Time is short and so is patience!

How to raise a happy and healthy teen-ager?  I have been reading the book “Hear Me, Hug Me, Trust Me” by Scott Wooding and I think it should be required reading for all parents of teen-agers.  I recognized myself in many of the statements kids made about parents and also realized that we are doing lots of things right.

The stress of everyday living adds to the reaction or over-reaction of teens and parents.  The kids are involved in so many activities outside of school, often every night of the week and so are the parents.  Since we often live farther away from the schools it means that the kids now also commute which results in longer days.  Add to the fact the emotional state of the parents who themselves are often physically and mentally exhausted and often arguments can become far worse than they should be.  The stress of modern living is the major difference between the modern teen and those of previous generations.

Spend more time together – parents have become scarce at home.  Dr. Wooding thinks the phrase “quality time” was invented by a guilty parent.  There is no such time as quality time, there is only time with your kids.

Not only is time short, but so is patience.  Minor mistakes by children become major issues to tired parents.

Teens think that parents work too much!  So do I.

The Church Fundraiser

Last night we were invited to a church fundraiser at the Danish Canadian Club for the Danish Lutheran Church and it was great fun. My brother-in-law had purchased a table for 10 and we happily drove the 2 hours there for dinner.

During dinner we got to bid on several items in the silent auction and I was the winning bidder of a tour at Viking Air Ltd. for 10 people to which Kevin can now invite interested people from our family.

Today we are spending the day at a basketball tournament in Taber and I get the whole day to decide what to cook for our Sunday Dinner. It looks like oven roasted chickens, stuffed with lemons and garlic and sweet potato Mac and Cheese made with ricotta cheese as per Julie.  For dessert I am making another carrot cake as it disappeared quickly last time I made it.

Sunday is Family Night and Lindsey is coming home so we are going to celebrate having the family together again for a day. Tonight I will start no knead bread so it will be ready to bake tomorrow afternoon and be ready for Sunday dinner.

I also get to check off an item on my bucket list in two weeks – I am finally becoming a Canadian Citizen on April 21st and I am so excited and so grateful for this. With everything going on in the world I am so lucky to be living in this amazing country, safe from war, earth quakes, tsunamis and political unrest. Being able to go to bed at night and be reasonably assured that no bombs will fall while we sleep is something that we have always taken for granted.

This week I am reading “Nice Girls Don’t get Rich” by Lois Frankel which is a book about one of my favorite topics: MONEY. I agree with her that we must take the time to understand money and she suggest that we set aside time to learn about money and investments in order to make better decisions.  She has lots of ideas of how to get a better understanding of investments which is something women must do even if they don't have any interest in the subject.  I just love this quote by Sofie Tucker:

“From birth to eighteen a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on she needs cash”.

Let me know what you are planning for dinner tomorrow.

How much is enough?

“Financial freedom is the ability to maintain your lifestyle without going to work”.

My poor husband knows this quote by heart as it is posted in our bathroom and he sees it every day. This concept was first brought to our attention at a financial seminar where the speaker outlined how important it was to have low monthly expenses. If you can have your basic needs covered you are on your way to Freedom. The speaker said “don’t you think you would be able to come up with something that could generate some income when you don’t have to go to work anymore”. This is exactly what early retirement or 'working less' is all about for us.

Scare tactics are usually being used by financial institutions that insist we will need millions saved up before we can retire or we will be eating cat food and I am starting to disagree. I can also see the benefits of a company pension right about now as that is what some people can collect after 25 years of work. Except for old age and CPP, my husband and I are on our own for saving for retirement and that is something to keep in mind.

Everybody’s situation is different but I am getting to the point that I will rather live a simpler life and start it earlier as there is too many reminders that not everyone gets to retire. We have lost several friends and family members over the years at a young age and we know not everyone will get to live to experience a glorious retirement.

7 years ago we started investing in real estate and it has been a very good investment for the most part. The foundation here is to buy real estate at bargain prices and then to hopefully have the investment appreciate by 5% annually, the same return as a conservative investment. The additional benefit is that while you own the property someone else is making the mortgage payments and when you sell you cash in on the gain in real estate (5% annually) AND the balance owing after years of paying down the mortgage. There are obviously several issues to consider, you must buy the real estate at bargain prices and you must treat it as a business as being a landlord is not always easy.

