The pros and cons of annuities

Annuities are usually insurance against something bad – but there’s a kind of insurance that you can look forward to, explains Moshe Milevsky, Professor of Finance at York University’s Schulich School of Business.

In his YouTube video, Why Annuities Now?, Prof. Milevsky talks about how annuities are really insurance “against something that is a blessing, longevity.” Longevity insurance is “the insurance you buy to protect you against the cost of living for a very long time.”

An annuity is certainly something to think about when converting your SPP savings into retirement income. It’s a way to set up your savings to provide you with a fixed monthly income for your life – and there are ways to also provide for your survivors. Check SPP’s retirement guide for an overview of the annuity options the plan provides.

The retirement spending “smile”

Writing in the Financial Post, Jason Heath talks about the “retirement spending smile” that seems to occur for most of us. What is the smile? We generally spend more money in our early retired years, see a decline in the middle, and then see spending increase in the end – on a chart, it looks like a smile.

Research, the article notes, finds that “spending tends to rise by more than the rate of inflation in later years, on average.” This, the article notes, is likely due to the fact that in extreme old age, “few 95-year-olds cut their own grass, live independently in their homes, or avoid prescription drugs.”

The article warns us that spending may rise modestly if we are fortunate enough to live into our late 80s, and advises that idea to be part of our financial planning.

Written by Martin Biefer

Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. After a 35-year career as a reporter, editor and pension communicator, Martin is enjoying life as a freelance writer. He’s a mediocre golfer, hopeful darts player and beginner line dancer who enjoys classic rock and sports, especially football. He and his wife Laura live with their Sheltie, Duncan, and their cat, Toobins. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22

Last week Sheryl Smolkin announced her retirement and talked about how SPP has changed her life.  If you missed the blog you can read it here. Sheryl has been part of our Social Media team for the last seven years, helping us write our original policy, getting us started with Facebook posts, hosting on our YouTube channel and of course has being the voice of savewithspp.com since 2011.

Sheryl lives in the Toronto area, however she writes content that is relevant across Canada. Her writing style makes the blogs easy to read and packs a lot of information into a few hundred words. We covered many topics over the years, mixing current events with general topics that everyone in Canada should know about everything financial.

Sheryl and I have worked closely together on the blogs since the beginning; I have gained so much knowledge not only from reading her posts, but also from asking questions and getting advice for the writing I do at SPP. We both like traveling and seem to travel close to the same time which makes it fun to hit our deadlines for our weekly best of posts and our regular weekly blogs.  But we always got our “act together” so we didn’t miss a week, even if our inboxes were full of emails saying “Are the blogs ready for review I am leaving on Wednesday?”.

As I said to Sheryl, I have mixed feeling about her departure from savewithspp.com. I am happy she will be able to spend more time with her family and traveling, but I will miss hearing from her and reading her blogs.

Thank for you for being a mentor to me and putting up with me as I moved from a mid-20 something to an early 30 something. Enjoy your retirement and remember those of us who are still working.

Happy retirement Sheryl!

Stephen Neiszner

My husband and  I have belonged to a gym for many years and we try to go three times a week but life often gets in the way. And after a particularly caloric and cold holiday season I really felt like I was in a rut doing “the same old, same old.” So I decided to hire a trainer once a week to help me not only get into shape, but also gain stamina and strength.

For those of you who have resolved to improve your eating and exercise more in the months to come, I present hints from experts intended to help you meet your objectives.

Several years ago Greatist posted 15 Foolproof Strategies to Stick to Your Fitness Resolutions which still hold true today. Writing down your goals is not only a great way to accomplish them, but your list can also help you figure out the exact steps needed to get there. Making resolutions manageable and breaking them into small steps is also helpful.

Cassie Lambert from Men’s Health offers 5 Hacks to Help You Stick to Your New Year’s Fitness Resolutions. She suggests scheduling a competition for 90 days after the new year. So sign up for that 5k or 10k you always wanted to run and work towards it. And instead of weighing yourself, take selfies at regular intervals to document your progress.

More easy tips to help you keep your ‘get fit’ resolution in 2018 include getting a support system like a workout buddy who will hit the gym with you on cold dark mornings. Can’t find a workout buddy nearby? Crunch fitness trainer Zokai Holmes suggests that you try an activity tracker like a Fitbit and share your data with out-of-town friends and family. Another good idea is to keep food away from your desk and avoid liquid calories.

UK website The Herald presents 7 ways to get fit in 2018 – without paying for a gym membership. For example, check out YouTube for free fitness videos, cycle to work, find fitness apps on your phone and take advantage of these gym-free workouts — a five-minute wake-up workout , six 10-minute workouts or even a 12-week fitness programme.

