u/BatmanSteak

I'm not nearing full retirement, but certain situations in my life have changed and at the age of 36 I could technically ''FIRE''. This made me ponder: if I had to retire in the next few years, what would be the simplest income form?

This video talks about things most of us know already, but I thought it was a good and simple depiction of it all. It made me ponder on what would be the smartest/simplest way to achieve this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kdHN6JbyC4

Looking at all the variables, I would be looking to build a 60k or so (eligible) dividend income portfolio. At 60k you basically pay 0$ in taxes (https://turbotax.intuit.ca/tax-resources/canada-income-tax-calculator).

XDIV: limited number of companies and the holding change often, I would probably have to track it. Low MER is a big plus. Typically high quality companies, but it excludes a lot of great ones too (namely NA, CNR, IMO).

XEI: great diversification, but the dividends do not show a steady increase (https://dividendhistory.org/payout/tsx/XEI/)

TQCD: same principle as XEI, no steady increase in payouts (https://dividendhistory.org/payout/tsx/TQCD/)

HCAL: heavy bank play, but the MER is far too high for the leverage and 6 stocks.

ZEB: see the MER comment for HCAL

TBNK: I absolutely love the idea behind this ETF, heavy weighting of banks increase their dividends the most. However, most of the gains seem to be built in the share prince since the payout has never increased.

PIC.A / BK / SBC: These are all ''riskier'' players, bigger ups, bigger downs. I'm not educated enough on prefered shares and it seems the payouts are mostly ROC instead of eligible dividends, but I may be wrong.

VDY: I love the passive principles behind this ETF: pick all the top Canadian companies, trim the low yields out, keep the ''high'' yield (2%+ I think) and weight them based on their market cap. The only thing I don't like as much here, is the bottom 20% of companies in this ETF feels like they're being dragged. I do like that it rebalances itself based on the market though.

In terms of single companies, I would build something around the big 6, some energy plays (IMO CNQ ENB), some utilities like FTS, insurers like SLF/IFC (MFC but their dividends in the past so no go for me) and CNR.

What are your thoughts regarding the perfect Canadian retirement portfolio?