Just started working after getting out of grad school and my biggest money win has been setting at least 15-20% to invest. Living in Toronto is hard but having a rule to myself is a win
In 2024, my wife and I did a year budget based on the avg of the last two year's earnings (*highly recommend if you expect wage increases, because it slows "wage creep"*) I just finished this year's networth statement and we had a winning year of around 55k increase, while marking down our home and car. The biggest financial win was cutting our mortgage from 126000 to 63000 (just realized that was 50%). That was made possible by my wife returning to work full time now that the kiddos are in school.
Great video guys! I don’t live in Canada but still get a lot out of these videos. This year, I maxed out my Roth IRA again and reached a net worth of 40k as a 19 year old!
That's great Lisan! 😀 Roth IRA is a great choice for your retirement or first home considering how long it will grow tax free! However, the rules on withdrawal are a bit different than our TFSA. We don't have to worry about the 10% penalty and taxes on gains for non-qualified withdrawals. Having 40k by 19 really helped me with schooling, marriage, and first home downpayment.
@@J.FamGuy.MThanks! I wish we had TFSA but I think the Roth and HSA are the best we’re gonna get in the U.S. I’m using my Roth mainly for retirement but would also like to use it for 10-20% down on a house sometime in the future.
Your achievements are pretty incredible !! At my age, I'm very late at entering the saving/investing game, and even though my numbers are low, it still feels good to finally get started. 50/50 Savings/Investing may not be the best approach, but ya gotta start somewhere and you can't put all of your eggs in 1 basket. If anybody else is in the same boat, let us know :)
This is awesome and motivating. This is my first year working fulltime in canada. It is hard to remain consistent and set effective systems. I have reached my goals but it was not smooth and resulted in a substantial pull back this festive season. I appreciate the transparency. It helps you see that being organised and systematice with the budget is possible. Wonderful seeing your synergy as a couple towards goals.
Paying yourself 63k, investing 30k, and FHSA 8k, how are you guys living on 25k/yr including all your fixed expenses. Have to assume no car/insurance, cheap rent, and not much for entertaining or travel.
Technically, they make 90K each gross per year (before taxes) which is a really great salary (for a 3-year-old business that's even more impressive). ~35-37K per year in savings and investing would be a tough number if you were a single 20-something in Canada with just a 9-5 job (and a car, rent, entertainment/travel-filled life)
We broke down all of our expenses in our previous UA-cam video 😊 We do have cheap rent and no car, yes! We live in the city, so no need for a car, and we’ve intentionally stayed in our same apartment for the past 6.5 years to keep the cost that low. We’re as intentional as possible with our expenses so that we can invest as much as possible right now, but we do a lot of things fun entertainment and fun 😊
The ‘no uber eats’ challenge is a big one. I and my husband have also started cooking more recipes at home and we are also tracking our expenses to see exactly how much we are saving every month. Could you please make a video in the future on ‘tips to save money’. Thanks and Merry Christmas
Are you funding the FHSA and RRSP with "after-tax" money? I was confused by that (coming from the American tax system), I thought FHSA and RRSP were supposed to be funded with pre-tax money (like 401K in the usa), unlike the TFSA which is more like the Roth IRA and both funded with after-tax money??
Uses after-tax money, then deductions are claimed at tax time. Other plans like the RPP (Registered Pension Plan) use pre-tax money instead. This confused me for months & every year someone at my company thinks they owed the government thousands because we thought the enrolling for the company RPP and contributing to the RRSP was the same thing.
Steph, congrats on the $0 uber eats! We often keep costco's meatballs and lasagna on hand for easy meal building blocks when needed. Holiday cooking competition coming up Den vs Steph? Each develop a 1 week menu. Cost of menu, taste of items, health value, and time to prepare. 😊 Dennis, congrats on maxing out the TFSA! Now it should be easy to maintain the yearly contributions for TFSA and FHSA. (No rush on buying a home.) Definitely would be a great video series to discuss 16-26 money journey. I find that is a missing decade in a lot of financial discussions except to say, "What if you started saving for retirement at 18?"
