How Much Money We Made, Saved and Invested in 2024

[@stephandden]

What was your biggest money win of 2024?! Let us know! 🥳

[@OspreyHomeInspection]

This year we saved 8K for starter emergency fund, paid down 10k of debt and paid for vacation and xmas in cash. Next year we are focusing on debt.

[@eragonma9058]

Just started working after getting out of grad school and my biggest money win has been setting at least 15-20% to invest. Living in Toronto is hard but having a rule to myself is a win

[@stephandden]

That’s amazing! Congrats 👏🏿👏🏻

[@stephandden]

That’s a great goal! Congrats on finishing grad school 🥳

[@J.FamGuy.M]

In 2024, my wife and I did a year budget based on the avg of the last two year's earnings (*highly recommend if you expect wage increases, because it slows "wage creep"*) I just finished this year's networth statement and we had a winning year of around 55k increase, while marking down our home and car. The biggest financial win was cutting our mortgage from 126000 to 63000 (just realized that was 50%). That was made possible by my wife returning to work full time now that the kiddos are in school.

[@Porcelynnn]

My biggest money win this year was reaching 100k networth!!

[@stephandden]

🥳🥳🥳 That’s huge - congratulations!

[@utube4661]

Vaow !

[@bbcapital7953]

yayyy!!! me too

[@barbellsandgames3721]

Family of 6 (4 kids under 6). Wife is a stay at home mom. Was able to save 80k this year. Havent shared that with anyone - but it's a good feeling!

[@deneetamia]

congrats!! this is amazing 🎉

[@stephandden]

Congratulations - that’s amazing!! 👏🏿👏🏻

[@sapashow]

invested around 36,000 this year! also passed 325k net worth. happy new year guys i love ur content

[@stephandden]

Congrats, that’s huge! Thank you + happy new year 😊

[@lisanbradshaw]

Great video guys! I don’t live in Canada but still get a lot out of these videos. This year, I maxed out my Roth IRA again and reached a net worth of 40k as a 19 year old!

[@stephandden]

We’re so happy to hear that! Congrats on getting those big milestones 👏🏿👏🏻 you’re doing great!

[@J.FamGuy.M]

That's great Lisan! 😀 Roth IRA is a great choice for your retirement or first home considering how long it will grow tax free! However, the rules on withdrawal are a bit different than our TFSA. We don't have to worry about the 10% penalty and taxes on gains for non-qualified withdrawals. Having 40k by 19 really helped me with schooling, marriage, and first home downpayment.

[@lisanbradshaw]

@@J.FamGuy.MThanks! I wish we had TFSA but I think the Roth and HSA are the best we’re gonna get in the U.S. I’m using my Roth mainly for retirement but would also like to use it for 10-20% down on a house sometime in the future.

[@sirpupwheaton]

I love watching your updates! Sometimes I'll admit, I get a bit down on myself after watching your videos - I'm older than you two (I'm 35) and I only started investing/saving at the beginning of 2022. I try to have self-compassion because I also didnt work for almost five years due to health reasons, but its hard not to be mad at myself for not starting my investing and saving journey earlier. But I am proud of myself though - since then, I've been able to max out my FHSA and my husband's each year (so $16,000 each and 32,000 cumulatively), grow my TFSA from 0 to $27,000 and i also have $8000 saved ready to max out my FHSA at the start of the year. (Property ownership is our main goal right now!)

[@alexandrasalas1198]

Don't be sad. Look! you are making progress and finally that is What it counts!!I am rooting for you

[@sirpupwheaton]

@alexandrasalas1198 aw thank you so much!

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much! It sounds like you’re doing AMAZING - it’s never too late to start (and you’re still young + making so much progress)! Congrats on maxing out your FHSA and growing your TFSA 😊🥳

[@danielromanov8166]

Congrats on Steph and Den milestone of passing 100k net worth! Me and my wife are living in Alberta and we made a prepayment towards our mortgage for 16k and invested 4047$ into TFSA and RRSP. So all together, it’s 20 407$ we invested into our mortgage and TFSA and RRSP! Love watching your videos and keeping track with your investments goals!

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much + thank you for sharing! 😊

[@kekewilliams8049]

I love the fact that you guys are so discipline.

[@stephandden]

🙏🏿🙏🏻 we definitely try to be!

[@FlynnFit]

My goal going into 2024 was to increase my savings/investments, which I did by about $30k :) thanks for the great videos!

