Canadian Dream: Free at 45 One Canadian's dream to retire at 45. Topics include: early retirement, investing, savings, spending, and happiness.

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Cutting Out Clutter
2007-07-13 21:25:00
Like most homes I have far too many things. I have junk and clutter hiding around every closet it seems and it has been getting worse since we last moved to a bigger house almost a year ago. So for the last few days I've been on a war with my house getting rid of clutter.The reason for this sudden change was I just got sick of all the stuff taking up my time. Then I realized it was costing me to actually keep this junk/clutter. I have to move it, clean around it, worry about it, avoid it and then pay my insurance company money to insure it while I make up my mind. All this time for clutter and junk? What have I been thinking?!?To start we started with our closet upstairs I purged the excess clothes and then moved onto the bathroom and got rid of all of those small bottle of lotion and shampoo we seem to collect for no reason. Then I hit up my study which I have been avoiding. I finally filed the last six months of phone bills and then my wife got a much needed second file cabi ...

Taking a Long Vacation
2007-07-11 16:22:00
I'm into my second week of vacation here and I have to say I really am enjoying this second week at home. I'm not relaxing as much as my first week off, but I'm getting a ton of things done around the house and I'm not in a big rush to get in done in two days like a normal weekend. This will result in me going back to work recharged since I had a week away from everything last week and I also get the benefit of having less to worry about at home since I clear off much of my to do list. Not to mention the house will be cleaned, the fridge will be full and the grass will be cut as I head back to work next week.Perhaps the only drawback to a vacation at home would be the fact if you don't get away for a while it might not feel like a vacation. The upside of coarse is the home vacation is cheap. In total for two weeks off I will spend $500 on my vacation including gas, shopping and entertainment. So next time you book time off considering taking a long period off. You might be ab ...
Vacation 

Taking a Long Vacation
2007-07-11 16:06:00
I'm into my second week of vacation here and I have to say I really am enjoying this second week at home. I'm not relaxing as much as my first week off, but I'm getting a ton of things done around the house and I'm not in a big rush to get in done in two days like a normal weekend. This will result in me going back to work recharged since I had a week away from everything last week and I also get the benefit of having less to worry about at home since I clear off much of my to do list. Not to mention the house will be cleaned, the fridge will be full and the grass will be cut as I head back to work next week.Perhaps the only drawback to a vacation at home would be the fact if you don't get away for a while it might not feel like a vacation. The upside of coarse is the home vacation is cheap. In total for two weeks off I will spend $500 on my vacation including gas, shopping and entertainment. So next time you book time off considering taking a long period off. You might be ab ...
Vacation 

When Avoiding Risk is Too Much
2007-07-09 16:36:30
During my last net worth update you might of noticed I had a fair amount of cash sitting in our ING account. The reason was I was expecting some news which would have let me use that cash in a private investment. Well that information was delayed and then delayed again, so I was talking to my wife about what we should do and she suggested just investing the cash elsewhere. She made one comment that really hit home for me "What's the worst that could happen? You lose some cash, but if you make a good return in the mean time you could off set that. At least it would be making more than the 3.5% in the ING account. " I was so focused on not losing that money I lost track of the bigger picture.So we moved around $4500 over to her investment account and picked up some more EIT.UN shares last week with a yield of 12.5%. With that current yield being 3.5 times greater than the ING account we really only need about 2 months of distributions to break even as compared to the ING account ...

When Avoiding Risk is Too Much
2007-07-09 16:26:00
During my last net worth update you might of noticed I had a fair amount of cash sitting in our ING account. The reason was I was expecting some news which would have let me use that cash in a private investment. Well that information was delayed and then delayed again, so I was talking to my wife about what we should do and she suggested just investing the cash elsewhere. She made one comment that really hit home for me "What's the worst that could happen? You lose some cash, but if you make a good return in the mean time you could off set that. At least it would be making more than the 3.5% in the ING account. " I was so focused on not losing that money I lost track of the bigger picture.So we moved around $4500 over to her investment account and picked up some more EIT.UN shares last week with a yield of 12.5%. With that current yield being 3.5 times greater than the ING account we really only need about 2 months of distributions to break even as compared to the ING account ...

