March 2021 - Cashflow Cookbook

Housing March 25, 2021

Save big on home improvements – discover the 3 secrets tradesmen don’t want you to know

Save big on home improvements

In the olden days, pre 2020, we all paid scant attention to the condition of our homes. Back then, we focused on the snack we were grabbing in the kitchen, the dog we were leashing for a stroll and the barbecue out on the deck. Now that we are all held in house arrest without bail, we are starting to see the aging kitchen from which the snack came, the scratched floor underneath the dog and the rotting deck under the barbecue. At virtual dinner parties and Zoom wine hours, the conversations turn to home improvements. And with our Stimulus stipends spent, we are all starting to wonder how to save big on home improvements.

We saved 60% on 3 projects – read on!

We recently had 3 situations that nicely illustrated some nifty ideas for savings. With some simple principles we saved $7,000 on the first project, nearly $1,200 on the second and $5,000 on the third. The first was right here at Cashflow Cookbook Global Headquarters. That big chimney on the cover picture needed some work. The second was a dryer that developed a heat and motion phobia. The third was a garage rebuild that was close to a full, well, rebuild. Each project highlighted a different idea to save big on home improvements. To illustrate, let’s take closer look at each of these examples.

Look for a different approach.

Nothing says a romantic night like a crackling fire, a bottle of Pelee Island wine and a good Netflix series. Unless of course the chimney inspector says no fires until the chimney is fixed. Who knew that a 1938 chimney would have such issues? After much peering up our chimney, it was decided that a relining was needed to remediate the flue cracks. In other words, about $10,000. Turns out you can put a price on romance and indeed, money can buy happiness.

In true Cashflow Cookbook form, I called around to check pricing. Five chimney places all said that it would run $350 a foot for a stainless steel chimney liner and that, on a 25 foot chimney that would come to about $8,750, plus tax. Seemed like some sort of chimney flue collusion. I noodled the thought of clamoring up our slate roof brandishing a 25 foot stainless steel tube, but the wind was picking up and rain was threatening. What could go wrong?

Wives have a sixth sense about husbands leading themselves into danger and so it was that Deb developed a sudden interest in chimney lining. She found a chimney specialist with a different approach and suggested that I call. I got through to Brad right away and he indicated that he has a special machine that relines the chimney with concrete, fully safe and guaranteed. He had been relining chimneys with concrete for over 20 years. Google glowed about his work with dozens of positive reviews. Total tab? $1,750. In conclusion, shopping around is great, but sometimes a different contractor can bring a different approach. $7,000 in the bank and on to the next chance to save big on home improvements.

Yes you can do it

Broken dryer, home improvement project savings

When my mother-in-law’s dryer packed it in, my thoughts turned to a trip to Home Depot. My brother-in-law and I got together to craft the plan. I brought a credit card and he arrived with his toolbox. Hmm. I’m fairly handy, but hadn’t spent much time on the inside of a dryer. But I remembered fixing a broken ice-maker and I dashed home to get my iPad. I set it on top of the dryer and surfed over to my friends at repair clinic. Entered the make, model and symptoms and there are all of the possible issues, how to test for each, and a little video that shows each step. Nice! With some safety glasses and the right tools, my cat could fix this dryer**. The Repair Clinic even sell the parts! Boom. We found the problem on the third issue they listed. Turns out that a little piece of plastic had broken off the door switch. A $9 part and about 30 minutes of diagnostic work. Another $1,200 saved, some good bonding and an excuse for a celebratory beer.

Don’t underestimate what you can tackle yourself. There are so many great videos and PDFs out there to light the path for you. Bring along an in-law for some extra knowledge and know how. You got this. DIY is another great way to save big on home improvements. Another trick is to see if your contractor will let you help, building your knowledge and savings. I tried this approach on a deck rebuild a few years back, check it out. Let’s take a look at one more idea.

Shop around for quality and price

garage rebuild - shop around — garage rebuild – shop around

A relative in town had a garage that needed some care and attention, including but not limited to a new roof, soffit, fascia and gutters. Although price is important, the wrong contractor could turn the situation from bad to worse. We networked our way to a few contractors and kept a spreadsheet with their name, company, years in business, sense of their competence, their approach and pricing.

