Quarterly Net Worth Archives - Modern FImily

Quarterly Net Worth: Q3 2023 + All Access Pass Giveaway

Court and Nic — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:01:20 +0000

Hey hey! It’s been a busy quarter around here!

The summer for us means lots of time outside and at the cabin. This year we took two 2 week long trips out to the cabin to spend time out in nature. It’s always so good for the soul to do some forest bathing. The cabin set up is such an ideal spot for families with young kids – ice cream shop, a lake to bike around, swimming at the pool and lake, hikes to go on, music at the amphitheatre, kayaking, berry picking, sand castle building, petting horses, playgrounds, star gazing at the dark sky observatory, golf and mini golf, farmers market, and various kids activities going on. This year the visitor centre started offering free activity bags which would include crafts, books, games, etc with a certain science theme (birds, bees, rocks, space, etc) that our kids loved getting each day. We also ventured off site to go to a dinosaur museum, the sand hills, and the goat farm.

My mom was up visiting at the beginning of the quarter which ended up being a longer than expected stay due to a 12 night stay at the hospital. Thankfully she’s better now and it was nice to have extra time with her, even under unwanted circumstances.

We also hosted some of our FIRE friends who live out east in the GTA but love the Rockies. They spent a month calling our basement home as they galavanted on an insane amount of amazing hikes. I honestly wasn’t sure what it would be like to have people stay in our (non suited) basement – but it was so lovely and the door is open if they ever want to return again in the future. We all respected each others privacy but also would hang out for an hour or two here and there when our schedules aligned. It was nice to have another kiddo in the house for our kids to play with and bobbing for crab apples in our backyard became a nightly ritual.

Finn also did a week of camp at the science centre and outdoor soccer for 5 weeks.

We booked tickets to head to Colorado in the fall to visit some family down there.

To say we’re tired is an understatement! I still don’t understand the “won’t you be bored without work” comment…

How Do We Stand

July showed some growth, August was roughly flat, and then September ended up being a rocky month for the markets and brought the quarter’s earlier gains down back to lightly under Q2 results. As of the end of September 2023, our current liquid portfolio is sitting at:

$1,282,337

Last quarter our net worth increased by 4.6% and this quarter was down by 1.78%.

Even with this bump down, we’re still up 8.42% YTD and that’s after spending from our portfolio vs contributing into it. This is the crazy power of the markets, investing for the long term, compound interest, being in tune with sequence of returns risk, and keeping your withdrawal rate low. We shall see what the stock markets continue do this year…

For those who use the 4% rule, this portfolio size would equate to an annual withdrawal of $51,293.

Changes This Quarter

Our 1 Year GIC paid out as part of our mortgage payoff plan. We’ll keep the majority of it in our HISA earning 4.1% and periodically shuffle over to our checking account to account for this year’s mortgage payments.
We met the minimum spend on our 4 credit cards we’ve applied for this year and we’ve earned 290,000 IHG hotel points, 85,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and 71,000 Hilton Honours points. We’re in the process of applying for card number 5 (TBD) for the year. Thank you US credit card companies for still allowing us to somehow get approved for US cards as Canadian point options suck in comparison.
We had a few larger expenses this quarter:
- We had plumbers come out to fix an issue with our backyard spout = $450
- We replaced our eavestroughs and downspouts throughout the entire exterior of our house = $950
- Bought flights for our family and 1/2 my mom’s ticket to Colorado = $1,500
- Random house fixings – new light fixtures, bulbs, rugs = $475
Here is our cash plan for the next two years:
- $16k for year 1 monthly mortgage payments
- $35k for year 1 spending
- $35k for year 2 spending
- $6.5k for year 1 TFSA contribution
- ~~$6.5k for year 2 TFSA contribution~~
  - Will keep this money invested instead and withdraw next year
- $5k for year 1 RESP contribution
- ~~$5k for year 2 RESP contribution~~
  - Will keep this money invested instead and withdraw next year
- Total cash goal: $97.5k cash

While this all sounds lovely in theory we are picking up random bits of income here and there and we won’t drain $97,500 in cash within our first 2 years of early retirement. It’s been a year since this plan was crafted and we are still sitting on ~$101,000 in cash on hand so clearly we are currently too cash heavy.

We did not consider any CCB coming in or coaching clients or any other one-off income that may come our way that will likely lower the amount of cash we actually need on hand. We like to play it safeeeee. Part of me says to throw a chunk of this cash into the market. So far we haven’t but we shall see. I think Q4 will be the first time our cash holdings will drop below $100k and we are A-OK with that.

Portfolio Details

Any taxable income/dividends we receive from our taxable/non-registered accounts we plan to withdraw, rather than drip right back into the non-registered accounts since we have to claim this income for tax purposes anyway.

We also will have interest income to report over the next 2 years from our GIC mortgage payoff plan (taxed like ordinary income).

We will also withdraw from a mix of our RRSPs/taxable accounts up to the federal basic amount which is currently at $15,000/person for 2023 (accounting for any dividends, earned income, etc).

So the math looks like this for both Nic and I:

Federal Basic Amount – Income/Dividends from Taxable Accounts and Kiddos Informal Trusts – GIC/HISA interest = Amount to Withdraw from RRSP/Taxable Accounts

So we each will be “earning” the Federal Basic Amount for the year ($15,000 each for 2023) as well as CCB (~$6,000 tax-free for 2023). Alberta also launched its Alberta Affordability Action Plan which provided us with another $1,200 in tax free income ($200/month from January-June 2023). And then there’s the Climate Action Incentive Payments of ~$1,500/year for some more tax-free money. Geesh, Canada, stop being so generous! Then of course there’s the cash cushion on hand too.

Each year we will see what the equation looks like and decide how much to pull from our RRSPs vs taxable accounts to get our total cash to the Federal Basic Amount for both of us each year. Some years we may end up withdrawing more than the Federal Basic Amount and owe some taxes which is fine too. But in reality, the capital gains from our taxable account are only taxed on 50% of the earnings so it should be quite easy to withdraw the Federal Basic Amounts for both of us + the various tax-free benefits listed above coming in and still live on a very healthy income for the year (for our standards at least).

If we happen to bring in any sort of additional income, we view this as gravy to the above plans and have no issues paying taxes on that.

Stocks/Bonds/Cash Allocation:

Stocks: 84.6%
Bonds: 4.8%
Cash: 8.9%
Crypto: 0.9%

(Some of this is slightly off due to currency fluctuations in my spreadsheets. Meh.)

Slowly the bond and cash percentage will go down and our plan is to glide back to ~90+% equites over time.

We’re currently sitting at a 57/43 USD/CAD split. With the USD/CAD exchange rate sitting at 1.35 our liquid portfolio fully converted into CAD is $1,567,805.

Withdrawal Rates

Let’s see what this means when it comes time to withdraw.

I like looking at a few different scenarios as we can cut down our spending if need-be in hard times. I also like looking at what our withdrawal rate looks like with Canada Child Benefit (CCB) factored in since it is such a juicy benefit that we will be receiving for the first ~15 years. We do NOT rely on any external support in our FIRE figures (CCB, CPP/SS, OAS) and view them as icing on the cake or to account for any future unexpected medical expenses we may encounter in old age.

It’s pretty awesome to see that the only scenarios where we are currently over the “4% rule” is if we spend $55k+/year and not have the USD/CAD conversion in place and also assume $0 in CCB. It is highly unlikely we will spend $55,000+ every year and have the USD/CAD sit right at par and somehow see CCB dramatically altered/removed in the near future.

We spent ~$45,000 during our first “fiscal year” of early retirement, so I’m loving what we see in this chart.

Putting It All Together

Total Assets:

Liquid Investments: $1,308,481
GIC For Mortgage Payoff: $212,000
Home: ~$400,000*
Total: $1,920,481

*Our area continues to remain a hot real estate market and our house could sell for ~$500,000-$550,000 in today’s market but we like to keep this value close to our purchase price as we do not know the true value until we actually sell in the future.

Total Liabilities:

Mortgage on our primary residence: $238,144
Total: $238,144

Net Worth:

$1,920,481 – $238,144 = $1,682,337

$1,692,188

Total: $1,682,337

There we have it! Comparing this to last quarter, we were sitting at $1,692,188 so we are down $9,851 or 0.58%. Considering September was all over the map, I’m ok with this! Comparing this figure to this time last year, our net worth was $1,545,748 so we are up $139,589 or 8.8% in a 12 month period. No too shabby when neither of us are working our corporate jobs anymore!

Since taking time off at work in June 2021, our net worth was sitting at 1,524,413 so we’ve seen our net worth grow by $157,924. This is still just wild to me. It will be interesting to track this number over time.

During Q4 2023 we will sell some ETFs to get us up to our Federal Basic Amounts for the year.

Even though I understand the magic of compound interest, it continues to amaze me. I’m curious to see what the market does this upcoming quarter.

