Took a month-long vacation in January (China, Vietnam, and Japan) and you can see the corresponding dip in my net worth haha. The tax forms from work are also late so there’s about $5000 extra in my Chinese bank account I didn’t factor into my calculations.
 |
| Should be around $28k if we add in the amount just sitting in my Chinese account, oh well. |
There’s been talk of a stock market crash soon (which has also been said for the previous 10 years). There will definitely be one, but no one can say if it’s this year or next year or 5 years from now. Personally, if it’s gonna happen I’d prefer it happen as soon as possible so I get stocks on sale early in my investment life.
Here’s last month’s thoughts about my own financial situation in life.
Takeaway/notes
- I’d probably be about $4-5k ‘richer’ right now if I opted for a staycation and possibly cut down my working life by 6 months. However, this was a trade I was willing to make to take advantage of the close proximity I have to the rest of Asia right now.
- The way the markets are looking right now I wish I put more money into investments last month, but I made a commitment to only put in $1k per month as a test of how I handle ups and downs so I’ll stick with it. And as always, there’s always the possibility things will go down.
- The aim is to hit $50k by the start of the next school year in September.
I have accounts with four institutions
- Lloyds: still waiting patiently for the exchange rate to be better. I plan on keeping it open but with a nominal amount in it. Currently my emergency fund.
- TD Bank: happily chugging along, have a TFSA open there from way back I haven’t bothered to transfer.
- Questrade: my investing account, this is where I hold my TFSA and RRSP, and any investments I make because they don’t charge you to buy stock.
- Bank of China: I’m not including this because money in here is temporary and will be used as my living expenses in China. Currently over-funded by $5,000 because tax forms are late so I haven’t been able to transfer money back to $CAD.
Methodology
- The incredibly exciting Excel. I open up all my accounts and just input them into the sheet.
- I exclude material possessions such as laptops, cameras etc. to make for easier calculations. If I were to count them, probably around $3-4k.
- Numbers are calculated at the end of the month after currencies have been exchanged*, accounts funded, and investments purchased.
*Depending on if I get the right tax forms from China or not in time.