Steve had done some work on a neighbor’s house so we tracked him down and he showed up for the estimate. He had a clipboard and a tape measure, but strangely, no truck. Teleportation? Alien beam down? He scrambled around the roof, flailing his tape measure and muttering as he scribbled down numbers. Not too promising. Chad was next, and gave the garage a good staring from the ground. He disappeared into his truck to “work some numbers” and pronounced the garage dead. It needed to be razed and start over. He would reluctantly attempt the rebuild but it would run a good $12,000.

Robert arrives on the scene

And so it went, until we asked a well regarded garage door man who he would use. Robert was the man for the job. He showed up for the estimate in a crisp white (terrestrial) van with custom cabinetry inside of his own hand. Nice. Some careful measuring, a firm Covid elbow tap and he was off, leaving only a promise of a next day quote. Sure enough, there it was in all its detail, including a price of $7,000.

His work was stellar and he even ran wiring for a garage door opener. The floor was swept clean and everything was tight and true. Shopping around and working referrals is a another key to big savings on home improvements.

** I should note that our cat, Susan, is blind and really not great at appliance work. She is, however, an accomplished lounger.

save big on home improvements — Susan the repair cat lounging

If you enjoyed this post, please share it!

How have you saved on home improvements? Let me know in the comments!

Take care and stay safe.

Gordon

Financial March 18, 2021

How to reduce bill anxiety, spousal arguments and bank fees by finally setting up your bank accounts and bill payments the easy way

Reduce bill anxiety!

Ugh. There it is. That gnawing feeling that there is something not so good in your finances. Maybe you have a sense that you missed a past due bill? Perhaps a fear that those last few purchases put you into overdraft? Or maybe there is a masked money monster on your desk, lurking under a jumble of bills, bank statements, cat toys, tax receipts, charging cables and lint. Whatever the situation, let’s permanently reduce bill anxiety in your household.

Let’s start by setting up your money into 3 pots:

reduce bill anxiety with 3 pots of money

Your Savings Pot

Your Savings Pot(s) are anywhere you send money to decrease debt or increase your investments. It might include registered accounts, work pensions, investment accounts or aggressive mortgage pay downs.

Ideally, get your savings money payroll deducted and straight into your Savings Pot. If that isn’t possible then set up an automatic monthly transfer from your Fun Pot where your income gets deposited each month.
Your Savings Pot is a priority. It sets you up for financial freedom. Do some quick math and see how much of your gross income you are saving.
Add up how much you save each month. Include what goes into your registered accounts like your IRA, 401(k) (or TFSAs and RSPs for Canadians) as well as what you are saving in cash accounts and divide that by your monthly gross income.
If the result is less than 10%, you need to free up some cash to increase your savings rate. Are you saving 10-20%? You are well on your way to financial freedom. Crushing it with a savings rate of 20-50%? Please reach out to me and let’s do a case study on you!
If you are overwhelmed by bills, and can’t save anything at all, you may end up working longer than you would like. Find ways to grind down your monthly bills and/or your fun expenditures. Check out my blog posts or some of the ideas in Cashflow Cookbook.

Some savings come with extra sauce

If your company offers company pension plans, company sponsored 401(k) plans or company stock plans it is their way of trying to give you free money! Don’t say no!. Look for ways to free up cash and participate.
The government wants to help too! Tax advantaged plans like IRAs, 401(k) and 529 education savings plans (TFSAs, RSPs and RESPs in Canada) also provide free money by reducing the taxes you would otherwise pay. When your government offers free money, don’t say no to that either.
Sometimes debt repayment can be the best place to ‘save’. As an example, say you are carrying $30,000 in credit card debt at 22%. If your tax rate is 40%, paying that off is like investing in a government bond that pays 36% interest! Bit of a no brainer. *

Boom! Savings are covered. Just let that pot simmer. Nothing to worry about, you are on track for financial freedom. As you earn more, be sure to generously top up your Savings Pot. On to the Fun Pot.

Your Fun Pot

Your Fun Pot is just a checking account where your paychecks or other income get deposited each month. An automatic monthly transfer pours bill payment money to your Bill Pot each month. The rest is yours to enjoy.

