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December 2018 Net Worth Update

Finally… My first ever net worth post! I started my blog in November and I decided that I would post my first net worth update for the month of December. Although this is my first net worth update, it will be the last one of 2018. I can’t wait to get started on my goals for 2019 and see the monthly results in my net worth statement.

I’m going to break down my net worth update every month into three sections.

Firstly, I will talk to my Assets and what the changes were from month to month. I break all of these down so I can easily speak to if it’s on hand cash related or investment related.

Second, I will share with you my liabilities and the changes on that from month to month. I don’t have a lot of debts, so this section will be brief for the most part every month.

Third, I will compare my net worth to the same time last year to understand my year over year growth. This is where it gets exciting!

If you are interested in learning how you can calculate your net worth, I recently just finished a three part series on how to do just that. You can get started with the first post on the 3 Reasons Why You Should Track Your Net Worth

  December 2018 Net Worth Update

Here is a simple pie graph that my excel template spits out for me on my net worth. You can find this in my How to Calculate My Net Worth, with an easy to use excel template! post on my net worth series. My net worth for December came in at $167,911.

Assets

This is growth of +2% vs the previous month. For the most part I saw growth across many areas of my savings. Over the last two months I started automatic savings in many areas which actually helped me out a ton in covering some aggressive vacation expenses that I had to pay this month. I’m going on a two week South America trip in a few months so I purchased my flight and also a tour with a couple more flights. This was over $2,000 in expenses, so my net worth would have been higher.

We all gotta live a little bit and I do that by traveling the world!

Liabilities

The largest liability I have is my mortgage at over $320,000. Luckily this will continue to decline, and I will make that up and continue to grow my net worth as my equity continues to build and the value of my condo continues to climb.

The most significant change this month was an increase in my line of credit of $1,500 which was my flight costs to South America. I am actually going to get this reimbursed and my dad mentioned he would cover the cost of my flight this year as a Christmas gift. Instead of taking this out of cash on hand, I put it to the line of credit so I know exactly what it is worth, This will be covered off in January, so I’ll see a positive increase to my net worth at that time.

Summary

Versus last year, my net worth only climbed +11%, or +$16,720. You may think this is incredible, and yes I agree it is. But man, I was targeting so much more growth in my net worth! The markets this year have been very unpredictable and I haven’t seen my growth in any of my investments, coupled with the purchase of my condo.

You can see that from July onwards my net worth decreased from an all time high of $173,693. If you have purchased a home, you know that there are a ton of costs that are factored into the closing and moving into a new place. This took a hit on me, and I feel like I’ve finally been able to recover as it was my highest growth month since I purchased my condo at +2%.

To be honest, I was not expecting to purchase a condo this year. It was something I have wanted to do for such a long time, and I think I just ended up saying that it was time. I was tired of paying someone else’s mortgage the last 7 years living in the city and I was ready to pay myself. I put an aggressive 15% down, which cost me about $60,000 in my savings which I feel was the absolute right thing to do. It was almost like the old stock market rule that you can’t time the market. Although the market is high, I plan to hold this baby for the long term. I’m hoping to live in it for the next 3-5 years and renovate to increase the value. Then rent it out and buy something a bit bigger. I can get enough rent out of it to cover the carrying costs of the mortgage and all inclusive condo fees every month.

What are the 3 things I am going to do differently next month?

I need to have a “no spending” week. I feel like all I have been doing is spending money the last couple of months!  It’s time to bunker down and get on my budget in a hardcore fashion. I’ll be sharing my budget prep series over the month of December to prepare ourselves for the new year! I’ve been working on this for quite some time, so stay tuned as I’m super excited about this!

Cook my meals at home and avoid eating out. I know that I have spent a few hundred dollars the last couple of weeks and it’s really starting to irritate me. I need to stop eating out again and start cooking my lunches and suppers so that I can avoid the spending.

