When Life Hits Harder Than Expected At age 25, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Three decades later, I started peritoneal dialysis, followed by a kidney transplant from a living donor at age 57. In between, I underwent surgeries for my gall bladder (2007) and...
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My first full-time job did not have any benefits. I am aware that in certain careers, a lack of an employer-sponsored retirement saving benefit is the norm, whether a Defined Benefit pension, plan, Defined Contribution pension plan, Group RRSP, or Deferred Profit-Sharing Plan. Nevertheless, for...
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It should be understood that investing can be challenging. In this case, I’m not talking about the process of investing, the purchase of a mutual fund or Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). Rather, I am referring to the uncertainty, the inevitable fluctuations in the prices of the...
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The Unexpected Problem: Nature Risk Our home insurance renews at the end of January every year. In December, we received a document from our insurance broker informing us that the insurance company we had been using for the last several years was removing “overland water (flood)...
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In the YouTube video A Day in the Life of a Financial Advisor – Funny or Truth, a woman sits down with a financial advisor, unknowingly burdened with misconceptions and a dose of naïveté about personal finance. Her questions and concerns provide a helpful reflection...
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The Income and Wealth Gap The Context An unattached Canadian is a person not in an “economic family,” that is, a person living either alone or with others to whom he or she is unrelated, such as roommates or a lodger. Unattached Canadians are a growing demographic...
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Matthew (Matt) is a 27-year-old social worker with a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree, which he completed three years ago. Currently working in the healthcare sector, Matt has seen firsthand how financial instability can cause stress and hardship. Whether due to inadequate insurance or...
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The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is often debated, with some Canadians feeling that it unfairly penalizes those who die before they can fully collect its benefits. Critics of CPP argue that mandatory contributions, when considering the possibility of early death, result in a system where...
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Jonathan Clements, author, founder and editor of the HumbleDollar blog, and former personal finance columnist at the Wall Street Journal, recently wrote of his diagnosis with metastasized lung cancer. He is not alone, of course. I’m sure that almost all of us can name a...
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In the world of personal finance, navigating the complexities of financial planning can be overwhelming. To make the process more accessible, I’m pleased to introduce FinPlan30 – a no-cost, no-obligation 30-minute conversation on various financial planning topics tailored to the Canadian landscape. FinPlan30 is, in fact,...
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