More Money Podcast - 205 Who Can You Trust? Financial Designations Explained - Matthew Siwiec, Founder of Friendly Financial Coach & CFP Candidate

Episode Date: September 25, 2019

I'm back! After taking some time off this summer, I am so excited to be back with Season 9 of the Mo' Money Podcast! With 4 years under my belt, I can't believe how much this podcast has evolved...and grown. Over the summer I crossed the 1 million download threshold, and currently I'm at 1.1 million total downloads! That's a ton of amazing people like you listening to the show, how crazy is that!? To kick off season 9 of the podcast, I thought this would be the perfect episode. One thing I hear often from listeners is "I want to work with a financial planner, but who can I trust or how can I find a good one?" If you've listened to several episodes of my show, I am not a fan of going to the bank and working with their advisors because they ARE NOT giving you unbiased advice. They work for the bank, and no matter how they are compensated (salary, commission, both), they are incentivized to sell their bank's financial products first, and advice second. That's why I'm such a big fan of fee-only financial planners. Although you do have to pay money upfront to work with them, and sometimes they can be expensive, they are UNBIASED because they do not work for a financial institution. They are being paid to advise you, and they shouldn't be pushing any particular financial products on you, nor should they be able to sell you anything besides their services. So, I knew the perfect guest for this episode, my friend Matthew Siwiec, founder of the Friendly Financial Coach. He just finished his CFP exam (which is no easy feat) but has been in the financial advisory industry for over a decade and now works as a fee-only financial planner. More Info About Financial Designations in Canada Financial designations explained by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada Understanding financial certifications by IIROC Financial designations explained by Advocis Financial designations explained by Canadian Securities Institute Info About Becoming a Financial Planner Path to become a Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP) Path to become a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Path to become a Personal Financial Planner (PFP) Info About Becoming a Financial Counsellor Path to become an Accredited Financial Counsellor Canada (AFCC) Follow Matthew Siwiec FFCoach.ca Simple Money Podcast Twitter: @F_FCoach Facebook: Friendly Financial Coach For for full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/205 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Mo Money Podcast. This is season nine of the show. I am so excited to be back. Had a lovely summer break. I hope you have too, and you're excited to get back into the swing of things, get back to learning about personal finance because I've got one heck of a season for you, and I can't wait to share it with you. So before I dive in to all this good stuff, I want to give you a, you know, a little hello, hello, little update on what I've been up to since, uh, you know, episode two Oh four, when I, you know, signed off for the summer. So, uh, as I mentioned, went on a little vacation to Hawaii. That was lovely. Went back home to Vancouver to visit family, became an aunt because my older sister had her

baby, which is so exciting. And, uh, I'm just like, so, so in love with my niece and then came back home and, uh, started just grinding it out on some really cool projects. If you've been following me on social media, which I highly recommend that you do, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Instagram, I'm on everywhere, pretty much. But I have been doing a ton of kind of free events in the city, I was able to fulfill a really, you know, one of my dreams since really starting this podcast, I guess, which was to speak in my own solo session at FinCon, which I mentioned a ton on the show. It's the big personal finance content creator conference

based out of the States. And so that was really, really cool. I'll be sharing, I think, the next episode next week. If you want to see what my session was, because everything's recorded and also every session that occurred at FinCon, you can actually buy a virtual pass, which is very cool. So I'll share more about that next week when I have more information about it. Um, what else I've been up to? Oh yeah. I have been like, been very busy on my YouTube channel. So I've always wanted to make more videos. I personally believe that it is kind of like podcasts. I like, you know, four years ago, I'm like, I think podcasting is going to be big and got into that pretty early, which is awesome. I feel like YouTube, when it comes to personal

finance content, that will be kind of the next space that people will start kind of gravitating towards. I mean, I honestly have been like just binging YouTube. I learned how to do contour. I've been like watching every different type of YouTube channel out there just to kind of learn more. And also I'm obsessed and now I'm just always watching YouTube. So, uh, check out my YouTube channel, Jessica morehouse.com slash YouTube will take you right there. Subscribe. I am putting out a ton of videos weekly on pretty much every kind of topic I think you would be interested in and learning about. So they're kind of like bite size, they're, you know, 10 minutes and go into a specific topic,

like what our credit score is all about and all that kind of stuff. So a little bit more informational than say this podcast where it's very long form interview with a expert or a special guest. So make sure to check out my YouTube channel because I'm trying really hard to just make that happen because and it's also a freaking a lot of fun. Also, finally, I have a reason for having this damn film degree. Am I right? Okay. So that's kind of a quick little what I've been up to these past few months. I'm so excited to be back. Also, very cool announcement. And I'm like, almost shocked that this is like something I can be back. Also, very cool announcement, and I'm almost shocked that this is something I can share publicly now. I finally took some time to tally all of the downloads of this show since inception back in June 2015. And I have not only hit the 1 million downloads mark, I'm above that 1.1 million downloads. Thanks to you,

my favorite, amazing friend, listener of the podcast. So I just want to say thank you so much for supporting me and this show without your support. Well, I wouldn't be doing it and I probably wouldn't be getting as many amazing guests as I happen and will be able to share in the coming episodes. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I really, really appreciate it. Now for this episode, kicking off the season, I know you're going to love it because well, number one, uh, it was the first video or video. Oh my gosh. YouTube's on the brain. Clearly up first podcast episode I've done in a while where I actually had the guests come over to my house in studio, really just my living room. And we got to chat cause he's based out of Toronto. He's a friend of mine. His name is Matthew Cywick. And he,

