More Money Podcast - 317 How to Retire on Your Own Terms - Ryan Goldsman, President of Monkey Credits

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

If you’ve ever been curious about what it takes to become a CFP, how to get your foot in the door of the Canadian financial industry, or how to set yourself for a successful retirement in Canada...then this episode is going to be just what you've been looking for. In this episode, I’m joined by Ryan Goldsman, the President of Monkey Credits and the author of Elmer's Nine & Dine: A Guide to Retirement Planning.  Ryan Goldsman is a Certified Financial Planner, has worked for some of Canada’s largest banks, and has taught at George Brown College in their financial planning program. He is now focused on growing his continuing education platform, Monkey Credits Inc. which offers courses to help future CFPs. Ryan shares how Monkey Credits was never meant to be a business, but 5 years on he’s looking to expand its offerings to help further the education of financial planners across Canada. We also talk about his book Elmer's Nine & Dine, which is a succinct guide to retirement planning for Canadians (and a book I think every Canadian should read). For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/317 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is episode 317, and I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back to the show. I hope you liked last week's episode, because I really did. I got some really great feedback on it. If you want to check it out, this is episode 316. It's all about learning the beauty and the art of investing in fine wine. Who doesn't love the idea of investing in wine? Maybe I just like wine and investing. So it's, you know, my favorite. But for this episode, we're gonna, you know, do something a little bit different. We're not gonna be talking about wine, we're gonna be talking about, I mean, a bunch of things we're gonna talk about, you know,

maybe I should introduce my guests, maybe that would be helpful for you to get some context. I'm sorry. Sometimes I like to just jump right in. I've got Ryan Goldsman on the show. He is the president and owner of Monkey Credits. He's also the author of Elmer's Nine and Dine, a guide to retirement planning, which I will be giving away a copy of. So make sure to listen to the end of this episode to find out how to enter to win. But we're going to be talking about a few different things. We're obviously going to be talking about topics that he mentioned in his book. So retirement planning, we're going to be jumping right into that. I really highly recommend actually getting a copy of his book because it's nice and short and succinct, but also it's specific for Canadians, which as a Canadian, if you know, if you're looking for some, you know, a book that

is Canadian specific, not a lot of them. I'll tell you that right now. I know this for a fact, there's not a lot of Canadian specific personal finance books, which is crazy. But not only are we going to be talking about that, I also wanted to talk about because he is, he runs his company Monkey Credits, which is, you know, a company that is focused on helping, you know, people in the financial services industry get their, you know, CEUs, which stands for continuing education units, which is something that I always have to do as an accredited financial counselor, if you don't know. So he, you know, is, you know, continuing to train people in the financial field. And personally, I get a lot of questions from people typically from like some of my YouTube videos, because I've done a few videos specifically on how to pass the Canadian securities course in financial planning one through the CSI. And I always get questions like,

how do I get a job? Or, you know, how do I, you know, make it in, you know, the Canadian financial industry? And I usually, you know, respond, I have no idea. I've never worked for a financial institution. I've never worked in the traditional financial field. So I have no idea. I've never worked for a financial institution. I've never worked in the traditional financial field. So I have no idea. So that is also why I want to have Ryan on the show. So he can kind of talk about his experience. He's a CFP and worked in the field. And also, why did he start his company to, you know, educate people and just like, what are some things that you should think about in terms of, you know, getting into the industry of that is something that you want to do. So lots of exciting topics we explore in this episode. But before I get to that interview

with Ryan, just a few things I want to share about today's podcast episode sponsor. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by TurboTax Canada. It's another tax season, but things are going to be a bit different for many Canadians this year. For instance, did you know that 60% of Canadians started a side hustle in 2021? As someone who started her first side hustle a decade ago, then made it into her full-time gig, I love hearing things like this. But it could also be why I've been bombarded with tax questions over the past 12 months. Let me be real with you. If you have a side hustle on top of your day job, or if you've recently become your own boss, well, your taxes will be a bit more complicated than normal. But thanks to TurboTax and their suite of services, no matter what tax situation you

find yourself in, they've got you covered. All you have to do is go to TurboTax.ca and hit the Get Started button. From there, they'll suggest the right tax service to best fit your needs. For example, you can use TurboTax and do your taxes yourself, or you can use their assistant review service to get a real tax expert to guide you through the platform and then review your return to make sure you don't miss anything before you file. Or if even thinking about doing your taxes gets your palms sweaty, you can also hand everything over to one of TurboTax's qualified tax experts to do it all for you with their full service option. To get a jumpstart on your taxes with TurboTax, Canada's number one tax software trusted by millions of Canadians for over 20

years, visit TurboTax.ca. Once again, visit TurboTax.ca to get started. Well, welcome, Ryan, to the More Money Podcast. I'm so excited to have you on to chat about a variety of things. So welcome to the show. Great. Well, thanks for having me, Jessica. I appreciate it. You're so welcome. So, you know, let's, you know, before we dive in, like before I hit that record button, like, oh, there's quite a few things I want to chat to you about because you have this book on retirement planning, but also you have the company called Monkey Credits, which is also, you know, more about helping people who work in, you know, the financial industry, getting their kind of

