Power of positive thinking

The past few weeks have been a little hard with many things happening that threw me into a bit of a sad state. I was unmotivated, looking at everything negatively and getting quite depressed. I felt like the situation we were in was quite hopeless and why should I bother with things.

The other night I realised I needed to snap out of it. I knew my wallowing and self pity were not productive and would not help our situation. The only way to improve things is to change your mindset and then actively go out and do things to change your situation.

I know not everyone is religious, but I am. I said a prayer and asked for help to be motivated in the morning to reach a couple of my goals and for our financial situation to turn around. A bit of a greedy prayer, but I did express my gratitude for other things and it was a sincere, heartfelt prayer.

I fell asleep feeling much better about things.

When I woke in the morning I finally had my bloggy mojo back and the ideas were flowing. Not just for my blog but other aspects of my life. We got a letter about my husbands work and everything is good on that front now (he was off work for a couple of weeks) and I achieved a couple of my goals. A few other things happened to make our financial situation a little better.

Since then things are definitely looking up and I feel much more motivated and positive. I doubt very much that if I had continued with my negative line of thinking that things would be going so well. (My husband would still be back at work, but everything else would be as before I think.)

Positive thinking changes your life.

Review my million dollar plan

Last night I came across the plan I wrote for how I was going to become a millionaire. It was not my original plan as I lost that when my first computer died, but it was interesting to review how I intended to achieve my goal.

Reading over it my thoughts have not changed much. I still want to do everything I wrote down, the only difference is the types of opportunities that have come to enable me to make income to then invest how I would like.

Have you reviewed your financial plan lately? Do you have one?

A financial plan is pretty crucial if you want to achieve financial freedom. Without one you have no real direction and it is easy to get swayed, not invest properly or put your money towards real financial goals. It is easy to waste what you are earning, not save as much as you should and finish up with much less than you would have if you had a plan.

Having a budget is your first step, but have you thought about retirement, where you want to invest later, how you will pay off debts and things like that?

These are all important things to think about. If you don't have a financial plan, now is a good time to look into it.

Free and cheap stuff!

We have scored quite a few bargains in our house lately. We have been doing a no spend challenge this month, so maybe we have been more away of our surroundings and the opportunities out there.

I have desperately wanted a new desk for my room. It didn't need to be brand new, just new to me. I know what I want but also know as long as we have debt I do not want to spend money unnecessarily. At the end of last week I noticed the preschool up the road was getting rid of their office chairs and desks. They were not exactly what I wanted, but they were out for anyone to take for free.

I had no idea how to get one home as it would not fit in my car. The next night there was one desk left as I drove past. I told my husband about it and on the way back from where we were going he told me to pull over so he could look at it. He pulled out all the drawers and put them in the book. Then he said he would carry the desk home for me! How sweet is that!

He is really strong and it was only down the road, so it is not like he carried it for kilometres. I am not saying it would have been easy, it was probably about 700m. We are so happy with our free desk. He still wants to get me the desk I really want, but I am happy with this one for now.

On top of that the other week we scored some fresh produce from a friends garden. Gotta love free, homegrown food.

When I did our groceries some of the items we like were reduced from $2 to 19cents, so big savings there.

Then yesterday we had to duck down to Canberra for my husbands work. It was perfect timing as we were almost out of meat and we get it for extremely cheap from my brothers work GarranTeed Meats in Garran, Canberra since he works there. It is excellent quality. So we were able to stock up again until next time we go to Canberra. We'll be getting some of the organic berries and free range eggs they sell next time too, they look fantastic!

Then finally my parents had some goodies left over from Christmas such as a giant box of chocolates, a big bottle of pretzels, some long life ice-creams and an unopened ham, so we got to take all that home too. 

I cannot believe how fortunate we have been.

What sort of bargains have you scored lately?

When you hit a wall...

Last week I created my motivation wall, my vision board, set goals and things. then a couple of things happened which knocked the wind out of me. It was strange to go from so excited to completely deflated overnight.

One suggestion I hear a lot is to 'get away' or 'take a break/go somewhere nice for a few days." My thoughts were that I couldn't right now. I have nowhere to go, no spare money to go on a holiday or anything.

Then yesterday my husband told me we need to go to Canberra. I love Canberra as most of my family are there. I immediately contacted my sisters and while it is not a full on break I will get to have lunch with them tomorrow.

It is amazing what just the knowledge I am going to have a mini break has done. Almost immediately my mind filled with ideas again and I felt I could do things

I am really looking forward to seeing my sisters. I don't think we have ever had lunch just the 4 of us (ok, my kids and one of my sisters kids will be there too).

I often do other small things to try and get some motivation when I hit a wall like going for a walk or run, catching up with friends, doing some window shopping (emphasis on the window part, no actual buying), cooking a favourite recipe et..

I have to say though that knowing I will see my siblings and being able to catch up with my family is the best way to get over the wall for me.

What works for you?

Refinancing our mortgage

This week my husband and I refinanced our mortgage. It is such a relief. We have wanted to do it for sometime as we knew we could be getting a better interest rate and saving on fees, but with my husbands job all over the place we had to wait a bit.

The first thing I did when we decided to refinance was use a mortgage interest calculator and compare rates. I discovered some of the great deals out there and found that by negotiating and discussing things with my bank we were able to switch to a lower rate, stop all fees on our accounts and save a lot of money. It was really easy to do, but I had to be on my guard a little and say no.

One thing that surprised me was when the bank asked me if I wanted to borrow extra since our house valuation came back a lot higher than was necessary to refinance. The first thing that came out of my mouth was “Why?” I was then told about how I could use the ‘extra money’ I have sitting there and take a holiday, upgrade my car etc… I definitely did not want to do that. I know many others would have jumped at the opportunity, but my focus is getting rid of debt.

The next thing she asked was if we wanted interest only. No, I didn’t. Interest only means all your mortgage payments are only covering the interest on your loan. The amount you owe never changes because you are not paying anything towards it. I don’t recommend interest only mortgages for anyone.

We plan on continuing with our current payments so all the money we are ‘saving’ on a lower interest rate and no fees will work to pay off our loan much faster. Paying even $50 extra with each payment can save you thousands over the life of your loan.

My husband and I discussed the best way to set up our loan, make our money work for us and are aiming at getting our mortgage paid off asap. Our first step is to clear our personal loan and then roll those payments over to the mortgage as well.

Have you ever refinanced? Did the bank ask you all sorts of questions to try and make more money off you?

A few words to live by

Money Traps

We have been going over our budget and I am sad to see how much money has slipped through our fingers lately.

There are many things out there that can be little money traps and some that are much bigger. For us it has been:

Take away - mainly my husband buying it too and from work
Short car trips when really we could just walk, but are too lazy
No menu plan - with Christmas, New Years and being between other people's houses we didn't menu plan much and it showed.
Electricity usage - it is so easy to use the dryer and leave things plugged in or on stand by all the time, but when the bill comes it can be quite a shock
Interest - We still have a personal loan and I really want it gone. We have been arranging to change our mortgage as well which will save us on interest. It is amazing how much interest we are paying on these debts.

Have you stepped back and taken a good look at your finances to find your money traps?

A few we avoided, but only just were:
Cable/Foxtel - my parents got it and most people we know have it. My husband wanted it for the rugby world cup, but when I showed him the figures he changed his mind.
Christmas/Birthdays - we nearly went out and spent much more than we needed, but held back and have made plans for this year which will ensure the Christmas/birthday budget is kept.

There are so many things in our every day lives that if we look out for them and change our behaviours will save us a lot.