Reading About Wealth Creation

We have been treading the frugal life since our daughter was born and more and more carefully in the past 2 or so years. At the time Dolly was born (5yrs ago) I was a 36 year old full time trainee student in Business Administration earning a low wage of $20,000 but receiving free education along the way. The Rambling Expat was a full time 40 year old university student completing a Masters on a 2 year scholarship of $50,000 and a fee waiver where he also had no educational costs. We were being paid to study and that was awesome!

Currently our only debt is our mortgage from our purchased home nearly 5 years ago, which we pay extra cash into on weekly basis. We are aiming for our unit to be paid off within another 3 years. We paid cash for our small economical car last year and never have problems paying the bills because we budget for everything. We used to spend spend spend - mainly on rent, going out, alcohol, magazines, restaurants, cigarettes, music, clothes and luxury food.

We have been frugal and careful to the point of saving a large sum to replace our windows and our own personal savings. Everything else is split down the middle except for groceries. He pays a little more as I have cut back work to care for our daughter which benefits us both.

So now has come the time to get our joint and personal finances organised. I also want to start developing myself to learn on how to create (passive) income by using my savings wisely. I am reading 1 to 2 hours per day from relevant books that will help my progress. This week I am reading Money For Nothing by Justine Davies from my public library. I'm finding it excellent with homework at the end of each chapter and budget sheets to work from. My focus this week is to rework my budget and start looking at our mortgage and see if we can get a better deal to lower our interest and Government owned portion.

I also purchased a book Ms Millionaire with my book credit for inspiration. The book has online tools and bonus at each chapter end which I am exploring. Each woman highly encourages personal and professional development as most found this was their turning point in creating changes, wealth and abundance for themselves.

It's all fun reading and motivating. I'm not a risk taker now that I'm a saver, so it's daunting to take even small steps. But as my knowledge increases and my confidence grows I will make a few financial investments that will benefit me and my family. Maybe it will take me quite some time to make that 1st step but I'm inching there. As for personal and professional development I'm making steps towards that too. I too think it can only be a good thing for me.

Do you invest time or money in your own personal and professional development? Do you invest any of your savings? I would love to hear your thoughts.

(The above books are very Australia focused - so my international readers may be inspired but may not find them as useful as a book from their own country).

Reliable Bills

There is one thing most of us have in common at that is regular bills. Don't you love them... That piece of paper in the mail box or in your inbox that asks for money.

Letter in the Mail Box.

Today we received our Power and Water bill. $239.50 is due. It's too high for my liking, but we are below the National Average and half the Regional Average. We also went down compared to this time last year. But a little higher then the last bill.

I Love These Graphs To Keep Track.

I know I can do better. Some times those lights are on with no one in the room. Too many times I forget to turn off the hot water switch after our morning showers. Another tap washer needs changing. What a waste of our lovely planets resources mainly due to laziness and a disorganised mind. And what a waste of my money that I earn sitting in an office away from my family each day.

Money Dripping Down the Drain.

I don't think a lower bill will be possible next time, as we will be on holidays from work. We will spend more time at home watching movies, sewing, cooking, crafting, playing, relaxing, eating, hosting and reading. So that means more time running fans, lights, ovens, sewing machines, computers and the rest to make our stay at home holidays lots of fun. And that is okay because our life needs to be frugal but of good quality too.

How about you? Will you have a lower or higher bill next time round? Please tell all in the comments below.

PS: I want to remind my Aussie Readers the Air Wick - Soup GIVEAWAY ends tomorrow so don't miss out on scoring a fancy voucher! A $200 Coles Myer voucher! Tool cool for words! ENTER NOW :-)