# Starting Our Journey!



## JWC (Nov 6, 2014)

I've started taking control of our finances in the last couple years but often fall off the wagon and stop tracking progress which results in losing motivation and poor spending/savings habits.. I believe starting a thread like this and making monthly updates will keep me on track. So here goes...

Also I'm new to most of this so please feel free to give advice on any part of it! I'm 31, wife is 30. My take home income is varriable ~$100,000. My wife is staying at home with the kids until they go to school. We have a 3 year old and should be having our second child in the next couple weeks. 

*Assets* 
House: $440,000 
RRSP(Through Work): $35,181 (~$14k Canadian Equity, $13K US Equity, $7k International Equity)
RRSP(Through RBC): $35,821 (~$23k Aggressive Growth, $10.6K US Equity, $2.2K Canadian Index)
RRSP(Wife's) : $35,000 (Canadian Resources) 
RRSP(Direct Investing): $8,400 (This is all in TCW. I will probably sell this and move it to a TD e series index fund when the price comes back around)
TFSA(Mine): $1,328 (We took ~$34K from here to finish out basement in 2016)
TFSA(Wife): $25,000
RESP #1: $12,625 
RESP #2: $0 (Will start this as soon as the second child is born)
Emergency Fund: $18,600 ( I plan to take this down to $10k since I plan to top up mt TFSA which could be used as a E fund)
Cheq Account: $5,000 
Kids Savings: $3,926 (Savings account in first child's name)


*Total Assets: $625,381*

*Liabilities:*
Home Mortgage: $293K

*NEW WORTH: $332,381 *

*GOALS:*
-Upgrade Family SUV, looking at $30k ~two year old SUV. Plan is to cash flow plus use some of the E fund money. Then sell the current vehicle ($14K). Date: Aug 1st 2017
-Top up E Fund to $10K, this should pretty much sort itself out with the income I have coming in plus the funds from selling current car. Date: Oct 1st 2017
-Partially Fund TFSA to $20K (Planning to Buy TD CAD Index E-Fund. Date: Apr 1st 2018)
-Fully Fund TFSA to $50K (Planning to Buy TD CAD Index E-Fund. Date: Dec 1st 2018)

I'm currently putting 15% of my net income into RRSP. 8% though work(they match up to 5%) and the remainder through RBC mutual funds with automatic contributions.
I will put additional savings into TFSA using TD E Series CAD Index fund once I get the vehicle upgrade and Emergency fund sorted out.

*Expenses:*:

Groceries	$830.00
Entertainment / Allowance	$100.00
Kids Programs	$100.00
Clothing	$50.00
Electricity / Natural Gas	$300.00
Water	$91.50
Phone / Internet	$90.00
Cell Phone	$70.00
Netflixs	$9.00
Mortgage	$1,456.68
Donations / Giving / Gifts	$100.00
Baby Stuff	$100.00
Home Alarm $56.69
Home Maintenance/Improvement	$50.00
Home Insurance	$70.00
Car Wash / Fuel	$50.00
Sports / Hobby	$200.00
Auto Insurance	$112.00
Auto Maintenance	$20.00
Auto Registration	$7.00

*Total Expenses: $3,863 *

*Investment Contributions / Other Insurances: *

RRSP RBC	$750.00
RESP Kid 1	$210.00
RESP Kid 2	$210.00
RRSP (Through Work) $350/month off cheque	
Life Insurance 3rd Party(mine)	$35.00
Life Insurance Wife	$18.00
Critical Care Kid 1	$5.00
Critical Care Kid 2	$5.00
*Total: $1,233*

Property Taxes are ~$5k Year, I pay these in a lump sum

These Expensses are probably not entirely accurate. I haven't tracked them very well in the past so it will be interesting to see how the budget plays out. Any suggestions on best ways to track spending/budget for a family? Do the apps/sofeware like Mint work ok? Or do most of the CMFers just use a excel sheet? 

Should I switch my RBC mutual funds to TD E series funds to reduce fees?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!


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## cashinstinct (Apr 4, 2009)

Congrats on your journey.

You are counting the mortgage twice
In assets you should put House $440,000
Your net worth is way over 53k.

