One day, you may open your investment account… And realize you have finally reached the number you spent decades chasing. Enough to stop working. Enough to walk away. Enough to finally live on your own terms. But instead of feeling free… You feel afraid. What if the market crashes? What if you live longer than expected? What if the money runs out? So you tell yourself: “Just one more year.” One more year of saving. One more year of working. One more year of building a bigger safety net. But “one more year” has a dangerous habit of becoming five. The truth is, retirement is not just a financial decision. For decades, your identity was built around earning, saving, and accumulating. You were trained to build wealth. But nobody taught you how to spend it. And eventually, you may discover the uncomfortable truth: You can become so afraid of losing your money… that you forget what the money was supposed to buy. Your time. Your health. Your family. Your freedom. Your life. Of course, retirement comes with real risks. Markets can fall. You can live longer than expected. Your spending may change. But those risks can be managed. Cash reserves. Flexible spending. Diversification. A sensible withdrawal strategy. What cannot be recovered… is time. The money you leave behind can be inherited. The years you spend unnecessarily working cannot. So perhaps the real question isn’t: “Do I have enough money to retire?” Perhaps it is: “How much more of my life am I willing to trade for money I may never get around to enjoying?” Because the greatest financial tragedy may not be dying with too little money. It may be dying with plenty… and realizing you were too afraid to use it.read more
💵 CASH RESERVE 💵💵 CASH- How much should you have in your Cash Reserve, for market crash, red days, dip buys, puts. why do people post or hate on a stock or etf, is it becuase they have no cash to buy the dip to lower there cost or buy other opportunities. Seems like people with no cash have no patience, sell at a loss or get tied up. I believe if your top 5 holdings is cash and your able to put it to work and refill it, you are less stress. What do you Think $AAPL$META$AMZN$SPCX$VOO$SCHG$SCHD$DRAM
As retirement gets closer, I’m making thoughtful adjustments to my portfolio, not because I expect less from the market, but because my objectives are evolving. With retirement now about two years away, my focus is shifting from simply maximizing returns to building a portfolio that can provide reliable income, preserve capital, and continue growing over the long term. What I like most about this allocation is the clear separation between Core and Booster investments, as well as between Income and Growth. It keeps the portfolio diversified, makes rebalancing straightforward, and ensures each category has a specific role. Current Allocation (Wealthica Screen shot) * Income Core: 37.6% (Target: 35%) * Growth Core (ETFs): 34.1% (Target: 35%) * Income Booster: 12.1% (Target: 10%) * Growth Booster (Individual Stocks): 9.3% (Target: 15%) * Crypto: 6.9% (Target: 5%) Nearly 72% of the portfolio is invested in the Core, providing a solid foundation of diversified growth and dependable income. The remaining allocation is dedicated to higher-conviction opportunities and alternative assets that have the potential to enhance long-term returns without significantly increasing overall portfolio risk. My objective over the next two years is to gradually rebalance toward these target weights by trimming positions that become overweight and adding to areas that offer the best long-term value. This disciplined approach should help create a portfolio that can support retirement while continuing to compound wealth for decades to come. Retirement isn’t about stopping growth, it’s about having the confidence that your investments can fund your lifestyle while still working for you. A portfolio should evolve as your life evolves, and this allocation reflects my transition toward long-term financial independence read more
Every few months ill run my retirement numbers and go through them to see how things are going and if its on track.As stated in my previous post I’m currently sitting at $950K invested, so I thought I’d share what the long-term plan looks like. If I continue investing around $3,000/month and the portfolio averages 8–9% over the long run, the projection at age 46 is roughly $3.55M–$4.04M invested. Obviously, returns won’t be 8–9% every year. This is just a long-term projection, not a guarantee. Right now being still 32, this means another 13.5yrs or so of work for my full pension since I joined at 21yrs old, so the updated number looks like: By 46, the goal is: • $3.5M–$4M+ invested • 25+ years with the RCMP which means full pension (50% of salary guaranteed, adjusting to inflation for life) • Mortgage completely paid off by then • RESPs fully maxed, so the kids' education is covered and I aint gotta worried about paying for it. • No other major debt. My current RCMP base salary is about $127K, so using today’s salary as a baseline, a 50% pension would be roughly $63K/year. And that’s without accounting for any future pay increases. Then there’s the investment portfolio. At a 4% safe withdrawal rate: $3.55M → ~$142K/year $4.04M → ~$162K/year Add the estimated $63K pension, and that puts the potential retirement income around: $205K–$225K/year Again, these are future projections and the actual numbers will depend on investment returns, pension calculations, inflation and my eventual salary. But this is why I keep investing. I’m not necessarily trying to retire at 46 and sit around doing nothing. I want options. Maybe I keep working. Maybe I work less. Maybe I do something completely different. Maybe I retire earlier. The point is that I won't have to make decisions based solely on needing a paycheque. Started investing in my early 20s and I think really starting early was the key..$1M is getting very close. 🔥 Anways ill probably update my numbers every few months to see where im up, hope you enjoy the breakdown. Doing it all for these guys 👇 #Familyread more
In my Roth I got: VTI, SCHG, AVUV, O, SMH and just VTI in my individual. Trying to retire at 45 and invest 2k a month. Goal is 100k investment portfolio before I move out of my parents house.
