Welcome to my eighth net-worth update for the year 2018.
A short intro for new readers
If you are not new here, then you can simply skip to the next section.
For those new to my finance journey, this net-worth update is a simple report I publish every month, which tracks the progress of my journey to reach my financial goals.
My ultimate financial goal is to become a self-made millionaire by December 2024 (10 years plan). I have a strong belief that I can achieve this goal by saving and investing in high-quality dividend-paying blue-chip companies. I am also a strong believer of ‘compounding’ power, and I believe if I can push myself now and build a decent net-worth, then the ‘ compounding effect’ will give a heavy lifting in my later part of this journey.
I am posting all my financial information on this website because I love to inspire and motivate people to start their own journey to reach their financial freedom. You could learn from my successes and failures (experience) and improve your financial knowledge.
Along the way, I make financial mistakes and will share my experience here with you. So, you could learn something, avoid those mistakes and save money.
Also, I like to publicly track my progress and get feedback from like-minded people.
My net-worth
My net-worth was up just by 0.72% last month. It was a very tiny move in the positive direction compared to the past few months.
My investment portfolio did pretty well up until mid-August and went down significantly by the end of the month, especially my Canadian portfolio took a hard hit than the U.S stocks.
Long-term readers know that the majority of my investments are in Canadian companies. And, they are facing headwinds due to the ongoing political issues in the energy sector and the trade issues with south border.
In addition, rising bond-yield gives significant pressure to dividend stocks, especially for rate sensitive stocks.
As you know, I am fully invested in the stock market. In many instants, I borrowed money to buy some investments.
Plus, I am a middle-class income earner, so my saving rate is very low and it doesn’t make any big contribution to my net-worth.
Therefore, the direction of my net-worth is determined by the performance of my investment assets. If they move high, then my net-worth will move higher and vice versa.
Even though the U.S market has been performing well for the last couple of years, it wouldn’t make any big changes as I have very little investment in it (less than 20% of my portfolio invested in U.S market).
I wish I should have invested more money in U.S market than the Canadian market.
Past is passed. And, I hope things will change and the future will be bright.
Again, I am a long-term investor, and I understand that thinking about short-term market movements doesn’t make any sense. So, I will keep doing what I am doing now.
Let’s see all the details in numbers
Net worth update as of August 31, 2018 ()
Assets: $536 000 ( )
- Cash: $800 (no changed)
- Home: $280 500 (no changed) – Yearly adjustment with average inflation rate of 2%
- Canadian Stocks: : $191 500 ( )
- U.S. Stocks: $42 900 ( )
- Employer’s Pension Plan: $20 300( )
Please note that my financial situations and risk tolerance will be much different than yours. We all are unique by nature. As I always say, please do your own research or discuss with a qualified financial advisor before make any financial decisions.
Liabilities: $325 200 ( )
- Mortgage : $173 800 ( )
- Student loan: $19 800 ( )
- Margin loan: $65 800 ( )
- Credit card 1: $9100 ( ) (low interest credit card – 1.99% special rate for 8 months – will be expired in January 2019)
- Credit card 2: $13 700 () (low interest credit card – 2.99% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in January 2019)
- Credit card 3: $5400 ( ) (low interest credit card – 0.99% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in December 2018)
- Credit card 4: $14 100 ( – a new offer at 0.99% special rate – will expire in February 2019)
- Credit card 5: $3500 ( ) – (low interest credit card – 1.99% special rate for 10 months – will be expired in October 2018)
- Credit card 6: $0 ( ) – (low interest credit card – 2.99% special rate for 8 months – will be expired in August 2018 – PAID-OFF)
- Credit card 7:$200 ( ) – (regular expenses)- high interest rate of 19.99%.
- Line of Credit 1 :$19 800 ( ) – (low interest credit card – 2.99% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in December 2018)
- HELOC: $0
Net worth :$210 800 ( ) as of August 31, 2018
My net worth was up by since my last update.
Note
- all amounts are rounded to the nearest $100;
- all numbers are in CAD; and
- Conversion rate 1.00 USD = 1.3077 CAD
I have a huge credit card debts because I take advantage of low balance transfer promotion rate and invest in high quality dividend stocks. Learn, earn, save,invest and leverage your skills are the keys to become wealth.
Thank you so much for following my finance journey and for your great support.
I like your transparency.
What is your family income level and how did you managed to buy stocks for over $200 000 dollars?
Hello PJ,
Thank you for stopping by,
We are one income family, and our main source of income comes from my day job salary. I make between $55K to $58K per year (before all the deduction) from my day job.
I have been building my portfolio for the last couple of years, with slowly but steadily using dividend growth stocks. It took almost 4 to 5 years to get to this level.
Best Regards,