We live here now.

We went back to Toronto in December for the first time since our move. Strangely, our first visit wasn’t for family, but for business: we spent two days in Toronto almost as tourists, staying at the Sheraton Centre where I was attending a meeting of the board of the Agile Alliance. Now we’ve stayed in Toronto hotels before, and even quite nice ones, like the Westin Prince, but this was the first time I felt like a visitor to Toronto since I grew up in Brampton. It was a little odd. The following week we came back “for real”, and it felt more like home, even though we mostly stayed outside the city in, of all places, Oshawa. (Ew.)

We visited friends and family for pre-Christmas, a happy accident, since it gave us time to meet up with friends before they got sucked in to visiting only family. I got to see friends from high school, university, and even rode the TTC, even though I had to buy a Day Pass for the first time in over a decade. If it weren’t a business expense, I’d frame it. In the large, of course, Toronto hadn’t changed much in six months, so I don’t quite know what I was expecting. It felt quite familiar, although I truly did sense myself a visitor. Most notably, none of the keys in my pocket opened a lock anywhere in the city. I had nowhere to stay in the city that I could call my own. I wouldn’t be returning up the Yonge line to Sheppard, then getting on the Sheppard line to Bayview, then walking a few hundred meters to the door. I didn’t see Bayview Village on the way out nor on the way home. I did, however, go back to Spadina/Bloor, a neighborhood I hadn’t frequented since my aborted graduate studies at University of Toronto. It was an odd mix.

So what did I get from the First Visit Back? People miss us. It’s a little ironic that we’ll probably see them more now than we did when we lived up to an hour away. Also, we’ve bought a bunch of tickets to Blue Jays games. We’ll probably see 11 or more in 2008, compared to the two or three we got to when we lived there. I suppose I have to admit it: Toronto is now a tourist destination for me, just like New York or Stockholm. Winnipeg is now “the city” for me. I really do live here now.

OK, so our pretty green theme looked awesome in Firefox, but in IE it completely fell apart.  To compromise, I picked a theme that has a glitch in both.  So yes, the titles of the posts are a little cut off, but at least the rest of the site is more or less intact and functioning.  I’ll explore this more over the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime, to see the full title, simply hover over it for a few seconds and the text should appear.

Free Money Finance posted the 10 most hated money-saving tips according to the comments he’s received over the years, writing over 700 tips.

These aren’t necessarily earth-shatteringly new strategies, but that’s not the point of this list. The point is, these are the common-sense tips to which people claim to be decidedly immune. Do check out the list for yourself, but noteworthy for us is that sitting in the number one hated money-saving tip:

1. Move to a lower cost-of-living city

You can’t say we didn’t invite y’all. That you refuse to take us up on it only leaves more houses for us. (Closing on #6 and #7 currently, by the way.)

Every now and then I succumb to feelings of inadequacy because I only have an undergraduate degree. A professional degree (teaching) wasn’t for me. Neither were the two M.A. programs that accepted me, but that I subsequently declined.

With the second of the two M.A. programs, I just couldn’t bring myself to accept because I knew that taking the time off to study would hurt my career, and being able to put a couple more letters behind my name would do nothing to help it. As I looked over course descriptions and envisioned which classes would be the lesser evils to slog through, I realized that I could learn more, and I had learned more, outside of school. One of the defining moments for me occurred when a PhD student interviewed me for her research on alternative schools and tutoring centres. If I was the source, then why did I have to go back to school? To read about what I’d spent the last year doing? Obviously I’d managed to figure things out on my own. For permission to interview people who know something I don’t? I do that every year when I speak with university admissions departments and confirm any news on the homeschooled applicant front.

I tried really hard not to be swayed by the prestige factor of a graduate diploma. Instead, I thought long and hard about what knowledge I needed, and whether a graduate program was the only place I could get that knowledge. I thought about what my clients needed from me, and what I needed to be able to do for them, and what people would pay me for. Based on that criteria, I decided that the time and money spent on a higher degree just didn’t make any sense.

