Originally Posted by DRhunter (Post 4707934)

Lots of great ideas and I agree that it is best to start as early as possible and watch it grow. I am just recently 40 and for years thinking that my net worth would never grow then all of a sudden you wake up one day and recognize that the “experts” were right about starting early!

It does seem the majority of conversation is around RRSP, TFSA and stocks etc. and while I do not disagree that these are great options, in my opinion (and personal experience) real estate out performed my liquid investments probably a hundred fold over the last decade. Hindsight is always 20/20, but if I would have taken all the money I put into RRSP and TFSA and utilized in sound rental properties, I could probably retire today. As it were, at least with the rental properties I do have, has probably reduced my expected retirement by 10 years.

Just something to consider in your investment mix. One thing to keep in mind though, just like stocks, there are winners and big losers when it comes to real estate.

DR


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Originally Posted by CanuckShooter (Post 4707958)

IF I was young and starting out I'd buy some land and build a trailer court, with the nicest lot for my unit. Then I'd rent out the pads. You get the benefit of cheap living, rental income and capital appreciation. Once the rents are coming in you could sell your unit and buy a house away from the business so you could start building tax free capital gains in a principle residence.

Things could be tight for a couple of years but once the court is paid off it's all gravy coming in from the pad rentals.

Originally Posted by Dean2 (Post 4707960)

The highest revenue for the least work and monthly maintenance is actually renting out RV storage, followed by self storage operations. There is a surprising amount of cost to operating a trailer Court; From Property taxes, to maintaining power, sewer, water, common areas, garbage removal, snow removal and road way repairs, the net margin is not that large. The other advantage to RV storage is you can have a house on it, on a subdivided piece, and still have the residential primary residence exemption.

Originally Posted by Glion (Post 4707975)

Currently I am most focused on rrsp's. I am doing this strictly for tax purposes now. With 4 young children if I can lower my personal income it definitely bumps up my CCB, which is tax free income. Example: atm if I put lets say 4k in my rrsp I get over 1k back in taxes, however I also get over 1k in CCB. However at this stage I am very torn between rrsp's and tfsa.

Originally Posted by Desert Eagle (Post 4707924)

Not to derail, but as part of the planning process I am wondering what the best balance is between TFSA, RRSP and general savings. I don’t want to get into the huge tax game down the road when I am retired, so I want to understand from those that have been there what has worked for you.

Currently I am not a huge proponent of the RRSP, we do utilize it some, but also have a split of unregistered investments.

Originally Posted by cranky (Post 4281861)

Mistake i made was i retired a bit to late. Didnt need to work but kept going. Downsized my business by quite a bit but still worked.
Finally retired and about a year later a massive heart attack put a kibosh on enjoying retirement.
If you can retire dont hold off till you get sick and cant enjoy it much, or worse. Retired friends used to tell me that but i kept working. Just saying.