More Money Podcast - 283 How to Become Your Own Financial Advisor - Mark Seed, Founder of My Own Advisor and Co-Founder of Cashflows & Portfolios

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

This week’s guest is one that I’m shocked that I haven’t already had on the podcast. I’ve known Mark Seed for years and I was am so happy to be able to talk with him about his approach to FIRE, as well as his investing philosophy (FIWOOT) and what it means to be a hybrid investor. Mark Seed is the founder of My Own Advisor, personal finance and investing blog that he started in 2009. He is also the co-founder of Cashflows & Portfolios, which is a new, free resource providing a beginning-to-end guide for DIY investors. Mark has been featured in MoneySense magazine, The Globe and Mail, and The Winnipeg Free Press and is currently working towards semi-retirement with his wife.  As a successful DIY investor, Mark was able to share both great tips and the mistakes he’s made along the way. Mark also outlines how the 2008 financial crisis was the spark that lit the path for his financial journey and blog. If you’re just as curious about other people’s approach to investing as I am then I know you’ll love my conversation with Mark. For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/283 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 283. And I've got someone on the show that I should have had on the show years ago because I've known him for that long. I've known him, gosh, I think for as long as I've been blogging. I mean, I don't actually know how long I've known him. Like I want to say close to a decade or at least I've been following his blog for that long. That's for sure. I'm talking about Mark Seed. He is the blogger behind My Own Advisor, my ownadvisor.ca is where you can find him. He also has another project. He's the co-founder of Cash Flows and Portfolios, which we do talk about in this episode a little bit, but it's a great resource for all you DIY investors.

In this episode, we talk about his journey to FI, financial independence, his tips, and this is also Canadian specific. So if you're Canadian, you're going to love this episode. I love diving into investing, but I also love talking about Canadian investing because it is a bit of a different world and, you know, applicable to all of us. So just so you know, Mark is a passionate and successful DIY investor who, like I mentioned, is the founder, owner, and editor behind My Own Advisor, which is a very popular and established personal finance and investing blog for Canadians, and he started it in 2009. I mean, gosh, gosh, two years before I started my blog. And I'm telling you, when I started my blog, well, you will not find any of my old blog posts. They are deleted. You cannot find them because they were just garbage. I mean, I'm just going to

say it right now. I wasn't a good writer back then. But Mark is amazing. I love his blog. He's also been featured in Money Sense Magazine, the Globe Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, and numerous Canadian podcasts like yours truly. And he's also featured as one of the many bloggers to follow over the years by RateHub and other personal finance sites, as well as is a presenter and speaker at the annual Canadian Financial Summit. And Mark's successful financial journey to date now delivers more than $20,000 per year in tax-free, yes, tax-free and tax-efficient income through some of his investing accounts. We talk a little bit about, you know, I mean, how, how, the how, because he's all about

dividend investing. That's a different world, I'm telling you. There's so many different little leashes and pockets in the investing world. Dividend investing is a a different world i'm telling you the whole there's so many different little leashes and pockets in the investing world dividend investing is a whole different world and i love it quite honestly i'm i do kind of lurk in a few dividend investing facebook groups just because i want to see what people are talking about anyways so he is uh on his way to reaching semi-retirement with his wife and he calls it FIWOOT, financial independence, work on your own terms or work on own terms. In just a few years, he's very close to reaching his goal. So, you know, he's such an inspiration. So we're going to talk about so many good things in this episode. Cannot wait. But just before I get to that interview with Mark, here's just a few words I want to share about this podcast episode sponsor. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported

by TD Direct Investing. TD Direct Investing is marking June as Options Education Month with the goal of helping investors learn more about options trading. Throughout the month, they are hosting a number of free virtual events for beginner and intermediate investors alike. Want to learn about some of the things people wish they knew before they began or build on some of the knowledge you may already have on options? Visit td.com slash options education month to register for one of the many live webinars TD Direct Investing will be hosting. Or if you're more interested in getting an introduction to options in the first place, there are a number of on-demand video lessons available too. To learn more and to check out the list of free events, visit td.com slash options education

month. Once again, to find out what webinars, masterclasses, and on-demand video lessons are available to view for free, visit td.com slash options education month. Welcome to the More Money Podcast, Mark. I'm so excited to have you on the show. It is, you know, I don't know why I didn't have you on the show earlier. I've known you for a number of years. I've loved all the content you put out. So long time coming. But I think, you know, save the best for last. You're kind of at the end of this season of the show,

saving the best for last. That's awesome. Yeah, Jessica, we have known each other for quite a while. Very happy to be on the show. Certainly seeing your progress in terms of all the millennial money expert meetings that you've been doing, the growth of your YouTube channel, obviously, national media. It's been great to follow you over the years and see how you've put out some really great content. So happy to be here, all that to say. Well, thank you very much. And honestly, your blog is one of my favorite

