I'm taking advantage of the recent gray weather to look at next year's basic savings goals.
Thanks to what I thought was a real computer failure scare, I am going to make sure my business working account will cover a new computer way sooner than I had anticipated.
In addition, I want $3000 in my business education account as I have my eye on some future training. My business costs me an average of $516/month.
I'm aiming for $5000 in our cars' working account. All the other working accounts are OK for now. If there is extra money I'll give them a boost.
D told me yesterday that our average monthly expenses in 2011 came to an average of $1380.
This number includes the running costs of all 3 properties (taxes, electricity, water, gas, insurance) and 2 cars (insurance, parking and gas). Not bad.
There will be no changes to our long term savings plan.
That is a pretty amazing number for 3(?) properties! i thought you have a cottage and a house only. Sorry i don't mean to pry:-)I think we pay way more for a house and 2 cars ( in Toronto)...
ReplyDeleteHi Corina!
ReplyDeleteNo, you are not prying.
The cottage is on well and septic so no monthly bills other than tax ($920/yr), insurance, gas, electicity.
We turn most of the power off when we leave (hot water heater, even empty the fridge) so that makes a huge difference.
The ski condo, which we decided to buy to symbolize our union instead of having a wedding or rings has a monthly maintenance fee ($141/mnth) which covers all utilities. So we are responsible for taxes and insurance ($440/yr & $226/yr).
Our main house, even though it is pretty old (1854), has been expertly updated (not by us, but still has the original windows, which would cost a fortune to replace) so our utilities are like a new house.
Our property tax is the largest amount at about $3000/yr. I think we are pretty good with energy conservation.
Because we live in a smaller city center (I know Toronto prices as I grew up there) car insurance is much lower (maybe that affects property insurance too?).
D works from home now 3 days a week so that helps and my work commute is very tiny. He works at home the same days I work so should we decided to move to a one car family in the future, we're set up for it.
We pay approx $4200/yr property tax and about 400/month utilities - hydro, gas, water/sewage. Cars insurance is 205/mo. Home insurance is 48/mo, but I reduced it to very basic and raised the deductible. We had good news last week when the mayor said he will have to raise the property taxes, yey!:-)
ReplyDeleteI was confused a bit about this, because 2 years ago they reassessed all properties in Toronto and the value of our house increased from 450000 to 630000 (which might be the correct price btw). The reason i'm confused is because property taxes are a percentage of the value of the house, so automatically they will be higher - there is no need to increase the percentage also (I think)..When they reassesed the house, since it was such a major difference in price, they said they will pro rate the tax increase - first year it's old price plus 25%, second year old price plus 50% etc so we will see a gradual increase - I shudder to think about next year bill...
Ah well, Toronto and it's beauty:-)
Thank you for the detailed response. I read your blog faithfully for a half year now and i love it! It feels a bit voyeuristic at times because I respect you very much, so i hope it's not creepy:-)
Hi Corina;
ReplyDeleteThanks!
We got the mpac re-assessment too so I know what you mean about being confused. Hopefully he was just describing the same thing rather than a new/higher tax structure.
We don't have kids so I think that makes a huge difference in utilities. But we do have 3 internet bills (which is included in my monthly amount but forgot to list it in the post along with our phone).
Personally I think our property tax on the main house is high because our home isn't valued anywhere near yours. If you ever decide to move out of T.O., you'll do really well! (assuming you don't choose a place like Vancouver!)