Your Wealthy Retirement: Reduce Risk & Grow Your Wealth With A Pension Styled Approach When New To Retirement

What happens to your wealth when the world changes faster than your portfolio can adapt?

Climate change is no longer just an environmental concern—it can create financial risk through inflation, extreme weather, changing asset values, insurance costs, and physical exposure that traditional financial models may fail to capture.

In this episode, we speak with Ron Dembo, CEO and founder of Risk Thinking AI, about why investors need to rethink how they measure risk in a rapidly changing climate. Ron explains why climate change should be viewed as a volatility problem, why many assets may be improperly priced, and why retirees—with less time to recover from major losses—could be particularly vulnerable.

You’ll learn:

1. How climate risk can create hidden exposure in your portfolio and why traditional financial models may not fully account for it.
2. Why inflation can threaten your retirement security and what kinds of assets may provide a stronger hedge against rising costs.
3. Why becoming more conservative may be essential when the future is radically uncertain and climate-related risks are becoming harder to ignore.

Listen to the full episode to discover how you can make more resilient wealth decisions in a world where climate risk and inflation may be much more significant than your portfolio assumes.

Worried about the current investment climate and your money?

Click the link below and book a call for personalized advice to help you feel secure and protected about your retirement:

https://yourwealthyretirement.s.gy/pod

Is your investment portfolio prepared for a world where economic relationships are changing and geopolitical risks are reshaping global markets?

The global economy is undergoing a fundamental shift, and Canada is positioning itself to become a more resilient, diversified, and attractive destination for investment. In this episode, we explore how Prime Minister Mark Carney's economic strategy aligns with the principles of portfolio resilience and why investors may need to rethink traditional approaches to investing.

From Canada's ambitious infrastructure projects and investment tax incentives to global diversification and the growing importance of private assets, discover how economic transformation could influence portfolio construction, particularly for those approaching or already in retirement.

In this episode, you'll discover:

1. Why portfolio resilience matters in a changing global economy: Understand how geoeconomics, trade tensions, and geopolitical risks are challenging traditional investment strategies and why diversification across asset classes and regions is increasingly relevant.
2. How Canada's economic strategy could create investment opportunities: Explore Canada's major infrastructure initiatives, investment tax incentives, and efforts to attract global capital across energy, resources, AI, defense, and transportation.
3. How to adapt your portfolio for long-term stability: Learn about the potential role of private assets, infrastructure, commodities, and pension-style investing in building diversified portfolios designed to navigate economic uncertainty and inflation.

Tune in to discover how Canada's evolving economic strategy connects to portfolio resilience and what these changes could mean for your long-term investment approach.

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

Make Better Wealth Decisions is now Your Wealthy Retirement!

What if the way you withdraw your retirement savings could be just as important as how much you saved?

For many Canadians, retirement planning focuses heavily on accumulating wealth—but the real challenge begins when you need to turn that wealth into income. The order and timing of your withdrawals from RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, and non-registered accounts can affect your taxes, government benefits, estate, and how long your savings last.

In this episode, we explore retirement drawdown strategies and the trade-offs you need to consider when moving from saving to spending. We look at RRSP and RRIF withdrawals, early RRIF drawdowns, TFSA strategies, taxable investment accounts, CPP and OAS, tax brackets, estate planning, and the importance of building a withdrawal strategy around your own circumstances and priorities.

You’ll learn:

1. How to think about your retirement drawdown strategies so you can balance current income needs, taxes, government benefits, and the risk of outliving your savings.
2. Why the timing of RRSP/RRIF withdrawals matters and how drawing down registered accounts earlier can sometimes help manage future tax liabilities.
3. How to coordinate your TFSA, RRIF, and non-registered accounts to create a more tax-efficient and flexible retirement income strategy.

Listen to the episode to understand the key trade-offs behind retirement drawdown strategies and start thinking more deliberately about how your hard-earned savings can support you throughout retirement.

Worried about the current investment climate and your money?

Click the link below and book a call for personalized advice to help you feel secure and protected about your retirement:

https://yourwealthyretirement.s.gy/pod

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

Are bonds and GICs really the best way to generate reliable interest income anymore?

If you’ve been relying on traditional fixed income, you may be missing a lesser-known corner of alternative investments that institutions have used for decades. Private real estate debt offers a different approach to earning interest income—one backed by physical assets, shorter lending terms, and structural protections that many investors never consider.

In this episode, John sits down with Spencer Hurley of Trez Capital to unpack how private real estate debt actually works, why it’s often misunderstood, and where it fits (and doesn’t fit) in a modern portfolio.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How private real estate debt generates interest income and why it behaves differently than bonds or GICs
2. The two biggest risks investors need to understand—and how proper due diligence can reduce them
3. Where private real estate debt fits within alternative investments across different market cycles

If you want to make better wealth decisions and understand whether private real estate debt belongs in your interest income strategy, this episode will give you the clarity you need — listen now.

More About Spencer Hurley: https://www.trezcapital.com/our-team/spencer-hurley

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

Worried about the current investment climate and your money?

Click the link below and book a call for personalized advice to help you feel secure and protected about your retirement:

https://yourwealthyretirement.s.gy/pod

Are you building a portfolio based on stories, headlines, and hot picks—or on what actually works?

Most investors believe smart investing means finding the right stock, the right fund, or the right manager. But decades of real-world evidence suggest something very different. In this episode, John sits down with veteran financial professional Patrick Frigon to unpack what Nobel Prize–winning research reveals about building a portfolio, reducing investment risk, and diversifying investments in a way that actually improves long-term outcomes.

You’ll hear why stock picking is so difficult, how markets absorb information almost instantly, and why trying to outsmart everyone else often leads investors to beat themselves instead.