resources to point people to there's I mean, there's so much there. It's incredible. I was just looking at it again, just to kind of jog my memory. And my god, it's if anyone has a question, you will have an answer somewhere on your website. How many? I mean, how? So let's start from there. How? When did you start it? It said on your website 2009 How many? I mean, how? So let's start from there. How? When did you start it? It said on your website 2009? Is that right? Yeah, it's probably late 2009 or early 2010. So yeah, we're definitely going on 11 years now with the blog. And I've been on, you know, whether it's Canadian money form or other iterations of other people's blogs from I would say the late, you know, 2000s, if you will. So it's been a while. I've been in

the personal finance investing space, either thinking about it, writing other people about it, or having my own blog for well over a decade now. So yeah, thank you. I try to answer a lot of reader questions. I try to answer as many truthfully and honestly as I can. And if I don't know the answers, I'll definitely try to point people in the right direction. That's really what the site's all about, including my own personal finance journey, of course. So what, I mean, 2009, a lot was going on back then. What inspired you to start a blog? I mean, that's also like an early time to have a blog. I didn't know blogs were a thing back in 2009. I'll tell you that right now. Fair enough. Yeah. I think the, however you want to coin it, the great financial crisis, the great recession, if you will,

that was a real driver for me because I looked at my mutual fund holdings at the time and invested in some big bank funds. And it got me questioning about why are these things going down? They were supposed to have some sort of medium risk rating, but why is my portfolio down 30%? That seems like a lot for some sort of risk rating on a fund. My advisor from my big bank was not calling me at the time. So I was kind of wondering, okay, well, what role do they play in my fund selection and follow up? And then I looked at the fees and I thought, wow, I'm paying,

you know, X number of fees for this product or fund. It's going down. I'm not necessarily getting any hands-on support per se. So I just started asking a lot of questions like, where does my money go? And where do these fees go? And what happens if I don't pay these fees? And what alternatives are there out there? So I was kind of doing all this noodling around 2008 and maybe even a bit earlier and then the crisis during the crisis going through that you know oh nine ten it really was the driver for me to i would say get my financial act together in my 30s because i figured and we've heard this over and over over the years from you and everybody else but you know at the end of the day nobody cares more about your money than you do, or your family does. So why not take some matters

into your own hands and try to learn what you can and get support where you need it. And, you know, just be better off financially because of it. Now, obviously, a lot has changed since then. I found because I feel like I started kind of yeah, in 2010. That was kind of when I started kind of well at 2009 2010 was when I started like picking up you know, some personal finance books and actually discovering that there's this whole personal finance online community. There still wasn't it still wasn't easy to find out the information you want. Like you had to do some digging you had to be an investigator. It was it was not as easy as now where you can just Google and you'll have an answer. So how did you, I guess, get started? Because your website right now is just so,

I mean, it really gives you so much good, good information, but I'm sure it was difficult to kind of start putting it all together at the start because there really wasn't anything out there on the internet talking about this stuff. Yeah, you're right. I mean, there were a couple early blogs that I followed. So one was Million Dollar Journey. I think that was a popular one at the time. It was probably one of the first personal finance sites in terms of talking about his particular journey or his family's journey to financial independence and how he invested and so on and so forth. That was one I followed quite a bit. Canadian Money Forum, it still remains a forum. It's changed hands over the years, but

that was a popular site. I think Dan Bordelotti was launching his Canadian Couch Potato back in the day as well. There's a few other sites as well but i really dove into to to those sites i got intrigued by um a millionaire teacher so you know canadian but now expat andrew hallam um who's written a couple books about millionaire teacher and being an expat um and how to invest wisely because of that so there were a few books out there the wealthyber was probably the more seminal one for me back in the late 80s, early 90s, when I was kind of growing up that thought, you know, gosh, pay yourself first,

and that makes sense. And then obviously you release the sequel to that many years later. But you're right, there wasn't a lot out there. You really had to dig for it. And I just, I've always had a passion for personal finance and investing. So I maybe went down a few more rabbit holes

than other people did at the time. And I decided to start my own site because I figured it was really much like a blog is. It was kind of my diary to hold myself to account. And it was my online journal to tell myself what I was doing well and also what I messed up in. And certainly, I've made my share of investing mistakes and I've got articles about that on my site, but I'd like to think I've made more or better decisions than not. And certainly the blog is really a chronicle of that. So I'm happy to provide and share what I know, but also pay forward, if you will, those lessons learned so that other people don't have to make the same mistakes I did. Okay. Well, let's talk about some of those mistakes. What were some of those mistakes? Because obviously, I mean, I always think of a mistake as a lesson learned. And now not only

did you learn a lesson, but then you can also share it with other people. So they could not make those mistakes. But what were some of the things you were like, Okay, well, no, don't do that again. Yeah, penny stocks was a big one for me. I mean, in my 20s. Maybe that's the new crypto and stuff like that. And I think I think I think dabbling in a bit of that is like honestly fine if you have a very small percentage of your portfolio that you want to put in some speculative stuff you know I kind of use a five percent rule now where if you want to put some stuff into a cryptocurrency ETF or you want to put things into an alternative investment like private

