From Saving

December 7, 2016

An Open Letter To My Younger Selves

An Open Letter to My Younger Selves,

It is always so easy to look back on decisions made in a negative way when they don’t turn out the way you think or hope they might. If only it were possible to educate our former self with all the experience we gain with everything we go through…maybe to write a letter to and send it back in time to yourself at an age when you could use that knowledge more than ever. Well then you end up with the time travel issue where if you change the past that might change the future – and maybe if my younger self didn’t make the same mistakes I wouldn’t be where I am now. If that happened maybe I never would have written to my younger self in the first place and everything goes back to the way it was. Time travel is difficult.

November 23, 2016

What Would You Do With A Million Dollars?

I remember the question growing up was always “What would you do with a Million dollars?” That seems almost outdated now though. Don’t get me wrong, a Million dollars is a lot of money – it is still life changing money for sure.

I am a diehard fan of the show Survivor. I have watched every episode since it started over 16 years ago. When the show first started, the grand prize was a cheque for a million dollars (taxable of course). The show is now in its 33rd season and the grand prize this year….is a million dollars. The value has dropped off substantially.

August 17, 2016

A Penny Saved So They Say

Is It a Penny Earned?

A wise person once said “A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned” – and as I recently found out that person was not Benjamin Franklin. Whoever it was that coined it is still pretty wise. The concept is simple, which is an important part of being timeless. I want to dig into this phrase, identify what makes it as true today as when it first showed up over a century ago.

A Penny Saved…

Start with the first few words – “A Penny Saved”. In 2013 Canada removed the penny from circulation which ended a 155 year journey into pockets from coast to coast. The penny was deemed quite literally not worth its weight. Even when its primary composition changed from copper to steel in the late 90’s it was more expensive to produce a penny than it was worth due to inflation. So if a penny is so worthless, why bother saving them?

August 10, 2016

Making Coffee and Leveraging Financial Opportunities

Are you leveraging financial opportunities that you have at your disposal?

Last week I was making a coffee for Scott and I was thinking about the fact that we each make his coffee in different ways. I think my way is probably better. No, this isn’t going to be a bash of Scott we just think about it differently that’s all. (But I’m probably right.)

We have an espresso machine so I was just making him a standard Americano. For those of you that don’t know it’s basically espresso and hot water. Scott has a little bit of sugar and almond milk in his coffee and we have different approaches when it comes to making coffee.

How the Coffee is Made:

I like to put the sugar at the bottom of the cup and stir the sugar in while the coffee is being made. Once the sugar is dissolved I add some almond milk and stir some more. Scott puts the sugar in at the bottom of the cup as well but he stirs after the espresso, water and almond milk goes in. Basically he stirs the sugar after the coffee is finished.

The result is a cup that I make for him has sugar incorporated through the coffee as the sugar has dissolved. The cup that Scott makes has some of the sugar incorporated but most of it is at the bottom.