[@stephandden]

That’s amazing - congratulations! 🥳🎉

[@Lylestyle-DIY]

Your achievements are pretty incredible !! At my age, I'm very late at entering the saving/investing game, and even though my numbers are low, it still feels good to finally get started. 50/50 Savings/Investing may not be the best approach, but ya gotta start somewhere and you can't put all of your eggs in 1 basket. If anybody else is in the same boat, let us know :)

[@stephandden]

It sounds like you’re doing great! It’s never too late 😊

[@morenamotsiri479]

This is awesome and motivating. This is my first year working fulltime in canada. It is hard to remain consistent and set effective systems. I have reached my goals but it was not smooth and resulted in a substantial pull back this festive season. I appreciate the transparency. It helps you see that being organised and systematice with the budget is possible. Wonderful seeing your synergy as a couple towards goals.

[@stephandden]

We love to hear that 👏🏿👏🏻 our goal is to give a real life example of what a money journey (or two) can look like!

[@J.FamGuy.M]

Congrats on first full time year! You won't have a pull back every year.

[@Porcelynnn]

Time is flying by! Feels like it was only last year that you started your self employment path!!

[@stephandden]

I know right?! It really does feel like it’s flying by!

[@jjpandie]

These highlight reels are great, you guys are really living the good life. Keep them up :))

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much 😊

[@sreenapakkath9200]

The ‘no uber eats’ challenge is a big one. I and my husband have also started cooking more recipes at home and we are also tracking our expenses to see exactly how much we are saving every month. Could you please make a video in the future on ‘tips to save money’. Thanks and Merry Christmas

[@stephandden]

That’s great! We’re so happy to hear that 🥳 and thanks for the suggestion! Merry Christmas 😊

[@gilbertsariho1776]

Congratulations on your great success!

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much! 😊

[@Jibril_Abdulkadir]

Happy holidays guys ❤❤

[@stephandden]

Happy holidays! 🙏🏿🙏🏻

[@mazwrld]

i've been waiting for the budgeting template to be sent out for a while now.. is there something wrong with the site or can drop a direct link here?

[@TMKJG24]

Congratulations guys

[@stephandden]

Thank you! 🙏🏿🙏🏻

[@c0bra141]

How should I set up my budget tracker if I get paid variable bi weekly and not a monthly salary

[@stephandden]

You can add you income in the ‘Income Tracker’ table within the ‘Monthly Expense Tracker’ tab - just override the formula and type in your income manually 😊

[@jallapavan]

When bull market is there everything looks great , one have to keep doing dollar cost averaging even during bear market and keep putting more dollars even when stocks are tumbling

[@J.FamGuy.M]

Steph, congrats on the $0 uber eats! We often keep costco's meatballs and lasagna on hand for easy meal building blocks when needed. Holiday cooking competition coming up Den vs Steph? Each develop a 1 week menu. Cost of menu, taste of items, health value, and time to prepare. 😊 Dennis, congrats on maxing out the TFSA! Now it should be easy to maintain the yearly contributions for TFSA and FHSA. (No rush on buying a home.) Definitely would be a great video series to discuss 16-26 money journey. I find that is a missing decade in a lot of financial discussions except to say, "What if you started saving for retirement at 18?"

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much! We appreciate it 🙏🏿🙏🏻 Those are both great video ideas 😊 we’ll definitely keep them in mind / add them to the list!

[@FIRE_DrNinjaTurtle]

More than a 50% savings rate is awesome

[@stephandden]

🙌🏿🙌🏻 thank you!

[@Alex-edge-38]

For Better 2025🥂

[@stephandden]

🥳🥳

[@oneofafyew]

Paying yourself 63k, investing 30k, and FHSA 8k, how are you guys living on 25k/yr including all your fixed expenses. Have to assume no car/insurance, cheap rent, and not much for entertaining or travel.

[@kimberleysoares129]

Technically, they make 90K each gross per year (before taxes) which is a really great salary (for a 3-year-old business that's even more impressive). ~35-37K per year in savings and investing would be a tough number if you were a single 20-something in Canada with just a 9-5 job (and a car, rent, entertainment/travel-filled life)

[@stephandden]

We broke down all of our expenses in our previous KZbin video 😊 We do have cheap rent and no car, yes! We live in the city, so no need for a car, and we’ve intentionally stayed in our same apartment for the past 6.5 years to keep the cost that low. We’re as intentional as possible with our expenses so that we can invest as much as possible right now, but we do a lot of things fun entertainment and fun 😊

[@Lena67760]

@@stephanddenI would love to watch the video about how you spend your free time! ❤

[@oliverjames9234]

Do you use excel doc for your budget tracker

[@stephandden]

It’s a Google sheets doc 😊 but you could also download it as an Excel file!