I'm BACK
2007-07-09 05:21:34
Ok, I'm not really back. I'm still on vacation, but I'll be putting some posts up this week.Thanks to Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey for looking after my blog while I was gone. It was most appreciated!I've just finished looking at the comments while I was gone, but if you sent me an email it might take a few days for me to get back to you. ...

I'm BACK
2007-07-09 05:16:00
Ok, I'm not really back. I'm still on vacation, but I'll be putting some posts up this week.Thanks to Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey for looking after my blog while I was gone. It was most appreciated!I've just finished looking at the comments while I was gone, but if you sent me an email it might take a few days for me to get back to you. ...

How to Feed a Family on $300/month
2007-07-06 13:09:00
On a recent post Jordan Clark asked me how I managed to feed my family of three for about $300/month including our house hold goods like garbage bags and paper towel. I thought this might be an interesting post, so I ran through my last grocery bill to see where that money goes.First off I should explain the basics of how things work for us. We do one big grocery run at the start of the month and try to keep it around $250. Then with my wife running a daycare we get some leftovers from the business that get passed along into the house. I would estimate that gives us around an extra $50/month in ‘free’ food. Then during the month we get milk, fruit, and a hand full of other items for perhaps $50 total. So in reality we spend about $350/month on food, but I only pay for $300.Perhaps some of the most important things we do with our food are buy in bulk where ever possible and make as many things as possible from scratch. I bake all my own muffins and cakes. I’m fairly fearle ...
Family  Feed 

How to Feed a Family on $300/month
2007-07-06 13:09:00
On a recent post Jordan Clark asked me how I managed to feed my family of three for about $300/month including our house hold goods like garbage bags and paper towel. I thought this might be an interesting post, so I ran through my last grocery bill to see where that money goes.First off I should explain the basics of how things work for us. We do one big grocery run at the start of the month and try to keep it around $250. Then with my wife running a daycare we get some leftovers from the business that get passed along into the house. I would estimate that gives us around an extra $50/month in ‘free’ food. Then during the month we get milk, fruit, and a hand full of other items for perhaps $50 total. So in reality we spend about $350/month on food, but I only pay for $300.Perhaps some of the most important things we do with our food are buy in bulk where ever possible and make as many things as possible from scratch. I bake all my own muffins and cakes. I’m fairly fearle ...
Family  Feed 

Interveiw with The Money Diva
2007-07-05 05:10:00
As bloggers goes the Money Diva has been a refreshing blast onto the Canadian Blog scene. She has a huge net worth, well written posts and a good sense of humor. Overall her blog is a joy to read and I was very grateful she recently took some time to let me interview her.CD: On a recent visit to your blog I noticed a little redesign on the layout with some obvious sex appeal. So how much fun do you have being one of the few female personal finance bloggers in Canada?MD: My new site design is meant to be sexy without taking it too seriously. I think that you have to have fun with what you're doing or there's no point. There do seem to be far more men than women in the PF blogosphere, but I rarely write from a specifically "female" perspective. I actually get very few comments that relate to my gender so I'm not sure how much people care.CD: Good point. I have to admit once in a while I look at your net worth and feel a touch of envy. How did you manage to accumulate such a high n ...
Money 

Interveiw with The Money Diva
2007-07-05 05:10:00
As bloggers goes the Money Diva has been a refreshing blast onto the Canadian Blog scene. She has a huge net worth, well written posts and a good sense of humor. Overall her blog is a joy to read and I was very grateful she recently took some time to let me interview her.CD: On a recent visit to your blog I noticed a little redesign on the layout with some obvious sex appeal. So how much fun do you have being one of the few female personal finance bloggers in Canada?MD: My new site design is meant to be sexy without taking it too seriously. I think that you have to have fun with what you're doing or there's no point. There do seem to be far more men than women in the PF blogosphere, but I rarely write from a specifically "female" perspective. I actually get very few comments that relate to my gender so I'm not sure how much people care.CD: Good point. I have to admit once in a while I look at your net worth and feel a touch of envy. How did you manage to accumulate such a high n ...
Money 

