Apparently, “Nothing says ‘Time for Therapy’ more than the last few months of the year”, and Dr. Moira Somers has some great tips for how you and your family can protect your mental health this holiday season. 

If you’re a dedicated saver reviewing that long list of holiday gifts and experiencing some trouble actually spending your money - well, I feel you. This may come as a surprise, but I’ve seen it enough to know that hardcore savers often stress over spending through their retirement years. Some even put a portion of their retirement income into… savings… which is where it came from…. out of sheer habit. According to several studies, it’s not an unusual perspective. Are you a reluctant spender? 

For those of you preparing for new additions to the family, Emma Pattee shares the four things she did to prepare for the arrival of her baby - and not all of them were related to money. Find out more here.

Got more time to read throughout the holidays? There’s a new financial planning association (you may recognize some of the instigators), some thoughts on projections versus reality, the power of great planning, and why clever and ingenious isn’t always better than simple and obvious. There is also how to protect your financial boundaries (especially during this spendy time of year!), what you want to know about the Ontario budget - especially if you worry about deficits, and what questions to ask yourself when you’re thinking about giving an early inheritance. 

Happy reading! I will - of course - have more for you in 2020!

The 4 things we did to get ready for our baby

From Emma Pattee

“In our pragmatic, consumer-obsessed culture, getting “ready for a baby” revolves around purchasing, organizing, and making practical decisions (where will baby sleep? Who will watch baby? Who will be baby’s doctor?)

This kind of prepping is important, but it’s also just one element of preparation.

The other kinds of preparation are spiritual, emotional, financial, physical, and relational. Those ways are maybe not as fun as decorating a nursery but IMO, it's a much more meaningful way to prepare for parenthood.”

Read the full article here.

Got clients or workers in distress? Got people who are distressing you? You’re in luck!

From Dr. Moira Somers

“Eggnog plus year-end reports plus psychotherapy. It’s a winning combination. You might want to suggest it at your next family gathering.”

Read the full article here.

Half of Retirees Afraid to Use Savings

From Kimberley Blanton

“Retirees who want to enjoy their hard-earned savings have to learn to live with some uncertainty so they don’t shortchange themselves.”

Read the full article here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

New association aims to raise professionalism among financial planners | Jason Pereira

“Imagine there was a service that, at its best, provided those receiving it with a sense of security, welfare, freedom, and calm – and enabled them to achieve their goals and dreams in life.

Now, picture that the majority of people providing this service were subject to deficient proficiency requirements. They could give themselves whatever title they wanted. They had no legal requirement to act in the best interests of their clients. They were incentivized primarily by selling products that may not be needed or beneficial to a client. They had no incentive beyond their own conscience and sense of benevolence to do what’s best for the client. They were faced with requirements from their employers to meet weekly or monthly targets. And they only had to provide cursory and often incomplete disclosures about their compensation for acting on behalf of the client.

Given these deficiencies, the unfortunate state of financial planning today is no surprise: surveys show that only one in five Canadians would rate financial planners as trustworthy.”

Guessing Game | Jonathan Clements

“The resulting retirement projections imply a degree of precision that’ll likely look hopelessly naïve once the real world intervenes.”

Eliud Kipchoge & The Power of Great Planning | Alex Riley

“You can only meet your personalised future financial goals if you put in place an actionable tailored financial plan. A financial training schedule so to speak, using proven strategies most others overlook”

Finding the Obvious | Jon

“The trouble is clever, ingenious plans are more appealing than the simple, obvious ones. But more often than not, communicating the simple ideas has a bigger impact than some clever, ingenious scheme.”

Do You Need to Create Some New Financial Boundaries? | Jacquette Timmons

“If/when your financial boundary gets tested, it’s an invitation to evaluate your system. Or, set aside time to document it.”

Five things to know about the next Ontario budget | Randy Robinson

“Why do so many Ontarians feel broke? Why is our government acting broke?”

