More Money Podcast - 177 Investing, Making Money & Budgeting in Canada - Tom Drake, Blogger & Podcaster at Maple Money

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 177 of the Mo Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morales. Thanks so much for joining me for another episode. And this one has been a long time coming. I've been talking to this guest about being on my show for years, and I just never got my act together. I'm going to put it on me because I kept on being like, you should come on the show. He's like, for sure. And then it just like silenced. I'm like, oh, I probably should have followed up So i'm super excited to have tom drake on the show if you don't know tom um, well you probably do if you if you um Listen to other podcasts. He has his own podcast called the maple money show

Starting point is 00:00:39 Um, or if you've been a long time, uh personal finance blog reader, he's one of the OGs in my mind. He's been doing it for over a decade, and he is the nicest guy in Canada for sure. He's just so nice. Here's an example of how nice he is. A few years back, what year was it? 2015? I can't remember. A few years back when there was a FinCon happening in New Orleans. No, it wasn't in New Orleans. It was the year it didn't go. So it was the year

Starting point is 00:01:12 after New Orleans, whenever that was. Anyways, that year I somehow was nominated for a Plutus Award because FinCon always does these awards every single year. I was nominated for best Canadian personal finance blog, I believe. Yeah. And surprisingly, I won. I won the award. And of course, I didn't show up to the conference that year. That year, I missed it. So I wasn't able to claim my trophy because you actually get a trophy. And Tom was so nice. He was at the conference. He grabbed my trophy for me. And then when all of us kind of bloggers went to the Canadian Personal Finance Conference like a month or two after that, he brought it with him and gave it to me. How nice is that? And he lives in Alberta,

Starting point is 00:01:54 like just the nicest guy. So thanks, Tom. I will always remember you as the guy who gave me my award. It was very special. So anyways, Tom. Tom has a wealth of knowledge because he's been in the game for over a decade. He knows a ton. Most of the time, honestly, when I'm Googling stuff to find more information about this and that, whatever, his website, MapleMoney, will come up. So we talk about everything pretty much under the sun. We talk a lot about investing and some other great stuff in this show, this episode, so I know you're going to love it. So stick around just a few words about this episode's sponsor, and then I'm going to get to that interview with Tom Drake.

Starting point is 00:02:34 This episode of the Momany Podcast is supported by Copower Green Bonds. Looking for a sustainable way to invest in fixed income without sacrificing high returns? Then CoPower Green Bonds may be the investment solution you're looking for. Investing in clean energy projects throughout Canada is a great way to put your money to work while making a measurable impact on the environment. Let me break down how this works for you. You buy CoPower Green Bonds, and that money is used to fund clean energy projects and energy efficiency projects that reduce carbon and generate steady revenues. Revenues that are used to pay Canadian investors like you. How much do you earn on these bonds, you may be wondering?

Starting point is 00:03:16 For a four-year bond, you'll earn 4% annually, and for a six-year bond, you'll earn 5% annually. The only thing is, there's a limited supply of green bonds left. If you're interested in investing this year, don't miss out. To learn more, visit greenbonds.ca. Once again, that's greenbonds.ca. Well, hello, Tom. Thank you so much for being on my show. I'm pretty sure the first time I like, oh, you should be on my show was three years ago when I started this podcast. Yeah, you had asked me early and I was a little hard to get, but thanks for having me on. No, I just didn't follow up. It was all me. You're like, yeah, for sure. I'm like, great, we should set something up. You're like, yeah, we should. Three years passed and they're like, hey, we should actually do that episode now. I'm glad to finally be on.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Well, I'm glad too, because you recently did a big rebrand on your website so your website used to be canadian personal finance right no and that's why sorry no no that's exactly why it used to be a canadian finance blog ah we changed to maple money and and the big part was exactly that people were having trouble remembering what it was yeah yeah i've had other people that know me well introduced it exactly the same canadian because there is a website called canadian or was there it still exists but it's not you no and there's a few other ones too uh big cajun man has canadian something he changes the name a few times but uh there's just a lot of confusion now i feel like i have a real

Starting point is 00:04:45 brand that yeah well it's like it's obviously you know you're canadian it's for canadians and other people everybody um but it's it's easy to remember maple money like that alliteration and it's just yeah i like it i like it a lot yeah i've been i've been happy since yeah yeah and uh beyond rebranding to maple money you've gotten a new fresh new website look it looks beautiful new logo uh and you're uh also a new podcaster now welcome to the the club yeah i've joined the world of podcasting um we had done it before with maple money show or maple that's the new one uh money mastermind show um yeah but but with money mastermind show it was a panel. Yeah, exactly.

Starting point is 00:05:25 Now you're in the driver's seat. Now I'm a legit host interviewing people like you. Like me. That was the first episode. How exciting. Yeah, I'm so stoked to chat because in my mind, you are one of, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the OG. You've been at this game for a long time. How long have you been, you know, writing about stuff on your blog and just in this world of personal finance?

Starting point is 00:05:52 Just close to a decade now. Okay, that's a long damn time. Yeah, there were certainly bloggers that came before me. Million Dollar Journey, for sure. There's a lot that existed at the time and then yeah start my blog but then they they just started to fall off uh so yeah does that one still is that around still that one million dollar journey oh yes for sure that one's still around yeah i thought so but there were there were five others i listened to and they're all gone so so out of six blogs that i i six blogs i read

Starting point is 00:06:23 um only one remains. So by attrition, it kind of makes me look like one of the oldest bloggers. You're just the only one still around. Yeah, there are some that came before me. Why do you think you were able to stick it out for so long? I remember, too, when I started, I guess six and a half years ago, almost seven years ago now, one of the things that I noticed was, yeah, lots of people would start blogging. And this is still how it is today.