Reader's Story: "What Do You Really Want?"
2007-07-04 14:50:00
A while back I had the following comment by Turney left on my post about Living Below Your Means.(LBYM)What a quaint idea! All kidding aside, my husband and I have done this all our working and non-working lives and we've been able to do all sorts of things most people only dream of. While we fully retired when we were 50, we're now 55 and we've been semi-retired since we were 40. We are very conservative investors but pay minimal tax due to those dividend paying stocks and limited withdrawals from our RRSp's. Consequently our investments are growing not decreasing. It's too bad more investment advisors don't give you the scoop on actual taxes payable with a conservative portfolio. Forget those mutual funds that have high MER's and trade stocks incessantly.Another key to LBYM is that as Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, we can live very easily with items that have been discarded by people. Second-hand stores are abound with wonderful almost new items. And you ...
Story 

Interview with JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly
2007-07-03 10:54:00
I recently had the chance to interview J.D.Roth of the incredibly popular personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly.CD: Get Rich Slowly is considered one the most successful personal finance blogs out there with a staggering 24,000+ subscribers and 8000+ visitors daily. What do you think makes your blog so popular?JD: I don't know. I've wondered this myself. I suspect that it's because I mix things up. I post some moderately technical things ("how to open an IRA"), but I also post anecdotes from my daily life. I post about bank interest rates, but I also post tips for hosting a garage sale. It also helps that I post frequently, and that I write well.Another aspect that probably helps is that I'm willing to engage my readers: I post questions from them, I reply via e-mail, etc. I really do try to make Get Rich Slowly a site that can deal with readers' personal finance issues.CD: Your blog often includes personal references to your own life and your own struggle with debt. Do you ever ...
Interview 

Million Dollar Journey is Taking Over the Blog World!
2007-06-30 18:44:00
Catchy title hey? Canadian Dream gave me, Frugal Trader of Million Dollar Journey, the honor of taking care of his popular blog during the week that he's away. I've been following Mr. Dream's blog ever since it started and I must admit that I'm a big fan. What's not to like? Early retirement is a popular topic as most people in the working world want to leave the rat race well before they are eligible for old age security (65). With Canadian Dream being in his late 20's with a current net worth of around $200,000, there is no doubt that he will reach his goals. Especially if you're as stingy frugal as him (hope he doesn't read this).We have a great week of articles lined up, among them include interviews with popular personal finance blogs and other personal finance ramblings. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments, or you can contact me directly by visiting my blog.Frugal TraderMillionDollarJourney.com ...
Blog  Dollar  Journey 

Net Worth - June Update
2007-06-29 14:00:00
How the time flies, it seems that I just did my last update. Anyway here we go.AssetsHouse $294,400RRSP $12,800Old Work Pension $11,700New Work Pension $1300Wife's RRSP $5500Wife's Investment Account $5000ING Savings Account $6800DebtMortgage $147,500Line of Credit $0Therefore my net worth now stands at: $190,000. Overall an increase of +$58,500 or 44.5% from my last check up.Before anyone gets too excited I do need to remind you my house value has shot up a lot in the last four months which is driving these insane increases. I decided to use my home value as market value -8% to account for closing costs and fees if I cashed it out. That way I've got a set formula I use to determine my house value rather than just taking a conservative guess.For those of you who may be doubting my local crazy house market I would like to point out that I know someone whom just sold their home for an over $100,000 profit after owing the house for just seven months and trust me when I say they just ...

