12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

12-Minute Financial Makeover Step 6 - Ease Your Mind with Debt Freedom Plan

This is the 6^th installment of our Financial Makeover Series featuring carefully selected personal finance subjects. We hope talking about these basic principles can allow you to figure out what can help the most in your own unique situation.

We talked about avoiding fees in Part 1 and how using a no-fee online checking account could help you so.

Part 2 featured spending more on things you truly love using a fun budget approach.

We continued in Part 3 with the amazing freedom of budget choices that can allow you to realize more of your projects and dreams.

Part 4 talked about emergency savings and having a personalized contingency plan.

Part 5 suggested to hammer down boring big recurring expenses.

After these, we now feel ready to abort an even more challenging subject. So, let’s put on our armor, sharpen our sword and face on the dreaded debt beast.

 

The Right Mindset

Having too much debt is probably today’s biggest financial problem of too many families. We did not start our Financial Makeover Series here because we believe it’s better to have developed some tools before tackling on dreaded debt.

 

With some confidence in your abilities, getting out of debt can be quite straightforward. You just have to allocate money in the right way to achieve it.

 

We know getting out of debt may seen difficult or even impossible for some. Many are even addicted to debt. They know extensive use of it is bad for them yet became comfortable bathing in it. Sadly, they are so afraid about getting into that battle.

 

But after you get over that steep psychological hurdle, getting rid of debt becomes basic math. You have to believe and decide you can get out of debt. No one can do it for you. You have to commit and do it for yourself and your family. The good news is that you have that power in you.

12-Minute Financial Makeover Step 5 - Slash Boring Expenses to Relieve Pressure

Our Financial Makeover Series features carefully selected personal finance topics. We hope talking about these basic principles can allow you to figure out what can help the most in your own unique situation.

In Part 1, we discussed avoiding fees and using a no-fee online checking account.

Part 2 pointed out how no-fee savings accounts and a fun budget approach could allow you to spend more on things you truly love.

We followed up in Part 3 with budget choices and the amazing freedom it can provide to realize your projects and dreams.

Part 4 suggested to start and build up emergency savings in accordance with your own crap-happens plan.

Today we’ll talk about expenses and propose ideas, hopefully inspiring, to reduce them.

We know a lot of people have a very hard time cutting down their spending as it can be simply too painful to them. But oftentimes, just focusing on boring expenses can give you the spark and motivation to get the slashing process going.

Getting More of What You Love

As we already highlighted in Part 2, getting more of what you love is the key here. So, try to focus on getting more resources like precious time and money!

 

On the cash front, reviewing your expenses and slashing unnecessary ones can be a straightforward way to free up big bucks to attain more of that.

 

An even more motivating approach is to concentrate your expenses carving on the boring kind. After all, cutting down on expenses that don’t provide you much joy should be much easier.

 

Working hard to tackle down your expenses should also help take out much of the guilt associated to spending. Enjoying more of what you love is not a sin, especially if you worked hard to achieve so.

 

As you can see, boring-expense money could provide some leeway and ultimately allow you to spend more on what you love. That’s plain and simple!

 

Fun Right After Necessity First

 

In all of this, you still have to prioritize essential spending.

 

You have no choice to spend some money on what you and your family, essentially need. There’s no way around it.

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

12-Minute Financial Tips to Immediately Improve Your Situation

One of the main concepts at the basis of the 12-Minute Approach is improvement. In most cases and in most domains, it’s easy to get to ball rolling with only 12-Minute a day or 12-Minute here and there. It’s no different for your finances. Your family’s financial situation can be greatly improved by investing just a little time, 12 minutes, on it. The idea is to start with 12-Minute and build up from there.

Consequently, today we will try to present a bunch of ideas on how to quickly improve your dealings with money. Note that our intention is not to present an exhaustive list. If you have a minute or even better, a dozen, pick one of these and try to implement it. 

Reverse Marketing Scheme to Spend Less, Save More

When it comes to spending money, especially on big ticket items, we personally like to throw our brain a curveball. This twist also works on recurrent expenses. The trick is to convert all your purchases to measure their impact over your lifetime.

For instance, the cool-giant-flat-screen TV on special at only 3K$ can effectively cost you a little more than 49K$ (for 48 years @ 6%) over your lifetime. If you manage to get a 12% long-term portfolio performance like we do, that single purchase could represent more than 690K$! A lot of dough just to enjoy a groovy TV for a few years...

In the same matter, paying an extra 20 bucks each month on your iPhone plan translates into a corresponding amount between 66K$ (48 years @ 6%) and about 615K$ (48 years @ 12%) over your lifespan.

Analyzing expenses that way sure puts things into perspective and should spur up your frugal nature if you happen to have one.

12 Suggestions to Reduce Telecom Expenses

In this digital era, where everything now seems to be connected one way or another, we profusely consume telecom services. For most of us, they are a given of our modern life. We pay for them little by little or systematically get charged every month. So, without really noticing it, these convenient connected services can cost a lot of money.

