# Trying for Freedom 55 ... in 10 years



## mind_business

Not sure if it's going to be possible, however below is our current situation, and plans to get us to Freedom 55. Comments welcome ... even brutal ones 

*Assets:*
- $ 280,000 House
- $ 31,615 RRSP(s)
- $ 1,162 TSFA (mine)
- $ 1,162 TSFA (Wife’s)
- $ 4,603 Cash
- $ 212,220 DB Pension (current cash value – based on 21 years of service)
* $ 530,761 Total*

*Liabilities:*
- None

*Monthly net Income:* $ 5,842 *

* I have automatic withdrawals of $515 per month for a company RRSP above my net income above. The company matches 50% into a non-RRSP investment account (or $263 per month – taxable income). 

*Annual Bonus:* $ 7,000 after taxes (based on average amount over last 5 years). 

*Monthly Expenses:* $ 5,842 **

** Monthly Expenses include $ 2,500 TSFA contribution. 

*Our situation:* Wife and I are both 45 years old. No kids. Single income household. We just finished paying off our house last month, so now we’re focused on building our investment portfolio. Currently saving / investing $ 3,278 per month (TSFA, Co. RRSP + 50% Co. matching). We are resolved to maintain, or increase this saving plan. At 55 my pension will be worth $ 752,000 cash value, or $3,300 per month income (calculated on current income, not future earning potential). Pension formula = 1.25% x Average Final Compensation x Pensionable Service

*Goal #1:* Build assets for retirement, while still maintaining a comfortable budget (plenty of room to enjoy life). 

*Goal #2:* Be in a position to retire by 55 with min of $ 70,000 per year income (in today’s dollars). Note – my Co. Pension is not indexed.

*Risks to financial goals:* The usual: single income household / loss of job, health, divorce (not likely – 21 years and going strong  ), poor investing decisions, market volatility, DB Pension stability, etc, etc, etc.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Although I tend to plan things out carefully, I’m not fully confident I’ve thought this through well enough. It’s exciting but scary thinking that my pension + savings would have to carry us through 30+ years.


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## the-royal-mail

That's pretty impressive. You are correct in that you don't know how long you will live. If you eat well, exercise and stay active and don't have a history of severe illness in your family, you may well live to be 90. Hopefully you will have enough saved to be able to carry you through. In this case I am not really sure what else you can do other than simply continue to save more cash as you have been planning. I personally think you've done exceptionally well for yourselves.


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## MoneyGal

A retired couple, in good health, has a better than 25% chance of at least one member of the couple living to age 95.


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## CanadianCapitalist

Have you given much thought to why you want a retirement income of $70K p.a.? Your current expenses include money you are setting aside for savings. But your retirement income you want is the same as today's expenses. Even accounting for taxes that seems a bit on the high side. Do you have a reason why this is so?

Also, does your company pension kick in if you retire at 55?


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## Guigz

I am guessing that the 70,000$ goal is to cover inflation issues seing as the pension is not indexed.


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## mind_business

CanadianCapitalist said:


> Have you given much thought to why you want a retirement income of $70K p.a.? Your current expenses include money you are setting aside for savings. But your retirement income you want is the same as today's expenses. Even accounting for taxes that seems a bit on the high side. Do you have a reason why this is so?
> 
> Also, does your company pension kick in if you retire at 55?


CC, those are good questions. First, yes my company pension kicks in at 55. As to your question about how much thought went into my $70K number ... well, I have to admit I haven't fully thought it through yet. That doesn't mean I haven't done some basic analysis though. 

I have a relatively good handle on my current expenses, and have estimated what our expenses will be at 55 and beyond. Mainly I need to bridge my income from 55 to 60 when CPP kicks in. This will be my main hurdle to overcome ... without digging too deeply into our savings. I have also run some very basic scenarios at various age ranges which includes level of activity / travel / hobbies, etc, and of course increasing medical costs. I see our income requirements being a bit higher during the first 15 years of retirement.

When I have some more time to work on it in more detail I'll posts some of my analysis.


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## mind_business

the-royal-mail said:


> That's pretty impressive. You are correct in that you don't know how long you will live. If you eat well, exercise and stay active and don't have a history of severe illness in your family, you may well live to be 90. Hopefully you will have enough saved to be able to carry you through. In this case I am not really sure what else you can do other than simply continue to save more cash as you have been planning. I personally think you've done exceptionally well for yourselves.


Thanks. However personally I don't believe we've done exceptionally well. We haven't really focused on retirement until the last few years. If I could turn back the clock, we'd be in a much better financial position at this time. Then again, I wouldn't have a room full of woodworking tools in my basement collecting dust (LOL).



MoneyGal said:


> A retired couple, in good health, has a better than 25% chance of at least one member of the couple living to age 95.


MG, ýou're scaring me. I somehow can't picture myself at 95 when I'm already waking up in the morning with aches and pains (LOL). Going from the bedroom to the bathroom in the mornings I sort of look like that picture of evolution starting with the bent over early human and ending up as an upright homosapien.



Guigz said:


> I am guessing that the 70,000$ goal is to cover inflation issues seing as the pension is not indexed.


You're partially correct. I'm very aware of my pension not being indexed. This is one of the other issues I'm going to have to plan for in detail. My guess is that we'll likely live on considerably less than $70K, however I tend to be a conservative planner. Just out of curiousity, I ran an emergency, bare-bones budget if I lost my job today. With our house now paid off, we could live on $18,000 per year. This however means: no cable TV, no cell phones, reduced food (no dining out), house better not need any repairing (LOL), etc . A no-frills/no-fun budget. From this, if we were 55 and retiring today, my guess is that we'd be living on 3 times that amount. I'll confirm this with analysis later, and post for comments.


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## steve41

OK.... to make it easier for me, could you break salaries out as gross per each spouse? as well, break out savings rsp/tfsa/nonreg per each spouse.


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## mind_business

steve41 said:


> OK.... to make it easier for me, could you break salaries out as gross per each spouse? as well, break out savings rsp/tfsa/nonreg per each spouse.


I think you'll get most of your answers from my original post:

Single income family (my wife doesn't work currently ... and not for the forseeable future).

We do not split up our non-registered savings.

TFSA's are split up per my original post.

RRSP's are all under my name. This is one of the biggest weaknesses in our plan currently. Glad you're asking about it. I wouldn't mind getting some advice on income splitting during retirement. My wife has some contribution room ~ $20,000.


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## mind_business

Sorry Steve, I just re-read your first question. My gross salary is $104,000 per year.


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## steve41

mind_business said:


> Sorry Steve, I just re-read your first question. My gross salary is $104,000 per year.


I am in the middle of my annual release, so I am kind of busy.... The annual 7000 bonus.... is that a yearly occurrence, or is it just this year, and is it taxable?


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## mind_business

Steve, the $7000 bonus is an expected amount per year (based on the average bonus amount during the last 5 years). I have received a bonus for all but 2 years of service. The $7000 is the net amount after tax.


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## steve41

OOPS. I forgot.... can you specify your annual db pension income in actual $ starting at age 56, rather than as a present-valued lump sum?


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## mind_business

Scenario #1 - Assume my income does not increase, here's my numbers at 56:
Lump sum = $765,726.69 *
or, if I opt for monthly lifetime pension payments = $3,362.76 per month with a spousal survival benefit of $2,017.66 per month​
Scenario #2 - OR, assuming my income increases by 2% per year, my numbers at 56 are:
Lump sum = $898,440.31 **
or, if I opt for monthly lifetime pension payments = $3,945.58 per month with a spousal survival benefit of $2,367.35 per month​


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## mind_business

Thanks Steve for reviewing my situation. I definitely appreciate it. If you need other piece of info, I'm sure I'll be able to dig it up for you. 

Please don't think I expect answers right away. You're busy right now, with other more important things on your plate. My stuff can wait.

Thanks again!


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## steve41

Believe it or not, I get groggy in the afternoon. I can do these in my sleep, so it isn't a problem.... in fact it relaxes me.

I had to do a bit of fancy footwork on the nonreg pension. PM me and I will explain. Most DC pensions are registered (LIRAs) so I had to fabricate your situation a bit.

Mrs Freedom
Mr Freedom

I didn't get fancy with income splitting, but I started you off contributing $9K to a spousal RRSP. Look it over and check for errors.

Bottom line... at a 4% rate, dying broke at 95, you can see a $60K after tax lifestyle.


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## mind_business

I'm going to have to spend a bit of time digesting the information. Looks very detailed.

A couple things that may need some tweeking are my RRSP contributions. It looks like you've max'd out the contribution for us, however since I have a company pension, my maximum RRSP allowable contribution is reduced by my Pension Adjustment amount. This will significantly reduce my RRSP generated income.

Also, I plan on quickly max'ing out our TFSA contributions to $30,000 (approx 1 year) within 12 months ($2500 per month). After that, we'll continue to max out our contributions at the maximum allowable ($10,000 total per year for the two of us). 

Any additional savings will go to non-registered savings/investments. After the TFSA and RRSP contributions are max'd out per year, we'll invest the remaining into the non-reg account.


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## steve41

OK.... I entered a PA of $9K and enhanced the TFSA contributions. The interesting thing is that the difference between an RRSP vs a TFSA vs a nonreg contribution strategy doen't effect the ATI outcome to any great extent. I changed the PDFs, so download them once more as above.


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## mind_business

I came to the same realization as I was looking at the data. The saving differential is very little considering I'm still contributing approx the same amount in my TFSA as I would have in the RRSP portion without a PA.


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## mind_business

Thought I'd update my numbers from my original post of Sept 26,2011. I'm doing this more so I can see if we've made any real progress. 

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House
- $ 34,830 RRSP(s) [was $ 31,615]
- $ 3,957 TSFA (mine) [was $ 1,162] 
- $ 3,957 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 1,162]
- $ 2,302 Investments Non-RRSP [New - my play money in high risk stocks]
- $ 7,166 Cash [was $ 4,603]

- $ 212,220 DB Pension (current cash value – based on 21 years of service)
$ 544,432 Total [was $ 530,761]

Liabilities:
- $ 3,744 Credit Card [was $ 0 ... booked our Cuban Vacation  ]


Got to say ... I love no longer having a mortgage!!! Our saving rate has increased considerably.


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## Jon_Snow

I will be following your thread with interest... I am looking to retire in 5 years at 45 years of age. Alas, we still have a pesky mortgage... we are trying to decide whether to pay it off completely in April, or take advantage of the low rates everyone else (except us) is enjoying these days. We have the cash saving to pay it off completely, but I find much comfort in keeping a heavy cash component to my assets.

Looking at your numbers, you seem to be on track... on one income no less!!! We defnitely need both our incomes to get to our savings goal 5 years from now.


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## mind_business

Jon,

Two incomes definitely makes it easier, not only to reach your financial goals, but also makes life less stressful knowing you have a second income to back you up in case one is lost.

We're pretty happy about our progress. While my wife does not have a 'normal' type of job, she does teach the occasional dance course which adds a bit to our overall income. One of the reasons we made the progress we did over the last two months was because she brought in $1700 for a class she's teaching. I don't consider this as part of our income calculations because it's really hit-or-miss whether she is teaching or not.

You and your SO have obviously done very well if you'll be in a position to retire at 45. Must be exciting at that age to have the freedom to pursue your passions, whether that be income-generating or not.


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## mind_business

Previous Update - Nov 19, 2011. Going to try to update every couple of weeks, but at least once at the beginning of the month.

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 38,913 RRSP(s) [was $ 34,830]
- $ 5,052 TSFA (mine) [was $ 3,957] 
- $ 5,052 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 3,957]
- $ 4,419 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 2,302]
- $ 6,077 Cash [was $ 7,166]

- $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
$ 551,733 Total [was $ 544,432]

Liabilities:
- $ 3,425 Credit Card [was $ 3,744]


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## mind_business

Previous Update - Dec 2, 2011.

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 39,545 RRSP(s) [was $ 38,913]
- $ 4,937 TSFA (mine) [was $ 5,052] 
- $ 4,937 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 5,052]
- $ 4,764 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 4,419]
- $ 8,190 Cash [was $ 6,077]

- $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
$ 554,594 Total [was $ 551,733]

Liabilities:
- $ 3,425 Credit Card [was $ 3,425]


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## mind_business

Just a few thoughts going through my head this morning ...

Considering my wife and I have been saving very little for the last 20 years, being dragged down by various expenses including the mortgage and past car loans, buying 'stuff' that we don't need, we're finally getting around to putting some real savings away for retirement. 

My wife asked me this morning how much we're saving annually. She was shocked to hear it was $39,336  Up till just recently we were maybe adding a couple thousand to our investments per year. 

I guess we're a lot more focused on savings now that we're getting closer to retirement. My plan isn't to retire at 55, only to be financially ready to if we were forced to retire early. If I'm still enjoying my work, I definitely want to continue working. 

I don't know about the rest of you, but it's amazing how often in the day I'm now thinking about finances, budgets, investments, etc. Today my goal is to cancel one of our cell phone accounts (the 3 year agreement has finally ended), which means we'll be down to just one cell for my wife to use  Looking for all ways to shrink our budget without affecting our quality of life.


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## mind_business

Today I'm giving myself a raise 

I just got off the phone with Bell and cancelled my cell phone with them, saving me $35 per month ... or looking at it from a slightly different perspective ... giving myself a $35 per month raise.

This represents $420 per year that I'll be contributing towards our savings / retirement 

I also changed our Phone land line service a while back to one that wasn't a long distance plan (never use it since we have Skype). That reduced our monthly bill from $50 (average) to $32. Saving us $18 per month, or $216 per year (also going directly to savings).

*Is there anything else that you guys can suggest for budget reductions?* I'll post my 2011 Year-end budget review in my next post.


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## mind_business

OK, here's my 2011 review of our Household Budget. Comments welcome. I'm looking for further savings suggestions:

2011 Monthly Budget:

Home Expenses:
$ 240 Property Taxes
$ 70 House Insurance
$ 60 Utilities - Hydro
$ 45 Utilities - Water / Sewer
$ 57 Utilities - Heating Gas
$ 16 Utilities - Water Heater rental
$ 100 Home Repairs
$ 400 Home Reno / Improvements
$ 40 Gardening / Yard supplies

$1028 Total Home Expenses (11.87% Monthly Gross Income)

Food:
$ 550 Groceries (includes toiletries and cleaning supplies)
$ 150 Dining

$ 700 Total Food Expenses (8.08% Monthly Gross Income)

Automobile:
$ 200 Gas / Fuel
$ 120 Auto Insurance
$ 150 Repairs

$ 470 Total Auto Expenses (5.43% Monthly Gross Income)

Vacation:
$ 300 Travel (based on 1 trip per year)

$ 300 Total Vacation Expenses (3.46% Monthly Gross Income)

Communications:
$ 40 Internet Provider
$ 10 Web Host (wife's website)
$ 32 Home Land Line (was $50)
$ 35 Wife's Cell phone (was $70 before I cancelled my plan)
$ 75 Cable TV (Ughhhh!!!)

