# 5 Year Countdown to Retirement in 2022



## milhouse

I want to track my progress towards my retirement in 5 years and get some feedback along the way. I thought this forum might be simpler than creating a blog. 

*Background*
Married couple: Me = 45yo. Her = 39yo
No kids. Still TBD but unlikely at this point.
Goal to each retire at age 50. Not exactly sure what I'd be doing during the 6 years between my retirement and her retirement.

*Current financial situation*
Me
Cash Savings ~ $10k
Non-Registered Investments ~ $625k 

Yielding approximately $25k in dividends this year. Primarily individual Canadian dividend growth stocks.
RRSP ~ $310k. 

Mix of US, EAFE, EM index ETF’s with about 20% Canadian bond ETF.
TFSA ~ $75k. 

Mix of Canadian, US, EAFE, EM index funds with about 10% corporate bond fund
DC Pension ~ $220k

Mix of Canadian, US, and International index funds with about 25% Canadian bond index fund.
Total ~ $1.24M

Her
Cash Savings ~ $40k
Non-Registered Investments ~ $160k

Mix of US and Global index ETF’s and Canadian Dividend Fund.
RRSP ~ $70k

75% in a bond fund with rest in a balanced fund, dividend fund, and global fund.
TFSA ~ $65k

Primarily a balanced fund with US low volatility ETF, US Index, and 10% in a bond fund.
DB Pension

Based on her pension statements, if she works to age 50 but holds off from collecting her pension until age 55, she’ll get approximately $35k/yr plus a $5k bridge to 65.
Total ~ $335k + DB pension
Combined Total ~ $1.575M and her DB pension.

House ~ $1.5M per BC Assessment.

Liabilities: None

*Current Annual Spend*
$45k-$52k depending on how much we travel.

Food & Eating Out ~ $13k
Housing and Utilities ~ $11k
Transportation ~ $4k
Personal ~ $5k
Entertainment ~ $1k
Travel ~ $10-18k

*Goals*

We each retire at age 50.
We want to travel 6 months per year once we both retire.
Base target combined retirement spend ~ $60k after tax to maintain current lifestyle (allows for major one off expenses like house repairs, health issues, car replacement, etc.)
Stretch target retirement spend ~ $85-95k+ after tax to allow for our travel goals.

*Plan*

Grow the dividends in my non-registered portfolio to approximately $50k/yr by age 50 and maintain that level by taking the occasional capital gains. 
Grow my RRSP to $450k by age 50.
Will withdraw ~$40k/yr (~$30k/yr after tax) from age 51-71
Grow my DC Pension to $350k by age 50.
Unsure when to start withdrawing from LIRA but the tentative plan is to let the DC pension grow and then withdraw ~$40k/yr once the RRSP is exhausted.
Grow my TFSA to $135k by age 50. 
Perhaps use the TFSA for car replacement, major house repairs, major health expenses, etc. Perhaps use it for an additional income stream.
Overall, I’m hoping my non-registered portfolio dividends and RRSP withdrawals will generate approximately $75-80k of after tax income annually. Supplemental cash not needed for annual spend would likely go into a HISA or GICs ladder.


Clean up her portfolio so it has a more unified strategy/direction. 
Grow her non-registered portfolio to $500k by her age 50.
Grow her RRSP to $100k by her age 50.
Grow her TFSA to $200k by her age 50.
I’m hoping her non-registered portfolio and RRSP withdrawals will generate $25k/yr and then her DB pension kicks in with $40/yr at her age 55.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
I feel pretty confident about being able to meet our base target to maintain our current lifestyle and corresponding spending in retirement. It’s more of a situation of being able to stay the course for the next 5-10 years to be able to meet our stretch targets due to occasionally shaky employment situations at both our workplaces. 
I likely need a more efficient retirement income plan. My dividend income is going to impact my ability to withdraw funds from my RRSP and DC Pension in a tax efficient manner. It will likely also prevent me from collecting any OAS.


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## My Own Advisor

Geez....impressive. So you have > $2.75M in investment assets + $1.5M home with no liabilities?

You don't want to "retire" now or at least work part-time now? I could probably answer the other questions but this is the first one that came to mind after reading your post! 

Very, very well done. 

Re - Grow the dividends in my non-registered portfolio. Sure, but you don't need much more do you?
Re - Grow my RRSP to $450k by age 50. I can see the benefits of that but geez, you have plenty amongst other assets.
Re - Grow my DC Pension to $350k by age 50. I can see that, fixed-income security hence the desire to keep working...

Re - Clean up her portfolio so it has a more unified strategy/direction. I could see that for both of you since although you've done very well - simplicity will help you sleep better.
Re - Grow her non-registered portfolio to $500k by her age 50. Another impressive milestone.
Re - Grow her RRSP to $100k by her age 50. As above, I could see that.

Both TFSAs could certainly serve as a massive emergency fund since I suspect you'll kill off RRSP, etc. before TFSAs.


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## gardner

My Own Advisor said:


> You don't want to "retire" now or at least work part-time now?


I am in about the same boat, only 8 years on. I am *still* working and I am trying to retire in the next 6 months.

On the one hand I am feeling like a chump, working to earn income that I basically don't need and will likely leave to her majesty when I pop my clogs.

On the other hand, I have to work out what I would *do* with myself if I retire. I don't have infinite cash, so really expensive hobbies are likely out. For now working fills the time, but I am getting sick of it.


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## milhouse

Thanks for the feedback. 

We only have $1.57M in combined investment assets plus my wife's pension. If you're trying to add a present value of her pension, the issue is that if she doesn't work a minimum number of years, the pension is significantly reduced. If she quit today and left the money in the plan to 55, she'd only get about $12k/year. 

The home valuation is indicative of how ridiculous Vancouver house prices have risen. We were lucky we purchased just before the boom. 
I remember during the 2000's when people were buying pre-sale condos and selling their unit just before the building was finished. A lot of people made a lot of money from that. We wanted to get in on the action but were too risk adverse thinking there was a bubble and instead just focused on paying down our mortgage as quickly as possible. After paying down the mortgage, it allowed us to supercharge our savings. 
There's obviously a lot of equity in our house but we only want to consider it a home instead of an investment and only tap into it as needed like in an emergency later in life like a health issue. 

I'd love to retire now or work part time. 
I've casually thought about working part time but I don't know what I'd do that would be enjoyable and have a fairly high degree of flexibility. 
This is extremely dumb which I freely admit but psychologically, I feel I need a larger nest egg from a safety perspective and an ego/lifestyle inflation perspective. We're kind of due for a bear market and I'm not sure how confident I'm going to feel about retiring if I see my nest egg take a 20-30% haircut. I would just feel more confident going in with a portfolio of around $2M and/or yielding $50k in dividends, and "enduring" another 5 years of work isn't that unpalatable yet. (Of course, now I'm going to get hit by a bus tomorrow...)
And I know this goes against all personal finance logic and is simply stupid... but we have a few friends and relatives (basically on my wife's side) that have done really well capitalizing on the housing boom and it'd be nice to say that we haven't made out too badly with our save and invest approach. I'm going to blame my inferiority complex with respect to my extended in-laws.  But I also have a couple of friends who are doing fairly well and the discussion has always been a $2-2.5M nest egg. The number is mainly pulled out of thin air but would loosely translate to a $80-$100k income in retirement. 

The missus is pretty apathetic with regards to planning our finances even though I try to give her monthly updates. She's a great saver though. She's pretty conservative in that she wants to be absolutely sure we don't run out of money but doesn't know what's the parameters around that would be. I originally pointed her to a larger bond allocation because she was very risk adverse. However, she complained that my portfolio was getting better returns so I've been easing her into a more equities but also ensuring she understood/accepted the risks. However, she also has the luxury of a DB pension so I think she can afford a little more risk. 
Depending on how things play out, maybe she can retire earlier than 50 even though she hates the idea of further reducing her DB pension. 

Although there are a few dissenting ideas, yes the plan is the burn down the RRSP and DC Pension/LIRA before touching the TFSA. That's plays part and parcel to my TFSA question in the Retirement section.


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## milhouse

gardner said:


> I am in about the same boat, only 8 years on. I am *still* working and I am trying to retire in the next 6 months.
> 
> On the one hand I am feeling like a chump, working to earn income that I basically don't need and will likely leave to her majesty when I pop my clogs.
> 
> On the other hand, I have to work out what I would *do* with myself if I retire. I don't have infinite cash, so really expensive hobbies are likely out. For now working fills the time, but I am getting sick of it.


Similarly, I don't think my numbers allow for excessive splurging. While we don't have to worry about the budget if we decide to go out to eat, it's not like I can buy my Porsche 911.  I don't mind working a bit longer to give myself a little more rope but I do endure stress and anxiety from the deadlines and deliverables.


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## redsgomarching

milhouse said:


> Similarly, I don't think my numbers allow for excessive splurging. While we don't have to worry about the budget if we decide to go out to eat, it's not like I can buy my Porsche 911.  I don't mind working a bit longer to give myself a little more rope but I do endure stress and anxiety from the deadlines and deliverables.


You sir are changing the way people think of Milhouse! Congratulations on your hard work to get to where you are. Have you considered trying to pursue part time work or a reduced working hours arrangement where you can maintain a decent pay but with a lot less stress? Unsure as to your job situation and if it would allow this. But that would be a great supplement to your income with your dividends and rrsp withdrawals!


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## TK.61

milhouse said:


> I want to track my progress towards my retirement in 5 years and get some feedback along the way. I thought this forum might be simpler than creating a blog.
> 
> *Background*
> Married couple: Me = 45yo. Her = 39yo
> No kids. Still TBD but unlikely at this point.


One thing that struck me, that I am genuinely curious about is this comment. 

I am curious about the decision (assuming it was a choice) to not have children. Do you regret not having children? How do you feel about it? Did you feel alienated from your friends that had them? You mention it's still TBD so it seems that it is not fully off the table for you two.

I ask because it is something that I am having an internal battle with. I have always said I don't want children, and don't plan on them, however, there is a small voice inside me that is slowly getting louder telling me to at least consider it.


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## milhouse

redsgomarching said:


> You sir are changing the way people think of Milhouse! Congratulations on your hard work to get to where you are. Have you considered trying to pursue part time work or a reduced working hours arrangement where you can maintain a decent pay but with a lot less stress? Unsure as to your job situation and if it would allow this. But that would be a great supplement to your income with your dividends and rrsp withdrawals!


Cannot see being able to work reduced hours in my current position. However, the wife has suggested I that find another role in the company that has less responsibilities and less stressful. That's somewhat reasonable but my company is kind of in an overall belt tightening and evolution cycle right now so openings are kind of limited. I'm not even sure in my current role if I can survive from being booted off the island. In some ways, getting pushed out is not a worst case scenario as I hear my company provides a fair if not generous severance package. 

I've considered picking up part time work elsewhere but it's kind of scary making that leap. People (me included) generally suffer with what they know instead of embracing the risk that comes with change. I kind of want to hit my 2022 numbers which I consider my safety net and then find a random part time job if just to keep me active.


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## milhouse

TK.61 said:


> One thing that struck me, that I am genuinely curious about is this comment.
> 
> I am curious about the decision (assuming it was a choice) to not have children. Do you regret not having children? How do you feel about it? Did you feel alienated from your friends that had them? You mention it's still TBD so it seems that it is not fully off the table for you two.
> 
> I ask because it is something that I am having an internal battle with. I have always said I don't want children, and don't plan on them, however, there is a small voice inside me that is slowly getting louder telling me to at least consider it.


I do wonder how life would be if we had children earlier. We even had a false alarm.  I'm not sure how practical it would have been for us to have had kids really early on as we were pretty selfish, focusing on our careers, etc. While thinking about having a kid has come into more focus over the last few years, we're still pretty selfish and want to travel. We basically need to make a choice: travel or kids. And I do occasionally feel something is missing in our lives; not completely fulfilled. While I'm not regretting it just yet, one situation that regularly comes to mind is how I helped care for an aunt and uncle that didn't have their own children and that was kind of sad in some ways. Ending up in a similar situation does concern me a bit. Also, my siblings have kids and their kids are all great young adults. They make me want to have kids like them.

Funny that one group of our friends all baby'ed up relatively quickly. However we also have another big group of friends/couples that don't have kids except for one buddy who got divorced. It's just obvious, we hang out with the childless friends more often since we all generally have the freedom to do various activities and travel together. We don't intentionally avoid the friends with kids but it's harder for the parents to free up time for non-kid related activities particularly when both parents are working. There are only so many hours in a day/week and it ends up being all about the kids, which it should be. Parents hang out with parents because there's safety in numbers and economy of scale in terms of supervision. 

I don't know what the right answer is but I think couples should lean towards having kids because it probably is a more fulfilling life. But only if they are ready to make significant lifestyle adjustments to focus on their kids. That's kind of what we're grappling with.


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## OnlyMyOpinion

Children are definately a choice that you must make for your own reasons. There is no right-wrong, only what is right for you as a couple.
I did want to suggest that while they alter your travels, we never felt that they limited them. In many settings children act as a catalyst to get to know local folks better. 
We didn't have multi-month trips since my job limited vacation time to a month at most. But showing the kids the world remains the greatest of our memories. They were scuba diving at the earliest possible age and we used that as our excuse to travel throughout Central America (Mexico, Belize, Guatemla), Caribbean islands, Hawaii, the Galapagos, the Amazon, Machu Picchu, etc. All were self-planned adventures, local accommodations and self-driven (vs all-inclusives/tours).
Great fun.


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## nobleea

In the history of humanity, you could probably count on one hand the number of people who regretted having kids. No one ever thinks they're ready for it. You adapt. But you could find a lot of people who regretted not having kids.
If there is any remote possibility you think you might want kids, you need to get on that wagon now. At your ages, you will definitely need fertility help. We needed the full IVF for both our kids and we were younger when we started (also held off due to traveling, etc). I would say of all our friends, close to 50% of them have needed a visit to the fertility clinic. A few were not successful and ended up adopting (which is even more expensive and time consuming). These are all professional couples who started trying for kids in their mid thirties or later. IVF has come a long way, but it's not a magic bullet. At some point you just can't harvest enough eggs or they don't fertilize properly.

We have not stopped traveling with the kids. Hawaii a couple times, Iceland, Scotland, Mexico, all over CAD/US. They do so well on the plane.


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## Mookie

Hey Milhouse, your retirement plan hinges 100% on whether or not kids are in your future. 

Without kids, I’d say you’re totally on track for retirement at 50, if not sooner. 

With kids, you’d still be fine financially, but it would most likely end up delaying your retirement. There are many costs to raising kids, and they would will also monopolize your time for the next 20+ years, which will most definitely sink your plans to travel 6 months of the year in retirement. Also, think about how old you would be by the time your kid(s) graduate from high school / university. 

I’m 49, and my wife is 48 (and a stay at home mom). Our daughters are now 14 and 16. We probably would have been able to retire by now if we hadn’t had kids, and my wife continued working instead, but I wouldn’t go back and change it if I could. 

You and your wife will have to decide very soon which path works best for you.


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## milhouse

I don't think we'd completely stop travelling if we had kids but the original plan of travelling so much would likely be modified. Kind of hard to tell how well kids would handle travelling if just all the pre-teen years. Plus we're constantly planning our next, if not next two trips months out and have them in the hopper. So we pretty much have to make a decision, stop, and focus. 

Yup, had the fertility and IVF discussion. Haven't looked into IVF in detail yet though.

Also had the discussion about kid and being "old" parents as they go through school. Just as an aside, I was chatting with a coworker who had kids at a pretty young age, around 20yo, and they were pretty much out of the house, going to university around the time he was 40. It was a bit of a struggle early days but he feels good to be a bit "free" while so young. 

I'm not too concerned about the financials of having kid(s) and would still target to try to retire in 2022. The travel buffer that we're kind of building up would just get reallocated.


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## milhouse

*End of August update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.24M. Up about $8k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $345k. Up about $5k for the month. (I kind of rounded bit for the initial post)
Combined investable assets: $1.585M. We had a peak in May but then a fairly bad June. Have not recovered to our May highs yet. Holding our breath for the scary fall months.  

Overall a slightly positive month for us. Our investments were fairly flat to slightly positive. The bulk of my gains were from my savings and work benefits. Her gains were fairly balanced between saving and investments. 

*Spending*
Aug spend: $4900
YTD spend: $30k

August was a somewhat heavy spend month for us. We had a small unexpected home repair. But the bulk of the spend ended up towards a bunch of travel and hotel costs for a vacation in September and a short getaway in October which ended up being 60% of our spend. I think we're still going to be on target for a yearly spend of $45k to $50k pending how much we spend on the ground during our trips. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
55 months to go.


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## My Own Advisor

You're in phenomenal shape millhouse...

What dividend and distribution yield do you think you can live from now? With > $1.5M in investable assets, I would think earning $50-60k per year _pre-tax_ should be easily done without touching the capital.

Killer work.


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## gibor365

My Own Advisor said:


> You're in phenomenal shape millhouse...
> 
> What dividend and distribution yield do you think you can live from now? With > $1.5M in investable assets, I would think earning $50-60k per year _pre-tax_ should be easily done without touching the capital.
> 
> Killer work.


Yes , if all your money in equities,but I wouldn't be comfortable to have all in dividend stocks/equity ETF in retirement. Currently we have 50% in FI and Cash. Without "loans" (or maybe gifts ) to my mom and my son and without my daughter RESP, out total assets = 1.34M, total dividends/interest is about 40K/year


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## gibor365

> Goal to each retire at age 50. Not exactly sure what I'd be doing during the 6 years between my retirement and her retirement.


 Very similar sitution , only we ahead in 5 years... I partially retired at 50, planning fully retire in half year at 51. But my wife is younger than me 8.5 years.... . I plan that she will retire in 8 years when turns 50 or earlier (sometimes she agrees with it, sometimes not ). For now I'm more busy than I was while working full time , don't know what will be in future....
Our older son at last year university and hopefully soon will be completely independend financialy, our daughter is going to grade 11 , so hopefully she will be independend in 6-7 years.... 
Like your wife, mine has DB pension and if she retires at 55 , she will be getting additional 23K per year. Currently , include loans to our son and my mom and RESP), we stand at 1.43M. Fully paid house in GTA , have no idea what is market value.... estimate that at least 800K.
The major challange I have, to prove to my wife to retire at 50 or earlier.
P.S. If you decide to have kid, you don't have to worry what you will be doing in those 6 years lol


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## milhouse

My Own Advisor said:


> You're in phenomenal shape millhouse...
> 
> What dividend and distribution yield do you think you can live from now? With > $1.5M in investable assets, I would think earning $50-60k per year _pre-tax_ should be easily done without touching the capital.
> 
> Killer work.


Not sure if I totally understand the question. But to maintain our current lifestyle which includes a bit of travelling, I think we're needing about $50k/yr +/-$5k. However, we probably could cut our annual spend to $30-35k/yr if we cut out the travel but splurge a bit around town. Combined, our non-registered accounts are forecasted to yield about $26k this year. To hit $50k, the rest of about $30-35k would likely come out of our RRSP's which don't yield a lot. Figuring out how to limit the tax is the other piece of course. 

With $1.5M of investable assets, I think we would be targeting a yield of about $45k/yr. If you're heavier on the equity side of things and focus on yield, yeah I think you can fairly easily get into $50-60k range pretax. However, as gibor365 alludes to, I suspect we'll also trend more towards being more conservative, hold more cash, etc which would put a drag on the yield from the overall portfolio. I was pretty close to 100% equity previously, though the missus wasn't, but I'm trying get it down to around 75%.


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## milhouse

gibor365 said:


> Very similar sitution , only we ahead in 5 years...


Yeah, sounds like it. I would love to watch your progress and get ideas from it. 
While she's a natural saver, my wife isn't into the whole personal finance thing so she doesn't really have her head wrapped around what kind of numbers could support retirement at 50 or earlier either. 



gibor365 said:


> P.S. If you decide to have kid, you don't have to worry what you will be doing in those 6 years lol


Yup, no argument there!


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## gibor365

milhouse said:


> Not sure if I totally understand the question. But to maintain our current lifestyle which includes a bit of travelling, I think we're needing about $50k/yr +/-$5k. However, we probably could cut our annual spend to $30-35k/yr if we cut out the travel but splurge a bit around town. Combined, our non-registered accounts are forecasted to yield about $26k this year. To hit $50k, the rest of about $30-35k would likely come out of our RRSP's which don't yield a lot. Figuring out how to limit the tax is the other piece of course.
> 
> With $1.5M of investable assets, I think we would be targeting a yield of about $45k/yr. If you're heavier on the equity side of things and focus on yield, yeah I think you can fairly easily get into $50-60k range pretax. However, as gibor365 alludes to, I suspect we'll also trend more towards being more conservative, hold more cash, etc which would put a drag on the yield from the overall portfolio. I was pretty close to 100% equity previously, though the missus wasn't, but I'm trying get it down to around 75%.


From my estimation, we need a bit more  , 60K +/- 10% for comportable living. As per The 4% Retirement Withdrawal Rule, 1.5K will be exactly 60K ... I think we can withdraw a bit more until my wife's DB kicks in (when she's 55). Yeap, we coould cut a bit this estimation, just in this case instead of European trip in specific year, we gonna opt for Caribbean one . In 1-2 years I plan to convert all my RRSPs to RRIFs and withdraw non-taxable RRIF minimum, the proceeds will be deposited to a new SRRSP, thus we gonna have a big savings on tax .
FI not always yielding less than equities...just months ago I both 3y GICs at Oaken at 3.05% and 2 y - 2.95%, last year I caught Tangerine promo with 3.25% on HISA....


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## milhouse

*End of September update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.255M. Up just under $15k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $352k. Up about $6k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.607M. New high.

Conditions that helped us out were the strength of the TSX over the last half of September, ongoing strength in the US markets, and the Canadian dollar ending flat for the month after initially showing continued strength. She also had a 3 paycheck month.
This allowed us to recover and surpass our highs in May but some accounts are doing better than others due to asset mix. We are also still holding our breath during the scary fall months. 

Entering the last quarter, I've hit or am slightly exceeding my 2017 targets for my non-registered account (in terms of valuation while dividends are on track) and TFSA. I'm going to need a little bit of ongoing market strength to hit my RRSP and DC pension targets which are both under 2% away. Most my accounts benefited nicely from the conditions I listed above. Her's did too but some accounts dragged a bit due to higher bond fund content. Correspondingly, her non-registered account has already way surpassed its 2017 target, her TFSA is close to its 2017 target, and RRSP is a long way from its 2017 target. 

*Spending*
Sept spend: $3500
YTD spend: $33.5k

September was also a slightly heavier month for us due to our trip and some unexpected somewhat discretionary expenses and some general shopping. The travel spend wasn't too bad since the trip wasn't too long and some of the big travel expenses were pre-paid in August but it still comprised of about a third of our total spend for the month. 

We're currently trending towards a $42k annual spend but I suspect we may still end up around $45k-$50k depending on what additional travel plans pop up. And December, as is likely for many, is always a higher spend month for us.

*Countdown to Retirement*
54 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End of October update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.313M. Up about $58k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $368k. Up about $16.1k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.681M. New high.

This was a very good month for us as I suspect it was for most investors with a big equity allocation. Conditions that helped us out in October were similar from September: Strength of the major equity markets/indices around the world with a special wink to the Nikkei and a weaker loonie. It was also a heavier dividend month for us.

*Portfolio Targets and Goals*
We’ve hit our overall combined investable assets target for the year but obviously need the gains to hold. The great October has helped me hit the targets for each component in my portfolio particularly my RRSP and DC pension which were lagging a bit. She’s hit all of her targets except her RRSP which is bond heavy. It’d be a stretch for her RRSP to hit its 2017 target by the end of the year but other components in her portfolio have more than made up for it overall. 

*Spending*
Sept spend: $2800
YTD spend: $36.3k

October was initially coming in as one of our lighter spend months but a few expenses late in the month kind of blew it up a bit. Our grocery bill was higher than usual as chicken was on sale at Costco (we stocked up and threw them in the freezer) and we hosted a dinner. We also did a small weekend trip and had to pay league fees for some recreational activities. 

With two months to go, I think we’re still currently trending towards a $42k annual spend because December is typically a high spend month for us. Although I was originally expecting our annual spend to end up higher due to a trip at the end of the year, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. It might be a somewhat lighter travel year for us. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
53 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End of November update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.339M. Up about $25k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $375k. Up about $7k for the month.
Combined: $1.714M. New high. 

Overall this was another good month for us. It's hard to complain when the portfolio goes up. 
The bulk of the gains for my portfolio initially came from my non-registered account which primarily holds Canadian dividend growth stocks. However, a combined late month surge in the US markets and weakening loonie provided some growth to the rest of my portfolio (RRSP, TFSA, and DC pension) and her portfolio (Non-registered account, RRSP, and TFSA) which otherwise would have been flat or just slightly positive for the month. 

I also did a bit of housekeeping in my non-registered portfolio by dumping a couple of legacy non-core (ie. non-dividend growth) stocks and buying in a bit more of ENB during the hit they took this month. 

*Portfolio Targets and Goals*
Overall, we've had a good 2017 so far and have hit nearly all of our 2017 targets which I'll review in December's summary. The only one lagging is her RRSP account which has lagged due to the bond fund content. 
Although a Santa Claus rally would be nice, I think we'd be more than happy even with a flat December. 

*Spending*
November spend: $2400
YTD spend: $38.8k

This was one of our lower spending months without any of the large annual bills or surprises. We did however make a couple of purchases during Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping events. 
I suspect our final tally for the year will be between $42-43k as I think we'll be booking some flight costs in December's spend for 2018 travel plans. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
In my original post, I identified some anxieties I had around shaky employment status. Well, the axe came down and a bunch of folks got canned from my office this past month. I survived the cuts (so far) but it's obviously not a great feeling seeing people you've worked with for many years get let go. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
52 months to go.


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## Dilbert

Good to hear you survived at work so far. Good call on the ENB, I don’t think you can go wrong with that one IMHO.


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## milhouse

Thanks. It's kind of a strange time at work right now to say the least.

Kind of hoping that we can look back at ENB a year or so from now and say it was a great buying opportunity. They've obviously kind of put themselves in a difficult situation with their dividend guidance. Hoping they have steadied the ship in terms of expectations and that going forward, surprises will be more positive.


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## milhouse

*End of December Update, Year End Summary, and 2018 Targets*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.334M. Down approximately $5k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $373k. Down about $2k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.707M. (Previous high Nov 2017.)

Overall, this was slightly negative month for us even though most of the indices were up for the month. We were likely impacted by a stronger loonie which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. My non-registered account, which holds Canadian dividend growth stocks, was flat/up slightly, mainly from the month’s dividend payments. All other accounts were basically flat or down a bit. 
Going forward, in my spreadsheet, I’m going to track the USD value of the portfolios to provide me with a more broader view to how our portfolios are doing. 

*Portfolio Targets and Goals*
Overall, we’ve had a very good 2017. We hit all of our targets except the missus’ RRSP account which hold a lot of fixed income. 

I’m not planning on making major changes to my portfolio in 2018 other than some minor portfolio tweaks. 
It’s pretty much steady as she goes. Hoping to hit $30k in dividends in my Non-registered portfolio in 2018. And while it’s a bit of a stretch target, it’d be nice to have my portfolio hit $1.5M overall.

My Portfolio

2016 Actual2017 Target2017 Actual2018 TargetRetirement (Rough) GoalCash (soft target)29k18k18.3k20k30kNon-Registered551k632k675k749k1.1MRRSP293k317k326k351k450kTSFA65.8k75.6k80.7k91.3k135kDC Pension204k228k233k259k350kTotal1.143M1.270M1.334M1.471M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends2096125000253803000050000

Her Portfolio and Combined Totals

2017 Actual2018 TargetCash (soft target)48.8k40kNon-Registered175.4k202kRRSP75.4k82kTFSA70.0k80kMisc Pension3.8k4.0k(DB Pension)TBDTBDTotal373k408kOur Combined Totals1.707M1.879M


*Spending*
Dec spend: $6625
2017 total spend: $45.9k

December was a heavy spend month for us as expected with the gifts and eating out but it was higher than originally anticipated. We ended up paying for flights and some accommodations for a trip in 2018 but we also bought a trip for the in-laws as a gift. Conversely, we did not buy much at all during the Boxing Day sales. 

We roughly estimate our yearly spend to be around $50k so anything under is generally a win. 


2016 Actual2017 Estimate2017 Actual2018 EstimateFood & Eating Out13.0k13.0k1190012.7kHousing & Utilities10.6k11.0k1010012.5kTransportation3.9k4.0k41004.5kPersonal5.3k5.0k88006.0kEntertainment1.0k1.0k18002.1kTravel10.4k10-18k920010-18kTotal44.2k44-52k45.9k48-56k

Food & Eating Out: Our grocery bill this year was higher. Unfortunately, I didn’t track our purchases detailed enough to identify if a particular product was the culprit but I suspect meat prices were notably higher. However, our eating our bill was significantly lower. This was likely due to working at home more and going out for a meal with friends a bit less. 
For 2018, I’ve estimated it to be higher than 2017 to account for food inflation.

Housing and Utilities: Bills edged up but the overall spend for this category came in a bit lower this year as last we bought a new washer for around $1000.
For 2018, I’ve factored in a new appliance as our stove is a bit wonky and a new cell phone (I put cell phone hardware and plan costs under utilities). I’m hoping to pick up a discounted 2017 model when the 2018 models come out. 

Transportation: We ended up spending a bit more on fuel, maintenance, and insurance this year but a bit less on parking and car sharing. 
I’ve accounted for higher fuel and insurance costs in 2018. 

Personal: This category spiked primarily due to the flights we purchased the in-laws as a gift. 
I’m assuming it will trend back down in 2018. 

Entertainment: The entertainment spend spiked a bit because we ended up joining an organized activity this year. 
I estimate fees will be going up in 2018. It’s pretty much all discretionary spend here so we could cut back if we needed.

Travel: While we did travel a few times this year, the trip were far less extensive and correspondingly less expensive than previous years. 
We currently have 1 trip on the go for 2018 and have a couple of annual getaways scheduled. The rest of the year we’ll play it by ear depending on what deals materialize and how easily we can get away from work. 

*House Value*
2016 Assessment: $1.532M
2017 Assessment: $1.512M

Was able to view online our July 2017 Assessment used for our 2018 tax bill and it looks like the value of our house has gone down about $20k. From a practical perspective, this should be a good thing as it will hopefully prevent our property taxes from spiking and keep us within the limits of the home owner’s grant. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Heading into 2018, overall, I think we're in a good place. 
However, job security fears and anticipation of a market correction continue to concern us. 
Miscellaneous goals for 2018: The standard "lose weight/get healthier" goal. Partake in and enjoy all the activities and festivals around town a bit more. Try to look at the portfolio less frequently. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
51 months to go.


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## Ihatetaxes

Great year Milhouse. We are similar age and similar timeframe to retirement so interesting to read about your progress. Good luck reaching your goals in 2018!


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## milhouse

Thanks. Good luck on your stretch run too, IHT.


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## Steve Divi

Great progress Milhouse!

Quick question, how did use a spreadsheet format with your estimates and actual on a chart like that?

Cheers


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## milhouse

Steve Divi said:


> Great progress Milhouse!
> 
> Quick question, how did use a spreadsheet format with your estimates and actual on a chart like that?
> 
> Cheers


Hi Steve. I used a site with a table code generator. I enter numbers in a wysiwyg table on the webpage, it spits out the UBB code, and I copy and paste the code into my message. You can also use additional UBB code to mark up the table differently but I'm too lazy to look it up and just use the default format the that site's tool spits out. 
Hope this helps.


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## milhouse

*End of January 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.342M. Up about $7.5k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $381k. Up about $7k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.722M. New high.

There were a lot of moving parts this month, not necessarily running in synch. My taxable portfolio was pretty negative for the month due it's Canadian dividend growers composition even with the heavy dividend payouts for the month. The hot US markets helped offset the declines in my taxable account even with a strong loonie for the month. International and EM were fairly good for us too. Our portfolios were flying during mid January until the broader pullback in the latter half of the month. 
On the positive side, the strong loonie did make our gains look stronger in terms of US greenbacks though. 

TFSA's for 2018 purchased.
I restructured my TFSA from legacy low cost index mutual funds to a standard mix of index ETF's. 
The missus just added to her balanced fund. 

The missus also added an EM ETF to her taxable account.

*Spending*
Jan spend: $2270
YTD spend: $2270

Overall, January spend was ok but there were a couple of categories of high / unexpected spends. Kind of ate out too much. We also typically don't spend a lot on parking but due to circumstances we had to pay for 3 days of expensive parking which ended up being the equivalent of almost half our entire parking spend in all of 2017. It's slightly misleading though in that our parking spend would otherwise end up in transit costs or car sharing costs. I also purchased a new set of glasses which will be partially reimbursed through benefits later. 

February is going to be one of our heavier spend months with our first property tax installment due. We may also book some additional travel. Expecting the spend to be in the $4-5k range next month.

*Countdown to Retirement*
50 months to go. Somewhat of a round number milestone but it's actually 50.5 months to go since I plan to retire mid-month.


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## milhouse

*End of February 2018 Update*

*End of February 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.346M. Up about $4.6k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $383k. Up about $2.1k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.729M. New high*.

The flash correction in the first half of February took us back to September 2017 levels with none of our equity investments (Canadian dividend growers and Global ETF’s) being spared. The corresponding recovery during the latter half of the month was most beneficial to my RRSP, DC Pension, TFSA (all a mix of global ETF’s) which hit new highs with some help from a weaker loonie as well. My taxable account containing Canadian dividend growers also recovered ok with the help of some stars balancing some laggards. However, the last 2 (down) market days for February essentially flattened our investment gains for the month so that only our income->savings really increased our overall investable assets. 
Although we reached a new high in terms of CAD, relatively speaking we were significantly down in terms of USD value. 

I did try to take advantage of the market turmoil by adding a bit to my Canadian dividend growers in my taxable account.

*Spending*
Jan spend correction: From $2270 to $2630
Feb spend: $4760
YTD spend: $7390

Slight correction to our January spend as I forgot to include some spends. 
Overall, February was an overall high spend month. This was primarily due to our advanced property tax payment but we also had some pre-trip (booking) travel costs. Without these heavy costs, our monthly spend was a more reasonable $1380. 
Our spend is fairly on track with all major categories lower to this point compared to last year other than travel related costs. We’re kind of trending to spending about $40k this year based on current and expected spends but it’s too early to really accurately forecast. 

March will hopefully be a relatively light spend month in terms core day to day spends but will include some additional pre-trip booking bills. I’m expecting March to come in around $2-3k.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Things feel like they've been stabilized a bit at work with people concentrating on the goals for 2018. It's nice to just put your head down and concentrate on the tasks at hand instead of waiting for the another shoe to drop.
I'm also looking into a side business. Not sure how successful it will be. I'm looking at it more as a fun hobby that I might be able to grow enough to keep me busy when I "retire" and wait for the missus to retire. I don't expect it to generate any serious income like moving my targeted retirement date forward. Realistically, I'm just hoping it will generate enough to cover some basic operational costs with anything beyond that a bonus. Start up costs might impact our March spend. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
49.5 months to go. Mini-milestone of 1500 days left occurring early in March.


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## habsfan59

Good day MilHouse,

I have been following your thread and found your progress very interesting, keep the good work...! From my perspective, you should not have too much to worry about when your retirement date arrives. 

I retired in 2015 (55yrs) and my wife in 2016 (55yrs) and so far we are enjoying every moment. If I have one regret, and knowing what we know now, we could have retired few years prior to 2015/2016, but we had no crystal ball....! All to say, when the time arrives don't look back and jump in the retirement bandwagon. 

Cheers,


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## milhouse

Hi habsfan.
The markets have overall been fairly good to us over the last decade with a couple of reasonable bumps in the road here and there. Fingers crossed that things stay relatively on track. However, I'm also trying to rationalize that if I do get pushed out of my job to just embrace the opportunity it may give me to potentially start retirement earlier. 

Congrats on the success and enjoyment of your retirement so far. Even though you may have delayed starting, it's probably provides a nice peace of mind.


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## Steve Divi

Great work!


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## milhouse

Thanks. I've got mixed feelings though with the chunk of gains coming from a weaker loonie though.


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## My Own Advisor

No liabilities or debt...and....

"Savings and Investments
My investable assets: $1.346M. Up about $4.6k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $383k. Up about $2.1k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.729M. New high*."

Even if you lived off $1.3 M - that's not enough?

Simply stellar work in your mid-40s.


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## milhouse

Thanks. We've had some favourable circumstances. And the markets have been great but you never know when they'll turn. 

Yes, $1.3M is likely enough for us to maintain our current lifestyle which is, in the grand scheme of things, comfortable enough for us. But we want to travel a bit more and not have to watch our spend as closely. 
Both our families didn't have a ton of money growing up so I think that's kind of psychologically make us want to grow our nest egg more to give us a large "margin of error".


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## My Own Advisor

What's your portfolio look like millhouse? Asset allocation? % of Canadian dividend paying stocks to % of U.S. dividend paying stocks (if any); ETFs, etc?

Curious to compare notes


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## milhouse

My mix is kind horrible IMO and I would't suggest anyone to follow it as. However, with the rising markets it's done ok for what I need it to do.

My portfolio is roughly as follows:

Cash ~2%

Non-Registered ~49%
I don't want to get into specific equities but safe to say it's not a very diversified set of holdings. (I'm sure I'll regret it once commodities rebound.) The primary holdings (in no particular order) are: 
Canadian financials, Canadian pipelines, Canadian utilities, Canadian telecoms, Canadian restaurants, and a small set of miscellaneous additional Canadian and a couple of US dividend payers (>2%). The goal in my non-registered is to build up my Canadian dividend payers and last year I finally cleared out all the remaining speculative stuff I've bought over the years. I've considered buying more US dividend growers.​
TFSA, RRSP, DC Pension ~49%
- US ETF (XUU) / Index ~ 25%
- EAFE ETF (XEF) / Index ~ 50%
- EM ETF (XEC) / Index ~ 10%
- Bonds (ZAG) / Index ~ 15%
(ETF as listed for my TFSA and RRSP but an equivalent Index fund for my DC Pension plan which has its own selection of funds)

I kind of messed up on my rebalancing in January (long story) and didn't intend for my US percentage to be that light. I might bump it up still.
With my non-registered account holding the bulk of my Canadian mix, I cleared all the Canadian equity content from my registered accounts. 
One regret is that I didn't hold enough US content in the last few years and my portfolio didn't reap the gains as it could have.
I also get that I'm getting a bit of drag by hold XUU instead of something like ITOT in my registered accounts but kind of lazy doing the USD thing.​


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## My Own Advisor

Interesting, thanks for sharing that. I'm doing somewhat of the same:

-Canadian dividend payers in my non-reg. account exclusively (no U.S. stocks at all).

That's after TFSAs and RRSPs are full. 

But...I use my TFSAs almostly exclusively to hold CDN dividend paying stocks and REITs - and therefore I'm likely too overweight in Canada. I therefore need to use my RRSP more for U.S. and international assets - and I intend to.


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## milhouse

One thing I'm considering doing closer to retirement, at the risk of also further increasing my overloaded Canadian content, is converting my TFSA to Canadian Financials and REIT's to generate additional cash flow which would just be reinvested and/or build up cash reserves. 

To try to balance this a bit, after retirement, I've been pondering the best way to draw down my RRSP and DC pension (which should still be US, EAFE, EM, but with a heftier bond component) and use any "extra" funds to rebuild a similar, albeit smaller, position in the unregistered account for the sake of geographical diversity. 

I dunno, I'm kind of all over the place but I still have a couple of years to figure this out. In the mean time, I've been keen on reading up on ideas around decumulation / retirement income strategies.


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## milhouse

*End of March 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.336M. Down about $10k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $385k. Up about $2.9k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.721M. Down about $8k 

During the first half of March, things were recovering nicely from the February flash correction. In fact, we reached new highs mid-month. 
However, Trump’s tariffs and corresponding threats of a trade war did a bit of a number on our portfolios during the last half of the month. Overall, each component of my portfolio, other than savings, was down a bit for the month. The misses’ portfolio was mixed but ended up positive likely due to a combination of a larger bond component in her portfolio and her savings. 

I think the loonie ended up fairly flat for the month so the impact to our portfolio relative the USD dollar was mainly negligible. 

*Spending*
Feb spend correction: From $4760 to $4860
Mar spend: $2770
YTD spend: $10260

Slight correction to our February spend as I forgot to include a cash donation. 
March spending was slightly on the higher end of my expected target of $2-3k. Our eating out spend was on the high side, in part due to taking an out of town guest out for dinner. We also did some annual spring lawn care, spent a few dollars on some consumer purchases, and paid for some additional pre-trip travel bookings.

