Hi All

My wife and I have been going back and forth on what to do and have had equal people say both options so reaching out to Reddit for an answer.

We are trying to decide whether to sell a rental or keep renting it out. Current costs (mortgage, tax, insurance) minus any repairs or maintenance is $3050/month and we’re currently renting it for 2800/month with the tenants slated to move out end of June. When they move out we have tenants that would take it over at 3200/month so we would be cash flow positive at least but not by much. Interest rate on the mortgage is variable at 5.9% with 380k remaining. If we sell we could probably get around 700k and we have an appraisal from when we moved out at 650k so wouldn’t get hit with much capital gains.

If we do sell we planned on making the max allowed contribution (120k) to our current home mortgage which is also variable at 5.9% and then investing the remainder in likely a non registered account which our guess would be around 170k.

My argument for selling is that I can’t see housing going above what it peaked at during the pandemic (this house likely would’ve sold for 800k at the peak) so we’re not leaving much on the table if we do sell. Also so far we’ve been lucky with good tenants but really would hate to have to deal with a terrible one. Third with all the measures being taken could potentially see prices go down and then we’d be kicking ourselves. We also have another rental that we owe a lot less on in a different market and our house in the same town so we wouldn’t be out of real estate all together.

I’ve also been wrong a bunch during this crazy run like no way house prices keep going up and no way they’ll raise the interest rate that fast. So please pick my logic apart. Thanks for reading.

I just finished reading the third edition of “Retirement Income For Life” by Vettesse and I must say it was a good read and better than the second edition. The PERC calculator looks to be helpful, since it includes OAS and CPP, and assumes a 10th percentile portfolio return throughout (so being extremely pessimistic about portfolio return). I’m curious if anyone has other suggestions for decumulation calculators or books on strategies? I’m just starting to get a handle on this portion of the plan.

As a side note: I’m feeling better about the direction that my plan will go, since I’ve implemented the first enhancement (reduce portfolio fees) suggested in the book. I’ll also be deferring CPP and OAS to 70 (enhancement #2). I won’t be buying an annuity (enhancement #3, but he has become less keen on this strategy compared to 2n edition).

Hi FIRE fellows,

We arrived 2 years ago in Vancouver, from Europe, already FIRE with ~8M in assets.

Since September we became PR and are contemplating buying a house for our family.

We budget interchangeably $2M in assets / 6-7k in rent whether we’d purchase or rent — or 25% of our assets/returns. Currently we rent slightly above our budget though to ease the move though.

Ideally, we want a house, not a town house nor an apartment as we don’t want strata fees and want control on the land. We do not like the state nor layout of the houses we see for $2M. And some are way too big for us. We would love to have something new or modern at least. And clean.

I would have prefer to keep renting and not mix with our current portfolio but we don’t like what we see to rent either for 6-7k, and there is not that many options right now.

We love our neighborhood and already made tons of friends here and our kids are feeling well in their school, we would rather downsize than moving away.

So we are thinking of two strategies to purchase RE to our liking here :

1/ buying a 7000-10000 sqft piece of land with a house to remove on it (~1.5-2M). Divide the land and Build two or more units on it (thanks to the increase density initiatives). Use one, sell or rent the other(s). We already built our house in Europe, of course this market, habits and contacts are very different, but we have the time to do this.

• Pros: would have a layout we like, quality we chose, no surprises in state. Within budget at the end. Land appreciation as province is pushing for density.
• Cons: capital and project intensive which will need to divest our assets temporarily or financing, need rent during construction, very variable opportunity cost depending on length of project and potential surprises, dubious ROI. market timing risk.

2/ buy recent and rent extra space to fit our budget. We saw for instance houses with somehow acceptable layouts, new or recently updated, with legal suite we could rent.