Starting point is 00:06:48 People will start blogs. They'll do it for a year, maybe two, maybe three. And then they'll call it quits. It's really hard to, which is hard too if you're a longtime reader. And then they're like, and I'm shutting down. You're like, but I literally dedicated three years of my life to reading your blog every single day. Why do you think you were able to continue for a decade? That's a commitment. That is a marriage right there. Yeah, when I started, I didn't know where it would go. It started kind of like a hobby like any blog, especially back then.

Starting point is 00:07:18 But I think traction is what does it. And I don't mean just making money from your blog. I also mean having people that making money from your blog. I also mean having people that actually continually read the blog. Yeah, exactly. If no one's reading it, maybe that's why those other ones shut down. That's just it. A lot of blogs can go a long time with very little traffic and you lose your motivation then. You're not going to keep talking to a wall forever. No, that's definitely when you should consider doing something else with your time.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Yeah. So it happened to work out and I'm glad it did. And because of that, it keeps me going. Yeah. So it seems like from kind of the onset, two of the biggest things that you tend to write about, which I appreciate is investing. And it is very, that's a very difficult topic to write about. Cause I find for me, a lot of people have their opinions. They have, you know, it's a very it's just like, not as like easy peasy as like budgeting or debt. It's like investing. It's like people will just go out, go out you. And I see this in my Facebook group too. If someone posts a question like, what does everyone think about like weed stocks? Oh, it's like 50 comments. Like everyone's got an opinion. Why are you so passionate? And

Starting point is 00:08:36 why do you like to really share information about investing? I think it's just because it's what I was dealing with myself. I don't have a huge debt repayment story or anything like that. So with investing, I was figuring it out even when I started my blog. I first started off with a pretty terrible mutual fund. As everyone has. Like, legit everyone I talked to, like, oh, I was also in mutual funds. And why do you think oh i would love to start off with that like why do you think so many people start off with uh

Starting point is 00:09:09 high fee mutual funds when they're starting investing i think a big part of it is because they're already with that bank i don't think a lot of people are putting any more thought into it than that if they're at that bank that's the credit card they get. That's the mortgage they get. That's the mutual fund they get. So they're just kind of going through the paces. They walk into the bank to cash a check and there's all this marketing for other services. In my case, I certainly went to the bank I was using, but I thought I was pretty smart. I was out of college. I was a financial analyst. And I thought, well, I'm just going to pick one of the ones that did better recently. Yeah, that seems logical, sort of. would pick a dividend fund. I knew dividends were good, but the expense ratio on it was high enough that it wiped out a lot of the dividends. And also it wasn't really a true dividend fund. If you're really trying to say, I want dividends, they were mixing in other things just to kind of try to get

Starting point is 00:10:22 growth. So you're not always getting what you even think you're getting and then you're getting charged more for it. You mentioned that past performance doesn't guarantee future performance. And that is literally, I have this image in my mind still, and this was maybe four years ago, three years ago. And yeah, my husband and I were in mutual funds. We thought we were doing the right thing because everyone else like older baby boomers, basically parents and family, they're like, Oh no, this is what we're doing. And we're doing great. Of course they like had 30 years to grow there, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:58 so they had kind of more time. And so that's where we invested first. And I remember talking with our advisor. You can't see this, everybody, when I put up those bunny quotes. And I kept on, because I was learning more and more about this. I was taking some courses through the Canadian Securities Institute. And really, I'm like, so let's actually go more into the fee structure or what exactly specifically are we invested in? And he would just snake old salesman kind of not ever answer my question. And he would always just bring up the charts to be like, yeah, but look how well this fund's been in the past 10 years. I'm like, yes. However, how is it doing at this moment?

Starting point is 00:11:40 I don't care how well it did 10 years ago. I wasn't investing 10 years ago. Needless to say, we are not with them anymore. And we got out of mutual funds and we were doing ETS, lots of people kind of promote. So yeah, I'd like to know what you're doing now. I think you obviously got out of the mutual fund game and are doing something different now. When I first left mutual funds, I went to TD E-Series funds, which is an index fund, so very similar to ETFs, but it was a lot more reasonable at the time because you could make bi-weekly, monthly contributions

Starting point is 00:12:20 and not pay a lot of transaction fees. Since that time, though, companies like Questrade, they offer no transaction fees when you buy ETFs, and that didn't exist at the time. So now I've moved to doing that, where I buy especially international ETFs and U.S. ETFs through And yeah, I don't pay any transaction fees. Yeah. So how did you, one of the most common questions I get is, how do you know how to build a portfolio? Like, obviously there's some great kind of mock portfolios. Canadian Couch Potato

Starting point is 00:12:59 has some great ones and there's lots of other resources like that. But how, yeah, lots of people are like, how do I know what to pick? there's kind of a lot of options out there um at the time when i when i first started uh it was canadian couch potato not the site but the the concept uh on uh in money sense magazine um yeah laid out what i still kind of recommend today is, is, is very simple. Just, just, uh, 25% each, um, international, US, Canadian, those are all the stocks and then bonds. It can depend on your age. So right now I don't do any bond ETFs at all. Uh, I should probably start soon, but, uh, you're not that old. Well, no, but people should have them. I fully get that. Your portfolio sounds very aggressive. I even have some bonds. I mean, I'm not happy about it,

Starting point is 00:13:53 but I've got them. I'm comfortable with risk. So I don't mind pushing forward for now. I'm the kind of guy that just being totally about numbers, if stocks go down, I buy more. I don't freak out or anything. I just see a sale and it's the kind of sale you should be buying. Fire sale. And that's something I think too, even though you are a numbers person, there's also like the big issue with people is they may logically know that if there's a dip in the market to not just sell off everything, this is an opportunity to buy things for a cheaper price. Of course, what do they do is they sell and then they regret it later. How do you kind of combat that kind of emotional trigger to be like, oh, my God, I'm losing all my money. I should try to save what I've got.

