How Do You Eat an Elephant?

by bigcajunman on April 18, 2013

This is one of the new catch phrases some Financial Advisors have used to try to lure those who have large debts to use their services. The Elephant is a metaphor for the debt folks have built up over time.

Here is an easy answer on how you eat an Elephant…. Don’t order the elephant! ( where you found a restaurant that served Elephant I have no idea, but if you find one, keep that in mind).

Why would you want to eat this elephant?

No matter how clever you want to explain the issue of how to dig yourself out from under a huge debt load, maybe you need to point out somewhere along the way that you really shouldn’t have got into this issue in the first place? As I have ranted many times before, everyone knows they are digging a debt hole (unless something catastrophic happens like an illness or something similar) so warning people you might be ordering the elephant might be a better thing? Yes, I am saying the best way to get out of debt, is to not get in debt in the first place (deal with it).

The other point about eating an elephant is that, the elephant took a long time to get to this size, you aren’t going to be able to eat it in one sitting (my god that is such a hackneyed metaphor, I think I almost barfed in my coffee).

What I am saying is that more likely than not these same “Credit Councillors” are simply going to tell you that if it has taken you 10 years to build up all of your debt and such, you are not going to solve your problem over night, it most likely is going to take you at least 10 years (and a big lifestyle change) to get yourself out of debt.

A much more interesting metaphor for a Credit Councillor:

“Get out of debt the same way porcupines have sex,
very carefully (and very slowly)”.

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You Aren’t Poor

by bigcajunman on April 17, 2013

You are just broke!

That pithy one liner is from our friend Gail Vaz-Oxlade‘s TV show ’til Debt Do Us Part, and I really do like it.

Many times I hear from folks how poor they are, and how hard their lives are, then I talk to them and realize that their net income is nearly twice my annual income, yet they are having a hard time making ends meet? Say what?

An Interesting Video about BROKE Athletes

If you can barely afford to live in your rent controlled home, take the bus everywhere, and work 2 jobs to make ends meet, my guess is that you are Poor, you have no place left to cut spending on, because all you have left is the essentials of life. Poor is tough, and if you are in this situation you have my sympathies, and my hope that things get better for you.

If you feel poor because you can’t:

Afford a second car, and one of you must take the bus
Can’t go out to dinner as much as you want
Live pay cheque to pay cheque without lowering your debt, because you live in a house that has made you house poor
Feel hard done by because you can’t buy designer hand bags

Let me be clear: You are not POOR, you are BROKE!!!!

The thing is that Poor is hard, Broke is fixable with lifestyle changes. Poor you have little or no control of your situation, however, Broke you can control things (you just choose not to).

If you are Broke, you can be fixed by simply spending less and altering your lifestyle to take lower spending into consideration.

If you can pay off your debts faster if you take the bus to work, and sell your car, why don’t you?
If you have 10 credit cards, and wonder why you have such a hard time paying them off, why not get rid of 9 (if not 10) of them?
If you complain that your only vacation is a visit to your parents cottage, and you really wanted to go south in the winter, why do you wonder why I might laugh out loud and threaten you with bodily harm?

If you have just figured out you are Broke, don’t be discouraged, be happy (in an obtuse way), it’s fixable! If you are Poor, keep working hard and try to get control of things (and if you do get out from under, remember how life was so you don’t end up Broke).

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Lack of Owing Money Buys Happiness ?

by bigcajunman on April 3, 2013

After my resounding April Fools Joke of 5 Reasons Money Buys Happiness (and a Tweet about the Senators trading Daniel Aflredsson to the Canucks for Roberto Luongo), I should clarify my point of view on the money and happiness thingy.

Sens send Alfredsson from #Ottawa #Sens to #Canucks for Roberto Luongo? Really? wow….

— Big Cajun Man (@bigcajunman) April 1, 2013

This one really did cause a few folks in Ottawa a little heartache, but enough of this tom-foolery, money and happiness, what’s the stand on this?

My real opinion on the money and happiness thing is:

Lack of Debt makes you VERY happy

The Melancholy of Debt

Now you might think that is the exact same thing as “Money can buy happiness”, but no, not at all (in my estimation). Money buying happiness is sort of the diametric opposite of my pithy concept, since buying things is where DEBT (BOO!) comes from (well buying and not paying for it). I suppose if you had enough money to pay for all your things and stay out of debt, you could be VERY happy, but my guess is there are not that many folks out there like that.

Think of it, every time you look at your pay stub (if you are out of debt), most (if not all) of that money is yours. You have to pay your monthly bills, but you don’t have to then take what is left and figure out how to service your debt, you can instead plan on how to save it (the opposite of servicing the debt). How can this not make you happy?

No, I am not saying that all folks who are out of debt are happy (people can find ways to be miserable no matter what their circumstance), but I am saying you have one less thing to make you UNhappy, if you are out of debt.