$ 192 Total Communications Expenses (2.22% Monthly Gross Income)

Clothing:
$ 150 Casual + Work

$ 150 Total Clothing Expenses (1.73% Montly Gross Income)

Pets:
$ 80 Veterinarians / medicines
$ 25 Dog Food
$ 10 Dog Treats

$ 115 Total Pet Expenses (1.33% Monthly Gross Income)

Entertainment:
$ 50 DVD Movie Rentals
$ 25 Theatre Plays / Movies
$ 30 Books / Music

$ 105 Total Entertainment Expenses (1.21% Monthly Gross Income)

Gifts / Charity:
$ 20 Gifts
$ 30 Charity Donations

$ 50 Total Gifts / Charity Expenses (0.58% Monthly Gross Income)

Fees:
$ 14 Bank Fee (0.16% Monthly Gross Income)


Summary:

$8660 Gross Income (Monthly)
$3124 Expenses (Monthly) (36.07% Monthly Gross Income)

Leaving $5536 (63.93% Monthly Gross Income) for savings and the following automatic deductions from pay:

- Income Tax
- CPP Contribution
- EI Premiums
- Optional Life Insurance
- RRSP contribution
- Following taxable benefits:
- Awards
- Company matching contributions (50% match of my RRSP contributions)
- Life Insurance (portion Company contributes)

Note: Company DB Pension Plan and Employee Incentive Plan (yearly bonus) not included in above info. Yearly bonus amount goes directly into savings.


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## Plugging Along

I don't know how 'frugal' or tight you want to be, so I'll kind of go mid way with my thoughts. 




mind_business said:


> OK, here's my 2011 review of our Household Budget.
> 
> 2011 Monthly Budget:
> 
> Home Expenses:
> $ 60 Utilities - Hydro - Do you have low flow showers and toilets. We cut our water bill by almost half by just replaceing 3 really old toilets. We really also looked at our water consumption by reusing water much more wisely. There were tonnes of little things we did such as reusing bath and shower water for toilets, dish water for plants, etc. It was a small savings the other things, but it was more about conservation
> 
> Potential Savings - $15
> 
> Food:
> $ 550 Groceries (includes toiletries and cleaning supplies) - Is this for 2 people? I think with some really smart shopping and if you wanted , you could reduce this to about $400. The guideline I read is about $50/person/week including toiletries. I know I was able to do it on $500 a month for 5 people, but that was being almost couponing extreme, and it took a lot of time.
> 
> Potential Savings - $150
> 
> $ 150 Dining - this is always discretionary, but it's fun.
> 
> Potential Savings - $150
> 
> Clothing:
> $ 150 Casual + Work - You can always cut this down if you have good basics, like the coats, boots, and shoes that last. If you don't have to do those, you can spend very little in this area.
> 
> Potential Savings - $50
> 
> Entertainment:
> $ 50 DVD Movie Rentals - Find this really high. I don't think I've paid for a DVD rental in ages. You can get library movies for free. Also, if you have a PVR recorder, I have found this to be a great savings. I record movies all the time, and then watch them at my leisure.
> 
> Potential Savings - $50
> 
> $ 25 Theatre Plays / Movies - again discretionary, but fun, I do use coupons for movies for discounts, and I also see if there is a promo code for theatre. I just google it just prior to me buying tickets.
> 
> 
> 
> $ 30 Books / Music I love books, and magazines, this is where I used to spend the most. Still love books for my kids, and will buy them. I did find the library a great resource. Also, I have found that you can get many free books on the IPAD (assuming you have one)
> 
> Potential Savings - $15
> 
> Fees:
> $ 14 Bank Fee (0.16% Monthly Gross Income) - I never pay bank fees. EVER!
> 
> Potential Savings - $14
> 
> Summary:
> 
> Potential Savings -
> ~$300 - 600 /month depending on how much you really want to cut out.


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## kcowan

We also never pay for DVD rentals. We wait until they are free to watch them. I mean good movies age well! Also we PVR everything to skip past commercials. this makes regular commercial TV tolerable, especially with a $75 bill each month!

My paygo Android is a great little book reader (for $67) and I have 2500 free books to work through. Plus we have found paygo to be the most cost-effective plan for us. DW has a Kobo.

We spend a bunch more a gifts/charity because we are in the give-back phase.


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## Financial Cents

mind_business said:


> Just a few thoughts going through my head this morning ...
> 
> My wife asked me this morning how much we're saving annually. She was shocked to hear it was $39,336  Up till just recently we were maybe adding a couple thousand to our investments per year.
> 
> I guess we're a lot more focused on savings now that we're getting closer to retirement. My plan isn't to retire at 55, only to be financially ready to if we were forced to retire early. If I'm still enjoying my work, I definitely want to continue working.


VERY well done. If you're saving close to $40 K per year, enjoy spending the rest. You only live once


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## mind_business

PA, I agree with a lot of your suggestions. 

We currently do not have low-flow toilets or showers. However that will change this winter once we complete the upstairs bathroom renovation (basement reno will have to wait for the following year). 

Food is a tricky one for us. We typically eat fresh foods (fruit, vegetables, meat) that can be a bit more expensive. I'm also fairly picky about the cuts of meat we buy, and don't mind paying a bit more for a better cut. However we don't plan out our meals as carefully as we could. Perhaps there's some savings to be had there. I can't stand couponing unless it's easy (ie: no prep time). Which means we typically do not use coupons. We shop at our local Zehrs, which can be a bit more costly than Food Basics, or other cheaper chains. I prefer Zehrs because we usually can find everything we're looking for in one shopping trip.

We are trending around $150 per month for Dining. I doubt we'll change those habits too much, unless we have to.

A lot of the clothing costs are mine. While I don't wear suits to work too often, I do wear Docker style pants, and nice button up shirts. I'm picky about having good quality cotton shirts for their breathability. Although the lion's share of the clothing budget is mine, my wife just blew December's clothing budget today by buying a $168 bathing suit 

I see you've suggested savings in the DVD rentals and the Theatre / Movie categories. I agree with you there, however I'm a bit surprised you didn't suggest anything for the Cable TV budget. That's the one expense that bothers me the most. If it was up to me, we would never rent a movie since I don't mind watching older movies on Netflix. I would also cancel Cable in a heartbeat, however my wife wants easy access to her shows that she watches, along with the local news. She also wants to keep up with the latest movies rentals as they're released, rather than waiting a few years for them to come out on Netflix. If anyone has any suggestions for these 'waste of money' expenses, please let me know ... keeping in mind my wife's requirements.

Library ... what the heck is that  I like your suggestion about using an iPad to download free books. Yes I do have an iPad, and was busy over the Christmas Holidays downloading some free books, and a few that cost a bit of money. Cheaper than buying books though. Have to admit I ended up buying the new "The Wealthy Barber" book today. I doubt I'll learn anything new, however the original one that I read 20+ years ago got me excited about finances. Maybe this one will continue to inspire me.

Banking fees ... that one bothers me as well. I'll be visiting my bank early in the New Year to see what they can offer me. I only need an account that allows me to bank online, unlimited debits, and write the occasional cheque. This would an area in my budget I'd like to reduce to 0.


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## mind_business

kcowan said:


> We also never pay for DVD rentals. We wait until they are free to watch them. I mean good movies age well! Also we PVR everything to skip past commercials. this makes regular commercial TV tolerable, especially with a $75 bill each month!
> 
> My paygo Android is a great little book reader (for $67) and I have 2500 free books to work through. Plus we have found paygo to be the most cost-effective plan for us. DW has a Kobo.
> 
> We spend a bunch more a gifts/charity because we are in the give-back phase.


As I mentioned in my reply to PA, I would love to stop renting Movies. You're suggestion about getting a PVR is not a bad one. This would likely save us a few rentals a month. We're currently averaging 10 movie rentals a month at $5 a pop. Painful!

I doubt we'll ever increase our Gift budget (we're too cheap), but we do plan to increase our Charity contributions over time, once we get a few years of significant savings going.



Financial Cents said:


> VERY well done. If you're saving close to $40 K per year, enjoy spending the rest. You only live once


Thanks. I feel like we're doing not too badly right now. But there are a still no-value-added areas I'd like to reduce in our budget. I just wish we would have been more serious about budgetting years ago, and avoided by all the junk / stuff that we've accumulated over the years. I guess it's typical for people in their 20's and 30's to accumulate, but what a waste of money!


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## Ihatetaxes

Not sure if you have tried Netflix on your iPad but it's the best value $8 a month I will ever spend. Shows look great on the iPad if you select the highest quality picture. There are tons of good movies and tv series. Last night I watched Pulp Fiction and recently have watched the first three seasons of Breaking Bad, possibly my favorite tv series ever. I am watching less and less tv but Netflix has me hooked. My wife and I can both use one account and watch different things on our two iPads at the same time.


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## Echo

Absolutely no reason to pay $14/month in bank fees, especially if you're saving that much of your pay cheque. 

If you like your bank, stick $1,000 or $1,500 in your chequing account and avoid the fees. Otherwise, open up an ING chequing account and skip the fees altogether. They'll even give you $100 for switching your payroll to their Thrive account.


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## mind_business

Today I do battle with my bank. I tried to negotiate my fees down to zero through phone banking, however both representatives said that I need to deal with my local branch. Apparently their guidelines don't allow them to negotiate other than the standard banking fees. I have left a voice message with the Bank Manager to give me a call back to discuss.

Largely my fault for not going on line to research my options, however I'm also ticked off with my Local Bank for not automatically waiving our banking fees when we had a mortgage with them. According to the website, and the Rep's I talked to on the phone, the banking fees should have been waived because I had a credit card and a mortgage with them. I'll be discussing getting a rebate for at least the first half of this year. I doubt they'll be able to rebate in previous years due to year-end accounting rules, however they should be able to do something for me for the first half of this year, until I had my mortgage paid off.

I'll post on my negotiation results later.


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## Plugging Along

I think you're doing great with your savings, but just was giving suggestions, as it all you personal choices on what you want to spend on. You can't deny yourself too much. 

I didn't mention the reduction in the cable, as I figure if you use it more to pvr movies, then that would save your DVD rental costs. I find that having the movies channels are worthy the extr cost if it replaces movie rentals. I just goes through the channels and scan ahead and record the movies. I find they are actually only a little older than what is on pay per view .. I don't know about video stores because I haven't been in one in more than a decade. I think they are probably a year or so behind.

You can also try Netflix for free for a trial month or two. We found that the movies were way too old for us, but good kids shows, but our kids don't watch tv often, so we got rid of it.

I hadn't been in library in years until I decided to rein in our spending. I was shocked at the things,other than books you could get. You can actually download books for you iPad and new releases for free.

In terms or groceries, this was where I was able to make my biggest cut in costs. I don't do couponing as much because I'm back at work, and it is time consuming.

We eat alot of fresh fruits and veggies, good meats, and seafood, and lots of diary too. I don't have the stores that you mentioned, we just do Superstore/Loblaws. My biggest savings tip is shopping the flyers and knowing when things go on sale, then stocking up. I try to buy fruits and veggies in season, and even beef has seasons where it is cheaper. I have 3 prime ribs that I bought just before xmas at $5/lb usually up to $12. I bought 100 lb chicken thighs on sale and separated them. That will last for a year. In the beginning it took a little longer, now, I'm prey good at it, and it's just how I shop. I was helping a friend and have cut her bills 40%. I also do price matching to save time and gas of driving around. I jus bring my flyers and make them match the price. 

As I said, I think you're doing great, but there are always ways to save, it just depends on if you think it's worth it. My hubby was laughing that I used a whole bunch of coupons for lunch to save $10' but then donated $1000 that night. For me it's all about spending in what matters to me.


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## londoncalling

mind_business said:


> PA, I agree with a lot of your suggestions.
> 
> We currently do not have low-flow toilets or showers. However that will change this winter once we complete the upstairs bathroom renovation (basement reno will have to wait for the following year).
> 
> Food is a tricky one for us. We typically eat fresh foods (fruit, vegetables, meat) that can be a bit more expensive. I'm also fairly picky about the cuts of meat we buy, and don't mind paying a bit more for a better cut. However we don't plan out our meals as carefully as we could. Perhaps there's some savings to be had there. I can't stand couponing unless it's easy (ie: no prep time). Which means we typically do not use coupons. We shop at our local Zehrs, which can be a bit more costly than Food Basics, or other cheaper chains. I prefer Zehrs because we usually can find everything we're looking for in one shopping trip.
> 
> We are trending around $150 per month for Dining. I doubt we'll change those habits too much, unless we have to.
> 
> A lot of the clothing costs are mine. While I don't wear suits to work too often, I do wear Docker style pants, and nice button up shirts. I'm picky about having good quality cotton shirts for their breathability. Although the lion's share of the clothing budget is mine, my wife just blew December's clothing budget today by buying a $168 bathing suit
> 
> I see you've suggested savings in the DVD rentals and the Theatre / Movie categories. I agree with you there, however I'm a bit surprised you didn't suggest anything for the Cable TV budget. That's the one expense that bothers me the most. If it was up to me, we would never rent a movie since I don't mind watching older movies on Netflix. I would also cancel Cable in a heartbeat, however my wife wants easy access to her shows that she watches, along with the local news. She also wants to keep up with the latest movies rentals as they're released, rather than waiting a few years for them to come out on Netflix. If anyone has any suggestions for these 'waste of money' expenses, please let me know ... keeping in mind my wife's requirements.
> 
> Library ... what the heck is that  I like your suggestion about using an iPad to download free books. Yes I do have an iPad, and was busy over the Christmas Holidays downloading some free books, and a few that cost a bit of money. Cheaper than buying books though. Have to admit I ended up buying the new "The Wealthy Barber" book today. I doubt I'll learn anything new, however the original one that I read 20+ years ago got me excited about finances. Maybe this one will continue to inspire me.
> 
> Banking fees ... that one bothers me as well. I'll be visiting my bank early in the New Year to see what they can offer me. I only need an account that allows me to bank online, unlimited debits, and write the occasional cheque. This would an area in my budget I'd like to reduce to 0.


Our household sounds similar to yours in regards to doing renos as the money comes available. It truly is a great way to save while spending 

We our currently in year 3 of a 5?10?15? year renovation project. We saved 50k on our home purchase(way more if the renovations were funded as part of the mortgage) by going this route and pay for all our renovations in cash. As a result our house is constantly in a current state of renovation. 2 of 3 bedrooms are complete (except baseboard and casings) with the last one still at the painting stage. It will be completed in the spring. The bathroom was gutted prior to moving in and is the only room that is completely finished. The living room is at the casing stage as well. The kitchen is waiting for cabinets to be replaced(currently no doors and the counter tops are badly damaged) We are replacing our fridge and stove this week and hope to redo the cabinets and flooring this year (funds permitting). The basement reno is probably another 5-7 years away with the building of a garage in between that time. We focused on the yard and exterior(mostly out of personal work preference as I hate painting and drywall). We also replaced our exterior doors and water heater out of necessity.

