In this episode, we talk about what a robo advisor is, and how it can be a lot less expensive than the traditional approach of investing in high-fee, actively managed mutual funds.

I find robo advisors to be the easiest way to invest in Canada, but this does result in higher fees than if you were to just buy the investments yourself (which is actually really easy). 

I personally just buy the investments myself to get the lowest fees and pay the least tax possible (You can see exactly how I do it over at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest.)

With that said, I realize not everybody wants to learn how to actually be a passive investor and get the lowest possible fees, and so robo advisors can be a good option if you value simplicity of fees. 

Links and Resources

• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments. 
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Questions Covered:

1. For those just getting started in investing, can you explain what a robo advisor service is, and especially why we as Canadians should care?

2. When you build investment portfolios for Canadians, why are ETFs such a core part of your portfolios? (perhaps explain what an ETF is first for all the listeners just getting started with this)

3. Nest Wealth mentions that you manage the money based on proven investing principles and Nobel Prize-winning theories. Can you elaborate on the Nobel Prize-winning theories component?

4. One thing I noticed on your Nest Wealth site, is that you actually list all the ETFs you buy (which is nice, I really like that transparency), but if I’m just a regular Canadian, why don’t I just buy the ETFs myself through a discount brokerage (especially since some discount brokerages let me buy ETFs for free) and then save on the fees that Nest Wealth charges?

5. Anybody following the financial services industry knows that there are a LOT of robo advisor services out in Canada. What sets Nest Wealth apart from all the rest?

5.a. One of the things that really intrigued me when I first heard of you guys is that you have a flat fee model. For those not familiar, can you explain what that is and why it’s actually a pretty big deal?

5.b. You mention that your portfolios are “custom built” unlike your competitors. Can you elaborate how this works and why it’s so important?

6. I imagine that a big concern Canadians have is that with all these robo advisor companies out there, it’s totally conceivable that not all of them will survive long term. Because of this, it wouldn’t surprise me if some Canadians are holding back from investing because they are afraid of losing all their money if something was to ever happen. Can you speak to this concern?

7. What customer support do you offer? Ex. If somebody has questions while going through the automated portfolio building process?

What about after all is set up?

8. One of the other things that intrigued me was that on your site you mention that as a client you get your own portfolio manager that you can speak with, text or call. What types of things is a Portfolio Manager ideally suited to help you with? And what types of question are beyond the scope of a Portfolio Manager like this? (I’m trying to gauge what kind of other professionals you need on your team apart from Nest Wealth).

10. I went through Nest Wealth and had it build a portfolio for me. I noticed that there were different goals that you can select, and I assume Nest Wealth will optimize your portfolio, depending on your goal correct?

How does Nest Wealth change what portfolio it recommends depending on whether somebody is savings for retirement vs is already retired and now needs the income instead of growth?

What about if they’re saving for something like a down payment on a home or post-secondary education for their child? What’s the strategy behind those types of portfolios?

11. I noticed Nest Wealth will build your portfolio based on your questions, but it won’t actually tell you whether you will be able to actually retire by an age you specify, and whether your income in retirement is sustainable. Is that because that is an area where you actually need a financial planner to do a more in-depth, 1-on-1 personalized analysis with you?

12. How is the MER absorbed? Is that covered by the monthly fee? What about other fees?

13. To close things off, who is Nest Wealth not for?

ex. Those with credit card debt?

13. Who is Nest Wealth ideally for? What type of person benefits most from what your service?

Giveaway: Enter the giveaway for your chance to win a signed copy of Sean’s book: Burn Your Mortgage Get your free audiobook: Click Here to get your FREE audiobook by signing up for the free Audible trial. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player. Download or Stream the episode […]

Today I’m excited to have Sean Cooper on the show. There’s a good chance that you’ve already heard of Sean whether it’s on the radio, TV, or the internet as Sean is the guy that bought his first house when he was just 27 and paid off his mortgage at 30 in 3 years.