When bull market is there everything looks great , one have to keep doing dollar cost averaging even during bear market and keep putting more dollars even when stocks are tumbling
When your business earns extra money you can earn more. If it earns less, you take a pay cut. Thankfully accountants usually suggest a reasonable salary + bonus for cash flow, because it has been tight some years. 😆
Do you guys take official time off? Like give yourself two weeks vacation a year? I understand it’s different as entrepreneurs but it’s like you’re always working
We usually don’t have set time off, no - but when we have something planned, we have the flexibility to work around it! We’re actually going to be on a trip with Dennis’ family over the next few weeks, and we did a lot of work in advance so we can enjoy it 😊
They already did in a different video. 😊 I believe the video said they collectively spent 67000 of the 140k of collective gross earnings. It has a full break down.
What was your biggest money win of 2024?! Let us know! 🥳
This year we saved 8K for starter emergency fund, paid down 10k of debt and paid for vacation and xmas in cash. Next year we are focusing on debt.
Just started working after getting out of grad school and my biggest money win has been setting at least 15-20% to invest. Living in Toronto is hard but having a rule to myself is a win
That’s amazing! Congrats 👏🏿👏🏻
That’s a great goal! Congrats on finishing grad school 🥳
In 2024, my wife and I did a year budget based on the avg of the last two year's earnings (*highly recommend if you expect wage increases, because it slows "wage creep"*) I just finished this year's networth statement and we had a winning year of around 55k increase, while marking down our home and car.
The biggest financial win was cutting our mortgage from 126000 to 63000 (just realized that was 50%). That was made possible by my wife returning to work full time now that the kiddos are in school.
My biggest money win this year was reaching 100k networth!!
🥳🥳🥳 That’s huge - congratulations!
Vaow !
I love the fact that you guys are so discipline.
🙏🏿🙏🏻 we definitely try to be!
My goal going into 2024 was to increase my savings/investments, which I did by about $30k :) thanks for the great videos!
That’s amazing - congratulations! 🥳🎉
Great video guys! I don’t live in Canada but still get a lot out of these videos. This year, I maxed out my Roth IRA again and reached a net worth of 40k as a 19 year old!
We’re so happy to hear that! Congrats on getting those big milestones 👏🏿👏🏻 you’re doing great!
That's great Lisan! 😀 Roth IRA is a great choice for your retirement or first home considering how long it will grow tax free!
However, the rules on withdrawal are a bit different than our TFSA. We don't have to worry about the 10% penalty and taxes on gains for non-qualified withdrawals.
Having 40k by 19 really helped me with schooling, marriage, and first home downpayment.
@@J.FamGuy.MThanks! I wish we had TFSA but I think the Roth and HSA are the best we’re gonna get in the U.S. I’m using my Roth mainly for retirement but would also like to use it for 10-20% down on a house sometime in the future.
invested around 36,000 this year! also passed 325k net worth. happy new year guys i love ur content
Congrats, that’s huge! Thank you + happy new year 😊
Your achievements are pretty incredible !! At my age, I'm very late at entering the saving/investing game, and even though my numbers are low, it still feels good to finally get started. 50/50 Savings/Investing may not be the best approach, but ya gotta start somewhere and you can't put all of your eggs in 1 basket. If anybody else is in the same boat, let us know :)
It sounds like you’re doing great! It’s never too late 😊
This is awesome and motivating. This is my first year working fulltime in canada. It is hard to remain consistent and set effective systems. I have reached my goals but it was not smooth and resulted in a substantial pull back this festive season. I appreciate the transparency. It helps you see that being organised and systematice with the budget is possible. Wonderful seeing your synergy as a couple towards goals.
We love to hear that 👏🏿👏🏻 our goal is to give a real life example of what a money journey (or two) can look like!
Congrats on first full time year! You won't have a pull back every year.
Paying yourself 63k, investing 30k, and FHSA 8k, how are you guys living on 25k/yr including all your fixed expenses. Have to assume no car/insurance, cheap rent, and not much for entertaining or travel.
Technically, they make 90K each gross per year (before taxes) which is a really great salary (for a 3-year-old business that's even more impressive).
~35-37K per year in savings and investing would be a tough number if you were a single 20-something in Canada with just a 9-5 job (and a car, rent, entertainment/travel-filled life)
We broke down all of our expenses in our previous UA-cam video 😊
We do have cheap rent and no car, yes! We live in the city, so no need for a car, and we’ve intentionally stayed in our same apartment for the past 6.5 years to keep the cost that low. We’re as intentional as possible with our expenses so that we can invest as much as possible right now, but we do a lot of things fun entertainment and fun 😊
@@stephanddenI would love to watch the video about how you spend your free time! ❤
These highlight reels are great, you guys are really living the good life. Keep them up :))
Thank you so much 😊
The ‘no uber eats’ challenge is a big one. I and my husband have also started cooking more recipes at home and we are also tracking our expenses to see exactly how much we are saving every month.
