11 Life Decisions To Consider Often: March 2022 Net Worth (+1.08%)
Today I’m discussing eleven financial life decisions that everyone should consider, no matter how old.
We are all going to make wrong choices in life, but that’s ok because we learn from our mistakes.
You know as well as I do that nobody is perfect and that there are things we will go through that nobody will ever understand.
It’s not just essential but critical that we sweep up the dirt and dump it instead of brushing it under the couch.
Let’s all look at life decisions I feel were very important to us as a couple and as individuals.
Notice I started with happiness, and that’s because we sometimes forget ourselves and our families out of all the financial life decisions.
Read what life decisions I feel need consideration not once but many times throughout our lives.
- Happiness
- Living Arrangements
- Children/Parenting
- Marriage
- Employment
- Debt Repayment
- Cost of Living
- Life Insurance
- Saving Money
- Combining Finances
- Employee Benefits
What is most important on your list of life decisions?
Plus, I wanted to discuss Mrs. CBB’s discussion with a lady at the park yesterday.
The story continues below.
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1. Happiness
Happiness and hope are of most importance for everyone who doesn’t feel that their life is going the way they dreamed.
What lots of people do is buy happiness, although it may only last momentarily.
Money shouldn’t influence your happiness because we depend on what we can buy to bring us joy.
Life decisions are funded by the current situations, debt, health, income and so on, but the happiness you can create for free.
Take a trip to the park with your kids or go for a nature walk and educate your family.
A friend who is a single mom of two children has toured over 52 parks across Ontario with her children.
Those memories will last a lifetime, and all they cost was the petrol and vehicle to get there.
What does happiness mean to you? Do you buy happiness?
That’s ok; we are all guilty, but it’s one of those life decisions we can change.
2. Living Arrangements
Living Arrangements are a considerable part of life decisions, especially for those struggling to find a room, apartment or house to purchase.
Last night, Mrs. CBB spoke to a lady at the school park about the housing market and the cost of living.
The lady was in her late 30s, and she had one daughter with her husband of 10 years.
They have moved three times over the past 5 years from Toronto to London to Toronto.
Currently, they rent an apartment, and she’s not sure if they will be able to buy a house.
Most people struggle financially and feel closer to bankruptcy than they are to debt-freedom.
Although they have little debt, they may have to move in with their husband’s parents to save money.
It’s not one of the life decisions they want to make; however, they will do it if it’s what they have to do.
They are not alone as many people of all ages move home or buy houses together to be homeowners.
Mortgage Sharing
Another friend of ours who has three young children and a husband who works in the trades bought a home with his parents.
His parents are both retired but could not own a home and rented most of their lives.
Together they bought a back split and lived on the upper level, whereas his family lived on the lower level.
These arrangements work for all of them, but life decisions will be made in the future as his parents age or perhaps pass away.
Seller’s Market Pushing Canadians Financially
The housing market is outrageous, with homes selling hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price.
Homes are selling for close to a million or over a million dollars, and buyers are outdoing themselves.
Life decisions made under duress are one of the worst things that anyone could do.
There are, however, people who need somewhere to live and will worry about paying bills after they get the home.
When we bought our house in 2009, we were worried about spending $185,000 after our downpayment.
Last evening my wife and I discussed how scary it must be for first-time homebuyers or buyers.
Although the news reported yesterday that the housing market was cooling down, that might not be for long.
Buyers’ fatigue is taking its toll, and we know what that’s like for a family member struggling to win a bid.
She has since taken a break from house-hunting until she feels she’s ready to get out there and basically fight for her first home.
Royal LePage is raising its forecast for home prices this year despite signs of a slowdown in some major housing markets across the country.
The real estate brokerage now expects the aggregate price of a home in Canada to rise 15 per cent year-over-year in 2022 to $895,900, led by the country’s two hottest markets.
In December, Royal LePage forecast a gain of 10.5 per cent this year.
Source: Bloomberg
These life decisions need to be discussed ahead of time and not put on the back burner.
3. Children/Parenting
For some women having a child is a surprise, and for others, it’s planned; however, not everyone wants children.
Unlike my sisters, I waited to have a child because I was worried about making sure I could financially take care of a family.
Luckily, Mrs. CBB was on the same path as I was; however, we found out that the chance of us being parents was 0.1%.
