FINANCIAL INFORMATION CAN ONLY BE EXTRACTED BY THOSE WHO WANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW THEY ARE DOING WITH THEIR MONEY

 

If I asked you what your monthly financial report would tell me you might say that you don’t care about what your net worth is or how you should fix underlying problems that lead to money stress if you’re worried about the outcome.

If you do care good for you because you’re creating chapters in your financial book and know how important it is to understand your numbers and to run a financial report. Perhaps you were the person I first described above but have since had a changed mindset and wonder what took you so long to jump on board. That’s good we need to continue asking ourselves questions so we dissect the root cause and stop putting a band-aid over the problem.

Some people complain about how net worth is calculated and others moan about using a financial advisor to complete investment transactions and that’s fine. Don’t let anyone get under your skin or bully you into thinking there is a right and wrong way and if you don’t follow it you will be poor the rest of your life.

Money does not define you unless you let it but you also don’t want to be too relaxed with it either. I can understand the frustrations the advanced financial guru may have but not everyone has their drive for financial success. Some of us are more than happy to pay the bills and have a small nest egg to retire on, full-stop.

Let their mouths bleed because everyone has a different opinion about how money should be handled. You are not everyone but what you should complete in a basic sense of finance is how well you are achieving goals by running numbers in your personal financial report.

Ask yourself some questions, answer them and set limits and goals to achieve them. You don’t have to do anything over the top so be realistic with tasks you will carry out or commit to.

• Do you want to retire early?
• Do you want to save money for a trip?
• Do you want to be mortgage free sooner?
• Do your kids still live at home?
• Do you still have lots of debt?
• Who are you financially responsible for?

If you’re not happy with any of these areas OR you don’t know about what they entail because you have yet to create a financial report then you need to ask yourself one question. Am I Worth It?

If the answer is yes then make every day about your money and remind yourself just how long you have to work to pay for something and eventually you’ll start to slap your financial self awake. Yes, you will! SO many people I’ve worked with from the ground up are now wildly invested in their financial future where they started out not even knowing how to use a budget.

 

Financial Report Freedom

 

What is a financial report?

It’s only the best thing since the bank account passbook.

Well, it’s a bit like your net worth update but it encompasses all of your financial gains and losses and includes a full budget update. A financial bible if you will but you are the author. It’s more than your budget binder and far more than how much debt you owe. It’s everything to do with your money.

• Monthly Budget Review with personal feedback
• Net Worth Gains/Losses
  
• Monthly Goal setting and reviews
• Final Notes to financial statements
  

You don’t need something elaborate either because what we share with you is basically the way we roll in the CBB household. We do tally a bit more behind the scenes which we do more for our own entertainment purposes but it’s not necessary.

Your financial report can be monthly, quarterly or yearly although once you have a system in place seeing those monthly numbers really does motivate the soul.

You don’t have to pay money either to learn about financial basics mainly because of the vast amount of free information on the web but the more you tune into the health of your financial report the need intensifies to keep on top of it. Remember, not everything you read online is designer for you either. Not everyone is a financial expert and not everyone has your best interests in mind, they just want your money.

I offer as much personal financial insight on this blog pertaining to what we’ve learned over the years and there are millions of online financial bloggers who can shed some light on financial topics that should be part of your routine.

I remember when we first tapped into our finances and were shocked with the numbers. We did this by ourselves without the aid of the internet or some finance expert guiding us online. Our initial reaction of how could we rely on simply being, “Frugal” as our means to an end.

There is no way we would see over $800,000 in our current net worth portfolio if we continued that route. There was no incentive for us apart from getting stuff cheaper.  Knowing that we will reach our million dollar goal ahead of schedule is more than enough to keep us inspired about our numbers.

We’ve never looked back and over the years we’ve done nothing more than budget our money, report our gains and losses in this monthly net worth update thus creating a financial report we can review month after month. We do invest our money with a financial advisor and we’re fine with that right now.  In fact we can now go back 5 years into our financial history to review our numbers to see just how well we did or areas that needed improvement.

