Our guest speaker this month is Tracy Theemes, a certified financial planner and co-founder of Sophia Financial Group and the Wealth Academy for Women.

The Wealth Academy for Women is a lively, dynamic, highly participatory day of workshops that covers everything a woman needs to know about her finances in one day.

All proceeds are donated to Dress for Success, an organization that empowers women financially.

Listen to our Let’s Talk Money Podcast to find more about this life changing day!

The Wealth Academy for Women – an interview with Tracy Theemes

For more details or to register for the Feb 25th event in Vancouver, visit: www.wealthacademyforwomen.com or call Dress for Success (604) 408-7923.

You don’t have to become a financial analyst or a planner — you’ll simply learn a lot that will help increase your confidence in making financial decisions and help you to know what questions to ask.

To start on your “homework” for 2012, check out some of our favorite money resources. There’s something for everything and for every type of learner — whether you’re self-motivated, you prefer group learning or you’re looking for one-on-one learning opportunities.

Overall Favorite Money Resource

Globe Investor — This section, both online and in print, keeps you up-to-date on both the bigger economic picture and the financial markets as well as personal finance and investing news.  Find it online at www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor.

Our Favorite Books

What’s Good, Bad And Downright Awful In Canadian Investments Today. Rob Carrick, the Globe and Mail’s personal finance columnist, has written several useful books that will help you become more financially savvy. www.robcarrick.com

The MoneySense Guide to Retiring Wealthy, from the Canadian personal finance web site MoneySense comes with several guides, including this primer for a step-by-step financial plan. Find it at www.moneysense.ca/books.

Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner  (Canadian Edition) by David Bach, a bestselling author and financial coach. Bach and his ‘Finish Rich’ advice are found online, in books and in the news media.While Bach is an American and some of his advice is US-oriented when it comes to tax and other issues, many of the basic financial steps are those that apply no matter what side of the border you’re on. We also like Smart Women Finish Rich.

The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life by Lynne Twist  A unique look at money that deals with our attitudes towards it. Your relationship with money is really a first step — until you truly examine your attitude towards it, it is difficult to start getting a handle on how to save, spend and invest.

Money, A Memoir. Women, Emotions and Cash by Liz Perle – While women would share stories about their most personal issues, Liz Perle tackled the one that remained a taboo — money. And more specifically our emotional relationship to money. Her book tells her own story and those of other women. You may see yourself in those stories; you’ll come away from reading it realizing that if you are to truly take control of your financial future, you have to be honest with yourself about the influence money has on you.

Our Favorite Workshops

Heads & Tails of Money Seminar
This 3 hour seminar will help you discover the impact of your beliefs on your financial behaviours and will show you how to align your spending with your personal vision.  Toronto, Fri Jan 27th or Sat Jan 28th

Wealth Academy for Women
In this lively, dynamic, highly participatory day of workshops you will learn how to negotiate, make the most of your career, develop a financial plan and more. All proceeds are donated to Dress for Success, an organization that empowers women financially. Vancouver, Sat Feb 25

Smart Money Essentials
Whether you’re completely lost in matters of finance or simply seeking confirmation that you’re on the right track, this weekend workshop is the perfect start for taking control of your finances and creating a foundation for your ideal life.  Weekend workshop – Vancouver, Apr 14th and Apr 15th

Our Favorite Home Study Program

Smart Money Essentials with a monthly Question and Answer hotline
A comprehensive hands-on primer for people who are looking to learn more about managing their money and want to create their own basic financial plan. In addition to a learning guide, worksheets and downloadable audio learning, you also have access to our monthly question-and-answer hotline, which gives you a chance to ask any questions that arise as you take control of your finances.

