SAVING STARTS FROM YOUR FIRST JOB
Stumbling around the notion of earning Fastbucks won’t solve your financial crisis and sadly neither will believing that savings options are only for the rich.
Saving starts from you first job. Paper boy was mine. My Dad asked me how many days in a week 7 yes but in saving you use 8 he said you divide the amount you made by 8 and the 8th is what you put in the bank. At 65 I never had a loan other than a mortgage I paid down by renting rooms to my friend for the first few years. – Yahoo comment (Why low-income Canadians are missing out when it comes to the TFSA)
When I read what this Yahoo reader typed for a comment I sort of felt like we were on the same page from a young age. The concept of taking a 7 day work week and adding an 8th day to save money was smart.
His father encouraged him to save money and it’s something every parent should not just talk about but put actions along with those words. By this I mean, bring your child to the bank to deposit money or buy or create a piggy bank savings plan.
My parents did something similar with my paper boy money by helping me set up a bank account where I would deposit what I earned. I hardly spent it since I was a hardcore saver but that is where my journey to financial freedom really began.
A savings mindset should start from a young age and we’ve done just that with our son encouraging him to use his piggy bank, look at price tags and talk about daddy going to work to make money.
Over time we will increase his knowledge so he grasps the realization of money, paying bills and the importance of an education.
Reach your Financial Freedom
You have to find a way to make a difference in your life so that YOU reach your financial freedom, whatever that may be. Whether you are low-income, middle-income or swimming in cash at each stage of your journey there has to be a plan.
Something, anything but not nothing.
Have you heard, “Everything is For the Wealthy” or “Everything is For the Low-Income” well it’s out there and it’s not going away. You can’t make either side happy and those in the middle are stuck being tugged in each direction.
You help one their are cries, you help the other it’s a mass exodus of unfairness and it goes on and on. It’s a political bombshell that fires back and forth.
Money is the root of all evil in this world and all I can say is fend for yourself and worry not about what others are getting because you can’t count on the top to throw you fish for dinner.
That means your financial freedom is in your hands and you’re the chef of your restaurant. Either you cook up a financial plan or you have to wait for the fish tosser who might never show up because he or she is busy frying up on the other side.
That’s the way politics works and we can bitch all we want but that’s not making anyone rich now is it?
The financial industry is filled with situations where people become rich from the bottom up, meaning that started with nothing and are now surrounded with financial freedom.
Sadly, not all of us will end up on a yacht sailing the blue ocean without a care in the world but if we take it down a notch we can still experience financial freedom.
We joke about being debt free and having a blow-up swimming pool in our backyard during the summer months that we purchased for $50 so all three of us can chill out under the sun.
We’ve been shopping at second-hand shops for clothes and just about everything since buying our house because that was part of our financial freedom plan.
Save as much as we could, wherever we could. If we could negotiate we would, barter we would or buy used we were waiting in line.
That was our financial freedom, simplicity without having to worry if someone is going to take our house away because we couldn’t pay our mortgage.
Financial Crisis Rang Our Doorbell
Like many people there was a time in our lives where uncertainty got the best of us and we didn’t know what we were going to do.
We had just bought our house and my wife got ill, was laid off from her job and I was the only person with an income. Right away we had to cancel our Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) contributions along with our Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP).
You see, Mrs. CBB was the breadwinner in the family and being laid off put a big dent in our money net income.
There was a financial emergency happening in our lives and shutting down everything that wasn’t critical had to be done and fast. Sure, we had savings but not enough to keep us going at my wage which was only $15 at the time.
You don’t expect to get critically ill, no one does and still to this day she does not work, can’t work and never will work again. That’s her reality. Imagine that, a new house only earning $15 an hour and having to pay for everything.
That was our situation until we could get some income for my wife and I could either get a better career on my plate, extra income or a wage increase from my employer. I couldn’t sit back and wait until our savings were depleted and our financial crisis became a pay or lose it situation.
Luckily, all of that happened for us which to this day is a blessing but that didn’t come without blood, sweat and tears. It was years that I worked two jobs and hardly saw my wife at all but it paid the bills. Working harder and longer hours was the only solution for us at the time to pay the bills.
Locking down a budget was crucial which we did and continue to do. We took everything we could down to the bare basics and even increased our deductible on our insurance so we could get a lowered rate. We took one vehicle off the road so we only had one since Mrs. CBB was not working which saved us money.
