Money. Apparently, it's the stuff that makes the world go around.
Last year, at least for me, it played an even bigger role by not being there when I needed it. I was basically out of work due to illness for that time and had no income whatsoever. My fiancee supported me during this time (something that I am truely thankful for and doubt I could ever repay that amount of caring she showed me).
There were months on end that I literally didn't have a single dollar to my name. I had debts upto the ceiling and beyond due to leaving a marriage ($200 a week just repaying loans for things I didn't have) and life was looking, to say the least, rather grim.
But I started to make moves towards seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I filed for personal bankruptcy, and managed to completely free myself from debt. Yes, I now have that on my record for a few years, but lets face it, if I had kept trying to pay for the loans, I probably wouldn't have made it this far anyway.
Then I managed to get a new job at the beginning of this year. I'll get to what the job is in a moment, but just know that I have a reasonable income for what I do. It's nothing massive, but enough to get by on and save a little on the side.
After the turmoil that I've been through financially over the past 12 months, I've found that I've started to examine where my money goes more closely. Previously, I would happily spend every dollar I earned and live payday to payday. But, I'm almost 31 and am realising that it's not something that I can keep doing forever.
Then the seed was planted that turned into this little seedling that is this blog (hopefully it'll become a big fat tree with money growing from it at some point!). The seed was when I noticed that the bank I was with was charging me $5 a month, per account, just for them to keep my money. I was also being charged $2 a transaction, whenever I withdrew money from an ATM that wasn't directly owned by that bank. In fiscal terms, I saw them as a modern day Dick Turpin (a highwayman robber from history, in case you didn't know). But, at least Dick Turpin went to the bother of putting on a mask, these bastards were charging me money to keep my money - there's just no reasoning behind it!
I realised that the age-old saying of "look after the pennies, and the pounds take care of themselves" is very much true. $10 a month (I had two accounts) is $120 a year that I'm spending. For nothing. So, I looked around and found a bank (National Australia Bank, as it happens) that offered an account with no fees. Great! I signed up on the spot.
I'm now in the process of changing my details with my employer so that the other, Dick Turpin, account can be closed down. That's the first (very) small step on a long journey that I hope that I can take you all on.
Which leads me to the actual point of this blog. And, that is no mean feat. I intend to see if someone (me), can start with almost no financial world knowledge and build up a portfolio of investments using small savings to generate an income. And, if so, how long does it take?
I have a few rules in place, however. For example, I don't want to be completely and utterly focussed on researching companies and the like, so I'm setting a rule that my investments can't take over my life (this blog doesn't count in that section, as this is just updating what I'm up to).
Also, I don't want to be stressed out by pressure, so day trading isn't allowed either. Nor do I want to expose myself (haha) to undue risk, so there's no way on earth that I will be using CFD's and short selling and such. That's just too hardcore for me and my life.
I also enjoy going out occasionally and having pizza deliveries, so I refuse to completely change my life in such a way that I feel that I'm not enjoying my days in order to expand my portfolio.
And finally, I will be learning and developing strategies and skills along the way to (hopefully) get me to the point where I have the ability to give myself a payraise by enjoying the returns on my investments as well as my normal salary.
Which brings me to my overall mission statement for this blog:
"I aim to see if someone, starting from scratch, and without extensive experience can expand their financial knowledge and generate an income (it doesn't have to be massive) within 5 years from select investments."
That's my goal: To live comfortably, have a nice car and see if I can still invest more and more over time and eventually make my money, earn money.
Now, for the legal bit:
At no point during this blog, am I aware of your specific situation or personal goals. You can learn and reflect on the things I say, but you should not take anything I say as financial advice. Everything I say should be taken as general information only and you need to decide if it meets your needs and requirements.
I am not responsible for anything that occurs to your financial situation upon you taking something I've said as financial advice.
I will refer to this financial journey as "ours", and may refer to "we" meaning myself and you, the reader. This is in no way implying that you should follow the same (or similar) decisions. The terms "our", "we" (and similar) are used as I feel that you are with me on this journey as a reader of this blog.
Ok, that's out of the way. How about we start on our way, and see where I am currently and assess where we can go from here?
Let's go...
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