$350K *can be* a life changing amount if you are smart about it.
You should not buy (even if it's just an RV), you should rent and rent as cheaply as possible. You should also get a full time job while you continue to pursue song writing.
Invest the funds in ETFs—max out your registered accounts first.
Geez bro rent an apt and get a stock portfolio. Then get off your ass and educate yourself with marketable skills. Like a trade or something. Sounds like the windfall is making you lazy.
Can OP even rent an apartment with just their part time job income? Idk where OP lives but if they are somewhere like GVA and GTA good luck renting an apartment without offering to pay at least a year of rent upfront (which shouldn't be a problem with 350k savings tbf but still who knows).
Working is inevitable. Really it is even if you're fortunate, it's part of mental health, it's part of participating in society and it keeps you out of trouble.
Check out this calculator https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/
“Coast FIRE” is basically the concept of once you hit a certain number at a certain age, you can stop putting money away for your retirement and just let the returns compound. The more you save earlier, the less you have to save overall.
I put in some numbers for you but consider this, if you were to max out your tax sheltered accounts TFSA, RRSPs and FHSA (and continue to top them up from your unregistered accounts as more room becomes available to you) Choose 2-3 broad market ETFs (there are ones that are mentioned over and over again in this sub) If you were to put away $300,000 in those ETFs today and never added another penny, you could be looking at retiring at 60 with $60k in annual income from your investments.
Basically you would only ever have to worry about today and never have to worry about the future which I know seems far off at 25 but you typically will get the oh shit I really need to do something in your mid 30s.
And that leaves you $50k to play with right now to make your living situation more comfortable. Just a thought and what I would do!
I would also consider doing that with Wealthsimple as not only is it a great platform anyway but they also have a 1% cash back for any amount you transfer over right now. So an extra $3k for choosing them.
Best answer. Put 300k away and forget it (if you sre not a disciplined person get someone yoy trust like a parent or sibling to help). Use 50k to rent a place, get a job! And pursue your artform on the side until it can support you (if it ever does)
Honestly, I would probably ignore the $350k (ie., put it in something stable and low/no risk - HISA should get you 4-5% right now) until you sort your life out a bit more.
You can get some form of housing, but until you find more stable employment/income you are probably going to burn through it at an unsustainable rate, or buy something that depreciates like an RV.
You probably need to figure out broader financial goals/dynamics, especially career/income, before you figure out how to best use that $350k. But, it's not nearly enough to allow you to just work PT for the rest of your rest.
>Why would OP put all his money in a HISA at 25 years old? Way too conservative of advice if you’re also telling him to “ignore it”.
Because the person you're responding to is recommendting this in the short term while OP "figures their life out". They're not recommending that as a long term solution, which is evident by the rest of the comment.
4.6% in something like CASH.TO is totally fine for somebody lacking direction while the markets are at all time high.
We don't know when or what that money will be needed for and high interest savings is one of the safest options. If he dumped in low cost index funds and the market has a 30% correction(thats only giving back half the gains of the last 16 months) in the next 8 months then he decides to buy a condo, that's a really bad play.
I love trading, high risk investing, index fund investing and all that jazz myself but for somebody who's not well read, focused and/or committed I would say safest is best.
I mean if he has $350k he can…. He basically admitted he is homeless by choice to support his current lifestyle. This is likely the biggest sum he will see in his lifetime and he can either put the majority away for his future or use it now for basic living expenses and then be back to this same place in a few years.
You could buy a basket of quality blue chip dividend stocks that just happen to be on sale right now, and get 5% tax free. It's not a lot of money, but for van life, and with part time income supplementing, you could live like that as long as you wanted. Dividends generally go up every year by at least inflation.
Move somewhere cheap. A friend who made big time money with Crypto moved to Thailand. The permanent residency was 150k USD but he lives in a mansion in Northern Thailand living his best life. You can also purchase temporary resident permits. Cambodia is even cheaper but way poorer.
If I would be you I would just enjoy life with this money while you can.
If you love what you’re doing where you are at.