Anything and everything including quitting smoking which we both did. I’m sure I calculated that in over the past 7 years that we quit we’ve saved over $18,200 all of which landed in our Tax Free Savings Account.
Financial Crisis and Marriage
The times we were together we talked about financial freedom and how all of this would make sense one day for us. We kept our relationship afloat by prioritizing what needed to be done and making sure we took time for us.
That didn’t come without bumps though so I don’t want to make it seem like was a walk in the park. It was hard, damn hard to move to a new country and have to start over but I did it.
There’s never an easy answer to getting ahead financially because it’s not easy, it’s tough as hell but for most of us it’s the only way. Financial problems in our lives wasn’t a big deal until this point in time or at least the scare of having issues so this is when we worked on building our emergency fund.
Not knowing if you are going to lose everything you worked for should scare anyone into doing whatever it takes (legally) to bring in more money.
In our case, I was the only person who could do that so I understand anyone out there that says they are unable to increase their net income due to health reasons or personal reasons.
When the time comes and you have a financial crisis and no one to turn to but yourself that’s when you will say, “Did I do enough?”
So before you go and say you have nothing to save in the event of a financial crisis ask yourself that question but say, “Am I doing enough?” that way when and if the time comes you can answer to yourself, “I did something” and you have money set aside.
Something is always going to be better than nothing.
Just starting this blog 7 years ago as a means of sharing our story has turned into a small income for me each year. If I can do it, so can you.
Discussion: What do you say to people who voice that they are unable to save money in today’s Canadian economy?
Money earned in March 2019
Where did all the money go?
Oh boy, this was a bad month for expenses as we had to pay for 3 sports activities for our son for the spring and summer months plus we bought a fish tank, fish and food.
I will talk more about the fish tank expenses in an upcoming blog post for anyone contemplating buying fish. Mrs. CBB thought it was as simple as buying a bowl and putting the fish in it. Not so much.
Also, I mentioned at some point that Mrs. CBB was going to be getting laser hair removal for a follicle problem she was having. Maybe I didn’t, I can’t remember now. Anyways, through plenty of research she found where she wanted to go and it’s not cheap as you can imagine.
Almost $3500 later she will have hair free legs with the finest technology in Canada but her journey is not over yet. We’re hoping any further steps will be covered by OHIP but we can’t bet on that so we may see thousands more coming out of our pocket with-in the year.
There were also the final costs with Mrs. CBB’s crown that my benefits would not cover which ended up costing us around $600 as they cover only 50%. That seems to be standard with most benefits. She will be needing on more so we’ll see a future payment similar to this in the coming months.
Like always we maxed out our RRSP and TFSA along with my works defined pension but there were no cash savings put aside this month as expected. Not every month will be simple but thus life. I’ll be starting more home renovations this summer which will eat up some cash but we have more than enough saved up for this.
It’s always hard to see the savings go down but sometimes you just have to spend money to make money. That’s the way life goes. No, we don’t plan to sell our house any time soon but we are updating it as much as we can, when we can.
You may notice our Telecommunications expenses was far higher this month and that’s because we re-negotiated with Rogers but we were a bit late. They are crediting us back the money so we will see a drop for next month’s bill. We are going to an android box next month and if all goes well we will be cancelling our cable and home phone next year.
On a good note a house almost identical to ours up the street finished top to bottom is on the market for $749,000 so we will be interested to see how that sells.
Finally, we spent money taking in a concert downtown Toronto which was a great time together but it jacked up our entertainment costs for the month but we were fine with that since we hardly ever go out.
On our net worth update post we’ve kept the house value at $365,000 but as you can see that has gone up since buying it for $265,00 but until we sell it’s just a number and even then unless we spend less on living arrangements it’s all going back into the housing pot.
Have a great month everyone.
Mr.CBB
Budget percentages March 2019
Our savingsinvestments
We put money away for the projected expenses for things that need to be paid for in the coming months.
All of the categories took more than 100% of our income which shows that we had to pull money from the emergency savings account to pay for it.
Our monthly expenses
Belowour expenses
Since May 2014 we’ve been mortgage free so much of our money will be directed at savings, investments and renovations.
I appreciate that you enjoy this budget update each month but I do hope you view this as an educational tool rather than comparing your own financial numbers as our situations are all unique.
