Journey That I Call "Life"

[nancyjourney]

Another Day In Quarantine - Quarantine Day #43

april 25/2020 

Quarantine has been boring, when I say boring I mean VERY boring. It has also made me realize I am such a loser? What i called fun pre-quarantine was that I enjoyed spending money (even if it was just $1, it made me feel happy... odd but that is what I have come to realize). 

Also the reason today marks Quarantine Day #43 is because I have been basically at home since March 13, 2020 (which was the last day I was working from the office), I still recall that day actually, my manager was pretty much down-playing the whole COVID situation and I guess was saying that the reason we all get the option to work from home indefinitely is due to employee push-back on the whole going into the office, and it was “optional” and whoever wanted to work from home can do so as WHO had deemed COVID19 a global pandemic, but come that Sunday, he had individually contacted each employee on my team and advised someone from our office (this is a huge corporation mind you, and even has a large stake in the US) had gotten COVID as such everyone is expected to work from home for at least the coming 2 weeks, and now, here we are post 45 days later, we are still working from home. 

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So what I have been doing to preoccupy my boredom....

1. Budgeting Videos - I recommend this if you genuinely are interested in learning how to budget. All of these budgeting videos on youtube have really made me “happy”, or at lease gave me a few hours to put my mind off of how bored I am. Some of the budgeting/savings youtube channels I have been binge watching are the following: Investing With Rose; Kyra Ann (I also love her videos on how aesthetically pleasing they are, and she is real and humble); Nate O’Brien (he’s only 21 - i think that’s what he said but he is in his early 20′s and such a smart guy, pretty sure he’s a millionaire but wow, kudos to him, and super inspirational) and Jenny Journals (she doesn’t really do budgeting videos but I love her creative artistic painting and really is inspiring me to open my own etsy shop... I am nowhere near as good as how artistic she is but hey maybe i can give it a try during this time)

2. Painting - I only have small and short bursts of urges and interest in painting but it has preoccupied me as it takes so long to set my painting station up and then cleaning everything up (mind you I bought a set of acrylic paints which I was super interested in painting last summer and i guess I didn’t properly clean my paint tray and now during this time around when i got all of my painting equipment out, i cleaned everything, which took me a long while to do, but hey I am not complaining since I do not have anything better to do anyways)

3. Cooking - make something fun, I would not recommend wasting food, but hey, this is a perfect time to experiment and see if you can really make your own recipes and make something delicious out of the concoctions of food you decide to try.

4. Watching Movies/TV Series - Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video are a few of the platforms i am currently binge watching shows and movies on. I can say i had finished 2 TV-series on Netflix just 2 weeks ago which I highly recommend you guys to try out they were called (The Burden of Truth and Outer Banks)

5. Chilling with my Pet - I have a dog, she’s the best and the fluffiest friend I can ever have. I personally get really sad and lonely being at home all the time, i KNOW some people who live alone do have it worse, do not get me wrong, but i do feel sad, and having my buddy with me really helps, she literally follows me everywhere and keeps me company will wait for me and i LOVE THAT having her around makes me less lazy as i HAVE TO take her or walks vs. just sitting on my lazy but doing nothing. 

6. Meditating - the people upstairs (I currently rent a basement apartment) suck!!! SO INCONSIDERATE, honestly not sure if its due to their upbringing or their lack of consideration for the people around them but they speak sooo loudly (I will not make this into a rant but man oh man 1 of the tenants speak so loudly it’s painful, he is screaming, does he not know about a inside voice?), and the STOMPS, one of the just stomps like 15 football players and loves to drop shit on the ground, complete lack of consideration for people living with them. Also the 1 who stomps very loud and speaks excruciatingly loud ALSO is awake until 3 am, I will fall asleep and his damn stomping will wake me up. And being quarantined at home has really made the whole situation worse as we’re both at home and he is just ughhh cannot even write about it anymore because it makes me so frustrated. Also i DO WANT TO COMPLAIN but what is the point, I am moving out in about 6 days and I CANNOT WAIT !!! 