• Pros: move in ready. Rent Income at arms length. Potential utilities deduction from income = tax savings.
• Cons: old bones / potential surprises / still improvement to add despite already high cost. Basement tenant/landlord hat. More capital than we would like (likely 2.5 to 3M) tied into one property even though part of it give some returns (I calculate 3k sub rent ~= 900k capital). Weak returns on the suite rental (4% gross per above). Long term ROI of personal real estate < portoflio ROI.

What would be a FIRE choice here ? Am I missing something ? Do I have to accept that I might be priced out with this budget and either downsize to a townhouse or accept to pay more/allow more capital to our house ?

Thank you folks. Bonus Q: are there FIRE meetups in Vancouver?

Hello

I'm a long-time, occasional lurker and first-time poster.

I am 40 years old and I work for the feds. I have about $570,000 in all accounts (registered and non-registered). The registered accounts have a mix of index funds, REITs and GICs. The non-registered accounts have a mix of index funds, dividend stocks and GICs. I don’t own anything otherwise (no real estate and no car). I have partner who is not planning on quitting their job and we don't have kids.

If I leave my job this year, I should be able to expect an annuity at 65 of +/- $14000 a year. That annuity would be indexed and my understanding is that the indexing would start after I leave.

I spend about $3000 a month. The estimated monthly total includes rent ($1000), food ($800 to $1000) and utilities (+/-$200) such as hydro, renter’s insurance, streaming, phone and internet. Some months I spend less than $3000 but other months I might spend a bit more. To keep things simple, I’m going to go with $3000 a month so that there’s a little wiggle room.

I don’t intend to retire on less than $600,000, but I’m not sure what my next steps will be because I’ve been quite burnt out for a while now.

I’ve always been a cautious person (see decision to join the feds), so I guess I’m seeking reassurance. Life expectancy in my family isn’t great so I am not confident that I’ll be able to collect the annuity at 65. Even so, it seems like the best plan is to defer the annuity as my registered accounts are full. I plan to treat the annuity as an insurance policy just in case I live longer than expected.

As far as I can see, the greatest risk is the cost of rent. I split rent with my partner but if we lose the apartment (which is rent controlled), then costs would go up substantially. On the other hand, I am not tied down to a specific location if I leave my job, so I could move somewhere cheaper.

If anyone has successfully rented a new place without a job but with investments, I’d be interested to hear about your experience.

Tl;dr: How crazy would it be to just stop working for a bit?

Thanks in advance!

Looking at XEQT, maybe VOO. I’m using Questrade.

Based on my calculations and budget I should have enough savings to leanfire retire in a minimum of 12 years so I don’t want something risky.

Not one year sooner unless I came into a huge amount of money. I do have a solid db pension but can only take it out when I am much older but my retirement nest egg that I am investing will tide me over before I reach that age…(so I plan on taking out some of the money in 12 years but continue drawing down for the next 23 years).

A lot of my portfolio is with an investment group so I’m considering thanking that out because I don’t see the benefit of having them and paying their high fees.

Thank you.

Is anyone using https://app.projectionlab.com to model their future? Thoughts?

My partner and I bought a home 4 years ago. She had more capital at the time, so the down payment was 60% hers and 40% mine, and we split the monthly pay accordingly (Or in practice, 100% is withdrawn from my account, and she transfers me 40% of that).

She recently got her hands on some sum of money and was able to do a 20% prepayment on the mortgage. Again, this is to go towards her share of the mortgage, not mine.

Now, being so clueless about how mortgages work as we are, we just expected that the prepayment would lower our monthly mortgage payment. But it didn't, so I guess we're on some sort of "fixed payment plan" as our payments remained the same, and our amortization dropped by ~6 years.

The curve ball is that since we are paying the same amount of money per month, but her share of the mortgage has dropped, I end up paying more each month as a result of her prepayment.

​

I can afford it, so that's not the issue, and the principal to interest ratio will improve, which is nice, but from a FIRE perspective I was inclined to draw out this mortgage for as many years as possible to focus on investing in hopes that it would return more than interest on mortgage.

​

We have about 1 year left on our mortgage term, 16 years left in total.

​

What would you do in my scenario?

