“If you’re bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.” ― Lou Holtz
I get up every day and want to be productive, at work, at home and at play. At work, there is my to-do list that never ends. At play, I’ve got a golf game that needs some serious TLC before our company tournament next month. At home, we’ve got some financial priorities to take care of. Let’s move on to those…
Earlier this year, my wife and I put together four financial goals to accomplish in 2013. Here’s a recap:
- Put $300 lump sum payments on our mortgage every month ($3,600)
- Make a healthy contribution to one TFSA ($8,000)
- Save for and take a great trip ($4,000)
- Do not incur any new debt ($0)
At the time of this post here is our report card. I look forward to your comments below:
Keep the lump sum mortgage going
Even though borrowing rates remain dirt low, we continue to pay down our fat 6-figure mortgage using lump sum payments. In terms of meeting this goal in 2013, we’re right on target.
Beef up the TFSA
Earlier this year, I maxed out my TFSA for 2013. My wife’s account is the one we’re focusing on now thanks to Tax Free Savings Account rules; contribution room was carried forward from previous years into 2013. We’ve invested about $3,000 in her account year to date. I’m currently waiting for a slight pull-back in the equity markets to take advantage of buying some Canadian dividend paying stocks at lower prices than today for this account. We’ll see if the markets co-operate. I’ll willing to wait a bit more before I limp in with some purchases. Likely some energy stocks.
Save some coin, take a trip
We love to travel and see new places and you might recall I wrote about our recent trip. Some close friends of ours are looking to celebrate a week out of country this winter and we want to enjoy this trip with them stress free. To do that, we need some money saved in advance. So far, we’ve only saved $800 for this trip.
Do not take on new debt
This is how I feel about debt. There’s no point in reducing our mortgage if we’re spending too much money in other places. I shouldn’t deviate from my saving and investing rules of thumb… Year to date, we have incurred $0 new debts.
Got any comments on our financial goals? How are your goals coming along this year?
Good job working towards your goals! Looks like you’ll reach them no problem! About halfway through the year and I’m feeling pretty good about reaching my goals as well. It’s always exciting to set goals and make solid progress through the year towards reaching them!
Ya, that’s true about not taking on more debt if you are piling money into the mortgage. I think you are doing fantastic and paying down the mortgage was the best thing we ever did. We are sitting at 81K left but are working on getting the money to Canada which is partially my fault for not meeting deadlines of paying the mortgage off in June. I have to get my arse in gear with all the paperwork which is what takes the time and the post as well. When do you plan to focus on maxing out your TFSA or is that in the plans? Do you think you will stay in this home for good after you pay the mortgage off? Have you invested much into your home in terms of renovations? I know.. questions.. did you expect anything less! Cheers mate.
Thanks MoneyCone. Happy to see a new blogpost from you.
In Canada, interest rates remain very low. I figure a good combination is paying down the mortgage and investing in a low interest rate environment. That way, if and when mortgage rates spike, I have little debt to worry about and I get to keep building assets.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/2012/06/my-plan-for-a-prolonged-low-interest-rate-environment/
Sounds like you’re making great progress towards your goals – you’re spending, saving for fun, and paying off debt – all wonderful things! And being mortgage free is awesome -it’s a worthy goal to strive for!
Thanks! Yeah, a balanced life is a happy life. All good 🙂 Thanks for your comment Cat!
You’re doing great so far. How much interest on your mortgage will the lump sum payments save you? We need to ramp up our mortgage payments, but we’ve only had the house for 5 months so we’re working on saving in an emergency fund first.
Thanks Daisy!
Over my 25-year amortization, we’re paying about $90,000 in interest costs. Crazy I know. By the end of our amortization period, with our monthly prepayment of $300.00, we’ll save about $30,000 in interest.
We did the same. We moved in, and felt we needed about $5k in our emergency fund. We saved that end of last year. I’d like $10k eventually.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/2012/05/why-we-want-a-10000-emergency-fund/
I’ll work on our emergency fund more once the TFSA is maxed out for both of us.
Nice job on contributing to your TFSA!
I just opened mine to pay for private school in a few years (gulp!)
We are considering opening a daycare at home (how cliché is that? hahaha!). This could be increasing our debt payment greatly 🙂
What the heck…go for it. You have the online empire to subsidize the costs 🙂
Thanks for acknowledging the work, we’re trying!
I’m all for putting more money into savings while mortgage interest rates are low. My financial goals are pretty limited for this year since it focused entirely on saving up for our mortgage down payment. Now that we’re moving into our new place next week I’ll have to decide what kind of goals to have going forward to keep me on track. Likely it will be all about investing…ok maybe a bit of renovations to spiff up the new condo too 🙂
Nice work having your TFSA so stocked up. My wife and I are making great progress on our IRA’s and should hit the max $5500 each this year. I love that a vacation to the Carrebian was part of your financial goals. We always make sure to save for and plan for a vacation at some point through the year.
Thanks, we’re getting there. Saving and investing are important but it’s part of our balanced approach. We need to live as well. Life is short.