Build Wealth Canada Podcast

Today, we tackle one of the most intricate financial puzzles faced by Canadians: transitioning from accumulating wealth for retirement to effectively managing it during the decumulation phase—when you’re actually living off your investments. In this episode, we’ll explore why this shift can be so complex, even for seasoned savers and investors. You’ll gain insights into balancing financial security with enjoying your retirement lifestyle and sustainably spending the wealth you’ve worked so hard to accumulate. We’ll also discuss both hands-on and passive approaches to managing retirement funds and share strategies to help maintain your financial stability while still enjoying life. Whether you’re nearing retirement or planning ahead, this episode offers valuable strategies for navigating the decumulation puzzle with confidence and peace of mind. Our Expert Guest: Joining me today is Eric Monteiro. Eric helps lead Canada’s largest provider of workplace savings and retirement platforms, covering over 1.3 million Canadians and managing more than $125 billion in assets. He does this at Sun Life, where he has worked since 2016 as the Senior Vice-President of Group Retirement Services. Eric also serves on the Board of Directors for The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, one of the world’s leading cancer research and care organizations. And now, let's get into the interview. Questions Covered: Easily one of the most complicated financial puzzles that I’ve ever had to solve, was how to transition from the accumulation stage where we’re just adding to our investments for retirement, to the decumulation stage where we are now living off our portfolio, and now have to worry about not running out of money. For those of us who haven’t fully gone through this challenge yet, can you shed some light on why transitioning to this new stage in life is so much more complicated? and why should we all care about it now, even for those that are still in the accumulation stage? When it comes to Canadians managing their finances while living off their portfolio, there are several different approaches available to them. Some are very hands-on, more time consuming, and can get very complex. They do however have the benefit of generally having low fees and potentially being very tax optimized if managed correctly. On the other end of the spectrum, we have very hands-off, passive solutions, but those tend to have larger fees associated with them (at least from what I’ve seen here in Canada). Can you take us through the different decumulation solutions or strategies available to us, as Canadians, and what are the pros and cons of each? I’m a passive index investor, and I don’t mind micromanaging the investments and withdrawals myself to save extra money on fees and taxes. But, one thing that I worry about and that I believe all Canadians should consider, is: Who is going to manage the decumulation for your aging parents? Especially if they are not as financially savvy, and when they eventually go through cognitive decline as they reach those later years. And, what happens if you die before your partner, or go through some form of cognitive decline yourself? How can you transition what you currently do, to a partner that maybe is not willing or able to micromanage your investments to the same degree as you? Can you speak to which options you have found to work best for Canadians in these situations? One of the challenges that we all face, especially as we start to live off our portfolios, is how to balance the need for security where we don’t run out of money in our retirement, while still enjoying the fruits of our labour, especially while we are still healthy. In other words, ensuring that not only do we not overspend, but also that we don’t underspend and end up passing away with an enormous portfolio that we regret not fully utilizing. Do you have any practical strategies, tactics, or ways of thinking to help us find the balance so that we don’t end up on either extreme end of this spectrum? One solution that you mentioned earlier that could potentially be used to help automate and simplify our finances in the decumulation phase was the ‘MyRetirement Income’ product. This is something that’s new, that I’m not too familiar with. Can you tell us more about it, how it works, and what are the fees associated with it? Thanks so much Eric, I’m always on the lookout for what is available out there, particularly for solutions that I can maybe suggest to my parents, or that I can transition to my wife if something was to happen to me. Can you tell us where we can learn more, and are there any other educational resources that you can direct us to when it comes to helping solve that decumulation puzzle here in Canada?

On today’s episode we have another Canadian guest, Kyle Prevost, who achieved financial independence at an early age (he was able to pull it off in his 30s). He’s also done hundreds of financial talks and interviews over the years with both regular Canadians, and some of the most highly respected financial experts in both Canada and the US. In this episode, we discuss what he’s learned from these hundreds of discussions that he’s had, especially when it comes to best practices and financial tactics that we can apply to our own lives. He also shares advice on how he personally minimizes and thinks about fees in his own investment portfolio, and we also discuss his findings on CPP and OAS in Canada, which in case you’re not familiar, are the two main income sources from the government that Canadians rely on in their retirement. Kyle has done a bunch of research and interviews on how viable the CPP and OAS is long-term, and if we can continue to expect to receive them in our older age, even if we’re nowhere near that traditional retirement age of 65 yet. We cover all this and more in the interview. Also, free tickets to the Canadian Financial Summit: Kyle and I have run the Canadian Financial Summit together for years in the past, this year I’m attending it as one of the speakers, and I have free tickets for you which you can get at buildwealthcanada.ca/summit. In case you’re new to the Summit, it’s a fully online event for Canadians where you can stream all the educational talks. I’ll be speaking at it again this year, this time about RRSPs, and I’ll be there with 36 other Canadian personal finance and investing experts who will be sharing their expertise and best practices when it comes to investing, retirement, financial planning, ETFs, pensions, cash flow management once you hit your financial independence number, and much more. It’s happening really soon this month, October 23-26. I hope to see you there, and again you can get free tickets to the event by going to buildwealthcanada.ca/summit I hope to see you there! Kornel