At the quarter mark for the year, we’ve spend more in Q1-2018 than the previous 4 Q1’s other than 2015 where had some health related costs. Interestingly, expanding out our Q1-2018 spend for the full year ($41k) would be the lowest annual spend for the past 5 years. Basically, this means we typically spend more in the latter half of the year which isn’t a complete surprise as I think we go out (and spend more) when the weather is nice in the summer and December is a high spend month for us with time off and spending during the holidays. 

April is generally one of the highest spend months for us due to house and car insurance renewals and an income tax bill. There will likely be some additional pre-trip booking bills too. I’m expecting April to come in around $4.5k-6k.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
I still haven’t taken the plunge on the side business yet. Not really sure what’s holding me back. If I do go ahead, start-up costs will impact April’s spend.
I’m kind of unsure what my 2017 income tax bill will end up being. As anticipated, my tax bill has steadily grown as my dividend income has grown. With hopefully 4 years left to go, it would be interesting to understand what the tax bill will look like during this stretch run. I tried entering my numbers in Taxtips.ca’s calculators but I can’t seem to match up their results (which end up significantly higher than) with my actual previous years' submissions using Turbotax. I’ll likely try to give our 2017 taxes an initial run through this week. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
48.5 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End of April 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*

My investable assets: $1.355M. Up about $19k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $387k. Up about $1.5k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.746M. Up about $20.5k for the month.

Although we hit an end of month new high, we still had higher numbers mid-March before Trump started talking tariffs. April seemed to be a choppy month for us but would have ended up flat if not for some key gains in my non-registered account (CDN dividend growers) and DC pension (large EAFE component). Her portfolio was pretty flat all around with very small gains all over except her RRSP (bond heavy) which was negative.
Savings took a bit of a hit with the heavy spend month and tax bill. 

The loonie was slightly up against the greenback which correspondingly slightly helped boost our portfolio's value in USD terms. 

Looking forward, I typically put a lump sum in my RRSP once I get my tax assessment back and see what my RRSP limit is for 2018. So, my liquid savings will take another hit in May or June even though the impact should be portfolio neutral. Not sure what to buy but am leaning towards increasing my EM ETF holdings. 

*Spending*
April Spend: $4850
YTD Spend: $15100

April is normally one of our higher spending months due to car and home insurance. Excluding these large expenses, our spend came in around $2000 which was a bit high but within expectations. Our eating out spend was again a bit culprit but so were a few $50 spends here and there that added up. Our total monthly spend of $4850 was on the low end of my April estimate as we didn't pay for any of pre-trip bookings, which will now show up in May, and I didn't start the business yet. 

Although I track it, I normally don't include our tax bill as part of our spend. The missus had to pay a few dollars for the first time in years. This was likely due to some new taxable benefits at work and some yields from her non-registered account.
As expected, I ended up having to pay about $1800 due to my growing dividend yield in my non-registered account. I'm forecasting my tax top up to steadily grow to about $6000 in 4 years. And once I retire, it should drop off noticeably. 

May is going to be another high spend month due to all the travel costs. I don't totally mind this because travel is where we want to focus our discretionary spend on. I'm estimating May to come in around $4500 to $5500. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
At the risk of stating the obvious, gains seem so much harder to come by this year compared to last year. 
All the stress from the job uncertainty at work has now transitioned to the stress of making sure I don't mess up the high profile tasks I'm working on. 
At least I'm enjoying the nicer weather and longer daylight hours. 
The side business is going to have to wait until June. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
47.5 months to go. Finally below the 4 year mark.


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## AltaRed

Be sure to enjoy your 4 year journey to the end and don't obsess with the numbers too much. IOW, quit worrying about month to month fluctuations.

Using the VPW table http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Variable_percentage_withdrawal table, at age 50 and a 50/50 asset allocation, you could withdraw 4.1% of your current $1.746 million portfolio in that first year of retirement..... or $71,000 and essentially never run out of money. 

Build that to $2M in 4 more years (a mere 13% growth from here and most likely a slam dunk with no additional contributions - absence a major recession/bear market) and you have over $80,000 to spend on everything (including income taxes) in that first year of retirement. VPW methodology simply says that you be flexible in your annual spend depending on portfolio value at the beginning of each year.


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## milhouse

I'm trying not to "scoreboard" obsess too much, AR. But I am a bit on pins and needles about encountering retirement on a recession / bear market after the long run we've been on. 
The missus says not to stress about work. I wouldn't mind getting offered a separation package closer to my target retirement year but I'd still like to hit my numbers. In the mean time, we're trying to make full use of our vacation time by travelling as much as we can.


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> I'm trying not to "scoreboard" obsess too much, AR. But I am a bit on pins and needles about encountering retirement on a recession / bear market after the long run we've been on.


That is always a risk of course but that is the beauty of VPW methodology. You stay within the percentage from the table using the portfolio value at the beginning of the year. Even if you temporarily 'lost' a quarter of your portfolio with a 2008/2009 type crisis at age 50, you'd still be fine based on today's numbers. 

I retired 12 years and 2 days ago (Apr 30, 2006) at age 57. Went through a divorce soon after as part of the plan AND the 2008/2009 crisis with a 30% dip in my portfolio, and came out the back end all right. A bit of a nail biter for sure since I didn't know as much as I do now, but I basically implemented VPW without really knowing about it, i.e. stayed with the discipline of what I could withdraw (4% and used fixed income when equity was down) and everything worked out. Anyone can manage within a $2 million portfolio without much difficulty. A cash separation package at the same time would be cream on that pudding.


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## like_to_retire

AltaRed said:


> I retired 12 years and 2 days ago (Apr 30, 2006)


Sounded familiar, so I looked my date up. Exactly the same. We're twins.

ltr


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## tinypotato

I'm not sure there is any need to worry.

Assuming you get 3% yield, on a $1.75M portfolio that generates around $53K a year in income. So a spend of ~$50K doesn't even touch the principal. A downturn in the market value of the portfolio would be somewhat irrelevant, unless distributions are cut / stopped or you increase your spend significantly.


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## milhouse

What's with this April retirements? I was originally thinking about midyear but April is great too with us inching towards summer with longer days and better weather. 

I don't want to come off as unappreciative because we're very grateful for having key opportunities in life. $50k a year has allowed us to live a very comfortable life and travel fairly regularly. So, I couldn't complain if we were able to replicate our current lifestyle in retirement. But it would be very nice to be able to generate more income to allow us to travel more and have the means for a little more flexibility as we grow older, like staying at a little more comfortable place than the very budget places we usually stay at. And I've had certain goals in mind for a while so it would kind of be a bit of letdown not meeting them though I'm sure we'd able to more than make do otherwise.

I'm trying to reduce stress in life so I'd like to have a lot of buffer in the financial plan to be able to tackle a lot of "what if's". (The missus is even more paranoid.)
I'm seriously not sure how I would have handled it mentally if I had to go through a divorce and then take a portfolio hit from the Great Recession like you AR. Props to you as you seem to be on great footing going on 12 years now! 
I looked at the VPW when you guys first mentioned it. I need to research it in more detail to feel more comfortable with it.


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## AltaRed

All I am saying is that a $2 million portfolio at age 50 would give one a wide range of options. VPW is pretty bullet proof and thus 4.1% with 50/50 stocks/bonds is $80k/year. You will easily get to $2 million, perhaps just by portfolio growth alone, never mind additional contributions, over the next 47 months. Perhaps $2.5 million. That is quite a bit of flexibility.

The key benefit of VPW is that your annual 'withdrawal' varies with the performance of the portfolio. If it is down 30% one year due to a deep bear market, you simply withdraw 30% less that year for cash flow spending. If there is an exceptionally good year, don't withdraw the full VPW allotment that year.... It simply stays in the portfolio working for you.... or spend more that year on a nice trip. 

There are many years where I don't withdraw my full VPW allotment because markets have been good. Granted I do have a partial DB pension that gives me some cash flow underpinning my spending needs, but that allows me to have a 85/15 equity/bond portfolio instead of a 60/40 or something else.


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## My Own Advisor

"Build that to $2M in 4 more years (a mere 13% growth from here and most likely a slam dunk with no additional contributions - absence a major recession/bear market) and you have over $80,000 to spend on everything (including income taxes) in that first year of retirement."

Like AR mentioned, unless you have expensive tastes...$80k per year to spend in retirement is very good money/income, and that income will only go higher via VPW over time.


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## AltaRed

There is also a very good chance depending on contributions and market performance for the OP to have $2.5M plus by the time he retires. Not many can aspire to that level of capital assets at retirement.


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## milhouse

Thinking about the upside and trending can be fun but I feel it's kind of a moot point until you get there. Unfortunately, I tend to focus too much on the tripping hazards. Definitely hoping to get to $2-2.5M though. 

Considering we already have a great lifestyle at $50k/yr, yes topping up to $80k/yr would make it very comfortable. Our vice though is travelling which can easily burn though a lot of cash, though we can obviously cut back on this discretionary spend during any lean years.


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> Our vice though is travelling which can easily burn though a lot of cash, though we can obviously cut back on this discretionary spend during any lean years.


Oh yes, that can burn through money. We have been spending about $35-50k per year traveling in recent years.......


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## AltaRed

Dreams said:


> That's pretty impressive. Now you just inspired me.


The key is to decide what is likely to be important to you during retirement and what sacrifices, if any, one is prepared to make, to make the retirement goals/dreams happen. We didn't aspire to ownership of vacation properties in exotic places, or even a snowbird location in southern USA or Central America. We wanted to see some of the world..... Hence the making of our plan. 

Thus develop a plan for what you expect your normal day-to-day living to be and the investment portfolio needed to support that, and then develop your wish list and the plans to potentially make that happen. Some folk will be able to achieve that, and others may not be able to do it.


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## BryanBouchard

Great job. There are some solid strategies and advice in the above comments, so I won't repeat! Just wanted to congratulate you on your acquisitions so far, especially for 45 years old.

Your 5-year retirement goal seems well within reach, if not earlier. My advice is to spend less time thinking about the financial impact of retirement (because of the strength of your portfolio), and focus on what you want to do with your time. Design your ideal life for the both of you, and when you have it figured out, I believe that will be the time to pull the plug and pursue your passions. I think you can and should both 'retire' before 50, but that doesn't have to mean you no longer work! Do what brings you joy and fulfillment, my friend.

Cheers.
Bryan


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## milhouse

*End of May 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*

My investable assets: $1.357M. Up about $2k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $393k. Up about $6k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.751M. Up about $8.6k for the month.

My investments were pretty flat. Most "interesting" change was that my DC pension which was heavy on EAFE took a bit of a hit at the end of the month with the Europe/Italy situation. Other parts of the index side of my portfolio performed better and balanced out the EAFE negativeness. 
Her portfolio was less impacted as she has less EAFE exposure. 

The loonie was a bit weaker, likely due to NAFTA/tariff issues so our portfolio was down a bit in terms of USD. 

I didn't get a chance to add to my RRSP in May. Will do that in June. 

*Spending*
May Spend: $5250
YTD Spend: $20350

May was our highest spend month to date due to travel expenses but was within my expected range. Without our travel related costs, we spent about $1800 (though it's not really an accurate representation since we would have spend more locally if we weren't travelling.)
Due to the high spend in May, our full year spend is now trending to $44k. 

A further breakdown of our travel spend.
Total trip spend was ~$5050. 
This did not include souvenirs, which were primarily food items we brought back, and gifts. Those totals got entered into regular spend categories like food, clothing, and gifts. 
Note that all of the airfares were paid in previous months. 
Total vacation days = 17 days. ~8 cities (5 home bases + 3 day or overnight trips).
This breaks down to about $300/day (including airfare, local transportation, accommodations, food, attractions, mobile data, etc) which is pretty bang on what I'm estimating for _some_ of my retirement travel estimates. Eg. I have a higher estimate for cruising. 
Due to the number of cities, it was very go-go-go but we enjoyed it. Some of the cities were repeats so those were pretty relaxed and comfortable in terms of being familiar with things we wanted to do. 

Airfare (3 different tix covering 6 different segments) ~ $1680
Transportation (train pass and local buses, streetcars, subways, Ubers/Grabs, and ferries) ~ $975
Accommodations (14 nights) ~ $1536. Some nights on redeye flights.
Food ~ $770. Most of the hotels included breakfast. 
Activities ~$2. We didn't do much in terms of paid activities. 
Misc (sim cards, laundry, etc) ~$80

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Still didn't start the business yet. Going to try to get it going this month but might get pushed to July since it's going to be a busy June.
I'm becoming less confident that we're going to hit our portfolio targets for the year. We're meeting our savings targets but returns aren't trending well for us. 
Work is nuts. 
Need to plan for another trip for the fall. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
46.5 months to go. Going to hit the 200 week mark in June.


----------



## milhouse

BryanBouchard said:


> Great job. There are some solid strategies and advice in the above comments, so I won't repeat! Just wanted to congratulate you on your acquisitions so far, especially for 45 years old.
> 
> Your 5-year retirement goal seems well within reach, if not earlier. My advice is to spend less time thinking about the financial impact of retirement (because of the strength of your portfolio), and focus on what you want to do with your time. Design your ideal life for the both of you, and when you have it figured out, I believe that will be the time to pull the plug and pursue your passions. I think you can and should both 'retire' before 50, but that doesn't have to mean you no longer work! Do what brings you joy and fulfillment, my friend.
> 
> Cheers.
> Bryan


I'm going to end up retiring a couple of years before the missus and she's already nagging me about what my activities will be if I retire. It's kind of the reason I talk about setting up the side business in my month updates as a bit of a flexible hobby. Once she retires, I'd like us to travel more. Our recent 2 week trip was pretty on the go but I enjoyed so much of it and wasn't ready for it to end just yet as some trips sometimes feel like they drag on a bit.


----------



## milhouse

*End of June 2018 Update with Midyear Status*

*Savings and Investments*

My investable assets: $1.382M. Up about $24k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $398k. Up about $5k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.780M. Up about $30k for the month.

My portfolio seemed to have solid results across the board. Most notably, my non-registered account which is nearly all Canadian dividend growers provided a lot of lift with the TSX finally rallying a bit. The index side of my portfolio performed great until a late month swoon. It also took advantage of the hit the loonie took over the month until its own late month rally. This was reflected in the value of my portfolio in USD which was only up $3k USD compared to $24k CAD. What gave me a bit of hope for the year is that I hit a mid-month high of $1.395M until the late month fizzle. 

I finally got around to contributing to my RRSP and put nearly all of my 2018 contribution in the bond index ETF ZAG to get the fixed income portion back up to 25%. 
I also finally fixed my DC pension which was EAFE heavy and had it adjusted to 25% bond index and the remaining 75% spread across US and International fund options. 

Her portfolio generally had small gains across the board with a chunk of it coming from savings. 


My Portfolio2017 Actual2018 to end of Q22018 TargetRetirement (Rough) GoalCash (soft target)18.3k16.7k20k30kNon-Registered 675k688k749k1100kRRSP326k346k351k450kTFSA80.7k87.7k91.3k135kDC Pension233k244k259k350kTotal1.334M1.382M1.471M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends25380145003000050000

With dividend re-investments and some more additional purchases during the year, I think I'm going to be close to hitting my target for $30k of dividends this year. 


2017 Actual2018 to end of Q22018 TargetCombined Totals1.707M1.780M1.879M

Gains have been harder to come by this year along with a bunch more volatility.

*Spending*
June Spend: $2430
YTD Spend: $22790

June was going to be a very light spend under $2000 until we decided to do some optional repairs on the house. 
Other large expenses like insurance are behind us with only the second property tax installment due in July. I expect July to come in around $4500 to $5000. I suspect our discretionary spends like eating out and entertainment will rise with us taking advantage of the nicer weather. 


2017 Actual2017 to Date*2018 Full Year Trend2018 Original ForecastFood & Eating Out1190051001020012700Housing & Utilities1010061001120012500Transportation4100280037004500Personal8800270054006000Entertainment180015015002100Travel920059001190010000-18000Total45.9k22750*4390048000-56000

* Some rounded numbers

Food & Eating Out: We’re trending on target with our food and eating out spend. With the nice summer weather we’ll likely eat out a bit more and December is usually a higher spend month.

Housing and Utilities: We’re fairly on track with our housing and utilities spend. It’s a mixed bag with property taxes slightly lower due to our assessment going down a bit, electrical bill also down a bit, and everything else (gas bill, tv, internet, and phone) going up a bit.

Transportation: We’re slightly under budget even though insurance and gas are more expensive. It’s partly due to going on a few less road trips, using car sharing a bit less, and being a bit late on our car maintenance. 

Personal: We’re fairly on track with our spend as December will be a heavy gift month. 

Entertainment: We’re currently way under forecast on our entertainment budget but we’ll spend more on activities with the nice summer weather and when more league fees hit in the fall. 

Travel: We’re trending fairly on budget with our travel spend. Need to find a trip for the fall. We haven’t had the chance to do a lot of weekend getaways type trips this year. 

Don't want to jinx it but if we can stay under $44k for the year, it will be our lowest spend of the past 5 years which is how long I've been tracking detailed spending info. Realistically, I don't think we'll end up the year below $44k but am confident we'll be below $50k barring anything crazy..

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Still didn't start the business yet. The missus says I should just do it. 
Work is still nuts. 
Looking forward to enjoying summer around town.

*Countdown to Retirement
*45.5 months to go. I should have about 100 paychecks left to go now.


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## milhouse

*End of July 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.416M. Up about $34k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $406k. Up about $8k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.822M. Up about $42k for the month.

Always cool to break some round number milestones as I finally broke the $1.4M mark, she broke the $400k mark, and combined us breaking $1.8M.
My portfolio benefited from solid results across the board combined with and a heavy dividend month. There was enough of a surge to mid-month that the late month volatility didn’t take away too much of the gains. The stronger loonie also allowed for the gains to be reflected well in USD too. 

Her portfolio also had gains across the board but with the weakest coming from her bond heavy RRSP. The weak returns in her RRSP is usually a point of discussion between us but the bond allocation is proper IMO due to her risk tolerance. I'm going to review her asset allocation but don't expect much to change. 

*Spending*
July Spend: $4350
YTD Spend: $27140

July came in slightly under the lower end of our expected spend. While we were out and about a lot to enjoy the summer, we didn't spend too much. Comparatively, we spent a chunk more last year because we entertained some out of town guests. July included the last of our major bills for the year, 2nd property tax installment. We'll likely have 2 more heavy spend months from hopefully booking an autumn trip and December being usually an expensive month. 

Barring any vacation bookings, August should hopefully come in relatively light even though we’ll continue spending a lot time going to all the festivals, events, and happenings around town. I'm guessing it will end up around $1800-$2300. Last August we spend close to $5000 do to travel bookings but would have come in around $2000 otherwise. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Still didn't start the side business yet. 
Work is somewhat humming along if not a bit quiet with a lot of people off for holidays.
The weather in Vancouver has been great and we’ve been trying to enjoy all the events happening around town. Kind of sad we're past what we consider the midpoint of summer.
Still looking for a deal for a fall trip. There have been a couple of ideas off of YVRdeals. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
44.5 months to go. Still feels far but in the grand scheme of things, I suppose it's not.


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## My Own Advisor

Great work millhouse.

I wanted to ask you a few questions if you don't mind....

re: your "Current Annual Spend
$45k-$52k depending on how much we travel.
Food & Eating Out ~ $13k
Housing and Utilities ~ $11k
Transportation ~ $4k
Personal ~ $5k
Entertainment ~ $1k
Travel ~ $10-18k"

For comparison, no kids, two cats in Ottawa:

Needs per month – Home ($1400) = 
Home maintenance ($300 per month)
Property taxes ($350 per month)
Home (core) utilities (heat, hydro, water) ($325 per month)
Home insurance ($125 per month)
Internet ($100 per month)
Cell phones ($100 per month)
Contingency/buffer (TV?) ($100 per month)

_How do you manage < $12k per year on housing-related items without any home maintenance/improvements?
_

Also, impressed you can get by on $1k in entertainment. 

More impressed you have only $4k in auto expenses. Just one car?

For us:
Car insurance x2 vehicles ($150 per month)
Car maintenance x2 vehicles ($100 per month; average over many years of tires, brakes, etc.)
Car gas (~$200 per month or about $50 per week)
_____________
$450 per month or close to $5,400 per year for 2 cars to operate, debt-free as well with no payments.


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## milhouse

For household:
We've been lucky in that we have not been "forced" to do lot of repairs and replacements around the house as we've been able to work around some issues. Most repairs have been in $100 range with the odd $500-1000 repair/replacement happening roughly every 2 years. We also have a relative that's kind of a handy man who does a lot of the repairs for us on the cheap. We buy him gifts and take him out for dinner so some of the costs kind of indirectly fall under other categories. However, the water heater tank likely needs to be replaced in a year or two, the fridge is making weird sounds, we're encountering some problems with the stove, the fence likely needs some TLC, etc. I can see our spend spiking if everything breaks at once. 
We also don't buy a lot of furniture and most of it has been pretty durable. But, if we get around to it, we'll upgrade some pieces around the house in the upcoming years though if we don't have a lot of repair bills. 

House insurance is under a $100/month likely due to high deductables and never having a claim. 

Our utilities (gas and electricity, no water bill) end up being about $140/month. I'm guessing rates are possibly cheaper in BC? Rates are steadily rising though. It also depends on how cold and long of a winter we have. We also made some usage adjustments. When our electricity bill started hitting the 2nd rate tier, we replaced most incandescent light bulbs with LED's and that seemed to have a noticeable impact. We also watch way less TV and I don't game much on my desktop machine anymore. We delay turning on the heat in the winter and try to throw on a sweater. The missus tries to hang laundry in the sun in the summers instead of using the dryer. Stuff like that. 


Internet spend is similar.
I have a cheap monthly cell plan offered though my workplace. The missus is on prepaid. She'll tether to my phone for data if needed but she's fine with wifi at work and home and SMS text messaging while out and about. 
We cut the number of channels we subscribe to to almost basic because we don't watch as much traditional tv any more. 

Entertainment
We might at most go to a couple of shows or sports events per year. Most of our entertainment is going to festivals and events around town which are generally free or have relatively cheap admission. While there, we usually don't buy "stuff" but will spend money on food. There are a couple of cheap sports leagues we join to socialize with friends. Again, most of the spend ends up in Food because of socializing at the bar afterwards. We'll also put popcorn at the movies under food/eating out instead of entertainment. Our higher food/eating out spend likely compensates for our lower entertainment spend.

Car
Yes one car supplemented with a car sharing program and transit. It's worked fairly well with only the odd usage conflict. 
We both live less than 10km from work, will carpool, and get to work from home regularly so fuel costs are generally low depending on the number of road trips we do. Also helps marking down where all the free parking spots are around town.  
We also do higher deductibles for insurance.


----------



## AltaRed

Milhouse, do you live that way because you WANT to live that way, or because you are very (maybe too) focused on reaching your $$$ goal? If the former and you are both content and happy, all the power to you. If the latter, I am pretty sure you will regret being that frugal, i.e. not having 'loosened up' a little and enjoy these years leading up to and into retirement. 

I can't remember when a house didn't require at least rolling average $5k/yr on run-of-the-mill maintenance e.g appliance replacement, roof replacement, HVAC, paint, carpets, etc.... and not counting re-modeling and upgrades every 15-20 years. 

Remember that if and when you retire with $2M, you will be able to easily draw 3% on a balanced portfolio alone (not counting CPP and OAS) and perhaps never touch the capital. Your annual spend could easily be in the $70k range at that time.


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## milhouse

It's a little of both. Some of it is due to laziness.  

From a housing maintenance and repair perspective, we do put off some stuff but mainly because we're lazy. 
Appliances: We really should be replacing the stove but making do with it's glichiness.
Roof: It's clay tile so no replacement. We paid some guy a few years ago to clean the moss off, replace broken tiles, and clean the gutters. Wasn't too expensive.
HVAC: We have radiant heat. My relative's buddy did maintenance on the system last year and only had us pay for parts, no labour. We only a portable AC which I've been considering using during the last few days of heat but I'm too lazy to pull it out versus just turning on the fans around the house. I suppose if it gets hot enough, I'll encourage me to get off my *** to pull the A/C out. 
Paint: We've got stucco on the outside. It's probably horrible to use but we had some guy pressure wash the outside walls. Inside probably wouldn't hurt having a fresh coat of paint.
Carpet: We only have small areas of carpet with a lot of hardwood and tile. Carpet likely should be replaced soon. We did a carpet cleaning 2 years ago where you run a hose from the cleaning van outside. I only thought the results were meh. 
We're likely holding off on a new furniture until I retire. 

With respect to other discretionary spending, we think about: Are we going to use it, are we going to get value out of it, are we truly going to enjoy it? I think we have a good understanding nowadays of what kind of spend gives us the most enjoyment. But we do enjoy a lot of free or next to free activities. 
While we still do spend on some frivolous splurges, we still try to hold ourselves in check. Conversely, as our nestegg grows, we do allow ourselves more leeway on the splurges.


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## milhouse

*End of August 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.438M. Up about just under $22k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $412k. Up about $6k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.850M. Up about $28k for the month.

My portfolio had modest gains across each of my accounts. Heavier US content was a plus while lighter EM content was a negative due to Turkey, Argentina, and potential trade war problems. My Canadian dividend content was a mixed bag with gains and losses but overall positive. The loonie ended up flat so no significant value changes due to currency fluctuations. 

Her portfolio also had gains across the board. The weakest component is typically with her bond fund heavy RRSP account but this month it was her non-registered component with the under performing dividend fund balanced out by the global funds with US content.

*Spending*
July Spend correction: $4380
August Spend: $3200
YTD Spend: $30370

Slight correction to the July spend as I missed a purchase. 
August came in higher than my original target range of $1800-$2300 but that was not completely unanticipated due to some fall 2018 and 2019 vacation bookings/purchases. Removing the vacation spend, we were around the mid-point of the estimated range. Our August eating out bill was slightly on the high side due to buying food at festivals and events around town. We also had some extra small miscellaneous spends here and there. Internet billing went up by $5/month which I mention because I'm trying to control regular monthly spends. 

I’m estimating September will end up around $2000-2500 but can go higher if we make additional vacation bookings/purchases. During September, there are still a quite a few festivals and events around town we’re going to try to attend. Fees for fall leagues are also due. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Still didn't start the side business yet. Not sure if it’s going to happen.
Big push at work to get stuff finished by the end of the year. There’s 4 months to go but December is typically tough to get things accomplished with so many people away. It also looks like they might be hiring a new person onto my team because we're so busy. It provides a bit of comfort that my area might be safe from downsizing for at least a little while.

*Countdown to Retirement*
43.5 months to go.


----------



## milhouse

*End of September 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.425M. Down about $12k for the month, giving up back just over half of August's gains.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $411k. Down about $1k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.837M. Down about $13k for the month.

My portfolio had modest losses across each of my accounts with the biggest hit coming in my non-registered portfolio primarily holding Canadian dividend growers. It did a bit of a swoon on Friday, the last trading day of the month. Not sure if that was due to NAFTA concerns but here’s hoping for a bounce on Monday with a deal signed late today (Sunday).
The loonie ended up bit a bit stronger so my portfolio actually ended up positive (~$10k) in terms of US greenbacks. 

Her portfolio also had small losses across the board but savings helping limit the overall loss.

*Spending*
September Spend: $3060
YTD Spend: $33430

September's spend was above my estimated high end of $2500 but for good reason. I finally took the plunge and started my side business. Without the start up costs, we would be slightly under the top end target. And the main reason why we were towards the upper end was that we ate out more than expected and in particular, we covered a family birthday lunch at a nice restaurant. 

October is going to be somewhat pricey as we have some league fees due and a weekend trip planned. Barring any additional trip plans/bookings, I'm expecting October to come in around $2750-3250. 
Heading into the last quarter, based on the way our spend is trending for the entire year, we might end up around $42k if we do not do another international trip at the end of the year in Nov/Dec. However, if we do another trip, I doubt we're going to be able to keep it under a soft target of $44k. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Business started! Should be interesting when I can start deriving some revenue from it and what kind of expense I can write off. 
Crazy busy at work. They did hire another person in my department as the projects my group is working on are slated to continue into next year. That gives me some confidence around job security for the end of the year and into the next compared to previous years. Oooh the irony if I do get let go now. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
42.5 months to go.
Almost to the 3.5 year to go mark. It's kind of an odd amount of time. It's not short enough, like within a year, to really get excited about the countdown. But it is close enough that it's kind of tangible.


----------



## milhouse

*End of October 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.363M. Down about $63k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $398k. Down about $13.5k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.761M. Down about $76.5k for the month.

Umh, honey, I hope you like red. 
Ugly month across the board with losses everywhere in my portfolio. The losses, which are more than we spend in a year, take me back to May 2018 levels. Even the loonie was down, making my portfolio even weaker in terms of US greenbacks. At this point, I can't see my portfolio hitting my year end targets other than my soft cash target and dividend target for non-registered portfolio. I have mixed feelings about a rally during the last 2 months of the year because I typically do a bunch of buying in January for the TFSA and reducing cash in our chequing and savings accounts. 

Her portfolio was pretty red across the board to except her growth in savings. Her bond heavy RRSP was also down but by the least of all her accounts.

*Spending*
October Spend: $4450
YTD Spend: $37880

October's spend was higher than the $3250 top end estimate mainly because we paid for some flights for a trip. The month was going to be relatively high due to a weekend trip's expenses and some league fees but there were also some unanticipated expenses like electronic consumables, charitable donation, etc. Everything else kind of fell into expectation.

November's spend is going to depend on how much we shop on Black Friday weekend and if we make any more trip bookings. We're always looking for a deal and Black Friday seems to have better deals than Boxing Day nowadays. Going to give a bigger range of $2500 to $3500 for November's estimated spend. I'm now estimating to end the year at around a $45k spend. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Not fretting too much about the state of the markets and my portfolio... yet. 
Mad rush to complete projects by the end of the year. 
Planning has already begun for 2019 and it looks pretty busy. There might even be another person joining my team. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
41.5 months to go. 
Just over 750 days of work left.


----------



## My Own Advisor

"My investable assets: $1.363M. Down about $63k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $398k. Down about $13.5k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.761M. Down about $76.5k for the month."

That's what will happen....markets go up, markets go down. But you already know that 

Our portfolio is down $35,000 in the last few months. Not fun. But like you we invest for the long-run....


"Countdown to Retirement
41.5 months to go. 
Just over 750 days of work left."

Great to focus on that. Very, very well done!


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## scorpion_ca

Perhaps you could look into your asset allocation. If you have enough income/savings, there is no need to take additional risk.

I am in early accumulation stage and my paper loss is $28k in a $388k portfolio. I am not happy as the market has stared to increase again and I don't have enough cash. I bought ETFs for almost $30k in Oct, 2018. I like to buy everything on sale...


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> *Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
> Not fretting too much about the state of the markets and my portfolio... yet.


Just remember your portfolio (value) endpoint based on a fixed calendar end date could have huge variability, easily as much as 30%. Having a goal/vision is good, but psychologically, you need to be prepared either to accept that degree of variability OR be flexible on your retirement date.


----------



## milhouse

My Own Advisor said:


> "My investable assets: $1.363M. Down about $63k for the month.
> Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $398k. Down about $13.5k for the month.
> Combined investable assets: $1.761M. Down about $76.5k for the month."
> 
> That's what will happen....markets go up, markets go down. But you already know that
> 
> Our portfolio is down $35,000 in the last few months. Not fun. But like you we invest for the long-run....


Yep. But it is psychologically challenging to stay positive and realize this is good while we're still in accumulation mode. The scary thing is that the ugliness of the last few months is realistically just a "blip" though. Here's hoping you stay mentally stronger than me crying uncontrollably if things get really bad. 



scorpion_ca said:


> Perhaps you could look into your asset allocation. If you have enough income/savings, there is no need to take additional risk.
> 
> I am in early accumulation stage and my paper loss is $28k in a $388k portfolio. I am not happy as the market has stared to increase again and I don't have enough cash. I bought ETFs for almost $30k in Oct, 2018. I like to buy everything on sale...


I think about this regularly because I don't really need huge returns to get to my target numbers by retirement. 
However, I don't see myself changing pieces in my non-registered account because even with the hit, dividends are still paying and growing. I do feel the dividends provide me with some stability and sanity. However, ask me this again if I report my dividends getting cut... LOL
Where I've been thinking of making adjustments to my asset allocation is in my specific retirement accounts: RRSP and DC Pension plan. Right now they're about 75% equity indexes and 25% bond indexes (with some misc cash), down from essentially 100% equities. Being about 3.5 years out, I've been debating getting it closer to 60-40. But, it's so disheartening seeing the bond portion of those accounts so under perform with rising interest rates. I suspect many can relate. 



AltaRed said:


> Just remember your portfolio (value) endpoint based on a fixed calendar end date could have huge variability, easily as much as 30%. Having a goal/vision is good, but psychologically, you need to be prepared either to accept that degree of variability OR be flexible on your retirement date.


Yep. I'm pretty set on my retirement date unless a number of things do NOT go to plan. 
The key goal is to hit the $50k annual dividends mark in my non-registered portfolio to provide that baseline of income. So far so good but... great I just jinxed myself.  
Where I see most of the variability is from my RRSP and DC pension which I'd like to use to hit my extended retirement goals. It would pain me to withdraw from them during a down market. Hence, the previous comment about considering adjusting asset allocation in them to provide a bit more stability as I get within the stretch run. 
The dream scenario however, would be getting a buyout package in my last year which would be a nice buffer. They're always looking for ways to reduce headcount.


----------



## milhouse

*End of November 2018 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.419M. Up about $56.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $406.7k. Up about $9.1k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.826M. Up about $65.7k for the month.

To state the obvious, volatility sure is back.
After a pretty ugly October, I got a bit of a bounce back in November with gains across my portfolio. It was a kind nice rebound but not enough to cover the October losses nor give me enough hope that I have a chance to hit my 2018 targets, even with a strong December. 
After an overall disappointing year, the biggest recovery was in my non-registered portfolio (mainly Canadian divvie growers) with a couple of stocks driving a lot of the gains. The rebound in my RRSP, DC Pension, and TFSA recovered in varying degrees based on their respective index mixes. 
Also, with a still softer loonie, my gains in terms of US dollars wasn’t as strong. 

Her portfolio also had gains across the board. Nice to get back above $400k. She’s also built up a bit of cash during the year in her HISA because she hasn’t bought a lot of additional investments other than some regular contributions she has set up. We’ll both probably allocate some of our extra cash to some additional investments during the new year at the time we contribute to our 2019 TFSA’s. 

*Spending*
October Spend corrected: from $4450 to 4500
November Spend: $3730
YTD Spend: $41660

Corrected October’s spend as I missed an item.
November’s spend was a bit over the top end of $3500 estimate essentially due to travel bookings. Excluding travel bookings, we came in around $2450. We did a little bit of Black Friday shopping but kept it under $400. 

December is typically a high spend month with gift giving, eating out, and some Boxing Day shopping. A rough estimate of our December spend is $4k-5k. Again, a lot will depend on if we do any more trip bookings and what kind of deals we find on Boxing Day. 
Where I was once was hoping to keep our 2018 spend under $44k, and then around $45k, I now wouldn’t be surprised if we came in around $46k which, I don’t think is too horrible. I’ll probably break down the nuts and bolts of it in my December update with the 2018 tally and summary. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Looking forward to wrapping up the year, tallying things up, and “starting fresh” again. 
Things are pretty busy at work. Normally, things start quieting down as activities wrap up for the year but there’s a lot of planning for 2019 projects. 
Looking forward to some time off and spending time with family and friends. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
40.5 months to go.


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## My Own Advisor

"My investable assets: $1.419M. Up about $56.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $406.7k. Up about $9.1k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.826M. Up about $65.7k for the month."



"40.5 months to go" - you are set I believe unless you are invested in many volatile assets that do not deliver income and/or growth. 

What % of "investable assets" is in pension(s)? Any?

Meaning, you have ~ $1.8 M invested with RRSP, TFSA, non-reg., etc? excluding house and excluding pensions? Sorry if you answered this question already.


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## james4beach

Personally I still think 75/25 or even 60/40 is too aggressive for someone counting down the last few months to retirement, especially someone who already has enough money to be comfortable. Why would you want to risk a 20% to 40% drawdown when you already have enough savings? I realize you do have pensions, which changes the picture though.

In my eyes, it's an asymmetric risk. With the aggressive 75% equity allocation you have, if stocks go up a bit more, you just end up a little bit more wealthy. However if stocks tank and enter a bear market, you will suddenly go from being more-than-comfortable to not having enough to retire. You'll suddenly have to work longer (assuming you can find work) and might have to wait many years for your portfolio to bounce back.



> But, it's so disheartening seeing the bond portion of those accounts so under perform with rising interest rates. I suspect many can relate.


Bonds give portfolio diversification. Besides, year-to-date, the TSX Composite is down 3.9% while bonds (XBB) are up 0.7%. You might want to read through these articles I posted in another thread that describe the problem with the popular belief that one should avoid bonds during rising rates. One can use GICs too.


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## ian

milhouse...we did something similar. Downsized, stored our belongings, then traveled for 6/7 months. Came home, rented a furnished apt for 3 months, then moved to a rental condo for six months that turned into 4 years. We now own a travel friendly home in an HOA development. Lower operating costs, the HOA does all the gardening and snow removal. Since then we have been doing two trips, 2-3 months each, per year. Plus some last minutes in between. 

Six years ago we budgeted $6K after tax per month. This was conservative because this, and sometimes less, has been our burn rate for the last seven years. Typically we are thinking about, or planning one trip just prior to leaving on another. I suspect that in 2018 we may have to increase the after tax burn rate to $6500 because of inflation, currency, and some of the place on our respective bucket list.

Prior to retiring we spent six month searching for an investment manager that we were comfortable with. We consolidated our investments. We did not want manage during the first seven months of travel plus we were willing to pay for professional management. This part has worked out very well. Plus, our projections on ROI/asset growth turned out to be conservative.

The best things we did was to exit the workplace early, downsize and consolidate our investments, and travel with carry on only. Now we can leave home literally at the drop of a hat. No plants, no pets. The only compromise was that my spouse felt that three months was too much so we have cut down to two months at a time which is fine.


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## lonewolf :)

Sell the world going into 2022 could easily be down 90%


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## milhouse

My Own Advisor said:


> "40.5 months to go" - you are set I believe unless you are invested in many volatile assets that do not deliver income and/or growth.
> 
> What % of "investable assets" is in pension(s)? Any?
> 
> Meaning, you have ~ $1.8 M invested with RRSP, TFSA, non-reg., etc? excluding house and excluding pensions? Sorry if you answered this question already.


Even though I still have anxiety about losing my job, I’m growing more confident about our situation for basic retirement scenarios. Apart from sequence of returns, my main concerns are about "what if" scenarios that aren’t common perhaps but not out of the realm of realistic possibility. What if the missus loses her job, what if one of us becomes disabled requiring heavy care due to accident or illness, what if someone in our family requires help, what if “the big one” (earthquake) hits Vancouver and we need to rebuild, etc. Insurance can provide some mitigation but I want to feel confident that we have enough of a cushion for most adverse scenarios even though we’re giving up some additional years of early retirement. 

Of the $1.8M, my DC pension is currently worth about $250k and is included in that total. So 13.8%?

The missus has a quasi-public DB pension which I do not include in investable asset totals. It’s not gold plated like the fed government employees IMO. It’s not indexed and has even run into some demographic issues (people are living too long! lol) such that they’ve had to make some notable adjustments a few years back. Most impacting for her is that the benefits were overall reduced and particularly for early retirees. If she works to age 55 and takes her pension, she'll get $32k/yr including bridge benefit. If she works to age 65, she'll get $58k/yr. She obviously leaves a lot of money on the table if she retires early. The pension statements only provides limited guidance on how to project annual benefits if she stops working at a certain age but doesn't draw on it until 55, 60, or 65. The scenarios they give is if she stops working today and leaves it in until age 55 to 65 which would pay about a $13k to $16k in annual benefits.


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## milhouse

james4beach said:


> Personally I still think 75/25 or even 60/40 is too aggressive for someone counting down the last few months to retirement, especially someone who already has enough money to be comfortable. Why would you want to risk a 20% to 40% drawdown when you already have enough savings? I realize you do have pensions, which changes the picture though...



J4B: I agree! I’ve been thinking about my asset allocation over the last year. On one hand, I feel (incorrectly?) that I need a more aggressive allocation in order to meet my somewhat arbitrary goal of $2M in my own portfolio before retirement. On the other hand, the way I’m positioning things, I don’t really need such an aggressive mix with the anxiety that goes along with it. 

Even though I should look at our combined portfolios for a more holistic approach, in practice, we kind of manage our savings and investment accounts separately while manage our outbound chequing account jointly. 

