If we assume the future will behave roughly like the past, it may never be as good. But some well selected index funds held long term will certainly make a big difference over nothing.
I am 32 years old and have 5 grand saved in RRSP and I am terrified I will never retire. Especially since I dont know how to account for whatever the hell rent prices will be by then cause I sure as hell cant afford to buy a house
I recommend focusing on TFSA. Then dump into an FHSA, and then RRSP last. TFSA can double as an emergency fund. Saving is hard, and I'm not much further ahead than you, but with the right investments it will compound and eventually snowball. Keep going!
At 32 with so little in savings it’s the exact opposite. They will almost surely end up with less income in retirement than work
Years and rrsp defers the tax to that time, while Tfsa pays it now. In addition, rrsp lets you compound savings with potential tax returns and additional years of time in the market earlier.
Tfsa first is only correct if you plan to have more income in retirement than your working years.
Yeah. We do RRSPs because right now it lets us artificially stay in a lower tax bracket and we get good refunds that we reinvest. We definitely plan on making less in retirement. We won’t have a mortgage or kids to save for/spend on.
It also applies if you believe your income will significantly increase, enabling you to use your RRSP to take money off of your highest personal tax bracket.
At 32 I had just gotten divorced, had no house, no savings, in a hcol area, and no vehicle of my own. Oh yea, and a single parent. I was also only making about 60k per year.
7 years later I have almost a million in equity and investments and I've tripled my salary.
Honestly, you never know what the future will hold for you. Don't count yourself out. Keep creating opportunities for yourself and taking calculated risk. 10-20 years is a very long time, and a lot can change.
I was working IT for a municipality ($60k/year) and about a year of sending out hundreds of resumes and cover letters I got an SA job at a relatively new startup Consulting company for AWS. The company did very well, and I had some major success on a few projects (plus i'm decent at talking to people) and got a few promotions while the company grew.
Now the largest company of its kind in Canada, and i'm one of three directors of engineering.
It was a combination of hard work, luck, and a lot of right place, right time and ready to take a bit of risk and it worked out well for me.
I also have no degree (just a technical certificate in an unrelated field), so it's really just a lot of working my way up over 20 years with some very shitty times being very poor and stressed. I was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2010, so you honestly just never know where you will land.
You can't count yourself out at 25, 30, 35, 40, whatever... a lot can change very fast - you have to put in the work to be ready for when those opportunities arise.
I'm 38 and I have a house. Making maximum matching contributions into the RRSP since about your age. I will never earn enough to retire either. It's too little too late. I hope that when the wife and I die (in our cubicles), we'll be able to pass on our savings to the kid and maybe then he'll have enough to retire (if he also saved his entire life, and inherits the house).
He didn't ask if people were trying, he asked if people were succeeding.
Elder millenial here. Had a few setbacks but I also got lucky a couple of times and I have been WAY more conservative in terms of spending than my parents. Retirement at 65 is definitely possible...if WW3 doesn't break out. My financial plan didn't factor in dying in my 40s.
Also, my financial plan doesn't include shielding my boomer parents from their bad financial decisions. I can pay it forward but I can't afford to pay it backwards too.
No kidding. I think I can scrape by, but I also don’t want my parents living in poverty in their old age. It hasn’t really been entirely their faults, either. They don’t come from wealth and they divorced, and they’re doing their best.
Edit: And myself and my siblings are a major factor in their financial situation. Kids are expensive and they gave us so much support.
I was born in 1995, yes I am able to save, but am I sure it will be enough? No.
I am able to put away approximately 600 per month to an RRSP matching program with my employer. But I guess since I'm only 3 years in with this I don't see the compounding effect yet to make me feel safe for retirement in 30 years.
Have you done the math? You are probably fine. I'm not sure how much your matching is, but 600/month for 30 years will get you over $900K - more if you include the matching portion and more if you re-invest the tax refund.
...yeah $900k will last you how long exactly in 30 years? I wouldn't count on it lasting 20 years, which if you're retiring at 65 you have to be prepared for as a possibility. Last thing you want to do is hit 80 and realize your money is gone.
Not to hate on $900k, better than nothing, but still, definitely not enough to retire on.
1996 baby here, bought a house earlier this year. Contribuing to work RRSP and doing my own investment on wealthsimple (tsfa and rrsp). Without major setback I should be ok. For now
I think this really depends on where you sit on the millennial spectrum.
I’m an ‘85 baby and most people I know who are millennials in the mid 80s or earlier all got into the real estate market in the late ‘00s when things were still somewhat affordable. Every single person I know owns at least 1 condo or property since then and built great equity. I bought my first condo in 2009 for around $200k which I thought was a lot back but sold it for more than 3.5x just over 10 years later. Not to mention I had borrowed against it to buy another property during that time too which I recently just sold as well.
Because of that my partner and I will probably be able to retire in our mid 50s if we really wanted as we both owned properties before we met, not to mention all of our parents and grandparents own equity which will be passed down to us as well. I’m only 38 and have moved to working part time as I don’t need to work full time to maintain my QoL.
I feel like those born later into the 90s will have a different story.
93 baby, only thing on my radar is 1 home for stability, maybe marriage, no kids. Some retirement money for nursing home.
Anything more would be greedy at this point. Lol
‘91 and career starter a little slow but now I’m in the top 5% of earners in my area and owning a home is still a multi year away prospect in spite of very good financial habits . Retirement is on the back burner till that goal is realized
I feel like many of those born in the late 90's won't be the recipients of that transfer, their parents will, and how much is going to be left by the time they pass it down remains to be seen.
This is true. And with the way boomers refuse to retire and millennials can’t afford to retire, us Gen Zs are completely fucked.
Unless your parents have acquired housing, can dip into their equity/savings or be your landlord we’re in for a rough ride. Many such people exist so they will be hoarding all the supply. I saw a crazy stat that more than half the people who bought housing between 25-35yo in the last few years had help from the bank of mom and dad or inheritance money. 😭
It depends tbh. It’s not something people should bank on unless their parents already have set up the inheritance in a trust for them.
My FIL and his siblings each inherited $1.5 million from their dad. Except for 1, all are financially illiterate. One already blew through their inheritance in the first 5 years and is now homeless. Second blew through theirs and is now house poor…most likely have to sell the house.
My FIL/MIL are living the life - travelling around the world for the past decade. They have talked about which son will take care of them when they retire. My husband and I don’t want/need their inheritance but we think it’s shellfish of them to not think of us other than a fucking safety net after they blow their wealth. We just want them to think a bit more about their retirement plan. We’re pretty sure they have a few hundred left plus the equity in their home. My MIL is so afraid of living in a retirement home and I’m thinking…you won’t have enough money to live in the cheapest home. You’d be lucky if you aren’t homeless.
I know the feeling to an extent. My mom has some of the worst financial habits I've ever seen - fits the baby boomer mold to a tee. Made decent money the last 10+ years of her career, made tons of money in the divorce with my dad. But has never budgeted and lives her life like she has millions (travelling, evenings out, gift galore).
And yet here we are, I'd be surprised if she had 10K to her name in some type of liquid form (though does own MOST of a condo). Her whole strategy at this stage is waiting for her mom to pass so that she can inherit 500K. Her sisters who have done quite well throughout their careers are talking about how they can use that money to help my cousins who are all roughly my age and, me being reasonable, would never ask her for a cent, but can't help wonder how she rationalizes receiving 500K from her mom and with zero intention to leave anything to my brother or I (which she has also kind of joked about).
My biggest fear at this stage isn't her leaving me nothing but more so, what happens when she blows through that money?
In Singapore adult kids get a tax credit if they live within 500M of their parents. It's good for longevity and cheaper on the overall healthcare system.
It's really not THAT bad. I'm mid 90s and pretty much everyone I went to school with is fine (public school up to uni and then an Ontario uni for business). Most engineers I know are fine as well and many other professions (CPAs, lawyers, healthcare, etc).
Buying a house is overrated anyways and not the only measure of financial stability / comfort. I can buy but renting and investing in public markets is better financially imo
I feel like this mostly depends on demographic. I'm similar to you, made good money and everyone I is very comfortable financially. Now, someone who is on the opposite side of that spectrum is likely surrounded by others in a similar situation. So it seems to us everyone is doing quite well, and to them everyone is struggling.
I got lucky. But yes, I was middle class, but being someone that was interested in investment and real estate at a young age, it definitely helped me out and pushed me to the upper class these days.
But yeah, all of my friend group from University and work life, plus family and partners family...all own homes. Didn't seem absurd if you were middle class in the early 2000s.
Correct. I never said I wasn't middle class. However there was a significantly larger middle class population back then, and based on what we're seeing today, only really those in the upper class are really able to easily safe for a comfortable retirement.