lending or other things, I guess that's fine if that's where your risk tolerance lies. But keep the other 95% into things that we'll probably talk about later, either low-cost index funds, passive investing, or maybe some stable air quotes stocks or dividend-paying companies that you have a history that they have performed fairly well in the past and they hopefully hopefully will continue to perform well in the future um but penny stocks is definitely one of them jessica i would i would avoid people dabbling and speculating with too much from their portfolio so kind of use that five percent or less rule um i bought mortgage um life insurance if you. So from the big banks. So many, many years ago, like many terms ago,

we signed up at the bank and we filled in the waiver and we said, of course, we want you to cover off our life insurance. But we both know that's a bad product for a couple of key reasons. One is the underwriting process

happens after the fact. So that's not good, right? Because maybe your claim is denied for some reason. So something unforeseen happened to you or your spouse. And the second biggest thing is it's not like mortgage insurance where you have the coverage guaranteed. There's no guaranteed value, like it's $100,000, $500,000, whatever it may be. As your mortgage goes down, so does your life insurance. So wait a second, you're paying for premiums for decreasing guarantees. That's not very good.

That's not what life insurance should be about. You should pay premiums to have a guarantee. So it defeats the whole purpose, in my opinion. So that's another big one that I would caution people. And then certainly, we'll talk about high-priced funds and high-priced products. I mean, there are so many people that get sold a promise of guarantees through pay for performance mutual funds and paying 1%, 2% MER, management expense ratios, for really decisions that mutual fund managers and active management cannot keep up with in the coming years. What is the ratio? Something like like 80 to 90 percent of all active money management really fails because they are kind of more or less forced to trade they're seeking performance

yeah so you build that active management into the advisor uh fee that you're paying you're actually saving for two retirements you're saving for your own and you're saying for the mutual fund salesperson so um those are three big ones you know there's there's certainly maybe buying too much house or you know buying for new cars and you know we can talk about getting the big three life and and life right you know housing transportation and and food and groceries kind of thing but yeah at the end of the day if you don't speculate too much and um you really mind your fees and you watch carefully about the fine print and some of the products that some of the banks offer uh those are really

good hedges in terms of making good financial decisions so how did you because it seems like you have a very specific um you know investment strategy that you've kind of built over all these years something that's right for you and you do share a little bit on your blog but you don't share everything which i actually appreciate because I'm always when I see someone sharing all of their numbers and everything and they're a public person, like I personally, I'm just like so scared that someone is going to like find out where you live and get all your money. Like I will never share any of that. That's terrifying. But you do share a little bit about, you know, kind of what you do. Tell me a little bit about how did you kind of decide, this is how I want to invest. I know, you are a fan of ETFs, but you also are, you know, very much

into dividend stocks and stuff like that. Can you kind of tell me how did you develop your own kind of strategy for your for your own investments? Yeah, great question. I guess the essence of it is coming out of the Great Recession, if you will, crisis of you know the 0910 space i really looked at some of the funds i was in and i kind of noticed some themes and i you know i looked at those those mutual funds and other mutual funds canadian equity funds u.s equity funds and i started looking at the the stocks and i go wow we've got some banks we've got some utilities we have some telcos here in canada you know um robellos right rogers and bell and tell us if you want to use a little moniker but you know we have energy companies obviously and then utilities and so on so forth uh railroads so i kind of likened it to

like a game of monopoly right you've got banks and railroads and utility companies all these things and it's like well these types of companies have been in the same fund for many years and it seems like they make a lot of money. And so it allowed me to go down and start digging and looking at just high level income statements and cashflow statements and things like that from these companies. And I'm like, wow, these companies make a lot of money and they tend to distribute some of that money as part of a dividend to shareholders. Well, instead of owning the mutual funds, why don't I just buy the companies themselves? So let's skip the middleman and why not just get paid? And so I actually started doing that with a few stocks in my early days.

I think Enbridge, I've chronicled that on my site. It was one of the first dividend stocks I bought 12 some years ago. And I've slowly been accumulating, whether it's a pipeline company, a telco company, a bank, a life insurance, again, like Monopoly, the railroads. I've been adding those companies to my portfolio. I've essentially built my own Canadian ETF, if you will. But I've basically done it fairly methodically and systematically. automatically. And I get the rewards of being a shareholder in all those companies by getting paid a dividend as well as capital appreciation and basically paying no money management fees in the process. So that's where I've really gravitated to dividend investing because,

A, I think it's an approach that suits my behavioral style and that may or may not work for other people, but I enjoy the fact of getting paid. So there's that psychological benefit. It also helps me when markets decline. So we obviously saw some terrible stuff happening for a lot of people, financially or otherwise, from the COVID crisis around March 2020. And I didn't sell anything.

In fact, I was looking to buy more because I had a hedge that things will come back eventually. So it helps me from the downside perspective as well. It allows me to stick to a plan that I truly believe in. So the income comes in through the dividends, but it's also psychologically motivating that I'm getting paid to wait or I'm getting paid to write out some returns.

