Finance

by

A Taxing Question

Back in Osoyoos, on an Omak Walmart run with Donna, I asked the cashier what the sales tax was in Washington state. The cashier had no idea what I was talking about.

Tonight, desperately needing a leg stretch despite the gale-force winds, I marched to the nearby c-store (c-store? I’m starting to sound American!) to get some drinking water and asked the cashier about North Dakota sales tax. She had no idea what it is.

I am confused by this. How can you work with money and not have any idea of the sales tax?!

As it turns out, ND sales tax is the same as AB sales tax, 5%.

by

On Schedule, But Feeling the Pressure

I have another full day of transcription, so I didn’t start anything in the rig today that I couldn’t finish in a few hours. I woke up feeling ambitious and was going to put on a coat of yellow in the front room and loft, but the amount of transcription ahead of me this week curtailed that enthusiasm. I will paint one wall that is getting on my nerves, but that is all.

So today I redid the entrance stairwell. I cannot believe what a difficult project it is to make it look nice and still be water tight. It’s much, much better than the last attempt to improve it, but still not particularly photogenic.

I also brought down a couple of loads, including some food! Having food back in the rig is really starting to make departure day feel very real. I started the fridge on AC yesterday, and it’s already nice and cold, but I won’t be putting anything into it until I fill up the propane.

With all that needs to be done with the rig, it’s easy to forget other issues I need to tend to before departure. The biggest priority are my taxes and end of this invoicing period’s bookkeeping. I did remember to call the credit card company today to inform them that I’ll be traveling through the US, but declined to purchase my travel medical insurance until I know for sure what date I’ll be attempting a border crossing (it looks like Monday, not Tuesday, at this point!).

Jody has decided that I don’t need her help to get my mattress back in the rig and the borrowed furniture out of The Apartment, so departure will really depend on Gary’s schedule. I asked him for help the last time I went for dinner and he was amenable, so it’s just a matter of finding a matching free time slot. I would really rather do it earlier in the day so that I still have a few hours to square away The Apartment so I can spend just one night in the parking lot here, but if it ends up being a couple of nights, that’s fine.

A week from today, I will most definitely be back home, on the road. This winter, the best of my life, has been an incredible personal and professional journey, but I am more than ready to see what comes next.

by

Dono Sushi, Lethbridge

This has been my second weekend in a row glued to the computer for a big transcription job. Saturday wasn’t too bad because I had a ton of chores to do, so I had ample reasons to get off the computer chair and move around. The downside was that I had about eight hours of work to do today. I decided to just plow through to be done by dinner. By mid-afternoon, I was soooooooore. I knew I needed to go for a long walk, but it was cold (sub-zero!) and dark out there. There was only one option: go out for dinner so I would have motivation to face this bitter fall night.

I went out for sushi on the 31st, so I wasn’t craving it, plus it’s not the first thing I want when I come in frozen from a long walk, but miso soup, teriyaki, and tempura sounded like just the ticket. So I schlepped the 2.5km (1.5 miles) to Dono Sushi  (link is to their menu). Jody’s daughter had told me that Dono was worth going to, but the sushi isn’t as good as that at O-Sho.

Dono is located in a strip mall. I was surprised by the cozy wood paneling decor. The menu is huge, but easily narrowed down if you’re not really in the mood for sushi. I zeroed in on the $13.95 teriyaki and sushi combo–teriyaki chicken, a ball of rice, two pieces nigiri (which turned out to be yellowtail and shrimp), and California rolls. I decided to splurge and ordered a side of veggie tempura ($7.95) and a Sapporo beer (a surprisingly reasonable $5.50). Total with tip was just under $33. It’s a good thing I’m usually  more reasonable when I eat out. 🙂

The food was delicious!

First up was a miso soup. It was heavy on the soy sauce, so not quite to my liking because you lose that unique miso flavour, but the broth was rich and had plenty of spring onions and tofu in it. So, not my favourite miso soup in the universe, but not one at which I’d turn up my nose!