As you may know, my wife and I also paid off our mortgage early at the age of 28 and 29 (you can learn more about it by checking out past episodes of the show). But what makes Sean’s story interesting, is that he did it in Toronto (which as we all know has some of the highest real estate prices in Canada), and he did it with a single income. That to me is really impressive, so it was fun to pick Sean’s brain about how he did it, and the strategies he uses and recommends to save money and get out of debt.

UPDATE: Since publishing this episode, Sean has become the show’s Resident Mortgage Expert. If you have a mortgage question, you can speak to Sean for free over at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/sean

A bit more about Sean: He’s an in-demand personal finance journalist, money coach and speaker. His articles have been featured in publications such as the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, MoneySense and Tangerine’s Forward Thinking blog.

He makes regular appearances on national radio and television shows to discuss personal finance, real estate and mortgages. He’s also the author of the new book, Burn Your Mortgage, which helps anyone —from new buyers to experienced homeowners — pay down their mortgage sooner and live well while doing it.

Links and Resources

• Get a free one-on-one meeting with Sean to get your mortgage and home buying questions answered at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/sean
• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments.
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Questions Covered:

1. To start things off, tell us your story and the steps you took that got you mortgage free at such a young age.
2. Tell me about the moment when you realized that you need to write a book. What motivated you to write it in the first place?
3. With the house prices being where they are, and the frenzy that we seem to be experiencing in the real estate market right now, do you think it still makes sense for millennials to buy a home? (as opposed to renting for a lot less and investing their excess cash flows). Are there exceptions?
4. Are there some creative ways that you recommend Canadians (and millennials in particular) can get into the real estate market?
5. Tell me about the internal dialogue that you had in your head, with yourself, when deciding whether you should pay off your mortgage quicker or invest.
6. Now that you are debt free, are you also financially independent? Tell me your definition of financial independence.
7. If yes, how do you structure your investments, cash flows, etc.?
8. What are you doing with the cash flows that aren’t going towards your mortgage anymore? -What are you investing in? -Your strategy. Reasoning? -How are you using registered accounts? Are you using non-registered too?
9. Have you considered doing a home equity line of credit (HELOC) on your property and using the proceeds to invest?
10. Are you thinking of buying more rental properties?
11. What’s next for you?
12. To finish things off, tell us more about your book and what we can expect to learn from reading it.
13. Where can we follow you if we want to learn more?

Today we have Susan Daley on the show and we’re going to talk all about early retirement, such us how to pull it off, what to look out for, and some of the most common mistakes that Canadians make when trying to plan this out.

Susan is an Associate Portfolio Manager at PWL Capital in Waterloo, where she provides financial planning and investment management services to a wide range of clients. She’s also an Honours BBA graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University, which is actually where I graduated from too, so it’s always fun to chat with a fellow grad about best practices when it comes to financial planning and investing.

Links and Resources

• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments.
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest
• You can reach out to Susan at [email protected] and she's at www.pwlcapital.com/waterloo

Questions Covered:

1. For somebody that is saving money for a large purchase like a house, wedding, a car, etc., where do you suggest they keep their money to let it grow safely?
2. What to consider when deciding between RRSP vs TFSA vs non-registered? 
3. What if you’re planning to retire or semi-retire early (ex. 30s or 40s where it’s still a long time before government benefits come in). Does that change anything in terms of what accounts you put the funds in? 
4. Is there any time that you would use a non-registered account before using an RRSP and TFSA?
5. How to determine if you’ve saved enough to retire early? 
6. Once you hit that number, what changes do you make to your portfolio since now you’re focused on sustainability instead of growth (changes in terms of asset allocation, and the investment products you choose).
7. Would the answer be different if the person is in their 60s and about to receive government benefits vs if they are retired much earlier (ex. 40s)?
8. What cash cushion do you recommend for those in retirement and semi-retirement?
9. Some advisors recommend real return bonds for those in retirement. What are your thoughts? 
10. How to decide what accounts to take money from in retirement? (RRSP vs TFSA vs non-registered)

 

In this episode, we’re going to continue covering the subject of “How to Not Run Out of Money in Retirement”, specifically for Canadians.

