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Assante Capital Management Ltd. February 2019

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The McClelland Financial Group

THINK SMART
Podcast – Listen to Mike and Rob and their latest thoughts and industry insights

Think Smart

Quality vs Quantity As We Age

Feb 23, 2019

Today on ThinkSmart: Is it quality or quantity that matters as we get older? Rob and Mike discuss the pros and cons of when and how to take CPP and OAS and how spending habits should adapt and change as we get older.

LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST

DEEP DIVE
In Depth Article – Heavy on the facts and details definitely for the committed reader.

Rob's Read

5 Lessons About Volatility to Learn From the History of Markets

VisualCapitalist.com:

"In 2018, the re-emergence of volatility took many market participants by surprise.

After all, aside from a few smaller, intermittent spikes over the course of the current bull market, volatility has largely been in a long-term downtrend since the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis.

Whether there is more volatility lurking ahead this year or whether the markets continue to calm, it’s worth looking at the last century of market history to put these recent bouts of volatility into context. "

View Full Article

Rob McClelland RFP, CFP, HBA
Vice President, Co-Branch Owner, Senior Financial Planning Advisor
The McClelland Financial Group of Assante Capital Management Ltd.

OPINION
Light Read – Editorial

Opinion

What is risk?

We have realized that our role as a financial advisor is really to manage risk. The first thing we must establish with this responsibility is to define “risk”. Textbooks have told us over the years that you should measure risk in terms of volatility using standard deviations. As a mathematician, this should be easy. Next, we studied investment theory which introduced us into the world of Alpha and Beta. Sure, this makes great insomnia-curing reading but after doing this for many years we had to ask ourselves, “is this what is important to our clients”?

The absolute biggest risk I have seen is our clients’ health. Any financial book I have ever read, fails to address this. However, in my experience of being a financial advisor, it truly is the most common obstacle that gets in the way of people living the life they expected.

We are not health care professionals. Short of asking everybody to eat right and exercise, what can we do to help reduce the risk of our clients not enjoying their retirement. The one thing we can give people is time. By reducing the time people spend on their finances, thinking about their finances, talking about their finances and worrying about their finances, we can turn that into free time for you to enjoy your life.

Secondly, we must refute the adage that states "the person that dies with the most money wins". They generally lose. It means they were never able to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Our job is to help them maintain a balance. We never want to see anybody run out of money or not achieve their philanthropic goals. On the flipside, we don’t want to see clients leave behind a large estate due to living a retirement based on fear of exhausting their assets.

These are truly the risks we manage. Nothing based on markets. Nothing based on standard deviations. We are here to help our clients avoid wasting their most precious currency (time) and striking the appropriate balance between enjoying their wealth before their beneficiaries enjoy their wealth.

Michael Connon B.Sc, CFP
Senior Financial Planning Advisor, Co-Branch Manager
The McClelland Financial Group of Assante Capital Management Ltd.

WHAT’S NEW?
Light Read – Updates on need to know details for Assante clients on technology and industry changes

What's New?

ShareView

The benefits of using ShareView are:

1. Login with one ID & password to view multiple Assante portfolios.

2. Easy access to statements, trade confirmations and tax documents for individuals residing in the same household.

3. View your personal and corporate accounts in one view.

4. Provides a total sum of a household portfolio with more than one individual.

LIFESTYLE
Light Read – Fun and Enjoyable!

Lifestyle

Taking a Retirement Test Drive

I have read this really great book that you may have seen around the office:  The Four Phases of Retirement:  What to Expect When You’re Retiring by Riley E. Moynes. After reading this I tried to apply it to my personal situation and this is what I got!  

Okay I have saved my money and I know what I can spend each year in retirement but how do I get myself psychologically ready to retire???   I know the average life expectancy, but my dad lived to be 96. That would mean about 30 years in retirement for me and that is a lot of time to consider.  I would like to think that I can plan to make this a fun, productive and purposeful time in my life.

This plan, however, is not clear to me so I have taken the opportunity to transition out of my working life by working part-time 3 days a week.  This is a good way to take some time to make important decisions before leaving the work force. The change in routine has afforded me more time to get things done that I never seemed to have time for when working at a full-time job.  The very first thing I did was start to plan a trip to New Zealand. It has always been at the top of my “bucket list”. There are also plans to continue sailing courses with the RYA as this is a great learning experience that I enjoy very much.   Dancercise classes and weight training classes will continue as without your health there isn’t much you can plan in retirement! Yes, clearly there is a sense of excitement and adventure planning for things that you always wanted to do and having the time and energy to do so. But I know myself well and this euphoria is likely to dissipate in retirement. I also know that within a relatively short period of time I will be looking for more structure in my life. That is what I am used to.

