We both are content creators living in Ontario and love what we do but I’m worried that since we left our 9-5s many years ago - that we need to save more aggressively since we don’t have pensions. Also with AI coming after our industry, we are working towards the goal of retiring early or retiring comfortably at 55 so we don’t have to stress about money. We have no kids right now (but plan on starting next year - 2 kids max), don’t plan on having a wedding and enjoy travelling. Fortunately for us, we are able to monetize off most of our travels (for now).

Income & Cash Flow
Our Net Income: $237K (as of now in 2026), $360K (2025), $211K (2024), $228K (2023), & $207K (2022).
Pension: None

Real Estate Portfolio
Our Primary Residence: Appraised at 1.27M in 2025. Mortgage: $844K

Our Condo: Appraised at $560K in Sep 2026.
Mortgage: $275K (Rental income currently covers mortgage and utilities, with a $505/month profit)

Investments & Liquid Assets
Her TFSA & RRSP: 175K (Index Funds)
My LIRA: 29K (Individual Stocks)

Debts & Expenses
My Loan: $25K (0% Interest)
My Student Loan: $3K (0% Interest)
My LOC: $5K (7% Interest)
Our Vehicles: $66K (7% Interest)
Our Equipment: $10K (0% Interest)

Our Fixed Expenses: $11K/Month (includes mortgage, recurring bills & loan payments)

We don’t currently budget or have a fixed savings rate so we tend to save what we end up not spending on our personal funds over the years. However we are now trying to come up with a budget and aggressive plan.

What do you think of our financial situation? What would you tackle first/strategize on if you were in our shoes? Are we on track in achieving our goals? Should we be worried? Explain why? We both have bachelor degrees (with at-least 5 years of corporate job experience) to fall back on if needed. Thank you in advance for your help.

Hey everyone,

Looking for some math checks and an outside perspective on my current financial setup. I'm trying to figure out if early retirement (FIRE) is mathematically feasible right now,.

​Here is where I stand:

​Age: 35 / 36

​Family: 1 kid (age 2)

​Real Estate: $1.4M home, almost completely paid off.

​Liquid Portfolio: ~$1,000,000

​Current Contributions: I can consistently invest $3,000 to $4,000 every month.

​Portfolio Allocation: Structured across four primary buckets (~25% each):

​Canadian Banks

​S&P 500 / Broad Index Exposure (VFV, XEQT, TSX 60)

​AI / Tech Growth (Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet)

​Berkshire Hathaway

​The Core Questions I am Trying to Solve:

​Can I FIRE right now? If I stop working today, live off a paid-off house, and need roughly $80,000/year in living expenses, can a ~$1M liquid portfolio support this without touching the principal? A natural dividend yield of 3% to 4% on that amount only generates about $30k–$40k/year. Is trying to bridge an $80k burn rate right now completely break the portfolio, or what size base is actually required for true FIRE?

Guilt-Free Luxury Travel: My goal is to take annual luxury trips (roughly $30k/year) without impacting my core trajectory or having to think twice about it. How much capital needs to be carved out or grown to fund this perpetually?

Curious to hear how others would structure asset location between a Canadian corporation and personal registered accounts, or how you balance an aggressive/dividend barbell strategy with early retirement. Drop your thoughts!

I currently have 25k in savings, I have an income of 1640$/month with no expenses living with my parents

I'm currently in my first year of university studying MechE in polytechnique montreal, fully funded scholarship.

However I dislike my program, and was thinking about going to a trade school to become a plumber, to have more income so that I could buy a first/second rental property in the next 5 years, and snowball off of that.

So my two choices are, finishing my mech e degree, trying to find a job in a market where AI might take over, and limit my income for the next 4 years
Or, become a plumber, have a lower income compared to when I'll have an engineering job, but starting to invest with more income earlier in the next 4 years

Would that be a safe decision to make? Do you guys think it would work?

Beyond burnt out. I've been in the US working at a FAANG for the last 6 years, I have a wife and 2 kids, and frequently think about moving back.

Financially it's been an amazing boon, but not sure how much longer I can take this, maybe 2-3 years max but this past year I've even started to see health issues related to my stress.

I have $1.75m in my brokerage account, I stupidly bought two homes here (one just before interest rates rose, and the second thinking it would go down before the orange buffoon came and further destroyed the economy) but would still unlock about $450k from the homes.

Presumably we will need $80k to survive, so I am thinking just get a townhouse/semi detached somewhere, and live off the rest and coastFIRE, but am I crazy? Is that feasible?

As I'm doing my own calculations, I'm curious how others are planning. I'm at 20% which I thought was high but my other expenses will be very low including no mortgage or car payments.

Hi, I’m a 29 year old making 131k CAD post MBA from a US business school (top 15) (no student debt whatsoever) with no dependents and $300k CAD in investments and $40k CAD in savings. I plan on retiring in my 40s and don’t have any plans for marriage or kids. I also started a small business that made $15k USD (21k CAD) in revenue in 2 years.