I don't know if I'm pronouncing his last name, uh, the right way should have asked him, sorry, Matthew. Um, and I had him come over. I've known him for years. He is a financial coach, but actually he, uh, now I feel like I'm allowed to say, I think I'm allowed to say this, that he is basically, he's a certified financial planner. There's still, there's a bunch of minutia that goes into that, which we go into in this episode, but he's a, uh, CFP financial planner. He works with clients one-on-one and we've been talking for a while. We should do an episode together to really go in depth about all the different kind of financial designations in Canada. And also, if you are looking to work with a financial professional, what to look out

for, because, oh, my gosh, you wouldn't believe how many emails or tweets or messages I get from people asking me, hey, who should I work with if I want to get help? There's so many different people calling themselves money coaches or financial planners or financial advisors. It's very confusing. They all mean different things. And, uh, personally for me, I don't, you know, if you can't work with me, cause also like right now I have a wait list. So I'm, you know, I always like to refer out to people that I know are, you know, respected and credible, but there's a lot of, there's just, it's very complicated to find someone good that you can

trust because there's a lot of people that you shouldn't work with and you should not trust. So that is kind of the theme, the topic for this episode. So I think you're going to get a ton out of it. So before I get to this wonderful interview to kick off season nine of the Momany podcast, I just want to say a few words about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Momany podcast is supported by The Great Courses Plus. I think we can all agree that the best investment we can all make is in ourselves. If we want to grow, improve, and reach whatever goals we set ourselves, we need to learn new skills, and we need to continue our education on our own time. I know for a fact that if I didn't push myself to keep learning after university, I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at right now

in my life and in my career. If you're ready to take action, the Great Courses Plus is a convenient and affordable way to do it. The Great Courses Plus gives you unlimited access to in-depth, reliable information across thousands of topics, such as understanding investments, improving your photography skills, exploring the cosmos, and so much more. Not only that, these courses are all presented by renowned and respected experts. I'm talking instructors with PhDs here, people who are not only knowledgeable, but also skilled at communicating big ideas. Plus, you can watch or listen entirely on your own schedule from anywhere.

One of my recent favorite courses is called The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal, which goes into effective techniques and strategies to negotiate personally and professionally. If you want to check out what The Great Courses Plus has to offer, well, right now they are offering all Mo Money podcast listeners a free month of unlimited access to their entire library. Just visit thegreatcoursesplus.com slash Mo Money to get access. Once again, that's thegreatcoursesplus.com slash Mo Money to get one free month. Welcome, Matthew, to the Mo Money podcast. So excited to have you in studio. Thank you for having me, Jessica. We've been talking for, well, we've known each

other for a while. But I feel like every time we do chat, you know, just hanging out, it's really about kind of one topic that we always like to talk about, which is designations in Canada. And I've never done an episode on this. And I get a lot of questions from either people, you know, reaching out to me being like, I think I want to become a money coach or a financial planner. What are the routes to take? Or just people asking, I want to work with someone

but how do I know if they're legitimate or they do actually have credentials? What do I look for? I think there's a lot of confusion about different types of designations. A lot of people give themselves their own titles. And also then there's like Canada versus the US because we have very different rules. So that's why I'm having you on the show. So we can get into nitty gritty so people after this episode will know exactly what they should look out for

in terms of if they want to pursue a designation or if they want to hire someone. Perfect. Sounds good. And so let's first start off with a little bit of your background because you've been in the financial space for a while. Yeah, it's been too long. Too long. Too long. Yeah. So it's been over 15 years where I've been in the financial industry. Wow. Yeah, that's double what I've been. Like I'd say, yeah, it's a while. So what brought

you into this sphere? Do you always like finance? Yeah. So, so I mean I always was interested in economics and stuff like that in high school and then I just kind of stumbled into the banking world you know when I was in high school you know becoming a teller seemed like a pretty cool idea I know actually and everyone else was like doing retail and stuff like that so someone essentially you know gave me an opportunity and I'm like yeah I'll take that and then I've kind of just been ruling in that industry for a while and just been kind of finding my niche over the years. So you worked for a bank for a few years and then you decided to leave that and do your own thing. Yeah. So I actually worked for a few different banks.

Okay. And yeah, I was there. I worked in the actual, the commercial or i guess the like the retail banking sector for for probably about 10 years in total oh that's yeah a few years like a decade yeah it just flies by though and uh yeah so i started as a teller then i worked as a senior financial representative which is essentially like a retail advisor yeah and um i left that i left that industry because i was unhappy with the sales practices that were being implemented. I mean, I'm sure a lot of the listeners have read about or heard

about stories or unfortunately even dealt with it themselves. But over time, I just wasn't happy doing that. So I decided to kind of go on my own and offer unbiased guidance. So basically, you were tired of having to push certain products when you're like, I actually just want to advise? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. That is the whole problem with the banks. Yeah, unfortunately. Which makes sense and that is why me and a bunch of other

you know, personal finance voices out there are very much like if you want to get advice or if you want to get help you should find someone who's fee only who is not affiliated with a financial institution. If you want to get advice or if you want to get help, you should find someone who's fee-only who is not affiliated with a financial institution. If you want that unbiased information, 100%. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So you decide to make the leap to work for yourself as a financial planner. What were the steps? Because I know this is how we're going to kind of talk about designations. Did you know, okay, I guess that means I'm going to pursue the CFP? Or did you consider other designations? Yeah, so it was a very big, I had quite a few different routes that I was contemplating taking. Okay, what were those routes you were thinking about? So I mean, one of them was taking a master's in finance or economics.