Upcoming Vacation and Idea
2007-06-28 14:53:00
Well folks, sorry for not having your regular wandering reading post this week. I've been very busy lately as I'm trying to clean things up so I can head out on my vacation for the next two weeks starting on this Sat.The good news is I got someone to look after this blog next week while I'm gone. Frugal Trader from Million Dollar Journey has agreed to look after things. I'm putting together several posts so next week you will have interviews from J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly and the Money Diva from A Canadian and Her Money plus what ever else FT wants to use out of my list of draft posts. If you ask nicely he might even write a guest post for you all.The week after next, I'll be around somewhat. So that week the posts may be a bit erratic as I'm planning on doing some renovations around the house.Now that you are all informed about my vacation plans, I've got an idea I want to run pass you my loyal readers. I've been approached to be part of a group blog on personal finan ...
Vacation 

Communication Before Retirement
2007-06-27 14:33:00
If your married you know that some days despite your best intentions you just forget to mention something to your spouse once in a while. Typically in my case, it is a fairly minor issue. My wife found me an interesting article while I was gone along those lines. It was about how well couples communicate about their retirement plans or their lack there of.In a survey done with over 500 married couples with at least one spouse just about ready to retire they were both asked the same questions and it was found each spouse often had different ideas about some fairly basic issues around retirement (For your reference the average age of those surveyed was 53 to 54 and they on average were married for24 years).For example, more than 1/3 of those couples did not know when the other wanted to retire. They also found more than 2/5 of couples give different answers on weather one spouse will continue to work in retirement. Also more than 1/3 expected a different standard of living in retir ...
Communication  Retirement 

How I Bought a New Laptop for $140
2007-06-26 14:26:00
Recently I had to spend some time out east away from my family. I wasn't too happy about the deal, but it did have one interesting fact to it. I got paid a flat rate for my food expenses of $50/day while I was gone.This provided an interesting opportunity for me. How much could I save from that daily money to make a little extra profit on the deal? So after moving to a hotel room with a little fridge and microwave and finding out the hotel offered a free breakfast. I found a grocery store and bought some items for making lunches and a few frozen dinners for a couple of suppers. I ate very well overall and even got a few beer for my fridge. I even managed to walk a lot and lose a couple of pounds while I was at it.Just before leaving on this trip I decided to get a new laptop to assume myself with in the evenings. Hence the reason you had blog post for the last three weeks. I bought a floor model which had a tiny damage in the case. So I got a nice system with a wide screen f ...
Laptop 

Living in a Hot Housing Market
2007-06-25 14:03:00
Recently I ran into my real estate agent who sold me my house last July. I like the man because he is honest and to the point. He doesn't pull your chain or embellish the situation into something it isn't. So with all this in mind, he is one of the few people I feel that can honestly tell me what my house is worth. He told me and I had a hard time standing up.According to him, and assuming I haven't done much to the house. I could list and expect the sell my house for at least $320,000 in the current market. Which would mean if I sold and cash out of this market I could, after all the fees, make $100,000 profit on my house or a 250% gain on my initial investment in just under one year.I was excited about this information for exactly 30 seconds. I justed wanted to enjoy that feeling, but I know that in reality that information means nothing. I don't want to sell my house and even if I did I would have to buy back into the same market meaning I would not make much if any prof ...
Housing  Living  Market 

Wander Reading #5
2007-06-21 11:45:00
Recently I had a post about vague retirement studies and I asked for someone to provide a link to a recent one if they find it. Well one reader,Richard Cleaver, was very kind and here is that study. I only got to page three before rolling my eyes. They keep their wording very vague through the report and then don't provide any backup data in an appendix to show how they arrived at the numbers. In my line of work if you presented a report like this you would be fired by the client.Yet here are a few links around this study from other blogs, in case you missed them.Canadian Capitalist provides two posts on this study. See #1 and #2.Canadian Financial Stuff adds his thoughts on it all here.Last, but not least, Canadian Financial DIY, weighs in with his thoughts.If I missed anyone else, please leave a link in the comments. Also a reminder that tomorrow's post will be up very late in the day as I'm traveling for most of the day. ...
Wander 

