# What's your ratio?



## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

Intentionally ambiguous title alert.

Since $1 in a TFSA is more valuable after tax than $1 in an RRSP (whereas non registered accounts and capital vs. dividend vs. interest income make the comparison trickier), how your assets are divvied up is relevant later on in life.

For my wife and I our net worth consists of:

40% in our home
32% in RRSPs
23% in nonregistered accounts
2.5% in TFSAs
2.5% in bank accounts

(I'm not including other items such as jewelry or frequent flyer points, cars, etc.).

I'd like to see us increase the ratio of the contributions from our nonregistered (that will be easy) and TFSAs (that will be hard) even before we retire.

Once we retire (I'm 51) I expect the house will be downsized and fall below 30% and we will tap our RRSPs for income first. That should quickly move nonregistered to the top and TFSAs won't be second place probably until we hit our 70's and maybe only because we sell our home and move into an apartment.


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## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

2 houses 40%

investments 60%

will sell house 1 soon and move to investments


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## Ag Driver (Dec 13, 2012)

Age: 27

40% in Home
25% in TFSA (Retirement)
0% RRSP (Once I max TFSA, I will utilize the RRSP)
35% Cash and Non-Registered (Expenses, Reno's, Travel, Auto, etc. )

Once I'm done with seasonal work, I will move the majority of cash into the house and retirement funds. For now, I need the slush fund of cash during the off season.


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## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

80% in the house.
20% RRSP and TFSA. 
Also defined benefit pension but not sure what the value is.


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## SingleGenY (Jul 16, 2016)

janus10 said:


> Intentionally ambiguous title alert.
> 
> Since $1 in a TFSA is more valuable after tax than $1 in an RRSP (whereas non registered accounts and capital vs. dividend vs. interest income make the comparison trickier)...


This also depends on what your current tax bracket is today vs what your tax bracket will be in the future. Difficult to say if that is really a true statement unless you've crunched the numbers.

ie. if you put in $1000 into RRSP today and you receive $400 back, when you take out that $1000, is your tax bracket half and you only pay $200, therefore right now I'm actually making $200 by putting into RRSP now with higher tax bracket.


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

45% house
28% non-registered stock portfolio
12% RRSP
11% TFSA
2% gold & silver bullion (the shiny stuff ; not 'paper' gold)
2% cash


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

The ratios will vary considerably where one is in their life cycle. I am 10 years into retirement. My ratio today includes a 'big' house and a 'healthy' investment portfolio. What will it be in 15 years? Maybe nothing in a house if I move into a rental retirement home.

I don't think it matters if one calculates their RRSP at full gross value (especially for those with 20+ years to go before RRIFing). It is too far away to know what the AT value will likely be. Simply recognize that it won't be as valuable as face value is likely to be.


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

52% in investment account mostly Canadian dividend stocks
12% RRSP mostly gic and corporate bonds
3 % TSFA all Canadian dividend equities
3% cash in HISA
22% in sailboat
8% in motor home
0% in real estate
1st CPP check will be in bank next month so I got that going for me.


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

A 40 yearold starting from zero savings, gross salary 100K, spending $50K net and retiring at 60 will run out of capital at age 93 if he directs all his savings to his TFSA and runs out at 97 if he maxes his RRSP. Jes sayin.

(4% ROR, CPI 2%, living in BC, full CPP and OAS, salary indexed at 3%)


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

real estate: 0

equities: 60 (Canadian, US, International)
bonds& : 40
fixed

90 percent unregistered. Does not include DB. Portfolio is managed by financial advisor.

Age: 64. Retired for 4 plus years.


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## pwm (Jan 19, 2012)

This thread got me wondering what my ratio is. Did a quick report in Quicken exported to a spreadsheet:

TFSA 4.83%
RRSP 6.79%
Non-Reg 66.05%
Cash 2.52%
House 19.81%

Interesting how the ratio changes as you get older. I'm retired 11 years now.


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## GreatLaker (Mar 23, 2014)

30% home
38% RRSP / LIRAs
20% nonregistered 
3% TFSA
10% cash in bank accounts (mostly in Tangerine 3.25% promo and EQ Bank 2.25%)

Cash is high because of impending retirement and home move / downsizing.

