If you have been looking for a way to get involved in the world of investing for quite some time now, online trading just might be for you. Many people want to be in more control of their own money, and that is not always possible with a broker. With online trading, one can really become the master of their own destiny. At the same time, caution must be exercised in order to maximize returns and minimize risk. That should be the goal of any online trader. Let us look at some reasons why.

Caution in the Wind

There are many times in life where risk can provide a thrilling adventure. While some types of risk can be managed, others cannot. You cannot always control, for example, what the wind will do when you jump out of an airplane. Likewise, you cannot truly know what a particular type of investment will do once you have sunk your money into it. This is why online trading does need to be approached with some caution. As Online Trading Academy Reviews will tell you, this is a primary function of learning to invest. You must determine how much risk you are willing to take on, and then learn which investments will keep you within your comfort zone. That does take some practice, so make sure you take advantage of the tools and resources available that will help you in this regard.

Take Time to Gain Knowledge

Before you make the plunge into online trading, you will want to take some time to gain as much knowledge as you can. While all investors should be aware of what they are doing when buying a particular fund, it is critically important for an online trader to do so. There are certain indicators that you need to look out for, and you will not always have the benefit of a broker to guide you. In fact, you are probably entering this genre in order to control your own money, so it is even more important that you go back to school – so to speak. Look at the Online Trading Academy Reviews to discover why it is so valuable to attend as much training as you can at the outset. This task does not end once you begin training either. You will want to constantly brush up on your skills and keep up with emerging trends in the field.

Use Technology To Your Advantage

With emerging technology available today, the investment world is truly at your fingertips. You have access to a wealth of real time information on a real time basis. As such, you need to put this technology to work for you. Learn about it and implement it within your own online trading activities as they are applicable to you. This will help you in your quest to gain as much profit as possible, while minimizing your losses and any errors that you might otherwise make. Using the best laptops for trading also helps.

Online trading is a great way to enter the investing world. You just want to make sure that you know what you are getting into from the outset. Take some time to organize your activities and ensure that you have the proper investment education before getting started. If you do that, you will be well positioned for success.

I admit that a lot of the things I enjoy doing for ‘’fun’’ involve spending money. I love eating out, I love going out for coffee with friends, I love farmers markets, I enjoy going to the gym, I love going on road trips, I enjoy concerts and theater…all of these things cost money. There was a time (multiple, if I’m being honest since the inception of my money-earning days) that I was broke but was still looking to have a good time.

I actually love(d) these days though. I mean don’t get me wrong, people don’t enjoy the feeling of being strapped for cash or not having an emergency fund in place, but given the opportunity you can learn a lot about yourself and really understanding your wants and needs when money becomes an issue. It was during these days that I learned how to have a good time without spending much, if any money at all. Even though money isn’t an issue anymore, these are things I still love and regularly practice today.

Board games

Growing up, cards was something I always enjoyed but I’ll be honest, playing board games wasn’t a big part of my childhood. As an adult though, when I was trying to plan an evening in (because going out was not an option!), I decided to ask friends to bring some games that that had, with them. I wanted something to do that wasn’t watching a movie or sitting around doing nothing. I loved them. It was that year that my husband and I really got into games. My husband’s family had always played games so he already owned a few, we just hadn’t done much together or with friends. Over the years we have acquired quite the board game collection. A few we’ve bought new, some in great shape at second hand stores and a few as gifts. We have our favorites (Catan and Ticket to Ride top the list) but we’re always looking to expand.

Having a game-night in is not only uber cheap, it’s incredibly fun. I can honestly say I would rather spend an evening in with friends playing games than out at a restaurant eating and drinking our bank account dry.

Walks and Hiking

Most of my life I’ve had access to a rec center membership. I really enjoyed going to the gym but a time came when we had to give the membership up, it just didn’t fit in our budget anymore. I relied mostly on walks and hikes to get my exercise in and guess what…I really honestly enjoyed it. I would usually go with my sister or a friend, we’d meet up and go for a decent 4-5km walk a few times per week. When I was on maternity leave, my daily walks were the key to me losing weight. I love finding new places to explore and enjoy getting caught up with friends or being with my own thoughts for a little while. Best of all, it’s free to walk, and it satisfied that ‘’I want to be in a coffee shop drinking coffee with you’’ itch.

Cooking

I have a funny relationship with cooking. I actually don’t enjoy cooking for just two adults, but love preparing a meal for a crowd. When going out to restaurants regularly wasn’t an option, not just for us but many friends too (babies, wedding and new homes do that to you), I started offering to cook in much more. I have become pretty good at feeding a crowd on a budget and really enjoy it. Combine with a few board games and you can have a pretty decent time for minimal cash spent. You can easily turn it into a potluck style meal as well to save even more.

There was a time where I really thought I needed to spend money to enjoy myself. I’m appreciative of the times when spending money wasn’t an option though, as I’ve really learned what it was I wanted out of those situations and can easily replicate for little to no actual money being spent.

What’s your favorite way to have fun without breaking the bank?

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In two months, we’re headed off on our first real vacation in almost six years. We’ve been away a little bit, mostly family stuff for long weekends, maybe two weeks total, in the last five years. When a patient asked if I was taking time off this year, my boss actually joked that I’m a work-a-holic and never take time off. Thankfully I have a career I really enjoy or else I probably would have snapped a long time ago!

I have friends and family who work high stress jobs and need the time off or will mentally and physically burn out, I’m fortunate (or strategic in career choice?) that my weekends and odd day off are usually enough for me to re-coop from work. I don’t really need time away from my job, what I do need though, is time away to spend with my husband and family. Especially now that we have a kid.