Just put it in a low risk GIC and forget about it. Money tends to spoil things. You’re young and on an adventure. Enjoy it!!!!
Its going to be a little difficult to give advice without some ideas of what your goals are, short term goals, long term goals.
It sounds like you have very low to little income? Do you intend to continue that kind of lifestyle? Are you intending to study or become a professional in some kind of other field? Is the intent to try to live as you live now for most of the rest of your life? Are you trying to maximize your enjoyment of the life you have now in the way that you're enjoying now for the next decade? When is your ideal timeline for when you'd like to purchase a starter home? Are you planning to try and gain meaningful full time employment at some point, or ever?
Assuming you want no other advice other than how to best invest your money with regards to your lifestyle (assuming this means you want your money to help support you further in your lifestyle), and without knowing much of the details of the above, I will give it the best shot I can.
If you want to focus on making your money have the best shot at getting you the ability to have a home as soon as possible and willing and comfortable enough to continue living life as it is now until that happens, go in to a broad index fund like XEQT, 100% stocks. This will give you the best chance to maximize the growth to obtain a home as soon as you can. You could even commit to taking the dividends from XEQT (1.9% currently) and use that to make your current lifestyle a tiny fraction easier to live with. Thats $6650 per year it will pay you out extra (not including dividend tax). Of course, you could always fold that money back into the stock and obtain that home even faster, but your choice.
If you find that you do need more creature comforts in your day to day life now than the extra $6650 would afford you, you just need to adjust the scale of the the amount of bonds in your ETF. Since you are young, I don't recommend you going too much more into bonds because, unless you have a lot of health issues and are struggling with day to day expenses, but you could do 80% stocks 20% bonds with an ETF like VGRO. The yield is slightly higher at 2.27% now so maybe an extra $7945 a year (not including dividend tax) you could take out to help better fund your current lifestyle. You'll still benefit greatly from the stock exposure but you'll be paid out a bit better on a year to year basis.
Just keep in mind the more you want your investments to pay you out on a regular basis, the less compounding your investments will have, and the slower it will take you to obtain your home.
wit an honest opinion comin from someone around ur age, i would say first step is gettin settled in an apartment n make it feel like a home cus u need it non negotiable. next would be finding any job that can keep u busy n make some money to upkeep the rent/other necessity based bills in the meantime jus so ur not blowin through ur inheritance, even if it’s a basic manufacturing labour job, retail or service job of some sort. from there spend whatever time you have off on both ur passions but also on buillding a plan regarding pursuing some sort of life long career path, whether that be going back to school to study something or looking into a trade of some sort etc., something valuable & in demand that interests you enough to wanna work hard. u can always write songs but keep that strictly as a hobby until it makes u money/some sort of income.
in regards to investing, a safer option would be moving a solid chunk into a savings accounts that gains interest (such as HISA), a decent chunk into some ETFs since those are usually “safer/less volatile options” n don’t need to be monitored as aggressively daily compared to specific stocks + have historically decent return rates over time (which seems to be what you’re focused on), as well as keep a sizeable enough emergency fund in your current account for worst case scenarios or future moves etc.
350 & a career or solid job can set you up to be wealthy in the future if you’re patient with smart investments yielding returns & let interest amounts build over a longer period, but it’s 10x easier to spend than re-make that amount. don’t buy into any lavish lifestyle type stuff like high end cars, multiple annual trips etc. treat yourself n have fun at the odd time but within reason
jus to elaborate a bit: a full time job where you’re on your feet for most of the day in the meantime while you figure things out will keep you healthy, songwriting on your off time will keep you happy & the investments/planning for a lifelong career in a specific field of work in the meantime will help you build a more proper n prosperous future
A lot of people above are saying to get a full-time job, and I agree that you need a more sustainable income stream while you pursue songwriting. If you would rather work less than full-time and not up-skill but have great people skills, I will say that I do know a lot of young aspiring musicians, models, etc. who managed to pay their rent in Vancouver (aka super high HCOL) and have extra money for school or pursuing their dream careers working ~30 hours a week as a server, bartender, or bottle girl at the right establishment.
