Your Retirement Coach

One of the key elements to having a solid financial plan is to have a very detailed understanding of your Expenses. There are two types of Expenses: Discretionary and Non-Discretionary. Discretionary Spending refers to all the things that you "like" to do like travel, going to the gym or any other activity that brings you joy and fulfillment. Non-Discretionary Spending is all about the spending that you do to make your home function properly. These would include rent, food..., hydro, car expenses, tv, internet and a variety of essential items. During this difficult period caused by the Covid-19 crisis, why don't you go through your budget to see if you can make adjustments to your spending habits? You might find some opportunities to save some money by eliminating certain items or even renegotiating with your providers for a better deal. Being in control of one's financial life is extremely important. Doing and sticking to your budget is key to your overall financial success.

Hello to all my friends and followers. In my book titled The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness, I talk about four pillars to help guide your planning process prior to and during retirement. They are Finances, Health and Wellness, Relationships and Life Purpose. As we all go through this Covid-19 crisis, I thought that I would provide you with some simple tips to help you keep all of this in context. I will focus on the Financial aspect in this post. There are 4 key elem...ents that I focus on when dealing with the management of the client money. 1- Have an Investment Policy Plan. In this you need to have clearly defined objectives and timelines for these. This is also were you will deal with the overall asset allocation for your various portfolios. 2- Deploy your capital into Stocks, Fixed Income, Alternative Assets and Cash as per your Strategic Allocation Model and your risk profile. 3- Revisit 1 on a regular basis to keep that information current and do periodic re-balancing to your portfolios to bring them back to the settings outlined in item 2. 4- Manage your emotions throughout this process. Resist the temptation to increase the aggressiveness of your portfolio when things are going up and resist the urge to bail out when things are going down. This is essential for the long term success of your portfolios. Have an open discussion with your investment professional. Make sure that both of you are on the same page when it comes to these 4 key points. Be an Investor not a Speculator. You are in this for the long term so plan accordingly and behave accordingly. These are essential keys to success. Be well.

This past September I was interviewed by the journalist Wendy Helfenbaum for this Costco Canada member magazine article. She did a great job in outlining the relevant issues when one is preparing for the next phase of your life. Dare to Dream! http://www.costcoconnection.ca//20200102/MobilePagedReplic

This is a great summation of what kind of mindset you need to have before and during your retirement. Follow these ideas and Dare to Dream! https://maybienvh.wordpress.com///24/between-65-and-death/

Proper Retirement Planning involves saving enough money to create the desired income stream to fund your lifestyle. As this article properly points out, there is a concern of not having enough money available once you enter into the retirement phase of your life. It takes many years of diligent planning to create that income stream. Because people are living longer than before, that money needs to last for a longer period of time. Talk to your investment professional and/or your financial planner to see if your retirement income plan is robust enough to keep you in the lifestyle that you want throughout your final years of life. Have this discussion and see what changes(if any) need to be made to the plan to make sure that all goes well for you.

Retirement can be a great time to go back to school to get a new degree and learn something new. Contact your local libraries, community centres colleges and universities to see what is available to you. Make new friends and help keep your brain active as well!

This is a powerful statement.

Here is a link to a one hour interview that I was on in which I cover a lot of the material found in my book The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness. Sarah Roberts is the host of the show REAL Talk with Sarah and we did a deep dive into the 4 pillars of proper retirement planning namely Finances, Health and Wellness, Relationships and Life Purpose. Dare to Dream! https://www.facebook.com/RTVOttawa/videos/1166149796915731/

Don’t miss this one hour interview tonight when I will be discussing many of the ideas that I wrote about in my book The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness. Getting ready for retirement is a process and I share valuable ideas during this interview.

This is a very insightful article about one of the realities of Senior Care today in Canada and the USA as well. Taking on this responsibility is a major commitment of both time and personal energy.

In my book The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness, I cover the topic of health and wellness. In that section I make it a point for everyone to take care of their brain. Proper sleep, hydration and nutrition are all components that need to be there. Get some good nutrition tips from this great article! Enjoy and feed at the same time!

Retirement is one of life’s great challenges. You need to prepare for it well in advance of the date. Many changes will invariably be required on a number of things that you did when working. Don’t be too hard on yourself but do know that you will have to work at incorporating these new changes into your life. Be flexible and adaptable.

Staying fit as we age is very important. And exercise can take on many forms. Go outside, get your hands dirty and connect with nature! Your mind, body and soul will benefit from this!

Money is a tool that will help you design the life that you want to have. Managing your cash flow is the most critical function to this end as all this is based on having a clear understanding of your wants and needs at any point in your life. This is even more important as you enter this "retirement" phase as your ability to generate additional income to fund your spending will be limited. Make a budget and trac your expenses and become aware of your spending patterns long before you enter retirement.

Money is a tool that helps us shape our environment and our lives. For many who enter the retirement phase of their lives, they find it more rewarding and gratifying to experience things than owning more stuff. I’m certainly one of those who brings nothing back from a trip other than the memories they created! Why not designate a line on your budget for Travel and go out and create those memories?

As a financial planner, I see this reality on a regular basis. Nevertheless, with some proper planning, it is possible to get closer to that objective. The solutions might not be perfect but they can certainly bring you a better level of comfort than if nothing was done. Make an appointment with a qualified financial planner to see what can be done to your financial structure so that you can enjoy the best possible retirement. And yes, many "retirees" are choosing to work once they do retire.

There is no right or wrong way to retire. The only caveat is that you need to retire to something and not from something. I talk about this concept in my book The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness. This retired veterinarian gives us a good example of finding a new life purpose with some of the skills that you acquired during your working life. What is your story?

Great tips to help you feel happier for any stage of your life.