What do people want to talk to me about the most? (Other than marital advice or canine obedience?)
Retirement, natch. When can it happen? Will I have enough? How can I prepare and still have a life now?
My experience: (a) People who work at companies with defined-contribution plans (shared RRSPs usually in crappy mutual funds) are the most stressed. They just know trouble looms. (b) Those with DB (defined benefit) plans are the worst savers and investors. Teachers top the list. (c) Self-employed folks make up in confidence what they usually lack in money.
So this year the TFSA limit has finally increased a bit, to $6,500. The RRSP max has now swelled to almost $31,000. As you know, the tax-free savings vehicle is the most democratic and universal one we have (which Trudeau attacked). The retirement savings plan is based solely on income and skewed to assist those making the most money (which Trudeau ignored). Go figure.
Unless you have a DB plan, you need these vehicles topped-up and churning out growth. After all, CPP and OAS won’t cut it, especially in a world like this where prices romp, houses and rent cost a stupid amount and taxes are only going to swell. Soon the FHSA will join this trifecta. Not maxing out tax shelters, or filling them with near-cash assets, is a blot on your future.
Will you have enough income to stop working? How soon can you pull this off? How do you integrate this massive change with the other elements of your life – like kids, spouse, house, health and personal bucket list? Basically, how do you get ready and how much will you need?
A bank survey out this week was stark. People said, on average, that $1.7 million in savings is required to stop working, wear your jammies until eleven and drive around aimlessly (major retirement goals). This was up 20% in the past two years, when the goal was $1.4 million. The bank attributes it to inflation, higher interest rates and less confidence in the economy. Only four in 10 believe they can accomplish this goal, however. Bummer.
As you know, most of us have most of our net worth in residential real estate. A home is nice, but it does not generate income and costs a lot to maintain. These days it’s also falling in value. That’s why advisors are always yakking on about balance and diversification. You need liquid assets. They need to grow. Tax shelters are the best way of getting there.
By the way, that survey found 53% have no idea how much they really need to exit work. Do you?
The poll has closed – Results in Thursday’s blog.
About the survey: Responses will be accepted until noon ET on Wednesday, February 8th. Results will be posted here on Thursday the 9th. Multiple entries will be auto-rejected.
About the picture: “This is our family dog,” writes Andrea, “a 2 year old English Lab named Rosie. We pass by this tree engulfing the Private Property sign everyday so I thought I’d snap a pic for you. Thanks for your blog and free advice, we’ve been reading your blog since 2008!”
168 comments ↓
Get the popcorn and THC drinks ready. The Old Boot, Faron and Sailed Away party is about to start again.
Life? Nope.
DELETED
#205 Old Boot on 02.07.23 at 3:00 pm
#196 Faron on 02.07.23 at 1:38 pm
…….REEEEEEEEEEE…..
—
???
I’ve pwned every “fact” and statement of yours for the better part of 24 hours. You can’t state it and make it so.
Retirement planning started on the first day of my job.
Isn’t it interesting that the amount needed to save for retirement has increased 20% in the last two years due to inflation but Stats Can says that inflation peaked in the mid single digits?
Seems to me that Stats Can is either downplaying the CPI or too incompetent to accurately calculate it.
Ironically, over the last couple of years, I reached 50 and have come to the conclusion I probably saved more than I needed to when I was younger. Had some fun along the way, but never really knew what made me happy so never felt the need to spend money on much. Worked lots of of OT in my 20s and 30s and went out for drinks after work most days. Kept saving because I figured one day, I’d figure out my passion. In my 50s, I’m still not sure what it is and probably never will.
Include the house and wife and I are over $3MM net worth. We both have good paying jobs however I can not buy back my youth or slow down time. Compound savings really works and live a bit below your means but most of all try to figure out what your passion is and enjoy and have fun along the way.
For the already retired question 5 is superfluous. Been retired for 10 years and just got back from Auckland where I got a lesson in Global Warming.
If we do nothing our children and grand children are not going to remember us very warmly. (pun intended)
I would not trust a DB plan unless it comes from the government, bank or maybe a pseudo government agency (ie Teachers). Nortel once had a sweet plan, but guess what happens when the company goes bankrupt. There’s not enough money in the fund because of a variety of reasons and there goes half the retirement funds.
At least with a DC plan, you know the money is yours. My rate of return has been 7% over the past 25 years. If you save 10-14% of your pre-tax salary in those DC plans, you will be pleasantly surprised to see how much you can get at end with a 7% rate.
#46 AnonyMusk on 02.05.23 at 2:42 pm
That central banks all over the world all follow the same policies means that none of them are responsible for the inflation that logically and predictably followed is an interesting take.
You can add in Covid and Putin, if you get bored. – Garth
———————————————————–
US CPI annual rates reached 4.2% in April 2021, climbed to 7.0% by December 2021, hit 7.5% in January 2022 and reached nearly their peak of 7.9% in February 2022 which was the month Putin invaded Ukraine.
So much for that canard.
I guess the Fed and BoC raising rates and trying to drain some of the absurd amounts of liquidity they threw at the economy is a useless exercise since you apparently believe they are not the cause of the inflation we are experiencing.
Central bankers themselves admit their policies did cause inflation and which is why their reversal of those policies is how they intend to bring inflation back down, as seems to be working very well so far.
I can’t understand the attempt to absolve politicians for their fiscal policy and central bankers for their monetary policy that resulted in inflation as too much money chased too few goods.
Better to stick with ‘there was no other choice as we shut down the economy.’
Pretending that the policies adopted by most of the world were not the cause of inflation will lead to a repeat of this disastrous error which is why I will be buying inflation hedges in the very near future.
People are ignoring the very obvious lesson.
For #5, I wanted to put “don’t want/need to contribute”
So instead of cannot afford, I said “partial”.
You forgot to have the option of retiring between 65 and 80.
Anyway, I heard that the Toronto Boat Show attendance was 65,510, way down from 2017 when it was 77,105. What kept people away? COVID fears? Belt tightening?
#2 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:20 pm
DELETED
—
Fair. Hope you laughed though :-).
I would assume we are talking in today’s dollars.
So $1.7M @ 5% return today would net $85K per annum with much of that in cap gains and dividends.
And if your spouse also needs $1.7M? Pttf! Ridiculous in my mind. $1.7M generating $7,083 per month, pre-tax and split between two people, would be a VERY comfortable retirement in my opinion.
Yep echo Commenter #7
Question 5
Had to lie,
Am not allowed/able to contribute
to RRSP as I am retired.
Chose the partial contribution.
Geezer discrimination?
Being retired with well over the amount the bank survey suggested people might need my only concern is having my life’s savings being destroyed by inflation.
Which, as I said, is why I will be buying inflation hedges to protect myself because, sure as rain, as soon as this short disinflationary period is over we will be back on the constant devaluation of paper money, probably at an accelerated rate of 4% or more annually. Disastrous for many of the most vulnerable, not for me.
No option “over 50, but can’t wait to retire!”
Hope by 60
RE is a big part of the plan
Should have also asked how much of a factor any possible inheritance would be on retirement. Life changing for some I would expect, but of course not a guarantee.
Retirement is overrated anyway, keep working and you do not have to worry if you have enough.
Yes Garth some teachers are the worst especially these
new ones they live for today which is good now and then because you have to ENJOY your life too. However the old guard 1968 to 2002 were for the most part were savers. In my case I taught in the south Okanagan but had three cherry orchards for summer work, shipped fruit from multiple orchardists to Winnipeg and helped
out my parents with their orchards and fruit stand. We
were able to do some small subdivisions which helped.
Been retired from teaching for 21 years . We manage to put three children through university travel the world
and enjoy the good life on south Vancouver Island.
#207 Sail Away on 02.07.23 at 3:29 pm
You claim to bid (using error prone chatGPT LOL) and win government contracts
Fact: proper due diligence and likely your gov’t contract requires planning for a future climate
Fact: anthro warming is presently a significant factor in the severity of infrastructure-damaging weather events.
Fact: impacts for some variables will become more extreme as warming proceeds.
Fact: you repeatedly downplay climate change and claim climate science and scientists are full of it.
If it turns out a build of yours fails due to an extreme weather event with reliable climate attributable components, and you are sued for negligence, and if I hear about the suit, yes I will be there to provide background that would indicate your firm’s co-owner has expressed views consistent with ignoring climate change effects. Simpol. FAFO.
I Think 1.7 is reasonable goals , but is 30k RRSP and 80K TfSA even with 30+ yrs growth is that reasonable possible ? in even balance and Divy…
What do people want to talk to me about the most? – GT ++
I would submit that one of the burning questions most have for you is why you continue to allow someone who regularly posts the following sort of statements remains with no admonition from you. It’s not isolated or even occasional, but daily mental unravelling. You have ‘toasted’ others for far less. :
‘We are trying Garth’s patience.’
‘By continuing to post your nonsense you are allowing a kind of hate speech. Anti-trans ‘violence will hereafter, in some small part, be on you.’
Disingenuous lying that dolts like The Jaguar amd Sail Away thrive on.’
‘I’m asking for Garth to grow a spine and reban you for hate speech.’ (WOW! -grow a spine?)
‘Oh, sorry, I assumed you entered when all the other mouth-breathing “muh arbitrage” goofballs did. ..That’s more libelous slander from you.’
‘When any infrastructure that you are involved in fails during a climate attributable event, I’ll be there with popcorn (and quotes from this comments section) to hand to the lawyers at your trial’.
‘Here, in front of a crowd of righty nincompoops, the droolers will always fawn over you because you amplify their echoing nonsense with fabrications crafted to excite them.’
etc. etc. etc.
Questions 5 & 8 in the survey didn’t have responses that I could answer accurately. I’ve retired, converted the RRSP to a RRIF and no have no need/opportunity for further RRSP contributions.
I know this will sound funny to some, but for me the real risk is to save too MUCH for retirement, not too little. The reason being that saving generally happens over time, and thus by aiming to save more, retirement happens later in life, when one’s mindset (and health and well-being) won’t allow the plans that one had in mind when “setting retirement goals”.
The amount that people think is needed for their retirement is very often highly overestimated. Sadly, this makes them postpone retirement, effectively wasting lots of their time (on Earth) in the process.
