OK, another final exam is coming up yet again, and I'm totally not ready for this one. I've obviously burnt myself out, by taking too many semesters in a row without a break in an already accelerated program. So I'm looking forward to taking the next semester off! So I haven't really had any time to think about some of the topics I planned to write about. So, instead of slapping something together or writing nothing, I thought I'd just update you on some things I've been thinking about.
First, I really appreciated the comment about the unexpected expenses from FieryCanuck77 last week. I have started to budget $100/month to go into a contingency fund that I'll max out at about $2000-$3000. I don't think I really need to build it faster because the car and tires are new, the TV and appliances are fairly new (plus I plan to move soonish), and I'm prepared for most expenses. Lets face it, most expenses are predictable. Just because we ignore them doesn't mean we didn't know the tires would die one day. Rather than putting money aside for each individual item though, I decided a group contingency fund would work just as well.
Second, soon after writing about having all the expected items covered, I got a letter saying I owe my Water and Sewer bill. I was a little embarrassed to admit that I totally forgot about this one yet again. Actually I added a monthly amount to the budget, but when I noticed we never paid it, I assumed it was a mistake and removed it. Oops! However, we are okay, due to another mistake I made, which brings me to...
Third, while I was trying to determine where the money was going to come from when I take a pay cut, I noticed I had under estimated my wife's salary. Now, that was a happy mistake, I was glad to find. Before you question my math skills, let me explain. When I set it up, I didn't know what her deductions would be, or how the pay works. She gets night time premiums, weekend premiums, overtime, etc, etc. You need a math degree just to calculate an average. So until I had some real data to go on, I purposely budgeted the numbers lower. Now that I have 6 months of data to base this on, I have a much better picture of what to expect and thankfully it should be enough to cover my pay cut.
Finally, I'm looking into buying an investment property and I've come to the conclusion that buying in BC is not going to happen anytime soon. However, I did join the Real Estate Investment Network and there are a lot of investors that invest in properties of the province (or country). I'm still short the funds to make an investment anywhere, but at least this gives me a lot more options and will require a lot less time to come up with the funds.
Wish me luck on my exam! Now.... time to study hard!
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good luck on your exam!
ReplyDeleteExciting news about investment property. Have you figured out where exactly? I laughed at your comment on how it won't be in BC! Yeah, not at these prices!! :)
If we stop randomly spending our extra money on eating out, we'd have extra money to put away as well. That's something we're hoping and planning on working on in the near future!
Hey, I think investment should be made in positive geared properties.It will double your money in short time.
DeleteThank you! Its not going to be a fun weekend of studying.
ReplyDeleteYeah BC, is expensive, but I'd have a hard time moving because its so beautiful here. I haven't decided where to invest with any certainty yet, but I was recently looking into Winnipeg Manitoba. Lots of things to work out still of course. I'll go into more details if and when I do it.
Good luck on cutting down on eating out. Its one I still struggle with. My suggestion is to not cut it out entirely though. If you starve yourself, you're bound to go on binges.
I wish you luck and keep on struggle to achieve the goal.
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