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Daniel

Investing

Breakdown of Monthly Budget

Where does the money go?

Let’s take a look at the spending habits of two different families: the Flintstones and the Jetsons. The Jetsons have high-flying contraptions and a robotic maid while the Flintstones own an automobile powered through the courtesy of Fred’s two feet. For all intents and purposes let’s assume that the Jetsons have an income 10 times greater than the Flintstones. If both the Jetsons and the Flintstones spend the same $500 dollars on eating out at restaurants, who is using the money more wisely? Conversely, if a $50k single income family is able to sock away $30K into savings, that must surely be more laudable than the millionaire family that saving the same amount. Whether your income is $50k or $500k, a closer look at your budget will reflect your priorities. Continue Reading

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Investing

Simple Steps to Creating a Budget

Back-to-Basics-Budgets

Why create a budget in the first place?

It began about the time we graduated from university. I was researching methods to track my income and expenses with the intent of paying off my $30K student loan as quickly as possible. I read about this hot new start-up that was making waves for its ability to gather information from various financial institutions and display trends and based on transactions. It was a great idea but at the time, Mint.com was only available in the US so I took to spreadsheets to calculate my numbers.

My budget tracking started out strong but eventually the tedium of entering receipts ate away at my resolve. My ad hoc tracking resulted in an inaccurate representation my financial status. At the end of the day, I was satisfied with my financial situation as long as my expenses didn’t exceed my income. Shortly after Emily and I wed, Mint finally made its debut in Canada. We eagerly signed up and set off to meticulously track our joint expenses. We were much more successful this time around since the tracking was directly linked to our accounts. After a few months, we learned that we were spending more than expected on seemly small things, like an astonishing $300 on eating out each month! Obviously, some changes were in order. Continue Reading

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Travel

The Best Reasons to Travel

Urban Departures Reasons to Travel

Emily and I celebrated a new milestone this weekend. Five years ago, we got hitched. Every year we like to the take time and reflect on just how far we’ve come. In this case, we’ll talk literally. In these last five years, we’ve been to over 30 cities in 17 countries. If you haven’t yet picked up on it yet, we love to travel.

For each new adventure, we look reach out for an unfamiliar element to experience fascinating cultures and meet interesting people. We’ve thrown colours at the fabled birthplace of Krishna during Holi and have channeled our inner Robert Langdon as we were ushered towards the necropolis beneath St. Peter’s Basilica by the Swiss Guard. The are endless opportunities for the world to inspire and delight and yet, not many make the effort to take advantage of what lies beyond the familiar. Continue Reading

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Lifestyle

Setting Goals for Urban Departures

There are many things to love about autumn in Canada. Leaves start to change their colors, apples are ready for picking and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It’s also when kids return to school. Fall is a time for new beginnings and new ambitions – just ask a Leaf fan if they’ll make the playoffs this year! In her student days, Emily used to put aside some time to set her expectations for the new school year and though those days of are well behind her, she hasn’t yet kicked the habit of setting goals each fall. 

Our venture into this world of blogging and personal finance is as new and unknown to us as was Captain Kirk’s foray into the Final Frontier. Before we get too much further, it would probably be best if we defined some of our aspirations lest we go rampaging into darkness. With the back-story out of the way, let’s dig a little deeper and take a look at what we are looking to accomplish and where we see ourselves headed in the near future. Continue Reading

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Lifestyle

Recap of the Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2013

Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2013

It’s been quite an eventful launch weekend. In the interest of full disclosure, we initially scheduled our blog to start later in the year but scored a wait listed ticket to the Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2013 for this past weekend. We threw a hail Mary and rushed to go live (bear with us as we continue to smooth out some of the rough edges) to capitalize on the fortuitous occasion. It was an amazing opportunity to put some faces to some of the sites in that we’ve been visiting regularly. What a whirlwind couple of days!

The enticing lineup of speakers included some of the pillars of personal finance in Canada. My pen was trying to keep up with the knowledge being spewed from the likes of MoneySense editor Jonathan Chevreau, and Globe and Mail Columnist Rob Carrick. As if that wasn’t enough, Ellen Roseman of the Toronto Star shared her passion in the continued fight for consumers’ rights and I sure will be looking to keep Kerry K. Taylor of SquawkFox’s advice on how not to kill our blog. Other topics covered practical aspects of blogging including run downs on potential tax and legal implications. Continue Reading

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