A Small Step Back for a Big Leap Forward

As I sit here in my eastern Mississauga, Ontario, condo living room, 3 nights before the BF and I will start the big move, nostalgia sets in as I think back on all the great times we've had here. You see, there was nothing I loved more 2 years ago, at the age of 24, than to declare to my mother, "Peace Out!" and fly the coop for the first time in my life. I felt lucky to have found a 1300 square foot condo for rent, minutes from the lakeshore and one of my favourite GTA communities, with a stunning view of the Toronto skyline and Lake Ontario. Sure the rent was a tad bit on the pricey side, sure the hydro wasn't included and sure there was an extra charge for the BF's parking spot. I felt like I had scored large, despite my pockets being tight, and I relished in the beauty of my new home. It was the coolest place for my girlfriends to hang, many a Nerdy Girl Night In was spent on the spacious balcony, clinking glasses, laughing and admiring the view.

But ultimately, I knew it to be true. This home was not mine. I was a renter longing to let my inner home buyer spring to life. And so, with much resolve, I made the decision to downsize my living, in order to save the necessary funds for a down payment on a home of my own. Although the search proved long and laborious, I was lucky enough to nab a "less-than-dream-home-yet-more-than-dream-price" apartment, only one block west of my current not-so-humble abode.

Sure, there will be a bit less space and a less than perfect view (the 2nd floor doesn't leave much visual access to the T Dot). Sure the floors aren't hardwood and the community boards in the lobby aren't decorated with invitations to social gatherings put on by the "committee" (did I ever even consider going to those???). But the fact of the matter is Nerdy Girls, the duckets saved during my 12 months there, will go straight towards owning something of my own.

Sometimes in order to achieve the greater goal, we have to do things that up close may feel like taking a step back, but as a part of the bigger picture & our overall success, are crucial. In my case, it was choosing to let go of the picture-perfect condo (that wasn't mine) for something a bit smaller and less glamorous, in order to save for property which will be mine. For other Nerdy Girls, it may be choosing to cut hours at work in order to go back to school or taking a pay cut to get our foot in the door at a new company or in a new industry.

Whatever your temporary sacrifices may be, hold your head high and wear your plan proudly girlfriend, because your small step back is only the prelude, to your big leap forward.

That's What Friends Are For

As far as scary mistakes go, this could’ve have made the cut until I discovered the good help of girlfriends.

So I was minding my business in these economic times when a ‘50% off all regular priced items’ email appeared in my in-box. It was to a very well known trendy & cheap(er) chain that has not been in my top 3 since I stopped paying tuition. Aside from this, I also thought and realized that I really didn’t need anything since I’ve been getting by with the options in my closet.

This then should have made it easy to give a decisive N-O when my friend asked me to go…

Girlfriend: Got any money for shopping? We have those coupons from Kim for 50% off and I think….

Me: Yes! Yes! Yes! Let’s, but let’s come up with rules or no-no’s for each other to avoid us spending money.

Now, my answer can be broken into two. The yes, yes, yes part which had nothing to do with logic and the rules/no-nos part which was my hasty attempt at thinking clearly again.

Despite women having been making these kinds of suggestions since the dawn of time we've rarely practiced it. So I thought what if I really followed this? Is it possible to save through a friend? No harm in trying right? So I did.

I didn’t tell my friend what my limit was but when I knew I had hit it I told her no more. As in she’s to make sure I don’t buy anything again. And she did. My girl saved me from the remorse that would have ruined a fabulous day of laughs and deals.

As such, I suggest to you The Budget Buddy.

A fun and productive way of staying within your limits. No calculators. No complex future projections. Just girls helping out girls.

Budget Buddy allows you to enjoy all the regular joys of shopping with your girl except she let’s you know when your time and money is up. She’s the sane and focused girlfriend you take with you when you’re literally on a limit. Here’s how it works:

• Choose the friend that will really do this. You know, the friend who will help you and who won't let "50% off" get the better of you.
• Make a list of what you need and don’t need with your designated Budget Buddy so she’s clear on what you’re looking for.
• Clearly state the budget you’re working with.
• If you are going to a sale or a mall, come up with a game plan of which stores to hit. It’ll save you from wasting time and getting any unnecessary ideas.