A good response to the question, “How far should I go in academics?” can be found here. Some of the noteworthy points raised include:

There are a series of mistakes in the minds of most would-be Ph.D. students. The main one is some version of the labor theory of value. They assume that if they work hard enough, and jump through enough academic hoops, some college will hire them.

They do not begin as entrepreneurs. They do not ask the key question: “What is the likely state of the market in three or four years for holders of a Ph.D. in the field that I want to earn mine in?” Why not? Because they do not see economic value as something imputed by buyers of the services supplied by holders of a Ph.D. They see consumer demand as somehow generated by the work it takes to earn a Ph.D.

You don’t need a Ph.D. to be a scholar. You need one to be hired by a university that will pay you. But the odds against getting hired full-time by a university are high. This has been true since 1969 in most fields.

Marx never got hired by a university. Neither did Freud. They changed the world.

We don’t really have that much snow, but the temperatures are cold enough to keep what little there is on the ground. It’s been enough to force me to buy boots, but not a winter coat yet.

More excitingly, though, is that we finally got the rest of our stuff moved in! There wasn’t really all that much — maybe 15 medium and small boxes, but the big ticket items were the key: kitchen pantry, dressers, Joe’s organ and the Sumo!

Clothing-wise, we’d gotten very good at living with whatever a medium-sized suitcase can hold. It now seems both ridiculous and obscene that I unpacked a dresser drawer full of only socks, underwear, nylons and pyjamas. For the last six months, I’d been living with less than that in total.

As much as it bothered us to be without our stuff, for me at least it was more annoying because it was a sign that things weren’t done yet. For sure, a dresser is far better for clothing storage than a rubbermaid container on the floor, but I’m not as thrilled about the literal “baggage” that came with it. Yes, it’s nice to own some clothing with sleeves now (remember, the suitcase was packed in June!) but it will be interesting to see how much of it I keep, or at least keep out and not in storage in the basement.

Despite all the frustration over delays with finally “moving in” I know for me, the experience of “living without stuff” was very rewarding. This coincides nicely with our family’s new “pick one couple to buy for” rule. We already bought Mom and Dad’s gift, and I’ve already ordered Joe’s, so my holiday shopping is done! It’s not that I would have minded buying more gifts for more people, but I just don’t feel a need to. And, I certainly don’t want more crap filling up our little house. There are still some things we need. (or do we . . . ?The jury’s still out on that one.) Joe won’t complain about the addition of anything fleece to our household. But otherwise, I think we’re doing pretty well and have managed to adopt the change in lifestyle we were hoping we would.

Well, we made it through October with NO SNOW, which is apparently no small feat!

If only it would hold off another 3 weeks, then I’ll be in Orlando and won’t need to break down and buy a winter coat at W*lm*rt.  I figure, if I can just last the 22 days or so before we leave for our Orlando-Toronto-Philadelphia-Toronto trek, then I can get a coat in either Toronto or Philadelphia for better selection.  (And if in Philadelphia, then I can use play money USD to do it!)

As if playing chicken with the weather weren’t thrill-seeking enough, I’m also in a battle of wills against our thermostat.  Notice that I said I’m engaged in the battle; I’m not convinced the thermostat really cares. But, it does taunt me by displaying exactly how many minutes (by the day and by the week) the furnace has been on.  There’s something very satisfying about seeing it display 00:00, even if it means the indoor temperature has been set at 14 degrees in order to do it.  I had to cave in today, though, because the drywall mudding needs greater-than-freezing temperatures in which to set.  So, a cozy night lies ahead!

I figured the epic nature of this story simply demanded the use of Roman numerals.

Most of you have, over the past 5 months, listened to me whine and complain about the general lack of competence of customer service agents, shipping companies. . . basically anyone whom I’m paying to handle issues of importance to me.

I think the wounds are still a little too deep to go back to day 1 with the shower, but don’t worry, the FULL story is coming (and is probably going to The Consumerist as well) but I would like to recognize one individual who made all the difference in this process, and who is singlehandedly the reason that I have a luxury steam shower in my home (albeit still in pieces in the living room, but that’s another story).

