Welcome
Cashflows and Portfolios is a free online resource providing beginning-to-end content for all Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investors. We offer a free newsletter to your inbox offering wealth-building tips; suggestions; retirement case studies; and more to help you manage your retirement nest egg over time. We also offer personalized low-cost financial projections services beyond all the free content to support all DIY investors by DIY investors!
Check out our low-cost Retirement Projections Services here!
Learn about who we are, why we do what we do, and how we intend to support all DIY investors as DIY investors ourselves right 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
Why the 4% Rule Doesn’t Work for Early Retirement (FIRE)
The 4% rule is a common rule of thumb in many retirement planning circles, including the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) community in particular. But…we don’t really like it for FIRE! What does the 4% rule actually mean? Should the 4% rule be used for any FIRE-seeker? Does the 4% rule really matter to retirement planning at all? Read on to find out our final…
Could You Retire if the Global Financial Crisis Happened Again?
Could you retire if the Global Financial Crisis happened again? With stocks tanking recently this summer along with rumours of another recession looming thanks to our existing housing crisis in Canada coupled with higher interest rates – we think this is a legitimate question to ask. You might recall The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) turned a few retirement dreams into investing nightmares. Stocks plunged in…
How to Start Investing for Beginners
How to start investing can be challenging for many and there is seemingly so much information to know. It’s also a challenge to figure out who to trust – so many people want your money! How can you start investing? What accounts should you start investing with? Should you buy: funds/ETFs or individual stocks? Today’s post answers those questions and much more with references to…
Latest articles
Is Living Off Dividends a Mistake?
Passionate readers of this site and fellow DIY investors in Canada will know both of us here at Cashflows & Portfolios (along with many site subscribers and members as well!), have some form of plan to “live off dividends” during some semi-retirement or retirement years. However, we wanted to explore this question: is living off dividends a mistake? Read on for some thoughts and risks…
Is now the time to change your investing plan?
2022 was a wild investing year. Stocks and bonds both crashed. This year, so far at least, things are on the upswing with stocks year to date but Mr. Market is always a very fickle guy! Last year: Anyone with “diamond hands” (holding some crypto assets) might have had their hands turned to stone – these assets tanked. (Bitcoin lost about 60% of its value!)…
Can you retire using just your TFSA?
The opportunity for Canadians to save and invest tax-free over decades could be considered one of the greatest wonders of our modern financial world. This begs an important question: If you start early enough – Can you retire using just your TFSA? We believe so and in today’s updated post we’ll show you how! Can you retire using just your TFSA? Why the TFSA is…
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. Well, we believe anyone feeling they absolutely need $1.7 million to retire on, that’s a problem. Read on. Canadians Expect to Need $1.7 MILLION to Retire – That’s a Problem! How much do you need to retire? Answer: “it depends”. Yes,…
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…
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…