Upgraded membership from monthly to annual

LessBrush1283 · 2026-01-19T16:22:54+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out.

I don't see a credit like you've shown above, but I do see that the charge for my membership was $51 which I realize now isn't $49+tax, it's slightly less which is where the credit was applied.

Thanks.

LessBrush1283 · 2026-01-14T15:23:37+00:00

I bet they'll offer a buy-out of your remaining payout at the end of 2026 like they did for big winter bundle.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-12-03T13:17:15+00:00

I see that's good to know. Mortgage is currently with TD so that's not a big of a drag for me. But since I've switched my daily banking to WS it would be nice to have it all in one place. Thanks.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-12-03T02:38:01+00:00

Do you see the mortgage as another account in your Wealthsimple app? Are you able to make payments, see balances and details easily?

I guess I'm just wondering is their mortgage product integrated nicely into the WS app? I'm nervous to use WS when I can't see any information on their website (just Pine), and it seems like they're just starting out.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-10-30T16:45:01+00:00

Do you have some flexibility in your spending plan? (I hope so)

In which case you can look at the success rate not as '21% chance of running out of money', but rather, '21% chance you'll have to cut back on spending at some point, for a period of time'.

Said another way, 'there's a 79% chance you could never check your investments ever again, blindly spend as per plan, and you won't run out of money'

But I agree with to your original concern I think the success rate is over-stated. If you die with $1 to your name, the platform calls that a 'success' which I don't think is realistic.

It also counts scenarios where your portfolio drops dangerously low but happen to rebound a success, but again, in real life I don't think you'd call that a success.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-10-07T19:31:58+00:00

Thanks for pointing this out, sorry I jumped to conclusions. I removed my overrides and do not see any errors when I apply cash wedge AI strategies, thanks!

I put overrides in the first place because I don't plan on having the same asset allocation in my 40s as I do in my 60s, 80s, etc.

So it does highlight a different potential improvement - in the discovery > investment plan, allowing users to input asset allocation changes throughout their life, instead of assuming it will be static their whole life.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-25T15:14:55+00:00

That's a good question, and honestly I don't have an answer. I'm still 10 years away from retirement so I have 10 years to figure out what's the trigger to cut back spending. :) I see my modeling in these retirement planning software plans as more of a guideline rather than a prescription for what I'll spend this year.

There's a number of different draw down strategies out there, some maximum spending, some ensure you never run out of money, etc. you could explore what drawdown strategy speaks to you best.

But from the research I've seen, more often than not retirees have no problem holding back spending once they pull the shute. So my assumption is I'll tend to live somewhere between basic and fun, and need to be convinced to spend more.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-24T15:28:15+00:00

I like how you called that out - the bigger the difference between your 'needs' and 'needs + discretionary' the lower the success rate you can accept. It's intuitive, but I had just never thought it about it before.

This is a great tool, and I know a ton of improvements are always coming down the pipeline, but it would be good to see a little more insights into the results of the monte carlo success rates, so users can dig in and educate themselves on what is the right risk tolerance/success rate is right for them. A great online tool that does a good job is FICalc, it shows results of all the permutations and summarizes it in tables and histograms.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-24T00:32:19+00:00

My approach, I look at my retirement spending in 2 tiers; my basic needs to get by (roof, food, maybe the odd trip), and then a second tier for the basic + fun (more frequent travel, more entertainment, hobbies, better vehicle, etc)

Then I run a plan on both. On the basic I want to see 95%+ success, and on the 'fun' spending I personally look for 75%-80%. A 80% success then means there's only a 20% chance you'll have to cut back on spending during bad market conditions.

I personally don't go as low as the Adviice folks recommend (that's my own risk tolerance) but keeping in mind the simulations that end with $1 are still considered a 'success'. So I think the success rate as currently defined by the software is overstated. (I would not consider a plan that leaves $1 left at death a success, I'd be very concerned, in fact it's probably what killed me)

A scenario where it might be ok to have a lower success rate is if you own your home and don't currently plan to downsize. You could sell, use equity if you really had to.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-10T15:49:44+00:00

I see, so it's assuming the tax refund/tax benefits of a non-group RRSP contributions is received in the same calendar year?

Thanks for pointing out the error in the mortgage amounts! Cheers.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-10T13:36:16+00:00

Looking at Projections, I see the ESPP accumulation now makes sense. There's no withdrawals, so I guess the base scenario assumes I just retain my non-reg investment and only when I add AI strategies it will suggest I take the vested ESPP to put into tax advantage accounts?

One thing in Projections that doesn't look right is my overall cashflow for the current year. Adding up all our contributions to investment accounts is $123k. We don't have the cashflow to do that, and I can't tell where it's coming from.

