How to Become 22% Financially Free

Most of my girlfriends think that
living with my parents is
a horrific idea :)

Over the Christmas break, my family made a very big decision. We all finally agreed that it's time to eliminate one of our biggest liabilities - our home! 

We decided to join efforts cross generations and consolidate two residences: my family moved in with my parents.

This is not only because we love each other to pieces, but also because we saw a great opportunity to optimize our spending. This is a step towards our financial freedom goal and a part of the following chain reaction:

• Spending goes hand in hand with saving.
• Saving goes hand in hand with investing. 
• Investing goes hand in hand with multiple streams of income.
• Multiple streams of income go hand in hand with financial freedom.

I understand if you think it's a crazy move. Even my nine-year-old jokes:

My son: Mom, how do you feel about living with your Mom when you are almost 40?

Leaving 16 years of memories behind

Me: I like it

My son: Why? [Pauses] Free food?!?

Then, he bursts into laughing loudly at his own black humour.

All joking aside, this is a big change for our family. Kids had to change schools, karate dojo, pack
and move all of their stuff, and try to make new friends. My husband and I packed 16 years of life into boxes and garbage bags and piled it in my parents' basement. My parents now have to observe our semi-chaotic living in their previously idyllically quiet home.

Why? Because this change takes us closer to achieving our financial freedom goal. Now, our upcoming year-long Sailing Trip in a couple of years is more real than we've ever imagined.

Myth: Home is an Asset

Most people consider the home that they live in to be an asset.

There is a lot of evidence all around us in favour of this myth. For example, real estate agents will tell us that home is the most expensive asset we will purchase in our lifetime.

A creditor will ask us to put the market value of our principal residence at the top of the Assets column on their credit application.

Our personal financial advisor will ask about the value of our home and enter it on the first line of the assets section of our Personal Financial Information form.

Let's be pragmatic about facts:

A real estate agent will get paid a commission based on the purchase price you pay for your home. 

A creditor will collect thousands of dollars of interest payments when you borrow from them and secure a loan against your home.

A financial planner will help you in many ways:

a mortgage, insurance, a secured loan, an investment portfolio, and a repeating annual financial plan update, all of which is based on the market value of your home; all of which comes with a price tag.

Please keep in mind that I am a grateful customer to a few amazing real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, and financial planners. Knowledgeable advisors help me tremendously on my way to financial freedom! The value of the products and services they provide to me greatly outweigh the associated costs and propel me forward. In fact, I wouldn't be able to achieve what I've done so far without their help. If you are reading this - Thank you!

The trick to appreciating the value of these services is to know exactly what you are after.

The advisors, especially great ones, will give you the advice that you'd like to hear. This is because a huge part of their job is to help you achieve your dreams. They will cater services to your tastes and help you make the decisions to achieve your desires.

Therefore, if you go with conventional definitions and believe your home to be an asset, you will inevitably purchase an expensive home and spend a lot of money on it! Your advisors will help you do it to the maximum.

Your Decisions are Yours to Sponsor

Since my goal is financial freedom, I make it my highest priority to fully understand the costs of each of my liabilities, including my home.

I am fully and solely responsible for all the associated home expenses such as:

Mortgage Interest and principal 

Mortgage insurance 

Life and disability insurance premiums 

Property taxes 

Property insurance 

Maintenance and repair costs 

Snow and grass care costs 

Cable 

Internet 

Phone line 

Security alarm system 

Furnace lease 

Water tank lease 

Utilities 

Interest on the furniture bought on credit card 

Interest on the car as fancy as my neighbour's

Netflix

Amazon Prime 

Cleaning lady (I notice that the trend is more bathrooms than people in a house!)

A second car if the house is far from work 

Given my personal goal, I choose to disagree with the conventional definitions and concur with Robert Kiyosaki, who insists that we put our home on the liabilities side of the equation.

In order for me to balance my personal budget, I have to face the harsh reality and be ready to pay the bills that I signed up for. There's definitely a lot of bills to pay when it comes to home ownership!

Consequently, my advisors strive to help me find the best bang for the buck, save every penny possible, and use my personal home to the fullest.

Abundant Opportunities

Homeownership combined with the home being classified as a liability (as opposed to being an asset) gives you tremendous opportunities.