Those following along know we have a few other items in our portfolio that we like to hide behind the scenes as our true emergency fund such as my Health Savings Account (HSA), my pensions from my previous employers, Nic’s 401k from her former employer, our children’s RESP, and any CCB/CPP/SS/OAS potentially coming our way in the future. So for the sake of this exercise we are not including them.

The key to all of this is to stay flexible. If we see the markets tanking during the early years we have no problem tightening the spending belt and taking some staycations vs longer vacations. We also have no problem picking up some fun part time gig for 15 hours a week to add some extra padding. We are humans, not robots, and are capable of adjusting plans if need be.

Voila! Stay tuned to see how our net worth has changed in 3 months when we check back in on this. Stay weird and wealthy muchachos!

Canadian Financial Summit: All-Access Pass Giveaway!

In our last post I mentioned the Canadian Finance Summit that’s taking place next week – October 18-21. We have TWO FREE All-Access Passes to giveaway to blog readers! To be entered into the giveaway, comment below with your biggest takeaway you’ve received from reading this blog (not this post, our blog overall).

I will select the two winners on Tuesday October 17th just before the summit begins. All I will need is your email to get it set up for you.

Good luck!

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Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Net Worth: Q3 2023 + All Access Pass Giveaway appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q2 2023

Court — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 02:33:28 +0000

Hey everyone! So we tackled the life and spending side of things and this week we’re back with a net worth update.

How Do We Stand

As noted in our post with our updated FIRE goals/numbers, we are aiming to get to the ~$1.26M mark in our liquid portfolio as our FatFIRE goal which equates to an annual spend of $50,400 if using the 4% rule. We were only $6,524 away in Q1 2022 then we saw the markets slide down down down in 2022. Let see how we compare with our goal in Q2 2023.

As of the end of June 2023, our current liquid portfolio is sitting at:

$1,305,646

Skeeeuuup!

Another big quarterly jump! Last quarter our net worth increased by 5.1% and now we’re seeing a bump of 4.6% this quarter!

This is the crazy power of the markets, investing for the long term, compound interest, being in tune with sequence of returns risk, and keeping your withdrawal rate low. Is this just a fluke? A 9.7% gain in 6 months is definitely strong. We shall see what the stock markets continue do this year…

For those who use the 4% rule, this portfolio size would equate to an annual withdrawal of $52,225.

Changes This Quarter

Really, not too much to report. I’ve been wayyy less focused on the numbers and personal finance in general and really just trying to enjoy life.
We applied for a few new credit cards this year and once we reach the minimum spend on this current card we’re working on we will have amassed 290,000 IHG hotel points and 85,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points in 2023. And we have a 70,000 Hilton card in the works too. That will set us up very nicely for our next trip and get our overall points balance over 2,000,000 points. Thank you US credit card companies for still allowing us to somehow get approved for US cards as Canadian point options suck.
We paid over $4,000 lump sum payments this quarter for our annual car insurance renewal and annual property taxes.
Here is our cash plan for the next two years:
- $16k for year 1 monthly mortgage payments
- $35k for year 1 spending
- $35k for year 2 spending
- $6.5k for year 1 TFSA contribution
- $6.5k for year 2 TFSA contribution
- $5k for year 1 RESP contribution
- $5k for year 2 RESP contribution
- Total: $109k cash

While this all sounds lovely in theory we are picking up random bits of income here and there and we won’t drain $109,000 in cash within our first 2 years of early retirement. It’s been a year since this plan was crafted and we are still sitting on ~$101,000 in cash on hand so clearly we are currently too cash heavy.

Portfolio Details

We also will have interest income to report over the next 2 years from our GIC mortgage payoff plan (taxed like ordinary income).

We will also withdraw from a mix of our RRSPs/taxable accounts up to the federal basic amount which is currently at $15,000/person for 2023 (accounting for any dividends, earned income, etc).

So the math looks like this for both Nic and I:

Federal Basic Amount – Income/Dividends from Taxable Accounts and Kiddos Informal Trusts – GIC/HISA interest = Amount to Withdraw from RRSP/Taxable Accounts

Each year we will see what the equation looks like and decide how much to pull from our RRSPs vs taxable accounts to get our total cash to the federal basic amount for both of us each year. Some years we may end up withdrawing more than the federal basic amount and owe some taxes which is fine too. But in reality, the capital gains from our taxable account are only taxed on 50% of the earnings so it should be quite easy to withdraw the federal basic amounts + the various tax-free benefits listed above coming in and living on a very healthy income for the year (for our standards at least).

If we happen to bring in any sort of additional income, we view this as gravy to the above plans and have no issues paying taxes on that.

Stocks/Bonds/Cash Allocation:

Stocks: 85.7%
Bonds: 4.9%
Cash: 7.7%
Crypto: 1.0%

(Some of this is slightly off due to currency fluctuations in my spreadsheets. Meh.)

Slowly the bond and cash percentage will go down and our plan is to glide back to ~90+% equites over time.

We’re currently sitting at a 58/42 USD/CAD split. With the USD/CAD exchange rate sitting at 1.32 our liquid portfolio fully converted into CAD is $1,563,299.

Withdrawal Rates

Let’s see what this means when it comes time to withdraw.

This upward trend in the market this quarter sure is making everything look rosier than it was last quarter – which was already looking good! It’s pretty awesome to see that the only scenarios where we are currently over the “4% rule” is if we spend $55k+/year and not have the USD/CAD conversion in place and also assume $0 in CCB. It is highly unlikely we will spend $55,000+ every year and have the USD/CAD sit right at par and somehow see CCB dramatically altered/removed in the near future.

As tallied up in our Q2 life and spending report, we spent ~$45,000 during our first “fiscal year” so I’m loving what we see in this chart.

Putting It All Together

Total Assets:

Liquid Investments: $1,305,646
GIC For Mortgage Payoff: $227,500
Home: ~$400,000*
Total: $1,933,146

Total Liabilities:

Mortgage on our primary residence: $240,958
Total: $240,958

Net Worth:

$1,933,146 – $240,958 = $1,692,188

Total: $1,692,188

There we have it! Comparing this to last quarter, we were sitting at $1,647,757 so we are up $44,731 or 2.7%. After a crappy 2022 for the markets, we’re finally starting to see a bump here in 2023. Will it last? Who knows what the future holds, but I sure hope so! Comparing this figure to this time last year, our net worth was $1,546,309 so we are up $145,809 or 9.43% in a 12 month period. No too shabby when neither of us are working our corporate jobs anymore!

Since taking time off at work in June 2021, our net worth was sitting at 1,524,413 so we’ve seen our net worth grow by $167,775. This is still just wild to me. It will be interesting to track this number over time.

During Q3 2023 we have to unravel our year 1 GIC as past of our 3 year mortgage payoff plan.

Even though I understand the magic of compound interest, it continues to amaze me. I’m curious to see what the market does this upcoming quarter.

Voila! Stay tuned to see how our net worth has changed in 3 months when we check back in on this. Stay weird and wealthy muchachos!

Support This Blog

Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q2 2023 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q2 2023

Court — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 02:37:22 +0000

Hey everyone! We’re back with another quarterly update. We’ll focus today’s post on a life & spending update this week and then a net worth update next post.