[@matthewpotvin]

Kinda unrelated to this video but I was curious if you guys are still using eq bank as your HISA or if you found something else since their personal account only provides 1.75% as a base interest rates with no bonuses?

[@stephandden]

Hey! Good question - we’ve recently switched to using Wealthsimple Cash for our emergency fund, because the rate is higher right now 😊 We love EQ Bank though! We’ll keep an eye on their rates over the coming months

[@Yeschannel2326]

Do you guys pay taxes in Canada? Cause that 63k is like 43k after takes here in the US

[@stephandden]

All of these numbers are post-tax 😊 We share our pre- and post-tax income at the beginning of the video, too!

[@tacrewgirl]

Great video

[@stephandden]

Thank you! 🙏🏿🙏🏻

[@robertmcintosh7763]

Love this❤ can you do a video on your free budget template? How it works, short cuts

[@stephandden]

Thank you! We send out an instructions video with the budget template that walks through how it works with examples 😊

[@simplythebest5341]

Do you not pay taxes on the 10k bonus

[@stephandden]

$10,000 is the post-tax amount 😊

[@hirayaclaysvlogs]

Where do we sign up for your course?

[@stephandden]

You can sign up on our website on December 26th! www.stephandden.com 😊

[@nickc9682]

@11:25 do u mean just no Uber eats for the whole year? Travelling and not eating out once in the whole year just seems like a stretch tbh. But nonetheless it’s a great savings goal to strive for.

[@stephandden]

I spent around $2,300 on eating out 😊 just no UberEats

[@franckvincent5190]

Are you funding the FHSA and RRSP with "after-tax" money? I was confused by that (coming from the American tax system), I thought FHSA and RRSP were supposed to be funded with pre-tax money (like 401K in the usa), unlike the TFSA which is more like the Roth IRA and both funded with after-tax money??

[@ryan33262]

Uses after-tax money, then deductions are claimed at tax time. Other plans like the RPP (Registered Pension Plan) use pre-tax money instead. This confused me for months & every year someone at my company thinks they owed the government thousands because we thought the enrolling for the company RPP and contributing to the RRSP was the same thing.

[@franckvincent5190]

@ Wait, it’s NOT the same? Company RPP and RRSP contributions are different things???

[@noblecollins9549]

Let's say your RRSP contribution room for the year is $10K this year and you contribute 6K through your employer's RPP, you can open a separate RRSP account and contribute the remaining amount and claim it during taxes. Just don't go over the allowed room.@@franckvincent5190

[@thechriswrobelexperience1809]

What is it you guys do as self employed now? Always enjoy the videos

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much! We post personal finance content online 😊 including KZbin and other social media platforms!

[@Porcelynnn]

I want to invest more but I also love traveling and eating😅

[@jeetshah6554]

Nice video. Would love if you can explain what do you mean by "Bonus"?

[@stephandden]

Thank you! An additional amount of money on top of our set salaries 😊

[@J.FamGuy.M]

When your business earns extra money you can earn more. If it earns less, you take a pay cut. Thankfully accountants usually suggest a reasonable salary + bonus for cash flow, because it has been tight some years. 😆

[@jeetshah6554]

@@stephandden Got it. If my goal is to buy a home in 3-5 years, where should I invest my $8000 in FHSA?

[@Genzmillenial]

Do you guys take official time off? Like give yourself two weeks vacation a year? I understand it’s different as entrepreneurs but it’s like you’re always working

[@stephandden]

We usually don’t have set time off, no - but when we have something planned, we have the flexibility to work around it! We’re actually going to be on a trip with Dennis’ family over the next few weeks, and we did a lot of work in advance so we can enjoy it 😊

[@supernumex]

Do you guys invest corporately or only in personal accounts? If so, that would be an interesting video.

[@stephandden]

Only personal accounts right now 😊 but when that changes in the future we can talk about it in a video!

[@bensontsui2180]

Please show us your monthly break down on how can you achieve 2000 dollars investment a month

[@J.FamGuy.M]

They already did in a different video. 😊 I believe the video said they collectively spent 67000 of the 140k of collective gross earnings. It has a full break down.

[@stephandden]

Yes, check out our previous KZbin video! 😊

[@investinggrind]

What is your business?

[@stephandden]

We’re personal finance content creators 😊

[@investinggrind]

So, I'm guessing you both have a degree in finance?