It may sound rigid or less exciting but if done properly this will allow you a functional yet fun shopping trip that won’t break your pocket with your girl.

Happy Budget Buddy Shopping!!!!!

It Saves to Know!!

Hey Nerdy Girls,

• Did you know that Sales are the Law? Retail chain stores have to mark down their goods if they are not purchased on a certain date. This means items not sold by the start of the next season will have to go on sale.

• Did you know that up to $100,000 of your savings are insured by the Canadian Deposit Insurance Company as soon as you deposit them into an eligible account?

• Did you know that it’s your right and responsibility to make sure your credit information and score are correct? See Equifax or TransUnion for your free report.

Pass it on girls.

It is a Man’s World!

Speaking from experience, it’s tough to get ahead in a male-dominated industry. No matter what they say, the “old boys club” is very much alive and well in the corporate world, and while Toronto is doing better than most (c/o the employment equity standards), we’re still a looooong way behind our U.S. counterparts in terms of female representation in executive roles and boards.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I’m the last player to call a foul. So try to understand the rude awakening I experienced as an Honours graduate of a competitive university program, toting my Business degree and Accounting diploma into my well-compensated Bay and King accounting position day-in and day-out for 3+ years... only to be passed up on a promotion with no explanation/cause/excuse! If you were wondering, the promotion in question went to a white male of mediocre performance abilities. The difference? Clout.

Don’t get me wrong, this Nerdy Girl had networked with the best of them and participated in my fair share of corporate events -- I had a role in everything from campus recruiting, to United Way charity events. Anywhere I could contribute, I did. And well!

So what was the one door I would not enter? The door that carried the most weight-- creating friendships and connections that would outshine any of my on-the-job efforts, technical ability, or skills..............
Well, it was a well known fact that a few of our managers frequented the girlie bars after corporate events. And why not? Who am I to judge? What was less understood, was the level of camaraderie that took place behind the doors of the nudie bars; a place where females hoping to hold on to their integrity and professionalism were NOT welcome.

Double standard, much?

With that rant aside, I want to share an article I scooped up on the Wall Street Journal that I hope every Nerdy Girl reads. It is entitled "Ways Women Can Hold Their Own in a Male World" and hits home, especially the discussions on "goal oriented language" and "speaking assertively".

Joining a male-dominated industry, like engineering, computer science or construction trades, can be intimidating. So can working in a predominantly male office. Women often struggle to figure out how to gain respect from male colleagues. It's imperative to establish yourself as an intelligent, no-nonsense employee. Here are some ways to navigate a mostly male office.

Make sure women are valued.

Before joining a firm in a male-dominated industry, make sure the company values and promotes women. Check to see if women are represented on the board and in leadership positions at the company, says Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives, a women's business association in New York. During the interview process, consider asking to speak with female employees to get their input and contact human resources to ask about policies like maternity leave.

Identify alpha and beta males.

Separate the two types of men in the office and engage accordingly, says Christopher Flett, founder of Ghost CEO, a professional development program for women. Alpha males have a "get it done" mind-set, so when speaking to an alpha co-worker, use "goal-oriented" language and get to the point quickly, says Mr. Flett. Beta males are more concerned with collaboration and partnership, so tailor your language accordingly.

Find a mentor.

Look for a female employee at your company to mentor you. She can provide you with a
built-in support system and can help you figure out the lay of the land, says Raylie Dunkel, an executive coach and director of development with the Women's Leadership Exchange. If you can't find someone in the company, join a professional organization and build connections there. Mentors with direct experience in a male-dominated workplace can offer invaluable advice to navigating tricky situations.

Speak assertively.

Eliminate the phrase "I'm sorry" from your vocabulary, unless it's truly warranted. Women
tend to apologize for situations that they aren't responsible for, which demonstrates weakness, says Ms. Spence. Don't begin sentences with the phrase "I think," as it demeans what you're saying, says Ms. Dunkel. Take a cue from your male co-workers and be direct and confident. Practice removing any traces of tentativeness from your vocabulary and be declarative when you speak.

