Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Staying Debt-Free is vital to us, especially as we are near retirement age when anything could happen with our investments.
I realize we are in a good position, and starting this blog was the kick in the butt we needed.
Following our monthly Excel budget to collecting receipts, rewards points, and frugal shopping has allowed us this freedom.
Canadians focus on month-to-month expenses, especially with the highest current inflation rate; it’s been at 4.1% since 2003.
I don’t plan to retire between the ages of 63 to 65, and we’ve talked about how life might look different for us.
Although our financial picture may look good on paper today, we know how life and risk go.
One minute you have it all, and the next, you don’t.
Always remember that in the back of your mind.
Are you prepared for what lies ahead, even if it’s not what you had planned?
Although we want to see our Net Worth each month, you don’t necessarily have to.
The reason is that your net worth only shows you today and not tomorrow.
Our son back in school has finally given us the breathing room to sit down and talk about our future.
Today, let’s look at the importance of staying debt-free for our family.
Staying Debt-Free Is Our Goal
I’ve moved many times in my 40’ish years of life between my mom and dad and my adulthood.
I bought my first flat when I was 21 years old, and when I sold it to purchase a three-bedroom townhome at 24.
[IMG alt="new home purchase
Buying a new home purchase for Canadian Budget Binder or staying debt-free"]https://canadianbudgetbinder.com/wp...der-house-staying-debt-free-720x478.jpg[/IMG]
Buying a new home purchase for Canadian Budget Binder or staying debt-free
The money I made from the house sale and my meager savings allowed me to move to Canada with cash in my pocket.
Everything about my life in Canada has been bigger and better than I had ever imagined in the UK.
Mrs. CBB and I discussed buying a home on a larger property to continue living a simple life.
However, we’ve both discussed staying where we live unless we must move.
By that, I mean for my career or any help our son will need going into the future.
We both did not expect to have a son on the spectrum nor did we consider the costs.
Ultimately we see ourselves living in our current home for the foreseeable future.
Although the government provides services, we often think about his life when we are gone.
Perhaps we may sound a bit nutty, but it’s our son, and any parent would want them to have a good life.
Our Legal Will states that my sister-in-law will care for our son after our passing.
She agreed to this beforehand, so she’s well aware of the commitment.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring and whether or not we will be alive.
My dad died when I was 17, and Mrs. CBB’s father passed away recently.
We both believe that these deaths have impacted our financial decisions.
Having experiencing death at a young age, you truly begin to understand the importance of life.
The deaths in our family were the most significant reasons we decided to create a Will and Power of Attorney.
Leaving our son an education fund is essential to us so he can go on to thrive in his chosen career.
Like Mrs. CBB, you may have received OSAP for College or University and worked to pay it back.
I worked as I went to University and paid for everything independently, but I struggled.
You either work before, during, or after to get rid of educational debt, or school is paid for, leaving you to focus exclusively on your studies.
Financial stress and living with little money to buy groceries will be a page in my life story that will stay with me forever.
Being able to pay into a Registered Education Savings Plan will be our gift to him.
As a 7-year-old, we talk to him about money and why working hard at school is essential.
The hardest part of parenting is ensuring your child knows life after moving out.
Our son often asks us if he can have a credit card to pay for premium video games.
If your child is online, whether playing kids’ games or watching television, advertising is in their face.
He sees us swiping our credit cards to pay for purchases when we go shopping.
It’s not often that we carry cash on us, so he believes plastic is money.
Any time we have cash, prompt him to pay for purchases to see the exchange of money.
You can’t buy anything if you don’t have the money saved to do so.
Since starting the 52-week savings challenge, we’ve noticed that he loves counting the savings.
He even puts all the money he gets from the tooth fairy, birthday, or Christmas in a small briefcase.
He is a funny kid, but we notice how important it is to save his money so far.
He’s only seven, so we don’t expect him to understand finance, but we instill financial values.
Mrs. CBB and I grew up having many siblings where our son would be left alone.
Sure, he has cousins in Britain and Canada, but having siblings to celebrate holidays is always lovely.
I’m not sure what life is like as an only child, but I suspect it can only go one of two ways, great or miserable.
