Last updated on September 5th, 2023 at 09:06 am
Welcome to my net worth update for August 2023! These numbers represent my wife and I’s net worth as of August 31st. Please check out our previous net worth update if you haven’t already!
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Savings & Expenses
August was another expensive month for us with almost $9,000 in total spending.
In a regular month, that would mean we only saved a few thousand dollars, but lucky for us August was a three paycheque month. As a result, our income was much higher than normal and we managed to save $9,600—wohoo!
In reviewing our expenses, you can see a few larger than normal items. Groceries, for one thing, was higher than it’s been all year. That’s thanks to some extra trips to Costco to buy a lot of those once-in-a-while items. We also took a trip to Trader Joes where we spent even more.
Another big item was home maintenance: I finished a few projects I had in the queue. There’s just one more small project left to pay for and that should be in September. I also spent $1,200 on replacing some computer parts.
Overall, we achieved a savings rate of 52%, which was completely on the back of those third paycheques we received.
Investment Contributions
We are getting pretty close to the end of the year, so I’ve started to track our contribution room to our RRSPs a little more religiously. So far we’ve contributed $51,860 to our registered investment accounts this year.
Much of the money I contributed to my RRSP and TFSA at the start of the year was left-over money from the previous year. That helped me maximize my TFSA March and earn a large tax refund in April.
Now that my wife is very close to maximizing her TFSA, we’re looking ahead to what we’ll do with freed up extra $1,000 a month. We’re planning on using it to add more to her RRSP, or to help contribute to my RRSP.
As you may know, our goal for 2023 is to maximize my RRSP, while keeping our TFSAs maxed as well.
Investments & Dividends
Last month we earned $122 in dividends, which is pretty typical for August, which is a very low earning month for us. Our only ETFs that paid out are XDG and XDIV—two monthly dividend ETFs that my wife enjoys.
Still, for the year we’ve already surpassed 2022 in terms of dividends received. Excluding leveraged investments, we received $4,881 in dividends in 2022 (by my latest count) and $5,406 so far in 2023.
At this rate, we should earn somewhere in the range of $7,500 to $8,500 in dividends in 2023.
Net Worth Change
In July, our net worth increased to $841,200 from $832,600 in the previous month. That’s an increase of $8,600!
Most of this increase came from savings of income. About $1,300 came from home equity paydown and another $1,200 came from mandatory pension contributions. Our ETF portfolio performed somewhat poorly in August, dragging down our net worth by $3,500.
On the plus side, our liquid net worth is solidly above the $400,000 mark, at $401,800. Hopefully we can stay above this and make some progress towards $500,000 liquid by the end of the year!
Thanks for Reading
I recently updated a few articles that you may be interested in. This includes my post on how investment loans are costing me $500 each month and my Q1 New Year’s resolutions update. Consider giving those a read if you think they’ll help you on your financial journey!
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