youngandthrifty.ca » net worth

February 2012 Net Worth Update: $141,500 (+1%)

young — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:09:38 +0000

$141, 500 (+1.0%)

Seriously, I have no idea how this happened again but I managed to squeak by (though barely) in positive territory again. January was brutal and I can see why it is so depressing in January- all the bills to pay!

We still have to pay for our home insurance so I’m sure that will put some sting into my net worth calculations for next month. What really helped this month is that I got $700 cash back from my MBNA credit card (yes, all from a no fee credit card!). I have yet to write up a review post for this credit card, but needless to say, my American Express card is back on the back burner (where it really deserves to be since it’s not readily accepted in Canada lol).

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

ASSETS:

CASH: $12, 700 (+9.3%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts.

I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2700 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa). I’m automatically deducting $100 a month from my bank account into this travel account. I’m about halfway there. Here’s my shameless plug: If you are Canadian and want to help contribute to my hiking fantasy, feel free to sign up for an ING Account with my orange key: 33530953S1. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $10,186 (+1.04%)

The BCE (Bell) holdings I have are doing nicely (pretty much the only thing doing nicely!) and up 39%. Tempted to sell for profit but will hold on for the dividends.
I sold my SC.TO (Shoppers Drug Mart) shares just because they really weren’t doing anything. I’m moving this money into my TFSA account before next month. It’s on my to-do list. This would then leave me with $1500 contribution room for my TFSA.
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic

RRSP: $12,440 (+1.04%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead, if I am not able to max out on both (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I’m not including my defined benefit pension (I didn’t do this for my 2011 net worth updates at all purely due to laziness). Contemplating about whether I should put them back into my networth calculations- what do you think?
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan for my down payment. I am paying it back by $200 a month. I should probably step it up since at this rate it will take me 6.5 years to pay myself back into my retirement fund!

TFSA: $17, 493 (+1.05%)

Most of this portfolio has bounced back nicely, especially my KEG.TO stock- it was down $200 and now up $9 (lol! Don’t forget the $20 gift card for Keg Steakhouse they sent me) and still churning out distributions.
Watch out for TFSA over contributions, guys, the CRA will get you for every last penny.
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade in 2009 and haven’t looked back!

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I am seriously getting some bad luck with this car haha maybe I should stop posting about my expenses on my car here. Anyways, I got a $35 parking ticket (boourns!!). Just in case you didn’t know this about me, but I detest ticket officers and tow truck drivers and I can’t help hating them.

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500 (0.0%)

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $296, 970 (-0.32%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization)
We got tenants for our basement suite. Wahoo! BF and I had a long discussion (well heated discussion lol) about paying off our mortgage faster. We have agreed to pay an extra $100 per payment (hence the extra 0.02% HA). I know it’s not much, but it’s a start.

Credit Card: $1828

Um this month’s credit card statement was horrid to say the least.
I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.

January 2012 Net Worth Update (+1.2%)

young — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:32:37 +0000

$140, 936 (+1.2%)

Let see, what happened this month? Since its January, we have probably mostly survived the aftermath of Christmas shopping (total spent about $400 on gifts) and Boxing Day shopping (I spent $70 on some boots and went to the States on New Year’s Day for some “After Christmas Sales”- bought some great work wedges at Aldo for $38).

Retire by 40 suggested I talk about my total 2011 increase in net worth (which is a fantastic idea). Looking at my old posts, I have increased my net worth this year by $14, 961, which is about a 11.8% increase from January 2011. Ideally, I would have liked to have saved more than $20,000 but I guess I can shoot for this target when I finish school.

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

ASSETS:

CASH: $11615 (-5.2%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts. I taught him the magic of the email transfer, so hopefully it won’t be so much effort to nag him to put money into our joint account!

I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2600 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa). I’m automatically deducting $100 a month from my bank account into this travel account. I’m about halfway there. Here’s my shameless plug: If you are Canadian and want to help contribute, feel free to sign up for an ING Account with my orange key: 33530953S1. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $9798 (-26.5%)

The BCE (Bell) holdings I have are doing nicely (pretty much the only thing doing nicely!) and up 39%. Tempted to sell for profit but will hold on for the dividends.
I moved my FTS.TO shares in-kind to my TFSA account (and that’s why you see the huge dip). I have 100 shares in FTS.TO worth about $3300 or so.
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic

RRSP: $11,998 (-0.01%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
I’ve maxed out my RRSP for 2011. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead, if I am not able to max out on both (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I’m not including my defined benefit pension (I didn’t do this for my 2011 net worth updates at all purely due to laziness). Contemplating about whether I should put them back into my networth calculations- what do you think?
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan for my down payment. I am paying it back by $200 a month. I should probably step it up since at this rate it will take me 6.5 years to pay myself back into my retirement fund!