Staying debt-free to give our son a head-start financially so he doesn’t have to suffer as we did adds another layer to our frugal life.
Once you have children, life does become about them; however, it has to include us.
So much goes through our minds, and the last thing we want to do is dump it on our son or each other.
We’ve considered moving to a town or village so we could pay cash for a home with more property.
Although that sounds nice, it takes time away from being a family.
Our son may need rides in and out of the town to the city for work, appointments, and school.
There’s so much uncertainty that it’s tough to come up with a solution.
Since the schools are so close to us, we will take the easier way out and stay.
Taking a bus or driving to the city takes minutes, as going to appointments.
Below are a few topics we discussed this week where staying debt-free is the best option.
Have you ever sat with your spouse to discuss the future?
If not, it’s an excellent conversation to have.
We believe the most pressing of the questions is what will happen if our health fails.
Living in a nursing home or long-term care is expensive, even with government assistance.
Trust me. We don’t have answers for many more questions because they are in the future.
All we can do is create a plan to stay debt-free to live our retirement dreams and leave our son a legacy.
Our retirement dreams are simple, and I believe being debt-free at a young age has groomed us.
We have no intentions of living a lavish lifestyle as we are leaning more towards comfort.
Since I won’t have to worry about working, I’ll have all the time for a hobby, including updating the Canadian Budget Binder.
It will be interesting to look back and see how our retirement goals of staying debt-free happen.
My wife is confident I’ll be renovating our house well into retirement, provided my health holds up.
Are we overthinking the future, or are we on the right track?
Anything is possible, but for now, it makes us comfortable planning and tracking our finances each month.
I know some of you might think paying for his education, having a trust fund, and life insurance paid for life is too much.
Perhaps it might be, but as parents, we’ve been through the hell of not having enough money not to justify doing it.
Are we setting our son up for failure by leaving him with too much money?
We trust that our parenting skills will give him the resources to continue with his family when we die.
That’s if he has a family because we don’t even know, but the money is his to do right by it.
You must have faith in your parenting skills and relationship with your child.
Related: My 10 Step Easy To Read Budgeting Mini-Series
Discussion: How important is staying debt-free into retirement to you?
Please leave me your comments below, as I’m interested in your feedback.
MR.CBB
Our Net Worth For The Preceding Twelve Months
This chart reflects our net worth increases and decreases throughout 2021.
As you can see, it has been a steady incline until April, when it dipped because of the markets.
That was quickly corrected in May, June, July, and August.
Not everyone checks their net worth monthly, but we like to because we choose to.
With the increase in house prices, selling our house today would increase our net worth from about $850,000 to $900,000.
The only catch is that we’d need somewhere to live, so we stopped increases in the house.
We often look at the big picture and then remove the house to see an accurate number.
Do you know how to calculate your Net Worth?
We like calculating our monthly net worth to know if we are still on track.
Some people calculate it yearly or quarterly, but it’s up to you and how informed you want to stay.
Net Worth is only an estimate, and not everyone uses the same type of figures to tally it up.
Some of you may not include vehicles as we do or leave out assets inside the home as we have.
You might be the person who decides not to include your home in your net worth calculation.
It depends on what you want to calculate or sell today and make money for tomorrow.
As long as you know your monthly financial numbers, figuring out net worth is relatively easy.
Net Worth adds up your assets (what you own) and then removes your liabilities (what you owe), giving you a net worth number.
Understanding your net worth will help you determine if you are on track to meeting or beating your personal financial goals.
How to Determine Net Worth?
Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities
Why not go ahead and calculate your own using our Free Money saving Tool, Net worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder 2012)
When budgeting, anything is possible; we prove that we still have a long way to go in our journey.
These are our numbers and goals, not a means of comparing your plans to others’ target goals.
We don’t care how much money others earn or if they have a high net worth or lower than ours as it’s not a competition.
I hope our experiences will help guide you along your financial path, working towards debt freedom.
Some of you may have had to start over like I did or go to school again and now have OSAP loans to pay back.
Others may have divorced, lost money in the stock market or other investments, suffered job loss, fell ill, or injured, but you can’t let that stop you from achieving your financial goals.
