Networth - June 2020

Assets:

Liquid - $27,539
This is anything we can easily liquidate with no penalties given a real emergency - I have included TFSA’s in this category for that reason.

Retirement - $292,096
G’s pension is a defined benefit pension at his work. For this calculation we take the cash value of the pension he would receive if he were to quit.

Hard Assets - $259,000
House value and car private sale amounts. The car values I update yearly in December.

Liabilities

Mortgage - $134,933
13 years & 8 months left on this baby! Woohoo :)

Consumer - $20,189
The only consumer loan we have right now is a car loan.

Networth: $423,513

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Our goals/focus right now are three things:

1. Saving up money for G’s laser eye surgery - I had my surgery at the beginning of this year and we paid in cash. G’s surgery isn’t scheduled yet but we are expecting it sometime in the fall. We will need to save up $4,290.
2. Saving up money for a gaming laptop - As you may, or may not know, I live in Saskatchewan but was born and raised in Ontario. All of my family is still living in my home town, so there’s always lots of FaceTiming, phone calls, etc. Since the beginning of the year my sister and I have been ‘hanging out’ via FaceTime and playing computer games together. This was fuelled even more once COVID hit. It’s honestly one of the highlights of my day - although we are playing a game we are also chatting, catching up, G is sometimes in the conversation if he’s in the room. We have a good desktop computer but G also likes to unwind after a day at work playing computer games. So we thought it would be a good idea to get a laptop for me to use while also replacing my failing MacBook Pro. If you can’t tell I’m just trying to justify this purchase, haha. G has been keeping an eye out for some good ones but wants to see what deals there will be for back to school and possibly Christmas. 
3. Replacing $5,500 to my TFSA - In the whirlwind of 2018, we dipped into my TFSA to help fund our last minute plane tickets, car rentals, hotel stays, etc. I’ve been lazy to replace those funds but want to pay myself back by the end of the year.

Everything else right now is on autopilot. I still keep a budget every month to keep track of all of our income and expenses. I don’t think that is a habit I will ever break. 

- M

Long Time No Post

Wow - two entire years of not posting. I had to dust of my old MacBook to even figure out what the email was the get into this account!

It feels good to write again. I’ve wanted to update for a while but life just kept getting in the way. I continued reading a lot of other blogger updates - those that are still around and writing, Cheering, laughing and crying at their post while sitting on my couch on a Sunday morning with my coffee. 

So lets do a TLDR version of 2018 - 2020.

2018 was rough. As you know from previous posts, my grandfather passed away in January of that year. In May we went back home to Ontario again for a wedding - it was good to see everyone again under much happier circumstances. At the very end of June, I got a phone call from my mom saying my grandma (her mother) was entering hospice care and they didn’t think she had much more time. G and I dropped everything and flew to Chicago to meet up with my family. I am so greatful that we were able to have a proper goodbye and was able to see her before she got really bad. 

2019 was a better year mentally. G and I spent a lot of time cooking together. Going camping when the weather was nice. Spending time with friends. I also started a new job in June! Still working at a Credit Union, but this is a much closer drive and MUCH better working environment. Over a year later and I’m still loving my job and hope G never gets transferred, lol. The biggest accomplishment that year was completing the Berg Lake Trail - our first overnight hike. We spent 4 days 3 nights on the trail and the views we absolutely worth it! Another vacation we took was to Mexico for a wedding. First time we’ve ever been south of the United States and it was a bit of a different vacation then we were are used too. However, it was nice to be there with family and friends - and we would definitely go back when we are looking to relax.

2020 so far has been good considering everything going on. In January I had laser eye surgery, which we paid for in cash. Best decision of my life - no complication and no side effects! (And trust me right before my surgery everyone was telling me horror stories...) We had a trip planned in April to England, Wale and Scotland but that obviously got cancelled because of COVID-19. We were able to go all our money back except two hotel booking - one we have a voucher for and the other hotel was just horrible so we bite the bullet for $164. G and I have both been working during this pandemic - nothing has changed financially for us at all. We’ve been enjoying time at home and went camping a few times so far this summer. Our provincial parks are only open to Saskatchewan residents so it’s been nice to explore our own backyard. On Wednesday we got back from Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park and had some wonderful weather for beach days!

I’ll update the finances in another post. For now, I’m going to enjoy my coffee on the deck and be thankful there is a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away.

- M