Dana Sullivan Killroy provides an exercise plan for seniors on healthline. If you’re an older adult looking to establish an exercise routine, you should, ideally try to incorporate 150 minutes of moderate endurance activity into your week. This can include walking, swimming, cycling, and a little bit of time every day to improve strength, flexibility, and balance. She also gives examples for people just getting started of a few of the dozens of exercises you can do to build strength without having to set foot in a gym.

—

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

Written by Sheryl Smolkin
	Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.

By Sheryl Smolkin

If you want to take a break from swimming and sunning in the waning days of summer, here is our latest selection of personal finance vides for your viewing pleasure.

There was a lot of panic recently after the Bank of Canada finally raised its overnight rate after seven years. In her  latest video, Jessica Moorhouse gives a quick recap on what this interest rate hike was all about and what you should do about it (especially if you’re in debt!).

The Globe and Mail’s personal finance columnist Rob Carrick offers several ideas to reduce the impact of the interest rate increase on your finances. If you have a mortgage, he suggests paying down the principal, even with money you were planning to put into an RRSP.

And finally, Kornel Szreibjer, host of Build Wealth Canada interviewed Randy Cass CEO of Nest Wealth, a robo advisor service. Robo-advisors are a class of financial advisers that provide financial advice or portfolio management online with minimal human intervention. For more ways to listen to the podcast click here.

—
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

Written by Sheryl Smolkin
	Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.

By Sheryl Smolkin

It’s that time of the month again. We present a series of personal finance videos for your viewing pleasure.

First of all, don’t miss Kerry K. Taylor aka Squawkfox’s two part TEDx Talk. “What do you collect?” can be viewed above. You can also watch “Is it worth it?” here where she discusses whether you should pay $700 for a Canada Goose coat.

In an interview with Breakfast Television, personal finance expert Lesley-Anne Scorgie puts together a procrastinator’s financial checklist for those who have a hard time getting around to dealing with their money situation.

Rubina Ahmed-Haq discusses survey results that reveal why women should be saving a bigger chunk of their pay cheque in their retirement fund.

Ed Rempel presents “The 6 steps to become financially independent.” This 50 minutes of financial education is based on his experience working with nearly 1,000 families to create detailed, personal plans for their journey to financial independence.

Money After Graduation’s Bridget Casey says the stock market doesn’t have to be scary. She suggests three different types of accounts to help you get started in the stock market, no matter the level of your skill, knowledge, or savings.

—
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

It’s that time of month again. Here are a series of personal finance videos for your viewing pleasure.

Rob Carrick at the Globe and Mail says an overlooked way to prepare for retirement is to establish the groundwork for working beyond age 65 when you are still in your 40s and 50s.

Another interesting Globe and Mail video offers valuable advice on avoiding financial fraudsters including how to protect your computer and online passwords.

Bridget Casey from Money after Graduation posted three ways to spring clean your finances last April, but her suggestions are still relevant a year later. She says one of the first things you should do is get your free credit report.

In this video from CBC The National, Christine Burak and Natalie Kalata report that Canadians are living longer healthier lives but they are having more difficulty saving for a longer period of retirement.

—
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

Building on the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand word, in this edition of Best from the Blogosphere we direct you to video channels and specific personal finance videos you may want to follow regularly.

First of all, keep an eye on the series of videos from Saskatchewan Pension Plan, and in particular this one, which clarifies issues raised in a recent quiz posted on savewithspp.com. Other video blogs discuss how to become a member of SPP, how to start a company plan with SPP and why fees matter to your investments.

Money School with Preet Bannerjee tackles a whole range of topics including Employer Matching Retirement Contributions. Are you leaving money on the table?

Only buying a house is a bigger financial commitment than buying a car. The message in this humorous Get Smarter About Money video blog is that you have to look at the cost of ownership from operating costs, insurance, maintenance and financing to understand the big picture.

The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick is featured in the “Carrick Talks Money” series of video blogs. If you can’t figure out whether or not your investment advisor is making money for you, take a look at Where can I find out how much I’ve made or lost since I opened my investment account?

And last but not least, Bridget Eastgaard from Money After Graduation discusses two ways to pay off debt in The Debt Avalanche vs The Debt Snowball. Find out which is the best approach for you!
—
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

As the days get shorter and the temperature goes down, staying fit is often a challenge. Joining a fitness club can be expensive, particularly if you don’t use it regularly. On a windy, chilly morning it seems a lot easier to just take the car rather than walking even a short distance to work.

But if you modify your schedule now to incorporate some fun, inexpensive activity into your day, you will be healthier and less inclined to hibernate before the first snowfall. Here are some online resources that will both inspire you and give you some ideas.