And because I own many of the stocks that the same big fund companies own i've either beat or you know ridden the market returns of at least the canadian index for my stock portfolio us we can talk about or international it's a bit different i do tend to invest in more etfs just because i find the whole universe of investing in the us space very challenging and there's so many other sectors. So because we're dominated in financials and energy and some telco, it's pretty easy to know the companies in Canada. I find it really challenging to kind of pick through those companies in the U.S. So I prefer to own index funds or in the past some dividend ETFs from the

U.S. And I try not to do as much stock sourcing for those reasons, just because it's a huge, it's a much bigger universe. So that's kind of the journey. And I kind of coined it the hybrid investor, right? I invest in a mix of dividend paying stocks for income and some price appreciation. And I also invest in some low cost ETFs for primarily just growth. And that approach seems to work for my temperament, but it also seems to work for the bank account too. Do you, because I feel like I was looking on your FAQ page and you get so many questions and someone was asking about drips, whether you set that up or do you get the income or,

I think a lot of people that want to get into dividend investing, they're not sure at what point can you actually take that income, you know, because that's always the dream. I know. I don't know if you saw the tweet today, but I know or maybe it was like yesterday, but Bob was from talk and was tweeting that he got some email from someone who had like a crazy huge portfolio, like $8 million. And it's like dividends were like 300,000 a year. I'm like, wow, now that's something I'd like to that's living large. That's living it up, yeah. Yeah. The thing with dividends is you can kind of take them as cash. I'll probably have a

dividend. I provide a monthly dividend income update and I try to share as much as I can, but I am personal and I do keep some things reserved. But part of those monthly updates that I do provide shows the power of compounding and growth. And if you let those dividends be reinvested, you're basically taking a total return approach. I actually have that in my update coming up in the next couple of days.

The essence of it is if you're reinvesting the dividends, you get paid the dividends and you can set up dividend reinvestment plans with your brokerage or with Questrade for your ETFs or well simple or any of the ones out there um those dividends basically just get reinvested to buy more shares next quarter or next month so the money is just compounding which is great but you can turn those drips as they call them dividend reinvestment plans off and you can just take the cash so the cash will just come into your account and it'll just sit there until you want to do something with it,

spend it or whatever you want, buy new stocks, buy more of the same stocks, etc. So, yeah, the power of dividend investing is quite powerful, but it is a get wealthy eventually plan to the point of what maybe that tweet was. It's not going to happen overnight. You're not going to be hitting home runs. I would liken it to basically hitting a bunch of singles, right? In the ballpark where you're getting paid and money's getting reinvested. And then you're getting paid again and money's getting reinvested.

And so it's a get wealthy eventually plan that it takes time to be invested, to stay invested, and then to allow those dividends to compound over time. And you can do obviously very similar with an ETF or a low-cost index fund that pays distributions. And you can also reinvest that through any of your big bank brokerages or some of the low-cost alternatives out there as well. But I think the power of dividend investing

is seeing that income in and then having that optionality. Can I take the cash or do I want to just reinvest it? And so that's an option that's available to and appealing to a lot of people. No, I know one of your, um, big goals is, you know, semi-retirement. So what are your plans exactly? Cause I know you're not quite, I would say like a typical fire person who's like super aggressive and like living on beans until they hit their number. You're kind of doing the get rich slowly kind of thing, which I also ascribe to. So yeah, what's your kind of goal or your plan?

And when do you know you're going to hit it? How are things going? Yeah, lots of great questions. Yeah, I've always been kind of on the semi-retirement, get wealthy eventually, do it at your own pace type thing. I'm not a live off lentils, beans, and wieners type of guy to get to some destination artificially or by a certain deadline that I had to fire, financial independence, retire early. I don't mind the financial independence part. That's part of your question. I'm not a huge fan of the retire early. I don't mind the financial independence part. As part of your

question, I'm not a huge fan of the retire early because I think anybody in their 30s, like yourself or 40s, like myself, or even even in your 50s, if you are an entrepreneur, you like to create, you like to blog, have a successful podcast, YouTube, write a book, you're kind of an entrepreneur. Yeah, that's still a job. It's still a job and you're still working for income. So there's a bit of a fallacy behind the retire early thing. It's maybe more marketing than not. So I do aspire to work on my own terms. So I've kind of coined my own thing like FIWOOT, just financial dependence work on own terms.

I like that. And I think it kind of speaks to the hoopla and the incentive that there's nothing wrong with financial independence. I think it's great living below your means and saving a bit of money for you and your family. But my wife and I are much more about living a bit for today and saving for tomorrow. We want to take trips. We've made life changes. We've sold a house and we bought a condo in the city a couple years ago and moved back. It costs more money. By the end of the day, we're happier and we like it here.

So to me, life and financial independence in the journey getting there is all about trade-offs. And it's all about choices. And hopefully, everybody is trying to make more good choices than not. But yeah, my journey has always been kind of a get wealthy eventually plan and having a methodical, systematic way through dividends and or low cost ETFs to save a bit today, to squirrel away some money, but at the same time, not lose sight that things can change and life is very fragile and you need to enjoy good restaurants and good food. And if you want to spend money on takeout and things you enjoy with your friends in a non-COVID world or other things, then live your life as you should. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I have never wanted to spend more money in my life than right now when I cannot spend any money because there's nothing to spend money on. I hear you. I mean, there is. You can find some nothing to spend money on. I mean, there is you can find some ways to spend money. But in general, the things that I like to spend money on, like travel or going to restaurants, we cannot do that right now. So I completely agree this this whole year is really kind of reminded me that it's so important to enjoy the journey, like you say, because we are on a journey. It's a long journey. And I don't know about you, but every time I reach a destination or like hit a goal,