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2700

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
I have to contact the mutual fund dragon lady to take this money out.

TFSA: $16732 (+48%)

I moved FTS.TO into my TFSA to max out my contribution room for 2011. I also put in some money into the TFSA to buy HSE.TO. I was lusty for Husky and bought it a few days ago. It has an annual yield of 4.8% (how can I say no to that dividend??)
Watch out for TFSA over contributions, guys, the CRA will get you for every last penny.
I have yet to see a “dripped” EIF stock in my account (hello, Questrade if you are reading, where is it?). It has climbed back up nicely though from its low. I will do a post on DRIPs soon, I promise!
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade in 2009 and haven’t looked back!

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I got a flat tire on Christmas day (I got the gift that keeps on giving) and had to get a new winter tire for $60 (thankfully they were still covered on warranty)

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500 (0.0%)

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
Just got our Assessment letter in the mail, and I have concluded that Vancouver wants to collect their taxes to pay for the Riots and the Olympics. They say my principle residence is worth about $137,000 more than what I bought it fore but I’m going to denounce it as hogwash.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $297910 (-0.32%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization)
We got tenants for our basement suite. Wahoo! BF and I had a long discussion (well heated discussion lol) about paying off our mortgage faster. We have agreed to pay an extra $100 per payment (hence the extra 0.02% HA). I know it’s not much, but it’s a start.

Credit Card: $1499

I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.

December Net Worth Update: +1.6%

young — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:02:30 +0000

$139, 265 (+1.6%)

My credit card bill was pretty crazy this month because of the trip to Hawaii for BF’s family’s wedding and the textbooks for next term (I bought USED from Amazon.com to be picked up in the US… but the bill was still ridiculous).

I also spent $100 for donations to charities in preparation for year end. I have yet to calculate how much I have donated in 2011.

I spent $187 on three toner cartridges for my laser printer from Costco.ca (I LOVE MY LASER PRINTER btw). Pricey, I know, but you wouldn’t believe how many pages I have printed out already. I’m sure if I had an inkjet printer, I would probably have gone through 10 inkjet changes by now.

I haven’t done anything drastic investments-wise, but am planning again to move some investments/ cash from dividend payouts in my non-registered to my TFSA.

Oh, I got a scholarship from the application I told you guys about a while back (if your’e ever in school, just apply apply apply! You never know if you’re going to get it unless you try). It is enough for next term’s tuition. I haven’t included it in my net worth this month because it’s going to be deducted anyway very soon.

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

ASSETS:

CASH: $12249 (+18.0%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts. I taught him the magic of the email transfer, so hopefully it won’t be so much effort to nag him to put money into our joint account!

I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2500 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa). I’m automatically deducting $100 a month from my bank account into this travel account. I’m about halfway there. If you are Canadian and want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING Account with my orange key: 33530953S1. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $13339 (-0.6%)

BCE and TU are doing nicely (I guess everyone still hasn’t gotten hooked on data plans yet, they still have a lot of people to hit up lol). Everything else is a “meh”.
I’m holding steady with a lot of my stocks. I bought SC.TO a LONG time ago and I notice that it’s climbing back up to my original purchase price, which is always nice lol.
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic

RRSP: $12,107 (+2.9%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead, if I am not able to max out on both (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I’m not including my defined benefit pension (I didn’t do this for my 2011 net worth updates at all purely due to laziness). Contemplating about whether I should put them back into my networth calculations- what do you think?
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012 (jeepers, 2012 is creeping up already).

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2689 (%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
Hmm, just 1 ~~few more~~ months until I can get my money out from my venture mutual fund and invest it elsewhere. Can’t wait!