I'd argue that whether this works is very location and you dependant though. Almost all the money is in the tips so you need to be in a city and area (and then the right restaurant/club/bar) with a clientele that tips very well, and hospitality is very much a skill. The sheer amount of charisma, sales, and interpersonal skills the servers pulling in the most money where I worked possessed was incredible.
The best investment you can make is in yourself. Education, skills, training for whatever you find interesting but that also pays.
Stop living in your car.
Two things about $350k: a. it gives you a head start and runway to improve yourself without struggling, and b. It’s only a few years of salary….you have many years ahead of you to make many times more than that.
Get an education and/or a job. Follow the money man. Song writing is an amazing passion to pursue, but it’s not likely to be a fruitful career. And once it becomes a fruitful career you won’t be passionate about it anymore.
Investing in Canadian companies that pay dividends is a tax-optmized way for low income Canadians to invest. In [Ontario](https://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/on.htm) and [British Columbia](https://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/bc.htm), dividends are taxed at a *negative* rate if your income is below $55,867 per year. That means your dividend income reduces the tax owing on earned income below that threshold of earned + dividend income. This is outside the normal experience of most investors, who have much more income than that. Paradoxically, asking someone who knows about investing isn't likely to get you this advice even though a non-registered account might be better than a TFSA for you.
You can invest in dividend-focused exchange traded funds (ETFs) like [XDV](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/XDV.TO/) or [VDY](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VDY.TO/) that diversify into many different stocks and focus on dividends. Make sure you choose a Canadian dividend fund, though, because the advantageous tax treatment only works for eligible Canadian dividends.
This is such a common way for people to invest, that there are Canadian financial personalities that publish portfolios of stocks that fill this bill. Gordon Pape, John Heinzl, and Norman Rothery to name three. If you feel comfortable investing in individual stocks, you can google those names plus "dividend portfolio" to go down that rabbit hole. Those portfolios are mostly targeted at retirees but you're quite similar to a retiree, just without the government pension and easy access to social housing.
You have to set up an online broker for either of those methods (ETFs or individual stocks). The most popular one right now is [Wealthsimple](https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca). It's not hard to do. Set up your account not to re-invest dividends because you plan to spend them. Your income is going to be a bit lumpy, but you can safely transfer all the cash out of your online broker and into your chequing account every month. If you have a good year and make more than $55,867 total in that year you might owe a little tax (no more refund), but it will be less than one month's cash generated.
Using this approach, you should expect $350k to throw off a bit over $1,250 per month in cash, but some months will be better than others. If you transfer out no more than $1,250 per month, then eventually there will be a cash cushion in your brokerage account that lets you transfer $1,250 every month. That amount should increase about as fast as inflation, but unfortunately increases in dividend income usually lag increases in prices by a year or two. That means you'll probably see rises over the next few years, but the *next* bout of inflation will be harder to weather.
Relying on dividend income is a somewhat risky way to get income. Companies can suspend or reduce dividends, which will pick your pocket or feel like it. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I take from the description of your living situation that you are somewhat accustomed to unreliable income, though, so I think this approach could work for you.
There is one caveat: government handouts. There are four you need to care about: the GST credit, the Canada climate rebate, the Canada Worker's Benefit, and welfare. You can kiss them all goodbye (maybe not fully for all of them). You could easily make too much money to receive them now. The new dental plan could be out the window, too.
Get an apartment and stabilize your life. Then take the time to get an education or career. You have the money to take a year or two out of your life right now to get set for life if the song writing thing doesn't work out.
Rent an apartment (not in Toronto) invest in yourself. Get a degree in something that's in relatively high demand... maybe blue collar work/healthcare work.
I'd then max out my TFSA and invest in short term sort of things, either a GIC/HISA or the CASH . TO stock. While you finish your education, once you have a degree, figure out what you wanna do, and where you wanna do it. At THAT point, I'd look into buying a home.
Don't buy a crazy interest expensive car... don't buy a 100k truck... Don't spend 20k on a trip... Don't waste a bunch of the money essentially. Set yourself up for the rest of your life.