It’s true that many people would rather pretend that their financial report is progressing in a positive light just because they are saving a bit of money every month and the bills are getting paid. Yes, that was once us. This mentality is the number one reason people are shocked when they do get a glimpse at their financial report but only when they are deep in debt, about to claim bankruptcy or starting their financial journey and really opening up about it.

Don’t be a fool with your money.

I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to financial knowledge because it’s not something that everyone can grasp without a bit of education. We believe what we are doing is right and I know that first-hand as I’ve made many mistakes over the years BUT I always put our financial report first. I want to know exactly how we are doing, where we can improve and exactly what we’ve done wrong.

There will always be avenues for improvement but for now we’re comfortable and that is the place you need to be BUT with the notion and understanding that you may need to change your ways to keep up with financial times.

If you read our monthly budget and net worth updates you either are already creating a financial report of your own or you’d like to. Don’t be shy and don’t think you need to have a degree to do this stuff, you don’t.

If I asked you what was in your financial report what would you tell me? Are you happy with what you learn about the money you earn and how it’s saved and spent? No, then you need to investigate how you can incorporate more data so you can see the bigger picture. It’s your past, present and future that we’re talking about here.

 

Our net worth 2016

 

RESP Contribution 2016: $208.33 a month.

Changes to our Net Worth in May

We used all of my income tax return and more to pay in to my RRSP and make sure I’m caught up. This RRSP lump sum was $15,000, sounds like a lot of money, but at least $5,000 of that was returned to me.

The RRSP lump sum will also go towards next years tax reduction. The minus figure in our bank and cash section shows that we lost money and that is why.

You can see part of the RRSP lump sum change in the Investments portion, along with some nice gains this month. In fact this is our biggest one month gain ever.

 

Understanding net worth

 

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.

We credit the growth of our net worth due 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 rather understand why and move on.

 

If you would like to use our budget I offer a FREE downloadable budget which I created and 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!

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

There are tonnes of other free printable lists offered at Canadian Budget Binder to help you achieve some of those financial goals and build your net worth.

Now… what you need to do is determine just how much net worth you actually have and go from there….

 

Determining net worth

 

Figuring out net worth is fairly easy as long as you know your personal numbers or monthly finances which means you need to do your homework. 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.

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 to calculate our net worth every month so we 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 when it comes to your financial health.

Net Worth is essentially an estimate and not everyone uses the same type of 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 you should set goals

 

Setting goals are the only way we work towards achieving what we want to get done as a couple around the house and in our financial life. I know that 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. Yes, 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 below, I have used excel to provide a prediction based on the past years monthly net worth figures.

Using figures from our actual net worth gains over the past 12 months (the solid blue line) it has suggested that by the end of this year (2016) we should be just shy of $900,000.00. This can change over the course of the year and is only a prediction based on known historical figures from our finances.

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

This is nice to know but anything can happen over the next year. Hopefully with some careful planning we can achieve this goal and go beyond it.

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 our goals, not a means of comparison towards your own goals to others target goals.

We don’t care how much money others make or if they have a high net worth or if it is lower than ours as it’s not a competition. I hope our experiences perhaps will help guide you along your financial path working towards 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 a second time 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 was injured on the job etc. 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 you 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.

The only reason people accumulate wealth is because they know how to save or invest it wisely even if they did inherit money or win the lottery. The smallest improvements should mean big strides in working towards reaching your goals.

Sometimes we have to fail in order to learn and we’ve all been there. Money can be an evil force for some people especially those who have a negative attitude towards their own financial situation.

I urge you to be optimistic and little by little with determination you too 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 if we struggled with some of our numbers.

In the last year since May 2015 our net worth according to our figures has grown $132,619.37

May 2016 $826,825.86 – May 2015 $694,206.49 = +$132,619.37

• November/December 2015
• January 2016
• February 2016
• March 2016
• April 2016

That’s all for this months net worth update but please check in at the beginning of July 2016 to see how we made out in June 2016 and what has happened to our finances since.

~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.

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