My point is: if you are a bit late or know someone else who is a bit late with similar enlightment, continue to be encouraging to them. If there’s at least 10-15 yrs. of work ahead, it is never too late.

 

I started my savings journey at 28, but I didn't open an RRSP until I was 35. And it wasn't until a few years ago (in my early 40's) that I began earning enough to max out my RRSP. I've had a TFSA ever since they became available, but I wasn't always able to make the maximum contribution at first.

It took about 10 years of diligent saving and investing before my net worth really began to take off in my late 30's, and the last 7 years have been crazy in terms of growth.

I would agree that as long as you have 15 years before retirement you can accomplish a lot in that time. 10 years might be cutting it a bit close since it takes that long for things to start ramping up.

 

I would agree that as long as you have 15 years before retirement you can accomplish a lot in that time. 10 years might be cutting it a bit close since it takes that long for things to start ramping up.

In most cases, that is true, but only if you have a decent income in which it is easy enough to put 10% of it, or maybe 15% of it, into investments for the retirement plan. That would be hard to do on a $60k income, but quite doable at $100k.

FWIW, I had my mortgage paid off by 1990, and had solid financial independence when I retired in 2006 at age 57. I might have been able to do it 3-5 years before then, but the extra years were insurance and retiring pre-55 didn't seem to make lifestyle sense.

Added: Based on the $1Trillion thread, quite a few of those Gen-Xers and Millennials will be inheriting from the Boomers with no barriers, except not from the 30% of Boomers who may not be able to feed themselves.

 

There are some very poor Boomers out there. Think about all the seniors who have been renting for 20 years, then one day they lose their rental and discover that rents have doubled. Suddenly they have no money.

(Some of these people end up on the street by the way)

And then Tiff Macklem changes the core inflation calculation and tells the old man that there's no inflation. It was just in his imagination!

LOL isn't it amazing how high inflation is always just in our imaginations.

 

Agree. This wealth transfer doesn't apply to the majority. My parents are examples. Bad financial choices have left them broke. With only CPP and OAS to survive on, i'll have to bail them out. I have friends who their boomer parents are in the same boat.

 

I started at 16.

Unfortunately, I had a huge setback, but I had some good fortune, too...

I started working at age 13. When I turned 16 I had enough money to buy a car (I actually bought 3... lol). I owned mutual funds at 16 and kept contributing. Then when I turned 18 I started buying stocks and trading. I continued doing that until 22 when I bought my first house.

After buying my house, I struggled a bit. I rented out some of the rooms immediately, but carrying the mortgage and being a homeowner and landlord was both new and difficult at the time. Tenants damaged some things. I had to get a new roof after like 2 years. And then when I was 25, I got fired from my job. It was stressful. I really didn't make much money to begin with to be able to pay for the house and save. I was only making 43k/year at the time and my stock trades were my only real source of adding to my retirement.

After being fired (for which I was fired without cause and received a small settlement, at first they offered 13k and I pushed back on them and they offered 15k. I accepted the 15k and moved on with my life). I basically applied to jobs non-stop for a week and didn't sleep.

Luckily for me, I got a job 6 days after I was fired. Unfortunately, the new job was not great. It was a job for high schoolers and required no education. It didn't have any benefits of any kind (no medical, dental, RRSPs, or anything). The hours were not guaranteed and it was a flat rate of $20/hour selling bullshyt products door to door. But I did it. Then I fell into the wrong crowd. I was drinking a lot. Even drinking at work sometimes with the other employees. One night, we all got caught and we were all fired. I only worked there for less than a year.

Now, being almost 26 years old, I had no job again. So I started my own business as a wealth manager because cars, fish tanks, and finance is all I know or am good at. I day traded and wrote options to pay my bills and I managed money for some clients on the side. This whole time, still dealing with a revolving door of tenants in my own home which really sucked and was very, very stressful.

