This is my version of my November round up.

No budget numbers, no budget amounts spent. That’ll resume for December 2008.

Here’s a quick recap of my assets and liabilities (a.k.a. my balance sheet)

MAY 2006 (when I graduated)

ASSETS: $500

$500 – Bank Account
$500 in Assets

LIABILITIES: – $59,000

- $9500 – Small University Bank Loan (TD)
- $15,000 – Larger Business School Loan (Scotia)
-$5500 – Personal Loan (Other)
- $29,000 – Government Student Loan
- $59,000 in Liabilities

NOVEMBER 2006 – TODAY – 2.5 years later: $83,480.07

ASSETS

$2000 – Car of what I could sell it right now and just be done with it
$2990 – Cash in Chequing/Savings (Personal)
$26,733 – Company Earnings not taken out in Dividends (No taxes paid yet)
$32,136.78 – Accounts Receivable
$3869.31 – Expenses Receivable
$7,369.89 TD Retirement (Market Value) ($10,850.79 is my Book Value)
$8,381.09 Sunlife Retirement (Market Value) ($12,559.74 is my Book Value)
$83,480.07 (Market Value but before taxes)

LIABILITIES – $0

No credit card debt.
No other lines of credit debt.
No student debt.
No mortgage.
No loans.
$0 in Liabilities

FB NOTES

Not a small amount by any means, but I cleared everything except $15,000 in loans before I started making $110 – $130 an hour. I never used to make this kind of cash.

But I managed to clear the bulk of my loans ($44,000 worth) with a wage of $65,000 a year.

I scrimped, I saved, I budgeted, tracked expenses and I was very lucky in terms of my career, job’s benefits and flexibility especially in the market that we’re experiencing right now.

One day, I will write the whole story out in detail…. I have a post coming up on this, when I get around to writing it.

And I’ll even have pretty graphs!!

Are you thinking about switching careers? I’m talking about going from a circus tamer (at the office, naturally) to a public relations manager (for example)

Ask yourself why you want to make a change and leave

Is it the employer? Can you work it out? The job pay? The retirement? A new city? Make sure it’s a VALID reason with PROVEN instances (not just one) that makes you want to quit so that you don’t make a rash decision and go all Office Space on us.

Look back on what your job did and didn’t do for you

There must be something you hate about your job. Find out what it is.

And find out what you love as well.

Using these two pieces of information, get a sort of roadmap of what your ideal job would have (please, nothing on sunny beaches doing nothing but sipping margaritas), and figure out what you love to do.

Try it on

From here, search job descriptions that match that in your industry (or out…) and come up with a HUGE list of occupations you could love.

Narrow those occupations down (by salary, experience required, etc) and start researching more into your top 3 occupations to figure out which one is right for you.

Research the job, read books, browse the internet, talk to people already working in your dream job and even better get some first-hand experience by job shadowing or signing up to be a volunteer

Get ready for school

Many radical career changes need more education. Be ready for the financial hit of going back to school while losing your full-time income. If you can, save ahead of time and look into scholarships, bursaries and anything for mature students

Let go of your ego

Recognize you won’t begin where you’ve ended. Do as much as you can to build experience and credibility in your new field even if you have to do things for free or do tasks beneath you

Don’t take skepticism to heart

People are going to look at you like you’re nuts and be prepared to explain why you made such a drastic move. Think about your parallel skills that you could transfer from your previous job into your new one.

Interviewing: DogAteMyFinances of the (sometimes snarky, but always charming) blog Dog Ate My Finances who describes herself as a:

Mid-twenties debtor. I make more money than anyone in my family, but am somehow still in debt.

Tell me a bit about yourself

I was raised in a rural Texas and escaped to very expensive, private college and grad school. I’ve been watching my money so I could make mammoth student loan payments, which are now mammoth wedding payments, and hopefully will soon be down payment savings.

I’m all about taking calculated financial risks. Expensive school, starting a small business, buying a house, aggressive investing, and so on.

What’s behind your blog name and what made you want to start blogging?

My deep revelation to start blogging was when my dog destroyed a gorgeous pair of Beverley Feldman pumps. I was crushed. I went to just order a new pair, and I thought to myself “What would a PF blogger do?”

So, I started the blog, in part, to force accountability on myself for decisions like that.

I also use my blog as a way to talk to my partner about our finances. He knows a lot more now, and he at least has access to our net worth charts.

I thought my blog name was funny. It had a literal meaning–the dog was expensive, and those Feldmans were expensive! But it also had a tongue-in-cheek response to the general problem that I had such a high income and practically nothing to show for it.

My name shows my attitude. I never claimed to be perfect, but I have a sense of humor, and I’m trying.

What do you do as an occupation and how’d you get into it?

For me, the only way was to be aware of how much we spent on clothes, which was a lot! I had to go on no-buy to really appreciate judgment in my fashion purchases. I’m getting better.

I think it’s kind of funny that in the year I’ve had my blog, finance has become fashionable in itself.

Frugality is chic.

Finance is chic. Thus I (and you, FB!) are tres chic.

(FB: Aww.. thank you!)

Might as well take advantage of the market. Thew $3000 into my retirement account with TD to buy shares. I want to raise my retirement account to $10,000 book value before I go so that I stop paying that $25/year fee.

Then I am going to call Sunlife next week, take the hit, lose the $5000 and transfer that cash into TD so that I only have one bank to deal with for Canadian retirement.

That, and Sunlife is charging me $10/month for that retirement plan!! WTF? Asses.

I know it’s coming up, and I can feel it.. but if you get eczema as easily as I do, make sure to do the following:

Keep your skin moisturized all the time

1. Moisturize all the time. Olay Quench Therapy Concentrate is THE BEST lotion, ever. Hands down, no questions asked. It does the trick and really softens dry, peeling skin like on your elbows and knees.

2. Moisturize right after showering when your skin is damp, warm and the pores are open and able to receive the lotion easily

3. I’ve heard that moisturizing body washes like Olay really help. I’m considering buying a bottle.

Don’t scratch

If you see a little spot appear, resist the urge to scratch. It’ll just get worse.

Eczema is the itch that rashes and turns into something worse than it originally was.

It’s hard, but if it’s a little tickle of an itch, ignore it, or it’ll be a bleeding mess at night when you scratch without thinking.

Good luck, and have a safe, moist winter