Another pay day...

…another car payment. We have paid a little over $2400 towards our car debt this month. I just did the calculations (nerd alert) and that is a half a year worth of payments gone in a single month! Talk about progression. The LOC is sitting at $15,000 even right now. At this rate we are on track to have it paid completely by mid September but just as long as it’s gone by the end of the year I will be pleased.

- M

Tangerine Investment

           Last weekend I set myself up for my very first Tangerine investment! I had been looking at and researching their different funds for some time now but never took the leap – until now that is.

It was so simple and easy as I’m already a Tangerine customer (we have our vacation fund with them) so really I just needed to answer a few questions about my risk profile, etc & the application suggested one of their funds. It did spend the weekend waiting pending approval but Monday after work I logged into my account and seen it was approved with my initial contribution set to come out that evening. Super impressed with how quick the entire process was and user friendly.

I also set up an automatic contribution that coincides with my payday. We do this with all of our investments and have gotten so used to not having that money we do not miss it.

As it stands this is what our investments look like:

-       $100 bi-weekly M’s RRSP #1

-       $100 bi-weekly M’s RRSP #2

-       $200 bi-weekly M’s TFSA

-       $100 bi-weekly G’s TFSA

-       $223 bi-weekly G’s pension (This is a Defined Benefit Plan but I do not include this as if he were to quit before retirement we would only get the cash he’s paid into it personally)

That’s $18,800 a year! Crazy how those little amounts add up. We started investing on our own only one year ago and as we got more comfortable with our budget, knowledgeable where our money goes and with each pay raise we added a bit more to our long term investing.

Alicia of Financial Diffraction had an amazing post this week that really got me thinking about our long term investments (Link to post: Saving is only half the battle). What was extremely motivating to read was when she started to talk about her savings amount once her debt it paid off:

"...$18,200 per year. Would you believe me if I told you that if I did that for the next 36 years (I’m only 29, remember), at an 8% return, I’d end up with $3.4 million dollars by age 65!"

I knew compound interest was good (when it comes to investing) but I never actually did the calculations. I don't know how realistic 8% return is but $3.4 million is an impressive amount to accumulate! 

We have a really good balance right now & I’m pretty confident in the foundation we are laying for ourselves. G is 25 & I'm only 24 so there is a lot that can happen between now and retirement - regardless I’m really proud of our start

- M

Retropay

            Last week G followed up at work about his raise from back in November to see what is taking so long for it to process. I’m really glad he did because it turns out they lost the paperwork... well that was their excuse anyways. 

            So G’s Sergeant had to resubmit all the paperwork again and I’m hoping it won’t take too long to get processed this time, although G said he will be following up. It normally takes a few months for any type of wage change to go thru so maybe we will see it before summer?  I’m not holding my breath nor counting on that money though – what will be left of the retropay (after taxes) will be a nice chunk to toss at the car debt, which is sitting at an even $17000 right now.

- M 

New Credit Card

            I have been researching travel credit card for quite a few months now and G & I finally made the leap to replace his CIBC Divided VISA. We ended up going with the RBC WestJet MasterCard. The real draw to it was the yearly $99 companion flight it offers on the anniversary of your signup & the insurance benefits. Yes, we can only fly WestJet but that won’t be an issue for us. Those flights will definitely be nice for visiting my family back in Ontario or going on vacations! Also the card comes with cancelation insurance that covers first responders if they get called in to work, which is so important for us. It’s extremely difficult to book anything in advance with G’s job even if he does have it booked off: RCMP = Really Can’t Make Plan.

Weird thing was they approved us for a credit limit of $22,000......... Ummmm that will definitely be lowered once we call to activate the card. Insane and extremely annoying that when you do the application online you can't choose to have a lower limit. Like they just want you to forget to lower it and then rack it way up because the transactions keep going thru (that was me a few years ago). 

I’m happy it’s a Mastercard though since we can use it at Costco for the points and just pay it off. I currently do this with my PC Mastercard. I use it at the grocery store for the point but then pay it off as soon as I get home. I’ve gotten an impressive amount of free groceries this way J Currently sitting at $70 able to redeem next time we do a city trip - which will be tomorrow as G has to go into Saskatoon for an appointment. 

We were looking at vacations this weekend and although we still really want to visit the Yukon, G really has his heart set on Vegas. Either or I’m fine with, as long as we both get a nice vacation this year. Nothing is set in stone yet but I do hope to sit down, do a price estimate to see what our savings target should be and when we would hope to go.

I think the cold weather is definitely starting to get to us; we are craving some relief & vitamin D, lol.

Anyone gone to Vegas? We don't drink and will maybe gamble very little just to say we did it, but we love amazing food and sight seeing: any recommendations?

- M

Organizing

It’s not Spring here yet, but I’ve definitely been Spring-cleaning. Well, more like spring de-cluttering. Our spare bedroom is in a state controlled chaos; different piles scattered around for donating or selling. The donation items I’ve slowly been moving into boxes as they become available – and once most of the snow has melted I will call for a pick up from the Canadian Diabetes. So far I have 4 boxes with another giant overflowing Rubbermaid container of stuff waiting for a box.

I’ve actually been organizing and pairing down since the New Year, writing down all the things I’ve been able to get rid of. I’m just over 400 items and there is still A LOT to go thru. Today alone I have two garbage bags worth of trash and was able to add a few more items to the donate pile. It’s crazy how much stuff we haven’t even touched since our move here. When we have our next move I definitely think I won’t unpack everything right away, just as we need certain things. Might be very eye opening how little we actually need (I'm pretty sure this is what the Minimalist guys did if I remember correctly).

G even thought it might be a good idea to scan any old bills that we might want to keep and start making the switch to paperless, saving any new bills to an external harddrive. That’s actually what I think I will do today – go thru our filing cabinet and see what I can shred. I have VISA statements way back from 2008 that I’m pretty sure I don’t need anymore and I have no idea why I’m hanging on to them.

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I stepped away from writing this post and went thru a few of the file folders. I guess I couldn’t wait, lol. I have a ton of paper to shred now as I double checked and all my credit card statements are available online. I still have more files to go thru but it’s a good start.

I have been enjoying cleaning and organizing small sections of our house at a time. Slowly but surely it’ll get done & this way it's not too overwhelming J

- M