TFSA: $11277 (-.01%)

Um, my TFSA portfolio is not very exciting, but that’s okay I’m not selling these guys anytime soon. I still have about $2700 contribution room and am thinking of moving my non-registered to the TFSA, or wait until January and move it then.
I have yet to see a “dripped” EIF stock in my account (hello, Questrade if you are reading, where is it?). It has climbed back up nicely though from its low.
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade in 2009 and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I got my winter tires put on and am ready to rock and roll (hopefully not roll) for the snow/winter season

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $298846 (-0.3%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster. Target pay off= 15-17 years.
We got tenants!!!! And they are really nice. Will be posting more about that very soon. Wahoo! BF and I had a long discussion (well heated discussion lol) about paying off our mortgage faster. He doesn’t want to because he wants more cash flow, and I’m kind of okay with this for now since I am only working part time. Hopefully I can change his mind soon.

Credit Card: $1250

I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?). Which reminds me, I need to call and negotiate! Anyone have any luck avoiding the annual fee for the Avion?
Okay you guys were right. No way in hell could I negotiate (despite my best, sweet and innocent negotiation voice) to get the annual fee waived. They said I could REDUCE it, but I still don’t want to pay to use a credit card for its points. We just ended up getting the RBC Gold card instead (the one where you get measly RBC points).

November Net Worth Update: (+1.6%)

young — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:50:17 +0000

$137, 109 (+1.6%)

Let’s see, I have no idea how this became a positive increase of 1.6%, but I won’t question the net worth gods. I had a lot of expenses this month. I paid for my flight to Hawaii for BF’s sisters wedding and I also paid for a portion of my flight to Thailand for February. I finally (you’ll all be proud of me) got my windshield fixed (after being scared into it by a colleague). I haven’t really been going out period, and working part time means I only fill up my gas tank about one every three weeks (sweet!!), so my expense of gas went from $150+ a month to perhaps $50 a month. I also cut down on the cost of my dog food (he was on a special diet that cost $120 a month, now it is down to about $50 a month).

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

ASSETS:

CASH: $10324 (-0.01%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts. I taught him the magic of the email transfer, so hopefully it won’t be so much effort to nag him to put money into our joint account!

I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2400 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa). I’m automatically deducting $100 a month from my bank account into this travel account. I’m about halfway there. If you want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING Account with my orange key: 33530953S1. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $13408 (+7.4%)

I got $60 in dividend income this month (WAHOOOO!!! Passive income retirement here I come!), and BCE climbed up back nicely, as well as FTS. Telus (TU) isn’t doing too shabby either.
The stock market is doing funny things right now and I haven’t been as obsessive about checking my portfolio as I used to be (perhaps being sleep deprived from school makes me less neurotic about my money?)
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic

RRSP: $11764 (+4.3%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I’m not including my defined benefit pension (I didn’t do this for my 2011 net worth updates at all purely due to laziness). Contemplating about whether I should put them back into my networth calculations- what do you think?
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012 (jeepers, 2012 is creeping up already).

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2689 (+3%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
Hmm, just 2 ~~few more~~ months until I can get my money out from my venture mutual fund and invest it elsewhere. Can’t wait!

TFSA: $11381 (+1.01%)

Um, my TFSA portfolio is doing pretty dismally, but that’s okay I’m not selling these puppies anytime soon. I still have about $2700 contribution room and am thinking of moving my non-registered to the TFSA, or wait until January and move it then.
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade in 2009 and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I finally fixed my windshield!!! It cost $200 and it was done really quickly. I even got to borrow the courtesy car and drove it around town without needing to fill it with gas!

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $299681 (-0.3%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster (still no rental income because no tenants LOL!!). Target pay off= 15-17 years.

Credit Card: $502

I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
I basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!) —-> We already got enough points for me to fly to Thailand for a friends wedding in February which will definitely help my poor student status- I calculated that I am saving about $500-600 (I love the Avion card! Especially since its free)
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?). Which reminds me, I need to call and negotiate! Anyone have any luck avoiding the annual fee for the Avion?

October Net Worth Update +0.8%

young — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:38:39 +0000

$134, 931 (+0.8%)

I was super busy this month in terms of schoolwork so I think my spending was at a bare minimum (not even having time to grocery shop, really). I also received my first reduced paycheque, the only consolation is that there is less tax when you’re earning next to nothing, which is nice. I could get used to this less tax thing…

I moved more shares in-kind from my non-registered Questrade account into my TFSA account this month, but just XDV.TO. I took advantage of it being pretty much “at cost” in my non-registered portfolio so I won’t incur any capital gains when selling. I have about $2500 left in my TFSA contribution room for 2011.

