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.

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.

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. 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?
4. 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?
5. 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?
6. 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?

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 Canadian Financial Summit:

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 buildwealthcanada.ca/summit.

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 buildwealthcanada.ca/summit

I hope to see you there!

Kornel

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 dental insurance and medical insurance 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.

To help me with this, I brought back one of our popular returning guests, Laura MacKay. Laura is the co-founder and COO of policyme.com, 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.

About Laura's Company: PolicyMe.com

Educational Guides from the Episode:

Types of Dental Insurance Plans in Canada

The Canadian Guide to Health Insurance Plans

What is Life Insurance: Meaning & Comprehensive Guide

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. What are the key components to look for when evaluating this type of insurance?

7. When it comes to health and dental insurance plans, is this something that also covers you when travelling? Or would that be separate?

8. 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)?

9. What are some of the most common questions that Canadians ask when it comes to health and dental insurance?

10. Can you tell us more about PolicyMe, how you differentiate yourselves, and what you offer?

This interview will be a bit different as I was recently interviewed by Financial Journalist, Ellen Roseman from Canadian MoneySaver Magazine where she asked me some great questions, and so I thought it would be great to also publish that interview, here on the Build Wealth Canada Show.

In the interview, we cover what lessons for Canadians I have learned after doing close to two hundred interviews with financial experts, over the past 10 years.

My wife and I have also been either fully or semi-retired for the past 8 years, and so Ellen asked me if I have any advice for those who are also planning to retire in their 30s like us, or just retire early in general, and she asks what kind of financial changes or challenges were we surprised by that you should know about to help you with your own journey towards financial independence and early retirement.

Ellen has also been teaching investing at the University of Toronto for the past 20 years, so in the interview, she also shares some of her lessons learned over that time.

Enjoy the episode, and if you’d like to hear more interviews done by Ellen, you can check them out on the Canadian MoneySaver Podcast which you can find in your favourite podcast player.

Thanks for tuning in, and you can get all the show notes and free resources over at BuildWealthCanada.ca.

In this episode, I interview two professional financial planners to discover what are the most common questions that they receive when working with Canadians.

Our two guests are also going to cover what the most important and frequently occurring blind spots are that we Canadians tend to make in our own finances.

We also cover how to know if you are on-track to reach financial independence and retire early, or if you have enough to retire comfortably.

We cover all this and more, as we tackle the top questions that Canadians have, here in Canada.

Our guests today are Hannah McVean and Thuy Lam from Objective Financial Partners. They are both fee-for-service financial planners, are both Certified Financial Planners (CFP), and they and their firm don’t sell any investments and instead focus on providing unbiased, conflict-free financial planning advice.

Hannah was actually a guest on our January episode with Jason Heath and that was our most popular episode this year. So, it’s great to have her back, along with Thuy to get multiple perspectives on these most popular questions that Canadians have.

You can book a free introductory meeting with Hannah, Thuy and their team at buildwealthcanada.ca/plan. As a Build Wealth Canada listener, you’ll get 10% off if you end up working with them. The discount is for a limited time, and you can sign up for free here. A big thanks to Hannah and Thuy for offering this to Build Wealth Canada listeners.

When we first hit our financial independence number 8 years ago, one of the financial planners that I asked to look at our numbers before my wife and I quit our full-time jobs was Ed Rempel. At the time, I asked Ed if he could do his own math and analysis on our numbers, to make sure that I didn’t miscalculate something when I was doing it myself, and this way I could be certain that my wife and I could quit our jobs and live off our portfolio going forward.

Well, fast forward to today, it’s been around 8 years since we quit our full-time jobs, and so I thought it would be helpful to have Ed back on the show and to once again use us as a case study on how one can live off their portfolio in a sustainable, stress free, and tax efficient way, here in Canada.

On this episode, you’re going to learn what strategies and frameworks tend to work when it comes to living off your portfolio here in Canada.

You’ll learn about a big mistake that I made which was actually causing me money anxiety even though our investment portfolio was going up in value. Ed helped me get through that, and it’s a mistake that is actually totally avoidable, and a skill that you can start building and mastering today.

And, when it comes to a strategy for paying the least amount of tax in Canada, Ed takes us through two main strategies that you can choose depending on your situation so that you pay the least amount of tax throughout your lifetime.

We cover all this and much more in the interview.

Links, show notes and free resources are all available at BuildWealthCanada.ca.

Having your investments pay you large dividends or yield sounds great. It’s truly passive income where money just shows up in your account without you having to do anything, and without you having to sell off any of your investments even when markets are down.

But what if you get too focused on maximizing dividends or yield in your portfolio? After all, there is no free lunch when it comes to investing. There are always tradeoffs, and it turns out that there are some pretty significant disadvantages for investors that just try to maximize their yield or dividends at all costs, and it can result in you actually getting a substantially lower "total return" over time, on your investments.

To help us learn what pitfalls to look out for when deciding on our investments, particularly when it comes to some of these very high yielding ETFs that you may be seeing recommended online, we have Chris Heakes.

Chris has over 14 years of experience in the investment industry. He’s a CFA, has a Master of Finance from the University of Toronto, and is a Director and Portfolio Manager at BMO Global Asset Management.

Chris is going to take us through what we should look out for so that we don’t fall for the yield trap.

We’ll also cover hidden fees that you may be unknowingly paying on some ETF, along with some arguably deceptive advertising to look out for that you may have seen here in Canada when it comes to your investments.

Lots to learn in this interview with Chris, so let’s jump right in.

You can see all the show notes, resources and links for this episode over at BuildWealthCanada.ca

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.

When it comes to managing our investment portfolios, there are definitely some mistakes that are easy to make, and ones that a lot of Canadian investors tend to do.

In this episode, we have Peter McMurtry on the show who is going to take us through what the common mistakes are that Canadian investors tend to do, as well as the best practices that he's noticed from his 30+ years in the investing industry.

One of the things Peter does is portfolio reviews for his clients, so I wanted to pick his brain on the common mistakes that he sees investors make when he reviews their portfolios so that you and I can be sure to avoid those mistakes in our own portfolio.

On the flip side, he’s also worked with clients that are successful investors, and after doing this for 30+ years, one begins to notice certain patterns about what the successful investors do, that the unsuccessful don’t. We go into these best practices that he’s noticed over the years from these successful investors, so that we can apply these lessons ourselves.

Enjoy the show, and you can get the show notes and resources over at BuildWealthCanada.ca

Wishing you all the best,

Kornel

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?

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 buildwealthcanada.ca/sean.

And now, let’s get into the interview.