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Get the future you want: Make a financial plan – Part 3: Insurance

As an investor, you probably remember the how-to rules when you first started investing. Buy low, sell high. Diversify. Invest for retirement. Save before you spend. And you’ve adhered to these rules completely. Or…have you? The problem we often see with clients is an all-too-human one: their tendency to rely on emotions – and make unsound financial decisions as a result.

How best to build your retirement income? PAC in the savings!

No one would argue that saving for retirement is a great idea. It’s something we all know we should do. But whether we put the idea into action is another issue. How many of us, when we come down to it, are good savers? Are you?

Turns out that, on average, we Canadians are pretty dismal at saving. According to Statistics Canada¹, the current household saving rate is hovering around 4%, a percentage that has fallen drastically since the 1980s. Yet we’re in a time that has seen a rise both in the cost of living and in stock-market volatility. Now, more than ever, it’s vital to ensure you set up a savings plan to provide sufficient income for your retirement years.

Get the future you want: Make a financial plan – Part 2: Rainy Day Fund

In the previous, introductory article to this series, Part 1, we defined just what financial planning is. Not unlike planning your dream house, you figure out where you want to be: that is, your values. And, what you want your life to look like: your goals. In this second article, we examine the importance of putting money aside for your dream future.

Get the future you want: Make a financial plan – Part 1

Managing and organizing your finances seems daunting, especially the idea of coming up with an actual financial plan. But never fear. In this six-part series we aim to defog the confusion.

Corporate Owned Insurance - Why Now?

Life insurance plays an increasingly important role in financial planning due to the growing wealth of Canadians. Many affluent individuals use life insurance to protect their wealth against taxes arising on death. Others use exempt life insurance to provide retirement and other executive benefits.  A valuable aspect of life insurance to fund the tax liability on company shares is the capital dividend account credits (CDA), it’s a notional account to flow tax-free receipts through to shareholders on a tax-free basis.

Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)

As a parent, are you worried about how you are going to put your children through post-secondary school?  As the cost of tuition rises and student debt increases every year in Canada it becomes more and more costly for individuals to attend post-secondary school.  There are, however, ways to help minimize the burden of student loans for your child.

Your financial plan is only as good as the questions you ask

When I was just a child, my dad gave me a gift that has served me well all my life.

He gave me the gift of asking questions.

Now, I know you’re thinking that every young child asks a million questions – and that’s true. But what my dad did was not to simply answer my questions, or tell me to go away and stop bothering him. What he did was to preface his answers with: “That’s a good question, Anthony.”

As a result, I’ve gone through my life being unafraid to ask questions. I don’t believe there are any stupid questions, if they are asked in earnest.

I can truthfully say that asking questions, and finding out and reflecting on the answers, has got me to where I am today.