Robb Engen
Creating the Perfect Retirement Budget

Sandy Yong

Insights on being a full-time freelancer

Sandy Yong is a personal finance writer and editor, TEDx and Keynote Speaker, and the award-winning author of The Money Master. She’s also an avid real estate investor owning several rental properties. 

Last year, Sandy discussed how she started a side hustle and juggled her full-time job. Sandy has now transitioned to a full-time freelancer and discusses what led to the move, the challenges shes faced, and what others should do if they’re considering a similar path.

Ed Rempel

Coming Soon

Ellen Roseman

What I Learned from 15 Years of Facilitating an Investing Club

Ellen Roseman has been thinking and writing about Canadian personal finance for four decades, and has been a DIY investor for most of that time as well. Over the last 15 years, she has been facilitating an investment club where the participants meet to exchange financial wisdom. Tune in to hear about the club’s greatest hits, and perhaps what they’d do differently if they were starting from square one again. Find out how to choose an investment club or maybe even start one of your own!

Rob Carrick

How Gen Z can face financial challenges on the horizon

Rob Carrick is a personal finance columnist for The Globe and Mail. In this chat, Rob discusses how Gen Z and Gen Alpha will face unique financial challenges. From real estate to a potential recession, here’s how younger people can prepare themselves

Jonathan Chevreau 

How I Handled My Personal RRSP to RRIF Transition & Why I Decided on a Partial Annuity 

After many years of writing about RRSPs, RRIFs, and annuities, Jon Chevreau and his wife Ruth reached a key decision-making point this year and had to decide how they wanted to handle the RRSP to RRIF transition (along with Ruth’s smaller LIRA holdings). Tune in to hear how to handle the mechanics of that RRIF decision, as well as why Jon and Ruth decided to annuitize a portion of their retirement nest egg. If you’re DIYing your RRSP portfolio and want the step-by-step details on how a DIY RRIF is going to work, then this is the session for you!

Mike Heroux

Dividend Growth & Your RRSP/RRIF in Retirement

Mike Heroux is not only Canada’s Dividend Expert, he’s also a former High Net Worth Financial Planner - so he knows his way around multi-account planning! In this session we look at how the decisions you might want to make when it comes to managing your dividends as you approach retirement.

While we touch on non-registered accounts, we go in-depth on retirement planning for folks who have all (or almost all) of their investments within their RRSP and TFSA. Learn why RRSPs are definitely NOT a “rip off” like some “experts” are claiming these days. As always, Mike gives some great tips on how to select dividend stocks - and *spoiler alert* dividend yield isn’t even one of the main numbers he looks at!

Mark Seed 

A Cash Flow Case Study for Today’s Part-Time Retiree

Mark Seed is one of Canada’s preeminent DIY retirement planning experts. Since his real-life illustrated case study was such a hit last year, we brought Mark back to look at another case. This case is near and dear to Mark’s heart, as it looks at a couple that is planning to semi-retire at a fairly young age - but as part of the plan, they wish to work part-time until they hit “full retirement”.

We discuss just how prevalent this “new normal” of a gradual transition from full-time employment to “full-stop retirement” is becoming, and visually explain some of the options today’s retirees have when it comes to planning their future cash flow. Tune in to watch how to tax-efficiently plan an early retirement using part-time work (aka: “Coast FI”) and get the most out of a balanced lifestyle earlier in life.

Kornel Szrejber 

Are RRSPs a Rip Off? (Scam?!)

Kornel is coming in hot this year to discuss a question that keeps popping up on more and more social media: Are RRSPs just a big scam to grab your tax dollars in retirement?

Tune in to learn if you should be using other types of accounts for investing your money, and how to determine if those internet influencers are being honest about the utility of RRSPs in 2024.

We’ll also cover if a spousal RRSP is right for you, and if life insurance is really a superior after-tax product to a plain RRSP account full of index funds.

Dr. Stephanie Zhou

The pros and cons of incorporating

Dr. Stephanie Zhou is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto where she created the financial literacy curriculum and is the Director of Addiction Medicine at Sunnybrook Hospital. She immigrated to Canada and grew up in subsidized housing, which led to her investing in education and housing initiatives through philanthropy. She’s a nationally invited speaker on personal finance and runs a popular financial education blog on Instagram and Youtube called Breaking Bad Debt.

Whether you’re a high net worth individual or have high income, Dr. Stephanie will discuss the pros and cons of setting up a corporation. Plus, she’ll discuss how recent changes to tax laws will affect your decision.

Parween Mander

The financial expectations of children of immigrants

Parween Mander is an Accredited Financial Counselor-Canada® & Trauma of Money Facilitator. In this chat, she talks about the financial expectations of children of immigrants. From using tax-friendly accounts to setting boundaries, these are the tips that children of immigrants need to know.

Ed Rempel

Coming Soon

Nathan Kennedy

Real money and career advice for young professionals

Nathan Kennedy is one of Canada’s top financial content creators. In this conversation, he shares how young professionals need to be realistic about their career prospects and how they can earn more money by investing in themselves.

Lexi Miles Corrin

Is investing in a franchise worth it?

Court @Modern FImily

Strategically Choosing Where to Live in Canada for Early Retirement

After Court and her wife Nic hit financial independence at an age when many Canadians are still putting together their first downpayment. In past years we’ve talked to Court about the investing side of her family’s journey to FIRE, but for this session I wanted to focus specifically on the crucial decision about where to live in Canada (and in what type of accommodation).

Obviously a massive part of every Canadian’s personal financial situation is how they choose to pay for housing. This decision can mean more than all of the other small “savings hacks” and “top money tips” put together! Learn why Court chose to live where she does, and hear us discuss what sort of trade offs exist when choosing where and how to live in Canada. Court also shares her personal budget figures for her family of 4, and how they can afford to life the financially-independent life while being so young.

