5 (Things To Do) for 2025

Actually, for any year, but it sounded like it had a nice ring to it, so I wrote ‘5 for 2025’.

1. MAKE A WILL

If you do not, the government gets to decide for you. You may not be able to give money to the people you actually want to gift money to, and it may all just go to your next in line with zero thought, planning or with any regard to your wishes.

Here are some posts I made on this very topic of estate planning:

The 10 Essential Documents:

• Part One: Will, Guardianship & Power of Attorney
• Part Two: Estate Plan & Letter of Instruction
• Part Three: Prenup & Life Insurance
• Part Four: The Day to Day Documents

If you have this part covered, and want to dig a little deeper, I started a little post on what I am doing for estate planning in regards to having the most tax-efficient strategy based on what I have gleaned from reading.

2. GET LIFE INSURANCE

I do not have any posts on this – except for Part Three: Prenup & Life Insurance which practically has nothing in it, as I do not have any life insurance (I am self-insured), but that said, there are two types of insurance:

1. Whole Life Insurance: More expensive
2. Term Life Insurance: Less expensive, you pay only for the time that you need insurance

Insurance gets more expensive the longer you wait. If you get it earlier in your 20s and 30s (assuming you need it, if you have a mortgage, dependents such as children, etc), it will be cheaper than trying to get it in your 50s, let’s say.

Look into it, if you have a mortgage, debts and anything you do not want to saddle your family with, if you ever come to an untimely end, or if you simply want to be sure that they are taken care of, if they are dependent on your income.

3. START INVESTING

If you have not started investing, I have a whole set of posts, which are a little outdated, but the concepts still hold true.

If you are willing to put the work in, read the books, articles, posts, and gather information as best you can, you do NOT need to pay anyone thousands of dollars for a course, no matter what they say, how certified they are, or how confident they seem.

Everything you need to know, everything I have personally learned, is all available FOR FREE online, in books, etc.

I am not saying they are scams, I am saying you do not need to spend that kind of money if you are willing to work instead.

They cannot force you to budget & save your money to invest it.

They cannot force you to open an investing account at your bank or via a brokerage.

They cannot do anything you do not already want to do, so why bother giving them the money when you can use it to invest on your own?

Even if you take their course but then do nothing afterwards, it will be a complete waste of time & money.

 

You are either motivated to put in the work to grow your wealth or you are not. Period.

 

And not matter how much you spend, that won’t change.

 

You can start here:

• Investing Series: The Canadian Beginners Guide
• How to start investing 101 – The checklist
• 9 Personal Finance Books to get started for any beginner
• …and a whole host of posts under the category ‘MONEY — INVESTING‘

4. SET ASIDE MONEY FOR KIDS

Optional, obviously.. if you have kids and if #3 is on track. I am a firm believer of not giving your kids the money until you yourself have your own retirement funds figured out. Otherwise, when you are old, in need of an income, you are just going to be a future burden on their family life and dreams. You are only kicking the problem down the road, and if you can’t figure it out for yourself, how can you figure it out for your children?

The most important thing is to set aside money into their RESP or education savings plan (the one in Canada). Even if they do not go to school, you can roll it into your RRSP later. $2500 a year gets you a government match of 20% I believe, so $500 extra. It is basically ‘free’ money, already allocated in the budget of Canada to each citizen who has a child.

Try your best. No need to be perfect, but do not forget about #3 and take care of your retirement FIRST.

The best strategy if you can is to front-load the RESP with $16,500 and then do $2500 every year after that to get the $500 match. I read it on a Reddit post a long time ago, and wish I had googled it before just randomly jumping into the RESP without seeing which one gave me the best returns / outcome in general.

That said, the Redditers also mentioned that depending on the RATE of return, the strategy changes. So front-loading the RESP with $16,500 or the full $50,000 in the first year, all depends on… speculation of how well it will do. LOL

Anyway, any amount is better than $0. Whether you do the full $2500 or just $100, do it for your children after you have sewn up #1-#2-#3 above.

5. THINK ABOUT YOUR DREAMS

Think about where you want to be in a year, 5 years and 10 years. Even if it seems impossible, unachievable, too expensive.. what is it? Pinterest it, write it down, draw it out, whatever works for you – make it something you want to work towards.

If you are partnered up, make sure your dreams align with them. I have heard many a time, of people not realizing how much something meant to their partner; like someone wanting to buy a cottage as their second home, and it being their dream, and the other person not even knowing. You need to flesh it out, and figure out what it is you want.

So .. align. Sit down together and talk about your 1-year, 5-year and 10-year dreams.

No need to get fancy. When I first started, I had 3 bullet points:

• Never owe anyone anything.
• Be able to quit and not work any time I wanted.
• Be able to buy anything I wanted without stressing (within reason).

That was it. Then I looked at the list, and thought – how do I get there? And I started making a plan based on that which was simply:

1. Get out of student debt
2. Learn about managing my money
3. Make a lot more money than I can make now (increase my income – how?)
4. Figure out how to get rich without the lottery or parents – how? (the answer by the way, is #3 on this list)

You do not even need to be this generic. Be more specific, like ‘go to Japan for 2 months – break?’ or .. ‘work part-time – how? in what?’ … and start thinking about it.

If you do not have any goals, or dreams, then what are you working towards? What is all this money for?