Anyways signing off now

N

[nancyjourney]

Savings and Earning- Millennial’s Guide to the Riches... Well at least a start to getting rich?

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a set in stone way to getting where you want to be financially in life nor am I a professional, this is just my interpretation of how I believe how we as millennials will be able to save and buy our first home or first car, or whatever investment you plan to put your money into. 

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KEEP PUSHING ON...

To all of the newly graduates or soon-to-be graduates, keep looking, keep applying and do not let your hopes diminish if you have not heard back from the jobs you have applied to, something will cross your path that is meant for you. From my personal experience, I can say I was in the same shoes as many of you, well I guess not the exact same, considering this is a unprecedented time, but I know all of this will pass, just remember to not give up, I truly believe what the saying “whatever is meant for you, will be yours.”

Lets go back in time now - going back in time 3 years, it’s April 2017, I am a fresh graduate right out of university with a BSc. degree from a pretty well-known university in Ontario, with no job lined up and no graduate program in line as a back-up and no clue what I am supposed to do or where to start. Honestly, it was the most stressful 2 months of my life, thankfully, all my searching and applying did not go unnoticed, I ended up landing a corporate job, which to this day I am still doing, obviously a few positions and a few companies later, but I am in the same stream of work. I am content with where I am (still striving to achieve more but I am content as of right now). 

My point is DO NOT STOP LOOKING AND DO NOT STOP APPLYING, You will find something that is meant for you. Look outside the box, something you do not even think would apply to your degree may turn out to be great. 

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SAVINGS GUIDE...

Back on track, how to save and and have a “okay” or comfortable saving in your mid 20s...

What i did was budget. I think I can personally say I was always good with money and budgeting, from a very young age and all throughout University, I budgeted so i did not need to stress about money nor ask my parents to fund my expenses. 

Budgeting does not come naturally for everyone, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

My first job i got out of university paid me minimum wage - I was thankful I landed this job, I earned around $10.40/hr (minimum wage in ontario back in early 2017) then a week later i landed the full-time 9-5 corporate job (which paid above what I was earning at that time and  I was over the moon, I thought I was rich (funny enough, now I am currently making 25% more than what I was making at that time and now I still do not feel like i am making enough, funny how once you achieve something the hunger inside you makes you always want to strive for more, and that is good because that means your are a go-getter, which is always something to praise because being complacent isn’t what gets you to that goal you have). 

I started at the first corporate company as a assistant, I was making about $20/hr then eventually I climbed to about $26/hr once i got promoted. The best decision I can say i EVER made was deciding at about 2.5 years at my 1st corporate company, I made the decision to change companies, the 1st corporate company’s mission did not align with mine any longer, and this change gave me a financial incentive as well, a 20% pay increase, I was earning $32/hr, I was happy about this, and I recently got a 2% inflation raise (before the outbreak of COVID19) now making $34/hr. 

My point is money at the start is not everything, as long as there is growth potential at a company, that is more valuable and more important. 

Do the following: 

Budget - make a list of expenses, or just go through your e-statements and see what you spend the most on, is it food, uber, clothing, whatever you do spend the most on take a step back and evaluate if you can decrease that spending. i can say I spend way too much on food, me and my boyfriend just order in way more than we should, and its not necessary and not sustainable in the long run, currently I am trying to meal plan and grocery shop and keeping stables on hand so we do not need to spend excessive amounts on food delivery. My goal is spending $200/month on take out, and if I spend less the remainder will go into my savings or TFSA (Tax free savings account)

