As financial planners we offer sound advice specific to your needs that integrates your goals and lifestyles for everything relating to private wealth management. With financial advisors in Calgary on our team, we balance planning for tomorrow with enjoying today.
We remove the noise and focus on what matters to you by understanding where you are now, where you want to go, and how you want to get there. We then provide clear and simple solutions that put you in control.
Certified Financial Planner® designation provides assurance to Canadians their financial future rests with a professional who will put their clients’ interests ahead of their own.
As wealth managers, we focus on four key areas of your financial life: Save it, spend it, pay it down, and protect it.
How you choose to allocate your income and resources today will determine the amount and timing of taxes you pay tomorrow. Our financial planners in Calgary start by creating your unique debt and private wealth management strategy, and adding in a comfortable lifestyle that is tailored towards how you want to manage your work and life balance. We then protect your vision and move toward achieving your savings goals with simplicity and security.
Your financial plan should reflect your views and comfort level on how quickly you repay your debts and how you prefer to build your savings, balanced with how much you would like to work and play. We work towards YOUR financial independence.
The day you retire, all the rules change. You shift from earning your income and building savings to using your savings to create your income. How will you know if you have enough to retire? By assigning different purposes to different portions of your savings:
Minimum Desired Lifestyle. The fundamental basis for any retirement plan is to ensure you never outlive your money and are immune to market volatility. What sources of guaranteed income do you have? Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and Defined Benefit Pensions fall into this category. Shortfall from the income received and the income needed? Consider a 1, 2 and 3-year GIC for the annual difference needed. In up markets, you’re only sacrificing returns. In down markets, these GICs preserve the rest of your portfolio!
Control the Uncontrollable. Next, we want to be able to answer two questions: if something happens to me or my partner physically or mentally, what do I/we want to have happen and how will we fund it? Your personal legal documents and funding set aside to cover for them will give you relief in knowing an unexpected health event won’t use up your other savings.
Discretionary Income. The ‘wants’ of retirement! This is where the bulk of your retirement savings will reside. In up markets, you spend and travel more, and in down markets, you cut back here. And because you’ve done the first two steps, you’re not worried about negative markets!
Toys. The first three steps are what you need to be able to retire, but savings in excess of those needs can be used towards vacation properties, nicer cars or other larger purchases without impacting your future ability to generate retirement income.
Making Your Money Matter. Finally, any assets not used by the time you pass away can be planned for 2 of 3 possible beneficiaries: your family or your friends, your community or your charity, or the Canada Revenue Agency. Make sure you pick the right 2 for you by considering pre-gifting, donations and proper insurance to pay your tax for pennies on the dollar, not dollar plus.
Rather than thinking of debt solely in terms of the highest interest rate, reframe the question this way: What is most important to me? Saving interest, freeing up cash flow, or (for the business owner) saving taxes? Car loans are often a larger payment relative to the amount outstanding due to their shorter time frame to repay. Paying them off is often less about interest saved, therefore, and more about freeing up cash flow. A mortgage, on the other hand, is often cheaper debt but early payments can create big interest savings down the road. For the business owner/incorporated professional, a 3rd question should be considered: does it make sense to pay up to 48% tax to save 5 – 8% of interest? This is where the head versus heart battle will show itself and there is no right or wrong answer. If the thought of debt truly bothers you, then set a plan for elimination that avoids high tax rates but gets debt paid off in a timeline you can live with. If you are okay with debt as long as you can save or grow your company more than the interest, then paying the minimum on personal debt may be the right solution for you.
Ultimately, working with your financial planner will help you find the right balance that is unique to you, your goals, and your values.
