# My Race to Early Retirement



## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

First of all - just want to say I love these forums - I check them often and love seeing everyone's progress, ideas and comments.

A little bit about me: 33 Years old from Winnipeg. Just had our 2nd child - now have a Girl(18 months) & a Boy(1 month). Happily married and doing what I can to ensure I don't have to work into my 50s/60s (unless i choose to).

Since I was about 17-18 I knew I didn't want to *Have* to work as long as most people..so i started investing and have taken it slightly more seriously each year since. I don't have a pension via work so I try to invest even more then most people I know. Just last month I finally started a personal finance blog to help track my goals/portfolio, and more (something I've been wanting to do for a few years now).

My goal is to get to the point where my passive income covers the bills and enables me to still enjoy the things I do today (I'm a jets season ticket holder, I like to travel, etc). Over the last 12 months I've averaged $443.86 per month in passive income. Obviously still have a long way to go. 

My total investment portfolio (not including real estate) is just shy of $275,000 and is split between my RRSP (4 different funds) my TFSA (a mix of Canadian equities focused on growth and monthly income). I also just opened a TFSA & Spousal RSP for my wife which I plan on starting to contribute to this week - to help alleviate our tax burden in the future.

My TFSA consits of the following stocks:
Aurora Cannabis(ACB)
Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN)
Caledonia Mining (CAL)
Canadian Western Bank (CWB)
Diversified Royalty Corp (DIV)
Lucara Diamond (LUC)
Nutritional High (EAT)
Organigram (OGI)
Artis Reit (AX.UN)
Plaza Reit (PLZ.UN)
One Reit (ONR.UN)


Would love any feedback, tips or thoughts.
Can also read a bit more in depth if interested on my new blog(not much content yet - but plan to continually update).
Thanks in advance.


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## Lost in Space 2 (Jun 28, 2016)

Be nice to see this from a Canadian perspective. Read a few blog posts of people who've done this, but they didn't really share much. Do you have an income or end date in mind.

Afterthought, most articles, usually newspaper stories, are about people who were able destroy thier mortgages in a super short time frame.


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Well - I am only 33 right now - I think my goal would be when the kids move out - i'd like to be "retired" or at the least just work jobs that I love/volunteer etc.

That gives me about 18 years(depending on how I do- maybe earlier). The income needed will depend on if my lifestyle changes by then. We are in the process of looking to buy a new house as we've outgrown our starter home, but I am hoping to keep my mortgage payments about the same as they are now (with the equity in my house).

For a few years I increased my mortgage payments by 15% each year - but with interest rates so low - I prefer to invest the difference right now. Once the kids move out - we can always downsize as well.


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

Great start on your blog. I didn't start my blog (address in my profile) until less than two years ago, not long before I finished work at 50. I found it to be a really good way of thinking through my preparations to make sure that I was ready to quit work. Starting your blog now will help you think through and achieve your goals. Best of luck to you on your journey. And by the way, giving up work has been the best move I've made since getting married.


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Thanks for the kind words!
I am hoping that having the blog will help me with the aspects of finance that I am admittedly not very good at (being thrifty, setting goals, etc). My goal is that by having to post what I spend, I should be able to bring my spending down - and if I actually post some goals- I'll try a lot harder to hold myself accountable. 
Glad to hear you are enjoying your financial independence!


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## Jimmy (May 19, 2017)

I found this article useful. Skip their ETF recommendations and just read the table near teh bottom where they have split out the various sector categories and made sure they had each covered. Lists which are interest rate sensitive too.

I used this when looking at ETFs. It is easy to be underweight utilities and overweight financial and energy stocks w some index type ETFs .

http://www.taxtips.ca/stocksandbonds/recommendedstocks.htm


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

damaaster said:


> My goal is to get to the point where my passive income covers the bills and enables me to still enjoy the things I do today (I'm a jets season ticket holder, I like to travel, etc). Over the last 12 months I've averaged $443.86 per month in passive income. Obviously still have a long way to go.
> 
> My total investment portfolio (not including real estate) is just shy of $275,000 and is split between my RRSP (4 different funds) my TFSA (a mix of Canadian equities focused on growth and monthly income). ......
> 
> ...



