Introduction...

So here we are. Brand new day, brand new year. Today it is January 1, 2009. As I write this, I am sitting in my place I rent in Dawson Creek, BC. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s a small oil city in Northern British Columbia about 30-45 minutes from the Alberta border. Yup, I spent my New Years here, 5 ½ hours away from the people I care the most about, my family and friends.

For those of you who know me personally, you know I am not a big fan of the holiday season. The reasons are not worth mentioning here but the one part of the holiday season I DO enjoy, is New Years! So, as I was sitting here alone last night I made up my mind, “This WILL be the last New Years I spend away from my family and friends!” This has become my goal, my mission.
So, why am I writing about this you ask? Well here it is... to reach this goal, to complete this mission I have decided that I need to become financially free. Of course this will lead to many other goals that I have already set for myself but, for now this is the goal I will be focusing on. It will be the driving force behind everything I do over the next 12 months.

I choose to write about this because every day there are millions or even tens of millions of people searching for the answers to becoming free from their job, or more accurately, from their paycheque. Maybe you’re looking at retirement in the next couple of years and you have no idea how you are going to provide for yourself. These are very real concerns and problems in today’s world.

Ok, enough will all the grim news that we all hear on a day to day basis... Let’s just get down to it! If you’re reading this, it’s because you want to become financially free. This is exactly what I intend on doing. That’s right I “INTEND”... I have not reached freedom yet but that’s what makes this so exciting. This is going to be a record of my ups and downs, my successes as well as my failures along the way over the next year. I am committing the next year to all of you, to show you what worked for me and what didn’t work so well.
I will apply strategies I have learned from researching books and the internet, advice from mentors I have connected with and any other haywire ideas that my hamster wheel comes up with along the way. What I hope to accomplish here is to show a truly “REAL” experience on how to take your life from ordinary to extraordinary! I want to stress right off the bat that I am no one special, have any great connections or a pro by any means. I am as average as a person gets.

In fact, to prove this, why don’t I introduce myself...

My name is Scott Weller. I am a 29 year old guy from the Edmonton area. I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Edmonton called Sherwood Park. Before you make any assumptions, just because we lived there didn’t mean we were wealthy, far from it! We never had any fancy cars or clothes. My parents struggled but I thank them for the sacrifices they did make. They did an amazing job; raising 4 kids with the cards they were dealt. I love you Mom and Dad! Enough of the sap! I’m not going to spend much time on my childhood but it was filled with struggles of many kinds. All in all it was a great upbringing though.

I decided in my late teens that I liked to party, drink, women and dance.... WORM!! Growing up in a religious family that didn’t go over too well. To make a long story short I spent the next 6-8 years partying hard, making poor choices and neglecting my financial responsibilities. Kids, unless you are really responsible, DO NOT get a VISA at age 18! I am actually laughing to myself thinking about how stupid I was!

So fast forward a few years to age 28. This was a big year for me. I learned so much. I matured more in 6 months than I had over my entire existence to that point. I learned what it was to love but, I also learned what it was to lose that love as well. In December of 2007, completely emotionally destroyed, I locked myself in my 1 bedroom apartment, downtown Edmonton (which I was paying $1100 a month for, what a fool) I had hit my lowest point in my life. I hated my job, just lost the first woman I loved (she took the dog too) and was convinced I didn’t deserve to live. I truly hated who I was. I don’t tell you this because I am trying to be dramatic or for pity, I tell you because I want to show how low I had allowed myself to go.

As I lay there in my bed, feeling sorry for myself, wondering why nothing good ever happens to me, why I have such bad luck, I had a thought go through my mind. This thought was the beginning of the end for that Scott Weller and the first breath for the new, this Scott Weller.
That thought that ran through my mind was initially an image of a successful person. One I had passed many times while walking downtown but never gave much thought too until now. That image was accompanied by the thought, “what makes him so much more special than me?” Why is he successful and I’m not? Well that night I decided I was going to find out!

Over the last year I gained the necessary training to become an industrial health and safety representative with my National Construction Safety Officer designation. I am employed with a young company, which has grown into one the top oilfield construction companies in western Canada in a very short time. I have figured out who I am and what drives me to do what I do day in and day out. I have also become way closer with my family and friends. I just spent a week in Mexico with my longest friend and very recently I have started to work on my strained relationship with my Mother. Oh, and I got a new dog!

The last thing I will mention is that I have spent the last 6 months educating myself. I have researched and read up on subjects such as finance, investments, personal growth and the power of the human mind. All of these topics will come into play as we move ahead. If any of these subjects are new to you, as I go ahead I will be making reference to different books or other reference materials that helped me along. Some of these subjects are more important than others but we will get into that.

There you have it, the reader’s digest version of my life as it has been lived to this point. The year 2008 was amazing and I saw so many changes but 2009, even with all the outside world uncertainty, is going to be the best year yet!

What do I want to accomplish by this?
I want this to be a real life, real time financial IQ resource for people. Young and old. I want my failures to be a case study for you to study and learn from. What I want to do is to teach as many people as I struggle along. Anyone out there who sees me struggling can offer any advice at any time. This will be an interactive experience for any and all who want to participate.
One last thing before we start. I apologize for my grammatical errors or spelling mistakes along the way. I am by no means a Literary Professor like my aunt. In fact, I’m sure both my aunts are going to cringe if they ever come across this, seeing as they’re both educators! My vision is to have this be as real and genuine as possible, so you can get to know me and my personality through these unedited words.

So let’s get at it... Day one... it’s like reality blogging.... let’s see what kind of holes I can get myself into and how creative I can be to get myself back out and onto the road to freedom.