I still have some shares in BCE and TU (Bell and Telus) that are in USD that I would like to see in my TFSA but I think I’m just going to let them sit there in the non-registered for now.

I’m really interested in buying HSE.TO (Husky) and Dividend Ninja picked this stock in his Dividend Growth Index as well. However I don’t have much capital at the moment. I’ll need to do some brainstorming to see where I can get the money to get me some Husky.

I sold the old cabinets on craigslist from our renovations and made a cool $350 off of junk, which is a nice feeling. I put that money towards buying BF his birthday gift. I’m glad I didn’t listen to BF when he said to just list it on Craigslist for free. Heh Heh.

Oh and PS Happy Thanksgiving Canada!! I am proud to say I resisted the temptation to go shopping down at the Seattle Outlets, BF ended up going and came back with a cheesecake from Cheesecake etc. for me (yum!)

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

ASSETS:

CASH: $10408 (-14%)

This month we finished paying the contractor for the renovations in their entirety (what a relief) and then I paid my tuition.
Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts
I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2300 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa). I’m automatically deducting $100 a month from my bank account into this travel account. I’m about halfway there. If you want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING Account with my orange key: 33530953S1. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $12, 488 (-16.5%)

I think in my last post, I hadn’t included the transfer of my shares in CYH and CPD from my nonregistered account to my TFSA account. I also transferred XDV this month too.
The stock market is doing terribly as well (though it wasn’t much of a difference from when I checked this time last month)
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic

RRSP: $11279 (+0.3%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012 (jeepers, 2012 is creeping up already).

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2600 (-3.4%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
Hmm, just 2 ~~few more~~ months until I can get my money out from my venture mutual fund and invest it elsewhere. Can’t wait!

TFSA: $11, 263 (+44.2%)

Happy to report I finally got my butt in gear and sent off my request to start a DRIP with Questrade for EIF… ~~HOWEVER, it’s been a month and I haven’t seen any DRIPPING action yet. Gotta ask Questrade about that one.~~
I asked Questrade FINALLY and they said they will start DRIPPING as now. It had been two months since I submitted my form… they weren’t able to give me a good explanation to explain the delay.
I added some money to the TFSA and transferred in some non-registered stocks
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade in 2009 and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I got a chip in my car windshield and it turned into a big crack (about the length of a hand). I don’t know how much it will roughly cost to repair the windshield.
Um.. still haven’t done my windshield (talk about a lazy procrastinator)… but I did get an oil change and I did get a new cap for my windshield washer reservoir.

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $300, 514 (-0.4%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster. Target pay off= 15-17 years. The rental has not started yet, perhaps we may be looking at renting it out soon!!! It’s all done and ready to rent. Just need to find tenants now.

Credit Card: $492

I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
I basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!) —-> We already got enough points for me to fly to Thailand for a friends wedding in February which will definitely help my poor student status- I calculated that I am saving about $500-600 (I love the Avion card! Especially since its free)
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?)

September 2011 Net Worth Update (+0.8%)

young — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:31:53 +0000

$133, 736 (+0.8%)

I have NO idea how it managed to squeak out in the positive territory this month since the markets haven’t really improved much. Well, I’m not complaining This will likely be the last green net worth update I’ll see for two years, because I’ll be making substantially less as a full time student and a part-time employee.

Let’s see, I was a busy bee this month. I was able to:

put more money into my TFSA
buy more SLF (hey, the dividend yield is at >5%… ) in my TFSA. I have 98 shares so far and will just need two more to reach the magic number 100, which will give me an annual dividend yield of ~~$432.~~ $144 (Thanks Steve!)
move some shares in-kind from my non-registered account to the TFSA account. I moved my shares in BMO.TO, CPD.TO, and CYH.TO
This gives me less and less TFSA contribution room which makes me feel warm and squishy inside

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:
ASSETS:

CASH: $12021 (+0.1%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts
I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2200 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa). I’m automatically deducting $100 a month from my bank account into this travel account. I’m about halfway there. If you want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING account with my orange key. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $14, 942 (-8%)

It isn’t as bad as it looks. I transferred my BMO shares (I think I only had about 45) and took advantage of the recent lows so that my transfer “in kind” won’t be much of a transfer (hence I will avoid capital gains).
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic

RRSP: $11235 (+1.5%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012 (jeepers, 2012 is creeping up already).

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2689 (-2.6%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
Hmm, just a few more months until I can get my money out from my venture mutual fund and invest it elsewhere. Can’t wait!

