My best advice would be have a basic plan for saving but don’t get overly aggressive. Enjoy your 20′s because take it from me time really does fly by.

@Bret – Thanks for the kind words. I haven’t read the wealthy barber but I have read other books in that genre. The issue really isn’t knowledge (I can always use more) but rather gets concrete answers to those questions. For the most part I have rough estimates and I really need to sit down and crunch the number. Basically it seems like I’m at a table with a puzzle. I have all the pieces but I’m trying to figure out how to put it together and now that I’m 30 it feels like there is an executioner standing over me with a timer waiting to go off.

Oh well I’m working on the numbers now. We’ll see how it all works out.

You are way ahead of the game. Most people who are in their 30s and asking these kinds of questions haven’t saved anything.

My advice is the same as Alexandra’s. Start with the goals you intend to reach and invest to exceed them. Those goals will change as you have kids and get older, so keep your investments flexible and adjust them as needed.

Since you are a Canadian, you may be interested in reading a book called The Wealthy Barber. It answers most of these questions with solid advice. The only bizarre thing about the book is that the author is Canadian, but his character in the book is American. I don’t know why? Maybe he was going after a bigger audience.

Good luck.

Bret

I mean i see others my age getting married, moving out, buying a house even and you look at me and i got nothing.

I mean sure i gotta take small steps moving ahead and theres lots of things to watch out for.

@Alexandra – I totally agree on flexibility but at this point I’ve got huge gaping holes in my plan. I just need to hash it out and adjust it as unforeseen thing pop up.

@moneygardener – Ha I’m glad there is someone else out there that felt the same way

@Canadian Finance – For me at this point I have cash for the emergency fund sitting in our TFSAs. But it definitely seems to be the wrong idea and I want it in something that will grown a nice 5-7% I just haven’t had a chance to figure it out. Maybe index funds that I can shift over to a bond ladder when I retire.

The structuring for retirement is a good question… I would put something in your TFSA that is likely to appreciate in value the most. For me, I’m thinking TFSAs. Come retirement, you can pull it out tax free, where in an RRSP you’d be taxed on it. For that reason, lower returns, like bonds, make more sense for RRSPs.

Either way, if you can max your RRSPs and TFSAs, they’ll compliment each other quite nicely during retirement!

One quote that stuck with me was, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” This was from Moltke, whose main thesis was that military strategy had to be understood as a system of options since only the beginning of a military operation was plannable. (Here’s a fun link on Moltke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder)

The game for me is to keep my options and my attitude flexible, while doing what I can to fulfill on my personal goals now and in the future. And always carefully amassing and shepherding and replenishing my resources.

I don’t have a set-in-stone for any part of my personal financial life, from what I think I’m going to earn in a given year (from investment returns or any other source), to when I’m going to stop engaging with the paid work force. I set goals and then take action that is designed to have me achieve them. And I evaluate and measure a lot (a lot of things, and at a high frequency).

Congratulations on your birthday, and good luck on your financial planning journey!