Are You Ready to Retire?
According to a 2022 survey,1 only 35% of Canadians aged 50 and older feel they’re financially ready to retire. Sixty-two percent report being unprepared or unsure if they have the resources. In a similar survey, Bromwich+Smith and Advisorsavvy2 report that 71% worry they will never be able to save enough to retire comfortably. Sixty-two percent […]
How to Achieve Personal Financial Success
As the recent pandemic crisis made its way around the world, creating havoc in its wake, we can be thankful most Canadians were able to weather the storm in fairly good financial shape. Now Canadians are mostly concerned about spike in the interest rates and how that will impact their financial and retirement plans during […]
TFSAs: Leveraging the Benefits
The Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) was introduced in 2009 to offer Canadians an incentive to save over their lifetimes. TFSAs provide tax-free growth, flexible investment options, and easy set-up and withdrawals, making this registered account a powerful tool for financial well-being. Below are some key features. Below are some key features: Make […]
Don’t Give Up on Growth
If you are a prudent investor, then you have a financial retirement plan that will ensure you have sufficient funds for the lifestyle you envision after you stop working. What constitutes sufficient depends on your ambitions and your hobbies, and also on how long you live. People are living longer, and it’s not unreasonable to […]
RRSP Deadline Approaching!
Once again, it is that time of year when Canadians turn their attention to make their tax-deductible pension contributions to their RRSP. The word “pension” is used deliberately to emphasize that the whole point of RRSPs and other savings methods is to build savings over time to replace earned income with passive or pension income […]
Why Business Succession Planning Matters
Accounting firm BDO Canada1, found that only one-third of family-owned businesses survive the transition to second generation, with just a third of these getting to the next – a mere 1 in 10 chance of the business surviving for three generations. Often, the reason is insufficient planning. There is also insufficient planning for the […]
How to Tell When a Senior Needs Help With Finances
As we age, it becomes more likely that we may lose track of our finances. It could be because of physical reasons (failing eyesight, shaky hands, etc.), mental reasons (memory loss, cognitive impairment, etc.), or a little of both. It is common for someone not to seek help because of pride or fear of losing […]
Key Ideas for Wealth Building Success
From listening to the media and online commentators, we have identified two key observations that can impact your efforts to build assets and wealth over time. The first is the way many individual investors place one-way bets on their market investments. As long as the investment is making money, all is good. But the […]
The Power of Time and Patience
It’s challenging to be patient in a fast-paced, immediate gratification world, but some things are worth the wait. Consider, for example, how a powerful financial reality (compound interest) can help investors accumulate a lot of assets over time to reward their patience and perseverance. Here’s how it works: Now imagine how these numbers […]
Lifestyle Choices Can Secure Your Retirement
For many nearing retirement, lifestyle choices become more significant in determining their comfort level for the rest of their lives. They must decide whether it is better to make some of those choices now or have their circumstances force lifestyle changes later in retirement. That’s the dilemma faced by many people who have come to […]
Year-End Planning Tips
Now is usually the best time to consider harvesting tax losses before the year-end to manage your overall income tax situation, based on various types of earned or investment incomes. Investors have a few weeks left to sell unwanted assets like individual stocks, mutual funds, cryptos, equity funds, bond funds and so on. The […]
Beware of Travel Scams
If you are planning a holiday, it is wise to be aware of the six most common travel scams you might encounter on your journey. Travel scams vary from country to country, but a few scams are commonly found almost everywhere. We have put together a list to help you stay safe during your […]
The Ravages of Alzheimer’s
The Baby Boomers have become known as the sandwich generation as they are wedged between the dependency needs of aging parents and the needs of their children. Those hit the hardest have been the families ravaged by the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Baby Boomers now find themselves reaching the age when the disease […]
Generating Investment Returns
During our ongoing weekly discussions with clients, we occasionally get questions from individuals about their approach to investing – particularly in terms of fees and value. The questions are usually focused on the cost of accessing investment advice, or the cost of buying specific investment vehicles such as mutual funds, ETFs etc. With the […]
Get Smart Saving Tips
Balance in life is essential for well-being. Since finances are a number one stressor for most Canadians1, how you manage your money plays a key role in finding and maintaining that balance. We’ve curated some savings tips to help ensure you can enjoy your life now while also saving for your future. […]
Estate Plans and Your Children
After spending a lifetime managing your money to ensure that you actually have something to leave to your heirs, there are some questions that might naturally spring to mind. How much should you leave them? Should you make arrangements to give it to them while you’re still alive? More importantly, will giving them a large […]
What makes a good financial strategy?
