Canadian Budget Binder

Photo Credit: freedigitalphotos.net/Stuart Miles

Further down in this Net Worth post update I talk about our long-term goals one of which is building/buying a final home or purchasing a rental home. I actually fuelled the desire last week when searching the multiple listing services (MLS) outside of our current city in a smaller up and coming town. The house wasn’t enormous as it was a bungalow with 1700 sq feet up and down in the basement, double garage, nicely landscaped but what caught my eye was the land. There was well over an acre of land where we could put in a pool, outside patio, grill, stone oven and huge gardens. The driveway was long and could fit more than 6 cars and something I could only ever dream of owning. I joked and said now that would require a riding lawn mower and a beer as opposed to the 20 minutes and no beer to mow our current lawn.

The problem was that the home was $500,000 and far more than we had ever imagined to spend. The Mrs. and I started talking about what we do to the house and literally fell in love with it so much as to even suggest going to have a look at it. Sometimes I think going on the MLS to see listings can be deadly but we like to keep an eye on the market to see where prices are at and what homes have to offer. It almost reminds me of my “No means No” post from the last week where I should just stay away from the grocery stores during a no-shop week.

Maybe we should stay away from the MLS because it reminds us of the “nice to have” perks that we don’t currently have in our home. If we keep looking we are liable to want to sell this house and take on a mortgage again. It’s marketing working it’s magic over the internet, like walking into a candy store with a $20 bill in your pocket. Some people move out and up and do this for various reasons, but would it be reasonable for us? That is the question we need to answer ourselves. Since we are in no position to move at this point in our life our dream remains a dream. We are still young, but as we age do we really want to have property so big to take care of when we are older? Lots of questions mulling around in our heads. Many folks heading in to retirement opt to downsize moving into bungalows which are highly priced in our area as they are desired by those who don’t care for an upper level. Will that be us in 30 years or are we thinking too far ahead? We want our next home to be our last home that we can do what we want to and sink as much money as we want to into it without worry that we “might” be moving in 5 years.

Can you tell we are forward thinkers although sometimes I wonder if it does us any justice, but I know planning is so important. The other point is, do we really want to sell a home we will have fully paid to purchase one that we would A-potentially have a mortgage or B-have to save up additional money for the price increase thus taking away from our investment power in other areas. Lots to think about  and in reality this could just be our final home and we stay where we are. This could be a bout of the “want” instead of “need” but time will tell.

There is however always the option of purchasing land from our friend Pauline who makes the best with what’s available and gave up the corporate life for her little house in Guatemala. (yes she’s trying to sell us a plot of  her land and is very convincing at it)

What would you do if you had your house paid in full?  Do you search the MLS or other online sites to see houses for sale?

What does Individual Net Worth mean?

Net Worth is a snap shot of your financial health sort of like a picture. It’s a total of the value of your assets minus your liabilities.

How To Determine Net Worth?

Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities 

Determining Net Worth is fairly easy as long as you know your personal numbers. Net Worth is simply adding up all your assets (what you own) then taking away your liabilities (what you owe) which will give you a net worth number. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Do you know how to calculate your own Net Worth? Why not go ahead and calculate your own using our Free Tool Net worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder 2012)

Our Monthly Finance Goal(s)- 2013

• To save as much money as we can while we are young to save for retirement while enjoying the present
• To spend time together as a couple doing the things we love
• Continue with meal planning and recipe creations
• To lower our Grocery Budget with The Grocery Game Challenge 
• To spend less than we earn to carry out the above

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 our goals, not a means of comparison towards your own goals. We don’t care how much money others make or if their net worth is lower or higher as it’s not a competition. I hope our experiences perhaps will help guide you along your financial path towards debt freedom.

Canadian Budget Binders Financial Health

Overview: February was a bit of a hit to our overall Budget and Net Worth with the British pound tumbling down causing us further loss. Hopefully I will get my money moved over soon and be done with the rat race as it’s just depressing every time we look. Precisely the reason we want to get this mortgage paid although we know some people cringe at the fact we are doing this. When the mortgage is gone that leaves us over 30 years to do what we want to potentially plan for an early retirement. A big lesson learned there. So although we are up a bit this month we lost about $2500 with the pound drop and having to purchase the water softener.

As for the mortgage we will pay the 20% allowable pre-payment that’s left for this term of $33,068.xx which would leave us 11 years and 10 months left of mortgage payments . We will then turn around and pay the remaining $119,xxx to close off the mortgage in April the start of our 5th year provided everything goes as planned. There will also be a penalty included for breaking the mortgage.

Once that is completed I’ll likely combine this post with the budget update or just stop it all together, I’m not sure yet. There’s not much else to report on that is exciting after the mortgage is gone except for gains in our investments which are pretty boring at best.

What would you do once your mortgage is paid in full with the extra money each month?

Related articles

• CBB December 2012 Net Worth Update-A Look Back Over The Year! (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
• February 2013 Net Worth Update (edwardantrobus.com)
• CBB January 2013 Net Worth Update (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
• January 2013 Canadian Budget Binder Monthly Budget Update #1 (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
• How I Reduced Our Grocery Budget From $1100 To $600 In 6 Months (canadianbudgetbinder.com)