For 2020, I stopped sharing my net worth updates on a monthly basis (well as a post anyway) and changed them up to dividend income updates. Some readers suggested having a biannual net worth update would be nice. So here it is!
Here’s my January 2020 update. For this net worth update, the percentage differences are based on last month’s net worth numbers. As mentioned in previous updates, my goal is to get to a 7 figure net worth in 4 years, and to try and generate $35,000 in dividend income.
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My net worth is all liquid net worth now.
I decided a few net worth updates ago to keep the actual dollar amounts to genymoney.ca subscribers only, you know, just to gain a little privacy on the Internet. I’ll still show my investment portfolio value. If you want to see actual dollar amounts, sign up for blog updates and a free dividend income spreadsheet download here. I’ll also share which stocks or ETFs I bought over the month in the newsletter. The newsletter will come out to you the day after the net worth post is live.
Here are some notes for each net worth update. I don’t include toddler and baby GYM’s RESP net worth in my net worth. I do share their RESP number just to keep track of how they are doing month to month. Also, I don’t count my husband’s net worth since we have separate and joint finances. I am also not including any of our joint accounts in which I contribute to monthly. We have a home we share as well now.
I also don’t include the joint home and joint family car we share which paid off through financing.
For USD cash holdings, I convert it by 1.25 (USD to CAD) when doing my calculations to simplify things.
I don’t include my pension contributions in my defined benefit pension but may use it if needed to reach my stretch/long-term net worth goal.
Notable Purchases in the last month:
My car kept on dying over the past few months. I think it completely discharged and every time I would jump start it, I would drive it a day and skip a day and then it would die again. It was probably dying a few times a week. I probably had to restart it 20 times and I did it so often I might have memorized the jumper cables sequence.
Anyway, I thought if I drove it far enough the battery would work better, but it didn’t. So in the end I gave up and got a new battery installed. I probably should learn to do this myself or at least get one of those float chargers to prevent this from happening again. $214.
I also renewed my car insurance over the phone (due to COVID) and frankly, it was so easy and straight forward I am surprised they didn’t do this before. Even though ICBC said their rates would decrease, somehow, my rates stayed the same at around $1600 annually.
We also bought a Travelzoo voucher for a week long stay in the Maldives for $875 USD (for two, and children are free), one of my bucket list destinations. Actually, it is probably THE main bucket list destination for me.
It was a crazy deal and sold out in one day. It also includes breakfast and dinner. It is fully refundable and good until 2022. Although it is not an ‘overwater bungalow’ I think it’s still great because overwater bungalows don’t sound that safe for young kids anyways.
Fingers crossed that COVID-19 completely resolves before 2022… or Travelzoo doesn’t go out of business!
Toddler and Baby GYM’s Net worth: $48,100
We set up an RESP for Toddler and baby GYM but it’s mainly in a high-interest savings fund within the RESP brokerage account right now. If you’re interested in our RESP strategy, check out my post here. As mentioned we have baby GYMs RESP set up too but it is a family RESP. Here’s the difference between individual and family RESPs. We contributed to the RESP early in January already, and am now waiting for our $1000 in free government money.
Here’s my net worth update for JUne 2020: (+7.6%)
ASSETS:
CASH: (+2.1%)
- I signed up for a Laurentian Bank high interest savings account (2.05% interest)
- I also have a Motive Savvy Savings account. You can read about my how-to (it’s a bit of a process). It’s definitely not as straight forward and easy as EQ Bank!! It is 2.05% interest
- I have an EQ Bank Savings Plus Account, you can check out my review of it here. It gives me a 2.00% every day interest rate* and of the three highest of the high interest savings account, this is my favourite and least headache inducing *interest is calculated on the total daily closing balance and paid monthly. Rates are per annum and subject to change without notice.
- One of my savings accounts is a Tangerine account. If you open up a savings account you can get 2.80% interest for the first 5 months. You will also get an “Orange Key” where you can refer friends and if they sign up you get $50- up to $150 a year (and they get $50 too too).
RRSP, TFSA, and Non-registered Investments: $480,480 (+9.9%)
- The stock market has been crazy, and this V shaped recovery has been very interesting and very unexpected.
- I have a TD e-series RRSP and a Questrade RRSP. If you’re interested in learning how to build your own ETF portfolio or invest through TD e-series index funds, take the Young Money Bootcamp eCourse 🙂
- I max out my RRSP annually, and I have a smaller contribution limit because of my defined benefit pension
- I max out my TFSA annually and did so already for 2020. The TFSA contribution limit for 2020 is $6000 again.
- I signed up for a TFSA in 2009 with Questrade (a self-directed account) and have been using this since then- here’s how to invest your TFSA with Questrade
- If you are interested in signing up for a Questrade account (no fee for registered accounts, free to purchase ETFs, you can get $50 in free individual stock trades if you sign up here)
CAR: (0%)
- I update this annually in the summer with the Canadian Black Book price- it will be updated next month
- Canadian Black Book seems to only do an estimated value (a bit of a change in format from before) or trade in value but the estimated depreciation from last year wasn’t so bad
LIABILITIES:
Credit Cards:
- I pay off my full amount every month
- So far the Rogers World Elite Mastercard is working well for me. It gives 1.5% cash back now as of June 2020
If you’re interested in indulging in some voyeuristic net worth update numbers, sign up for blog updates and a free dividend income spreadsheet download here.
Has your car battery died during the lockdown?
Where is the first place you plan to travel to when this is all over?

GYM is a 30 something millennial interested in achieving financial freedom through disciplined saving, dividend and ETF investing, and living a minimalist lifestyle. Before you go, check out my recommendations page of financial tools I use to save and invest money. Don’t forget to subscribe for blog updates, a free dividend yield spreadsheet, and the free Young Money Bootcamp eCourse.
I haven’t had any trouble with my battery. I had to remind myself every few days to go for a drive since I don’t think it’s necessarily good for a car to sit idle for weeks. Tom
We drive everyday to my in-laws house so I don’t have to worry about having an idle car battery. That was one of the things I thought about when the SIP started because of not driving the car a lot but with the short drive everyday it eliminates that.
We’re up for renewal soon for our car insurance too and Geico is going to give a 15% discount to renew due to Covid-19. I think all car insurance companies should do that whenever their customers are up for renewal this year.
Oh wow, 2% rate for your savings account! That’s really good GYM. Ours keeps on dropping every month and it’s getting really close to 1% now.
@Kris- 15% discount that’s fantastic! Way to go, Geico! We don’t have a car insurance discount but they really should. In fact, ICBC is not really well managed financially. Yeah, 2% rates only on a few select ‘online only’ banks, it’s good. It was even higher, over 3% previously.
@Tom- That’s good you have had no issues. I have had to replace my battery 2-3 times and it’s only 6 years old. Yeah, it’s not good for a car to not start for weeks.
Student loans are the bane of my existence but paying for car stuff? A close second. Ugh. Definitely convenient (especially since we live in a place that is not totally pedestrian friendly — largely due to hills) but ugh, so expensive. Our battery has not died lately…but our alternator did right at the start of this whole pandemic business. So annoying!
That’s an amazing deal on the voucher. Hopefully things get back to some semblance of normal so you can put it to good use! We don’t have any big travel plans right now but I expect I will likely head to Ontario to visit my best friend. Going to be so weird not seeing her this summer.
@Tara- Sucks about the alternator dying. I can see why car shops/ mechanics have not closed down from the pandemic. Yes I hope to put the voucher to good use too. Hopefully the numbers continue to go down in Canada so you can see your friend in Ontario 🙂