A Million Little Pieces

I am going to stray a little from the usual financial post this time.

Recently, everyone is talking about the book "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. I read the book a few months ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Regardless of the severity of James' drug and alcohol addition and criminal past, I believe that anyone who can overcome any kind of addition is strong. The book is published as a non-fiction, and that is where the trouble starts.

"A Million Little Pieces" is about a man's life on drugs and alcohol and his determination to overcome his demons without going through the regular detox programs. The details are graphic, and that's why it was such an interesting read. James Frey always claimed that the story was true...until now.

The Smoking Gun website exposed his lies in this article. After reading six pages of it, I am not sure whether it was important that he lied or embellished the truth. At least it was not important for me. After Oprah promoted his book, now she feels duped, so she invited him back to uncover the truth. On the show, she questioned him how his ex-girlfriend died. In the book, James Frey said she hung herself, but now he says that she actually slit her wrist. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't see why how she died is so important.

Some social workers were recommending this book to other drug/alcohol addicts, saying that if he overcame the additions, then they can too. Now they are very upset and want to sue.....argh... Addicts are also upset, because they feel betrayed.

In the end, he is still an ex-addict who cleaned up. Isn't that the story?

Does it really matter that he lied about the number of times he was arrested, whether he rejected Novacain when he had root canal procedures, or who he was friends with?

I am not an addict in the sense that James Frey was, and I still can't remember what I did last week. Can we really expect a non-fiction to be completed non-fiction? Should we now go back and do investigative work on every non-fiction book out there? Why do we have such high expectations for others when we can't uphold the same expectations for ourselves?

If the goal is to be clean, then read the book, take away the good and apply it to your life. A lot of energy is wasted by people who want to hear this man apologize and confess to his lies. What bothers me is that people act so shocked and say things like

"You of all people know how serious the truth is when it comes to addiction. I think that's why I'm so disappointed and betrayed. I mean, the story was great. The book was great, but, you know, it's troubling. I don't trust memoirs anymore." (Amy, a reader, source Oprah).

To be honest, I really enjoyed a good lie. There can be so much truth!

Security Blanket

I have been on unemployment insurance once. It was between jobs, and I only claimed it for about two weeks before I found another job. Since then, I have not claimed unemployment insurance, and it will most likely never happen again either.

While I was on unemployment insurance, I was thankful. It was a nice security blanket! Then, I started to think about the pitfalls of social security.

Canada is a really comfortable place. I can pretty much do nothing and still be okay. By okay, I mean - alive and healthy.

Suppose that I am unemployed, I can potentially qualify for about six months of unemployment insurance that pays me $1600.00 a month.

If I can prove that I do not have any skills, I can have the government pay for my education while being paid $1600.00 a month.

If this runs out, I can go on welfare indefinitely. Sure it doesn't pay very well, but at least I am not starving, especially if I can arrange to not pay rent.

Because of the availability of social housing, I can also pay rent that's proportionate to what I make. A friend of a friend was paying $89.00 per month for a 3 bedroom townhouse, because she only took home $800 from work.

If I have children, I can claim an additional amount per child.

I can get medicare, because if I don't have a job and on unemployment insurance or welfare, it's pretty much free.

All in all, it's not a bad deal.

If I compare this to a country like China, which has very little social security, I can see why people treat money differently. In North America, the worst case scenerio for spending way beyond your means is owing creditors and filing for bankruptcy. You will still be healthy because of medicare and still eat because of government support.

In China, you will pay for all your medical expenses before you see a doctor, and nothing is covered under any type of insurance. You will pay up front when you buy an apartment, because there is still no such thing as credit majority of the cities. You will also need to have money for your children's school, because while education is still free, corruption is rampant, and bribery still rules. If you are ever out of a job, the government does not pay you or fund your education; you are pretty much on your own. The bottom line is you take care of your own financial future, because no one else will do it for you.

I hate the comfort of living in this part of the world, the wastefulness, the hunger for all things material, and the blatant disregard for what other people would give for our opportunities.

