The truth is that I’ve always admired personal finance bloggers that are transparent about how much money they save. 

I’ve always wanted to do the same but I’ve just been afraid to. Personally, I don’t feel like I’m saving enough money right now. 

But you know what? Fuck it! The point of this blog is to motivate myself to save money anyways.

So here it is—my monthly savings report which details how much money I’m saving each month.

The formula for my monthly savings report

Rather than share my savings rate, I decided to focus on the dollar figure itself. There are several reasons for this. 

First, it’s more motivating because I can improve in small increments each month. I find that even a $10 increase over the previous month is motivating for me—it’s still more. It’s about maintaining a businesslike approach to saving money.

Secondly, I am beginning to understand my personal finance angle, if you will. 

I’m an average person earning an average income that will prove that saving money is possible no matter the level of income.

My aim is to show the power of consistency over the years, and I want it to be known that it doesn’t even require a lot of money to build a dividend income stream. Anyone could end up wealthy by saving as much as I do over a 40 year career.

I saved $286.65 in January 2019

This was not the most fantastic start to the year considering my goal to save $6,000. In fact, this would have been one of my worst months in 2018.

In total, I’ll still need to save $5,713.35 more to meet the $6,000 target. That works out to an average of over $519 a month. Damn. 

However, I am trying out an addition by subtraction approach for saving money in 2019. For the NBA fans out there, this is like removing Carmelo Anthony from your roster. I’m focussed on consistency and managing my cash flow better overall. By not leaving myself short for money and staying on top of my budget, I am anticipating that this will lead to a higher amount of savings overall.

Allocation

The majority of my savings is always contributed to my TFSA. Typically 50-to-80% of my savings will be contributed there. Once the funds are contributed to the TFSA, I focus on acquiring Canadian dividend stocks.

There is also a small employer contribution that I will adjust from time to time. I keep the contribution at 1% unless the stock price declines. Then I’ll increase it to 6%. In theory I shouldn’t be adjusting the contribution because I receive a matching contribution from my employer. But I don’t feel comfortable having too much of my wealth invested in one company, and the account gives me less control. That is my reasoning.

As for the remaining amount of my savings, a small amount is contributed to a cash emergency fund while the rest is contributed to an RRSP. The funds in the RRSP are earmarked for buying U.S. stocks since there is no withholding tax on dividends from U.S. stocks in an RRSP.

Concluding Thoughts

I truly find fulfillment through saving money. I feel a little bit safer with every month that passes by. 

Saving money is like putting a gigantic, intangible puzzle together when you have a goal. At least I can visualize it in my head even if no-one else can.

For the record this report does not include dividend income. The $286.65 saved this month was derived from what I earned through my day job. I will publish a dividend income update in early February to detail how much dividend income was earned.

Although $286.65 is not a lot of money, for those that don’t save, I can assure you that small amounts like this add up over time, especially if you’re investing.

Overall, I will need to save $5,713.35 more to meet my target for the year. To reach this target, I expect that my monthly savings will increase gradually throughout the year. However, it is possible that 20-to-30% of the $6,000 target will be saved during the final month of the year again.

I look forward to the challenge of increasing my savings for the 3rd year in a row, and I am hopeful that posting the numbers online will help.