Financial Update July 12

Hey everyone, I thought I’d put a post out because a bunch of stuff has been going on that’s impacting my finances, the markets are going crazy and there’s some shopping deals on the horizon.

Please note: this post contains affiliate links.  As an affiliate of Amazon, Tangerine, and Questrade this blog may receive a small commission for sales.    

More Market Madness

The Canadian Stock market went down and the US market is hitting all-time highs this week.  What gives?  Maybe it was the fact that the Bank of Canada held its interest rate (at 1.75%) while the US Fed signaled a rate cut on the horizon.

The big rally may not last as the US is fast approaching its debt ceiling.  Sure Congress will agree to increase the debt ceiling (like they have many times before) but not without all the political drama.

Amazon Prime Day Monday July 15^th!

I’ve been in the market for a new TV for our family room and I’m hoping to find one on Monday when its the Amazon Prime Day Sale.  If you’re looking for deals on anything, you might want to check it out.  Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and of course Boxing Day are usually the best sales around.   

Mortgage Milestone Reached This Month

Since January, my goal has been to pay down this mortgage so that we’re well below the $300k mark by the end of the year.  I’m happy to say that I just put another $1,500 lump sum payment on the mortgage and with our regular payments we will be below $300k by the end of the month!

Housing is our biggest expense and the sooner we kill the mortgage the better off we’ll be.  I was hoping to put even more money down this month but we ran into another home reno project.

Another Home Renovation Project!

Well after the renovation hell we went through last year, we thought we would take a break and relax this year.  That was until I nearly fell through my rotted out 20-year old deck while Barbequing!

I thought for sure we had another year out of that thing!  Guess not.  Oh well, so we received some quotes on the deck that came in around 6-8 thousand dollars!  That’s totally crazy I know.  And that was for just your regular pressure treated wood…not cedar or composite. 

I try really hard to keep my home maintenance to a minimum, so I definitely won’t be going with a wood deck.  In fact, we decided on getting a nice stamped concrete patio and we’re booked for late August / early September.

In the meantime I need to get rid of this old rotting deck.  So I called around to places like 1-800 Got Junk and you wouldn’t believe the quote I got to remove the old deck…$2,000!!!  If I tear it down myself it’s still $1,500!!!  Holy Sh*t!

Okay, so there’s no way that’s going to happen.  Next option is rent a dumpster and do it myself.  Dumpster rental is approximately $500!!!

I guess that’s not too bad but I think I can get it done for even cheaper…like about $100.

Guys this is how I try to save money.  By doing as much of it as possible myself I think I can get rid of most of the decking boards if I remove the nails and screws, bundle them and put a few bundles out on garbage day for the rest of the summer (I know it’s ridiculous but I gotta save money!).  

Next, the boards and beams that have too many nails in them I’ll have to rent a van at Home Depot or somewhere for about $20-$50 and haul the load to the dump which will cost about $50 bucks.   

That’s the plan because the concrete will cost about $8,600!

So I’ve been busy doing demo work in the backyard.

I’ve also been working to earn extra cash to cover the concrete.  I’ve picked up some overtime at work and I’ve been working hard online to earn that extra cash.  So far it seems to be working.  I figure I’ll have just enough to cover at least half that amount by the end of summer. 

Even though we have a big expense coming, we’re still enjoying our summer!  10 years ago I would have cancelled our summer vacation and saved like crazy. 

Well not anymore.  Life’s too short and with kids in school all year round it’s hard to get family time.  Plus my wife and I have a nice little getaway planned in a couple of weeks that we’re not going to bail on.  So I guess I save where I can and spend where it counts!

Cheers! And have a great weekend everyone!

In case you’re wondering here are some financial services 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 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.