Work is a structured environment.  You earn your professional position, keep educating yourself and you are respected for this.  You also form close relationships within this workplace with your colleagues and clients. Your purpose is defined clearly in your job description and your continuous goal planning which makes you feel like an important part of the team.  So, when you fully retire it must take a toll on your feelings of achievement and importance.

To keep that from happening to me, I will need to spend some serious time looking inside to see who I really am.  The first step is to identify some of my personal strengths: what do I love to do and do very well? Next, I can look back on my life to consider the most gratifying activities I experienced over my different life stages?  What was my favourite subject in school? What creative abilities do I have? The last step is finding the connections between what I am good at and what I love to do to find my purpose in this new chapter of my life. It doesn’t matter if this is a volunteer position, a paid position or just sharing information on a blog if it drives my future.  

In summary, planning your finances for retirement is a very necessary step. That said, there is a huge psychological aspect to retiring that needs to be considered. This too requires thought and planning to find the right balance between pleasing yourself and using your skills to help others.  I am not sure where this will take me now but fortunately there is time to work on this. Down deep I can’t help but think it will have something to do with ridding the world of plastic!!! That’s right after I go to New Zealand of course!   

(It would be interesting to share some input from retired clients- see what interesting activities they are involved with).  

Carole Ash B.A.
Consultant
The McClelland Financial Group of Assante Capital Management Ltd.

WHAT’S NEW?
Light Read – Updates on need to know details for Assante clients on technology and industry changes

What's New?

Treat Savings Like An Expense

When it comes to savings, I am a student of the Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton.  Pay Yourself First! If the money is not available to you, then it cannot be spent on frivolous purchases.  I, for one, am guilty of seeing something I like and then convincing myself that it is an absolute need vs. a want.  I know that I am not the only one out there that does this. You know who you are!

The easiest solution is to set up an automatic savings/investment plan for a set amount that is comfortable for your monthly cash flow, but also enough to keep you on track with your long-term retirement plan.

So great, you’ve set up your automatic savings/investment plan to coincide on pay day.  But that’s only the first step.

Year over year we see the costs of goods and services that we consume and use daily, increase.  This is the result of inflation. As our living expenses increase, we adjust our spending to accommodate this.  However, automatic savings/investment plans are often overlooked. Saving and investing for the future is just as important, if not more, than current expenses.  

I suggest reviewing your ongoing savings plans and determine the last time you increased the amount.  As a bare minimum, use a long-term inflation rate as your guide (i.e. 3%). For example, a $500/monthly investment plan should be increased to $600 after 5 years to keep up with inflation.  

Treat savings like an expense and rest assured that your level of savings will keep up with inflation.

Carlo Cansino FMA, FCSI, CFP
Senior Financial Advisor
The McClelland Financial Group of Assante Capital Management Ltd.

Save The Date
McClelland University
Saturday April 13th

See What you Missed Last Year! Make Sure You Don’t Miss it Again.

 

Certain employees of (TMFG Tax Service) maintain a relationship with Assante Capital Management Ltd. (“Assante”) through which they sell investment products. The relationship that they have with Assante does not include tax preparation services which (TMFG Tax Service) is solely responsible. (TMFG Tax Service) is not associated in any way with Assante, and Assante has no responsibility for the tax preparation services offered by (TMFG Tax Service).

7787 Yonge Street, Thornhill, ON, L3T 7L2
www.tmfg.ca | [email protected]
For more info please call: (905) 771-5200

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Copyright © 2018 The McClelland Financial Group.

Assante Capital Management Ltd. is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. This material is provided for general information and is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to compile this material from reliable sources however no warranty can be made as to its accuracy or completeness. Before acting on any of the above, please make sure to see me for individual financial advice based on your personal circumstances. Insurance products and services are provided through Assante Estate and Insurance Services Inc.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses, may all be associated with mutual fund investments. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Please read the Fund Facts and consult your Assante Advisor before investing.

Certain employees of (TMFG Tax Service) maintain a relationship with Assante Capital Management Ltd. (“Assante”) through which they sell investment products. The relationship that they have with Assante does not include tax preparation services which (TMFG Tax Service) is solely responsible. (TMFG Tax Service) is not associated in any way with Assante, and Assante has no responsibility for the tax preparation services offered by (TMFG Tax Service).

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