Our family doesn't scrimp on food either we try to eat healthy and spend a little more to make an enjoyable meal. Our dining costs are about the same as we tend to enjoy a beer or glass of wine when we dine out 1-2x a month)

My wife and I spend less than this on clothes(guessing about $100-$120 monthly) and like you we buy quality items which last a long time and these purchases are always made at a discount (sales!)

I would also cancel our cable in a heartbeat. My wife is like yours and since it is bundled to our phone and internet it works out to an extra $10 dollars a month. A small price to pay for my wife's contentment  We also go to many concerts and live events. We are trying to be more selective to cut the cost as this can be quite expensive.

We go to the library at least weekly often more. We used to get all our movies from there until our DVD player wore out and we probably won't replace it. We have considered an IPAD as it seems to be a great entertainment piece but currently have other priorities. My wife frequently wins contest prizes (consistently over $1000 in cash and prizes annually often more). She will win one eventually.

I would also like to have 0 bank fees but I have yet to find a way to eliminate them entirely. Any tips on how?

You seem to have an effective and balanced saving/spending plan in place. Keep up the good work!


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## Financial Cents

Yeah, you're right, it is typical for people in their 20's and 30's to accumulate "stuff" but some behavioural changes can cure that over time.

That's part of the reason why I started my blog, I wanted to be more honest and transparent about my financial waste; do something about it. If I was saving and investing in my early 20s like I am now...man, I'd be doing REALLY well. 

Ah, such is life. 

At least in my early 30s, I started to get my act together. Learning all the time. That's one key thing. The other is there exists a willingness to do something about the financial waste. You wouldn't be posting on this site if you didn't have that desire.

Again, great work on the savings.


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## mind_business

mind_business said:


> Today I do battle with my bank. I tried to negotiate my fees down to zero through phone banking, however both representatives said that I need to deal with my local branch. Apparently their guidelines don't allow them to negotiate other than the standard banking fees. I have left a voice message with the Bank Manager to give me a call back to discuss.
> 
> Largely my fault for not going on line to research my options, however I'm also ticked off with my Local Bank for not automatically waiving our banking fees when we had a mortgage with them. According to the website, and the Rep's I talked to on the phone, the banking fees should have been waived because I had a credit card and a mortgage with them. I'll be discussing getting a rebate for at least the first half of this year. I doubt they'll be able to rebate in previous years due to year-end accounting rules, however they should be able to do something for me for the first half of this year, until I had my mortgage paid off.
> 
> I'll post on my negotiation results later.


Well so far I'm unimpressed. Here's my progress so far:

- Thursday morning 8:30am, left a voice message with the Branch Manager to give me a call back. I outlined the issue on the message so he could do a bit of research into how much business we do with their bank before calling me back. I noted that his voice message indicated he will return calls within 2 hours. He starts work at 9:30, so I woud have assumed I would get a call back by 11:30.

- Received a call back from him at 2pm. I re-stated my request. He of course tried to suggest I down-grade my account to their lowest serviced account (ie: only 15 debits free). I reminded him to review my account activity to help him make the appropriate suggestions. I of course told him I would not accept a downgrade. I also reminded him of all the revenue I'm providing their bank (I have a Credit Card with them, TFSA's - $2500 per month, use their discount brokerage account, bank account, etc). He indicated that he'll come up with something to make things right for the time I had a mortgage and still was paying a bank fee that should have been waived. He also mentioned that he would see what he could do to 'reduce' our current bank fees going forward. I told him that's fine, but that I'm still looking for a $0 banking fee and had other options available to me. He promised to give me a call the next day with his offer.

- Friday: No return phone call, no message left. Hmmm.

- Saturday: researching different options. Not sure I like ING simply because I like the option of dealing with a physical bank location once in a while. Their ATM finder suggests 3 Credit Union locations in the city. Not enough, or convenient. I might have to look at only the traditional banks.


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## mind_business

Londoncalling, do you have a diary or blog started. Since our situation is so similar, I wouldn't mind following your progress.

10-15 years of reno is daunting. If all goes to plan, I should have ours completed in about 3 years. We've typically spent about $3-5000 per year on home renos over the last few years. Prior to that, we were spending around $1-2000 per year.


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## mind_business

PA, thanks for all your suggestions. Your posts / progress have been very inspiring since I started reading CMF. I'll have to check out the library to see if I can download books onto my iPad.

FC, you're lucky if you were able to get things under control in your 30's. This will give you a significant advantage when generating savings. Thanks for your interesting comments.


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## Plugging Along

Sorry if I missed it. Who are you backing with?

I think you're doing fine and will be interested to see how your journey unfolds.


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## mind_business

PA, I'm banking with RBC. They've been alright over the years, and this Bank Manager seems to want to work with me. I just hope he gets back to me first, before I have to call him back. That would annoy me. For branches, customer service must be priority #1.


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## Plugging Along

Good luck and keep a firm stance on no fees. We moved to td, with the exception of the mortgage, and have been really happy.


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## uptoolate

Good luck with them. The Bank Manager definitely should be able to help you out. It is sad to see the days of personalized service disappearing. I do agree with you about dealing with a bricks and mortar bank. At least there one has the chance to have a relationship with people face-to-face. That said, managers have less and less autonomy these days and even if they waive fees, they will often have to go in and do it every 3 months to yearly depending on the account. Definitely don't give up as eventually you will probably win out, especially if you have been a good customer for a long time. It never hurts to gently remind them of this, regardless of the size of your accounts. It's not the manager's money after all and I bet the banks themselves still like to give the impression that are serving their customers. 

I might also suggest that you get the managers e-mail and use it rather than phone. E-mail leaves a reminder for them. If the manager is ultimately able to fix things then a thank you e-mail and even a quick snail mail note to the bank can help to ensure that you get more help in the future. 

Good luck. Hope it all works out.


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## mind_business

mind_business said:


> Well so far I'm unimpressed. Here's my progress so far:
> 
> - Thursday morning 8:30am, left a voice message with the Branch Manager to give me a call back. I outlined the issue on the message so he could do a bit of research into how much business we do with their bank before calling me back. I noted that his voice message indicated he will return calls within 2 hours. He starts work at 9:30, so I woud have assumed I would get a call back by 11:30.
> 
> - Received a call back from him at 2pm. I re-stated my request. He of course tried to suggest I down-grade my account to their lowest serviced account (ie: only 15 debits free). I reminded him to review my account activity to help him make the appropriate suggestions. I of course told him I would not accept a downgrade. I also reminded him of all the revenue I'm providing their bank (I have a Credit Card with them, TFSA's - $2500 per month, use their discount brokerage account, bank account, etc). He indicated that he'll come up with something to make things right for the time I had a mortgage and still was paying a bank fee that should have been waived. He also mentioned that he would see what he could do to 'reduce' our current bank fees going forward. I told him that's fine, but that I'm still looking for a $0 banking fee and had other options available to me. He promised to give me a call the next day with his offer.
> 
> - Friday: No return phone call, no message left. Hmmm.
> 
> - Saturday: researching different options. Not sure I like ING simply because I like the option of dealing with a physical bank location once in a while. Their ATM finder suggests 3 Credit Union locations in the city. Not enough, or convenient. I might have to look at only the traditional banks.


Well he phoned back today. Explained yesterday was busy due to being understaffed. In the end, he's going to give me 6 months of no-fee banking, keeping my current type of account. I was OK with this in the short term as it gives me a bit more time to review my options ... which I will. In the long term, I will not pay $15 per month for banking. 

With the amount of revenue they're already making off us, I refuse to pay a fee basically giving them access to my money and my business. He did mention that he would like me to phone him before the 6 months is over to let him know if I am leaning towards going with a different bank. Sounds like he would be willing to keep working with me. I see this as a good sign, however I don't want to have these negotiations every 6 months. I need to find a long term solution.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Keep in mind that I still want to have my money with a physical bank, not one where I have to travel to Toronto to go into the bank.


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## Spudd

TD waives the fees if you keep a minimum balance. For the top of the line account the minimum balance is $5000, but there are some lower ones with lower minimum balances. I did the math on the interest I'd lose by having the money in TD vs ING and decided it was worth it. With the $5000 level (select service) you also get a free safety deposit box and some other features.


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## londoncalling

mind_business said:


> Londoncalling, do you have a diary or blog started. Since our situation is so similar, I wouldn't mind following your progress.
> 
> 10-15 years of reno is daunting. If all goes to plan, I should have ours completed in about 3 years. We've typically spent about $3-5000 per year on home renos over the last few years. Prior to that, we were spending around $1-2000 per year.



No diary or blog as of yet. My wife and I haven't really made a strict budget. For the time being we use the pay yourself first method for reconciling debt and building retirement savings. I have been doing a net worth statement for myself for over a year. That seems to be enough to nudge me in the right direction for the time being. We currently put about $5k into renos a year and will continue to do so for quite awhile. Our house was built in the 50s had only one owner prior to us and had probably not seen any money since the late 70s early 80s. We easily have enough in our emergency fund to replace the furnace if need be which would be the only major thing to replace out of necessity. The rest we will plug away at over time. Both our jobs are quite secure but there is always the possibility. As a result we are adding to our emergency fund each month and have lots of available credit which we hope to never touch. If I feel inspired this year I may start a spending journal. I am certain it would help to see it to find ways to tweak our financial path. I am glad I stumbled across this board as it has helped me to focus my attention on what is really important about finance. Look forward to following your journey. Others' success is an inspiration. Heck I may even call my bank next week 

Cheers!


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## uptoolate

Good work on getting your bank fees waived. I would agree with you that he is very likely to waive them again when the 6 months is up. As I mentioned above, managers have much less autonomy than in years gone by and it is likely that he has to go in and reset it at 6 month intervals if you are under whatever the software set minimum balance is for no fees. It's the hassle of changing banks vs the annoyance of having to send them a reminder. My experience with TD has been the same. I do not keep the minimum balance so I have to remind them now and then. If I or the manager forgets then they will credit me the charge and reset it again. It is sometimes the same for my Visa card when the annual fee comes up.

I might have missed it but I didn't see any great suggestions about the dreaded cable bill. It says you are in SW Ontario and if you happen to be near Windsor you may decide that you could do with an HDTV antenna depending on your TV. You can check the web to see what stations you could get from where you are and ask some locals on line what you would need. Usually you will be limited to the 6 major networks plus TVO, PBS and a couple of other channels but once you make the initial outlay it is free forever. Costco had HD antennas for $120 in the States last time I looked but you can get them here in Canada as well. Just depends on how much TV you watch and what you watch. If you are in good reception area the picture you will get will be better than cable and you won't have to put up with the cable company hijacking things like the Super Bowl. I agree with the local library as a resource. They even have Blu-Rays now and the basic DVD selection is usually quite good.

Good work with the bank. Power to the people! Happy New Year!


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## mind_business

Previous Update - Dec 15, 2011.

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 41,282 RRSP(s) [was $ 39,545]
- $ 6,453 TSFA (mine) [was $ 4,937] 
- $ 6,453 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 4,937]
- $ 5,154 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 4,764]
- $ 3,331 Cash [was $ 8,190]

- $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
$ 554,893 Total [was $ 555,594]

Liabilities:
- $ 259 Credit Card [was $ 3,425]


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## mind_business

Just looking at my Net Worth increase since starting this diary thread 3 months ago:

$ 554,634 (Net worth on Jan 4, 2012)
$ 530,761 (Net worth on Sept 26th, 2011)

Increase of: $23,873 in 3 months. Not too bad


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## fraser

It has been a while since we had a mortgage. When we did, we were advised by a friend that the person at the bank could cut the rate by .25 and could get another .25 by 'calling downtown'. It worked. I am certain times have changed with the lower rates and this may now be the case. We eventually switched to a floating rate. It pays to negotiate and to have a back up plan. At the time, whenever I mentioned the magic words Canada Trust all of the extra charges seemed to evaporate.

We never, ever paid that silly renewal admin fee-it was always waived when we balked. It is an out and out ripoff.

We still have a chequeing account at CIBC. We do not pay any fees because we maintain a minimum balance. Interest rates are so low now that interest lost on that minimum balance is much less than the cost of the normal fees on the account. I turn 60 in June, and expect to be completely in the no fee zone. The one item that I do pay a fee is our US Visa card. Looking into this now.


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## mind_business

Previous Update - Jan 4, 2012.

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 42,290 RRSP(s) [was $ 41,282]
- $ 6,464 TSFA (mine) [was $ 6,453] 
- $ 6,464 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 6,453]
- $ 5,526 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 5,154]
- $ 5,538 Cash [was $ 3,331]

- $ 558,501 Total Assets [was $ 554,893]


Liabilities:
- $ 300 Credit Card [was $ 259]

Posted our Bi-monthly update a couple of days early since we'll be in Cuba tomorrow  

I'm still pretty happy with our progress. We're up $3,608 since my last update on Jan 4th, and we're up $27,440 since I started this thread back on Sept 26, 2011.


----------



## Plugging Along

Have fun in Cuba tomorrow. 

Whatever you do, do NOT buy the cubans from the beach, even if they give a sample and are only $5 for the cigar.


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## mind_business

Thanks PA.

I don't smoke, although I was thinking about bringing back some cigars for friends. If I do, I'll buy them from a Government certified company.


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## uptoolate

Have a great trip!


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## mind_business

Thanks UTL. All done packing, now just waiting anxiously for our 5:30am pickup


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## uptoolate

Groan I hate that. At least it isn't supposed to be a snowstorm just cold! Hopefully you get some great weather. Are you headed to a resort or to Havana?


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## mind_business

We're staying at the Melia on Cayo Coco. 5:30am pickup isn't too bad. I've had much worse.


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## uptoolate

Well glad you don't mind too much. Early to bed! Have a great time. Don't forget the sunscreen!


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## Financial Cents

mind_business said:


> Previous Update - Jan 4, 2012.
> 
> Assets:
> - $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
> - $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
> - $ 42,290 RRSP(s) [was $ 41,282]
> - $ 6,464 TSFA (mine) [was $ 6,453]
> - $ 6,464 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 6,453]
> - $ 5,526 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 5,154]
> - $ 5,538 Cash [was $ 3,331]
> 
> - $ 558,501 Total Assets [was $ 554,893]
> 
> 
> Liabilities:
> - $ 300 Credit Card [was $ 259]
> 
> Posted our Bi-monthly update a couple of days early since we'll be in Cuba tomorrow
> 
> I'm still pretty happy with our progress. We're up $3,608 since my last update on Jan 4th, and we're up $27,440 since I started this thread back on Sept 26, 2011.


Very well done. No mortgage? Great stuff. Hope to be there in another 12 years.


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## mind_business

We've been focusing on eliminating debt, and now saving at a much higher rate, however our portfolio diversification is pretty much non-existent. I've been doing some reading lately in hopes to gain some better insight into the right mix, and some appropriate investment vehicles to suit my goals.

