The Personal Finance Show

“Relationship builds trust, trust builds credibility, credibility builds influence. There are no shortcuts to that. There’s no app for that.” Todd Bender, Founder, CityKidz

Two weeks ago I got an email from J. Money and the team from Rockstar Finance. They had $100 to give to the first 20 personal finance bloggers to respond to the email, with the condition that the $100 would be used to give back locally and do some good.

The Rockstar Finance Community Fund is an amazing initiative that helps people do good in their community. Rockstar Finance has many personal finance bloggers on their list, so even though I thought I responded quickly, more than 100 others responded before me. I didn’t get the $100.

But then I thought: I like this idea. And: I have $100 of my own!

So I started looking for a local charity as I am a new Hamiltonian and didn’t already have one in mind. Google led me to CityKidz.

CityKidz has a Gift of Christmas campaign, where you can buy toys and drop them off at a Canadian Tire or local police station. Then I started reading more about CityKidz and realized there was much more to them than I thought.

Todd Bender founded CityKidz over 20 years ago and it has become a huge organization in Hamilton with branches in Ottawa and Regina. I decided I would visit the CityKidz headquarters, bring the toys I bought, get a tax receipt and see if Todd wouldn’t sit down with me to tell his story.

I talk about saving and investing and even spending your money, but I don’t talk as much as I should about giving away some of that money to those who might need it a bit more than you. The holidays are when we can all take a break from our daily lives, spend time with family and friends and reflect on what’s important to us.

It’s important to me that there is more giving in my life. Maybe not always money or things, but time as well. We all have skills and talents and we use them to make money, but they can also be given.

I’d like to thank J. Money and Rockstar Finance for inspiring me to put together this holiday giving episode and the last episode of 2017 where you will learn about Todd Bender and his amazing charity CityKidz.

14 - Mike Wickware

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“What we are looking for is partnerships, opportunities to learn, and collaborations to push forward the betterment of humanity.” - Richard Ndahiro of the United Nations Capital Development Fund

When I attend any conference, I’ve realized the most valuable part is the time that exists between scheduled activities. Mainly meals and breaks. This is generally when I meet the most amazing people and have the best conversations.

At the SIBOS 2017 conference in Toronto this past October, 8,000 delegates came from all over the world so I was definitely hoping to have great conversations with interesting people from different countries. I got to have many conversations over the 4 days of the conference but when I met a group of delegates from Uganda at my lunch table on day 2, I immediately knew they would be on my podcast.

Since my visit to Kenya last year I’ve been wanting to tell people about the state of personal finance in East Africa but my knowledge only scratches the surface. (When I say East Africa I mean the East African Community (EAC) of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.)

In Canada we take things like bank accounts, credit reports and credit scores for granted. We have credit cards and loans available to us from multiple sources. If we have talent, is it not hard to find the opportunity to use that talent to get a paying job or get funding for a business.

It isn’t that easy in East Africa.

My 3 guests on today’s episode are:

Richard Ndahiro, Digital Finance Expert for the United Nations Capital Development Fund or UNCDF

Ronald Azairwe, Director of Business Development for a Fintech company called Pegasus Technologies

Eric Kamau, Managing Director of a Fintech company called True African

Richard, Ronald and Eric have all made it their life’s work to improve the way that East Africans manage their finances.

Only 11% of East Africans have bank accounts. In contrast, according to the World Bank, 99% of Canadians have bank accounts.

Without a bank account, your cash is at risk, you can’t really prove you make any money, you don’t exist from a bank’s perspective, and you are unlikely to be able to get credit anywhere.

I am very happy that Richard, Ronald and Eric made the trip from Uganda to Toronto to join me in an inspiring conversation about bringing opportunity to those who need it most.

13 - Todd Bender

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"I'm thinking about building Lego right now Dad. Talk to me about compound interest later, ok?" - Chad Sichello

Who will teach our kids about personal finance?

In Canada, parents can open a bank account for their kids when they are really young. But at what point do you give them access to that money? At what point do they get a debit card?

These are decisions every parent has to make eventually. But it’s not enough to give them access to the $1,000 that’s in their account one day and say: “Remember to spend responsibly.” Or “Did you know that if you save just $1 a day, you could have $100,000 by the time you are 65?”

