Okotoks Gluten Free restaurants to try out

Just learned of two restaurants in Okotoks, AB, that are gluten free friendly.:)

Gourmet On The Go

The Heartland Cafe

Where are you going?

Years ago I heard  a  saying that went something like this:  “there was a pilot on a flight who made an announcement over the speaker.  “I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that we are making excellent time, the bad news is that we don’t know where we are going.”

Setting goals is so important!  Here are some of mine in regards to finances:

What are my goals?

• I have a $3000.00 dental implant that needs to be taken care of...
• Have enough to pay off my mortgage
• Have a ‘secret’ bank account for my kids to help support them with education/mission/marriage/home buying.  Figure out the best way to teach my kids about budgeting and finance. 
• Set up an allowance system that we actually follow.
• I would love to be able to help buy my dad and sister a home in town in the city that they live in/know that there was money to help with my dad’s retirement/health should that need arise....
• Vacations.... would love to be able to book one without spending  two thousand hours looking for the cheapest flight/hotel room....  Would love to be able to take my dad and sister on some of our vacations.
• Would love to be able to grocery shop without nickelling and diming it....however, even if I had the money, I probably would still do it
• Would love to go back to school myself and upgrade my knowledge in a few different areas.
• Have enough for retirement
• Make sure that we have adequate life and health insurance in place.
• Would love to get better at giving back to others and helping those in need.

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What have I learned blogging about finances so far?

*There are a lot of financial bloggers out there...and much to my surprise, there are a lot in Canada.  I’ve always just assumed that all of the information is geared towards the US.  That excites me because it means I can learn from their expertise and not have to get a degree in finance in order to figure out how to invest our money.

*That finding a  good financial advisor to direct you isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. 

*there are a tonne of people that don’t have a financial advisor...simply because they don’t know who to trust .  That means there are a lot of people like me out there who are trying to figure it out on their own.

 * That getting educated on finance is a pretty important thing to do.

* That writing a blog post each day is actually a lot of work.:)   One of the best pieces of advice I have seen about blogging is to just make sure you write each day.  Over time you might be surprised where your blog takes you...it may be in an entirely different direction that you actually thought.

 

Worth more than gold....

My mom was an amazing woman.  She loved people and loved to talk to them.  She would always slow down when in public and smile at people and greeted them with a cheery, "hello".  She  always came home knowing new friends and stories of their lives.  She was generous, kind, non-judgemental, warm and loving and kept confidences.  Truly, making people feel loved and important was one of her special gifts.  Last year (while in her early 70's)  after a lengthy and difficult illness, she was diagnosed with cancer and was given a diagnosis of just two months left to live.   Up until that point, the doctors were unable to figure out what was wrong with her.   

During the entire process of her deteriorating health, my mom was blessed with wonderful friends who were so truly  wonderful to her.  People would bring her meals, cards, books and flowers.  They would call and visit and pray for her.  As a family, we were so  grateful for all of these special acts of kindness.   It was so touching to see people who took time out of their busy and sometimes just as difficult lives to reach out and help bring sunshine to dark and dreary days.  It amazed me to see the worth of these acts of love and how much it influenced each of us and filled us with so much gratitude for loving support. 

It reminded me of how important it is, regardless of our financial circumstances, to take time to reach out and touch the lives of others.  It's so easy to say, I'll do nice things for others when I have more time, or more money, when I'm not tired or circumstances are better...but don't wait.  We can never know how our support and love can mean to someone who is struggling or just needs a friend.  There are people all around us in need of love and kindness.  Something money truly cannot buy.

Almost two and a half months after the diagnosis, my mom passed away.   It was and has been a hard time for all of us, but we are so grateful for her and her loving influence. We wish she was still here, but we are thankful that she is no longer in pain.  Something that I think is really special is that she had a little primrose garden that she always took care of and nurtured and loved, just like the people in her life.   I took a picture of it last summer.  Some of you might know that primroses are a perennial, which means that they return each year. What a special gift.  Its a reminder that the good things you do come back, and continue to  bless the lives of others. 

Financial curveballs

Sometimes life throws you financial curve balls.  For us, our most recent (and we have had a lot in the past while) was the diagnosis of celiac disease for our son.   We are thankful to finally have a diagnosis and grateful that what he has is something that is treatable by living a gluten free lifestyle....but honestly, it hasn’t been easy.