We all spend decades accumulating and growing our net worth, along with many hours of research and studying to optimize our investments and minimize our taxes as Canadians. But what if a single incident wipes all that out? or even just a large portion of it out? Wouldn't it be completely irrational to not eliminate that risk? The best solution that I can think of for accomplishing this is insurance, so I thought it would be helpful to come up with a checklist that you can use of the different types of insurance available for us Canadians, so that you can go through it, one by one, and decide which types make sense for you, to protect your net worth. After that, we do a minor pivot to talk about dental insurance and medical insurance for us Canadians. I have been spending an obscene amount on dental care with our two kids. It's super expensive, it stresses me out, and so I wanted to learn more about what the options are for us Canadians when it comes to dental coverage, along with getting medical coverage for things that aren't covered by the government, here in Canada. Today’s Guests: To help me with this, I brought back one of our popular returning guests, Laura MacKay. Laura is the co-founder and COO of policyme.com, Canada's fastest-growing digital insurance company. In 2021, she was named one of the Women of the Year by Bay Street Bull. She has a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, and her degree focused on Actuarial Science, which included learning about mortality risk, the basis of life insurance pricing and valuation. Laura is also joined by her colleague Natalie Dupley, who comes from the not-for-profit sector. Natalie is now a licensed insurance advisor that works with Laura, and specializes in life, accident, and sickness insurance. Links from the Episode About Laura's Company: PolicyMe.com Educational Guides from the Episode: Types of Dental Insurance Plans in Canada The Canadian Guide to Health Insurance Plans What is Life Insurance: Meaning & Comprehensive Guide Questions Covered: To kick things off, can you take us through what insurance us Canadians typically need, so that we don’t miss out on any critical coverage that we should have? One type of coverage that I think isn’t always thought about for us Canadians is health and dental insurance, particularly since we’re used to having most of our medical expenses covered by the government. Can you take us through some common misconceptions about health and dental insurance, as well as who it would be most useful for? When I think of cases where I need insurance, it’s typically for very sudden and time sensitive events like a car crash, or dental procedure that I need done as soon as possible. But what about having insurance for things that are less sudden like therapy and mental health, or things like braces or corrective eye procedures like LASIK surgery? How does having private insurance work in those cases? When it comes to this type of insurance, how do we determine if it’s more financially sensible to pay-out-of-pocket for these healthcare costs vs purchasing a Health & Dental Insurance plan? Before we continue with more educational questions, I wanted to give you a chance to speak about PolicyMe, what you do, and I realise that you also specialise in health and dental insurance so perhaps you could speak about that? What are the key components to look for when evaluating this type of insurance? When it comes to health and dental insurance plans, is this something that also covers you when travelling? Or would that be separate? Of all the things covered under a Health & Dental plan, what areas of coverage do most Canadians prioritise or care about? and what are some areas of coverage that you think are underutilised (or that Canadians can stand to benefit from more)? What are some of the most common questions that Canadians ask when it comes to health and dental insurance? Can you tell us more about PolicyMe, how you differentiate yourselves, and what you offer?

This interview will be a bit different as I was recently interviewed by Financial Journalist, Ellen Roseman from Canadian MoneySaver Magazine where she asked me some great questions, and so I thought it would be great to also publish that interview, here on the Build Wealth Canada Show. In the interview, we cover what lessons for Canadians I have learned after doing close to two hundred interviews with financial experts, over the past 10 years. My wife and I have also been either fully or semi-retired for the past 8 years, and so Ellen asked me if I have any advice for those who are also planning to retire in their 30s like us, or just retire early in general, and she asks what kind of financial changes or challenges were we surprised by that you should know about to help you with your own journey towards financial independence and early retirement. Ellen has also been teaching investing at the University of Toronto for the past 20 years, so in the interview, she also shares some of her lessons learned over that time. Enjoy the episode, and if you’d like to hear more interviews done by Ellen, you can check them out on the Canadian MoneySaver Podcast which you can find in your favourite podcast player. Thanks for tuning in, and you can get all the show notes and free resources over at BuildWealthCanada.ca.

In this episode, I interview two professional financial planners to discover what are the most common questions that they receive when working with Canadians. Our two guests are also going to cover what the most important and frequently occurring blind spots are that we Canadians tend to make in our own finances. We also cover how to know if you are on-track to reach financial independence and retire early, or if you have enough to retire comfortably. We cover all this and more, as we tackle the top questions that Canadians have, here in Canada. Our guests today are Hannah McVean and Thuy Lam from Objective Financial Partners. They are both fee-for-service financial planners, are both Certified Financial Planners (CFP), and they and their firm don’t sell any investments and instead focus on providing unbiased, conflict-free financial planning advice. Hannah was actually a guest on our January episode with Jason Heath and that was our most popular episode this year. So, it’s great to have her back, along with Thuy to get multiple perspectives on these most popular questions that Canadians have. Resources & Links Mentioned: You can book a free introductory meeting with Hannah, Thuy and their team at buildwealthcanada.ca/plan. As a Build Wealth Canada listener, you’ll get 10% off if you end up working with them. The discount is for a limited time, and you can sign up for free here. A big thanks to Hannah and Thuy for offering this to Build Wealth Canada listeners.