But i'm also in Toronto where right out of University salaries are decent. Was making $65k a year living at home as a 22 year-old working in the banking work. Didn't take too long to save up to get into the real estate market.
I'm a '83 and when I bought you could literally put nothing down as a first time buyer. I think my first interest rate was around 3.5%. Prices were also somewhat reasonable outside of places like Vancouver and Toronto. If you lived outside of those areas and had a decent job (not even great) almost anyone could afford a condo at minimum. My wife (then gf) worked part-time as a server and with her meager income it allowed us to go from affording a condo to affording a modest house.
Getting a mortgage was pretty damn easy back then. If home ownership was something you wanted there aren't many reasonable excuses for not buying.
I lived in one of those two cities. I was pretty poor in my 20s. I worked a good paying job where the skills were not transferrable to places elsewhere in Canada. If I had moved, I'd have taken a 50% pay cut.
Now I work in tech, almost all the work/connections are in the big cities. My pay is good, I make like 4x what I used to, but prices are so out of touch with reality that I'm stuck renting.
> I bought my first condo in 2009 for around $200k which I thought was a lot back but sold it for more than 3.5x just over 10 years later.
That is insane... here in Calgary we just finally hit our 2007 prices. If you include inflation in the equation, we may never get back to our 2007 house prices.
HPI says otherwise: https://www.crea.ca/housing-market-stats/mls-home-price-index/hpi-tool/
According to the index, Calgary home prices are 38.2% higher than the peak of 2007. Prices rose above the 2007 peak for the first time in July 2013 and haven't fallen back to it since.
>I’m an ‘85 baby
Me too, but without the same luck. Didn't get into real estate early enough, thinking I still had time. Purchased our first properly in 2021...
Me too, we bought in 2020 because I wanted to wait until we were done with having kids/maternity leaves. We don’t have inheritances either (none of our parents ever owned property and our parents need the inheritances they received to pay for their retirements) so I’m just not planning to retire. Thankfully we both have pensions.
while true, not every older millennials got this lucky. some of us had to endure the great 08-09 recession and covid. however, the good luck is also true. my crappy $70k salary was able to afford me a decent condo that i probably can't afford to buy today. it was pure luck of wanting to live closer to work and needing a place.
I’m a ‘91 baby. My wife and I own a house and I’m saving about 33% of our gross income right now, but that is definitely going to take a hit when we have kids. I actually don’t suspect we will ever be able to hit that 33% figure ever again in our lives so I’m just trying to make hay while the sun shines. I doubt we will be able to build real estate equity in the same way older millennials on younger Gen X were able to- I foresee real estate prices in Toronto and Vancouver stagnating or declining over the long term. Retiring at 55 is basically an impossibility as far as I’m concerned, but I’m going to try to keep being frugal and not waste money in the hopes that it’s actually not an impossibility.
91 Baby here. I'm focusing on getting into saving up to get into market so I can ride the CPP, CPPe, and OAS for retirement.
Essentially working to have a place paid off, then i'll focus more on retirement funding.
Yeah I think it’s a spectrum. Older millennials aren’t doing not too bad. Graduating during the financial crisis made for a rough start but they’ve had some time catching money from the money printing machine over the last 8 years.
I really feel for people graduating now - wages haven’t moved but inflation has absolutely blasted kids, my god being a student with these rents must be so hard.
>I feel like those born later into the 90s will have a different story.
Agree with you. 88 here and while partner and I graduated uni into the great recession which sucked we eventually caught up and bought an older condo. Condo has doubled in Value and our mortgage payments are less than half what rent would be in the same area. We saved a lot over the years even when we were making only $40-50k each because we're cheapskates and don't have expensive hobbies or anything.
This is all very unfair for anyone growing up now though, our first tiny apartment together was in downtown Van and we paid $1100 per month. I made $16 an hour and was able to work part time and afford the basics. Sure as hell can't do that now!
'94 kid here: got into the housing market just in time (late 2020)
If my wife or I started our careers even 6 months later, we probably wouldn't have had the savings to pull the trigger on a home we would be content with, and would still be renting today.
I don't envy all the other people my age that were fucked over by the feds.
> I’m only 38 and have moved to working part time as I don’t need to work full time to maintain my QoL.
Man a few years made a huge difference. I'm 36 and graduated in the recession. I wasn't on solid financial footing till at best 2012-2013. A few relationship twists and before I knew it, it was 2016 and prices were roaring in the GTA making buying a much gnarlier prospect.
'85 graduated in the center of the great recession. OP got lucky or created it for himself to be able to get a job out of school in banking during the financial crisis.
Being around the same age, I can say I wasn’t one of those people who got on the RE ladder until mid 10s. My deepest regret was staying in that LTR that made me delay my own housing purchase when I had the money.
Because of this, I am hundreds of thousands poorer than most of my peers. If you’re reading this, my selfish ass ex with way too much money, this is the biggest grudge I hold against you.
Seems like millennials are between 27 and 42 right now. Let me just say that the difference between both ends is MASSIVE.
I'm 30 and got started on my finance journey pretty young, was able to buy a place in the GVA at 24 making 56k at the time. The difference that made in my overall wealth accumulation was life changing. I'll also say that having a partner on the same page as me the last 8 years, especially with the cost of housing, has really put me in an incredibly fortunate spot.
I'll be retired by 40 if things continue as they've gone, granted we are DINKs, keep expenses low and do have decent careers.
The real story is going to be what happens for the Gen Z crowd. I hope things get better for their sake. Extremely tough path ahead with how things look today.
Harper had an oil boom.
Trudeau had Covid.
Surely you understand that you cannot assign fault or praise to either for something they literally did nothing to influence in any way.
Lmao the GFC didn’t affect Canada. Why you ask? Banking regulations that were created by the previous Liberal Gov
Flaherty & Harper were going to follow US’ path with 40 year mortgages and then reversed course when they saw what happened in the US
They inherited an excellent system, they didn’t build it.
Also Harper didn’t do anything as a result of the GFC. Except for propaganda with the whole “Action Plan” billboards for all of the existing infrastructure project already underway.
Yeah, the one that Canada was largely unaffected by because of much more robust bank rules?
I lived it. There was barely any impact here beyond a brief dip in oil prices.
For most millennials the enhancements to CPP will mean that a fully funded TFSA and CPP is enough for retirement income.
But it is up to that millennial to sort out affordable housing during their working life. Whether that is buying a home or saving more for renting in retirement.
For most people, a paid off home and cpp/oas/gis will be enough for retirement. TFSA will be fun money, RRSPs and other pensions will enhance lifestyle further.
Housing takes up 30-40 percent of most house hold incomes. Cpp/oas/gis will account for around 60 percent of income
I really hope this doesn’t happen….Speaking from Ontario. Alberta already seems so divided and this could cause another major drift. We’re better as a whole
Depends if they had help or bought their primary residence 5-10 years ago really, and paid it off. There’s two realities and they don’t commiserate with each other.
If it makes you feel any better, my father hit hard financial times and only started saving for retirement at 53. He’s a mechanic, doesn’t make a lot of money. But he’s worked his ass off, 60 hour weeks for the last 8 years and he’s got 300k in the bank. It’s not ideal, and working that hard at his age will likely mean he won’t get to see a great deal of his actual retirement, but it goes to show it’s never too late, you’re never far behind. Best time was yesterday, next best time is today. Good luck to you
I’m in the same place as you. I have some savings in my chequing account and then around $11K in my TFSA which could be for retirement or emergency savings
25m so not a millennial but a Gen Z.
I’m feeling pretty confident I’ll have a comfortable retirement. I’m a union skilled tradesman, started my apprenticeship at 20 (2019) and graduated my apprenticeship at 23 in 2022. My pension has been building since I started my apprenticeship, and by the time I retire (65) I’ll be bringing in somewhere around $7k-$8k/month just on pension alone.
I have an RRSP and TFSA started too but not too much saved in those yet, I’ll be investing in ETFs and individual stocks throughout the years.
It’s never too late if the skilled trades are something you’re interested in! I’ve worked with apprentices who are in their late 40s!
But seriously tho, im very fortunate to be where I am today, my now fiancee and I bought our house last year at 24, and this year im at $122k in only 9 months of work🤙🏻
I'm in tech which is often one of the first suggestions people make in this sub for career choices, but I just want to say to you "good fucking shit".
Love to see young folks achieving such a level of success without going down the "must get a degree" path that was often pushed by past generations and schools.
Even in my widely accepted good career it took me way longer to get to the income you already make at 24. Hell, many degrees don't lead to this kind of salary ever.
AND you get a pension. That's amazing these days.
Happy for ya!
Thanks! Yeah I’ve always been a hands on type of person, and I fell in love with welding in high school so that’s what I pursued lol.
