Adam Morin

It's not as hard or as expensive to protect your loved ones as you think. Don't get caught.

This is why I love teaching finance and sitting down with average Canadians. It's shocking what we do in our own lives that we don't even see.

Should You Buy Or Lease Your Next Vehicle? Behind housing costs, transportation costs are often one of the top expenses in most households. Auto leasing has been popular for several decades, but many people still aren’t sure about the sensibility of leasing vs. buying a car, how the math works, and which is really the better value....Continue reading

Which debt should you pay off first? Nearly every type of debt can interfere with your financial goals, making you feel like a hamster on a wheel constantly running but never actually getting anywhere. If you’ve been trying to dig yourself out of a debt hole, it’s time to take a break and look at the bigger picture.... Did you know there are often advantages to paying off certain types of debt before other types? What the simple list below doesn’t include is the average interest rates or any tax benefits to a given type of debt, which can change your priorities. Credit Cards For most households, credit card debt is the place to start. Most credit cards average around 24.99% - 31.99% interest. Try to stop spending on credit and start making extra payments whenever possible. Think of it as an investment in your future! Auto Loans Interest rates for auto loans are usually much lower than credit card debt, often around 5% on newer loans. Interest rates aren’t the only consideration for auto loans though. New cars depreciate nearly 20% in the first year. In years 2 and 3, you can expect the value to drop another 15% each year. The moral of the story is that cars are a terrible investment but offer great utility. There’s also no tax benefit for auto loan interest. Eliminating debt as fast as possible on a rapidly depreciating asset is a sound decision. Student Loans Like auto loans, student loans are usually in the range of 5% to 10% interest. While interest rates are similar to car loans, student loan interest is often tax deductible, which can lower your effective rate. Auto loans can usually be paid off faster than student loan debt, allowing more cash flow to apply to student debt, investment accounts, or other needs. Mortgage Debt In most cases, mortgage debt is the last type of debt to pay down. Mortgage rates are usually lower than the interest rates for credit card debt, auto loans, or student loans, and mortgage interest may be tax deductible if structured properly. If mortgage debt keeps you awake at night, paying off other types of debt first will give you greater cash flow each month so you can begin paying down your mortgage. When you’ve paid off your other debt and are ready to start tackling your mortgage, try paying accelerated bi-weekly(every two weeks). This simple strategy has the effect of adding one extra mortgage payment each year, reducing a 25-year loan term by several years. Because the payments are spread out instead of making one (large) 13th payment, it’s likely you won’t even notice the extra expense. Dealing with debt is never easy, without a game plan you can expect progress to be slow. With a professional helping hand, things become easier and more clear very quickly. Those that reach out for help in North America are able to build 3.8x more wealth than those that don't. The proof is there, lets start you on a plan to success.

Recent studies are in and almost HALF of Canadians have no emergency savings! Without an emergency fund, you can imagine that an unexpected expense could send your budget into a tailspin. Where do you go when the washer and dryer die? Or your fridge defrosts on you at the worst time? How about the money put of vehicle maintenance? That’s why building an emergency fund is so important. You CAN do this! 4 tips to building your emergency fund...Continue reading

Someone had said to me yesterday "what if we stopped calling it budgeting". I replied "what else would it be?..." Which in return she replied "It's a Wealth Builder. It's to track your Wealthiness". After thinking about it, I sort of thought this was pretty clever. If you even make the slightest effort to track and control your money, all of a sudden you have "extra" money kicking around. I would say it builds wealth... How To Build Wealth and Stick To It:...Continue reading

Financial Strategy - The Importance Of Having One A financial strategy is many things. It’s not just a budget. In fact, a solid financial strategy is not entirely based on numbers at all. Rather, it’s a roadmap for your family’s financial future. It’s a journey on which you’ll need to consider daily needs as well as big-picture items. Having a strategy makes it possible to set aside money now for future goals, and help ensure your family is both comfortable in the present and...Continue reading

Paying off your mortgage early is bad This topic can be highly controversial in todays day and age. However, this is something I personally believe in and teach. Let me tell you why, I've also attached a good article Forbes just released as well on why it can be detrimental to your finances. I figured this topic is very applicable considering todays circumstances with the COVID-19 and people's circumstances dramatically changing. When we talk about mortgages, we are talking a...Continue reading

Investing - Dollar Cost Averaging If you are new to investing or maybe you are just unsure of how the market works, this 6min video is a must watch. Jay White does an amazing job at simplifying how thing work. Glad to call him a mentor of mine and he's had a huge impact on my knowledge in the financial field. If you'd like to sit down to learn more or reassess where you are, I'd be glad to help. Everyone needs to have a success plan. What is yours?

Great and simplistic video following everyone's "panic" with the stock market. It is no secret to CoVirus has impacted the world currently. However, things pass and we want to be IN the market when it climbs to recovery and beyond to get the gains we want. I almost always deal with Segregated Funds because of the protections in place. There are definitely some nice benefits to Segregated Funds as a family man like myself.

Very simplistic video on some money managing information. All of which we teach, which is nice. There is no much more information out there but this sure is great for the average canadian to watch.