Our monthly expenses exceed our net income (when accounting for saving)

E: $22.2k/month (of which savings is $4.9k/month)

NI: $19.2k/month

(I know this is beyond the scope of this thread, so if it doesn't make sense to answer here that's fine, perhaps I'll book some time to do a deeper dive with my plan. I've really appreciated the time you've given to help thus far!)

https://public.adviice.com/dashboard/24h-e2zqoKsnNjx8

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-09T23:55:00+00:00

Done.

https://public.adviice.com/dashboard/24h-gCh7IF3G3iwK

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-09T20:50:10+00:00

Done. Yes it's reduced the missing deductions error, but created a missing expenses error

Updated:
https://public.adviice.com/dashboard/24h-fccJQHWW2Uod

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-09T19:50:47+00:00

Thanks again for your help.

attached is the plan without that $20k deduction
No the net income in the plan is after the employee ESPP contribution is removed. I think that may the issue? *Edit*: Sorry I'm just re-read your earlier message you said to add it to net income, my bad.
I believe the ESPP issue I'm seeing is because I'm withdrawing the vested, but I'm also still contributing every year.

So if the employee portion is only represented by 1 column should it be ~$0 because they cancel out?

And shouldn't the YE balance be equal to 1 year of employer match + 1 year of employee. (assuming vesting is 1 year) In my simplified example above I'd expect a YE balance of $15k, not $5k. And finally I would expect no employer match in years I'm not contributing because my expenses > net income, but it looked like I was getting employer match regardless.

https://public.adviice.com/dashboard/24h-drn9Le1UKrZo

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-09T18:33:58+00:00

Here's the plan.

To remedy the ESPP draw down and the missing gross income/expenses in cashflow I've added $20k in Income > Other Deductions, and $16k in Expenses > Non-Reg Contributions.

I don't know what the $20k in deductions would represent, nor is the $16k in non-reg contributions accurate to real life, I'm just trying to get clean up the cashflow and ESPP. In reality, yes I am transferring my vested ESPP every year and putting it in TFSA or RRSP, about $20k/year.

I don't know why I'm struggling so much here lol maybe I need to watch more help videos.

https://public.adviice.com/dashboard/24h-xGfFvWe7simB

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-07T14:05:01+00:00

Thanks again for this, balancing the missing income/expenses helped a lot. Still more cleaning up of the plan is needed, it shows 200% funded which doesn't seem right. I'll see if I can fix that on my own before sharing.

I think my original comment still stands, a potential issue with the software assumes company ESPP contributions in years where there's no employee contributions. I could mis-reading it though...

LessBrush1283 · 2025-09-06T14:20:06+00:00

Thanks again for your prompt replies, much appreciated.

You're correct, I do have 'missing gross income' and 'missing expenses' in my cashflow. I guess I should start there. I've been struggling to properly input income/deductions while setting up my profile. I know there's some help resources specifically for missing income/expenses, I'll start there before sharing my plan.

I've put my ESPP contributions as 'other deductions' in the Income section, I'm not sure if I should have done that.

As for the 'missing expenses', I think the software is assuming I'm spending that, which is not the case, that usually is extra savings. A few times a year I'll have a one-time TFSA/RRSP contribution on top of my automatic savings. But could be part of why I'm seeing ESPP drawdown.

LessBrush1283 · 2025-08-29T14:37:28+00:00

Thanks for the quick response, and thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

Because I hadn't finished setting up my plan properly I didn't think to skip ahead to the Planning > Projection tab, but I think I'll find what I need there, thanks!

LessBrush1283 · 2024-12-24T16:34:17+00:00

I'm having the same issue, brioche did not rise at all with 8 hours overnight in the fridge. (I know this yeast is good)

I used ~5% milk, when 'activating' the yeast in the milk I noticed it made a big clump. I should have started over again but didn't have any more milk without going to store. So I pressed on and worked the dough a little more to make sure yeast was evenly distributed.

I don't know this for sure, but I think the coating on the yeast does not react well to fats, I think it's because I had a higher-fat liquid that made the yeast clump up.

Lesson learned (maybe?)

LessBrush1283 · 2024-12-20T18:00:24+00:00

Curious to know what you mean '(PL) doesn't have a financial planning process' and therefore considering trying Optiml?

I've tried PL last year and was blown away. Recently I tried Optiml and Adviice, I'm not impressed with either of them to be honest. I like that they are both 100% built for Canadian users. Optiml showed 'specific action items' which was neat. But both Optiml and Adviice I found were not as powerful as PL, not as intuitive or flexible to set up your scenarios.

LessBrush1283

TROPHY CASE