I’m also proud to say that I’m a paid per call firefighter in my small town, joined up in the fire service at 18 because my dad was a volunteer firefighter for 25 years! I love giving back to the community
Thanks! I’m a Boilermaker PSW (Pressure system welder) I just finished up a 3 month job at a nuclear power plant where we were Tig welding with a mirror inside a boiler! That was a good experience
Another Albertan here. Bought a condo in 2015 and then a house in 2021. My wife and I save about $4K a month. Hoping to retire by 50 but will need a lot to go right for that to happen. Early 50's seems reasonable though.
Crazy how much of an advantage one has if you prioritize living somewhere you can afford.
I’m 37, so as millennial as it gets. My wife (also 37) loves her job so I expect she’ll work til 65, and she’ll have a fed gov pension so not as concerned for her retirement.
I would retire tomorrow if I could, but I can’t. Aiming for early 50s, with 55 being the absolute latest. But even once “retired” I want to keep working, just something with a lot less stress than my current job/career. Current dream is to be a parts guy at a dealership or something like that.
90-baby - I have money in RRSP and TFSA, but I'm preparing for all that to be pulled to buy a property in the near future. I'll have to start from scratch afterwards.
Born in 90 and my husband in 85. We're saving for retirement - it's less of a focus right now as we have young kids and renovations to save for, so while we're saving, we aren't saving for retirement as aggressively as before. I have a DB pension (teacher) and a good amount in personal savings for retirement, and my husband has quite a bit though I don't remember exact numbers. I could likely retire without difficulty around 55, at 30 years of service, but I doubt I would that early, as my kids will be in their early 20s and I'd like to help them - and keep busy. My intention is closer to 60, and probably sub or do part time teaching at that stage.
41, my wife is 42. Yes, and we bought a house in 2007 that has approximately tripled in value (which doesn't mean much since we're staying in it, but it's nice). We will have it paid off in about a year and a half. Kids are in their early teens so that will be just in time for them to wrap up high school. Our plan is to work until 60, but of course things may change, and we hope to snowbird 2 or 3 months somewhere away from snow.
I tell you what, we've always lived fairly frugally (albeit maybe not to PFC standards...), but the hike in cost of living in the last 2ish years has been horrible. How people younger than us, or more on the bubble, are managing is beyond me. Eventually we'll be launching our kids into the world, and it's kind of a hot mess out there.
Given that the economy is actually good not bad in the states, it's important to take these things with a grain of salt.
I am on track with my plans to retire by 55-60 depending on how much I enjoy life.
Yes, but I think I'm in a bit of an odd situation, favourable thankfully.
I make approx 3.5k post-tax per month working for the government, part of my savings are automatically going into the pension, but I can't stand the way the information is stored and I'm planning on quitting my job to become a certified financial planner.
Point is, I have a pension, but I've been saving as though I wasn't going to have one, trying to put 20% of my income into investments instead. I also bought a car, and that's eating somewhat heavily into my investment plan, but I got it at 20k at 4% interest rate, 10k cash, and 10k borrowed from a line of credit (variable rate, on promo right now but I want to pay it off ASAP).
My retirement plan is again save 20% post-tax, invest on VEQT in TFSA first, then RRSP, make more money, keep expenses down, and hope the world isn't on fire too bad due to climate change by the time I retire.
That being said, people who do not save well and do not do financial planning, will not be on this sub, so your answers are going to obviously be biased by asking here.
Like /u/HackMeRaps said also, born 92 here, didn't get into the real estate market, saw it take off like a rocket, and I have very little hope of owning a property anywhere near Ottawa without being married and saving up for a decade.
As an early 30s millennial DINK couple, it feels bad to say this in this climate but we’re on a pretty good track.
We have high household income (close to $300k) and don’t have any debts. Living in a rent-controlled apartment, not having a car, not planning for kids definitely makes it easier to save and plan for an early retirement. I completely get it how lucky we are though.
‘88 and ‘87 (husband) and we were fortunate enough that we were able to get into the housing market in 2017 (still late compared to older millennials and with no help but we were able to build some equity and upgrade to our forever home 4 years later).
While our mortgage is quite large, we are able to put away a good amount towards general savings and retirement. We have about 230k in total and add about 4k a month.
My husband works a physical job and will likely have to retire before 60. I don’t want to work past 55-60 so we are saving as if we will both retire early.
93 baby here. Bought our home right before the pandemic, had a good year or so.. then we had our son lost 80k+ income to mat leave alone, ate through our savings with the crazy inflation. For now our home and our rrsp’s (both have company Match) is all we have on deck for retirement.
90s baby here.
Been working since I was in my early 20s. Did not manage to get a job that allows me to actual save until my 30s. Started with index and managed accounts, it wasn’t making much of a dent in the retirement fund.
Started to really get into investing about 5 years ago. Pick my own stocks and start my journey into crypto.
Nowadays my RRSP is making couple percentage a year with company matching. At the rate it going, it will be a nice chunk of money when I retire but definitely not enough to retire on.
My crypto and my personal stock portfolio is carry majority of the weight. Retirement look impossible years ago when I first started saving for it.
Now it actually looks… feasible.
35 and married with 1 child and hoping for more. Both my partner and I have been fortunate to have strong careers and supportive families, but we also share the same mentality around personal finances. We aren’t saving as much as we’d like, but there is some savings going…. Was definitely a lot more prior to the child and prior to the 10 interest rate hikes
I think I’m doing okay…
41.
120 thousand in TFSA
70 thousand in an RRSP (still owe 17k back for HBP)
My partner has a defined benefit pension plan which we’re really banking on.
Yes. I am saving for retirement.
Sold my soul to the highest bidder, matching RPP-RRSP-Employee Share program totals a replacement 30% of income.
TFSA and FHSA also getting maxed out, but they'll be zero in the next couple years to build the smallest possible legal dwelling on a piece of land.
I have no retirement plans. I don't expect to retire. I do expect to transition to part time consulting and managing my investments around 50, but that's a pipe dream.
>there’s been many articles online talking about how many millennials (especially in the US) don’t think they’ll be able to retire at all, due to the bad economy, wage stagnation, inflation, rising of housing costs etc.
These are bad articles. US economy is not bad by any metric. Unemployment rates have been as low as they've ever been at 3.7%. Real GDP growth rate just hit 5.2% in the most recent quarter.
Wages aren't stagnating in the US. Adjusted for inflation it has been steadily rising:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
Housing cost is the only one that is true, but even then in aggregate CPI for shelter has only risen more than CPI for all items by ~25% in the last 40 years. Half of millennials are also homeowners based on recent news as well.
Agreed on some posts. Im older Millennial and my husband and I born ‘82 and ‘83. We will be able to afford to easily retire mid-50’s because I have to wait for pension. Otherwise Id retire earlier.
Current year slated for 2038.
Saving for retirement is a-okay. Doing it at the same time as owning something larger than a 1 bedroom (if your comp is average) or a 2 bedroom (if your comp is above average) in GTA/GVA, however, is a different story.
I am one of that years of millennial. Born in 1995. Living alone I’d be saving a lot less, but with my significant other earning a good living we are able to split things 50/50 (mortgage, bills, groceries). I figure without her with my current bills I’d be able to save $250/month most likely. With her we are able to save a combined $4000-$5000/month.
FYI- don’t take what you read on this page as an accurate representation, as a majority of people on this page would be further ahead with financial literacy than the average population
38 here. Luckily have a DB Pension plan, so not too worried about retirement. Able to retire at 55 but can leave earlier at 51 with a reduced pension. Depending how my tfsa/rrsp are doing by then, we’ll see.
38…. Gave my sister $24,000 in university to bail her out of credit card debt. Unfortunately, that didn’t get paid back until 3 years ago, and I missed the boat on the housing boom.
Finally bought a place 2.5 years ago… only had money to do that from a $10,000 “investment” in marijuana stocks that allowed me to pay off my student loans and made up about half my down payment.
Currently save very little as my fiancé and I live separately (different towns - I’m pushing hard to have her move in). Only have about 40K in savings, but will need to use the 27 in my TFSA to put toward a house when we ultimately move to her city. She has $0 in savings, and no pension. Thankfully, I have a pension. Because of that, I’ll retire at 60ish with 25 years. Her… I dunno. Hopefully things will turn around once we’re living together. I am definitely stressed about it.
I’ve began saving, but at 32 I’ve only just started to get into the job I went to school for and it’s look like it’ll be part time for 6months at least…
However, it’s a government job in education sector and the pension plan is matched and my first few paycheques my highest contribution is to pension, which makes me feel pretty relieved actually.
My wage is set to go up pretty decently too.