Oh, yeah. And also I was thinking about doing CFA. Right, the Chartered Financial Analyst? Yeah, exactly. And CFP. So I was, I was at a point where I wasn't really too sure which road I wanted to take. And, you know, over time I, you know, kind of decided which one was most applicable to me. And I guess we'll talk more about that later, but one of the most important things that, you know, must be considered before

going upon one of these routes is, you know is what benefits you in the best way possible. Yeah. Now, just talking a little bit more about, we mentioned CFA and CFP. CFP, we're going to mention that in a while. It means Certified Financial Planner. Why were you looking at the CFA and what exactly is that? Yeah. So Certified Financial Analyst, it's a more rigorous course.

Right. Yeah, here it's, I mean, it's, uh, I would say a bit of, it's a more rigorous course. Right. Um, but it's really tough. Yeah. It's, I would say it's probably one of the hardest of all the qualifications. Yeah. The hardest. Yeah. Uh, and that is more for, I would say more for backend type of like, um, like analyst

work. Right. So if you want to become like someone that, you know, manages a, you know, some sort of a portfolio or something, that would be a step to get to that route. Well, you know, certified financial planner would be more, I would say more face to face contact and dealing with individuals directly. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay.

So we know that you decided CFP was the right route for you. So much has changed in the past like year or two. It's honestly hard for me to even kind of keep up so what were the steps when you decide this is the route i want to take what were the steps in order to get that designation because there's so many different routes and it's not it's it's very confusing in my opinion yeah it's very confusing and you'll find with all the qualifications um the pathways can be a little bit convoluted yeah and it's you know it takes a lot of time and effort just to understand you know the various different paths that are out there but for myself particularly

I actually started taking the first course about 15 years ago so I actually started it when I was still in school and that was the the Canadian securities course yep and that's kind of you know deemed to be like an entry-level financial course obviously Yep. And that's kind of, you know, deemed to be like an entry level financial course, obviously very complicated, but it's usually the first step that's taken. So that's actually the first course that also needs to be taken for, for many of the CFP paths. Yeah. And after that, you had to take a couple other courses. So there are two other ones that you need to take. All those courses would have exams as well attached to them. And then once you're done those courses, you're then eligible

to take the first level exam, which is the FPSC level one qualification. And that exam is a four hour intensive exam. Yeah, it was pretty gross. And most people that I spoke to after the exam actually didn't even finish it. Oh my god. How many questions? I think it was pretty gross and most people that i spoke to after the exam actually didn't even finish it oh my god yeah how many questions i think it was a hundred yeah but just probably not just um multiple choice kind of thing those ones were all multiple choice oh they were yeah but it's the kind of thing where like you know it's not like where there are obvious right yeah it's basically picking the one that's the best answer oh i hate that it was bad yeah yeah it's yeah. Yeah. It's like when I left it, I felt like I had like left a whirlwind. And you're like, I don't know what happened.

Yeah. You're like, there's a world outside of here? Yeah, four-hour exam. Yeah, that's been a while since I've done anything like that. So it sounds like you studied hard and you passed. Yeah, I passed that one. Yeah. And so that's not, you finished all that.

How long did that take you actually to get to that level? Yeah. So, I mean, once I decided that I wanted to take that pathway, it was two years to get to that exam. And of course I had, I had done the CSC course beforehand. So that like that path would have probably been three years for, for someone that hadn't taken it. Wow. And that's just the first level. That's just the first level. That's just the first level. And so level two, what did that look like? Oh.

Yeah. Harder. Yeah. So what you then had to do after you passed the exam is you had to do a capstone course. And a capstone course is actually, it's a written response. Yeah. Essentially, you're given case studies that you have to write full case study responses to. So there are multiple different ones that you need to do. And it essentially climaxes and you have to write like a 40-page financial plan for a case.

Oh, 40 pages. Yeah. What the hell is going on in that financial plan? That sounds really, that's a novel, a novella. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Wow. wow so yeah so that was definitely time consuming and you had to you know include all the math and stuff like that in the appendix so yeah so that was that was fun and um as we were talking about before right after i finished or just before i finished it i found out they actually the cfp path changed yeah so yeah so now it's actually different for

everyone that wants to so like starting in 2020 totally no rules yeah new rules rather um yeah so that's super fun which is why i have not pursued any of the because i'm like i always kind of just like once in a while look into it there's because there's a couple different like routes you can take in order to get to the level one and then level two. And then I read that all the rules were changing in 2020. I'm like, then I'm not going to bother to look at this until 2020 so I can firmly understand what the hell these rules are. It's just, yeah, it's just really, yeah, not hard. So I know one of the changes they're also making too is I think as of 2020 you need to have a bachelor's degree in order

to pursue this so i think a lot of people have some feelings about that i've been seeing online they're like well that's not fair and all this stuff and it's true my film degree has nothing to do with me becoming a good financial planner but i i don't know why do you think that they're changing that why do you think they made that rule yeah i mean it's it's really hard to say yeah i i mean it could have been out of complaints right or maybe there is they're concerned with maybe the the pass rate for the exam so that may be something to help filter people out so uh you know they the um you know don't struggle further on you know waste a year or two until you realize that it's not the right thing for you. But it could also just be protectionism, right? So I know that in our industry, they're very protective of titles.

