Our Thrifty Living Millionaire Lifestyle Exposed : The Saturday Weekend Review #277

DON’T BE A PARROT BE A THRIFTY LIVING EAGLE WITH YOUR MONEY

Most people want to continue living in their own home for as long as possible but for many Canadians this may not be the case.

Someone passes away who you thought was struggling financially or perhaps just doing well only to find out they are millionaires.

This happens more than we hear about and it makes you wonder why someone who has money doesn’t spend it or enjoy it?

One million dollars doesn’t excite us like it used to and that’s because it’s the new minimum wage of high net worth earners.

What I mean by that is a million dollars doesn’t go too far depending on where you live and how you choose to live your life.

Add in a mish-mash of problems that could pop up from children moving home, divorces, health problems or issues with family members where you step in to help it can cause financial stress for anyone.

The problem is there are people who are scared to spend their money because they don’t know what the other side of retirement has prepared for them.

I don’t think we were as prepared for retirement like we are today only because we have had to research the system because of my in-laws.

If my mother-in-law knew she’d retire with dementia and not even know it would she have been living the frugal lifestyle that she had before her diagnosis? Maybe, maybe not.

My father-in-law was the opposite knowing that he would die one day of heart failure meant that money was no big deal and you could earn more.

In fact he used to laugh at his daughter and her frugal ways saying that he wished he was like her when he was younger.

He spent what he had kept a bit in savings and had the house to fall back on once it was paid along with a small works pension.

A nice chunk of that went to pay for his almost $40,000 funeral.

It’s no wonder cremation is popular for those who don’t want to spend the money or can’t afford a full-on funeral service.

The reality is we don’t know what’s on the other side of retirement apart from it’s a gamble whether you will be healthy and travelling or sick and dependent on others.

My mother-in-law is still frugal and hates to spend her money even though she has no responsibility with any finances in her life but her allowance.

In her state of mind she is STILL worried about money and is as cheap as can be but we blame it on her illness as she was never as rude and demanding as she is today.

It’s amazing how money can manipulate the mind and perhaps it falls back on beliefs, state of mind and personal behaviours.

She doesn’t know that she pays $25 to get a ride to her day program which she also has to pay for or to have a caregiver take her to the stores where she shops weekly.

There is no one there to help her so we had to hire help and it is NOT cheap.

She’s a wanderer so it’s important to keep her busy which is why we’ve had cameras installed around the outside of her property.

There is an endless list of things you have to pay for as you get older if you need any type of care.

Yes, there are agencies we’ve contacted and the prices are similar or a bit cheaper but when you are dealing with someone with dementia they can’t go alone.

So, if she didn’t have some money put by her situation would be far different from what it currently is and we’re deathly afraid for her future.

Yes her mortgage is paid in full and yes she has a tax-free savings account and a bit of savings but that won’t last forever.

If she’s anything like her mother she could be in a home until she’s 100 years old which is still 40 years away.

Wrap your mind around that for a moment. Living in assisted living for 40 years.

Honestly, we are still learning more and more about costs involved with having to move her into a home when the time comes so I’m not going to say one way or another that I know it all. I don’t.

Moving her into a decent home would see costs in the thousands of dollars between 3-6k a month in the area she lives in.

Either way financially the family is worried about her and we’ve all begun to worry about our future even more because of all this.

A THRIFY LIVING FRUGAL LIFESTYLE IS FOR LIFE

You might be reading this and thinking, “Wait just a minute Mr.CBB if I had a million dollar net worth, I’d be rich”.

Perhaps so but if you lived in the Greater Toronto Area like we do a million dollars goes as far as buying a house with a few extra hundred square feet and a bit of land that allows you to break out the gas mower for longer than 10 minutes.

The good news is that we have no mortgage and are debt free which is great for saving money but not everyone is in the position to do so.

Unless we plan to downsize (good luck around here) or move to another city that means we either buy bigger or stay where we are as nothing is cheap in our area.

It also means we continue living frugal because we have no idea what the next year or 10 years will bring our way.

A million dollars today may be worth peanuts tomorrow.

Being a worry wart is not a good thing but I believe that being realistic about tomorrow is just as important about living for today.

I’m finally understanding how and why so many people worry about retirement and if what they have saved up will be enough.

I get it now, but I also know that there are plenty of people who are in worse positions than we are.

I don’t know what they think about their tomorrow but what I do know is that we all have to look out for ourselves.

