As the year winds down, it’s time for my 2025 financial check in.
One of my annual November goals on The Lifestyle Digs website!
Hello friends, and thank you for joining me today to read about how 2025 went for me financially. And guess what. I had to write this post in advance, starting in August because I am out of town. I am on my South America Adventure of a Lifetime!
Yeah I am!
I chose November 13 to schedule this post because it’s my father’s birthday. If he was still alive he’d be 95 today.
It’s been a fairly quiet year for me. Not too difficult emotionally, but difficult financially as I draw down my savings in retirement.
If you recall in my Inching Towards Retirement Check List, retirement comes down to where, when, and how we retire. Retirement is something we have to think about. Finances keep getting more and more complicated. We’re seeing rising inflation rates. Grocery prices and gas prices keep going up. Housing keeps getting more and more expensive. It doesn’t get easier when we retire and our job income shuts down.
And that’s for sure. On my meager retirement income, my choices were to stay in Canada and struggle, or hit the road and become a nomad and international housesitter. Now I spend time in places where it doesn’t cost me so much money.
My annual financial check in
In 2023 life changing events happened. Priorities changed. Retirement happened.
I wrote my 2023 financial check in two years ago in England, and a year later I was back in Canada writing my 2024 financial check in from Toronto, Ontario. Didn’t forecast being back in Canada so soon when I began my nomad journey! But I go where the housesitting opportunities take me.
During the last few months of 2024 I was housesitting in Ontario. The first house sit was in Toronto and I had to crank out my annual financial check in a day before I left on my road trip to New York City, Atlantic City, and five of the New England states.
I finished off the year housesitting in Kingston until early January. Then I caught a bus to Ottawa and stayed a few nights before flying to Vancouver.
I spent the rest of 2025 with a few housesits around British Columbia.
And now I’ve headed south for a few months.
Way south.
Latin America south.
If you read this on November 13, 2025 I will be in Mexico City, Mexico! I’ve been to other places in Mexico, but this will be the first time in the capital.
The biggest retirement expense
The biggest expense I have in retirement is horse boarding, vet costs, and the other costs that come along with horse ownership.
Cajun lives on a ranch that specializes in retired horses and absentee horse owners. He’s living the good life.
Fortunately he has not had the health issues that plagued him in 2024 = less vet bills. Cajun was the reason I decided to head back to Canada. I missed him and decided to become a nomad on 4 wheels in British Columbia.
Big sigh. One of the joys of horse ownership. He’s my lifelong responsibility.
Yup, some of us have expensive hobbies…
Above photo was taken in April. Lucky me – I found a house sit about 45 minutes away from where I board him and got to see him a few times.
Finances
When it comes to the stock market – things are up, things are down.
Overall, I haven’t had too much volatility when it comes to my money situation.
Other than when the stock markets went into a panic earlier this year due to the tariff threats. You all know who I’m talking about!
I did a couple of semi-big financial moves. Or at least big moves for a low income senior!
The last company I worked for had a retirement savings match program. It is always an excellent idea to take advantage of these programs if you’re lucky enough to find an employer who offers them. I also put in a little extra money each payday to help it grow. It wasn’t a lot of money but $8,000 isn’t bad for a couple of years savings without thinking too much about it. This money is going to my adventure of a lifetime in South America. Now $8,000 isn’t going to cover six months worth of travel expenses, hotels, food, and attractions, but it will make a big dent.
And yes, unfortunately, cleaning out that retirement account means I’ll take a tax hit next April. That revenue will be added on to my meager income.
The other thing I decided to do is defer my Old Age Security (OAS) that Canadians, who’ve resided in Canada for at least 40 years after the age of 18, are eligible to begin collecting at age 65. The current monthly amount as long as your income is less than $148,000 (ha ha – never got close to even a third of that!) is $734.95. The payments are reviewed four times a year based on the cost of living index and are increased accordingly. But never decreased. Whew!
I’ve decided to wait at least 2 years before collecting it.
Why would I want to do something that stupid when I could sure use the extra money?
I’ve mentioned on past posts that us poor low income earners can’t catch a break. At tax time I always end up paying.
Getting a refund? Ha!
But the last couple of years I’ve been a nomad on even lower income and I’m getting tax refunds. Wow!
So right now I don’t want my overall income to go up too, too much. At least for a couple of more years and then I’ll end up paying taxes again. Blah!
One of the other reasons I’m deferring the OAS is because I have some more retirement income that is about to kick in soon thanks to another former employer. They had a mandatory pension fund I paid into, and when I left the company the money had to be transferred into a Locked In Retirement Account (LIRA).
Some provinces in Canada allow people to draw money out of their LIRA accounts before age 65 due to financial hardship. British Columbia is not one of those provinces. Unless an appeal is put in due to severe financial distress. There were times I was struggling to pay my mortgage when I could have sure used that money. But, oh no. Keeping a roof over my head wasn’t deemed a financial emergency.