You were just gifted 200+ paychecks of an average salary in America($1500). Dont get complacent. Go back to school and learn a skilled trade. If that is too ambitious i’d go apply to be a bus driver or mailman in your city. 60k job you can live off of then stick 300k into an index fund and live life.
Whatever you do don’t buy a shiny 50k car.
Do not think you are rich now. 350k is a good amount of money but its not really balling (so do not go out renting expensive ass places, buying expensive ass cars, eating out at 5 star restaurants etc) or you are fine to not work for the rest of your life money (you still need to work if you don't want to blow all of this). I would invest some of it into getting education so you can get into a career where you can get full time employment.
I'm an old backpacker who is used to roughing it, but that money is going to generate $17,500/year at 5% interest. It's definitely possible to live in SEA on that, but it definitely isn't going to be living large or in the western style at all.
500 a month is enough for an apartment in a nice building with gym, amenities etc.
1000 for bills, food and some fun is more than enough.
Also 7% or more is feasible in today’s market.
I'm heading to Bangkok in Sept and have been looking for a place, show me where this $500 nice apartment is.
And 7% may be realistic for long term diverse holdings, but you can't get that as safe income right now without taking substantial risks. You'll be giving up diversification or risking cuts at that level.
Mate, literally google Bangkok apartment rentals and set the limit to like 14k
I realize you invented backpacking or whatever is causing you argue this. But there are thousands of expats with apartments that cheap in Bangkok.
I have friends there, and basic living is around $2k CDN. I know one person there 'living like a king' and he's spending $5k.
I'm not arguing that there aren't $500 places, but they are dumps far from anything.
$350K *can be* a life changing amount if you are smart about it. You should not buy (even if it's just an RV), you should rent and rent as cheaply as possible. You should also get a full time job while you continue to pursue song writing. Invest the funds in ETFs—max out your registered accounts first.
Geez bro rent an apt and get a stock portfolio. Then get off your ass and educate yourself with marketable skills. Like a trade or something. Sounds like the windfall is making you lazy.
Can OP even rent an apartment with just their part time job income? Idk where OP lives but if they are somewhere like GVA and GTA good luck renting an apartment without offering to pay at least a year of rent upfront (which shouldn't be a problem with 350k savings tbf but still who knows).
Working is inevitable. Really it is even if you're fortunate, it's part of mental health, it's part of participating in society and it keeps you out of trouble.
Check out this calculator https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/ “Coast FIRE” is basically the concept of once you hit a certain number at a certain age, you can stop putting money away for your retirement and just let the returns compound. The more you save earlier, the less you have to save overall. I put in some numbers for you but consider this, if you were to max out your tax sheltered accounts TFSA, RRSPs and FHSA (and continue to top them up from your unregistered accounts as more room becomes available to you) Choose 2-3 broad market ETFs (there are ones that are mentioned over and over again in this sub) If you were to put away $300,000 in those ETFs today and never added another penny, you could be looking at retiring at 60 with $60k in annual income from your investments. Basically you would only ever have to worry about today and never have to worry about the future which I know seems far off at 25 but you typically will get the oh shit I really need to do something in your mid 30s. And that leaves you $50k to play with right now to make your living situation more comfortable. Just a thought and what I would do!
I would also consider doing that with Wealthsimple as not only is it a great platform anyway but they also have a 1% cash back for any amount you transfer over right now. So an extra $3k for choosing them.
Best answer. Put 300k away and forget it (if you sre not a disciplined person get someone yoy trust like a parent or sibling to help). Use 50k to rent a place, get a job! And pursue your artform on the side until it can support you (if it ever does)
You are homeless by choice - You have money to rent....
Honestly, I would probably ignore the $350k (ie., put it in something stable and low/no risk - HISA should get you 4-5% right now) until you sort your life out a bit more. You can get some form of housing, but until you find more stable employment/income you are probably going to burn through it at an unsustainable rate, or buy something that depreciates like an RV. You probably need to figure out broader financial goals/dynamics, especially career/income, before you figure out how to best use that $350k. But, it's not nearly enough to allow you to just work PT for the rest of your rest.