​

And yeah feel free to flame me for my mortgage illiteracy.

Hey all, I posted a couple months ago about being laid off from a toxic job I hated. I'm happy to say, I got a better job offer in my field in a role that grooms me to be a senior I'm my field. I am female (30f) working in a male dominated field, so many older men hold women at arms length and are hesistant to mentor for the optics. All this to say, this feels like my first big break.

Thing is, I have to move to Vancouver, which is functionally the LA of canada. It's extremely expensive, even suburban areas.

My spouse is willing to follow me once his work approves his transfer, but his caveats are not a shitty apartment in a bad neighborhood to save money. His non-negotiables are being walking distance to work, no problems with the unit, in suite laundry, etc. All of this could be over 3000$ CAD. I currently pay 750$ a month in the aforementioned shitty apartment. I'm cheap about large expenses and the prices of real estate are causing me to pause.

I've been able to save 55% of my income working at the former workplace. I will be able to retire off my savings with compounding in 30ish years.

I am not frugal with my discretionary treats for myself, ie coffees, but I'm frugal with most things over $50. Ie thrifting clothes, fb marketplace for furniture. I'm downsizing a car, so we'll only have 1 car insurance expense, but I'm want to know how you guys on the west coast do it. Ive never had to budget before while saving 55% and I'm legitly worried about the implications of this in my life. Any mindset shifts or tips would be appreciated.

Hi, I’m here looking for advice on how to make the most of my financial situation as I really don’t have much experience with the world of investments and such, and I’m genuinely a bit fearful about the world I’m entering.

So I’m gonna lay out the rough edges and hope you guys have some advice.

I have only a few thousand dollars saved and will be entering a casual position that will get me ~3.5k a month before taxes. (I have the potential for more income through remote contract work but this isn’t guaranteed).

I recently moved into my first apartment and my share of rent + utilities is about ~1k for a Gatineau apartment.

I’m about to graduate school and owe just under 10k to the Quebec government for student loans.

I also have a credit card with a 2.5k limit and usually don’t carry a balance.

Other than some small amount of cryptocurrencies I don’t have anything that would qualify as an investment.

So I’m wondering what sorts of things I should look into and even if I have the financial ability to afford any investment.

Seeing this question on government applications (Passport, Nexus) and also with Banks. Age <40. Options are Unemployed, Retired or Self employed (if I live mainly off capital gains)?

Hi all, I preparing to go full FIRE soon. After building an retirement nest egg, I left the rat race when I was 30 and started my own sole proprietor business (an online website). It has been amazing 15 years being my own boss, having my own schedule, working from home, and being semi retired, but I want to fully retire soon. I am posting because I am struggling with how I should do this and hoping I can get some insights from others on the smartest way to move forward.

My business has a current valuation of about $400,000 if I sell it. However, my understanding is that I will lose a lot of this money to capital gains tax. Do I understand correctly that I would lose 50% of the first $250,000 and 66% of the remainder, which would mean I lose $224,000 to taxes??? I feel like I must be misunderstanding something here. I am hoping someone can explain it to me.

Being that it is an online website, there is another option where I don't sell. I could just leave the site up and let it generate passive income. Overtime, without regular work, it would slowly die down and eventually be worthless. This could take many, many years, or things could change in the online world and the site could suddenly die a quick death without major work (the recent AI and Google SEO changes for example have required a lot of pivoting and work, thankfully the site is still going strong). There are risks involved, but it would be doable to just ignore it and let the money roll in passively until it trickles and disappears. And of course, this means no capital gains taxes.

I would love some insights and ideas on how best to navigate this. I do have retirement savings, so I am not relying entirely on my business to fund retirement, but it is going to make it possible to do more traveling and be more comfortable in my retirement. Looking forward to talking through the options.

Hi FiCan. I'm a long-time lurker, and I love the sub. My partner and I are about to turn 26 and in a unique position, but we wanted an idea of whether we are doing this right. We hope to retire by 50 with the ability to support our kids occasionally. The goal is $4m NW.

