LIVE LIKE YOU OWN THE HOUSE BEFORE YOU BUYING Think about the above statement for a moment and ask yourself how that may have changed your past or current budget before buying your home. You may find that had you created a test budget before that purchase you may have noticed that you shouldn’t have spent so much. Typically you wouldn’t hear me say anything about using a test budget because a budget is a budget, however there are times when pretending to budget comes in handy. Forget about the word pretend for a moment and consider the reasons why you would want to prepare a test budget and how it would benefit you as a potential homeowner. Can I afford the house Can I afford the house Can I afford the house Start Young Finish Free I often like to believe that anyone who starts learning about finance from a young age will have basic knowledge to make financial decisions that may not impact their lives the way someone who did not. This is why I urge parents to teach themselves about finance FIRST and pass that knowledge on to their kids. Even then there are […]
How To Test Budget A Mortgage Before Buying A Home : The Saturday Weekend Review #250
3 Money Smart Strategies We Applied In Our 30’s To Erase Debt
DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR MONEY THAT YOU NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE It’s still hard to believe that we managed to become debt free including our mortgage before the age of 40. We credit our success by applying simple money smart strategies in our 30’s that got us over the hump. You don’t have to have a degree to become a money smart consumer especially when tackling debt is a matter of choice. You either do it, or you don’t but the end results will be in part the actions of your willingness to erase debt and get the hell out of the rat race. Did you know that Canadians are world leaders in debt. Not something to be proud of really. A report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Canadian households are among the most indebted in the world. In fact, Canada tops the list of countries surveyed. Debt never sleeps If you’re one of those people who can’t sleep because you’ve got debt on the brain, you’re not alone. Debt freedom opening hours are all day every day especially when you’re dealing with your financial future. You may sleep but your money […]
Everything You Need To Know About Porting A Mortgage In Canada: The Saturday Weekend Review #241
IT’S WORTH KNOWING THE INS AND OUTS OF YOUR MORTGAGE It’s true and certainly something to always be mindful of, “It’s not about how much money you make, it’s how you save it.” When it comes to porting a mortgage in Canada, there are some things like interest rates that you need to factor into the equation, and we will cover these in detail in this article. Homeowners in Canada, and potential homeowners are faced with many important questions when it comes to mortgages. We are living through interesting times with respect to interest rates. The Fed is expected to raise rates further before the end of 2017, the Bank of England is clearly on a similar trajectory, and in time the European Central Bank will move away from quantitative easing towards quantitative tightening. What does this mean for mortgage holders around the world? The Canadian Economic Scene In Canada, the current bank rate is 1%. The BOC (Bank of Canada) decided to maintain the overnight rates when it met on Wednesday, 21 October 2017. The Bank of Canada forecasts that inflation will hit 2% by Q2 2018, later than economists projected. In 2017, real GDP grew […]
Buy the least expensive house in the most expensive neighbourhood
BE PICKY WHEN HOUSE SHOPPING Typically we like to buy quality when we shop which included shopping for our home. This is why we scoured every available neighbourhood around our city for the best deal. The only thing we don’t like is paying full-price which meant we had our work cut out for us. Thankfully, it worked out in our favour. When buying a house you want to make sure that if you are buying a $400,000 house that the neighbourhood matches the price tag or you might struggle to sell as fast as you’d like down the road. This is why we hear over and over not to over-renovate but then again a smaller house in a bigger neighbourhood might have more luck finding a buyer than a house that costs far more than smaller surrounding homes. Today I have an email from a guy who is a first-time home-buyer with his wife and wants to know if they should spend the money and get the biggest house they can or a smaller house but in a more expensive area. Note: If you have a question for me please send me a detailed email similar to below so […]
How Should We Budget $5000 of Discretionary Income?
PLAYING WITH SPARE CASH Not many people can say they have extra discretionary income kicking about every month where they have to drum up ideas about how to spend it. For those of you that do you can still manage that money with a budget if you want to stay on track with your financial goals. When Mrs. CBB and I paid off our mortgage in April 2014 it was a grand time for us. We managed to break down our mortgage into pieces and pay it off far sooner that we had ever dreamed of. The reason that happened was due to perseverance and a drive to be successful at whatever we did. I guess in a way we were pushing ourselves to earn more money but we knew in the back of our minds that it was all stepping-stones for our dream career roll. Now that our mortgage is paid we have lots of discretionary income which we just recently worked into our budget. Lots of people would be more than tempted to start spending money especially if they’ve hit it big time and the money is rolling in. What is Discretionary income vs. Disposable Income? […]
Our son started investing at 9 months old : May Net Worth Update 2015 (+2.87%)
INVESTING TODAY FOR TOMORROW Did you know that the quickest way to become a millionaire was through investing, especially if you start at a young age. You don’t need to be rich to start investing according to a must read post written by Kathleen Elkins of Business Insider ” The Single Most Effective Way To Get Rich.” You also don’t need to be a financial expert to get rich either. Sounds like a winning combination to me. The problem is that most people don’t have the money to invest long-term or they have no patience to see it through ups and downs. It’s all risk but without any risk we might as well just put our money in a savings account in the bank. On average, millionaires invest 20% of their household income each year. Their wealth isn’t measured by the amount they make each year, but by how they’ve saved and invested over time,” writes Ramit Sethi in his New York Times bestseller, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich. We’ve all heard the above is true especially if your investment portfolio started before you even knew what investing was all about. The only things you want to […]
One Year of Savings After No Mortgage Payments : May 2015 Budget Update
A MORTGAGE IS A HEAVY DEBT Kissing our mortgage payments goodbye one year ago this month was one of the greatest accomplishments we’ve achieved financially as husband and wife. Honestly it was my wife that reminded me that it has been a year since our final mortgage payments were processed. Time certainly does fly by but I’m certain since having our son time is just a big blur to the both of us. Mortgage Payments are reality Having no mortgage payments have not gone unnoticed though as our budget has shrunk and our net worth has jumped up to just under $700,000. It would be nice to be worth a cool million before I turn 40 although that may be super optimistic of me. When we conquer one hurdle we set goals to conquer another. Having mortgage payments will add bulk to any budget but it’s not the end of the world if you have one. The reality is that most people who have a mortgage pay for it until the end of their term unless they pay extra to shave a few years off here and there. That is great if you can do this as […]
Why the fixer-upper house might not be for you: PF Weekly Grab a brew #83
EXPENSES BEHIND THE WALLS It’s true that our dreams can get crushed when we don’t have the cash to do what we thought we would especially when you buy a fixer-upper house. Of all the people I’ve ever met they said they didn’t feel that renting was helping them to build a financial future for their retirement years. Although this is a wide-open topic that will bring in all sorts of controversy it’s certainly a personal decision that we must make on our own. Acquaintances of ours in their early thirties are looking to buy an older home that is their dream home but the catch is they want a fixer-upper. They do plan to have kids as well in the near future. He asked me my thoughts about older fixer-upper homes since many homes in the UK are very old. I was honest with him but ultimately it was my opinion and they need to make their own. I don’t want to be responsible for one of the biggest purchases of their lives. They are currently renting and have never owned a home before so owning a home is like the golden ticket for them or anyone really. […]
