I was honoured to be invited by Ellen Roseman to speak with her Investment Club about the 6 key lessons I have learned as a fee-for-service financial planner.  They have had investment guest speakers, but never someone just talking about financial planning. Ellen Roseman is a journalist who sticks up for ordinary Canadians. Her personal finance & consumer columns appeared in the Toronto Star for 20 years, she was the Star’s business editor, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, associate managing editor of the Globe’s Report on Business, author of 4 books, has a podcast, and she’s bee ..read more

IMAGE FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS Nina Dragicevic from The Canadian Press recently interviewed me about renting for life as a real option and what it means for your financial planning.  In today’s housing market, many young people and even people in their 40s see purchasing a home as unattainable. I work with high-income clients who don’t always own their home, and instead put their money into investments. For instance, I advised a successful actor who was considering buying a condo in Toronto to rent for now, as it gives him the flexibility and freedom to move around for work. Financially, i ..read more

IMAGE FROM FINANCIAL PIPELINE: ARTICLE WRITTEN BY GILLIAN LIVINGSTON It is tax time. The Financial Pipeline interviewed me with other financial experts on the best common and uncommon tax deductions, so you can get the best refund possible.  In the article you’ll learn about many of the most effective deductions you can claim, so after you file your taxes you’ll feel confident that you did them well! Here’s what the article covers: Why you need to file your taxes every year once you turn 18 or move to Canada. How to claim a deduction for interest and management of your portfolio. The two ..read more

It is EASY to outperform robo-advisors? Why? They don’t even try to outperform. They try for: “Reasonable return with less risk”.  You would think robo-advisors would just invest in a few broad indexes, but often they don’t. And they require you to invest in bonds no matter how high your risk tolerance. Robo-advisors are big investment companies, not financial planners. They are more likely to lose a client because of a 30% 1-year market decline than 10 years of lagging the index. So, they focus on market fluctuations, not your life goals. This makes them use “performance drags” that ty ..read more

The average Canadian wastes $22,000 after tax during their life for every $100,000 of their mortgage and takes 38 months longer to pay it off, according to a study by Moshe Milevsky. This is because of taking 5-year fixed mortgages instead of variable. They are marketed as being safe and a good protection against a sharp rise in interest rates.  The reality, though, is that they are nearly always a huge waste of money, because the interest rate is nearly always higher and you lose your negotiating power for five long years. From 1975-2019, 1-year fixed mortgages saved money 100% of the ..read more

PHOTO BY ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE CUSHMAN/NATIONAL POST The Financial Post asked me to review the finances of a married couple in their 60s who are winding down their successful Ottawa-based consulting business and operating company. They want to shift to a two or three-day workweek and take summers off, and they are trying to determine where to invest their money, so they can keep their comfortable lifestyle during retirement. In the article you’ll learn: How should they set up their retirement income? How much should they pay themselves in dividends from their corporation? Why Clarissa should ..read more

When you go to any investment firm, they require you to fill out & sign a Risk Tolerance Questionnaire of some kind. The purpose is to prevent you from investing too aggressively. This can be important, because you might sell a more aggressive investment when it is down and lose money. However, there are 2 important questions: –          What prevents you from investing too conservatively? –          Can you achieve your life goals with the more conservative investments? These are critical questions, since almost nobody can retire comfor ..read more

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO The Financial Post asked me to review the finances of a 70-year-old retired man who is expected to inherit $200,000.  He has been focusing on growing a modest, self-directed investment portfolio using a mix of somewhat risky stocks and funds. What should he do now for the next chapter in his life? How much does he need to retire, what should he do with his inheritance, should he buy or rent his next home, and how should he invest? Can he afford to move to another province, start traveling, pay off his mortgage, cancel his life insurance policy? In the art ..read more

Remember the show “Who wants to be a millionaire?” Are you the kind of person that wants to build some serious wealth? Live an exceptional life? Be financially free? I don’t mean just a comfortable amount. I mean a lot – like being a multi-millionaire. The truth is, average people can become very wealthy just by managing their money for maximum growth. Prefer an overview? Like videos? Check out our whiteboard video, podcast episode, or read the full post below! The chart is based on “The Story of Joe & Rich”. This story is an extreme version of the life of an ordinary person managin ..read more

It is EASY to outperform index investors? Why? They don’t really try to get index returns. They try for: “Reasonable return with less risk”. This makes them use “performance drags” that typically reduce their returns by at least 1-3%/year: 1/ Bonds – They usually invest partly in bonds, even though studies show that over 20-year periods, equities (stocks) are more reliable. Equities have a lower 20-year standard deviation after inflation than bonds. 2/ Home country bias – They invest in Canada because it sounds safer, even though returns have been 1-3%/year lower than global stocks. Canada ..read more