May 2013 Net Worth Update: Up And Down The Ladder (+1.77%)
Up and down the ladder is a good way to describe our finances this past month because money was coming in and money was going out, literally. The good news is we did break the $500,000 net worth mark which was a goal of ours. I’m not expecting any major increases in our net worth this month but that’s OK, that’s life but we’re happy with the +1.77% increase none the less. We just keep on truckin’ because that’s what we have to do but it’s been great spending some money to get renovations done around the house.
Like my mate John at Frugal Rules commented that it’s better to save up money to buy quality products instead of spending money on cheaper products. That’s essentially what we are doing with our money although paying off the mortgage is priority.
Then again there’s no sense saving money if our house is falling apart or outdated to the point that we’d have to sell for alot less than if we put some money into the home. If we come to sell it in a few years time at least I won’t be running around trying to make the house look good because I’ve already done it along the way.
I’ve seen many people who let their surroundings fall apart because they were too interested in watching the bank account grow rather than doing what is necessary to protect their kingdom. Then they cry when they don’t get what they want when they sell their house.
What do you expect though. You can’t have it all unless you have more money than you know what to do with it. Remember the story about the family who has one house, one home, 2 mortgages and a pool. Well they still have the house for sale although they dropped the price by $1000 only because it’s clear they are maxed out and can’t go any lower.
Best part is they are at the house every day fixing things, doing lawn work and landscaping when all of that should have been done BEFORE they put the house on the market and bought new. That’s what I mean about don’t be afraid to spend money, even if your bank account goes down it doesn’t mean you are worth any less.
Individual net worth is just a number not a competition or a self-defining factor on the rich and famous scale of the everyday family. It’s simply a number you should know if you are tracking your financial health in my opinion.
As you may have read in our May Budget Update our pet fell ill and that’s taking a bit of money out of the pot at the veterinarian this month but that’s OK, family first. He’s not finished yet with his visits so I suspect another big bill in the upcoming couple of weeks.
We also started the landscaping on the front yard which has run us about $2400 so far including everything although that cost will increase as I’ve had some expenses since the May budget update. The good news is all the hard work is done, now I just have to accessorize by adding plants, mulch and sod.
You will see the mortgage has dropped and that’s because as soon as we could at the end of April we dropped another 25% or $37,000 on the mortgage as our pre-payment for the year. We also decided that since we are waiting for paperwork from the UK to come in to move my money to pay the mortgage in full that we would up our weekly mortgage payment to $303, which is essentially one extra payment per month of the $243.03 regular weekly payment we used to make.
Since we also bank with President’s Choice Financial we took advantage of the promotional 2.6% interest rate on any new incoming funds into our bank accounts. It’s not the same as when I first moved to Canada because if I recall correctly it was around 3% in the savings account and dropped significantly afterwards. It wasn’t much but it’s certainly lots more than the menial percentage rates that some banks are paying.
What Does Individual Net Worth Mean?
Net Worth is a snap shot of your financial health sort of like a picture or debt to net assets. In simple terms it’s a total of the value of your assets minus your liabilities.
How To Determine Net Worth?
Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities
Figuring out net worth is fairly easy as long as you know your personal numbers or monthly finances. 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. 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.
Do you know how to calculate your own Net Worth?
Now you can stop asking yourself , how do you find out your net worth because it’s easy to determine. Why not go ahead and calculate your own using our Free Money saving Tool Net worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder 2012)
Our Short Term Finance/Life/Blog/ Goals 2013
- To pay off our mortgage with-in the 5 yr term ending in April 2014
- Focus on TFSA and other investing
- To Save money for smaller renovations
- Continue to meal plan, create new homemade meals
- To sow and grow more vegetables/herbs in the garden to save money.
- To take vacation somewhere in Ontario this summer
- To take this blog to self-hosted and get a redesign (happening 2013!)
- Learn more about Passive Income
- To Read a new Personal Finance Book
- Learn more about SEO and Blogging
Our Long-Term Finance/Life/Blog/ Goals 2013
- Continuing to educate ourselves on personal finance and investments
- Continue to Network with other like-minded individuals
- To finish renovating our home
- To continue with educational training to further careers.
- To save money for big renovations
- Start thinking about saving for a second-hand vehicle in the next 5-7 years
- Save up for a European Adventure in the next couple of years
- Potentially save for a second home to rent out or build/move to our dream home
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.
Not everyone has been given the same path in life as we are all unique in our journey. Some of you may have had to start over, go to school a second time, got divorced, lost money, lost jobs, fell ill etc but don’t let that stop you, I didn’t. Some may have been given trust funds, homes, paid educations or perks in life that gave them a kick-start to their financial journey 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 YOU and Don’t let the evil eye of money jealousy or keeping up with the Joneses cloud your vision because you know what, no one cares about your money as much as you do so don’t waste your energy trying. The only reason people accumulate money no matter which way they get it is because they know how to save or invest it wisely, full-stop.
