Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Today, I want to share our primary focus on money management, which we continue to master because we want to retire early and enjoy our final days without struggle.

Three M’s That Will Change The Way You Look At Money

We are told to Budget your money, Save, Save, Save, but that’s only a portion of the solution to what so many people feel a financial crunch.

Financial affairs should always be part of your daily routine; however, just because you use a budget doesn’t mean you will become successful at running it.

It takes far more work than just budgeting to achieve financial goals.

Think outside of the spreadsheet; whether you committed or not will show in the numbers.

Let’s discuss the numbers momentarily, especially since November is Global Financial Literacy Month.

Numbers aren’t the only way you’re going to become rich.

We all want to have money in the bank, and being rich to you might mean debt-freedom or having more than $100.

Whatever the case, always remember that those numbers didn’t become what they are magically.

They had to come from somewhere, somehow, and most likely, that person was you or combined efforts with a partner.

Your money management success or failure depends on critical thinking and grasping the basics: if you can’t afford it, you can’t.

No excuses.

What Is Money Management?

Money management is more than just how you manage your money.

It’s about how you view financial independence and apply reasonable efforts to reach a state where you no longer worry about when your pay will be deposited in the bank.

Freedom comes from paying close attention to the money you net and the money you spend.

The other day, we got a phone call from a relative whom we sent a $50 cheque for her birthday.

She has no money saved in the bank and does not work as she’s ill.

I never thought about how that money may have improved her life.

Perhaps she could buy extra groceries, pay a bill, or save it for a rainy day.

Not only did she call to thank us for the gift, but she repeated how much she liked it.

That touched us but reiterated that riches to one are not the same as riches to another.

Although money management may not have worked in her favor for various reasons, she now values how vital even a $50 note is.

I keep replaying that phone call and pray that more people are listening to me speak through this blog.

Also, from the lives of people who have touched my heart because they struggle but want to be free from financial stress.

It never hits home until it happens to you, it has happened, or you are dedicated to not making it happen to you.

Whichever you choose, never tell yourself that you aren’t worth it.

Once you lose focus, it’s so hard to get back up again.

Fall once you’ll feel it,

Fall twice, you’ll feel it even more; fall three times, and nothing else will matter because there’s nothing left to fall on.

Face Your Fears Head On

You can only exhaust so many avenues before you throw your hands up in the air.

Avoid facing that dead-end road by treating money management as a game of life.

You screw it up, and you’re out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get back in the game.

It only means you have to start the game over.

You don’t want to keep replaying from the start as you get older if you know what I mean.

So What If You Fail At Money Management?

You need to try harder and revisit your goals.

It also means you must find other ways to make your finances work outside of just looking at the numbers.

It takes Money, Management, and Motivation to focus on financial freedom.

I call these the 3 M’s of financial survival because we wouldn’t be debt– and mortgage-free and nearing a million-dollar net worth without them.

A million bucks isn’t much money these days, but that number wasn’t one of our main goals when starting our money management journey using a budget.

It was more than that.

It was controlling how numbers and not people would rule our lives.

Life can always take unexpected turns and may not happen as planned.

We must keep that risk at the front and back of our minds, but don’t let it consume us.

Mrs. CBB and I have searched for what works for us over the years.

We want to live without financial worry and pass the knowledge on to our son.

He will be taught how money can impact people and that he must work for his money, just like everyone else.

Focus On Our Self-Worth

You must believe in yourself before you can do anything with your financial well-being.

If it’s been a while since you’ve done some soul-searching, consider your life.

This may be by taking a walk or daily meditation to help you understand areas of your life that you’d like to improve, whether it be your happiness, career, love life, or overall health.

Every night, we go for a walk as a family, or I go for a run and do things where we can focus on our wants, desires, and well-being state of mind.

Meditation is part of our day; whether 3 minutes or 20 minutes of listening to soft music on YouTube is meant for meditation.

Be alone sometimes because you learn more about yourself rather than in a room of people where you can’t hear yourself think.

Whatever is important to you but not quite bursting at the seams with success, find it by finding yourself and believing in your self-worth.

It’s incredible how much your net worth will increase once your self-worth is found.

Why? Because you want to reach for the stars, you don’t let anyone or anything stop you.

Focus On Spending Less Than We Earn

We’d be financially bust without this mindset, even if we didn’t budget.

It’s unreasonable to think you can start with x amount of dollars and guess your way through money management.

Even if you paper and pencil your money, I mean the bare basics, you must always spend less than you earn.

Continue to spend more, and you’ll be in that place where you better hope you know how to climb and fast.

