When I was growing up, my parents didn’t educate me about saving money or investing, because truth be known, they didn’t know either. It wasn’t until I had graduated from college and entered the work world with a full time job that I began to think about savings and retirement. What got me thinking about it, was that my employer had a savings plan I could participate in and they had a company paid pension plan. Thank goodness my employer had that in place. I had no idea what all that was about, I just knew I had to participate and I had to make the maximum contribution so my employer would max out on their contribution, it was free money and I was going to be sure I took advantage of it. Over time, I learned more and more about retirement planning and saving for shorter term goals, like buying a house or a car.  If I could change one thing, it would be that I started sooner. 

My mission is to educate as many Canadians as I possibly can about savings and investing. And the earlier I can pass on my knowledge, the better. There are different ways you can save to take advantage of tax shelters and how to diversify your investments to manage the risk level you are comfortable with. Then with a good plan in place, together we can monitor your investment and savings accounts because with any investment strategy, there will be volatility and it’s my job to make sure you don’t make any rash decisions. 

One of the biggest costs in our lifetime is taxes, and there are a number of ways you can minimize taxes while saving for the future, they are: Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP), Registered Educational Savings Plans (RESP) if you have children to plan to attend post secondary school, Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) and finally, Permanent Cash Value Life Insurance.