Build Wealth Canada Podcast

As one of Canada's youngest retirees at the age of 32, and after becoming mortgage-free at 29, Kornel interviews the top financial experts in Canada to help you optimize your investments, reduce your taxes, and help you accelerate your journey towards financial independence and early retirement. He also shares his own experiences and lessons learned in investing and as an early retiree and member of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement to help you optimize your finances, specifically here in Canada.

Surviving Stock Market Crashes: Real-World Experiences and Strategies for Canadians 05/14/2025

Surviving Stock Market Crashes: Real-World Experiences and Strategies for Canadians Have you ever felt that knot in your stomach watching the stock market tumble, especially after you’ve just invested some of your hard earned money? Have you ever wondered how seasoned investors with large amounts invested handle those gut-wrenching portfolio drops? Well in this episode, we're tackling market volatility head-on. Our guest Marc Beavis is a seasoned investor who’s lived through multiple major crashes over the decades, and he shares powerful mindset shifts and actionable strategies to help you stay calm, stay invested, and stay on track—even when the headlines scream chaos. I also share my own strategies that have helped me stay calm, anxiety-free, and stay invested after nearly two decades of investing which has played a huge impact in helping us achieve financial independence in our early thirties. Discount Link Mentioned in the Episode: Saily Discount Link for 15% Off their Data Plans: About Our Guest: One of the reasons that I really wanted to have Marc on the show is that: He’s been in the industry for decades working with clients, so he’s got not only wisdom on what has helped him stay the course over the decades with multiple stock market drops, but also what has worked well for others that he’s worked with; Canadians with different personalities and temperaments. He’s retired and in his 60's so he actually has real life experience going through the crashes with a significant amount of his own money invested, like in the 2008 financial crisis and the tech crash in the 2000s, just to name a few. He also runs one of the largest Canadian investing YouTube channels in Canada, called Beavis Wealth, so despite retiring, he’s still very much on top of what’s been happening and what we can do to better handle declines in our own portfolios. Thanks to Marc’s help, you'll learn the mindset shifts needed to endure significant declines, and discover proven strategies for staying calm and confident when your investments plummet. /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/36565110

The Hidden Barriers Between You and Financial Freedom 04/30/2025

How Canada’s Top Finance Creators Actually Invest Their Own Money 04/10/2025

How Canada’s Top Finance Creators Actually Invest Their Own Money Today I’m excited to have a panel discussion with some of the largest personal finance and investing personalities, here in Canada. Together they have over 46 million views on YouTube (that’s more than the entire population of Canada), and in this episode, I thought it would be great to pick their brains on how they actually invest their own money, what types of investments do they actually buy? what specific ETFs do they buy and what type of investing style have they found to work best for them? They also ask me the same questions so you’ll get a pretty diverse view of the different options out there, for us Canadians, when it comes to investing. You’ll notice too that while some of our styles overlap, we do also diverge in a few areas, and so we also tackle what are the pros and cons of the different styles, allowing you to make an informed and more educated decision, on what is the best fit for you. Saily Discount Link Mentioned in the Episode: Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Go to or download the Saily app on your phone and use the code “buildwealth” at checkout. Questions Covered: Let’s start by introducing the panel. Brandon, can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, your area of expertise, roughly how much you currently invest in ETFs, and tell us about the investing style or strategy that you’ve chosen for yourself. To kick things off, I thought it would be good to start with what I consider, one of the easiest investing styles to implement and get started with, while also being extremely effective, very passive, and low cost. Brandon, as you can probably guess, I’m of course talking about asset allocation ETFs which you mentioned is your preferred investing style. For anybody new to this, can you explain what asset allocation ETFs are, and then go into why you chose this as your primary investing style, along with the ETFs that you actually buy and why. Let’s open it up to the panel: Does anybody else here buy asset allocation ETFs? Why or why not? And if you do, what specific asset allocation ETF do you buy? Adrian, you like to buy the underlying ETFs, instead of just one asset allocation ETF. For anybody new to this, can you explain what that actually means, why you choose to invest in this way, and can you share specifically which ETFs you like to buy as part of this investing style. Let’s open it up to the panel: Does anybody else invest in this way, and if so, what are your favourite ETFs, and give us some explanation on why you chose them and this style of investing. Are there any negatives that you think are worth mentioning when it comes to this investment style of buying the underlying ETFs? Marc, so far our conversation has been dominated a bit by equities (the stock portion of the portfolio), but of course, fixed income is also something that most investors find to be a good fit, especially since not everyone can stomach having a 100% equity portfolio and dealing with those occasional 30% or 40% drops and just riding those out and not panic selling. You have some focus on fixed income in your portfolio which can help reduce that volatility. Can you take us through your thought process on having these types of investments, along with which ones you like and why? Thanks Marc. Would anybody from the panel like to add anything to the fixed income discussion? Are there any fixed income ETFs that you like to buy? Adriano, let’s talk about your investing style now. Yours is a bit different from the vanilla, total market, index investing strategy that most of us on this panel use. Can you speak to why you chose your particular investing style, the pros, the cons, who is it for, and do you have any favourite ETFs or other investments that you like to use as part of it? Let’s open it up to the panel: Do you have any questions, concerns or comments? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/36081650

