My money plan for the upcoming year - or not

Too bad, the TSX closed today below 20,000 points so don't count on me to check on my investment portfolio and provide you the numbers. It won't just happen tonight. Yesterday morning, Jean-François Tardif was a guest at BNN's The Open. You can watch the interview here. I note two stocks: Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (CTC.A) and Total Energy Services Inc. (TOT). Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (CTC.A) is also a Susan Brunner stock. The last time Susan review Canadian Tire was on March 2022.

As for me, I find CTC.A to be interesting - the dividend yield is certainly interesting - but the stock is super expensive, close to $150 per share, for 4.4% dividend yield. I always find CTC.A to be super expensive, despite my interest. That's the reason why I had - several years ago - invested in CT Real Estate Investment Trust (CRT.UN). That investment is still in my portfolio, in my TFSA portfolio actually. CRT.UN is kind of the REIT version of Canadian Tire Corporation. You can find out more about my CT Real Estate Investment Trust (CRT.UN) investment by clicking right here?

While the TSX is losing some points, it could be worth it to watch closely CTC.A the next coming days in order to invest a bit in it. After all, I don't have any CTC.A shares in my portfolio. There's nothing much that I like more than investing in brand-new stock for my investment portfolio. Recently, a stock that I had been thinking a bit more of is North West Company Inc. (NWC). I already have that one in my portfolio, but its currently a very small investment in my portfolio. I could add more shares without any problems.

Over the years, I never came up with a real structure plan for my money. I always invested my money whenever I felt like it, with no rule order than my goodwill. The no-plan always worked well for me, but for the year ahead, I would like to do things a bit differently. I sometimes gave myself some budget rules, but I never really respected them, to be honest. Or if I did, it was only for a couple of months. Like last year, I did set up some saving rules but I skipped them - or forgot about it after a few months. Now, I am getting older and maybe I will be able to respect some rules of my own - or not.

I think a financial plan could help me to keep my expenses under control. And I came on with quite a plan, a super ambitious one. It's achievable, especially knowing that I earn some valuable dividend income from my non-registered and TFSA portfolios. If I spend more during certain months, I will be able to take some money from my non-registered or TFSA. However, usually I never withdraw money from my TFSA, I am actually very proud of that.

I currently have a bit over $10,000 in savings. In recent years, I think it's among the highest I have ever reached in terms of savings. $10,000 is a good amount, but knowing that I have a net worth somewhere in the $350,000, and that I only have 10k in cash, it's not a lot. I would like to have at least $20,000 in savings. For that, I will be missing another 10k. When you take a moment to think about it, a 10k is quite a sum.

Usually, I invest in my RRSP only at the end of the year. I invest in my RRSP during the year with my employer, but it's not a huge amount. To compensate, in recent years, I tried to invest a couple extra thousand in my RRSP portfolio. For the upcoming year, I would like to make that extra contribution to $4,000. Also, I would like to contribute a $3,500 to my TFSA for the upcoming year.

Basically, for 2023, I would like:

A $10,000 in savings ($834 per month)

A $4,000 RRSP contribution ($334 per month)

A $3,500 TFSA contribution ($292 per month)

Those are quite big amounts, especially all combined together, but it's achievable.