The Canadian Financial Summit is back once again this fall with a terrific line-up of 35+ personal finance experts, including yours truly, to tackle the burning financial questions facing us today.

You’ll hear from PWL Capital’s Ben Felix, Millionaire Teacher Andrew Hallam, The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick, consumer advocate Ellen Roseman, along with long-time personal finance bloggers Barry Choi, Tom Drake, Mark Seed, Bob Lai, and Stephen Weyman.

Topics discussed in this year’s online Summit include:

• Buy back your family time with FIRE
• How much does it cost to travel FOREVER?
• How to take a tax holiday by working outside of Canada
• Want an Unlimited TFSA? Try moving to these countries with territorial taxation
• Are dividend stocks in a bubble?
• The risks of investing in cryptocurrency
• Should I have Bitcoin in my Portfolio?
• Maximize the New Aeroplan and Post-Covid travel plans
• Don’t let FOMO ruin your investment returns
• Maximize Work From Home tax tips in a Post-Covid World
• Will the Canadian Housing bubble finally pop?
• How to setup a corporation, invest within it, and then pay yourself
• The BEST ETFs in Canada
• Why self-made dividends are better than ordinary dividends in every way!

I was happy to chat with co-host Kyle Prevost earlier this summer when we filmed our session about how not to let FOMO (fear of missing out) ruin your investment returns. It’s a topic at the forefront over the past 18 months as cryptocurrencies and meme stocks soared by triple and quadruple digits.

My session with Kyle goes live on September 23rd, alongside Ben Felix’s discussion about factor investing, and Andrew Hallam’s chat about investing and spending for happiness, health and wealth.

How to Check Out The Canadian Financial Summit

In order to “reserve your tickets” and make sure that you will get your Summit Launch email, simply click here, sign up, and they’ll email the tickets over right away.

When the Summit starts, you’ll be sent an email each day with the link to the sessions that go LIVE for the next 48 hours.

That’s it. There’s no paperwork. No need to put in payment information that you have to cancel later. No worries.

The Summit will kick off with a live webinar on September 22nd and is absolutely free to view for that weekend.

If you want to check out the videos after their free window has passed (and get access to a whole smorgasbord of bonus resources and video sessions) then you’ll want to sign up for the All Access Pass. Don’t miss out on the Early Bird Pricing, as the price jumps up as the Summit begins.

How Do I Sign Up?

Just head on over to the Canadian Financial Summit, sign up for free, and be automatically entered to win one of the free Premium All Access Passes they will giving away when the event goes LIVE on October 14th.

Here is the link again for the free access to all the talks.

Good Luck!

P.S. Where are else are you going to find all of these experts in one place? AND you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your couch!

See you at the conference!

Promo of the Week:

Our friends at Credit Card Genius have outdone themselves with this one. Introducing GeniusCash.

We already know Credit Card Genius should be your first stop when you’re in the market for a new credit card. Now when you’re on the site, choose a credit card with a GeniusCash icon, apply for the card through Credit Card Genius, wait for your application to be approved, and you’ll receive your free GeniusCash via PayPal.

GeniusCash offers currently range from $75 to $100 depending on the card you sign up for. Current offers include:

• BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard
• Tangerine Moneyback Credit Card
• Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card
• Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
• Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card

Credit Card Genius has the most comprehensive credit card rating system in Canada, analyzing 126 data points to recommend the best card for your situation.

DIY Investing Course?

I frequently get asked if I will ever create a course for DIY investors to learn how to set up their own portfolio of ETFs. The truth is that everything I would include in the course already exists for free at Justin Bender’s Canadian Portfolio Manager blog.

He tells investors to take these steps to build a successful portfolio of index ETFs:

1. Choose your portfolio’s asset allocation by taking this investor questionnaire to assess your risk tolerance.
2. Use that information to select the appropriate asset allocation ETF from providers such as Vanguard, iShares, and BMO.
3. Buy your asset allocation ETF (Justin suggests Questrade for small accounts and BMO InvestorLine for larger accounts)
4. Only for those using non-registered (taxable) accounts – track the adjusted cost base of your ETF.

When I took the Vanguard investor questionnaire I got the following results:

I would then select the appropriate asset allocation ETF. I chose Vanguard’s All Equity ETF (VEQT).