What Happened in Q2 2023

Tax Season
- Ahh my favourite… not! Thankfully, after discovering Expatfile for my US taxes as an expat, it’s really streamlined the process with the IRS. Nothing like paying $312 CAD to continually owe Uncle Sam $0 grrr. Filing our Canadian taxes with the CRA continues to be a breeze thanks to Wealthsimple Tax.
Coaching
- I’ve continued to receive a steady stream of coaching clients and have decided to cap it to a manageable 2 clients per month which seems to be my happy spot. I’ve also realized I’ve never changed my pricing from when I originally started coaching years ago and compared to other fee-only coaches out there, I definitely am undercharging myself. I’ve decided to bump up my prices from $300 for the two 1.5 hour sessions to $400. I realize this is a bit abrupt, so I’ve also decided to keep the $300 pricing in place for the first 5 people reading who have been on the fence about coaching and ask for the $300 rate in their note over. The only caveat is that both sessions must be completed in 2023. I can’t believe it but 2 people have noticed my change in pricing from making the change on the coaching page vs sending this post out (ha, love it) so 2 of the discounted spots are already claimed but there are 3 more up for grabs.
The New Gig
- This is nothing new to faithful readers as there’s a whole post on the topic, but I tested my hand out with a new gig and decided working for “the man” is not in the cards anytime soon. This little test was a reminder that even a gig that may sound pretty ideal on paper is still “work” and I am not looking for anything like that anytime soon. I’m so thankful for the power of FI to be able to test this out and walk away whenever I want.
Podcast Recording
- My fellow Albertan FIRE friend Wendy recently launched her new podcast and we had a good chat! I really love how easy it is to listen to Wendy and I’m excited to have her on over here as part of our FIRE Community Guest Interview Series. As always, you can find all our previous recordings on our Guest Appearances page. You can check it out here (or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream):
- FIRE Yourself First: Episode 15: Modern Family with Court Brown
Family Visits
- My mom flew up to Canada for 10 days with plans for us all to fly down to Colorado together to spend 11 days with my brother and his fiancé. Well, 3 days into my moms visit she ended up in the hospital and stayed there for 12 days. That clearly altered our plans and we’ve been dealing with insurance claims for her health coverage, calling airlines to cancel flights, and contacting our credit card companies to get reimbursed for the flights due to an emergency medical delay. Thankfully we had my mom purchase travel medical insurance and her primary insurance from the States covers worldwide emergency services so no out of pocket expenses there, our credit card will reimburse all flights, and her travel insurance will pay for her newly booked flight home. It was tough heading into the hospital daily to be with her while leaving Nic solo with the kids but we did it. Just glad she’s out and feeling better.
Loss of a Loved One
- Around this time last year we lost one of Nic’s best friends to a ski accident. This year we lost another close friend. He was married to a very good friend of mine and they have a 3 month old little boy. He was killed in a car accident driving home from work – the night before his first Father’s Day. He was 35. It was obviously a shock to all and nearly 700 people have donated to their Go Fund Me page. This again highlights the desire to retire early – you never really know how much time you have. Seeing how many lives he’s impacted also highlights the importance of building relationships and fostering a strong community.
Kiddo Birthdays
- Both kiddos have their birthdays in Q2. I can’t believe how many friends Finn has, it makes my heart happy. We had a low key little park party with some friends in town. Our 65 year old neighbours came as did our former librarian who’s one of Finn’s buds as well as our FIRE friend who Finn insists is HER friend, not ours (hi Cassandra!). Love how there was so much variety to the ages on the invite list.
- Parker sadly doesn’t have nearly as many friends as he gets dragged to many of Finn’s activities as his “out of the house time”. Thankfully our lovely neighbours have kids similar ages to ours that we hang out with a lot (hi Kat and Dave!). My goal for the next year or two is to be more mindful about making more little buddies for him.
Pre-School Finished
- Our free 2 day a week pre-school classes wrapped up in June. Finn lovedddd these classes and was quite sad when it all ended. We absolutely loved that she enjoyed it there and we were very impressed with her teachers. We couldn’t get over the ratios – 4 teachers to a max of 12 kids (depending on who’s missing class with a cold, out of town, etc). Every time we’d pick her up we’d ask how the class ranked on a score of 1 to 10 and she’d respond with something like “195!”
- We still are grappling over the public vs homeschool debate for next year. We see so many pros and cons to both. In an ideal world, we’d have this pre-school type set up going forward where school is only a few days a week for a few hours a day and the teacher:student ratios are low. And free. Where does such a unicorn program exist for elementary?!
Potty Training
- This may not seem like big news to people without littles… but Parker is doing so good with potty training! He’s fully trained during awake times at home and we’re moving in the right direction when out of the house – we’re accident free about 90% of the time out of the house. Thankfully we only go through 2 diapers a day now (nap and bedtime) and the occasional pull-up if we know we are going to be out the house and not near a bathroom for awhile (ie car trip). He still has the occasional accident but we’re so proud of this little guy!

Spending Report

Here are the larger one-off expenses we encountered this quarter:

We fixed the weatherstripping along our front door
We installed a new battery in our car
We ordered new kitchen island stools
We filed our US and Canadian taxes
We ordered a new Mac laptop
We swapped out our tires which came with an extra expense as one of the bolts was stripped
We had an electrician come out to fix the outlet for the hot tub which suddenly stopped working
We had a mechanic come fix some heating issues we had in our basement
We signed Finn up for summer swimming lessons
We purchased supplies to refinish our deck (again!)
Alllllll of the above happened in April – ouch! Thankfully May and June didn’t have as many larger one-offs:
We bought a new railing for our front steps to install
We bought tickets to a Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra kids program for the winter
We donated to a loved ones Go Fund Me page who just lost her husband in a car accident (noted above)
Our annual car insurance was up for renewal
Our annual property tax bill comes out in June

Overall Spending

Since June 2021 was when I first started parental leave we decided that July 1st – June 30th will be how we tally up our spending in our post-FIRE world. So let’s see how our “Q4” spending report has shaped up and what our overall spend for the year looks like.

After adding everything up, we spent $14,375 this quarter. As Finn would say… “Yikeys”! Granted, ~1/3 of our spend for this quarter came from two unavoidable annual costs (car insurance and property taxes). If we strip those out, we spent an average of $3,361/month which is around $461/mo higher than our average. So still a high spend quarter no matter what way we look at it.

This puts us at a total spend of $45,145 during our first year of early retirement. Ta-da!

We will do a whole post with a bit more of a breakdown into our annual expenses now that we have our first year of expenses wrapped up. Back in Q2 2022 our liquid portfolio was sitting at $1,146,309 which would lead to a $45,825 using the 4% rule so we were actually right on track.

But… how much did we actually withdraw from our portfolio for the year? That’s another question and again a whole separate post. I’m purposefully not including our income for the year in these quarterly updates. Now that we have our overall spend for the year tallied, stay tuned for a future post digging into our annual expenses, the income side of things, and our “true” withdrawal rate.

That does it for today! Any questions for us?

Support This Blog

Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q2 2023 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q1 2023

Court and Nic — Thu, 04 May 2023 04:30:32 +0000

Hey everyone! So we tackled the life and spending side of things and this week we’re back with a net worth update.

How Do We Stand

As of the end of March 2023, our current liquid portfolio is sitting at:

$1,264,014

Say whaaa?! Hey look ma I madeeee it!

This is a 5.1% jump to our liquid portfolio in a single quarter! It’s been 5 years since Nic has worked and almost 2 years for me yet we just “made” $62k while putzing around Portugal.

Wait a tick. Let that sink in. We literally just spent 2 months on the other side of the pond figuring out which park, playground, or beach we should hang out at for the day and somehow we made $62,000 all while stuffing our faces with Portuguese pastries?!?!

This is more than my base salary from my former part time job for an entire year! This is the crazy power of the markets, investing for the long term, compound interest, being in tune with sequence of returns risk, and keeping your withdrawal rate low. Is this just a fluke? A 5.1% gain in a quarter is definitely strong. We shall see what the stock markets continue do this year…

For those who use the 4% rule, this portfolio size would equate to an annual withdrawal of $50,560.

Changes This Quarter

Really, not too much to report. I’ve been wayyy less focused on the numbers and personal finance in general and really just trying to enjoy life.
We shuffled $2,500 into both kiddos individual RESPs. We received the $500 20% match from the Government of Canada for each kiddo so $3,000/kid was invested this quarter.
We also sent $6,500 into Nic’s TFSA. (I’m too chicken to open up a TFSA myself as it is not clear if the US views this as a retirement account or not. Although after a lot of digging, I really don’t think there would be an “issue” opening one up with the hopes that one day there is more clarity provided by the IRS. We shall see if I someday pull the trigger on this guy.)
My old boss (and team) sent over a $500 Amazon gift card for Parker’s arrival. Totally was not expecting that, but better late than never! We loaded it and will use it at some point in the future on non-Parker related gifts and shifted $500 into his informal trust instead.
I received my first dividend “payment” vs a DRIP (dividend re-investment plan). My dividends from my US taxable account shuffle nicely right into my US checking account. Whereas dividends from my Canadian non-registered account just sit there as cash and I have to log in and transfer the cash over. This is just one of the 82 things that the Canadian financial platforms are 10 years behind.
Here is our cash plan for the next two years:
- $16k for year 1 monthly mortgage payments
- $35k for year 1 spending
- $35k for year 2 spending
- $6.5k for year 1 TFSA contribution
- $6.5k for year 2 TFSA contribution
- $5k for year 1 RESP contribution
- $5k for year 2 RESP contribution
- Total: $109k cash

While this all sounds lovely in theory we are picking up random bits of income here and there and we won’t drain $109,000 in cash within our first 2 years of early retirement. It’s been 9 months since this plan was crafted and we are still sitting on ~$105,000 in cash on hand so clearly we are currently too cash heavy.

Portfolio Details

Starting this quarter, any taxable income/dividends we receive from our taxable account we plan to withdraw, rather than drip right back into the non-registered accounts.

We also will have interest income to report over the next 3 years from our GIC mortgage payoff plan (taxed like ordinary income).

We will also withdraw from a mix of our RRSPs/taxable accounts up to the federal basic amount which is currently at $15,000/person for 2023 (accounting for any dividends, earned income, etc).

So the math looks like this for both Nic and I:

Federal Basic Amount – Income/Dividends from Taxable Accounts and Kiddos Informal Trusts – GIC/HISA interest = Amount to Withdraw from RRSP/Taxable Accounts

So we each will be “earning” the Federal Basic Amount for the year ($15,000 each for 2023) as well as CCB (~$6,000 for 2023). Alberta also recently launched its Alberta Affordability Action Plan which will provide us with another $1,200 in tax free income ($200/month from January-June 2023). And then there’s the Climate Action Incentive Payments of ~$1,500 for some more tax-free money. Geesh, Canada, stop being so generous! Then of course there’s the cash cushion on hand too.

