Posting our CBB Family Net Worth and Budget Update once a month here is a means to motivate ourselves to continue down our financial path. We are a Canadian couple who make an average salary and want to know where we stand each month. We want others to know that you don’t have to make 6 figures to have a Net Worth. There’s no race to the finish line because no one really knows where that line is. You could die tomorrow or you may live until you are 110 years old.
What does Individual Net Worth mean?
Net Worth is a snap shot of your financial health sort of like a picture. It’s a total of the value of your assets minus your liabilities. Posting our financial numbers is about showing others how budgeting has worked for us.
Who’s the Man behind Canadian Budget Binder?
My name is Mr. CBB and I’m the frugal guy that does all the talking around here. Yes, some women think Frugal Men are Sexy and I’m here to show you how to spot one! Well not really but I’m sure you will have a good idea just by reading posts I’ve written around this blog.
There is also a Mrs. Canadian Budget Binder but she does not currently blog here. Together we are Canadian Budget Binder. We started our Canadian Budgeting Journey to lead us towards a happier financial future. No one handed us money on a silver platter and we earned every penny whilst returning to school twice along the way. Toss in a huge move from the UK to Canada and you can see life has had it’s ups and downs for us financially. There are financial implications when you move across the world something I wasn’t prepared for.
I enjoy learning from others who enjoy finance and taking care of their future before the future takes care of them. No one will have the magical answers for your financial situation, you need to figure out what’s right for you. I can’t tell you what’s right or wrong, all I can do is tell you what worked for us. After all I’m not a finance professional and you should consult with one when dealing with your own money, just like we do.
I blog at Canadian Budget Binder to encourage, motivate and help others who think that budgeting is a waste of time and can’t help them out of debt. I also like to connect with people who believe a budget is what they need to get back on track and are positive about getting back on track.
If you aren’t serious or don’t understand the reality that budgeting is important than don’t waste your time. It doesn’t matter if you owe money, you need to see the numbers every month. Don’t make budgeting seem as if it’s only for people who are not in debt, because that’s the wrong way to perceive it.
How To Determine Net Worth?
Realize that no one can snap their fingers and make your debt disappear. Figuring your Net Worth is not hard it’s just a step in the financial process that comes together as long as you have all of your numbers ready. When budgeting anything is possible, we are proof of that although we still have a long way to go in our journey.
These are our numbers and our goals, not a means of comparison towards your own goals. We don’t care how much money others make or if their net worth is more as it’s not a competition, it’s about hope. It’s about hope that we can follow a financial path in life that is not so stressful no matter if you have thousands or millions in the bank. I hope what I post for you, the fans, about our experiences perhaps will help guide you along that financial path towards debt freedom. Sometimes seeing our own numbers is what it takes to kick it into high gear like it did for us. I encourage you to learn what your own numbers are and make them work for you.
Money is Money, Debt is Debt, A Budget is SMART-Mr. CBB
Canadian Budget Binders Financial Health
Let’s see how we did in October!
As you will see I’ve made a NEW nifty chart so we can see a month to month change in our Net Worth. We did OK in October but I’m still struggling with the RRSP and wondering what to do. After we pay off the mortgage we will dedicate more money to our retirement fund but it seems they go down more often than they go up. Our house has also gone up in value but I won’t update that until January, 2013. Once we pay the mortgage I’ll likely only do an investment % change in place since there will be no more liabilities.
Do you know how to calculate your own Net Worth? Why not go ahead and calculate your own using our Free Tool Net worth Calculator (Canadian Budget Binder 2012)
I welcome all suggestions and tips on our Net Worth Update. If you wish to ask me a question privately you can click here.
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Related articles
- Reader Question:Do I Have To Share My RRSP With My Spouse When I Get Divorced? (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- What happened to your nest-egg goal? (metronews.ca)
- 5 Common Myths About RRSPs (boomerandecho.com)
- Reader Question:Is It Savvy To Cash In My RRSP’s To Pay Off Debt? (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- What I didn’t know about my money ’til I asked (brighterlife.ca)
- The Problem with RRSP’s (contrarianadvisor.wordpress.com)
- It’s Net Worth Time! (live4now-save4later.com)
- Is This Blog More Powerful than Doubling your Salary? (mrmoneymustache.com)
- David Rosenberg’s 5 reasons Canada’s household debt panic is overblown (business.financialpost.com)
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Looks like you’re doing well Mr. CBB. I agree that figuring out your net worth is quite simple, it’s not rocket science, but it’s something I think a lot of people don’t do. We figure ours, not as regularly as you do…we do it quarterly. I love seeing how our finances are doing and how I can improve what it’s doing in order to stretch the budget farther.