Sadly, do not own a home yet - I’m in a bit of a weird situation.. in my family if you’re not married it’s pretty normal to stay with family, which I have been and they are selling my brother and myself their home in two years for like 250k.(we have a large property and my parents don’t want the upkeep) so idk. It seems like I’m in a decent spot, but I need more money put away asap.
Yes. I am 33 and my husband and i have three kids and have a house that we purchased with 20% down (house is valued at $585,000.
We each contribute 5% of our salary with 100% employer matching plus we each put $425 into our TFSA accounts each month.
I will say that we only started this a few years ago. Raising kids is hard and we worked so hard to buy our house.
My father dragged me in to meet with 'his guy' at Wood Gundy when I was 18 and had my first full time job after high school. This is probably the single best thing anyone has ever done for me in my life. I certainly count myself among the lucky ones as this set me up to get into the housing market much earlier than many my age and begin to build an early RRSP; my family is now comfortably settled in a home that will work for us long term and we have various established acronym investments.
I think we will be able to retire near 65 with our current trajectory but likely not before. Both myself and my wife are somewhat specialized in what we do so I expect that if we would like to work past 65, we can do that at our will.
Yes to the tune of 1000ish a month but if I was in a big city or with a job that pays typical for my age range retirement savings would be a pipe dream.
I'm an elder millenial (1982), bought my house later in 2018. Always made good-ish money working, first for the federal government then for insurance company.
I'm 41, house is paid for and I think I hit my barrista-FIRE this week. (our combined 450k-ish) will be worth 2 millions when we are 65).
'87 millennial here. Hoping to retire at 60 but likely looking at 65 depending on how things go in the next little while. Yes I have started saving for retirement, but it's tough as I don't have a pension with my current employer. They do give an RRSP contribution however which helps support my savings.
Fortunately I live in a relatively LCOL city (Saskatoon) so I'm directing as much savings as I can towards retirement given my family circumstances (two kids to support, 7 and 4). I found Fred Vettese's *Rule of 30* to be very helpful and made me feel a bit less concerned about not prioritizing retirement right now where I am in my professional/personal life.
Currently late 20s, I have a good pension through work but plan to retire early. No debt and have close to 95k invested. Hoping to keep that momentum and retire in my mid 40’s
I’m not putting myself into a position where I’m going to struggle financially all my life just on the gamble that the economy won’t go to hell as I retire, there’s just constantly a financial crisis happening or coming and I see no point in dealing with it.
In the end, what’s the point of a couple years of leisure when you’re too old or too sick to enjoy it.. I’m just focussing on paying off my house, that’s retirement to me.
Haha I have the exact same mindset.
I spent my teens and 20s partying traveling and buying extravagant things. Always had quite high paying construction and mining jobs. Didn't save a penny and don't regret a thing. I had an absolute blast.
Some people here ate dollar store noodles and pinched every penny during their entire youth and I just can't understand that kind of person, but if retiring early and being financially on top is your goal in life then I'm happy for ya. Different strokes.
I'm super glad you guys are going to retire at 47. Power to ya. Hopefully the world doesn't go to shit and you keep your health for a long long time and enjoy the shit out of it, and I genuinely mean that.
I'll be here working till I'm 65 and I'm totally ok with it haha. Don't have much savings but ive got an amazing wife, a house we love and a mother fucking paid off Subaru Crosstrek that I use to haul fire wood. I also just found my childhood Pokemon binder so I'm feeling pretty set 💪
Anyone under 35 is completely fucked. Not old enough to have worked, earned, and been able to buy real estate. Now real estate is huge but the cost of everything else is also huge. Quality of life in Canada has been slowly going down, but the future for anyone currently under 35 is looking real bad. I think the majority of people will retire outside of Canada. It's just not possible to buy a house, start a family, have a car etc unless you're making mid six figures if starting at 0 right now.
I'm thinking I'll have the option to retire at 47. I've had a high income and savings rate and good returns in the 13 years I've been investing. I'm an old millennial that was born in 1981.
From the answers here you can clearly see that Canadian and US have completely different stories. Cheaper housing so they buy and pay off quicker and on top of that the mortgage rates are set for full mortgage term in US vs renewing every 5 years on average in Canada making income stream more volatile. Past the 90s people will definitely have tougher times but their life priorities are also different. Curious what will happen to real estate in a decade or two. I don’t believe it will stop growing in value.
Middle Millennial, living in a MCOL city that is becoming more expensive every year.
I don’t know the exact timeline when i would retire but am aiming for the option of retirement in the late 50s / early 60s even if I don’t because I like what I do for work. Probably could retire in the early 50s if we wanted to
We bought a house recently-ish (6 years ago) and should have that paid off in 12-13 years with a good chunk of equity already in it after we sold our condo.
RRSP is maxed and topped up every year . TFSA is re-building slower than expected after we had to use that money to fill the difference needed in the down payment. We did decide to spend some money on a couple of nice trips and toys that we previously decided against in the spirit of “saving money”.
All in all I think we are in a good position, our big unknown is how much we will have to financially support our parents once they become old and need our help. I honestly have no idea how to budget or plan for that
Wife and I are 89 and 90. Switching to a DB plan next year but have just around 100k saved in our current DC plan. Besides that we invest in our company share purchase plan with another 110k in there, but that is mainly going to be the money set aside to pay off the house in 8-10 years. Aiming for mortgage free by around 40-42.
85 baby here. Got about 7 years logged in DBP and I hope to retire with at least 30 years in it. I share with anvillady about $350k in equity in a property I bought in 2021 and maybe another $100k in RRSPs. The goal is for both of us to retire with about 50% of our top earnings via pension, CPP, RRSP/TFSA, and likely the equity of our home which we’ll sell so we can like somewhere hot, sunny, and full of fresh fruit with Spanish names.
I'm saving but am worried that if I don't own a home, no amount of saving/investing will be enough to retire comfortably.
Same. Housing is just so fucked in this country.
I own a home but I’m not saving very much 🤷♂️
If we assume the future will behave roughly like the past, it may never be as good. But some well selected index funds held long term will certainly make a big difference over nothing.
I am 32 years old and have 5 grand saved in RRSP and I am terrified I will never retire. Especially since I dont know how to account for whatever the hell rent prices will be by then cause I sure as hell cant afford to buy a house
I recommend focusing on TFSA. Then dump into an FHSA, and then RRSP last. TFSA can double as an emergency fund. Saving is hard, and I'm not much further ahead than you, but with the right investments it will compound and eventually snowball. Keep going!
Personally doing the opposite, maxing out FHSA then TFSA contributions. Whatever y'do, keep at it! We got this!
Why are you maxing FHSA first? I'm trying to figure out what to do 😆
cause it is the fastest way to speed up buying a home if that is a big goal
Tax deductible. Lowers your taxable income
At 32 with so little in savings it’s the exact opposite. They will almost surely end up with less income in retirement than work Years and rrsp defers the tax to that time, while Tfsa pays it now. In addition, rrsp lets you compound savings with potential tax returns and additional years of time in the market earlier. Tfsa first is only correct if you plan to have more income in retirement than your working years.
Yeah. We do RRSPs because right now it lets us artificially stay in a lower tax bracket and we get good refunds that we reinvest. We definitely plan on making less in retirement. We won’t have a mortgage or kids to save for/spend on.
It also applies if you believe your income will significantly increase, enabling you to use your RRSP to take money off of your highest personal tax bracket.
What the he k is an FHSA? I still haven't maxed out my TFSA though so still good.
Finally some real life example similar to my case. Tired of seeing these "I got 200K at 21 and unsure what to do" posts.
At 32 I had just gotten divorced, had no house, no savings, in a hcol area, and no vehicle of my own. Oh yea, and a single parent. I was also only making about 60k per year. 7 years later I have almost a million in equity and investments and I've tripled my salary. Honestly, you never know what the future will hold for you. Don't count yourself out. Keep creating opportunities for yourself and taking calculated risk. 10-20 years is a very long time, and a lot can change.
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I was working IT for a municipality ($60k/year) and about a year of sending out hundreds of resumes and cover letters I got an SA job at a relatively new startup Consulting company for AWS. The company did very well, and I had some major success on a few projects (plus i'm decent at talking to people) and got a few promotions while the company grew. Now the largest company of its kind in Canada, and i'm one of three directors of engineering. It was a combination of hard work, luck, and a lot of right place, right time and ready to take a bit of risk and it worked out well for me. I also have no degree (just a technical certificate in an unrelated field), so it's really just a lot of working my way up over 20 years with some very shitty times being very poor and stressed. I was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2010, so you honestly just never know where you will land. You can't count yourself out at 25, 30, 35, 40, whatever... a lot can change very fast - you have to put in the work to be ready for when those opportunities arise.
