But then 2020 turned my life around, and suddenly, I found myself scrambling to get refunds for booked international trips, working from home, stressed about money, my career, and the health of my family. Even though I feel very fortunate to have kept my job through everything that has happened, my mental health was suffering, and I knew I needed to do something.

My husband and I decided that even though we weren’t going to go on any big adventures this year, we were still going to make the most of our vacation time, and we were going to take care of our mental and physical health. So instead of going to Japan, we diverted our travel budget to local trips into the mountains to go hiking. And instead of spending my time and money on concerts, film festivals, happy hours, and restaurants with friends, I spent what I needed on running. Yes, running. I’ve run off and on for my entire adult life, never sticking to it long enough to make it a solid part of my weekly routine. But working from home without a commute into the city meant I had zero excuses. I signed up for virtual races to hold myself accountable, bought workout gear that made me feel good, and forced myself to run – rain or shine. Eventually I found myself running nearly every day and decided it was time to tackle one of my life goals of running a marathon – which I accomplished in September after an entire summer of training. I then took it one step further, running a 50km ultra-marathon in October.

Between my husband and I, we’ve spent thousands of dollars on our health this year – something I don’t think we would have done had COVID not happened. I haven’t felt this fit since my early 20’s and it’s made me realize that we should have been prioritizing our health over the mindless spending we had been doing before the pandemic. For that change in our lives, I’m grateful.

Moving to a new credit card this year meant making sure I was taking full advantage of the rewards categories offered by the Scotia Momentum Visa. As a personal finance nerd at heart, I wanted to maximize the bonus offer of 10% cash back on all purchases for the first three months I had the card (up to $2,000 in total purchases), so you can bet I put most of my workout gear on the Visa! I also moved over all my recurring bill payments and subscriptions for the 4% cash back and updated all my shopping apps with my new credit card info.

To estimate what my cash back rewards could be annually, I plugged my budget numbers into Scotiabank’s Cash Back Calculator. There’s quite a high $25,000 annual spending cap on both the 4% and 2% bonus spending. And while it’s unlikely I’d ever hit those caps, it’s hard to estimate exactly how much I’ll spend each month as I also put a lot of work expenses through this card. However, running my numbers through the calculator estimated I would earn $558 this year to put towards travel, a new pair of running shoes, or whatever I want to splurge on.

With my previous travel rewards card, I was stuck redeeming my points on travel related purchases, so I count myself lucky that I switched to this cash back card in the spring. It’s making me think that the smartest move might be to stick with a cash back card moving forward, even once COVID has passed. The flexibility of being able to spend my rewards on anything I want – travel included – is nice to have, and with the reward amount being close to what I would get from my travel card anyway, it seems like a no-brainer!

As someone who has been in credit card debt before, I’m still at true believer that credit cards deserve a place in every household, and if they are used in a responsible manner, I’m on board with having the best rewards card for your spending habits. Having a credit card means you need to be able to pay off your balance in full every month (or if you’re like me, paying off your balance at least 2x/week), actively avoid the cash advance option, and know exactly how credit card interest rates are calculated.

What are your thoughts on the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card?
How has your spending changed in 2020?

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There are a few reasons why I stopped blogging: 1) I started a new (dream) job and really want to focus all of my energy into succeeding, and 2) I felt like I wasn’t relatable anymore to my peers who were dealing with the financial pressures of having kids, buying a house, paying off student loans, etc. But I think there’s still a small place for me in the personal finance community. I should be proud of how hard I’ve worked on my career, how far we’ve gotten saving for retirement, and how much I still have to learn about growing our money. So this year I’m getting back into it! I miss writing, and I still have a lot of things to say. :)

I’ll start off 2020 by discussing my goals for the year!

Financial

• Stay debt-free. Very important!
• Save at least 30% of our net income for retirement. Aside from staying debt-free, saving for retirement is our most important financial goal. The plan right now is for me to semi-retire when I’m 52, and fully retire 2 years later when RD turns 57. Right now, we are on track for this.
• Save 75% of any bonuses or freelance income. I usually get two bonuses a year, and now that I’m blogging again, I’ll also be taking on sponsorship opportunities. I’ve also turned down a few freelance writing assignments, which I might start saying yes to. Maybe. :) Normally I would save most of this income, but want to be more flexible (and realistic) since we have another big trip coming up this year!
• Finish house improvements. Last year when we moved into our new condo, we ended up splurging on a bunch of home renovations – including converting our storage room into a walk-in closet and laundry area, and buying essentially all new furniture. This year we want to re-paint our bedroom, buy a couple pieces of furniture (shelving unit + floor lamp), and not-so-secretly I want a new bed, but it will depend on how much we spend on everything else.