continuing education credits. So we've got a lot to cover. But first, I'm so curious, especially reading the book and, you know, knowing it's sort of fiction, but sort of not, I kind of want to know your background, like how the book is like kind of a, you know, a depiction of you going on a golf trip with your mom and asking her a bunch of questions about, you know, retirement planning. Is this totally fiction or did this happen? Well, it's about half and half. In real life, my mom is not a certified financial planner. It's me who is. Yeah, I just I thought it would be a lot easier to have somebody who's kind of more established, who's had a 30-year career to do the explaining to somebody younger, right? It would be easier for the reader. And the golf

course, in fact, is members at the course. I walked the course a few hundred times. It was fantastic. I loved it. But it was just, that's to me how I wanted to present the information to keep the reader engaged. Yeah, I liked it. It was different. I know nothing about golf. So some of that stuff, I honestly had to skip over because I'm like this is more complicated than the retirement information all the pars and stuff I'm like I know mini golf and even then I'm not quite sure I ever do it right um so yeah okay that's interesting so uh I'm curious so yeah you've had a very uh long career um as a you know financial planner how did how did you kind of get into that?

So when I was in my very early 20s, I still had a year left in university and I was looking for a job in the financial industry. I was working in a warehouse at the time and this is back before LinkedIn in the days where you had Monster and Workopolis and all that and, you know, I'd put in financial something or other or an investment. And I always put in Montreal because I was living in Montreal. And I forgot to put that in one time. And I guess all these jobs from Toronto came up. And I said, whoa, I said, what's happening here? And I looked around and I went, OK, well, if you're bilingual, there know, 50 different jobs out there. This is in 2006, midway through the year. So it's before the big

crash in 08. Yeah. Yeah. And things were different then. And so I sent my resume to a great company that I was still in touch with called Bilingual Source. And they said, look, we only do bilingual jobs, mostly entry level. So if you speak English and French, they basically said, we'll find a job for you. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, especially right now, they have a lot of jobs, but not a lot of candidates because, well, employees, things are looking good for employees right now. Yeah, so I got into it like that. I was working in a call center. So hot tip for anyone listening, you're looking for a job, right?

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it was a great opportunity. I started with one of the big banks working in a call center. I got great experience. Went to another call center after about a year and a half. Was there for about two and a half years. Then I did the CFP and I became a financial planner and did that for about three years before moving on. Yeah. Since then, I've done a whole bunch of things. I was in a classroom. I was teaching. And then I started Monkey Credits and wrote this book. So it's been fun so far.

Yeah. I'm curious, just as someone, I'm slowly pursuing my CFP. I don't know how long regular people take to do it. It's taken me forever, but that's probably because I'm also working full-time, running my own business. And so I'm chipping away at it very slowly. How long does it take? I mean, how long did it take you? I know, obviously, maybe things have changed since you did it in the past.

I know the CFP program has changed significantly. But what kind of time commitment are we looking at to do that? Well, for somebody who's new coming out of school, there's a lot to learn, right? Especially if you're new to Canada. The whole tax system, government plans, and all that takes a little bit longer because you've never really heard about it. With me, I heard about it around the dinner table. So for somebody with more experience, it's going to be a bit less, but it's definitely a few hundred hours. Back when I did it, the exam was one exam.

It was six hours, and that was it. There was no case study. And then it changed. It went to two exams. Then it went to either the QAFP or the CFP, and they introduced a capstone and different preparation, which I think now candidates are better prepared. I know in my case, it was at the time you weren't downloading anything off the internet. You have to, you know, call. There was a company that did it.

And you would buy these manuals, which were these two giant binders. And they had to ship it to you. And I would sit there reading these, basically, these instruction manuals. And I did it. And that's what I had to do. I was, you know, I think I was 23 years old. I became a CFP professional. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. I'm just thinking, like, if I can become a CFP professional. So, oh my gosh. Yeah. I'm just thinking like, if I can become a CFP by the time I hit 40, I'll be very pleased with myself because so far my track record is like doing one course per year, but we'll, we'll just see how things go. But yeah, like you said, it's, it's changed over time. There's a lot more, you know, studying and exams and coursework to do, but I think maybe that's probably for the best. I mean, you want people that are studying to become financial planners to be well-informed and well-prepared.

So what led you then to create your company, Monkey Credits, that kind of helps people that are professionals continue with their education? Because that's the other component I think people forget about. It's not just about, oh, finally have my designation. I mean, as an example, I already have my accredited financial counselor designation. And that's another thing that I constantly have to get continuing education credits in order to maintain that designation. So it's never just done. So what kind of inspired you to start this company?

Well, obviously, I'm big into education. I talked earlier about having, you know, left university early. Well, last year with COVID, I was able to go back and actually complete my undergrad. So that was after a 15-year gap. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So what was happening? I was actually doing, I completed the CFP and I was

undertaking the CFA designation. And a friend of mine named Michael Holinka teaches passing the CFA exams at the University of Toronto. And we were sitting one day and I said, well, what if we did something like that? And I wrote all the content and we did it and we started teaching passing the CFP exams. I said, do you think that would work? And he went, yeah, what if we did something like that? And I wrote all the content. We did it. And we started teaching, passing the CFP exams. I said, do you think that would work? And he went, yeah, that's a great idea. He says, you know, he says, I've been doing this a long time. The worst thing is having to prepare all the content.