First of all its not easy to change the diet of a five year old who doesn’t like eating in general and when he does eat just wants to eat goldfish crackers like everyone else.  Despite the fact that living gluten free has almost become popularized in the last few years and there are many new items available, living the diet when you have no choice, and when you are desperately trying to help your child gain weight, becomes extremely frustrating and isolating.   Trying to live on a food budget becomes a little more challenging as well. This may be one of the main reasons I am trying to get our finances in check right now.

  Some of you might think that at least there is a tax write off for food that you buy that is gluten free...and there is...but there is nothing really free about it.  If  you read the  stipulations on how you acquire this tax break, you will know why no one i have spoken to has ever tried to get it.  (eg. Save every receipt, deduct the amount of the gluten free food from the regular amount you would pay for the food and then make sure that you are   deducting the amount that is eaten ONLY by the individual with celiac disease in the family.)  Now were my child older than 5, that would perhaps be easier.  The fact is, we don’t want him to feel different.  He already struggles not wanting to go to preschool because he doesn’t like to eat  differently than other children at snack time..and it really breaks my heart.  So we try to normalize as much as can.  This means for the most part, outside of bread and cereal our family meals are all gluten free and we try to purchase similar gluten free  foods to what other kids get to eat.

To be perfectly honest, probably my least favourite ways of spending my time are in the grocery store and in the kitchen.  I try to force myself to love it, but it certainly doesn’t come naturally, and  since this diagnosis, my time in both places has grown significantly.  I should probably find a support group..Ha.  (and I will as soon as I can find one t that meets our needs).

Being able to afford to live this way conveniently is difficult.  My heart goes out to families that have received this or some other diagnosis where they simply do not have the resources to go out and buy a $5.99 loaf of bread that needs to be frozen and toasted in order to taste edible.  We are blessed that we can pull from the money we set aside each month to put into RSP’s, but not everyone is able to do that.   

I am working diligently on trying to find the most frugal way to live this diet within our home without having to break the bank or move into my kitchen.  I am also saving receipts...but need to sit down and figure out a better menu plan and system for grocery shopping in order to help us out.  Hopefully by this time next year, living this way will be second nature and we will have figured out a healthy and economical way to deal with the disease.  I guess my point is, we will all have things come up to stop us in our plans, the  important thing is finding solutions to help keep us working towards our goals. 

My heart has opened up to all those who deal with celiac disease.  I hope that next time you donate to a food bank that you will take a minute to pick up something from the gluten free aisle to help those that aren’t able to easily afford living in a way that is medically necessary way for them to live.  I know I will.

Bank follow up

This morning I returned back to the bank to complete the transaction that I started last week.  The financial advisor was taking the money I had saved out of its current account and putting my money into a regular bank account, so that he could move it into a Tax Free Savings Account and change what I am investing in.   At our last meeting, he had recommended a balanced investment account..showed me a list of the companies that were included. I recognized a couple of the companies (one my brother works for) and so I felt comfortable with the list (as comfortable as you can after looking at it for 3 minutes.:)

The interesting thing was that this morning, he told me that he actually thinks that the investment account that we (he must mean, that he recommended) had decided on was perhaps a little too aggressive for me, and he thought it better to move it down a notch, to better match my investing personality profile, and to make it more accessible should I decide to take it out in the next 7-10 years.  (I guess I feel comfort knowing that the bank has controls in place to make sure that their employees don't put their clients at too much risk. )  Well, with my rambunctious 5 year old in tow today, (who I was fighting with to make sure he wasn't using wifi on my iPhone and costing me money while I was trying to save money), I  took him for his word.  The life of a mom.:) 

It reconfirms the importance of self-educating to me though.   If you don't go into a financial advisor educated and with a direction/goals already formulated in your mind, its pretty easy to be guided into what ever they suggest for you to do. 

My husband is an accountant, but like me, is good at cost control, but not so great at knowing what do with the money.  In fact, we moved from Southern Alberta to the big city 11 years ago, and I think he (and I know it should be 'we') has spoken to our advisor (where we have our RSPs)  from back then maybe 5 times...none of those being recent.    Now our question is should we move our investments from the person currently watching over our account to someone local...or keep it where it is.  Honestly....not being able to meet with someone face to face makes things a little less personal.  Not to mention, our account has been moved to an  advisor we have never met before.  