Starting point is 00:14:40 Instead, you're like, let's just buy more. Like how do you fight that? In my case, I think I'm let's just buy more. How do you fight that? In my case, I think I just don't get that emotional problem. You're a robot. Okay. I just like it being hands-off. And that's what's nice with ETFs too. If you're buying stocks, individual stocks, then there's so much more emotions and mental games that come into play because you think you're buying the right stock because you just know better than everyone else it was recommended a month ago and uh and and then yeah you're gonna

Starting point is 00:15:17 you're gonna sell a lot quicker because like if one you got that one company and and it starts going down that the risk is so much higher yeah with uh, with ETFs, it's spread out a lot. So when I, when I say going truly dropping, like it needs to be a real market drop. Um, so, so I'm, I'm not freaking out every time one company has bad results. I'm, I'm only taking some action when, when, uh, there's a legitimate drop in the market. And I've done that in the past. Any of the big market drops, if I have some extra money lying around, I will buy ETFs beyond what

Starting point is 00:15:53 my regular contribution is. How do you track? I think that's another thing too, is the great thing about doing kind of a catch potato strategy or just like that kind of passive investing strategy, which I like to do because I'm lazy, is, you know, you kind of set it, forget a little bit. But how do you track when there is like a big market dip? Do you just like pay attention to the news? You're like, oh, I should probably look into this. Or do you get an alert or like, what's going on? No, I just pay attention. It needs to be a pretty big drop, and big drops can take days or weeks to really sort themselves out. Little ups and downs. It's not like I'm looking at the stock news and listening on the radio and hearing how many points it went up

Starting point is 00:16:38 or anything like that. I'm not that concerned. I'm talking maybe once or twice a year, I will go out of my way to actually do something beyond my regular contributions and actually try to time it a little. I'm actually not a big believer in market timing. It's hard to find the bottom and harder to sell at the top. But I can at least buy on bad news. Mm-hmm. I like that. What are your thoughts on, because obviously you're a DIY investor using a brokerage, you're doing it all yourself, which is great.

Starting point is 00:17:13 What are your thoughts on, I guess, robo-advisors that kind of take the, you know, put more automation into the whole thing? I love robo-advisors. I'm not currently with one, but I'm actually thinking about changing. That's the first time I've ever heard anyone say who's a DIY investor, because you do save money doing it yourself, obviously, but I've never heard of anyone like,

Starting point is 00:17:35 I think I'm going to pay a little bit more to work with a robo-advisor. Why is that? There's a few reasons. One, I'm just busy. I have a day job in the business and a family and everything. So where I used to enjoy rebalancing and all that, it's not so enjoyable anymore. And it's something I sometimes don't do on time. It's easy to put it off. Right. But with the robo-advisor, it's all handled for you. You might pay half a percent more, which is still way lower than mutual funds.

Starting point is 00:18:10 100%. The half a percent plus the fees that are inside of the ETF, you might be paying 1% at the most. With mutual funds, you can easily be paying 2% or more. Yep. So I'm comfortable with that. Where with mutual funds, you can easily be paying 2% or more. So I'm comfortable with that. And in addition, it does give you someone you can talk to if you want to. A lot of people that even use robo-advisors don't actually take advantage of the fact that it's not a robot.

Starting point is 00:18:37 Exactly. In Canada, there are people. I think lots of people think it is just like an algorithm. It's like, no, no, no, no. We can't get away with that crap in Canada. We need people behind it. Yeah, you can talk to people. And there's other things, too, with robo-advisors. If you have enough saved up, enough investments, you can get other little perks.

Starting point is 00:18:58 Like Wealthsimple has the priority pass and a few other things, including lower fees as well. They go down to 0.4% after $100,000. And JustWealth has a whole load of different portfolios depending on where you're at and stuff. So they offer a lot of options too. So I can just get it out of my head and let someone else do it. It sounds interesting. Again, it's a pretty small amount just to pay someone else to do it. So I might do that. I might try just one of my accounts to start, maybe the RSP or something like that. We'll see. And just put my foot in the water there. Yeah. And I feel like, especially when I compare it to how it was working

Starting point is 00:19:46 with an advisor at a bank and doing the mutual fund things. And when I look back, I'm like, man, that was so old school. We had to talk about our investments. Me and my husband would have to go to the bank, the physical bank, go into a meeting room and talk to our advisor. And then he'd give us, he would print off booklets and then we would talk about them on paper. I'm like, what year is it? And this was like a couple years back. And I'm like, oh, this is so – and again, I just was really looking for clarity and transparency. I'm like, literally, what are we investing in? And then, of course, he'd give me this big, chunky booklet that's impossible to really understand.