So that money has been sitting in a LIRA for over 15 years now nearly doubling in value and I will receive just under $4,000/year from that. Less taxes of course, so let’s just call it $3,500/year.
I am not sure if it’s dispersed all at once or divided up into monthly payments. I’d rather get it all at once.
So guess where that money is earmarked for?
If anyone guessed it’s going into my horse account at my online bank, you’d be correct. I pay a year’s board upfront each January and that will cover close to half.
So with that $8,000 I took from my retirement account plus that $3500ish kicking in, I’m pretty sure I’ll be paying taxes when April rolls around. And if I start collecting the OAS right now, I’ll be paying even more taxes.
The other thing is for every month we defer our OAS, a little percentage more is added on. By the time I’m ready to collect I’ll be earning $100 to $150 a month over the base pay.
Travel insurance
Before leaving Canada in 2023 I purchased travel/medical insurance for a year. It cost nearly $2,000 – Yikes! But when you need it…
I bought more travel insurance in 2024 because I was still in England for a few weeks after my original policy ran out and had to top it up. Kaching! That cost me $300 for about 6 weeks.
When I arrived back in Canada I decided to take my chances and not buy out of province insurance.
In November prior to driving down to the states I bought an annual policy that lets me leave Canada for up to 15 days for $165.
The only other time I drove down to the states was in early April for lunch in Bellingham, Washington.
What’s happening right now? My Big South America Adventure. I’ll be away for at least 6 months.
Full coverage travel and medical insurance with World Nomads is about $1400 and that will cover me through May, 2026.
Having full travel/medical insurance is a good financial decision even though it costs a lot of money. It paid my change fee for my flight back to London when I left Mayreau Island last year.
My TFSA
I’ve talked about my TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) a few times. This Government of Canada website explains the contributions better than I can!
Without steady job income, my TFSA is no longer being funded.
I keep some of my TFSA money in high interest savings or GICs, but the majority of my money is invested in stocks. One EFT that tracks the S&P 500 is doing amazing well, another stock is doing pretty good, and a third is slowly increasing. Two other stocks I bought a couple of years ago not doing well, up and down from the original purchase price.
The value of my TFSA that I have invested in the stock market has increased in value by about $8,000 in the last year. This little portfolio has dividend funds that automatically reinvest. Plus some of the stocks have increased in value. Now I do not make – or lose – any money unless I sell. I’m trying to hold onto my investments as long as I can.
Overall I’m happy with the investments and so far I haven’t had to dip into my TFSA to fund my retirement.
But do you wanna know a little secret? Back when I could contribute $6,000/year to my TFSA and really had to bust my ass to scrape up $500/month by cutting back on other things, for two years I put that money into a high interest cash TFSA account and in and out of short term GICs instead of investing it.
Why?
Well cash is safe. Except – don’t I already have an emergency fund?
Many years ago I found a horse trekking company in Peru that offered a 10 day ride through the Sacred Valley and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The cost was around $10,000. It was probably less than that, but I figured by the time I travelled to Peru it would be at least that amount.
Talk about an adventure of a lifetime! The only thing better than walking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu would be riding a horse there. I bookmarked the website and checked it a few times over the years.
As I begin making preparations for Peru I pulled up the website for the horse tour – only to discover the Machu Picchu ride isn’t available after October! Damn it! Disappointment! But I’ve accepted and moved on. And the cashola keeps sitting in that TFSA account until I find another good use for it.
Other saving goals
To be honest, I really have no savings goals at this time. In the retirement phase of life it’s all about living frugally and switching from saving for retirement to spending what you saved.
Expenses
How is everyone doing with their expenses this past year with rising prices at the grocery stores and gas pumps?
I don’t understand how gas prices can jump up 20¢ a liter in a day in Canada. Has anyone in the states seen their gas prices jump up a dollar a gallon in a day?
Early 2025 brought in the tariffs so now everyone is paying more money for groceries and other everyday products. 😠
OK, moving on.
Housesitting and volunteering
The biggest expense people have is rent or mortgage.
Right now my plan is to eliminate both and housesit instead. That’s where I stay in someone’s house and take care of their pets in exchange for a free place to live.
Check out my post Discovering London While Housesitting.
Also read, Turning my Travel Dreams into Housesitting Adventures.
No housesits planned for a few months. However, I’m hoping I’ve found what will be an epic place to volunteer. Except the organizer keeps ghosting me. Which makes me wary. Oh well. Always have another plan! Subscribe to my YouTube channel where you’ll hear about it first.
Have a Plan B
Sometimes house sits (or volunteering) ends early and you have to be prepared to spend money on transportation and housing. Or at least have room on your credit card for these unexpected expenses.
This is what happened to me last year at the house sit in Toronto. Due to a family emergency the homeowners returned about 25 days earlier than planned. Wow, that must have cost them a lot of money in buying new plane tickets and losing deposits on hotels and other attractions they’d paid in full for.