Lay out an action plan for my 2019 financial goals. I’ve got my goals written out, but I need to ensure that I’ve got the details action plan in order to accomplish. I’m going to take the rest of this month to get these down on paper and I’ll share them with you shortly.

from The Wealthy Saver https://ift.tt/2L77SwK via IFTTT

[thewealthysaver]

December 2018 Net Worth Update https://ift.tt/2L77SwK

[thewealthysaver]

December 2018 Net Worth Update

New Post has been published on http://www.wealthysaver.com/december-2018-net-worth-update/

December 2018 Net Worth Update

Finally… My first ever net worth post! I started my blog in November and I decided that I would post my first net worth update for the month of December. Although this is my first net worth update, it will be the last one of 2018. I can’t wait to get started on my goals for 2019 and see the monthly results in my net worth statement.

I’m going to break down my net worth update every month into three sections.

Firstly, I will talk to my Assets and what the changes were from month to month. I break all of these down so I can easily speak to if it’s on hand cash related or investment related.

Second, I will share with you my liabilities and the changes on that from month to month. I don’t have a lot of debts, so this section will be brief for the most part every month.

Third, I will compare my net worth to the same time last year to understand my year over year growth. This is where it gets exciting!

If you are interested in learning how you can calculate your net worth, I recently just finished a three part series on how to do just that. You can get started with the first post on the 3 Reasons Why You Should Track Your Net Worth

  December 2018 Net Worth Update

Here is a simple pie graph that my excel template spits out for me on my net worth. You can find this in my How to Calculate My Net Worth, with an easy to use excel template! post on my net worth series. My net worth for December came in at $167,911.

Assets

This is growth of +2% vs the previous month. For the most part I saw growth across many areas of my savings. Over the last two months I started automatic savings in many areas which actually helped me out a ton in covering some aggressive vacation expenses that I had to pay this month. I’m going on a two week South America trip in a few months so I purchased my flight and also a tour with a couple more flights. This was over $2,000 in expenses, so my net worth would have been higher.

We all gotta live a little bit and I do that by traveling the world!

Liabilities

The largest liability I have is my mortgage at over $320,000. Luckily this will continue to decline, and I will make that up and continue to grow my net worth as my equity continues to build and the value of my condo continues to climb.

The most significant change this month was an increase in my line of credit of $1,500 which was my flight costs to South America. I am actually going to get this reimbursed and my dad mentioned he would cover the cost of my flight this year as a Christmas gift. Instead of taking this out of cash on hand, I put it to the line of credit so I know exactly what it is worth, This will be covered off in January, so I’ll see a positive increase to my net worth at that time.

Summary

Versus last year, my net worth only climbed +11%, or +$16,720. You may think this is incredible, and yes I agree it is. But man, I was targeting so much more growth in my net worth! The markets this year have been very unpredictable and I haven’t seen my growth in any of my investments, coupled with the purchase of my condo.

You can see that from July onwards my net worth decreased from an all time high of $173,693. If you have purchased a home, you know that there are a ton of costs that are factored into the closing and moving into a new place. This took a hit on me, and I feel like I’ve finally been able to recover as it was my highest growth month since I purchased my condo at +2%.

To be honest, I was not expecting to purchase a condo this year. It was something I have wanted to do for such a long time, and I think I just ended up saying that it was time. I was tired of paying someone else’s mortgage the last 7 years living in the city and I was ready to pay myself. I put an aggressive 15% down, which cost me about $60,000 in my savings which I feel was the absolute right thing to do. It was almost like the old stock market rule that you can’t time the market. Although the market is high, I plan to hold this baby for the long term. I’m hoping to live in it for the next 3-5 years and renovate to increase the value. Then rent it out and buy something a bit bigger. I can get enough rent out of it to cover the carrying costs of the mortgage and all inclusive condo fees every month.

What are the 3 things I am going to do differently next month?

I need to have a “no spending” week. I feel like all I have been doing is spending money the last couple of months!  It’s time to bunker down and get on my budget in a hardcore fashion. I’ll be sharing my budget prep series over the month of December to prepare ourselves for the new year! I’ve been working on this for quite some time, so stay tuned as I’m super excited about this!