For a long time, I couldn’t imagine spending our money on anything other than our debt. It just didn’t feel right. I was so guilt-ridden about the amount of post-secondary debt I brought into the marriage I knew we couldn’t ”afford” to take time off from our goals. So we didn’t and have grown to hate ourselves a bit for it.

Thankfully, we’re both homebodies and genuinely enjoy spending time home with our friends and family. We enjoy vacations but certainly don’t feel the desire to pick up a few times a year and jet off somewhere, but, like anyone, we need time away sometimes. Our time has come.

Our big goal, to be 100% non-mortgage debt free, is pretty grand and I’m proud of the efforts we’ve made so far, but being focused on one, singular thing, for so long, blurs the rest of your life. Suddenly you don’t totally remember why it’s so important. While throwing up a magazine cut-out focus board works wonders for some, we need to get away for a bit- take a break from our goal- to sit back and realize how far we’ve come and regroup once back at home.

So, we’re taking off. At the end of March we’re going away on an adults-only trip with four of our best friends to Nashville and I’m so excited. When the NHL schedule was released this past summer, we decided for hubby’s birthday we’d go away for a long weekend to catch a game with our favorite team, and visiting Nashville won our vote. I’ve been once and remember loving it as a kid so think it will be even more fun as an adult.

The fact that we’re going with four other people will help keep some costs down too which is always nice. We opted to rent a house through AirBnB which was huge cost savings. We’re also going during off-season which is also a bit cheaper and we watched flights like a hawk paying about $200 less per person than they’re currently advertising. Though the Canadian dollar conversion sucksssssss I don’t think we’ll make out that bad. I find food to be significantly cheaper in the US, both eating out and to buy, and portion sizes are much larger which means more sharing. Our two most expensive items (airfare and accommodations) were booked in CAN so the conversion didn’t affect us.

I’m not suggesting we’re going to blow through thousands of dollars (my fugal bone comes with me where ever we go thankfully) but we’re going to enjoy ourselves while there.  While some people enjoy shopping while on vacation, we enjoy eating, so dining out will be a big part of our vacation budget. I get excited to try new foods and restaurants, another big treat for us since our self-imposed family dine-out budget of $50 doesn’t go that far here 🙂

Especially in the last 24 months we’ve been grinding hard on this debt. And it’s paid off (pun intended). Last year we managed to knock off almost $30,000 alone, but all this grinding is leaving us kind of bitter. While some of you are likely of the mindset that ”you’re in debt, you’re only goal in life should be to pay it off”, and I don’t totally disagree with you, I also argue that a break may be exactly what we need. I think that we can’t afford not to take time off from our goals or we may never reach them.

Have you been to Nashville? Start the recommendations below!

Spending time watching her ballet class is more important than thinking about how much we’d save by not paying for class at all.

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a post outlining my (our) goal to pay off $70,000 in just 36 months. We’re actually in a position to keep on going with this plan too but I’ve now decided to stop. kind of. Let me explain.

Our main financial goal in life (right now) is to still work on this debt and get it paid off in a timely manner but as I’ve discovered in the last 16 months since writing that post, life fluctuates and plans have to change. Obviously this isn’t new news to me, but understanding the concept, and living the concept, are two different things. It’s taken me a few months but I’m finally ok with accepting that it is in fact ok to work on more than one goal in life.

When I wrote the post I was only focused on the end result, being non-mortgage debt free, and quite honestly I didn’t care, or take time to consider all of life’s circumstances that will happen within that 36 month period. Now that we’re almost half way through our 36 months, I can see we’re coming to a crossroads in the near future in terms of our finances and how we manage them.

We’re moving into a territory of working towards multiple goals at once. When I first realized that we’d be deviating from our plan I actually felt bad. Like I was failing someone and honestly, that’s just dumb. I also realized that, especially with a kid, life is easier to manage in short-term goals.

Some people thrive on focusing solely long-term goals, but, I have discovered, I am the opposite. Long term goals consume me and I don’t enjoy the associated stress. I find myself wishing time away which, to me anyway, is not ideal. I have never had a year (2015) go so fast in my life. While it was a culmination of things, a huge reason was that I wished the year away until November when I knew we’d be getting that loan paid off. Not a big deal to some, but I want to start living in a more present state.

When I started working on my 2016 budget last month, my goal was to complete it until December 2016. Just as I like to view a whole month calendar when planning anything, I like my budget done for 12 months minimum to see the numbers all laid out. I changed my mind though. I’m only doing my budget for no more than six months at a time.

When I was doing 12 months in advance there were simply too many unknowns. I would set an end of year goal, and fixate on it. I would play with the spreadsheet and see what, and how, the goal would happen but more often than not, it wouldn’t and I’d be left feeling crappy. I’d ‘predict’ a cost (say soccer fees or car appointment) only to find out it’s actually hundreds more than I anticipated and I’d let it ruin my whole budget.

Our income varies. My husband’s pay is pretty much set but my can be all over the place. If I took a day off work (unplanned, kid sick or storm day sort of thing, without pay) I was cashing out vacation pay to make sure I would have that income target I put in my spreadsheet, like nine months prior. This isn’t real life for me. We make enough money that if I miss a day or two unplanned, an unpaid day off won’t kill us, but because I had these large goals, I was sacrificing things like actual, necessary, vacation days with my family to meet our financial goals. I need more balance.

My only ‘goal’ of 2016 is to learn how to live more in the moment. Good and bad. 2016 is shaping up to be a great year. A real vacation. Milestone birthdays. A new baby in our close circle of friends. A family wedding (and all associated planning!). I don’t want to write a post in January of 2017 describing how I feel like I missed it all.

Even in over 700 words I feel like I can’t quite describe what I’m trying to say. We still have general long-term plans like eventually start investing but because we’re not yet in a position yet to do so I’m not going to allow myself to feel bad about not reaching a goal date.