Starting point is 00:20:19 And I have a finance background. I'm like, I should understand this, but this is so, you make it so impossible. It's where I really appreciate with the robo-advisors because I'm also, I use robo-advisors for my own investments and they make it very transparent because they know that A, they have to do something different than the banks and they have to give you that extra value. So, and also, I feel like a lot of them are pushing more of that education. They don't want you to invest blindly. They want, and that's kind of the whole point. It's like, they want you to know what you're doing. And yeah, like you said, you can talk to people. I've talked to a ton. Like sometimes, I think there was a big kind of a little market correction maybe a year ago, last spring or something. And in my Facebook group,

Starting point is 00:20:58 people were panicking, talking about it. They're like, I don't know, I'm losing all my money. And I'm like, yay, I'm right there because I also have that account. And I was at this really high percentage. And now it's like 2%. I'm like, what's going on? And so I was a bit panicky. And so I gave them a call to go through everything. And they just like, yeah, they explained, listen, this is what's going on. This is why you just kind of don't do anything with your money. It will go back up. And they're really upfront and had some really great information. And of course, yes, a year later, I'm totally fine. I'm doing really good.

Starting point is 00:21:33 And another thing, too, I'm with another robo-advisor. I'm with two currently. But one of them just emailed me saying, hey, so we haven't talked to you in about a year. We just want to see how things are going and look at your portfolio and see if you want to make any changes. I'm like, wasn't that nice? That's really nice. Yes, I would like to talk. Yeah. With both really, but especially with the bank, and I don't want to be too mean about it, but they kind of, it's kind of like selling you a car. Yeah. They make a portion from selling those mutual funds. So there's a benefit to them.

Starting point is 00:22:11 And because of that, naturally, it doesn't really mean your best interest is out there. I'm sure there's lots of great people working at the bank. Well, that's the thing too. Like I did, like before we had our last financial guy who was like a snake of a salesman or he was just the worst oh i can't stand him he literally to the like to the point like he i told him hey i have a finance blog and podcast and that certificate on your wall i have that and he still would talk to my husband and i'm like are you serious right now my husband doesn't

Starting point is 00:22:40 know he didn't know anything he looks to me for the answers you know what's going on like what you do and so that was kind of the nail in the coffin there but before him we had a really great guy like he was so nice and he really was really good at explaining everything unfortunately he decided to leave to go to another bank and we could never find him though i did just i did run into him at the subway one day and like where have you been you just left and and he didn't you know he wasn't allowed to i guess take any of his old clients or whatever and uh yeah that was the last i saw him but he seemed happier he seemed like it was good it's the weirdest situation though i'm like where'd you go i couldn't find out to contact you and we have this other guy he's the worst oh gosh um talking about that a little bit do you what are your thoughts on like working with

Starting point is 00:23:29 an advisor not really you know someone at the bank but like someone a fee only or someone just to kind of help you with your you know you know whole financial picture i've never personally done it because i think i'm too smart but and and i can be making a mistake there just like I did when I bought the mutual funds. But I do like the idea of the fee only advisor. For the same reason I said with the mutual fund, it just gets rid of that bias. What are they actually working for? And when you're paying someone a fee, they're working to earn that fee. They're not, they're not recommending something that's going to give them a commission or anything like that. The fee is their monetary goal. So now you've got someone that's actually working for you and not for their own commission. Now I'm sure there's good and bad advisors in

Starting point is 00:24:19 that case too. But when it, when it just comes to that, that mental focus of what they're actually working towards, I think they're going to have your best interest at heart way more. Yeah, absolutely. That's the only way I would probably work with an advisor is if they were fee only. Because yeah, I just don't trust anyone who's just like, oh, you know, just make money here and there through commissions and bonuses and secret ways. And I'm like, yeah, no, not going to happen with me. No. Yeah. For a few hundred dollars, you might as well pay someone and you totally know what they're doing and that they're going to give you actual advice because they want to keep getting paid. So yeah, exactly. They can give you proper advice

Starting point is 00:25:02 and they're not just selling a mutual fund. They're giving you a complete plan where you won't really get that walking into a bank. Some people think that if they go to the bank, that's their advisor. But it's not really. No, no. They can sell you bank products. Yeah, exactly. And I think a lot of people don't understand, too. It's like even though a lot of these people have a title that's like financial planner, financial advisor with an E or an R.

Starting point is 00:25:24 Which one's the one that's actually like planner financial advisor with an e or an r which one's the the one that's actually like not like certified at all one with an e or one with an o i forget there was a newspaper article about it a little while ago but i can't remember i'm not sure now i know like that's that's how bad it is i'm like i actually don't know so that's why it's like really when you are looking for like a specific uh planner or whatever make sure they have some kind of credentials like ones that you can look up and they're not like made up by the bank. Yeah. Yeah. Well, really anyone can, can call themselves, yeah. Advisor or a money coach. I know, which is why I'm like, huh,

Starting point is 00:25:57 I should probably get some credentials before offering money coaching. Cause I'm kind of not sure what these other money coaches, like, how did, how do you know if they're you know legit or what they're telling you is like good information where they get their schooling from I don't know yeah again it's just that it's that first impression kind of thing like that I'm sure there's lots of great advisors that have no credentials at all but but at least if they have them it's that one extra spot step where you can tell that that you're you're getting something that that you're getting something that you're paying for. Exactly. And for me, I always kind of relate finance to fitness. So it's like, I would never hire a personal trainer that didn't go through some certification. If they're just

Starting point is 00:26:36 like, I'm just really good at fitness, so do what I do. I'm like, yeah, but what if I'm stretching wrong and you're not aware that I'm doing that and I can have some big issues with the problem? I would never hire somebody who's just like, I'm just good at it so I'm going to do it now. Not a good idea. Probably not a good idea. I would love to know, since you don't use an advisor, how do you manage your own money? What do you do to make sure you're on track? Because I'm assuming you're kind of the family money manager. For sure.

Starting point is 00:27:10 We've already got an emergency fund, but I certainly think that's a good first step for anybody after debt. But yeah, going forward, I was a big fan of Mint for a long time. I stopped using it recently because it just kept disconnecting all the time. I know a long time. I stopped using it recently because it just kept disconnecting all the time. I know, that's why I stopped using it too. I'm like, I am over this.

