"What's the worst that could happen?"

I started reading The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss today. I was kind of afraid it would be stupid and I would hate it because after I had ordered it I checked out some reviews and a lot of people were saying bad things about it. I actually really like it so far though! I don't think it's going to be life changing (mostly since I have already decided to change my life, haha) but it is making me more excited to get away from how my life used to be and get into how my life is going to be. Maybe once I get further along in the book it will give me the perfect idea and I will make lots of money by barely working at all, but for now I am just enjoying the way it makes you think a bit differently. 

So far my favorite part is when he makes you think about what it is you want to do that you have been putting off, or that you don't think you can do, and basically ask yourself what the absolute worst case scenario would be if you just went for it. For me, I was thinking about just taking off for Australia right now, not paying off our debt first, not saving up money, just going. My worst case scenario looked a little like this:

 My already bad credit score would get a lot worse, and my husband's decent credit score would become terrible instead, because we couldn't afford to make payments on any of our debt. We would never be able to get a mortgage and probably not even be able to rent an apartment due to our terrible credit. Our car would sit around not driving while we tried to pay hundreds of dollars a month on the loan we used to buy the car. We wouldn't be able to get working holiday visas because you have to have 5000$ in your bank account (each) before they will grant you one...but I guess if we tried really hard we could find work under the table...and maybe we could work for accommodation too or at least stay somewhere really cheap, like a terrible hostel. Then maybe we could still afford the minimum payments on our credit cards and loans. But what about all of our stuff? I guess we could just throw it all away, or donate it, or put up signs in our apartment building for a moving sale...If we really couldn't make ends meet in Australia we could go somewhere cheaper to live, with more laid back laws about working holidays or working abroad. If we failed that too we could come back to Toronto and get jobs in our industry and make the money back pretty fast. If not, we could get jobs at Tim Hortons or McDonalds and live with the in-laws. Credit scores can get back to normal eventually.... 


It's just funny how you can give reasons that sound legitimate but all they really are is excuses. If we really wanted, we could leave now. I would feel a lot better if we paid our debt off first though, hahaha. If we leave all full of debt with no savings, we wouldn't be able to stay as long or feel as free I think. There I go making excuses again ;) but seriously, it's funny how you start to realize that everything is fixable and nothing that is going to happen is going to be the end of the world. Kind of fun to think about.

Reality Check

Yesterday, I wrote about how I could finally start making up a budget because I found out when I will be starting my next job. Well, today I started making one...and then I cried. My pay cheques do not go as far as I somehow originally assumed they would. It was a super depressing activity. 

I thought that my husband and I would pay off all of our debt and save up enough to leave for Australia by next February. That was a little too optimistic. By May I will have hopefully paid off one of my credit cards...that's almost halfway through the year. Altogether we have 3 credit cards, a very large line of credit, and a new car loan. (We also have small student loans but the payments on those are so small that they're kind of off the radar right now). On top of that, to do a working holiday in Australia, we each need 5000$ in our bank account so that they know we can afford to live there for a little bit. It's also very expensive to even get to Australia. It doesn't help that this job is only for, maybe, 7 weeks and then I have no idea when my next one will be after that. Basically, it's going to take us longer to get to Australia than I originally thought.

It made me feel a little bit better when I realized that we could for sure have the line of credit paid off by the end of the year, probably a lot sooner actually, now that I am doing the math. That's assuming we are both working almost non-stop for the rest of the year, which is definitely not guaranteed...or even all that likely. I'm getting depressed again. 

I wish we had things we could sell. All of our furniture is Ikea so it's practically worthless. We have a car but we owe more money on it than it is even worth. We'd have to make a LOT of extra payments on it just to break even when we sell it...BAH!!

Maybe we shouldn't do our working holiday in Australia. There are other cool places. My sister found this program for working holidays in the UK. They will put us together in jobs at a hotel and you're provided with free or very cheap accommodations at the hotel you are working at. It's cheaper to fly to the UK and you don't need to have as much money in your bank account to apply. I don't really care where I go as long as it's somewhere different and somewhere I eventually want to go anyway. If I had to pick only one place to do the working holiday, I would choose Australia...but maybe I don't have to pick one...

List Update

I updated my list and posted it on the side of the blog so it's easier to find. I changed the "read a book every week" one. I just put it up at first because I saw it on lots of people's lists and I love reading so I thought it would be cool. Then I started realizing something like this should be on someone's list who doesn't spend a lot of time reading and wants incentive to read more. That is not me. BUT, all I read are fiction/fantasy books (plus they're generally between 700 and 1000 pages long, so reading one a week is a bit difficult when I need to spend time working on the other items on my list). I decided it might be good for me to start reading some non-fiction books. That way I could actually learn a few things when I read instead of just pretending I live in a magical world where I have powers and fight dragons or something. I guess I'm pretty behind in that one now. At least I had one fiction book under my belt this year haha. I ordered a few travel books from Amazon so I will start reading those as soon as I get them! Oooh and this gives me an excuse to go to the bookstore! I will do that this weekend! 