Thrifty Living With Retirement Money

There is so much grief that goes into trying to figure out whether someone has banked enough cash so that they can retire happy it’s unbelievable.

It’s as if people won’t retire unless they are given the nod and pat on the shoulder to tell them that life will be fine with the amount of money they diligently saved up for most of their lives.

You go from watching sitcoms on television to reading the newspaper, watching the weather and turning on the evening news.

That’s the transition in life that seems to follow most people.

The older you get the worse it gets because politics kind of creeps up on you and then you become a BIG part of the process whether you like it or not.

One minute you are getting something for less or even free and after the next election it’s wiped out or changed which means more money from your pocket.

We pretty much live and work to pay taxes in Canada which doesn’t leave much left for us to budget each month for everything we need.

Investing your money in an RRSP or TFSA is primarily where Canadians stash their cash to avoid being highly taxed while their money grows.

• Can I retire at 55 with 500k?
• Is 2 million enough to retire at 55?
• Is 3 million enough to retire at 55?
• Is 2 million enough to retire at 60?
• Is 3 million enough to retire at 60?

Can you retire on 2 million dollars?

Of course you can BUT it depends on where you live and the lifestyle you want to lead not to mention your health status at the time.

There really is no magic number that you can pull out of thin air because it’s up to the way you want your standard of life to be like.

Some people reward themselves with retirement simply because they are debt free and have some money in the bank and others need millions of dollars, pensions and passive income to hand in their retirement resignation.

Thrifty Living Millionaires

Both Mrs. CBB and I were talking about how prices of everything in Canada are rising exponentially including gas, groceries and even our utility bills.

Our hydro bill is now double what it was 5 years ago at around $500 a month and you simply can’t negotiate rates on needed utility bills.

We do however have the option to cancel our home phone, television, internet and cell phone if we don’t have the money to keep them running.

These are the types of businesses where you can negotiate how much you pay because they are not a necessity.

We are at the mercy of Canadian pricing and all we can do is continue to budget, save money and go on with our thrifty living lifestyle.

Yes, we can splash out on things we want but we also know that saving up for what we want is more important than rushing out to just spend money whenever we get the urge.

In a way it trains us to manage our money better when we step back from looking at the numbers in our bank account.

Financially we both thought that if we did get sick and needed assistance how much would it potentially cost us down the road with inflation?

Say, we got sick in our 50’s and had to be put into a home that costs us $3000-$5000 a month for the rest of our lives and we lived until we were 90.

How much would that cost us?

A tonne of money that’s how much.

If you do not have access to private health insurance coverage and do not qualify for assistance, you will have to pay for a retirement home stay out of your own pocket.

Since luxury retirement homes can cost anywhere from $4000 to $15000 per month, you or your parents will simply need to have significant assets and/or income in order to afford the best quality homes for seniors. Source

Would our investments yield enough profits to help sustain our net worth and eventual cash flow when needed? The answer is, we don’t really know. We would hope so, but no one really knows.

This is why and I’m sure some of you out there reading this today who are also debt free and perhaps have money saved even into the millions continue with thrifty living.

Our Thrifty Living Millionaire Lifestyle

Balancing happiness in our life with wants and needs no matter how much money we earn or save is priority.

We know we won’t be famous earning millions so like every other person working hard and saving is the only way to go.

So what do we continue to do in our thrifty living lives?

Our Thrifty Millionaire Lifestyle Habits

Below are some of the ways we continue our thrifty living lifestyle to help us save money so we can enjoy the extras so we aren’t always plowing into our future savings.

By the way, thrifty living and frugal are the same thing when it comes to saving money.

1. We still budget (of course)
2. Use coupons, coupon apps to find the best grocery deals
3. Shop the reduced rack at the grocery store and watch for price discrepancies that trigger SCOP (free stuff)
4. Always shop thrift stores first for everything unless we need to buy it brand new
5. Source discount codes for anything we buy online including Ebates and Swagbucks
6. Negotiate prices wherever and with whoever we can
7. Price match and watch for price drops on items we purchase for price adjustments
8. Buy and Sell what we own to earn back money to put towards another purchase
9. Use a bank with no fees and Canadian Credit Cards to earn rewards points
10. Fill up on gas at Costco because it’s far cheaper than another gas station
11. Blog to earn extra money on the side

Discussion: What worries you the most about retirement? Leave me a comment below.