I applaud your initiative, but yikes, this is a terrible collection of stocks for someone who wants to grow dividends over time to produce passive income for retirement. To accomplish this, you need to build a collection of Canadian Blue Chips that have a history of dividend growth. Everyone knows the usual suspects, and they aren't Aurora Cannabis(ACB), Nutritional High (EAT), Lucara Diamond (LUC) or Organigram (OGI). Your race to retirement will end in failure I'm afraid. Learn more about long term dividend growth and blue chip stocks.

ltr


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

@Like_to_retire - My RRSP's consits of $230,000 of my $280,000 portfolio. These are invested in funds which hold all the major Canadian/US & Global blue chips. 

The remaining 50,000 or so is in my TFSA which I am using as on a mix of reits and some more high risk high reward growth stocks. While I will agree that Nutritional High was probably a bad Buy - my opening position in Organigram was 0.44 cents, Aurora was around 1.30, etc. My TFSA has consistently had returns of 16-22% (I know not sustainable - but I've managed to almost double my contributions so far. I've grown my dividends year over year for 3 years running and as I get older I'll slowly switch some stocks to some more stable "blue chips".


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

damaaster said:


> @Like_to_retire - My RRSP's consits of $230,000 of my $280,000 portfolio. These are invested in funds which hold all the major Canadian/US & Global blue chips.
> 
> The remaining 50,000 or so is in my TFSA which I am using as on a mix of reits and some more high risk high reward growth stocks. While I will agree that Nutritional High was probably a bad Buy - my opening position in Organigram was 0.44 cents, Aurora was around 1.30, etc. My TFSA has consistently had returns of 16-22% (I know not sustainable - but I've managed to almost double my contributions so far. I've grown my dividends year over year for 3 years running and as I get older I'll slowly switch some stocks to some more stable "blue chips".


hehe, makes a lot more sense now. Probably would have been good to have that info included in the original post so you can receive the best feedback.

ltr


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

"My total investment portfolio (not including real estate) is just shy of $275,000..."

Very well done. You're off to a great start!


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Thanks! I've been following your blog and posts for some time MOA. Appreciate the kind words.

The wife and I have been going through a debate the last few months about if we should sell our cabin, and invest the majority of it - I know it would put us way ahead long term - but we'd have no cabin...first world problems I guess


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## Steve Divi (Jul 14, 2016)

Great work damaaster!

Sell cabin, invest, time..., buy 10 cabins.


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

damaaster said:


> The wife and I have been going through a debate the last few months about if we should sell our cabin, and invest the majority of it - I know it would put us way ahead long term - but we'd have no cabin...first world problems I guess



Real Estate is an investment of course. Perhaps the cabin and land would be a better investment than what you might do with the funds from selling it?

ltr


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

The returns from owning and using a cabin are far more than the financial returns.

Dad invested $4000 in a family cabin, and we enjoyed it for 45 years. Finally sold it for $200k. He could have had a GIC but no memories!


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## millmillmillion (Apr 4, 2015)

At 270k you should be averaging around 1100$ A month from passive income


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

millmillmillion said:


> At 270k you should be averaging around 1100$ A month from passive income



If the 270k was invested directly into individual stocks that pay dividends - yes....BUT the majority are in different funds (some pay a monthly distribution - some pay a yearly - and some don't at all). The total 270ish is broken down like this:

I have about 110k of it in 2 funds through a work RRSP (that they match up to 5% of my salary) - these one's don't pay out anything.
I have about 55k into a canadian equity fund - which currently pays a monthly distribution (getting about 200 a month from this one)
Other 55k is in a global fund - which pays a yearly distribution
Last 50k is in my TFSA in individual stocks - which pays out between 120-300 depending on a the month.


