Wealth for Your Life

It was a hot summer’s day in 2016 when Firecracker and Wanderer splashed across my monitor. A CBC story about two 30-something early-retirees from Toronto with a million-dollar portfolio of index funds. Instead of funneling their life savings into Canada’s inflated housing bubble, they had launched it into the stock market, read every investing book they could get their hands on, and resigned from their soul-crushing engineering jobs when their portfolio crossed the one-million-dollar mark. What followed was a year of ‘geo-arbitrage’, slow travel to affordable places while their portfolio grew and collected dividends. With two backpacks and a laptop they wandered sunny beaches in Thailand, drank $1 beers in Cambodia, rode ATVs in Santorini in the off season. All for 40k/year, or 4% of their portfolio. Meanwhile their portfolio grew, outpacing their annual expenses and inflation.

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The biggest inspiration that helped me grow my portfolio and achieve financial independence was the fact that other people out there have done it and are talking about it on the internet! That’s why I started this blog – so I could spread the word and let you know that, dear reader, financial independence is possible for anyone.

So to help spread the word, I’m going to start sharing the people, or, ‘FIRE-starters’ who inspired me the most. They come from different generations and backgrounds, but they all have the following things in common:

• They each had a reason to pursue FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) that was unique to them
• They kept a budget and lived frugally
• They invested in the stock market through low-cost, broad-based index funds and stayed the course through major market drops
• Many of them lived in cost-effective parts of the world while their portfolios grew, a concept known as geo-arbitrage
• They chose not to follow modern social pressures to accumulate stuff. They used money to buy their freedom instead

So make yourself a nice cup of pumpkin-spiced something, pull up a comfy chair and let’s find some inspiration from the FIRE-starters out there who are living their best lives and want to show us how!

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Worried that it’s a scary time to invest in the stock market? Having trouble saving your hard-earned money? Still not sure what the heck an ‘index fund’ is? Then this course is for you!

Back by popular demand, Katie and Alan Donegan are offering their award-winning, FREE Rebel Finance school starting Monday June 1^st. Over the course of 10 weeks, you can join Katie and Alan and a few thousand new online friends to learn how to get control of your finances. Each week they will cover a new topic in the fundamentals of financial independence, such as:

• Week 1: Where does the money go?
• Week 2: Net-worth
• Week 3: Money Mindset
• Week 4: Compounding & Debt Attack Strategy
• Week 5: Communicating about Money
• Week 6-8: Investing: What is the stock market, what is an index fund? How to get started?
• Week 9: How much do I need to retire?
• Week 10: How to never run out of money

All you have to do is Register HERE, for free.

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The US and Israel are only 10 days into their war with Iran and not only has the S&P 500 face-planted into negative territory, but oil just topped $100/barrel, levels not seen since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Those of us who lived through those dark days of 2022 will remember that a sharp rise in the price of oil was one of the biggest drivers of high inflation that year, with the US and Canada hitting 9 and 8 percent that summer. Anytime there is a loss of life from war it is a tragedy and I personally hope both wars end soon. While I can’t control geopolitical events, I can control how I invest, so let’s look at how the Iran war is currently affecting oil prices and our overall portfolios.

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This is not a drill! A number of Canadian financial institutions are offering enticing bonus payments to regular investors like you and me – and all we have to do is transfer our investment accounts from our current brokerage to the next.

For example, as part of Wealthsimple’s (Un)Real Deal running until March 31^st 2026, if you transfer over one or more investment accounts, Wealthsimple will match a percentage of the total account value, depending on which bonus option you choose.

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When I logged into my brokerage account today, I was pleasantly surprised to see my Canadian index fund popping 1% on strong bank earnings. The banks make up one third of the Canadian index, so when they do well, Canadian index fund holders tend to do well. But the bigger news here is that the banks are raising their dividends, yet again.

TD is raising its quarterly dividend from $1.05 to $1.08 per share

BMO is raising its quarterly dividend from $1.63 to $1.67 per share

CIBC is raising its quarterly dividend from $0.97 to $1.07 per share

What exactly is a dividend and how can it help us build wealth? Basically, when a company makes a profit, it can either invest that money back into the business, or it can return the money to shareholders in the form of a dividend. Dividends are a way for companies to both reward their shareholders and entice them to buy even more shares.

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Picture this. You’re on a Greek island, enjoying a mouthwatering gyro. You swipe your credit card to pay for your delicious snack but unbeknownst to you, the bank charges you an additional 2.5% in foreign exchange (FX) fees. That’s $25 CAD in FX fees for every $1,000 you spend! By the time your trip of a lifetime is over, after paying for hotels, meals, museum and ferry tickets, you’ve handed over a stack of cash to the bank – cash that could have gone towards an extra glass of Assyrtiko while you take in breathtaking views of the caldera at sunset.

Luckily, there are now 5 Visas, 2 American Express, and 2 Prepaid Mastercards that charge Canadians zero FX fees while traveling abroad. Let’s review the contenders and choose the best travel card for our 2026 travel adventures!

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It’s been a good year so far for index investors as US, global and Canada indices hit all-time highs. At the time of this writing the S&P 500 is up over 13% from the start of the year. The FTSE 100 is up 11% and Canada’s TSX is up 19%. Despite tariff threats and geopolitical tensions, the stock market has continued marching upward, buoyed by weaker than expected US inflation numbers, a confident consumer and the hopes that AI will deliver cost savings and record profits for every type of business imaginable. The US Federal Reserve’s September interest rate cut of 25 basis points has further encouraged investor sentiment during what is historically a poor performing month. Septem’bear’ is now effectively known as ‘Septem-‘bull’.

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While the first three months of 2025 saw mild stock market declines, things really started falling off the rails on April 2^nd, otherwise known as ‘Liberation Day’. During a formal rose garden ceremony, U.S. President Trump held up a large board announcing reciprocal tariffs on approximately 60 countries and a universal tariff of 10 percent. These countries had been “ripping off” the US for years, Trump insisted, although economists would argue that his calculations were a tad embellished and tariffs over-reaching, as even an island inhabited only by penguins would be tariffed. Indeed, no one is safe in a trade war.

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