Although we do budget and focus on spending less than we earn, we continue to work on ways to improve our saving system.

This may be focusing on new meals, cheaper ways to buy things we need, or holding off until we save up the money and can afford to spend it.

Focus On Increasing Our Income

My wife stays home with our son, so I’m the family’s breadwinner.

Over the past three years, I’ve worked hard to increase my income by working in two different careers in the same field. \

Although the hours are tight, the money is excellent, but that’s not why I do it.

I want to move from one career to the next, so I’m working to get ahead, and just like money management, it takes effort and determination.

Before I started working my second job, we used to participate in focus groups online studies.

We even had housemates stay with us a month at a time so they could study English before returning to their homeland.

The money was outstanding and tax-free, so we were doing the government a favor.

Although your income streams may not last forever, the extra cash is always nice.

Another route you could take is to ask your boss for a raise.

Whatever you choose to do to increase your income, make sure you do it with goals in mind, whether long-term or not.

Retirement and Increasing Investment Returns

Our investments have become an even bigger focus of ours since we paid off our mortgage in 2014.

We’ve been piling money into our tax-free savings accounts for the past year and catching up with my registered retirement savings plan.

I had more than enough banked-in numbers to catch up on, and by the end of 2016, I shall be caught up and ready to move forward with new goals.

I plan to drop $40,000 into my Tax-free savings account once my RRSP is topped up and on target.

We will also look at other investment opportunities with our financial advisor, such as non-registered accounts.

We considered buying a rental home with our savings but have since put that on hold.

Maximizing your retirement savings and learning as much as possible about investing and getting the best returns has been our focus and will be ongoing.

I would love to retire early to spend the rest of our years exploring Canada and showing the world to our son.

This might become a reality, although I know my work is never done, especially since I love what I do and that people rely on me.

No one knows what the future will hold, but until then, I want to ensure we’re prepping for it while we’re healthy.

Focus On a Minimalist Lifestyle

When we bought our house, we moved in with clothes, an air mattress, a dining room table, and that’s about it.

Over the years, we’ve furnished our house by buying second-hand-only stuff. We rarely buy brand new unless it’s something we won’t buy used.

Now that our house is decorated on the dime, we know how important it will be to continue living a minimalist lifestyle so we don’t end up with too much stuff.

We’ve been selling items as we go along, purging stuff we no longer need, and even then, it can be challenging, especially if memories are attached to things and stuff.

The next time you buy something, always ask yourself if you can afford it and need it.

You might be surprised that you can get a few more years out of your old couch or that you don’t need to match your kitchen-aid mixer to your stainless steel appliances.

Focus On Our Family

Family time is significant to us, and although time is tight for us right now since I’m working so much, we still try to fit it in.

I used to run and work every day, and although I still do, there are times when I have to cut it short to keep a balanced lifestyle.

Too often, we spend more time doing things that don’t add value to our lives by not being productive and saying we didn’t have time; I was too tired.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do for yourself is to get off the couch, get outside, keep moving, and try new things.

This is how our family operates, and it works for us.

You know yourself and your limitations.

Go back to the first focus of the six and keep reminding yourself how important self-worth is.

Think of ways you can use that to improve life and grasp people who mean the world to you.

When you’re happy, motivated, and ready to take on the world, you’ll start seeing your finances increase.

You’ll know you’re doing something right.

Money management motivators are put in place for YOU by YOU.

Discussion: What’s your strategy going to be?

Our Net Worth 2016

RESP Contribution 2016: $208.33 a month.

Changes to our Net Worth in October

Well, it was a disappointing month, to be honest.

We took a hit on the investments, mainly because we transferred many of them to reorganize the portfolio and change some underperforming assets for ones with more potential.

We’ve done this shuffle of investments before and have always seen the benefits in the following months.

As with all investments, there’s an element of risk.

We will take advantage of the tax-free investments shortly by maxing out the TSFA’s for myself.

Mrs CBB has already maxed hers out.

The only reason we made headway in the Net Worth was income.

Working two jobs has its benefits as well as its drawbacks.

Remember that we’ve done reasonably well in our investments over the past 12 months.

We’ve got just shy of 10% of our assets.

This means that if we can keep that growth rate going, we should be able to accrue enough investments where its returns will run themselves and provide another income.

We’re getting there; it’ll just take time.

Understanding Net Worth

What Does Individual Net Worth Mean?

Net Worth is a snapshot of your financial health, like a picture of debt to net assets.

In simple terms, it’s a total of the value of your assets minus your liabilities.