I'm always like, now what? Like, it's never like, now I'm satisfied with that accomplishment. You're always just like, now what? And so, you know, what's the rush really? Depending on, I mean, a lot of it, I think, you know, I've talked to so many people in the community, it's because they hate their jobs. So fair enough. I mean, a lot of it, I think, you know, I've talked to so many people in the community, it's because they hate their jobs. But I mean, then maybe just find a, or here's my phases of financial dependence. And it's about some level of financial awakening, meaning, wow, what is this possibility? And then there's the education. And then there's

the adoption, which is you're trying to entrench that into your cashflow management. So you value where your money goes. So that could be on restaurants, like you and I both like. That could be on travel, like you and I both like. That could be on restaurants like you and I both like that could be on travel like you and I both like that could be on you know buying a bigger house or a nice car there's nothing wrong with that but as long as that money aligns with your values then there's no tension there anymore right you've reduced all that stress and overhead and I think that's what people have to wrap their head around is there's absolutely stress about not having enough money or making enough money I totally understand and I was I was younger and in my 20s and living in decrepit housing in Toronto

when I was there with three other people for many years. And that was a point in time. And I knew if I worked hard and saved well, I would be in a better place hopefully eventually. But all that being said, yeah, you need to make sure where your money goes is where you value it. And I just never saw the point of working in a job that you absolutely dislike to try to save a lot of money to try to leave that job only to have meager means to continue to live like a student

or what have you on on scarcity if you don't if that's not making you happy. So I think at the end of the day, it's really important to understand your own behavior, your own emotional attachment to money, where you value things. And I think if you go on that journey first, the rest actually just falls into place quite nicely. And you can leave that angry, disgruntled job and move on to other things that provide value in your life. And also asking yourself, okay, I think a lot of people focus so much on achieving, you know, fire or financial independence, but maybe don't ask themselves enough, but why though? But like, and really like asking why several times to get to like the root

of the answer, like, why do you actually want to achieve that? And sometimes it's just like, I want to get out of my situation. I just more freedom i want to change my life completely or whatever and it's i feel like it's it's one of those things i mean that's why i quit my job it's i'm like i was thinking of kind of doing the fire i'm like or i could just quit my job because it's not fulfilling me you know um and i was fine getting a different job like a different company or anything but it's sometimes i had to ask myself several questions like but why do you why are you actually unhappy i'm like oh it's actually the job i can change that that's something that i can change super smart i mean what's lost and it may be covid in a somewhat positive way over a very trying

year and a half for for many people you know this This power of reflection where you do ask yourself why. What's important to me? What do I value? What do I need? What do I not like? Those are really important questions and they're not easy to answer. And you need time to think those through. And so I think that's maybe we'll talk about in this episode or future episodes.

But I think that's where certified planners or fee only planners can really help you because they can be that unbiased coach, if you will, that allows you to go down that thought journey to explore some of those feelings because everyone has feelings and emotions tied to money, but until you unpack them, maybe you don't need a lot and that's okay. Maybe some people need a lot more than they think and that's okay too. But until you go down that road and asking those really important questions, it's really hard to know what you're sense for you. And again, it's people really focus on I need this amount of money. And you're like, but why? And also, like, what will actually

make you happy? Like, honestly, you know, I get asked all the time, is this something you're pursuing? I'm like, actually, no, I've never been happier in my life. And it's not like anything's crazy in my life. I am not rich by any means. But I feel satisfied because I also realized objects and things. Yeah yeah I'd love to have a bigger house sure I mean I'm stuck in this townhouse and I'm going crazy but I also realize I'm just being emotional we're in a pandemic I don't actually like if I were to get a bigger house and a bigger mortgage and all that stuff would I actually be happier I'd probably be a lot more stressed out if I'm honest so really yeah going back to what you know what would actually

make you happy? What do you actually want in life? I feel like, yeah, 2020 has been the year of taking that time to really reflect. And even if it means you can't make a move now, because again, I know everyone's just like holding on to their jobs, because it's not the easiest job market. You can make plans, though. And that's the that's the exciting part is making those plans. I think so. I think that's where you, your site, many other great Canadian sites. I think hopefully what we're offering to Canadians is that perspective. And it's really the process of planning and replanning that's super important, right? The outcome is

going to be different. As you know, you can make the best played plans. You know, what did Mike Tyson say? You know, plans are everything until you get punched in the face kind of thing. You know, what did Mike Tyson say, you know, plans are everything until you get punched in the face. You know, that's what COVID was, it was a punch in the face to a lot of people, right? But I think it's the process of planning and replanning that's super important. And once you kind of get that down, with your own life, whatever that number may be, I think you're well on your way to better things. So what are your plans and how did COVID change any of them? Like are you have you reached your kind of number or are you still on your way and how has the last year kind of affected things for you? Yeah another great question. So we've been fortunate my wife and I to sustain and retain our jobs. I know that's not the case for many Canadians and it's

been hard and uh just want to acknowledge that that there have been some great government programs albeit you criticize them in terms of how they were packaged and how they're rolled out but you know honestly the government tried to do the best they could for many people so so i want to acknowledge that that being said i'm not the government i work in health care um but we're fortunate to have uh jobs and retain them um we feel we have a great employer and um covid has impacted our work a little bit not obviously we're working from home and gone through many many lockdowns so that's been a little bit trying but certainly not to the extent that other people have felt it. So we remain fortunate and we know that.

