Our Financial Resolutions for 2014
One thing you may not know about the Ratehub.ca team is that we all have some interest in personal finance. In fact, a few of us have even talked about starting a Personal Finance Lunch Club, where we would meet once/month to chat about everything we’ve learned or done to improve our finances that month. And Cait and Jordann write entire blogs about this stuff!
As we say goodbye to 2013, and look ahead to a new year with a fresh start, we decided to ask everyone on the team what their financial resolution was for 2014. Here are our answers:
Ahmed: “My resolution is to pay off 50% of my student loan.”
Alyssa: “I have two goals for 2014. My first goal is to automate my savings and investing, so that the same amount of money is taken from each paycheque, put into my TFSA and then automatically invested into an index fund I’ve chosen – a sort of “pay yourself first” meets dollar cost averaging meets pre-authorized payments. My second goal is to buy an investment property (either a duplex or triplex) with my boyfriend, live in one unit and rent the other(s).”
Cait: “First, I want to build up my Emergency Fund (which is in a TFSA) to $10,000. I also want to contribute $5,000 to my RRSP. I’d love to find some extra money in my budget to put towards a trip (preferably to the UK). And I want to start giving to charity on a monthly basis, instead of just sporadically throughout the year. Is that too many resolutions!? Yikes!”
Chris: “I want to waste less money on things that are avoidable, such as late fees, parking tickets, etc.”
Idriss: “I would like to start a savings plan for when my son attends university.”
Jordann: “My financial resolution for 2014 is to build a $10,000 Emergency Fund. I’m 26.5% of the way there!”
Kerri-Lynn: “My financial resolution is to start putting $500/month in my RRSP, until I have the full $25,000 I can borrow through the Home Buyers’ Plan to purchase my first home. And then I should also invent something clever for the other $75,000 I will need to make a down payment in Toronto!”
Kurtis: “I want to start making a monthly contribution to my RRSP.”
Rebecca: “I want to give more to charity. My husband and I already donate to the SickKids Foundation, but we’d like like to start donating to the Toronto Animal Shelter and Doctors Without Borders as well. Throughout the year, we save up to buy gifts for SickKids at Christmas, but we’d like to add more to that fund. For the other two, we’d like to start donating monthly.”
Tasso: “I plan on investing more of my savings in Bitcoin. I invested about $1,800 six months ago, at an average of $108 per BTC. As of December 10th, those 17 BTCs were worth $15,000 (trading at $900). I expect BTC to shoot up in value, as soon as a major retailer begins accepting them (like Amazon, eBay, etc.).”
What is your financial resolution for 2014?