Want to retire now? You might be able to. We are often told that we need million and millions of dollars to retire. That is only true depending on what kind of retirement we want for ourselves. If we want to continue with new cars every few years, living in our McMansions, eating out all the time, and enjoying the big city life we probably need even more!

But think how great it would be to just leave it all behind and enjoy life for what it is. If you didn’t have to work you could sleep in late, enjoy a leisurely coffee at a cute little coffee place with hipsters and artists. You could have long walks looking in all of the store windows. You could meet someone for coffee everyday and start doing all of the other things that you long for day to day.

Doesn’t that sound awesome? Let’s find out how much it would cost. Now if you cut all of your expenses and started fresh, how much would you need to live on? Let’s take the example of moving to a cheap retirement destination now, for example Mexico, Northern Ontario, or Istanbul like where I want to retire. Look around and see if you could get a cute pad for $500-$1,000 a month. You would need to eat, have some extra spending cash, and maybe some money to a have a trip home once a year to see all the workers!

Does that scenario sounded good to you? I could do that for $2,500 a month. Here is how I’d do it. I would have a pad for $800 per month, eat for $700 and have another $1,000 a month for travelling and trips home. To get $2,500 a month at a very conservative 6% return by laddering GICs I would only need $500,000–far from the $3 million that people call for today.

Now how would I get there? Knowing what my dollar amount is I can do some extra jobs before I go and teach English to earn extra money when I retire. I probably won’t be off to Istanbul this month, but I could if I wanted! My point is to set your dollar amount and start saving.

Anchor yourself to how awesome early retirement would be and look at ways to do it. The standard of living is so much cheaper in fantastic areas of the world. Get excited by the idea that it is possible now.

Life should be about enjoying our time, more freedom, more time with friends and family and more joy. Why spend another day in a bad office cubicle?

Love your money and it’ll love you back with early retirement and an awesome life.

Dave

Sometimes when we cut too much enjoyment out of our lives we fall
off the wagon and have a crazy spending spree to get some release
from the austerity. We wake up surrounded by shopping bags with
caviar smeared all over our faces from the night before. We can’t have that now can we dhaaaarlings?

My win win solution to this problem is to cut spending that doesn’t make you truly happy and then make way more money at what does make you happy. Look at what you do well and make more money at it. I, for example, love to talk about money, and now I get paid to write about it! How awesome is that?

What is Your Market Value:

Compare salaries to see what similar jobs are paying. Call a friend or a head hunter to find out. Many industry sites post the average salaries for any given job. You may be surprised to learn that you are not making the current average rate! And if you do make more than average you should still ask for a raise. Good people are worth hanging onto. You’re totally worth more.

List Your Accomplishments:

My friend Chris on our Route 66 road trip!

I just got my yearly car insurance bill and I saved more money again!  Insurance is one of those expenses where you hate to pay but need to have it.  Why not trim those premiums and try to make some money in the process?  That’s how we roll, right?  Here are some of the things I do to take the itch out of insurance prices.  Enjoy my money monkeys!

Reduce Your Deductible

I would never claim any damage under $1,000 so why not increase my deductible to that amount.  When my insurance agency tried to get me to reduce my deductible it would have cost me $1,000 a year.  I’ll save that $1,000 and keep it in my rainy day emergency fund making me interest.

Keep All of Your Insurance Policies At One Place

I save 5% for each insurance policy I have with my insurance company.  I keep my house and car insurance at the same firm to save that 5%. When I get my plane, boat, and cottage insurance with them I’ll save even more

Shop Around!

I love harassing the poor customer retention department staff.  When they call I’ll charm them by telling them what a great customer I am and how I deserve a better discount.  I’ll phone their competitors and if I find a better price I’ll have them beat it!  It’s getting very competitive in the insurance industry and they will bend over backwards to keep good customers.