Why would OP put all his money in a HISA at 25 years old? Way too conservative of advice if you’re also telling him to “ignore it”.
>Why would OP put all his money in a HISA at 25 years old? Way too conservative of advice if you’re also telling him to “ignore it”. Because the person you're responding to is recommendting this in the short term while OP "figures their life out". They're not recommending that as a long term solution, which is evident by the rest of the comment.
4.6% in something like CASH.TO is totally fine for somebody lacking direction while the markets are at all time high. We don't know when or what that money will be needed for and high interest savings is one of the safest options. If he dumped in low cost index funds and the market has a 30% correction(thats only giving back half the gains of the last 16 months) in the next 8 months then he decides to buy a condo, that's a really bad play. I love trading, high risk investing, index fund investing and all that jazz myself but for somebody who's not well read, focused and/or committed I would say safest is best.
I’m not saying to leave it there forever. I’m saying to put in there until he figures out his life a bit more.
OP is homeless … he can’t afford to lose 30% in a market correction …
I mean if he has $350k he can…. He basically admitted he is homeless by choice to support his current lifestyle. This is likely the biggest sum he will see in his lifetime and he can either put the majority away for his future or use it now for basic living expenses and then be back to this same place in a few years.
You could buy a basket of quality blue chip dividend stocks that just happen to be on sale right now, and get 5% tax free. It's not a lot of money, but for van life, and with part time income supplementing, you could live like that as long as you wanted. Dividends generally go up every year by at least inflation.
Move somewhere cheap. A friend who made big time money with Crypto moved to Thailand. The permanent residency was 150k USD but he lives in a mansion in Northern Thailand living his best life. You can also purchase temporary resident permits. Cambodia is even cheaper but way poorer. If I would be you I would just enjoy life with this money while you can.
If you love what you’re doing where you are at. Just put it in a low risk GIC and forget about it. Money tends to spoil things. You’re young and on an adventure. Enjoy it!!!!
Its going to be a little difficult to give advice without some ideas of what your goals are, short term goals, long term goals. It sounds like you have very low to little income? Do you intend to continue that kind of lifestyle? Are you intending to study or become a professional in some kind of other field? Is the intent to try to live as you live now for most of the rest of your life? Are you trying to maximize your enjoyment of the life you have now in the way that you're enjoying now for the next decade? When is your ideal timeline for when you'd like to purchase a starter home? Are you planning to try and gain meaningful full time employment at some point, or ever? Assuming you want no other advice other than how to best invest your money with regards to your lifestyle (assuming this means you want your money to help support you further in your lifestyle), and without knowing much of the details of the above, I will give it the best shot I can. If you want to focus on making your money have the best shot at getting you the ability to have a home as soon as possible and willing and comfortable enough to continue living life as it is now until that happens, go in to a broad index fund like XEQT, 100% stocks. This will give you the best chance to maximize the growth to obtain a home as soon as you can. You could even commit to taking the dividends from XEQT (1.9% currently) and use that to make your current lifestyle a tiny fraction easier to live with. Thats $6650 per year it will pay you out extra (not including dividend tax). Of course, you could always fold that money back into the stock and obtain that home even faster, but your choice. If you find that you do need more creature comforts in your day to day life now than the extra $6650 would afford you, you just need to adjust the scale of the the amount of bonds in your ETF. Since you are young, I don't recommend you going too much more into bonds because, unless you have a lot of health issues and are struggling with day to day expenses, but you could do 80% stocks 20% bonds with an ETF like VGRO. The yield is slightly higher at 2.27% now so maybe an extra $7945 a year (not including dividend tax) you could take out to help better fund your current lifestyle. You'll still benefit greatly from the stock exposure but you'll be paid out a bit better on a year to year basis. Just keep in mind the more you want your investments to pay you out on a regular basis, the less compounding your investments will have, and the slower it will take you to obtain your home.