To get some insight into this subject, I've been doing some reading. I recently read 'The Wealthy Barber Returns'. It's a great book for people who need to understand the importance of debt reduction and savings. I've already learned this lesson. So, based on a recommendation made on this site, I went out and purchased 'The Four Pillars of Investing'. Looking forward to reading it. I think I'm one of those weirdos that actually enjoys reading financial books  

Anyhow, this will be my focus over the next couple of months. I have too much of my money in higher risk, equities.


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## mind_business

Previous Update - Jan 13, 2012.

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 41,034 RRSP(s) [was $ 42,290]
- $ 7,826 TSFA (mine) [was $ 6,464] 
- $ 7,826 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 6,464]
- $ 4,992 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 5,526]
- $ 4,004 Cash [was $ 5,538]

- $ 557,903 Total Assets [was $ 558,501]


Liabilities:
- $ 637 Credit Card [was $ 300]

Took a bit of a step backwards the last couple of weeks. I blame it on our Cuba trip this month. Those darn excursion day trips cost more than I anticipated. But they were a blast 

Back to some serious savings again.


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## mind_business

Previous Update - Feb 2, 2012.

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 212,220 DB Pension Value [will update once every 6 months]
- $ 43,137 RRSP(s) [was $ 41,034]
- $ 7,860 TSFA (mine) [was $ 7,826] 
- $ 7,860 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 7,826]
- $ 5,593 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 4,992]
- $ 5,413 Cash [was $ 4,004]

Assets:
- $ 561,446 [was $ 557,903]


Liabilities:
- $ 637 Credit Card [was $ 637]

That's a bit better than my last update, helped along by a riskier stock investment


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## mind_business

Ok, just contributed my last RRSP contribution for the 2011 Tax Year. 

$5,578.56 Automatic deductions for Co. matching plan (Mar - Dec, 2011)
$1,034.76 Automatic deductions for Co. matching plan (Jan - Feb, 2012)
$1,500.00 Today's contribution to Direct Investing Account
8,113.32 Total

That still leaves me $671.68 in RRSP Contribution Room for 2011. Might top this off on Tuesday.

Having a company Defined Pension Plan greatly reduces my maximum allowable contribution room to RRSP's. 2011 Pension Adjustment = $11,735.00.


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## JustAGuy

mind_business said:


> Previous Update - Feb 2, 2012.
> Assets:
> - $ 5,413 Cash [was $ 4,004]
> Liabilities:
> - $ 637 Credit Card [was $ 637]


Just curious why you would grow your bank account $1400 without paying off that $637 Credit Card... I presume you're paying more monthly interest than you're gaining interest on your cash? You've only got the one liability... and it's a small one at that... so why keep carrying it forward?


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## mind_business

Justaguy, I would never carry a balance over to the next month. It only looks like it because you're comparing results from a 2 week period. 

To avoid confusion, and to avoid boring everyone here, I think I'm going to limit my balance reports to once a month. More relevant that way anyhow.


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## steve41

mind_business said:


> Justaguy, I would never carry a balance over to the next month. It only looks like it because you're comparing results from a 2 week period.
> 
> To avoid confusion, and to avoid boring everyone here, I think I'm going to limit my balance reports to once a month. More relevant that way anyhow.


This is too creepy. Why not once a year, or more to the point once every 5 years. Again.... creepy.


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## mind_business

steve41 said:


> This is too creepy. Why not once a year, or more to the point once every 5 years. Again.... creepy.


Hadn't really thought about it as being creepy. Perhaps. I've been using the updates as a method to keep track of my improvements, but I can see it's lack of relevancy to everyone else's day  Point noted.


----------



## Jon_Snow

Lol! I was wondering when the proliferation of net worth threads was going to push Steve to the limit.


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## uptoolate

steve41 said:


> This is too creepy. Why not once a year, or more to the point once every 5 years. Again.... creepy.


Don't let it get you down MB. If it keeps you motivated then go for it and you never know when someone is going to have some good advice or posting your progress is going to prevent you from buying that 100 foot yacht! Different strokes. If it's good enough for FT then it's good enough for you. Steve doesn't have to read it!


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## mind_business

uptoolate said:


> Don't let it get you down MB. If it keeps you motivated then go for it and you never know when someone is going to have some good advice or posting your progress is going to prevent you from buying that 100 foot yacht! Different strokes. If it's good enough for FT then it's good enough for you. Steve doesn't have to read it!


No worries, I'm not offended. Steve has a point. I started the diary after I had paid off the mortgage, so I found it motivational to post update status updates. However lately I have less time available, and no longer need the motivation of frequent updates. Don't need too much convincing to stop posting net worth updates


----------



## hboy43

mind_business said:


> Anyhow, this will be my focus over the next couple of months. I have too much of my money in higher risk, equities.


??? I see real estate at what, 80% of you net worth that you have any contol over, that is excluding the DB pension. Where exactly is all this "higher risk equities" of which you speak? I take your usage of the term equities to mean stocks as opposed to anything not FI.

hboy43


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## mind_business

hboy43, I just saw your question now. I've been too busy to post much lately. 

My higher risk investments I was referring to is partly held in my RRSP's, and partly in my non-registered investment account. I had invested in a small cap oil/gas company about 6 years ago, that I'm embarrassed to admit I still own. I'm down around 75% on my investment (current value ~$16,000 which represents about 23% of all my investments ... aside from the equity in my house), which most investors would have cut their losses by now, however I still hold these shares. Not sure why 

Other than that, all of my TFSA investments are in the RBC CDN Dividend Fund, with the remaining portion invested through my Company match program (International Equity fund, and a Balance fund).

As you can see, most of my investments are at a high risk in a bear market. My wife and I are currently reviewing our portfolio to better match our risk profile ... not just mine


----------



## Mall Guy

mind_business said:


> I had invested in a small cap oil/gas company about 6 years ago, that I'm embarrassed to admit I still own. I'm down around 75% on my investment . . . which most investors would have cut their losses by now, however I still hold these shares. Not sure why


Oh, the lesson of learn your first loss is your best loss. Pretty sure this would be referred to as "Dead Money" . . . as an example, I had to move on from Maple Leaf Foods . . . push that money into CDN banks in 2009 . . . capital recovery! At some point you just have to sever the tie, much easier to do in an unregistered account where you can at least crystallize your capital loss against your future gains.


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## fraser

I would focus on my investment strategy from several perspectives. The first would be the costs of investments, ie how do you acquire them and the cost of doing so, ie through your broker, on line broker, whatever. If you have mutual funds, take a close look at the MER's (management expenses). These are sometimes as high as 2.5 percent. Also, is the mutual fund front or back end loaded with commissions. Who is providing you with financial advice and is it time to shop around. Do you want to pay on a commssion basis or do you want a fee for service adviser. is your focus on capital gains, income, dividends? We switched to a fee for service advisor last year-wish we had done it a long time ago. It took us about 6 months to shortlist and find the 'right' advisor for us.

Take a look at your tax situation. If there is only one wage earner you need to consider CRA income attribution rules. If you earn the money to buy the investments, CRA can say that the investment returns should be in your name. NOW is the time to consider this as you can 'lend' your spouse money at the current CRA rate of 1 percent. It will be income to you but an expense to your spouse....but all of the income generated will be taxed in your spouses name=presumeably at a lower rate. The CRA interest rate floats-it has never been this year. You need to set up a signed demand loan w/ interest payments made once a year, by Jan 31. Our tax account advised us to do this. In our case, it is reducing our tax payable.


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## mind_business

In my continued efforts to reduce our household expenses, we switched over my wife's cell phone from a $33.90 per month plan to a prepaid cell. Her usage shows she was only using her cell for about 2-4 minutes per month. Didn't make sense to continue the previous plan. This was on top of my cell which I cancelled outright earlier in the year. I have a work cell that I carry around, so no point in having a personal cell.

I also called Rogers suggesting they reduce my cable bill, or I start looking at my options. They reduced my bill by $18 per month. Not huge savings, but not bad. Rogers is feeling the heat with Bell Fibe, so nows a good time for all cable subscribers to get their bills reduced.

Total savings between these changes totals approx $80.00 per month, or $960.00 per month.

Now for the exciting part, investing the $960 per year over 10 years, at a low 2% assumed rate of return, we'll have $10722 ... better yet, in 20 years we'll have $23,792. 

Not too bad for a couple of small changes


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## mind_business

Update time 

1 year, and 2 months in since starting this Diary Thread, here's my progress since the starting point:

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [No real change]
- $ 262,784 DB Pension Value [was $ 212,220] 
- $ 44,670 RRSP(s) [was $ 31,615] 
- $ 19,754 TSFA (mine) [was $ 1,162] 
- $ 19,754 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 1,162] 
- $ 6,525 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 0 ... I had initially combined cash and invest = $4,603]
- $ 7,795 Cash [was $ 4,603] 

Assets:
- $ 641,281 [was $ 530,761] Represents a 20.8% [$110,520] increase to Net Worth over 14 months

Liabilities:
- $ 0 [was $ 0]


Observations:
- approx $50,000 increase in Net Worth is attributed to my Pension Growth.

- Very happy with our automatic contributions towards our TFSA(s). We've never set up automatic deposits before, but it's been a great tool in our Net worth growth. 

- Over the last year we have re-evaluated what we think our Income needs will be in retirement. Way back when I started this thread, CanadianCapitalist challenged my notion that we would need 70% of current income. I've come to agree that we would need MUCH less, while still enjoying travel, etc. We've budgeted aprox $3200 per month for our expenses ... which includes future potential expenses (such as house/car maintenance, etc). While I still haven't pinned down exactly how much we'd need (I don't think anyone can until they're much closer to retirement), I do know that I'm likly looking at between 40 and 50% of my current wage. 50% would mean that our spending power will increase from its current levels.

- Someone had started a thread a while back about 'best financial tips'. As it applies to our current situation, the best tips I can offer to people is a) live below your means, and make it a life long pursuit ... and b) set up automatic contributions. I wish I had done two decades ago. Especially if you don't have any kids to raise.

- The last observation, is that this journey to financial freedom is actually enjoyable when everything is falling into place. 

Things I still need to learn:
1) Still want to learn more about investing in Bond Markets. I've been meaning to do so reading on this topic, but have been extremely busy this last year. I love reading books, so if anyone has a good recommendation for learning about Bonds, please let me know.

2) As my company transitions from a DB Pension to a DC Pension in a few years, I need to continue to figure out how this affects my plans.


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## mind_business

With 2012 RRSP season now over, it's a good time for a partial update. 

We've been trying hard the last couple of years to max out our Registered accounts. Yesterday we maxed out our RRSP(s) by topping them up with just under $2000. For the most part, our RRSP(s) contributions are done through my work plan, with the exception each year of a smaller top-up into my self-directed account. 

We opened up our first TFSA accounts in Sept 2011, and set up automatic deposits of $1250 per month into each separate account (mine and my wife's). We still haven't fully caught up, but we're close. We've contributed a total of $23,750 into each account, which are now worth $26,468.12. Total TFSA(s) = $52,936.24. We have one more month of regular contributions, and then a small top-up of $500 into each account, and then we're FINALLY caught up.

This past month has been very tight money-wise for us. Between paying Land Tax ($800), a trip to the Carribean ($4500), and our RRSP / TFSA contributions ($4500 total), our chequing account is looking a bit ... umm ... slim. March won't be too bad, but we have a couple of larger expenses in April again. Time to live frugally for a while


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## lonewolf

Mind bussiness

Happy to see the amazing job your doing with your finances.

There are not many bond books out there. "in your best interest" by Hank Cunningham which might be updated yearly ? Is the only book out there that Iam aware of that does a good job of covering the Canadian bond market. I do not agree with everything Hank says but he does a good job.

When you got the bank to cover your fees they might also cover your credit card annual fee if there is one.

A fee you might get burned on (if you swicth financial instutitions in the future) that you might be able to negotiate ahead of time in writting is to waive the fee on transfering money from a registered account to another registered account @ another instutition. Your bank will most likely want to charge $100 fee. If an investor has a lot of Gics this can get expensive. Credit unions in your area most likely charge $50 maybe they will price match in writting.


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## My Own Advisor

Well done MB. In your mid-40s with good assets and $0 liabilities.


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## uptoolate

Yes excellent work. You really juiced those TFSA's in a hurry. Hopefully you can get some good returns inside them.


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## mind_business

lonewolf said:


> Mind bussiness
> 
> Happy to see the amazing job your doing with your finances.
> 
> There are not many bond books out there. "in your best interest" by Hank Cunningham which might be updated yearly ? Is the only book out there that Iam aware of that does a good job of covering the Canadian bond market. I do not agree with everything Hank says but he does a good job.


Thanks for the support LW. While I feel that we're finally on track with a solid plan, it feels like we're behind ... that we should have started at least 5 years ago. We're still targetting FI in approx 8 years at 55. Only time will tell. 

Glad to hear it's a good book. I brought the 3rd ed (2012) with me on my vacation a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately there were a few more interesting things to do and see than reading about Canadian Bonds LOL. I think I got through the first 10 pages LOL. I'll give it a read over the next week or so though.



lonewolf said:


> When you got the bank to cover your fees they might also cover your credit card annual fee if there is one.
> 
> A fee you might get burned on (if you swicth financial instutitions in the future) that you might be able to negotiate ahead of time in writting is to waive the fee on transfering money from a registered account to another registered account @ another instutition. Your bank will most likely want to charge $100 fee. If an investor has a lot of Gics this can get expensive. Credit unions in your area most likely charge $50 maybe they will price match in writting.


I'm too cheap to have a credit card with an annual fee LOL. Good point on the switching fee for Registered accounts. We will be moving all of our TFSA(s) to our self-directed account in April. I'm hoping that since the account is currently with RBC, and I'm moving the money to their brokerage account, they'll give me a break on the fee. Hopefully. The point of moving it to our self-directed plan is to switch our current RBC Cdn Dividend Fund to a lower MER ... ETF??? Thanks again for the info, and support.


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Well done MB. In your mid-40s with good assets and $0 liabilities.


Thanks. We're doing OK. Wish we had more though  As I mentioned to LW above, I wish we had taken this much more seriously about 5 years ago. 



uptoolate said:


> Yes excellent work. You really juiced those TFSA's in a hurry. Hopefully you can get some good returns inside them.


I hope so too. When we switch our TSSA(s) over to our self-directed fund in April, I'll be begging for some advice LOL. So far our RBC Cdn Dividend Fund has produced very good returns. I'm a bit concerned that it's weighted so heavily in the financial sector though. I've been using the ETF filter tool from RBC Direct Investing, but I'm still fairly new at it. Lots of learning to do. Good thing I like this stuff


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## mind_business

... and the 2012 Taxes are done and Netfiled :encouragement: Getting a nice $1400 refund ... sweet! Another small boost to our retirement fund.


----------



## mind_business

Last night I set up an account with ING for their higher interest savings account. Got to admit, I'm not a big fan of doing banking without the ability to go into a local branch if I need something specific. I realize it's becoming more the reality of banking these days, but I still don't like it. Maybe it's an age thing (47 years old and used to banking inside buildings). 

Did anyone else have these feelings transitioning to Virtual-only banking? Do you find their online, or by-phone service adequate?


