12/16/2019

Neighbour Joe - December 2019 Net Worth


Here is my net worth for December 2019.

Asset
Chequing: $311.96
TFSA Investment: $105,942.34(Market Value)
RESP: $4,051.82 (Market Value)
Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)

Real Estate Rental Property: $200,000 (Purchase Price of the house)
Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $118,942.14

Rental Mortgage: $195,272

*Credit Card is paid in full every month


Last Net Worth Update: $369,917.66 
Current Net Worth: $373,091.98 (+0.86%)

Passive Income
TFSA Passive Income: $3,774.92/Year or $312.08/Month 

11/10/2019

Neighbour Joe - November 2019 Net Worth



Here is my net worth for November 2019.

Asset
Chequing: $321.10
TFSA Investment: $103,734.37(Market Value)
RESP: $3,709.19 (Market Value)
Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)

Real Estate Rental Property: $200,000 (Purchase Price of the house)
Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $119,253

Rental Mortgage: $195,594

*Credit Card is paid in full every month


Last Net Worth Update: $364,930.51
Current Net Worth: $369,917.66 (+1.37%)

Passive Income
TFSA Passive Income: $3,574.64/Year or $297.89/Month (TFSA only, RESP and rental property not included)

10/02/2019

Neighbour Joe - October 2019 Net Worth


Here is my net worth for October 2019. Last month I put some money into my TFSA and invested into Canopy Growth (TSX: WEED) as well as TD Bank (TSX: TD). The market was doing well in September but as soon as we entered October it has been on a decline. Hope you are enjoying the fall weather. 

Asset
Chequing: $650.41
Savings: $610.53
TFSA Investment: $98,826.87(Market Value)
RESP: $2,804.00 (Market Value)
Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)

Real Estate Rental Property: $200,000 (Purchase Price of the house)
Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $119,554.40

Rental Mortgage: $195,914.90

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $363,756.24
Current Net Worth: $364,930.51 (+0.32%)

Passive Income
TFSA Passive Income: $3,574.64/Year or $297.89/Month (TFSA only, RESP and rental property not included)

9/18/2019

How setup a low cost RESP?


Hello, today I'll be writing about RESP and how you can open and manage your own RESP to avoid paying a hefty management fee. First off, for those that don't know what RESP is, it stands for Register Education Saving Plans. Like the name suggests, it helps with parents saving for their kid's education fund. There are two big benefits to this plan, the first is that the gains are not taxed if the money is used for education. The second benefit is the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), which is the government's contribution to the RESP. The government will contribute a maximum of $600 into the RESP depending on your income and contribution.

For more information with regards to CESG, you can find it on the CRA website. Here is the link: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/registered-education-savings-plans-resps/canada-education-savings-programs-cesp/canada-education-savings-grant-cesg.html  

There is also a lifetime contribution limits of $50,000, again I'll suggest you check out the CRA website for all the information.

Opening an RESP
Well, first of all, you must be a parent to open an RESP. Sorry, if you are just planning to become a parent, the government won't let you plan that far ahead. Once your child is born then you can go to any organization that can sell investment or securities and open an RESP account. I myself opened an RESP Direct Investing account through my bank, similar to what I did for my TFSA. A lot of people think that just because it's an RESP you have to go through some education mutual fund company. However, you can buy individual stocks, ETF or index fund within an RESP account. Banks will never tell you that option because they'll want to sell you one of their mutual fund for your RESP, therefore you'll have to specifically ask for a direct investment account.

Why do you want to do this? Because this way you can invest in a low-cost index fund for your RESP instead of a high-cost mutual fund. One of the RESP funds I saw had an annual management fee of 3% compared that to an index fund where the management fee is around 0.05-0.5%.

Managing your RESP
There isn't much management to be done, once you have an account open, set up for an automatic monthly contribution of $210, this will max out the government's contribution. Then you can go in every month to buy a low-cost index fund, mine is currently invested with the TD e-series Index funds. Then in a few months time, you'll see the government's contribution automatically being put into your account. I usually spend 5 minutes a month managing the RESP, so it is completely doable for any parents.