Although it’s not a true bucket approach, the way I see my portfolio functioning is having the dividends of my non-registered account (bucket 1) provide the core of my retirement cash flow and my registered accounts (RRSP, DC pension, and TFSA – bucket 2) provide supplemental cash flow for stretch goals. I think I’m pretty committed to the dividend growth approach (with the understanding there are no guarantees) so I don’t think I can get away from a 100% equity allocation in bucket 1. However, I’m thinking I don’t need to be so aggressive with bucket 2. Right now it’s about 75/25 to 70/30. I’m thinking it can be adjusted to 60/40 to 50/50. I’m not sure if I want to make a full shift versus just having new contributions allocated towards fixed income. I've also thought about incorporating a GIC ladder in my RRSP but haven't fully thought it through yet.

As you allude to, the missus has her DB pension to fall back to so she’s being a little bit more aggressive with some of her investments, though she also has a large bond allocation in her RRSP. The main goal for her is to build up a large enough portfolio to carry her from retirement (age 50 or younger?) to when she can withdraw from her DB pension without a significant penalty (age 55?), with a secondary goal of providing some top up since her DB pension doesn’t provide indexing. Realistically, she probably can target a 60/40 to 50/50 mix overall.


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## milhouse

ian said:


> milhouse...we did something similar. Downsized, stored our belongings, then traveled for 6/7 months. Came home, rented a furnished apt for 3 months, then moved to a rental condo for six months that turned into 4 years. We now own a travel friendly home in an HOA development. Lower operating costs, the HOA does all the gardening and snow removal. Since then we have been doing two trips, 2-3 months each, per year. Plus some last minutes in between.
> 
> Six years ago we budgeted $6K after tax per month. This was conservative because this, and sometimes less, has been our burn rate for the last seven years. Typically we are thinking about, or planning one trip just prior to leaving on another. I suspect that in 2018 we may have to increase the after tax burn rate to $6500 because of inflation, currency, and some of the place on our respective bucket list.
> 
> Prior to retiring we spent six month searching for an investment manager that we were comfortable with. We consolidated our investments. We did not want manage during the first seven months of travel plus we were willing to pay for professional management. This part has worked out very well. Plus, our projections on ROI/asset growth turned out to be conservative.
> 
> The best things we did was to exit the workplace early, downsize and consolidate our investments, and travel with carry on only.  Now we can leave home literally at the drop of a hat. No plants, no pets. The only compromise was that my spouse felt that three months was too much so we have cut down to two months at a time which is fine.


Yeah, I'm not sure if we're willing to downsize initially even though the house ends up being an underutilized asset. 
We were originally thinking about travelling for extended periods (6+ months) to try to take advantage of savings a longer term rental could provide but I'm not sure we want to be away for that long. Instead, I think we're looking to travel similar to your timelines of two months at a time for planned trips and fitting in some random last minute getaways to take advantage of deals. Plus, there's going to be a bit of gap when I stop working while the missus keeps working so we're going to have to ease into it. 

Thanks for your spend guidance. It's in the range what we're expecting to spend to cover our stretch goals involving retirement travel but it's kind of in flux based on factors you mention: inflation, forex, etc.

I suspect I may eventually have to go full circle and eventually get an investment manager later in life. In the medium term, I see myself simplifying my ETF holdings while still monitoring my individual stock holdings. The concern is when the monitoring of the individual holdings become a more of a chore and I'm going to have to make a decision.


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## milhouse

lonewolf :) said:


> Sell the world going into 2022 could easily be down 90%


Oh my. That would be quite interesting times if things are down 90%.


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## ian

When we traveled for the 6/7 months we did a one month condo rental in Costa Rica. That really broke things up plus our son was able to fly down and join us for a week. If you decide to go for that long we recommend that you consider something like this. We did lots of day trips during that month however it was good to be in one place. We also selected some destinations on our bucket list on the basis of currency. We did several last minute cruises since our dollar was strong at that time. Delaying a trip to South Africa by one year reduced our expenses by 15 percent or so because of their depreciating currency. We have not spent any winters in the US for quite some time-instead we have opted for SE Asia and Australia.


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## milhouse

Yup, we value the home basing technique although we haven't really had the chance to normally utilize it for longer than a week. 
We do want to escape the cold/rainy winters. However, snowbirding for extended time in the States like in Arizona or Florida never really appealed to us. But I wouldn't rule out shorter trips or tagging on some pre or post cruise time like in California or Florida or even Hawaii. SE Asia appeals to us more. Our trips there have typically been during shoulder but hotter season in April/May. Looking forward to visiting in December and January even though we'd be hitting more of the high season. Haven't been to southern hemisphere yet and would like to see take advantage of the flip in seasons in Australia and New Zealand. 
I'm looking forward to taking advantage of the timing and pricing flexibility that retirement enables (most of the time).


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## james4beach

I personally don't like these media buzzwords like "FIRE", and I don't even think early retirement is the right term. For example, I am going to stop working soon (I'm in my 30s) but don't consider this retirement. I am not retiring from work... I'm just going to be more selective about the work I do.

In any case, if we're talking about stopping the corporate routine or rat race before age 70 --

Media personalities have been debating this thing. Suze Orman blasted the FIRE movement and said people need at least $5 million to retire. Mr. Money Mustache wrote a nice rebuttal: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/m...e-8-things-about-the-fire-movement-2018-10-05

MMM corrects misunderstandings

+ stopping or pausing working at a younger age doesn't require very high salaries
+ it's not about early retirement
+ you can be happy with any level of spending
+ all of this _doesn't depend on a booming stock market_

It's a really good article with lots of food for thought. Again, I wish society wasn't so fixated on the word *retirement*.


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## OptsyEagle

It's partly because when you tell a person you are retired, they tend to accept it. It helps if you are 55 or older but usually they shut up at any age. When you tell a person you are not working, they tend to think you are therefore looking for work. They either then go on to help you find work, cut back on expenses, etc, which you don't want, or they go on with some superiority complex with respect the fact that they are working and valued and you must feel bad that you are not working and are pathetic. Those types of people would probably go on with their superiority complex no matter what the situation was but most prefer to not give them any ammunition. Others will just feel sorry for you. They would have the same look on their face if you had of told them that your dog died.

In any case, telling them you are retired tends to explain things a little better.


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## james4beach

OptsyEagle said:


> It's partly because when you tell a person you are retired, they tend to accept it . . . In any case, telling them you are retired tends to explain things a little better.


OK then. I plan to "retire" in about a year 

I also plan to keep working until I'm 80 or 85, if health permits me to.


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## milhouse

I don't mind the buzzwords as they try to categorize a situation. But the problem is that they generally don't have consistent meanings for everyone. However, I agree with OptsyEagle's comment that "retirement" is simple enough for a quick answer if asked what you do.

IIRC, Suze Orman walked backed her comments a bit. I don't think it was due to the backlash but rather her "incorrect" initial impression of FIRE: sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas all day. Her comments were more receptive of FIRE when describing it as freedom from your default job but with the corresponding ability to be productive in other activities of your choice.

Personally, I'd describe my financial situation as financial independent as I think I can generate enough income passive to support my current lifestyle. 
When I quit my job, I'd probably call my working situation as retired but I'd like to be doing some stuff/work for fun. So, I suppose, a more proper term would be semi-retired?


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## milhouse

*End of December 2018 Update, Year End Summary, and 2019 Targets*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.356M. Down approximately $64k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $397k. Down about $9k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.753M. (Previous high Aug 2018.)

What a crazy December and last quarter we’ve had!
On a positive side, the swings are kind of wearing me down so that I look at my portfolio less. 

Needless to say, December was again red across the board for me, wiping out my mini-recovery in November. A few dividend growth stocks took enough of a hit that I ended up adding more to my portfolio which obviously reduced my cash. 
In terms of USD, my portfolio dropped correspondingly but still kept its head above $1M USD mark (barely) which is kind of nice. 

The missus also had quite a bit of red across her portfolio. And again, her bond heavy RRSP took the smallest hit. And she continues to add and grow her cash in her HISA. We have to talk about when and where she wants to deploy it. 

*Portfolio Targets and Goals*
While it may seem like an understatement that 2018 was a disappointment, I thought there was enough promise by midyear for us to hit our targets. It was just unfortunate that the bottom fell out during the last quarter. A small consolation is that due to savings and additional investments, we still grew both of our portfolios by about $20k each in 2018. While it’s obviously important to have positive returns, at least our investable assets totals are still growing. 

On the glass half full side, we’re still in accumulation mode and have a bit of cash to deploy so we’re hoping to take advantage of the sale a bit starting with our 2019 TFSA contributions.

I’m not looking to make significant changes or rebalance for 2019. 
For my non-registered account, I’m looking to pick up some more dividend growers to support hitting $35k in dividends in 2019. 
For my registered accounts, I’m looking to slowly move my Fixed Income allocations to >30% by allocating new purchases to my bond fund holdings.

My Portfolio

2017 Actual2018 Target2018 Actual2019 TargetRetirement (Rough Goal)Cash (soft target)18.3k20k20.2k20k30kNon-Registered675k749k689k761k1.1MRRSP326k351k327k351k450kTFSA80.7k91.3k82.6k93.9k135kDC Pension233k259k237k263k350kTotal1.334M1.471M1.356M1.490M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends2538030000302653500050000

Her Portfolio and Combined Totals

2017 Actual2018 Target2018 ActualCash (soft target)48.8k40k65.2kNon-Registered175.4k202k177.0kRRSP75.4k82k76.6kTFSA70.0k80k74.8kMisc Pension3.8k4.0k3.8k*(DB Pension)TBDTBDTBDTotal373k408k397kOur Combined Total1.707M1.879M1.753M

*Spending*
Dec spend: $4840
2018 total spend: $46.5k

As expected, December was a typical heavy spend month with typical holiday expenditures and some travel related costs but also a few somewhat unexpected costs. 

Overall, we came in under $50k again which is kind of our soft target. I was kind of hoping to be under $45k but we don’t really try to constrain our spend to hit our spend targets. Our regular spend is fairly stable. Where most of the variability comes in is our travel spend, any heavy medical/dental spend, and any special gifts/donations. This year, I also added a new category to track any expenses related to my side business.
For 2019, I suspect we likely will be in the low to mid $50k due to price inflation, some repairs, and a higher travel spend.


2017 Actual2018 Estimate2018 Actual2019 EstimateFood & Eating Out11900127001185012700Housing and Utilities10100125001088012500Transportation4100450041704500Personal8800600066006000Entertainment1800210013502000Travel920010000-180001104012000-18000Side Business00610200Total4590048000-560004650050000-56000

Food & Eating Out: Our grocery bill this year was slightly higher again. I’m just going to chalk it up to food price inflation. However, our eating out spend was lower again. We’re still eating out a lot but we’re seemingly not going out to eat with friends and at pricer places as much. Alcohol spend was up a bit.
For 2019, I used my same estimate as 2018, expecting increases from inflation and possibly eating out more with friends.

Housing and Utilities: Utilities were a mixed bag this year. Electricity, natural gas, and property tax bills were lower. Not sure why our electricity bill was lower. Our natural gas bill is fairly depending on the weather/temp due to heating and the start of the year was warmer than the previous year. The slightly lower tax bill was due to our house price assessment being lower while other areas were still appreciating a bit. 
House insurance, home phone, tv, and internet bills were higher. Home insurance was way higher. I’m going to have to review our coverage and deductibles. I’ve also been meaning to look into going with another provider. Phone, tv, and internet just constantly edge up. I’m going to look into ways to decrease our phone bill as I’m not sure we’re getting enough value out of the service for what we are paying. I’m also going to look at dropping some channels from our tv plan as we don’t watch a lot of tv anymore. 
I include cell phone costs as part of utilities. Monthly spending was generally stable but I did end up buying a new phone. The missus will likely need a new phone in 2019. 
Our stove is still wonky so I’ve factored in some replacement costs. 

Transportation: Our fuel spend was down likely due to not doing any road trips this year. However, insurance costs were up and will likely be going up significantly for 2019 as the provincial insurance provider is heavily in the red. 
Our car may also require major servicing in 2019. However, I have not factored this in my 2019 estimate. 

Personal: Personal includes medical/dental/health, clothing, gifts and charity, and miscellaneous. 2017 was a high spend due to some travel we purchased for the inlaws. It trended back down as expected in 2018. It may trend down a bit more in 2019 as we made some unexpected donations in 2018. 

Entertainment: The entertainment spend trended down in 2018. League fees didn’t go up as expected and I don’t think they will go up much in 2019. 

Travel: We travelled a few times in 2018 but kept our spend in check to keep it at the lower end of our estimate. 
In 2019, in addition to our regular small getaways, we have a fairly long and significant trip planned mid-year. While we’ll still try to spend smartly for this big trip, I think we’re going to loosen the purse strings a bit. For example, we’ll probably spend more than we normally do on accommodations to get decent places in very convenient locations. 

Side Business: There were some start up costs in 2018. I’m hoping the costs in 2019 will be minimal. 

*House Value*
2017 Assessment: $1.512M
2018 Assessment: $1.479M

According to BC Assessment, the value of our house went down again in 2018. I’m not too concerned as I’m not looking to tap into the equity of the house any time soon. From a near term perspective, as I mentioned last year, the goal is to stay within the valuation for the home owner’s grant and hopefully have our property taxes go down. I’m not sure if it will go down as taxes are applied according to relative valuations and the local news segments seem to indicate the assessments are down all over the place.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Even with the market turmoil in 2018, I think we’re still in a good place financially for the start of 2019. The plan is mainly steady as she goes.
Job-wise, my team is going to be pretty busy in 2019. My main concern is to not mess up on a high visibility project I’ve been assigned to work on. 
With financials in a fairly good place, I want to give focus on other areas: Lose weight/get healthier, throw some effort into my side business/hobby.

*Countdown to Retirement*
39 months to go.
About 1200 days until retirement.


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## milhouse

*End of January Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.416M. Up about $59.9k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $417k. Up about $20.3k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.833M. Up about $80.1k for the month.

Down, up, down, up.
Continuing the cycle, January brought with it a large upswing in my portfolio after the big down month in December, a big up month in November, and a big down month in October. All swings over $55k. I mentioned it previously but it’s kind of madness that these swings are more than our average spend each year. 

While my cash dipped a bit due to my TFSA contribution and some other non-registered purchases, all the other components of my portfolio made nice gains for the month. In terms of asset mix adjustments to start the year, the only adjustment so far has been to direct any new contributions to my DC pension to the bond index fund to work it up from 75/25 to 70/30. I suspect I’ll do the same with my 2019 RRSP contribution. But I did break with strategy and bought a Cdn bank stock with my $6000 TFSA contribution. 

The missus’ portfolio had a great month and also had gains across the board. In fact, her $20k gain was her largest gain ever and was enough to propel her to a new high in her portfolio. 

*Spending*
January Spend: $2930
YTD Spend: $2930

January started off with a higher spend than expected. I was hoping to keep it in the low $2000’s but various items popped up: spending for a fundraiser, some healthcare related costs, some travel costs, and some damn expensive Canucks tickets for an evening out with a group of friends. 
February is typically one of larger spend months as the first half of the property taxes comes due. There will also be a chunk of travel expenses. I’m estimating February will come in around $4500. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Financially, it was a good start to the year. I can’t complain. We'll see how the rest of the year plays out.
Work-wise, it’s already getting crazy and issues are starting to pop up. It’s manageable though.
I feel I’m stuck in a bit of a rut though and not sure why. Need to get untracked since life is good overall. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
38.5 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End Of February 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.464M. Up about $48.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $426k. Up about $8.4k for the month. 
Combined investable assets: $1.890M. Up about $57.0k for the month.

Enjoy it while it lasts?
February broke my up/down cycle in a rather big way as Jan+Feb gains were there best two months I’ve had since I’ve been tracking my investable assets and was able to reach a new high water mark. Gains were made across the board with a nice jump in my non-registered account, which was particularly nice since February is a weak dividend month for my portfolio. My TFSA has interesting already hit my 2019 end year target which I originally revised downward due to the horrible 2018. 
I'm kind of just enjoying the gains for now while awaiting the next downward move which may have already begun with the lackluster bank results. At least they raised their divvies. 

The missus’ portfolio also had a good month with gains across the board. Not going to complain about gains but they do seem to be a bit subdued to her more conservative mix. I'm not sure I'd be suggesting to her to get more aggressive at this point. 

*Spending*
February Spend: $4580
YTD Spend: $7520

Our February spend came in pretty bang on to our $4500 guess with the bulk of it going to the first installment of property taxes. We ate out a little too much, bought a couple of things (took advantage of a sale to replace some stuff), and had some travel expenses too. 
March will hopefully be a relatively light spend other than some potential trip expenses. Expecting March to come in between $2250 to $2500. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
February felt like it took forever to get through for a variety of reasons. Glad it’s finally over.
Apparently, we’re already behind the 8-ball budget wise at work and I’m hearing rumours that we may have to let someone from my team go. Ugh. 
No love being given to the side business.

*Countdown to Retirement*
37.5 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End of March 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.508M. Up about $44.1k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $438k. Up about $11.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.946M. Up about $55.7k for the month.

The first quarter of 2019 was really positive for us. 
My portfolio hit the $1.5M milestone two thirds into March and I was kind of happy that it held to the end of the month even with some additional ups and downs during the last week. Gains were again made across the board but there were some notable winners and losers in my non-registered portfolio (ex. telecoms up, banks down). Most of my targets for 2019 have been reached so I’m hoping towards stretch targets for the year now but we’ll see what the rest of the year brings. 

The missus’ portfolio correspondingly made some nice gains across the board too while also continuing to build up her cash savings (due to a 3 paycheck month and a lack of an idea what to do with it). Her bond heavy RRSP did fairly well too. 

*Spending*
February Spend: $4600 (corrected with a missed $20 cash spend)
March Spend: $3130 
YTD Spend: $10660

My March spend estimate was way off. I’m going to blame it on: Some big Costco (grocery) bills to restock various items, an unexpected large restaurant bill that was kind of a gift, and some travel hacking and travel expenses. At the quarter pole mark for our spend, we’re trending ok. While our spend to date extrapolates to about $40k for the year, I’m guessing we’re going to be closer to about $50-55k after the heavy part of our travel spend comes in midyear and whether or not some repairs we’ve been holding off on, need to be done. 
April is going to be a heavy spend month with some insurance premiums coming up and possibly some more travel spends. I’m going to ballpark April’s spend to be around $5000 to $5250.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Various stress drivers at work. What else is new?
The weather has been nice so hoping to go for more walks around the city.
Kind of looking forward to doing my taxes because I've run a few rough calcs on taxtips.ca and am curious how close the numbers line up. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
36.5 months to go. Finally going to cross the 3 years to go mark in April. Still seems like forever.


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## My Own Advisor

Geez..... "Combined investable assets: $1.946M. Up about $55.7k for the month."

I'd be shutting it down now unless you really love your job 

Crazy good update - keep it up to realize your dreams!


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## Gruff403

Well done Milhouse. I would ask for a buyout NOW. I left full time work about a year ago and it has been awesome. You have more than enough and obviously enough smarts to make it last. During last two years of work I had the 30-30-30 rule to live by; 30 seconds to tick me off, 30 minutes to write my resignation letter, 30 days until "thanks for the memories". It never came to that but it was wonderful to know I was only working because I wanted to. With a solid financial foundation like yours the sky is the limit. One of my mottos is health before wealth. My dad died two years after full stop at age 65. My wife is older than I and we want to have some fun before the knees go. You can always pick up a bit of part time, NO STRESS work for fun.


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## Mookie

Hey milhouse, according to VPW, based on your age and your $1.946M alone, excluding DB pension, and CPP/OAS, and possible future downsizing, you and your wife could pull the plug *now* and still withdraw and spend at least $85-100k per year (depending on asset allocation) from now until you hit 100 years old. 

After adding on pension income, and three more years of earnings before retirement, you will be well beyond double your current annual spend rate, so unless you’re planning a really extravagant retirement lifestyle, you have it made in the shade.


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## milhouse

I'm not in love with my job but it obviously "pays the bills". However, as I get closer to my target date and numbers, I think I'm getting more comfortable with the possibility of starting retirement earlier if it happens. There are a few reasons I'm not pulling the plug now and I freely admit some of them are not completely logical.

The missus doesn't want me to retire too early because she thinks I'll sit at home all day in my underwear watching Netflix. To be honest, I'm not complete sure yet what I'd do with all the extra time during the day. I'm prone to being lazy yet like running errands and working on small projects too. 
While she may eventually regret it, at this point, she's pretty adamant about not retiring until she gets some decent value from her DB pension which means there will likely be a few years between my start and hers. Backtesting data and monte carlo simulations be damned, because retirement withdrawal theory doesn't compute with her. 

While we're only spending about $50k/yr currently, we want to travel way more in retirement. I'm estimating we're going to need in the ballpark of $80-90k/yr. And that's not accounting for the fact we're getting _softer_ as we age and will likely be more wanting/needing to spend additional dollars for more comfort. 
Plus we also want to be able to support our parents and siblings if they need help financially. 

We've had such good market results overall for a decade that I feel in some weird way a need to stress test our portfolio by enduring a bear market, with the safety net of a job, before I retire. 

I've thought about dropping hints about being open to a departure package but I don't see myself starting to drop hints until after I hit the 2 year mark for various reasons. But then again, maybe the decision will be made for me.


----------



## ian

I was ready to go at 55 from a financial perspective. Job was fine. Lots of independence since I managed a large regional team and for years the person that I reported to was in another city, a few time zones away.

For me, it was very much worth my while to wait it out for a management restructure and a package. Because we lived well under our income level the negotiated packaged really was enough for us to live on for more than several years. And I negotiated to have it paid out over several tax years to minimize the impact. I actually waited several years to take my DB and supplementary pensions because of tax reasons.

When I was ready to take my DB, if I selected the commuted value a a third of it was going to be taxable in my hands immediately. I went with the DB. All of the supplementary pension was taxable so I took the commuted value of that over three tax years.

My comment would be that you need to understand clearly what, if any portion of your settlement can be sheltered, and the same for the commuted value of your pension. Look at all of these things net of tax because that is really what you will getting. Not the gross. Looking at your financials through an after tax or a good tax planning lens may make a difference in your decision making process.

If tax planning becomes a challenge, spend some money and get some advice from a tax professional. It will be money well spent.


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## milhouse

The problem is that I don't think there are any definitives around the exit packages having talked to a few coworkers that got the push. They're generally around a 12 to 18 month payout and mainly lump sum but a few were offered salary continuance. 
If I got a package, I think the net result would be that it would allow me to hold off from drawing from my RRSP initially and take out more later. 

I honestly wouldn't mind paying for an initial analysis on the most tax efficient way to draw down but I can potentially see things changing so that the findings become irrelevant after 5-10 years. I'll have to revisit if/when I get offered a package.


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## AltaRed

Unlike Ian, there was no way I was going to get offered a package as I blew by my 'early retirement date' of 55 yrs of age, so that was never going to be an option. Plus I'd made a commitment of 3 yrs in an ex-pat assignment. 

I knew I had more than enough at age 55 but I then became 'bulletproof' and I wasn't ready to go then anyway, and to avoid 'watching the clock' and counting off weeks and months, I simply decided not to have a pre-determined retirement date. I retired after I'd met my 3 year ex-pat commitment and then a bit more....because I simply decided too to do it that way. Then it was just one of those things. Tired of travel, tired of office crap, and I gave my notice. Never looked back. 

Personally, I could never do what you are doing, a precise 5 year countdown to retirement. It would kill me marking off the months. Are you being too rigid and precise with how you are managing your progress, and too rigid about when and where and how you will sign off? Per your comment


> 36.5 months to go. Finally going to cross the 3 years to go mark in April. Still seems like forever.


 are you really enjoying this journey in this fashion?


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## james4beach

What's a package? Where I work, they just tell people to scram.

What is the rationale for offering things like packages to retiring employees? Is it done out of niceness or is there another reason for it? I'd like to understand... and can you point me to the kinds of companies that offer these, preferably with a DB?

Crown corporations come to mind.


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## AltaRed

It's mostly downsizing, not retirement packages. Note what Ian said... he waited for a re-structuring and likely raised his hand in interest. There is no guarantee these things come. Have to be in the right place at the right time. Companies find that those who are around 55 love to take downsizing packages, so they are the easy employees to pick and not have unhappy disgruntled former employees, and those with debt burdens. Also gets rid of higher paid employees too.

Companies in my industry never have offered packages as part of retirement. It is more the presence of a package that entices one to take early retirement. Some are lucky that way. I would have done that in a heartbeat too.


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## cainvest

AltaRed said:


> It's mostly downsizing, not retirement packages. Note what Ian said... he waited for a re-structuring and likely raised his hand in interest. There is no guarantee these things come. Have to be in the right place at the right time. Companies find that those who are around 55 love to take downsizing packages, so they are the easy employees to pick and not have unhappy disgruntled former employees, and those with debt burdens. Also gets rid of higher paid employees too.


My friends work just did this recently for the main reason of moving along higher paid employees, those that have been at their job for 30+ years.


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## milhouse

AltaRed said:


> Personally, I could never do what you are doing, a precise 5 year countdown to retirement. It would kill me marking off the months. Are you being too rigid and precise with how you are managing your progress, and too rigid about when and where and how you will sign off? Per your comment are you really enjoying this journey in this fashion?


I have some soft rationale behind the date I chose. If I hit it, it's kind of the cherry on top. It also potentially aligns with some of my stretch financial goals if the markets cooperate. 
If I'm busy at work and the projects are going well, time flies and it's a less painful wait. When things are going to hell, that's when the countdown seems like it's taking forever. 



james4beach said:


> What's a package? Where I work, they just tell people to scram.
> 
> What is the rationale for offering things like packages to retiring employees? Is it done out of niceness or is there another reason for it? I'd like to understand... and can you point me to the kinds of companies that offer these, preferably with a DB?
> 
> Crown corporations come to mind.


Basically what AR said but my company is not really downsizing but restructuring. 
They seems to be constantly letting people go annually in weaker parts of the business to keep operational costs down yet still hiring in growing parts of the business to deploy staff with the right skillset where it needs it. Staff in their 50's also seem to have the biggest targets on their back with higher salaries, more benefits, vacation time, etc. I think my company's exit packages are a balance of wanting to do what's right/fair and limiting the potential of getting hit with a wrongful dismissal suit. 

In my case, teams are sometimes given a number to hit so sometimes it's psychologically easier for the management team to off someone that has hinted that they are wanting to go. It probably doesn't hurt to have a good relationship with your manager either. And I'll be just into my 50's. But it's all kind of hypothetical at this point.


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## Eclectic12

james4beach said:


> What's a package? Where I work, they just tell people to scram.
> 
> What is the rationale for offering things like packages to retiring employees? Is it done out of niceness or is there another reason for it?


LoL ... done out of niceness?

Most packages I know about were for downsizing so it had nothing to do with retirement - unless you consider no longer being employed as "retired".

The insurance company offered packages when they screwed up a firing. For example the new CEO specially mandated a new head of HR then fired her three months later for "no implementing changes fast enough" where the road blocks were the board or legislation.

They also offered an employee that had a heart attack on the job as package as he was declared "redundant", which might have fit the early retirement except they messed it up. The "redundant" employee's job was posted as well as published in the local newspaper's classified with a different title but the same roles/responsibilities/reports making it clear they simply didn't want to deal with the health issues the manager had caused. The company had to beef up the package substantially when the lawyers came to an agreement.

Once in a while, they'd offer a reasonable package to someone who was genuinely redundant.


A friend of the family didn't want to take the package that included any sort of job training he wanted (to a max fee), two years of a career counsellor to help find a new job, waiving the DB pension early retirement reductions etc. Dad went through the numbers with him and convinced him to take the package. Not enough people did so those downsized received the run of the mill severance, the career counsellor for less time and none of the training/waiving of the DB pension early retirement reductions. This is one of the few "retirement" packages I can recall.


Other companies have brought an employee back part way through a training course to fire them for cause where it was really a new manager that had it in for the employee. The package was added when the lawyers came to terms.

My current company has combined jobs to need one person instead of two so that the person moving on was given a package over and above the severance etc. that an employee who quit or was fired would get.



Where the package was offered in good faith, it was about shedding employees either because they were no longer needed or to open up positions for younger employees who were at risk of being poached by competitors.





james4beach said:


> ... I'd like to understand... and can you point me to the kinds of companies that offer these, preferably with a DB?
> 
> *Crown corporations come to mind.*


LoL ... you seem to have a fixation with gov't and crown corps.

None of the companies mentioned above were gov't or crown corporations ... there were mostly private companies (mutually owned insurance, accounting firm) with some publicly traded (telecom,insurance, software development).

Some had DB pensions, some had DC pensions and some had only a Group RRSP with a % matching by the employer so there is really nothing to point to.


As long as it is a reasonably sized corporation - there have usually been packages for mistakes or restructuring.


Cheers


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## james4beach

Thanks Eclectic12 and others, this is helpful background information. I didn't realize this was tied in with downsizing or restructuring.

More broadly, I'm trying to figure out what kinds of companies or sectors might have good, stable jobs and perhaps some kind of pension. I keep bringing up crown corps because some of my friends work at power utilities (BC Hydro, MB Hydro etc) and these are the only people I know who have any kind of job stability plus pensions.

Everyone else I know has to switch jobs every 3 to 5 years, with no job stability, no pension.

Looking at the Money Diaries section I see a theme. It seems like most of the people who are very well off, with high net worths, have some kind of serious pension. This leaves me wondering where I can find such employment.


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## cainvest

james4beach said:


> More broadly, I'm trying to figure out what kinds of companies or sectors might have good, stable jobs and perhaps some kind of pension.


Some of the larger manufacturing companies are like this in Manitoba.


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## peterk

james4beach said:


> More broadly, I'm trying to figure out what kinds of companies or sectors might have good, stable jobs and perhaps some kind of pension. I keep bringing up crown corps because some of my friends work at power utilities (BC Hydro, MB Hydro etc) and these are the only people I know who have any kind of job stability plus pensions.
> 
> It seems like most of the people who are very well off, with high net worths, have some kind of serious pension. This leaves me wondering where I can find such employment.


jaaaames - this is the ghost of oil jobs calling. Think where you could be right now. it's not tooooo laaaaaaateeeee


Come to sunny Alberta and get the pension you covet so much. 

Actually - The pension is a decent part of compensation to be sure, but it's not all that compared to high wages.


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## AltaRed

james4beach said:


> Looking at the Money Diaries section I see a theme. It seems like most of the people who are very well off, with high net worths, have some kind of serious pension. This leaves me wondering where I can find such employment.


Look at it the other way around. Certain publicly traded companies in my day, usually blue chips, strove to hire the right people most of the time that would be workhorses, e.g. Clydesdales, and they had to offer a combination of salary, benefits and pension to get them in a competitive environment. For professionals in the corp I worked for, they'd look for top 10% of graduating class and a solid pre-grad work history and have high expectations. So did their competition. I had finished 2nd in my graduating class of 80 engineers and had a summer track record of 84 hour weeks constructing large diameter pipeline, building a material balance program for a gas processing plant, etc. It all added to my marketability.

Another key criteria, it helps to be employed by the company that is the client. I would have never wanted to work in an EPC firm given their ups and downs and such. Much better to be the customer squeezing the contractor.

I would suggest many such folks now in the Money Diaries are either old geezers like me that slugged it out like a Clydesdale, or had both skill and luck (and in many cases a network), in landing these jobs. Without a spouse in equivalent earning power, it is not very likely one could get to that net worth without some kind of management position and probably stock options. That said, there are many roads to Rome, including working for the right growth company by chance or by design. 

These days, it is mostly the Crown public service, maybe including crown corporations, who still offer DB pensions. Also the banks and some remaining blue chips which can be googled. Hard to break in most of the time unless starting with them young. Both of my sons were lucky in breaking into the banking industry in their late '20s. I think they are both in DB pension plans but I have not asked.


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## james4beach

Great food for thought cainvest, peterk, AltaRed, thanks... will digest and think about all this.


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## Flugzeug

Every department at the large company I work for has a pension, mostly DC now though. I got lucky to be on a DB Plan, but it was nearly a decade of low pay at other companies with no guarantees of anything better. It’s a good pension, but it’s not indexed and there is always the possibility of the plan being wound up. So I invest on my own and I’ll see how I sit in 30 years. 

Seems DB pensions are pretty rare these days.


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## Eclectic12

james4beach said:


> Thanks Eclectic12 and others, this is helpful background information. I didn't realize this was tied in with downsizing or restructuring ...


Making room for younger employees is the closet I can think of for packages being related to retirement. Most of the time, if those close to retirement age are being offered, it has usually meant the decision had already been made that fewer employees were needed. After that decision was made, it is only a question of whether management says go with those affected that are redundant or whether they see opportunities to make room for younger and typically cheaper employees by targeting those employees close to the retirement finish line, say two year out.




james4beach said:


> ... More broadly, I'm trying to figure out what kinds of companies or sectors might have good, stable jobs and perhaps some kind of pension. I keep bringing up crown corps because some of my friends work at power utilities (BC Hydro, MB Hydro etc) and these are the only people I know who have any kind of job stability plus pensions.
> 
> Everyone else I know has to switch jobs every 3 to 5 years, with no job stability, no pension ...


TD bank rolled out a new no employee contribution DB pension in about 2007. If I recall correctly, one of my co-workers from IT consulting days that last I looked at LinkedIn has now been there around sixteen years or so.

I'd have to check if my former employer insurance company offers a pension but for the software I supported plus being willing to travel means a 38% pay increase, before adding in annual bonus money.

The accounting firm merged with another accounting firm so that those being hired after me did not have a pension until they hit the manager level. The flip side of the coin is that a couple of years ago they were desperate for Workday consultants so if you were hired, the starting wage was $110K. Those who had a financial background who knew how to market themselves were being poached for approaching double the pay. Unlike when I worked for them, the lions share is telework from home instead of the weekly flights to the client site that I had.

The Gartner conference in Dec was listing cloud security types as being something over a 10% shortage versus the hiring needs.

Some companies I have seen references to pensions for ... Enbridge, ESIT Advanced Solutions, Ellis-Don, KPMG, the Canadian Medical Association and then the usual suspect of Federal/Provincial/crown corp as well as banks. There was a gov't link that listed the company pension plans by name/company but I don't believe it distinguished between the plans that were closed to new employees versus those that were active.


The only way I have seen stability is by marketing oneself, keeping one's skills up to date and keeping one's pulse on the company. All companies I have worked for and that my friends have worked for have walked people out the door for many different reasons ... sometimes shutting the experiment that was a quarter of the company.


Cheers


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## peterk

james4beach said:


> Great food for thought cainvest, peterk, AltaRed, thanks... will digest and think about all this.


I dunno what you do exactly but there's certainly a segment up here in FM for automation-type computer/electrical/process engineering work. At a big-oil co. you'd probably come in at 150k salary the very first year and be easily at 200k+ after 3 years. Houses are cheap, too.


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## james4beach

peterk said:


> I dunno what you do exactly but there's certainly a segment up here in FM for automation-type computer/electrical/process engineering work. At a big-oil co. you'd probably come in at 150k salary the very first year and be easily at 200k+ after 3 years. Houses are cheap, too.


Thanks peterk, but I don't think the oil & gas sector is my kind of scene. However, I am considering moving to Calgary (one city in my list).

I'm looking forward to exiting the US and simplifying my taxes & investments. I will be reunited with my TFSA, which I haven't been able to use while south of the border. I will instantly gain a 70K tax shelter! In addition to that I have 60K of RRSP contribution room.


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## milhouse

*End Of April 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.540M. Up about $32.0k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $449k. Up about $11.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.990M. Up about $43.6k for the month.

The trend continues with another positive month. 
My portfolio had gains across the board except the savings column. Cash savings took a small hit due to April being a heavy spend month from annual bills and having to pay income taxes. It will take another hit in May from my RRSP contribution for the year. 
The missus’ portfolio gains were pretty identical to last month, nearly replicating the performance. Her savings though, compared to mine, grew since she had less taxes to pay. 

*Spending*
March Spend: $3160 (corrected due to a missed spend)
April Spend: $6030
YTD Spend: $16730

April’s spend estimate was off by about $750-1000. It was due to combination of up front payments of some travel spends and some unexpected entertainment costs which we really enjoyed. I think we’re still generally trending towards an annual spend of about $50k but there's a good chance of us going above due to some repairs we're forecasting. 
I didn’t include our income tax payments in our April spend. My tax bill was slightly less than expected but I am anticipating it increasing annually due to the dividends growing in my non-taxable account. 

In the past, May has been both a heavy and light spend month depending on if we travel in shoulder season and how big of a trip it is. I’m going to estimate a $3000 spend for May but wouldn’t be surprised if it bumped up to $4000 if we need to book some more trip expenses. The weather is getting nicer too so there's more events and activities happening which will also end up having us spending a few extra dollars for fun. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Work is getting a bit crazy.
Side business is still completely being neglected. 
The 3 year mark of my countdown came and went and it was kind of anti-climatic. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
35.5 months to go.


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## hfp75

milhouse, 

What is your portfolio design ? This close to retirement are you heavy bonds or are you still a risk taker ??


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## milhouse

hfp75 said:


> milhouse,
> 
> What is your portfolio design ? This close to retirement are you heavy bonds or are you still a risk taker ??


I suppose based on equity allocation, still a risk taker. 
My portfolio looks roughly as follows: 

Non Registered: ~95% Canadian Dividend Growers with a couple of oddballs. The plan is to grow the yield to $50k/year by retirement and then either let it grow organically or continually trim and reallocate to maintain it at $50k/year.
RRSP: ~80% US, EAFE, and EM index ETF's, ~20% bond ETF, and a bit of cash from the yields. The plan is to get the bond percentage up to about 30%. The cash and this year's purchase will be going to the bond ETF but that will only get my about halfway there to about 25%. I'll likely have to do a rebalance. 
TFSA: ~73% US, EAFE, and EM index ETF's, ~18% bond ETF, ~8% TD stock, and a bit of cash from the yield. The plan was to mirror the RRSP allocation but after TD got beaten down over December, I kind of wanted to use my 2019 contribution to purchase it. Obviously too much Canadian content though and going off strategy. I'm kind of considering different ideas on what to do with the TFSA account but with the understanding that getting too fancy is one of the deadly sins of investing.
DC Pension: ~74% US and International Index funds and ~26% Bond Index fund. I'm trying to get the bond allocation up to about 30% too with new contributions going solely to the bond fund. 

Hopefully, the dividends from the Non-Registered component will provide a consistent base and the withdraws from the RRSP and DC Pension supplying variable resources for stretch goals. I'm thinking of using the TFSA for unexpected spends somehow. 

The missus' portfolio is all over the place and she won't let me consolidate it. 

Non-Registered: 100% equity with a mix of global, EM, and Canadian Dividend funds.
RRSP: ~20% global equity fund, ~5% dividend fund, ~5% balanced fund, and ~70% bond fund.
TFSA: ~30% US equity and index funds, ~60% balanced fund, and ~10% bond fund.
(Plus her DB pension.)


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## milhouse

*End of May 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.525M. Down about $15.2k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $440k. Down about $9.4k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.965M. Down about $24.6k for the month.

The streak is broken. First down month after four up to start the year. Not the longest streak in terms of consecutive months since I've been keeping tracking monthly snapshots in 2013 but definitely the biggest gain. 
Broad parts of my overall portfolio felt the impact of the trade wars/tariffs. However, my non-registered portfolio was able to slightly stay in the green. Cash savings went down again due to my 2019 RRSP contribution. It all went into ZAG to try to get my FI allocation in my RRSP up to 30%. 
The missus’ portfolio took a hit across the board too except she was able to continue to grow her cash savings. She contributes to her RRSP monthly and even at that, she can't contribute very much because of her DB pension adjustment. To state the obvious, the majority of her drop came from her equity heavy non-registered holdings while her bond fund heavy RRSP was actually pretty stable, dropping less than 1%. 

*Spending*
May Spend: $3490
YTD Spend: $20220

We ended up spending about $500 over the low end of my May estimate. This was primarily due to one of the repairs/replacements I was kind of expecting, actually being done. There were also some travel related spends. Not too surprised with our May spend. 

June is going to be a heavy spend month mainly due to a lot of travel related expenses. Going to estimate an $8000 spend for the month. While that extrapolates to a full year spend above our soft target of $50k, our spend in the second half of the year will likely be less. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Work is definitely very busy right now. Hoping things take a bit of a breather during the summer when a lot of staff take time off. 
Side business continues to be neglected. 
I realize it’s just financial pr0n but the financial discussions in the media seem to be all over the place right now: impact of the trade war and tariffs, recession in 2020, inverted yield curve talk, issues with the big 5 banks... I'm trying to tune out the day to day noise but I am curious what the 12 months brings.

*Countdown to Retirement*
34.5 months to go.


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> I realize it’s just financial pr0n but the financial discussions in the media seem to be all over the place right now: impact of the trade war and tariffs, recession in 2020, inverted yield curve talk, issues with the big 5 banks... I'm trying to tune out the day to day noise but I am curious what the 12 months brings.


