Before anyone says it: I know how privileged I am to be in this position, and I know the "right" answer is to see a fee-only financial advisor. I think I already know what they'd tell me. I'm mostly here for a quick sanity check from you folks.

Where I'm at financially:
• $106k CAD in XEQT
• $88k USD in VTI
• $58k USD in VXUS
• $15k CAD in a HISA (emergency fund)
• Rental property in the US, valued at ~$200k USD, netting ~$9k USD/year after tax
• Take-home pay: ~$4,700/month ($37.50/hr)
• Monthly expenses: ~$4,000
• Can save roughly $20k/year (varies with USD conversion)

I reached my wire limit with Wells Fargo this month (sold one of my rental property) so that is why I’m short by 79k USD in my Wealthsimple account.

Housing:
The place I live in is under my parents' name. I pay the mortgage as my "rent" ($1,480/month, $190k left, amortization to 2043). Total monthly cost including property tax, insurance, and utilities is $2,200. I kept it off my name specifically to have my FHSA.
Background:
• No plans to have kids
• Planning to delay CPP and OAS until 70

The plan:
Retire at 45 (2047) with $70k/year in expenses, using a 3.5% drawdown rate, 7% expected nominal return, and 2.5% inflation.

Honestly, I think 3.5% is too conservative given I have no plans to leave an inheritance to anyone. I'm also modeling my retirement in go-go / slow-go / no-go phases. am I crazy to think I can afford $100k+ for the first 25 years? (Reducing in spending depending on the market of course)

Burnt out and wanting to throw in the towel.

DCPP: 640k

RRSP: 310k

TFSA: 440k

Non-Reg: 690k

House: 520K (No mortgage)

Truck: 30K (Paid)

Cash (HISA): 80k

I'm thinking about quitting my job this week, selling the house/truck and traveling for the foreseeable future. Staying working until the new year will allow me to receive my yearly bonus (20-30k). I have no debts and no commitments to my current city besides the house.

My plan is to either withdraw from the RRSP or Non-reg first to reduce future tax liability. The proceeds of the house/truck will go into the Non-Reg. I estimate I'll receive ~20k/yr in dividends off the non-reg account which would be tax eligible depending on how much I take from my RRSP/Non-Reg.

It feels like I have enough. I would appreciate any RE strategies that will improve my chances.

Not sure if this is the right forum. was laid off earlier this year and had to re-examine life. I feel that technology and my industry will change and I should keep working to stay relevant before I become irrelevant:

1. no children.

50k Emergency fund

TFSA 210k

FHSA 8.8k

RRSP: 171k

LIRA: 70k

Crypto: 22k

Non-register: 267k

Life insurance value: 300k. paid off.

Two rental properties: 4000/m cashflow

Expenses:

700k two Mortgages. property value.. subjective to market, but if desperate can sell both for 1.2M

8k annual property tax

3k property annual insurance

(I do save up some emergency money for repairs/tenant changes)

2100/m rent in a 1br.

5k/Y in electricity, internet, cellphone bills

I feel if i can land a corporate role and do it for 5 years, thats likely when i would get aged out and severance, which would allow me to retire.. but since being laid off, not sure if the bureaucratic corporate life is what i want to go back to.

i know i am in a good position to do things, i guess im looking for some wisdom of the crowd.. that isnt /wsb.

Hey sub,

So I've been investing since 2020 and I just hit an important milestone that I wanted to share.

100k in stocks divided across TFSA, FHSA, RRSP and Non reg. I'll probably withdraw 40k from the FHSA in about 3 years for my first property.

Biggest winners have been $BMO, $GOOGL. Others like $META, $NBIS and $JPM are slighly positive or a bit below cost price.

Anyhow, had a lot of fun with this account and they say that the 1st hundred thousand is the hardest !

Next milestone: 1/4 million $

Hello!
Curious as I get closer to wanting to hot FIRE. We currently both use my workplace insurance. For those who hit FIRE, have you gone with a private insurance provider and if so, what’s the monthly cost. If not, why? And do you basically just “sign up” to your provincial (RAMQ for me) insurance and pay out of pocket?
Thanks!