I really like Nia Shanks on Lift Like a Girl, where she encourages women of all sizes and from all backgrounds to start strength training. Shanks writes empowering articles about how women can be more, not less, the best bodyweight exercises to do, and why exercise should never be considered punishment for eating.

If you are a runner, or always wanted to run but haven’t gotten around to it, take a look at Couch to 10K and Beyond: My Journey to Becoming a Runner by Alison Micelli. Her advice is, “Grab a friend, a crew or a mentor and give it a go, use it as a way to explore your city, get outside or switch up your routine. You’ll be amazed at what you can do and the things that you can accomplish when you stick with it!”

Dave Smith from Make Your Body Work, was chosen as “Canada’s Top Fitness Professional” in 2013. There are lots of great ideas in his blog How To Exercise At Home: The 50 Best Free Online Workout Resources. The YouTube videos he links to include workouts of all different kinds from kick boxing routines to yoga to Pilates.  CafeMom Studios is a very popular YouTube channel that helps moms build their body back after pregnancy and childbirth using postnatal workout videos for cardio, pain-reduction, circuit training, and yoga exercises for strength and flexibility.

On his blog Frugalwoods, Mr. Frugalwoods has posted The Ultimate Bike Commuter’s Guide to Winter Cycling. He shares both safety tips and how to stay warm. Why bike to work through notorious Boston (substitute Saskatchewan) winters? He says:

1. It could be the fastest way to get to work.
2. You need to exercise anyway so you might as well combine exercise with commuting.
3. It’s a focused way to start and end the day.
4. Bike commuting saves a bunch of money.

And if you are planning to participate in winter sports like skiing or skating, now is the time to check out 10 Exercises for Winter Sports: Increase Strength & Reduce Injury. While winter sports are great fun, you definitely don’t want to underestimate the workout they provide.  In fact, if you’re not fully prepared physically for the season you could be at a high risk for injury.

—
Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

In this space we typically provide links to interesting work by our favourite personal finance writers about topics ranging from money-saving tips to retirement savings to retirement lifestyle. But many of these prolific bloggers have also posted great videos on YouTube with helpful tips and tricks for people looking for ways to better manage their money.

So keeping in mind the old adage that “a picture can be worth a thousand words,” this week we identify a series of videos featuring pundits you already know well. While some of these videos are not new, they have stood the test of time.

Take a minute to watch at least a few of them, and let us know whether you would like to see more video content on savewithspp.com.

Sean Cooper is a pension administrator by day and a hard-working personal finance writer by night. Watch him burn the mortgage he paid off in 3 years and reveal his super saver secrets.

One of a kind blogs like How to get married for $239 by Kerry K. Taylor, aka Squawkfox have have been read by thousands of eager fans. In this video she discusses with the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick, How to stop wasting money.

In Life After Financial Independence as part of his Tea At Taxevity series, actuary Promod Sharma interviews author and former MoneySense editor Jonathan Chevreau about his post-retirement projects, including the Financial Independence Hub.

TV personality and personal finance guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade is interviewed on Toronto Speaks: Personal Finance about spending beyond your budget.

Studies suggest that 6 out of 10 Canadians do not have a retirement plan. Why is that number so high? Retire Happy’s Jim Yih shares a couple of theories about why it’s hard to plan for retirement.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

Hi,

Today in savewithspp.com’s continuing series of interviews with financial bloggers, we talk with Robb Engen. Robb is “Echo” from the very popular Canadian personal finance blog Boomer & Echo. He also has a bi-weekly column in the Toronto Star where his research focuses on budgeting, banking, credit cards, and debt management.

Robb is a happily married Dad living in Southern Alberta. Over the past five years he has gone from taking an amateur interest in personal finance and investing to working towards becoming a full-fledged money expert by taking the four-course Certified Financial Planner program online.

In addition to writing this blog, he appears regularly in the online podcasts Because Money.  He and his mother Marie have started a “fee only” financial planning business and Robb has a new blog called Earn Save Grow.

Thank you very much for joining me today Robb.

I’m glad to be here Sheryl.

Q:  Robb, you’re one busy guy. Before we start talking about your blogs, tell me a little bit about your day job.
A: Sure. In addition to all that you mentioned, I do have a day job, and I’m the Business Development Manager at the University of Lethbridge. That’s a fancy title saying I fund raise and generate revenue for our sports teams here in Lethbridge.

Q: When did you and Marie start “Boomer and Echo”, and why?
A: We started it back in August 2010, so we’ve been at it almost four years. My mom worked for a big bank for two decades plus, and we always chatted about personal finance and investing.

We just had our first child, so there was a lot going on financially, and I started reading a lot of personal finance blogs. My Mom and I thought we might have a unique spin on financial issues.

We wrote a couple of articles, just to get the feeling for putting that kind of thing together, and I did some research on how to start a blog. Then we just jumped into it, I guess.