After 3 years of living off the market and managing money for my clients, I f(_)cked up one of my trades. I over leveraged myself on margin and borrowed a few hundred thousand $USD. I put it all into CVS @ $69/share by selling naked put options. The price of CVS sank. Then it sank some more. Then some more. And soon it wasn't just the stock price that was sinking, but so was my heart and my confidence. I finally pulled the plug on CVS. I had lost just shy of $80,000 $CAD. The balance remaining in my brokerage account was only $16k and I once again had no money, a mortgage to pay for, a car loan of $20,000, and no real job except for my own business.

But I didn't even have my own business after that. I had lost confidence and I could no longer feel good about managing other people's money, so I sent an email to my clients telling them I was done and I fired myself.

Back to the drawing board I went, swallowing my pride, I stayed up day and night applying for jobs and delivering food for every gigwork app I could. I would sit in parking lots and apply to jobs on my phone waiting for delivery orders. I got a job after a couple months and I was about 28 years old or so at the time. This is my current employer and I am now 34 years old. I started at the bottom, making 40k a year (for the 3rd time). I hustled hard, took all the overtime, cut my expenses. I would deliver food for the gig apps every day after work and all day and night on weekends. I never took a day off. I paid off bits and pieces of my car loan until it was gone and then I started rebuilding my stock and trading accounts.

In the span of those 6 years between 28 and 34, I went from a single house with a $20k car loan and $16k in a brokerage account at a 40k salary... to now having 2 properties and $350k+ in liquid assets.

So, yes, I did start saving for retirement at 16, but I messed up along the way. I learned lots of things. Some good things, some bad things. I had some fun, and also some very tough times.

I didn't mean for this to turn into a story but I guess it kind of just ended up that way. In any event, I guess it's never too late to start.

People always say you should buy the dips in the market, but maybe what's more important is to double down and buy the dips in your life.

 

I started at 16.

Unfortunately, I had a huge setback, but I had some good fortune, too...

I started working at age 13. When I turned 16 I had enough money to buy a car (I actually bought 3... lol). I owned mutual funds at 16 and kept contributing. Then when I turned 18 I started buying stocks and trading. I continued doing that until 22 when I bought my first house.

After buying my house, I struggled a bit. I rented out some of the rooms immediately, but carrying the mortgage and being a homeowner and landlord was both new and difficult at the time. Tenants damaged some things. I had to get a new roof after like 2 years. And then when I was 25, I got fired from my job. It was stressful. I really didn't make much money to begin with to be able to pay for the house and save. I was only making 43k/year at the time and my stock trades were my only real source of adding to my retirement.

After being fired (for which I was fired without cause and received a small settlement, at first they offered 13k and I pushed back on them and they offered 15k. I accepted the 15k and moved on with my life). I basically applied to jobs non-stop for a week and didn't sleep.

Luckily for me, I got a job 6 days after I was fired. Unfortunately, the new job was not great. It was a job for high schoolers and required no education. It didn't have any benefits of any kind (no medical, dental, RRSPs, or anything). The hours were not guaranteed and it was a flat rate of $20/hour selling bullshyt products door to door. But I did it. Then I fell into the wrong crowd. I was drinking a lot. Even drinking at work sometimes with the other employees. One night, we all got caught and we were all fired. I only worked there for less than a year.

Now, being almost 26 years old, I had no job again. So I started my own business as a wealth manager because cars, fish tanks, and finance is all I know or am good at. I day traded and wrote options to pay my bills and I managed money for some clients on the side. This whole time, still dealing with a revolving door of tenants in my own home which really sucked and was very, very stressful.

After 3 years of living off the market and managing money for my clients, I f(_)cked up one of my trades. I over leveraged myself on margin and borrowed a few hundred thousand $USD. I put it all into CVS @ $69/share by selling naked put options. The price of CVS sank. Then it sank some more. Then some more. And soon it wasn't just the stock price that was sinking, but so was my heart and my confidence. I finally pulled the plug on CVS. I had lost just shy of $80,000 $CAD. The balance remaining in my brokerage account was only $16k and I once again had no money, a mortgage to pay for, a car loan of $20,000, and no real job except for my own business.

