Financial Planning Simplified
I’m Robb — the guy behind Boomer & Echo. I’ve been a personal finance blogger since 2010 and an advice-only financial planner since 2015. I help regular Canadians with regular problems make smarter decisions about their money — without selling them a thing.
My philosophy is simple: Money shouldn’t be complicated.
You don’t need 17 bank accounts, 12 ETFs, or a side hustle to retire comfortably. You just need a good plan, grounded in what really matters to you.
By reading this website you're joining more than 250,000 people who stop by here every month to get tips on how to save money, invest well, and retire comfortably. And, if you choose to subscribe and receive new posts by email, you'll join a growing list of more than 12,000 email subscribers who are the first to get these tips sent straight to their inbox.
Thanks for subscribing!
New Articles from Robb
Finding Financial Clarity After Losing a Spouse
Robb Engen | September 9, 2025 |
Mary was 62 when her husband passed away suddenly. He had always been the “CFO” of the household, the one who dealt with their investments, pensions, and taxes. Mary was left with a folder of account statements she didn’t understand and an advisor she barely knew. When Mary asked that advisor about withdrawing money to…
-
So You’re About to Retire: The First-Year Financial Timeline (With Real Numbers)
Robb Engen | September 4, 2025 |
You’ve handed in your notice and circled your retirement date on the calendar. Congratulations! Now what? The three months or so before retirement and the first six to nine months after are packed with decisions: pension paperwork, government benefit start dates, converting accounts, setting withdrawals, and making sure taxes are handled properly so your new…
Reframing the CPP Enhancement: A 122% Increase In Benefits
Robb Engen | September 2, 2025 |
Whenever I write about the timing of Canada Pension Plan benefits, the response is enormous. It’s one of the most popular and polarizing retirement planning topics out there. The usual way this conversation gets framed is around age 65. That’s considered the “normal” starting point, so you’ll often hear people say, “If you wait until…
-
Weekend Reading: Stop Paying 2% For Mediocre Returns Edition
Robb Engen | August 30, 2025 |
I’m going to let you in on an investing secret that has eluded millions of Canadians for years. A secret that will save you literally thousands of dollars a year in fees and deliver stronger investment performance. A secret that does not require you to transform into a superstar stock picker or professional asset allocator….
-
A Young Adult’s Smart Guide to Money
Robb Engen | August 26, 2025 |
(What I wish I’d known at 18, 24, and 30 – from parents and grandparents who’ve been there, and a financial planner who can translate those experiences into actionable advice for today.) If you’re in your late teens or twenties, you don’t need an “investment guy”, a six-figure income, or a meme stock or hot…
-
Weekend Reading: Dividends, Rents, and the Illusion of “Income”
Robb Engen | August 16, 2025 |
The dividends-versus-total-return debate has (mercifully) cooled. Most investors now accept there’s nothing magical about dividends – it’s just cash carved out of total return. The real “magic” is reinvesting, i.e., putting the slice back into the cake so it keeps baking. And yes, ex-dividend, a stock’s price typically drops by roughly the dividend amount –…
