sEPTEMBER NET WORTH UPDATE
I took the plunge!
By MeTheMillennial
September Monthly Net Worth Update
Officially month six on this net worth series and financial freedom journey, and similar to August I seem to be making huge life changes at the moment.
In the past two months I have now moved to Vancouver from Toronto and quit my 200k Strategy Consulting job!!
Am I having a mid life crisis?? Possibly..but let’s keep riding the wave regardless.
As you may know in this series, every month I track and lay bare, financially of course ;), my progress to reach $1.5M in net worth by age 35. I am now 30, so 5 years to get there and now without a job! I will need all the luck I can get – sign up to my newsletter to support the journey.
So read on to hear the latest on my progress towards that goal.
*As always, I am not an expert or financial advisor, so nothing on this website should be considered financial advice. These are just my opinions, everyone is different. Always do your own research and have your own independent thought process.
Life Update: September 2021
I quit!! Finally, i took the plunge and left the Corporate rat race behind. Which was one major goal I had, after spending nearly a decade in this type of job.
I am taking back control and spending my time on areas I am more passionate about, one of which is writing. You should see more posts coming your way now I have more free time.
….and hiking!! I’ve moved out West to Vancouver and I am taking full advantage of the hiking opportunities. Literally some of the best spots in the world to check out.
If you are ever out in this part of the world, make sure to hit me up for recommendations. Check out some recent hiking spots we went on.
What do you mean by net worth update?
Well put simply, it’s how much I have saved and/or invested across my assets minus my liabilities. Assets include cash, stocks, ETF’s, REIT’s, Pension etc. Liabilities are recurring bills I pay each month such as credit cards, rents etc.
Net Worth is simply a snapshot of your total wealth at a point in time. Put simply, it’s what you own minus what you owe.
Okay, long intro – get on with it, how much are you worth then?
I have now hit $315k in savings and investments.
Below is September, 2021’s breakdown versus the prior month (in excel of all places, as if I don’t spend enough time there in my day job working in strategy consulting).
Overall I have increased my net worth by nearly ~$7k. While I contributed $7.9k this month, which means my stocks decreased over the month. There has been some recent volatility in the market due to the Evergrande crisis along with the FED’s delay on increasing the debt ceiling.
But as always – I am at a point now where even if that market dropped by 20%, it would not mentally affect me, I would see it as an opportunity to deploy capital and buy up stocks at a discounted price.
As Warren Buffett famously said:
‘Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy’
Breakdown by category, and also what I spent for the month of August
Checking: $2k (-$1k) – Spent additional cash on furniture for my new condo in Vancouver this month. Went through IKEA hell on multiple weekends. But who knew those Swedish Meatballs offered in the cafeteria are actually quite tasty!
Brokerage: $258k (+$4k) – Increase of just under $3k this month, which actually means I’m down overall in my brokerage this month as I contributed $5k to. On a side note – my hedges in GOLD and exposure to REIT’s have been really limiting the downside and performing very well. Check out here what REIT’s I invest in.
My brokerage is made up of the following (approximate %’s):
- Index Funds – 37% (+2%)
- REITS – 20% (+8% this month, I’ve started investing more in Residential Housing REIT’s given the current inflation market – check out here why)
- Bonds – 0% (I recently sold my Bonds and pivoted further into REIT’s with the proceeds)
- Individual Stocks – 28% (-2%)
- Gold Stocks – 15%
As noted last month I am continuing to increase my index funds and REIT allocation and reduce my single stock exposure to below 10%. Check out the index funds I invest in here.
Gold Stocks – I am content with my current 15% allocation. I want to protect myself from any upcoming market crashes, and having exposure to these will provide some upside when the rest of my portfolio could be crashing.
RRSP AND DPSP: $49.7k (+$1.8k) – Increase of $1.8k this month with contributions of $1.5k. I currently have an 80/20 split between equities and bonds respectively. I am currently looking into switched to a lower Pension fee provider given I recently left my hob. You should do the same, these fees significantly eat into your returns over the long term.
Discounted Employer Equity Scheme: $7.5k (+$1.8k) – I contribute a portion to an equity scheme through my employer where I buy into company stock every 6 months at a 15% discounted price. This basically means an automatic 15% return on my contributions, a no brainer to take advantage of. This will be the last month of these contributions 🙁
Rent and Credit Card: $2k – Additional costs this month can be blamed on the costs of exploring more of Vancouver. Multiple car rentals accounted for a lot of this, with trips to Squamish, Bowen Island, Whistler. Money well spent in my opinion.
September 2021, I am now worth, financially at least ~$315k which is an increase of approx $7k since last months update.
Hopefully this will provide some value to you, and even help you keep you on track for your goal.
Calculate Your Own Net Worth
If you haven’t worked out your net worth before, or even if it’s just been a while since you’ve checked, do it now! Open up your accounts, and list down the key buckets of assets and liabilities (don’t sweat the small stuff to start, you can worry about this later).
The first step is having visibility into what your own financial breakdown looks like, and you can plan accordingly. Will also give you a realistic view of what you can achieve, and also what you need to cut back on to achieve your goal.
Let me know what you think of these net worth updates below. I hope you find some of these areas helpful in your own journey to whatever your goal is. For me that is having the ability to quit my corporate job in Strategy Consulting and spend my time how and where I want.
Follow along on my journey, I keep my net worth updated here.
Leave a comment or contact me if you would like to get in touch and update me on your progress towards your goals.
Have a lovely week everyone! 🙂
How do you allow for taxes in your above breakdown (especially around the brokerage total)? Are you sitting on a big capital gain that if crystallized will result in a chunk heading off to the tax man? (I am thinking from an Irish perspective, unsure what the rules are in Canada).
First make sure to always max out any pre-tax accounts (for examples in Canada that would be TFSA and RRSP). There are similar pension schemes in place in Ireland.
The bulk of my brokerage is in index funds – I don’t plan on selling these any time soon (I have a 10 year + horizon), so CGT isn’t a concern right now for me.
The long term CGT rate is also substantially lower in Canada than Ireland, so the amount I pay from dividends receievd isn’t that much. I do keep a cash balance towards the end of the year to account for this.