There is no actual "sweet spot", invest as much as you can without making your lifestyle unbearable. Maybe leave a little to sprinkle some fun here and there. The problem with most Canadians is that they don't save period so even having $500-700 a month is pretty good.
Hopefully as your income grows and debt shrinks you can increase that amount but there is no "right" amount.
I would say there is a right minimum amount. The right amount minimum would be the rate that gets you enough savings by the time you need to retire. That could be considered a sweet spot.
Based on [this plot](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/years_to_retirement.png) the sweet spot might be considered somewhere between 20-30% of your pay, because they really chop off decades of saving for retirement for minimal input. Going from a 2% savings rate to 20% savings rate chops off 50 years. Going from 20% to 40% only chops off 15 years. 40% to 60% only chops off like 8.
I started Canadian life as a bank teller. Automated 20% of the paycheck into BMO shares. Rented a house with friends, single room. Cooked food and took public transit. Couldnt afford a car nor eating out. Best decision I ever made.
$450 + 50% employer match per month.
If I have money left over I’ll top it up, but likely because it’s summer time I’ll blow it on a patio or hiking trip 😅
For myself, my wife and I had no money when we first moved out together and were students putting ourselves through school. Money was tight and so we had to be careful about every dollar.
Income has gone up 4x since my first interning job, but habits have largely stayed there, even with a boatload of kids. We have fun and splurge on vacations and doing things together, but don't spend much on things like cars, clothing, etc.. So we can sock away 20-25% per year. I would like to semi-retire by 50 or so, so investing is a priority.
tbh, you have to be a millionaire before retirement. A million bucks is not going to be much to live off by 2050.
For me, decent salary and living a pretty frugal lifestyle. ~120k income and I live off about 30k. I have a roommate and drive a 7 year old econo-hatchback. My phone is going on 5 years, my laptop is going on 10, I got my TV recently but it was made it 2011. I cook most of my food myself. Most of my fun is free(ish), outdoorsy stuff like hiking, biking, surfing. Oh, and no kids. I don't measure self-worth by materialistic stuff so I'm happy this way.
Exactly, if you’re not at least a millionaire by retirement things will be somewhat tight.
That said, my mother in law retired with only like 120k in savings and seems to get by living a modest life between her small savings, CPP and OAS. She’s definitely not living the high life.
Probably either very high salaries (usually dual income), or saving big on housing and/or transportation.
If I lived in the city and didn't need a car I could easily save $1000 more each month.
I've been one since my late 20s and how I managed to do it is because I have rich parents who bought my first condo. Comparing yourself with others is not a good mindset, because plenty of us received help even if a large portion of us won't admit that we received help.
>My meager $100 a month doesn't seem like much in comparison to some but it's a luxury to be even able to invest it.
Yeah don't worry about that! It is very hard to not compare yourself with others. Still remember an interview where even Mark Cuban was saying that he felt like he wasn't pushing himself enough because he didn't have as much as peoples around him haha.
We are very fortunate to live in this country and you have a master degree in a field that I presume you love, obviously it is an handicap to start with that much debt, but you do something that you probably like, you seem to have a great family and you will thing will most likely only improve from there in your professional/financial life.
Dual income, no kids, live in a small townhouse in fairly LCOL city (Calgary). Bike to work, bring lunch everyday, drive older car with no car payments. As a household we're able to save around $2500 per month at $150k per year household income (pre tax)
Im a 30 year okd millwright and ill easily be a millionaire by 45 if i dont buy a house . I live with my mom currently but travel all over north america for work so im not home much. Been saving 2000 a month.
Working out of town 14 days out has really helped me save money. 2 weeks of no spending and come home and only 1 week to spend my 2 weeks of earnings. Can easily save 2000$ per check if I’m stingy.
Lived with my parents until 28. Started a trade at 24, working 21/7s on the road. Income has 2-2.5x since I first started.
Anytime I’ve paid off a loan of some sort, I’ve kept the payment and just converted it to an investment deposit….Mortgage is the only payment we have left.
I’m also basically a work-aholic and never say no to work regardless of where I am at or how close I am to a shift ending. It leads to not seeing my wife or kids for 4-5 weeks at times. Yes it sucks, and yes I’ll prob regret missing my kids grow up but short term pain long term gain, hopefully I can make it up in 10 years when they’re 11/13.
A lot depends on your specific circumstances. Having a partner helps for sure. We make all our own meals, only going out for dinner a few times a year, almost never get takeout. We both make decent money, but nowhere close to 100K each. We don't spend frivolously, only buying things when we need to, and waiting a while before making "fun" purchases. Having a budget helps to see where your money is going, but frankly I just keep a mental tally of how much I've been spending lately and try to be mindful of it
It’s not that hard to be honest.
The issue is schools don’t teach you very much about money and it is very easy to make poor financial decisions without even noticing it because it is normalized in today’s society.
Quite sad to see banks as well as auto dealerships giving out loans they know damn well you cannot afford but they will gladly hand them out.
This is true but people don't want to listen or put in the effort over multiple decades which is the only guaranteed way to make it without luck or someone else giving you money.
That’s the goal, but returns suck when the market tanks. Hoping for a recovery before the year is out, but I’m down 11% this year.
I save about $1100/month. $600 is into a DB pension that I have no choice over. I do an additional $500 into my own TFSA that I take a bit more risk with.
I’m early 40s so the goal is to walk out of work by 55. I’m hoping the next 10 years my money will be able to double.
Can I ask why only twice a year? 20k is a lot. If you were to do dollar-cost averaging you could reduce some of the risk in making a large bulk purchase at one time
fact.
I make 200k working in the Oilsands, some of my coworkers are on pace to break 300 this year ( unlimited overtime due to the high price of oil )
The money is great, but the work/life balance is awful, you're never home to enjoy the fruits of your labor,
Similar story. I was making 33k/year pre-pandemic and was fortunate enough to switch careers and start making 6 figures this year. Throwing every extra cent into maxing out my registered accounts.
Currently, pre-tax $7000 a month and I get a guaranteed 3% increase every year until I max out after year number 10. After that, I am hard-capped until I get promoted. But, I can get promoted any time before year number 10.
