As my wife and I approach retirement age, conversations about what’s next are becoming more frequent. While we think about retirement in general, I, as the primary “wealth manager” in our household, also reflect on when it might be time to step back from managing...
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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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I follow a few Facebook pages that have to do with personal finance, retirement, etc. In a post, a man I’ll call Alan is 35 years old and has recently received a $100,000 inheritance that he hopes to use to build up his retirement savings....
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Saving for Retirement is Easy; Spending in Retirement – Not So Much You have been saving for retirement all your life. If you are a resident of Canada, you have been building up credits toward receiving Old Age Security (OAS). If you have been employed, you...
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“Would it surprise you to know the number is $1.7 million?” You may be familiar with the commercial from Qtrade, the Vancouver-based online investment platform that partners with most of the credit unions in Canada. An interviewer asks a series of people on the streets what...
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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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Retire Now? I am fascinated by the number of videos that show up on YouTube extolling the virtues of early retirement. Often, they will have a catchy title like, “Why Wait? Retire Now!” or something similar. Oddly enough, despite the increasing interest in retiring early, trends...
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FPAC Pro Bono Planning I am a member of the Financial Planning Association of Canada™ (FPAC). Our mission is to build the practice of financial planning into a principled and client-centred profession. Among FPAC’s activities, such as advocacy before governments and regulators (I am a member...
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Introduction Concrete financial milestones can serve as checkpoints on your path to financial stability. From paying off student loans to leaving a financial legacy for the next generation or a charity, each milestone represents a significant achievement along your financial journey. In this blog post, I...
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Meet John and Jane Jane and John are a couple in their early thirties. They own a townhouse in a suburb outside of Toronto. Although the commute is a bit of a burden, their jobs as an architect and software developer, respectively, allow them to work...
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