I have a small weakness for luxury handbags; I look at them online, I fantasize about carrying a real Balenciaga bag, the soft distressed leather, almost like butter....but that's about as far as I go. There is something unsettling knowing that even the most inexpensive luxury purse can feed a family for a year elsewhere.

Having social security in place almost makes it okay for us to strive for mediocrecy, and it makes what most of the world consider to be sloth - "normal".

It's "normal" to be unemployed; it's "normal" to be on unemployment insurance for the sixth time. It's "normal" to owe $8000.00 on credit cards because that's the average, so there can't possibly to anything wrong with that. It's "normal" to live in social housing and get $450 from the government and another $800 for having children. It's "normal" to pay interest. It's also "normal" to not finish high school and justify it by saying that education is over-rated or "I just did not have that opportunity".

I want to be better than normal, and I don't think that's too high of a goal.

Why is money so darn important?

Sometimes when I tell people about my retire young plan, I receive a lot of negative feedback. Some people think I am greedy, and others want to know why I think money is just so darn important; they tend to recite the "money can't buy you happiness" phrase.

I think a lot about why money is so important to me, and I only came to one conclusion.

Money certainly can't buy or guarantee happiness, but it can sure buy me freedom. More importantly, it can buy me the freedom to leave.

Because I have money, I can leave all sorts of sticky situations.

For example:

Case 1: You can leave your job! If you had money, the only reason you would stay at a job is because you love it. You sure don't need to do it for the money.

Case 2: You can leave a bad relationship! If you had money, you could stay because you wanted to stay.

Case 3: You can leave the town, city, state, province, or country! You can practically be anywhere you wish to be.

Money is a huge factor in people's decisions regarding employment, relationships, and where to live (among other things). At one point or another, we all have felt the obligation to stay put due to a lack of money.

I like the freedom to leave, the ultimate freedom to choose who I want to be with and where I want to be. Realistically, it is awfully hard to achieve this without the help of money.

If I do stay put, whether it be a relationship or a location to live, you can be sure that it is because I want to, not because I feel forced to.

The Rich Jerk

So, now I am a groupie.....the word conjures some disturbing images about rock bands and loose women, but nevertheless, I am a groupie for Jeff. If you would also like to be a groupie, you can visit Jeff's Onlinebonuses blog site and "sign up"!

While I was visiting Jeff's site, I came across a posting about "The Rich Jerk". Anyone who uses adsense on their site knows who he is. So, here is my experience...

I was curious, so I signed up for some "free" advice. So, here is a guy who promsies that you can have a successful adsense site running by doing exactly what he says. There are the emails I received from him.

1) First email - Get a google adsense account (wow enlightening!). Then buy XSitePro, which is a software that allows you to handle multiple adsense websites.

2) Second email - Blend the adsense ads with the content. Then buy XSitePro, and also buy Joel Comm's step by step manual on how to do this. I was thinking that Blogger can already do this for you with one ad when you go through Blogger's adsense page.

3) Third email - Search Engine Optimization is key. Then buy XSitePro, and also buy SEO Elite.

4) Fourth email - Oh, he is offering a freebie! Send him your site, and he will let his team of experts critique it for free. I suspect you will end up needing XSitePro, Joel Comm's book, and SEO Elite.

5) Fifth, sixth, seventh..... - Buy XSitePRo, buy this and buy that.

6) The last email - Have 2 websites. Buy a plug-in-profit site, join his e-wealthology club. use the adsense site to promote the plug-in-profit site by hiring a massive number of cars driving around your neighbourhood with a decal. Or, was it the other way around....anyhow I was getting a little dizzy by that point.

So, I can sum it up pretty easily: do exactly what he says, which is buy his products, and you will be rich just like him!

Here is the kicker....after I received all the promised "free" advice, I continue to get even more "free" advice! Every couple of days, I am reminded to buy XSitePro and other goodies.

So, here it is. You don't need to sign up for his free advice, it's pretty much all summed up here.

You can always to go the webmasterworld forum and learn a lot of useful information. Everything adsense or webmaster related is pretty much all there. It's free, and you don't need to buy XSitePro.