Cook my meals at home and avoid eating out. I know that I have spent a few hundred dollars the last couple of weeks and it’s really starting to irritate me. I need to stop eating out again and start cooking my lunches and suppers so that I can avoid the spending.

Lay out an action plan for my 2019 financial goals. I’ve got my goals written out, but I need to ensure that I’ve got the details action plan in order to accomplish. I’m going to take the rest of this month to get these down on paper and I’ll share them with you shortly.

[thewealthysaver]

What should me net worth be based on my age? https://ift.tt/2Rm7yfV

[thewealthysaver]

via The Wealthy Saver

[thewealthysaver]

What should me net worth be based on my age?

I always like to compare myself against others on how I’m doing financially. Don’t you?

Don’t you want to know that you’re at least in line with the rest of your peers as you traverse through life. Making sure that you have enough savings, that you’re investing in the right places and at least making the same amount of money? I always think about these things and I hope that I’m actually on the better side of what is considered average.

Here is what you may find extremely surprising. The average household saving rate in Canada dropped to 3.4% in the second quarter of 2018. The lowest savings rate occurred in 2015 when it bottomed out to only 0.90% and the average saving rate between 1981 and 2018 is 7.34%.

I am very surprised by these figures. And I actually had to take a second look at this and it is very much; true.

I know that I already save 9% through an employer pension fund, plus all the other savings I do with my net income… this can’t be true that we are only saving 3.4%!?

source: tradingeconomics.com

You’re probably starting to wonder what should my net worth be. A recent study published by Statistics Canada had the Canadian median household net worth valued at $295K in 2016. You may think that’s actually not that high. Canadians now owe $1.67 for every dollar they earn, so if you’re in Toronto then you’re probably sitting on a pretty hefty mortgage payment every month!

I know I am!

I’m a facts based kind of guy, so I’m not just going to spew out a random number on what your net worth should be without giving you some concrete details. So let’s double click on the StatsCan data to lay out what the average net worths are by age group. This will help us have a better understanding as to how we stack up against our peer groups.

From a National perspective, here is what the average Canadian household net worth looks like by age group. Keep in mind that this captures all you single folks out there and economic households combined together.

What if you live in Vancouver or Toronto? I live in Mississauga – just outside of Toronto, so I started to get curious about how do I compare to my peer group in the city that I actually live in!

For those of you living in Toronto:

                For those of you living in Vancouver:

WOW! Do I need to move to Vancouver?? Look at the value of assets in that city. Net worths are driving up the National average!

I also took a look at some of the lines within the StatsCan data to compare the National averages to Vancouver and Toronto.

The biggest expense that we all have is the cost of the home that we either own or rent. Here’s some comparable nuggets hidden within the StatsCan data that will most likely blow your mind.

                There you have it. These charts that I made by pulling the information out of StatsCan can easily help you understand what your net worth should be by your age. Take this all with a grain of salt if you’re above or below the average for your age group. It is a general guide to help you plan along the way.

One of the largest contributors to asset growth and net worth growth is real estate. Both the Toronto and Vancouver market have increased greatly over the last 10 years, driving significant growth to net worth.

I was unfortunately too young to get into the real estate game and I missed this big boom. Did you?

What should my net worth be?

What should my bet worth be in my 20’s

It’s really too early to worry about your net worth at this stage of the game. Get a career or job secured and start saving. Buy your first home as early as you can. I bought my first condo in Mississauga at the ripe age of 31. If you’re able to get in sooner, then do it! We have nothing but a time horizon ahead of us for major growth. As you can see with the information I provided above, StatsCan groups all ages below 35 together.

What should my bet worth be in my 30’s

The National average net worth in Canada for those that are in their 30’s is a large range. On the low end, you’ll probably see some around the $150,000 mark and on the high end you’r probably looking at the $300,000 mark. StatsCan provides an average for those age 35 to 44 of $471,300. As you progress through your career, you’ll start to earn more money and save more money while your assets start to appreciate thanks to compound interest, along with continued growth in real estate.

