$1.13M in net worth
We crossed the seven-digit threshold on January 31, 2024. Boom. We are now millionaires. How did we celebrate? Well, we didn’t celebrate right away. Cautious to a fault, we thought at first this fancy new balance would just be a blip and that our number would slide back down south of $1M the next month.
Nope. Or the next month? No, again. Okay. The month after that? No. Just no. So, that’s it. We are millionaires for really real. The celebration was a dinner out and a bottle of wine. I do wish we had taken a picture, but I guess we just weren’t tracking that. I’ll find some random picture I took at the end of March and call it good. Awwwww. There ya go.
The breakdown
$1,132,586.67 total converted CAD
- + from 1.119M (+1.16%) last month
- + 16.44% YTD (from 972k)
CAD only
Our Canadian holdings include my RRSP, my husband’s RRSP, my TFSA, my taxable brokerage account, and cash savings held in a HISA.
- $561k, up from 555k (+1.19%)
- + 7.32% YTD (from 523k)
USD only
Our US holdings include my husband’s 401K, HSA, and cash savings held in a HYSA.
- $423k, up from 415k (+1.89%)
- +25.18% YTD (from 337k)
What’s next? #1 Cash!
With a major relocation in the near term, my husband stopped contributing to his 401k for the remainder of 2024. This was a planned move, as mentioned in my 2023 annual update. Moving is expensive, and we need whatever cash we can get to help fund that. (We will likely re-start the 401k contributions in the new year, just because it’s so hard to pass up free money.) For the time being, we’re also going to tighten our belts, with an eye toward beefing up our USD cash, which we hold in a high yield savings account. Inflation is really making this objective tough, though. And to be honest, we have gotten a little lazy with our frugality. I think it’s time for all-out fiscal fast… What is that, you ask?
Fiscal Fast
A fiscal fast is a short period of all-out frugal effort. For the upcoming period, I’m going to look at some of the following strategies:
- Pantry challenge: A couple of times a year, I challenge myself to limit grocery purchases to dairy and produce for a month. I make every effort to use up frozen food, canned goods, and pantry stuffs. At the moment, I’m staring down a gigantic bag of kidney beans, a mishmash of pasta shapes in tiny amounts, and umpteen cans of tomatoes. Beyond that, I’m going to suck it up and shop at Aldi as much as possible. I have nothing against Aldi as a concept, obviously, it’s just that my store in here in south Brooklyn is a place where angels fear to tread. I’m scared of the cashiers, the shoppers, and the roof parking lot… and the milk area often looks like it has been ransacked by looters.
- Reduce the heating bill: With winter around the corner, we have an opportunity to keep our heating bill ultra low. It will be the winter of wearing slippers and sweaters. Last winter, I applied 3M to some of our very leaky windows. This year, I’d like to see if we can update the weather stripping around our two enormous sliding glass doors.
- Mining for credit card gold: Right now our go-to credit card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It’s a great card for travel and dining, and we’ve amassed 84,000 points since last utilizing a bunch for flights to Canada. Awesome. But with our new priority of cash, we’re looking to add the Chase Freedom Unlimited to our wallets. That, together with our Chase Amazon Prime Visa, will make a trifecta of Chase cards in our arsenal. Speaking of the Chase Amazon Prime Visa, since opening that card 11 months ago, we have made $300 in balance credit. Easiest money ever.
- Ebay sales: My husband is a collector and has some memorabilia he can offload. We’re going to set up shop on ebay and see how much of this we can turn into cash.
#2 Roth conversion ladder!
Beyond beefing up our cash savings, we also need to start wrapping our heads around the Roth conversion ladder. Most of our USD is held within my husband’s 401k, which would normally not be freely available until he is 59.5. The Roth conversion ladder will enable us to access that money well before then. Having been reading up on FI for the past six years or so, I have heard this term countless times, and I definitely understand the gist of it. However, when it comes down to the minutiae and mechanics, most articles leave out plenty of details around timing and how taxes are calculated. Our situation has added cross-border complexity. Accounts must be domiciled with a financial institution that accepts expats. The majority don’t.
#3 Monthly updates
Starting this month, I’m going to give monthly updates in countdown style. I’ll keep you updated on the fiscal fast, cash treasure hunts, and anything else we uncover as we enter the homestretch.