Your Retirement Coach

03/29/2020

One of the pillars of proper Retirement Planning is to have some very strong relationships. This will include you immediate family, your extended family, your friends, your co-workers, and any other person(s) that is somehow in your life circle.
It was discovered during the research for the book The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner, that having some very strong relationships was key to having a happy life. It was not the amount that counted, but rather the strength of these that was most critical.
Take the time to reflect on this aspect of your life as we all live through this challenging time caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
Be well, Daniel

03/27/2020

One of the key elements to having a solid financial plan is to have a very detailed understanding of your Expenses. There are two types of Expenses: Discretionary and Non-Discretionary.
Discretionary Spending refers to all the things that you "like" to do like travel, going to the gym or any other activity that brings you joy and fulfillment.
Non-Discretionary Spending is all about the spending that you do to make your home function properly. These would include rent, food, hydro, car expenses, tv, internet and a variety of essential items.
During this difficult period caused by the Covid-19 crisis, why don't you go through your budget to see if you can make adjustments to your spending habits? You might find some opportunities to save some money by eliminating certain items or even renegotiating with your providers for a better deal.

Being in control of one's financial life is extremely important. Doing and sticking to your budget is key to your overall financial success.

03/25/2020

Hello to all my friends and followers.

In my book titled The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness, I talk about four pillars to help guide your planning process prior to and during retirement. They are Finances, Health and Wellness, Relationships and Life Purpose. As we all go through this Covid-19 crisis, I thought that I would provide you with some simple tips to help you keep all of this in context. I will focus on the Financial aspect in this post.

There are 4 key elements that I focus on when dealing with the management of the client money.
1- Have an Investment Policy Plan. In this you need to have clearly defined objectives and timelines for these. This is also were you will deal with the overall asset allocation for your various portfolios.
2- Deploy your capital into Stocks, Fixed Income, Alternative Assets and Cash as per your Strategic Allocation Model and your risk profile.
3- Revisit 1 on a regular basis to keep that information current and do periodic re-balancing to your portfolios to bring them back to the settings outlined in item 2.
4- Manage your emotions throughout this process. Resist the temptation to increase the aggressiveness of your portfolio when things are going up and resist the urge to bail out when things are going down. This is essential for the long term success of your portfolios.

Have an open discussion with your investment professional. Make sure that both of you are on the same page when it comes to these 4 key points. Be an Investor not a Speculator. You are in this for the long term so plan accordingly and behave accordingly. These are essential keys to success. Be well.

03/23/2020

01/08/2020

This past September I was interviewed by the journalist Wendy Helfenbaum for this Costco Canada member magazine article. She did a great job in outlining the relevant issues when one is preparing for the next phase of your life. Dare to Dream!

01/08/2020

This is a great summation of what kind of mindset you need to have before and during your retirement. Follow these ideas and Dare to Dream!

Many of us are between 65 and death . An old friend sent me this excellent list for aging , and , I have to agree it’s good advice to follow … particularly the item 19 . 01 – It’s…

11/22/2019

Proper Retirement Planning involves saving enough money to create the desired income stream to fund your lifestyle. As this article properly points out, there is a concern of not having enough money available once you enter into the retirement phase of your life. It takes many years of diligent planning to create that income stream. Because people are living longer than before, that money needs to last for a longer period of time. Talk to your investment professional and/or your financial planner to see if your retirement income plan is robust enough to keep you in the lifestyle that you want throughout your final years of life. Have this discussion and see what changes(if any) need to be made to the plan to make sure that all goes well for you.

And those in the Americas are saving the least according to Schroders

11/18/2019

Retirement can be a great time to go back to school to get a new degree and learn something new. Contact your local libraries, community centres colleges and universities to see what is available to you. Make new friends and help keep your brain active as well!

With many institutions offering free courses for seniors, there are several options for retirees who want to be lifelong learners

10/25/2019

This is a powerful statement.