UPDATE: Please see my Wanted: 55 People Needed with $1.00 Each posting. It's for people who are interesting in purchasing the Rich Jerk E-book (among other things). How about paying $1.00 for the e-book?

Financial Goals

Long Term Financial Goal

1 - Have $1,000,000 in liquid assets (bonds, mutual funds, stocks, real estate, cash) by the age of 36.

2 - Retire young at 36! This is the hard part - I am a workaholic.

3 - Have both a winter (in a low-cost tropical country) and summer home (in Canada).

Short Term Goal

1 - Purchase a condo or townhouse in Canada by the end of August, 2006.

2 - Purchase a winter home by the end of 2009.

3 - Have a stable third and fourth stream of income by Jan, 2007. This will most likely be accomplished through a home based or on-line business.

4 - Invest $50,000 per year, that's $4,166.67 per month.

5 - Maintain an average of 15% return on all investments.

"Lunch on a budget" Revisited!

I started my "lunch on a budget" program with a co-worker on January 3rd, which prompted my Latte Factor posting.

The objective: To bring lunch to work everyday.

The incentive: $150.00 shopping trip to Seattle after three months.

The punishment: Each time we slip, we have to deduct $10.00 from our shopping trip.

Progress

Me:

Days so far: 10

Money saved: Jan 3 - 16, 10 business days x 10 dollars = $100.00

Money deducted: I slipped today, and bought a gello $1.45, so $10.00 deducted.

Trip money: $140.00

My friend:

Days so far: 10

Money saved: not sure, because she slipped quite a bit.

Money deducted: Not only did she slip > 10 times, she also decided to shop before the trip :(

Trip money: $0.00

So, it looks like I will be doing the "lunch on a budget" program by myself!

My Mutual Funds

Yesterday, I called my bank to transfer some money from one mutual fund to another. Apparently, the call center clerks are experts now! I was told by four different call center employees that my choice in mutual fund was not recommended, because it is an agressive fund. In addition, I was only allowed to transfer 20% of my money to the mutual fund I wanted. I thought it was the customer's decision as to where his or her money goes.

Anyhow, here are five Canadian funds that I believe will out perform the market.


Assumption/MB TSX 100 Momentum B

Canada Life Gens Cdn Growth (AIM)

Ethical Canadian Dividend

Standard Life Ideal NL Cdn Small Cap

TD Latin American Growth - I

Hassel Free Mortgage Helper

Why pay your full mortgage payment when someone else can do it?

I am not talking about renters. Renters present huge hassles, as it's always a hit or miss situation. If you pick the wrong tenants, you can have a huge mess on your hands.

For example, my parents purchased a house years ago as an investment property. They rented the upstairs for $1050 and the downstairs suite for $800. It's harder to rent the entire house out to one person, and it's often more risky too. So, they thought this would have been a better idea. So they put ads in the newspaper and patiently waited for people to call. They were pretty nervous, because they needed tenants to pay for the first mortgage payment. Otherwise, they would have been paying for both houses.

The tenants upstairs were great, but they had serious problems with the tenants downstairs. Not only did they live like slobs, but they created problems with the neighbours. It was so bad that finally the police was involved. After my parents got rid of these tenants, my father and I had to clean up their mess. The place was a disaster; they had several cats, but never cleaned up after them, and the whole place smelled of urine. On top of that, there were thousands and thousands of fleas hopping around after the cats left. I could see little black dots all over my legs.

After a few years, my parents became really tired of renting out to tenants the conventional way, so they looked into another way of paying their mortgage.

The answer was homestays! This works especially well when you are living in the house that is open to homestay students. Generally, as a homestay host, you are required to provide the student(s) with a room, meals. Some schools may require you to drop off/pick up students under a certain age.

Homestay students were great! They are usually from Asia, studying ESL at a college or ESL school. Depending on the program they are enrolled in, they can be here for a few months or a year or longer. In most situations, they have already paid the school for their homestay costs, so the payment to you is guaranteed. The best part about homestays is that because you provide room and board, the pay is usually anywhere from $600-$800 per student. If you have several rooms in your house, and have maybe three students, you will be making $1800-$2400 per month.

