There’s plenty of advice out there that’s given by married folks. I find that many of the well established personal finance bloggers are married. We often see posts going up about how to save money on your next family vacation or how to teach your kids about managing money.

What about us single people? Rarely do I see posts aimed at single 20-somethings that are looking to improve either their business or their finances.

I wanted to throw out some random thoughts and tips on personal finance for the single dudes out there. I also wanted to ditch the typical advice of “cut your own hair” or “never go out.” This one is for all of the single 20-somethings reading this that want personal finance/business points geared towards them:

Never flaunt your success.

When it comes to business and money in your 20s I’ve noticed that too many of my peers are quick to flaunt their success. It seems like modesty has gone out the window. Everyone wants to buy the flashiest car after college instead of the most economical one. People want to post on Facebook about how they just bought some really expensive new gadget. Showing off appears to be a fun thing to do. What we don’t realize is that some of the most successful people will never talk about themselves or flaunt anything at all.

I’ve seen friends flaunt their financial success in order to impress someone that they like. It may seem like a good idea at first, but in the end it’s not worth trying to impress materialistic people. Flaunting your success can really backfire on you. You have to think about what would happen if you hit a low point. Do you think the people that were impressed with your success would care about you? I just think that we can all stand to benefit a little from being more humble. You just never know when you can hit a low point. When you do hit a low point you’re going to hope that you have real friends around you to support you.

Stay focused.

You need to keep your eye on the prize. I know this first hand. The last few weeks I’ve been sort of struggling with blogging goals because it’s really easy to get distracted by any new young ladies that can enter your life. It really is too easy to get distracted by life and its many distractions. The problem with getting distracted is that you lose sight of your financial goals and any other goals that you may have in life. You really don’t want to hit 30 and regret the fact that you lost focus in your 20s.

When it comes to staying focused as a single 20-something it relates to all areas of one’s life. It’s vital to stay focused on your financial, career, and health goals. It’s really easy to get sidetracked. It’s really easy to get stuck in a job that you hate just because you need the money. It’s easy to take the easy way out and put things on cruise control. If you manage to stay focused a majority of the time you’ll be very thankful when you grow older and reflect on your accomplishments.

The best way to stay focused in my opinion is to always have your goals on your mind. You can put a picture of that dream home beside your computer desk. You can surround yourself with positive people. You can setup a challenge with a buddy. No matter what approach you take it’s important that you stay focused on your goals.

Pay yourself first.

Paying yourself first is the best way to save money. It’s a concept that’s so simple that it often gets overlooked. When you get your paycheck you’re going to want to buy some cool stuff or to go out. That’s fine. The problem develops when you spend all of your money and you realize that you have nothing left to put aside. This is why I strongly advocate that you put your money into your savings account first. Once you pay yourself first you can spend the rest of guilt-free purchases that you’ll enjoy.

Work towards crushing your debt.

The sooner you kill your debt, the sooner that you can work towards building for the rest of your life. I know that it can feel like a never ending cycle when you find yourself paying off student debt after college. The thing you must remember is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The sooner you eliminate your debt, the better off you will be.

Invest in yourself.

I’m a huge supporter of investing in yourself. I’ve covered the topic of investing in yourself here before, but I just wanted to reinforce this idea today. Life in your 20s is the best time to take advantage of time and money. If you can leverage the little money that you have with the plethora of time on your side, you can do wonderful things for your future. Are you investing in yourself?

Those are just some random personal finance thoughts I had for all of the single 20-somethings out there. Did I miss anything? Please feel free to share some more thoughts here.

(photo credit: a.drian)

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Ahhh… when assets are stronger than liabilities, I love that. Unfortunately, the situation is not always perfect. As I am writing this article about my net worth, I realize how hard it is to understand what I am doing right now; my debts are growing and my assets are “virtual”.

Why do I say that? Because while I now report total assets over half a million dollars; 20% of it is in my online company shares. Going back to our annual meeting, we have decided to increase the value of the company shares from $150,000 to $196,000 (I own 50% and my business partner holds the other half). As my RRSP’s are going down this month (thx to my heavy position in RIM… yeah I know, you told me to short it…), my house and pension plan are stable, the only real increase is coming from my company shares “virtually” going up.

On the other hand, if I had to sell my company as a whole or separately, I know I would sell it for way more than 200K. Therefore, I am comfortable to give it such a conservative value.

I also continue to put roughly $500/month in my employer’s stock… This will be cashed out at one point in time in order to pay off a part of my debt.

Speaking of which, my debt is rising…once again. But this time, it is more substantial. Why am I still spending more than I earn? Because April was a big month:

-          I did some landscaping

-          I paid for a part of my central A/C

-          Part of my municipal taxes were due in April

-          We had several birthdays to celebrate

Once I will be done paying off my A/C, I will add the same value to my house as it will really be a plus if I would be selling it tomorrow. In April and May, I am spending money that I will earn in June-July. I know for a fact that I have a great bonus coming in so this is why I am not too worried. Remember, 30% of my annual income is coming from my bonuses. On top of that, my net income has increased as of my last pay check since I have paid the maximum for Quebec Pension Plan and unemployment insurance.

I also paid off my credit cards with a personal loan. I did this for 2 reasons:

a)      The low interest rate was ending soon

b)      I need to pay this debt down and I wasn’t doing a great job with the credit card

This is why I thought that having a loan with a fixed payment would help. While the second part of the year will be better than the first part in terms of debt reduction, I definitely need to set my finances in order to start paying off my debts .

