Net Worth Update: 2023 Year-End Review
This year turned out to be a great one, both financially and for our lifestyle. We got everything we wanted out of our new house. We love having a dedicated office space and a home gym. Our kids can easily walk to school. Our dog even has a huge field in which to run around and play.
We managed to upgrade our house without sacrificing much. Sure, our mortgage balance has tripled and we emptied our TFSAs. But our net worth continues to grow – we’re still pushing the needle forward and not going backwards.
More importantly, from a lifestyle perspective, we’re able to enjoy the same standard of living we’ve grown accustomed to over the past few years. That includes frequent and extensive travel whenever (and wherever) possible.
Our business had a record year for income, surpassing our wildest expectations. That allowed us to give ourselves a much deserved raise so we could meet our personal spending and savings goals, AND still invest significantly inside our corporate investment account.
We seriously have to pinch ourselves sometimes knowing this is our life now. We’re incredibly lucky and grateful.
This year also brought back the bull market and our globally diversified portfolios were up about 16% after a brutal 2022. We’ll need that to continue if we want a realistic shot at reaching our goal of a $2M net worth by the end of 2025. More likely, that won’t happen until the end of 2026 or sometime in 2027 – and that’s perfectly fine.
We’re looking forward to another good year in 2024. As I’ve previously written, we only have five financial goals next year:
- Give ourselves a 10% pay raise (dividends)
- Reorganize the kids’ RESP (including a catch-up contribution for our oldest child)
- Revenge travel part two (Mexico in February, Europe in July, and Scotland in the fall)
- Invest excess profits in corporate account (targeting $90k)
- Renew our mortgage in May (likely taking a variable considering the market is now pricing in 5 rate cuts in 2024)
With that out of the way, here’s how our net worth looks at the end of 2023:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | % Change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assets | ||||||
| Chequing account | $12,000 | $5,000 | $5,000 | 140% | ||
| Savings account | $75,000 | $56,100 | $65,000 | 33.69% | ||
| Corporate investment account | $305,617 | $216,053 | $207,003 | 41.45% | ||
| RRSP | $302,411 | $259,499 | $294,664 | 16.54% | ||
| LIRA | $204,231 | $175,908 | $198,365 | 16.10% | ||
| TFSA | $0 | $165,173 | $160,942 | -100% | ||
| RESP | $100,796 | $84,896 | $84,148 | 18.73% | ||
| Principal Residence | $976,000 | $555,000 | $459,000 | 75.86% | ||
| Total assets | $1,976,054 | $1,517,629 | $1,474,122 | 30.62% | ||
| — | ||||||
| Debt | ||||||
| Mortgage | $500,155 | $160,927 | $172,161 | 211% | ||
| Total debt | $500,155 | $160,927 | $172,161 | 211% | ||
| — | ||||||
| Net worth | $1,475,899 | $1,356,702 | $1,301,961 | 8.79% |
Now let’s answer a few questions about the way I calculate our net worth:
Credit Cards, Banking, and Investments
We funnel all of our purchases onto a few different rewards credit cards to earn points on our everyday spending.
Our go-to card is the American Express Cobalt Card, which we use for groceries, dining, and gas. We also look for the best credit card sign-up bonuses and time our large annual spending (car and house insurance) around these offers. One I’m using currently is the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card.
Our joint chequing account is held at TD, along with our mortgage and kids’ RESPs. My wife has her own chequing and savings accounts at Tangerine.
My RRSP is held at the zero-commission trading platform Wealthsimple Trade. My LIRA is held at TD Direct, and the corporate investment account is held at Questrade. My wife’s investments are held at Wealthsimple. You know all of this from my post about how I invest my own money.
RRSP / LIRA / RESP
The right way to calculate net worth is to use the same formula consistently over time to help track and achieve your financial goals.
My preferred method is to list the current value of my RRSP, LIRA, and RESP plans rather than discounting their future value to account for taxes and distributions.
I consider a net worth statement to be a snapshot of your current financial picture, so when it comes time to draw from my RRSP/LIRA and distribute the RESP to my kids, my net worth will decrease accordingly.
Principal Residence
We bought our home this year for $976,000, so that’s the price I’m using for our net worth calculation. I typically adjust the purchase price by inflation each year but I’ll likely keep listing it at the purchase price for a few years.
Astute readers will notice that the price of our previous home went from $459,000 to $555,000 from 2021 to 2022. That ended up being the sale price, so you can see that I was pretty conservative with the house value over the years.
Final thoughts and a look to 2024
Again, I want to acknowledge the tremendous privilege of being able to work from home and prosper during such a tumultuous period (pandemic, economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflicts, high inflation, housing crisis). My wife and I are incredibly grateful for everything we have.
We’re also consciously planning our so-called “rich life”, wanting to maximize our life enjoyment rather than just counting numbers going up on a spreadsheet (and, yes, I see the irony of that comment on a net worth update post). Live for today while still planning for tomorrow.
The pandemic took two years of travel away from us. My wife’s relapse last year almost cost us another year. We don’t take anything for granted.
Thanks to all of you who take the time to read the blog, comment, and send me emails. I appreciate it more than you know.
