This is a monthly look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

• 5 RRIF accounts
  • 3 for me (Questrade, Wealthsimple)
  • 2 for my spouse (Questrade)
• 2 TFSA accounts (Questrade)
• 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint, all at Questrade)

The view post-payday

I pay myself monthly in retirement, and the charts that follow reflect the view post-payday, which happens around the end of the month¹. On August 27th before the markets opened, this is what it looked like:

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars, (and if not an all-star, they are probably on the Magnificent Seven ETFs list).

More progress has been made on my plan to kick USD out of my retirement portfolio; it’s proceeding faster than I originally planned thanks to Questrade’s offer of free Norbert’s Gambit to all Questrade users for a few months. I’m expecting that it’ll all be gone by the end of September.

AOA is largely being replaced by XGRO, but because AOA is so heavily US Equity weighted, I always have to pick up VFV to make up the difference — I’m kicking USD out of my portfolio, not the US market. ZST is my pick for the RRIF to replace ICSH. It’s a similar idea to ICSH, but since Canadian interest rates are lower, I expect I’m sacrificing a bit of return there. I hope this will work itself out in the long run.

And I’m trying to respect my asset allocations at the same time, which remain unchanged:

• 5% cash/ultra short term bonds
• 15% bonds
• 23% Canadian Equity
• 37% US Equity
• 20% International Equity

The asset-class split looks like this; you can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here. Every time I get rid of some AOA or ICSH, it gives me an opportunity to make sure I respect the splits. Here’s what it looks like:

Plan for the next month

With the asset class splits under control, next month will see the last vestiges of USD gone from the portfolio. And I expect I’ll do a bit of shifting to bump up the Interational Equity portion of the portfolio, which is a little light. And I plan to celebrate a bit, because the removal of USD from my retirement portfolio should reduce complexity significantly.

Overall

Part of using VPW² as a strategy is the need to calculate your retirement net worth on a monthly basis. Net worth clawed its way back to June’s levels, but no complaints — it’s still 20% above where it was when I started on my retirement journey 20 months ago.

My VPW-calculated salary has now increased for 8 straight months, it’s nice getting a monthly raise!

1. The exact day is variable because of the timing of the end of the month. Payday has to fall on a trading day. ↩︎
2. Variable Percentage Withdrawal, a structured way to decumulate your portfolio. ↩︎

This is a monthly look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

• 5 RRIF accounts
  • 3 for me (Questrade, Wealthsimple)
  • 2 for my spouse (Questrade)
• 2 TFSA accounts (Questrade)
• 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint, all at Questrade)

The view post-payday

I pay myself monthly in retirement, so that’s a good trigger to update this post. On July 30¹ before the markets opened, this is what it looked like:

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars, (and if not an all-star, they are probably on the Magnificent Seven ETFs list).

There have been pretty big changes since last month as my strategy to Kick USD out of my retirement portfolio continues in earnest. This has focused on getting rid of AOA and ICSH in my spouse’s RRIF account this month as she takes advantage of the free Norbert’s Gambit included in her trial subscription to Questrade Plus².

AOA is largely being replaced by XGRO, but because AOA is so heavily US Equity weighted, I always have to pick up VFV to make up the difference — I’m kicking USD out of my portfolio, not the US market. ZST is my pick for the RRIF to replace ICSH. It’s a similar idea to ICSH, but since Canadian interest rates are lower, I expect I’m sacrificing a bit of return there. I hope this will work itself out in the long run.

And I’m trying to respect my asset allocations at the same time.

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this; you can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

The moves I made to start reducing USD in my portfolio have quickly allowed me to get to my recently revised target allocations I have for each asset class:

• 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ZMMK and ZST
• 15% bonds/income (most are buried in XGRO and AOA, rest are in XCB)
• 23% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX — HXT and XIC); this is up from the old 20% target
• 37% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500); this is up 1% from the old target
• 20% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets); this is down 4% from the old target

With the asset class splits under control, next month will see more moves to get rid of USD in my portfolio. There’s only USD in my RRIF accounts now, all invested in AOA and ICSH. These positions will be reduced by 1/5th in August as my target is to be fully USD free by the end of the year.

My timing for conversion looks to have been pretty decent; the USD/CAD rate continues to run north of 1.40, which for me is a good thing.

Overall

Part of using VPW³ as a strategy is the need to calculate your retirement net worth on a monthly basis. My three month winning streak has come to an end as I took a slight step back month over month. However, I’m worth 19% more than when I started my retirement journey in January 2025.

Irrespective of my net worth stumble, my VPW-calculated salary continues to increase, albeit at a more modest rate, as expected. The VPW cash cushion (now 100% invested in ZMMK) acts like a shock absorber to my salary, smoothing out the more volatile month to month variations in my net worth.