But he says, if you want to do it, absolutely. And I said, OK, great. And then I thought, OK, like, how are we going to get this thing off the ground? And what he was doing for anybody in the CFA industry and anybody in financial planning in the industry, if you go to michaelholinka.com, there's all kinds of cool preparation for the CSC exam. There's a jobs list. He does football betting and runs it as an investment portfolio. So he tries all these different things. And so we were sitting there and so I said, well, you know,

you have this jobs email list where you're current, you're top of mind, and people talk about the program that they've gone through with you. And that's how you get referrals. And I said, I got to do something like that. And I didn't think it made sense to duplicate what he was doing. So I thought, okay, well, you have to get these CE credits. So I thought anybody who would come through that program, I'll just give them a huge discount on CE. And all kinds of different things happened. And unfortunately, we never launched the course in the classroom. But I started doing the CE. And I really enjoyed doing that. And it's been since 2018. We started at the beginning of the year. So we're coming up on five years, hopefully soon. And that's how it started. It was never actually meant to be a business on itself. It's just I really enjoyed

it and thought it was an awful lot of fun. And then I looked around and said, well, I can do this for other industries. And so earlier this year, we started something called Zebra Credits. And it turns out that funeral directors and embalmers also need continuing education credits. So we're trying to build out the zoo. Wow. Oh, I love that. Building out the zoo. I love that. That's great. I'm curious. So how do you, you know, I guess, create the programs for, you know, these CE credits? How do you determine, oh, this would be a good thing that, you know, would, you know, be great to continue

educating financial planners? How do you come up with that content? Well, having been in the field myself for close to a decade or so, also I was in a classroom I taught at George Brown College for three or four years. Whenever the same question comes up time and time again, that's something that people are going to want to cover and kind of go over a second time for a refresher. And also when I, for about three years, I was a financial planner. I met clients face to face and I had a practice. There were certain things that people just always had questions on. And like CPP is one of those things and old age security as well. And anytime there's a change to any of these things, that's something that people need to go over. And it's relevant to financial planning. So those are, were the easiest things to kind of go after. And we tried a bunch of different things. Some things worked, some things didn't. You know, some courses we've, we've retired them and others we've, we've, you know, continued to improve them.

So trial and error, some of it interesting well now i'm curious what are besides like cpp and oas and um those types of things what are some other common questions you used to get from students um students wanted to know more about how how the system worked um and it could be everything from, in one class, I handed out an assignment, they came back, and it was the first semester, there were many students from different countries, which is perfectly fine. And I was reading through it, and I went, okay, hold on here, how many zeros are here for this 10 million? Because in Canada, it's three zeros, then three zeros, then 10. Well, I had to kind of go over that in a second class and

say, okay, this is kind of the standard convention here. So it could be something that simple to, you know, how is like a reverse mortgage actually built? And it's not just like the bank pays you the way we pay the bank when we have a mortgage, the bank will actually go and fund the entire amount right away and then buy an annuity with it. And then the insurance company pays you. So stuff like that where it's like behind the scenes, how does it work? So that's kind of where there's value at, I guess. Yeah. I mean, just hearing all of this and even for me as someone.

So I started, you know, kind of this journey in personal finance education 10 years ago just with a simple blog. And then it kind of evolved over time. And it's, I think part of the reason I love this, you know, field is because you're always learning something new. There's no, you'll never come to, at least for me, I feel like I'm never going to get to a point where I'm like, I know it all. Because everything changes or there's just always something new that kind of pops up. But then then I think about, you know, one of the irritating things that I hear from or one of the kind of gripes I hear from people that listen to the show is there's so much to know. And it's almost impossible to keep up because there are those changes. What are your kind of thoughts on that? Yeah, I know. I remember joining the industry.

It was 2006. And I think by 2010, people were walking around going, there's been more changes in this industry in the last 10 years than in the 100 before that. And that's just been par for the course. We're not the only industry where that's happening. That is unfortunately or fortunately the new norm. As an example, I'm reading up on ESG investing, so environmental, social, and governance, which is a new thing that's becoming part of the equation when you invest money, let's say. At the same time, with things like machine learning or the automation or artificial intelligence, it's not just the financial industry that's becoming more automated. It's all industries.

So you kind of need to know a bit about that to find out how is this going to impact all these other industries and do I want to have a lot of money invested in them? So that is the new norm. And it does take a lot. Hence, I went into the C space, I guess, at the right time. Yeah, no, absolutely. I feel like, you know, it's, yeah, like you said, so much has changed, especially in the last decade. I mean, when you look back to some of the things in some of the books I was reading 10 years ago, the amount of stuff that I've had to kind of unlearn and relearn since then, because all of the new, you know, advancements in technology, new regulations, and everything like that, it's, you know, it's a lot to, you know, handle. But I guess that also keeps it very exciting. And also, yeah, a great, you know, reason for you to continue with your company

because there's always going to be stuff to continue learning. So one question I had, because like I mentioned before, I hit the record button. I get so many questions on the regular from people who want to pursue a career as a CFP or just in the financial service industries

in some capacity. Because I've made a few videos on my YouTube channel about passing some of the exams like the CSC financial planning one through the CSI and I get questions about how do I crack it into the you know industry how do I get my foot in the door and to which I'm like I do not know I am going at a very bizarre route kind of taking these courses as I'm already working in my own company. So I don't know how I've never worked for a bank or financial institution. I would not even know the first step to get a get a job.

