Nothing too exciting, but I’m starting to get organized this year.
Max retirement vehicles (401ks/Roth IRAs/HSA).
Pay $12k extra on mortgage before the rate adjusts in '27.
Add $100/mo to 529 (no child yet, just getting it rolling).
Rest of money to taxable brokerage.
Maintain new balance sheet. Finally got all my accounts into one spreadsheet and plan to track my net worth across all accounts.
Begin broadly tracking expenses as early data for potential early retirement.
We have a handful of moderate expenses planned, but they’re all in the area of perhaps $1-2k, enough to be absorbed without throwing the above goals off track.
Hoping to add about 100k of new money into my non-retirement accounts (on top of max 401k/HSA). This would get me to a balance that covers the mortgage and two lots of 100k for college tuition.
Just about to withdraw a bunch of 401K money to pay off debts. That way, I can stash most of the current monthly payments into the 401K account until I retire.
We severed and sold the good farmland part of our Ontario farm in December 2024. That left us only with the wilderness part. We have no intention of building on or developing this property as we want to preserve it for the wildlife that lives there.
I assume the US has conservation trusts and easements that protect such land and enable tax credits and/or deductions to the property owner? In Canada, you can donate your land to a conservation trust and receive tax credits and deductions equal to the value of the land donated. Or you can keep the land and just put a conservation easement on it that restricts its future use. The resulting tax credit/deduction is equal to the resulting decrease in value of your land as a result of the restrictions.
I am going the second route as I want to keep this remaining property in the family. I have zero experience in this area so am looking forward to the learning experience from meeting with some conservation who issue easements.
On the retirement savings side, I will continue lobbying for the minimum annual required disbursements from Canadian retirement vehicles to be decreased to levels closer to the Required Minimum Distributions in US retirement plans. Canadian RMDs are about 50% higher than US ones.
Do you put a fence around it or just signs, or do you let people (wild ones, of course) roam on it, especially during various hunting seasons?
Are there liability issues with lawyers roaming the property?
Our woodland is fenced and we put up no trespassing signs. However we give permission for some friends and neighbours to access the property. We gave the Amish lad who bought our adjacent farm property permission to hunt on it (lots of deer). He also wants to log it: his dad owns a sawmill next to the property. That will be discussed in 2025 with him.
My main concern for the property is that it could be subdivided and built on. That will be forbidden in my conservation easement. The resulting loss in property value becomes a tax credit and deduction for me. Some selective logging may be permitted on it though as it needs some forest management which I have neglected to do over the decades.
I continue to have personal liability insurance on the property. It primarily covered environmental damage from the farmland piece so should be pretty cheap now.
It was disappointing to watch my assets sink $70K from their high point a month ago, but that’s the stock market for you. I’m still up $287K on my assets and +18K on my house.
I am dialing back the aggressiveness of my investments. I think that a portion of my assets (between 25%-50%) should be willing to accept 4%-8% bondlike returns right now.
I deleted out any trace of a paycheck or stock option or bonus from last year as I update my finances spreadsheet for 2025. For the first time I will receive deferred income and will be interested to see how that turns out. That account has $171K in it and should sell off 1/5 of it and pay all the usual taxes on it and hand me what’s left, which will drop my assets more than a couple thousand. But all of my other income including my actuarial side gig (which isn’t taking up a lot of my time at the moment, but will increase later) is all self-employment income.
I’m thinking of opening a solo 401k. If I defer as much self-employment income as possible until age 65 it won’t get ACA taxes. That tax is likely to be at least 6% and as much as 8.5% depending on my income this year. In the meantime I could rely on my taxable investment account more ($264K) and eventually draw from my Roth. It’s possible this would have made sense last year but I was prepared to take a punt the first year as everything was in flux and the side actuarial work didn’t begin until October.
Control travel expenses. 2023 was a crazy year as we did multiple high-end trips (ÂŁ60k cost) and I am aiming for ÂŁ30k or less per year, so that we can put a bit more away in a trust fund for the little one for when she needs it (probably to be used as a down payment for a house)
Increase charitable contributions to about 10% (current is about 5%). My wife and I support a few animal charities (mostly cats) in a few Greek Islands, so we are trying to send them a bit more money next year.
Curious if you are able to get UK tax relief on such charitable contributions? There are a few orgs I like in other countries but they don’t have charitable status in Canada for tax purposes.
Housecleaning my stock portfolio. I recently had over 100 positions. I am now down to 72 and am shooting for less than 40 with a much stronger tilt to ETFs.
You can’t claim tax relief on individual charitable contributions to non-UK charities from post-tax income. You can for UK-based ones if you are a UK higher rate taxpayer and you do an annual self-assesment for tax purposes.
A few wrinkles for us in 2025, but mostly the same from 2024. I’m giving up on the pergola… maybe
Max 401ks: Should be about $75k total after accounting for our matches and profit shares
Max HSAs
Figure out wife’s new compensation structure: Her company is shifting from a C-Corp to a S-Corp structure. There will be a learning curve but will (hopefully) be beneficial for us.
Add to brokerage: Will be used for future down payment. Still planning on $2k/month, with additional deposits when we’re able per #7
Travel: Probably two “big” trips to parts of the US we haven’t been to.
Maintain charitable contributions: Also want to make more of an effort (time and/or money) to be involved with a couple of the causes my company supports.
Thanks. The reason I asked was that there are some US organizations, such as NPR, where Canadians can get Canadian tax credits even though NPR is not a registered charity in Canada.
One aspect of the UK tax system I liked when we lived there was that I never had to file a UK tax return. No need to file as I only had UK employment income to report as I was not UK-domiciled for tax purposes. And when I made charitable donations the tax credit was recognized immediately on payment. Nice system, although the domicile bit should be retired.
Checking out my portfolio I found that I crossed the $500,000 mark. I’d say that was at least a couple years ahead of what I’d expected but of course the market has been gangbusters for the last couple years.
I started to put $ into a Robinhood account. Crypto will be like about 15%. I started with Doge and XRP. SPY, BRK-B will be the majority. A few shares of stuff I like are Ford, Humana, and Lemonade (I wonder why they don’t spell it Lemonaide).
I’m maxed out on 401K, the 50 y/o+ add-on, and HSA. There isn’t much else I can take a tax advantage out of so far as I know