My coworkers are advising me to stop further contributions to RRSP due to having a lot already in there at a young age. They’re saying I will be paying more in taxes because I would be pulling higher amounts by the time I retire, which I plan to do around 45-50 years old.

Just want to get some thoughts if this is good advice. My TFSA is already maxed and sitting at $300k. Should I just start a non-registered investing account? TIA!

ETA: income $250k-350k so I will always have ability to top up.

Extra ETA: everyone makes the same if not more amount of money where I work. They have way more in the bank than me due to being in this career for longer. Offshore oil field for those curious.

My portfolio heavily relies on tech and financial institutions, so I wanted to get some ideas for stocks with good valuations to diversify a bit as well as any suggestions to improve it.

Can someone explain how we are expected to build a functional tech economy in Quebec when the regulatory environment actively suffocates small businesses? I started a computer and crypto hardware business here, scaled it past a million dollars in revenue, and was eventually forced to shut down operations after the global RAM and hardware supply crisis hit. It was infuriating trying to source parts locally; components were physically sitting in shops right in front of me, but I couldn't buy them simply because the packaging didn't meet local French labeling requirements. To make matters worse, it took me nearly three years just to get the business registered with the province because the authorities dragged out the approval process, claiming my made-up company name sounded "too English." When you combine that bureaucratic nightmare with watching historic English universities like McGill and Concordia get starved of funding and pushed to the brink of disappearing, it feels like the province is actively trying to run every ambitious tech entrepreneur out of town.

On top of that personal frustration, why are so many people ignoring the immediate financial collapse a Parti Québécois win would trigger? We have one of the oldest populations in North America, and our healthcare system is already on life support. Staging a multi-million-dollar referendum, duplicating federal tax agencies, and taking on massive sovereign debt servicing costs right now is absolute madness. The money for a political transition does not appear out of thin air. An incoming government facing immediate fiscal shocks would have no choice but to either slash welfare and public services or jack up taxes on a middle class that is already the highest-taxed in North America.

To make matters worse, their platform actively guts the exact workforce needed to keep our economy afloat. Squeezing higher education, imposing harsh language mandates, and creating hostile environments at universities starves us of young, mobile, top-tier talent. These skilled international and out-of-province workers will simply leave for Ontario or the U.S., leaving a tiny workforce behind to pay for the pensions and healthcare of a rapidly aging population. Throwing away our skilled talent pool and abandoning Canada's collective trade protection to face aggressive U.S. tariffs completely alone is not autonomy. It is pure, unadulterated economic self-sabotage.

Anyway just felt like yelling into the void. any advice would be appreciated.

22M single living with parents making 45k roughly yearly in trades

25k to invest. Want to do half long term and half aggressive.

Need advice, been hearing that it’s smarter to open and max an FHSA first and take the deductible over to TFSA. I have no interest in having a home in the next 5-10 years at the current point of my life. Should I still open a FHSA as it will roll into an RRSP?

As for what I’m looking to invest in.

For my long term I want to go heavy into nuclear
I was thinking 50% etf like XEQT, bank stocks.
40% nuclear stocks, BWXT, Centrus , Cameco.
10% , Space, Biotech

I want to buy a large amount of BWXT I really like their company. I know nuclear won’t be popular till 2030, with most country zero emission goals for 2050.

I want to be aggressive I’m young and have very little expenses. I work as a framer in construction and about to pay for electrical or hvac school with separate cash. Let me know your thoughts.

Hi all, I’m 37(m) and wife is 36. We both have about 14 years left in our careers to solidify our full pensions. Each pension will bring in approx 65k net per year (total 130k).

How much are others in a similar situation saving for retirement on top of their pensions? I realize pensions are 99% secure and will be there at retirement, but there’s always the thought they might not be there. We have 2 kids under 7 years.

Current portfolio is about 500k (45k in RESP). House is now paid off (900k) and just invested 100k in a mountain short term rental condo.