Savings account - put the funds that you have remaining after you pay all of you expenses in a savings account where you can earn some form of interest on, currently Tangerine has a promo of 2.8% interest (which is amazing as Bank of Canada has dropped interest rates to about 0.25%, so try to find a high interest savings account), I like to put 99% of my excess cash flow/savings in a savings account because it is accessible because currently my short-term goals is to purchase a home and it will happen hopefully anytime within the next 6 months to 1 year so I do not want to lock my funds in a GIC (Guaranteed Investment Certificate) or invest it in a volatile stock market 

Invest in the stock market - I know the above point said I do not want to invest all of my excess savings/cash-flow into the stock market because i need it to be liquid and safe as I will be purchasing a home very soon, but I do have some stock market investments which are more for long-term purposes, and i personally strongly believe in this as this is helpful in saving and helpful to build wealth, and I use wealthsimple, it is a simple platform where robo-advisors invest for me into ETFs and charge a very low fee of 0.5% on the funds that is invested and there are promo codes you can get which allow you get to get your first 10k invested free of any commision charges (no 0.5% for the first 10k you invest) they also have cool bonus offers you can earn additional increments of commision free investment amounts, I also use Wealthsimple Trade where I invest into stocks myself 

Use a Cashback Credit Card - I love this because annually i earn anywhere from $200-$500 in cash back earning. I have 3 specific cards i use for different categories, i use my RBC Cashback mastercard for groceries because I get 2% back which means if I spend $2000 in groceries for the year i get about $40 back. I have Tangerine Cashback mastercard for 3 categories of 2% back which are: 1. restaurants (which I benefit from a lot), 2. Transportation (uber eats counts as transportation as well, but know skipthedishes is considered groceries so I would recommending using a credit card which gives $2% cashback for this) and 3. Gas (Esso, Costco Gas, Petro Canada, Shell etc) and 3. BMO Cashback, this gives 1% cashback on everything, but I recently found out in May 2020 this will be changing so most likely I will be resorting to just using my RBC Mastercard for all of my autopayments like amazon prime, disney+, my cellphone etc... just because i have way to many card and i am trying to cut down on the number of card I have just so I can monitor more closely on what I spend

STOP ONLINE SHOPPING FOR STUFF YOU DO NOT NEED - I am so guilty of this, i recently stopped this, I truly enjoy just surfing on he web and buying stuff because it gave me the quick rush of happiness, god only knows why i was so excited, but now before I purchase anything i leave it in my shopping cart and come back the next day to see if i STILL need it or want it and maybe then i will hit next and input my paypal payment info

I guess that is all for now, but I hope whoever sees this can make use of this, this is just what is on my head right now and i truly hate the tenants upstairs who are still stomping right now and i cannot seem to sleep, I hope they stop stomping over my head as it is truly aggravating me. Do these people not sleep? I guess i CANNOT be speaking as i am awake, but to be fair i am seated in my bed typing this so I am barely making any sounds, ugh i hate it here

Signing off

N

[littlestudiousflower]

I miss going to the library the most 

[nancyjourney]

Vibes right now

[nancyjourney]

This is how i feel when i hear the tenants walk and stomp all day long - being quarantined sucks and making me go crazy

[nancyjourney]

Renting Sucks

Have you ever rented a basement apartment and all you hear is the stomping and the furniture moving? Well if your answer is yes, then me too, I feel like i have 15 college football players living above me. Funny enough it is just 2 brothers -.- and they do not have a sense of time at all, I sleep at 12am and wake up at around 8 am, which is the only hours of peace and quiet I get. The first thing i hear when i wake up until i go to bed is the 2 brothers above me stomping and moving, I really do try to ignore it but how can I when it literally sounds like I have 15 college football players shuffling above me. My boyfriend whom I live with, tries to reason with me and tells me to ignore the noice (which he can clearly do cause he has fricken a full set of gaming head gear on where god only knows that he can barely hear me talking to him through that ginormous thing, so how can he hear the damn stomping and movement), but come on, I need some peace and quiet (especially during this time of quarantine) and do not need to feel like my head is about to explode! God I hate renting a basement apartment. Cannot wait until i move at the end of this month