So that could be something as well to kind of prevent the inflow of individuals that have no qualification. No, that's true. And that's one thing about the CFP, which is why I've always kind of flirted with the idea of pursuing it is because it is the most kind of world-renowned designation in terms of like financial planning. Like, you know, in the US, they have that designation. It is kind of worldwide. And so when someone has that designation, you take them seriously. You're like, oh, okay, you worked really hard to get that. You probably know what you're talking about um and and usually when i like i'm kind of recommending out people depending on what they're looking for i usually like make sure they have like a cfp or at least like the the level one designation or something like that um but there's a couple other designations out there that um have been around for a little bit but i think also people don't know a ton of them so i don't want to ask you some questions if you know any of them so one of them that I feel like has only been around for a few years because they started promoting it, I feel like, in the subway. I'm like, oh, what is that?

It's the Canadian Securities Institute have this one called Personal Financial Planner. Have you heard of that one? Yeah, yeah. It's actually been around for a little longer. It's been around for a while. Okay. It was something that I never really knew about.

But then, yeah, just a few years then I kind of learned about it sounds very similar to a cfp pfp but it is not the same have you come across it was that one of the things that you thought maybe i'll look into getting that myself or no i did yeah so i did look at taking it and actually the the pathway that i took a lot of the course like a lot of them were actually through cI. Yeah. The Canadian Security Institute. That's like one of the major educational bodies where they provide these courses. And a lot of the courses that I took are actually the same path to get that designation. But I mean, I kind of figured that if I'm taking that path, I may as well go for the CFP. So with the PFP and CFP, can you do both? Is there any benefits

or drawbacks to doing both? Because I am sometimes one of those people that fantasize of just like collecting a bunch of designations because for so many years, people were like, why shouldn't we listen to you?

I'm like, because I've got all the designations. But that's just ridiculous. But anyways, can you do both? And should I? No, probably not.

Yeah, I mean, technically you can um but i probably i wouldn't you know i wouldn't really recommend it because i haven't seen many people with both there's probably a reason for that yeah and i mean like well i guess we'll talk a little bit more about it later on but once you have a certification or designation there are certain continuing educational requirements you have to make yeah so like for my course the cfp you have to do 25 hours of continuing education every single year right and you would have to make. So like for my course, the CFP, you have to do 25 hours of continuing education every single year. And you would have to do continuing education

with the other designation as well. So that amount of time would be quite a commitment. And also with all of those qualifications, you typically have to pay annual fees as well. And the benefits that you get out of having, you know, multiple acronyms beside your name, you know, it may not fully make it valuable enough to do it. That's true. That's true. And yeah, even for the designation that I have, Accredited Financial Counselor Canada,

there's continuing education credits and then also an annual fee. So yeah, if you kind of keep on getting designations, it can be a lot of money and also a lot of time. And I'm not sure if very well you could do a bunch of continuing education and be like, oh, this counts for this designation and this one. I don't know. They may have some specific rules. Be like, no, that's not how it works.

Yeah, they may not allow it. It's very specific. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, for the PFP, I will say in my personal opinion like when i've done research i'm like oh because it's i like did one course through the csi's like financial services advice it was like the first financial course i took i don't know why i chose that one it was definitely for like bankers but it was actually quite interesting uh i'm currently enrolled in canadian securities institute and then i'm like oh then i just need two other courses and

then get this pfp designation but then as just need two other courses and then get this PFP designation. But then as I've been doing research and talking to people, no one really knows that one, especially when you compare it to a CFP. CFP is way more, I think, has a little bit more weight to it. And also it seems like the only people that really have the PFP are bankers, like people that work for financial institutions. So I'm like, that's something else to kind of think about.

It's like, do a lot of fee-only planners have a PFP? If not, then maybe that's something that you should think about. You know, it's like you've kind of got to consider what are other successful financial planners doing? Like what kind of route do they do? So, but I mean, you know, if you want to do a PFP, go crazy, go ahead. But yeah, I don't know too many people with it. I'll say that right now.

Yeah, the CFP is usually the choice that people make yeah yeah exactly um so i i touched on me having a designation that no one knows about the afcc i got some questions like uh like that for me it was because i didn't actually have plans to become a financial planner like full-time and have my own firm or anything like that i think that's awesome but i'm like that was never my goal my goal was always to do something as part of my business but not my whole business which is why i liked the idea of this program the afcc it is way bigger in the states um it's very tiny in canada which is why no one's heard of it, but I run into, and you may run into this, um, as well. You talk to people and they're like, I'm a money coach. And you're like, oh, so like, what are your credentials?

