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I recently purchased and read "The Money Book: A Survival Guide for Canadians under 35" by Kevin Cork (a.k.a. "The Screaming Capitalist").
It was a pretty easy and informative read, even though it didn't really give me as much detail as I was looking for about different savings/investment options--GICs, CSBs, mutual funds, etc.
Anyway, the point it hammered home to me is that I really should've started investing my money the year after I started earning an annual income--i.e. when I was 18 years old!! And that even though I can't regain the 7 years I've wasted, I shouldn't delay but should start saving now!
"Anyone who is currently less than 35 and does not have a million saved at retirement won't have "nice" life; they'll have a "fridge-box under the bridge" life filled with dogfood." - Kevin Cork
So currently I'm looking into RRSPs (I didn't realize you could carry forward your tax deductions for RRSP contributions!!) and am trying to figure out how to best utilize the tax-free savings account I already opened with Scotia. Currently it's just a cash account, but I think it would make more sense to purchase some GICs or mutual funds for it as well...
Honestly, I would really like to find a financial advisor to help me with all this, but I guess I'll just have to muddle my through until I move back to Canada permanently.
It's pretty ridiculous when I survey my accounts and realize that I've got probably less than a third of the money that I've sent home is actually still in accounts at home--the rest has gone to paying off credit card bills, buying manga, etc. etc. Even if it's only $25/month into an RRSP, I need to start doing something to save for my future (and not just for my next trip)!
The recent car accident also made me realize that I really ought to build up an "emergency fund" here in Japan. Even if it means sending a little less home each month (painful considering how well the exchange rate is working in my favour currently), I've realized that money in the bank in Canada doesn't do me much good when I'm facing the possibility of paying a 100,000yen insurance deductible for car repairs and payday is still 3 weeks away! Sure I can get money sent back to Japan from home, but in a real emergency, I might not have the time to get the transfer set up and everything.
Subtitle: I'm a such an idiot!!
I was a little worried about making it to school on time today, so I took the turn just before the bridge on the (country) road leading to my school a little too fast. I hit a patch of ice, tried and failed to control a slide, spun around, hit the railing of the bridge, and possibly spun around again before stopping back on the proper side of the road.
In short, I had a car accident.
Thankfully there weren't any cars too close by at the time, and I had my seat belt on and the airbag didn't deploy so physically I was fine. Mentally I've been kicking myself all morning/afternoon for being such a careless idiot, but overall I'm just really thankful that the only real damage was to my car.
As Tomabechi-sensei and everyone else pointed out, it could've been worse: the river would've been very cold today!
Anyway, the first thing I did was call Kirita to tell them about the accident. They called Mukainakano-sensei for me. The mother of one of my ninensei students happened to be passing by right around the time of the accident, so she helped me place the call to JAF. When Tomabechi-sensei and Takasugi-sensei (the art/P.E./sannensei teacher) arrived, Tomabechi-sensei took over the call to JAF. The two of them stayed with me until Mukainakano-sensei came.
When Mukainakano-sensei came, she called my insurance company for me. Nagasue-sensei (a co-worker at the office) also came and advised us to call the police. The JAF truck came but we had to wait for the police to come and look at the scene before moving the car.
The police came and took measurements and asked questions about what had happened--how fast was I going, about where did I start sliding/spinning, etc. etc. Once they were done, Mukainakano-sensei drove me to the dealership where I got my car (with the JAF truck following behind) and there we learned that we wouldn't be able to get a repair estimate until the following day.
On the advice of Nagasue-sensei, Mukainakano-sensei took me to the Higashi Hospital to get my head/neck checked out. Even though I felt totally fine, he said it was better for me to go to the hospital in case I turned out to have whiplash or something later; if I didn't go first, I might have trouble filing for any medical insurance claims related to the accident later on.
After the hospital, Mukainakano-sensei treated me to lunch before taking me home.
At home, I called my parents and emailed people to tell them what had happened.
So that was my first major driving accident (I don't count backing into parked cars or even getting rear-ended last year).
All in all, I have to just keep reminding myself that it could've been a lot worse. The lessons I've learned from the experience?
1) sleep early, wake up early, and leave early so you can take your time and drive carefully
2) getting the JAF (Japanese equivalent of CAA/AAA) membership was totally worthwhile
3) deciding to get car insurance that covered damage to my own car (instead of just for other people's cars, injuries, property damage, etc.) was absolutely the right choice
4) it's important to stay positive; I feel like a the biggest idiot in the world right now, but at least I've only suffered mental/emotional damage, rather than physical injury!
Oh, and as luck would have it, I had my camera with me because the ninensei had a cooking class scheduled, so I've got pictures of the damage!
(Picture 1: Where I hit the bridge. Picture 2: Car damage.)
Check out the rest (along with my comments) in my Facebook album!
I was going to post a comment in response to the last two questions a friend wrote in a blog post ("A Job or a Calling?"), but then realized I had way too much to say to confine it to a comment post.
