Weekend Reading – Why not celebrate a $3M Portfolio?
Hey Folks,
Welcome to a new Weekend Reading edition, about celebrating a $3M portfolio (over the same value of a house). More on that in a bit!
A reminder about some recent reads:
80-something Henry Mah continues to enjoy his cashflow for life.
And more recently…I shared our own income journey and update.
Weekend Reading – Why not celebrate a $3M Portfolio?
One of my favourite sketches:
Source: The Behavior Gap.
Inspiration for this headline arrived from this social media post this week – my goodness – I know my answer!!!
Kudos to Nick Maggiulli from Of Dollars and Data for this one that went viral.
And…
As someone who is not really into status, although I do like nice things for sure, I don’t need the biggest McMansion and I don’t aspire to own the nicest car in my neighbourhood that stays parked in my garage 90% of the time…
What’s your take on this? Surely you would rather have a tidy $3 million portfolio vs. a $3M dollar home?
In other reading material this week:
I found this article interesting, what Berkshire might sell next now that Buffett is no longer in charge.
I actually sold out of all my U.S. stocks including Berkshire over the past few years. All ETFs now for my ex-Canada investing so I continue to own Berkshire albeit indirectly via indexing.
Here are some things that Ben Carlson has been wrong about including:
“I thought the meme stock crash of 2021 would slow the speculation. At the time it felt like GameStop, AMC and the other meme stocks were a flash in the pan thing.”
“…Nope”.
Always interesting to read how much other retirees spend. U.S. blogger Accidential FIRE spent “…$43,051…only $403 higher than my total for 2024 for an increase of 0.9%. So why the hell aren’t I spending more!?!?!”
Very simple but good advice in The Globe and Mail (subscription) about this financial case study – the need to downsize to free up home equity for retirement – since this couple has “…a house worth $1.5-million, with a mortgage of about $400,000″ at age 59 and 65 respectively today. They will be forced to work into their early 70s if they don’t make any changes.
They want to spend $80,000 per year in retirement.
They won’t be able to make this spending plan happen unless they downsize and clear the debt.
Assets: Cash $7,000; her TFSA $139,530; his RRSP $138,755; residence $1,500,000. Total: $1,785,285.
Estimated commuted value of Cyril’s pension plan (provided by applicant): $675,000. That’s what someone with no pension would have to save to generate the same income.
Liabilities: Mortgage $394,780 at 4.9 per cent; CGHL $25,915 at zero interest; car loan $5,690 at zero interest. Total: $426,385.
Do you have the same thoughts as I do along with the financial expert = clear the debt??
Thoughts?
Have a great weekend!
Mark
My name is Mark Seed – the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I’ve reached financial independence. Now, I share my lessons learned for free on this site. Join the newsletter read by thousands every week.