• FY23 Gross Household Income: $194,000
• FY23 Net Pay Savings Rate: 20.4%
• TFSAs: $24,000 (XEQT, VFV, HHL, TQQQ, TXF.TO)
• Crypto: $9,000 (ETH & BTC)
• RRSPs: $11,000 (partner has a defined benefit pension)
• Emergency Fund/Chequing: $16,000 in Wealthsimple Cash's 4% interest account
• Real Estate: Home value is roughly $800,000, and the mortgage is at $509,000, so around $291,000 of equity
• Vehicles: One car, recent purchase. Loan is $21,000, the value of the car is $23,000 (very modest vehicle)
• Other debts: $17,000 left of student loans, federal, no interest, making minimum monthly payments.

The challenge is that we consistently see friends travelling, going out, exploring, and living their lives. We are by no means homebodies; we take one modest vacation per year and typically eat out once or twice per month. Our budget is solid, beyond the occasional random expense. It is hard for us to make the "smart decision" and hold back from going all out and living our lives.

We wanted a review of our current state, and if anyone has any advice on how to stay on this path, we would love to hear it.

Family of 3. We are relatively healthy, fit, and have simple life!

• I, Husband 51 with 180K income
• Wife 45 with 120K income
• Daughter 13

Household Networth

• $1.5 million in RRSP (11% return last 5 years)
• $2.0 million house (no mortgage)
• $70,000 in 2 vehicles (no loan)
• $20,000 in RESP
• $10,000 in TSFA

We have been maxing out the RRSP (payroll deduction) and paying off the mortgage as much as possible. Now, with the house paid off, we are concentrating on RESP and TSFA contributions.

We started working right out of school and will have lived in Canada for 40 years by the time I am 55.

With Toronto real estate prices so high. I don't see how our daughter will be able to afford her own house. We plan to live in the house until we die and gift the house to our only daughter or future grandkids.

Would we be able to retire when I (husband) turn 55 with combined $75,000 after tax income for 30 years with our combined RRSP, CPP, and OAS without downsizing the house?

Thank you for your advice.

* For those who live outside of Toronto & Vancouver, $2 million dollar house is an average 4-bedroom house.

* For those who wonder why we have little TSFA or RESP. We focused on RRSP and paying off the mortgage because we believe it's better for us based on our tax rates.

After maxing TFSA and RRSP. Now it's time to invest into a non register account The majority are currently invested in XEQT

Do I just stick with XEQT

Another option is finding more tax efficient ETFs/stocks for non registered

Or buy VDY since dividend ETFs seems like what I might change everything over to once FIRE number is reached

Or something like xbal which ideally works better for retirement

As the title says, I (F 40) think I am close or have hit it, but would like a second opinion or criticisms. These numbers are for myself only - my partner and I keep our money separate for various reasons. No kids yet but we are trying. Partner is comfortable financially so I don't need to worry about them.

• Income is ~$120K a year, I save about $40-50K a year.
• Just over $1.1 mill in liquid investments. Mix of VEQT, VGRO, crypto ETFs, 5% GICs, and my corporate stock.
• Mortgage with ~$500K remaining (with partner, so my portion is $250K). House value ~$1 mill.
• Vested options worth $100-$200K depending on when I can cash them
• Expenses last year was $80K for just me (Includes mortgage payments, small house renos, a few pricey vacations, weddings, being a bridesmaid, big vehicle repairs, etc.)
• Would like to retire by 45 (in 5 years time). At ~5% return with my savings rate I should hit $1.6mm by 45.

I realize my expenses are the main issue here and am prepared to be roasted for that. I'm torn between reducing them (totally doable) or continue to let the clutch out while I'm in my 40's and reduce them later on in life (Die With Zero style).

I am also so very tired on a soul level from being in an office every day for the past 25 years, so am considering changing careers or going Barista-FIRE style. I'm confident I've hit Barista-FIRE which is comforting at least.

