Two Steps For Growing Your Wealth: Sept 2022 Net Worth (-1.23%)
Growing your wealth won’t happen overnight, but it is possible. Let me show you how we were able to kill debt and save over $100,000 cash.
What we find interesting is that had we not followed our gut feeling about budgeting, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Building a budget mindset was the pinnacle of our financial journey that set us on our way.
The most impressive push towards getting our money on track was living in a musty basement room with our dog.
Becoming a permanent resident of Canada was fantastic, but I still needed to make money.
I was trying to make a new life for myself to contribute to our marriage and society.
The more I learned how to be Canadian, the clearer the picture became for me.
I needed to return to school, so I did that, even though it kept us back financially.
Living in Canada meant understanding how money worked and safe ways to grow wealth.
You can almost attribute my financial knowledge of Canada to that of a cracker Jack prize.
I didn’t even know what a nickel or a dime was, and I’d hold my money to the cashier.
Sure, the cashiers laughed at me, and it wasn’t very comfortable, but I was working on it.
Taking baby steps toward financial independence not only took a front seat, but I also had my hands on the wheel.
Today, I want to talk about growing your wealth and how easy it can be if you take baby steps as we did and continue to do.
Growing Your Wealth Towards F.I.R.E.
If you haven’t heard about the F.I.R.E. movement, it stands for Financial Independence Retire Early.
Back in 2007, when I moved to Canada, had you told me the opportunity for me to retire early was possible, I may have laughed.
Ok, I would have had belly pain, but I would have listened to what you said.
I won’t get too much into F.I.R.E. today; however, following basic wealth rules has given me options.
What on earth did we do so I could retire early with financial independence?
Since we are married, it takes two, so you both must be on the dream for married couples.
Before you even consider ways to have more money, create a master action plan.
You can edit this plan along the way but keep it neat and document your money goals.
For example, by the end of 2023, you want to pay off your vehicle loan in full.
Perhaps you want to max your T.F.S.A. and RRSPs for the year.
Whatever you choose as your goals, there must be a plan to go with them.
In our situation, we paid off debt first while saving whatever we could scrape together for retirement.
After reviewing our budget and making a clear plan, it was easier to have a set amount coming out each month.
There’s no rush to the finish line unless you want to move fast but know what you’re doing before you begin.
It was easier to pay our mortgage and save without having a child.
Since we had already paid our mortgage before having our son, I can’t comment on hardship for parents tackling both.
Roads Will Lead You To Debt-Free
I can say that following a budget will never steer your vehicle in the wrong direction unless you let it.
You might go down one-way streets and hit dead-ends, but you can always back up, keep going or start over.
I’ve done all three in my 40-something years, and it’s not easy, but once you hit the finish line, it’s smooth sailing.
We were laughed at because we paid our mortgage off in five years, but who’s laughing now?
Don’t let anyone influence you by making you feel small regarding your finances.
Do your research and make informed choices based on your risk tolerance.
Two Steps For Growing Your Money
I can confidently say that following these two steps has helped us use money as we intended.
With the money, we became debt-free and continue to follow the same practices today.
The only difference is that we don’t stress as much over our finances, and life is good.
You can have the life you want as long as it’s realistic and you don’t drive your vehicle off the cliff.
All that means is that you don’t continue to create debt you struggle with once you pay off debt.
That becomes the circle of debt, where it continues over and over until something or someone stops it.
Let’s be realistic; debt accumulation does have a maximum capacity before it explodes.
Then you’re looking at debt consolidation or bankruptcy if it’s impossible to pay back what you owe.
That’s not a road you want to drive down.
As much as I’d like to say this model is for everyone, it’s not. I have to respect that not everyone is capable of earning more money or saving any money.
Also, we chose to save $100,000 because we are renovating our entire home.
Set financial goals based on your needs and not those of others. The reason is that our income is different from yours.
What I hope you take home from this is that you need to start the car to get ahead.
These are two steps that will start your engine for those of you who are these.
It works for us, and we’ll continue to follow it until the day we die.
1. Growing Your Wealth By Earning More Money
Earning more money by blogging has enabled me to bring extra income into the household.
However, earning more money doesn’t mean it will make you wealthy.
Related: Earning more money won’t make you rich.
I choose to live a certain way, and following goals is how to finish.
There are other ways that we have worked on growing our wealth which I will link below.
- Budgeting – 10-Step Mini Budgeting Series
- Started A Blog – How To Start A Profitable Blog
- Investing money has helped us grow our net worth for the future
- Getting Second Jobs
- How We Use A Zero-Based Budget
2. Growing Your Wealth By Spending Less Money
Below are ways that spending less money might help with growing your wealth.
I could write for hours about how we spend less money to save more.
- A Guide To Spending Less On Work Clothes
- How Thrift Spending Changed Our Lives
- Daily Spending Tracker (free printable)
- How A Recycled Life Helped Us To Live With Less
- Using a Weekly Spending Log (free printable)
- How To Reduce Money On Groceries
- Causes of Overspending and Simple Solutions
- 10 Affordable Meatless Meals – Cut the meat once or twice a week
- Household Savings Hacks To Reduce Expenses
For those who use coupons, for example, price matches, you know it’s like cash in your pocket.
Also, don’t forget to read bills and receipts, plus have the scanning code of practice applied when and where applicable.
Over the past 12 years, I’ve written many articles on CBB about saving money.
There’s no shortage of tips that have worked for us and those that have failed us.
We’ve fallen many times, but we’ve always gotten up more robust than when we lost.
Hopefully, over the years, our son will follow a budget so he can pass along his wisdom and perhaps this blog one day to his children. (if he has any)
Lastly, growing your wealth may include hiring a financial advisor or investing independently.
Discussion: In what ways do you grow your wealth differently from ours? Please share your comments below.
C.B.B. 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 September net worth.
The past twelve months have been a rollercoaster with our investments. Our net worth jumped in Dec 2021 and has decreased ever since.
June 2022 has been the worst month of all, with a massive loss with a leap back up in July 2022. We can tell from our chart that we’re riding until we die.
That’s the truth.
Net Worth Increases And Decreases
The chart above reflects our net worth increases and decreases throughout 2021-2022.
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 calculating our monthly net worth 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.
Net Worth Losses And Gains 2022
Hi C.B.B.,
Another depressing month of watching our investments take a downward spiral.
If you’re new to C.B.B., the above chart represents our finances in a nutshell.
Since we are mortgage-free, I decided not to increase the asset with the market since we live in the house.
Also, I reduce my truck yearly by sourcing the current market value to keep our finances as accurate as possible.
I remove the house entirely from my mind to better understand where we stand.
It can be depressing for investors to lose money, but at the same time, it’s the risk we take.
As the year ended, I received a call from my financial advisor asking whether I wanted to top up my RRSPs.
I’ve been watching the market closely, and I’m not ready yet, but I’ll have to decide soon.
What are your thoughts on the current market and dumping money into your RRSPs?
Thanks,
Mr. C.B.B.
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