# SPACE FRUIT: GalacticPineapple's life report



## GalacticPineapple (Feb 28, 2013)

Hi. I'm 32 and I live in Fort McMurray.

*Cliffs*
I've failed at four separate solo endeavours since I turned 18. To quell the panic and build up some savings I moved to Fort McMurray a few years ago and got a job. I will stay for a few more years. I'm not sure what to do after that. 

*The breakdown*
Income 130k
Living expenses (mortgage, condo fees, insurance, property taxes, utilities, cell phone, groceries, car insurance, misc) $2,400/mth
Travel $400/mth (my gf lives 500 km away so there's not much I can do about this)

Assets

Condo 1 350k
Condo 2 80k
RPP 40k 
RRSP 5k
Chequing 20k
Car 15k
Liabilities

Condo 1 330k mortgage
Condo 2 55k mortgage
From this point forward I'll be able to sock away about 30k annually, not including my pension (+30k/yr) and RRSP (+5k/yr). My lady and I aren't planning on getting married any time soon and we don't want kids. The plan is for her to finish her master's (2 years) and then move up here.

I'm not sure what I'll do investment-wise. Fighting for 4% returns seems kind of bleak. For the short-term my plan is to dump my savings into an RSP and use the tax return to fund a TFSA. I will rinse/repeat until I max my contribution limits. I'm not sure what _kind_ of registered accounts though. I've toyed with everything from savings accounts to position trading with a discount brokerage. 

For the medium to long term, I'm toying with a few ideas... 

One is save up, go to law school and immediately enter solo practice. I'd be at least 40 years old before this happened, so I can't see myself fighting 20-somethings for entry-level jobs. The amount of savings I'd need for this would be staggering (school + startup capital)
Another is to buy a hotel. I've read up on a few reputable companies that claim you can buy a hotel franchise for as low as 750k. Not sure how that works with the real estate and all...I'm guessing you leverage yourself to the tits. 
Another is to pursue an aggressive trading program with my savings. One of my solo endeavours was forex trading. I made money at it but I was lol undercapitalized and the timeframe was relatively short (18 months). I'm legitimately unsure if it's possible to sustain positive trading returns over the medium to long term. I haven't done any trading since 2010. 

I'll add to this when interesting stuff happens. I'm genuinely open to ideas so don't be shy.


----------



## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Awesome savings in just a few short years!

Is the second condo being kept for you to move into when you leave Fort Mac? How much money/time/travel is it costing you to maintain? Make sure you are fully accounting for all the costs of your effort when determining whether it's a good investment or not.

I'm not sure how feasable any of those three options are without gaining extensive knowledge and committment for many years, as you've said....

Keep reading the forum to learn more about investing, taxes, registered and unregistered accounts, asset allocation, and all that other good stuff before you go and start throwing big amounts of money around.

Welcome, and hi as well from Fort McMurray!


----------



## GalacticPineapple (Feb 28, 2013)

My plans from 2013 seem silly. (Don't most plans seem silly in the rearview?)

*Cliffs*
Still working in Fort McMurray. Have my condo on the market. Will leave for Edmonton as soon as it sells. I'm expecting this to take anywhere from 6 months to years (very illiquid condo market).

*The breakdown*
-Income 160k
-Living expenses 2k/mth
-Travel - still $400/mth to visit the gf. 

*Assets *(not including condo 1 here because I will break even based on a set of convoluted pricing guarantees provided by my employer - I'm still responsible for selling it though). 
-Condo 2 65k (rented)
-RPP 125k
-RRSP 60k
-Chequing 5k
-TFSA 50k
-Car 5k
-Balances on various poker sites 20k

*Liability*
-Condo 2 30k mortgage

The RPP is a defined benefit plan so I consider it fixed income. Accordingly I use a couch-potatoish all-equity blend in my RRSP.

My TFSA I treat entirely separately. It has shares of HR.UN, AX.UN and CUF.UN that I add to on a market cap basis. The reason for this is that I borrow against my rental place to leverage the TFSA*. (*I realize I could make this tax deductible by keeping the REITs in an unregistered account but the tax headaches this would create are not worth the financial benefit to me.) The rental HELOC is at 3% so I need a high monthly yield to cover it. My REITs yield just over 6. On the surface this might seem like an insane allocation to real estate but I plan on renting from here on out so I won't have the primary residence that most Canadians have. On the one hand I'm increasingly wary of the argument that buying your home is a good financial idea at all - I think renters can actually come out ahead if they're smart about price points and cash flow. On the other hand I have absolutely no interest in maintenance or renovations, the hassle of selling real estate or any the fun "perks" that accompany condo ownership like condo fee increases and special assessments. 

I will not be following up on any of my previous ideas of going to law school, buying a hotel or position trading. There are simpler ways to make a living. Fort McMurray's insane wealth has made me, paradoxically, increasingly frugal. I have a strong desire to do more with less going forward.


----------



## Holland (Apr 24, 2016)

Awesome update. 

I agree with you in regards to owning a home. After a year of looking for the right home to buy with enough rooms to rent out (while living there) I abandoned the idea and starting renting a house with two other people. I pay $500 in rent a month. 

The houses I was looking at buying costs 3 grand a year in property tax, a thousand for insurance, and I was told to budget $200/month in maintenance. Those 3 costs added together cost more per month than my current rent


----------