Personal

• Run in 4 half marathons. After taking about 7 years off from long distance running, I started easing myself back into it in November 2019 and have my first two half marathon scheduled (the first in mid-February, and the second in May). It feels so good to run again! I can run the entire distance in training right now, pain-free … which seems like a miracle. I just want to stay injury-free, so keeping my fingers crossed.
• Stay on budget for Japan. We are going to Japan this year for our big trip! We’ll likely go for 2.5 weeks in September, and I couldn’t be more excited. I am super confused about where in Japan we’ll go, so if you’ve been there before, please send me all your recommendations. A rough budget tells me that we’ll likely spend around $8,000 for the trip.
• Hike, Hike, Hike. Last year we failed a bit in the amount of hiking we did. Summer just seemed so busy that we were only able to get out a couple of times.
• Keep track of fun money expenses. As part of combining our finances, we each get a set amount of “fun money” each month. RD spends his mostly on beer and camera gear, and I spend mine on workout clothes and lash extensions, haha. This was successful in 2019, so am hoping to continue it for 2020. We might increase our monthly allowances by a little, given that my salary has gone up by 30% this year with a raise at my full-time job, and booked freelance work.

Professional

• Get my LEED Green Associate certificate.
• Start studying for the APMP certification. This was a goal I had for 2017 and 2018, but the wedding got in the way. And by the time I was ready to get going with this, I ended up moving to a new firm where this certification wasn’t really as crucial. And while that’s sort of still the case, I think it would be good for my long-term development to pursue this certification.
• Continue to work hard on my career. Six years ago I was walking downtown with a friend, and we walked past a design studio that I really admired. I commented, “I would love to work there one day,” then realized how dumb that sounded because 1) I couldn’t possibly have the skill set, and 2) the firm was so small how would I even get in? Well just over a year ago I was headhunted for a position at that very studio! I was nervous about succeeding and had a major case of imposter syndrome for the first 10 months, until my boss told me that he thought I was doing a really good job and had demonstrated a lot of growth. So I want to continue on that path and keep trying to push myself.
• Redesign this blog. I’m over the look, and it needs to be changed ASAP.

The post 2020 Annual Goals appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

But having that amount of money sit in our bank account was a bit short-lived, because we immediately put $70,000 towards our new mortgage (max annual contribution), and then replenished our sad savings accounts (since we had to raid most of our cash to come up with another 20% down payment). The remaining amount is earmarked for a small renovation to our new place, a new hybrid car within the next year (maybe), and to put towards our mortgage when we go to renew next spring.

I was surprised how emotional I was when we locked the door on the condo for the last time. I may have shed a tear or two. :) It was our first property together! And it was a great space … we’d still be there if we hadn’t randomly decided to drop into an Open House back in October. I hope the new owner is super happy in the space.

And even though life is a lot less stressful now that we don’t have two mortgage payments to take care of, part of me is a little bit sad that I didn’t get to try out becoming a landlord! We’ve had lots of discussions about having a rental as part of our retirement strategy though, so all hope isn’t lost. :)

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After Christmas vacation and the excitement of buying a new condo, we got swept up in the madness of getting our old condo ready for Open Houses (which continue to happen every weekend). It was hard to coordinate because for every Open House in the beginning because we had to take our cat Zoey out of the house. She gets incredibly anxious around strangers, so it was a choice between the stress of moving her out the house for a few hours each time, or leaving her to hide and be scared. We chose to take her, and I think it was the right choice.

This meant we didn’t have a free weekend in over two months, but now that we’re in our new place, that stress is gone. :) We’re pretty settled in right now, and in a few months we’ll do a small renovation to create a walk-in closet and laundry room!

Let’s talk numbers

For those interested in the financials, the new condo was $585,000 and because our old condo is still up for sale, we had to scrape together a down payment by emptying out our TFSAs. This was not ideal, but I do realize how fortunate we were to even be able to find another 20% down payment so we could avoid CMHC fees.

We’ve had three offers on our old condo so far, including one accepted, but it fell through. And once it does sell, after all associated fees are accounted for, we should walk away with around $200,000.

