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- My Apartment Gave Me Something That Money Can’t Buy - August 4, 2026
Happy New Year! In a strange turn of events, we didn’t all get the plague this year and are somehow all healthy and well-rested. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that we already paid the price by getting multiple disease back in the fall from putting LMS in international daycares in Spain.
This was the year we tested out nomadic family life for 3 months in Europe, and it surprised us in many ways. We realized that travelling now looks very different with a toddler than it did when LMS was an infant, and while putting him in daycare abroad gave us our day back to explore and hang out with friends (spas, walking tours, escape rooms—oh my!), getting sick 5 times in 2 months made us pause and question whether travelling as a family will still be worth it going forward. But that’s a long story for another post.
On the plus side, LMS is now fluent in Mandarin, can speak some English, some Spanish, and even a few German words (the international school taught 1 hour of German a day). This is one of the biggest pros towards travelling as a family. I want him to grow up a global citizen so exposing him early to other cultures and languages will, hopefully, do that. Even if he’s eating his whole-body weight worth of expensive Ibérico jamón !
With another year of child expenses behind us, how close did we get to the USDA estimate of $17,000 USD/year or $23,000 CAD/year to raise a kid (outside of saving for college)?
Let’s find out.
Here’s how much we spent in 2025:
Month | CAD | USD |
Jan | $3,898.51 | $2,845.63 |
Feb | $4,367.98 | $3,188.31 |
Mar | $7,766.01 | $5,668.62 |
Apr | $4,330.91 | $3,161.25 |
May | $4,289.42 | $3,130.96 |
June | $4,432.53 | $3,235.42 |
July | $4,284.71 | $3,127.53 |
Aug | $2,998.87 | $2,188.96 |
Sept | $5,140.22 | $3,751.99 |
Oct | $7,904.69 | $5,769.85 |
Nov | $6,159.70 | $4,496.13 |
Dec | $2,391.02 | $1,745.27 |
Total | $57,964.57 | $42,309.91 |
This works out to be, on average, $4,830.38 CAD/month or $3,525.83 USD/month. The most expensive months were March, Sept, Oct, and Nov. In March we had to pay double rent since we kept our apartment in Toronto while visiting Vancouver. Sept includes taxes for the Business class flights to Europe and flights within.
And in Oct and Nov, we decided to try out international daycares for LMS while traveling as a family in Spain. It ended up costing us €30/day, which is cheaper than I thought it would be.
What I wasn’t expecting was how often our son would get sick and have to pull him out of daycare, which means that we were only able to use 2/3 of what we paid. That said, the fact we found not 1 but 2 daycares willing to accept him for only a month, means that finding childcare while traveling isn’t as challenging as we thought.
The least expensive month was Dec, because we gave up our 1-bedroom apartment and split our time between my parents’ and my in-law’s for the holidays.
We’ll be moving to a 2 bedroom in the new year and increasing our costs going forward. Living as a family of 3 in a 1 bedroom was easy for the first 2 years of LMS’s life since he was a newborn/infant who stays where you put him, but now that he’s a rambunctious toddler who can’t sit still, we’ll be needing more space and giving him his own bedroom.
Given that we would’ve spent $50,000/year if it were only the 2 of us, the portion that we spent on our son is around $7,954.54 CAD/year or $5806.23 USD/year. This is only 1/3 of the USDA average.
Once again, the reason why it’s significantly less because we didn’t upgrade our rental and daycare is optional since we don’t need to work.
