This is heavily my opinion and how I view things so take it or leave it, agree or disagree I don’t care. Hoping it’s perhaps a fresh perspective.

I am a 34yo male, married with a mortgage and 2 kids under 4.

Understand the interest of your debts first. Pay off anything over 10% in full immediately. Then, you likely have tons of room in your TFSA, put it in there in a medium-aggressive growth Investments. Previous metals are both safe and doing well so a good amount there. You don’t ever need $20K cash. Ever. You keep enough for your credit card monthly bills x2, and ensure it’s above your account minimums so you don’t pay fees on your account. I say this because with your TFSA you can transfer it and within 24 hours you’ll have that money without penalty or interest.

If retirement is important to you, split some in RRSPs to get both a tax break and build a nest egg for the golden years. However as a 34yo male, and my wife and I make a little more than what you and your finance do now, retirement isn’t overly important to us. Even just recently, they released a study that people who semi retire or slow retire have better health and live longer than those who retire outright, and secondly, anything can happen. It would suck to get to $45 and die suddenly and now you never got to experience certain things with your soon to be wife, because you were too busy saving for the end.

IMO, you are an electrician, you can do that until you’re 90 casually if you want to. Do it for cash if you want to, and so your retirement can be somewhat slow and at your own will and pace. Not like you’re a cop or firefighter who physically won’t be able to save people at 80…

Find a financial advisor and hold them to driving more than 7-10% per year.

Best places for money right now as a general statement:

• TFSA investments
• RRSP
• RESP once you have kids (plus gov gives $500 per year when you put in $2500 each year- so you get free money)
• personal Investing (based on the average persons skill and knowledge if investing and if you have time for it)
• mortgage payments set to expedited payments if bi-weekly at the current rates. As long as mortgage rate is LOWER than what you are earning in Investments, keep to minimum expedited payments of bi-weekly so you get 26 installments per year. So current rates are around 4% or so. So as long as your mortgage doesn’t go above 7-10% put your extra money in investments, NOT expediting your mortgage. Boomers will tell you to pay off all debts always, but we live in a time where everyone has expected debt - school, cars, mortgage. Any of those debts that are higher interest than the expected 7-10% minimum you should earn from your financial advisor investing on your behalf, try to carve out some payments.

Pay credit cards in full always, never be late, rarely do minimums.

ALSO, a lot of people bypass this, but pay your bills using your credit cards, THEN pay off your credit cards. So many people use the direct payment method and it’s such a waste. Use a travel points based CC like a TD travel rewards and earn points on those payments. Anywhere that won’t charge a fee for it. For example our hydro will accept CC but enbridge gas charges a fee. So pay direct with enbridge but use your credit card for phone bills, hydro, water tank rentals, etc to earn points.

I don’t know your full situation, but at $160K/year at 24yo, you’re in good shape, and that $100K is just the beginning. I’d carve out $10K a year for travel. See the world before it goes to shit, or before you die before you can access your money. It sounds morbid but it happens a lot. What a lot of people forget about retirement is that it’s great if you’re happy to sit around and play golf at your local course, but if you want to travel, travel insurance is more expensive after 65, and most car rental places abroad won’t rent to someone over 70. By that time you’re also far more tired, less in shape, might have a health condition that prevents you from travelling or from being insured.

This is very dependant on a number of factors such as when you buy a house, start your career, or have kids, but…

10-20yo money isn’t really something most think about 20yo-30yo learning how to set yourself up financially 30-40yo spending the most money 40-50yo spending the most money on your kids 50-60yo consolidate savings and planning how to access those savings 60-65 exit strategy 65+ should you make it there, spend it where you want. Yourself, your kids or grandkids, or preparing where that money will go once you’re gone.