For me, one of the core prerequisites on retirement is that one doesn’t face a mortgage or rent payments when s/he retires. Now, what kind of property ones owns depends on various life choices and personal circumstances (studies, ability to be financially disciplined, ability to think strategically, etc.) – but that’s less important, because we are talking money needed to retire.
Therefore, if one only has to pay maintenance&tax on the property s/he lives in, and food, the bare minimum becomes very manageable, somewhere in CPP/OAS territory (assuming fully topped up). If there is an extra from a DB/DC/RSP – even better. If in couple – even better.
A lot of us picture retirement in a Hollywood-induced utopian dream (utopian for most, some can actually live that way) – expensive cars and restaurants, traveling in style, fancy hotel-like retirement homes, etc. This is about as realistic as the lottery ads, which equate playing with winning. Sadly, often times the alternative presented to “luxurious retirement” is “eating cat food”, as if there is no middle ground.
For me, it’s precisely that middle ground that matters. The wonderful activities, many of which cost nothing or very little: reading (especially in a reading club), walking&hiking (excellent health benefits), various arts where seniors can access subscriptions, clubs, volunteering, etc.
Also, retirement doesn’t have to be binary. One can plan a monthly savings amount that is enough for the essentials, and to work sparingly (consulting, part-time job, self-employment, etc.) – and when that extra income suffices, the savings are left untouched, which only increases the pot for the remainder of time (on Earth).
In conclusion: retirement is most often gravely misunderstood as a phase in life. The art here is to have “as little as possible that’s necessary, but not less”.
Yogism #43: “I retired into my present form after failing past perfect methods and agonizing over the four types of being future tense”.
Is that 1.7M per person or per household? This reflects on how to answer #6 – I would expect personal retirement to be per person but that number wouldn’t be in response to the $1.7 you’ve quoted (which I assume is per household.) So, which is it?
#1 oops on 02.07.23 at 3:16 pm
:|:|:|:|:|:
Dood, reeaaally hope yur being sarcastic…
:|:|:|:|:|:
IRT your blog post, G. In my humble, yet relevant, opinion there are a lot of factors to take into account.
-WHERE are you living? Where do you want to live? I can think of many places around the world that one can afford with a LOT less than 1.7Mill. Where programs for kids are cheap and school is free.
-do you want to drive a telsa or lexus (and lunch at Costco) or not drive at all?
-do you rent or own? Paid off or not?
-Kids in the basement or on their own? And are they man (sorry) enough to pay for their own schooling?
-Generally healthy or have you been drinking and smoking pot your entire working life?
-Just like the retirement calculators on line – why is the assumption that you need a doctors income in retirement? Total B-S!
And the biggest question of all? (which I already know will be a resounding NO. The answer of which is just like the generic survey of 1500 ppl). Do you have an imagination?
I’m sorry, but I think surveys like this (BMO one) are ill conceived, generate fear in middle class and feelings of inadequacy in lower classes.
Save your money, Kiddoes. Eschew houses, teslas and middle managers. Stop watching dupdashians, duptube and dupflix….take care of your needs. Wants will become immaterial. You will become happy….your perception will completely change…
Og
Sigh!
It appears your most powerful and arguably the WESTERN-est Yankee brothers and sisters just cannot resist the fatal allure of cheapy, ideologically intoxicated Commie products…
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/us-china-trade-is-close-to-a-record-defying-talk-of-decoupling-1.1870932
So what?! You say. These are just cheapy Dollar Tree stuff. We have the most powerful navy with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers! We have the most lethal fighter jets and missiles to shoot down commie balloons any day we want; and to defend our Way of Life!
Well, but I bet you do not know this:
Your most powerful fighter jets will have to swallow its pride and use commie’s humble(-est) magnets! Without this cheapy commie magnet, I am afraid…
Not sure? See for yourself:
September 07, 2022:
(What? Commie components in our fighter jets?)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/pentagon-stops-accepting-f-35-jets-check-chinese-content-source-2022-09-07/
October 08, 2022, one month later:
(When the cruel reality hits in)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/f-35-jet-deliveries-can-resume-following-waiver-chinese-origin-alloy-pentagon-2022-10-08/
Now, my utmost respectful Western brothers and sisters, if you were brave enough, clicked the above three links, read the full stories, and have a full contemplation, good for you. Then tonight you may take an earlier shower and go to bed early. There is absolutely no need for you to stick around for the 9:00 pm (Eastern time) TV show, because THE show has already finished. Alas…
Thanks Garth!
We do an employee RRSP 5% salary match, with the RRSP administered by a chosen management firm. Staff have complete autonomy to go with either the firm’s suggested products or their own choices, including ETFs.
30 years of this in present dollars at $100k salary and 7% return gives $1M. That’s about the average RRSP I’d expect by mid to late 50’s with our firm. $2.3M by 65.
We occasionally have employees who don’t want to make the full match, so ask them to complete and present (on company time, natch) an economic analysis supporting this viewpoint. I’m happy to report 100% uptake at present.
What do we think about HOOPP these days? Husband and I both have DB with HOOPP (part-time workers) and my husband’s full-time job has a shared-contribution pension + company stocks as well. Purchased a fixer-upper all-brick detached home 30 min from downtown Toronto in 2020 well under market value (current value is about $500k over our purchase price) and have about $100k in liquid investments. We are in our early 30s with 4 young kids and plan to focus on advancing our careers/increasing our salaries in the next few years once the youngest starts school. Should we be saving aggressively because of HOOPP’s possibly uncertain future?
An aside, we also have a child with CP and other medical conditions so have been maxing out his RDSP to get the most out of government grants. There is more to life than money – enjoy your health and the gift of today. As a millennial who rented for a decade, had kids, lived on a single-income for many years, and has extra medical expenses (have you seen the cost of physiotherapy and equipment for kids with cerebral palsy?), we aren’t all complainers and whiners. Thanks to Garth’s sage advice over the years we’ve been living within our means and waited for the right opportunities to get to where we are today.
Before the Biblical BS Bombast about Net Worth comes flying out of people’s orifices, that see the light of day, some StatCan facts as of 2022 Qtr 3:
Mean Net Worth (Wealth)/Adult = CAD $530,678
RE -8%
Investments -4.6%
And that’s just from Jan to Sept 2022. So wealth will have gone down more since then.
Boomers will claim not them:
RE -12.2%
Investments -6.7%
So, have a care and what you think your home is worth it’s a lot less and since the above, probably a lot less.
People will hate me, I retired from the military at 45 with 23 years service and an immediate annuity. Then started working in the private sector for decent money, got a good investment guy and stash as much away in TFSA as possible. All I have for debt is a small mortgage payment on a place I bought in 2010 for 155k. Feel bad for the kids these days, hence my daughter still living at home, it’s nuts for rent out there and I can’t understand it, who can afford 2k a month for a 1bed in Halifax, the average wage here doesn’t justify it. Anyone have a thought on that?
Garth, does the 1.7 M assume you have a abode that is paid for or not? I am currently renting and find this is a big factor in planning for retirement. 20k a year cash flow is required at least if you rent in a bigger city. If you have a paid off abode, maybe you need half that for property tax and maintenance…
Hip waders patched, wading back in…
A big part (IMHO) of knowing what you need, is understanding your lifestyle. Ms. IH and I could probably just eek out a barren albeit still cat-food free retirement on twin CPP/OAS’s. Paid off house, property taxes under 3K, house insurance 850, auto insurance about 1500 for two vehicles. Everything is pretty low cost, towns close by, no water/sewer bills, no cable TV. Our lifestyle is hands on, independent and simple.
I’d say 60/K yr is plenty, could probably go even less. The B+D will be there as we age if needed.
Tiff is not on the same page as Powell…
“we think that we’re going to need to do further rate increases, as we said, and we think that we will need to hold policy at a restrictive level for a period of time.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/07/fed-chief-powell-says-the-the-disinflationary-process-has-begun-but-has-a-long-way-to-go.html
Dad worked at Eaton’s his whole life, after coming home from 5 years away (WW2)He was a very quiet man who had seen too much in his life. Mom worked part time as a bookkeeper for a small company.
They had a small home, one bathroom, 3 bedrooms,
one TV and one car. The good life in the 70s (I came very late in their lives.)
Mom was very careful with the money and when I was an apprentice at 17 years of age, still living at home, she made me put money in my RRSP each pay. Luckily for me, my wife of 30 years was brought up in a very similar way. I retired at 56, having had a very good job for many years (high stress) and have had a comfortable retirement so far. I do carry forward my parents life lessons of modesty and try to be content with what I have, not letting greed into my life, as today it’s everywhere.
Thanks Mom & Dad.
Aiming for $3M invested now as a couple. No kids. Long retirement with lots of travel. We also own a home so I think this is doable.
@#1 oops on 02.07.23 at 3:16 pm
Get the popcorn and THC drinks ready. The Old Boot, Faron and Sailed Away party is about to start again.
Life? Nope.
++++++++++++++++++
yawn
Interesting poll.
Would like a poll question breaking down readers net worth separated into investable assets and principal residence.
#20 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
#207 Sail Away on 02.07.23 at 3:29 pm
You claim to bid (using error prone chatGPT LOL) and win government contracts
Fact: proper due diligence and likely your gov’t contract requires planning for a future climate
Fact: anthro warming is presently a significant factor in the severity of infrastructure-damaging weather events.
Fact: impacts for some variables will become more extreme as warming proceeds.
Fact: you repeatedly downplay climate change and claim climate science and scientists are full of it.
If it turns out a build of yours fails due to an extreme weather event with reliable climate attributable components, and you are sued for negligence, and if I hear about the suit, yes I will be there to provide background that would indicate your firm’s co-owner has expressed views consistent with ignoring climate change effects. Simpol. FAFO.
———
Discovery would be fun.
Now do this: Present, here and now, verifiable facts as to my identity and my firm’s identity to prove you’re not actively spewing more bad science in real time for all to see.
Thanks.
I just finished reading ‘The Dunsmuir Saga’. The first half is quite an interesting read about the Dunsmuir’s role in the industrial development of Vancouver Island with respect to coal mining and the railway. The second half of the book follows the lives of Robert Dunsmuir’s descendants and how they spent the family fortune.
There’s a number of lessons to be learned in considering the Dunsmuir’s lives.
Oops
sorry oops.