Watch it Grow
Then now you can sit back and watch your child and the RESP grow for the next 18 years.


9/16/2019

Tips to reduce monthly expenses!


Here are some cost-saving tips that I have learned over the years. My post about my monthly budget also talked about a few cost-saving tips that my wife and I use.
  1. Utilities Cost Doesn't matter if you rent or own a house you'll still need to pay for utilities. Depending on where you are living the price of utilities vary drastically (i.e Ontario vs Alberta). The thing about utilities is that the less you use the less you paid. A very obvious statement that a lot of people fail to use to their advantage. Here are a few things that usually cost you the most but are easy to cut back on:
    1. Heating - Setting your house to a high temperature so that you can wear a T-Shirt around the house in the winter is a very costly habit. A few degrees less can save you big time over the span of winter.
    2. Shower - Taking a long shower does two things, uses water and uses electricity or gas to heat up the water. Just remember that it is not just the water you are using but also the boiler for the hot water.
    3. Dishwasher - Dishwasher is the same as shower, it uses hot water for washing then electricity for drying the dishes. Set your dishwasher for air dry if possible, it'll take a little longer to dry but will use less electricity.
  2. Auto Insurance A very simple cost-saving measure is to increase your deductible on your insurance. This means that if you ever decide to claim insurance you'll have to pay more out of pocket for your repairs. If you think about it, most people don't claim insurance for the minor incident and when you require major repairs the cost will be much higher than your deductible. Also, remember your insurance policy gets taxed so having a more expensive plan means paying more tax. Increase your deductible, pay less tax and save the difference. 
  3. Internet/Cables You don't need the fastest internet available unless you have a lot of people living with you. The cheapest plan is often enough for all your internet needs such as Netflix or gaming. If you need more then upgrade to a better plan after. As for TV, I realize that a lot of on-demand option such as Netflix or Sports TV subscription will still end up being much cheaper than a cable package.
  4. Repair > Replace When something breaks in your house you can either repair it or replace it. Sadly a lot of people opt for the latter and end up spending way more than they need to. I remember when my refrigerator broke my first instinct was to get a new one to replace it. After some research on Google, I was able to diagnosis the problem and end up buying a replacement part for $70. If you try to replace things when they break then you will spending a lot of money.
I'll share more saving tips whenever I discover them myself. Feel free to comment if you have any saving tips that you'll like to share.

9/09/2019

TFSA vs RRSP



Hello everyone, today I am going to write about Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) vs Registered Retirement Savings Plan. A lot of people I've spoken to knows about the two products but don't truly understand the difference between them. To start off, the ultimate aim of these products is to promote you to save money by giving you tax incentive.

9/01/2019

Neighbour Joe - September 2019 Net Worth


Here is my net worth for September 2019.

Asset
Chequing: $2,009.60
Savings: $2,010.53
TFSA Investment: $96,040.11(Market Value)
RESP: $2,804.00 (Market Value)
Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)

Real Estate Rental Property: $200,000 (Purchase Price of the house)
*Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*Have not been updated since the start of this blog.
**Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $119,864

Rental Mortgage: $196,235

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $359,147.97
Current Net Worth: $363,765.24 (+1.29%)

Passive Income
TFSA Passive Income: $3,365.42/Year or $280.45/Month (TFSA only, RESP and rental property not included)

8/12/2019

Neighbour Joe - Return on Assets

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Hello everyone, today I am going to be calculating a popular ratio used by security analysts when evaluating a company, on my personal finance. The return on assets (ROA) ratio is a quick measurement to show how well the company generate income from its assets. You take the net income and divided by the total assets. My assets were all layout in my latest net worth update post. Let us begin:

Total Assets - $522,845 (As of August 2019)

For the total assets, I did not include my define benefit pension because it will make this calculation very complicated. I contribute to it monthly, but it'll be tough to find out exactly how much monthly income the portfolio is currently generating.