I did find the nigiri to not be quite as nice as those at O-Sho; it was just a subtle flavor difference that could simply be due to the fish coming from a different supplier. I wasn’t crazy about the California rolls because their version has mayo. I couldn’t believe the meal came with eight pieces! That would have nearly been a meal on its own!

The chicken was very tasty and the sauce just sweet enough. I like that the chicken had a strong grilled taste coming through the sauce. It was served on a bed of cabbage and sprouts, which I like for the crunch.

As for the tempura, oh my! Whenever I’ve had tempura in the past, it’s been the same thing–yam, broccoli, and zucchini (which I firmly believe only belongs grated in chocolate cake, but I digress). Dono added three things to their tempura. The first was red pepper. I can’t even begin to describe how tasty the red pepper was wrapped in the tempura batter. It was crunchy but still melted in my mouth. Yum! The second thing was an asparagus spear as long as my forearm (yes, I compared the two). This confirmed to me that the reason I don’t like asparagus is that the people who serve it to me overcook it. This asparagus was firm and crunchy, the second time I’ve had it like this, and it was delicious! Finally, the last thing was acorn squash! Now that was practically a dessert! I sampled all the tempura but left the zucchini. 🙂

The next time I’m in the mood for walking to teriyaki, I will order the teriyaki and tempura combo and add some nigiri. No sense wasting calories on something containing mayo. 🙂

It was a great meal and the walk home wasn’t nearly as bad as the walk there!

by

Furnishing the Castle

It was quite the busy Friday and I’m only in the supper lull before the final push.

I was up early to do transcription, then I had to call my new financial planner to discuss my portfolio. Based on the fact that I don’t plan to touch that money for, oh, twenty years or so, if not more, we’ve decided to go with a slightly more aggressive strategy, that will possibly result in short-term losses, but also increase the changes of long-term gains. Discussing my nest egg is always surreal when I look at my bank balance. 🙂 That’s probably the best advice I could give to someone who decides to RV pre-retirement. Have some untouchable investments so that you can live with yourself when your bank balance is in the negative digits as you build a new, mobile life.

At any rate, things are looking up for me. I am insanely busy, but I am also seeing money come in that is equivalent to the effort I am putting out. Today, I got some payments from a couple of sources of passive income that will more than pay the internet bill this month. This is the sort of income I am trying to build, the kind where you do the work once and then are paid in near perpetuity, whether it’s through royalties, commissions, or ad-sharing revenue.

Work was good. I said something to a tenant that made me realise just how far I’ve come in the last three years: “If I were you, I wouldn’t talk to me in that tone when I’m the person who can get things done for you.” Don’t cross Rae! 😀

In the afternoon I went shopping for blinds for my office and… a microwave for my apartment. That microwave will eventually end up in my office to replace the dinosaur there, but I get to enjoy it first. This will be my first time with a brand new microwave. I wouldn’t call such a device a necessity, but since it was offered to me, I’m glad to accept it! The rest of the furnishings will trickle into the apartment as an inventory of available things is made. It is going to be so strange living in a space almost three times the size of Miranda!

Well, I just finished a supper of tomato sandwiches (thanks to a lovely tenant who is keeping me supplied with my beloved red spheres) and I’m off to do two more hours of fliers, then as many hours of transcription as possible before I start to sleep at the desk. I’m so glad I savoured all that time off in the spring, knowing that things would get like this soon enough. But I’m dropping the fliers at the end of the month and will be losing my commute, so more than just the odd day of free time may pop up.

by

Entering a New Semi-Colon of My Life

Universe puts us in places where we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are, it’s the right place … and the right time. Pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born. … I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff, we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. As we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective. Delenn — Babylon 5

Since I left Abbotsford in February, after the RV show, I’ve felt a bit lost and adrift. For the first time in two and a half years, I had no idea where my life was going. I hadn’t made any plans beyond the RV show so that I would be open to any opportunities that came from it. Nothing did. So I drifted through the American northwest until an invitation made me set a course to Lethbridge, Alberta.