Our contract broker in this ordeal was Ms. Beverley Johnson from A&A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. I won’t get into the boring details here, because they really are quite boring compared to the rest of the story — she did her job, she made phone calls to other companies on our behalf (instead of requesting that we relay messages back and forth like the shipping company and manufacturer did), she called us regularly to keep us informed of the process (alleviating some of the stress of my newly acquired full-time shipping detective job) and she KNEW WHAT SHE WAS DOING.

Sorry to scream, but those of you who know how patient and tolerant I am with the general moronic public will understand.

I have a request, if you have a few moments to spare out of your busy day. Since you know me and my painfully exacting high standards of customer service, and since I have seen fit to post here that Beverley Johnson is the only contract broker a Canadian will ever need, therefore by flawless logic, she must be the BEST CONTRACT BROKER IN THE COUNTRY.

I happen to know that this week (sorry this post is so late) was “Staff Appreciation Week” at her company, so if anyone has a chance to send an email to Mr. G. B. Robins Mr. Dave Costa (gbrobins brobins dcosta AT aabc DOT com — don’t want him getting spam because of this!) and say something along the lines of

“Sarah is the pickiest person I know; she doesn’t like anyone, and she thinks she can do anyone’s job better than they can. But, she raves about Beverley Johnson, so she must be the best service professional in the world!”

then hopefully this dear, wonderful woman will get the recognition she deserves.

I know we often use the power of speech to gripe, complain, and generally vent. But, I was thinking today as I crafted my own letter to Mr. Robbins how good it felt to be able to use my gift of writing irreverent and stand-out reference letters for real good. I hope that I’ll be able to make as much of a difference in Beverley’s day or week as she made in our time of need. (Not that all you guys weren’t supportive as I complained about the shower, but you didn’t really make it get here any faster, now did you?)

So, if you can spare a couple of minutes, please do write on Beverley’s behalf. The logic is simple. I am disappointed with the service of pretty much everyone. I was thrilled with Beverley’s service. Ergo, Beverley rocks. That’s all you need to say.

Oh, and of course, if you need a one-time, contract broker for importing all those BELOW PAR US goods in to the country, you know whom to call. I can give you her direct number.

A few students have checked in with me about how their school years have started. It’s stories like these that make me grateful that I no longer have a vested interest in how teachers are teaching (or not teaching, as the case may be):

Sarah, would you like to know how to mke the inverse of a parabola?? We take our paper, flip it over, turn it around and trace it! I turned to my friend and was like is this a sick joke? (Actual MSN transcript, edited only to make it a single paragraph.)

Now, some of you will have a mini-heart attack, although likely only if you’re a math tutor.  The rest of you probably won’t get what’s going on here, so let me attempt to summarize in a non-mathy way.  (You’re lucky, my first instinct was to explain the math. You can thank me later.)
Non-math summary: This student is in Gr. 12.  This student is learning one of those things that most people only use when “building bridges.”  This student is learning barebones tricks based on pattern recognition for putting something on the page that a teacher can mark as being correct without needing to understand any of the math behind it.  And we’re wondering why bridges are collapsing all over the place?

To compare, I can teach you “calculus” in the same way right now, in about 12 seconds.  Ready?

The derivative of 8x is 8.  The derivative of 24x is 24.  The derivative of -123x is -123.  The derivative of 67x is 67.   So, what’s the derivative of 17x?  Not a trick question.  It is in fact 17.  Congratulations.  I just taught you calculus.  I can give you a test right now to prove that you know calculus and to prove to the Ministry of Education that I’ve taught calculus. You may think I’m kidding, but this is what passes for teaching in more classrooms than anyone wants to admit.

This is just another reason why we live here now.

Most people know that I’m very proud to be an INTJ, so much so that perhaps sometimes it’s tempting to live up to the stereotype than to just be myself. But, what’s not to love about this personality type when you can find cool stuff like this written about you?