My family tends to live well into their 90's and I'm pretty healthy so I need to plan for another 45 years. We are trying for a kid but if it doesn't happen in 3 years we are giving up.

I've tried every FIRE calculator out there and they say I am close or there. I spend way too much time running these numbers along with projected scenarios so I'm losing sense of where I actually am.

Thoughts? Criticisms?

Anyone else invest in FXAIX in questrade or other platforms? Any downsides to using Questrade as an Canadian? Would love to hear orders’ thoughts.

Anyone have experience investing some funds from their HELOC into dividend paying ETFs (e.g VDY) in their non-registered investments, and deducting the HELOC interest from their Income Tax and Benefit Returns (Line 22100)? If so, is it going pretty smoothly for you? Are the mechanics of this exactly as I described, or is there something that I’m missing?

For context: maxed RRSPs, maxed TFSAs, no more mortgage (i.e, equity tied up in home). Existing investments are Boglehead-style (VUN, VTI for USD, etc.)
HHI is roughly $400k/yr. Thinking of investing $10k to start.

Help me to overcome fear of going FIRE. I realize we’re doing well above average and calculations show that we could easily retire, I am yet afraid of doing it.

Family of 4 (early 40s, 2 kids in elementary), Vancouver

NW: about $2M (mostly in non registered accounts, we maxed out TFSA,RRSP,FHSA,RESP but contribution room is not that high as we moved to Canada few years ago). Some stocks, some managed portfolio, some growth ETFs, quite large amount of GIC/cash.

No property owned, renting below current market prices.

Income: ~$400-450k (before taxes, just single income, spouse taking care of kids and house)

Expenses: ~$60k/year (rarely eating out, generally very frugal lifestyle), occasionally larger expenses (like international travelling)

Calculations would show that I could stop working right now, however I am very insecure about it. We’re still in early 40s so assuming we have another ~30 years on average.

Concerns:

• Kids education - they are still in elementary. How do we plan for their education? Would RESP be enough?
• We don’t own a place - happily renting for now, but that could change one day and rent could easily go up significantly
• Can’t predict what happens next year, so how do I plan for 30 years in advance? Market could crash, inflation could go insane, and so on
• Even though I don’t feel great about my job and would rather spend more time with kids or for hobbies - it provides significant income and quitting it sounds dumb

What I’ve been thinking:

• Switching to not so demanding job, but if it would be 8h Mon-Fri - I’d better spend time earning 400k than 100k.
• Getting our own place - doesn’t make much sense, given we are renting below market rates. and if purchased - half of current assets would go into property (and I don’t think we could retire with home + 1M)
• Keep working until kids education is complete - but retiring at mid 50s doesn’t really sounds like FIRE
• Keep it going and hope for layoffs/termination to happen - that would force me to try FIRE for a while (but quitting on my own sounds dumb)

Any advices for our situation? Those who already achieved their FIRE - were you also worried to fully retire?

Is real estate investing actually a good choice? I've been doing some analysis for myself as I've been mostly invested in other areas and have been wondering if I should add some RE to my portfolio. I've done a broader analysis and have summarized it here. I'd love for someone to pick it apart and let me know what you think.

Actual Annual Return:

Looking at the numbers in my area, from 2019-today, real estate has a returned an annualized ~6.5%. This is the return that includes a massive run up over Covid. In the same period, if I was invested in the S&P 500, the annualized return was in the 10% range (this includes the Covid correction and the correction in 2022). Taking other samples seems to confirm the overall outperformance of equities from this metric alone.

Although stocks might outperform in this area, leverage plays an important role in RE returns and I don't want to ignore that. With a 20% down payment + mortgage, the RE returns are magnified 5x. Of course this easily beats out equities (temporarily ignoring debt maintenance and other costs of RE). The most overlooked part of real estate investing that I see is all of the unrecoverable costs. Taxes, maintenance (some portion of it), mortgage interest etc. all eat away at that total return. Most people suggest to factor in 1% for maintenance per year, ~1% to taxes (depending on where you live of course), 4-7% mortgage interest in the current climate... as these numbers pile up, is it really the case that the only reason RE has any positive returns is the appreciation mixed with the leverage? If you are reliant on debt to get any return from something - isn't this a bad investment? (especially with the ability to not use debt and generate positive returns elsewhere?)

