r/FIRECanada

39M / 40F, 2 kids (7 & 10), VHCOL. House paid off ($2M).

Me: salaried, ~$280k.
Wife: owns a growing business (corp), nets ~$300k, draws ~$3.9k/mo personally.

Spend: ~$230k/yr. NW: ~$6.37M.

Invested (~$4.2M):
Non-reg (joint): ~$1.95M

Corp / holdco: ~$1.0M

RRSPs: ~$570k

TFSAs: ~$320k

RESP: ~$80k

Private mortgage fund (8–12%): ~$257k

Asset mix of that:
Equities (XEQT / VTI / VXUS): ~47%

Cash ETFs (CASH.TO, UCSH.U, etc.) @ ~3%: ~45% ← the problem

Mortgage fund: ~6% · Crypto: ~2%

Had a windfall, parked it all in cash ETFs “temporarily,” and now ~$1.5M sits at ~3%. I know lump-sum beats DCA, but I’m frozen dropping seven figures at ATHs. Two incomes cover our spend easily, so I don’t need this money for years.

Two questions:

1. How would you deploy the cash…lump sum, or DCA over how long? I know the research says lump sum. But i just can’t seem bring myself to do it at these prices. Even DCA is brutal.

2. On invested assets alone that’s a ~5.5% withdrawal rate (not FI yet), but could I start winding down my salaried job and let my wife’s business + the portfolio bridge it? WWYD?

Hi all,

I am an American and a Canadian by descent. I am looking to move to Canada in about a year. What do you think I should know about finances? For context I will be self employed mental health therapist and probably be making six figures similar to the USA.

Hey everyone,

Looking for a quick sanity check on my timeline. My goal is to pull the plug on full-time IT work and transition to a Coast FIRE lifestyle in 2 years when I hit 31.

My Background:

• Age/Income: 29M, making $100k in IT. 7 years of total experience across public/private sectors + a few years running a business before that.
• Location: Quebec, Canada (good social safety net, low cost of living).

The Financials (~$500k Liquid NW + Home Equity):

• Invested: $160k in RRSPs and TFSAs.
• Cash/GICs: $250k in GICs (recently sold a property, currently dollar-cost averaging this into global equity ETFs).
• Crypto: $15k (self-custody, outside of registered accounts).
• Tangible Assets: ~$20k in collectibles/miscellaneous assets.
• Pension: 5 years in the public service. Cash-out value right now is $50k+.
• Primary Residence: Bought last year for $450k ($90k down, $350k mortgage balance on a 30-year amortization). Highly walkable/bikeable location.

Lifestyle & Expenses:

• Fixed Housing: ~$2,300/month covers everything (mortgage, heating, insurance, property taxes, internet).
• Transport: Own an old, paid-off car ($50/month insurance). I plan to sell it soon and rely entirely on walking/biking/transit since I barely use it.
• Discretionary: Very low maintenance. Hobbies are working out at home, outdoor activities, gaming, and reading/streaming. Mostly free or cheap.

The 2-Year Plan (Age 31): I expect to hit roughly $600k in liquid capital + my property and pension. At that point, I plan to leave the $100k IT grind.

To fund my life:

1. The House Hack: The property has a completely separate entrance and a full parental suite in the basement (2 bedrooms, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms). Renting this out will easily command $1,500/month in my local market. This slashes my out-of-pocket housing costs from $2,300 to $800/month.
2. Drawdown: Pull a conservative ~2% from my investment portfolio annually.
3. Coast Income: Work low-stress, flexible gigs or help out startups on a casual basis to cover any remaining lifestyle gaps.

My Main Question:

• Portfolio Strategy Post-IT: Since I’ll be stopping aggressive W2 contributions at 31, should I keep my portfolio heavily positioned in aggressive growth equities and crypto to maximize compounding over the next 20+ years, or is it wiser to shift a portion into dividend/income-producing assets to help smooth out my low-drawdown years?
• The Gig Work Reality Check: For those who transitioned to casual startup consulting or low-stress gigs, did you actually find it lower stress? I’m mapping out a relaxed schedule, but I want to make sure I'm not trading corporate IT stress for the unstable/chaotic stress of early-stage startups and gig hunting.
• With a 30-year mortgage and a $600k target in two years, are these numbers providing an adequate safety margin for Quebec's cost of living? Or would grinding for just 1 or 2 additional years significantly alter my long-term success probability by buffering against a potential multi-year market downturn right after I leave?
• Does this plan look airtight for a low-maintenance Coast FIRE life at 31, or am I overlooking something? Thanks for any feedback!

Hi all,

I recently was chatting with my siblings about investments, savings, retirement, etc. The conversation made me wonder if my calcs are off, given I make less than my siblings and have a larger family.

I make $117k/yr.

We are 38ish years old.

We have $900k invested in ETFs (TFSA, RRSP, not maxed TFSA yet).

Mortgage is $145k (paid off in ~9 years from now, maybe sooner, 4.84% interest until we renew in 2-3 years).

Last year we spent about $83k including mortgage and RESP (Not being counted in what we have invested since its not really for us).

Approx $40k of our investments are earmarked for our kids (we have been holding gift money for all of them and investing it and plan to give it back when theyre old enough for their own accounts).

We think we have reduced spending now by making some changes - shopping on Amazon less, buying lunch out much less (still need to do the comparison). Plus our youngest is getting older so some baby expenses are reducing. none of the kids are teens yet though.

My spouse and I both have DB plans HOWEVER we both started late at these companies so the pensions will never cover our full living expenses (maybe 1/3rd), even if we work till 65.

My spouse is not working right now since daycare is too expensive but will go back to work when the youngest kids are in school, doubling our income. That is in late 2029.

I figure we can work 10 years after that of doubled income - and increased spending for after school care - and retire at that point. Also note that lots of kids does mean high CCB so we do get $20k+ for now, decreasing when we double income and going up again if we retire at that age before dropping off around age 54/55. For info, we use the Canadian Couch Potato Method. Our house is worth an estimated $715k. I didn't consider that we could sell it when elderly, but that is a fall back.

Is there any reason our plan won't work? It feels weird to me that family members making 2x to 4x more than us think they wont be able to retire young, especially given they invest too? They do travel more and trade vehicles in occasionally, but not excessively. Is that really all it takes to make them think they have to work so late? Or maybe they're just pretending to be modest.

I dont see many FIRE posts from people with a whole brood of kids.

Hey M39 and F35 with with two young kids (2 and 5). We make 325K combined, if I stop working we would bring in 125K.

We have 300K TFSA, 300K RRSP, 100K unregistered.

Monthly expenses are about:

- Mortgage: 2K (300k total left on a house worth around 800K) 20 years left.

- car 600

- Internet/phones 150

- hydro 250

- prop taxes 500

- food 1000

- misc (cloths, new thing for house, gift etc..) 1000.

My main concern is retirement years, as if I stop working it will be hard to continue investing each month, and I can see us even needing to withdraw from the unregistered account if unexpected expenses come up.

Do you think I can fire now if my wife keeps working? Will we be fine when she turns 60 and wants to retire too?