You may want to do all your spending on a rewards credit card to pick up some cash or travel points, then pay off the card every month from your Fun Pot. I like the reward credit card finder from SmartAsset (or the rates.ca credit card finder for Canadians)
If you share your finances with someone else, be sure to have regular communications about this account. What larger expenses are planned for this month? Where do we stand now and what trips, dinners and things are left to buy?
With the bills out of the way in the Bill Pot, it is much easier to manage your fun money. No surprise bills coming out that kick you into overdraft hell. Less arguing about money. A way to reduce bill anxiety.
Look for ways to get more for your fun money spend. Clever ways to share things vs buying your own? Better ways to buy things? Or even ways to save on vodka?

Your Bill Pot

Automating and streamlining your bills is a great way to reduce bill anxiety. Here are some steps to get things under control:

Pull out each of your recurring bills (cell phone, internet, gas, electricity, insurance etc) and calculate the average monthly spend for each and total them up. Add 10% for good measure.
Set up a separate “Bill Pot” account that is only used to pay your recurring monthly bills. This account will have 6-12 bills a month drizzling out and one monthly payment coming in. Find the lowest cost account that can do that.
Set up an automated transfer for the amount in step 1, coming from your Fun pot into your Bill Pot once a month.
Set up a browser favorites folder on your computer called “Household Bills”. Create accounts with each of your service providers with automatic bill payments coming from your Bill Pot Account. Bookmark each of them into your Household Bills folder. Lovely! While you are at it, select the paperless billing option. Add each of your bill accounts to your Household Bill folder on your computer and use a password manager so you don’t have to remember dozens of passwords like Ye$EyElike2Golf.
Double check that everything gets paid as you transition between manual bill payment and this automated approach.
Enjoy bill freedom. Throw out all of that paper. Let those companies do the filing for you. Want to retrieve an old bill? Have a sudden hankering to review last May’s gas bill? Go to Household Bills and peruse away. No hassles, no overdue bills, no paper, no stress.

The fine tune

Once you get everything in place and your bills pay themselves, you have managed to reduce bill anxiety, eliminate a lot of paper and automate your savings, it’s time to fine tune things:

Call each of your providers each year and make sure that you are on the best plan, getting the best rate and enjoying all of the discounts. They would love to hear from you. An example script for speaking with your cell phone provider is here. Some gentle mention of the competition or actual shopping of the competition never hurts. Once optimized, reduce the money flowing into the Bill Pot and increase your Savings Pot if you can. Set a reminder to call each provider every year or use online comparison tools like Zebra (For US car insurance) or rates.ca (Canadian car and home insurance, credit cards, life insurance and more).
As you reduce these boring and painful bills, use the freed up cash to reduce the monthly transfers into your Bill Pot and increase your automated monthly Savings Pot contributions. If you are already saving 10-20%, then splurge with a higher Fun Pot.
Not a bad idea to set up an emergency account or have access to a credit line to cover unforeseen emergencies like broken dishwashers, dog operations or car crash deductibles.

At Retirement

In retirement, keep going with your Fun Pot and your Bill Pot.

Your Savings Pot now replaces your income and just pours cash into the other two every month. Keep seasoning your Bill Pot by optimizing your expenses. Monitor your Savings Pot to make sure that you don’t outlast it. And enjoy yourself! You’ve earned it!

*If you want an explanation of this 36% government bond, leave a comment below and I will respond.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my blog, and share on social media.

How do you set up your accounts? What did I miss? Please let me know in the comments.

Financial March 12, 2021

How to beat bank savings rates or how to earn 8% on your money when your bank is paying 0.20%

How to beat bank savings rates

Sometimes you wonder how they say it with a straight face. Two tenths of one percent? How can they even call it a savings account? At 0.20% it would take 360 years to double your money. If you invested all of your earnings at 0.2%, moved back in with your parents, skipped coffee and cut your own hair, you still couldn’t retire before 136. There has to be a better way to invest. So how do you beat bank savings rates?

And what of those articles comparing bank savings rates? In depth comparisons of banks paying 0.74% on their accounts vs a paltry 0.20%. Why bother with the comparison? What difference does it make? Say you had $50,000 to invest. At 0.74%, at the end of a year you would have made $370 of interest and the government would take away, say 30% in taxes, so you are left with $259. At 0.20% you would pick up a tidy $100 in interest, with the tax person taking her $30, leaving you with $70. So at the end of the year, by shopping for savings rates, you would be ahead by $189. That might net you a dinner for two with wine, but not a real wealth builder. So shopping around isn’t a way to beat bank savings rates.