Do you know how far away 65 is for a 12 year old?

The point is that you may not be the best person to teach your kids about money.

With kids, it’s not always about how much you know about money, it’s about how you communicate with them. And it’s about how they learn and how they engage.

That’s where Dojo comes in.

Dojo is an interactive tool to teach your kids about money. It’s a smartphone app and debit card that are connected to your kid’s bank account.

Parents get a version of the app that has all the spending controls and monitoring abilities. The kid gets the version that tracks their spending, and let’s them work towards savings goals of their own.

You can add money to the kid’s account easily by using the app and even set up things like a scheduled allowance. As a parent you get to see where your kid spends their money and help them make better decisions, in real time.

I originally met Chad Sichello, CEO & Co-Founder of Dojo, at the Payments Canada Summit in May of 2017.

I really liked the idea and I started telling people about it, but I would say “It’s credit cards for kids!” and everyone thought I was crazy.

Well, of course, it’s not credit cards, it’s debit cards, which I suppose makes more sense since you can’t get a credit card in Canada until you are 18.

But no matter the product or the interface, what I liked the most was the idea of raising money-smart kids and that Chad and his team took the time to figure out how kids are learning today, and they created a product that met them, as Chad says in the interview, “where they are”.

I was happy to see that Dojo had a booth at the SIBOS 2017 conference in Toronto and I really enjoyed chatting with Chad about how he’s working to make sure the next generation is even better at managing money than we are.

As Chad mentions in the interview, Dojo is currently only available through ATB Financial in Alberta, so if you’re an ATB customer and have kids, please try it out and let me know what you think.

12 - Personal Finance in East Africa

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon

To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.

"I'm thinking about building Lego right now Dad. Talk to me about compound interest later, ok?" - Chad Sichello, http://www.dojo.co Who will teach our kids about personal finance? In Canada, parents can open a bank account for their kids when they are really young. But at what point do you give them access to that money? At what point do they get a debit card? These are decisions every parent has to make eventually. But it’s not enough to give them access to the $1,000 that’s in their account one day and say: “Remember to spend responsibly.” Or “Did you know that if you save just $1 a day, you could have $100,000 by the time you are 65?” Do you know how far away 65 is for a 12 year old? The point is that you may not be the best person to teach your kids about money. With kids, it’s not always about how much you know about money, it’s about how you communicate with them. And it’s about how they learn and how they engage. That’s where Dojo comes in. DOJO Dojo is an interactive tool to teach your kids about money. It’s a smartphone app and debit card that are connected to your kid’s bank account. Parents get a version of the app that has all the spending controls and monitoring abilities. The kid gets the version that tracks their spending, and let’s them work towards savings goals of their own. You can add money to the kid’s account easily by using the app and even set up things like a scheduled allowance. As a parent you get to see where your kid spends their money and help them make better decisions, in real time. For a great overview of what Dojo can do, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5rPCpCrLZM And you can also check out their website http://www.dojo.co and click on the Parents menu. THE INTERVIEW I originally met Chad Sichello, CEO & Co-Founder of Dojo, at the Payments Canada Summit in May of 2017. I really liked the idea and I started telling people about it, but I would say “It’s credit cards for kids!” and everyone thought I was crazy. Well, of course, it’s not credit cards, it’s debit cards, which I suppose makes more sense since you can’t get a credit card in Canada until you are 18. But no matter the product or the interface, what I liked the most was the idea of raising money-smart kids and that Chad and his team took the time to figure out how kids are learning today, and they created a product that met them, as Chad says in the interview, “where they are”. I was happy to see that Dojo had a booth at the SIBOS 2017 conference in Toronto and I really enjoyed chatting with Chad about how he’s working to make sure the next generation is even better at managing money than we are. As Chad mentions in the interview, Dojo is currently only available through ATB Financial in Alberta, so if you’re an ATB customer and have kids, please try it out and let me know what you think. NEXT EPISODE The next episode of The Personal Finance Show will be my East African episode where I will be speaking with 4 FinTech leaders from Uganda about what banking is like in Uganda and other East African countries, and what they are doing to change things for the better. If you enjoyed this episode of The Personal Finance Show, please listen to the previous episodes and subscribe to the podcast. Also check out my blog at https://investwisely.ca. I would love to hear from you, good or bad, but hopefully good, so please if you have anything to tell me, email me at [email protected].