----------



## mrPPincer

Same demographic, 50 years old here, but I'm comfortable with the online banks.
I think I started approximately 2006 with Altamira's HISA when it was the most competitive (no longer, since the takeover by NBC).

So far I haven't experienced any problems or worries with any of the online banks' service but I do tend to read the fine print carefully and ask a few questions beforehand so that I know their individual quirks.
Currently I have open accounts with six of these top-paying fourteen CDN HISAs and move my cash around as the rates fluctuate.
http://www.highinterestsavings.ca/chart/

Fot now I've moved to PC Financial which has a 3-month teaser rate of 2.6% on new deposits, with a little bit in a People's Trust TFSA HISA at 3%.

For B&M insitutions I've recently closed my local CU accounts after 45 years since they've decided to follow the big banks and start charging a monthly fee unless a minimum balance is kept in their low-to-no-interest chequing account.

I'm still a shareholder, but sadly all I use it for anymore is to make bank machine deposits or withdrawals to my online CUs, or to have them send a fax for me on occasion.
Ironically they've driven me to go to one of the big five B&Ms, which I use only for cashing paycheques; I keep just enough in RBC's e-savings account to cover my largest paycheque, and it could always double as a small easy-access emergency fund. 

m_b, ING isn't competitive anymore, but I see they've also got a teaser promo rate going on right now, just as PCF does.
I'm sure these promos snare enough customers that stay on due to inertia, but I'm a believer in letting my dollars follow the highest rates to speak to the competition.


----------



## Jon_Snow

I'm fine staying with TD... a few percentage points of interest isn't worth the hassle of moving some savings over. Something in my personality prefers all my financials in one place - and the fact that my branch is a few minutes walk away is nice as well.

Mind_business, had a bit of time this morning and I re-read this entire thread - great info for those who have no interest in working to 65 or beyond. You certainly seem to be on track. 

I have been toying with the idea of quitting my current job next year - a scary prospect for a then 42 year old. In the past few days I have thought that perhaps I could request a 1 year "sabbatical" from my employer. I could use this year as a "dry run" to see if my plans will work. Not sure if my company has ever granted anyone such a thing, but I think it is worth trying. Maybe I should start a "taking a sabbatical" thread?


----------



## mind_business

Jon_Snow said:


> I'm fine staying with TD... a few percentage points of interest isn't worth the hassle of moving some savings over. Something in my personality prefers all my financials in one place - and the fact that my branch is a few minutes walk away is nice as well.
> 
> Mind_business, had a bit of time this morning and I re-read this entire thread - great info for those who have no interest in working to 65 or beyond. You certainly seem to be on track.
> 
> I have been toying with the idea of quitting my current job next year - a scary prospect for a then 42 year old. In the past few days I have thought that perhaps I could request a 1 year "sabbatical" from my employer. I could use this year as a "dry run" to see if my plans will work. Not sure if my company has ever granted anyone such a thing, but I think it is worth trying. Maybe I should start a "taking a sabbatical" thread?


The only reason I went outside my comfort zone (B&M banking) to ING was because a percentage point makes a significant enough difference ... and it's the safest extra percentage that you'll ever make. 

Following some of your other posts, I don't think you'll have a problem taking early retirement. Even if your DW didn't want to continue working, you should be just fine. A sabatical thread would be interesting, but I won't be contributing. It will be a very easy transition for me to move from FT work to retirement. No practice needed


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## mind_business

mrPPincer said:


> Currently I have open accounts with six of these top-paying fourteen CDN HISAs and move my cash around as the rates fluctuate.





mrPPincer said:


> m_b, ING isn't competitive anymore, but I see they've also got a teaser promo rate going on right now, just as PCF does.
> I'm sure these promos snare enough customers that stay on due to inertia, but I'm a believer in letting my dollars follow the highest rates to speak to the competition.


That's exactly what I was thinking about doing. I'll start depositing into ING, but will quickly move my deposits around if a competitor offers better rates. Just means I need to open a bunch of accounts


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## mind_business

Update time (last update was Dec 1st, 2012) 

Assets:
- $ 280,000 House [No real change]
- $ 263,070 DB Pension Value [was $ 262,784] 
- $ 50,808 RRSP(s) [was $ 44,670] 
- $ 27,770 TSFA (mine) [was $ 19,754] 
- $ 27,770 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 19,754] 
- $ 7,992 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 6,525]
- $ 6,509 Cash [was $ 7,795] 

Assets:
- $ 663,918 [was $ 641,281] Represents a [$22,637] increase to Net Worth over 5 months

Liabilities:
- $ 0 [was $ 0]


Observations:

- I'm disappointed with our results over the last 5 months. The good side of this is that the last half of the year for us typically sees much quicker savings / net worth increase. Mainly because we have paid for the bulk of our expensive bills in the first few months of the year (insurance, land taxes, etc), and like everyone else, our take-home pay increases in the summer once we've maxed out our EI, CPP, etc.

Also, I received my raise in March, which was significantly more than inflation, so we'll be beefing up our contributions to savings accordingly.


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## mind_business

Exciting changes for my wife and I. I have accepted a job with my current employer that will require a relocation out west. We are both originally from out west, so this is a good thing. Gets us closer to both of our families. With the new job comes a decent sized increase in salary which is great. But it also means we'll be taking out a mortgage to afford an acreage ... which is what my wife and I have wanted for some time ... the acreage, not the mortgage LOL. 

The one thing that is a surety in life ... is that things change. If you've read my diary up till this point, you'll know that we had a very strict plan of following a budget and saving a large percentage of my gross wage for retirement. Now the plan will likely evolve to paying off the mortgage as quickly as we can (less than 4 years), and then re-focus on the retirement savings. 

The good news, is that with the significantly higher salary, my company pension will be considerably higher as well. This should ease some of the pressure of putting most of our excess income into the mortgage ... I think.

I'm interested in other people's opinions on what they'd do in our situation (both 47 years old), mortgage will likely be around $300,000. Plan to pay that off in 4 years ... as quickly as we possibly can. Would you pay off the mortgage as fast as you can, or would you focus more on retirement savings ... paying off the min mortgage payment? Or would you take a more balanced approach and split it 50/50?


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## My Own Advisor

Congrats!

I hope you still visit the forum from the wild west 

With new mortgage and higher salary (and bigger pension), I suggest you kill the mortgage as fast as you can. 

You don't want to be in debt when you retire. The faster you kill the mortgage, early 50s, the more you can invest. If you find you're making great progress, then you can try the 50/50.

Good luck!


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## marina628

My Own Advisor said:


> Congrats!
> 
> I hope you still visit the forum from the wild west
> 
> With new mortgage and higher salary (and bigger pension), I suggest you kill the mortgage as fast as you can.
> 
> You don't want to be in debt when you retire. The faster you kill the mortgage, early 50s, the more you can invest. If you find you're making great progress, then you can try the 50/50.
> 
> Good luck!


I have been in that situation and you have to ask yourself if your ROI on investment will beat the mortgage.With interest rates what they are today you could probably do both.


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## uptoolate

Great work MB. Congrats on the new job. 

I'd take the mortgage out asap too. My bias but also take advantage of low interest rates to really snuff it out quick before rates eventually head up. 

Good luck with the new job and the move out west. Cheers.


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## My Own Advisor

Marina628, fair point. 

I think it depends what life stage you are at though. 

A 30-something with mortgage debt can and maybe should do both, invest and pay down debt. A late-40 something should likely get rid of the debt sooner than later since they don't have investing time on their side and debt will be a significant drain on their retirement income. 

I know a few 60-somethings with mortgage debt, now retired, and they are slowly digging a debt hole they will seriously struggle to ever get out of. I never want to be in that position.


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## kcowan

MB, congratulations.
I think your biggest investment choice is where/what acreage to purchase. That will likely have more influence on your net worth than the other question.

But I would pay down the mortgage. In 4 years, you will find your rate of accumulation will compensate for the delay (given the low investment returns these days).


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Congrats!
> 
> I hope you still visit the forum from the wild west
> 
> With new mortgage and higher salary (and bigger pension), I suggest you kill the mortgage as fast as you can.
> 
> You don't want to be in debt when you retire. The faster you kill the mortgage, early 50s, the more you can invest. If you find you're making great progress, then you can try the 50/50.
> 
> Good luck!


Thanks  ... and no worries, I'll definitely find time to drop in 

Although I know there's talk about an impending real estate bubble, I still see an investment in an acreage (very close to the city limits) as being a reasonable investment. I have to agree that you don't want any debt entering retirement ... but I also want a healthy investment account.



marina628 said:


> I have been in that situation and you have to ask yourself if your ROI on investment will beat the mortgage.With interest rates what they are today you could probably do both.


Yeah, this is definitely a consideration. However, when calculating the difference, I have to add an automatic 3% to debt repayment as a 'peace of mind' factor LOL. Seriously, for me it's psychologically worth valuing debt payments higher than ROI for traditional investments. I hate debt of any kind!!!



uptoolate said:


> Great work MB. Congrats on the new job.
> 
> I'd take the mortgage out asap too. My bias but also take advantage of low interest rates to really snuff it out quick before rates eventually head up.
> 
> Good luck with the new job and the move out west. Cheers.


Thanks


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Marina628, fair point.
> 
> I think it depends what life stage you are at though.
> 
> A 30-something with mortgage debt can and maybe should do both, invest and pay down debt. A late-40 something should likely get rid of the debt sooner than later since they don't have investing time on their side and debt will be a significant drain on their retirement income.
> 
> I know a few 60-somethings with mortgage debt, now retired, and they are slowly digging a debt hole they will seriously struggle to ever get out of. I never want to be in that position.


Yeah, again ... I can't retire with debt. I'd have to keep working :distress:



kcowan said:


> MB, congratulations.
> I think your biggest investment choice is where/what acreage to purchase. That will likely have more influence on your net worth than the other question.
> 
> But I would pay down the mortgage. In 4 years, you will find your rate of accumulation will compensate for the delay (given the low investment returns these days).


Well, the acreage we're looking at backs out on a conservation area (100's of acres) full of hiking trails  . The house is fully remodelled and is gorgeous! And it's in a highly sought area. We may lose a bit during a market downturn, but I think it will bounce back quickly ... I hope :/

Thanks for the advise guys


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## mind_business

Well, we're knee deep in renovations to our house that we need to sell. Kitchen just needs final painting and a bit of moulding, and the bathroom is getting it's final coat tonight. Only had to replace the countertop in the bathroom, along with the sink and tap. Not too strenuous LOL. We have a 70's home where we still have the old 'purple' toilet and bathtub. I'm not sure if it's worth switching them out to white or just leaving them as-is. Thoughts? If I did switch them out, I'd replace the toilet, but only get one of the tubs that fit over the existing. Mainly because I don't want to have to re-tile the tub-surround.


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## mind_business

Well, all our hard work on the renovations were worth it. Our house sold one day after listing it ... plus we had three backup offers that were waiting for the first to be rejected. Apparently they didn't want to compete against other offers. We ended up getting full list price, so we're fairly pleased 

The Home Inspection, and Finance conditions are complete on the new home in Alberta ... so we're almost set. Now we just need to get through the actual move :distress:

We're looking forward to this life change. It's going to be very different for me to be on an acreage, but not so much for my wife since she was raised on a farm. I'm going to look forward to shopping for a riding mower  I'm thinking John Deere. Any other suggestions for a good quality riding mower ... that can be used with a snowblower attachment on the front?


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## leoc2

mind_business said:


> ... I'm going to look forward to shopping for a riding mower  I'm thinking John Deere. Any other suggestions for a good quality riding mower ... that can be used with a snowblower attachment on the front?


You may want to check Kijiji. You may save $$$. Congrats on the quick sale and good luck with the move!


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## Jon_Snow

John Deere all the way... we have a ride-on lawn mower and a good sized farm tractor with front end loader attachment and excavator on the back. These things are bulletproof. 

I hope you learn to love "workin' the land" like my wife and I do - honestly, a beer never tastes better than it does after a 2 hour firewood splitting session. :biggrin:

Can't help you on the snowblower - here on the west coast we are quite unfamiliar with such technology. :tongue-new:


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## Maybe Later

How big of an acreage? Look at the compact tractors as well. I have a JD2305 (3 cyl diesel) with a front end loader, tiller and finish mower. I clean the driveway with the loader but every winter I wish I had bought a snowblower. These tractors have a mid-pto that allows for a front snowblower instead of a rear one and I believe the can be lifted using the tractors hydraulics. Would have bought one last year but we hope it is our last winter out here. 

I've loved the acreage lifestyle but it is time for us to be in town. One warning. Acreages bleed money like you would t believe. It's a lot of work, but its fun. Best wishes.


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## mind_business

Maybe Later said:


> How big of an acreage? Look at the compact tractors as well. I have a JD2305 (3 cyl diesel) with a front end loader, tiller and finish mower. I clean the driveway with the loader but every winter I wish I had bought a snowblower. These tractors have a mid-pto that allows for a front snowblower instead of a rear one and I believe the can be lifted using the tractors hydraulics. Would have bought one last year but we hope it is our last winter out here.
> 
> I've loved the acreage lifestyle but it is time for us to be in town. One warning. Acreages bleed money like you would t believe. It's a lot of work, but its fun. Best wishes.


Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been without a computer for a week while travelling. We bought a 3 acre property ... not too big, so hopefully manageable.

Not sure what we're going to end up with yet. I'm still leaning towards a John Deere small utility tractor ... but realistically it's hard to justify the cost. I could just suck it up and use my walk-behind 32" snowblower for a year or two, but the problem is the length of the driveway is 300 feet.


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## mind_business

leoc2 said:


> You may want to check Kijiji. You may save $$$. Congrats on the quick sale and good luck with the move!


I plan on it. Buying everything new right now is not an option.


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## fraser

Good luck to you. 

We moved west many years ago and we never looked back. Turned down every opportunity to relocate back to Ontario. After we retired people asked us if we would ever move back. No thanks. Alberta is home and we could not imagine living anywhere else (except in winter when we migrate to warmer climes). It is a very special, and a unique province and it has been very financially rewarding to us.

Another vote for paying off the mortgage.


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## mind_business

Thanks Fraser. Yeah, we won't be moving back to Ontario either. Actually, our first Corporate move was from Saskatchewan to Ontario in '99. Now we're basically heading back home. Can't wait.

Alberta is definitely turning out to be financially rewarding to us as well. The wage has gone up considerably, which my company made retroactive to when I received the Job offer ... even though we're still in Ontario for a few more days.


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## fraser

We were transferred, after 20 odd years, from Vancouver to Calgary in 2001. By far the best move we ever made. For us financially, and for our children and their education. I travelled back to Ontario often on business but was always so glad to get back to Calgary. It was not just the lower taxes, coming from BC it was a much more positive and progressive business environment. And a provincial government that was not a joke, as BC's was at the time.