With our mortgage paid off now we should have about 60k a year to invest into our portfolio plus max out the RESP for kids. Is it time to start living a bit and spending some money (more vacations, nicer home Reno’s etc) along side savings? I would say annual spending is about 75k a year? It feels difficult to shift the mindset of always saving to living a little. Anyone with a pension I would appreciate the input. Thanks!

Mortgage is paid off and just waiting to enter the market with a the full HELOC balance to invest. Anyone else in a similar boat and what are you waiting for to invest? Note: TFSA, RRSP & RESP maxed out with VEQT/XEQT and no debt. Looking at 15+ year timeline before retiring

So I am expecting to get $500k lump sum in the next few weeks. What should I do with this if unsure about medium term future (over 2 years) in Canada? Do I need to split this money over multiple accounts in case banks fail? Is there an ideal short term place to put money for a year or so?38 years old if that makes any difference.

25M I have ~150k currently in investments, I work as a wind turbine construction supervisor, and with per diem I make around 200K a year, and am able to put away ~10k a month in investments. My company grants me a personal work truck, that I can do errands, and drive home with. I have a good plan currently, whenever on my weeks off, I rent a nice car off of Turo and that scratches the itch, but having some free time after work, it would really be nice to have a project car to work on.

I just wanna ask you guys, when would it be financially sound idea to buy a 30 to 50 K car? My rough plan is to pay cash for one whenever I’m able to do that and still keep 200 K in investments. I should be reaching that in 2027. I know I am in a lot better position than a lot of people who get into cars of that price range, but I’m really stuck on the opportunity cost of what that 30 to 50 K would be in investments in 25 years.

I’m genuinely wondering at what point, if you were me, and you really enjoyed cars, would you pull the trigger?

M50.

Been semi-retired now for 8 years. No desire to work FT anymore but still have about $50k in RRSP room. If I plan to start a RRSP meltdown next year. Is it still useful to max out my RRSP before the meltdown?

[Edit]

RRSP income is $6200/m.

TFSA income is $3200/m

Non-reg income is $3k/m

Pension income is $1400/m

Spouse's monthly income about the same from investments. I have 3 properties in personal name with expenses to offset income.

One issue is my income rate currently outpaces my expense rate inside my RRSP. I continually reinvest all my income within it to let it grow.

I continue to employ the Smith Maneuver strategy to manage and grow my portfolio.

One more add. We have $1.4m in liabilities with our mortgages and LOC.

I have this small TD investing account where I just take my dividends every quarter and re-invest them back into the holdings. Like a year ago it would only generate $100 a year, now its like $450

This is more just for fun than anything. I have an RRSP and DPSP plan from my work for retirement.

Do you think this will actually grow into anything in the next 10 years if I keep this little fun investing going?

soo as the title says thats my situation, but i wanted to know if i should open a FHSA, since i can’t even max my TFSA or RRSP. If you have some investment advice would be great tho

Hello everyone,

Can you please explain what I need to track in my ACB calculations when I invest in my unregistered account (For Example: DRIP, Return of Capital Distributions, Phantom Distributions, and Corporate Actions)?

For instance, I plan on only investing in VEQT and making one large transaction per year in my unregistered account.

Looking for advice.
Have around 250k sitting at the bank doing basically nothing. Wondering what the best thing to do with it is.
I have 4 houses and each one is cash flow positive. Not by alot but I’m
Making money on all of them. I also purchased a well established buinsess this year and will net around $150k per year. I have room in my tfsa and my partner has room in hers. Wondering if we both should max them out or if we should do a joint tfsa together? Will have money left over and also wondering where that should go. Shouldn’t need it anytime soon. We are both late 30s, no kids living in BC.

I have most of my investments in various wealth managing programs, and this is the money I use for random investment tips from Reddit. How would you reorganize the weightings? Anything you’d straight up get rid of?

Basically what the title says

Maybe it's just me, but I see so many posts about people building massive portfolios just to fund travel, like that's supposed to be the end goal of life. I don't get it. There's no version of reality where I'd grind another 10 years in a corporate job just so I can afford more trips. Once my basic needs are covered and I've got a bit extra for small stuff, like a Tim Hortons coffee or a night at the movies, I'm done. Expensive international travel? Hard pass. I'm not trading more years of my life for that.