Spending less than we earn and budgeting our money has been the easiest way for us to pay down debt and save money. It may be different for you.
- Chequing– This is the bank account where all of our debt gets paid from.
- Emergency Savings Account– This is a high-interest savings account.
- Regular Savings Account– This is a savings account that holds our projected expenses.
- Monthly Budgeted Total: $4792.05
- Monthly Net Income Total: $8759.48
- (Check out our Ultimate Grocery Guide to see where our grocery money goes)
- Projected Expenses: These are expenses we know we will pay for throughout the year = $213.01
- Total Expenses Actually Paid Out: $9193.94
-
Total Expenses Actually Paid Out: Calculated is $8759.48 (total net monthly income) – $213.01 (projected expenses) –$0 (savings from emergency fund) = $9193.94 Spent too much -$647.47
- Actual Cash Savings going into Emergency Savings: Calculated is $8759.48(total monthly net income) – $9193.94 (actual expenses paid out for the month) – $213.01 (projected expenses) = –$647.47
Our budget results
Time for the juicy category numbers and to see how we made out with our monthly budget. Below you will see two tables, one is our monthly budget and the other is our actual budget for the month of March 2019.
This budget represents 2 adults and a toddler plus retirement investments.
Budget colour chart: If highlighted in blue that means it is a projected expenses
Note: We’ve decided to keep our grocery budget at $410.
Actual Budget Amounts
Our FREE simple budgeting series
Do you want to learn to budget like we do? Please take the time to read through our budgeting series plus read Budgeting in the New Year. I hope the information will help stop you from making common budgeting mistakes.
Our Ultimate Budgeting Guide from A to Z has everything you need to know about budgeting in one blog post.
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 1– Gathering All the information
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 2– Budget Categories
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 3– Tracking Receipts
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 4- Note-taking
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 5– 5S Organization
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 6– Who Does What and When?
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 7– Balancing Our Budget
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 8– Knowing our Coupon Savings
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 9– Reading Our Bills
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 10– Projected Expenses
Budget updates month by month
Just in case you missed our budget updates and want to do a quick search I’ve compiled them all on one handy page: monthly budgets.
2019 Budget Challenge- 7 Monthly Budget Reports
When I was looking for people to join the CBB 2019 Budget Challenge back in December I had over 20 people interested in joining.
It looks like we are missing one of the 7 budget update reviews so we are down one person for the year. That’s ok, it happens but I’ll certainly look into it perhaps an email was sent and not received.
As our budget challengers go along you may see their budget reports increase in data which I expect especially because it’s a learning experience for everyone. The more you do a task the better you get at it and the more you learn about what you are doing.
The budget reports below will remain anonymous unless the writer chooses to use their name and each one will be unique. They get to choose how they report their budget back to us.
Here we GO!!!
Budget Report #1
March is a nasty month in my mind…there’s far too much accounting to be done, not to mention the personal and corporate income tax returns that need to be filed. Sigh.
On the plus side, I am too darned busy in March to spend any money! If it’s not a “required” monthly payment that I have to make…whoosh, off to the savings it goes!
My 34 quart pot has arrived but I don’t have either the time or energy to deal with making borsch this month. Hopefully I’ll tackle a batch next month – assuming I have more energy and less work! LOL
For now, it makes me happy just knowing the pot is here when I am ready for it. 2019 is starting off as a year of things breaking, dying and needing replacement. One of our battery back-up systems died a very noisy death right at the start of March. So, we are watching for a good sale to replace the box.
In the interim, we moved things around to cover all the computer equipment but the television in our family room is without a back-up right now.
Hubby says he really doesn’t care (it’s an old tv) and it will need to be a real screamer of a sale before he’ll replace the box that died as it would be cheaper to replace the tv if it gets fried during a power bump.
When we do find a deal he likes. I have an account named “Repair, Replace or Renovate” that we can tap for the costs.
When I got out of the hospital after my near death experience in 2015, I re-named all of our accounts…just in case.
I handle the day-to-day finances and if hubby suddenly had to start…at least I have things set up in a manner that’s very simple to understand exactly what each account is intended for.
The tellers always giggle when I give them the “names” of the accounts to make deposits to.
