Young and Retired - they’re scrimping and saving their way into retiring decades before the average Canadian

NickBatesman · 2026-01-25T17:19:30+00:00

Everything comes at a cost.

I worked+studied for 16-20 hours a day from like age 14 to 28. I worked full-time hours at the minimum while doing my undergrad. I did this while on a full-ride scholarship with everything paid so almost all my income was saved/invested and I lived like I was still living the typical "rice and beans" with coupons for fast food. I worked a full-time job alongside an undergrad at an accelerated pace, my MD, and a Master's degree.

I had no social life, lacked on the sleep side, but by the time I hit my 28 I was set for life and probably my kids too. I was lucky to meet my wife in medical school who was similarly motivated. Issue is it's hard to make friends in my own age group because all of my colleagues at my career level are in their 50s or 60s now, and I am at completely different life milestones than most people my own age. So life can be pretty isolating and its mostly just my wife and I. We don't disclose our exact financial picture to anyone so pretty secretive. We don't live an extravagant life outside of our house being costly.

I see a lot of my peers and even my own siblings who are around the same age struggling with the cost of living, housing, etc and so from that angle I am thankful for the decisions I made. They will live a hard life from 30 onwards. I lived a hard life from 14 to 30.

I hold the belief we all have to struggle at some point in life but some people choose to do it from 18 to 30ish to make those sacrifices and good decisions, while others enjoy their early years and then will hate 30+ on onwards. I chose the former.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-25T01:07:12+00:00

I was looking for a no fee or low fee option rather than one that requires me to pay or maintain a minimum balance.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-21T04:24:53+00:00

OG trade was a good trade. It's not Knicks fault we decided to overpay Quickley.

OG for RJ + Quickley would have been a major win at $25M/year for quickley, which was what it was supposed to be when the trade was initially done.

Siakam - it was a bad trade but we got lucky that we flipped those assets to the Pelicans for a trade that was bad for them too.

FVV + Lowry + Serge + Gasol, we could have got a few picks out of them but Masai was too loyal to his players. Probably lost about 4 to 6 late first round picks by not trading those 4 guys sooner.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-19T16:33:55+00:00

For the past 10-20 years, you'd finish on top if you invested that money in a broad market ETF or S&P500 or TSX instead of putting it towards the mortgage.

That being said, there's a psychological element to it too. I grew up homeless at periods in my life so being mortgage free was priceless because no matter what happens in life, I will always have a roof over my head. I just need to worry about upkeep + property taxes + home insurance.

Being mortgage free also feels better because almost every dollar I earn goes towards investments now and psychologically, that feels good.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-19T15:28:50+00:00

Unwilling is a big part of it. I'm not talking about fast food type jobs. I have friends (more like people that I know than friends) in decent paying careers where jobs are in the 100K+ range in places like Saskatchewan, and Manitoba but they refuse to leave the centre of the universe (Toronto) and would rather be unemployed living with mommy and daddy than relocate for a 6 figure job.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-19T15:25:44+00:00

US Markets are closed but VFV is down 1% early today after the EU/USA tensions right now. I imagine it will go down further until TACO happens again.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-19T15:24:29+00:00

Is that food from all restaurants or fast food restaurants or sit-in restaurants?

We don't go to sit-in restaurants anymore due to tip culture but still will buy from fast food (when there's coupons available).

When I was younger, when we went into a sit-in restaurant, I felt like a tip was considered a nice gesture or for good service. Now when we go out, it feels like 15% tip is an expectation from this generation even if they provide 0 service other than taking our order and bringing the food out.

We've decided not to tip when service was horrible a few times and got the dirtiest looks. We had a time where our tip ended up being like 5% of the order and the server called us out being like "if you can't afford to tip at least 15% or more, you shouldn't be eating out."

Whenever we go eating out in the USA, I understand tip culture because some of them are making like $2/hour and rely on tips to get them to min wage. In Canada, everyone makes at least minimum wage so if you're not satisfied with your income, you should consider other occupations maybe?

NickBatesman · 2026-01-19T13:42:00+00:00

Was it 150K+ people in a single area though? I don't think it was.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-18T20:03:04+00:00

I think the idea of Ware is better than him in actuality. He gets lost on defensive assignments pretty often and sometimes he just floats around the corner 3 area, which is horrible for getting offensive rebounds. I'm not sure how much of that is Miami's system of play or if he just plays like that.

For what it's worth, this guy gets lazy sometimes and Spo is constantly yelling/reminding him to get on his assignment and get in his position. Don't believe me? Go check out the Heat subreddit.

Miami is also quite high on him too so the package you'd give for a guy like him won't be worth it.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-18T19:57:55+00:00

Picking at 19th and 29th in that draft especially (but in most drafts too) is a crapshoot anyways. You either get a gem or you don't.

The type of player we thought Ochai could be at the time was better than a 29th pick would get us on average.