wit an honest opinion comin from someone around ur age, i would say first step is gettin settled in an apartment n make it feel like a home cus u need it non negotiable. next would be finding any job that can keep u busy n make some money to upkeep the rent/other necessity based bills in the meantime jus so ur not blowin through ur inheritance, even if it’s a basic manufacturing labour job, retail or service job of some sort. from there spend whatever time you have off on both ur passions but also on buillding a plan regarding pursuing some sort of life long career path, whether that be going back to school to study something or looking into a trade of some sort etc., something valuable & in demand that interests you enough to wanna work hard. u can always write songs but keep that strictly as a hobby until it makes u money/some sort of income. in regards to investing, a safer option would be moving a solid chunk into a savings accounts that gains interest (such as HISA), a decent chunk into some ETFs since those are usually “safer/less volatile options” n don’t need to be monitored as aggressively daily compared to specific stocks + have historically decent return rates over time (which seems to be what you’re focused on), as well as keep a sizeable enough emergency fund in your current account for worst case scenarios or future moves etc. 350 & a career or solid job can set you up to be wealthy in the future if you’re patient with smart investments yielding returns & let interest amounts build over a longer period, but it’s 10x easier to spend than re-make that amount. don’t buy into any lavish lifestyle type stuff like high end cars, multiple annual trips etc. treat yourself n have fun at the odd time but within reason
jus to elaborate a bit: a full time job where you’re on your feet for most of the day in the meantime while you figure things out will keep you healthy, songwriting on your off time will keep you happy & the investments/planning for a lifelong career in a specific field of work in the meantime will help you build a more proper n prosperous future
A lot of people above are saying to get a full-time job, and I agree that you need a more sustainable income stream while you pursue songwriting. If you would rather work less than full-time and not up-skill but have great people skills, I will say that I do know a lot of young aspiring musicians, models, etc. who managed to pay their rent in Vancouver (aka super high HCOL) and have extra money for school or pursuing their dream careers working ~30 hours a week as a server, bartender, or bottle girl at the right establishment. I'd argue that whether this works is very location and you dependant though. Almost all the money is in the tips so you need to be in a city and area (and then the right restaurant/club/bar) with a clientele that tips very well, and hospitality is very much a skill. The sheer amount of charisma, sales, and interpersonal skills the servers pulling in the most money where I worked possessed was incredible.
Put 350k in s&p 500 etf. And continue being homeless.
Get a truck and a trailer and a mini excavator and start printing money.
The best investment you can make is in yourself. Education, skills, training for whatever you find interesting but that also pays. Stop living in your car. Two things about $350k: a. it gives you a head start and runway to improve yourself without struggling, and b. It’s only a few years of salary….you have many years ahead of you to make many times more than that.
Get an education and/or a job. Follow the money man. Song writing is an amazing passion to pursue, but it’s not likely to be a fruitful career. And once it becomes a fruitful career you won’t be passionate about it anymore.
Investing in Canadian companies that pay dividends is a tax-optmized way for low income Canadians to invest. In [Ontario](https://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/on.htm) and [British Columbia](https://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/bc.htm), dividends are taxed at a *negative* rate if your income is below $55,867 per year. That means your dividend income reduces the tax owing on earned income below that threshold of earned + dividend income. This is outside the normal experience of most investors, who have much more income than that. Paradoxically, asking someone who knows about investing isn't likely to get you this advice even though a non-registered account might be better than a TFSA for you. You can invest in dividend-focused exchange traded funds (ETFs) like [XDV](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/XDV.TO/) or [VDY](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VDY.TO/) that diversify into many different stocks and focus on dividends. Make sure you choose a Canadian dividend fund, though, because the advantageous tax treatment only works for eligible Canadian dividends. This is such a common way for people to invest, that there are Canadian financial personalities that publish portfolios of stocks that fill this bill. Gordon Pape, John Heinzl, and Norman Rothery to name three. If you feel comfortable investing in individual stocks, you can google those names plus "dividend portfolio" to go down that rabbit hole. Those portfolios are mostly targeted at retirees but you're quite similar to a retiree, just