When we first hit our financial independence number 8 years ago, one of the financial planners that I asked to look at our numbers before my wife and I quit our full-time jobs was Ed Rempel. At the time, I asked Ed if he could do his own math and analysis on our numbers, to make sure that I didn’t miscalculate something when I was doing it myself, and this way I could be certain that my wife and I could quit our jobs and live off our portfolio going forward. Well, fast forward to today, it’s been around 8 years since we quit our full-time jobs, and so I thought it would be helpful to have Ed back on the show and to once again use us as a case study on how one can live off their portfolio in a sustainable, stress free, and tax efficient way, here in Canada. On this episode, you’re going to learn what strategies and frameworks tend to work when it comes to living off your portfolio here in Canada. You’ll learn about a big mistake that I made which was actually causing me money anxiety even though our investment portfolio was going up in value. Ed helped me get through that, and it’s a mistake that is actually totally avoidable, and a skill that you can start building and mastering today. And, when it comes to a strategy for paying the least amount of tax in Canada, Ed takes us through two main strategies that you can choose depending on your situation so that you pay the least amount of tax throughout your lifetime. We cover all this and much more in the interview. Links, show notes and free resources are all available at BuildWealthCanada.ca.

Having your investments pay you large dividends or yield sounds great. It’s truly passive income where money just shows up in your account without you having to do anything, and without you having to sell off any of your investments even when markets are down. But what if you get too focused on maximizing dividends or yield in your portfolio? After all, there is no free lunch when it comes to investing. There are always tradeoffs, and it turns out that there are some pretty significant disadvantages for investors that just try to maximize their yield or dividends at all costs, and it can result in you actually getting a substantially lower "total return" over time, on your investments. About Our Guest To help us learn what pitfalls to look out for when deciding on our investments, particularly when it comes to some of these very high yielding ETFs that you may be seeing recommended online, we have Chris Heakes. Chris has over 14 years of experience in the investment industry. He’s a CFA, has a Master of Finance from the University of Toronto, and is a Director and Portfolio Manager at BMO Global Asset Management. Chris is going to take us through what we should look out for so that we don’t fall for the yield trap. We’ll also cover hidden fees that you may be unknowingly paying on some ETF, along with some arguably deceptive advertising to look out for that you may have seen here in Canada when it comes to your investments. Lots to learn in this interview with Chris, so let’s jump right in. You can see all the show notes, resources and links for this episode over at BuildWealthCanada.ca

A big thanks to RBC for sponsoring this episode. We talk a lot about growing our net worth as Canadians, but what about actually protecting our assets from threats like fraud? So, I thought we’d get some security experts on the show to teach us some best practices when it comes to protecting ourselves and our family, especially when it comes to our finances, here in Canada. They are part of the security teams at the largest bank in Canada. They have entire teams devoted to security and invest a lot of time and money to ensure that they and their clients are following the best practices. Today, you and I are going to learn what we can do as regular Canadians, to best protect ourselves. Our first guest is Kevin Purkiss who is the Vice President of Fraud Management at RBC. He leads the team responsible for managing RBC’s fraud capabilities, and helps protect the many thousands of Canadians that they serve. Next, we have Kevin’s colleague, Vice-President, Shekher Puri, who’s going to take us through some additional best practices that you and I should be using, to enhance our security, especially when it comes to our finances. And now let’s jump in to learn what you and I should be doing to better protect ourselves. RBC Disclaimer: This content in this podcast is intended as general information only and is not to be relied upon as constituting legal, financial or other professional advice. A professional advisor should be consulted regarding your specific situation. The information presented is believed to be factual and up-to-date but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the authors as of the date of publication and are subject to change. No endorsement of any third parties or their advice, opinions, information, products or services is expressly given or implied by Royal Bank of Canada or any of its affiliates.