I use three different discount brokerage platforms, including Wealthsimple Trade, Questrade, and TD Direct Investing. I’d suggest sticking with one platform for simplicity.

Finally, for those tracking their adjusted cost base in non-registered (taxable) accounts I’d suggest using the website adjustedcostbase.ca.

That’s it – there’s your free DIY investing course for a simple index portfolio thanks to PWL Capital’s Justin Bender.

Weekend Reading:

Here’s a few good suggestions on how to invest after you’ve maxed out your RRSP and TFSA.

From Psychology Today, here are 10 amazing results from cultivating a life of purpose.

Why Evidence Based Investor Robin Powell thinks the 1% advice fee is toast:

“Expressed as percentages, investment costs seem relatively insignificant. But they add up and, just like returns, they compound. So you don’t just lose the amount of fees you pay; you also lose all the growth that money might have had for years into the future.”

A financial psychologist says the number one money bias that hurts investors the most is something called herd mentality.

Morningstar’s Christine Benz calls semi-retirement a “phenomenon”:

“It’s a trial run, an experiment, to see what retirement might actually feel like. It can be valuable to think things through living out your days in the way you expect to when you’re retired.”

As new mortgages continue to surge to record highs, home equity lines of credit have also jumped almost 57% to the highest level in a decade.

Finally, from A Wealth of Common Sense blogger Ben Carlson (who lives in the US), why he may never pay off his mortgage.

Have a great weekend, everyone. And don’t forget to sign up for the Canadian Financial Summit!

Money is still a taboo topic in many cultures. Well, that’s not exactly true. We love to complain about money – about the price of gas, the cost of groceries, the rise and fall of lumber prices, our empty bank account, our credit card debt.

But we rarely talk about the value of money and the role it plays in our lives. What it means to us. Why we make certain decisions about money. How we see money supporting our future goals.

Author Ramit Sethi says the way we feel about money today often stems from our childhood experiences. He calls these our invisible money scripts:

“Invisible scripts are truths so ubiquitous and deeply embedded in society that we don’t even realize they’re guiding our attitudes and behaviour.”

The University of Chicago’s Financial Education Initiative came up with Talking Cents cards to spark conversations about money with your kids and help them develop a positive relationship with money.

I ordered a deck of cards last year to try them out. Each night after dinner we drew a handful of cards and went around the table discussing the questions and our answers. 

The deck contains 108 cards, plus a link to a discussion guide for each card. The discussion guide is a great addition to encourage a richer discussion with prompts and follow up questions. For example, one of the cards included this quote from Albert Einstein:

“If you want to have a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” Do you agree or disagree?

The discussion guide for this card said that it may be interesting to share a little bit about Albert Einstein. He was born in Germany in 1879 and later immigrated to the United States. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Extend this discussion by having others explain why they agree or disagree with the quote.

I bought the deck of cards directly from the University of Chicago website. It cost $20 USD plus $13 shipping – so just over $40 CAD. Not cheap.

Thankfully, the Rational Reminder team of Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore, who have made Talking Cents a regular feature in their podcast, have brought the cards to Canada and now sell them for $30 CAD plus tax (free shipping).

If you want to do your part to encourage more rich conversations about money you can pick up your deck of Talking Cents cards at the Rational Reminder online store.

Finally, I’ll leave you with another question from the Talking Cents deck. I’m curious about your answers so please leave a comment below:

“What is something you could buy for yourself but haven’t because you think it would be too extravagant?”

For me, I’ve always wanted to fly business class on a long flight. Even though I have plenty of points to support our (eventual) travel, I’ve always thought it was best to conserve them for more economy redemptions.

But, that changed recently when I re-booked our trip to Italy for 2022 and found business class seats available for 70,000 Aeroplan points (Calgary to Rome). I’ve never been more excited for an 11-hour flight in my life!

This Week’s Recap:

On Friday I updated my post on whether you should defer OAS to age 70 or take it at 65.

Over on Young & Thrifty I took a look at BMO InvestorLine’s self-directed trading platform.

Many thanks to Erica Alini at Global News for including my OAS analysis in her latest Money123 newsletter <–you should subscribe to this.

Promo of the Week:

I’m still baffled why so many Canadians still keep high cash balances in their chequing account or in a big bank savings account that pays next to nothing in interest.