Yeah. Would you I'm sure you get questions like that as well. You know, what would you say to people? What is kind of a path or two that people can pursue? Yeah, so that I do get that all the time. When I was teaching at George Brown prior to COVID, I got that all the time. And a lot of a lot of people go, well, I want to get into the industry. I said, well, what do you want to do? Well, I don't know exactly. So if you know what you want to do, you can kind of set that as your end goal and say, what's the career path to get there and then kind of start at the beginning. So that's a bit easier. When you don't know what you want to do, I, you know, I asked, you know, what do you, what environment do you want to be in? Do you, do you want to be client facing? Do you want to be in sales? Do you want to do analysis? And

sometimes they, you know, they kind of have an idea. And so I tell them kind of to go down that path. And every now and then they're like, I don't know. I want to do all of the above or I'm not sure. And I say, well, you know, you need to kind of get your foot in the door somewhere, hopefully at a big company. Because if you're at a large company, they probably have a lot of different, you know, lines of business. And that includes insurance, which a lot of people don't kind of think about or they kind of put at the back of the line. Whenever I go into a bank branch and I see one of my old students who's there as the teller, who's serving me and looking through my accounts, I kind of have to laugh because I go,

well, I, you know, can't really be upset. I mean, the person took my advice and now they're going through my finances. The best thing to do is to get a position where you're going to get experience and you're going to get exposure to a lot of different things. For me, it was a call center and then a second one. For others, it's being in a bank branch and kind of starting off as a teller and getting your feet wet and moving around within a large corporation before figuring out if you want to stay there or if you want to go do something else. So the best thing is to get your feet wet and get exposure to it. So one question I get a lot from, you know, people that, you know, watch some of those videos and want to pursue a career in the financial services industry in Canada is, you know, should they start taking courses through, you know, an organization like the

Canadian Securities Institute now, or should they wait to kind of, like you said, get their foot in the door, you know, become a bank teller or whatever kind of role they can find in the industry and then maybe see if their employer will, you know, pay for that education, you know, should they, you know, would it help them if they had that on their resume? Or is it, you know, kind of too early? Yeah, so that's actually a very, very, very good question. And students ask me that all the time. And what happens is that when you do the Canadian Securities course,

obviously once you do it, you've completed it, it's accomplished. But if you want to go and work in wealth management and be licensed with what's called IROC, which is spelled I-I-R-O-C, you only have a certain amount of time. I think it's three years after passing the Canadian securities course to go and get licensed. So if you know that's where you're going to be going, then yes, it makes sense to do it. If you're not sure, it still makes sense to do it because when you go through these online job applications now, you either check the box that you have the course or you don't check the box that you have the course. And when they filter it out because

they get so many different applicants, nobody even looks at your resume. So it's definitely going to help to have it. It's just I know a lot of people who have had to go and redo it after five or 10 years in the industry when they move over to wealth management. So that is a course I never want to take again. I never want to take those exams again. They were brutal. Yeah. So Jessica, let me tell you about my experience doing it. I was about 21 years old and I thought, okay, I'll do this and I'll show some initiative and all that. And so I went and I wrote the first exam. And this is back when it was paper-based. There's no computer-based at this point. And so I write the exam, I submit it, and I go home, and I'm waiting at home for them to, there's no logging in or anything. They have to mail you the results in the mail.

And so I get 60% on the first exam, and I went, oh, okay, I passed. You need 60 on the first to pass, and 60 on the second to pass, and you need 60 overall. And I went, okay, great. And so sure enough, I go back, and I study, and I study enough, I go back and I study and I study and I study and I oversteady because I'm not taking chances now. I barely got through the first one. And sure enough, what happens? I get 60% on the second one. And I don't know anybody else that's done that. But I said, well, I'm never ever going to do this again or so I hope. I've yet to have to do it again, but I have taught it though. Well, I'll let you in on a secret, and I've never revealed this. Because I know it is a freaking hard, you don't even know.

I also gave myself not enough time to study because I did it in 2020, so the fall of 2020. And it's because I actually signed up for it a few years prior, and then I had to renew because the license expired. So to pay extra money, because I just didn't have the time to study. And I'm like, okay, we're in this pandemic, we're locked down, I'm going to study. But the kind of expiry for the course was coming up, they gave me an extension because of COVID, which was great. So I had three months to study both big textbooks and pass both exams. And that, believe me, was a lot of pressure. I did it somehow, but for the first exam, and also, you know how scary it is during COVID when there's no vaccines and anything, you actually had to go to the center. They were not doing any remote exams.