But I didn't even have my own business after that. I had lost confidence and I could no longer feel good about managing other people's money, so I sent an email to my clients telling them I was done and I fired myself.

Back to the drawing board I went, swallowing my pride, I stayed up day and night applying for jobs and delivering food for every gigwork app I could. I would sit in parking lots and apply to jobs on my phone waiting for delivery orders. I got a job after a couple months and I was about 28 years old or so at the time. This is my current employer and I am now 34 years old. I started at the bottom, making 40k a year (for the 3rd time). I hustled hard, took all the overtime, cut my expenses. I would deliver food for the gig apps every day after work and all day and night on weekends. I never took a day off. I paid off bits and pieces of my car loan until it was gone and then I started rebuilding my stock and trading accounts.

In the span of those 6 years between 28 and 34, I went from a single house with a $20k car loan and $16k in a brokerage account at a 40k salary... to now having 2 properties and $350k+ in liquid assets.

So, yes, I did start saving for retirement at 16, but I messed up along the way. I learned lots of things. Some good things, some bad things. I had some fun, and also some very tough times.

I didn't mean for this to turn into a story but I guess it kind of just ended up that way. In any event, I guess it's never too late to start.

People always say you should buy the dips in the market, but maybe what's more important is to double down and buy the dips in your life.

Quite the rollercoaster. Appreciate the honesty and courage to tell. Good luck going forward.

 

Very interesting thread.

I was "paying myself first" as a teenager but really only for spending in advance but those early life lessons have helped for the decades that followed.

I couldn't afford to invest until my early 20s; after my first degree when I started working full-time. Even then I started with $25 per month in automatic savings for investments but like I mentioned good habits (like bad habits) can be hard to break.

GenXer here and I would agree: if decent income, learn to pay yourself first, time and compounding does most of the work even if you had paid mutual fund fees (like I did) in the 1990s and early 2000s and you didn't have a high savings rate. Time and money invested does wonders...

I got my financial act together, started to at least, around the time of The Great Financial Crisis and haven't looked back after I founded a hybrid investing approach that seemed to work well - using primarily a 100% equity investing approach:

1. Owning dividend paying stocks for growing income (and some price growth), and
2. Owning low-cost ETFs for extra diversification that focuses on growth vs. distributions/yield.

Paid off mortgage over a year ago, bought a new car in cash and hope to remain out of debt for the coming decades in semi-retirement.

No inheritance here at all - my parents have been instructed by me to spend everything and enjoy everything they can.

 

I paid off my mortgage at age 35 before I started saving for retirement. That was in 1984 when rates were ≈ 16%. I retired in 2005, so ≈ 20 years later. I hated owing money to anyone and it didn't make sense to me to save money while still having debt. My net worth has continued to increase every year since I retired.

 

I struggle with not paying what I owe, too.

But math says I should come out ahead by not paying down the mortgage, so I don't. In fact, I even refinanced and if there is a market downturn I will be looking to do another refi.

 

I started in my early 20s contributing $200 a month to a insurance/mutual fund company. Looking back I wish I knew about low cost ETFs or index funds earlier. I lost 10-15 years and of growth due to those fees. When I started to really make more money I was dumped around 10k and eventually capped out my contribution limit. Then decided to go the dividend route in a cash account when I had filled all the other sheltered options and wanted the tax advantage of dividend paying stocks.

In retrospect I could have made better financial choices but it's all a learning curve and I try not to kick myself in the *** to hard as I was a kid and still learning.

Which why it's essential that young kids are taught financial literacy at birth or there after.

 

Always been a saver. Starting from when I had a paper route. My grandfather would give me 25 cents for every dollar I saved during the year. We settled up every New Year’s Day on the YoY increase in my savings account.