Ya, we are a bit obsessed with seeing our numbers every month likely because we put so much effort into our savings plan.
Love the new nifty chart Mr CBB! I think it makes things very clear where you are gaining and losing. 😀 Nice job!
Thanks Mary, I thought you might like that 😉
Based on these figures the beers are on you next time your in the UK Mate!
Ha,if only we can get that damn exchange rate back up to $2.35 I’d be buying the rounds that’s for sure… ya.. it was once a nice number… Mr.CBB
Dominating again! When are you going to get those fancy graphs like I have on my updates?? Congrats on the great month, CBB!
One step at a time mate.. I’m’ working on moving this blog first then I’ll see what magic I can create… Cheers Jason.. I think I really want to make those breakfast muffins.. can’t stop thinking about them.. lol
You guys are doing great…I have to ask, why do you have 150k in ’emergency’ savings though? Is it all in savings accounts or invested?
I actually talk about it a bit in the post. The money is invested in part and the rest is in savings accounts. We know we are paying off the mortgage in the upcoming months. Thanks for checking it out! Mr.CBB
I suppose it’s really not emergency savings I guess I should point out it’s mortgage savings.. I dunno either way I post it I’d still have to explain I guess lol..
Great work! Paying off the mortgage soon? Wow.
I wish we could….we just bought this home 2 years ago. We hope to have it paid off in 9 years.
Surprised about the savings, and why it is not used immediately to pay down mortgage? You’ll have it done soon enough though. 🙂
The problem is the money is not all in Canada and the exchange rate sucks! It was a nice comfy $2.35 on the dollar. We could have paid it down earlier yes, I just think we procrastinate too much. I think when it’s gone we will be happy to be rid of it.. and we can move on. Thanks mate… now if only I had your skills in investing…
The chart looks good…..nice and easy to read!!!
Thanks…I appreciate that Christine. Mr.CBB
Nice job Mr. CBB. Looks like you’re ready for any emergency. Here’s hoping one doesn’t come your way.
It’s only labelled emergency for the blog it’s all going to pay off the mortgage. It seemed good at the time to label it emergency but some people must just think we are nuts.. that’s not the case. There’s always more to a story I guess. Cheers!! Mr.CBB
Nice job, Mr CBB. Just curious – is your pension defined contribution or defined benefit? Just curious how you’re valuing it!
It’s a defined contribution plan if I’m correct.
Wow, impressive! You guys have 2 emergency savings balances? You are my new idol!
Ha,not for long but we will build it up faster without the $1500 mortgage payment, but you can still idol me if you want lol…
How exciting to knock out a mortgage. That will give you so much freedom to do other things with that money. Thanks for sharing
Yes, it will be nice to get rid of it but sad to see the savings disappear although we know we will grow it back before we know it. Thanks kim
Great job! I haven’t tracked my numbers super closely in recent months with the new jobs and new house business but I’m hoping to get back on that soon.
I know you’ve had so many awesome things happen your life. I’m sure you will find the time to get into the swing of it again. How is the new job?
It looks like you guys are doing awesome! We haven’t figured ours out for a while, but need to do it again. It is a lot of fun to see that number grow larger and larger.
We do it monthly for motivational purposes and others do it quarterly or yearly. I guess whatever works for you but yes, the numbers going up is a relief. Never know when or if the wall will come tumbling down.
Wow. If I’m reading this correctly, your net worth went up 8 grand in a month? That is amazing! I always think I’m in decent shape until I read your posts!
It’s always nice to see the amount go up but when something can go up it can go down. We like to see it continue to go up but we also know that at any point anything can happen. Cheers Cat!!!! Mr.CBB
Wow….good for you guys!!!!!!! You guys just about have the money to pay off your house…..have you ever considered doing that? I wonder how much money you would save in interest.
Yes we have enough to pay the house off and I’ll do a nice blog post on the savings.. we will break the 5 yr term so it will be a decent amount of interest we will save although we will pay almost 3k to break it.. we never win do we lol
Have you considered having your money “work” for you? By 40 we had a paid off house, and lots of equity. We withdrew that equity for mortgage downpayments and started buying rental properties. Nothing flash, but close to where we live so we could do the maintenance, repairs and deal with our tenants. Within 7 years we owned 40 rental units, and my husband and I have retired from employed work.We now live in Canada and Australia (my husband is Australian) for the summers.
Hi Kathryn,
Yes we have thought about it. Who knows what the future will hold for us. I think once we know where we will settle that might help. I just graduated and want to get my feet wet with my career for a few more years. Would love to have a home in the UK and Canada, who knows maybe one day. Cheers and thanks for sharing your journey! Mr.CBB