Our Favorite Blogs and Web Sites

Boomer and Echo: www.boomerandecho.com
Gail Vaz-Oxlade: www.gailvazoxlade.com
Canadian Couch Potato: www.canadiancouchpotato.com
Daily Worth: www.dailyworth.com
Smart Cookies: www.smartcookies.com
Retire Happy – Jim Yih: www.jimyih.com
Steadyhand Investments: www.steadyhand.com/blog

More useful websites, podcasts, worksheets and articles listed in our Resources section

Our Favorite Professionals
Here is our list of Vancouver-based professionals we have worked with and recommend, from lawyers to insurance and investing specialists.

Money Coaches Canada
Meet our Money Coaches Canada team. Our coaches are located in several cities across Canada and work with clients either in person or using teleconferences and on-line meeting tools.

While real estate values continued to bolster the net worth of individual Canadians, it was offset by a decline in the value of equities and pension assets as the markets floundered.

Indeed the financial news is grim, but what’s happening around us just may just be the wake-up call we all need to take stock and to make good, conscious choices that can help us be better-positioned for the future.

We can set an example in our families and communities that we are ready to take more control over our money and our life, that in spite of the global challenges and debt levels, we can rise above these problems and, one step at a time, one person at a time, we can make a difference by getting more informed and being responsible with our money.

Five ways you can make that happen in 2012:

1. Create a financial plan based on your goals and your values

2. Get more involved with your investments – don’t invest in anything you don’t understand

3. Live within your means

4. Make a plan to start reducing your personal debt and stick to it

5. Make more responsible choices about how you spend your money

While you may not be able to control what’s happening around you, you can take charge of your own life and your finances and make informed and practical decisions that help you move forward towards your goals.

We are here to help in any way we can. Contact us anytime for a complimentary consultation with one of our money coaches.

Across Europe it has been the chill of economic uncertainty as Europe wavers on the brink of a debt crisis. Here at home, the Occupy protesters are a reminder of discontent that has been brewing over corporate bailouts and executives payouts.

With all this turmoil people are probably wondering about their future. They’re asking themselves, do I have a sound financial plan?  Is my financial house in order? Do I even know what I’m doing?

We’re happy to tell you, in our experience as money coaches, we have found people usually know more than they think they do. So while it’s no time to throw caution to the winds, relax a little — you probably know more than you think.

Here’s a five-point check list for the basics:

1) I have completed a net worth statement: I have added up the value of everything I own (my assets) and what I owe (liabilities) to come up with my net worth.

2) I manage my cash flow, tracking money that comes in and all my spending.

3) I have a spending and savings plan so I know money is there to pay the bills when they come due and I can make choices about whether it’s more important to save for a designer dress or if I’d rather put that money towards a ski trip.

4) I have built up a good credit history and I pay my credit card off in full every month so I am not paying high interest rates to fund buying that is beyond my means.

5) I have an investment and retirement plan which I review regularly and I seek professional advice because it’s worse to remain in ignorance than to worry about asking questions for fear of looking dumb.

If you have answered yes to most of the questions, you’re on your way.

You have a handle on your finances and are aware of the some of the key issues that can make a difference between financial security and not sleeping at night because you’re worried about paying the bills.

If you didn’t answer yes to all, don’t be too hard on yourself, you’re not alone – but it is time to take control.

Many of the respondents in the Desjardins personal finance index survey who were aged 45 to 64 had no retirement savings plan. And 40 per cent in that age group who were still working had no idea how much they’d need to live on when they retired.

As money coaches, we can help you discover those answers and take responsibility for your own finances. We’re not here to judge but to empower you with the knowledge to take control of your financial future.

Call us and take a step towards securing your financial future.

Our guest speaker this month is Garth Rustand, Executive Director of Investors-Aid Co-operative of Canada and he will introduce you to a different way to get information and make decisions about your investments.

Let’s Talk Money Podcast

Garth Rustand can be reached at www.investors-aid.coop

Like mutual funds, ETFs are a bundle of investments, diversifying the risk of holding a single stock or bond and at the same time broadening the opportunity for returns. But unlike mutual funds, ETFs trade on the stock market and your ETF investment goes up and down with the market index it’s tied to.

