accountingsucks
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2006
- Messages
- 346
I was pleased to find this board in that I share the same values as most on here in terms of wanting to get out of the rat race as early as possible. Anyways when I look at how I am doing I should be happy but I just get discouraged. I live in a large city in Alberta, Canada for reference (fairly low cost of living here)
I am 30 years old
I purchased my home about 4 years ago for 200,000. I owe 45,000 on it and have a mortgage payment of 310 a month which is next to nothing. My home is likely close to 300,000 now due to renovations and the booming market here due to oil and gas activity so I have quite abit of house equity.
What I'm concerned about are my retirement savings to date. In an effort to pay my mortgage off as soon as possible - i'm very debt averse - I neglected this to some extent. I have 25,000 in my RRSP (similar to 401K in states) so at least I have something in there but I know that I have to start saving more diligently.
I make 70,000 CDN and truthfully this is on the low end in my profession (accountant) as the market is super hot now. Company contributes matching pension up to a measly 3% per year. I am saving about 2000 a month which I will put towards retirement. I may also pay off my mortgage in the next 3 years as interest is not deductible in Canada and I see no point in having it as rates will continue to rise on my variable rate mortgage.
Anyways I am rambling, but when I play around in Excel and figure out the Future Value of saving 25000 at 8% for 20 years (projected retirement at 50) I get an amount of about 1.2 or 1.3 million. This assumes I will drive the same car for the next 20 years, will have no house upgrade and not have any kids...all of which are unlikely to happen of course. I just feel like I will slave away for 20 years and still not be able to have enough to retire on and when I look at other 30 year olds I am way ahead of the game in terms of not having any credit card debt, house almost paid off, etc. I see my colleagues who make the same as I do purchasing 70,000 Corvettes and SUV's and wonder what they are thinking. For me I do not want to go to work everyday to pay off an expensive car....it makes no sense to me.
I am 30 years old
I purchased my home about 4 years ago for 200,000. I owe 45,000 on it and have a mortgage payment of 310 a month which is next to nothing. My home is likely close to 300,000 now due to renovations and the booming market here due to oil and gas activity so I have quite abit of house equity.
What I'm concerned about are my retirement savings to date. In an effort to pay my mortgage off as soon as possible - i'm very debt averse - I neglected this to some extent. I have 25,000 in my RRSP (similar to 401K in states) so at least I have something in there but I know that I have to start saving more diligently.
I make 70,000 CDN and truthfully this is on the low end in my profession (accountant) as the market is super hot now. Company contributes matching pension up to a measly 3% per year. I am saving about 2000 a month which I will put towards retirement. I may also pay off my mortgage in the next 3 years as interest is not deductible in Canada and I see no point in having it as rates will continue to rise on my variable rate mortgage.
Anyways I am rambling, but when I play around in Excel and figure out the Future Value of saving 25000 at 8% for 20 years (projected retirement at 50) I get an amount of about 1.2 or 1.3 million. This assumes I will drive the same car for the next 20 years, will have no house upgrade and not have any kids...all of which are unlikely to happen of course. I just feel like I will slave away for 20 years and still not be able to have enough to retire on and when I look at other 30 year olds I am way ahead of the game in terms of not having any credit card debt, house almost paid off, etc. I see my colleagues who make the same as I do purchasing 70,000 Corvettes and SUV's and wonder what they are thinking. For me I do not want to go to work everyday to pay off an expensive car....it makes no sense to me.