Hey,
First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so I apologize for any less-than-ideal language usage.
A short introduction: we are a couple, (37 and 34 years old, no kids and won`t have them) born and living in a developing country. We've had good education, opportunities and drive to secure stable and relatively high-paying jobs. We both also share a minimalist lifestyle, avoiding unnecessary expenses and trying to make sensible investments.
We were able to travel the world and see that things can be a lot better (and worse, in all fairness) than here. We also envision a short/medium term retirement.
Despite the very unfavourable exchange rate, We've been able to amass the equivalent to 1 million CAD in capital, not counting a paid-off apartment, with an appraised value of 315 K CAD.
We are thinking about immigrating to Canada as skilled professionals. After studying the immigration rules, we have reasons to believe we should be able to meet the requirements (professions, experience, etc).
If successful, our plan is to transfer the capital to Canada while initially keeping the apartment, which should be rented for around 1000 CAD / month.
Our country has an agreement with Canada aiming to avoid double taxation, but since I am still not certain about the details, I think a conservative estimate would be 500 CAD / month after "friction losses", regarding the net rent income. If everything goes well after some time, we would eventually sell the apartment.
So, I would like to know what are your opinions on how far this 1M CAD would get us regarding net income (after taxes), we are thinking about investing in the Vanguard U.S. Total Market Index ETF. We also accept other investment suggestions.
Our initial plan was living around Victoria, BC. We know it's an expensive city, but we like the area and I think we are frugal enough to give it a try.
Learning how much net passive income we would earn will enable us to estimate for how long we would still need to work (in Canada, here or both) to make our early retirement in Canada possible. The tax rates are the main source of doubt regarding these investments.
Thanks a lot for your attention and sorry for the long message! It was very nice to find this site and learn so much. Thanks for everyone involved!