New Years Financial Resolutions

Jack and Diane want to improve their financial situation and feel that making financial New Years resolutions and implementing them is a good start. To help identify their priorities, they made the following list:

Set Objectives – Goal setting is the foundation of achieving financial success. If they write down their goals, it will help Jack and Diane clarify them and establish their personal and financial priorities.

Pay Themselves First – There is no better way of building wealth than paying themselves first. It simply means Jack and Diane take their savings off the top of their pay cheques rather than from what little, if any, is left over. By building their investments ...

More Overlooked RRSP Tricks

More than 65% of Canadians have made deposits to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). Many do so just for the tax savings, but here are some often overlooked tricks you should be aware of:

RRSP loans – Those who use investment funds for their RRSPs should be well aware of the strategy of ’buying low and selling high.’ As unnerving as it may feel, one of the best times to make a lump sum deposit is after there has been a substantial stock market correction. If you don’t have the cash on hand, an RRSP loan, paid back monthly, is an attractive way to come up with a larger deposit.

Use refunds wisely – Many RRSP contributors receive tax refunds each year. All too often, the refund gets blown on consumer items. Why not endorse the cheque directly over to your RRSP carrier and get a head start on next year’s contribution? How about a...

The Retirement Dilemma: Part 1

In the 1960s, retirement planning seemed straightforward. The advice was to move all your investments into fixed-income products as soon as you retired. Why? Because taking risks during retirement was considered dangerous. Back then, this approach made perfect sense.

But here’s the thing–this same advice still gets repeated today, sometimes treated as universal truth by some sources. Yet, the world has changed dramatically since the mid-20th century. So, is this old-school wisdom still relevant?

Let’s consider a story to illustrate the point. A woman preparing Christmas dinner cuts the end off her roast before putting it in the oven. Her daughter asks, "Why do you cut the end off?" The mother replies, "I’m not sure–that’s how Granny always did it. Let’s ask her." When they ask Granny, she laughs and says, "I only cut the end off..."