Dave Life Adventures

I am finally taking a second to write and I cannot believe that I only have 4 shifts left! 😩  That seems so unbelievably crazy to me. Its been a full few weeks and gotten to the point where in many ways I feel like this place is a part of me. The work is exhausting both physically and emotionally but the people and the community that comes with it are equally beautiful and fulfilling.  Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece In most of my travels it's the dichotomy of the situations I get myself into that often impact me the most and Greece has been no exception. Here we have this beautiful country with thrilling landscapes around every corner and in the middle of it all is the Moria Refugee Camp, a military base and very prisonesque, which now houses 2,000ish men from around the world as they anxiously await their decision on asylum, a place many were told would be a few day stop on their journey but has become their home for months, and a place where hope gradually and continuall...

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 ...

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...

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...

The Occupy movements around the world have without question gained peoples attention. Seems like everyone has an opinion and you can't get through 10 minutes of a newscast without something being mentioned. This virtual obsession on the topic has me absolutely intrigued with the source of the media madness. Personally I find myself an outside observer to the whole affair, as a Realtor and accountant my professional background and education would set me up as sympathizer of the 1% but as a Christian who has a deep conviction of Christ's views on social justice my heart is greatly concerned with many of the issues being called on by the 99.  As an outsider, one could easily over simplify the situation and say its all about Evil Corporate America vs A Whiny Bunch of Hippies. As I ponder it more and more though, I realize that the facts simply aren't that simple (they never are). As you look deeper into the situation you begin to see a commentary on our culture both good and ba...

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 ...

Hello, my name is David Whitrow and I’m a son, brother, Realtor, CMA, proud Canadian, Christian, rider fan, social conservative, hockey player and SLAVE! …say what… Slave? You heard me SLAVE, S-L-A-V-E, SLAAAAAVE How so you ask, well the Solomon put it best in the book of Proverbs: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” Proverbs 22:7 You see, slavery, as we commonly understand it, was abolished through out the entire British Empire in 1834 under the Bristish Parliament's Slavery Abolition Act effectively ending legal slavery in Canada at least until the 1920’s when a little thing called the credit card was invented. Mmmmm credit cards… I have had a love hate relationship with them since I first walked down that university corridor and some dude offered me a free T-shirt for filling out a silly little form, a few weeks later a little piece of plastic showed up at my door. To be honest, I tossed it aside and never reall...