Five moves to get your finances in order for the New Year

Canadians’ choice for New Year’s resolutions: “save money”

Make a financial resolution to start your New Year

Sensing a theme?

There’s no surprise here. “Saving money” follows close behind the perennial champions “lose weight/quit smoking” for New Year’s resolutions by Canadians.

But just like so many other goals, we often give up in frustration long before reaching the objective. The biggest reason: taking on too much too fast. If you want to lose weight, don’t try to go from couch-surfing and nachos to marathon workouts and all-broccoli diets overnight. Very few people can quit smoking cold turkey. And most people aren’t going to be able to cut their spending in half and start maxing out their RRSPs if they were living paycheque-to-paycheque.

The secret to success? Start small.

I’m only now coming back from nearly three years of physical inactivity due to injuries. I’ve lost a lot of muscle and put on a lot of weight. If I tried to jump right back in to where I was at my physical peak I would very likely re-aggravate my injuries and set myself back another six months or more. Instead, I’m taking it slow, and getting help. I’ve been meeting with a physiotherapist and a personal trainer to help design an exercise program that is appropriate for where I am today, and gets me started on the path to my short- and long-term goals.

So if you’ve never considered your long-term financial plan and haven’t started saving for retirement, here’s your first step: $25 a month into a TFSA. Put it in a 50% equity/50% income balanced portfolio fund.

You’re not going to retire rich on $25 a month, but it’s a start. That’s the real key here. Get comfortable with the money going out. Don’t pay too much attention to the account (so it doesn’t become a temptation to withdraw). Just let it run on auto-pilot for a few months. Then we’ll look at the next step. It might be increasing the deposit to $50, or opening an RRSP. It might be cleaning up your budget to pay off debt faster. But don’t try to do it all at once.

Start small. Get help.

Good luck in 2012!

• Have you considered how you can help shape your child’s financial future?
• Did you know life insurance pays an important role in their future financial security?

Tax-advantaged growth of policy values

Besides providing surviving family members with a death benefit, some types of life insurance can accumulate cash value on a tax-advantaged basis. If the accumulation stays within prescribed limits, the cash value that builds in the policy is only subject to income tax when it’s withdrawn. Consider the financial benefits to your children’s start into adulthood if they could access their accumulated cash value to help pay for their education, put down a down payment on their first car or home, or travel the world!

Unlike traditional investments, a permanent life insurance policy is exempt from annual income taxes on the growth of policy values, provided certain conditions are met. As a result, with permanent life insurance more of your cash value goes towards your child’s future instead of income taxes.

Protecting your child’s insurability

Life insurance is best purchased when your child is young and healthy. Some policies guarantee insurability, allowing your child to purchase more life insurance as an adult, regardless of disability, illness, occupation, residency, or foreign travel.

Without proper life insurance planning, a child who develops serious health problems or is diagnosed with a major illness may not be insurable as an adult. In addition, foreign travel to world hot spots may significantly increase your child’s life insurance premiums or even lead to being denied coverage as an adult. If this occurs and your child is not adequately insured, his or her loved ones may face a large financial burden in the event of premature death.

Covering unforeseen expenses

The tragic loss of a child is unpleasant to think about and even worse to endure. The last thing you’d want is to worry about money. Life insurance not only covers immediate expenses, such as funeral costs, it can also be used for grief counselling, taking time off work, moving costs, or whatever is needed in your personal situation. While children should never die before their parents, are you financially prepared if the worst was to happen?

Reasonable doubts

Some people believe life insurance for children is unnecessary, because they don’t contribute to a family’s income. However, when you factor in the benefits life insurance can provide through tax-advantaged growth, protecting your child’s insurability and paying for unforeseen costs, they outweigh the notion that life insurance is only for individuals with an income.

Find out how life insurance fits into your child’s future.

Photo credit: “like a record…” by shoothead, on Flickr
“Untitled” by Noukka Signe, on Flickr

Movember started in Melbourne, Australia back in 1999 as an awareness campaign focused on men’s health. It has since become a global phenomenon, focusing primarily on prostate cancer. Canada has lead the world recently, with nearly 119,000 men participating in 2010, raising over $22 Million for Prostate Cancer Canada.

The rules are simple:

1. Each mo bro must begin the 1st of November with a clean shaven face.
2. For the entire month of Movember each mo bro must grow and groom a moustache.
3. There is to be no joining of the mo to your sideburns. (That’s considered a beard.)
4. There is to be no joining of the handlebars to your chin. (That’s considered a goatee.)
5. Each mo bro must conduct himself like a true country gentleman.

This is my second year participating in Movember. Part of my job at The Financial Benefits Group is helping our clients plan for worst case scenarios, and unfortunately that means considering the impact that cancer would have on their lives. It is estimated that 1 in 7 Canadian men will develop prostate cancer at some point. The good news is that prostate cancer is over 90% curable if detected early.

I’d like to speak directly to anyone reading this, and ask you to do two things:

1. If you’re a man, get yourself checked. If you are a woman, tell any man you care about to get himself checked. Here’s a link to a pdf poster that talks about what guys can do, and what they need to talk to their doctor about.
2. Get Critical Illness Insurance. Any amount is better than none. You can even build it so you get all your money back if you don’t claim. If you do get sick, the worst thing for you is to be stressed out and worrying about bills and mortgages and child care instead of focusing on getting healthy. Talk to your advisor or give us a call, but I truly believe that Critical Illness Insurance is the most important coverage any of us can have.

I also invite you to check out my Movember page: mobro.co/mikelawtonyeg

You can laugh at my pictures, follow my progress, and (most importantly) donate to Prostate Cancer Canada.

Thanks for reading and thank you for your support.