If we happen to bring in any sort of additional income, we view this a gravy to the above plans and have no issues paying taxes on that.

Stocks/Bonds/Cash Allocation:

Stocks: 84.5%
Bonds: 5.2%
Cash: 8.4%
Crypto: 1.0%

(Some of this is slightly off due to currency fluctuations in my spreadsheets. Meh.)

I actually really like this set up. Slowly the bond and cash percentage will go down and our plan is to glide back to ~90+% equites over time.

We’re currently sitting at a 58/42 USD/CAD split. With the USD/CAD exchange rate sitting at 1.35 our liquid portfolio fully converted into CAD is $1,518,742.

Withdrawal Rates

Let’s see what this means when it comes time to withdraw.

I like looking at a few different scenarios as we can cut down our spending if need-be in hard times (market tanks – hello 2022!). I also like looking at what our withdrawal rate looks like with Canada Child Benefit (CCB) factored in since it is such a juicy benefit that we will be receiving for the first ~15 years. We do NOT rely on any external support in our FIRE figures (CCB, CPP/SS, OAS) and view them as icing on the cake or to account for any future unexpected medical expenses we may encounter in old age.

This bounce in the market this quarter sure is making everything look rosier than it was last quarter. It’s pretty awesome to see that the only scenarios where we are currently over the “4% rule” is if we spend $50k+/year and not have the USD/CAD conversion in place and also assume $0 in CCB. It is highly unlikely we will spend $50,000+ every year and have the USD/CAD sit right at par and somehow see CCB dramatically altered/removed in the near future.

As tallied up in our Q1 life and spending report, so far we’ve spent ~$31.5k for the first 9 months of our “fiscal year” so I’m loving what we see in this chart!

Putting It All Together

Total Assets:

Liquid Investments: $1,264,014
GIC For Mortgage Payoff: $227,500
Home: ~$400,000*
Total: $1,891,514

*Our house could sell for ~$500,000 in today’s market but we like to keep this value close to our purchase price as we do not know the true value until we actually sell in the future.

Total Liabilities:

Mortgage on our primary residence: $243,757
Total: $243,757

Net Worth:

$1,891,514 – $243,757 = $1,647,757

Total: $1,647,757

There we have it! Comparing this to last quarter, we were sitting at $1,582,737 so we are up $65,020 or 4.1%. After a few months of relatively no change, we’re finally starting to see a bump! Will it last? Who knows what the future holds, but I sure hope so! Comparing this figure to this time last year, our net worth was $1,651,413 so we are down $3,656 or 0.22% in a 12 month period. No too shabby when neither of us are working our corporate jobs anymore!

Since taking time off at work in June 2021, our net worth was sitting at 1,524,413 so we’ve seen our net worth grow by $123,344. This is still just wild to me. It will be interesting to track this number over time.

During Q2 2023 we have a few bigger payments coming up and we have our US and Canadian taxes to file but really not too much in the world of shifts to the portfolio plans.

Even though I understand the magic of compound interest, it continues to amaze me. I’m curious to see what the market does this upcoming quarter.

Voila! Stay tuned to see how our net worth has changed in 3 months when we check back in on this. Stay weird and wealthy muchachos!

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The post Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q1 2023 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q1 2023

Court and Nic — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 05:38:00 +0000

Hey everyone! It’s been awhile (this time it’s thanks to back end issues switching over our mailing program to send out email notifications for new posts to subscribers – always something!) but we’re back with another quarterly update. We’ll focus today’s post on a life & spending update this week and then a net worth update next post.

What Happened in Q1 2023

Portugal, obvs! If you missed our other Portugal posts, you can find them here:
- Our Itinerary: Two Months In Portugal
- Our Cost Breakdown: Two Months In Portugal
The beginning of the year meant prep for Portugal. What does this entail you ask?
- Packing Our Travel Bags
  - We managed to have 2 adults and 2 kiddos stuff for two months in 3 carry on bags! We basically all brought the following clothes: 3 pairs of pants, 3 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve shirts, 1 pair of shorts (didn’t need), 1 bathing suit (didn’t need for the adults), 1 pair of sneakers, 1 toque, 1 pair of mits, 1 sweater, and 1 rain jacket. The kiddos also had hats and sandals. One bag of toiletries. We also had various kid related items such as an ergo carrier, a slumberpod, a night light, medicine, sunscreen, soothers, stuffies, an iPad, snacks, water bottles, some small toys/figurines/stickers/books. Since we also had a rental car during most of our trip that meant two car seats in tow anddddd a double stroller! Phew! Call us pack mules! We also managed to pack a sleeve of diapers into one of the car seats on the way out from Calgary.
  - Looking back, the only item we wish we brought but didn’t was slippers.
- Packing Up Our House
  - Thankfully our basement is quite spacious and has an office/gym room that we used as our personal storage room. We swapped out the door handle to one with a key/lock and filled the room up with allllll our personal belongings throughout the house. Packing up wasn’t too bad as there was the excitement factor and we could space it out over time. Unpacking wasn’t as fun as we were jet-lagged and just wanted our house back to normal.
- Finding Tenants
  - Technically we signed everything with our tenants back in December but there was still a bit of back and forth conversation leading up to the trip.
- Creating a Tenant User Document
  - Crazy Court created a 10 page document outlining pretty much anything anyone would ever need to know about our house. Yes, it really is a 10 page document..! As you can imagine, this took quite a bit of time to create but I’m glad it’s done so if we decide to rent our house out in the future the bulk of the work is done and it would just need updating going forward. Thankfully this work paid off as we didn’t hear a peep from the tenants once they moved in.
- Prepping For The Trip
  - Crazy Court again created a few spreadsheets. ME?!?! Noooooo! One was a cost tracker which outlaid our costs and information about our flights, accommodations, and car rentals. Another document was for all our credit card info for which car rentals and flights were booked with what in case we had any issues. And another sheet was more for things to do in each of the 5 locations we were staying in. Anytime we’d come across a website with some good tidbits or the name of a spot to check out we’d add it to that locations respective tab.
- Then of course, there was the trip itself! We probably should create a full post detailing the trip itself but here’s our overall recap in case I’m too lazy:
  - Our mission was to explore a country we’ve never been to while escaping the Canadian winter. Check! We didn’t really have any set “plans” for the trip and the idea was to “slow travel” aka live like a local.
  - The best way to recap the trip is this: bakeries, beaches, and playgrounds. The majority of our outings entailed these three categories.
    - We personally liked Bolas de Berlim (sugar donuts) and Bolos de Arroz (rice cake that I’d call a corn muffin with sugar on top) more than Portugal’s infamous Pastel de Nata (egg custard). Don’t get me wrong, we still ate plenty of Pastel de Nata’s! Man oh man, Portuguese sure love their sweets.
    - The beaches overall were lovely. They were not crowded this time of year but we could imagine them being packed in the summer. The rock formations in Lagos were fantastic. The calmest and our favourite were surprisingly little coves along the Silver Coast (which is known world wide for their insanely large waves). The dirtiest beaches were up north near Porto (they have sandzonies, as I like to call them, driving around collecting debris from the sand). It definitely looked like the cause of the debris was coming from garbage being washed up from the ocean, which is just so sad and depressing.
    - Man, Lisbon’s playground scene is on point. All the playgrounds are within green spaces and next to each playground is a cafe that serves coffee and alcohol. Some of the parents would be off to the side having beers at 11am while the kiddos play around. When I say some, I definitely am not speaking about Nic or I ha – I wish! Note you will not find anything green in the “core” part of the city but along the outskirts there’s loads. Outside of Lisbon, the playgrounds we’re as picturesque but we were still able to find plenty to roam around. In Madeira, all the playgrounds are boat themed which was cute.
  - Our highlight was Madeira Island. Our unexpected joy was Peniche. Our hyped up let down was Lagos. Our quite beach town was Arcozelo. Our “European Charm” was Lisbon.
  - Weather this time of year was about 60/40. A little more than half the days were sunny and absolutely lovely. We’d be out all day long and feel really great. The others were cloudy/rainy/windy and we struggled to find things to do with the kiddos (we aren’t big church, museum, or mall people). Many people would be sitting at a cafe for hours, but with two kids that simply is not happening. Most families likely wait out the weather at home, but at an unfamiliar Airbnb, this also isn’t ideal with kids.
  - It was a lot more crowded than we were expecting – can’t imagine what it is like in the summer! No thanks!
  - Considering the hype about Portugal and it’s low prices, it wasn’t as affordable as we imagined – especially when everything is increased by 45% when you factor in the $CAD/Euro exchange rate! Some things, like food, were quite reasonably priced in Euros, but when you convert it back to Canadian dollars it’s about the same. Housing prices have spiraled out of control and I truly do feel bad for Portuguese people trying to keep up with expat money flooding in. As a visitor, I couldn’t help but feel like we were only adding to the stress.
  - Two months travelling with two kids under 5 is a LOOONNNNGGGGG time to be away. This was not a vacation for us. We were simply parenting in an unfamiliar location. Not complaining, just stating a fact that parents should realize.
  - We definitely all struggled at various points but it was amazing to see how we all got through our difficult times. Even though we live a relatively slow paced lifestyle, it was harder than we imagined to “slow down”. But, once we did, we started to find a manageable groove. Definitely more screen time and treats than our normal at home. We missed our community of friends and kid related activities in our town.
  - Going forward, I think 3-4 weeks is our sweet spot for the next few years and then will ramp the amount of time up once the kids are a bit older. It’s just hard to know that a 3 week trip will end up costing more than a 2 month trip when you strip out the short-term rental income.
  - So, are we pulling an Our Rich Journey and moving to Portugal?! Nope! That was never the idea behind this trip. While we had a great time, made amazing memories, and avoided the snow, travelling sure does make us appreciate all that we do have back at home.

