SPCG @home : toward financial freedom

It was a big day at my home today. The parents are back and truth be told I barely did half the things I planned to do whilst they were away.

BUT, what did happen was that I postponed all the physical cleaning and really just continued to dig deep into family finances. And the best part of the whole process so far was that my mother finally sat down with me and came clean with all the numbers! It was a big deal because I have been watching how mismanagement of bills and finances can really cost a bomb!

Although I've ended the day with a little bit of a shock to exactly how much debt we have (what, with the car, the house and all sorts of other things), I'm also somewhat very relieved. I'm relieved to know that there is nothing in the "unknown" now and am really proud that my mother was willing to just sit with me so that I could help. I'm relieved that there was no shame or judgment in the process, but that it was an important meeting to have out of love and concern. I'm relieved to know that all the figures are clear now and that we can start making plans to solve them together. I'm relieved that I'm doing something that could make a substantial difference to my family's future.

Troubles with finances can really bring a strain on relationships and can cause unnecessary duress on some of the dearest of people in our lives. These strains can cause such cracks (or breaks) in the relationship - which actually usually come out of the root of fear, shame and pride - but the thing is, that there can be solutions when people decide to humble themselves and to pull strength to solve them together. This afternoon (and evening), I saw how powerful it was to springclean the financial aspects of a family. I went through literally hundreds of papers - from bills, to receipts, invoices, information pamphlets - there was SO much paperwork. Then there was the sorting into the different accounts by chronological order, and I have barely gotten into the nitty grits of reconciliation and ensuring that all the bills reflect the correct payments that have been made... but it was such a relief.

It was a relief because the heap of financial burden is no longer continually growing (at the rate of approximately 23.99% - 28% according the the fine print of the credit card bills) under the carpet. Now that all of it has been pulled out, sorted, organized, and prepared for scrutiny, I'm excited to draw up the plan of exactly how my family is going to pull our heads and resources together to solve this little monster...together.

Tomorrow I'm holding a meeting with the siblings (who are all now grown adults) to talk about financial literacy and on how to share the financial responsibilities (not "burdens") of running the household, with the parents. And after that, I'm going to draw up a plan with the mother of how she's going to control her spending habits and clear her lavish debts. I'm going to make a difference to my family's financial aspects, and grow it into something that we, and our future generations, can enjoy.

I've recently been getting forcing myself to get a lot more financially literate, and some of the things I've learned so far - such as items which are tax deductible - have made me wish that I had started reading up about financial management a lot earlier.

I'm excited to share about the things I've been learning in my journey toward greater financial literacy over family dinner tomorrow - it's good for the family to have a practical chat about finances every now and then.

Can't wait.

SPCG @home : plans, bills & finances

It's amazing how fast time has flown this past week! And already, half the week has passed and I have barely 4 days left to get everything in order before the parents come back. I have yet to draft out a solid plan for the next few days, though I really should tonight...

So far, the plans for this week has been as so:

• Mon: Determine areas to be cleaned. Delegate.
• Tue: 
• C: Start on large drawers in the hall, do some administrative reorganization. 
• Y: Start on master bedroom.
• Wed: 
• C: Administrative organization. File, sort, and send out those belonging to the siblings.
• Y: Clear dining and kitchen areas.
• Thu: 
• C: Look into the large (see: superbly messy) drawers in the hall and clean them out. Go into master bedroom and clear shelves and drawers. 
• Y: To clean out her room. Sort out what needs to be transferred to the office and what needs to be given away. Finish up kitchen area as far as she can.
• Fri:
• C: Continue clearing master bedroom, look into kitchen cabinets. Rope girls in to clear out closet and bathroom areas.
• Y: Clear out pantry and refrigerator.
• Sat:
• C: Office reorganization, Assessment of paperwork - calculate costs of running the household, and other financial liabilities the family will need to discuss over family dinner next week. 
• Y: Sort out loose ends
• Sun: House needs to be prepped and ready for the parents to be back. All things to be donated out of the house (and gone forever).

It took me four hours to understand
& get all these sorted. Feeling very
proud of myself now. :)

As much as possible, I've cancelled every dinner event I might have had this week - just so that I can invest time into getting the house in order. Today's big accomplishment was that of clearing a HUGE stack of a disarray of documents. I spent a total of four hours just sorting through them all - credit card bills, utilities, investments, insurance, other finance things and the like - but the sense of accomplishment at the end of it was priceless. It felt so good just to put the post-it on a stack, and labeling "Dad's insurance" or "Mum's XXX bank statements". :) I think when it comes to organization, my love language is that of service - of which I thoroughly enjoy.

