Welcome to the FindependenceCanada February 2020 Net Worth Update. This is where we track our monthly updates on our quest to a One Million dollar net worth and beyond. We have worked diligently over the last few years to go from having a negative net worth to the position we are in here today, and we hope that we are able to motivate others to join us on our quest to financial independence!
It was bound to happen eventually, and I had a feeling this would be the culprit. This month we’re going to be reporting our first drop in net worth month over month. This isn’t coming as a huge shock to us as we had a feeling our home value was going to drop year over year due to a weakening housing market in our area but we’ve officially received the documentation showing how bad that drop is (on paper).
Before we get into the numbers, if you’re a new reader here then feel free to check in with last months numbers.
Let’s get started where we always do, the assets:
So the numbers weren’t all that bad as a whole, sure we had to drop over $15,000 off of our home value but that is only a paper loss after all and we don’t have any intent to sell our home for I would say at least 5 years if not longer.
The rest of the numbers remain on their normal upswing as we made our usual contributions to our retirement accounts. The one exception you’ll see month over month is that our cash dipped a little from last month but you’ll notice that the RRSP (his) account went from $58,000 a month ago to just over $68,000 this month.
The reason for the RRSP gain is a little bit market related as it has been a very solid month, but we also put in another $6,000 to be able to claim come tax time as the cut off for deposits in Canada is at the beginning of March, so we really prioritized maximizing that return we will get in a couple of months.
All in all our total assets dropped $2,500 in February from January high’s.
Now, onto Liabilities:
Our liabilities are always a little bland, which is the way we like it.
For February we made our standard mortgage payment and student loan payment on Mrs. FIC’s UK student loan. If you’re wondering why we carry a student loan its simply because the interest rate is too low to prioritize paying it off.
If you’re from Canada like myself your student loan is probably north of 5% interest as mine was, but for UK citizens like Mrs. FIC she’s only being charged 1.75% and we feel more comfortable adding to our dividend stock positions as opposed to hammering down this debt – personal preference.
Our liabilities checked in just over $507k which was about $1,400 lower than last month. Slow n’ steady.
So there it is, our first decrease in month over month net worth. Last month’s number was $305,031 and February is now $303,668. This marks a loss of roughly $1,400 overall.
All things considered, we were able to almost entirely offset a $14,000 loss on assets to nearly break even month over month which is viewed as a big win in our books! There’s no sense complaining about something that’s out of our control like the current housing market so we need to keep the positives in mind – and that’s that we took care of the things that were in our control and otherwise rocked it this month.
That’ll be all for this months recap. If you’ve got any questions feel free to leave them down below or over on Instagram @FindependenceCanada and we’ll be sure to get back to you.
Thanks for stopping by,
FIC.