In a year I expect it to be: 
20% home
38% RRSP / LIRAs
38% nonregistered 
2% TFSA
2% cash in bank accounts


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## GreatLaker (Mar 23, 2014)

steve41 said:


> A 40 yearold starting from zero savings, gross salary 100K, spending $50K net and retiring at 60 will run out of capital at age 93 if he directs all his savings to his TFSA and runs out at 97 if he maxes his RRSP. Jes sayin.
> 
> (4% ROR, CPI 2%, living in BC, full CPP and OAS, salary indexed at 3%)


Thank you Steve. A lot of my friends and colleagues say not to save in a RRSP because the future tax burden and OAS clawback is too high. I think their conclusions are hunches based on gut feel, not actual calculations based on tax rates. Your numbers support that.


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## cashinstinct (Apr 4, 2009)

27% home 
45% stocks (24% rrsp, 18% tfsa, 3% resp)
18% db pension plan (CV value 2015 + employee contributions current year)
3% cash in bank accounts
7% cars


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

Ag Driver said:


> Age: 27
> 
> 40% in Home
> 25% in TFSA (Retirement)
> ...


That's really interesting that so much is tied up in cash and non-reg. By having nothing in your RRSP I assume you don't work for an employer which offers company matching DPSP?


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

dotnet_nerd said:


> 45% house
> 28% non-registered stock portfolio
> 12% RRSP
> 11% TFSA
> ...


I like the high ratio for non-reg. Was that something you had before you bought your house? I had a brokerage account before I had RRSPs.


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

AltaRed said:


> The ratios will vary considerably where one is in their life cycle.


Agree 100%. I'm 51 and I've seen the ratios change dramatically from high school, university, first job, first home, first kid, first (and hopefully last) divorce...


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

Eder said:


> 52% in investment account mostly Canadian dividend stocks
> 12% RRSP mostly gic and corporate bonds
> 3 % TSFA all Canadian dividend equities
> 3% cash in HISA
> ...


Really high ratio in your margin account. Nice! Except for a private plane, it looks like you've got most modes of transport covered. No work pension?


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

steve41 said:


> A 40 yearold starting from zero savings, gross salary 100K, spending $50K net and retiring at 60 will run out of capital at age 93 if he directs all his savings to his TFSA and runs out at 97 if he maxes his RRSP. Jes sayin.
> 
> (4% ROR, CPI 2%, living in BC, full CPP and OAS, salary indexed at 3%)


Hey Steve, that's amazing considering that the TFSA room would be a tiny fraction of RRSP room (assuming the 40 year old was working since he was 25).


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

pwm said:


> This thread got me wondering what my ratio is. Did a quick report in Quicken exported to a spreadsheet:
> 
> TFSA 4.83%
> RRSP 6.79%
> ...


I think your extremely high ratio for non-reg is the most interesting part. Do have an idea, in rough numbers, how your ratios changed from 10 years prior to retirement, to when you retired to now?


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

GreatLaker said:


> 30% home
> 38% RRSP / LIRAs
> 20% nonregistered
> 3% TFSA
> ...


I think I will see a very similar situation when we retire. Downsize and put the liquidated equity into our non-registered account while converting cash in TFSA and RRSPs to laddered GICs or similar. You've got a nice balance - obviously, the generation after us will likely see TFSAs play a much bigger role because they will have had the opportunity to use them much earlier than we did.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

janus10 said:


> I think your extremely high ratio for non-reg is the most interesting part. Do have an idea, in rough numbers, how your ratios changed from 10 years prior to retirement, to when you retired to now?


I suspect PWM has a DB pension, virtually prohiting him from contriubuting to an RRSP. I am in a similar situation with less than 10% in an RRSP (most non-registered).


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm in my 30s and very far from retirement. My breakdown is

71% nonregistered
29% RRSP & 401(k)
0% TFSA
0% house

This is a consequence of my current US tax situation. If I could, I'd put a lot of that nonregistered into TFSA. Because of my high allocation in tax deferred accounts (both RRSP and 401k act the same way), I apply a 75% multiplier to them when calculating net worth.


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## pwm (Jan 19, 2012)

AltaRed, you are correct about the DB pension. There are actually 3 reasons why my RRSP/RRIF investments are such a low percentage:

1). I payed off my mortgage before I started saving in an RRSP.
2). I had a DB pension which had a large PA so my contribution room was small.
3). I've been withdrawing since I hit 65 so I can split 50% with my wife who didn't work outside the home. (Don't ever tell her she didn't work).