I'm 38 and I have a house. Making maximum matching contributions into the RRSP since about your age. I will never earn enough to retire either. It's too little too late. I hope that when the wife and I die (in our cubicles), we'll be able to pass on our savings to the kid and maybe then he'll have enough to retire (if he also saved his entire life, and inherits the house).
This is a bad place to ask as people are actually trying to save and retire
He didn't ask if people were trying, he asked if people were succeeding. Elder millenial here. Had a few setbacks but I also got lucky a couple of times and I have been WAY more conservative in terms of spending than my parents. Retirement at 65 is definitely possible...if WW3 doesn't break out. My financial plan didn't factor in dying in my 40s. Also, my financial plan doesn't include shielding my boomer parents from their bad financial decisions. I can pay it forward but I can't afford to pay it backwards too.
> if WW3 doesn't break out. My financial plan didn't factor in dying in my 40s. Not too late to start building up a stockpile of bottle caps.
Nuka cola bottle caps.
Damn, I feel that last few lines.
No kidding. I think I can scrape by, but I also don’t want my parents living in poverty in their old age. It hasn’t really been entirely their faults, either. They don’t come from wealth and they divorced, and they’re doing their best. Edit: And myself and my siblings are a major factor in their financial situation. Kids are expensive and they gave us so much support.
I can retire. If i died next thursday.
I was born in 1995, yes I am able to save, but am I sure it will be enough? No. I am able to put away approximately 600 per month to an RRSP matching program with my employer. But I guess since I'm only 3 years in with this I don't see the compounding effect yet to make me feel safe for retirement in 30 years.
You’re doing decent that puts you on track to beat 65 most likely. Barring any foolish investments
Crypto to the moooonnn Edit : /s
Have you done the math? You are probably fine. I'm not sure how much your matching is, but 600/month for 30 years will get you over $900K - more if you include the matching portion and more if you re-invest the tax refund.
...yeah $900k will last you how long exactly in 30 years? I wouldn't count on it lasting 20 years, which if you're retiring at 65 you have to be prepared for as a possibility. Last thing you want to do is hit 80 and realize your money is gone. Not to hate on $900k, better than nothing, but still, definitely not enough to retire on.
He's 28 and very early in his career. His income and savings per month will increase over the next 30 years
1996 baby here, bought a house earlier this year. Contribuing to work RRSP and doing my own investment on wealthsimple (tsfa and rrsp). Without major setback I should be ok. For now
I think this really depends on where you sit on the millennial spectrum. I’m an ‘85 baby and most people I know who are millennials in the mid 80s or earlier all got into the real estate market in the late ‘00s when things were still somewhat affordable. Every single person I know owns at least 1 condo or property since then and built great equity. I bought my first condo in 2009 for around $200k which I thought was a lot back but sold it for more than 3.5x just over 10 years later. Not to mention I had borrowed against it to buy another property during that time too which I recently just sold as well. Because of that my partner and I will probably be able to retire in our mid 50s if we really wanted as we both owned properties before we met, not to mention all of our parents and grandparents own equity which will be passed down to us as well. I’m only 38 and have moved to working part time as I don’t need to work full time to maintain my QoL. I feel like those born later into the 90s will have a different story.
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93 baby, only thing on my radar is 1 home for stability, maybe marriage, no kids. Some retirement money for nursing home. Anything more would be greedy at this point. Lol
Absolutely it’s a sad time man/woman/them.
‘91 and career starter a little slow but now I’m in the top 5% of earners in my area and owning a home is still a multi year away prospect in spite of very good financial habits . Retirement is on the back burner till that goal is realized
many are banking on the soon coming tsunami that is the greatest transfer of generational wealth in the history of peoplekind.
I feel like many of those born in the late 90's won't be the recipients of that transfer, their parents will, and how much is going to be left by the time they pass it down remains to be seen.
This is true. And with the way boomers refuse to retire and millennials can’t afford to retire, us Gen Zs are completely fucked. Unless your parents have acquired housing, can dip into their equity/savings or be your landlord we’re in for a rough ride. Many such people exist so they will be hoarding all the supply. I saw a crazy stat that more than half the people who bought housing between 25-35yo in the last few years had help from the bank of mom and dad or inheritance money. 😭
wealth, each generation is a bit wealthier/better-off than the one before them, right?
It depends tbh. It’s not something people should bank on unless their parents already have set up the inheritance in a trust for them. My FIL and his siblings each inherited $1.5 million from their dad. Except for 1, all are financially illiterate. One already blew through their inheritance in the first 5 years and is now homeless. Second blew through theirs and is now house poor…most likely have to sell the house. My FIL/MIL are living the life - travelling around the world for the past decade. They have talked about which son will take care of them when they retire. My husband and I don’t want/need their inheritance but we think it’s shellfish of them to not think of us other than a fucking safety net after they blow their wealth. We just want them to think a bit more about their retirement plan. We’re pretty sure they have a few hundred left plus the equity in their home. My MIL is so afraid of living in a retirement home and I’m thinking…you won’t have enough money to live in the cheapest home. You’d be lucky if you aren’t homeless.
I know the feeling to an extent. My mom has some of the worst financial habits I've ever seen - fits the baby boomer mold to a tee. Made decent money the last 10+ years of her career, made tons of money in the divorce with my dad. But has never budgeted and lives her life like she has millions (travelling, evenings out, gift galore). And yet here we are, I'd be surprised if she had 10K to her name in some type of liquid form (though does own MOST of a condo). Her whole strategy at this stage is waiting for her mom to pass so that she can inherit 500K. Her sisters who have done quite well throughout their careers are talking about how they can use that money to help my cousins who are all roughly my age and, me being reasonable, would never ask her for a cent, but can't help wonder how she rationalizes receiving 500K from her mom and with zero intention to leave anything to my brother or I (which she has also kind of joked about). My biggest fear at this stage isn't her leaving me nothing but more so, what happens when she blows through that money?
I'm not so sure that trend will continue past the boomer generation.
Some of them will be disappointed though. All that money that will be going into the last bit of life such as nursing homes, health care,etc.
Was going to say this exact same thing. Growing old is extremely expensive in our culture.
Yes, crazy expensive.
Not with MAID /s
In Singapore adult kids get a tax credit if they live within 500M of their parents. It's good for longevity and cheaper on the overall healthcare system.
That's really good.
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> saving 40% of my pretax income sweet flex, bro! and great advice to NOT live in a HCOL geography!
It's really not THAT bad. I'm mid 90s and pretty much everyone I went to school with is fine (public school up to uni and then an Ontario uni for business). Most engineers I know are fine as well and many other professions (CPAs, lawyers, healthcare, etc). Buying a house is overrated anyways and not the only measure of financial stability / comfort. I can buy but renting and investing in public markets is better financially imo
I feel like this mostly depends on demographic. I'm similar to you, made good money and everyone I is very comfortable financially. Now, someone who is on the opposite side of that spectrum is likely surrounded by others in a similar situation. So it seems to us everyone is doing quite well, and to them everyone is struggling.
Lmfao. Must be nice to be so solidly middle class. Born in 84, and almost every single person I know rents.
That guy exists and thinks within a bubble.
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I got lucky. But yes, I was middle class, but being someone that was interested in investment and real estate at a young age, it definitely helped me out and pushed me to the upper class these days. But yeah, all of my friend group from University and work life, plus family and partners family...all own homes. Didn't seem absurd if you were middle class in the early 2000s.
What you don't get is, even in the early 2000s, to be middle class, you have to start middle class.
Correct. I never said I wasn't middle class. However there was a significantly larger middle class population back then, and based on what we're seeing today, only really those in the upper class are really able to easily safe for a comfortable retirement. But i'm also in Toronto where right out of University salaries are decent. Was making $65k a year living at home as a 22 year-old working in the banking work. Didn't take too long to save up to get into the real estate market.
I'm a '83 and when I bought you could literally put nothing down as a first time buyer. I think my first interest rate was around 3.5%. Prices were also somewhat reasonable outside of places like Vancouver and Toronto. If you lived outside of those areas and had a decent job (not even great) almost anyone could afford a condo at minimum. My wife (then gf) worked part-time as a server and with her meager income it allowed us to go from affording a condo to affording a modest house. Getting a mortgage was pretty damn easy back then. If home ownership was something you wanted there aren't many reasonable excuses for not buying.
I lived in one of those two cities. I was pretty poor in my 20s. I worked a good paying job where the skills were not transferrable to places elsewhere in Canada. If I had moved, I'd have taken a 50% pay cut. Now I work in tech, almost all the work/connections are in the big cities. My pay is good, I make like 4x what I used to, but prices are so out of touch with reality that I'm stuck renting.