Socialize with the boys.

It may feel like you're crashing a fraternity party, but make your best effort to socialize with your male co-workers in formal and informal situations. Whether it's tagging along for lunch or drinks after work, important information is exchanged informally; being there to hear it may benefit your career, says Ms. Spence. If you find yourself being left out, organize your own events, says Ms. Dunkel. Consider joining the company-sponsored softball team or other activities.

Don't assume stereotypical roles.

Women are naturally nurturing and it's something you shouldn't be afraid to show at work. However, be careful to not appear servile. Ms. Spence says never clean up after your co-workers or bring coffee to meetings -- you'll run the risk of being stereotyped and taken advantage of.
____________________________________________________________________________

I truly hope y'all hear me on this one... I can not express the invaluable expertise and knowledge I have gained from my mentor and I promise that if you keep these bad boys in your back pocket, you'll come out ahead of the pack!


Peace and Blessings
xx

The Hair Flip Philosophy

You know.. sometimes I get lost in the shuffle and just seem to get sooooooooooooo caught up. But life is too damn short to get hot and bothered. With that said, I'ma K.I.M. (keep it moving).

You should too:



Peace and love!

Nerdy Girl Night In

Many of us Nerdy Girls spend the entire week following self-imposed budgets, which often include bagged lunches, home made coffee, coupon clipping, etc. But without fail, when Friday night comes, it’s as though the 'Diva on a Dime' in us packs up her Birkin bag, ends her shift and power-walks directly out the door. Our financial conscience turns itself off and we essentially cancel out any savings we may have accomplished during the week, all in the name of having the most entertaining weekend possible. There are movie tickets with yummy popcorn and treats, restaurant bills, cover charges at the latest hot spot in the city, drinks, drinks and more drinks…. Of course then there are the cab fares and/or gas money which if you happened to be living under a rock the last few days, happens to be CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP right now!

I digress…

This weekend, consider this: What if you and a few of your closest Nerdy Girl friends decided to stay in one night? I’m talking, everyone pile over to one person’s humble abode. Pick up your favourite bottle or six pack, order lots of take out, and lots of laughs. You’d be surprised how much fun you can have just hanging with the girls on a Saturday night. Here are some tips on how to make your Nerdy Girl Night In fantastic and easy on the pocket book.

1. Choose the Nerdy Girl whose home is most central to host your night (there’s no sense in everyone trekking out to the one location that’s behind God’s back)

2. Have everyone chip in for take-out and liquor, decide on a budget before hand that everyone is comfortable with OR chose to pick up some groceries and make it an all-hands-on-deck Nerdy Girl Cooking session.

3. Pool together entertainment resources so you don’t have to spend money on them; i.e. DVD’s (your friends are bound to have some great flicks in their collections), board games (don’t hate… get the right one and there is NOTHING corny about this option), music (start your own party in the living room)

4. Implement a No Boys Allowed rule for the night. Husbands, fiancés, boyfriends, fathers, sons, brothers, uncles are NOT allowed to play. If they absolutely must be in the house (their buddies won’t let them crash/can’t find a babysitter, etc.) while you’re having your fun, banish them to a secluded area for the night where they absolutely MUST stay as to not invade on your night… tee hee.

When in doubt, you can always count on your girlfriends to have great conversations with. So this weekend, give it a try. Staying in might turn out to be more fun than the regular night out on the town that you’re used to.

Let us know how it goes Nerdy Girls!

Technicolor Tights!

Now I know I'm not the only Nerdy Girl feeling the winter blahs and blues. I'm so unimpressed with the humdrum traditional color palette of this season: suicidal slate, (mind) numbing navy, blaz-ay black and boohoo blues..

For all the Nerdy Girls who want to kick their traditional winter wardrobe up a notch without breaking the bank -- we introduce technicolor tights! -- an economically sound way of streeeeeeeeeeeetching your summer frocks across seasons! Trust, your wallet will thank you in the new year!