Depending on your age there are several ways of looking at saving for retirement but if you want to start living more and working less earlier you need to start thinking about these things. Start working with a number like $500,000.00 in savings and consider your primary residence being paid for, how would your situation look?

The $500,000.00 cash would generate 5% in interest, hopefully, which is $25,000.00 annually. What would you need to earn additionally to live off this investment?

I figure our basic living expenses will be $5,000.00 per month for a total of $60,000.00 annually – we would then have a short fall of $35,000.00 which we would have to make up in order to stop working early. If we split the $35,000.00 we each will have to earn $17,500.00 annually by doing ‘something’. Kevin would be happy working on a golf course cutting grass for the summer if that meant the freedom to take the winter off.

Now we are looking at a life style decision – we would have to be content with not globetrotting all over the world which we probably wouldn’t do anyway. By working seasonally, we could comfortably leave Alberta for a month in November and again in January and February and live in Arizona.

This is how I think early retirement could be for us or we can choose to work longer and save more. I think I like the budget plan more and more. This is the plan and it can change any time, the point is we have at least started talking about it.

We can also hope and pray that interest rate go up and thereby give us a raise in our living allowance.

How soon working less can start depends on decisions made today. You can contact me at GreaterLivingInstitute@gmail.com anytime.

Bucket List

I have been working diligently on my 30-60-90 day plan and it is now completed. It is a day-by-day plan of things that I would like to have completed by July 1st. Anything from a garage sale in May, replacing light fixtures throughout the house to painting the spare bedroom. I have even planned the books that I want to have read by then and I have a pile of recipes to try also. I will then plan on taking a well deserved break in July.

My focus of the blog so far has been on this year – what would the biggest regret be if this year was my last? Now I have started a list of things that I would like to do before I croak and it is now in my Book of Possibilities. I am up to number 72 so I am still working on it. Here are some of my bucket items:


Buy a second home in Arizona
Write and publish a book
Become a Canadian Citizen
Become a grand parent
Go to Italy
Live in another country for a year
Stay married to Kevin
Develop a business from recycled materials
Open a café/bistro/restaurant
Go to Greece
Eat at The Laundry restaurant in Napa
Learn to drive a standard
Learn to golf
Go to Charleston, SC
Receive the Order of Canada

Some of the items on my husband’s list are a bit more interesting:

Drive the Alaska highway
Learn to blow glass
Learn to tile
Take singing lessons
Watch a space shuttle launch in-person

This is a work-in-progress and it is interesting to see how the project evolves with the more time I spend on it.

30 - 60 - 90 day plan

There is something about writing it down that acts like accountability. Spend a little time thinking about what you want and what you have to get done and then plan for it. July 1st will arrive and you can either have all the items on your list completed or not – you decide.

April 1 – 30 take a piece of paper and write down every day of the month and enter the projects that you want to complete. There are 5 week-ends in April which will account for most of the time available for larger projects but if you take a couple of hours each night it will add up to a whole day.

Don’t forget about family and friends – look at the month ahead and pick a date and then start calling. Have the family over for Sunday dinner if they live close by, if not, pick a Saturday. Commit to seeing friends more often. If cooking is stressing you out, make it potluck or order pizza, your friends won’t mind.

Start new traditions, make Friday movie night for the family, have snacks and rent movies that the whole family can watch together. Plan a date night every week – if you can’t go out, plan something at home, once you commit to a date you will think of something.

Every Sunday, plan three meals for the upcoming week and go shopping. If you have everything ready it is much easier to get dinner on the table in a hour or less.

If you decide on reading a book every week your will have read 12 books by July 1st – if you pick a certain topic, you will be very knowledable about the subject by then.

This will also work for personal finance, by looking at a calendar you will know what is coming up that can topple your budget before it happens. If you want to save money, pick a number and write it down and by July 1st you will either have it done or not.

If you are really committed, review your list every Sunday and if items have not been done, make sure you re-schedule them for the following week.

If you have a comment or suggestion, please contact me at GreaterLivingInstitute@gmail.com