Spending Report

Here are the larger one off expenses we encountered this quarter:

Pretty much everything having to do with the prep for the Portugal trip. As outlined in our cost breakdown post, we shelled out $6,500 for the flights, accommodations, transit, and all one-off costs ahead of time (which was offset by $4,400 of rental income).
We bought some digital photo frames for our parents for their birthdays this year.
One of my dear friends had family that was impacted by the earthquakes in Turkey, so we donated to their GoFundMe page.
We signed Finn up for Fall soccer.
We went to the Oceanarium aquarium while in Lisbon – highly recommend!
Nic and I both got our teeth cleanings completed in Lisbon.
When we came back, we had some minor car repairs to fix on our car.
We bought some kid shelving cubes for their rooms.
Our two year car registration was up for renewal.

Overall Spending

Since June 2021 was when I first started parental leave we decided that July 1st – June 30th will be how we tally up our spending in our post-FIRE world. So let’s see how our “Q3” spending report is shaping up.

After adding everything up, we spent $10,816 this quarter. Plus we contributed $5,000 in the kiddos RESPs for a total spend of $15,816. Crikey!!

This puts us at a total spend of $31,353 during our first 9 months of early retirement. In Q4 we still have ~$4,500 for property taxes and car insurance due along with our typical monthly spending. We’re also planning to purchase a new laptop along with some flights to Colorado to visit family.

I’m purposefully not including our income for the year in these quarterly updates. At the end of the year (June 2023) I’ll tally not only our overall spend for the year but our overall income for the year as I’m quite interested to see how those final numbers look.

That does it for today! Any questions for us?

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How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q1 2023 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q4 2022

Court and Nic — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 06:05:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Last post we tackled the life and spending side of things and this week we’re back with a net worth update.

How Do We Stand

As noted in our post with our updated FIRE goals/numbers, we are aiming to get to the ~$1.26M mark as our FatFIRE goal. We were only $6,524 away in Q1 2022 and we’ve now seen the markets sliding down down down in 2022 so now we are nowhere as close. Let see how we compare with our goal.

As of early January 2023, our current liquid portfolio is sitting at:

$1,201,779

Not terribly far away but with giving up our steady paycheque and no longer receiving EI from parental leave it’s unlikely we will get to that $1.26M number, which is ok! We shall see what the stock markets do this year, who knows we may see it get up there at some point in 2023 – here’s hoping!

For those who use the 4% rule, this portfolio size would equate to an annual withdrawal of $48,071.

Changes This Quarter

Really, not too much to report. Continuing on from last quarter, we shifted a total of $18,000 USD from our US chequing account to ~$24,500 CAD into our Canadian chequing account. We did this via our Charles Schwab checking account which allows for $0 ATM fees world wide. We simply go to our local ATM, withdraw $1,300 CAD per day (limit is $1,000 USD/day), take that cash and deposit it right back into our Canadian chequing account. It’s a pain but it really only takes 3 minutes and our bank is right next to Finn’s preschool so we kill two birds with one stone after drop off. We did this while the exchange rate was ~1.36 which we felt was a good rate to exchange at.
I ensured that for 2023 forward, any dividends paying out in our taxable accounts would get paid out as cash vs being reinvested back to be invested. Reason being is that now that we no longer have employment income, we will use these dividends payouts as part of our annual spend since we have to report the earnings for tax season anyway. Note this is only for our taxable accounts, not tax-advantaged accounts.
We found renters for our Portugal trip so that will definitely help offset travel related costs.
I cashed out my RSUs from my former employer which were just over $2,000.
I found out that I cannot cash out my DCPP but I’m happy with the funds it’s invested in so likely will just hang tight for now. Will likely shift it over to a LIRA at some point in 2023 so I have a bit more control over the account.
Here is our cash plan for the next two years:
- $16k for year 1 monthly mortgage payments
- $35k for year 1 spending
- $35k for year 2 spending
- $6.5k for year 1 TFSA contribution
- $6.5k for year 2 TFSA contribution
- $5k for year 1 RESP contribution
- $5k for year 2 RESP contribution
- Total: $109k cash

While we did deplete some of our cash cushion during Q4, the shift of USD to CAD for some of the cash offset our net spending so we are still sitting at ~$118,000 in cash on hand so we are slightly cash heavy.

Note we are not considering any CCB coming in or coaching clients or any other one off income that may come our way that will likely lower the amount of cash we actually need on hand. We like to play it safeeeee.

Portfolio Details

Starting in 2023, any taxable income/dividends we receive from our taxable account we plan to withdraw, rather than drip right back into the non-registered accounts.

We also will have interest income to report over the next 3 years from our GIC mortgage payoff plan (taxed like ordinary income).

We will also withdraw from a mix of our RRSPs/taxable accounts first up to the federal basic amount which is currently at $15,000/person for 2023 (accounting for any dividends, earned income, etc).

So the math looks like this for both Nic and I:

Federal Basic Amount – Income/Dividends from Taxable Accounts – GIC/HISA interest = Amount to Withdraw from RRSP/Taxable Accounts

So we each will be “earning” the Federal Basic Amount for the year ($15,000 each for 2023) as well as CCB (~$7,500 for 2023). Alberta also recently launched its Alberta Affordability Action Plan which will provide us with another $1,200 in tax free income. Then of course there’s the cash cushion on hand too.

Each year we will see what the equation looks like and decide how much to pull from our RRSPs vs taxable accounts to get our total cash to the federal basic amount for both of us each year. Some years we may end up withdrawing more than that which is fine too. But in reality, the capital gains from our taxable account are only taxed on 50% of the earnings so it should be quite easy to withdraw the federal basic amounts + have CCB coming in and living on a very healthy income for the year (for our standards at least).

Stocks/Bonds/Cash Allocation:

Stocks: 83.9%
Bonds: 5.4%
Cash: 10%
Crypto: 0.7%

I actually really like this set up. Slowly the bond and cash percentage will go down and our plan is to glide back to ~90% equites over time.

We’re currently sitting at a 58/42 USD/CAD split. With the USD/CAD exchange rate sitting at 1.36 our liquid portfolio fully converted into CAD is $1,443,902.

Withdrawal Rates

Let’s see what this means when it comes time to withdraw.

Even with all the market craziness of 2022, it’s pretty awesome to see that the only scenarios where we are currently over the “4% rule” is if we spend $50k+/year and not have the USD/CAD conversion in place and also assume $0 in CCB. Similarly at the $60k/year mark we are over if we do not include CCB but include the currency conversion. It is highly unlikely we will spend $50,000+ every year and have the USD/CAD sit right at par and somehow see CCB dramatically altered/removed in the near future.

As tallied up in our Q2 life and spending report, we spent ~$39k this year so I’m still loving what we see in this chart despite all the recent market craziness!

Putting It All Together

Total Assets:

Liquid Investments: $1,201,779
GIC For Mortgage Payoff: $227,500
Home: ~$400,000*
Total: $1,829,279

*Our house could sell for ~$500,000 in today’s market but we like to keep this value close to our purchase price as we do not know the true value until we actually sell in the future.

Total Liabilities:

Mortgage on our primary residence: $246,542
Total: $246,542

Net Worth:

$1,829,279 – $246,542 = $1,582,737

Total: $1,582,737

There we have it! Comparing this to last quarter, we were sitting at $1,545,748 so we are up $36,989 or 2.39%. Really not much change for a few quarters in a row now. I am hopeful that we see a rebound in these markets soon, but who knows what the future holds! Comparing this figure to this time last year, our net worth was $1,629,862 so we are down $47,1255 or 2.97% in a 12 month period. Our numbers aren’t as scary as many peoples year-over-year figures when looking at December 31 2022 vs December 31 2021 as I had my final bonus payout in 2022 and we also sold our townhouse in 2022 for more than we were estimating which helped cushion the blow to our stock performance.

Since taking time off at work in June 2021, our net worth was sitting at 1,524,413 so we’ve seen our net worth grow by $58,324. This is still just wild to me. It will be interesting to track this number over time.

During Q1 2023 we will shift $6,500 into Nic’s TFSA and $2,500 into each of the kiddos RESPs.