Never had debt other than mortgage. I constantly upgraded my skills. Focused on working hard and working smart. Ditto for investing. As if overnight we had the finances to retire at 53. Same great employer for the last 25 years. Retired at 59 Those last six years were extremely rewarding from a financial and from a job satisfaction perspective. We always lived below our means, always saved and invested what we could. We always travelled.

I learned early on that what you keep/invest can be far more important than what you earn. Especially in a commission, pay for performance environment.

I have always reached out to others who I considered to be more experienced or knowledgeable than me for financial and for career advice. Avoided the know alls and more than a few times, to my very good fortune, found myself to be a contrarian on a few important financial and career decisions.

As above, our equity accounts have increased every year.

 

I always maxed out for TFSA contribution annually at beginning of each yr...before RRSP contribution. Could have planned it better earlier prior to retirement, to shift funds from RRSP investing to non-registered account...but anyway. Things could be whole lot worse.

 

I started saving for retirement around age 25, shortly after I finished university. I went down to the bank branch near where I worked and bought an RRSP GIC. Then an "advisor" (well, mutual fund sales rep really) from Midland Walwyn had a booth set up in Toronto's underground Path in the financial district, so I set up a mutual fund account. I had a DB pension plan so my RRSP contribution was limited to $3500 per year, and IIRC, had a 20% limit on foreign content. No online banking, so every year in Feb I had to hoof it down to my broker to give them a cheque for my annual RRSP contribution. Since it was winter, it was usually snowing and uphill both ways.

Those were the bad old days... 8% front end load plus 2%+ MER on mutual funds. Or you could use a stock broker and pay $$$ commissions on each trade. And the best learning resource was The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham... talk about heavy reading. Seriously, I was always a good saver. I even managed to avoid the dotcom craze that cratered so many of my coworkers' retirement plans. The ripoff investing fees back in the '80s was the biggest impediment to my current wealth.

 

We all suffered well into the '90s with highway robbery by mutual fund sale folk and full service brokers. It is a wonder any of us made much in the way of returns over that period. Thank goodness I was mostly focused on paying off double digit interest rate mortgages right up to almost 1990.

Investors today have no idea how good they have it in comparison, notwithstanding there is still room to move, relative to the USA and other countries, with respect to fees and commissions.

 

Started to contribute to my RRSP after getting off the boat (figuratively…got across the pond on my first flight ever), learning the language, earning a degree and starting a job. Always lived below my means and saved the balance. In the early years i did not pay a lot of attention to the investing part of the equation thinking (and risking) that i would have ‘enough’ regardless in my retirement years. The mental escape clause was that i would be able to adjust down my ‘wants’ if need be. In this last respect, growing up in still reconstructing Italy after WW2 (i call the 60s still ‘reconstructing’, years albeit in a booming fashion) was instrumental. With the memory of sharing a bedroom with my three brothers (one in the same bed. My two sisters shared the other bedroom with our parents) i felt anything better than that would be gravy. Still feel that way and i thank goodness for those early life lessons.

Things turned out more than ok and stopped contributing to my RRSP ten years ago (had reached a level that i thought its own momentum would suffice…i was right) and switched to paying myself dividends-only from my small corp.

p.s. Actually, sleeping with my brothers in one small bedroom was only a sign of difficult financial times, it was great in any other way.

 

Mid-90s. Paid off mortgage. Had always saved maximum of earnings (10%) after first big increase. Dropped brokers in the late 90s. Investment philosophy was pick winners and dispense with losers quickly. Load up the winners. Stay the course.

 

Bottom line for me is that some people are savers, other spenders. Some people actually plan their finances with care, others do not bother until it is too late.

I had my eyes opened to this when I was privy to my former employer’s DC plan participation stats. Knowledge based industry, lots of smart people.

The percentage of ees who did not fully participate, left money on the table or never adjusted their respective DC investment choices from one year to the next astounded me.

