6 Key Lessons Learned as a Fee-For-Service Financial Planner - Talk with Ellen Roseman's Investment Club

Unconventional Wisdom

I was honoured to be invited by Ellen Roseman to speak with her Investment Club about the 6 key lessons I have learned as a fee-for-service financial planner.

They have had investment guest speakers, but never someone just talking about financial planning.

Ellen Roseman is a journalist who sticks up for ordinary Canadians.

Her personal finance & consumer columns appeared in the Toronto Star for 20 years, she was the Star’s business editor, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, associate managing editor of the Globe’s Report on Business, author of 4 books, has a podcast, and she’s been teaching courses on investing and personal finance at the University of Toronto.

My views are common sense based on experience writing over 1,000 financial plans and making them work for the lives of our clients.

However, they are unconventional compared to the investment industry’s normal practices.

In this podcast episode you'll learn:

• Why dividend investing is a brain fart.

• Why almost nobody can retire comfortably with a balanced or conservative portfolio.

• Why risk tolerance is a learned skill.

• How marginal tax brackets, including clawbacks of government programs, can change your financial plan completely.

• Why taking advantage of leveraged investing, such as the Smith Manoeuvre, can be the best growth strategy for the right people done the right way over the long term.

• The importance of having a financial plan, and why it’s the road map to the life you want.