Featured Articles – Randy Reynolds FAB Planning

Debt Load

import May 14, 2017

Are you out of your debt comfort zone? Does it seem as though you’re paying too much to bill collectors and not enough for savings and the things you enjoy in life? If so, it’s a good idea to figure out just how much debt you have and compare that to how much you earn. This will give you clear understanding of your financial health.

Debt Load

Debt load is a term that is used to describe a consumer’s amount of debt. It is often used to understand if you are carrying a “safe” amount of debt. Creditors look at a debt/income ratio, comparing your income with your debts to analyze whether you have an appropriate amount of debt. The debt/income ratio is figured monthly and reveals either how good — or bad — your financial situation is.

The importance of including family caregivers in the cost of cancer

import Apr 11, 2017

Employers must acknowledge the role of family caregivers to get a true picture of the costs of cancer care, according to a University of Alberta professor.

Janet Fast, a professor of department of human ecology at the University of Alberta, told the audience at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit in February that the army of family and friends assisting patients with their everyday needs are an often-overlooked pillar of the medical system. Yet without them, the entire health system would collapse, she noted.

Replace bad financial habits

import Mar 13, 2017

By, Carla Hindman, Director of Financial Education, Visa Canada

Most people have at least one bad financial habit. Whether it’s impulse shopping, forgetting to pay bills on time or putting off building that emergency fund balancing what you want to do and what you “should” do is never easy.

You might recognize a few of these common bad financial habits in your life:

Paying bills after the due date
Paying only the minimum required on bills
Ignoring bills and letting them go to collections
Putting off saving for retirement or a rainy day
Impulse shopping or “retail therapy”
Not keeping track of how much debt you have
Taking on debt to pay for something you don’t currently need.

Supporting adult children takes its toll on boomers’ retirement plans: survey

import Feb 13, 2017

As baby boomers approach retirement while their children look for financial help, many are feeling the financial strain.

A new TD survey found 62 per cent of boomers can’t save enough for retirement because they’re supporting adult children or grandchildren. Those kids, however, aren’t taking that money obliviously: 44 per cent of millennials who rely on their parents’ or grandparents’ support said they know that help means fewer retirement savings, and 43 per cent said they’d cut costs rather than asking for financial help.

Read: Canadians postpone retirement to support children

“As a parent or grandparent it’s natural to want to help our kids and grandkids who may be facing financial challenges such as finding full-time employment or paying their day-to-day expenses,” Rowena Chan, senior vice-president at TD Wealth Financial Planning, said in a news release. “It’s important that this desire to help is balanced with the goals you have when it comes to retirement.”

Three trends that will drive Canada’s economy in 2017

import Jan 17, 2017

There are three trends that will guide the Canadian economy in 2017. Those are:

the strength, or lack thereof, of oil prices;
domestic housing developments; and
whether the U.S. economy continues to improve.

So says Russell Investments’ 2017 Global Market Outlook, which calls for modest growth in the coming year for Canada.

“Moderate improvement in the price of oil and reasonable growth of the U.S. economy are weighed down by debt-laden households,” says Shailesh Kshatriya, director of Canadian strategies at Russell Investments Canada Limited. “We expect domestic equities to be positive, but without the exuberance of 2016. However, domestic bonds likely will be challenged as lacklustre fundamentals may be partially offset by rising yields in the U.S. […] On balance, we see 2017 economic growth in the range of 1.6% to 2%.”

©iStockphoto.com/SusanneB

Start saving early

import Dec 12, 2016

by Caroline Hanna

You’re never too young to make smart financial decisions. Whether you entered your 20s with a solid savings portfolio funded by your parents, saved up some of your own money, or spent it all on education, here are four tips on how to get ahead financially.

01 Start now

A lot of 20-somethings feel they’ve missed the savings boat. You haven’t. You may have missed out on high interest rates, but the principles of savings apply, even when rates are low.

©iStockphoto.com/

November is Financial Literacy Month

import Nov 20, 2016

Worries about personal finances are at the top of the list when Canadians talk about their sources of stress. By clearly showing you where your money goes, a budget is a simple but powerful tool that can help you feel in control and protect you from unexpected financial surprises.

Take this Financial literacy self-assessment quiz to see how well you’re doing at staying on track.

Tackling the challenges of benefits provision for employees over age 65

import Oct 24, 2016

by Kim Siddall

Increasing longevity, better health and the elimination of mandatory retirement means many Canadians are delaying their retirement past age 65, presenting employers with both advantages and challenges for managing benefits for this unexpected segment of their workforce.

Statistics Canada’s last census indicated that one in four Canadian seniors were still working in some capacity past the traditional age of retirement, whether driven by choice or economic necessity. This finding was echoed by Sun Life’s last Unretirement index last year, which pointed to a growing number of Canadians who fully expect to still be working full time at age 66. In fact, 2015 marked the first year in the seven years of the study that more respondents expected to be working full time at 66 than those who expected to be fully retired.

Budgeting for University Life

import Sep 8, 2016

If you have a son or daughter, perhaps a niece or nephew heading off to university this month, here’s a great article to share with them from Practical Money Skills.

Making the transition from living at home where someone else buys groceries and pays essential bills to living on your own is a big step. How much can you afford to spend on groceries in a week? Are you going to need to work extra hours to pay for all of your books?

Create a Budget

This first step in financial planning will help you answer these questions and is absolutely essential in managing your personal finances.

The Huge Opportunity of Millennial Home Buyers

import Aug 15, 2016

Property sellers, builders and managers are set to cash in as members of Generation Y finally find the money for a mortgage down payment

Amid predictions for a modest 2016, home prices in many Canadian markets continue to soar, and much of the growth is coming from an unlikely source: millennials. Canadians ages 16 to 36 are over nine million strong; they’re now the largest cohort in our workforce, and they’re entering their prime home-buying years.

Frank Magliocco, Canadian real estate lead at PwC, does not expect high demand—and related house price increases—to ease up any time soon in hot urban markets like Vancouver and Toronto. He points to growth in condos, rental apartments and mixed-use urban developments as proof that young buyers don’t fear big mortgages (or big leases): “In large part, [growth] is driven by millennials wanting to go to where the action is.”

Here’s why young buyers are able to get into the market—and who stands to gain from it.

79% of millennials still believe owning a home is attainable according to a 2016 poll, despite mushrooming prices raising barriers for first-time buyers