 

When I started working full time after graduating uni debt free in 1989 I started investing.

I have always saved at least $100 a month from those earliest days and started placing it in a bank mutual fund account.

About 5 years of that and educating myself from rerading personal finance books from the library I started to figure what a MER was, and how often the bank fund MER rates were no friend of mine. Maxed my RRSP every year though.

By 1998 I was invited to become a junior partner at my firm, at the time a CCPC. Invested 10K, and company matched with another 10K as a bit of a signing bonus, with a 5 year lockup. Paid 3.5% divvy. After that for more shares you asked for shares of retiring partners, and I was low man on pole so more shares from my asks were not coming in the early years.

By 2003 we had been bought out in a friendly merger. So my 20k old co became 70K in new co.
Then company stock could be held in a specific bank RRSP plan. So transfers were RRSP fund contributions and I started a non registered investment account. Kept buying company shares as they became available.

By 2015 another merger this time overtaken by publically traded co. My oldco holdings by then were 188K and it became 320K in newco stock. Lower divvy rate.

So company stock ownership to 2016 was a very good deal. And allowed me to grow rrsp account and non reg account.

 

I started my rrsp at 20 and maxed it for 10 yrs. Didn’t have time or money to travel or buy a house, but now in my 30’s i am able to start to coast in the saving for retirement part.

 

Saving for retirement is important. It is also important to put the time and effort into managing that investment and into a tax plan in retirement.

 

I can’t really remember when I started. My focus in the early days was building a bit of a cushion which was then followed by contributing to a RRSP. After purchasing our first house the focus was paying off the mortgage. This while still making RRSP contributions. Paying off the mortgage coincided with better earnings.

If I could wish/change one thing, it would be adding in a financial mentor to the equation. That would have been invaluable. When asked, I try to help out on that front when I can.

 

Despite being a business major in accounting, having frugal immigrant parents, and having a good solid family education from my older siblings, I was AWFUL at savings. Fortunately, I had extreme guidance (to the point that it was a little 'forced') from my immediately family. I started saving for retirement at 22.

I had student loans, and worst consumer credit card debt. Yet, my family suggested that I take out an RRSP loan with an advisor at Altamira. It was some my family trusted. I took out a $2000 loan at the end of the RRSP season, to be paid in one year. I took the tax refund, and put it right towards the loan, and then paid $167 every month. I paid off the loan a couple of months sooner than the year with my tax refund. I continued to put in the $167 every month. At the same time, I took any extra money that came in from my part time retail job, and 'winfalls' that I had and put some towards paying my loans faster. I took my raises and put at lease 1/2 in to the RRSP payments, when the loans were paid off, I put those payment amounts into my RRSP to max them out.

In many ways it made no sense because my tax rate was really low, I had student loans and consumer debt. The interest was not deductible because it was on an RRSP loan, I don't even know the rate I paid, I remember it was really good because it was secured by the company. I didn't realize it then, but it was the habit which led to discipline, which I know I naturally lacked when it came to spending. Even though I understood the math and finances better than many, it was that first step to automate it, then to just make saving for retirement like a bill we paid first.

We have done okay, and saved enough despite many layoffs, and up and downs. I can't say I am great investor but just did a pretty simple thing of getting some discipline and routine.

 

I saved a fair amount of what little rsp room I had for my higher MTR years.

On a few occasions we engaged some outside advice.

 

I remember walking into the bank at 19 and opening a RRSP. That would have been 1990. The bank employee commented, “It’s not very often we see a 19 yr old open an RRSP”. We saved, grew that RRSP and cashed it in for the down payment on our first mortgage. We repaid the RRSP back. That RRSP still grows today as we continue to contribute.

From 23 to about 33 I worked with a company who offered a DC Plan. I contributed extra each pay cheque too. They matched to a certain %. I quit there at 33 and moved those DC funds into another tax sheltered fund. An RRSP I think. Likely. It has almost quadrupled since I left that company.

