Preparing for retirement can be exciting but also a bit stressful. Retirement is full of opportunity but also full of risk, and there are six key retirement risks to plan for. Planning ahead to avoid or reduce these risks will make retirement more enjoyable. It will make a retirement plan more robust, more stable, and more secure. These risks are very common in retirement, but everyone experiences these risks differently depending on their situation and goals. Depending on your situation, these risks may already be reduced, but if not, then you may need to take extra steps to reduce these risk ..read more

There are many different risks when it comes to retirement, investment risk, inflation rate risk, spending risk, but one risk that isn’t talked about very often is the risk of living a long and healthy life. It may seem odd to call this a risk, but from a financial planning perspective, a long and health retirement can dramatically increase the risk of running out of money in the future. According to the guidelines from the Financial Planning Standards Council of Canada, for a couple who is currently 55, there is a 25% chance that either partner in a couple will live to age 98 and there is a 1 ..read more

With interest rates higher, GICs have become more attractive as an investment option and a 5-year GIC ladder can be a great addition to your portfolio. GICs can be considered part of your fixed-income allocation and in some cases GICs can even outperform bonds of equal length. If you’re adding GICs to your investment portfolio then you’ll want to consider building a GIC ladder. A GIC ladder is a common way to invest in GICs. When investing in GICs, a GIC ladder can help take advantage of the benefits of GICs while reducing the downsides. GICs are typically locked in for a specific term. This c ..read more

For 10+ years interest rates were at historic lows and investing with GICs was less attractive. But now interest rates are higher and adding GICs to your investment portfolio has become much more attractive. If you don’t have GICs in your investment portfolio, then you may want to consider including some within your fixed-income asset allocation. GICs (Guaranteed Investment Certificates) are a type of fixed-income investment. They’re extremely safe and in most cases are fully insured by the CDIC (Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation) up to $100,000 per financial institution. GICs are guarant ..read more

ETFs have taken over the world of investing. Everyone is getting behind ETF investing, from DIY investors to Warren Buffet, from robo-advisors to huge institutional investors. But what is an ETF? What does ETF stand for? And how do they work? ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund… what that means is that it’s a collection of investments, stocks, bonds etc, and those investments are grouped together into one fund that you can purchase and sell on the stock exchange. This is slightly different than mutual funds. Mutual funds also hold a collection of investments but you purchase them through the f ..read more

There are certain habits that make things way easier, these habits are more important than others, these habits are called keystone habits. Keystone habits create a foundation from which you can make even bigger and more positive changes. Mastering the right keystone habit can transform your life. We have habits everywhere in our lives and we build new habits all the time (both good and bad!). We use these habits to support our daily lives. These habits make our lives easier, you don’t have to think about what you’re doing, it just comes naturally. Having a solid keystone habit will create a f ..read more

Routines add structure and discipline to our lives. They make things easier. When we’re in a good routine things seem faster, easier and more efficient. We know exactly what to expect and how to do it. Creating a routine for your finances is a great way to add structure and discipline to your financial life. It makes you more efficient and happy with your finances (and who doesn’t want that?). Anyone who has spent too much time managing their finances knows how quickly you can feel burnt out. This is called budget fatigue and it’s a very real problem. It’s when you spend so much time and effor ..read more

Investing is one of the best ways to build wealth. When you invest, you buy a small piece of a company. And as a part owner of that company, you get a portion of the profit they create. This profit can be distributed to shareholders in the form of cash dividends every few months (ie. Coke) or it can be invested back into the company to help is grow even faster (ie. Netflix). When you invest you put your money to work. Rather than letting your money sit in a high-interest savings account, where it does next to nothing (earning minimal interest, sometimes less than inflation) by investing you gi ..read more

As an advice-only financial planner we often see financial plans created by the big financial institutions. We provide a second opinion to new clients who have created one of these financial plans. These clients have received a financial plan from their investment advisor, or sometimes a separate financial planner within the bank, but they’re skeptical of the results and the recommendations. Often, they want more detail, more discussion, more process, more scenarios, more peace of mind etc. They want an unbiased second opinion. Now let me preface this blog post by saying there are many excelle ..read more

Imagine paying $1,000,000 in investment fees? It seems crazy, doesn’t it? There aren’t many things I could imagine spending that much money on, and investment fees would certainly be at the bottom of the list. And yet, there are millions of Canadians who could end up paying this much, or possible more, in investment fees over the course of their life. If given an extra $1,000,000, what would you spend that money on? Probably not investment fees. I would probably spend that money on a vacation, a cottage, a reno, or a hundred other things before choosing to spend extra money investment fees. Bu ..read more