Tag: borrowing money

Mindset

Laurie Lee

 

Mindset

Definition:  A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations. 

What is your mindset around money?

Here are five quick questions, answer them truthfully.  Then ask yourself is my debt a result of circumstances or poor decision making.

  • Are you honest with yourself and/or your spouse about your financial purchases?
  • Are you hiding on-line shopping purchases?
  • Do you have a secret account?
  • Are you justifying purchases that are really not necessary?
  • Are you using shopping as an outlet to make yourself feel better?

The emotions that are tied to money can be very overwhelming.    Before you tackle your financial situation, take a deeper look at why you are in the financial position you are.  I am a firm believer that most debt occurs for one of two reasons: 1. Circumstances; or 2. poor decision making. 

Bad Luck

Sometimes, really bad stuff happens to really good people and it does not matter how financial savvy you are, or how great the communication is between spouses, or how fantastic you are at managing your finances you can still end up in financial trouble.  The people who are in financial trouble due to an unforeseen circumstance (for example the loss of an income because of an ill child) just need some clear, helpful support, an advocate and a plan and they will be back on their feet financially in a short period of time. 

Bad Planning

Poor decision making however is repeated over and over until you learn new habits and change your mind set when it comes to finances.  The current financial trend is to adopt an attitude of:

  • “I deserve”
  • “Debt is the new norm”
  • “I will pay off my student loans later, for now check out my new i-phone !”

     

Having a credit limit is not your money, having a student loan is not your money, a credit card is not your money.  Until the mindset changes, whether it is coming from, I deserve, or I will always be in debt, it is very difficult to change one’s spending habits. 

 

Look at Money Differently

If you truly want to be put yourself on the path to financial freedom then treat the money you have earned from your paycheque as your income, that’s it.  Treat all other forms of credit as the banks’ money, which you will HAVE to pay back with interest, and interest, and more interest, until you are very old, leave the country, or file for bankruptcy, (right student loans are not including in bankruptcy).  OR you can start right from the beginning with a success mindset and do not carry this debt to begin with.

Success Story

Yes with a little discipline, the right mind set, and a clear picture of what you want you can set the tone for a life of financial success.  Take my client “John.” I started working with him when he was only 19.  He was attending university and had two large student loans.  He had a clear (albeit ambitious) financial goal: no debt when he graduated from university.  We worked together to develop a plan to give him the best chance to achieve his goal: we divided up his student loan into needs, books/rent/travel, expense to and from school, food etc…  The plan included $40 spending money per week for all other events/activities and the remainder was never used.  After three year of university he took one year off and work his #@# off, following the same plan, $40 per week for entertainment and following the budget for food etc…. Four years later after implementing the plan he had graduated and he continued to follow the same plan while working in his field.  Only six months after graduating we celebrated that he was debt free, all student loans paid for.  What a success story!  He has an amazing well-paying job in his field, and no debt.   Why did he succeed?  He had the right mindset and a clear goal!

Money is such a personal issue and we all carry our history when it comes to financial successes and failures.  You cannot change your past but with the right mindset around money your future can be a financial success.  Always wanting more, and never feeling that you have enough has everything to do with changing your mindset not your finances.   Having a grateful heart and being thankful can change your outlook on your finances and your future.  Take control of your money, don’t let money control you!

Laurie Lee

Goodcents Co.

 

Avoidance

Laurie Lee

Avoidance…..

As young children we learn to avoid, it is human nature.  My two daughters try every day it seems to avoid certain chores, or tasks.  Take homework for example: children need to learn how to use a day planner and how to break down the large assignments into small achievable daily tasks.  Avoiding the project or task until the final hours before it is due, increases stress levels and the final copy is of poor quality.  Yes we all know this FACT by the time we are adults!

However, avoidance is the first behaviour that I focus on when dealing with families and their budgets.  The first question I will ask is where is your mail?  You would be amazed at the “unique” filling systems or lack of that I have seen!  There are some people who bring down boxes (covered in dust), or some cute small file organizers, but most cannot bring me their mail or bills. Why, because the mail is filed throughout the house.  One of my customers used behind there fridge as a filing system.  Talk about avoidance.   Once the mail has been tracked down it is very easy to see who has the mastered the skill of Avoidance.  I have seen over an entire year’s worth of mail in one box and not one single envelope had been opened. Yes there was mail from the “tax man” and all the regular monthly bills X twelve.  What if there was a winning lotto tickets in there?