Then I started working at another company. Same thing, DC plan. I could also buy company shares that they matched, up to a percentage as well. I went above the max and kept contributing extra to my DC plan. Also buying company stock every payday. As the kids grew up, the mortgage got paid off, every time a debt or expense was relieved, I just put that same amount into RRSPs. This prevents lifestyle creep. I’m 21 years now at this same employer. Saving, investing, buying shares, topping up my DC plan, buying extra RRSPs, buying ETFs. I’m milking every extra cent from my employer. I’ll be 54 later this year. In reality I could get let-go any time. If I had to go, we’d still be more than ok. I like my job and my co-workers. I have my sights set at 60 for retirement.

I’ll have accomplished what I set out to do. Raise a family. See my kids grow into stable adults contributing to society. My wife still loves me (I think lol). We have a grandchild and our adult kids are happy. We’re set up for whatever comes. We’re ready. We’re happy. One needs not much else.

From age 48-on or so I definitely amp’d things up yet a few notches further. Extra saving and investing. I’ve definitely become more frugal as I aged, remaining focused on my goal at 60. We still enjoy life and travel a bit. Though, it has been 7 years since we went anywhere tropical during our winter here. I have my sights set on Jan 2025. It’s time for a little reward. An Eastern Caribbean cruise for 2 weeks sounds pretty attractive.

 

I’ll have accomplished what I set out to do. Raise a family. See my kids grow into stable adults contributing to society. My wife still loves me (I think lol). We have a grandchild and our adult kids are happy. We’re set up for whatever comes. We’re ready. We’re happy. One needs not much else.

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Though, it has been 7 years since we went anywhere tropical during our winter here. I have my sights set on Jan 2025. It’s time for a little reward. An Eastern Caribbean cruise for 2 weeks sounds pretty attractive.

Perhaps you need to schedule an eye appointment as your sights are a bit off. It is already Feb 2025 and soon to be March.

Congrats on your progress and your dedication. A great example of time and consistency bearing great results. I just had lunch with a friend who is a year and a bit into full retriement. He is enjoying life and keeping very busy. However, he has commented that he had no idea how quickly time would pass. If you got the money and the time it may be a good idea to take that winter escape a little more frequently. You only get so many chances to reward yourself for all that effort. I have a hard time myself. It often happens when we develop good saving habits.

 

When? In 1996 when I got new better paid job and and stabilized our finances (bought my house at 22 in 1990). It was the last year that the employer offered a defined benefits plan with indexation. If I stayed there (didn't regret that move), next year I would have been eligible for it for a guaranteed income vs selling assets with uncertainty. Also I wished that I invested in something else than vague mutual funds that didn't survive.

 

After gradualting from high school my first job was as a trainee with one of the large Cdn banks. My uneducated father said to me to save 10% of what I made so I started saving 10.00 a month from my paycheck of $93.06 bi monthly. My career went very well and got married at age 24 and bought our first house in the Dunbar area of Vancouver for $18,500. Managed to scrape up about $3,000. between us, borrowed $5,000. from the Bank (my wife paid it off in 2 years), and assumed an existing mortgage of around $10,000. Owned the house outright a few years later. Had our first child around this time and as my career was progressing well my spouse stayed home as a homemaker. Promotions were quick but I left for another job in the same business and after 18 more years of work managed to retire at age 56. I will turn 80 this year and am pleased to say that we are both in good health and have very active lifestyles. Life is good and I am still a net saver.

 

Nice to read your pleasant history over most of your adult life. I am a similar age to you and the prices and mortgages for homes from those days still ring bells in my mind. The first house I bought in 1963 cost me 5000 pounds (in UK) say about $10,000. It just sold for over 500,000 pounds! Yow!

The house was in Aston Clinton, a small village on the A5. Some cars built by the Martin brothers competed in a hill climb in the village and became known as Aston Martins - you might have heard of them.

Life is not always fun - but memories can be.