A Frugal New Canadian is your gateway to understanding the art of frugal living. But not at the cost of financial prosperity! We believe that frugality isn’t about deprivation but rather a strategic pathway to realizing your dreams and building lasting wealth.

My journey in Canada began in 2014 when I relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia from India. I restarted my life as a student with limited resources at the age of 27.Living frugally comes naturally to me because of my upbringing in a developing nation with limited means to end. Every cent had a purpose. This is why I was able to keep my costs down as a student and now, as a mid-aged professional. Our blog focuses on key financial concepts that we have picked up in our Savings/investing journey. We also share tips and tricks on Frugal Living. Unfortunately, the cost of living is ever-increasing in Canada. And one of the methods of tackling this is to live within one’s means and being mindful re frugal.

Our goal is to build a library of resources that Canadians and especially New immigrants can use to enhance their own personal finance journeys. We choose to be anonymous to be able to share our Financials

March concluded at a Savings rate of 27% exceeding our monthly target of 25%. Note that this actually includes Employer retirement matches. We were closing in at a 30% Savings rate for Q1 2024 which is decent considering our Cost of Living has gone by over $1K a month this year. A significant jump of almost $3K between Feb and March on this Sinking Fund. We've now achieved a third of the target on this Fund. We're also excited about the incoming tax refund and allocating some of our bonus amounts to this Sinking Fund in April. We noted an increase of over $6K in our Liquid Net Worth month over month. This does include our Company matched RRSP accounts where most of the growth came from again. We did buy a few ETFs again in the month of March. Our dividend payouts are skewed to the last month of each quarter. We were able to cross $350 of dividends received this March. This is close to double the payout amount from March 2023. If we are to be exact, our dividends payout this March are 1.84 times that of March 2023. The amazing thing is that the amount invested in ETFs and stocks to receive these dividends is only 1.58 times that of last March. Basically, whatever we purchased over the last quarter is paying off dividends this quarter. There might also be the effect of Dividend increases year over year. Loving it ! We closed February 2024 with a Savings rate of 23% which is under our monthly target of 25%. Note that this actually includes Employer retirement matches. Most of Savings will not be shown under our Financial Independence numbers because they will for a cash down for a new house in the next year. We're now back to wanting to move our primary residence in 2025. Hence, the effort to pull our resources towards a common goal of $92K. Almost all of our bonuses, tax refunds and monthly savings amounts will be directed towards this goal. We'll need to pull a rabbit out of the hat for this one. We noted an increase of over $7K in our Liquid Net Worth month over month. This does include our Company matched RRSP accounts where most of the growth came from. I only bought a couple of ETFs this entire month. Payouts for January 2024 included 2 payments from XDIV (Canadian Dividend. In addition to these, we received payouts from 3 other ETFs and 2 other stocks. One of the stocks that paid a dividend in Feb last year paid it on 31st January which is why the delta between the two months YoY is over $100. We'll be expecting a smaller payout in Feb 2024 relative to Feb 2023 because of this. Porto vibes were off the charts !

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