When it comes to managing our investment portfolios, there are definitely some mistakes that are easy to make, and ones that a lot of Canadian investors tend to do.   In this episode, we have Peter McMurtry on the show who is going to take us through what the common mistakes are that Canadian investors tend to do, as well as the best practices that he's noticed from his 30+ years in the investing industry.   One of the things Peter does is portfolio reviews for his clients, so I wanted to pick his brain on the common mistakes that he sees investors make when he reviews their portfolios so that you and I can be sure to avoid those mistakes in our own portfolio.   On the flip side, he’s also worked with clients that are successful investors, and after doing this for 30+ years, one begins to notice certain patterns about what the successful investors do, that the unsuccessful don’t. We go into these best practices that he’s noticed over the years from these successful investors, so that we can apply these lessons ourselves.   Enjoy the show, and you can get the show notes and resources over at BuildWealthCanada.ca   Wishing you all the best,   Kornel

With inflation slowing down here in Canada, we are starting to hear talks about the Bank of Canada no longer planning to increase our interest rates, or maybe even lowering them. This can have an impact on your investment portfolio, particularly if you hold bonds, because remember there is that inverse relationship between interest rates and bonds, where increases in the interest rate tend to lower the value of the bonds that you hold in your portfolio. On the flip side, if the Bank of Canada lowers our rates, you can expect your bonds to increase in value. Apart from your investments, the interest rate can of course have a substantial impact on your month-to-month cashflow, when it comes to things like mortgages as well as the real estate market in general. So, with Spring just around the corner and the real estate buying and selling season about to kick-off, I thought it would be great to have our Resident Mortgage Expert, Sean Cooper back on the show to discuss: -What Canadians should be thinking about when it comes to their mortgages right now. -Should you do a fixed rate or variable rate mortgage if you’re buying a home or have a mortgage coming up for renewal? -What if you’re considering locking in your mortgage to a fixed rate? The optimum answer for all of this can change for you depending on what is happening in the market right now and your own situation, so Sean takes us through the different things you should consider. You’ll also learn, what your options are if you find a better mortgage than what you have right now. What if the rates do drop and you’re now able to get a less expensive mortgage? Can you switch? What can the penalties be? And, can it be worth it to pay those penalties if you find a better mortgage? About Our Expert Guest: In case this is your first time hearing Sean on the show, he is the show’s Resident Mortgage Expert and who I go to and who I send friends and family to for any mortgage related questions. Sean is the bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage: The Simple, Powerful Path to Financial Freedom for Canadians. He is also an independent mortgage broker and has made himself available to help answer mortgage related questions to listeners of the Build Wealth Canada Show. If you have any questions, or are just looking to get a shortlist of the best mortgages that he’s been able to find in Canada (since he’s constantly on the lookout for the best mortgages), you can reach out to him over at buildwealthcanada.ca/sean. And now, let’s get into the interview.

Today, we’re going to cover what you need to know from a tax, investing, and financial planning perspective as we head into this new year. As you know, the government makes changes every year in these areas and the implications of these changes can have a pretty substantial impact on how much you pay in taxes, your net worth, what government benefits you are eligible to get, and how much you get. These can easily affect your net worth in the thousands of dollars every single year, so it’s definitely in your and my best interest to know about these changes and get a bit of a refresher, so that we can all better prepare, and also take advantage of any opportunities that arise. About our guests: To help me with this, I have Certified Financial Planners Jason Heath, and Hannah McVean on the show. Jason is a popular returning guest on the show, definitely one of the more well known and respected financial planners, here in Canada.  Hannah and Jason are both fee-only financial planners, which means they don’t sell any investments so there isn’t that potential conflict-of-interest that you see a lot of here in Canada where someone calls themselves a financial planner or a financial advisor, you think you’re getting a good financial plan and that they have your best interests at heart, but really they are just trying to get you to buy the investments that their firm sells so that they can earn a hefty commission. None of that here, we’re going for purely unbiased financial education with Hannah and Jason. A quick little bio on these experts: Jason has been providing fee-only, advice-only financial planning since 2002 (for well over a decade). He is also a personal finance columnist for the Financial Post, MoneySense, and Canadian MoneySaver. He has a Bachelor of Economics degree from York University and holds the Certified Financial Planner designation. Hannah is also a Certified Financial Planner and a Chartered Investment Manager. She has experience working in the wealth management industry managing investments and filing taxes. She is now on the fee-only, advice-only financial planning side of things, and if you want to speak Jason, Hannah or someone from their team, you can reach them at BuildWealthCanada.ca/jason. Resources Mentioned: You can book a free introductory meeting with Jason and his team at buildwealthcanada.ca/jason. As a Build Wealth Canada listener, you'll get 10% off if you end up working with them. You'll also be entered into the giveaway to win a free financial plan. The discount and giveaway are for a limited time, and you can sign up for free here.  Questions Covered: To kick things off, can you take us through what we need to know for 2024, when it comes to our TFSA? and can you give us a quick refresher on how the TFSA works when it comes to taxes, and getting our contribution room back every year. Follow up question: Do you often suggest that clients keep their equities in their TFSAs due to their higher expected return compared to bonds and TFSA savings accounts? What have you found to be the most efficient way for Canadians to determine how much TFSA contribution room they currently have? Can you speak to how you can actually increase or decrease your available TFSA contribution room, depending on how your investments perform? Follow up question: How do you factor this in when you are doing financial planning for your clients? Follow up question 2: What kind of analysis do you do on TFSAs when you are working with clients and are there any optimizations or mistakes that people sometimes do that you are on the lookout for? Let’s change gears and talk about RRSPs next. Are there any changes to RRSPs that we should be aware of for 2024, and for anybody new to all this, can you give us a refresher on how RRSPs work for us Canadians, when it comes to minimizing our taxes? Can you speak about the RRSP loan strategy? This is something that we often hear mentioned in different blogs and books on finance for Canadians, but do they still make sense in this higher interest rate environment that we are now in? (please explain the strategy first for anybody not familiar) When it comes to RRSPs, are there any common and/or critical mistakes that you see Canadians make, when you are doing financial plans for your clients? The FHSA is a relatively new tool for Canadians. Can you speak to what it is, who is it for, and how do you like to analyze and factor it in, when working on financial plans for your clients? Are there any new tax credits, deductions, or government benefits in 2024 that you think we should especially be aware of? and are there any that you find Canadians sometimes tend to miss?What have you found to be the best way to ensure that we don’t miss any tax credits, deductions or government benefits that we are eligible for? (it’s a bit of an overwhelming list if we just google it) Can take us through the updates for 2024, when it comes to the basic personal amount. And can you explain what it is and the financial planning implications of it, for anybody not familiar? As we enter 2024, can you take us through a checklist of what you advise your clients to do as the year progresses? What should they be doing annually now, and as the year moves forward? Is there anything else that you think Canadians should know about, from the taxation and government benefits side as we head into the new year? I set up a page for you where show listeners can get a free consultation with your team, and that’s over at buildwealthcanada.ca/jason. Can you tell us a bit more about what problems and challenges you and your team specialize in solving for Canadians?