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What’s in it for me?

by bigcajunman on March 25, 2013

One of the nice things about having written over 2000 posts and being on the job for over 8 years now, is the fact that you have a massive back-log of stuff that my current readers may not have read, so here I give you a post that didn’t really get much notice back 7 years ago, note the style of writing.

Dear Reader,

So as you can tell I am a mercenary bastard and will do most anything to make an extra buck or two (witness the ads plastered all over this BLOG if you are unsure of this), so let’s ask ourselves how we can put a few extra bucks in our pockets (and review a few of my initial rants), What’s in it for us?

Stop paying those ridiculously high banking charges (remember?)
Use some coupons when you shop (hey a couple of extra bucks is nothing to sneeze at)
Get a Credit Card that pays you to use it. PC Financial has a nice one (if you like shopping at Loblaws that is), and gives you cash. AMEX and Costco have one that pays cash as well. For heaven’s sake don’t pay to get money back or points (like that CIBC Aeroplan Gold, only if you are a traveling salesman would that work).
Join Petropoints or whatever other “I give you points for shopping here” program you can find (as long as it is free). I also am a member of the CAA, so I get money back for buying gas at PetroCanada
Stop buying those bloody “Lattes” will ya? What’s wrong with the free coffee at work!

OK, so that is the rant for the day, put your money in your pockets!

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The Problem with Some Folks Who Are in Debt

by bigcajunman on January 31, 2013

First, let me preface this with the following soothing words: If you are in debt, you should ask for help if you feel you are drowning and you have nowhere to turn. There are many good community based help groups for your debt issues, so there is help for you, and if you feel you are at wit’s end, ask for help (i.e. this post is not about you).

Don’t be a Debt Dandy

I am lucky to be a financially comfortable person (relatively speaking), I am by no means rich like many of my other blogger brethren, however, I am OK financially. My debt load is kind of high, but it is manageable and I have a good job which pays reasonably well, so not too many complaints here.

I do however have many acquaintances and friends (who make a great deal more than I do, since most of them have Dual Incomes ) who are constantly harping on about how they have no money and how far in debt they are.

Let me give you a quick scenario which happened recently where an acquaintance was out to lunch, and started whining about how his credit card debt is so high, and it’s going to be really hard to go on vacation with his family this summer. He and his wife just felt that between the car payments, and day care costs it was just getting too much.

A Pair of Debt Dandies

OK, I’ll give you a second to read that one over again, just to get the gist of why I might be mildly irked, or peeved about the statement.

Let me dissect this simple scenario and why I wanted to stab this acquaintance with a spoon (because it would hurt more!):

This acquaintance has a wife who also works in a similar job, and thus his family income is effectively twice mine
We were sitting in a nice restaurant eating lunch (which was going to cost around $30 or so)
He paid with his credit card
There was still going to be a family vacation to a cottage, but just not a nice vacation somewhere down south with a hotel
Same acquaintance “refreshes” their cars every year or two because they don’t like older cars, and they lease all of their cars

If you have twice my income and you complain you don’t have money, you really need help financially. Unless you are sending your income to your family “back home”, supporting a disabled family member or are attempting to recover from a financial catastrophe which left you in dire financial straits, you really have no real reason to be complaining you have no money (or more specifically you don’t have enough money).

If you are having problems with your cash flow and you are spending too much, stop eating in restaurants.

If you have a massive credit card debt, stop using your credit cards (completely). Do the Gail Vaz-Oxlade money jars thing, put your credit cards in the freezer, or whatever, but simply stop using your credit cards. You can’t fill a hole in that you are continuing to dig at the same time.

Vacation? What the hell is that? Mrs. C8j (my sainted wife) hasn’t been on a descent vacation (with me) for 18 years! Are we complaining? YES, but that is for another time. If you are having financial problems, vacations are the first thing to go.

Leasing cars? Replacing your car every two years? I won’t go into the numbers but you are just burning money for the sake of having a nice car (which evidently is an important part of your self-esteem I hear (I drive an 8 year old Corolla, which better last another 3 years at least, for reference purposes)).

Oh and if you want to be really picky, if you think Day Care costs a lot, why doesn’t one of you two cut back your hours? Do the math, how much is this all costing to put kids in Day Care, and “Do the Work Thing”, you might find you are actually in a losing position financially.

Sorry, haven’t ranted much lately about this kind of stuff (and no this isn’t one single person it’s a conglomeration of a few acquaintances, however, I am sure you all have friends like this too).

Oh and to clarify the title of this post:

The problem with some folks who are in debt, is that they won’t shut up about it, and wear it as a red badge of courage to almost brag about how badly off they are (when in fact it is their own fault, and if they just did something about it, they wouldn’t have these problems).