Posted by Tim Stobbs on May 1, 2013
The following is an update of Tim’s plan to retire early. Please note the house is paid for so net worth is no longer tracked.
To track my progress I’ve decided to track both my expenses and my investment gains. So once the investments gains are consistently beating my expenses I’m financially independent and can stop working. I think my ideal tracking of this would be one full year of investment and spending data, but I don’t have that yet. So for now I’ll do a trailing six 12 month average on spending and investments for the calendar year.
Investments
Account (Contribution), [+/- Gain or Loss less contributions]
RRSP $33,210 ($100), [+$320]
LIRA $12,480 ($0), [+90]
TFSA $20,630 (+$2900), [+$470]
Pension $71,760 ($973), [+$517]
Wife’s RRSP $38,800 ($0), [+$230]
Wife’s Investment Account $12,830 (-$600), [-$200]
Wife’s TFSA $13,720 ($0), [-$300]
My Investment Account $6,890 ($-300), [+$30]
High Interest Savings Account $1,900 ($0),[$0]
Investment Net Worth $212,220 ($3073 ), [+1196 or 0.6%]
(YTD Contribution: $17,802), [YTD Gain: $11,717 or 6.4%], YTD Avg Monthly Gain $2929
Spending Averages
Last Month $4183
Trailing Last 12 Months (less mortgage payments) $3041
Results
Number of months spending covered by investment gains: 0.96 {Target 1.0 or higher}
Commentary:
So this month I finally fell below my target of 1.0 for the first time this year. So lesson learned in the short term a massive gain in investments can seriously mislead you to think you are doing better than you are. I’m glad I’ve kept my expectations down so far, but I’m happy to see the YTD investment gain stay over 5%.
This month our expense took a hit as we had an unusual bill of just over $2000 owing for federal tax. Which seems like a lot until I looked into it and realized that just about all of this tax owing came from our home based businesses, which then transfer cash to cover their portion. So while I’ve booked the full expense of this in this summary about $1450 of that was paid for by the business accounts. Proving again if I keep using the full expense number generated from Mint I will be over estimating what I actually need for the plan.
On the investment side we drained off some extra cash in the investment accounts and contributing more to the TFSA accounts. I need to look into cashing out the taxable accounts entirely and moving them to TFSA. There really isn’t a good reason to keep getting the fees in those small trading accounts when they won’t be used much for the next few years. The plan is to catch up on all our contribution room in our TFSA and RRSP first, which should take about two years.
Any questions?
Posted by Tim Stobbs on March 29, 2013
The following is an update of Tim’s plan to retire early. Please note the house is paid for so net worth is no longer tracked.
To track my progress I’ve decided to track both my expenses and my investment gains. So once the investments gains are consistently beating my expenses I’m financially independent and can stop working. I think my ideal tracking of this would be one full year of investment and spending data, but I don’t have that yet. So for now I’ll do a trailing six 12 month average on spending and investments for the calendar year.
Investments
Account (Contribution), [+/- Gain or Loss less contributions]
RRSP $32,790 ($100), [+$390]
LIRA $12,390 ($0), [+140]
TFSA $17,260 ($0), [-$210]
Pension $70,270 ($973), [+$467]
Wife’s RRSP $38,570 ($0), [+$290]
Wife’s Investment Account $13,630 ($0), [+$120]
Wife’s TFSA $14,020 ($2,600), [-$190]
My Investment Account $7,160 ($0), [+$10]
High Interest Savings Account $1,900 ($0),[$0]
Investment Net Worth $207,950 ($3673 ), [+1,000 or 0.5%]
(YTD Contribution: $14,729), [YTD Gain: $10,520 or 5.2%], YTD Avg Gain $3507
Spending Averages
Last Month $2585
Trailing Last 12 Months (less mortgage payments) $2961
Results
Number of months spending covered by investment gains: 1.2 {Target 1.0 or higher}
Commentary:
So this month I used my average 2013 monthly gains compared to my trailing 12 month spending to get my Result number of 1.2. I finally had enough data in Mint Canada to make that happen. So while I’m still meeting my target I need that to be occurring on a 12 month trailing average for both investments gains and spending before I declare my retirement plan a success. In fact, I realized the trailing 12 month spending includes vacations which isn’t in my plan so in fact if I’m meeting this target I would be exceeding my plan. Mmm, I’ll have to track that better in the future to back out that information.
This month our expense took a hit as we had an unusual vet bill for our dog. She needed a lot of dental work done and that cost us $760.
On the investment side I’ve finally started contributing to the TFSA accounts, but at this moment it is just cash. We moved the money a little late so we are stuck for the long weekend waiting for the transfer to clear before my wife goes investment shopping.
Any questions?
Posted by Tim Stobbs on March 1, 2013
The following is an update of Tim’s plan to retire early. Please note the house is paid for so net worth is no longer tracked.
To track my progress I’ve decided to track both my expenses and my investment gains. So once the investments gains are consistently beating my expenses I’m financially independent and can stop working. I think my ideal tracking of this would be one full year of investment and spending data, but I don’t have that yet. So for now I’ll do a trailing six month average on spending and investments for the calendar year.
Investments
Account (Contribution), [+/- Gain or Loss less contributions]
RRSP $32,300 ($100), [+$230]
LIRA $12,250 ($0), [+90]
TFSA $17,470 ($0), [+$10]
Pension $68,830 ($973), [+$547]
Wife’s RRSP $38,280 ($2550), [+$170]
Wife’s Investment Account $13,510 ($0), [-$80]
Wife’s TFSA $11,610 ($0), [-$200]
My Investment Account $7,150 ($0), [+$40]
High Interest Savings Account $1,900 ($700),[$0]
Investment Net Worth $203,280 ($4023 ), [+1106 or 0.5%]
(YTD Contribution: $11,055), [YTD Gain: $9,524 or 5.2%]
Spending Averages
Last Month $1156
Trailing Last Six Months (less mortgage payments) $2478
Results
Number of months spending covered by investment gains: 1.9 {Target 1.0 or higher}
Commentary:
So this month I used my average 2013 monthly gains compared to my trailing 6 month spending to get my Result number of 1.9, but given the small sample size this doesn’t mean much. I need that to be occurring on a 12 month trailing average for both investments gains and spending before I declare my retirement plan a success. Interestingly enough, even if you compare spending last month to gains, I’m still only $50 short last month.
It’s nice to see I’ve broken the $200,000 barrier with my investments. I checked and I broke the $100,000 barrier back in Feb 2010, so in three years I’ve doubled it. Not bad given I’ve only focused on increasing our investments in the last four months. I can say the second $100,000 was WAY easier than the first.
Also please note this new format is still under development, so things may change.
Any questions?