When you’re going on a journey, there are three essential questions to ensure you have a great trip. How will I get there? How much will it cost? How will I deal with the unexpected? Answering these questions thoughtfully will allow for a more pleasant trip. A written financial strategy serves the same purpose […]
Your Retirement Plan: Staying The Course
During the past several months, a few clients have expressed concerns about world events and the potential impact on their investments. Concerns cited have included the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, rising interest rates, inflation, recession, and weak economic news and so on. If you have questions about current economic news this is a good opportunity […]
Pros and Cons of Annuities
With the turbulent times we have been experiencing in the markets, more people are considering annuities to ensure a certain income in their retirement years. It might not suit everybody to put some of their funds into annuities, and there is always the question of how much do you invest in them. There is no […]
Reading the Economic Tea Leaves
An important retirement planning skill is having the ability to “sniff out” the future direction of various factors, such as inflation and interest rates for their potential impact on future household spending and savings efforts. “Reading the tea leaves” is a folk lore expression related to the practice of attempting to divine the future from […]
Financial Self-Care
Self-care is a popular buzzword, and it’s an important one. It refers to the deliberate choice of thoughts and actions that are good for your mental and physical wellbeing. Financial self-care means practicing this with money matters to reduce your stress and increase your optimism. It’s about making concrete plans, setting goals, and consistently practicing […]
Advice to a Future Widow
Most wives outlive their husbands. Women live longer than men the same age and tend to marry men who are older than they are. So, if you’re a wife, it is more likely you will become a widow than your husband becoming a widower. Knowing this, how can you prepare for it? First […]
Cycle of Market Emotions
Getting emotional about investments can easily lead to poor decisions as investors fall prey to negative thoughts and fears. The chart below helps to illustrate the emotional aspects of investing. The human brain constantly searches for trends or patterns in things, trying to make sense out of even random events and data. This essential […]
How’s Your Group Life Insurance?
Owen is married and has two children. He has been working at the same company for over five years and relies heavily on his employee group plan for his life insurance needs. A new single co-worker got the same benefits after only 90-days and Owen wonders if his group insurance can let him down. Owen […]
The Fed ‘Put’ Revisited
When investment markets officially hit “bear market” territory in June 2022 – while Central Banks in North America and elsewhere were continuing to raise interest rates – questions began swirling about whether the US Federal Reserve (Fed) would once again rescue the markets by exercising the famous Greenspan “put”! This is the move whereby […]
Portfolio Diversification
Looking back over the past few years, one thing is certain – we can never be absolutely sure what the financial markets will do at any given time. We can study charts and graphs, both historical and forecasted, we can consult with economic experts, business leaders, and government officials, we can look at inflation and […]
Incapacity Planning for Aging Parents
Almost 750,000 Canadians are living with some form of dementia1. The personal and financial challenges can be devastating for elderly individuals as well as for the adult children who care for them. Daniel, 63, knows this story all too well. “It was about five years ago when I started noticing dad’s mental decline. As […]
Putting It In Perspective
The investment markets have been very “volatile” since the start of 2022. Volatile is just financial industry jargon that means markets move up and down. For retail investors, the biggest concern is when markets move down. Retail investors love when markets go up and usually cringe or flinch when they go down. It is […]
Can You Be Over-Insured?
Most Canadians take the correct steps to protect their property against loss in case anything they own is lost or stolen. Concerns about recouping losses if a home is robbed, or a favorite vintage guitar is destroyed during a basement flood, are questions with very routine answers. But when it comes to considering the […]
Seniors Targeted by Scammers
Victor’s nightmare began with a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, informing him he owed thousands in unpaid taxes. If he didn’t pay immediately, he would be arrested. Victor was too embarrassed to ask his daughter for help. Had he messed up that badly? The scammer picked up on […]
