Just Start

Hello

This past Sunday we got together with the family for a good ol fashioned kids Gingerbread house competition. The kids basically ate the candies while the parents got frustrated trying to get the house to stay up while the frosting hardened. Needless to say, I didn’t win. There is some things I’m not that good at, building these houses is one. haha!

After the houses were built we sat around talking, and my blog came up in the conversation. Someone asked if I had one piece of financial advice what would it be. I paused for a second but it was a pretty easy answer.

Just Start

“Just Start” Yup. Mind boggling I know. It’s pretty basic, but I think its really important. This go’s for almost everything in life. It is always easy to make excuses of why now isn’t a good time to start what ever you want to do.  I heard a line in a motivational video (I listen to them daily on youtube) that I try to follow. Basically it said excuses only matter for the ones making them. My boss could care less about why I showed up late, I still was late. If the wife comes home and the place is a mess and I come up with some half ass excuse, do you think she cares? The place is still a mess. If I miss a mortgage payment, my bank definitely will care but not about my excuse. I will also get hit with a penalty for not paying them.

Honestly this is pretty solid advice. You will hear from tonnes of people in life, I just wish I started earlier in life. Investing, Buying a house, Starting a business, working out and even leaving their current shitty job.

Financial Education

If you have followed my journey from the start, I was 60k in debt. I got sick of working so hard and really having nothing to show for it. My adventure all started with one book – Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. A 20 dollar book. It changed everything for us. Finally we decided to respect our money. Simple as that. Do I wish I read it earlier? Of course! So if you want to be better with your money, just start reading about money. Click the link, buy the book. Thanks! We live in a world where everything is online, there are tonnes of financial resources out there and lots of great financial bloggers to learn from.

Paying off Debt

Like I said we had a lot of debt and paid over 1600 per month in minimum payments. It took about 2 years to pay off that debt but now we have a extra 1600 per month to spend or invest how we like. You may say, I don’t make enough or my debt load is too high its going to take forever to pay it off. Face it, its going to take longer if you don’t step up your game to eliminate it! Just start! Stop going out to eat and put that money to paying off your debt. I have recently lowered some of my monthly bills, when I get charged that bill I put the money I saved into a investing account. You can put the difference on your debt. It can be done, you can do it.

Investing

So many friends or employees tell me they don’t know how to start investing. There are a tonne of different brokerages that would love your business. Personally I use our bank RBC. Go into the bank and meet with someone to start up a RBC Direct investing account. Its a self directed account basically just go in and fill out some forms and your all set. It costs $9.95 per trade. Index funds are a great way to start investing for a diversified mix.

Generally a lot of people say the minimum purchase should be $1000. When I started I bought stocks whenever I had 500$ to invest. That trading fee of 9.95 now cost 2% of my total trade. At 1000 dollars its only a 1% cost but I have no regrets. By just starting to invest in dividend stocks it got me hooked to passive income and also forced me to learn more about them. I wish I started earlier, since compound interest is a beautiful thing and I would be a richer man. It’s all good though!

Other Income Sources

I know people who love to sew and crochet. They create stuff in their free time and sell them online on sites like shopify to generate extra income while enjoying their hobby. There is a lot of different side hustles or passive incomes you can do to create extra income. You probably have some ideas in your head right now. Just need to sit down and start to do them. This website was something I always himmed and hawwed about. Once I finally decided to create one, its done wonders! I have learned a lot from everyone, enjoy writing, keep track of our finances, generate a little income and constantly am motivated to do better. If I started this awhile ago I’m sure I would be further ahead financially and would probably have more of a following as there wasn’t as many bloggers a couple years ago. Why I think Everyone Should Have a Website.

Quitting Smoking

I used to smoke. I smoked for a long time. Its a shitty habit and the costs now are crazy. 14 bucks a pack. I tried quitting a couple times. I got the app Get Rich or Die trying… It tracks how much you have saved and sets goals for you. It also updates your health of your body since quitting. Ie After 3 months Circulation improves, Lung function improves 30 percent. I move those savings into investments and feel better. It took a bunch of times to actually quit but you just need to start to quit. Every time you start up again you should learn something to help ya quit next time.

Conclusion

I can keep going on and on about how just starting is really important in almost anything in life. Don’t like reading? Fine, get a audio book or challenge yourself to read 10 pages a week. It really is all about just deciding you will. Once you do whatever you have set out to do, you most likely will say I wish I started earlier. It super simple advice but I still think just starting is the best advice I can give. What do you have to lose?

Art Williams – Has a old school speech that I love. Just do it. Check it out. The Video isn’t the best quality but I hope you enjoy it.

If you are strapped for time at 2.30 and on is the best part.

Rob

Hey I’m Rob, creator of Passive Canadian Income.

In 2011 me and my wife had almost $60,000 in debt and a negative $7,000 Net Worth. Through hard work and financial education we paid all that off. Now we are focusing on increasing our Passive Income Streams to make the money work for us. Feel Free to Follow along the Journey by clicking the Social Media links below or subscribing to get notified of new posts on the sidebar.