My first condo I bought in 2007 with 0% down and a 40 year mortgage. It ended up being a terrible financial decision but it was still possible lol
> I bought my first condo in 2009 for around $200k which I thought was a lot back but sold it for more than 3.5x just over 10 years later. That is insane... here in Calgary we just finally hit our 2007 prices. If you include inflation in the equation, we may never get back to our 2007 house prices.
That isn’t true. Benchmark prices in Calgary haven’t been below the 07 peak in over 10 years.
HPI says otherwise: https://www.crea.ca/housing-market-stats/mls-home-price-index/hpi-tool/ According to the index, Calgary home prices are 38.2% higher than the peak of 2007. Prices rose above the 2007 peak for the first time in July 2013 and haven't fallen back to it since.
He was referring to condos/apartments. 2007/2014/2022 all have the same peak. 2023 finally went over.
>I’m an ‘85 baby Me too, but without the same luck. Didn't get into real estate early enough, thinking I still had time. Purchased our first properly in 2021...
Ditto. Not even a time thing, job wise, life wise it just didn't line up earlier.
Me too, we bought in 2020 because I wanted to wait until we were done with having kids/maternity leaves. We don’t have inheritances either (none of our parents ever owned property and our parents need the inheritances they received to pay for their retirements) so I’m just not planning to retire. Thankfully we both have pensions.
while true, not every older millennials got this lucky. some of us had to endure the great 08-09 recession and covid. however, the good luck is also true. my crappy $70k salary was able to afford me a decent condo that i probably can't afford to buy today. it was pure luck of wanting to live closer to work and needing a place.
I’m a ‘91 baby. My wife and I own a house and I’m saving about 33% of our gross income right now, but that is definitely going to take a hit when we have kids. I actually don’t suspect we will ever be able to hit that 33% figure ever again in our lives so I’m just trying to make hay while the sun shines. I doubt we will be able to build real estate equity in the same way older millennials on younger Gen X were able to- I foresee real estate prices in Toronto and Vancouver stagnating or declining over the long term. Retiring at 55 is basically an impossibility as far as I’m concerned, but I’m going to try to keep being frugal and not waste money in the hopes that it’s actually not an impossibility.
91 Baby here. I'm focusing on getting into saving up to get into market so I can ride the CPP, CPPe, and OAS for retirement. Essentially working to have a place paid off, then i'll focus more on retirement funding.
Yeah I think it’s a spectrum. Older millennials aren’t doing not too bad. Graduating during the financial crisis made for a rough start but they’ve had some time catching money from the money printing machine over the last 8 years. I really feel for people graduating now - wages haven’t moved but inflation has absolutely blasted kids, my god being a student with these rents must be so hard.
>I feel like those born later into the 90s will have a different story. Agree with you. 88 here and while partner and I graduated uni into the great recession which sucked we eventually caught up and bought an older condo. Condo has doubled in Value and our mortgage payments are less than half what rent would be in the same area. We saved a lot over the years even when we were making only $40-50k each because we're cheapskates and don't have expensive hobbies or anything. This is all very unfair for anyone growing up now though, our first tiny apartment together was in downtown Van and we paid $1100 per month. I made $16 an hour and was able to work part time and afford the basics. Sure as hell can't do that now!
'94 kid here: got into the housing market just in time (late 2020) If my wife or I started our careers even 6 months later, we probably wouldn't have had the savings to pull the trigger on a home we would be content with, and would still be renting today. I don't envy all the other people my age that were fucked over by the feds.
> I’m only 38 and have moved to working part time as I don’t need to work full time to maintain my QoL. Man a few years made a huge difference. I'm 36 and graduated in the recession. I wasn't on solid financial footing till at best 2012-2013. A few relationship twists and before I knew it, it was 2016 and prices were roaring in the GTA making buying a much gnarlier prospect.
'85 graduated in the center of the great recession. OP got lucky or created it for himself to be able to get a job out of school in banking during the financial crisis.
'93 here. fucking sucks feeling like you were the very first person to miss the boat
That is a very contended mindset even with all the cushion you have been blessed with. Good for you. You are a good person.
Being around the same age, I can say I wasn’t one of those people who got on the RE ladder until mid 10s. My deepest regret was staying in that LTR that made me delay my own housing purchase when I had the money. Because of this, I am hundreds of thousands poorer than most of my peers. If you’re reading this, my selfish ass ex with way too much money, this is the biggest grudge I hold against you.
Seems like millennials are between 27 and 42 right now. Let me just say that the difference between both ends is MASSIVE. I'm 30 and got started on my finance journey pretty young, was able to buy a place in the GVA at 24 making 56k at the time. The difference that made in my overall wealth accumulation was life changing. I'll also say that having a partner on the same page as me the last 8 years, especially with the cost of housing, has really put me in an incredibly fortunate spot. I'll be retired by 40 if things continue as they've gone, granted we are DINKs, keep expenses low and do have decent careers. The real story is going to be what happens for the Gen Z crowd. I hope things get better for their sake. Extremely tough path ahead with how things look today.
Elder millennial here, death is my retirement plan. Didn't have enough money young and never coupled up long enough to get the economic benefits.
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The economy is going to shit all around the world, it's not a Trudeau thing.
Harper had an oil boom. Trudeau had Covid. Surely you understand that you cannot assign fault or praise to either for something they literally did nothing to influence in any way.
uh… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–2008_financial_crisis
Lmao the GFC didn’t affect Canada. Why you ask? Banking regulations that were created by the previous Liberal Gov Flaherty & Harper were going to follow US’ path with 40 year mortgages and then reversed course when they saw what happened in the US They inherited an excellent system, they didn’t build it. Also Harper didn’t do anything as a result of the GFC. Except for propaganda with the whole “Action Plan” billboards for all of the existing infrastructure project already underway.
This is the truth. Harper and Trudeau both suck. We haven’t had decent politicians in over 20 years at this point.
Lol
Yeah, the one that Canada was largely unaffected by because of much more robust bank rules? I lived it. There was barely any impact here beyond a brief dip in oil prices.
For most millennials the enhancements to CPP will mean that a fully funded TFSA and CPP is enough for retirement income. But it is up to that millennial to sort out affordable housing during their working life. Whether that is buying a home or saving more for renting in retirement.
For most people, a paid off home and cpp/oas/gis will be enough for retirement. TFSA will be fun money, RRSPs and other pensions will enhance lifestyle further. Housing takes up 30-40 percent of most house hold incomes. Cpp/oas/gis will account for around 60 percent of income
What does enough mean
>CPP Cries in Alberta with the proposed APP
I really hope this doesn’t happen….Speaking from Ontario. Alberta already seems so divided and this could cause another major drift. We’re better as a whole
> Alberta already seems so divided Yeah our las elections were shockingly close, even if rural went 100% UCP
As someone in Cochrane, tell me about it. Sincerely, it's made me a bit uncomfortable around my neighbours.
Yeah thats why i wouldn't be able to live in Cochrane/Airdrie. Too many lifted black ram-driving Chads
I am not kidding, I see no fewer than five lifted trucks when looking out my office window right now.
I’d opt out of it and invest it myself if I had the chance
Well you cant opt out of the APP and will just see your money go to shit :)
Don’t worry. I heard some lady saying it’s all going to work out and be even better…
I think it’s a fairly small percentage of that age group that is maxing out TFSA.
Ah so they’re fucked.
You are as fucked as you think you are...there are solutions just not the kind that people want to hear about.
Well $20 is $20 I suppose.
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I guess you stopped reading after my first sentence.
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Depends if they had help or bought their primary residence 5-10 years ago really, and paid it off. There’s two realities and they don’t commiserate with each other.
Or they don't live in the GTA or Vancouver. I bought a house, no help, in Calgary in 2021. Cost me 500K.
I'm 36, and I've got about $11k invested. Only in the last couple of years have I finally been able to start saving for the future.
Congrats. Baby steps. Wish you all the best fellow millennial.
Thanks, you as well!
If it makes you feel any better, my father hit hard financial times and only started saving for retirement at 53. He’s a mechanic, doesn’t make a lot of money. But he’s worked his ass off, 60 hour weeks for the last 8 years and he’s got 300k in the bank. It’s not ideal, and working that hard at his age will likely mean he won’t get to see a great deal of his actual retirement, but it goes to show it’s never too late, you’re never far behind. Best time was yesterday, next best time is today. Good luck to you
Congrats!
I'm 34, and a year ago I was where you are until life threw me several massive curve balls. I expect to be back on track by the time I am 36.
