My semi-retirement project, FindependenceHub.com, often republishes blogs related to FIRE. Recently, I ran one since MyOwnAdvisor the blog of Ottawa-based Mark Seed, who announced on his site in April that he had retired in his early 50s, after 17 years of blogging about it. For this Retirement Income column, I interviewed Seed on Google Meet to learn how he did it.
For many of the FIRE gurus mentioned here, the word “retirement” means no longer being a full-time employee with everything including: going to the office, management, meetings, etc. The emphasis is on the financial independence aspect of FIRE over early retirement. Like many FIRE believers, Imbewu plans to continue writing and blogging and stay mentally and professionally active. He uses an acronym he coined: FIWOOT, which stands for Financial Independence, Work on Own Terms. He says he’s retired from work but continues to “put things on hold. I’ll run the blog for a few more years. We’ll see. I might work on the golf course in a few years again… But I don’t have a Monday-to-Friday job anymore—she’s gone… My wife retired last fall at age 52. She’s still not working.”
Another “quick” in reaching Findependence in the early 50’s was that Seed and his wife decided not to have children. In other words, using native language DINKs, they are Double Income No Kids. As he explained in Google Chat, “that was our personal decision, which may or may not be compatible with other people’s lifestyle decisions.” As a result, even before officially retiring, the couple was able to travel a lot in the 30s and 40s: to Europe, Latin America, and Canada and the United States.
While Seed spent his formative years in Toronto, he has been in Ottawa for 25 years. At first, the couple rented out their home, but their well-paying jobs helped them buy a house as they simultaneously contributed to RRSPs—he started contributing to his RRSP when he was 22 with just $25 a month—and began contributing to TFSAs in early 2009. He invested in mutual funds to 2095 during capital investment from 2095. 2008-09, which is when he bought his first stock: Enbridge. Gradually, he started switching to ETFs, initially using XIU (iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF), the exchange-traded fund he owns today for more diversification.
As for real estate, the couple used to own a 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom bungalow on half an acre of land south of Ottawa. But seven years ago they downgraded to a condo with half of that square footage. That’s been the plan all along: to have a “lock and go” home as they approach retirement and start traveling more.
Pay yourself first—10% to 20% of your gross income
Like any good FIRE couple, they “pay themselves first” at least 10% of their after-tax income, and sometimes even 20%. They paid off the loan in January 2024 and, after working for some time, Mark’s wife quit completely in October 2025. Mark switched to part-time work in early 2025, rather than leaving the workforce. The couple does not have a vacation or investment property, but his family has a small house. Regarding vacation homes or rental properties, he says, “I just don’t want to take the blame. I think one house is enough these days.”
Travel looks bigger in couples’ plans. So far, their longest vacation has been three weeks but they plan to increase the holidays to four weeks in the coming years.
The seed started MyOwnAdvisor website in 2009 and now writes and posts once or twice a week. The name of the site sums up what he considers his brand: his journey to become his own financial advisor. “I wanted to be my own financial advisor not only on the investment side but also to have knowledge about taxes, insurance planning, risk management, debt management, and estate planning.”
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Mostly self-taught. He says: “I always thought I could do this without having a bunch of letters or letters after my name. Still, he hasn’t ruled out getting the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation at some point. The only mentor he ever had was a general counsel at a major financial institution, who he met regularly. However, he says, “I don’t blame people for paying 1%—there’s nothing wrong with making a profit.” Seed believes that asset allocation ETFs have democratized investing and made business stronger in the wealth management industry. “See [advisors] you have to think beyond the investment piece. It’s not just about choosing an ETF, because anyone can do that these days. ”
The seed plans to keep MyOwnAdvisor to the near future; it helps him “to look back and see my thoughts (about a stock or a fund or an allocation) and remember what I was thinking… I use it as an online diary to write down the good, the bad and the indifferent.”
An integrated approach to investing
The Seed site largely advocates a “hybrid” approach to investing: a mix of low-cost ETFs and high-yield dividend-paying stocks. He says he found a “pretty good formula” of 45% in individual stocks, 45% in ETFs, and 10% in cash or cash equivalents. That’s a strong 90% share rating. His individual stocks are now exclusively Canadian. He sold his American stocks to make room for his favorite global ETF: the iShares Core MSCI All Country World ex Canada Index ETF (XAW). As the name suggests, it is a global equity ETF that excludes Canada. It’s 64% in US stocks.
Unlike many other financial bloggers, Seed is less enthusiastic about an all-in-one asset allocation ETF, as his risk tolerance is more concentrated in stocks. You’re too young to worry about registered retirement funds (RRIFs) but you expect to take Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security at age 65. He sees those government pensions and his employer-described small benefit pension as “big inflation-protected bonds.” His financial projections have gone up to age 95 just to be on the safe side.
He speaks publicly about investing, such as regular talks with the Ottawa Share Club, and has been a guest speaker on a financial institution web series about investing, and donations MoneySense. He hasn’t written a book yet, but says he’s “tempted to write an eBook at some point but I’m not sure what it’s going to be about. There’s a lot of stuff in ETFs and stocks.”
Seed’s definition of retirement is similar to how I Globe and Mail financial columnist Rob Carrick explained it when he announced that he has stopped working full time for this newspaper. We wrote about this almost a year ago in Retired Money, when Carrick revealed that at age 62 (then), he would continue to write two columns a month for himself The globeand other new projects, including the Substack column.
Asked for more information, Rob had this to say in an email: “My take on retirement is being independent. Globe and Mail. You are loved by me The globe years, but what I’m doing right now is the same. I started Substack, which has been building its base of paying and non-paying subscribers. I also do speaking events, some consulting, biweekly The globe columns and two podcasts. Another is The globe‘s Stress Test, where I host three episodes a season. Another is The Findustry, which I co-host with CFP Shannon Simmons. The audience is financial planners and advisors.”
Tawcan blogger organizes FIRE in his 40s
Although Seed doesn’t know of many of its readers reaching FIRE in their 40s, there is already a new generation blogging about it. Bob Lai, the blogger behind Tawcan, is 43 years old and already plans to retire before 2030, which would still be 40 years old. In a recent blog post, he outlines the steps he is taking this year to ensure that result.
