Happiness Has Become My New Rich : Net Worth Update June-Aug 2017 (+0.43%)
BE THAT ONE PERSON WHO PUTS HAPPINESS FIRST AND YOU WILL FIND THE GOLD YOU TRULY SEEK.
The richest man or woman is the one who believes that happiness comes before money. In a sea of unhappiness because of job loss, minimum wage, health and all things related to money be that ONE person who puts happiness first.
I knew the time would come where I’d have to write a post like this and tell everyone, we spent a large amount of money. Don’t worry I’m not crying over financial loss rather I’m jumping for joy because I understand more than ever what happiness is.
I talk to many people daily while networking on social media many of which are not rich in numbers but seem to be content. They don’t have everything they’d like to have but they get by and still manage to have a laugh and create fun instead of buying it.
You don’t have to sail around the world to be happy, only YOU can do that. Money doesn’t buy happiness, bla, bla, bla. I know you’ve heard that and it is the single most smartest thing I can agree on in personal finance. My views have changed over the past few month since accepting a full-time position in a career that I’ve dreamed about my entire life.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit obsessed with watching our net worth grow to a million dollars and in theory we’ve already hit that goal if we were to sell our house today and buy something smaller, somewhere else. That’s not going to happen which means we still have a ways to go.
Calculating net worth when you know it has gone down is scary
STOP! Don’t be like us because if you put so much energy into building your net worth and forget about YOU then it doesn’t matter. Money is just money and although it’s important to have lofty finance goals it’s also important to spend money and enjoy your life. This my friends is my NEW RICH, my NEW HAPPINESS and something I hope you consider balancing into your life.
No matter how much money you earn either your lifestyle is going to change where you NEED money to sustain it or you sit on it and wonder what life is all about. My point is that the more we earn the more the higher our expectations of life become because there is money to spend. That’s a shit way to live and believe me when I say that people who earn more money than you spend more. They may have purchased experiences under their belt but they probably lack the same happiness as one would living the simple life.
This is why we hear artists such as Jennifer Lopez (I’m still Jenny from the block) sing about where she came from (The Bronx) or Justin Bieber who doesn’t forget his roots back in Stratford, Ontario and how he grew up poor. Now has more money than he knows what to do with.
He recently stopped his Purpose tour infuriating fans because he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. He wasn’t happy. He needed Happiness in his life and I bet Happiness is his New Rich as well. It’s not about the money when you have money and it shouldn’t be about the money when you don’t have as much money as you’d like.
Love Yourself [Verse 2]
But when you told me that you hated my friends
The only problem was with you and not them
And every time you told me my opinion was wrong
And tried to make me forget where I came from
Money is just money and if we continue to obsess over how much money we need to retire or have to have in the bank we are going to rob ourselves of this precious life. Don’t worry about what everyone else says or thinks about they way you choose to bring happiness in your life even if that means upsetting them. They are NOT YOU.
Money Doesn’t Define You
Everyone is looking for the fastest way to become rich so they follow those bloggers who are earning piles of money to try and be like them. What they seem to forget is that the reason they are rich IS because they have people like you who want in on their financial action. The truth of the matter is when we set our expectations so high it sets us up for failure or in some cases an unhealthy obsession with earning more and more and more.
Some people even try to make themselves believe that they are still having a grande time loving life and are happier than ever but that’s not always the case. You can’t judge a book by the price nor can you assume that rich people or those earning obscene amounts of money do so by doing nothing. They do work and lots of hours and many forget what happiness is and turn that into MONEY.
Don’t let their money happiness become your obsession. Make Happiness your new rich and focus on ways to balance what you love, who you love and how you can become a better person. Money can only go so far before it means nothing more than a number in a bank account or investment.
Goals Sometimes Change
It is NOT the end of the world if you aren’t reaching your goals or your budget isn’t quite working the way you had hoped. You adapt and find ways to make it work but never, ever work yourself to the bone for money. You won’t be spending it when you are dead.
Back in July 2017 we were $55,000 away from our goal of having a net worth of one million dollars but that has since took a leap off a tall building. Why? I went from earning a net income fluctuating up to $12,000 net a month back down to around close to $8000 net since I quit one of my full-time jobs. The biggest hit to our fortune came because we spent lots of money and we’re happier than ever.
It has been years since Mrs. CBB started our budgeting journey and working like pros to make sure we were increasing our net worth. We never quite thought about WHY we were doing that and what it was going to mean to us once we hit a million dollars. Should we spend money? What if our net worth goes down? Why a million dollars? Who cares?
That’s right, who cares? No one cares about your money but you and I still stand by that rule I gave myself years ago. Then I quit my job and took on my dream job and it hit me, Happiness is my new rich. I know we paid our mortgage off in 2014 and have no debt which makes this easier to say but money means nothing when you can’t get back time.
Make Happiness Your New Rich
I want all of you to know that it was hard to hand over $46,000 in cash to buy a demo vehicle worth over $85,000 (was worth, lol) this past month and knowing we spent $13,000 on holidays but we did.
We spent years saving up money to do these things because we knew they were coming up eventually. This is where our projected expenses came into play. What we weren’t prepared for was the drop in net worth because we were watching too close and realize now that it’s fine to spend money and set your goals back a bit.
Spending such large amounts of money was mind-blowing yet a relief because it set us free from being a prisoner to a number we carved in stone. A net worth number will go up and down because life happens although for some it can be traumatizing to see the number decrease. When many of you asked me why we had so much cash in the bank this is why.