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Do you work in natural resources sector? Having lots of investment in same sector can be a risk.

TCW means Trican well services stock? You have $8,400 in one stock? Past price does not matter, but how much did you pay?

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You have too many RRSP accounts. Simplify.

For work, ask if you can transfer some account value to your personal RRSP.

You can either use Td e-series or ETFs. You can buy e-series on a predefined schedule automatically with td direct.

Fees are higher on mutual funds.... I would tend to look for alternatives.

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I use Excel spreadsheet to track expenses


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

JWC said:


> I Any suggestions on best ways to track spending/budget for a family? Do the apps/software like Mint work ok? Or do most of the CMFers just use a excel sheet?
> 
> Should I switch my RBC mutual funds to TD E series funds to reduce fees?


1. I use an Excel spreadsheet for my budget. Each month has its own sheet and the 12 sheets are all added up on a totals sheet. Only takes a few minutes at the end of the month to download a .CSV file from the chequing account and then drag and drop the withdrawals into the appropriate slots. Do it for a year and you'll have a very accurate reading on where your money goes.

2. I wouldn't be too quick to reduce your Emergency fund. I would increase it rather than decrease it. The TFSA is presumably your retirement savings - not an emergency fund. Increase your emergency fund until it covers a years expenses. Keep it in an HISA and don't touch it unless it's an emergency. Then refill.

3. I like the TD e-series index funds. No fees to dump your contributions into them. Once they build to a decent amount, then buy an ETF of the same allocation. Rinse and repeat.

ltr


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## JWC (Nov 6, 2014)

cashinstinct said:


> Congrats on your journey.
> 
> You are counting the mortgage twice
> In assets you should put House $440,000
> ...


Thanks for the reply. 

Yes that makes way more sense for the new worth calculation, thank you. You just made me $300K richer! Haha (I will edit my original post)

Yes, I am in the natural resources sector, I was thinking the same thing. My next project will be better understanding my investments and simplifying and diversify my portfolio.

Yes on TCW=Trican. Yes I have that much in one stock, I bought 2300 shares for ~$1200. I really should just sell them, I'm probably just being silly but I don't want to sell yet. 

I agree about the too many RRSP accounts. I set up a TD E Series account a couple months ago. I may start sending my automatic contributions to it and see about moving my work RRSP to the TD funds also to save on fees.


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## JWC (Nov 6, 2014)

like_to_retire said:


> 2. I wouldn't be too quick to reduce your Emergency fund. I would increase it rather than decrease it. The TFSA is presumably your retirement savings - not an emergency fund. Increase your emergency fund until it covers a years expenses. Keep it in an HISA and don't touch it unless it's an emergency. Then refill.
> ltr


That could be something for me to consider, I used to keep $30K in my emergency fund....


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## JWC (Nov 6, 2014)

Nothing much to add but just felt like "writing in my diary". 

I've had a good income since I was 18, spent it all until around age 26-27, at this point I started saving but still spending most of my money. Put very little into savings. I'm 30 now and realizing that I don't want to maintain this line of work until I'm "old". I don't have any post secondary education. I make 100-150k take home but only because I'm in a somewhat specialized field, also the job is long hours/poor conditions. 

Any of the jobs I want to do are relatively low income so I need to save and invest to my full potential so I can have the option of switching careers down the road. We have one child now (3 years old) and are expecting another in the next week or so. My wife plans to stay at home with the kids until they are both in school so we have another 5 years on one income, then with her back to work we will should be in the $200k/year range. I'm thinking we should be able to save all of her income so that should fast track the situation. 

The biggest battle will be me staying on track with saving, I'm a natural spender, I like stuff, expensive stuff. However I realized I don't need anymore stuff, I have enough and then some. I'm also looking at all purchases differently and how they will impact my goal which is ultimately being finally independent so I can be with my family/kids as they grow up. 

The good: my wife is a natural saver, she was brought up by wealthy but very frugal parents and they have rubbed off on her. She only spends what she has to. Her only unnecessary expense is one of those fancy $5 starbucks almost every day.

My start to investing(about 3 years ago) was dumb, probably lost around $10k buying/trading individual stocks. I read a bunch of "wealth" books over that last year and now know what will get me to my goal: High savings rate, living below our means, simple steady investing(couch potato). 