Transferring Wealth During Your Lifetime | Steven Frye

On “gifting cash or assets during one’s lifetime as an alternative method of distributing your wealth and possibly avoid taxes at time of death”

What is the difference between “automatic” and “automated” finances? How are the retirement planning rules and tools different if you’ve been earning a lower than average income? Why is there all this administration… and all these taxes… when your spouse passes away? These questions and more are answered in November’s round up of my Top Three favourite reads. If you’re still thirsty for more information, don’t hesitate to dig into this month’s full list, which includes a hilarious eulogy for the 60/40 portfolio, how financial bloggers make money from affiliate marketing, and so much more. Scroll down for articles that will keep your brain working and your money on track this month.

Low Income Retirement Planning

From Owen Winkelmolen

“Low-income retirement planning requires a very different set of tools than your average retirement plan and this can sometimes lead to trouble when a soon-to-be low-income retiree gets advice that has been tailored for someone with a much higher income.”

Read the full article here.

Automatic vs Automated Finances – A distinction that makes a big difference

From Doris Belland

“When your finances become automatic, it’s like turning on the auto-pilot switch. You go through your days unconsciously behaving in the way you always have without much thought about how much you’re spending, or without regularly reviewing where your money has gone. One year flows into the next as you maintain your financial status quo, with the net result being an awakening five to ten years later when you realize you’re no closer to your goals, or worse.”

Read the full article here. 

What To Do When Your Spouse Dies Before You

Part One, Administration & Part Two, Taxes

From Marc Goodfield

A detailed look at what to do when your spouse passes away.

Read part one here and part two here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

A Eulogy for the 60/40 Portfolio | Ben Carlson

“60/40 is survived by its immediate family — wife, asset allocation, and children Vanguard, rebalancing and comprehensive investment planning. Distant relatives include crypto, pot stocks, and technology IPOs but they were all left out of the will.”

When is the same return not the same return? | Greg Davies

“If a portfolio falls and you’re not watching, did it really fall for you?”

Robo advisors are paying bloggers with affiliate marketing | Bernadette Berdychowski

This article references US companies and US laws, but the issue with blogger and affiliate marketing is similar here in Canada:

“As a result of these arrangements, [affiliate marketers] will financially benefit from referring users to Personal Capital, which results in a conflict of interest as they are potentially making that referral for money and not because they believe a valuable service is being offered.”

5 Reasons you should take early RRSP withdrawals | Jason Heath

“Remember that RRSPs are tax deferral mechanisms, but the goal shouldn’t be maximum deferral all the time.”

How to Donate or Recycle Your Lego Bricks | Boone Ashworth

Not according to my kids, but yes.

“Got too many Lego pieces scattered throughout the house?”

Learn to Get Better at Transitions | Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

"Everyone...is struggling to let go of what was (identity, community, colleagues, and competencies) to embrace what’s next (as yet unknown, undefined, and ambiguous). There is a mixture of fear (Who am I?) and excitement (I am SO ready for a change), confusion (What do I want?) and certainty (Time to move on).

Because more of us are living longer, healthier lives, we’ll face more of these moments of liminality...No matter where we are in our own journeys, we could all get better at the skill of transitioning."

Finance Topics That Make Your Head Hurt | Ben Carlson

“What makes you think you’re better at predicting the path of interest rates than all of the macro hedge fund managers, professional bond managers and economists who collectively do a less than stellar job of predicting the direction of rates?”

Are you worried about your parents’ finances? Your own data privacy? Dating someone in a higher income bracket? This month’s top three might not have everything you need to alleviate your stress through the busy month of September, but they will provide you with some perspective on concerns that many of us face.

If you’ve got a bit of time after you’ve waded through our top reads, of course there is more! Gender wars, investing for millennials (and learning from their parents’ mistakes), what exactly you’re signing up for as a power of attorney for personal care, couch potato investing news, online security and… well, I could go on. Scroll down and fill your reading list with insights you’ll find useful when making great decisions in your life.

Ask the Bitches: My Dad Sucks with Money. How Do I Make Him Change?

From Kitty

"As an opinionated-ass person, one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is that I can’t control other people. Even if the reason I want to control them is because I love them and I want to protect them from the consequences of their choices. It’s easy to forget what makes me happy doesn’t make everyone else happy. To assume otherwise is disrespectful on a fundamental human level."

(This reminds me of this Because Money conversation about our parents.)

Read the full article here.