We should focus more on our own financial health and how we can make improvements utilizing some of the tips that others share. The littlest improvements should mean big strides to you. That’s how we were able to look at our finances over the years.
We do the same as we reach out to others who share their journey so we can learn from them. Money can be a great evil for some people especially for those who are negative towards their own situation. I urge you to be optimistic and little by little with your determination you too should see improvements but only if you want that to happen.
Keep the faith.
Canadian Budget Binders Financial Health
Net Worth For Preceding 12 Months
Net Worth Updates 2012-2013
- March 2012
- April 2012 (+0.94%)
- May 2012 (+1.19%)
- June 2012 (+1.17%)
- July 2012 (+1.51%)
- August 2012 (+1.67%)
- September 2012 (+1.61%)
- October 2012 (+1.91%)
- November 2012 (+0.96%)
- December 2012 (+1.76%)
- January 2013 (+1.39%)
- February 2013 (+0.75%)
- March 2013 (+1.61%)
- April 2013 (+1.42%)
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Photo: Freedigitalphotos. net ddpavumba
You are so inspirational mr cbb. Huge milestone for you guys! Keep it up!!
Thanks Catherine. I share this to show everyone that what we share on the blog is what we are doing and this is the results over time. Glad you enjoy it. Cheers mate
Love your thoughts here, Mr. CBB, especially about not letting others stop people from achieving our financial goals. And great job on the home improvements – you are saving $$ too by doing so much yourselves. You’re doing terrific on your goals – thanks for sharing and being an inspiration to so many others. 🙂
Thanks Laurie, I must say the landscaping was lots of work but I rather enjoyed the way it turned out. I might even score some extra income in the neighbourhood as some were hinting they wanted to do a path now as well. 🙂
Wow! Congrats on making it to 500K!!! That is a big milestone. It will be quite a while before we get there, but for now I’m just happy to keep seeing ours go up and up 🙂
Thanks mate, we’re plugging away at it. 🙂
I hate months when the finances are up and down. It is good to have a positive increase in net worth. Keep up the good work Mr. CBB!
Thanks mate, we’re working at it.
Looking good there this month in spite of the bills for landscaping and the pooch. This is an excellent example of why we need an emergency fund and for projected expenses… The emergency fund was there to pay for the pooch and the projected expenses was a planned expense for the landscaping. I know it seems like it’s taking so long but you are clearing out that mortgage at a very good speed….. all things in their own good time and you are getting there!!!! Good work!!
I’m so happy to hear you talking about projected expenses and that you understand what they are. I often wonder if the fans understand why we call them projected expenses and why they are so important and are not an emergency fund it’s a fund of money that WILL be spent at some point in time. We are very happy we had the money saved up and even though our net worth took a hit, it was not a problem overall for us. Do you track your net worth ? Thanks for reading Christine!!
I love the graph with the blue lines. Certainly going in the right direction. $500K net worth is a great accomplishment. Congratulations!
Thanks Kim, just working on it slowly… Cheers!
Wow! Way to go sir! That’s a pretty nice milestone. Keep on trucking.
Thanks mate, been working on it since we were young and this is the combined effort of the both of us.
Way to go Mr CBB! We hit $500K in the same month. What a lovely coincidence. =)
When you’ve done more of your landscaping, I’d love to see pictures!
I don’t think I’ll be posting photos of the house even though I really want to. I’ll have to think about it.
Congrats on hitting the $500k mark Mr. CBB and I like that upward trending line in your graph. 🙂 I think it does come down to quality, as long as it provides you a good return or is just worth it. We have our eyes on some landscaping ourselves but are just needing to save for it as it can add up fast.
That’s just it John.. glad you read that because when you said that to me the other day it really made sense because that is why it’s taken us so long. We wanted to make sure our priority of the mortgage was taken care of first then saved the cash to do this. The front wasn’t falling apart it was part of our kingdom but not the roof over our head so we had time on our hands. Cheers mate
That’s a good solid climb – and there are always going to be some times where there’s more going out than you’d like, but it can’t be avoided. How do you calculate your pension value – is it defined contribution so it has a set value?
Congrats on reaching the 500k net worth milestone. I don’t own a home of course, but I do think you’re right about putting money into it to get money out of it in the long run.
I think so as it really will improve the overall look of the house and hopefully wow potential buyers down the road.
I never really pay that much attention to my net worth but I am starting to think I should. Great job on that prepayment with the mortgage. Appears you net worth is growing consistently.
We didn’t think we’d hit the 500k this month as planned but it worked out in our favour even though we had all those expenses. Tracking our net worth has helped to motivate us to continue doing what we share on the blog with our budget and spending habits. It’s all a part of the overall picture. Cheers mate.