Net Worth Update: March 2023 – TFSAs Full!

Welcome to my net worth update for March 2023! These numbers represent my wife and I’s net worth as of February 28th. Please check out our previous net worth update if you haven’t already!

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TFSA Maxed!

In 2023 the TFSA limit increased by a generous $6,500—thanks to elevated inflation over the past two years. And as of last month, I was able to contribute $6,500, maximizing my TFSA again after originally maximizing it back in October of last year.

It took just two contributions: $3,000 in February and $3,500 in March. And now that it’s maxed, I don’t need to think about it for the rest of 2023, and can focus on maximizing my RRSP instead.

Savings & Expenses

What helped was that March was three paycheque month for both my wife and I. This means we earned a lot more than a regular month—about 50% more, in fact. This helped us save 64% of our net income in March.

Having such a great month also pushed our annual savings rate to dramatic new highs. We’re now hovering around an annual savings rate of 45% for 2023! That’s even higher than the 40% savings rate we achieved last year.

Other than receiving 3 paycheques each in March, what helped is that it was a relatively modest spending month for us. Every category was about average except for a few exceptions.

Dining out, for example, was the highest it’s been in quite some time. I attribute that to some nice weather we got that made visiting and eating out downtown worthwhile.

Health spending was quite high at over $800, but we will get some of that money back as our medical insurance claims are processed. In the end, it should be reduced to around $500.

Overall, modest spending and extra paycheques made March a great month to save and invest.

Investments & Dividends

Last month I estimated we could receive close to $499 in dividends, and I was pretty accurate in that statement. In total, we received $479 thanks to our monthly dividend ETFs (XDIV and XDG) as well as some of our quarterly ETFs paying out (like XAW and VEE).

That means we’ve earned a total of $2,448 in dividends so far this year. Compared to this time last year, that’s an increase of 74%!

If I project this increase onto our 2022 numbers, I estimate we could earn over $8,000 in dividends in 2023—that’s over $600 per month on average. Now that would be an accomplishment.

Net Worth Change

In March, our net worth increased to $770,500, up from $752,600 in the previous month. That’s an increase of $17,900—in just one month!

Here’s where the increase came from:

• $1,400 in home equity pay-down
• $1,200 in mandatory pension contributions
• $11,100 in savings of income
• $4,200 in investment gains

That means we’ve increased our net worth by $49,600 so far in 2023. And while this month was mostly carried by saving our income, about $22,000 of that increase has come from our investments starting to recover lately.

It’s tough to say where we’ll end up by the end of the year. But I’m excited to see we’re crossing into $800,000 net worth territory (hopefully) very soon.

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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