How did your finances fare in 2023? Let me know in the comments below.
Congrats on a great year all around! And thanks for sharing openly. It is helpful for people to see how someone financially savvy navigates their finances and finds the balance in real life. Hope the momentum continues in 2024 and all the best.
-LD
Thanks Mark! Really enjoying the Money Scope podcast, by the way. Anyone interested in finding and funding a good life needs to listen to the first three episodes, stat!
Thanks for the post Robb. I did my own net worth update today and was happy to see the improvement in 2023 compared to 2022. It’s great to see progress towards the financial goals each year.
We are planning our own trip to Scotland this year in June. I know this isn’t a travel blog, but if you have recommendations, I’d love to hear them. After all, how we spend our money is just as important to plan as how we save it.
Happy New Year to you, your family, and all your readers!
I’m not Robb but if you like Bailey’s at all, try to find the Edradour cream liquor. And tour their distillery, even if you don’t care much for Scotch. It’s the only place I’ve found a whisky I liked (or even a whiskey, come to that), and it was an interesting tour. Dundee was also great, but I’m biased with family in the area.
Thanks Jill. We aren’t drinkers, but I’ve heard good things about the tours.
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comment. Happy to hear about the progress!
I hesitate to give travel tips because we travel quite differently than most people. Family of four, plant-based diet, don’t like golf. We love Scotland, even though the weather is pretty awful.
Our best days were renting a car and getting lost in the Highlands, or driving around the Isle of Skye and wandering through the Fairy Glen or climbing the Old Man of Storr.
Edinburgh is our favourite city. Spend a few days or more there if you can. Walk through Dean Village, it’s like an oasis right inside the city.
Inverness is lovely and a great location for day trips. Glencoe / Fort William area is also really cool.
We stayed in Glasgow for the first time last summer and it was just okay – probably could skip it if you’re pressed for time.
The Isle of Skye is like another planet. A must see in my opinion. We’ve been twice – took a tour bus the first time (horrible!) and then rented a car last summer and that was amazing.
Thanks Robb. I keep hearing a lot of great things about the Isle of Skye and I think we’re going to have to include it in our trip. We have 2 weeks in London/Scotland planned, so we can fit it in. Appreciate the comment about driving vs. bus tours, I’m not a very comfortable driver in other countries (other than the U.S., but my sister in law lives there, so maybe she’ll drive. Lol
Agree with Robb’s and other posters’ recommendations re Scotland. Was there April 2023 for a family wedding in Dunbar. In Edinburgh we used a StayCity aparthotel which was awesome – handy location, laundry, kitchen, bedrooms, living area, etc. Skye is totally awesome and gets booked up fast. We used a private guide for the Skype part of the trip as we had a group of 5 adults – excellent guide, total flexibility (vs tour company). Went to the Trossachs on the way back which was a beautiful place. Weather is definitely a wildcard. Have a blast!
Thanks JJ. I’m going to start investigating the Isle of Skye right away. I appreciate the comment about the booking up quickly.
Jeff, I just wanted to say on the driving part – nobody was more terrified than I was about renting a car and driving on the wrong side of the (narrow) road.
But it wasn’t that bad! Very little traffic, some white-knuckle passes but just go slow and pull over when you can.
We avoided the big cities and rented a car in Stirling. Easy to get out onto the highway and explore.
When in doubt, borrow our travel motto: “Dumber people than us have done this and survived.”
Thanks! We are having a great time making it. The “Good Life” data and practical strategies seemed like a great place to start the curriculum since all of the investing etc that follows is to support living our best life. Lots more to come.
Mark
I’m very happy that you were so succ ssful in 23. ’22 was hard on everyone and I am hoping my portfolio at Wealthsimple increases this year to make up for 22 and 23. I’m in a more conservative stream and a 60/40 performed particularly poorly. I stayed the course but actually had to stop checking my charts to reduce my anxiety.
Hi Barb, thanks for your comment. Better days are ahead for the 60-40 portfolio. 2022 was apparently the third worst year ever for that asset mix.
The good news is that as inflation cools bond yields will drop and bond prices will rise – so bonds are shaping up to be a pretty good investment for 2024.
If you made it this far (and good on you for hanging in there!) you should be in good position to take advantage of bonds rebounding in the future.
Thank you for the reassurance Rob. I started with ETF’s and WS recently and my portfolio has not proceeded at all as it was supposed to. I realize Covid and other big world events impacted everything. It’s hard not to focus on oneself. Hard to trust that the world will correct itself in time for my somewhat finite time during retirement to live the good life. It did help my portfolio to be unable to travel, I was able to not withdraw from my holdings as scheduled. I also had a “side hustle” “UBERING” my son to work to help with expenses.
I have been a saver and budget person my whole life. My challenge will be to decumulate and not listen to the voice saying “I have no money to live the good life”.(there is a term you call this but it’s slipped my mind at present)
It’s really helpful and reassuring to read your regular blogs. I often read blog writers you recommend. I also availed myself of your services when I moved from mutual funds and for fee financial planners. I have a written retirement plan you created and review regularly.
Love these updates. Have a safe and happy (and prosperous) 2024. Talk soon.