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## mind_business

Update time (last update was April 30, 2013) 

Assets:
- $ 575,000 House [was $280,000 ... purchased new home]
- $ 245,896 DB Pension Value [was $ 263,070 ... got to love those actuarial calculations :frown: ] 
- $ 58,319 RRSP(s) [was $ 50,808] 
- $ 123 TSFA (mine) [was $ 27,770] 
- $ 27,770 * TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 27,770] Note *I wasn't able to log into account to confirm current value. Will update later.
- $ 10,524 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 7,992]
- $ 9,860 Cash [was $ 6,509] 

Assets:
- $ 927,554 [was $ 663,918]

Liabilities:
- $ 298,359 [was $ 0]

Net Worth:
- $629,195 +$13,000 (monies owing from company expenses) = approx. $642,000 [was $ 663,918]


Observations:

- I'll start with the obvious one ... moving onto an acreage can be a bit expensive :eek2: But we wouldn't trade it in for moving back into the city. We love it out here. We ended up with a little over 3 acres ... fully private, with trees surrounding the property. The back half has approx. an acre of forest. The best part is that we back out onto a massive, protected conservation area.
- Some of the extra costs to us when we moved onto the acreage were: 

Small tractor for cutting lawn, blowing snow and tilling the garden
snowblower attachment
rotto-tiller attachment
cart attachment
cell phone (we decided to get a cell rather than a land-line)


- Other than those additional expenses above, we haven't really seen a huge increase to our annual expenses.


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## mind_business

.... also, I've seen a significant increase to my wage. New salary is $150,000 + overtime + annual bonus. 

Since we're not seeing an increase to our annual expenses (approx. $36,000 + $18,000 mortgage ... will recalculate a bit more accurately later), I'm estimating we'll be able to save about $55,000 per year + any overtime + annual bonus. 

Hopefully this gets us a bit closer to FI at 55 ... I'm now 47. We have a long ways to go, so diligent saving will be the name of the game going forward.


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## Ihatetaxes

Sounds like a great property - congrats. I used to live on 14 acres and loved it but my wife did not like the isolation.

You are hoping to retire in 8 years, correct? What is your goal for net worth by then?


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## My Own Advisor

@Mind_business, well done!

With DB pension + >$100k in liquid assets, you're doing great.

I suspect if you can: 1) pay off your home in 8 years, before 55, 2) keep the pension intact and, 3) grow the non-house assets to >$500k, that should put you close to retirement rather nicely. If you choose to sell the house when you retire and rent, you're really set.

The 3 acres ... fully private, with trees surrounding the property backing onto protected area sounds gorgeous.


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## Jon_Snow

Sounds about right MOA... my own particular ace-in-the-hole is a wife who will work 5 to 10 years longer than me.


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## mind_business

Ihatetaxes said:


> Sounds like a great property - congrats. I used to live on 14 acres and loved it but my wife did not like the isolation.
> 
> You are hoping to retire in 8 years, correct? What is your goal for net worth by then?


At 55 years old:
$611,500 DB Pension value after tax paid on cash portion
$104,300 DC Pension value
$137,000 current portfolio growth by 55
$250,000 new investment growth after mortgage is paid off ... In 4 years.
$575,000 home value ... Set at current value since I don't know where the market is going.
$1,678,000 total


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## mind_business

Taking a simplistic approach, this should provide a $43,000 income which keeps up with 2% inflation, assuming a 4% rate of return on investments. This income comes from $1,100,000 and assumes the rest is locked up in real estate. Aside from the value of our home, we'd be broke by age 92.

Then I would add on CPP and OAS, giving us an extra $20,000 of income per year at 65/67.


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## mind_business

Thanks MOA. Yes, our acreage is exactly what we were hoping for. The peace and quiet is amazing. It's nice to relax in your yard without hearing your neighbour's kid screaming, parents arguing, or dogs barking.


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## mind_business

Btw, I doubt I would retire at 55. This number just represents an age where I can take a deep breath, knowing that I don't have to work if I don't want to, and decide how I want to make an income going forward. It may be with my current company if I'm still enjoying the work, or I may try some contract work ... which is quite easy in my line of work.


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## donald

Did you buy a deere?Some might not agree but cutting grass on a riding mower can be a stress reliever-a toy!they are pricey thou!what did you buy?Being on your own acreage is a huge bonus(can't put a $ tag on that)congrats!you might need to build a man cave or a shop!you have a lot of room!I would love to have 3 acres.
I bought a 1 acre lot this summer but i'm having some issues(waiting to be resolved)


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## mind_business

Donald ... This is my stress reliever :biggrin: ... and yes it was a wee bit pricey. But worth it. Did I mention it comes with a beer cup holder :very_drunk: 

http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US...n_tractors/Select_Series_X500/x540/x540.page?


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## Plugging Along

Am I the only one that thinks it is wrong to have a large machine that tip and cut body parts, with a beer holder :hopelessness: j/k

Your numbers look good.


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## My Own Advisor

@Jon_Snow, lucky dog 

@mind_business, sounds like you have a great plan. >$1 M in investments not including house, no debt, and not including government programs like CPP and OAS is where my wife and I want to be at age 55. Not easy but at least there's a plan... Like you, I don't want to worry about money anymore. I want to work on my own terms at or after 55. Life is too short to be worrying about money for all of it.

We have 0.5 acre ourselves and love it.

You might have covered this already...but are you an indexer? dividend investor? mixture of both? Where is the current portfolio invested to grow to $137k by 55 and where will be the expected $250k be invested and how? Curious.


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## mind_business

I'm not sophisticated enough of an investor to be labeled as a specific type of investor. I would describe myself as one who has learned through painful past experiences not to take excessive risks, and with that I learned to lower my expectations of investment returns. Right now I have about 40% our money in a Canadian Dividend Fund, 20% in a higher risk global growth fund, 30% in a balanced fund, and the rest held as cash ... or in a remaining 'stupid' investment that I still haven't sold LOL.

I will be looking at index ETF(s) for future investments, but right now I'm pretty comfortable with what we have. You'll notice that the only fixed income/bond investments are held in our balanced fund. This is largely because I still have not had time to 'learn' how they work, and how they should fit in my portfolio at my age / future goals.

The $250k is simple to explain. We will be paying off the minimum amount on our mortgage for one (1) year (starting when we took out our mortgage 2 months ago). This will allow us to build up our emergency fund ... just in case. Then we will re-focus on maxing out our mortgage payments/balloon payment, getting ready to pay off the entire mortgage in year 4. The $250k will be projected monies saved after the mortgage has been paid off (approx. savings rate will be $75k per year for 3 years ... taking us to 55). Not sure what I'll be investing it in just yet. All I know is that I'm shooting for a 4% return on our investments ... in all cases. If we get more ... YAY


----------



## uptoolate

Flashy wheels MB. Looks like the plan is coming along nicely. My Freedom 55 plan was just a hypothetical target too but as the time draws closer I think it is much more likely that one might avail themselves of the option. Especially if one can pick up some fun, low stress work on the side to augment the retirement income. Nice to have choices.


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## GoldStone

mind_business said:


> I would describe myself as one who has learned through painful past experiences not to take excessive risks, and with that I learned to lower my expectations of investment returns. Right now I have about 40% our money in a Canadian Dividend Fund, 20% in a higher risk global growth fund, 30% in a balanced fund, and the rest held as cash


Assuming the balanced fund is split 60/40, your overall allocation to equities is:

40% + 20% + (0.6 * 30%) = 78%

This is an aggressive allocation for a 45 year old trying for Freedom 55 in 10 years. If you ask me, you are definitely taking some excessive risks.

I'm 46 and I'm working towards the same goal. Freedom 55 or sooner. I keep my equities at 50%-60%. The memories of 2008 are still painfully fresh. The last thing I need is another big setback a few years before retirement.


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## mind_business

LOL, I was wondering when someone would point that out. Yes I realize that. I will rebalance once I decide how to invest in fixed income/bonds. In the meantime, I'm making one heck of a nice return this last year. No worries though, I'm a bit nervous about it as well. What I meant by excessive risk was investing too much money in individual small/mid cap stocks ... which I thought I was an expert at 10 - 15 years ago LOL ... I wasn't 

Btw, I was 45 when I started this diary. I'm now 47, turning 48 early next year. Time is ticking :eek2:


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## mind_business

Update time (last update was Oct 20, 2013) 

Assets:
- $ 575,000 House
- $ 274,027 DB Pension Value [was $ 245,896 ... got to love those actuarial calculations ] 
- $ 61,167 RRSP(s) [was $ 58,319] 
- $ 129 TSFA (mine) [was $ 126] 
- $ 31,288 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 27,770]
- $ 11,730 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 10,524]
- $ 25,042 Cash [was $ 9,860] 

Assets:
- $ 981,408 [was $ 927,554]

Liabilities:
- $ 296,581 [was $ 298,359]

Net Worth:
- $684,827 [was $ 642,000]


Observations:

- Firstly, our move to an acreage was definitely worth it. Quality of life vs more expensive ... meh. We routinely see lots of wildlife, including about 15 deer that passed through our acreage yesterday. We also saw two coyotes, which means we need to build a fenced enclosure for our dogs in the spring.
- Pretty happy seeing our net worth continuing to build, even after a relatively expensive first few months after our acreage purchase. 
- I'm updating this today because I'm about to make our RRSP and TFSA contributions. I'll max out the RRSP first. Then top off my wife's TFSA, and put the remaining amount into my TFSA. Mine will take a few months to max out again. I had to take money out of it to help pay for our move/house purchase.
- With the new Position I have, we're able to save quite a bit more per month. We also find that we're spending a lot less living on an acreage. You tend to only go grocery shopping once a week, and plan for the trip.


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## RBull

Congratulations MB and all the best with your plan. That's a great income and should help get you to your goal.

We moved from acreage to the city and now back to rural waterfront 2.9 acres about 2 years ago and we love it, so understand why you're enjoying it. We're beginning our retirement in a few months. My wife is 55 and I will be too later this spring, after both working casual/PT for a several years. Nice tractor. I couldn't justify a JD so settled on a husquvarna and it is serving me well. I just have someone plow since driveway is 330 ft plus very large parking area and a private shared lane of 400 feet. Much cheaper, easier and hours faster. 

I agree with Goldstone on the portfolio composition. I think you could both pay off the mortgage and do some saving at the same time. Like you I learned from the school of hard knocks. I've gone mostly potato into retirement as I want to spend much less time on the investment stuff. Simplicity=good for me at this point.

Good luck.


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## mind_business

Thanks RBull. It would be hard to move back to a smaller city lot. I do however think you're missing out on snow-removal enjoyment. We have a 300 foot long, double car-width driveway. It only takes 15 minutes to clear with our 47" wide snowblower  I put a cab on the tractor to keep warm during the colder months. I end up looking for other people's driveways to clear just to get some more seat-time on the tractor LOL.

Do you have a financial thread/diary set up? I'd be interested in reading how you got to your early retirement. We're focused on brute-force saving, but are far from sophisticated investors. I like the idea of the potato-type portfolio. It'll help us with our diversification ... which is almost non-existent at this point.


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## RBull

mind_business said:


> Thanks RBull. It would be hard to move back to a smaller city lot. I do however think you're missing out on snow-removal enjoyment. We have a 300 foot long, double car-width driveway. It only takes 15 minutes to clear with our 47" wide snowblower  I put a cab on the tractor to keep warm during the colder months. I end up looking for other people's driveways to clear just to get some more seat-time on the tractor LOL.
> 
> Do you have a financial thread/diary set up? I'd be interested in reading how you got to your early retirement. We're focused on brute-force saving, but are far from sophisticated investors. I like the idea of the potato-type portfolio. It'll help us with our diversification ... which is almost non-existent at this point.


LOL, I can relate to what you're saying with the tractor snow removal but with the ATV I had for years at a previous home. 

I have a pretty good grade in my drive and a tractor just wouldn't cut it. The other thing that is different is our snow is most often VERY heavy with a lot of moisture...and often it turns into rain while it is falling, not the light fluffy stuff usually seen out west. So the tractor just wouldn't make it uphill (often icy) and the snowblower bogs more easily with this heavy crap. Also we plan to spend some time south in the winter so won't always be here to do it. So we just let the big boys do it. :chuncky:

Besides the guy that does it is supposed to send a bill at the end of the season. Had the house for 3 winters and haven't seen a bill yet, and I'm not the only around here in that situation.:encouragement:

No I didn't set up a diary. I'm still shy about all financial details online. Over time on here it might happen and probably more details slip out I suppose. PM me if you wish and I'll be happy to share what you want.


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## My Own Advisor

Wow, good progress since October....assets looking great, making NW very good for someone in their mid-40s.

You're inspiring me, 8 years behind you in age.

We max out our TFSAs first, then continue with our pre-authorized contributions to our RRSPs, a couple hundred bucks per month. We're about 5 years away from topping up our RRSP contribution room. 

We find the same thing: spend less on our 0.5 acreage out of town a bit. Groceries once or twice per week; etc., plan ahead, less dinners out/little take-out food - maybe once a month.

Keep up the great work mind_business.


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## mind_business

RBull said:


> No I didn't set up a diary. I'm still shy about all financial details online. Over time on here it might happen and probably more details slip out I suppose. PM me if you wish and I'll be happy to share what you want.


I'm more interested in people's financial position when they entered early retirement. I'm trying to gauge whether my assumptions for required Net Worth - house value is adequate ... especially from those who retire with similar goals / property. No worries though, I understand if you're not comfortable posting in a public forum.


----------



## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Wow, good progress since October....assets looking great, making NW very good for someone in their mid-40s.
> 
> You're inspiring me, 8 years behind you in age.
> 
> We max out our TFSAs first, then continue with our pre-authorized contributions to our RRSPs, a couple hundred bucks per month. We're about 5 years away from topping up our RRSP contribution room.
> 
> We find the same thing: spend less on our 0.5 acreage out of town a bit. Groceries once or twice per week; etc., plan ahead, less dinners out/little take-out food - maybe once a month.
> 
> Keep up the great work mind_business.


Thanks! You're always very supportive and positive. We're actually enjoying our path to wealth accumulation ... albeit slowly compared to some on this board LOL. Considering we started out in min wage jobs / going to school when my wife and I met, I think we're doing OK.


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## mind_business

Update time (last update was Feb 2, 2014) *** minor milestone accomplished :encouragement:

Assets:
- $ 575,000 House
- $ 278,573 DB Pension Value [was $ 274,027 ... got to love those actuarial calculations ] 
- $ 63,643 RRSP(s) [was $ 61,167] 
- $ 10701 TSFA (mine) [was $ 129] 
- $ 38,075 TSFA (Wife’s) [was $ 31,288]
- $ 12,579 Investments Non-RRSP [was $ 11,730]
- $ 18,604 Cash [was $ 25,042] 

Assets:
- $ 997,175 [was $ 981,408]

Liabilities:
- $ 294,991 [was $ 296,581]

Net Worth:
- $702,184 [was $ 684,827]

Posting an update to recognize an achieved milestone ... passing $700,000 Net Worth. Woot!!!

