# Money Diary: Making the best of it



## ArchViz (May 14, 2018)

Hello all,

For a few years now I have been lurking on CMF, reading the various discussions and topics and decided to put up a money diary of my own. 

I am a 45 year old self employed that specializes in Architectural Visualization. No children, and recently separated from my common law wife...just in time for my mid-life crisis and a Porsche :nevreness:

Up until i was in my 30's my retirement savings were in GIC's but about 2007 I became curious about investing and making those savings go further. I eventually decided to go with the Couch Potato portfolio and with a huge amount of luck invested just before the markets bottomed out in 2008. I made great returns as the markets bounced back, and then I got cocky. 

I thought I could pick individual stocks for fun. Only fun turned into a money losing addiction. While on occasion I did have some winners, most of them were losers. Thanks in part to my lack of knowledge, bad advice and lack of patience. In only a few years I went from being in the green to over 50% in losses. 

Some of the stocks I have picked I decided to hold on to with the thought of them bouncing back. While some have miraculously done so, others haven't. I will still hold on to them in the hope that they bounce back enough to justify selling.

With all of that said, I have decided to go back to what works...Couch Potato Investing. You don't need to overthink it, the approach is simple enough for an idiot like me to grasp and the returns are good. 
All of my accounts are with TD, so the index funds are the trusty E-Series funds.

I don't have a mortgage and my expenses are minimal, except for the recent purchase of a sports car to soothe the pain of middle age and divorce. Other than the car, I live very frugally or cheap as some like to call it. 
After the separation I moved in with my ageing parents in order to assist them (one has Parkinson's/dementia and the other is having a hard time coping with caring for the other) , as well as to give me some space in which to figure out where I am going in the next part of my life. 

Here are the numbers:

INCOME: This oscillates between $40,000 - $50,000 a year depending on the amount of work that comes in. 

MAY 23, 2018

SAVINGS/CHEQUING: $ 36,000

CASH INVESTING ACCNT: $ 22,500
TFSA: $15,000
RRSP: $48,500
TOTAL: $128,000

CREDIT CARD DEBT: $0

LINE OF CREDIT: $5000 owing at 4.99%. My goal is to have this paid off by middle of next year.

MONTHLY EXPENSES: I have yet to calculate this. I will update it as soon as I can.

ASSETS: Sports car. Hardly an asset, more like a hole one throws money into never to be seen again.

VACATION HOME: $230,000 - I may end up selling this at some point in the next 2-3 years. I don't think I will be needing it anymore.

SAVINGS/INVESTMENT PLAN: The plan here is to divide my income from each project into *4 equal parts; savings, taxes, expenses & debt repayment.*
The part from savings will go into a TFSA to be divided into the 4 TD Eseries funds of the Couch Potato Portfolio. In order to not have to think about saving, I look at it as an expense. Every month i have set a minimum to be automatically withdrawn into the TFSA (up to the $5,500) 
Any surplus from either of the categories at the end of the year are put into a rainy day fund that can be used for adding to savings. 

RETIREMENT: This is all conjecture, but with my income, meager savings and the cost of living in Canada, I will most likely not be able to retire here. I have been looking at countries where the cost of living is low and nice enough to live in without worrying about being murdered for a pack of Chiclets. The list so far, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Costa Rica.


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