They students are hassel free, and it's a great opportunity to learn about another culture. In my parents' case, the students were barely at home. They wanted to be out all the time, some even went on long trips. This was okay for my parents because the students paid the rent regardless.

Through accommodating homestay students and renting a couple of rooms to Japanese students, my parents never had to pay a cent into their mortgage. This is a great plan if your house is located close to a school. Many schools will advertise in the newspaper when they need host parents. They will want to visit your home to make sure that it's a safe environment. After that, you will be waitlisted until when a new group of students arrive!

Hello LaDawna

On January 5th, I made some comments in "How do you use 24 hours?" that drew the attention of LaDawna McLeish, who left a comment under that posting. Here is my response.

Hello LaDawna,

First, I'd like to thank you for visiting the site and taking the time to explain your position.

If I have upset you, it certainly was not my intention. The comments I made are not meant to be personal, in fact, I can't say I considered your feelings when I wrote them. I was not criticising the people mentioned in the article, but the behaviours.

I do not read an article thinking that it reflects the whole truth. Any article will only reflect part of the truth, and yes, I was basing my opinions on part of the truth.

The article is titled "To feed a lifestyle, some are taking second jobs". And yes, based on the article, the assumption is that you are someone who wastes your money on a wedding, a dress, and a life style you can't afford......as the title and the contents suggest.

So here is my dilemma, the article says:

• You are working a second job to pay for the wedding.
• You would like lobsters and steaks for the guests.
• You would like a dress that costs upwards of $1000.
• You are a software engineer who makes more than $75,000 US.
• You have a $2000 monthly mortgage.

From your comment, I can see that shy of the dress (which you did not comment on), and the $2000 monthly mortgage (which you also did not comment on), the other points are still true. You may have a lot of sensible reasons for why things are the way they are, but in the end, you are still an above-average income-earner working a second job to pay for the wedding with lobsters. So far, I haven't made any assumptions. And I still think you are crazy.

On the other hand, if the article was titled "How to Plan a Wedding and Not Get into Debt", and it mentioned:

• You want to hold the wedding at your parents' home to save the venue cost.
• You are choosing daisies over the more expensive flowers.
• You are working a second job to fund your dream wedding without dipping into your savings.

Then, I would say that you are quite responsible and more people should be like you, but the lobster and steak dinner still makes me a little uncomfortable :)

I think maybe there is a bit of truth in both.

If you read my entire posting, you would know my points are:

a) I do not sleep much....
b) I do not sleep much because I work two jobs...
c) Wow, other people work two jobs too....
d) But, wow, they sure work for different reasons...
e) Some of these reasons are......a bit weird......to me...
f) Would I lose sleep for the same reasons? Probably not...
g) Why not? Because weddings can be inexpensive, yet great.
h) Why not? because vacations can be inexpensive, yet fun.
i) So, there is a lot of ways to not work two jobs and truly "afford" these "lifestyles", but you just have use your time to figure out how.
j) Why is it worth it? Because not sleeping much really really sucks.

At least, this was my thought process when I wrote the posting. So in the end, I am sorry to say, the article was not about you and your situation. It was kind of about me and my lack of sleep! You might feel that it's upsetting I used my "assumptions" of you and others' situations as a way to generate some thoughts of my own, but I think that's what an article is for: to use what's given to spark some related thoughts.

I also think the point of the article is to discuss the phenomenon of people choosing to take a second job rather than cutting back expenses, all in the pursuit of a better lifestyle, may it be a wedding or a vacation. There are only two ways to increase the money you keep at the end of the day: either make more or spend less. Traditionally, people choose to spend less, but now more and more people are choosing to make more. The article was more than fair.

All these things aside, I have some questions! Were you led to believe you were interviewed on a different topic? Are you going to do your own flowers? (i.e not going through a designer). I am trying to do my own flowers, and I came across this site http://www.marisolblooms.com/, where they sell wholesale to the public. I am not located in the States, so I do not qualify, but they seem to have more expensive flowers at reasonable prices. If you can do your own flowers and want to go with the traditionally more expensive ones, maybe you can check it out (online catelogue). I have no affiliations with this site and am not endorsing it. I just think it can be a great idea. On my end, I am going to get a GST number so that I can purchase wholesale from the auctions.

