Want a simple ‘Spending Plan Process’? – Set up three accounts. These can be three bank accounts or can consist of a cash account or two, depending on what works for you. One account for your regular monthly expenses, one for savings and one for your day-to-day spending needs.
With mortgage rates still hovering at historic lows, chances are you’ve considered breaking your current mortgage and renewing now before rates begin to rise.
Perhaps you want to free up cash for such things as renovations, travel or putting towards your children’s education? Or maybe you want to pay down debt or pay your mortgage off faster? In some cases, the penalty can be quite substantial if you aren’t very far into your mortgage term, but we can determine if breaking your mortgage now will benefit you long term.
I envy people who have no debt. I want to be like them. I really do. I have the skills, I have the desire, yet it seems like a goal floating in the wind. I can see it. And almost touch it but it keeps floating away from my grasp. Oh I’ve made some progress over the years, but unsteady income, child care and investments in my education have all ensured I don’t get too far away from debt. Not yet anyway. But I’m nothing if not persistent!
A retired couple, who came to me for financial advice, were in for one of their follow up Counselling Sessions. I had them track their spending for the previous month and was asking them how they did. They felt they had done a good job except for the fact that (in her words) her husband did not get receipts. He was openly frustrated with this requirement to account for every cent spent.
When my kids first started bringing the books home, I wasn’t crazy about the “wimpy kid”. He seemed a bit, well, jilted and rude. But the wimpy kid stayed around, the books came home from the library and the movie appeared several times at different events. And then, something magical happened
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