Affiliate Discount Programs

Ask at work or your spouse’s work if you have any affiliate programs with insurance companies.  Being associated with a large company can save you a lot of money.  I get a discount for also being a UWO alumni.  Finally my schooling is paying me back!

Ditch The Extras

Get rid of any rental car benefits.  Cheap cars will cost you $20 a day.  Towing and other perks should be kept to a minimum that cost you more.  Think how often you get into an accident vs. how many years you pay these extra fees.

Buy The Insurance Company Stock

Insurance companies have great profits so why not buy their stock?  Do your research and if the stock pays a dividend and has been a good performer why not let them pay you a premium for a change?

Love your money and it’ll love you back with savvy insurance,

Dave

– SPEND on your perfect items. You’ll wear them way more and won’t buy as much saving money in the long run. If applied to spending on clothes, the perfect cocktail dress or suit that makes you feel like a million bucks when you wear it is worth spending on.  If you wear it all the time because you feel good in it and get compliments then it will pay for itself by the good things that happen to you when you put it on.  Feeling good in meetings is a huge advantage and will pay you back with greater results at work.  Plus, if you cut out on spending on the things that will just sit at the back of your closet that you never use, you’ll actually save money in the long run.  Only buy your perfect items and then love them!

- USE credit cards to get cash back and build your credit.  Charge all of your fixed costs onto a no fee BMO MasterCard CashBack credit card, like gas, insurance, cell phone, gym, utilities, cable, and internet.  You will get cash back on the things you need to use your card on and collect cash back dollars month by month.  Also, use your card for trips, furniture, and other big one-time purchases, it all adds up at the end of the year.  David received $271.02 back on these things this year!  That means free utilities for a month or a nice dinner with a good friend.

- BUY luxury cars – Never lease a car always buy it. You will pay interest on the entire product and you don’t even own it if you lease. Buy it used to save on the initial cost, loan interest and insurance. Buy a luxury car, it’ll depreciate more slowly, have more options, be safer, and easier to sell if you need to.

Being a miser will only keep a negative attitude towards money.  Spend smarter and enjoy your life!

Have an awesome week,

Dave

Not only have they made the physical appearance of the card look like a shiny new car, they get us drunk on points or trips, or free things to entice us to use the card for every single purchase.  New tricks like having money-tracking reports in our statements are there so we know exactly what category we spent too much money on to feed our egos.

Now I have fallen for this trick when I was just out of university.  I had the shiniest, goldest, sleekest card they had.  It would have been worshiped as an Inca goddess if it had existed in ancient Inca society!

I swiped it on everything from bars to trips to gas and groceries – all in the name of those most precious points.  I would throw it down whenever I was at a dinner and then I would grab everyone’s cash to get the points.  Then I would spend that money I had collected and still would have t0 pay back the cost of the dinner.  In the long run, you spend more with the Ferrari of cards than you ever would save on trips or gain in prestige for having a sexy card.

That was a long time ago and I paid interest on my gold card at 18.9% interest only ONCE.  I quickly dumped every pay cheque I had on the card until the debt was gone and I have never paid credit card interest again.  I also ditched the gold card for something that would actually benefit me.

My new credit card was the crappiest look wise I could find.  It’s a no fee card that gives me an “ok” cash back on fuel and my fixed expenses like gym, cell, insurance and anything I HAVE to charge like flights or parking meters.  I went from a gold card with a spiffy design, to rocks on the face of the card.  No more blinglicious card that encourages me to spend way more than I need to.

There are better cash back cards out there but I don’t want them. Anything that encourages me to spend more than I would with cash doesn’t make “cents” to me.  I’ll save way more not using it than I would get back from using it on things that I don’t need or even want.

Ditch your  fancy platinum, gold and fierce black cards and get one with a hampster, waterfall or rocks on it.  It’ll give you what we all TRULY want,  financial savvy.

Have an awesome week,

Dave

I’m back in Toronto and I’ll be doing a book signing at the following Indigo Chapters stores in the GTA.  Come meet me and let’s talk about our mutual love of money.  More stores will follow in May!