Here’s how our costs averaged out per month, broken down into categories:
Category | CAD / month | USD / month |
Rent | $1,076.67 | $785.89 |
Hotels/Travel Accommodations | $783.45 | $571.86 |
Food | $1,303.65 | $951.57 |
Wine | $93.33 | $68.12 |
Transportation | $410.20 | $299.42 |
Toddler stuff (diapers, clothes, toys) | $264.01 | $192.71 |
Daycare | $235.76 | $172.09 |
Clothing | $57.22 | $41.77 |
Donations/Gifts/Misc | $362.92 | $264.91 |
Toiletries/personal care | $140.30 | $102.41 |
Cell Data + Internet | $54.52 | $39.80 |
Dental/Medical | $48.36 | $35.30 |
Monthly Total | $4,830.38 | $3,525.82 |
Yearly Total | $57,964.54 | $42,309.88 |
This year our baby gear costs dropped to nearly zero. After buying a mountain of baby gear in the first 1.5 years, we have everything we need and there isn’t a constant need to acquire more. We are also starting to potty train, so I expect diaper costs to drop off in the future.
Costs that have gone up for our son are food, entertainment, and travel. This is why our transportation costs have increased 34% since last year. Now that he’s over the age of 2, we need to buy an additional plane ticket and get bigger accommodations. Luckily, we acquired a ton of points, using Chexy and we can use Home Exchange, saving us tens of thousands of dollars.
You may have noticed that average monthly rent looks oddly low at only $1,076.67/month or $12,920.04. This is because the rent we were paying for our 1 bedroom was $1,615/month, but we got rid of it in Sept and decided to go nomadic for 3 months. This dramatically dropped our average rent for the year since we didn’t have to pay rent for the rest of the year.
That said, our hotel and accommodation costs skyrocketed to an average of $783.45 or $9,401.40 for the year. So realistically, we need to combine the rent and accommodation costs to get total housing costs of $1,860.12/month or $22,321.44 for the year.
In terms of entertainment costs, in the summer we have plenty of free outdoor playgrounds and splash-pads for LMS to burn off energy, but in the winter, we shell out more money for indoor playgrounds. We also spent money on co-working spaces with childminder options to get more done when we have a book writing or marketing deadline. Gone are the days in which we can just wear him in our lap while typing. LMS is now a tornado of energy and will obliterate any effort we make on a laptop.
Medical costs have gone down now that his vaccinations are done (until age 4). We also discovered this amazing online service in Spain called “Doctorsa”, which was a lifesaver when LMS got sick multiple times and we were able to get a doctor online within 10 mins and a prescription right away. Then we simply walked downstairs to the 24/7 Farmacia and got our meds.
This saved us so much time and headache and was a lifesaver when you’re a family. And since our health insurance through Safety Wing covered the costs (€35 per session, €11 for drugs), we paid $0 out of pocket. Travel insurance cost $178.20 USD/month for the 3 of us. I’m blown away by how much families would be able to save on daycare and medical costs by travelling in Spain compared to living in the U.S.
Knowing that Doctorsa covers 33 countries across Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, we’ll be using this service going forward as it is available in many of the places we travel to.
Portfolio B:
Ever since this blog was created back in 2016, in order to keep our retirement experiment pure, we’ve split our investments into 2 separate portfolios: Portfolio A and Portfolio B.
We live off of Portfolio A, which is the original $1 million portfolio we retired on, while segregating all the income we made post-retirement into portfolio B.
We do this mainly for the benefit of you, the readers, because as long as our base costs remain within the 4% rule of our original portfolio, that means that FIRE works even if you don’t end up making money on post-retirement passion projects like we have.
Portfolio B spending is optional spending and additional donation and gifts that aren’t part of our original budget that we call “fun money.”
Here’s how much we spent from Portfolio B:
$6,426.57 CAD or $4,690.20 USD
When we add together our base expenses + portfolio B non-essential expenses, we get $64,391.11 CAD/year or $47,000.82 USD/year.
Over the past 10 years, despite withdrawing and living off it every year, having a baby, and adding in non-essential expenses, Portfolio A has grown so much that at this moment it’s worth $2 Million. That means even including the optional “fun money” spending, we’re still only at a 3.2% withdrawal, which gives us a 100% success rate of never running out money.
This proves that even if you don’t earn a single cent in retirement, the 4% rule still works.