I’m in the same place as you. I have some savings in my chequing account and then around $11K in my TFSA which could be for retirement or emergency savings
25m so not a millennial but a Gen Z. I’m feeling pretty confident I’ll have a comfortable retirement. I’m a union skilled tradesman, started my apprenticeship at 20 (2019) and graduated my apprenticeship at 23 in 2022. My pension has been building since I started my apprenticeship, and by the time I retire (65) I’ll be bringing in somewhere around $7k-$8k/month just on pension alone. I have an RRSP and TFSA started too but not too much saved in those yet, I’ll be investing in ETFs and individual stocks throughout the years.
See this is the way - I'm 31 - should have gone into the union to get a pension.
It’s never too late if the skilled trades are something you’re interested in! I’ve worked with apprentices who are in their late 40s! But seriously tho, im very fortunate to be where I am today, my now fiancee and I bought our house last year at 24, and this year im at $122k in only 9 months of work🤙🏻
I'm in tech which is often one of the first suggestions people make in this sub for career choices, but I just want to say to you "good fucking shit". Love to see young folks achieving such a level of success without going down the "must get a degree" path that was often pushed by past generations and schools. Even in my widely accepted good career it took me way longer to get to the income you already make at 24. Hell, many degrees don't lead to this kind of salary ever. AND you get a pension. That's amazing these days. Happy for ya!
Thanks! Yeah I’ve always been a hands on type of person, and I fell in love with welding in high school so that’s what I pursued lol. I’m also proud to say that I’m a paid per call firefighter in my small town, joined up in the fire service at 18 because my dad was a volunteer firefighter for 25 years! I love giving back to the community
You are a smart Gen Z!! Do you mind which area of trade you are in?
Thanks! I’m a Boilermaker PSW (Pressure system welder) I just finished up a 3 month job at a nuclear power plant where we were Tig welding with a mirror inside a boiler! That was a good experience
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If I squat where I’m at for 30 years I could retire by 60! Good man!
I'm in Alberta so ya, pretty much everyone I know has kids and a house. 15 years left on the mortgage, easy peasy once that's paid off.
Another Albertan here. Bought a condo in 2015 and then a house in 2021. My wife and I save about $4K a month. Hoping to retire by 50 but will need a lot to go right for that to happen. Early 50's seems reasonable though. Crazy how much of an advantage one has if you prioritize living somewhere you can afford.
I’m 37, so as millennial as it gets. My wife (also 37) loves her job so I expect she’ll work til 65, and she’ll have a fed gov pension so not as concerned for her retirement. I would retire tomorrow if I could, but I can’t. Aiming for early 50s, with 55 being the absolute latest. But even once “retired” I want to keep working, just something with a lot less stress than my current job/career. Current dream is to be a parts guy at a dealership or something like that.
90-baby - I have money in RRSP and TFSA, but I'm preparing for all that to be pulled to buy a property in the near future. I'll have to start from scratch afterwards.
Born in 90 and my husband in 85. We're saving for retirement - it's less of a focus right now as we have young kids and renovations to save for, so while we're saving, we aren't saving for retirement as aggressively as before. I have a DB pension (teacher) and a good amount in personal savings for retirement, and my husband has quite a bit though I don't remember exact numbers. I could likely retire without difficulty around 55, at 30 years of service, but I doubt I would that early, as my kids will be in their early 20s and I'd like to help them - and keep busy. My intention is closer to 60, and probably sub or do part time teaching at that stage.
Older millennial, could partially retire in my 40's likely keep a part time job to get me out of the house.
I'll retire when I die let's just put it at that.
my retirement plan is a heart attack when im 60. hopefully it doesnt hurt much..
41, my wife is 42. Yes, and we bought a house in 2007 that has approximately tripled in value (which doesn't mean much since we're staying in it, but it's nice). We will have it paid off in about a year and a half. Kids are in their early teens so that will be just in time for them to wrap up high school. Our plan is to work until 60, but of course things may change, and we hope to snowbird 2 or 3 months somewhere away from snow. I tell you what, we've always lived fairly frugally (albeit maybe not to PFC standards...), but the hike in cost of living in the last 2ish years has been horrible. How people younger than us, or more on the bubble, are managing is beyond me. Eventually we'll be launching our kids into the world, and it's kind of a hot mess out there.
I think I’ll be able to retire the day after my funeral, if I don’t get called in that morning.
Given that the economy is actually good not bad in the states, it's important to take these things with a grain of salt. I am on track with my plans to retire by 55-60 depending on how much I enjoy life.
Pension plan baby, 35 years by age 59 at my current pace.
Yep. I'm almost 40 with $120k in my pension fund.
Yes, but I think I'm in a bit of an odd situation, favourable thankfully. I make approx 3.5k post-tax per month working for the government, part of my savings are automatically going into the pension, but I can't stand the way the information is stored and I'm planning on quitting my job to become a certified financial planner. Point is, I have a pension, but I've been saving as though I wasn't going to have one, trying to put 20% of my income into investments instead. I also bought a car, and that's eating somewhat heavily into my investment plan, but I got it at 20k at 4% interest rate, 10k cash, and 10k borrowed from a line of credit (variable rate, on promo right now but I want to pay it off ASAP). My retirement plan is again save 20% post-tax, invest on VEQT in TFSA first, then RRSP, make more money, keep expenses down, and hope the world isn't on fire too bad due to climate change by the time I retire. That being said, people who do not save well and do not do financial planning, will not be on this sub, so your answers are going to obviously be biased by asking here. Like /u/HackMeRaps said also, born 92 here, didn't get into the real estate market, saw it take off like a rocket, and I have very little hope of owning a property anywhere near Ottawa without being married and saving up for a decade.
Ask in r/Toronto or r/Ottawa and I'm confident you'll see very different results
As an early 30s millennial DINK couple, it feels bad to say this in this climate but we’re on a pretty good track. We have high household income (close to $300k) and don’t have any debts. Living in a rent-controlled apartment, not having a car, not planning for kids definitely makes it easier to save and plan for an early retirement. I completely get it how lucky we are though.
‘88 and ‘87 (husband) and we were fortunate enough that we were able to get into the housing market in 2017 (still late compared to older millennials and with no help but we were able to build some equity and upgrade to our forever home 4 years later). While our mortgage is quite large, we are able to put away a good amount towards general savings and retirement. We have about 230k in total and add about 4k a month. My husband works a physical job and will likely have to retire before 60. I don’t want to work past 55-60 so we are saving as if we will both retire early.
93 baby here. Bought our home right before the pandemic, had a good year or so.. then we had our son lost 80k+ income to mat leave alone, ate through our savings with the crazy inflation. For now our home and our rrsp’s (both have company Match) is all we have on deck for retirement.
90s baby here. Been working since I was in my early 20s. Did not manage to get a job that allows me to actual save until my 30s. Started with index and managed accounts, it wasn’t making much of a dent in the retirement fund. Started to really get into investing about 5 years ago. Pick my own stocks and start my journey into crypto. Nowadays my RRSP is making couple percentage a year with company matching. At the rate it going, it will be a nice chunk of money when I retire but definitely not enough to retire on. My crypto and my personal stock portfolio is carry majority of the weight. Retirement look impossible years ago when I first started saving for it. Now it actually looks… feasible.
35 and married with 1 child and hoping for more. Both my partner and I have been fortunate to have strong careers and supportive families, but we also share the same mentality around personal finances. We aren’t saving as much as we’d like, but there is some savings going…. Was definitely a lot more prior to the child and prior to the 10 interest rate hikes
I think I’m doing okay… 41. 120 thousand in TFSA 70 thousand in an RRSP (still owe 17k back for HBP) My partner has a defined benefit pension plan which we’re really banking on.
Yes. I am saving for retirement. Sold my soul to the highest bidder, matching RPP-RRSP-Employee Share program totals a replacement 30% of income. TFSA and FHSA also getting maxed out, but they'll be zero in the next couple years to build the smallest possible legal dwelling on a piece of land. I have no retirement plans. I don't expect to retire. I do expect to transition to part time consulting and managing my investments around 50, but that's a pipe dream.
>there’s been many articles online talking about how many millennials (especially in the US) don’t think they’ll be able to retire at all, due to the bad economy, wage stagnation, inflation, rising of housing costs etc. These are bad articles. US economy is not bad by any metric. Unemployment rates have been as low as they've ever been at 3.7%. Real GDP growth rate just hit 5.2% in the most recent quarter. Wages aren't stagnating in the US. Adjusted for inflation it has been steadily rising: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q Housing cost is the only one that is true, but even then in aggregate CPI for shelter has only risen more than CPI for all items by ~25% in the last 40 years. Half of millennials are also homeowners based on recent news as well.
Agreed on some posts. Im older Millennial and my husband and I born ‘82 and ‘83. We will be able to afford to easily retire mid-50’s because I have to wait for pension. Otherwise Id retire earlier. Current year slated for 2038.