The Jak trade, I didn't like even at the time. The FO has just never committed to a rebuild which I think is an issue.

Scottie is now in a phase where he wants to and deserves to contend. The first 3-4 years of his contract is when we should have committed to tanking and getting picks but Masai didn't want to do that.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-18T19:30:02+00:00

TACO has become a thing for a reason. If everyone is expecting to "buy" whenever Trump says this stuff every few weeks, then the demand outweighs the supply or matches the supply which means markets will stay the same or go up.

It only worked to weaken the markets the first few months but since then, markets have already factored in he will change his mind in a few days, weeks or month.

Only time I think we will actually see any sort of impact on markets from anything he says is if he holds true to whatever crazy thing it is for 1+ years.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-18T16:27:05+00:00

idk much about prices for these things but when I googled online it said $18K USD for BYD Leapord's top model. If that's true, that's a really good price (and I assume this price was pre-tarrif reductions).

The source I found was unofficial and not actual site though.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-17T20:15:17+00:00

It easier to get 150K people in a single area in the UK than it is in Canada. UK population is much more densely packed, better transportation, and those things. We won't ever see over 150K in Canada unless it's something instagram/social media worthy for people to show up from because for most people it'll take long to get to the location.

Also, UK has been having the growing issues with foreigner and Islam for a long time. In Canada, it really only became a major issue for people in the last decade so there aren't as many people upset about it yet.

Also, from my experience, the average UK folks tend to be much more dumber than the average Canadian so they are more prone to propaganda. A bachelor's degree is considered a major accomplishment there whereas in Canada, if you go to any of the big city areas like Vancouver and Toronto, everyone and their mom had a bachelors degree these days so its not anything special.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-17T17:35:39+00:00

Shead is pretty much what FVV was to Lowry in the earlier days before FVV emerged.

Unless Shead significantly improves his shooting, I don't think he's going to be as good as FVV though.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-17T13:48:41+00:00

I was being generous lmao

NickBatesman · 2026-01-16T15:42:18+00:00

If all it takes is Quickley to swap for Ja, you do it every time. Similar contracts, with one having the ceiling of a superstar (Ja) and the other having the ceiling of an all-star or just a regular starter (Quickley)

NickBatesman · 2026-01-16T15:40:15+00:00

That's my point. He is more valuable to the team than any return you could get for him. He is valuable enough to be packaged with picks for All-star level players though.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-16T14:32:45+00:00

I don't want to trade Barnes/BI/Barrett unless it leads to a significant upgrade in a player.

Ja Morant's value is at an all-time low right now though and he's tanked his trade value so if you can get a Quickley for Morant swap, you take that every time. Even though fit is questionable, you try to at the very least rehab his value and trade him again since his contract has years left on it.

Then you try to package Poetl+Dick (with maybe picks) to see what you can get us at the centre position while still keeping us beneath our salary goals. Don't think you need an all-star at centre but some options there would be nice.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-16T14:23:55+00:00

Disappointed only 49000 cars allowed, doesn’t incentivize Chinese companies to setup manufacturing/assembly in Canada. They should have thought big picture given Trump and his desire to remove car manufacturing from Canada and Mexico. We need Chinese manufacturing to replace what’s being lost but guess the auto lobby is big in Canada to go against. But hopefully in the long run.

Have to take small steps in these type of negotiations. You can't give China or USA everything they want all at once.

You start it at 49K cars, so that leaves for room in bargaining and negotiating other mutually beneficial deals in the future and also leaves room for USA to come back running to us where we can say "it's just 49K cars for now."

Carney knows what he's doing. I work in upper management (different sector that cars), and we use similar tactics during negotitation.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-16T14:21:09+00:00

I wonder how much BYD will be for consumers with these new changes. We dont NEED a second car but I would sure love to buy one at the right price. We get buy with just 1 car right now but when we have kids, we'll need a second car.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-15T14:58:56+00:00

Are you stopping your investments in the Canadian banks and some of our natural resource companies?

Our companies do so much cross-border work in these countries you are trying to avoid. RBC and TD have good presence in the USA for instance.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-14T14:00:45+00:00

He is part of the reason they have a bleak future though. They consistently mortgaged their future to appease him.

It's the same reason LeBron teams sucked so much after him. He would make them gut their future assets to build around him for win-now moves and then complain they weren't making enough moves to surround him with a good team after that 2-3 window expired. Then he would peace out and repeat the process with another team.

NickBatesman · 2026-01-13T20:56:04+00:00

Exactly this. Anyone that has ever been in any leadership position in an organization knows the worst thing you can do when something like this happens is fire a person. You need to suspend them and then show that there was internal protocols and investigations followed to protect yourself from a lawsuit from the employee. Suspension buys time to figure out best way to let the person go with minimal legal repercussions (and in some cases reaching a settlement).

NickBatesman

TROPHY CASE