# Am i on the right track?



## THE_UNIT (Feb 25, 2011)

I just turned 23 and i make 100-150k a year with 7 thousand owing on my truck. I plan to pay off the truck in the next few months then i will be debt free. I have been putting 500 a month into invesco trimark long term high risk mutual funds. I also put 100 a month into a medium risk rrsp with cibc.

My plan is to rent while i save money and put down a large amount of money for a house in a year or two or three. I think this is a smart idea to avoid all the interest in starting a long term mortgage. I am very frugal since i grew up earning everything i wanted.

My current finances 


~7k in RRSP's
~25k in cash

truck worth 20-25k with 7k oweing

My long term goals are just to be well off without a mortgage at an early age and be able to go on a hot vacation every year with a high quality life.

Since i'm new to the financial game maybe some of you gurus can give me some advice as to what i might be able to do better .

Thank you in advance!


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

I don't see any problems here.


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

> ~25k in cash


Uh.... march down to the dealership and repay the $7K you owe on your truck.


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## THE_UNIT (Feb 25, 2011)

steve41 said:


> Uh.... march down to the dealership and repay the $7K you owe on your truck.


I plan on that in a few months when i will have about 40k. The reason is because the line of work i'm in is very sporadic and i was told to keep around 30k in the bank in case work slows. I am a consultant in the oil patch.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Wow 23 and this is your profile? *I am impressed*! You are taking a slow, sensible, level-headed, wait and see approach. I like that and wish everyone would do that.

Your priority is first to accumulate cash and you're already doing that. That's great. Something you may want to change in the distant future is your mutual funds as those you have probably have high fees. Unfortunately it's not really easy to solve that problem. In the meantime, continue what you're doing and worry about that later on.

I am also a bit curious as to where exactly you would buy your house. Oil work is not necessarily long term stable or sustainable for a lot of people. Is it wise to put down RE roots while your life is in flux? 

Just a couple things to think about.

Again, keep up the great work!


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## THE_UNIT (Feb 25, 2011)

the-royal-mail said:


> Wow 23 and this is your profile? *I am impressed*! You are taking a slow, sensible, level-headed, wait and see approach. I like that and wish everyone would do that.
> 
> Your priority is first to accumulate cash and you're already doing that. That's great. Something you may want to change in the distant future is your mutual funds as those you have probably have high fees. Unfortunately it's not really easy to solve that problem. In the meantime, continue what you're doing and worry about that later on.
> 
> ...



Thank you, I would like to manage my investments my self but i feel i'm too inexperienced to do that and would end up messing something up. I believe that will happened with time.

I am originally from SK although i moved to Red deer Alberta for what i'm presently doing. I am spoiled at the moment as my job allows me to be home each night and should stay that way because i provide daily services. If the patch did slow down there should be enough work up at the oil sands for decades to come. Another reason i chose to move to Red deer is that its big enough that if the patch did slow down there is other stuff to fall back on and the houses are fairly priced. I have also considered buying a house with a basement suite to help pay the mortgage.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

P.S. It was not necessary to quote me, just using the reply button will be sufficient. Otherwise threads become too long/too much scrolling. The nature of a thread allows us to read what is being referred to without the need to quote everything. Thanks.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

TRM should be a moderator.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

We'd all be banned.


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## THE_UNIT (Feb 25, 2011)

TRM your post made me curious and i looked into the my mutual funds and the MER's range between 2.91 and 1.53 percent. These seem high to me, what does everyone else think? What other fee's might there be hidden dealing with this financial advisor?

Would i be better off putting my into a income fund XTR? The MER is only .57 percent or maybe CLO ETF? They seem to be producing better producing and cheaper to operate.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Yes, those are certainly high MERs. I looked into this for myself and I would like to try setting up a brokerage in the future, which would hopefully give me access to ETFs and index funds which have lower MERs. The problem is that many of us are customers of bank mutual funds which have these high MERs.

That said, my bank does have some basic index funds with MERs of around 0.70%, if any of those appeal to you it would certainly be worth looking at. One I've had for a while and which I am quite pleased with is the Canadian Index Fund. That allows passive investing with low fees.


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