Also there was a company stock purchase plan which accounts for a large portion of the non-registered assets.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Excellent execution of a well thought plan in my opinion.


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## nobleea (Oct 11, 2013)

Age 38

Houses 58%
RRSP 17%
Pension 17%
TFSA 4%
Other 3%
Cash 1%

Over the next couple years, I hope to drop the house percent down to 34% and increase pension, rrsp, tfsa and other investments to 62%.

The use of these ratios could be a bit misleading. If a guy withdrew from a HELOC to invest, would they assign the debt portion to the house or the investment? Technically it's attached to the house, but should really be allocated to the investment instead.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

have no idea how much our house cost, so took very approximate value 

LIRAs 8%
RRSPs 23.7%
TFSA 5.7% (2/3 stocks, 1/3 GIC)
RESP 2.7% 
non-req equities 3.2%
Cash/gic in various banks: 21%
House: 35.4%


Correction: In total about 66% equities, 34% cash (obviously not counting house )



> Car - 1%


 don't think you should count car, as well as PS4, stove and freezer...


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## amitdi (May 31, 2012)

pwm said:


> This thread got me wondering what my ratio is. Did a quick report in Quicken exported to a spreadsheet:


Ditto. Converted numbers in my excel to % and this is what I got -

These are % of total assets -

*Fixed assets - 66%*
Home - 65%
Car - 1%
Vacation Credits - 1%

*Investments - 34%*
Pension & RRSP - 12%
TFSA, RESP - 13%
Non-Reg - 0%
Cash - 6% (bit too high, but will be moving some to investments soon)
Money in my home country - 3% (some portion is jewelry)

*Liabilities - 50%*
Mortgage - 50% (of total assets)


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## capricorn (Dec 3, 2013)

house 30%
RRSP 50%
TFSA 6%
cash 14%
pension - 0
non-registered - 0


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

"I'd like to see us increase the ratio of the contributions from our nonregistered (that will be easy) and TFSAs (that will be hard) even before we retire."

I like your plan janus, we sound similar.

As for the asset ratio, roughly:
40% house (equity)
58% assets (various accounts, pensions)
2% cash.

We figure we need a $1M portfolio excluding pensions and home to retire on. This means I hope our home is a much smaller % of assets going forward.

We also expect to stay here (current home) once paid off or downsize. We will tap our RRSPs for income first. Extra money goes to TFSA if possible.

Defer pensions for as long as possible to avoid early-withdrawal penalties.


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## djkelly (Feb 18, 2016)

This is a great question. I've never done the math in this way before. It's nice to see everyone's answers. Thanks for posing it. 

Cash - 1%
TFSA - 14%
RRSP - 22%
RESP - 2%
Pension - 28% (contribution value)
Property - 33% (equity)


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

djkelly said:


> Pension - 28% (contribution value)


Do you actually mean CV as in commuted value?

CV doesn't have much value when one is young(er) simply because:


> A Commuted Value is the lump sum payout of the present value of an employee's earned pension. It is the money that would have to be invested today, based on current long-term interest rates and mortality rates, to generate monthly cash flows equivalent to the DB pension payment.


but it is nice to factor it in during one's 40s and especially one's 50s.


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

Sorry, this was supposed to quote nobleaa's post where s/he mentioned reducing the house ratio to about half.

Drop the contribution from your houses because you plan on selling one of them and put the proceeds to work in your investment accounts?


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

amitdi said:


> pwm said:
> 
> 
> > This thread got me wondering what my ratio is. Did a quick report in Quicken exported to a spreadsheet:
> ...


Why do you think that your cash ratio is too high? If I count all of our various accounts for chequing and saving AND all the cash in our RRSPS and TFSAS we are probably well over 10%. (A week ago it would have been only 3% but I exited a significant trading position for the most part.)


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## Koogie (Dec 15, 2014)

This is a quite interesting way to look at it. I believe in diversification above almost all other approaches, so it is interesting to see how other people skew their portfolios and overall finances.