This is from a live webinar that I did for Canadian MoneySaver Magazine so in case you weren’t able to make it, I wanted to provide you with as many tips as possible from that presentation in audio form.

If you missed part 1 of the series, it's the episode right before this one (episode 31).

Links and Resources

• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments.
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Bonuses for Build Wealth Canada Listeners:

You are eligible to receive a free 1-year paid subscription to Canadian MoneySaver Magazine by signing up for the free 5i Trial at www.buildwealthcanada.ca/trial.

If you would like more information, just listen to the beginning of the episode or you can learn more about 5i Research below:

In case you’re new to the show, 5i Research is Canada’s only conflict-free investment research network. What that means is that as you know, there is a lot of conflict of interest in Canada when it comes to people telling you what to invest in.  

So let’s say you go to your bank and ask to speak to a financial advisor because you want to invest some money. Well what many of them will do, is try to sell you their investment products like their mutual funds for example.

You’ll get a well-rehearsed sales pitch, but what they don’t tell you is how ridiculously high their fees are compared to just investing the money yourself using ETFs or stocks.

There’s also a conflict of interest because they are incentivised (either through bonuses or getting a promotion at work) to sell you products that make the company the most money, but may not necessarily be the best fit for you and make you the most money.

So here’s the thing, why would you ask someone what you should invest in when that person has a financial incentive to sell you what makes them the most money, as opposed to what makes you the most money so that you can, for example, retire early because you’re not paying ridiculous fees on underperforming investments?

Where 5i Research comes in is that they actually have a team of analysts that do the research, and all the financial math and analysis for you on the best investments to own (whether it’s the top stocks or the top ETFs in Canada), and whether you’re a growth focused investor, or a dividend focused investor. What makes them stand out, is that they don’t try to sell you any investments, so they’re not getting some commission or fee on the back-end, and the result is you getting unbiased investment analysis and insights, where you never have to worry that they are recommending something just because they are getting some sort extra compensation on the back-end.

What’s also neat, is that you can ask them questions, like if you’re considering a particular stock or ETF. Or, maybe you have no clue what you should invest in, and in that case they can recommend some model portfolios for you depending on your risk tolerance, objectives, and whether you want to invest in ETFs, stocks, or both.

They actually already have over 54,000 answered quested in their database, so you can actually see what others are asking too about the stock or ETF that you’re considering buying, and see the answers to those too.

Now as a listener of the Build Wealth Canada Show, you can actually get full access to everything for free for 1 month. In other words, you get full access to all the stock and ETF recommendations, all the model portfolios, as well as 5i’s database of over 54,000 answered investing questions. I definitely encourage you to check it out as at the very least you’ll learn a ton and it’s all free anyway.

And if for some strange reason that’s not enough, I’ve also arranged for Build Wealth Canada listeners to get two extra bonuses:

Bonus 1: The first, is that when you sign up for the free trial, you’ll also get a 1 year, paid subscriptions to Canadian MoneySaver Magazine, absolutely free.

This is the exact same magazine that you see at Chapters and other stores all across Canada, and you get the entire subscription, for free, for an entire year, no strings attached.

Bonus 2: The 2nd bonus, is that you’ll also get 1 question credit for free, on the 5i Research site. This means you can actually ask 5i’s team of analysts your most pressing investment question and they’ll answer it for you, using the knowledge and investment tools that you and I simply don’t have access to.

So enjoy, it’s all free, you’ll learn an absolute ton, and you can get it all by going to www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/trial.

In Closing:

If you enjoyed the episode, please take a moment to leave an honest review and rating on iTunes by clicking the “View in iTunes” button at this link.

If you have any tips, suggestions or comments, please be sure to leave a comment in the section below. I read all responses and look forward to hearing from you.

Have a great week,

Kornel

 

How Much Do You Need to Retire? No matter what age you are, chances are you’ve asked yourself this critical question at some point.

