bennybox

You know it’s hard to maintain a blog when you’re at work a giant majority of the day. When I’m at home it’s either to play DS or to catch up on what I’ve missed in the world of web comics and YouTube.

I have been reading lots of interesting books/articles/magazines/websites and I’m kinda behind in writing about anything, so I think i’m going to have to start pretty much from scratch. I don’t really want to be linking endless New York Times articles. However, bookmark nytimes.com - I do think it’s the best website on the internet.

So with a full time job comes a semblance of a predictable flow of capital. Most of my life revolves around the timing and quantity of this flow, and to understand my life these days I gotta explain how I spend all that fundage.

Savings

I should mention this first. I must spend a good several hours each month pouring over my financial records I’ve been keeping since graduation in April. While trying to shape my financial health, I’ve read a lot of financial advice and they all start like this: Pay yourself first. I got one of those President’s Choice Interest Plus savings accounts. Pays a nice 4% annually, calculated on every day’s closing balance. It’s my emergency fund (I’ve never had one…) and I’m trying to get 6 months of spending accumulated. I direct deposit a portion of each paycheque into this account so I never forget and am never tempted to change my mind.

Planning for retirement is probably not something most people my age care to think about - I’m happy putting a tiny 2% away for that day 40 years from now when I want to retire…

Pay down that debt!

I graduated with a hefty debt. More than StatsCan’s stated average student debt for 2000 grads. And then I decided to buy a new car which effectively doubted my indebtedness.

Blogs like Get Rich Slowly and the author of the Automatic Millionaire all have similar things to say about debt. You don’t want it! Throw everything you got at your liabilities until they’re paid off. And don’t make any other large purchases unless you’ve saved up for them first.

Personally I hate paying interest. It’s like throwing away money - and I’ve done way too much in my lifetime. It’s no wonder that over two thirds of my pre-tax income over my first 12 months working will be used to pay down my debt.

Zoom Zoom. (Cars are expensive)

I think I got a little excited at the prospect of a steady income that I went ahead and bought a brand new Mazda 3. I did a lot of research and I feel like a got a relatively good deal - and the Mazda 3 I highly recommend. But damn are cars expensive.

My car payments are amortized over a short period of 4 years so I could get a lower interest rate - but that means really high payments. Add in insurance for a 24 year old male, gas for driving between ends of the GTA each day and regular maintenance (and keeping my baby shiny), and you’ve extinguished just about every dollar of disposable income I have.

My car rocks though.

How I afford anything else I have no idea.

There isn’t much aside from all that. I might desperately want all those fancy new iPods announced today, or season 2 of Lost. Damn I want. But I don’t because I know I’m buying the odd videogame every other month. Even limiting going out for lunch once a week adds up. But you know me and discrectionary spending!

That’s why I have a subscription to zip.ca. For a monthly fee I always have new DVDs to watch. And seriously, I wouldn’t be able to do that drive to work without Sirius Satellite radio. It’s honestly heavenly. Add in a subscription to the Sunday New York Times, the odd movie, dinner with friends and new tshirt and you’ve got zero-net-cashflow-Chris.

A year from now I think I’ll have enough financial freedom to move out on my own and be free of student debt. Pile on a couple more years of heavy saving and you’ve got the startup capital for a comic book store. Booya. Of course comic book stores can’t make money, so about five years later I should be plenty bankrupt. Who’s in?

Zero-net-cashflow-Chris loves free concerts at Harbourfront Centre.