Drips of debt and plugging leaks

Autumn is on the way and the rain is falling intermittently around the place, just in time for my week of holiday. Yes, I only get one week this year because I started a new job and haven't accrued more. At least this week is paid. I have worked for 16 years in Finland this month and haven't had paid holidays yet - so it is nice to sit around and "do nothing" while getting some money.

It has actually been pretty busy and while we had some friends visit for a few days over the weekend which gave us time to chillout for a change, the rest of the time has been with a sick dog (getting better-ish now), a whole lot of housework to clear out space so as to give our daughter some more space and for the next few days, more cooking, cleaning and organizing for visitors on Sunday for her third birthday. Oh, we did visit Moomin World on Tuesday, that was exciting :)

The big news for us though is that my wife got offered the job she applied for and will sign next week and begin in September. While this adds a few other wrinkles, it is a welcome financial relief as for the last few years I have been the predominant earner. If I can manage to keep pushing for another year or so the way I have been, we should be able to make up the lost ground that the last 3 years has taken.

The plan is to become more serious with the way we organize our lives to see if we can put even a little padding between us and the inevitable collapse. This means investing what we can spare as best we can into what we consider will go up.

If you remember the question I ask is, what percentage of your disposable income over the last year has been spent on something you believe will go up in value? And what percentage of the banks income do you think they put into something they believe will go down in value?

Pretty much, most of my disposable income has gone into crypto, Steem, Eth and now a little BTC gathering - I have a few shitcoins too. While I have been buying small amounts relatively consistently since 2018, this has only started to increase over the last few months. I am hoping that I will be able to add a little more to the investment once my wife is working.

I do have a pension plan that I must put into every month as a compulsory part of owning a small business, but I do not think that is ever going to mature into something worth anything as I think that the global economic environment will eat that well before I get a chance to use it.

In the past it was pretty easy to prep for retirement as people had jobs for life that paid their superannuation and it was common to top it up a bit with a few extra percent. On top of this, attitudes toward money was different with debt being avoided except on the largest of purchases like a house, whereas these days people take on debt on their car, electronics, clothes and even their entertainment.

Most likely use a credit card for their subscriptions to Netflix, HBO and the like, yet how many pay the entirety of the credit card off? Not many. That means that there is interest paid on every purchase, even with the 30 day "interest-free" period as it is usually only applicable when the card moves from zero. If it already has debt owing, the entire amount gets calculated for interest - even if there was only 1 dollar remaining to be paid after the grace period. Did you calculate that into your purchases?

This is likely why most places won't take a debit card online, as while it is more difficult to check international account balances, there is no interest to be earned if people buy things with money they actually have and that just ruins most of the point of being a bank and the profit model.

Debt is the biggest killer of dreams ever as it means that when opportunity does present itself, there is no resources to take advantage of it, to put something into the risk. Everyone is scared to lose their money, yet most people don't realize that going into debt is losing their money and taking away their futures - guaranteed.

But, no one likes risk and guaranteed failure is risk-free!  

Well, that is the core plan:

• Remove debt as far as possible
• Invest into some crypto (and something more traditional)
• Save some cash
• Wait for the crash
• Wait a bit longer as prices fall
• Buy into a cheap house
• Rent out our apartment

Past this, I haven't really looked very far but I think that this will be enough for the next 3-5 years and of course:

• Keep working
• Keep Steeming

There's a long way to go baby.

Taraz [ a Steem original ]