Q: How many hits do you typically get when you post a blog?
A: We’ve built up a pretty decent-sized following, and most people follow us by Email. We have about 6,000 email subscribers, and of that, I’d say two to three thousand probably actually click through to the blog to read a new post, and some probably just read it by email.

Q: What have some of your most popular posts been about?
A: I’d say probably the more personal stories. When I talk about my changing careers and what that looks like and dealing with a pension plan versus in the private sector, trying to save on your own. I wrote about the challenges I had as a first-time homebuyer, and that got a lot of hits. My mom’s had the same success talking about personal stories.

Q: How have you been able to monetize your blog? What have some of the spinoffs been?
A: I saw that Google has their AdSense network, and that seemed to be the go-to place for monetizing a blog, so we’ve done okay there. It also seems to be that writing about personal finance and investing tends to find more advertisers than say, if you were to write about cats or maybe photography or something like that.

Q: You also blogged for the Toronto Star’s site “Moneyville” three days a week, and now you’re writing a column for thestar.com so those really are spinoffs from your blog as well.
A: Yeah, and what I noticed were some of the more profitable things that people search for information about are rewards cards and loyalty programs. I didn’t want to inundate my Boomer & Echo blog, with posts about air miles and aeroplan so I started a little offshoot called “Rewards Cards Canada,” and that’s where I talk about that niche area.

Q: How many hours a week do you spend on your own blog and the various other related personal finance activities outside your 9-to-5 job?
A: I’d say, for all the online activities, I probably spend about two hours a night from Sunday to Thursday. 

Q: Tell me how the “Because Money” series on YouTube works and the technology used to link Moderator Jackson Middleton with you and the other interview subjects. 
A: I attended the fantastic Canadian Personal Finance Blogger’s Conference in Toronto, and one of the takeaways I got was maybe, try to explore some different forms of media. Video blogging has really come into the forefront now.

Sandy Martin, a fee-only planner who writes at Spring Personal Finance knew marketing and social media manager Jackson Middleton, and so we all got together and decided to do this video series called “Because Money.”

It’s all done through the social network, Google Plus. Google owns YouTube, and they formed what they call “Hangouts on Air.” It’s like a Skype video call. You can get up to 10 people, video chatting on hangout at the same time, and you can put it live on air or you can just record it and play it later. We do it live every Wednesday night.

Q: What kind of hits are you getting on it?
A: Pretty good. We get a couple hundred views a week, and when we have better know people on, like Rob Carrick and Dan Bortolotti, we get a lot more views.

Q: You’re also taking certified financial planner courses, and along with Marie, you’re now offering a unique fee-only personal finance planning service online. How does the service work, and how’s it going?
A: What we found was, we built up quite a following over the years, and that people would Email us and ask about their own situation. Without knowing their complete background and history and their goals moving forward, it’s pretty much impossible to give that tailored, specific advice.

So we talked about this and came up with a fee-only model where we’d work with a client for a year. We develop a financial plan together. Clients get unlimited access to us by phone, email, Google Plus, Skype, whatever, and they can talk about their own financial issues without any pressure to buy anything. We are not licensed to sell products.

Q: You recently launched a new blog called “Earn, Save, Grow.” What do you hope to accomplish with this blog, and how is it different from subjects covered with “Boomer and Echo?”
A: I started a new blog because Boomer & Echo focuses a lot on frugality and money-saving tips and a bit of investing. But I don’t know that the audience is quite there for discussions about earning extra money. There’s always the debate whether you should try to earn more money versus spending less.

Obviously, I’m going to cross promote it a little bit with Boomer and Echo, but time will tell what kind of audience moves over there and is interested in how to make more money or do something on the side with their time. I don’t intend to monetize this site, so I won’t have any ads up there, at least for now.

Q: If you had one piece of advice for Canadians struggling to make ends meet and save for retirement, what would it be?
A: We talked about this in “Because Money” with Rob Carrick recently. The real estate market has gone up so much, and people just feel this need to be a homeowner, and without necessarily understanding the full financial costs.

You can’t spend 40% to 50% of your income on a place to live and still expect to save for retirement, have kids, save up for their education and still have some money left over to go out for a beer or go for a nice dinner. I think we have to rethink the idea of renting for a little while so that if you buy a home you can really afford it.

That’s great. Thank you very much for talking to me today, I’m sure the “savewithspp.com” readers will really be interested in what you had to say.

Thanks for having me, Sheryl. It was a pleasure.

—
This is an edited transcript of the podcast you can listen to by clicking on the graphic under the picture above. If you don’t already follow Boomer & Echo, you can find it here and subscribe to receive blog posts by email as soon as they’re available.