The trickle down effect was that I’d bought my ongoing travel ticket based on their original return. They were good and told me just to stay in their house as their guest. Very kind of them. But I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and go on a road trip. I rented a car and drove as far south as Atlantic City, New Jersey. I spent a day in New York City, and travelled through the New England states.
Check out the video below for how I explored New York City on a budget.
I have read horror stories about housesitting, both from the perspective of the housesitter and the homeowner. I’m not getting into horror stories, but sometimes a housesit unexpectedly ends earlier than planned.
The housesitter must be prepared to spend money on travel or a hotel or Airbnb if they leave a housesit earlier than planned. This means being financially prepared. No one wants to spend money unexpectedly, but always have an exit plan.
This also means don’t accept an assignment in a place that might be difficult to leave the area due to iffy public transportation or lacks hotels and Airbnbs.
Biggest 2025 expense
Here is where I spent the biggest bulk of my money in 2025: a new-to-me car.
Sigh.
OK. A little background when I became a nomad. I signed my car, a 2012 Mazda 3, over to a friend to sell for me.
This was the first car I bought solo.
When I realized I’d be returning to Canada, I contacted my friend and said don’t sell it, I will take it back. As my return to BC got closer, I made arrangements with a friend who could take the car in November, 2024 because the friend with my car was moving and had to be out of their house December 1. Mid-November I called my friend. He was in a rush, said he’d call back, but didn’t. He did say he wanted to pick me up at the airport in my car.
Long story short: the car was parked on the street, someone drove into it, and the insurance (ICBC) wrote it off. This happened three weeks before my return.
Damnit! Now that meant the expense of a new car. Well, I can’t afford a new car. But you all know what I mean. A new-to-me car, ie a used car that I could pay cash for.
In 2024 one of my stocks delisted and when the money was sent to me I put it into a GIC. Oddly enough to possibly buy another car.
You can read the car wheeling and dealing story here.
Cost me $13,500. Ouch to my bank account. Other than radio silence, the car has been running well.
Financial Plan
Financial plans are something that are constantly changing based on our needs, wants, and life situations.
You don’t need to spend a thousand bucks hiring a financial consultant to write up a financial play for you. We are all about DYI. You can draw up your own plan.
In the past, we’ve talked about various components needed for a financial plan. You want to understand your income and expenses. You want to figure out how to pay off debt, put money aside for retirement, create an emergency fund, and how to achieve your goals.
The following links should give you ideas on things you need to include on your financial plan and how to make them happen.
- Women and Money: Short Term Needs and Long-Term Goals.
- Track your Spending using a Backwards Budget.
- Taking Control of Debt on a Low Income.
- Nobody Cares More about my Money than I Do.
Financial plan in progress
For the last two years my financial plan is adjusted by my life circumstances. Retirement means I’m now in the spending phase instead of the savings phase.
As a nomad I try to live life as frugally as possible, but sometimes I have unexpected expenses like the ones I’ve talked about above.
This means my net worth is sinking. And if the stock markets take a turn for the worse, make that rapidly sinking.
I’ve been trying to find a financial plan for retirees, but all I find are financial plans geared towards retirement planning. In other words, working people who should put money aside for retirement. And of course that’s because most financial plans are geared towards people saving for retirement, not those living in it.
Right now my financial plan looks something like this:
1. Preserve what I have.
2. Maximize income streams I already have.
3. Prioritize known big expenses (like horse board).
4. Cut costs without cutting joy.
5. Protect against unexpected costs.
6. Set micro goals for the future.
7. Invest wisely (even without money).
Actually, I’m going to expand on all of these in a future post – stay tuned!
A financial plan is creating a list of things you’re planning for, and then figuring out how to achieve the items on your list. Maybe at this stage in my life, I just need to work on goals instead of a financial plan.
If you need more information on creating a financial plan, there’s a great article at Clever Girl Finance: https://www.clevergirlfinance.com/how-to-make-financial-plan/
2025 financial check in
As 2025 winds down, I can see that I need to do better financially. Well, can’t we all?
I’m very thankful that I don’t pay rent. My travel expenses, including hotels and Airbnbs, all come to less money than I would spend in a year on rent.
Right now I’m living frugally, travelling frugally, and avoiding debt. My financial plan is to move from place to place for economic reasons.
Travel plans for 2026. The first part of the year I will be exploring countries in South America. Air flights are costly but hotels aren’t too bad. Hotels cost more in big cities, but those are the places I want to stay safe.
Later in 2026? Yup, l’m already loosely making plans and it looks like travel to the U.K. will be included.
With each year my financial plan is tweaked and it seems like 2026 is on track. Thanks to the financial plans I put in place over the years leading to retirement, this is helping me through my nomad journey.
I’m still figuring it out as I go.
And I hope you are too!
xoxo
Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on November 13, 2025.
