Susan Daley

How much of your current income will you need in retirement? The answer to this question is called the replacement ratio and is a major driver of the retirement planning piece. It will be different for everyone, so I outline how you can figure out your own replacement ratio that will ultimately determine how much you need to save for retirement.

When talking about saving for retirement, most people default to the common 10 or 15 percent of income towards retirement. But are those numbers accurate and is this a reasonable approach? I outline this traditional approach, and compare it to another approach that takes into consideration a typical Canadian’s financial scenario.

For most millennials, retirement seems like it’s ages away; a future you problem. The cards might seem to be stacked against us: the number of Defined Benefit pension plans are falling, we’re living longer, student debt levels are rising, and house prices are massive compared to our incomes. I break down the basic concepts of retirement planning in this video to help you get started.

What would happen to you if you were diagnosed with cancer, had a stroke, or suffered from another critical illness? In Canada, we’re fortunate to have universal healthcare. However, our healthcare system won’t cover all the costs of having a critical illness, which is where Critical Illness Insurance comes into play.

According to the Fraser Institute, Canadians pay about 43% of their income in taxes. To test their tax estimate against my own situation, I tracked all the various taxes I paid throughout the year. I reveal how much I paid, and how I stack up against the Fraser Institute’s estimates.

If work for yourself or have a side hustle on top of your regular job, there are extra complications when it comes to calculating and saving for taxes. You might worry if you’ve planned things out properly or if you’ll be hit with a big unexpected tax bill. In this post, I outline how to handle taxes as a self-employed individual or side hustler and tips for managing your money.

Many of you have been in the situation where you were quoted a salary or hourly rate, were excited to get your first paycheque and disappointed when you don’t receive as much as you expected. You’ll have to thank taxes, CPP contributions, EI premiums, and benefits for that. I’ll go into more detail about how each of these deductions work.

Life Insurance is a key part of many families’ risk strategy. A key question is how much do you need? The key to determining the amount of life insurance that’s necessary is to understand what happens financially if you or your spouse dies. The goal is to have your loved ones be able to sustain their standard of living without having to make big sacrifices.

Term, Permanent, Whole Life, Universal Life, Participating, Variable, Joint. There are so many variations of life insurance that it can become extremely confusing, very quickly. To keep things simple, there are essentially two types of insurance: term insurance and permanent insurance.

Life insurance protects your human capital. While human capital is not normally included in your net worth statement, it’s still a big asset. Protecting that asset is important. If you don’t have enough assets to cover those potential expenses, life insurance is a tool to protect your loved ones and ensure their standard of living doesn’t fall significantly if you passed away.