How does it affect our plans going forward? I think we're probably still on target to do the semi-retirement thing in a few years. I know for a fact, to be honest, Jessica, we could have, you know, financial independence work on own terms probably a few years ago had we not bought the condo and moved and some of the things that I talked about earlier. But you know what?

At the end of the day, life is not about making the best optimal financial choice. It's about making the best decision at the time. And sometimes those things work out in your favor and sometimes they don't. So I would say we're still in line to some sort of semi-retirement of yours, which feels great. Hopefully, we can travel again and I can get better fitness and go on my bike more and golf a bit more and do some other things, volunteer more in the community. Things I've kind of put off because I just don't feel like I have the bandwidth and new ventures, whatever they may be. But yeah, that's the game plan for us. We want to be able to take advantage of our health while we're in our 40s and 50s and 60s. And who knows what's around

the corner. But there's a lot of other things we want to contribute to. So hopefully, we'll be able to take advantage of that soon. And does semi-retirement for you mean working part-time? Is that what that means to you? I think so. I think so. I'd love to stay with my current employer. I don't know if some of them may be listening. I don't know. But I'll be honest. It'd be nice to stay with the current employer and work part-time, do some contract work or consulting work with them if they'll have us. But at the end of the day, this is very much our decision and our journey. And if it doesn't come to pass, that's okay. We've tried to save

a bit of money and have some other hobbies like the blog and other things that may not provide minimum wage money, and that's okay. But it's a labor of love. And if it's something that grows more over time, cool. But if not, maybe there's other things we can get involved with and have a little side income beyond the dividends and the ETF distributions and other things like that. So there's always things to think about. But that's the game plan is to not quit work or end full-time work right away. Really, I think a transition is something that we're both looking at because it just makes the most sense for us. And it hedges so many other risks

in terms of healthcare sequence of returns with the market i mean you could go on and on housing who knows if things will crash or burn or whatever so yeah yeah that's the game plan sounds like a good plan well i know in terms of you know your website obviously you have my own advisor but you also co-founded cash flows and portfolios not too long ago when did you launch that a few months ago yeah just a few months ago Yeah. And so tell me what it is. Why did you put it together? Who is it for? What can people expect? Yeah, cool. So you're right. I have my own advisor. So that's my ownadvisor.ca. And that's really my blog and my personal story and, you know, my passions and interviews and giveaways and stuff. But you're right,

I launched cashflowsandportfolios.com. And it it's a new site and really what we're trying to do with that site with my uh partner is is really provide some end-to-end guidance almost like how-to guidance for folks so you know um we've recently posted the last couple months um uh kind of everything you need to know about the tfsa of everything you need to know about the TFSA and everything you need to know about the RSP. And we tend to build upon those, or we intend to build upon those rather, over long periods of time to make those kind of standalone,

really, you know, beasts of a post. It's going to be a lot of reading, but it's also going to be tons of details. But what we'll try to do over time is, you know, maybe think about packaging those things into some sort of ebook. Or a course with videos or something. Or a course with videos. Yeah, who knows?

No, maybe just more ebooks. But yeah, who knows what the future holds. But also as part of that site, we're also offering case studies. And I think people learn, adults learn in some cases by example, right? They want to see what other people are doing. They want to see. Oh, I love seeing what other people are doing. It's my favorite thing. You know, what is this fire person doing at 50? Or what's this person on a low income doing at 60

to fund their retirement? So we want to build examples through case studies on the site and showcase how we can basically demonstrate that these people will be financially okay, or they've got multiple income streams to secure their retirement, or maybe they could do the side gig, semi-retirement, and they'll be fine. There's so many things that make personal finance personal. We just wanted to create a site that's a little bit different, that offers a little bit more case studies and offers some services related to those case studies should people want to reach out to us and contact us and say, hey, you know, I want to be profiled. I want to take advantage of maybe your services. And so we're offering that

in terms of, you know, basically a package where you ask us what you need and we can have a conversation about what kind of service that may offer in terms of running some projections for you. And that's really it. That's certainly no advice. It's certainly not, I would say any detailed coaching just because we're not qualified and we don't want to be in that position. Obviously. I want to get sued. I'm always like,

I don't want to get sued. Yeah. But at the same time, we know, we know people back to our earlier point, you know, 20, 2009,