We’ve all heard of high interest savings accounts that we can open up at our bank. But is that always our one and only best option when it comes to where we keep our short term cash? What about for things like our emergency fund, or when we are saving for something expensive like a car and we want that money to be available immediately when we need it, and not be subject to the sometimes large day-to-day fluctuations that we see in the stock market? In this episode, you are going to learn what your options are, here in Canada, when it comes to that short term cash that you want to be readily available, without you having to worry about incurring any massive day-to-day fluctuations that you would typically see in the stock portion of your investment portfolio. Today’s guest, Matt Montemurro is going to take us through the different options that we have, as Canadians, and he’s going to take us through the pros and cons of each of these options so that you can make your own educated decision on which option is the best one for you, based on your situation and risk tolerance. Spoiler alert: The best solution isn’t always the traditional high interest savings account at your bank. Make sure you stick around because there are actually some regulatory changes happening here in Canada, which are going to be impacting high interest savings ETFs. A lot of Canadians have been investing pretty heavily in these, and now it’s gotten to the point where the regulators have started to take notice, and they are about to implement some pretty significant rule changes that can negatively impact some of your investments, if you purchase or are considering purchasing high interest savings ETFs. A bit of a background about our guest: Matt is a specialist when it comes to fixed income. He is currently the team lead for all fixed income portfolios managed by BMO ETFs, which is the largest Canadian ETF provider. In his role as portfolio manager and trader, Matt and his team are responsible for all segments of the fixed income market, both in Canada and internationally. He has over a decade of experience in this field and holds an HBA and MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and is a CFA Charter holder (definitely a very difficult designation to get). I’m thrilled to have him on the show, and I must say, speaking with him during this interview actually made me re-evaluate where I keep my short term cash. I really wish we were all taught this back in school, as it’s important for us to know what our options are here in Canada, along with the pros and cons of each, instead of just always automatically defaulting to a regular high interest savings account at our bank. Enjoy the interview, I learned an absolute ton, and I’m sure you will too. Let’s get into it. Questions Covered: The high interest savings account is something that most of us have heard of, and this is often the default choice for many of us when we’re saving for something, or using it as an emergency fund or as an account that pays for our day-to-day expenses. However, there are also high interest savings ETFs. What is the difference between those, and a high interest savings account that we would open up at a bank? Can you take us through the pros and cons of these two options and why wouldn’t someone just put their cash in their existing high interest savings account at their current bank? There seem to be some changes coming up in 2024 when it comes to high interest savings ETFs. Can you take us through what those are, and how it will impact us regular Canadian investors? Follow up questions: Now that we know the significance of this, what should we do or start thinking about regarding these rate changes? Is a consequence of this that we should also expect to see the rates offered at banks for high interest savings accounts to drop? 3.    For those of us that do invest in high interest savings ETFs, can we expect a drop in those ETFs coming Jan 2024 because of a potential sell off?   Follow up: If not, how do sell-offs work when it comes to ETFs? For example, when there is a sell-off of a specific stock, we know that the price of the stock will plummet. But does it work differently with ETFs because ETFs consist of many different underlying assets? 4.    How is a high interest savings ETF different from a money market ETF? Can you take us through the pros and cons?   5.    How does using something like a high interest savings account compare to using something like a money market ETF instead (i.e. what are the pros and cons)? And for anybody not familiar, can you define what it means when an ETF is considered to be a “money market” ETF   6. For something like a money market ETF like ZMMK or a high interest savings ETF, would you expect the capital gain to be $0, because everything from that investment is coming in as income in the form of interest? When we are comparing the interest rates that we can get on an ETF like ZMMK vs a high interest savings account, or a high interest savings ETF, when looking at the ETF page, should we be looking at the annualized distribution yield or the weighted average yield to maturity? And can you define what those are for us? 8.    While we are on the subject of ETFs that we can use for that relatively safe portion of our portfolio, can you speak to using ultra short-term bond ETFs instead of a money market ETF, like the ZMMK that we just talked about. What are these ultra short-term bond ETFs, and what are the pros and cons of using those, vs something like a money market ETF or even instead of just using a high interest savings account at our current bank. Follow-up question: I noticed that in your case, you also have a different variation of the ETF ZST which is ZST.L. What is the difference between the two?  9.    When it comes to bond ETFs like ZST for example, can you teach us how they can have some tax advantages, in certain scenarios, over something like a high interest savings account? 10. Alright Matt, thanks so much for training us on all of this today. For everybody that wants to learn more, what’s the best place for them to go?

