Here Are The Numbers !

I am really not someone who should be blogging, but I like to keep myself accountable and be able to look back and see where I have come. I am not a writer, I am a numbers person, hence the reason I love personal finance. So lets just get straight to the numbers. Here is what my budget generally looks like every month.

Income:

Day job: $1800

Side job: $160

After taxes: $1500

Fixed Expenses: 

Rent - $200

Investments - $200 ($100 bi-weekly*) 

Car payments - $220 ($110 bi-weekly*) 

Car insurance - $187

Student loan - $150

Gym - $90

Variable Expenses:

Gas - $150

Groceries - $150

Phone - $75

Pet - $50

Charity - $25

Laundry - $10

Total: $1507

As you can see, I have a tight budget. When it comes to my income, I am paid hourly, so I always do my best to pick up extra shifts. Not only does it look good on me that I am flexible and willing to always help, but it gives me the extra income to meet my needs. I often have side things going on for a little bit of money here and there, but because they are not constant and often go straight to debt, I am not including them.

This is very basic, and no I don't include entertainment, or clothes or anything like that. Well clearly I cant afford to, and also I try to do things that are free! I really enjoy hiking and being outside (in the summer!). I spend most of my time with my sisters, which includes a lot of going to the gym (hence the $90 gym membership..I know, I know!), and going to whatever my nieces and nephews are doing at the time (soccer games, hockey games, baseball games)  

One other thing I would like to point out, savings! As you can see I have $100 bi-weekly automatically put into mutual funds. I split it between my RSP and TFSA, 50/50. I plan on using my RSP to buy my condo in 19 months (more on that later)! And I would consider my TFSA as my emergency fund, (about to be used, boo!). Something you wont see in my budget is my Employee Savings Program. I am contributing 7.5% of my pretax salary (about $55 a pay) to this savings program through my work. They match up to 6%, and it is also used to buy company stocks! As soon as I was allow to participate in this I jumped on it! So far it is great, and our company stocks were up 14% last year!!! Hope it keeps going that way! The only downfall to this savings program is that I must keep it in there for 2 full years to have it matched. I am fine with that as this will also be part of my down payment for my condo. 

Overall, it's tight, but this is the least I will ever make (I hope!) and pretty realistic, sadly.

* It has come to my attention that this may mean twice weekly, but I mean it as every two weeks (maybe a Canadian thing? maybe I'm just wrong! haha)

Welcome 2014 Goals!

Hello there! I am not a great writer, nor do I fully enjoy it. But what I do enjoy is talking about money! This gets tricking in real life, as people think its a taboo subject and when you start to talk about savings, debt or investing they always steer the conversation the other way! I understand that most people don't love talking about TFSA as much as I do, so that is where y'all come in! I wont be blogging often, as you can see it has been about a year since I last talked. My feeling is I want to post a few times a month updating my net worth and my goals! 

It's still early in 2014 so I want to set some financial goals that I can stick to! I was doing well in 2013, paying down my student debts and whatnot, but when I looked at my net worth over the year, I ended up where I started! NOT cool!!! 

Pay down student loan by $3000

This will require payments of about $250 a month, plus any extra income I can go towards it! January 1 my student loan was at $15,891.03. So for the purpose of round numbers, on December 31, 2014 my loan should be at $12,900.

Pay down all my Credit Cards

After a few poor decisions my credit cards were maxed out at $6700 on December 31. This is terrible embarrassing to me as I have been reading personal finance blogs for years and should know better then to charge a trip to BC on my credit card, and while there give myself free range to spend! Already this month I have put my bonus and extra payments towards my credit cards, so I am sitting at $5834.73. To pay this off in full by the end of the year, this will require monthly payments of $500. This is going to be difficult for the next few months, but I am hoping with a promotion at some point this year I can add my extra income towards this!

Save $5000 towards a down payment for a condo

I plan on buying a condo in about a year and a half so I need to get serious about paying down my debts and saving a down payment. I have already started to save each paycheque with the following break down: $50 into RSP Mutual Funds, $50 in TFSA Mutual Funds and 7.5% (about $55-$65) of my paycheque to a savings program through my work that matches up to 3% of my annual salary. If I just maintain this I will easily save $5000 plus my growth in all investments. 

Run 5k Head for the Hills in April 

This is a race I have run every year for the last 3 years. My sister and I train and her work always put in a team, so I tag along with that! Last year I "ran" it in over 45 mins. I had a knee injury and should have listened to my body and not tried. But I did, and paid for it. I am still careful with my knee, but know what I have to do to keep me going, so this year my goal is to run it in 40 mins. I am not a fast running by any means, and I know its a hard hilly trail, so I will be happy is I just run the whole thing! 

Anyways, those are my goals for 2014! I think I will post a net worth update at the end of the month