Personal Wealth

We have a really special episode in store today as we welcome Tim Nash, the Sustainable Economist! Tim shares a vast amount of knowledge and […]

How often are you spending way more than you need to, just to try to earn decent market returns from your investments? The answer is, way more often than you think! It’s still all too easy for financial providers to game the system by hiding their excessive fees and lackluster returns from view.

You might know Ted Seides from his famous bet with Warren Buffett or, more recently, from his widely successful Capital Allocators Podcast. Ted is what we would call a classically impressive guy, having studied at both Ivy League frontrunners Yale and Harvard and having founded Protégé Partners, an asset management and advisory firm that specializes in hedge funds.

In my last video, we took on a tough topic: How do you prepare financially for the death of your spouse? Today, I’m going to bring up another thorny subject: What if your spouse, parent, or another close family member starts having trouble with their memory or their ability to make rational decisions? In other words, what if they become incapacitated? 

In summary, you can pay student’s bills through two types of payments from an RESP. A withdrawal for post-secondary education (PSE) is a refund of the original contributions. There are no limits to the amounts that can be taken out of this bucket, and the amounts are tax free. Educational Assistance Payments (EAPs) come from the grant and accumulated earnings bucket within the RESP. There are certain limits to these payments to keep in mind, and the payments will be taxed in the student’s name.

As unpleasant as it may be, here’s something we all know: If you’re in a marriage, one of you is likely to predecease the other. And yet, in my experience, few of us are as prepared as we should be to deal with the financial realities of widowhood.

Old Age Security, commonly referred to as OAS, provided a base level of retirement income to over 6 million Canadians in January 2019. I outline how OAS works and how to determine the amount you will be eligible for.

Here’s one more set of numbers to think about: What happens to your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits if your spouse predeceases you … or vice-versa? On the scale of romantic conversations, this may rank right up there with pricing out a new hot water heater. Pretty boring.

The foundation of many Canadians’ retirement is the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The CPP is designed to replace a certain amount of your average work earnings, up to maximum limits each year. I outline what CPP is, how it works, and how much it might pay out.

In investing and in life, we know we can’t always control the outcomes that occur from the decisions we make. Bad things can happen to the wisest among us. Likewise, even a fool can get lucky.