TORONTO GIRL CHRONICLES

Its days like this when I want to throw in the towel and call it a day. I feel like I've had to sacrifice too much, and its going to be years before I see results, and well, what do you do when you want it all now?
All these efforts and no results... but then I found an old e-mail, from my dance director, when she let me know I had made her dance team. I remembered the joy I felt, and I remembered all the great things I accomplished (personal accomplishments) while I was part of the team. But I also remembered the sacrifices I had to make. Before the audition (months before) I started training, working out in the morning, taking dance lessons everyday, I took ballet (ok, one class, but I can say I took ballet) and afro cuban classes, and I went out and danced, just to practice. I gave up sugar, and I drank tons of water. It was months before I had another slice of pizza. Sure, these don't sound like great sacrifies, but at the time they were. I really wanted to dance. So I went all the way. In the end, I got what I wanted and it felt so good.
So maybe this is one of those days, you know, one of those days that I am really craving pizza and one of those days that I don't want to work out. What can do I do? what do I want? What's the big picture? Its so big that sometimes I lose sight.  The most frustrating thing is that its just the beginning. Maybe one day today's sacrifices will seems like nothing, although at this time they do.  So what will I do?  Go all the way I guess, keep on running, keep on training, because if you are persistant, there will come a day when you will get what you want and it will feel so good.

x0x0

Toronto Girl

My bf always plays this song when we are in the car and I dance to it, he thinks its cute. The video just came out. It's such a catchy song, it smells like friday night.

"Do you like it well done, cause I do it well?"
"Can you take my order cause your body is like carry out?"
"Take my order, no errors, I'ma (sic?) touch you in all the right areas"

Makes me smile. Ahh...I love this song.

It seems like since I went back to school all I worry about is tests. Well, this morning, I took a particular type of test that I acquiered from INVESTOPEDIA. I did the test to find out what my money personality is. Interestingly enough, I've fit one of the personalities at one point or another. For example, when I started working I was a spender, loving fancy clothes and fancy dinners, a shopper, worried about my addiction but always captivated by a great deal and now I am a saver  (a bit of a shopper once in a while). Its funny how my experiences have taken me from one extreme to the other.

I am very careful with money now. I went through a horrible phase 2 years ago (typical spender/shopper behaviour), where I was spending everything I made and saving very little. Then the expected unexpected happened: I lost my job.The thing was, I had just finished paying my credit card bills, I had a bit more to pay, but I didn't have any savings. NO SAVINGS. Needless to say, this left me a little restless. Fortunately I found a job a couple of days after (the power of networking) but ever since then, I started saving as much as  50% of my paycheck for a rainy day.  I also got a second job so that I could pay travel expenses and support my addiction to all things dance.

Recently, I've made the decision to go back to school, so I had to look at my budget and re-adjust it. Dance had to go, travelling plans suspended (for now), eating out had to be cut down, cell phone plan changed to a more cost efficient one, clothing & book expenses shut down (I'm not allowed to go to the mall) and cabs perpetually banned. I've officially entered the saver zone. Yes, I get upset when my roommates leave the lights on and walk out of the room and I rarely use my credit card. If I can't pay for it now, I don't buy it.

The article also highlights what you can do to balance yourself out. Now that I am conservative saver, I should try and relax a little (although the thought of relaxing stresses me out) and live a little. Most importantly I should learn how to invest properly and learn how to minimize risk while maximuzing results in my investments.  I guess the more I learn about investments the more I will change into an investor/saver, which is ideally where I would like to be.

What ever your personality is, its so important to learn about your money. Talk to your parents, talk to your bank, take courses, learn as much as you can, save as much as you can (ideally no less than 20% - for women).

RESOURCES:

To find you Money Personality click here
For great Budgeting Tools click here
Tips on Saving Money click here
And if you've found the love of your life, read this

I have a terrible problem. I say YES to everything. Then I get overwhelmed. Somethings I say yes to I really mean. Do I want to go out for dinner? yes! Do I want to go out of my way to pick up your baby shower invitations? no, not really; I'll say yes anyways. I am sure that I am not the only person who suffers from the "yeses"... Its not that I don't want to do some of these things, but its just that I say yes to everyone and in the end I always end up sacrificing my time.

Then I don't have time to do groceries, clean my house or have me-time. I want people to like me, but then some people end up mistaking kindness for weakness. What happens next? I will say yes but I will end up resenting that person and therefore ruining our friendship.I was whining to one of my guy friends and his answer was very cut and dry. Simply say NO. Guys don't have this type of problems. They know how to set boundaries. I decided give this NO theory a try. I started by saying no to the things that were out of my way, things that I knew would not be feasible and frankly I didn't want to do. Then there were things that people really needed help with but I wasn't sure I'd be able to fit in my schedule, so I asked them to give me some time to think about it. Then I say yes to things that were absolutely necessary and that I really wanted to do.

In the end, when I started saying no some people where really surprised, some people where mad, some kept trying until I said yes (which I didn't, stuck to my guns), but the people that truly valued me respected my choice, thanked me anyways and still liked me. This is not to say I am an expert NO person, I still get a tug in my stomach when I say no, but the thing is: people who truly like you will like you whether you say yes or no, because they truly respect you.
So say yes to saying no...once in a while.

So as you know, I have decided to follow my passion of gabbing and making big deals and pursue a degree in Marketing. I started off by taking a prerequisite Math Course. Let me tell you, math does not come easy to me. The amount of effort that I've had to put into this shit is unbelievable. In fact right now, I should be doing homework but I really wanted to write.
Sometimes I feel like calling my mom and crying, or just plain giving up... but again, life is about choices. In this case: 1) I can succeed, or 2) I can fail. Well, I am not going to fail. So what if I have to go to bed at 2am every night doing homework? or pay a ridiculously expensive tutor to water things down and spoon feed me? G*d, this shit is though!...but I am really terrified of failing. And although I am really tired, I'm going to keep going.
So if you're ever going through some though shit, consider your choices. What will it take to get result #1 (or #2)? What do you need to do to get to where you want to be? Arm yourself with courage and just do it. No, its not going to be easy, but...what other choice do we have?

xoxo

Toronto Girl

Two of my favorite things. SATC & Chocolate. You can get these at Laura Secord for $9. Add a cosmo and you're set.