Or like, where'd you go to school? And they're like, no, just like started coaching people about money. What are your feelings about people that have this money coaching business practice and they don't have that kind of background or education in it. Yeah. So, I mean, it does frighten me a little bit because, you know, in my many years of being in the industry, I have come across it several times where people that, you know, they would be in a complete different industry and they're just like, oh, you know, I'm just thinking about doing this. And you're like, okay. But there's so many details behind it, right? So yeah, that's where it gets really complicated. And, you know, if you start like exploring like tax situations and stuff like that, like an individual that's not formally trained would not be able to give adequate advice unless they did a lot of research on the side. But even then it would be really complicated so it's yeah it's very challenging and

i think for the person that's you know thinking about doing that like it's it's not necessarily bad that you're doing it but it's always important to improve upon your skills right yeah because i mean obviously you're doing it because you have a passion for it so improving upon those skills by taking courses and then you know further down the line through like getting like a designation is something that will, you know, help build that practice, right? Yeah. And there's no reason why your business can't change along that path as well. So, you know, for someone that's maybe, you know, that's, you know, in that situation where they're thinking about doing it and they're not, you know, they don't have, you know, as like the educational background yet, you know, there's certain areas of finance

where they can focus on like cash flow management that kind of stuff like accountability i've seen a lot of that which is helpful or yeah it's yeah it's just one of those things where it's i had the idea of becoming a money coach before i had credentials but i actually didn't offer any kind of services like that until i did get some because well a I didn't want to give the wrong advice or information even though I had been you know self-studying for so many years and I will say from my personal experience I am glad I did that I learned actually a ton from the program I did and it did and also now it's like you know kind of like yourself it's like I've got this designation there's a whole group of other people that have this designation there There's a conference that we all have to kind of go to,

because that's how you can kind of get all of your continuing education credits in like one weekend, which is really great. And also you're part of this community. So you can talk to each other about like your clients and just learn from each other and share resources, which, so I'm like, that's invaluable. So I'm sure you feel the same way with like, now you're in this group of other CFPs that have this designation, you can kind of talk about your experiences and share all that. But it's just one of those things. So if you're listening, and you're thinking of like working with someone, my personal opinion is make sure you understand their education, their credentials,

their background, because I feel like I would never work with a personal trainer for my fitness if they didn't have any like train like proper training like you don't want to mess up your health so why would you trust someone that oh no i'm good with money or i read a lot of books so i can help you too i'm like oh my god i i wouldn't want that but just something to to be aware of right so that says something like even on i've got a recommendations page on my website and i have that very clearly like here are some of my you know recommendations these are people i know i've got you know i think they're really highly esteemed so i think they're great but just do your own do you need to do your own due diligence like don't just take someone's word for it make sure you fully understand where they're coming from what their education is what

they kind of offer and stuff like that because you know you're going to be paying this person money to help you you want to make sure that they actually know what they're doing yeah yeah yeah and uh canada is a bit of a weird market for finance like financial planning and guidance yeah is that there's very low regulation behind the titles that are used there are you wouldn't believe so many some of these like titles i see is like money coach for sure i see that very that's common but some of them i'm like money empowerment coach i'm like i'm not a hundred percent i understand what that means like that's something you made up like i think maybe that's just about you know making you more financially confident or something

but i don't know that's just me and i'm probably just like i think because i did go through a program now i'm just like i don't understand the people that didn't go through some sort of education yeah and and yeah and with the titles people well the governments um well in ontario right now they actually had to pass a bill to protect the titles financial planner and financial advisor. Because right, there was this, I feel like in the news a few years ago, this story that was like, there's all these financial institutions that these people were calling themselves a financial advisor, but one was with an O, one was with an E, you can trust one and not the other. And then, I mean, to this day, I'm like, I actually can't remember which one's the good one. And it's just

like, so wait, and then also financial advisor is different than the financial planner. And it is kind of a mess. Like, how could someone keep all this information straight? Yeah, it is very confusing. And that's why designations are so helpful. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess we'll go down that route a little bit further. But in economics, it's essentially something called signaling.

So, the idea with signaling is that you have two parties and there's, you know, one party has more information than the other. So a signaling, so in this case, a designation indicates to the other party that that person has, you know, some baseline education or training behind it. So it is very helpful to have that designation because it shows someone that you're dealing with or someone that you want to deal with that, you know, they've at least gone through these steps to, you know, to gain this knowledge and education. Absolutely. Exactly. Okay. So, so you were able to finish level one and you just, you finished level two recently.

Yeah. I just finished the exam. So that one was six hours. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I just finished the exam. So that one was six hours. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, it was quite something. And actually, I think the hardest part was the very uncomfortable chair that I was sitting in. Isn't that the worst? Yeah.

You're like, or if you have to like go pee and you're like, but then I'll have less time for the exam. Yeah, there's no sympathy for bathrooms. Oh no. Oh gosh. so what was your experience like and are you so now you're done how does that feel yes so i mean it feels great to be done yeah it actually took over two months to get the results back what yeah it was crazy so there's a point where like you know you kind of like flip-flop back and forth you're like what if i failed oh gosh yeah because the final exam exam is only part of it is multiple choice.

Okay. And the majority of it is actually writing responses. So what I found doing like practice exams is that you could type in anything. And if it doesn't meet their specific guidelines, like it's not accepted. And when you're doing multiple choice, I felt like it's easier to know if you did good or bad. But when you're doing multiple choice, I, I felt like it's easier to know if you did good or bad, but when you're doing written answer, you're like, it could be anything. I hate this. I much prefer multiple choice or a true false situation with the one, like, please just write this like paragraph. I'm like, I can write about anything and that's good

or bad. Yeah. I, yeah. Oh oh gosh that's terrible yeah so it was it was nice to be done i was definitely happy the day that i received that email good good good good um i know before i hit record we were looking at how many people in canada have the cfp designation and it's surprisingly not a lot because i think it is so rigorous so i think a lot of people kind of fall off so it's again it is kind of something to be said when you have that designation it's like oh well it's not an easy one to just get no it's no and it took you in total how long from start to finish to get it so i mean excluding the you know the the csc course yeah yeah probably about I would say about two to three years. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a long time. It is a long time. How did you find, and you're also obviously working at the time to make a living. How did you find the time to actually squeeze into study? Oh, it was so complicated. Yeah. So what I did, what I learned after doing the first examined, a good piece of advice