Ok I'm Ready to Retire, Now What?
2007-06-20 12:44:00
If your one of those people getting very close to your retirement date, you are very lucky and perhaps a bit over whelmed by it all. After all, how does one actually retire? Well before you hand in your notice to your boss. I suggest a few things you need to get in line.Make use of any health benefits you have currently, because you won't have them in retirement. So see your dentist and get everything that needs to be done. Then your optometrist and also make sure you get a full physical with your family doctor before leaving work. Also talk to your doctor about getting a longer perception if you take something regularly. You basically want to max out every benefit you can before leaving.Apply for any lines of credit, credit cards or any other type of credit you might need for the next twenty years as your income is going to drop and that doesn't look good when applying for new credit.If your old enough to get Canada Pension Plan and/or Old Age Security you want to apply about six mo ...
Retire 

Extented Leave from Family
2007-06-19 12:03:00
During the last few weeks I've recently got my first idea of what an extended leave from my family feels like. I have to admit I'm not crazy about it so far.To give you all some background I have travelled a lot with my various jobs before this, but never for this long of a period. I'm going to be just shy of three weeks when I get onto a plane later this week (by the way, this is your fair warning that Friday's post will be up very late). Being away has never bothered me that much before until this time. Why? I have to admit I think it has to do with the kid.Before leaving my wife was difficult, but I knew she could handle it. Now she has been stuck playing single parent for the last few weeks and I feel guilty leaving her to handle all of that. Also I find after being home for a long period of time that the being away is hard for me as well. Overall it just isn't worth the lose of my personal time being away this long.So in light of all this I've been laying some groun ...
Family 

Over Insurance on Record Keeping
2007-06-18 12:26:00
At what point is keeping a record of something holding you back? Is it really useful to keep your bank statements for the last seven years? If so what for? Are we getting too much insurance for ourselves with our paperwork which will likely never use again. Ever.I thought of those questions a while ago and I've started a program to reduce the amount of paperwork in my house that requires me to do anything. First most of my bills now come automatically out of my account. Then I signed up for electronic bank account statements and Visa bill statements.So far I would estimate I have eliminated about 1/3 of the paperwork I used to deal with at home. The more interesting fact is I have yet to need one single piece of paper that I am no longer keeping a hard copy of.Now I've been thinking of taking it to the next level and stop keeping Visa slips and bank slips for longer than one month. One month should give me enough time to check that the slip in question did show up in the account. Aft ...
Insurance  Record 

Retirement Studies Are Smoke and Mirrors
2007-06-15 11:58:00
I recently saw this article in The Star and I have to admit it made me laugh. It claims that 2/3 of Canadians who want to retire by 2030 are not saving enough money.Basically the article is a rewording of the official press release (see here). They mention all this information they went through and all their hard work, yet they don't provide one single number of useful data in the press release other the headline. What do you assume for inflation? What are 'basic household expenses'? Out of this 72 profiles what factors did you take into account? Where did you assume they are living?In the end this news article is not very useful other that getting people frightened and trying to get them to save more. They just don't provide enough information in a press release to tell if the report is useful or just full of holes in their logic. What really makes me mad is they never include a link to the actual report so I can read it myself and determine if it is useful.Have a good weekend,CD ...
Mirrors  Retirement  Smoke  Studies 

Wander Reading #4
2007-06-14 11:51:00
I have to say I've been ignoring the online media a bit lately since I've been busy with other items, so I don't have any fantastic obscure articles for you this week. Yet I did enjoy a few blog posts this last week.Financial Jungle has an interesting post on if money can buy happiness.Four Pillars looks at the emerging markets and finds they are not some attractive.Money Diva looks at seven ways to dummy proof your auto payments (some good ideas).Canadian Money write a response post to my recent post on the latest market dip.Regardless if you didn't like The Four Hour Workweek book, Tim Ferris is now teamed up with google Adwords to provide a $25 free trial to any one who has read the book. Heck I'm likely to check it out to just see about some free advertising. ...
Wander 