The man at the bank said that there is someone else that he could recommend to talk to us about what some of our options might be.  So, I agreed to let them call (and talk to my husband..ha...might as well get him going full invested in this process as well!:)  Truth be told, all my talk about what I am doing may be annoying my husband just a little bit...however, I think it is motivating him to address the issue of finding an advisor that can help give us a little bit of direction.

Calgarian author publishes new finance book

While browsing the internet this a.m., I was excited to see that there is a new financial book on the market.  It is written by Calgarian -  Lesley-Anne Scorgie, president of Rich By Inc.  It looks like this book is targeted towards younger women and educating them.   Although, I am already in my early forties (and sadly am not sure I qualify as a younger woman...)  I am looking forward to picking up a copy and finding out what I can learn.  Check out the following link if you are interested in getting more information.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Calgary+financial+author+publishes+book/9788921/story.html

I am currently busy reading a book by Gail Vaz-Oxlade, and hope to let you in on what I am learning soon.

Happy Monday!

How not to find a financial planner 101

Finding a good investor to help guide you with your money is such an important thing to do. 

My story with investing began some time ago. It started with me purchasing life insurance from some random company. I was single and lived a long ways from home (1200 km away).  I had this strange fear that something could possibly happen to me, and if I died, I worried about the expense that it would incur to my family for travel and funeral.   So I went and purchased Life insurance…Not a lot.  About a year later, I got home from work and found this check in the mail for $700.00…I was in awe.  Where did this come from.  I called the company and told them that they must have made a huge mistake. I had life insurance with them,  but had probably only paid about $300 into my plan.  I was told it wasn’t a mistake, that the company had sold, and the shares were worth that amount.  The money was mine and I could meet with the new company to reinvest or do what I wanted to do with it. I still don’t understand what happened, but I was sure excited to have won a mini lottery in my mind.  And oooops. I didn’t quite make it back to rework a new policy.  But I also didn’t die, so I guess it was a win win situation after all.

Fast forward a few years later. 

I was coming home from work after a large snow storm.  The rental I was living in was on a busier street, and as I was about to turn into the driveway, I got myself totally stuck in the snow and was unable to even get into the driveway.  I wasn’t in any danger, because of the two lanes, cars could easily pull around me….but I was still scared silly.  I did what any brave girl would do and started to cry. Hard as I could I couldn’t get that car out of the snow bank.  I got out of the car and left the motor running, closed the door.. to see just how stuck I really was and how I could remedy the situation.  I kicked the snow away as best I could, and then went to go back into the car to try and pull my car out again.  The only problem was, was that the door locked.  Yes…I was stuck on the street, my car was running, and Icouldnèt get into the car.  I also couldn’t get into my house, which was right there because my keys were inside my locked running car.  Hows that for a predicament.:)

Random stranger to the rescue.  A man seeing the problem pulled over, and was totally kind.  We weren’t able to remedy the situation without calling AMA, which he kindly did for me, after we waited for 30 minutes for my roommate to get home and unlock the door, so we could use the phone.  He used his AMA card and we were able to get into the car and get it out of the ditch. (this was all pre-cell phone days obviously).

A year or so later, I ended up getting a phone call from the man  ), and he was now a Financial Advisor and he was wondering if I would like to come meet with him and go over investing etc.  I thought, why not and went and met with him.  Nice man, who took quite a bit of time with me trying to explain how investing worked and the importance of it.  He was a big believer in Japanese stocks....had a hunch that that was where there was money to be made.  I was naive....and thought, sure, why not.:) I invested.

Fast forward another year, and I got a call from a new advisor who informed me that my current advisor was no longer working for the company as it wasn’t a good fit for him), and that they would like me to come in and review my investments....which had now lost most of its value...ha...and the future of them did not look bright.

 Oh well.  Lesson learned.  II may have lost money, but I did learn about the importance of saving.  Take some time trying to find the right advisor.  I wish I knew how to do it.  And I plan to find out.  I hope to share that with you (whoever you might be...(since I currently only have two readers that are related to me who are reading this blog right now.:)  Truth is, if I only help myself, my sister and my husband wind our way through this financial maze, that will be success enough.  But if I can help some more of you, that would be great as well!   Happy Monday!