Note: I know renting offsets some of these costs, but nonetheless seems almost impossible to get to break even just from a mortgage perspective in the current environment. This would obviously juice the returns, but it still seems you are reliant on leverage for outperformance against equities.

With the assumption that leverage, and the magnification of returns it provides being the only reason RE has positive returns, would it not be wiser to use leverage to purchase equities? It would of course be impossible to get as stable/good of a loan as a mortgage in the equities world, but even using it modestly, it seems you could beat RE with 99% less headache of operating an investment property and you'd be a less risk from a large debt load.

I feel like all of this ends up being quite against what people generally consider a safe haven for investing. Am I missing anything major here?

Hi everyone, 21 here.

My current situation:

$58k invested in TFSA, haven’t contributed this year yet but I will once I start my internship.

$0 in debt, no student loans, parents pay tuition, no major liabilities, trying to cut down on spending as well and building credit.

Still living with parents so no rent/bills, but plan to move out once I graduate (this December). Parents want me to buy a house (and will contribute to down payment) but I don’t want to touch my TFSA money. They said I can live with them for as long as I need so I am wondering if its more beneficial to stay with them and continuing saving or move out.

Working part time right now for about $1000/month but will get ~$4500/month pretax in the summer and have a job lined up for after I graduate for ~$4800/month pretax. I know everybody in this sub says to “invest in yourself” while you are young, so I’m currently studying for the CFA Level 1.

Major questions are:

• Should I move out and gain independence or save more living with my parents?

• Thinking of opening an FHSA or an RRSP, not sure if it would a smart move right now as I don’t know if I’d be able to contribute in full every year.

• Investing outside of my TFSA?

• Anything you wish you had done in your 20’s that would be beneficial for me to know?

Thank you in advance!

I take care of my mother and I have two siblings. My father has passed and my mother is an octogenarian who has a will and power of attorney but who is not capable of managing her affairs. My mother generated those documents over 10 years ago but did not put much in to planning the transfer of assets so as to minimize taxes. I believe all the assets would be under two million dollars but it would be good to keep as much of that as possible. Given that she has already drawn up a will and that we should soon have power of attorney who would we talk to in order to properly plan the next steps. Do I need to start at the estate planning process again or do we just need a specialist in planning the transfer of assets? Is there a professional I should talk to about making these plans? Which professional would that be?

I've never dealt with this before so looking forward to your suggestions.

Thank you

Hi! Please bear with me. My thoughts are scattered and my brain is a mess.

I will be widowed in the very near future. My husband suffered an acute health issue a few months ago followed by a series of treatment-related complications.

• I am 50 years old.

• I have one child who will be starting post-secondary in the fall (funds have been set aside to fully fund this)

• We have no debt or mortgage

• home is worth ~$1.5mm

• I drive a late model SUV and don’t expect to replace it for several years.

• Market value of total combined investments is ~$1.2mm (a combination of registered, non-registered, and a small insurance policy that will payout upon his death). This figure does not include education funds. Investments are mostly pooled funds and individual shares with an asset allocation of approximately 70:30 equity:fixed income.

• I expect a small death benefit from his employer (waiting for his HR department to provide more details) as well as the CPP widow’s benefit for me and orphan benefit for our child.

I am self-employed. When I work consistently, I earn ~$70-100k per year. Currently I bring in about $1k per month in residual income, however it’s not guaranteed and has been trending downward since I have not worked at all since spring of 2023 when our oldest child (who had been chronically ill for five years) died unexpectedly. I had worked inconsistently for the five years prior to her death as taking care of her had become my primary focus.

