It used to be if you had One. Million. Dollars., you were rich. Now it barely buys you a half-decent house in the most expensive real estate markets in the country.

But $1M is still a lot of money, especially to folks who are just starting out. And the fact is the the typical Canadian retires with about $250k in investible assets.

So, this brings up the question. Can someone retire on a million bucks in 2026?

Bob and Nelson weigh in on that and the retirement inflation we see on social media. We break it down and reveal the actual questions one needs to answer, and how having a dollar amount in mind is only the first step towards early retirement.

"Why don't y'all use a financial advisor?"

This week's episode of the pod is a little more reflective than most.

Bob and Nelson spend a lot of time talking about the 'how' part of DIY investing, helping to educate y'all on just exactly what we do and how we do it. This week's episode focuses more on the why, and why Canadians might distrust the financial advice industry.

This week on the pod Bob and Nelson tackle one of the toughest questions in the investing world.

Just when should you sell a stock, anyway?

The short answer is this. It's complicated and most investors suck at it. They sell when a stock gets back to break even, or when it hits some target price they've pulled out of the sky.

We share some thinking that has worked for us. Maybe it'll work for you, too.

Just what should you do with your cash, anyway?

We're not talking about investments here, but cash. That is money in your emergency fund, or that's been put aside for a big purchase in the next 6-12 months, or perhaps a reserve waiting to be invested.

Most folks will default to the highest yield possible, or put their money into an asset that might appear safe but actually has hidden risks.

This week on the pod Bob and Nelson dive deep into the world of cash, including a trick Nelson uses to maximize the yield on his cash without taking any additional risk.

One of the most common questions we get involves online brokerages. Which one should I use? Which ones stink?

This week on the show Bob and Nelson attempt to answer this question once and for all, but the conclusion isn't necessarily the same for every investor. Some will want a lot of features, while others are just looking for free trades.

We go through each and list the pros/cons, plus we each choose the one that we think is best overall.

This week's episode is one y'all won't want to miss. We turn things around a little bit with Bob interviewing Nelson. About what exactly?

About how Nelson has officially failed at early retirement. He has a real job again.

Nelson talks about everything that went into the decision, talking about the hardest parts of his early retirement, how it wasn't really what he expected, and the reasons why he embraced work instead of the many other hobbies he could've picked up.

This week on the pod Bob and Nelson reach into the mailbag and answer your questions. We cover such things as whether Telus can maintain that generous dividend, how to invest cash you might need 12 months from now, and we tackle the question that we both get the most, by far.

Leave a comment to ask a question we'll use for our next Ask Us Anything episode.

Both Bob and Nelson are lucky that we've gotten a lot of good financial advice from trusted people right when it was needed most. But we've also gotten a fair bit of advice that's downright terrible.

This week's episode talks about the worst of the worst as we go over some of the most damaging advice we've ever been given.

The most interesting part is that one man's bad financial advice is often helpful for others...