Much of it likely depends on how far Trump goes with his tariff and trade wars, and now tying immigration in with trade. The guy is a nutcase for sure gambling that countries will cave at least somewhat to his rhetoric. His tactics are getting familiar. Go for the sensationalist jugular, back off to slit wrists and claim a win for his base. Trouble is that his behaviour is keeping business investment on the back burner and disrupting supply chains. A recession is not out of the question if he pushes too far, and that will be his proverbial loss come 2020 elections.


----------



## milhouse

*End of June 2019 Update and Midyear Status*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.522M. Down about $2.9k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $446k. Up about $6.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.968M. oilkoUp about $3.7k for the month.

While it’s the second down month in a row for me, the bigger picture is not so bad. My non-registered dividend portfolio took a bit of a hit this month, in minor part due to a number of stocks going ex-div. However, the rest of my registered index focused portfolio (RRSP, DC Pension, and TFSA) had reasonable gains. The missus’ portfolio had gains across the board other than savings going down a bit due to a heavy spend month. Also on a positive, the slightly strengthening loonie has increased the value of our portfolios in USD terms. 


My Portfolio2018 Actuals2019 to end of Q22019 TargetsRetirement Goals (Rough)Cash (soft target)20.2k14.5k20k30kNon-Registered689k770k761k1.1MRRSP327k368k351k450kTFSA82.6k98.1k93.9k135kDC Pension237k271k253k350kTotal1.356M1.522M1.490M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends30265171003500050000

I revised my 2019 targets downward based on the poor results of 2018 but didn’t update my retirement goals. With the great start to 2019, I've hit my revised 2019 targets and am getting close to being back on track to trending well towards my original retirement number. To be honest, I’d be happy with even just fairly stable/static markets for the rest of the year but would be over the moon if we could grind out a bit more gains.
I’m pretty happy with the dividend results and am pretty confident in hitting 35k in dividends by the end of the year due to increases, DRIP’ing, and additional purchases. While I had a small setback with SNC’s dividend cut earlier this year, the impact to my overall dividend flow was minor as it really isn’t part of my core dividend holdings which are financials, utilities, telecoms, and pipelines. 


2018 Actuals2019 End of Q22019 TargetsCombined Totals1.753M1.968M1.941M

*Spending*
June Spend: $5870
YTD Spend: $26090

While June was a heavy spend month primarily due to travel related expenses, it wasn’t as high as I was expected as we were able to keep purchases in check. 

July is going to be another heavy spend due to our second installment of property taxes and some more travel expenses. I estimate it to be about the same as June ~$5500. With the big bills front-loaded to the first half of the year, the rest of the year’s monthly spends, other than December's, should be relatively low; in the $3000 range. However, we’re still keeping an eye on potential repairs so another month may pop up into the $5000+ range. 


2018 Actuals2019 end of Q22019 Full Year Trend2019 Original ForecastFood & Eating Out1185063701275012700Housing & Utilities1088083701136012500Transportation4170296038704500Personal6600288057606000Entertainment135096016702000Travel1104067301346012000-18000Side Business613100200200Total46500260904907050000-56000

*Full year trend is not necessarily double the first half spend due to large single annual spends in the first half of the year factored in. 

Food & Eating Out: Our food and eating out spend is on expected target.

Housing and Utilities: Housing and utilities is kind of under expected spend but we're keeping an eye on potential repairs. Overall, costs (utilities, property taxes, and insurance) keeps going up of course.

Transportation: We’re slightly under estimate due to lower maintenance/repairs and parking costs even though insurance costs went up.

Personal: We’re slightly under estimate here too but suspect we'll be closer to target due to December spends/gift giving. 

Entertainment: We're under estimate but higher than last year due to going to a couple of pricey events. 

Travel: We’re on spec with our travel spend but it's kind of random if and where we go so it's kind of variable. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Work continues to be very busy. No let up likely for the summer. 
Side business continues to be neglected. Don’t think this will be changing any time soon.

*Countdown to Retirement*
33.5 months to go.


----------



## milhouse

*End of July 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.524M. Up about $2.0k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $451k. Up about $4.4k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.975M. Up about $6.5k for the month. (rounding)

Although most of the month was showing some reasonable gains, it ended up being a pretty flat month for me across the board. The small pullback in the US markets after the small Fed rate cut on the 31st obviously didn't help. It was nice seeing the S&P breaking 3000 for the first time during the month though. 
The missus' portfolio was pretty flat too with small gains in each category. 

*Spending*
July Spend: $6430
YTD Spend: $32520

July was going to be a heavy spend due to our property tax installment but we were way over my estimate of $5500. This was due to a larger than expected car servicing bill, some repairs/replacements for a couple of things that broke, and some travel costs from a previous trip and future trips. 
August should come in under $3000 I'm guessing. 

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
Been able to exhale at work due to there being a bit of a calm period within my projects. 
Read another interesting blog post by Morgan Housel on "The Psychology of Prediction"
Been watching Brian Belski of BMO who thinks we're in year 1 of a 2-3 goldilocks period and overall in a the midst of a 25 year US secular bull, not withstanding typical dips and turbulence. We will see...
Looking to enjoy the summer events around town. Can't complain as life's pretty good currently.

*Countdown to Retirement*
32.5 months to go. Crossed the 1000 day milestone.


----------



## fplan

peterk said:


> I dunno what you do exactly but there's certainly a segment up here in FM for automation-type computer/electrical/process engineering work. At a big-oil co. you'd probably come in at 150k salary the very first year and be easily at 200k+ after 3 years. Houses are cheap, too.


Getting into any big oil company with out O&G experience is very very difficult. I had experienced this in 2013-14 . Generally same employees move between the companies . unless your skill in high demand , you will not get into big O&G.. I dont know about the situation now..


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## AltaRed

Easier if working for one of the contractors in a camp job. Much harder I would think in the client companies who need experienced folk to provide contractor oversight.


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## milhouse

*End of August 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.539M. Up about $15.0k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $455k. Up about $4.3k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.994M. Up about $19.3k for the month. 

It was a pretty volatile month that started well enough, then we took a dive with the inverted yield curve and trade war drama, and then ended with a surprising recovery at the end of the month which allowed us to end up in the black instead of the red. 

A light spend month combined with extra paychecks buttressed our some cash saving. My non-registered dividend holdings also did a chunk of the lifting for the month, though it was a light dividend paying month. My RRSP and TFSA were down slightly while my DC pension was up slightly only due to August’s contributions. Things are currently trending well for the year but as we all know, things can turn on a dime. 
The missus' portfolio was relatively flat too with the bulk of the gain coming from the cash savings. Non-registered, TFSA, and RRSP were down, up, and up respectively but essentially flat. 
In terms of USD, totals increased but at a lower rate due to loonie weakness.

*Spending*
August Spend: $2340
YTD Spend: $34920 (July correction and rounding) 

Missed a $50 spend in July which I added back in. 
August was a relatively light spend month, coming in under my $3000 estimate, even with a number of summer activities and a weekend trip. I’m guessing September should be around $3000 as it should be similar to August but with some fall league fees. However, it’s going to depend on those potential repairs we’re watching/doing around the house. 
With two thirds of the year gone, barring any of the repairs becoming significant, I think we’re trending to spend about $46k to $50k this year which is kind of at the lower end of our estimates at the start of the year. 

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
It just got crazy again at work. 
September and October look to be _scary_ months again with all the volatility that's happening but I'm not taking any action (yet?).
I love summer in and around Vancouver. 
NHL training camps are just around the corner and I'm looking forward to seeing what this iteration of the Canucks are able to do. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
31.5 months to go.


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## scorpion_ca

I heard that both spouses NW should be similar amount or very close in retirement in order to save taxes. Are you doing any tax planning to reduce your NW and increase your spouse's NW?


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## milhouse

That's a great question. The short answer is no, although I'm trying to understand it better. 

I've been reading retirement income/decumulation strategy books and articles so have picked up on some of the concepts around spousal RRSP's, income splitting, donating shares directly, etc but I haven't been able to wrap my head around them to determine how they would best apply to our situation and how to best execute the strategies. 

Complicating matters is that we currently manage things as my bucket, her bucket, and a combined spend bucket that we each contribute to, instead of a more holistic approach.
The missus also isn't looking to retire at the same time as me for a combination of reasons. She may be about 5 to 8 years later unless she gets pushed out earlier. 

That said, I've run some of my projected numbers (excluding the missus') through the TaxTips.ca tax calculator and the annual tax bill, at least in the early stages (age 50 to 55) do not seem too onerous. For example, if I hit my more optimistic targets, I may be able to generate $50-65k in dividends from my Non-Registered account and also be able to withdraw $25k from my RRSP/DC Pension. It looks like that would create a tax bill of only $6680 if I'm working the tax calculator correctly. I'd be into OAS clawback territory but in some ways, that's not a key worry.


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## scorpion_ca

You could pay all monthly bills and put all of her income in investing. This will help to increase her retirement income and you may be able to save some taxes.


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## OnlyMyOpinion

scorpion_ca said:


> You could pay all monthly bills and put all of her income in investing. This will help to increase her retirement income and you may be able to save some taxes.


I agree with Scorpion. You're non-reg acc is substantially more than your wife's as I recall. You could have all of her income go to investing while you pay all expenses for a while to even up that imbalance in investing income.
The reasons you might consider this: Even though your larger acc can generate significant dividend income without onerous taxes, there is nothing that guarantees that will always be the case - tax rules can change (incl those related to OAS), so having your investment income closer to 50/50 provides more 'buffer'. Also, at some point you'll face capital gains, whether this is because you decide to take out some cash, or not until you die and she inherits your no-reg acc - it will come, so having a more balanced division of assets may be beneficial on an 'estate after-tax basis' (there is also nothing guaranteeing that cap gains rules won't change in the future).

Anyway, just a few thoughts. You are doing awesome btw.


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## AltaRed

Ditto to OMO and Scorpion. It is perfectly legal for her to invest all of her income to build investable assets while you preferentially fund all household expenses. That is an easier way (along with DC and DB pensions in the future) to income split (mostly in the future) than use of spousal loans.


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## milhouse

The suggestion is definitely a logical idea. 
Throwing more money at her side of the portfolio is part of it. However, the other aspect is a combination of the discipline to invest and her just being more conservative asset allocation. She's a great saver but isn't proactive enough to invest her money. I have to nag her to contribute to her TFSA every year. She's built up a pile of cash in her HISA and I tell her it's ending up being lazy money but I hesitate to push her too hard to invest it because I'll never hear the end of it if the markets do take a big hit. I should get her to work it down though. She has some money automatically going to her PHN account on a monthly basis. Might have to consider ramping that up.


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## Eclectic12

My co-worker has the same issue.

What he has done so far is have her funds transferred to a discount brokerage as they become available. He does the buying but of what she wants (GICs in this case). The place he deviates a bit is in the spousal RRSP where he puts up to 10% into higher income, equity based investments.

She was riding along with whatever the bank offered for the GICs so her returns, while not as good as his equity ones have improved.

He also has reduced his FI amount a bit.


Not sure if this might be an idea to pursue or not but it is one option.


Cheers


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> The suggestion is definitely a logical idea.
> Throwing more money at her side of the portfolio is part of it. However, the other aspect is a combination of the discipline to invest and her just being more conservative asset allocation. She's a great saver but isn't proactive enough to invest her money. I have to nag her to contribute to her TFSA every year. She's built up a pile of cash in her HISA and I tell her it's ending up being lazy money but I hesitate to push her too hard to invest it because I'll never hear the end of it if the markets do take a big hit. I should get her to work it down though. She has some money automatically going to her PHN account on a monthly basis. Might have to consider ramping that up.


Fair enough. She has the ultimate authority to invest her own income as she wishes and that needs to be respected. That said, presumably both you and her invest as part of a family unit and look at the combined portfolios on a holistic basis, with some negotiation on the to and fro of what that should all look like. Maybe if she continues to insist on being more conservative, you compensate by being a bit more aggressive. Ultimately though, the overall size of your nest eggs will/should allow you overall to be somewhat balanced, e.g. 60/40, in your total investments. Her investing more and keeping you out of a higher MTR upon retirement should be some incentive to pay less tax to CRA.

P.S. Income splitting is a tax effective strategy, but it should also be weighed against personal investing styles and desires. Each member of a couple has equitable input.


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## james4beach

I'm not married (so take this with a grain of salt) but I actually like the idea of two people each investing their own way. Assuming investment competence -- this is kind of like diversifying into two separate money managers.

Two people who think and reason in their own way will make different decisions. Inevitably, one will turn out to outperform the other, but (again assuming a certain level of competence) it may be impossible to predict which will actually come out ahead.

I do agree that cash drag is harmful, because cash is the one asset that is almost guaranteed to have a negative real return. But let's say one spouse wants to do 60/40 with a mutual fund, whereas the other wants to do all GICs. I really don't see a problem with that, and I like the diversification idea.


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## james4beach

And sorry, I didn't mean to offend by talking about investment competence. I meant that there are certain fundamentals of capital management, one of which is that cash is not an asset that performs, and is nearly sure to give a negative real return.



milhouse said:


> However, the other aspect is a combination of the discipline to invest and her just being more conservative asset allocation. She's a great saver but isn't proactive enough to invest her money. I have to nag her to contribute to her TFSA every year. *She's built up a pile of cash in her HISA* and I tell her it's ending up being lazy money but I hesitate to push her too hard to invest it because I'll never hear the end of it if the markets do take a big hit.


I think it's fine to remind her that cash amounts are not earning anything and losing to inflation. But no, you shouldn't push her into more aggressive investments if she wants to invest conservatively. "Investing" does not necessarily mean getting into the stock market, though that seems to be how many people use the term.

You could point her to some other conservative investment options that are undeniably better than cash, such as short term bonds (XSB or XSH) or the GIC ladder approach using 5 year GICs. Standard bond funds like XBB should also be on the table, though these come with more volatility and risk.

All of those will perform better than cash without requiring anything close to stock market risk. Speaking as a conservative investor myself, I can say that it's helpful to ease into riskier investments. My 10+ years of GIC and bond heavy investment has given me more comfort about taking on stock risk.

If she's not particularly hands on, the GIC ladder may be too difficult to manage, but XSH is worth a close look. Low MER, corporate short term bonds with a wee bit of volatility, DRIP capability, and returns similar to GICs over the years = 5 year return of 2.5%


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## AltaRed

I am guessing Milhouse has a good grip on possibilities, for each component of a diversified portfolio, and doesn't need help on portfolio design. The real challenge is juggling the priorities of portfolio independence and risk profiles.


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## Eclectic12

james4beach said:


> And sorry, I didn't mean to offend by talking about investment competence. I meant that there are certain fundamentals of capital management, one of which is that cash is not an asset that performs, and is nearly sure to give a negative real return ...
> I think it's fine to remind her that cash amounts are not earning anything and losing to inflation. But no, you shouldn't push her into more aggressive investments if she wants to invest conservatively. "Investing" does not necessarily mean getting into the stock market, though that seems to be how many people use the term.
> 
> You could point her to some other conservative investment options that are undeniably better than cash, such as short term bonds (XSB or XSH) or the GIC ladder approach using 5 year GICs ...


No idea if it fits the OP's situation but for some - this is all pie in the sky.

My father would have considered XSB or XSH the same as XIU or XIC or buying Royal Bank stock, no matter what you said to him.


My guess is Milhouse has a better read on what out of the picture and what might with time/effort might be possible.


Cheers


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## milhouse

AltaRed said:


> Fair enough. She has the ultimate authority to invest her own income as she wishes and that needs to be respected. That said, presumably both you and her invest as part of a family unit and look at the combined portfolios on a holistic basis, with some negotiation on the to and fro of what that should all look like. Maybe if she continues to insist on being more conservative, you compensate by being a bit more aggressive.


Unfortunately we don't really coordinate our portfolios. But it has kind of just balanced out that way though as I've been more aggressive and her more conservative. 



james4beach said:


> And sorry, I didn't mean to offend by talking about investment competence. I meant that there are certain fundamentals of capital management, one of which is that cash is not an asset that performs, and is nearly sure to give a negative real return.


No offense taken.

I'm fine with her being more conservative. She's pretty heavy with PHN's flagship bond fund but has eased into US and International equity funds the last couple of years. 
Money matters on the earning and investing side of things aren't really of interest to her (but she watches spending like a hawk. LOL) so it's really about keeping things simple and easy for her. Hence why she's paying some higher fees at PHN for some of her portfolio.


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## milhouse

*End of September 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.546M. Up about $7.5k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $463k. Up about $7.7k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.009M. Up about $15.2k for the month.

The volatility continued into September but in reverse, allowing us to hit new highs mid-month before falling back down at the end of the month but still providing some gains. 
For me, I reached a new high of $1.57M mid-month along with my TFSA temporarily cracking the $100k mark for the first time. Although I fell back down to $1.546M at the end of the month it’s still a new high. With the exception of my non-registered account, every other aspect of my portfolio grew. My non-registered account didn’t do too badly but was impacted by a couple of key holdings that took a small hit. Dividends from the non-registered account to the end of Q3 total $26204 and is still on track to hitting $35k for the year. 
The missus' portfolio had small gains in each of her accounts with a large chunk again coming from her cash savings. 
Kind of cool to finally break the $2M mark in combined investable assets.

*Spending*
August Spend: $3130
YTD Spend: $38050

September came in very close to my $3000 estimate. We would have been closer to August’s spend under $2500 if not for a repair we kind of saw coming and an extended family lunch where we picked up the tab since my siblings typically host a lot of the family get togethers. 
October should fall in closer to the $2500 mark as there shouldn’t be a lot of one off spends this month.

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
Work continues to be ridiculous. I have to admit that I’ve recently tried to keep myself sane by rationalizing that I’m close enough to my goals that an early exit wouldn’t be the worst thing that can happen. The missus is also having a rough time at work too for various reasons. I’ve asked her if she wanted to consider retiring before 50 but she says she would still want to work part time.
There seems to be a lot of market negativity out there nowadays. While markets have been a bit volatile, I’m kind of surprised they have held up fairly well so far (knock on wood).
Normally we’d enjoy summer into September but it seemed more drizzly and colder than normal. Might have to consider putting on the snow tires early this year instead of waiting until late November. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
30.5 months to go. Kind of the halfway mark of this almost 5 year countdown. 
On one hand, that still seems so far away. On the other hand, when I look back at what I was doing 30 months ago, it seems so recent.


----------



## milhouse

*End of October 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.564M. Up about $17.1k for the month. New high.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $470k. Up about $7.2k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.034M. Up about $14.3k for the month.

October was a solid month for my portfolio with gains across the board for a new high. My non-registered account took a bit of a hit with RCI revising guidance downwards with corresponding impact to the rest of the telecoms but was offset by a heavy dividend month. My TFSA finally ended a month above $100k with my RRSP and DC Pension also having small gains. 
The missus' portfolio had small gains in each of her accounts with again the large chunk coming from her cash savings. Her bond heavy RRSP’s and balanced fund heavy TFSA both had very small gains. The index ETF’s in her non-registered account provided the rest of her bigger gains. 

*Spending*
August Spend: $2700
YTD Spend: $40750

October came in somewhat close to my $2500 estimate. A couple of unexpected spends and gifts/donations in the $100 range kind of pushed us over. 
November will likely be a higher than normal spend due to some trip expenses, a potentially large ($1000 range) preventative maintenance/repair bill, and a large gift spend. I suspect November’s spend will come over $4000. I think we’ll still come in under $50k for the entire year spend unless we pre-book some significant travel for 2020.

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
Work continues to be ridiculous still. I’m looking forward to a bit of a breather in December when a lot of people are off and it ends up being a time to regroup.
As we’re nearing the end of the year, I'm still hoping for a net steady as she goes with all the volatility evening out.
I finished reading Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen of Millennial Revolution. It was an interesting read with some interesting concepts. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it because I felt her writing style can feel a bit too abrasive based on her website. However, I generally enjoyed the read with disagreement on a couple of points. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
29.5 months to go. 
Broke the 900 days left threshold in October. The 100 days since the 1000 day threshold seemed to go by reasonably quick.


----------



## milhouse

*End of November 2019 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.633M. Up about $69.7k for the month. New high.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $483k. Up about $12.5k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.116M. Up about $82.3k for the month.

November ended up being a great month for our portfolios with gains across the board. For my portfolio, it was the largest monthly increase since I started tracking monthly snapshots 7 years ago. My non-registered account gained with the telecoms recovering and ENB having a good month offsetting a couple of declines. My registered accounts had proportionally nice gains with their index ETF’s. 
The missus' portfolio also had a good gain for the month but she’s had a few larger increases in the past. Biggest gains were in her non-registered account and smallest gain from her bond heavy RRSP account. 

*Spending*
November Spend: $4220
YTD Spend: $44960

Our November spend was close to the $4000+ I expected. The gift spend came to fruition but not the maintenance/repair bill due to scheduling which will likely get it pushed to December or January. However, our travel spend essentially replaced the maintenance/repair bill with some post October trip bills and flights purchased for a 2020 trip. No Black Friday spending though, as we didn’t urgently need anything and didn’t really have a lot of time to research deals for stuff we might be interested in.

December’s always a heavy spend month for us for typical reasons. I’m going to estimate we'll spend $4750 with an expectation to keep the annual spend under $50k but it will depend on whether we make any additional pre-paid travel bookings and how much Boxing Day shopping we do. 

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
No rest for the wicked this December as there’s a push on a couple of initiatives to get a head start in the new year. 
Curious if there will be a Christmas Rally this year. The last 2 Decembers have been down months for my portfolio. But again would be pretty happy with steady as she goes as this year’s savings and gains have now generally got me back on my original track, offsetting last year’s disappointment.

*Countdown to Retirement*
28.5 months to go


----------



## milhouse

*End of December 2019 Update, Year End Summary, and 2020 Targets*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.643M. Up approximately $9.8k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $486k. Up about $3.7k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.129M. New high.

December was posting some solid numbers for me until that last few days where the markets had a few down days and the strong loonie took some wind out of my portfolio's sails. 
As a result, it was a mixed bag with a few areas up (savings, taxable account, and DC pension) and a few slightly down (RRSP and TFSA). The upshot is that my portfolio was notably higher in USD terms.

The missus’ portfolio was overall positive in December with her bond heavy RRSP ending slightly in the red.

*Portfolio Targets and Goals*
2019 was a great rebound year as it got my portfolio back on track after last year’s sea of red during the last trimester. My portfolio grew by just under $290k for the year which is the largest jump for me in dollar terms and second largest percentage-wise (2013 was slightly better). 

My portfolio had strong gains across the board with my TFSA slightly disappointing. I broke from strategy and added TD while it was sub $70, to my TFSA, which was only supposed to hold non-CDN equity index ETF’s and a CDN bond ETF. It did ok but underperformed relatively speaking. However, I still think it’s a good long term hold in my TFSA, even at the risk of too much home bias overall.

The missus’ portfolio suffered from lost opportunity by not deploying her cash in her non-registered account. As a result, cash was heavy but she missed her non-registered account target. Her bond heavy RRSP continues to underperform expectations. We may have to review if the expectations are realistic. 

For 2020, I’m looking to get/keep my Fixed Income allocation in my registered accounts to 25-30%.
For my non-registered account, I’m looking to continue adding to my Canadian dividend growers to support my $40k in dividends target in 2020.

*My Portfolio*

2018 Actual2019 Target2019 Actual2020 Target2022 Retirement (Rough Goals)Cash (soft target)20.2k20k24.3k20k30kNon-Registered689k761k835k922k1.1MRRSP327k351k388k416k450kTFSA82.6k93.9k103k115k135kDC Pension237k263k293k322k350kTotal1.356M1.490M1.643M1.795M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends2538035000354914000050000

*Her Portfolio and Combined Totals*

2018 Actual2019 Target2019 ActualCash (soft target)65.2k40k90.7kNon-Registered177k231k213kRRSP76.6k89.9k84.0kTFSA74.8k90.7k94.5kMisc Pension3.8k4.0k3.8k*(DB Pension)TBDTBDTBDTotal397k456k486kOur Combined Total1.753M1.946M2.129M

*Spending*
Dec spend: $4570
2019 total spend: $49.6k

December came in close to my $4750 estimate with typical holiday expenditures, eating out, and the major maintenance/repair bill that I was expecting. Travel related expenses were light and we didn’t do much Boxing Day shopping.

It was nice that we came in under our $50k soft target and under our overall $50-56k estimate. I was kind of hoping to be around $48k this year but a number of categories had larger than expected spends as explained below.
For 2020, I’m forecasting a spending jump to the mid to high $50k range due to price inflation (particularly food) and a handful of repairs/maintenance/household items. $1000 expenses add up quickly.


2018 Actual2019 Estimate2019 Actual2020 EstimateFood & Eating Out11850127001380014500Housing & Utilities10880125001189014500Transportation4170450047104950Personal6600600077808000Entertainment1350200015402000Travel1104012000-18000965012000-18000Side Business610200200200Total4650050000-560004957054000-60000

Food & Eating Out: Both our groceries and eating out were higher which I’ll partially chalk up to food inflation. However, also we covered a couple of somewhat large extended family restaurant meals which hit our bottom line.
For 2020, word is that there will be notable food inflation so I’ve hiked up our spend estimate.

Housing & Utilities: Everything was a bit more expensive this year from utilities to insurance, to property taxes, to communication services which resulted in a higher spend than 2018. We fortunately only had one significant maintenance/repair bill for the year which kept us under our original estimate. 
For housing & utilities in 2020, I’m hoping some of the utility costs will level out for the year. However, property taxes are supposed to go up a chunk and there are a couple of additional repairs/maintenance things we want to accomplish in 2020.

Transportation: Our fuel spend and insurance were up only slightly in 2019. While we needed to do some expensive regular maintenance this year, we dodged a major repair. We spent more on car sharing and one of our licenses needed renewing too. 
Our car may also require major servicing in 2020 (brakes). And I expect insurance costs to jump a bit as we renew for the first time under new government policy.

Personal: We overspent in personal due to a couple of key things. We went a bit overboard on some gifts/charities/gofundme's. And we had some vet bills that kind of ran up the numbers a bit. 
I’ve forecast an increase in personal spend 2020 due to potentially more vet bills, some purchases we want to make, and a couple of wedding gifts. 

Entertainment: Our 2019 entertainment spend was pretty similar to 2018 with the main difference coming from floor seats of a concert we attended.
I kept our 2020 estimate at $2k in case there’s more paid events we want to attend. 

Travel: In 2019, we travelled on fewer but longer trips which saved us in terms airfare costs. We also cashed in a chunk of Aeroplan points for flights on a big trip.
I suspect 2020 is going to be the opposite with a bunch of shorter trips, extended weekend and week & a bit trips which should increase our travel spend.

Side Business: Side business is still there but I haven't been giving it much attention since I’m so busy at work.

*House Value*
2018 Assessment: $1.479M
2019 Assessment: $1.353M

According to BC Assessment, the value of our house went down again in 2019. That’s the fourth consecutive year. Again, my main concern is staying within the valuation for the home owner’s grant which we are. Still no immediate intention to tap into home equity.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
After a great 2019, I’m not expecting similar stellar results but it would be nice to keep the momentum going.
Job-wise, it did end up being a very busy in 2019. I’m thinking 2020 is going to be busy too but just not as chaotic. That said, I think I feel more mentally ready if the company does package me out during one of its usual purges. 
A big trip monopolized a lot of focus in 2019. I’ve got to see if I can give attention to the other stuff I mentioned last year: Lose weight/get healthier, throw some effort into my side business/hobby.

*Countdown to Retirement*
27.5 months to go.
Just over 500 days of work left after subtracting weekends, stats, and holidays.


----------



## milhouse

*End of January 2020 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.709M. Up about $66.1k for the month. New high.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $494k. Up about $7.8k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.203M. Up about $73.8k for the month.

Happy new year.
January ended up being big month for my portfolio even with all the turbulence: US/Iran conflict, US/China phase 1 trade deal, corona virus, and so on. Gains were across the board except savings due funds reallocated to TFSA contribution (ZAG to get the FI allocation to 25%) and purchases in my taxable account (a bit of TD). Gains were likely assisted by the weaker loonie and by a heavy dividend month.
It was a pretty similar story for her portfolio with gains across the board, TFSA contribution, and adding to her equity ETF holdings in VXC.

*Spending*
January Spend: $3190
YTD Spend: $3190

Overall, our January spend was reasonable. We did spend more than January 2019 but this is due to some travel spend which occurs randomly throughout the year with pre-paid bookings and whenever we decide to travel. Our food and entertainment spend was lighter due to some special event spends last year but a couple of utilities bills where higher.

February is going to be a big spend month with the advanced property tax installment due, more travel expenses, and least 1 major repair, if not 2, that we’re going to have to do. My estimate for February is a spend of about $5500 to $6000. 

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
January seemed to drag on forever for some reason even though it was busy at work. 
IMO, the corona virus is something to be concerned about in terms of needing to ensure it is contained but from a market impact perspective I think it’s a standard temporary bump in the road. 
The missus has had a rough go of it at work the last few months for various reasons. The original plan was to have her work to 50 to build up her DB pension but not starting to collect it until about 60. Might start working out scenarios with her retiring in her mid 40's. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
26.5 months to go
I’m only a few days from hitting the 800 day to go mark. Ironically, even though January seemingly took forever, going from 900 days to 800 days seemed to go by reasonably quick.


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## Tayls77

Hi Milhouse, Your planning seems impeccable, I expect your transition into retirement to go well. I retire at the end of the month and have been doing the same work you have although mine has been in a much shorter time span. I read somewhere, and have taken to heart, the idea of planning income instead of Networth as the fear for some is that seeing their Networth decline is depressing so they under-spend in retirement.
I have been able to build an annual income stream using rental income, Private Real-estate REIT income and PE loans of 83K using just $1,075,000 of my investable assets. I am looking at adding 300k worth of dividend blue chip stocks to increase that to 95k. I then leave the other 1/2 of my investments in GIC's and balanced funds to grow for the future, large spends etc.. Do you ever consider more aggressive investing for your income? I just turned 56 and man am I looking forward to finally getting to do what I want every day! Good luck with your countdown!


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## milhouse

Congrats on your retirement! Enjoy for me, the first Monday you don't have to go to work. 
That is a spectacular amount of income you are yielding from your investable assets with a nice chunk allocated for future growth/larger spends! 
I have not considered more aggressive investing to optimize income production. It's due to a lack of awareness and knowledge beyond common income producing streams on my part though. That being said, I'd probably lean more towards trending to a less aggressive portfolio as I head into retirement.


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## Tayls77

milhouse said:


> Congrats on your retirement! Enjoy for me, the first Monday you don't have to go to work.
> That is a spectacular amount of income you are yielding from your investable assets with a nice chunk allocated for future growth/larger spends!
> I have not considered more aggressive investing to optimize income production. It's due to a lack of awareness and knowledge beyond common income producing streams on my part though. That being said, I'd probably lean more towards trending to a less aggressive portfolio as I head into retirement.


Thank you, your day will arrive faster than you imagine!
Your assets qualify you an accredited investor, there are lots of alternatives now. My private apartment, retail and commercial REITS average a 6.3% yield and 12% overall return over the last 10 years. I can physically go and see the buildings, for me I see that as much less risky than the markets. It did take me awhile of dipping a toe in to get comfortable and I still will never put all my assets their (even though it's tempting at those yields) but I wouldn't leave all my assets in the markets either. Good luck on your path, and I look forward to watching your progress!


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## james4beach

Be careful with that "accredited investor" stuff. I'm sure there are some good opportunities, but also many horrible options.

Accredit investors do not necessarily run into anything better than standard, low fee investment opportunities that exist for people with less money.


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## milhouse

*End of February 2020 Update*

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.606M. Down about $103.1k for the month. 
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $474k. Down about $20.4k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.080M. Down about $123.5k for the month.

Thud.
That’s the sound of falling back to reality. 
After a great last couple of months, it seems like the markets were looking for any reason to correct. And correct they did with the uncertainty of the corona virus being front and centre.
February started out amazingly with my portfolio hitting a peak of around $1.775M by mid-month. And then the bottom fell out the last week of February. Peak to current trough is about $175k which is kind of insane since that’s like over 3 years of expenses for us. Taking positives where I can, the large cap CDN dividend growers are looking cheap with a great yield.
The missus portfolio obviously took a hit too with her bond heavy RRSP taking the least damage at <-2% and her equity index ETF heavy investment account dropping a bit over 6%.


*Spending*
February Spend: $6450
YTD Spend: $9630

February was more expensive than expected, coming in almost $500 over the top end of my estimate of $6000. The biggest chunk was our advanced property tax installment. The rest of the hit came from travel costs and repairs as expected, though 1 repair was somewhat unexpected. Taking all these major costs out, our spend would have been about $1500.

I’m hoping our March spend will be lighter but we’ve got another repair we’re working on and some more travel. Expecting a spend of about $2500 to $3000. 

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
Let the panic begin as people seem to be hoarding essentials at Costco to prep for corona virus armageddon.
Trying to find some travel deals.
The load at work has lightened up a bit but problems/issues seemed to have ramped up.
Got to focus more on health, losing weight, personal wellness.

*Countdown to Retirement*
25.5 months to go
It’s not a huge milestone but I’m looking forward to crossing the 2 year mark soon.


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## Tayls77

milhouse said:


> *Savings and Investments*
> My investable assets: $1.606M. Down about $103.1k for the month.
> Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $474k. Down about $20.4k for the month.
> Combined investable assets: $2.080M. Down about $123.5k for the month.
> 
> Thud.
> That’s the sound of falling back to reality.
> After a great last couple of months, it seems like the markets were looking for any reason to correct. And correct they did with the uncertainty of the corona virus being front and centre.
> February started out amazingly with my portfolio hitting a peak of around $1.775M by mid-month. And then the bottom fell out the last week of February. Peak to current trough is about $175k which is kind of insane since that’s like over 3 years of expenses for us. Taking positives where I can, the large cap CDN dividend growers are looking cheap with a great yield.
> The missus portfolio obviously took a hit too with her bond heavy RRSP taking the least damage at <-2% and her equity index ETF heavy investment account dropping a bit over 6%.
> 
> 
> *Spending*
> February Spend: $6450
> YTD Spend: $9630
> 
> February was more expensive than expected, coming in almost $500 over the top end of my estimate of $6000. The biggest chunk was our advanced property tax installment. The rest of the hit came from travel costs and repairs as expected, though 1 repair was somewhat unexpected. Taking all these major costs out, our spend would have been about $1500.
> 
> I’m hoping our March spend will be lighter but we’ve got another repair we’re working on and some more travel. Expecting a spend of about $2500 to $3000.
> 
> *Comments, Concerns, Issues*
> Let the panic begin as people seem to be hoarding essentials at Costco to prep for corona virus armageddon.
> Trying to find some travel deals.
> The load at work has lightened up a bit but problems/issues seemed to have ramped up.
> Got to focus more on health, losing weight, personal wellness.
> 
> *Countdown to Retirement*
> 25.5 months to go
> It’s not a huge milestone but I’m looking forward to crossing the 2 year mark soon.


I know lots of people on here are against private investments, but this month my Residential REIT increased in value by 22% while the stock market crashed. I bought stocks when they dropped Thursday and Friday and even SU today while at the same time I bought an equal amount of one of my REITS. I intend to be 50% rentals and private investments and then 50% Divy stocks and GIC's. I still have 200k to get into the market but I am buying at set prices through daily limit orders and don't care how long it takes. In the end the 50% in private investments will fund my required income though distributions, interest and rents and the other half is the backup plan. Three days into retirement and loving it keep planning Milhouse and I have no doubt you will get there.


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## kelaa

Tayls77:

For those of us in the steerage class, can you tell us how do you know your value increased by 22% (or the value at any given time)? Is the company ready to buy back your shares at that price?


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## milhouse

*End of March 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.478M. Down about $128.1k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $439.5k. Down about $34.3k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $1.917M. Down about $162.5k for the month.

Well, it could have been worse.
With COVID-19 ramping up in North America in March and leading to businesses and commerce shutting down for the precaution of social distancing, it led to an extremely volatile market with ridiculous swings daily. And of course, my portfolio wasn’t immune to the volatility and negative sentiment. But being down “only” $128k after that wild ride isn’t too bad. From peak (in mid-Feb) to March end, I’m down only about 14% (keeping in mind that number is propped up by new savings). There were obviously much worse numbers experienced during the mid-month freefalls. However, I’m not sure if we’re out of the woods yet.

Apart from nibbling at dividend growers to add to my non-registered portfolio, it’s been pretty steady as she goes. Still hoping to hit $40k in dividends from my non-registered portfolio this year even with companies announcing cuts, suspensions, and non-increases but won't get a better view until later in the year.

The missus portfolio was similar to last month with losses everywhere except cash savings which grew. Paper losses were lightest in her bond heavy RRSP of course. We’ll see if she wants to take advantage of the “sale”. 

*Spending*
March Spend: $3380
YTD Spend: $13010

March ran over my upper band estimate of $3000 due to: Some unexpected medical expenses for the missus, buying groceries for each of our parents a few times so they didn’t have to leave the house to shop, and some charitable donations as my company was matching donations. A positive was that the repair we were anticipating came in lighter than expected.

April is another pricey month with house and car insurance premiums due. Expecting a spend of about $5000 to $5500. We’ve been cooking a lot but might try to do a bit more takeout to support our favorite restaurants.

At the quarter pole mark, spending still seems to be on track for about a $50k spend for the year. Currently, I don’t see our spend going down even with being at home so much since our going out/entertainment spend generally isn’t high anyways and we’re ending up spending on other things (ex Groceries for parents). However, depending on how things play out, our travel spend, which is a big chunk of our annual spend, might be way under estimate depending on what travel options there are in the fall. We did fit in some small trips at the start of the year though.

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
I thought January dragged on forever. After a painful March on so many levels, it feels like we should be in fall by now.
Cashflow is still in good shape as both the missus and I are still working. Even got a nice little raise. Was told about it in February before everything blew up but I’m surprised it still went through given the state of everything. 
At this point, while I’m not sure if I’ll hit all my target numbers by my retirement date/in my retirement year, I’m still pretty confident that neither the market turmoil or residual effects of the pandemic will delay my retirement target date, as it fast approaches. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
24.5 months to go.
Recently passed the 750 day mark and will cross the 2 year mark this month.


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## milhouse

*End of April 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.555M. Up about $77.1k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $469.3k. Up about $29.8k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.024M. Up about $106.8k for the month.

Dead cat bounce?
After 2 of the largest down months since I’ve been keeping a monthly snapshot, my portfolio finally got a bit of a respite, jumping $77k which is that largest monthly gain I’ve experienced. Need a few more of those to get back to my original highs. I really don’t know what to expect in the months ahead as there’s a bit of hope with things opening up again but even though the markets are forward looking, it’s not opening up to the point of normalcy.

Both our portfolio grew in all categories. Apart from some small purchases, it was pretty quiet for me. April is a heavy dividend month for me but a few didn’t show up by month’s end and will add to May’s snapshot.

No changes for the missus’ portfolio. That said, it’s now only down about 3.5% YTD but keeping in mind that includes cash from income/savings and additional purchases.

*Spending*
April Spend: $4950
YTD Spend: $17960

Was able to keep April’s spend to the lower end of my estimate. House and car insurance were the big spends this month taking up over just under 2/3 of the total. We downgraded some of our car insurance options since we don’t drive much nowadays with both of us working at home. Once we start going into the office again, we’ll consider upgrading our coverage. Our grocery spend has been higher than expected due to us eating at home more, food inflation, and buying some groceries for our parents. We’ve been doing a bit of takeout but a few of the experiences haven’t been the greatest with some pick-up times scheduled over an hour with additional wait times after we get there and some of the dishes being subpar even after taking into consideration degradation driving the food home. Next to no spend on travel and entertainment as expected.

May should be a relatively light spend month. I expect a spend of about $2500. However, we got lazy and didn’t complete our taxes. Will try to finish them up this weekend and submit. I’m going to end up owing a few thousand. I typically don’t count that as part of our spend numbers but it will impact my cash savings numbers.

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
Work has been pretty busy. However, I spoke too soon about my raise. While it showed up in my compensation profile, it got put on hold. 
The weather is getting nicer and days getting longer in Vancouver. Looking forward to spending more time outside for walks. 
Looks like a spring trip is out of the question. Trying to figure out if a trip in the fall is in the cards but it seems too soon to say still. We likely won't book anything until closer to departure even with more flexible cancellation policies.

*Countdown to Retirement*
23.5 months to go.
Approaching the 100 week mark in May.


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## Mookie

Hey Milhouse, congrats on passing the 2 years to go mark. Just wondering how set in stone your retirement date is with all the uncertainty that COVID-19 is bringing to the markets. Are you at all tempted to defer retirement a bit to offset some of that uncertainty?