First and foremost, I bet you can save two to three hundred dollars a month, if you carefully revisit all of your regular expenses, decide which of them you no longer need, and stop paying for them.

Keep in mind that small savings add up.

For example, over the past couple of months I shaved off the following on little things:

- Replaced mortgage and loan protector insurance with whole life and disability insurance +$100

- Stopped paying for a home thermostat rental +$15

- Cancelled Netflix +$12

Sub-Total: $127 per month = $1,524 per year = $1,836 before tax.

After moving to my parents, I've also added the following savings:

- Cancelled internet +$65

- Cancelled home insurance +$40

- Cut utilities and property taxes in half +$500

Sub-Total: $605 per month = $7,260 per year = $8,746 before tax.

Adding $656 monthly saving I shared last month, grand total becomes:

$127 + $605 + 656 = $1,388 per month = $16,656 per year.

At 17% tax rate, that is $20,067 of pre-tax salary.

An average family with 73.7K annual household income has to work for over eleven weeks to earn enough money to cover these expenses.

Given the recurring nature of these expenses, it's not just a one-time eleven-week long work project. You'd have to work for eleven weeks every year to pay for all these obligations.

For me personally, getting rid of these liabilities means that my husband can be on vacation for 11 weeks out of 52 every year. 

This alone makes us 

22% FINANCIALLY FREE

Sailing Trip Awaits!

Not bad, eh?

PS Saving and being frugal around your home-related expenses is just one side of the coin. Being a homeowner can open many investment opportunities and become the basis of your future wealth and financial freedom. Email me at ask@50doors.com if you'd like to learn more

Million Dollar Decision: Spend or Save?

Balancing Act! Spending vs Saving

Recently, I ran across a fantastic company. I loved their business model.

The team their helps Canadians take control over their finances and build passive income. Most of their clients achieve the following objectives:

1. Pay off their bad debt within about 30 days
2. Create about a $1,000,000 investment portfolio within 8-10 years
3. And all this, without sacrificing their current lifestyle. 

I am starting to work closer with this firm, to learn more about the specific software program and approach they use to achieve such tremendous success. I can see how this process will benefit many of my readers.

Wouldn’t you want to have a million dollar portfolio!?

This afternoon, I worked through my own numbers and a couple of scenarios to see how I can use my primary home plus leverage to build up my passive income.

I'd like to share my notes with you. It’s amazing how the decision to hang on to current lifestyle affects the long-term outcome!

The Formula

Step 1) Re-finance your primary residence to extract as much equity as possible. Pay-off all high interest rate bad debt and invest the rest.

Step 2) Repeat step #1 above three times: today, then in 3 to 5 years, and then again in about 10 years.

Assumptions

Below are the key assumptions I made when working through my own numbers. These assumptions are reasonable in my particular case.

Your situation might be different, so please adjust and feel free to post questions below the post:

• Property appreciates steadily at 5% a year
• At first refinance, my mortgage interest rate will increase from 3.15 to 4.5%
• Mortgage interest rate will remain at 4.5% for all future years
• I will be able to re-finance up to 75% loan to value every five years
• My portfolio will be invested with an average 11% annual return.

Scenario 1: Keeping My Lifestyle

After each re-finance, I’ll spend all of the passive income.

It is important for me to use the extra disposable income right away.

Outcome

• Fifteen years later, my net worth will be $770,000.
  
• My investment portfolio will be $383,000, producing $42,000 of passive income a year. This income will not be enough to cover my annual mortgage principal and interest payment of $55,000.

Scenario 2: Extreme Frugality

After each re-finance, I’ll find a way to reduce my day-to-day spending, so that all of the passive income goes right back into my portfolio. 

As a result, my disposable income will get smaller with each refinance, yet my portfolio will grow very fast thanks to the compounding interest.

Outcome

• Fifteen years later, my net worth will be $1,307,000.
  
• My investment portfolio will be $1,001,700, producing $110,000 of passive income a year – more than enough to cover my mortgage payments of 55K. 

Know Your Options - Make Conscious Decisions 

These two scenarios show you the full spectrum of possibilities.

The first scenario best fits those who appreciate today and live in the moment. It shows that with some effort put into making your equity work for you, you can build some wealth while enjoying some extra passive income.

