Financial Planning Simplified
I’m Robb — the guy behind Boomer & Echo. I’ve been a personal finance blogger since 2010 and an advice-only financial planner since 2015. I help regular Canadians with regular problems make smarter decisions about their money — without selling them a thing.
My philosophy is simple: Money shouldn’t be complicated.
You don’t need 17 bank accounts, 12 ETFs, or a side hustle to retire comfortably. You just need a good plan, grounded in what really matters to you.
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New Articles from Robb
Weekend Reading: Student Loan Forgiveness Edition
Robb Engen | May 25, 2019 |
It’s graduation season for university and college students across North America. The biggest story of the week came from tiny Morehouse College in Atlanta, where Morehouse’s commencement speaker and tech billionaire Robert Smith pledged to pay off the student loan debt of the entire Morehouse Class of 2019. Smith’s generous gift will wipe away student…
Long Weekend Reading: Canada Pension Plan Solvency Edition
Robb Engen | May 20, 2019 |
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board manages $392 billion in assets on behalf of some 20 million Canadian contributors and beneficiaries. Operated at arms-length of the federal government, the CPPIB is the 11th largest sovereign wealth fund in the world (Norway’s trillion dollar pension fund leads the way). While questions about Canada Pension Plan solvency…
KOHO Review: Get Up To 1.5% Cashback
Robb Engen | May 18, 2019 |
KOHO is a prepaid, reloadable VISA card, plus an app that can be used to access full feature banking services to help manage your finances right from your mobile device. While a prepaid credit card doesn’t sound all that special, KOHO takes it to the next level (and then some) with a product that is…
Weekend Reading: A Few Bad Apples Edition
Robb Engen | May 11, 2019 |
We’ve heard arguments that misconduct only happens with “a few bad apples”, while the rest of the industry is full of good guys and gals looking out for their clients’ best interests.
Weekend Reading: Your Advisor Doesn’t Like Index Funds Edition
Robb Engen | April 27, 2019 |
A client is moving her portfolio to the robo-advisor Wealthsimple, where she will save a minimum of $5,000 in annual fees. Her former advisor is not happy about this, as you’d expect, and sent an email filled with all the reasons why she’d be better off staying invested in his actively managed mutual funds. Most…
Why Don’t I Pay Off My Mortgage?
Robb Engen | April 25, 2019 |
Followers of this blog know that I tend to focus on saving and investing rather than trying to pay off my mortgage faster. Indeed, our household assets are projected to exceed $1 million this year but we’ve still got a $200,000 mortgage to contend with. So why don’t I make it a priority to pay…
