Blogs

In years past, when an individual was preparing for retirement or leaving their employer for another job, it was commonplace that they would leave their defined benefit pension entitlement with their previous employer with the understanding that they would receive a monthly pension in retirement. Yet in recent years, there are a number of factors which have ‘flipped the script’ on the pension decision. Today, many employees are giving serious consideration as to why they may consider commuting their company pensions.

With April just getting underway, I always get excited this time of year. With each rare glimpse of what a beautiful spring day could look like, I know that warmer weather is on its way. And this means more time out in the outdoors doing the things I love.

As an avid gardener and “green thumb” in my spare time and as a wealth advisor in my professional life, I’ve come to notice some pretty interesting similarities between my gardening habits and how I help my clients manage their hard-earned money.

As a gardener, I’ve noticed the importance of:

With today’s announcement that the Bank of Canada has decided to raise its key interest rate to 0.75 per cent, it’s first upward move to the cost of borrowing in seven years, I wanted to share what I think are some key insights on what this means for every-day Canadians.

As our population continues to age in Canada, there will be a number of significant issues and trends that will impact the way business and government respond to the needs of Canada’s senior citizens. One of these issues will be the need for proper housing solutions in many Canadian communities due to this phenomenon. Conventional ways of addressing those needs has typically been through downsizing or renovation to an existing home or property. However, there are other notable reasons why one might be considering selling their family home.

The year is 1989 when Ilyce Glink, then founder and president of Think Glink Media walked into her local bank with her husband to apply for a mortgage. Now sitting down with the bank’s mortgage specialist, Ilyce began describing her monthly income to help the mortgage specialist determine the couple’s borrowing threshold. “Don’t worry honey, your income doesn’t even count”, she recalls being told by the mortgage specialist (1).

In my years of meeting with clients and talking about personal finances, I think that one of the most powerful concepts I’ve introduced into client meetings is the idea of the “future self”.

Simply put, your “future self” is the idea of who you are, where you’ll be and what you’ll be doing at some point in the future.

With the income tax season right around the corner, here are some tax tips that could help you save money on your Canadian income tax filing.

What do we expect from the new U.S. President?

As always, anytime there is an unexpected outcome in political elections, financial markets don’t like the uncertainty. This was evident last night when the future’s markets pointed to fairly significant declines when global markets were set to open for business this morning (1).

During the election campaign, President Elect Donald Trump spoke tirelessly about certain divisive issues, such as:

Every day, a new financial scam is born. And every day, more and more Canadians are taken advantage of by savvy financial scammers. In a recent report released by the Better Business Bureau, the top 10 Canadian financial scams cost Canadian’s $1.2 Billion dollars in 2015. Needless to say, financial fraud is an issue.

You’ve never needed travel insurance until you needed it. Let me start by telling my story.

In my early 20’s, I booked a trip to the Dominican Republic. Being young, naïve and somewhat confident that “it wouldn’t happen to me”, I decided to forego the purchase of travel insurance while away on my one week getaway.

On the very first day of my trip, I had an uncomfortable feeling on the surface of my abdomen. After lying in the sun all day, I felt further irritation. I knew that something was wrong when I woke up the next morning with massive blisters on my stomach.