LENDING LOOP

I originally interviewed the co-founders of lending loop for Episode 2 of The Personal Finance Show so when I saw that they were setup at SIBOS in the Canadian Fintech corner, I knew that I wanted to include them in the Canadian FinTech Corner at SIBOS interview.

MYLO

Mylo is a smartphone app that is fairly new and currently only available on the iOS app store but they are working on an Android beta so stay tuned for that.

WAVE

Wave has been around since 2010. But they are recently new to me and they may be new to you, despite the fact that they currently have 2.8M customers worldwide.

Thanks to Cato Pastoll from Lending Loop, Liam Cheung from Mylo and Rob Maurin from Wave for taking the time to chat with me at the Canadian Fintech Corner at SIBOS 2017

11 - Chad Sichello

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“Being good at money doesn’t mean you have to give up the things that you love.” - Desirae Odjick

Desirae Odjick is very interested in helping you be great at money.

The best part is that she breaks it down in a way we can all understand.

This is sorely needed in the world of personal finance education.

Desirae originally started Half Banked because she ran the numbers and it turned out that she would have to save half her income to achieve all of her savings goals. And what better accountability than publishing updates on the internet along the way?

Two years later and now she’s the one giving the advice - because she’s been through it and learned a lot along the way. We all need a helping hand when it comes to meeting our financial goals.

There’s a reason why you’re good at engineering, or doctoring, or dentisting, or whatever it is you do to make money. It’s because you’re probably not super great when it comes to personal finance.

Well, Desirae is.

She can afford her dog(expensive!), her new house(expensive!!) and still meets her goal of saving 10% of her income before all that stuff (like living the life you want) gets in the way.

How? By paying attention. (a.k.a. budgeting and tracking)

A budget is a tool for freedom, not a prison.

The hard truth is: you can’t have everything. At least not all at once.

So if you put your priorities in a budget, you actually know if you can afford them or not.

I enjoyed chatting with Desirae at FinCon 2017 in Dallas, Texas (even though we’re both Canadian!).

10 - Canadian FinTech Corner at SIBOS

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

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“I would much rather come up with the right solution for you, rather than the solution that is going to make me money today.” - Doug Hoyes

This is the kind of thinking that makes me want to send everyone to Hoyes Michalos and Associates for help.

In 2009 I found myself with a huge amount of consumer debt, due to my gambling addiction, and I could barely keep up with my minimum payments. I could feel that I was on my way to finding a way out of my gambling addiction, but it was hard to make any progress with so much debt weighing upon me and no plan to pay it off.

I did a bunch of research and decided that filing for bankruptcy might be an option. I looked a bit further and found that a consumer proposal to my creditors might be the better choice.

In early 2009 I emailed Hoyes Michalos and Associates with the following message:

“Due to a recent gambling incident, my debt load has increased significantly. I do not believe I can reasonably afford to pay my current debt load. I think a consumer proposal might be the right thing for me.”

The “incident”, of course, was not recent, and it was an accumulation of gambling debt over 10 years, which I clarified with Sandra, the insolvency trustee when we met.

Sandra took my $40,000 in debt and crafted a proposal to my creditors asking if it could be reduced to $15,000. The alternative was bankruptcy, and $0, so my creditors accepted the $15,000.

I now had fixed monthly payments of $300 for the next 50 months. Oh yeah, and my credit rating would be ruined for the entire 50 months + 3 full years after my proposal was paid in full.

What might have been a negative for some, was a huge relief for me. With the inability to gamble with credit cards, and having enough cash flow to start saving again, I was able to focus on rebuilding.

Soon after, I finally realized I was gambling because I had Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD). I was diagnosed, medicated and my life changed completely.

It still took a few more years to shake the gambling addiction completely, but in 2011 I had my final relapse and was finally done with gambling.

In August 2012 I paid my proposal in full and 3 years later my proposal was cleared from my credit report. It took a while but I recovered from what seemed to be a hopeless situation.

This is the kind of situation Doug Hoyes sees every day.

After 20 years and 10,000 clients, Doug decided to write a book called “Straight Talk on Your Money”, just released in September 2017.

