Net Worth: September 2010
$117231 (+ 2.3%)
This month, my major purchase was the $530 for the flight to Hawaii. I did splurge at a local clothing store during their summer clearance and spent $200 on two pairs of jeans (actually-one pair of jeans and one pair of jeggings lol) , one pair of jean shorts, one skirt, one tank, and one silk top. Everything was about 70% off and I only do this about twice a year or less. I’d say $200 is not too shabby for six items of clothing.
I was quite pleased with my net worth calculation this month- almost thought I was over $100,000 (albeit by $10) but realized I forgot to include my mastercard balance. Without the pension and with the mastercard and amex balances, I’m at $99,677… almost over $100,000. Even closer this month! Hopefully by next month (I should be able to save $323 next month lol) I’ll be hitting 100K. Then after that I’ll set my new target to 1,000,000 (haha yeah right- maybe realistically the next target I’ll aim at is 150k).
Okay, so here’s the breakdown:
ASSETS:
CASH: $34287(+5.7%)
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I added up my chequing and savings account (High Interest Savings Account).
- I have a new ING automatic savings account where I put away $100 a month in lieu of giving $32 a month to the pet insurance company- when they keep on denying my poor doggy’s claims. ING gave $100 just for opening up an automatic savings account and funding it with $100 a month until March 2011.
- I automatically deduct money from my chequing account and have it siphoned to the HISA account (paying yourself first)
STOCKS: $22368 (+2.5%)
- I socked away an extra $750 I had to buy some more ECA.TO with Questrade during that huge dip in the market last month. Not only am I paying myself first, I’m paying myself last lol
- This month was b-l-o-o-d-y in the markets with many new 52 week lows being set
- Hopefully September will pick up- it seems to have had, so far. Let more good times roll.
- These are stocks that captures 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 (which is about a 5% difference right now)
RRSP: $22595 (+1.6%)
- This includes some emerging market mutual funds (BRIC), the monthly deduction from my HISA into my TD E-Series account (primarily bonds), a GIC in my ING Direct Account and my new Questrade RRSP account.
- I hope to max out the $25,000 and withdraw for my first home purchase with this amount saved with the RRSP home buyers plan
- I funded my Questrade RRSP account with some cash (making sure not to go over my allowed amount for this year’s RRSP contribution), but when I set up the electronic fund transfer from my main bank, I accidentally paid the wrong account number! So am waiting a few weeks am still waiting to clear that up before I make purchases in my new RRSP account.. My money is missing!! I’ve been trying to contact Questrade and BMO and its been a pain in the butt to say the least.. hopefully this will be fixed before next month.
- I haven’t bought anything with the extra money I funded this year yet, but plan to get some bond ETF’s.
- I still have $400 to contribute before the end of the year for my RRSP contributions which I plan to do after they find the $300 that I deposited first (insert eye roll).
PENSION: $17554 (+2.1%)
- How I calculated it: I took my pension statement and added my monthly contributions from my pay cheque to reflect this month’s pension amount. I’m not including my employer’s contributions in my pension calculation.
OTHER: $10629 (-1.2%)
- 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 are 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.
- These guys haven’t been moving much, unlike the rest of the market. Once I break even with one of the venture funds, I’m gonna get the heck out. Yuck! These other investments stick out like a sore thumb. =(
TFSA: $11379(+0.8%)
- $5250 Principal protected through an HSBC fund investment (+6%) from inception (TFSA of 2009)
- $6038 For my 2010 TFSA, I signed up for a Tax Free Trading Account with Questrade and I bought lots of income trusts and am having some yummy monthly distributions roll in until they incorporate the income trusts in 2011.
- My 2010 TFSA is up over 20.1% ROI this year (including distributions)–awesome!
- I looked up which ones are incorporating and which ones aren’t
CAR:
- I’m not going to bother counting the car as an asset. It’s 10 years old and I’m planning to drive it to the ground.
LIABILITIES:
CREDIT CARD: $1581
- 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 basically charge everything to my card to reap the benefits (free flights and hotel stays here I come!)
