the point. As I said earlier, there's 11 pages on the US government, Keynesian economics and how Congress spends money. Then there's a summary of an Andy Rooney segment on how he's spent all the money he's made in his lifetime that probably takes longer to read than it took Andy to tell it. Oh yes, and the text of the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken". Because that has everything to do with saving money. There's also a chapter on how budgets don't work for Americans, but that the answer is tracking all your expenditures instead. Okay. I just happen to consider tracking my expenses to be pretty much, uh, budgeting.
Finally, we get to all the rules, chapter by chapter. It's really here that I can see the influence of the inflation of the early 80's. There are at least a couple of disparaging comments about passbook savings accounts that 'only' return 5 1/4% (we'd love to see that again) and a mention of .25 candy bars (ditto), along with a recommendation that every investor should have some portion of their portfolio in gold and silver coins.
But there's a lot that sounds like 2008 too. There are discussions on credit cards with high interest rates, debit cards, consolidation loans and bankruptcy. There are the requisite explanations of American retirement savings plans, such as the IRA and Keogh (relatively new at the time the book was written) and dividend reinvestment plans (a la Derek Foster). And the discussion of short-term interest only mortgages and their dangers eerily foreshadowed the current sub-prime mess. From p.143-4: "Yet real estate slumps seldom hit everyone at once. Not being able to make payments or sell your house is a private emergency, not a national one.....those who overextend themselves are likely to lose their homes."
All in all, it was an interesting, if not particularly well-written, book although I didn't end up with much in the way of new information. It seems there truly is nothing new under the sun. So, ultimately, I think it really is one for the give-away box. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy a .25 chocolate bar!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Putting a Price on Paradise
Intensely blue sky, little puffy white clouds, sagebrush and pine. That’s the picture out of my dining room window. There are days I can look out and see mountain goats climbing around on the hilltop and pretty well every day I can see big groups of quail running around and Stellar’s Jays flying from fencepost to tree branch. In late May the big hedges of lilacs were in full bloom, scenting the air.
This is why I love the country. This is why I want to retire here and grow lavender and grapes and have a big English style garden. I’m happier here than anywhere else, which is no small thing in life.
But there are bills to pay to make that happen and it seems there are more of them every time I turn around. I got my Rural Property Tax assessment the last time I was here and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was only $123. I got here yesterday and discovered the reason it’s so low is that the garbage disposal costs had been removed and billed separately, along with the water. Now, the water I knew about but the extra $120 bill for the garbage was unexpected.
The property tax is due in July; the garbage bill is due in August. I’ll manage to dig up the money for them but after that I’ll have to start putting $20/month away so I’ll be prepared next year.
The water is a flat rate of $345 per year or $28.75 per month. I become responsible for that in October and will have to pay it monthly. So, my costs for this house, including the cost of the land, will be a total of $257 per month plus electricity (and gas, if we ever find a gasfitter to get the fireplace hooked up). Add to that the cost of fuel oil (about $50/month, based on a little under 2 tanks per year) and we’re paying $307 per month for our little slice of heaven.
That would be incredibly economical if we were living here full-time (even though our electric bill would go up and we’d end up putting in satellite and high speed internet) but it’s a bit pricey for the amount of time we actually spend here. We can’t spend long stretches of time here due to work and childcare issues plus the cost of gasoline has increased dramatically since we first started looking for property.
The car takes roughly 50 litres of gas and we use 1½ tanks on average actually driving here and back, plus driving around while we’re here. When gas was $0.79/litre our cost was $59.25. Gas is currently around $1.45/litre, so the same trip now costs $108.75! It hasn’t quite doubled, but it’s getting close. And coming by myself on the Greyhound costs $118.76, so I don’t save any money that way.
I’d love to come here every weekend in the summer and every 2 to 3 weeks in the winter (when we can generally only stay for one day). But the reality is that I can’t possibly afford to do so. We’ve been spending close to $10/day for gas in town recently, or about $250/month. Add even 2 trips to the house per month and that brings our gas expenses to almost $470/month! Coming every week would run us a stunning $700 per month! That is so not possible for us.
Now, we are going to try to cut back somewhat in town but it remains to be seen how much we’ll be able to save there. If we can save $5 per workday that would be about $110 per month (the equivalent of one trip to the house) but we’d also have to pay for a bus pass out of that, so our real saving would be about $40 per month.
What’s the solution? In the short term, it’s to make more money and use the cash to pay the credit cards back down. Once we no longer have payments to make to them we’ll be able to redirect the money we’re spending there in other, more life-enhancing ways. I also want to find ways to reduce the cost of some other things, notably our cell phones and bank charges. I was stunned to realize that bank charges on our 3 bank accounts (well, four, but ING doesn’t have any charges) total a minimum of $42.35 per month! If I actually use my overdraft protection I also pay overdraft interest but that’s the least of my worries. The last time I used it, I was charged a whole $0.12! Twelve cents I can handle, but paying just over $500 per year merely to have our bank accounts is outrageous.
In the long term, the solution is to arrange our lives so that we can move here permanently. That’s not something I expect to happen overnight. We’re scheduled to retire in 15 or 16 years and that would be the longest time before we could move here. The minimum would be 4 years (when my youngest granddaughter will go to kindergarten full-time) but the most realistic assessment is probably about 8 years from now when our youngest Dear Child will be entering high school. At that point it’s fairly likely we’d be sending her away to school anyway so where we live matters much less.