Part of my process includes downsizing the number of accounts that we have, the number of institutions that we deal with and setting things up so that all RRSP/RRIF and TFSA accounts can easily be rolled directly into the surviving spouse’s accounts without having to transfer them to another institution…with the simple presentation of a certified true copy of the death certificate and the will.
I have a lot of funds that will be moving between institutions over the course of 2019 and the two final transfers to be completed in 2020.
It’s just one more thing for me to monitor, at this busy time of year, not to mention checking to make sure all of our invested funds are invested in such a way that both the Principal and Interest have 100% CDIC coverage.
Now that the “indicators” have turned red in both the US and Canada markets…this is more important than ever.
The cheque arrived from our 2018 extended health claim. The Car Replacement account is enjoying that top-up as it was just a wee bit short of $1,000.00. That’s a pretty darned sweet deposit in my world!
I also had a couple of dentist appointments this month and it took a full week before my mouth quit hurting after each one.
Consequently, two weeks out of the month our meals were devoted to all things either soft or liquid…soups, pancakes, gluten free pasta and egg dishes were heavily featured.
March has my favorite holiday of the year…St. Patrick’s Day! It’s a great excuse to celebrate all things Irish with lots & lots of root vegetable dishes and soups. It also adds a celebratory light
at the end of the long winter tunnel! It’s almost time to switch from soups to salads!
I have stayed on track with our budget during March, mostly because I had no time for shopping, and we will finish the month with $550 in our vacation accounts. BUT….
Hubby has requested that we return to California on his vacation this year…oh no…I’m really going to have to pinch and squeeze every nickel that I can come up with to cover the cost of all our travels this year!
As usual, I don’t pay for hotels or villas stays as I use my Marriott Bonvoy, Vistana Signature Experiences or Hilton points. I do have to cover a car rental, gasoline, food/dining out, entertainment and any shopping we do.
Hubby did the trip solo last fall and all in he spent $1,740.00. If I have any hope of covering that as well as our other get-aways this year…I am really going to have to watch everything we spend.
So the new travel budget required for 5 trips this year is an estimated $4,500.00. I have $550 and know where I’ll find $1,600 in August so I just need to squeak out another $2,400.00 by the end of the year…over the course of 9 months that’s about $267 a month. I think I can do it…wish me luck!
It will be worth it since we’ll have 2 weekend trips to Bellevue, WA (one of our favorite spots to relax & unwind), a 10 day trip to Portland, OR, our 10 day “25th anniversary” trip to Whistler and a month long extended stay in California. I’m motivated, would you be?
Budget Report #2
Budget report. Have you ever felt like you are doing everything wrong and can’t seem to catch a break?
That was our March. Renovation month went okay, nothing major there to report because I think we planned it out pretty well.
We didn’t jump into the renovation until we were ready. We purchased supplies as we could afford and no major mis-steps happened. Luckily, that was first the week of March as we were both off for March break.
Then everything began to drown us. Literally. We have only been in this house since July 2018 so we are still figuring it all out. When we found some moisture in the basement in the fall we investigated and found a crack in the foundation.
We had that repaired and everything seemed ok. Until the second week of march. We had a major raim storm out here when the ground was still very frozen.
Then we woke up and went to change the laundry in the basement only to find 3 inches of water across the whole basement. Luckily we haven’t put much energy into the basement since the fall flood so most of it was concrete with some walls still in place.
Funny enough the crack we repaired was dry so we had to investigate after we sucked up gallons and gallons of water. We started by taking the walls down and ripping styrofoam insulation down trying to find the source.
When we found the source it wasn’t nearly what we were expecting. No it wasn’t a crack in th wall but rather a chimney hidden behind framing insulation and wood panel decor. Also, the chimney was full of water. That put a ding in the budget.
The house fund (that we just basically emptied for our renovation) and our emergency fund was cleared out. Then week three of March comes around and our van dies. Having gone down to one vehicle would leave us with zero vehicles which would not work in our rural NB town.
The cost of fixing the 2003 caravan with 350k km on it just didn’t seem worth it. And we had cleared out our big savings funds last week.
So we added a debt.
We financed a van with the promise to pay it in half the scheduled time. For the month of April we are dedicated to rebuilding our $1000 emergency fund and going back to the basics.
A strict cash only budget envelope system a la Dave Ramsey.
We probably will have to continue this into May until we get our feet back down.
