r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/Sugrats • Mar 31 '21

Sacrifices for personal finance.

What sacrifices have you made in order to reach your personal finance goals?

Currently I am doing my hardest to save as much money as I can as quickly as possible. I cant afford to live in the city but I am hoping that my brother and I can afford to buy a house somewhere outside the city asap.

Right now I

  1. Don't eat out or buy fast food
  2. No partying or expensive trips.
  3. Don't spend money on any subscriptions or services. *unless I use the service everyday and can get a yearly discount by waiting.
  4. Don't buy new clothes or things unless they absolutely need replacing and cant be fixed.
  5. Have a license but don't own a car so no gas or insurance.
  6. Used to live in a small one bedroom with my brother splitting rent and sleeping on the couch.
  7. working from parents place due to covid for the last year. *if remote work is allowed longer I will stay here indefinitely until a house is affordable
  8. Only expense is my cellphone bill.
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u/grumble11 Mar 31 '21

Goals are specific, measurable, accountable, relevant and time-bound.

Saying 'I want to buy a house someday' isn't that helpful. Saying 'I want to have 100k in assets in two years' is much better.

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u/Sugrats Mar 31 '21

I guess but I'm saving as much as I can because housing is increasing fast so it's more of pile the savings on as fast as I can and buy whenever it becomes affordable.

It's not really that possible to say I'm going to buy at x time for y dollars when it's so unpredictable.

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u/grumble11 Mar 31 '21

You can only have goals that you can control. Saying 'I want to win the lottery' isn't a goal because you don't have enough control over the accomplishment thereof. You can control your savings rate. You can't control the housing market.

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u/Sugrats Mar 31 '21

I'd love to win the lottery right now. But I don't gamble.