It is good to return to writing again, and to see the back catalogue of blog posts spanning more than a decade up on the website. The last few months have been a whirlwind of remembering how to operate a solo practice after all these years, setting up operations for my local community land trust, and parenting three teenagers.

The biggest change, by far, has been my switch away from Naviplan and to my friend Owen Winkelmolen’s planning platform Adviice, which allows me and my clients to work on the plan together. Instead of just a PDF of their financial plan, clients are able to see and interact with their plan on their own, making tweaks and changes along the way, and making it ten thousand times easier to revisit together in the future when life, inevitably, changes.

As always, I’m gearing up for a fall full of income planning meetings, checking in on portfolio sustainability, withdrawal rates, and any strategic tax moves that need to be made before the end of the calendar year. Some of my income planning clients have been with me since 2015, which feels simultaneously like ancient history and yesterday.

My profound thanks to those of you who have been with me for the last decade. Here’s to many more to come.

—Sandi

From a piece about retirement planning for Yahoo! Finance.

“In the first five years of retirement, everyone should be paying close attention to how much they’re actually spending,” said Sandi Martin, a CFP and retirement expert. “First, because how much you need to spend to be comfortable and secure is one of the most important pieces of information you need to avoid running out of money, and second, because spending patterns might change a little — or a lot — after a big life change like retirement.

“Everyone needs a way to check how much they’re spending, compare it to how much they thought they’d spend when they were planning to retire, and put boundaries in place to control spending in areas where it might get out of control.”

Read the rest here.

From a piece in NerdWallet about how often to check your credit card statements (and why):

Martin suggests starting with the simple stuff, which can include returns that didn’t happen, duplicate charges or subscriptions that didn’t get cancelled. “Finding these usually means getting money back, and who doesn’t like that?” she said. 

Read the rest here.

November is Financial Literacy Month, and the theme for 2021 has been “make change that counts.” Over the month, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada maintains a database of events put on by organizations across the country designed to strengthen the financial literacy of individuals and families.

The underlying premise of financial literacy, of course, is that if people just knew better, they’d manage their money and debt wisely to save for the future. They’d have emergency funds and own homes and own insurance and build wealth and start businesses and pass them on to the next generation and give to charity. In the face of adversity their knowledge will give them confidence to make good decisions and the resilience they need to survive and thrive.

It seems like a nice, well-meaning idea, but the concept of knowing your way to financial success is actually nice, well-meaning baloney.

Just knowing more about finance doesn’t help you make good decisions about your own life (or else we could hand everyone a textbook and call it a day)...but knowing more about you does.

Unless you’re a Model Canadian Citizen Robot Mark 1™ fresh off the factory floor, the financial decisions you have to make for yourself, your business, and your family are not the same as the ones your neighbour has to make. The outcomes you’re looking to achieve might be wildly (or just mildly) different from anyone else’s. Applying general financial principles and knowledge of how taxes work is not the way to create a life well spent, unless your life is the same as everyone else’s life.

Nope. You don’t need financial literacy - at least, not on its own.

Rather, you need financial support: the kind of compassionate safety net that creates equitable outcomes for everyone, not just those who are lucky enough to begin running the race a couple of strides ahead of everyone else at the starting line.

You need financial guidance: the applied knowledge of people whose whole job is knowing so they can support you in what you’re doing.

You need financial empowerment: the wisdom that comes from deeply understanding who you are, what you value, and what success looks like for you.

I am all for making change, personally and professionally. I built my planning practice around a unique (at the time) set of values, top of which is identifying what “change that counts” means for each individual and family I work with before developing a plan to make it happen.

This need for financial empowerment over financial literacy is the reason I’ve been encouraging you all year to reflect on your own values and consider how you can live them out everywhere - yes, even in (and especially in) your estate plan.

Ah, September. Simultaneously a month that includes the last delicious bits of summer, the first delicious bits of fall, and an almost irresistible urge to buy new binders... even if you don’t know anyone going back to school and haven’t used real paper in years.

Remember, September can be anything you want it to be. For me, it’s become an unofficial New Year, a time to evaluate how I’ve done with all the hopes and dreams I had for myself and my clients at the beginning of the year, a time to refresh and reset my goals, and a last burst of energy to get me through the (always-busy) fall income-planning season and through to the end of another year.

If you’re not in the habit of pausing to reflect on what you’ve accomplished recently, or are deeply uncomfortable with the very idea of celebrating your own success (whatever that might look like), I highly recommend that you consider building this into your regular life.

The truth is that we’ve all accomplished something pretty remarkable, just by continuing to show up after an exhausting 18 months of pandemic living. Parents of school-aged children faced with yet another uncertain school year are accomplishing the impossible every day... just by getting out of bed at this point, quite frankly. If you can find a way to celebrate yourself, even if it’s small (or big like you deserve), DO IT.

Originally Posted in Canadian MoneySaver
By Sandi Martin
September, 2021

A Registered Education Savings Plan is a multi-purpose, somewhat complex, tool that is useful for many different kinds of people in many different kinds of circumstances. Perhaps you have low income and little ability to save, have moderate income and want to get the most bang for your buck, or have high income and/or strong values around paying for all the costs of post-secondary. Regardless of where you land, opening and investing in a solid RESP is always the right choice if you have beneficiaries who will one day be in need of post-secondary financial resources. 

Originally published in Canadian MoneySaver, I detail the differences between each income bracket and outline why RESPs are more than a single-use tool. By breaking down the math, I effectively refresh our understanding of how RESPs are a useful and wise investment regardless of your current economic status. 

“Along with whatever investment income the amount earned along the way, you've given the beneficiary a tremendous leg up on the cost of post-secondary schooling and should be incredibly proud.”

Subscribers to Canadian MoneySaver can read the full article in the September issue to learn more about how RESPs are applicable to any situation.