2010, people are clamoring for financial information. They want to know that what they're doing is safe and smart, or they want an objective opinion from you and some of your things that you're doing or other people. So, yeah, that's what that site is all about. We're happy to offer something a little bit different and unique in terms of case studies and examples for Canadians. So I would encourage them to check it out at cashflowsandperformers.com. But the My Own Advisor site is certainly not going anywhere anytime soon. Oh, good. It's funny. I feel like I've never really thought about the name of your website, My Own Advisor. I never really thought about what does that mean? Learning about like just hearing you kind of describe your journey. I'm like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. But also, I think I didn't record

this part where we were kind of chatting beforehand. You know, we get probably asked all the time, can you give me some advice? And it's like, no, I cannot give you advice. I can give you some information and some education. That is all I can give. But it is so difficult in Canada to actually get investment advice that's unbiased. I feel like it actually is impossible. If you work with a fee-only financial planner, they can't actually give you specific investment advice because they do not have the proper licenses. And if you do work with an investment professional with the specific licenses, they're going to be selling your products so they're not unbiased. So we as Canadians are kind of, we kind of have to be

our own advisor a little bit. That's why, I, I do my own thing. And I'm still a big fan of working with a fee only planner because they can help you in so many other aspects when it comes to the investing side of things. In my mind, it just makes so much sense to be either a you know, do it yourself investor or use a robo advisor if you want kind of that middle ground someone is, you know, it's still being managed. But again, you there's more transparency, you know, what's going on. But yeah, it's like we all kind of have to be our own advisor. I just had a moment like, oh my God, that makes so much sense. Yeah. That's the Easter egg of the whole name on my site. Yeah. I mean, back to my site, it is the whole journey. It's my, you know, I am my own advisor, right?

So whether it's understanding insurance or bad mortgage life insurance, or don't invest in penny stocks or on all the other things we talked about. Or it's about investment and making smart decisions and making smart mortgage decisions. I mean, that's the whole site. It runs the gamut of all those things in personal finance. But I would 110% agree with you. It's very challenging to get unbiased advice. You're either working, like you say, with a fee-only planner, which I would say there's a couple directories out there in the Canadian space that we could

probably link to in your show notes or whatever. Yeah, there's not a lot of them. I have a few on my website, but there's not a lot of fee-only planners in Canada, really. Exactly. And so I would gravitate to them if you need planning advice. They do an excellent job of taking you A to Z in terms of understanding whether it's investments and where your money's going and estate planning and other things. But you're right in terms of getting specific product experience or product recommendations. That's really hard. You're walking a fine line with someone that has a bias to having their assets under management from you. And so where do you go? Certainly, Robe Advisors, I would second that as well. But it's kind of in this gray zone, unfortunately, in Canada, where you do need to take a few things

into your own hands because the regulatory framework, to be honest, is not helping Canadians to date. I'm optimistic things will change over time. But certainly, hopefully, through independent bloggers, podcasters, and content folks that are really passionate about this stuff. And we're all doing it for our own best interest. I'm optimistic that if we share our stories, our experiences, our highlights, but also our pitfalls, you know, I think every Canadian can take something from some of these sites and learn something and really tailor their own plan. And I know you're very good to answer reader questions and the like, and I try to do the same on my site for that reason, because we all started out from somewhere, right? And we all needed to know some answers. And it's really helpful to gravitate to people who are willing to take the time to write back and provide a perspective, even if it's

personal, it's a perspective that people can take and absorb and be a bit of a sponge. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you've got so many great resources, like we mentioned, my own advisor and cash flows and portfolios and also follow you on Twitter. I enjoy you and all the other kind of regular personal finance folks on Twitter. I just like to creep. I don't really sometimes even join you guys.

I just like creeping on your conversations. See what you're talking about. It's fun. I like to. It's one of my main channels. I mean, I know. I know. I feel like it's not cool anymore, but Twitter used to be cool, but I guess it's for old people like us. It's old people like us. Yeah. I mean, everyone's on TikTok and other kind of media now, but I still like it.

I get a lot of engagement out of folks like you and other bloggers and some of the financial journalists that I know really well across the country who are retired or still working, Globe and Mail or Financial Post or otherwise. So, you know, Alan Roseman, you know, the names go on and on. But it's great to interact with all those people and learn from them and see what they've done, but also see what they're writing about or talking about. I still find it fun. So, you know, all that to say, continue to creep as well as much as you want. I will. You know where to find the crew of us. I know there is a bit of a crew and I like it. It's very cool. So thanks for joining me. It was too long. Like I really should have had you on the show so much sooner. But you know what? We have more to talk about now because it's been so long.

So it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. I'll have to have you back, maybe especially too once you actually, you know, are semi-retired and you've actually done that. I want to get an update. Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Yeah. So obviously we'll stay in touch, but I'm happy to be back anytime, Jessica. And kudos to all the work you're doing with your site and pleasure to be here again.

