- \r\n
- 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.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>\r\n
- Our little lady decided this was the summer to swim on her own.\u00a0 She is VERY proud that she can now dive and swim by herself.\u00a0 Water wings, they are all yours Parker! She has become obsessed with diving goggles.<\/li>\r\n
- We went out camping twice this summer.\u00a0 First up was the annual ChooseFI Alberta camping trip which I’d guess had 40 people in attendance.\u00a0 It was great to connect with others and chat openly about personal finance.\u00a0 The second trip was a last minute decision to join our friends and camp and then explore the Royal Tyrell Museum<\/a> the next day.\u00a0 Oh my.\u00a0 I normally am not the best museum enthusiast, but I loved<\/strong> this museum!\u00a0 It was massive and had so many amazing dinosaur fossils on display.\u00a0 Highly recommend and we will be making this an annual trip.<\/li>\r\n
- Finn and one of her buddies hosted their very first lemonade stand!\u00a0 They made a fantastic duo and made $85!! I don’t think any of us could believe it.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Finn was adamant about purchasing this $10 toy we saw at the store a few week prior and invested the rest.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\r\n
- Finn has also started preschool which has been….going.\u00a0 She hates drop off but she loves being there.\u00a0 It’s a very love-hate relationship.\u00a0 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!<\/li>\r\n
- 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!\u00a0 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?!)\u00a0 For the first few weeks our plans were changing every day but I think we finally have our itinerary figured out now.\u00a0<\/li>\r\n
- September is larch season around here so we went on our annual family larch hike with some friends to see those beauties.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
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<\/p>\r\n- \r\n
- I recorded my first international guest interview!\u00a0 Yale from the Yale Chen YouTube channel reached out to interview us about our FIRE journey.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It’s so cool to know that people literally on the other side of the world are (hopefully) being inspired by our story.\u00a0 The FIRE really is spreading.\u00a0 You can check out the interview here<\/a> (note my portion is in English with mandarin subtitles).\u00a0<\/li>\r\n
- 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!<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
Taking Stock Book Giveaway<\/h2>\r\n
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<\/p>\r\nJordan Grumet, aka DocG, truly has a way with words – whether it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\r\nAs 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019d 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:<\/p>\r\n\u201cWhat do you think the most common regret is that Doc G heard from his patients?\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Spending Report<\/h2>\r\n
Here are the larger one off expenses we encountered this quarter:<\/p>\r\n
- \r\n
- We installed a remote start on our new-to-us Subaru Outback.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 \u00a0This cost ~$550 for the two remotes plus installation.<\/li>\r\n
- We purchased our annual pass for a provincial park nearby which cost $100.<\/li>\r\n
- We all had our last round of dental cleanings while I still had my supplemental health plan with work in place.\u00a0 My work covered 70% and our remaining 30% of the bill was $375.<\/li>\r\n
- Finn started preschool so we paid for June 2023 as an upfront deposit ($195) and $80 for materials for the year.\u00a0 As noted above, her preschool ends up costing us $0\/month with the subsides in place, so we should be getting that deposit back.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\r\n
- Passports for the two kiddos cost $115.<\/li>\r\n
- We purchased my mom’s flight to come visit us in October for $400.<\/li>\r\n
- 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.<\/li>\r\n
- Nic signed up for an adult soccer league for $215 which runs weekly from October – April.\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
Overall Spending<\/h2>\r\n
Since June 2021 was when I first started parental leave we decided that July 1st \u2013 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
After adding everything up, we spent $8,761 this quarter.\u00a0 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).\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
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).\u00a0 This is way over our annual travel budget!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 That’s more like it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
That’s it for now!\u00a0 Remember to comment below answering the following the question if you’d like to win a free copy of Taking Stock!<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWhat do you think the most common regret is that Doc G heard from his patients?\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Support This Blog<\/h2>\r\n
If you liked this article and want more content like this, please support this blog by sharing it.\u00a0 Not only does it help spread the FIRE, but it lets me know what content you find beneficial.\u00a0 Writing is NOT my strong suit and it honestly takes me hours to write each post so the more encouragement the better!\u00a0 Engaging in the comments below keeps me motivated.\u00a0 You can also support this blog by subscribing to receive emails anytime a new post is published.\u00a0 Thank you FImily!<\/p>\r\n
We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account.\u00a0 Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:<\/p>\r\n
- \r\n
- Investing Newbies: Check out our\u00a0free Investing 101 Series.<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- How much are you paying for your phone plan?\u00a0 Canadians,\u00a0learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3\/mo for our cell phone plan<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n
- How much are you paying for internet?\u00a0 Canadians,\u00a0learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n
- How much are you paying for home insurance?\u00a0 We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance.\u00a0 If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON,\u00a0check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and\/or tenant insurance<\/a>.\u00a0 Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote.\u00a0 (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.)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey everyone!\u00a0 We\u2019re back with another quarterly update. Like last time, we’ll focus today’s post on a life & spending update this week and then …<\/p>\n
- How much are you paying for your phone plan?\u00a0 Canadians,\u00a0learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3\/mo for our cell phone plan<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n
- Investing Newbies: Check out our\u00a0free Investing 101 Series.<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- 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!<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n