In this episode, you’re going to learn: How to deal with the volatility of the stock market, once you are financially independent and are living off your investments: There are many schools of thought and structures when it comes to dealing with this challenge here in Canada. Retirement expert, Kyle Prevost takes us through his research on the top recommended and respected structures that he has uncovered for us Canadians. We also go through Kyle’s research on the optimum location for the fixed income portion of your portfolio. Traditionally the advice has been to keep fixed income like bonds in our RRSP. But does that still apply considering these higher interest rates that we are now experiencing here in Canada? And what about GICs? How do they fit into all of this? Should we be using those instead? Last but not least, after taking into account all the research that he’s done on investing and financial planning for over a decade, Kyle shares what types of investments he buys for his own investment portfolio, and what accounts he puts his own investments in for the greatest tax savings and efficiency. Questions in this Episode: Once someone has hit their financial independence number here in Canada and wants to start living off their portfolio, what have you found to be the top recommended structures to deal with the volatility of the market? For example, having a rule for how big the cash cushion should be, using GIC ladders, etc.  What investments do you buy for your own portfolio, and what accounts do you put your own investments in? From your research, what have you found to be the optimum location for the fixed income portion of our portfolio? Traditionally the advice is to keep fixed income like bond ETFs in our RRSP. Does that still apply considering these higher rates? What about GICs?   If you liked the episode sign up for free to receive all new episodes as they get released, news on giveaways, and the free guide on the Top 5 Personal Finance and Productivity Tools.

In this episode, our guest Kyle Prevost is going to take us through how much we need to retire, as Canadians, and how much can we sustainably withdraw from our portfolio to not run out of money once we retire. If you are a long-time listener of the show, then by now you would have definitely heard of the 4% rule, which helps answer these two questions. But, the 4% rule was created by Americans, for Americans, so how do all those findings and statistics apply to us Canadians?  (If you are new to the show, then don’t worry, we’ll go through what the 4% rule is, and the many caveats that exist with it, that we should keep in mind as Canadians.) You’re also going to learn: By how much can you increase the amount that you withdraw from your portfolio when you retire, so that you can keep up with inflation.For those (like myself) who don’t like how rigid the 4% Rule is and would rather adjust their spending year-to-year depending on how the markets perform (i.e. taking out more during the good times, and less when the markets are down), Kyle discusses what sort of structures he has found to work well for that. About Our Guest: Kyle is founder of the Canadian Financial Summit and he and I have been co-hosting the summit together for the past 2 years. He is also a longtime personal finance columnist and you’ve probably seen a lot of his work over at MoneySense, and he’s been in the National Post, CBC News, The Globe and Mail, and many others.  Most recently he is also the creator of 4 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement - the first online course for Canadian retirement planning. Questions Covered: When it comes to figuring out how much we need to retire, we often hear about the 4% Rule. Yet, a lot of the research out there on the 4% Rule was created by Americans, for Americans. In the research and interviews that you’ve done, how well have you found the 4% Rule to apply to Canadians? (and please briefly define the 4% Rule for anybody that is new to all this). Follow-up question: Are there any caveats that you’ve found in your research that are different for Canadians using the 4% Rule vs the Americans using it? If somebody decides to use the 4% Rule, one of the rules/guides that they are supposed to follow is to increase the amount of money that they withdraw every year by inflation. For us Canadians, where have you found to be the best place to get that number? For those that don’t like how rigid the 4% Rule is and would rather adjust their spending year-to-year depending on how the markets perform, what sort of structures have you found to work well for that? (ex. variable percentage withdrawal rules)

