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Global Economic Challenges

One of the world’s richest men, Warren Buffett, acquired his wealth by following a very simple rule during times of market volatility: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

With mass media websites trumpeting headlines like "Oil collapse and global stampede out of stocks trample loonie” (Financial Post) and "Dow drops more than 2,000 points amid oil price war, coronavirus fears” (New York Post) it is easy to forget that the world has been in similar situations before.

How is Your Financial Parachute?

Most of us take for granted that we will be able to get out of bed every morning and go to work to earn a living. We base all of our financial plans on this seemingly obvious concept. Our most valuable asset is the ability to earn an income. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most vulnerable and most of the undesirable things that can affect it are beyond our control.

Wealth Transfer Tips

Wealth transfer can be a complex process for most families but especially wealthy ones. The range of issues involved can include family values, objectives and relationships; business continuity; investment strategy and insurance, taxes and ownership structures, amongst others. At the same time questions of control, responsibility and timing are raised.

New Year. Fresh Start.

With the holidays behind us, and the credit card bills arriving as testimony to your celebrations, perhaps now is a good time to reflect upon some potential Resolutions for the coming year.

Goal setting is best done when goals resonate with your life plan! You need to be specific about what, when, where and who is involved in achieving the goal. The goal must also have an emotional component to it to motivate you to get the result you want.

Five Common RRSP Mistakes

The following are relatively common mistakes that Canadians make annually when contributing to their Registered Retirement Savings Plans.

1. Reporting RRSP contributions based on a calendar year.

While your taxes are based on a calendar year, the reporting of your RRSP contributions extends 60 days into the New Year. Imagine, for RRSP purposes, that you have your own fiscal year that begins in early March or 60 days after January 1. RRSP receipts for the first 60 days of 2020 should be reported on your 2019 income tax return.

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The Three Levels of Retirement Resources

A survey conducted by a big bank some years ago* revealed that over 30% of Canadians were hoping for a lottery win to help fund their retirement. This raises the question, "If you were to paint a picture of your retirement, what would it look like?" Many would let dreams take over and envision lots of travel, a vacation home in an exotic location, spoiling their grandchildren, perhaps several year-long world cruises.

Retirement Investing Approaches

After spending likely 15 – 30 years focused on building an investment portfolio, it can be quite a challenge to switch gears when it comes time to withdrawing income from a retirement portfolio. This change leads to new ways of looking at investing as well as re-assessing habits that have been honed over decades.

Many retirees looking to generate income from investment assets often think that they can make withdrawals from their investment portfolio while also continuing to grow the assets over time. This is generally a tough goal to achieve.

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