Starting point is 00:27:32 So annoying. Yeah, so now I do mostly spreadsheets. It's pretty simple. I keep everything so automated, which is kind of why I'm leaning towards robo-advice as well. If I can have automatic payments and stuff, I certainly do. Basically, as much stuff on the credit card as

Starting point is 00:27:50 possible. I'm big on rewards. And then I just pay the credit card. It's a lot simpler than trying to remember all these different bills to pay and everything. And then with investing, that's set up automatically too. Like I mentioned, I've got a bi-weekly savings to the different investment accounts. We're doing RRSP and RESP both automatically. TFSA, I just kind of put money

Starting point is 00:28:20 in different chunks kind of thing, making sure I stay within the low annual limits. So yeah, I don't know. I think having it automated is kind of the biggest benefit for me. Just so I don't have to do a lot of money management. It's good to stay on top of things

Starting point is 00:28:39 because sometimes even the automation can start to fall apart if things aren't clicking right. You don't want to start getting NSF fees or anything like that. Yeah, so how do you make sure that you never overspend? I kind of do the same thing where I link all of my bills, our joint bills to our credit card, so our bills will always be paid for. And then I just take a look every once in a while to see what's on our credit card and then pay it off.

Starting point is 00:29:06 But what strategy do you have so you don't accidentally just spend a lot of money on your credit cards? Yeah, that has been a problem. Not recently, but not too long ago. It's easy when you're spending everything on credit card to just lose track. You're handing a piece of plastic over. There's not that feeling of you've got $200 in your wallet and that's it.

Starting point is 00:29:32 It's carded with thousands of dollars of room. Strategy-wise to improve that, we just started, and I know we talked about this in my show too, the idea that we don't like the word budget. And we don't budget either. But we certainly set limits to what we spend. So if we go into Costco, we go there every week. A lot of our spending happens there.

Starting point is 00:29:59 Everything from food to gas to clothes, everything. We have a weekly limit that we try to keep it under. Since most of our shopping goes there, keeping that weekly limit just at that one store actually covers a lot of it. But it's similar anywhere else. We're not just going to go into a clothing store or something like that and go wild. It's focused on you want. Like if you need a new shirt or something, you go in, you buy that shirt. You don't go in and walk out with 50 things. So just, just a bit of control and, and, and certainly knowing what your limits are. So it's not a shock and you can work that backwards, which is really like a budget.

Starting point is 00:30:42 Yeah. But no, I see what you're saying so i think when people and i really kind of it was really well um kind of explained in i'm not sure if you read it shannon lee simmons book worry free money where she talks about lots of people budget in terms of like categorizing categorizing their expenses so specifically like only this amount on groceries only this amount on alcohol only this amount on entertainment and it's so impossible to really stay in those limits or remember what those limits are. If you just kind of have a big chunk of like, this is my variable spending that I can spend on groceries and everything else, everything else is covered, like the bills, those are covered, but this is the money, the extra money, everything

Starting point is 00:31:16 that's left over. Just don't spend more than $500, you know, every two weeks or whatever, and then you're good. I think that is kind of, for me, the only way to avoid the overspending, but also not like get super, you know, annoyed or frustrated. Yeah. The, the detailed budget, I don't think works for anyone. Like, like if you're, if you're budgeting a certain amount for alcohol, it's like, well, what if you don't want to drink that week? Why do you have this budget? So yeah, I like that idea a lot of, of yeah, just, just know how much you can spend in a week but i find costco so dangerous like me uh my husband have a membership uh we recently got one just because i think we had to get something specific like oh it's not that expensive and

Starting point is 00:31:56 you can get a lot of great things and yeah i think we need to work on like okay if we go to costco we are not going to spend more than this amount because we will be like we just need three three things. And then we have a big cart and we're like, why do we buy all these like potatoes and like five loaves of bread and a mixer? Like what, what happened? You get, it's just so enjoyable to be at Costco. You get kind of caught up. It's just, everything's there. Everything. Well, one good way to stay a little more focused at costco they don't have flyers so you can't really plan ahead but there's there's two sites out here it's it's coco west like coco west um dot com or dot ca i can't remember but then there's also a coco east as well because they're just different marketing sides of of costco and um what they do is they actually go through and they take

Starting point is 00:32:45 all the pictures of everything on sale that week so visiting those sites basically lets you treat costco like it has a flyer and and again that helps fill up probably two-thirds of our list it's it's what can we get cheaper than usual and then and then what do we truly still need on top of that but uh yeah so we go into costco with a with a list too and and there's not any big surprises if if that mixer's on sale at least we saw about saw it ahead of time and then we can make a slightly more rational decision on do we need that are we is that something we wanted yeah and it's also like i find it probably makes the most it does make a lot of sense when you have a family. For me, it's really just me and my husband. I'm like, we don't need this big quantity of whatever. I've got boys just getting

Starting point is 00:33:32 into the real eating age. Oh, gosh. That's going to be expensive. Yeah. I think we'll buy more food than ever coming up soon. Yeah. Good luck with that. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I can't imagine. But it's funny that you mentioned Costco because my parents have loved Costco ever since it hit British Columbia. And anytime I'm over at their house when I'm visiting and say, oh, where did you get this? Or blah, blah, blah. They'll always just be like Costco. That is the answer for everything. They love Costco. If they could be branded masters for anything, it would be Costco. They love that place so freaking much. Yeah. That's basically me and my wife. Costco. It's like I said, all the clothes. And you know what? I probably would go there with my husband more often, but it's like, we have to take the car and we have to like

Starting point is 00:34:17 drive a little bit away. So there's no Costco in downtown Toronto. So. When I, when I moved to where I am right now, one of the first things we did was, was look on the map and see if there's a Costco nearby. I love that. Our previous host, it was almost across the street from us. So when we moved, we were like, well, we got to keep on nearby because we need to get gas and food there every week.