First day on the job.....

Today was my official first (self-appointed) day on the job.  My appointment  at the bank was at 10:00.  Despite the awful weather, I decided to dress up a little bit.  After all, I don’t know whether or not talking to financial planners-banker  is similar to a woman going in to get their car fixed.  (eg. If you don’t look and act like you know what you are doing, you get taken advantage of.)  As you can see, I am a little paranoid.

The fact of the matter is, saving money is not an easy thing.  For those of us that have to scrimp in order to save money, investing $500 to $5000 may not seem like a lot of money to them, but it is just as precious to us as a million dollar investment that someone else might be making.

Entering into my appointment, I was greeted by two gentleman. (One wore an account manager tag and either is in training or supervising…not sure which) and the other was the one that was going to help.  Both were very personable and easy to chat with.  The main person advisor  told me that he had just noticed that it had been a very long time since I had been into the bank to discuss my portfolio…in fact he was in grade 11.  Hmmmm.  I don’t know whether that made me feel old, or reminded me of how sad it was that I neglected my little secret bank account for such a long time.  However, gave me a clue that the person I was dealing with was probably under 27 years of age?

However, the experience validated my purpose for doing this blog.   This is not easy stuff.  I sat with  them and answered questions about my risk tolerance and goals all in under 50 minutes.  We determined that where my money was sitting was probably not the best place for it (big surprise…J), and moved my rsp to a balanced fund.  We also are in the process of moving my investment account into a balanced fund within a TFSA…which will take a couple of days to process.  Within one hour I signed a whole bunch of documents and have an appointment to go back on Tuesday to finalize things.  

I would rate my experience as good. However, I have to admit, that had I not previously tried to learn about tax free savings accounts or resps or RRSP’s, this would have been a completely foreign experience for me.  It still is a little bit of unfamiliar jargon. 

I feel like was treated like I was just as important as someone who had $100,000 they were investing, which is something I really appreciated.   But still, I just put $20,000 that I have saved (and sacrificed for)  into the hands of someone I didn’t know 4 hours ago, and am really just hoping they know what they are doing.   That seems a little presumptuous to me.   

I do feel though that the onus is on us as individuals though, because in one hours time you really can’t expect to learn all the ins and outs of investing.  I feel lucky that I have this little bit of side money available so that I can try and invest it and hopefully make some wise decisions that will help us financially in the future.  I still have a lot of questions and am hoping to still find direction as to how better to focus our savings and still maintain a happy standard of living and helping those around us.

I really want to try harder to find a better balance between living and saving.   The time to live is now, but the time to save is now too.  BALANCE.

Onward and upward.....

Beauty onThursdays

One of the reasons I have been scared to start a financial blog is because I think it is so easy to go overboard thinking about money.  As I mentioned before, money is necessary for us to survive, but it definitely doesn't equal happiness.   There is so much beauty in the world that is free to all of us for the taking if we will just take the time to look around and notice it.  Sometimes we can even create it, and I hope that is what we will do.

Yesterday I was in line at a grocery store (yes...I shop a lot trying to save on money...its a problem).  However, in front of me was the cutest (a little windblown) elderly lady, who was talking quite a bit, and we got onto the topic of the weather (definitely an Albertan topic of conversation in 2014).  She shared how she doesn't get headaches and even though she had a severe accident that affected her neck, she never gets migraines and her doctor is amazed.  She then went on to say, 'but I serve God, and so He takes care of me good.'

This isn't a religious blog...but it is all intertwined.:)   I hope that on Thursdays I will be able to share something uplifting that reminds us to look around and appreciate the beauty and blessings in our lives.

For today, I would like to share a quote my sister loves to help inspire us this spring.:)

              "He who plants a garden, plants happiness."

Take a few minutes to plan something that you can grow at your home this springtime.  Container gardening has become huge, so there is no excuse for any of us.   If you really don't have the space or resources, try and find a few extra loonies to purchase a few tulips or even one flower to bring some life and beauty into your home.  And better yet...bring some to someone else as well. 

Make it a great day!

T