Welcome
Cashflows & Portfolios is a free resource providing a beginning-to-end guide for Do-It-Yourself investors. The journey begins with how to budget and generate cash flow; how best to invest that cashflow; onto using the nest egg to fund the next phase of life – retirement).
We (Mark and Joe) are personal finance bloggers with a combined experience of over 25 years in helping Canadians with their finances. Using this experience, we created this site to provide you with actionable steps towards your financial goals. Both of us are in our 40’s, and like many of you, we started from scratch. Using the steps and strategies outlined in this site has allowed us to build significant 7-figure portfolios that are leading the way to financial independence (more about us here).
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DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH TO RETIRE?
If financial projections and retirement readiness are what you are after, we using some professional financial software (software that we are using for our own plans in fact), and making it available to you in our affordable and value-packed membership options. With this powerful software, we provide a detailed report(s) that answers questions specific to your financial situation and assumptions such as:
- Do I have enough to retire?
- When can I retire?
- Will I run out of money in retirement?
- What is the most I can spend in retirement?
- How much of a financial legacy can I leave behind?
- Should I take CPP at age 65 or 70?
- How do I minimize OAS clawback?
- Which account (and when) should I withdraw from for the highest tax efficiency and estate value?
Featured articles
TFSA vs. RRSP – Why the TFSA wins
A quick search will highlight lots of articles that debate whether it is beneficial to invest inside the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) or use the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) for retirement. We’ll be blunt for today’s post: while it can “depend” we believe the TFSA wins over the RRSP for a few key reasons that every adult Canadian should know about. Read on why…
Is now the time to change your investing plan?
This has been a wild investing year to date, no doubt. But maybe this time it’s different? Your diamond hands holding some crypto assets might have turned to stone. Stocks are getting hammered, even some beloved dividend paying stocks are well down in price. Bonds offer no place to hide. Real estate is correcting too. Cash is getting eaten by inflation. Is now the time…
When Beat the TSX (BTSX) works and when it doesn’t!
In previous posts on our site, we highlighted the investing concepts behind Beat the TSX (BTSX) to juice your retirement income. In today’s post, we’ll highlight the Beat the TSX (BTSX) strategy, when it works, when it doesn’t, and just as importantly chat with a passionate, early-retiree that not only follows this strategy but writes about it extensively as a subject matter expert! Let’s get…
Latest articles
TFSA vs. RRSP – Why the TFSA wins
A quick search will highlight lots of articles that debate whether it is beneficial to invest inside the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) or use the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) for retirement. We’ll be blunt for today’s post: while it can “depend” we believe the TFSA wins over the RRSP for a few key reasons that every adult Canadian should know about. Read on why…
Be Mindful of these Personal Finance Biases
We’d like to believe we’re all rational, logical, and well-thought-out human beings. Well, that’s a hard no! For today’s post, since we enjoy reading about and learning more about psychology including personal finance behaviour and biases, we thought we’d list and describe how to be mindful of these personal finance biases. These biases will influence your judgments, beliefs, and decisions when it comes to money…
Is now the time to change your investing plan?
This has been a wild investing year to date, no doubt. But maybe this time it’s different? Your diamond hands holding some crypto assets might have turned to stone. Stocks are getting hammered, even some beloved dividend paying stocks are well down in price. Bonds offer no place to hide. Real estate is correcting too. Cash is getting eaten by inflation. Is now the time…
When Beat the TSX (BTSX) works and when it doesn’t!
In previous posts on our site, we highlighted the investing concepts behind Beat the TSX (BTSX) to juice your retirement income. In today’s post, we’ll highlight the Beat the TSX (BTSX) strategy, when it works, when it doesn’t, and just as importantly chat with a passionate, early-retiree that not only follows this strategy but writes about it extensively as a subject matter expert! Let’s get…
How Your Side Hustle Can Help You Retire Earlier
As you well know from this site, we love case studies! We enjoy posting case studies since we believe retirement or related retirement drawdown case studies can help people see themselves in such examples. With so many folks establishing a side hustle during the pandemic to make ends meet, or simply follow their passion projects, we wanted to post this case study about how a…
Beat the TSX (BTSX) for Retirement Income
The investing concepts behind Beat the TSX (BTSX) to juice your retirement income are rather simple, but there are some considerations for any investor to ponder before going all-in. In today’s post, we’ll highlight the Beat the TSX (BTSX) strategy, why it works, and some of the potential drawbacks of this approach so you can make an informed decision as part of your investing practices….
ETFs You Should Avoid Buying and Why
At Cashflows & Portfolios, we have stated a few times over that new investors (or even established investors) may want to consider investing in broad market Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to build wealth. That said, not all ETFs are created equal! Today’s post is about some ETFs you should avoid buying and why – because they are not in your investing best interests. To learn…
Bonds vs. GICs – Which is Better?
Even for seasoned investors, during times of market volatility, there is a tendency for investors to shift their mindset from capital growth to capital preservation. So, for capital preservation, are bonds or GICs better? Which is better, when? We’ll unpack that a bit in today’s post and offer our take on how we manage our portfolios, along with insights from clients too! Bonds 101 What are…
The Best ETFs in Canada for Building Wealth
New investors (or even established investors) may want to consider investing in broad market Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to build wealth. To learn about the best ETFs in Canada for building wealth, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve reviewed dozens upon dozens of low-cost ETFs so you don’t have to! Listed in the sections below, we’ve assembled what we consider some of the best…
What Asset Class Returns are Expected in the Future?
Winners among asset classes keep rotating, in terms of the best returns delivered to investors in any given year, but we were curious to find out what asset class returns you could expect in the future. Read on in our latest post to learn about some market history and what headwinds might be in store for expected asset class returns. History doesn’t always repeat, but…