10/12/2023
If you're feeling unaccomplished for your age, compared to the most accomplished of your age peers, like you've missed the most opportune years of your life, remember that Warren Buffet didn't make 99% of his current net worth, until AFTER his 60th birthday.
Now, most of his wealth was probably actually "created" earlier, because he's been investing since he was like 11 years old.
But for most enduringly wealthy individuals, most didn't achieve continuous success or secure levels of wealth until their 60s, 70s, and 80s.
I believe this is in part, because there's so much competition (for everything) in the younger age groups, and MOST people will quit long before they've "won" the accomplishment they were working towards. In part, success later in life DOES happen more easily because you've out-lasted and out-lived your competition.
It's nonsensical that so many people give up/quit when they're faced with what seems like insurmountable challenges, or when they're not faced with any big challenges, they're just bored and lost faith in their vision, what they were fighting to create.
The "insurmountable" challenges are a call from the universe for you to GROW! Gain strength and abilities while struggling uphill! Who wants it? Yes, you have to climb the mountain and risk death (falling) FIRST, but you'll be so much stronger when you reach the peaks, and see the next even taller mountain peak waiting for you to scale.
So many times I was told to give up already!
Stop doing this struggle bus thing and "grow up", so they can feel relieved that I am finally achieving my potential.
But what I've come to learn is achieving my potential comes from NOT BACKING DOWN from insurmountable challenges.
Not giving up because people say, "WHY are you STILL struggling?"
Not looking at others who have succeeded in their mind as competitors, but as teachers, people who I can JOIN IN their work, their hidden struggles, to help them and me achieve what we're envisioning.
Not lying to myself or others, giving myself a pass on the HARD WORK, being transparent about my realized past mistakes and things that COULD HAVE buried me under shame, continuing to QUESTION my beliefs and speak my truth, as much as I can, to continue to be ABLE to change >> change in your life circumstances can happen very quickly, if you're able to change yourself, or never at all if you believe your thoughts are all objectively TRUE.
What strikes me at 50 is how I don't FEEL like I'm 50. I don't feel accomplished, but truly I know I've accomplished so much more than anyone who gave up on themselves early.
The last 15 years have been the MOST GROWTH in my life and I know that even more BIG THINGS are in my future, like success that inevitably comes after growth. The last 5 years especially have almost been contracted growth - I was growing & changing quietly, away from judging eyes - and now I'm more sure than ever of my life potential. I will never know, during my lifetime, if I fully achieve my vision, but I know the effort will be worth it.
The journey towards success is what makes it worth celebrating!
Stay on that path, and extend it for as long as you can! That will increase your change & growth & eventual success and continued fulfillment in the pursuit of satisfaction.
If you're working towards BIG THINGS in your life, it's not unheard of for other important areas to be put on the back or side burner of your life, and I've experienced this myself.
When I was first starting out in full-time self-employment I was riding a wave of momentum, enjoying the feeling of being at the leading edge of social media, then livestream consulting, and then in book publishing!
But while I had quieted the voices of authority in my childhood that labeled me "bad with money" and subsequently shielded me from learning about money through experience, by getting into a career that had me dealing with data, research, numbers/math, and spending millions of dollars for clients annually (ad agency media buyer), I had never really exposed these beliefs accepted as my own, and never really overcame them.
It wasn't until years down the road, after nearly a decade of focusing on my skills, and just getting through, that I finally recognized what was holding me back.
Fear of Success.
Imposter Syndrome.
Especially from continuing to believe my label that I am "Bad with Money", so I purposely AVOIDED financial literacy activities, bookkeeping and taxes as they're "boring" and really not the best place for me to focus my limited time > I preferred to focus on skills development, client delivery, and marketing, never realizing how impactful that childhood label truly was.
For years I effectively continued to avoid taxes and bookkeeping, and the CRA's attempts to motivate me to file didn't succeed (I felt strangely, like I was winning at this game I was playing) , UNTIL they threatened legal action. Again, this transported me back to childhood, remembering the advice of my parents to NEVER get in trouble with the CRA as they're "the worst to owe money to" and warnings that if I did fall into debt with the CRA, I would surely end up broke, homeless, r***d & drug addicted living on the streets. I hadn't realized I was FROZEN in FEAR for most of my life, so afraid of this terrible outcome that I stayed ignorant about the TRUTH about finances.
It wasn't that everything I learned as a kid was wrong, it was really the way that I was conditioned by environment and lead to FEEL about money, taxes, savings, spending, and losing money was wrong.
I was taught to be ashamed of taking risks and believing in myself, and especially of ever LOSING money.
I was taught to be ashamed of being defrauded or scammed out of my money, because I'd taken a RISK and it didn't work out.
I was taught to be WORRIED every time a letter from the CRA arrived, because I'd never actually embraced my own money responsibility in my life.
And to get by > I believed I could follow the footsteps of most of the women in my family and get married and have kids, and never really have to rely on myself for security.
I was living my life believing I would never really need to fully understand MY responsibility for spending my money in a way that makes me feel good, and empowers me to learn and grow.
