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
Build Long-Term Wealth using our Diversified ETF Model Portfolios
Synopsis: This article will provide example ETF model portfolios with a focus on building an ETF portfolio that is both low cost and very easy to manage. We will explain the benefits of owning diversified ETFs and how vital we believe it is to invest for the long-term letting compounding do its work. Wouldn’t you just love to find the way to invest that delivered…
Best ETFs for your RRSP
You’ve saved and contributed to your RRSP for this tax year. Kudos! Now, what do you buy? Well, if you want to invest inside your RRSP using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), you’ve come to the right place. We believe these are some of the Best ETFs for your RRSP. Best ETFs for your RRSP Why ETFs? Let’s be clear: there are a lot of ways to invest. …
Canadians Expect to Need $1.7 MILLION to Retire – That’s a Problem!
According to a new BMO study and related articles on this subject we read, Canadians polled now expect to need $1.7 million to retire. Is that right? Does that even make sense? We believe that’s a problem for a few reasons. Read on. How much do you need to retire? Answer: “it depends”. Yes, those are the facts. A key part of any retirement planning…
Latest articles
Build Long-Term Wealth using our Diversified ETF Model Portfolios
Synopsis: This article will provide example ETF model portfolios with a focus on building an ETF portfolio that is both low cost and very easy to manage. We will explain the benefits of owning diversified ETFs and how vital we believe it is to invest for the long-term letting compounding do its work. Wouldn’t you just love to find the way to invest that delivered…
Should You Invest in a High-Interest ETF?
Some fans of this site own dividend-paying stocks for income and growth. We do too! Other fans of our site own low-cost Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to passively ride market returns. Yes, we do too! But there are many other ways to invest…including the use of a high-interest ETF for some cash buffer against bonds and equities as asset classes. Should you invest in a…
Best ETFs for your RRSP
You’ve saved and contributed to your RRSP for this tax year. Kudos! Now, what do you buy? Well, if you want to invest inside your RRSP using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), you’ve come to the right place. We believe these are some of the Best ETFs for your RRSP. Best ETFs for your RRSP Why ETFs? Let’s be clear: there are a lot of ways to invest. …
Canadians Expect to Need $1.7 MILLION to Retire – That’s a Problem!
According to a new BMO study and related articles on this subject we read, Canadians polled now expect to need $1.7 million to retire. Is that right? Does that even make sense? We believe that’s a problem for a few reasons. Read on. How much do you need to retire? Answer: “it depends”. Yes, those are the facts. A key part of any retirement planning…
Could You Retire if the Global Financial Crisis Happened Again?
Could you retire if the Global Financial Crisis happened again? The Global Financial Crisis turned a few retirement dreams into investing nightmares. Stocks plunged in value during this period and evaporated the retirement savings of many, that took decades to build. This crisis further exacerbated other looming financial problems: there were plummeting home values, stagnating wages, and the crisis triggered a decade+ era of essentially…
RRSP Deadline and Contribution Limit
Before we start, as quick reminder, the RRSP contribution deadline for 2023 is March 1, 2023. Read on! There are a lot of RRSP questions going around, especially during RRSP season. This is why we have this comprehensive post so you can find everything you need to know about the RRSP in one spot! What is an RRSP and how does it work? What is…
Best GIC Rates in Canada
As you well know, to build wealth, it takes more than savings to compound away to grow your portfolio into something meaningful. That said, keeping cash savings secure or guaranteed in some cases can be very smart. What are GICs? What are the best GICs to consider and why? What are the best GIC rates in Canada in 2023 – and who are those providers? Read…
New Year Financial Checklist Items
Out with the old, in with the new some say. Welcome to 2023! That said, whatever is old can also be new again with our valuable new year financial checklist items – to start your 2023 personal finance journey off right! Budgets are good but monitoring your cashflow is better in any year! While budgets are good we’re not really fans of them here on…
Our Best Posts of 2022
Wow, where does the time go?? 2023 is around the corner, and with that, we figured we’d share some of our favourite posts from 2022 that really resonated with our readers and members, posts that got some media attention, and/or posts that really added value to many visitors to our site based on feedback – detailed case studies (for free!) about potential retirement drawdown orders…
Top Tax Tips for Retirees
We spend a lot of time on our site helping and talking to many retirees, semi-retirees and Canadians preparing for their financial independence dreams. On that note, as the end of another calendar year approaches and with a new year ready to begin soon we thought we’d share a few of our top tax tips for retirees. Read on for the goods! Top Tax Tips…