So in effect you have a stock — your ETF — that represents a bundle of stocks, bonds or other assets. The ETF could be based on Canadian stock market index, the S&P/TSX index for example. This index includes about 250 Canadian stocks and the index goes up and down depending on how well the basket of stocks that it holds does. While the index is going up, so are your fortunes. But as it goes down, so does the value of your ETF investment.

While it may tempting to do a complete about turn on your investment strategy in the search for more lucrative returns it’s important to think it through. You could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire!

In making your decision, consider the following:

Fees:
ETFs have lower fees than mutual funds. Because they track a pre-determined basket of investments, they don’t demand the same research and attention by the companies that offer ETFs.  Also, they’re sold primarily through discount brokerage firms so you aren’t paying an advisor for advice.

Homework:
You may be paying lower fees but you’ll have to do your own homework. You’ll have to research ETFs and make your own buying and selling decisions. There are now hundreds of different ETFs available.  Are you ready to be a do-it-yourself investor?

Advice:
A mutual fund portfolio also delivers advice. If you have a good advisor — and you should talk to a few in various organizations before making a choice — your advisor will consider such factors as your risk tolerance, your retirement plans, the rest of your portfolio mix and other items that would weigh on investment decisions.

Ultimately there is no single solution. What’s most important is working through the process, doing the research, educating yourself and asking the questions that will help lead you to financial strategy that’s comfortable for you.

Read more:
ETFS vs Mutual Funds – Which One Wins
Canadian Couch Potato

Should you re-negotiate your mortgage? 

In a challenging economy, the one bright spot is low interest rates for borrowers these days.  But what if you locked into a mortgage a few years ago and your rate isn’t as good today’s rates?

In our conversation today with our guest Sandy Chreptyk, we discuss whether it makes sense to consider re-negotiating your mortgage and how to go about getting a better rate.

Let’s Talk Money Podcast

You can contact Sandy at sandychreptyk@shaw.ca or 604 961-5572 and she’d be happy to “crunch” some numbers for you.

In 2001, if you had googled “financial therapy” you would have discovered four websites: one in California, Switzerland, Tennessee and mine in Toronto. Today there is an Association, an academic journal and September 11-13 marks the second Annual Financial Therapy Conference, in Atlanta, Georgia, at which I’ve been invited to present.

My concept of financial therapy was born in 1999 following back-to-back tax appointments with two sculptors. Both had made $60,000, yet one had a tax bill of $8,000 while the other owed $4,000. The former had already overpaid and was due a refund whereas the latter’s bill was as yet unpaid. Having to pay is less desirable than getting a refund, but it was odd that the happier sculptor was the one paying twice the tax bill. That was my first lesson: money isn’t about the money.

Over the past decade I’ve learned: women’s relationship to money looks very different from men’s; a great increase or decrease in wealth usually damages one’s relationship to money; trauma leaves its mark on money management just as it does on other aspects of life; money causes a wide variety of addictive behaviours; and our relationship to money seems to cause more stress than our socio-economic class.

Women really do handle money differently than men. In the past fifty years, breaking from our financial dependency has also meant learning to be financially independent. This new world of planning for our retirements, buying our own houses, performing in top level management jobs, etc, has led to oddities such as that a woman is more likely to go bankrupt than to graduate from college, suffer a heart attack or be diagnosed with cancer. In fact, the birth of a child is the most significant predictor of future poverty in a woman’s life.

I’ve learned that there are two financial spectrums: rich vs poor, of course, but also scrambling vs hoarding. Scramblers never have enough to pay their bills while hoarders feel that their pile of money is never big enough.

One’s place on the scrambling/hoarding spectrum is not only more fluid than one’s socio-economic class but changing it reduces an individual’s financial stress far more than changing class (which is in fact extremely stressful.) The scrambling/hoarding spectrum is operative across the entire rich/poor spectrum; there are rich scramblers and hoarders and there are poor scramblers and hoarders.