What should my bet worth be in my 40’s

As you approach your 40’s I’m sure the midlife crisis starts to set in right? Well if you’re like the average Canadian their net worth between 45 and 54 years old is around $789,400. On the low end, you’d probably want to be around $400,000 and the higher end would see you around $650,000. The StatsCan data has a little bit different age groupings, so I’m doing my best to average this out amongst the ages more specifically.

What should my bet worth be in my 50’s

I know that once I get into my fifty’s I’ll be thinking about retirement. Dreaming of white sand beaches and flying around in an old corvette to go grocery shopping! The StatsCan age range from 55 to 64 is $1.1M bucks. On the lower end, if you’re hitting the $700,000 mark and on the higher end you may see net worth in your 50s be about $900K then I think you’re doing a pretty darn good job.

What should my bet worth be in my 60’s

Last but not least, as you get to the official “retirement’ age of 60 – I hope to be done working for the man LONG before this time. If you’re around $1M bucks then I think you are in a pretty good position. Don’t forget about the compound interest for your investments, and maybe by this time you have a couple of properties that are driving some passive income for you. The official average net worth for those over 65 years is $845,600. Enjoy those pina colada on the beach next winter, I know that when I hit this age I certainly will be!

Our three-part Net Worth Series:

What is Net Worth? What Does it Mean? Who Cares About It? Why You Should Track It

How to Calculate Your Net Worth – and a friendly excel template to help!

What should my Net Worth Be at My Age?

from The Wealthy Saver https://ift.tt/2Rm7yfV via IFTTT

[thewealthysaver]

What should me net worth be based on my age?

New Post has been published on http://www.wealthysaver.com/what-should-me-net-worth-be-based-on-my-age/

What should me net worth be based on my age?

I always like to compare myself against others on how I’m doing financially. Don’t you?

Don’t you want to know that you’re at least in line with the rest of your peers as you traverse through life. Making sure that you have enough savings, that you’re investing in the right places and at least making the same amount of money? I always think about these things and I hope that I’m actually on the better side of what is considered average.

Here is what you may find extremely surprising. The average household saving rate in Canada dropped to 3.4% in the second quarter of 2018. The lowest savings rate occurred in 2015 when it bottomed out to only 0.90% and the average saving rate between 1981 and 2018 is 7.34%.

I am very surprised by these figures. And I actually had to take a second look at this and it is very much; true.

I know that I already save 9% through an employer pension fund, plus all the other savings I do with my net income… this can’t be true that we are only saving 3.4%!?

source: tradingeconomics.com

You’re probably starting to wonder what should my net worth be. A recent study published by Statistics Canada had the Canadian median household net worth valued at $295K in 2016. You may think that’s actually not that high. Canadians now owe $1.67 for every dollar they earn, so if you’re in Toronto then you’re probably sitting on a pretty hefty mortgage payment every month!

I know I am!

I’m a facts based kind of guy, so I’m not just going to spew out a random number on what your net worth should be without giving you some concrete details. So let’s double click on the StatsCan data to lay out what the average net worths are by age group. This will help us have a better understanding as to how we stack up against our peer groups.

From a National perspective, here is what the average Canadian household net worth looks like by age group. Keep in mind that this captures all you single folks out there and economic households combined together.

What if you live in Vancouver or Toronto? I live in Mississauga – just outside of Toronto, so I started to get curious about how do I compare to my peer group in the city that I actually live in!

For those of you living in Toronto:

                For those of you living in Vancouver:

WOW! Do I need to move to Vancouver?? Look at the value of assets in that city. Net worths are driving up the National average!

I also took a look at some of the lines within the StatsCan data to compare the National averages to Vancouver and Toronto.

The biggest expense that we all have is the cost of the home that we either own or rent. Here’s some comparable nuggets hidden within the StatsCan data that will most likely blow your mind.

                There you have it. These charts that I made by pulling the information out of StatsCan can easily help you understand what your net worth should be by your age. Take this all with a grain of salt if you’re above or below the average for your age group. It is a general guide to help you plan along the way.