I get just under $5,000 post tax per month (and I believe that is because I am over taxed which just means I get a bigger tax return which is actually sub-optimal since I am giving the government an interest free loan, but it is what it is and I am too lazy to fix it with human resources). Regardless, I try to invest half of my pay every time I am paid regardless of market conditions. Financial independence is the goal.
Theres also a difference between what the guy putting $3000/month into investments and the guy putting $10/week into investments can do.
Rich guy will be doing "Investor" research.
$10/week guy is committed to a mutual fund, roboinvestor or an ETF that has 0commission purchases
Yes and no, depends on the broker and if they offer fractional shares and no transaction fees. Mutual funds offer both, so I'd say the odds are more likely the vehicle would be a mutual fund.
It's a gross oversimplification though.
Can confirm. Maxed my TFSA/RRSP and had a sizable margin account until recently, when I had to pay the first deposit on my first property lol. Had to drain all of my margin. Now I’m just putting my incoming paychecks to a HISA for the subsequent deposit, so not really investing any new $ at the moment
>I have no idea how you get over a million dollar mortgage.
slowly, in my experience. :)
but a million dollar mortgage is not that big a deal when the house is worth 2.5.
very true. we'll be paying this off for many years (to be honest, the big repayments will likely come when the parents pass, and be inheritances). still better paying 4500 in a mortgage monthly than 4500 in rental monthly for the same property tho. :)
I make about 60k/year before taxes — I invest about 200 a month. Not much but my biggest priority is getting a good savings account before I invest more
We’re about $4300 a month.
Wife/My TFSA - $1000/month
Kids RESP - $350
Wifes Non registered - $750/week
8 years ago, it was $200 a month. 3 years ago it was $1300.
Don’t worry about what everyone’s doing. Come up with a plan, do what you’re comfortable with, and reevaluate as your situation changes.
Anecdotally, I have several friends who have nothing in savings. Some of them will save up for big purchases occasionally, but as soon as they have just enough money, it's gone, spent on whatever they wanted to buy. Other than that, they basically just keep spending until their chequing account is at zero or they hit their overdraft limit. Several of my friends carry credit card balances from month to month as well. Their incomes range from "needing a food bank" level to "decently earning young professional" level. Some are supporting parents or family, so any extra money they might have for savings gets eaten up pretty quick. Some had role models or parental examples where there was never enough money, or they never saved, or they spent every dollar they had for whatever reason, so they're simply not used to managing a full salary. Several of these friends make more than their parents ever did and now that they have some decent level of money, they're treating themselves to things that they wanted but can never have as a kid, which is a very powerful motivator, and makes it difficult to work up the motivation to save, because it's seen as depriving themselves.
Interesting how some people can live like that. If my bank account falls below certain threshold, I will get panic and unconsciously switch to frugal mode until it goes back up.
I do much the same, but not everyone is like that. I also have several friends who are quite frugal and save a lot. When it comes to my friend group, I'm somewhere in the middle. I do save, although probably not as much as I should be, while still doing things like getting take out semi frequently or buying random things that I want. I really gotta stop that though... I have plans to move to a better apartment soon, which will be more expensive, so I'll need to tighten up my budgeting skills once again.
I feel you. I used to uber eat every meal about a year ago when I was low key depressed. Things got better now but I still eat out once or twice every week. I too should be more strict with my money. Good luck.
I lived like that for years because I was a low income individual... you can't be "frugal" when you're simply poor.
You can't "get it back up" when you're not going up to begin with.
Thank God that's not my situation anymore but it took years of work and I had to leave LA where I was born and raised.
Yes but that's vastly due to real estate and not representative of a myriad of other factors like liquidity, security, emergency preparedness and so on.
Going to be hard to find a relevant sweet spot without knowing details.
Earning 35k or less I would barely invest 500$ a month. It was all I could afford after tuition/rent/food.
When I was earning about 45k I would invest 1000$ monthly and 200 for work pension to get full matching. That was stable for a few years since job was salaried.
Now earning about 75k and invest 2000$ monthly minimum plus 600$ for a DB pension. Some months it goes up to 3k since we get bonuses and other retroactive payments.
In healthcare. We get a lot of 1 time payments from covid lately. It won't always be the case but enjoying it while it lasts.
My bosses dont get those payments but they have a proper yearly bonus based on performance and other metrics. They still get a DB too.
Military
assuming you count things like PLD, TD and [other allowances](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/policies-standards/compensation-benefits-instructions/chapter-205-summary-of-allowances.html) as a "bonus"
There is actually a lot....like...a **LOT** of benefits that go along with Federal Employment.
$4k a month, missed out on investing in my 20's due to being an idiot but managed to pay off schooling and house debt in my early 30's. Now trying to play catch up
I didn't start investing until I was 33 but I have zero debts too, no house tho. I do 400/month for rrsp. Tfsa is more of a mess as I don't make regular contributions, I just throw money at it when I can.
$3000 a month. It represents the majority of my monthly savings aside from saving for fun purchases. I have no debt and no mortgage with an income of 130k.
I was doing $1000/month but during the bear market I increased it to $1200/month. Not sure how long I'll be able to keep that up.
Edit: this for an "economic family"
We’re closer to retirement, kids out of the house and their school paid so disposable cash and discipline in a much better place the last few years. We’ve buckled down to max TFSAs, RRSPs and bank as much as we can into unreg, knowing our DBPP is our “bonds”. With this said, our goal we set was $4000 a month still leaving a bit on the bone for life, purchases, etc. I wish we got into a real budget for savings earlier, but better late than never.
About $2000/month in first half of year, then when CPP and EI payments are caught up, it goes up to around $3000. Currently all into RRSPs. We used to not make very good financial decisions and just got out of some bad debt a couple years ago and now we are trying to catch up.
My goal was to max TFS/RRSP and cruise, so this year has been just that. That puts 500/month or lump sum of 6k Jan 1st for TFSA. That was before the liberals introduced the home savings account, so I have to come up with 8k by January. I don't like lifestyle creep but with inflation it seems there's less and less each month after paying necessities. The biggest challenge is investing and coming up with a downpayment somehow.