TFSA: $7812 (+14.6%)

Happy to report I finally got my butt in gear and sent off my request to start a DRIP with Questrade for EIF… HOWEVER, it’s been a month and I haven’t seen any DRIPPING action yet. Gotta ask Questrade about that one.
I added some money to the TFSA and transferred in some non-registered stocks
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I got a chip in my car windshield and it turned into a big crack (about the length of a hand). I don’t know how much it will roughly cost to repair the windshield. Good thing its on the passenger side My poor baby.
I still haven’t done anything about the crack in my windshield- gotta get on that I suppose Anyone know how much it usually costs to replace a windshield?

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $301, 762 (-0.3%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster. Target pay off= 15-17 years. The rental has not started yet, perhaps we may be looking at renting it out in ~~September.~~ or basically whenever haha.

Credit Card: $504

I haven’t paid for my tuition yet. ‘Nuff said. Deadline is end of September and I’m going to procrastinate until then
I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
I basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!)
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?)

August 2011 Net Worth Update: 132,643 (-0.7%)

young — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:58:01 +0000

$132,643 (-0.7%)

This networth update is brought to you today by the colour RED.

I must admit, I almost didn’t want to do a net worth update this month because I didn’t want to look at the damage August 4 did on my investment accounts. Boy was the damage pretty terrible. I’m still holding strong and haven’t panicked, so that must be a good sign, right?

I haven’t bought any stocks since the beginning of June, but I think I’ll be buying and selling some stocks given the big change in the markets. I’m thinking of loading up while the prices are low on my dividend investments.

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:
ASSETS:

CASH: $12007 (+1.10%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts
I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $2050 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa) within 1-2 years. If you want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING account with my orange key. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $16,2223 (-11%)

Um… one word. “OUCH”.
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic (even though our dollar is high now)
I’m surprised this is in the somewhat positive territory this month as stocks have continued to take a beating. I didn’t add to any positions this month or buy any more stocks.

RRSP: $11068 (-2.6%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012.

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2761 (-3%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
Wow… this month, I was quite astounded as I checked my balance with this venture mutual fund. It went down by 13% in a period of 30 days, when the rest of the market didn’t even drop that much! And I didn’t even get a call or an email from the financial advisor I bought it from to perhaps explain why there has been such a big drop. I think I’ll email her and see what she says. I guess this is another example of why managing your own money and choosing your own investments be it dividend stocks or index funds is the better way to go. Once I hit January 1, 2012 I’m going to move that money elsewhere

TFSA: $6816 (-9.5%)

Um.. double OUCH. The big loser was Sunlife, I am down $450 from my initial investment.
I haven’t gotten off my butt to start a DRIP yet, I need to send some papers to Questrade to start that. The only reason why I haven’t taken advantage of it earlier is because with Questrade, unlike other brokers, you don’t get a discount on the DRIP.
Happy to report I finally got my butt in gear and sent off my request to start a DRIP with Questrade for EIF
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks
I have about $8,000 I can put back in this year to avoid the penalty from our good friends at the Canada Revenue Agency. We are allowed $5000 contribution a year-and this is year 3 of the TFSA, so one can have $15000 in their TFSA. I haven’t contributed any extra to my TFSA account yet.
I haven’t put any more money in, but I am thinking of selling some of my non-registered stocks and putting that money into the TFSA.

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.
I got a chip in my car windshield and it turned into a big crack (about the length of a hand). I don’t know how much it will roughly cost to repair the windshield. Good thing its on the passenger side My poor baby.

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $302,593 (-0.3%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster. Target pay off= 15-17 years. The rental has not started yet, perhaps we may be looking at renting it out in ~~September.~~ or basically whenever haha.

Credit Card: $1139

I bought some text books for school (most of them through Amazon.com and not Amazon.ca because we still get gypped even though our dollar is slightly higher) and it cost me $750. This is for the first term of school. FML.
Last month, I had to balance four credit cards which was a bit overwhelming to say the least (now I know how one can get in trouble with credit cards!), the SPG Amex Card which was coming to and end (and officially ended), the Amex Gold Rewards Card, the MBNA card and the Joint Visa card. Now I’m back at three cards which is much more manageable
I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
I basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!)
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?)

