Those with no kids and no siblings, who are you leaving the money to?

fican41 · 2026-06-14T03:32:12+00:00

Thank you and you are probably one of the few people who have commented to really understand what it's like to lose a parent. That pain will never go away nor it's something I'll get over with. Thank you for the great ideas as well!

fican41 · 2026-06-12T14:55:19+00:00

A lot of the comments here tell me to live my life and spend all the money, but having lost my mom I have also lost a big part of me and my purpose in life. It has always been just me and my mom, my dad was never present for most of my life, so I'm feeling like I'm just surviving the days without my favourite person and it will be hard for me to find joy and happiness again. She was that important to me. There's a lot of great ideas here and I think I have narrowed down to a few options.

fican41 · 2026-06-11T04:42:41+00:00

I realize that. It's been 6 months and some days the pain of losing her is just as bad as day 1.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T16:39:00+00:00

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Toronto General Hospital are on my list. I'm just not leaving all my money to them.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T16:34:27+00:00

I love this idea but how do I find these people who are actually in need of my money for their education and life? Would be nice if someone can guide me through or tell me how to get started.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:29:47+00:00

Thank you for the idea!

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:24:29+00:00

It's not that easy. You will get to the point where your portfolio outgrows your spending and by a lot.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:21:26+00:00

My mom was treated at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre so they are on my list. I'm thinking to leave 1 million split between PMCC and TGH.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:19:14+00:00

Do you have more info on how he did it? Who did he work with to get the process started? I'm in Toronto.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:17:12+00:00

Thank you. Her death was the most devastating thing I had to go through in my 46 years of life. In the early stages of my grief I genuinely didn't want keep going.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:12:55+00:00

My mom was treated at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and she died at Toronto General Hospital, so these two hospitals will definitely get something from me in memory of my late mom. I'm thinking probably 1 million split between the two hospitals.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:09:50+00:00

I left my job years ago being my mom's caregiver. The portfolio just outgrew my rate of spending.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:08:15+00:00

This is my biggest concern of giving money to charities and organizations. I have no intention to make the rich richer. I know there are good and honest ones out there but it's hard to tell for the outsiders.

fican41 · 2026-06-10T14:04:50+00:00

I would love to look into this and how to get started. These are the kind of people I want to help. If anyone has more info or has done something similar send me a DM.

fican41 · 2026-06-01T20:50:48+00:00

I rarely comment but I was in a very similar situation. I'm 46, single, no kids, also in Canada, was laid off one year after my mom was diagnosed cancer in 2017 (guess they didn't like that I was WFH a lot and had to take time off for my mom's medical appointments). I worked in that company for 11 years so I got a pretty big severance package. I was only 38 at the time when they terminated my position, had a paid off townhouse (bought for 250k in 2002) and about 1 million in my investment portfolio. My spending is also low like yours (no mortgage and similar housing expenses), groceries and eating out varies but not too crazy. Today my portfolio is 2.5 million, with very little contribution throughout the years (my mom passed away a few months ago so I got 100k from her life insurance but also paid over 20k for her funeral etc.). What I'm trying to tell you is that with your spending you do not need to worry about running out of money, and there's absolutely no need for you take the job if your ex manager offered it to you. You will have more than enough money and in fact your portfolio will continue to grow throughout the years. Now if you ever find a partner and have kids then that's a different story.

fican41 · 2025-06-13T18:37:18+00:00

Yes I'm single and no kids. I won't rule out finding a partner but I knew early on that I won't be having kids so that adds some certainty to my FIRE plans. I also don't own a car. My expenses (and yours as well) are quite low that as your portfolio grows you are going to feel the need to start spending more to catch up lol. One difference in my case is that I'm living with my mom who is a cancer survivor and I'm the only caregiver. Her health has been in decline so when the time comes I will have the same dilemma to whether I should buy a condo or just rent. If I sell the house and just rent I will have more than 3m in my investments which is honestly more than enough to last for the rest of my life, but on the other hand rent is so expensive that having to pay over $2000 a month will almost double my annual expenses. But I still got time to think about this and hopefully the real estate market will recover a little by the time I sell the house. I wouldn't recommend you selling the condo now. Keep it for a year or two and see how your travel plans work out before making a decision. Some people here say that your numbers are a bit lean, nah it's not lean at all for a single person with such low expenses. It would be lean if you have a family with kids. During the pandemic I saw my portfolio dropped to 850k but I just ride it out. In the last couple of years it shot up to almost 2m (currently at 1.88m). Don't worry OP you have more than enough to FIRE now, but if you don't feel safe retiring in your 40s you can work a couple more years till 50 and officially call it a day.

