Spending Update: Need Improvements
Here is my spending update for last week, unfortunately it wasn’t a great week for spending. I went $30 over budget in my entertainment category ($128.31) largely due to being too busy and too frenetic – I wrote a post about it, read more here for “a day in the life of Lindsey”.
In personal care, I spent $65.00 for a physical therapy appointment. This will probably be a regular expense for the next month or so as I try to fix my back problem. This will be a good investment in being pain-free, which will bring me great joy.
Spending Update: Debt Down!
On the upside, we have almost achieved our goal of getting the credit card balance under the $10,000 mark which will be great (we’re just $90 off). This will be the first time it’s been under $10,000 in the last year and a half.
Spending Update: Retirement Planning
Last week, I started planning out my retirement – I have designated that 5% of my income go into a work group plan RRSP. One of the benefits of going the group plan route is that the plans allow for a lower investment management fee (1% lower). Also, I have decided that I will start allotting my flex spending account of $2300 yearly towards a TFSA.
Both of these plans, in combination with my defined benefit pension plan (this means that the employer/sponsor promise to pay a certain amount to you, read more here) will secure my future without a lot of sacrifice. I will also have a tonne of write-offs come tax season as well. Thank you happy government job – I will always work for you in some way, shape, or form until I retire.
However, one of my goals is to educate myself more thoroughly on the numbers and how the whole investment process works. I don’t want to rely on the magical pension fairy to make my retirement comfortable.
Anyways, I digress. I think my next big push will be towards slowing down, but that will be a different post.
How’d your week go?
Link Love
1500 Days to Freedom Ask the Readers: Who do you love?
Making Sense of Cents Home Updates: How we plan on selling our house quickly *Michelle has a beautiful new website layout, go check it out!
Young Adult Money 5 Tips for a Successful Garage Sale *The noble garage sale, Yound Adult Money is bringin’ it back!
Great work getting started on retirement! Such a key step that so many people put off.
Hi Matt
Thanks! Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about retirement until I started reading PF blogs in earnest. I was very focused on paying down debt that I wasn’t making any room planning for the future. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Cheers
Lindsey
Thanks again for the link love 🙂
Great job on getting your retirement set-up, probably a big relief! Congrats on getting the credit card to almost under $10K, I think it would be worthy of a small reward 🙂
Keep up the great work! 😀
Hi Morgaine
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, I am happy to have a plan for contributions but I still need to do more research and figure out if I’m putting in enough; if I have it in the right investments; and how to stat on top of it.
I’ll have to figure out that small reward! 😉
Good for you Lindsey with putting the money towards your TFSA. We all go over budget but the important part is to understand why so we try not to do it again. We’re always learning from our spending habits but that’s a good thing. Congrat on getting the credit card under $10K! Happy Weekend.