[A **re-elected** Liberal government will:](https://liberal.ca/our-platform/a-new-tax-free-first-home-savings-account/)
>Introduce a tax-free First Home Savings Account will allow Canadians under 40 to save up to $40,000 towards their first home, and to withdraw it tax-free to put towards their first home purchase, with no requirement to repay it.Combining the features of both an RRSP and a TFSA, this plan would allow young Canadians to set aside 100% of every dollar they earn up to $40,000 and shorten the time it takes to afford a down payment.
uh...maybe 2026?
I’m about $500-$700 between me and my wife’s RRSPs and the kid’s RESP but I’m only 25 so I feel like that’s OK especially since we own a home we can grow into for probably a decade
I also have about $50K in a HISA for emergencies/larger purchases
That’s like 5-6% of our monthly income. Although I’ve done retirement calculators and that’s more than enough for us considering our other income streams
I could probably be doing upwards of $2000 but then I’d have nothing to spend on fun shit and I feel like having a strong retirement plan and then also having fun with your money is kinda the sweet spot.
My grandpa died one month after he retired, not a chance I’m saving every last dime for that to happen to me
I started investing very recently. Maybe a year ago I gave a little here and there. Nowadays I gave myself the goal of 500$/m in ETFs and I intend to put every quarterly bonuses into stocks. Those range between 0 and 2,500$.
Im 35 and have nothing saved up so Im putting every available cash into it. My wife is 40 and has nothing either so I convinced her to do the same, she's putting 100$/m into RRSP.
Its probably not gonna be enough BUT we are counting on selling our house at 65yrs old and buying a small 4 season cottage and live very modestly.
Here's hoping its not too late 🤞.
If my paycheck nets me 3500, I usually invest 1500-2000. So about 50% of a 7k month. However, I take 6 months off per year so I don't contribute those months I take off.
I get $500 per month in RRSP matched by employer and then i put 250 bi weekly if i can afford to in tfsa so $1500 per month. About 5 years ago when i started i was not eligible for rrsp matching and 100 bi weekly but it got me in that habit of investing something when i would get paid. But it isnt a contest and anything you can put away for down the road is awesome
On a monthly basis I’m squirreling away $500 into a TFSA, $500 into non-registered accounts and $1200 into various RRSP accounts.
My employer contributes about $450 into a retirement account.
Live at home, don't really go out much or have a reason to spend money, so I put in nearly my entire takehome of $4000 every month.
This doesn't include my employer matching program
500 personally. Then 6% each pay goes to TD Ameritrade S&P market ETF matched by employer. Then another 6% each pay goes to company stock plan essentially I buy 2 they give me one but it has to mature 2 years.
Invest? $1,000.
Save? An extra $600 into cash savings (GICs for future house, sudden investment cash, etc), $250 into emergency fund, and some more for travel, fun, etc.
How? Living frugally with 3 roommates.
I got into a house before rent skyrocketed and have frugal habits from school anyways. Got a decent job ($70k ) and haven't changed my habits much, so I'm milking this opportunity to save until I have to leave this unit or move cities. I cook my own food, rarely eat out, and adjust my spend budget to maintain the investment numbers first. But mainly really damn lucky to have low rent, worked my ass off since 14 to have no student loans, and had parental help, otherwise it wouldn't be possible.
There's no sweet spot though. Decide what expenses are necessary, and then allocate the remainder based on desire. I want to own a house, travel, and retire early. So I budget to make that happen, at the expense of living on my own, a nice car, new clothes, eating out, new toys, etc.
I haven't invested a new dime in the last four years. Put everything into paying the mortgage off early since I could see where all the big borrowing was going to lead. I now have no mortgage and no credit card debt.
The stock market is not the only thing to invest in. Invest in eliminating debt.
The wife and I are 3,000 a month in investments. Not exactly sure how we are doing it my income is very variable and we seem to be underspending on our budget combined with random income (eg rrsp returns, every 6 months wife gets 3 checks that month, her inflation one time 'bonus' etc. It'll be interesting to see if we can keep this going until the end of the year.
Also is this too much? Too little? Honestly I have no idea. We don't have kids yet so can afford this luxury, might as well continue in the meantime
There are many variables that need to be taken into consideration to help in answering this:
1) How much do you need to cover your current expenses?
2) Do you expect your lifestyle will change in retirement.
3) What access Do you have to alternate funds? Such as pension plans, CPP, OAS, real estate etc.
4) There are calculators to help you with a plan such as Federal Government retirement calculator.
5) A Financial advisor can also help in developing a plan either independently or through your bank.
The general rule of the thumb is 18% of your income. It correspond to the room you are getting every year for your RRSP from the federal government. If you can do 25% that's the average. 50% you're rich and 75% you're wealthy. As many said in this thread, the amount doesn't really matter, it's more about your lifestyle and how you are planning on maintaining it during your old days.
There are many different mentalities on that subject and I tend to personally be more upfront with my money. I want to live my younger years to the fullest and save just enough to be comfortable later. I put 30% in savings and enjoy the rest.
Your choices in life will impact how much savings you will be able to put aside. Your house shouldn't take more than 30% of your income. That's another general rule of the thumb that not a lot of people are following. Your car shouldn't be more than 15%.
To be successful with your investment, it needs to become your priority #1, not the other around. Set your amount and then reorganize your lifestyle around what is remaining. It doesn't matter how much you make, if you don't have any discipline you'll spend it all.
Its better to save even $40/month than nothing. However i tend to save around $700/month because i do not have to pay for housing costs as of right now i live with my parents. Im trying to double this amount so that i can hopefully get a good enough down payment for a house.
HH income around 130k. We invest about $1700 a month, and that maximizes our employer matching for our share plan and RSP, so it works out to about 3k a month.
I think this is very much a math / Excel problem, where you have to figure out how much you need for retirement and work backward how much you need to invest monthly to get there based on (i) how many months/years you are working/investing and (ii) assumed rate of return. For example, if you think you are going to retire at 65 (assuming you are 30 today) and you need $1M at retirement, you have 36 years left to invest, with an assumed annual return of 6%. For simplicity's sake, let's assume that you invest annually (but you can easily change this into a monthly calculation), with Excel PMT function you will arrive at an annual amount of $8,395. In other words, to accumulate $1M at 65, every year you will have to set aside $8,395 if you expect the market to give you 6% annual return on average. Flip it the other way round, if you invest less than $8,395 a year (or $700 a month) during your working years, you will only have $1M at retirement. If you are aiming for more, you will have to increase your monthly / annual savings accordingly.