First, the gynecologist told her that her tubes were blocked and then a second opinion found that only one tube was blocked.
Although we declined to pay for Invitro, which cost close to $12,000, we got pregnant the next month.
It was amazing how fast life decisions can change, as in this case of being unable to get pregnant.
We wanted a baby, then were told we couldn’t have one, and then we had one naturally.
Again, this is just an indication of how fast life can deal with surprises that we are not prepared.
Cost Of Parenting
Parenting is expensive whether there is a stay-at-home mom or dad and whether it ties into life decisions.
For example, perhaps you both purchased a home but found out you were pregnant.
At the time, you were both working and owning a home was something that could have been handled financially—having a baby changed the plan.
Ideally, if a couple is trying to have a baby, it’s best to know how a child may change their life decisions will change.
Perhaps putting the first home purchase on hold until you know how much the baby will cost is an idea.
I suggest creating a baby budget with a mortgage payment and all other things involved in paying for a house.
Related: Test A Mortgage Budget Before You Buy A Home
Pretending you have a mortgage for a few months will allow you to see whether it’s a feasible option.
Never move forward if you are on edge financially because it’s best to have wiggle room.
You’ll understand more about what I’m talking about below.
4. Marriage/Divorce/Death
Marriage/Divorce/Death all pose major life decisions which will change over and over based on what happens in your life.
Below are some questions you may want to talk about with your fiance.
Can we afford to get married?
Do I want to get married?
Are children part of the picture?
What happens if there is a divorce?
Divorce Is Expensive
Divorce is one of those life decisions couples don’t consider because who does that?
The number of divorces recorded in 2020 (42,933) was the lowest since 1973.
Source
Unfortunately, divorce is a reality, and sometimes you don’t know the person you married until after you’ve walked down the aisle.
Perhaps things have changed, or they hid parts of their life you weren’t aware of.
Whatever the case, consider the costs of divorce and how it will affect your family.
Death Is Expensive
Are you prepared for death?
Is anyone? No, but there are other ways to be prepared financially and respectively.
Death has no age, and we all know that loved one’s can be taken from us at any time.
For those of us who are married and have dependents, it’s crucial to create a Will and Power of Attorney.
Don’t wait until something happens. Make a Will one of life’s decisions you don’t hold off on.
Talk to your spouse about money and whether you plan to combine your income before marrying.
Find out who will pay the bills and whether you will include each other’s names on bank accounts.
One widow found out the hard way when her husband left her name off the bank account.
After he passed away, the bank account was frozen, and she was left with no money apart from credit cards.
Life decisions will change throughout our lives and must be discussed more than once.
Death is one of them, so the left behind people know how to care for your business effectively.
We purchased a large fireproof safe and have our Will and Power of Attorney stored inside, passwords, and anything we need our POA to know.
5. Education/Employment
Education was a huge decision I had to make when I moved to Canada at age 30.
We planned our marriage, so we had zero debt which allowed us to save for our future endeavours.
Related: How We Planned Our $1400 Debt-Free Winter Marriage
I looked for jobs, but they weren’t paying me what I was worth because I had no Canadian experience. I’m not even sure what that is, still to this day.
Returning to school was the best decision I made, and we had to do it while renting a room.
We put off buying our first home, so we had no school debt and the ability to build our downpayment.
I worked on the weekends in the same field I was studying for nine years until I landed my dream job.
There was no way that I could have imagined I’d be where I am today, but I love my job and plan to retire here.
When I graduated, I knew that I had a job waiting for me that paid a better wage than what I was offered.
Don’t be afraid to upgrade or even study part-time while working as I did to achieve your ambitions.
6. Debt Repayment
Debt repayment affects life decisions not once, twice or three times but for the rest of our lives.
Even if someone is debt-free, anything could change their financial situation.
Most importantly, I feel it’s essential to document debt and pay it back as fast as possible.
If you have to decide between spending $10,000 to visit Disney or paying off a $10,000 debt, pay off the debt.
Your children can wait until you save up the money to visit Disney, even if it takes time.
Although you feel it will bring happiness, it will be for the kiddos but not for the adults who own the debt.
7. Cost Of Living/Inflation Rate
The inflation rate is significant to the cost of living, and ideally, it should be around the 2% mark.