You may have been gifted trust funds, paid-for homes, education, or other perks that give you a financial kick-start, and that’s OK too.
August 2021 Net Worth Picture
Hi Friends,
Where did our money go in August 2021?
As our August budget update mentioned, we had to spend money due to health complications.
The increase in our net worth by 1.81% is some savings from August and investment increases.
As mentioned, we haven’t increased our home price for our net worth in years, as it’s pointless.
Whether we plan to stay or move house is only worth what someone is willing to pay at that time.
In other words, things change, markets change, and nothing is as it seems until you’re ready to sell or retire.
Remember what I said, “It’s not about how much money you make; it’s how you save it.”
People accumulate wealth because they know how to save or invest their money.
The most negligible improvements should mean significant strides in reaching your goals.
Sometimes we have to fail to learn, and we’ve all been there.
Money can be evil for some people, especially those who negatively affect their financial situation.
Be optimistic, and little by little, with determination; you too should see improvements.
Click the links below to read our net worth updates for 2021.
That’s all for this month’s net worth update, but please check in October to see how we made out in September 2021 with our financial portfolio.
~Mr.CBB
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The post Staying Debt-Free Is Our Priority: Net Worth Update Aug 2021 (+1.81%) appeared first on Canadian Budget Binder.
Staying Debt-Free is vital to us, especially as we are near retirement age when anything could happen with our investments.
I realize we are in a good position, and starting this blog was the kick in the butt we needed.
Following our monthly Excel budget to collecting receipts, rewards points, and frugal shopping has allowed us this freedom.
Canadians focus on month-to-month expenses, especially with the highest current inflation rate; it’s been at 4.1% since 2003.
I don’t plan to retire between the ages of 63 to 65, and we’ve talked about how life might look different for us.
Although our financial picture may look good on paper today, we know how life and risk go.
One minute you have it all, and the next, you don’t.
Always remember that in the back of your mind.
Are you prepared for what lies ahead, even if it’s not what you had planned?
Although we want to see our Net Worth each month, you don’t necessarily have to.
The reason is that your net worth only shows you today and not tomorrow.
Our son back in school has finally given us the breathing room to sit down and talk about our future.
Today, let’s look at the importance of staying debt-free for our family.
Staying Debt-Free Is Our Goal
Staying Put Instead Of Moving
I’ve moved many times in my 40’ish years of life between my mom and dad and my adulthood.
I bought my first flat when I was 21 years old, and when I sold it to purchase a three-bedroom townhome at 24.
[IMG alt="new home purchase
Buying a new home purchase for Canadian Budget Binder or staying debt-free"]https://canadianbudgetbinder.com/wp...der-house-staying-debt-free-720x478.jpg[/IMG]
Buying a new home purchase for Canadian Budget Binder or staying debt-free
The money I made from the house sale and my meager savings allowed me to move to Canada with cash in my pocket.
Everything about my life in Canada has been bigger and better than I had ever imagined in the UK.
Mrs. CBB and I discussed buying a home on a larger property to continue living a simple life.
However, we’ve both discussed staying where we live unless we must move.
By that, I mean for my career or any help our son will need going into the future.
We both did not expect to have a son on the spectrum nor did we consider the costs.
Ultimately we see ourselves living in our current home for the foreseeable future.
Future Importance Of Staying Debt-Free
Although the government provides services, we often think about his life when we are gone.
Perhaps we may sound a bit nutty, but it’s our son, and any parent would want them to have a good life.
Our Legal Will states that my sister-in-law will care for our son after our passing.
She agreed to this beforehand, so she’s well aware of the commitment.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring and whether or not we will be alive.
My dad died when I was 17, and Mrs. CBB’s father passed away recently.
We both believe that these deaths have impacted our financial decisions.
Having experiencing death at a young age, you truly begin to understand the importance of life.
Do What You Can Today To Protect Your Tomorrow
The deaths in our family were the most significant reasons we decided to create a Will and Power of Attorney.
Leaving our son an education fund is essential to us so he can go on to thrive in his chosen career.
Like Mrs. CBB, you may have received OSAP for College or University and worked to pay it back.
I worked as I went to University and paid for everything independently, but I struggled.
