Posts by Robb Engen
A Smarter Way to Spend Without Stress in Retirement
A few years ago, I shared a simple yet powerful idea for managing your portfolio in retirement: hold a low-cost, globally diversified equity ETF for long-term growth, and pair it with a high-interest savings ETF or money market fund to cover short-term cash flow needs (12-24 months). I called it a two-fund solution, and the…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Your Health is Wealth Edition
I went to bed after a perfectly normal Wednesday and woke up at 3am with my heart racing. I got up, went to the bathroom, and tried to get back to sleep – tossing and turning for a few hours before getting up for good around 5:30am. I felt okay(ish) and went downstairs for an…
Read MoreSpend the Money: Tackling the Emotional Side of Retirement Planning
I’ve spent a lot of time helping people figure out if they can retire. But what surprises many is that the harder part often comes after that: convincing them it’s okay to actually enjoy their money. On a recent episode of The Wealthy Barber Podcast, I talked with Dave Chilton about this very problem –…
Read MoreThe Most Difficult Account For Investors To Manage
I recently made a bold change to de-risk my portfolio, which now consists of just 35% globally equities and 65% short-term bonds. This wasn’t in response to tariffs and global trade wars, or my gut feeling about stock markets crashing in the near term. No, this was a predetermined change in a specific account type…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: A Taxing Decision Edition
For years I’ve wrestled with the taxing decision of whether to pay ourselves dividends or salary (or some combination of the two). For background, my wife and I co-own and operate our corporation, which includes our financial planning business, this blog, and some freelance writing work. We’ve always paid ourselves an equal amount of dividends…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Is Stay The Course Helpful Advice Edition
Global stocks fell sharply on Thursday and Friday after US President Donald Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariffs went into effect. Whether the President is being deliberately obtuse about the economic upheaval these tariffs will cause, or if he’s playing chess while the rest of the world is playing checkers is anyone’s guess. What investors want…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: That’s Why You Diversify Edition
My inbox has been flooded lately with worried investors who feel anxious about the current market environment. It seems once again we find ourselves in unprecedented times. While the future is always uncertain, the stock market is a forward-looking machine and is constantly gathering new information to assess the outlook of individual companies and the…
Read MoreNavigating Retirement and Advice-Only Financial Planning on The Wealthy Barber Podcast
It was my tremendous honour and privilege to speak with the one and only David Chilton (aka The Wealthy Barber) on his latest podcast episode. We spent over an hour discussing retirement planning, advice-only planning, my unconventional transition to the world of personal finance and advice-giving, and much much more. Dave is one-of-a-kind, a world…
Read MoreWhen To Be Selfish and When To Be Generous In Retirement
Prospective clients come to me when they’re on the cusp of retirement and looking for answers to key questions like when can I retire, how much can I spend, how long will money money last, and, ultimately, am I going to be okay? I gather information about their current situation (income, account balances, asset allocation,…
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Advice-Only Planning Edition
It has been more than 10 years since I started offering financial planning advice – and more than five years since I quit my day job to work as an advice-only planner full-time. I have a soft spot for who I call regular Canadians with regular problems. That’s the majority of you who read this…
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