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
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…
Does the 4% Retirement Withdrawal Rule Work with Higher Inflation?
The cost of living continues to rise – at the fastest pace in decades. If you want to retire in the coming years, you might be wondering about the impact of inflation on the longevity of your portfolio. Can your portfolio survive higher inflation? When it comes to the 4% rule, a reader wonders, does the 4% rule work with higher inflation (like what’s happening…
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…
Should you use an All-Weather Portfolio?
Stock market volatility can and will happen, which can really spook many investors. To help with that, should you use an all-weather portfolio for changing market conditions? Would an all-weather portfolio be best long-term? How would I build an all-weather portfolio using Canadian ETFs? Read on and find out our take, including the pros and cons of this all-weather investing approach. The portfolio is designed…
Avoid These 5 Big RRSP Mistakes
The Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is also one of our favourite accounts to build long-term wealth with, and the same should apply to you. On that note, it’s also an account that can trigger huge opportunity costs if not used wisely. For today’s post, we’ll share how you can avoid these 5 big RRSP mistakes – in your asset accumulation and asset decumulation years….
Avoid These 5 Big TFSA Mistakes
The Tax-Free-Savings Account (TFSA) is one of our favourite accounts to build long-term wealth with. It’s also an account that can trigger huge opportunity costs if not used wisely. For today’s post, we’ll share how you can avoid these 5 big TFSA mistakes – in your asset accumulation and asset decumulation years. Mistake #1 – Not using the TFSA for investing We love the account. We hate…
Top Tax Tips for Retirees
We spend a lot of time on our site helping and talking to early retirees, semi-retirees and Canadians preparing for full-on retirement. A few tax tips and themes have emerged with all of those clients: What are some of those tax themes in preparing for retirement? What are some of the top tax tips for retirees? Read on, we’ve got some details! Top Tax Tips…
TFSA Contribution Room and Limit, Penalties, and Everything in Between for 2022
The Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) is a gift to all Canadians. I mean, who doesn’t love tax-free money or better still, money that grows tax-free?! I know we do – especially when you count for the fairly large TFSA contribution limit/room in 2022 if you are just starting today (more below). How much can you contribute to the TFSA? How much growth can you…
RRSP Deadline and Contribution Limit 2022, and Everything in Between!
Before we start, as quick reminder, the RRSP contribution deadline for 2022 is March 1, 2022. 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 the RRSP…
How to Become The Money Master (Author Q&A and Giveaway!)
A new year brings new opportunities to grow and improve for all of us. In The Money Master, author and speaker Sandy Yong shares her personal experiences with money, interviews a few financial experts, and provides some actionable tools to show you how you can: Develop a millionaire mindset Develop healthy and wealth-building habits that stick Balance today’s needs with tomorrow’s wants or dreams How…
New Year Financial Checklist Items
Out with the old, in with the new some say. That said, whatever is old can also be new again with our valuable new year financial checklist items – to start your 2022 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 this site –…
Cashflows and Portfolios Best of 2021
Happy Holidays everyone! Thanks for being part of our journey at Cashflows & Portfolios. Welcome to our best of 2021 where we will highlight some milestones and top posts from the last year. Our mission on this site is something quite unique in Canada. We’re not running this site to share any personal finance journey perspectives like many other blogs. In fact, we don’t share…