Posts Tagged ‘retirement income’
National Post article: Should a couple in their 40s buy or rent in Toronto to afford retirement?
Should you buy a home, keep renting, or invest the difference? A couple in their 40s recently moved from Calgary to the GTA. They own three rental properties in Calgary and are trying to decide which path will give them the most comfortable retirement. In my latest National Post financial planning case study, I compare…
Read MoreHave You Thought of Turning the Doom Off? How Doomerism Is Quietly Wrecking Your Retirement
Have you thought of turning the doom off? That’s the question the awesome song Nothing Went Foom by Bright Mirror keeps asking. And it’s the right question — because doomerism has a track record, and the track record is that nothing went foom. Not the nuclear winter. Not the population bomb. Not Y2K. Not the…
Read MoreYour FREE Tickets to the 2026 Canadian Financial Summit – Watch My 3 Talks
The online Canadian Financial Summit is coming up October 21–24, 2026. It’s Canada’s top personal finance event of the year! As a reader of the Unconventional Wisdom blog, here are your FREE tickets to the Summit. With your FREE ticket, you can watch talks from some of Canada’s leading personal finance and investing experts, with…
Read MoreRetiring at an All-Time High: What History Actually Shows
I get this question a lot. Is a retirement plan safe if you retire when the markets are at an all-time high? Can you reasonably still expect good performance in the future? The Conventional Wisdom About Retirement Risk The conventional wisdom here is 3 things: All the questions I get about sequence of returns risk…
Read MoreNational Post article: Everything changed when Kevin’s wife died. He now wants to retire next year, at 54, but can he afford to?
My latest article for the National Post looks at Kevin, 53, who is considering retiring next year after the death of his wife changed how he thinks about work, family and how he wants to spend his time. He has nearly $1 million invested, a $1.5 million debt-free home and an employer pension, but he…
Read MoreNational Post article: Is a $740,000 all-equity portfolio enough for Jasmine and Terry to retire early?
One of the questions I hear most often is, “Do I have enough to retire?” The answer is almost never as simple as looking at the size of your portfolio. The real question is whether your investments, savings strategy, tax planning, and retirement income plan all work together to support the lifestyle you want. In…
Read MoreRetirement Tax Shock: Why Many Canadians Pay More Tax Than Expected
Most Canadians expect to be in a lower tax bracket in retirement. But many end up paying more tax than they expect. How do tax brackets change after age 65 and why can common assumptions about RRSPs and retirement income lead to higher lifetime taxes? Here are practical strategies to reduce tax over time, including…
Read MoreThe Longevity Revolution: Why We’re on the Brink of Living Decades Longer
The longevity movement is transforming how we think about aging—not as an inevitable decline, but as a challenge we can overcome with science, technology, and smart choices. Many experts believe we’re on the cusp of dramatically extending healthy lifespans. I’m on a longevity and healthspan journey. I’m not an expert in longevity, but I’m continuously…
Read MoreWhat Does Money Mean to You?
Have you ever stopped and really asked yourself: “What does money mean to me?” As financial advisors/ planners, we spend so much time talking about returns, projections, and strategies that we sometimes forget the most important element in a financial plan — the client’s relationship with money. Over the years, I’ve learned that before we…
Read MoreA New Addition to Unconventional Wisdom: Meet Sabiha Mukadam
For more than 20 years, Unconventional Wisdom has been where I share financial planning ideas, strategies, and lessons I’ve learned from helping Canadians build better financial lives. Today, I’m excited to introduce someone who has been a key part of our team for the last 8 years: Sabiha Mukadam. Many of you may not know…
Read More