CBB Home and Blog Update

Hi there everyone,

Another week another breakdown in the house and more illness. Surprise? Probably not as it seems to be the norm around here.

Thankfully the water heater was fixed with-in a day which meant hot water and heat finally.

The cherry on the top was both my son and I get extremely ill where we were throwing up constantly.

I actually think I had it worse than him because he was bright as a button the next day but still had a rough tummy.

I on the other hand went a few days with throwing up and not eating which made for a very tiring week for me at work, home and trying to get my blog updated.

I survived. I’m still here and now that the nice weather is attempting to come through I’ve been out raking and getting the lawn ready for Spring.

I’m already seeing the corners turning a bright green so that’s a good sign.

I’m always worried but I do tend to take good care of the lawn because I like it to look lush and gorgeous.

I’m a bit of a garden nerd that way.

Mrs. CBB wants to install a bird feeder on our property so I’m either going to make one or look for one relatively cheap.

I’m not sure but my guess is making one will probably be the frugal way to go. If you have any tips we’d love to hear about them in the comment section.

We’ve been working on a new keto recipe for everyone for Canada Day celebrations which we plan to share about two weeks prior. 

I’ll let you guess what it is. It’s a bit tricky to get the right consistency but we 100% have the flavours and the base is perfect.

I’ve lost a bit of weight this past month or so which is a good sign since I need to work off what I’ve gained this past year.

As you know it has been a rough time for the family and putting ourselves last has been typical of our days.

Now that we seem to be a bit more stable we’re working on getting ourselves back into tip-top shape once again.

That’s our week.

I hope you all have a wonderful two weeks and we’ll see you back here again for our next CBB home report and Saturday Weekend Review.

Mr.CBB

CBB Posts You May Have Missed

These are the blog posts I’ve written the past two weeks that you can catch up on if you’ve missed them.

If you don’t already please subscribe to the blog and you will get my posts come straight to your email. Ta-da…CBB in an Instant.

• How we avoided a financial crisis after buying our home (March 2019 Budget Update post)
• Retirement Income Sources In Canada You Need To Know About
• Keto Egg Breakfast Muffin Cups Two Ways (Ham and Cheese and Salami and Cheese)
• How to get over your money worries in 10 steps
• Risks and Benefits of opening a joint bank account
• The best ever Keto buns from your oven

Finance Read Of the Week

I thought since we were talking about retirement today and how it can be scary that perhaps Mark from My Own Advisor could shed some light with his post FIRE at 52, How to draw down what we’ve worked so hard for.

Find out what Mark has to say with his extensive report that he created for them.

F.I.R.E stands for Financial Independence Retire Early which sounds great but not everyone can do this.

Mark shares a reader question about whether the reader has enough money to retire at the age of 52.

Below are the stats of this couple wanting to FIRE at 52.

• Ontario based, up north of Toronto.
• $800k combined invested (such as $142,000 combined TFSAs; $510,000 combined RRSPs; $148,000 in a combined/joint non-registered account).
• Paid off home worth out $450,000, with no plans to move in next 10 years.
• Paid off x2 vehicles, no plans to buy a newer, used car for at least 5 years.
• Zero debt – yeah!
• I’ll have a military pension that will pay me with $40,000 per year (pre-tax) at age 55, indexed, for life. (The pension increases by Consumer Price Index (CPI) each year which is great.)
• My wife has no pension plan.
• I will probably putter-away with various side-jobs to keep me busy – so I expect to earn about $10,000 net per year from that until age 65 or so. We’ll see!

Frugal Recipe Find

I once watched a video where this chef made the most beautiful fluffy pancakes as if they were pillows and tried to recreate it but failed.

I found this recipe for souffle flapjacks that look just like them so I thought I would share it and see if this recipe lives up to the photos.

Mr. CBB’s Motivational Corner

Saturday Search Term Giggles

Every week I get tens of thousands of people who visit Canadian Budget Binder because they did a search online and found my blog. (SIC) means I’ve copied the text exactly and it has spelling errors.

Most times funny, sometimes serious.

• Boiled Egg Parmesan– I’m not even sure what to make of this
• Simple resignation letter– One without any swearing
• Costco penalties for shoplifters– Someone got caught
• Keto Gluten-Free Communion Bread– Am I missing something?
• Can a very mouldy house be saved?– Yes, by the devil. Good luck and Call Mike Holmes.

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