UPotential is a fee-for-service financial planner – meaning that our compensation is based on a transparent, pre-established rate agreed upon before our engagements begin. We do not receive any compensation from, and do not offer, the sale of any investment or insurance related products/services. As a UPotential customer you will be under no obligation to utilize any particular investment or insurance product/service to action any of the plans we create. If you wish to engage the services of ETF Capital Management – a registered portfolio manager – you should be aware (and will be made aware at the time) that UPotential is under common ownership. Our goal is to help you get the most out of your money – so we will act always in the best interests of our clients, with full transparency, and in a manner which aligns our interests accordingly.
Would You Rather Die Rich or Live Richly?
I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to participate in the Spring “Investor’s Guide To Thriving” Series alongside BNN Bloomberg’s Larry Berman! I will be appearing in Toronto, Markham and Calgary presenting “Would You Rather Die Rich or Live Richly?”.
As the Head of Financial Life Strategies at ETF Capital Management and UPotential, I help clients translate the wealth that they have accumulated into the lifestyle and legacy that they have always wanted. Like Mr. Berman, I believe that education is empowerment. The better you understand the factors that could differentiate between an ample retirement and a retirement at risk, the more capable and confident you will be when making financial decisions. And those factors may surprise you…
So visit www.investorsguidetothriving.com to enrol in the Investor’s Guide To Thriving series! Registration is FREE and I hope to see you there!
You can view last season’s presentation, “The Two Comma Club”, by clicking here.
A 30-minute Investment That Pays All Year
Have you ever stuck to a New Year’s resolution? Me neither. It doesn’t take long for the best of intentions to get side-tracked by something more urgent, tempting or simply more comfortable and familiar. In many ways, our resolutions fail because they take time and repetitive effort when there is a myriad of opportunities to change our minds. This year take 30 minutes to set yourself up for success.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
A Primer on “Giving Tuesday”
Family get-togethers for U.S. Thanksgiving are quickly followed up by retail therapy on Cyber Monday. After all, who doesn’t need a little retail therapy after spending time with family?
We’ve got Black Friday, Cyber Monday, now what about “Giving Tuesday”? Launched in 2012, the movement has generated over $632-million US dollars in donations. Giving Tuesday encourages “social philanthropy” where donors large and small can invite their social networks to join them, match them and celebrate their reasons for giving. Philanthropy is your way of directing and controlling the social and research-based change that you want to see.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
Create Your Personal Pension Plan
Ah, retirement! Finally, we can live exactly the way we want to. In my case, that’s learning to cook international cuisines, dancing with Javier Bardem on a beach in Bali, and relaxing in a Muskoka chair surrounded by our beautiful, multicultural grandchildren.
I encourage my clients to dream of their ideal retirement as well as planning for what is inevitably an unsettling experience— going from a steady pay-cheque to drawing upon savings to cover expenses. Few people have reliable and inflation-adjusted employer pensions any more. Fewer still, have sufficient investment portfolios to produce enough income to live on. The reality is we’re all concerned about outliving our money and this can— and often does—prevent us from fulfilling our retirement dreams.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
Failure to Launch: What’s a Parent to Do?
Popular TV shows like Schitt’s Creek and Arrested Development feature children who cannot function without the financial support of their affluent families. Caricatures of these spoiled children are played for laughs. I find that many clients with investable wealth of anywhere between $1 – $5 million confide how difficult it is to raise well-rounded and ambitious children. They say that their children expect or demand things that would have been unthinkable to children a generation ago.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
“Hey Movember, Meet No Spender”
Through their annual “Grow a Moustache” campaign, Movember has raised awareness of men’s health issues. Paying homage to it, I created a campaign I call “No-Spender”—a month-long initiative to promote an awareness of our spending habits in advance of the most difficult time of the year: December holidays.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
When Are Bargain Hunters the Prey?
I don’t shop often but when I do, I go to outlet malls. The one closest to me is a sprawling 1.3-million square foot space filled with 200 retail stores eager to sell me last year’s fashion trends at bargain prices. And I go for it! I don’t really care about the latest fashions and often find great pieces that become wardrobe staples. It’s a win-win situation.
Settling into bed that night, book in hand, the self-satisfaction from the day’s successful bargain hunt was knocked right out of me. The book I was reading, “Dollars and Sense” by Dan Ariely, a prominent figure in the field of behavioural economics, explores how we make spending mistakes—like getting hooked by bargain hunting.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
Membership in the “Two Comma Club”
I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to participate in the Fall “Investor’s Guide To Thriving” Series alongside BNN Bloomberg’s Larry Berman! I will be appearing in Toronto and in Markham presenting “The Two Comma Club: How A Million Ain’t What It Used To Be”.
As the Head of Financial Life Strategies at ETF Capital Management and UPotential, I help clients translate the wealth that they have accumulated into the lifestyle and legacy that they have always wanted. Like Mr. Berman, I believe that education is empowerment. The better you understand the factors that could differentiate between an ample retirement and a retirement at risk, the more capable and confident you will be when making financial decisions. And those factors may surprise you…
So visit www.investorsguidetothriving.com to enrol in the Investor’s Guide To Thriving series! Registration is FREE and I hope to see you there!
It’s Okay to Want What You Want
I help clients achieve their financial goals. Sounds simple, right? Well it can be, when they identify what they are. I mean, how can you reach a goal if that goal hasn’t been articulated? How will you know when you get there? And, what happens if your spouse’s goals conflict with your own?
Okay, I’ll just admit it: financial planning is my super-power. I can project your financial future on all sorts of metrics: net wealth, future income levels, vulnerability to inflation or investment return fluctuations, and tax liabilities. What I can’t do is choose what’s important to you.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com
Save it, Sister!
I never trusted commercials that claimed that a snack “tastes good and is good for you”. That just didn’t match my own experience. I feel the same way about finances: what is good for my pocketbook doesn’t usually match my appetite to spend now.
Savings doesn’t just happen: you have to plan for it. But if you are anything like me, there’s almost always something more pressing. A colleague just offers you concert tickets. There’s a leak in your basement. Your kids’ or grandkids’ birthdays are coming up.
That’s why everyone needs an easy savings strategy.
Click here to read the full article on GoldenGirlFinance.com