Uncategorized
Net Worth Update: 2025 Mid-Year Review
Happy Canada Day! It has been an absolute rollercoaster of a year so far. Canadian and US stocks started the year hot before plunging by 13% and 20% respectively from the end of January to the beginning of April. Now we’re back to all-time highs again as global stocks have soared by 20% since April.…
Read MoreThe Beginner’s Guide To RRSPs
More than sixty years after the federal government introduced the Registered Retirement Savings Plan as a vehicle to save for the future, RRSPs still remain one of the cornerstones of retirement planning for Canadians. In fact, as employer pension plans become increasingly rare, the ability to save inside an RRSP over the course of a…
Read MoreHow To Think About Retirement Planning
We all need to think about retirement planning at some point in our lives. Relying on rules of thumb like saving 10% of your income or withdrawing 4% of your savings can get you part way there. But it’s also important to think about what retirement will look like for you. When will you retire?…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Canadian Financial Summit Edition
The Canadian Financial Summit is a three-day virtual conference featuring 35+ Canadian personal finance experts (including yours truly) speaking on a wide range of topics from investing and retirement, to pensions, real estate, financial planning, inflation, and much more. It’s Canada’s largest personal finance and investing conference. This year’s conference takes place October 12th to…
Read MoreSustainable Investing Solutions For DIY Investors
A growing number of investors are concerned about the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects of economic activities and want their investment portfolios to reflect this concern. This demand has been met by the investment industry with an explosion of new mutual funds and ETFs described as sustainable and socially responsible. However, as the landscape…
Read MoreHow To Plan Your Own Revenge Travel Year
Most of you know the story by now. The short version goes: I quit my job at the end of 2019 to focus full-time on financial planning and freelance writing. The underlying motivation was to have more time to travel. No longer bound by a set number of vacation days, and with work that could…
Read More5 Retirement Planning Options To Help You Reach Your Retirement Goals
There are lots of unknowns when it comes to retirement planning. Most of us focus on how much we need to save for retirement without giving much thought as to how much we’re going to spend in retirement. I’d say, in general, that most people want to maintain their existing lifestyle, if not enhance it…
Read MoreShould You Postpone Retirement?
Many years ago, my boss (Jerry) was all set to retire at age 58 when the federal government decided to impose a tax on the distributions of income trusts and royalty trusts. He was heavily invested in the energy sector – in oil royalty trusts with a history of generous payouts thanks to years of…
Read MoreDo You Need A Financial Navigator?
I get really nervous when driving in strange places. The anxiety comes from my poor sense of direction – I could get lost in a phone booth. My wife, on the other hand, makes a fine navigator. She could be trapped in an underground cave and still tell which way is north. We didn’t plan…
Read More