Finances because I’ve often wondered (and covered in previous blog posts) if there were ways we could spend less money and of course just what the heck we actually DO spend our Money on. They say desperate times call for desperate measure and it sucks to scramble to pick yourself up when the sh*t hits the fan and you’ve got to figure things out quickly.

Necessities…that’s an interesting word with a very loose definition as it varies greatly from person to person. In my eyes, the only necessities are food to eat, heat so you don’t freeze, shelter, water to drink, electricity to power your home, telephone or internet service if (and only if) that is how you earn your money and transportation to get where you need to go to earn money or for medical attention.

I believe in simplifying things and that’s what were up to at my house. Identify the pure necessities and make that our baseline budget. Everything else is “extra”.

I think getting on top of these things will give us a clearer picture of where we are and where we need to be as we head into some potentially trying times.

What makes the times trying is the fact that people feel scared, hopeless and beaten up. I had a brief spell of the “poor me’s” and the hammer hasn’t even fallen yet. My HR lady says to “remain hopeful”. That does sound great and I appreciate her support but hope is not a success planning tool.

The point is that if we are to remain motivated and hopeful, we must clearly define where we are and where we need to go, identify and embrace our strengths and go market them to the masses. Some one is bound to offer your next opportunity!

Amidst the current market doom and gloom people (including friends of mine) are losing their jobs and getting stressed out pretty badly. The company I work for is no exception. I work in the oil & gas industry engineering piping systems for refineries that make gasoline.

Have you noticed the gas prices lately? Here in Canada, over $1.45/liter in the summer and now around $0.72/liter. Some people jump up and down for that change and I can understand it to some degree. For those not directly employed by the industry, they are saving money but check this out…

My city is FULL of refineries. A huge number of families here are employed directly or indirectly by one of the major oil companies and when the price of gas falls sharply the plants do not have as much money in their budgets to do maintenance and improvements to their refineries and as a result, firms like the one I work for do not get new contracts and people get laid off.

I’m not usually one to worry about stuff like that because I go to work every day and do the best I can for the $$ they pay me and I usually turn out above average work or at least strive to. That said, I was discussing “what if’s” with a buddy and when we got off the phone I asked my wife what she thought we’d do if I walked into the office Monday and was told “sorry man, we won’t be paying you anymore”.

Little scary to think about huh?

That got us talking about something that I’ve become really passionate about in the past few months but before I go into that, I must also say it made me think about internet marketing (what doesn’t?). With that came two questions that I want to ask you, dear reader, right now….

1) If you suddenly lost your job and someone stood there with a gun to your head and said “learn to make money online RIGHT NOW” how quickly could you take action, get your ass out of the forums and go learn, apply, earn, rinse, repeat?

2) Why aren’t you doing that ALL the time instead of waiting for things to get really serious?

p.s. as a side note, I just read this headline “Suncor approves C$20.6B oil sands expansion plans” which explains why I don’t buy into the negativity…..it ain’t over ’till it’s over!