Currently, we are at 6.7%, which is the highest in Canada over the past 31 years.
High gas prices have an outsized impact on overall inflation because the cost of shipping and transportation gets added to the cost of everything else, from grocery bills (up 8.7 per cent) to the price of durable goods like furniture (up by 13.7 per cent in the past year) and even plane tickets (up by 8.3 per cent.)
Source: See link above CBC News
Some people have been complacent in borrowing money since interest rates have been cheap.
The problem is that the interest rates aren’t going to last as long as everyone thinks. My crystal ball told me so.
A massive increase such as this affects pretty much everything you buy in one form or another.
When the price of raw materials goes up, processing and manufacturing and delivery also cause a ripple effect.
Buying loads of something just because it goes up in price is even worse because now there is more money flying around.
Do you remember the mad rush to buy toilet paper and other grocery items for fear of being unavailable? That saturated the market with money, as did Covid-19, and it hasn’t stopped.
One of the variables that determine inflation is the velocity of money which is how fast money is exchanged in a given time.
Will there be a recession in Canada? What happens when everyone stops spending?
It wouldn’t shock me, and it should terrify everyone.
8. Life Insurance Is A Necessity
Life Insurance is something I signed up for when I was 30 years old and had just moved to Canada.
The cost of life insurance was not expensive. However, I did smoke, but once I quit, there was a dramatic drop after one year.
We quit smoking together, so the extra cash was nice to put into our savings account.
Imagine the money we saved on life insurance payments and not buying cigarettes?
That number would be well into the thousands of dollars that we have put to good use.
Our fathers died from heart attacks, so quitting smoking was on our to-do list.
It was more important to be healthy than dead, leaving our family and son from something we could have controlled.
Since her early twenties, my wife has had life insurance, which was a term 25 life insurance policy.
She started with Primerica, where a friend was employed, but when I met him, I wasn’t convinced.
As mentioned, life decisions change as you become informed or things happen where you’ve found something better.
For us, we moved our investments to Manulife and have been with our advisor for 16 years.
Life Decisions Include Life Insurance
Today we have life insurance invested in something comparable to whole-life insurance but different.
We took out a life insurance policy for our son that we pay $500 a month for ten years, and he’s covered for life.
The money is invested and covers a minimum payout, and anything above it is profits.
He will never have to worry about life insurance, and the longer he keeps the money invested, the more it increases.
We could do this for him because we paid our mortgage off early, and I changed careers.
My income dramatically increased over the years and will continue to do so until I hit the maximum amount.
A tip a friend told me was to consider looking into life insurance costs versus buying mortgage life insurance.
Life insurance pays out the policy you pay for, and mortgage insurance pays out what you owe.
Plus, life insurance is usually cheaper based on what life insurance policy you get.
9. Saving Money/Budgeting Changes With Life Decisions
Saving Money should not be a surprise as it’s not only important, it’s critical to what could happen in the future.
I’ve heard many people say they have no money to save when we need to find more.
Whether you sit at your computer and fill out surveys, save money using mobile phone apps or participate in focus groups or host students.
Related: Find everything you need to know about earning money and saving money on my Free Money Savings Page.
Perhaps you want to start a blog to earn extra money, which is possible.
In 2021 we earned five figures, although it bumped me into a different tax bracket and a massive tax bill.
The extra money is still worth it for our family and helps pay for our life decisions.
Anything that you can do legally (lol) to earn extra money to put money into emergency savings, tax-free savings account (TFSA) or investments is essential.
Budgeting Costs You Zero Dollars
Budgeting does not cost you anything, and with the library and internet at your fingertips, you can learn everything you need to know.
I’ve created a 10 Step Mini-Series based on how our budgeting journey was put together.
Before you think there is a charge for it, there’s no FREE. I want you to learn about managing your financial life decisions.
Budgeting also doesn’t have to be complicated. What comes in? What goes out? What you owe? Who owes you?
One, Two, Three, Four, repeat and change as needed each month.
Budgeting and saving money will always be part of life decisions because it is the fuel that runs our engines.
10. Employee Benefits
Employee Benefits are a great way to help pay for dentist visits, prescriptions, eye appointments, eyeglasses, etc.
My wife has had a few Crowns put in from her dentist, each costing $1100, and my benefits paid 50% of each.
