latest articles

Feb

12

2018

Tick Tock: RRSP Season is Here!

By admin

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 amounts, sometimes $50,000 or more, in unused RRSP contribution room.

Tags:

retirement

rrsp

tfsa

Feb

12

2018

Procrastination - Your Financial Dream Killer

By admin

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 Procrastinate

Tags:

financial strategies

Feb

12

2018

Don't Bet Your Retirement on a Simple Approach

By admin

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 two or three decades ago, it is fraught with significant risk and potential disaster for today's retirees.

Tags:

retirement planning

Jan

15

2018

There is Risk and There is Risk

By admin

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 recovered my money from the 2008 Credit Crisis" - to justify his point of view.

Tags:

risk management

investments

investment planning

Jan

15

2018

Four Financial Promises to Keep

By admin

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.

Tags:

financial strategies

Dec

11

2017

The Magic Number!

By admin

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 approach to managing their money during retirement.

Tags:

retirement income

retirement planning