Hello all,
I like MMM’s blog, but I think I even prefer this Forum! Would be glad to have some feedback, advices, comments on my situation and discuss some more. This is my first post so not sure how to construct the whole thing, but will first present a breakdown of expenses/revenues/savings and then just talk a bit about myself.
Male, 26 yo, living with girlfriend in Montreal, Canada. I guess it’s a MCOL area. Maybe considered LCOL (especially if you compare to major US tech cities per example or Vancouver/Toronto).
My Individual Expenses (monthly):- Rent: 400$
Nights out, alcohol, activities: 200$
Health insurance (mandatory): 150$
Groceries: 150$
Restaurants: 120$
Travel: 100$ (meaning 1 nice trip per year or so)
Sports (ice hockey and tennis): 100$
Car (gas, insurance, maintenance): 100$
Internet & cable TV: 50$ – I don’t really need cable, but my girlfriend likes it and costs a fraction of the total bill: approx. 15$/month for cable that I could save
Subway/metro pass: 45$
Clothing (including footwear): 50$
Electricity: 30$
Miscellaneous (gifts, wtv, …): 30$
Total: 1525$/month, so 18 300$/year. Maybe some other expenses here and there but maximum 20k$/year.My expenses are fairly well tracked, but will be using an app to track everything that comes out of my pocket in 2018. I still expect to spend 20k$ max.
My Revenues (yearly):- Gross salary: 57k$ (+ cellphone paid and some travel expenses). I guess it’s close to 60k.
- Net salary: 42k$ approx. (We do pay a lot of taxes in Canada and other bunch of stuff for what we call our social safety net here. However, I am maxing my RRSP (401k equivalent) so saving quite a bit of taxes with that)
My Savings:- Current bank account: 17k
- Brokerage account: 60k (sum of RRSP and TFSA accounts). I started my brokerage account 1 year ago. Mostly in SP500 Vanguard and Canadian stocks. Also took a position representing 7k in small capitalization companies (high risk, high reward).
- No debt
I also have a car worth about 14k$ as of today. I inherited that from family (paid 5k$ for it). I typically put 6000 miles/yr on it only. I don’t use it to go to work so I could live without it I guess, but like the luxury of doing my groceries with a car, go to the arena to play hockey, visit family, etc... I also use it for work periodically (mileage reimbursed at a good rate by my job).
Net worth is therefore: 91k$ CAD Finally, a more descriptive outlook of me.
Finished university degree in engineering in December 2015. Been working at the same job since (2 years). Got a pay upgrade of 8% last year and expect to have a similar one this year. I don’t like my job that much. It is kind of boring, but I’ve been working through it for different reasons. I would say that the no. 1 reason is being afraid to end up with worse. I believe that the job itself is not the problem, but rather that I’m not passionate enough about anything. I have a great boss, great colleagues, flexibility and decent salary, but I’m still only waiting for the next weekend to be around so I can hangout with friends, practice sports, read, watch movies with girlfriend, etc… I am and always been lazy when it comes to work and routine.
I don’t consider myself as an engineer per se. I studied in this field but I now have a more classic office-type job, though technologically oriented. Some of my colleagues are from business schools and other from engineering backgrounds. I can’t say that I am passionate about engineering. My biggest passion would probably be sports. I play hockey and tennis at a fairly good level and also a bunch of other (cycling, running, basketball, baseball, etc…). I’m also a sports enthusiastic with regards to NHL, NFL, ATP, etc.. Not a maniac, but I’m quite knowledgeable.
I also like some business stuff (real estate, investing, …) and look forward to being a landlord sometime. My life is not stable at this point which prevents me from buying something. I’m unsure about the location and prices in Montreal for multiplex are pretty high. No where close to 1% rule or wtv. Still, I might have to make a move sooner than later on that real estate front.
I think I am already pretty frugal with my spending and love the idea of early-retirement. I would still see myself working part time (10-20h/wk) at something I like once retired, plus taking care of 1 or 2 rental properties. I also would like to have 1 or 2 kids around the age of 30 (that’s in only 4 years, wow! :O)
So I guess this is a pretty broad outlook of my situation. Any advices? I feel like my objective for 2018 should be to take a decision towards my work situation. Can I find something more enjoyable? Knowing that one way or the other, I still have 10-15 years of working time minimum… The "problem" with me is that I'm curious and good at many different things, but not passionate about 1 thing enough to devote my life to it. Anybody relates to this? I don't think there is a job out there that I would be okay doing 40hrs/week. It does not leave enough time for leizure, socializing with friends, etc. #firstworldproblems
Thanks and look forward to discuss any topic (including this year’s Montreal Canadiens under-performance)!