Tracy Ma

Is a cottage worth it?

Tracy Ma is a speaker, investing nerd and founder of Financial Nirvana Mama.  She hosts a youtube channel called ‘Financial Nirvana Mama’ to mentor investors, business owners and professionals go from self doubt to investing with confidence so they ultimately engineer their best life. As a former environmental engineer and mother of twins, she’s been featured in popular publications, Moneywise, TD Direct Investing, Moneysense, Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine, and much more.

Purchasing a cottage is a major decision, and sometimes, it is passed down to siblings. In this chat, Tracy discusses whether purchasing a cottage is worth it and what hurdles there may be when inheriting a cottage. Plus, she talks about the Home Buyer’s Plan and Tax-Free First Home Savings Account and how it can work for you.

Erin Allen

ETFs 101 and Beyond

TBA

Dale Roberts

Navigating the Retirement Risk Zone

Dale Roberts is back to explain how he approaches “The Retirement Risk Zone” - the time right before and right after someone chooses to retire.  We look closely at the historical worst case scenarios - the worst times you could have chosen to retire - and how those retirees would have fared in the years to come as they took money out of a quickly-diminishing investment portfolio.  

Dale goes into how to build a “Retirement Wall” for your portfolio’s safety, as well as different types of glidepath strategies, asset allocation tradeoffs, and 4% rule adaptations.  He also gets into how a fee-only financial planner might work well with an overall DIY investing strategy.  If you want confidence that your retirement plan can survive the Retirement Risk Zone, don’t miss this one.

Meghan Chomut

Managing Rental Properties as You Approach and Enjoy Retirement

Meghan Chomit is THE go-to for folks who have (or want to have) an income property.  She speaks from personal experience, and has helped dozens of people get into and manage properties.  Meghan addresses the possibilities of perhaps selling properties as you age, as well as the tradeoffs around keeping rental units as part of an estate plan.

You’ll hear us chat about the unique challenges of balancing retirement and landlord duties, as well as a discussion of the new 2024 capital gains tax rules.  We finish with a quick hitter on managing real estate within a corporation.

Ed Rempel

Coming Soon

Kyle Prevost 

4 Signs You’re NOT Retirement-Ready

Summit co-host Kyle Prevost has interacted with hundreds of Canadians this year as a result of launching Canada’s first ever online course aimed at preparing for retirement in the Great White North. Join him as he uncovers the most common errors that he sees Canadians making every day as they prepare for retirement.

Are you driving towards a vague retirement destination - but aren’t aware of your blindspots and how they might affect your golden years? Learn from other people’s mistakes as Kyle presents ways to take off the blindfold, set the cruise control, and make sure you get to retirement-ville on time and in one piece!

Stephanie & Gillian from Our Freedom Years

Why We Decided to Leave Canada for Singapore - and then Come Back!

Before they were nomadic world travelers Stephanie and Gillian were two Toronto residents who wanted to get out and see something new. Benefit from the lessons that they learned as they made the big jump from being Canadian residents, to finding jobs in Singapore, and the benefits they enjoyed of severing their Canadian residency (no Canadian taxes!) in order to fully embrace their new Singaporean life. 

But after six years of the expat life, Stephanie and Gillian decided to make their way back to Canada. Find out why (and how) they decided to come back home and why they have now decided to live in small-town Canada for six months a year. Stephanie and Gillian explain how they traveled and looked at many different countries on their quest for the perfect place to call home - and then decided they knew where the best fit was all along.

Finally, we wrap up with the top 3 coolest places that the ladies have visited over the past year. Given that they spend several weeks in most places they visit, their travel guides are a go-to resource for many experienced travellers!

Lisa Hannam and Kyle Prevost

TBA

Dan Kent

How to go from mutual funds to DIY investing

Learning how to buy stocks in Canada may seem complicated, but it’s easier than you think. From what is a stock to figuring out a stock investing strategy, Dan Kent, owner of stocktrades.ca shares everything you need to know about investing in stocks for the first time.

Erika Toth, Director, Institutional & Advisory, Eastern Canada, BMO ETFs

Erika brings to the table experience in investment analysis, portfolio construction, and trading of equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, options, ETFs and mutual funds. She is known for her attention to detail and consultative approach in providing support and education to advisors and portfolio managers. Erika is a CFA charter holder and has obtained several licenses with the Canadian Securities Institute in derivatives and options trading. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (double major in Finance and Marketing) from John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal.

Bipan Rai, Managing Director, Head of ETF & Structured Solutions Strategy

Bipan Rai joined BMO Global Asset Management in 2024 and currently serves as Head of ETF Strategy. He is responsible for delivering strategic research for the ETF and Structured Solutions team. He is highly regarded for his macroeconomic insights as well as his knowledge of market structure for various asset classes.

Mr. Rai‘s focus is on fundamental macro research and the implications for the ETF space. That includes economic, monetary and fiscal policy analysis alongside following developments in the funding and liquidity spaces. With his experience and capabilities, Bipan brings the existing and potential market environment into context for investors and where BMO GAM ETFs can bring value to everyone’s investment requirements in the near, medium and long term.

Prior to joining BMO GAM, Mr. Rai spent 13 years as a top-ranked strategist at a large Canadian dealer. He has won several awards for his research from various publications (Greenwich Survey, Bloomberg) and is a regular contributor to global business media outlets (BNN/Bloomberg, CNBC, WSJ). Mr. Rai holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and a Bachelor of Engineering degree (Aerospace Engineering) from Toronto Metropolitan University.

Just Wealth

ETF portfolio comparisons

TBA