Og
P.S. A judgement error from many following “retirement advisors” recommendations is to save until one builds a principal amount enough to live off indefinitely (from interest payments and/or dividends). This is obviously erroneous, because so far nobody has figured out how to live indefinitely.
Take your Canadian Kashoggi and make it grow into American Greenbacks down south
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO0kOuDRzLI
#20 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
Fact: anthro warming is presently a significant factor in the severity of infrastructure-damaging weather events.
Fact: impacts for some variables will become more extreme as warming proceeds.
——————————————————–
Factoid 1 – Impossible to verify. So much more infrastructure being created, particularly in coastal regions, is bound to lead to more being destroyed.
Factoid 2 – Mathematically impossible to predict the future state of a dynamical system. At best a hypothesis and an unverifiable one at that.
Fact – politics and science make poor bedfellows.
Its mind boggling why the BMO survey is getting so much air time. Reliability and Validity out the window
People dont have a clue how much they need to retire.
ummm 1.7M sounds good
What the survey from BMO fails to mention is if the $1.7 million saving is per couple or individuals?
dude who is $3M with questionable life enjoyment… I do hope you find it and do not become like the MANY I know who literally died within 18 months of retiring ~65
my lessons that informed my decision making, other than that above:
watched my aunt get to RRIF age with enormous RRSP (no TFSA stuff during her savings years) realize massive error in her financial planning: should have put a lot less into RRSP and more into non-reg – now she pays massively more income tax than ever during her working years plus she has way more forced income than required – big WOOPS
(not to mention the taxman’s bill upon her demise; she is in a quandary, no good options)
half my friends were dead by age 52 – super big WOOPS for those who focused on retirement and saving, too many of them!
my father died at 39 (I was 15) – so I realized living in the present more important than any future planning – everyday past 39 for me is pure gift – I love thinking about my father because he did it right – he had a fantastic life, lived large with many friends and social experiences
Accountant suggested I work a lot less in my early 50s to drive down my income and enjoy my time as it would result in much better OSAP grant money for my adolescent – brilliant tactic, worked very well – then picked up the pace again
These are things that informed me in my decision making. Think outside your box. You might be surprised!
I have stayed balanced in lifestyle versus balanced in savings for retirement – it has worked well for me
Garth’s survey doesn’t make sense as I am retired at 57 – once I hit retired on the survey, most of the ensuing questions made no sense
Single mom raised kid with zero financial assistance from other parent. No special accreditation. Just decent jobs and then last 20 years freelance, working from home. (Now in my 60s so my WFH was the real deal.)
Always a pleasure to read Mr. Turner’s words. Thought-provoking, to say the least.
I am a little disappointed he doesn’t prices will drop much more in real estate. Really sorry to hear that the FOMO is back, and the lunatics in society really think that burying themselves and their families in debt is the way to go.
I was dealt a different set of cards. Sold a terrible entry-level house for almost double what I paid, split the profit with the wife and slammed it into TFSA’s. I’ll be maxing contributions for the next six years until I retire. Then the DB pension kicks in with between $4k to $5k a month. I’ll still work part time for fun money.
The kicker is that I don’t think I’ll EVER own a home in Canada. It’s just too expensive and the market is insane. A 2 bedroom 1 bathroom dumpster with a door sells in prostitute-ridden Celina area for $600,000!?
Why would I take on ridiculous debt when I can rent a semi I quite like for south of $3,000 a month and enjoy things like vacations, having furniture, and even buying groceries?
It’d be nice to own a house, but I’m not willing to give up all of my income and some of my wife’s every single month. NOPE!
Keep writing, Mr. Turner. I hope we both see the end to this real estate insanity soon.
Surprisingly my work group RSP being filled with a bunch of mutuals it’s not doing too bad. Is it beating a couple of ETFs no, but it’s not like the sub 1% I’ve unfortunately been forced to contribute in the past. Personally contribute the bare minimum.
For sure insurance mega corps adore dumb money tried to them but how many employees actually check what’s their crappy ‘retirement’ plan doing?
About this:
“45% with variable mortgages say they would have to sell in under 9 months: Yahoo/Maru poll”
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/45-with-variable-mortgages-say-they-would-have-to-sell-in-under-9-months-yahoomaru-poll-110037392.html
I said Grain of Salt and Garth, being Garth, was a bit more emphatic in his disdain. I agree with him less the drama.
Here are the poll numbers:
No. surveyed 3,074
Cdns that own their own home 1,920
On rate increases:
11% “drastic financial adjustments and lifestyle changes”
22% “very serious pressures”
38% “caused anxiety but it’s manageable”
29% increases have not had a significant impact at all.
“Drastics” = 3074 x 11% = 338
Article then states of the Drastics, debt type:
19% VRM
11% Fixed Rate
9% Line of Credit on their home
Drastics VRM = 338 x 0.19 = 64
Stated poll accuracy = +/- 2.2 per cent
3120 x 0.022 = 67.6
If you don’t get it from the above, you never will.
In Napoli so didn’t Comment but since pushback persists well, there it is …
Clickbait.
What do people want to talk to me about the most? (Other than marital advice or canine obedience?)
=======================
There’s a difference lol ?
Met an old friend last week who was surplussed from Hydro after 25 years of service. He thought he had won the lottery with a gold plated pension. Soon after he went to work at Can Tire part time, but was soon convinced to manage a dept full time. After 12 years of service and contributing his profit sharing bonus into their stock purchase program, he walked away with a bigger pension than his Hydro one. I’m always amazed at how little people know about their pension plan and given the choice of investments choose GIC’s.
Realistically for 99% of the Canadian population Answer to the 3 questions is this (even if they think they have enough saved):
When can it happen? When I drop Dead
Will I have enough? Doesn’t matter I’ll be dead
How can I prepare and still have a life now?
Why bother, even if save enough inflation and taxes will make those savings near worthless, goal posts keep moving.
Asking how much you need in retirement is like asking how much you need to make from your job.
Answer: As much as possible.
Realistically you need maybe 80% of what you made while working. Take the 80% and deduct CPP and OAS. and take the remainder and divide by 0.05 as you can easily strip out 5% per year (Probably more like 7%)
$120k income for a couple while working (barely middle class) then you need $96k in retirement. Let’s say you get $30k from OAS and CPP, you need to come up with $66 from your portfolio and at 5% draw that’s $1.3 million. At 7% draw you need just less than a million.
It’s all ridiculous. Just save what you can and invest wisely and you will have to live on what you get. Just like when you worked. If it’s not enough get a part-time job in retirement. Or keep working full time like Garth and Warren Buffett. It will improve your mental health and we need the workers.
Second generation Canadian who’s parents came to this country with nothing and worked their asses off so my sibling and I could be educated…working hard and living within your means is in my DNA.
With that being said turning 50 this year and am seriously considering retiring. Between the wife and I we have about 4 million in liquid investments (balanced of course) our home is paid off (1.8 million) and kids RESP’s are locked and loaded.
Good role models early in life helped put us both on the right track and hopefully we have instilled those same lessons to our children.
Remember folks the only currency in this life that really matters is time – so spend it wisely :)
Tax Illiterates?
watched my aunt get to RRIF age with enormous RRSP (no TFSA stuff during her savings years) realize massive error in her financial planning: should have put a lot less into RRSP and more into non-reg – now she pays massively more income tax than ever during her working years plus she has way more forced income than required – big WOOPS
(not to mention the taxman’s bill upon her demise; she is in a quandary, no good options)
***************************
Seriously, enormous RRSP and you think she did a whoops???
You forget that probably 35% or more of her RRSP was funded by the tax refunds in substance.
She never would have been able to put equal dollars into non-reg or TFSA. Not to mention in non-reg family members might have come after her for loans or it would have been far easier to spend it.
She is doing great. Good for her having a big tax bill in retirement and no GIS welfare. Congratulated her for me.
I want to talk about my immediate neighbour and our adult children.
The lady next door and my wife go for walks and share the same gym. They must have talked retirement and money at some point and she must have spoken with her husband because a couple of years ago he approached me and asked me if I’d look over some financial stuff. Long story made short they live in retirement quite comfortably with a paid off home and the double CPP and OAS and around $700,000 spread between two TFSA’s and a cash account.
They do not live in penury, they go on vacations out of country every couple of years, they both drive newer used vehicles, they are well dressed, appear to be well fed. The home is in good repair. I can only conclude that you can retire on an amount far lower than 1.7 million.
Now, my adult sons. A number of years ago we decided to give (not loan) them an advance on their inheritance to buy housing.
2 reasons, we could afford it and why make them wait til they were in their 60’s and we were both dead and couldn’t participate/enjoy their stable housing.
One condition…they could buy a couple of duplexes or a 4-plex or 6-plex. This housing must provide income in addition to a place to live for them. They wholeheartedly agreed and they purchased a single duplex, put a suite below the owner occupied side and roomed together. A few years later they used the original duplex to buy another, did the same with the suite and now each live in a income producing home.
Income that pays almost all costs, insurance, property taxes, utilities, etc. The only out of pocket will be major renos, repairs like a roof or full exterior paint.
So, adult sons, despite working for a paycheque from someone else, are well on their way to being able to comfortably retire. They will be the recipients of what should turn out to be generational wealth when the last of mom or I pass but meantime we were and are able to work together as a family to reduce and even eliminate stress from their lives while they are young and productive. This shows in their relationships at work and socially.
Keep good neighbours and invest in your kids.
You can live retired on what you live on. (or less)
Therefore, live with the minimum of repeat expense, and you can retire as soon as you can maintain that level with what you have in place, along with the CPP&OAS.
Picture Underwater Man, holding a $600 take home cheque.
Now consider a retired couple, worth a million.
They have 1666 X $600.
32 years worth of weekly $600’s. + CPP&OAS
And then there is the return on what the million is in…
YESTERDAY:
#196 Faron on 02.07.23 at 1:38 pm
#193 Faron on 02.07.23 at 1:05 pm
#192 Faron on 02.07.23 at 12:59 pm
#190 Faron on 02.07.23 at 12:49 pm
#175 Faron on 02.07.23 at 11:00 am
#161 Faron on 02.07.23 at 1:48 am
#160 Faron on 02.07.23 at 1:36 am
#144 Faron on 02.06.23 at 9:38 pm
#107 Faron on 02.06.23 at 6:40 pm
#102 Faron on 02.06.23 at 6:24 pm
#79 Faron on 02.06.23 at 5:21 pm
#57 Faron on 02.06.23 at 4:18 pm
#8 Faron on 02.06.23 at 2:08 pm
#201 Faron on 02.07.23 at 2:35 pm
#206 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:18 pm
TODAY: OFF TO A GOOD START
#2 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:20 pm
#3 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:22 pm
#12 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:37 pm
#20 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
Mooooooo. Just mooooooo.