One of the largest contributors to asset growth and net worth growth is real estate. Both the Toronto and Vancouver market have increased greatly over the last 10 years, driving significant growth to net worth.

I was unfortunately too young to get into the real estate game and I missed this big boom. Did you?

What should my net worth be?

What should my bet worth be in my 20’s

It’s really too early to worry about your net worth at this stage of the game. Get a career or job secured and start saving. Buy your first home as early as you can. I bought my first condo in Mississauga at the ripe age of 31. If you’re able to get in sooner, then do it! We have nothing but a time horizon ahead of us for major growth. As you can see with the information I provided above, StatsCan groups all ages below 35 together.

What should my bet worth be in my 30’s

The National average net worth in Canada for those that are in their 30’s is a large range. On the low end, you’ll probably see some around the $150,000 mark and on the high end you’r probably looking at the $300,000 mark. StatsCan provides an average for those age 35 to 44 of $471,300. As you progress through your career, you’ll start to earn more money and save more money while your assets start to appreciate thanks to compound interest, along with continued growth in real estate.

What should my bet worth be in my 40’s

As you approach your 40’s I’m sure the midlife crisis starts to set in right? Well if you’re like the average Canadian their net worth between 45 and 54 years old is around $789,400. On the low end, you’d probably want to be around $400,000 and the higher end would see you around $650,000. The StatsCan data has a little bit different age groupings, so I’m doing my best to average this out amongst the ages more specifically.

What should my bet worth be in my 50’s

I know that once I get into my fifty’s I’ll be thinking about retirement. Dreaming of white sand beaches and flying around in an old corvette to go grocery shopping! The StatsCan age range from 55 to 64 is $1.1M bucks. On the lower end, if you’re hitting the $700,000 mark and on the higher end you may see net worth in your 50s be about $900K then I think you’re doing a pretty darn good job.

What should my bet worth be in my 60’s

Last but not least, as you get to the official “retirement’ age of 60 – I hope to be done working for the man LONG before this time. If you’re around $1M bucks then I think you are in a pretty good position. Don’t forget about the compound interest for your investments, and maybe by this time you have a couple of properties that are driving some passive income for you. The official average net worth for those over 65 years is $845,600. Enjoy those pina colada on the beach next winter, I know that when I hit this age I certainly will be!

Our three-part Net Worth Series:

What is Net Worth? What Does it Mean? Who Cares About It? Why You Should Track It

How to Calculate Your Net Worth – and a friendly excel template to help!

What should my Net Worth Be at My Age?

[thewealthysaver]

via The Wealthy Saver

[thewealthysaver]

How to Calculate My Net Worth, with an easy to use excel template!

Welcome to my three part series on Net Worth! In this second part I discuss an easy way to calculate your net worth. But first, I will outline for you all the pieces of information that you will need in order to properly calculate your net worth.

Understanding your Assets:

Real Estate – the value of your home is probably one of the largest assets that you own. I just purchased my first home, so I am using the purchase price as the value of my home as part of my assets. If you have lived in your home for many years, an appraisal may be in order for you to understand the current market-price of your home. If you have real estate friends that you can get a hold of to give you a ballpark figure on what your home is worth, this will help you calculate your net worth.

Investments – For some of us, this asset class will be minimal, or very large. Investment assets can include your company pension fund that is under your control, registered savings plans like an RRSP, TFSA or 401K retirement plan and don’t forget any stock accounts or other investment vehicles that you are using

Cash – As part of calculating your net worth, do not forget to include your everyday checking account and savings accounts that are sitting in cash. Keep in mind that when calculating your net worth – this is simply a point in time and your mortgage payment may have just come out, or you just received a paycheque. What we’re trying to do here is create a trend of where you are at so we can really get a handle on what is our net worth.

Understanding your Liabilities:

Mortgage – the value of your mortgage is considered a liability. This is money you owe to the bank. Most credit monitoring services will list your mortgage balance in your account.

Home Equity Lines of Credit, and other lines of credit – if you have a HELOC or other lines of credit that you are using, such as a consumer line of credit, you need to make sure that you capture the balance owing as a liability.