Dividend FIRE:
Long time readers know that Dividend FIRE is when your yearly expenses are less than the passive income (dividends and interest) generated by your portfolio, so you no longer need to sell any assets to cover costs in retirement. That means you will never run out of money, even during recessions, because you never need to sell anything.
In order to be considered Dividend FIRE’d, our spending needs to be equal to or less than the yield (dividends + interest).
Let’s find out if we continue to be Dividend FIRE’d.
Our yearly expenses since retiring:
Year | Spending (CAD) | Portfolio Yield |
2015 | $40,000.00 | $35,000.00 |
2016 | $40,143.00 | $35,000.00 |
2017 | $33,016.00 | $37,695.00 |
2018 | $40,519.00 | $38,124.00 |
2019 | $43,053.00 | $39,879.00 |
2020 | $33,965.00 | $38,284.00 |
2021 | $39,029.00 | $43,880.00 |
2022 | $42,916.00 | $46,985.00 |
2023 | $47,014.00 | $62,811.00 |
2024 | $55,530.00 | $70,530.00 |
2025 | $57,964.54 | $80,492.00 |
Looking at the table above, we’ve been Dividend FIRE’d since 2020 and have continue to underspend since then.
This year we are underspending the yearly dividends and interest of our portfolio by $22,528.46, but since we need more space, we’ll be increase our spending on rent so that will use up a big chunk of the surplus going forward.
That’s it for our 2025 yearly expenses. Stay tuned for Wanderer’s post on how our portfolio did this year.
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Awesome post and congrats!
I kept my toddler clothing costs down with a garage sale hobby and resale shops. Although my friends frequently resold used clothing, I did not. I liked donating to other moms.
Thanks for a very informative post, Firecracker! My one concern for LMS, as an international Early Years teacher of 25yrs and mother of two 3rd culture kids, is not only the illnesses that you are susceptible to in an Early Years setting but also the lack of stability for him with just a one month stint at a daycare. Attachment is so important and a consistent, loving caregiver helps foster trust, prevent separation anxiety and support healthy psychological growth. It takes time to develop relationships and for children to form friendships. Constantly being yanked from a setting when just getting to know those around him might be very unsettling. I also wonder about the quality of a daycare that promotes/allows brief stays when we understand how important connection/relationships are for children. It’s true that there are summer camps and holiday programs for children that are of short duration, but I am just considering this as an ongoing pattern for a child travelling constantly and the benefits/downsides.
Thanks for this comment as my wife and I are thinking through how much to travel with out daughter between ages of 2.5 and say 5. We had big plans to travel a lot but found that with a really little one you can’t see as much of the place you visit at that young age. So we are pushing back some of our travel till she is a bit older. Your points are good ones as well.
Don’t you consider dividends to be a “forced sale” of capital, since they are just part of the principal?
Why would the “dividend cushion” strategy be better than simply selling assets, if dividends are part of the principal and usually impact the asset’s price when they are distributed?
For one thing, dividend income can be 100% tax free.
Qualified dividends and selling securities out of a brokerage account are both taxed at long-term capital gains rates, assuming you held those assets for more than 12 months. In a FIRE scenario, most securities have been held longer than 12 months.
Relying on dividends paid out rather than selling your dividend earning asset is better because:
(1) your dividend earning asset remains in your possession, allowing you to be paid future dividend income, and
(2) you aren’t forced to sell your dividend earning asset at a price you don’t like in order to obtain income.
For example, if I buy shares at $150 per share which pay $5 per share quarterly dividend. Assume at time of dividend payout market price pre dividend is $145 per share and $140 per share post dividend. Yes, my share price has gone down, but I still own those shares, which then may increase in price over the course of the next quarter. Of course, they could decrease in price too. But that’s the point of holding your shares for the dividend income. You aren’t forced to sell at the current market price (which could be much lower than your original purchase price) to generate the needed income. Now … if the company decides to cut their dividend (I’m looking at you Intel and Disney!), then that’s a different story, and maybe I do indeed want to sell shares of that asset to cut my future losses (or lack of dividend income),
I’m sure Wanderer will explain this all way more better than I ever could!