Great number 36 work and tumble yes the simple life
learned from parents that lived through the depression
is invaluable however you have to have some fun like we have taken our family to DISNEYLAND 5 TIMES.
As you say THANKS MOM AND DAD.
$1.7M
Depends on the lifestyle you want to lead when retired.
It’s an obtuse statement. It will be different for everyone.
More designed to get people with a lot of time left to invest and while at it, drum up some business for the bank.
Sequence of returns also a major risk factor: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-retire-in-a-bear-market-or-youll-lock-in-losses-11675692827?mod=search_headline
speaking to my old buddy who lives in a van down by the river, true story, red cargo van probably 20 years old , and parks down by the river and moves it when he has to move it. He is down by Lake erie area he said right now.
Now this is a guy who has no pension, he is on oas. supllments and you would think that a guy with a small dog with no rent still cant make it even though millions of poor canadians get same amount of money but manage there life much better.
the moral is simple, some people are ok regardless of income and others are just bumbs living down by the river.
for millions of canadians they dont even know what a defined pension plan is, they work at Walmart, and your talking some pension plan.
Every day I see people do drugs, alcoholics wondering the streets, salvaging something to eat from the garbage can at Giant Tiger, picking up unused buts on the ground. This is what I see every day, No one talks to me about defined pension plan.
1.7 with a paid off house, and a side hustle could probably work. Or in a LCOL area. But can’t see that being enough for a renter in a desirable area. In 20 years a house will be 5-7K a month to rent. Assisted living in a nice place will be 7-10k per month.
What’s the point of working all your life then having to pinch pennies? 2.5 with paid off house sounds about right.
@#56 Fasa on 02.07.23 at 5:05 pm
Second generation Canadian who’s parents came to this country with nothing and worked their asses off so my sibling and I could be educated…working hard and living within your means is in my DNA.
With that being said turning 50 this year and am seriously considering retiring. Between the wife and I we have about 4 million in liquid investments (balanced of course) our home is paid off (1.8 million) and kids RESP’s are locked and loaded.
Good role models early in life helped put us both on the right track and hopefully we have instilled those same lessons to our children.
Remember folks the only currency in this life that really matters is time – so spend it wisely :)
++++++++++++++
its amusing how often folks humble brag about their lives and alleged wealth in here.
#22 the Jaguar on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
What do people want to talk to me about the most? – GT ++
I would submit that one of the burning questions most have for you is why you continue to allow someone who regularly posts the following sort of statements remains with no admonition from you. It’s not isolated or even occasional, but daily mental unravelling.
+++++++++
This why they keep him in the back room and only let him watch the climate and count the glaciers. His real job is going out for coffee and donuts and washing the boss’ car. His mother got him the job by blackmailing the boss like Sally Field did in the Forrest Gump movie. If you know what I mean.
#45 Factoid on 02.07.23 at 4:32 pm
LOL
@#62 Dolce Vita on 02.07.23 at 5:15 pm
$1.7M
Depends on the lifestyle you want to lead when retired.
It’s an obtuse statement. It will be different for everyone.
More designed to get people with a lot of time left to invest and while at it, drum up some business for the bank.
+++++++++++++
Bingo.
Free advertising for [email protected]
Don’t worry if you don’t have enough money to retire in Canada. My friend is going to Gambia. Cheap rent under $75a month. Its by the ocean ,cheap ,safe and its warm in the winter ! What more could you ask for ? Honey pack your bags we’re moving to Gambia !!!
#60 Yukon Elvis
A lot of your Yesterday’s were not Yesterday.
Still, point made.
Hey Garth.
Do you ever thing they will get rid of OAS?
Kilt.
No. – Garth
#60 Yukon Elvis on 02.07.23 at 5:10 pm
TODAY: OFF TO A GOOD START
#2 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:20 pm
#3 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:22 pm
#12 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:37 pm
#20 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
Mooooooo. Just mooooooo.
==================
More like Oink Oink ….
….”Polly wants a cracker”
…….and Baaaaaaaah…
You say buy a few stocks, some juicy preferred options balanced out with bonds.
It doesn’t cut it. This strategy at best delivers 16% returns over past 3 years. No thanks.
Even an allocated ETF fund weighted 80% in stocks that automatically re-balances is only churning out 20%.
Have a look at SPY. A one fund HODL strategy. The S&P 500 is the gold standard.
3-year performance of SPY is 48.88% with an all time performance of 832.70%.
Is the S&P going to shut the lights off and never return after a crash. Just buckle up and ride it out.
When it crashes, find some extra cash lying around and add to your holdings.
It also has a nice 1.55% dividend.
Set it and forget it in all of your accounts – TFSA, RRSP and Cash Account. Max out the TFSA first.
Then take your massive gains about 10 years before retirement – moving them into conservative funds.
Retire rich. That was easy.
For all you geniuses out there – plug some numbers into a financial calculator and computer for PMT (payment):
For someone who is 60 years old today and retiring with $1.7M liquid, live to age 90. Spend all of it by age 90.
N=30 years
I/Y=7% interest
PV=$1.7M
FV=$0
PMT = $136,996
So they have $137K to spend each year before taxes which likely would be minimal … nice retirement, eh?
#71 Dolce Vita on 02.07.23 at 5:32 pm
#60 Yukon Elvis
A lot of your Yesterday’s were not Yesterday.
Still, point made.
+++++++++++
The ones marked yesterday were from yesterday’s blog post. Sorry about the confusion.
The Pension Crisis – What happens when the authorities give up? | John Moorlach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgZXdDyXLR0
=========================
COMMENT:
California..which by itself is a major global economy…is in dire straits on many fronts.
Loonie Left is destroying it …
….the video above lays out the gold -plated pensions promised to various parties are not sustainable…it is out of control….to the point various Local Gov’ts are declaring bankruptcy so as to to insulate and absolve themselves from increasingly UNfunded liabilities.
Can’t get blood out of a stone…
I do quite a bit of work on harbours, and get to know a lot of the liveaboards quite well during a project.
Many of them live on their boats during the summer, then put the boat on the hard and jet off to rent a home in South America in winter, where CPP more than covers expenses. Hard-luck stories abound, of course, and the people all got to this point somehow, but still… it’s survival with a little style.
If > 1.5m is the goal, I shall be dead before reaching it. Game over was twenty years ago anyway….
Couple of surveys out today on this and likely more to come (it is RRSP season after all). These type of surveys are cheap/free marketing by the Bank’s to load up the AUMs on their books and you will notice the Bank’s don’t say you need $1.7 million to retire,(“the survey says…). Also it does not appear they differentiate between liquid assets and net worth, which given the impact of real estate on most folks net worth these days and therefore the capital available for retirement skews the numbers way to high. They also fail to define this as per person or couple…..$3.4 million in liquid assets for a couple plus let’s say a modest home mortgage free in the GTA of $1 million leaves you with $4.5 million in assets and lets say an additional (modest) $35k per year for a couple in CPP and OAS.
Burn that over 30 years with NO return on assets or indexing on government programs is $185k per year (close to a 1% lifestyle in retirement). so all I can say is read between the lines, this is simply shock marketing to induce panic deposits…buyer beware and do your own math.
@#73 Alois on 02.07.23 at 5:36 pm
#60 Yukon Elvis on 02.07.23 at 5:10 pm
TODAY: OFF TO A GOOD START
#2 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:20 pm
#3 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:22 pm
#12 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:37 pm
#20 Faron on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
Mooooooo. Just mooooooo.
==================
More like Oink Oink ….
….”Polly wants a cracker”
…….and Baaaaaaaah…
++++++++++++++
the whole lot of you folks should find another blog to act like petulant children on.
Best decision we made was selling our GTA house and moving to KW area. We downsized into a small bungalow with basement set up for kid. We both early retired. Him in 2020 and me in 2021. We had done RRSP for him since 2000 and myself DB pension with HOOPP. I commuted my pension. This past year we saw our portfolio go down almost 25% and now back up to where it was again. LOL Was not fun to see. In the fall we both got jobs so we could do some reno’s on our home mainly to accommodate the adult kids that can’t afford to move out. As well as to not have to pull money from the investments. We are 51. I find I like working part time and probably will for some more years. We had 1.1 million invested as well as enough in the RESP for the kids education. House is paid for. Until the kids are moved out we think retirement is not possible. Just not enough to fund the lifestyle of family of 4. Had it just been the 2 of us I believe we would be in a good position to retire on the 1.1 million. But I agree 1.7 million would make it much more comfortable. We will take our CPP at 60. Hopefully on target to retire at 55 which was our original plan so we are still happy with all the decisions we have made. Especially contributing to rrsp and resp early on.
@#22 the Jaguar on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
What do people want to talk to me about the most? – GT ++
I would submit that one of the burning questions most have for you is why you continue to allow someone who regularly posts the following sort of statements remains with no admonition from you. It’s not isolated or even occasional, but daily mental unravelling.
+++++++++++++++
pot meet kettle
“… $1.7 million in savings is required to stop working, wear your jammies until eleven and drive around aimlessly (major retirement goals)”
Sounds like hybrid work arrangement. So in this case, one does not really need $1.7M in savings – just a hybrid or full time work from home job will suffice.
Another option for 4: It’s a ridiculous, unneeded amount.
1.7mil with, a reasonable, 4% in dividends alone is $68k/yr. What are you buying when you’re retired? Most people’s house would be payed off by then.
I don’t spend near that much now.
People always spend more when retired. What are you going to do? Knit? – Garth
U.S. Citizen living in the U.S. (but married a Canadian). Didn’t complete survey as a bunch of the questions aren’t relevant to me – but watching vicariously/closely to see how my equivalent results may compare here.
