Edit Nov 9/21: I wrote up something a bit more specific for another forum than my initial post:
Hi everyone,
I'm 30, I make about 85k/year with overtime, I recently refinanced my house and have 115k to invest. I work in healthcare and will get a defined-benefits pension; earliest age is at 55, and I would like to retire at 50. My partner also works in healthcare and will make about the same as I do and receive the same DB pension. We presently have no children, but plan to have 2 within 5 years. We are not married yet. We will be moving to a new city this summer and getting a much more expensive house (bought mine for 200k 3 years ago; next house will likely cost 650k+). We have family that will be financing this, and we will not need a down payment or pay interest on it. We will be paying them something, possibly $2000/month to re-pay it. I may go to 3-4 days a week for periods, and retire later if need be. My car is paid off. My present investments and questions:
TFSA: $44,894 contributed; mostly in TD-e series indexes, a few grand in AMC. I would like to sell off my E-series investments and buy one all-in-one index with a lower MER. What would you recommend for this? I will be keeping the AMC until it takes off and re-investing when I sell it. My plan is to contact the CRA and confirm exactly how much room I have and max my TFSA out.
RRSP: Is contributing to an RRSP a good option after the TFSA, when considering I will receive a DB pension? Because the RRSP money is taxed when you withdraw it, could I buy a dividend-paying index to avoid the taxes of selling; similar to a non-registered account? What are some good indexes to look at? The CRA website says I have about 40k to contribute; and I have never contributed to an RRSP before. Am I able to max this out with this refinanced money, and would my income be taxed at the lower bracket (85k-40k=45k?).
Non-registered Accounts: I understand these investments are taxed at 50% capital gains when sold, and holding a dividend-paying index is a good option to avoiding taxes. I've also read something about whether your holdings are US or Canadian; but I am unclear on the impact.
Crypto: Although I need to do some more research on this, I am interested in putting 5k into crypto. I know there is a lot of reading out there, and I still need to research a bit.
Monthly/yearly deposits: Presently I put $300/month as automatic deposits into the 3 E-series indexes I own in my TFSA - I am assuming I will max out my TFSA, RRSP, and then invest in my non-registered account. I understand some people save their money for a few months and deposit larger sums fewer times/year than the $300/month I do. Is there a method you like around depositing investments?
Happy to answer questions and I will be monitoring this thread.