In my 20's and 30's our Net Worth increased painfully slowly. It's nice to finally have some Investments/Pension that are working for us. In the last 6 weeks our Net Worth increased by $17K. I couldn't imagine this kind of growth even a few years ago. Very inspirational for my goal of Financial Independence at 55 ... I'm now 47, almost 48.

Once my TFSA is back to being max'd out, we're going to start hitting the mortgage hard.


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## RBull

Congratulations mind_business. You're making good progress and you seem to be on track to meet your goal. :encouragement:

G/L with the TFSA and mortgage.


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## mind_business

Well, it's been a while since I've provided an update. After some earlier suggestions in this thread to post updates less often, I decided to keep it to an annual update. I also won't go into much detail, other than to provide a Net Worth amount. 

Year-over-year, our Net Worth has gone up approximately $160,000, bringing us to $863,672. 

I'm hoping this keeps us on track for Financial Independence by age 55. Both my wife and I are 49. It seems to be getting easier to build net worth each year, as our money and pension amount works for us. Fingers crossed!

Anyhow, that's our financial story in a nutshell 

Anybody else out there on a similar path to us???


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## My Own Advisor

Killer work! Great stuff!

We are on a similar path, rather we have the same goal - to be existing the workforce at 55 on our own terms. We're a bit younger. We have some liabilities as well, I hate our mortgage 

Your DB pension value is ahead of ours. That's a very nice nest egg of $300k.

Are you investing in your TFSAs and killing the mortgage at the same time? That would be a great one-two punch if you can pull that off. Continued progress!


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## mind_business

Thanks for the encouragement! We fell behind our plan to start tackling our mortgage. We had an unexpected vehicle purchase which put us $40K behind schedule. It's paid off, but it did impact our ability to dump large sums of money into our mortgage. As soon as our TFSA's are maxed out, we'll max out our payments into the mortgage, including the year end balloon payment.


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## My Own Advisor

We're doing the same thing...maxing out TFSA before mortgage prepayments. 

Speaking of vehicles, I hope my 15-year-old Mazda makes it for another couple of years. It has served me well.


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## RBull

Congratulations on the progress. Nice work. I'm glad you came back to post it. 

I retired a few months after we communicated last. It's all good!


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## mind_business

Thanks RBull. Actually your PM last year gave me some hope that my plan may just work out. It was much appreciated. Congratulations on your retirement!!!


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## RBull

You're welcome and thank you too. 

Hope to see updates from you more than once a year.


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## mind_business

Current networth:

$877K (04/06/2015)
$864K (03/06/2015)

Month-over-month Networth increase = 13K

Most of the increase this past month has been approx $5K debt repayment (mortgage) and $5K increase in DB Pension valuation. The remainder was mostly new savings.

We're going to continue focusing on reducing the mortgage, while adding to TFSA(s) at the same time. Still really enjoying the much-faster rate of networth growth now that I have a decent amount of years vested in the DB Pension. Also our increased income over the years is helping out. 

On a slightly different note, my wife and I have started to get into wildlife photography. We have a pretty nice forest on our property, plus there are quite a few conservation areas around us. Bought an entry level DSLR (Nikon D3300 w/ 18-55 and 70-300 lenses) to replace our old point-and-shoot. We're going to head to Banff and Jasper to see what we can photograph.


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## mind_business

Current networth:

$922K (11/01/2015)
$877K (04/06/2015)

45K increase since last update in April. 

We've had a lot of unexpected expenses that have slowed our Net Worth increase. Going forward hopefully we're back to normal budgeting.


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## james4beach

This is really impressive. Let me see if I have this right, and I'm interested in learning from others like you...

In 4 years you've increased your net worth from 531 K to 922 K (an increase of +391 K)

I'm estimating your DB pension at 380 K, is that about right? That would mean your pension alone has contributed a +168 K increase over this total period


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## My Own Advisor

That is _very good work!_


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## mind_business

james4beach said:


> This is really impressive. Let me see if I have this right, and I'm interested in learning from others like you...
> 
> In 4 years you've increased your net worth from 531 K to 922 K (an increase of +391 K)
> 
> I'm estimating your DB pension at 380 K, is that about right? That would mean your pension alone has contributed a +168 K increase over this total period


Pension = $459K

Thanks ... but I'm very disappointed in our ability to increase net worth over the last couple of years. We should be much farther ahead. The pension has been increasing nicely, but our other net worth assets have not. Time to buckle down and start saving ... like we did when I started this diary. I'm making considerably more money than when I started the diary, however we also did a move to another province, and purchased an acreage ... with a mortgage. However, we should still be saving considerably more.


----------



## mind_business

Our Net Worth ... not including pension ... has only grown $134K since I started this diary. That's the number we need to start focusing on.


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## james4beach

I think you should still be very happy about the end result ... 922 K net worth!

But I see what you're saying... with the pension left out of the picture, your net worth has growth 134 K. That still sounds pretty good to me but I guess you want to focus in on that number and figure out how to improve it


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## peterk

The good news is that it sounds like either way when you retire in 6 years you will be flush with cash, a house, plus a nicely sized pension payment to keep you out of the cat-food aisle. Whether you have only 500k or a whopping 1M in your investment portfolio shouldn't make much of a difference to your happy retirement 

Do you have a nice bridged pension that kicks in at 55 is that why it's your target quitting age?


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## mind_business

peterk said:


> The good news is that it sounds like either way when you retire in 6 years you will be flush with cash, a house, plus a nicely sized pension payment to keep you out of the cat-food aisle. Whether you have only 500k or a whopping 1M in your investment portfolio shouldn't make much of a difference to your happy retirement
> 
> Do you have a nice bridged pension that kicks in at 55 is that why it's your target quitting age?


Not flush with cash yet ... but hopefully will be when we retire. To answer your question, I will be eligible for a full pension at 55. However it's not indexed so we have to be careful.


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## RBull

Congratulations on the good progress mind_business. 

Sounds like you're going to move forward with even more momentum. That's great. 

Good luck to you.


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## My Own Advisor

"Not flush with cash yet ... "

You will be if you're debt-free at 55, and you can max out your TFSA and RRSP until that age!

The pension will be your nice bond-like foundation for all the other investments.

Again, great work thus far.


----------



## mind_business

Current net worth:

$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprises of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprises of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprises of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)

Per my last update, we were going to start re-focusing on savings. I'm fairly happy with our efforts this past month, increasing our net worth by $13k (7.5k being savings). Once we have our TFSA(s) max'd out again, we'll start increasing mortgage payments.


----------



## getliquid

probably it was asked before, but no kids and single income family... what exactly does your wife do everyday?


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## mind_business

getliquid said:


> probably it was asked before, but no kids and single income family... what exactly does your wife do everyday?


While my wife does not generate income from her work, she does way more to contribute to society than I do. That's the path she has chosen, and one that I support. I get where the question is coming from, however I will not get into specifics regarding my wife or family in this thread.


----------



## mind_business

Current net worth:

$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprises of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprises of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprises of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprises of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

My Year-end Net worth calculation.


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## RBull

Way to go mind_business. Your pension and savings are building nicely. That's a huge NW jump in ~4years. 

We will enjoy seeing periodic updates.


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## My Own Advisor

Rather meteoric rise mind_business :biggrin: Keep sharing the updates.


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## mind_business

RBull said:


> Way to go mind_business. Your pension and savings are building nicely. That's a huge NW jump in ~4years.
> 
> We will enjoy seeing periodic updates.


Thanks! Still have a LONG ways to go if I'm going to be FI by 55. 

How are you enjoying your retirement? Been over a year now?


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Rather meteoric rise mind_business :biggrin: Keep sharing the updates.


Thanks! I'm not sure about meteoric, but it's keeping me on track ... I hope!


----------



## My Own Advisor

Almost doubled NW in 5 years. That's amazing in my book. 

Got your TFSA contributions ready to go?


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Almost doubled NW in 5 years. That's amazing in my book.
> 
> Got your TFSA contributions ready to go?


Actually, 4 years, 3 months 

TFSA(s) ... hmmm. We got my wife's caught up last year, so we'll have hers topped up in January. For mine, I have $24,000 of contribution room left to fill from prior years, plus another $5500 this year. We used some of my TFSA during our move to Alberta a couple of years ago. Been struggling to catch up since. We're going to start dumping $3K to $4K per month starting in February to top it off again.

RRSP(s) are all through my company's contribution matching program.


----------



## Mechanic

Net worth calculations may have changed a bit regarding the real estate component, especially in Alberta. I am also in Alberta and had a value of $650k on my principal residence. It was on the market about a year ago and listed approx $690k. With the slowdown in Alberta the house was re-listed at around $625k but is about to go to $599k and who knows where it will eventually sell. I'm pretty sure it will put about $100k dent in my net worth calculation by the time it gets sold. I also had property in BC for about the last 7 years which just sold with a loss of about $75k.


----------



## mind_business

Mechanic said:


> Net worth calculations may have changed a bit regarding the real estate component, especially in Alberta. I am also in Alberta and had a value of $650k on my principal residence. It was on the market about a year ago and listed approx $690k. With the slowdown in Alberta the house was re-listed at around $625k but is about to go to $599k and who knows where it will eventually sell. I'm pretty sure it will put about $100k dent in my net worth calculation by the time it gets sold. I also had property in BC for about the last 7 years which just sold with a loss of about $75k.


Yeah, I've been watching the markets out of curiosity over the last year. Prices are still listed quite high, but volume of sales is definitely down. I may lower the home value over time, but we're not likely to be in a position to sell if for 5 years or more. So not too worried about reflecting a downturn just yet. If it takes a severe drop I'll lower it accordingly. Thanks for the information.


----------



## RBull

mind_business said:


> Thanks! Still have a LONG ways to go if I'm going to be FI by 55.
> 
> How are you enjoying your retirement? Been over a year now?


You're welcome. Time goes faster the older you get! You're on the right track and will be there before you know it. 

We are loving full retirement. It has been nearly 19 months now for me and about 4 years for my wife. Things are very good and we are enjoying everything and more than I had hoped and planned for.


----------



## mind_business

Need some advice ...

Firstly, my history with investing in stocks and funds has been mixed ... leaning to the 'poor' side. That being said, and maybe I'm about to repeat history, I'm seeing Canadian energy, banking, and yes even manufacturing being hit further in the first 2 quarters of 2016. I'm thinking about pulling about 1/2 of my Canadian investments (RBC Canadian Dividend Fund) out to hold in cash. I'll likely do this sometime early this week. I plan on moving this amount into an Index fund once I'm comfortable getting back in. I also won't sit on the sidelines too long. I just want to avoid what I see as an inevitable continued downturn for a few months. 

What do you guys think? Am I making a mistake?


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## Moneytoo

mind_business said:


> What do you guys think? Am I making a mistake?


Well depends on what you consider a mistake - try reading today's Garth's post, maybe it'll help: http://www.greaterfool.ca/2016/01/17/drama-queens/


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## mind_business

Moneytoo said:


> Well depends on what you consider a mistake - try reading today's Garth's post, maybe it'll help: http://www.greaterfool.ca/2016/01/17/drama-queens/


Thanks for the link. Interesting read. I'm definitely not acting upon the RBS report. I discounted that as quackery. I'm not of the position that we'll absolutely tank our economy. Rather, I think we're in for a few more quarters of pain before the markets / industry is able to start to rebound. My position comes from my own observations in the industries that I currently work in ... energy and manufacturing. Manufacturing will make a modest come-back, but not like we would have seen a couple decades ago with the low Canadian dollar. It's too late to bring back the large number of manufacturing jobs that went to Mexico and other cheap labour markets. It's going to take time to see some of those jobs return to Canada. 

Another reason I would like to get into a bit of a cash position is so that I can re-balance my portfolio mix ... which is way too heavily weighted in real estate, Banks and Energy.

Btw, although I agree with Garth on most of this article, he has been just as overly-enthusiastic over his call for the real estate market to crash in Canada for many years, as RBS was in their prediction. Truth is always somewhere between the extremes.


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## Moneytoo

mind_business said:


> Btw, although I agree with Garth on most of this article, he has been just as overly-enthusiastic over his call for the real estate market to crash in Canada for many years, as RBS was in their prediction. Truth is always somewhere between the extremes.


Yeah I don't agree with everything Garth says, just find his "stay put" posts rather comforting at times like these  But what I meant was - would you consider it a mistake selling now at a loss if TSX rebounds by the end of year? Or if you end up buying index ETF when the TSX is higher than it was when you sold your MFs? I've been constantly tweaking our target asset allocations, and it seems to be mission impossible (for me) to just leave them "as is"... sigh


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## mind_business

Current net worth:

$967k (02/13/2016) ... comprises of 499k DB pension, 1.3k DC pension **NEW**, 575k house, 168.3k savings/investments, 276.2.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprises of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprises of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprises of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprises of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

Notes:
1) This past month and a bit has been brutal on my mutual funds. I was thinking of cashing out on a few in December. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
2) As of Dec 31, 2015 our company DB Plan was frozen. The commuted value will go up or down based on years of service, age and other actuarial factors. However the Pension Benefit stays frozen at $42,470 per year, whether I retire at 55 or 65. This also means that inflation will start to eat away at it ... non-indexed.
3) As of Jan 1, 2016 our DB was replaced with a DC Pension Plan. With my years of service, the company will contribute 8% of my gross income to the DC Plan. 
4) Although I'm leaving the house valuation the same as when I bought it in 2013, undoubtedly it's gone down. We're not selling in the near term, so I'll wait to readjust the valuation.
5) ... and I'm surprised no one has commented on my grammar error. 'Comprises' vs 'Comprised'. I'm going to leave it just to drive the grammatically correct people nuts


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## RBull

Nice. Your net worth is improving and that's an amazing amount in under 5 years. 

You're not alone, the past couple of months have been brutal for most investors. It's all part of the natural cycle. 

Tough re the pension but it sounds like a good company contribution, and isn't unusual to see this change. Key questions- what are your investment choices and costs associated with them?

Good luck.


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## mind_business

Thanks RBull. Appreciate your encouragement on Net Worth growth. It's not that I'm unhappy about our financial journey, but it's starting to look less and less likely that we'll achieve the FI goal at 55. Probably will need a few more years. Which is OK since I wouldn't fully retire at 55 anyhow. 

The investment choices within our DC plan is limited to groups of funds provided by Manulife. Quite limited, but not unlike other plans. You choose a fund that matches your estimated retirement date 2020, 2025, 2030, etc ... which basically sets the risk tolerance of the fund.


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## RBull

You're welcome mind_business. 

The important thing is you're on an excellent track and doing the right things. 

Best wishes and we'll look forward to your next update.


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## My Own Advisor

Well done!

That's a healthy pension plan you have, it will allow you to live "the good life" in retirement.

We still have debt as well (mortgage) but we're investing a decent amount (could be better) every month as well. 

If you keep investing every month and killing debt at the same time; keep that pension/pensions, you're going to be a great place.

As for the grammar police, sure grammar is important but it's not worth sweating the small stuff. 

Keep up the great work!


