Discipline, love and compound interests: these are the ingredients that allowed a couple of Villebois in North-du-Québec to retire before the age of 35.
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“There is no model of the perfect couple, just models not to follow. It’s the same thing in finance, ”thinks Myriam Raymond in an interview with The Journal. “So we follow our own path, and we do it together.”
She and her spouse, Steve Bouchard, retired last year, after both working for a few years in a mine in Abitibi. They were then respectively 33 and 34 years old. They have no children.
Even with good wages, around $ 150,000 per year, leaving the labor market so early is a feat.
“Our project at the base was to retire before it is 65, that’s all,” says Steve Bouchard.
“Over the years, we were ahead of our goal, and we said to ourselves: we go in 10 years, we go in 5 years. Many people around us thought it was impossible, but we succeeded much earlier than expected, “he added, his gaze turned towards the past.
Destin improbable
Many years earlier, this tour of fate would have seemed completely impossible to Steve and Myriam, who met after “dropping school during a difficult moment” at the age of 15.
Since then, lovers have not left each other. They possibly returned to studies, Myriam to become an inhalotherapist, and Steve to work in a mine.
Steve Bouchard and Myriam Raymond retired before 35.
Photo provided by Steve Bouchard
After a few years in the health network, Myriam made the decision to make like his spouse. “It was easier and more paid work,” she explains.
The project to retire early then began to train in the minds of lovebirds. “But the click was to see how much tax was paid. This is where we discovered the RRSPs and the Celi, then the compound interests, ”says Steve.
For two, it’s better
Quite quickly, the couple understood that it was more paying to pool their balls than to build two portfolios in parallel.
“We did not care who won more, we put everything together, then we placed what we were able to place,” they say.
This is how they crossed the $ 100,000 of savings mark in two years, and that they have managed to raise enough money for their old days, which will be very long, in about six years.
“Our strategy for the future is to live with 3% of the value of our portfolio,” explains Steve. “If we consider that the average annual return on the US scholarship is around 10%, it gives us the room for maneuver.”
“We would not have succeeded if we had proceeded each on our side. Having a common project and working together is the key, ”concludes his wife.