Because we often incur recurring monthly fees to enjoy them, the financial impact of telecom services may even be more important than you think. As we already talked about, Reducing Recurring Expenses is A Great Strategy to Save. In fact, it could immensely help you build wealth. As previously mentioned, saving only 10$ each month could translate into a couple hundred thousand (not just a couple 100$ or 1K$ but rather, a couple 100K$) dollars more in your pocket over your lifetime. Just imagine the impact of a monthly saving of 25$, 50$ or even 100$.

In the end, this type of simple recurring savings could even make you a millionaire or prevent you from becoming one. That’s why we believe trying to reduce your monthly recurring telecom bill is a great idea for your long-term financial wellbeing.

We don’t have all the answers about it. We will try to stir up the discussion or help start your reflection by providing and commenting a list of ideas to deflate your telecom costs. There sure exist a lot of different opportunities to save or avoid unnecessary expenses in the telecom realm. Note that the list is not exhaustive and is presented in no particular order.

Financial Freedom Insouciant Mindset

A couple months back, after Preparing for it, we took our first steps Out of RRSPs. Since then, our focus has been more about Minimizing Taxes instead of Maximizing RRSP. To briefly remind you, one of our main strategy has been to keep my taxable income just under the lower tax bracket upper limit.

Many details around the whole process, like the first transfers and withdrawals, made me realize my salary wasn’t essential anymore and that I could stop working whenever I wish from now on. It felt like I literally was at the doorstep of financial freedom.

Strangely, a completely different mindset quickly set in. I deeply felt like everything was now cool and okay. Furthermore, it seemed like it would always be alright. That freedom was a relief and a wonderful feeling. To some extent, the burden of many financial obligations was finally off my shoulders.

But there was another odd side to it. I felt invincible, almost indestructible and some kind of carelessness settled in. It’s tough to precisely describe it. You could call it detachment, nonchalance, disinterest, insouciance…with an added touch of selfishness. In short, I didn’t care about other people and what they thought of me. Having enough money kind of made me feel like I didn’t need others anymore. In that insouciant mindset I became somewhat negligent. With that financial security, I now felt like I could get away with anything.

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

Experience Living with Only 75% of Your Salary

Could you live with only three-quarters of your salary? Extreme savers may find this quite easy as they probably already save more than 25% of their actual income. But let’s face it; they are still exceptionally rare individuals.

Heck, many can’t even get by with their full revenue.

I’ve been experiencing it first hand myself for the last 2 years. As some of you might know, my working conditions allowed me to take a differed 6-month leave of absence in 2017 and to spread out income deductions over a longer period so I’ve been paid 75% of my salary since 2015.

So today, we’ll talk about financial and psychological implications of having your salary amputated and how my family and I fared with it. We definitely think the broad benefits are worth the hassle.

I’ve been doing it for real but everyone has the option to at least artificially implement it. For instance, by using pre-authorized transfers to automatically put aside a significant portion of their paycheck. It can be a great way to discover if you have the financial means but also the stomach to live with less money. If you prefer, gradually doing it could give you a chance to learn to slowly cope with it. 

Is Living with Less That Hard?

Squirrel Your Way Out of the Rat Race

Tired of being trapped in the never ending rat race? Of living or surviving we should rather say, till your next paycheck, burning through money almost as you touch it, always wanting more and seemingly getting less?

A solution exists: simply act more like a squirrel!

Squirrels are expert savers. They work very hard to find their favourite delicacy: precious nuts. So after struggling to discover some, they stash most of it away. They know provisions will be quite useful when harder times come by.

The squirrel in you knows the value of money and can avoid wasting it. He knows how hard you worked and how much precious time you spent to earn it. He’s inclined to save in anticipation of rainier days and convinced stashing some away will someday get you free. Financially free but also liberated to spend as you wish the rarest resource of our so-called advanced era: your invaluable time.

Saving more, spending less and by the same token, struggling less can be a wonderful liberating idea.

So get some inspiration from our squirrel friend and escape the excruciating rat race. Besides, it may never be possible to get ahead of it and even less to win it anyway.

Photo Credit

Additional Interesting Budgeting Ideas

A couple months ago, we started this series on budgeting by presenting our distinctive way to Enjoy the Pleasures of Budgeting.

Last time, we talked about How Budgeting Can Be So Simple and Easy as even children can have fun with it.

Today, a more profound look at budgeting will propose interesting advanced budget ideas.

So, let’s cut to the chase and get right to it!

Additional Budget Tips

Before spending any of your hard-earned cash, you should always ask yourself this vital question: 

Do I really need it?

As we already talked before, in our consumption-driven society, a lot of people seem to crave high-ticket items and end up buying plenty of useless stuff.

To address this bad habit and improve deficient buying decision making, we like to convert possible purchases into working hours.