Car Loans – the balance of your car loan is money that you owe, so make sure you don’t forget this.

Credit Card Balances – all of your credit card balances that you owe are a form of liability and must be captured as part of calculating your net worth.

Student Loans – these are sometimes long term loans for people, but make sure this is also taken into account when calculating your net worth.

Now that we have a good understanding of what all of these assets and liabilities are worth, we can plug them into an excel file to calculate your net worth. I have used a simple template from Microsoft Office and fine tuned it a bit in order to see all the information that I would want to see in my net worth calculation. I have also included a few more tabs of other information that I like to track, such as my income, and also a running list of my monthly net worth values over the last four years.

              Here is an example of a net worth summary that is included in my 2019 Calculate My Net Worth excel template. Below are steps for you to fill out the template for you to calculate your net worth.

Click on the ASSETS tab and fill out all of your assets as described above. You can add or remove lines here and customize your text no problem.

Click on the DEBTS tab and fill out all of your debts as described above.You can add or remove lines here and customize your text no problem.

There you have it. You can now click on the Summary tab and see the pie graph similar to what I showed you above of your own personal net worth.

Click on the Historicals tab and copy your net worth so you can keep track every month. I’ve formatted a graph to show the progression in your net worth!

Click on the Income tab so you can also add your annual income here so you can keep track of that.

I really hope that I have made it easy for you to calculate your net worth. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to head over to my contact page and send me an email. I’m here to help!

Our three-part Net Worth Series:

What is Net Worth? What Does it Mean? Who Cares About It? Why You Should Track It

How to Calculate Your Net Worth – and a friendly excel template to help!

What should my Net Worth Be at My Age?

from The Wealthy Saver https://ift.tt/2AqLtpm via IFTTT

[thewealthysaver]

How to Calculate My Net Worth, with an easy to use excel template! https://ift.tt/2AqLtpm

[thewealthysaver]

How to Calculate My Net Worth, with an easy to use excel template!

New Post has been published on http://www.wealthysaver.com/how-to-calculate-my-net-worth-with-an-easy-to-use-excel-template/

How to Calculate My Net Worth, with an easy to use excel template!

Welcome to my three part series on Net Worth! In this second part I discuss an easy way to calculate your net worth. But first, I will outline for you all the pieces of information that you will need in order to properly calculate your net worth.

Understanding your Assets:

Real Estate – the value of your home is probably one of the largest assets that you own. I just purchased my first home, so I am using the purchase price as the value of my home as part of my assets. If you have lived in your home for many years, an appraisal may be in order for you to understand the current market-price of your home. If you have real estate friends that you can get a hold of to give you a ballpark figure on what your home is worth, this will help you calculate your net worth.

Investments – For some of us, this asset class will be minimal, or very large. Investment assets can include your company pension fund that is under your control, registered savings plans like an RRSP, TFSA or 401K retirement plan and don’t forget any stock accounts or other investment vehicles that you are using

Cash – As part of calculating your net worth, do not forget to include your everyday checking account and savings accounts that are sitting in cash. Keep in mind that when calculating your net worth – this is simply a point in time and your mortgage payment may have just come out, or you just received a paycheque. What we’re trying to do here is create a trend of where you are at so we can really get a handle on what is our net worth.

Understanding your Liabilities:

Mortgage – the value of your mortgage is considered a liability. This is money you owe to the bank. Most credit monitoring services will list your mortgage balance in your account.

Home Equity Lines of Credit, and other lines of credit – if you have a HELOC or other lines of credit that you are using, such as a consumer line of credit, you need to make sure that you capture the balance owing as a liability.

Car Loans – the balance of your car loan is money that you owe, so make sure you don’t forget this.

Credit Card Balances – all of your credit card balances that you owe are a form of liability and must be captured as part of calculating your net worth.

Student Loans – these are sometimes long term loans for people, but make sure this is also taken into account when calculating your net worth.