Income (As of August 2019)

TFSA Investment - $3267.33/Year
RESP Investment - $51/Year

Rental Income - $8,880/Year
Rental Expense
Insurance - $588/Year
Property Tax - $1,504/Year
Mortgage Interest - $7,172/Year

Net: $2,934.33

For income, I am strictly focusing on passive income, since employment income is generated by me, and I did not include myself in the total assets.

ROA Ratio: 0.56%

Insights
Not a bad ratio, since TD Bank's latest ROA, is at 0.88%. Anyway, one thing I learned from going through this calculation is that my rental property is actually not generating income for me right now. That's the price you pay for doing 100% debt financing on the house. I am about $300 in the red right now, but it won't stay that way for long, the rent increases every year, and the interest expense decreases every year. In a year time, I should be breaking even and into the positive.

Hopefully, as I continue on this journey, I'll be able to make better use of my assets and start increasing my return on assets ratio.



8/03/2019

Neighbour Joe - August 2019 Net Worth


Here is the net worth update for August 2019. The market is very volatile this year, which has caused my net worth to fluctuated quite drastically on month by month basis. Overall, my monthly employment income is still the most significant contributor to my net worth increase. I have also started tracking my rental property in my net worth. I've had the property for a year now but never got around to putting it into my spreadsheet. The rental property is a partnership between my parents and me. They didn't have the income to qualify for a mortgage, so I took on the debt while they put down the equity. Cost and profit are shared accordingly.

Asset
Chequing: $1,498.38
Savings: $1,210.48
TFSA Investment: $93,360.57(Market Value)
RESP: $2,776.01 (Market Value)
*Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)

NEW*Real Estate Rental Property: $200,000 (Purchase Price of the house)
*Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*These have not been updated since the start of this blog.
**Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $120,769.98

NEW Rental Mortgage: $196,533.81

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $355,996.77
Current Net Worth: $359,147.97 (+0.89%)

Passive Income
Current Passive Income: $3,267.33/Year or $272.28/Month (TFSA only, RESP and rental property not included)


7/01/2019

Neighbour Joe - July 2019 Net Worth



Happy Canada Day! Here is the net worth update for July 2019.

Asset
Chequing: $2,228.21
Savings: $2,705.30
TFSA Investment: $92,569.79(Market Value)
RESP: $2,263.41 (Market Value)
*Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
*Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*These have not been updated since the start of this blog.
**Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $120,769.98

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $353,583.24
Current Net Worth: $355,996.77 (+0.68%)

Passive Income
Current Passive Income: $3,213.81/Year or $267.82/Month

6/19/2019

Beginner's Guide to Mortgage



Hi, today I am going to talk about mortgage and things to consider when getting a new mortgage. Since my near term goal is to pay off my mortgage within three years, I figure it only makes sense to do a post about mortgage. OK, so what is a mortgage? It's a fancy term for a loan to allow you to buy a house, meaning you are borrowing money. Mortgage is a big business and banks love them. Let's just think about this, when you get a mortgage, you pretty much are sharing ownership of the house with the bank since they, in theory, are buying the house for you. In return you pay interest and you assume almost all the risk for that property. There is a reason why you must have home insurance on your home or else the bank will not give you the loan. If you stop paying your monthly payments then the bank will come and evict you from the house, this is known as foreclosure. Intro asides, let us get into the process of getting a mortgage.

6/01/2019

Neighbour Joe - June 2019 Net Worth


Networth update for June.

Asset
Chequing: $1,777.14
Savings: $2,705.30
TFSA Investment: $90,912.50 (Market Value)
RESP: $1,958.28 (Market Value)
*Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
*Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*These have not been updated since the start of this blog.
**Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $120,769.98

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $358,246.53
Current Net Worth: $353,583.24(-1.35%)

Passive Income
Current Passive Income: $3,213.81/Year or $267.82/Month

A drop in net worth this month had to spend around $2400 on tuition for my MBA. Also, my portfolio dropped this month due to a few bad earnings reports and the on-going trade tension between the US and China. 