The stakes are high, and there are no do-overs, so how can you best prepare yourself now to ensure that you have enough to live the lifestyle you want in retirement?

Join me as I dive into the best practices and key factors to consider when figuring this out for yourself.

Is there a magic retirement number that you should aim for with your investments?

What levers can you pull to retire early, and sustain that retirement long-term?  

Whether you’re decades away from retirement or are getting close to that big day, join me to learn some of the key considerations to ensure that you have enough to retire.

Links and Resources

• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments.
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Today we have a very special guest who has worked as an advisor for some of Canada’s largest banks, giving him some great insider information on how we can all save money when dealing with the Banks.   

His name is John Kalos and he is an unbiased, non-commission, fee-for-service financial planner. John is the financial planner that I used before executing our early retirement, and he offers all Build Wealth Canada listeners a free 30-minute consultation so that you can get some of your financial questions answered too. You can sign up to speak with him for free over at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/john

Links and Resources

• You can get a free 30 minute call with John to get some of your questions answered by going to www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/john
• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments. 
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Questions Covered:

When it comes to safe investments, what are the options we have as Canadians, and how can we get the best rates at the bank? (ex. if we’re saving money for education, a downpayment, a car, etc.)

Do you then keep them within an RRSP or TFSA account at that bank? (ex. If you’re saving for a downpayment)

When it comes to negotiating with the bank, in what areas do the banks tend to have some flexibility? How hard can you generally push them to get the discounts, and do you have any tips that can increase the chance of them agreeing? (ex. Showing comparable mortgage rates at other lenders).

Areas to discuss:

• • Mortgages

• • Lines of credit

• • Bank fees

• Investment products

Are there any marketing/sales traps to look out for? (ex. Being offered life insurance together with your mortgage)

You mention in your podcast that there is potential conflict of interest between banker/advisor and their clients. Can you elaborate on this and give us a few actual examples?

What does a financial planner do at a bank vs someone like a fee for service or fee-based financial planner?

What are the top ways you recommend to save money on your investments?

What do you recommend to your clients? (ETFs? Individual stocks? Focus on dividends,? growth? etc.)

In this episode, I’ve pulled together the newest numbers of what you can expect from your investments. These are based on historical returns using several different highly reputable sources that I personally use and trust.

In other words, this isn’t some subjective opinion of what one person thinks you’ll get on your investments. Instead, it’s actual data, studies, and reports that reputable sources in the industry have put together, and is what I personally use.

I’ve also created a summary where you can see the ranges of possible investment returns based on the different sources (which use different times frames and assumptions). You can get all that by going to the episode's show notes over at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/29

Links and Resources

• The summary, graphs, and text version of this is available in the episode's page at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/29
• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments.
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Listen to it on iTunes. Listen to it on Stitcher. Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save link as” or “save as”. You can book a free 30 minute consultation with Sandi Here. Introduction When it comes to the Build Wealth Canada show, there are 2 questions that I get asked more […]

When it comes to the Build Wealth Canada show, there are 2 questions that I get asked more than any other.

The first is how to actually buy ETFs, so how to actually be an index investor, what tools to use, which ETFs are great ones to consider, and how to actually do it step-by-step. So that’s why I built the course (to basically answer this question). If you're interested, you can check it out at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Now the 2nd question that I get most often is from Canadians who are either in their 50 or 60s, are about to retire (or will be retiring in 10 years or less) and are looking learn how to do it properly.

So how do you withdraw from your portfolio properly to pay as little tax as possible? What are some best practices and things to look out for so that you don’t run out of money during your retirement?

Obviously when it comes to retirement planning like this, things gets really complicated, and the risks are ridiculously high since you’re basically at a life stage where you’re going to start spending the money that you’ve been saving and investing throughout your whole life.

So, the stakes are really high. We’re dealing with a lot of real money here, and the terrifying thing is that there are no do-overs.

In other words, if you mess this up, you can’t just hit the rewind button, get all your money back and try again. Because of this, it’s extremely important to get this right as the worse case scenario is basically you running out of money during retirement.

