I do indeed hope you got your green. I'm generous of spirit and your success inspires me.
How much do you know about financial independence?
Not really the right thread for that.
I agree. I like this thread and the knowledge here should be required courses in high school. There are too many people wasting time and energy hating on ballers when they should be grinding.
Summer vacations are done so time to get back to working on personal finances.
What app are people using on their phones to keep track of their day to day expenses?
I went back in the thread 10 pages but didn't find it.
or
www.ynab.com if you want to pay for it, but likely more useful to get you saving
2nd'd for Mint.
Love the charts and graphs. I just go in and clear up the 'uncategorized' items once a month and then check whenever I'm interested about X or Y. The other features are pretty nice too. Love the free part of it too.
I haven't read all the posts.
Ditch your mutual funds. Set up an investment account with your local bank (RBC, BMO, etc). I use Questrade. Contribute monthly to this investment account. Every 3 or 6 months purchase an index ETF such as SPY. Forget about it. Nothing wrong with also purchasing a Canadian index ETF - but just remember this is not as diversified as a US index ETF. If you are purchasing a Canadian index ETF you are placing a large bet on the banks and energy/resource companies. I purchase US stocks, US sector ETF's and individual Canadian stocks.
Remember "financial planners" are just glorified salesmen out to grab as much of your money as then can.
A friend of mine had $100,000 in mutual funds. The fees were 1.6%. I found him the equivalent ETF's (they had the same holdings) with fees of 0.3%. Doesn't sound a lot… but compounded it is. Saves him about 1000's of $'s over 10 years.
On the topic of ETF's, anyone picking up Canadian pref share funds lately? I have a bunch of CPD, price is down 23% YTD with yield 5.84%. If/when US fed moves rates up the price should recover while still kicking out nice yield?
The yields are starting to look very tempting on lot's of high yielding funds such as REIT's, preferred shares, etc right now…
Minimum monthly balance - get it and maintain it (if you are in a bank with fees).
You should have an emergency fund anyways.
The way mine works, I now save $11.50 a month on bank fees and a further $150 on my MasterCard each year (I get a hella good kickback on points now).
This equates to +/- 6% return annually (counting the fees saved and minimal interest earned - doesn't count the value of the points I get on my card).
The yields are starting to look very tempting on lot's of high yielding funds such as REIT's, preferred shares, etc right now…
Got some ticker symbols to look at? I like yield and I have dry powder that's been waiting for a pullback…
I'm now limited to a weekly cashflow-only budget. If I can't pay cash for something, it means I can't afford it. If I want something that I can't afford, I have to put aside a portion of my set spending budget until I can buy it. Its working great so far. Regular expenses (eg mortgage, utilities etc) are paid out of bank account, emergency/unanticipated expenses can end up on credit, but paid before interest due date. My bookeeper (also wife's business bookeeper) spends a few minutes a week making sure we don't cheat. So far its working well.
Why do you need a book keeper to check if you cheat? Willpower?
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
- Josiah Stamp
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
- H.G. Wells
IME the difference between having 4 or 5 figures in a bank account to buy whatever I want whenever I want and buying it on credit
is just the time it takes to buildup the 4 or 5 figures
and of course the mindset to then refrain from spending it all
buy whatever I want whenever I want and buying it on credit
But if you get negative returns (credit interest) on your "stuff", the time to build anything up increases exponentially.
We just made the tough decision of roughing it out with our crappy dishwasher a couple more months, even though Home Depot was offering 0% for 18 months (and we could also just as easily pay cash today). I'd rather make 2-6% for 18 months.
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