5/27/2019

Asset Management: Putting your money to work!


Assets management is an important skill you must learn during your journey. You must develop the mindset of money as your workers, and you are their manager. Just like at any job, the manager gives tasks for workers to perform. Therefore you must do the same thing with your money.

5/23/2019

Why is car a horrible asset class?

If you've been following my monthly net worth updates, you'll know that I don't include my car as an asset. This is done on purpose to highlight my belief that car is not a wealth building assets. I've also talked in a previous post on what I consider good assets.

5/20/2019

Things to do during your journey to financial independence


Starting your journey to financial independence can be very exciting at first, tracking your monthly cash flow, seeing your net worth change, learning about investing, and even planning what to do with all your wealth once you've accumulated them. After the initial excitement, you'll probably start wondering what else is there to do? Today I am going to share things that I've been doing since I started this journey to keep the excitement alive.

5/09/2019

Why you actually make less than minimum wage!


So I've recently read a book called "Your
Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robin, it's a personal finance book about how to become FI (Financial Independent). It layout a 9 step program on how to achieve FI, which I am proud to say that I've been doing a lot of the steps already. One of them was tracking your net worth and your monthly cash flow. I use an app called Mint to track my cash flow, it can be linked to your bank account and credit card so you have a dashboard of all your finance. You can then login to their website and it gives you a history of your monthly cash flow, it is very cool especially if you love looking a past statistic of your finance like me.

Anyway, back to my topic today, in this book one of the steps was to find out your true hourly wage. The reason for the exercise was to make you realize what your time is truly worth and give you a different perspective about working.

5/01/2019

Neighbour Joe - May 2019 Net Worth

Time for another monthly Net Worth update.

Asset
Chequing: $2,685.62
Savings: $6,515.11
TFSA Investment: $91,285.85 (Market Value)
RESP: $2,039.45 (Market Value)
*Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
**Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*These have not been updated since the start of this blog.
**Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $121,099.50

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $347,353
Current Net Worth: $358,426.53(+3.2%)

Passive Income
Current Passive Income: $2,940.24/Year or $245/Month

Quite an increase this month for my net worth. A few factors contributed to this increase, a large tax return from CRA, investment performance, and aggressive savings. Also reached a small milestone this month, this is the first month since I started this journey that my liquid assets, which is all my assets minus real estate and pension, is over $100,000. My next milestone will be when my liquid assets become greater than my liabilities. These milestones are important for motivation and momentum purpose.

4/16/2019

Neighbour Joe - Current Investment Portfolio

Today I am going to a quick summary of my investment portfolio. The last time I posted about my portfolio was back in 2017, shortly after this blog started. In the past two years, I have read a lot of books about investing and my current strategy is very different from what I posted in 2017. My current strategy is based on the focus value investing embraced by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Basically, you find a good company that is undervalued and you go heavy on it. Your portfolio should be focused so that you maximize the gain from your winners. Personally, I am trying to keep a portfolio of around 10 companies. Here is a picture of my current portfolio.

Most of my holdings are dividend paying company with a few growth companies. A majority of the company are big and well-known because, in my opinion, it indicates that it is a successful and established company. Feel free to use my portfolio as a starting point to build your own wealthy portfolio, just make sure to do your own research.

4/08/2019

Two years into the journey and time for a quick summary

It's been two years since this blog started along with my journey to wealth. Just figure this will be a good time to summarize my progress and what I have learned in the past two years.

Net Worth
So I've plotted out my net worth on excel and added a 3-year linear projection trend line. For my initial net worth, I added in my pension value into it so the data makes more sense. From the trendline I should be well on my way to half a million net worth in the next 5 years, guess we'll wait and see. 

