Build Wealth Canada Podcast

If you own a home, are thinking about buying or selling a home, or have a mortgage renewal coming up, today's episode is here to help you make the best financial decisions in this changing market. Ultimately my goal is to save you some money when it comes to all this, or at least make things less stressful for you. We're bringing back our trusted mortgage expert and best-selling author, Sean Cooper, to first, break down the potential impact that the new US tariffs may have on our mortgage and real estate market here in Canada. Sean also goes over the new mortgage rules that you need to be aware of if your mortgage is coming up for renewal, or if you're getting a brand new mortgage. We also cover: What's happening in Canada's housing market right now? Is it a buyer's or seller's market? We cover the different ways that you can make changes to your mortgage if you're finding cashflow to be a little tight. We also give an update on the fixed vs. variable rate mortgage debate. Which is the better choice based on the current state of the mortgage market and interest rates here in Canada? Enjoy the episode. Links from the Episode: A big thanks to Sean for offering to answer questions from Build Wealth Canada listeners at no cost. You can set up a meeting to speak with Sean over at: BuildWealthCanada.ca/sean Questions Covered: Sean, can you give us an update on what's happening in the real estate market, in Canada, right now? and can you touch on what the repercussions might be of the new tariffs between the US and Canada? Is this something that could potentially affect our Canadian mortgage rates and real estate market? Is it more of a buyer's market or a seller's market? What should we expect if we're considering buying or selling our home currently, here in Canada? One interesting finding, is that more than 4 million mortgages, or about 60% of all outstanding mortgages, will renew over the next 2 years, in 2025 and 2026. What should Canadians know when their mortgage is coming up for renewal, and they are shopping around for a mortgage in 2025? Sean, before we continue with more questions, I just wanted to say that you've been the podcast's resident mortgage expert for years now, helping many listeners of the show. Thank you for that! For anybody that has mortgage questions, or would like to know the best mortgages that you've been able to find here in Canada, can you briefly explain how it works when working with a mortgage broker like yourself, especially when it comes to payment, just so that anybody new to all this doesn't maybe think that there are some fees they have to pay to get their questions answered or to see your research. With all these interest rate fluctuations, I'm sure many Canadians are wondering, if there is an opportunity for savings, with their current mortgage. Can you speak to this? Cash flow is a concern for a lot of Canadians. What are some strategies for homeowners to lower their mortgage payment? Let's talk about Fixed mortgage rates vs variable rates. Which one make the most sense right now for Canadians when choosing a mortgage, considering the current interest rates and economic environment? Can you talk about all the new mortgage rules that were introduced since our last podcast in March 2024?

Ever wondered how financial planners themselves approach retirement? A seasoned planner shares his strategies, from estimating financial needs with software to deciding on spending patterns. He emphasizes the importance of understanding various income sources like pensions and CPP while coordinating with partners. Tips include tracking current expenses, reducing typical costs at retirement, and maintaining cash reserves to withstand market downturns. Plus, he suggests using alternative investments and insurance strategies for stability. It's a treasure trove of actionable insights!

As the year wraps up, it’s crucial for Canadians to prioritize strategic financial planning. Discover essential tax deadlines and proactive strategies for managing investments to maximize efficiency. Explore the benefits of portfolio rebalancing and asset allocation tailored for different tax-advantaged accounts. Learn about the complexities of corporate investment and the importance of diversification beyond Canadian equities. Master these tactics to ensure a smooth financial transition into the new year.

Eric Monteiro, Senior VP of Group Retirement Services at Sun Life, shares his expertise on the challenging transition from saving to managing retirement income. He discusses the need for careful financial planning to balance security and enjoyment in retirement. Monteiro highlights various strategies, including different decumulation approaches and investment options, while advising on how to navigate risks related to overspending. Listeners gain insights into maintaining financial stability and leveraging retirement calculators for informed decisions.