Have you ever had a major budget fail?
I would love to hear how you came back from it in the comments. Could really use that inspiration this month!
Budget Report #3
I wish I could say I did a good job in March but I didn’t. I didn’t track anything
So, I went into my bank account and checked where my savings accounts and visa balances were, and compared them to how much I was paid. I have $127 left over that I did not spend.
All my money went into savings that was supposed to as I have it set up to go automatically. I really fell off the wagon in terms of managing my budget last month so I need to get back on track.
One positive thing is that we got a well cap built with friends and family and even with supplying beer and pizza, it was still a lot cheaper to buy the food/drink and materials and do it ourselves than to get a contractor in – plus I feel I learned a ton and hope this makes me feel more confident towards home repairs in the future
Budget Report #4
March started off challenging, husband started a new job in Feb. and he doesn’t work the same amount of hours like he did at the last job. So his pay went from $2800-$3500 bi weekly to $1003-$1223 weekly ($2006-$2446 bi weekly).
But he is happier so that is all that matters. I am really pushing myself to meal plan for the week so I know what we will be having and what to shop for.
If we want to spend money on ourselves then we use our allowances. My friend at work was telling about her weekend and what they spent. I said I don’t know how you can do it without a budget. I need to know how much I have leftover to spend. I used to spend without knowing but not anymore.
Budget Report #5
Note: We are missing a report which means we are down one person for 2019.
Budget Report #6
Hi Mr. CBB,
Here’s my budget for March…
We had an increase in our income this month, because my husband sold an old car that he had stored for years. We decided to use the money towards a long over due bathroom renovation. In other news, we found a local butcher that sells grass-fed & chemical free meats, so I’m happy about that.
It will slightly increase our grocery budget, but I knew it would. I am still trying to see if and how we can cut back on groceries though. Making the choice to eat healthier is not without it’s draw backs, but I’m satisfied with our decision.
Maybe we will just eat less meat to compensate for the increase in cost. We have a few weekend getaways planned, so I’m working that into our summer budget now.
I’m curious, how do others plan vacations into their monthly budget? Do you save every week all year long, knowing you might take a vacation or do you start saving once you’ve planned one?
Our ‘Everything Else’ category this month included household items, pharmacy, birthday gifts, eye care, chiropractic care and some miscellaneous shopping items. Overall, we had a good month!
PROS:
– We sold an old car for cash
– We now have money to renovate our bathroom
– We are continuing to pay down our debt
CONS:
– We are still struggling to get our grocery budget lower
– We will be starting a renovation on our bathroom
– My hubby hasn’t had over-time for over a month now, which is unusual
Budget Report #7
Here’s my submission for March!
Current Status: 106% to Budget
This month was non eventful, ordinary month. We went to work, took our son to daycare, did our normal routine. I’ve been trying to find someone to take over my Mat leave contract as I’ll be going at the end of April. Its been quite a journey and we’re not too much closer to finding someone. Just a bit stressful, at the moment.
Again this month’s wins are similar to last month, gas prices we reasonable for most of March (though now April’s prices have skyrocketed), and we’ve saved a bit on child care due to the subsidy.
Food makes up most of our Fail for this month, it’s hard when you’re pregnant and craving everything under the sun to eat. We ended up spending most of this on Groceries, doubling our budget.
This is shocking to me because I try to buy non name brand food, eat at home as much as possible, and use coupons at the store. I might try to put together a spreadsheet to see which portion of the grocery bill goes to each category and see how I might reduce it.
We do only shop at one grocery store (Save-on-foods) because they have a great generic brand, the more rewards system and grocery pick up. I must say grocery pick up is the best time saver and its mostly the reason I shop at one store.
The large purchase for this year for our house is new windows, they had financing available but my HELOC actually has a better rate so we’re going to use that. I’m liking the fact that the windows will be new now and helping to reduce the cooling and heating needs of the house.
P.S- Don’t forget to leave them a comment about their budget challenge report.
Welcome to our Budget Challengers for 2019 above.
That’s all for this month check back at the beginning of May 2019 (sometimes in the middle) to see how we made out with our April 2019 budget.
Happy Budgeting CBB’ers!
Share to...
DON’T BE A PARROT BE A THRIFTY LIVING EAGLE WITH YOUR MONEY
Most peoplemany Canadians
Someone passes away who you thought was struggling financially or perhaps just doing well only to find out they are millionaires.