Even if there is a suitable girls high school in our city by that time she could potentially stay in the city with her sister (seeing as we live in the same house already anyway) while we lived in the country and we’d bring her back and forth every other weekend or so and she could spend the summer and other holiday times with us.
So, I’m facing eight more years of living my life in bits and pieces. Can I handle that? I guess I can deal with fragmenting my life so long as the costs to do so don’t increase too much more. But I look out at the sunshine and that beautiful blue sky and, for now, it’s worth it!
I’m off to relax before Shabbat, which doesn’t start until just after 9 pm tonight (the latest it ever gets). We’re having an easy dinner. Honey garlic chicken wings that will just take a few minutes to reheat, potato salad and coleslaw tonight. Roast beef on challah buns with potato salad and chips tomorrow (when it’s supposed to be very hot). I’ll pick up a bottle of wine on my way home now from posting this, so I’m not sure what I’ll get. The liquor store here does stock a number of kosher Israeli wines but I don’t know what’s actually on the shelves at the moment.
Shabbat Shalom!
This is why I love the country. This is why I want to retire here and grow lavender and grapes and have a big English style garden. I’m happier here than anywhere else, which is no small thing in life.
But there are bills to pay to make that happen and it seems there are more of them every time I turn around. I got my Rural Property Tax assessment the last time I was here and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was only $123. I got here yesterday and discovered the reason it’s so low is that the garbage disposal costs had been removed and billed separately, along with the water. Now, the water I knew about but the extra $120 bill for the garbage was unexpected.
The property tax is due in July; the garbage bill is due in August. I’ll manage to dig up the money for them but after that I’ll have to start putting $20/month away so I’ll be prepared next year.
The water is a flat rate of $345 per year or $28.75 per month. I become responsible for that in October and will have to pay it monthly. So, my costs for this house, including the cost of the land, will be a total of $257 per month plus electricity (and gas, if we ever find a gasfitter to get the fireplace hooked up). Add to that the cost of fuel oil (about $50/month, based on a little under 2 tanks per year) and we’re paying $307 per month for our little slice of heaven.
That would be incredibly economical if we were living here full-time (even though our electric bill would go up and we’d end up putting in satellite and high speed internet) but it’s a bit pricey for the amount of time we actually spend here. We can’t spend long stretches of time here due to work and childcare issues plus the cost of gasoline has increased dramatically since we first started looking for property.
The car takes roughly 50 litres of gas and we use 1½ tanks on average actually driving here and back, plus driving around while we’re here. When gas was $0.79/litre our cost was $59.25. Gas is currently around $1.45/litre, so the same trip now costs $108.75! It hasn’t quite doubled, but it’s getting close. And coming by myself on the Greyhound costs $118.76, so I don’t save any money that way.
I’d love to come here every weekend in the summer and every 2 to 3 weeks in the winter (when we can generally only stay for one day). But the reality is that I can’t possibly afford to do so. We’ve been spending close to $10/day for gas in town recently, or about $250/month. Add even 2 trips to the house per month and that brings our gas expenses to almost $470/month! Coming every week would run us a stunning $700 per month! That is so not possible for us.
Now, we are going to try to cut back somewhat in town but it remains to be seen how much we’ll be able to save there. If we can save $5 per workday that would be about $110 per month (the equivalent of one trip to the house) but we’d also have to pay for a bus pass out of that, so our real saving would be about $40 per month.
What’s the solution? In the short term, it’s to make more money and use the cash to pay the credit cards back down. Once we no longer have payments to make to them we’ll be able to redirect the money we’re spending there in other, more life-enhancing ways. I also want to find ways to reduce the cost of some other things, notably our cell phones and bank charges. I was stunned to realize that bank charges on our 3 bank accounts (well, four, but ING doesn’t have any charges) total a minimum of $42.35 per month! If I actually use my overdraft protection I also pay overdraft interest but that’s the least of my worries. The last time I used it, I was charged a whole $0.12! Twelve cents I can handle, but paying just over $500 per year merely to have our bank accounts is outrageous.
In the long term, the solution is to arrange our lives so that we can move here permanently. That’s not something I expect to happen overnight. We’re scheduled to retire in 15 or 16 years and that would be the longest time before we could move here. The minimum would be 4 years (when my youngest granddaughter will go to kindergarten full-time) but the most realistic assessment is probably about 8 years from now when our youngest Dear Child will be entering high school. At that point it’s fairly likely we’d be sending her away to school anyway so where we live matters much less.
Even if there is a suitable girls high school in our city by that time she could potentially stay in the city with her sister (seeing as we live in the same house already anyway) while we lived in the country and we’d bring her back and forth every other weekend or so and she could spend the summer and other holiday times with us.
So, I’m facing eight more years of living my life in bits and pieces. Can I handle that? I guess I can deal with fragmenting my life so long as the costs to do so don’t increase too much more. But I look out at the sunshine and that beautiful blue sky and, for now, it’s worth it!
I’m off to relax before Shabbat, which doesn’t start until just after 9 pm tonight (the latest it ever gets). We’re having an easy dinner. Honey garlic chicken wings that will just take a few minutes to reheat, potato salad and coleslaw tonight. Roast beef on challah buns with potato salad and chips tomorrow (when it’s supposed to be very hot). I’ll pick up a bottle of wine on my way home now from posting this, so I’m not sure what I’ll get. The liquor store here does stock a number of kosher Israeli wines but I don’t know what’s actually on the shelves at the moment.
Shabbat Shalom!
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