Our Financial Resolutions for 2018
New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for losing weight and drinking less. For the fourth year in a row, Ratehub.ca staffers are sharing our personal finance goals for the next year — and reflecting on how we fared in 2017.
Returning players from the 2017 financial resolutions post share their year-end results, and goals for the year ahead.
Ratehub.ca CEO Alyssa is still working on her goal to invest in an income property. Starting a family was more expensive than she originally budgeted for, but she was able to make contributions to an RESP for her son.
Her 2018 goal: “Income. Property.”
Chrissy (graphic designer) fully paid off her student loan and was able to increase her RRSP and TFSA contributions.
Her 2018 goal: “Get my emergency fund to $5,000 by this time next year. Action plan: lose VIP status at Aritzia.”
Greye (software engineer) is well on track to max out his 2017 RRSP limit.
His 2018 goal: “My challenge for the coming year will be to keep this up, as my 2018 RRSP limit is almost $5,000 higher.”
Kaman (digital advertising specialist) never missed a credit card bill payment this year, but didn’t get life insurance and fell short of her savings goal.
Her 2018 goal: “Get an RRSP, life insurance, and try to save 20% of my gross salary.”
Idriss (business development manager) and his wife are almost finished paying for their extensive home renovations.
His 2018 goal: “Set up bi-weekly automatic RRSP withdrawals, and invest/manage those savings via my QuesTrade platform.”
Jacob (software engineer) found his savings goal for 2017 was pretty low, so he was able to exceed it.
His 2018 goal: “Add another $5,000 to my savings.”
Jennifer (director of finance and operations) didn’t achieve her goal of spending 25% less on eating out at restaurants, but she did get a cast iron pan that’s made cooking at home much tastier.
Her 2018 goal: “Create a detailed financial plan with short-term, mid-term, and long term goals — and stick to the savings targets in order to reach those goals.”
Jane (associate editor and the person writing this): I opened a TFSA and kept up with saving 15% of my net income.
My 2018 goal: Read one personal finance or investing book per quarter, save 20% of my net income, and sign up for a robo-advisor.
There were several new additions to the Ratehub.ca team when we checked in in July. Not wanting to leave them out of the fun, we asked them to commit to a mid-year resolution.
Rebecca (associate account manager and office manager) successfully saved 10% of her monthly income to grow her TFSA and RRSP.
Her 2018 goal: “Save 15% of my annual net income, and keep up with my weekly meal prep habit to reduce my food costs.”
Aashti (PR coordinator) audited her monthly spending on takeout and reduced it by about 10% by meal-prepping at home more often. Instead of opening an RRSP, she increased her monthly TSFA contributions and started investing using a robo-advisor.
Her 2018 goal: “Stick to a budget of $500 for clothes purchases for the entire year. I would also like to learn more about self-directed investing.”
Simon (content marketing specialist) successfully saved 15% of his income and is on track to pay off his line of credit.
His 2018 goal: “Continue saving 10-15% of my pre-tax income, working towards my eventual goal getting Wealthsimple Black.”
Jamie (marketing manager) feels she hasn’t quite mastered managing her investments, so her 2018 goal remains the same.
Her 2018 goal: “Do better at managing my investments.”
Kayla (marketing manager) was able to save 15% of her net income every month, as well as spend less on takeout and restaurants.
Her 2018 goal: “Trying to up my savings to 20% every month, and spending less on shopping.”
New employees share their resolutions for 2018.
Melissa, front-end engineer: “Max out my TFSA contribution room.” Honourable mention also goes to Melissa for paying off her student loans this year.
Alex, content marketing director: “Plan out food use better so as to reduce food expenses by 10% (I buy food last minutes sometimes, and other times food can go to waste due to poor planning on my part).”
Roger, digital ad operations specialist: “Put 25% of my net income towards savings and investments.”
Nathanael, senior software engineer: “I want to contribute to my kids RESP’s each month.”
Abhinav, senior QA analyst: “I would like to save 25-30% of my gross salary to buy some agriculture land in India and also to buy some cryptocurrency.”
Jon, director of sales: “To qualify for a mortgage and save up 20% (along with my wife) for our down payment. Once I become a homeowner, I hope to start learning more about better ways to invest my money.”
Victoria, marketing manager: “Pay off the remainder of my school loan by the end of the year.”
Heather, senior accountant: “Spend less money on food, only buy my lunch twice a week and spend max $50 on buying breakfast/lunch/coffees out.”
Do you have a financial resolution for the coming year? Let us know in the comments below.
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