Net Worth April 2017: $265,905
Net Worth April 2019: $347,353 (+30%)

It's been a pretty good two years, my investment portfolio did exceptionally well which gave me a good boost in my net worth. I've also been saving my income more diligently which helps a lot.


What I have learned?
One of the big things I learned is that getting rich is simple but requires a lot of discipline and effort. It's very similar to getting fit, there is no shortcut, you just need to work out often. Similarly, to grow your wealth, you just need to save more and invest your money wisely. The journey to wealth is not a sprint but a slow long marathon.

From an investment perspective, I am starting to learn about income investing and value investing which is a little more complicated than index investing. Starting to understand the ownership perspective in investing rather than from a trader/speculator's perspective and to think long term investing.

Summary
After starting this journey I have read a lot of books and blogs on personal finance, listened to a few podcasts and become more in tune with my money than ever before. I have shared my passion for personal finance, investment and early retirement with whoever wanted to listen. After two years, I would say that I am truly passionate about personal finance.

4/03/2019

Neighbour Joe - April 2019 Net Worth

Time for another monthly Net Worth update.

Asset
Chequing: $800
Savings: $1,505
TFSA Investment: $87,734 (Market Value)
RESP: $1,749 (Market Value)
**Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
**Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)
**These have not been updated since the start of this blog.

Liabilities
Mortgage: $121,435

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $342,217
Current Net Worth: $347,353(+1.1%)

Passive Income
Current Passive Income: $2,308/Year or $192/Month

So starting this month, my wife and I have decided to try to save 50% of our take-home income, which translates to around $2,300 a month in savings. Hopefully, by doing this we'll be able to achieve financial independence quicker and retire early. 

3/20/2019

Neighbor Joe - Passive Income March 2019 - $2,308/Year

Here is my latest passive income updates. I have reshuffle my portfolio to be more defensive, dividends and blue chip stock focus. I won't write out the details of my portfolio but will just provide a screenshot of my income page from my investment account.



My account is setup for DRIP, which means that dividends if possible are reinvested for addition share of that company. For example, every quarter, the dividend from Fortis (TSE:FTS) buys me two additional share of Fortis. If you want to learn more about DRIP, check out my post here.

November 2019 ($1704/Year):
http://www.slowlybutwealthy.com/2018/11/neighbor-joe-passive-income-november.html 

February 2018 (1577/Year):
http://www.slowlybutwealthy.com/2018/02/neighbour-joe-february-2018-157733year.html

December 2017 ($1463/Year):
http://www.slowlybutwealthy.com/2017/12/neighbor-joe-passive-income-update.html 

Original Post ($1024/Year):
http://www.slowlybutwealthy.com/2017/10/neighbor-joe-passive-income-1024year.html

3/12/2019

Neighbour Joe - March 2019 Net Worth

Here is my latest and greatest net-worth update as of today 13 March 2019.

Asset
Chequing: $1,146
Savings: $1,005
TFSA Investment: $84,830 (Market Value)
RESP:$1,304 (Market Value)
**Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
**Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)
**These have not been updated since the start of this blog.

Liabilities
Mortgage: $121,764

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $336,139
Current Net Worth: $343,521(+2.2%)

As you can since, in comparison to last month's breakdown, I have shifted focus from paying down my mortgage to max out my TFSA. Also, since I have recently opened a DIY RESP, I'll putting a post together later this month to give some simple advice on RESP. I'll also be providing an update on my passive income as I have recently shuffle up my portfolio to focus more on defensive stock. Here was my last passive income update.

2/04/2019

Neighbour Joe - February 2019 Net Worth

Here is my latest and greatest net-worth update.

Asset
Chequing: $1,669
TFSA Investment: $78,528 (Market Value)
RESP:$1050 (Market Value)
Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
Define Benefit Work Pension (Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $122,113

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $330,549
Current Net Worth: $336,139

A year ago, I posted my net worth updates, my net worth at that time was $309,498.04. Therefore in a year, I was able to increase my net worth by $26,641 which translate to about an 8% increases. Not a significant increase but still an increase regardless.

