Recent content by Canadian FIRE

Actually the $400,000 portfolio might work out for him. Why? In Canada dividend income is given a low tax rate, when you get down to the lowest tax bracket your tax credit becomes greater than your dividend. So Mr. Foster isn't paying ANY income tax. None, zero, zip, $0. If I didn't have...

I'm DH. My wife is self employed and taking the full year off, so we can't use the EI program for her. I just can't afford to take off the full 36 weeks parental leave with my wife's business shut down for a year (daycare). Oh well I'm enjoy the time off anyways. Thanks for the feedback...

Well I'm just a few days away from taking the longest leave of my working life so far: six weeks.;D We are having our second baby so I know I'm going to be busy during it. My question is this: if you've taken a leave yourself did you find it really hard to go back to w*rk afterwards? Or did...

I think Independent is on to something here. You all seem to be blindingly ignoring the fact you have the highest consumption of oil per capita in the world. So if you tax the crap out of oil, you will influence people's consumption. Then you pour the tax dollars into research and tax breaks...

Well I got two raises. First was during a buy out of the company so I am working 37.5 hrs/week instead of 40 hrs/week for the same pay (like a 6% raise, but in time). Then 4.45% on top of that. Yet our house prices when up 50% last year. Crazy world. I'm in engineering in western Canada.

Oh my this is funny. I just wrote a week long series of posts on my blog about trying to estimate retirement 16 years down the road. Check out http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com and read the How Much Do I Need to Retire series Parts I to V. It was written for a Canadian retirement, but...

Yes the feds introduced a new program. The problem is that it doesn't kick in until April and I have to foot a $300 inspection bill to even get started at getting some money, but that did give me an idea to check out funding for the wife's daycare. Perhaps I can get something sooner. Now that...

Warning Rant Ahead Well yesterday the DW had the furance looked at and it needs to be replaced in the next year (we have some hairline cracks in some pipes). So more of my money is going to fixing things than saving for ER. This just seems to keep happening to me lately and it is driving me a...

Ok, I can agree with hermit like lifestyle at times. Yet I also find that my last job in sales showed me that just about anyone can be interesting, you just have to get past the first impression most of the time. At the same time I found that last job like wearing a mask all day, I wasn't...

Who they hell would put a commute that low on the list?!?! In my last town my commute was 7 minutes one way (if I hit both lights). Now I'm up to about 20 minutes and I think that takes forever. I can't believe people do over an hour a day (one way)! To me I work too long at 8 hours a day and...

Bruce, Leave in April 2007. If your adjusted pension covers your living costs of $2500/month and you have an extra 200K in the bank, plus CPP (at 60) and OAS (at 65), I think you have more than enough. As long as you don't plan on increasing your spending in retirement. By the way is covered...

Ok, I'm a bit late, but I liked this topic. Gross salary - ~$70K between DW and myself Yearly savings - 20% of our gross incomes go into our retirement plans and taxable accounts. Plan FI: At age 45. Savings: 25K We also have one two year old running around. Please note I'm in Canada, so my...

I have one boy who is almost two. Here are my insights to kids (take them or leave them). 1) I never planned on using cloth diapers until a friend introduced me to Kushies Ultra cloth diapers. They have a built in waterproof liner and Velcro tabs. They are almost as convenient as disposable...

Actually a word of caution on using all dividends for income in Canada. To pay no tax they have to be all Canadian companies. Otherwise that nice negative tax rate doesn't apply to your dividend income on taxtips.ca. I know about this one, since my wife falls into the lowest income bracket she...

I recent changed some of my investments (around May this year) to try out a new style of investing. It breaks the money down into 4 parts. 25% Bond Index Fund 25% TSX Index Fund (Canada) 25% S &P 500 Index Fund (US) 25% International Index Fund Even with the entire market shift down I'm only...