We credit the growth of our net worth to patience, perseverance, using a monthly budget, and not giving up.

Your numbers may go up and down, but don’t let the numbers scare you. Instead, understand why and move on.

If you would like to use our budget, I offer a FREE downloadable budget that you can use at home just like we do.

I don’t charge for it because I want you to save money, not spend more!

Canadian Budget Binder offers many other free printable lists to help you achieve some of those financial goals and build your net worth.

Now, determine how much net worth you have and go from there.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Determining Net Worth

As long as you know your numbers or monthly finances, figuring out your net worth is relatively easy, so you must do your homework.

Net Worth is simply adding up all your assets (what you own) and then taking away your liabilities (what you owe), giving you a net worth number.

Understanding your net worth will help you determine if you are on track to meeting or beating your personal financial goals.

It doesn’t get any easier than that.

How to Determine Net Worth?

Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities

Calculate Net Worth

Do you know how to calculate your own Net Worth?

Now you can stop asking yourself the question, how do you find out your net worth? Why?

It’s easy to determine.

We like calculating our monthly net worth to know if we are still on track.

Some people calculate it yearly or quarterly.

It’s really up to you and how informed you want to stay regarding your financial health.

Net Worth is an estimate; not everyone uses the exact figures.

Some people don’t include vehicles like we do, or they may leave out the assets inside the home like we have.

It depends on what you want to calculate or what you can sell today and make money on.

Why not go ahead and calculate your own using our Free Money saving Tool, Net Worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder 2012)

Why Set Financial Goals?

Setting goals is the only way we work towards achieving what we want to be done as a couple around the house and in our financial lives.

Without them, we would be flying by the seat of our pants, which wouldn’t work for us.

I find it’s much easier to be held accountable when I share what we need to do with all of you.

My wife refers to the list when she asks what I plan to do next.

I’m not sure if that’s a good thing for me or not.

In the graphical representation above, I have used Excel to provide a trend line prediction based on the past year’s monthly net worth figures.

Using figures from our actual net worth gains over the past 12 months (the solid blue line), it has been suggested that by the end of this year (2016), we should be around $900,000.00.

This can change over the years and is only a prediction based on known historical figures from our finances.

According to the chart, we should hit the million mark in August 2017.

This is nice to know, but anything can happen over the next year.

Hopefully, we can achieve this goal and go beyond it with careful planning.

Do you set goals for the year?

Our Financial Numbers

When budgeting, anything is possible; we are proof of that, although we still have a long way to go in our journey.

These are our numbers and goals, not a means of comparing your plans to others’ target goals.

We don’t care how much money others make if they have a high net worth or are lower than ours, as it’s not a competition.

I hope our experiences will help guide you along your financial path toward debt freedom.

Different Financial Paths

Not everyone has the same path in life.

Some of you may have had to start over like I did or go to school again and now have OSAP loans to pay back.

Others may have divorced, lost money in the stock market or other investments, suffered job loss, fell ill, or injured, but you can’t let that stop you from achieving your financial goals.

Some of you may have been given trust funds, paid-for homes, paid educations, or perks in life that give you a financial kick-start, and that’s OK, too.

Remember what I said, “It’s not about how much money you make; it’s how you save it.”

Focus on yourself, and don’t let the evil eye of money jealousy or keeping up with the Kardashians cloud your vision.

No one cares about your money as much as you do, so don’t waste your energy trying.

People accumulate wealth only because they know how to save or invest it wisely, even if they inherit money or win the lottery.

The most minor improvements should mean significant strides in reaching your goals.

Sometimes, we have to fail to learn, and we’ve all been there. 

Money can be an evil force for some people, especially those with a negative attitude towards their financial situation.

I urge you to be optimistic, and little by little, with determination, you should see improvements if you want that to happen.

Net Worth Updates 2016

Below, you can click the links to read past 2016 net worth updates to see if we were on target or struggled with some of our numbers.

In the last year since October 2015, our net worth, according to our figure, has grown by $118,653.76

October 2016 $863,522.76 – October 2015 $744,869.00 = +$118,653.76

• November/December 2015
• January 2016
• February 2016
• March 2016
• April 2016
• May 2016
• June 2016
• July 2016- Oops, it looks as if I missed this month.
• August 2016
• September 2016

That’s all for this month’s net worth update, but please check in at the beginning of December 2016 to see how we made out in November 2016 and what has happened to our finances.

~Mr.CBB

Remember: “It’s Not About How Much Money You Make. It’s How You Save It “

Check out our past actual Monthly Budget Updates to see how much money we earned and where the money went for the month.SaveSave

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