What I Did With My Pay Increase

Today I did the first two steps in what I will do with my pay increase: I increased my RRSP savings by $25 every two weeks and I increased one of my loans $40 (to just come out at the beginning of the month).

I expect to get a raise of about $100 per paycheque (as a teacher in a union it is quite predictable to what I will get), and I will also increase my mortgage once my property taxes rise (that will be the third step). I decided to just increase at the beginning of the month for my loan rather than every two weeks to give me a bit more float cash at the middle of the month. I always find the 15th of the month to be a bit tighter because all of my monthly bills (heat, hydro, internet, etc.) come out at that time and I don't have my rent coming in to buffer it.

Summarizing, at the beginning of the month I have spent an extra $90 and at the middle of the month I have spent an extra $50 (or will once I raise my mortgage). Also, I currently have 12.5% going into a bond fund and 87.5% going into a Dividend fund. Long term, I want my deposits to be between 5-10% each deposit into the bond fund and the rest into an index fund, then I will balance them when the markets are at a good time.

Hopefully this will inspire some people to plan what they will do with their raises (rather than just have extra spending money altogether). Please note that I left myself an extra $10 at the beginning of the month and $50 at the middle of the month, so not all money was accounted for. My long term goal will be to save 50% of my raise and to hang onto 50% of my raise.