(Uh-huh .. this the sh!t)

I'm really feeling patterns lately.. Think, argyles or even plaids as modeled below..

For the perpetually risk-averse wallflowers .. try more muted options on for size! Navy, grey and even black leggings transform a look from plain to pizazz when paired with contrasting or complementary hues.

Tell us what you think! Are you feeling the technicolor craze? If not, check out some more winter style tips here .. Until next time!

Love, Love, LOVE MY NERDY GIRLS!

I HEART you ladies...

Amazing nebula in Cassiopeia, IC1805 (SH2-190) resemble the silhouette of the heart from which takes its name. Close to the left ventricle is the open cluster NGC1027 (20') while the right ventricle is composed by the oval shape of IC1795 (NGC896)


MY GIRLFRIENDS ROCK!

Update:

Nerdy Girl Chanell challenged me to find a personal picture of the four of us to put up for this post, so here it is! We clean up pretty good, right? Ha, ha!

Until next time..

Get Your Full Share...

Gas is 79.3 Cents/Litre in the GTA this morning.

It is said that it hasn't been this low since 2002.

You don't need to be a nerdy girl genius to realize...
FILL UP!!!!
Go out and get your share of Gas today.

For updates on Tomorrow's Gas Price Today click link. It's ususally updated around 5pm each day.

xoxo

Flex Your Brain Muscles

I heard a great quote yesterday while participating in an entrepreneurial workshop which I thought would be great to share. In reference to economic hard times, and how to maintain successful during them, Gary Mottershead, Associate Coach for the Strategic Coach Program and owner of GCP Elastomeric Inc. said:

"The focused thinking that we need during our current economic times is like exercise. Our muscles get stronger with resistance. In resistant times such as these, we are developing the strength and resilience of our minds in order to progress. If the strength isn't there, we are vulnerable"

What does this mean to you Nerdy Girls? Take everything that is happening right now, be it in the markets at an international level, or down the hall from your cubicle at your own company, as an opportunity to grow and learn. When things are perfect, it does not always motivate us to get better and to learn new capabilities. When our security is all of a sudden threatened, we are forced to increase our skills and try new things to stay financially stable and to have a "one-up" on the competition. Use each day as an opportunity to learn something about how you can better your financial situation. Flex your brain muscles and make them stronger and the ideas that come from it just might surprise you.

Bookworm Alert: Rich Woman

At 53yrs old, my mom bought HER first house! She decided on her 50th birthday that she wanted more and began to re-write her story.

Technically, at 20yrs old, she purchased her first of many homes with my father but after their 28 years of marriage ended she was back to the drawing board. Can you imagine all your hard work vanished like it never even happened?

Well this happens more often then we would like to believe.
Did you know?

• 50% of marriages end in divorce
• 47% of women over the age of 50 are single
• In the first year after divorce a woman’s standard of living drops an average of 73%
• Of elderly living in poverty 3 out of 4 are women – 80% of them were not poor when their husbands were alive
• Nearly 7 out of 10 women will at some time live in poverty

Now I am not trying to scare you but I do want to give you a reality check. We are the leaders of our own destiny so Nerdy Girls lets “Get Smart, Get Money, Get Free”

We need to get smarter with our money so we are free to sleep with ease at night without the worries.

These scary statistics are straight from the back of my suggestion for this month’s must read “Rich Woman” by Kim Kiyosaki*. In the first line of the book it is said “Behind every successful man is a powerful woman” and we all know this is true.

This book isn’t preaching a fool proof plan to ‘get rich quick’ it is more about the awareness and smart choices we women need to start making so we never become a statistic.

Whatever age you are – it is never too late to start learning. Look at the Nerdy Girls in your life, who is your financial hero? My mom is mine - if she can do it then I SHOULD too.

Xoxo


* Kim Kiyosaki is the wife if Robert Kiyosaki the author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” the book craze that transformed the mindset of many people in the late nineties.

What's Your 9-5?

