Canadian Personal Finance Blog

… until they get punched in the face! Evidently this quote is attributed to Mike Tyson, but it outlines how life is, everyone has great plans and hopes, but when life punches you in the face, that is when your plan and YOU are being tested. I heard this one again after the Super Bowl and I do like the message sent, “Plan, but remember to react and change the plan if need be”.

February the Month of Pain

Not sure about the rest of my readers but February is a very painful month for me every year (financially speaking), because you have a perfect storm of Financial “trigger points” to cause stress:

• If you have managed to pay off Christmas, you are now very cash poor, or you may still be paying off the Christmas debt load.
• A month into your financial plan for the year, yet you most likely are not seeing much progress (due to the debt load of January).
• This is a short month, but all the bills still want to get paid (your cost per day of living this month is actually more, because it is so darn short).
• RRSP silly season begins and you are inundated with messages about how you must save for your retirement, or you will be eating cat food (and not the low ash stuff either, the cheap no name cat food) when you retire.
• Taxes loom on the horizon, both Federal and municipal property taxes and you wonder can you pay one with the rebate you hope to get from the other? Sometimes you do your Federal taxes and get a rude surprise like, you OWE money (due to your HUGE income from financial blogging (yes that is a joke)).
• This year’s extra concerns are looming University fees (and possibly living away from home costs).

All of this creates a “perfect storm” of financial stress to deal with in a very short month. Remember that Mike Tyson quote, I think this month is punching me in the mouth.