They are the supreme pragmatists, who see reality as something which is quite arbitrary and made up. Thus, it can be used as a tool — or ignored. Reality is quite malleable and can be changed, conquered, or brought to heel. An INTJ sees reality as the pawn of ideas: no idea is too far-fetched to be entertained. INTJs are natural brain-stormers, always open to new concepts and, in fact, aggressively seeking them.

That’s probably why I was drawn to a particular blog title today called Are You Willing to be Free? It was one of those “you create your own reality” posts, but what I liked was that rather than being peppy and overly motivational, it expressed an idea that I believe is true but most people don’t want to face. Richard Cockrum writes:

Your life is an expression of who you are. It is a stage you have set with those around you.

I love this description. He writes that when we think of defining our life, we do so through what we see (or tell ourselves) in the mirror, or through the dreams and goals we write in our journals. But really, each one of us has created a certain life and it’s evidenced by looking around you every bit as much as looking inside you. So, personal change doesn’t come from changing your internal dialogue alone; you must change what’s around you. I’m not saying this is easy, but it’s not as hard as you think.

I first encountered this idea at a Fast Track to Cash Flow seminar. Many of you know that Joe and I read a lot of personal finance books, especially those that advocate concepts such as “time is the currency of life” and “passive income.” I think we’ve gotten pretty much all we can out of the FTCF organization, but when we did attend a two-day seminar a couple of years ago, one of the speakers conducted an exercise to make you more aware of the external forces at play in your (financial) life. So, try this simple activity: make a list of the 10 people you spend the most time with. This can be face-to-face time, phone time . . . the point is really to figure out who most of your time is spent with. The second part of the exercise can actually be amended for a variety of purposes. Because we were in a financial seminar, we were looking at the financial aspect of our influences. So, for each of those people, estimate their annual salaries and write them down beside their names. Ballpark figures are fine. Bottom line is, the numbers that you see there give you the very likely range to which you’re restricting yourself.

Is there anything wrong with people who don’t make much money? Maybe they’ve chosen a simpler lifestyle or are really good at doing more with less. Maybe they have other priorities that do align nicely with your own values, and that’s why they’re in your life. But, it’s undeniable that these are the people who influence you on a daily basis. If you have a question, you’re going to ask someone in your circle for their advice. If you have a discussion, you’re going to hear their opinions. You’re going to see them live out their particular lifestyle, which is to a large extent a byproduct of their choices. If you’re looking to change your own financial situation, you have to change the larger influences in your life in order to reap the benefits of role models and seeing how the other half lives.

I’ve also seen this exercise used to measure plain old happiness in life. So, beside each person on your list, give them a score (out of 5 or 10 or 18 if you like; doesn’t matter) as to how “happy” you perceive them to be. Whether or not you’re actually correct doesn’t matter so much, because remember, it’s about the influence they are on you. So, if you perceive them to be happy, as far as you’re concerned, you’re seeing a model of happiness. Look at your list of scores. If you’re surrounding yourself with a bunch of 2’s and 3’s, how could you not be depressed yourself!

It seems cruel to think of people as liabilities. We have no problem saying, “If you want to lose weight, don’t keep crappy food in the house.” But, at some point, we also have to loose the human baggage that weighs us down, too. This can be the friend who lives well beyond his means (subtly sending you the message that you can do it too, or at least causing you to spend way too much when you go out with him) or the person who turns every little thing into a drama and sucks you into a vortex of stress and anxiety.

Now, before all our friends and family start to think that this move was just to get away from them and their toxic influences, let me point out that changing the stage on which your life is played out is also about changing the scenery. For example, we wanted to become more environmentally-conscious and active, but it was damn hard to do that living like mole people in a basement without windows! Yesterday it rained here. . . about 4 times, often for no more than 5 minutes at a time. In Toronto, we had very little concept of weather. Weather was reduced to a number or two (the high and the low, when we were really in tune with nature) and it was something that someone else told us. (And, since the basement was always cold, the temperature outside was often meaningless anyway.) We’ve been pretty freaked out by how quickly and frequently the weather can change here! We’re so much more aware of our environment here, whereas in Toronto we could easily miss entire thunderstorms if we were in the basement.