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## Steve Divi (Jul 14, 2016)

millmillmillion said:


> At 270k you should be averaging around 1100$ A month from passive income


Says who? 

People invest differently. 

Not everyone loads their portfolio with 5-9% yields and not everyone wants to be a options day trader.


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

Commendable goal and progress so far damaaster. 

I make your income to be 1.9% from your investments ($443/mo on $275k) which is not bad considering that you must have some capital growth as well (so a higher total return), and considering that you should still be tilted towards total growth at this early point, not just income. 

So keep in mind that it may be difficult for income to completely cover costs while you are still growing your assets. It is 'fun' though to consider what your assets could produce if you were tilted primarily to income (as millmill suggests).

In planning for financial independance and on the subject of passive income, make sure you have given thought to your withdrawal plan. The end member - saving enough to provide a passive income without touching the capital is laudable (if you have estate plans for the residual), but it requires substantially more savings than a plan which entails spending income plus a portion of the capital each year. There are volumes of discussion on the www about safe withdrawal rates (swr) and the generally preferred variable withdrawal rate (or variable percentage withdrawal - vpw).

Also, remember to consider fixed income sources at some point such as CPP, or any DB pension. If you consider them 'gravy' and can ignore them, great, but they do add up when the time comes and provide a margin of safety if nothing else.


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

OnlyMyOpinion said:


> Commendable goal and progress so far damaaster.
> 
> I make your income to be 1.9% from your investments ($443/mo on $275k) which is not bad considering that you must have some capital growth as well (so a higher total return), and considering that you should still be tilted towards total growth at this early point, not just income.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the notes! If you check out my portfolio tab on my website - you will see I am definitely seeing some solid capital growth as well. I've only recently started trying to focus a bit more on fixed income - and even those- I try to focus on good companies with a history of increasing payments. My favorite holding right now is Algonquin Power which I have in my TFSA.
I haven't thought too much yet about withdrawal rates as I am only 33 years old - BUT i did recently open a spousal RSP for my wife as I figured it didn't make sense for me to grow my RRSP to a million or more while hers is at basically zero....so starting this month I've been contributing to hers mostly (and reduced what I put in mine).


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Yikes...I just tried tracking my spending for the last 30 days. Needless to say the results pissed me off - so I am challenging myself to be super frugal for the next 30 days (wish me luck).

https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/tracking-my-spending-for-30-days/

The good news is - no upcoming expenses this month that I know of (knock on wood) and was still able to sock away some $$$ while paying down my line of credit last month.


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Just posted the June update on my blog.

A couple highlights:
- Paid down 5% of line of credit debt (goal to have it paid off by end of year)
- Made first contributions to Spousal RRSP
- Dripped 16 new shares in TFSA
- Total passive income for June $306.14
- Total Portfolio value dropped by -1.31%
Once line of credit is completley paid off I'll look to make some more stock purchases.


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Haven't been on here for a couple months...pretty hectic times. Just sold our house and moved. Finally back on track.


Couple highlights from last few months:
- Line of Credit has been eliminated with proceeds from house sale
- Spousal RSP is growing (over 2k now)
- Continuing to drip shares in my TFSA
- Sold off WEED stocks. Used proceeds to buy new furniture, for new house.
- Finally ready to start buying stocks again 

I posted a new entry today - hoping to get some feedback on a couple potential stocks to buy (I am torn between 5).

Any input would be appreciated.
https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/2017/10/06/looking-for-feedback-on-a-few-stocks/


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

It's been a while since I posted an update, but things are progressing slow and steady - just the way I like it!

My portfolio is just shy of 300k now - I am hoping to crack the 300k mark by end of year.
Got the Spousal RSP & TFSA over 20k. (these accounts were just opened 6 months ago)
Sold off my Caledonia Mining & Lucara stocks. Redeployed the cash into a couple Marijuana stocks. Definitely looking to get back into Caledonia Mining eventually.