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## milhouse

Hi Mookie. I'd say I'm 75% sure that I'm sticking to my retirement date. Part of the uncertainty is that while my company isn't doing too badly all things considered, I suspect there will be layoffs in the fall after the full impact of Q2 is known. If they package me out, that would be my end point as I suspect the severance would cover me to close to the cashflow I would have earned the last 16-18 months to my original target. 
I am concerned about the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought to the markets and my portfolio. However, the dividend side has been pretty resilient so far. Only 1 restaurant royalty fund that makes up a small part, suspended it's distributions while 2 others only missed/deferred their expected increases. I'm still on track to hit my dividend target this year. What would make me seriously consider delaying my retirement date is if significant (risk of) cuts to the dividends occur that would force me to head into retirement way below my dividend target. That's the biggest uncertainty I'm concerned about. OTOH, I'm not as concerned about the indexing side of my portfolio as I feel I could hold off withdrawing or draw very little from it to give it an opportunity to heal. 
Lastly, I have a pretty good relationship with my manager. I would consider staying on only a few more months if he asks me to/makes it worth my while.


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## milhouse

*End of May 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.609M. Up about $54.5k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $483.8k. Up about $14.5k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.093M. Up about $69.0k for the month.

Everyone’s rally caps must be working.
It was another solid rally month for our portfolios. No clue if the rally can be sustained because things are opening up now or if we’re in for another dip since the damage will continue without a vaccine or effective treatment. 

Had gains across the portfolio except for cash savings since a chunk of it was used to pay income taxes. Cash savings will take another hit in June as I make my RRSP contribution, now that I know what my contribution limit is for the 2020 tax year. Will likely use it for an equity ETF purchase. Dividends in my taxable account are generally holding fairly steady.
The missus’ portfolio is recovering nicely with her bond heavy RRSP and balanced fund heavy TFSA pretty much at 2019 year end levels. Her equity heavy taxable account is only down about mid-single digit YTD. 

Will do a midyear status check next month. We’ll see how June goes but all things considered, it hasn’t been too bad.

*Spending*
May Spend: $1980
YTD Spend: $19940

May was a relatively light spend month and came in a chunk under my $2500 estimate which was in part due to the fact there weren’t any large spends or repairs. Our grocery bill remains elevated and we’re still doing a bunch of takeout. We’re also buying stuff for our siblings and parents to save them a trip to Costco or wherever (and vice versa).

We submitted our taxes about a week in and had to pay a few thousand. I didn’t include this in our spend numbers.

I’m guessing June is likely going to follow a similar lighter spend pattern. However, they are starting to open things up in BC with the continued reasonable expectation of social distancing, masks, etc. So, we might be spending a bit more going out. Will estimate a spend of $2500 again for June.

*Comments, Concerns, Issues*
Pretty similar to last month.

Work is still pretty busy. But I still think there’s going to be layoffs in the fall. 
The weather has been pretty nice so we’ve been enjoying nice walks in the extended neighbourhood. It kind of sucks that pretty much all the festivals and events we look forward to are cancelled this year.
Sounds like the missus is against leaving the country for a trip this year due to all the potential pitfalls: Insurance coverage, quarantine at the destination and return, how open the destination will be, potential hate for tourists, etc. Might do a road trip in the late summer.

*Countdown to Retirement*
22.5 months to go.
50 paychecks left if I’m lucky.


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## milhouse

*End of June 2020 Update and Midyear Status

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.598M. Down about $11.2k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $496k. Up about $9.5k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.092M. Down about $1.7k for the month.
The month was overall, relatively flat for me. My non-registered Canadian dividend focused account took a bit of a hit this month but was offset by increases in my registered index focused portfolio (RRSP, DC Pension, and TFSA). Also, the loonie gaining some strength resulted in my overall portfolio go up slightly in USD terms. I transferred cash to my RRSP account for my 2020 tax year contribution but haven’t decided what to buy.

The missus’ portfolio had small gains across the board and is officially positive for the year (with help from additional savings and contributions.) 


My Portfolio2019 Actuals2020 To End of Q22020 Full Year TargetsEnd of 2022 Retirement Goals (Rough)Cash (soft target)24.3k19.4k20k30kNon-Registered835k779k922k1.1MRRSP388k394k416k450kTFSA103k107k115k135kDC Pension293k299k322k350kTotal1.643M1.598M1.795M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends35491197594000050000

With the hit I took in February and March, combined with all the uncertainty still, I’m not hopeful that I’m going to reach most of my end of year 2020 targets. That’s not necessarily the end of the world. While my non-registered portfolio is lagging the most, it’s allowing me to pick up more shares at lower prices through small purchases here and there and DRIP’ing. Also, because of the great year in 2019 and help from the general rally the last couple of months, I feel I’m still on track to hit my overall retirement year numbers based on continued contributions and my (conservative?) growth assumptions. Point of clarification though. My Retirement Targets are for end of year 2022, not at April 2022, the month I’m hoping to retire, since I just grabbed my forecasted 2022 numbers from my spreadsheet instead of calculating what the numbers might look like at the 1/3 pole mark for the year.

With all the dividend suspensions, cuts and deferred increases, I wasn’t sure if I was going to hit my $40k non-registered dividend target this year. However, I’ve been fairly unscathed with only one suspension to a restaurant royalty and a few expected increases that didn’t happen. I think I’m in good shape to hit my year end target with help from DRIP’ing and some additional purchases.
My TFSA is also lagging a bit because I "let" some Canadian content slip in there, contrary to my original plan.


Combined Portfolio2019 Actuals2020 To End of Q22020 Full Year TargetsCombined Totals2.129M2.092M2.292M

*Spending*
June Spend: $1980
YTD Spend: $21920

June was a light spend month with no significant one time costs. It could have been even lighter but with things opening up in BC, we’ve started to eat out and socialize a bit but keeping distance. So our eating out/alcohol bill crept up.

July will be, as usual, a heavy spend month because of our second property tax installment. On top of it, we might end up doing some repairs/maintenance around the house. Going to guess a spend of $5500 spend for the month.

2019 Actuals2020 To End of Q22020 Full Year Trend2020 Original ForecastFood & Eating Out1380059001180014500Housing & Utilities1189070601337014500Transportation4710279036704950Personal7780235047108000Entertainment15402404002000Travel96503480696012000-18000Side Business200100200200Total49570219204111054000-60000
*Full year trend is not necessarily double the first half spend due to large single annual spends in the first half of the year factored in (like car and house insurance).

Food & Eating Out: Our food bill is under budget because we ate out less due to the shutdowns. However, out grocery spend is definitely higher. There seems to be less sales and more price spikes like for beef.

Housing and Utilities: Housing and utilities costs are trending to where we expect it. This category (utilities, property taxes, and insurance) keeps going up faster than inflation and it’s difficult to try to limit the increases by various means. There were a number of repair and maintenance items we were expecting this year but it hasn't been too pricey yet. 

Transportation: Both of us are working from home so fuel costs are way down. We still go for drives though. Normally, we fill up about 2-3 times a month. We're down to once a month.

Personal: With a lot of things shut down, there wasn’t a lot of shopping we could do. With things opening up, we might be spending more in the second half of the year, particularly during Black Friday and Christmas. We might as well use dollars we were expecting to use for travel to replace some items.
The missus has spent some dollars on health related stuff like orthotics.

Entertainment: Again, there’s not a lot of events going on. And our leagues were suspended/cancelled and we didn't get a partial refund.

Travel: We fit in a couple of small trips at the beginning of the year. We’ll try to fit in a small local trip in the last summer/early fall. However, I don’t see an international trip happening this year. Even a trip to the States looks sketchy.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Work is pretty steady as she goes right now. I'm starting to think more seriously how the next year and a half will play out, like how and when I'd tell my manager I'd be interested in a package and when I would actually let him know I'm (likely) going to retire, researching what happens to work benefits/perks, etc.
With nothing happening around town, I’m trying to get motivated to spend time getting in shape. It'd be nice to start getting back into the habit before I hit retirement.

*Countdown to Retirement*
21.5 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End of July 2020 Update 

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.648M. Up about $49.2k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $511k. Up about $18.0k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.159M. Up about $67.2k for the month.

July ended up as another nice recovery month with positive numbers across the board including my Canadian dividend portfolio which was the laggard last month. It finally gets me back to positive territory for the year and it’s looking good from a USD value perspective. I was also able to grow my cash savings even with the heavy spend as it was a 3 paycheck month. I’m considering plowing some of the cash into some bank stocks for my dividend portfolio.

The missus’ portfolio also had gains across the board breaking the half mil mark for the first time. She’s rebuilt a decent cash position again after making some index etf purchases earlier in the year.

*Spending*
July Spend: $6130
YTD Spend: $28050

We spent a ton in July. The biggest chunk was due to property taxes. We could have deferred payment to end of September but we didn’t see much advantage in doing that so we just paid during the original early July due date. The house maintenance/repair did occur but it was fortunately only half of what we were anticipating. We overspent a bit at Costco, since they had a sale on chicken and we just freeze the stuff, and on spot prawns which we just shared with our extended families. Our eating out bill was a bit high as we started eating out more. I also pre-loaded a loyalty card to earn some travel points. And the missus did an eye exam and got new glasses which was a chunk of change. We get reimbursed from her work benefits but I still add this stuff to our spend tracker.

August’s spend will likely be slightly higher than average too but not as outrageous as July. I need some new shoes and think I might end up getting new glasses which are also covered by the missus’ benefits. Eating out will likely continue to be high as we enjoy the patios around town. Guessing a spend of $3000 for August. Hopefully no more repairs and maintenance for a while. However, looking ahead, we might be spending a chunk during Black Friday to upgrade a few of our consumer electronics and wonky appliances. Hoping the deals this year will be good.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

While I think my megacorp is in good shape overall, I think departments are still under pressure and struggling to hit budget numbers (controlling the spend side). My manager says we have a ton of work through into next year. But I still think layoffs are possible in the fall. Not sure if I’d be angling for one yet but unlikely.
I’m starting to exercise a little bit more. We’ll see if I can keep this going to retirement where I’ll hopefully have even more time to dedicate to this. Kind of a shame that as I rebuild my fitness that the spring/summer league I’m in has cancelled the season and my winter league team is likely going to fold.
Feeling a bit relieved and appreciative that the covid situation in Vancouver is at a level that is allowing people to have some degree of normality and to enjoy the summer.
No attention given to my side business. Might start revisiting it next year.
Go Canucks. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
20.5 months to go


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## milhouse

*End of August 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.695M. Up about $47.4k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $523k. Up about $11.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.218M. Up about $59.0k for the month.

August was another solid month with gains in each component of my portfolio. In my taxable account, the banks shows some strength after a relatively good earnings quarter and the telecoms were doing well until a late month dip. In my registered accounts, the US markets seem to be continuing to be the main driver of gains. The strength of the loonie has also grown my portfolio faster from a USD value perspective.

The missus’ portfolio was generally positive except for her bond heavy RRSP account which dropped a bit. It's pretty steady as she goes for her portfolio but she's a bit unsure about deploying her cash.

*Spending*
August Spend: $3730
YTD Spend: $31780

August’s spend wasn’t too bad even though we went over my estimated spend of $3000. There was one unexpected repair of $300. And we also made a $450 purchase that we were humming and hawing about for the last couple of years and since it was on sale. As previously stated, with limited travel opportunities this year, we’re likely going redirect at least some our typical travel spend and be a little more flexible around optional household purchases that we’ve been undecided on for a while.

As such, I’m going to estimate September’s spend to be similar to August at around $3500. My new glasses have been ordered. Our dining out spend is trending back up. And we might go on a weekend local trip.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Work’s been pretty busy. My manager seemed to confirm my suspicions that layoffs are being considered but not in our department.
Exercising has gone well. Pants are pretty loose now. My cardio is back to a reasonable level.
While we have some ideas for future “big” trips, I don’t think we’re really ready to put any serious thought into any of them yet. 
Pretty happy the Canucks made it this far. They look good for the future.
*Countdown to Retirement*
19.5 months to go
Broke the 600 day milestone in August.


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## milhouse

*End of September 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.675M. Down about $20.0k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $523k. Flat, down only a couple of hundred for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.197M. Down about $20.4k for the month.

After a great start to September, my portfolio took a small step back across all accounts. It felt pretty volatile with 1% swings putting the portfolio slightly positive or slightly negative for the month. The loonie took a dip, creating a bigger loss from USD value perspective. Hoping to see a bit of a rise in October with a number of dividends paying out. Will see how October goes overall and may allocate more money to the non-registered account. The numbers overall are looking adequate for the year at the ¾ pole mark to support hitting my key retirement targets even though it’s been such an up and down year.

The missus’ investments were slightly lower for the month but was offset a bit by an increase in her cash savings (earning next to nothing). 

*Spending*
September Spend: $3160
YTD Spend: $34940
September’s spend was slightly below my $3500 estimate with some of our expected expenditures, like prescription glasses and home maintenance, being a bit under budget. We also did a short weekend trip that wasn’t too expensive.
October’s spend is likely going to be relatively high. We’re going to get a new mattress. Amazon Prime day is this month so we’re likely going to purchase a few items we’ve been holding off on, waiting for a sale. Going to guess a spend of about $3500 to $4000 in October depending on how crazy we go on Amazon Prime. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

My manager talked to me about what he thinks I’ll be working on in 2021 and asked if I knew anyone good to join our team because we’re so busy. So, my job seems to be secure heading into the stretch run. 
The exercising is coming along well and becoming a habit. I need to add some more variation because the routines are getting a bit repetitive. A few people have started to notice and ask if I’ve lost weight. 😁 I hope I can maintain this into retirement.

*Countdown to Retirement*
18.5 months to go
As I reach the year and a half mark, retirement still seems like miles away. However, the planning conversations with the missus seem to be getting more serious now whereas she previously felt the 2022 goal was pretty abstract. I’m also starting to sketch out with a little more detail my income streams and spending for 2022 to 2026, though everything is flexible and subject to modifications of course.


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## milhouse

*End of October 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.646M. Down about $29.0k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $518k. Down about 4.8k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.164M. Down about $33.8k for the month.

October was another head-fake month for us which started off great and then fell apart the last week. My portfolio was nicely above the $1.7M mark again and my RRSP hit its target for 2020. And then it seems like the covid numbers sunk the markets and my portfolio. On a positive, cash savings were still up even though it was a heavy spend month. I’ve been keeping some powder dry and may deploy it if markets continue to drop. I’m curious how much impact the US elections will have on the markets in November which is part of the reason I’ve held back on deploying some of my cash. 
The biggest hit in the missus’ portfolio was in her taxable investment accounts. It was offset a bit by the growth in her cash savings. She may deploy her cash also if the markets continue to sink.

*Spending*
October Spend: $4160
YTD Spend: $39100
We spent a bit above the upper band of my October estimate which I’ll primarily blame on the new mattress we did end up purchasing. Along with the mattress, we re-did the whole bed with new sheets, pillows, mattress pad, duvet, etc and that all added up. We’re pretty happy with the new set-up so far. In addition to the bed spends, we didn’t spend too much on Amazon Prime Day; didn’t see a lot of appealing deals. We also spent a chunk on a birthday gift.

November is likely going to be a huge spend as we’re going to potentially use Black Friday sales to replace some appliances and home electronics that have been kind of limping along. Going to guess a $4000-6000 spend in November. Big estimate range as we’re not committed for sure to buy the items we’re thinking about, haven’t finalized the models we’re targeting, and don’t know what sales we’ll see. I’ve read there’s been some supply chain issues due to covid so wondering what kind of impact that may have on the breadth and magnitude of the sales.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Big push at work to get stuff done before everyone runs away to hibernate for a few weeks in December.
Still exercising but it’s getting a bit repetitive. Need to add some variety to my workouts and meals.
Still hopeful about travel in 2021 so still doing high level research. But until things open up and normalize more and there’s some definitive timelines on a vaccine, travel options will likely stay very limited for us.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
17.5 months/75 weeks to go.
Starting to more closely look at activities I need/want to do in the lead-up to my retirement date.


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## scorpion_ca

What is your lessons learned since the beginning of this journey? What would you do differently or what is your suggestions for those who are starting the journey now?


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## milhouse

scorpion_ca said:


> What is your lessons learned since the beginning of this journey? What would you do differently or what is your suggestions for those who are starting the journey now?


Thanks for the question. Sorry for the delayed response as work has been overwhelming as I mentioned in my October update with everyone trying to get things done before everyone takes off to use all their vacation time during the holidays.

I don’t think any of my lessons learned and suggestions would be considered original so likely would not provide any significant new insight. They pretty much follow themes common to most basic personal financial discussion. With that said, I’ve jotted down some of the concepts that resonate with me and tried to provide a few examples from my journey. At minimum, they might provide another data point for people to develop their own opinions and ideas. 

Foundational
I’ve come to understand and appreciate that everyone walks a different financial path. As illustrated by all these money diary logs, (1) there are different means to financial success and achieving one’s financial goals. One can grab snippets of ideas to apply to their plan but (2) everyone’s journey is unique because of different personal circumstances, life experiences, values, and goals. All these things are going to impact one’s decisions and help determine what choices may be better personal fit. 

Additionally, change happens: People change, circumstances change, goals change, preferences change. And, even though it’s hard to measure its impact, luck/randomness shouldn’t be underestimated; with both good and bad uncontrollable and unexpected events occurring in all aspects of life. So, while I’m a big proponent of planning and creating a roadmap, I also realize it isn’t realistic to follow your roadmap to a T over a lifetime. It’s more about doing regular status checks while being flexible and making course corrections along the way. 

I’m somewhat in awe of people that retired in their 30’s and 40’s. But both the missus and I didn’t grow up with a lot of money so a higher degree of financial security is important to us and correspondingly we make many decisions with that in mind. It’s also important for us to have the means to take care of our parents as they age and close family & friends if needed. I didn’t have any interest in travelling until I got placed on some international consulting projects at work, which in itself was fairly timely and made a major impact on my life. Now that I have the travel bug, we’ve tried to balance travel as much as we can during our work lives while saving enough to ensure we have enough money to travel as much as can during retirement. When I first started giving some initial thoughts on retirement in my late 20’s, the goal was a typical 65. After having some success at work and saving, I adjusted it to “freedom 55” because of the commercials. And then after plotting out my numbers and how they would fit in my life per some of the things I mentioned, I adjusted it to 50. It’s been an iterative process figuring things out.

Asset allocation
I was 100% equities earlier on but I’ve now worked in 20-30% fixed income into parts of my portfolio in recent years. This evolution has generally worked out for me so far even with 100% equity during the dotcom bust and great recession. 

Hindsight being 20/20, if I had to do it again, I would not go 100% equities but 90:10 because volatility should be expected as the norm. There are always going to be years where equities are going to get hit and fixed income shines and the limited articles I’ve read seem to indicate that a bit of fixed income would provide a better return than 100% equities. 

But compared to when in accumulation mode, it’s also not necessarily enough to just stick with the program and not panic sell when markets take a hit. The problem is that volatility can dollar cost ravage your portfolio once you start taking money out of your portfolio. So as I’ve gotten closer to my retirement target, I’ve increased my fixed income to hopefully primarily make my portfolio more durable overall so that when (not if) the equity markets take a big hit, I have enough fixed income that I can sell instead of my equities, to support my desired income level and let the equities recover instead of selling low. I’m also not immune to feeling a bit in the dumps when markets and my portfolio are down. So I’m not sure how I’m going to feel when they are down AND I don’t have employment income as a safety net. The fixed income may save me some anxiety.

Investing Strategy
Currently, my investing strategy is generally a combo of Canadian dividend growers and couch potato index ETF’s. I feel it “fits my personality” and I expect it to stay that way overall with some tweaking, namely going from holding a 4 or 5 fund mix of index ETF’s so I have more control over percentages, to a single global equity index ETF and bond ETF, and eventually an all-in-one. I'll likely eventually trim my dividend portfolio and cash in some capital gains there too. 

In my early days, I was pretty directionless. It was a gong show mix of everything you should be avoiding: High fee mutual funds, funds with DSC’s, individual stock picks on eTrade looking for a home run, reaching for yield, going overweight on the hot sectors, friend’s sister selling me Primerica funds… you name it. As I’ve learned more, it gave me the confidence to evolve from high fee funds with a low value advisor, to low fee funds and generic advisor support, to a self directed portfolio that had more structure and discipline. There are so many more and better investment options (ETF’s, low cost brokerages, lower fees, etc) today than when I got started and way more easier access to good information. While I’m a big believer on learning as much as you can about personal finance and investing, I also realize that it may not some people’s forte. So, solutions beyond self directed may be a better option in some cases. I would just say to try to keep fees low but also understand the value you are getting and/or need relative to the fees you pay whatever option is chosen be it robo advisor, fee only advisor, full service advisor, or flying solo. 

So, even with my horrible start, I think I’ve done ok. I’ll attribute it to saving being more important returns in the early going, not panicking when markets took a dive but sticking with regular contributions/investments, and some luck (mainly job-wise). I tended to beat myself over mistakes but no one’s perfect and the most important thing is take the lesson learned and make the course corrections.

I kind of fell into dividend growth investing due to a couple of reasons and I feel it’s worked out for me. Psychologically, I think the regular dividend payments will provide me with a level of comfort similar to the regular income stream of a paycheck and lessen the second guessing of myself around whether I’m selling ETF units at a good time.

If I had to do it over, I probably would focus on index investing with ETF’s/mutual funds from the start if conditions were right, namely access to: couch potato info, a low cost trading platform, and low fee funds. This is mainly because of the simplicity. However, I don’t regret ending up with half of my portfolio focused on Canadian dividend growth. It’s just a lot off effort staying on top of the health of the companies, their dividend growth prospects, etc. I do regret chasing yield without enough attention to company fundamentals. I also wouldn’t focus too much effort on speculative stock picking and timing which I wasted financial resources on early on. I still do a bit of it but now it’s more for “fun” and with a really negligible part of my portfolio. People seem to have successes but I haven’t had a lot of success and correspondingly don’t feel I’m good enough at it to for it to be part of my core strategy. 

As hinted above, I also don’t feel the need to make every decision about how to fully maximize returns. As I hit my financial targets and grow older, I’m valuing ease and simplicity more than working on squeezing every last ounce of return. And I don’t need to just focus on investment returns. I feel throwing effort instead on capitalizing on low hanging fruit with respect to saving and spending will have the same net effect in the grand scheme of things.

Spending and Saving
Spending and saving are obviously kind yin and yang. It’s really a personal decision on where the balance is with regards to living life in the present versus saving for future goals. And really, who’s to judge where you get the most enjoyment out of your spend?

For us, the big spending rocks for us are/were housing and transportation so we wanted to optimize those expenses. We paid down our mortgage asap (with the help of some really good income years) and then redirected that money to savings/investments. We did that even though mortgage rates were what were considered low at the time because we don’t like owing money and wanted the security of a paid off house. But with today’s even lower mortgage rates and higher real estate prices, it’s a more complex decision and I’m not sure if I’d go all out paying down the mortgage versus a more balanced approach. And due our work situation and lifestyle, we were able to downgrade to one car which also allowed us to redirect the operating and maintenance costs to savings/investments. 

Spending is such a personal thing. Beyond the typical “living below your means” mantra, we’ve become more targeted in our spend and spending more consciously, asking ourselves if we’re going to benefit from it or get a corresponding degree of enjoyment out of it instead of automatically thinking, “That looks cool, let’s buy it.” And we’re trying to buy things “appropriate to our level of usage”. For example, we’ve stayed at some premium hotels but we rarely make use of the amenities like lounges, fitness centres, pool, etc. So instead, we stay at more basic hotels. I’ve also bought some high end gear but a lot of times it ends up that I’m not skilled enough to use/appreciate it, it requires more maintenance than I’m willing to spend on it, or it doesn’t live up to expectation. On the other spectrum, we don’t want to be penny-wise and pound foolish either.

I’m also obviously a big believer of tracking your cashflow: What’s coming in and what’s going out. 
I try to track it very detailed because I like to but it doesn’t have to be. It's so foundational to get a snapshot of how things are trending, get a view of much we may need in retirement, identify where might look to optimize our spend, etc.

Miscellaneous
Just doing the basics and avoiding catastrophic mistakes took us a long way. By basics I mean: taking advantage of “free” money that my company offered (DC pension matching, stock purchase plan, optimizing health benefits, etc), (eventually) living below my means/not taking on debt for consumer goods, being committed to savings and investing, etc

I try to stay optimistic. I look back upon some of turmoil in the monthly notes I’ve taken over that last few years: Greek crisis, China worries, oil tanking, tariffs and trade wars, Brexit, and now Covid. But even with all those issues, the equity markets have continued grow and my portfolio has been fairly on track. (knock on wood)

It helps a lot to have a spouse that’s aligned with me in terms of financial values.


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## gingymarathoner

This thread and milhouse's journey is inspirational and instructive. Thank you very much for sharing. What's been most noticeable to me since I've joined this forum is how so many contributors are in such sync with their partners. While milhouse's wife may want some control over how she invests, she is a saver and she appreciates her husband's approach and values. My husband and I, as I've detailed elsewhere, have quite different financial attitudes. Over 25 years, we've learned to respect those differences. He is more aware of his spending today than he was when we first started dating but his world view is one of plenty. Mine has always been one of a saver; I've always been careful about spending and generally frugal. My husband is not. This has worked for us in the accumulation stage of our lives as we've had separate accounts (with a joint account for house related expenses). I've managed our investments because he doesn't have much of any financial knowledge and doesn't care to. He trusts me to know what I'm doing. As we move towards full or semi-retirement, possibly as early as next July (I'll be 51; he will be 49), I've talked to him about the near necessity of thinking about our nest egg as one thing (and dropping this seperate accounts outlook). I've suggested that perhaps out of the monthly withdrawals we make, we could put a percentage in each of our individual accounts to allow for some individual spending. He's not wild about this notion but he's giving it some thought.

We love each other but our attitudes toward money are not as aligned as we would both like. Because he doesn't care to understand much of what I've been learning about retirement (VPW tables, budgeting, asset allocation changes etc.), I am struggling to engage him in substantive conversations about the reality of our retiring next year. 

Thank you for providing a thoughtful and detailed picture of your retirement plan.


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## milhouse

*End of November 2020 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.786M. Up about $140.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $553k. Up about $35.3k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.340M. Up about $175.9k for the month.

Big gains for the month of November which I’ll primarily attribute to the positive vaccine news. Not sure how much an impact the US elections had on the markets. This was the biggest one month jump for both our portfolios.

It was nice to finally see some life on the dividend side of my portfolio which drove about 2/3’s of the gains for the month. While I can see the rally continuing into December, I don’t expect it will be enough to lift my dividend portfolio to my 2020 totals target. However, it’s looking good to hit my 2020 dividend target. And after not looking so good for most of the year, each of my registered accounts (RRSP, DC Pension, and TFSA) reached my 2020 targets in November. So, I wouldn’t object to a quiet/stable December. I still haven’t deployed a small chunk of cash I’ve been saving so I’ve kind of missed out on this latest rally a bit. But I’m not kicking myself as I’m likely going to deploy it to get my fixed income more in spec.

The missus had gains across the board and has hit the 2020 targets I’ve set out for each component of her portfolio other than her RRSP. It still has a realistic chance to hit its target by year’s end though. She too missed this latest rally with cash savings. Unsure if she’ll deploy it by year’s end. 

*Spending*
November Spend: $4734
YTD Spend: $43840

November’s spend came in just below the midpoint of my estimate. We did end up buying a few things on the list during Black Friday weekend but didn’t end up buying the big ticket replacement appliance item. That will now get pushed to Boxing Day. Overall, we didn’t see a lot of great deals. Another notable spend was a car repair/maintenance item that we knew was coming but just decided to get done this month.

Expecting December to be the typical high spend with xmas gifts and stuff and maybe some Boxing Day shopping (mainly the replacement appliance). We usually spend a bunch on eating out and family meals but not sure how that’s going to play out this year. Depending on the vaccine news, maybe we’ll book a trip/flight for mid-late 2021. Will estimate $4000-6000 again for December with a total year spend of just under $50k which would be similar to last year.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Work is insane. Looking forward to a few weeks off around Christmas. Had to chuckle under my breath during some recent meetings planning out to 2023.
I’m hopeful of the rally continuing on as a Christmas rally but I’ve only batted about .500 for December finishing in the black.
With the vaccine news, looking to booking a/some trips for 2021. I’m expecting there to be pent up for travel but I’m guessing the demand will be staggered in 2021 with more people slowly willing to travel again. I’m expecting the floodgates to open in 2022 and likely causing prices to jump.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
16.5 months. Just hit the 500 day to go mark today.
Retirement is still a long way to go as it’s still over a year away but it’s definitely coming into view.


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## milhouse

gingymarathoner said:


> This has worked for us in the accumulation stage of our lives as we've had separate accounts (with a joint account for house related expenses). I've managed our investments because he doesn't have much of any financial knowledge and doesn't care to. He trusts me to know what I'm doing. As we move towards full or semi-retirement, possibly as early as next July (I'll be 51; he will be 49), I've talked to him about the near necessity of thinking about our nest egg as one thing (and dropping this seperate accounts outlook). I've suggested that perhaps out of the monthly withdrawals we make, we could put a percentage in each of our individual accounts to allow for some individual spending. He's not wild about this notion but he's giving it some thought.


We similarly keep separate individual accounts with a shared chequing account for most of our expenses. Agree that it would be more pragmatic to manage our savings and investments more holistically while allowing for some structure for individual spending too. I'm just finding it hard to find the right balance so I'm being lazy and just doing nothing about it. lol


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## milhouse

*End of December 2020 Update, Year End Summary, and 2021 Targets

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.816M. Up approximately $29.9k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $567k. Up about $13.4k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.383M.

December ended up being a solid month with the initial small rollouts of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the eventual agreement of another round of US stimulus checks. Gains for my portfolio were across the board, though, the Canadian dividend payers in my non-registered account were more muted as a whole after a great November versus my ETF heavy registered accounts.
The missus’ portfolio had small gains across the board too with a chunk of the overall gains coming from savings again. Our totals produced a new combined high water mark.

*2020 Results and 2021 Plans and Goals*
2020 was such a roller coaster year for my portfolio as I’m sure was for many. The year started out great with record highs into late-February. Then the bottom fell out with covid realities starting to set in and the oil price war. A little less scoreboard watching was in order but it still didn't feel great. Remarkably, equities, primarily in the US markets, started showing some life mid-year which eventually led to a record November for my portfolio, when Canadian dividend growers finally joined the party, to get it back on track to hit most of my 2020 targets by year end. The only miss was my non-registered portfolio total but realistically, my key metrics for that component are the annual dividends it produces, which did hit its mark.

The missus’ portfolio suffered from a bit of lost opportunity by not deploying most of cash into her non-registered account. She still hit her target for the year based on original expected contributions but we’ll see if she’s interested in deploying more of her cash in 2021. After readjusting expectations down a bit, her bond heavy RRSP hit its target this year. Her TFSA which is a combo of a balanced fund and bond fund (she really needs to clean up her portfolio) did relatively ok.

I’ve added some info about her DB pension. The numbers shown are based on her pensionable service and contributions to date for that year and roughly what she should expect to receive annually (including a small bridge to 65) if she works to age 55 and starts collecting immediately. It should continue to inch up with additional service years and contributions. However, I’m not expecting her to work full time past age 50 and we’re not sure it will be better to start collecting her pension immediately at 55 or later like at 65. 

General goals for 2021 are:

Rebalancing the Fixed Income allocation in my registered accounts to a 25-30% range mainly through new contribution purchases.
To grow my dividends from $40k to $45k in my non-registered account.
See if the missus is interested in cleaning up her portfolio (which has been outstanding ever since I started this diary)
It’d be nice to hit $2M in investable assets in my portfolio by the end of 2021 and/or hitting the retirement targets for a couple of my accounts if markets cooperate.


*My Portfolio**2019 Actual*​*2020 Target*​*2020 Actual*​*2021 Target*​*2022 Retirement 
EOY (Rough Goals)*​*Cash CHQ & SAV accts (soft target)*24.3k20k*27.0k*20k30k*Non-Registered*835k922k*899k*1.0M1.1M*RRSP*388k416k*439k*468k450k*TFSA*103k115k*120k*133k135k*DC Pension*293k322k*332k*360k350k*Total*1.643M1.795M*1.816M*1.982M2.065M*Non-Registered Account Dividends*3549140000*40455*4500050000


*Her Portfolio and Combined Totals**2019 Actual*​*2020 Target*​*2020 Actual*​*Cash CHQ & SAV accounts (soft target)*90.7k40k*97k**Non-Registered*213k252.2k*263.7k**RRSP*84.0k87.5k*89.6k**TFSA*94.5k106.5k*112.5k**Misc Pension Value (from prev job)*3.8k*3.8k*3.8k***DB Pension (non-indexed) Estimate**~34k/yr @55**Total*486k490k*567k**Our Combined Total*2.129M2.285M*2.383M*

*Spending*
Dec spend: $4650
2020 total spend: $48.5k

We spent a bit under the midpoint of our expected December spend which was somewhat higher than what we wanted to be in our spend because we didn’t end up pulling the trigger on the high price repair we were hoping to address. The repair now gets pushed back to Q1 2021 whenever we get to it. I don’t think we went too crazy on gifts and a little boxing day shopping but it still added up. We also likely subconsciously spent more to work on achieving our spend requirements for a credit card welcome bonus.

We came in under our soft target $50k annual spend again but primarily due to our reduced travel spend which is not the greatest reason to do so as we want to spend dollars on travel. Our overall spend didn’t drop by a lot because we did fit a couple of small trips in early in the year before things shut down in late March and a weekend getaway at the end of summer when cases were still low in BC. Plus, we did a sort of mental re-allocate our travel budget to some non-urgent repairs and some fun/discretionary purchases.

I’m not sure what to forecast for a 2021 spend because it depends when travel opens up AND normalizes a bit which will depend on the vaccine rollout. And, it seems like a lot of things may/will be more expensive in 2021 from property taxes making up for the covid budget gap, to Fortis asking for a rate hike, to food inflation continuing.


*Spend Totals**2019 Actual*​*2020 Estimate*​*2020 Actual*​*2021 Estimate*​*Food & Eating Out*1380014500*13450*15000*Housing & Utilities*1189014500*17010*17000*Transportation*47104950*4290*4500*Personal*77808000*8620*8000*Entertainment*15402000*1090*2000*Travel*965012000-18000*3810*10000-15000*Side Business*200200*200*200*Total*4957054000-60000*48490*55000-60000

Food & Eating Out: Our overall food & eating out total went down compared to 2019 because we ate out and socialized less. However, we spent a lot more on groceries. Groceries seemed noticeably more expense and there seemed to be less sales. We also frequently bought groceries for our parents so they wouldn’t have to contend with the crowds, which fell into these totals. And I expect we’ll continue to help them shop into next year. We still did a bunch of takeaway.

I’m reading that food inflation will continue in 2021 so will factor in that for next year’s estimates. I’m also hopeful that we will be able to socialize more and go out for a drink or meal with friends more easily and frequently by mid year so will factor in a slight return to normal for eating out.

Housing & Utilities: Similar to last year, most of the items in this category were higher. But this year, many of the spends had significant increases (>10%). I’m not sure we’re going to get any relief in 2021 and expect costs to continue to rise faster than official CPI numbers. We also kind of reallocated our travel spend on “one-time” household repairs and household items in general (eg new bed). While we pushed out a repair to 2021, I don’t expect these one-time item costs to be as high next year.

Transportation: Transportation costs were lower in 2020, mainly from fuel and car sharing, as we worked from home and went out less. We did do the major servicing (brakes) we anticipated. I don’t think we have any major maintenance slated for 2021. Car insurance is supposed to be going down as a result of less accidents with so many people working from home. I’m hopeful we'll end up going out a bit more in 2021 but expect to work from home most of the year.

Personal: We overspent in a couple of key areas in the personal category. Under health and medicine, we both bought glasses this year (we get reimbursed from benefits but I still track it as an expense). The missus also went to see a specialist to get treated for a nagging issue that we had to partially pay out of pocket for. Charity and gifts were higher due to higher Christmas spending, gifts for some milestone birthdays/life events, and some spends for a couple of friends that got diagnosed with some serious illnesses. We also paid a chunk on some credit card annual fees as we’re playing the credit card welcome bonus churn game. Our spend on clothes was halved with no where to go. However, I’m thinking our 2021 spend in this category will be back within spec.

Entertainment: Our entertainment spend was down since so many leagues, events, festivals, you name it, cancelled this year. If it wasn't for a couple of new golf pieces and some green fees, the entertainment spend would have been tiny. Going to anticipate things normalize a bit in 2021 but still unsure if our teams will rejoin the leagues if they get up and running again. We also frequently go to festivals and the odd Canuck game and concert and who knows when those will be permitted to operate and have live attendees again.

Travel: While travel was mostly shut down this year, as mentioned we did fit in a couple of smaller trips at the start of the year and a local trip at the end of summer so we did have some travel expenses this year. I also had to review my Nexus and bought some travel specific gear. However, for comparisons sake, our travel spend is normally about 20% of our overall spend and this year it was less than 10%.

I’m kind of hoping it will be practical to travel to a few domestic and US destinations in Q3 2021 and maybe an overseas trip late in the year. But I don’t expect us to book anything until we get more clarity on when the vaccine will be deployed to the broader population and touristy things normalize at potential destinations. If case numbers fall, I'm thinking we might do a local spring weekend getaway similar to what we did in the fall but we won't book until last minute since everything is so fluid. Howewver, I’m hoping we can get a jump on most of the masses when things start normalizing but before everyone feels confident to travel again but I’m also concerned about pent up demand pushing up airfares and accommodation costs. At minimum, I'd like to book a huge trip for weeks right after I retire. For 2021, I’ll forecast in the lower end of our typical travel spend.

Side Business: The side business is pretty dormant as this point due to how busy I’ve been at work and the pandemic not making it a very practical venture at this time. I’ll look to relaunch it in Q4 2021 or Q1 2022.

*House Value*
2019 Assessment: $1.353M
2020 Assessment: $1.467M

A reverse in the multi-year downward trend of our home value according to BC Assessment’s July 2020 valuation. There were a couple of new houses built and sold, some for over $2M, in our neighbourhood in the early part of 2020 that likely drove valuations in part. Unfortunately, it’s likely going to cause our property taxes to increase disproportionately.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Wow, 2020 was such a crazy year in so many ways.

Finances: It is kind of strange how markets rebounded so strongly from the March lows to eek out solid year of returns. For 2021, I’m reading opinions on far ends of the spectrum; it’s going to be a stellar year of returns as things get back to normal and we’re ready for a huge market decline. Being a relative optimist, I’m kind of leaning towards the former, with a random guess that Canadian equities will pleasantly surprise, but I’m only using relatively muted positive returns for my 2021 targets.
Work: I’m expecting 2021 to be pretty busy at work again but I’m hoping to mentally start to slowly detach myself so issues don’t weigh on me as much. Just thinking about other coworkers that have left over the years, work goes on without them, and I expect as much when I leave. I've been looking out a year, dreaming about how this will play out same time next year.
Health: The exercising has gone well, albeit with a bit of a break from it during the holidays. Hoping to get back on track in 2021 and keep my weight trending down and fitness levels up.
*Countdown to Retirement*
15.5 months to go.


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## milhouse

*End of January 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.865M. Up about $48.4k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $569k. Down about $4.3k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.434M. Up about $44.1k for the month.

Kind of an odd month. My portfolio got off to a good start for 2021 with a solid just under $50k gain in January. It was hovering around an $85k gain and which put me above the $1.9M mark for much of the month until things tumbled during the last week. Not sure if the GameStop situation rattled the markets. The Nikkei index is flying. Most of the gains this month came from my Canadian dividend growers side of the portfolio with my RRSP and TFSA eking out small gains for the month and my DC pension taking a small hit. My RRSP broke the $450k mark early in January which was my original retirement target for it, before eventually falling back. Both the missus and I made our annual TFSA contributions early in the month. Not exactly sure where the weakness was in my DC pension. Going to have to take a look at January's performance numbers.

The missus' portfolio was generally weak across the board. Even with the TFSA contribution, it was in the red for the month. Her non-registered investment account had a very small gain. Not included in the gain was $25k in cash she moved from her HISA to her investment account. However, she didn’t buy anything with it yet.

*Spending*
January Spend: $3100
YTD Spend: $3100

Kind of subpar start to the year. While $3100 doesn’t break the bank, it was more than I expected us to spend. We spent just under $3200 last January but it included a chunk of travel spends which we obviously didn’t have this year. Categories of higher spend consisted of: We spend a lot on groceries this month, in part due to buying groceries for our parents. Our Hydro/electric bill just went nuts. I have to try to figure out why. We also did some latter week Boxing Day shopping that fell into the January spend.

February is a high spend month because it includes the pre-property tax installment. Apart from that big bill, I don’t expect any other surprises. However, we’re trying to satisfy a credit card spend requirements to earn the targeted welcome points so we may have to manufacture some spending which might push up our totals. Going to estimate a February spend in the range of $4500-$5000.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

I felt pretty refreshed the first week back at work after taking a few weeks off the last few weeks of December. But issues quickly started popping up and the rest of January seemed to drag on. I keep saying this but retirement is ooh so close, yet so far.
I think the vaccine estimator currently has me slated for a mid-late July vaccination and the missus a week or two after me as BC is rolling it out by age in 5 year increments after the priority population. Hoping the date gets moved up with additional supply and new vaccine approvals.
I was hopeful about booking a big trip as early as September but there’s still too much uncertainty with new variants, evolving government policy, etc. Even a small local weekend getaway in the spring seems uncertain. 
Trying to get back into a healthy eating and exercise routine after slacking off a bit.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
14.5 months to go.