A daily fear of mine is that while I'm sitting on the couch with my lovely cup of tea watching Oprah (great episode today by the way) someone will walk in & think that this is all I've done for the day. I never want to be thought of as a waste of time or space.

Today, on this 105th day of looking for work I understand that you still need time management during your time off.

I’ve been doing this for a bit now and I promise you that the luxury of PJs all day in front of the TV, with every possible toothache in sight on your meal plan will cause you more harm then happiness.

Create a daily schedule! When you were at work you had a plan for the day so continue to do so. Here are some examples of things to include:

1. Make the first few hours of the day devoted to your job search
• Check the sites in the morning as all new posting from the day before will be listed.
• I promise you will drive yourself nuts if you keep checking every 2hrs hoping for a change. Once a day is enough!

2. Improve your Nerdy girl mind with a great book
• Reading is an easy way to learn and escape from the day-to-day frustrations of the job search
• I suggest reading some wonderful books on self-improvement, self-awareness, and/or investing
• Logging on and catching up with your favourite Nerdy Girls counts too ;-)

3. Plan time to run the errands that you continue to put off
• If you don’t do it, no one else will. Get Up and Get It Done!

4. Create or work on your “Free Time Project”
• Many Pregnant Nerdy Girls assign themselves a “Pregnancy Project” Why not do the same?
• Learn a new craft, trait, or even research some additional income options to add to your list of life’s possibilities.

Keep yourself busy with improvements & you won’t even notice the time passing. Then make sure to finish up at a decent hour so you can still enjoy your evenings with family & friends and not feel like you wasted the day.

Nerdy Girl Chanell’s 9-5

9-11 - Job Search – http://www.workopolist.com/ http://www.charityvillage.com/ http://www.eluta.ca/
11-1 - Run Errands
1-3 - Free Time Project –Mine is Nerdy Girl Online what's yours?
3-4 - Book Time – My book of choice right now “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho
4-5 - Finished just in time for Oprah :-)

Xoxo

America STAND UP!

Looking forward to the future with hope and anticipation..





Congratulations America .. You did good!

Nerdy Girl of the Month: MADISON DUPAIX

Meet Madison DuPaix: married with two toddlers .. and RETIRED at 29 years of age!

How did she do it? Well, at age 16 DuPaix started by putting away $600 into her retirement account. She quickly turned to finance as her hobby of choice, investing in low-cost index funds along the way in college while most of her fellow students were taking on credit card and student loan debt. When she graduated, she took on a full time position and saved half of her take-home pay.

Now, Madison pulls in the same annual cash flow now as her old salary (after daycare, taxes, and retirement savings) by drawing down 2 percent of her savings each year. The DuPaixs has enough savings for her spouse to retire too, but he currently likes his full-time job. He also provides health insurance, which can be a huge cost for self employed individuals.

Read more about Madison's Personal Story and check out her informative and educational posts online at www.mydollarplan.com !

Nerdy Girl Sunday

Happy Sunday Nerdy Girls!

So I figured on this day of relaxation and recreation I would take the time to show some love for my favourite day of the week SUNDAY!

For those that get to enjoy it, it’s a day off, the easy day of the week, the day we get to use the employment hall pass and run free from structure.
It’s a tranquil morning where for just a little while the stresses and uncertainties of the past 6 days disappear.

A family day, a friend day, a fabulous free day!

What if everyday felt like Sunday?
What if every morning the upcoming events of the day did not serve a sudden surge of qualm in your gut?
What if every morning when you Dress for SUCCESS you are getting ready for another day of delight? What if there was no rush hour? We took the scenic route to work and remained calm driving slow like Sunday Morning.

Now I am not saying everyday should be Sunday (because then we would all become a bunch of Lazy Girls) but let’s bring the Sunday heart to work on Monday.

My point here is that this life is the only one we have and if we spend all our time stressing and agonizing on all the things we can’t control then Sunday just becomes the day before Monday and the beauty is gone.

Now I’ve had a love affair with Sundays since the day I was born and would be happy if there really was a month of Sundays but what about you?

If you just don’t get it let Maroon 5 help…

Xoxo