It’s a shame retirement surveys publish these kind of numbers (1.7M). For those stuck in lower income jobs, even if they wanted to, it feels completely unrealistic and unobtainable when they can barely pay their current bills. It creates a defeatist mindset, so they don’t even bother to start. If more focus was put into educating young kids about starting with a small amount every month, over a much longer time line, and the power of compound interest that would at least feel tangible and give some hope.
#40 Sail Away on 02.07.23 at 4:24 pm
The fun thing here is that, in such a hypothetical trial (that, lets be real, has a ~0% chance of occurrence) what would be material is showing that someone from your firm consistently comments here in a way that suggests that your co-owned firm is of a mindset to cut corners and act negligently regarding paying due diligence to climate change adaptation.
Garth uses Cloudflare to protect his site (Garth is smart). Cloudflare logs the IP addresses of every connection to his site in case Garth needs to seek damages against a malicious actor or help police find someone who does damaging things to other commenters. Garth pinpointed your work VPN once when he noted that your comments were coming from up-island when you claimed to be in Hawaii. There is therefore a very strong link between Sail Away’s comments, his workplace’s ISP, his home ISP and his mobile ISP. Triangulating those and the consistent pattern they form to show that someone from his firm made the comments would be trivial and we wouldn’t even have to name names to do it. Who knows, we may even find out if your racist Tucker Carlson quotes are your doing!
Beautiful.
I’m surprised your co-owners don’t ask you to stuff a sock in it when it comes to anything that could damage their stake in the business. The flooding damage from 15 months ago showed the dangers in under designing in a static climate. If your contracts are, at all, for critical gov’t infrastructure and it fails because of your wilful ignorance, god help you.
Roial1 on 02.07.23 at 3:28 pm
I got a lesson in Global Warming.
If we do nothing our children and grand children are not going….
…….
Currently bouncing around Andalusia on the med in southern spain. It’s frickin freezing here. The lemon and olive orchards are not happy. Unseasonably cold Temps are a lesson that the globe is cooling by your logic.
The street trees in malaga can have 100 big bright oranges growing on a small tree.
At a local grocery store . Fruit. Meat seafood bread wine 40% of safeway prices.
Should be back to 18-20C is a couple days.
in a great burb and retired at 60. Paid for house. Only regret … didn’t retire at 55 as could have collected full company pension that early. Consider it cheap to retire as long as the house is paid off … even out here. Wish the same for all … but …
is $1.7 million net worth, or retirement savings on top of dwelling? Is it for family or one ?
From my questions, you already know how ready I am.
A note for my answer to question 2 – as a dual citizen I await an IRS ruling on the TFSA as a retirement account. Like an IRA. Until then it remains unfunded. Should the IRS decide it is a retirement account it will be fully funded.
Funny watching every generation of immigrants and young Canadians doing it to every new generation of immigrants and young people continuously falling flat on their faces while the politicians, bankers, builders, realtors, car dealers etc are laughing on the sidelines. Wake up dumbos!
Faron you are so full of it your eyes must be brown.
“The flooding damage from 15 months ago showed the dangers in under designing in a static climate..
Wrong wrong wrong in every way. Garbage logic. Fraud science.
///////
When was the largest Fraser River flood in recorded history?
May, 1894
The largest Fraser River flood on record was in May, 1894 when rapid snowmelt caused river levels to rise dramatically, triggering flooding from Harrison to Richmond. The flood was massive; however, property damage was limited because settlement was sparse. The next largest Fraser flood of record was in 1948”
Take your self interested junk science elsewhere you vacuous clown.
You’d fail miserably as an engineer.
FED….Inflation fight may last ‘quite a bit of time,’
…..payrolls report for January, which was published on Friday, was “certainly stronger than anyone I know expected,”
https://nypost.com/2023/02/07/inflation-fight-may-last-quite-a-bit-of-time-jerome-powell/
Ya, that 1.7 number is meaningless without context… basically a couple with $1.5M and a paid off house, (in Canada), can live quite comfortably.
Cheap deals coming in Las Vegas
Party time soon!
https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/housing/las-vegas-housing-market-starts-2023-flat-2724928/?sfmc_id=414609401&g2i_source=newsletter&g2i_campaign=Your%20Afternoon%20News&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=PMUPDATE&utm_campaign=Your%20Afternoon%20News&utm_term=Las%20Vegas%20housing%20market%20starts%202023%20flat
#88 Faron on 02.07.23 at 6:36 pm
If your contracts are, at all, for critical gov’t infrastructure and it fails because of your wilful ignorance, god help you.
——–
Oh my. I see your fantasy hero role.
Let me help you out here. Get your learning hat:
Design conditions are provided by code, specification and jurisdictional guidelines. The mighty engineer then takes those conditions, combines them with working criteria, adds a dash of aesthetic beauty, mixes well and bakes until done.
If substandard information was provided? Huh. How unfortunate. Here’s our change scope cost for redesign.
Or did you think engineers themselves determined the environmental design conditions? Oh, by no means.
That would be silly. We don’t care what the number is, just that it be provided to us so as to incur zero liability.
Sorry. What’s the next hero movie?
Questions?
#91 bcc8 on 02.07.23 at 6:52 pm
is $1.7 million net worth, or retirement savings on top of dwelling? Is it for family or one ?
From my questions, you already know how ready I am.
*************************************
Yeah, that’s in addition to the house. Ya can’t sell off a bedroom every decade Afterall.
It’s $1.7 million for a couple in retirement. Unless you are getting divorced then it’s $1.7 million each. Get saving.
Life after fifty is shake of the dice. Do you keep track of the increasing numbers of people around you that get seriously sick or actually die? After 65 that number climbs the graph exponentially. Canadian hospitals are grossly inadequate in every way and many thousands die undiagnosed .
Heart attack is on the rise. Covid is efficiently stalking the ‘over 50’ segment and all we hear is ‘nothing from the government. People are stroking out like never before. Trudeau promising 19 billion doesn’t help you now, or even five years from now.
It’s all a conscientious political ruse to shore up his sagging poll numbers. The idea that everyone saves $2 million and retires to an afterlife of paradise is disingenuous, at best. After 60 you’ll get sicker, require medical care you won’t receive and die early.
So stop believing and start living, start spending. The fact is the Trudeau government has been spending the billions in tax revenues on fanciful projects like Global South where he’s building oil and gas infrastructure in Somalia and Kenya rather than on hospitals in Canada, and you doctor knows if he/she diagnoses your heart disease, tumour or cancer they’ll have to put you on the books, that clogs the system. Undiagnosed are always referred to as ‘natural causes’ in layman’s terms. Trudeaus massive immigration puts more pressure on an already deluged, inefficient and mostly broken healthcare system. I guess he figures that even though the emergency rooms are shut down because they’re overwhelmed that another million very care needy souls from underserved third world origin won’t make it worse.
The odds of you getting sick and not being able to access in Canada is high, that’s a fact. Trudeaus voting machinations will focus money elsewhere not on building hospitals. When you get your first hit it’ll be something like an undiagnosed aneurysm or liver failure. The paradise golf dream dies immediately. Every time you say ‘that’ll never happen to me’ is the time you should make sure you’re affairs in order. A pretty corpse is still a corpse.
@ old boot
@ faron
@ et al
Can someone provide an updated commenters program guide for this pathetic blog?
I’m looking for whom is standing in as the climate change nutter and the insane zealot. It was the kinda grey area for me back there.
Cheers, R
I’ve got an equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome policy question.
Suppose person A made max contributions to RRSP or TFSA, but made very poor investments. So while maxing out tax shelters, person A has little saved for retirement.
Person B made excellent investments. Person B was a genius, or was just plain lucky. Person B’s tax shelter balance has soared.
Would it be fair that person A should be allowed to contribute a greater annual amount to their tax shelters since they have not saved enough for retirement because of their poor (unlucky?) investment choices?
If person B has reached a predetermined balance for retirement ($1.7 million, $3 million, $10 million?) should they be allowed to continue contributing to their tax shelters?
Interested in the blog dog philosophers: they both had the same opportunity, too bad for person A? Or once person B has saved a certain amount, then that’s enough?
The current way we contribute may be fair the way it is, or maybe it can be improved.
We both got early retirement offers at age 55. We always maxed the RRSP as it was the only plan available but our plans limited the amount we could contribute. So the smart wife said I will pay down the house and did it in seven years.
The plan was to take out some money from the RRSP to supplement our income before OAS/CPP @ 60 from the wife’s income was less. I figured that the RRSPs would be so large that it would become a tax liability later and there was about a 3% tax advantage to remove and invest the money. We put this in DRIPs and returned over 14% then later we both maxed our TFSA’s when it was available. The RRIFs we have also kept going up so it was used to keep funding the TFSAs and help pay the tax bill and continue to grow our taxable accounts. The house upkeep was a huge expense some years as it could be as high as 2% its value and was glad we could pay it but could easily upgrade things @200K but who needs the disturbance and expense. House needed 3 roof fixes something like over 20K, then new heat pump, and electric furnace that was around 15K. We used to winter 2-4 months south but after age 72 and covid it is rather expensive for insurance and expensive to rent and drive around. So yes you need maybe 2M$ and retirement is more expensive than one expects but one needs to be really prepared.
I read the comments on the G&M article and the people think they are smart and can figure it out on the back of napkin which of course is not possible to do.
People always spend more when retired. What are you going to do? Knit? – Garth
________________________________
Scottish heritage showing!
Getting outdoors is inexpensive too.
I just bought a battery powered Stihl chain saw to take on walks along our three miles of property line during leafless seasons. Coincidently, $600 tax in.
Here a trim, there a trim, everywhere a trim trim.
Hope this comment doesn’t get me trimmed.
First step is to track your income and expenses religiously to get a good picture of your spending. Optimize your spending, cut out the waste and set a realistic retirement budget. That way you have a baseline of what you will need. Assume a conservative return on your investments and when investment income>anticipated spending you are out of the matrix.
As an employee with one of the largest employers in BC, our DC pension plan has done decently over the years with roughly a 6–7% overall year to year gain. Last year was unfortunately another story, but it is recovering rather well. Not all DC employer plans are in mutual funds doing poorly.
As a side note, when I went into BMO late last fall to sign papers for releasing money from an RESP for my kid, the sales agent (who knows I will be retiring in less than 5 years) was pitching me on taking my $$$ out of the DC plan and transferring it to BMO investments. Would never take this action, as the fees would be much higher with more risk than I have now. My employer is not going under, and so have no worries about anything being lost.