----------



## milhouse

*End of February 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.863M. Down about $2.1k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $581k. Up about $11.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.443M. Up about $9.4k for the month.

The start of February initially continued the great start of the year for my portfolio, powering it above the $1.9M mark again. However, similar to January, the last week/week and a half of the month was not so great and pulled it slightly into the red overall. I’ll blame it on the rising rate concerns. However, in USD terms, I’m up for the month due to the flying loonie. While my registered accounts had small gains, my non-registered account had a small loss even with the nice pop from the financials.
The missus' portfolio has small gains across the board except her bond heavy RRSP which is likely also smarting from the rising rates.

*Spending*
January Spend: $4580
YTD Spend: $7680

We ended up spending to the lower end of my estimate for February and everything kind of went as expected. The first half of our property taxes was the big bill and we had to force some spend/prepay some expected spends to hit the spending target for our cc welcome incentives. Just to mix things up, we also did a few more takeouts than usual due to the Dine Out Vancouver food festival which we haven’t taken advantage of in years.

March should be a relatively light spend for us, though we may have to force some spend again to hit this month’s cc incentives. Going to estimate a spend of about $2750 to $3250.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Work is pretty busy but I feel I’m getting back into a good groove. Even though we’re still in the 1st quarter of 2021, there’s already talk about what we need to do in 2022. I’m trying not to take on anything that I can’t complete early into 2021. 
February also felt like it dragged on. But as I near the 1 year to go mark, retirement itself is starting to become more real in terms of needing to getting ready for it mentally. While I don’t think I’m going to miss work, I don’t want to fall into a “What now?” state of mind. While I'd love to have all sorts of trips lined for the weeks following my retirement date to kind of ease into it from vacation mode, there's still too much uncertainty to feel comfortable booking anything even into 2022. 
Speaking of traveling, it's kind of weird looking back 1 year because we were still in the midst of doing a few small trips while covid was just starting to go crazy in our parts and toilet paper was harder to buy than... toilet paper during the early days of a pandemic.  
Kind of happy that the days are getting longer and we can get outside for a walk after work while there’s still sun. 
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
13.5 months to go.
Crossing the 400 day mark a few days before the ides of March.


----------



## diharv

milhouse said:


> *End of February 2021 Update
> 
> Savings and Investments*
> My investable assets: $1.863M. Down about $2.1k for the month.
> Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $581k. Up about $11.6k for the month.
> Combined investable assets: $2.443M. Up about $9.4k for the month.
> 
> The start of February initially continued the great start of the year for my portfolio, powering it above the $1.9M mark again. However, similar to January, the last week/week and a half of the month was not so great and pulled it slightly into the red overall. I’ll blame it on the rising rate concerns. However, in USD terms, I’m up for the month due to the flying loonie. While my registered accounts had small gains, my non-registered account had a small loss even with the nice pop from the financials.
> The missus' portfolio has small gains across the board except her bond heavy RRSP which is likely also smarting from the rising rates.
> 
> *Spending*
> January Spend: $4580
> YTD Spend: $7680
> 
> We ended up spending to the lower end of my estimate for February and everything kind of went as expected. The first half of our property taxes was the big bill and we had to force some spend/prepay some expected spends to hit the spending target for our cc welcome incentives. Just to mix things up, we also did a few more takeouts than usual due to the Dine Out Vancouver food festival which we haven’t taken advantage of in years.
> 
> March should be a relatively light spend for us, though we may have to force some spend again to hit this month’s cc incentives. Going to estimate a spend of about $2750 to $3250.
> 
> *Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
> 
> Work is pretty busy but I feel I’m getting back into a good groove. Even though we’re still in the 1st quarter of 2021, there’s already talk about what we need to do in 2022. I’m trying not to take on anything that I can’t complete early into 2021.
> February also felt like it dragged on. But as I near the 1 year to go mark, retirement itself is starting to become more real in terms of needing to getting ready for it mentally. While I don’t think I’m going to miss work, I don’t want to fall into a “What now?” state of mind. While I'd love to have all sorts of trips lined for the weeks following my retirement date to kind of ease into it from vacation mode, there's still too much uncertainty to feel comfortable booking anything even into 2022.
> Speaking of traveling, it's kind of weird looking back 1 year because we were still in the midst of doing a few small trips while covid was just starting to go crazy in our parts and toilet paper was harder to buy than... toilet paper during the early days of a pandemic.
> Kind of happy that the days are getting longer and we can get outside for a walk after work while there’s still sun.
> *Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
> 13.5 months to go.
> Crossing the 400 day mark a few days before the ides of March.


Excellent work! I remember marking on my calendar at work when the 1000 day and 500 day marks would occur. I'm at 87 days to go now.


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## milhouse

diharv said:


> I'm at 87 days to go now.


Only 87 days to go must be exciting. Just before the summer which is nice.


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## milhouse

*End of March 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.880M. Up about $17.4k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $592k. Up about $11.7k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.473M. Up about $29.1k for the month.

The markets for my portfolio continue to be all over the place during the month. For the first part of March, the dividend growth side of my portfolio provided a big component of gain while the index side was relatively flat. During the last half of the month, some of the dividend growth stocks wobbled a bit while the index side provided some gains.
My RRSP finished the month above my retirement target of $450k which was kind of satisfying in that I’m trending towards hitting most/all of my portfolio’s targets.

The missus' portfolio had a fairly similar month like last with small gains across the board again but with her bond heavy RRSP essentially flat.

*Spending*
March Spend: $2330
YTD Spend: $10010

Without any big bills and not too much shopping this month, we came in below the lower end of my $2750 estimate. The largest category was groceries which is trending towards another record spend for the year.

However, April is another heavy spend month for us with home and car insurance due. While I haven’t received our 2021 home insurance bill yet, car insurance seems to be quite a bit less expensive with the provincial insurer moving partially to no-fault. Income taxes, which I do not count as part of our spend, will likely impact our savings as I’ll be owing again this year as well as the missus.
Going to estimate April’s spend to be in the $5000 to $5500 range.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Work feels a bit odd. I’m still working through my projects but my manager tells me that we’re likely going to be changing some of the work around possibly starting mid-April. Not sure of the full impact to me yet. 
Crossing the 1 year to go mark this month is kind of exciting because I think the countdown will feel more tangible versus the 5-10 years I’ve been scheming for this. I think the last 6 months will fly by because I’m backloading a bunch of vacation time.
I am so itching to get to a more return to normal. Comparatively, we've been very lucky in BC with limited restrictions. However, it's a challenge to keep things interesting. Normally, with the additional daylight and warmer weather, we'd be close to departing on a big spring trip or checking out what festivals and events were happening the upcoming weekend. We're still not ready to book our next trip yet. 

*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
12.5 months to go.


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## TK.61

Curious thought, and maybe it has been addressed somewhere in your thread;

With your investable assets at 2.4M you could draw about 125K per year at a 4% growth rate for 35 years, plus wife DB pension, plus CPP/OAS and you also have a 1.5M house...your income could be almost 200k in retirement but your current spend is only 50k a year... do you plan to increase spending in retirement or do you have specific plans?

Congrats on a nice portfolio!


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## Thal81

Agree with TK.61, unless Milhouse plans to drastically change his lifestyle in retirement, he could have retired a long time ago. Looking at the original post, it seems he's basing a lot of his withdrawals from non-registered dividends, which is probably why such a huge amount of capital is needed. I'm not a fan of this approach because you end up with a lot of useless capital at end-of-life, at the cost of many retirement years. But heh, personal finance is personal...


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## milhouse

Thanks for the question.

TL/DR version: In additional to providing an extra margin of safety, yes, we’re looking to heavily increase our travel spend in retirement and expect to pay more out of pocket for medical/extened health expenses.

I think I’ve alluded to a few of our plans in some posts but I forget in how much detail. 

Foundationally, a larger nest egg just helps satisfy our psychological need for an extra degree of safety to handle market swings, inflation, unexpected/emergency expenses, etc. Last year’s market dip was a bit of a test and while it didn’t feel great, I never felt the need to go into panic mode. As cliche as it sounds, that’s something I value beyond what the math says my portfolio supports in terms of a retirement spend (while the missus is just happy sticking her head in the sand). However, I also don't want to downplay that generating our current $50k annual spend (which funds a pretty enjoyable life) from our current nest egg should be doable in standard market conditions based on most calculators out there. 

Some of the income streams listed have varying degrees of risk also. As Thal notes, my portfolio relies heavily on dividends which obviously can be cut or suspended. The missus’ pension could apparently be as low as $15k/yr if she stops working now and starts collecting at age 55 due to recent increased penalties for starting payments asap. I’m also not confident about receiving OAS as it wouldn’t surprise me if they significantly adjust the clawback rules. 

On the spending side of things, yes, we expect spending to increase in a few categories. On the fun side, to goal has been and still is to try to travel about 180 days per year (which keeps our provincial health coverage active) on multiple trips (not a continuous 180 days). This is where I'm targeting the bulk of our additonal spend in retirement. A revised rough guess is that this will gradually increase our travel spend from our current ~$10k/yr to $55k-60k/yr or more due to the additional days and increasing the comfort. As we age and get softer, I think the way we travel will evolve and we’ll need to spend more money on comfort like limiting redeye flights, better accommodations than the hole in the walls we occasionally stay at, more cruising, maybe the odd business class seat splurge, etc. And a big question mark I have is what travel costs will look like coming out of the pandemic as there are so many unknowns and variables.
I also see our dining out and entertainment spend increasing by trying out a broader range of restaurants and checking out a few more paid events.

As we both leave work, we’ll be losing a range of work benefits that we’ll need to account for. Our combined extended health benefits currently provide great travel health insurance that we’ll eventually need to buy ourselves. Nearly all of our dental coverage will need to be replaced too. I haven’t tracked dental in our monthly spend as it gets billed directly to the benefits providers (whereas all of the other benefits where we pay out of pocket first and get reimbursed have been tracked in our monthly spend).

I’m not sweating leaving behind a large estate if that’s what ends up happening. 
The house serves as a capital asset of last resort and will likely end up being a large component of the inheritance we leave our nieces and nephews and whatever's left of the estate. Maybe set up a family trust??

Sure, I think it would have been nice to retire a few years earlier because the last couple of years have been kind of a grind but things have kind of worked out in various ways. Bigger challenge will be getting the missus to retire. 

Re: Needing a large portfolio going the dividend route. Not sure about that though I haven't done the a detailed comparison. 
My dividend portfolio is yielding about 4.5%. Granted it’s 100% equity and it’s a concentrated portfolio and all the risks that go along with that. However, I'm also not married to the dogma of never selling the capital in my dividend portfolio. 
For my ETF indexing side, I’m targeting a 70:30 configuration which at my current age allows for about 4.5-4.6% VPW rate so it seems like I would extract a similar amount for both at least at the start with the same nest egg and with the parameters I've chosen.


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## My Own Advisor

Outstanding work Milhouse, my goodness.

With invested assets of yours approaching $2M and your wife's (without any pension value) approaching $600k, you are going to enjoy a very, very "spendable" retirement to say the least.

Those are numbers most Canadians (99.5%+) will never realize. Kudos on the savings and investing prowess.


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## milhouse

Thanks Mark.
We've been fortunate with our incomes and I'm pretty happy with our spend/saving discipline. 
However, I think our investing has only been adequate as we made so many typical mistakes and missed some pretty big opportunities in real estate, growth/tech stocks, etc. However, it does feel good that we didn't have to be perfect and were able to get this far just sticking with some common vanilla investment strategies.


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> However, I think our investing has only been adequate as we made so many typical mistakes and missed some pretty big opportunities in real estate, growth/tech stocks, etc. However, it does feel good that we didn't have to be perfect and were able to get this far just sticking with some common vanilla investment strategies.


 I wouldn't say that. I'd say you chose not to roll the dice. You don't know, except in hindsight, who the winners were going to be, nor do you know who the future 10 winners will be 10 years out. Had you gone aggressive, there was a chance 50% of your choices could have imploded. Technically, you have won with approximately index returns.

FWIW, I would have been loosening the purse strings already. You don't just automatically double your spend rate shortly after retirement. I learned after about 5 years of retirement to stay in good accommodation and to fly business class. I don't need to tear up my 72 old body any more than it is already in B- or C+ travel.


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## cainvest

My Own Advisor said:


> Those are numbers most Canadians (99.5%+) will never realize. Kudos on the savings and investing prowess.


No kidding, well done ... that's quite the nest egg!


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## james4beach

milhouse said:


> We came in under our soft target $50k annual spend again


milhouse, I've got to say you're an inspiration to me. I have often worried about how expenses tend to creep upward over the years, and I've seen a few examples of how a couple living in a house can spend huge amounts of money.

I'm intrigued by how your annual spend at 50k (for two people) is only a bit higher than my single-person spending, and that gives me a lot of hope that I can keep this number low! Maybe I can even cut my spending right now.

In which category do you place services such as cell phones & internet?
How about necessities such as hardware, kitchenware, housewares, cleaning supplies? Is that under 'Personal'?


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## milhouse

*End of April 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.927M. Up about $46.5k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $603k. Up about $10.5k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.529M. Up about $56.9k for the month.

Solid returns for our portfolios this April and hit some milestone numbers which was kind of nice. 

The month also followed a similar pattern as previous months for my portfolio where the numbers started out great the first half of the month and then faded a bit the latter part of the month. Nice gains across my portfolio with the non-registered dividend growers doing most of the work including a number of quarterly payouts and my DC pension continuing to show some life.

Pretty steady as she goes for the missus' portfolio as it gained just over $10k again with her bond heavy RRSP essentially flat, just like the last 2 months.

*Spending*
April Spend: $4540
YTD Spend: $14540

We were able to stay below the lower end of our expected $5000 spend in April which included our home and auto insurance.

Our home insurance premium was slated to go up over 40% from 2020 (and to double of what we paid in 2017) even though we’ve never made a claim. Instead, we reduced it by 20% by going with a new provider and refining our coverage. That said it’s really hard to evaluate your provider until you have to make a claim but the online reviews seem mostly good.

Our car insurance also went down by about 20-25% due to the provincial insurer moving to a partial no-fault coverage. It doesn’t go into effect until May 1 but people started seeing the savings at the start of the year I think. We also received a rebate cheque based on our 2020 coverage since there were fewer people driving and correspondingly less accidents last year.

Our grocery bill was somewhat huge again, likely partially due to the fact we’ve been buying groceries for our folks to save them the trip out.

Our income tax owed was lower than expected which was a nice surprise. I’m assuming it was due to a combo of more being tax deducted per paycheck and the basic personal amount credit increasing. I don’t include our income tax owing as part our spend but I do track it.

May’s spend could be all over the place. On the lower end it could be about $3000. While May is generally a relatively quiet spend month for us other than maybe some spring travel expenses, this year there are a handful of unique birthdays and a baby shower we're wanting to buy special gifts for. We’re also thinking about fixing some fencing around the house. If we end up doing the fixes, our spend could come in around $5500+ depending on the fencing options we choose.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Strangely, my Monday to Friday cycle at work feels like it’s going by faster nowadays. Not sure if it’s because I’m busy and in a rhythm or because my retirement date is fast approaching.
Got a raise. I really have to hand it to my current manager who has fought for my salary increases the last few years after it somewhat stagnated a few of years while in a different team.
We were going to try to get the AZ vaccine when the opened it up to age 40+ in BC but we were kind of slow on the draw and didn’t go through the effort of getting on a waitlist or searching around. However, we aren’t really concerned about missing out since the main age based vaccination stream seems to be going through the age cohorts fairly quickly. And it’s trending like we’ll be able to book an appointment sometime over the next couple of weeks as they are starting to book 54 year olds. I think we're the only ones among our siblings and parents that haven't been vaccinated yet. 😄
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
11.5 months to go


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## milhouse

AltaRed said:


> FWIW, I would have been loosening the purse strings already. You don't just automatically double your spend rate shortly after retirement. I learned after about 5 years of retirement to stay in good accommodation and to fly business class. I don't need to tear up my 72 old body any more than it is already in B- or C+ travel.


One of the things I've read and take to heart is the psychological difficulty in transitioning from saving and building your nestegg to cracking it open and spending it. I'm building a bit of a plan to gradually ramp up spending during the 5 years post retirement based on tapping into different accounts.
On our last big trip in 2019, we stayed in some pretty _basic_ accommodation that I won't say was horrible (close though) but it definitely wasn't the most comfortable: washroom shelves weren't level so stuff slid off, room was a bit of a sauna when returning for a mid afternoon break, only two power outlets and in the most inconvenient locations, etc. I think that was where we agreed that going forward, we should _allow_ ourselves to spend a bit more on accommodations. 🤓


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## milhouse

james4beach said:


> I'm intrigued by how your annual spend at 50k (for two people) is only a bit higher than my single-person spending, and that gives me a lot of hope that I can keep this number low! Maybe I can even cut my spending right now.
> 
> In which category do you place services such as cell phones & internet?
> How about necessities such as hardware, kitchenware, housewares, cleaning supplies? Is that under 'Personal'?


TBH, I was thinking your spending numbers in your thread were really good.
I think our key is that the missus is more of a saver than a spender and when she does spend, she's always looking for a deal. I don't feel 2 people necessarily spends a lot more than a single. The big rock I think is having separate cars so if a couple can share, that's a big win. 

I put cell phones and internet in their own separate sub-categories under Housing and Utilities as I consider them kind of monthly utilities in a broad sense. The missus is on a cheap Public Mobile plan while I'm on a special plan my company negotiated that I can also use on my personal cell so my cell costs are going to go up after I retire.
I put hardware, kitchenware, housewares, and cleaning supply all under a "Household" sub-category under Housing and Utilities as I consider them regular stuff to keep the house functional. I also have a sub-category for "Repairs, Maintenance, and Cleaning" to track larger one off spends of this nature and another subcategory "Furniture, Applicances, etc" to easily track/identify some of the bigger ticket purchases.

We're lucky in that we have a relative that helps us with a lot of our house repairs and he doesn't charge us a lot. We end up also taking him out to lunch/dinner every so often and bring him gifts back when we travel. For a lot of the stuff that he can't handle or isn't ticketed for, he has buddies that he gets to do the work inexpensively.


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## james4beach

milhouse said:


> TBH, I was thinking your spending numbers in your thread were really good.
> I think our key is that the missus is more of a saver than a spender and when she does spend, she's always looking for a deal. I don't feel 2 people necessarily spends a lot more than a single.


Thanks! This is a great point, having your partner also be a saver rather than a spender.



milhouse said:


> I put cell phones and internet in their own separate sub-categories under Housing and Utilities as I consider them kind of monthly utilities in a broad sense


Thanks, this explains a lot. I'm going to try to compare us just to make sure I'm not doing something dumb or careless.

The big difference appears to be housing. Would it be fair to say that this is due to me renting (~ 20k) while you own a house? If you have any other insights, I'd love to hear.

Look how close we are (or with person scaling) in other categories. I've marked these with "equiv".


Milhouse 2020 ($K)James4beach last 12 months ($K)Food & eating out13.56.7 (equiv)*Housing & utilities & supplies**17.0**26.7*Transportation4.31.8 (equiv)Personal8.64.2 (equiv)Entertainment1.10.9 (equiv)Travel3.80.5Side business / self employment0.21.5Moving-3.2*TOTAL**48.5**45.5*


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## milhouse

Hmm, yeah, I'm not sure. Kind of hard to do an apples to apple comparison without doing a deeper dive. 

I'm assuming your rent covers a lot of the expenses I have to deal with: property tax, repairs, major appliance (but not furniture) replacement, etc. As mentioned, I think we're lucky to get a lot of the repairs done fairly inexpensively. We're always replacing 1 or 2 of appliances or pieces of furniture every year. Including property taxes, that takes us to just over $10k last year which is about half your rent (?). Everything else is consumables (household stuff) and monthly bills where everyone just has to manage their usage, right-size their plans, or try to find a better deal I suppose.


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## james4beach

milhouse said:


> Hmm, yeah, I'm not sure. Kind of hard to do an apples to apple comparison without doing a deeper dive.


Yeah, hard to really compare these, especially when home ownership is so different from a rental. You're right, my rent covers property taxes & most repairs.

It sounds like you're keeping the cost of repairs at a reasonable level. Having a friend who can help with repairs is a huge advantage... you're probably saving a ton of money that way.


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## My Own Advisor

I've often found housing, transportation and food/groceries are the biggest expenses = the "big 3".

Assuming you get those right in your life, or you have sufficient income to cover those easily pre-retirement or during retirement, you have largely solved the biggest budgeting issues with those "big 3".

There is no right or wrong, just want you can or are willing to pay for.


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## milhouse

*End of May 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $1.985M. Up about $58.9k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $610k. Up about $6.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.595M. Up about $65.5k for the month.

After a wobbly start to the month with markets contemplating inflation concerns, it ended up being a solid month for my portfolio, again fuelled mainly by the non-registered dividend growers. My non-registered portfolio also hit a milestone by cracking the $1M mark which was a bit exciting. The rest of my portfolio was up slightly with my RRSP getting the added bonus of my 2021 tax year contribution. 

The missus' portfolio had slight gains across the board with just under half of the total coming from savings. She's contemplating some minor tweaks to her holdings.

*Spending*
May Spend: $2630
YTD Spend: $17170

May ended up being a relatively light spend even with a few birthday and baby shower gifts. We also ate out a bit, taking advantage of the patio dining that’s allowed and some nice weather. We didn’t get to the house maintenance/fencing so that spending will end up in another month.

I’m guessing June’s spend is going to be similar to May’s spend in the $2500-$3000 ballpark without many big purchases. Until we’ve line up someone to do the fence and are pretty sure we’re going ahead with it I’m going to leave that out of the estimates.

Looking further ahead though, July is likely going to be a massive spend with the second property tax installment due and events starting to ramp up with many health restrictions targeted to be lift by July 1. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

A guy I worked with years ago but now in another group just got let go, which kind of aligns with what my manager mentioned in passing to me. He seems to think they are doing a round of forced departures but our team is safe. And then they will be offering voluntary packages. That kind of got me all excited and I can’t stop thinking about it because I’m going to try to grab one of those voluntary packages if they do eventually get offered widely. 
BC announced its reopening plans with a lot of things targeted to being normalized by July 1 pending the data/numbers. Some festivals and events are even planning to run this summer and we’re looking forward to attending EVERYTHING. 
We’re starting to think about a planning an extended weekend trip around BC in the late summer and a trip east in the fall. Still not ready to book anything outside of Canada until there’s more clarity around the border rules and quarantining. However, the ways things are flowing now, I’m guessing we’re both going to get our second shots by end of July which will likely open up some options.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
10.5 months to go


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## milhouse

*End of June 2021 Update and Midyear Status

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.047M. Up about $61.3k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $627k. Up about $16.9k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.673M. Up about $78.2k for the month.

It’s been a very good upward run since Nov with only a small blip in Feb. And that’s allowed my portfolio to cross over the $2M mark for the first time in June. Both the non-registered Canadian dividend growers side and the mostly index EFT registered accounts side equally supported the gains this month. The weakened loonie limited the upside of my portfolio in USD terms. I _purified_ my dividend portfolio a bit by dropping _non-moat’y_ stocks that I considered non-core.

The missus’ portfolio had solid gains across board and has similarly trended upwards nicely since Nov last year.

*My Portfolio*​*Year End 2020 Actuals*​*2021 To End of Q2*​*2021 Full Year Targets*​*End of 2022 Retirement Goals (Rough)*​*Cash (soft target)*27.0k25.3k20k30k*Non-Registered*899k1.046M1M1.1M*RRSP*439k478k468k450k*TFSA*120k136k133k135k*DC Pension*332k360k360k350k*Total*1.816M2.047M1.982M2.065M*Non-Registered Account Dividends*40455229854500050000

As of midyear, my portfolio has hit all my 2021 full year targets (other than the dividend target of course) and even most of my retirement year targets. The dividends are trending to $47k for year so I’m feeling confident about hitting the $45k target this year and the $50k target next year.

While I can’t complain about hitting my numbers, it’s really only half the journey with many more ups and downs expected along the way.


*Combined Portfolio*​*Year End 2020 Actuals*​*2021 To End of Q2*​*2021 Full Year Targets*​*Combined Totals*2.383M2.673M2.544M

*Spending*
June Spend: $2970
YTD Spend: $20160

June was a moderate spend month hitting the upper end of my estimate. Biggest category of spend was on eating out. We also had a relatively large gift/charity spend for the month.
Wastefully, I paid $20 in idiot tax to buy 4 drawings’ worth of lotto max tix when the jackpot went unclaimed for a few weeks. Didn’t win a thing.

July is expected to have a very heavy spend with our 2nd property tax installment and some “fun spend” as BC goes into Step 3 of our reopening plan. We’re also going to open the taps a bit to hit a time limited credit card bonus in July through September. It may cause our spend to look a bit disproportional over the year as we’re going the bring forward some spend via prepayments and gift cards.


*Year End 2020 Actuals*​*2021 To End of Q2*​*2021 Full Year Trend**​*2021 Original Forecast*​*Food & Eating Out*1345081501613015000*Housing & Utilities*1701065801255917000*Transportation*4290187023204500*Personal*8620301059508000*Entertainment*10904208302000*Travel*3810307010000-15000*Side Business*200100200200*Total*48490201603806055000-60000​
*Full year trend is not necessarily double the first half spend due to large single annual spends in the first half of the year factored in (like car and house insurance).

Food & Eating Out: Both our grocery and eating out bill are trending to be close to 20% higher this year. There is definitely food inflation with beef prices the most easily noticeable by me. We’re also still doing some grocery runs for our parents. I didn’t calculate if we’re just eating out more or if prices have gone up. It’s likely a combo of both since last year was a bit of an aberration with our coed leagues shut down and us not being able to socialize after games.

Housing and Utilities: We’re currently trending under estimate for housing and utilities costs this year. Utility bills are up but we were able to shrink our home insurance by switching providers. We may still end up around our original forecast if we end up doing some repairs and maintenance we’ve been too apathetic to action.

Transportation: We’re still not driving a lot so still only filling up the tank about once a month. The missus may head back into the office in the fall and we’re planning a road trip so fuel spend will likely go up. However, a decrease came from car insurance with the provincial insurer moving to a limited no-fault model and providing a rebate due to the last of crashes last year with everyone driving less. 

Personal: Spend in the personal category has been fairly low so far as we haven’t done a lot of shopping or had a lot of medical/dental spends. But there may be a jump in the second half of the year. I’m planning on getting another set of glasses. We might go a bit more wild during Black Friday and Boxing day. And we’re thinking about getting another credit card for the welcome points since the new offers are unprecedented with the credit card companies wanting to capitalize on pent up demand spending. I put credit card annual fees in the personal category.

Entertainment: Our entertainment spend has been fairly light so far except for a $200 consumer electronics purchase that I felt fell under Entertainment than Personal. However, festivals are planning to run smaller/limited events this year now that BC has entered Step 3 of the reopening plan and I’m pretty confident of hitting Step 4 in September. So, there’s going to be more activities to spend on. Being the Gen X’er that I am, the Pet Shop Boys & New Order are in town Oct and I may want to try to snag last minute tix to go see them.

Travel: Travel spend was limited to a piece of tech gear: a 20000mAh power bank that was on sale. Again, this will jump up as we book a road trip for the late summer and hopefully some flights for late in the year and for 2022 travel.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Well, it looks like the voluntary packages are not being offered to my team so it’s back to plan A where I’ll let my manager know in the fall that I intend to leave the company/retire in the 2022. The company seems to do a final round of layoffs annually in Q4 to clear the books for the next year. We’ll see if I can make myself an easy sacrificial lamb. I have to admit that my “gives a fxxk” quotient is starting to waver.
Just got my second vaccination and BC has lifted a lot of restrictions July 1 for Step 3 of the reopening. On one hand, we’re looking to spend some dollars to do as much as we can. On the other hand, we don’t want to totally overpay for something because of pent-up and outsized demand. It’s going to be situational dependent.
We’re still not ready to plan/book travel way in advance, particularly international, even though we realize we might be missing out on some deals. There’s still too much uncertainty around insurance, travel redtape, local restrictions, etc. and the corresponding effects around how enjoyable the trip might be or the effort required to make changes on the fly. Right now, any travel will be game time decisions. A last minute roadtrip somewhere around BC is still top of list.

*Countdown to Retirement*
9.5 months to go.


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## Mookie

Great job Milhouse! Looks like retirement is knocking loudly at your door. According to VPW, it looks like you and Mrs. Milhouse could retire now and spend as much as $180,000 a year for the rest of your lives. Out of curiosity, do you think you are going to have a hard time adjusting your spending habits during retirement? Would it be difficult to switch from spending $50,000 a year to $180,000 a year?


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## milhouse

Thank Mookie.
Here are a couple of thoughts in response to your question:

From an income available/allocated to spend perspective, we’re not going to flip the switch and go from 0 to 100mph overnight. The missus is going to continue working, saving, and contributing partially to our shared spend for a few more years so that part will stay fairly stable (her choice). I’m planning to have my retirement income stream gradually come on line. 2022 will be a mix of employment income and half a year of dividend income (after stopping the DRIPs post-retirement). In 2023, it will be a full year of dividend income plus the start of annual RRSP withdrawals. This will continue to 2027 when I plan to start drawing from my DC Pension. Over the course of those initial 5 to 6 years, I estimate the our combined spend will gradually increase from $50k to potentially $100k-$120k after tax which is still quite the jump but not to $180k/yr.

I feel 2 things are going to help with the mental aspect of _allowing_ us to spend from my retirement income stream. The first is the dividends are hopefully going to feel like a regular, though a bit lumpy, paycheck that’s meant to be spent. The second is just being able to be flexible with our overall spend and spending more when returns are good and scaling back when they aren’t which kind of aligns with VPW strategy for my RRSP withdrawals. I’ll probably set some guardrails around upper and lower limit variability though.

The missus is more of a saver than a spender. Ramping up spending in of itself won’t be something that she’ll give a lot of though on. She gets her joy not directly from spending but from the security of both being able to spend when she needs to and being able to capitalize on a deal without needing to worry about the impact the spend may have on our finances. She lets me come up with the crazy spending ideas.

I’m more of the spender but not at the expense of hurting our long term finances or missing our goals. On one hand, I tell the missus that I’m looking forward to slowly opening up the taps and taking our savings out for more of a spin. On the other hand, mentally, I know there will be an adjustment period for me to become familiar/comfortable/into cadence with how larger individual purchases/bills and increased regular spends line up against our growing retirement income. After so many years, my decisions are so used the context of what kind of spend aligns with our savings goals and a ~$50k spend.

The original and current plan still is to throw these additional dollars at our travel spend: more days traveling, staying at some better hotels than some of the holes in the wall we occasionally book, being more selective about our flights (carrier, plane type, departure times, might consider biz class if on sale, etc), taking our parents on a few trips while they’re still mobile, and so on. The missus would also like us to spend some more money (and time) on the house and furnishings, a lot of which we’ve put off due to lack of urgency. I'd also like to spend some more money on entertainment like ticketed events (concerts, Canucks games, etc). These are probably the big hitters. We’re not going to force our spend. If there are leftover dollars at the end of the year, I’m not sure yet if we’ll reinvest it or just build up our cash reserves.


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## AltaRed

Or gift the surplus. There is no point putting the surplus into the bank or investments since that just grows the net worth problem that gets more problematic with time. Unrealized capital appreciation becomes a real problem over time, more so than surplus cash.

I've advised a person I provide some help to for over a decade, to look at net worth at the end of each year, and if it is higher than at the end of the previous year, gift the difference to family and/or charity, the latter potentially in kind for bigger bang for the buck. Another approach might be to use a 5 year rolling average to smooth out the bumps of market ups and downs for gifting purposes.

I suspect this methodology is heresy to some here but it makes no sense for retirees to grow net worth with a resultant huge tax problem on last-to-die.


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## milhouse

Good suggestion. I've actually thought about gifting shares to charity based on a few articles I've come across. However, I need to research the nuts and bolts of it in more detail.
Not concerned about gifting to/spending on family as that's already an ongoing activity.


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## dubmac

Be careful with late summer travel plans in BC - forest fires can make dim the experience. Try to stay close to the coast, avoid the interior is my sugggestion.


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## AltaRed

dubmac said:


> Be careful with late summer travel plans in BC - forest fires can make dim the experience. Try to stay close to the coast, avoid the interior is my sugggestion.


Sometimes that is true and other times not. The coast had a heck of a fire 'air quality' season either last year or year before. The interior had 2 bad July-August seasons in 2017 and 2018 I think. Much of it US based fires in WA, OR and CA rather than BC. It depends on prevailing wind directions and fire locations. We learn to roll with it.

We have some fire haze at the moment due to all the wildfires in the past week but nothing that would stop anyone from doing outdoor activities. That can change in a matter of hours in either direction with a prevailing wind direction change.


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## milhouse

We actually ran into smoke/haze problems last year when we did a roadtrip to Kelowna. Friday and Saturday were great but I think the wind shifted on Sunday and it became smokey and hazy. Wasn't as nice out but didn't really impact our plans.
We're just going to book week of and so we can see decide based on how conditions are (more concerned about rain). Sunshine Coast circuit was another idea for this year. tbd


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## Mookie

milhouse said:


> Over the course of those initial 5 to 6 years, I estimate the our combined spend will gradually increase from $50k to potentially $100k-$120k after tax which is still quite the jump but not to $180k/yr.


My wife and I are also very used to being savers rather than spenders. Years ago, we used to worry about whether we could ever afford to retire. Now it's quite obvious to us that we will have money problems in retirement, but it's not about having too little, it's about potentially having too much. Who knew that was possible?? Either I should retire earlier, or I need to figure out how to spend more in retirement.

It will be interesting to see how you manage this transition to more relaxed spending in retirement. It sounds like you have some good ideas already on how to spend more, and AltaRed also has some good ideas. My wife suggests you start a scholarship fund.

The bottom line is that we all should try to extract the maximum happiness out of life while we're still alive and healthy. It would be a shame to end up as the richest person in the graveyard.


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## milhouse

Mookie said:


> My wife suggests you start a scholarship fund.


I thought about this idea too as I was a recipient of a small family-funded scholarship way back in high school. Was thinking of it as more of a legacy idea though.


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## milhouse

*End of July 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.078M. Up about $31.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $637k. Up about $10.8k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.716M. Up about $42.4k for the month.

While the month showed a solid gain for my portfolio, there are a few mixed feelings when looking under the hood. The gains in my non-registered account were mainly due to the dividends paid out this month. My registered accounts drove most of my overall portfolio gains this month but I suspect a weaker loonie played an important part of that. 

The missus' portfolio keeps chugging along and again had solid gains across the board. She's in the midst of moving her RRSP account to a direct investing account and making some changes to the holdings.

*Spending*
June Spend Correction: $2970 to $2990
July Spend: $7900
YTD Spend: $28080

Blew the doors off a bit with our July spend. Over a third of it went to our second half property tax installment though. The rest of the damage came from eating out, entertainment, and presents/gifts when getting together with friends and family with the loosening of heath restrictions in BC. 

August and the next few months will likely be a bit spendy too as we take advantage of the good weather, stuff happening around town, and just being able to get together with people more regularly. Estimating a $4000 August spend.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

I kind of feel bad when my manager talks about 2022 planning with me because we’re starting some foundational work in late Q3. However, I’m still planning to tell him in October that I’m _likely_ retiring in 2022. That should give him enough time to reshuffle things as needed. Kind of looking forward to that discussion and it’s only 2 months away.
There’s a good amount happening around town this summer with annual events able to get up and going, albeit in smaller scales. Lots of people, including the missus and I, seem to be out and enjoying themselves.
While we don’t have any trips booked yet, we have a couple on the radar now. However, we’re still not going to book rooms or flights until closer to when we want to go.
I’ve let my fitness slide and weight increase a bit over the last few months. Got to get back onto a regular fitness routine.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
8.5 months to go


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## Thal81

milhouse said:


> However, I’m still planning to tell him in October that I’m _likely_ retiring in 2022. That should give him enough time to reshuffle things as needed.


I would reconsider doing that if I were you, it's way too much heads-up time, and nothing positive can come out of this discussion for you. You may also find out that once your employer knows you will leave, you will get sidelined hard and the last few months of work will be miserable and awkward. The news will spread among your colleagues and you'll get all sorts of reactions, maybe a lot of jealousy considering your age.

I'm sure you want to do the right thing by your employer, but don't tell them anything until you're certain of the date, and not too far out in advance. 3-4 weeks notice will give them enough time to figure out a replacement. Don't worry, they will manage and adapt without you.


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## milhouse

I've been going a bit back and forth in my head about whether or not to go ahead with the October disclosure to my manager. Have definitely taken into consideration that the possible risks outnumber the possible benefits.

The main goal of the October disclosure is to just get it off my chest so I can exhale a bit. A secondary goal is to potentially show interest in getting an exit package when they do a typical end of year purge. I'm not sure how one could hint at being interested in one without the awkward implications.  A package isn't a must have but it would be a nice cherry on top.
I feel my boss is pretty good in keeping things confidential as he has also trusted telling me some _interesting_ stuff. While I don't think the news would go further than him at this time, I also realize that he'd likely make some decisions, even if subconscienciously, based on me potentially exiting. Worst case, I can see myself stuck on some crap projects during my remaiing time. But I've been backloading as much vacation time as possible to make it go by quick.

I do have one relatively recent example to go by. Someone I was working closely with on a project who was in my VP org but not in my immediate team took a voluntary package in his 40's. Caught me and everyone on the project by surprise. As, I was wondering why he was taking all this time off the last few months, he was basically burning through his remaining vacation time before he left. Everyone thought he was pushed out but he said it was voluntary and in fact a positive thing. I didn't want to pry so for all I know, his wife won the lottery and he was retiring.  Regardless, everyone was really happy for him to escape the megacorp. Kind of hoping for a similar low key exit.

The time required to get someone hired and trained is months based on past team replacements so I'm pretty set on giving formal notice in January. But I have no illusion about how the machinery just keeps on turning after someone leaves.


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## diharv

Thal81 said:


> I would reconsider doing that if I were you, it's way too much heads-up time, and nothing positive can come out of this discussion for you. You may also find out that once your employer knows you will leave, you will get sidelined hard and the last few months of work will be miserable and awkward. The news will spread among your colleagues and you'll get all sorts of reactions, maybe a lot of jealousy considering your age.
> 
> I'm sure you want to do the right thing by your employer, but don't tell them anything until you're certain of the date, and not too far out in advance. 3-4 weeks notice will give them enough time to figure out a replacement. Don't worry, they will manage and adapt without you.


+1. I would not say anything to anyone until I was CERTAIN that I would retire in 2022. The heads up time you give is up to you but I would not open up what could be a Pandora's Box until you are 100% sure. Things could go sideways and irreparable damage could result if you decide not to go after saying six months prior that you might. The fact you feel bad about it kind of indicates that your manager is not going to take it well so be certain!


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## afulldeck

milhouse said:


> The main goal of the October disclosure is to just get it off my chest so I can exhale a bit.


Figure out a another way to deal with your anxiety. Telling your boss that you *may* retire sometime in the future is an absolute, unequivocal mistake. 



milhouse said:


> A secondary goal is to potentially show interest in getting an exit package when they do a typical end of year purge. I'm not sure how one could hint at being interested in one without the awkward implications. A package isn't a must have but it would be a nice cherry on top.


Now that is a problem you can take to your managers. Manager don't like to lay off people normally. So they would welcome volunteers because it causes them less stress. You can always have a private conversation with your boss to say if they need to do layoffs, you would like to volunteer (but be sure you want to do it).


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## Thal81

One last point is I wouldn't get too hung up on the exit package. It would be nice for sure, however let's be realistic here, it would be the cherry on top of a very large sundae. You are extremely well-off and you will have a very luxurious retirement either way. Especially when your wife's DB pension kicks in.


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## AltaRed

Never ever hint at retiring in 2022, and do not give more than 2 months notice. I gave 3 months because I knew it would take the corp some time to pull someone from an Int'l assignment to fill the job but those 3 months felt more like 3 months in a dental chair. As it turned out, they found someone within 30-45 days and I spent a month turning over the files. A freaking waste of time that neither of us, i.e. me and my replacement, really wanted. Basically we agreed he'd take a week and goof off somewhere in the organization and I'd take the next week and goof off somewhere (included a few useless visits to Int'l offices).

You will be sidelined to some degree even if unintentionally. Your voice won't really matter. It is simply human nature.

P.S. It is easy enough to let management know you'd be willing to sacrifice your job to save a younger person's job supporting a family if head count reductions were coming. That was welcomed in our organization and I welcomed it as a manager of professionals.


