I’m gonna be honest, it feels really good to write that headline. See, my wife and I just crossed the million-dollar mark on our investments, which feels especially good given that we’re in our early thirties. It’s not enough to retire on if you live in a big city here in Canada, but it is a huge milestone on our journey nonetheless. Here’s how we did it, and how you can do it, too.

Don’t just save; invest.

Savings accounts pay next to no interest these days. The very best accounts out there still pay less than 2% interest annually, which means that you’re not even beating inflation… which means that your buying power is actually decreasing over time, not increasing.

I’m not saying don’t save.

Savings are good if you need the funds in the immediate term, or for a small emergency fund, but they won’t get you to a million bucks. To do that, you need to invest.

Investing is different than saving, in that when you invest, you actually buy ownership of an asset. That asset could be a company (like when you buy stocks), a collection of companies (like when you buy a mutual fund or ETF), currency (like gold or Bitcoin), real estate, or many other things.

When you put your money in a savings account, you’re not buying any assets that appreciate in value. You know who is though? The institution that your savings are sitting with. They take that money and either lend it out or otherwise invest it, then pay you your crappy interest and pocket the difference. That’s annoying, right?

So invest.

Start by putting as much as you can into tax-sheltered accounts like an RRSP or TFSA (or a 401(k) for the Americans reading this). There, your money can grow without you needing to pay tax on any gains you make.

Next, find an investment that will beat inflation over time. If you’re not sure where to start, index funds are a relatively safe, yet high-performing choice. If you’re young, I like a mix of 70% stock index (like the TSX or S&P) and 30% bond index funds. TD offers two great, cheap options for this, if you’re banking in Canada. Their TSX index fund is labeled “TDB900,” and their bond index fund is labeled “TDB909.” Invest in those and you really can’t go wrong.

If you’re a little more experienced and are looking for something a little more aggressive (i.e. risky), I am a huge fan of the Hamilton Enhanced Canadian Bank ETF, ticker symbol HCAL. This ETF singlehandedly got us nearly 10% of the way to the million-dollar mark.

Last but not least in this space: invest in stuff that you understand, not the flashiest thing you read about online recently. That’s a great way to end up broke like the fools on Squid Game. If you can’t explain to someone else how the investment works, don’t put money into it. Simple.

Aggressively pay off bad debt.

If you have debt that isn’t tied to an asset (the way a mortgage is tied to a house), the first thing you should do is focus on paying that debt off as aggressively as possible. I like the snowball method: start by paying off your highest-interest debt first (usually credit card debt), then move on to your next highest-interest debt, and so on until it’s all paid off.

Bad debt is to your retirement what bad cholesterol is for your arteries: it clogs up your ability to save effectively, and makes it harder for you to get to financial freedom.

Embrace good debt and make it work for you.

Good debt, on the other hand, can be a major tool in your tool belt when it comes to accelerating your wealth. So what is good debt? Well, it’s the opposite of bad debt, in that good debt is tied to an appreciating asset – something that goes up in value over time.

A mortgage on your house is a good example of good debt. You borrow money in the form of a mortgage, and you buy a house which goes up in value over time. After a while, you can even use the equity in your home to take on another form of good debt, which is borrowing to invest.

Called leveraged investing, this basically flips the script on what the banks do to your money when it’s in a savings account. They loan you money at a lower interest rate, and you go and invest it in something that will pay you more than the interest you pay. Then, you pay back that interest each month, and pocket the difference. How cool is that? This strategy got us about 15% of the way toward the million-dollar mark.

Now, one last note on good debt: a car loan is not good debt. A car depreciates in value over time, which means it isn’t an investment… or at least, not a good one. If you can’t get a car loan at 0% interest, try to avoid borrowing to buy a car altogether.

Find ways to earn more money.

These days, there are so many ways to earn extra cash to put toward your retirement savings. You can start a side hustle – I made a nice chunk of change doing copywriting, for example. Other folks I know have started blogs, or sell woodworking projects on the side.

Of course, if you’re not self-employed, another great option is to work your butt off for that promotion or raise you’ve had your eye on. Getting paid more at work is a powerful way to accelerate your savings, since clearly you were able to get by on the salary you were earning before your promotion.

When you get promoted, take all of that extra cash (ok, shave off a bit and treat yourself, you gotta live!) and just funnel it right into your retirement savings. You’ll be amazed at how fast it starts to add up!

Oh, and lastly, make sure you’re taking advantage of any company-matching programs your workplace might offer. If your work puts in 50 cents for every dollar you save, that’s a free 50% return on investment, right away. I don’t know any other legal investment that offers that, so you’d be crazy not to make the most of it!

Track your spending and work to a budget.

Yawn, boring, right?

Yep, sure friggin’ is. But you know what? It’s just way too easy to spend more than you should if you don’t know where all that money is going every month. How many times have you heard someone say “Man, it’s so hard to save, I just don’t have anything left at the end of the month”?

When you track your expenses, you get clarity on where you’re spending – and where you’re overspending. By setting a budget for yourself, you hold yourself more accountable for each dollar that comes out of your account.

It’s not to say you shouldn’t treat yourself – my wife and I have line items in our budgets specifically for entertainment and booze – but the amount you spend on this stuff should leave you with a nice chunk of savings at the end of each month.

Speaking of the end of the month, you can go a step further and dodge the urge to spend altogether: take a page out of David Chilton’s book (literally, it’s called The Wealthy Barber) and pay yourself first. Set up automatic withdrawals that move your money into an investment account, so that you’re not as tempted to spend it.

Be happy with less stuff.

The moment you realize that nobody (at least, nobody worth keeping in your life) cares how much stuff you have, and that buying more of it is never going to truly make you happy, you’ll instantly feel way lighter. By getting off the hamster wheel of constantly keeping up with the Joneses, you can free up a ton of cash that was being spent on useless stuff, and put it toward fuelling a lifetime of freedom in retirement instead.

By the way, selling your extra stuff on Kijiji is another great way to earn some extra cash.

Be happy with less house.

I mean, with home prices being what they are these days, this one might not even be optional; if it is, I hope you’re counting your blessings. But a bigger house comes with a ton of extra expenses that will work together to eat away at your ability to save for retirement.

The obvious one is that a bigger house often comes with bigger mortgage payments, which means you’re paying more interest.

Beyond that though, bigger houses are harder to heat and cool, and your utility bills will reflect that. You’ll pay a lot more to heat and cool a big house (say, over 2,500 square feet) than you would a smaller one. Looking at my expenses from the past year, my wife and I spend about $60 – $80 a month on this. Electricity is another bill that scales with a bigger house.

Then you’ve got taxes. Property taxes scale based on the value of your land and house. Why pay $8,000 a year when you can pay less than $4,000? That’s an extra $4,000 that can go right into your retirement fund! This is a big one that I feel like a lot of people don’t think about as they pursue a bigger and bigger McMansion.

Lastly, you’ve got maintenance. More house means more stuff to fix… and trust me, that list is never-ending. There’s enough of this to deal with when you live in a small house; in a big one it can be downright crippling. Any idea what a new roof costs? $3,000 or more. New windows? A whopping $10,000 or more. I know, because I’ve paid for these things.

The bottom line is this: mo’ house, mo’ problems.

Wrapping it Up

Here’s the thing: even if you’re already in your 30s, or your 40s, or even your 50s, you can still get to a million bucks in a relatively short period of time. You need to combine healthy spending habits with smart investment choices, but I’m living proof that it’s doable. By following some of the tips I’ve shared in this post, you can accelerate your savings and get that much closer to living the dream of retirement.