The spy in your wallet: Credit cards have a privacy problem

From Geoffrey A. Fowler

“In 2019, it’s hard to trust companies that don’t think they owe us clarity about data.”

(While the privacy laws in the US are different than they are here in Canada, the essence of the privacy problem is just as real here at home.)

Read the full article here.

Dating Between Income Brackets

From Emily Nixon

"I think sometimes what feels like quality couple time in his mind feels like a financial stress in mine. I worry that me opting out of the expensive event feels to him like I’m saying no to spending time together, and that “we could play board games instead” just feels like a cop-out."

Read the full article here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

The gender wars of household chores: a feminist comic | Emma

A visual guide to the concept of “mental load.”

How millennial investors can learn from their parents' mistakes | Tom Bradley

I love that Tom started with the most important pieces of investing (capacity to save, purpose, and asset mix, and resilience) before delivering his four excellent recommendations.

What an Attorney for Personal Care Can Do [in Ontario] | Dr. Richard Shulman

Do you know what the job entails when you're agreeing to act as someone's substitute decision maker? Do you know what you're asking your family or friends to decide on your behalf? It's a good idea to think about it well ahead of time.

TD E-Series Changes | John Robertson

If you're an e-series couch potato investor wondering what that proxy form you got in the mail was all about, our friend John has the goods.

Could retiring at 61 significantly reduce your CPP benefit? | Alexandra Macqueen

Alexandra's one of the only two people in Canada who can take the complexity of a CPP calculation and make it clear, using terminology most of us can understand. This is a great refresher on what goes into a benefit calculation and the decision of when to apply for that benefit.

How to Secure Your Online Financial Accounts | Dirk Cotton

This is a must-read (although Canadian readers can ignore the information about TreasuryDirect accounts). If you're worried about online security - the likeliest weak points are you, your phone, and your passwords.

The Laws of Investing | Morgan Housel

"A theme here is that investing is not just the study of finance. It’s the study of how people behave with money. So most of these “laws” describe a universal feature of how people respond to risk, reward, and scarcity.

They are simple. But they are, I think, part of a foundation that governs most of what happens in investing, and will keep happening as long as investing exists."

One woman's "what if" crisis and message: get out of the cave where money is concerned | Doris Belland.

"Here’s the thing about starting to take control of your money when you’ve been living on financial autopilot and deferring to your partner: it can be difficult. When you pull up the rug, you find dirt you didn’t know existed."

Was “balance” a word created just to trigger your anxiety? Do those stock market numbers people go on about actually mean anything? How do former inmates pay the bills once they’re on the outside? 

If any of these questions have floated through your mind this summer - wow, you are just on top of what I’ve been reading! Nice job, you can start curating for me next month. For this month, the Loonie Doctor has some thoughts on your career and that balance thing, those fab ladies at Bitches Get Riches get real about stock market returns, and Lisa Coxon has the downlow on the realities of post-prison finances.

Once you’re through those and if you’re still feeling curious, I’ve got a slew of articles that ponder questions you may not have considered (yet). Simon Shaw’s thoughts on marketing nudges, Christine Liu’s thesis on imposter syndrome, Brigid Schulte’s courageous words on leisure, and Tom Bradley’s advice for sticking to your investment plan for the long-term, will all leave you with more knowledge, more questions, and more direction towards living your best life. Happy reading!

Career Satisfaction & Balance: Stick It To “The Man” & Play Your Banjo

From The Loonie Doctor

For our physician clients, with love: “The point is, spend deliberately on what makes you happy and advances your goals. Not on what others expect.” (Come to think of it, that applies to all our clients. Still with love, though.)

Read the full article here. 

What’s the REAL Rate of Return on the Stock Market

From Kitty at Bitches Get Riches

“Data is like a Literal Genie. If you rub its lamp, it will answer any question you set before it—but the answers can still be deceiving or even damaging if you don’t word them carefully.”

Read the full article here. 

Can you manage your money from jail or prison?

From Lisa Coxon

“When inmates leave a provincial or correctional institution, they don’t leave with a great shot at financial prosperity. Their economic mobility is stunted. Their chances of obtaining any form of credit or even opening a bank account are slim.”