This happens more than we hear about and it makes you wonder why someone who has money doesn’t spend it or enjoy it?
One million dollars doesn’t excite us like it used to and that’s because it’s the new minimum wage of high net worth earners.
What I mean by that is a million dollars doesn’t go too far depending on where you live and how you choose to live your life.
Add in a mish-mash of problems that could pop up from children moving home, divorces, health problems or issues with family members where you step in to help it can cause financial stress for anyone.
The problem is there are people who are scared to spend their money because they don’t know what the other side of retirement has prepared for them.
I don’t think we were as prepared for retirement like we are today only because we have had to research the system because of my in-laws.
If my mother-in-law knew she’d retire with dementia and not even know it would she have been living the frugal lifestyle that she had before her diagnosis? Maybe, maybe not.
My father-in-law was the opposite knowing that he would die one day of heart failure meant that money was no big deal and you could earn more.
In fact he used to laugh at his daughter and her frugal ways saying that he wished he was like her when he was younger.
He spent what he had kept a bit in savings and had the house to fall back on once it was paid along with a small works pension.
A nice chunk of that went to pay for his almost $40,000 funeral.
It’s no wonder cremation is popular for those who don’t want to spend the money or can’t afford a full-on funeral service.
The reality is we don’t know what’s on the other side of retirement apart from it’s a gamble whether you will be healthy and travelling or sick and dependent on others.
My mother-in-law is still frugal and hates to spend her money even though she has no responsibility with any finances in her life but her allowance.
In her state of mind she is STILL worried about money and is as cheap as can be but we blame it on her illness as she was never as rude and demanding as she is today.
It’s amazing how money can manipulate the mind and perhaps it falls back on beliefs, state of mind and personal behaviours.
She doesn’t know that she pays $25 to get a ride to her day program which she also has to pay for or to have a caregiver take her to the stores where she shops weekly.
There is no one there to help her so we had to hire help and it is NOT cheap.
She’s a wanderer so it’s important to keep her busy which is why we’ve had cameras installed around the outside of her property.
There is an endless list of things you have to pay for as you get older if you need any type of care.
Yes, there are agencies we’ve contacted and the prices are similar or a bit cheaper but when you are dealing with someone with dementia they can’t go alone.
So, if she didn’t have some money put by her situation would be far different from what it currently is and we’re deathly afraid for her future.
Yes her mortgage is paid in full and yes she has a tax-free savings account and a bit of savings but that won’t last forever.
If she’s anything like her mother she could be in a home until she’s 100 years old which is still 40 years away.
Wrap your mind around that for a moment. Living in assisted living for 40 years.
Honestly, we are still learning more and more about costs involved with having to move her into a home when the time comes so I’m not going to say one way or another that I know it all. I don’t.
Moving her into a decent home would see costs in the thousands of dollars between 3-6k a month in the area she lives in.
Either way financially the family is worried about her and we’ve all begun to worry about our future even more because of all this.
A THRIFY LIVING FRUGAL LIFESTYLE IS FOR LIFE
You might be reading this and thinking, “Wait just a minute Mr.CBB if I had a million dollar net worth, I’d be rich”.
Perhaps so but if you lived in the Greater Toronto Area like we do a million dollars goes as far as buying a house with a few extra hundred square feet and a bit of land that allows you to break out the gas mower for longer than 10 minutes.
The good news is that we have no mortgage and are debt free which is great for saving money but not everyone is in the position to do so.
Unless we plan to downsize (good luck around here) or move to another city that means we either buy bigger or stay where we are as nothing is cheap in our area.
It also means we continue living frugal because we have no idea what the next year or 10 years will bring our way.
A million dollars today may be worth peanuts tomorrow.
Being a worry wart is not a good thing but I believe that being realistic about tomorrow is just as important about living for today.
I’m finally understanding how and why so many people worry about retirement and if what they have saved up will be enough.
I get it now, but I also know that there are plenty of people who are in worse positions than we are.
I don’t know what they think about their tomorrow but what I do know is that we all have to look out for ourselves.
Thrifty Living With Retirement Money
There is so much grief that goes into trying to figure out whether someone has banked enough cash so that they can retire happy it’s unbelievable.