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## Eclectic21

In general, I agree ... but the company plan/procedures may make the two month notice a bad idea.

For my company - giving two months notice means forfeiting medical coverage in retirement as well as the third month providing zero employment and pension income.


Cheers


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## milhouse

*End of August 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.152M. Up about $74.2k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $654k. Up about $16.8k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.806M. Up about $90.9k for the month.

The gains in my portfolio continued it's surprising run, at least to me, in August. As I somewhat similarly commented in the "Everyone enjoying these new highs?" thread, it’s obviously nice seeing a growing portfolio but I don’t want to get too comfortable with the lack of volatility, particularly heading into the _scary_ months. I feel we're so due for a correction but who knows?
Most of the strength was on the non-registered dividend growth side, which lifted that account above my original $1.1M retirement target. The ETF’s in my registered accounts account pulled their weight too, getting my RRSP account close enough at the end of August to hit the $500k threshhold today. 

All parts of the missus' portfolio contributed to her gains for the month. Her migrated RRSP account finally showed up in her direct investing account and she kept it simple by buying an all-in-one ETF. I’ll likely consolidate the 5 ETF’s I have in my RRSP to an all-in-one in the next year or so to make early withdrawals from it simpler.

*Spending*
July Spend Correction: $7900 to $8050 (forgot to include a bill)
August Spend: $2530
YTD Spend: $30760

We didn’t spend as much as we were anticipating in August. While we attended a few festivals and events, they didn’t really cost much from an access perspective, most were free or had inexpensive tickets, and there wasn’t a lot of interesting stuff for us to buy/spend on other than food going for $10-20 an item/combo. 

I’m forecasting a lot of uncertainty around our spend during the last few months of the year. We might go on a few last minute trips. We might finally get around to doing a few repair/maintenance jobs around the house. We might attend a wedding and the associated stag/shower. We might go crazy during Black Friday. Our monthly spend could range from $2500 to $6000 depending on what ends up happening during the month.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

After taking the feedback from strangers on the internet  regarding giving/hinting at my exit notice, I’ll likely not hint at my departure in October but keep my ear to the ground if potential layoffs are required. However, I’m pretty much set on giving formal notice by mid January. 
Without getting into the details, life gave us a bit of a punch in the face in August. The event kind of reinforced our appreciation that financial security gives us options and our decisions don’t have to be (extremely) dependent on monetary considerations. 
We were planning to go to the Okanagan in September but due to local case counts and the wildfires we might pivot to somewhere else like Whistler, the Sunshine Coast, the island or maybe a couple of them if the weather stays nice for a few more weeks. I'm too busy at work to take a week off so I'm thinking about taking some Fridays off and doing some extended weekend trips.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
7.5 months to go
~100 working days left


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## milhouse

*End of September 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.084M. Down about $68.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $639k. Down about $15.1k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.723M. Down about $83.8k for the month.

The markets giveth. The markets taketh.
The first negative month for my portfolio since February wasn’t surprising as I felt the run up, particularly August’s huge gain, was unsustainable. Correspondingly, most of that August run was given back in September. I find it funny trying to keep track of my feelings and jot them down here because they’re all over the place. It sucks having your portfolio drop close to $70k. But I try look at the big picture in that it’s only set me back a month. On the other hand, I’m kind of excited that the markets have taken a dip just prior to a heavy dividend month so I might be able to pick up a share or two more from the DRIPs. Anyways, here’s hoping for a Santa Claus rally to make the numbers look good for the year. 

My portfolio was essentially broadly down on both the taxable and registered sides though a couple of holdings held up ok on the taxable/dividend growth side.

Same story for the missus portfolio. She has a chunk of cash she may deploy though. She's going to see how October looks.

*Spending*
August Spend Correction: $2530 to $2550 (forgot to include a small spend)
September Spend: $4640
YTD Spend: $35410

Kind of a larger spend than anticipated in September due to a few big ticket things that were on the radar. We got in some travel spend as we did do a weekend trip. The annual fee for a credit card came in as we play the credit card points game. And we spent a few dollars on activities and gifts for a stag & shower. 

October’s spend is likely going to be in the same neighbourhood as September as we have another short trip planned and I think we’re going to finally get around to work on one of the home repairs we’ve been slow address.
At the three quarter pole mark, I suspect we’re unintentionally on track for a roughly $50k annual spend again this year.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

At work, I need to focus on getting 2 projects over the hump and then I think I can feel comfortable in looking forward to taking a bunch of time off in December. Normally, as I head into Q4, I’d also be stressing about year end layoffs, performance reviews, and next year planning. It’s still on my mind but feels less of a distraction.
Approaching the 6 month to go mark, retirement still feels so close yet so far away. I suspect once I give my notice in January with 3 months/100 days to go, I’ll feel more like the countdown is on with a bunch of pre- retirement activities I’ll need to keep an eye on.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
6.5 months to go
Just under 200 total days away


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## Thal81

Smart move to leave in April, it's so effective for income taxes if you have a high salary... I plan on doing the same.


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## milhouse

Thal81 said:


> Smart move to leave in April, it's so effective for income taxes if you have a high salary... I plan on doing the same.


Actually, I didn't select an April date specifically for tax purposes. It was mainly around the timing of financial bonuses and benefits at work. 
Can you elaborate on why an April departure date is effective for income tax purposes for high salaries?


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## AltaRed

There is nothing special about April. It is about total taxable income for the year. Four months of high salary is 50% of eight months of high salary and so on....

I suppose if you are getting some lump sum benefits like a retirement bonus et al, you'd want to be in a lower MTR to keep more of those taxable benefits, in which case it would be better yet to retire in February.

I retired at the end of April myself but that was tied to my birthday to reduce the pension discount retiring early.

P.S. You didn't ask but I will repeat what I've said before. Minimize the 'give notice' date to the extent reasonable. If you are in a white collar job, most folks become lame ducks once they give notice. 100 days or so of being sidelined out of the order flow can be deadly. Different in a blue collar or manufacturing job.


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## Thal81

milhouse said:


> Can you elaborate on why an April departure date is effective for income tax purposes for high salaries?


AltaRed explained it well, but yeah, in my situation, working till the end of April means all my gross income for that year will fall into the lowest tax bracket. Now, take into account the basic personal amount for the first ~15K and the tax credit for eligible Canadian dividends, which works better at lower incomes, and I will end up paying relatively little taxes for that high salary, compared to what I'm used to. Basically this is the highest ratio of net salary per time worked I'll ever get...It will take until next tax season to recoup those taxes though


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## milhouse

*End of October 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.140M. Up about $56.4k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $658k. Up about $19.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.799M. Up about $76.0k for the month.

Almost recovered from September’s dip.
My portfolio is still down about $12k from the end of August highs but I’m happy with a hefty $50k recovery. While all aspects of my portfolio were positive for the month, there were varying degrees of performance. The stocks in my taxable account saw mixed gains with a few also supported by dividends/DRIPs paid out this month. My TFSA is only rounding error away from a recovering from its dip versus my RRSP which still has a couple of thousand to recover. Overall, I’m not complaining.

The missus’ portfolio has fully recovered and reached a new high but it was also uneven with her taxable accounts reaching a new high and her TFSA and RRSP just a wee bit away from a full recovery.

*Spending*
October Spend: $4000
YTD Spend: $39420

October’s spend was roughly as anticipated in the $4k range. Most notable is that our travel spend has started to pick up with a couple of weekend trips completed and an upcoming longer trip. We also had a number of additional spends in the gift category with a wedding gift, some gifts for a few of coworkers leaving our companies, big number birthday gift, etc.

November’s spend might come in around the $4-5k range. Some of it will be for the upcoming trip and when we end up paying for the hotels. We’ll see if we get around to doing that house repair that’s been dragging on. I also have a few items on my Black Friday shopping list but it will depend on what kind of deals there are which are likely at the mercy of the supply chain issues.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Typical rush at work to get projects done by year’s end. However, since, I’m taking a little more than all of December off, I only have a little less than 4 weeks left to get my stuff done. This is even after my manager agreed to allow me to defer some more of my vacation to 2022 which is great; will make the final 100 days starting in January go even faster. But I’ll likely end up doing a bit of work during vacation anyways.
While there might be the odd person being let go here and there, there doesn’t seem to be the typical surge of layoffs happening in my division this end of year. On the contrary, my extended team has several positions it’s struggling to fill. Since the odds are likely very low of me getting a departure package, I’m not even going to hint for it.
One of our friends is very sick and it’s really upsetting. She's been sick for a year now but it's gotten worse over the last month. I’ve been pretty focused the last few years on hitting my numbers and reaching retirement. But I’m trying not to forget that life can turn on a dime and I need to live more in the present.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
5.5 months to go
Just under 500 hours of work left.


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## milhouse

*End of November 2021 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.175M. Up about $34.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $660k. Up about $1.3k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.835M. Up about $36.0k for the month.

Things were trending extremely well for November until Omicron fears rattled the markets.
However, it was still good enough for my portfolio to hit a new end of month high. While all major components of my overall portfolio were positive, under the hood, different sub-components had mixed results versus a rising tide lifting all ships.
It was nice seeing a few of my financial holdings in my non-registered account raise their dividends double digits percentage-wise in November after OSFI dropped their restrictions. (And the subsequent increases by the remaining banks at the start of December doesn’t hurt either.) That’s going a long way to support my dividend target numbers for 2022.

The missus’ portfolio remained in the black barely with her non-registered account taking a small hit and her savings, RRSP, and TFSA offsetting it. 

*Spending*
November Spend: $4650
YTD Spend: $44060

November’s spend came in within $4-5k as roughly anticipated but it could have been higher as we did a bit of Black Friday shopping with a few big ticket items and started our xmas gift shopping. A few items haven’t shipped yet so they haven’t been billed and correspondingly aren’t reflected in November’s spend. One of the hotel’s we’re going to stay at during our December trip had a BF promo which gave a bonus on gift certificate purchases so that spend got pulled forward. We also stacked some BF sales and other gift card + bonus purchases with credit card rebate offers.

December is likely going to be a larger spend than the usual. On top of our typical spending around xmas, we have a December trip (though a lot of the trip spend has already been accounted for), if/when the rest of our BF purchases ship and get billed, and a special event for my siblings. Estimating a spend of about $6-7k.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

I’ve officially started my xmas vacation but didn’t complete all my work so I’m casually working a few hours here and there. Hoping to start fully decompressing by mid December.
Ridiculously, I’ve started drafting my resignation/retirement letter and it’s got me nervously excited. On one hand, I’m looking forward to letting the cat out of the bag to my boss in January. On the other hand, announcing and essentially committing to ending what’s been a steady income from my job kind of freaks me out, though in reality, we still have the missus’ income coming in. 
Starting to look more seriously at my list of pre-retirement tweaks I need to make leading up to retirement: Stop the DRIP's, build up some cash, etc.
Was looking forward to booking some big international trips post retirement in 2022 but omicron has thrown some question marks at it at the moment. We’ll still do some light planning for now but likely won’t book far in advance unless cancellation/rebooking policies are very flexible. Worst case, we’ll travel to other parts of Canada again or maybe to the States.
*Countdown to Retirement (April 2022)*
4.5 months to go
Less than 50 days of work left.


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## AltaRed

When I decided to retire, my notice consisted of an email to my boss with 2-3 sentences (give or take). It was simply to the point for formality only. Anything else can be said verbally at one's retirement luncheon. 

I still recommend NOT providing more than 3 months notice, and preferably less. Being sidelined and no longer taken seriously after notice can be a slow ticking clock. 90 days can feel like 180 days.


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## Freedom2022

Congratulations to OP who will retire soon.
From your financial success, I figure you hold an important position in your company.
I am just curios: will your employer ask you to stay longer until a suitable replacement has been trained to take over your post.


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## milhouse

Not going to be too fancy with the resignation letter. Just keeping it along the lines of sample letters I've pulled up: Final day of work, reason why I'm resigning, cordial thanking of the company and manager for the opportunities, and offering my support in transition. I still want to get the words right even though it's just going to get filed. 

Not going to have a retirement farewell event if I can help it as I kind of want to just _slip out the back door _on my last day. I suspect with our company still on work from home for covid, getting together for work events still won't be a thing. I recently attended a surprise retirement farewell that was held on zoom which was fairly well attended. It was kind of awkward though with a handful of people giving some nice speeches but you also had dozens of people just lurking in the background.

Definitely going to give notice in January. We'll see how the last few months go.



Freedom2022 said:


> From your financial success, I figure you hold an important position in your company.
> I am just curios: will your employer ask you to stay longer until a suitable replacement has been trained to take over your post.


Nope, I don't hold an important postion in my company. I'm just an individual contributor working on various projects versus day to day operations. Some of the international projects I've worked on in the past just helped me get off the right foot financially. I would consider myself somewhat easily replaceable in the grand scheme of things. The problem is just the domino effect of handing off projects, knowledge transfering, and getting up to speed on what's going on, while compounded by the fact that my team has been oversubscribed recently.
With me giving notice in January, I doubt they'll need to ask me to stay longer. For anything less than 2 months, there may have been a slight possibility because the hiring process literally takes months. The most likely scenario is that my complex projects would eventually get reassigned to a particular coworker because only she and I currently have the experience and background for some of these projects (everyone else moved on so we usually cover each other when we go on vacation) and my manager would hire someone to backfill our smaller projects.


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## RICARDO

milhouse said:


> Not going to be too fancy with the resignation letter. Just keeping it along the lines of sample letters I've pulled up: Final day of work, reason why I'm resigning, cordial thanking of the company and manager for the opportunities, and offering my support in transition. I still want to get the words right even though it's just going to get filed.
> 
> Not going to have a retirement farewell event if I can help it as I kind of want to just _slip out the back door _on my last day. I suspect with our company still on work from home for covid, getting together for work events still won't be a thing. I recently attended a surprise retirement farewell that was held on zoom which was fairly well attended. It was kind of awkward though with a handful of people giving some nice speeches but you also had dozens of people just lurking in the background.
> 
> Definitely going to give notice in January. We'll see how the last few months go.
> 
> 
> 
> Nope, I don't hold an important postion in my company. I'm just an individual contributor working on various projects versus day to day operations. Some of the international projects I've worked on in the past just helped me get off the right foot financially. I would consider myself somewhat easily replaceable in the grand scheme of things. The problem is just the domino effect of handing off projects, knowledge transfering, and getting up to speed on what's going on, while compounded by the fact that my team has been oversubscribed recently.
> With me giving notice in January, I doubt they'll need to ask me to stay longer. For anything less than 2 months, there may have been a slight possibility because the hiring process literally takes months. The most likely scenario is that my complex projects would eventually get reassigned to a particular coworker because only she and I currently have the experience and background for some of these projects (everyone else moved on so we usually cover each other when we go on vacation) and my manager would hire someone to backfill our smaller projects.


Congrats on your anticipated retirement.
Reading about your stash I can say you have more than enough to enjoy a very good retirement without many, if any, constraints.
I have approx 1/2 of what you have but our spend rate is approx the same and I have no difficulties in paying the Visa (dividend card) at the end of the month. Pretty well do what I want to and buy what I want to without going overboard on fanciful dreams.
Hard to do but it is nice to put some thought in to what you will do in retirement. May sound weird but you have to remember you will no longer have weekends, holidays, meetings, etc., etc. Those actually added some structure to your days/weeks/months/year.

RICARDO


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## milhouse

Thanks.
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what my retirement _schedule_ will look like. I'd like to maintain some structure by having some loose routines but I'm also looking forward to the flexibility of being able to pivot from what I'm doing and do something random/out of the blue. The missus is also putting together a list of projects around the house.


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## RICARDO

milhouse said:


> Thanks.
> Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what my retirement _schedule_ will look like. I'd like to maintain some structure by having some loose routines but I'm also looking forward to the flexibility of being able to pivot from what I'm doing and do something random/out of the blue. The missus is also putting together a list of projects around the house.


A House can keep you quite busy if you are handy with tools. I have always had a house and would hate an apartment/condo quite simply because there is very little to do. Then you have to have exterior activities to keep your mind active.


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## Mechanic

I worked on quite a few reno projects around our home after retiring. Wife didn't want the mess again, so when we relocated we bought a newer home that wouldn't need reno's. It's taken a few years to adapt but now the days just fly by. I play golf so that eats up about 4 days a week  I look after all our investments now and actually enjoy making a few trades, researching etc for the rrsp's, tfsa's and unregistered accounts. Always yard work at our place too and almost year round. I don't know how I found time for working all those long hours I worked.


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## milhouse

*End of December 2021 Update, Year End Summary, and 2022 Targets

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.240M. Up approximately $65.5k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $681k. Up about $21.7k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.922M. Up about $87.3k for the month.

Despite the turmoil caused by Omicron and inflation/rate hike worries, December delivered solid gains with some help from a small Santa Claus rally. Gains for my portfolio were across the board, fairly evenly split between my Canadian dividend growers in my taxable account and index ETF’s in my registered accounts.
The missus’ portfolio similarly had gains across her accounts. She’s also been slowly moving her cash into her non-registered account and dollar cost averaging into her broad equity index EFT.

*2021 Results and 2022 Plans and Goals*
2021 was a very good year for my portfolio as it grew by over $400k through growth and additional investments/savings. Even though it looks like a number of folks had better returns percentage-wise, I can’t complain. The growth during the year was fairly consistent with only 2 down months in February which was pretty nominal and September caused by Evergrande. My Canadian dividend growers continued to rebound this year contributing more than half the overall gains this year. Needless to say, all my 2021 targets were hit this year and even allowed me to hit all my original 2022 retirement year targets about a year early, other than my $50k dividend target which is on track for next year, aided by OSFI finally lifting the dividend increase moratorium.

The missus’ portfolio again suffered from lost opportunity by not deploying most of cash until late in the year. While she also hit all of her account targets for 2021, I think she’s coming to the realization of the problem of sitting on _too_ much cash in her HISA. Her portfolio’s biggest change was migrating her RRSP from PHN to her self directed account with an all in one ETF. She’s debating whether to migrate the rest of her investments. Her pension website added a scenario tool so we were able to get a more accurate picture of her pension income if she retired early but didn’t draw on her pension until later. The scenario we’re using is for her to retire at age 50 but not drawing on her pension until age 60 which comes with a bridge benefit to 65.

General goals and plans for 2022:

While it’s generally steady as she goes for my portfolio, I do have some tasks I’m planning to execute in preparation for retirement.
Apparently, I have an account manager assigned to my direct investing account. I’m going reach out to him to see if he can help me migrate my pension and company options/stock to my self directed accounts when I retire.
While the plan is to grow my dividends from $47k to $53k in my non-registered account in 2022, I’m going to turn off the DRIP when I retire to start generating retirement cash flow.
I’m planning to start drawing from my RRSP in late 2023. Instead of doing a full 5 year GIC ladder, I’m thinking of just putting the amount I’m planning to withdraw next year, in a 1 year GIC this year. The goal is to just make it less painful to withdraw if the markets and correspondingly my RRSP takes a bit of a hit over the next 18-21 months.
I don’t think I’m going to rebalance in my registered accounts where my fixed income has drifted from about 25% to 20%. 

*My Portfolio**2020 Actual**2021 Target**2021 Actual**2022 Target**Original 2022 Retirement
EOY (Rough Goals)**Cash CHQ & SAV accts (soft target)*27.0k20k*32.5k*30K30k*Non-Registered*899k1.0M*1.156M*1.235M1.1M*RRSP*439k468k*505k*537k450k*TFSA*120k133k*144k*159k135k*DC Pension*332k360k*403k*429k350k*Total*1.816M1.982M*2.240M*2.390M2.065M*Non-Registered Account Dividends*4045545000*47140*5300050000



*Her Portfolio and Combined Totals*2020 Actual*2021 Target**2021 Actual**Cash CHQ & SAV accounts (soft target)*97k97k*59.7k**Non-Registered*263.7k304K*388k**RRSP*89.6k93.1K*93.9k**TFSA*112.5k126k*136k**Misc Pension Value (from prev job)*3.8k3.8k*3.8k**DB Pension (non-indexed) Estimate (not included in total)*~35k/yr @55
(guess)*~36k/[email protected]
~34.5/[email protected]**Total*567k624k*681k**Our Combined Total*2.129M2.606M*2.922M*

*Spending*
Dec spend: $5970
2021 total spend: $50030

December’s spend fell just below the low end of my $6-7k estimate. I was anticipating more towards the higher end, if not more, but our trip wasn’t too spendy and a few party/event spends got pushed out to January due to omicron issues. We also didn’t spend much at all during Boxing Day/Week as the sales have been pretty uninspiring. Going to instead watch for clearance events in January.

For the year, it’s kind of funny that we came in right around our usual $50k annual spend again. But again, the core reason was from a dearth of travel and reallocating the spend to other things. If things start normalizing in 2022, I can see our spend explode a bit from pent up demand on our side and things just being more expensive all over the place.


*Spend Totals**2020 Actual**2021 Estimate**2021 Actual**2022 Estimate**Food & Eating Out*1345015000*15980*17500*Housing & Utilities*1701017000*14770*18000*Transportation*42904500*2850*4500*Personal*86208000*8850*9000*Entertainment*10902000*3340*4500*Travel*381010000-15000*3860*10000-20000*Side Business*200200*380*200*Total*4849055000-60000*50030*63000-70000

Food & Eating Out: Food inflation was probably the most visible category of inflation for us, both from a groceries perspective and eating out perspective. Correspondingly, the biggest impact to our grocery purchasing habits is that I find that we’re buying steaks and rib roasts quite a bit less due to sticker shock. We’ll still buy steaks if want a steak but we’re more picky about the cut and marbling. However, we’re also buying other proteins and trying to be more creative with cheaper cuts. Our eating out spend edged back up percentage-wise as there were generally less restrictions at restaurants in 2021 and we took advantage of it. Our alcohol spend remained lower than pre-pandemic as there were still less events/league play to socialize and have a drink after.

The expectation is that food inflation will continue in 2022 so I’ve factored that in plus eating out more due to league play normalizing and getting together with friends more during retirement. I’m also concerned how the recent floods have damaged the crops/fields in the Fraser Valley will impact next year’s harvest of local produce and the pricing.

Housing & Utilities: Housing and utilities was a mixed bag this year with utilities and property tax going up usual. One small win was that I was able to get a lower house insurance premium by switching providers. We spent way less on repairs/maintenance and furniture/appliances this year and that was the biggest factor in our reduced housing spend.

For 2022’s spend, I’ve factored in a few repairs around the house we’ve been kicking down the road. These are on my post retirement to-do list the missus has assigned me.

Transportation: Transportation costs were again lower in 2021. While our fuel spend was pretty similar, our biggest reductions came from lower insurance costs as the BC moved to a version of no-fault and we had no major servicing like we did last year when we did the brakes.

Next year, we’ll likely spend $1000 on some new tires. I’m also anticipating more driving with the missus heading back into the office more often in the new year and me running errands and meeting up with friends.

Personal: “Personal” spend ended up fairly similar to last year instead of going down. Health and medicine went down as anticipated but was offset by charity and gifts which went up due to a few unique/special events, some unexpected vet bills, and credit card fees as we play the credit card churn game.

I suspect Personal spend will remain elevated in 2022 due to some event/gift spending we had to delay to January, some anticipated pet bills, new glasses again, etc.

Entertainment: I expected our entertainment spend to go back up as our leagues resumed play but they didn’t resume as fully expected. Instead, we spend some money on an outdoor party in the summer which fortunately aligned perfectly with the low point in case counts in BC and some other small get togethers with friends like golf outings.

I’m anticipating an elevated spend again in 2022 due to our pent up demand to get together and do some special events/parties with friends as I’m cautiously optimistic about normalization. I also want to see if I can get out to watch the Canucks more frequently and attend a few concerts.

Travel: Similar to last year, we fit in a few small trips this year including our first flights in about 20 months. While we splurged in some instances, we also capitalized on some credit card offers, Black Friday hotel deals, companion vouchers, etc that made our travel spend less that it truly was. Some of the spend is kind of indirectly captured under the Personal category via the credit card fees. 

We’re ended up way below our normal travel spend because we didn’t feel there was enough stability with the international travel environment yet with things constantly at risk of changing on a dime. At minimum, we’re prepared to travel locally and across Canada again in 2022 but are optimistic that a trip or two to the States and maybe overseas might be in the cards. I’m spec’ing in a fairly large spending range because I don’t know what we’ll book yet. I was hoping to do a big trip/cruise right after retirement but that will likely be a last minute decision and dependent on how omicron plays out.

Side Business: I didn’t give my side business any love at all in 2021. Will look at giving it some TLC after I retire.

*House Value*
2020 Assessment: $1.467M
2021 Assessment: $1.728M

BC Assessment’s annual valuation (July 2021) had our house ridiculously jump by a quarter million this year which at this point puts us over the base property tax threshold. Our home valuation was pretty stable for the last 5 years but there have been a few of sales in our neighbourhood which may have forced a bump up in our valuation.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Covid: I really thought by late 2021, things would normalize in the world. And it seemed to be heading in that direction until omicron punched our plans in the face. Here’s hoping things normalize quickly in 2022.
Finances: The equity markets overall were pretty generous in 2021. I try to be optimistic so I’m hoping for another positive 2022. The realist in me also knows that a repeat of this year’s returns would be pushing it. From a portfolio grooming perspective, I’m just trying to organize things to get ready to have cashflow after I stop working and into next year.
Work: I had most of December off and didn’t miss work at all. So, pretty sure I’m not going to miss it when I retire. I still have another week off and am planning to hand in my resignation letter the week I’m back in the office. It’s 15 weeks to go until retirement and I have about 5 weeks of vacation so I’m going need to discuss with my manager how I deploy my vacation time the rest of the way.
Health: I need to get back on the good eating and exercise routine to get retirement off on the right foot. As I hit 50, I’ll probably head into the family doc to do a pre-retirement general check up and have a chat about colon exams, prostate exams, etc.
*Countdown to Retirement*
3.5 months to go.
Just over 100 total days to go.


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## Forebiz

I always enjoy reading your updates. I hope you plan to keep them up during your retirement. Congratulations.


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## milhouse

Thanks Forebiz.
I'll probably continue updating post retirement at least for while to track and get feedback on my transition to decumulation mode/converting my savings to a retirement income stream. However, I'll likely scale back to quarterly updates.


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## TK.61

This is so exciting! I feel a genuine sense of excitement for you despite not knowing you personally. I look forward to your continued updates and hearing how your resignation notice goes over with your company!


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## AltaRed

milhouse said:


> Work: I had most of December off and didn’t miss work at all. So, pretty sure I’m not going to miss it when I retire. I still have another week off and am planning to hand in my resignation letter the week I’m back in the office. It’s 15 weeks to go until retirement and I have about 5 weeks of vacation so I’m going need to discuss with my manager how I deploy my vacation time the rest of the way.


As per others, a good story. To the point at hand, consider tacking most/all of it on at the end, e.g. leave 5 weeks earlier than last day of work is one example. The manager may prefer this anyway.


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## james4beach

milhouse said:


> Work: I had most of December off and didn’t miss work at all. So, pretty sure I’m not going to miss it when I retire. I still have another week off and am planning to hand in my resignation letter the week


Wow this really is exciting. I'm very happy for you!

As someone who went on "sabbatical" for a bit, but then resumed working... I can say that the months where I was completely work-free were VERY pleasant. And recently, I took the second half of December off, and had an incredible time just enjoying the time and freedom. Now that I'm back to work in January, it's a bit soul-crushing.

And I knew that inbox full of work emails and never-ending tasks was just sitting there, waiting for me to come back to the [home] office.


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## milhouse

Thanks for the supportive comments.
Wanted to hold off on replies until the end of the week to report on how handing in my letter of resignation went and give myself a chance to digest it.



TK.61 said:


> hearing how your resignation notice goes over with your company!


It went as well as I could have hoped for so far. After updating me what went on with the team during my time off and how things were shaping up for work in the new year, I had a chance to share my thoughts on the upcoming year. So I just blurted out that I'm going to be resigning. That kind of caught of caught my boss off guard of course. I think he was a bit concerned because I didn't say intially say why. After I explained it was because I was retiring, he seemed happy for me. We also kind of chatted generically about the financial aspect as he's also interested in retiring early.

Personally, I've encountered a range of feelings over the week: Relief that I announced it to my boss and can more openly start putting some wheels in motion. Excited because this was a key milestone. Sad because a significant chapter of my life is closing. Scared because I've committed to leaving my safety net of a job/employment income. 



AltaRed said:


> Consider tacking most/all of it on at the end, e.g. leave 5 weeks earlier than last day of work is one example. The manager may prefer this anyway.


We did discuss at a very high level some of the details for my remaining 3 months. My boss didn't care how I'm planning to use my remaining vacation time. I told him I'll just fit it in here and there which he was fine with. I'm currently not planning to backload it because I'm trying to finish up a couple of in-flight projects which have timing that kind of aligns with my retirement date. My boss seems to be ok with me just focusing on what's currently on my plate and not assigning me any new projects/work assignments because it doesn't make sense for me to start on something new for a month and then having to spend a few weeks knowledge transferring. He also agreed to keep my retirement in confidence, other than to my VP who needs to sign off on initiating the process to find a replacement. We'll see how keeping my retirement a secret goes. 



james4beach said:


> As someone who went on "sabbatical" for a bit, but then resumed working... I can say that the months where I was completely work-free were VERY pleasant. And recently, I took the second half of December off, and had an incredible time just enjoying the time and freedom. Now that I'm back to work in January, it's a bit soul-crushing.
> 
> And I knew that inbox full of work emails and never-ending tasks was just sitting there, waiting for me to come back to the [home] office.


Normally, I'd be checking email pretty frequently during vacation but I started to let it slip during the latter half of my time off over xmas. And I agree, it was VERY pleasant to de-stress from the responsibility! And similarly, it was soul-crushing my first day back when I hadn't even had a chance to get settled and reorientated before I had to jump on a zoom call to get drilled for various status updates.


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## Saintor

Did you evaluate the difference in public pension income that it will make? Will you start it at 65?

I evaluated my early retirement at 55 (this year ) using our provincial simulator; It would be -8K/yr for the rest of my life. I could still live off my investments but ... Also high inflation gives me pause. 





__





Retraite Québec - CompuPension: simulating your retirement income






www.rrq.gouv.qc.ca


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## milhouse

I have a private sector defined contribution pension while the missus has the quasi-public sector defined benefits pension so I'm assuming you are referring to her pension since I'm just planning to roll my DC pension into a locked in retirement account and managing it like a self directed RRIF..

Her pension website does have a simulator tool which I've ran a few calculations on. If she works to and retires at age 62ish, she can immediately draw an unreduced pension of about $62k/yr. If she retires at age 50 or 55 but doesn't draw on her pension until around age 60ish, she will instead draw around $35k/yr or $45k/yr respectively which is a huge difference. Her pension administrators introduced significant early retirement penalties a couple of years ago to ensure the viability of her pension plan because too many people were retiring early. Her employment also provides fantastic health benefits. So she feels a bit handcuffed and doesn't want to retire so early and leave so much money on the table. She similarly says "It's going to be $x less per year for the rest of my life!"
Conversely, I'm a few years older than her so I'm not wanting her to work too much longer so that we can start on our goal to travel way more, though the pandemic has also thrown a bunch of uncertainty into those lofty plans.


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## Saintor

Not quite, I am referring to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) that every Canadian at salary is subject to get, as early from 60 (probably included in her retirement package but also for you). Here it is topped with a Quebec Pension Plan and the combined maximum is 20K/yr I believe (at 65). If I stop contributing at 55 and get it at 65, it would be 12K/yr I believe. If stopped at 60, it would be 16K/yr. I don't know that works in BC.


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## milhouse

Ahhh, sorry. 
Yes, I've previously done some calculations around the impact of retiring early on my CPP benefit, with @Dogger1953, our resident CMF CPP expert somewhat giving his blessing to the rough formula I'm using.  

(My max contribution years)/(Number of years used for max monthly benefit) x (Max Benefit) x (Earlier Reduction Penalty/late multiplier) = Rough Monthly Benefit

Retiring early, will effectively reduce my maximum contribuition years and prevent me from obtaining maximum CPP benefits which seems somewhat similiar to what you describe for QPP.
I quickly ran the numbers for my CPP again. Based on the above formula, if I start CPP at 65, I'm losing out on about $5k/yr for life by retiring early and not hitting my required max contribution years. However, I'm planning to take CPP at age 70 to take advantage of the multiplier for starting it later. This scenario has me lose out on about $8k/yr for life compared to if I met my max contribution years (roughly $12k/yr vs $20k/yr in today's dollars) but still increase my payout compared to age 65.

I have not factored in what type of impact my early retirement will have on the new Enhanced CPP benefits. However, since the additional contributions to this program started so late in my working life, I'm assuming it would not have significantly added to my CPP benefits anyways. 

From an overall retirement income strategy perspective, I'm planning to use my dividend income as my base and then supplement it with RRSP and DC pension withdrawals. I'm not relying on CPP (and OAS) in my my core retirement income expectations but include it in my overall view. 
The investments I'm using to generate the dividend income are dividend growth stocks so I'm hoping the dividends will at minimum keep up but preferably grow faster than inflation over the long run. Conversely, I'm planning to apply VPW to my RRSP withdrawals but tweaking it to be a bit more agressive in terms of stabilizing the nominal withdrawals even if the percentage for the year doesn't warrant it. 
CPP (and maybe OAS) will serve primarily as a buffer if I burn through my RRSP too fast and secondarily if I run into issues with my dividend income (like dividend cuts, etc). 
I accept the fact that this is not the most efficient strategy both from a maximizing income thoughout my retirement perspective and taxation perspective but I'm not going to sweat it.


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## Eclectic21

AltaRed said:


> When I decided to retire, my notice consisted of an email to my boss with 2-3 sentences (give or take). It was simply to the point for formality only. Anything else can be said verbally at one's retirement luncheon ...


My company has gone electronic so a recent retiree said that the congratulations email from his boss included the steps to signin to the application to electronically submit the resignation, including the date.




AltaRed said:


> ... I still recommend NOT providing more than 3 months notice, and preferably less. Being sidelined and no longer taken seriously after notice can be a slow ticking clock. 90 days can feel like 180 days.


Talking to recent retirees and/or the pension/benefits person can avoid costly mistakes.
Less than three months notice at my company results in a period of no pension payment and losing one's retirement medical benefits for both white and blue collar workers.

Cheers


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## milhouse

*End of January 2022 Update 

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.226M. Down approximately $14.6k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $667k. Down about $14.3k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.893M. Down about $29.0k (rounding) for the month.

With the rate hike fears, Ukraine worries, etc, January was a very volatile and mixed month for my portfolio. 
At the low point, my portfolio was down about $70k. But the late month rally helped reduced the hole. However, looking under the hood, the dividend growers in my taxable account were solidly in the green (with some assistance from January dividend payments) while my index ETF’s in my RRSP and DC pension were down a bunch (no thanks to the US tech wreck). My TFSA was up but only because of my 2022 contribution which correspondingly put my savings in the red for the month.

The missus portfolio was red across the board too except for her TSFA but also only because of her 2022 contribution.

*Spending*
January spend: $4960

Our January spend is normally fairly muted after a heavy December spend. However, this year was excessively high for a couple of reasons. 
In order to hit some credit card welcome bonuses, we pulled some spending forward by buying gift cards at one of our local grocery stores and loading dollars onto some eatery apps for places we regularly frequent. In theory, this should help reflect as a lower spend over the next 6 months or so. This was the biggest spend driver for the month. Other large spends included a vet bill, a charitable donation, and some home maintenance gear that was on sale.

February’s spend is going to be on the high side also because of our first property tax installment. That’s going to lift February to the $4500-5000 range. However, we’re considering booking a trip, likely still somewhere locally or across the country. That may bump up the month’s spend even more if we buy flights.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Retirement Finance Prep: Although I asked to have my synthetic DRIP’ing turned off at the end of December, a few shares still DRIP’ed. I had to call up TDDI to confirm they in fact turned it off. They said it had to do with the me asking to turn it off after the date of record (?!?). Anyway, the dividends closer to the end of the month didn’t DRIP and I didn’t bother asking them to fix the ones that did DRIP.
I confirmed that my TDDI account manager will give me a hand migrating my DC pension, company options/stock, and some miscellaneous accounts to TDDI when I retire. Although I think I’m a pretty low maintenance customer, I going to have to see what other magic he can do for me.​
Work: I thought it was just going to be a pretty quiet remaining 3 months until retirement with me wrapping up outstanding assignments and projects. Well, my boss asked me if I could help with an intense 2 month project that will take me to the end of March. So I’ll be busting my rear on that until I leave. I’m now having some difficulty fitting in all my remaining vacation days around project meetings and activities so I’ve started taking a day here, a half day there, and backloading a bunch of days in April instead of taking full weeks off. I don’t really mind because I didn’t have anything planned and I’ll have a lot of time off soon anyway.
Also, no one at work seems to know about my retirement yet which I have to give credit to my boss and my boss’ boss for keeping the secret other than submitting a request to fill my position. I’ll probably need to let the cat out of the bag with some coworkers late March in order to allow time for any knowledge transfer since I moved a bunch of days off in April now.​
Health: After a very lazy December and January, I’m trying to get back into my workout routine.
Travel: I’m trying to convince the missus to start booking some trips as I think a lot of the travel related red tape that we didn’t want to deal with is going to disappear in the relatively near future.
*Countdown to Retirement*
2.5 months to go.
Just over 250 hours of work left.​


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## james4beach

milhouse said:


> Retirement Finance Prep: Although I asked to have my synthetic DRIP’ing turned off at the end of December, a few shares still DRIP’ed. I had to call up TDDI to confirm they in fact turned it off.


I think it's also possible to set this up with TD so that dividends go directly to a TD chequing account. I haven't done it, but I seem to remember hearing about this at some point.


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## AltaRed

james4beach said:


> I think it's also possible to set this up with TD so that dividends go directly to a TD chequing account. I haven't done it, but I seem to remember hearing about this at some point.


I think what I recall is a process of sweeping up the investment income once each month and transferring to a bank account. It is easy enough though to do that manually as part of one's regular housekeeping, e.g. downloading the monthly statement.


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## james4beach

AltaRed said:


> I think what I recall is a process of sweeping up the investment income once each month and transferring to a bank account. It is easy enough though to do that manually as part of one's regular housekeeping, e.g. downloading the monthly statement.


I think it's better to do it yourself, actually. You probably want to track how much money flows in or out of your investments, to calculate XIRR over the years.

To do that calculation properly you need to know exactly how much is withdrawn. When there are dividend or interest payments that you withdraw, those are investment withdrawals and must be marked in the spreadsheet.


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## AltaRed

No one needs to know XIRR to that degree of accuracy at any time, never mind during 20-30 years of retirement withdrawals. Whether one inputs $2532 at the of each month into a spreadsheet rather than 15 bits of $2532 each month likely makes nothing more than a second decimal point difference in XIRR

The whole point of a sweep of investment income each month out of an investment account is for cash flow spending purposes. There is no re-investment involved in such accounts.


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## milhouse

Thanks for the tip/reminder. I think I recall the sweeping term from another thread.
I'm currently planning to migrate cash out from the investment account manually to start. The missus and I have a somewhat convoluted financial set up which we I suppose works for us for now but we'll likely eventually simplify.

The complexity comes from:

The investment account being a joint account but where we track our investments separately. We initially thought it would be simpler just having a joint account. I don't want to automatically move out her investment income with mine.
The way we share in the expenses. I don't necessarily want the entirety of my dividends going into our joint chequing account. We each maintain our own savings accounts and use them to contribute to the joint chequing at different proportions and amounts due to various reasons. Ex. I don't want my income taxes to come from our joint contributions but rather my own savings. And my savings account isn't with TD due to historical reasons. Again, likely going to eventually simplify by setting up my own savings account at TD.


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## milhouse

*End of February 2022 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.274M. Up approximately $48.4k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $658k. Down about $9.1k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.932M. Up about $39.3k for the month.

Rate hike + inflation + Ukraine = another choppy month for my portfolio.
However, the strength from major parts of my non-registered Canadian dividend growers offset the continued declines of my index ETF heavy registered accounts. And as a bonus, it was enough to put my overall portfolio back into the green YTD.

The missus’ portfolio was red across the board except for her cash savings. The 2 negative months to start the year basically wiped out her gains from last 2 months of 2021. So overall, the hit to her portfolio hasn’t been too bad.

*Spending*
February spend: $6090
Year to date spend: $11060

We blew past our estimated $4500-5000 February spend. It was always going to be on the high side because our first property tax installment which made up just under half the month’s spend. However, we ended up covering an extended family dinner to celebrate the loosening of restaurant restrictions in BC. And we also had another hefty charity and gift spend for various events and reasons.