Starting point is 00:34:40 Totally. No, that's really smart. That's really smart. Okay. We've talked about Costco for way too long. That's my fault. That's my fault. Thanks for sharing how you budget. I think in general, when I do talk to people and kind of I'm like, I think a lot of people too are like, oh, you know, they must have something really complicated or really specific or some algorithm I've never heard of most, almost everyone. Like when I asked, like, how do you budget? They're like, I just have a spreadsheet. And it's like, oh, okay. So it's really not that crazy and complicated. It's just, sometimes just not fun. That's all. Like it's, you know, spreadsheets, you either love them or you don't love them, but they work. They're effective. What are some other, so I know we've

Starting point is 00:35:21 talked a lot about investing, talked a lot about money management. You also talk a lot about on your blog, making money. And I want to share this memory is a few years back, I remember you were on a panel at the Canadian Personal Finance Conference. I feel like there's you and there's two, possibly three other people. And I feel like one of the questions you guys got were like, how do you monetize your blog or something? And the two other panelists are like, oh like, how do you monetize your blog or something? And the two other panelists are like, oh, I don't really monetize.

Starting point is 00:35:48 I'm really about the content. And you're like, I'll do anything for money. And I'm like, I like that guy. I appreciate that answer. Because no one else is, you know, come on. As if we don't all want to make money. Who doesn't want to earn money on, you know, the hard work that you're doing, you know, crafting your blog. And I appreciated that.

Starting point is 00:36:08 Similarly, like we were talking about earlier, if you want to last, ultimately it's a business. If you're making $1, you've already got a business. Yeah. It's not that I'll do anything to make money. I do basically say that, but it's partially for humor. Yeah, yeah. There have been certainly things I've turned down. Yes. But if it's something I agree with and if it's a service I use or at least would recommend, if a company wants to pay to get a little more attention on that, I'm fine with that. If a payday loan store contacted me and said, oh Oh yeah, we'd like to put an ad up. Well, no, that's not going to happen. Or,

Starting point is 00:36:51 or some of these mutual funds, probably not. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's the same thing with me. It's like, I do work with quite a few brands, but I do a pretty strict vetting process. And I'm like, if I would not recommend this to a friend or family, then I'm not going to have, I'm not going to promote it or share about it. I'm going to be very important because I certainly do get flack when I do work with any kind of brand because people still have this idea that as a blogger or a content creator, you shouldn't be monetizing, which is ridiculous. But yeah, my gosh, the number of payday loans or sketchy inquiries I get. And the same with you. I'm like, I've never done that.

Starting point is 00:37:28 And I've also, I work with a lot of banks, but I've definitely never promoted their mutual fund products. And they know why. I tell them, like, I just wouldn't use it. So, no. I don't think they need promotion. I think that it all is. I think they're fine. That's where they're getting it from.

Starting point is 00:37:42 But yeah, I don't know you need to be able to defend uh anything you you mention whether you're getting paid or not um i've had times where i've written about topics where i'll get an email it's like or a comment and and saying oh well how much did you get paid to write this this obviously isn't your opinion and i'm like i i don't even know anyone at that company i was just writing about it that yeah that does actually happen i don't get paid for everything yeah and it's well i think similar to me you probably very you know very clearly disclose when you do work with someone um and that's and i feel like too it's like i read a ton of other blogs and i can pretty much spot out very clearly. Either they have a disclaimer,

Starting point is 00:38:25 like, okay, I know they're sponsored or whatever. But it's, it's pretty, I don't know. I feel like just the blogging world and blogging game has changed so much that influencers that do want to last and maintain, like they are very careful about what sponsorships they do and what kind of content they put out for their audience. Like for me, I'm like, I'm very protective of my brand and my audience because I know making one wrong decision, working with a brand that doesn't align with my values or my audience's value can like, just like people will stop listening or stop reading. So I can't, you know, risk that. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:38:59 There's no sense promoting something where people are going to now not trust you. That was the whole point of promoting stuff in the first place. You're trying to show your legitimate opinion on something. It's not being told what to say necessarily. Exactly. You're sharing something because you believe in it, but also because you got asked to do that. Yeah, I also think too, a lot of people do ask me and I mean,

Starting point is 00:39:26 I'll ask a lot of my guests like, oh, what do you use? Or how do you manage your money and all that kind of stuff? I rarely kind of share what I use, what products I use, what bank I'm with or whatever, because I honestly don't think it really matters. I think the most important thing, I think people get too caught up in like, well, I'll do what this person's doing because I think they're doing really well with their finances. Well, it's like, well, I'll do what this person's doing because I think they're doing really well with their finances. Well, it's like, actually, I don't share my income report. So you actually don't know how I'm doing. I am doing fine.

Starting point is 00:39:51 But I'm not going to put that information out in the world. But I also don't feel like just because I chose these products, I'm doing it a certain way doesn't mean if you choose a different bank or credit union or whatever, you're doing it wrong. Yes, for sure. There's lots of options out there. There's a lot of bad options. There's a lot of bad options. They're worth avoiding. But when it comes to what the right choice is, yeah, there's tons of ways you can do things and still be correct. Exactly. So you've been in this blogging game for a while. Before I let you go, what is one, maybe this is a two-parter question. What is kind of one question that you get over and over again that you just feel like, why do people still not really have this information?