How Not to Go Broke After Having Children
2007-06-13 12:13:00
Well my fellow blogger, Middle Class Millionaire recently became a parent. So I thought I would share some things I've learned about raising kids and money so far.Kids accept anything they grow up with as normal. This is your key to raising a happy child without going broke. For example, my kid mostly wears clothes from Walmart. Why? I don't need high quality when the out grows it before wearing it out. So why spend the money, unless your wife is having a 'It is SO CUTE' moment and the item is on sale at the Please Mum store.The fancy looking crib is really for yourself and not your kid. Otherwise you would just accept the fact it doesn't have to look good to any but you 95% of the time for only a few years. Try to find one that converts to a toddler bed so you can really get some use out of it.A cradle is a waste of money for most people. The kid doesn't need to be in there in the first place. A few rolled up towels gives the same effect in the crib. Also the change table is a c ...
Broke  Children 

The Sky is What?
2007-06-12 11:36:00
My wife complains that I’m too sound of a sleeper. I can sleep through any short of a nuclear explosion, with the exception of my kid crying for more than five seconds. Don’t ask why I wake up for my kid, because I don’t know other than perhaps some sort of primitive look after offspring instinct that lay buried in me until I had a kid. Anyways, apparently I can also sleep through a minor market correction. I didn’t realize the TSX had three bad days of trading recently until the Moneygardener mentioned it in his blog which I finally read last night.My selective ignorance plan is working very well. Case in point. Look at a one month chart for the TSX.Ok, a fairly big shift, then change to the five year view. Can you even see the correction at this level? Yes, but looking back there has been a hell of a lot worse. Therefore, it is nothing to worry about.When the sky is falling burying your head a little under the sand will keep you happily asleep until the big parts start fallin ...

The Enemy Within
2007-06-11 12:19:00
Despite my best intentions I find my mind wondering at times if I should be doing something different with my investments. Perhaps it is the engineer in me that constantly wants to improve things or perhaps it is all the personal finance blogs and books I read that give me ideas.Regardless of the source one of the single biggest enemies to your portfolio doing well is yourself. If investing was completely a numbers game it would be easy to do, but instead we have a market place where real people react to things with their emotions and that drives all the dips and peaks in the market on the day to day basis. Over the longer term there is a certain reward for companies that do well as value investors deem them worthy of their price.So how do you keep on track and not fall victim to changing your investment plan constantly? You have two main options for defense: ignorance and keeping yourself busy.Creating a selective ignorance around the financial market is actually a very good idea. You ...
Enemy 

Book Review: The Four Hour Workweek
2007-06-08 12:24:00
With a title like The Four Hour Workweek, author Timothy Ferriss has hit an interesting new point for a book. Essentially Tim combined time management with economics and a slash of small business sense and a pitch of retirement to create a very entertaining read.First Tim shows us his currently lifestyle, he spends less than four hours a week running his business which uses about 200 to 200 people to run with very little input from him. Basically Tim is the owner, but not the manager of his own business. He delegates everything so that he can have the maximum amount of time to chase his own dreams.Overall this is a hard book to summarize since there is so much different material that he covers, but I'll try to hit the high points for you. Tim is using the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. First he applied it to his business and then every other part of his life. Basically he did a huge edit to his life of what was working and starting gutting th ...
Book  Book Review  Review 

Work to Live, Not Live to Work
2007-06-07 12:04:00
Perhaps it is just me or have you noticed the vast majority of people have appeared to lost their minds around their jobs and their personal lives. We book every second of every day with things to do and people seem to forget how to sit down and relax.Currently I’m out east and I was discussing some of my co-workers with one of local people in the office. I heard the story of the older gentleman with a nice office on the top floor. Basically he lives to work, he works on the weekend and late during the week. When he isn’t at the office he is constantly on his crackberry checking email. If you asked what he did outside of work he would give you a blank stare. My co-worker just commented how we would likely find the man dead at his desk one day. That is a sad life. Would anyone even mourn him longer than a second or two? Would his tombstone say, "Here lies X, he was a good worker"?I prefer things a bit different. I don’t do overtime unless it is a make or break project that has to ...
Work