Her questions were: "Are you willing to go the extra mile in your job?" and "Can you picture a future in it? "
Probably I've talked about this before in this blog, but the sad thing I've come to realize is that, as I am now, because my answer to the former is "yes," my answer to the latter has to be "no."
And that, more than anything tells me how immature I still am.
I throw myself into things wholeheartedly and end up getting burned out because I still haven't learned how to balance all the various aspects of my life: work, relationships with friends/family, down time, etc. And I'm still selfishly lazy enough that I don't want to spend years of my life overworking so that I can learn how to make that balance.
Even though I'm passionate about education, right now I feel like it's more important for me to have a job that I can enjoy but that won't consume my life outside of my working hours. And teaching--assuming you're a teacher who cares, of course--is NOT that kind of a job.
One of the reasons (maybe not the biggest one, but a reason nonetheless) I haven't signed my re-contracting papers yet even though I'm 90% sure that I'd like to stay for a third (and likely final) year, is because I've been feeling so worn out and tired of working all the time recently. I think I can last a third year, but I'm a little worried that partway through I'm just going to burn out and stop caring about the job. And I've been so frustrated this year feeling like far too many ALTs only do what's asked of them--without even thinking of doing more--that I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I turned into one of them.
I guess what I lack is perseverance and faith in myself. People keep telling me that if I just give teaching a couple of years, I'll get better at it and start being more of the teacher I want to be, but I honestly don't think I'm capable of a) learning that fast; and b) sticking it out that long.
And because all that ed psych talk about the lasting effects of bad teaching really stuck with me, I'm not willing to subject students to my bad teaching if at the end I'm just going to give up (on a teaching career) anyway. I know, it's a completely pessimistic, defeatist attitude, but there you have it. Guess I'm just not a "yes, we can" kind of person.
When faced with the choice of regretting something I did NOT do or regretting something I did, I'm pretty sure I'd choose the former every time.
You might ask, "where is God in all this?" And, to be frank, I'm asking the same thing.
Going home and back to MCBC for Christmas really showed me just how ungrounded I've become. In "Christian-ese" we always talk about going through the valleys to reach the hilltops, but I'm feeling like I'm wandering around on a plateau in a huge crater or something--not necessarily going down, but definitely not going up anywhere either. It seems like in my time in Japan I've become more aware of my flaws, but less inclined to act to fix them.
Well, maybe that's just my current state of mind casting a feeling of languor over everything. (Actually, I really hope that's the case!)
But enough of the depressingly honest talk! I finally uploaded some photos to Facebook, so enjoy!
- Office Year End Party, Part 1
- Office Year End Party, Part 2
- Soroptomist New Year's Potluck
I'm usually pretty good about asking for clarification/confirmation when I'm not 100% sure about things, but in the few cases where I just make an assumption, it usually comes back to bite me in the behind. ^^;;
The school visitation schedule we get from our supervisor usually has non-working days (i.e. weekends and national holidays) 'x'-d out and highlighted in a different colour. So, when I saw that March 27th-31st (Friday to Tuesday) was 'x'-d out and highlighted, I thought, "Sweet! The office gave us some bonus holidays!" and made vacation plans accordingly.
I'm going to meet Steph in California (Los Angeles/Anaheim) that weekend for the Sunday Colorado @ Anaheim game!! Considering how difficult it was to find a long weekend when both of us were available AND there was a game we'd be interested in seeing, I was pretty thrilled at how perfectly it all worked out.
But talking to my supervisor recently, I learned that apparently we don't have those days off and are, in fact, expected to go into the office--meaning that if I want those days off, I need to use my vacation days (nenkyu).
ARGH!! I felt like a total idiot when I found out.
Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, except that thanks to trips home this past August and December, not to mention the school trip to Tokyo in November, I've only got five more days of nenkyu left! If I have to use it for the 27th, 30th and 31st, I'll only have two days left. But I also need to go back this summer for WAY camp. And since we don't get our next year's nenkyu until around August 4th or 5th, I'm probably going to run short!
Double ARGH!!
I never thought I'd be able to use up 20 vacation days up so quickly. That makes me really regret even the one day (two half days, actually) I spent doing moving stuff in the spring (particularly since the other ALT who moved a couple of months later didn't have to use nenkyu but was given time off to go apartment hunting).
Andy's told me that our office is pretty nice about nenkyu and isn't likely to mind if we use a little more than we actually have, but I just HATE asking for stuff like that. And even though it's not fair of me--since it's an unrelated issue--running short of nenkyu makes me feel irritated that I can't get daikyu for all the weekends I spend doing Kirita stuff.
Well, it's done, anyway. Our flights and hotel are already booked, so I'll just have to suck it up. I guess in some ways it's better that I made that wrong assumption, since if I'd known I would've planned to leave on the Saturday instead of the Friday to cut down on my nenkyu usage. But that would've made the flight more expensive and overall less worthwhile since I'd be paying all that money for only two-days away, rather than a three-day trip.
At any rate, this is the trip that Steph and I promised to make together five years ago, so even if it messes up my nenkyu planning, it'll definitely be worth it!
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