Happy Thanksgiving, fellow investors!

And here we are—it's already Thanksgiving. I'm still in New Brunswick and plan to stay here for the next couple of weeks. We had a beautiful day today; the sun was out, and the weather wasn’t too cold. A long weekend is always the perfect time to check my financial numbers. I discovered that in November, I’ll be receiving three paychecks. After doing my calculations, I realized that I should have enough to completely pay off my margin debt by the end of the year. This made me quite happy because paying off debt was my only financial goal for 2024. Even after paying it down, I’ll have a small leftover amount of around $860.

One issue I keep dealing with over and over is my lack of savings. I have a net worth of close to $460,000, but I have almost no savings because I essentially live paycheck to paycheck. For the past couple of months, I’ve put all available extra money towards paying down my margin debt. Living with almost no emergency savings comes with a few inconveniences, which don’t make much sense considering I’m nearing a $460k net worth. One of these inconveniences is having to pay banking fees. Currently, I pay close to $10 per month in fees. Once I build up some savings, a major advantage will be that I won’t have to pay any bank fees or fees for Interac transfers.

Also, when planning ahead for a vacation or making payments for a major purchase, it can sometimes be quite difficult for me to pay my credit card in full. If I could set aside just a couple of thousand dollars, it would make my life a lot easier. Strangely, I’m not the type to get stressed about money, but I wouldn’t say no to being a bit more financially sensible—especially at my age (I’m 44!).