$1.7M is too high for people that already own their own home. They can always sell the home and rent if CPP, OAS, pension (if available), and TFSA/RRSP aren’t enough/run out. That’s a good thing, because most Canadians won’t even come close to that number. Due to bubblemania real estate pricing, most Canadian’s have most of their wealth in their home.
Unless the plan is to pass on the assets to the kids and live on interest only, in which case $1.7M in today’s dollars is a decent number. A 3% real return on $1.7M is $54K per year. Add in CPP and OAS and you’re talking closer to $70K per year. If your spouse has a similar amount socked away, you’re laughing at $140K per year in cash flow without touching investment principal or the home.
I think we’re setting ourselves up for a retirement crisis in a couple decades. Stratospheric rent and home prices are not leaving much money for saving for young Canadians, and it doesn’t look like the situation is going to improve any time soon, if ever. No one at any level of government seems to see it as an urgent problem. It’s more challenging now than in a long, long time for young people to save. Suspect a lot of kids will wake up in their 50s 20 years from now with few assets to their name.
Flop Drops.
Not real sure if this is a real estate blog anymore, but I’ll whack away at the keys and see where it takes me.
Someone the other day said you can’t even get a house on Vancouver Westside for under 3 million.
I showed one that was so-so for a little over 2 million and a really nice one for 3 and so that was that.
I saw that there was roughly 50 options below 3 million on the Westside and this house was one of them.
The details…
3496 w 8th Ave, Vancouver.
Original ask 3.04
Assessment 2.34
Just sold for 1.9
https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2740805/3496-W-8TH-AVENUE-Vancouver-BC/
So they started off with the moonshot back before interest rates got frisky, had a couple of team meetings and tried to eventually get 2.2 but 1.9 was all she wrote.
Not that aesthetically pleasing, but maybe a developer got them down enough to make the numbers work for them.
Back in the old Pink Snow days when I worked on the Westside one question I always asked the developers was “How many blocks ahead are you?”
In other words, how many parcels of land have you already purchased waiting to develop.
The smaller guys it was just one or two.
The midsize guys it was usually 4 or 5, but when things were going gang busters back in 2016 people were dropping 5 million on an empty block, so the so-called small guys were into it 8 to 10 million and the midsize guys were into it 15 to 20 million, just for the land.
The reason I mention this is because I saw a story about the defaults have started, developers, land bankers, call them what you will can’t make their payments, I’m out of the Westside Mafia at the moment, so I don’t really know what’s happening and I don’t intend on calling anyone to find out so I don’t get whacked.
Garth was good enough to vouch for me to get put in the witness protection program….
M48BC
Roadrunner prevails over Coyote again.
#22 the Jaguar on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
What do people want to talk to me about the most? – GT ++
I would submit that one of the burning questions most have for you is why you continue to allow someone who regularly posts the following sort of statements remains with no admonition from you. It’s not isolated or even occasional, but daily mental unravelling. You have ‘toasted’ others for far less. :
‘We are trying Garth’s patience.’
‘By continuing to post your nonsense you are allowing a kind of hate speech. Anti-trans ‘violence will hereafter, in some small part, be on you.’
Disingenuous lying that dolts like The Jaguar amd Sail Away thrive on.’
‘I’m asking for Garth to grow a spine and reban you for hate speech.’ (WOW! -grow a spine?) …
*********
I agree…this ideologue’s fantasy-infused, caustic vitriol is a daily verbal assault – putrid.
But Jaguar, I think this is exactly how the rise of woke culture/marxist feelings have permeated our society…through this sense that, if you just scream down people and play victim, most will acquiesce and let you have your way – and look where it’s gotten us.
The group that claims no victimhood, are the victims of today.
Gratefully, it’s begun to eat itself…as these malignancies usually do.
Can’t blame faron though – he is so dug in…hot-housed in the lab of marxist wokeism (universities of the last twenty+ years). He bought into the catastrophication (did I just coin that one?) of climate and sees himself a young Michael Mann.
Yeesh!
M59BC
In Amsterdam. Saw the new bike parking garage. 7000 bikes, under ground, under water actually. Google it.
Not been here for 20 years. Over that time, cars are really dead in cities. EVs mean nothing, not a solution to anything.
We’ll be there in Canada in a generation or two.
Anyway, not my problem, as I’ll be long gone, but future generations will be upset at us for lack of foresight. No idea why I care about future generations, maybe a character flaw?
Oh well!
M63ON
@#104 wrk.dvr
“to take on walks along our three miles of property line during leafless seasons.”
+++
Just curious.
How many acres?
200?
HOOPP’s possibly uncertain future?
Can someone elaborate on this. Asking for a friend.
#83 Hmm on 02.07.23 at 6:14 pm
#88 Faron on 02.07.23 at 6:36 pm
=====================
Nudge Nudge
…..Wink Wink
Say no More…!!!
A nod is as good as a wink to a blind man…..
$1.7m saved is more than enough. Went to the Doc’s the other day for the annual check up – all is well for being a fit 60 year old, non smoker — “another 20 good summers left” he said… let that sink in….
Nearly 6 years ago, when my wife and I retired, I insisted that we commute our DB pensions. Interest rates were at a near all-time low so the “fruit” was ready to be harvested for those that understood elemental mathematics. The payout was relatively substantial. (FYI, the lower the rate, the higher the commuted payout, all else being equal). We immediately parlayed that cash, both registered and unregistered funds (which was leveraged considerably) by at least a factor of 2.5X in just a few short years.
Might I add that we sold our townhouse (without an agent), which just happened to coincide with the peak RE price. The market essentially crashed just a few weeks later. (Prices are about the same today as what we managed to take in 6 years ago, and not pay any commissions on)
Now with interest rates back up, maybe its time to convert everything to an annuity….. hmmm. No risk, no fun.
All that to say … you got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em!
Don’t retire. It’s for losers. Look at Buffett – still going strong at 92 – his sidekick Charlie Munger is 99.
DELETED
#115 Mr Canada on 02.07.23 at 9:06 pm
$1.7m saved is more than enough. Went to the Doc’s the other day for the annual check up – all is well for being a fit 60 year old, non smoker — “another 20 good summers left” he said… let that sink in….
—————————————————
Yeah, same with me last year when I was 59, non-smoker. A doctor performed a procedure, said I was in good health, no concerns. Just a couple of months later I was in another doctor’s office (who coincidentally shared the same office as the first doctor) telling me I would be lucky to see the end of the year! So, I snicker to myself when I hear people say they are in “good health”.
Let that sink in ….
As #26 wiggleroom mentioned, is $1.7M per person or per couple? Makes a huge difference.
#111 Another Deckchair on 02.07.23 at 8:51 pm
Anyway, not my problem, as I’ll be long gone, but future generations will be upset at us for lack of foresight. No idea why I care about future generations, maybe a character flaw?
Oh well!
—————————————
Good question. I can’t provide an answer … maybe you have children. Other than that, I think it is your way of staying relevant and wanting to be heard.
News for you … unless some is soliciting you … no one probably cares. That’s how generations tend to work. They think they know it all so they don’t need to consult with you.
So, How’s bitcoin doing?
What will the BoC do when America keeps raising rates as Powell has stated? How low will our dollar sink before they cave?
Question 5) I’m trying to cash in most of my RRSP’s as my income goes way up at age 70 and age 72. There was no option in the question for people trying to cash them in.
Today it happened. I saw the vanity plate that made me laugh really hard.
NGOSH8R
Ha ha ha.
NGOs Hater. :-)
Am now retired:) About that $1.7 million figure – have to think the folks who believe they need that much a) do not have a DB pension other than CPP; b) have not been able to save or contribute to an RRSP/TFSA/FHSA; c) may be carrying a considerable debt load or have other financial obligations that make retirement a distant goal. I waited to retire until I had paid off all outstanding debt plus my workplace plan is that much envied DB plan. That plus CPP ensures that I can live comfortably.
Our friends just listed in Vancouver and already several showings booked for Thurs:
https://bcres.paragonrels.com/CollabLink/?id=39ab6d68-97b0-49c7-a14c-57dfe45ce85f&from=publink&forMlsId=BCRES
This kicks off their full, and fully active, retirement at 62 and 56yo. First to their Palm Desert place, then a few cruises, then lots of Europe, then a month of Chilcotin hunting at our place, then… anything, absolutely anything at all.
We’re watching their template… and cogitating. Hmmm…
Flop Drops.
So the 2 million barrier is getting broken down on the Westside, what about the 1 million barrier on the Eastside.
Featured this house a few weeks ago when someone asked when will we see houses going below one million in Vancouver proper again.
Here we go.
The details…
5023 Fraser st, Vancouver
Original ask 1.2
Just sold for 1 million flat.
https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2733335/5022-FRASER-STREET-Vancouver-BC/
So this is the one in Flopville a few hundred metres away from Garth’s Great Grandfather’s burial site.
It’s on a main artery, graveyard opposite, livable for a million, it’s a step in the right direction for those who want to stay here, won’t be an avalanche because of lack of inventory, but we’ll see how it goes.
First comes the death, then the rebirth…
M48BC
Wow, just got caught up from last night’s post. Wow. This Faron person can’t be real. He/she/they are a literal parody of left wing lunacy. Seek help.
Remax realtor says her clients were “panicked” last week after seeing the dismal January numbers.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoXySIoDGKJ/
Nothingburger sales pitch. – Garth
The entire financial planning industry is focussed on helping people plan for retirement, not on helping people who are actually retired. The bank survey and this blog are no different, hence the survey questions are not aimed at retirees. It makes sense in a way, because if you are already retired it’s too late to do much about your financial situation.
I always get a chuckle out of the pseudo-financial advice stories in the National Post and Globe & Mail along the lines of “my spouse and I each have DB pensions that will pay $85K per year (indexed) and $1M in unregistered assets, will we be able to spend $150K per year in retirement?” and the columnist launches into a serious discussion of their prospects. Yeah, that’s a really useful column of advice for ordinary people.
If you have $1.7M in liquid assets (not including RE) at retirement, you likely in the top 1% of retirees. That’s why the bank survey (and this one) is really rather silly and certainly shouldn’t be considered useful guidance.