Also if you do run out of money, then going back to the workforce may not be an option due to the physical and/or mental health that you may be in at that time. Employers might also have a preference to hiring someone younger that they can pay less money for, and groom to stay with the company long term (unlike you since you’ll be back in retirement at the first possible opportunity).

Also with all the development in medical technology, now more than ever we are faced with the new challenge of living too long and outliving our money. This makes having a good financial plan that you review with a professional periodically even more important to ensure that you are living the type of lifestyle that you want in retirement, while minimizing the risks of running out of money.

Now I’m not trying to instill fear or anything like that, but I say all this just to help anybody out there realize that this is critically important, doing it wrong can be catastrophic to you and your partner’s life, and so you have to take accountability and responsibility for your financial situation, and not just hope that everything will turn out okay.

So with that said, I’m of the opinion that since the stakes at this stage of life are so high, you need a customized financial plan specific to your particular situations. This is definitely one of those times where you can’t just read a blog post about the top 10 retirement tips and assume that you’re all set, and that some “general” guidance is good enough for you as well.

You simply can’t do this because the stakes are too high (i.e. you running out of money in retirement), and there are too many variables in your life that can change the plan drastically.

For example:

• The assets and liabilities you have
• The income sources you’ll have in retirement
• The dependents you’ll have
• Your health
• Your goals and ambitions for retirement
• Inflation and market returns that you’ve endured in your lifetime
• The emergency fund you have
• The lifestyle you want in retirement
• Family dynamics like marriages, deaths and inheritances
• Your risk tolerance
• and the list goes on and on.

To address and help you with this, I’d like to introduce you to Sandi Martin who is a professional fee-for-service financial planner here in Canada.

Sandi has been requested by listeners of the show, and in this interview I chat with Sandi about the top questions that I’ve been asked from Build Wealth Canada listeners, especially those in their 50s and 60s that are nearing or at retirement. So enjoy the interview, and thanks for submitting the questions.

Now just to give you a bit of a background, Sandi is an expert in helping Canadians answer questions specific to their situation such as:

Are you on track to retire? Did you miss something in your analysis?

Are you saving enough for retirement?

What’s the best way to take out income from your portfolio to minimize taxes (based on all your assets and income sources)

How much do you need to save so that you can retire comfortably?

When can you retire? Can you fully retire or semi-retire now?

When should you choose to take your CPP and OAS?

What kind of lifestyle can you expect when you retire based on your current savings?

How can you help ensure that you don’t run out of money in your retirement?

Links and Resources

• Top Tools and Resources for Financial Independence (for Canadians): Sign up anywhere on www.BuildWealthCanada.ca for a free guide on all the top tools and sites that I’ve personally used to help us achieve financial independence in our early 30s. They’re also what we use now to optimize and manage our finances, and ensure that we’re paying the lowest fees while getting solid returns on our investments. 
• Kornel's investing course with free sample lessons at www.BuildWealthCanada.ca/invest

Questions Answered:

• Listener Question: “I would be interested in strategies for withdrawing accumulated assets from RRSPs and TFSAs. Is there an order of preference to save on taxes?”
• What if a Canadian earns income vs doesn’t earn income during their retirement. How does that affect things?
• Can you talk about converting an RRSP to a RRIF. What is it? How does it work?
• What is “sequence of returns risk” and how can we protect ourselves from it?
• What is an RPP?
• What is a LIRA?
  • Converting to LIF (Life Income Fund): What is it? How does it apply to this?
  • What is a Locked-In Retirement Income Fund (LRIF)?
  • What is a Prescribed Registered Retirement Income Fund (PRRIF)?
• What about holding money in unregistered accounts. Can you define what that means and how does it apply to this?
• When it comes to pensions, what are “defined benefit plans” vs “defined contribution plans”. How does this impact everything?
• What numbers do you like to use when forecasting returns for stocks and bonds? What are real vs nominal returns?
• Some Canadians consider purchasing annuities for their retirement. Can you define what these are and what are your thoughts on it?