On today's episode we have another Canadian guest, Kyle Prevost, who achieved financial independence at an early age (he was able to pull it off in his 30s). He's also done hundreds of financial talks and interviews over the years with both regular Canadians, and some of the most highly respected financial experts in both Canada and the US. In this episode, we discuss what he's learned from these hundreds of discussions that he's had, especially when it comes to best practices and financial tactics that we can apply to our own lives. He also shares advice on how he personally minimizes and thinks about fees in his own investment portfolio, and we also discuss his findings on CPP and OAS in Canada, which in case you're not familiar, are the two main income sources from the government that Canadians rely on in their retirement. Kyle has done a bunch of research and interviews on how viable the CPP and OAS is long-term, and if we can continue to expect to receive them in our older age, even if we're nowhere near that traditional retirement age of 65 yet. We cover all this and more in the interview. Also, free tickets to the Canadian Financial Summit: Kyle and I have run the Canadian Financial Summit together for years in the past, this year I'm attending it as one of the speakers, and I have free tickets for you which you can get at buildwealthcanada.ca/summit. In case you're new to the Summit, it's a fully online event for Canadians where you can stream all the educational talks. I'll be speaking at it again this year, this time about RRSPs, and I'll be there with 36 other Canadian personal finance and investing experts who will be sharing their expertise and best practices when it comes to investing, retirement, financial planning, ETFs, pensions, cash flow management once you hit your financial independence number, and much more. It's happening really soon this month, October 23-26. I hope to see you there, and again you can get free tickets to the event by going to buildwealthcanada.ca/summit I hope to see you there! Kornel

We all spend decades accumulating and growing our net worth, along with many hours of research and studying to optimize our investments and minimize our taxes as Canadians. But what if a single incident wipes all that out? or even just a large portion of it out? Wouldn't it be completely irrational to not eliminate that risk? The best solution that I can think of for accomplishing this is insurance, so I thought it would be helpful to come up with a checklist that you can use of the different types of insurance available for us Canadians, so that you can go through it, one by one, and decide which types make sense for you, to protect your net worth. After that, we do a minor pivot to talk about dental insurance and medical insurance for us Canadians. I have been spending an obscene amount on dental care with our two kids. It's super expensive, it stresses me out, and so I wanted to learn more about what the options are for us Canadians when it comes to dental coverage, along with getting medical coverage for things that aren't covered by the government, here in Canada. Today's Guests: To help me with this, I brought back one of our popular returning guests, Laura MacKay. Laura is the co-founder and COO of policyme.com, Canada's fastest-growing digital insurance company. In 2021, she was named one of the Women of the Year by Bay Street Bull. She has a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, and her degree focused on Actuarial Science, which included learning about mortality risk, the basis of life insurance pricing and valuation. Laura is also joined by her colleague Natalie Dupley, who comes from the not-for-profit sector. Natalie is now a licensed insurance advisor that works with Laura, and specializes in life, accident, and sickness insurance. Links from the Episode About Laura's Company: PolicyMe.com Educational Guides from the Episode: Types of Dental Insurance Plans in Canada The Canadian Guide to Health Insurance Plans What is Life Insurance: Meaning & Comprehensive Guide Questions Covered: To kick things off, can you take us through what insurance us Canadians typically need, so that we don't miss out on any critical coverage that we should have? One type of coverage that I think isn't always thought about for us Canadians is health and dental insurance, particularly since we're used to having most of our medical expenses covered by the government. Can you take us through some common misconceptions about health and dental insurance, as well as who it would be most useful for? When I think of cases where I need insurance, it's typically for very sudden and time sensitive events like a car crash, or dental procedure that I need done as soon as possible. But what about having insurance for things that are less sudden like therapy and mental health, or things like braces or corrective eye procedures like LASIK surgery? How does having private insurance work in those cases? When it comes to this type of insurance, how do we determine if it's more financially sensible to pay-out-of-pocket for these healthcare costs vs purchasing a Health & Dental Insurance plan? Before we continue with more educational questions, I wanted to give you a chance to speak about PolicyMe, what you do, and I realise that you also specialise in health and dental insurance so perhaps you could speak about that? What are the key components to look for when evaluating this type of insurance? When it comes to health and dental insurance plans, is this something that also covers you when travelling? Or would that be separate? Of all the things covered under a Health & Dental plan, what areas of coverage do most Canadians prioritise or care about? and what are some areas of coverage that you think are underutilised (or that Canadians can stand to benefit from more)? What are some of the most common questions that Canadians ask when it comes to health and dental insurance? Can you tell us more about PolicyMe, how you differentiate yourselves, and what you offer?