Now going beyond opening your mail, my second question is, “How many bank accounts to you have?”  For my customers who are reading this, I know you are smirking.  This is my favorite question.  Some people have one or two accounts, but many however have five, six, or more.  Some people opt in favour of having bank accounts with overdraft protection attached with limits of up to $5000.  In addition there are Line of Credits accounts, Savings and Chequings.  Now the game of avoidance in this example is how to avoid knowing what living within your means is.  This is accomplished by making your financial life so complicated transferring money from one overdraft account into the line of credit then back into the main account in a never ending cycle.  This is what I refer to as pretend money!  You have worked hard all week, and it is finally payday!  Your cheque is automatically deposited into your account.  But wait your balance is still in the negative.   Hmmm, to avoid costly overdraft fees you transfer money from your line of credit because this payment is only 3% of the entire balance, and then your proceed to live off the credit card for all your daily expenses because there is a delay of two to four weeks depending on when your due dates are.  Now times this behaviour by two, as both the husband and wife are transferring money from account to account and now you are immersed in a cycle of debt.

  • If this is you, please stop the avoidance it is time to simplify!
  • Stop the Overdraft protection or at least limit the amount to $500.
  • Have one main account and one or two Savings accounts no more.
  • Do NOT use your Credit Card or Line of Credit unless you have already earned the money you are charging to it.
  • Do not count on a paycheque that has yet to be earned.
  • Please open your mail!

 

Take ownership of your finances and your life.

Laurie Lee

Goodcents Co.

 

 

 

 

BioFinance with Gowling Lafleur Henderson Apr.6-8

James Dean 2 Comments

Bio Finance with Gowling Lafleur Henderson Apr.6-8

This week’s BioFinance 2010 conference in Toronto brings light to a sector that has experienced significant challenges in 2009. With the biotechnology outlook dim, many companies were the targets of mergers and acquisitions. Part of the sector’s performance in 2009 can also be attributed to uncertainty about health care reform legislation in the United States. Given recent developments and the likelihood of a shake up within the sector, will biotechnology and medical technology be in demand for Canadian investors?

This week’s BioFinance 2010 conference in Toronto brings light to a sector that has experienced significant challenges in 2009. With the biotechnology outlook dim, many companies were the targets of mergers and acquisitions. Part of the sector’s performance in 2009 can also be attributed to uncertainty about health care reform legislation in the United States. Given recent developments and the likelihood of a shake up within the sector, will biotechnology and medical technology be in demand for Canadian investors?

Investors, analysts and legal professionals are looking towards next week’s conference for guidance on how this sector fairs for the remainder of 2010 and beyond. This industry may be positioned for renewed investor interest in 2010, despite the market lagging in 2009.

Gowling Lafleur Henderson (Gowlings) was recently named one of the world’s life science patent litigation law firms. I would be happy to set up an opportunity for you to speak with Michael Herman and Bob Ford, partners in Gowlings’ business law department, who are available during and after this conference to discuss how Canadians should view the biotechnology industry in 2010 and how they see the next generation of medicine development in Canada. Both professionals work to service the particular needs of technology and life sciences companies and those investors that fund them. Please let me know if you would like to discuss this opportunity.

You and Your Money®

James Dean 4 Comments
You and Your Money
You and Your Money

Top keyword searches on the Internet are probably sex, love and money but we are only here to talk about “You and Your Money“.

As we begin our journey in describing every aspect of money possible I look to promote our business and philosophy in the best way possible. We now that the internet is exploding; computers are faster and cheaper and more and more people will have them as band with and security grow.  In Learning how to get better rankings for  money.ca and Money Canada Limited we may have to use some of our writing and editing prowess.  I have studied some key words in order to position our own key word of ‘MONEY’ at the top of internet search engines like Yahoo.ca, Yahoo.com, google.ca and google.com. MONEY.CA should join some of the top sites simply because its quality, content and presentation. We are simply promoting a well documented product, service and commodity as well.  Money is an important subject, at MONEY.CA for obvious monetary reasons. Sex for Love not Money…as we all know ‘sex sells’, also literary and literally; meaning that the greatest amount of look ups or searches done on the internet on search engines like Yahoo and google are in the following order…love than money than sex…love comes ahead of sex, but really sex is second to love, also noting that money is between love and sex, often this is typical  of love and sex because people do confuse sex for love and vice verse love for sex. That being said we I have shown you that the internet is as smart as the people who use it. There is an obvious play on words here, and they are meant playfully yet they are also meant to be significant in order to rank highly on search engines every where showing that as humans we might not always have our priorities right and we do enjoy the subjects of Love, Sex and Money. Our philosophy to get noticed maybe unorthodox but our target market is varied, and we would like to be where real people are in order to help them to determine their priorities and tell them about ours. We are promoting money, Canadian money and Canadian money services and products; we are promoting money education and creating wealth through many wonderful offers.  Join us to tell people the simple truth about money through our MONEY Magazine, MONEY Newsletter, MONEY ezine. Find out more on how you can participate in documenting this important subject of MONEY for the benefit of others.

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