Skip to main content

Testimonials

"My wife and I had reached a point where we needed to look very closely at our retirement. Although we had a relationship with a big bank advisor, we felt we weren’t getting the detailed information we needed to make the right decisions.

John provided both a second opinion and the detail we needed. He delivered a very readable financial plan that included clear and sensible action items.  He helped us work through several possible scenarios and paths to retirement which evolved into a final plan that really worked for us.

John gave us practical advice in many areas, and he also did research regarding our existing investments measuring them against relevant market benchmarks so we could better evaluate those holdings. We also had fun discussing our goals and even non-financial things like hobbies and ensuring we were thinking about purpose and what our retirement might look like."

 - James T, Edmonton

To learn more about James and Candice's plan please Contact Me to get the case study.


“We are close to retirement, and I asked John to look at our finances.  Honestly, I did not have much in the way of expectations as we have been working with a planner for some 20+ years already and felt we were well looked after.  Imagine my surprise when John came back with a comprehensive plan, that he carefully explained, and with sensible action items.  This included a careful look at upcoming decisions and steps to reduce long-term risks we might face along with a strategy to save us almost $30,000 in taxes over the next 3-4 years!"

-          Robert D., Ottawa

To learn more about Robert's plan please Contact Me to get the case study.


"When I approached John for his help, my financial landscape included a very mixed bag of life circumstances.  All in all, there were a lot of unknowns to juggle in a financial plan intended to provide much needed clarity and immediate direction. Despite the sometimes conflicting factors, John was able to provide me with options for a path forward based on these contingencies working out in a few different ways. Most impressive was that drew my attention to the main obstacle to my meeting these longer-term goals; my tendency to not truly know where my pay cheque was going each month. He was spot on there and his advice does come to mind when I have the inclination to spend without reviewing my monthly budget. Our final meeting left me feeling the comfort of having a game plan, the motivation to stick to it and the gratitude that I was not in as poor a position as I had feared.  All around, working with John was a very worthwhile experience."

 - Janet K., Calgary

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

What should I do with my portfolio in 2025 (or the Fine Art of Doing Nothing)?

I've been asked a few times quite recently some variation of the following question: "Given the recent political turmoil, especially with Canada and the US, what should  I do with my portfolio?   Should I have more/less US dollars?   More (or less) US equities? What about Canadian stocks?"      The  short answer is I have no idea nor does anyone else and so staying the course is usually your best option.  That is, one of your most important investing skills is the ability to do nothing. At first glance, this might not seem like a skill at all. Isn't investing about making timely decisions, identifying opportunities, and reacting to market movements?  For a select few maybe, but successful retail investors, especially when facing unsteady or volatile markets, practice the fine art  of doing nothing. Why Do Nothing? The Nature of Markets: Markets are inherently cyclical. They experience periods of growth followed by inevi...

Where can I get financial advice?

There was a very interesting question posted on our local community Facebook page the other day.  The original poster was looking for a financial advisor recommendation.  Specifically, someone that could help with retirement planning and to help answer big questions like paying down a mortgage versus saving.  In this case, the poster also made it clear they were not looking for commission-based help that would “push products”. The comments section of the post was quite lively and largely civil.  I reviewed all the responses and most of them fell into four main categories: Specific advisor recommendations (i.e. precisely answering what the original poster had asked).  Good job to those posters! Suggestions to use “free” advisors such as big bank or institutional advisors Suggestions that advisors were not needed and that you can just “do-it-yourself”.  This was often accompanied by a suggestion to watch Youtuber “X”, read book “Y”, or consult website “Z” Spe...