It’s that time of year again! We had another solid year, finishing at a net worth of $786,116, which is a $136,119 increase from last year. Our savings rate for the year was a solid 65%
This year’s report is going to look a little different. Our beloved financial tracking program of 11 years, Mint, is about to kick the bucket, and we will likely have much less data and charts available afterwards. So to pay homage to one of the most useful free programs ever created, this year’s report will be loaded with all the Mint charts and graphs I’ve enjoyed for so long. But this first visual is my own creation, and is an overview of our total cashflow for the year:
Overall Spending
Our overall spending for the year was $33,460, compared to $31,155 in 2022. The difference is accounted for in substantially higher travel costs, as seen below.
Housing
Our housing costs were $11,105, compared to $10,354 in 2022. We have no immediate rent increases coming, though a modest one is likely at some point in 2024.
Travel
We spent $9,198 on travel this year, compared to $7,010 in 2022. The main culprit was an extremely expensive trip to some of the more expensive parts of Europe – England, France, and Belgium, which was an absolute blast. We also did four shorter trips within BC to explore some new areas and visit family.
Food
We spent $6,035 on food this year, compared to $5,714 in 2022. The breakdown was $5,067 groceries, $644 restaurants, and $323 snacks.
Health
Our health spending was $1,155 this year, compared to $1,383 last year. It skewed towards physio and massage at $459, followed by dental at $437, and pharmacy at $258.
Entertainment
We spent $2,209 on entertainment, compared to $1,389 in 2022. The big difference was due to there being a lot more concerts and shows we wanted to see (and were able to see due to loosened Covid restrictions). As usual, we bought a lot of books and video games.
Bills
Our bills were pretty consistent at $994, versus versus $966 in 2022. This is for two basic talk/text phone plans, plus barebones internet. This year I also threw a (rare) ID renewal fee in here as I have absolutely no idea where else I could put it.
Everything Else
The odds and ends this year added up to $2,762, compared to $3,632 in 2022. Major categories were electronics spending, at $897 (mostly a new television after our old one died, plus a new PS5); public transit, at $643; personal care, at $448; and clothing, at $400.
Closing Comments
We’re very happy with our progress this year. We will be seriously inconvenienced without Mint, which has been a godsend since day 1 of working towards FIRE, but there seem to be a few potential contenders for replacing it. We’re looking forward to another great year, including a near-future trip to Morocco.
Incoming Assets 
Amazing work!
Now if your income savings were 61k and your total wealth increase was 136k. Does that mean that your investment portfolio gave a net return of 75k? That would also be almost a 10% anual investment returns. That’s insane!
Wouldn’t that also mean you guys are able to retire now? What is your future plans in that regard?
Yes, our investments did really well this year. We do have enough money to retire now, but don’t have a firm plan to pull the plug, because we’re in a really good situation now.
Morroco, not bad! My recommendation would be the oral LT-ETEC vaccine, as otherwise a large part of the holiday might be spend in the restroom. Happened to me and all my friends in Morroco, because we did not know of the vaccine 😀
On the financial front it seems like things are going great, congrats. If needed you could probably retire. I have the feeling that the 800k cookie will be baked soon!
great job. truly inspiring.
Any advice for a couple in there late 20s looking to retire by early 40s. We both have notable Student loan debt and have just started paying it down while saving in simple s and p 500 etfs. It feels like such a long journey and sometimes it’s hard to agree on what we should spend allocate, save towards (small slip ups seem to occur or set backs)… Most of the retirement calculators have us at 500,000 dollars by the age of 40. We both just started working this year.
rough breakdown of our situation
Age 27/28
Savings 10,000
Joint income monthly after taxes 9,000
Two cars both paid off/ insurance 200
Rent all in monthly 1,500
Debt repayment monthly 1,200
Monthly contributions TFSA/ FTHB 2,000
Groceries/ cleaning supplies/ ect 750 monthly
By the time we get through other expenses it seems like we are still pay check to pay check.