April 2nd – 1-5pm

Chapters – Woodbridge
East Woodbridge Centre, 3900 Hwy 7 West, Unit 1
Woodbridge, Ontario
L4L 1A6
Canada
(905)264-6401

April 9th 1-5 pm

Indigo – Yorkdale Shopping Centre

3401 Dufferin Street Unit #29
Toronto, Ontario
M6A 2T9
Canada
(416)781-6660

April 30th 1-5pm

Indigo – Yonge & Eglinton
2300 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4P 1E4
Canada
(416)544-0049

Love your money by following my blog, following my twitter, getting a book signed and ”friending” my facebook page!

Dave

I have a new Facebook fan page so please like it!   There is a link on this page to the right column.

Book Signing:  Yorkdale Mall, Toronto, ON    April 9th 1 -5pm

I’ll be signing books at Indigo at Yorkdale on April 9th.  Please come by and get a book and meet me.  I’ll be there from 1pm – 5pm.  I’d love to talk money with you.

Keep loving your money,

Dave

I love doing value exercises with my clients because we see why they tick.  What truly motivates them based on their values and what life will truly make them happy.  The material items are bought only to reward yourself when and only when you achieve the actual value in a cash flow neutral way.

Do you notice that when we buy expensive clothes – we really are trying to get a sense of  leadership or respect or achievement.  Think of what you’ll really have when you have those fierce prada’s.  Is it a sense of leadership for being a trendy momma?  Respect from your peers? The perception of achievement from make the kind of living that would allow such booties?

And paying for expensive trips abroad?  We are really looking for freedom or fun aren’t we?  Think of what value of yours gets satisfied when you go to Bora Bora and do shooters and make out with the locals.

We spend lots of money on expensive holidays because we love our families or friends.  Because we get joy from spoiling and being a great mom or family member.  That can be had for free, right?

The key here is that we can satisfy these values in a different way in a free way. For a value of leadership instead of spending on expensive clothes or cars we can become active in local politics or be part of a community board of directors.  For a value of freedom we can have stay-cations where we don’t set schedules and just enjoy the time off.  For Family or Fun we can have BBQs or movie nights with friends.  We can satisfy the same values without over spending and satisfying the route of the financial discretion.

When you understand your values you’ll understand a) why you spend and b) how to satisfy that value in a more positive and cash flow neutral way!

Have a great week,

Dave

Ladies Who Launch Event

Guests will learn:

• How to achieve your ultimate business goals. Visualize it!  Understand where you want to go and when.
• Values assessment to see what motivates you.
• Staying motivated using your values.
• Owning your finances and taking full responsibility for the success of business.
• Matching spending to revenue to keep you growing.
• Budgeting for success/Smart spending practices.

Have a great day,

Dave

Ladies Who Launch Event

I sometimes catch myself and laugh about all the eccentric things I do to save money.  Here is a list that shows that I’m crazy for my money.

2. Any parking tickets that I get I always fight.  I’ll do everything I can to get out of paying parking tickets.  I even have a meter broken sign in my car for those lucky days when I find one.  By putting it in my window I avoid tickets and save on parking!  Win win.

3. I watch my clock like a hawk when I know I have two hours free somewhere.  Last week I lost my ticket when I pulled out my cell phone and instead of just paying the full charge, because I didn’t have a ticket, I walked back the entire route and found my ticket!  It would have been $8 without my ticket.  That’s a movie ticket on cheap night.

5. To save on ATM fees I will walk a mile.  I would leave friends in line at a bar and run two or three blocks to hit up my bank to save the fees.  At $3 a pop that is totally worth it.  I’ll also use Liquor Stores or Grocery Stores that give cash back to get my cash fee free.  There is a grocery store around the corner from me that has a Starbucks and gives cash back.  I get my money for the week with my morning coffee and save a trip.  What is better than that?