probably for everyone is, is actually condense all your notes. So what I did was I went through all the old notes and i turned everything into point form so it saved me a lot of time in the future and i think my point form notes turned out to be like 200 pages or something oh my god so you can write a book on how to do the cfp exactly yeah and that's just point form oh my god so yeah and i mean it's it's helpful for the future too so even like when you're done the program having those notes like you could just do like a word find and you'd be like, you know, what qualifications you need for this. So, yeah, no, it was I would definitely recommend that because for the CFP, there is no official textbook for the final course. Yeah. So it's just based on like whatever you have.

What? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty, pretty wild. Oh, I did not know that. That's crazy. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Oh, I did not know that. That's interesting. Yeah, there's a whole industry behind the scenes that essentially provide that course. I didn't take it myself because I didn't want to pay more than the actual course itself. But for someone that may not feel comfortable doing self-study like i'm unfortunately able to do i'm taking one of

those courses is a good idea yeah for sure no i actually had a friend not for the cfp but for she i mean she's a genius because she did the cfp in like record time like it's crazy she's based out of the state so it is a bit different but um she was also then pursuing the cfa because she's a genius and she yeah like she's like it's so arduous i think she also wanted to get that done within a year and she was able to do it because she's so smart and but she did um because i think it is like a lot of self-study but then she also did this other specific training intensive in new york or whatever to help her pass or whatever and um yeah she said it was actually like so worth it but yeah it depends it's that's the tricky thing with lots of these things.

There's a lot of self-study. I know like for the CP, there's courses that you can take in class, like through a college or something like that. And then some not. Like for what I did for the AFCC, it was all self-study. So they just mail you textbooks. It's old school. They give you notebooks and textbooks.

Nothing's online, which I actually really liked. It kind of brought me back to my university days. But it was all self-study. And all they're like, you have three years. So make sure you get it done within three years. Otherwise, you have to pay again and start from scratch. And yeah, it was actually very difficult to give myself these deadlines and restrictions.

And sometimes what i would do was you have to book your exam yourself and uh and even though i did it actually like you can do the exam like in a college with a proctor and all that or you could actually do it in your home and your computer but you use you still have a proctor with this there's a company called proctor you so there's someone looking at you doing the exam online for like two hours or whatever it's so weird um and sometimes i would get in trouble like um excuse me stop touching your pen or like or like sometimes i just like bitch it a lot or i talk to myself they're like no talking and i'm like i'm in my house no talking um but sometimes what i do is i book my exam before i was ready

for it to give me some motivation be like you better start studying because your exam is in a month. And then I just cram. But I'm probably the worst person when it comes to exams. Like I'm that person that writes the essay the night before or crams the night before. So somehow I passed, somehow I passed. Yeah, so that's awesome that you were able to get that. What are your plans now?

So it's not even done though. The thing is, it's not just about passing the exam. It's also about getting those hours in. You want to talk about that? The experience that you have to have too? Yeah. So it's not even hours. It's actually years.

Years. Sorry. It's years. So how do they calculate? Yeah. For me, it makes almost more sense to get the hours. Because then you're like, this is how many clients I've worked with in how many hours, years. You're just like waiting. You're just ticking and you're waiting for that time to go by. Yeah. So it's supposed to be years of full-time

hours. Oh, full-time. So you do technically have to do like 40 hours a week for like three years? Yeah. They say 37.5, but I mean, that's like, you know, break. Damn. That's a lot. It is. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm fortunate in that sense where i've you know i have been working yeah so it's not an issue um but yeah no i'm stuck with the whole like bureaucracy right now because i've just been overwhelmed with projects and stuff like that right now so i have to fill in a whole bunch of like um forms that i have to get signed by prospective clients yeah so not prospective clients but existing clients and stuff like that and i'm

kind of in the process of doing that right now and then once that's done then I then need to submit it to the board and then they give me the final approval yeah yeah talking to you does not make me want to do the CFP anymore I'll tell you that right because I'm like all that does not really jive with my path I just wanted the the credentials maybe in the future who knows what my life will be but yeah it just sounds like so much work yeah but worth it yeah that's that's exactly it so i mean i guess it depends on what your goals are but what i can say is that going through the process i have learned a lot of information yeah you know i had you know when i started this course i'd been in the financial industry for over 10 years right um but going through these you know

two three years of intense education, like I feel like I learned so much more and more details. I know this is like a big question, but what were some of those things you were like, I didn't know this before taking this path? Yeah. So, I mean, I found that before I was giving more general advice. Right. Well, now I can give more specific advice where you could be like, this is, you know,

how much money you need for retirement. Like, right. Determine that. So before you'd be like, Oh, you know, like RSPs, like, you know,

pensions, this is how they work. This is how, you know, how it gets processed. Like you would give more general advice, but now you could give more concrete answers. Yeah.

And also just like other random pieces of advice that you'll just be like in the meeting. And like, it's funny. Cause like, actually when I meet with people, it's just like, I have all these like little like ideas that just keep on flicking

like yeah this would be good for them that would be good for them so yeah so you always get like you know other little ways to help you know help their situation yeah no that's key that is key now i guess yeah the other kind of question is when you are working with clients like what kind of what can you help them with as, like what kind of, what can you help them with as a CFP? Pretty much everything. Yeah. Pretty much everything.

