While thinking ahead to 2014 some lofty financial goals crossed my mind:
- Can we max-out the contribution room in our Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) by summer 2014?
- Can we start saving for an overseas trip in 2015?
- Can we put away at least 10% of our net income next year into RRSPs?
- Can we be mortgage free in 5 years?
My initial thought was…we can’t possibly do all this over the next couple of years….can we?
A recent conversation with a friend of mine reminded me about the choices I’ve made, we all make, regarding where we spend our money. I’ve made a few dumbass mistakes and wasted money over the years and I wish I had that time back because I’d do some things differently. I suppose on a more positive note I’ve made some good financial decisions over the years and I should write about those in a blogpost at some point.
Back to my question above I think only thing preventing my wife and I from realizing any or all of those goals above is: the desire to change. If you have enough desire to change something in your life you’ve already crossed a major hurdle on the path to reaching a goal.
What are your thoughts on that? Do you feel the same? With a new year on the horizon, what lofty, ambitious financial goals do you have?
I am new to investing in Canada. Have been in this country for 15 months. Learnt about RRSP and TFSA recently. Went to my bank last week-TD bank and opened both these accounts and put the max contribution amount in TD comfort MF portfolio. RRSP is more aggressive towards equities. TFSA is 40% equities and 60% bond. I didn’t have enough time to do research this time and not sure whether the above approach was correct. But would like to be prepared for 2014 and would like to invest systematically. I am 40 years, single, no mortgage, no other liabilities. Will be in this country for a long time hence would like to plan. Thanks
Welcome to the site and investing in Canada!
Good on you to learn about RRSP and TFSA accounts. You can find more details about those accounts on my site here and here:
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/2013/11/tax-deferred-investing-rrsps-101/
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/2013/11/tax-free-investing-tfsas-101/
The main thing is saving, you can’t invest what you don’t save. You can always adjust your allocations between equities and bonds as you learn more. With no mortgage and no liabilities, you’re probably in a good position to save.
Check out my Archives page for more recent posts and let me know if you have any questions.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/archives/
Thanks for checking out the site and happy investing!
I’m getting married next year, and while we are keeping our costs down for the wedding itself, we’re going on a honeymoon which will be quite expensive as it’s in Asia. We are going to more than one country, so with flights and all of that, it will be pricey. Besides that, we still want to be paying down our mortgage as fast as possible, and we have to work on saving up for a new vehicle for my fiance as his is getting tired.
I think we’ll be able to do all of this and more if we focus on our hustle and savings.
Given I have not been working the past 2 years (by choice- call it a Plan B turned Plan A retirement) I focused on sorting through our investments, and re-arranged them to be fairly efficient for the return we get. I spent a fair bit of time reviewing different investing philosophies and put together something that seems to work well for our risk/reward tolerance. That said, our up coming lofty goal is for me to start a business with the goal of turning a $200K investment into $1M in a 2 year time frame, while still maintaining my at home dad status… Lofty goal for sure, but with the right planning, and proper execution any goal or dream for that matter is achievable. – Cheers.
Hey Phil,
So what is your investing approach based on risk/reward/tolerance?
Turning $200k into $1M in 2 years? How?
Curious…
Mark
Like you I’ve made some financial mistakes in the past. To make up for it I never miss maxing out my IRA (similar to TFSAs in Canada). Got to catch up for the years I didn’t bother!
Yes, IRA = TFSA. The TFSA is close to being maxed out. The RRSP in Canada is equivalent to the 401(k) state-side. Money in these accounts are considered pre-tax; so taxed upon withdrawal. I’ve made some mistakes with this account but it’s getting better with time because I’m more indexed in this account than before.
All I can do is learn some lessons for going forward.
Thanks for the comment!