Starting point is 00:40:36 Like, what is a common struggle or question people come to you with? Hmm, a common question. Or one that just puts in your head whatever sometimes i get questions i shouldn't be getting but like well no i i just mean some people will will send me all their financial information uh or they'll send me uh i review a lot of tax software. I'll literally get like their account information. Oh my God. People don't do that. Don't send a stranger.

Starting point is 00:41:10 As nice as Tom is, don't send him your password. Yeah. So there's a lot of oversharing. But when it comes to a legitimate question, I do get asked a lot about investing. And I haven't actually written about it much lately, but I used to do a Smith Maneuver, which is where,

Starting point is 00:41:35 and this is why I don't have Canadian ETFs. Basically, I invest in Canadian dividend stocks and those dividends go against paying the mortgage down. And then I have an increasing credit line. I've got the Scotiabank step, which as you pay off your mortgage, your credit line increases. So then I can buy more stocks and pay the mortgage down. And the goal there, and it's a bit of a messy... Sounds a little complicated, but...

Starting point is 00:42:07 And I don't necessarily recommend it to people because it is too complicated. But what it basically does is it transfers your mortgage over to an investment loan. And the big difference there, two big differences. In the original Smith Maneuver book, the main point is making your mortgage tax deductible. So the investment loan is tax deductible. So the

Starting point is 00:42:25 investment loan is tax deductible where a mortgage isn't in Canada. But the other big perk is it gets you investing instead of I'm going to pay off the mortgage completely and I'll invest when I'm 50. So what you end up with eventually is this big investment portfolio and a big investment loan. But your mortgage is paid off. So now this investment loan is tax deductible. And because of that tax deduction and low interest rates right now, the dividends can completely pay for that. There are some people that have completed this maneuver and they, they actually don't ever pay off the loan because, because if their investments are making more than the loan,

Starting point is 00:43:09 why cash out those investments to pay the loan? But, but it is a messy thing. I don't recommend it to people, but I have covered it. And because I do get a lot of questions. I bet you do. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:43:21 That sounds, that sounds really technical, but for the kind the advanced investor, definitely something to look into. Yeah, for sure. And last question, what is one key piece of advice that you would like to leave listeners with?

Starting point is 00:43:37 For one key piece of advice, it would probably be, I guess, similar to what we were saying earlier was was just to to get everything together get your stuff together yeah because I don't I don't like the idea of focusing on one thing so much because um it's it's like you had said on my show too was was the idea that yeah you can pay off your debt but you could also start investing at the same time so i i kind of like this this whole idea of doing it all at once yeah i know that makes it a lot more difficult but and yeah literally you have to start somewhere but but

Starting point is 00:44:17 yeah i just don't like the idea of separating it too much yeah you can't personal finance isn't something you could do you know okay let's do this you know, okay, let's do this one thing. And once that's done, do this one thing. Because just like you said, you know, it would be a terrible idea to get a mortgage, focus all of your energy and time on paying down that mortgage, and then start investing. Because you may not start investing until you're 50. And that's, you know, crap. Yeah, yeah, you'll have a place to live, but you won't have any money for anything. Yeah,, exactly. It's, you kind of do have to kind of do a lot of things at the same time, but obviously some things have higher priority than others, but yeah, you can't just do one thing after the other. It's not going to work out. And that's, that's when it comes back to, to

Starting point is 00:44:58 either hiring a fee only financial advisor or just studying a lot. There are books, there are blogs and podcasts. One way or another, you can get all this information and you can kind of make a plan that covers all the bases, whether you're saving money, investing money, making money, all of it. Absolutely. Okay, well, Tom, where can people learn more about you and contact you if they have a question about that Smith maneuver? My main site is MapleMoney.com.

Starting point is 00:45:32 You can also find me on Twitter at MapleMoney.com. I don't have the Maple Money. Does someone own it? Do you want me to go teach them a lesson? Hopefully someday. We'll see. And also I've got my podcast now, The Maple Money Show. You can find that on all the usual places like iTunes and Stitcher.

Starting point is 00:45:50 Fabulous. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. It was a pleasure. And I can't believe it took us this long. I'm glad to finally make it. I know. I know.

Starting point is 00:46:00 Me too. Awesome. And that was episode 177 of the moment he podcast make sure to check out the show notes jessicamorehouse.com slash 177 for more info about tom drake uh all the stuff he's doing and stuff that we talked about in this episode or you can just check out tom so first off he's got his own podcast called the maple money show subscribe and check that out on itunes and or however you're listening. It's just lots of people, quite honestly. The data doesn't lie. Most people listen on iTunes.

Starting point is 00:46:29 But wherever you're listening, subscribe and listen. Also, subscribe to my show. Just putting that out there. Just putting that out there. Or also check out his website, maplemoney.com. Because honestly, his website really has most of the answers to most of your questions. As I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, most of the time when I'm Googling something, damn, Tom's website pops up. He knows what he's doing, so check him out. I've got some important things to share with you. Don't go away. Just a few words about this episode's sponsor you're going to want to listen to, and then come back here and I've got some important things to share with you. This episode of the MoMoney

Starting point is 00:47:10 podcast is supported by Copower Green Bonds. What's in your investment portfolio? Like, seriously, what kind of companies are you investing in? You may be surprised and, well, not exactly thrilled to see that you're investing in companies that don't actually align with your personal values. Here's one way you can change that. CoPower Green Bonds, a way to invest your money to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Canada. CoPower was founded in 2013 with a single mission, to unlock capital for climate solutions by empowering Canadians to participate in and profit from the transition to a low-carbon economy. If you're just as concerned about climate change as I am, this is one way you can do something actively about it, while also