How Budgeting Can Be So Simple and Easy

Last month, we wrote about our unique way to Enjoy the Pleasures of Budgeting.

Today, we’ll continue on the same exciting subject and see how budgeting can be simple, accessible and even fun for everyone. We’ll also share some easy starting pointers. These fundamental basic budget principles should get you going in the right direction.

In our next and last article of this three-part series on budgeting (coming your way in June), we’ll continue to expose our distinctive point of view on the matter. Additional Interesting Budget Ideas will be presented to you along with more elaborate tips.

Simple Math

Many people get stopped by the supposedly complex nature of budgets.

But in fact, budgeting is only basic math. The arithmetic behind a balanced budget is far from rocket science. You only must obtain a positive result (greater than zero) when you add up your different sources of income and subtract all your expenses. No magic can get you around this basic budget equation.

Enjoy the Pleasures of Budgeting

Many view the budget as an ugly nagging beast they will never be able to master. Because it only reminds them about the frustration of being in the red, they prefer to ignore it instead of trying to tame it.

In the same fashion, many other persons not completely averse to budgets still find it utterly dull. In that sense, a lot of people resign themselves to accept the sad truth that money matters are a reality of our modern life and nobody can really get around it.

For us, keeping a budget is quite the opposite. It’s much more fun and to some extent, it rhymes with excitement! We get those pleasant vibes perhaps because we mostly associate budgeting to having dreams, realizing projects and the freedom of making choices.   

From our standpoint, a budget is an easy-to-use tool to understand where your hard earned money goes. It helps you regain or keep control over it. It can also point out interesting opportunities to improve.

An effective budget can be set-up on a single piece of paper, using the most sophisticated software or with many possibilities in-between.

Next time, we’ll talk about How Budgeting Can Be So Simple and Easy.

So today, let us expose our unique point of view on this simple yet extraordinary tool. Let’s hope you’ll see how powerful it can also become for you!

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

Reduce your Telecom Bill Just by Asking

The other day, my uncle Jim was furious after receiving a juicy internet bill. He initially thought he got charged too much. He immediately called his provider to complaint about the “overcharge”.

Very patiently, the customer service clerk made some verification and subsequently told him he had exceeded his transfer capacity for the last two months. Jim wasn’t happy with that yet very sensible answer and still went on grumbling.

A tiny bit later, by what seemed like insane magic, the extra charge had been reversed. On top of it, they even gave him a free upgrade so he would not bust his monthly plan anymore. What!?!

The next day, still a little angry yet proud about it, he called me. He still was worried his Wi-Fi router had been hacked and doubted the company’s assessment. I checked the logs and immediately discovered he had done it on his own. It clearly was his fault as he started to read his favorite newspaper online every day; all those presentations full of nice images and interactive videos quickly add up and could explain his sudden heavy internet usage. 

We laughed about all the fuss he had made and the fact he still got an upgrade just for calling and being a little persistent.

With my uncle’s happy fortune fresh in mind, the following week, I decided to also call my telecom provider to ask for a rebate. After just a few minutes, our monthly telecom bill was nicely reduced. Maybe not as substantially as Jim’s…still very easy money that remains in our pockets. Should have asked sooner and took note to do more often!   

Photo Credit

Build Wealth by Reducing Recurring Expenses

In our so-called modern but consumption oriented society, people get a kick out of shopping and buying stuff. Many spend too much and that may be the main reason they will never really get wealthy.

When it comes to saving, most people tend to get pessimistic very fast because they focus on the millions they would need to truly become financially independent. Some have completely given up and don’t even bother anymore.

Additional income sure wouldn’t hurt building up your fortune. But today, we will concentrate our efforts on the other side of the equation: expenses, and especially the quiet but nasty recurring ones!

The Illusion of Seamless Payments

To add to the misfortunes of compulsive shoppers and buyers, salespeople and marketers have found a new trick in this consumption driven era: they hide the real price of products and services behind easy-to-make payments.

That way, consumers don’t exactly know how much they are paying; they only know how little their payments seem to be.

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner (Revisited)

The 12-Minute Series was originally posted in 2012.

We’ve decided to republish it integrally because we believe it can still help as everyone aspires to make things better.

Let’s hope it stirs up the discussion and stimulates you to change the world 12-Minute at a time!

This article was originally posted on August 12, 2012

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

12-Minute Diet and Meal Planner

When it comes down to food, the 12-Minute Way can be quite useful to help you manage your diet and plan your meals. 

There’s more to it than the common dozen eggs.

Because approximately 40% of food goes to waste in America, an incredible opportunity for improvement exists in the vast food domain, an opportunity to save precious resources and money.

But also an opportunity to reduce stress and free up some of your schedule because, day after day, food preparation can sometimes be pretty hectic and time consuming.

Try to Relieve Pressure from Your Tight Schedule

Invest a little time on planning your meals, you will greatly benefit from it.

One general measure that can be taken is to try to relieve pressure on moments your schedule is tight.