I've been reading a bunch of other money diaries on this site and the boglehead forum which has been a huge motivator. It's very reassuring to see that if I stay with the plan the average time from a NW of ~$300K to $1MM is around 7 years, my goal is to be a millionaire by age 40, it's fun to see others doing this, big motivation!

I've been working lots the last few weeks so that I can take time off to be with the family before and after the baby comes(hopefully before, last day working is tomorrow, baby is due 7 days) and still have a decent income for the month. Just going to put money in the emergency fund until the baby is here and everything is good and I'm back to work. 

My RBC RRSPs got transferred in my direct investing account to, put the funds into couch potato ETFs I was planning to. Could be a few weeks until the SunLife RRSPs are transferred.


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## JWC (Nov 6, 2014)

Aug 2017 Update:

July was crazy for my family, our second child came, I won't get into the details but the short version is: baby had health issues and had to go into surgery the day after birth. This was a emotional mess but the baby is doing well and so is the family, there was extra cost indirectly which makes me realize just how important being financially smart is in times like this.

About a week before the baby came we bought a new bed so that jacked up the "spend" side of the budget this month, we have been planing this purchase for over a year so it wasn't a surprise or anything, the old one was 12 years old so I wouldn't say this was a foolish expense. 

Another spending note: We had a bunch of family visiting so that jacked up the groceries and entertainment spending way above the norm for us. 

*Assets* 
House: $440,000 
RRSP(Through Work): $12,601 
RRSP: $65,196
RRSP(Wife's) : $34,710
TFSA(Mine): $1,275
TFSA(Wife): $25,000
RESP #1: $12,814
RESP #2: $0 (Will start this as soon as possible)
Emergency Fund: $19,571 ( I plan to take this down to $10k since I plan to top up mt TFSA which could be used as a E fund)
Cheq Account: $5,000 
Kids Savings: $3,926 (Savings account in first child's name)


*Total Assets: $619,593*

*Liabilities:*
Home Mortgage: $292K

*NEW WORTH: $327,593 *

Income for the month:$9,920.90
Spent :$7,102.81(The new bed was $2300)
Saved / Invested :$2,771.12

(Edit: NW in OP is incorrect, should read $327,881, I had a error in the asset part)

So a $288 dollar decrease in NW this month due ti investments being down, I'm ok with that and used the opportunity to invest more. I have a fair portion of my portfolio in small/medium cap Oil & gas companys/services so I'm not expecting a lot for growth until things turn around in that sector, I don't mind buying and holding. 

I'm happy that with the month, considering all the extra expenses we were still able to invest 28% of our income, without the bed purchase it would have been around 50%, this excites me. 

Notes looking forward, I took a few weeks off work this month which will reflect on next months income, even the next month or so I will be working less than normal. 

My short term goal(next 2-3 months) is to focus on spending(or rather not spending) and invest 15-20% of my income. 

Still car shopping for a good upgrade for the family wagon. Its been a ongoing battle as I live about 4hrs from a main city so most of the good deals are gone before I can arrange to go see them. I'm happy that I have been disciplined enough to not go over budget on this as I have found a few that are exactly what I'm looking for but were newer and ~10k more than I want to spend, the search continues.


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## JWC (Nov 6, 2014)

Wow, so the timing on starting this money diary is interesting. Since my first post life has been a roller coaster! Had baby, needed surgery, left job and started a small company(just one person). It's really solidified the importance of a emergency fund. 

Between the extra expenses and 3-4 months without income the savings rate since last summer was low. The good news is we now have a solid foundations and are ready to get back into it.

*Assets *
$657,276

*Liabilities:*
Home Mortgage: $285K (I'm not sure I this I will have to check, it's probably more like $280K)

*NEW WORTH: *$372,376

+$*44,783* since last August, not all the great considering half of that increase is investment growth but considering the events of the last year for our family I'm mostly just glad we had money set aside so we didn't have any added financial stress.

Another positive is I now should have a higher earnings potential with new job however the income will be far more variable. We will be floating a higher emergency fund moving forward just to have that added security.


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