Important Tax & Investing Changes for 2025 (for Canadians) 03/27/2025

Important Tax & Investing Changes for 2025 (for Canadians) Today, we’re going to cover what you need to know from a tax, investing, and financial planning perspective as all our taxes become due here in Canada on April 30th, 2025, and as we get well underway with 2025 in general. As you know, the government makes changes every year in these areas. The implications of these changes can have a pretty substantial impact on how much you pay in taxes, your net worth, and 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, like any benefits that we might become eligible for. A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors: Incogni: Get 60% off Incogni by using the link PolicyMe Life Insurance: Proudly Canadian, get a no obligation quote at ETF Market Insights and BMO ETFs: Catch the . BMO Asset Allocation ETFs: I use these ETFs a lot, and they are the largest Canadian ETF provider. Why wouldn't you want to buy from a Canadian provider with your ETFs? You can see them and learn more here: About Our Guests: To help me with this episode, I have Certified Financial Planners Jason Heath and Paul 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. Jason has been providing fee-only, advice-only financial planning since 2002, so over two decades. 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. In addition to being a Certified Financial Planner, our 2nd guest, Paul McVean is also a Senior Tax Accountant, he is a CPA, and he’s a Trust and Estate Practitioner (a TEP), so definitely very knowledgeable, especially on the tax, and how to save you tax side of things where he has over 25 years of experience. Jason and Paul are both fee-only financial planners here in Canada, 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 in this episode with Jason and Paul. If you want to speak to Jason, Paul or someone from their team, you can reach them at . Jason and his team have been increadible educational contributors to the Build Wealth Canada Podcast for multiple years now, their episodes are consistently some of the most popular on show, and I did want to give a big thanks to Jason as he has once again agreed to continue giving Build Wealth Canada listeners a discount, if you do decide to work with them when it comes to your financial planning, optimizing your taxes, etc. A big thanks to Jason for that, and that link again to speak to them to see if you are a good fit for each other, and to get a discount if you do decide to work together is . And now let’s get into the show. Questions: To kick things off, can you take us through any significant changes and things to keep in mind for 2025 when it comes to investing, taxes, and financial planning in general, here in Canada? One other thing that I wonder about is the importance of tax planning. I get the impression most accountants are tax preparers, not tax planners. Can you talk about the difference and why it matters? Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: The changes to the capital gains inclusion rate. This could have a major financial impact for many of us here in Canada, but I think there are also a lot of misconceptions of who this applies to and in what situations. One very attractive headline that I see here in Canada from time to time, is that for 2025 for example, Canadians can receive up to $53,375 in eligible Canadian dividends tax free, if the investments are in their taxable investment accounts (and if they have no other sources of income). Some retired couples, and aspiring early retirees will then reason that combined with their spouse, they can each earn that $53,375 tax free every year, so $106,750 together. They can then just live off their dividends in retirement, pay no income tax, and never have to sell anything. This strategy has a lot of different caveats and very easy mistakes to fall into. Can you unpack this for us so that we are all aware of this strategy, but also understand its risks and limitations. While on the subject of dividends, one big consideration for Canadians is that when we receive Canadian dividends in our taxable accounts, those dividends can increase the speed at which we start getting clawed back on our government benefits like the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) and Old Age Security (OAS) for example (i.e. the gross up). One potential solution for this, is to use corporate class ETFs like HXCN from Global X for example (previously Global X was under the brand Horizons). What are your thoughts on these ETFs and can you give us your thoughts on the extra risk that we are taking on by using this type of structure where our dividends are essentially being turned into capital gains so that we don’t have to worry about these clawbacks as much? For anybody new to this world of Canadian financial planning and optimization, can you take us through what an advice-only financial planner is (what you are), compared to a more traditional financial advisor title/role here in Canada? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/35889375

