Debt (other than mortgage) paid off, 5-month emergency fund saved, now focused on investing. Keep the content about low-fee investing options in Canada coming!
For real! Front loading your saving and investing goals earlier on can really set you up for success. Also, you can definitely have fun and still prioritize future you 😊
This was cool to watch - the short story about the tooth was sooo real. Teeth and vehicle repairs are definitely the two biggest fears I personally have when it comes to unexpected financial emergencies. Glad you got it fixed and had the money saved up to do so. Emergency funds are so crucial. Keep up the good work bro.
Yeah it’s tough cause if you have a tooth accident it’s usually seen as cosmetic so you’re likely going out-of-pocket regardless of insurance. But it definitely felt great knowing that I wouldn’t have to walk around with a missing front tooth for too long lol. Thanks for the comment 😊
As a 28 year old in Australia, I have $1,92M in property, $1.3M on debt (mortgages) and a $75,000 car paid off. And no other debt, I carry a credit card but pay it off before each statement period for points etc. Keep your head down, hustle and learn, take calculated risks and don't be afraid of debt, leverage your wealth. Stay hungry 🤙🏻
@@ozsalty that much debt is risky business in any sector, especially with the debt/equity ratio. Can pay off well or come down crashing fast. I have a family and wouldn’t feel comfortable with that much risk. I don’t know much about the Australia home market though.
Hahahaha xD. Thats not a flex in my POV. I live in Australia too. More like a debt trap. Like sure you will be a millionaire at age 50 etc. Thats cool. But why 50? Aint that the age where you energy aint same as your 30s? So what the point of having that money? Every time I heard debt. I always assume you turn yourself as an employee to the bank. Almost %75 goes to interest and %25 goes to principle. Negative gearing, debt inflation, tax detuction are cool. Yet you are still trap. Im 26 and im not flexing or anything. Here mines. $120k in savings Generating $500 per month. (This goes to shares) $20k in shares Generating $115 per month. (This money is re-invest back) Work Only generating $4700 Per month, $5000 in a good day. 33K 2022 MAZDA CX-3 is ( Full paid) Rent is only $700 a month. I live with roommates btw. %75 of my left over goes to Shares and Once it hit $10k per year or $830 a month. I will focus on increasing my deposit around %30 to buy my first rental properties. Make sure the property generate money. So I can focus on shares once again. Since all this compounds. Year by year I will cut my job from Full-time to Part-time. So I can learn and enjoy other things. yet makes same money as full time. All this happens soon around your age. See I'm taking debt too but difference between you and me. I will work Part-time lol.
Everyone had their different approaches to welth generation, i have 11k in stocks/ETFS i put money into each fortnight as well. But property on average statistically have gone up 6.8%pa over thr last 30 years, while rent goes up 6-7%. So if i dont buy anymore property (which i will) they will be worth approximately $2,812,000 in 10 years and my 1 rental property will being generating $1670pw I have my hand in many jars mate, not about bragging its about just letting other young investors know its possible, i bought my first house on $27hr Fulltime, i house hacked i did all of it to make it work. I am happy for you and people like you 🤙🏻
Love how financially aware you and your woman are. I turned 31 last week, and it's easy to question yourself if you're on the right track or not. I definitely know I've made some bad financial decisions, but overall, I think I'm definitely on the right path. My current goal is maxing out my WS TFSA. I want to retire in Thailand at 50 and hopefully live off dividends.
Thanks for sharing! Inspirational 👏🏼 I had similar loan amount to yours and should be done paying off in next 3 months, then onto heavy saving and investing too
I am focused on investing. I am also in the same boat as you both with investing long term for retirement. Your videos are an inspiration to me as a fellow Canadian, I look forward to future videos :)
You both are doing great in the money area. I wish I would have been this knowledgable with money at your age. However, start where you are with what you have and make the necessary adjustments. It's never too late! Well done! We are currently working on paying down the mortgage and investing for retirement, with an emergency fund. I'm not afraid of debt, however in my years of experience, debt slows down what you save for the future! I would much rather make money on interest than pay interest.
Wow! Both of you (Steph&Den) are definitely on the right track! What are your biggest regrets? Sometimes for instance I see people that went to college and wasted a alot of money and time, just to jump ship into a different career path. There's even some multi-millionaire's out there have only a high school degree. I'm 36, I only have a 2 yr AA degree. Really, success is all in the person's head. Have a good mindset, with a clear vision to where you are going and how you're going to get there. Work hard, save and invest money early and plan life out. Associate yourself with successful smart people that you look up to and attain to be. Knowing the right people can change everything, you can LEARN ALOT from the right people. That's for instance how I got into investing in the stock market 10 yrs ago, long term. Take calculated risks in life to get ahead. There's alot of misinformation/nonsense online.... hocus pocus LoL. ALOT of people want to think they can get rich quick. Lots of flash and Show, lol. That's the furthest truth from REALITY. Keep up the 👍work!
