There may come a point during the year that you max out your registered Canadian investment accounts, or if you are living abroad, there might be certain restrictions on what you can contribute to tax-advantaged accounts. The great news is that no matter what your situation is, you can still open a non-registered tax efficient ETF portfolio. If you are living and earning an income abroad, or have maxed out your TFSA and RRSP, you may not be able to contribute to an RRSP or a TFSA. Read on to ...| Million Dollar Journey
Moving from the accumulation stage of my professional career, to withdrawing investments in early retirement was more difficult than I would have predicted a few years ago. For those who haven’t been following me since I started writing Million Dollar Journey back in 2005, I have slowly-but-surely detailed my rise from a very average net worth, to building an investment portfolio that allowed me to reach complete financial independence. Here are some of the key articles that I’ve written ...| Million Dollar Journey
When I first wrote about the Smith Manoeuvre (18 years ago!) - a method to transform your mortgage into a tax-deductible loan - I never imagined it would become one of our most popular topics, racking up hundreds of comments. Even though I kicked off my own Smith Manoeuvre at practically the worst time in the last half-century (back in 2007), it still turned out pretty well for me. As we move into 2025, it’s becoming clear that high mortgages might be coming down a bit, the days of ultra-lo...| Million Dollar Journey
Are you curious about how investing taxes are calculated on capital gains, dividends, and interest in Canada? I’m not a tax expert, but with tax loss harvesting season coming out, I figured it might be a good time to review some of the basics between how Canadian investment returns are taxed in your RRSP, TFSA, and non-registered accounts. Investing Taxes in an RRSP Let’s start with RRSPs. As you probably know, RRSP contributions and investment growth are taxable only upon withdrawal. A...| Million Dollar Journey
After writing a deep dive article on whether the 4% safe withdrawal rate still works for retirement at various ages, I received a lot of questions basically asking: “Ok, so 4% is a good rule of thumb, but when I actually go to withdraw money from my various investment accounts, to put into my chequing account & high interest savings account in order to pay for day-to-day expenses, what is the best way to avoid taxes?” Upon reading many of these types of questions, I realized that I wasn...| Million Dollar Journey
When I initially wrote this article about building RRSP wealth in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, my goal was to create an easy visual that illustrates just how much you would have to begin saving today if you wanted to be a millionaire “tomorrow” (when you retired). Five years later, the data stands up pretty well. I’m happy to say that my personal RRSP is well on the way to million-dollar status! Now, the more relevant question might be, do you actually need a million dollar RRSP to retire? W...| Million Dollar Journey
There is a TON of investment advice out there. Some should only be taken into consideration after a thorough investigation and planning. Some - like contributing to a TFSA - is just sound advice that should be acted on quickly. The reason? Two words: tax free. That is not something you hear often, and that’s why we want to help you start contributing to your TFSA as quickly as possible to achieve maximum money saving and investment earning results. If you turned 18 on or before 2009...| Million Dollar Journey
You likely already know that investing in an RRSP is one of the best, most tax efficient ways to save for retirement. The good news is that if you or your common-law partner or spouse have unequal incomes, you can open and contribute to a spousal RRSP account. In doing so, you can maximize the benefits of an RRSP account for you and your spouse, no matter if one of you is not earning an income or earning much less. Read on to learn more about how a spousal RRSP account works, what the tax i...| Million Dollar Journey
We review and compare Horizon's Total Return ETFs. Are Swap-Based ETFs a good investment?| Million Dollar Journey
How and when to pay yourself through your business. Are dividends better than a salary? Should you use income splitting, are pensions worth it and more.| Million Dollar Journey
Detailed guide on CCPC taxation - learn whether you should incorporate your business or not, and how much tax would you pay.| Million Dollar Journey