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It’s time for the monthly savings report for February 2019 since all income has been earned.

In total, I saved $417.70 in February 2019. This worked out to $131.05 more than last month which is quite the jump. 

Most of the increase was a result of increasing my contribution to an employer share plan.

For the record, the $417.70 does not include any dividend income or interest payments. It is solely based on income earned through employment.

$417.70 Saved in February 2019 | $704.35 saved year to date

It feels strange to say it but $417.70 doesn’t seem like a lot of money. I still think I could be doing better. In fact I know I could be doing better because I know my savings rate isn’t that high.

The way that I approach savings, though, is to compete against myself. I set a baseline goal of 10% of my annual income and then try to increase savings each month. 

Since I increased savings by $131.05 over last month I am satisfied with the results. 

Allocation

Approximately $300 of the $417.70 went to my non-registered share plan with my employer. The best part is that I receive a matching contribution. Plus it is automatically invested into shares and there is no commission fees. 

The remaining amount of savings was split between my TFSA and RRSP. Those funds along with dividend income will be reinvested into income producing assets shortly.

To sum up my savings allocation, I have a non-registered account for my share plan through my employer, I purchase Canadian dividend stocks in my TFSA, and I utilize my RRSP for buying USD stocks because there is no withholding tax on dividends. In addition, I maintain a cash position on the side of all this.

I plan to continue this strategy for the foreseeable future with gradual increases to the RRSP.

Concluding Thoughts 

I started off 2019 by publishing my first monthly savings report because I wanted to motivate myself to save more money.

I also want to show how much money is being invested into the dividend business to prove that anyone could do this.

On the other hand, I’m still not saving enough to reach financial independence anytime soon. 

I’m still below the pace needed to reach my goal of $6,000 this year. With just over 10 months left to save money in 2019, I’ll need to save nearly $530 per month now.

At least I’ve saved $704.35 so far in 2019, though. But I still got a lot of work to do—$5,295.65 worth to be exact.

Overall, I still expect to reach the $6,000 target even with the slow start to the year. Hopefully I can continue the forward momentum into March and increase month over month savings again.