We discussed our mortgage options with our Mortgage Broker, and decided to go with a 1-year mortgage on the new place. This means we’ll only have higher mortgage payments for one year before we could dump the proceeds of our old condo onto our new mortgage and lower our payments. This would lower our mortgage payments from $2,150 currently down to $1,650, and help us stay on track with our goal of early retirement.

To rent or sell

Financially, we were approved to carry both condos without renting the old one out, so we are fine financially. We aren’t pinching pennies by any means, but we are saving less than we’d like to, so there’s that to consider. There’s a lot of interest in our condo, so I feel like it’s only a matter of time before it sells. BUT, we’ve decided that if it doesn’t sell by the end of May, we’ll pull it off the market and rent it out for a while. The rent we’d get from it will more than cover all associated costs, so it makes sense. But of course, our preference is to not have so much of our money invested in real estate.

Work!

I have finally passed probation at work, and recently received a small bonus. :) It’s been quite challenging moving into a new role at a small firm. It’s a huge learning experience, and I’m grateful for it because I’m working on a lot of things that I normally would not be involved in. The work is harder, and it’s a lot more stressful, but I’m happy and still feel incredibly lucky for the opportunity.

Travel

RD and I have booked our flights to Mongolia! We aren’t leaving for another 5 months, but I can’t help but get a little excited now that we have a confirmed departure. We spent $2,590 on two round-trip tickets, and I immediately put $800 worth of travel rewards towards the flight, and applied for a small adventure bonus through my work, which should help offset the cost of the flights.

The post A long overdue update appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

A recent study by Capital One Canada revealed that the vast majority of Canadians have become more proactive in mitigating fraud and identity theft. In fact, 93% of Canadians are taking steps to protect themselves – a substantial increase from the 53% who reported taking action in 2018.

I used to be one of the people who didn’t think fraud could happen to me. But I’ve had my credit card information compromised before, and not only is it scary to think of how many ways they could have gotten that information. It also made me wonder how many people don’t notice fraudulent transactions on their credit card bills because they aren’t monitoring it, or they don’t have a service in place to monitor it for them. Some of the fraudulent charges I’ve found on my account seem so legitimate and innocent (like a Netflix subscription) that if I wasn’t looking carefully, I might have just passed right by it.

As a Capital One Mastercard customer, I really appreciate the fact that my account is being monitored 24/7, and that I have a way of monitoring my credit score for free with Credit Keeper.

I also get emails every time a red flag comes up on my account – like when I got double charged for a purchase on a work trip, when I tried putting a deposit on a vacation trip through a weird website or when a few irregular purchases were put through my account – all were flagged by Capital One for me to review. Even though I monitor my account closely, it’s comforting to know that there are other measures in place in case I miss something.

Another statistic I found interesting from the Capital One Canada study was that nearly 4 in 10 Canadians have either been a victim of or know someone who has been affected by fraud or identity theft. That’s insane! And proves why it’s so important to keep your credit card and PIN numbers private, and always be on guard when it comes to unsolicited or unusual phone calls, text messages or emails, which may be phishing scams (fraudulent attempts to steal sensitive information). This happened to me at work recently – I can usually tell when scam emails come my way, but this one was SO realistic that I almost fell for it. But one line at the end of the e-mail felt off, so I called IT who confirmed it was a phishing attempt.

Tips to help you prevent fraud

Aside from the obvious precautions of keeping your credit card and PIN numbers private, here are a few useful ways to help prevent fraud:

• Let your bank and Canada Post know of any address changes.
• Keep an eye on your mailbox and empty it frequently. If you go on vacation, have a friend collect your mail or request that it be held at the post office. (When I was living in Germany for a year, I had my neighbour collect my mail every couple of days – and good thing I did, because while I was gone, there was a break-in to my community mailbox. Luckily, my neighbour had just gotten my mail, so nothing of mine got stolen.) Or better yet – go paperless and avoid leaving a paper trail with your personal information.
• Sign up for account alerts with your bank to help stay on top of transactions. Choose a credit card that has smart features built right into it, like two-way fraud alerts, and ensure you’ve given your financial institution permission to contact you if there’s suspicious activity.
• Make sure to get your free credit report from major credit reporting agencies once a year and look out for any accounts you didn’t open. I pull my credit reports annually around my birthday, so I don’t forget to do it. :)

Capital One has set up a pretty good resource to learn more about fraud prevention that you can check out, and you can also read their press release on Fraud Prevention Month for additional information and statistics.

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