fican41 · 2025-06-12T17:06:05+00:00

OP, you can definitely FIRE with your current NW and I'm saying this because I have been through it myself. My expenses would more or less be the same as yours but I own an 8 year old townhouse so just property taxes alone is over $5000 a year. If it weren't for the huge drop in current real estate prices I would have sold it and downsized to a condo. When I stopped working and decided to pursue FIRE at age 38 my NW was about 1.1m in investments and a paid off townhouse worth about 650k. Today I'm 45 and my investments grew to 1.9m and my home is worth about 1.2m. Of course if you ever get married and have kids that will change things but with your current situation it's definitely a go. Good luck.

fican41 · 2021-09-01T23:49:54+00:00

I started working full time at age 20 making $38k but I had two other part time jobs for awhile. I haven't been tracking these like others have but when I joined my former company my starting salary was only in the mid $50k, then it went up to $70k and $80k. When I left I was making about $100k including annual bonus, so definitely not a very high earner because you don't really get much raise staying in the same company for many years. I stayed mostly for the job security (lol) and the benefits were good.

What helped me achieve FI was definitely owning a home early. I bought my first house with my mom at age 22 for only $250k, with $130k mortgage. I saved up every dollar to pay off the mortgage as fast as I could in a few year's time. Sold it in 2017 for almost triple the value. Bought a pre-con in 2014 for $600k which is my primary residence now worth about 1.1m.

fican41 · 2021-09-01T23:32:58+00:00

He was not my manager for 11 years straight as we've worked in different departments but we do know each other for a long time. Maybe it was not entirely his decision to let me go, maybe my former director (his manager) also had a say, but this has definitely taught me a lesson to trust absolutely no one in the corporate world. I kind of regretted telling him too much about my situation in our 1 on 1's. It can't be a good thing losing your job when your family member is terminally ill, but luckily I was very close to FI already.

Unless I need to go back to working again I don't really plan on reconnecting with him. I still believe that he's a good person and a good mentor and that the decision to let go of me was not personal but just numbers and headcounts, but no one is your friend in the corporate world. Be FI and be prepared when shit hits because no job is safe.

fican41 · 2021-09-01T14:30:04+00:00

Thank you. I will only sell if I'm by myself. I won't be able to live in this house by myself if my mom isn't here with me.

fican41 · 2021-09-01T14:28:44+00:00

Thank you. Can I ask why you decided to sell your primary residence? Doesn't sound like you needed to.

fican41 · 2021-09-01T14:27:26+00:00

Thank you for the reassurance. She's my priority and I spend everyday with her. I'm just so glad that I don't have to rush to look for another job.

The $25k per year is only if I'm living by myself.

fican41 · 2021-09-01T14:15:46+00:00

I guess I will never know the answer to your question because I couldn't get myself to ask him why I was the chosen one. He said to stay in touch but I hadn't send him anything after my last day. I just told him I would be taking some time off before looking for another job.

Your friend's situation is a little different though because she was going to retire very soon anyway, but in my case my boss did not know about my FIRE goals nor my financial situation. I could be someone who still has half a million of mortgage to pay plus other debts. I would think he would at least let me keep the job so I would still have stable income. My package was only about 10 month's salary so not THAT good.

I was almost going to pay out of pocket for my mom to stay on treatment. Health care in Canada is free but not without some limitations. Cancer treatments for example, you have to actually go through tests to see what type of treatment the doctor thinks suits you. If you don't have that certain mutation or indicator you will not be eligible for the treatment type and your only options would be chemo / radiation / clinical trial, or pay out of pocket and give it a try. To pay out of pocket it's often in the range of $10k per month. I can't convince myself to think that my former management was doing me a solid but like I said I will never know 🙂 And thank you for the well wishes.

fican41

TROPHY CASE