Are You Overpaying on Your Mortgage? New Mortgage Rules, the Impact of Tariffs, and the Fixed vs Variable Rate Mortgage Dilemma 02/27/2025

Are You Overpaying on Your Mortgage? New Mortgage Rules, the Impact of Tariffs, and the Fixed vs Variable Rate Mortgage Dilemma If you own a home, are thinking about buying or selling a home, or have a mortgage renewal coming up, today’s episode is here to help you make the best financial decisions in this changing market. Ultimately my goal is to save you some money when it comes to all this, or at least make things less stressful for you. We’re bringing back our trusted mortgage expert and best-selling author, , to first, break down the potential impact that the new US tariffs may have on our mortgage and real estate market here in Canada. Sean also goes over the new mortgage rules that you need to be aware of if your mortgage is coming up for renewal, or if you’re getting a brand new mortgage. We also cover: What’s happening in Canada’s housing market right now? Is it a buyer’s or seller’s market? We cover the different ways that you can make changes to your mortgage if you’re finding cashflow to be a little tight. We also give an update on the fixed vs. variable rate mortgage debate. Which is the better choice based on the current state of the mortgage market and interest rates here in Canada? Enjoy the episode. Links from the Episode: A big thanks to Sean for offering to answer questions from Build Wealth Canada listeners at no cost. You can set up a meeting to speak with Sean over at: Questions Covered: Sean, can you give us an update on what’s happening in the real estate market, in Canada, right now? and can you touch on what the repercussions might be of the new tariffs between the US and Canada? Is this something that could potentially affect our Canadian mortgage rates and real estate market? Is it more of a buyer’s market or a seller’s market? What should we expect if we’re considering buying or selling our home currently, here in Canada? One interesting finding, is that more than 4 million mortgages, or about 60% of all outstanding mortgages, will renew over the next 2 years, in 2025 and 2026. What should Canadians know when their mortgage is coming up for renewal, and they are shopping around for a mortgage in 2025? Sean, before we continue with more questions, I just wanted to say that you’ve been the podcast’s resident mortgage expert for years now, helping many listeners of the show. Thank you for that! For anybody that has mortgage questions, or would like to know the best mortgages that you’ve been able to find here in Canada, can you briefly explain how it works when working with a mortgage broker like yourself, especially when it comes to payment, just so that anybody new to all this doesn’t maybe think that there are some fees they have to pay to get their questions answered or to see your research. With all these interest rate fluctuations, I’m sure many Canadians are wondering, if there is an opportunity for savings, with their current mortgage. Can you speak to this? Cash flow is a concern for a lot of Canadians. What are some strategies for homeowners to lower their mortgage payment? Let’s talk about Fixed mortgage rates vs variable rates. Which one make the most sense right now for Canadians when choosing a mortgage, considering the current interest rates and economic environment? Can you talk about all the new mortgage rules that were introduced since our last podcast in March 2024? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/35455540

Planning Your Own Retirement: A Rare Peek into a Canadian Financial Planner’s Playbook 01/30/2025

How to Optimize Your Investments and Taxes for 2025 (for Canadians) 12/29/2024

The Complexities of Transitioning Your Savings Into Income in Retirement (For Canadians) 11/21/2024