So I had to go there with all these people with masks, hoping I'm not going to get COVID and hoping I pass. So there's a lot of pressure. The first exam, gosh, I think I got 61 or 62. The second one about 62 or 63. Like it was by the skin of my teeth. I passed, but I'm like, you know what? It's not about what grade you get. It's about passing. So I don't care. And I never want to take that exam again. Oh my goodness. I think part of it, you know, it's probably worse for you because you had to wait for that that letter in the mail. You know, you because there are some people like back when I did it, you still had the option to do the paper based, which was like basically free. Like you didn't have to pay an extra fee to take that exam. But if you did the computer based one, you did have to pay an extra fee, like $25 or 50 bucks. And I'm like, Oh, I'm definitely doing the commuter one. I don't want to mess up on the paper one and all that. That's a whole other level of anxiety. So let's do the computer one. But I was talking to someone who finished at, you know, at the same time as me. I'm like, Oh, how do you think you did? He's like, I have no idea. But now I have to wait for my results in the mail. I'm like, Oh, at least for me, it's I got that instant like pass fail. Yeah, exactly. And the pass is green,

the fail is red I've seen both of them for different exams but yeah well that's the thing I did I did another exam in the summer and I'm happy to share this too because it's also important to share you know just the realities of things it's like I did FP2 in the summer also did not give myself enough time to study but I'm like I need to do this because uh again i always leave things to the last minute and i was just a few percentage points away from passing i was so calm i'm like oh i got this in the bag i felt good and it's like fail and you're like what happened here i know and then it's they don't reveal the percentage you got until a few days later on your on the portal and then it was like literally just a few points away i'm like that is that is like i almost wish, I almost wish I failed by a lot more because then I would have known, okay, we needed a lot more

work. But I'm like, that's irritating, just a few points away. And so that's why I have to do it again this year. Well, the good news is you're starting already at just a few points away. So you have to build on that. So that's a good, good thing. And I've got all my, you know, note cards. I've got a little system. Yeah. Hopefully this will, will go a lot easier,, you know, note cards. I've got a little system. Hopefully this will go a lot easier. But, you know, it's no fun redoing an exam because it's so much you have to square away so much time to study. And for me, too, is so different than any kind of studies I did in my undergrad. So it's a bit of a learning curve, but also really kind of fun. Like I realize I actually do really like it. And so that's always a good sign. You're like, if you're actually enjoying what you're studying, then that's definitely the route you want to take.

OK, so I want to pivot a little bit. Like you said, I think that's actually a really good point is if you do want it, like it can be beneficial on your resume if you take some of these courses. But, yeah, definitely be aware of like that. The three year rule for the CSC. There's so many people I talk to like, oh, I'm finishing high school or or just finishing university. I'm like, you know what? Maybe wait, because what if it expires and you have to take that exam again? You do not want to do that. But anyways, so I think that's really helpful. But I want to kind of pivot and talk more about your book specifically, which I really like, especially because it's nice and short and succinct. There's so many books that are just like go on and on. It's like, no, just give me

the information, please. So it's called Elmer's Nine and Dining Guide to Retirement Planning. Yeah. What got you kind of motivated or inspired to write this book that seems like a great book just to give to anyone who doesn't know where to start? I think like for me, I hear all the time from my audience of all ages, this the anxiety around retirement planning, because it is complex. And it sometimes seems like depending on who you talk to, you get different answers. So in your view, where do you start when it comes to retirement planning or what does retirement planning actually mean? Well, retirement planning, at least to me today, is that you can go and do the things you want to do.

You don't have the restrictions of having to get up and go to the office or, you know, the restrictions of, in a lot of cases, it's financial. Um, so when I start, I, you know, when I was meeting clients, I'd sit there and I'd say, well, you know, what does your retirement look like? Um, you know, what do you want to be doing? And some of them would just kind of sit there and go, I don't really know. I'm, I said, well, what do you do on vacation or, you know, on the weekends? Well, we sit and read the paper.

Well, is that what you want to be doing in retirement? And some of them would say yes, and so they don't need a lot of money. Other people would say, no, I want to travel. I want to travel 10 times a year. Okay, well, now we've got more work to do, and that's perfectly fine. I mean, in Canada, everyone who's been in Canada for 40 years or if you're born here, I mean, you're going to get full old age security. And if you've worked, you'll get money from the Canadian or the Quebec pension plan. And, you know, I talk about those are the first two chapters in the books. And we talk about pensions if you have them and RSPs and TFSAs and, you know, what happens if you're working parttime if you need to be and how you can increase your

CPP. And we just kind of go over the main pillars, right? We talk about how to generate the retirement income, which is good because a lot of people don't realize that. So there's a lot of different strategies to implement. Obviously, the more complex someone's family situation or investable assets or whatever it is, the more work there is to do. But ultimately, it starts by asking the person, what do I want to do or what do we want to do in retirement? And that's kind of why I wrote the book. And I made it as much to the point as I could to get the basics in because most people don't have the attention span to read a large textbook. Most people don't want to deal with financial planning. And when I was in the field, that was one of the biggest problems.

I'd see my coworkers. There were people banging down their doors to get the mortgage because their house was closing tomorrow or next week or whatever it is. And I'm sitting there going, well, you know, it's, you know, it's the month of May. And, you know, they say, call me next month. And, you know, I'm just going outside to enjoy the nice weather. Then it's, well, there's summer vacation, et cetera, et cetera. Call me in September. Nobody really wants to deal with it. And I've always been a firm believer that, you know, if you take care of your money, your money takes care of you. And it's better late than never. So to those who are listening who have not done it, better late than never.