Because we have no mortgage or debt, we can live comfortably on $4k per month. I’m not yet sure if I will resume my previous career or seek a part-time job in an unrelated field after my husband passes. My career is creative and creativity is elusive right now following the grief and trauma of this past year. I expect to suffer a full breakdown any second.

Our home is older and there are a few deferred maintenance projects I’d like to fund in the next couple of years (fence and driveway replacement, for example).

Ideally, I would like to take time off after my husband dies and focus on my remaining child and myself. Ideally, I’d like us to go away somewhere to temporarily escape our sad reality. So, I’d like to fund an extended vacation.

Prior to his heath issues, Husband and I had been contemplating downsizing to a smaller home. However the price discrepancy between our home and smaller ones in our area did not seem worthwhile. After fees and moving costs, we would not have pocketed enough gains to offset the work and stress. Also, I’m hesitant to sell the family home as my remaining child has lost so much already. We could both use the comfort and familiarity right now.

Any thoughts, guidance, and advice is appreciated

So I was forwarded this:

https://www.richmondquant.com/news/2019/11/21/static-vs-dynamic-why-your-buy-amp-hold-portfolio-could-be-missing-its-mark

...by somebody who I think was well-intentioned.

Essentially, this is a criticism of a "buy and hold" strategy with a fixed percentage portfolio strategy (e.g. a 60/40 portfolio that you balance every 6 or 12 months).

The author of the article claims that one can look back 60 days to what is happening in the market, and then "dynamically rebalance" one's portfolio (doesn't say how frequently, using what technique / algorithm, or describe fees, tax complexity or anything else) in such a way so as to reduce volatility ... essentially to achieve a higher expected return for a given level of risk.

Actually, it seems that it is being claimed that by using said techniques, one would have a portfolio (gross of fees, I am assuming) that is roughly 50 % greater over the period in question (in this case, 1994 to 2018).

This looks like some version of "technical analysis" to me. It appears to be a pleading toward "secret knowledge" and "fancy techniques" for which one can presumably pay "a money genius" (probably via an AUM model) and have him buy and sell within the portfolio according to the above.

I am clearly not smart enough to directly argue against the above or explain why I don't believe it. Other than to ask ... "If this is true, and this article was written 6 years ago ... why isn't everyone doing this?" (And why hasn't Ben Felix talked about it?!)

To those of you who are more educated on such topics than I, your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Edited to show investment breakdown by account type

My partner and I are in our late 40s, with one child who’s off to university in the fall. We’ve worked corporate jobs, have saved diligently and as work becomes less fun than “real life”, are seriously considering pulling the pin. Curious for others’ perspectives on if we’re ready financially, and any significant risks or factors that we haven’t considered.

Details:

• Investments: $2.5M (mix of $1.4M RRSP, $0.2M TFSA, and $0.9M non-registered accounts). Asset allocation is about 55% equity, 35% fixed income, and 10% cash. Equity and fixed income are in low-cost index ETFs. Cash is GICs and high-yield investment savings accounts.
• RESP: Approx. $100K - $110K. Not included in the investments above. We think this will be sufficient for an undergrad degree and residence.
• Home: Market value is about $1M. We own our home outright, with no mortgage left. We have a HELOC against it ($250K limit) “just in case”, but we have never used it.
• Consumer Debt: $0. We don’t carry any credit card balances at the end of the month, and drive older cars that are paid for.
• Annual expenses: We track our expenses and, after-tax, we spend about $85K-$95K per year.
• CPP and OAS: At age 65, I should be eligible for approx. $11K/year, and my partner should be eligible for $8K/year of CPP benefits. We have lived in Canada our whole lives and expect to collect OAS, too, which I believe is about $8.5K each at age 65.

We aren’t counting on any inheritance in our plans, though that is a possibility down the road. We like where we live, so don’t foresee downsizing on the horizon. Depending on how much it stretches our numbers, we would also like to consider helping our child with a down payment eventually (maybe 10 years from now).

Can we do this? What would you do in our shoes?