Thank you! 😊 No major regrets yet - I’ve gone after what I’ve wanted to so far, so I don’t really have an ‘what if’ moments, and I’m still glad I went to university despite switching up my career path.
Love your vids - I've been so busy with personal life as of late that I haven't visited your channel in almost a year; it's refreshing to see you're both doing well. Best of luck to you, keep creating great content and who knows, maybe our financial paths cross at some point!
Can really relate to your story, I had some tough financial journeys and 2024 is my self proclaimed year of becoming "debt free" (mostly..). I am 29, have a passion for vehicles but as of February officially paid off my car, I am paying off my last student loan payment this month, selling one of my vehicles to clear my LOC. This will be all of my debts cleared (aside from my mortgage....). I have been watching yourself and Steph talking about HISA & TFSA as I am looking to begin my emergency fund then investment journey. I have roughly 40,000 in a combo LIRA & RRSP but looking to save to build my forever home and rent out my current property. It was exciting to calculate my net worth and it motivated me to continue on investing/saving my money properly. It was a hard journey as I was one in the dark hole of debt and now I feel like in 8 years everything has changed and I no longer feel the weight of my past debts/credit rating. Your videos are empowering and I hope you and Steph continue on this amazing journey.
Amazing that both of you in you 20's have a solid plan in place for your future. Yes, it's important to focus on growth oriented companies as you both have at least 20-25 years to enjoy it. But consider Dividend type growth as well. You can do both. Focus on growth and have a percentage of your portfolio invested in dividend reinvestment. Compound growth. Boring but very effective.
Another amazing video!! I was actually stunned at how similar we are Den (personally and financially), and it was SO interesting to see how differently you manage your money. I have $12k remaining in 0% student loans (paid off ~$25k already) and my current investment plan for another 1.5 years is to split it 50/50 between my TFSA and RRSP. Hoping to bring that student loan amount down to $5k by end of 2024, and I'm personally more interested in getting a head start on my RRSP than maxing out my TFSA at this moment. Right now the grind and sacrifice is real. You know sometimes when you transfer the money out of your chequing account, it doesn't really feel 100% yours? Like yes it is yours but you won't allow yourself access to it for several months/years so it doesn't really feel real lol. I'm also very goal oriented, and I hope I can look back at this time in the future and think "whoaa what a journey! 😅"
Thank you so much! A big congrats for paying off so much of your student loans already 🙌🏿 it’ll be gone before you know it. Also I can definitely relate to feeling like the money in my bank account isn’t actually mine b/c I’m not willing to spend it! 😅
Oh it felt great! During the debt payoff it felt like it would literally never end lol. But after…I was so pumped to finally have money in the bank, let alone being able to invest.
How did you manage to do that, I'm 26 and I have over 29,000 in credit card debt with a monthly net income of $2955. I'm struggling to even figure out the first step.
Can you and Steph talk about how you'll handle finances differently if married? Would you keep them seperate or combine? And why did you chose either way before and after
For sure, we can definitely talk more about this in an upcoming video! We touched on this in a video from a few months ago called ‘How We Manage Money As A Couple - How We Split Expenses + Combine Finances’ 😊
I'm 32, going on 33. I started a consolidation repayment plan for 8k Debt. I also have 3 years worth of taxes to do... I'm all about saving and paying my debt down. I make with OT, roughly 85k a year, and hopefully I get a promotion this year, pushing 100k. If I push through, I will have most of my goals met by my late thirties.😅
I can relate your story I’m currently undergrad I have one more year and I have close 20K loan so far. Btw what kind of business do you have. I am in IT program and think in future for entrepreneurship route. Any advice?
Long-time subscriber and big fan! What are your and Steph's thoughts on Market Linked GIC's, Flexible (bank associated) GIC's and monthly based income mutual funds?
This isn't really true. The reality is that the vast majority of professional money managers underperform the market. They invest millions in software and analysts to help them pick stocks. The average investor can get lucky but luck isn't a strategy. Also, trying to pick stocks can lead to analysis paralysis where they end up doing nothing. Investing in the market itself has been shown to outperform over the long term.