Yeah. Yeah. The whole, you know, any kind of like personal financing, like personal finance planning. Yeah. Besides selling, you cannot sell them products and you can't manage their portfolios of investments. Yeah. So you have to be licensed to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. Which is different. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess it's, it's also important just to talk about that too, because I know that confuses a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. Which is different. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess it's also important just to talk about that too because I know that confuses a lot of people.

Yeah. Lots of people and even me in the past have been confused by this. When you work with a fee only planner, CFP or someone with another credential like no one

can manage your investment or like unless they have that specific license like you mentioned and also you may not actually want them to. In my opinion there's so many great routes to invest now you may not need someone to do that for you exactly yeah um because

a lot of the time those people that can do that i feel like they're still somehow connected to a financial institution or investment firm so they have their kind of you know ideas and uh biases so yeah they they absolutely do um you know not discounting the recommendations oh yeah but yeah they definitely do have like specific sets of products that they can offer you know maybe like internal you know reports and stuff like that kind of direct them towards certain areas so that's that definitely is happening yeah and i mean we're fortunate enough to you know have you know you know new systems and companies and stuff that are offering robo-advising portfolios and self-directed trading accounts that are basically free. Yeah, exactly.

We're at a moment where it's never been easier to invest on your own. Exactly. So if someone is willing to take the time and effort to go down that path, there's really no reason not to. Yeah, and I know what lots of fee-only planners do is they're like, I cannot advise you on your investments, but what I can do is do an audit of what you're currently doing and answer any questions and kind of help you know what you're doing,

which sounds like sometimes that's all you want. You're like, I just need someone to tell me if this is what I should be doing, but not like tell me specifically what products to buy. Is that kind of what you could be doing or yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah totally yeah okay yeah very often people are stuck in high fee mutual funds yeah no we can say it we can say it okay yeah we don't have i don't work with high fee mutual fund companies that is one of the things i'm like i get offered all the time like

can't do it you know my i'm all about robo advisors and diy investing can't do it i can't yeah and you have to be careful of mutual fund portfolio funds. Yeah. Which are essentially mutual funds and mutual funds with higher fees. Gross. Yeah. No. Ever.

I feel like, especially if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know. You know what's up. Don't do it. Don't buy these high-fee mutual funds. They're not good, man. No. So what are your kind of next steps now yeah so i mean once i get this you know get these educational yeah or not educational but the you know the proof of

employment then i'm gonna have the designation and uh i'm gonna take a big long look at where i want to yeah be um come come mid-october when all this is done yeah i have some big presentations coming up at like the through the library system that's awesome yeah i love the libraries yes they're great yeah um if anyone's not using it please do yeah oh my gosh right so many like so many great free resources oh it's so incredible and for finance too like they actually some like it's it's you know it's all based on which municipality you're you're listening from but you know, they offer free streaming services. I know with the Toronto Public Library system,

they have template wills that you could actually get for free. And powers of attorney. Like, it's just, it's incredible. Yeah, exactly. But right now, because you are trying to get that, those years of experience, you are taking on clients. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so I'm also just doing, like, you know, guiding individuals out. And I'm also doing, you know guiding individuals out and i'm also doing you know side project podcast when i yeah yeah tell me a little bit about

where people can find you if they want to chat with you more about um your financial planning services and also your podcast yeah so i mean uh i guess you could find me from my website so www.ffcoach.ca um that would be the one place and my email, phone number, all that stuff's there. Podcast is, I guess, available in all resources. You could probably better comment on that. I will link it in the show notes. Don't you worry. And it's called Simple Money Podcast. The idea is that I try to keep the episodes as short as possible. So that's the way that I do it. Yeah, like bite-sized.

Yeah, exactly. And I'm hoping to start the next series in October. We'll be looking at helping individuals with disabilities. Wow. Focusing on tax credits and financial steps that are available to them. Awesome. Which unfortunately aren't very well publicized. Well, thank you so much for coming over and chatting with me. I think so many people

listening will get a lot out of this. And we've definitely like, I think debunked some myths and inform some people. So well, thanks for having me. And that was episode 205 with Matthew, the friendly financial coach. You can check him out at ffcoach.ca. Once again, that's ffcoach.ca. If you want to learn more about him, his podcast that he mentioned, and also if you want to work with a CFP who is fee only, no bias, and just a generally amazing, awesome person. So, I mean, he's my personal recommendation because I know him and I trust him and I think he's amazing. And he's really put in the work to become a very smart, incredible financial planner. So just putting that out there. There you go. I have a few exciting things to share as always, like I always do at the end

of these episodes. So stick around. I just want to share a few words about this episode sponsor, which you are going to want to listen to the full ad if you skip them because there's a freebie at the end. Okay. Just, just putting that out there as well. Okay. Okay. This episode of the momenty podcast is supported by the great courses. Plus you've heard me say this before. The best time to start investing is today. And the same goes for investing in yourself. If you've always wanted to learn something, gain a new skill, or just get better at something, it's never too late. And today is the day to start doing it. Just take it from me. I started blogging eight years ago to learn digital marketing, and now I run my own online business. And I'm still continuing my education all the time

