In this episode, The Money Mechanic and The Economist talk with Stephanie and Gillian from Our Freedom Years. We discuss how working as an ex-pat can help you on your path to FI and how Stephanie and Gillian are finding early retirement.
Libations [1:10]
- Barnside Brewling – Ladner Clay IPA [1:22]
- Buffalo Trace Distillery – Stagg JR [1:40]
- Bandit Brewery – Wizard of Goze [2:16]
- Bandit Brewery – Hoppelganger [2:52]
Our Freedom Years [3:35]
- Singapore is the best place in the world for ex-pats via Business Insider [5:00]
- LinkedIn [7:35]
- Climbing Kilimanjaro via stingynomands.com [10:00]
- Determining your residential status via canada.ca [11:50]
- Annual Wage Supplement (13th-month bonus) [15:00]
- Canadian Armed Forces Pension Plan [18:15]
- The Art of Slow Travel via SmarterTravel.com [26:54]
- Taxation in Retirement as non-residents [28:15]
- VWRD – Vanguard Irish Domiciled ETF & tax benefits via Bogleheads.org [30:00]
- Interactive Brokers [30:20]
- Syndicated Mortgages via Financial Services Commission of Ontario [30:50]
- Brokers that Stephanie and Gillian use [32:00]:
- Foremost Financial [34:43]
- Romspen [34:30]
- Gillian’s Notes:
- We have been participating in syndicated mortgages through Foremost Financial since 2014. They are mainly focused on the Greater Toronto Area, which doesn’t provide any diversification but we like their in-depth knowledge and experience with the Toronto market. They do a lot of repeat business working with experienced borrowers and builders.
- We have participated in Romspen’s fund since 2010. They are much larger than the one below (3.3 billion in their fund vs 165 million in Foremost’s fund) and cover a larger geographic area including some U.S. mortgages.
- A couple of other points to mention… 1) A person needs to qualify as an accredited investor for this type of investing. 2) The funds are RRSP eligible but you need to open a self-directed RRSP account for this – ours are with Scotia Wealth Management
- E-mail Stephanie and Gillian [41:30]
- E-mail The Money Mechanic [41:30]
- E-mail Email the Economist [41:30]
- #14 – Are we Too Conservative? via FIGarage.ca [41:45]
- Interview #11 – Do you have a risk plan for FIRE? Via FIGarage.ca [43:10]
- How to Manage Risk in Early Retirement via Our Freedom Years/YouTube [43:10]
- Our Freedom Years YouTube Channel [43:30]
- OurFreedomYears.com [44:40]
- Our Freedom Years Instagram [44:50]
Thanks for having us on the show! We really enjoyed both the conversation and the beverages. After being away from our home country for so long, we appreciated the opportunity to share our story with fellow Canadians. Also, we must say that these are the best researched show notes that we’ve ever seen!
Thanks, I just hope they get read from time to time! It was fun chatting with you both.