lachy123

I am no longer at University right now. Took a 6-12 (my choice) month deferral to work and pay down some debts instead. Plus it is nice to have a break from institutionalised learning; after 12 years of school plus 18 months of university I am at the end of my tether in that kind of learning environment.

Went to a DIY show in Brisbane which turned out to be rather interesting. I want to try my hand at woodworking. Specifically, I would like to make some furniture in the long run. Just one of the many things to add to the list.

Finally, a really interesting and rather inspiring person is the American adventurer John Goddard. He made a list of 127 things he wanted to achieve and so far has achieved over 100 of them. His website is here: http://www.johngoddard.info/
And his list is on this side-link: http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm

I recommend it to everyone here. I started my own list as well and am linking it to a Bucket List.

As of last weekend I reached that glorious mark that I have been saving for 4 weeks to achieve: the $1,000 buffer. That is the $0-equivalent I’ve decided. Come Wednesday I should get a few hundred on top of that to give my car a desperately-overdue service and to buy some Christmas presents.

The unfortunate new expense is $100/week as of January 2010 as my contribution to food expenses in the household. It seems rational and fair considering we (the family) have equally divided everything else (water rates, electricity, internet, phone, etc) amongst us at each bill with only food not being divided up, but it is just a tad annoying as that drastically extends my pay off period for the current debt I owe. No point in complaining though I suppose, just gotta adjust the budget plan and get on with it! It’ll make the date when the debt is fully paid even sweeter!! :)

Been working 3 weeks now and by the end of this week I will have $1,000 which is more than I have ever had before (I topped $550 once when I was working in Year 12 at school). That $1,000 is going to be my emergency buffer, not to be spent. It isn’t all peachy though, I do have quite a sizeable debt ($5,345) to my parents that needs paying off as well so that is where quite a big chunk of my earnings will be going first.

I have been living very frugally since being broke before this job, so I am comfortable not spending money. That will help me to save more as well as get this debt paid down. It will be truly sweet to be able to see my debts disappear once and for all. If I save at the same time as I pay off the debt (i.e. it will take longer to pay the debt since some of my disposable income will be going to savings instead), then when the debt is paid off I will still have a huge pool of savings. By May next year I should be debt free if I follow the current plan and I should also have a decent savings pool.

I have also been learning about shares, bonds, options, futures, derivatives and annuities. When I save some money for the long term, I want to be able to capitalise on it further! So far it looks like bonds are the safest bet since they have an attached interest coupon and I might consider investing in mining stock in our domestic mining boom (Australia). So long as the investments have returns higher than the inflation rate it is worthwhile in my opinion.