Cheers.

I notice a great deal of comments in various posts refer to a home equity line of credit.

How often do you guys “dip” into this to fund your investments?
How much do you invest/year? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

Is it not more advantageous to contribute moderately to investments but instead, pay-off all mortgage or other debts first?

Since I’m in my mid-30s, I guess I’m looking to understand why reducing all mortage debt and contributions to RRSPs are not the first priority for some of you.

I am very interested to hear your/all perspectives.

Thanks and good luck with your investments in 2009!

Spudman, the cash will be used to pay down the mortgage further which can then be reborrowed from our HELOC and finally reinvested in my SM portfolio. Check out this post for a better explanation:
http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/the-smith-manoeuvre-a-wealth-strategy-part-1.htm

Spudman

I include my kids RESP values in my net worth calculation. It is really a savings for a future expense that you are putting money towards now. I believe the only reason “it is in the childs name” is to properly account for the government grant. I believe it should be part of your net worth statement.

The only question im my mind is if you include the annual grants in your net worth. The grants are taken back if your child does not pursue post-secondary education. So one might argue that you should not include this portion in your net wrth because it is not really yours (until your child attends post-secondary school). To be conservative I do not inculde the grants. All I include are the contrubitions my wife and I have made.

I’m feeling torn as to whether we should include the kids RESPs as a part of our Net Worth as the money is being held for them, rather than for us.

What do others of you do?

I was wondering what the return for your investment in 2008 is, excluding your family salary income

Have a prosperous new year

Joe

Great job!

Personally I wouldn’t keep any savings or cash around. It should be deployed reducing debt and related monthly debt service, otherwise there is a significant opportunity cost. If you have an unexpected need for cash, use your HELOC.

Just MO

Joe, net worth is Assets – liabilities. My salary is used to pay expenses with the remaining used for savings (assets). Therefore, salary is implicitly included in the net worth statement.

17th Ave, in the post, I explained the drop in non-reg portfolio is due to selling stock for a capital loss and transferring the cash into my savings account.

Ouch! Some lesson must have been learned, I guess.

But, overall, it’s been a solid year for you.

Thanks.

Joe

Nice!!

I look at the market correction/contraction this year as an excellent buying opportunity for stocks and contributions to RRSPs. Sure, the RRSP account has taken a MAJOR hit…(I’m 80% equities) but the markets always return in time.

Further, given the low purchase price of some solid CDN Equity Funds and CDN Index Funds, these vehicles are ripe for the picking!!

Combine RRSP contributions in 2009 with paying-down the mortgage, I too look forward to some net worth gains.

That said, I would like to learn more about the Smith Manoeuvre.
How it works, what the benefits are vs. other debt-load strategies.

Happy New Year!

The investment in RRSP was completed on September 30; I can still hear the screams of my portfolio as it leaped from the cliff! At least I get a tax reduction.

Here’s hopes that 2009 will be the year we convert the low cost stocks to a profitable portfolio!

Happy New Year!

I am going to post my 2008 calendar net worth growth figure soon on the moneygardener even though I only measure net worth bimonthly on the 15th of the month.

Happy New Year!