I feel quite behind as I graduated from a US MBA and have recently gone no contact with my family (who are much wealthier than I am, with approx 3M in real estate). While I am included in their will and testament as a beneficiary, I don’t plan on planning my financial future around the inheritance.

There are some days where I feel so far behind despite working my ass off my whole life to be educated and I just feel so lost and disillusioned with my life.

People working in the Oil and Gas (OG) companies, what is the fastest way to get promoted?

I am 25 and make 71K in a global OG company. It takes me 5 years to get to this salary level and a step into the OG industry. I am planning ahead for the future. So, how do you get your career ladder leveling up as fast as possible in the OG?

The title says it. Im 35F and work in banking- my role is extremely demanding mentally & with high sales targets ($12.6M / quarter)- which i always hit. I make just $85k salary + bonus yearly which total comp can average to $100k/yr. I am salaried and miserable since I know I may be able to get paid more elsewhere with the amount of stress i deal with.

I am planning to start applying elsewhere next year. So those of you making $300k+, what do you guys do & how demanding/ stressful is your job?

I am 23. I turn 24 in February. I make 48k and I don’t see that much potential for me to make more. I chose a bad degree(psychology) and am stuck doing admin roles it seems. I am so stressed seeing people say they can’t retire on 1 million when I don’t even think it’s possible for me to make that amount ever let alone buy a house or have kids or anything. How do I set myself up for a good future with these bad odds. I’m so lost and stressed. Please give advice

I'll be 39m in a few weeks and I have just realized that I'll be hitting my FIRE number in February 2027.

What is tipping the scale is a mortgage renewal offer I just received for February. During the interest hikes in 2022/2023 my rate was 6%. I ended up making interest only payments for a good while, but when rates started to come down I kept those higher payments. This and throwing extra cash at the balance when I could I managed to catch up and then some. All in my new mortgage payments will be 6000/yr less starting in February 2027.

My liquid assets are:

1.0M taxable accounts

200k TFSA

200k RRSP

100k company pension

With the smaller mortgage payments my yearly spend will sit at $50,000; enough to cover a 3.5% withdrawal rate. I will say that my life is a bit on the leaner side at the moment as I live in a small condo in Toronto and don't own a car, also I would like to own a house one day, and build in some padding for travel and/or kids. So this is more like my Leanfire number. This also doesn't factor in taxes on any withdrawals.

Anyone have investment tips if you were to receive a big windfall (2 or 3m)? Did you phase in investing, did you separate across multiple banks? Anything I should know?

I'm 45F, married with two teenage kids. I've saved approximately $1.1 million across my RRSP, TFSA, 401(k), and cash. My husband has his own retirement savings, including RRSPs and TFSAs, totaling approximately $600K.

Our house and two cars are paid off. The kids have approximately $135K in RESP savings, and their university tuition will be covered through my husband's employment benefits.

I'm at a point where I really want to retire. My job can be stressful and extremely busy, and after years of working so much, I'm starting to feel like I want my time back.

The thing is, I don't really have many hobbies or interests outside of work because I've spent so much time focused on my career and saving for retirement. I'm also unsure whether my $1.1 million in personal savings is enough to retire early, even though my husband plans to continue working until the traditional retirement age because of his pension.

For those who retired early:

1. What do you do with your time? How did you find hobbies, purpose, and fulfillment after leaving work?
2. Was it difficult having one spouse retired while the other continued working?
3. Did you ever struggle with feeling like you needed a purpose or identity after leaving your career?
4. Financially, did you find it difficult to make the transition even when you had enough saved?

I'd love to hear honest experiences, both positive and negative. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm ready to make this next chapter of life happen.

When comparing retiring now with working another year, a useful exercise is to write down what the extra year would fund.

That might be a larger travel budget, helping family, paying off a remaining debt, or more flexibility for unexpected expenses. “More security” is worth unpacking: what specific uncertainty would the additional savings resolve?

A short agenda for a retirement planning conversation could be:

- What would an ordinary year of spending look like, including irregular expenses?

- Which costs would disappear after leaving work, and which could increase?

- What assumptions does the plan depend on?

- What would need to change if those assumptions don’t hold?

- What would a normal week in retirement look like?

The last question deserves space alongside the financial ones. Leaving work also changes routines, social contact, and how time gets used.

For people who have made the transition, what helped you decide that another year of work would—or wouldn’t—meaningfully improve your life?

Just seeking advice from potentially other people who made it i currently take home around 36k after taxes working labour in a factory i live at home and dont pay rent and am now currently setting 500 aside every week for savings and never dive into my savings for any reason

Anyways all that to say i dont really know what should be my next move ive just been in a loop of working then gaming on repeat i want to start earning more but dont really know where to start im not attached to my job at all but also feels dreadful thinking of leaving to go to school or find a new job that im not really interested in or might be bad at and end up losing money ive been saving