- I got the SPG AMEX card for a few months already and have been using it as often as I can (compared to the MBNA travel elite card) but American Express isn’t accepted everywhere here in Canada…I’ve been getting used to the “Oh, sorry, we don’t take American Express”.
Congrats! Hawaii is super nice. We were there in April (my first time) and loved it. Even though Waikiki is a bit touristy, it’s good if you can’t sit on the beach every day. Just resist the temptation of the designer shops.
The $5 shuttle (return trip) to the Waikele Outlet is worth it. Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay is ok, but get out on a boat instead if you can…
@Tiny Potato- Oooh Outlet. I’m there! I don’t think I’ve been to that outlet- is that the premier outlets? I remember there were lots of good shops there. I think we took a bus there last time- didn’t know there was a shuttle. I’ll look into it, thanks! We’re going to go on one of those breakfast buffet sail boats (Makani? I think) it’s included in the Go Oahu card.
Congrats! Although Im confused, is your net worth 117K or 99.9K?
HAwaii rocks! I know all about Hawaii. Will go check out your other post.
@Financial Samurai- Thanks! My net worth WITH the pension is 117K, but without the pension it’s 99.9K. I didn’t want to include the pension in the first place because it’s not like I’m going to see it anytime soon, but seems like everyone else does it so I went along and started adding it to my net worth.
Yeah, I remember you went to the North Shore in Hawaii the other day. I was just planning the itinerary last night to utilize the Go Oahu card to the max- and am getting more and more excited. Can’t wait for the garlic shrimp. Yum!
Nice work this month, even with a bit of a shopping spree
I didn’t use the RRSP Home Buyers Plan, how does it work if you have multiple RRSP accounts?
@Echo- Gooood question! I would assume that as long as I have the funds in the RRSP accounts for more than 90 days before I withdraw from them, I can contribute back the following years as long as it’s 1/15th of the amount that I take out. I would think that the gov’t looks at it the same way it would look at a contribution (just keep track of them and tally them up).
Congrats on the net worth!
Never been to Hawaii (yet), should be a great trip for you!
Well done increasing your net worth! It must be nice to had practically no debt
Are you really sure you want to buy a house 
@The Passive Income Earner- It is nice to not be in debt =) Yeah, I want to get in on a piece of that land before there’s no more land (hehe, just saw the link you pointed to in the Vancouver Sun- Two Million Reasons why Vancouver Real Estate is so high)
Hi Young,
I’ll have to remember to ask you where to stay in Hawaii when we go in a year or two!
I have to say, you amaze me the way that you frugally travel and still you net worth hangs in there and increases!
Very impressive!
@Money Reasons- Sounds good. I’ll try and remember all the ‘hot spots’ =) Yup- I don’t really spend much on anything else, really. But I imagine that if I were to forgo the traveling, I would probably save about $5000-$6000 more a year. But I’m not willing to do that because it’s my life blood.
Great job. I’m very impressed with the balance that you have – and with how much cash you managed to save!
@Khaleef- Thanks! Patting me on my back makes me want to save even more! I guess that’s positive reinforcement lol.. I love this blog!
I love this post. You set your goal and finally achieved it. I’m sure you’ll reach your $1 million goal one day. Congrats on the $100,000
you have a huge cash position – any particular reason for not keeping it in a money-market fund?
also you may want to look at ally bank’s savings account – they are at 2% now (and been for a while now), I’m not sure what you are getting at ING, but I think it trails around 1.5% now…
@Alex- Yeah, I know I have a huge cash position. I guess I just like it for accessibility. I’m just building it up for now as I’m saving it up for a down payment in the near future. I know Ally is pretty good. I went with ING because they give me those bonuses (like $25 or $100 for doing preauthorized transfers). I also use manulife (which traditionally pays lower interest, but I’m a MFC.TO owner lol so I want to support my investment, and I’m too lazy to change to Ally!)
yea, if you have plans on it – it makes sense to keep the cash.
manulife has this great manulife one account in case you have loans/mortgage – it works as chequing/loan account and gets you pretty efficient with the repayment.