Even though I understand the magic of compound interest, it continues to amaze me. I’m curious to see what the market does this upcoming quarter.

Those following along know we have a few other items in our portfolio that we like to hide behind the scenes as our true emergency fund such as my Health Savings Account (HSA), my pension from my previous employer, Nic’s small 401k from her former employer, our children’s RESP, and any CCB/CPP/SS/OAS potentially coming our way in the future. So for the sake of this exercise we are not including them.

Voila! Stay tuned to see how our net worth has changed in 3 months when we check back in on this. Stay weird and wealthy muchachos!

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How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
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How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q4 2022 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q4 2022

Court and Nic — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 06:38:00 +0000

Hey everyone! It’s been awhile (read: blogging fatigue) but we’re back with another quarterly update. We’ll focus today’s post on a quick life & spending update this week and then net worth update next post.

What Happened in Q4 2022

This quarter was all about colds and coaching! Since pre-school started up for Finn back in September, I feel like we have had revolving colds enter our lives for 3 months straight. And finding kids tylenol or advil… fuhgeddaboudit! Thankfully we’re all feeling good now but man that was rough! She also is loving school now which is great to witness.
I’m not sure how it happened, but I feel like I’ve been coaching non-stop lately! In my ideal world I coach 5-10 people a year however I ended up coaching 9 people in Q4 alone! I love being able to help others but boy I’m tired and ready for a break
My mom came to visit for 2 weeks and unfortunately we passed one of our colds over to her and she was sick for the majority of her visit! My brother and his girlfriend, now fiance woohoo!, also came up to visit for 2 weeks. It’s always great to have family around and the kiddos love spending time with them.
We made it out to the cabin for the holidays which was nice. Lots of skating and sledding which we all enjoy. I was actually super impressed with how easy Finn was able to fill up our couch with older toys to donate after we got back. She definitely gave away more than she received which is more than fine with us!
Finn’s obsession with the pool continues and we purchased our sports centre passes for 3 months. (Rather than buy an annual pass, we only buy it for the months where we will get the most use out of it… aka winter.)
Portugal, Portugal, Portugal! Lot’s of planning going on over here. We had quite a few hiccups to get sorted – mainly issues with a credit card company not issuing our correct status for 4th night free for hotel stays, getting the kiddos passports to book intra-Europe flights, and finding suitable renters. Thankfully everything has be sorted and we have renters in place which will greatly offset our travel costs.
I returned back on the ChooseFI podcast with Brad where we focused mainly on flexibility which I’m glad to see being discussed more. Feel free to tune in here: ChooseFI Episode 401: Court from Modern FImily Returns.

Spending Report

Here are the larger one off expenses we encountered this quarter:

Our home insurance was up for renewal this quarter and we always pay the annual amount up front. There goes $1,064 to Square One! While this is definitely a good chunk of money to be handing over, it’s significantly lower than any other home insurance company we found when shopping around for rates a few years ago. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, QC or ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone. One of these days I’ll write a proper blog post dedicated solely to Square One!
We spent $250 on car repairs this quarter.
Nic ordered 2 pairs of her prescription glasses for $88.
We spent about $100 on our annual Amazon purchases: a fanny pack for Portugal (I’m so excited for a fanny!), silicone mini muffin tins, a laptop charger, and a bidet.
Nic and I ordered 2 pairs of Puma running shoes each when they had a sale going on that came out to $92 for 4 pairs ($23 each).
Our furnace decided it wanted to kick out on us during a week of a crazy cold snap we had. Great! Thankfully it was just a system reset and $150 later we were on our merry way.
Our sports centre pass costs $100/month for the family which we paid a prorated amount for October and then the full amount for November, December, and January.

Overall Spending

Since June 2021 was when I first started parental leave we decided that July 1st – June 30th will be how we tally up our spending in our post-FIRE world. So let’s see how our “Q2” spending report is shaping up.

After adding everything up, we spent $6,245 this quarter. This puts us at a total spend of $15,006 during our first 6 months of early retirement. If we double this and then add in $5,000 for the kiddos RESPs, and another $4,500 for property taxes and car insurance which we will pay during the second half of the year, it’s actually quite eerie how close we are to an estimated spend of $40,000 for the year.

As for Portugal, all flights, Airbnbs, and car rentals have now been booked. We will write a separate post with more details about our itinerary and costs so stay tuned for that.

That does it for today! Any questions for us?

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Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q4 2022 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Net Worth: Q3 2022

Court and Nic — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:06:39 +0000

Hey everyone! Last week we tackled the life and spending side of things and this week we’re back with a net worth update.

How Do We Stand

As mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, we set up a GIC ladder to arbitrage our low mortgage rate vs current GICs rates over the next 3 years. With that in place, we now have money set aside to pay off the mortgage in 3 years so we are not going to include the mortgage balance and GIC balances as this is basically a wash and instead will focus on the investment portfolio.

Our current liquid portfolio is sitting at:

$1,167,562

Not terribly far away but with giving up our steady paycheque and no longer receiving EI from parental leave it’s highly unlikely we will get to that $1.26M number, which is ok!

For those who use the 4% rule, this portfolio size would equate to an annual withdrawal of $46,702.

Changes This Quarter

As noted above, we set up our GIC mortgage payoff. This will bring us an extra $6,000/year for the next 3 years.
We shifted ~$75,000 of VUN (US unhedged) to VUS (US hedged) in our RRSPs seeing strength in the US dollar. (Using a registered account so not to have to deal with any capital gains to report.) This means we are basically making a bet that the USD/CAD will come down over time. It is currently valued around 1.36. If we shift back to VUN when the exchange rate is 1.30 we magically will make an extra 6% ($4,500 of our $75,000). Conversely, if the USD continues to gain strength and we shift back to VUN when it is at 1.42 we will lose out on 6%. I wrote a post 2.5 years ago about currency exchange rates when the USD showed a big jump when COVID hit for those curious to learn more.
Keeping on the currency exchange train, we also are in the process of shifting $20,000 USD from our US chequing account to ~$27,000 CAD. We are doing this via our Charles Schwab checking account which allows for $0 ATM fees world wide. We simply go to our local ATM, withdraw $1,300 CAD per day (limit is $1,000 USD/day), take that cash and deposit it right back into our Canadian chequing account. It’s a pain but our bank is right next to Finn’s preschool so we kill two birds with one stone after drop off.
We invested the remaining $40,000 of the townhouse proceeds into our taxable account. We also sent this extra $7,000 from the USD/CAD shift mentioned above to our taxable account too.
Here is our cash plan for the next two years:
- $16k for year 1 monthly mortgage payments
- $35k for year 1 spending
- $35k for year 2 spending
- $6.5k for year 1 TFSA contribution
- $6.5k for year 2 TFSA contribution
- $5k for year 1 RESP contribution
- $5k for year 2 RESP contribution
- Total: $109k cash

We currently have ~$118,000 in cash so we will deploy another $9,000 to the markets during Q4. Note we are not considering any CCB coming in or coaching clients or any other one off income that may come our way that will likely lower the amount of cash we actually need on hand.

Portfolio Details

Starting in 2023, any taxable income/dividends we receive from our taxable account we plan to withdraw, rather than drip right back into the non-registered accounts. With this GIC mortgage payoff plan, we also will have interest income to report over the next 3 years from that (taxed like ordinary income). We will also withdraw from a mix of our RRSPs/taxable accounts first up to the federal basic amount (accounting for any dividends, earned income, etc).

So the math looks like this for both Nic and I:

Federal Basic Amount – Income/Dividends from Taxable Accounts – GIC interest + CCB income = Amount to Withdraw from RRSP/Taxable Accounts

Each year we will see what the equation looks like and decide how much to pull from our RRSPs vs taxable accounts to get our total cash to $40,000 for the year in the most tax efficient way.

Stocks/Bonds/Cash Allocation:

Stocks: 83.1%
Bonds: 5.4%
Cash: 10.2%
Crypto: 0.7%

I actually really like this set up. Slowly the bond and cash percentage will go down and our plan is to glide back to ~90% equites over time.

We’re currently sitting at a 59/41 USD/CAD split. With the USD/CAD exchange rate sitting at 1.36 our liquid portfolio fully converted into CAD is $1,416,640.

Withdrawal Rates

Let’s see what this means when it comes time to withdraw.

I like looking at a few different scenarios as we can cut down our spending if need-be in hard times (market tanks – hello 2022!). I also like looking at what our withdrawal rate looks like with Canada Child Benefit (CCB) factored in since it is such a juicy benefit that we will be receiving for the first ~15 years. We do NOT rely on any external support in our FIRE figures (CCB, CPP/SS, OAS) and view them as icing on the cake or to account for any future unexpected medical expenses we may encounter in old age.

Even with all the market craziness of 2022, it’s pretty awesome to see that the only scenarios where we are currently over the “4% rule” is if we spend $50k/year and not have the USD/CAD conversion in place and also assume $0 in CCB. Similarly at the $60k/year mark we are over if we do not include CCB but include the currency conversion. It is highly unlikely we will spend $50,000+ every year and have the USD/CAD sit right at par and somehow see CCB dramatically altered/removed in the near future.

