“Oh no… another lifestyle inflation article,” groaned readers of the personal finance realm when they read the latest offering from My University Money. Yes, I know, many of you have seen this before, and are probably thinking, “Man, I don’t go out and spend frivolously, I’m not trying to pretend I’m a Rockefeller, I’m just an everyday person, I don’t have any lifestyle inflation.” Here is the thing – lifestyle inflation is a silent beast. It sneaks up on us without being aware and often it grows on itself. The interesting thing is I’m not one of the “live-like-a-pauper-until-your-rich” type of individuals. Anyone who says a little lifestyle inflation isn’t fun is flat out lying. As long as you know the true cost of what your new style of living is going to run you, then I say go for it. This is why preaching to people that any form of spending more on themselves is bad, rarely works. Instead, my approach is just to realize the sacrifice in future earnings you are taking by letting your spending rise, and then make sure that you get the most happiness out of the luxuries you are treating yourself to. This often means taking things on a case-by-case basis. For me, buying a $35K sports car because young guys are supposed to like sports cars, they look sweet, and because my buddy has one is a crazy bad example of lifestyle inflation. On the other hand, if you grew up working on cars, they are a personal passion for you, and you would get a major uptick of joy every day from buying this car regardless of what others had – then it makes complete sense and is definitely not something that is “evil” and you should feel guilty for (providing you can afford it of course). Lifestyle Inflation Isn’t Prejudice – It Hates Everyone Equally Negative lifestyle inflation appears to me to be an equal opportunity affliction. The stereotype is obviously people who don’t plan anything and either can’t or won’t do the basic math on borrowing money. There are certainly enough of these people out there, but I would argue there are probably more people that earn a decent-to-above average income and are smart-to-really really smart individuals, that also get themselves into trouble with this weird psychological response to material things. It is one of those subjects that seems to be so instinct-driven, that logic doesn’t really sink in for most people, and then the spiral begins. Once you allow material items to start determining your self-worth and take up a large part of your identity, it doesn’t matter what your income level is, who your friends are, or even what you specifically like to spend your money on, lifestyle inflation is inevitable going to get you. Take a look at many of the professional athletes out there. Many of them come from very average backgrounds, the type of people that would claim if they had a million dollars they [...]
Lifestyle Inflation – The Upward/Downward Spiral
How To Use Your Liberal Arts Degree To Get a Government Job
I have been someone negative about the job prospects out there for people like me with a liberal arts degree before. While it is still not what I recommend for most people coming out of high school, it can be a valuable tool in your career tool belt if leveraged correctly. With so many people out there today wondering what to do with a liberal arts degree, and such poor job prospects for people under 25, I thought I might share a few insights about one place where a liberal arts degree can be pretty valuable – the government. Big Government Can Always Get Bigger Now, on a philosophical level, I would argue that having too many people in government is a bad thing, but on a practical level, I would recommend that everyone out there with a degree and no job take a hard look at the thousands of government positions that are open coast-to-coast in Canada. Working for the government is a perfect example of a huge organization that can bring you many different places and present many different experiences once your foot is in the door. For many, that liberal arts degree that the private sector is laughing at is the perfect ticket to get in the door and start building a career within government. While it is true that not many people get rich while working for either Provincial or Federal Governments, many live very upper-middle class, have unparalleled job security, and have superb benefits their whole lives from finding little places to hide from roles to fill within government. That certainty probably sounds pretty good to a lot of recent graduates, and it is also a great springboard into working out a side gig since the hours are usually pretty set, and the job security is so great. Here Is The Pack… and Here I Am! So how do you get your tiny, fragile foot into that hulking, crushing door? You don’t merely list your degree on your resume, and you don’t sit bank on that mediocre-to-slightly above average GPA doing it for you either. Instead, you present the skills you learned while doing your liberal arts degree. This is the stuff that will make you stand out from everyone else with a BA and can help employers understand why they should hire you. There are probably some buzz words that these guys hear all day when doing interviewing, so try to give specific examples of how you honed your research skills while pursuing a history degree, or how your political sciences background has allowed you to become experienced at synthesizing information from a variety of sources. Bachelor of Arts degrees are perfect for claiming that you are adaptable to many different fields, that your education is well-rounded (as opposed to those dumb scientists who got “non-well-rounded degrees” in fields that are in high demand), and that you know how to communicate in many diverse types of circumstances and scenarios. If your liberal arts degree didn’t teach [...]