Even if you don’t have employee benefits, your future employer may offer them with your contract.
When my wife worked at Tim Hortons, they offered employee benefits which she paid into.
Life decisions might mean you need an employer that offers benefits, or perhaps you can find benefits companies you pay into yourself.
Investment Matching With Your Employer
One last thing not to miss out on is whether your employer offers an RRSP matching program.
If you can afford it, pay into it, so you’re not leaving free money on the table.
Wealth Simple explains why an RRSP Matching Program is an excellent option for employers and employees.
The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and Abacus Data report that 63% of Canadians say they did not set aside anything for retirement in the past year.
And many (48%) report that they worry more about not having enough money to retire than they do about their physical and mental health, debt load, and job security.
Source
It might not be much, but something is better than nothing, especially if an RRSP outside your employer is not currently supported by your budget.
Life Decisions Follow You To The Grave
As much as I’d like to wave a wand and make everything I’ve done go away, I cannot.
There will always be life decisions that you can’t change, and they follow you to the grave.
Do the best you can even if you don’t get what you want during your time on earth.
Perhaps what you leave for those you love behind is memories of the life decisions that made a difference.
Be well,
Mr.CBB
CBB Net Worth For The Preceding 12 Months
Scroll close to the bottom if you already know how to calculate your net worth to see the breakdown of our March net worth.
Net Worth Increases And Decreases
The chart above reflects our net worth increases and decreases throughout 2021-2022.
Last month we saw our investments take a bit of a nosedive; however, they’ve bumped back up.
With interest rates, living costs, and people scrambling to survive, everything has been up and down.
We are high-risk investors since we still have time before we retire, but it’s always hard to see the numbers drop.
Unfortunately, that’s how investing goes, and although I’m not an investing geek, I’m just happy we have money to invest.
What are your thoughts about seeing your investments increase and decrease?
Drop me your comments below.
How To Calculate Your Net Worth
Net worth adds up your assets (what you own) and then removes your liabilities (what you owe), giving you a net worth number.
We like to calculate our net worth every month to know if we are still on track.
Some people calculate it yearly or quarterly, but it’s up to you and how informed you want to stay.
Net Worth is only an estimate, and not everyone uses the same type of figures to tally it up.
Determining Net Worth
Net worth = Assets – Liabilities
Calculate your net worth with our Free Money saving Tool Net worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder.
Stop Comparing Your Life
Some people may have had to start over as I did by returning to school a second time.
Others may have gotten divorced, suffered job loss, theft, identity theft, overspending, fallen ill or injured at work.
There are so many reasons that I couldn’t possibly list them all but compete with nobody.
There was a point when we had to stop investing in our RRSPs and change our budget strategy.
In short, life happens.
Net Worth Losses And Gains 2022
Although the news reported that Ontario’s real estate market is still on the loose, it’s starting to cool down.
Whether that’s good news or not for those homeowners who are feverishly trying to update their homes to sell, it’s tough to find roofers and drywallers.
So much that the province is willing to pay to train people as there is a shortage of tradespeople we desperately need.
At Niagara College’s Welland campus, Labour, Training and Skills Development Minister Monte McNaughton pledged more than $1.2 million in training for unemployed or underemployed people in the region.
Source
Watching Your Net Worth Increase And Decrease
We saw an increase of 1.08% after last month’s drop of -120%, but it’s a game of up and down.
Now is the time to sell for retired homeowners wanting out and have somewhere else to live cheaper.
Imagine the freedom if your mortgage is paid in full and buyers fight over homes, overbidding, and perhaps going too far.
Time will tell what will happen with the housing market, but we’re still young-ish and are not moving anywhere for now.
For those of you who have sold your home in the last year or currently have it on the market, what are your plans once the house sells?
I was hoping you could leave me your comments below as this is a growing topic among many people who are unsure what to do.
That’s all for our family net worth update for March 2022. Peace, Love and Happiness to all.
Mr.CBB
Canadian Budget Binder Net Worth Updates 2022
Click the links below to read our net worth updates for 2022.
- January net worth update 2022
- February net worth update 2022
The following net worth report will be in May when we look at our April 2022 net worth figures.
Feel free to comment below.
I know I’ve already said it, but if you haven’t subscribed to Canadian Budget Binder, I’ll leave the sign-up form below. Mr.CBB