So, yeah. Why do you think people don't really want to address, you know, retirement planning? Is it just because it's I feel like it could be for a few reasons. For instance, when you're younger, it's harder to really envision your future self older. As I've gotten older, it's easier to picture, I feel like. But also it could just be, it's a scary idea because it is the unknown or it also just means like, well, you're getting closer to death. So I don't want to talk about it. Yeah, we talk about estate planning and how to transfer wealth near the end of the book very quickly.

Obviously, if you're working, you're accumulating, you're still in the prime of your life. And when you retire, it's kind of like a long road down the hill, I guess. But really, retirement is freedom. That's at least how I see it. And so in a way I'm already retired because I can kind of get up and do this podcast with you or choose not to do it. That's what happens when you work for yourself.

So I think a lot of people are afraid to have that discussion because, one, it means they're a lot closer to death. And two, it basically means they, in a lot of cases, they have to look at their spouse and go, well, what did you do? Or this is what I did. And, you know, these are the mistakes that we've made. And it could create arguments. And, you know, putting it off is just not a solution. So, you know, and a lot of times people already know the answer, which is that you're spending too much money. You have to save more or they get a bleak picture given where they're at. So it really depends on the person.

But, hey, we do it over a round of golf, over nine holes of golf. So there we go. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I'm curious, you know, for people that are like, okay, listen to this podcast. I know I need to do something about it. What would be their first step in actually addressing their kind of future retirement plans? Is it just like self-education first?

Would it be trying to find a financial planner to help them? Well, thank you. That's a great question. The best thing would be to read my book and start from there. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I mean, look, in the book, it's nine holes. It's nine chapters. There's nine main topics.

And we go over the basics. So people are sitting there going, well, I'm going to get money from the government. Well, if you don't know what it's called, if you don't know how much it is, you're going to want to kind of the information from the client to get the numbers, to find out the assets, the liabilities, the cash flows, to go back and say, here's a written financial plan. We've done the legwork. Because a lot of the time, if you ask the client, what's your CPP contribution statement looking like? And they don't know what you're talking about. And you can call the government, you can log into my account on CRA if you're set up for it, and you can obtain your statement of contribution to have a good idea of how much money you're going to get from the CPP in retirement. So a lot of the starting point

is just figuring out, especially if you're a new Canadian, how long have I been in Canada after age 18? You know, how much OAS am I going to get and how much CPP and, you know, my assets are going to last for how long and you need to calculate or a spreadsheet or whatever to do it. And so really, it's not very much fun to go digging for all this paperwork, but that's kind of where it starts. Yeah. I mean, for me, I feel like, cause I love a good spreadsheet. I've got all that ready to go, but most people are like, I do not and that may, uh, you know, require some digging. And I think also, yeah, the biggest, um, kind of barrier is, is people just are, you know, they don't talk about money. And so they're uncomfortable

even asking for a recommendation for a financial planner, or they just don't want to, you know, address their situation. Cause it's, it's sometimes it means, yeah, really kind of taking ownership of where you're at and, and realizing, okay, we've got some work to do. And that's not easy to, to really kind of come to terms with, I think. But like you said, sooner than later, it's like, it's always better to do things now than be even worse off later in life. So. Yeah. A funny anecdote comes to mind. I think it was five or 10 years ago, I was reading a study that was done or something. And they talked about like, like the new millennials or whatever it was. And they said, you know, you're 20 to 25 or whatever it is now. And, and they, they pull, they gave them a poll and they said, okay, how many of you have talked about, you know, you're 20 to 25 or whatever it is now. And they gave them a poll and they said, okay, how many of you have talked about, you know, your previous sexual partners after three months or after six months?

And the percentage was like 73% or whatever. I'm making it up. It was really high. And then they said, well, how many of you have talked about your finances after three months or six months? And it was like a third of the amount. It was just way down there. And I went, okay, well, you know, you know, that's it is what it is.

So now we have that information out there. And I kind of laughed. Yeah. Yeah. It's it is kind of crazy how we'll talk about some other kind of taboo topics, but money. Oh, no. Like a lot of people. And that's part of the reason I like having this podcast is I can have those conversations for people. So then hopefully they feel more comfortable having those real

conversations, you know, with themselves. So they're the, you know, friends, family, partner and stuff like that. So we can break those barriers and make it not seem so uncomfortable and taboo because the craziest thing is like, well, we're all doing it. You know, if you really want to give it that kind of spin, it's like, we're all spending money. We're all earning money. We're all spending money. We're all earning money. We're all investing money. We're all paying taxes. Why are we scared to talk to our neighbor about money?

Yeah, I know. That's true. Now, before I let you go, I do honestly recommend people just grab and copy your book. I know you mentioned before we recorded this that, you know, because I'm like, oh, I love a short read, because there's so many good, you know, really dense books that can be really intimidating. This is, you can read this in an evening, three hours, and you're good. And you'll feel so much more, I think, more knowledgeable, more knowledgeable about retirement planning, which is key. But, you know, before I let you go, when people are, you know, thinking about, okay, I want to, you know, do this, I want to take care of my, you know, retirement plan and investments, you know, what are some key things to keep in mind? I know you did talk a lot about like CPP and OAS and really understanding how that works.