As tallied up in our Q2 life and spending report, we spent ~$39k this year so I’m still loving what we see in this chart despite all the recent market craziness!

Putting It All Together

Total Assets:

Liquid Investments: $1,167,562
GIC For Mortgage Payoff: $227,500
Home: ~$400,000*
Total: $1,795,062

*Our house could sell for ~$500,000 in today’s market but we like to keep this value close to our purchase price as we do not know the true value until we actually sell in the future.

Total Liabilities:

Mortgage on our primary residence: $249,314
Total: $249,314

Net Worth:

$1,795,062 – $249,314 = $1,545,748

Total: $1,545,748

There we have it! Comparing this to last quarter, we were sitting at $1,546,309 so we are down $561 or 0.03%. Really not much change. I am hopeful that we see a rebound in these markets soon, but who knows what the future holds! Comparing this figure to this time last year, our net worth was $1,551,483 so we are down $5,735 or 0.3% in a 12 month period.

Since taking time off at work in June 2021, we’ve seen our net worth grow by $21,335. This is still just wild to me. It will be interesting to track this number over time.

During Q4 2022 we will reach out to our brokerages to request the DRIP setup to be turned off for our taxable accounts starting in 2023. We will also hopefully find a renter while we are gone in Portugal for 2 months to help offset those costs (future post will all the Portugal numbers). I also need to figure out how to access my DC pension plan from my previous employer and get my vested RSUs and shift that all into self managed accounts.

Even though I understand the magic of compound interest, it continues to amaze me. I’m curious to see what the market does this upcoming quarter.

Those following along know we have a few other items in our portfolio that we like to hide behind the scenes as our true emergency fund such as my Health Savings Account (HSA), my pension from my previous employer, Nic’s small 401k from her former employer, our children’s RESP, and any CCB/CPP/SS/OAS potentially coming our way in the future. So for the sake of this exercise we are not including them.

Voila! Stay tuned to see how our net worth has changed in 3 months when we check back in on this. Stay weird and wealthy muchachos!

Support This Blog

Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Net Worth: Q3 2022 appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q3 2022 + Book Giveaway!

Court and Nic — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 05:38:00 +0000

Hey everyone! We’re back with another quarterly update. Like last time, we’ll focus today’s post on a life & spending update this week and then net worth update next post.

What Happened in Q3 2022

We made it out to the cabin two more times this summer (July and August) for swimming lessons, raspberry picking, Saskatoon berry picking, lake walks, and sand castle building.
Our little lady decided this was the summer to swim on her own. She is VERY proud that she can now dive and swim by herself. Water wings, they are all yours Parker! She has become obsessed with diving goggles.
We went out camping twice this summer. First up was the annual ChooseFI Alberta camping trip which I’d guess had 40 people in attendance. It was great to connect with others and chat openly about personal finance. The second trip was a last minute decision to join our friends and camp and then explore the Royal Tyrell Museum the next day. Oh my. I normally am not the best museum enthusiast, but I loved this museum! It was massive and had so many amazing dinosaur fossils on display. Highly recommend and we will be making this an annual trip.
Finn and one of her buddies hosted their very first lemonade stand! They made a fantastic duo and made $85!! I don’t think any of us could believe it. After splitting the proceeds, paying the “parent tax” ($3 each for supplies), and designating $5 each to go to the local Humane Society, they netted $35 each. Finn was adamant about purchasing this $10 toy we saw at the store a few week prior and invested the rest. She sat on my lap and we invested in her informal trust so she could own a little piece of every company in the world.
Finn has also started preschool which has been….going. She hates drop off but she loves being there. It’s a very love-hate relationship. From a financial side, thanks to Alberta’s recent affordable child care subsidies it costs $0/month from our end for her to attend preschool, woohoo!
We saw a flight deal for non-stop flights from Calgary to Amsterdam open up so we jumped on them and decided on Portugal for our winter travel plans! We will be heading there for 2 months (late January – late March) and will try to rent out our home while we’re gone to offset costs. (Whoooooo’s eyeing a trip to the Canadian Rockies?!) For the first few weeks our plans were changing every day but I think we finally have our itinerary figured out now.
September is larch season around here so we went on our annual family larch hike with some friends to see those beauties.

I recorded my first international guest interview! Yale from the Yale Chen YouTube channel reached out to interview us about our FIRE journey. Yale is based out of Thailand and runs a youtube channel in Asia for Chinese speaking audiences from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and more. They have over 240,000 subscribers on Youtube and around 140,000 on Instagram. It’s so cool to know that people literally on the other side of the world are (hopefully) being inspired by our story. The FIRE really is spreading. You can check out the interview here (note my portion is in English with mandarin subtitles).
The obvious big life update this quarter is deciding to pull the plug on returning to the corporate world and officially enter the world of early retirement!

Taking Stock Book Giveaway

Jordan Grumet, aka DocG, truly has a way with words – whether it’s speaking on his amazing podcast (Earn & Invest) or through written words in his new book. It is very clear he is trying his best in this next chapter of life (post-FI) to help out others, which truly is admirable.

While this book likely falls in the personal finance category, it isn’t primarily about money. Rather, it’s is about valuing the one life you have and how you can shape how you think about money to be able to focus on what’s truly important. Figuring out what YOU value is one of the most important things out there – the sooner you can master that, the better.

As a hospice doctor, Doc has heard the stories of those in their last moments. He has had a career listening to the regrets of those who are dying. Not only has he been able to create a successful career in medicine – he’s also been able to figure out what truly is important in life through his patients. He graciously writes about what he has learned over the years so that we may apply the wisdom to our own lives to learn how to live a purposeful life without regrets.

From the amazing foreword by Vicki Robin to the very last chapter – this well written book with leave you with many takeaways. One of my favourite things about Doc G’s podcast is how it is so evident that he puts in a ton of time ahead of recording to research each podcast guest and it’s just as clear that much care and devotion was put into his book as well.

Doc has graciously provided me with a copy of the book and I’d highly recommend it. Doc G is also looking to gift an Audible copy of his new book to a lucky blog reader. In order to be considered for the book, please answer the following question in the comments below:

“What do you think the most common regret is that Doc G heard from his patients?”

Spending Report

Here are the larger one off expenses we encountered this quarter:

We installed a remote start on our new-to-us Subaru Outback. While we technically don’t *have* to rush out of the door to be at a meeting at a specific time and instead can pick and choose when we want to use our vehicle, this is definitely a discretionary spending purchase this native Floridian is going to make if I’m living through Canadian winters! This cost ~$550 for the two remotes plus installation.
We purchased our annual pass for a provincial park nearby which cost $100.
We all had our last round of dental cleanings while I still had my supplemental health plan with work in place. My work covered 70% and our remaining 30% of the bill was $375.
Finn started preschool so we paid for June 2023 as an upfront deposit ($195) and $80 for materials for the year. As noted above, her preschool ends up costing us $0/month with the subsides in place, so we should be getting that deposit back.
Passports for the two kiddos cost $115.
We purchased my mom’s flight to come visit us in October for $400.
We ended up purchasing our 3 round trip flights from Calgary – Amsterdam (Parker is free as he’s under 2) vs using some of our points. Total cost was $2,000.
Nic signed up for an adult soccer league for $215 which runs weekly from October – April.

Overall Spending

Since June 2021 was when I first started parental leave we decided that July 1st – June 30th will be how we tally up our spending in our post-FIRE world. So let’s see how our Q1 spending report is shaping up.

After adding everything up, we spent $8,761 this quarter. If we multiply this by 4 and add in $5,000 for the kiddos RESPs it’s actually quite eerie how close we are to $40,000 ($40,044).

As for Portugal, we are estimating that we are going to spend $6,500 on this 2 month trip between airfares, airbnbs, and car rentals (of which $2,000 is reported here so far). This is way over our annual travel budget! However, we are hoping to rent out our house while we are gone to help offset some of these costs. We are hopeful that we can net a least $4,000 from our house while we’re gone to lower our overall net cost to $2,500 for this trip. That’s more like it.

If we do rent our house out (I am hopeful, Nic is much more pessimistic about it all) I’m quite confident we can keep our annual spending around/below $40,000 for the year again.

That’s it for now! Remember to comment below answering the following the question if you’d like to win a free copy of Taking Stock!

“What do you think the most common regret is that Doc G heard from his patients?”

Support This Blog

Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Life & Spending Update: Q3 2022 + Book Giveaway! appeared first on Modern FImily.

Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q2 2022

Court and Nic — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 05:05:46 +0000

Hey everyone! Last week we tackled the life and spending side of things and this week we’re back with a net worth update.