50 years old. Married. 1 kid. Deca millionaire
We good
Thank you Great Recession U.S. foreclosure crisis
I’m not going to have $1.7 mil for retirement. Nor do I need that much. I can and will make it work with less.
98 Sailo
Well explained.
The Banks will be slapping the Realestate Agencies to remind them that foreign investors are illegal in Canada.
Dumping the US Dollars has begun…
https://www.rt.com/business/571118-binance-halts-dollar-transfers/
Florida cheap condos under 50k!!
Live half the year here and the other half staying with family and frieds or traveling.
Dump your overpriced Canadian homes and condos and be flush with cash.
https://www.point2homes.com/US/Condos-For-Sale/FL.html?location=Florida&PriceMax=50%2C000&PropertyType=CondoApartment&search_mode=location&page=1&SelectedView=listings&LocationGeoId=32&location_changed=&ajax=1
Gareth the problem with your survey is that if you are already retired some questions are irrelevant but the survey won’t let you proceed without picking an answer option, so for these questions I just filled in anything which is not what you want in a survey. Next time you need a none of the above option that allows the survey to move on.
Right retirement. You don’t need as much as you think as for most people their lifestyle does not change that much when they retire. Wearing your pjs and driving round the neighborhood are cheap activities. I have been retired 9 years and my hubby for 2 years and we have yet to use any of our retirement savings, we find that our modest pensions are fine to live on if you own your house and have no debts. We are going to break into the savings for a cruise this Fall.
Do include your house in the calculation as the reality is that once the kids are gone, your family home is too big so you will downsize. Then once you hit 80 and/or are on your own, you will decide that you don’t want a garden and downsize again into a retirement apartment. Each move releases tax-free money. Seen this movie with friends and family many many times.
I have also seen for you young ones the positive impacts on later life of marrying young, having your kids young and staying together. If you can hit age 55 with the kids launched. You are made for life.
Never ever take on major debt age over 55. Leave the dream house for your kids to stress over.
Florida cheap condos under 50k!!
Live half the year here and the other half staying with family and frieds or traveling.
Dump your overpriced Canadian homes and condos and be flush with cash.
https://www.point2homes.com/US/Condos-For-Sale/FL.html?location=Florida&PriceMax=50%2C000&PropertyType=CondoApartment&search_mode=location&page=1&SelectedView=listings&LocationGeoId=32&location_changed=&ajax=1
Apart from having your financial house in order, if you are not in good shape you better get started. Exercise everyday, lift weights, and learn to eat and cook nutritiously. Being fit and strong takes work and discipline. Invest in yourself. From what I see people are failing badly.
#112 crowdedelevatorfartz on 02.07.23 at 8:55 pm
Just curious.
How many acres?
200?
__________________________________________
Forty. 240’X8000′ approx. Acre after acre, times 40 going inland. None are the same either. One, way back even has remnant massive old growth Eastern White Pine and Hemlock!
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
Omg.
What was she thinking? Front page of the NP this morning…T2 and Danielle…. The photo. He grasps her hand like they just got engaged or they’re off to the high school dance.
That’s not an assertive hand shake, Danielle, it’s acquiescence. One picture, a thousand words. Oh boy.
This Premier needs my help. Am I still on the payroll?
Snippet : Mr. Lag speaketh:
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said market participants who interpret his decision to take a break from raising interest rates as a prelude to cuts might be getting ahead of themselves.
“I want to be very clear: we are pausing interest rate hikes to assess whether we raised interest rates enough to get inflation all the way back to target,”
“Monetary policy works with the lag. We’ve raised rates rapidly. We’re seeing the effects. We know there’s more to come. It makes sense to pause and assess whether we’ve done enough.” Macklem flagged some risks in his projections that could complicate the central bank’s mission.
“The biggest is that global energy prices could increase, pushing inflation up around the world,” Macklem said in his speech. “We’re also concerned that inflation expectations could remain elevated and increases in labour costs could persist. If these upside risks materialize, we are prepared to raise interest rates further to return inflation to the two-per-cent target.”
(Darn that ol’ bug bear energy, it really drives the bus, don’t it? And we ain’t talkin’ wind turbines and solar panels, kids….)
@#124 Blind Bumper
“NGOSH8R”
“Negotiator”
Probably a labour Lawyer and Litig8r and Shyster was taken.
@#130 Nick
“I always get a chuckle out of the pseudo-financial advice stories in the National Post and Globe & Mail along the lines of “my spouse and I each have DB pensions that will pay $85K per year (indexed) and $1M in unregistered assets, will we be able to spend $150K per year in retirement?” and the columnist launches into a serious discussion of their prospects. Yeah, that’s a really useful column of advice for ordinary people.”
++++
Yeah.
It seems like a lot of the peeps just write in to brag.
The one that did it for me was a retired couple from Ontario.
“We are both retired govt workers with pensions paying $90k each, we have a house valued at 2 million mortgage free and 1.8 million in investments….
Will we be able to ski in Europe and Cruise the Caribbean for the next 25 years….?”
@#36 Jane24
” having your kids young and staying together. If you can hit age 55 with the kids launched. You are made for life.”
+++
Young kids dont “launch” anymore.
Too hard.
They stay in the basement , breathing Radon gas and waiting for their meals to be hand delivered.
Big Bank report and economist talkin’:
A new report by CIBC Capital Markets reveals that the overly rapid immigration problem is much more serious than most people realized.
CIBC’S report said the total number of newcomers in 2022, including “non-permanent residents,” was an estimated 955,000, which represents “an unprecedented swing in housing demand.
According to Benjamin Tal, managing director and deputy chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets, “any discussion regarding the housing market in Canada starts and ends with references to the growing number of new immigrants and to the government’s aggressive targets that are aimed at lifting the number of new immigrants by no less than 75 per cent relative to pre-pandemic levels by 2025. This in an environment in which the rental market is getting tighter by the day.”
We are Open For Business Folks. In the Land of the Free and the home of the brave.
“The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy said Tuesday that the number of insolvencies filed by Canadian companies in 2022 was up 37.2% compared with 2021 — and at least one business organization predicts that figure will keep growing.
The federal regulator’s annual count found 3,402 business insolvencies last year, up from 2,480 in 2021. Business bankruptcies totalled 2,621 for the year, up from 1,942, while debt settlement proposals filed by businesses amounted to 781, up from 538 in 2021.” (investmentexecutive.com)
——–
Our Rulers told us we were in a deadly pandemic for 3 years. Now in Year 4, this. Fool me once.
(How’s that ‘hospital capacity looking’…)
.Trudeau to present health-care offer to premiers in long-awaited meeting for new deal. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is joining Canada’s premiers at the table today where he is set to offer them a significant increase towards health-care funding. (cp24.com)
.Ontario financial watchdog says the province is underspending on health (theglobeandmail.com)
hot growth stories? fakery
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/07/we-owe-our-landlord-1m-in-rent-but-theyve-left-us-with-substandard-homes-noble-tree-foundation
December 8, 20223:24 PM
Wirecard bosses’ fraud trial begins after scandal that rocked Germany
Founded in 1999 and based in the Munich suburb of Aschheim, Wirecard’s fairy-tale rise transformed it from a payment processor for pornography and online gambling to a showpiece for a new type of German tech company that could compete with the established titans of Europe’s largest economy.
The FT’s Inside Wirecard series meticulously documents the 7-year journey of Dan McCrum and FT journalists, who essentially took down the ‘online payments giant’.
https://www.ft.com/wirecard
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/former-wirecard-boss-goes-trial-fraud-scandal-that-rocked-germany-2022-12-08/
============================
How US lawyers and bankers aided powerful Haitian tycoons now sanctioned over corruption by Canada
Two wealthy Haitians recently sanctioned by Canada owned or had other links to almost 20 companies and trusts created in some of the world’s most secretive tax havens, according to documents from the Pandora Papers.
By Will Fitzgibbon
February 7, 2023
https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/how-us-lawyers-and-bankers-aided-powerful-haitian-tycoons-now-sanctioned-over-corruption-by-canada/
#132 Michael in-north-york on 02.08.23 at 12:34 am
I’m not going to have $1.7 mil for retirement. Nor do I need that much. I can and will make it work with less.
____
Same. All the basic expenses in my life that I can think of only amount to about 22K per year. Any retirees I’ve talked details with are getting by on about 45K or so. That still seems doable even in 2023.
Re: #104 Wrk.dover on 02.07.23 at 8:18 pm
If you have a big enough house you buy a 6×12 foot snooker table and a couple of dozen pinball machines. Both hold their value and you play them all day long. Cost ends up being minimal.
Retirement.
My favourite subject. Thanks, Garth, for devoting an entire post to it.
I love retirement.
It was my goal from day one of work.
I hated working.
Laziness is in my DNA.
I’m a natural born BUM.
But, I sucked it up, and worked worked worked.
BUT…
I heeded the sage words of the financial gurus of the day – Garth included – and employed the good ol’ “pay yourself first” rule.
I did not save what was left after spending. I only spent what was left after saving.
And by saving, I mean investing.
I’m in my sixth year of retirement now (in addition to a 14th month sabbatical taken 12 years ago) and I like it.
I LIKE IT!!! OK?
My peak performance hours daily are 11 – 3.
Prior to 11 AM it’s coffee, lounging, reading, internet surfing, texting, and did I mention coffee?
Then, if there’s any stuff to be done, it’s done between 11-3.
Afterwards it’s nap time, workout time, cooking time, dinner time, TV time, drinking time, hobby time, night out time, or whatever.
Lots to do. Never bored.
Travelling is a great pastime too. It’s ski season now, so, back and forth out west is the norm.
Yup – retirement is the payoff for a lifetime of drudgery.
I get it – some folks actually like their jobs. Their careers. Their professions. Their trades.
Not me.
Don’t get me wrong. More power to the work lovers. I wish I woulda been one of ’em. Easier that way. If you like your work, it’s like you’re not working. I GET IT.
Here’s a tip, though. Having the financial where with all to retire is a given. It’s obvious. No argument or debate.
That’s the baseline.
However, you must have the psychological predisposition to be able to hack it. If your ego, self worth, sense of worth and being are hopelessly ted to your vocation, you are doomed.
Don’t retire. You’ll go insane.
Keep working and telling yourself that you are important and the world needs you.
