Our Money Plans Have Changed 👀

Good afternoon + welcome to the very first issue of Money Convos with Steph & Den (yes, you read that right - we officially picked a name!).

The goal of this newsletter is to give you a quick update on what’s new with us and our personal finances, and share other news or resources that we think would be useful for you. We’ll be in your inbox once a month, on the first, as a little welcome to the new month. 

Here’s what’s up in this copy 🤑🗞

• One of us made a big change to our investing strategy 

• No spend challenge alert 🚨

• How’s your budgeting going so far? 👀

• We hit 100,000 YouTube subscribers (thank you!)

• Beginning of the year mini money check-list 📝

Money Convo Of The Month

How I’m Changing My Investment Plan In 2024

Okay, time for a quick personal money update from Steph 💰

Dennis has been a DIY investor for a few years now (aka since he started investing), but I took a different route…

Since 2021 I’ve been investing with a robo-advisor called Wealthsimple Invest, and everything was going smoothly… until it wasn’t (let me explain). How it worked was that the robo-advisor would pick my investments and do the investing for me - I just had to pick my risk level (I went for what Wealthsimple called an 11/10, which was 100% equities and no fixed income). After that, all I had to do was fund my account with money every month. This was a huge help for me when I first got started, because at the time I was still feeling pretty overwhelmed at the thought of choosing which funds to invest in, and having to remember to do it every single month!

Fast forward three years (and a 10.2% total return) later, and I’ve definitely learned a lot more. My confidence with all things money, and investing, has grown a lot, and I’ve gotten to that place where you’re so comfortable that you start to notice the smaller details - basically, I’m at a point now where I don’t really need to be paying a 0.5% fee for someone (something?) to manage my investing for me anymore.

I have to mention that a 0.5% fee is still a lot lower than the 1-2% fee you’d expect to pay a financial advisor at the bank or any IRL person who’s doing the investing for you - and, if you’re like me three years ago and you’re feeling stressed out about getting started and need the help that a robo-advisor can give you (for less) - it’s not a bad option. For me, I’m at a point where I don’t ‘need’ the help anymore - and I have more opinions on which funds I want to be investing in, too (FYI, you can’t choose your investments with the robo-advisor - a pro if you don’t know what to invest in, and I guess a con if you do!). 

So, I’ve officially closed down my Wealthsimple Invest robo-advisor portfolio after 3 years and I’ve transferred all of my money over to my Wealthsimple Trade TFSA, instead (this is the DIY platform with the same company). I guess that officially makes me a DIY investor (yay)! I’m also attempting to keep things simple and low-key, so moving forward, I’ll be investing in one ETF every single month! We’ll keep you posted if and when this strategy changes, but for now, I’m set up and ready to go. It feels great - and honestly, really empowering. I’m so happy I got started with my investing journey 3 years ago, and if 24-year-old me could see 27-year-old me, she’d be pretty happy (maybe even proud). 

We also posted a YouTube video giving you an even more in-depth look into the switch, so check it out here if you’re interested.

$0 UberEats Challenge (!!!)

ICYMI, I’m aiming to spend $0 on UberEats this year. Why?? Because I managed to spend $2,229.99 on takeout last year (not eating out - takeout alone! 🥲), and I thought it would be fun to challenge myself. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes throughout the year - but, so far, so good! I tried x4 new recipes cooking from home and ordered out 0 times (yay!). 

Check out the video we made about the challenge here, and follow along on Instagram if you want even more updates on how I’m doing.

2024 Budget Template *Update*

PSA 🗣 Our ‘Budget Template’ explainer video is here! 

If you downloaded our budget template last month, we hope that you’re loving it! We filmed a quick video walking you through how it works, so if you have any questions, or still haven’t set it up yet, check it out - it should help! 

Click to watch the Budget Template Explainer Video ⬇️

If you still have any other q’s, feel free to submit a question to us, and we’ll get back to you. 

Happy budgeting - we can’t wait to see how much money you save (and what other money goals you hit) in 2024!

We Hit 100k YouTube Subscribers

Milestone alert - as of January 2024, we officially have 100,000 YouTube subscribers! 👀✨ 

We started ‘Steph & Den’ with our YouTube channel back in 2019 (literally how was that 5 years ago?!), and we’ve posted 300+ videos since then where we dive deep into our personal finance journeys, and all of the important money topics that you could think of. If you found us from our short form content (aka on Instagram and TikTok), check out our YouTube channel for deeper explanations on the money topics you’re curious about right now.

Mini Beginning-Of-The-Year Money Checklist

If you didn’t do these things in January, don’t sweat it! February is here, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to get on track for 2024.

• Take a second to write down your money goals 

• Reset (or create!) your budget for the new year 

• Assess your current bank accounts - Could you switch to a no-fee chequing account? How about a high interest savings account?

• Negotiate the cost of your recurring bills - We’ll share a video + ‘script’ next month sharing how we just brought our internet bill down from $120/month to $60/month! 

• Check in on your credit score - You get one free credit check per year from the major credit bureaus like Equifax and Transunion 
  (If you’re in 🇨🇦 you can try Borrowell for free, too!)

That’s it for our first issue - we’ll see you next month!

P.S. You can catch up with us on Instagram and YouTube
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