Helping 50+ British Columbians plan and live successful and secure retirements

An Overview

What makes for a successful retirement? Money? Health? Family? Friends? Staying active at what you enjoy? Travel?

Everyone needs and deserves unique retirement planning, based on what's important to you! Have you had yours?

This site offers you information that can make the difference between a great retirement and a constant struggle. There are many factors that determine that, however the one that's most obvious is money.

If inflation and taxation were less consumptive of our resources, financial planning would be less of a critical issue. The reality however is most people must plan carefully to Save, Grow, Protect, and Conserve their money leading to retirement and then in retirement, to have the freedom they want and deserve.

Many people say they have done financial planning. The reality is that only 7% of Canadians have comprehensive written financial plans. These days everybody selling financial products or giving investment advice is suddenly a "financial planner". Qualified comprehensive planning, in our opinion can only be obtained from qualified planners, such as a CFP (certified financial planner) who have had comprehensive education, training, and experience in all planning areas. Email us if you need help locating a qualified planner in your area.

Everyone is focused to some extent on the common issue of money. There's another common issue though that few people focus on before it becomes a problem, and can make or break retirement plans. Health!

Although more people today are taking up healthier lifestyle habits, very few plan practically for the potential financial drain of failing health in retirement. ie. many people think about it, but few do anything about it until it happens. Many people believe a combination of government services and their financial resources will be enough. The stats and trends of health care today don't support that belief.

Until recently there simply were no financial products for this problem. Today there are. Some are very good, if you can afford them, such as disbility insurance for retirees, like Long Term Care insurance and should be considered by everyone as part of overall retirement finances. Some can be disasterous, like the Reverse Mortgage, where you get to sell your house back to the bank after 25 years of paying them interest for it, hoping the cash doesn't run out before death.

A recent buzz phrase "Care Years Planning" points to the need to look and plan for the many issues that arise as we move from the independent early to mid retirement years, into the mid to late years when a large percentage of seniors need some form of living assistance.

We hope you'll profit from browsing the above topics and many more on this site. Any questions or comments you email will be answered.

Have a happy retirement,

BC Senior Advisor