We knew we would have to buy a new truck, go on holidays and renovate our house. That number you see in the bank will dwindle as we move forward with our home-life goals and that’s OK. We’re fine with that and know that it’s just a number and we can build it back up again.
My new job demands more of my time during the week and right now it’s hectic and I can’t be thankful enough to have spent all that money on holidays with my family. I also appreciate that we waited until our vehicle bit the dust before we bought a new one.
Happiness melts Money
Don’t believe everyone when they say their life is full of frosting when all they have is a bowl of butter that can melt away. Relationships end because love shifts to money and eventually love gives up because it can’t compete. If you really want to understand what the new rich is about give it a try. Set small goals and place more effort into building your relationships doing things that don’t involve money.
We took a family hike the other day to explore the forests in a trail near our area. While we were out and about we sourced different types of mushrooms, heard all sorts of animals, found wild shaped trees and plenty of berries and bugs. Our family loved every minute of that 4km hike even our little guy. Cost- Nothing but the new happiness radar kicked RICH in the ass.
Let your new rich become your ultimate happiness by letting go of being immersed in money and enjoy life for what it’s worth, freedom. You don’t need a big house to be rich nor do you need a fancy car or extravagant holidays. You don’t even need millions of dollars to get on with your life. All you need to do is believe and have faith that what you are doing today will get you through to tomorrow and in the future.
The Question: How to become rich?
The answer: Balance Money. Set Realistic Goals, F-Money Obsession and Let Happiness Be Your New Rich and watch the rest fall into place.
Discussion Question: When does someone stop being consumed with how much money they have or don’t have?
Maybe never but ultimately it can drain the life out of anyone.
Our Net Worth June-August 2017
Where all the money went:
From May until July we made money and spent money as you can see from the three net worth update charts above. One of my main sources of income was chopped as I started a new job. This means I’ll only have one income coming in as opposed to two. Not a problem because I hadn’t set out to have two jobs.
I also dumped a load of money into my TFSA to catch it up the extra room I had available to me.
Finally, we spent upwards of around $13,000 on our holiday to the UK and European tour. Ouch, I know but the pound and Euro hit us hard. For example we purchased our son a bucket and spade at the corner shop and it cost us $18 EUROS. If you do the math you’ll probably pass out especially since we could have bought it at the dollar shop back home.
Lastly, we finally bought a vehicle that was not new but a demo so we managed to negotiate a hefty discount. The vehicle came with all the bells and whistles and a price tag of $46,000 instead of $85,000. I have yet to sell our other vehicles which will bring in some cash that will also go towards the purchase. We will also have 1 vehicle insured shortly which will bring down our insurance rates.
That’s where our money went and life goes on.
Mr.CBB
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!
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 determine just how much net worth you actually have and go from there.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
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.
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 financial goals
Below is our progression chart towards our goal of a million dollars net worth which should happen according to our net worth calculations by Mid August 2017 (this year). Note: Since we went on holidays and spent money buying a new truck this goal has now changed and will likely take us into 2018. I will have a more accurate update shortly.
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 being 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 above, I have used excel to provide a trend line 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 around $900,000.00. We fell short of this goal by $9000 which is perfectly fine as it was only an estimated goal based on current financial trends. 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 or around August to September 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 financial 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.
Below are our charts from June-August 2017
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 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 2017
Below you can click the links to read earlier months net worth updates 2017 to see how we made out following our own financial rules.
In the last year since April 2016 our net worth according to our figure has grown $134,787.17
April 2017 $937,641.55 – April 2016 $802,854.38 = +$134,787.17
- January 2017
- February 2017
- March 2017
- April 2017
- May 2017 Not available due to holidays.
- June, July, August – See this post above
That’s all for this months net worth update but please check in at the beginning of October 2017 to see how we made out in September 2017 with our financial portfolio.
~Mr.CBB
Remember: “It’s Not About How Much Money You Make It’s How You Save It“
Check out our 2012-2017>> Monthly Budget Updates
Funny you should mention a vehicle…hubby and I were just talking about our next replacement vehicle the other day.
He thought perhaps we should look at doing it now before the 2018’s come in… after he asked how much we had in the Car Replacement account & while there is still a trade-in value on the current vehicle.
I told him we need to wait 4 years. First of all, the dealer is going to give you squat on a trade so unless you want to do a private sale, you might as well drive that puppy until it is well and truly dead. No matter what needs repair in the next 4 years, it will likely be less than the $30,000 it will cost to get a new vehicle with the extended warranty and taxes and we do have a Car Repair account to handle those nasty surprises. We also have air miles that we can use to rent a car for a long distance trip…so our vehicle is just for puttering around locally and does not have to be 100% reliable since hubby can walk to the office if the car is in for repair. Also, I don’t believe in taking money out of an account unless I have a game plan on how I will replace those funds in relatively short order. If we wait 4 years until I start drawing my OAS and while hubby is still working, we’ll have about $4,000 net from that annually, $1,000 net from the extended medical refunds per year and the budget kicks in another $600 annually. So $5,600 annually would have the Car Replacement Fund fully funded again in just under 5 1/2 years and long before the next vehicle will be required.
I don’t think he was happy that there’s no shiny new toy in his near future but I explained that once he retires in 9 years time, we will need my OAS for day to day expenses and the funding for another replacement will have a much longer timeline if we do the replacement now. What a meanie I am huh?