Category: Retirement Plan

The difference a Year makes

It is one of those secrets of success; If you want to change, you have to make a change. If you don’t change things, and external forces don’t do it for you, then life will continue on the path it has been on. You can look into the future and reasonably predict what it will look like.

Well, a year ago, the world as we know it changed drastically.

Did you change for the better or for the worse because of it?

Now, this sounds like a judgemental question. But it isn’t meant to be. It is, however, meant to be a nudge.

I get it. At first, we all paused, waiting to see what would happen. Then the rules changed. Restrictions happened. Then they eased. Guidance changed. Restrictions came back. Now we have vaccines and easing of restrictions. But we are also being told to smarten up (OK, not quite the words Dr H used, but still). Makes it feel like more restrictions could be reintroduced.

So, did you hunker down? Pause? Change your activities?

Pretty well everyone I know made changes. Travel was out. In store shopping was/could be risky. No eating out (take out excepted). No bars/clubs/concerts/trips.

So with all the things we couldn’t do with our money, did we save and invest it?

Amazon and other online retailers reported record sales. Shipping companies are finding they have capacity problems and expansion isn’t keeping up.

One stream of my income (I have 3) ceased to exist. But my other 2 sources actually showed a slight increase. My wife’s only source of income also came to a screeching halt. She has worked on 3 alternative source.

Because of government support such as the CERB, we didn’t lose any ground compared to plan. Business owners in my social circles report 1 of 2 things – their industry was hammered and they couldn’t (or didn’t) change so took a hit. Sometimes a big hit. But other owners report record years.

I’m obviously one of the ones who didn’t change enough for any of my 3 businesses. That said, I have been attending online conferences, webinars, and the likes trying to get inspiration for ways to pivot. I have a few ideas; keep watching this space…

Enough about me.

How did the last year affect you?

Did life go according to plan? Did you rewrite the plan? Do you have a plan?

Need Assistance with a Plan?

If you don’t have a plan, or would like help reviewing your plan, you can reach out to me through either the Chat box here (it’s linked to my FB Business page so pops up on my computer and/or phone depending on what I’m logged into) or you can phone 587-600-0013 or email protect@ksfraser.ca.

My USA Trip Summer 2019

My wife and I just returned from a trip to the USA. We went down for a family reunion, and then visited our favorite spots in the western part of the country.

Family Reunion

We started in Nebraska. We flew through Minneapolis to Omaha where we rented a car and spent the night in a Best Western. The hotel was very nice. The room was large, and breakfast was great.

We drove to the family reunion in a state park. The heat and humidity was much higher than we were used to, but there was lots of chilled water so we were fine. It was a great gathering. My wife met 6 of her Grandmother’s first cousins.

AMTRAK!

We returned to Omaha through Lincoln. We stopped in the Haymarket region for lunch and ice cream.

Back in Omaha, we drove around the city a bit. We saw parks, a large pedestrian bridge, and a number of landmarks.

We went into a museum located in a former Train Station.

We boarded an Amtrak train. It was scheduled to depart, but due to flooding and summer track work the train was delayed. We didn’t depart until 01:30.

The coach seats were very comfortable. My wife had a great sleep in them. Had I been 6 inches shorter so that I was the design height for the seats, I too could have had a very good sleep.

We spent 40-some hours on the train on our way to San Fransisco.

San Fransisco

In San Fransisco we visited a number of spots.

We saw the XXXX musuem which is a victorian style manor.

We walked through Fisherman’s Wharf. Marcia bought a T-Shirt at Hard Rock Cafe.

We forwent the Alcatraz prison as we had seen it on a previous trip to SF.

We saw the Painted Ladies (seen in Full House) as well as the house which was used for the Mrs Doubtfire movie.

We rode the Cable Cars. I had visited the Cable Car museum on a previous trip but hadn’t ridden on them. This time we bought transit day passes which included the Cable Cars.

We went to Gharadelli Chocolates where I had possibly the most expensive Banana Split on the continent. The difference compared to DQ was they used hard ice cream (made in house) of the appropriate flavours (chocolate, strawberry, vanilla).

San Diego

We flew to San Diego. We stayed at the Days Inn where they were renovating the rooms.

The hotel shuttle took us down to the USS Midway Museum. This Aircraft Carrier is a sight to behold. I’ve been in it before but Marcia hadn’t. We toured the ship.

We took the Ferry from near the Midway out to Coronada Island where we walked past the Hotel Del Coronada to the beach. Even using sunscreen, Marcia and I both ended up with sunburns. On our way back to the ferry we had Ice Cream cones.

We rode the other ferry line (route?) to the conference center. From there we walked into the Gaslight quarter up the Gharadellis to purchase chocolate (Marcia didn’t want to carry it in her suitcase from SF). We then walked back to The Olde Spaghetti Factory for supper.

We finished supper just in time to get on their LRT line back to the hotel with the fans from the Giants/Padre game. I hope San Diego put on extra trains after the game, as our train was packed and that didn’t make a dent on the crowd standing on the platform.

We toured Old Town. A large part of Old Town is now a state park set up similar to a museum.

We also visited Balbao park. In the park is the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. In the museum is a number of clubs with layouts under construction. There was 1 N scale, 2 HO, 1 O, a Lionel 3 rail club as well as a small garden layout. This is the 3rd time I’ve visited (2011, 2015, 2019), and the layouts do change as time goes on.