Yes, interest rates are still pitifully low. But that doesn’t mean accepting zero or next to zero percent interest on your cash savings. 

That’s why I promote EQ Bank’s high interest savings account which pays 1.25% interest and offers some chequing account functionality like free e-Transfers and bill payments.

I also like that EQ doesn’t play the promotional interest game – giving you a high rate for just a short period of time. Instead, EQ Bank typically sits in the top 5 of all high interest savings account rates across the country.

Sure, you’re not going to get rich stashing your money in high interest savings. But you can literally get 125x the interest by moving your cash from a big bank to a high interest online bank like EQ.

Weekend Reading:

A look at some excellent free Amazon Gift Card offers on select new credit card applications, from our friends at Credit Card Genius.

National Bank’s discount brokerage arm just eliminated commissions for ETF and stock trades. Rob Carrick writes, should you move your brokerage account to benefit from zero commissions? (<–subscribers)

My take:

I did this in 2020 – moving my RRSP and TFSA from TD Direct to WS Trade to save $10/trade while I added new money regularly. WS Trade is not nearly as robust of a platform as TD Direct but it served the purpose. Nice to see the big bank brokerages adopting zero-commission now. https://t.co/afYQujPHxy

— Boomer and Echo (@BoomerandEcho) August 27, 2021

Millionaire Teacher Andrew Hallam asks young investors, would you pass the wizard’s test?

At the Toronto Star, improving your investment portfolio requires facing some sneaky biases.

A must read for investors who feel compelled to tilt their portfolio towards or away from specific countries or regions. Stock returns are random. Stop trying to predict winners and just hold a globally diversified portfolio.

Ramit Sethi explains how to automate your finances using technology and psychology:

“Using automation to reduce choices sets you up for success with money, without even having to think about it on a daily basis.”

Turning to the election, here’s why experts say inflation won’t be solved on the campaign trail.

And, here’s a detailed look at the three major political parties’ proposals on childcare and what they could mean for your finances.

Morningstar’s Christine Benz says to forget income replacement, focus on supplying cash flow needs in retirement.

PWL Capital’s Ben Felix argues that our money decisions should be anchored in the objective of living a happy life:

Morningstar takes a closer look at popular retirement savings estimates and asks if you really need to save that much for retirement.

Here’s Kiplinger with six retirement killers to avoid at all costs.

Michael James on Money has mixed feelings about Daryl Diamond’s new book, Retirement for the Record.

Mortgage broker David Larock looks at the current case for variable rate mortgages.

Jason Heath answers a reader question about whether to maximize the down payment on a house or to keep some money to invest.

Of Dollars and Data blogger Nick Magguilli looks at whether we’re in a “melt-up” for investment returns.

Finally, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger famously have three boxes for investment ideas: In, Out, and Too Hard. Here’s why you don’t have to invest in everything.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

Many retirees want to know how much they can spend in retirement without running out of money. The caveat is that most also want to remain in their home as long as possible. With the pandemic shining a light on poor conditions and service at long-term care facilities, it’s likely we’ll see even more seniors wanting to ‘age in place’. 

What that means for some retired homeowners is coming up with a way to tap into their home equity. The most common thought is to downsize – sell the family home and move into a condo or smaller house while pocketing the difference in price. Another option is to sell the home and rent in retirement. 

Those who want to remain in their home for comfort, sentiment, or other reasons may choose to utilize a home equity line of credit. One challenge with this approach is getting a large enough loan in place while you still qualify (i.e. before you retire). Another challenge is that tapping into the loan triggers monthly interest payments.

Finally, there’s one option that was once considered taboo but is now becoming increasingly popular: a reverse mortgage. Canadian homeowners aged 55+ can set up a reverse mortgage through one of two lenders, Equitable Bank and HomeEquity Bank.

The reverse mortgage allows you to access up to 55% of the value of your home. The cash can be paid over a longer period of time (literally like a reverse mortgage), or in a lump sum up front. 

The money is tax-free. You maintain ownership and control of your home, and only pay back the loan when you move or sell. Any appreciation in value over time still belongs to you. You’re simply required to keep the property maintained, pay your property taxes, and keep the house insured.

