Dennis FINALLY Hit $100,000 👀💰

Happy New Year!!! 🥳

It’s officially January 1st, 2025, aka the start of a brand new year. We hope that you’ve had a great holiday season, and that it was spent enjoying and relaxing with your friends and family. 

We’re actually in Nairobi, Kenya with Dennis’ family right now, spending time visiting his relatives and exploring the city. We’ll have a full trip recap coming for you in next month’s issue of Money Convos with Steph & Den, but for today, we want to set you up for an amazing year ahead! 

Here’s what’s up in this copy 🤑🗞 

• Simple Investing (For Canadians) is here! 🎉

• One of us has a big money update 👀

• Our new budget template is ready for you 

• Our trick(s) for spending less on food 🤫

• A mini money checklist to start your year off right 📝

Simple Investing (For Canadians) Is Here!

Our new investment course, Simple Investing (For Canadians), has officially launched! 

Check out the video below for a full overview of what the course is all about, and if you want to become a simple investing student, then you can sign up here. 

Click to watch the Simple Investing (For Canadians) Explainer Video ⬇️

Money Convo Of The Month

I’ve Officially Hit A $100,000 Net Worth

If you feel like you have déjà vu, don’t worry, you’re not going crazy - it’s my (Dennis’) turn to hit a $100,000 net worth this time! 

So right off the bat, I can’t tell you how proud I am of myself! Despite the fact that Steph and I talk about money every single day of our lives, we, as people in general, typically (for whatever reason) tend to view our own personal situations as if they’re somehow different from everyone else's (even though there aren’t really many original experiences out there - someone else is going through the same thing you are!). 

If you had asked me a few years ago whether I could picture myself with a six figure net worth (and I mean really picture what it would be like)… Well, I probably would have said yes knowing me, but the reality of this milestone just hits, and feels, really different. 

Like so many of you reading this right now, when I look at the big picture, and how I’ve felt about money throughout the different phases of my life, and how my feelings have evolved as I’ve gained more knowledge over time, it's just unbelievable.

Now, I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that ‘your first $100,000 is always the hardest’, and honestly it can feel like it at times, but I’m here to tell you that in my experience there’s more to that story than a simple statement. If we go back to 2021, when I had just finished paying off all of my student loan debt, despite the fact that I was super excited to be done with that particular chapter of my life… the thought of entering this new phase where I was now trying to grow my wealth felt even more daunting. It’s like the goal post that keeps moving, where you set a goal, you hit it, but then, instead of celebrating, you move on to the next goal as quickly as possible. 

In my situation, being debt free meant that I now had at least $1,000 per month to put towards my investment account, and given that I felt somewhat behind (which is definitely a normal feeling by the way!), I knew that this would allow me to jump right into investing (after building up my emergency fund, of course). 

So, I invested that $1,000 per month throughout my first year in the stock market, splitting my money between passive ETFs and single stocks. One thing that was really nice was the fact that I didn’t have to build a new habit in terms of consistently paying myself first (since I was used to putting a big chunk of money towards my debt already!). Now, on the other hand, I was also hit with information overload in terms of where to actually invest my money. Like, I knew that I was supposed to invest, and that investing was going to be the catalyst that would speed up the growth of my wealth over time… But how was I actually supposed to invest? 

Now, once I understood that no one had the ‘secret’ to making lottery sized winnings over the short term in the stock market (seriously, it doesn’t exist!), I stopped making things overly complicated for myself, and instead I set up a simple investing strategy. I decided to only invest in passive ETFs moving forward, and, for the next three years or so, I contributed between $1,000 to $2,000 every single month. 

Over time, my investment account grew from $0, to $40,000, and then to $70,000, and now I’m officially up to $108,000 across my multiple investment accounts. When I include my other bank accounts, I currently have a total net worth of just over $112,000 (!!!). 

