16 Years to Retirement

The fact is that I love organizing parties. Nothing extravagant, just the simple ones we usually throw for family members, especially my precious niece and nephews. I also love crafts so I would often search for ideas from Pinterest and make it a bit more personal for the theme I have in mind.

One thing I noticed though is that all the little purchases - no matter how cheap it seems to be - adds up. I realized it the other day when I thought of an idea for my nephew's 7th construction-themed birthday party. I bought yellow specialty papers that I will make into pinwheels to be decorated around my brother's front yard. After trying to make my first pinwheel, I realized that I bought the wrong kind since it was so hard to fold.

Sadly, after putting the paper in a bin with a bunch of the other craft stuff, I realized that I do this a lot - a paper here, a ribbon there, cute trinkets for someday.. All the cheap little things are still a waste of hard-earned money. =(

I saw an email notification from savingadvice.com and I realized that I have put this blog aside for a while. I was really surprised to find out that my last entry was 2014. Wow, time really do fly fast, right? Imagine, we're already in the middle of September so there are only three and a half months to go before we say goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017.

I have to say, it's great to be back! Here's to making the rest of the year count!

My first mission as part of my goal to seriously achieve financial freedom is to sort out all the stuff I have accumulated all these years and dispose everything that I have no need for anymore - Some I have posted for sale online (one already has a buyer), some I have set aside to be sold at my best friend's garage sale next month, and others I already threw out.

This step made me realize that all the material things, no matter how expensive it is, will just end up in a pile or dump somewhere or handed out to somebody else.

I thought I was doing well, but sadly, I realized I fell off the wagon once again.

A few nights ago as I was meditating about my career, life, finances, etc., it dawned on me that at my age (late 30s), I'm way off my financial goals and I still have tons of credit card debt. Yes, I have saved and invested a bit, but I know that it is not enough.

Fortunately, although I entertained scary thoughts in my head that came at 100 worries per second and playing the blame game on what has gone wrong once again, I was able to calm myself and seriously think of a game plan on what I should do. First of all, if I plan to retire by age 60, I have to spend double time starting today for me to have a secure and enjoyable retirement.

With that goal in mind, I resolve that every decision (career- and financial-wise, that is) from here on should only make me wiser, smarter and richer - pretty much a better version of myself.

I read a really interesting blog on The Simple Dollar. It says that the hardest part of getting your financial situation in order is the waiting. Because as everyone will agree, getting out of debt and saving for something such as a downpayment for the house or car, will not happen overnight. Not even days and months, but years.

I have also noticed that it's ironic how whenever the
money's tight, that's when you realize that there's a leak in the roof or the light bulbs suddenly needs changing, there's a sudden medical emergency, etc. Just goes to show that the universe has a sense of humor.

I don't know if it's just me, but i get very melancholy on my birthday. I start to wonder where i have been, where am i going and what have i done with my life. When I turned 36 last week, I actually felt very panicky inside. I realize that i have very, very little savings and very, very big debts. I officially belong to Generation Broke!

I have credit card debts from purchases that have already been long gone, and personal loans/debts for stuff that i didn't really need. Long story short, i made very bad financial choices.

I know that this financial mess wasn't acquired in one day, the same thing that i didn't gain weight in one eating (which is a whole other story), so i also know that getting my financial life in order will surely take time and lots of discipline. But if i want to live comfortably by the time i retire in say, 30 years, i need to start doing something NOW before it's too late.

And so with this blog entry comes my wish for my 36th birthday - freedom from debt and financial independence.

I never believed it when people say it. But when I think of how much stress (the lack thereof of) money has brought into most of my adult life, it makes me believe that maybe money may really be the root of all evil. I got my first credit card when I was fresh out of college and my financial life has pretty much been a yo-yo ever since.

But enough blaming the credit card industry because they didn't force me to charge anything in the first place.

I had the chance to visit a home for the elderly about two months ago and the experience has been truly life changing. I met some cool people there and the one elder that struck me the most was an old, single lady who has been staying there for only about 2-3 years. I found out that she worked for more than 20 years in one company and she admitted that one of her greatest mistake is that she celebrated her youth and singlehood mostly by shopping - thinking that she has all the time to save later. Until she realized much later in life that she was already old and retiring very soon without much saved for her retirement.

I can convince myself all I want that I'm different from her and I won't make the same mistakes she did, but the fact remains that the decisions we make today will have a huge effect on us tomorrow. I looked back and I realized that I have spent way too much on things that I felt I deserved just because I work too hard or I had a bad day. These "must-haves" has already ate a huge chunk out of the money I could have saved up and invested.

And besides, in our old days, i guess what we'll remember the most are the relationships we build, the places we've seen and the memories we've shared with people we love... and not the material stuff that we will eventually throw away.