Net Worth Update: September 2020

Last updated on February 2nd, 2021 at 12:43 am

Welcome to my net worth update for September 2020! For those of you that don’t know, these numbers describe my wife and I’s net worth as of September 1st, 2020. As always, I try to round numbers to the nearest $100 to make them easier on the eyes.

We made even more progress towards financial freedom last month! We did a great job controlling our expenses and saving even more of our income. In my last net worth update, I was happy to share that we saved $3,200 of our income. This recent month, however, blew the previous month out of the water. Read on to find out how we did!

Budget in Short

We did a much better job controlling our spending this time around. Last net worth update I shared that I consider spending on food, clothes, gas, dining out, gifts, digital goods, electronics, car maintenance, furniture, and pretty much anything that doesn’t come as a regular bill, as “variable spending”. In our previous net worth update, we spent $1,600 on variable spending. This time we did much better, with only $1,100 in variable spending. I mostly attribute this to simply not being that active in August. We barely did anything other than go on a few hikes. The only social thing we did was meet some friends in a park to chat over (very) cheap pizza.

The following chart shows how our variable spending was distributed. All other variable items (car maintenance, education, clothing, beauty, health, etc.) came in at $0 for the month.

Variable Spending for September 2020
Home maintenance consumed much of our variable spending last month.

As you can see, our largest single item was home maintenance. My wife got on me to finally fix the broken fence on the side of our house. So, this money was spent on wood, screws, nails and a circular saw. I spent the better part of the month working to repair it, and I’m happy to say it’s finally done – and at a reasonable cost. Best of all, I learned a few new skills in the process.

I’m quite disappointed that we spent so much on alcohol and eating out this month. I guess being stuck at the house and not doing anything fun meant we needed to entertain ourselves in different ways. As a result, we got take out and alcohol (beer and wine mostly) pretty much every weekend. Hopefully next month we can do a little better, and cook more at home on the weekend.

An Income Boost

Last month I had the opportunity to cash in some overtime that I banked over the year. My employer allows me to do this twice a year and so I thought, why not. In total this boosted my income by about $2,500, which just about covers my mortgage payment for the month. Yay, me!

Investments

Last month we deposited $5,100 into our investment accounts. All of the money was allocated to my wife’s TFSA, where she bought a few select ETFs: XAW, VCN, XDIV, and XDG. She’s doing her best to stay diversified while also accumulating some extra dividend income through XDIV and XDG. She’s been happy with the monthly dividends XDIV and XDG offer and plans on continuing to add to those positions over the next few months.

None of our quarterly dividends paid out so our dividend income came in at only $42 for the month. This is somewhat better than our $32 in dividends earned last month. We earned another $34 in interest income from our savings account. This was less than last month because of our bonus with Tangerine sadly ran out. We were earning 2.5% interest but that was reduced to a paltry 0.25%. So we moved our money to our EQ Bank account where we earn 1.7%.

Overall, it was another great month for our investments. Our total return was $998 for the month, with the majority of this coming from VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund) shares held in my RRSP. With this gain, our investment accounts are now up to $43,800. Despite some recent volatility, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to reach $50,000 soon, and perhaps even exceed it before the end of the year.

Net Worth Update

For our September 2020 net worth update, I’m very pleased to announce that our net worth increased to $311,200 from $301,600. This represents an increase of 3.2%, or $9,600! Here’s the latest pie chart showing how our net worth is currently distributed:

Overall Net Worth for September 2020
Our investment accounts increased by $5,100 this month.

Most of our net worth increase can be attributed to our higher than normal income for the month, on top of some sensible spending controls. Here’s a breakdown of exactly where our net worth increase came from:

Sources of Net Worth September 2020
Savings of income was the biggest contributor this month.

It’s a testament to the power of investing when I see that over the past 3 months our small portfolio has contributed over $2,400 in total returns. This inspires me to save even harder (within reason!) and build a larger pool of investments to generate even more net worth increases in the future.

Thanks for Reading!

Thank you so much for reading my net worth update for September, 2020! If you enjoyed this detailed look at my finances, please leave a comment, follow AnotherLoonie on social media, or sign up for my monthly newsletter! If you’re interested in reading more, please check out some of my other articles, including my tips on saving for a down payment and my search for the best gold ETF in Canada.

What do you think about my spending this month? Isn’t it weird that I spent $76 on alcohol, but only $169 on groceries?.. I sure do! Do you bank with Tangerine, or EQ Bank? Drop a comment below and let’s chat!

6 comments

  1. Thanks for sharing the review, Another Loonie. Impressive month overall with net worth and savings. It’s also great that you were able to take advantage of that Tangerine offer while it lasted. It’s unfortunate that rates are so low right now. Keep up the great work!

    1. Thanks Graham for stopping by! Ya, it was a disapointment to lose out on that great Tangerine rate. I tried calling them to ask for an extension but they weren’t able to help me out. In the past giving them a call actually worked. They would extend my rate or offer me another rate, usually a little lower. Not so lucky this time!

  2. I don’t know how you keep your grocery bill that low! We also moved money to EQ from Tangerine.

    Fence repairs suck. I’ve fixed about 8-10 posts and panels over the past few years. Saved a ton of money though. Great work increasing your net worth, keep it up!

    1. Thanks FMS :). Hopefully it stays that low.. we’ll see!

      Changing posts must be a pain! Luckily I didn’t need to change any of them this time around. Just had to fix some of the panels, lattice, and apply some paint. The old owner was kind enough to leave us a gallon of the color we needed, so all in all it wasn’t too pricey of a fix.

  3. Congrats on such a positive increase in net worth. I like your “sources of Net Worth increase” chart. I always found tracking Net Worth to be so encouraging. Great to learn new skills and you should have a solid collection of tools in no time! LOL. Under 30 with over $300K – impressive. You’re doing great.

    1. Thank you for the kind feedback, Gruff. I’m glad I’m not the only one that enjoys tracking their net worth. It’s so encouraging to see when your saving is paying off. Hopefully we can keep it up!

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