April 2009 Net Worth Update: Bull Market? (+4.12%)
Welcome to the Million Dollar Journey April 2009 Net Worth Update – Is this really a bull market edition.
My last net worth update in March indicated that we just started a market rally. The rally has continued throughout April and I’ve actually done a little buying within my leveraged portfolio as well as within my RRSP. I fully intended to play around with covered call options within my RRSP account, but I soon discovered that my account did not have the permission to do so. After many calls and forms to fill out, my RRSP account now has the ability to write covered calls. Even though I’m ready to go, I haven’t executed any options trades yet.
The market rally has propped up my portfolios thus the significant (to me) increase in net worth for the month. You may notice a large gain in my RRSP account (17%). Although it would be nice if it was organic gains only, more than half of the gain is due to a $5,000 contribution.
On the saving/spending side of things, we managed to keep things in check. The only big expenses were for window coverings, which is included in the home renovation tax refund.
On the liability side of things, I asked you whether it was the right time for me to go with a fixed rate about a week ago. From that post, I decided that instead of locking myself in for another 5 years, I’m going to get aggressive and pay off the mortgage before my current term is up in 2 years. As you can see below, we have approximately $74,000 remaining on the mortgage and we hope to have it conquered by early 2011. It’s really not that far fetched as we plan on dumping our savings onto the mortgage in the very near future.
Assets: $459,450.00 (+2.73%)
- Cash: $4,500 (+0.00%)
- Savings: $37,500 (+8.70%)
- Registered/Retirement Investment Account: $54,600 (+17.42%)
- Pension: $22,350 (+0.00%)
- Non-Registered Investment Account: $14,500.00 (+7.41%)
- Smith Manoeuvre Investment Account: $41,000 (+2.76%)
- Investment Property: $ 124,500 (+0.00%)
- Principal Residence: $275,000 (+0.00%) (purchase price)
- Vehicles: $10,000 (2 vehicles) (-9.09%)
Liabilities: $128,600.00 (-0.69%)
- Tax Liability: $3,000 (-0.00%)
- Investment Property Mortgage: $92,000 (-0.11%)
- Principal Residence Mortgage (readvanceable): $73,500 (-1.34%)
- HELOC balance: $52,100 (+0.19%)
Total Net Worth: ~$330,850.00 (+4.12%)
Started 2008 with Net Worth: $309,950.00
Year to Date Gain/Loss: +6.74%
April has turned out to be the most significant net worth gain of 2009 thus far. Most of the increase is due to bounce in the markets, so unfortunately, it could easily go in the other direction. However, I am encouraged by the growth and will keep chugging along!
Some quick notes and explanations to net worth questions I get often:
The Cash
The $4,500 cash are held in chequing accounts to meet the minimum balance so that we pay no fees (accounting for regular bill payments). Yes, we do hold no fee accounts also, but I find value in having an account with a full service bank as the relationship with a banker can prove useful.
Savings
Our savings accounts are all held with PC Financial. We hold a fair bit of cash in case “something” comes up. The “something” can be anything that requires cash such as an investment opportunity that requires quick cash or maybe an emergency car/home repair. We also need cash to cover any future tax liabilities.
Real Estate
Our real estate holdings consist of a primary residence . The value of the principal residence remains valued at the purchase price despite significant appreciation in the real estate market that we’re in.
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Mockingbird, I figure instead of worrying about what kind of rate we can get upon renewal, we decided that we’ll avoid all that by paying it off completely before the term is up.
Well done, FT!!
Is paying off mortgage early a part of your inflation measure??
That’s pretty cool how you broke down the assets and liabilities. You know technically you can just pay off your mortgage already.
Technically, the capital put into an RESP can be withdrawn tax free when it comes time for tuition and the growth/grants taxed in the childs hands. Therefore, I could count our contributions to date, however, I’m leaving it out of our net worth b/c all of the money will go towards our kids tuition when the time comes. Thus far, we have about $5k contributed and $1k from government grants.
FT, would you include RESP in your networth?
Georumble, yes that is the cap gains tax we will owe (tax yr 2009) for selliing our rental prop.
FT, I am working on my Net Worth statement and wanted to find out what do you mean by is TAX LIABILITY?
Are these the taxes you owe to CRA?
Victor/FT,
I think other EFTs such as the ProShares Bear and Bull that are 2x leveraged also would not qualify because they use derivatives to track the index and they explicitly state that they will not pay out dividends because they don’t purchase the underlying stocks.
MikeM,
Thanks for that link. I’ll check out my CPP contributions since I can’t remember the last time the government sent me a hard copy.
Hopefully this bull market will continue up. Next month will probably see the announcement of a GM bankruptcy, which a lot of analysts believe is already priced in. I say if we can hold onto this current 8k trend all other investments will do fine in the long run. You’re not in bad shape! Good job. :)