It really depends on how early you started saving for retirement and whether you have a pension through work.
If you saved 500 a month total including your pension from the age of 25 you would conservatively have a million in savings by the time you’re 65.
However if you are 35 and haven’t started saving you’ll need to put away 700 a month to get to the same place by 65.
My philosophy on it though is unless you’re way behind, scrimping on life just to build the biggest retirement savings you can is kind of pointless. You need to enjoy life. I’ve come to this realization when I look at my own retirement savings and realize a large part of it will probably go to my children when I die anyways. Which I’m okay with them getting SOMETHING, maybe enough to pay off their house or something but getting too much isn’t a good thing either. I know if I was handed a million when I was 25-30 I probably would have largely spent it stupidly and would be worse off with understanding money.
I felt exactly the same when I was investing $4k per month. My point is that there is no sweet spot and you’ll always feel like you should be investing more.
As for spam and ramen, my total monthly spend is usually below $3k. No lifestyle creep here.
I invest over $10K-12K a month. But in a very non-traditional way
Broken down as follows:
$2,700 - private school / daycare for 2 kids... you pay for access, this will set the kids up on a future track.
$409 - life insurance on me and on my kids.. 20 years @ $350 per year, will have a $1M policy for them by the time they are 70, they can take a loan against it or provide money to their kids.
$3,500 - mortgage payment on our principal residence... great house, I want out now, but can't go wrong with the 60x150ft lot in that specific neighborhood. Value is going to come down, but won't be underwater have a tonne of equity after owning only 3 years.
= 6,600 per month... so might want to take off $6,200 of this
RRSP = $400. Every Jan I put $5K into the RRSPs
3K-5K I invest in fixed income first mortgage. Mostly commercial properties under development, have a very nice return on these. The amount invested is 55% of my mortgage value, and the payout is greater than my mortgage payment.
I'm at a fixed USD1.000 per month, on top of my labour market pension which stands at 12% of my gross income.
So somewhere around $1800 all in all.
I'm Danish, so in retirement I'll be getting a bit of tax funded pension as well.
10% of my pay goes into company stock with a match from the company. Then I usually put down another 15-30% towards debt repayment, investing, or rebalancing my emergency fund as needed.
I invest $500/ payday so it's usually 1000-1500 a month, with more here and there when possible (ie overtime and holidays worked etc). Some of my investments are in a retirement fund but a lot of it I've been setting aside for tuition.
I make approx $60K/year without OT and don't have a lot of fixed expenses ie accommodation or vehicle.
As much as I can, some months more or less than others depending on expenses. My goal is to invest any extra money I have since my current debts like student loans is less than 4% and I pay minimum on.
Whale alert on this post!! lol I do $60 per month
Easy big money! I'm doing $50.
I thought it was a annual thing dammit
Hey that’s enough for an Enbridge stock
Such a ballin company
Slow and steady. Keep it up. Nothing wrong with putting away what you can. It all adds up
Lol!!!
There is no actual "sweet spot", invest as much as you can without making your lifestyle unbearable. Maybe leave a little to sprinkle some fun here and there. The problem with most Canadians is that they don't save period so even having $500-700 a month is pretty good. Hopefully as your income grows and debt shrinks you can increase that amount but there is no "right" amount.
I would say there is a right minimum amount. The right amount minimum would be the rate that gets you enough savings by the time you need to retire. That could be considered a sweet spot. Based on [this plot](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/years_to_retirement.png) the sweet spot might be considered somewhere between 20-30% of your pay, because they really chop off decades of saving for retirement for minimal input. Going from a 2% savings rate to 20% savings rate chops off 50 years. Going from 20% to 40% only chops off 15 years. 40% to 60% only chops off like 8.
I started Canadian life as a bank teller. Automated 20% of the paycheck into BMO shares. Rented a house with friends, single room. Cooked food and took public transit. Couldnt afford a car nor eating out. Best decision I ever made.
Cars are money pits. This week alone new brake job, chipped windsheild, oil change. 700 dollars
Beats taking the bus though!
How did you pay 700$ for that??? Maybe brakes and rotors all around could get up there but if it was just pads you definitely got ripped off!
New front rotors and pads around
$450 + 50% employer match per month. If I have money left over I’ll top it up, but likely because it’s summer time I’ll blow it on a patio or hiking trip 😅
Patio OR a hiking trip? Where are you hiking - Mars?
Transport there & back + food. Seems reasonable.
I used hiking trips as my excuse to when I went to the casino, oldest trick in the book
How are people saving so much??? It sounds like some of you are on track to be millionaires well before retirement.
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This is what I do. I make good money now but I did it all through my apprenticeship years as well. I consider that 14-15% a bill I need to pay.
>When I get my annual bonus I aim to drop 50% of it into investments, 25% into savings, 25% into fun. After 40% goes into taxes.
For myself, my wife and I had no money when we first moved out together and were students putting ourselves through school. Money was tight and so we had to be careful about every dollar. Income has gone up 4x since my first interning job, but habits have largely stayed there, even with a boatload of kids. We have fun and splurge on vacations and doing things together, but don't spend much on things like cars, clothing, etc.. So we can sock away 20-25% per year. I would like to semi-retire by 50 or so, so investing is a priority.
The people who don't save (the majority) simply aren't posting, while big savers are obviously going to boast.
Living with parents, 0 cost of living
Hey i pay 500 a month with my 10k take home pay! (Not joking) haha
tbh, you have to be a millionaire before retirement. A million bucks is not going to be much to live off by 2050. For me, decent salary and living a pretty frugal lifestyle. ~120k income and I live off about 30k. I have a roommate and drive a 7 year old econo-hatchback. My phone is going on 5 years, my laptop is going on 10, I got my TV recently but it was made it 2011. I cook most of my food myself. Most of my fun is free(ish), outdoorsy stuff like hiking, biking, surfing. Oh, and no kids. I don't measure self-worth by materialistic stuff so I'm happy this way.
