Recapping our savings journey and winning $1 Million with Servus Credit Union

As we head towards the end of April, that means we’re only eight days away from the Servus Big Share contest ending! There’s still time to enter and it’s worth it because you could win $1 MILLION!

With the Servus Big Share, every time you save $500 you get an entry to win $1 Million. We’ve been saving like mad over the last 4 months for this very reason.

First, as I talked about in “A Dive Into The Dashing Family Finances,” we met with our advisor Brock who did a deep dive into all of our spending and where we could make some tweaks.

Our ultimate goal is to retire as soon as possible and what retirement means to us is freedom. Right now we have to work, but for us, retirement means having enough investments where we could quit our jobs if wanted to. Maybe we don’t want to, maybe we want to keep working, but having the freedom to decide what you do with your life would be the ultimate weight off our shoulders.

When we met with Brock, he kept these goals in mind and helped evaluate our current investment structure and pointed to some small tweaks we could make to our daily life that would help increase our savings.

With his help, we were able to put an additional $250 per pay period into savings. This amounted to $500 a month getting us 4 entries into the Servus Big Share contest! Couple this with some additional savings we were fortunate to get and we have 12 total entries into the Servus Big Share!

So even though I encourage you to enter to win $1 Million, there’s really no need as Jane and I are going to win 😉

What we’d do with a million dollars

Do you know what was a shocking revelation for me? If we won $1 million dollars, that might not be enough for us to retire on. Given our current mortgage and car debt, once it was paid off and if we invested every penny of the remaining money we’d be REALLY close to retiring. So close that we could really decide what we wanted to do with our lives at that point. But if we wanted an extravagant lifestyle, a new house, a new car, trips etc. we’d have to keep working.

All of those things, while nice sounding, aren’t really our style so if we were to win it’s very likely we’d invest a large chunk of it, pay off debt and then treat ourselves with a trip to Hawaii …. After COVID. But the DREAMING about what we would do and how our life would change is almost the best part of entering a contest like this. For this time between now and when the draw is made, I COULD be the winner. It’s like the Schrodingers box of money, and daydreaming about how that would change our lives is a lot of fun.

The Servus Big Share contest closes April 30, so you’re running out of time to enter, but there is still time! Head to Servus, open an account (or add savings to your already existing account) and boom, you’re entered! Every $500 in savings gets you an entry and hey, if you win, consider donating to your favourite local Dad blogger as a thank you for alerting you to this prize 🙂

Learn more about Servus and our financial journey:

1. The difference between a bank and a credit union

2. Teaching Kids About Money

3. Breaking down GICs – what are they and are they right for you?

4. Tips for choosing a financial advisor

5. TFSA vs RRSP – which is better?

6. Establishing financial goals and how we’re working towards freedom

7. Diving into the Dashing Families Finances

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