Where Did it Start?

Every great story has to start somewhere. So where does mine? Here’s the breakdown.

Who am I?

My name is Ryan, and as I am starting this website I am a 24-year-old self-employed, volunteer firefighting, university graduate living in Western Canada, with a negative net worth of approximately -$78,000! I created this website in an attempt to increase my commitment to becoming financially free and hold myself accountable in the long term. There will be new posts every week and I will lay out all of my financials down to the penny for everyone to see. Hopefully, this helps you improve your life if you’re in a similar situation, or give me advice if you’ve been in a similar position.

Debts at the Start

Here’s where the rubber really hits the road. So to put all of this in perspective there are some things you’ll need to know. In 2016 I completed an undergraduate program at the University of Alberta, I took six years to get it (I had a bit too much fun in the early years). I didn’t grow up poor, but my family had little to no savings for my schooling when the time came so I had to rely entirely on student loans to get an education. This led to me incurring exactly $43,380.00 of provincial student loan debt and $35,158.83 of federal student loan debt. This together is a looming $78,538.83! I also have an astonishing $1,547.89 on my credit card ($47.89 over the limit). I don’t have a car loan, and I don’t have a mortgage, as I rent.

Expenses at the Start

So what expenses do I have day-by-day, month-by-month? Here they are, broken down by what is daily and what is monthly:

Monthly

Rent: $800.00, includes all utilities except internet and TV, currently $0.00 behind

Internet/TV: $148.34, currently $148.34 behind

Cell phone: $153.94, currently $498.85 behind, needed for business

Dropbox: $12.99, currently $0.00 behind, needed for business

BarkBox: $20.00 USD, currently $0.00 behind

Web Hosting: $2.75, currently $0.00 behind, worth every penny if this works

Google Music: $9.99, currently $0.00 behind

Student Loans: $100.00, currently $0.00 behind

Credit card payment varies per month, currently $0.00 behind

Repaying roommate loan: $350.00, currently $0.00 behind

Tenant Insurance: $31.83, currently $31.83 behind

Benefits: $103.40, currently $0.00 behind

Daily

Now, I don’t have identical daily expenses, but there are some items that I have regularly buy that are possible on any given day. Since I don’t have exact dollar values I will just list them here: Gas (roommate’s car, I get to use it in exchange for gas), Business expenses (Printing, stamps, etc.), Restaurants/Fast Food, Dog Food, Groceries, Contacts, and various other expenses. I will, of course, keep everyone up to date as they occur in the weekly updates!

Other Bad Things to Note

If you’ve made it this far it’s time to learn some things I’m embarrassed by. Collections. I wasn’t the smartest when I was younger, and unfortunately, some of these things have gone to collections and in doing so absolutely tanked my credit score. So, between 2 debts, both from late 2015 I currently owe $1,764.00.

Income

So how do we overcome all of these expenses and debt? Easy. With income. So let’s get down to how I bring money in monthly. As of now, it’s quite simple. I am self-employed, via contract to a company. It’s a Monday to Friday 9-5 job, however, I am hoping to change that. From this job I currently make between $2,500 and $3,000.00 a month before taxes. This does vary quite a bit and will be more closely tracked in the update blogs. So make sure to check them out here!

Final Thoughts

For more information about me personally, how I’m going to track this, how the blog updates will work and more check out my first ever blog post here!