The second scenario emphasizes the importance of being conscious about the impact of compounding interest over a long time. If you can be frugal – be frugal! This will pay off over time and you could be on the road to creating a multi-million-dollar portfolio and hundreds of thousands in passive income!

Whichever point on the spectrum of options you choose, it's extremely important to know yourself well, evaluate the possibilities, and go for whatever plan you believe fits your needs and desires best.

In The Landlord Paradise

I love flowers on the side of the house!

In the last post, I shared that I've been tolerating an eight-month long vacancy because of fear, which wasn't even my fear to begin with, but it still paralyzed me.

Now, determined to fix the issue, I set out to find a great tenant ASAP.

Determining Price

To determine the price, I analyzed all for-rent ads on Kijiji. There were 39 of them.

Out of 39, only eight were listed under “House Rental” and the rest were in “Apartments and Condos”.

Even though my unit is an apartment in a duplex, it comes with a basement and a backyard, and takes up a larger part of a two-story house. I decided to put my ad under “House Rental”. It seems to be fair and puts my ad into a bucket with less competition.

Out of 39, the majority of 21 ads were two-bedroom places like mine.

In some cases, prices included all utilities, some covered only some of the services, and some were with tenants paying for everything in addition to the rent. In my case, utilities must be included because meters are not separate.

During my analysis, I made the following big assumptions about the monthly cost of utilities:

• ·         Water = $100
• ·         Hydro = $200
• ·         Water + Hydro = $300

I used these assumptions to calculate all inclusive price for all ads.

Next, I looked at two bedroom units by price and saw that out of 21,

·         6 were below $900

·         4 were between $900 and $1,000

·         6 were between $1,000 and $1,100

·         3 were between $1,100 and $1,200

·         2 were over $1,200.

Aiming to be in the middle and also making sure cash flow would be positive, I decided to price my unit at $1,150.

Placing the Ad

Kitchen Looks Great!

I placed the following ad:

Big 2 Bedroom Duplex for rent $1,150 all inclusive

$1,150.00 URGENT

Looking for responsible tenant(s) for this Spacious Move-In ready Duplex!

INCLUDES:

- Lots of Parking

- Large Patio & Backyard

HOME:

- Bright living and dining rooms

- Great functional kitchen

- 2 bedrooms with large built-in closets

- You'll love the spacious Bathroom (pls see pics)!

OTHER:

- Lots of storage space

- Central AC

- Appliances: Fridge, Stove, Dishwasher, Washer / Dryer

UTILITIES: all inclusive

Please text/call or email Anna at MY_PHONE / MY_EMAIL to book your viewing.

We'll be showing the unit this week on THURSDAY, FRIDAY and SATURDAY.

Please reach out to me now to book your viewing: MY_PHONE

Unreal Number of Inquiries

Living + Dining Remind me of Spain Villas - lots of white tile

I got a gazillion responses, mainly through texts!

I booked 31 viewings over four blocks of time: Thursday afternoon, Friday morning, Friday evening, and Saturday morning. Only two people are scheduled for Saturday morning.

So far, as of the end of Thursday, 20 people showed up out of 29.

Landlord Paradise

Since the level of interest turned out to be super high, I started to wonder if I’ve set the price too low.

I asked a few applicants how my unit and its price compare to other apartments they’ve seen. Most said that they are comparable; and only a couple of people said that I could charge a bit more. I checked with my property manager and he thought the price was right as well. It’s what people in the area can actually afford to pay for this size and type of a place.

It appears that the market is very landlord friendly. Lots of demand, and lack of units. Landlords get to choose from a large pool of applicants.

It’ll be a long time, before I forgive myself for an 8-month long vacancy in this landlord paradise type of market. Unreal. I’m such a la-la.

What?! Seven grand for life insurance!!!

As I'm building my portfolio of 50 Doors, I can't help but wonder what happens if I die yesterday.

Initially, just the thought of leaving a gigantic pile of debt behind for my kids to deal with, upon my passing, was giving me goosebumps.

Even though, the kids are older now, they are definitely not prepared to chase rent checks, fix toilets, make sure mortgage payments go through without hiccups, etc. Their current focus is studying and finishing their education.