You either work before, during, or after to get rid of educational debt, or school is paid for, leaving you to focus exclusively on your studies.
Financial stress and living with little money to buy groceries will be a page in my life story that will stay with me forever.
Being able to pay into a Registered Education Savings Plan will be our gift to him.
As a 7-year-old, we talk to him about money and why working hard at school is essential.
Teach Them Young About Money
The hardest part of parenting is ensuring your child knows life after moving out.
Our son often asks us if he can have a credit card to pay for premium video games.
If your child is online, whether playing kids’ games or watching television, advertising is in their face.
He sees us swiping our credit cards to pay for purchases when we go shopping.
It’s not often that we carry cash on us, so he believes plastic is money.
Any time we have cash, prompt him to pay for purchases to see the exchange of money.
You can’t buy anything if you don’t have the money saved to do so.
Since starting the 52-week savings challenge, we’ve noticed that he loves counting the savings.
He even puts all the money he gets from the tooth fairy, birthday, or Christmas in a small briefcase.
He is a funny kid, but we notice how important it is to save his money so far.
He’s only seven, so we don’t expect him to understand finance, but we instill financial values.
Staying Debt-Free For Our Son
Mrs. CBB and I grew up having many siblings where our son would be left alone.
Sure, he has cousins in Britain and Canada, but having siblings to celebrate holidays is always lovely.
I’m not sure what life is like as an only child, but I suspect it can only go one of two ways, great or miserable.
Staying debt-free to give our son a head-start financially so he doesn’t have to suffer as we did adds another layer to our frugal life.
Once you have children, life does become about them; however, it has to include us.
So much goes through our minds, and the last thing we want to do is dump it on our son or each other.
Staying Debt-Free For Our Family
We’ve considered moving to a town or village so we could pay cash for a home with more property.
Although that sounds nice, it takes time away from being a family.
Our son may need rides in and out of the town to the city for work, appointments, and school.
There’s so much uncertainty that it’s tough to come up with a solution.
Since the schools are so close to us, we will take the easier way out and stay.
Taking a bus or driving to the city takes minutes, as going to appointments.
Importance of Staying Debt-Free To Us
Below are a few topics we discussed this week where staying debt-free is the best option.
Have you ever sat with your spouse to discuss the future?
If not, it’s an excellent conversation to have.
- How will our son thrive in life without us?
- Can our son live in our current home when we both pass?
- Who will look after us if we get sick?
- Will there be enough money to take care of future health needs?
- How does staying debt-free impact our current lifestyle?
- When will we stop using a budget?
- Costs of moving into long-term care or a nursing home.
- The importance of downsizing as we retire.
- Ensuring that we do all the fun things that we can with our son as older parents
- We are leaving our son enough money to start a life without financial stress.
We believe the most pressing of the questions is what will happen if our health fails.
Living in a nursing home or long-term care is expensive, even with government assistance.
Trust me. We don’t have answers for many more questions because they are in the future.
All we can do is create a plan to stay debt-free to live our retirement dreams and leave our son a legacy.
Retirement Goals For The Two Of Us
Our retirement dreams are simple, and I believe being debt-free at a young age has groomed us.
We have no intentions of living a lavish lifestyle as we are leaning more towards comfort.
Since I won’t have to worry about working, I’ll have all the time for a hobby, including updating the Canadian Budget Binder.
It will be interesting to look back and see how our retirement goals of staying debt-free happen.
My wife is confident I’ll be renovating our house well into retirement, provided my health holds up.
- Travel outside of Canada if our health is good
- Staying debt-free
- Road Trips across Canada if our health is good
- Be there for our son and support him when he needs us
- Downsize what we own so our son isn’t left with the burden
- Garden since we both love gardening
- Long walks on trails we’ve never been on before while foraging
- Thrift store shopping for life and volunteering our services
Are we overthinking the future, or are we on the right track?
Anything is possible, but for now, it makes us comfortable planning and tracking our finances each month.
When We’re Gone
I know some of you might think paying for his education, having a trust fund, and life insurance paid for life is too much.
Perhaps it might be, but as parents, we’ve been through the hell of not having enough money not to justify doing it.