What I’ve learned so far is that getting to your first $100,000 is mostly a test of patience, and a lot of blind consistency. It’s all about habits - the more you do something, the easier it gets, and the more it becomes ingrained into your everyday life. I’ve now become so accustomed to making investment contributions that I don’t even think twice about transferring money every month. 

I feel like people don’t talk about how they feel when it comes to hitting money milestones like this, so as I reflect and look at what’s ahead, I want to say that I’m glad you’re along on this journey with me, and I can’t wait for you to hit your next big money milestone, too.

To wrap this up, in the words of Snoop Dogg (by the way, if you have no idea what I’m talking about - Google ‘Snoop Dogg Thank Me Speech’)...

…“I wanna thank me! I wanna thank me for believing in me. I wanna thank me for doing all of this hard work. I wanna thank me for having no days off (side note: I definitely took some days off). I wanna thank me for never quitting. I wanna thank me for just being me…”

New Year, New Budget Template 💰

PSA 🗣 our new budget template is here! 

You might already be using our budget template, but if you haven’t set it up for the new year yet, you might want to check out our new version (you should’ve received an email from us with the new version within the past few weeks!).

We took your feedback, made some tweaks, and it’s now better than ever and ready for you to use. 

We also filmed a new instruction video that walks you through how it works, so in case you missed it, or if you have any questions, check it out.

Click to watch the Budget Template Explainer Video ⬇️

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

We hope that you have an amazing year of budgeting ahead!

How To Spend Less On Food 🛒

One of our main money goals over the past few years has been to spend less money on food, while still eating whole, fresh foods at home. 

I’d say that we’ve done a pretty good job! On top of substantially reducing how much much money we spend on eating out, we’ve also created a grocery shopping routine that allows us to maximize the amount of healthy food we buy, while still sticking to our budget. 

Our grocery budget for this year is going to be $325/month each (last year it was $300/month, but we ended up spending an average of about $330/month, instead, so we gave ourselves a slight bump up to account for that). 

That means that we aim to spend $650/month total for groceries for two people. 

• We do a bulk stock up at Costco approx. every quarter (every 3-4 months); we pretty much only buy meat and cleaning supplies, which are items that are easy to stock up on and saves us money throughout the course of the year 

• We make a list, and grocery shop one time per week; we’ll also do an additional mid-week stock up for items that go bad more quickly (like berries and other fruit)

• We have very minimal food waste; we’re able to do this by 1) doing one trip per week, instead of more frequent and random trips, 2) doing a quick mid-week trip for food items that go bad more quickly instead of buying a higher volume, 3) we almost completely clear out our fridge items each week, and 4) when we plan our meals for the week, we make sure that the food we buy can be used for multiple different meals, so there isn’t waste left over 

• We stick to mostly whole foods; we limit the amount of pantry items that we buy 

You can check out this video for a more thorough overview of a typical week of grocery shopping for us!

January Mini Money Checklist 👀 

Now, it’s January 1st, but it’s also a holiday, so if you want to save this mini money checklist for next Monday, we won’t judge 🤫

On a more serious note, we want you to start your year off right, and that means getting on track and checking in on your current money status, post holidays. 

• Write down your money goals for 2025 

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

• Request your free credit check - You can check in on your credit score for free one time per year from each of the major credit bureaus like Equifax and Transunion 

• Lower your fees - Are you still paying for any subscriptions that you don’t use? Or are you using high fee bank accounts that could be swapped for low or no fee options? 

• Negotiate the cost of your recurring bills - We bring this tip up a lot, because we know sometimes it takes a few reminders to actually take action! We’ll link to a video that explains how this works 

• Calculate your current net worth - Take a look at all of your bank account balances, the value of your other assets (think the equity your have in your house if you own one), and also your liabilities (think any debt that you have) 

• Get ready for tax season - I know it feels early, but trust us, tax season (~ April) will be here in no time; make a plan for filing your taxes now, so you’re prepared. Future you will be thankful!