How much do you need to be \u201cSet for Life\u201d?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n But do you really need this much??<\/p>\n For a \u201ccomfortable retirement\u201d maybe that\u2019s not too far off depending on:<\/p>\n how old you are, but more importantly,\u00a0what you intend to spend\u2026<\/p>\n Determining Your Financial Independence Number<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Canadians now need $1.7 million to retire<\/p>\n References to this latest BMO survey can be found here via Global News<\/a> and other recent media posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mind you, this $1.7M figure is actually the same (not adjusted for inflation) if you go back to 2023.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Surveys and people answering them can be fickle \u2013 go figure!<\/p>\n Of note from the most recent Global article related to things I\u2019ve always been aligned to when it comes to saving and investing:<\/p>\n \u201cThis figure only represents an average of what respondents said and the actual goal may be different depending on the kind of life you want to live in retirement\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n and<\/p>\n \u201cWith the growth compounding over the long term, you may not need to save the entire goal amount \u2014 the growth in your investments will do part of the job for you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The latter reminds me of a recent dinner conversation I had with a friend about how to get started with investing. Our friend knew of My Own Advisor and wondered how to get started. I asked our friend about \u201cstarting small\u201d and any form of automatic savings plan to date, to which she largely replied she hadn\u2019t thought about that due to other priorities, until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ability to save and invest for any retirement, in my opinion, starts with understanding where your money goes today and taking clear inventory of where you money goes, to whom, and when, and how much \u2013 which may require a budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n Your ability to spend less than you earn, while simple conceptually, can be very difficult in real-life if you\u2019re busy working hard, raising kids and trying to enjoy life along the way. Life gets in the way of tracking and planning. But, that tracking concept is the foundation upon which all retirement income planning exists.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next logical step once you figure out you can save for retirement is to automate your savings, even if you didn\u2019t start early in life, so that you can set aside savings for investing purposes on a routine schedule. Your ability to pay yourself first just like other routine bills or expenses around the household, while not a novel concept, creates a powerful savings habit that can build momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, as that consistent weekly or monthly savings rate is established, you can progress on your retirement income planning path towards actual investing. This means you select investments that deliver returns matched to your investing timeline, risk-level, and ability to stick to any investment protocol you choose. Generally speaking, investing in diversified equities while keeping your costs down paid to people or products as part of equity\/stock investing is likely going to make you very successful over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n The principles of saving and investing can be distilled into the following graphic with thanks and attribution to Canadian Financial Wiki \u2013 an outstanding, free resource.<\/a><\/p>\n Here is how we invested to reach financial freedom around age 50.<\/p>\n You can take the same boring but very successful steps too\u00a0if you want. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n How We Invest<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n For further reading and FREE case studies on retirement income planning,<\/a> I\u2019ve produced dozens of articles here:<\/p>\n Retirement<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n And last but not least, I run low-cost retirement income projections here for all DIY investors at any age including providing discounts to all My Own Advisor readers.<\/a><\/p>\n Low-Cost Projections<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Beyond Canadians now need $1.7 million to retire<\/p>\n Ben Carlson from A Wealth of Common Sense wrote about Rich Old People.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Weekend-Reading-Are-we-Coast-FIRE-yet.jpg\")
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