Age 43

16% house
59% non-registered (75%FI & 25%etf)
10% RRSP (100% stock & etf)
5% TFSA (100%stock & etf)
2% gold & silver real bullion
8% cash
0% pension

0% liabilities


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## CalgaryPotato (Mar 7, 2015)

House=60%
TFSAS=14%
RRSPS=13%
Unregistered=3%
RESPs=10%
pension plan=???

Like others I don't know how to define the value of my pension plan as part of my net worth, but after 15 years it would make up more than anything else but my house on this list.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Like others I don't know how to define the value of my pension plan as part of my net worth


 My wife also has pension plan and we have no idea how to calculate the value . There is no "contribution value" as only employer making contribution.... We can know approximate value if my wife continue working until she's 60 (that she's not planning to do ).
This is the same like take in consideration ESP


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

In our 70's and retired. The figures are based on Invested amounts not market value. No company pension plan.
Home\Others 21.8%
RRIF Acsts 43.24% (all equities)
TFSA Accts 5.21% (all equities)
Non-Reg 27.91% (all equities)
Bank Accts 1.85%

No etf's, gic's, bonds, preferred, mutuals!


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Bank Accts 1.85% .... No etf's, gic's, bonds, preferred, mutuals!


 Wow! You are brave! Practically you don't have cash..... but what's "Others"?


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## djkelly (Feb 18, 2016)

No, it's the amount of the contribution that's been made into the pension. I couldn't easily find the commuted value so for the purposes of this exercise I quickly used this value instead.


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## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

Interesting thread.


32 Years old:

Real Estate: 60% (two properties)
RRSP: 33% (4 ETf/Mutual Funds. Global Equity Funds mostly..)
TFSA: 6% (Self directed Canadian dividend growth stocks mostly)
Cash - 1%


Goal is to grow TFSA as a % of networth as well as max out the wife's TFSA over the next couple years.


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## nobleea (Oct 11, 2013)

gibor365 said:


> My wife also has pension plan and we have no idea how to calculate the value . There is no "contribution value" as only employer making contribution.... We can know approximate value if my wife continue working until she's 60 (that she's not planning to do ).
> This is the same like take in consideration ESP


We get a statement a couple times a year on my wife's pension. It's usually a couple months out of date by the time we get it. But it does have a termination benefit amount. This is the amount they would pay out if my wife were to quit or move to a different school board. It's more than our contributed amount (which is also listed). Some of it would be transferred to a LIRA, some to an RRSP, and some to cash. She's been in the pension plan for 7 or 8 years.


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

I'll get in on this.. not that I really get what it means:

13% Non-registered
60% RRSP
27% TFSA

I'm 43; no home - probably 2% cash - I know I'm over 100% there but you get the gist).


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

gibor365 said:


> Wow! You are brave! Practically you don't have cash..... but what's "Others"?


Retired for many years and Cash is always between $15k to $25k. Others are the Car & Park Model in AZ.


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## DavidW (May 27, 2016)

none said:


> I'll get in on this.. not that I really get what it means:
> 
> 13% Non-registered
> 60% RRSP
> ...


Ok, I'll play too. Stats are at end of days trading, based on cost, with percentages being approximate due to currency fluctuations and the way I track things.

RRSP: $81.26 Keeping this account open in case I get another job with an employer matching program. Most of this accounts 'withdrawal' to the non-registered cash account was done about 6 or 7 years ago when I was still working with a good paying job.

TFSA: 0.2% - it got drawn down during the 2015 selloff and downturn in the oil industry
Cash account: 5%
Margin account: 95%
--Composition:
----Currencies: 44% CDN, 56% US
----Companies: 86% CDN 14% US
--Sectors: 
----Communications: 12.6%
----Financials: 28.8%
----Industrials: 6.5%
----Pipelines: 12.9%
----REIT: 13.7%
----Resource: 0.1%
----Utility: 12.8%
----Consumer cyclical: 8.3%
----Consumer staples: 4.3%


Margin interest coverage: 1.07
Budget coverage: 1.04 somewhat encumbered. Cashflow is 25% rental income with the rest coming from equity dividends/distributions.

I'm 46, no full-time work since January 2015 and no work since about May 2015 - I haven't looked too hard while trying to make this work but current place of employment hasn't ramped back up yet either. This setup isn't at all stable yet and requires monitoring, which I don't mind doing.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

canew90 said:


> Retired for many years and Cash is always between $15k to $25k. Others are the Car & Park Model in AZ.