Thanks so much, Connor! All the best to you and your family this holiday season.
Congrats, Robb. Great that you acknowledge your family’s good fortune and privilege. It takes nothing away from the planning and hard work that’s gone into your success, though. And I appreciate that your family follows a similar financial value as ours: Experiences are worth more than “things”.
Thanks Jason! Happy New Year!
What’s the old saying? Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Hi Robb, Happy New Year. How would you factor an employee pension plan (public service pension plan) into your net worth?
Hi John, what I used to do was take the commuted value listed on my annual pension statement (the present value of your pension if you left the plan today). Or, more crudely, you could tally up your contributions and your employer contributions.
Thanks for sharing this, it’s very interesting! May I ask why you hold such a large amount in savings?
Hi Emily, that category should be labelled “corporate cash” – it’s in our small business account not on the personal side of the ledger. We like to keep a minimum of $50k in that account as an operating float and for a bit of an emergency fund. Over the years that balance has swelled to $75k and I’m okay with that as it gives us flexibility in paying ourselves when personal expenses are lumpier.
What a great update! May 2024 be as great a year for you and your family! It’s good that you don’t take it for granted, and remind the rest of us.
I’m ending 2023 on a particularly positive note because I just helped my 21-year-old stepson to invest our Christmas gift money with WealthSimple for the first time. I’ve spent literally about 4 hours with him over a couple of days, teaching him about the stock markets, showing him an Andax chart and the Templeton Annual Asset Allocation performance chart and fielding questions, all the while he’s doing his own research and showing real understanding on his own. I could weep with joy to see him start investing at 21 years old! And he’s doing so with (what I consider to be) solid footings, eyes wide open, as opposed to where I was when I started at a much later age. I also showed him Preet Banerjee’s video on Top Strategist’s predictions, so hopefully I’ve drilled into him that you can’t predict the future, no matter what anyone else says. So proud of him!
Hi Jennifer, wow – that’s incredible! Not only investing at such an early age but doing it “the right way” as opposed to picking stocks and learning the hard way. Nicely done!
Congrats Robb! This update is always awesome – appreciate the transparency.
Groceries are one of my biggest monthly expenses – primarily from Costco which doesn’t take AmEx. I’m assuming you don’t buy the majority of your groceries at Costco if you’re using AmEx. Do you find the AmEx points offset the higher prices at other grocery stores where AmEx is accepted?
Thanks and Happy 2024!
Hi Jody, we used to be big Costco shoppers but the location here is about as far away from our house as you can get, and it’s always a gong-show there so we maybe visit 2-3 times a year now.
Yes, it’s more expensive to shop at Safeway and Save-On Foods, so all the more reason to use the Cobalt card, get 5x points on those purchases, and convert them to Aeroplan where I can usually get 2 cents per mile (minimum) on flight rewards (effectively getting 10% back on my grocery purchases).
It’s tough for Costco shoppers because there isn’t a great MC out there that gives 4-5x points (and Costco is not labelled “grocery” for those point accelerators anyway – I think it’s considered general merchandise which often only gets 1x points).
Heartiest congratulations on another successful year Robb!! Here’s wishing you and family a fantastic 2024 🙂
Thank you, Krishna – happy New Year!
Hi Robb, thanks for your year end update. I really enjoy following your work/life journey.
I have a question from your post a few months ago. Did the $50K cover everything? “Set aside ~$50,000 from the house sale proceeds for window coverings, landscaping, and other “extras”
New house is completely furnished, windows covered, yard landscaped in 2023. No “someday, maybes”.
Hi Carol, we might have spent a bit more than that but, yes, we completed all of the home projects that we wanted to this year.
Hi Robb,
Perhaps you’ve covered this before and I’ve missed it but do you use an aggregator service (like MINT), ideally free, to track your expenses? MINT has shut down effective Jan 1 2024 so I would like to find a replacement. Thanks!
Hi Jody, I heard Mint is shutting down. That’s too bad because I know a lot of people relied on it. I have’t heard of a good replacement, but perhaps some other readers can comment.
YNAB is an option but it’s not free. I’ve heard good things about Tiller as well.
I’m old-school with an Excel spreadsheet: https://boomerandecho.com/how-to-budget-download-free-budgeting-spreadsheet/
Congratulations on a prosperous year Robb. I’ve always admired you that you practice what you preach. Please continue to do that as I’m sure a lot of new savers are reading about your progress. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thanks so much, Gary! Really appreciate your readership over the years. Happy New Year!
Speaking of travel:
My wife and I are sitting here in Gothenburg Sweden, enjoying our second, post-retirement World Juniors Hockey Championships with this company, out of Edmonton:
https://www.azorcan.net/wj2024
Trust me. This is an amazing tour company—about 350 people on this one (compared to approximately 1000 on the other well known company out of Toronto.
We’ve again met many familiar fans from our last World Juniors’ Tour in the Czech Republic and this time many new retirees from all across Canada. It’s so interesting to hear about their love of hockey, travel and their retirement stories.
Tom, that’s amazing – thanks for sharing. Clients of mine are there right now, too, enjoying their best lives in retirement!