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Start asking yourself $30,000 Questions

Have you ever sat down and thought about what that daily $3 coffee is costing you in lost savings?  If you have, by the way, you're not alone, there's even a popular book about it called The Latte Factor .  Or maybe you've decided to setup a budget - you download a budgeting app and start tracking each and every expense, only to abandon it two months later because it's just too much work. With personal finance, it's easy to get  caught up in the details of everyday expenses. However, author and financial expert Ramit Sethi in his book  I Will Teach You to Be Rich ,  suggests a different approach: asking $30,000 questions before focusing on the less important $3 questions. His idea is to prioritize significant and material financial decisions that have an outsized potential to build wealth, success, and happiness.  That is, he suggests spending way more time researching and considering important life decisions versus trivial day-to-day decisio...

Optimizing RRSP withdrawals with CPP

Dan and Kate McGlovin are both 60 years old and have just retired.   They each have exactly $500,000 in RRSP savings and both of them will receive 85% of their CPP and 100% of their OAS at age 65. They own a house worth $700,000 that is mortgage free.  They have no other savings, no pensions, no debt, and no kids.  Their RRSPs are invested in a low cost balanced asset allocation ETF which consists of 60% globally diversified equities (stocks) and 40% bonds.  The expected return on this ETF is 5.22% less management expense fees of 0.25% for a total annual return of 4.97%.  Inflation is assumed to run at 2.2% per year and we have set their life expectancy at 95. They plan to take OAS at age 65. Also, Dan and Kate want to live in their house until they die and want to pass the proceeds of their estate to their favourite charity upon their death.  In other words, they do not want to use their home equity to fund their retirement. How Much can Dan and Kate ...

The One Hour Millionaire

  What if I said you can make a million dollars or more in one hour…and it doesn’t involve lottery tickets, gambling, or a bank heist? Would you believe me?    No, of course not, and you shouldn’t!   But I do earnestly believe that sitting down for just one hour and contemplating a few simple questions could set you on a path to saving far more over your lifetime, maybe a million more!   Before we jump in, just remember that having an emergency fund, understanding your risk tolerance, staying invested by not panic selling, and having appropriate life and disability insurance are all critical and form part of a comprehensive financial plan. Am I throwing away free money from my employer? If your employer offers matching savings plans such as a group RRSP, you need to take advantage   of this to the maximum extent   possible.    Now you might think that this is inherently obvious, and everyone must be doing it already, but   the fa...