Could you please make a video in the future on ‘tips to save money’. Thanks and Merry Christmas
That’s great! We’re so happy to hear that 🥳 and thanks for the suggestion!
Merry Christmas 😊
Are you funding the FHSA and RRSP with "after-tax" money? I was confused by that (coming from the American tax system), I thought FHSA and RRSP were supposed to be funded with pre-tax money (like 401K in the usa), unlike the TFSA which is more like the Roth IRA and both funded with after-tax money??
Uses after-tax money, then deductions are claimed at tax time.
Other plans like the RPP (Registered Pension Plan) use pre-tax money instead.
This confused me for months & every year someone at my company thinks they owed the government thousands because we thought the enrolling for the company RPP and contributing to the RRSP was the same thing.
@ Wait, it’s NOT the same? Company RPP and RRSP contributions are different things???
Time is flying by! Feels like it was only last year that you started your self employment path!!
I know right?! It really does feel like it’s flying by!
Do you guys invest corporately or only in personal accounts? If so, that would be an interesting video.
Only personal accounts right now 😊 but when that changes in the future we can talk about it in a video!
Do you use excel doc for your budget tracker
It’s a Google sheets doc 😊 but you could also download it as an Excel file!
Steph, congrats on the $0 uber eats! We often keep costco's meatballs and lasagna on hand for easy meal building blocks when needed. Holiday cooking competition coming up Den vs Steph? Each develop a 1 week menu. Cost of menu, taste of items, health value, and time to prepare. 😊
Dennis, congrats on maxing out the TFSA! Now it should be easy to maintain the yearly contributions for TFSA and FHSA. (No rush on buying a home.) Definitely would be a great video series to discuss 16-26 money journey. I find that is a missing decade in a lot of financial discussions except to say, "What if you started saving for retirement at 18?"
Thank you so much! We appreciate it 🙏🏿🙏🏻
Those are both great video ideas 😊 we’ll definitely keep them in mind / add them to the list!
Love this❤ can you do a video on your free budget template? How it works, short cuts
Thank you! We send out an instructions video with the budget template that walks through how it works with examples 😊
When bull market is there everything looks great , one have to keep doing dollar cost averaging even during bear market and keep putting more dollars even when stocks are tumbling
Congratulations on your great success!
Thank you so much! 😊
Where do we sign up for your course?
You can sign up on our website on December 26th! www.stephandden.com 😊
Do you not pay taxes on the 10k bonus
$10,000 is the post-tax amount 😊
Happy holidays guys ❤❤
Happy holidays! 🙏🏿🙏🏻
Nice video. Would love if you can explain what do you mean by "Bonus"?
Thank you! An additional amount of money on top of our set salaries 😊
When your business earns extra money you can earn more. If it earns less, you take a pay cut. Thankfully accountants usually suggest a reasonable salary + bonus for cash flow, because it has been tight some years. 😆
@@stephandden Got it. If my goal is to buy a home in 3-5 years, where should I invest my $8000 in FHSA?
What is it you guys do as self employed now? Always enjoy the videos
Thank you so much!
We post personal finance content online 😊 including UA-cam and other social media platforms!
Do you guys take official time off? Like give yourself two weeks vacation a year? I understand it’s different as entrepreneurs but it’s like you’re always working
We usually don’t have set time off, no - but when we have something planned, we have the flexibility to work around it!
We’re actually going to be on a trip with Dennis’ family over the next few weeks, and we did a lot of work in advance so we can enjoy it 😊
Please show us your monthly break down on how can you achieve 2000 dollars investment a month
They already did in a different video. 😊 I believe the video said they collectively spent 67000 of the 140k of collective gross earnings. It has a full break down.
Yes, check out our previous UA-cam video! 😊
For Better 2025🥂
🥳🥳
Great video
Thank you! 🙏🏿🙏🏻
What is your business?
I want to invest more but I also love traveling and eating😅
You didn’t even say what your business is or where your income comes from 🤣
UA-cam, TikTok…social media basically.
We do mention this in the video! We post personal finance content online 😊