Full update posted on blog:

https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/...17-update-sit-down-with-me-lets-have-a-drink/


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

I Finally did it! Trasferred my RBC mutual funds to direct investing. A move which should save me easily over $25000 in fees in the next 10 years or so.

While I was at the bank I also set up an RESP for my kids and increased my spousal RSP contributions! Feels pretty awesome.

Posted a full update on the blog @ moneymaaster.com


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

February was a pretty slow month - usually is...but I did make a couple purchases:
Increased my position in Algonquin (TFSA)
Initiated a position in Interrent REIT

In February - received 338.70 in dividends. Total portfolio value fell by 1.07%
Reserved my Jets Playoff tickets - which is exciting - but will also be expensive
Found daycare for both kids so wife can go back to work in a couple months when mat leave ends

Full report posted on my blog:
https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/2018/02/28/february-update-breaking-records-new-purchases-more/


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Had a damn good April, and May is off to a great start too!

Highlights:
-son turned 1 years old
- Jets are in the playoffs and kicking some serious A-S-S
- Got my tax return which helped pay for my jets playoff tickets 
- Made first contribution to kids RESP
- First ever double digit DRIP of Algonquin Power
- Dripped 29 new shares & was paid dividends from 9 companies.

Total passive income cracked 500 in April.

Full report here: https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/...passive-income-update-happy-birthday-edition/

May has started great with 3 announced dividends: Western Forest, Algonquin Power & Power Corp!


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## milhouse (Nov 16, 2016)

Great hightlights! :applause:


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Dreams said:


> Good luck on your quest... It's always been my dream to retire early, live a funful life at old age. I haven't started working towards it though, but I will very soon.


Best of luck! I don't know how old you are - but I started before I was 20 and I wish i started even earlier..haha


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Had a pretty good month in June both financially & personally. Broke a record for dividends, 2nd highest traffic to website. Got out to the cabin a couple of times, and have been enjoying the world cup 

Full update:
https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/...-record-breaking-month-happy-birthday-canada/


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## kork (Jun 9, 2012)

When I started reading I thought, this is pretty similar to my journey. I started my journal back when I was 33 as well and have been updating it since (I'm turning 40 this year). Interesting to find similarities between the two journeys.

https://www.canadianmoneyforum.com/showthread.php/11838-Married-Kids-Single-income-Tryin-hard!


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Thanks for sharing Kork. I'll have to continue to follow you journey and see if I can keep up


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

It's been a few months since I've posted. Life has been a bit busy, had a Europe trip, root canal, and the kid are taking up the rest of my time.

My portfolio dropped over 22,000 compared to last month, and is at the lowest it's been in a full year. I'm not worried though, dividend income is up over last year, and hoping to make some buys in the new year, so wouldn't mind the dip to continue for a while.

Full update on the blog:

https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/october-update-happy-halloween/


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Overall portfolio is down quite a bit right now (like everyone else) but absolutely smashed my dividend record in December, thanks to a few funds paying out annual distributions.

Total December Dividend income = 1804.90

Goals for the new year are to stay debt free(minus house mortgage), sell the cabin & invest proceeds, start planning a 10 year anniversary trip for next year.

Full monthly update here:

https://moneymaaster.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/happy-new-year-december-update-new-dividend-record/


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Wowza, it's been almost a year since I posted an update in here. A few things have changed...

We decided to keep the cabin, the kids are getting older, and really enjoying spending summer weekends out there.

Total portfolio value cracked an all time high of $350,000. I've managed to stay completely debt free (aside from mortgage), although I'm not gonna lie, having 2 kids in daycare full time is EXPENSIVE!

So far for 2019, my dividend income is: $4756.86

I am expecting a big December, and to hopefully push me close to 7500-8000 in dividends for the year.

Full updates as always can be found on my website, as well as some stock analysis, whiskey reviews and more: 




Cheers


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