Extreme poverty generates its own terrible stress, but scrambling and hoarding, impulses that come from our deepest fears, can cause intense feelings of being out of balance – with money, with life.

We give money so much importance and meaning in our culture that it is hard to treat it rationally, especially in our consumerist 21st century. People who access help with their relationships to money find they deal better with all resources and feel much more peaceful in their daily lives. My hope is that through the work of financial therapists across the world money can be taken off its pedestal and put back in a more rational place.  

Amanda Mills is a Certified Financial Counsellor, tax professional, financial trouble-shooter, crisis counselor and co-author of a best-selling book on trauma.

Listen to our Let’s Talk Money Podcast to find out what you need to know.

Young People and Money

Featuring Ruth Kewin, founder and Managing Director of Four Quarter$ Literacy.

Ruth Kewin can be reached at, rkewin@fourquartersfinance.com, www.fourquartersfinance.com

But what we have to remember is that markets always have their ups and downs. This summer has been a bit of a roller coaster, but it’s best not to succumb to emotion or panic selling.

It’s now especially important to take a longer view of investments. If you weren’t planning to cash in all your stocks this summer, it’s no time to panic and change those plans. Markets move in cycles and already a degree of calm is returning to the markets. There are even some investors, quick to see a silver lining, who are snapping up stocks at bargain prices.

There are things though that you can do to cope and we’ve compiled our top five tips to reduce stress during economic uncertainty.

1. Focus on the things you can control — like living within your means and paying down debt

Take interest rates for example. There’s little you can do about them except make sure you’re prepared for whatever may come. If you’ve racked up credit card debt, make a workable plan to pay it off and cut up your credit cards or at least put them in deep freeze. Use cash for your discretionary expenses like eating out and entertainment. Figure out what you spend on those and other frills and take that cash out at the beginning of the week. Once it’s gone, it’s gone — no going back to the ATM before next week’s installment of ‘fun money.’

2. Focus on how much you need to cover your expenses

Believe it or not, this can be more liberating than terrifying.  Worrying about how you would survive on a reduced income is all the more anxiety causing when you don’t actually know how much you need to live on.  Figure out what your basic expenses are – chances are you can live on much less than you think.

3. Focus on why you invested, not on what’s happening in the markets now

It’s hard not to take the money and run when markets turn turbulent, but before you cash out, think back to your original investment goals. If your retirement is still 7 to 10 years away, there is time for the markets to recover and there are bound to be ups and downs along the way.  If you are already retired, fund your expenses with money you have in your pensions, cash or other liquid investments to cover your needs while your investments recover.

4. Talk it out

Don’t stress out in silence. Talk openly and honestly with your financial advisor and with your family about your concerns. Set up a time to talk to your spouse or partner about money.  Focus on your mutual goals and determine the immediate steps you must take if your personal finances are being impacted by outside financial events. Then look to the medium term and draw up a list of the information you need and the actions you must take. Talk to your financial advisor to fine tune your strategy going forward.

5. Hold some cash

While the prospect of collecting a meagre one or two per cent on a GIC leaves cash looking like a poor investment choice, there are other factors to consider. Our investments are supposed to ease our anxieties about financial security — not exacerbate them. The amount of cash you hold in your investment portfolio depends on your tolerance for risk and secondly, on your cash needs for the near future. For example, you may have a high tolerance for risk but at the same time you want to save up a down payment for a house in 2-3 years.  It’s best to choose cash investments so your home-buying plan can go ahead as scheduled and not be derailed by the ups and downs of the stock market.

Need more help? Check out our Smart Money Essentials, a course that lets you work at your own pace to create an actionable plan for reducing financial stress and achieving your goals. Available both in downloadable and print versions with a Q and A hotline that gives you monthly access to accredited financial advisors.