In areas of the country like Vancouver and Toronto, many seniors will find that their home is by far their largest asset. If the idea is to age in place and leave the home in your estate, you may be sacrificing your own retirement lifestyle along the way.

Imagine you live to age 95. How old will your beneficiaries be and how useful will an inheritance of several million dollars be to them at that time?

Then there’s the reality that you may not be able to age in place for your entire lifetime. Poor health outcomes might dictate a move to a retirement home at some point. 

A paid off home is indeed a cornerstone to a solid retirement plan, but retirees should also consider tapping into their home equity by some measure to enhance their lifestyle and/or plan for extra healthcare costs in their later years.

One question for my homeowner readers – would you consider a reverse mortgage? Let me know in the comments.

This Week’s Recap:

Earlier this week I wrote about two types of overconfident investors.

Last week I was excited to share a conversation with Alexandra Macqueen and David Field, the authors of The Boomers Retire.

Alexandra was gracious enough to offer a free copy of the book to give away to a lucky reader who commented on the post. The winner of the book is “Kat” who commented on August 16th at 12:18pm. Congrats, Kat!

Promo of the Week:

Most bank managed portfolios come with mutual fund fees in the 2%+ range. Meanwhile, many investors aren’t interested or cut out for do-it-yourself investing.

A robo advisor is the perfect sweet spot between a fully managed investment portfolio and a self-directed option. With a robo, you can ditch the expensive mutual funds (which can add up to $10,000 or more each year on large portfolios) and still get a managed portfolio of low cost, globally diversified, and risk appropriate ETFs, plus access to a portfolio manager if you have questions or concerns. 

The robo automatically monitors and rebalances your investments as you add new money and when markets move up and down. 

Retirees in particular can benefit from the cost savings and automation that robo advisors provide. Think about it. Cost savings matter the most when your portfolio is at its largest. And, while there’s nothing complicated about the accumulation phase, the withdrawal phase in retirement is another matter altogether. When to convert your RRSP to a RRIF? How much to withdraw from each account every year? When to schedule those withdrawals (monthly, quarterly, annually)?

A robo advisor can help with all of this and more. 

My go-to robo advisor is Wealthsimple, the largest robo-advisor in Canada. Clients with more than $100,000 to invest qualify for Wealthsimple Black, which comes with a reduced management fee of 0.40% plus some other perks.

Right now you can get a $50 bonus when you open and fund your first Wealthsimple account (min. $500 initial deposit). Sign up now to take advantage of this special offer.

Weekend Reading:

Our friends at Credit Card Genius look at the positive and negative changes made recently to Canada’s best credit card.

You might recognize Tomas Pueyo from his excellent COVID-19 coverage but he also worked for years in the financial advice industry and laid out a few things you need to know about how to invest.

Here’s Morningstar’s Christine Benz and Susan Dziubinski on why you should trial run your retirement. 

Steadyhand’s Tom Bradley explains how investors can narrow the gap between their risk capacity and risk appetite.

Jason Heath answers a reader question on how much should you withdraw from your RRIF.

Peter Lazaroff discusses investing regret, including where regret comes from, why we experience it with our portfolio, and what to do about it.

Ramit Sethi talks about why we are so emotional about money in this Harvard Business Review interview:

“Our feelings are almost always unrelated to the financial decisions we make and indicative of something much deeper.”

Can you change your mind about money? Here’s why the biggest improvement you could make to your financial well being might be to reframe the way you think about money.

Jonathan Chevreau is rethinking the speculative component of his core and explore investing approach. I think more stock pickers should do this kind of honest self-reflection.

Here’s a fascinating conversation with one of my favourite writers, Morgan Housel from the Collaborative Fund:

Here’s Morgan Housel again looking back at three times history hung by a thread due to chance encounters.

Nine questions that A Wealth of Common Sense blogger Ben Carlson is pondering about the greatest bull market in his lifetime.

Investment advisor Markus Muhs with a scathing critique of market linked GICs – not now, not ever. Agree 100%.

A great resource here by Mark Walhout on investing inside a corporation. 

Finally, here’s a nice piece by the Humble Dollar’s Don Southworth on the dreaded “b” word. He writes, “for too many people, a budget connotes pennypinching, financial claustrophobia and sacrifice.” But he’s convinced that budgets can change lives because a budget changed his.

Have a great weekend, everyone!