By listening, you’ll learn how to:

1. Build a portfolio using evidence-backed principles instead of predictions and opinions
2. Reduce investment risk without sacrificing long-term returns
3. Diversify investments in a way that smooths volatility and minimizes costly mistakes

If you want to stop guessing and start making smarter, calmer, and more reliable wealth decisions, this episode will change how you think about investing—press play and listen now.

Start planning with STANDUP Advisors:

https://johndegoey.ca/

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

Are your financial decisions built on assumptions that no longer hold true?

Most investors still rely on growth models tied to population expansion — but what happens when 25% of Americans are child-free and birth rates keep falling?

In this episode, we dive into the controversial but urgent conversation around Child-Free Wealth, Demographics, and Investing with Jay Zigmont, PhD, CFP®, founder of Childfree Wealth. He explains why the “standard life script” no longer applies, how demographic decline threatens our economy, and what that means for your money.

You’ll discover:

1. Why demographic realities may upend traditional investing assumptions like constant market growth.
2. How being child-free changes financial planning — from estate design to long-term care.
3. What investors and advisors must do now to prepare for a future where sustainability, not endless growth, is the benchmark.

👉 Listen now to learn how to design wealth decisions that fit the real world — not outdated assumptions.

Know more about Childfree Wealth: https://childfreewealth.com/

About John De Goey: https://www.johndegoey.ca/

Are women really facing the same retirement reality as men—or are planners missing something critical?

Women live longer, earn less on average, and experience more career interruptions—yet retirement advice often assumes a one-size-fits-all approach. In this episode, we explore why financial planning for women requires a fundamentally different lens and how structural, behavioral, and educational factors shape women retirement planning outcomes in ways many advisors underestimate.

In this conversation, you’ll discover:

1. Why compounding life events—not behavior alone—put women at a retirement disadvantage
2. How financial literacy and confidence directly influence women’s long-term wealth outcomes
3. What planners can do differently to create more effective, empathetic retirement strategies for women

If you want a clearer understanding of the real challenges shaping women’s financial futures—and how better planning decisions can close the gap—this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

More about Tanya Staples: https://research.conestogac.on.ca/our-team/tanya-m-staples-cfp

Worried about the current investment climate and your money?

Click the link below and book a call for personalized advice to help you feel secure and protected about your retirement:

https://yourwealthyretirement.s.gy/pod

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

What happens when you stop trying to say everything in a few minutes and instead go deeper on what matters most?

This episode marks a major change in the podcast. Instead of continuing with short Tuesday commentary, John is ending the Tuesday episodes and putting more time and attention into longer, more actionable conversations and standalone episodes.

The podcast will also be rebranded with a stronger focus on retirement planning, wealth, pensions, and the decisions that can help you prepare for retirement. Going forward, Thursday episodes will feature a mix of John's standalone discussions and conversations with guests, while Saturday videos will continue providing visual explanations of important financial topics.

By listening, you'll learn:

1. Why the podcast is shifting its focus toward retirement planning and what that means for future episodes.
2. How deeper, standalone episodes can provide more actionable financial guidance than brief weekly commentary.
3. What to expect from the new podcast format, including the balance between solo episodes, guest conversations, and Saturday videos.

Listen to the episode to understand why the podcast is changing—and how the new focus on retirement planning can give you more practical, in-depth guidance.

Worried about the current investment climate and your money?

Click the link below and book a call for personalized advice to help you feel secure and protected about your retirement:

https://yourwealthyretirement.s.gy/pod

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

How confident are you when it comes to making decisions about your money?

For many Canadians, the problem isn't a lack of information—it's having too much information, not knowing which sources to trust, and feeling embarrassed to ask basic financial questions. Financial literacy is about more than knowing the difference between a TFSA and an RRSP; it's about developing the confidence and habits to make sound financial decisions, even when the future feels uncertain.

In this episode of Make Better Wealth Decisions, John speaks with Shannon Lee Simmons, financial planner and founder of New School Finance, about the state of financial literacy in Canada and the practical financial planning questions Canadians should be asking.

You'll learn:

1. How to build financial confidence by turning financial knowledge into practical habits and decisions.
2. How to think about CPP, investment returns, TFSAs and RRSPs without falling into common assumptions and misconceptions.
3. How to manage financial uncertainty with realistic expectations and smaller, actionable “micro financial plans” that keep you moving forward.

Listen to the episode to build the financial literacy and confidence you need to make better wealth decisions—one small plan at a time.

Weekly Wealth Update: A Make Better Wealth Decisions podcast dedicated to explaining how current events impact your portfolio and the wealth decisions you make. Tune in every Monday for commentary on how the news of the week affects your portfolio and your thinking.

From Canada’s looming tariff pressures to the way financial advisors frame market risk, there’s a common theme: optimism bias can influence how you think, act, and prepare. When governments and financial professionals have incentives to maintain confidence, it can become difficult to distinguish between a plausible story and what’s actually likely to happen.

This episode explores why seeing things as they are is becoming increasingly important for making responsible financial decisions—without falling into panic or knee-jerk reactions.

You’ll learn:

1. How optimism bias can distort your perception of financial risk and leave you less prepared for difficult outcomes.
2. Why traditional approaches to portfolio risk are changing and what the shift toward low-, medium-, and high-risk classifications means for investors.
3. How to build greater resilience into your financial decisions while remaining prudent rather than reactive.

Listen to the episode to learn how seeing things as they are can help you make clearer, more resilient financial decisions in an uncertain world.

John De Goey's Books. Grab your copy from Amazon:

1. Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances
2. STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry
3. The Professional Financial Advisor IV

Worried about the current investment climate and your money?

Click the link below and book a call for personalized advice to help you feel secure and protected about your retirement:

https://yourwealthyretirement.s.gy/pod