If you read my last post in this series, you will know that this year I want to live as if I’m retired. That’s right, on a monthly basis I’m tracking my dividend income (as I normally do), but also my monthly expenses to see how I would fare living on my dividend income only. It’s my trial run at early retirement.
February 2023 Expenses
My total expenses this month were $4,690.57. About half of that total was due to travel. Below I break down my spending into various categories that include housing, transportation, food, etc. Please note that my expenses below do not include the tax I may have to pay on dividend income (which is a lot lower than standard employment income).
| February 2023 Expenses | Total |
| Principal Residence Mortgage/Rent: $0 (my home is paid off) Condo Fees: $675.50 Electricity: $37.85 Property Insurance: $54.95 Property Taxes: $0 | $768.30 |
| Living Cell Phone: $61.62 TV/Netflix: $0 Music: $0 Movies: $19.77 Home Internet: $45.19 Newspapers/Magazine: $0 Art/Museum: $0 Personal Care: $152.92 Home Supplies: $130.45 | $409.95 |
| Transportation Public Transportation: $0 Rideshare: $44.77 | $44.77 |
| Food Groceries: $263.19 Takeaway/Fast Food: $69.07 Restaurants: $0 Coffee Shops: $46.20 Alcohol/Bars: $138.27 | $489.73 |
| Gifts Gifts: $305.85 | $305.85 |
| Travel Hotel: $885.20 Rideshare: $44.77 Air Fare: $1,135.96 Spending Money: $526.04 | $2591.97 |
| Miscellaneous | $80.00 |
| TOTAL | $4,690.57 |
Dividend Income
My dividend income this month was $2,243.84. This total includes dividends in my RRSP, TFSA and Taxable accounts.
My income here does not include other sources of income I have currently and that I will have in early retirement including rental income, any income I might earn from contract work through a personal corporation, or any small amount of online income I currently earn.
Given that I would like to live on dividends in early retirement to account for sequence of return risk and pulling dividends from my RRSP is more challenging, I’d like to be able to live off the dividends from my Taxable and TFSA accounts only (thus avoiding early RRSP withdrawals). Taxable accounts are sometimes known as margin accounts or personal accounts – where you put investment money when you’ve maxed your RRSP and TFSA and want to continue to contribute (or you’re strategically under investing in an RRSP at a certain point perhaps).
My dividend total from my Personal and TFSA accounts only is $1,572.73. Excluding TFSA related dividends (ideally I’d like to keep reinvesting dividends annually in my TFSA as any income grows tax free in the TFSA), my dividend total from just my Personal accounts is $1,513.80.
Dividend Income vs. Expenses
Here is the breakdown of my dividend income and expenses and my profit or loss. The table below is cumulative of 2023: January and February.
| Dividend Income (Cumulative Jan-Feb) | Cumulative Expenses | Cumulative +Profit / -Loss |
| $11,378.48 (RRSP, TFSA, Personal) | $6,337.48 | +$5,041.00 |
| $8,132.92 (TFSA and Personal) | $6,337.48 | +$1,795.44 |
| $7,715.11 (Personal) | $6,337.48 | +$1,377.63 |
Conclusion
After two months, my trial run at early retirement is in the green currently. Being hypothetically retired early in January 2023, is a success (so far). My next update will be March 2023 and I will continue to update this series on a monthly basis for 2023.
Comment below. Thanks for reading.
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