because it's never been easier to learn. That's why I'm really excited to share with you the Great Courses Plus. It's an online library with courses on thousands of topics. You want to learn. That's why I'm really excited to share with you the Great Courses Plus. It's an online library with courses on thousands of topics. You want to learn about the stock market? There's a course for that. You want to learn how to paint with watercolors? There's a course for that. You want to get better at photography, which is something I'm actually trying to work on on my downtime? Well, there's a course called Fundamentals of Photography that will teach you all about camera settings and how to take better photos taught by an award-winning National Geographic photographer. If you want to get started and see what kinds of courses there are, The Great Courses Plus is

offering all Mo Money podcast listeners one free month of unlimited access to their entire library. Just visit thegreatcoursesplus.com slash mo money to get access. Once again, that's thegreatcoursesplus.com slash mo money to get one free month. Okay. As I forgot to mention, cause I I'm like just getting back into the swing of things. You can check out these show notes for this episode, which is, uh, on my website, jessicamorehouse.com slash two Oh five. Again, you can find show notes for every single episode out there that is published when you just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash whatever the episode number is to find more information, links of things that we talked about, um, all on my website. So make sure to check that out as always, of course, subscribe

to, uh, wherever you're listening. it's interesting so when i calculated actually how many downloads this podcast has gotten i also had to like basically look at all the different locations or destinations as they're called um where people listen so you may be interested to know youtube 93 000 downloads from youtube interesting lots of people like to listen to podcasts on youtube possibly yourself right now sound SoundCloud got about 36,000 Spotify, 41,000. Um, I feel like Spotify is like not the cool place to listen to podcasts at the minute. I think it will be in the future, but still the main kind of destination where people listen to podcasts and you know, I'm guilty of this too, is a iTunes or the Apple

podcast app. Isn't that interesting? So that is how most people listen to podcasts as so, so says my stats. So I thought that was interesting. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode because really appreciate that. Now I am doing a, I've got a bunch of cool things coming up. Now, first off, I do want to say, if you want to be the first to know of these things or just don't miss it, because sometimes I don't share when I'm doing an event or when I'm launching something on the podcast, because guess what? I pre-record these things, right? I have to, I, you know, I'm busy. I have to batch these things. And so sometimes if I'm doing an event next week, I, you know, I just can't do it. So

make sure to go onto my email list, Jessica morehouse.com slash subscribe. Also, when you do that, when you get onto my email list, you can get free access to my entire resource library. And so what that means is I have a ton of, I have a free course. I have a, a bunch of free spreadsheets and worksheets and guides, freebies galore. If you want to make this, you know, the last part of 2019, the year that you get your shiza together, then you're going to want to, you know, start by checking out this free resource library because it's free. So what's stopping you, right? I also want to remind you if you're new to the show, I have an investing course. So I get a so many messages from people asking, Hey, I want to learn more about investing or want to get started

with investing. What do I do? And I'm like, well, I made a course for that because I get those questions all the time. And also there's a lot to know. And when you kind of put it out there, Hey, I want to help with investing. A lot of people want to just sell you mutual funds or something like that. And that's just not what you're asking for, right? You want to learn how to be a savvy investor. So I have a course called investing foundations for Canadians. So this is specific to Canadians. However, a lot of the, I have had, um, uh, tons of Americans who have taken the course and it is very applicable. The only difference is obviously I will talk about RRSPs, not 401ks. So that's the big difference. But if you want to learn everything that you kind of need to know in terms of just like the crux of it, the really important things about investing,

you'll want to take this course. So many people, there's been so many great reviews and testimonials from past students saying this changed everything for me. If you want to start investing, if you want to know what the deal is with robo advisors and how they work, if you want to know what the hell a benchmark means, if you want to know how stocks work and bonds work and what the hell is a GIC and should you invest using a T of a say or an RRSP, what is an RESP? The list goes on and on. I address all of that in this course. So if you want to get started with it, do it, do it right now. Um, just go to Jessica more house.com slash investing foundations. I will include a link in the show notes as well. But, uh, yeah, if you want to get started with investing, this is, this is the course to help you get there. So yeah, that's right.

And so, as I mentioned, I have a bunch of events coming up. I'm still firming some of them up. I will have one of my Millennial Money Meetups happening in Toronto in November. I am just firming up the date on that so you can get excited. And I let people on my email list know about that. So make sure to get onto my email list. I will be heading to Ottawa actually in November as well for an event at a university. However, I hope that maybe I can also do one of my meetups that is pending.

I, I may not be able to do it. It is pending, pending, pending, pending, but hopefully I will be able to do that. And maybe I'll even be crazy and do a little meetup in Vancouver when I go back home for the holidays in December. Maybe I will be able to do that. And maybe I'll even be crazy and do a little meetup in Vancouver when I go back home for the holidays in December. Maybe I will be crazy and do that. Let me know if you definitely want me to do an event in Ottawa. If you definitely want me to do an event in Vancouver, you'll let me know, email me Jessica at Jessica morehouse.com or tweet me or Insta DM me, you know, do all, do all of the above. I would really appreciate it. All right. That is it for me. I've been rambling for a while. I think I'm just like really excited

to talk to you again. You know, I, I mean, I spent a lot of time alone. I'm alone right now. Obviously I'm just talking to myself. Um, I mean, I'm talking to you, but you know, you know what I mean? Um, so anyways, thank you so much for listening to this episode. I'm going to have so many great episodes to share with you coming up. Make sure to subscribe. I will see you back here next Wednesday. Thank you. See you next week. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.