We don’t buy things with money, we buy them with hours from our life. Or, as Henry David Thoreau put it, The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. This is a life-changing principle. When we begin to see our purchases through the lens of exchanging life, rather than dollar bills, we can better appreciate the weight of our purchases and understand their full cost.... For that reason, I thought it might be helpful to take a hard look at how much life some of our purchases actually cost us. For the sake of conversation, let’s use the median household income. For simplicity sake, let’s round to $60,000 annual income. If your household income is $60,000, working a typical 40-hour workweek, here is how many hours of work are needed for the following purchases: Grande Starbucks Cappuccino ($4.00) = 8 minutes of work Pair of Wrangler Jeans ($24.99) = 50 minutes of work Coach Brand Purse ($119.99) = 1/2 day of work 55 FlatScreen TV ($711.00) = 3 days of work 256GB iPhone XS ($1,249) = 1 week + 2 hours of work Dinner at a restaurant for your family of four ($80.00) = 1/3 day of work Dinner at home for your family of four ($17.00) = 1/2 hour of work New Living Room Furniture Set ($1,983.94) = 1 week + 3.5 days of work 2019 Ford Fusion SE Hybrid ($26,550) = 5 months + 10 days of work 2,500 square foot house (10% down payment, 30-year mortgage of monthly payments, $303,000 purchase price) = 11 years + 6 months of work 1,600 square foot house (15% down payment, 30-year mortgage of monthly payments, $196,000 purchase price) = 7 years + 2 months Keep in mind, the amount of work needed for the items above is based on an annual salary of $60,000. If your annual salary is $30,000, the work time will be doubled. If you make $120,000/year, the measurements should be halved. Of course, there are alternatives to exchanging our hours and lives for material possessions It takes just 10 minutes to tell your child a bedtime story. 45 minutes for an evening walk with your spouse. 60 minutes to help your son/daughter with homework. Or 2 hours/month to volunteer at your local soup kitchen. The money we earn is ours to keep and we can spend it as we wish. But it can be a helpful exercise to realize how many hours of our lives go into each purchase we make. And it is always wise to remember we can spend our hours pursuing items of far greater value than material possessions. ~ Article from becoming a minimalist.

5 things to consider when starting your own business. Does anything sound better than being your own boss? Considering going off on your own to build the future you want? Better take a look.. 1. Startup cost...Continue reading

What do your year end investments look like? How stable are they when the stock market is turmoil? Are they protected in any way? Are they passively or actively managed? I can say that all my clients are happy with their returns since moving them to a place where they are working much harder for them. Client 1 for example:... Had his investments with a local financial institution in a medium risk fund. Averaging 2.1% since INCEPTION at this bank. He is now in a portfolio that has more diversity, safety and same risk value. Only he is averaging 12.1% since inception and 9.25% for 2019, despite the turmoil market. The numbers don't lie. How hard is your money working for you? Are you at least beating the National inflation rate of 3%? If not, you are losing dollar value everyday when you actually thought you were investing in your future...

This is very very true.

It's becoming more and more common to sit down with people where 50%+ of their budget is put towards debt/credit card payments. We need to get a grasp on what we CAN afford and learn how to actually manage money. When in your life has someone told you how to manage money properly? How to prosper in bad economies? How to minimize your taxation in retirement? What about seeing the strength of a solid affordable budget? It's never too late to take the proper steps. Let's start taking our money back that we are giving away for free and keep more in our pockets!

You’ve already got a lot to deal with. Why buy life insurance at all? It all comes down to protection. The idea of protecting things like your car or house are pretty common. Even if car insurance weren’t mandatory in most states or provinces, buying it would probably be a good idea. You’d want to make sure you could cover any damages from an accident especially if you’re at fault. Protecting your investment in your home from the unexpected like an earthquake, fire, flood, ...theft, etc. is a bit of a no-brainer. One of the most important things to protect before all others? Your ability to earn an income. Your income enables you to not only buy your car and your house but also the insurance to protect those things. If you were to lose your income, then those things could also be lost if you can’t afford them any longer. Getting laid off or fired could be a cause of lost income. In that case, you still have the ability to work, which means finding a new job is possible. But in the event of a disability, critical illness, or premature death of a breadwinner? Those situations are a bit tougher to bounce back from especially that last one. Before becoming financially independent, a financial situation may typically be less secure, meaning you might have more financial responsibility than wealth. For example, if you don’t have a lump sum of cash to buy a house, you’d need to finance the purchase over a longer period of time via a mortgage. This creates a responsibility to continue making the mortgage payments in full and on time. Losing your income would be devastating since it could affect your payments and when mortgage payments can’t be made, you might lose your home. And don't be fooled, mortgage insurance isn't the answer to this. What all of this means: Your ability to earn an income should also be protected. Getting the right type and the right amount of insurance can seem complicated, especially if you’re considering all the different kinds you may need. That’s where speaking with a financial professional might come in handy. If you’re looking to protect the most important aspect of your financial situation (namely, your ability to earn income) and you’d like to see your options, let’s talk. It would be my pleasure to help you get a better understanding of your options.

Costs are always going up and financial institutions are always pushing to lock in customers at lower rates of return for their own benefit. Then we get pushed into borrowing which also benefits who...? You guessed it. Take control back. Make decisions based on your own terms. A free second opinion can help you do that, might be the most beneficial 45-60min you have this year.