Yeap, you are very brave  . Have you been retired during 2008-09 big recession? Were you concerned?


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## amitdi (May 31, 2012)

gibor365 said:


> have no idea how much our house cost, so took very approximate value
> 
> LIRAs 8%
> RRSPs 23.7%
> ...


car is an asset (depreciating one, but still an asset). i count the resale value of my car though.


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## amitdi (May 31, 2012)

janus10 said:


> Why do you think that your cash ratio is too high? If I count all of our various accounts for chequing and saving AND all the cash in our RRSPS and TFSAS we are probably well over 10%. (A week ago it would have been only 3% but I exited a significant trading position for the most part.)


yeah, 6% does not seem too high. but in $ terms, i never have had that much cash doing next to nothing.


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

gibor365 said:


> Yeap, you are very brave  . Have you been retired during 2008-09 big recession? Were you concerned?


Portfolio dropped about 35%, but our income from investments increased by 6.5%. Been going up each year since, while portfolio fully recovered and well above. We don't really monitor market value, just income increases year over year.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

I didn't bother including our cars. One is a 2000 Mazda. I have a lawnmower that's worth more


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

canew90 said:


> Portfolio dropped about 35%, but our income from investments increased by 6.5%. Been going up each year since, while portfolio fully recovered and well above. We don't really monitor market value, just income increases year over year.


I see  . I'm 50 , not retired yet, but also more concerned about cash income from dividends... Just curious in which stock you are invested?


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## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

Interesting thread. Here's my ratio:
Not including house & car & cash in the bill-paying account, 

portfolio is 33% cash 67% equities currently.

52% non-registered
34% RRIF & RRSP
14% TFSA

If I include everything, house would be about 10% - 15% of total.
Age 53.


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

My Own Advisor said:


> "I'd like to see us increase the ratio of the contributions from our nonregistered (that will be easy) and TFSAs (that will be hard) even before we retire."
> 
> I like your plan janus, we sound similar.


We often are in agreement with our thinking and approaches.




Maybe TOO often....

:eek2::hororr:


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

OK..... I think we have a large enough sample to publish a book of financial planning tables. Any takers?


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

gibor365 said:


> have no idea how much our house cost, so took very approximate value


Did you receive your property tax assessment recently (in Ontario it seems to have been sent out this month)? That might give you a rough idea, but I tend to look at MLS listings in the immediate area and take off 5% as more likely selling price.


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

Koogie said:


> This is a quite interesting way to look at it. I believe in diversification above almost all other approaches, so it is interesting to see how other people skew their portfolios and overall finances.
> 
> Age 43
> 
> ...





CalgaryPotato said:


> House=60%
> TFSAS=14%
> RRSPS=13%
> Unregistered=3%
> ...


Interesting that you're both fairly well balanced except the non-reg for Koogie and the house for CP. But, both of you (unless Koogie is sitting on a lot of unrealized cap gains) have most of your NW in vehicles that wouldn't generate a lot of tax if you liquidated them.

That's a nice spot to be in. My wife and I are not as well placed.


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

canew90 said:


> Retired for many years and Cash is always between $15k to $25k. Others are the Car & Park Model in AZ.


Other than the cash, do you have other less risky, fixed income products or perhaps government pensions/benefits cover almost or even all of your fixed expenses? I'm sure MOA will agree wink that having a cash wedge would be a solid strategy once retired and relying on one's investment holdings.


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

My Own Advisor said:


> I didn't bother including our cars. One is a 2000 Mazda. I have a lawnmower that's worth more


"That's right, kiddo. If you work hard, show you respect your mom and I, keep your nose out of trouble, and get a good job, then someday, maybe not for awhile, but someday, I'll pass it along to you."

"You mean I get my own car?!"

"Heck, no! I'm talking about the lawnmower. The Mazda is going to my mother in law."


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

canew90 said:


> Portfolio dropped about 35%, but our income from investments increased by 6.5%. Been going up each year since, while portfolio fully recovered and well above. We don't really monitor market value, just income increases year over year.


That's very appealing. Do you mean your interest and dividend income went up by 6.5% within months or over the past 6-7 years? Or was there capital gains included in that income rise? 

