Hey everyone and welcome to this Financial Roundup November 29, 2019. Tons of Black Friday Deals are here. The stock market has been kind to investors but with no China trade deal forget a Santa Clause rally. Finally I’ll tell you why I’m paying off my mortgage instead of investing.
Before I begin I’ll throw out my usual disclaimer that this post contains affiliate links where the blog may receive a small commission on any sales from Amazon, EQ Bank, Questrade and Tangerine.
Now let’s get into it!
Amazon Black Friday 2019
Amazon’s Black Friday 2019 Sale is today! Of course this will be followed by the Cyber Monday sale! You can check out the Deals on Amazon Here.
There’s some great deals out there. I just bought a new TV and wall mount for our family room. Can’t wait to get it installed. We’re running the electrical behind the wall so we don’t have cords hanging.
Stock Market
Stocks are still on a tear this month! The TSX is above 17,000, the Dow above 28,000 and the S&P 500 above 3,100!
Hopefully the trade deal with China will happen or it won’t be a pretty December/January on the markets.
As I said a few weeks ago, I have some doubts and reservations about the markets right now so I’m not aggressively buying anything right now.
I still invest automatically each month, but I’m not deploying some of the cash on the sidelines right now.
This past week there’s been lots of reports about how the markets may go even higher for a lot longer. But history shows us that there are always lots of corrections and pull backs for the wise investor to take advantage of.
A Debt Free Life
What I have been doing with my money is paying down our last big debt: the mortgage. This is unglamorous and boring stuff. But after a lot of thought and consideration, I figured that the biggest obstacle in the way of financial freedom is our mortgage.
Without a mortgage life becomes a lot cheaper! You become free to take advantage of opportunities that come your way without worry about having to bring in X number of dollars to pay the the monthly bills.
When you own your own home free and clear you don’t need a huge income to maintain a decent lifestyle.
I thought I’d kill the mortgage instead of investing that money because we currently owe about 290k and the monthly payments are about 2,500. That’s $30k a year in mortgage payments.
With a 4.5% dividend yield, I’d need to invest about $670k to cover the mortgage payment. Plus I’d be investing in the stock market which can be risky in the short term. My investment could drop (significantly) in value, maybe some of those dividends get cut. Who knows?
The point is it’s a lot easier to pay down $290k then it is to save up $670k to cover the payments. Once the mortgage is gone our cost of living will drop substantially. We’ll be well positioned to invest and to enjoy life on our terms. And that’s what financial freedom is all about!
Cheers! And have a great weekend everyone!
In case you’re wondering here’s where I park my money and some financial services that I use:
For my Daily banking and no-fee cash back credit card I use Tangerine. Curious? Check out my Tangerine vs Simplii Financial review and the Tangerine Money Back Credit Card Review.
For my Savings I use the EQ Bank Savings Plus Account. Never heard of it? Click the link to check out my EQ Bank Savings Plus Account Review.
For investing I use a combination of TD Waterhouse (for legacy investments) and Questrade (low cost stock purchases and free ETF purchases). If you haven’t done so already, check out my Questrade Review to see why it’s the best deal around. Get $50 in Free Trades when you signup for Questrade through this link.