I really enjoyed speaking with Doug and I want to thank him for having me on his podcast “Debt Free in 30”. Here’s the link for that episode: https://www.hoyes.com/blog/dealing-with-gambling-debt/

To find out more about bankruptcies, consumer proposals, and other insolvency options, please head to https://www.hoyes.com or call 1-866-747-0660.

09 - Desirae Odjick

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On Wednesday, October 18, 2017, 5 contestants began the Money 20/20 Payments Race in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the SIBOS conference.

Each contestant must use a different method of payment to get from Toronto to Las Vegas in 7 days, with checkpoints and challenges along the way.

Payment methods are: Chip and pin, Bitcoin, Gold, Cash and Coins, and Contactless.

It is only through a series of random connections that I became aware of this race.

One of the contestants, Jessica Moorhouse, is a friend of mine and host of the Mo’ Money Podcast.

She posted on social media about being the first Canadian to be selected to compete in the race.

Then I found out that the race was starting at the 3rd day of the SIBOS conference in Toronto - a conference that I just happened to be already attending!

So I tracked down the 5 contestants and chatted with all of them about the race, their assigned methods of payment, and how they were feeling at the beginning of this 7-day journey!

08 - Doug Hoyes

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

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At age 30, Sean Cooper paid off the mortgage on his $425,000 home in Toronto.

He started with a hefty $170,000 down payment and then paid off his $255,000 mortgage in only 3 years.

Sean’s story is about goal setting.

You start with a goal and you take the steps necessary to achieve that goal. Sean’s goal was to own a house as early as possible.

So he saved every penny, worked several jobs, lived in the basement apartment of his own house so he could rent out the top, and lived a frugal life to achieve his goal.

You may not be able to duplicate what Sean did, and he doesn’t expect you to. He realizes his case is a bit extreme and not for everyone.

Sean wrote “Burn Your Mortgage” to help people pay off their mortgage sooner. Maybe not in 3 years, but how about 10 years instead of 20?

The point is that you don’t have to wait 25 years to own your house, just because your mortgage is amortized over 25 years.

If you really want to own your house sooner, you just have to make it a priority. Set the goal and work towards it.

“Burn Your Mortgage” is a great read for current homeowners and prospective buyers, but it also has some great tips for anyone trying to find ways to save more or earn more.

Sean’s critics love to tell him what he should have done instead of paying off his mortgage quickly. Maybe you don’t want to do what Sean did, and that’s ok. But Sean did it because he wanted to. No one forced him to work 3 jobs and live in the basement.

We all have the right to choose how we spend our lives. Sean wanted a house and now he has a house.

And now he has a house and a book.

Rather than judge Sean, I think we should congratulate him for his achievements and his amazing goal setting abilities.

07 - Money 20/20 Payments Race

Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach

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When I first heard about Planswell, I joined their waiting list immediately.

Planswell is giving free financial plans to all Canadians.

This is what I’ve been looking for. Free budgeting and tracking from mint.com and now free financial plans. As I was doing research for the podcast interview and as I got to know the team better, I realized that Planswell is more than just a quick free financial plan.

It is definitely quick and free, but that first 4 minutes where you type in your info and a plan comes out - that’s just the beginning. Just like me with my personal finance coach clients, Planswell wants to help you over the long run.

The first plan is just the first plan. Every 6 months after that, you’re going to update that plan. Every 6 months for the next 40 or 50 years.

Planswell is not just about investing your money. The results of the plan depend on your personal financial situation. If you come to Planswell and you are in debt, the plan is going to have a debt repayment part to it. The plan may even tell you to put all of your available funds towards the debt and help you figure out how to do that. Planswell is not going to just take your money and invest it without knowing everything else about you.

This is called holistic financial planning.

This is what I want for everyone.

I had this idea to bring my mobile podcast studio to the new Planswell HQ and interview the whole team all at once.

I wasn’t sure if they would go for it but they did and I’m really happy with the results.

Having the whole team as part of the interview meant that it wasn’t just one person answering questions, but that anyone could grab the mic if they had something to say.

Most importantly, I got to try my segment “Questions from the Internet” with a large group of people and it was really fun. You can find the start of that segment around the 35 minute mark.

Overall I had the best time chatting with Planswell and I hope you enjoy the podcast!

06 - Sean Cooper

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