My relative was telling me about her neighbour (let’s call her X, in her 30s). Here is X's situation: Housing: X, her brother, and her mom all own a fully paid-off condo (I'm not too sure about the specifics) where they all live. Work/Income: X works low-responsibility, minimum-wage jobs (like dishwashing at a restaurant). The Cycle: As soon as she works enough hours to qualify for Employment Insurance (EI), she quits, collects EI, and lazes around until it runs out. Then, repeats the process. It got me thinking: low-responsibility work, government benefits, rinse and repeat— is this the new FIRE lifestyle? I get that some industries are seasonal or cyclical (like farming or fishing), but dishwashing definitely isn't one of them. And what about long-term financial security? I can't imagine anyone saving enough to retire or handle emergencies down the road. What does everyone think? Is this a viable (if extreme) lean-FIRE workaround, or a recipe for disaster?read more
I’ve been contemplating adding more $GOOGL. I like the company, I like the current setup, and it’s one of the individual stocks I view as a long-term foundational holding. The dilemma: I’m already up about 106% and it’s grown to roughly 5% of my portfolio (not including its value in my ETFs). Part of me thinks 5% is enough for one individual stock. The other part thinks if it’s one of my highest-conviction companies, why not let it be a little bigger? Still deciding but leaning towards adding. Anyone else hesitate to add to a stock you have strong conviction in once it’s already a decent-sized part of your portfolio?
Amazon is now one of my largest individual positions at about 15% of my portfolio. After the latest earnings, it would be easy to get caught up in the excitement — but my decision is actually to do nothing. My cost basis is around $150/share, and I’m sitting on a solid gain. Selling would also mean creating a pretty large capital gains tax bill on some of my earliest shares. Instead, I’m letting the position run while directing new money into ETFs to naturally balance my portfolio over time. I still believe in Amazon’s long-term story, especially with AWS, AI infrastructure, and advertising growth. Sometimes investing isn’t about finding the next move — it’s about knowing when not to make one. Still building my ETf position and watching space stocks though… 👀🚀
I’ve been revisiting my thoughts on $LUNR. I previously bought around $8 and sold in the 20s. Looking back, I missed the run to $41—but at the time my priority was building my ETF positions, and I don’t regret that decision because it helped create the long-term foundation of my portfolio. Now that my ETF allocation is where I want it, I’m looking at LUNR with fresh eyes. What interests me isn’t that the stock is down from its highs. It’s that the company appears stronger than when I first invested. It has expanded its contract base, and if the long-term lunar economy continues to develop, I think there could be meaningful upside over the next several years. I’m restarting a small long-term position and plan to let the thesis play out over time. For LUNR investors and prospective investors what’s your rationale? Are you long or short term?read more
Hello all!! Here’s my monthly update :) I get so impatient. I know that building wealth is a slow process but mannnnn this is so freaking slow!! I feel like my portfolio is moving at a snail pace!! I need advice and encouragement plsss 🙏
Hit this a couple of months ago, but wanted to share my cool new badge! :) I feel so proud of my accomplishments at only 22 years old. Let’s see what’s in store for me next!
