Scenario Let’s imagine that you are 35 years old and you have just inherited $50,000. You wonder whether it makes sense to contribute to your RRSP, your TFSA, or whether you should open a non-registered account and invest the money there. You live in Ontario and your...
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The bucket strategy divides your investment assets into three categories. The Immediate or Short-Term Bucket This bucket covers a period lasting between two to five years. Money in this category is typically held in savings accounts, Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs), and Short-Term Fixed-Income (Bond) Funds. Assets in...
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My dad’s birthday was September 2. He died a little over four years ago just short of age 89. Thanks to his thoughtful approach to financial matters and the careful executorship of my brother, Rob, we four siblings received our inheritances in a timely manner. What...
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The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) seems to get all the press these days. There are these debates about whether one should take it as early as age 60, wait until the “normal” retirement age of 65, or even delay the start until as late as...
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If you have a spouse and/or children, in other words, someone who is dependent on you, life insurance of some sort is an important consideration. Your dependants “depend” on your monetary contribution to the household. A monetary contribution includes income from employment or self-employment, but...
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One of the biggest impacts on my life occurred when I was 25 years old and newly married. A routine medical test detected a problem in the functioning of my kidneys. Further testing eventually determined that I had a chronic kidney disease known as Membranoproliferative...
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Defined Benefit pension plans are required to use a funded ratio, also referred to as a solvency ratio, in determining whether the plan is sufficiently funded. This approach can also be used to assess the funding adequacy, or solvency, of your own retirement savings. What is...
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Friends of mine were talking about downsizing after they retired. The idea of having a smaller space to maintain was appealing. However, they decided against it for the time being, arguing that having more bedrooms and a bigger backyard was beneficial now that grandchildren were...
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One of the hallmarks of any credential-granting professional body is that it has a well-established disciplinary process. The credential-granting body to which I answer is FP Canada. A division of FP Canada, the FP Canada Standards Council™, establishes and enforces the standards that are required...
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You have had it. You cannot stand even one more winter of shovelling snow or fearing the loss of your fingers and toes from frostbite. You are going to retire to Panama, or Malaysia, or Portugal, or… There are lots of lists on the internet...
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