Blog
Financial thoughts, tips and tricks for you to consider.
Insure Your Lifestyle
As a Wealth Strategist the number one question I get from people approaching retirement is, “How much do I need to retire?” And far too often we are not having the “What’s my number?” discussion early enough in the financial planning process. Real Estate has...
Longevity
While insurance professionals are always mentioning the need for coverage to protect one from a premature death, they are rarely building in solutions to cover the risk of living too long – longevity risk. Source: World Bank The average life expectancy for a...
Taxation Risk
The common financial belief is that you will be in a lower tax bracket in retirement and therefore saving within an RSP structure makes the most sense. I however believe that in many, actually most, situations this will not be the case at all. Firstly, why on earth...
Now is always better than later.
When it comes to life insurance, now is always better than later. You can’t purchase home insurance when your house is on fire. And you can’t purchase life insurance if your health has declined significantly. I have personally seen how waiting to purchase insurance...
4 things you should know about your term insurance
Find out if you have a convertible feature. When shopping around for term insurance it would be a mistake to go for the cheapest policy. As is often said in life, you pay for what you get. The cheapest term insurance policies have no conversion features. You...
You Don’t Know Jack
Jack is 45 and he just purchased $1,000,000 of Term 20 insurance. He pays $1,930 to the insurance company every year. The plan is to drop the insurance after 20 years. His family won't need it. Mortgage will be paid off. Wealth will be amassed. Children are through...
Safe Withdrawal Rate
If you are not familiar with the term “Safe Withdrawal Rate” you should be. Its the key factor to guide you in determining how much money you can withdrawal from your savings each year once you reach retirement. Nobody wants to run out of money. So using this...
Are you spooked yet?
Today scary decorations are all around our neighbourhood. Halloween, the day of dressing up and trick-or-treating, is full of fun and excitement for the young. But there are often 365 days of fears for retirees. What scares retirees the most? The Market When you...
Classic Financial Planning Mistakes
I believe there are core financial planning beliefs that benefit financial instutions and not Canadians. Which is why my wealth planning process is significantly different then most. To get a taste of how you may be on the wrong track, consider listening to this...
905-425-5327 • vws@live.ca
Kathleen van den Berg, MBA, CFP
4 Branthaven Court
Brooklin, Ontario L1M 0B2
Canada