I wish your wedding is everything you hoped it to be!

P.S. $1000 is actually not that much for a wedding dress. It is probably on the low end of the wedding dress cost spectrum. My friend bought a used dress for $700, so that gives you an idea of how much a new one can cost.

How do you use 24 hours?

I surfed the net today searching for people who are just like me, particularly "two-jobbers". I came across an article on http://www.boston.com/ titled "To feed a lifestyle, some are taking second jobs. More in middle class finding seasonal work". Here are some interesting highlights:

• "Kevin Kipler spends his days managing corporate flights and military jets at Bangor International Airport. At night, the 41-year-old father listens to gift orders in a cubicle at L.L. Bean, where he recently took on a seasonal job as a quality control coach.Sometimes, during his 15-hour days, he forgets which job he's at, mistakenly calling people passengers instead of customers."

My thoughts: I work a total of 80 hours per week, and these are paid hours at two different full time jobs. My day time job is fixed at Monday to Friday 8 am - 4 pm, but my graveyard shift rotates every two months. I can either work Monday to Friday 8 pm - 4 am or Saturday to Wednesday 8 pm - 4 am, depending on the rotation. If you think about this for a moment, you would know that I am better off working Saturday to Wednesday at my graveyard job, because I can get more sleep. Working Monday to Friday at both jobs is painful, not work wise ,but body wise. I truly understand what it's like to be a zombie by Friday and making silly mistakes. Most of my mistakes involve public transportation.

1) Driving the car to work, and then taking the bus home, because I forgot that I drove the car to work.

2) Trying to open a door for 10 minutes at a bus stop before seeing the sign "Electrical Room". I thought it would lead to the escalator.

3) Falling asleep on the sky train and missing my stop....several times. I am just happy that I have not fallen asleep driving.

4) Forgetting to take the change after buying a bus ticket....this can get costly.

• "Tina Martin, a radio journalist who recently took a second job five days a week as a customer service representative for Dancing Deer Baking Co., leaves her 95.9 FM night reporting stint at 2 a.m. She sleeps a few hours, arrives at the Boston cookie company by 9 a.m., works an eight-hour shift, and then heads back to the radio station at 6 p.m.Martin, 31, usually collapses by Friday night, but she can earn more than $500 a week at Dancing Deer. She plans to use the money to pad her holiday budget and avoid overspending like she did last year."

My thoughts: Oh my god...she is going to blow it on holidays.

There is something strange about working two jobs to pay for better holidays. On average, I get about 2-4 hours of sleep per day on Monday-Friday rotations, and I am sacrificing for my retirement fund. I can not imaging doing the same just to have a good time. Typically, an exotic holiday costs my fiancé and I approximately $1500 CDN total for two weeks. For example, we went to Belize and British Virgin Islands last September, and that was our total. What cost the most were the airline tickets from L.A to Cancun at $350 CDN each. After that, we took the Mexican "luxury" bus to Belize city. The bus ride was $30 CND each. We camped all the time and ate at local diners. It was a great trip considering that one of our campsites was beach front.

• "LaDawna McLeish, 27, knows she makes a good salary -- more than $75,000 annually as a software engineer. But she needed a second job to pay for her dream wedding -- including a dress that costs upward of $1,000 and serving guests lobster and steak -- while still making her $2,000 monthly mortgage payments."

My thoughts: Who are these people? Lobsters and steak? My fiancé and I are working on our wedding details, and we want the wedding to be an investment, not
something that will put us into debt. Through careful planning and a bit of extra work, we can plan a reasonably priced wedding and make a profit from cash gifts (the only form of gift we will accept).

Also, $75,000 annually? She really needs to invest her money better.

So, by the end of the article, I realized that these people are not quite like me.

Me: Job 1 = $62,000 annually Job 2 = 35,000 annually.