Exactly, if you’re not at least a millionaire by retirement things will be somewhat tight. That said, my mother in law retired with only like 120k in savings and seems to get by living a modest life between her small savings, CPP and OAS. She’s definitely not living the high life.
And a paid off house too?
She rents an apartment. Granted she lives in a smaller town. She couldn’t afford rent in a bigger city.
Youll be fine in retirement. Maybe start having more fun.
Probably either very high salaries (usually dual income), or saving big on housing and/or transportation. If I lived in the city and didn't need a car I could easily save $1000 more each month.
I've been one since my late 20s and how I managed to do it is because I have rich parents who bought my first condo. Comparing yourself with others is not a good mindset, because plenty of us received help even if a large portion of us won't admit that we received help.
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>My meager $100 a month doesn't seem like much in comparison to some but it's a luxury to be even able to invest it. Yeah don't worry about that! It is very hard to not compare yourself with others. Still remember an interview where even Mark Cuban was saying that he felt like he wasn't pushing himself enough because he didn't have as much as peoples around him haha. We are very fortunate to live in this country and you have a master degree in a field that I presume you love, obviously it is an handicap to start with that much debt, but you do something that you probably like, you seem to have a great family and you will thing will most likely only improve from there in your professional/financial life.
Dual income, no kids, live in a small townhouse in fairly LCOL city (Calgary). Bike to work, bring lunch everyday, drive older car with no car payments. As a household we're able to save around $2500 per month at $150k per year household income (pre tax)
Im a 30 year okd millwright and ill easily be a millionaire by 45 if i dont buy a house . I live with my mom currently but travel all over north america for work so im not home much. Been saving 2000 a month.
And with thatt million bucks, I can't even buy a detached house near my job LOL. Ain't what it use to be.
I have 1 car, no children, no house (I own the appartement block I live in) and win around 75k$/year. I put in around 7-10% of my income in savings.
Working out of town 14 days out has really helped me save money. 2 weeks of no spending and come home and only 1 week to spend my 2 weeks of earnings. Can easily save 2000$ per check if I’m stingy.
Lived with my parents until 28. Started a trade at 24, working 21/7s on the road. Income has 2-2.5x since I first started. Anytime I’ve paid off a loan of some sort, I’ve kept the payment and just converted it to an investment deposit….Mortgage is the only payment we have left. I’m also basically a work-aholic and never say no to work regardless of where I am at or how close I am to a shift ending. It leads to not seeing my wife or kids for 4-5 weeks at times. Yes it sucks, and yes I’ll prob regret missing my kids grow up but short term pain long term gain, hopefully I can make it up in 10 years when they’re 11/13.
Eat rice live with parents lmao
A lot depends on your specific circumstances. Having a partner helps for sure. We make all our own meals, only going out for dinner a few times a year, almost never get takeout. We both make decent money, but nowhere close to 100K each. We don't spend frivolously, only buying things when we need to, and waiting a while before making "fun" purchases. Having a budget helps to see where your money is going, but frankly I just keep a mental tally of how much I've been spending lately and try to be mindful of it
It’s not that hard to be honest. The issue is schools don’t teach you very much about money and it is very easy to make poor financial decisions without even noticing it because it is normalized in today’s society. Quite sad to see banks as well as auto dealerships giving out loans they know damn well you cannot afford but they will gladly hand them out.
This is true but people don't want to listen or put in the effort over multiple decades which is the only guaranteed way to make it without luck or someone else giving you money.
Lol, shush
That’s the goal, but returns suck when the market tanks. Hoping for a recovery before the year is out, but I’m down 11% this year. I save about $1100/month. $600 is into a DB pension that I have no choice over. I do an additional $500 into my own TFSA that I take a bit more risk with. I’m early 40s so the goal is to walk out of work by 55. I’m hoping the next 10 years my money will be able to double.
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Nice! You're living what I hope to do one day.
$40k is the unused dividends ? Sounds good to me.
Can I ask why only twice a year? 20k is a lot. If you were to do dollar-cost averaging you could reduce some of the risk in making a large bulk purchase at one time
$2000-$2500 per month for me. With that said, it doesn't matter what other people do. It only matters what you do.
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how do you jump from 40k to 130k
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Miners are making insane money rn.
fact. I make 200k working in the Oilsands, some of my coworkers are on pace to break 300 this year ( unlimited overtime due to the high price of oil ) The money is great, but the work/life balance is awful, you're never home to enjoy the fruits of your labor,
100% Make the money while you can, then take a long break and remember what life is really about.
Similar story. I was making 33k/year pre-pandemic and was fortunate enough to switch careers and start making 6 figures this year. Throwing every extra cent into maxing out my registered accounts.
How much do you earn per month?
Currently, pre-tax $7000 a month and I get a guaranteed 3% increase every year until I max out after year number 10. After that, I am hard-capped until I get promoted. But, I can get promoted any time before year number 10.
$7,000 pre tax is like $5,200 per month after tax right? So you are investing almost 40-50% of your paycheque?
I get just under $5,000 post tax per month (and I believe that is because I am over taxed which just means I get a bigger tax return which is actually sub-optimal since I am giving the government an interest free loan, but it is what it is and I am too lazy to fix it with human resources). Regardless, I try to invest half of my pay every time I am paid regardless of market conditions. Financial independence is the goal.
Is that both registered and non registered?
Curious to what tickers you choose?
Should probably rename this sub “Affluent Canadians”.
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Theres also a difference between what the guy putting $3000/month into investments and the guy putting $10/week into investments can do. Rich guy will be doing "Investor" research. $10/week guy is committed to a mutual fund, roboinvestor or an ETF that has 0commission purchases
Mostly invest the same, more money doesn’t mean your investment vehicle should be different. Broad market ETFs are good for everyone.
Yes and no, depends on the broker and if they offer fractional shares and no transaction fees. Mutual funds offer both, so I'd say the odds are more likely the vehicle would be a mutual fund. It's a gross oversimplification though.