Whether or not that learning and growth, or even self-care, comes from risking and losing money or it comes from being cautious and preparing myself for future responsibilities I can plan, and those I cannot, doesn't matter much > what matters is I AM LEARNING to love myself, regardless of how much money (or security) I have, saved, earned, invested, lost, or given away in stupid ways, I am learning from it ALL.
Financial literacy comes to use like almost all other literacy - we can be functionally illiterate from childhood (as I was without even knowing it, especially through my media buying days) and feel self satisfied, or simply decide to learn this new language of MONEY, how it is now, however long it takes, however uncomfortable or awkward it is, because we love ourselves the most, and we want to be able to communicate with ourselves in loving ways, regardless of our true current literacy levels. It's just another language to learn, word by words, maybe only a few words a day or week, that allow you to grow your abilities and competency.
I started by Googling a few bookkeeping terms, and then Google Discover (on my Android phone) started showing me financial, tax & investing articles with clickbait headlines that I started reading just as easily as I would read Housewives gossip articles Google Discover likes to show me, knowing I'm interested in that topic. Then I decided to become a CPA, eventually (still on that path), and then I got a mentor who wanted to see me succeed with this career & personal change, who encouraged me to learn taxes, and directed me to the H&R Block tax preparation course, which was probably the most difficult course I've ever taken.
The first year I worked in a bog tax office was the start of the pandemic. I did 200+ tax returns in 3.5 months and learned something significant >>
It's NOT really "uncommon" to fall behind on tax return filing in Canada (probably 500,000 Canadians are), and most people who do fall behind are unaware of the surprising benefits they're likely to experience when they catch up, because they're ashamed of their situation and they don't feel like it will be financially beneficial. Especially for low-income people. Even those who are self-employed, like I was.
Only a few weeks remain before 2013 tax returns EXPIRE and you will not be able to claim any relevant carryforward deduction claims, low-income benefits payments (GSTC, Trillium, Climate Action Incentive, and Canada Child Benefits), or refunds from the 2013 year if you haven't filed it.
People don't realize that even if you had NO INCOME for a tax year, you should file a tax returns for that year, over age 19 to be able to receive the low-income benefits your no-income year will qualify you for.
Other people don't realize that if when they were still under 18 and they had part-time jobs, especially minimum wage, they're likely untaxable (earned less than the set Basic Personal Amount for the year, so none of their income is taxable), but DID pay taxes withheld from their paychecks.
Still others didn't file because they had low income or no financial benefits themselves, not realizing that they ARE technically and legally living common law with their partner (12 months of cohabitation, in a conjugal relationship regardless of how infrequently the conjunction happens), and they're unaware of the financial BENEFIT of properly claiming their COMMON LAW status on their tax return, so that their partner can get a higher refund amount due to receiving the "Spousal Amount" > a taxable income deduction equal to the Basic Personal Amount for the year ($15k in 2023).
There's loads of reasons why people fall behind on their taxes, and really, they're ALL reasonable. They ALL make sense. They're ALL protecting the person who has fallen behind, from truly embracing their abilities in this life, to create value and money for others and themselves. But that IS THE PROBLEM.
Helping people catch up on tax return filings has become my personal specialty, and I'm likely one of the MOST experienced tax professionals in Canada who does specialize in multiple years back clients, because I'm still not an accountant or CPA > I don't have the skills or abilities to go after or attract the higher-paying "bigger" clients who have a lot more money and stay up to date on their tax responsibilities. :)
My focus with clients is in getting you caught up, easily & correctly, for sure > but more important to me is adjusting each year, how my clients THINK & FEEL about their financial situation and their relationship with the CRA.
If you're multiple years behind in filing, or newly self-employed (in the last few years) and want to get ahead of your increased admin responsibilities so that you never experience the tax troubles I have,
or your ADHD/neurospicey or have anxiety over dealing with the CRA to get your situation cleaned up, send me a DM.
Don't bother to comment here, unless I don't reply to your DM request (especially if we're not FB friends). I will chat with you and provide info to help you determine the right path to proceed, whether that's with me or not.
My life, especially my self-esteem, has changed radically in the last few years as I've let go of the beliefs I thought were true for so many years. I've started a whole new career that I couldn't even conceive of 5 years ago and have been sharing tax insights on my blog at www.TaxFairyGodmother.ca
I've seen a few clients go from avoiding taxes, like I was, to being excited to work with me each year (!) and some who call themselves Tax Nerds now, and even others who have also completely turned around their life > when you remove the amount of mental & emotional energy that goes into protecting you from hurtful beliefs that aren't true anyway, and you begin to apply those hours to learning any new language, in just a few years, you become FLUENT. Comfortable. Capable. Confident.
I'm ending this year with at least my Tax Savings Account FULL and only touched for a few big purchases (35% of big business expenses comes out of that account) recently. In a few months, I'll be paying a BIG tax bill (the biggest I've paid so far) with a SMILE ON MY FACE and happiness in my heart.
If you'd like to experience that but don't know how, let me know.