Read the full article here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

Consumers Are Becoming Wise to Your Nudge | Simon Shaw

Not that we’ve all discovered behavioural nudges: “The broader question, one essential to both academics and practitioners, is how a world saturated with behavioral interventions might no longer resemble the one in which those interventions were first studied. Are we aiming at a moving target?”

Imposter syndrome isn’t the problem—toxic workplaces are | Christine Liu

“By treating imposter syndrome as if it blossoms only in the recesses of the mind, we absolve ourselves of addressing the sexism, racism, and culture of overwork that may be causing the imposter experience. Imposter syndrome is not necessarily a disease of the mind, but perhaps a disease of the system.”

A woman's greatest enemy? A lack of time to themselves | Brigid Schulte

“Pure leisure, making time just for oneself, is nothing short of a courageous act of radical and subversive resistance.”

It's getting harder to be a long-term investor: Here's how to keep your focus on what really counts | Tom Bradley

"The investment eco-system is bent on shortening our time frame."

Summer is, as you know, a great time for leisurely long-form reading, but if you’re looking for some smaller bites, then I’ve got just the platter for you in this month’s top reads. I start with some really great thoughts on happiness and success from Lisa Walsh, Julia Boem & Sonja Lyubomirsky. My friend Chris Enns shares some great insights on pain, rebuilding, and growth in a recent post from his own practice at Rags to Reasonable. Following that, Josh Brown has a quick-and-to-the-point summary of what we need to get used to when dealing with the markets, whether we like it or not.

If you have room for dessert, then of course there is more to sink your eyeballs into, with the psychology of passive barriers, the usefulness of procrastination, some introspective, forward-thinking about what we really want out of life, a case study of bond ETFs vs GICs, and tips on how to win any argument about the markets - if that’s really what you’re after. Happy reading!

Happiness doesn't follow success: it's the other way round 

From Lisa C Walsh, Julia K. Boehm, & Sonja Lyubomirsky

 “The philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1951 said that: ‘The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life.’ But he went on: ‘I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.’ When it comes to making your mark at work, we agree. If you want to be successful, don’t hang around and wait to find happiness: start there instead.”

Read the full article here.

The Cost of Stability & The Hidden Life of Trees

From Chris Enns

“My process of learning how to be stable started as I moved out on my own. And it included a whole lot of painful mistakes...

"But that pain isn’t failure. It’s a message of what needs to be strengthened. The reframing of that is a powerful message for me, since instead of something to ignore and be ashamed of, it’s something to notice and bring into the light.”

Read the full article here.

Get used to it

From Josh Brown

“That’s how it works. It’s not meant to be intellectually satisfying. It’s meant to take money away from people who think they can explain things. Worst traders and managers I know are the guys with answers for all this stuff.”

Read the full article here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

The psychology of passive barriers | Ramit Sethi

“There's something especially annoying about comments on personal-finance blogs. On nearly every major blog post I ever made, someone left a comment that goes like this: “Ugh, not another money tip. All you need to know is: spend less than you earn.”

"Actually, it's not that simple. If that were the case, as I pointed out above, nobody would be in debt, overweight, or have relationship problems of any kind. Simply knowing a high-level fact doesn't make it useful. I studied persuasion and social influence in college and grad school, for example, but I still get persuaded all of the time.”

Celebrating an Investor’s Obituary | Gatis Roze

“We investors must choose wisely in making investments, but we should understand the reasons for doing so — why we chose what we did. An unwillingness to do so would be like living in a house without windows.”

Why procrastination is not a time management issue | Sam Kemmis-Zapier

“When we’re putting off work, we tell ourselves we’re being ‘lazy’ and that we need to ‘suck it up’ to power through the task at hand. But the research suggests that taking a softer, more compassionate view of our own behaviors may be the key to breaking out of this self-perpetuating spiral.”

GICs vs. Bond ETFs: A Case Study and Bold Adventure | Justin Bender

Ever wonder about when and why to use GICs instead of Bond ETFs or vice versa? Justin has you covered with a clear after-tax comparison of both.

How To Win Any Argument About the Markets | Ben Carlson

“You can win any argument about the markets by simply changing your start or end dates to suit your stance.”