[Language]

My wife and I are definitely behind the eight ball when it comes to retiring. My wife is stay at home with our two young kids, while I work full time and earn decently well. I’m 38 and my wife is in her mid-30’s.

We recently moved to Toronto from the U.S., and most of the money we had saved up, went towards a down payment (if it was up to me, we would be living in Alberta right now, but alas…). Due to the significant real estate prices here, we still have mortgage that’s close to $1m. I can comfortably cover our mortgage and household expenses, but it’s stressful thinking about needing to pay off a huge mortgage, save for our own retirement, and also save to help our kids in the future.

We’ve never contributed to an RRSP, so definitely need to get going on that asap. With a target retirement date of 60-65, it leaves me a 22-27 investment horizon window.

Would something like this be a solid plan:
1) open RRSP for myself and spouse (Wealthsimple?)
2) start to immediately contribute each month, so annual contribution is equal to max limit
3) invest in index funds?

For 3, do people typically diversify their index funds, or would dumping everything into something like VEQT be a simple and effective strategy? I know everyone always says diversification is key, but does that hold true for ETF’s?

Thanks all.