Now, I gotta get me another coffee.
#122 Canuck
I am still up 8k on a 22k investment in a month, doing good I guess, looks like I will be doubling my TSLA cash in about 8weeks as well. If one had listened to the expert(s) on here predicting the demise of TSLA I would have lost out on a very nice gain, I suppose they have shorted it as it was so obviously going to zero, how could they lose , right?
#108 Flop… on 02.07.23 at 8:37 pm
I assume that whoever suggested you can’t get a detached home in West Van for under $3M meant one that is actually livable, not an atrocious teardown like the one you posted for $1.9M.
You might want to check out the photos.
#10 Captain Uppa on 02.07.23 at 3:35 pm
For #5, I wanted to put “don’t want/need to contribute”
So instead of cannot afford, I said “partial”.
////////////
Same
On another note I was on holidays and took a break from the blog. How refreshing!
Fed’s Williams: A peak rate of 5%-5.25% is still a reasonable view.
#85 Drew on 02.07.23 at 6:24 pm
People always spend more when retired. What are you going to do? Knit? – Garth
_______
This is the first time I’ve heard someone say you spend more money in retirement. Studies I’ve seen and observations show less expenses.
#9 Bored AnonyMusk on 02.07.23 at 3:34 pm
#46 AnonyMusk on 02.05.23 at 2:42 pm
Pretending that the policies adopted by most of the world were not the cause of inflation will lead to a repeat of this disastrous error which is why I will be buying inflation hedges in the very near future.
People are ignoring the very obvious lesson.
&&&&&&&
Agreed that there is obvious projection of goals/wishes which may or may not come to fruition.
He was hoping that inflation wouldn’t come and said “ooops, we messed up on rates” when even data WE get to see showed the obvious and there was no way to spin it.
Now he’s saying pause, but as usual people hear what they want to hear. Not the fact that door to higher rates and hold is wide open in his carefully worded and reviewed statements that he reads off the teleprompter verbatim.
But enough about our non belief in leadership and policies. What are your go to inflation hedges?
Any anything on the debt situation? Clearly this debt balloon can’t keep getting bigger? …is what I said before the pandemic!
#145 the Jaguar on 02.08.23 at 8:30 am
Big Bank report and economist talkin’:
A new report by CIBC Capital Markets reveals that the overly rapid immigration problem is much more serious than most people realized.
CIBC’S report said the total number of newcomers in 2022, including “non-permanent residents,” was an estimated 955,000, which represents “an unprecedented swing in housing demand.
According to Benjamin Tal, managing director and deputy chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets, “any discussion regarding the housing market in Canada starts and ends with references to the growing number of new immigrants and to the government’s aggressive targets that are aimed at lifting the number of new immigrants by no less than 75 per cent relative to pre-pandemic levels by 2025. This in an environment in which the rental market is getting tighter by the day.”
——-
And all of these people have $3M to pay for a house?
Or TEN large to pay for a 2bdrm condo each month?
Or even $1.5M to pay for a house?
Or SIX large to pay for a 2bdrm condo each month?
As a side-bar, you have to give it to the rogue leaders of this world.
They go in, mess up a country.
People run, now homeless.
Western countries take them in, claiming high ground.
…while really needing these now homeless people to pay for the wrinkles benefits, and fill those jobs no one wants.
Rogue leader gets some new real estate, gets rid of pesky previous tenants, and west gets to claim to be virtuous while exploiting this new source of cheap labour.
Where is the down side I ask you?
Oops I posted this one yesterday’s blog by mistake so here goes Take 2
Kanada’s de facto One-Child Policy. My ride share driver revealed he has two jobs. His wife has a job. They have only one child. Barely enough to make ends meet.
Just another day in a Former First World Country.
—-“We have always been at war with Russia”
This is all smelling a bit like a manufactured event to rollout a global Green/Reset Agenda??
“FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe imposed a ban Sunday on Russian diesel fuel and other refined oil products, slashing energy dependency on Moscow …
The new sanctions create uncertainty about prices as the 27-nation European Union finds new supplies of diesel from the U.S., Middle East and India to replace those from Russia, which at one point delivered 10% of Europe’s total diesel needs.
——- We were supposed to be so healthy :(
.Flu epidemic declared in Tokyo and five other prefectures (japantimes.co.jp)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-01-19/why-are-young-people-dying-in-us-and-what-are-the-causes
Opinion Justin Fox
More Young Americans Are Dying, But Not From Vaccines
What the mortality data show is that, first of all, something has been killing American young people in sharply rising numbers lately. The 2021 mortality rate for those 15 to 34 was the highest since since 1973, and for those 25 to 34, it was the highest since 1950.
#109 Doing my Part on 02.07.23 at 8:38 pm
Roadrunner prevails over Coyote again.
—————
Well, Wile E defeats himself, to be fair. And he has no sense of decency or fair play, so after being soundly and rightfully trounced on all fronts, he’s licking his wounds and plotting revenge for fights that, as always, he instigated. What an ass.
Can you imagine this wingnut with nuclear codes?
This is an interesting article on why people keep trying to find a different cause for things other than the one staring them in the face. It’s written as a critique of climate alarmism, but it applies to any theory that tries to make predictions, from weather to gambling to investing.
The gist of it is that if you need a ” “theory to explain the failure of the theory”, your “theory” is crap.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/08/cognitive-dissonance-and-climate-change-a-takedown/
#145 the Jaguar on 02.08.23 at 8:30 am
Big Bank report and economist talkin’:
A new report by CIBC Capital Markets reveals that the overly rapid immigration problem is much more serious than most people realized.
CIBC’S report said the total number of newcomers in 2022, including “non-permanent residents,” was an estimated 955,000, which represents “an unprecedented swing in housing demand.
________
Yep, just the economic immigrants plus the international students alone are over 3/4 million.
Ontario gets close to half the total intake of newcomers every year, and about 75% of these end up in the GTA. We get about 50% of Canada’s total of International Students as well. It’s going to become a real $hit-show in some areas of the GTA going forward.
The strain is already starting to show, and I’m not talking about rents and house prices. The way we’re going, the whole immigration/student pot-pie is eventually going to rely solely on government success in spreading newcomers more evenly across the country. The GTA is already a sardine-packed horror show right now. Imagine 10 more years down the road!
Frankly, I can’t see how spreading around the country could ever work. The jobs, diasporas, places of worship, private schools, specialty grocers, cultural activities and festivals, and much more – are **all** in the Metros.
Anyway, stay back a safe distance, I think it’s going to get ugly.
#132 Michael in-north-york on 02.08.23 at 12:34 am
I’m not going to have $1.7 mil for retirement. Nor do I need that much. I can and will make it work with less.
_________________________________
We didn’t earn that total in our lives, but have saved 15% of that since the higher earner retired with a DBP in ’06.
Travel was stupid cheap pre-covid. Did lots and lots.
Anyone going to see “Cocaine Bear”?
“Bear eats duffle bag full of coke, then goes on killing spree”
Sounds like it might be entertaining : )
I had rich relatives but didn’t inherit any of it. My father’s aunt Kitty was married to Bruce the Vice President of Ford Motors Canada in the 1950’s and 1960’s. My first cousin Catherine married into big time money pushing 100 million. Her mother got her married to some rich guy named Craig at the Bayview Golf and Country Club.
#144 crowdedelevatorfartz on 02.08.23 at 8:24 am
@#36 Jane24
” having your kids young and staying together. If you can hit age 55 with the kids launched. You are made for life.”
+++
Young kids dont “launch” anymore.
Too hard.
They stay in the basement , breathing Radon gas and waiting for their meals to be hand delivered.
—————————————————————-
Both of my sons launched after high school and went off to teck school. Wife and I were 44 and 45 when they left to make a life of their own. Both very successful businessmen. We have two wonderful granddaughters. So glad I told them the story about the 3 little pigs.
Now is the time when plane loads are leaving Canada far faster than any arriving. Look out Below!
HOOPP is as strong and stable as any pension plan. I recently got an update and they are providing a full indexing of last year’s inflation due to strong results. If this is your pension plan, I wouldn’t worry about it. Hospitals are not about to go out of business, and if anything it’s pretty clear the number of health care workers in the country will be expanding.
#110 VicPaul on 02.07.23 at 8:45 pm
#22 the Jaguar on 02.07.23 at 3:54 pm
What do people want to talk to me about the most? – GT ++
I would submit that one of the burning questions most have for you is why you continue to allow someone who regularly posts the following sort of statements remains with no admonition from you. It’s not isolated or even occasional, but daily mental unravelling. You have ‘toasted’ others for far less. :
‘We are trying Garth’s patience.’
‘By continuing to post your nonsense you are allowing a kind of hate speech. Anti-trans ‘violence will hereafter, in some small part, be on you.’
Disingenuous lying that dolts like The Jaguar amd Sail Away thrive on.’
‘I’m asking for Garth to grow a spine and reban you for hate speech.’ (WOW! -grow a spine?) …
*********
I agree…this ideologue’s fantasy-infused, caustic vitriol is a daily verbal assault – putrid.
But Jaguar, I think this is exactly how the rise of woke culture/marxist feelings have permeated our society…through this sense that, if you just scream down people and play victim, most will acquiesce and let you have your way – and look where it’s gotten us.
The group that claims no victimhood, are the victims of today.
Gratefully, it’s begun to eat itself…as these malignancies usually do.
Can’t blame faron though – he is so dug in…hot-housed in the lab of marxist wokeism (universities of the last twenty+ years). He bought into the catastrophication (did I just coin that one?) of climate and sees himself a young Michael Mann.
Yeesh!
M59BC
*************
We are enduring the entirely predictable results of delayed adulthood due to spending too much time marinating in the woke broth of academia.
Just as an acidic marinade dissolves the tough connective tissues in a cut of meat, corrosive, woke academia dissolves the necessary concepts of “self” and “other”. This process is hastened in some who failed to fully integrate these concepts at the appropriate stage of toddler development.
The empathy weaponization movement is another facet of this phenomenon. Projecting empathy onto strangers with whom one has no meaningful connection is just projecting the all important self onto a convenient other, with the added incentive of receiving social approval amongst the perceived educated elite.
Ergo, to be based is basic. Fully buffered against the tantrums of developmentally delayed, woke toddlers.