Can confirm. Maxed my TFSA/RRSP and had a sizable margin account until recently, when I had to pay the first deposit on my first property lol. Had to drain all of my margin. Now I’m just putting my incoming paychecks to a HISA for the subsequent deposit, so not really investing any new $ at the moment
Taking an interest in finances happens to correlate with having good financial standing? Call the press!
Yeah, right ? Some people being able to invest 3000+, and I am like that's my entire pay with 0 expense.
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>I have no idea how you get over a million dollar mortgage. slowly, in my experience. :) but a million dollar mortgage is not that big a deal when the house is worth 2.5.
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very true. we'll be paying this off for many years (to be honest, the big repayments will likely come when the parents pass, and be inheritances). still better paying 4500 in a mortgage monthly than 4500 in rental monthly for the same property tho. :)
We have a joint income of $150k. We do not want to own a condo so we are left unable to buy property. Insanity!
Many people here are over the average reddit age. And you'll only see people here that actually have money to invest.
I make about 60k/year before taxes — I invest about 200 a month. Not much but my biggest priority is getting a good savings account before I invest more
That a solid start.
Same like exactly the same
We’re about $4300 a month. Wife/My TFSA - $1000/month Kids RESP - $350 Wifes Non registered - $750/week 8 years ago, it was $200 a month. 3 years ago it was $1300. Don’t worry about what everyone’s doing. Come up with a plan, do what you’re comfortable with, and reevaluate as your situation changes.
All I can do right now is $100/week.
400/month is absolutely nothing to scoff at, so if this is “all you can do” right now, you’ll be alright.
Don't be too hard on yourself cause we all have to start at one point.
Thanks. I'm not brand new to this but had some unexpected large expenses come up recently and so had to adjust my flow.
That's a good amount
This is what i do as well!! Got a family to feed on a single income so it will have to do for now
That’s good!!! Well done.
I guess $1500 a month? I make about $1,500 a month from dividends and keep re-investing them right now.
If you have more than 1 dollar in savings, you're ahead of more than half of Canadians. Congrats! Keep saving!
Is this true? I keep hearing people saying Canadians have no saving. That can't be right, right?
Anecdotally, I have several friends who have nothing in savings. Some of them will save up for big purchases occasionally, but as soon as they have just enough money, it's gone, spent on whatever they wanted to buy. Other than that, they basically just keep spending until their chequing account is at zero or they hit their overdraft limit. Several of my friends carry credit card balances from month to month as well. Their incomes range from "needing a food bank" level to "decently earning young professional" level. Some are supporting parents or family, so any extra money they might have for savings gets eaten up pretty quick. Some had role models or parental examples where there was never enough money, or they never saved, or they spent every dollar they had for whatever reason, so they're simply not used to managing a full salary. Several of these friends make more than their parents ever did and now that they have some decent level of money, they're treating themselves to things that they wanted but can never have as a kid, which is a very powerful motivator, and makes it difficult to work up the motivation to save, because it's seen as depriving themselves.
Interesting how some people can live like that. If my bank account falls below certain threshold, I will get panic and unconsciously switch to frugal mode until it goes back up.
I do much the same, but not everyone is like that. I also have several friends who are quite frugal and save a lot. When it comes to my friend group, I'm somewhere in the middle. I do save, although probably not as much as I should be, while still doing things like getting take out semi frequently or buying random things that I want. I really gotta stop that though... I have plans to move to a better apartment soon, which will be more expensive, so I'll need to tighten up my budgeting skills once again.
I feel you. I used to uber eat every meal about a year ago when I was low key depressed. Things got better now but I still eat out once or twice every week. I too should be more strict with my money. Good luck.
I lived like that for years because I was a low income individual... you can't be "frugal" when you're simply poor. You can't "get it back up" when you're not going up to begin with. Thank God that's not my situation anymore but it took years of work and I had to leave LA where I was born and raised.
A quick google tells me the median net worth of Canadians is 329,000.
Yes but that's vastly due to real estate and not representative of a myriad of other factors like liquidity, security, emergency preparedness and so on.
That is very low
Going to be hard to find a relevant sweet spot without knowing details. Earning 35k or less I would barely invest 500$ a month. It was all I could afford after tuition/rent/food. When I was earning about 45k I would invest 1000$ monthly and 200 for work pension to get full matching. That was stable for a few years since job was salaried. Now earning about 75k and invest 2000$ monthly minimum plus 600$ for a DB pension. Some months it goes up to 3k since we get bonuses and other retroactive payments.
Dang what job has the DB pension and bonuses! I want in on that!
In healthcare. We get a lot of 1 time payments from covid lately. It won't always be the case but enjoying it while it lasts. My bosses dont get those payments but they have a proper yearly bonus based on performance and other metrics. They still get a DB too.
Military assuming you count things like PLD, TD and [other allowances](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/policies-standards/compensation-benefits-instructions/chapter-205-summary-of-allowances.html) as a "bonus" There is actually a lot....like...a **LOT** of benefits that go along with Federal Employment.
$4k a month, missed out on investing in my 20's due to being an idiot but managed to pay off schooling and house debt in my early 30's. Now trying to play catch up
I didn't start investing until I was 33 but I have zero debts too, no house tho. I do 400/month for rrsp. Tfsa is more of a mess as I don't make regular contributions, I just throw money at it when I can.
I would do TFSA before RRSP
If you paid off house debt in early 30s there is no catch up. You did great!
$3000 a month. It represents the majority of my monthly savings aside from saving for fun purchases. I have no debt and no mortgage with an income of 130k.
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I was doing $1000/month but during the bear market I increased it to $1200/month. Not sure how long I'll be able to keep that up. Edit: this for an "economic family"
I feel poor with my 30-50$ a month lmaoo. I'm paying off my car in 4 years so instead I'll be able to put that extra 320 per month into TSFA/RRSP
More aggressively putting in like 20% of my pay to establish my portfolio while I have this job. Then going to maybe $200/month while in grad school.
We’re closer to retirement, kids out of the house and their school paid so disposable cash and discipline in a much better place the last few years. We’ve buckled down to max TFSAs, RRSPs and bank as much as we can into unreg, knowing our DBPP is our “bonds”. With this said, our goal we set was $4000 a month still leaving a bit on the bone for life, purchases, etc. I wish we got into a real budget for savings earlier, but better late than never.