I can tell you what I think you should do, but it’s pretty drastic. It looks like you have 3350 left over from that, so I would put 3000 of that towards investments or debt payoff. Also rent a cheaper place, cut the grocery bill in half, and get rid of the cars (walk or bike instead). If you live somewhere that requires a car, move.
We live in a rural town and theres no public transport. My partner needs her car for work but I will be selling mine. Agreed, our grocery bill should be cut down some and we have started reducing costs. Rent in our town is pretty expensive as there’s a high demand and not a lot of availability. We were thinking the FTHB will cut our income tax but also allow us to save on rent if we can purchase in the next 3-5 years; a place we with a basement apartment or duplex possibly(thoughts on that?). Thank you for your time and advice!
If we lived somewhere that required expenses not in line with our financial goals, we would move somewhere else. No idea about the rent/buy/duplex situation where you are, but if you do the math and include absolutely all costs for each scenario there should be a clear answer.
We made it to 100k!
I think I wrote maybe in 2014 saying that I had 15 or 20 saved when you were around 150…
Then I wrote again in 2020 or 2021 when I said I thought your blog had disappeared, and had I spent most of my money on cars and stuff.
Last two years we made a big effort in looking at our numbers and cutting expenses, selling a car, selling a bunch of stuff, doing a few side gigs, and in 2023 we were able to save like 40k.
Yesterday we did our monthly “money-date” and we got $100,368!
It was an important number for us, and we wanted to shared it with you as you are a big inspiration for this.
The goal for 2024 is at least 125k, and we were thinking for our vacation Morocco too!
Hey, I have been following you since your YouTube video on exploring alternatives and I think you’re doing an amazing job! I also like the no nonsense approach 😊 I have always been a bit confused about one thing and I’d be super grateful if you replied – do you not pay for gas/electricity and water and council tax (I guess property tax) ? We are super frugal but our heating bill is still about £2,000 a year with the energy shock etc. and everyone in the UK pays council tax of about £2,000 a year or more depending on the size of your house – which covers council services like libraries/fixing potholes etc – you never list costs for those and I’ve always wondered!
Our utilities is part of our rent. And there is no property tax as we are not the owners.
Wow, do renters in Canada not have to pay for council services? That’s crazy! Renting in the UK sucks as it is but if you didn’t have to pay your council tax that would make renter’s lives a lot easier. I’m still confused as to how Canadians pay for services like libraries etc. if it’s not through taxes
Renters in Canada do pay property tax/council tax, but in this case, it would be included in the rent or building fees. So they dont pay it directly, the landlord pays. Property tax can be very expensive, and it depends on where you live. The property taxes are actually very low in Vancouver, so housing costs CAN be lower if the housing “speculation” markup isnt included. Vancouver also has very inexpensive electricity/heating costs when compared to the rest of the country. Heating/hydro is costly elsewhere. And homeowners do have to pay for water services too, but if you are renting its usually included in the rental fee.
Renters don’t have to pay a tax to rent an apartment or house. We still have a lot of taxes though, income tax, sales tax, property tax for homeowners, fuel tax, carbon tax, alcohol and tobacco tax, etc. and those are just the ones for individuals, not including corporate taxes. That is how the government funds services.
Did you find an alternative to Mint? I was thinking of trying PocketGuard.
For now the plan is to stay with Mint until the bitter end and then try out whatever they migrate to. If we don’t like it, then Lunch Money looks the most promising.
I would highly recommend empower. I have been using mint since 2010 and then I stared using empower (back then it was personal capital) since 2017. The tools it has are incredible! It has retirement planner tab and an investment allocation tab which are both very useful!
It seems to be an American thing? Not much use for Canadians.
ahh! That is too bad. It is exceptional in the dashboards and views that it has built. Oh well. I actually had both mint and personal capital and over time I almost stopped using mint. Mint did move to creditkarma. Is that a US thing only again? it is alright, but I still think Mint’s interface is better.
The Canadian version of Credit Karma is VERY basic, so I think it’s unlikely Mint Canada will transition to that, but you never know.