Short term vs long term

For short term goals, you have little choice. You need somewhere to accumulate money that won’t fluctuate, lest a chunk of it vanishes just as you need it. The low interest rates are the price you pay for some certainty that you won’t take a loss right when you need the cash. But for longer term savings goals like retirement and building wealth, you need exposure to stocks to create growth.

How do we know that stocks rise over time?

Over time, stock markets rise. That has been proven over decades, through wars, depressions, pandemics and whatever is coming next. What are my predictions for next week, next month or next year? No idea. And neither does anyone else. But why do they rise?

Most of you likely work for an organization of some sort. And that means you have a boss sending pressure your way to do your part to help the company make more money, look for ways to do things cheaper, avoid expensive lawsuits or hire people who can do all of the above. Sure, there are a few slackers, but the rest of the company feels that same pressure and is working hard to perform. If it is your own company, you know all of these same pressures, except it is you sending the pressure to yourself. The net of all that hard work is growing profits which increase the value of the company and its stock.

If you owned stocks in that company, you benefit as all of those people make sales calls, slash costs, reduce taxes and grow the company, all while you do nothing. Not bad. Now suppose you own stocks in a few companies instead of just one. If some are mediocre, the rest will likely cover them as all of those people all work to get their bonuses, while their bosses try to get their larger bonuses, all the way up the chain. So owning the stock of a few companies protects us from the risk that the company will go out of favor, the CEO gets charged with something immoral or another company makes a better widget.

Could we own the whole market?

Well what if we could own a little bit of all of the companies that trade on the stock exchange? Wouldn’t that further lower the risk and improve our returns? And indeed it could! You can do that through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). You can buy them just like stocks, but they effectively give you a little slice of hundreds or even thousands of stocks. All full of employees working like the Dickens to make their bonuses as you binge-watch Netflix on your iPad. In fact, Netflix and Apple are in lots of ETFs, so you can even benefit by other people watching Netflix and buying iPads. Hmm. One of my favorites ETFs is Vanguard’s VTI fund. It includes thousands of US stocks, including Netflix and Apple.

So how have these ETFs done over time? Can they beat bank savings rates? Well heck yah! Let’s look at VTI as an example. Here is its chart:

Vanguard VTI fund performance — Vanguard VTi fund performance

So 20 years ago, you could have bought the fund for $56.50 and today it would be worth $207. Not bad. It quadrupled over 20 years. That is the same thing as earning about 6.71% a year, every year for 20 years. But that’s not all, it also pays a dividend of about 1.3% which means that you would have a total return of about 8%. That’s a lot better than 0.2%

But what about the drops?

Imagine that you bought 1,000 shares of VTI in September of 2007. You would have paid $76,960 of your hard earned money to do that. But then the financial crisis hit and your investment would have sailed down to $36,810 in February of 2009. That is a drop of more than half. Ouch! Does that mean that even the stock market can’t beat bank savings rates?

No it just means that the market is unpredictable in the short run. It is still a great place to build wealth over the long run. Say you invested in January 2020 just before the virus hit. You would have bought in at $163.52. Just 2 months later your share would have plunged to $128.91. Ouch. But if you hung on for a full year until January of 2021, your share would be back to $193.99. A gain of nearly 19%. Over the short term no one knows what the markets will do. Over the long term they do well!

Conclusions

The way to beat bank savings rates is to not use them to power your long term savings.
Use savings accounts as short term money storage.
To build wealth use a mix of stocks and bonds that are aligned with your age, stage and risk preference
Exchange Traded Funds can be a low cost way to add exposure to the stock market with lots of diversification
You can augment Exchange Traded Funds with specific stocks if you are confident in certain investment themes. Read more on that here.
When you buy any kind of stocks or ETFs, remember that you are holding them for the long haul, don’t read the headlines or be tempted to sell at every piece of bad news.
If you aren’t confident investing on your own, retain a competent investment advisor
As you get closer to any goal, including retirement, you may wish to reduce volatility with a heartier mix of bonds and cash.