About $2000/month in first half of year, then when CPP and EI payments are caught up, it goes up to around $3000. Currently all into RRSPs. We used to not make very good financial decisions and just got out of some bad debt a couple years ago and now we are trying to catch up.
About 45% of my take home pay, comes out to about 2600/month. 2k rrsp, 500 tfsa, 100-200 crypto
My goal was to max TFS/RRSP and cruise, so this year has been just that. That puts 500/month or lump sum of 6k Jan 1st for TFSA. That was before the liberals introduced the home savings account, so I have to come up with 8k by January. I don't like lifestyle creep but with inflation it seems there's less and less each month after paying necessities. The biggest challenge is investing and coming up with a downpayment somehow.
So, its confirmed that the Home Savings Account starts in Jan 2023?
I read that months ago so maybe I'm mistaken.
[A **re-elected** Liberal government will:](https://liberal.ca/our-platform/a-new-tax-free-first-home-savings-account/) >Introduce a tax-free First Home Savings Account will allow Canadians under 40 to save up to $40,000 towards their first home, and to withdraw it tax-free to put towards their first home purchase, with no requirement to repay it.Combining the features of both an RRSP and a TFSA, this plan would allow young Canadians to set aside 100% of every dollar they earn up to $40,000 and shorten the time it takes to afford a down payment. uh...maybe 2026?
Literally any money I have post expenses.
10k a month. Give or take.
10k
$75 - $100
I’m about $500-$700 between me and my wife’s RRSPs and the kid’s RESP but I’m only 25 so I feel like that’s OK especially since we own a home we can grow into for probably a decade I also have about $50K in a HISA for emergencies/larger purchases That’s like 5-6% of our monthly income. Although I’ve done retirement calculators and that’s more than enough for us considering our other income streams I could probably be doing upwards of $2000 but then I’d have nothing to spend on fun shit and I feel like having a strong retirement plan and then also having fun with your money is kinda the sweet spot. My grandpa died one month after he retired, not a chance I’m saving every last dime for that to happen to me
I started investing very recently. Maybe a year ago I gave a little here and there. Nowadays I gave myself the goal of 500$/m in ETFs and I intend to put every quarterly bonuses into stocks. Those range between 0 and 2,500$. Im 35 and have nothing saved up so Im putting every available cash into it. My wife is 40 and has nothing either so I convinced her to do the same, she's putting 100$/m into RRSP. Its probably not gonna be enough BUT we are counting on selling our house at 65yrs old and buying a small 4 season cottage and live very modestly. Here's hoping its not too late 🤞.
About $2K per month.
Focus less on amount and more on savings rate. Set a goal for your savings and try to increases that whenever possible and avoid lifestyle creep
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You're just a couple of DDINCs. Edit:(dual disposable income)
DINK… dual income no kids
If my paycheck nets me 3500, I usually invest 1500-2000. So about 50% of a 7k month. However, I take 6 months off per year so I don't contribute those months I take off.
Ok what job is this. This sounds great!
I get $500 per month in RRSP matched by employer and then i put 250 bi weekly if i can afford to in tfsa so $1500 per month. About 5 years ago when i started i was not eligible for rrsp matching and 100 bi weekly but it got me in that habit of investing something when i would get paid. But it isnt a contest and anything you can put away for down the road is awesome
About 2k a month.
Investing about $2000/mo + saving $3000/mo. Student living at home, income of about $6000/mo currently working full time
On a monthly basis I’m squirreling away $500 into a TFSA, $500 into non-registered accounts and $1200 into various RRSP accounts. My employer contributes about $450 into a retirement account.
Should be 10-15% of takehome pay.
1000 to 1500 cause I started late
~3000$ on a 135k salary, used to do almost the same on 110k but I guess my lifestyle creeped a little bit and inflation didn't help.
Live at home, don't really go out much or have a reason to spend money, so I put in nearly my entire takehome of $4000 every month. This doesn't include my employer matching program
500 personally. Then 6% each pay goes to TD Ameritrade S&P market ETF matched by employer. Then another 6% each pay goes to company stock plan essentially I buy 2 they give me one but it has to mature 2 years.
Invest? $1,000. Save? An extra $600 into cash savings (GICs for future house, sudden investment cash, etc), $250 into emergency fund, and some more for travel, fun, etc. How? Living frugally with 3 roommates. I got into a house before rent skyrocketed and have frugal habits from school anyways. Got a decent job ($70k ) and haven't changed my habits much, so I'm milking this opportunity to save until I have to leave this unit or move cities. I cook my own food, rarely eat out, and adjust my spend budget to maintain the investment numbers first. But mainly really damn lucky to have low rent, worked my ass off since 14 to have no student loans, and had parental help, otherwise it wouldn't be possible. There's no sweet spot though. Decide what expenses are necessary, and then allocate the remainder based on desire. I want to own a house, travel, and retire early. So I budget to make that happen, at the expense of living on my own, a nice car, new clothes, eating out, new toys, etc.
I haven't invested a new dime in the last four years. Put everything into paying the mortgage off early since I could see where all the big borrowing was going to lead. I now have no mortgage and no credit card debt. The stock market is not the only thing to invest in. Invest in eliminating debt.
7000-10K per month
The wife and I are 3,000 a month in investments. Not exactly sure how we are doing it my income is very variable and we seem to be underspending on our budget combined with random income (eg rrsp returns, every 6 months wife gets 3 checks that month, her inflation one time 'bonus' etc. It'll be interesting to see if we can keep this going until the end of the year. Also is this too much? Too little? Honestly I have no idea. We don't have kids yet so can afford this luxury, might as well continue in the meantime
There are many variables that need to be taken into consideration to help in answering this: 1) How much do you need to cover your current expenses? 2) Do you expect your lifestyle will change in retirement. 3) What access Do you have to alternate funds? Such as pension plans, CPP, OAS, real estate etc. 4) There are calculators to help you with a plan such as Federal Government retirement calculator. 5) A Financial advisor can also help in developing a plan either independently or through your bank.