I can figure out how to make capital gains go up when the market crashes, but I saw dividend income go down as a result of 2008-2009. Fortunately, it was small and it was only getting reinvested anyway because we were both actively working and not reliant on our investments.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Whether one's dividend income rose, stayed flat, or decreased slightly in 2008-2009 depended very much on one's holdings. Most would diversify across sectors so not to get hammered by a sector gone bad, e.g. financials and discretionary, in the 2008-2009 period. It was a different sector(s) that were affected more recently in the commodity crisis. 

There is no right answer to that question.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

janus10 said:


> That's very appealing. Do you mean your interest and dividend income went up by 6.5% within months or over the past 6-7 years? Or was there capital gains included in that income rise?
> 
> I can figure out how to make capital gains go up when the market crashes, but I saw dividend income go down as a result of 2008-2009. Fortunately, it was small and it was only getting reinvested anyway because we were both actively working and not reliant on our investments.


My understanding that that his dividend income increased by 6.5%/year .... It's very possible as majority of dividend kings/aristocrats like JNJ, PG, MCD, MO, ABT etc (and our guys like FTS or TRI) continued increasing their dividends


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## CalgaryPotato (Mar 7, 2015)

janus10 said:


> Interesting that you're both fairly well balanced except the non-reg for Koogie and the house for CP. But, both of you (unless Koogie is sitting on a lot of unrealized cap gains) have most of your NW in vehicles that wouldn't generate a lot of tax if you liquidated them.


The majority of my wealth is in my house though, so liquidating it is just increasing net worth but also increasing monthly expenses. And the other number that I couldn't calculate for my pension is fully taxable. If you counted it as RRSPs it would boost my RRSP total closer to half of my net worth. I only wish I owned 6 times as much in assets that weren't my primary residence.


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

OK.... I will contribute the title...... *Asset Percentage Ratios: a Financial Planning Dartboard.*


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

steve41 said:


> OK.... I will contribute the title...... *Asset Percentage Ratios: a Financial Planning Dartboard.*


I've asked my financial advisor what my ratio is but they are still working on it:

View attachment 10897


:highly_amused:


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

janus10 said:


> Other than the cash, do you have other less risky, fixed income products or perhaps government pensions/benefits cover almost or even all of your fixed expenses? I'm sure MOA will agree wink that having a cash wedge would be a solid strategy once retired and relying on one's investment holdings.


No and no govt\other pensions Switched to DG investing many years ago when I discovered the Connolly Report. Followed his strategy (not counting chasing higher yield on a few occassions, and regretting it), but overall stuck with solid companies which have paid and raised their dividend. Now 74 and retired for many years and our dividends are triple what we get from cpp\oas. 

Certainly most would consider having 100% equity and only 19 companies extremely risky, but it's made us financially secure and in a position where we'll never spend our capital unless we wish to. You can probably list 12 of the companies by picking the Cdn banks, utilities, Comm & Pipelines. I would never tell anyone else to do what we did (though I do to family members), but I do believe that sticking with a select group of DG stocks is much better than the etf or passive indexing strategy. Also its just my opinion Trading, Re-balancing, and seeking International diversification will not achieve the same results.


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

janus10 said:


> That's very appealing. Do you mean your interest and dividend income went up by 6.5% within months or over the past 6-7 years? Or was there capital gains included in that income rise?
> 
> I can figure out how to make capital gains go up when the market crashes, but I saw dividend income go down as a result of 2008-2009. Fortunately, it was small and it was only getting reinvested anyway because we were both actively working and not reliant on our investments.



In 2009 our annual dividends increased by 6.5% from 2008. Our annual dividends have continue to grow each year since. we were fully invested by 2011 and have rarely sold any of our holding. We do reinvest about 60% of our annual dividends as we don't need to draw them down.


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## Koogie (Dec 15, 2014)

janus10 said:


> Interesting that you're both fairly well balanced except the non-reg for Koogie and the house for CP. But, both of you (unless Koogie is sitting on a lot of unrealized cap gains) have most of your NW in vehicles that wouldn't generate a lot of tax if you liquidated them.
> That's a nice spot to be in. My wife and I are not as well placed.