This interview will be a bit different as I was recently interviewed by Financial Journalist, Ellen Roseman from Canadian MoneySaver Magazine where she asked me some great questions, and so I thought it would be great to also publish that interview, here on the Build Wealth Canada Show. In the interview, we cover what lessons for Canadians I have learned after doing close to two hundred interviews with financial experts, over the past 10 years. My wife and I have also been either fully or semi-retired for the past 8 years, and so Ellen asked me if I have any advice for those who are also planning to retire in their 30s like us, or just retire early in general, and she asks what kind of financial changes or challenges were we surprised by that you should know about to help you with your own journey towards financial independence and early retirement. Ellen has also been teaching investing at the University of Toronto for the past 20 years, so in the interview, she also shares some of her lessons learned over that time. Enjoy the episode, and if you'd like to hear more interviews done by Ellen, you can check them out on the Canadian MoneySaver Podcast which you can find in your favourite podcast player. Thanks for tuning in, and you can get all the show notes and free resources over at BuildWealthCanada.ca.

In this episode, I interview two professional financial planners to discover what are the most common questions that they receive when working with Canadians. Our two guests are also going to cover what the most important and frequently occurring blind spots are that we Canadians tend to make in our own finances. We also cover how to know if you are on-track to reach financial independence and retire early, or if you have enough to retire comfortably. We cover all this and more, as we tackle the top questions that Canadians have, here in Canada. Our guests today are Hannah McVean and Thuy Lam from Objective Financial Partners. They are both fee-for-service financial planners, are both Certified Financial Planners (CFP), and they and their firm don't sell any investments and instead focus on providing unbiased, conflict-free financial planning advice. Hannah was actually a guest on our January episode with Jason Heath and that was our most popular episode this year. So, it's great to have her back, along with Thuy to get multiple perspectives on these most popular questions that Canadians have. Resources & Links Mentioned: You can book a free introductory meeting with Hannah, Thuy and their team at buildwealthcanada.ca/plan. As a Build Wealth Canada listener, you'll get 10% off if you end up working with them. The discount is for a limited time, and you can sign up for free here. A big thanks to Hannah and Thuy for offering this to Build Wealth Canada listeners.

When we first hit our financial independence number 8 years ago, one of the financial planners that I asked to look at our numbers before my wife and I quit our full-time jobs was Ed Rempel. At the time, I asked Ed if he could do his own math and analysis on our numbers, to make sure that I didn't miscalculate something when I was doing it myself, and this way I could be certain that my wife and I could quit our jobs and live off our portfolio going forward. Well, fast forward to today, it's been around 8 years since we quit our full-time jobs, and so I thought it would be helpful to have Ed back on the show and to once again use us as a case study on how one can live off their portfolio in a sustainable, stress free, and tax efficient way, here in Canada. On this episode, you're going to learn what strategies and frameworks tend to work when it comes to living off your portfolio here in Canada. You'll learn about a big mistake that I made which was actually causing me money anxiety even though our investment portfolio was going up in value. Ed helped me get through that, and it's a mistake that is actually totally avoidable, and a skill that you can start building and mastering today. And, when it comes to a strategy for paying the least amount of tax in Canada, Ed takes us through two main strategies that you can choose depending on your situation so that you pay the least amount of tax throughout your lifetime. We cover all this and much more in the interview. Links, show notes and free resources are all available at BuildWealthCanada.ca.

Having your investments pay you large dividends or yield sounds great. It's truly passive income where money just shows up in your account without you having to do anything, and without you having to sell off any of your investments even when markets are down. But what if you get too focused on maximizing dividends or yield in your portfolio? After all, there is no free lunch when it comes to investing. There are always tradeoffs, and it turns out that there are some pretty significant disadvantages for investors that just try to maximize their yield or dividends at all costs, and it can result in you actually getting a substantially lower "total return" over time, on your investments. About Our Guest To help us learn what pitfalls to look out for when deciding on our investments, particularly when it comes to some of these very high yielding ETFs that you may be seeing recommended online, we have Chris Heakes. Chris has over 14 years of experience in the investment industry. He's a CFA, has a Master of Finance from the University of Toronto, and is a Director and Portfolio Manager at BMO Global Asset Management. Chris is going to take us through what we should look out for so that we don't fall for the yield trap. We'll also cover hidden fees that you may be unknowingly paying on some ETF, along with some arguably deceptive advertising to look out for that you may have seen here in Canada when it comes to your investments. Lots to learn in this interview with Chris, so let's jump right in. You can see all the show notes, resources and links for this episode over at BuildWealthCanada.ca