Now that we have a good understanding of what all of these assets and liabilities are worth, we can plug them into an excel file to calculate your net worth. I have used a simple template from Microsoft Office and fine tuned it a bit in order to see all the information that I would want to see in my net worth calculation. I have also included a few more tabs of other information that I like to track, such as my income, and also a running list of my monthly net worth values over the last four years.

              Here is an example of a net worth summary that is included in my 2019 Calculate My Net Worth excel template. Below are steps for you to fill out the template for you to calculate your net worth.

Click on the ASSETS tab and fill out all of your assets as described above. You can add or remove lines here and customize your text no problem.

Click on the DEBTS tab and fill out all of your debts as described above.You can add or remove lines here and customize your text no problem.

There you have it. You can now click on the Summary tab and see the pie graph similar to what I showed you above of your own personal net worth.

Click on the Historicals tab and copy your net worth so you can keep track every month. I’ve formatted a graph to show the progression in your net worth!

Click on the Income tab so you can also add your annual income here so you can keep track of that.

I really hope that I have made it each for you to calculate your net worth. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to head over to my contact page and send me an email. I’m here to help!

[thewealthysaver]

via The Wealthy Saver

[thewealthysaver]

3 Reasons Why You Should Track Your Net Worth

Welcome to my three part series on Net Worth! I’ve always been keen on updating my net worth every month to hold myself accountable throughout the year. Over my next three posts I’ll outline in greater detail all about Net Worth.

What is Net Worth? What Does it Mean? Who Cares About It? Why You Should Track It

How to Calculate Your Net Worth – and a friendly excel template to help!

What should my Net Worth Be at My Age?

  What is Net Worth?

Your net worth is the value of all of your assets. This includes all of your financial assets less the value of your debts and liabilities.

Some financial assets include:

Savings and Checking accounts

Retirement savings accounts, 401K, TFSA, RRSP

Work pension funds (where you control the investments)

Value of your home

Stock investments or other market investments

Some liabilities can include:

Credit card balances or debts

Student loan debts

Lines of Credit

Mortgages

It’s important that you have visibility to all of your assets and liabilities on a regular basis. For the most part you can find all of these through your online accounts. This will allow you continually update your net worth on a monthly basis to keep track.

3 Reasons Why You Should Care About It

Important When Applying for Credit. Your net worth is a measure of how strong your financial picture looks like. The stronger your financial health is, the more likely the bank will provide you a more competitive loan.

Most Important Measure of Wealth. It is also the most true measure of wealth. Since your wealth is defined once all the debt are gone, this is the only way to have a true measure on what that looks like for you.

Hold Yourself Accountable. What better way to track and measure your goals than with numbers! It’s the most clear way, and this is the best way.

Stay tuned for my next post in my net worth series where I’ll be sharing the details on how to calculate your net worth with some excel files and then some information to help benchmark as to where you should be with your net worth at certain ages.

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3 Reasons Why You Should Track Your Net Worth https://ift.tt/2BrRbsW

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3 Reasons Why You Should Track Your Net Worth

New Post has been published on http://www.wealthysaver.com/3-reasons-why-you-should-track-your-net-worth/

3 Reasons Why You Should Track Your Net Worth

Welcome to my three part series on Net Worth! I’ve always been keen on updating my net worth every month to hold myself accountable throughout the year. Over my next three posts I’ll outline in greater detail all about Net Worth.

What is Net Worth? What Does it Mean? Who Cares About It? Why You Should Track It

How to Calculate Your Net Worth – and a friendly excel template to help!

What should my Net Worth Be at My Age?

  What is Net Worth?

Your net worth is the value of all of your assets. This includes all of your financial assets less the value of your debts and liabilities.

Some financial assets include:

Savings and Checking accounts

Retirement savings accounts, 401K, TFSA, RRSP

Work pension funds (where you control the investments)

Value of your home

Stock investments or other market investments

Some liabilities can include:

Credit card balances or debts

Student loan debts

Lines of Credit

Mortgages

It’s important that you have visibility to all of your assets and liabilities on a regular basis. For the most part you can find all of these through your online accounts. This will allow you continually update your net worth on a monthly basis to keep track.