Is there anything else that comes to mind that you want to make sure people are thinking about? Yeah, probably the two things are, you know, investing is one part of financial planning. And so, you know, that's a discipline within itself that usually people will spend more time thinking about or talking about. So the one thing I'll say on that is oftentimes one of the differences between men and women is that when it comes to risk, it's like men will just, you know, jump into the, you know, the deep end of the pool. And over time, they realize what's going on and they kind of move towards the more shallow side. Whereas women, generally speaking, start in the shallow side. They get more comfortable. Then they go into the deeper end.

So it's important to have discussions about kind of if it's you and your spouse, where you're at. And, you know, over time, these things do change as we get older. So that's an important thing to notice or to note. The second thing is that I've never gone on a long journey or anything like that without a map. We now have Google Maps or whatever it is on our phone. So maybe having a written financial plan is a really, really good idea. It's kind of like driving from Toronto to Vancouver without a map. Well, you need a map. So, you know, and I'm not, I don't do them anymore. I'm no longer client facing. I now write and sell continuing education credits. So if anybody thinks maybe

I'll call this guy, well, I can gladly refer people to someone else, but I no longer do that myself. So those are the two things. Yeah, no, I love the map analogy because I think that's the best way to really explain that. Well, we need to know where we're starting from. So where's our current destination?

And we need to then with that information, know where are we going? So then you can calculate how to get there. Yes, exactly. So it's like, that's why you need to address, you know, what's going on with your money now so we can find out what's going on in the future and the best path to get there.

And then also remember, you know, no journey, you know, if anyone's been on a really long, you know, road trip. I mean, we actually did, me and my husband did drive from Vancouver to Toronto. That's how we moved here. And so that was a long journey. You always know that the best laid plans,

they're going to go awry. You're going to have the perfect, okay, we're going to go this way and then take this road. There's going to be a road that's closed or something that changes. And so that's why another thing to remember is a financial plan isn't a set it and forget it. We're good forever.

You've got to revise it because your life is going to evolve and things are going to happen. So make sure to not just leave it so it, you know, is stagnant because it shouldn't be. Yeah, absolutely. So where can people find more information about you and your book and Monkey Credits? Where can people kind of do, you know, find out all of those resources? Yeah, so for financial advisors, it's monkeycredits.ca. And for people at home, with books available on Amazon, it's called Elmer's Nine and Dine. It's a guide to retirement planning by myself, Ryan Goldsman. And you'll see a picture on the cover of somebody standing in the water

with the water up to their knees. That did happen to me. And I will say I did not fall backwards. So everything's okay. I never noticed that the first time I was looking at the book. Actually, that's funny. I like that. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. It was a pleasure having you on. Hopefully we've kind of, I think, made some people feel okay about the, you know, really taking care of their retirement plan, but also anyone listening, thinking about pursuing a career in this industry. Hopefully this has given you some food for thought and made the idea a little less scary and intimidating.

So I appreciate you being on the show. Great. Well, thanks for having me, Jessica. And that was episode 317 of the More Money Podcast. Great. Well, thanks more information about, you know, if you do want to get some more, you know, continuing education units for yourself because you work in financial services, you can go to monkeycredits.ca to find more information on that. You can also follow Ryan on LinkedIn. And I think that's kind of it. That's where you can find him. He is not on Twitter, not an Instagram. Man, what that life must be. That sounds nice. Sometimes I wish I could take

a social media break, but I cannot because it is connected to my business. So I have a lot of things to share with you. So do not go away. Just want to share a few words about this episode sponsor, and then I'll be right back. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by TurboTax Canada. So some of you loyal podcast listeners may already know this, but last year I hired my sister to work as my virtual assistant. She has since expanded her virtual assisting business to work with other clients, which makes me beam with pride that there's another entrepreneur in the family. But one thing I forgot about was tax season. This will be her first year doing her

taxes as a self-employed person, which adds on a new level of stress and complexity already inherent in doing your taxes. Luckily, she'll be using TurboTax Assist and Review Self-Employed. This way, she'll get the important experience of filing her first self-employed tax return, but get some much needed guidance and advice from a qualified tax expert. And as her business grows and her taxes become even more complicated, like mine, she can use TurboTax Full Service Self-Employed. This allows her to hand everything off to a tax expert to do it all for her, saving her valuable times you could instead put towards

billing clients or finding new ones. Does this situation hit close to home? Well, it might, because 60% of Canadians started a side hustle in 2021, and this will be their first year reporting self-employed income and business expenses on their tax return. Luckily, no matter your tax situation, TurboTax is here to help. To get a jumpstart on your taxes with TurboTax, Canada's number one tax software trusted by millions of Canadians for over 20 years, visit TurboTax.ca. Once again, visit TurboTax.ca easy to do. So that's just like FYI, in case you don't know. And so what else do I have? I've got a lot of things to share. Well, first, let's talk about the contest just as a reminder, because I've teased it a few times. If you go to jessicamorehouse.com