1/28/2019

2019 Financial Goal

Picture from my trip to Mt Kilimanjaro in 2015
Today I am going to share with you my financial goal for 2019, maybe you can copy my goal or use this post to inspire your own financial goal. I've been reading a lot of books, article, and web pages on personal finance the more I am moving away from dumping all extra money into my mortgage. Therefore, in 2019, my financial goal is to max out my contribution room in both mines and my wife's TFSA and contribute the max amount for RESP to get the full government grant. I think I have about $10,000 of contribution room and my wife about $20,000. For those that don't know, you can check how much contribution room you have by logging into your CRA account at https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency.html.

While we are on the topic of goal setting, there is an acronym that you can use for goal setting. SMART, it stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Another way you can approach goal setting is just with the five simple W's. It's been proven that a lot of new year resolutions fail because people are just not good at setting goals. If your goal is to invest more this year then specify how much more, this way you have a measurable end result.

1/21/2019

7 Steps to Getting Rich!

I recently did a 13-hour road trip driving from Toronto to Eastern Canada, and to past the time I decided to listen to 13 hour worth of Dave Ramsey podcast. I learned about Dave Ramsey just from reading other financial blogs and forums. Dave Ramsey is a financial coach who tries to teach people how to get out of debt and start building wealth. He uses a very simple 7 steps system that every one of his audience can follow. Anyway here are his 7 baby step in the picture below. 

Image result for dave ramsey

Before starting any of these steps, it is important to ensure that you have a budget and that your monthly spending doesn't exceed your income. If you can't have a positive monthly cash flow then you'll need to either generate more cash or spend less. Spending less might mean getting a cheaper house or a cheaper car so that your monthly payment is much less.  

Step 1
Pretty straight forward, it literally just means putting aside $1,000 in a normal savings account. That is it, don't need to invest it or anything.

Step 2
This step is to pay off all your debt minus excluding your mortgage using a technique call debt snowball. A very common method to build momentum while paying off debt, you can easily google "debt snowball" and learn about it. 

Step 3
Once all your debt has been paid off, then you put more money into your savings account, this pile of money becomes your emergency fund. Dave's advice is to keep this fund liquid, the point is not to invest and grow this fund. 

Step 4-6
Then a lot of time Dave will suggest doing these three steps simultaneously, his rule of thumb was to invest 15% pre-tax income for retirement. Then with money left over you can choose however you want to split it between saving for a short-term goal (vacation, new car, down-payment, etc.), save for kids college fund, and put extra-payment towards your house. 

Step 7
Once you have your house pay off then he tells people to be generous and give to a cause that matters to them. 

I love the 7 baby step because it's so simple and helps you prioritize what you need to do depending on which step you are currently at. I also like it because it separates a mortgage debt with other debt, in a way it tells people that it is okay to have a mortgage as long as that's your only debt. It definitely took the pressure off me hearing about it, before I put a lot of pressure on myself to be debt free that I was prioritizing mortgage over investment. Now I feel that I can split my money evenly between mortgage, investment, and other savings. A key thing I want to point out is that if you can't invest around 15% of your pre-tax income towards retirement then you'll need to revisit your budget and see where you can cut spending.

1/14/2019

First Net Worth Update of 2019

Happy 2019, January is goal setting months, might be a good time to start getting some good financial goal for the year. I'll share with you all my goal for 2019 in the next few weeks.

Asset
Chequing: $581
TFSA Investment: $75,408
Real Estate: $224,000 (Purchase Price of my house)
Define Benefit Work Pension (Current Transfer Value): ~$153,000 (Last checked in Jul 2017,aprox $1000 a month of contribution)

*Automobile is not included (No monthly car payment)

Liabilities
Mortgage: $122,440

*Credit Card is paid in full every month

Last Net Worth Update: $323,347
Current Net Worth: $330,549