How to Increase your Net Worth

young — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:48:01 +0000

I got an email from a reader (love emails!) asking me to write a blog post about strategies on how I managed to accumulate a net worth of a relatively large amount for a young-ish aged person (I certainly don’t feel young by any means, but I suppose I still am? I’m in my late 20′s). She was wondering whether it was primarily from investing, or was it primarily from saving?

Now, according to The Millionaire Next Door, I am not wealthy for my age by any means, and I am actually below average (about $50,000 off).

From my experience, I believe there are three key ways to consistently increase your net worth. Two of these are part of the financial cleanse series I wrote a while back. Of course one of the ways is to generate more income. But if that isn’t possible, here are some other ways to work with what you got

Write down what you spend your money on:

I remember I started writing down what I spent my money on when I was 17. I had a little note book where I would write every expense down, including lunches out, dinners, the multiple presents I bought for my then loser boyfriend. At the end of the month, I would tally up the amount I spent that month, and evaluate my purchases. I would often be surprised at how quickly things add up. I have been writing down my purchases again recently and am still amazed at how quickly little purchases here and there add up.

The first step is to be aware of where your money is going. Once you’re aware of where you money is going, you will automatically spend time thinking about where you would WANT your money going. I realized quickly that buying gifts for my then boyfriend was adding up big time… so then I stopped smothering him with gifts. Later on, I realized I was spending way too much money eating out and work when I would rather be spending that money elsewhere, so I decided to make my lunches daily and bring it to work.

Write down your net worth goal:

With the same notebook, I would write down the “goal” net worth I would want to achieve by the end of the month. It wasn’t very precise by any means, but it was at least something to shoot for. Back then (like 10 years ago), I would try and save $200 a month from my job as a retail sales associate and spend the rest. When I first started my little net worth book, it started off as $200. As months went by, the numbers kept adding (as I increased the amount of money I wanted to save a month) and it was something like $25,000. Some months I would be over my net worth goal, some months I would be under (wayy under, like during Christmas and boxing day when spending is at an all time high). It seemed to all balance out in the end.

I was very goal oriented as I wanted to save for a down payment, so writing down the net worth goal helped in this aspect. It was something to save my money for. Keeping the bigger picture in mind always helps you with your goals. But breaking down these goals (e.g. every month I would save X amount of money) helps keep the bigger goal in reach. Often, if the goal is too lofty or big or not immediately achievable, I lose sight of it and give up/ procrastinate. However, if I make it small and achievable, achieving it boosts self confidence and helps one continue on the path of the bigger goal.

Make it automatic

When I was 22, I graduated from university and got a job, I finally started to make some real money. I discovered high interest savings accounts and really found them helpful for my saving money strategy. It was a way for me to keep my money separate from my regular chequing account and it provided more difficult access (I couldn’t just get the money out via ATM) to my money. That way, I could see the amount saved up instead of having it in a regular banking account. Making payments to yourself automatically is probably (to me anyway) the most important step. It helps you feel poor (because you don’t have all that money sitting in a chequing account and waiting for you to spend it) and it helps you save up money fast. I am saving up about 25% of my gross income a month by “paying myself first”. It doesn’t have to be 25%, it can be 10% of even $50 amonth. It just adds up and compound interest is your friend

Without money saved up, you can’t really invest. Unless you borrow money investing, which I personally do not do and caution those who are planning to do it. Then again, some people have been quite successful with this strategy as interest income used as leverage for investment income is tax deductible.

Invest it, then forget it?

Because of all the money I was accumulating from paying myself first and paying myself automatically, I wanted it to earn more than 1.25% interest. Therefore, I got involved with some mutual fund advisors and invested large chunks of my hard earned money (like $5000 in each fund) because I expected to have the “projected” yield of 7-8% and have compound interest on my side. I think I ended up losing $7000 of the $15,000 I invested. It was a hard pill to swallow… basically I would have accumulated more money by NOT investing in mutual funds and venture funds and keeping my money “safe” in a high interest savings account… and at the time, losing that money didn’t seem like a big deal to me (not sure what I was thinking!). However, I think that we learn best from making big mistakes. At least I do!

Investing can be scary (at least I feel so!) and there is a lot to learn. I still have a lot of learning to do.

However, what I did was I started investing in index funds like the TD E-series and put in an automatic contribution of $200 a month for my RRSP. That way, you buy some index funds when the market is high, when the market is low, when the market is in-between…. basically you don’t try and “time” the market. It’s a nice way to invest and gives me some piece of mind. You can do a survey to see what kind of investor profile are you and the funds you choose to buy are indicative of your investor personality.