It’s as if people won’t retire unless they are given the nod and pat on the shoulder to tell them that life will be fine with the amount of money they diligently saved up for most of their lives.
You go from watching sitcoms on television to reading the newspaper, watching the weather and turning on the evening news.
That’s the transition in life that seems to follow most people.
The older you get the worse it gets because politics kind of creeps up on you and then you become a BIG part of the process whether you like it or not.
One minute you are getting something for less or even free and after the next election it’s wiped out or changed which means more money from your pocket.
We pretty much live and work to pay taxes in Canada which doesn’t leave much left for us to budget each month for everything we need.
Investing your money in an RRSP or TFSA is primarily where Canadians stash their cash to avoid being highly taxed while their money grows.
- Can I retire at 55 with 500k?
- Is 2 million enough to retire at 55?
- Is 3 million enough to retire at 55?
- Is 2 million enough to retire at 60?
- Is 3 million enough to retire at 60?
Can you retire on 2 million dollars?
Of course you can BUT it depends on where you live and the lifestyle you want to lead not to mention your health status at the time.
There really is no magic number that you can pull out of thin air because it’s up to the way you want your standard of life to be like.
Some people reward themselves with retirement simply because they are debt free and have some money in the bank and others need millions of dollars, pensions and passive income to hand in their retirement resignation.
Thrifty Living Millionaires
Both Mrs. CBB and I were talking about how prices of everything in Canada are rising exponentially including gas, groceries and even our utility bills.
Our hydro bill is now double what it was 5 years ago at around $500 a month and you simply can’t negotiate rates on needed utility bills.
We do however have the option to cancel our home phone, television, internet and cell phone if we don’t have the money to keep them running.
These are the types of businesses where you can negotiate how much you pay because they are not a necessity.
We are at the mercy of Canadian pricing and all we can do is continue to budget, save money and go on with our thrifty living lifestyle.
Yes, we can splash out on things we want but we also know that saving up for what we want is more important than rushing out to just spend money whenever we get the urge.
In a way it trains us to manage our money better when we step back from looking at the numbers in our bank account.
Financially we both thought that if we did get sick and needed assistance how much would it potentially cost us down the road with inflation?
Say, we got sick in our 50’s and had to be put into a home that costs us $3000-$5000 a month for the rest of our lives and we lived until we were 90.
How much would that cost us?
A tonne of money that’s how much.
If you do not have access to private health insurance coverage and do not qualify for assistance, you will have to pay for a retirement home stay out of your own pocket.
Since luxury retirement homes can cost anywhere from $4000 to $15000 per month, you or your parents will simply need to have significant assets and/or income in order to afford the best quality homes for seniors. Source
Would our investments yield enough profits to help sustain our net worth and eventual cash flow when needed? The answer is, we don’t really know. We would hope so, but no one really knows.
This is why and I’m sure some of you out there reading this today who are also debt free and perhaps have money saved even into the millions continue with thrifty living.
Our Thrifty Living Millionaire Lifestyle
Balancing happiness in our life with wants and needs no matter how much money we earn or save is priority.
We know we won’t be famous earning millions so like every other person working hard and saving is the only way to go.
So what do we continue to do in our thrifty living lives?
Our Thrifty Millionaire Lifestyle Habits
Below are some of the ways we continue our thrifty living lifestyle to help us save money so we can enjoy the extras so we aren’t always plowing into our future savings.
By the way, thrifty living and frugal are the same thing when it comes to saving money.
- We still budget (of course)
- Use coupons, coupon apps to find the best grocery deals
- Shop the reduced rack at the grocery store and watch for price discrepancies that trigger SCOP (free stuff)
- Always shop thrift stores first for everything unless we need to buy it brand new
- Source discount codes for anything we buy online including Ebates and Swagbucks
- Negotiate prices wherever and with whoever we can
- Price match and watch for price drops on items we purchase for price adjustments
- Buy and Sell what we own to earn back money to put towards another purchase
- Use a bank with no fees and Canadian Credit Cards to earn rewards points
- Fill up on gas at Costco because it’s far cheaper than another gas station
- Blog to earn extra money on the side
Discussion: What worries you the most about retirement? Leave me a comment below.
CBB Home and Blog Update
Hi there everyone,
Another week another breakdown in the house and more illness. Surprise? Probably not as it seems to be the norm around here.
