GETTING INTO YOUR FIRST HOME MAY BE EASIER THAN YOU THINK After my wife and I got married we decided that we would slash our spending and start tracking our expenses so we could save aggressively for a down-payment on a home for us. This wasn’t the birth of our budget rather we were spending less than we earned but we had no idea how much savings power we gave up going this route until the CBB Budget was created. Once we felt we were nearing our 20-25% down-payment goal that we wanted to have for a house priced around the $200,000-$300,000 price tag we started chatting with a real estate agent. Thankfully we have a friend who has been servicing our community as an agent for many years. Since I was new to Canada one of the questions that came up was whether we could participate in the RRSP Home Buyers Plan (HBP) in Canada for first time home buyers. It was clear that I had never purchased a home in Canada before but this wasn’t Mrs. CBB’s first rodeo in real estate. It was still worth looking into though. If the HBP means nothing to you […]
Should Managing Debt Come Before House Hunting for this couple? : The Saturday Weekend Review #226
FINANCIAL DECISIONS ARE TOUGH WHEN YOU’RE BACKED INTO A CORNER. A couple, two kids, two jobs, debt, minimum wage and house hunting. Sound familiar? Find out what the Ontario minimum wage hike means for them and whether they should jump into the housing market now before it becomes even more expensive. Managing debt is one of the single most boring tasks that anyone wants to do BUT we need to do. I often get emails from readers about their debt problems when it becomes a serious matter. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until it’s too late to pull yourself out from under, do it before. Worst of all don’t add more debt to the mix unless you’re confident you can make more money from it or that you can pay it off. House hunting is a big task that many people take on especially during the spring and summer months. Real estate agents are ready to go and want to start house hunting with their clients. Any time a young person messages me about managing debt the debt help they seek is about four things: School Debt Consumer Debt (credit card, bank loans etc.) Personal loans Mortgage The […]
August 2013 net worth update: (+1.90%) The calm before the storm
Take Charge Of Your Money I say this month is the calm before the storm because even though we are up 1.90% that we spent quite a bit of money in August and September will reflect those expenses. In August we went a bit overboard on the shopping like I mentioned on Saturday so my wife could have a bit of a shopping spree, and that she did. We also picked up a brand new laptop that set us back well over $1000. I will be talking more about that disaster in the upcoming week. I’m currently on the hunt to replace our PC as it is far too old and slowing down the rest of our system. That means I’ll be spending at least another $1000 to get a new system for our office which is fine. I think there is a point where you have to say something has provided all it can to you and you either get rid of it or buy yourself something new. I’ve learned over the years to make sure that I spend money on quality items but have also experienced that an item that costs lots of money isn’t always the best […]
July 2013 net worth update (+1.00%): UK exchange rate
The Current Exchange Rate Makes A Difference The currency markets are always up and down and the exchange rate has done a whirlwind leaving us unsure where it’s going to end up at. No one ever really knows, do they? This past couple of weeks the weak pound against the strong Canadian dollar took another hit when it reached 1.55 just as I was pulling the figures for end of month. Seven days later and the exchange rate had a bit of a run and is now currently at 1.62. Money exchange rate It’s amazing the difference it can make when you have money stuck in another country, like I do in the UK. This months net worth went up by $5,029.03 but if I had used today’s current exchange rate it would have gone up by $8009.51. That would have left us with a net worth of $511, 391.13 for the month of July. I could have used this figure to show you all how well we did but I’d be “cooking the books” so to speak. I’d rather let you see the up’s and downs our figures have just like everyone else. Our money in the process […]
Reader question: A man’s ego and his budget
Check Your Ego At The Door I had a fan email me wanting some tips to help motivate her husband and to tell me how his ego is getting in the way of budgeting. Really, there is no budget yet, just an ego. She has read my blog for over a year and has read my budgeting series and wants to start a budget. It’s not just a male concern when it comes to having an ego with money. There are many females out there that don’t feel they need to know where their money is going either. There is a prince and princess on every street corner, only problem is the title is their own and of no royal descent. For the sake of the fan who emailed me let’s just talk about a man’s ego and his budget today. Bringing home the bacon A man’s ego is a terrible thing to stay on budget with and if only one person in the relationship is trying to make the money work, it’s more likely not to or they are barely hanging on. Not always the case but resentment may build when there is a spender and […]
