Are You Prepared For the Unexpected?
Besides ‘death’ and ‘taxes’, the other certainty in life is that life is full of unexpected events. So why aren’t we more prepared for financial stresses when they occur? With the odds of an unexpected event such as a job loss, a medical emergency, a debilitating accident, or a death in the family fairly high […]
Debt Reduction as a Retirement Savings Strategy
Statistics Canada recently reported the ratio of household credit market debt to disposable income reached the highest level since the agency began tracking this figure. In 1990 it was 50%, rose to 110% in 2000 and jumped to 171% by the fourth quarter of 2017. This can cause some angst for those with children reaching […]
Tick Tock: RRSP Season is Here!
I am continually amazed at the number of people, who have high incomes and savings, that fail to take full advantage of the preferential tax treatment of RRSPs versus other types of investment or savings accounts. This is especially true for business owners who often have retained earnings in their corporations while also having massive […]
Procrastination – Your Financial Dream Killer
Despite what many people think, the number one financial dream killer isn’t portfolio losses, or financial emergencies, or unemployment, and not even natural disasters. The number one reason people fail to reach their financial goals is procrastination – putting off the inevitable until the cost of your dreams or goals become prohibitively expensive. Why People […]
Don’t Bet Your Retirement on a Simple Approach
You have probably heard about the old 70 percent rule that suggests retirees will need the equivalent of about 70 percent of their current income level to maintain their lifestyle in retirement. This assumes that retirement living costs will be 30 percent less during working years. While it may have been applied appropriately for retirees […]
There is Risk and There is Risk
The penny finally dropped a couple of months ago during a client conversation about the risk of investing in the equity markets. The client was reluctant to commit money to the investment markets and gave me several reasons – “the markets were too high and ready to crash”, “there were safer alternatives”, “I never fully […]
Four Financial Promises to Keep
We’ve had a few weeks to make and break our New Year’s resolutions. Now is a good time to make some promises to give your finances an extra boost in 2018 and help see you better off by year-end. 1. Promise to make the biggest RRSP contribution you can. When it comes to improving both […]
Are you a Retirement Savings Late Starter?
Harry and Sally both earned high incomes and liked to live the good life. They leased higher end European cars, took two-week exotic vacations almost every year, and lived in a house much larger than they truly needed. To accomplish this lifestyle, they put off retirement savings. Now in their forties, Harry and Sally are […]
The Magic Number!
The conversation with clients about retirement income planning is much different from those conversations that occur over the years while they are building retirement assets using vehicles such as pensions, RRSPs, LIRA’s, TFSAs and so on. Often, their focus is on being “conservative” because their understanding from public sources suggest that this is the appropriate […]
A Little Knowledge Can Make Life Less Taxing
It doesn’t take long after receiving your first paycheck to realize that all of your money is not your own. The Canadian government is an active partner in your earnings, and the more money you make, the larger it takes. A better understanding of taxes and how they apply to you can result in hundreds […]