Starting point is 00:47:56 earning high returns for your financial goals. I'm talking 4 or 5% on your investment. Want to learn more and get started? Then visit greenbonds.ca. Once again, that's greenbonds.ca. Okie dokie. So things that are happening. Oh, so many things. Man, can November just end? I love November. I love financial literacy month. I'm having a great time, but I'm also tired. I've never been so busy in my entire life, and it's getting to me. Looking forward to Christmas time. Speaking of Christmas time, I will be in Vancouver, obviously. That's where I'm from. That's where my hometown is. And I'm going to visit my family and friends. So I thought, hey,

Starting point is 00:48:37 I had such a great time doing kind of a mini meetup in Ottawa last weekend. Hi, y'all. If you were there, I'm just shout out to all my Ottawa new friends. So I'm going to do one in Vancouver. How fun. So informal. Basically, if you're in Vancouver, if you're listening right now, if you want to hang out with me and grab a beer or grab a drink or whatever, hit me up. Send me an email. Say you're interested. I'm going to be in town basically kind of the weeks of Christmas and I'm going to leave on the second. So I think I'm coming like the week before Christmas. So it'll be around that time. So I know that's a super busy time for y'all. But in any case, if you're free for a drink, drink, I am too. And I'd love to hang out with you and we can talk money and nerd out and

Starting point is 00:49:26 it'll be the best. So if you're interested, email me directly, Jessica at JessicaMorehouse.com. And once I get a bunch of people emailing me, I will start to organize a date that fits for everybody and pick a place and have a good old festive time. So that should be fun. Speaking of meetups, unfortunately, well, not unfortunately, fortunately for me, the Millennial Money Meetup that I'm having in Toronto, the big live event I'm going to be doing next Tuesday, November 27th is officially sold out. However, you can still be there. How? I am going to be recording the event, recording the main part of the event, which is me and a rep from the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. We're going to talk about pensions and retirement. It's going to be super fun. I'm going to be recording

Starting point is 00:50:16 it and most likely also Facebook-living the event. So you can join us. I will, of course, include more info in my newsletter, but also make sure to follow me on Facebook in case I do Facebook Live it. Speaking of my newsletter also, actually, this is like the most important. I don't know why I left this. That's why I guess you usually leave the most important thing to last. Anyways, still getting over this cold. So my brain is like not 100%. Anyways, important thing, really, really, really recommend you get on my email list. I'm still getting over this cold. So my brain is like not 100%. Anyways, important thing, really, really, really recommend you get on my email list. I'm going to be sending a few important emails this weekend because it's Black Friday, Cyber Monday situation.

Starting point is 00:50:57 Basically, I've got a special kind of thing. I'm trying to be very mysterious about it that I'm only going to let my email subscribers know about. And it is great. And you will want to get onto my email list to find out what it is and how you can benefit from it. I don't want to reveal too much. So anyways, if you're not on my email list, Jessica, wait, what is it? JessicaMorehouse.com slash subscribe. Oh yeah, that's not hard to remember. JessicaMorehouse.com slash subscribe. Get on my email list. You'll find out my secret, mysterious, exciting news, and you will not want to miss it. All right. That is it for me because I have a ton of work to do. So busy. Yay. Um, but don't worry. Don't worry. Uh, I've got a few more episodes in this season of the show. I've got one next week and I've got

Starting point is 00:51:53 one, I'm going to do another solo episode to kind of almost wrap up the season. And I'm also going to be recording. Oh yeah. Uh, the millennial money meetup. So, um, if you don't want to watch it, you can listen to it. I'm going to be recording the audio for that. And then that'll be it. That'll be the end of the season. Take my little breaky break in December and come back at you in January. So thanks for listening. Oh my gosh. No, I'm not leaving yet. I think I promised I'd do some shout outs. So stick around. I've got some shout outs. Okay. Shout out number one is to Ms. M-I and then there's four Zs. Oh, Ms. Mary. Sorry, I didn't see that. Ms. Mary from Canada. Hi, Jess. I love your podcast. They've taught me so much. Thank you for your awesome content.

Starting point is 00:52:36 Purple heart. How did she even put a purple heart in there? How do you put emojis in Apple iTunes reviews? That's cool. Well, thanks, Ms. Mary. Next, I got one from jhuts53 from Canada. God bless this podcast. Super relatable and super educational. Look forward to my walk to class every Wednesday to listen to the weekly show. Oh my God, you're so nice. Thanks. That warms my freaking heart.ms it warms my cold black heart um and last but not least cc20 from canada jessica is a great host and covers relevant financial literacy topics in a meaningful and practical way as you're subscribing to over a dozen personal finance podcasts this is very definitely my favorite well thank, thank you so much. Oh, and also like the

Starting point is 00:53:25 title of hers is in my top two most favorite podcasts to date. What is the other one? I want to know. Cece, you tell me what that other one is. I want to check it out and I want to compare and contrast. Anyways, thank you so much for taking the time to give me an iTunes review. I appreciate it. If you want to get a special shout out from me on a future episode, all you got to do is take two seconds out of your busy, busy day. I know you're a very busy important person. I know, I know, I know. And just leave me an iTunes review. It's super, super simple and I'll love you forever and I'll give you a special shout out. Okay. That's enough of me yapping. I'll see you back here next Wednesday with another episode of the Mo Money Podcast.

Starting point is 00:54:13 This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.

More Money Podcast - 177 Investing, Making Money & Budgeting in Canada - Tom Drake, Blogger & Podcaster at Maple Money

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.