It’s challenging enough to figure out how much you’ll want to spend at the start of retirement.  Even more challenging is deciding how your spending will change as you age.  These choices make a big difference in how much money you’ll need to retire.  They also shape the spending options you’ll have available throughout retirement.  Here I explore the good and bad parts of common wisdom on retirement spending to arrive at my own spending plan for retirement.  Spoiler alert: the “go-go, slow-go, no-go” narrative is good marketing, but it has cracks. Two extremes Some people focus on the early part of their retirement.  They want as much money as possible available early on while they’re still young enough to enjoy it.  They seem to think of their older selves as a different person who they care less about than their current selves. Others focus on their older selves and worry about running out of money at some point.  These people usually spend far...

When Canadians are just getting started managing their own investments at an online broker, their pre-existing ideas create a lot of confusion.  Here I go through several of the most common misconceptions I encounter in a conversation format. Novice Investor:   Ok, so I’ve opened a TFSA with my online broker, and I’m ready to put my $50,000 in. Michael James:   Great.  We just have to transfer the money to your new TFSA from some external account, like a chequing account at your bank.  Just a few clicks and we’re done.  The money will be there in a day or two. NI:   Wow! That was easy. So, we’re all done? MJ:   Not quite.  All we’ve done is fill your TFSA with dollars. NI:   That’s all I did with the TFSA I used to have at the bank.  It’s closed now. MJ:   Yes, but that TFSA was just a savings account earning a little bit of interest.  You said you want to put this $50,000 away for the long term in an all-in-one ETF. ...

I finally pried open my wallet to pay for improved email delivery of my posts to email subscribers.  I tried to remove ads and include the entire post in each email.  We'll see if I succeeded or not.

Many aspects of personal finance have changed in the 36 years since The Wealthy Barber classic book first appeared.  To update it, author David Chilton had to not only do an extensive rewrite, but he had to come up with new advice.  He did a great job of making The Wealthy Barber  2025 update fully relevant to Canadians today.  Chilton takes important topics that are usually dry and hard to understand and brings them alive in an entertaining story format. But this book is much more than just a fun take on personal finances; the advice is excellent.  Chilton gives insights you won’t find elsewhere.  The book is like a course on personal finance requiring no previous knowledge, and even discussions of insurance and wills are funny and compelling enough to be page-turners. The bulk of the book is a set of financial lessons mainly aimed at Canadians between 20 and 45.  The early chapters introduce the characters, make it clear that the lessons require no ...

For solid financial advice backed up with academic evidence, investors can look to Wealthier: The Field Investing Guide for Canadian Millennials by Mark McGrath, adapted from Daniel R. Solin’s U.S. version of this book.  Although it is aimed at millennial-aged Canadian DIY investors, there are discussions about financial advisors as well. Outline The book begins with excellent advice on how to invest well, followed by how you can fall off the good path into bad investing due to a “rigged system.”  By understanding the possible investing pitfalls and the ways the system is rigged, investors can stay on a good path. I found the most interesting section to be the discussion of stoicism.  The authors discuss several elements of the stoic mindset that are useful for avoiding investing mistakes such as selling out of fear. The book continues with DIY financial planning and how to save enough to get to “the number.”  This part of the book had an interesting discussion of t...

I recently wrote that “this is my 8th year of drawing down my RRSP.”  To explain why I do this, even though I’m not even close to 71 yet, I wrote “to reduce lifetime taxes.”  A commenter observed that this isn’t the right objective, which is true enough.  What I wrote is conveniently short, but not accurate.  My real reason for melting down my RRSP early is surprisingly challenging to define. Reducing lifetime taxes Some people claim that minimizing taxes really is their true objective, but I doubt this is true.  Going all in on this goal would mean quitting your job and giving away all your savings.  There might be some taxes in the short term, but after that, you’d never pay any income taxes again. This is clearly not what people mean when they say they want to minimize taxes.  So, the real objective is something else. Maximizing after-tax consumption This goal is a little better, but still not quite right.  To go all in on this goal, you would ...