Speaking for myself the skew comes about because the majority of our holdings are invested through our small biz (it's holdco, actually). We pay ourselves through dividends and so haven't accrued overly large RRSP room as a result. What space we do have is maxed out, as are the TFSAs. 

I am over time trying to move from a 60FI/40EQ ratio to a 50/50 ratio. That change will come about mostly through the addition of new monies from working (although I had planned on being done soon). And hey, it'd be nice if this UP market kept going for a while and helped out.


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## Holland (Apr 24, 2016)

Age: 23 

Bank accounts ~$300
Investment accounts: Cash ~$700 Equities ~$75,000

Cash 1.3%
Investments 98.7%


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

I'm 52 and ready to retire.
A bit approximate:

Residence - 17%
Rental - 12%
Other land - 12%
Investments - 23%
RRSP - 23%
DC Pension (RRSP) - 10%
Cash/Equivalent - 3%


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

Holland said:


> Age: 23
> 
> Bank accounts ~$300
> Investment accounts: Cash ~$700 Equities ~$75,000
> ...


Hopefully you've maxed out your tfsa.


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## christinad (Apr 30, 2013)

Here is my ratio

Tfsa investments 2%
Rrsp 52%
Cash 16%
Home 31%

My goal is to grow my tfsa investments as a lot of my tfsa is in cash. Its interesting to see the cash allocation is lower when i've added in my home's value.


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## strathglass (May 4, 2015)

Interesting to see the range of results.

I think it is more useful to provide at least asset allocation percentages; breakdown by type of investment vehicle is also good.
However some are mixing these two in a less than useful manor. E.G. Cash vs. RRSP split is not really helpful (your RRSP can be all cash!).

For our family, high level asset allocation is:
50% Real Estate (primary residence)
25% Equity (broad markets ETFS: Canada, USA, EAFE, Emerging Markets in that order [I won't break it down in detail right now])
25% Fixed Income+Cash (mostly GICs and also HI savings, some cash)

In terms of investment vehicles for the non-real estate assets:
7% TFSA
93% RRSP/LIRA accounts.
0% unregistered (that will jump significantly when we sell our house prior to relocating out of GTA)

Hope to retire within a couple years (i.e. mid 50s).


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## omega1 (Sep 1, 2015)

Age 51

RSP 45%
TFSA 3%
Property 1 - 34%
Property 2 - 17%
Cash - 1%

Property 2 is for sale and in the UK....Brexit has not helped sell it, and I've been screwed on the exchange rate as a result! When it does sell, funds will be going to non-registered account as TFSA is maxed out.
RSP mostly represents transfers of pension from UK, plus a smaller self-directed RSP. Might add a bit to it but hope to semi-retire in 5 years so not sure I want to lock away too much at this point.

Now then....how much do I need to retire?


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

omega1 said:


> Age 51
> 
> RSP 45%
> TFSA 3%
> ...


 Roughly 32.7%


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## janus10 (Nov 7, 2013)

steve41 said:


> omega1 said:
> 
> 
> > Now then....how much do I need to retire?
> ...


Hmm. I thought it would be 8 pi - a pi a day and twice on Sunday.


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## Bort (Mar 19, 2015)

Age 28

Home - 73%
RRSP - 19%
TFSA - 5%
Cash - 3%
DB pension

Always wanted to get into stocks, but never knew how or had any family members to guide me. This led to me making lots of extra mortgage payments over the years and fortunately not much of a mortgage left. For the last year, I have now been dumping all the extra money into investment accounts, and slowly paying back the rest of the mortgage.


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## canew90 (Jul 13, 2016)

Bort said:


> Age 28
> 
> Home - 73%
> RRSP - 19%
> ...


Good for you! At your age getting out of debt should be your first priority, unless your mortgage rate is extremely low. If you have funds to invest, I'd get it into your tfsa. Lots of advice about what to invest in, depending upon how much you can afford.


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## MGA1959 (Aug 3, 2016)

Current ratio at age 41 for myself, and wife at age 42:

35% home equity (note in terms of net worth, I take a little different measure as I base it on original purchase price of home from 6 years ago vs. current valuation). This way my mix does not become heavily skewed when I balance the portfolio due to the very large upswing in the GTA of home prices over the past 5 years.
46% RRSPs/TFSAs/Current Pension Valuation (Retirement)
8% Investments
9% Cash


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