I've been practicing guitar everyday but still can't practice for very long before my fingers start hurting too much. Luckily, I will be unemployed for a few weeks after today so I will have LOTS of time to practice and build up my callouses, haha. I've moved on from the Buffalo Springfield song to a new song that only uses the exact same two chords, except it has more strumming and you play the chords for two beats each instead of one. It is Silence is Easy by Starsailor, I actually like it!

Hopefully I can move beyond the E and A chords soon...that will be my goal for after this weekend I guess. 

I was looking into last minute cruise deals yesterday just to see what kind of deals there were. The World cruises are still way out of my price range, and the ones that are a bit cheaper just don't seem worth it because they don't go to enough places that I actually want to go to. The travel books I bought are about traveling all around the world so I might have a better plan once I read through those. I did notice that you can sometimes find decently priced cruises from North America to Australia. Since flights there are expensive and SO LONG I thought this would be so much nicer. I think mostly it's a repositioning cruise so you don't stop at a lot of places on the way, but I would take a 20 day cruise over a 22 hour flight any day! It's not like we have a deadline to leave home or get to Australia. I'll definitely be looking into this more. 

I might be finding out about a new job over the next couple of days so then I will be able to make up a budget for paying off debt and saving up some money! As much as I hate my job and don't want to work, I am excited to start a new job just so I can start saving up for Australia! It'll be much more bearable knowing I am working towards something like that. 

My 365 Project is not going as great as I would like it to. I keep almost forgetting about it and then end up taking a last minute picture for my gratitude instagram. Most of my pictures are actually screenshots...which shouldn't count. They are things that I was grateful for though, like I was grateful I could do my wedding thank you cards online because it's so much easier and I could get it done so much faster, so I took a picture of the design online on my phone. It's a lot of stuff like that. From now on I am not going to allow screenshots or pictures of my computer. I think it will be a lot better in the end if I stop doing those kinds of pictures. 

I think that's about everything I have updates for. My guitar playing is going to get way better over the next week or so, maybe I will even post a video ;) 

30 Before 30 Instead...

I've decided my bucket list will actually be a 30 before 30 list. I feel like I will be more likely to do the things on the list if there is a time limit on them. So I have almost 4 years to complete this list! I think that is pretty doable...other than the cost of some of this traveling...But that's Future Sam's problem. I might end up changing some things but, for now, here it is:

1) Learn to surf for real (I took a surf lesson in Hawaii but the instructor always had to push me onto the wave instead of me just paddling super fast)
2) Live and work in a new country
3) Go on “Around the World” cruise or just travel around the world
4) Write a novel
5) Travel to Iceland
6) Learn a new language
7) Play guitar (and/or other musical instrument)
8) Go scuba diving
9) Go inside a volcano
10) See lava flowing or a volcanic eruption
11) Travel to New Zealand
12) Complete a 365 project
13) Get a separate picture with each Hanson band member
14) Write a song
15) Start a blog
16) Learn to cook
17) Learn to dance/take a dance class
18) Get a nice camera and take a photography course
19) Get Debt Free
20) Travel Europe/The UK
21) Get decent at skiing or snowboarding
22) Swim with wild dolphins
23) Start liking beer (this probably seems weird but I don't care haha)
24) Go storm chasing 
25) Read a book/novel a week for a year (or 52 books in a year)
26) Do an unexpected nice thing for a stranger (pay it forward, tip 100%, pay for someone's meal, etc)
27) Finish a fitness program (Insanity, T25, P90X, Yoga challenge, Bodyrock challenge, etc) 
28) Find a routine that finally gives me clear skin

29) Travel to Australia
30) See the pyramids 


I have plans for some of these and have started working on some already! This year my husband and I are going to work hard, pay off all of our debt (#19), and save for a yearlong working holiday in Australia (#2 and #29). I have already started learning guitar (#7), started this blog (#15), I usually read quite a bit so I think #25 won't be too difficult, I decided a few years ago that I was going to learn to speak Icelandic (#6) so I have a book and a CD to help me learn I just have to stick with it, and I started my 365 project a few days ago (#12), I am doing the 365 Grateful project on instagram, taking a photo of something I am grateful for everyday. I tried to pick a decent amount of things that I didn't have to travel for so the year I am taking to pay off debt and save money isn't super boring and uneventful haha. I think I am off to an okay start...