Thankfully the water heater was fixed with-in a day which meant hot water and heat finally.
The cherry on the top was both my son and I get extremely ill where we were throwing up constantly.
I actually think I had it worse than him because he was bright as a button the next day but still had a rough tummy.
I on the other hand went a few days with throwing up and not eating which made for a very tiring week for me at work, home and trying to get my blog updated.
I survived. I’m still here and now that the nice weather is attempting to come through I’ve been out raking and getting the lawn ready for Spring.
I’m already seeing the corners turning a bright green so that’s a good sign.
I’m always worried but I do tend to take good care of the lawn because I like it to look lush and gorgeous.
I’m a bit of a garden nerd that way.
Mrs. CBB wants to install a bird feeder on our property so I’m either going to make one or look for one relatively cheap.
I’m not sure but my guess is making one will probably be the frugal way to go. If you have any tips we’d love to hear about them in the comment section.
We’ve been working on a new keto recipe for everyone for Canada Day celebrations which we plan to share about two weeks prior.
I’ll let you guess what it is. It’s a bit tricky to get the right consistency but we 100% have the flavours and the base is perfect.
I’ve lost a bit of weight this past month or so which is a good sign since I need to work off what I’ve gained this past year.
As you know it has been a rough time for the family and putting ourselves last has been typical of our days.
Now that we seem to be a bit more stable we’re working on getting ourselves back into tip-top shape once again.
That’s our week.
I hope you all have a wonderful two weeks and we’ll see you back here again for our next CBB home report and Saturday Weekend Review.
Mr.CBB
CBB Posts You May Have Missed
These are the blog posts I’ve written the past two weeks that you can catch up on if you’ve missed them.
If you don’t already please subscribe to the blog and you will get my posts come straight to your email. Ta-da…CBB in an Instant.
- How we avoided a financial crisis after buying our home (March 2019 Budget Update post)
- Retirement Income Sources In Canada You Need To Know About
- Keto Egg Breakfast Muffin Cups Two Ways (Ham and Cheese and Salami and Cheese)
- How to get over your money worries in 10 steps
- Risks and Benefits of opening a joint bank account
- The best ever Keto buns from your oven
Finance Read Of the Week
I thought since we were talking about retirement today and how it can be scary that perhaps Mark from My Own Advisor could shed some light with his post FIRE at 52, How to draw down what we’ve worked so hard for.
Find out what Mark has to say with his extensive report that he created for them.
F.I.R.E stands for Financial Independence Retire Early which sounds great but not everyone can do this.
Mark shares a reader question about whether the reader has enough money to retire at the age of 52.
Below are the stats of this couple wanting to FIRE at 52.
- Ontario based, up north of Toronto.
- $800k combined invested (such as $142,000 combined TFSAs; $510,000 combined RRSPs; $148,000 in a combined/joint non-registered account).
- Paid off home worth out $450,000, with no plans to move in next 10 years.
- Paid off x2 vehicles, no plans to buy a newer, used car for at least 5 years.
- Zero debt – yeah!
- I’ll have a military pension that will pay me with $40,000 per year (pre-tax) at age 55, indexed, for life. (The pension increases by Consumer Price Index (CPI) each year which is great.)
- My wife has no pension plan.
- I will probably putter-away with various side-jobs to keep me busy – so I expect to earn about $10,000 net per year from that until age 65 or so. We’ll see!
Frugal Recipe Find
I once watched a video where this chef made the most beautiful fluffy pancakes as if they were pillows and tried to recreate it but failed.
I found this recipe for souffle flapjacks that look just like them so I thought I would share it and see if this recipe lives up to the photos.
Mr. CBB’s Motivational Corner
Saturday Search Term Giggles
Every week I get tens of thousands of people who visit Canadian Budget Binder because they did a search online and found my blog. (SIC) means I’ve copied the text exactly and it has spelling errors.
Most times funny, sometimes serious.
- Boiled Egg Parmesan– I’m not even sure what to make of this
- Simple resignation letter– One without any swearing
- Costco penalties for shoplifters– Someone got caught
- Keto Gluten-Free Communion Bread– Am I missing something?
- Can a very mouldy house be saved?– Yes, by the devil. Good luck and Call Mike Holmes.
Don’t forget to Follow me on Social Media and Subscribe to my blog.
Share to...