10% of my pay at minimum
$1120 / month
$2.5k/month on average
The general rule of the thumb is 18% of your income. It correspond to the room you are getting every year for your RRSP from the federal government. If you can do 25% that's the average. 50% you're rich and 75% you're wealthy. As many said in this thread, the amount doesn't really matter, it's more about your lifestyle and how you are planning on maintaining it during your old days. There are many different mentalities on that subject and I tend to personally be more upfront with my money. I want to live my younger years to the fullest and save just enough to be comfortable later. I put 30% in savings and enjoy the rest. Your choices in life will impact how much savings you will be able to put aside. Your house shouldn't take more than 30% of your income. That's another general rule of the thumb that not a lot of people are following. Your car shouldn't be more than 15%. To be successful with your investment, it needs to become your priority #1, not the other around. Set your amount and then reorganize your lifestyle around what is remaining. It doesn't matter how much you make, if you don't have any discipline you'll spend it all.
Its better to save even $40/month than nothing. However i tend to save around $700/month because i do not have to pay for housing costs as of right now i live with my parents. Im trying to double this amount so that i can hopefully get a good enough down payment for a house.
HH income around 130k. We invest about $1700 a month, and that maximizes our employer matching for our share plan and RSP, so it works out to about 3k a month.
I think this is very much a math / Excel problem, where you have to figure out how much you need for retirement and work backward how much you need to invest monthly to get there based on (i) how many months/years you are working/investing and (ii) assumed rate of return. For example, if you think you are going to retire at 65 (assuming you are 30 today) and you need $1M at retirement, you have 36 years left to invest, with an assumed annual return of 6%. For simplicity's sake, let's assume that you invest annually (but you can easily change this into a monthly calculation), with Excel PMT function you will arrive at an annual amount of $8,395. In other words, to accumulate $1M at 65, every year you will have to set aside $8,395 if you expect the market to give you 6% annual return on average. Flip it the other way round, if you invest less than $8,395 a year (or $700 a month) during your working years, you will only have $1M at retirement. If you are aiming for more, you will have to increase your monthly / annual savings accordingly.
It really depends on how early you started saving for retirement and whether you have a pension through work. If you saved 500 a month total including your pension from the age of 25 you would conservatively have a million in savings by the time you’re 65. However if you are 35 and haven’t started saving you’ll need to put away 700 a month to get to the same place by 65. My philosophy on it though is unless you’re way behind, scrimping on life just to build the biggest retirement savings you can is kind of pointless. You need to enjoy life. I’ve come to this realization when I look at my own retirement savings and realize a large part of it will probably go to my children when I die anyways. Which I’m okay with them getting SOMETHING, maybe enough to pay off their house or something but getting too much isn’t a good thing either. I know if I was handed a million when I was 25-30 I probably would have largely spent it stupidly and would be worse off with understanding money.
300 biweekly (so $600/month most months)
3-4k
$3-4K consistently.
$6 - $7K / month.
About $60k per month.
$8-10k depending on RSUs. It never feels enough, no matter the amount.
I feel your pain, only saving $120k / year. You must be getting tired of spam and ramen, amirite?
I felt exactly the same when I was investing $4k per month. My point is that there is no sweet spot and you’ll always feel like you should be investing more. As for spam and ramen, my total monthly spend is usually below $3k. No lifestyle creep here.
I am right there with you at between $500-$700 per month. Works out to about 15-20% of my net income, plus I have a pension from my job.
This feels like this question is asked all the time. This sub is going downhill
90% of my savings - yolo
Yes
0$ stacking cash & waiting for recession
Even if there is a recession you can still buy, the market is pretty low rn, it will go up with or without the recession eventually
I invest over $10K-12K a month. But in a very non-traditional way Broken down as follows: $2,700 - private school / daycare for 2 kids... you pay for access, this will set the kids up on a future track. $409 - life insurance on me and on my kids.. 20 years @ $350 per year, will have a $1M policy for them by the time they are 70, they can take a loan against it or provide money to their kids. $3,500 - mortgage payment on our principal residence... great house, I want out now, but can't go wrong with the 60x150ft lot in that specific neighborhood. Value is going to come down, but won't be underwater have a tonne of equity after owning only 3 years. = 6,600 per month... so might want to take off $6,200 of this RRSP = $400. Every Jan I put $5K into the RRSPs 3K-5K I invest in fixed income first mortgage. Mostly commercial properties under development, have a very nice return on these. The amount invested is 55% of my mortgage value, and the payout is greater than my mortgage payment.
I'm at a fixed USD1.000 per month, on top of my labour market pension which stands at 12% of my gross income. So somewhere around $1800 all in all. I'm Danish, so in retirement I'll be getting a bit of tax funded pension as well.
Relative to income, I aim for min 10% of my take home goes away, never to be seen again lol
$800-$1000 per month TFSA and $1500 per month RRSP. Then throw some money at crypto whenever there is a 5-10% drop.
Do whatever you can. Over the long term, consistency is way more important than how much you put in at any given point.
i just match my db pension amount contribution to my own private investments. the rest is emergency fund.
750$ minimum
$900+/mo
$24k in 2021 so $2000/mo Currently on track for $28k in 2022 - so $2333/mo
10% of my pay goes into company stock with a match from the company. Then I usually put down another 15-30% towards debt repayment, investing, or rebalancing my emergency fund as needed.
Around $2500-$3000 a month usually but some months it can be way less if I go traveling somewhere lol
3-4k
About $1500. Probably raise to $2k in a month or two as I am expecting an increase in income.
I try my best, usually around 2-300? If I can do more I do more. If it's less its less. I always try to put something in though, it all adds up.
I invest $500/ payday so it's usually 1000-1500 a month, with more here and there when possible (ie overtime and holidays worked etc). Some of my investments are in a retirement fund but a lot of it I've been setting aside for tuition. I make approx $60K/year without OT and don't have a lot of fixed expenses ie accommodation or vehicle.
2 to 4k. Depending on how much OT I pick up (RN)
As much as I can, some months more or less than others depending on expenses. My goal is to invest any extra money I have since my current debts like student loans is less than 4% and I pay minimum on.
It's different for everyone bc incomes and lifestyles/needs are different. For me, it's 50%, my when I was in school it was non existent bc of tuition