I’m not anti-dividend income as a means to live off of for retirement but it’s not “better” depending on your risk tolerance and how you manage your portfolio. Investing in companies/indexes that have high yields and dividends typically have slower growth rates. If I’m more comfortable managing a portfolio that has a mix of growth stocks that don’t pay dividends, it can be more fruitful assuming you have the cushion in cash to manage a downturn. The flexibility to sell an asset when I want to for income vs. the company’s dividend is a preference and an advantage for me.
My point is, everyone’s risk tolerance and portfolio/situation are different. There is no “better”.
I’ll give you an example:
This past spring, I invested in a particular company at around $25 a share with about .5% of my overall net worth. They have no dividend or yield. It took off and now is trading at $91/share (although, down 8% today but that’s ok). I’ve more than 3x my money is 9 months. Very lucky. Would that money have been safer in Verizon with a 6.85% yield? Sure. And, by the way, I own VZ too but in the time, I’ve held it, the price is flat (partly due to the dividend). But, I’ll gladly dollar cost average out of the high risk stock once my tax lots hit the LTC gains mark and take the larger return. I can handle the risk from a % of my portfolio but more importantly, my mentality is suited for it. If I lost .2% of my net worth on that single stock and I had to sell it, I’d sleep just fine.
lack of medical care such as family doctor was the reason we left Canada . in our 60’s its very important and onwards even more so
the UK has been incredible .. amazing fast doctors appointment ; same day .. and regular check ups and screenings to make sure we dont have early disease . and its all free too .
(this comment came about when you talked of the online medical you needed .. )
What UK insurance/doctor plan do you have there?
@ everafter – I would love to also know more details about the UK’s medical!
Love this yearly writeup! I feel it’s SO CRAZY that you will continue to spend so “little” and wonder how you will feel upping the spend in the future if you want to get more “luxurious’. Hopefully you don’t feel bad and enjoy it! It would be interesting for you to interview some other “fired” individuals. Right now, you help other people fire but it would be good to do some features on how others are doing it.
What are your plans for education?
Homeschooling, Public? Would love to hear your plans.
Awesome to see these numbers and updates 🙂
Usually after 4 years old they stop being sick all the time.
Very interesting your statistics. We have the 1 million as a couple but decided to stop work at 2M. seeing your numbers reduce my stress 😀
we want to travel too, but on cruises. maybe it’s more expensive… maybe not because we would accumulate a lot of loyalty program points. we’ll know in a few years!
We are pretty similar in terms of expenses (and have a kid same age as yours) except that all your figures that are in CAD would be USD for us. I can live with that as our housing and food costs are notably higher than you all–and my wife isn’t fully on board with the fire lifestyle.
Is dividend fire the same concept as the yield shield? When I read that series, I thought it was just a temporary strategy for the first few years of retirement to protect against sequence of returns risk? I could be totally misunderstanding. Is there another article I can read that goes into more detail on dividend fire? We’re still in the accumulation phase and trying to learn as much as we can. Very impressive that y’all have kept your expenses so low this whole time! Excited to read part 2.
Thankfully, there has been a bull market for the last 10 years!
Your spending in 2025 is 45% higher than 2016, versus 26% cumulative inflation during the same time. Good stock returns have saved your withdrawal rate from exceeding 4%+ inflation.
Dividends are not recession proof. During the 2008 recession, dividends payments for SPY fell 34% peak to trough. Just a reminder for those using dividends as a “yield shield”.
Will be interested to see how your rent increases by moving into a market rent 2-bedroom.
This is the reality of FIRE with a rent payment. Requires frugal living + historically high stock returns s + extra income to sustain it.
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