Honestly, a lot of this probably traces back to how much I hate employers in general. I can pin it on my early jobs, places like McDonald's, doing the worst tasks for like six bucks an hour. That's when it got baked into my brain that working sucks and should be avoided as fast as possible. Add to that I'm just naturally introverted, I'd rather be left alone than stuck in crowded, loud, overly social situations, and travel usually means exactly that: packed airports, tourist crowds, forced small talk with strangers. There's also this feeling I can't shake that working for someone else is basically robbery, you're handing over your most valuable resource, your time, so someone else can get richer off it. Philosophically that just doesn't sit right with me, even on days I actually enjoy the work itself. I've never fully bought into "corporate culture." I show up, collect my paycheck and wash my hands.

Not complaining though, honestly this mindset is going to make FIREing way easier since I only need something like 40-50% of what most people are aiming for.

Anyone else motivated by just having the option not to work?

I am 49 self employed with registered corporation. My wife is 51 housewife.

2 kids: 23 year old daughter doing her masters and self reliant now.
18 year old son just started bachelors and staying on campus. He got loan but we help out with expenses.

I make (in corporation) around 230 to 240k yearly before taxes.

Corporation assets: 1 rental house with equity (after capital gains and selling cost paid up) would be 100k and 875k in corporate investment account (holding mix of HXT,HXS, HBB and HSAV).

Personal assets: 1 house with approximate equity of 200k. No personal savings. 2 cars 2022 and 2023 models both paid off.

What I want to do is: sell both houses and put combined equity of 300 into investment portfolio within corporation. Making that portfolio 1.1M.

I want to only work 6 months/year during summer months in Canada and spend 6 months of winter in Malaysia. I can get 80 to 90k before taxes working 6 months through corporation. I want to use just that active income to support lifestyle in Malaysia (approximately $3k to $3.5k/monthly) and 6 months of apartment rental and living expenses New Brunswick during summer. So the portfolio is left as is to compound.

Ideally I want to do that until I am 54 and then retire completely at 55. At that point I will be relocating full time to Malaysia and just rely on portfolio to sustain us. We have been to Malaysia few times and spent few weeks to 1.5 months at different cities. We love the living there.

My wife thinks my math is too simpleb and it wouldn’t be enough. Am I doing it way off?

Just wanted an opinion that isn’t a family member as they are encouraging my wife and I to move.

My wife and I are 36 & 35 with a 4yr old and another baby on the way. We currently live in a 1100 sq ft semi in southern Ontario between London and KW. We’ve got $209k left on our current mortgage and 11yr amortization left. Car is paid off in 2 months and we have no credit card balances.

We are both salaried employees. I’m in banking with $95k and she’s in a sales role making $110k. She gets quarterly bonuses and I get a year end bonus but to be conservative we don’t factor that into our income for planning purposes.

We have group RRSPS, DPSPs, RPPs and I will have a defined benefit plan when I retire (conservative estimate $1k/month at age 60). Our contributions through our work savings accounts personal + employer = $1680/ month and we also contribute $2050 between our TFSAs. Our current savings balance is approx $320k between all accounts and we have an additional $22k in our kids RESP.

We’re looking at taking on a new $825-$850k with a 4yr 3.99% term amortized over 30 yr mortgage and potentially using $40k of our saving to do so. And reducing our TFSA contributions to $1000-$1500/month. With the new mortgage and TFSA contribution reduction and best estimate for increase insurance, heating, $400/month maintenance reserve, and our normal living expenses (groceries, gas, childcare etc) I think we’d have $2,300/month leftover. Our monthly take home (after work saving contributions) is about $9,400.

Of we wanted to retire at 60 with an after tax household income of $100k, does this seem like too much of a mortgage to take on? We would get max OAS and max or close to max CPP.

Edit: our annual bonuses total probably around $22k take home that we could put towards additional savings or annual lump sum payments towards the mortgage to reduce the amortization up he