How Do We Stand

As noted in our recent post with our updated FIRE goals/numbers, we are aiming to get to the ~$1.26M mark as our FatFIRE goal. When I took off on parental leave, my goal was to somehow reach this figure by the time my parental leave is up thanks to my 1/2 year bonus for 2021 that I recently received in March + compounding doing its thing + our low spend allowing us to keep our capital preserved while living off EI (pay for parental leave) + CCB (Canada Child Benefit) for the most part. In Q1 2022 we were sitting soooo close at $1,253,476 without the mortgage so $6,524 to go. So closeee! And then… the markets really decided to tank on us! Gee thanks! Let see how we compare with our goal.

Our current liquid portfolio is sitting at:

$1,398,380

Wait, what?! How is it up from last quarter with the markets being down?!

Townhouse Update

We sold the townhouse! Ta-da! Money magic!

We (Court) were crazy lunatics the week after getting back from Vancouver Island as our townhouse was now vacant and we were cleaning and fixing minor items to get it ready to list. We ended up selling it within 24 hours of listing – it sounds short but man oh man that was a whirlwind of a time! Surprise, surprise – we sold it to a family from ON looking to move back to AB. While the rental income was easy and relatively hassle free, we are glad to no longer be landlords.

We listed it for $379,000 and sold it for $385,100. After lawyer and realtor fees, we ended up with a deposit of $367,000 in our bank account.

Note, 1.5 years ago we tried to sell it – no luck, hence why we rented it out. We listed it for $313,000 thinking if someone offered anything over $300,000 we’d take it. Glad we waited and got rental income for 1.5 year + a higher sell price!

We do still have the mortgage in place on our home (~$250,000) which is why our liquid portfolio is so high above. Rather than take the proceeds from the townhouse sale and pay off the mortgage on our primary home completely, we have decided that we will set up a GIC ladder to continue paying the monthly amounts for the remainder of our 5 year term and once that is up in ~3 years, then pay off the mortgage completely.

Why?

We have a 5 year fixed rate term sitting at 2.04% interest. Remember those good ole days of low interest rates? We were lucky to have gotten in then. 3 year GICs are currently offering interest rates of 4.74% (and rising). We will gladly pay 2.04% interest knowing we will get 4.74% on that same money. Overall this will bring us ahead by ~$15k doing this vs paying off the mortgage in full today. Major thanks to our FIRE friend Chelsey for nerding out all of this and creating some spreadsheets digging into different options for us!!

Prior to running all these scenarios we sent a large lump sum of ~$48,000 to the mortgage as part of my work bonus payout so the mortgage went from ~$300,000 to ~$250,000 this quarter. Looking back, this was a silly move but oh well!

So really, we need to take out the amount being earmarked for the mortgage payments / GICs as all of that cash has a plan over the next 3 years to go towards the house, not towards our day-to-day spending in a post-FIRE world. For simplicity, we will remove the mortgage balance remaining from the liquid portfolio to see our true FIRE number.

Mortgage Balance Remaining: -$252,071

Net Portfolio: $1,146,309

(This is the number that we really care about!)

Changes This Quarter

As noted above, we sent a large lump sum to the mortgage.
We sent the remainder of my bonus payout to our taxable account. Thankful to be able to have cash on hand during a down market even without jobs.
We sent some of the townhouse proceeds to our taxable account. A good chunk ($40k) is still parked in cash there and will be invested over the next few months doing DCA.
Invested $10k into i bonds (Series I Savings Bonds) through the US Treasury as they are currently yielding 9.62%. Earmarked another $10k of our US cash to throw into i bonds in 2023 if rates are still high then.
Finally received our tax return from the CRA! (US continues to be $0 yet such a pain to file.)
After calculating how much money we would need for the mortgage payoff with GICs (not as much as the current mortgage balance as the money is growing in the GICs), we decided on how much cash we want to have on hand. Here’s what we came up with:
- $16k for year 1 monthly mortgage payments
- $35k for year 1 spending
- $35k for year 2 spending
- $6k for year 1 TFSA contribution
- $6k for year 2 TFSA contribution
- $5k for year 1 RESP contribution
- $5k for year 2 RESP contribution
- Total: $108k cash

Portfolio Details

Once we FIRE, any taxable income/dividends we receive from our taxable account we plan to withdraw, rather than drip right back into the non-registered account. With this GIC mortgage payoff plan, we also will have interest income to report over the next 3 years from that (taxed like ordinary income). We will also withdraw from a mix of our RRSPs/taxable accounts first up to the federal basic amount (accounting for any dividends, earned income, etc).

Stocks/Bonds/Cash Allocation:

Stocks: 65.3%
Bonds: 4.7%
Cash: 28.7%
Crypto: 0.6%

We’re sitting wayyy heavier than we want in cash right now thanks to the townhouse sale. If we take out the money going towards mortgage payoff, we’re then sitting at:

Stocks: 79.7%
Bonds: 5.8%
Cash: 13.8%
Crypto: 0.7%

That’s more like it. Our plan is to glide back to ~90% equites over time.

We’re currently sitting at a 61/39 USD/CAD split. With the USD/CAD exchange rate sitting at 1.29 our liquid portfolio fully converted into CAD is $1,349,997.

Withdrawal Rates

Let’s see what this means when it comes time to withdraw.

I like looking at a few different scenarios as we can cut down our spending if need-be in hard times (market tanks – hello 2022!). I also like looking at what our withdrawal rate looks like with Canada Child Benefit (CCB) factored in since it is such a juicy benefit that we will be receiving for the first ~15 years. We do NOT rely on any external support in our FIRE figures (CCB, CPP/SS, OAS) and view them as icing on the cake or to account for any future unexpected medical expenses we may encounter in old age.

	Convert USD to CAD	w CCB	Not convert to CAD	w CCB
$25k/year	1.85%	0.59%	2.18%	0.70%
$30k/year	2.22%	0.96%	2.62%	1.13%
$35k/year	2.59%	1.33%	3.05%	1.57%
$40k/year	2.96%	1.70%	3.49%	2.01%
$45k/year	3.33%	2.07%	3.93%	2.44%
$50k/year	3.70%	2.44%	4.36%	2.88%
$55k/year	4.07%	2.81%	4.80%	3.31%
$60k/year	4.44%	3.19%	5.23%	3.75%

Even with all the market craziness, it’s pretty awesome to see that the only scenarios where we are currently over the “4% rule” is if we spend $50k/year and not have the USD/CAD conversion in place and also assume $0 in CCB. Similarly at the $55k/year mark we are over if we do not include CCB but include the currency conversion. It is highly unlikely we will spend $50,000+ every year and have the USD/CAD sit right at par and somehow see CCB dramatically altered/removed in the near future.

As tallied up in our Q2 life and spending report, we spent ~$39k this year so I’m still loving what we see in this chart despite all the recent market craziness!

Putting It All Together

Total Assets:

Liquid Investments: $1,398,380
Home: ~$400,000*
Total: $1,798,380

*Our house could sell for over $500,000 in today’s market but we like to keep this value close to our purchase price as we do not know the true value until we actually sell in the future.

Total Liabilities:

Mortgage on our primary residence: $252,071
Total: $252,071

Net Worth:

$1,798,380 – $252,071 = $1,546,309

Total: $1,546,309

There we have it! Comparing this to last quarter, we were sitting at $1,651,413 so we are down $105,104 or 6.36%. While it’s painful to see 6 figures poof out the door it’s not as bad as a 100% equities portfolio which would be down by more than double that this quarter. Not being 100% invested in stocks and the townhouse net proceeds ending up being larger than my $300,000 estimate definitely helped out this quarter. I am hopeful that we see a rebound in these markets soon, but who knows what the future holds! Comparing this figure to this time last year, our net worth was $1,524,413 so we are up $21,896 or 1.01% in a 12 month period.

Since taking time off at work in June 2021, we’ve seen our net worth grow by $21,896. Even though this is definitely a dip from last quarter, this is still just wild to me. It will be fun to track this number over time.

During Q3 2022 we will set up the GICs for the mortgage payoff plan (waiting as the Bank of Canada is expecting to raise rates by 75 points July 15 which should bump up GIC interest rate offerings) and invest the remaining cash from the townhouse proceeds into the taxable account.

Even though I understand the magic of compound interest, it continues to amaze me. I’m curious to see what the market does this upcoming quarter. Do you think we can reach our FatFIRE goals before my parental leave is up in a few months? The market would have to do a crazy rebound for that happen, which is unlikely! We also are all our of “tricks up our sleeve” to make money appear. Bonus season is done and rental townhouse is sold.

Those following along know we have a few other items in our portfolio that we like to hide behind the scenes as our true emergency fund such as my Health Savings Account (HSA), my pension from my previous employer, Nic’s small 401k from her former employer, our children’s RESP, and any CCB/CPP/SS/OAS potentially coming our way in the future. So for the sake of this exercise we are not including them.

Voila! Stay tuned to see how our net worth has changed in 3 months when we check back in on this. Stay weird and wealthy muchachos!

What do you guys think – is the current market going to derail everyones FIRE plans?!

Support This Blog

Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)

The post Quarterly Net Worth Update: Q2 2022 appeared first on Modern FImily.