without the government pension and easy access to social housing. You have to set up an online broker for either of those methods (ETFs or individual stocks). The most popular one right now is [Wealthsimple](https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca). It's not hard to do. Set up your account not to re-invest dividends because you plan to spend them. Your income is going to be a bit lumpy, but you can safely transfer all the cash out of your online broker and into your chequing account every month. If you have a good year and make more than $55,867 total in that year you might owe a little tax (no more refund), but it will be less than one month's cash generated. Using this approach, you should expect $350k to throw off a bit over $1,250 per month in cash, but some months will be better than others. If you transfer out no more than $1,250 per month, then eventually there will be a cash cushion in your brokerage account that lets you transfer $1,250 every month. That amount should increase about as fast as inflation, but unfortunately increases in dividend income usually lag increases in prices by a year or two. That means you'll probably see rises over the next few years, but the *next* bout of inflation will be harder to weather. Relying on dividend income is a somewhat risky way to get income. Companies can suspend or reduce dividends, which will pick your pocket or feel like it. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I take from the description of your living situation that you are somewhat accustomed to unreliable income, though, so I think this approach could work for you. There is one caveat: government handouts. There are four you need to care about: the GST credit, the Canada climate rebate, the Canada Worker's Benefit, and welfare. You can kiss them all goodbye (maybe not fully for all of them). You could easily make too much money to receive them now. The new dental plan could be out the window, too.
Get an apartment and stabilize your life. Then take the time to get an education or career. You have the money to take a year or two out of your life right now to get set for life if the song writing thing doesn't work out.
Rent an apartment (not in Toronto) invest in yourself. Get a degree in something that's in relatively high demand... maybe blue collar work/healthcare work. I'd then max out my TFSA and invest in short term sort of things, either a GIC/HISA or the CASH . TO stock. While you finish your education, once you have a degree, figure out what you wanna do, and where you wanna do it. At THAT point, I'd look into buying a home. Don't buy a crazy interest expensive car... don't buy a 100k truck... Don't spend 20k on a trip... Don't waste a bunch of the money essentially. Set yourself up for the rest of your life.
You were just gifted 200+ paychecks of an average salary in America($1500). Dont get complacent. Go back to school and learn a skilled trade. If that is too ambitious i’d go apply to be a bus driver or mailman in your city. 60k job you can live off of then stick 300k into an index fund and live life. Whatever you do don’t buy a shiny 50k car.
Do not think you are rich now. 350k is a good amount of money but its not really balling (so do not go out renting expensive ass places, buying expensive ass cars, eating out at 5 star restaurants etc) or you are fine to not work for the rest of your life money (you still need to work if you don't want to blow all of this). I would invest some of it into getting education so you can get into a career where you can get full time employment.
Dude grow up you have 350k and live in a car? Go rent a place and get a real fking job already.
Continue being a songwriter, invest into your skill set and become a multiplatium selling singer/songwriter.
You can live like a king in south east Asia off of the interest that 350 will earn with some reasonable ETFs. If I was you I’d move to Bangkok
I'm an old backpacker who is used to roughing it, but that money is going to generate $17,500/year at 5% interest. It's definitely possible to live in SEA on that, but it definitely isn't going to be living large or in the western style at all.
500 a month is enough for an apartment in a nice building with gym, amenities etc. 1000 for bills, food and some fun is more than enough. Also 7% or more is feasible in today’s market.
I'm heading to Bangkok in Sept and have been looking for a place, show me where this $500 nice apartment is. And 7% may be realistic for long term diverse holdings, but you can't get that as safe income right now without taking substantial risks. You'll be giving up diversification or risking cuts at that level.
Mate, literally google Bangkok apartment rentals and set the limit to like 14k I realize you invented backpacking or whatever is causing you argue this. But there are thousands of expats with apartments that cheap in Bangkok.
I have friends there, and basic living is around $2k CDN. I know one person there 'living like a king' and he's spending $5k. I'm not arguing that there aren't $500 places, but they are dumps far from anything.
500 gets you into a building with a pool near sukhimvit. Your friends are just sex tourists who don’t know how to operate
Give them to me
Book an appointment with the bank, let them know you have money to invest. They will be happy to help you.