The Complexities of Transitioning Your Savings Into Income in Retirement (For Canadians) 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? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/34078761

5 Major Lessons Learned When Managing Your Retirement Finances (In Canada) 10/16/2024

5 Major Lessons Learned When Managing Your Retirement Finances (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 : 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 . 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 I hope to see you there! Kornel /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/33480837

Protecting Your Net Worth (For Canadians): What Insurance Do You Need? 10/02/2024

Protecting Your Net Worth (For Canadians): What Insurance Do You Need? 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 and 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 , 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 Educational Guides from the Episode: 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? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/33295867

Financial Lessons Learned After 10 Years of Interviews on the Build Wealth Canada Podcast 08/21/2024

The Top Money Blind Spots and Questions Canadians Have 07/30/2024

How to Live Off Your Investments in a Sustainable, Stress-Free, and Tax Efficient Way in Canada. Featuring Ed Rempel, CFP 06/20/2024

Avoiding the Yield Trap: Are You Too Focused on Generating Income From Your Investments? 05/30/2024

How to Prevent Fraud in Your Accounts in Canada 05/16/2024

How to Prevent Fraud in Your Accounts in Canada 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. /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/31334287

The Top Investing Mistakes Canadians Make 04/09/2024

How to Save Money on Your Mortgage + 2024 Housing & Interest Rate Update 03/05/2024

How to Save Money on Your Mortgage + 2024 Housing & Interest Rate Update 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 . And now, let’s get into the interview. /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/30239473

Important Tax & Investing Changes for 2024 (for Canadians) 01/25/2024

Important Tax & Investing Changes for 2024 (for Canadians) 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 . Resources Mentioned: You can book a free introductory meeting with Jason and his team at . 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 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 . Can you tell us a bit more about what problems and challenges you and your team specialize in solving for Canadians? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/29645848

Where to Park Your Cash? Regulatory Changes & What Are Your Options in Canada? 12/13/2023

Where to Park Your Cash? Regulatory Changes & What Are Your Options in Canada? 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 . 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? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/29054633

How to Live Off Your Investments in Canada - Kyle Prevost 11/15/2023

How to Live Off Your Investments in Canada - Kyle Prevost 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 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. /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/28652933

4 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement in Canada - Kyle Prevost 10/10/2023

4 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement in Canada - Kyle Prevost 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 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 - 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) /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/28276454

Paying Less in Interest, Getting the Right Mortgage (New or Renewal), Handling the Higher Interest Rates in Canada 09/06/2023

Paying Less in Interest, Getting the Right Mortgage (New or Renewal), Handling the Higher Interest Rates in Canada 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 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 , 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 . 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? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/27955425

Lessons on Mastering Money in Canada - Featuring Fred Masters 08/01/2023

How to Optimize Your Investments to Pay the Least in Tax (for Canadians) 06/21/2023

How Much Should You Optimize Your Investment Portfolio? The Pros and Cons of Each Approach 06/14/2023

How Much Should You Optimize Your Investment Portfolio? The Pros and Cons of Each Approach 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 /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/27148878

Ask Kornel: Should I Switch My Investments? Should I Be Worried? Are My Investments Falling Behind? 06/07/2023

How to Raise Money Smart Kids, Teens and Young Adults 05/31/2023

How to Raise Money Smart Kids, Teens and Young Adults 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 “” 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? /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/27006150

Active vs. Passive Investing: Interview with S&P (S&P 500, Dow Jones) & How to Choose the Right ETFs 05/25/2023

