Net Worth Update- January 2015 +7.1% 16

What an exciting January 2015. Well, the market and most of my investment showed some short term volatility significantly this month which provided me a great opportunity to add my initial position to Bank of Nova Scotia stocks.

My local currency Canadian Dollar has dropped another 10% this month Closing at $1CDN=$0.78US. It was $1CDN=$0.94 in the beginning of 2014 so 17% drop over the year. Many indicators suggest the Canadian dollar to be weaken further as it s very much tied to the price of oil which is extremely volatile lately. Is it a good news for Canadian? Well… It should be great news to people with US dollar investments and US exporters but bad news to people and business that import goods from US such as food, clothing and cars. So for Canadians, if you are planning to travel down to US then delay it. Americans? Come visit us as you would be able to afford upgraded suite and a little bit more expensive Niagara Falls winery wines.

This is my first 2015 net worth update. Net worth update is posted monthly to keep track the progress of my journey to become a millionaire. I believe anyone can be a millionaire with right habits and smart investing plans. If you would like to join the journey, please like my Facebook page and subscribe your email for free updates. I started this blog in August 2014 and my net worth has been grown by 28% so far from $86,352 to $110,563 which shows average monthly growth of $4,035. Keep it steady and slowly which is key to become millionaire. January 2015 has been another good month for me. Total net worth went up by 7.1%.  I broke $100,000 net worth from November 2014 update and I broke $110,000 level this month even though my stocks weren’t performing very well. My main investments are comprised of VTI and VCE and VTI went down by 2.7% over the month however stronger US dollar kept my investment value up by 8%. Well… Lucky me as 80% of my investment is tied to US investments.

Cash

It went down quite a bit as I paid off my credit card bills for December 2014.

My majority of cash is sitting in President choice Debit account. I use it for the most of the money transfer, bill payments, cheques etc… as there is no transaction fee in this amazing card. Due to its partnership with CIBC bank, I can use their extensive CIBC ATMs network which is awesome. Their customer service is great as well.

I use TD bank card as well which is used for only investment transfer purpose as it is connected to TD warehouse brokerage account which gives me some convenience of transferring fund and invest. Check out the following section to see what credit card and debit options we have in US and Canada.

TFSA& RRSP

VTI has dropped by 2.7% but VCE kept pretty well considering significant uncertainty over oil price fluctuation, I think the market held pretty steady. I don’t know how high they are going to end up in 2015 but I am very confident that the economy will always improve in the long run and so will the index funds.

As I mentioned, I have been looking into several oil& gas stocks for a while and decided to jump in Penn West Exploration in November 2014 as I believe that they had gone through several ordeals for last couple of years and finally they are in good hands. I purchased about 750 stocks at $4.84 but now they are down even further at 1.92 as of January 31 2014. I put about 3.0% of net worth in the stock to test the water and I still believe PWT will do great for many reasons. 1. The company is now on good hands 2. Their Price to Book ratio around 0.14-0.16 which means even if it declares bankruptcy today I would be able to recover all my money and make some profit if all the assets that PWT holds are valued correctly. 3. Some insiders of PWT started to purchase PWT stocks. The company’s CEO, David Roberts purchased 5,000 shares and CFO, David Dyck exercised 250,000 shares worth of options and purchased 53,000 shares. One of the director John Syrdson purchased 300,000 shares. 4. The price of oil won’t stay much longer at $40-$60. It will eventually go up within a couple of years or so. It would take no time for oil companies to start making money once the price of oil goes up. As I mentioned I have added some BNS stocks to my portfolio and they are holding pretty well so far.

Checkout the following section for useful investment tips- Investing

Credit card

I use Capital one Costco credit card as it gives me 3% cash back on restaurants (6% on first 3 months) I spend about $500 per month on my team meals at work so that would be $15 ($30 for first 3 months) cash back per month. Remember. Everything adds up.

I also have MBNA cash back card that I use mainly for grocery and gas for 2% cash back and everything else for 1% cash back (5% on first 6 months) I have Visa card that I don’t use but kept for places that do not accept master card. Checkout the following links to see what credit card is best for you.

US residents

Canadian residents

Spending

We have been tightening up spending. We set up two major rules this month.

1. My wife added some more healthy option after watching some documentary films about how chickens, milk cows etc… are raised so we will buy quality organic ingredients, cook home meals most of time and will go out and enjoy restaurant meal once a month together in a mutually agreed restaurant.
2. We will shop at Costco once a month for majority of grocery then for urgent needs, my wife will go grocery nearby our place for eggs, milks, vegetable and fruits as need basis. Our monthly grocery budget is $500 per month.

We will keep being frugal on all other expenditures.

Hope you enjoyed this month’s net worth update. Remember, if you haven’t, set your saving & investing plans up and try to see how much net worth you have reached as of now and how much it has fluctuated in the past. Knowing where you are and where you will be headed will be a great starting point to be a millionaire and retire comfortably. Hang on there. I will be on the journey with you.  Have you enjoyed the post? Then share the post with your Facebook friends, like my Facebook page and subscribe your emails below.