Like many of you, Wendy and I have had some up and down times financially. We built our lifestyle while I was working at both Lakeview and Lakeland Churches and when I quit Lakeview, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but at the same time I needed the flexibility to keep working at Lakeland Church on the weekends. It meant a significant drop in revenue for us. Later on I struggled with some health issues for a year. Heart and nerve problems that were extremely painful which made it really hard to move let alone work. Our finances took a beating.
We pulled through and looking back, things were not that bad, we just had no money for extras. When I started working at the Salvation Army Community Centre, the default browser on most computers is Internet Explorer and therefore the default homepage was set to MSN.com. While I don’t like MSN for search, I really started to appreciate their articles on personal finances and I wish I had learned this stuff a decade ago. I thought I would link to some of the ones that I thought would be helpful.
- 3 Things You Should Never Charge on Your Credit Card
- 3 Steps Back to the Sanity of Cash
- Put your debt on a diet
- 7 Surefire Ways to Stay Poor
- 5 Ways to Turn Your Finances Around
- Need a loan? Borrow like it’s 1975
- 10 Habits That Will Lead to Financial Chaos
- 5 Stupid Fixes for Money Problems
- Why You Need $500 in the Bank :: Well actually you should have 3-4 months revenue in savings at a minimum but $500 will save you many, many times. Take a look at Modest Needs and you will see that a $500 emergency fund can go a long way.
- Speaking of Modest Needs, it is like Kiva but it helps out people teetering on the verge of financial catastrophe. If you ever wonder where you can help, here is a good place to start.
- How new middle class “essentials” are killing us financially :: The money we spend on a flat screen plasma television or our iPhone monthly payment may be better used elsewhere in many cases.
- How to Save $200,000 in 6 Months
- The $0 Emergency Fund :: The average length of unemployment in 2006 was 16.8 weeks, or more than four months.
- Prepaid BMO Mastercard :: I am not a big credit card fan but for $9.95 to create and no fees after that, this debit Mastercard has been great for online purchases and travel. Because I am spending cash and not credit, I tend to track it a lot closer than I do with credit cards.
- Canadian Living has a good article on how to cut back on Christmas expenses that often get out of control.
No one knows how long this recession will last but many are predicting that the currect economic slump will be with us for a while. I post more links to the Recession Survival Guide over the next while. Let me know what suggestions you have in the comments below.
Great post! Thanks for the links. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, as well.
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As far as cars go, I am a big fan of cars that use Japanese engines – Used engines are a cheap way to go. California and Texas have lots of places for this, I don’t know if Saskatoon has any? I haven’t done this in a while (my Japanese car has 150k miles, and my truck has 195k).
Watch how you spend all your resources – time, talent, money and emotional effort. If a job requies you to ‘decompress’ – it’s not a 40 hour workweek, it’s a virtual 60 or 80.
Pack your lunch and make your own coffee.
Network and communicate. Your paycheck is no big secret, find those that are equally transparent.
Good stuff Jordon. But it is interesting that the US economy thrives on people who do the opposite!
More car stuff.
anybody here know of a good site to find more info on bad credit military loans? I’ve got this site bookmarked and im gonna keep checking it out, but i still would like to find a site that covers bad credit military loans a little more thoroughly..thanks
The sooner people get out of the consumer mentality, the sooner this country will start to see some real progress. How did we get to a place where we now have a negative savings rate? By focusing on our wants and not our needs. Bigger homes, bigger cars, latest gadgets all afforded on credit. Meanwhile our wages have stagnated… the rich have gotten richer, the poor poorer and the middle class feels the squeeze.
[...] that are hope isn’t in this system and make us rely on something better. Jordon’s Recession Survival Guide. This whole recession thing is starting to excite [...]