Active vs. Passive Investing: Interview with S&P (S&P 500, Dow Jones) & How to Choose the Right ETFs In this episode, I interview S&P, the creator of the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and many other popular indices used around the world by millions of investors. On today’s interview, we’re going to be covering the SPIVA scorecards which are semiannual reports published by S&P that compare the performance of active funds (i.e. active investing) vs taking the passive index investing approach. In other words, when you hear the debate of whether you should be a passive index investor, or an active investor, the SPIVA scorecards actually look at how well the active managers have done compared to if you just invested in the index. Our guests today are Joe Nelesen from S&P, and Erin Allen from BMO ETFs. Joe is the Senior Director of Index Investment Strategy over at S&P, and Erin is the Vice President over at BMO ETFs, which is the largest Canadian provider of ETFs. I thought we could have both Joe and Erin on the show, as that way we can learn more about the insights and discoveries learned from the SPIVA reports when it comes to the active vs passive debate. And, since Erin and her team actually create these ETFs for Canadians, we discuss how to actually practically apply these SPIVA findings and insights, when constructing or optimizing our own investments portfolio, here in Canada. In other words, what to look for and things to watch out for when we are actually building, optimizing, and deciding which ETFs to use for our own portfolio. Questions Covered: Joe, to make this friendly to anybody new to the world of investing, can you start by telling us a bit about S&P, as well as the SPIVA reports and why they are important for us everyday investors? The SPIVA analysis has over 20 years of data at this point. Can you speak to what these decades of analysis have taught you and individual investors about passive and active management around the world? Erin, for those like myself who are totally on-board with what the SPIVA findings suggest and are looking to just have an easy-to-manage investment portfolio where they’re just looking to buy the total market index; what are the options available to them in Canada, and can you take us through the pros and cons of these different approaches? Joe, one of the reports that I’ve always found fascinating is the persistence scorecard that you publish. Can you speak to what it is, where can listeners find it, and what is the role of ‘persistence’ when measuring active outperformance? Erin, when it comes to the core ETFs and asset allocation ETFs that try to mimic the index, one of the critical metrics that individual investors need to be aware of is the tracking error, especially when trying to choose a comparable ETF from one provider to another. Can you take us through: What ‘tracking error’ is? Why is it important? How can we check it ourselves? Is some tracking error normal, and how do fees (MER) factor into the tracking error number that we see published? At what point would a tracking error be considered high? And does that number vary depending on which index we’re looking at? (ex. S&P TSX vs something like an MSCI emerging markets index) Joe, it seems like with the thousands of investment products out there, the definition of the word “passive” can really vary quite a bit, not just amongst individual investors but amongst companies offering these products as well. I’ve even heard arguments about the S&P 500 not actually being 100% passive as there is still a committee that chooses which stocks are included in the S&P 500 index. Can you speak to that a bit and also, how do you think individual investors should define “passive” vs “active”? Erin, when a DIY investor is purchasing total market index ETFs, do those literally include all publicly traded companies on any exchange that fit that region? (ex. S&P TSX for Canada), or is it more of a representative sample of that region? Also, I think it would be good for investors to know about what the difference and implications are of a capped index, vs an uncapped index. Can you explain these? Usually, we see the Canadian index (S&P/TSX) being capped when it comes to ETFs like with your ETF, ZCN. What about core index ETFs for other countries like the US, and beyond. Are those typically capped as well? Joe, in the past, you mentioned how indexes help us manage our own human behavioral biases and overcome market hurdles that can otherwise derail our investing success. Can you elaborate on this? Thank you to both of you for coming on. Erin, can you tell us where we can learn more on your end, and perhaps let everyone know about the ETF Market Insights sessions that you run every week where listeners of the show can submit their questions and have them answered live.Joe, thank you very much for coming on as well. Can you tell us more about where we can learn more from you and your team, and where we can find the SPIVA reports and any other resources that Canadian investors may find helpful. /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/26943963