With the multiple interest rate hikes that we’ve been experiencing here in Canada, many Canadians have seen their monthly cashflow take a hit, whether it’s because you have a variable rate mortgage, a line of credit, or other forms of debt. So what are your options if you’re paying more than you’d like on your interest payments, or maybe you have that mortgage coming up for renewal and you’re going to have to make that multi-thousand dollar decision on how you’re going to proceed? Should you go with a fixed or variable rate mortgage when interest rates are high like they are right now? Keep in mind too that if you have a mortgage coming up for renewal, then you won’t be able to get as good of an interest rate upon renewal, as you did when you first got that mortgage years ago, due to all these massive interest rate hikes that we’ve been experiencing. To tackle all of this, I’ve brought on an expert that deals with these types of interest and mortgage related questions every day, and that is the show’s resident mortgage expert, Sean Cooper.  Sean is who I go to and who I send friends and family to for any mortgage related questions. He is the bestselling author of the book Burn Your Mortgage, and he is an independent mortgage broker so he’s not tied to any one particular lender which gives him access to the top mortgages available in Canada. Sean has also been kind enough to answer for free, any questions that you, the Build Wealth Canada listeners have. I’ve set up a special page for him so all you have to do is go to buildwealthcanada.ca/sean, and there you can send him a message with your questions, or, if you prefer, you can even pick a time on his calendar on that page for a phone or video call to get your questions answered with him live, for free. Sean is a licensed mortgage broker too, so I definitely also encourage you to reach out to him if you’re looking to get a new mortgage or if your mortgage is coming up for renewal, as at the very least he’ll be able to provide you with a short list of the best mortgages that he’s been able to find across all of Canada from the 60+ lenders that he monitors. None of this costs you anything, and there’s no obligation to get your mortgage through him or use any of those suggested mortgages. That link again to get in touch with Sean to get your questions answered, and get his research on the best mortgages that he’s been able to find in Canada is over at  buildwealthcanada.ca/sean. Enjoy the episode. :) Questions Covered:    After pausing rate hikes since January, the Bank of Canada shocked many by starting to raise interest rates again in June. What was behind this? What does the future hold? Some homeowners in Canada are facing a doubling or more of their mortgage rates at renewal. What options do homeowners have? For those in that situation where they’ll be dealing with deciding between a fixed vs variable mortgage, how should they be approaching this dilemma, factoring in the current interest rate environment? When you and I spoke offline, you mentioned that there is a really big missconception that some people have when it comes to mortgages, that could really be causing them to overpay on their mortgages. Can you speak to that? With higher interest rates, it’s not all doom and gloom since tools like high interest savings accounts and GICs are now paying out more to us consumers compared to what they were offering when we had those rock bottom interest rates. Are there any tools or strategies that you are using yourself or are fond of, when it comes to taking advantage of these higher interest rates and how are you investing these days when it comes to the fixed income portion of your portfolio? (ex. HISA vs GIC vs Bonds). Are you buying more shorter-term or longer-term investments? (ex. short term vs longer term bonds/GICs etc.) If any of the listeners have some form of debt, and they suspect that maybe they aren’t paying the absolute lowest amount that they could be paying on that debt (it doesn’t have to be some kind of really high credit card debt, just any debt that they think seems high), what are the tools or options available to them, here in Canada, in terms of taking that higher interest debt and turning it into the lower interest debt? For anybody listening that has questions for you, or would potentially like to work with you or see your research on the top mortgages that you’ve been able to find here in Canada as a mortgage broker, can you tell us more what the process is for Build Wealth Canada listeners to get a free call with you?

Today we have Canadian author and speaker Fred Masters on the show. Fred has been a professional financial educator for decades here in Canada. He speaks at different universities to students and alumni, teaching financial wellness. In this episode, he’s going to share his findings on: What he’s found to be the main problem areas that tend to prevent us Canadians from reaching financial independence years earlier.  What type of investing he has found to be the most effective in helping us achieve early retirement as quickly as possible here in Canada. Fred is also the author of the book “Lessons on Mastering Money” where he identifies six key pillars that can really move the needle for us, when it comes to our finances. We cover those, and much more in the interview.  Enjoy! Get show notes and more free educational resources over at BuildWealthCanada.ca

Today, you’re going to learn how you can save money on your investments, by having the right investments, in the right accounts so that you pay as little tax as possible here in Canada. For example, if you hold Canadian stocks, or ETFs that hold Canadian stocks, should you put those in your RRSP? Your TFSA? Or your taxable account? Which one of those is the most tax efficient? What about your US and other international ETFs and stocks? What accounts should they go into so that you pay the least foreign tax on those investments? For us Canadians, different investments are taxed differently depending on what those investments include, and what investment accounts you put them in. It’s essentially an optimization puzzle that you can solve, by putting the right investments in the right accounts to pay the least Canadian and foreign tax, on those investments. If you choose to optimize to this extent like I do, you can essentially reap the benefits of these tax savings for the rest of your life, since those savings will compound over your investment lifetime, and can accelerate your net worth, since every dollar saved in taxes on your investments, is a dollar that stays invested, and continues to grow and compound for you. Resources mentioned in the episode: My guide on How to do Norbert's GambitThe video guide on: How to Setup Passiv to Pay the Least in Investing Taxes (for Canadians)You can get a free Passiv account at this link.Instructions on how to get the free PREMIUM account from Passiv is here.