I have used Vanguard’s VTI fund for illustrative purposes. Investors should conduct their own research or consult a financial advisor. I hold VTI as part of my investment portfolio.

To free up more funds for investing, check out my blog and Cashflow Cookbook where I detail ways to free up to $13,000 of monthly savings.

What are you doing as an alternative to beat low bank savings rates? Please let me know in the comments and share this post to help others!

photo credit Roman Synkevytch on Unsplash

Lifestyle March 4, 2021

How to Stop Worrying About Money (Part 4 of 4)

Wealth through frugality

A quick recap. So far in this series, we have explored the issue of how to stop worrying about money. At its root, financial bliss comes when we spend less than we earn, which is very easy to say. The lure of cool new stuff guides our hand to slide our plastic through a lot of slots and into a lot of trouble. We learned that tracking our wealth helps us refocus, change our relationship with money, spend mindfully and invest profitably. We looked at the incredible wealth building power of simple spending changes over time. Naturally, those changes are less painful when they can be done with minimal effort and sacrifice. Getting something better for less. However, another whole range of possibilities emerge when we consider wealth through frugality. Eliminating the actual stuff itself. Not buying it in the first place. Plastic stays in wallet.

Ugh. Could anything be less appealing? Let me guess, we’re going to take away lattes, avocado toast, nice cars, fun vacations, cool clothes and dinners out? Well no, yes and kind of. But hear me out.

The things you own, end up owning you

I first heard that line in the movie, The Fight Club. At the time, I didn’t understand it and just viewed it as one of those slick turns of phrase. Years later it made a lot of sense, maybe too much,

Through a lot of hard work, careful saving and the glorious days of stock options, I found myself with a lot of stuff including a large sailboat, a vacation property, a nice home and a closet brimming with fancy togs. Which sounds like a wonderful lifestyle and in some ways it was. But I needed a toolbox for the boat, one for the cottage and one for the house. Every hour of fun seemed to demand 3 or 5 hours of maintenance, by either me or a hired serviceperson. Then there were the lists. Lists of lists, of tasks, parts and scheduling. Lists by store and by thing. And a ton of work. All of it had to fit outside the hours of my job, my family, friends and other interests. The things I owned, ended up owning me.

If you avoid buying a thing, there is the obvious point of saving money through the avoiding. But you also save on the service, the cover it needs, the extended warranty, the accessories, the place to store it, the related clothing and safety gear, its depreciation and eventual replacement. So of course there is a way to build wealth through frugality. But who wants to not have the thing? Maybe you.

Shift from things to people and experiences

When you dial down the things in your life, some wonderful changes occur. The lists disappear. Your time frees up. The drudgery of sorting, storing and purging goes away. Your life is returned to you to enjoy.

I wrote Cashflow Cookbook to help people build millions of extra wealth without “sacrifice”. The ideas really work, but there is another gear shift to add that brings both wealth and joy. Frugality. And it turns out that having less doesn’t involve a sacrifice at all.

The old joke is that the 2 happiest days of boat ownership is the day that you buy it and the day that you sell it. Totally true. And the reality is that I don’t miss my boat. Spring set up used to consume 3-4 weekends and fall storage another 2-3. I would grimace over the maintenance, the work and the time away from friends and family.

Three years ago, I downsized from an Acura to a Honda. What happened was fascinating. Absolutely nothing. My friends didn’t abandon me. Road trips were just as fun, the car is easier to park and more fun to drive. When I leave it somewhere, I worry less about it getting scratched or stolen.

I did a clothing purge a while back. I rarely wore most of it. Each time I moved, I would dutifully pack it all up, carry the boxes, unpack everything, fold, hang and store. Then do it all again for the next move. I would hunt for things to wear, moving things I never wear out of the way. Now my clothes have room. And I can find them.

Suddenly the frugality movement starts to make some sense. Not because I have to but because I can. Things are simpler and I have more time for, well, everything. Living more simply and frugally is way to shift our lives from things to people and experiences. There is wealth in frugality, but also calm, connection and joy. And interestingly, no sacrifice.

What do you think? Have you embraced a simpler lifestyle? Let me know in the comments and please share the post if you enjoyed it.

Stay safe and enjoy.

Gordon

P.S .In fairness, I do have more guitars than ever before, but they don’t own me. They even let me share their room.