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## mind_business

Current net worth ... Almost a Million $ :eek2: 

$981k (02/29/2016) ... comprised of 500k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 181.4k savings/investments, 277.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$967k (02/13/2016) ... comprised of 499k DB pension, 1.3k DC pension, 575k house, 168.3k savings/investments, 276.2k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprised of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprised of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprised of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprised of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

Notes:
1) Added $14K in the last 2 weeks. So close to a million $ Net Worth that I can almost taste it ... and it doesn't taste like caviar :upset: A million dollars isn't what it used to be. Now it just represents the midway point to my Financial Independence. Still a looooong ways to go. Having said that, we seem to be growing our NW at a much faster pace compared to 5 or 10 years ago. Hopefully it continues.
2) It was nice to see a bit of a rebound in the markets. Helped to bump up our investments over the last week. 
3) Added some more to our TFSA(s). Wife's is maxed out, but mine needs a bit more help ... if anyone is feeling generous :biggrin: So far we've added $15K to TFSA(s) since the beginning of the year. I have an additional $24K room left in mine ... that I'm focused on maxing out before any other savings.


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## james4beach

Exciting!!

Back in 2011 you showed a budget, and your monthly expenses were $3124 meaning you live on 37K a year. I'm curious what your current annual spending is (including mortgage). I was very impressed by your frugality as I also live on 37K a year and I'm just one person.


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## mind_business

james4beach said:


> Exciting!!
> 
> Back in 2011 you showed a budget, and your monthly expenses were $3124 meaning you live on 37K a year. I'm curious what your current annual spending is (including mortgage). I was very impressed by your frugality as I also live on 37K a year and I'm just one person.


I'll post it either tonight or tomorrow. When I posted that original budget we were in a much cheaper home ... plus if I remember right we had just paid off our mortgage, so no mortgage payment ... if I remember correctly.


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## mind_business

mind_business said:


> I'll post it either tonight or tomorrow. When I posted that original budget we were in a much cheaper home ... plus if I remember right we had just paid off our mortgage, so no mortgage payment ... if I remember correctly.


I just went back to check my old budget post. I was correct ... we had no mortgage payment back in 2011. We have one now, however I'm also making $50K more per year which offsets some of our additional expenses living on an acreage.


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## mind_business

*FINALLY !!! ... Net Worth above a $1 million!!!!*

*** MILESTONE UPDATE *** 

Well, it's official ... we FINALLY achieved $1 million Net Worth!!! ... and we're going to McDonalds to celebrate with an Egg McMuffin 

$1001k (03/06/2016) ... comprised of 517k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 182.8k savings/investments, 274.8k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$981k (02/29/2016) ... comprised of 500k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 181.4k savings/investments, 277.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$967k (02/13/2016) ... comprised of 499k DB pension, 1.3k DC pension, 575k house, 168.3k savings/investments, 276.2k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprised of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprised of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprised of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprised of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

Notes:
1) NW increase largely due to DB Pension ... but also saw some Investment gains, and reduction of debt. And yes, we're seriously going to McDonalds to celebrate. Not sure what that says about us LOL. Largely we're too lazy to make breakfast this morning, and we have to go into town anyhow.


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## OnlyMyOpinion

Congratulations!!

...oh, and because today is the last day for free coffee at McD's


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## mind_business

OnlyMyOpinion said:


> Congratulations!!
> 
> ...oh, and because today is the last day for free coffee at McD's


Darn! We didn't go because we decided to save some money (typical CMF'r LOL) and make some breakfast at home. If I knew they had free coffee ...


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## mind_business

Current Net Worth:


$1021k (04/01/2016) ... comprised of 519k DB pension, 2.9k DC pension, 575k house, 198.9k savings/investments, 274.7k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$1001k (03/06/2016) ... comprised of 517k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 182.8k savings/investments, 274.8k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$981k (02/29/2016) ... comprised of 500k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 181.4k savings/investments, 277.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$967k (02/13/2016) ... comprised of 499k DB pension, 1.3k DC pension, 575k house, 168.3k savings/investments, 276.2k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprised of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprised of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprised of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprised of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

Notes:
1) Net worth increase of $20k since Mar 6th. 
2) Almost maxed out my TFSA(s). Then it's on to maxing out mortgage payments. I HATE debt!!!

Quick analysis:

This date in the following years, our net worth was as follows:
2013 $654k
2014 $708k (increase of $54k)
2015. $877k (increase of $169k)
2016 $1021k (increase of $144k)


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## gibor365

> 575k house


 I don't understand why are you counting your house?!


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## mind_business

gibor said:


> I don't understand why are you counting your house?!


Why wouldn't you? It's an asset that can be sold. The money from the sale can be used to purchase a lower cost home allowing you to invest the remainder, or pay for a leased home, etc.


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## My Own Advisor

Definitely include house as an asset, but also a liability if you have a mortgage 

Well done Mind!!!

That is some crazy growth:

2014 $708k (increase of $54k)
2015. $877k (increase of $169k)
2016 $1021k (increase of $144k)


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## RBull

Awesome progress mind_business. Keep up the good work.


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Definitely include house as an asset, but also a liability if you have a mortgage
> 
> Well done Mind!!!
> 
> That is some crazy growth:
> 
> 2014 $708k (increase of $54k)
> 2015. $877k (increase of $169k)
> 2016 $1021k (increase of $144k)


Thanks. But a LOT of the growth is based on the DB Pension growth. The remaining is largely pure savings.


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## mind_business

RBull said:


> Awesome progress mind_business. Keep up the good work.


Thanks!


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## RBull

mind_business said:


> Thanks!


You're welcome. Keep the hammer down!


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## mind_business

Current Net Worth:

$1083k (10/07/2016) ... comprised of 570k DB pension, 9.6k DC pension, 575k house, 219.9k savings/investments, 291.1k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$1021k (04/01/2016) ... comprised of 519k DB pension, 2.9k DC pension, 575k house, 198.9k savings/investments, 274.7k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$1001k (03/06/2016) ... comprised of 517k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 182.8k savings/investments, 274.8k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$981k (02/29/2016) ... comprised of 500k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 181.4k savings/investments, 277.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$967k (02/13/2016) ... comprised of 499k DB pension, 1.3k DC pension, 575k house, 168.3k savings/investments, 276.2k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprised of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$935k (11/28/2015) ... comprised of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprised of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprised of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

Notes:
1) Net worth increase of $62k since April 1st. 
2) Had an unexpected costly project this summer. Decided to use our LOC rather than dip into savings. Will have it paid off in a couple of months. 
3) The BEST news is that apparently my company Defined Pension value has been incorrectly calculated since I moved to Alberta. They had been using Ontario regulations rather than Alberta. Since the plan was frozen after I moved to Alberta, then the Alberta Pension law kicks in. Apparently in Ontario the benefits are literally frozen. In other words, the monthly pension amount will not go up with continued years of service, or increase to their salaries. In Alberta apparently I do see my benefits continue to grow. The Pension Administrator says this should be reflected soon in my numbers. Can't wait to see the adjustment  
4) ... and the last noteworthy thing is that my NW has now more than doubled since I started this Diary back in Sept 2011. Now if it would just double once more by 2021 I should be able to achieve financial freedom by 55 ... which was the main goal of my Diary  

Quick analysis:

This date in the following years, our net worth was as follows:
2013 $654k
2014 $708k (increase of $54k)
2015. $877k (increase of $169k)
2016 $1021k (increase of $144k) 
Today's NW = $1083k


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## mind_business

So, it's been a while since I posted. How's everyone doing?

Not much headway on my Net worth number. Largely because of the reduced valuation of the Defined Benefit Pension (down $82k year-over-year) ... due to increasing interest rates (although this will change for the positive shortly ... see the note at the bottom). We did pretty good on our debt reduction (reduced by $34k) and savings/investments though (up 50k) and our DC Pension is up $15k. All in all we're holding our own  Here's the most recent numbers.

Current Net Worth:

$1094k (11/01/2017) ... comprised of 482k DB pension, 25k DC pension, 575k house, 269k savings/investments, 257k debt (mortgage + credit card)

Previous Net Worth History:

$1083k (10/07/2016) ... comprised of 570k DB pension, 9.6k DC pension, 575k house, 219.9k savings/investments, 291.1k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$1021k (04/01/2016) ... comprised of 519k DB pension, 2.9k DC pension, 575k house, 198.9k savings/investments, 274.7k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$1001k (03/06/2016) ... comprised of 517k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 182.8k savings/investments, 274.8k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$981k (02/29/2016) ... comprised of 500k DB pension, 1.9k DC pension, 575k house, 181.4k savings/investments, 277.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$967k (02/13/2016) ... comprised of 499k DB pension, 1.3k DC pension, 575k house, 168.3k savings/investments, 276.2k debt (mortgage + credit card)
$948k (12/31/2015) ... comprised of 471k pension, 575k house, 180.3k savings/investments, 278.0k debt (mortgage + credit card)
 $935k (11/28/2015) ... comprised of 464k pension, 575k house, 174.5k savings/investments, 278.3k debt (mortgage)
$922K (11/01/2015) ... comprised of 459k pension, 575k house, 167.0k savings/investments, 278.5k debt (mortgage)
$877K (04/06/2015) ... comprised of 429k pension, 575k house, 156.9k savings/investments, 284.1k debt (mortgage)
$530K (09/26/2011) ... This was my original Net Worth when I started this diary in 2011

Notes:
1) In reviewing the most recent annual statement, I found that the company looking after our DB Pension made a rather large mistake in calculating my Pension Valuations. They did not take into account that my companies 'Frozen' DB Pension plan has different rules in the various provinces. They based mine on the Ontario rules where 'Frozen' means that the pension amount calculation freezes both the salary and years of service. However in Alberta, only the years of service is frozen. They must continue to recalculate my pension amount with my increasing salary each year. Makes a big difference. I'm waiting for their final correction, which they admitted they made the error. By my calculation, the total valuation of my pension will go up by approximately $45,000.


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## Pluto

Seems you are doing fine. how many years left, four? do you think you will have enough?


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## OnlyMyOpinion

Nice growth in savings in particular over time!

Have you worked up your expected annual expenses (by tracking your current expenses) and your expected retirement income streams as well? Also wondering is you are planning to pay off the mortgage before retiring so that monthly expense is gone?

P.S. I see you've always kept the house value at $575k. I can understand that, unless you are planning to sell and downsize then you might realize some growth in its value.


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## mind_business

Pluto said:


> Seems you are doing fine. how many years left, four? do you think you will have enough?


Well, I'm currently 51 years old. My early retirement date with my work DB is 2021. No, I do not think I'll have enough to retire at that time ... nor do I want to. My goal, and I know my diary title is misleading, is to achieve financial independence by 55. My guess is that will likely occur around 58 years old, not 55.


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## mind_business

OnlyMyOpinion said:


> Nice growth in savings in particular over time!
> 
> Have you worked up your expected annual expenses (by tracking your current expenses) and your expected retirement income streams as well? Also wondering is you are planning to pay off the mortgage before retiring so that monthly expense is gone?
> 
> P.S. I see you've always kept the house value at $575k. I can understand that, unless you are planning to sell and downsize then you might realize some growth in its value.


Ha, I haven't looked at annual expenses for at least a couple of years. That's on my to-do list  As well, I have to re-look at my expected income streams during retirement. Things have changed since I last looked. Right now I'm mostly focused on investment growth and debt repayment. 

We are currently paying off the mortgage at the fastest rate possible. We just renegotiated a 5 year, 2.44% mortgage ... and I'll have it paid off in 4 years. Our payments are accelerate weekly. We bumped up the payment by 10%, then doubled each weekly payment ... which is the max our mortgage agreement will allow us. On top of that, we are going to do the annual balloon payment of 10% of the original amount, which equals $30k per year. 

I conservatively leave the house value as our original purchase price. Since moving in we have spent approx $100k doing upgrades ... which helps to at least maintain the original dollar value of the home.


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## My Own Advisor

mind_business said:


> Well, I'm currently 51 years old. My early retirement date with my work DB is 2021. No, I do not think I'll have enough to retire at that time ... nor do I want to. My goal, and I know my diary title is misleading, is to achieve financial independence by 55. My guess is that will likely occur around 58 years old, not 55.


Still rather impressive to have >$1 M net worth around age 51. 

Well done.

You may have mentioned this already but I'll ask anyhow mind_b, how do you calculate your DB pension? Most DB pensions I know of have some sort of annual future income value attached to it. Most DC pensions I know about however do have the market value attached to it.

Also:

"We are currently paying off the mortgage at the fastest rate possible. We just renegotiated a 5 year, 2.44% mortgage ... and I'll have it paid off in 4 years." 

Smart to have your payments at accelerated-weekly or bi-weekly.


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## mind_business

My Own Advisor said:


> Still rather impressive to have >$1 M net worth around age 51.
> 
> Well done.
> 
> You may have mentioned this already but I'll ask anyhow mind_b, how do you calculate your DB pension? Most DB pensions I know of have some sort of annual future income value attached to it. Most DC pensions I know about however do have the market value attached to it.
> 
> Also:
> 
> "We are currently paying off the mortgage at the fastest rate possible. We just renegotiated a 5 year, 2.44% mortgage ... and I'll have it paid off in 4 years."
> 
> Smart to have your payments at accelerated-weekly or bi-weekly.


The calculation for my yearly pension income at retirement is fairly straight-forward. It's (final average compensation) X (years of service) X 1.25%. In my case it currently works out to about $45k at age 55. 

The calculation for the commuted value, as I show in my numbers above ($482k) is not so easy. It takes into account a BUNCH of variables which I would have difficulty determining (genders of pensioner/spouse, interest rates, age, etc, etc, etc). Instead I'll link you to this description ... http://www.cia-ica.ca/about-us/actuaries/ask-an-actuary/faq---pensions 

Luckily employees of our company have access to our DB Pension online, along with a calculator which calculates current, or projected, value of the Pension. 

Thanks for the encouragement. I mentioned this before, but I see a lot of amazing diaries from young people who have accumulated way more than me ... which is awesome! For my wife and myself, as a single income household, it's been a much slower savings growth. But I'm relatively comfortable where we currently are. Just need to keep plodding along


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## Thal81

Honestly you should really focus on getting rid of that debt... the numbers have been hovering around $280k since 2011. Your net worth is all in house and pension, with a debt higher than your investment account. When you retire at 55, your main source of income will be your pension, with a maybe $400k investment account to supplement it and compensate for the lack of inflation indexing. Can you live and make the mortgage/cc payments on 45k a year?


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## CalgaryPotato

I don't want to be negative, but you don't seem to be doing much to actively move towards your goal. I mean,your house gained a substantial amount of money (I question where you are in Alberta that your house has stayed steady over the past 3 years though) and you've added to your pension, but other then that, you are in a very similar financial situation to what you started with. You are talking about needing your net worth to double again, but how is that supposed to happen unless the housing market explodes again, and even if it does, how does that help you, unless you are planning a major downsize?

I think you either need to adjust your goal or adjust your strategy? Is there any way to get at least a partial second income?


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