Getting all the bills in order also made me think a lot about how important it is to get the family educated in some way about accounts & finance, insurance, law, and other topics in which I think would be beneficial for them to at least have basic knowledge of. Thing is, I have to start first.

Springcleaning the financial aspects of the family obviously requires a lot of equipping and understanding of specific concepts of how the world works with regards to money, insurance, and other finance-related topics. So far, I've been listening to a iTunesU Course on managing personal finance, and been listening to the audiobook on "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (which is by far one of the best books chocked full of wisdom that I've ever read, or "read" thus far). The information that I have gleaned thus far has been enough to propel me into new perspectives which has made quite a few changes to the way I live, and see things. The question, however, is, "How am I going to communicate the importance of financial literacy to the family without stepping on anyone's toes?"

I'm considering purchasing Robert Kiyosaki's "Cash Flow" game and playing it with the family on Tuesday - perhaps that will help communicate the message better. Also cause I think it'd be an asset - considering that I expect the ROIs from the investment to bring savings within the first 3 days of understanding the concepts behind the game.

Exciting times are ahead, and I can't wait!
It's amazing how much a little springcleaning can do.

SPCG @home

It’s two in the morning but here I am writing because I just realized that it’s going to be a very exciting week for SPCG! What’s happening?

The parents are headed out of town! (Emphasis being on the fact that MUM is going out of town.) In case you haven’t read here before, in short, my mother is a hoarder and has real issues with dealing with paperwork and in her spending habits. I won’t go into too much detail about it today – as there is so much research and background that I can share, but that’d take too long. And today’s post is on the plan for the week ahead!

Every year, my parents make a few trips out of town – and these are very important to the running of my household as they are what Y (my very capable househelper and partner in springcleaning) and I use as windows of perfect opportunity to get the house back into some sort of order without getting into too much trouble.

The sequence is always the same – the parents announce that they are headed out of town, Y & I already have an understanding whenever that happens, it’s the mark of a fresh round of cleaning, and when they finally fly, Y & I get to work. Considering I have a mother who is VERY efficient at spending and hoarding, the task is almost insurmountable, but bit-by-bit, trip-by-trip, round-by-round, we have been clearing the mess.

Tasks involved go through the sequence of:

1.  Identify areas to be springcleaned
2. Delegation of tasks/areas
3. Determination of dates which specific areas are to be tackled
4. Daily intensive tackling of tasks, review and planning at end of each day
5. Schedule of items to be donated away before the mother gets back

And the interesting part of all of this - the mother never really notices all the things that we have donated away.... for several years now. I'm a firm believer that if things are not serving you (be it a random lamp tucked in some corner, or four unused clocks, or the ten other spatulas you have that are not being used) then it is a waste of space and resources.

So many areas are running through my head right now. Thing is, that we only have a week this time and it's a pretty full week for me, so I have to prioritize and be very specific about it.

Here are the areas which I've already planned to tackle

1. Common area
• Large chest of drawers (stuffed full of family administrative things. It's a very dangerous  zone as when paperwork goes missing or is missed, the family suffers financial attack - such as fines - and even legal action if not looked into promptly.)
2. Mum's Room
• Mum's desk (which has turned into a clutter zone of random papers stuff everywhere. More admin stuff here.)
• Shelves (stuffed full of all sorts of things)
3. Y's room (which the mother often uses as "spare space" for more shopping. :()
4. Kitchen
• Drawers (where we have a ton of unused kitchen equipment)
• Top of Kitchen shelves (where there is another ton of equipment we don't use)

I cannot describe how excited I am about the cleaning (that I am fighting against the weariness of my body now to be able to even type this), but I am. I very much am. 

Can't wait to plan the schedule, but it looks like I've listed everything by order of priority. I'm most likely going to be doing a lot of paperwork and filing this week by the looks of it whilst Y will be more involved in the sorting of physical items and determining their fate with us, the bin, or the Salvation Army. Still, I'm excited. All change requires effort and sacrifice, and this will be for the better!

Will post the before photos in due course.

Can't wait for the afters!