And that was episode 283 with Mark Seed. Make sure to check out his stuff at my own advisor.ca. Also, cash flows and portfolios.com, his other project. If you're a DIY investor, highly recommend just checking out both of his websites. They're amazing. Also, make sure to follow him on the Twitter at my own advisor, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. And of course, if you want to learn more about some of the things that we talked about or just find all of the links in one nice place, you can check out the show notes for this episode,

jessicamorehouse.com slash 283. Now, as always, I have some important things to share, some announcements that you will not want to miss. I just have a few words I want to share about this podcast episode sponsor, and then I will get to some very exciting things. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by TD Direct Investing. June is Options Education Month, and TD Direct Investing is hosting a number of free virtual events throughout the month to educate both beginners and more advanced investors about, well, their options with trading options. Or if you want a full walkthrough of options trading for beginners, there are also a number of on-demand video lessons that will walk you through what options are, common option terms such as calls and puts, what the difference between in-the-money and

out-of-the-money options are, and a whole bunch more. To learn more and to find out what free events you'd like to check out, visit td.com slash options education month. Once again, to find out what webinars, masterclasses, and on-demand video lessons are available to view for free, visit td.com slash options education month. Okay, so number one, just a reminder, I have a big book giveaway right now. I think at this very moment, I'm giving away 10 books and I'm going to add another four in the coming weeks because I have more authors coming on the show. You can find out more information about that at jessicamorehouse.com slash contest or also just check out the show notes for this episode jessicamorehouse.com slash 283 is where you can enter to win again, I'm giving away a ton of books. So you have actually a better chance of

winning because there's a lot of books to be had. Also, I do want to share just in case you're wondering, hey, when are we wrapping up this season of the show? Because if you're a longtime listener, typically, I would probably be wrapping it up like this week, actually, this is the week that I would usually end the season. Not this year. I just had a lot of great guests on the show that kept on coming. And I'm like, yeah, okay, let's do it. Let's record it. And so I'm actually going to be extending my season. So the last episode should air the second week of July. And actually, there's in the coming weeks, there's gonna be a couple bonus podcast episodes. So sometimes there's gonna be two episodes in one week. And the final week, there's gonna be three episodes. Yeah, crazy. So anyways, in terms of the book giveaway,

so I will be announcing those winners most likely not on the podcast, because I do want to give you some time to enter to win and also the final week I do have an author coming on. And so that's when I add in that book to to enter to win. So it coincides with the interview. So I'll probably announce the winners like the following week. So I probably Yeah, I won't announce it on the podcast. That's why you have to get on my email list to find out who are the winners. Obviously, if you win, I'm going to email you directly. But to stay in touch, you got to get on my email list because you may not have known if you were not on my email list. Not only did I do a webinar on Tuesday, May 25, I actually did a second one because it was like actually surprising to me,

the huge demand for me to do another webinar on the same topic. It's about investing guys. So I did one on May 25. And I did one yesterday on June 1. Because yeah, I had hundreds of people wanting to get in and couldn't make it. So I thought I'd redo it. So if you're on my email list, then you were notified that I was doing another webinar. But yeah, but I didn't have time to announce it on the podcast because I already, you know, edited the episode. So I'm so sorry. But that being said, I'm probably going to do a few more webinars throughout the summer while I'm kind of off the podcast. So again, great way to stay in touch with me. Get on my email list, jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe. If you just go to jessicamorehouse.com, you'll be able to easily find ways to get onto that email list. Also follow me on the gram,

because I'm a gran and still say the gram and no one else says that, right? No one says that. Instagram, you can find me at jessicamorehouse. And you can also follow the podcast specifically at More Money Podcast. I don't typically announce things like webinars or things like that on the podcast. It's really just to show you, hey, there's a new episode.

That's kind of it. So follow me on Jessica I Morehouse on Instagram. I also usually announce these things on Twitter. You can find me at J E S S I underscore Morehouse. But the email list is really just the best way to kind of stay in touch with me if I'm perfectly honest. But Instagram is fun because pretty much weekly, I do and ask me anything but you know, on a specific topic, whether it's you know, debt or budgeting or self employment or taxes or investing, I usually do kind of, you know, give me your questions and I will answer them. They're

a lot of fun. So you can participate. I typically do those on Tuesdays at noon Eastern time, but I will be doing some more webinars. But another thing to also notify you about is I have a YouTube channel. I have actually been very consistent with it, putting an episode or not an episode, my gosh, a video out every single week. So I will be continuing to do that throughout the summer because I have no summer plans. I mean, I don't think I'm going anywhere because you know I'm not going anywhere until I get my second vaccine dose like that's just what's happening so yeah and also the first you know the first place I'm going is Vancouver so I can visit my family but so so with that I'm staying here in Toronto in my little office so I will be turning out some more videos.

So make sure to check me out. You can find that info at jessicamorehouse.com slash YouTube. It'll redirect you to my YouTube channel or just Google Jessica Morehouse in YouTube and you will find me right there. Anything else exciting to share with you? I think that's kind of it at the moment. So I'm going to leave you there, but I will be back next week. You're not going to want to miss next week's episode. I've got, I've got someone big. Should I tease it? Should I tell you who I've got next week? Okay, fine.

I'll tell you. I've got Tiffany Aliche, the founder of the Budgetnista, and she has a new book out that has been a New York Times bestseller for weeks and weeks and weeks. So I can't wait to have her on. So make sure to come back here next Wednesday to hear that episode. Okay, that is it for me. Thank you so much for listening. A big thank you to my podcast editor Matt Rideout. Have a good rest of your week. Stay safe. Enjoy the hopefully nice weather and I will see you back here next Wednesday. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.