{"id":677,"date":"2016-09-30T14:41:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=677"},"modified":"2016-09-30T14:41:47","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:41:47","slug":"starting-is-hard-doing-is-easy-9-ideas-to-get-you-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/starting-is-hard-doing-is-easy-9-ideas-to-get-you-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting is hard.  Doing is easy.  9 ideas to get you started."},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;The secret of getting ahead is getting started&#8221; &#8211; Mark Twain<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Starting is hard. \u00a0Doing is easy. \u00a0Even when it comes to\u00a0the hardest things, starting\u00a0is harder than actually doing the hard thing.<\/p>\n<p>For the most important things, or the things where we have the most to gain, starting\u00a0is the hardest thing.<\/p>\n<p>If things are really easy to do, if they&#8217;re important, starting\u00a0is hard.<\/p>\n<p>Why is that? \u00a0Maybe we&#8217;re afraid of the consequences if we fail. \u00a0Maybe we&#8217;re afraid of the consequences if we succeed. After all, what would we fret about all day if all our &#8220;to do&#8217;s&#8221; were done? \u00a0Who knows where or why but as the proverb goes, &#8220;there is an enemy within.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And if this enemy\u00a0shows itself\u00a0in areas which are important or where we have the most to gain or lose &#8211; it probably manifests itself as often as ever when it comes to the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>relationships<\/li>\n<li>personal fulfillment<\/li>\n<li>exercise<\/li>\n<li>diet<\/li>\n<li>finances<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are all big areas where we could stand to gain a lot if we get things right! \u00a0And the longer we delay starting, the more it stresses us out &#8211; we sit in a paralytic trance, waiting for inspiration to hit us and it just never happens.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps breaking larger goals into smaller, more tangible steps might help, or at least it might trick you into doing something that sends you in the direction of progress. \u00a0While we don&#8217;t proffer advice in many of the above areas and in fact struggle as much as anyone, \u00a0we think the following smaller steps might help get you on the road to sorting out your financial house. \u00a0We&#8217;re sure there are more but here&#8217;s 9 to start:<\/p>\n<p><strong>9\u00a0smaller\u00a0ideas\u00a0to move you towards\u00a0getting your finances in order<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Make sure you have an up to date Will, Power of Attorney designation and Health Directive.<\/li>\n<li>If you have people that depend on you, get insurance to make sure they&#8217;re taken care of if something happens to you\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0term life insurance is relatively cheap and pricing is fairly standardized.<\/li>\n<li>Pledge allegiance to the following mantra: &#8220;By far the most important thing I can do to ensure long term financial success is to live\u00a0within my means.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>If you have children, be sure to open a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) and invest enough to get the maximum Canadian Education Savings Grant (CESG)&#8230;.free money from the government (need we say more?).<\/li>\n<li>If your company has a retirement savings program with matching contributions, it&#8217;s usually a good idea to contribute enough to get the maximum match.<\/li>\n<li>Open a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA)<\/li>\n<li>If you have investments, grab a pen and piece of paper and write down what you&#8217;re invested in, why and how much you pay annually in fees.<\/li>\n<li>If you can&#8217;t do number 7 without turning on your computer, educate yourself &#8211; we recommend the following\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/sensible-concise-investment-books\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sensible &amp; Concise Investment Books<\/a><\/li>\n<li>If these steps still seem overwhelming, find someone qualified and independent to help you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Postscript &#8211;\u00a0\u00a0if you&#8217;re interested in digging a little further into the\u00a0enemy within, please read\u00a0Steven Pressfield&#8217;s The War of Art. \u00a0He calls the enemy Resistance and it&#8217;s very real and very, very scary&#8230;..<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The secret of getting ahead is getting started&#8221; &#8211; Mark Twain Starting is hard. \u00a0Doing is easy. \u00a0Even when it comes to\u00a0the hardest things, starting\u00a0is harder than actually doing the hard thing. For the most important things, or the things where we have the most to gain, starting\u00a0is the hardest thing. If things are really <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/starting-is-hard-doing-is-easy-9-ideas-to-get-you-started\/\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-financial-planning","category-graham-bodel-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}