Since I was freaking out a lot about all the debt I took on, I decided to get some quotes for life insurance. The quote came back at $579 / month, which is almost

SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS a year!!!

I was shocked! My husband and I didn't have to think very long to decide that this price is definitely not in our budget. We've been chasing assets, which on average make $200 dollars a month, and are not in a position to set three assets aside to pay for the life insurance. It's just too expensive!

Dangers of Self-Diagnostics: Hire a Professional

Several weeks later, I met an outstanding financial advisor. I attended his talk, read his book, and scheduled a one-on-one consultation. It turned out that I was looking at insurance completely backwards!

Instead of consulting someone knowledgeable and experienced and letting them guide me, I rushed to a decision. I had self-diagnosed my insurance problems and self-assigned a cure: that I must buy a huge coverage policy to pay off all my debt immediately, the moment something happens to me or my husband. Then I discovered that the huge policy was too expensive and left myself and my family in the same risky situation of not having a contingency plan in place.

Only after I talked to a real guru, I realized how much difference knowledge makes. There's a reason we have professionals who know exactly what they are doing! It's a shame I thought for a brief moment, I knew anything about insurance.

Lessons Learned

1) Start by Educating Yourself and/or Hire a Professional

Whenever you do anything for the very first time, it pays off to spend time on education and find experienced professionals who specialize in the field. 

Having read the book by my advisor, I got a good initial understanding of key terminology and common problems, solutions, and use cases around insurance. This helped me ask good questions  during my one-on-one consultation and discover what my personal insurance needs are.

2) Understand Your Own Needs

Surprise, surprise! After understanding how insurance works and what options would be suitable in my situation, I discovered that I don't need a huge policy to cover all my debt. It just doesn't make any sense. No wonder that would cost a fortune!

Instead, I realized that my needs are completely different. For example:

• Be able to stay home for a few months, if one of our family members gets sick
• Survive a sudden income interruption, in case my husband has to take a break from work
• Have a sufficient emergency fund to avoid a fire-sale of one or more assets
• Ensure that our kids finish their education, no matter what
• Establish a detailed plan for our executors and get their agreement on this.

What I realized is that insurance is NOT a lottery. There's no need to buy millions of dollars of insurance. All you need is sufficient to go through a life change without sacrificing your future financial and emotional stability. 

Make sure you have enough for you and the rest of the family to still have your lives, businesses, and routine to come back to, after the storm is over, and carry on from where you've left off.

3) Understand Your Family Needs

It was interesting to me to work with my husband. During needs analysis, we drafted his and my estates. This means that we looked at:

• what my husband will need, should I become disabled or die; and 
• what I'll need in case he dies or gets sick.

It turned out that our two estates are drastically different.  

I'm actually a lot more demanding aka vulnerable at the moment, because my husband covers most of our day-to-day bills, while I work on building our future wealth. 

In other words, a brief interruption to my husband's work schedule, would cause a sudden financial shock to the family. While if I am out of pocket for a few months, no major collapse would happen. In this case, we'd just need to adjust our long term strategy.

With this in mind, as of now, my estate needs to be insured at a lower amount, compared to my husband's. 

Being Prepared Feels Great!

Even though it sounds very creepy to be discussing in so much detail what will happen when one of us gets sick or dies, I feel great having gone through this discussion! 

Here are some of my take aways:

• Statistically, the chances of being out of pocket are pretty high! 
• Basically, almost everyone will be sick in the next 10-20 years. So it helps to plan ahead how to afford to stay home while you recover and/or stay home with a sick relative.
• Dying is easier than being sick. Sickness is hard on the person recovering and those who take care of him or her.
• If you plan your insurance coverage well, you'll have a much higher chance to weather a storm and reach your long term goals after it.

Being prepared feels great! If you'd like a referral to the awesome financial advisor I'm working with, ping me and I'll connect you. No obligations and no referral bonuses for me! I honestly think it's super helpful to know more about this stuff and make educated decisions about how to best protect yourself and your loved ones.

Expectant Parents: How to Create an Effective Financial Plan

Foreword

The following article was submitted to me by Sara Bailey and I believe it's priceless. Sara shares her experience after losing the love of her life and the father of their two children, Greg.

