After a long hiatus from financial blogging, I am back! I deleted my former blog a few years ago when I found myself not having the time to update it regularly and started feeling vulnerable about having that much information about myself available to anyone who happened by. But... While my financial situation has changed for the better, I feel the need to get back that accountability that I had from my previous blog.
Here's a few things that are on my mind (financially at least) right now:
- Retirement savings. I have a defined benefit pension and I anticipate working with the same employer until my retirement (rare, I know). I've heard that people with DBPs don't need to aggressively invest in comparison to their peers, and can actually be penalized with claw backs and taxes if they do invest heavily in RRSPs, but I'd like to get a more specific answer, and then develop some investing goals (or not!).
- Emergency fund. I have had an emergency fund and have been thankful for it! When my employer was unable to pay me in a timely fashion, my mortgage payments kept getting made, much to my relief of course! I'd like to set a more aggressive goal to get this built up, set a specific number as a goal, and decide how to hold it (TFSA, GIC, HISA, WTF?)
- Where does it all go? I just did my taxes and I made about $70,000 last year (before taxes). Um, what? Yikes. Yes, I made some gains on my debt and my net worth, but not that much!! I need to get back to paying myself first (more on that next) and actively working towards my goals.
- Ally is no more. WTF RBC?!? I had an Ally account set up to hold my monthly contributions to many planned spending items, but now Ally has been bought by RBC and shutdown. I was getting a nice high interest savings rate with no monthly fees, so it was a no brainer. Now I need to decide where to store my money. I contribute money monthly to the account to save for my annual car and home insurance, my emergency fund, a travel fund, and so on. It has been so great to get ahead of these bills (instead of putting them on the credit card and then paying them off) but I don't think I can do it without a separate account. And monthly fees? What's the point?
- Debt payoff. Clearly this is a list in no particular order. I have a few consumer debts left to pay off, and I'd like to get it over with! I want to buy a new house but want to have those debts gone first. I'll do a debt breakdown in another post, but it's where the $600 a month blog title comes from.
Well, that's not even a comprehensive list, but it's a start. Hopefully this blog will help me get my ducks in a row and get my finances in top shape.