March is going to be a bit on the higher side again mainly because we’re finally started on one home maintenance item. With covid cases trending down and restrictions relaxed, I'm anticipating planning a few more events that we held off on. And I may also start celebrating/enjoying my retirement a bit early. Rough guess is a $4000-4500 spend for March.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*

Countdown to retirement: The countdown is kind of really on now because I had to backload most of my vacation time into April. The result is that my last meaningful day of work will now be at the end of March with a couple of days in April to wrap things up and drop my gear off. Hasn't really sunk in. Ask me again March 31. 
Even though the markets have been really choppy, I’m _currently_ not feeling stressed about my numbers while being this close to my retirement date primarily because my dividend income is still on track. Secondarily, my numbers are still above my original target and our anticipated 2022 spend isn’t threatened so not pressing the panic button yet.​

Work: As I expected, my boss is a decent guy and did NOT screw me on my 2021 annual bonus that was paid out early Feb even though he had some time to mess with my numbers after I handed in my resignation in early January. On the flip side, work has been ridiculously busy and I've had some late nights and some weekend hours to get things out in time. I’m going to draw a line on the number of extra hours I’m still putting in because in theory, our bonuses are supposed to compensate all the extra hours we put in. And because I don’t fit the company’s exit definition of retirement (have to be min age 55), I won’t get a prorated bonus when I leave for the quarter of 2022.
Not sure of the status of my replacement. Definitely not onboarded yet. And at this point, I won’t be the one training them because I’m too swamped.​​I’m planning to start socializing my impending departure to some more people at the end of this week. That will give the teams I’m working with about 4 weeks to plan for me being out of the picture. I’ll probably also reach out to let a handful of coworkers I’ve worked with for a long time know I’m leaving/retiring too so they don’t hear it through the grapevine.​

Travel: My original plan was to book a 2-4 week international trip with departure right after my retirement date. But mainly because of the constant evolving red-tape around travel, we didn’t book anything many months in advance and were going to book something only about a month out instead. However, I’m now going to allocate the last two weeks of April doing a laundry list of items: Migrating my work accounts, setting up new personal accounts, doing our taxes, finding a new phone plan, etc. While one can do pretty much everything remotely nowadays, I think there’d be less potential headaches if we postponed our next trip to late May or early June.
Fun: Made it out to a Canucks game. That was really enjoyable to socialize a bit. Some of the spring leagues we play in are relaunching this year so looking forward to that too.
*Countdown to Retirement*​1.5 months to go.​Less than 50 days away, less than 20 working days, and less than 150 hours of work left but who’s counting? ​


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## AltaRed

One thing for certain. Your next update will be the reference point for the start of retirement. You will need to save a copy of of your Apr 2nd post for reminiscing circa April 2032.


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## diharv

Congratulations on being almost there. I've been out since the end of last May and have not yet travelled internationally. Well, we got away to Mexico for three weeks in that small open window in November between the relaxing of the advisory and the beginning of omicrap, so not sure if that counts. I figure the pandemic has already cost us one fall Europe trip and one South America trip, where we should be right now. Our plan now is Spain/Canary Islands for almost four weeks in Sept/Oct . Wife's brother and family live in Tenerife and so we'll stay with them for about ten days and then tour the mainland. I'm currently struggling with when to book it though as we don't want to lose this trip to increased prices or uavailability if we wait until too close to the departure date. The standard canned AI tropical vacations can be booked last second but we like to book all the components separately for increased flexibility and better prices. I'm monitoring the Covid situation and trends and so far things look favourable but I guess it will always be a gamble to book the trip and takes our chances. We got lucky with cancelling our spring break trip to Mexico in March 2020 and got our full refund but I really don't want to go through that again. I'm 57 now and don't want to lose any more time to to this [email protected]#%$ed scourge. Every year is precious and significant.


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## milhouse

AltaRed said:


> One thing for certain. Your next update will be the reference point for the start of retirement. You will need to save a copy of of your Apr 2nd post for reminiscing circa April 2032.


Yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to doing that baseline. I'll likely do a snapshop mid-April on what I consider my _official_ retirement date. I kind of like looking back at how things evolved. Heck, I can't believe I posted an monthly update for close to 5 years, though I kind of like the _forced_ habit of doing a regular status check.


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## milhouse

diharv said:


> I'm 57 now and don't want to lose any more time to to this [email protected]#%$ed scourge. Every year is precious and significant.


I'm with you there.
A few friends and relatives of ours have passed this past year and it's pushed a feeling of urgency in me to really enjoy life more. No sense of ugency in the missus tho.  But she kind of gets my point of view. Just waiting for normalcy so I can start booking trips everywhere: road trips, cruises, follow the Canucks on road trip, spring training, festivals around the world, etc.

At least you've gotten away to Mexico. A trip to Spain sound so wonderful. Near the top of the list is a return for a more extended stay in Spain, with a side trip to Portugal which we haven't visited yet.
We haven't visited South America either other than as a port of call in Cartagena but I want to do a tour with the Expo Buenos Aries Jan 2023 as a core component of the trip.


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## diharv

Nine times to South America for me. But that comes from having a Venezuelan wife and she has a lot of siblings that have fled that going down the toilet country to better opportunities in Chile, Spain, and Montreal. So, family to visit, and places to see. You know Mill, you have a great story here on this thread. I may have to go back and read it all from the start!


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## prisoner24601

Well done and best wishes for the next life stage. What are your thoughts regarding asset allocation as you transition to retirement?


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## milhouse

Thanks for the kind words.

I’m looking at asset allocation from the lens of how it can support my retirement income goals. 

My non-registered account is nearly 100% Canadian equities and more specifically moat’y blue chip dividend growers. I don’t see this changing in the near future as I’m looking for the dividends to provide a base retirement income. 

My RRSP is probably going to evolve the most as I try to figure out the best way to tap into it late next year to supplement our discretionary spending annually. It’s currently about 78:20:2 equity ETF (US, EAFE, and EM) to aggregate bond ETF (Cdn) to cash (from the yields). I’ve been flip flopping on just picking an equity:FI mix and applying VPW versus employing a version of the bucket strategy to help me apply more appropriate risk levels and stabilize my annual withdrawals. I’m not 100% sure what this would exactly looks like yet but the concept of building a cash bucket to supply near term withdrawals is appealing. In the short term, I’m planning to build my cash holdings by using the current cash and my 2022 tax year contribution to buy a 1 year GIC. The GIC and yield over the next year should be enough to cover the expected amount of my first withdrawal late next year. And then I need to figure out what to do next. I've thought about a GIC ladder in the past.

I cannot access my DC pension for another 5 years. Currently it has a 75:25 equity (global) to bond index mix from a selection offered by my employer’s plan administrator. When I move it over to a self directed LRSP in a month, I’ll likely just dump it into an all in one ETF with a 80:20 or 70:30 mix.

Originally, I was expecting to use the yields from my TFSA as sort of a buffer for spending shocks. Instead, I’ll probably use my TFSA for long term growth. I have no idea when I’ll use/enjoy the funds in my TFSA. It currently has about 80:20 equity ETF (CDN, US, EAFE, EM) plus some individual equities to aggregate bond ETF (Cdn). Because I’m planning it for longer term growth now, I’m thinking about evolving it to a more aggressive mix like 100% equities. Haven’t determined what this looks like yet. Maybe a 100% equity all in one ETF to keep it simple.


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## Thal81

You know, the general view for portfolio management is to consider overall asset allocation first (e.g. 50% Canada stocks, 30% US, 20% fixed income) and then decide in which account to place these assets in a way that makes sense for tax and withdrawal purposes. It may be a little late to reshuffle things around, but I think it's important for proper diversification to look at the aggregate portfolio and not individual accounts.


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## milhouse

Thal81 said:


> It may be a little late to reshuffle things around, but I think it's important for proper diversification to look at the aggregate portfolio and not individual accounts.


Definitely agree that a more sensible approach would be to take an aggregate/holistic view versus the absurd compartmentalized approach per account that's playing out in my portfolio. I'll blame it on personal circumstance, a lack of discipline, laziness, and not enough portfolio grooming. So, I hope what I described as what I'm doing in my portfolio is not misinterpretted as a suggestion for a template to follow. It's just me trying to make things work without having to do a bunch of clean up.


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## milhouse

*End of March 2022 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.298M. Up approximately $23.9k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $667k. Up about $9.0k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.965M. Up about $32.8k for the month.

March was a bit of a repeat of February for my portfolio with a lot of volatility but still net positive. Strength continued to come from most parts of my non-registered Canadian dividend growers to deliver the overall the gain for the month. After a late month rally, all of my registered accounts ended the month only slightly down, essentially flat, with the last day of trading putting them all back in the red.

The missus’ portfolio had a good month with all parts of her portfolio having small gains for the month except cash savings as she continues to slowly add to her non-registered account. She’s still in the red year to date but things are hopefully looking more positive.

*Spending*
March spend: $2990
Year to date spend: $14050

March’s spend didn’t end up as much as I was originally expecting ($4-4.5k). We did end up completing one home maintenance item which came in under $1000. However, the other fun events and home maintenance/repair items didn’t happen. Some of them may occur next month but I’m anticipating April to be fairly busy as I transition into retirement.

April is going to be another high spend month with car and home insurance due. Home insurance is going up 8% while car insurance is going down 1.5%. We might do an overnight road trip to the States as travel rules become less of a hassle. I’m going to start on some simple home projects that hopefully don’t require a lot of purchases. Estimating a spend of around $5500.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Work: Although my official retirement date is mid April, I’m down to only 2 working days left after backloading my remaining vacation time. I guess I could have gotten my vacation time paid out but I’m ok with how it’s working out.
I’ve wrapped up or handed off most of my remaining work but still have a few loose ends. I’ll likely put in a few hours over the next 2 weeks even while I’m off. The saying that _work is more tolerable when it’s on your own terms_ appears applicable to me. The plan for the remaining 2 work days is dedicated to housekeeping stuff like: Grabbing personal files off my laptop, downloading key departure info from our HR website, using up all my work benefits/perks/incentives, dropping off all my work gear, reaching out to more coworkers to say goodbye, etc.

Still no news/announcement about my replacement yet which doesn’t shock me since it takes forever to hire and onboard. My bosses kept the door open if I wanted to eventually return and do some work on contract, which was nice. Personally, I don’t have any desire but maybe I'll change my mind if the missus keeps working and I become bored silly.

I’ve only had time to reach out to a few people about my retirement but it seems news is starting to circulate. The most common comment/question is “What are you going to do with your time/What are your plans?” to which I generally reply, “I’m not really sure” which is kind of the truth. However, people know we like to travel so I’ve also indicated that we’re trying to figure out some trips as travel becomes less difficult.
I was debating whether to send out a farewell email like a few other recently departed coworkers have done. Since I insisted on not having a Zoom retirement _party_, a few people have suggested sending out a farewell email would be nice thing to do. Funny that one of my work friends on another team beat me to the punch by 3 weeks when he let me know a few weeks back that he was headhunted for a new position and was leaving the company. It's the Great Resignation.

Retirement Readiness: Even though I still look at my portfolio’s account totals fairly regularly (and not loving how my registered accounts have been faring recently  ), I’m finding myself spending more time looking at my worksheet that estimates my monthly cashflow, spending, and liquid cash savings. I feel my focus is gradually shifting from growth and hitting my numbers to cashflow management. On that note, I’m feeling pretty good/confident about my forecasted cashflow for the rest of this year, 2023, and 2024. 

Mentally, I feel anticipation about my retirement but not really a lot of _excitement_. I think that relates to another saying about _retiring to something instead of from something_. I’m absolutely looking forward to not having to deal with the stress and anxiety derived from work. For example, I’ve previously stated I really enjoy my vacation time and not (heavily) thinking about work. But I don’t really have anything upcoming planned to get excited about like a big trip or a party/event. It’s more of an observation rather than a complaint or issue. And I’m comfortable giving myself time post retirement to figure things out. 

*Countdown to Retirement*
0.5 months to go.
2 working days left


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## londoncalling

Congrats @milhouse. 

Thank you for sharing your progress on this thread. It shows others, myself included, what can be accomplished when you put together a solid plan. I am certain, you will find things to keep you engaged in your retirement and travel will soon be on the agenda. I think the timing to coincide with spring will make it that much nicer. Best regards and I look forward to future posts on the next phase.


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## milhouse

Thanks for the kind comment. 
Yes, retiring in the spring to enjoy the longer days and nicer weather is definitely one of the things I'm looking forward to.


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## milhouse

*Good Riddance* (Green Day reference)
Officially retired as of Friday night when my accesses were pulled.  

Wanted to post a quick snapshot of my portfolio status as of my retirement date to serve as a baseline to compare against future portfolio snapshops as I soon start the switch from accumulation mode to decumulation mode to begin funding my retirement.

My original retirement goals were taken from my spreadsheet which is for 2022 end of year targets instead of my actual midyear April retirement date.


*My Portfolio**Retirement: Apr 15 2022 
Snapshot (Actuals)**Original 2022 Retirement
EOY (Rough Goals)**Cash CHQ & SAV accts (soft target)*30.2k30k*Non-Registered*1.325M1.1M*RRSP*464k450k*TFSA*140k135k*DC Pension*366k350k*Total*2.324M2.065M*Non-Registered Account Dividends*Trending to ~5300050000*Our Combined Totals*2.987M

There’s one more paycheck outstanding for my final two weeks of work that just wrapped up which should be the last of my actively generated income. (Although I have a side business, it really serves more as a hobby than for income generation as illustrated by me doing nothing on it for two years.) The missus is still bringing home the bacon though.

May is when I’ll officially start accessing cash building up from my dividends in my non-registered account as I turn off the last of my DRIPs. 

Non-Registered: The initial plan is to _enjoy_ the dividend yield. However, I may purchase some additional shares depending on the situation. Selling equity is on the table in later years.
I’ve neglected to mention that I also have a nominal amount invested in an equity crowdsourcing platform for start-ups and plan to continue to do so. I generally consider it dead money/a lottery ticket for now. If I get my money back or more via a liquidity event, I’ll consider it a windfall.

RRSP: Planning to make contributions for 2022 and 2023 tax years for tax efficiency purposes and start pulling from it at the end of 2023.

TFSA: Will continue to make annual contributions. No plans on its utilization yet other than as a contingency fund.

DC Pension: Last contribution will be from my final paycheck and then it will be moved to my Direct Investing account. Still deciding on asset allocation. Planning to draw from it in 2027/28 after I hit 55.


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## james4beach

milhouse said:


> Officially retired as of Friday night when my accesses were pulled.


Congrats!!

One thing you might want to consider is applying for an unsecured LOC before you are firmly job-free (according to banks & credit bureaus). In my experience the LOC can be a useful liquidity tool. And same idea if you might want to apply to credit cards that require high annual salaries, e.g. the Mastercard World Elite category, such as PC World Elite... these have an 80k income requirement.


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## milhouse

Thanks.
Yes, I've been thinking about getting a LOC for liquidity flexibility but more specifically a HELOC. Not sure if there would be additional value in getting an unsecured LOC??

The credit card question is an interesting one. We're trying to do the credit card churn game and I'm wondering if a lack of an income will prevent me from getting some of the higher end cards. I can't recall if I previously asked on this board or another about the difficulty in obtaining credit cards once retired. The answer seemed to be no in general but I wonder if it will be an issue for higher end cards. I do recall typical personal/household income requirements but not sure if liquid assets/investment income are taken into consideration.


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## AltaRed

Congratulations on your retirement!

It may depend on the issuer. Some may just ask for an annual income in which case I use a rounded off Net Income line of my latest tax return. Others may ask for employment income separately from Other Income. I've not had a problem with the cards i have asked for in 16 years of retirement BUT I've not asked for a high credit limit either. I have one legacy card with a high credit limit from decades past so that is my 'reserve' card for big purchases.

I try to stick with the same cash back cards for as long as they suit my purpose. IOW, I am not interested in shopping around. My longest one is now approaching 49 years.


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## BigMonkey

Congratulations on your retirement!


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## milhouse

Thanks. Kind of just feels like a vacation week so far without feeling obligated to check emails.


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## Thal81

Yeah congrats Milhouse, I'm positively jealous!


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## milhouse

Thanks!


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## milhouse

*End of April 2022 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.244M. Down approximately $53.8k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $639k. Down about $27.6k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.884M. Down about $81.4k for the month.

Ugly month.
I’m sure it would come as no surprise that aside from our cash savings, both the missus’ and my portfolios were red across the board. My portfolio continued to have a noticeable difference in performance with my Non-Registered account with Canadian dividend growers down only a bit for the month whereas my index ETF heavy Registered accounts took the brunt of the hit. In fact, it’s the first time in the 10 years I’ve been tracking my monthly numbers in detail where all of my registered accounts decreased in value for 4 consecutive months. However, the positive I’ll cling to is that my overall portfolio is still in the green YTD, even if only barely.

The missus still has a chunk of cash she can deploy but is unsure when and what to deploy it.

*Spending*
April Spend: $6490
Year to date spend: $20540

April’s spend was pretty huge for a variety of reasons. Car and house insurance premiums made up about a third of our spend. The only change we made was bumping up our third party liability for auto from $2m to $3m for a reasonable $10 and we’ll probably increase to $5m over the next few years. Dining out broke $1k again this month due to entertaining some out of town guests, taking a friend out for their birthday, and post game socializing again after our sports league started up. Our overnight trip to Seattle only had a few travel expenses but it drove our grocery bill as we loaded up on Trader Joe’s goods that we’ve been deprived of. We also bought a $500 home warming gift for a close relative.

I don’t have a good feel on what our May spend will look like. I’m starting on some home projects and not sure of what we’ll need to buy. Since our trip to Seattle went well, I think the missus is open to considering booking some more trips. And lastly, I’m still trying to get a feel of my fun spend in retirement, meeting up with people more, etc. Will guess $3-4k for May’s spend.

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Wrapping up work: Wrapping up work only kind of felt like a minor event. There was no official announcement of my retirement as I requested but my manager told me it would be mentioned during an upcoming expanded team call after I was gone to let everyone know where I disappeared to.  I did decide to send out a goodbye email to a number of people that have been influential over the years and chatted directly with a handful of closer colleagues. Of the few people that replied or I chatted with that brought up general discussions of finances, I was pretty surprised that only one or two seemed somewhat familiar with the FIRE movement/concepts which kind of blew my mind away. The missus wasn't surprised because she doesn't think it's really mainstream.

After my accesses were pulled on Friday, the last task was dropping my gear off on Monday, and that was that. While I haven’t looked back, I am still trying to shake some lingering stresses from work. I had a nightmare about needing complete this project I was previously working on. And I still have some Sunday dread that the weekend is almost over and I’ll need to start addressing issues for the week on Monday.

On the flipside, I have no uncertainty that things are humming along just fine at my old company, with me being forgotten soon enough. That's just the way it is.

Transition into retirement: After 2 weeks, post retirement still feels like a vacation so far in that I haven’t been able to wrap my head around the fact that I have an ongoing 40+ hours a week of new free time that I can do whatever I want with. In the back of my mind, I’m wondering when does this vacation end and I have to go back to work.

I have not felt bored yet. How I’m currently allocating the 8+ hours a weekday is as follows:
Weekday sleep is great. Previously, I was regularly sleep depriving myself during the week in order to get a jump or to complete a task and then trying to make up the lost sleep over the weekend. That impacted how less motivated I was to do stuff during week nights and deferred bigger tasks/projects to the weekend which kind of piled up. Now, if I need to sleep in a bit to feel fresh for the day, I am.

Fitting in a daily workout during the day is so much easier versus trying to slot it in before dinner or before bed. While working, I also tried to fit it in before work but I had so much to prep and also had to accommodate people in other time zones that I didn’t feel I had enough time to work out for more than 30 minutes.

I pick from a task/project board that the missus and I populate. These are bigger tasks on top of our daily chores. I pick 2-4 to work on during the day and if I don’t complete them, it’s no big deal. Some are more chore related but some are fun like trip planning. Normally, a lot of these items would wait for the weekend or get pushed out. I feel I’m being more productive throughout the week overall and enjoy the flexibility of picking and choosing tasks with soft deadlines. I’m doing more chores around the house too with the benefit of the missus feeling more inclined to do some fun things during weeknights instead of being mentally drained and bogged down by chores after work.

What I’m still working on is finding some fun things to do during weekdays when the missus is working other than going for a walk when the weather is nice or grabbing the odd lunch.

Retirement finances: As I’m about to begin drawing from my nestegg in May, I can’t help but speculate how much sequence of return risk will impact my retirement finances with the markets struggling and inflation running hot. My plan was to be somewhat conservative in year 1 of retirement by supplementing my 1/3 year of employment income with a portion (some of it DRIP’ed) of the dividends from my non-registered account and that’s it. The amount of dividends I’m drawing translates to about a 1.5% withdrawal rate based on the current value of my total portfolio which I think is cautious. In 2023 and 2024, I’m planning for the dividends from my non-registered account to form the base of my annual retirement income, supplemented with withdrawals from my RRSP. The cash I’m building up in my RRSP via contributions and investment yield will be used to buy 1 year GIC’s that will mature when I plan for my withdrawals in late Q3/early Q4 in both 2023 and 2024. Eventually, I'll probably set up a GIC ladder.

In the mean time, I’m still looking at my financial spreadsheet daily but I’m not obsessing over it, particularly the daily totals. I’m more focused around cashflow, transitioning work accounts, and configuring accounts for my retirement income stream.


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## milhouse

*End of May 2022 Update

Savings and Investments*
My investable assets: $2.219M. Down approximately $24.8k for the month.
Her investable assets (excluding DB pension): $642k. Up about $2.4k for the month.
Combined investable assets: $2.861M. Down about $22.4k for the month.

May was shaping up to be another very ugly month for me until the small late month rally. Even with it though, my overall portfolio is now officially in the red for the year. 
Individual account results were slightly in the red with the exception of my TFSA which was a bit green likely from a bit of help from a small chunk of Canadian content. My RRSP was in the green too but only because I deposited cash for my 2022 tax year contribution. 

My cash savings depleted a chunk due to: my first month without a paycheck, this being a relatively light dividend month for my non-registered account, and a combination of both consumption and non-consumption related allocations. Normally I deposit about $2100 per month via my paychecks for my half of our annual spend (~50k/year). Without a paycheck now, it’s coming from my savings/dividend cash flow instead. Because of price inflation and a bit of lifestyle inflation, our spend is likely going to be over $60k this year. We have enough buffer in our chequing account to cover it this year but I’m going to need to increase my contributions to our spend next year. As for the non-consumption allocation of my savings which I don’t include in my monthly spend totals, some went to my RRSP contribution, some went to buying some more dividend growth shares in my non-registered account, and some went to my (late) March and (early) June advanced tax installments. I probably don’t need to pay my installments this year because I expect to get a refund for tax year 2022 based on my limited employment income, dividend tax credit, and RRSP contribution. 

Her portfolio was essentially flat. Savings and non-registered account grew a bit. TFSA and RRSP dropped a bit. 

*Spending*
May Spend: $3930
Year to date spend: $24470

May’s spend bumped up against the upper end of my estimate. I had an unexpected travel spend but I consider this a good thing because I was able to take advantage of the flexibility retirement offers and made a last minute decision to meet up with friends on Vancouver Island. Gifting was on the higher end again due to buying a friend a gift for their 50th and donating some money to a GoFund Me for a friend with a health issue. 

Our spend in June is going to be high. The big ticket items for June are as follows: We’ve started the process on a few additional home repairs which I know is going to be at minimum $2500. The missus is going on a cruise with her parents. And she’s also given me the green light to book a trip for the fall. Rough guess is $6-7k spend for June. We’re currently on trend for spending $55k this year but I suspect it will balloon to over $60k once we fully account for our house repairs and trips. 

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues*
Transition into retirement status: Not being obligated to work has been fantastic! Can’t believe it’s been a month and a half already. I haven’t missed work nor had any feelings of wishing I was still working. Loss of purpose or identity hasn’t been a concern for me. The only thing I do miss is interacting with a few of my closer coworkers and my boss – he’s a good guy. What I appreciate the most is not needing to stress day in and out over the deadlines, responsibilities, and tasks of the work and projects I was involved in. I’m still slowly shedding a lot of default mental routine that had been programmed into me for decades though. During Sunday evenings, I still have slight feelings of sadness that the weekend is over and with anticipation of the fires I’ll need to fight during week ahead. And I still feel like I’m on vacation. 

I also haven’t felt bored yet in part because of the task/project board that I mentioned last month. There’s so much to do in addition to just being able to enjoy the day or take some time being lazy surfing the web/reading the boards. To give me some additional options, I’ve bought a drop-in pass for the community centre network and have been trying to head to one at least once a week. Transitioning work accounts to my direct investing account has been quite the effort. I also have this backlog of Netflix shows I wanted to watch and I haven’t even started on it yet. 

I love the flexibility of making plans on the fly whether that’s asking a friend to go for lunch mid-week or joining some friends at the last minute for a short road trip. 

Retirement finances: While the markets have still been generally crap I still haven’t been sweating over it. Don’t love it but not freaking out. I’m also ostriching a bit and not tallying my portfolio on the daily like I used to. As I also previously mentioned, I’ve been focusing more on cash flow than totals. 
What has helped was planning out my expected spend over the initial 2-3 years post retirement and aligning it with my cashflow and savings. My only slight regret is not building up a little bit more liquid cash leading up to retirement, mainly for psychological comfort. As mentioned in my portfolio summary, I burned through a chunk of liquid cash savings during May, my first non-paycheck month, which feels a bit scary even though the allocations were anticipated. Although it’s just month 1 in retirement, my cash levels are within expectations. So, I currently feel comfortable enough to continue spending like I did pre-retirement which includes the odd splurge. And once I get into a routine with the dividend income, that will likely help too.


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## Plugging Along

@milhouse Thanks for the update of your journal. I find it interesting to read your Comments, Concerns & Issue and get some insight on the thoughts and feelings you are going through.


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## afulldeck

milhouse said:


> *End of May 2022 Update*
> 
> Retirement finances: While the markets have still been generally crap I still haven’t been sweating over it. Don’t love it but not freaking out. I’m also ostriching a bit and not tallying my portfolio on the daily like I used to. As I also previously mentioned, I’ve been focusing more on cash flow than totals.
> What has helped was planning out my expected spend over the initial 2-3 years post retirement and aligning it with my cashflow and savings. My only slight regret is not building up a little bit more liquid cash leading up to retirement, mainly for psychological comfort. As mentioned in my portfolio summary, I burned through a chunk of liquid cash savings during May, my first non-paycheck month, which feels a bit scary even though the allocations were anticipated. Although it’s just month 1 in retirement, my cash levels are within expectations. So, I currently feel comfortable enough to continue spending like I did pre-retirement which includes the odd splurge. And once I get into a routine with the dividend income, that will likely help too.


This is extremely interesting to read. How are you emotionally separating your cash flow from the total? Do you put a years worth of spend in the bank and that is what you occupy your mind with?


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## Numbersman61

An interesting story. I didn’t retire until I was almost 70 but after retirement I was blessed with stock options benefits that weathered the lack of employment Income.


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## milhouse

Plugging Along said:


> Thanks for the update of your journal. I find it interesting to read your Comments, Concerns & Issue and get some insight on the thoughts and feelings you are going through.


Thanks for the feedback.
We kind of all analyze the math/numbers as a foundation to our retirement planning. But I also appreciated reading a lot of articles, blogposts, discussion, etc about managing the lifestyle transition itself and in relation to the numbers. So, I wanted to share tidbits of my experience before and after the transition into retirement to provide another datapoint that people can use as food for thought, while reminding that everyone's situation and preferences are different. Not to mention that these are kind of _interesting times_ in which to retire.


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## milhouse

afulldeck said:


> How are you emotionally separating your cash flow from the total? Do you put a years worth of spend in the bank and that is what you occupy your mind with?


It's a combination of yield, cash, and expectations.

The core of my attention is ensuring a large enough dividend yield from my non-registered account to support my base spend and_ having faith_ that the dividends can be sustained and won't be cut. Trusting that the dividends won't be cut is a bit of a fallacy because they obviously can be. (And I hold stocks that have had their dividends cut in the relative recent past like T and MFC.) Make no mistake that I'm taking a calculated risk. My current focus is on whether companies' earnings and cashflow can sustain their dividends rather than their share price. And I feel with current conditions and recent earnings reports, my dividend portfolio is not at _immediate_ risk of experiencing a cut. That is not to say that if things change significantly, I may then start to panic a bit.  

I also entered retirement with about $30k cash in my savings & chequing accounts which is about 1 year of my half of our typical spend, although I did retired 1/3 into the year. But the cash also needs to support my non-spend allocations like taxes, savings, and investments in year 1 before they drop off in years 2-3. So I'm basically forecasting and monitoring the cash levels in my savings and chequing accounts against expected allocations/spend and replishment via the dividends yields. 
I also want to start drawing from my RRSP late next year. My contributions this year and next combined with yield should provided the level of withdrawals I'm hoping for which is a range of $20-25k (likely the lower end).
In both cases, I'm not planning to sell shares/units until year 4 so I'm less concerned about totals in the near term and just hope they recover. To sidetrack a bit, the pullback on my EFT focused accounts haven't been that bad as they're still at 2021 levels. 

I feel we have enough buffer built in that the cash flow should be ok. However, along the lines of Thal81's Cash Reserve in Retirement thread, I want to build cash wedge likely via a GIC ladder even though it's not as mathematically optimal as just keeping the cash invested. 
I'm trying to gradually increase our lifestyle inflation so in the event that cash flow doesn't meet expectations, it won't be as much of a shock if we need to forego something that we've become accustomed to.


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## milhouse

Numbersman61 said:


> I was blessed with stock options benefits that weathered the lack of employment Income.


+1
I was lucky to have some stock options during periods of my employment too but the timing was a bit finicky. With my largest set, I got greedy and held them too long as the share price started a long decline during the year leading up to the expiry date. And my most recent set I had to forfeit because I retired before they vested in 2024 and I wasn't going to delay my retirement 2 years.


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## milhouse

*End of June 2022 Update + Midyear Status and End of July, August, and September Update
*
Better late then never I suppose. 
I’ve been enjoying summer and never got around to finalizing the monthly updates so I kept kicking the can to the next month. Some wording might be off/disjointed because I keep writing parts of my updates down monthly and keep updating them.

*Savings and Investments*
My investable assets for Jun, Jul, Aug, and Sep:
June: $2.050M. Down about $169.6k. 
July: $2.119M. Up about $69.3k
August: $2.103M. Down about $16.4k
September: $2.001M. Down about $102.1k

Her investable assets (excluding DB pension) for Jun, Jul, Aug, and Sep:
June: $605k. Down about $37.2k.
July: $637k. Up about $32.6k
August: $632k. Down about $4.9k
September: $611k. Down about $21.2k

Combined investable assets for Jun, Jul, Aug, and Sep:
June: $2.654M. Down about $206.8k.
July: $2.756M. Up about $101.9k
August: $2.735M. Down about $21.2k
September: $2.612M. Down about $123.3k

Ouch, June kind of stung a bit. It was the largest one month drop for my portfolio since I started keeping tracking _monthly_ snapshots back around 2013 and the largest for the missus’ portfolio since I started tracking hers around 2016. 

My portfolio was obviously red across all accounts. However, the biggest declines came on the non-registered dividend growth account, which made up way over half the declines. No major changes to my portfolio in June other than continuing to migrate work related accounts into my own direct investing accounts. 

The missus’ portfolio was nearly red across the board other than her cash savings which continues to rebuild. 

July had a nice rally across my portfolio. My DC Pension finally migrated to my direct investing account. I threw some nominal dollars at a couple of start-ups via a crowdfunding platform. And I bought a 1 year GIC in my RRSP with the cash I had accumulated in the account from distributions and my new contributions this year. 

I found August to be fairly quiet even though the rally seemed to lose momentum. 

And of course, September was ugly again. Kind of a repeat of June but where the non-registered dividend growth made up about 2/3 of the month’s decline.

Not a lot of fiddling with my accounts in Aug and Sept but I may do something with my DC Pension which has been sitting in cash since it was migrated to my direct investing account.


*Midyear (June) Snapshot*


My Portfolio​Year End 2021 Actuals​Retirement Snapshot​2022 To End of Q2​Original 2022 Full Year Targets​Original End of 2022 Retirement Goals (Rough)​Cash (soft target)32.5k30.2k18.4k30k30kNon-Registered1.156M1.325M1.145M1.235M1.1MRRSP505k464k425k537k450kTFSA144k140k126k159k135kDC Pension403k366k335k429k350kTotal2.240M2.324M2.050M2.390M2.065MNon-Registered Account Dividends47140N/A259905300050000
 
*Midyear (June) status comments*
At the midyear point, most of my portfolio dropped below my retirement targets which didn’t feel great but also didn’t make me panic. Addressing each category:

Cash was always a soft target so I was not worried about hitting my year end targets. Instead, as mentioned in other posts, I’m more focused on tracking my monthly cashflow and getting comfortable with the dollars coming in and going out. 

I continued to add to the dividend growers in my Non-registered account up to and just beyond my retirement date with some final top ups. However, it should be no surprise that because my steady employment income has stopped and I’m wanting to assess my cashflow, I’ve stopped my purchases (*with the exception of the nominal dollars I’ve been allocating to some start-up investments for fun). The fluctuation in the value of my Non-Registered account doesn’t bother me at all because in the initial years, the primary goal was to have it deliver dividends to provide a base to replace my employment income. My anticipated dividends are on track for the year and I’m currently not concerned about cuts. 

My RRSP was and is still my biggest worry/disappointment because I’m planning to start withdrawals the fall of 2023 and it was pretty much going down month over month, outside of new contributions. After I got my tax year 2021 return, I made my cash contribution for tax year 2022 in May. I’ll likely take all the cash in my RRSP and buy a 1 year GIC after the BOC interest rate announcement in July (Yes, I did this.). This GIC will provide the base from which I make my first withdrawal in late 2023. 

While the statuses of my TFSA and DC Pension are both disappointing at the moment, they aren’t major concerns at the moment. It’s pretty much steady as she goes for my TFSA as I have no plans to withdraw from it in the near future. However, my DC pension will soon transition to a locked-in Retirement Account in my self directed brokerage account. The account will transition the value in cash and I suspect I’ll just buy VGRO or something similar that will give me an 80:20 to 70:30 asset allocation. And I can’t withdraw from my locked-in Retirement Account until age 55.


Combined Portfolio​Year End 2021 Actuals​2022 To End of Q2​Original 2022 Full Year Targets​Combined Totals2.922M2.654M3.100M
 
I was kind of hopeful that our combined portfolios would continue to grow and crack the $3M mark in 2022 but it’s not looking great at the midyear mark.  It’s obviously not the end of the world in the least. 

*Spending*
June Spend: $8510 
July Spend: $6320
August Spend: $3420
September Spend: $7300
YTD Spend: $50020

It was a huge spend in June that was way above my $6-7k estimate. All the big ticket items occurred with a few additional items. Of the home repair and maintenance category: The planned home repair came in at $2600 instead of $2500 which is fine. We did some unplanned roof and gutter maintenance (I think we got a bit ripped off). And we bought an AC unit from Costco just in time for the first mini heat wave.

The missus did go on her cruise with her folks but they covered a lot of the incidentals/miscellaneous costs of the trip. And I had some dental work done that wasn’t completely covered by the missus’ benefits. All this and some other minor non-regular spend totalled around $6k, with the other $2500 being regular spend. 

July was another fairly heavy spend month primarily due to our 2nd property tax installment but also from some special events gifts. Out eating out and alcohol bill was fairly hefty too from a lot of socializing.

August would have been a fairly light spend but I shared in some Canucks tickets for the upcoming season with friends. 

September ended up being a big spend month because: we finally booked a trip, a couple of credit card annual fees came due, and various rec hockey related spends.

We also spent a lot of money eating out, with a few big bills taking out a couple of different people for their birthdays.

*Midyear (June) spend breakdown*


Year End 2021 Actuals​2022 To End of Q2​2022 Full Year Trend*​2022 Original Forecast​Food & Eating Out15980106702135017500Housing & Utilities14770119202036018000Transportation2850231032204500Personal88505740114809000Entertainment33404207004500Travel38601810361010000-20000Side Business380100200200Total50030329806092063000-70000
 
*Full year trend is not necessarily double the first half spend due to large single annual spends in the first or second half of the year (like car and house insurance, trips, etc).

At the midyear mark, although we were trending to about $61k, I was anticipating a final annual spend of around $65k due to anticipated spends in H2. 
And looking at the numbers at the end of Q3, I’m pretty sure we’ll be more around mid $60k’s than lower $60k’s.

Food & Eating Out: I know it’s ridiculous that we’re trending towards a 30% increase in our food and eating out spend this year. This is where inflation is hitting us the most. Part of it is due to grocery inflation that everyone is experiencing. The only significant changes we made to our grocery shopping is buying traditional steak cuts less frequently and continuing to try different cuts of beef to explore different recipes. It’s been fun and educational learning new dishes. 
Our eating out and alcohol spend has also jumped due to eating out more because of socializing with friends and the increases in menu pricing. I don’t see us slowing down our eating out spend in H2 (we haven't).

Housing and Utilities: The jump in housing and utility costs kind of doesn’t tell the whole story. Over the last few years, we’ve put off a lot of house repairs and maintenance activities mainly due to not really putting a lot of focus on them. We probably could have continued to push them out another year but my retirement has provided both of us with more time to work on these home projects so we’re starting to tackle them one by one. $1000 here, $2500 there, has kind of added up and will likely continue in H2. 
Most of our utilities and insurance cost have gone up _somewhat_ reasonably with the exception of our natural gas bill. I was a pretty cold first half of the year so our gas bill is trending to being 30% more this year. The other line item that is going to jump is my cell phone spend since I no longer get a subsidized phone plan from work. 

Transportation: Our transportation bill is well within target so far. Although the missus has started to head into the office more, it’s still only a few times a week. We’re only filling up once or twice a month. If we go on a few road trips, our fuel spend in H2 might jump a bit. Surprisingly, our car insurance premium went down even after increasing our 3rd party liability coverage. This is likely due to BC moving to a No Fault model but they need to tweak it because there are quite a few stories of some people falling through the crack. 

Personal: Because of a number of events (not all happy) and life opening up, over half our spend in Personal was in the Charity & Gifts subcategory. I suspect this trend will continue in H2 but more for happier occasions. 
Another large subcategory is our Pet spend. Forget grocery inflation, pet food pricing has nearly doubled by my observations. 

Entertainment: Our entertainment spend continues to be under target, although a lot of our _entertainment_ indirectly falls under Eating Out/socializing and Travel. There have been a few paid events, festivals, concerts that we wanted to attend but we just didn’t make it out to them. However, a lot of free events have returned in 2022 that we’ve been attending. 
Potential big spends in H2 are if I decide to play rec hockey in fall (I am), if I decide to get quarter season tickets to the Canucks (yes, bought), and if I end up going to a few concerts late in the year (nothing yet).

Travel: Travel in H1 was limited to a handful of relatively small and simple trips. But I think we got a lot of bang out of our sub $2k spend. 
We’re still trying to figure out our travel plans for H2 but I suspect it’ll likely be significantly over $2k. There will likely be 1 more _elaborate_ week long trip (booked) with another bunch of smaller extended weekend trips due to circumstance (more on that later).

*Comments, Concerns, and Issues* 

The biggest news is the missus accepted a new job that started in August. Her total salary compensation is about 20-25% higher which is great and she was able to negotiate similar vacation time. However, the trade-offs are that her health benefits aren’t as generous and she gets an RRSP matching instead of a DB pension. Her current DB pension will now sit there until about age 60’ish when she can collect about $24k/year which limits the penalty for starting it early. I need to review with her, revamping her retirement strategy and targets since she’ll now have a bunch more cash to allocate to her RRSP and non-registered account. She also likely has a small near term tax problem as she will need to be paid out a bunch of vacation time she has banked. It’s also throwing a crimp in our travel plans as the missus doesn’t want to take a lot of time off initially starting her new job. Her retirement is currently looking like somewhere around 2028-30 but we’ll see how this new job plays out.
I’m going to put my retirement musing into a subsequent post. But overall, retirement has been great.
I feel I’m starting to repeat myself a bit so as previously noted, I’m going to reduce my update frequency to a quarterly basis.


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## londoncalling

milhouse said:


> *End of June 2022 Update + Midyear Status and End of July, August, and September Update*
> 
> I’ve been enjoying summer and never got around to finalizing the monthly updates so I kept kicking the can to the next month.
> 
> *Midyear (June) status comments*
> At the midyear point, most of my portfolio dropped below my retirement targets which didn’t feel great but also didn’t make me panic.


I enjoyed your entire post but found these two points of greatest value to anyone pursuing retirement. Being too busy to post in this thread tells me retirement suits you well. The fact that the market activity didn't cause panic or a drastic change to your spending habits/plans tells me you are in great shape to weather any storm. I think it is wise to tackle the home maintenance projects while you have the time as these larger spends are often not regular occurrences. I hope the missus enjoys the new job and it is great fit for both of you longer term.


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