Financial Independence Case Study and How You Can Retire Early 05/19/2023

Financial Independence Case Study and How You Can Retire Early Today we have a great case study of somebody that I really respect, and who has been able to achieve financial independence, at a really early age. I wanted this episode to be relevant to you no matter where you are on your financial independence journey, so I thought we could approach it from two angles: If you are in the asset accumulation phase and working towards financial independence, we get into how you can get there quicker AND also enjoy the process and not get burned out as you're working your way towards it. If you are already financially independent or are getting close to it, we tackle how to live a happy, fulfilling and meaningful life once you transition to the financially independent stage of your life. Questions Covered: One of my favourite things to do on the show is interview those that have achieved financial independence early, where they can retire if they choose. Then, I like to dissect and take lessons from that journey, that we can all learn from and apply to our own lives to help us get to financial independence quicker, and to actually be happy with the journey before and after achieving financial independence, where we can retire if we choose. There are lots of different paths to get there. For anybody hearing about you for the first time, can you tell us about your journey and how you got to early financial independence? I’ve been following your work for a long time, and it’s clear that you definitely don’t need to be working at all anymore, and definitely don’t need to be taking on any new income producing projects in your semi-retirement. Yet, it seems like you keep taking on significantly large projects, like the YouTube channel that you launched and worked a lot on to get to where it is today, and of course you have your giant book launch today that took you three years. All this takes up a good amount of time obviously, and I imagine it’s really not about the money anymore for you. So what keeps you going? Why not just relax, or at least scale things back a bit? How many years have you been financially independent now? What were some of the most critical lessons that you learned about financial independence? Was there anything that surprised you? You’ve interviewed over 450 entrepreneurs on your My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast. Some were incredibly successful where they are most certainly financially independent and could just close up the business or sell it, and just live off the proceeds from their investments. Have you found commonalities in regards to what keeps them going? Why do they keep working? What are your sources of fulfilment in semi-retirement? and what have you found to generate the most meaning in your life after hitting financial independence? From those that you interviewed, have you noticed any patterns in terms of what tends to add the most to that feeling of fulfilment, purpose, and happiness once money is no longer the priority? Our Guest: Steve Chou Steve's New Book: Steve is a highly recognized influencer and speaker in the e-commerce space. His blog, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times, Entrepreneur and MSNBC. , My Wife Quit Her Job, is one of the top 25 marketing shows on all of Apple Podcasts, and he and his wife run a 7 figure e-commerce store called Steve also runs one of my /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/26887164

How to Maximize Your Inheritance in Canada (and minimize your fees) 05/10/2023

How to Maximize Your Inheritance in Canada (and minimize your fees) One critical topic that can have a substantial financial impact on both us and our loved ones, is the subject of inheritance, and how to ensure that you and your loved ones don’t end up overpaying in both taxes and fees, once the whole inheritance process starts taking place. To help me with this subject, I’d like to welcome back Selene Soo on the show. We learned a lot from her last time in the , and this time, we’re going to focus on some best practices, when it comes to inheritance. Selene is the Director of Wealth Products at RBC Insurance. She has been in the wealth management industry for over two decades, so she definitely has a really large wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to different retirement planning solutions, whether it’s annuities, segregated funds, and much more. Enjoy the episode, I hope you learn a lot from the session, thanks for tuning in, and now, let’s get into the interview. Questions: Why is it important to have an estate plan here in Canada? Selene, I was told that you and your team did a new survey when it comes to how prepared Canadians are when it comes to inheritance. Can you take us through the insights and lessons learned from those results, that we can then apply to our own lives? One component that I think is a bit of an unknown for those of us that haven’t gone through the process, is the subject of probate and probate fees. Can you speak to this, and what are the options available to us for minimizing probate fees? Are there any other fees or taxes that we should be aware of when thinking of inheritance and estate planning? I suspect that the word “will” is often used interchangeably with “estate planning”. Can you speak to what the differences are between the two, in particular, so that we can all be aware of the different components of estate planning here in Canada, and plan accordingly. To tie everything together, can you give us a synopsis as well as anything else that you’d like to add in regard to best practices that we Canadians can do to ensure that we have this critical part of our financial planning taken care of? When it comes to inheritance and estate planning, I suspect that I common challenge most Canadians experience, is bringing up the subject with their loved ones, and then carefully navigating some of the really sensitive and emotion triggering questions that inevitably come up. How do you think it’s best to bring this subject up? and what are some good questions to ask, and “next actions” to do, to actually get the ball rolling on this project? Can you tell us more about what you and your team do, and direct us to any educational resources that we may find helpful when we start working on optimizing our inheritance and estate planning? Resources from the Episode: Facebook: @RBCInsurance LinkedIn: Check out my previous interview with Selene on /episode/index/show/buildwealthcanada/id/26795301

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