r/fican

Hello! I'm born in September, and am turning 19 this upcoming September. I did not open my TFSA until January 2026, so I did not start my 2025 contribution until this year.

I had a financial goal of maxing out my 2025 contributions before my birthday and recently have been able to reach $7000. I will try to get as close to $10,000 by December, but I will be back in uni and not sure if I will be working during the year as well. So far I have put 80% of my paycheck into investing in my TFSA and a tiny percent of that in my FHSA.

Grateful that my parents pay for university and food so that I am able to contribute this much, otherwise I'd have $0 to put towards this.

Today, I decided to download my CPP contributions from Service Canada and use that data to see what my estimated CPP monthly income would look like, assuming I retire in two years in my mid-forties. I was pleasantly surprised that I would receive about $13320 per year in today’s dollars at age 70, using the PWL CPP calculator. This means including OAS at 70 I would get $25k starting age 70.

I then went further to see what my potential yearly withdrawals would be from my RRSP, TFSA, and Non-registered would be if I also took CPP and OAS at age 70 and was pleasantly surprised to see that I could sustain an $86k/yr spend until age 95 with their real returns assumption (4.3%/yr real returns). I don’t have to worry about what would happen if I were to be laid off, which was the original goal before I found out about FIRE.

I’m going to talk to a fee-only financial planner next year and see whether this will work out and if I’ll be able to switch to passion projects.

I’m breathing a sigh of relief.

ETA: I corrected the value of CPP I would get at 70, and I also corrected that the $25k includes OAS.

How do you all mentally balance spending on luxuries in the now, vs saving for later.

We've lived far below our means for years to set ourselves financially, but starting to ask when the point of enjoying all that savings should truly come in.

Do you use a percentage of income or net worth, just spend randomly when you want, or just power thru til your target?

Currently a 30 Couple.
650 Paid House
700k In investments
170k in DC pension. Another 8 years of DB pension as well for partner.
~340-360k HHI. Currently save 90-120k a year.
Goal is to retire ~50-55.

I'm starting to seriously crack and ask what happens if I die tomorrow after saving so much and living below our means, sorta asking how do you make sure to enjoy along the way.

Assets
3.5m between rentals (7) and primary
140k in tfsa max contribution
150k in rsp
200k wife rsp she also has a pension in healthcare
46k in resp
150k vacant land

Liability is
1.3m in mortgages

We’ve been doing double up and lump amounts on our primary mortgage

I’ve had my head down for 6 years grinding hard. All the above has been accomplished in 6 years. I just want out of work. Hoping another 1-2 years tops

What else to do with money. My work is trades

Looking for some unbiased opinions on my portfolio and long term strategy.

34M, married with one young child, living in Canada.

Household income:
Combined gross income: approximately $375k–$450k/year.
My income: $300k–$350k/year depending on overtime (aviation — you can presume what I do).
Spouse income: $90k plus bonuses (ranging $5k–$15k).
Additional income from side hustle: \~$75k–$100k/year (sales and goes into a corporation where I invest portion of it)
I also have a very strong DC pension from my employer. My spouse does not and I will most likely be doing Spousal RSP for her.

Current portfolio (rounded):
• 4 properties total.
• Primary residence: worth approximately $1.4M with a mortgage of about $1.22M. I purchased it for 1.55m with current prices unfortunately it’s gone down.

• Rental #1: worth about $600k with a mortgage around $445k. Rents for \~$2,700/month.
• Rental #2: worth about $600k with a mortgage around $450k. Rents for \~$3,250/month.
• Rental #3: worth about $340k with a mortgage around $215k. Rents for \~$1,900/month.

Total portfolio:
• Real estate value: approximately $2.94M.
• Mortgage debt: approximately $2.33M.
• Equity: approximately $610k, plus about $275k–$300k invested in registered accounts (RRSP, TFSA, RESP) mostly ETF like VEQT, VOO, VFV, VDY
I also hold some top companies I believe in.

All three rentals are currently around break even to cash flow positive after recent mortgage renewals.
The current plan is to hold everything for at least the next 10 years while continuing to invest monthly in broad market ETFs instead of buying another rental.
If this were your portfolio, what would you do?
Would you:

Keep all four properties?
• Sell one or more and diversify into index funds?
• Pay down mortgages more aggressively?
• Keep leveraging into real estate?

Looking for constructive criticism, especially from people who’ve built wealth through either real estate or index investing. What are the biggest risks or blind spots you see?
I also understand I’m highly leveraged in real estate now but I’m not worried about a short blip in the market. Long term I see value in real estate in Canada.

Hi There,

I hit $1 million invested this week and am considering firing my advisor and going self-managed via WealthSimple. Should I?

I have been slowly investing with an advisor for more than 20 years, and am hoping to Barista Fire sometime within the next five years (at about $1.5 Million). My investor is retiring and leaving his business to his 20 something year old son, and I find the nepotism a little concerning and have never been too impressed by his approach. I tend to outperform the market by a bit in bad times, and underperform it by a bit in good times. Money is half in RRSPs/TFSA and half in an open account -- all equities, a mixture of mutual funds and ETFs.

Everyone says at 100k, everything changes. I’m close to 100k, but is this in one account or across multiple accounts?

This ~$800k USD is windfall cash parked in PSU.U (USD T-bill ETF) yielding ~3.55% net. ~$280k USD of it is earmarked for a CAD tax bill next April.

USD/CAD is ~1.42, near a 1-year high (loonie weak). I need to deploy this cash into equities regardless... the open question is currency:

1. Convert USD→CAD now (Norbert's) and buy CAD-listed (XEQT, etc.), or
2. Keep it in USD and buy US-listed (VTI, etc.), accepting I'm structurally long USD?

I can also throw the $280k into a 9-month GIC for taxes at like 4.5%, but it'll be stuck in USD and exposed to all that drift.

I know ticker currency ≠ underlying exposure, but I keep circling. We don't earn much USD anymore after this windfall, but spend and will retire in CAD. What would you do at these levels? and would you DCA the conversion the same way you'd DCA the buy?

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% returns): ~$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?

Total NW 2M

Corp investment 665k (70% equities 30% bonds)

Locked in RSP 171k

RRSP 72k

TFSA 15k

250k in corp account - primarily to pay myself when needed.

Primary residence 750k equity with 750k mortgage remaining

Imvestment property 100k equity with 247k mortgage remaining

Spend approx 200k year (60k on mortgage, 8k prop tax/yr, 15k insurance and utilities/yr)

THHI Income around 400k a year, mine is 100% commission based. Spousal income is 70k of that salaried.

2 young kids that have education trust that will cover entire education.

39M and target is to start coasting by 45 and maybe bring THI down to 100k.

Doable?