# Young(ish) Gun



## LongShorts (Feb 18, 2016)

I've been meaning to do this for a few days now. It's just been one of those weeks....I don't want to get into the long, drawn-out type of post so I'll just summarize my current financial situation:

I'm 30 years young and we have a family of 5 with a net household monthly income of $7800
Our expenses total $3500.00-$4000.00/month, plus RRSP and RESP contributions of $900.00/mth = $4400.00-$4900.00 (Reason for low RRSP contribution is we're at the max every year...I have a DB pension contribution as well)
We set aside a miscellaneous/emergency/vacation fund of $1000.00/mth
Current net worth = $180,000

Any leftover funds get sent to our investment account. The current account is valued just over $40k. I've been investing my own money for 5 weeks after being disappointed with the returns of the mutual fund the bank had set up for me about 18 months ago. As of today, I have a total of 11 different equity holdings, 4 bonds (3 long term, 1 short), and 1 GIC. My equities consist of 6 REITs, 2 energy stocks, 2 bank stocks, and 1 food stock. The reason I've gone heavy into the real estate is that a) I enjoy real estate investing without having to deal with being a landlord, and b) Based on my research and personal assessment of the market, I feel the REITs I have chosen are relatively safe and would prevail through most economic downturns. I plan on going long with most of the equities, which should play out nicely, especially with the energy stocks which I bought at a bargain (if the forecasters are remotely on point). Oh, and every equity I own pays a dividend, which I feel is important. I'm sitting at 2.1% growth to-date.

After all that babbling, this is our goal: pay off the remaining mortgage on the house in 5 years. We currently owe $125,000. Now, with my current growth projection (conservatively 5%) plus added funds of approximately $24,000/year,we should be able to meet this goal in 3 years. I am, however planning on contingencies and the possibility of additional expenses i.e. a new vehicle in the next couple of years, daycare costs etc... so I am allowing the 5-year timeframe for the good ol benefit of realism. After the house is paid off, I would like to save enough for a 50% down payment on a cottage. I project, if the numbers stay the same and we purchase a $200,000.00 cottage (who knows with real estate prices though), I could have all this completed inside of 10 years. So mark this date in your calenders folks, 10 years from now I'll be virtual high-fiving everyone on my way to the waterfront with the kids :biggrin:

Sorry, that was kind of drawn-out after all.


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## LongShorts (Feb 18, 2016)

Just to log these numbers for comparison throughout the years:

6 weeks of trading. I have a to-date capital growth of 3.8% in my portfolio, and my average dividend return is 7.1%.

Top 5 equity holdings (all on TSX) are:
XIC
BNS
SOT.UN
CUF.UN
DIV


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## getliquid (Mar 2, 2014)

your expenses of $4000 seems really low for 3 young kids 2 working parents... do you not pay daycare for any of them? no activities for the kids like ballot, hockey...?


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