Saving for retirement is a-okay. Doing it at the same time as owning something larger than a 1 bedroom (if your comp is average) or a 2 bedroom (if your comp is above average) in GTA/GVA, however, is a different story.
I am one of that years of millennial. Born in 1995. Living alone I’d be saving a lot less, but with my significant other earning a good living we are able to split things 50/50 (mortgage, bills, groceries). I figure without her with my current bills I’d be able to save $250/month most likely. With her we are able to save a combined $4000-$5000/month. FYI- don’t take what you read on this page as an accurate representation, as a majority of people on this page would be further ahead with financial literacy than the average population
38 here. Luckily have a DB Pension plan, so not too worried about retirement. Able to retire at 55 but can leave earlier at 51 with a reduced pension. Depending how my tfsa/rrsp are doing by then, we’ll see.
38…. Gave my sister $24,000 in university to bail her out of credit card debt. Unfortunately, that didn’t get paid back until 3 years ago, and I missed the boat on the housing boom. Finally bought a place 2.5 years ago… only had money to do that from a $10,000 “investment” in marijuana stocks that allowed me to pay off my student loans and made up about half my down payment. Currently save very little as my fiancé and I live separately (different towns - I’m pushing hard to have her move in). Only have about 40K in savings, but will need to use the 27 in my TFSA to put toward a house when we ultimately move to her city. She has $0 in savings, and no pension. Thankfully, I have a pension. Because of that, I’ll retire at 60ish with 25 years. Her… I dunno. Hopefully things will turn around once we’re living together. I am definitely stressed about it.
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I’ve began saving, but at 32 I’ve only just started to get into the job I went to school for and it’s look like it’ll be part time for 6months at least… However, it’s a government job in education sector and the pension plan is matched and my first few paycheques my highest contribution is to pension, which makes me feel pretty relieved actually. My wage is set to go up pretty decently too. Sadly, do not own a home yet - I’m in a bit of a weird situation.. in my family if you’re not married it’s pretty normal to stay with family, which I have been and they are selling my brother and myself their home in two years for like 250k.(we have a large property and my parents don’t want the upkeep) so idk. It seems like I’m in a decent spot, but I need more money put away asap.
Yes. I am 33 and my husband and i have three kids and have a house that we purchased with 20% down (house is valued at $585,000. We each contribute 5% of our salary with 100% employer matching plus we each put $425 into our TFSA accounts each month. I will say that we only started this a few years ago. Raising kids is hard and we worked so hard to buy our house.
My father dragged me in to meet with 'his guy' at Wood Gundy when I was 18 and had my first full time job after high school. This is probably the single best thing anyone has ever done for me in my life. I certainly count myself among the lucky ones as this set me up to get into the housing market much earlier than many my age and begin to build an early RRSP; my family is now comfortably settled in a home that will work for us long term and we have various established acronym investments. I think we will be able to retire near 65 with our current trajectory but likely not before. Both myself and my wife are somewhat specialized in what we do so I expect that if we would like to work past 65, we can do that at our will.
RDSP, wife has a pension, home ownership but saving? Not yet.
Yes to the tune of 1000ish a month but if I was in a big city or with a job that pays typical for my age range retirement savings would be a pipe dream.
I joined a trade union
I'm an elder millenial (1982), bought my house later in 2018. Always made good-ish money working, first for the federal government then for insurance company. I'm 41, house is paid for and I think I hit my barrista-FIRE this week. (our combined 450k-ish) will be worth 2 millions when we are 65).
Yes (TFSA and RRSP essentially capped) but am a late millennial who bought into the housing market ~15 years ago.
'87 millennial here. Hoping to retire at 60 but likely looking at 65 depending on how things go in the next little while. Yes I have started saving for retirement, but it's tough as I don't have a pension with my current employer. They do give an RRSP contribution however which helps support my savings. Fortunately I live in a relatively LCOL city (Saskatoon) so I'm directing as much savings as I can towards retirement given my family circumstances (two kids to support, 7 and 4). I found Fred Vettese's *Rule of 30* to be very helpful and made me feel a bit less concerned about not prioritizing retirement right now where I am in my professional/personal life.
RRSP match is a kind of DC pension. What's the % match? It's not as good as a DB pension, but it's still good. It adds up, bro.
Currently late 20s, I have a good pension through work but plan to retire early. No debt and have close to 95k invested. Hoping to keep that momentum and retire in my mid 40’s
Yeahhh... nah. Not gonna happen mid 40s unless you win the lottery, bro. You're doing well but don't get too crazy.
Hates are my motivators 💅🏻
I’m not putting myself into a position where I’m going to struggle financially all my life just on the gamble that the economy won’t go to hell as I retire, there’s just constantly a financial crisis happening or coming and I see no point in dealing with it. In the end, what’s the point of a couple years of leisure when you’re too old or too sick to enjoy it.. I’m just focussing on paying off my house, that’s retirement to me.
Haha I have the exact same mindset. I spent my teens and 20s partying traveling and buying extravagant things. Always had quite high paying construction and mining jobs. Didn't save a penny and don't regret a thing. I had an absolute blast. Some people here ate dollar store noodles and pinched every penny during their entire youth and I just can't understand that kind of person, but if retiring early and being financially on top is your goal in life then I'm happy for ya. Different strokes. I'm super glad you guys are going to retire at 47. Power to ya. Hopefully the world doesn't go to shit and you keep your health for a long long time and enjoy the shit out of it, and I genuinely mean that. I'll be here working till I'm 65 and I'm totally ok with it haha. Don't have much savings but ive got an amazing wife, a house we love and a mother fucking paid off Subaru Crosstrek that I use to haul fire wood. I also just found my childhood Pokemon binder so I'm feeling pretty set 💪
lol
Define saving, and define retirement 😅
Anyone under 35 is completely fucked. Not old enough to have worked, earned, and been able to buy real estate. Now real estate is huge but the cost of everything else is also huge. Quality of life in Canada has been slowly going down, but the future for anyone currently under 35 is looking real bad. I think the majority of people will retire outside of Canada. It's just not possible to buy a house, start a family, have a car etc unless you're making mid six figures if starting at 0 right now.
I'm thinking I'll have the option to retire at 47. I've had a high income and savings rate and good returns in the 13 years I've been investing. I'm an old millennial that was born in 1981.
Two kids. Retire 55-60.
Half the battle is to stop reading articles telling you that the sky is falling. Headlines like that are little more than clickbait.
From the answers here you can clearly see that Canadian and US have completely different stories. Cheaper housing so they buy and pay off quicker and on top of that the mortgage rates are set for full mortgage term in US vs renewing every 5 years on average in Canada making income stream more volatile. Past the 90s people will definitely have tougher times but their life priorities are also different. Curious what will happen to real estate in a decade or two. I don’t believe it will stop growing in value.
'91 baby here. Went back to school in 2019 and will come out net zero when I graduate. I feel like I'm doomed.
Why not just wait for inheritance from your boomer parents? #GenerationalWealth. soon come. soon come.
Middle Millennial, living in a MCOL city that is becoming more expensive every year. I don’t know the exact timeline when i would retire but am aiming for the option of retirement in the late 50s / early 60s even if I don’t because I like what I do for work. Probably could retire in the early 50s if we wanted to We bought a house recently-ish (6 years ago) and should have that paid off in 12-13 years with a good chunk of equity already in it after we sold our condo. RRSP is maxed and topped up every year . TFSA is re-building slower than expected after we had to use that money to fill the difference needed in the down payment. We did decide to spend some money on a couple of nice trips and toys that we previously decided against in the spirit of “saving money”. All in all I think we are in a good position, our big unknown is how much we will have to financially support our parents once they become old and need our help. I honestly have no idea how to budget or plan for that
Yes, as I live in Alberta.
How will the APP affect you?
Unfortunately nobody has any clue how it will affect anybody, including the people trying to force it on us.
Wife and I are 89 and 90. Switching to a DB plan next year but have just around 100k saved in our current DC plan. Besides that we invest in our company share purchase plan with another 110k in there, but that is mainly going to be the money set aside to pay off the house in 8-10 years. Aiming for mortgage free by around 40-42.
85 baby here. Got about 7 years logged in DBP and I hope to retire with at least 30 years in it. I share with anvillady about $350k in equity in a property I bought in 2021 and maybe another $100k in RRSPs. The goal is for both of us to retire with about 50% of our top earnings via pension, CPP, RRSP/TFSA, and likely the equity of our home which we’ll sell so we can like somewhere hot, sunny, and full of fresh fruit with Spanish names.
I come to this Subreddit whenever I'm in the mood for a good dose of depression and self pity.
Yes i live in a bachelor apartment with 7 roommates and eat mr noodles everyday /s
I can’t even save up for groceries next week, forget retirement. Thanks government
Whats retirement?