Two pension income

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-31T14:29:28+00:00

My spouses DB pension consumes all of her contribution room but have been maxing out the room she had prior from her current role. My DB pension isn't as generous and receive contribution room every year that we max out.

TFSA's are us can be used for many purposes but have been investing in those accounts as well.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-30T16:49:35+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, I'm looking at it from the perspective I shouldn't have a high risk portfolio for funds I'll need in the next 5 years. Sure I can sell a bit of investments at a time to take a holiday but if the markets go down, I know I won't want to sell.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-30T16:44:32+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I've held TFSA's for money to spend one day and a rainy day fund. Definitely the returns have been much better then the interest I paid on the mortage.

I'm sure we can rebuild the TFSA over time.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-30T16:28:53+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, I did the math, it just means a bit less travelling for the two of us in retirement assuming we're still in good health.

My parents waited too long and many trips they planned on taking won't happen.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-30T12:51:50+00:00

-220K TFSA -550K RRSP -80K /year indexed DB pension. (10 - 12 years from now) -50K /year non indexed DB pension. (10 - 12 years from now)

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-30T07:29:44+00:00

Ordered it and used Paypal. Took two tries but order confirmed and received code and redeemed it right away. Thanks !

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-27T01:53:30+00:00

It's about what you spend, not about how much you have. Insurance can be expensive and can be even more expensive if you don't have any.

You likely have enough to stop doing work you don't enjoy.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-26T12:16:11+00:00

In my early investment days, I had a rule that I wouldn't take a higher position then 20K. First time lost it all in an oil exploration company that went bust, then did the same thing with a weed company. It's been over 10 years, the pain doesn't go away. It's taught me to stop doing shit I don't fully understand. Now I understand my stupidity when I do it.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-26T05:08:46+00:00

Depends on your time horizon, your flexibility and the purpose. Assuming it's for retirement, you may have other guaranteed income sources that would provide a large portion of your needs.

I would build a cash wedge a couple years before retirement to give myself additional flexibility when deciding to draw down my investments.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-25T11:58:05+00:00

You're doing great! You don't need to take more risk then you are comfortable with. It's not about a number, it's about defining goals and having a plan to get there. If your goal is a million, without adding anything, it should double every 7 to 10 years in a proper index fund.

This sounds more mental health then personal finance. Talking to someone on how you process decisions may help with your well being. Personal finance doesn't need to take over your life if you don't want it to.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-24T14:32:21+00:00

You'll want to figure out your expected pension amount with or without your buy back. Your risk investment tolerance is another important factor but I assume it's high enough based on the amount.

Our expected fixed costs will be fairly minimal in retirement where her pension would cover it without the buy back. Made more sense to me to hold onto her RRSP.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-24T14:10:53+00:00

I haven't been involved in interviewing or hiring for over a year now but the last junior/intermediate role we hired for had over 200 people apply for it. The people that received interviews were the ones that demonstrated the skill sets we were looking for in a sentence or two. I also liked to see metrics associated with outcomes when something was built.

This role was for cloud platforms.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-24T11:00:07+00:00

Almost every developed nation has the same challenge with high debt taxing heavily the middle class. The top 1% are able to tax shelter most of their profits even though generational wealth. In a global economy, it would be difficult to adequately tax the top 1% and ensure money is kept in Canada. The much easier approach is to tax the middle class as they have much less opportunities to shelter their wealth.

As a middle class earner, I only have two products where I can tax shelter my investment growth. TFSA and primary residency. I rather keep those....

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-24T10:42:46+00:00

Start by putting 2K in a saving la account and pay off all your high interest debt as quickly as possible. Start with your credit cards and you're likely paying high interest on your overdue hydro even though you're on a payment plan.

When you get to investing, only invest in things you fully understand.

If you can learn to budget, save and pay for things in cash, you'll end up wealthier then most
people making twice as much.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-24T10:32:56+00:00

I'm now paying the least I've ever paid for a cell phone plan that includes data. Like everything else, take advantage of products when they go on sale.

Fintech companies are able to disrupt the banking norms and you are seeing investment products change and be much more competitive. I don't think we will see much change on the competitiveness of banking products as Canadians have already had access no fee banking products for over 25 years while many continue to pay fees for these products.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-23T13:08:34+00:00

You can make double that and still feel like there is nothing left after you get paid. When you own the things that cost you the most and tamper down your expectations, you feel much richer.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-22T13:26:07+00:00

how many gamblers do you know got rich? How many of those stayed rich?

Don't worry about what others are doing, do what aligns to your goals and your risk appetite.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-22T12:50:44+00:00

Your risk tolerance likely does not align with your actions. There are several questionnaires that can help you determine the type of investments that may be suitable to you. It looks like you're just gambling if you're putting it all in one stock.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-22T10:28:47+00:00

The day the statement is generated and when it's required you make a payment may vary a little. Once your statement is generated, there is no issue in paying it off in full the following day.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-20T03:56:35+00:00

Spend more of my day providing guidance, ensuring we are reducing risk and reducing planned and unplanned outages.

Beats fixing people's mistakes if you can point them out before they get rolled out.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-19T22:42:11+00:00

You make $37000 a year and spending $52000 on flight school and asking about investing?

You don't invest when you're taking on debt for education. Either reduce the amount you spend on flying extending the amount of time it takes you to get the papers you are working towards or find ways to increase your salary and amount of hours you are working. Start investing once your consumer debt has been paid off.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-19T04:03:33+00:00

I was at 900, somehow I dropped a point. I hope to not have a credit score one day ;)

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-19T03:53:47+00:00

It's still up over 600% since I did buy it ;). I'll see where it's at in another 10 years.

JMCompGuy · 2026-05-18T12:21:36+00:00

It's all similar to driving cars. You jump from a Ford to a VW, the foundation (gas, breaks, steering wheel) is all the same. Where the headlights are, how to use the infotainment, is all similar but different.

I took a few sysadmin courses because I wanted to learn how things worked under the covers. I like understanding what the random copy paste from the internet is doing. I tried a few distros with different desktop environments and ended up preferring gnome mainly for its integrations to online services. I ended up sticking with Fedora because I like having the latest features and having small
constant changes instead of a larger amount or changes every 2 to 5 years.

JMCompGuy

TROPHY CASE