We also changed the inside environment of our home. Instead of cold tile throughout (that’s supposed to be bad for you in bare feet, but I can’t remember why) we have the lovely cork floor. There’s still a lot of construction dust and debris so I only feel comfortable walking bare foot on certain parts of the floor, but I have to say, this floor just feels so good on your feet. Joe dropped a dish and instead of a harsh, shrill clang, there was a gentle thud against the cork — wonderful for my high strung nerves! We even painted the bedroom, the first time we have ever painted a place we’ve lived in, and the escape from greyish-white feels amazing.

Sure we could have painted in Toronto. If we’d really cared, we could have changed the floor. But, we didn’t own the place. We could have bought a place in Toronto or a little outside the GTA instead of Dauphin, but then we’d be slaves to a mortgage and I wouldn’t be sitting in my pyjamas at noon writing about my floors; I’d have to be working to pay for them. Not the reality I wanted for myself.

The bottom line is, we do create our own reality. So, if you’re unhappy with your life, you can change it. But, for serious results, you need to think about all the things around you that you have the power to change and the things that you might need to change in order to see a real difference. As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” We may not have created the perfect reality for us yet, but no one can say we’re not trying!

Yesterday I came across the game “Mansion Impossible” (http://3form.net/mansion_impossible/) which hass a very simple premise: buy houses you can afford, sell them at a higher price, use that profit to buy and sell increasingly expensive houses for increasingly bigger profits until you can afford to buy the mansion. So what’s so great about this game?

1. In the beginning, your options are very limited, just like in real life. You’re not buying $100,000 properties right off the bat, although most of what you’ll see for sale is in the hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars. When you start this game, Trump you ain’t. But, through patience and persistence, you work up to those million dollar homes.
2. You don’t have to go for every deal in your price range. In fact, you usually can’t. There are way more houses on the market than you could possibly buy (although, not so many that the game is confusing) so you quickly accept that you’re going to buy some houses, and do your best with those.
3. Owning more than one investment at a time means settling for a good, though not optimal return. If you only own one house, then it’s easy to watch its property value go steadily up, taper off, sit at a peak, then start to go down. Keeping an eye on the going price of two different houses at the same time means that you will notice when the price starts to go down, but you probably won’t cash out at the peak. And, that’s OK! You can try out both strategies (single or multiple ownership) and see which one works better for you.
4. When you can afford the bigger properties, don’t waste time on the smaller ones. Or in other words, invest according to your means. If you have big bucks to play with, you should be taking advantage of bigger deals. Sometimes, it only takes one or two big houses to propel your status into the next level. But, if there’s a slow market and there are no big properties for sale . . .
5. Your money does you no good just sitting in the bank. Instead of sitting there, killing time, buy a small property or two. Every little bit helps, and it’s only by actively doing that you increase your bankroll, and therefore get closer to your goal.
6. Your goal is tangible and your score is measured in time. Money isn’t the goal of this game; it’s the means to the goal. And, you’re evaluated based on how quickly you reach that goal. This teaches us what should be lesson number one of personal finance — it’s not about money, it’s about time.
7. You will win, it’s just a matter of time. In fact, if you just keep playing long enough, even with the most conservative strategy, you’ll eventually win. But, will you be alive to enjoy it? (You don’t actually die in this game. I mean that your “score” could be 100 years.) What I like about this lesson is that it shows how from meager beginnings, everyone can work his or her way up.

It’s true, you do start with $100K in the bank that is entirely available for purchasing real estate. Perhaps this isn’t reality for most. And, your properties never require maintenance. They don’t burn down. Tenants don’t trash the place and pipes don’t burst. But, it’s a simple introduction to acquiring wealth that introduces some basic principles of investing. And if you wanted to, it’s fun enough that you could just play it like a video game.