How to Stand Out in the Scholarship Process
Like many other aspects of the transition from high school to university, applying for scholarships is another way it can be easy for students to become overwhelmed and easily discouraged. Unfortunately, many of us have the tendency to ignore anything which involves more thinking and paperwork that isn’t mandatory, despite our teacher’s and parent’s best efforts to install the importance of applying for scholarships into us. Although the attitude of, “why bother,” takes less time and effort than dedicating yourself to create an outstanding essay and application package, the possible reward for this small price is more than worth the risk. After all, the only way to eventually stand out is by taking the first steps to apply. How To Stand Out? - Don’t Give Up Before my English teacher directly handed me the information for an undergraduate scholarship worth $75,000, I had completely tuned out the idea of applying for such a prestigious award, thinking only unrealistic overachievers won scholarships of such value. I figured the only money I had a chance at winning was through the smaller local scholarships available through the school, which all involved a much easier application. I asked how could I stand out on such a large stage. It wasn’t until after reading more about the incredible history and other opportunities that came with the financial aspect of this award that the idea of even having the chance to win eventually motivated me to apply. Half way through my application, I reached a point of frustration trying to properly gather my ideas and words that made me decide it wasn’t worth the trouble and call it quits. After taking a long break from the process and getting encouragement and input from others (hence the importance of starting weeks before deadlines) I was able to push myself through the final steps and ended up receiving more than I could have ever hoped for! As it turns out, these scholarships aren’t only for the magical people you only read about, but for normal people like me as well! Although there are so many factors which play into whether or not you receive different scholarships, I believe these are some of the major things I did right throughout the process. Anyone can follow these steps to better their chances of ending up with the same amazing opportunity! Start Early When most people think of starting the scholarship process early, they are probably picturing applying for scholarships during the beginning months of their grade twelve year; however, my definition of starting early begins the moment you enter high school. Of course this does not literally mean begin searching and writing for scholarships in grade nine (although this probably wouldn’t hurt) the idea of starting early involves beginning to build skills through extracurricular involvement and academics as early as possible. The lessons you take away from volunteer and extracurricular involvement are priceless, regardless of whether you are lucky enough to receive financial reward for your contributions. Welcome a Challenge While [...]
Now Introducing…
Hello Readers! My name is Bridgette Stevenson, I’m seventeen years old, and am currently in the middle of making that much anticipated transition from high school to university! After graduating high school a semester early to have the freedom to do some travelling and make extra money before attending university, I moved from my small rural community to temporarily join my sister in the city during this time. Growing up on a farm has come with limited opportunity in terms of education including course options, academic challenges, and making strong connections with diverse people. Although I can’t think of a more comfortable environment to grow up in, I am looking forward to the endless options I will have the chance to consider in university. Throughout my years in high school, I always kept busy with extracurricular activities including athletics, student government, volunteering at numerous community events, and enjoyed the lack of competition that allowed me to take on leadership roles. Over the next few years, I hope to continue having fun in these areas of the residence experience while taking on the new academic challenges. After being fortunate enough to receive a major scholarship for my undergraduate studies at any Canadian university, my small plans have expanded to moving far out of province to make the most out of this incredible opportunity. Although it is far too early to determine a long term career, I am planning to start with a degree in environmental design from the University of British Columbia. I am excited by the first couple years of general studies this degree includes, which will allow me to explore different areas while having the option of coming out with a more career focused base in the area of architecture. Because everyone has such diverse core beliefs, personalities, and ambitions, I cannot bring myself to seriously take or give advice, but do enjoy opening the possibilities which come from sharing ideas through discussions. I hope some of my writing will help aid in the transition from high school to university, while simultaneously enriching my own experience. TM: Thanks for taking some time to write for us Bridgette. While I am technically still a student, I’ve noticed that between JB and I we are having a tough time channelling our inner 17/18 year old selves; consequently we think your perspective as a young student will be invaluable to your peers and their parents. It has also been not-so-subtly suggested that we should get a female’s perspective here on MUM. I have to tell you that I will probably sabotage your articles from time to time so that our limited writing skills are not consistently shown up by a freshman!
Claiming a Business Loss – Losing Money Never Felt So Good
So a couple weeks ago I sat down to get our tax situation figured out for 2011. We decided to go with a chartered account to file all of the paperwork for us. It actually worked out pretty well since he needed a website made for him and one of us (I’ll leave it up to you to guess) is pretty good at doing that sort of thing. As a bonus for future years, we found out that since we are now a registered business, we can deduct the costs of having someone do our books, from the revenue of the business itself. If we assume our marginal tax rate is somewhere around 35-40%, this basically means that the tax preparation really only costs us less than 2/3 of the sticker price. Anyway, I had done my own taxes in the past (I still recommend trying your hand at this process if your return is fairly straight forward), but I wanted someone who was sure they knew what they were doing since we had to include business-related stuff this time around. I had never really paid attention to all the deductions that businesses were allowed to make since it never affected me before. I was vaguely aware that my dad “wrote-off” quite a few things with his lumber business when I was young, but I didn’t really understand just how extensive tax deductions can be for a business. Now I should say right up front that I am definitely no tax expert, I don’t play one on TV (or on my blog) and I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so take my opinions and thoughts for what they are worth. Running A Blog Costs More Than I Thought After adding up all our revenues and immediate costs related to the business (stuff like hosting, design help, contract work, software, internet costs etc.) I thought we would likely break even for 2011; however, after learning all the expenses I was allowed to claim against our revenues, I was never so happy to report that I had “lost” quite a bit of a money. So for our first year in business, we are claiming a business loss! The main aspect of these deductions that I was not aware of was all of the home expenses that we are able to deduct. The basic idea is that if you conduct more than 50% of your business from home, you are allowed to claim many different business costs such as rent, mortgage (sans interest), home insurance costs, utilities from your taxes. The percentage of these costs you are allowed to deduct is based on the square footage of your home office as a percentage of the overall square footage in your house. Now I know why so many people try to create fraudulent businesses – they could be quite lucrative! Now hopefully this will be the only year that we claim a loss for our business. I definitely plan on [...]
Free Expense Tracking Software
