10 financial New Year’s resolutions

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!

Hello,

I came across an interesting article (see link below) recently that discussed having “the talk” with aging parents. “The talk” refers to discussions with aging parents regarding health and financial matters facing them. For the older generation, this may be a difficult discussion for them to have, but with our population aging and the first “boomers” turning 65 this year, it may a discussion best had sooner, rather than later.

The author suggests 5 pointers that may help make these types of discussion a little less difficult. I won’t go into the details of each point since they are in the article, however a summary of the points discussed are:

1. Start early – use a 40/70 rule – when kids are approximately age 40 and parents age 70.
2. Be respectful – ask more probing questions to seek parents wishes & desires.
3. Ask for their feedback – update or amend your own will and ask your parents for their advice. Parents are natural advice givers and it may get the discussion going regarding their circumstances.
4. Keep having conversations – the more open ended and probing questions asked, the better the opportunity to find solutions.
5. Take the time – learn as much as possible, listen to what they want to have happen when they no longer can express their wishes.

Some of you may have already faced similar situations in regards to the health and financial well being of aging parents and as a result have already been in such discussions, while others may not. Some of you may have also had this same discussion with your own children regarding your future circumstances. Whatever the case, you can help guide and coach them on how to manage such a discussion.

Read the full article on Morningstar here.

Please take time to review the article and take the appropriate action as you see it fit your situation.

I do hope all is well and look forward to our next meeting.

Harvey

Photo credit: <<Hey, wait dad!>> by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr

If you’ve been stressing yourself out over whether to put money into your RRSP or the new(er) TFSA, here’s a video with Jamie Golombek (Managing Director of Tax and Estate Planning at CIBC Private Wealth management) where he discusses the results of his analysis of the relative tax benefits of the two options.

Spoiler Alert: There is no wrong choice.