Today, you are going to learn about how much you can save in fees and taxes on your investments, depending on how much time you want to spend optimizing your investment portfolio. In Canada, there are inexpensive options that make things extremely easy and automated for you, but they are slightly more expensive and slightly less tax efficient. On the other end of the spectrum, there are other investments available to Canadians that are as optimized as you can get in terms of keeping your fees low, and saving you money on both Canadian and international taxes. The trade-off though, is that these optimizations take a fair bit of work on your end to learn and implement. So how big are these optimization benefits to you? How much are you really saving by going with a fully optimized approach vs. a semi-optimized approach? How big should your investment portfolio be before you start optimizing? or should you start optimizing right away? We also cover where to go to check what fees you’re currently paying on your investments, so that you can have a nice apples-to-apples comparison when you are debating what fund or ETF to buy, or to check whether you are currently overpaying on your investments. We cover all this and more on this episode. This week’s episode is a little different since I optimize my investments to this highest level (in terms of paying the lowest fees and lowest taxes), and my guest also does the same. And so, in this episode, instead of the guest doing 90% of the talking, we instead each talk about how we both tackle these questions and I figure this way you are getting two educated perspectives, from two different people, in Canada, who have already been doing this for years. I think ultimately this approach to the episode will help you make an educated decision on what level of optimization you want to pursue in your own portfolio.  Enjoy the episode. :) Kornel

Today I’m going to be answering your questions, to help you out as much as I can in the world of personal finance and investing, here in Canada. We’re going to focus on actionable, practical advice, specifically for Canadians while taking into account the investment options that we have here in Canada, factoring in our Canadian taxes to make sure that we’re not overpaying, and much more. In today’s Q&A session, I’m going to be answering questions around: 1.     How to determine if you should sell a particular investment that you own. 2.     How to evaluate whether your investment returns should be higher.  3.     What rate of return should you expect on your investments? 4.     Where can you go to check your “total return” on your investments (growth + dividends) and not just the increase in price. 5.     And much more.  If you would like to submit a question, the easiest way is to sign up anywhere for free over at buildwealthcanada.ca. When you do that you’ll get taken to a page where you can leave a comment with your question. Also, when you do that, I’ll email you my guide on the “Top Personal Finance and Investing Tools” that I personally use. Enjoy the episode :)

It’s graduation season here in Canada, so we thought it would be good to focus this episode on parents with kids, those with nieces and nephews, as well as those that are students or fresh out of school. This week, we cover the topic of how to best set up young Canadians and young adults for success, when it comes to money.  Sadly, if you’re my generation or older then you probably got zero education about money when you were in school or fresh out of school. Yet, those are the crucial years where you either establish good or bad money habits, and there are so many things that can lead a young person astray.  Heck, knowing how to keep your investment fees low can literally save you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your investment lifetime, so why wouldn’t you want to know about these things as a student or upon graduation so that you can set yourself up for financial success? To help me with this topic, I have Canadian author, Douglas Price on the show. Douglas has written the book “Seventeen to Millionaire” a personal finance book for teens and young adults, specifically here in Canada, aimed to help them become financially literate and establish that strong financial foundation to set them up for success. Enjoy the interview. :) Questions To kick things off, can you tell us about your book and why you decided to write it? Whether we’re a child, teenager or adult, learning to manage our cashflows is a critical skill that we have to employ our entire lives. What process do you recommend to ensure that we are managing our income and expenses appropriately and not overspending? When someone is entering the world of investing in the markets for the first time (whether it’s someone that just turned 18, or an established adult that is now learning how to navigate the world of investing), where do you stand on using something like a robo advisor vs a single asset allocation ETF vs buying multiple individual ETFs vs other options (ex. mutual funds, using an advisor at a bank, etc.). Follow up question: Do you have any advice on how to prevent overwhelm when teaching someone this for the first time? Your book focuses on helping teenagers learn about money and how it works so that they can have that strong foundation for the rest of their lives, but what are your thoughts about how parents of younger children can best educate them and set them up for success when they are still in elementary school, or early high school? When it comes to kids or teenagers learning about money, what have you found that they struggle with the most, where us parents or educators need to spend some extra time on? What would you say are your top ‘best practices’ that us parents can do to ensure that our kids are set up for success when it comes to their financial lives? The world is obviously a lot different now than it was when you and I were kids. Are there any areas that have changed a lot when it comes to money that us parents need to be cognizant of when trying to set our kids up with that strong foundation when it comes to financial literacy? One of the things that I found impressive in your book, is that you hired high school students to test out your book to ensure that the lessons were communicated in a way that is engaging and digestible for them. Did you learn anything from those feedback sessions when it comes to how to best teach your kids or teenagers about anything, as a parent or educator? I’d really like to thank you for clearly putting in a significant effort to help educate young Canadians when it comes to financial literacy. Can you tell us again where we can get your book and where we should go to learn more?