I don’t believe I’ve really expressed on this blog my belief in fate, in destiny, that everything happens for a reason. Well, I do believe in the causality of events. So I knew that a reason for landing in Lethbridge and so firmly entrenching myself here would manifest itself. And it did, in bits and pieces that came together with an openness of mind and which stuck together with one binding factor: health care availability.

It’s no secret that I have felt poorly for a long time but have never really had access to any sort of meaningful health care in the form of a family physician with whom I could build a long-term relationship and get to the root of what ails me. And then I arrived in Lethbridge, got Alberta health coverage (literally took one minute once I had my license!), and in only two phone calls, I had a family physician!!! I had no idea as I dialed those ten digits that my priorities would suddenly shift. It was time to take care of my health. There was no longer any excuse not to.

So remaining in Lethbridge over the course of the 2011-2012 winter became an obviously, and painless, decision. This is exactly where I need to be, and stay, for the time being. And, suddenly, there is direction again to my life. Unless something crops up after my physical, I can chart the next couple of years of RVing adventures. I would like to pull out Lethbridge at the beginning of April, fully a year after arriving, and finish off the winter in the US as I head east. A summer in Quebec and perhaps the Maritimes, a winter in the US, then back to Alberta and a journey north through the province to the one Canadian destination still on my bucket list: Yellowknife, NWT.

This decision to ultimately spend a year in Lethbridge does not compromise my vision for my ideal life and I do not believe it makes me any less of a full-time RVer. I dreamt of greater freedom and a life without borders when I began to plan my nomadic existence. I cannot imagine any other way that I could have done these last three years with so little money. How else could it have been possible for me to move to Yukon and back, much less settle so cheaply in Lethbridge for a year and pull out so effortlessly? Moreover, it is only through full-timing that I have been able to find the perfect place to resolve my health issues. The fact that I am in Alberta alone speaks to how much I have grown; two years ago I would never have considered this province for residency!

If I have to spend another winter in Canada, then I am in the only place I would want to do it. I like Lethbridge and look forward to a sunny winter more than I dread the cold. And, truth? Oh, I do miss those crisp twenty below days and the sound of snow crunching underfoot! Even if I could afford to be a BC resident, I could not handle another sodden grey winter there! I am getting excited at the thought of exploring Lethbridge’s miles of walking paths with my snowshoes. I still have a good winter wardrobe, missing only a pair of boots, so equipping myself won’t be too painful.

Now, I’m sure you all have questions, the most pressing one of which is what, praytell, am I doing with Miranda this winter?

Well, one of the things that happened to me in the last three years, and which probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the RV park in Oliver, is that I’ve grown a backbone and have learned to ask for what I need. Work is giving me a discount on a bachelor suite for the winter and will be furnishing it for me with the basics I’ll need: table, chairs, sofa, computer desk and chair, microwave (I’ll bring in my pallets and mattress for a bed). I will also be able to park Miranda outside the building, tucked away safely out of the traffic, with access to a plug so I can run a heater all winter. Having access to a compressor, I’ll be able to blow my water lines and then properly winterize the plumbing system. Another project will be to move the 15A solar panel to the truck battery to keep it charged. Other than that, I plan to remove any liquids from the rig, keep cabinets open, and periodically switch out the heater for the dehumidifier if needed. And, of course, I will watch for snow on the roof!

The toad will need winter tires and I am asking around for a set of used ones to resell in the spring. I might need a block heater, too, but I did without in Quebec so I’m not convinced they are necessities in Alberta. Work will be two flights of stairs from home and every service I could need except Walmart is within walking distance so I really won’t need to drive that much.

Perhaps without the stress of trying to keep comfortable in an RV this winter, and with a solid, stable source of income, I will have the time and energy to focus on writing another ebook, update Full-Time RVing in Canada, and write more RVing articles.

I am completely at peace with the winter that is shaping up. When I set out from Ottawa three years ago, I had no idea what I was heading into or how my life would turn out. I opened myself to new experiences, people, and places, and have emerged stronger and enriched. I feel blessed.

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.

— Albert Ellis