I also bought some Exchange Traded Funds though these would need some re-balancing and active management on your part.

Finally, I started buying some stocks that gave dividends, which is the investment where I re-gained most of the money I have lost. Dividend paying stocks are great and I have fallen in love, though I need to contribute to them regularly to reap the benefits.

So there you have it.

Readers, what do you think? Do you have any “sure-fire” ways to increase your net worth? Do you think its more saving or more investing? What was the biggest financial lesson you learned?

No related posts.

July Networth Update: $133,572 (+0.6%)

young — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:47:54 +0000

$133, 572 (+0.6%)

I’m quite surprised I eeked out in the positive territory this month because it certainly felt pretty rough (again!). We had to pay the property taxes (hurrah to that!), and I spent about $200 in gifts for birthdays and wedding presents. I am finally getting to do my budget and categorizing all my spending in different categories (e.g. groceries, gifts, entertainment etc.) and found that this month, a lot of my spending was on gifts. Perhaps I am being too generous? Am I spending too much on friends? Perhaps I need to have fewer friends I get presents for?

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:
ASSETS:

CASH: $10959 (+2.0%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts
I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $1892 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa) within 1-2 years. If you want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING account with my orange key. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $18153 (+0.6%)

These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic (even though our dollar is high now)
I’m surprised this is in the somewhat positive territory this month as stocks have continued to take a beating. I didn’t add to any positions this month or buy any more stocks.

RRSP: $11392 (+1.3%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012.

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $2843 (-13%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
Wow… this month, I was quite astounded as I checked my balance with this venture mutual fund. It went down by 13% in a period of 30 days, when the rest of the market didn’t even drop that much! And I didn’t even get a call or an email from the financial advisor I bought it from to perhaps explain why there has been such a big drop. I think I’ll email her and see what she says. I guess this is another example of why managing your own money and choosing your own investments be it dividend stocks or index funds is the better way to go. Once I hit January 1, 2012 I’m going to move that money elsewhere

TFSA: $7507 (-2.1%)

This month, my TFSA stocks got hit pretty bad, but I’m holding strong!
I haven’t gotten off my butt to start a DRIP yet, I need to send some papers to Questrade to start that. The only reason why I haven’t taken advantage of it earlier is because with Questrade, unlike other brokers, you don’t get a discount on the DRIP.
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks
I have about $8,000 I can put back in this year to avoid the penalty from our good friends at the Canada Revenue Agency. We are allowed $5000 contribution a year-and this is year 3 of the TFSA, so one can have $15000 in their TFSA. I haven’t contributed any extra to my TFSA account yet.

CAR:

I am not counting this in my net worth, because it’s 11 years old.

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $303435 (-0.3%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster. Target pay off= 15-17 years. The rental has not started yet, perhaps we may be looking at renting it out in September. We’re still not finished renovations, believe it or not!

Credit Card: $1449

This month, I had to balance four credit cards which was a bit overwhelming to say the least (now I know how one can get in trouble with credit cards!), the SPG Amex Card which was coming to and end (and officially ended), the Amex Gold Rewards Card, the MBNA card and the Joint Visa card. Now I’m back at three cards which is much more manageable
I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
I basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!)
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?)

youngandthrifty June 2011 Net Worth Update

young — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:31:22 +0000

$132, 751 (+0.9%)

This month was pretty horrible in terms of spending. There are many reasons for this- these include a lump sum payment for the car insurance this month (I refuse to pay the auto insurance company interest if I were to pay monthly), $500 for the window treatments (went with Venetian blinds due to the potential toxicity of PVC faux wood blinds), and finally being dragged to a warehouse sale which I have sworn to myself to stay away from.

Warehouse sales are evil. They even had my beloved Hudson jeans (retail $150+) for only $60! Impulse buying, deep discounts, final sales, pressure= all a bad mix which often results in buyer’s remorse. I went in there expecting not to buy anything but of course ended up buying some dresses (dresses + warehouse sale = my kryptonite in terms of frugality). I bought three dresses and one clutch for $260. It was only going to be $140, but the sales lady offered to give me an extra 50% off the warehouse price for this dress I really had my eye on (everything else was 50% off, except for this particular brand at the warehouse sale). She was the buyer for that brand, so she offered to give me a discount. Ugh…

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

ASSETS:

CASH: $10743 (-0.5%)

Boyfriend and I have a joint account which our mortgage is deducted from, and our own personal accounts
I added up my chequing and savings accounts (High Interest Savings Account). I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
I have $1692 saved up for my goal of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa) within 1-2 years. If you want to help contribute to my personal lifelong dream, feel free to sign up for an ING account with my orange key. You’ll get $25 if you start an account with $100, and I will get $25 too.