1. I did all the trading I needed to do on the 24th; it takes a few days for everything to settle and for money to get sent to the bank account. My net worth is quite a bit lower after the mini-crash on the 29th! ↩︎
2. Questrade Plus is 11.95 monthly, but offers a 30 day free trial. I’m a cheapskate, remember? Norbert’s Gambit is otherwise 9.95 a go plus HST. ↩︎
3. Variable Percentage Withdrawal, my chosen decumulation strategy. ↩︎

This is a monthly look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

• 5 RRIF accounts
  • 3 for me (Questrade, Wealthsimple)
  • 2 for my spouse (Questrade)
• 2 TFSA accounts (Questrade)
• 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint, all at Questrade)

The view post-payday

I pay myself monthly in retirement, so that’s a good trigger to update this post. On June 30 before the markets opened, this is what it looked like:

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars, (and if not an all-star, they are probably on the Magnificent Seven ETFs list). But the observant reader will start to see some changes from last month as my strategy to Kick USD out of my retirement portfolio starts to take effect. The contributions of AOA and ICSH (both USD funds) to my retirement portfolio are notably down and SCHF has disappeared entirely — SCHF was the last bit of USD in my non-registered accounts. ZMMK, XGRO and VCN, on the other hand, have gained in importance to make up for the USD-denominated departures. And ZST (ultra short-term bond fund) and VFV (S&P 500 US Index fund) have begun to make an appearance; you’ll see more of these funds in future months. My ETF all-stars post has been updated accordingly.

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this; you can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

The moves I made to start reducing USD in my portfolio have quickly allowed me to get to my recently revised target allocations I have for each asset class:

• 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ICSH and ZMMK
• 15% bonds/income (most are buried in XGRO and AOA, rest are in XCB)
• 23% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX — HXT and XIC); this is up from the old 20% target
• 37% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500); this is up 1% from the old target
• 20% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets); this is down 4% from the old target

With the asset class splits under control, next month will see more moves to get rid of USD in my portfolio. There’s only USD in my RRIF accounts now, all invested in AOA and ICSH. These positions will be reduced by 1/6th in July as my target is to be fully USD free by the end of the year.

My timing for starting the conversion looks to have been pretty decent; the USD/CAD rate moved significantly in my favour this month. I don’t expect that to last!

Overall

Part of using VPW¹ as a strategy is the need to calculate your retirement net worth on a monthly basis. And once again, a new all-time high:

My VPW-calculated salary continues to increase, albeit at a more modest rate, as expected.

1. Variable Percentage Withdrawal, my chosen decumulation strategy. ↩︎

This is a monthly look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

• 5 RRIF accounts
  • 3 for me (Questrade, Wealthsimple)
  • 2 for my spouse (Questrade)
• 2 TFSA accounts (Questrade)
• 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint, all at Questrade)

The view post-payday

I pay myself monthly in retirement, so that’s a good trigger to update this post. On May 29 before the markets opened, this is what it looked like:

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars, (and if not an all-star, they are probably on the Magnificent Seven ETFs list). The charts look almost identical to the previous month; AOA is up a bit mostly because the USD has been on a bit of run this month, increasing almost 1% month over month :

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this; you can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

Here I have some work to do, since I’ve recently revisited the target allocations I have for each asset class:

• 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ICSH and ZMMK
• 15% bonds/income (most are buried in XGRO and AOA, rest are in XCB)
• 23% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX — HXT and XIC); this is up from the old 20% target
• 37% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500); this is up 1% from the old target
• 20% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets); this is down 4% from the old target

At the same time, I’m looking to get rid of my USD allocations since they are adding needless complexity and I no longer have a way to easily spend USD anyway. This is going to be a multi-month process¹, but I want to be USD free by the end of the year.

So, next month, I will begin. I’ll first tackle ICSH in my non-registered account, which I’ll do once it pays out its monthly dividend in the first week of June. And I’ll begin replacing AOA with XGRO².

Overall

Part of using VPW³ as a strategy is the need to calculate your retirement net worth on a monthly basis. And once again, a new all-time high:

My VPW-calculated salary continues to increase, albeit at a more modest rate, as expected.

1. Multi-month because I want to make sure I don’t get burned by a sudden change in USD/CAD FX rates. By converting some every month, I can smooth out any weird spikes. ↩︎
2. The biggest difference between AOA and XGRO (besides the native currency) is the amount of Canadian Equity content. AOA has a very small amount (about 3%) whereas XGRO has 20% ↩︎
3. Variable Percentage Withdrawal, my chosen decumulation strategy. ↩︎