Net Worth Update Jan 2021

As you know, we are planning to achieve F.I.R.E in 2028 2024, and part of reaching that goal is tracking not only our spending but our net worth. We want to share our progress with you.

What is Net Worth and why is it important?

Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

For individuals, net worth or wealth refers to an individual’s net economic position, the value of the individual’s assets minus liabilities. Examples of assets that an individual would factor into their net worth include retirement accounts, other investments, home(s), and vehicles. Liabilities include both secured debt (such as a home mortgage) and unsecured debt (such as consumer debt or personal loans). Typically intangible assets such as educational degrees are not factored into net worth, even though such assets positively contribute to one’s overall financial position.

Let’s examine January’s 2021 Net Worth

Assets: 1,423,817

Principal residence	860,000
Condo overseas	137,500
Pension	34,054
Investments (RRSP, TFSA, foreign)	206,332
Smith Manoeuvre	185,931

Liabilities: 737,406

Principal residence	624,998
Condo overseas	93,669
Car	18,739

Net Worth: 686,411

Our net worth has increased by 2.66% over December 2020. The market fluctuation was the star one more time. When we compare with the first month we shared the net worth (back in July 2020), with January, our net worth increased by 13.68%.

Youtube channel – Our journey to Financial Independence

January 2021 – Our Financial Journey Summary

A few considerations since we started tracking our updates (first update in July 2020):

• Assets return increased by 6.25%
• Liabilities decreased by 0.16%
• Smith Manoeuvre investment is up 50.37%
• The Total Investment portfolio (all accounts, including RRSP, TFSA, Margin Account, and Smith Manoeuvre) is up 27.15%

Our strategy for financial independence remains the same: keep investing in real estate, dividend-paying stocks and ETFs.

Where do we invest to achieve Financial Independence?

Principal Residence

Currently, we are living in Toronto, a rather expensive city! But that high cost of living also means that our house has appreciated over the past few years quite a bit. Our home was purchased in 2016 for $615,000 but was recently valued in 2020 at $860,000.

Condo overseas

In 2019 we bought a condo in Brazil as an investment property. This price was paid in Reais (Brazil’s currency) but we have converted this to Canadian dollars to keep things simple.

Pension

Kristine works for the municipal government and we are using the same number every month based on her best five years.

Investments

This is the total of our investments in both of our RRSPs and TFSA’s, our margin accounts, and Gean’s investments overseas. We are 100% invested in equities (dividend and growth stocks) and ETFs.

Smith Manoeuvre

Since renewing our mortgage in 2020, we are using the HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) to invest in dividend-paying stocks (100% Canadian stocks).