I hope Sara's story helps you take a step back, pause for a moment, and be grateful for and cherish every minute of every day with those you love.

Also, I truly hope that the article will urge you to take action and protect yourself and your loved ones from preventable financial hardship in case of an unexpected life change. 

Thanks to this article, my husband and I saw our Insurance Advisor a few times over the past couple of weeks. We learned a lot about the benefits of various types of insurance coverage and were able to set up a plan that will help our loved ones to keep going, should we die or get sick "yesterday". 

When your family member is sick, you should be able to take as much time off as needed, to help them get better! You should have a plan to help you keep your business or your career safe, until you are ready to get back to them. It's not a secret, that we all have an expiry date and get sick every once in a while. Why not plan for it? 

Lastly, I insist that you TAKE CONTROL AND ACTION towards building your own successful future - whatever your definition is - and live your life fully, for many-many years to come! There is no excuse not to plan and execute your personal success strategy. 

Cheers to planning, executing and being prepared!

"Like many people who have lost the love of their life, I never in a million years thought I’d be here. On my 40th birthday — which I spent with my husband and our two kids bowling, devouring cupcakes, and laughing more than I ever thought was possible — I never dreamed that by my 41st, I’d be a grieving single mom raising a son and daughter on her own. But here I am, and with each passing day, I get a little stronger, and life gets a little easier.", 

Sara Bailey, The Widow, thewidow.net

Expectant Parents: How to Create an Effective Financial Plan

A baby changes everything. The minute you learn you are expecting comes with a whirlwind of excitement and new worries. Suddenly, you are faced with a massive to-do list in order to prepare for their arrival. Between prepping the nursery and buying baby gear, there are the less fun tasks that need to be addressed, too. Creating a financial plan during your pregnant months is a vital step in preparing for your new child.

Start Saving Now

It is always wise to have an emergency fund. Life can be unpredictable: You or your partner could lose your job; one of you could get injured or sick, or the car may need to be replaced. When you have a child, these costly unexpected situations are twice as stressful. Most money experts advise you to have 3 to 6 months of expenses in your savings account for these occasions.

However, even if you already have a comfortably padded savings account, you should set aside even more money during the pregnant months. Having a child will increase your monthly expenses. In fact, according to CBS, the average cost of raising a child is $14,000 yearly. The best time to add to your savings is before your baby is born.

Build a Budget

Children are expensive, which is why creating a budget is key. Some studies have found that parents who do not plan their spending run into financial issues around when their child turns 6 months. This can put a serious strain on your relationship.

Before you have your child, keep meticulous track of your spending to help you identify where you can cut back. Then estimate how much your child care expenses will be, this includes items such as diapers, clothes, formula, and toys as well as larger one time purchases such as the crib and stroller. To make things easier, try using the baby cost calculator at Babycenter.com.

Crafting your budget provides a great opportunity to evaluate if it is more beneficial for you or your spouse to stay home. Child care such as babysitters and daycare on average cost around $200 a week. Crunch the numbers to see what makes the most sense for your family.

Prepare for the Worst

Though it may be unpleasant to think about, you need to make sure that your child will be taken care of if something were to happen to you. Time magazine encourages couples to sit down together and have a serious discussion about estate planning.

Take a serious look at all your assets and create an itemized list of what you would like to go into the will. Do not forget to include investments such as property or art and retirement and savings accounts. To get an accurate measure of their worth, you may need to bring in an appraiser. You could also calculate the value of your home by looking at similar homes in your area and what they recently sold for.

Now is also the time to update your beneficiaries, write or adjust your will, and invest in life insurance. Taking these steps now will save your family members a lot of grief, stress and confusion in the event of a worst-case scenario.

 Invest in Their Education

It is never too early to start planning for college. The earlier you start saving, the better. Treat their college fund as an investment and set up their savings in a college savings plan in their name. These are designed to make sure your child does not miss out on financial aid or end up owing thousands of dollars in taxes. Instead, this money will go directly toward their education.

Get Ahead of Schedule

The sooner you establish a financial plan for your family, the more relieved you will feel. Money problems are often cited as the number one stress factors between couples and this only amplifies when you have a child. Take the time now to come up with a successful money strategy so that you can later enjoy your time with your new baby.

Photo courtesy of Pexels.