Weekend Reading
Welcome to my latest Weekend Reading edition. I hope you are enjoying your summer thus far. I’m pretty happy about my REDBLACKS win this week. Let’s hope they can keep it going…
Here is my article from this past week, overdue, but updated all the same – June 2017 Dividend Income Update.
Enjoy these articles this weekend as part of your weekend fun.
ESI Money told us $3 million is not enough to retire on. I disagree. That’s plenty for us. It certainly depends on how much money you spend though. From the article: “Sheesh, I thought $85k in retirement was a pretty healthy amount. But these people are telling me they can’t make it on $120k. One guy told me he’d have trouble getting below $225k or so.” Wow.
Boomer & Echo also tackled the same question.
My answer to this same question is this – these are our retirement needs and wants. We figure after tax income of $4,000 per month should do it, less any major international travel and other wants. With this goal hopefully complete by the end of 2023 our dividend income will cover 63% of our needs and we’ll have our RRSPs and pensions to draw from for other needs and wants in our 50s and beyond.
This Globe & Mail article highlighted why it’s almost impossible to be a passive investor in Canada.
Are you ready for the next stock market storm? I think so but I won’t really know until it happens.
Potato provided a framework to determine “Am I on track to retire?” We are based on a simple process of Plan > Do > Check > Act. What’s your approach?
Kinder Morgan released plans to increase their dividend by 60% next year and outlined future dividend increases in the years to come. I hope they stick to it as a shareholder.
Don’t forget about my Deals page where you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars over years of investing. It’s your #money – make it work for you.
Mark
My name is Mark Seed - the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I'm looking to start semi-retirement soon, sooner than most. Find out how, what I did, and what you can learn to tailor your own financial independence path. Join the newsletter read by thousands each day, always FREE.
All this million dollar retirement talk…whew.
From B&E: “Don’t despair if that million dollar goal seems unattainable. It’s possible to retire comfortably on much less.”
Get used to the fact that you almost assuredly be retiring on much less than $1 million. No reason to harbour angst or anxiety, it’s just the way it is; however, unattainable as it is, you should still aim for it, just don’t be crushed when you come up short. Almost every current (and former) retiree has much less than a million, and I’m pretty sure the correlation to cat food sales is very weak. The bank marketers want to keep you on the hook for as long as possible chasing that million dollar target so they can keep collecting their management fees; don’t believe the hype and be your own advisor.
Besides the ultra-low millionaire population (~1%), what would be a most interesting and more useful stat to know is how many of those who purposefully set out to attain $1 million actually hit the mark (and stuck). Albeit almost impossible data to collect, I would postulate that it’s similar to the same 1%.
And to those who don’t seem to be able to make $3 million work…research has shown that it’s those low-rung millionaires who have a lot of worry about not having enough money, e.g. those with $3,000,000 think they need $7,000,000 to be “secure”. Some truth in that belief.
Absolutely for most Canadians – “Get used to the fact that you almost assuredly be retiring on much less than $1 million.” Based on our path we’ll have more invested than that.
I certainly don’t follow the hype and I will remain “my own advisor” for the foreseeable future. Cheers.
Just to chime in on the retirement amount, my number is $2M. This shows personal finance is real personal and depends on your financial situation. Everyone has a different view and need for their situations.
Finally found your comment Leo…unspammed 🙂
$2 M would be impressive. Good luck!