All things being equal, we would all own our homes and live happy prosperous lives, all things being equal. The trouble is not all things are equal; in fact, they are very far from it. So, what can we do to level the playing field a bit? It all depends on what you have more of, money or time. If you have more time and ability than money, the choice is clear. Roll up your sleeves and apply elbow grease to the situation. The only thing stopping us from having the things we need in life is a lack of hard work and determination. I have always been a firm believer in having a plan A, B, and C if necessary. Having money, does not always mean you get what you want, and the converse is also true not having money doesn’t mean that you can’t get what you want. The trick is being flexible and thinking outside the box. Life doesn’t come to us all wrapped up neatly with a bow. It would be nice if it did, but it doesn’t. In fact, more often than not it comes with a swift boot in the backside, otherwise known as the school of hard knocks. It doesn’t matter how good we try to be eventually, we will have to learn something the hard way. If we start out with the premise that life may be tough but doable, then we will find that life turned out better than we thought it would. However, starting out with rose colored glasses on expecting nothing but the best only sets us up for disappointment. Now, I know what you’re thinking, wow that was pessimistic, but really would you rather be pleasantly surprised or tragically let down. Personally, I prefer to be pleasantly surprised. When I was a kid, my parents felt they needed to teach their children the value of a dollar. There were six of us and only two of them. Money was tight so they felt we should learn this lesson early in life in an effort to make us well rounded adults with a clearer understanding of real life. They did this by permitting us to earn our allowance. We didn’t get it freely given, any money coming our way had to be earned by taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, cleaning our room, doing our own laundry, doing the dishes and dusting the house etc… What this taught us was that nothing comes for free and if you want it, you have to work for it. My Mother and Father always worked hard for the money they earned. No one gave them a free ride and they weren’t about to give their kids a free ride either. Before my Mother was able to work outside the house (she waited until we were all in school), she maintained a large garden, had a few dairy cows, sewed our clothes. When I was in elementary school, she took in typing for university students. I can’t tell you the number of nights I went to sleep listening to the sound of her typing on her electric typewriter, which was state of the art in those days. My Father always worked, although he went from job to job at times. After he came home from fighting in Korea, he had difficulties keeping a job for any great lengths of time. It took many years for him to settle into a job that he managed to keep for a number of years. Even though times were difficult for him, as far as keeping work, he always managed to get work. My Mother on occasion would say that, “… just because we are poor doesn’t mean we have to go around looking like street urchins”. We were clean, our clothes mended, we had a roof over our heads and food in our bellies, if we complained about that her stock answer was ‘get a job’, and we did. Once we were old enough to have a paper route, baby-sit, wash dishes, wait tables, you name it we did it. I got my first real job (other than babysitting) at 15. I was a few months short of my 16th birthday so I was a smidge under age; I got hired because I looked 16. I washed dishes in the Hotel restaurant for minimum wage which I believe was about $3.00 at that time. Yes, that’s right, a whopping 3 dollars. That was a magical sum of $24.00 for an 8 hour day, before taxes. But for a kid of 15/16 it was my money hard earned and well used. So, what’s the point of all this jibber jabber? The point is that unless you have been penny pinching you can’t truly appreciate the desire to have what others seem to come by so easily. When I was in my 20’s we were going through a recession in this country (Canada). Jobs were hard to come by. I was persistent sometimes visiting job prospects every day to literally, pester them into hiring me. I did everything from furniture refinishing, house cleaning, bus driving and for a few years I was a cabinet maker’s apprentice. I love working with wood and building things, something I have maintained throughout the years in one form or another. Honestly, if I knew then what I know now I would have gotten what I wanted, a home etc…, much sooner. So what is the difference now? Now, I know what can be done for a lot less money than going the traditional route. The traditional way of mortgage lenders has you jumping through hoops and working your life away to pay for a house that in the end costs you thousands of dollars more than the original price. Life is hard enough and filled with enough pressures that we don’t need to add to it buying money from lenders that we have to pay back and then some. The traditional way is, buy now pay later, and pay more. If you were going to buy a car for the price of $5,000.00, but you can pay by the month and you will end up paying $7,000.00 dollars for it, would you buy it? Many would, because they need the car now, but can’t afford it now. Gone are the days where you saved your money, when you could afford it you bought it. Doing that with a house just underscores that scenario a hundred if not a thousand fold. But what if there was a way, in fact many ways to bring that cost down significantly? Would that not alleviate the housing need as well as our personal debt loads? You could and not only that, perhaps in very short order, you could be living the life you want now instead of working for 20 plus years paying down a massive mortgage. We need to develop less expensive alternatives so that we can do away with the homeless and struggling in this country. In a country as great as ours there should be no ‘have not’s’. We are an innovative people so let’s get going. It’s time we let our bright ideas shine and see what we can make for ourselves. Our pioneers literally carved a life out of sod and dirt. We come from that hard work and determined mindset. I know that if we work hard, we too can be a generation our pioneering ancestors could be proud of, and we can get the life we want sooner than later. Inspiration, imagination, innovation, are the three I’s of thinking outside that proverbial box. Re-use, re-purpose, re-new, are the three R’s that will allow you to pull yourself out of the deep rut of not enough money, and having to turn to money lenders to buy now and pay later. Release yourself from the debt prison.   A Note about Interest – Inflation calculation from Bank of Canada’s online calculator: Christmas Catalogue for 1934 listed 2 house kits- Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalogue Inflation Statistics (Data source Stats. Canada) 1934 2013 $1,092.00 (house 1) $18,384.49 (house 1) $558.00 (house 2) $9,394.27(house 2) $1656.00 (price with contractor house 2) $27,879.78 (price with contractor house 2) House 1: House 2: Obviously, house construction costs have done far better than calculated inflation rates. Mind you the price of wood has skyrocketed over the decades as well as the cost of most everything else these days. Though the years have not been kind to the cost of living index our wages have struggled to keep up. We all feel the pinch from the cost of living, but when we look at the numbers it will cause you to pause. I wonder, how do you think our incomes have done in comparison? Original year in focus. Wage calculations based on Bank of Canada’s online inflation calculator. Wage based on latest posted earnings for group. 1934 2012 calculated 2012 actual (average) Lawyers = $4,218.00 $86,398.00 $200,000.00-$300,000.00 Doctors = $3,382.00 $69,274.63 $228,000.00 Public School Teachers = $1,227.00 $25,133.05 $56,160.00 ($30/hr & a 36 hour work week) Apt. Super = $1500.00 $30,725.00 $35,090.00 Bookkeeper = $936.00 $19,172.00 $30,000.00 Construction worker $907.00 $15,269.00 $32,895.00 I wonder how our general living expenses have done over the years. 1934 prices (actual) 2012 prices calculated (not actual) ladies leather pumps = $1.77 $29.80 Men’s dress shirts = 74¢ $12.46 loaf of Bread = 5¢ 84¢ 1 quart of Milk = 10¢ $1.68 Dozen Eggs =33¢ $5.56 Brick of Butter = 32¢ $5.39 1lb of Flour = 25¢ $4.21 1lb of Round Steak = 28¢ $4.71 light bulb = 9¢ $1.52 Rent for 3 room apt = $15.00 $252.53 You can be the judge if prices in your area have kept up with average inflation rate or if they are higher or lower. Inflation calculators (Bank of Canada used in this example) only deal with inflation as its one and only factor, it does not take into account good old fashioned greed that drives inflation in the first place. Depending on the industry you will find that the actual costs far exceed that of strictly inflationary growth.  

Posted on January 4, 2023 by J.A.Scott
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