I do not really have emergency funds (only around 3k at 2.5% EQB), I have lines of credit at 7% and money invested in GICs at 5 and 5.5% for various terms. If there's an emergency I borrow from the line of credit. I lose in this case 1.5-2% (assuming I do not pay anything month by month). I there isn't any emergency I'm golden. I lose much more if I have a larger emergency fund at 2.5%.
Forgot to mention that you can get loans at 3% (upfront) from the credit card companies. I use that a lot. There's absolutely no virtue in being debt-free. Zero, nada, zilch! To be honest, I took money at 3% from MBNA credit cards (10 months) and I purchased GICs at 5% yield (1 year) from ScotiaBank.
Hi Den - question. At 7:41, you mentioned you have about 28603 in your HISA at EQ. With their 2.5% intrest back, is it true that you’d earn about $715 in your account end of the year? If your direct deposit when into your EQ account, would you earn $1287 yearly (4.5%)?
Yes, if you have direct deposit set up you would earn the 4.5% instead of the 2.5%. I’ve actually moved that money back to Simplii (since filming this video) where I’m earning 5.5% for 5 months and then after that, I’ll likely move it to Wealthsimple. If you don’t want to bother moving your money - Wealthimple is looking great right now with a consistent rate. 😊
I have over $40,000 invested in long term ETF’s, and $30,000 in liquid cash (on the side lines) ready to go if I see real estate project worth investing in. 😊
That’s definitely an option. The rates are pretty comparable to some of the HISA promos right now though. My savings are actually sitting in my Simplii Financial HISA (moved it since filming this video) earning 5.5% for 5 months. We’ll see what happens after, but cashable GIC’s are a good call out 😊
What a journey looking back I could have saved a lot more but i wasn’t future minded then. At least i got it together now before it’s too late. For me it investing and saving. No debt.
I hear that! It’s definitely never too late to start, but the earlier you set yourself up for success the better off you’ll be later Love that you’re focused on saving and investing 👏🏿🙌🏻
Stats Canada does research on this - here’s an article from last month that dives into a bit - www.moneysense.ca/save/how-much-money-should-i-have-saved-by-age-25/ 😊
@@stephandden I'm in Kitchener/Waterloo the numbers don't work here either home prices are high relative to rent like the GTA. Only thing that the numbers work are for duplexes and above.
That is a difficult degree, right? Dual major as well, wow. But, why aren't you working in the financial sector right now? Toronto has a huge financial district, right?@@stephandden
Why would you buy Aritzia at 47 Price per Earning when GAP has 17 Price per Earning? Or Algonquin at 200 Price per Earning???? Spend $200 to earn $1??? That's outrageous!
Those were the first stocks I bought years ago (the P/E’s weren’t as high at the time). I don’t buy any single stocks, and plan on getting rid of these ones if and when they are no longer at a loss.
@@stephandden The problem with AQN, it's still expensive even at $8. It takes years to recover. I would sell it and buy another "loser" stock but with better P/E or growth potential. It's easier to cope with the loss when you think "Oh, I could have invested in this stock and be 20-50% down!" HUT8 is also Canadian and has better potential, about 40% down this year due to a short-seller report. HUT8 will double this year. I only have HUT and FFH as Canadian stocks. I got rid of everything else.
My focus right now is getting all the government match I can in the RDSP until I have to re-apply for the disability tax credit. I wish the government would just give it to me for life as it is a permanent disability that affects my daily activities. Maxing out the RDSP has become priority number one as it is the main thing that will drastically change my net worth to a positive position, and saving while keeping credit card debt low will keep me in position to exit off ODSP (Ontario disability support program) 2020 I paid off $8,000 in 9 months so i will see how much of the credit cards I can pay down while I keep saving and investing.
That’s annoying - they should definitely have a process for anyone that has a permanent disability. Also that’s awesome! We always love hearing your updates. You’re clearly on the right path and more importantly you’re sticking to your plan 👏🏿👏🏻
@@stephandden it’s like that for everything around disability, government assistance, private insurance or asking for accommodations like writing an exam this is why I might not become a CPA or CFP too many institutions want me to prove that I’m disabled. Non disabled people have no idea the stress of it until they become disabled themselves.
Your content is incredibly inspiring, and I'm thrilled to become your newest subscriber! Since arriving in Canada in 2021 as a student, I've managed to become debt-free by September last year, all thanks to my role as an Electronics Engineer. During this journey, I've also built up a six-month emergency fund and invested $10,000 in VFV, though it's nowhere near the impressive numbers you've achieved, @stephandden.
Thank you! We appreciate the kind words 😊 Also you’ve done a fantastic job so far - you’re killing it. It’s always tough when you’re started out, but keep us up to date on your journey.