Are we setting our son up for failure by leaving him with too much money?
We trust that our parenting skills will give him the resources to continue with his family when we die.
That’s if he has a family because we don’t even know, but the money is his to do right by it.
You must have faith in your parenting skills and relationship with your child.
Related: My 10 Step Easy To Read Budgeting Mini-Series
Discussion: How important is staying debt-free into retirement to you?
Please leave me your comments below, as I’m interested in your feedback.
MR.CBB
Calculating Net Worth 101
Our Net Worth For The Preceding Twelve Months
This chart reflects our net worth increases and decreases throughout 2021.
As you can see, it has been a steady incline until April, when it dipped because of the markets.
That was quickly corrected in May, June, July, and August.
Not everyone checks their net worth monthly, but we like to because we choose to.
With the increase in house prices, selling our house today would increase our net worth from about $850,000 to $900,000.
The only catch is that we’d need somewhere to live, so we stopped increases in the house.
We often look at the big picture and then remove the house to see an accurate number.
Net Worth Is What You Own Minus What You Owe
Do you know how to calculate your Net Worth?
We like calculating our monthly net worth to know if we are still on track.
Some people calculate it yearly or quarterly, but it’s up to you and how informed you want to stay.
Net Worth is only an estimate, and not everyone uses the same type of figures to tally it up.
Some of you may not include vehicles as we do or leave out assets inside the home as we have.
You might be the person who decides not to include your home in your net worth calculation.
It depends on what you want to calculate or sell today and make money for tomorrow.
As long as you know your monthly financial numbers, figuring out net worth is relatively easy.
Net Worth adds up your assets (what you own) and then removes your liabilities (what you owe), giving you a net worth number.
Understanding your net worth will help you determine if you are on track to meeting or beating your personal financial goals.
Determining Net Worth
How to Determine Net Worth?
Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities
Why not go ahead and calculate your own using our Free Money saving Tool, Net worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder 2012)
Financial Numbers
When budgeting, anything is possible; we prove that we still have a long way to go in our journey.
These are our numbers and goals, not a means of comparing your plans to others’ target goals.
We don’t care how much money others earn or if they have a high net worth or lower than ours as it’s not a competition.
I hope our experiences will help guide you along your financial path, working towards debt freedom.
Not Everyone Follows The Same Path
Some of you may have had to start over like I did or go to school again and now have OSAP loans to pay back.
Others may have divorced, lost money in the stock market or other investments, suffered job loss, fell ill, or injured, but you can’t let that stop you from achieving your financial goals.
You may have been gifted trust funds, paid-for homes, education, or other perks that give you a financial kick-start, and that’s OK too.
Net Worth Losses and Gains
August 2021 Net Worth Picture
Hi Friends,
Where did our money go in August 2021?
As our August budget update mentioned, we had to spend money due to health complications.
The increase in our net worth by 1.81% is some savings from August and investment increases.
As mentioned, we haven’t increased our home price for our net worth in years, as it’s pointless.
Whether we plan to stay or move house is only worth what someone is willing to pay at that time.
In other words, things change, markets change, and nothing is as it seems until you’re ready to sell or retire.
Earn It, Save It, Invest It, Build It
Remember what I said, “It’s not about how much money you make; it’s how you save it.”
People accumulate wealth because they know how to save or invest their money.
The most negligible improvements should mean significant strides in reaching your goals.
Sometimes we have to fail to learn, and we’ve all been there.
Money can be evil for some people, especially those who negatively affect their financial situation.
Be optimistic, and little by little, with determination; you too should see improvements.
Canadian Budget Binder Net Worth Updates 2021
Click the links below to read our net worth updates for 2021.
- January Net Worth 2021
- February Net Worth 2021
- March Net Worth 2021
- April Net Worth 2021
- May – Oops I forgot to post this one.
- June Net Worth 2021
- July Net Worth 2021
That’s all for this month’s net worth update, but please check in October to see how we made out in September 2021 with our financial portfolio.
~Mr.CBB
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The post Staying Debt-Free Is Our Priority: Net Worth Update Aug 2021 (+1.81%) appeared first on Canadian Budget Binder.