slash contest, or you can check out the show notes for this episode, there's always a link in all the show notes. You can find not just this book, but all the books that have been currently featured on season 14 of the show. I'm giving away a copy of all of them so you can enter all of them. You will only win one, obviously, but you have a chance to win all of them. So make sure to go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest to throw your hat in the ring and enter to win a copy of a book. And not only do you get a copy from a book, just so you know, I personally mail these books. I buy them because I want to support the authors. And then I mail them and I always include a nice little personalized

note for all of the winners. So it's just something extra to kind of look forward to. I like the personal touch. I like thinking that the person gets their package and is really excited to get it not just for the book, but also just for this, you know, because there's some, there's some, you know, TLC involved in it. So there you go. So that was the contest. Oh, yeah, that one thing I want to just say a big thank you with and also celebrate is like I've kind of mentioned, you know, some prior episodes. One of the big goals I've had is just to reach to 10,000 Instagram followers just because it's just everyone, I just feel left out. I've been on Instagram for way too long, like, probably like seven years. I finally cracked the 10k mark. So thank you so much. If you're one of

my Instagram followers really appreciate it. So thank you. And I have big plans to continue, you know, just, you know, doing more things on Instagram, doing more reels, lots of exciting things. Also, other big plans, I'm going to be actually putting out some more YouTube videos. Finally, I've gosh, I don't know how the time has passed so quickly. But it's been like a few months since I put out a new video. But you know what, I blame me moving renovations and not having an office. So you know, that's what's going on. But I have so many ideas and things that I want to share on my YouTube channel. Because I love having this podcast. But it's obviously like one kind of thing. I'm interviewing a guest on their, you know, expertise in a specific topic.

But there's lots of things that I'd love to talk about, you know, things that are more educational or like specific on like how to things that are more meant for the YouTube channel. So I'm excited to kind of explore more things on YouTube very soon. Let's see what else do I got Jessica? Oh, yeah. Reminder in case you don't know, I have a free resource library that if you just go to JessicaMorales.com slash resources, you can check out it's got some free budget spreadsheets, it's got some free guides, it's got my past webinars. If you missed that webinar I did a few weeks ago, you can watch the replay. Lots of good free stuff in there. And also, if you don't know, I do have specifically for

Canadians an investing course called Wealth Building Blueprint for Canadians. We just crossed the one-year anniversary. It's been one year since I've had it. Almost 300 students are in it. And it is by application only, so not everyone gets in it. It's a little bit more exclusive than I think, you know, most other courses, but I want to make sure the right students are in there. They're actually going to do the work because then they'll actually get the results that they want. And so if you want to learn more and check out some student testimonials and check out the curriculum, just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash WBB. You can apply. Then you'd have a nice little call with me and we'd have a chat to see

if this is the right fit for you. But it's been really exciting to see all my students, especially the ones who really got in, you know, a year ago to see their progress is really, really exciting. I have some things to kind of share about that when I have my new website, which is coming soon, man, there's so many things, actually, that I've been working on, I feel like I've definitely bit off a little bit more than I can chew. Like I'm redoing my website, getting new headshots and just even that, just getting the new photos is so much work to kind of coordinate. Cause it's like, okay, well you've got to find a photographer. You've got to find a studio. You've got to find

hair and makeup. Um, I even hired a stylist cause guess what? I'm terrible at styling myself. I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of clothing. Like literally, if you're like, what are you wearing a day to day? I'm like, sweatpants or pajama pants. Like that's, that's my garb. And I obviously cannot do a photo shoot in pajama pants. So I actually like did that. And it was, it literally kind of reminded me of an episode of, you know, do you remember the show? Not what not to wear. I mean, everything in my closet is what not to wear. So I want to hire someone who knew about fashion. And it was actually amazing and really exciting and cool. So that was really a fun, weird experience that I never thought I'd do. But I'm like, you know what, let's try something different outside of my comfort zone, because I just don't have

those skills. And sometimes it's about if you don't have the skills, you don't necessarily always have to learn everything yourself. Like for me, I'm like, I don't have time to learn everything about fashion, I just don't have the capacity, but I can hire someone who is an expert in that field and tell me what to wear. And I'm really excited to have the photo shoot now because now I have like a ton of new clothes and learned actually a lot about my style and fit and stuff like that. And guess what? I can wear high-waisted pants. I always thought I was too short. I thought it had to do with the, like, you could only wear them if you were tall. No, apparently not. Very exciting. So very excited to reveal all of that coming soon. Yeah, there's just

a lot going on right now. I cannot wait for a break. Also, I was sick last week and did two COVID tests and I was not, I was, I didn't have COVID. I was sick last week and did two COVID tests and I was not I was I didn't have COVID I was almost a bit disappointed because I'm like what does that this just means I have a regular old cold how the hell did I get it how how I'm literally like so careful how did I get a cold I don't know I mean I'm glad I didn't get COVID obviously that does not sound fun but I was just a bit like really really cold that's what got That's what got me? Anyways. Anyways. Okay. That's probably it for me. I should probably stop gabbing and let you go on with your day. Thank you so much for listening. A big shout out to my wonderful podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And I will see you back here next

Wednesday with a fresh new episode of the show and have a great weekend. See you here next week. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.