Risky move (for me being retired) :-). trimming $CBNK and continued holding for stable income, but taking some profits to move into split share $SBC for higher returns. See how this riskier move plays out
In the Bengen's study, 4% safe withdrawal rate was based analyses done with static 30 year windows going back to 1926 to 1996. I previously posted my critique of it not including the 3 down years after 2000 and recent M2 money supplies. If you use 4% today, you will leave a lot of money on the table. A video from this financial planner uses the same analysis on the most recent 30-year windows. I was surprised to learn that even your humble but reckless cc ETF investor is withdrawing less than his findings (7.2%). For retirement started in 1990's, the average Safemax rate is 7.9%. In these analyses, the mechanism behind running out of money is asset depletion. In my own retirement roadmap, no shares is ever sold for daily expenses. The share count increases with each re-investment. I pick cc ETFs with very stable distributions. My takeaway? I will splurge for business class tickets in our next bucket list trip. https://youtu.be/4O4Vlm6W_FU?si=pYkavDCYJYadwoVq
@edsam asked me to tee this post up after I had commented on another post suggesting the person should consider calculating the TOTAL COST (MER+TER) on their portfolio. My suggestion was based on the fact that I continue to see people building full portfolios constructed exclusively with high fee products based on what they see on SocialMedia (typically in favour of big distributions). Having spent 10yrs of my career working with a lower cost traditional ETF company (IShares), battling the high cost mutual funds of the day and advocating that Advisor/Investors consider costs along with their strategy selection - I obviously have my biases. 🤓 But if I’m honest it’s a bit disheartening to see so many newer investors revert back and dismiss the benefits low fees bring over time in favour of higher cost less proven strategies. 😔 When Ed chimed in on my comment saying he ‘doesn’t mind paying for the right outcome’ I felt I was going back in time. 🦕 My take on the ‘outcome’ is that the MARKET (not the MANAGER) provides the majority of the ‘outcome’. That has been supported by research that suggested ‘asset allocation drives 90% of investors returns’. Unless that research has been debunked (🤷♂️) surely investors could find similar asset allocations with more reasonable product fees while maintaining the same risk/reward profile (I don’t actually believe fees should be the sole driver of an investments decision - just part of the decision). ✅ To show the impact of fees I asked AI to analyze a sample portfolio constructed mostly of high fee ETFs (yes - they were Covered Call ETFs). While I don’t think the analysis included the Trading Expense Ratios (TERs) it provided an ‘ESTIMATED TOTAL COST = 1.70%’ ⚠️ From there I asked for the impact in real dollars assuming a $500k portfolio with a 10% average return over a 30yr time frame (40-70yrs old). The TOTAL DIRECT FEE ($) = ~$1.02M. ⚠️⚠️ But it also added the impact from ‘lost compounding’… TOTAL FEE IMPACT ($) = ~$3.25M ⚠️⚠️ Based on the inputs and scenario I provided (note: no withdrawals were considered) the portfolio still grew to $5M. 👏 But a hypothetical 0% fee portfolio (not realistic) would have grown to over $8M. 🥳 Obviously we can’t avoid all fees but I thought I laid out a pretty compelling case highlighting the impact of high fees. Of course in my usual (somewhat) brash/dry style I did also suggest the ‘high fee managers (+$1M) appreciate their loyalty’ but it might be worth asking the kids which they would prefer: $5M vs $8M. 😂 Too my surprise - despite the $3M gap - the OP subsequently commented that she too would still be ‘more than happy to pay (the manager) to do the work for me’. @edsam you offered the debate. So over to you. Help me understand what I’m missing? 🙏🙏 ————- For everyone else - feel free to weigh in as well on any of the below questions… • Do you trust Managers to outperform and close the fee gap? (**Please search SPIVA Report before answering this one 😉) • Do you know the approx TOTAL COST (MER+TER) of your portfolio? • What’s your split between low cost allocations vs higher cost allocations? • Would you take the ~$8M? • Or would you take the $5M+’Hope’ of more / ‘Less Work’ option? ————- I’ve link a few popular funds for visability (sorry) but this debate isn’t about any specific funds. It’s about fees and strategies. As always keep it classy. 😉👍 🤖AI output in the images. read more
I currently have a group RRSP through my employer and I’m working up the courage to transfer a portion of the amount into my own self directed account 😅 I wanted to know who here has does the same and if they had any regrets
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💵 CASH- How much should you in your Cash Reserve, for market crash, red days, dip buys, puts. why do people post or hate on a stock or etf, is it becuase they have no cash to buy the dip to lower there cost or buy other opportunities. Seems like people with no cash have no patience, sell at a loss or get tied up. I believe if your top 5 holdings i cash and your able to put it to work and refill it, you are less stress. What do you Think
