Overdraft

Continuing on in our My Money, My Choices journey - we come to overdraft.  I've thankfully never lived in it, but have in the past dipped into a few times by accident.  The cashflow exercise we went through a month or so ago really helped getting this straight so that we weren't having bills automatically debit from the account before pay day. The great thing though, about banking with...

My Money, My Choices - Level 4, Activity 3 and 4

Activity 3 is one I can really sink my teeth into, in this one, we have to check our credit history reports.  Activity 4 is to correct any errors.  I requested them for both Jordan and I on April 14th from both Equifax and Transunion and the Equifax ones arrived last week. Managing your credit is your responsibility, and checking in on the two bureaus is part of that job to make sure that...

My Money, My Choices - Level 4, Activity 1 & 2

Level 4 is all about credit...which is a tool and important to learn how to use well.  When credit, turns to debt it becomes a tool that weighs us down and prevents us from achieving financial independence. Activity 1 is to get a credit card...well that's an easy one to check of as complete....

Coffee Addiction

I am addicted to coffee. Not Starbucks lattes, or frappes or whatever - just awesome coffee. So what's this picture all about?  Why am I camping in my kitchen?  Because my awesome Bunn Coffee maker died a week ago...DIED! Okay, just the heating element crapped out.  But guess what...

I Went Shopping!

I don't generally shop for the enjoyment of it - especially clothes shopping...but it was getting a bit desperate in my closet, so I asked Jordan (who's much better at it than I am) to come with me. I had some money from last Christmas and other personal savings for the trip. Here's what I picked...

Investing - Asset Allocation

After writing about my pension asset mix a month or so ago, I felt like I hadn't really finished the exercise so I went to the front page of the internet and found a sub-reddit for personalfinancecanada and there I asked about pensions and asset allocation - and what I got, was a big lesson that...

Debt Update

Just a quick update on where the debt stands.  All three credit cards have a $0 dollar balance, the Kia isn't tracked here because it's at 0% interest and the mortgage is...the mortgage. As of Friday last week, the balance on the Escape and LOC was $34,900.  I've been continuing to add...

Comment Moderation

Hey All, I hate to do it, but I've had to turn word verification back on for comments, and moderation back on for any posts that are older than one day - I've had a TONNE of spam comments lately and it's getting a bit ridiculous. Thanks for understanding! J...

Credit History

The first and second activity in My Money, My Choices Level 4 is to establish and maintain credit. I believe that what Gail says is true at some point in every adults life, you will need to borrow money. Even to rent a car, or a hotel room, you need to have a credit card. I got my first credit card at 18 years old - my first year of college. It at a $500 credit limit, and I still have it to this...

Networth Update

Here it is, our networth as of May 1, 2014.  I really enjoy doing these posts, because it reminds me that even when it feels slow - like we're not making progress - I can see visually that we are.  This month alone, we spent double than we had any other month so far this year, and still,...

April Spend Report

April was the first month were we committed to tracking our spending on a weekly basis, but because I'm just tracking our day-to-day spending (the $600/two weeks) - I still want to do a monthly reconciliation to catch anything that hit a credit card, or that was planned spending like vacation, education,...

MMMC - Level 3 Done!

My Money, My Choices - Level 3, Activity 11 & 12 Jordan and I don't have children so we can skip these activities - they are setting up and automating RESPs.  You can bet your bottom though, that once we do, it will be the first thing we do for our kids once we have them. With these last...

Do you have a TSFA?

My Money, My Choices - Level 3, Activity 9 & 10 From the blog posts, and articles that you still see regularly around the merits of TSFA's versus RRSP - it's no wonder people are still confused about what they are for, and if they should have one. Level 3 activity 9 and 10 are to open a TSFA and automate contributions to it.  It's the easiest (only?) way in Canada to save money (up to $5,000/year)...

Friday Spend Report

Here is our weekly spend report - courtesy of a screen shot I took of my Spending Wallet App.  So far, we've spent a tonne on gas!  Some of this should actually be vacation expense, so I need to re-categorize that. The first weekend that we set up for camping is always a lot.  We drove...

My Money, My Choices - Level 3, Activity 7 & 8

A curveball account...now this is something that Jordan and I have never had...though perhaps it is and we've just been calling it our Emergency Fund.  Gail believes that everyone should have a curveball account to help deal with those unexpected expenses that you don't wan to throw your budget...