Fiancé: Job 1 = $82,000 annually Job 2 = $32,000 annually.

We have been extremely lucky with the jobs we have. I barely do anything at my graveyard job. In fact, we can finish the work in 2 hours, and have 6 hours to watch TV, surf the net, or in my case, work on side projects. My work is due on a daily basis, so after it's done, there is nothing else to do. I figure that I am actually making more than $35,000 since I am using the time to make even more money. My fiancé’s second job is at a restaurant, and the environment is great, and he would never think of leaving. He considers them his family. So, both of us have second jobs that are too good to be true, and while the hard part is finding the time to sleep, the money is too good and too easy.

Between the two of us, we make $211,000per year, and all of the savings (after taxes) goes into investment vehicles. We take 3 vacations a year, each costs around $1000 - $1500, and I am working on making some money from vacations, such as writing traveling articles and finding sponsors. Every once in awhile, I still think of the days when my friend Kay and I used to collect pop cans on campus. We used to have a great system, so that we could make $60 in two hours. That's A LOT of pop cans. It was good spending money.

So my philosophy is: there are 24 hours in a day, so that's 24 hours to think of ways to better yourself and your situation. It all depends on how you decide to spend the time.

The Latte Factor

I have read several books written by David Bach. He has written books such as " Start Late, Finish Rich" and "The Automatic Millionaire". I really like some of his key ideas such as "make everything automatic" and the "latte factor".

The premise of the "Latte Factor" is based the idea that most people spend money on small things, such as a Latte, and these small amounts add up, and should the money be invested, people would see a greater return.

My "Latte Factor" is actually lattes.....well...actually, my weakness is Starbucks. During my coffee breaks at work, my co-workers and I walk over to Starbucks, stand in the line up, and immediately feel better. We look at the shiny espresso machines, coffee mugs with Starbucks logos, coffee beans, and all the little chocolate treats and after-coffee mints.

This is usually how pathetic I am. I know that the after-coffee mints are just gums, rather really expensive gums. Well, the first time I bought them, I did not know, but now that I know, I still buy them. Usually, I pay something like $2-$3 dollars for these mints in shiny tin boxes. At any gas station, regular gums cost a dollar. The point is that I know this is wrong, and I shouldn't pay that much for gum, but there is something I can do about it. I still bend over backwards for them.

Now, back to Lattes. I love the Non-Fat Vanilla Lattes. Depending on the size, I can spend between $3-$6. Sometimes, I buy two Lattes a day.....plus some mints. If you add everything togather, at Starbucks along I can spend anywhere between $5-$10 dollars a day. I think I am being conservative, because there are days I can't say no to those dark cherry chocolates. Oh, and on some days, I also can't say no to new mugs.

In David's book, there was a simple calculation of how much $5 dollars a day can mean in the future:

$5 per day (the average cost of a latte and a muffin) x 7 days = $35 per week

$35/week = $150/month

$150 per month invested at a rate of 10% annual return =
1 year = $1,885
2 years = $3,967
5 years =$11,616
10 years = $30,727
15 years = $62,171
30 years = $339,073
40 years = $948,611

So, according to David, I have been a bad bad girl....

So, today was my first real attempt at changing my ways. I brought snacks to work! In my "snack bag", I had an orange, a sandwich, a breakfast bar, a yogurt and some juice. I can't even bring myself to say that it was great, because it wasn't. It was very hard. The problem with bringing snacks to work is that you tend to eat them too quickly, because they are readily available! By mid morning, I only had an orange left. Then the Starbucks urge kicked in. Also, it doesn't help that going out for Starbucks is almost like a social outing. So, not only can I not have my Starbucks, but I can't socialize either. I struggled until the end of the day, ate my orange, and gave dirty looks to the empty Starbucks cups on other people's desks.

At the end of the day, I saved myself $5-$10 dollars. One day down, many more to go.....

You can learn about David Bach at: http://www.finishrich.com/pages/home.php

Take a Latte Factor test : http://www.finishrich.com/free_resources/lattecalculator.php