In May, things won’t get any better as I will probably have to pay the balance of my A/C (which is 4.5K). Then, I’ll be able to breathe .

Here are the tables:

Assets:

Liabilities:

Net Worth: $175,323

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Aaaahhhhh…. It’s not going the way I want! To be honest, I thought April was going to be a good month in terms of net worth. I thought I wasn’t spending much and had figured that my overall debt would decrease… well it didn’t! Call it spring rush for the kids (clothing and stuff), call it dining out, call it stupid expenses… it all goes down to the same thing; I’m spending more than I am earning.

BUT THERE IS A REASON WHY…

No, it’s not an excuse; there is a real reason why I am spending more than I am earning right now; because a good part of my income consists of bonuses. The problem is that when I work my monthly budget, it doesn’t add up evenly. Each year, I receive about $15,000 net of taxes in bonus. The problem is that I receive a very small part of it in June and the biggest part in January (this is when I made a 5K RRSP contribution along with another 5K on my debt).

The other point is that I also include a partial sale of my employer stocks each year. I actually buy the maximum amount allowed per pay in this stock as my employer contributes an additional 25% of my purchase. Each year, I cash out a part of these stocks in order to pay off my municipal and school taxes. Right now, I am paying my taxes from my monthly income and leaving the stocks ride (as I am making a very good return on the stock).

The key point is that I am making a higher yield on my stock than I am paying in interest. In fact, my highest interest rate right now is 1.99% (which is my MBNA low rate balance transfer card).

THE MBNA IS COMING DUE…

Almost a year ago, I applied for a MBNA low rate balance transfer card in order to help manage my debts temporarily. Starting with a balance of $13,000, I am now at $9,500 but the 1.99% offer expires in 2 months. What is going to happen next? I have a few options:

#1 Use my HELOC and cash my employer stock to pay it off completely in May.

#2 Pay a part of it from my HELOC right now and write myself a check (from the card) for the same amount. I find it very weird, but they extend my “promotion” if I withdraw more money from the card. So, technically, if I take 5K from my HELOC to pay down the credit card and write myself a check for 5K a few days later, I can “reset” a debt of 5K at 1.99% for an additional 12 months.

Since my employer stock is paying a great dividend (more than 3%), I think I am going with option #2 to see if it works. If it does, it will give me more time to receive:

- About 2K in income tax refunds (May-June)

- About 5K in bonus (end of June)

- A salary increase (mid June)

I’ll use my 2K tax return to pay off a part of my debt along with my salary increase. I reserve the 5K bonus for my central A/C (yeah I know, I shouldn’t spend more… but I’m doing it anyways!).

So here’s the detail of my net worth for this month:

Assets:

Debts:

Total Net Worth: $162,711 (-0.5%)

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I’m trying to get closer to the first week of the month to pull out my net worth report. For this month, this is not helping me show great results since I had only 3 weeks to pay off my debts. I guess this is why I am getting such “small” results.

The good news is that I am still increasing my net worth, the bad news is that my level of debt from one month to another is almost the same ($300 lower…). If you consider that the stock market has been good to me for the past 3 weeks, there is definitely nothing to write home about!

For the first time in a while, I am trying to be more frugal in order to pay off my debts. This is why I made a nice dinner for Valentine’s Day instead of going into an expensive restaurant . Last weekend, we went window shopping as we just walked by the stores and noticed what was the new trends are for this summer… without opening our wallets . I don’t know for how many months (or should I say weeks? Hahahaha!) I can handle like this but I know that if I hold on until June, I’ll be able to pay off a good part of my debt.

In fact, my goal for the next 3 months is to keep my expenses low so I can slowly pay off my debts while waiting for my income tax return (usually around $2,000) along with my half year bonus (which should be around $4,000 net of taxes). I should receive the bonus mid June. So this will definitely help me out in paying off my debts and get in line with my 2011 financial goal of paying a total of $22,000 in debt .

When I look at both Assets and Liabilities, I have a feeling that I could hit 3 milestones this year:

#1 Reaching more than $500,000 in assets

#2 Decreasing my debt level under the $300,000 mark

#3 Having a Net Worth of $200,000 by the end of 2011

This would be quite awesome… but I while I am convinced of reaching 500K in assets, I definitely have to work on paying off my debts!

Here’s the detail of my assets and liabilities:

Assets: $486,640

Liabilities: $323,081

Total Net Worth: $163,559

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Whoah! January ran by so fast that I just realized I didn’t do a Net Worth update! The good news is that I wake up this morning, richer than yesterday!

I got my bonus deposited, paid my Xmas credit card debts and paid my municipal taxes as well. I am up and running to keep paying off my debts in 2011! As I mentioned yesterday, I was quite shocked to see that I have spent 57K on my credit card last year!

This is actually what I did with my bonus. As you will see in the chart, I invested 5K in my RRSP (my maximum contribution since I have a pension plan) and used the rest of the money to pay off my credit cards. Unfortunately, the biggest part of my bonus was taken by taxes… Man I love living in Quebec, sometimes!

I managed to avoid paying interest on my main credit card ‘cause I borrow money from my HELOC to pay it off completely each month and then I pay off the HELOC with my salary. It really is playing around with money but it was necessary at that time. I should be able to keep dropping my credit cards in the upcoming months as I don’t have many expenses forecast for February.

I have made the statement to pay $22,000 of my debt in 2011 and this is a great start with $5,000 right away. So now I am down to $17,000 as an objective! I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to crush it!

So here’s my assets and liability charts!

Assets: $485,899

Liabilities: $323,393

Total Net Worth: $162,906 (+7.06%)

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