Dave Life Adventures

Howdy friends I read this morning that the Canadian government is again starting to consider tweaking mortgage rules. http://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/news/item/1384-imf-warning-rattles-flippers This is being considered in order to protect the Canadian economy from the increasing debt toll the average individual Canadian is carrying. I have agreed with most of the measures that have been implemented to secure our housing market, and  continue to agree that something must be done t o address the potential financial crisis that would be inevitable if people fail to change their spending/saving habits, I also don't believe that mortgages are where our greatest vulnerability lies. I would like to suggest that it is not secured debt that has us veering towards a cliff of economic uncertainty but rather our unsecured financing options that will finish us if we are not careful.  Currently the requirement to gain a mortgage far exceeds any requirem...

May 2, 2012 the moment I got frustrated enough with carrying a huge debt load that I made a critical decision.... ITS TIME TO SELL! My taxes came due ,you see, and while I had done so well to manage and plan ahead and not take on new debt, somehow I over looked/chose not to see the freight train of a bill I was about to receive. Faced with losing all the gains in my debt fight thus far it was time to do something drastic. It was time to sell my home. I tried not to. I really didn't want to. I liked my little pad and have spent the past 6 years that I owned it refinishing it completely to be exactly as I liked it and it was finally to a point that it felt finished. And so I avoided it, tried to refinance and get rid of my consumer debt and tax bill by sliding it into my mortgage. DIDNT WORK. Turns out there's a rule against using your house to pay your taxes. GRRRR! It was possible to work around it but I just didn't have any peace about it and so I listed my place. I ...

The Finite Reality of Life - this was riginally posted to a friends blog but when she closed hers down I figured I would share it here Life is limited. We only have 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week. No matter what you do you can’t add or subtract from that time. We all get the same amount. Each moment is valuable because of the simple fact that each breath we take is one closer to our last. My intent is not to be morbid but rather to inspire those around me to live each day to its fullest. Think for a moment how much of your life is spent in negative thoughts and situations. For me the largest stress in my life is my debt load. I have expended countless hours figuring out how to juggle everything I owe and get all my payments paid on time. That is until I got fed up with it all and made a conscious decision to change my life. Those of you have followed my blog you will know that I am devoted to getting out of debt and I write this I am nearing the end of that journey. ...

So it's been a while since I updated on my journey to financial freedom so I figured I would take a moment and catch you up to speed. I have made some fairly heavy decisions so here is an update on what my thoughts have been. In January, I made one of the biggest decisions I have had to face since beginning this journey. After a slow Decemeber, (typical in real estate) I faced the sincere reality of having no money and nothing coming in with bills due NOW! Not a wonderful place to be in. My choices: go backward into debt to survive or cash in my investments. One of the few places of diligence in my financial life over the past years was saving 10% and investing for the future so this was not an option I particularly relished. Add the fact that pretty much all of my investments were below what I paid was not increasing my attraction to this option. Capital losses only ever look good on a tax return.  But in the end I made the choice no going backward, I am committed to getting out...

The holiday season has come to a close and with all the "Christmas cheer" floating around I am sure a few of you woke up a morning or two a little under the weather. Unfortunately for you there's not a lot of advice from me in that area. What I am here to chat about is the inevitable evil January Credit Card hangover! Christmas spending pushes most of us beyond our means and then with a swipe we cripple our selves with credit card debt. I read an article earlier in the season which read that something like 1/2 of people surveyed hadn't fully paid off their last years Christmas purchases by this year. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that adding new debt to this old debt is creating an incredibly dangerous cycle. SO STOP IT! BREAK FREE! This year do one simple thing to help release yourself from this stress and follow this simple steps: 1. Add up what you spent this year 2. Divide that number by 26 (assuming you get paid every 2 weeks) 3. Eve...

Ok, so the one thing that I am discovering about blogging is that it brings a new level of accountability into my life. It is working great for me in the debt realm so I am taking this opportunity to apply it to the life realm. New years is a time where everyone talks about resolutions. Resolutions though are often quickly forgotten, in fact in my 30ish years on earth only once have kept a New Years reso. (2006 I quit smoking and haven't had a puff since) I assume I am not alone in my numerous resolution failures and so this year I propose we do something different. Let's not just be resolute but let us set goals, real goals, S.M.A.R.T . goals. The SMART acronym is borrowed from my business back ground and stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. And so here are my goals for 2012: Physical - 160 lbs - ok so I realize I am not what most would consider fat but as I near closer and closer to the 180 mark I realize that I need to pay closer attentio...

Ok so I was torn on wether to post this, but in the end I decided to because I want to be straight up on the process of getting out of debt and that includes the frustrations and growing pains as I go along. Hopefully you can take something out of my whining :-P In the short couple of months that I have been focused on getting out of debt I have got to say this is one of the TOUGHEST things I have ever done. Never in my life have I lived on this tight of a budget, somedays there is a place in side of me absolutely screaming "THIS IS KILLING ME!!!" Which I suppose, I realize as I write this is the entire point. I am trying to get rid of the part of me that values feeling rich over true financial stability.  I am however somewhat shocked at how deeply entrenched this consumption addiction runs though. I walked into Costco the other day because I needed to pick up a  small gift for a Christmas party and walked out with the inexpensive gift I had planned but also the Lord o...

Part of waking up to the realization that my past spending habits were leading me down a quick road to destitution has done a lot for my attitude towards money. Further, it has caused me to take a long hard look at how I got in this position. I have never lacked a work ethic in fact I don't remember many points in my life when I didn't have a job, since I was old enough to push a lawnmower I have nearly always been gainfully employed. This work ethic combined with a business degree, professional designation, entrepreneurial attitude and fabulous people skills has made income generation easy for the most part for me, my problem is and always has been keeping any of it. And this sparked a question... What if...  What if I could go back in time and instead of wasting money on momentary pleasures that got me no where I would have learned early to be a saver.  And so I did some calculations for the kiddies, courtesy of the savings calculator I found at  www.daveramsey.com ...

If it ain't broke don't fix it! ...but what if you aren't aware that it's broke.  They say knowledge is power, and I would agree 100% in my bible God warns in Hosea 4: 6 " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." I think this is one of the biggest problems we face in our financial lives. Too many people are intimidated by finances so they just try and ignore them. The overwhelming amount of get rich quick strategy's and underwhelming amount of solid stewardship training that exist creates a intellectual vacuum and so people simply run a budget of, if there is money in the account spend it and if not use the credit card. I realize that's an over simplification but it unfortunately not far off. And that right there is my biggest motivation in life right now, empower people with financial knowledge so that they dont get their financial education from the school of hard-knocks. I personally have made enough mistakes and learned enough lesson...