STOCKS: $18037 (+4.7%)

I realize that I forgot to include my shares of a stock I shared with my mother (it was before I had my own brokerage account) in my net worth update since December 2010! So I’ve added it and made a note to include it from now on.
These are stocks that capture the “moment in time”, including unrealized gains or losses in my BMO Investorline and Questrade accounts. I added up USD and CAD stocks as “Canadian” money to be simplistic (even though our dollar is high now)

RRSP: $11241 (+1.3%)

This includes the pre-authorized monthly contribution into my TD E-Series account, a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
~~I have about $700 contribution room left to max out my RRSP for 2011.~~ The RRSP is maxed out for this year. I am seriously thinking about maxing out my TFSA instead (read my TFSA vs RRSP great debate over here) from now on, as I will expect to have defined benefit pension when I retire.
I owe about $16,000 to myself in my RRSP because I used the Home Buyers Plan, but I won’t have to start repaying until 2012.

OTHER INVESTMENTS: $3234 (-2.3%)

If you’re wondering what I hold in my Other investments- check out my post long story
I have some investments that were poor choices (I signed up for them before I became self “edumacated”) that were losing money big time. In order to receive a tax credit, I got persuaded into buying some flow through shares, Venture investments that gave out a tax credit, and some more mutual funds about four or five years ago.
This lonely mutual fund hasn’t been moving much, unlike the rest of the market. Once I hit January 1, 2012 I’m going to move that money elsewhere

TFSA: $7670 (-2%)

I bought some more Exchange Income Corporation (about a 7.8% annual dividend yield) and Sunlife (4.8% annual dividend yield) this month. A reader suggested I start DRIPing some shares to maximize dividends, so I am looking into this.
I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade and my TFSA consists 100% of stocks
I have about $8,000 I can put back in this year to avoid the penalty from our good friends at the Canada Revenue Agency. We are allowed $5000 contribution a year-and this is year 3 of the TFSA, so one can have $15000 in their TFSA.

CAR:

I forked over $1500 for my auto insurance. I should probably look into some alternative auto insurance providers, now that I have more than 10 years of driving experience under my belt (it is said that the Crown Corporation of ICBC is better for young drivers, whereas alternative auto insurance providers are better for people who have good driving records and are older)

PRINCIPLE RESIDENCE: $387,500

I know this it does not make any sense to divide the principle residence and mortgage debt by 50%, but since I cannot disclose my boyfriend’s financial information, I will do it this way to simplify things. Some of you may not agree to that, and I understand.
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, and many people predict that there will be a housing collapse, especially in a place where their is such a disparity between income and housing price. The Vancouver market was actually quite unscathed compared to the depressed housing markets elsewhere, and many people believe it is sorely due for a correction.
We plan to live in this house for 5-10 years or even more, and we are prepared to “suck it up” if it corrects by more than 25%. Our house is in a favourable location in the city, and our neighbours have sold recently for about 30% more than what we paid for our house.

LIABILITIES:

Mortgage Debt: $304248 (-0.3%)

It’s an accelerated bi-weekly payment (-4 years from amortization) and we plan to add on what we get from our rental downstairs to pay the mortgage off faster. Target pay off= 15-17 years.

Credit Card: $2339

This huge credit card bill is thanks to my friends at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia for my yearly auto insurance.
I pay off my full amount every month (and folks, it’s VERY important you do so otherwise you’re losing out on a 19% return!) but include it in my net worth update so I have an accurate picture of my actual net worth. I sort of think “If I were to sell everything right now, what would my net worth be?” I guess I shouldn’t put it in the liabilities column since i pay it off regularly, BUT in mint.com it’s under the liability column so I’ll do the same.
I basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!)
I got the SPG AMEX card and unfortunately the fun has come to an end- I switched to another Amex card (to be announced…!).
BF and I got the Royal Bank Avion Infinite Card as our joint credit card (free for one year since we have a mortgage with RBC! So will be using it and letting you how I like it- I would of course never pay $170 a year for this, but since it’s free for one year, why not?)