3 Reasons Why You Should Care About It

Important When Applying for Credit. Your net worth is a measure of how strong your financial picture looks like. The stronger your financial health is, the more likely the bank will provide you a more competitive loan.

Most Important Measure of Wealth. It is also the most true measure of wealth. Since your wealth is defined once all the debt are gone, this is the only way to have a true measure on what that looks like for you.

Hold Yourself Accountable. What better way to track and measure your goals than with numbers! It’s the most clear way, and this is the best way.

Stay tuned for my next post in my net worth series where I’ll be sharing the details on how to calculate your net worth with some excel files and then some information to help benchmark as to where you should be with your net worth at certain ages.

[thewealthysaver]

4 Ways to Start and Grow Your Emergency Fund

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4 Ways to Start and Grow Your Emergency Fund

One of the best things you can do for yourself is create an emergency fund. This sacred pile of cash can give you comfort knowing that when unexpected expenses enter your life that you can handle them without risking serious harm to cash flows and set you back months, or years crawling back out of debt.

What is an Emergency Fund?

It is a savings fund that you have built and continue to add to (when possible) to save money for those unexpected expenses that come into your life. Some people reserve this fund solely for if they find themselves unemployed. Some use it more freely for expenses like major car repairs or for large unplanned home improvement projects like a new roof due to a sudden leak, or a major car repair due to a blown transmission.

How Much Should I Have in my Emergency Fund?

It is common for most to keep roughly 6 months of expenses in your emergency fund. This will depend on your risk tolerance and job security. If you work in a rapidly changing industry that has high turnover, or perhaps is very cyclical in demand than you may want to have a larger emergency fund than if you are in a stable job and industry. It will be important for you to have a very good understanding of your budget by doing a spending analysis so you can properly identify your fixed monthly expenses such as rent/mortgage, utilities, food, etc. If you ever get into a jam, the variable expenses like Internet and TV cable or car payment costs can always take a back seat (yes that means get rid of them).

For example, if your monthly expenses are $2,500 all in, then you need to save up 6 months, which will equate to $15,000.

Should I Invest my Emergency Fund?

Short answer is NO. The purpose of this is for emergency purposes. If you suddenly find yourself unemployed, how will you be able to manage bills if your money is locked in a GIC, or invested in non-liquid assets. Even if you are invested in the market there is always risk of losing money. Even though it’s difficult to look at those thousands of dollar bills sitting in a savings account every time you login, just keep reminding yourself that it is there for a reason!

What Should I use my Emergency Fund for?

I would only use my emergency fund if I fund myself unemployed. Some people will use it for large unplanned expenses like a major car repair, or a new furnace, but my thoughts would be why don’t you have a reserve fund for both of those as well? If you have an aging furnace in your home, then you know it will need to be replaced eventually, start putting away $100 a week in order to PLAN for the purchase of that… Same goes for car repairs. Cars are not cheap, so I would always want to make sure that I have a reserve fund for maintenance and repairs because they will creep up on me eventually.

Ways to Start Your Emergency Fund

Start with $25/week – or whatever your budget can handle. Think about if you were to just start with $25 per week. After 6 months you could have generated $650. That’s a good chunk of change. What if you were able to double that in the short term for the next 6 months and put away $1,300 in emergency savings. You’re on your way!

Save all your change every time you break a $20 bill. If you break a few $20 bills per week, think about if you saved all your change from that. All the $5, $10 and coins from that. You could be on your way to starting your emergency fund, even if it’s a few bucks at a time!

Generate some additional income. If you are able to work a few extra shifts, or have a part time gig? Think about picking up another job to try and get yourself ahead. Maybe there’s some cash jobs on the side to start building up your emergency fund.

Save your bonuses, tax rebates to start a substantial emergency fund. This is a great way to put a larger ‘donation’ into your emergency fund. If you get $1,000 or $5,000 back on tax rebates, or a great bonus; take that money and put it in your emergency fund!