What is it with women and shoes? As newlyweds, we honeymooned in London and Paris. It was our first time to Europe together and there was much romance and adventure to be had. Leading up to our trip, Emily informed me that she would be purchasing a pair of shoes in Paris. Little did I know that it was a cautionary disclosure. “Sure,” I thought, “how bad could it be?”
There are many things to love about autumn in Canada. Leaves start to change their colors, apples are ready for picking and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It’s also when kids return to school. Fall is a time for new beginnings and new ambitions – just ask a Leaf fan if they’ll make the playoffs this year! In her student days, Emily used to put aside some time to set her expectations for the new school year and though those days of are well behind her, she hasn’t yet kicked the habit of setting goals each fall.
Our venture into this world of blogging and personal finance is as new and unknown to us as was Captain Kirk’s foray into the Final Frontier. Before we get too much further, it would probably be best if we defined some of our aspirations lest we go rampaging into darkness. With the back-story out of the way, let’s dig a little deeper and take a look at what we are looking to accomplish and where we see ourselves headed in the near future.
It’s been quite an eventful launch weekend. In the interest of full disclosure, we initially scheduled our blog to start later in the year but scored a wait listed ticket to the Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2013 for this past weekend. We threw a hail Mary and rushed to go live (bear with us as we continue to smooth out some of the rough edges) to capitalize on the fortuitous occasion. It was an amazing opportunity to put some faces to some of the sites in that we’ve been visiting regularly. What a whirlwind couple of days!
The enticing lineup of speakers included some of the pillars of personal finance in Canada. My pen was trying to keep up with the knowledge being spewed from the likes of MoneySense editor Jonathan Chevreau, and Globe and Mail Columnist Rob Carrick. As if that wasn’t enough, Ellen Roseman of the Toronto Star shared her passion in the continued fight for consumers’ rights and I sure will be looking to keep Kerry K. Taylor of SquawkFox’s advice on how not to kill our blog. Other topics covered practical aspects of blogging including run downs on potential tax and legal implications.
So after four seemingly endless years of late nights, my $30k of student debt and a pair of engineering degrees later, Emily and I waved goodbye to the student life and were excited to get on into the real world. We moved back to the big city and started looking for the “big money making jobs” that everyone promised our educations would deliver. Six months into our searches, we both landed stable jobs with modest entry level salaries working for respectable companies. We worked our 9 to 5s, wiped out the nagging student loan, and put aside some funds for the future.
We tied the knot two years later and pooled together all our money for a downpayment on a condo in Toronto. We were young and dreamed of exploring the world for all the unimaginable wonders it would possess. We decided that we would go see some of them. We raided the tombs of the Pharaohs, climbed Kala Patthar for a view of the world’s highest peak, and marveled the beauty of Angkor Wat at sunrise. The world, as they say, was our oyster.